Acts
5
1 “But a
certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,”
Ananias (Ἀνανίας
–
Ananias - Ananias) In Nehemiah 3:23
the Hebrew name
ענַנְיָה
(God covers or protects) is thus rendered
in the Septuagint. But the name
occurs nowhere else. The very common name הֲנַנְיָה, Hananiah (God is
gracious), is also rendered in the Septuagint Ananias (Ἀνανίας), and is
doubtless the name meant here and in ch. 9:10; 23:2, etc. Sapphira
does not occur elsewhere. It is either derived from the
Aramean שַׁפָירָה,
beautiful, or from the Hebrew סַפִיר, a sapphire. A
possession (see ch. 2:45).
The kind of possession is not specified by the word itself,
which applies to houses,
fields, jewels, and wealth generally; but the nature of the
property is shown by the
word χωρίον
–
chorion - freehold, applied to it in vs. 3 and 8, which means especially
“a parcel of ground”
(John 4:5), “a field” (ch.1:18-19).
2 “And
kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and
brought a certain part, and laid it at the
apostles’ feet.” 3 “But Peter said,
Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to
keep back part of the price of the land?” Thy for thine, Authorized
Version.
Peter said. It was
given to Peter on this occasion, by the Holy Ghost, to read
the secrets of Ananias’s heart, just as it was given
to Elisha to detect Gehazi’s lie
(II Kings 5:25-27); and the swift punishment inflicted in both cases
by the word of
the man of God —
leprosy in one case, and sudden death in the
other — is another
point of strong resemblance. To
lie to the Holy Ghost. It is only one instance
among many of the pure spiritual atmosphere in which the
Church then
moved, that a lie to the apostle was a lie to the Holy
Ghost under whose
guidance and by whose power the apostle acted. Ananias’s
fraud was an
ignoring of the whole spiritual character of the apostles’
ministry, and was
accordingly visited with an immediate punishment. The death
of Ananias
and Sapphira was a terrible fulfillment of the promise, “Whosesoever
sins
ye retain, they are retained” (John 20:23).
4 “Whiles
it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was
it not in thine own power? why hast thou
conceived this thing in
thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God.”
Did it not remain for was
it not, Authorized Version; thy for thine own,
Authorized Version; how is it that thou hast for why
hast thou, Authorized
Version; thy heart for thine heart,
Authorized Version. Did it not remain, etc.?
The exact meaning is — Did it not remain to thee? i.e. unsold
it was thine, and
when sold the price of it was thine. There was no
compulsion as regards giving
it away. The act was one of deliberate
hypocrisy — an attempt to deceive
GOD HIMSELF!
The Conviction of Ananias (vs. 3-4)
Peter was, by natural disposition and the general consent,
spokesman
and interpreter for the Church. He could not have uttered
these words to
Ananias without a painful recalling of his own sin in the
threefold denial of
his Lord, and his own conviction of his sin at the sound of
the cockcrowing.
But compare Peter’s sin with that of Ananias, and show why
recovery was possible in his case, but only overwhelming
judgment in the
case of Ananias. We must also understand that the Holy
Spirit gave
Peter special knowledge of Ananias’s deception, and guided
him in what
was said and done. Compare Joshua’s dealing with
Achan. (Joshua 7)
Ø That evil, in the shape of temptation, had
been unresisted. The question
“Why?” implies that resistance to the temptation
had been possible. Had he
resisted the
tempter, he would have fled from him (James 4:7). (“There
hath
no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God
is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;
but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may
be
able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13)
Ø That Ananias was under no kind of
compulsion. He was not bound by
any rule of the
Church. If be had brought, and called it, part, or if he had
brought
nothing, he could not have been blamed. If he was moved to sell
he should
honestly set forth what he bad done with the money. Man from
his fellowman
at least looks for sincerity and truthfulness.
