Acts, 4:1-37

and that was for Acts chapter 4, verses 1-37. And there were three questions. And we'll kind of go through them and just open up and share with me what you found and if you have questions, ask questions. So this is the question for number one. In verses 19 and 20, Peter and John indicate that being quiet about Jesus is a matter of deciding which authority was higher, God or the Jewish leadership.

In Romans 13, 1-7, Paul tells us that believers ought to be subject to the governing authorities. And Peter himself writes, later in 1 Peter 2, "...submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right."

And so remember what had happened in Acts 4 and chapter 3. Peter and John had been arrested. The next morning the Sanhedrin brought them out and they told them to not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus anymore. And Peter said, you know, you decide for yourselves. you know, who we should listen to. So the question is, in view of these verses in Romans 13 and in 1 Peter 2, is there ever a time when a believer must disregard the government's directives and commands? What did you guys find? One at a time. Okay. Alright.

When would we know to disobey or not listen to the laws of, let's say, the United States of America or any other country or city that we lived in? How would we know when it was time to to disobey the government or to obey what God's told us in Scripture. How would we know that? Yeah, that's right. When the law or the command given by the civil authority is in contradiction with God's revealed will in Scripture, then we would know.

There may be consequences from the civil government, We need to obey God rather than man. And next week, we'll look at something Peter said in chapter 5, and he said, they get thrown in jail again, all the apostles. And they're told the same thing, and they tell the leaders a second time, we must obey God rather than man. So, that is the bottom line. So, on the same question, So yeah, the answer is, we are to be subject to civil authorities at all times, accepting an order from them that contradicts God's revealed will in Scripture.

But in this instance in chapter 4, specifically, how was the Sanhedrin requiring Peter and John to contradict God's Word? Did you guys find that? Yeah, they told them to stop teaching, or preaching in the name of Jesus. Okay, now, a further question. What part of Scripture does that come in conflict with? Why is that a problem? Can you think of any passages where the apostles were told to teach and speak in the name of Jesus?

Okay, that's, yeah, Matthew 28. 18 to 20, sometimes referred to as the Great Commission, Jesus tells them to go into all the world, I forget exactly how it goes, preach to God, baptize, teach, yeah. Okay, that's one, and there's another that I can think of, there might be more. Where God is saying it, or what the government is saying it? No. Another example of where somewhere in God's Word the disciples are told to go teach and preach about the Gospel. What about in Acts chapter 1, right before Jesus ascends to go be with the Father, He tells them, you know, wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes on you. But He tells them, you'll be my witnesses. throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.

So that's another spot. So yeah, the disciples knew that it was their job, it was their desire to go preach the gospel. And they were doing that. So a command from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish authorities, to be quiet. I wasn't going to keep them quiet, because they knew that it was God's will, there might be consequences, but they were going to continue to teach. Do you guys have any other thoughts about that one? Yeah, that's good.

And there are quite a few other Old Testament examples of where prophets made comments, you know, like, we can't keep quiet about this, we need to tell other people. And Paul said similar things then in the Church Age. He said he was compelled to speak. He also prayed and asked for prayer that he would speak boldly.

That's right. Yeah, that's right. And isn't it, in this chapter 4, After Peter and John are released, told to be quiet, and they're released, they pray together with the other believers, and one of the things they pray for is that they would be given boldness, I think, to keep on teaching. Alright, well, let's look at the second question.

In Acts 4.22, Dr. Luke records, for the man who was more than 40 years old, on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. For the man was more than 40 years old." And this is, of course, the lame man that Peter and John told to get up and walk. This is what started the whole problem with the Sanhedrin. So the question is, why would this be an important piece of information, that he was 40 years old, in understanding the account of what took place in Acts chapters 3 and 4?

What did you come up with? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. Yeah, I think that's the point. This wasn't a case of indigestion. It wasn't a trick. The lame man at the gate knew that he was lame, and everybody else knew it. It's not like some of the fellas you might watch on TV. They heal you of a hearing problem you didn't know you had or whatever.

This was a genuine bona fide miracle. And I think that's why Luke records that. So what did the miracle prove or validate? And this is a little review, I think, from last week. What was the purpose of the miracle? And what did the miracle validate? It validated the authority of the Apostles to be priests and also to be faithful to God. Let's look at two verses real quick.

1 Corinthians 12.12. And this is review. And go ahead and stick your finger in Hebrews 2, chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. We'll look at these real quick. But Tom is right.

The apostles performed signs and miracles. And if you didn't perform signs, miracles, and wonders, then you were not an apostle. So that was one reason. for the miracle, and the other was that it validated the Apostle's message. So, if the Apostle was telling you words from God that maybe were new, or because the New Testament wasn't completed yet, but he could back it up with a miracle, then you could conclude that he had some authority, that he was the real thing, and he was really speaking for God.

