56 TIME-LIFE MIRACLES OF FAITH
HEALERS&BELIEVERS
HEALING IN
HIS NAME
The Book of Acts recounts that after Jesus ascends to Heaven,
his disciples perform miracles in his nameO
nce Jesus has left the earthly realm, the
apostles know that it is time to go forth
and spread his message. Peter, John, and
the others return to Jerusalem, where
they set about persuading their fellow Is-
raelites that Jesus is the Messiah. On the first day of their
mission, the apostles convert 3,000 people to their new
faith—and these are joined by many more as the days pass.
One afternoon, Peter and John head for the Jewish
temple just as people are flooding in for afternoon prayer.
Their plan is to speak to the crowd in order togain more
converts. Seated outside one of the gates is a man who
can’t walk. As Peter and John approach him, he asks them
for money without even looking up.
“Look at us,” Peter says, and the man does, expecting
that John and Peter are about to give him some coins. But
Peter says, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give
you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and
walk.” Peter takes the man’s hand.
The transformation is instantaneous. The man leaps to
his feet and, for the first time in his life, walks with Peter
and John into the temple courtyard, where he jumps up and
down and praises God. The onlook-
ers, who recognize the man as a regu-
lar presence at the gate, are “filled with
wonder and amazement at what had
happened to him.”
Peter tells the crowd that he has
not performed the miracle—Jesus has.The beggar has been healed because Peter uttered Jesus’
name.
This good deed does not go unpunished: Peter and
John are thrown in jail for a night for disturbing the tem-
ple worshippers. But the miracle is effective: They soon
welcome 2,000 new converts to Christianity.
While Peter is performing numerous impressive feats,
the apostle Paul travels to Greece and Macedonia to
serve as the conduit for God’s miracles there. “When the
handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were
brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil
spirits came out of them.”
After a couple of years, Paul visits Troas, a Greek coast-
al city in what is now Turkey. On his lastnight there, he
addresses a roomful of people, talking with them past
midnight. A young man named Eutychus, who is sitting
in a window, dozes off and plummets three stories to the
ground outside. Paul rushes downstairs and puts his arms
around Eutychus where he lies. “Do not be alarmed,” he
tells the crowd, “for his life is inhim.”
Today, there is some disagreement over exactly what
Paul meant—whether Eutychus was dead and Paul re-
vived him, or whether Paul was simply
informing the crowd that the young
man had survived his fall. Either way,
the upsetting incident doesn’t slow
Paul down. He goes back upstairs, has
something to eat, and continues talk-
ing until dawn. ▪HEALING OF THE FORTUNATE
All eyes naturally moved upward
toward heaven as Eutychus, whose
name means “fortunate” in Greek,
came back to life. Image from the
Basilica of St. Paul Outside the
Walls, in Rome (c. 1800s).NEW TESTAMENT