Lesson 29: Cessationism – Healings and Miracles

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Summary

We are reminded that spiritual gifts are given by God according to His will, not our worthiness, and that some gifts—specifically the ‘sign gifts’ of healing, miracles, tongues, and prophecy—were given for a specific and now-completed purpose: to authenticate the message of the apostles and open doors for the gospel. This passage teaches us that cessationism is not a denial of God’s power, but a recognition that God’s miraculous gifts served a distinct, foundational role in establishing the church.

Key Lessons:

1. The sign gifts (healing, miracles, tongues, prophecy) were given to validate the apostles as true messengers of God, not as a permanent feature of every believer’s experience.
2. Every healing and miracle in the New Testament was complete, instant, verifiable, and always directed attention to God and the gospel—never to the person performing the miracle.
3. Even Spirit-gifted apostles like Paul did not heal themselves or close companions (Timothy, Epaphroditus, Trophimus), suggesting the gifts were already fading and were never meant for personal use outside their authenticating purpose.
4. Cessationists still believe God heals and performs miracles today—He simply no longer gifts individuals with independent, sovereign exercise of that power.

Application: We are called to pray with expectation for healing and to use whatever gifts God has given us to serve one another and give glory to God. We should not shy away from meeting physical needs, but we must also seize every opportunity to share the gospel, just as the apostles did.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does understanding the authenticating purpose of sign gifts change the way you evaluate claims of miraculous healing today?
2. Why do you think God chose such dramatic, undeniable miracles to validate the apostles’ message, and what does that tell us about the importance of the gospel they were preaching?
3. How should a cessationist perspective shape the way we pray for sick friends and family members—and what should we expect when we pray?

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 establishes the diversity of spiritual gifts given by the Spirit. Acts 3, 5, 8, 9, and 14 provide case studies in healing and miracles that consistently point to the gospel. 2 Corinthians 12:11–12 identifies these signs as marks of a true apostle. Hebrews 2:3–4 and Romans 15:18–19 confirm that signs and wonders accompanied the apostles to testify to the truth of their message.

Outline

• Introduction
• Review: Spiritual Gifts
• What Is Cessationism?
• The Sign Gifts in 1 Corinthians 12
• The Gift of Healing
• Healing at Lystra: Acts 14
• Healing at the Beautiful Gate: Acts 3
• Healings Must Be Undeniable
• Gifts Are Exercised, Not Sought
• Miracles Open Doors for the Gospel
• The Affecting of Miracles
• Signs and Wonders in Acts 5
• Ananias and Sapphira: Purity of the Church
• Philip in Samaria: Acts 8
• Casting Out Demons
• Healing and Raising the Dead: Acts 9
• Why These Gifts Were Temporary
• Signs of a True Apostle
• Authenticating the Apostles’ Message
• Circumstantial Evidence: Paul Did Not Heal Himself
• Cessationism and God’s Ongoing Healing

Introduction

We are going over spiritual gifts again.

The kind of broader topic is really sensationism, and we’ll define that and talk about what that is.

Review: Spiritual Gifts

Last week we talked about spiritual gifts and looked at what they are, their purpose, and how they are given. We also discussed how we are expected to use them as a basic reminder.

Each believer receives spiritual gifts. Each believer has a different package or set of gifts. No two people are alike. The diversity of the gifting matches a diversity of believers and a diversity in the function or purpose of the gifts.

We are to use these gifts in our service of one another. A primary reason we have spiritual gifts is to serve each other, build each other up, and to give glory to God.

“We are to use these gifts in our service of one another to build each other up and to give glory to God.”

What Is Cessationism?

So this week we’re looking at cessationism in particular. What that is is the belief that some of the spiritual gifts have ceased operating because their purpose has already been fulfilled. That’s my definition. You’ll find other definitions are going to be similar. I wanted to have one short that fit on the slide pretty well.

We’ll talk about what those gifts are, or at least what the group of those gifts are. Hopefully we’ll be able to make the case from scripture that those gifts have ceased because they serve their purpose.

“Cessationism is the belief that some spiritual gifts have ceased operating because their purpose has already been fulfilled.”

So where do we find these gifts? Out of the different lists of gifts or the different examples of the types of gifts that we see in the Bible, only one mentions these more miraculous gifts.

The Sign Gifts in 1 Corinthians 12

They’re typically referred to at least by cessationists as the sign gifts. If we look back at 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, we see the biggest grouping of gifts or examples of gifts given. Let’s read that together.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Verse eight, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one spirit.

Verse 10. And to another the affecting of miracles and to another prophecy and to another the distinguishing of spirits to another various kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues. The two we are going to look at today is the end of verse nine gifts of healing by the one spirit and in the beginning of verse 10 the affecting or the working of miracles. Then we just finish it up with verse 11 that says, “But one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills.”

It’s so important to see that these gifts come from God. They are given based on God’s will, not based on our ability. They’re not given based on any worthiness that we have, but it’s God’s will and purpose for our lives and how we are going to serve the church.

