1. "The God of the Bible is sovereign, and he can use slaves as evangelists to their captors, just like he can use arrested apostles to bear witness about Jesus in the very temple precincts where they have been ordered not to preach."

2. "Wives, do not submit to your husband if they ever lead you to sin. Don't hide behind some verse of Scripture that tells you to obey your husband when obeying your husband means disobeying God."

3. "The surprise when you reflect on it is really not so much that Ananias and Sapphira died, but that we haven't died. That's the theologically shocking thing for people like you and me encountering a holy God."

4. "In the way we speak of God, we don't believe that casualness is the height of intimacy."

5. "It's good to come to church, but it's even better to come to church for the right reason."

6. "Ananias and Sapphira are a cautionary tale to us of the terrible temptation to fear man more than God. The sin came in wanting to appear one way when the reality was another."

7. "Unlike Judaism and Islam, Christianity was born without a single political expression, and the significance of that distinction is still echoing down the halls of history as we see Christianity appear in nation after nation after nation around the world."

8. "If we lack prosperity or health, it's not because we lack faith. The Bible tells us that these apostles enduring their jailing, the public forbidding, the beating, and then continuing to preach and teach is a sign of their resolute faithfulness, not their lack of faith."

9. "It's been said that there are no closed countries, only countries where it's more difficult to preach your second sermon."

10. "Ananias and Sapphira lied to gain the good esteem of men. Here the apostles accepted terrible suffering for the joy of telling the truth about Jesus to others."

Observation Questions

1. According to Acts 5:3-4, what did Peter say Ananias had done, and to whom had he ultimately lied?

2. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira after Peter confronted each of them about their deception (Acts 5:5, 10)?

3. According to Acts 5:13-14, what two contrasting responses did people have toward the apostles and the church after these events?

4. In Acts 5:19-21, what did the angel instruct the apostles to do after releasing them from prison, and how did they respond?

5. What reason did the high priest give for his anger at the apostles in Acts 5:28, and what was Peter's response in verse 29?

6. According to Acts 5:40-42, what did the Sanhedrin do to the apostles, and how did the apostles respond both emotionally and in their actions afterward?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Peter emphasized that Ananias and Sapphira had lied "to God" and "to the Holy Spirit" rather than simply to the church community? What does this reveal about the nature of the church?

2. The sermon suggests that Ananias and Sapphira's core sin was fearing man more than God—wanting to appear more generous than they actually were. How does this help explain why their punishment was so severe at this particular moment in the church's history?

3. In Acts 5:29, Peter declares, "We must obey God rather than men." How does this statement establish a principle for when Christians should and should not submit to human authorities?

4. What is the significance of the apostles rejoicing "that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (Acts 5:41)? How does this response differ from what we might naturally expect?

5. The sermon notes that miracles in Acts served to validate the apostles' message about Christ's resurrection. How do the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira and the healings that followed both serve this same purpose of testifying to the truth about Jesus?

Application Questions

1. The sermon pointed out that Ananias and Sapphira wanted to appear more spiritually committed than they actually were. In what specific areas of your life are you tempted to project a more impressive spiritual image to others than what is actually true? What would honest transparency look like in those areas?

2. Peter said the couple could have kept their property or given only part of the proceeds without sin—their sin was the deception. How might this distinction change the way you think about your own giving, and what would it look like to give with integrity rather than for appearances?

3. The apostles immediately obeyed the angel's command at daybreak, even though it meant returning to the very place where they had been arrested. What is one area where you know God is calling you to obedience, but fear of consequences has caused you to delay or avoid action?

4. The apostles left their beating "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." When you face criticism, social awkwardness, or loss because of your faith, what typically characterizes your response? What practical steps could help you cultivate joy in such moments?

5. The sermon emphasized that marriage should help spouses follow Christ better, not conspire in sin together. What is one specific way you could encourage your spouse, family member, or close Christian friend toward greater faithfulness to Christ this week—even if it requires an uncomfortable conversation?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Joshua 7:1-26 — This account of Achan's sin and judgment provides the closest Old Testament parallel to Ananias and Sapphira, showing God's serious response to deception within His covenant community.

2. Acts 4:23-37 — This passage immediately precedes the sermon text and shows the context of Spirit-filled generosity in the early church, including Barnabas's example that Ananias and Sapphira were apparently trying to imitate.

3. 1 Peter 4:12-19 — Written by the same Peter who appears in Acts 5, this passage teaches believers how to respond to suffering for Christ's name with joy and faithfulness.

4. Romans 13:1-7 — This passage addresses Christian submission to governing authorities and provides important context for understanding the limits of that submission as demonstrated in Acts 5:29.

