Acts 5:12-16 The Shadow of Peter and the Light of Christ
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter five. We are going to look at verses 12-16 this morning, and that’s on page 913 in the pew Bibles.
Do you ever read the Bible and look at a passage and just shrug your shoulders like there is really anything there, just what’s on the surface? It’s easy sometimes to read a paragraph and just say, “Welp, I guess that’s it.”
True confessions: I do this more often than I don’t.
This is why I read commentaries and lean so hard on those who have gone before, guys who are a lot smarter and well read than I am. Sometimes the Spirit moves and I don’t have to read anything other than the Scriptures but other times I scratch my head and wonder: how on earth am I going to make a sermon out of this?
This is one of the reasons that I like going book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. I don’t get to skip over the ones that I may not feel like working through.
It’s been said that the Scriptures are like a pool that is shallow enough for babies to wade in and deep enough for scholars to drown in. And I think that means that there is more going on than just what is on the surface of our text for this morning.
So let’s read it and find out. Acts 5:12-16.
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Let’s pray.
So there you have it. Life is good for the early church. The apostles are doing all kinds of miracles; the church is freely and regularly gathering in the Temple for prayer, worship, and instruction; the church had a great reputation and was held in honor by even the unbelievers; though some were afraid of joining them men and women were coming to faith in Jesus left and right and being added to their number; Peter was so popular that people were lining up the sick in the streets so even his shadow would pass over them in hopes of being healed; and lots of demons were being cast out by the Apostles and lots of people did get healed.
Life is good. What more could you ask for? Well, I’m still asking for a sermon!
Lots of teachers make allegories out of everything, as if everything in Scripture is symbolic of something else. We often joke about David choosing five smooth stones to slay Goliath, what are your five stones that you’ll use to slay the giants in your life?
This is a terrible approach to studying Scripture. You can make it mean anything! But as we know, Scripture can never mean what it never meant, so I am not going to do that with this passage.
There is one thing that I want to drill down on however. It is not allegorical or symbolic of anything but it is a problem. It was a problem then and it is still a problem now.
Look at verse 14.
14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
What do you see there? Peter’s shadow healing people?
Does it say that people were healed as a result of Peter’s shadow passing over them?
This was a popular idea clearly, but it is not affirmed by a single word of Scripture. Peter’s shadow did not have the power to do anything that any other shadow could do, but people thought that there was something about it that might help them.
What do we call that kind of idea? Superstition.
So this is where we can clearly see a contrast between the shadow of Peter and the light of Christ, and these are the two things that I would like to compare.
Peter’s shadow did not have the power to save anybody. This might seem obvious to us on the surface but take a look at church history, even recent history. People have been assigning undue value to all types of things and all kinds of people. It is foolishness to think that there is special power or significance in pastors, preachers, popes and priests, relics, buildings, icons, statues, paintings, songs, musical instruments.
Things are just things, people are just people, they may be helpful, they may be used by the Lord to accomplish His will, but the power is not in the thing, it comes from Christ. It’s sentimentality at best but idolatry at worst.
The painting that hung in the front of the sanctuary did not heal Roy Knox, the hem of Jesus’ garment did not heal the bleeding woman, the shadow of Peter did not heal anybody that was laid out in the street, Jesus did!
Salvation was never obtained through Peter. He preached the gospel for sure, and people came to faith and were saved, yes, but they were saved by Jesus not Peter. Peter couldn’t save anybody, much less his shadow.
We’ve seen in our study of the Gospels so far mostly Peter’s weakness, weaknesses plural! But Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness and that certainly holds true with Peter. The Holy Spirit spoke through Peter and used him as His instrument to bring thousands to Christ. But if Peter was standing here with us today there’s no way he would take credit for any of it!
Salvation is not obtained through Peter and healing was not available through his shadow. Salvation and healing are only available in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Light of the World, He is the light and life of Peter, and Peter’s shadow only directs our attention to Him.
Again, it was not the shadow of Peter, nor the garment of Christ that had any power to heal. There is no outward object, no outward act that can bring true healing to a person, no ancient shroud nor bones of dead saints, only the Power of the Holy Spirit.
It was not Peter’s shadow but the light of Christ that shone on him that brought healing, it was the power of God revealed in Jesus Christ through His witnesses that allowed people to receive the gospel by faith and experience the true healing of their souls.
After all, what is the greatest miracle, the healing of the body or the healing of the soul?
When I was a kid I thought my story of coming to faith in Jesus was boring. My parents brought me to church since I was a baby, I asked Jesus into my heart when I was seven, even though my mom says it was when I was four, I don’t remember that. Still, pretty boring, not gonna make anybody cry around the campfire. I used to think that I had to spice it up a little and exaggerate some details to make it more interesting… stupid.
I was dead, and by the power of Christ, I am now alive!
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…That’s Ephesians 2:1-6.
Warren Wiersbe said, and I’ll close with this…
“The important thing was not the miracles, but whether [the] message was true to the Word of God… The important thing was not the healing of the afflicted, but the winning of lost souls, as multitudes were added to the fellowship… The greatest miracle of all is the transformation of a lost sinner into a child of God by the grace of God. That is the miracle that meets the greatest need, lasts the longest, and costs the greatest price – the blood of God’s Son. And it is one miracle we can all participate in as we share the message of the gospel, ‘For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.’”
Amen.
