"Life in the Early Church (Book of Acts)" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

[Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] glorious [Music] free how sweet would be their children [Music] if we will be true to thee till death [Music] faith [Music] we will be true to dear father in heaven once again we are grateful for the opportunity to gather together and open up your word and study this very important lesson dealing with the early christian church recorded for us in the book of acts father there are so many important lessons that we can learn from those first century christians who were just fully devoted to you and committed to the mission of taking the gospel to the world so bless our time today for we ask us in jesus name amen our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by pastor doug thank you pastor ross and our our singers and musicians and welcome friends we're getting into the book of acts and i'll just tell you our mission today we're going to try and study from acts chapter 2 roughly verse 46 on through acts chapter 5. in our lesson today we have a memory verse the lesson title is life in the early church lesson number three we have a memory verses acts 2 verse 46 and 47. you ready so continually daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to the church daily those who were being saved now this is a rare moment notice what's happening gladness praising favor growth one accord lord send those days again can you say amen look what's happening to the church they're together they're praising god gladness not complicated simplicity and uh and evangelism's working people are being added to the church i wonder if there's a connection um god had just poured out the spirit the devil really hadn't regrouped and figure out what he was going to do to fight it and the church was just growing and prospering and so much of what the lord had planned was happening during this time so it says they continued weekly is that what it says daily how often should we get together not too many are ready to say we ought to have church every day pastor doug but i think we ought to do better than once a week because if we want to have the experience that the early church had you'll find that they were getting together on a regular basis for bible study for prayer for fellowship it says breaking a bread that doesn't always mean just eating nine does it neither does it always mean they were participating in the lord's supper the same phrase is used for just eating um you ever heard someone say we'll get together and break bread it's just talked about a meal but sometimes it meant that they were having the lord's supper so they were doing all of these things and there was great harmony in the church at that time so you read here in verse 44 i'm just backing up in chapter 2 of acts now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need so continuing daily with one accord now i've not heard too many pastors preach on that it it sounds like communism now i know that's a kind of a dirty word if you're a red-blooded american but having communal living do you know what the first government was in north america it was it was communism that the pilgrims had a common garden and they had common houses and things and they thought let's practice the new testament church and we'll just share everything well you know you need the baptism of the holy spirit to have that attitude and nobody likes working in everybody's garden i like working in my garden are you that way too and so they found out that when they tried to practice that it lasted for about a year and a half and about 30 percent of them starved to death they didn't do very well you know one reason that communism failed in europe is because nobody wants to work in everybody's garden there were the government farms and then everybody had their own farm and they put all their energy into their own little gardens that they got this when karen and i went to russia they still had the government farms and people had their own little private farms out in the country they put all their energy into their their own so what was going on here when it says that uh all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and their goods and divided them among anyone they were just so spirit-filled they were just so filled with love for each other they said look we're looking to store our treasures in heaven they were really seeking to put into practice everything that's that jesus had said um christ sent them out said don't even take two tunics don't even take two pair of sandals i just want you to hit the road trust in me and preach the gospel and so they lived a very spartan life now i'm not saying that should happen now but it's going to happen again before jesus comes i believe when god pours out his spirit on the church you're going to see the same spirit of self-sacrifice of love benevolence of urgency that you see in the early church amen it's i i didn't write this you take it up with the lord that's what they were doing back then when the holy spirit was poured out and then i want you to notice it not only says there in verse 46 continuing daily go to acts chapter 5. i'm just jumping to another chapter now just to make this point acts 5 42 and daily in the temple again daily bible study and prayer meeting but they weren't just doing it at home they were getting together daily they were on fire they couldn't imagine going to day without bible study you know one of the earmarks is of a congregation growing frequency and gathering together for prayer and bible study whether it's in a home or church doesn't seem to matter but the studies that have been done by groups like barna when they say why is that church growing and that one isn't growing one of the things they when they melted it all down one of the things they noticed is there were frequency