5. Hebrews 12:4-11 — This passage explains God's discipline of His children and helps interpret why God would act so decisively against sin within the early church community.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: How Christianity Spread from Jerusalem to the World

II. The Church Faced Internal Opposition Through Hypocrisy (Acts 5:1-16)

III. The Church Faced External Opposition Through Restrictions (Acts 5:17-42)

IV. Application: Patrick's Life as an Example of Faithful, Wise, Joyful Obedience

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Detailed Sermon Outline

In our study of the book of Acts this year, we're considering the question of how Christianity began. We're seeing in Acts, at least through its first few chapters so far, literally the Christian church's first few days and weeks. It began in Jerusalem. And it grew. We come back to the growth of that first church in Acts chapter 5 in just a moment.

At the same time, you may have noticed, I've tried to set Luke's answer in this book of Acts in the context of the larger role that we see that Christianity has grown to play in the world.

I'm sure that you've seen, as you considered Christianity that it goes far beyond simply these 28 chapters. So what we're seeing here is the beginning of what we see in the book of Acts, but of far more than that as well. Now Luke was writing this probably in the 60s A.D. in Rome with the Apostle Paul. Paul was under house arrest there. He would be killed under Emperor Nero in the middle of that decade.

We've mentioned the pilgrims of Pentecost going back to their various lands. You can see those all named in Luke, in Acts chapter 2. You can see them in Libya and Arabia and Crete, Syria. We could go on from there to the list in chapter 2 to those who heard of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ at the Festival of Pentecost themselves seven weeks after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection at Passover. But beyond that, we've considered the ministry of those first Christians who obeyed His disciple as a command to take the gospel to all lands.

And we've named some of them: Paul and James and Peter and Thomas and Bartholomew. And we've considered how Christianity through them spread to Spain and to Armenia and to Babylon and even on into India.

Impressive reach. For that first generation of Christians to achieve. And yet there was still more. By the time of the last apostles, say John, who died at the end of the first century, many parts of the world still had no knowledge of Jesus Christ. So how did they get reached?

Let me just take one small part of the earth as an example, but a part which many here may have some link to. Let's take the land of Ireland.

By the time John dies, no one in Ireland, from what we know, had ever heard of Jesus Christ.

And yet the people there were no less made in the image of God. They're the same as people in Jerusalem or people in Rome. They too were moral beings, they too had sinned, and yet they had no knowledge of the One who had come to save them from their sins. In those first few centuries after Jesus' ascension and the apostles' mission had ended, Ireland had probably a few hundred thousand people living there, largely rural farmers raising barley and rye or herding cattle. The largest city would have been about the population of Capitol Hill depending on how you define it, about 30,000 people with maybe five or ten times that many scattered in the countryside across the entire island.

By the standards of the time, the people were considered wild and lawless. Along the coasts, some of the Irish would build boats and set out to raid the coasts of their more populated neighbor island, Britain. And loot towns and settlements there, sometimes even capturing people and bringing them back to Ireland as slaves. In fact, that is how Christianity would first come to Ireland. The God of the Bible is sovereign, and he can use slaves as evangelists to their captors, just like he can use arrested apostles to bear witness about Jesus.

In the very temple precincts where they have been ordered not to preach. That's our account we find in Acts chapter 5. On page 929 in the Bible's provided, let me encourage you to look at your Bible, whether you brought one with you or you're using the one we provided. And as Dan said earlier, if you don't have a Bible that you can read, please feel free and take this one here if you'll use it as a gift from our congregation to you. Acts chapter 5.

In our passage we see how the church faced opposition. First, internal opposition, hypocrisy, and then second, external opposition, restrictions. First, let's see how the church faced internal hypocrisy. So at Pentecost, we saw in chapter 2, God gave wonders. He gave spectacles of sound.

There was a a rushing mighty wind, and of sight there were flaming tongues that appeared, and speech, people heard the mighty works of God said in their own languages. And these wonders drew a crowd to Peter and became the occasion for his sermon. And then in chapter 3, we see the same thing happening. We see this man who is over 40 years old, who had been for years, probably even decades, at this one gate of the temple lame, sitting there asking for alms, healed. He becomes an immediate billboard for Jesus.

He's an extraordinary sight himself. And because of him specifically, people rush toward Peter and the apostles, and Peter has a platform to preach a sermon and to explain who Jesus is. Well friends, that's what we see going on here in our passage here in chapter 5. These sudden deaths of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, after they worked to deceive the church, act in the same way as the lame man's healing. In fact, there will be healings in a few verses after Ananias and Sapphira are mentioned.

So these wonders taken together, whether the more unusually of death, or more commonly of life and healing, these wonders all give testimony to Christ. Reinforce what Peter had been preaching. Look at Acts chapter 5, beginning of verse 1.