“These gifts come from God. They are given based on God’s will, not based on our ability.”

The Gift of Healing

Healing and miracles. We’re going to look at healing first. I think there’s a lot there because we also see healing happening in the ministry of Jesus. We actually see both of these happening in the ministry of Jesus.

These are the two we’re going to look at today. Next week we’re going to look at prophecy, the ability to speak in tongues, and then the ability to interpret different kinds of tongues.

When we look at the gift of healing, it’s the ability to heal various kinds of diseases.

“The gift of healing is as it sounds—the ability to heal various kinds of diseases.”

I want us to look at a couple of passages where we see this gift in effect.

Healing at Lystra: Acts 14

The first one is Acts 14. This is going to be about Paul, starting at verse 8. It’s on the screen, but if you want to turn there, you can because it’s going to go across several slides.

Starting at verse 8: At Listra, a man was sitting who had no strength at his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. When he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lyonian language, “The gods have come down like men and have come down to us.” They began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

Verse 14: But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”

That is a lot, and there are a couple of things I want to see. I want us to first look at the healing itself.

The first thing that we see is this man was lame. He had no strength in his feet. He was unable to walk. This was not something that could be faked. It was not something that was psychosomatic.

He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t walk since birth.

Something else about this I think is very interesting is that the man was just listening to Paul preach the gospel and he was enamored with the message. He didn’t arrive there because he was looking to be healed. Now there are some—even when we see the ministry of Jesus—there are some who wanted to be healed. There’s a story of friends who wanted their friend to be healed so much they tore out space in a roof and dropped him down while Jesus was preaching inside the building.

So there are people who were just looking for healings. We’ll see even in the book of Acts there are people who are looking for it. But in this case and a few others, we see that these people are just hearing the word of God and they’re just blown away by the message, maybe not even knowing that the speaker had the ability to heal them.

They were just hearing this life-changing gospel. And this is what we see here.

In this case, Paul didn’t even have to touch the lame man. He commanded with his voice. That’s something I think is showing this was God’s power.

“Paul didn’t even have to touch the lame man. He commanded with his voice—showing this was God’s power.”

This wasn’t about Paul. This wasn’t about the method or the mechanics behind the healing. It wasn’t about a special incantation that he had to recite perfectly. Paul had the ability to heal.

With all of the gifts, it’s important to note, and I’m going to stress this several times: with these gifts, the person who is gifted has the ability and expectation to control and manage these gifts. It is not as if you have some sort of power that comes in you and you do the job and then it leaves you and you come back.

We see some of that in the Old Testament. The spirit of God rushes onto someone. They can do something great or they can run really fast to go deliver a message, but they aren’t an Olympic sprinter for their whole life. They’re just given that ability for that moment.

But with these spiritual gifts, you have this ability and you’re able to just call upon this ability when you need it. All spiritual gifts—for you to be kind to someone, you don’t have to go and seek God in your prayer closet for two days. You all are expected to be kind. All of us have the ability to be kind. The giftedness is to be kind and to be loving and even some of these other gifts.

That’s why I say it’s a package or collection of gifts. Even with the miraculous gifts, it is not something that you have to seek out every time that you want to use it. We see that in the Bible.

I have some of these others down. I know some people are taking notes. I’m kind of saying some of these are things I’ve said already about this passage in looking at the gifts.

Healings Must Be Undeniable

And this is something else about this healing. It was so complete. It was so amazing that everyone watching assumed that their pagan gods had come down and started walking among them and performing miracles.

This wasn’t just, “Oh, I got a little back pain. Oh, I think you made my back feel a little bit better,” like you came out of a chiropractor. This was someone who could not walk, who just leapt up and started walking from his birth. They all knew him. They all knew he couldn’t walk. Some of them probably even took turns carrying him around or caring for him or even trying to help the family out.

And now you see that person walking because someone just yelled and said, “Hey, get up and walk.” Didn’t even touch him. Didn’t rub any balm or salve on him. Just said, “Get up and walk.” How miraculous that gift was.

And they said, “Our gods who we worship must have come down and begun performing these miracles.” But we also see that because Paul especially—Paul and Barnabas, but Paul mainly as the main speaker—was able to preach the gospel and was able to stay strong and say no, don’t give any glory to us. Don’t even focus on us at all. Focus all on God. God was the one who was able to do this.

And just so we can kind of see the end here, he’s saying in verse 15, “Why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature. We preach the gospel to you.” And they were able to give glory to God, not to themselves.

I don’t want to spend too much time giving a contrast to what we see today from people who claim to have these gifts, because this isn’t really about being anti this group or that group. But when we examine what we see in the nature of these gifts being given and being used, we see the glory and the focus is always on God and always on the gospel.

