Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: They throw them into prison, Peter and John, but the Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and said, "Go, stand and speak in the temple." Don't you love this? They put them in prison, but the prison doors just kind of open up.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador says the gospel will always be news. Too good not to share.

Brett Meador: And where do they go? Right back out preaching to the people. I like how these guys are busy sharing the truth. In the days you and I are living, we should be champions of the gospel.

Guest (Male): The early church was flourishing in Acts chapter five as many came to know the Lord. Miracles abounded as the gospel was boldly proclaimed. However, Satan attempted to stop the growing power of the church with attacks from both within and without. Yet, despite the enemy's best attempts, Pastor Brett Meador demonstrates how God's truth in today's world will always prevail.

Brett Meador: Let's take a look at this whole chapter in the context of what we looked at. The first section of this chapter, I'm going to break this chapter into six chunks. The first thing we're going to call this is verses one through eleven, "The Hypocrites Altering the Truth."

Take a look at verse one. "But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession." Remember their names? God is gracious and beautiful. They walk into the church. Now verse two. It says they sold the possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

But Peter said, "Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land?" Notice just a couple of things here. Number one, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was energized by Satan. But number two, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was motivated by pride. They wanted to be esteemed by others. That's why they were making up this lie.

Verse four. "And while it remained, was it not your money?" he said. Peter goes on. "Was it not your own? In other words, you could have done whatever you wanted with that money. You were free at that point. And after it was sold, was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."

And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose and wound him up in grave clothes and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.

And Peter answered her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yea, for so much." So he gives her an opportunity. "Did you sell it for as much as Ananias said?" She said, "Yes, I did." Well, no, it's the lie. Verse nine.

Then Peter said unto her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out." Then she fell down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things.

What a sad thing. God is gracious, but God is also righteous. That's Ananias's name, "God is gracious," but don't forget he's also righteous and holy. Sapphira, her name means "beautiful," but there was an ugliness on the inside of her pride and hypocrisy. It is a good lesson to remind us to not play-act or play games with God.

We're supposed to point to the truth, and these people were bringing their lies into the church. The Lord says, "I'm not going to let that happen at the beginning." There was such a beautiful act of the Lord going on, and the Lord says, "I'm going to make sure this precedent is set."

Satan right here was trying to get a little foothold in the early church with Peter and John, and he was going to use Ananias and Sapphira to do it. Hopefully, none of us are allowing the enemy to get a stronghold or a foothold in the Church of Jesus Christ. We're supposed to be the pillar of truth, God's army, doing the work of God and pointing to Jesus Christ.

Well, so that's the first section of this chapter, the hypocrites altering the truth. But now in the next section, verses 12 through 16, we have "The People Accepting the Truth." We see that in verse 12. It says, "And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch."

After the death of Ananias and Sapphira, they pick back up. Now the apostles, we just saw Peter in chapter four heal the crippled guy. A miracle. Now we're going to see the pedal to the metal with the miracles. Everyone's going to get healed here in a minute. This is pretty radical.

But I want you to note the little parenthetical statement at the end. "And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch." In the second temple period, that is when Herod the Great remodeled the temple, it was a covered area with pillars, tons of pillars, on the temple mount. Just before getting into the Court of the Gentiles on the eastern side of the temple.

You say, okay, whatever, what's the big deal about Solomon's porch? Many things happened on Solomon's porch that are important. Solomon's porch in John 10:23, remember on a winter festival, feast of dedication, which is Hanukkah, Jesus was in Jerusalem and declared himself to be the Light of the World, and he did that on Solomon's porch.

It is where Peter and John healed the crippled man. It's where they went right after he was healed. This is the operative thing: it's where the early church would meet up and meet in large groups out on Solomon's porch. It was a gathering place for believers in Jerusalem, and it would be that all the way to the diaspora in AD 70 when the Jews would be kicked out of Jerusalem. Solomon's porch was the place where the Christian church really hung out by the multitudes.

So what happened? It goes on in verse 13. It says, "And the rest durst no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." Now, this is just a couple of verses that explain how things are going.

Notice they were unified, number one. There in verse 12, it says they worshipped with one accord in Solomon's porch. There was a unity that was there. Jesus prayed "Oh that they might be one," and this was a good season right now where they're all unified.