But in 1 Corinthians 12.12, it mentions... That's not right. Is that right? 1212? I think it's, sorry, I think it's 2 Corinthians 1212. Yeah, I'm sorry. One book over. 2 Corinthians 1212. This, of course, is Paul.

And he says to the Corinthians, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. So, he mentions the signs of a true apostle. And there are qualifications for an apostle in the New Testament. And then over in Hebrews chapter 2, it says something similar. Verses 3 and 4, How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will." So this is the writer of this book referring back to the beginning of the Church Age and talking about the message of the Lord was confirmed to us by the signs, wonders, and miracles. Yeah, so I think that's all I had on that. Did you guys have any other thing to add to that question? Okay, number three. And this ties into the chapter we're going to look at today. We're going to study the first half of chapter five today.

In Acts 4, verses 32-35, we read of the believers selling whatever assets they had and sharing the proceeds among the believers via the apostles. And they did the same thing, this is recorded also, right after Pentecost in Acts 2, verse 44, the same thing occurred. So the question is, and there are several questions, was this a good thing to have happen? Is it simply a description of what took place, or is it a mandate for what should absolutely be taking place in the Church today? Why or why not? Remember, we've been talking about this as we've been studying this book.

There are things in Acts that occur, and because they occur, it doesn't mean they're necessarily a prerequisite or required for us today. But then there are things in Acts that that we continue to do today, just like they did at the beginning of the Church. And we decided that it was the epistles, the other biblical books, that actually teach doctrine, and it's those other epistles that show us what should be continued today in the Church. So the epistles help us interpret what we see in Acts. But looking here in Chapter 4, So the believers were selling whatever assets they had, and then sharing the proceeds among the believers.

So, what did you guys find? Is it a description of what took place, or is it something we should continue to do today? Well, there were special circumstances at that time, because I read this book. It could be that some of the Christians had quit working and said, okay, you know, the Lord's going to come back and we're just, we're just waiting. And you seem to, what's that? Okay. And I think the 2nd Thessalonians was written for that very purpose. I believe it was 2nd Thessalonians or 1st Thessalonians was written for that very purpose.

The believers had quit working and they were just waiting for the end to come. And Paul says, no, no, no, guys, go get a job. If you don't work, you don't eat, that kind of thing. Okay. So you're saying that there were special circumstances in that first century that that made this necessary. What else did you guys find? Yeah, they did have a unity in Christ that they hadn't experienced before in Judaism, strictly. Okay. What did you have, Dave? Okay, that's a good point.

Is this communism? An example of Marxism? Communism? Alright, and that's why this isn't communism. There's a fellow named Dr. Wilmington and he says this is communism, not communism. He says communism, which is what we see here, is what's mine is thine. That's his lingo. But communism is what's thine is mine. So there is a bit of a difference there.

Yeah, these believers were selling their property, their possessions, because they wanted to. And, of course, the motivation was the Holy Spirit in them. They weren't being required to do this by an external law. The apostles weren't telling them to go sell their possessions. They wanted to do it. Because there was a need. There was apparently some specific need around Jerusalem.

And also, here's another point. The goods that were being sold, the proceeds that came from the goods being sold, weren't distributed equally among all the believers. And that's also another kind of facet of communism. Everybody gets the same little chunk.

It says that they were given to those who had need, or as there was need. So, the believers that had possessions, who wanted to sell, of their own desire, they would then give it to the Apostles, and the Apostles would give it to the believers who were in need. Another key that comes out in the Greek verb for selling, the selling is in the imperfect tense, which implies a past action that's not completed, And it can either imply a continuous past action that's going on in the past continuously, or it can refer to a past action that's kind of start and stop. And so it seems to indicate that not everybody sold everything, but they would sell their possessions as there was a need, and it would meet that specific need. Okay, you guys have anything else to add there? So you don't have to go out and sell your house today. You could.

Yeah, it seems to be something that was, for that time, for the beginning of the church, it's what they were doing, and actually later, When Paul writes to the Corinthians and then even to Timothy and then to the Thessalonians, he instructs them to work and they're to take care of widows, but only the widows that are faithful and responsible, that kind of thing. So, there seems to be some different instruction later on in the Church. Okay, if you don't have anything else, we'll jump into Chapter 5 then. If we did that today, I think we would have a lot of people coming to church that are on the streets today.

Yeah. I mean, instead of just, you know, this is a free ride. Yeah. We're going to share everything we have. Yeah. Good point, Brooke. One of the other things that comes up, too, is that this is early on. By chapter 6, they say, hey, we need some vegans, or some kind of, I mean, a little culture of ministration. Yeah, good point.

