Acts 4:23-5:42 - Part C

Remember back in Chapter 4, a law was passed not to preach in Jesus' name in Jerusalem?

Now listen to this. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Oh, that the enemies of God today would say that about us. That we might have an accusation from the people in Albuquerque. Man, you filled Albuquerque in New Mexico with this doctrine.

I want him to say that. I want to fill this place up with truth. Today on Connect with Skip Heiting, Pastor Skip looks at a sobering example of how God dealt with dishonesty in the early church. But first, here's a resource all about those who gave it all for the sake of the gospel. We are witnessing an escalation in Christian persecution like we have rarely seen since the first century. Many people don't realize that today thousands of Christians are dying cruel deaths throughout much of the world. The New Book of Christian Martyrs commemorates these modern day heroes, highlighting key martyrs of past centuries and featuring stories of contemporary martyrs around the world. This compendium of heroes from the first century to the 21st century, from Europe to Africa and from Asia to the Americas, is sure to inspire you to courageously stand up for your Christian faith, just as they've done for countless Christians around the globe. The New Book of Christian Martyrs comes as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to keep messages like this one today on the air for you and others, equipping you to know God's word and follow His will with courage and conviction. So request your copy when you give today.

Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Are you ready? Okay, let's join Skip in Acts four for today's teaching. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Now, Peter's not smiling at this point. Don't think of Peter, the big old fisherman, Ananias.

No, it's very, very somber here. Ananias, 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 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? Notice this. You have not lied to men, but to God. Did you notice in the first sentence he says you lied to the Holy Spirit and the second he said you lied to God. Okay, so it's easy to put those two together. What he means then is the Holy Spirit is God.

Please notice that. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. You've lied to God.

If you lie to him, you lie to him. The Holy Spirit is not an ambiguous force, as we talked about. It's a real person. It's the third person of the Trinity. I speak to people all the time and say, you Christians, you evangelicals, you talk about Trinity. The word Trinity isn't in the Bible. So the word rapture isn't in the Bible, but the doctrine of the rapture is in the Bible. The word millennium isn't in the Bible, but the doctrine of the millennial kingdom is in the Bible.

The word Bible isn't in the Bible, but I've got one. The word Trinity isn't in the Bible, but the teaching of the Trinity goes all the way back to Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is the Hebrew word Elohim, plural in meaning, singular in usage. In the beginning, Elohim, that compound plurality, created the heavens and the earth. Verse 2, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The first time a distinct personality of God is drawn up, it's in the second verse of Genesis, and it's the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters.

Same chapter, I think, down around verse 26 or 27. God said, let us make man in our image. So in the image of God, He made man. The interchangeable use of the plural and the singular, let us make man, God made, He made him. So the doctrine of the Trinity begins all the way back as far as Genesis and is developed and fully revealed in the New Covenant. So you've not lied to man, you've lied to the Holy Spirit, so you have lied to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, I don't know what the look on his face is like, fell down and breathed his last.

So great fear came upon all those who heard these things, I can imagine. Can you picture what this is like? Ananias walks up in front of the meeting with his offering of money.

The organ is softly playing I surrender all. Ananias puts that offering down, but suddenly he feels something in his chest, grabs and his breath is short and just bam, falls over, breathes his last. He kicks the bucket. He's deader than a doornail. And so great fear came upon all who heard these things and the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. When I read about Ananias, and I don't want you to think that Ananias went to hell, he just died. I think he was a true believer.

My opinion, he was a believer in Christ because he had faith in Jesus. He's not saved by works. He's not saved by selling land and giving the money. He's saved by faith through grace, period.

It's like, you know, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just boom, die, heaven, boom. God removed him, a subtraction. And I think about somebody else who was not saved, and that is Judas Iscariot, who also pretended to really be a caring individual when that woman broke that vase of costly ointment and Judas protested and said, what a waste this could have been sold and given to the poor. And he said this because he was a hypocrite and he kept the money and he was taking from it for himself without any accountability. Ananias was a hypocrite and his wife was party to it as well. So verse seven, it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much.

