In fulfillment of the congregation's prayerful expectation, the church's mission continues to advance through the apostles' performance of signs and wonders (literally, "through the hands of the apostles"; compare 4:30). These miracles not only validate the apostles' message (see 2:22) and are tokens of the fullness of salvation blessings to be had in the kingdom at the end (2:19; 3:16-21; 4:9, 12, 22), but they also become a means of liberation from official Judaism, just as Moses' signs and wonders worked liberation from Egypt (7:36; see Deut 29:3; Ps 135:9; Jer 32:21). In both cases they are undeniable witnesses to God's power, and those in power react with frustration.

The special role signs and wonders play in salvation history, their clustering around key salvation events and new epochs of revelation, their extraordinary nature at those times and the fact they are performed mainly by the leaders should circumscribe our expectations concerning the occurrence of signs and wonders today. Still, we are living in the same last days, and God is still at work mightily through his church (see comment at 3:7-8).

Just as miraculous is the church's unity in the wake of the Ananias and Sapphira incident. All together with one mind, purpose and impulse (as in 1:14; 2:46; 4:24) in Solomon's colonnade—see comment at 3:11; this was a place large enough for a good portion of their growing numbers—the congregation of believers worships, learns from the apostles and evangelizes (compare 2:42; 4:33; 5:25).

Is your congregation held together by anything beyond the homogeneity of ethnic background, socioeconomic circumstances and the goals and values that stem from them? It is the bond of the Spirit that makes outsiders marvel.