Luke/Acts for Beginners, this is
lesson number 16, Persecution of Peter and the Apostles. I'm going to be
covering Acts 5:1 to 42. As we do each time, let's take a look at our outline as
we follow the first section of Acts dealing primarily with the ministry of
Peter the Apostle. So far Peter's first sermon, Acts one to Acts two. Peter's post
Pentecost ministry, Acts three to four. And the persecution of Peter and the Apostles
that we're going to be looking at today. Now in our last lesson we left off where
the church in Jerusalem was rejoicing, experiencing spiritual power at the
release of Peter and John by the Jewish leaders. And this joy would soon turn to
concern as a new wave of persecution would be experienced again by Peter and,
this time, and the Apostles together. So let's - I want to go back here and
read about the situation in the church where we left
off last week. So it says here, "Now Joseph, "a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also
called Barnabas by the Apostles, which "translated means son of encouragement,
and who owned a tract of land, sold it "and brought the money and laid it at the
Apostles' feet." So we go back here and we read about the joy and spiritual
momentum of the church experienced as a result of Peter, his bold
witness before, and subsequent release by the Jewish leaders. So the church is
really pumped. Now part of this enthusiasm affected the giving by the
members of the church, as they gave generously and willingly to care for
the needs of the young and the growing church. Can you imagine if in one day
this congregation added 3,000 members? I mean, where would you put them
all? Three thousand members, that means some of them are sick. Some of them are aged. Some
of them have needs. So they were scrambling to take care of needs, and
different individuals in the church were stepping up to meet the needs of
the church. And they mentioned here Barnabas as one of those individuals
that sold a piece of land and brought the proceeds to the Apostles for the use
of the church at that time. So into this spirit of generosity Luke inserts
an unusual episode of fraud perpetrated by a husband and wife who were also
members of this very same assembly. So we jump into chapter five now and read the
following, it says, "But a man named "Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a
piece of property and kept back some of "the price for himself with his wife's
full knowledge and bringing a portion of "it, he laid it at the Apostles' feet. But
Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled "your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and
to keep back some of the price of the "land? While it remained unsold, did
not remain your own? And after it was "sold, was it not under your control? Why
is it that you have conceived this deed "in your heart? You have not lied to men,
but to God.' And as he heard these words "Ananias fell down and breathed his last.
And great fear came over all who heard "it. The young men got up and covered him
up and after carrying him out they "buried him." So I want you to note a
couple of things about this action and why it was so serious. First of all, they
were pretending to duplicate the giving done by Barnabas. In other words, sell a
piece of land and give all the proceeds of the sale to the church. Secondly, Luke
mentions that both the man and his wife together plotted the fraud in advance.
They planned to sell the land, keep a portion for themselves, and then give the
balance to the church pretending that they were turning over all the proceeds
to the church. Now the sin was not the fact that they kept some of the money
for themselves. Peter said that the land and the money,
it was rightly theirs. It was in their control. They could choose to give
whatever they wanted to give. No, the sin was creating the lie concerning
their giving. They pretended to give all of the proceeds, but
in fact kept some of it back for themselves.