Ø And that while Ananias had only purposed
to deceive the apostles, he
had really been
trying to deceive God,
who dwelt, by His Spirit, in the
apostles and in
the Church. “Or, to state it as Peter stated it three hours
after to the
woman, this couple put God, the all-knowing Spirit, to the
proof, tried
Him whether He would let Himself and His Holy Church
be taken in
with a lie.”
have borne an uneasy conscience,
and in response to Peter’s words it
smote him hard. Shame and guilt
overwhelmed him, and may even in part
be allowed to explain his sudden
death. The shame and agony of detection, the horror of conscience not yet dead,
were enough to paralyze the powers of life.
Ananias, and in the death taking
place in such a sudden and awful manner.
In this case it is plain that
the death of Ananias is an event supernaturally
arranged by a higher power,
because it is connected with the penal
sentence of the apostle, which
was spoken in the power of the Spirit. It
may be pointed out that the
Divine judgment here concerns only the
sudden death, and the veil is
not lifted to show us the eternal judgment, the
secret Divine dealings with this
so sadly erring disciple. Compare the
teachings of such passages as I
Corinthians 5:5; I Peter. 4:6.
Impress that, however our sin
may be covered over and hidden from our
own view now by self-delusions,
the time of conviction must come sooner
or later. A man must presently see his sin as it is, and see himself as
he is.
The conviction may come wholly
by Divine inward leadings, it may come
through providential
circumstances, or it may be started by the word of
some teacher or friend. Happy, indeed, is he who is brought to conviction
in time — in time to seek pardon and eternal life in that living Savior who
is “exalted to give repentance and remission of
sins.”
5 “And
Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost:
and great fear came on all them that heard
these things.”
Upon all that heard it for
on all them that heard these things,
Authorized Version and Textus Receptus. Gave up the ghost (ἐξέψυξε –
exepsuxe – gives
up the soul). The same word as in v. 10 and ch.
12:23, but
found nowhere else in the New Testament. Great fear, etc. We have here an
example of punishment which is remedial, not to the person
punished, but to
others, by displaying THE
JUST JUDGMENT OF GOD as a warning against sin.
6 “And the
young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and
buried him.” And wrapped him round for wound
him up, Authorized Version;
they carried
for carried, Authorized Version. The young men (νεώτεροι –
neoteroi – younger men - called in v. 10
νεανίσκοι – neaniskoi - youths).
There does not seem to be sufficient ground for supposing
that a definite class
of Church servants is here meant. The young men of
the Church would, as a
matter of course, perform such services as that here spoken of, when
directed
by the πρεσβύτεροι – presbuteroi – the elders, in age or office.
The Death of Ananias (vs. 1-6)
Raphael’s cartoon manifestly founded, not on the simple
narrative of Acts,
but on the corrupt Church’s falsification of it. The
apostles represented on
a throne, from which with despotic decree they command men
to death.
Our object is not to terrify men into religion and
ecclesiastical submission,
but to win them to Christ; to save men’s lives, not to
destroy them. Solemn
and awful as the facts are, they are yet beams from the Sun
of Righteousness.
Ø As the kingdom of light. Wisdom in
discernment of spirits and judgment
of human
character. Distinction between pure and false fellowship.
Exaltation of
the great light-principle of self-sacrifice.
Ø As the kingdom of righteousness. The act of
Ananias was an act of
rebellion
against the first law of the gospel, both as a lie and as selfishness.
Ø As the kingdom of order and
peace. The rising brotherhood was the
germ of a new
human society, in which all men should be blessed. Ananias
sinned against
the Holy Ghost, i.e. defied and insulted the Spirit in His new
work, trampled
on the rising life. As a vindication of the kingdom, the
sentence,
though it looks at first sight unduly severe, was merciful, as a
sign, not
merely threatening, but inviting. It cleared the light of clouds.
SINFULNESS.
A Judas among the apostles,
an Ananias among the first
believers.
We must expect such things always.
Ø
The work of the Spirit
is thus shown to be necessary. The deceit of the
heart. The
power of temptation. The influence of a multitude in hiding us
from ourselves.
The possibility of being carried away by a wave of
excitement. The
lure of ambition. Man and wife encouraging one another;
Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth. The gospel needed to lift up even the ties of
nature and
renew and strengthen them in the grace of God.
