Why Do We Doubt?
Peter asked, “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power we had made this man walk?” Acts 3:12
One Sunday, a guest speaker in our church created visual stories by moving his fingers through a layer of backlighted sand.* The oohs and aahs that rippled through the sanctuary indicated other people were as amazed by the sand’s transformation as I was. How could a few deft swishes of someone’s hands tell the story of God’s redemption so clearly and completely?
In Acts 3, the Jewish crowd that observed the transformation of a “man crippled from birth” into a “walking and jumping” worshiper also
responded with oohs and aahs (vv. 2, 9-10). When they saw the beggar clinging to Peter and John, they looked at the apostles with wonder. How could two ordinary-looking men harness such miraculous healing power?
Peter seemed to have been equally amazed by the crowd’s astonishment. How could this group of Jews not understand that only God himself could heal someone? Surely Jerusalem was abuzz with news about the daily gatherings of Jesus’s followers, the way they shared their possessions and cared for the poor (Acts 2:42-47). Surely someone in the temple crowd had already seen some of the “many wonders” the apostles were doing (2:43).
So maybe Peter’s reaction to the crowd’s amazement was justified. How long was it going to take the Jewish people to understand that something supernatural was occurring—that the events of Pentecost were not an aberration, that God’s Spirit was moving in their midst?
Peter then delivered a sermon similar to the one he’d preached on Pentecost—God sent Jesus and the Jewish leaders had delivered him to be crucified. Then God raised Jesus from the dead—and the power of that resurrected Jesus had healed the beggar (3:13-16). So, Peter seemed to say to his fellow Jews, why are you still doubting? Why are you still resisting the message that Moses and so many other prophets have proclaimed?
Peter might ask us a similar question. Why do we doubt the power of God to transform our lives, our cities, our country? And why do we doubt God’s ability to work through us? Look for instances this week that demonstrate God is at work in your life, in your family’s lives, in your community, and across the world. Share that good news with others, and maybe they, like the crowd at the temple, will be “filled with wonder and amazement” and praise God too (Acts 3:10).
DIG DEEPER
Read Acts 3:1-11 and 14:8-20. God also used Barnabas and Paul to heal a lame man. How is their experience similar to Peter and John’s? How is it different?
Make a list of the names Peter uses for Jesus in his sermon (Acts 3:12-26). How does each one indicate that Jesus was not an ordinary man?
Compare Acts 1:8 with Colossians 2:9-10, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, and Ephesians 3:20. What do these verses teach us about the Spirit’s power? Have you experienced that power in your life? Have you witnessed it at work in others?
Denise K. Loock
*Note: To view examples of Gary Shockley’s skill as a sand artist, visit https://garyshockley.wordpress.com.
This devotion is part of a series on the Book of Acts.