Notice it says they were magnified there in verse 13. "And the rest durst no man join himself to them." In other words, if you were not a Christian, you wouldn't go hang out with them. There's a reason why. It's because there was a holiness. Did you see what happened there in verse 11? Great fear came upon all the church and upon many as heard these things.

There was a rumor out there in Jerusalem that you'd better be squared away or don't join them because you might get kicked over dead like that Ananias and Sapphira. There was a holy reverence even in the unsaved. So that's what this says when it says "the rest," unbelieving people in Jerusalem didn't dare join himself to them because the word on the street was you could die if you joined that church and you're not part of the church.

That's kind of interesting. Then it says that they were magnified, the people magnified them. Now you say, that sounds like they're doing something bad. Well, this is an unfortunate translation. I think some of your newer translations said more accurately they were held in high esteem.

The idea is that the outsiders looked into the church like, "Wow, these people are kind of amazing." They're not weirdos, but people thought even if they were an unbelieving person they thought, "Wow, look at these Christians," or they were called "The Way." Look at these people in Solomon's porch and they're squared away. Does the world look at the church today and say, "Wow, there's a bunch of squared-away people"? Not as much, but that's what's going on here in the early church.

Then thirdly, the notion is they were multiplied, multitudes both of men and women. They were added and then they were multiplied. We see all of that. If you remember sneak preview Acts chapter six, the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. That is what we see whenever the word is taught: the church multiplies.

Notice when it says "none of the rest dared join them." I think the idea is maybe they had a good reputation of integrity. Everybody knew it was a serious thing to be a follower of Jesus. Does the world know that to be a follower of Jesus, it's a serious thing? The Ananias and Sapphira incident would reduce the level of casual commitment.

Do you ever wonder, do we have too many casual commitments like, "Yeah, yeah, God bless America, so I'm a Christian"? No, that's not what makes you a Christian. We need people that are faithful Christians. People that really do repent of their sins, accept Christ and believe. And know that they're saved by grace through Christ alone.

Once they become a Christian, that reality sets in and their lives start to change. It is another thing too to have a fervor and a reverence for the Lord. I hope we're lighthearted. I hope we're loving, kind, compassionate, but I hope there's also kind of that healthy fear of the Lord and that maybe the world when they look from the outside in thinks, "Wow, there's something different about those people." That's the goal.

Now, there's a thing here too that I want to point out before we move on. It is a phrase here where it says there in verse 14. It says, "And the believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." This is where there's a little different phrasing. In other sections we've seen "added to the church daily such as should be saved."

But here it says "added to the Lord," not to the church or to a person. They weren't added to Peter's ministry or to even a movement. They weren't added to "The Way." It doesn't say that, but God added them to himself and they were added to the Lord in multitudes. I think there's just a perspective there that I was wanting you to see that it's not all about necessarily adding to the church numbers. It's that people are coming to know the Lord and have a relationship with the Lord.

Verse 15 goes on and it says, "In so much that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one." Isn't that something? Every single one of them was healed.

This is an interesting thing. So if a sick person was on the street and Peter's shadow touched them, would they be healed? Now this is where we have to be careful. I'm one who believes in the miracles. When the Bible states the miracles of the Bible, I just believe the miracle.

When there was the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus expanded the bread and the fish and somehow miraculously fed the five thousand. It wasn't the miracle of kindness, people pulling bread out of their sleeves and saying, "Okay, let's share our food." There were twelve baskets left over. I believe in miracles.

But I also would say let's be careful not to over-exaggerate what the Bible is saying, and the language is kind of important. There's a couple of examples I could think of. This is one of them. When Peter's shadow passed over people, did they get healed? I don't know the answer to that.

What it says here is people gathered and laid themselves on the street hoping that when Peter walked by that his shadow might cross over them with the implication that maybe they'd get healed by his shadow. Was that something real that actually happened? I really don't know. It could have. Can God heal with a shadow? Sure.

When the Bible is not saying that's exactly what happened, it says that's what they wanted. If we could just lay on the street then maybe Peter will walk by and maybe even his shadow. There's another one that's like this that I think is mistaught sometimes. Here's a question. Did Jesus sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane?

There are whole sermons preached on hematidrosis, that Jesus was in this condition of sweating great drops of blood. I get why people thought that, but if you carefully look at the language of the Bible, and really it's mentioned in Luke 22:44 where it says, "And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground."

