There’s lots in here, so we’re going to spend a couple of blog posts looking at this section. For now, let us consider this:
Was Peter right to speak out against Ananias and Sapphira? Acts 5:12-16 would suggest he was. The apostles performed many signs and wonders, all the believers continued to join together in Solomon’s Colonnade, many others were healed, and ‘more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number’ (v14). This little section is a vindication of the Ananias affair.[1] Holiness must be maintained for the mission to succeed.
But what do we make of the apparent contradiction between v13 and v14? V13 says ‘no one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people’ and yet v14 says many more believed ‘and were added to their number’. V13 is possibly a reflection of the fear some had after hearing about the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, but by putting it before v14 it helps us see that only those who genuinely believed joined. Not the faint-hearted or those coming along because of the spectacle and novelty – people were risking their reputations when they believed, which is made all the more stark when the apostles are arrested and questioned by the high priest (5:17-18; 27-32). You don’t join a movement like this unless you do have the ‘new life’ the apostles taught about (v20). It wasn’t worth the risk unless you were all in. Unless you dared to commit.
The growth, teaching, and miracle-mercy ministry of the apostles attracted attention, so much so that we read the high priest and his associates ‘were filled with jealousy’ in v17. This is not by accident. It is the same word used to describe the believers being filled with the Spirit in Acts 4:31 so they can speak the word of God boldly.[2] Here we have jealously on the one hand, which will be characteristic of opposition to come (13:45), and boldness by the apostles. This is displayed in at least three ways in this episode:
1: When the angel rescues the apostles from prison and tells them to teach the people in the temple courts, they do just that (5:19-21). They’ve just been put in prison and then go and publicly teach the people about this new life, in the temple courts themselves! In the place where the high priest is the highest authority, they teach the people with a higher authority. Such is their boldness.
2: Peter’s speech in v29-32 is the epitome of boldness. In front of the high priest and the Sanhedrin he says, ‘We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead – whom you killed by hanging him on a cross’. He’s standing up to and accusing these men at the very time he is accused by the Jewish leaders. In the face of opposition, he still speaks the good news.
3: When the apostles are flogged (v40) they don’t go home dejected, they ‘left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name’ (v41). And then we read in v42, ‘Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah’. Did the flogging stop them from going back to the temple? Did it stop them from going house to house? No – in great boldness – they continued their mission, ‘teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah’.
The prayer we see the believers prayed in Acts 4:24-31 is answered here in spectacular fashion. Let’s pray the same prayers and hope that we might be ‘counted worth of suffering disgrace for the Name’ because we’re filled with the same Holy Spirit boldness.
[Side note]: What do we make of Peter’s ability to heal in v15-16? And can we still heal like this today?
- First, they were ‘signs and wonders’ (v12) – they were meant to point us to the wonders of the gospel so people might believe (v14).
- Second, miracles of healing are not the norm, they are specific situated-orientated gifts given by the Spirit for certain occasions. Here it is emphasised that ‘all of them were healed’ when they came (v16), but this is to emphasise the total effectiveness of the gospel and vindicates the apostles’ message. As far as I’m aware, no healing like this happens today, otherwise the hospitals would be empty.
- Third, it is clear throughout Acts that the apostles had a special kind of authority. Earlier we saw how people ‘brought their money and put it at the apostles’ feet’ (4:37; 5:2). We read ‘with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection’ (4:33), the early church ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching’, because the apostles are Jesus’ witnesses (1:8; 22) who have an ‘apostolic ministry’ (1:24). We are not the apostles – the apostles were unique and what they did as the foundation for the church (Ephesians 2:20), was so the church might grow. Granted others like Stephen might have Spirit-filled ‘miracle’ gifts (6:8), but that did not stop Stephen from going to his death in faithfulness to Jesus. Peter’s life would also be cut short because of this faithfulness. As would Paul’s. As was Jesus’s! So, if you desire these gifts or think you have them, don’t expect a long and easy life.
- Fourth, if anything, the miracles of healing show us that we need to back up the message with compassion for the sick.
- Fifth, let us not forget the power of prayer that might bring about healing or the gift of healing (cf. Acts 4:30).
- Sixth, God often uses illness and disease to sovereignly bring about his purpose and plans – Paul’s thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, was there so Paul might write and experience this truth that God says, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).
- Seventh, these miracles for healing the sick are meant to point us to the future reality of the new creation in the new heavens and earth and resurrection day! When all sickness and disease will be no more. It is meant to make us long for that day.
[1] Ajith Fernando, The NIV Application Commentary: Acts, p. 162
[2] Similarly, see our the previous passage when we read how ‘Satan has so filled’ Ananias’ heart (5:3).
