Don't miss church

Chapter 5

Have I mentioned that Acts is action-packed with crazy stuff?

Everyone in this early church is giving of their own possessions so nobody goes without. One couple, Ananias & Saphira, sell some land and bring some of the money to the church. This is not a problem, except that they say that it is all of the money for the land (they lie).

v.3 - Peter equates their spirit of materialism and lack of generosity with being controlled by Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit. WOW! You don't hear that too much in church today. Can you imagine confronting someone about not tithing with, "you're acting like Satan would"? I don't know how Peter knew that Ananias was lying, but I presume the Holy Spirit revealed this to him. Also, note the connection between sin and death. Ananias lied (sin), so he died (death). This is not God being unfair to Ananias (and later Saphira), it's a reminder of how merciful He is to everyone else. Many people think God is scary - there is truth to that. It's a healthy fear that leads to obedience and righteousness - not a cowering in the corner fear.

This is what I mean with the title of this post: can you imagine the talk on Monday?

Joe: Aw, man, where were you yesterday?

Bob: We overslept, why? Did something happen at church?

Joe: You didn't hear?!! Peter killed some people!

Bob: I figured he'd do something like that...he's a hot-head.

Joe: Actually, he didn't do it, but they just dropped dead in front of him.

Bob: Do I know them?

Joe: Yeah! It was Ananias and Saphira.

Bob: Really? I thought they were on board with stuff. I heard they sold their land and gave the money to the church?

Joe: Well, not exactly.

Bob: Man, I shouldn't have missed church.

Joe: By the way, you better be telling the truth from here on out.

v.5 - Fear of the Lord - Proverbs 1:7 says The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. After Ananias drops dead in front of everyone, it says that great fear seized everyone. I'm not sure that's all bad. This is the beginning of the Church and I think it would be healthy to be serious about obedience from the get-go. Can you imagine the obedience level of that church after this event? Compare that to the obedience level of the average church-goer today. Pretty much nobody fears God today.

v.11 - First time the word "church" is used in the New Testament.

vv.12-16 - once again, there is this very common association between physical healing and the proclamation of the Gospel. It's hard to deny this. God wants to "put things to right" - whether its physically or spiritually or relationally.

v.20 - "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." When I read this verse, I thought, "THAT is what we should do when it comes to sharing our faith (or what the church calls "witnessing"). Succinct, but perfect.

v.29 - When told to shut up about Jesus, Peter counters with this genius line: "We must obey God rather than men!" I cannot imagine how our church(es) would be different if this was our mantra and we followed this. See Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:14 and Proverbs 29:25 are all on board with aligning with God over men.

v.41 - Another great line: The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. I cannot even imagine this in my mind. You've just been flogged (as a reminder, flogging is when they whip you in the back and rip out your skin/flesh), and you are rejoicing?!!! When I have to suffer in some minor, insignificant way, I don't feel honored that I got to suffer - I develop a "woe is me" attitude, as if I'm some martyr or God is turning His back on me. I can't even get my mind around this one.