After the arrest of Peter and John and the prayer meeting that followed their release, the Early Church in Jerusalem became much stronger. The news of the lame man that had been healed, not only boosted the church’s faith but spread all throughout Judea as a witness of the disciples of Christ’s power. Despite all of the good that the Early Church was performing, they did fail in obeying one command from Jesus:

The Early Church was now in “one heart” and of “one soul.” The church members in their zeal to give everything to God, also sold all that they had and “had all things common.” The giving of everything to God was commendable and part of the reason for the great power and growth, but living together and remaining in Jerusalem was not the will of Jesus Christ for His disciples. Remember, Jesus had commanded them to “go ye therefore and teach ALL nations” (Mattthew 28:19). The early church was not to stay in Jerusalem but to go forth throughout the world and teach them. Through this lesson and the next we will see the how the hand of God used circumstances to encourage the Early Church to completely obey His command. Let us remember today as Christians under Grace that it is easy to be zealous to fulfill the part of the scripture that brings a blessing to us, but we must obey ALL of the scriptural commandments, including the one about teaching everybody the commandments of Jesus. Even today, the most often broken commandment of spirit-filled believers is in telling and teaching others about what God has commanded and given. Witnessing and winning someone else to God is just as important as water baptism and paying tithes. James the brother of Jesus wrote a letter to the Early Church and summed up the importance of doing good:

There is a difference between sins of commission and sins of omission. To sin a sin of commission, you have to ACT. Lying, adultery, murder, and gossip are all examples of sins of commission. But sins of omission do not require any action. In fact they are a result of not doing something that the person knows that they should do. The reason that many “Christians” are powerless, faithless, and seem to live on a spiritual roller coaster is because of sins of omission in their life. Perhaps they know to forgive but choose to not do so. Maybe they know they should pay tithes but decide to manage their money in an un-Biblical manner. Unfortunately the most common sin of omission today is lack of soulwinning. Teaching someone else the importance of Biblical Salvation renews and strengthens our own personal walk with God. We must be zealous to obey ALL that Jesus has commanded us!

With the great revival in Jerusalem in full swing, the spirit of sacrifice swept throughout the Early Church. Without anyone asking for a special offering, the members of the Early church began to sell houses and land and give all of the money to the church for the revival. Even today, financial sacrifice is still an essential part of endtime revival! I have been privileged to be in many great revivals where many people were reached and the power of God performed many mighty things. The common denominator in all of these such meetings with hundreds of people receiving the Holy Spirit was that the church began to willfully sacrifice.

Luke mentions in verses 36-37 that a certain man, Barnabas, sold some land and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Barnabas started a trend of bringing the offering and sacrifice to the apostles feet as a gesture of giving everything to the Lord. While there was nothing wrong with this in itself -- it symbolized Barnabas’ total commitment and selling out to God -- there were some that were watching that were somewhat jealous of the attention that Barnabas received for his generous act of giving.

A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira liked the recognition and appearance that selling something and presenting it’s price to the apostles brought. They decided to sell a possession and only give part of the purchase price to the apostles. There was no sin in only giving the church part of the price, the sin was that Ananias and Sapphira wanted it to appear that they had given all when they really had not. No one had commanded that anybody had to sacrificially give. Wanting to appear more sold out than they really were, Ananias brought his partial gift and laid it before the apostle’s feet insinuating that he had given all.

Peter immediately knew that Ananias was being deceitful. Peter pointed out to Ananias that the property was his to do with what he wanted, but by trying to be deceitful and act like he was giving all when he really was not, he was not lying to the apostles but to the Holy Ghost! This is an interesting statement for several reasons. First, notice that Peter stated that Ananias had lied to the “Holy Ghost” and then stated that he had lied to “God.” We have seen in scripture how that when a person receives the Holy Ghost they are really receiving the spirit of Jesus Christ into their lives. Peter equated the “Holy Ghost” as being “God.” Jesus Christ, in the role of the Son (God in flesh), repeatedly claimed that He was God. Thus “God,” the “Holy Ghost,” “Jesus Christ,” and “the Son” must all refer to the same person: Jesus Christ. Either Jesus Christ was everything that God is or He was none of what God is! We have already discussed how that the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is Jesus (See lesson #20 in Dispensation Bible Study Part I). When Jesus Christ walked the earth and died for our sins, he was referred to as “the Son.” When Jesus Christ answered prayer and returned to heaven, he was referred to as “God.” When Jesus Christ came into someone’s life or worked through someone’s life, then He was referred to as “the Holy Ghost” or “the Holy Spirit.” This does not make Him three separate persons any more than my being a father, son, and bible study teacher makes me into three separate persons. Those are titles that refer to roles that I fulfill but I am still only one person with one name. In the same way the God of glory revealed Himself to Man in various roles three of which are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but that does not make Him three persons and He has only one name revealed to us under Grace: Jesus Christ!

