Chap. 5
[1-11] Ananias and Sapphira: This passage is the story about Ananias and Sapphira, a couple who may or may not have truly belonged to lord (not enough is known to make a valid assumption one way or the other). After Barnabas had laid down the prophets from his field, this couple decides to also sale their field. In this case, however, there is a major difference. This difference is the heart of behind their actions; Barnabas had a pure heart and was not giving for approval or selfish gain while Ananias and Sapphira were in it for selfish reasons. Peter asked them why was Ananias was withholding some prophet when he was claiming to give it all. Peter is upset because he did not ask them to sell the land and the prophet was theirs to use for their own disposal to use at their own discretion. There was no reason to lie about it except to look better in the eyes of the apostles who saw through their selfishness and rebuked them. Upon the apostles’ rebuke both “breathed [their] last” within three hours of each other and were buried next to one another.
Timeless Principle: Giving for the sake of finding gain in the sight of others is sickening. We, in giving and any other act, should not seek our own selfish purposes. We must approach each situation with a humble heart. In this example, they should have given without “the left-hand knowing what the right-hand is doing” (Matt. 6:3).
[12-16] Second talk outside of the temple: The apostles gathered in Solomon’s portico again outside the temple in Jerusalem. They began performing many signs and miracles. People came from all over bringing people who were sick and dying to be healed by the apostles through the Holy Spirit. Even more believers were added to the kingdom.
Note: In verse 15, Peter Holy Spirit was so powerful inside of Peter that people were being healed by merely coming close to him (“that [Peter’s] shadow might fall on them”).
[17-32] The apostles imprisoned then released only to return to the temple to teach: The high priests heard of the commotion started by the apostles and rose up and arrested them. At night an angel of the Lord freed them and told them to teach in the temple the words of life. At daybreak they went into the temple and began teaching and proclaiming the Gospel. That morning, the high priests came to the cell that the apostles were held in to realize that they were gone. They were perplexed by the occurrence. Hearing that the apostles were teaching in the temple, the high priest had them seized once again. The priests reminded them of their charge not to talk in this name, the name of Jesus Christ. They went on accusing the apostles and warning them not to speak in this name, saying that they were trying to bring Christ’s “blood (Greek: aima “blood shed through violence, murder”) upon [them]” by continuing to teach. Peter answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” He proclaimed that the God of their fathers had raised him, Jesus, from the dead and made him leader and savior. The apostles were witnesses to this by the Holy Spirit, whom God had given to those who obey him.
Note: God’s gifts are conditional. In verse 32, Peter says that the Holy Spirit, a gift of God, will be given those who have obeyed him.
Timeless Principle: God has seated Christ at the right hand of himself making him the leader and savior for all peoples for their forgiveness of sins. Leader is the key term here. God is jealous for our attention (Exodus 20 and Deut. 5). He desires it and will not tolerate not having it. We see here that Christ is the Leader (Greek: archegos “chief leader, prince, author”) as appointed by the Father. His leadership is not optional; it is required. If he doesn’t get it then we cannot even imagine the gruesome reality of his wrath. Verse 32 says that the Holy Spirit is given to those who what? Obey him. Not optional and never has been. He will receive glory whether we like it or not. He gets glory one of two ways out of a human being. The first is allowing him to be first in our lives by dying to self and actively allowing him to rule over us as LORD and savior. The second is the most common and most horrifying, glory comes when he judges those who have not committed to his roles as BOTH savior and chief leader which brings upon those people the devastating, terrifying unfathomable wrath of the Father. He WILL get glory whether we like it or not. It should be our joy to kill ourselves daily and actively seek his will in our lives.
[33-39] The Protest of Gamaliel (would be fulfilled in the rest of Acts): After hearing the statement by Peter about obeying Christ and salvation, the council was enraged. They made the apostles leave the room so they could deliberate. They hungered to slaughter the apostles. In the midst of the heat, a Pharisee named, Gamaliel (who mentored Paul before his conversion [22:3], Gamaliel means “reward of God”) stood up and declared that two men have tried to rise up before but were soon silenced after their leaders perished. He then implies that if this of man, then it too will perish but if it did not then they might be found opposing God. In light of this statement, the council decided to take Gamaliel’s advice.
Note: the two men mentioned by Gamaliel were Theudas and Judas of Galilee, both of which rose up and gathered as many as four hundred people to follow them. After their deaths, the men who followed them soon dispersed.
Timeless Principle: Gamaliel made a valid point in this case by asserting that “if this plan of this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God you will not be able to overthrow them” (38c-39a). Had the apostles and the other believers of went their separate ways, then it could be said that there was no truth to resurrection and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ our Lord. However, this was not and is not the case, the believers did not disperse, rather they grew stronger; they prayed for and received more boldness in the heat of persecution therefore proving, by the requirements set by Gamaliel, that what the apostles were saying was truth. A roman historian named Tacitus, who was not a follower of Christ, said this about the church a short time after these things were said, furthermore showing the drive of the early church through the power of the Holy Spirit:
“The pernicious superstition [referring to Christianity], repressed for a time, broke out again, not only throughout Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.”
[Annals, xv. 44]
Not only were the Christians breaking out in Jerusalem and then to Judea but furthermore to Rome causing great confusion. No one could shut them up because, as Peter alludes to his first go around with the Sanhedrin, they could not stop talking about the things they had seen or heard (4:20). This would later be clearly seen when Paul and Silas enter into Thessalonica and win over some of the Jews there causing an uproar and anger in the hearts of the people there. Out of jealousy, they proclaimed, “These men who have turned the world UPSIDE DOWN have come here also” (17:6). The church was turning the world as the people knew it at that time upside down; they just would not shut up. In light of these things, perhaps a good question to ask ourselves is, to be put simply, why don’t people in our own time say these things about us? Is it because people have become callous to movements like this? Nope, it is hard to become callous to something that does not happen anymore. If it isn’t callousness, then is it the differences the cultures then and now? Once again, in saying that we automatically limit God’s sovereignty, therefore limiting his power. He has always been, is currently and will always be the same God who holds the seas in the hollow of his hand and the God who will never leave us or forsake us (Isaiah 40:12; Joshua 1:5). What then is the problem? What happened in the two thousand years since these things were taking place, since Christians were stepping up for their God? It only makes sense that a problem has come up at some point along the way. Since there are really only two parties at work here, God and humanity, one of the two must be responsible. Going of the mere fact that God has not changed at all, we are led to the conclusion that something has happened to us, the church. The problem, to be put simply is our own timid attitudes and worldly fears concerning the destruction our own “self-images” mixed in with the fact that no body is letting God use them to bridge the gap between him and a lost and dying world. We are not making the same profound movements anymore. We are failing at being the salt and light that Jesus mentions in Matthew 5:13-17. Like those in the early church, we CAN be used to turn the foundations of this desolate place on top of it self, unhinging the grip of the “cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12). Its time to pick up the armor that Paul talks about in Ephesians instead of sitting around on the couch playing video games and complaining to God about the messed-up world we live in. Get up and get into the war.
*35-39 [God breathed this, therefore it is worthy of several chyeas followed by a bad a dad at]
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