She said, yeah, for so much. 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 and they will carry you out. Then immediately she fell down at his feet, breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear, there it is again, came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

What kind of a meeting would this be? One dies, another dies, and then the young men who buried those two are kind of looking around like, OK, who's next? You're just like, I ain't saying a word. I'm not giving a thing.

I'm just watching. Sad when you consider that the very first Christian funeral in the book of Acts was for a hypocrite, two of them just a few hours apart on the same day. Now, how should we give? When we give, we should give simply and honestly. As Paul writes, not grudgingly nor of necessity, but every man should give as he purposes in his heart, for God loves a cheerful giver. Ananias, Sapphira, just be honest, come clean, say what you want to give, doesn't matter how much.

It should be done simply. It should be done sincerely. It should be done for the glory of God.

All these things were not present in this gift. I want to just focus on something for a moment because we read this and we go, man, people actually died. That's kind of harsh. Well, if they went to heaven, if you wake up in heaven, would you go, man, that was harsh. Yeah, this is harsh. Awesome, but harsh. Totally cool, but harsh.

No, I don't think so. It seems to those left, yeah, this is harsh. We know them.

We're going to miss them. But why would the Lord do this? Well, let me make this even a little harder for you. Not only does this happen here, but it would seem that physical death in the form of God judging believers in the early church was not unheard of even as the church developed. When Paul writes to the Corinthians, do you remember when he talks about the Lord's Supper and people gather together, they don't take it with the right intention, the right motivation, mixed motivations. And he said, for this reason, many among you are sick and have died.

So it wasn't unheard of even in other congregations besides Jerusalem. And then what about when Paul writes to the Corinthians and he said, concerning unrepentant ones in the church, deliver them to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that their spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Remember that in 1 Corinthians 5? I think that's the text. If you look at it later, that's the text.

And that's it. So he says, you deliver one to Satan, to the realm of Satan. You deliver that believer to the world that their flesh may be destroyed, that the spirit would be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps meaning that the physical death wasn't punishing them for being an unbeliever, but because they were believers, lest they fall any further and influence any more that the Lord would take them off this earth, that their spirit would be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Perhaps that's what he was referring to. So great fear, verse 11, came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. 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, not the coffee shop, the temple. Yet none of the rest dared join them.

You can't blame them. I'm not going to that church. I know it's welcome weekend, but I ain't going to that church.

People die there. None of the rest, probably meaning the rest of onlookers, ex-motive people, unbelievers, didn't dare join them, but the people esteem them highly. Hi, God bless you.

Stay away from me. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. See, on one hand, you have people who are not going to join the bandwagon and just do it because they have something other than the purest of motives. But on the other hand, true believers did join. They were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes. So the Lord's multiplying after he is subtracted. And I have discovered that when God subtracts, he does it in order that he might multiply. The Lord adds, the Lord multiplies, the Lord subtracts.

But when he subtracts here, he does it that he might multiply. So multitudes were coming, both men and women. So they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.

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. What's up with Peter's shadow? Was it mystical and magical shadow? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Only the shadow knows. Do you remember that television show?

You're dating yourself if you know it. See, I remember it. You remember it? Radio plays. Yeah, so it's an old black and white thing, isn't it? So I think it might have even been before my time, but I saw reruns.

How's that? Peter's shadow, I believe, provided a point of contact for people who had a disease to release their faith. Nothing magical about Peter's shadow. Nothing mystical about Peter's shadow. But people thought if Peter's shadow falls on me, I'm going to be healed. So when Peter walked by and the shadow hit them, they released their faith and they were healed.

That's what I believe is happening. I think it's much like the hem of Jesus' garment. The woman said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment. Is it because he had a magical garment? Is it because he had mystical powers? No, because she believed there was power with Jesus.

She believed that Jesus wanted to heal her, and all she had to do is touch that garment, and I believe now is the time. This is the rationale behind pouring oil or putting oil on somebody who is sick. The Bible tells us to the elders of the church lay hands on them. There's nothing magical about my hands. It doesn't have anything in it except germs.