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to man, but to God.

When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in not knowing what had happened.

And Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, Yes, for so much.

But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her. Beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's Portico.

None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever Believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits. And they were all healed.

We'll stop there right now. To put it briefly, Ananias and Sapphira lie and die. You want to know a summary of what goes on, it's a way to remember it. They lie and die. God acts in a strikingly direct fashion in our passage, both negatively and positively, taking life in verses 5 and 10, and then giving life, healing in verses 12 to 16.

He was showing by word and spirit, by Peter's words and by his direct actions of killing and of restoring that his reputation was specially tied up with this group of people in this assembly. This was no ordinary group of people. In that sense, both these healings and the dramatic Achan-like killing of Ananias and Sapphira give testimony to the same thing, that the church both is and is to be holy within itself. Friends, so much we can observe and learn from this sinister plot to lie to God's people. For one thing, it's very simply, wives, do not submit to your husband if they ever lead you to sin like this.

Don't do it. Don't hide behind some verse of Scripture that tells you to obey your husband when obeying your husband means disobeying God. Do not do that. On the other hand, husband, if your wife is trying to lead you into sin, Your love should not cause you to follow her. We enter into marriage to give ourselves in love to each other in order to help each other follow Christ better.

Is that the effect of your marriage on each other? That's the goal for Christians in marriage. That might be a good conversation for some of you to have. On this Valentine's Day weekend. What beyond romance or infatuation has resulted from your union?

What a horrendous unity these two had with each other. Whatever longings for holiness were there, they didn't show themselves in that situation. They conspired together to sin against God by sinning against His church. This story is shocking to us But friends, theologically it shouldn't be. Sin brings death.

We see this from the Garden of Eden to the sin of the unbelieving generation who didn't take the Promised Land as the Lord told them to, even after He delivered them from Egypt, and so they all die in the wilderness, to the story of Achan in Joshua chapter 7, probably the most similar story to this in the Bible. To the account of people in Corinth dying because they were taking the Lord's Supper hypocritically when they shouldn't have. Friends, the surprise when you reflect on it is really not so much that Ananias and Sapphira died, but that we haven't died. That's the theologically shocking thing for people like you and me encountering a holy God. That's the news headline.

And look at the effects this had on people around them. Fear, look at verse 5, great fear came upon all who heard of it. And then again down in verse 11, great fear came upon the whole church and upon all those who heard of these things. Friends, when God is known for who He is, a deep sense of reverence begins to pervade your thoughts of Him, your reading of His Word, you're praying. Even your thinking of your own actions, fear of displeasing God or of His judgment is a sensible response of any sinner to God's goodness because the Scriptures tell us that our God is a consuming fire, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

So in the way we speak of God, we don't believe that casualness is the height of intimacy.

In our times together here at church, we sing happy songs, but we also sing heavy songs, even some songs in a minor key to teach us to have a fuller view of God than even we redeemed sinners naturally do.

Notice, too, that beyond the fear, the people held them in high esteem. Did you notice that? In verse 13. They don't say anything else about that. We just know that even with this thing that had happened, they had a high esteem for the church.

There was no shallow excitement that was bringing people to get involved with this happy, young, growing group. Friends, carnal groups grow like that. Every day of the week, there's nothing supernatural there. No, what's going on that we read here in Acts 5 is extraordinary. It's good to come to church, but it's even better to come to church for the right reason.

At the same time, the people must have had great hope. Look again at that statement there in chapter 5 verse 15.

So that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick, those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. They were all healed. Friends, what does that mean? Well, it means a whole lot of people were healed.

It's the same word we find up, if you look up in chapter 4, verse 32, about them having everything in common. But that everything we read, well, Barnabas still had some property because he sold it. And then Ananias and Sapphira had their property, and Peter specifically says, Hey, you didn't have to sell this. It was yours. So that everything they had in common didn't mean, again, nobody owned a chair or a spoon.

It meant that they all cared for each other and they treated their things as if they were there for the blessing of other people, especially for other people in the church who had need. This is the way the word all is commonly used, not just in Greek but in English too. So when Mark says in Mark chapter 1 that all Jerusalem was going out to see John the Baptist to be baptized, that doesn't mean literally every single individual. No one would read Mark's gospel that way. That's not what it meant.

It meant a whole bunch of people. From Jerusalem were coming out to be baptized by John. That's what this word means. And that's Luke's point here. But even if literally every single individual who was brought out was healed, that would still be consistent with this being an extraordinary testimony to the age of the Messiah and His rule having come.

