Did Peter Have the Gift of Healing?

Tom: In this, our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts 3. Dave, I believe we left off last week—I think we finished verse 8, so we will pick up with 9, and we may go back to give the folks an idea of what went before this, just a bit: “And all the people saw him walking and praising God.” Well, they’re talking about this lame man who was at the temple.

Dave: Lame from his mother’s womb; never walked before.

Tom: Right. “…asking for alms, and Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us, and he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something from them.” He got something incredibly wonderful.

Dave: Right. Thought they’d give him some money, but they gave him healing in the name of Jesus, and verse 9 says, “All the people saw him walking and praising God.” So that was what attracted the people. They all knew who this man was. They had walked by, and they had seen him with his hand out so many times.

Tom: Verse 10: “And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?”

Dave: Well, Tom, they’re running out of curiosity, number one; they had never seen anything like this—or maybe they have, and this is harking back to Jesus Christ himself. I cannot imagine that some of these people have not seen Jesus heal, and they crucified Him. And now this same power from God, which these people had acknowledged was from God, and then they denied it, and they denied the Lord, and they crucified Him—what’s going on? Has He resurrected? Is His power working through these men? And that’s what Peter tells them. And of course, Tom, you know miracles: if there are real miracles, they attract people for selfish reasons. It’s not that they want to surrender their lives to the Lord, their hearts—it’s not that they want to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Jesus; it’s not that they want to be what God wants them to be, but they want to be healed, so they can, you know, do their own thing.

Tom: Are miracles a mixed blessing? For example, Jesus said, “An evil and wicked generation seeketh after signs.” And then why did He do it? Why did He go about healing?

Dave: Well, that’s all they’re interested in. That’s what Jesus said to the Jews in John 6: “You don’t seek me because you saw the power of God and you want, you know, to have God’s way and God’s will, but you seek me because I fed you. Now it’s lunchtime again and you’re hungry.”

They only want from God what they can get from Him. And if God will bless me and give me what I want, then of course I will serve Him. But if He wants me to serve Him, “No, I don’t want that; I just want His miracles.” But then why would Christ do it? Well, it can be abused, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Christ did it out of—it says, “Seeing the multitude, He had compassion.”

Tom: Right.

Dave: Furthermore, it was a demonstration of His power, that He is God. It was a demonstration that God is not happy with disease, God is not happy with sin; this is not the world that God made. You know, people often complain, “Well, how could a good God create a world like this?” Well, God did not create a world like this. He created a perfect world with Adam and Eve in the garden, and there was no sin. So, the world that we live in today is a world that man has created. We made it this way by our rebellion and disobedience. So, God did not like that, but He is not going to just heal everybody continually. That’s why He cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, “lest they should eat of the tree of life and live forever.” He doesn’t want sinful people, rebels, living forever in that state. They have to be born of the Spirit of God, become children of God, and, as we mentioned in the last segment, crucified with Christ, accepting His death as their death. But Jesus was demonstrating His power, demonstrating His love, demonstrating His desire, and this is not the world that God made. So, He is healing these people, opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead.

Tom: Maybe He is fulfilling prophecy. This is what Isaiah prophesied.

Dave: Exactly. The prophets foretold that, as well. Well, these people must have realized this is the power of Jesus Christ, and they come running. And Peter says it very clearly, “Don’t look at us. We didn’t do this.” And then, I love verse 13—it’s one of 12 places in the Bible where you have this expression: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let Him go.” So, that’s from Exodus 3, when Moses says, “Well, tell me your name. Who are you? You’re sending me to Egypt to deliver your people. They’re going to say, ‘Who sent you? What is your name?’ He says, ‘Yahweh, I AM that I AM. I am the self-existent One.’” And then He says, “I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”

Tom: What about Ishmael? I don’t see Ishmael there.

Dave: No, Ishmael is not there. These are the only three that God names, and furthermore, Jesus used that—you remember in the New Testament when the Sadducees denied the resurrection, and Jesus quoted that: “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You have to believe in a resurrection. And then in Exodus 3, God says, “Not only this is my name,” He says, “this is my memorial unto all generations.” So, God’s integrity is tied to the Jewish people and to their ultimate restoration, but that’s getting a little bit off the subject here.

Tom: But at the same time, Dave, you know, that’s why I threw in Ishmael—that we’re hearing from Islam that this is wrong, that Ishmael is the son of promise, and you don’t find it in the Scriptures; that’s my point.

Dave: Well, of course the Muslim says, “Well, the Bible once read just like the Qur’an. Adam was a Muslim. Abraham was a Muslim. Abraham and Ishmael built the Ka’aba in Mecca…,” a place where Abraham never went, of course. And they say, “Well, but the Bible got corrupted.” Well, of course, we have manuscripts of the Bible before Muhammad, after Muhammad—there is no change. The Bible did not get corrupted; the Bible predates the Qur’an by more than—well, nearly 2,000 years.

So, I’m going to go by the Bible, because the Bible has prophecies that were fulfilled; the Qur’an has none of that. The Bible is accurate scientifically; the Koran has many scientific contradictions in it. The Bible is historically accurate, and so forth. The Qur’an really doesn’t give you much of history.

It’s very self-centered, by the way, the Qur’an is. We were talking about self—“has an awful lot to say. One Surah—you know, there are 114 Surah’s; a Surah is a chapter—there is one chapter titled “The Private Apartments.” It’s all about, “Well, don’t hassle Muhammad. If he’s trying to rest, you know, don’t be knocking on his door, and don’t make a loud conversation outside of the prophet’s home when he is trying to sleep, and so forth.” An awful lot of the Qur’an is focused on Muhammad. When he needed another wife—he fell in love with another man’s wife. Well, he gets a revelation in the Qur’an: “Oh, yes, that woman is for you,” okay? When he wants to attack during Ramadan, because the pagan Arabs did not attack during Ramadan, but he could really surprise the caravans if he attacked during Ramadan, because they don’t do that during Ramadan. Well, you know, he gets a revelation from Allah in the Qur’an.

So the Qur’an is full of things like that: accommodations of the desires of Muhammad. It’s not like the Bible. I will go by the Bible, and the God of the Bible is the God of Israel—203 times He calls Himself that: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And sadly, Allah hates Jews, and Muhammad’s dying words, in fact, were, “May Allah curse the Christians and the Jews.” A big difference, Tom. You got me a little off the subject here, but I think it’s worth considering, because there is so much about “Islam is peace” and “It’s pretty much like in Christianity.” In fact, it is the most anti-Christian religion you could find.