Tag Archives: Acts 4-6

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2023 Bible Study — Praying for Boldness in the Face of Persecution

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

After the Sanhedrin warned Peter and John not to preach in Jesus’ name under threat, the Believers prayed.  They did not pray for protection.  No, they prayed that God would enable them to speak boldly in the face of these threats.  They also prayed that God would heal and perform signs through the name of Jesus.  We today should have a similar attitude.  Rather than pray for protection for ourselves in the face of persecution, we should seek the courage to speak God’s word boldly in the face of it (we can, however, pray that God protects others who are facing persecution for faithfully following God).

The story of Ananias and Sapphira stands as a grim warning to all of us.  When Ananias lied about how much money he had received for the field he sold, he was not lying just to the Apostles, not even just to the Church, he was lying to the Holy Spirit.  As I was reading this today I was reminded that Jesus told us that the only unforgivable sin was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.   So, I think that this passage gives us more insight into what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is.  Ananias wanted to be seen as holy and sacrificing without actually sacrificing.  He had no obligation to sell the land.  He had no obligation to give any money from the sale of the land to God’s work.  It would have been perfectly acceptable to give some of the money to the Church while keeping some for himself.  Where he went wrong was by keeping some of the money for himself while claiming that what he gave was the entire sum which he had gotten for the sale of the land..

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2022 Bible Study — Misinformation Will Fade Away, But The Truth Will Survive Every Effort To Destroy It

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 4-6.

I am not sure that I ever noticed before that when Luke describes the arrest of Peter and John he says that “the rulers, elders, and teachers of the Law” were present.  He also mentions that the high priest and members of his family were present.  Later, when all of the apostles were arrested, Luke says that it was the high priest and his associates who had them arrested (which sounds to me as more or less the same group), but they called the entire Sanhedrin together for the hearing.  Clearly at this second hearing the high priest and his faction felt that they needed more weight behind their attempt to silence the apostles.  They attempted to use the force of their position and power to silence those whom they felt were spreading dangerous misinformation.  Gamaliel presented one of the foundational arguments about why governments, and everyone else in positions of power, should respect freedom of speech.  The basis of Gamaliel’s argument was that any group built around falsehood will dissipate with time, with no effort on the part of the powerful, and even the powerful will fail to suppress a thought which comes from God.  But there is a little more to what Gamaliel was saying.  If you attempt to stamp out the truth, you will find yourself fighting against God and suffer for doing so

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2021 Bible Study — Praying To Boldly Face Threats Against Doing God’s Will

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 4-6.

The first thing I want to comment on is the way in which Luke changed how he reported numbers.  Back in chapter 2, after Peter’s speech on Pentecost, Luke reported that the number of believers rose to around 3,000.  Then in today’s passage, after Peter and John had healed the lame man, Luke reports that the number of men who believed rose to about 5,000.  So, before Pentecost, the number of believers was around 120, after Pentecost it was around 3,000, and after this incident it rose to well over 5,000 (I would assume that the number of women believers was at least similar to the number of men who believed, but it may have been much higher).

However, that is not the main thing I want to write about today.  Rather, I want to write about Peter and John’s response to the Sanhedrin’s threats, and the prayer of response which the Believers offered up when they heard about it.  First, Peter and John asked if the Sanhedrin believed that they should listen to the Sanhedrin over listening to God.  Should we listen to human authorities or to God?  Then, Peter and John gave their answer to that question: they could not help but speak that which God directed them to speak.  I hope their question is as much of a rhetorical question for you as it was for the two of them.  Next I want to look at how the Body of Believers responded to the threats.  Now the obvious part of their response was that they prayed.  But we can learn a lot from what they prayed.  They did not pray that God would protect them from the threats which had been issued against them should they continue to preach in the name of Jesus.  Instead, they prayed that God would make them bold in the face of those threats.  Do we share their faith to pray that God make us bold in the face of threats?  I am not sure that I have the faith to take that position.  I strive to reach the place where I will pray to stand firm against threats rather than praying for protection from them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2020 Bible Study If We Obey God We Need Not Answer To Any Human Authority

