At Lystra, a fortified Roman frontier outpost eighteen miles south-southwest of Iconium, Paul is preaching the gospel to people of the local ethnic groups. Luke tells us that a man crippled from birth is sitting (possibly as a beggar), hears Paul's message and has faith to be made whole. To describe the man's aspirations Luke uses a term that is part of a word group he also uses to describe salvation; thus he links the healing that is about to take place with the salvation Paul has been proclaiming (13:26). The miracle will picture the completeness of restoration brought by God's salvation in Christ.

Paul fixes his attention on the man and sees that faith is present. So he calls out a command that is a creative word. The crippled man, showing faith by his obedience, leaps up and begins to walk. The healing is instantaneous and complete (compare 3:7-8).

Should miraculous deeds be an essential part of a contemporary strategy for approaching adherents to non-Christian religions? John Wimber's initial articulation of "power evangelism" would answer with an emphatic yes. His analysis of the Acts account of the early church's mission concludes, "Rarely was church growth attributed to preaching alone. . . . [Signs and wonders] were the catalyst to evangelism" (1986:118). Others would limit the working of signs and wonders to the apostolic age.

Luke takes a middle position that gives exclusive support to neither of these options. While Luke gives no evidence that miraculous gifts will necessarily cease with the close of the apostolic age, he does not present them as essential to the church's advance. When miraculous deeds and gospel proclamation occur together, proclamation is primary. During the first missionary journey, proclamation accomplishes God's saving purposes apart from miraculous deeds at Pisidian Antioch and Derbe. Jesus teaches that miraculous deeds, even his resurrection, in and of themselves cannot produce faith (Lk 16:27-31; 24:25-27). Indeed, they may be misinterpreted. Proclamation—the proper interpretation—is needed to declare the source and purpose of miraculous deeds. What miraculous deeds do accomplish is to manifest the divine power of God's Word and to authorize the preacher. Just as Paul, through spiritual discernment and Spirit-impelled command, was the means for the crippled man's restoration, so today God can choose to accompany the faithful preaching of his Word with miraculous deeds, especially in cultural contexts in which Satan's control is most evident.