of meetings and fellowship where the people were getting together for meals for prayer for bible study and as they did that people all wanted to be long others would join there was a passion someone said hey we're having a study at our house tonight would you like to come we're having some friends or would you like to come and and it just seemed like they were making more and more connections and it grew was the early church growing how many were baptized after pentecost three thousand now was that the biggest baptism what was the biggest number mentioned for baptisms in their early book or earlier 5 000 i think that was after the miracle of the beautiful gate which we're going to get to later people saw the power of god everybody was interested the disciples could not keep up with all the studies that they were giving and ultimately when you get to acts chapter 7 they said look we can't be spending our time divvying up the food we need some deacons to help us do that because there's so many new people coming in that need discipleship they need to be taught and so they spent so much time in teaching what did jesus do when he rose from the dead he appeared for 40 days among the disciples what was the main thing jesus did for that 40 days when he continued to appear after the resurrection bible study he opened to them the scriptures every time he met with him john 21 when they were fishing in the upper room on the road to dimas every time he met with him it says he opened to them the scriptures he had to instruct them and help them to understand so they could then in turn teach others and so that's one of the greatest needs i think that's what real discipleship is jesus said go into all the world and do what not just baptize make disciples and he says teaching them to do all things whatsoever i've commanded you teaching teaching the word of god preaching and teaching the word of god is what brings evangelism it's what brings conversions and what i'm saying here is the more the church gets together to do that the healthier the church will be now here we have our sabbath school we're glad you're here we have our church service sometimes we have various and sundry afternoon vesper programs we have our midweek bible study i think as the day of the lord approaches we need to get together more i think that we need to have different elders and leaders who can open their homes and bring people in for bible study and the more we study together the closer we get the better we pray for each other you know some churches people to stop coming no one ever checks on them we don't know they were having all kinds of problems when they connect in homes on a weekly basis you become aware of what the needs are and you can minister them before they sort of disappear out the back door and so this need for daily fellowship i'm making a big deal of it because it's a big deal this need for daily fellowship i think is really important now in a moment someone's going to read acts 17 11. okay daniel have that i want to read acts 4 34. oh i did that already acts 16 5. so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily go ahead read please acts 17 11. these were more fair-minded than those in thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so you've heard the expression of the berean christians who were more fair-minded than those of thessalonica because they said well let's find out if it's true instead of just getting mad and saying that's not what we've always believed they said let's study it and they studied they were noble and how often did they study daily notice that there again that church ended up being a place that grew spiritually we need to get together i hope you have a personal daily bible study but i think something we ought to press for wouldn't it be great if granite bay and other churches that are watching right now if people in your church in your community knew there was somewhere they could go almost every night of the week for a home bible study whatever night was convenient there would be a home open for bible study there might be two or three there might be a dozen you don't want it too big you know unless you're coming together for the in the church itself but um wouldn't that be great if you just kind of had a bible study du jour that you could put in your bullet and say where is the bible where are the bible studies this week what would happen to a church that did that i think we ought to try it we need volunteers to open their homes that can help disciple all right acts 19 acts 19 9 but when some were hardened and did not believe they spoke evil of the way before the multitude he departed from them and he withdrew and withdrew the disciples reasoning daily in the school of terrenius hebrews 3 13 but exhort one another daily jesus said whoever would come after me let him daily lord give us this day our daily bread the christian life is a moment by moment day by day experience we need to be feeding together daily and as often as possible gather together all right enough on that let's go now to acts chapter three and this is this is one of the great stories you may turn in your bibles because i'm probably going to do a little spot reading along the way it's hard to just fly over this story in acts chapter 3 in a quick manner now peter and john went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour they were typically three hours of prayer in the temple and it's good to go that when the doors were open for prayer they went there and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried who they daily laid at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful to ask alms of the people who enter the temple this man is he's so bad off it's not that he took crutches they had to carry him there's a lot of people that would never find the lord except somebody brought them to the temple they brought them