Ø The Christian Church must be prepared to
encounter the facts of human
fallibility and
sin. We must rest upon the supernatural guidance and
support. We
must leave judgment in the hands of God. Peter pronounced
no sentence. He
simply, by spiritual power, proclaimed the truth, and left
conviction to
work its own work. A great lesson in the exercise of
discipline. In
the case of the wife, the fact became a prophecy, by
inspiration, in
Peter’s mind. He saw the work of God beforehand. No
assumption.
Ø Against selfishness and dishonesty. They kept back for themselves part
of the
price, intending to deceive.
Ø Against untruthfulness, which was deliberate, prompted by
meanness
mixed with
ambition and desire of display, daring against the manifest signs
of the Spirit.
Not a mere lie unto men, but a
defiance of God.
Ø Against trifling with holy
things. They, perhaps, thought that what they
kept back would
not be needed, but they made light of the Spirit’s evident
demand. They
did dishonor to the infant Church and to the apostles.
Ø Rebellion against the Holy Ghost. He put it into their heart to sell their
property and
join the Church. They recognized His command to give up all
for Christ.
They saw what He had done and could do. Yet they did violence
to His order
and might have produced endless confusion in the Church.
Fighting
against God is perilous work.
7 “And it
was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not
knowing what was done, came in.” And it was about, etc.; better rendered,
and it came to pass, after an interval of three hours, that his wife, etc. It is a
Hebrew idiom (compare Luke 5:12).
8 “And
Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for
so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.” And Peter answered, etc.,
Peter’s question gave her the opportunity of confessing the fraud had
she
been penitent. The
land (see note to v. 1).
9 “Then
Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the
feet of them which have
buried thy husband are at the door, and
shall carry thee out.”
But for then, Authorized
Version; they shall carry for carry, Authorized Version.
To tempt the Spirit,
etc.; i.e. thus daringly to put the Holy Ghost on trial, whether
or no He is able to discern the
thoughts of your evil hearts (compare Luke 4:12).
The feet of them, etc. The burial,
including the distance to and fro, had taken three
hours, and they were just returning to the Christian assembly
when Sapphira was
confirming her guilt as an accomplice in her husband’s
lie.
10 “Then
fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost:
and the young men came in, and found her
dead, and, carrying her forth,
buried her by her husband.” And she fell
down immediately for then fell she down
straightway, Authorized
Version; gave up for yielded up, Authorized Version;
they carried her out and
buried her for carrying her forth buried her. She
fell
down immediately. The
Spirit who killeth and maketh alive thus vindicated
his discernment and his power, and testified to the
truth of His prophet Peter,
by whose mouth he had just foretold the
death of Sapphira. Gave up the ghost
(v. 5, note). Buried her by her husband.
What a strange example of conjugal
unity!
is read by
every nation under heaven!
A Fatal Forgetfulness (vs. 1-10)
There are several truths which this sad incident suggests
to us. We may
view them thus:
DAMAGING BLOW. It was
a very serious misfortune to the new Church
that two of its members should
commit a sin worthy of death, and pay that
terrible penalty in the view of
all. The apostles must have felt that they and
the cause with which they were
identified had received a severe blow; but it
was far from being a fatal one.
It was one from which the cause of Christ
soon recovered; nay, it was
overruled “for the furtherance of the gospel.”
Let not any Church or any sacred
cause be too much disheartened by a
check at the beginning. With truth and God on its side, it will survive
and
flourish.
ACT WHICH IS OUTWARDLY VIRTUOUS AND GODLY. To those
who looked on as Ananias and
Sapphira brought the money they did bring
and laid it at the feet of the
apostles, their action must have seemed pious
and generous in a very high
degree. But we know it to have been utterly
and even fatally defective. It
becomes us to search with fearless and faithful
glance those of our deeds which
men approve as most commendable, lest,
while around us is approval and
congratulation, there should be entered in
the book of account in heaven a
sin of great enormity against our name.
