Author Archives: Phillip

Wednesday 23 September: Acts chapter 5:17-24:

V17:  The phenomenal growth of the church now stirs up the Jewish authorities to increasingly bitter response. We note again the dominance of the Sadducees – including the High Priest – in this. All that is taught offends their “liberal” or rational attitude, yet note they are also jealous of the power they see at work, and its effect upon so many.

V18:  So they have the Apostles arrested. All of them? It is not clearly said, but seems to be implied. Many of us will have heard John Benton preach recently about Satan’s strategies against the church, beginning with to ” decapitate the leadership.”

V19:  God intervenes miraculously through His angel to set them free. How simply , almost matter-of-factly, this is recorded. It seems there was no upheaval, such as in Philippi’s prison in ch 16 – just a “quiet” work of God to deliver His servants.

V20-21:  Set free, they are instructed to return at once to their public ministry, which they do, still in the temple, to all who come there.

V22-23: Unaware of what has happened ( so my comment on v19 ) the High Priest and his party convene the whole council, and send guards to bring the Apostles from the prison. To their perplexity, they find the prison empty.

V24:  This news bewilders the council, they simply do not know what to make of it. Clearly, they have no expectation of seeing God at work directly in their time. Do we?  

Tuesday 22nd September: Acts chapter 5: 12-16 

V12:  Ongoing signs are still God’s seal upon the early church and the apostles’ ministry – the power is His, not theirs, of course. He is vindicating His Son’s Name and validating His gospel.

V13:  Filled with awe and fear at what they see happening, people become afraid to join with the believers, yet hold them in high esteem. What impact do our lives and witness have today, what reactions do they cause?

V14:  This was a human reaction to such demonstrations of Holy Spirit power at work, but God’s grace could and did overcome it, so that many more do join them as believers – God’s Spirit causing them to see their need of a Saviour, and bringing them to living faith in Him.

V15:  What do we make of this verse? Was this merely a superstitious reaction, far short of real faith? Notice, the verse does not say such were healed. Bible teachers differ as to whether it implies it.

V16:  But clearly there was God-given healing for many who were brought – from far and near – to the Apostles, through whom God worked in mercy. Do such gifts of healing continue? Christians differ about this too, of course. Let us say this – God is Sovereign, He can and does heal, sometimes quite remarkably, in accordance with His will, but we must not presume that this will – or should – always happen, and claim it as automatic.

Monday 21 September:  Acts chapter 5:1-11:

( NB: A longer passage than usual, but one that would be difficult to split.)

V1-2:  Ananias and Sapphira seek to appear to be as sacrificially committed in the love of Christ as such as Barnabas, but sadly it is a sham.Their intention is to be admired and thought well of, when their hearts are full of deceit.

V3-4:  They could have legitimately brought part of the proceeds from the sale of their land rather than the whole, had they simply said so, Perhaps others did. But Peter, with a God-given discernment, declares Satan has tempted them into this deceit, the heart of which is an attempt to deceive not only their fellow believers but God Himself.

V5-6:  Note, Peter does not ” curse” him, or strike him down, his heart is smitten by the realisation and revelation of what he has sought to do.

V9-10:  As for Ananias, so it is for his wife Sapphira – note the charge of v9 – and realise this is a solemn judgement of God, not of man.

V11:  The outcome is a growth of awe and fear both in and beyond the church, at the Holiness of God and His standards for His church. Many years ago, I was struck by the comment of one Bible teacher on this solemn episode ” I stand in awe of the purity of that early church, where a lie could not live.” How it challenges us to see this difficult passage in this way, surely.

Saturday 19 September: Acts chapter 4 :32-37:

V32:  We now get another glimpse of the oneness in love of the early church – now a considerable number, remember – put together ch 2 v 41 and 47, and ch 4 v4, all added to the original 120 of ch 1 v15. They were united in practical expression of their love for one another, so much so that they had ” everything in common”. Remember many would have been poor, with little ( or in the case of slaves, and surely there were some among them, nothing! ) So, those who “had”, shared freely with those who ” had not”, so in fact there were no ” have nots” among them.

V33:  And in God’s power, the apostles continue to witness and preach the truth as it is in Christ, and the grace of God is at work in and through them.

V34-35:  We get more detail of the ” sharing together” of v32. Those with property or land sold it, and brought the proceeds to the apostles to oversee the distribution among all believers, so that in truth, no-one lacked. The principle rather than the specifics of their practice is the lasting truth that should still mark believers, a real and practical love and care for each other ( John 13 :34.)

V36-37:  The name of Barnabas is now introduced. In fact, as v36 tells us his given name is Joseph and he is a native of Cyprus, a Levite by descent, but the apostles give him the name by which he is always known thereafter, Barnabas, which means ” the son of encouragement” – ( we might say ” the great encourager”. ) He must have displayed such a concern to encourage others as marked him out, even among the general evidence of mutual love and care. Later glimpses of his life and ministry show this to the full. Here, he sells his land and brings what it fetches to the apostles.