It’s not on the person. It’s not on their credentials. It’s not on what they’re driving or what chariot they’re in. It’s always about God. So even in these cases we see that they immediately gave God glory when they saw that their gift started getting attention and their gift wowed people. They immediately said, “Let’s make sure that we point people to God because that’s why we’re here. He’s the one who gave this gift in the first place.”

“When their gift wowed people, they immediately pointed everyone to God—because that’s why they were there.”

Healing at the Beautiful Gate: Acts 3

Now let’s look at another healing. This one may be a little more popular. There’s a passage that’s quoted out of this. It’s in Acts, in the first part of chapter 3.

This is the very beginning of the church. The church was just established as its own body in chapter 2. The Holy Spirit was just given in chapter 2 to everybody who was in that upper room. We’re just fresh in the beginning of the church being established.

Acts 3:3-5 says, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.”

Verse 4: “But Peter along with John fixed his gaze on him and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he began to give him his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk.’ And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up, and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.”

Verse 8: “With a leap he stood upright and began to walk. And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

“He entered the temple walking and leaping and praising God, and all the people were filled with wonder and amazement.”

Again, we have another passage and we can make some simple observations here. He had an ailment that affected him for his entire life. It couldn’t be faked. It couldn’t be something that was even in his mind. And let me tell you, that is powerful.

We can’t overestimate how much our mind plays a part in how we feel physically. The other day I consumed probably an unhealthy amount of mold and I thought, “I’m going to be feeling sick.” Then I said, “Okay, wait. I can’t keep focusing on that because even if the mold doesn’t affect me at all, I’m going to feel sick because I’m anticipating nausea and everything else that comes with food poisoning.”

I woke up the next day feeling a little bit nauseous. I’m like, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But in my mind, I’m wondering if this is real or if I’m just anticipating feeling this way and making myself feel that way.

Healings Must Be Undeniable

There was something I was reading about some type of ailment, and I read that whatever the main drug that is given, 80% of the people who are given the placebo report just as much of an increase in their positive outcome of taking a medication as those who took the real medication. 80%. Some is less than 80%, but 80%.

There are many cases where people have an ailment and they feel better because they expect to feel better. Especially when you come into an environment where the music is right and everything is right and the lights are dim, you have the smoke machines going and all that and people are praying and you see other people jumping out of wheelchairs and this and that. You can set the atmosphere to heal almost anyone momentarily.

You can overcome things in your mind, or sometimes you can mentally beat yourself down physically so that your body can’t function well. When someone breaks whatever that mental hold is on you, you feel a lot better physically even though nothing was done to you physically.

When you see in the Bible, the Bible celebrates healings. It’s always clear God did this. There’s never a question of, “Oh, maybe the person was just trying to get some extra sick time from work or maybe that.” No, it’s clear that God healed them, that God did it. This person couldn’t walk from birth. The last one we saw in Acts 14 could not walk from birth.

Jesus had someone who was bleeding for 12 years. That’s not psychosomatic. That’s someone who had an issue that could not be cured by any doctors.

Only God, who is the God of creation, the God of the body, the God over every disease and every demon, commanded that disease to flee from the body. In this time, he gave certain men and women the ability to do that as well. It was very limited even who could do it, and we’ll see that in a second why I say it was limited.

This man was also not anticipating a healing. In his case, he had to be listening to the gospel being preached because he immediately gave glory to God, so he knew it was God. He also was most likely Jewish going into the temple, so he had some understanding of the God of the Bible anyway. But he knew it was God. God opened his eyes in that moment as well.

He came there anticipating money. Even when they called out to him, he just thought they were going to give him some money. So he wasn’t anticipating any healing or anything like that.

In this case, Peter gave a command, but he also raised him up. We even see a difference there in the method that was used. Peter grabbed him, pulled him up, and the man leapt up and then he ran into the temple walking and leaping and giving praise and glory to God.

“Only Christ, his disciples, and the apostles could heal those afflicted by demons—and only God commanded disease to flee.”

There are many more passages we can go through to talk about healing. Just as a reminder of the format, next week we are going to talk about tongues and interpretation of tongues and prophecy. The week after will be a Q&A on cessationism and spiritual gifts.

Any questions you have, you can ask them. If you have questions, you can reach out to me or come up to me afterwards. If it’s a really good one or I think one that’s a broad one, I may just say, “Okay, save it and email it to me so I can include it.” Then it’s going to be common objections as well.

There are things that we’ve heard over the years about spiritual gifts. There are things that I used to believe as well about spiritual gifts. I was just telling our brother Danny today that I spent a year trying to learn how to speak in tongues because I thought it was supposed to be the sign of salvation and that every person who became a believer would speak in tongues. You can point to at least four cases where people heard the gospel, believed in the book of Acts, and then they spoke in tongues after.

It seems like, oh, that’s the evidence of when somebody believes and God brings them into the kingdom. I spent a lot of time studying this on the other side as well and having these beliefs. Then I slowly started reading more and more and seeing what the gifts really were and came to this position here.