Because some widows were being neglected, so there were kind of problems. Later on, Paul writes to Timothy and says, here's how the care of the widows can be taken care of and carried out. So later on it becomes apparent there's a need for better control and administration of this kind. And it's not necessarily that everything was going south on this, but it just became apparent as the church went on that some additional things were needed, not just self-interest.

And in parts of it, Darian pointed out that if we don't do this right, you're going to end up having abuse. Yeah, yeah, good point. And then in chapter 5, we see the first abuse, or not, the first problem here. So let's go ahead, I'm going to go ahead and read verses 1-16. And of course chapter 4 ends with Barnabas. Our first look at Barnabas.

It says he was Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth from the island of Cyprus. He was called Cyprus by the Apostles. So he owned a tract of land and sold it, brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet. And then verse 1 of chapter 5 says, but, so here's our problem, 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. Just like Barnabas did.

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 it 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 of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. 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? And 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."

So this is quite a day for these boys. And great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things. Verses 12-16 At the hand of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico, the colonnade on the east side of the Temple Mount. But none of the rest dared to associate with them, however. However, the people held them in high esteem, and all the more believers in the Lord.

Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that even the sick I'm sorry, 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 a shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick, were afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed." So this is the portion we're going to study the rest of this morning. and then there'll be questions for you to take home and study yourself and bring back next week.

Okay, so looking at your notes there, we see that Ananias and his wife Sapphira were both involved in and knowledgeable of the selling of their land. So maybe Ananias spearheaded it, but Sapphira was aware of what had happened. and was aware of the price that he had sold the land for. Then they presented proceeds from the sale of that land to the Apostles, as the others had been doing. Barnabas, and then back in Chapter 2, right after the Church had first begun after the Feast of Pentecost, we see the same thing.

So what was the problem? However, while they gave what amount they were free to give, They lied, saying it was the entire amount of the sale of the land. So they could have given any portion of the proceeds to the church. But they lied. So they kept back some of it and gave it to the apostles and said, this is the entire price, this is the entire amount we receive from the land. And they lied.

By the way, there's also notice in there that The Holy Spirit is proved to be God, in case anybody was doubting. In verse 3, Peter says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And then, the next verse, verse 4 says, at the end, you have not lied to men, but to God. So there's proven the Holy Spirit is God.

So Ananias was first confronted by Peter with his misdeed, then Sapphira. Each in turn died. Immediately upon being confronted with their misdeed, they died and was carried away to be buried. And the expression there, breathed his last, that's the same expression in chapter 12 when Herod dies, when he gets eaten by worms and dies.

Okay, the rest of the passage conveys the signs and wonders performed by the Apostles, verses 12 through 16. The number being added to the believers, as well as the awe and fear of those who knew the facts, but did not yet believe. Okay, so here's some background information for you that will be helpful as you study. Ananias is Hebrew for God is merciful, or God is gracious. Sapphira is Hebrew for beautiful or pleasant, and these were both common names in the New Testament era. There's at least one ossuary box that has Sapphira inscribed on it, and then there are other early documents that have Ananias, maybe Sapphira too. Other than what we have here in Acts, we don't know anything of them personally in history. And they don't show up in Scripture again, other than this chapter. Of course, they're with the Lord, so why would they?

Okay, the general expression of laying something at the feet of another was to place it under the management or care of another. Barnabas took the proceeds from the land that he'd owned and he laid it at the Apostles' feet. He gave it to them to do with whatever they thought was necessary. Ananias and Sapphira did the same thing. And there's some scriptures that you can look up. Matthew 15 gives us the account where friends and relatives would bring sick folk and lay them at the feet of Jesus.

And also in Acts, Chapter 7, when Stephen is stoned, the people that are stoning Stephen lay their coats down at the feet of Saul. Indicating that Saul was in charge or in a place of authority in that event of Stephen stoning. If you guys have your notes, turn back a couple weeks There's a chart, and I believe it's in, yeah, chapter 2. There's a chart that, on the lower half of your page, and what it does is it compares the giving of the law in the Old Testament with the giving of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, so the beginning of the dispensation of law and the beginning of the dispensation of grace in the Old and New Testaments is in chapter 2. You'll want to take a look at that this week as well.

In Acts chapter 5, it says that Ananias and Sapphira kept back some of the proceeds from their sale. And this Greek word, nasphizo, is found also in the Old Testament version, the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, of where Achan keeps back some of the artifacts, some of the spoil from Jericho.

So after the children of Israel marched around Jericho and God, through them, conquers Jericho. They were told to take all the valuable pieces of gold and silver and give it to the priests for the temple. But Achan took some and buried it in his tent. And that's the same Greek word in the Septuagint. And do you remember what happened to Achan? Right after that, the Children of Israel went out to fight another band of Canaanites, and they lost. And so God told them, the reason you lost is because there's sin in the camp. And so we talked about the Romans casting lots a couple weeks back. Well, the Jews would cast lots too.