ACTION WHICH SEEMS VENIAL TO OURSELVES. In all likelihood,
Ananias and Sapphira imagined
that they were doing an action which,
while it was calculated to win
respect, was not very, if at all, reprehensible
in itself. They probably
reconciled it to their own sense of rectitude. Men
do so now. In connection with
religion and philanthropy they do guilty
things which kindle the wrath of
the righteous Lord, supposing that they
are only departing a few degrees from integrity, or are even worthy of
praise. “Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret
faults.” (Psalm
19:12)
SUPPOSE THAT THE GOOD CONNECTED WITH ANY COURSE
WILL COUNTERBALANCE SOME ONE SERIOUS SIN THEREIN.
Ananias and Sapphira may have
thought that the piety and charity of their
conduct would more than balance
the sin of their deception. They were
miserably wrong and were
fearfully disabused of their mistake. If we
willfully break one of God’s
plain commandments, supposing that the
virtues of our action will
cancel the wrong, and thus allow ourselves to fall
into deception (as here), or
into dishonesty, or into excess, or, into
arrogance and pride, we shall
have a sad and, it may be, a rude and awful
awakening from our grievous
error.
LESS THAN FATAL. Ananias
and Sapphira made a mistake which was
simply ruinous. They overlooked
the fact that the Holy Spirit of God was
in close connection with His
Church, and was acting through His servants.
They forgot that when they were
trying to deceive inspired men they were
acting falsely in the face of the Divine
Inspirer, so that when they imagined
they were lying unto men they
were really lying unto God (v. 4). For this
guilty oversight they paid the
last penalty of death. Is not their sin too
easily reproducible and too often
re-enacted? Too commonly men guiltily
overlook the presence and agency
of the Divine Spirit.
Ø
A Church does so when
it is resting in human and earthly advantages for
its prosperity; when the
minister trusts to his eloquence, the people to
those arts and influences which
are from below and not from above;
when both are forgetting that
there is an almighty power which is within
their reach and at the command
of believing prayer.
Ø
The human soul does so
when it disregards the influences which are at
work upon and within it; when it
treats lightly the pleadings of the pulpit,
the warnings of friendship, the
prickings of conscience, the convictions
and impulses which call it to
newness of life. Is not this to sin against
the Holy Ghost, and is not the
penalty of it spiritual, eternal death?
Helpers in Sin Must be Sharers in Judgment
(vs. 7-10)
The share taken by Sapphira was manifestly a prominent and
an active one.
She and her husband were at full accord in the matter; and
her sin is the
more aggravated as she had a longer time to think it over,
and had
evidently planned what she would say and do if any remarks
were made by
the apostles or the brethren as to the gift of the land. The
question asked
by Peter gave her an
opening for repentance. It had been in
her power
to save her husband by a word of warning protest. It was
now in her power
to clear her own conscience by confession. She misses the one opportunity
as she had misused
the other. The lie which they had agreed
upon comes
glibly from her lips, and the irrevocable word is spoken.
had joined together in the sin.
Compare the cases of Dathan and Abiram.
There was union:
Ø In the slow judgment of the deteriorated
and debased soul. And this is
ever the first
form of the Divine judgment on the sinner.
o
Hardening
of heart,
o
deadening
of conscience,
o
cherishing
of blinding and fatal delusions,
are
as truly direct judgments of God, ever
working, as SUDDEN DEATH!
This truth
needs to be seen more clearly and impressed more constantly.
Ø In the swift and immediate judgment of the
sudden death, which, in the
second case,
was prophetically declared to be God’s witness to the
exceeding
heinousness of their sin. The
life of all men IS
IN GOD’S
HANDS
and we may well “fear
Him who can cast body and soul into hell.” (Luke 12:5) The lives of all men are in His hand. Daily He is cutting them off
in a moment
—even hot with lust or red-handed from crime. His doom now
and then antedates the slower processes of human law. The time and fashion
of all our deaths are with Him. If one day His
mercy turned to judgment, and He
took from the
earth two forfeited lives for, the warning and the bettering of
many, who shall
say either that the lesson was dearly bought or that the
penalty was
undeserved? It is well that men
should be taught once for all,
by sudden death
treading swiftly on the heels of detected sin, that the
gospel, which
discovers God’s boundless mercy, has not wiped out the
sterner attributes
of the judge. (“Some men’s sins are open
beforehand,
going
before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” I Timothy
5:24)
fell on the minds of all
present. Illustrate by impressions now made by a
case of sudden death in a
congregation, or by such a case as that of Alexis,
smitten by lightning at Luther’s
side. It is said that “great fear came upon
all the Church.” The Scripture meanings of the word “fear” may be given
and illustrated. Here it is a
solemn sense of the severity and power of God,
and of the strictness of His
demands. The members now felt, as they had
never done before, what a
serious thing it was to make a Christian
profession. Dwell on two things.
