Acts 5:12 - The apostles performed many signs and wonders

5:12

We now get another glimpse into everyday life, which was far from normal! “The apostles performed many signs and wonders”. There are debates about whether or not we should expect to see large numbers of miracles these days. Most probably just don’t think it possible and so don[‘t think about the matter. As a very rough division, charismatic types would say we should, reformed types would say not (I know there are reformed charismatics!). The argument against is that miracles occur in batches in the Bible, and that they were there to attest to the apostles. On the “batch argument”, taking the Bible as a whole that is probably true, in the New Testament the argument is less strong. We need to draw a distinction between the number of miracles, and the reporting of miracles. As Acts goes on the attention turns to other things. Miracles occurred throughout Acts. The miracles did affirm the apostles, but that was not the only purpose. More generally on the “batch argument” it could reasonably be said that when God was on the move, miracles happened. Our society is increasingly godless and I can see no Biblical argument to say that God would not start doing many miracles in our day. The believers met together “in Solomon’s Colonnade”, the church was of a significant size now, so this was a place in the temple area where they could meet.