The second reason that Peter’s statement that Ananias had lied to the Holy Ghost was interesting was because Ananias never said a word to Peter. Ananias had already lied by to the Holy Spirit before he ever brought the money to the apostle’s feet. Remember the Dispensation of Conscience? How that from that moment on man had to follow his conscience in order to be saved? In the Dispensation of Grace listening to one’s conscience is still a requirement, except it is much more serious! We’ve already discussed how that when a person is Spirit filled, the Holy Ghost speaks to that person through their conscience (see lesson #22). To a Spirit-filled person, the conscience is more than just a basic knowledge of right or wrong, and is the nudging and guidance of Jesus Christ in our lives. Ananias’ conscience had pricked his heart and told him that what he was doing was wrong long before Ananias ever dropped the partial price at Peter’s feet. Despite the nudging of the Spirit of God, Ananias decided to do what he wanted to do anyway. That is how Ananias “lied to the Holy Ghost.” Even today when we disobey our conscience we “lie to the Holy Ghost!” Listen to your conscience, when you are Spirit-filled, God speaks through it!

As soon as Peter pronounced that Ananias had lied to God, he was struck dead! Some young men in the church then carried Ananias’ body out and buried him. Under the Dispensation of Law, if a person WILLFULLY sinned, their punishment was immediate death. Under the new Dispensation of Grace, God was showing in a very powerful way that WILLFUL Sin was also going to be severely punished!

Three hours later, Sapphira came in not knowing that her husband had been struck dead. Notice the difference in the way that Peter dealt with Sapphira and the way that he dealt with Ananias. Peter never asked whether or not Anainas was being deceitful or not, but rather asked WHY he was being deceitful. Ananias had no chance to respond before being struck dead. When Sapphira walked in, Peter immediately asked her if the money given was the full price of the land and then waited for her response. It had obviously been Ananias’ plan to deceive the apostles and whether or not Sapphira was guilty depended upon her answer. She answered falsely and said that the amount was the complete amount, THEN Peter rebuked her and she was struck dead also! There are many lessons in these scriptures but I would like to briefly point out only three such principles:

First, Sapphira, had an opportunity to save herself by telling the truth. Even though her husband had been dishonest, Sapphira could have saved herself by being truthful with Peter. The Holy Spirit had pricked Ananias’ conscience and Sapphira had gone along with her husband’s decision, but God gave Sapphira a chance to decide whether or not SHE wanted to lie to God or not. Second, notice the similarities and contrasts between Adam and Eve’s sin and Ananias and Sapphira’s sin. Eve was deceived and Adam was not. Ananias was not deceived but Sapphira was somewhat. Because of her deception, Sapphira got the merciful choice of being able to choose for herself whether or not to sin. Unfortunately, she chose wrong. Three, Sapphira was guilty by association. Even though Sapphira may not have thought up the plan, she was guilty by going along with the deception. Ananias’ sin was one of commission, but Sapphira’s sin --at least at first-- was one of omission. Sapphira’s sin of omission led to her sin of commission when she lied to the Holy Ghost. We must be careful who we associate with and what plans and actions we condone by not standing up for the truth. With sin, silence is guilt by association! The old saying is that “if you don’t stand for something, then you’ll fall for anything.” Sapphira failed to stand for the truth and literally and spiritually “fell.”