to church you remember in uh mark chapter 2 there's a man who's paralyzed and his friends bring him to the house where jesus was you may not be a preacher you may not be an evangelist you may not be a teacher lord willing you've got a church where the word is spoken if you can at least get them there and so they said let's bring them to the temple and they just didn't bring them to any temple they brought them to the beautiful gate now let me read something to you from josephus the jewish historian flavius josephus he wrote about this and he said the temple had nine gates on every side covered with gold and silver this is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world at the time but there was one gate outside the holy house made of corinthian brass and greatly excelled those that were only covered with gold and silver the corinthian gate which opened on the east was over against the gate of the holy house itself was much larger this is what we believe this is the gate you know when jesus made the triumphal entry there's a gate facing east towards the mount of olives he came down the mount of olives went up the hill into jerusalem that gate is now walled in as ezekiel prophesied it would be just on the other side of that gate was also an entrance to the temple when you go to jerusalem and you see the platform and you see all that it all makes sense listen what he said corinthian gate which opened towards the east um over against the gate of the holy house itself was much larger its height was 75 feet its doors were 55 feet and he said this was made of bronze and covered with gold engineers today don't even know how you can make hinges to open a gate like that i mean for the technology they had back then it was massive and it was adorned after a most costly manner having much richer and thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than the others so can you understand why they called it the beautiful gate now what does that beautiful gate represent what beautiful gates are you and i hoping to go through some day pearly gates they'll be the most beautiful gates this man is on the outside he can't get on the inside except somebody introduces him to jesus so think about that and you read here when the man he's there begging uh you read the back story in the book desire of ages this man had come down from the northern areas of uh israel he had heard about the miracles that jesus performed and when he gets to jerusalem you realize now that this all takes place in acts 3 it's not been long since the ascension of jesus acts chapter 1 jesus ascends to heaven here we are acts chapter 3 this man had hoped to come and when he came to jerusalem he found out that jesus had been executed he was devastated he was hoping to be healed so he was a special case so he said well best i can do is since i've come all this way i'll just beg at the gate and so his hopes had been dashed because jesus now had been crucified he had heard rumors that the followers say he was alive so all that's going on in his mind seeing peter and john about to go in the temple he asked for alms and fixing his eyes on them with john peter said look at us now what do you think he thought was going to happen when he said i used to panhandle and if you're asking for spare change and someone says look at me one of two things is going to happen they're going to ball you out and tell you to get a job or they're going to give you something it's usually nothing else unless of course they're religious and then they want to share the gospel with you peter said look on us so he gave them his attention you've heard me say before the gospel begins with looking first step in salvation year the king as i died i saw the lord paul saw jesus thief on the cross saw jesus lifted up zacchaeus was too short he climbed the tree because he wanted to see jesus you've got a lot of stories in the bible that explain that salvation begins with looking so he says look on us i wanted to make sure he had their attention a lot of people are coming and going fixing his eyes on him with john peter said look at us so he gave them his attention expecting to receive something from them what was he expecting a handout you've heard the expression is it better to give a man a fish or to teach him to fish would have been better for peter to give him spare change or teach him to walk so he could help himself so often our prayers are for the little things we are praying that god will make us comfortable in our crippledness and our slavery it's like you've heard me say before a man who's in prison and he says lord can you please give me a softer bed in my prison and can you give me better food in my prison and can i have better light and better ventilation and and then he's praying for everything so he can be more comfortable in his prison and god is saying why did you pray i get you out of jail and that's really what you ought to be praying so this man he's there begging he's not thinking big enough is he hoping to get something from them he's hoping to get silver and gold peter said in verse six silver and gold i don't have just so you don't misunderstand what do you think happened in his heart when he said that silver and gold i don't have but he didn't let him wait very long to find out what i do have i give you in the name of jesus christ he had heard that name before of nazareth rise up and walk unless he had any doubts peter reached out and took him by the right hand and lifted him up and he had faith evidently in that name and immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength these legs and limbs that had been crippled came to life and he felt his coordination and he stood up and he not only was able to stand and walk after he took a few steps everything came back to him at once so it says he leaping up stood and walked you ever seen somebody get out of a hospital bed