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6

There are two lessons from today’s passage that I want to touch on today (well, perhaps part of my thoughts on the first one represent a third lesson).  When Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin was concerned about the fact that they were spreading “misinformation”.  So, they ordered Peter and John to stop preaching in Jesus’ name.  Then, when they continued to preach in Jesus’ name and even went so far as to tell the Sanhedrin that they would not stop doing so, the Sanhedrin wanted to kill them.  However, they did not because Gamaliel gave them a piece of advice to which we would do well to listen.  Gamaliel essentially told them that if there was no truth to what the apostles were preaching, they would soon fade away and become irrelevant.  On the other hand, if the apostles were preaching the truth attempting to silence them would only put them into conflict with God.  Combining what Gamaliel says here with what Jesus said about truth (“You will know the truth and the truth shall make your free”) tells us how to respond to misinformation: speak the truth and allow people to determine for themselves whether they wish to believe the truth or a lie.

Which brings us to the response of the believers to the threat of persecution for speaking the truth about Jesus; they prayed.  But they did not pray for protection.  They prayed for courage to continue speaking the truth in the face of opposition.  Actually, they prayed for two things, courage and miraculous signs.  This prayer fits in with the response which Peter gave the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” There is nothing wrong with praying for protection from persecution, but our first thoughts should be to pray for courage and for expressions of God’s power to reveal the truth of what we preach.

In between Luke’s two accounts of confrontations with the Sanhedrin he tells about how the Believers took care of each other.  First, we have Luke tell us that the Believers shared everything  they had so that there were no needy people among them.  This sounds like communism: those who had wealth gave of it to the apostles to give to those in need.  However, we have what Peter told Ananias. “The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours…”  So, what can we learn from this?  Those of us who have great possessions should give as God guides us to help those in need.  But it is up to each of us to decide how much of what we have we should give.  Barnabas was blessed and honored because he sold his property and gave the proceeds to care for the needy.  Ananias was not condemned because he did not give all of the proceeds from selling his property.  He was condemned for lying about it.  Ananias wanted the honor of caring which Barnabas got without the sacrifice.  This also fits in with Peter’s answer to the Sanhedrin.  It is not up to human authority to determine how we obey God.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2019 Bible Study — Pray For Courage, Not Protection

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6

When the Jewish Council ordered Peter and John to stop teaching in the name of Jesus, they responded that they would obey God rather than man.  Then when Peter and John returned to the other Believers after being threatened, the entire group prayed for courage in the face of these threats.  They did not pray for protection from persecution.  They prayed for courage to be faithful in the face of persecution.  In fact they prayed that their testimony would be even more noteworthy.  They sought to spread the word of God in the face of persecution and welcomed that persecution as a sign that they were faithfully following Jesus.  Further, we see that this prayer was not mere braggadocio.  A short time later, the Apostles were arrested while preaching in the Temple and thrown in jail overnight for a trial the following day.  They were miraculously freed from prison.  And what did they do with this freedom but go back to the Temple and start preaching again.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2018 Bible Study — God Or Man? Who Are You Going to Follow?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

    We have two accounts about the religious leaders who were Sadducees having Apostles arrested, the first time it is Peter and John, the second time it is all, or at least most, of them. On both occasions those arrested were held overnight. On both occasions Peter continues to show his tact by telling them that they were the ones who had crucified Jesus and that God raised Him from the dead. This was doubly offensive since those who was speaking to explicitly disbelieved in the resurrection of the dead. On both occasions the Jewish leaders ordered them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And on both occasions the Apostles responded by saying that they would obey God rather than man. On the second occasion the Jewish leaders wanted to kill the Apostles, but were talked out of it by one of their own, Gamaliel, who pointed out that if the Apostles were merely echoing the teachings of a man, they would soon lose heart. Gamaliel further pointed out that, on the other hand, if the Apostles were teaching things from God all attempts to silence them would fail. I believe that the message we should learn from Gamaliel is that the best way to defeat bad ideas is with better ideas, not with force or violence.