Christ had just ascended. His Spirit had just been poured out. And so the prophecy of the last days, it's in the book of Joel, that Peter just quoted in his sermon at Pentecost a few days before, it was being fulfilled. This was a day of hope. Amazing things were happening in a special way.

The same God had been God five years earlier, but all this wasn't happening. Nothing inconsistent there, because God was acting in time and he was marking the special action he was taking. I think that's how we're to regard these miracles. Now their uncommonness was all the argument that Scottish philosopher David Hume needed to dismiss miracles altogether. His argument being, if I've not experienced it, it must not be true.

Not really a great argument, but we here this morning who are Christians especially accept the reality of God and therefore are not closed to the idea of his working supernaturally. But is there a reason why such supernatural working would be so prominent in these early chapters of Acts recorded here and so comparatively absent from churches today. I think there is a pretty simple and straightforward reason. Friends, a sovereign God can empower wonders and miraculous signs anytime. I don't think we have anything to be gained by saying God doesn't heal people today.

Yeah, then why do you pray some of the prayers you pray? Of course we believe a sovereign God can and does heal people. But it seems that in the Bible, miracles and signs and wonders are clustered around times of special revelation. Their purpose was to validate the truth that God is revealing at a particular time, whether it's around the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, and when he's giving the Ten Commandments and more of the law, or prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel around the exile, or the teaching of Christ and his apostles. So here in these early chapters of Acts, as the gospel begins to be heralded, God decided to extraordinarily empower the witnesses to the resurrection, the apostles, with works which would vindicate the extraordinary claims they were making.

They were uniquely gifted by God for this task. And there are many lessons we can learn from this, but the main thing we should learn is, I think, from Ananias and Sapphira. And friends, they are a cautionary tale. Not warning us of the dangers of private property, and not warning us of the necessity of tithing 100% of our earnings to the Lord, or you better be careful. Now, the why we give is so much more important than the how much.

Ananias and Sapphira are a cautionary tale to us of the terrible temptation to fear man more than God.

That seems to have been their problem. Peter told them they were not in sin owning their own land. There's no sin there. Peter told them they wouldn't be in sin only giving part of their proceeds to the church. The sin came in wanting to appear one way when the reality was another.

Do you see that? So doing is to regard man and his esteem as more important than God and the truth that He already knows about us.

You may read this and you may think, I would never do anything so terrible as Ananias and Sapphira did. Really?

You've never wanted to be an impressive Christian.

You've never wanted people around you to think anything better than what is actually the truth.

Friend, if you've ever had that temptation, you know exactly the position Ananias and Sapphira were in. And you've felt that tug, that pull to worldly esteem being valued more than the truth that God knows.

When we read these accounts, they should cause us not so much to expect miraculous signs and wonders as a church, but to believe the truth of the apostles' teaching about Christ and His resurrection, and to pray for God to intervene supernaturally in any way He wants to, and give new life to those who are spiritually dead. I pray regularly that our church and other gospel preaching churches in our area will be frequent witnesses of the blessing of God's Spirit, giving new life to those who once were lost and dead in our sins. That's the other response we see here and it's beautiful in verse 14. I don't know if you noticed it, all the conversions. Look again at verse 14.

And more and more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. For in seriousness about sin does not inhibit real revival. It comes with it. Normally, honestly, it comes before it. People have to stop being their casual, careless, happy selves and understand something of the problem, not with the person over there or the people who do that, but they have to be more concerned about the problems in themselves.

In realizing the debt they incur before the Lord, that they incur before the Lord. That's when you're in a place to see God's Spirit move and revival happen that would include you.

This is how the first church faced internal opposition.

How did it face external restrictions? Well, let's look again at chapter 5, beginning of verse 17.

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, 'Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison. And so they returned and reported, We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.

Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. Someone came and told them, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain and the officers went and brought them. But not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council.

And the high priest questioned them saying, 'We strictly charge you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel A teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, 'Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days, Thudus rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men, about 400 joined him.

He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed, came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him, he too perished. All who followed Him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men. Let them alone.

For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God.

So they took his advice. And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

Wow, I kind of just want to keep reading Acts. And it's just an amazing story. Here Luke tells more about the opposition that this first church faced. Only this opposition was external, the high priest and all who were with him. If the first part of the chapter can be summarized by lie and die, I think the second part could be summarized by the simple pair capture and release.

So in the first story in chapter 5, God's actions underscore the truth of Peter's words. Now in the second half, God's actions enable Peter to make more words, to keep speaking, to keep preaching. Even as God had suddenly struck down Ananias and Sapphira, so he brought out the apostles from the public prison they had been locked up in. God uses His Word and Spirit to encourage obedience despite opposition, whether that is opposition in the church or outside the church. Even as the church was to be holy within, and that internal holiness added to the church's witness to the world, so the church is to be a herald without, that is outside the church.

