The Sunday School class I teach has been studying the Book of Acts for several weeks now. Our class is designed to be an active learning space rather than a passive one. By that, I mean that our members are not expected to merely show up and listen to me teach. They are expected to come to class ready to engage with the text, share what they have learned that week, and to ask questions they may have about the passage. Acts has not been lacking in material for them to draw from!
Acts is perhaps one of the most exciting books for a Christian to study. It reads like a novel, moving at a fast pace with exciting accounts describing how the early church grew from a group of people huddled in an upper room in Jerusalem to thousands of followers in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The accounts of miracles, healings, and speaking in tongues play a major role in the development of the early church and undoubtedly contribute to our fascination with the story in Acts.
When reading these accounts of miracles in Acts, it is only natural to wonder why it is not common to have similar experiences today. But as we look through the whole Bible, we will notice that miracles are not common during most of the biblical time period. Miracles mostly occur during condensed periods of time, mainly during the time of Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and through Christ and the Apostles. Some miracles occurred outside of these times, but rarely. In Acts, we notice that miracles and healings were localized to the apostles and where they ministered.
Speaking in tongues is only mentioned in three chapters (Acts 2,10, and 19). Not every believer is healed and most accounts of people coming to faith in Christ do not involve speaking in tongues. A pattern develops of people hearing the gospel preached, them believing the message, and being baptized into a local church, similar to what still happens today. So even for the early church in Acts, miracles and speaking in tongues are the exception and not the normal experience.
That is not to discount the important role miracles and speaking in tongues played in the development and growth of the church. These miraculous signs served to validate the messenger preaching the gospel and the genuine faith of those responding to the gospel. The apostles’ ability to perform miracles was a sign to the people that these men were speaking with the authority given by God and were to be believed. Acts 5:12 indicates that this power to perform miracles was given only to the apostles, thus limiting the voice of authority to those men. As the apostles’ teaching began to be recorded in the written form of our New Testament, the need for these attesting miracles waned.
Speaking in tongues in Acts served as a sign of genuine faith as the gospel was received by a new group of people; Jews in Acts 2, Gentiles in Acts 10, and followers of John the Baptist in Acts 19. Outside of the Book of Acts, speaking in tongues is only mentioned in one other place, 1 Corinthians 12-14 where Paul corrects the church for their overemphasis and misuse of the gift. As the gospel spread to the Gentiles, it was important for the apostles and the Jerusalem church to see that these new believers received the same Holy Spirit in the same way as they did in Acts 2. Speaking in tongues was the confirming sign that Gentiles and Jews both shared a common faith. It is notable that Acts does not record an instance of a group speaking in tongues without Peter or Paul being present to witness the event.
Concluding that the gift of miracles and tongues served a specific purpose during a transitional time in church history does not mean that God does not do miracles today. God still heals and miraculously works in our world to advance the gospel and protect His children. But rather than looking to an individual to perform a miracle for us, we can expect God to work through the faithful prayers and actions of His followers.
Author: Executive & Discipleship Pastor Jeff Gordon