Now, the gravity of the sin was not based on them keeping the money, but as Peter
states, believing they could lie to the Holy Spirit and think they would get
away with this kind of fraud. So their failing was not greed,
their failing was faith. Their faith in Christ was so weak, it was so faded, that
they could come up with a scheme like this in order to be praised as generous
by other Christians. So Ananias dies instantly, goes to judgment without a
chance to repent, chance to grow. Note the effect on the church is no longer
enthusiasm or spiritual power, but fear. Fear for what has just happened before
them and possibly fear as they search their own hearts and actions for signs
of greed and insincerity. Isn't that what happens? Again, I keep coming back to
this idea, it's so human. Something happens to somebody in the church or
whatever and we think of ourselves. Wow, I wonder if that was me? And it gives rise to a lot of soul-searching. So let's keep reading, verse seven says, "Now there elapsed an interval of "about three hours and his wife came in
not knowing what had happened, and Peter "responded to her, 'Tell me whether you
sold the land for such-and-such a price?' "she said, 'Yes, that was the price.' Then
Peter said to her, 'Why is it that you "have agreed together to put the Spirit
of the Lord to the test? Behold the feet "of those who have buried your husband
are at the door and they will carry you "out as well.' And immediately she fell at
his feet and breathed her last and the "young men came in and found her dead and
they carried her out and buried her "beside her husband. And great fear came
over the whole church and over all who "heard these things." So note that Peter
gives Sapphira a chance to confess the wrong, to repent, to receive forgiveness,
but she doubles down on the lie and experiences the same fate
as her husband. Note also that Peter confronts her with her sins:
to conspire, to defraud the church, to lie to the Holy Spirit. This time Luke says
that fear not only came on those who heard of this incident, but also the
entire church and everybody who heard about this. So this is the first time in
the book of Acts that this term church, by the way, is used. First time, from the
Greek word meaning the called out. Actually, the word in the Greek
originally referred to city leaders who were called out, who were selected to serve as the leaders of the city council, if you wish, but eventually the
word was used exclusively to refer to the body of believers in Christ. So
after describing this particular episode, Luke provides a kind of a wider view of
the situation in Jerusalem as the church was experiencing dramatic growth, largely
due to the dynamic ministry of Peter and the Apostles. So in verse 12, 13 we keep
reading, "At the hands of the Apostles "many signs and wonders were taking place
among the people and they were all with "one accord in Solomon's portico, but none
of the rest dared to associate with them. "however the people held them in high
esteem." So Luke describes the location where the church met - Solomon's porch.
Here's an artist's rendition of that. This was an open promenade in the temple
complex which could accommodate thousands of people. He notes the unity
of the young church, as well as its favor with the people. Even though they were
afraid to join them on account of the Jewish leaders, they still respected
these people. So we keep reading, verse 14, "And all the more believers in
the Lord, multitudes of men and women "were constantly added to their number to
such an extent that they even carried "the sick out into the streets and laid
them on cots and pallets so that when "Peter came by at least this shadow might
fall on any "of them. Also, the people from the cities
in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming "together bringing people who were sick
or afflicted with unclean spirits and "they were all being healed." So here we
see the, kind of, the widening influence of the Apostles' ministry, as more and
more people came to Christ and their healing ministry opened the door of
opportunity for reaching people with the gospel who live beyond the city
of Jerusalem. So the miracles always followed by the preaching, always
followed by the conversions. The miracles weren't simply a show, it wasn't just the
show of power. The miracles were there to set up the opportunity to preach and to
receive people into Christ. So all of this fulfilling Jesus' promise that
they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, which was now happening,
and Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth. And of course, when we start
reading about Paul's ministry, we read about to the remotest parts of the earth,
because Paul is the one that brings the gospel out into the Roman Empire and
beyond. So we read about the next persecution that comes up in Chapter
five, skip ahead to verse 17, it says, "But "the high priest rose up along with all
his associates, that is the sect of the "Sadducees, and they were filled with
jealousy. They laid hands on the Apostles "and put them in public jail, in a public
jail, but during the night an angel of "the Lord opened the gates of the prison,
and taking them out he said, 'Go, stand and "speak to the people in the temple the
whole message of this life.' Upon hearing "this they entered into the temple about
daybreak and began to teach. Now when the "high priest and his associates came, they
called the council together, "even all the Senate of the sons of
Israel and sent orders to the prison "house for them to be brought, but the
officers who came did not find them in "the prison and they returned and
reported back saying, 'We found the prison "house locked quite securely and the
guards standing at the doors, but when we had opened up we found no one inside.'
Now when the captain of the temple guard "and the chief priest heard these words
they were greatly perplexed about them "as to what would come of this.
