Here's a reminder from Part 1 of this blog on Signs and Wonders.
1 “The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers”.
They went right into the legalistic, religious, law following camp and preached with “such power” that a great number became believers. What was it they preached with great power? Easy. Look at verse 3. Here’s part of that verse. “Preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord.”
They preached the great grace of God with boldness. I like in this instance how the KJV says it. “Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace”.
Remember I said in Part 1 how powerful those six words were? I see Jesus in there three times. Look. Unto the word of His grace. Now let's continue.
2 “Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.”
Just know that when you preach boldly about the grace of God or the Word of His Grace, you will get challenges. There will be people who will tell others not to be a part of your teachings, because you are heretics, or liars, or false teachers. They will try to poison the minds of others.
3 “But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders.”
Don’t give up when you’re challenged. Don’t quit sharing the revelation of His great grace. Look at that underlined part. Once again we see they continued preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. God will honor your bold stance on His great grace. Look what He did for the Apostles. He proved their message (which was His truth) was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. He gave them the power, they didn’t have it without Him.
Don’t worship these so called miracle workers who try to take credit for being so powerful. We are to work miracles, but it’s not based on our spiritualism or strong Christian walk that yields those. We work miracles as a gift from God. Look at 1 Corinthians 12:10.
4 “But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.”
You won’t win them all, but this shows me that you’ll certainly win some. If Paul understood anything, he understood where his power came from and who deserved the credit for signs and wonders. Here is Romans 15:15-19 in the ERV.
15 “But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift”:
Here we see Paul making sure we know where his gift came from.
16 “to be a servant of Christ Jesus for those who are not Jews. I serve like a priest whose duty it is to tell God’s Good News. He gave me this work so that you non-Jewish people could be an offering that he will accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.”
Here he defines what that gift was. It was a gift to be a servant. How many of us would see being a servant to someone or a set of people as a gift? Then he makes a statement that continues to confirm what we’ve said many times. He says “an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit”. Why didn’t he say made holy by your good works, or your performance, or your untiring efforts. Because Paul understood the grace of God.
17 That is why I feel so good about what I have done for God in my service to Christ Jesus. 18 I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done with me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed him because of what I have said and done.
Paul almost appears to pat himself on the back in verse 17, and religious folks could take that verse out of context for that very purpose. However, Paul more than explains his statement in verse 17 with what he says in verse 18. Besides, in verse 17 he’s talking about his service to Christ Jesus. In verse 18 he says, my rendition, “I’m gonna brag about what happened, but not what I did. Only what Christ has done with me and through me”.
19 And they obeyed him because of the power of the miraculous signs and wonders that happened—all because of the power of God’s Spirit. I have told people the Good News about Christ in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And so I have finished that part of my work.
How did the miraculous signs and wonders happen. By the power of God’s Spirit. Not by Paul’s efforts or good works. So we see that signs and wonders are for today, but they are not to be chased after. They are what follows those who believe and preach/teach the good news. Those who preach boldly about the great grace of God. It is then God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, who will prove the message as true by giving power to you through miraculous signs and wonders.
Grace and Peace.