When judgment came upon Ananias and Sapphira, a great respect came upon everyone that heard about it. “Multitudes” of people were saved, and people began to bring the sick and lay them by the roadside so that the shadow of Peter would overshadow them. People from the cities and towns surrounding Jerusalem began to bring their sick folks and demon possessed people, and the scriptures state that EVERY ONE of them were healed. Before Jesus Christ had walked the earth, no human being had ever cast out unclean spirits from another human being. Now Jesus’ disciples are casting devils out which is further proof that Jesus was living inside of them. Also keep in mind that this great revival was brought on by the judgment of the first individual sin that the church had experienced. Even today, true apostolic revival is accompanied by judgment upon those who have decided to go willfully against the word of the Lord! We must be careful when pray for revival that our lives reflect the teaching of the scriptures! For true apostolic revival to come, Christians must stop WILLFULLY sinning.

What happens if a person WILLFULLY sins today? Why does God not strike them physically dead immediately? These are very valid questions that arise when we study this passage of scripture. Remember that the requirements for each Dispensation built upon the previous requirements. We also know that the Dispensation of Law was a foreshadowing of the Dispensation of Grace (Hebrews 10:1). In other words the principles of the Law teach us to understand the principles in the Dispensation of Grace. For example, the burning of the incense day and night in the temple under Law was a type of the need for continual prayer in Grace. The Vail in the temple was a symbol of the sin that kept mankind from the presence of God and so on. (We have covered many of the fulfillments of the shadows of Law in Lesson #22.) Let’s briefly look at the Law’s view of sin and it’s judgments.

Under the Law, there was a difference between ACCIDENTAL SIN and premeditated, WILLFUL SIN. If a person accidentally sinned, then they could take the appropriate sacrifice to the High Priest and find forgiveness for their sin (Leviticus 4). The purposes of all of the various trespass offerings and sacrifices were to cover accidental sin. If a person knew what he was doing was sin, and, knowing what he was doing, went ahead and sinned, then that person was put to death (Exodus 21 and 22).

When Ananias went against his conscience and deceitfully brought the money to Peter, he willfully sinned against the Holy Ghost. His willful sin brought immediate death. Sapphira did not WILLFULLY sin against the Holy Ghost until she lied to Peter. Her first sin of not standing for what was right was accidental because God allowed her a time and a space to repent. When Sapphira did not repent and willfully sinned, she died immediately also. How does this answer our question of why people do not always physically die the instance that they willfully sin today?

They do die the instant that they willfully sin but it is a spiritual death. Remember Adam in the garden? God told him that he could not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because “in that day” he would die. Adam did eat of the fruit but he did not physically die until he was 930 years old (see Lesson # 2 Dispensation Bible Study Part I)! God is not a liar and something did die but it was Adam’s spirit that died that day! Throughout our Bible Study, we have seen how that this dead, dormant spirit of man was not restored to life until the Day of Pentecost at the beginning of the Dispensation of Grace! When a person receives the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, one thing that happens is that their spirit is “regenerated” from the dead state:

When a person willfully sins before becoming saved, then they are just a spiritually dead person becoming spiritually deader. When a person who has repented, been baptized in the name of Jesus, and had his spirit renewed by the infilling of the Holy Ghost WILLFULLY sins, their spirit immediately dies again and must be brought back to life through a regeneration again of the Holy Spirit. This explains why a person who has received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and then returns to a life of sin, must “pray through” to the place that the Holy Spirit takes control of their heart and mind and causes them to begin to speak in tongues again. When they received the Holy Spirit the first time, their spirit was brought back to life, but spiritually died when they WILLFULLY sinned. It must be regenerated again. When a “backslider” prays back to the point that where the Spirit begins to cause them to speak in tongues again, that is a sign that accompanies the Spirit of the Lord restoring their dead, dormant Spirit.

If a person who has received the Holy Spirit ACCIDENTALLY sins, he does not immediately spiritually die just as Sapphira did not immediately physically die when she ACCIDENTALLY sinned. God gave her a time and a space to repent, and when she chose not to, death came. When a Spirit-filled Christian accidentally sins, their spirit does not automatically die but they are given a time and a space for Repentance (called God’s Mercy). John wrote a letter to the church and explained this concept very well. Keep in mind that John’s letters were written to Spirit-filled believers, in other words, believers that had already received the Day of Pentecost experience.