The "as it were" there, by the way, and if you look at it in the original Greek language, it's still there. The idea is it's a simile. Remember metaphor and simile and all that stuff? This is an intentional simile, "as it were." The Greek "as it were" is actually a single word that means like or as or as though, which is the idea of a simile. "Hosei" is the Greek word used for that.

So could it have been actual blood? Maybe. Maybe Jesus really did sweat great drops of blood, but the Bible doesn't say that. It says he sweat what looked like great drops of blood. Could it have been giant beads of sweat rolling down his face? Maybe. But be careful. I want to be as accurate as we possibly can when we read the Bible and that's why I think it's important to say, "Did Peter's shadow heal people?" People hoped that his shadow would heal people.

But here's the good news. Everybody that was there ended up getting healed. And by the way, God can use silly things in our minds to do good things to our bodies. I kind of wonder about the spit and mud thing when Jesus used spit and mud. Was there power in the spit and mud? Or was there just power in Jesus?

Jesus used spit and mud. Why would he have used spit and mud? A couple of reasons. One is because they thought them to be medicinal. Maybe Jesus is saying, "Guess what you guys, you can use medicine if you want but ultimately I'm the one who heals." Maybe that's the statement.

Does God use points of contact in healing? Yes. Objects even? Yes. What about anointing oil? If you come and have the elders pray for you and anoint you with oil, which the Bible says if anybody is sick among you, do that. Is there power in the anointing oil? I believe the Bible uses those points of faith to say we're going to use these.

It is almost like James 5:14, "If anybody is sick among you let them call for the elders and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil." So the oil is more of a representation of what God is going to do. It's a point of faith, kind of saying "Hey we believe that the Holy Spirit, oil, can work through any of us and God can give a gift of healing."

Sometimes you might put it this way: God uses a noun—a person, place, or thing—for an outlet to show us that faith, as a verb, putting our faith into action. Sometimes the Lord will use other people to bolster your faith or an object like oil. Or maybe even them putting their friends on the street where the shadow's going to go.

The Lord says, "Okay, it's not in the shadow, but I'm going to use that." They had faith to bring their buddy and set him in the street, and I'm still going to heal all of them. So God would honor those that were seeking healing, maybe even from Peter's shadow, but I wouldn't die on that battlefield saying for sure. Does that make sense to you guys? Let's be careful how we rightly divide the word.

But everyone—I love verse 16. It says they were healed, every one of them. Does the Lord heal people every time? Yes and no. God heals every time, but different timings, different ways. Sometimes he heals immediately. It seems like these people were that category. They got healed immediately through the ministry of Peter and John and the gang. Everyone was healed. That's a miracle.

But it's also a miracle if somebody progressively is healed, naturally with the healing of the body. If you cut yourself, isn't it a miracle how you bleed and you put a Band-Aid on, and hopefully in a few days it's kind of crusted over and then eventually the crust kind of goes away and bada-bing, your skin is as good as new? That's a miracle, too. That's God who made that healing process.

So you're either healed immediately, miraculously, or progressively through natural healing or medicine or doctors or surgery. The Lord can do that. Or ultimate healing when you die and you go to heaven. That's going to be the ultimate healing. So yes, God heals every time.

But if you think he heals every time in the miraculous way, there's churches who have purported that if you have enough faith you will be healed every time. And if you're not being healed of your cancer, well, must not be enough faith in the room here. It puts a guilt trip on people.

But what do you tell Paul when the Lord said stop praying for your infirmity of the flesh because you're not going to get healed right now of that, so stop praying for that? Why didn't Paul say when Timothy had a stomach issue, "Be healed in the name of Jesus"? No, he said, "Hey, Timothy, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake." Was wine medicinal for the stomach? It was thought to have been.

So all that to say, don't fall into this thing where you'll be healed every time if you have enough faith and if your cancer's not going away, well, you must not be really that great of a Christian. That's what happens and I've seen that. It's ugly. Don't fall for that.

So we have number one the hypocrites altering the truth, Ananias and Sapphira, verses 1 through 11. The people accepting the truth now and they're being healed because of that in 12 through 16. But that brings us to the third section, "The Council Attacking the Truth" now in verse 17.

It says there, "And the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees." Does anybody remember why they're "Sad-you-see"? Because they don't believe in the resurrection. Or miracles, by the way. Miracles or the resurrection, they don't believe in those. So it says they were there with the Sadducees and were filled with indignation. Now they're "Mad-you-see."

