Jesus responded by telling them that they would indeed drink of that cup, the cup of death. The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) are nothing if not frightful and puzzling. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea248 and was spending time there. Romans 13:1-4). After the resurrection of Christ and the birth of the church, the church (and the apostles) were held in high regard by the masses. It is the people, the masses, the Jews as a whole, who seem to have changed in their attitude toward the church. The death of James and the deliverance of Peter is another lesson in the sovereignty of God. There is little chance of such flattery as we see here, but there is a great possibility of boredom. 246 I am often involved in prison ministry, and so let me say a word or two about “escapes.” This text does not sanction escapes. Thus, the decision of the Sanhedrin in Acts 5 seems to stand. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared” (NIV). This verse-by-verse Bible study and commentary of The Acts of the Apostles ("the Book of Acts" or simply "Acts") is in-depth but uses plain language that everyone can understand, as well as a format that will engage you. Should an Unbeliever Partake of Communion? In Mark 14:1-2 a similar matter is mentioned. Many Gentiles will be saved, but few Jews. It was the leaders of the nation who opposed Him. Peter is sound asleep when the angel appears and hardly awake until after the entire incident is over. One would think from the evidence of the gospels that Jesus had a very significant role and ministry for each—and He did, but not as we would have supposed. I can assure you that what I did was sneaky, and not bold. They were willing to believe that Peter’s “angel” had appeared after his death, but they were not willing to believe that God’s angel had delivered him from death. The time for repentance was past. This is the last straw, for now virtually every segment of the society of Jerusalem has rejected Jesus and His church. He realized that his escape was God’s deliverance—from the evil intent of Herod and from the expectations of the Jews. Includes lessons about the kingdom of Christ, church organization and worship, examples of conversion, the nature and purpose of miracles, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Peter was not sitting up, awake, with black-saucered eyes, agonizing about the events of the next day. He is acting on his own initiative and for his own purposes. The death of James and the deliverance of Peter are surely meant to be understood in conjunction with the surrounding context. There is nothing mechanical about the Christian life. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. As a much wiser king said, A man who flatters his neighbor Is spreading a net for his steps (Proverbs 29:5). A Bible study lesson series about the beginning of Christianity as revealed in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And yet Peter wanted to know about John’s death, about what God had purposed for John. It was not the Sanhedrin that was in charge here, in my opinion. They saw Jesus as a threat to their position, wealth, and future. This expression “mistreat” is only found elsewhere in Acts 7:6, 19, of Pharaoh’s mistreatment of Israel, and in 1 Peter 3:13. James was dead. 8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. In Acts 6 the torch of opposition to the church is taken up by yet another group, those who were Hellenistic Jews. Both in John’s case, and now with James, the “sword” was misused by men in a position of power, to achieve their own purposes. While it was God’s purpose for James to die, and thus to glorify Himself, it was His will to rescue Peter, and thus to bring glory to Himself. Luke’s When we look at the accounts in Acts of believers receiving the Holy Spirit, do we see consistency? This only served to intensify his efforts, but this does not seem to be the cause for his actions in the first place. Now, it was not the Pharisees but the Sadducees who took up the torch of opposition to Jesus. Peter, James, and John, along with some of the other disciples, went fishing, with no success. We know that two are chained to Peter. The people of Tyre and Sidon were very eager to appease the wrath of this king, for their own benefit. The angel left Peter standing in the street. The chief priests and scribes wanted to kill Jesus but not during the feast lest the people riot. That privilege was saved for James. Both were written by Luke, a physician who traveled with the apostle Paul. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. They believed in the resurrection of the dead and miracles and heaven and hell. They wanted status, and Jesus granted them suffering, for in this was glory. He wanted them to know that he was safe, thanks to God’s intervention, and that he was going to drop “out of sight” for a time. The dating of the book of Acts is important because Acts was written after Luke. It is another to be condemned and not even know what happened, or what part you had in it all. We do not know what the church prayed for,242 but we do know that the church prayed fervently. It is one thing to get caught doing wrong and to have to suffer the consequences. First, the angel came into the room (cell) and turned on the light—a very bright light. Their interpretations of the Old Testament were the basis for much that the Pharisees practiced. Peter participated, but he did not plan nor produce the escape.246. At other times then men actually saw the supernatural hand of God, but not the at the release of Peter. He did his best to win the favour of the Jews and especially cultivated the Pharisees.” I. Howard Marshall, The Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprint, 1987), p. 207. 