And in this part of the chapter, the surprising thing is not the opposition of the high priest, I mean, it's sad, but the powerful usually use their power to defend jealously themselves, as Luke notes here in verse 17. Remember, these are the very people who just weeks before had literally, in fact, killed Jesus by hanging Him on a tree, as Peter boldly says to their face in verse 30.

Friends, consider for a moment who it was that Peter and the other apostles were facing. They were looking right at the persecutors who had just weeks before crucified Jesus, their rabbi, successfully. A few weeks before Peter was denying that he even knew Jesus to the servants of these people. And now here he is saying all this.

These rulers appear in an interesting light, don't they? I mean, when the lame man was healed, and they knew he was healed, remember? They even commented on that. He's standing there, we can't say, we know he was healed. Everybody knows he was healed.

They don't really care about the truth of it. They care about how they can spin it. And the apostles had been clear that the one responsible for this healing was none other than the recently crucified and now risen and exalted Jesus Christ. So here they are preaching in the very temple courts the exact message that they had just told them a day or two before not to preach.

Friends, Christianity was born in persecution. At Mount Sinai, the Lord forged a nation. In Islam, Muhammad was a conqueror and ruler. But Jesus neither gave legislation nor wielded a sword. Unlike Judaism and Islam, Christianity was born without a single political expression, and the significance of that distinction is still echoing down the halls of history as we see Christianity appear in nation after nation after nation around the world.

I remember reading an interesting article years ago in Commentary by David Gartstein-Ross called When Muslims Convert in which he showed, among other things, how Muslim legal scholars in Canada and in the United States were attempting to build up arguments for Muslims being given license to punish other Muslims for converting out of Islam, including punishing those who would convert to Christianity. And they were basing their arguments on the freedom that they should have to practice their own religion.

But friends, their freedom to practice, as they put it, their own religion would mean for the individual brothers and sisters that we have who have a Muslim background that those Christians would be punished, possibly even killed, because they had converted from Islam. Friends, Christ was familiar with persecution. He was arrested. He was crucified. Again, Peter would write later to some young, discouraged, persecuted Christians, Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.

Christ, the Great Sufferer, the supremely persecuted One, the One who was rich but became poor for our sakes. As Peter had told the Sanhedrin quoting Psalm 118 up in Acts 4, It was predicted that the Messiah would be rejected. So here in Acts chapter 5, in verse 40, for the first time Christ's words about taking up the cross to follow him began to physically impress themselves on his followers. Did you notice that in verse 40? It's so small you could run right past it.

To this point we have no examples of Christ's followers facing physical punishment for being his followers. Some restrained by being put in prison for a day or two, yeah, but nothing more than that. But here begins the long train of those who have followed Christ even through physical mistreatment and suffering. Friends, as a congregation, I pray that God would work three characteristics specifically in us in light of this persecution which has so regularly attended Christian congregations. I pray that God would make this church faithful.

I pray that God would make this church marked by wisdom, canniNess, discernment.

And I pray that God would give us joy, an overflowing joy, which is the fuel for our living the lives that were called to live in Christ. Let's look at each of these and the apostles' responses here in Acts 5. First, they were faithful. I mean, looking in there at verse 17, but the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles. Put them in the public prison.

But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, Go and stand in the temple. Speak to all the people, all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. They did exactly what the angel told them to do in verse 20, Speak to the people all the words of this life. They took it as the command of the Lord himself, which it was.

And it was also exactly contrary to what the Sanhedrin had just told them. Look back in Acts chapter 4, the previous chapter, Acts chapter 4, verse 18.

So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all In the name of Jesus. But what did they do? They just kept teaching. You gotta love the angels' clear instructions here in verse 20. And their clear obedience in verse 21.

I mean, they are in the temple precincts at daybreak. That is alacrity. I mean, they could have waited a little bit. They could have slept in. They'd had a hard day.

The beds in the prison weren't so good, but there they are at daybreak, not missing a moment. Of people being in the temple precincts to hear this good news of life. You might expect the group of men who had denied and deserted Jesus a few weeks before would instead, as soon as they're let out of prison, quietly in the dark, flee Jerusalem, just like they had fled from before the presence of the persecutors a few weeks before. But not now. No, not these apostles now that the risen Christ had appeared to them, that He had taught them the truth about the Scriptures that he had poured out his own spirit on them.

No, they faithfully got right to it. No wonder after all the attempted hindrance by the high priest and his friends here in chapter 5, we read that last verse in the chapter, verse 42, They did not cease preaching and teaching that the Christ is Jesus. Friends, verse 42 would always be a cool verse, but it is a particularly cool verse at the end of this chapter. What a different day we are living in. When Christians are told that if they just confess with their words the situation that they want, that it will manifest itself, it will materialize.

