In a new move for his ministry, Peter now starts to go here and there among them all. Whereas before people travelled to the apostles (5.16) now Peter is on the road. He came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda, a journey of around 35 miles.
Whilst there he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralysed. We then read:
“Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Get up and make your own bed!” And immediately he got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord”.
(Acts 9.34-35, NET)
Very much like Jesus’ own healing in Mark 2.10-12, we see someone physically healed of a long-term ailment through a simple command and a word. Peter, however, doesn’t presume to think he has done the healing:
“Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Get up and make your own bed!”
It is Jesus, the Christ, the chosen and anointed One of God sent to heal the world who has the miraculous and supernatural power to heal physically.
As so often is the case there is a method and a meaning to the miracle. This is not a random healing done to stir up a crowd, but to point to the offer of healing from sin available through Jesus (John 1.29).
As proof of this we read that all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw the healed man and they turned to the Lord. Peter, no doubt, also preached the Gospel to them (Romans 10.14) and the power to save eternally he will have spoken about was demonstrated in the power to save physically.
The same is true for you and for me. The miraculous and spectacular miracles we see in Scripture are not there as a guarantee that we will experience the same, but to point us towards the miracle worker, to Jesus, the Christ who heals and saves.
James Travis 