There's nothing magical about oil. It's just that we do it, and it's a point of contact, the laying on of hands, the smearing or pouring out of oil for you to release your faith, and we do that in obedience to what the Bible tells us to do, and we have seen the Lord in the affirmative heal people, not without exception but often, and so we do that, and so the Peter of shadow, the shadow of Peter falling somewhere healed. Verse 17, then the high priest rose up and all who were with him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, and they laid their hands on the apostles, put them in the common prison, but at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. So this is the first jailbreak, and it's the angel who sprung them, and when they heard this, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught, but the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, that's the Sanhedrin that we talked about with all the elders, the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported saying, Indeed, we have found the prison securely shut and the guards standing outside before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. When the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. Man, where is this all going to lead?

You know, just when we're getting our council together to put an end to this, it gets worse. So one came and told them saying, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them, notice this, without violence, you know, they're smiling this time, for they feared the people lest they should be stoned. You know, there's people are being healed.

You're not going to easily brush this into a corner. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? Remember back in chapter four, a law was passed not to preach in Jesus' name in Jerusalem.

Now listen to this. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Oh, that the enemies of God today would say that about us, that we might have an accusation from the people in Albuquerque.

Man, you filled Albuquerque in New Mexico with this doctrine. I want him to say that. I want to fill this place up with truth. I want to let everybody hear the gospel. You say, Well, how is that possible?

Just get filled with the Spirit and preach the Word of God with boldness. They'll hear. Now listen to this.

Probably have to end here. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. Interesting thing to say. You're trying to bring this man's blood on us like it's our fault. It's interesting because they asked specifically that this would happen just a few weeks ago. I'm going to read to you out of Matthew chapter 27, the trial of Jesus before Pilate. This is Matthew 27 verse 20. The chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you?

They said, Barabbas. And Pilate said to them, What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They said to him, Let him be crucified. Then the governor said, Why?

What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather a tumult was rising, he took water, washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.

You see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and our children. Then he released Barabbas to them. And when he scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Few weeks later, in the same temple area, they're saying, What are you trying to do? Bring this man's blood on us. They asked for that.

Now they're trying to kind of worm their way out of what they asked for. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered.

This is almost a repetition of what he said in Chapter two of that first message. Him God exalted to the right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things.

And so also is the Holy Spirit notice the relationship they have cognizant of that person, the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were furious, and they plotted to kill them. And one of the council stood up a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men.

For some time ago, Theudas stood up claiming to be someone, a number of about 400 joined him. He was slain. All who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. Let me just say that what he is saying here about two previous uprisings are both corroborated by Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian in his historical works with a little bit of variety, a little bit of different details. I say to you now, keep away from these men, let them alone.

For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. And they agreed with him, and they called for the apostles, and they beat him up, roughed him up, told him that they should not speak any more of Jesus, and they let him go. So they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

That's what I should have done when my motorcycle was burned. But seeing that double overhead cam 450 Honda, which I still wish I had to this day, go up in flames, never to be replaced, it was hard for me to rejoice that I'd count to be counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. And I'll tell you what, in India, I rejoiced when God answered our prayer and they dispersed, but I don't know if I would have rejoiced if I'd have gotten beat up.

They got beat up, and they're just happy that they did it for the right reason, or it happened for the right reason. And daily in the temple, verse 42, now we close, we got to the end, and in every house, in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ. Understand that the guy who stood up, Gamaliel, he was speaking to the Sadducees, but Gamaliel was a Pharisee, very respected teacher in Israel, the grandson of the respected Hillel, if you know Jewish history, Hillel was a very esteemed rabbinical scholar, this is the grandson of Hillel, Gamaliel, and he was the mentor of Paul the Apostle.

And according to ancient Jewish writings, Gamaliel had only one problem, he said, with Paul the Apostle, and that is he couldn't supply this man Saul of Tarsus with enough books to read. He was such a voracious reader of books, he wanted to learn, he wanted to understand, anything that was committed to writing, he asked Timothy to bring the books in the parchments. The guy was a reader, and the Lord used him as one who spoke to a variety of audiences.

That's Skip Heitig, with a message from the series Expound Acts. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series, at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can connect you and many others with the truth of God's word with a gift, to keep these messages going out around the world, through Connect with Skip Heitig.

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