The apostles carried out many miracles. It is worth noting that most of the miracles in Acts are attributed to the apostles. This does raise the question of what we should expect to see in the church today. Should absolutely everyone be able to perform miracles, or just a few (presumably the leaders)? There, of course, those who say miracles were just for the early church. I cannot really see any Biblical justification for this. I should also make it clear that I firmly believe we should see a lot more miracles than we do at the moment. However, we should also have miracles in their right perspective. In the Bible they have a twofold purpose: (i) the immediate need (dealing, feeding etc); (ii) as a sign to the world. They are not an end in themselves.
The display of God's power meant that the rest of the people regarded the believers with a certain amount of fear and high regard. This is in stark contrast to the view of the church that most people have today. What is the difference? It is that the church in Acts 5 had God at its centre.
Even so, many people did believe in the message. Also many sick people were brought to them and they were healed. They also hoped even for Peter's shadow to fall on them so they could be healed. It isn't absolutely clear whether or not Peter's shadow was sufficient to heal people, but this passage is a warning against undue scepticism about some things that might happen in churches. There are some unfounded claims of the miraculous that are made in churches, but at the same time when the power of the Spirit is evident some unusual things will happen, and some of these will offend our sense of the way things should be done.
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