I don't know if it was dice or some form of drawing straws or something. But they lined up everybody, and by tribe, they first drew lots for the tribe, they picked the tribe, then they drew lots for the family, then they drew lots for the head of the family, and they narrowed it down to Achan, and then they went out and stoned him and burned everything. But it's interesting, there are some parallels between what happened to Achan and what happens then to Ananias and Sapphira. Achan was at the beginning of the dispensation of the law and Ananias and Sapphira at the beginning of the church. So there are some similarities there. Quite a few people have noticed that. But take a look at it. The scriptures are given here.

The Achan account shows up in Joshua chapter 7 and Jericho is in chapter 6. So take a look at that. Now, aside from Acts 5, here with Ananias and Sapphira, there are other New Testament references to Christians persisting in their fleshly habits to the point of their lives being taken by God. And then there are verses given there, 1 Corinthians 3, 5 and 11, Hebrews 10, 1 John 5. So, take a look at those. We'll talk more about those next week.

Okay, so now we read that the boys came in and they took Ananias out and buried him, and then a few hours later, three hours later was it, Sapphira drops dead. The same boys presumably take her out and bury her. So here's some information about burial in the first century. Because of the warm climate and the lack of technology to preserve a dead body, The dead were most often buried the same day. So it wouldn't have been unusual for them...

Okay, he's dead. Bury him. And of course Peter and the church knew that God's involved here anyway, so he's dead. It's because he lied. Let's bury him. So the dead were buried the same day. And there's an Old Testament reference in Deuteronomy 21. You can take a look at that. The same pattern was demonstrated in the burial of Christ. Remember, the same day he was crucified, he was buried.

Joseph of Arimathea found an empty tomb, a tomb that no one had been buried in. So they had tombs prepared for the dead. So they planned ahead of time. And when someone would die, they put them in the tomb. Burial places and materials for burial were always kept ready and available.

And then in Acts 5.11, we have the first mention of the word church. And that's the word Ekklesia. The general meaning of the word Ekklesia is assembly. And it carries that meaning in some other places in Acts. So it's used of the church, the body of believers, all the believers who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ. we are the church. But also it's used generally of an assembly.

And there's a reference there for Acts 19, you can take a look at this. It's used several times in that chapter. And that's in Ephesus, when Paul's visiting Ephesus. And the town folk get all... they get in an uproar because Paul's disrupting their idol business. And so it says that the whole assembly rushed into the theater. and for hours they chanted, you know, Great is Artemis, Great is Artemis, or something. Take a look at that.

There's one other thing I had, and that is, at the end of the chapter it mentions that the people would, that the multitudes would bring their sick and they'd lay them in hopes that just, in hopes that even a peter's shadow would touch them and they'd get healed. The Bible certainly doesn't teach that there's any value or any substance to a person's shadow, but the ancient Greeks and even the Jews did apparently believe that a person's shadow had some significance. The Bible doesn't teach that, but the multitudes of men and women in the first century apparently did believe that. One example is that Cicero, said that if a criminal's shadow touched you, harm would then come to you. And then in the Jewish Mishnah, it says that you would become unclean if a shadow from a corpse would happen to fall on you. So that's not biblical teaching, but it is something that the people believe in their culture. We'll take a look at the questions, but Verna, do you have anything to add about that? Alright, we'll go ahead and just preview the questions for next week on the next page. Here are the questions that you guys can study out for next week.

The first is, were Ananias and Sapphira truly Christians? Why or why not? So, they lied to God and they dropped dead. Does God do that to Christians today? Were they Christians? You guys can wrestle with that. Secondly, is the taking of the lives of Ananias and Sapphira too harsh a penalty for what they did? They still gave you the Church, right? What was the big deal? Why did God take them? Secondly, did Peter decide to take their lives, exercising apostolic authority? These are the keys of the kingdom he was using. Or were their lives taken entirely by God's sovereign decision? Take a look at the text and see what it says.

Also, does the same thing happen now, whenever a believer is hypocritical and deceptive? Alright, so that's question 2. And question 3, should such a response of fear as is described in this passage characterize the church and those outside the church now? And remember, I think it was in verse 11, it says that great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things. So that's what we're talking about. So should that response of fear characterize the Church today and the unbelievers who are not part of the Church today? Why or why not?

Anything else you want to study? Go for it. There are all kinds of other things you can dig into in this chapter. If you have time, if you are able to get those questions answered, You can start digging into the next half of chapter five. That's what we'll look at next week. All right, let's pray. Dear Father, thanks for letting us study together and fellowship together. And we do thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit who teaches us. And please do reveal more of your truth to us and the person of your Son to us. In Jesus' name, Amen.