Acts 5:11-16 :

By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them. More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them. Multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.

Isn’t it amazing that after Jesus died and resurrected that the work of Jesus expanded and became even more effective.

We read here that the crowds came, just like they did when Jesus was on earth, to benefit from the miracles that the apostles were doing. They even tried to get into the shadows of the apostles as they went by just in case the shadow might heal them. We already read that thousands had already become Christians. Here we read that “multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem.” Thousands and thousands of people were now there because of what was going on even though some of them weren’t Christians.

Also, notice that there was a healthy relationship between the Christians and those around them. Things were about to change as we will read soon in this book. For now, the church proved to be effective at both gaining honest converts and removing dishonest ones. You can imagine how bothered the enemies of Jesus became when they heard about the huge gathering at the temple. I am sure that they didn’t want Jesus and His followers to steal their show right there in the temple.

You might wonder why we don’t have apostles and signs like this today. I believe that one of the main reasons they had special power was because there was no New Testament written yet. The New Testament was only in the teachings of the Apostles at this point and the people needed to know that God was behind what they were saying. Now that we have the Bible that they wrote down, God doesn’t need to give signs of special approval to a select group any more. The special approval is now in the very Word of God: The Bible that we are reading right now. The message that is contained in it is from God and changes lives in miraculous ways.