Notice John’s use of the word “we.” John had received the Day of Pentecost experience of receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance (Acts 2). John was talking to other people that had received the same experience. John was talking to people who are “walking in the light.” When a person ACCIDENTALLY sins, they must confess their sins and repent and Jesus is “faithful and just to forgive us.” If a person does not repent in the time and space given by God, their accidental sin become willful sin because “to him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Another good example of WILLFUL sin bringing spiritual death is found in the parable of the wayward son (often called the prodigal son). This well known story is found in Luke 15 and tells of a son who decides to receive his inheritance from his father and go to a far country. The father waits patiently every day in the hope that his wayward son will return home. After spending all of his money, and living in pig pens, the son decides to go back to his father’s house and offer to be a servant there. To his surprise, the son is greeted by his waiting father, is restored to his full place of sonship, and is given a large celebration for his return. This beautiful story very clearly illustrates what happens when a backslider returns to God after spending time in sin. For our purposes let note two important points of the story. First, the wayward son, chooses to go away, in other words the backslider WILLFULLY leaves the Father’s house and chooses a life of sin. Second, when the son comes back, his older brother who has remained at the house the entire time, gets mad at his father for throwing such a massive feast for the younger son. In explaining his reasoning behind the celebration, the father makes a powerful statement:

The father stated that the youngest son was “dead, and is alive again.” But the son never physically died. The death referred to here is the spiritual death that a backslider dies when choosing to WILLFULLY sin. If we ACCIDENTALLY sin God is quick to forgive us if we are quick to truly repent. Willful sinning separates us from God, however, and to walk in the power that God desires for us to walk we as Christians must stop willfully sinning. In the Early Church it brought a great revival, and today in the Latter Church the results will be the same.

With this sudden surge of faith and increase of miracles within the Early Church, came the Jewish leaders realization that Peter and John were not obeying their commandment and were teaching and preaching in Jesus’ name. The Jewish leaders were so incensed this time that they arrested all twelve apostles and put them in jail!

An angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and commanded them apostles to go teach in the temple. At the same time the High Priest and his council were deciding to have another trial and called for the apostles to be brought from the prison. There are several interesting points to mention in regard to this scripture. First, the High Priest and his council should have been ministering to the people that had come to the temple in the early morning as that was their appointed jobs. When the High Priest decided that his personal hang-up was more important that what God wanted, God provided for the people to have a minister! Second, the apostles obeyed the angel’s command to go to the temple knowing that they would eventually face to face with the High Priest and Jewish leaders who were the very ones who wanted to kill them! Third, the angel commanded them to speak in the temple “all the words of this life.” Thus far, Peter has two sermons recorded, and he has yet to change his message. It is very obvious that the sermon at the Day of Pentecost are the words that bring life in this Dispensation of Grace!

Acts 5:22-23 But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told, 23 Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.

When the officers went to bring the apostles from the prison cells, they found the prison shut up and locked and the guards standing outside each door. The only problem is that the apostles were not inside! What a miracle that God had performed! It was more than a matter of just opening jail cells, but the angel of the Lord also blinded the guards and then locked the jail back up so that all would appear to be well! When God does a miracle He thinks of everything! While the High Priest and council were trying to figure out what to do about this unexpected turn of events, the guard brought even more disturbing news:

They realized that the apostles were standing in their temple teaching the people! Notice that they had to bring the apostles in without violence because the High Priest and Jewish leaders “feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.” If the Jewish leaders were afraid that by arresting the apostles they themselves would be stoned by the people, how well do you think that people were receiving the apostles’ “words of life?”

The High Priest asked the apostles why they were going against their commandment to Peter and John by preaching in the name of Jesus. Verse 28 reveals the real reason that the Pharisees and Saducees were afraid of their preaching: they were scared that the people would realize that they had conspired to kill an innocent man. Peter answered them even bolder this time, and told the Jewish leaders that they were the ones who “slew” Jesus and “hanged on a tree.” Peter also gave the Jehovah God of the Old Testament credit for raising up Jesus from the dead. The Jewish leaders knew of Jesus’ prophecy when he had said “after three days I will rise again” (Matthew 27:62-63). When Peter gave the Jehovah God of the Old Testament credit for raising up Jesus, he was stating exactly what Jesus claimed all along that Jesus was the one God of the Old Testament! Remember this is the primary reason that Jesus was crucified was because the Jewish leaders rejected the fact that He was God!