Any question you have, please bring it out. Nothing is too elementary, too silly, nothing is too high, nothing is too creative. Anything that you want to ask, nothing will be offensive. You’re not going to be brought under church discipline because you say you don’t agree with something.

Please just talk about all these things. That’s what makes this great. We say iron sharpens iron until it’s time to get sharpened. If we have a dialogue about this stuff, then let’s make sure we can do that.

After that, the final week of the month will be a Q&A of everything that was taught since the last Q&A.

Gifts Are Exercised, Not Sought

Okay. If you want to bring up another healing that you see in the Bible and say, “Well, what about this case? What about what was said here?” I’ll even give you one. I’m not going to talk about it now, but what about what is said in Matthew 8:17? You can read that for yourself and decide whether you think it’s worth the question. But just make sure that we’re able to capture everything.

I just wanted to present these first two. What I wanted to show was that neither of them prayed. They just exercised their gifts.

And it’s always stuck out to me, and it’s kind of what I was saying earlier about exercising your gifts—even the gifts that we say are in operation today. You don’t need to ask God to do that. You don’t need to ask God to serve somebody or to provide help or provide mercy. What are you praying about? You’re praying and hoping God will say, “No, don’t do it. Don’t give him a ride.” No, don’t seek the Lord. Just seek your car keys and go give him a ride. If you can’t, you can’t.

But we have to make sure that we understand this. God gives us the gifts and expects us to use them. In these cases, they were given the gifts and they just exercised them. They didn’t pray. They didn’t seek God’s will. “Do you want us to heal this person?”

Even in the ministry of Jesus, there are times when Jesus actually went and prayed and said, “I’m not praying because I’m asking you to give me the power or asking you to do it. I’m praying because these people can hear me and I want them to know that it’s not just a man walking around doing this, but this is actually God and God is the one empowering me right now.”

And so we see that there are times and reasons why it was necessary. But the normal practice is just to work out whatever your gift is—miraculous or semi-miraculous.

“God gives us the gifts and expects us to use them. Just seek your car keys and go give him a ride.”

Miracles Open Doors for the Gospel

The second thing was that healings opened the door for the gospel to be preached, and that was the most important thing. They were there to preach the gospel, but it was more impactful when the healings happened in both of these cases. They would preach the gospel. Even when we see in Acts 14, they were able to preach the gospel, and then they were able to offer correction later on and preach the gospel again. In both cases they were able to give the gospel very clearly, and many people were added to the church because of it.

When the spiritual gifts are being used in the midst of unbelievers, the purpose is for them to be arrested in their thought, in their mind, and for them to give full attention to the gospel. Even when we are doing something like serving and feeding people and giving people who may not have a place to stay or maybe in a shelter, or you’re going to your soup kitchen—those types of things. You want to meet the physical need, but don’t stop there. Also meet the spiritual need. If you’re given an opportunity to give the gospel, then you do it and you don’t shy away from that.

But God calls us to compassion. Even if you’re not in that moment able to give the gospel, I believe you still should be going and doing those things out of your compassion for another human being. And we’ll see God open the doors.

He may not open the door the way that he did at the mall or even at the nursing home where you can actually go and proclaim the gospel openly, but you may build a relationship with someone. You may drive by someone every week on the street and see them and strike up a conversation and give them some things to help them out and then get to know them and bring them to faith in Christ.

So it may look different in every case, but we have to see that the miraculous gifts were for the purpose of giving the gospel. The healing of the person was not the primary reason that they were exercising the gifts. This wasn’t like some divine insurance plan. This was so the gospel could be preached.

“The healing of the person was not the primary reason they were exercising the gifts—this was so the gospel could be preached.”

About the healing, it was always complete and instant and remarkable and verifiable. Even with Jesus, there are a couple times that for a different purpose, Jesus told them to do something else—like you spit on the ground and mix up some mud and put it in your eyes and it’s like, “Oh, these people look like trees.” And okay, no, wash your eyes again and then they can see, or something like that would happen. Or even you have to raise up your hand and it was withered and now when you raise it up things like that, or go wash in a pool.

When we see these healings, it was clear that a healing took place and it was God doing it. So the person who was speaking was the messenger of God. Just say this is the case when Jesus exercised the gift to heal as well—it wasn’t just to make him look good. It was always to point to the Father and point to God.

So now we go to the affecting of miracles.

“Every healing was complete, instant, remarkable, and verifiable—always pointing to the Father, never to make the healer look good.”

The Affecting of Miracles

And this one is the ability to do special supernatural acts separate from healing. It could also refer to the power behind that word translated “power” used in casting out demons.

We see that casting out demons is one of the most common miracles in the New Testament.

Signs and Wonders in Acts 5

Okay. We’re going to Acts again. Acts 5:12-16.

“At the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico.

But none of the rest dared to associate with them. However, the people held them in high esteem, and all the more believers in the Lord. Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. And the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all being healed.”

“Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number as God worked signs and wonders through the apostles.”