But someone came and reported to them, "The men whom you put in prison are
standing in the temple and teaching the "people." So they had been arrested before
in Acts chapter four, and warned not to preach about Christ. As more and more
people were converted and met in the temple area, the leaders were not only
jealous, but fearful that this movement would threaten their own stability. Wait
a minute, these guys are having more supporters than us. So when the leaders
say, so after this first address they were released by the Jewish leaders
with a warning, but this time they are miraculously
released by an angel and told to continue with their preaching in the
temple area. Last time they only arrested a couple Apostles, this time they arrest
all of them. So when the leaders send for them, the
guards not only report that they're gone, but that the apostles had returned to
the temple to preach. How's that for defiance? So we look at the third
arrest. That's three times now. We're going to see a third arrest. Verse 26, it
says, "Then the captain went along with "the officers and proceeded to bring them
back without violence for they were "afraid of the people, that they might be
stoned. When they had brought them they "stood them before the council and the
high priest questioned them saying, 'We "gave you strict orders not to continue
teaching in this name and yet you have "filled Jerusalem with your teaching and
intend to bring this Man's blood upon us.' "But Peter and the Apostles answered, 'We
must obey God rather than men. The God of "our Fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had
put to death by hanging Him on a cross. "He is the One whom God exalted to His
right hand as a prince and a saviour to "grant 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 who "obey Him." So there's Peter's defense. They
arrest them once again, with care this time, fearing the people. And they bring
them before the Jewish leaders to be questioned one more time. Now at their first address, the leaders wanted to know by
what authority do you do these things? In other words, preach Christ, heal. What authority do you have? And back at that time Peter answered the
first time, he says, well, we're doing it by Jesus' authority. You remember
this Jesus that you guys crucified? And may I remind you that God raised from
the dead. And the conclusion is, He is the Messiah, according to prophecy. And then,
Peter quotes the Old Testament scripture, "The stone rejected by the
builders has become the cornerstone." That's a messianic prophecy. And then he
finishes. This is his first defense. He finishes with, "and He is the only savior
of all men. Only name under heaven by which we can be saved." Acts 4:12, right?
This time their tone is different, it's almost self
defensive. I mean, the leaders, the Jewish leaders, they're saying, why do you
continue doing this preaching? Do you want to have us bear the
guilt for Jesus' death? It's no longer, who do you think you are? Who gave you
this authority? Do you know who we are? We're in charge. Not you. That
was the first time. This time it's no longer like that. It's like, hey, you're
going to get us into trouble. They were being disingenuous since they knew
exactly what they had done in order to force Pilate into executing Jesus. They
don't even - do you notice, they don't even mention His name.
You're going to bring the guilt of this man's blood, not Jesus'
blood. They don't even give, they don't even respect by giving Him His name. They
just call Him 'the man', Jesus, which is a way of saying to us readers, they still
didn't believe. He was just a man. Imagine, in the face of all of this -
miracles that are undeniable at the hands of these ordinary fishermen. Still,
they refused to believe. So Peter's answer repeats some of the points that
he made to them the last time that they questioned him. This
time he says that this teaching and healing power is from God. He says it
was the leaders who put Jesus to death. This sin is theirs. They're saying, hey
you're going to bring the guilt of this man's blood on our head. And Peter says,
yeah, that's right, because that's where it belongs. You were the guys that did it.
And then he says, God, however, raised Jesus up. And at this point Peter adds
more points to his response. He says, Jesus is now in heaven occupying a place
of authority and power at the right hand of God.
Ironically, if they are guilty, Jesus is the only one that they as Jews can
appeal to for forgiveness, the one that they killed. Do you see the tight spot
that these leaders are in? Peter is saying to them, you killed the Messiah. Oh,
and by the way, the only way you can be forgiven, it's through Him. You talk about
nowhere to go. So the teaching and the miracles they
see, according to Peter, are a result of the Holy Spirit who empowers them and
who indwells all who believe and obey the gospel. He's even giving them a
chance to respond to the gospel. He's no longer defending himself, he's becoming
aggressive and appealing to them. So we see in this short excerpt of Peter's
boldness and insight, we see it grow. He refused to stop preaching and he even,
he continues to accuse them of killing Jesus their Messiah. He proclaims Jesus
as the only savior of both Jews and Gentiles. He reveals the Lord's position
in heaven and he claims that He is the source of their power to preach and to
heal. So Peter, he's not groveling here, he's not fearful here before them. He
causes jealousy and anger, but also he forces them to stop and think over what
they are going to do. And so now the scene shifts, but
it's like a scene in a movie or in a play. The camera's on Peter
In his defense, in his eloquent and powerful defense. Now the camera moves
back to the leaders. What are they going to do? What happened? So in Luke
chapter five, beginning in verse 33 it says, "But when they heard this they were cut
to the quick and intended to kill them." When he said, this is the Jesus
you killed and He's the Messiah, and He's at the right hand of God. "When
they heard this they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them. But a
Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up
in the council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time. And he
said to them, 'Men of Israel, take care of "what you propose to do with these men.
