The Book of Acts 5:1-16 - Ananias & Sapphira, Apostles miracles

So we're going to do this in a series of sections, three sections today. And this is a lot of a lot of material here. And I think we need to rethink just a little bit how we're handling this book. But the first six verses. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. By the way, this is a challenging section of scripture. It kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of this, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet.

But Peter said, 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 has remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.

Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who had heard about these things. And a young man arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. How you doing everybody? Notice how the term but puts this in contrast to really the behavior of armless, which in fact we read about last week and you can turn back to X for 36 and 37. Just take a peek at that again.

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 and sold it and brought the money and later let the apostles feed it. All right, so this is in contrast to Barnabas, right? So this is kind of a different type of behavior that is being portrayed by Ananias.

Who were Ananias and Sapphira? What do we know about these people? Have they been mentioned about this guy and gal before? The answer is no. There is no information about them. Interestingly enough, Ananias' Jewish name is Yahweh is Gracious. Sounds interesting. Sapphira's name is beautiful in Hebrew. So, you know, the names often don't fit. But then we'd know they're Jewish, right? We do know they're Jewish. Those are their Jewish names. All right, so no additional information is provided about Ananias and Sapphira.

But this Ananias is to be distinguished from, there are two other Ananiases in scripture. We're going to look at one in Acts 9 and another one in Acts 22. So this is a different Ananias, kind of like James. How many Jameses are there in scripture? So we got to make sure we distinguish one from the other. Now, the possession was land. So in verse one, we don't really know what the possession was. But then in verse three, we're told it's property.

And he kept back part of the proceeds. And kept back, in the Greek, really, is a term that really relates to actually keeping back for self-serving or selfish purposes. I mean, it's interpreted that this just went, oh, I forgot. just wanted to keep some. I mean, this is kind of deceitful behavior is what the Greek term implies. So you got to kind of put that into context. Now, this is very similar to Achen's sin, the Septuagint.

If you turn to Joshua 7.1, which I don't want you to do, Achen also deceived the people. He paid the penalty of death. So this isn't unique to Ananias in the New Testament. There are a couple of other Old Testament examples that I didn't bring forth to share with you today, but this wasn't the first time God had caused death to an individual who in fact ultimately carried out deceit in his walk with the Lord. And a designated portion, again, applies that this was predetermined and acts for 36 and 37. We just read. But look at Titus 2, 9 and 10. Let's turn to that. And here's another example of predetermined intent.

Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not prolonging, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Okay, so your version didn't quite read like mine, but anyway, there's a term there, I think the first verb of the second verse, that relates to... Proloining? Yes, that's the same term in the Greek.

I was just curious how they knew. How did Peter know that they sold their land for that much money and gave that much? We're not told. Presumably this was something that Ananias and or Sapphira volunteered to someone. If I were to ask, the scripture doesn't tell us exactly how he learned of this behavior. Maybe the Holy Spirit revealed it to him.

There are lots of miraculous things going on here, right? In fact, we're going to come back to that in a second in terms of the responsibility Peter had really as kind of the leader of the new body, all these new believers. Last week you reviewed all the kind of miraculous events that Peter was part of. And Sapphire knew about this whole thing. I mean, the scripture is clear that this was a team effort. And I kind of make a conclusion, this is oneness. Oneness is marriage. Oneness in the Lord?

Well, probably not in terms of the consequences of all of this. And it says here, you have not lied to men but to God. Really? What do you make of that? You've not lied to men but to God. Isn't that like, you know, we talk about the fact that we do things under the Lord, so our actions are not, and they are for men in a sense, but really God is the ultimate judge of our actions, right, in terms of the believer, and then these are believers, so I kind of take it in that context. Yeah, well that's good, but was he not, to some extent, deceiving his fellow? Oh, absolutely, I think so, as well. But you're saying that the the ultimate consequences of this are his sin against God. And that's true of all of us isn't it?

We can harm our fellow man by deception or lying or self-serving behaviors but it's ultimately the sin against the Lord that's most consequential except in Christ's bowels these people are believers. Well, it's probably even more consequential simply because instead of them having to go through the whole revealed scripture and rethink Exodus and the whole bit, the Holy Spirit gave them a shortcut. And they now know better and here they are more responsible for their actions than they would be otherwise if they had gone through the schooling system. I mean this part of the text doesn't really get to this, but in fact since we're founded in Pauline teaching, this is old man behavior isn't it?