and leap no they got to take real careful steps or they're going to go down this is a dramatic healing he leaping up he stood and he walked see he couldn't enter the temple before because they had a rule that cripples were not allowed to enter the temple i know you and i think that that's pretty that's pretty awful it was mostly the levites and you'll read you'll read about this for instance in leviticus 21 17 speak to aaron and say no man of your descendants and succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer bread to his god a man blind or lame who has a marred face or limb too long a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand now it used to be just that but you may remember when david was taking the city of jerusalem from the jebusites the jebusites were mocking david and saying um the lame and the crippled in our city could repel your army and there was a law made he said from that time on the lame and the crippled were not allowed into the precincts of the sanctuary and something happened some custom developed but god didn't have a rule that christians that are crippled or handicapped should stay out of church it started with the levites who are supposed to represent jesus who is perfect the lamb the passover lamb needed to be a lamb without blemish anyway here they had them on the outside at the gates you know the parable of the rich man and lazarus right where did lazarus the beggar where was he laying at the gates and so they are separated from god they're on the outside you and i are crippled like mephibosheth right we all limp but jesus heals us so we can walk in his steps and so this is the wonderful one of the wonderful points in this story but everybody there are very few crippled people left in jerusalem because so many had been healed by jesus at this point everyone knew this man who was sitting at the gate so he goes and he's walking and leaping and people see him and they think that can't be the same guy and he said that's him verse 10 they knew that it was he who sat at the alms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder in amazement at what had happened to him that's an amazing fact and all the people saw him walking and praising god what kind of walk should we have we need a walk where we're praising god too amen now peter and john said we don't have silver and gold but what we do have will share with you and so they share jesus with him how long was peter's sermon to this crippled man in the name of jesus of nazareth stand up and walk pretty short how many of us are afraid sometimes to share because we say we don't have enough whether it's the gospel or resources we say we don't have enough don't ever think you don't have enough when the boy came to jesus with his five loaves and two fish what did jesus do he took the little he had when the woman came to elisha with her little vessel of oil what did god do he multiplied it when you see people in need now how many need the gospel don't think i am i'm not qualified i don't know enough i can't give a bible study share what you do have can god speak through a donkey then what is your excuse do any of us have an excuse for not doing something god you know there's a statement in the spirit of prophecy and this is a paraphrase i don't even know the reference but she basically says you're better off trying and doing something wrong than doing nothing very well you're better off trying to share the gospel and muddling through it than doing nothing perfectly because so often we're afraid we'll do it wrong instead we do nothing right so they said we may not have silver and gold but we will share what we do have we've got something more important than that now to that man after his legs were healed did he say man you cheapskates he didn't give me any silver and gold or was he happy but this caused quite a ruckus and they knew it was that man they were filled with amazement i'm in verse 11. now as the lame man who was healed held on to peter and john he wasn't going to let them go all these are the two witnesses like the word of god he wasn't going to let go all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called word began to spread have you seen this have you heard it here he is come look great crowds of people are coming peter saw it what does an apostle do when he sees a crowd when paul saw a crowd and they wanted to kill him what did he want he told the soldier he said let me preach to him peter sees a crowd he responds to the people men of israel why do you marvel at this or why do you look intently on us as though we by our own power and goodness we made this man walk now some evangelists today if they had performed that miracle they would have taken up an offering to get a new jet but he said don't give us credit we didn't do it he said it wasn't through our power or goodness that's one of the signs of a prophet of god is humility the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant jesus who you delivered up and denied in the presence of pilate when he was determined to let him go remember some of the mouth said some of the mobs said crucify him and give us barabbas but you denied the holy one in the just and you asked for a murderer to be granted you and you killed the prince of life who god raised from the dead of which we are witnesses and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong who you see and know now has jesus name changed has faith in his name changed can god still do miracles through faith in his name yes the faith that comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all yet now brethren i know that you did it in ignorance he's now trying to soften the conviction a little bit as did also your rulers but those things which god foretold by the mouth of his prophets that christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled remember all the prophets foretold this