Don’s Daily Devotions

Saturday 26 September: Acts 5:39b-42:

V39b:  So they take Gamaliel’s advice – though only up to a point, for…

V40:  …they have the Apostles beaten ( unlawfully, for they have faced no charges ), forbid them again to speak in the Name of Jesus ( which has proved a fruitless demand 3 times already ) and let them go.

V41:  Leaving the council, they rejoice that they have been ” counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the Saviour’s Name.” They count the beatings as nothing in His cause, rather see it as a privilege, a blessing, to suffer for His sake. ( so, Matthew 5:11-12.)  Would this be our response? How far we seem to be from this in experiencing even minor opposition in these days.

V42:  And they simply continue their gospel witness, and their proclamation that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Messiah, doing this every day, both in the temple and “from house to house” – the beginning of ” door-to door evangelism”?  So, all attempts to suppress the gospel come to nothing, then and ever since, for this is ” the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” ( Romans 1:16.) and it will never be defeated. May we never lose our confidence in this mighty gospel, or our commitment to its spread, under the sovereign hand of God.

Friday 25 September :  Acts 5: 33-39a :

V33:  Enraged by the Apostles’ teaching and testimony, we are told for the first time that the council seek to kill them, as their rage and malice grow.

V34:  But a wise and highly regarded teacher of the law, a Pharisee named Gamaliel – we learn in Acts 22:3 that Paul had once been his pupil – asks for the Apostles to be put out of the room while he addresses the council.

V35-37:  He advises them to be cautious in how they treat the apostles, reminding them of other “popular movements” in recent years which had for a time an enthusiastic following, whose leaders have claimed ” to be somebody” – perhaps Messianic pretenders –  yet the risings they lead came to nothing, and they were executed.

V38-39a:  He argues that this was because their movements were merely human, God was not in them. So he advises to leave the Apostles alone – for if their ” movement” – the teaching and claims of Christ which they declare – is merely of man then it too will come to nothing.But if it is of God, they will not be able to overcome it, but will be fighting against God. 2000 years on, despite all the world and the Devil seek to do against the church it has still not been overthrown, nor ever will be, for this is indeed the work of the living God.

Thursday 24 September: Acts chapter 5:25-32

V25:  They then hear how the men they have arrested and put in prison for preaching about Christ are back in the temple, doing the self-same thing.

V26:  So, temple guards are sent again to bring them before the council – but they will not use force, for fear of the people, who at this time hold the Apostles in high regard and even awe ( v11 and 13.)

V27-28:  Brought before the council ( if more gently ) they are angrily rebuked by the High Priest for doing the very thing he has forbidden, and ” filling Jerusalem” with their teaching about Jesus, and declaring their guilt in His crucifixion. Of course, all their efforts to stop the spread of the gospel will and must come to nothing! Let this be our confidence still today.

V29:  Peter and the others ( he is still the main spokesman, it seems ) reply just as they have in ch 4:19 – they must obey God rather than men. So, when human authorities seek to usurp the place that is God’s alone Christians must obey His Word, whatever the consequences. ( So Mark 12:17.)

V30-31:  Forthright and uncompromising, Peter declares again how these Jewish leaders were instrumental ( humanly ) in  crucifying Jesus. To hang on a tree is of course the “accursed death” in the OT ( Deuteronomy 21:23) But in Galatians 3:13, Paul explains that so Christ bore the curse for us, that we might be delivered. God has raised up and now exalted the One brought so low in His redeeming death to His own right hand ( the place of honour ) and made Him ” Leader and Saviour”, ( compare Hebrews 12 :2.) who alone can bring men to repentance and faith, and forgive their sins.

V32:  Again, the emphasis on the Apostolic witness, on which the truth of the gospel rests – a witness endorsed and enabled by the Holy Spirit Himself, given to the believers. ( ch 1: 8.)

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.