We last saw Peter evangelizing Samaritan villages (8:25). Now he appears itinerating about the countryside, probably the regions mentioned in 9:31 (Haenchen 1971:338) as opposed to the territory between Jerusalem and Lydda (Bruce 1990:246). We are not told whether he is providing edificatory oversight to believers (Haenchen 1971:338) or evangelizing the unreached (Bruce 1990:246 calls it missionary work) or both.

The apostle arrives at Lydda, twenty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem at the intersection of highways from Egypt to Syria and from Jerusalem to coastal Joppa. It was the capital of a toparchy, or administrative district, and had a predominantly Jewish population in an ethnically mixed region. It is the Old Testament city of Lod, near which modern Israel's international airport of the same name is located (1 Chron 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Neh 11:35). There Peter finds saints (compare 9:13) who were converted under the witness of pilgrims returning from Pentecost or of Hellenistic Jewish Christians dispersed by persecution or of Philip (Acts 8:1, 40; Longenecker 1981:381; E. F. Harrison 1986:171; Kistemaker 1990:358).

Among the saints there—not Lydda's population in general, and therefore a Christian, not a non-Christian, gathering—Peter meets the Hellenistic Jewish Christian Aeneas. For eight years he has had a chronic ailment that has left the lower part of his body paralyzed. One such type of paraplegia is tuberculosis spondylitis, a paralysis that results from compression of the spinal chord (R. K. Harrison 1979:958). Aeneas has been confined to his mat, which is his bed.

Peter declares, Jesus Christ heals you (compare 1:1; simple action present—"this moment Jesus Christ heals you," Longenecker 1981:381). Then follows the command Get up and take care of your mat. As a sign of instantaneous and full recovery Aeneas immediately gets up (compare 3:7-8; Is 35:6). Luke points to the great impact this miracle has for the advance of the church. All who see Aeneas in Lydda and the coastal plain of Sharon, stretching from Joppa to Mt. Carmel beyond Caesarea, [turn] to the Lord.

What is the relationship between miracleworking and evangelism (9:35, 42)? In Acts, miracles accompany about half of the occasions of effective preaching of the gospel (2:4/14-41; 2:43/47; 3:1-10/11-26; 4:29, 30/33; 5:12-16; 6:8, 10/7:1-53; 8:5/6; 9:34/35; 9:40-41/42; 13:10-11/12; 14:1/3; 14:10/15-17); on the other occasions they do not (8:35-38; 9:22; 9:28-29; 10:34-43; 11:20-21; 13:16-41; 16:14-15; 16:31-34; 17:1-4; 17:22-34; 18:4-5; 19:8-10; 20:18-21).

We need to avoid two extremes. Rather than despising the role of the miraculous in evoking saving faith, we should recognize its legitimate role in giving credence to the preached word. In the end, saving faith must rest not on the impression the miracle has made but on the truth of the message to which it points. Furthermore, there is nothing superior about preaching that is accompanied by the miraculous. Luke knows well that experience of the miraculous can bring misunderstanding and confusion and even throw up a hindrance to saving faith. Those who interpret it according to an unregenerate worldview will be blind to its true origin and significance (Lk 11:15; 16:27-31; Acts 14:8-18; 16:16-21). When miracles do occur as the gospel is being preached, the evangelist must fearlessly interpret God's acts by his Word to the audience, so that misunderstanding is put down and Jesus Christ is exalted.