Church Growth

Introduction:

When we open the book of Acts, we are witnessing the birth of the church — a movement empowered by the Holy Spirit, spreading the message of Jesus Christ with boldness, conviction, and miraculous power. Acts 5:12–16 gives us a snapshot of those early days — a time when the apostles were walking in complete obedience to the risen Lord, and God was confirming their message with signs and wonders.

This was a remarkable moment in history. The gospel was new. The church was young. The enemies of Christ were still trying to silence Jesus’ name. Yet in the midst of opposition, God’s power was on full display. The apostles weren’t promoting themselves — they were pointing people to Jesus. And through their hands, the Holy Spirit was performing mighty acts that no one could deny.

People gathered in Solomon’s Colonnade, not for entertainment, but because they knew something divine was happening. The presence of God was real. The fear of God was real. And as a result, lives were being changed, the sick were being healed, and the name of Jesus was being lifted high.

As we study this passage today, we’ll see three key movements in these verses:

The signs and wonders that God performed through the apostles.

The continued growth of the church as more believers were added to the Lord.

The healing from above that demonstrated God’s compassion and power toward His people.

Let’s open our hearts this morning to what the Spirit of God wants to show us — because the same God who worked through Peter and John still works today. His power has not changed. His presence has not weakened. And His desire to move among His people remains as strong as ever.

Let’s begin by looking at Acts 5:12-16

Acts 5:12–16 (NIV84)

The Apostles Heal Many

12 The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

Acts 5:12 -16

Point I

Signs and wonders

Verse 12

1. “Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles.”[1]

a. We see that they've discussed this many signs and wonders being done through the apostles in three other places in the book of acts.

Acts 2:43

43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. NIV

Acts 14:3

3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. NIV

Acts 19:11

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,

NIV

2. Why was God allowing the apostles to do miracles.

a. Because This was the beginning of the church.

b. An Apostle enjoyed a special office in the New Testament church.

i. The term apostle means “one who is sent.” Technically, however, an apostle was more than a messenger.

ii. He was commissioned with the authority to speak for and represent the One who sent him.

iii. The chief apostle in the New Testament is Jesus Himself.

iv. He was sent by the Father and spoke with the authority invested in Him by the Father. To reject Jesus was to reject the Father, who sent Him.

v. Likewise, the Apostles were called and commissioned directly by Christ and spoke with His authority.

1. To reject apostolic authority was to reject the authority of Christ, who sent them.

3. “They were all together in Solomon’s Colonnade.”[2]

a. If you were to turn in your bibles to acts chapter 3: 11 you would see that the apostles were teaching and preaching in Solomon's colonnade.

b. We saw earlier in acts 3:11 that this is where John and Peter were when Peter started preaching in the temple.

c. If you remember Peter and John ended up getting arrested here in Solomon's colony in chapter 4:1

d. Solomon's colonnade was big it was basically a large open-air hallway where the roof would have been held up by many columns. Think about it, we see that many people came to believe while Peter preached there

4. Peter and John were fearless in their preaching we see that they went back even after they were told to not be preaching or teaching in the name of Jesus.

a.  In acts 4: 19 it says “but Peter and John answered them whether it's right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God you decide for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

b.  and then in verse 21 “after threatening them further they released them they found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done.”

Luke 12:11-12

11 "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." NIV

Vs. 13

1. “None of the rest dared to join them but the people praised them highly”

a. Why didn't they want to join them?

i.  Because look at verse 5 Ananias died because of his sin, and then look at verse 10, sephira his wife she died because she Colluded with her husband and his sin and didn't come clean when Peter asked about it.

ii. You see word got around and people we're starting to say there's something about this resurrection.

1.  I believe they've got something; there's miracles happening but I'm not sure I want to get too involved because if I sin I could drop dead.

iii. You know who they got into their movement? They got only the people who were really committed.

iv.  John MacArthur says “You better believe it. Nobody but nobody is going to swing into that movement with a hypocritical attitude. Nobody is going to get into that deal unless they are really sold out to Jesus Christ, totally, it’s too risky. I mean they can spot sin, and what happens to sinners? They drop dead.”