Anyway, verse 18. "And they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in common prison." Does this ring a bell? We were there just a couple chapters ago where they were thrown in jail because of this same thing. This is like a repeat story. So they throw them into prison.

Verse 19. "But the Angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, 'Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.'" Don't you love this? So the "Mad-you-sees" are there, they put them in prison, but the prison doors just open up.

These Sadducees, their whole world's crumbling around them. Do you understand this? Because they don't believe in the resurrection and they don't believe in miracles, and yet all the sick people in Jerusalem are healed now. What are you going to do?

When truth comes in, sometimes you run out of space. You paint yourself into a corner, and that's where the Sadducees are. That's why they're desperate. They're going to throw them in prison. That's what happens sometimes when people are lying for so long and then the truth comes out. We see people healed and running around happy and good things are happening, but the Sadducees are running around throwing them into prison. And now it's even worse because the prison doors don't even stay shut.

And where do they go? Right back out preaching to the people. This is really embarrassing for these Sadducees right here. So verse 21 says, "And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught." What were they going to do?

Verse 20: "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." Don't you love that? All. Greek word "pas." All the words of this life. And when they heard that from the Lord, basically what did they do? Did they go home and take a nap after being in prison all night? They got busy.

Don't you love this? They didn't procrastinate. I wonder if some of us would have said, "I've been in prison, I deserve a break today, I'll go home, and then I'll go maybe in mid-morning." Why procrastinate today when you could procrastinate tomorrow? I feel like that's sometimes the attitude we as Christians have, but they had a rough night in jail but then they went right back out and preached all the words of life.

I think that's a huge thing. Christians are not procrastinators. We're not supposed to be, especially when it comes to proclaiming the words of this life. A farm boy accidentally turned his horse-drawn cart that was filled with hay over. Cart flipped over and hay went everywhere.

One of the neighbors saw it and said, "Oh, man, come on, son. Come on in and have some dinner. I'll help you afterwards get your cart back up again." The boy, he wanted to get the cart up right away. He was busy trying to get the cart up right away. And they said, "I know your dad, don't worry, he'll understand. I'll help you after dinner."

But after a lot of back and forth, the boy reluctantly went in and had dinner. But some time passed, the boy got a little anxious and he said, "Man, sir, I need to get out there and get that cart up right. My dad's going to kill me." The guy said, "I'm sure it'll be fine. Where is your father anyway?" And the boy said, "Under the cart."

Do you know that people are headed for destruction, death, and hell? But people are like, "We're busy just kind of chilling out while people are really dying and not being saved." And I get a sense of urgency more than ever in the days you and I are living. We should be champions of the gospel and not sitting around thinking, "Well, maybe we could preach the gospel. Why preach the gospel today when you can preach the gospel tomorrow? Or I'm going to wait for the perfect opportunity." But I think we need to be a little more proactive. I like how these guys are busy. They're just busy about sharing the truth.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflecting on the example in Acts chapter five of the disciples of the first church to spread the word of God's truth despite the enemy's attempts to disrupt. And we hope you'll be along as our verse-by-verse study of the book of Acts and today's word continues. And also stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment.

But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

All right, Pastor Brett is with me now. And we have talked many times about your teaching style of preaching verse-by-verse through the Bible. What impact in people's lives have you seen by teaching straight through God's word?

Brett Meador: I have to admit there's times when I reach a certain book of the Bible, I think "Oh boy, I wonder how the church is going to receive this book." But every single time, without fail, that passage ministers to our congregation. People come up to me after the service saying, "Pastor Brett, who told you what I was going through at this time?" And it's because that scripture specifically spoke into their heart.

I just found that even in the minor prophets or wherever you might be in the Bible, I've had even people say, "Brett, you teach through Leviticus?" And I say, "Absolutely, yes." And our church—one of our biggest growth spurts in our church was when I was teaching through Leviticus.

And it's because the word of God is, in fact, living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And people are starving for the full counsel of God, not just our favorite passages, but the whole book. "Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it's written of me." That's speaking of Christ. So, that's why we love it: every book of the Bible.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Brett, for explaining why going verse-by-verse like you do is never a bad idea. Well friend, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, you can just go to our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well next time, Pastor Brett will share how the apostles faced imprisonment and persecution from none other than the religious leaders of their day. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.