Ø Fear as solemnizing other professors, filling them with new thoughts
about
insincerity, hypocrisy, and covetousness. Reminding them that no
man should
enter Christ’s kingdom without first “sitting down and
counting
the cost.” “The true ecclesia
must be free from such hypocritical
professors, or
its work could not advance.” “God fills our hearts with the
spirit of
reverence, truthfulness, and godly fear, lest another spirit fills us
with lies, with
greed, with vainglory, and with presumptuous impiety.”
Ø Fear as deterring would-be professors. Persons in all ages are too ready
to take up the
mere profession of Christ’s Name, and such need to be
shown that such
profession involves responsibilities as well as privileges.
There is grave
danger of our estimating our responsibilities too lightly. The
vows of Christ
ought ever to be a solemn and a holy burden. “What
manner
of persons ought we to be?” (II Peter 3:11) God is “known by the judgments that He executeth.” (Psalm
9:16) We still need to recognize His hand, and we must be careful not
to lose the impression of His
personality
in the modern
sentiment about law.
11 “And
great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as
heard these things.” The whole
Church for all the Church, Authorized Version;
all that heard for as many
as heard, Authorized Version. The awful
death of the
two liars to God not only struck a salutary fear into the minds of
the whole Church,
but filled with awe all outside the Church who heard
of it; and doubtless gave a
temporary check to the persecutions, while it disposed
many to hearken to
the apostles’ preaching.
The Earliest of the Tares, in the Field of
the Church
(v. 36-ch. 5:11)
The age of the Church numbered as yet only its days. The “good
seed” had
been sown in the field by “the Son of man” but a
few hours, yet “the
enemy… the devil” had
found a prized opportunity to “sow tares,” and
uses it not in vain. The names and history of Ananias and
Sapphira are
among the best known of all those imbedded in Scripture.
When the
striking episode, however, is detached from its proper
place, it loses very
much of its significance and force. But, taking the time
and place of it into
account, the episode is in the highest degree dramatic. And
the reality of
the history which it recounts, it is which exalts it to
that height. It is one of
those unwelcome products of human nature which mean, in
equal
proportions, three things — the
painful, the startling, and the too true. A
very crisis of glory is dashed by an incident of darkness,
sin, and shame. It
is dashed thus, however, in the present instance for “about
the space of
three hours” only,
when the majesty and integrity of truth are terribly
vindicated. Let us consider —
supplement the words of
the narrative, the thought and intent of it want
nothing. Thus, though it is not
so worded in the case of Ananias, it is plain
that when he brought what any
way portended to be the full price of his
vended “possession” and “laid
it at the apostles’ feet,” either interrogated
or without interrogation he gave
it to be understood that it really was the
full price. The ground of
Peter’s suspicion on the matter is not stated. But
a choice of explanations of it
can easily be offered. Something in the
manner of the man, even possibly
some needless asseveration of the
entirety of the price, or
something disproportionately small in the price
brought as the equivalent of the
“possession” parted with, or the
discernment of the inspired and
spiritually sensitive apostle, not set in
motion by any external cause,
may quite account for it. In this last
supposition Peter will remind
us, not unworthily, of Peter’s loved Master,
in the exercise of a certain
spontaneous detection, and in preventing any
greater mischief by a certain
promptness of anticipation. Be this as it may,
in the analysis of the sin under
consideration it must be that:
Ø The first constituent of it is a
capital falsehood, and this
needs no further
comment.
Ø Falsehood the deceiving purpose of which
suffers no little aggravation
from the cruel
affront it offers a new-born loving, holy little society, and
the august
representatives and leaders of it, now known for their
inspiration and
for the miracles they had wrought.