A few things that we see here is that the apostles’ ability to work miracles had people in the region in awe. Now it started to spread. We already had what happened in chapter three with Peter and John healing the man. I don’t know, but I have that passage in my head—the King James version: “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee.” So I have that kind in my head, but when they told him we don’t have any money but get up and walk.

That began to spread among the people.

By this point they had been told they couldn’t preach the gospel anymore, and they were still doing it. So a lot of people were beginning to hear. It says that two things happened: people had a fear of them and didn’t even want to associate with them.

But they also held them in high esteem.

So they had this awe for them that gave them this fear and this respect of the apostles and of what God was doing in the church.

Also, as usual, these gifts open doors for the gospel to be preached. If we look down further in verses 20-21, I don’t have it, but if you have it there you can just glance at that. Many believers were added to their number. Back in verse 14, we see that multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number.

The church was growing because of the combination of the miracles and then the preaching of the word of God.

And sorry, I don’t want to go there yet.

Ananias and Sapphira: Purity of the Church

Another thing I think is really important to note is right before this moment happened in Acts. If anyone has Acts open, look at verse one. This is when we saw a miraculous display of God’s judgment and discipline on the church with Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to God. Peter said, “Hey, you’re lying to the Holy Spirit, not to us.” And they both were killed on the spot.

Even there, the boldness and the certainty of Peter—we’re not going to look at the whole story, but the husband died first. They basically sold a plot of land and they kept back some of the money from the sale, but they told the apostles, “We’re giving you all of the money that we made.” It wasn’t that they held back. It was that they lied about what they were doing.

And they were even told, “Hey, this money is all yours. You didn’t have to give a penny. It’s all under your control. You could have given what you wanted to, but you chose to give this amount and then you lied and said you gave it all.” So then immediately he died. He just dropped dead while he was being rebuked.

And then his wife comes in later. She didn’t know her husband died. They asked her, “Hey, how much did you sell the land for?” And she went to the made-up number that they talked about earlier. Peter said, “Behold, the feet of the men that carry out your husband are standing at the door ready to take you out too.” He just knew that God was going to judge her in the same way that he judged her husband.

Even seeing that confidence, seeing this miracle happen—someone losing their life instantaneously because they told a lie—they were confident this is how God was going to work. So everybody in the region, as you read further, was afraid of them.

What it did was help purify the church. You’re not joining an organization like that when you can tell one lie while you’re doing good, while you’re giving a bunch of money from selling your home and land and you could be struck dead. Well, I’m not going to join that just for social status. I’m not going to join that just to look good or just to feel pious because if I’m not real, something bad can happen to me.

And even if I am real and I slip up one time and choose to tell a lie, I could die. So I’m not going to join that unless I know this is the truth. Unless I know this is really God and this is the only way to get right with God. So it had a purifying effect on the church.

We probably would think in terms of marketing that this is the worst thing you can do—somebody’s trying to give you money and you kill them. But this is what God did because he was more interested in the purity of his church than the numbers.

“God was more interested in the purity of his church than the numbers.”

Philip in Samaria: Acts 8

All right. Now I want to look at Acts 8, and this is another interesting one to me. Acts 8:4 says, “Therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.

Verse 7 says, “For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.” So there was much rejoicing in that city.

“The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what Philip said as they heard and saw the signs he was performing.”

Casting Out Demons

There’s a couple things here, and I think even in the one we looked at earlier is that a lot of times we see healing and casting out of demons happening together. It’s usually not one, especially when you’re talking about crowds. A lot of people were bringing people, and they had no hope. They didn’t know what to do.

We read sometimes in the Bible where it uses the term lunatic or says this person was just throwing themselves around, or this person was cutting themselves. This person was doing harm to themselves or doing harm to other people, and it was because they were possessed by a demon. Only Christ or his disciples, or now the apostles as we read in the book of Acts, could heal them.

The Jewish people had exorcists. This wasn’t new. The idea of casting out demons wasn’t new. The idea of demonic possession was something that the Jewish people practiced as well, not to this extent. It seems like there was a lot more demonic activity around this time too, which I think I’ll talk about more in two weeks. We’ll talk about the timing, the biblical timing and history of these events that we see the distinct times where we see this activity sparked.

But what we see here is what’s been the theme of all these miraculous gifts. Philip was proclaiming Christ to the people in Samaria. They were paying attention to the message, not just looking for the miracle. He went down proclaiming Christ to them, and with one accord the crowds were giving attention to what was said by Philip.

So again, they were focused on the message. They were focused on hearing the gospel. How could they be saved?

“They were focused on the message. They were focused on hearing the gospel. How could they be saved?”

In this case, we’re not told the mechanism of deliverance. We’re just told about the efficacy. We’re told about how effective it was—that it was 100% effective. Everybody who went to be healed were healed. So much so, in the previous passage we looked at, they said, “Let’s just lay the sick people down on the ground, and when Peter walks by, maybe his shadow will touch them.”