Peter’s words “cut to the heart” and condemned the Pharisees and Saducees. Instead of turning to Jesus and the apostles to remove the guilt, the Jewish leaders responded by deciding to kill the apostles also! What is your response when the scriptures “cut to the heart” do you allow them to change you to bring you closer to Jesus or do you try to kill everything that God is doing in your life?

One of the Pharisees, a man named Gamaliel, stood up and warned the Jewish leaders to be careful and not act too rash. Gamaliel was not a Christian but was a very wise teacher who had come from a long line of Pharisees. Gamaliel was the president of the council, in other words, second only to the High Priest, and was in charge of keeping the actual Mosaic tablets handed down from Mt Sinai. Gamaliel was famous to the Jews for his knowledge of the law and teaching ability. At this time one of his long time students was a young man by the name of Saul who will figure very prominently in the early church in the next lesson. Luke, the writer of Acts, is able to tell us the exact words of the secret council no doubt because Nicodemus would have been present.

To defend why he is saying that the Jewish leaders need to be careful about rashly killing the apostles, Gamaliel mentions another man who had recently claimed to be the Messiah. Theudas was a man who, after the death of Herod the Great, had started an uprising in Galilee for the sake of “taking over” Judea from the Romans. Theudas did manage to scrounge together about 400 men but they, of course, were soundly defeated by the Roman army. This took place sometime immediately following Jesus’ birth. Gamaliel referred to the fact that Theudas boosted his armies’ membership by claiming to be the Messiah.

Judas of Galilee was another well known Jewish rebel. He rose up in the second taxing which was ten years after the taxing that took Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Judas of Galilee did not necessarily claim to be the Messiah himself, but began to teach that the Jews should not call anyone “Lord” or “Governor” except God in heaven. He also taught the Jewish people to rebel against the Romans because they “should not obey strangers.” Because Judas of Galilee’s teachings matched exactly what the Jewish people wanted, some of the people begin to call him the Messiah. Gamaliel’s point was that even though some claimed him to be the Messiah, with time and his death, people realized that it was not truth.

These verses were powerful statements to come from someone who was not a believer! Gamaliel was saying that they should be careful because if the apostles were of God, then they would be fighting against God, but if they were not of God, God himself would make sure it would come to nothing over time. This is still good advice today: the test of time is the best test to judge a church’s beliefs and sincerity. If God is for it, it will last, but if it is not of God, then time will definitely reveal that! There of course was more to Gamaliel’s comments than what is revealed to us in scripture. Jewish history teaches us that Gamaliel was quite curious about the “supposed events” of Jesus’ life and had even gone so far as to visit Bethlehem and interview some of the Shepherds and Jesus’ family. Gamaliel also wrote a letter to Caiaphas the High Priest before Jesus’ trial and death that warned him to be careful that the events surrounding the life of Jesus closely matched the scriptural prophecies of the Messiah. We have no knowledge as whether or not Gamaliel ever became saved, but he no doubt did teach his findings to his students one of which, named Saul, would become the greatest theologian that ever lived!

When the High Priest and council had considered the words and reasoning of Gamaliel, they beat the apostles and then released them again commanding that they should not preach or teach in the name of Jesus. The beating and threats had a reverse effect upon the apostles because they “rejoiced” that they worthy to be beaten for the name of Jesus! What is your response to persecution today? Is it the Apostolic way? The apostles allowed the persecution to cause them to become more sold out to God! They preached and taught the name of the Lord more and more zealously both in the temple (from which they had just been arrested) and in “every” house, meaning in whatever house or place they found themselves.

To have apostolic revival in our lives today, the formula still has not changed: we must submit our will to God’s will, we must continually pray, we must quit willfully sinning, we must submit ourselves to the local church authority, we must be thankful and rejoice in persecution, we must financially sacrifice, and we must continually tell others about the power in the name of Jesus. When we make the commitment of the early church, then we will see the results of the early church!