Preaching and Teaching Jesus as the Christ

Acts 5

This chapter begins on a frightening note. As the church is enjoying unprecedented grace from the Lord at the end of chapter 4, we now see this harrowing account of how God desires to keep His church united and pure.

Bottom line: Don’t lie to God! Simple. Dishonesty is not a good policy. No wonder the young church was seized with the fear of God’s intense hatred of sin. By the way, the church would be much more holy today if God chose to act that way against us. Then again, there wouldn’t be anyone left.

The emphasis of the chapter moves from there to the power of the Spirit once again poured out into and through the lives of the apostles. They’re shown performing great miracles, and God keeps adding believers to the church.

This brings out the envy and fury of the religious leaders, however, and the apostles are arrested. But never doubt that God’s mighty hand far exceeds the feeble attempts of His enemies to silence the gospel. The persecution serves as a platform for the gospel, and the apostles take the stage and hammer it home. This almost gets them killed, but God spares theirs lives using a Pharisee, and the chapter ends with the apostles beaten and threatened but rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus. And far from keeping quiet, they kept on preaching and teaching Jesus as the Christ. May that be our passion today!