We’ll see later on in the book of Acts we see even rags that touch the bodies of the apostles—they would send them out, and they would just grab the rags, and the demons would flee. That’s how much of this power God gave them. In a few minutes we will talk about the reason for that and why all of this that I’m saying about these gifts fits in a cessationist view.

But it’s important to note that it wasn’t about the mechanism. It wasn’t about what he did. He didn’t take a book and start reading in Latin. He didn’t have to go into someone’s bedroom or anything like that. It wasn’t that he had to do that. If a demon was there inside someone and it was God’s will for them to be healed, for them to be delivered, then his messenger that had that gift was able to deliver.

Sometimes it was by speaking, sometimes it was by grabbing the person, and sometimes it was by neither. It wasn’t even by paying attention to them. Even with Jesus, he said, “Wait, who touched me? I felt virtue leave my body. Who touched me?” Someone thought, “If I could just get the hem of his garment. He doesn’t even know I’m here because there’s a whole crowd around him.” Even the disciples said, “What do you mean who touched you? You’re surrounded by a crowd of people as you speak.” No, this was different. This touch was different.

In each of these cases, we see that God delivered and God healed in a different way. So it’s not about the method. We don’t ever see anywhere the practice of holy water in the Bible. You don’t see someone praying over water and then saying, “I’m going to take a little bit and splash it on you, and then you all of a sudden whatever’s in you just comes out.” We don’t see that. I think we do have to make sure that what we think of these things comes from the word of God.

In some of these it’s limited, or some we only just see a description of what was happening. We don’t see an outline with full instructions on how to use these. Actually, you don’t see that on any of the gifts except this: serve each other, be humble, and glorify God. Whatever your gifting is, that’s how you’re supposed to use your gifts. That’s what you’re supposed to do. Just serve each other.

That’s the instruction. Everything else we see in the Bible about spiritual gifts is really a description or a correction.

So, one more, and again we’re in the book of Acts.

Healing and Raising the Dead: Acts 9

Let’s flip over one more chapter to Acts 9 and we’re looking at verses 32-42.

Acts 9 starting at verse 32 says, “Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydia.

Then he found a man named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years for he was paralyzed.” Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed.” And immediately he got up.

Verse 35. And all who lived at Lydia and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord.

Again, this healing one. I just find it funny that he really said, “Get up and make up your bed.” Like, “I’ve been paralyzed for eight years. You want to give me a chore the second I get healed?” Like, “Chiefly stretch?” Like, “No, get up and make up your bed.”

But the point here is like get up, take it. You’ve been given back this ability. Now you have control of your life. This part of your life you didn’t have control over, you now have control over again. Get up and just do this normal thing that you haven’t been able to do for all these years.

And anyone who’s been ill, many people have been ill, anyone can attest that sometimes you just want to do a simple thing that you haven’t been able to do. Just something small like go walk outside because you’ve been bedridden for weeks or months. In this case, he’s been paralyzed for eight years.

And Peter just gave him this simple task to do. It could have even been that Peter had insight into his humanity at that moment. But it says immediately he got up and all who lived at Lydia and Sharon saw him, saw this man, knew it was God, connected it to this Peter who had been traveling around preaching the gospel and connected it to the God of the heavens and earth and of the human body and they turned to the Lord.

That was the purpose of even the miraculous gift, like we’ve been noting. Now here comes the other miraculous work here starting at verse 36. Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha which translated in Greek is called Dorcas.

“All who lived at Lydia and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord—that was the purpose of the miraculous gift.”

This woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did. And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died. And when they had washed her body they laid it in the upper room.

Since Lydia was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, do not delay in coming to us. So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room, and all the widows stood beside him weeping and showing all the tunics and the garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.

Verse 40. But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. And calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known all over Joppa. And what?

And many believed in the Lord.

Now, one of the things I think that’s interesting about this here is the disciples of Christ saw that she was dead and they sent forth an apostle. One of the main things that I think about this is that they knew or at least felt it was beyond their capacity. However they were gifted, those disciples there knew that they did not have the gift or the power to raise someone from the dead.

That this was something very special that very few had.

And so they said, “Wait, Peter is there.” They may not even know if Peter could do it, but they just said, “We know that he does have the gift of healing and of driving out demons. So, if anyone can, it possibly could be this apostle.” And so, they sent for him.

Again, showing this wasn’t a common gift. This wasn’t something that everybody had running around just like, “Oh, you need healing? Okay, come see me.” No, this was not common at all. Even in the time of the Bible when it was common, it was not common.

We just have a really condensed history that we read—28 chapters, the book of Acts. And so all of the very early church, the acts of the early church had to be squished into these 28 chapters. And it makes us think that this concentrated view is what was happening day to day. They probably weren’t having miracles. They weren’t going to church every Sunday and then just people laying it out.

And so these were special things that Luke said as a historian. I have to mark them, take note of them because they were rare even then.