then he says what he says in acts chapter 2 repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out what were the first words that john the baptist spoke repent when jesus began preaching what was the first thing he said repent for the kingdom of same thing as john and now what is peter saying repent what is repentance a sorrow for sin and he said be converted turned around a reformation that your sins may be blotted out so the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord and he may send jesus christ who has preached to you before he says christ is going to return boy this is a great salvation adventist sermon all in one whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things jesus is there waiting for the restoration of all things he's going to restore his people to his image which god had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began anyway so he then goes he preaches there's a great revival and now we're going to go on to the next section you can see oh by the way someone was going to read to me psalm 100 verse 4. you got go ahead katrina if they're ready for you i want you to go ahead and read that enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name after that lame man was healed how did he enter the temple with thanksgiving and praise why do we enter god's house with thanksgiving and praise does god heal our walk yeah we're we're all like those cripples and he he heals us and says be thankful to him and bless his name so we should come together we'll worship god to thank him you know in acts chapter 1 the holy spirit is promised in acts chapter 2 the holy spirit is poured out and now we just see in acts chapter 3 the holy spirit is practiced you see the miracles are beginning to happen all right now in acts chapter 4 there is a rise of opposition because when god begins to work the devil doesn't stand still the bible says all that live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution all right let's go to acts four verse one i'll read verse one through four now as they spoke to the people in the temple the priests and the captain of the temple and the sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and they preached it in jesus the resurrection of the dead now why are the sadducees especially especially upset about this how are the sadducees different from pharisees sadducees don't believe in a resurrection now the high priest caiaphas was he a pharisee or a sadducee he's a sadducee and that's why they were sad you see and the pharisees were legalistic and they weren't very fair you see i know corny but it helps you remember anyway and so they came they came upon them and they're especially upset because they are in the temple preaching the very thing they don't believe that's like if you were to go to a kingdom hall jehovah witness church and you stand up and you start preaching about the benefit of blood transfusions that wouldn't be well received you know what i'm saying and so peter's right there not only saying that the high priest killed jesus but that he rose from the dead so it's like a double whammy for them and so they are uh to say greatly disturbed is not an overstatement that they taught the people and they preached the resurrection from the dead you know what's really sad here you get the religious leaders greatly disturbed that spirit-filled people are preaching the truth in the church could that still happen happened before they were god's people it happened back then and so they laid hands on them and they put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening too late to call an assembly that didn't stop them with jesus though did they call the special evening meeting for christ however many of those who heard the word and believed and the number of the men came to about 5 000 and so there are a lot and you later read many of the priests believed as well so they get them together the next day and they set them in the midst i'm in verse seven and they ask by what power or what name have you done this who in the name of who what authority peter filled with the holy spirit pulled out his notes did peter have any notes did jesus say you don't need to worry about what to say the holy spirit will tell you what to say in that hour but peter filled with the holy spirit he said to them the rulers of the people and the elders of israel if this day we are judged for the good deed done to the helpless man and by what means he's been made whole so first peter says are you did you arrest us because we healed a man you arrest us because we helped a crippled man walk and we did a good thing and so you put us in jail he said this is this why we're here just want to make it clear and he started feeling well sorry yeah we arrested you for healing without a license let it be known to you all and to all the people in israel that by the name of jesus christ of nazareth who you crucified he's telling caiphus and the high priest and the saiyan nation who god raised from the dead oh that hurts them by him this man stands here before you whole he's right here in your presence now argue with the facts all of jerusalem knows he was at the gate begging that he's been miraculously healed it was done in the middle of the day in the ninth hour and then he goes on and says this is the stone which was rejected by you builders which has become the chief cornerstone the job the priests are supposed to help build up the temple of god and they rejected the cornerstone the foundation stone for the temple and he goes on to say nor is there salvation in any other this is a famous verse for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved i remember hearing a story about a man who had been raised a christian and he lived in new york city and he got involved he went to school and studied business and started you know as young people often do they go to college they become