Ø Falsehood in the matter of a religious and
voluntary service.
Ø Falsehood that was intended to win for those guilty of it a
reputation for
zeal toward God
and enthusiasm of liberal love toward man, when neither
the
one nor the other was there.
Ø Falsehood that meantime was covering, or
seeking to cover, no higher
style of
character than this, viz. to save stealthily something from (what is
inwardly
regarded as) the wreck for self, and yet share the contributed
beneficence of
others. The case was
presumably this — a man, under the
cover of
religious motive and resolve, professes to sell all and give all,
forsooth that
he may secretly store some, and be placed at an advantage for
getting more.
The rich young ruler was sincerity, honesty, and enthusiasm,
all to
perfection, in comparison of this exhibition.
(Reminds me of Achan
in Joshua 7 –
CY – 2016)
Ø Falsehood that was deliberate. It was not
the result of any sudden gust
of temptation.
It was deliberate to the extent of being concerted between
two. The
unhallowed imagination, thought, resolve, of one heart soon
grows into the
unhallowed covenant of two hearts. Alas, for the suggested
picture, for the mournful portraiture of human
nature, for the dark interior,
too faithfully drawn, of that household! To
sum up, then, what has gone
before, the
direct falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira (to call them for the
moment one)
was not the whole sin, but, bad as it was in itself, was but the
outside
covering of sins, too strong nevertheless to be held of it. “Some
men’s
sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some they
follow
after” (I Timothy
5:24). The delicacy and exquisiteness of all
the fellowship
of circumstance amid which the sin of Ananias and Sapphira
saw the light,
measure the extent of the affront it dared to offer to truth,
and augur the
fearfulness of the doom that should visit that affront. Hence
it comes that
we do instinctively understand Peter’s inspired estimate of it
— that it is a “lie
unto the Holy Ghost… unto God,” and a “tempting of
the
Spirit of the Lord.” And
in thus estimating the sin, in “the light of
God’s light,”
Peter reminds us of David, who, bowed in deepest anguish
for the sins of
murder and adultery, nevertheless cries to God, “Against
thee,
thee only, have I sinned!” (Psalm 51:4)
PRESENTED ITSELF TO VIEW. There is manifestly a deeper treatment
of such a presentation of human
nature open to us; but especially was it
open to the inspired apostle.
Let us follow his guidance more exclusively.
It was given to him to
conduct us deeper down into the retreats of human
hearts, and we do well to use
our opportunity to follow him. Peter
indisputably finds these three
things. He finds:
1. A proffered interference of Satan.
2. An accepted interference of him, on the part of Ananias.
3. The issue — a “lie
to the Holy Ghost.”
We touch here distinctly the
things characteristic of revelation. They are, it
must be noted, the things
resented not by the scoffer only, but by the
rationalist, and by science,
simply in regard to science. The provinces of
revelation and science in human
life, however, are neither contradictory nor
mutually exclusive, but they are
complementary. And the
Christian is the
rich man because
he feels and knows them such. We have
then here, from
the lips of Peter, the first
introduction, since the ascension of Christ and the
descent of the Holy Ghost, of
the personality of Satan as the antagonist of
the Holy Ghost. His work is
immediately what reproduces itself through
the human heart, as not merely “a lie,” but a “lie to
the Holy Ghost.” So
much for the intrinsic work and
the presumably most prized object of
Satan. But, again, it is not now
Satan, but Ananias, who is standing at the
bar of Peter — Peter, an
inspired apostle, and laden with the significant
attestation of miracle. And the crucial
question upon which Peter arraigns
Ananias, and is going to found
very shortly his stern condemnation of him,
is this (though somewhat
obscured in Authorized Version): “How is it
that
Satan has won what ought to be the
stronghold of your heart, so that you
have ‘lied to the Holy Ghost’? No physical necessity, no moral necessity,
no necessity whatever, was
laid on you to sell your possession at all. And
yet you have taken in hand to do
this, and ‘taken into your heart’ to do it,
with such superadded suggestion
of Satan, that you have made your deed
the vehicle of a ‘lie
to the Holy Ghost,’ and of sharp death to yourself.”