“These were special things Luke marked as a historian because they were rare even then.”

So they sent for an apostle.

And in this case, we’ll see that Peter prayed before working this miracle.

Now, it could be that he prayed because he wasn’t sure if he could even do this. At least we don’t have a record of him raising someone from the dead before this.

So, it could be that he was like, I’ve healed people who have been extremely sick, but I’ve never done this, and God, I don’t even know if this is in the capacity of the gift you’ve given me. We know that he didn’t pray like Jesus did before and said, “I’m praying on behalf of these other people.” Because he kicked them all out. He kicked everybody out and he prayed before he went to her privately. And so this was between him and God.

And so whatever it was, that’s me adding to this. It might could have been some other reason that we don’t know. But it is very possible that he said, “This may be beyond the scope of anything that I’ve done with this gift you’ve given me, God. But if at all possible, I’m asking you to bring this woman back to life right now.”

And again, her Tabitha Dorcas being raised from the dead led many to believe in the Lord. It wasn’t just about this family or this community getting back someone that they loved and they thought that they had to part with and now they have more time with, but the focus here was the gospel and people coming to faith in Christ.

“Tabitha being raised from the dead led many to believe in the Lord—the focus was always the gospel.”

So sometimes the gifts, the display of the gifts called led to blasphemy.

What we saw what happened with Paul and Barnabas wasn’t the only time that created beings began to receive worship because of a gift. Actually, we even see it in Revelation with John beginning to worship an angel and the angel’s like, “Oh, wait, wait, wait, no, no, we’re not doing that. I’m just the messenger. You don’t worship me.” And other times we see that as well. Angels coming as messengers and people giving them worship that’s only due to God.

So, sometimes we see that happening because of the rare and powerful nature of the gift.

Why These Gifts Were Temporary

But many times we do see people coming to faith in Christ from it. Now we said that these gifts served a great purpose, but we also said that it seems like that purpose has been complete. These gifts were temporarily given to the church to serve a special purpose distinct from the gifts that we have to minister to each other every day, even right now.

So why are they temporary? Well, there are several reasons we would say that. One is they were the signs of the apostles. That’s the biggest reason here in 2 Corinthians 12:11-12.

It says, “I have become foolish. You yourselves compelled me. Actually, I should have been commended by you. For in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.”

So here Paul is making a bigger argument about him being a true apostle, even though he was not one who had walked with the Lord in earthly ministry. He still was a true apostle. He even talks about earlier in the chapter going to heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:12: “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.”

He doesn’t even say it was him. He’s like, I heard of somebody who may have gone up to the third heaven. He’s really talking about himself. Then he says, but to keep him humble, he got a thorn in the flesh.

So he may have heard all those things. This is that same passage, that same line of reasoning where he’s talking to them.

Signs of a True Apostle

And then he says, “Okay, here’s the biggest proof that I can give you that I was an apostle and I’m not just someone preaching as a regular teacher, but I’m one of the apostles commissioned by Christ.” The signs of a true apostle were performed among you: signs, wonders, and miracles. These things that we see were the signs of an apostle, which may explain why the disciples had to run and get Peter, send for the apostle and say, “You have to come. We can’t do this. You have to do this.”

These sign gifts authenticated the message of the apostles. I’m going to rapid fire run through some scripture here.

Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you also know.” Near the end of that sermon, Peter preaching in Acts 2:43 says, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.”

When we say the message was authenticated, anybody can create a religion, right? Anybody can walk around saying “I’m Jesus.” What was that guy in Waco? Was it David Koresh maybe? “I’m Jesus.” Why do they always have to be Jesus? Nobody ever says they’re Muhammad or Buddha. Well, a couple people may say, “What?” It’s always “I’m Jesus.” Is that really who you want to compare yourself to? But everybody has got to be Jesus.

Anybody could say that, but how do you authenticate? How do I know that you’re really a messenger from God? I need to see things that only God could do, that only God could orchestrate, because anybody could say it. Anybody can speak well. Anybody could be in a room alone and say, “Oh, an angel came to me and dictated this word to me. I just wrote down what the angel told me privately.” Anyone can say that.

So what’s the proof to humanity that you are coming from God and declaring his message? This was one of the ways we also see something like Jesus spoke like no one else had spoken.

Authenticating the Apostles’ Message

But we see even the apostles are able to do the same. Acts 4:29-31 says, “And now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your bond servants may speak your word with all confidence, while you extend your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.”

When they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. So again, we see these messengers spoke the word of God with boldness, but there were signs and wonders that accompanied them to let people know that what they are speaking is truly from God.

Acts 14:3 says, “Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.” And then we see in Romans 15:18-19, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed in the power of signs and wonders in the power of the spirit. So that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum and have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Again, he’s preaching the gospel and God is sending signs and wonders to accompany his apostles so that people would know their message is really from God and it’s not just some person in Waco, Texas saying that I’m Jesus.

Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was at the first spoken through the Lord it was confirmed to us by those who heard God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will.” These gifts of performing miracles and healings, especially those two, were given so that the message of the apostles could be authenticated and validated as coming from God.

Hebrews 2:3–4: “God testified to the apostles’ message both by signs and wonders and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will.”

Again, this isn’t one passage saying it. This is the testimony of the entire New Testament that this is how God would make sure that his messengers were believed and they were validated and the truth was protected so that others who had false gospels at that time—and there were many—could easily be told no, they’re not speaking the truth because they don’t have this power and usually they didn’t have the character as well, as we see with many even throughout church history.

Circumstantial Evidence: Paul Did Not Heal Himself

There’s a couple of things that we see as what would be called circumstantial evidence. On its own it isn’t enough to make the case, but it lines up with everything that we’ve seen so far. If God really gave those gifts and they were temporary, we would expect to see certain things.

Paul had the gift of healing but didn’t heal himself or ask others to heal him. One passage we see is Galatians 4:12b-15. Let me read this quickly:

“You have done me no wrong, but that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time, and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that if possible you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.”

So he has some type of severe illness, a severe ailment that was known to them. So much so that he said it was possible and understandable for you to despise me or to loathe me.

This word “loathe” is the same word we see in Revelation 3 when it talks about the church of Laodicea and God will spit them out or vomit them out of his mouth. That’s the same word here. He said, “You could have done that because of what was going on with me physically, but you didn’t.”

But he didn’t heal himself. He didn’t go to Peter or to anybody else who had the gift of healing and get healing then as well. Because it doesn’t seem to fit the purpose of that gift.

Paul was worried when Epaphroditus got sick. In Philippians 2:25-27 it says:

“But I thought it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him and not only him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.”

Paul, why didn’t you just heal him? You had the gift of healing. You’ve healed people before without even touching them. You just spoke to the disease and it left them. Why didn’t you heal him?

It didn’t fit the purpose of the gift.

“Paul didn’t heal Epaphroditus because it didn’t fit the purpose of the gift.”

And by that point, the gift may have actually faded from use completely.

Another one: Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus. In 2 Timothy 4:20, we see that Paul told Timothy to drink some wine for a stomach ailment. He says, “No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.”

Why not heal him? It seems like he went to Ephesus and just couldn’t handle the water. I don’t know if he got Montezuma’s revenge or something like that, but he couldn’t handle the water. It seemed like he was ill. Could have been malaria. Could have been anything. He said, “Okay, one way to purify water is to add some wine to it.”

Just heal him. Why are you playing around with all this mixing wine? He’s supposed to be an alchemist when you could just heal him? Because it didn’t fit the purpose of the gifts. And by then, the gifts may not even have been in effect at that point.

Cessationism and God’s Ongoing Healing

And it’s possible that one or two of these may have some alternate explanation. But all the evidence from scripture points to these gifts being given a distinct purpose and a distinct time to validate the message of the apostles.

Now we have the full message, the full revelation of God that was given to and through those apostles. We no longer need signs and wonders to validate their message.

If I say something to you that isn’t right, you have the word of God to say, “Oh, no, no, he was off today because he said this thing and it didn’t—I validated it against this, not validating against how many miracles he performed.” The message has already been set and we have this measuring rod by which to validate things.

Now, an important distinction I’m going to say and then close. I see we just hit 10. We believe—we being cessationists—believe that God can heal and he can perform miracles whenever he wants. In fact, we are to pray with expectation for both.

When you pray for someone who is ill, when you pray for one of your brothers and sisters, pray for your family member who is ill, you’re praying for complete healing. You’re also praying that God would use that in their life. There’s other things, but you want them to be physically healed and you expect God to do it because he can do it.

So we still believe that God is in the business of healing and we still believe that God can use healing and use miracles to draw people to him, to make the gospel clear. But he has no longer gifted people to have independent exercise of that gift.

I can’t say, “Oh, I know you’re having some pain right now. Be healed and you’re healed.” That’s what we believe—that God has no longer given that gift to people. But God still heals. He still delivers. And he still uses that for his glory and for the building of his kingdom.

“We still believe God is in the business of healing—He simply no longer gifts people with independent exercise of that power.”

So that is all we have to say about healings and miracles. If you have any questions about that or spiritual gifts from last week, you can email me.

We’ll talk about it in two weeks. Next week is tongues—speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy.

So let’s pray.

Our gracious God, we want to thank you for the gifts that you have given us. We thank you even for those gifts that we don’t see today in full operation, but that we know you use as part of the foundation and building of the church.

We thank you for that, God, because we are standing on that foundation now and we are bricks being part of that building, part of that temple. We thank you, God, for the body that you’ve given us and for the gifts we have today that we can use to serve each other and for the strength that you’ve promised to provide for us to do that service.

And we ask even today as we serve and as we are served that we will give all glory, praise, and honor to you. We ask this in the name and for the sake of Christ. Amen.