preoccupied with their career and their new friends and he drifted from the church he became a successful businessman but he just knew his life was empty he knew he could die any time and he was lost and what profit is that if you gain everything and you lose your soul so while he's thinking about these things he's walking home from work one day and on a busy intersection there was a blind man standing on a soapbox box he was a street preacher and he was reading from a braille bible so this blind street preacher is standing on a soapbox and he's reading from a braille bible and he's reading this verse that says neither is there any other name under heaven and he lost his place on his braille bible and so he's feeling he's feeling around the bible to see if he could refine the place but he didn't want to lose his crowd so he said there is no other name there is no other name there is no other name under heaven whereby you must be saved and because he said it several times the man was waiting for the light to change he heard the preacher and he couldn't get it out of his mind there is no other name there's no other name there's no other name he went home and opened up his bible started reading was converted came back to the lord he told that story how that verse just hearing that and that he went back to thank the blind street preacher he never saw him again because but so sometimes we think oh nobody's listening nothing's happening you don't know the power of your words all right now you can read your verse now when they saw the boldness of peter and john and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men they marveled and they realized that they had been with jesus you know you think about the audacity peter before when a girl asked him aren't you one of jesus followers he denied jesus three times and these were servants that were asking him and he was scared and he denied jesus but after he repented for his denial and god gave him another chance he said okay now are you going to get scared here you are in front of the supreme court the highest ruling body all of the most prestigious people in the land of israel in all their pomp and splendor and peter's there and he now is fearless he has spirit filled and he has boldness he has courage he has audacity and he points to them he said you did it and what did they say when they saw the boldness of peter whose boldness did it remind them of they saw his eloquence and the power of his words they said wow he's a fisherman by his dress but we can tell by the way he's acting he's been with jesus how many of you would like to be accused of that that you spend time every day with jesus and you start acting like jesus that's what happened and so as a result of that they said what do we do they said we can see indeed a notable miracle has been done through them it's evident to all who are in jerusalem we can't deny it but we don't want it to spread anymore so let's just severely threaten them that from now on they speak no more to any man in this name they wouldn't even say jesus name don't speak about this name anymore because it bothered their conscience they'd crucified him so they called them back in they said do not speak nor teach in the name of jesus but peter and john answered and said to them whether it's right in the sight of god to listen to you more than god you judge he said for we cannot speak but the things that we have seen and heard they're not going to hide their experience so when they further threatened them they said didn't you hear us well you gotta let them go finding no way of punishing them because the people since they all glorified god for what had been done for the man was over 40 years old over on who this miracle of healing had been performed being let go they went to their own companions and reported that all the chief priests and elders had said to them when they heard this they raised their voice to god with one accord and said lord you are god who made heaven and earth and see in all that is in it by the mouth of your servant why did the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing now they're quoting they know their bibles are quoting back from psalm 2 and i want you to notice go to verse 29 now lord look on their threats and grant your servants that with all boldness we might speak your word so did they stop going to the temple no it says the holy spirit was poured out and you look in verse 31 and they were filled with the holy spirit and they spoke the word of god with boldness and they continued to go to the temple and teach him to preach all right and then we get into a so you see opposition began to increase now you go to a little sad story but it's a warning ananias and sapphira go to chapter 5. but a certain man named ananias with sapphira his wife sold a possession and he kept back part of the proceeds his wife also being privy or aware of it and they brought a certain part and leave it at the apostles feet now you notice that it says in the prior verse go to verse 34 chapter 4 acts chapter 4 verse 34 nor was there among them anyone who lacked for all who were possessors of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet and they distributed to everyone as any had need they were liquidating they were investing not only in taking care of the poor in their group but in subsidizing the spreading of the gospel will we see that spirit again in the last days how many of you are hoping that you'll be willing to do something like that when the time comes how are you going to know when the time comes maybe the time has come do you know that there will be a day when our money will be worthless and we are going to wish that uh oh lord we're going to cast our money to the rats and the bats and the moles and think it's too late now my money's worthless now someone said what's the best day to repent and the rabbi said the