What a lie from hell. We are not the creators. He alone is the creator. And in fact, there are many non-optimal circumstances to our eyes and according to our flesh. That Christians have been called to endure.

Friends, if we lack prosperity or health, it's not because we lack faith. The Bible tells us that these apostles here enduring their jailing, the public forbidding, the beating, and then continuing to preach and teach is a sign of their resolute faithfulness, not their lack of faith. Brothers and sisters, I pray that God would make us faithful like this. And if we are faithful as a congregation, we cannot be surprised if our gospel is offensive to some. And these early Christians were faithful.

Friends, may we be resolved to be so entirely and even recklessly faithful that we will throw away all popularity for the words of God that you are faithful. I wonder what that would look like in our congregation.

What does it look like in your own life?

A second characteristic the apostles show us here in Acts 5 is wisdom. I mean, imagine their situation. Peter and the other apostles had just been hauled in by the temple guards for the second time in two days. They've been marked, branded as it were publicly, as a problem. Just as Jesus had been a couple of months earlier by these very same people.

I mean, how scary would this be for them? I tried to put myself in their place. And as I thought of it, I think it would be a terrifying situation to be in. With that in mind, listen again to beginning verse 27.

When they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charge you not to teach in this name. Yet here you've filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as the leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And we are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Friends, this is the tight spot that they're in. The high priest here is directly and publicly accusing the apostles of disobeying their orders that they had given them back in chapter 4, verse 18, not to teach in this name. That's Jesus' name. And you see their motivating concern.

It's very clear there in verse 28 at the end. You intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Well, yes. I mean, they literally were the individuals, Caiaphas, these are the very people who orchestrated it all. But they are concerned that this not be known.

Turning in the ever shifting winds of being crowd pleasers, we may wonder, how could they deny this? They were the ones who had masterminded Jesus' crucifixion. They had brought it about. But they simply don't want to be publicly known as having done that because they're not really sure how this is going to turn out yet. It's still a couple of months.

The Jesus movement is still big, it's still uncertain in its outcome, and they want to make sure they're not on the wrong side of history. They're sounding a little bit like Ananias and Sapphira, caring more about what people think about them than God who knows the truth. And it's at this point under such great pressure that Galilean uneducated, common fisherman, Peter, shows such amazing wisdom and expressed so compactly there in verse 29. Friends, in some ways you can say verse 29 is the basis of Christian political philosophy. Verse 29, We must obey God rather than men.

Why did I get a text this morning from a friend about the Chinese officials arresting him and harassing him because of this sentence? Friends, this is the sentence and clear implication of which show that there will be no state which will be ultimate ever to a Christian. And then Peter evangelized them again, essentially calling them sinners and saying that they could be forgiven of their sins if they would obey the Lord. Confess, repent, trust in Christ. Friends, if Peter could preach the gospel to the people who just killed Jesus and were threatening him, that gospel is a good gospel for you.

You, if you know yourself to have sinned against God, you can be forgiven of your sins. You can have new life with Christ if you will turn from your sins and trust in Christ. Pray for forgiveness, pray that the Lord would accept you in Jesus' name. Talk to me or any of the other pastors here, talk to the people you came with. You wanna know more about what that would mean in your own life to repent and respond.

Peter here is wisely leading them to reject the temptation to act in a way opposed to the very thing Jesus had instructed them to do back in Acts 1:8 or in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. And as I say in doing this, Peter is giving us the basis for a lot of the reasoning we Christians do as we try to balance competing demands on us. Often the civil government and God will call us to do the same thing. But what about when it's a situation like Peter was facing here? We need wisdom to know what we should do should Christians obey the law of the land?

Yes, unless. That's what Peter is stating here. That's what Roman Theophilus is reading in this book that Luke writes for him. Here's what we as a local group of Christians believe. This is how our statement of faith put it back in 1878 when we were founded and we've agreed and taught it ever since then.

Article 16 of Civil Government. We believe that civil government is a divine appointment for the interest and good order of human society, and that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the prince of the kings of the earth. Brothers and sisters, this is what stops the state from being an idol usurping the place of God. I pray that God would make us wise to navigate the days that he's called us to live in. And just to be extra clear, Gamaliel's statement in chapter 5 verse 39, just to wait and see, is not what we are to do about false teaching inside the church.

