Psalms 77:14 – “You are the God who performs miracles”
Exodus 34:10 – “Then God said … Before all your people I will perform miracles … it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you”
Miracles in Luke’s gospel
Luke 1:26-38 – Christ’s virgin conception and birth
Luke 4:28-30 – Passed through crowd unseen
Luke 4:33-37 – Man with demon
Luke 4:38-39 – Peter’s mother-in-law
Luke 5:4-7 – Draught of fish
Luke 5:12-14 – Leprous man
Luke 5:17-26 – Man with palsy
Luke 6:6-11 – Man with withered hand
Luke 7:1-10 – Healing centurion’s servant
Luke 7:11-18 – Raising widow’s son
Luke 8:22-25 – Calmed a storm
Luke 8:26-36 – Demons entering swine
Luke 8:40-56 – Jairus’ daughter
Luke 8:43-48 – Woman with issue of blood
Luke 9:37-43 – Child with demon
Luke 9:11-17 – Feeding 5,000
Luke 11:14-15 – Man with demon
Luke 13:10-17 – Healing woman with infirmity
Luke 14:1-6 – Healing man with dropsy
Luke 17:11-19 – Healing 10 lepers
Luke 18:35-43 – Blind Bartimaeus
Luke 22:50-51 – Malchus, high priest’s servant
Luke 24:1-12 – Resurrection of Christ
Miracles in Acts
Acts 1:9 – Ascension to heaven
Acts 2:1-4 – Speaking in tongues
Acts 2:43 – Many done by apostles
Acts 3:7-11 – Lame man at temple
Acts 4:31 – Earthquake
Acts 5:5-10 – Ananias and Sapphira
Acts 5:12 – Signs and wonders
Acts 5:12-16 – Healing
Acts 5:19 – Prison doors opened
Acts 6:8 – Those done by Stephen
Acts 8:6, 7, 13 – By Philip in Samaria
Acts 9:3-9 – Appearance to Saul
Acts 9:17-19 – Saul’s blindness healed
Acts 9:32-35 – Aeneas
Acts 9:39-42 – Dorcas
Acts 10 – Visions seen by Cornelius, Peter
Acts 12:10 – Prison gate opened
Acts 13:11-12 – Elymus
Acts 14:3-4 – In Iconium
Acts 14:8-18 – Lystra
Acts 16:18 – Woman with evil spirit
Acts 16:26 – Earthquake, prisoners released
Acts 19:11-12 – In Ephesus
Acts 20:8-12 – In Troas
Acts 28:3-9 – In Melita
Reliability of Luke in Acts
Specific names
95 different people, 62 of which aren’t mentioned by any other New Testament writer and 27 are nonbelievers, mostly civil or military officials.
Specific titles
Titles of notable persons didn’t remain constant over time.
Luke always uses the correct title at the correct point in history.
Specific places
In Acts, he accurately mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 Mediterranean islands.
Specific events
Acts 11:27-30; 18:2 – Drought throughout all the world, expulsion of Jews from Rome.
Luke never made a mistake!
Sir William Mitchell Ramsey (1851-1939)
Raised an atheist
Trained as an archaeologist, set out to prove Bible, especially Acts, was fraudulent by traveling areas covered by Paul’s preaching tours looking for mistakes Luke made.
At conclusion of his travels, he wrote The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament.
Ramsey’s conclusion:
“Luke is an historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy … this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.”
John Warwick Montgomery
History and Christianity
“The only way we can known whether an event can occur is to see whether is has occurred. The problem of ‘miracles’ then must be solved in the realm of historical investigation, not in the realm of philosophical speculation.”
6 alleged trips to the moon
6 manned landings July 20, 1969 – December 14, 1972
12 men walked on the moon
Did these alleged events actually occur?
What historical evidence (written, audio, video material) is there?
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek
“Now why would Luke be so accurate with trivial details like wind directions, water depths, peculiar town names, but not be accurate when it comes to important events like miracles? In light of the fact that Luke has proven accurate with so many trivial details, it is nothing but pure anti-supernatural bias to say he’s not telling the truth about the miracles he records.”
Matthew 9
Matthew 9:1-8 – Healing a paralyzed man
Matthew 9:2 – Jesus’ first priority was to forgive sins – not physical healing!
Matthew 9:4 – They completely overlooked the fact that Jesus could read their minds!