But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 5:1-2)

God was moving in a powerful way among the earliest Christians. The movement of the followers of Jesus was so fresh, so new, and so full of life that they hadn’t even yet taken the title “Christians” – that would come later. But even without that name they were a community of love, power, and great generosity.

It has been said that whenever God moves in a powerful way, the devil also starts moving. There is some truth to that. As the church grew and prospered, Satan didn’t surrender – he got busy. Satan’s strategy of scaring Christians into silence didn’t work, so he tried attacking them from the inside.

Satan attacked the church at a strong point: the great generosity described at the end of Acts 4. There we read of a man named Barnabas who was especially generous – and people noticed his generosity.

So, we read of a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife who sold a possession. After seeing the great generosity of Barnabas and how well he was respected (Acts 4:36-37), Ananias and Sapphira decided they wanted to receive the same respect.

Here is the problem: once they sold the land, Ananias and Sapphira kept back part of the proceeds. They sold the possession, and gave only a portion, while implying that they sacrificially gave it all. They misused the money to “buy” the image of being radically generous while keeping back a good part of it for themselves.

In a time when God was moving in remarkable ways, their greed and misuse of money was a threat to God’s work. It wasn’t just Ananias – we read, his wife also being aware of it. They were partners in the deception. Maybe they originally vowed to sell the land and give all the money to God and told others they would do that. But when the money was in their hand they said, “We don’t have to give it all – but let’s tell everyone we did.”

There was a lot of evil packed into the sin of Ananias and Saphira, evil that went beyond the attempt to deceive God and the church.

They showed disrespect to God, and they defrauded the Lord. They did it out of a twisted ambition to be thought of as amazing people. They cared more about having the image of being generous than actually being generous. They arrogantly thought they were clever enough to sin this way and not be found out.

It didn’t work. The planned hiding of our sin doesn’t work. Eventually, things that are only image and not reality are exposed.

Today, ask God to guard you from the proud lies that promote the image of godliness when the reality falls far short.

Click here to read David’s commentary on Acts 5

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4:32-33)

Back in Acts 2:44-45 we saw the sharing heart of the early church. Those verses tell us how they shared with one another and even sold their possessions to help each other. That was true of the church when they were about 3,000 in number. Now, the number of Christians was much greater, and they still had that sharing heart.

We read of this great generosity: those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of things he possessed was his own. This was true of the multitude, not just a few. To say it simply, they regarded people more important than things. This unity was a wonderful evidence of the work of God’s Spirit among them.

James Boice made an interesting observation about this unity in the early church. It wasn’t the unity of conformity, where everyone is pressured to be exactly alike. This unity was something greater than that; it was the unity of God’s Spirit, centered on Jesus.

Because of their unity, they had all things in common. They recognized God’s ownership of everything; it all belonged to God and His people. Because God had touched their lives so deeply, they found it easy to share all things in common.

The unity and generosity of these early Christians was wonderful to see. Everyone would love to live in a community like that! Yet, those Jesus-focused hearts also experienced something else: with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This great power was paradoxically both the result and the root of their unified, generous attitude. They put God first, people second, and material things a distant third.

We also notice that they gave witness to the resurrection. We see the central place that the resurrection of Jesus held in the message of the first Christians. They preached a resurrected Jesus.

We read that great grace was upon them all. Grace is God’s favor. Without sounding too sentimental, we can say that God’s grace is His smile from heaven. It is the favor and goodness of God to His people. Even better, this wasn’t just grace – it was great grace. One commentator says that literally this was mega grace. The phrase great power can be understood as mega power.

Did you notice who this was for? We read that this mega grace was upon them all. Not just a few special apostles, but for them all.

Today, radically put your focus on the resurrected Jesus. Receive the gifts of His generosity and spirit of unity. Then, receive His mega power and mega grace. It’s for us all!

Click here to read David’s commentary on Acts 4

Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30)

Prayer is much more than asking God for things. Sometimes we get into a bad habit of thinking that if we don’t ask God to do something, we aren’t really praying. But prayer can be and should be rich with praise, thanksgiving, declaring the glory of God, listening to God, enjoying His presence, humble worship, and more.

While prayer is more than asking God for things, it isn’t wrong to ask our Father in heaven for His help, guidance, empowering, and blessing! In Acts 4, the disciples of Jesus had a prayer meeting after Peter and John had been threatened and released when the appeared before the religious council. In their prayer the honored God, gave Him glory, and prayed the Scriptures. Acts 4:29-30 tells us what they finally asked for.

The disciples asked God to look on their threats. “Lord, look at the powerful men who oppose us. They seem to have every advantage, but we are safe in You, as long as you will look on their threats.

The disciples asked God for boldness. “Lord, we want to be more bold – not less! The council wants us to be so afraid of their threats that we won’t talk about Jesus. We don’t want to be afraid of them, so please give us boldness.”