last day of your life he said but what if i don't know what the last day is he said exactly all right back to our story so what ananias and sapphires do is they said let's sell a piece of property and let's donate but let's not donate at all but we'll say we're donating it all now if they had gone to the apostles and say we sold it we're giving 50 we're keeping 50 percent they would have said fine but what they did is they made pretend we are putting it all on the altar but they said let's not put it all on let's keep something back so it's hypocritical is exactly what it is they're pretending to make a complete sacrifice when it is not complete that was what was especially offensive to god is they're trying to feign themselves to be more spiritual spirit had been poured out there was an authenticity in the church there was some sincerity there was an honestness now the first ugly head of hypocrisy begins to raise itself in the spirit-filled church god had to deal with it in a very dramatic way so that's what's happening so they come and they lay it at the disciples feet and peter says the holy spirit told peter what was going on ananias why has satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself while it remained was it not your own we didn't tell you to do it and after it was sold was it not in your own control you didn't have to claim to give 100 just give half whatever you want why have you conceived this thing in your heart you've not lied to men but to god now who did he say he lied to the holy spirit and then he said you lied to god is the holy spirit god god the spirit yes then ananias hearing these words fell down and breathed his last he dropped dead so great fear came upon all those who heard these things does god sometimes allow a severe judgment that others may fear doesn't peter i'm sorry doesn't paul tell timothy to rebuke people who are sinning openly that others may fear i think there's a good time for people to be disciplined that others may fear right what happens in a society where you protect the criminals and you prosecute the victims criminals are emboldened they become fearless but if you want the criminals to be afraid you've got to punish them isn't that right cultures don't do well when all the rights go to the criminals and the victims have no rights all right and so ananias hearing these things he drops dead the young man wrapped him up took him out and buried him now about three hours later when his wife came not knowing he had not texted her because they hadn't invented that yet she didn't know what had happened and peter she comes and she's kind of looking around wondering where ananias is and peter answered her and said tell me whether you sold the land for so much and she perpetuates the lie it says yeah that's what we sold it for peter said to her how is it that you've agreed together to test the spirit of the lord look the feet of those who have buried your husband are outside the door they will now carry you out and immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last and the young men came in and found her dead now if you were those young deacons would you ever forget that would you ever lie about your tithe and offerings after that do we are we honest do we blow the trumpet like the pharisees when we make an offering i want everybody to know or do we not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing she died and they took her out and buried her so great fear came upon the church after these things now how many would agree that was a severe judgment is there a time when god needs to be severe does god have a high state when god's spirit is moving in a dramatic way and god's people see the evidence of god's power right in front of them to sin in the face of the power of god is especially more wicked why did god strike with fire from heaven the sons of um aaron they'd have to buy you they right there could see the fire of god they could see the the power of god on the mountain they were in the presence of god they were being fed with manna that fell from heaven every day the quail would come in they just saw the evidence of god's power and in spite of that god said do not drink when you come to the temple of the lord and only use holy fire they got drunk and they took fire from their campfire instead of the fire from the altar and god said they are not respecting sacred things so god needed to do something severe to make an example and it is now you know been an example for history so sometimes god is especially serious at times like that all right last section here i've just got a few minutes it tells us that there's a second arrest so you go to acts chapter 5 verse 12. and it tells us that um again persecution began verse 17 then the high priest rose up and those who were with him because they continued to preach from the sect of the sadducees and they were filled with indignation and they laid hands on the apostles and they put them in the common prison but at night the angel of the lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and the angel said run for the hills is that what he said he said go back to the temple and speak to the people hadn't they just been arrested for preaching in the temple and they went back to the temple then they're arrested again and he said don't be intimidated go and speak to the people the words of this life so the angel got them out of prison now can you understand why herod had 16 soldiers guarding peter that's acts chapter 12 because the apostles had already broken out of prison and so he said look these guys are slippery so he put him in an innermost cell and get 16 soldiers he's not going anywhere and handcuff him see if he can get out of that he houdini couldn't do that and so they send they they all get together early in the morning they said okay let's have an early case i said go bring him from the jail let's