For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men
joined up with him. But he was killed and "all who followed him were dispersed and
came to nothing. After this man, Judas of "Galilee rose up in the days of the
census and drew away some people after "him. He too perished and all those who
followed him were scattered. So in the "present case I say to you, stay away from
these men and let them alone for if this "plan of action is of men it will be
overthrown, but if it is of God you will "not be able to overthrow them or else
you may even be found fighting against God." So Gamaliel was an expert in the law
and if you remember correctly, he was a teacher who was a member of the
Sanhedrin. And who else did he teach? Well, he taught Saul. He was Saul's teacher,
now Paul. So his intervention saved their lives because Peter's reply had enraged
the leaders. Peter must have known that the content and the boldness of his
response would probably get them killed, but he spoke anyways. What's interesting
here is that God chose and used one of the men that opposed the Apostles to
actually save them, Gamaliel. And in my own mind I was thinking, you never
know how God is going to rescue you, and who He's going to use to help you.
Sometimes the last person in the world that you think is going to help you
or rescue you or come to your aid, that person is there. And
in this case the last person they thought that would save them was one of
the people on the council. So Gamaliel's advice is, wait
and see, don't do anything rash, is accepted by the leaders. The Bible
mentions him, as I said, as Paul's teacher before he was converted, before Paul was
converted, Saul was converted, in Acts 22:3, but there's no other
reference to him after that. Interesting again that Luke is always mentioning people and places and things where you can fix the history. Like Gamaliel, we
know that this is a real person. He's not only, quote, in the Bible, but he's
mentioned also in historical literature about that period of time in
Jewish history. So Luke is always trying to make sure that he puts these
pegs on which you can hang the story, historical and geographical pegs. So
that's one of them, he mentions the name. He could have just said one of
the council members, but he names him. He names the one that did this. The
Bible mentions him, as I said already, mentions him as Paul's teacher. Now
according to Photius, a ninth century church leader, Gamaliel was, or Gamaliel,
rather, was eventually baptized, along with his two sons, by Peter and John and
died in 52 AD. A little postscript about this man here who stood and defended the
Apostles. All right, so now we see the punishment coming in chapter five, verse
40, it says, "They took his advice and "after calling the Apostles in, they
flogged them and ordered them not to "speak in the name of Jesus and then
release them. So they went on their way "from the presence of the council
rejoicing that they had been considered "worthy to suffer shame for His name. And
every day in the temple and from house "to house they kept right on teaching and
preaching Jesus as the Christ." So the leaders follow Gamaliel's counsel to prudence,
but in a repeated effort to frighten and discourage the Apostles, they warned them
to stop their preaching and they highlight this warning by torturing them.
