As you go through the Scriptures in Acts, every one of them, following signs and wonders, healings, they glorified God.  They praised God.  They believed.  It goes hand in hand.  Peter was preaching, they heard the Word, and they believed.  They saw the signs and the wonders, and they believed.  Jesus, we saw earlier this morning, in John, Chapter 10, said, “Believe Me for the works’ sake.  If you’re not going to believe My words, at least believe Me for these manifestations that God has shown.”  Chapter 20 of John, it speaks along these particular lines, and in John, Chapter 20, verse 30—turn over there real quickly.  And in John 20, verse 30, we see this Gospel ending, and verse 30 says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:  But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his name.”

These miracles were recorded so that you might believe.  Can a person come to belief in Jesus through signs and wonders being the source of drawing him in to make that profession of faith?  Yes.  They’re not saved by the signs and wonders.  They’re saved by the awareness of the presence of God, the love of God, the redemptive work of God, that these signs and wonders are not done by men.  “Why look…on us, as though by our own power we’ve done this thing?  Be it known unto you, that it’s the name of Jesus and faith in His name that makes this man whole.”  Amen?

There’s too much minimizing of signs and wonders.  When you read through these first 12 chapters of Acts, the birth of the church, you can’t go more than two chapters and not run into miracles, signs, wonders causing people to believe, to wonder, to pursue, to confess.  Paul said, “I’m not coming to you in letter only, but I’m coming to you in the power and demonstration of God’s presence.”  Amen?  I want to encourage us to imbibe that Spirit, that anointing, that we spoke of out of Luke.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”  We’ve been called to be His disciples; even in the very beginning, when Jesus did the miracle at Cana, and it said, “and his disciples believed upon him.”  One little miracle of turning water into wine.  We need to stir our hearts.  “Thomas, you believed on me because you were able to see me and touch me: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.”  Amen?  It’s available to us.  It’s germinated in us, and I believe in this hour, God’s wanting it to be expressed through us.

Acts 4:21, “…and all men glorified God….”  Chapter 5, verses 12 through 14, “…signs and wonders….  And therefore believers were added to the church….”  Acts, Chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, “And they brought all the sick…, and those that were vexed with unclean spirits: and he healed every one of them.”  And because of these miracles, they were beaten and they were threatened.  Acts 5:28, “You filled Jerusalem with this doctrine.”  How?  Because verse 42 of Chapter 5, “Daily in the temple,…they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.”  We’ve got to get out into the public and preach and teach, and God will confirm His Word with signs following.

We’ve got to step out of the boat.  Put yourself out there.  Be ready to be ridiculed, be ready to be persecuted, be ready to be mocked, be ready to fail in men’s eyes, but let’s preach the gospel that we’ve freely received, praise God.  Let’s be recognized as the church by performing what the church was endued with power to perform—to preach an anointed Word, an anointed Word.  There’s teaching on every corner, “But no man ever yet spoke like this man.  He spoke as one”—say it—“with authority.”  Where is that authority coming from?  Our assurance that Jesus is Lord, our assurance that the name of Jesus is above every name, and in His name, we can cast out devils and raise the dead, praise God!