The disciples asked for boldness to speak God’s word. “Lord, our message is not ourselves or even our story. Give us boldness to proclaim the best message we can – Your word.”

The disciples asked that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. “Lord, all this trouble started with a miracle at the temple. Please do more of those kinds of miracles!”

All of these requests were consumed with God’s cause and glory, not with the comfort and advancement of the disciples. The disciples prayed for things that would lead to more confrontation and trouble, not less.

I don’t know if I have ever really prayed, “God, please send me more trouble.” I usually pray that God would take my troubles away! But I want to have the heart that these first disciples of Jesus had. They cared more about the glory of God and the souls of men than they cared about their own comfort and ease. If God could work through their trouble to His glory and to bring more men and women into the kingdom, they wanted God to send more trouble!

I don’t expect you to pray, “Lord, send more trouble.” But today, you can pray this: “Lord, I need Your boldness to speak Your word and I want to see You do great things. If that means more trouble, so be it!” Let’s pray like these early disciples.

Click here to read David’s commentary on Acts 4

And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them.” (Acts 4:23-24)

God worked something powerful in and through Peter and John. They stood before a council of important men who demanded that they stop proclaiming Jesus. Peter and John refused, but the council couldn’t stop such determined men. All they could do was threaten Peter and John and release them.

When Peter and John met with the other disciples, they reported all that the chief priests and elders had said. They had good news to report. We can picture them saying, “We got to tell them about Jesus! They realized we were like Jesus! They told us not to tell others about Jesus!”

In response to this exciting report, the early Christian community – their own companions had a prayer meeting. Notice that important events moved them to prayer. It should be the same with us!

We see several important things about this early church prayer meeting.

First, they raised their voice. This means that they prayed vocally. It is certainly possible to pray silently in our minds, but we focus our thoughts more effectively when we speak out in prayer.

The word “voice” is in the singular. This means that they did not all pray individually, speaking at the same time. In this prayer meeting, one person prayed, and all agreed with that one, so that they were really praying with one voice.

Next, they prayed with one accord. This means that they prayed in unity. There was no strife or contention among them. There wasn’t one group saying, “We should pray for this” and another saying, “we should pray for that.” They had the same mind when they prayed.

Finally, they addressed God like this: Lord, You are God. They began by reminding themselves who they prayed to. They prayed to the Lord of all creation, the God of all power.

This word Lord in Acts 4:24 is not the most common word for “Lord” used in the New Testament; it is the Greek word despotes. We get the English word “despot” from this ancient Greek word. Despotes was a word used of a slave owner or of a ruler who has power that cannot be questioned. They prayed with power and confidence because they knew God was in control.

When we pray, we often forget just who it is we pray to; or worse yet, we pray to an imaginary God of our own ideas. The disciples had power in prayer because they knew whom they prayed to.

Pray today – but make sure you pray to the God who really exists, the mighty God revealed to us in the Bible. Don’t pray to the God of your imagination.

Click here to read David’s commentary on Acts 4

But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.” And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. (Acts 4:15-18)

I love this scene of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, desperately trying to figure out what to do with the “problem” of the disciples of Jesus. During the days of His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself was a problem for these religious leaders – this same council had a role in sending Jesus to the cross. Yet, even with Jesus Himself no longer walking and teaching and working among the people, they had an even bigger problem with the followers of Jesus.

In their desperation, these important men made a confession regarding the power of Jesus: we cannot deny it. That exposed the corruption of their hearts. They acknowledged that a miracle in the name of Jesus had genuinely happened; yet they refused to submit to the God who worked the miracle.

All they could do was make a threat and hope that the good news of Jesus spreads no further among the people. Their fear of the preaching of the good news of Jesus was rooted in their own sinful self-interest, not in any desire to protect the people.

Notice the note of desperation in the words, What shall we do to these men? It was a problem they couldn’t figure out. These men did not respond to their threats and intimidation. These men knew the way their Lord and Savior Jesus was treated, but were not afraid. These men showed the power of God in and through their life. You can’t defeat men and women who are this committed to Jesus Christ! They were commanded to stop talking about Jesus, but everyone knew they would keep doing it.

There is something else wonderful about this story from Acts 4. We see it in the words, they conferred among themselves. How did Luke know what the council discussed among themselves after the disciples left the room? Luke probably found out because a member of that same council later became a Christian: Saul of Tarsus. Acts 26:10 gives us reason to believe Paul (Saul) was a member of this council, able to cast his voteagainst the early Christians.

If this is true, we can say that Peter and John had no idea they were preaching to a future apostle and one of the greatest missionaries the church would ever see. It is an example of the truth that we have no idea how greatly God can use us.

Click here to read David’s commentary on Acts 4