Friday 18 September:  Acts chapter 4:24-31:

V24:  How will the believers respond in the face of the authorities’ threats? ( How would we have done? ) They come straight to prayer, acknowledging God’s sovereignty in creation…

V25-26:  … and from the OT recognising how He has foretold and purposed all that is happening now, to which they apply the words of Psalm 2:1-2   These verses were fulfilled in the rejection of God’s Anointed Christ…

V27-28:   …and in the ruling authorities of both Jews and Gentiles, Herod and Pilate, but representing how Jew and Gentile alike have set themselves against God and His Christ. Yet they have done nothing that God has not planned and purposed. In it all His sovereign will is being worked out.

V29:   And in response to the threat they face, the early church prays not for safety or deliverance, but for a Holy boldness to speak God’s Word without fear or favour. Would this have been our response? Please God it would be – indeed, if things get even harder for believers in coming days, that it will be!

V30-31:  So, they pray that God will continue to glorify His Name, and His Son, in further works of power – not for their own sake, but in demonstration that the gospel claims of and about the Lord Jesus are true. God’s response is immediate, in a further manifestation of His presence and power, and a renewed experience of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He is indeed given to believers once for all, but how we need surely to know such times of renewal, by the grace of God. And they go out and speak God’s Word boldly. May we know this same uncompromising boldness in our own day.

Thursday 17 September:  Acts chapter 4: 19-23:

V19:  Peter and John now answer boldly, with Holy Spirit given wisdom. Let these rulers judge for themselves, should the apostles listen to them rather than to God? Here surely is an abiding principle – though as Christians we should submit to the proper authorities God has ordained ( Romans 13 :1-2 ) this is not to be so if they seek to compel us to disobey God or do what is contrary to His Word. Then – whatever it may cost – we should put God and His Word first.

V20:  And Peter and John declare they are under a gospel compulsion – they must speak the truth they know in and from Jesus, witnessing to the reality they have experienced. Do we know something of this compulsion of the gospel in our own witness, as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 9:16?

V21-22:  Again, the council feel they can do nothing except threaten the apostles again, and then let them go. They fear in this instance the reaction of the people, when so many are praising God for the miraculous healing of a man who has never walked before in his more than 40 years of life. Surely God’s restraining hand is also on them, for the time will soon come when they will take, and endorse, more direct action against the church in a vain attempt to curb the spread of the gospel. Yet God is sovereign in all things, and the very man most instrumental in that would-be persecution ( Acts 9 :1-2 ) would become the great missionary apostle, Paul.

V23:  So, Peter and John go back to the other believers to tell them what has happened, and what the council have said.

Wednesday 16 September: Acts chapter 4: 13-18:

V13:  The council are amazed at the boldness with which Peter and John speak, all the more because they are ordinary ” uneducated” men – their voices would have identified them as ” working class ” Galileans. The source of their boldness is, of course, the Holy Spirit, filling and enabling them. The only way the council can account for it is that these men have been with Jesus. In a way then, they recognise the source of their changed lives and their power, even as they deny and oppose it. What a sad irony!

V14:  So, what can they say? The evidence of the reality of the power at work is there before them, in the once lame man, still it seems, at the apostles’ side. Was he, we may wonder, actually arrested with them, or has he been brought before the council this morning?

V15-16:  They send Peter and John out, and discuss what they can do. Their concern is still to oppose and stop the spread of the gospel, and seek to suppress the very Name of Jesus being declared to others, yet they cannot deny the miracle which so many have witnessed.

V17-18:  So, to curb this ” pernicious” teaching, they seek to use the power of the council to” warn them off”, to forbid them to speak or teach in the Name of Jesus any more. Remember, the Jewish people generally were in awe and even fear of the Sanhedrin’s power, and once Peter and John too would surely have quailed before it – but now they know the Lord, and are filled with the Spirit.

Tuesday 15 September:  Acts chapter 4: 5-12.

V5-6:  The next day the Jewish council gathered, the high priest and his family among them. These are the very ones who have so recently condemned Jesus to death, and pressurised Pilate into crucifying Him, remember, and the Sadducees, so bitterly opposed to all Jesus and now His apostles teach, dominate the council.

V7:  They demand to know by what power, in what Name, the apostles have been acting – they constantly demanded this of Jesus, but never accepted what he said, of course. Here the question is a mere strategy – v2 has made it clear they know full well.

V8-10:  Acts constantly reminds us that all the apostles do is because they are filled with the Holy Spirit. In His power, then, Peter replies uncompromisingly, the lame man has been healed and in the Name of Jesus – Jesus the Christ, i.e. the Anointed One, the promised Messiah. This Jesus, they have crucified ( i.e. they were instrumental in what was done ) but God has raised Him from the dead – the very things the Sadducees most deny are boldly asserted before them.

V11-12:  So, they have rejected Jesus, God’s Anointed – and remember Jesus itself means Saviour. Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22, which speaks prophetically of how ” the builders” have rejected the stone on which the whole building depends. The word is variously translated cornerstone or capstone, but in our terms the idea is better conveyed by thinking of the foundation stone – ( see Ephesians 2: 19-21; 1 Corinthians 3:11 ) This Scripture is fulfilled in their rejection of Jesus, but He is truly the foundation on which God’s church is built.  Then comes the great and absolute Gospel claim of v12. Jesus is the only way and source of salvation. God has given no other Name by which sinners can be saved – Jesus is the only Saviour. We too must never give in on this essential truth, must never compromise it – Jesus is the ONLY One who can save us and make us right with God.