I mean it's essentially that. We're going to come to this in a second. Why this kind of deception? was so tentatively dealt with by the Lord. It does seem very harsh. Yeah, because there wouldn't be like any of us around. If God used the same criteria right now. It's good to see everybody this week. I'll be here next week.

So the question comes up then, why was Ananias' sin so incriminating? Well, by the way, Sapphire was part of this too, right? This is a joint deal. Well, we're going to look at each one of these verses, because I think they're telling to each one of us in terms of the truth of this behavior.

Controlled by Satan versus the Spirit, 1 Peter 5.8. We need your help, Margaret. We're going to be looking at a series of scriptures. So whoever has that, please read. Whoever gets there first, reads it. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Alright, so here's an example played out by Ananas and Sapphira that Satan is in fact gaining interest and capabilities in this situation versus the Holy Spirit. How about deception?

Psalm 38.12 is a nice verse for deception. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. Alright. Hypocrisy, clearly behavior reflected by Ananias and Spock. 1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2. Do you have these assigned to people? I don't. Some people want to just look ahead. It's on your handout.

Now the Spirit speak expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devil. of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Wow. Okay, so wine could be reflected by that verse, but John 8.44 is another nice one in terms of the power of Satan in terms of deceit and lying.

Somebody have John 8.44? You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. How about praise of men, John 12, 43. For they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.

In a nutshell. All right. Finally, I wrote this one out. Material lust, 1 Timothy 6.10, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have sprayed from their faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many arrows. So all of these things I've listed. I may have forgotten a few, but anyway, these are all exemplifications. Satan, the flesh, the world system all impacting on the behavior of this couple at the time.

Thus, at the time, this was a sin unto death. And we'll not look at these other verses, but there are three other areas in the New Testament where there is a sin unto death for believers. So we may think this is uniquely Ananias and Sapphira, but in fact, it's not.

1 John 5, 16, 1 Corinthians 11, 29, 30, James 5, 19, and 20 talk about some falling asleep. One is this deceitfulness of communion. And if you in fact take the Lord's table and take it wrongly, in fact, one consequence of that was becoming asleep, meaning losing out. Now that's not falling asleep at the communion service. It's losing your viability.

And so I guess the question comes up, why? Why was this a sin on the death? You almost wonder, because of the previous example by Barnabas, That was well known in a relatively small community. And it was well known. And here's some people that apparently thought they would get in on the praises or whatever. And so they concocted a scheme, righteously. And it's almost Old Testament like. God dealt with it, boom. It's very reflective of the Old Testament. Sin is dealt with immediately and very severely. So if you will this is a lesson to the body.

Other thoughts? Why Tom? This might have been a time critical instance when everybody needed to be together on the same page and these people fell so alarmingly short at that key moment of truth that God made an example of. We're going to come back to that point. and we're going to kind of look at that a little differently than we did last week.

I wouldn't hear it, but I think it would be a little bit different. Okay, so Constable, I'm quoting him, says, if God acted today as he did in the early Jerusalem church, undertakers would have much more work to do. Would there be any undertakers? I said, would there be any undertakers? I think in context we have to reflect on the fact that the early church was a very unique and special period. And Peter is carrying out miracles just like the Lord Jesus Christ was.

At the end of the lesson we are going to come back to that aspect in terms of we have to put this into context in the age of miracles. And equally so, I mean God was in their face. this kind of deceitful hypocritical behavior wasn't going to be tolerated in the new church. now what you can't help but do in terms of your human intellect is say what about others behavior? wasn't it falling short in some way at some time? does the sin nature ever change in any of us? the sin nature never changes. in fact I You know, I think that as we grow in grace, the sin nature becomes more ugly all the time in terms of what it really is. It doesn't seem like we're so much more aware of it as we grow in Christ. It's just so much more apparent, things we may have overlooked. We say, oh man, I'm doing this again. What am I doing? Isn't it the same behavior time and time again, Tom? It was kind of like a...

Here we have just a very short list of things that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of them, who are new believers, and I get the strongest feeling that in Innocence of Pyrrha might have had just an unusual amount of prompting from the Holy Spirit saying, look, you know what's right, follow through. Don't do that, follow through, too late. Think of yourselves.

Doesn't this punishment seem ultra-socialistic? In other words, kind of depriving the community of goods. In other words, everybody else is giving everything. They are giving up everything they had for a community spirit. You dealt with this some last week. I guess the question is, the critic of the word of God would say, look at the way the new church behaves. And how might we translate that behavior into what we do today. So why aren't we all selling our homes and living in some kind of tent like atmosphere where we have just the bare minimums. everything like that. There are people who have done that. Selling anything not required, it was voluntary. That's actually kind of key. If you make it law, if you say this is the law of the new church, you're on the communal gathering, we're all going to share our stuff. If you make that law, grace has gone out the window.