That is not a good lesson to learn from this. Sometimes when persecution comes on a church, there's a bit of temptation to kind of circle the wagon, not worry about problems inside, let's just all keep a a front united. But we're to do what we see here in chapter five, advocate at the same time both the holiness of the church and its mission to herald to those outside the wonderful truth about Jesus Christ. Even if the laws of Iran and India, of Turkey and China, of Yemen and North Korea forbid it, because the people that we are speaking to belong more to God than they do to any of those governments. And our commission comes from a higher source than any worldly authority.

It's been said that there are no closed countries, only countries where it's more difficult to preach your second sermon. Here is Peter's example of persevering in the case after laws and even physical beatings. But God gave him wisdom. So after that beating in verse 40, we read, in the last verse and every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. One final characteristic of theirs I want us to share with them, and it's their joy.

I hope you noticed this. In some ways, after you get over Ananias and Sapphira and you kind of understand what's going on there, I think their joy is the most striking thing in this chapter. Let's just pick it up down in verse 33 again.

When they, and that's the high priest and his friends, when they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said, 'The men of Israel, take care what you're about to do with these men. For before these days, Thutus rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400 joined him. He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him, he too perished and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men. Let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

You might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice. And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. The Sanhedrin was not pleased that their clear instructions had been so quickly disregarded and disregarded again, they were furious. And Gamaliel, who we know later is Paul's teacher, Acts 22 tells us that this is the man that Paul learned from as a Pharisee. He cites two other rebellions that came to nothing. For instance, Jesus' crucifixion was so recent they couldn't really know what was going to happen.

So Gamaliel is just saying, Be careful, let's watch and wait. And he mentions these two other revolts that fizzled out. And by the way, if you read Josephus, it is interesting, there were so many messianic movements going on around the time of Jesus. Now, why do you think that is? I think Satan was busy creating a blizzard so there were a bunch of counterfeits to make it harder to tell which was the real thing.

Kind of like the ark at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark. You put it in the warehouse. Just put it right in there with all those boxes. I think that's what was going on. Anyway, at the end of verse 39, it says the Sanhedrin took their advice.

But the way they took it, we read in verse 40, was to beat them. You may have just read over that quickly. It's a short word in English. Maybe you just punch him in the arm or something, you know, maybe smack him in the face. Friends, most scholars think the beating mentioned here is probably the 39 lashes of the whip.

That was all the Sanhedrin had the authority to do without going to the secular authorities. They would have a man take off his upper garments and then kneel down, take a whip of three straps of calf hide, whip him once across the chest, then twice across the back, back to the chest, then back to the back, alternating until they had given him 39 lashes. Some men died from this beating.

And we read here they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. I think of Psalm 34, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. He is near to the brokenhearted. Can you sincerely relish in joining with Christ in the fellowship of His suffering?

What does that mean in your life?

My Christian friend, are you willing to bear the cross? What if it meant bearing an actual flogging like this? Like these early Christians did. How many Christians around the world, literally this very day, perhaps even literally in the hours that we've been in this room, have been experiencing that for following Christ? Some, perhaps even people that we know.

How many people in China or Iran or India? Or from Africa or North Korea or Malaysia.

Even in Latin America, evangelicals many times have risked their lives in order to follow Christ, as they feel they should.

My Christian friend, you must remember that persecution is more normal for many Christians around the world today than our experiences in North America right now. And we might also want to notice that here in Acts 5 it was popularity that brought persecution. If the Christian movement isn't popular, the authorities don't feel threatened. But when they feel threatened, then they act. And friends, guess what?

Christianity, it's a missionary religion. You'll come in on the ground floor, you're told to tell. Tell others. Christianity is a religion that spreads. So, friend, if you are persecuted in whatever way for following Christ, don't forget to pray for your persecutors.

Don't just pray against them, pray for them. Separate them from the spiritual forces of evil behind them. They are each one made in the image of God. Remember that Christ prayed for those who crucified Him. Remember that Paul was once a persecutor of the faith.

Your own pastor who's preaching this message to you used to verbally abuse other Christians for their Christian faith. And yet I bet you there were some people praying for me. And here I am today. These disciples were rejoicing. That they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

I pray that God would make each one of us joyful, that we be marked as a congregation by this kind of joy. Friends, we cannot be surprised if prominence as a church brings persecution.

Theodore Beza wrote to a monarch, Sire, it belongs to the church of Christ, for which I speak, to receive blows rather than to deal them.

But yout Majesty will remember that it is an anvil which has worn out many hammers. Christians and the Christian church will survive until God says it's time. Ananias and Sapphira lied to gain the good esteem of men. Here the apostles accepted terrible suffering for the joy of telling the truth about Jesus to others. Spurgeon said, the good man has his enemies.

