Hebrews 2:4 Commentary and Bible Study

God bore witness to the apostles who spoke of the life of Christ and heard his teaching. This is one of those verses that tells us that it was the apostles and the first apostolic generation of Christians only, who had the special signs and wonders for the purpose of authenticating. Now the charismatic believers today – and many of them have the gospel and are true believers – make a great mistake here because they want the signs and wonders to be for today, and they misunderstand the point of the signs and wonders and this is not the only verse in the New Testament that tells us this. The purpose of the signs and wonders was to authenticate the apostles and to show the first generation that they really were speaking the truth when they related the message of Christ and spoke of his miracles and particularly when they witnessed his resurrection. So although some of the people to whom the apostles preached had not seen the resurrection of Christ, God confirmed the fact that his witnesses were telling the truth and authenticated them by giving them special powers. The apostles were the ones who wrote the inspired New Testament, so they were given these signs to attest them, to authenticate them. But this verse, as do others in the book of Acts, clearly describes these special signs as something that belonged to the apostles and so were not intended for subsequent generations of Christians. Paul speaks of ‘the signs of an apostle’ (2 Corinthians 12:12). Though not exclusive given to the apostles, they were signs that were closely associated with their work and found very little outside their circle, so that Paul’s term is completely appropriate. These were the authentic spokesmen of the Lord and their doctrine was the foundation of the church. It was necessary that people knew who the apostles were. They had to be particularly identified and authenticated by God, otherwise anybody could claim to be writing Scripture; anybody could claim to be having revelations, just as many do today, and claim that their so-called revelations were authoritative. But the early church knew what was authentic Scripture and who were the true apostles, because the apostles were people who had these singular and unique powers and signs. They are also wonders, causing men to marvel and be amazed. They caused amazement even in those who did not trust in the Lord, so that they could say, ‘When the Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this Man has done?’ (John 7:31).They were done by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were supernatural gifts which only God could give. The Spirit witnesses to the person and message of Christ and he does so through the manifestation of gifts which come through individual believers. These miracles were dispensed entirely by the sovereign will of God. It was not the disciples who decided where and when they would perform signs, but the Lord. At times they were unable to perform healings.