Voluntary is huge here. I think that's really important to point out. It seems like a lot of the communal things have not worked out very well. Living in communes and sharing. One thing it creates is an atmosphere of self-righteousness. This group here is better than you folks out there who are not sharing. We've given up more of what we own to be part of the commune.

I mean many people criticize the church because of this aspect of it. Other thoughts? Alright good. A great fear came upon on all those who had heard. Here take my clothes and everything else. It just doesn't seem like how God works. It's like give everything then because you're afraid you're holding back on something. Take it off. I got this head there.

I think you would be fearful. quickly and burial occurred immediately and that is the Jewish tradition. Think about that a little bit. The Jews today bury their dead ones quickly within 24 hours often and at that time even now the Middle East, summer time, how hot it is, bodies would decay very quickly. Part of the Jewish tradition, maybe within, I don't know about this, the law, does the Mosaic law say anything about it's buried within 24 hours? There's probably something in there. It's within three days. is what it is. They have to be in the ground in three days, within three days.

O.M. Ives got taken care of pretty quickly here. He got wrapped up and buried just like that, right? And the same, by the way, with Fowler v. Fyre. So she's going to get taken care of pretty quickly too. No decaying going on here. Let's get these people out of our midst. Alright, let's go to the second section, verses 7-11. Now it was about three hours later, when his wife came in. What's going on here? Knowing what had happened, apparently not knowing.

And Peter answered her and said, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yes, for so much. And then Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door. Wow. And they will carry you out. Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. Nice that they were buried together. And so great fear came upon all the church and upon all who had heard these things. Alright, so Peter simply revisited the inquiry that he placed Ananias.

Testing the spirit of the Lord. And let's be clear here. Many versions say tempting the spirit of the Lord. The best interpretation here is test. When you think about Christ in the wilderness, do you think about him being tempted? Yes, but not double dog dared. Yeah, I like to interpret that as, although people argue about this, but I like testing to prove the Lord Jesus Christ for who he really was.

Could Christ have sinned? No. If you believe he, by the way, I had a teacher at South Sheridan Baptist who believed he could have sinned, that he could have fallen short, and he was truly tempted as we were tempted in the human nature. Yeah, there are people out there that... He had to have been born sinless to do what he did, and that's what he did.

And so then the interpretation is best being tested. And I like tested because it means you're proving the reality and validity of who you are. And that's what happens to us. See the sin nature for each and every one of us can be tested. And if we can fall into that temptation and then we sin. But the new man in Christ Jesus is just tested to prove who he really is. And that's a neat way to think about the identification truths. In Christ we're tested. the old man or sinful nature, the old man's been crucified, but the sinful nature is really tempted.

So I think, yeah, Holly? What if, because I've heard that, you know, sometimes people die when God has kind of fulfilled their purpose. Like, what if this was like, instead of being like, okay, you sin and now I'm killing you, if it's like, you sinned And now you fulfilled your purpose and I'm not going to be using you anymore? I kind of like that in a way, although the scripture doesn't really tell it that way.

It seems like it's a punitive action against their sin. But yet, you know, the Lord, you've got to believe he doesn't allow any of us to leave until our work is done, right? And so that perspective is an interesting one. their work had been done. I like what Tom said before, that there was an example to the body. At this particular point in time. What about today, Margaret? Are we having similar examples today? We have the example right here. I think that's the point. We have the example here. The guy doesn't need to repeat it.

Even though he very well could. It seems to be such a small small sin in terms of the consequences. But wasn't the sin of them keeping the money back, this is my question that I asked last week, or was it in fact the that it was the deceit. It was the lie. I listed all those things that they all meet the circumstances that occurred. As opposed to if they had come in and said, I sold it for this much, but I've kept back this much because we're going to put in a new crop, whatever they're going to do. It wasn't the deceit. It wasn't the fact that they kept the money back. It was the fact that they said, oh, this is all the money. It kind of makes you think they were trying to be a Barnabas there. We're going to be just like Barnabas. We're going to give it all. Yeah, we're going to get all the pats on the back like he did.

Could there have been some disbelief too on their part that now they're being filled with the Holy Spirit? This is something new, the church. They are endowed with the Spirit. Some people question why they're believers, but I don't think there's any question. It's totally new to them.