talk to him and they um the officer came they didn't find them in the prison they returned and they reported saying indeed we found the prison shut securely in the guard standing outside before the door but when we opened we found no one inside when the high priest and the captain of the temple the chief priests heard these things they wondered what the outcome would be so one came and it said look the men who you put into prison they're standing in the temple oh no me oh my not again and they're teaching the people they just keep going back and the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence these guys just broke out of jail for they feared the people lest they should be stoned and when they brought them in they set them before the council and the high priest asked him saying did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name and look you fill jerusalem with your doctrine and you intend to bring this man's blood on us no that's not actually true when jesus was being crucified pilate washed his hands and said i don't want the blood of this innocent man and the people cried let his blood be upon us and our children isn't that right so it wasn't the apostles doing it the leaders had said that themselves you intend to bring this man's blood on us and peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey god rather than men the god of our fathers raised up jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree him as god exalted to his right hand to be a prince and a savior to give repentance to israel and forgiveness of sins and we are witnesses of these things and so is the holy spirit whom god has given to those that speak in tongues god has given to those that obey him so who does he give the holy spirit to you it's a power he doesn't give to those that aren't going to surrender when they heard these things they were furious and they plotted to kill them then one of the council a pharisee named gamaliel a teacher of the law held in respect he had actually taught paul when he was a young man and all the people some of gamaliel's writings survived to this day he commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while he said let's excuse him for just a moment and watch them keep them outside but and he said men of israel take heed to yourself and what you intend to do regarding these men and gamaliel was old enough to know these men had been doing miracles god could be behind this they better be very careful but he was enough of a politician no he shouldn't anger the sadducees because they had power gamaliel was a pharisee he said keep in mind there was a man named thaddeus i'm in verse 36 of acts 5. he rose up once claiming to be somebody a number of about 400 joined him he was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered it came to nothing after this man was judas of galilee in the days of the census that's back when jesus was born remember the augustus had attacks that was a census he drew away many people after him he also perished and all who followed him were dispersed and now i say to you keep away from these men let them alone for if this plan is the work of men it'll come to nothing but if it's of god you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against god now you can kind of tell gamaliel is thinking this could be the work of god he saw the spirit shining he had spent years studying the word he knew some of the prophecies peter was talking about i wonder sometimes that gamalia will be in the kingdom and they agreed with him and when they called the apostles in spite of gamaliel's advice they said let's at least beat them they beat them and they commanded them they should speak no more in the name of jesus and they let them go so they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for jesus name and here you have it again daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching didn't they stop going to the temple daily in the temple did they obey the command to stop preaching they just went right on back their wounds weren't even healed what did jesus say we should do if we're persecuted for righteousness great is your reward in heaven rejoice and be exceedingly god glad and if you want an example in the bible of someone who rejoiced in persecution here's a time when the apostles rejoiced call paul and silas and jail rejoiced that they were persecuted for christ's sake how many of you would like to pray you could be persecuted no we don't we don't look forward to that but that was the spirit-filled church amen all right i want to just tell our friends we're out of time for and we did get through the lesson we're giving away this book life in the spirit it will encourage you and you just call the number on your screen actually text sh047 at four 40544 you'll get offer number one five five we'll say you can download this for free then at that location god bless you we'll study his word together again next week can't get enough amazing facts bible study you don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth-filled programming visit the amazing facts media library at aftv.org at aftv.org you can enjoy video and audio presentations as well as printed material all free of charge 24 hours a day seven days a week right from your computer or mobile device visit aftv.org [Music] let's face it it's not always easy to understand everything you read in the bible with over seven hundred thousand words contained in sixty six books the bible can generate a lot of questions to get biblical straightforward answers call into bible answers live a live nationwide call-in radio program where you can talk to pastor doug batchelor and ask him your most difficult bible questions for times and stations in your area or to listen to answers online visit bal.amazingfacts.org [Music] you

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Published: Fri Apr 16 2021