\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Acts 3:1-11<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. For decades many of the traditional denominations have been in decline. <\/p>\n A. The more liberal the beliefs, the larger the decline. Those espousing conservative\nviews show some growth. But the ones showing strong growth are the charismatic\ngroups\n
B. Name the largest groups in a region, and over half are charismatic in belief.<\/p>\n C. We don’t often think of it as so, but even the Catholic church is a milder\ncharismatic group\n 1. Charismatic is the belief that the Holy Spirit is continuing to give\nChristians miraculous gifts\n D. However, there are numerous denominations who believe the gifts ended during\nthe first century.\n 1. The beliefs of denominations for or against does not make it God’s\nteaching.\n
2. We need to examine His Word and see what God said would happen.<\/p>\nII. If we are to understand if miraculous gifts continue today, we first must understand the\npurpose God had for giving men miraculous gifts.\n
A. Miracles were not done for miracle sake<\/p>\n B. The Scriptures consistently teach that the gifts were to confirm the truth of the\nwords of the speaker.\n
1. Moses before Pharaoh – Exodus 4:1-8<\/p>\n
2. Moses before the Israelites – Exodus 4:29-31<\/p>\n
3. Jesus to convince John – Matthew 11:2-5<\/p>\n
4. The reason for recording the miracles of Jesus – John 20:30-31<\/p>\n
5. The apostles confirmed the word with signs – Mark 16:17-20<\/p>\n 6. The power of the Spirit came on the apostles so they could witness for\nChrist – Acts 1:8\n 7. Philip’s preaching was heeded because the miracles confirmed his words –\nActs 8:6\n
C. The Truth has now been confirmed<\/p>\n 1. The Spirit was given to the apostles to guide them into all truth – John\n16:13\n
2. That promise was fulfilled – Acts 1:8; 2:4<\/p>\n
3. God has confirmed his word – Hebrews 2:3-4<\/p>\n
D. Once confirmed, the truth is forever confirmed<\/p>\n
1. Truth does not change<\/p>\n 2. The evidence has been written for us to examine – John 20:30-31, II\nTimothy 3:16-17\n
3. The written evidence is sufficient – Luke 16:27-31<\/p>\n E. These days, the claims of gifts are used to give the believers emotional highs, a\nsort of confidence that God is with them\nIII. The miracles done in the first century were significant and obvious. A witness of the\nmiracle was not left guessing as to what was seen\n
A. Acts 3:6-10 – Healing of a man lame from birth.<\/p>\n
1. No recovery period, no time for unused muscles to rebuild<\/p>\n
2. Notice that even non-believers acknowledged the event<\/p>\n
B. The raising of the dead – Acts 9:40-42; 20:9-12<\/p>\n
C. Receiving deadly snake bites with no effect – Acts 28:5<\/p>\n
1. A fulfillment of the promise in Mark 16:17-18<\/p>\n
D. None of these are seen today.<\/p>\n 1. We do see God granting healing. Sometimes we call them miraculous\nbecause we had given up all hope.\n 2. But there were still medicines to take, recoveries to deal with, scars that\nremain\n
IV. What of those speaking in tongues?<\/p>\n
A. What are tongues? They are the speaking of languages – Acts 2:4-6<\/p>\n B. Some claim the babbling, which is not any known language to be the tongues of\nangels as per I Corinthians 13:1 but how can this be proved?\n
C. The miracles of tongues was only effective if understood – I Corinthians 14:6-19<\/p>\n
D. Tongues were to convince the unbelievers – I Corinthians 14:22<\/p>\n
E. Tongues, along with other gifts, were promised to cease – I Corinthians 13:8<\/p>\nV. Those who believe in the continuance of miraculous gifts believe that you are not a true\nChristian unless you possess a gift\n
A. The passage cited is Acts 2:38-39<\/p>\n B. The assumption is that the gift referred to here were miraculous gifts. There were\nother gifts of the Spirit\n
1. There is the gift of salvation – Ephesians 1:13-14, II Corinthians 1:22<\/p>\n C. The gift in Acts 2:38 accompanied becoming a Christian, but miraculous gifts did\nnot automatically come to Christians – Acts 8:5-22\n
D. Not all Christians had miraculous gifts – I Corinthians 12:29-31<\/p>\n
E. However, the Spirit dwells with all Christians<\/p>\n
1. Romans 8:9 – You cannot be a Christian without the Spirit being with you<\/p>\n 2. Either some Christians in Corinth were not Christians, or the presence of\nthe Spirit is an indication of something other than miracles.\nVI. The Spirit commits sound words to our keeping. The word of God that saves our souls –\nII Timothy 1:13-14\n A. What will you do with that word? The teaching is plain. The need is evident. \nWill you not rescue your soul, committing your life in the hands of the only one\nwho save you?\n B. Your are adrift in a restless sea, drowning as wave after wave threatens to pull you\nunder. God has offered his hand to bring you out and yet you hesitate! Why! The\nvery next wave may be too much. Why not obey while you can?\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Download Audio by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 3:1-11 I. For decades many of the traditional denominations have been in decline. A. The more liberal the beliefs, the larger the decline. Those espousing conservative views show some growth. But the ones showing strong growth are the charismatic groups B. Name the largest groups in a region, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[252,428,1120,363,47,142,141],"class_list":["post-17430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-gift-of-the-holy-spirit","tag-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit","tag-healing","tag-miracles","tag-salvation","tag-speaking-in-tongues","tag-tongue-speaking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":95205,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-cornelius-and-his-household-saved-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":0},"title":"Were Cornelius and his household saved before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been studying the Holy Spirit and have been reading some of the articles on your website. I'm a little confused. The article says that it's obvious that the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38 is salvation. If it's salvation, then the people in (Acts 10:45) received\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9460,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-recommend-books-on-the-topic-of-miraculous-gifts-for-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":1},"title":"Can you recommend books on the topic of miraculous gifts for today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am currently doing a research paper on \"Are the miraculous gifts for today?\"\u00a0 I read your sermon on your website and would like to know if you could recommend any books I should use for my research. Answer: Read C.S. Lewis' book\u00a0Miracles. Also, Apologetics Press has a good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4892,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/miraculous-spiritual-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":2},"title":"Miraculous Spiritual Gifts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew Bassford Many of you may well have had, as I have had, the experience of talking Bible with somebody who believes that the miraculous spiritual gifts of the first century continue today.\u00a0Let me be honest with you, brethren. It is difficult to find success in studies with such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-spiritual-gifts-and-miraculous-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":3},"title":"What is the difference between spiritual gifts and miraculous gifts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could you give me information that points to the differences between spiritual gifts and miraculous gifts? Answer: Spiritual gifts refer to the gifts given by the Holy Spirit. They usually refer to the miraculous gifts as explained in I Corinthians 12. These gifts were not given to every Christian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":4},"title":"The Gift of the Holy Spirit (Bassford 2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford A couple of weeks ago, I found myself chatting with a friend online about a very familiar subject to me, the meaning of the phrase \"the gift of the Holy Spirit\" in Acts 2:38 and 10:45. I literally spent decades arguing the point with my father,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-holy-spirit-completed-his-revelation\/","url_meta":{"origin":17430,"position":5},"title":"The Holy Spirit Completed His Revelation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Reeves The religious culture that surrounds us today has chosen emotionalism and sensationalism over a passionate and substantive examination of God's word and the application of truth to our lives. As a result, there is much confusion regarding miracles and the activity of the Holy Spirit. 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