And it's an example to say, hey, this is a serious thing. You don't play games with the Holy Spirit? Yeah, well, yeah, I might say that. I'm just throwing that out because in Old Testament times they didn't have the Holy Spirit, other than coming upon them for special occasions. But let me carry that one step further, Warren, is that the church was in fear after this. Was that fear How would that fear be implemented in their own response to the event in terms of their own lives going forward?

I'm told that in Christ and God there's no fear. Right, that's why it seems so odd. So the fear tends to appeal to the old nature, doesn't it? The sinful nature? So maybe that was the nature that was responding fearfully. Or you could argue that this is a Jewish community and they have signs and miracles and testing miracles. And this is just, they need something kind of almost in your face. Although these are Gentiles too, right? Not yet, not yet. Right now it's only Jews. Is it all Jewish? They are right now.

We're going to come into that in a second. the third section we're going to deal with other people. We're going to question who are these other people. We're always saying send me a sign here. I think in context that fits. We've got all these miracles occurring to the glory of God and now we've got this behavior and the Lord is saying look what happens to this type of behavior as an example.

It just reminds me of like if you didn't look at the sake I'm I'm I'm I'm really weak on where this is the service to oldness. And it's a very similar thing. If you didn't look at that, you would die. Samuel was something else with Moses. You know, they had my faith. They had to look at that. They did not. They would die. So it's very much Jewish and Old Testament. OK. It says.

I want to show you a miraculous thing. I've healed a layman and now I'm going to show you that this is the almighty God and he can take your life. I think this is an excellent point because at this time we're dealing with Jews only. A new church is only Jewish people at this point. They're now believers. They're part of the new church. But these are Jews only.

Whereas I think at the end of this text we're going to see that others are also made aware of this. Can I throw in another one? Death as a consequence, you know, it's like as a believer, death isn't anything to fear either. That's absolutely true. It's another good thought, Holly.

But do you think Ananias and Sapphira experienced that uplifting? I mean the thing is they didn't have a lot of time to think about this. I mean the Lord took their breath away. Right, and maybe that makes it a better consequence because they're not sitting around like suffering or anything. So it's kind of like God used them as an example but didn't make them suffer either by living. It's very possible that Ananias and Sapphira did have some areas of improvement thanks to the Holy Spirit working their lives and this would have spoiled it all for other people not necessarily them at that very point in the beginning but they would probably have some rewards slight though they would be it's just that this one thing would have undone a whole lot of what the Holy Spirit had done. I'm hearing a lot of reading between the lines which is all okay I think we have to speculate God didn't give us a brain for no good reason. I mean, we read this and there's nothing but questions.

But yet the word of God is still valid, isn't it? We have to accept it for what it's worth. And their carnality persisted. And what I've done here is list a series of verses where believers are carnal. And some under death, and some not under death. And I could suggest that the carnal church is amongst us today, and people are not being taken out.

Because God's not done with them. right for his purpose he was done with them at that point. Paul addresses this in many many verses were not going to take time to look at this but they are there for you to take a look at and again great fear came upon all now it says all the church So maybe after Sapphire was out of there, even more people were informed. They hadn't been informed initially.

Now Peter was placed by the Lord in the position of spirit led authority. Versus that of Satan's power exemplified in the works of Ananias and Sapphire. So in a sense, this is if you will, the battleground between the flesh and the spirit we all carry through today. And Peter remember had unique skill sets. Some of the other apostles did too. This was the apostolic age, where in fact miracles were occurring. Here is an example of Satan-led behavior.

Peter really is calling out this type of behavior because God has given him a position of adjudication. Peter is put in a very special position. to oversee this behavior, to make it a lesson? Well, not Peter, because it's not like Peter killed him. He didn't heal him either. But it does say, you know, Peter's authority. Right, the authority to call him out. Yeah, the authority. So in a way, it was. Even though Peter wasn't responsible for their deaths, It was by his authority because he was running the show.

He's God's representative. That's an important thing to really consider here. Peter is the vessel of the Lord in this circumstance. As you pointed out, he was already doing miracles just like Jesus had been doing. So obviously he had the authority to do other things too. And isn't it interesting, I'm not sure how much we've dealt with this here, but the responsibilities the Lord gave Peter.

It's back about the pre-cross period. It's interesting how the person that denied him three times is the one he used in this way. But one other episode that preceded all that was, depart from me Lord for I am sinful. I mean, that was the ultimate self-condemnation. So in a sense, he was waking up.