2. People say, is discipline in the church important? It’s important.

a. Because the church is to have a pure reputation.

b. The church represents Christ.

Friday night I was having a conversation with my son-in-law Michael, and he was telling me about the job site he is working at Costco meat. He said that they were going to have to move their meatball line 30° because it kept clogging up with meatballs. There are so many meatballs that are getting clogged on the line that they keep getting rejected because they aren’t perfect. This made me think of the church. There are many people believers that are sitting in churches this Sunday morning that have sin in their life and God is working with them. Toby and I have said there will be people they get to heaven but they're gonna be smelling like smoke.

3. The church was in its initial phase you know was building on the resurrection, the gospel.

Point II The church continues to grow

1. “Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers Crowds of both men and women.” Vs 14

a. Acts 1: 15 (120 believers); Acts 2: 41 (3000 people); Acts 4: 4 (5000 people)

i. 8120 believers in the first few months were added to the church.

ii. That was some mighty strong evangelism.

b. God was at work in this movement.

There have been four great movements in history.

c. “the great awakening 1740”

d. “The Jesus movement “ ending in the 1960’s to 1970’s

2. “crowds of both men and women”

a. Luke found it important to include women in his account of the gospel and in acts.

b. You see women I believe that this shows that not only Christ, but the apostles also believed that women were important in the church.

c. Paul also spoke about women in the church.

d. It is also said in the gospels that many women also supported Christ in his ministry.

e. Therefore I want to Go on record and say that women are important in and to the church.

Point III Healing from above

1. “As a result they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. In addition a large group came together from towns surrounding Jerusalem bringing back people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed.” Vs 15-16

a. John MacArthur says in his commentary:

“It’s an interesting thing, the Orientals you know, believed that a man’s shadow carried his influence, and parents would run and take their little children into the shadow of great men. And just as much, parents would grab their little children and snatch them and pull them away from the shadow of someone they disliked, in Oriental fantasy.”

b. You see it doesn't say that peter's shadow did heal the sick. It says that when Peter came by at least his shadow mightfall on some of them.

i. That word might is important because they thought that they may have a chance just by the falling of peter's shadow to be healed.

ii. It's important to note that it wasn't peter's shadow that was doing the healing but it was the Holy Spirit that did the healing.

c. Look at Matthew 14: 36 they were begging him that they might only touch the tassel on his robe and as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

i. They did the same thing to Jesus when he was healing.

d. We don't see these types of miracles as much today as we did then.

i. This isn't to say that God still can't perform healing miracles he can and he does we see it through persistent prayer.

ii. But we see this more prominently in scripture because the church was being formed at this time.

Conclusion

We saw here in reverse 13 that “none of the rest dared to join them but the people praised them highly”, and I mentioned that it was the people who truly believed and we're faithful of following Christ that joined them.

That is the same then as it is today it's the ones who are not afraid to take Christ as their Lord and savior and surrender to him that aren't afraid to make a public statement of faith.

If you have never made a public statement of faith today is the day let's not wait. I've said before you don't have to walk down this aisle to make a statement of faith tobe saved. You can come talk to me after the service. I

If you make that choice, or if you have made that choice but have never been baptized then we want to celebrate with you. You see it's not the baptism that saves you is the surrendering to Christ that saves you. The water has nothing to do with salvation, but you are saying  publicly that I am a Christ follower.  We believe that you must be baptized because our Lord gave us this ordinance, In Matthew 28:18 -20 which is called the Great Commission. It says;

“ all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you and remember I am with you always to the end of the age”

Remember back in acts chapter 2 what Peter said when he was asked what must we do to be saved his reply was;

“ repent Peter said to them and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift the Holy Spirit. “Acts 2:38

[1]Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ac 5:12.

[2]Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ac 5:12.020), Ac 5:12.