He would not be like his Lord if he had not. If he were without enemies, we might fear that he were not friends of God. For James 4:4 says, Friendship of the world is enmity to God. Persevering in obedience, that is hard, comes through a resolution to obey and wisdom in how to obey, and it's rooted in why we obey, joy rooted in why we obey. This is how we see the first church faced opposition internally from hypocrites and externally from restrictions.

So that kind of faithfulness, wisdom and joy that marked Peter and those first evangelists in Jerusalem can be found again and again in those whom God has used especially to spread the good news of Jesus around the world. He did it in the life of one young British boy I want to tell you about here at the very end. So kids, pay attention. If you can imagine being 14 or 16 and captured by pirates, by foreign raiders, and taken to a different land, that's exactly what happened to a little boy in England named Patrick. Patrick's own life was a demonstration of God's power.

His life had four basic chapters. First, back in the days when Augustine of Hippo was writing in North Africa, Patrick was born about 390 A.D. in northern England. And he grew up there in a Christian home. There were Christian homes in England because Roman troops occupying troops. Had brought the good news of Jesus in the second century, second chapter of Patrick's life.

Around ages 16 to 22, Patrick, as a teenager, was captured by Irish pirates, and he was taken to Ireland. And it was actually during this time that Patrick himself was converted and became a Christian. You know how it is. Mom and dad tell you stuff. They mean well.

Goes in one ear and out the other. But then you grow up a little bit, you're a slave in Ireland, you begin to think of what they're saying, and all of a sudden it begins to make sense. You begin to experience trials. You begin to think how important it is that Jesus is a Savior. Well, it was while he was enslaved in Ireland that Patrick really came to believe the gospel about Jesus that he had been taught as a child.

In Patrick's own words, he said, More and more the love of God increased and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew and my spirit was moved. I was 16 years old and knew not the true God. But in that strange land, the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes and although late, I called my sins to mind and was converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God.

Third chapter in Patrick's life. When he's 22, he escapes and he gets back to England. There he became a Christian pastor. And after pastoring his church in the north of England for years, when he's around 40, midlife crisis? I don't know, maybe this is a little old for midlife crisis, but he just keeps thinking, about the spiritual state of those who had captured him.

They're on his mind. He knows them. He can see their faces. And he becomes burdened for the Irish, which at the time, remember, was a completely pagan land. No Christians.

Fourth chapter of Patrick's life. So at age 42, he returned to Ireland. Kevin O'Connor, former intern here, Irish pastor of a Baptist church near Cork, told me that his favorite thing about Patrick is that he came back after he escaped. It's got to be a pretty good country. You've been a slave there, and you come back to it after escaping, because you want to tell them the gospel.

He came back with 12 companions, and he confronted fierce opposition from hostile chieftains and Druids, and it sounds a lot like Peter in Acts 5, facing strong opposition, but he did so with resolution, faithfulness. He did it with wisdom and with joy that allowed his hard obedience to continue. And continue they did. Patrick spent the next three decades evangelizing Ireland, and he and his friends saw thousands come to Christ. He died on, anybody?

March 17th. We think about the year 640. I mean, sorry, 460. Remember it is St. Patrick's Day, according to the earliest traditions we have, like I say, about 460 A.D. Anyway, Patrick's life is simply one of a countless host of people all following in the train of Peter and Paul and Thomas and Bartholomew and of so many whose names we've never heard of people whom the Lord our God has set His love upon and is moved in his all-powerful way to convert and to save and then is directed by his word.

That's how Patrick was liberated spiritually before he was liberated physically. That's how God won his heart to go back and speak to his Irish captors. In Patrick's own words, this is why I cannot be silent, nor would it be good to do so, about such great blessings and such a gift that the Lord so kindly bestowed in the land of my captivity. 'Cause remember, that's where he was converted. This is how we can repay such blessings when our lives change and we come to know God, to praise and bear witness of his great wonders before every nation under heaven.

And friends, that's just a little bit more of the story of how Christianity that began in Jerusalem grew into Rome and Spain and India, how it grew even into Ireland. And that Christianity is still growing today. Even here in the district. Did you know that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the largest religious group in the District of Columbia in the 1980s and the 1990s was the Roman Catholic Church?

But by the 2010 census, the largest religious group were the Baptists, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. I wonder what's been going on.

I wonder if you've been encouraged to trust God in His power, to face persecutions with joy, that counts it an honor, to evangelize, share the gospel with your friends faithfully. The good news of Christ's righteousness given to you, His life given for you by faith, if only you will repent and believe this, is the true good news for you and for those who will follow and will hear and who may never hear if you don't tell them. This pure, confident, joyful, excited obedience marked the life of the earliest church, and I pray that it will mark ours as well. Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for the gospel. We need this fuel of joy. Fill us with your Spirit, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.