All right, the last section, that is verses 12 through 16. Now, this is the second part of the title. Hands and Eyes of Sapphira and Apostles' Miracles. So now we're shifting gears. All right, and through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people.

And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, for the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the war, multitudes of both men and women. So they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and coaches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by, notice that, the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. And also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

This is incredible. I mean, these five verses just is like a platform of spirit-led behavior. that is incredibly demonstrable of God's power. It's said in contrast that there he was in his first time around with Jesus betting zero and here he is by the power of the Holy Spirit doing a thousand but not getting into a pride thing. Getting the cycle day in and day out, that's by baseball. Notice now how the apostle signs and wonders continue and among the people in general and what accorded Solomon's porch. What Solomon's porch?

Yeah, it's that we had a picture. Actually, I had a picture last week. Well, a couple of weeks ago, it's this thing. It's a perimeter of the temple area. It's the eastern part of the temple where Christians gather. This is what I could write. It's pretty safe. It's pretty large. Actually, that's where the. That's where Peter healed the lame man. You can get a lot of people in that area. Apparently this was one area of the temple that wasn't totally destroyed in 70 AD. They have a lot of information. They have the exact size and dimensions.

I don't remember seeing that one. We didn't see it, but what we did see when we saw the replica of the temple. This doesn't exist today. No I don't think any of it exists. I would think that it was also because the Pharisees' Gestapo was less likely to be around. They'd be busy somewhere else. This is a place that the Lord used obviously.

Who are none of the rest who dared to join them? Are these believers or non-believers or both? What do you think? So, what verse is that Bob? It's 13. Go back here. It's 13, the third sentence. They were all ignorant, yet none of the rest dared join them.

So, that's one of the problems when I put this together, because I have a list of the verses, I just put them in. So, who are these people? Well, could it be other Jewish believers? I'm not sitting on the fence. Other other Jewish people that just said they weren't. They didn't seem to think they're mostly non-believers. You know, I see. The commentators are mixed on this one. I don't see any clear answer here. Some of them are believers, some of them aren't. I get the idea most of these are non-believers, but I don't know.

So since we don't have an answer, are they the people that esteemed them, meaning the apostles, highly? So you would think that that could be a non-believer too, who in fact just is looking at the behavior of what's going on around here, all these miracles, They're all sharing their possessions. That's got to be something pretty new to the Jewish mentality. The Pharisees had a lot. The tax collector had lots of money. But a lot of people had hardly anything. They were very proud of their possessions.

In fact, you bring that forward to even today. When I was growing up, people that I knew that were Jewish, it was very, because it's all about the world and the earth, and since they didn't believe there was something else, it was all about their possessions. what they had accumulated on the earth. So I think the scripture is not perfectly clear here. This could be both believers, but to a large extent could be non-believers who are looking in on all this. Some are not to join them, others are just admiring what's going on. As Tom said beautifully, it's the best show in town. It's like Ringling Brothers service. dying or taking it. But it does say that some of these people were probably responding because it says that neighbors were increasingly added to the Lord.

Multitudes of both men and women. Why are women mentioned here? That is very interesting. to show the impartiality of Christ? Is that the word I want? The Jewish view is entirely male dominant. I think here it's Jew, Gentile, man, woman, black, white, tan.

The church is all the above. So in a sense, I think Peter is acknowledging the fact that it's not like just these Jewish guys. It's their wives, daughters, sisters, and everybody. And maybe the women even without their husbands. Yeah. Maybe that's what it's like. Yeah. That women were being, you know. Yeah. In fact, in Chapter 6, I'm studying ahead for my part. We're talking about the widows in Chapter 6 and there were enough widows that that became an issue and not taking care of the widows. Chapter 6 is going to come up. Okay, good.

These are all good thoughts. Women still live longer than men. I have an answer to that. we're going to play the numbers game now. So here's the numbers game. Okay. X 1 15 120 or so. Okay. Acts 2, 41, 3,000 believers are added to the original 120. Acts 4, 4, total number of believers is approximately 5,000. The best way to read the numbers there. And here's the number added is not stated, but noted as multitudes. I guess I didn't put this here. Then Paul goes ahead and really indicates that the church is spreading all over the place, right? And so we lose track of numbers. And today we're like sand on the sea, right?

In terms of the numbers. But it's interesting to see Acts enumerate the believers and then it gets to be multitudes here. And this is the first place where multitudes are being said. Tom. Nothing, nothing. Just watching. So the hope was even that the shadow of Peter would bring healing and sick people and those with tormenting spirits came from surrounding cities and were healed.

