Miracles Today?
There is much in the Acts of the Apostles which we shall probably not expect to witness in our day, as the apostles still lived and worked in an atmosphere of the miraculous. ‘Signs and wonders’ are frequently mentioned in its pages. Ananias and Sapphira die a dramatic death and Tabitha is raised from the dead. Prison doors are opened by an angel and prisoners’ fetters unfastened by an earthquake. Handkerchiefs and aprons from Paul’s body cure diseases and the sick are carried into the streets so the Peter’s shadow may fall upon them. Peter sees a strange vision and hears God’s voice on a housetop in Joppa, while Paul on the Damascus road is blinded by a light brighter than the sun and hears Christ’s voice addressing him in Hebrew.

Two extreme positions are often taken, neither of which can establish itself from Scripture. The first is to assert that miracles either do not or cannot happen today, which denies freedom and sovereignty to God. The other is to assert that they take place with the same frequency as in the ministry of Christ and his apostles, which ignores the major purpose of miracles according to Scripture, namely to authenticate a fresh stage of revelation. Paul describes his miracles as ‘the signs of a true apostle’ (2 Cor. 12:12), because they confirmed his apostolic authority.

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, The Meaning of Evangelism, 1