102. Have you ever heard a politician’s speech which would tempt you to say that the speaker was a god and not a man? The unwitting effect is that the church is disbursed, and the gospel is proclaimed abroad. Peter is the human main character in the first 12 chapters, Paul in the second part from chapter 13.The geographical centre of the first part is Jerusalem, of the second Antioch, where the … Peter is in prison, heavily guarded. God will deliver His saints from evil men, and He will deliver evil men to eternal judgment. Why not? There will be a remnant saved, but only a small segment of the Jews, during this time of the Gentiles. They were called to give an account of the previous night by Herod, and they suffered from a divinely imposed amnesia. Not that Peter passes from the scene by virtue of his death, but he passes from the scene by virtue of his absence. If all is well that ends well, then all is well here. The Sadducees were the “establishment” of that day, the pragmatists who got ahead in life by collaborating with the Romans and by cutting corners with God’s Law. Therefore, when a church begins to dwindle, lose its power, and turn dull and drab in its witness, it needs desperately to get back into the spirit, expectation, knowledge and teaching of the book of Acts. Up to this point in time, the gospel continued to be proclaimed in Israel. What a commentary Acts 12 provides us on the words of John, recorded in the last chapter of his gospel. Here are some of the details that Luke gets right in Acts that cannot be derived from Josephus. 237 “Eusebius (HE 2.9.2-3) preserves the tradition from the seventh book of Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes that the officer who guarded James was so impressed by his witness the he professed himself a Christian and was beheaded along with him.” F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), p. 234, fn. I do not think the guards were merely asleep, for there was too much happening that night which should have awakened even the sleepiest person. 210-211. Eventually Paul spoke highly of Mark and urged that he be sent to him (2 Timothy 4:11). The best that an evil man can do is to pretend to be bold (Proverbs 21:29). It seems to be only a matter of time before he is killed as well. Herod, not due to the pressure of the Jewish religious leaders, but by his own initiative, goes after the apostles and seeks to destroy the church. This was, to some degree, the result of the fact that the Pharisees believed (at least in principle) the things which the church did. In a sense, they were restricted to prayer. If Acts was written in, say, A.D. 60, this would mean the Gospel of Luke was written before that period and would add credence to the claim that the gospels were written early, close to the events, by the eyewitnesses. He was not, in many ways, much of a king. A natural crossing between correctly named ports. Acts is designed to trace the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Antioch to Rome. The angel appears (unseen) boldly, virtually ignoring the guards. But in Acts 5, there is another transition in the opposition to the church. John then goes on to explain that some misunderstood Jesus’ words, thinking He had indicated that John would not die. James wrote no books; John authored five. And thus they played the game of politics to the hilt. We’ll also attempt to date the NT books, the deaths of the 12 Apostles (the disciples And little did they realize the privilege and glory in so doing. And so these men experienced the death by the sword to which Peter was sentenced and which they were to play a part in executing. Unfortunately, Biblical writings do not always contain clear chronological markers, and there is a range of opinion on when Acts was written. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. But it is a very fitting conclusion to this incident. Ananias /ˌænəˈnaɪ.əs/ and his wife Sapphira /səˈfaɪrə/ were, according to the Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, members of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. The book of Acts also describes the work of the two apostles Peter and Paul. “There was no small disturbance among the soldiers.” It was sheer panic. But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. Peter and James were both arrested by Herod, who intended to kill both. in 1971. If so, he did not want to suffer the same measure of embarrassment by losing his prisoner. Peter could not be found, and no explanation could be found either. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.” 21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. In spite of this one outburst of opposition from the Jews as a group, Jesus was generally highly regarded by the people.
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