Is this like Luke 8.46? One of my favorite sections of the Bible. Let's turn to Luke 8. I love it. I just love it. It's the doc's book. We're reading the doc's book too, Tom, remember. This is Luke, right? Writing Acts. So read that whole section. Maybe there are a couple of verses. I just listed one.

Can anybody read the story there? And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and could not be healed by anyone came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. And immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, who's the one who touched me? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone did touch me. Who would have thunk it, as one sportscaster might say?

I mean that brings tears to my eyes. It's so incredible that he said somebody touched his robe and she's healed by faith. He knew that she was touching it. Did she not say then that it was her? She does. I mean is that what the shadow of Peter is doing here?

It does seem very similar to that. This came to mind. Is this kind of like what this woman experienced in terms of her her history of hemorrhagic disease of some sort, Christmas disease, hemophilia, who knows what else she had. Anyway, I think that's what's being implied here. There was such miraculous work going on. that even walking in Peter's shadow is capable, by faith, of bringing healing to an individual. In the Luke example, Bob, she was healed. She realized that, but she was afraid they were going to notice that I was. She was trying to keep it on the quiet. And Christ often suggested to people to keep it quiet. I don't know whether that was true at that particular time.

And of course he says daughter your faith has made you well, go in peace. So that's cool. So the question I have is was this healing specified as believers versus the unsaved do you think? Just like during Jesus' time, clearly there was no church at that time. It doesn't say though, really. It doesn't say. I think it could be both. It's just they had faith that they would be healed, not necessarily that they believed in Jesus dying and resurrecting. That's my sense too, but I don't. I'm asking you just to speculate.

Maybe that is why the multitudes became believers, because many people were being healed This verse comes after the previous one in terms of multitudes coming to the Lord. I think we have to look at what is factual in terms of the word of God. It's factual that multitudes came to the Lord and secondly many people were being healed. Now we don't know exactly who those people were but presumably they were in some way responding to the miraculous path that Peter was walking. Why did God continue to manifest his healing powers in this way do you think? to get the leadership's attention because he wanted them ultimately to come to belief too. He wished all men to come to belief.

Do you think this was different than the ground that Christ walked in his healing ministry? What's different between then and now if you will meaning Acts chapter 5 now? Is this the same kind of deal? talk about as far as ministry of healing? Yeah, the healing. We were told during Christ's period that despite all the healing nobody came to... I mean he was still crucified, right? People weren't saved.

The difference is the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's one difference. Wasn't it too because Christ was, he was God. And so it was about his healing to show that in fact he was God. But now Peter and the other apostles are doing the healing to point point more toward Christ being God as already being with God. I mean, do you understand what I'm saying? I think so. It's a bigger, kind of a bigger picture as opposed to Christ himself. Doesn't it in some extent validate what Christ was all about? Yes.

I mean in a sense here we have the same type of healing ministry occurring now. You kill them but you can't stop them. And Christ is resurrected. He's in heavenly places. The spirit is not here but the ministries are still occurring. These miraculous deeds are still occurring. Are they occurring today? What about today? Consider the fate of Annalisa and Sapphira when you answer that question. What's different today than then?

I dealt with this a month ago the last time I taught. We have the rest of the story. We have all the church age. We have the whole complete canon of God is here. So we can read this and we can benefit by Ananias and Sapphira. We can see how God's view of lying and sinning and walking in the flesh. We can see all that in terms of that. So we don't need to have God taking people out every other day and he easily could. So that's part of it.

The other basic fact is do we live in the age of miracles today? We don't live in the age of miracles anymore. We know God is capable, fully capable of every miracle that he's ever done and capable of doing it again. In fact, the prophecy for the end times reflects that, doesn't it? However, don't pray for miracles.

Pray for God to conform you and transform you through the trials and tribulations we go through. And that's all we need, because our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is not here. And what our purpose is here is to glorify God. And that occurs through our trials and tribulations, including illness, including selling the property and keeping half for yourself. In other words, this is, as Courtney says often, when we get together at our home in the Bible, God makes no mistakes. I mean, there's no mistakes that are occurring in our lives.

We may think they're mistakes because that's a self-centered interest. But from God's perspective, he's the business of transforming us and conforming us to his image. So Ananias and Sapphira, tough lesson. it's really a tough one to read and I think we have to put it in perspective of the times in which it occurred for the purpose that God had for it. Warren, close us in prayer. Father, we just thank you now for the truths of your word and the transition time between the church and the Old Testament there and we just give you the praise for it and thank you for the teaching. In Jesus name, Amen.