Flogging or flaying was 39 strikes on the back and on the sides with rods. And
you read about this in Matthew 10, also Second Corinthians. So it's amazing how Luke, just kind of skips over this. He gives it 4/5 verses,
they warned them, they flogged them, they threw him out, they flogged them. If
anyone of us had been flogged believe me we'd be at the emergency room after and
we'd be laid up and we'd be off of work. And we'd be along. It was a
terrible, terrible torture. People died from that type of torture. But note that
all the Apostles endured the beating, not just Peter or John, all of them, all of
them endured the beating. And the reaction was the complete opposite of
what the Jewish leaders expected. They expected them to respond with fear,
discouragement, please don't hurt me anymore, right? Even doubting their own
cause and mission. But Luke writes that they rejoiced, because this event proved
several things. Number one, it proved that they were sincerely faithful. Taking this
beating and receiving these threats without losing faith proved the quality
and the strength of their own faith. How many times have we - how many times in our
lives after having gone through a serious illness of our own or someone in
our family, a death of someone we love, a tragedy of some kind, a child is injured
and maimed for life, divorce, the death of a spouse, we go through stuff, we lose
our job, our business goes belly-up, and we don't know from one day to
the next how we're going to make it. And we somehow make it through and
we look back on that time, and how many times have I heard people say this:
I do not know how we got through that. I can't tell you how how we made it
through that time. How did we do that? How did we not just go under and totally be
destroyed? Or, I don't know how it is I didn't quit. I just never quit on God. I
never quit believing, but boy I just don't know how I made it through. This is
exactly what's going on here. They've been threatened by the most powerful
people that they knew in their world, beaten to within an inch of their lives,
and yet they made it through. They continued believing. They just couldn't
beat the faith out of them. And isn't that what happens in our own lives
sometimes? The world and Satan just cannot scare or beat or destroy or chase
the faith out of us. It's almost like you're saying to him, well you can just
keep on hitting, you can just keep beating me, if you wish, but I'm sorry, you'll
never be able to beat the faith out of me. So you might as well kill me. And this
is the feeling that they have. Something we can relate to. It also
proved the sureness of Jesus' word and promise. What did He say, Jesus, way back
in Matthew, "Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be
shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, but beware of the men, for they will hand
you over." Where? "To the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues." Meaning, you're
going to be beaten by your own brethren, the Jews. And you will even be brought
before governors and Kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the
Gentiles but when they hand you over do not worry about how or what you are to
say. For it will be given to you in that hour what you are to say for it is not
you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Don't you
think those words came back to them after they walked out, after the
episode with the Jewish leaders? The bad thing that He said would happen
did take place, but so did the promise to know what to say when the critical
moment arrived. They say that - I have read reports, studies on military
people. All kinds of - those military people who were actually in
battle, saw a battle. And they said, military people would rather be
killed than be cowards. They would rather be killed than be a coward, be known as
being a coward. And I think this is the same thing here. These men would rather
have died than have failed in their mission for Christ. And so, they were
quite strengthened when they realized, you know what, we were in the fire, we
faced death, we didn't quit, we kept going. And it's the same thing with us. It may
not be the the Council of Jews that we're facing, it may be cancer is what we're
facing or maybe we're facing something that is so unfair, so unjust, something we
so do not deserve in our lives and somehow God gives us, not the eloquence
of the words, but He gives us the faith. He gives us the strength or the courage,
not to overcome the disease. Sometimes the disease takes us out. No. He gives us
the strength to remain faithful whether we live or whether we die. Whether we win
or we lose, we stay faithful. Another thing that this episode demonstrated to
them, it demonstrated the weakness of the opposition. Peter
had now spoken before the Jewish leaders twice, and both times they had no
response, no counter-argument to his preaching of the gospel. These supposed
teachers, wise men, leaders of Israel had no answer to the accusations and
proclamations of a humble fisherman from Galilee, untrained.
And God considered them worthy or faithful enough to suffer for the name
of Christ. He considered their faith strong enough that He allowed them to
suffer knowing that their faith would not break. When it says, God won't
give us more than we can handle. That's not a physical thing. No. He won't give us
more than we can handle without losing our faith. That's the breaking point. The
breaking point is not where you start to cry - okay, I can't take it anymore. That's not
the breaking point. The breaking point is, I don't believe in God anymore. That's
the breaking point. And God promises, I won't allow the evil one to put
something on you that'll break your faith. They didn't invite rejection and
violence, but when it happened because of their faith, they were fully assured that
they were following Jesus' lead, who also suffered for doing God's will. Since
the beating was administered in the presence of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish
leaders, the joyful reaction of the Apostles must have been disquieting to
these men looking on. What do we have to do to these guys to get him to quit? We nearly beat them to death and they're rejoicing. So Luke ends this section by
noting a new element in the development of the early church, and that is
house-to-house teaching and preaching. This is probably - this was probably done
for two reasons: first, the congregation was becoming way
too large to minister to by coming together in a single place. They had
thousands of people. Eventually, believe it or not, there's a
point where a church gets just too big to minister to. These twenty
thousand member churches I mean they're they're corporations. And usually the way
that these huge churches manage is they break it down into smaller -
you've got, really, small churches all integrated into one. So this
was their problem. It was just getting unwieldy. And secondly, to avoid the
mounting opposition of the Jewish leaders who controlled the temple area
where the church met. I mean imagine, going into St.
