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.