    More importantly than what Gamaliel said and the lesson we can draw from it is the response of the believers to the threats levied against them. When the believers heard of the harsh threats which the authorities had made they gathered and prayed. We can learn a lot from what they prayed for. They did not pray for protection, or for God to overthrow the government. No, they prayed that they would boldly proclaim God’s word and that the Holy Spirit would work great wonders through them. They were not afraid of what the authorities might do to them. They sought God’s aid to stand up for Him in the face of these threats.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2017 Bible Study — Praying For Boldness, Not Safety

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

    I want to start today’s Bible Study by focusing on the believers’ response to the threats against them from the Sanhedrin. They prayed, but what did they pray for? First, take note of what they did NOT pray for; they did not pray for safety, for protection from those threats. Instead they prayed for boldness. Our prayers should be similar. Our first concern in our prayers should not be our safety. It should be our willingness to do God’s will and preach the Gospel in the face of danger. We need to remember the prayer of the early believers in light of incident’s such as the shooting during Sunday services in Texas the other week. Our prayers, and our actions, should not be primarily about safety in Sunday worship but rather the boldness to worship and serve God in the face of such risks.

    I did not originally think I was going to write much about the early Church sharing their possessions. However, when I finished the above in fewer words than I expected and began reading the rest of the passage I notices something I am not sure ever quite registered before. When we read the Acts of the Apostles we tend to separate Acts 4:32-37 from Acts 5:1-10 into two stories. I am convinced that Luke intended for them to be part of the same story. Verse 32 sounds as if all of the believers threw their money and possessions into one pot which people took from as they needed. It sounds a lot like Marxian Communism. However, Luke gives us an example about how it really worked in verses 34-37. Those who had assets would liquidate some of those assets and give them to the Apostles to distribute to those in need (I want to come back to this distribution a little later). Luke even gives as an example of how that worked with Barnabas.

As a side note, I find it interesting that here Luke calls him by his given name, “Joseph”, but mentions that he was known as Barnabas. Later, Luke only refers to him as Barnabas. I suspect that this reflects the way Luke’s sources for the story referred to Joseph/Barnabas and is intended to allow for more easy corroboration of his story from those sources.

We have a further example of how this worked in the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Now this second example of how it works has another point as well, but the part I want to focus on is what Peter told Ananias, “The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away.” It would have been perfectly acceptable for Ananias to keep the property. It would have been perfectly acceptable for him to have sold the property and kept the money, or to have given only part of it to the Church to help the needy. Ananias’ and Sapphira’s only sin was in trying to get the recognition for giving the entire amount while only giving part. So, there was no obligation for the wealthy to give to aid the needy. They did so, or not, out of the conviction of their own heart.

    I said I would get back to the distribution to the needy. Luke is not as explicit in explaining how the distribution to the needy went as he is on how the giving side worked, but we can see a bit of it. However, we get an idea about how it worked from the appointment of the Deacons. If it had just been a matter of giving money to those in need, it would not have been such an arduous task. Instead, the Apostles, initially, and later the Deacons, determined the need and supplied what was needed. They did not just give the needy widows money to buy food, they gave them food. I do not think that represents a hard and fast methodology. The key was that those distributing aid determined the need and supplied the actual need. It was not a pot of money shared willy-nilly to whoever asked. From here, and from things in Paul wrote in his letters, I think we see that the leaders of the Church worked with those in need to aid them in supplying their own needs as best they were able, then the Church picking up the slack to meet the needs of all of Its members.

Daily Bible Study

November 13, 2016 Bible Study — Obey God Rather Than Man

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 4-6.

    After healing the lame man, Peter and John were arrested. When they spoke before the Sanhedrin in their defense Peter delivered a speech similar to the one he made on Pentecost. The council was surprised that these two men, who did not have an “Ivy League” education, were not only willing to stand up to them, but made an argument that they could not refute. When the Council told Peter and John to stop preaching in Jesus’ name Peter asked if they thought God would rather they obey the Council, or God? He then closed by saying they could not stop telling others about what they had seen and heard. Some time later the Sanhedrin had the Apostles arrested for continuing to preach in Jesus’ name. Once more Peter states that the Apostles would obey God rather than human authority. When the Sanhedrin wanted to kill the Apostles, Gamaliel pointed out that if the group the Apostles were forming was not from God, it would quickly die out. On the other hand, if it was from God, those opposing it would find themselves fighting against God Himself. It is worth mentioning that the Sanhedrin believed that the nascent Church was a political movement with the goal of driving the Romans out of Israel.