Peter's Cathedral in Rome and starting to have Bible studies there. And
you start having Bible studies. And we start going down to the river
and baptizing people and then bringing them back to St. Peter's Basilica. I'm
not, I'm not disrespecting St. Peter's Basilica, but imagine if something like
that happened. Eventually the priest or the bishop in charge of that area would
say, who are you people? What are you doing here? Well, this is kind of
what is happening in the temple area. They're starting to become disruptive.
They're too big. All right, a couple of lessons from this particular passage
here. Lesson number one, God knows. I know that you all know that, but
God knows. Peter knew about the deception of Ananias and Sapphira because it was
revealed to him. How? By God's Spirit. It's amazing how believers who should
know better think that they can hide their sins or motivations from God. In
the end it is not our spouses or friends or even ourselves that will judge us, it
is the all-knowing God who will judge us. What does it say? "But I tell you that
every careless word that people speak, "they shall give an accounting for it in
the day of judgment." That is a very scary thing. So God knows. He knows everything,
for good or for evil. Remember, for good. He knows everything for good, but He also
knows everything for evil. Lesson number two, there is always a cost. Luke writes
that many were becoming Christians, but the majority of the people, even though
they respected them, would not join them. I mean, it's nice
that they respected them, but respect does not save you or forgive your sins.
Faith and obedience, that's what forgives you. That's what
saves you. So even though these people respected the sincerity and the
spirituality and the loving kindness of the disciples, they would not pay the
price. And what was the price? Well, faith and possible rejection by their family
or friends, Jewish family or friends. And so, they were left to observe and to
admire something they would never have, and that is a spirit-filled and eternal
life. So there's always a cost. You remember when you - I might add something
to this, and I don't have it as a slide. There's always a cost for
doing God's will, but there's always a reward as well. There's always a reward.
And the reward always outweighs the cost. You need to keep that in mind. And then
maybe one of the lessons here, God is stronger. We need to remember in times of
trouble and sorrow that God is stronger than what opposes us. We may not be
stronger than what is hurting us, but God is. I mean, Luke describes the battle
lines in the book of Acts. There are the battle lines: the Jewish leadership, the
Sadducees, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the rabbis, the elite, the rich,
the educated, the powerful - politically. That's on one side. Tradition, the Roman
Empire was providing the muscle, if you wish, to back up the things that they
wanted to do, and the pagan world was there. That was on one side of the
equation. The other side was 12 apostles and a young church. So with the blessing
of hindsight we know that each of these were eventually overtaken to make way
for Jesus' word and His church. The Jewish leadership,
well, the nation was destroyed in 70 AD. By who? By the Romans. And
eventually, the Roman Empire itself, a couple of centuries later, crumbled. And
yet, the church still continued to grow and the pagan world, well, it's still
there today, but Christianity is still there today as well.
God is always stronger. John says, "You are from God, little children, and have
overcome them; because greater is He who is in you then he who is in the world,"
First John chapter four, verse four. So let's keep this in mind when we're discouraged. The
Spirit of God that dwells in you is greater than the spirit of the one who
rules this world. This may not always be evident, but the final proof of it will
be when He strikes the final victorious blow by raising us from the dead and
thus destroying the evil one and all that opposes us once and forever more.
And do we not look forward to that? Amen. Alright, let me give you the assignment,
next week, chapter six, verse one to chapter seven, verse 60. Please read up on that. As I mention each week, I don't read the whole text, we just
don't have time to read all the text in class, but I would appreciate it if you
would read the text so you know what I'm talking about. Alright, thank you very much.
That's our lesson for today.
