Acts 4:23-5:42

Peter and John return to the rest of the believers after having been threatened by the Jewish priests. They report what happened, and everyone begins praying. Lifting up what has just happened and praying for boldness, God answers. The place shakes, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly.

We begin to see how the believers interact with one another. They have a sense of unity that is unheard of among a large group of people. They begin to share everything they have with one another. One example is given of Barnabas, who sells a field he owns and shares it by placing it at the apostles' feet.

Sharing is good, but now we see an example of how it can go wrong. Ananias and Sapphira are married to one another and they too sell property that they own. Similar to Barnabas, Ananias lays money at the feet of the apostles. However, he keeps a portion of the money for himself. I'm not sure if it says this explicitly, but he is sharing it with all by laying it at the apostles' feet as if it were the entire sum of money. So, he is lying to them. Peter somehow knows and catches Ananias for this sin he has committed. It's interesting how Peter mentions how Ananias is lying to the Holy Spirit and later he simply says that this is a lie to God. Peter also mentions how the money and property were owned by Ananias beforehand and were his to do whatever he wanted with. In Peter's eyes, Ananias' actions don't really make sense because Ananias wasn't forced to sell the property or even lay any money at the feet of the apostles. However, this is what Ananias does, and after hearing what Peter says, Ananias falls down and dies.

This story is quite amusing and one that I enjoy very much. If that wasn't enough, Sapphira comes in three hours later not knowing what has just happened. Peter simply asks her about the money, whether the amount that was laid at the apostles' feet was the amount received for selling the property. At this point, she should've confessed and told Peter that they did in fact hold back a portion of the money received for selling the property. However, she doesn't confess and continues this lie that she agreed to do with her husband. Peter responds and it's funny how he says that the very same people who carried away her dead husband would also carry her away. So, she falls down and dies and they carry her dead body away. I didn't really do it justice; you should just read it for yourself.

The next thing that happens is that the apostles perform many signs and wonders. In addition to this, more and more people are beginning to follow Jesus and joining the rest of the believers. With all these signs and wonders being performed, many people are bringing the sick so that they can be healed by the apostles. It's interesting that some even bring the sick to where Peter walks, so that his shadow would by chance touch them. This shows how desperate people are to have them or their friends and family healed. More importantly, this shows the power of God working through the apostles to heal all.

This doesn't please the high priest and his associates. They have to do something about it, so they arrest the apostles and throw them in jail. But apparently, a jail cell can't hold them because an angel of the Lord opens the doors and brings them out of the cell. Arriving at the cells the next morning, the high priest and his associates find everything in order, except that the apostles are missing. But they soon find out that the apostles are in the temple courts teaching people.

The apostles are brought to be questioned. This time, the high priest and his associates are afraid of being stoned, so they do not use force in bringing the apostles. This gives the apostles another opportunity to simply tell their questioners about Jesus. They mention about obeying God instead of men.

The high priest and his associates are upset and want to kill the apostles, but a Pharisee named Gamaliel suggests something to them. He reminds them of other groups that started up but eventually failed. He argues that they will eventually fail if they are simply lead by humans. However, if the apostles are lead by God, then nobody can stop them and to oppose them would be to oppose God. What they end up doing is have the apostles flogged and warn them again not to talk about Jesus.

However, this only makes the apostles happy because they were worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. If you were one of the Jewish Pharisees, you'd be in an interesting situation. It's as if nothing they try even bothers the followers of Christ at all. In fact, their attempts to stop the apostles only further encourage the apostles to preach about Jesus.