The supreme event follows for
Ananias close upon the word of Peter. And
a certain irresistible
conclusion also for us follows close upon the word of
Peter — that either we are
reading a fable and a lie, or that Ananias was
the tool of Satan, and was
held responsible for becoming so! This is
among the very first lessons, in
the matter of the spiritual relationships and
facts of human hearts, taught
under the emphatic “dispensation of
the
Spirit.” And he can scarcely be envied who risks his own opinion
against
such a lesson. We cannot consent
to suppose (though some have supposed,
it) that Peter’s meaning simply
amounted to this, that Ananias lied to the
Holy Ghost because he lied to him,
who was inspired of the Holy Ghost.
No; Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost in three degrees.
Ø
He lied to Him in
being false to any genuine impulse that he had at
first
experienced from Him;
Ø
in being false still
when he knew that he had forsaken His guidance
and
yet pretended to be moved practically to join the new society by
selling
and giving; and,
Ø
lastly — and this
consummates and sufficiently expresses all —
in electing to cast in his lot with Satan, in his capacity of
arch-
antagonist of THE HOLY GHOST! Upon the whole
consideration
of
the sin of Ananias, it must be concluded that, by human analysis
of
it, they must indeed be “fools” who “make
a mock of sin.”
(Proverbs
14:9) Yet, under the searching and deep cutting of
Divine
analysis as expressed in Scripture, is not the same
conclusion
reached with tenfold impressiveness?
Ø It was “a swift witness.” The
tares are emphatically not allowed to grow
with the wheat
and abide a later judgment. The
reason for delay
(Matthew 13:29)
did not exist here.
o
An
unerring eye detects the bad seed.
o
A
steady, unerring hand can uproot the ill growth without uprooting
also the
good growth.
Ø It was a witness so swift that no time “for repentance,” no interval of grace,
is granted
— possibly because there was literally no place of repentance
(Hebrews
12:17). Was it now that a real instance was found of the
“sin
against the Holy Ghost,” to be
“forgiven, neither in this world,
neither
in the world to come.” (Matthew
12:32)?
Ø It was a redoubled witness. The second
instance following so close on
the first and
in its exact track made impressiveness itself yet more
impressive, as
the rapid redoubled peal of thunder strikes a tenfold terror
into the heart.
Ø The witness was timed with a precision
that examples how
closely the
eye,
the ear, the hand itself of the
supreme Ruler of mankind may be
always upon the track of human individual life. That eye sees all
and to the
time. That ear
hears all and to the time. That hand is close upon all and to
the moment of
perpetration, and might stay the deed, or at once reward it
or visit it
with swift retribution. This is not what is generally and to
practical
purpose believed. The absolute, physical proof of it would
manifestly take
off all its strain from faith, and reduce to nothing the moral
government of
the world. It is enough if example be given, and if the veil
now and then be
drawn aside, or, as in this instance, suddenly rent to the
revealing of
that which is behind.
THIS SIN. The swift
and conclusive visitation of this sin, with
arraignment,
punishment, and judgment ALL
IN ONE, was a method new
for anything done as under the
Spirit of Christ. During the personal ministry
of Christ on earth nothing can
be instanced to resemble it, except the
withering of the fig tree, and
that does not resemble it. Christ refused to
call fire from heaven or to
permit a sword in the hand of a disciple. And
when the unregenerate
impetuosity of Peter did use the sword, Christ went
so far as to undo what it had
done. (John 18:10; Luke 22:51)
Forbearance
and long-suffering were
unfailing watchwords with Jesus. Let us observe that:
Ø One thing justifies this summary treatment, namely, that the
agent in it is
without doubt
none other than the Spirit of detection, of conviction, of
unerring
discernment, of perfect knowledge. Whether this sovereign Spirit,
the Holy
Spirit, led the way rapidly through the instrumentality of Peter, or
finally,
without any use of even the lip of Peter himself, executed swift
sentence, the
entire responsibility rested with that same eternal Spirit.
Ø
One
thing may with but little
less hesitation be counted to explain the
reason of this unusual “course of the Spirit,”
namely, the exact crisis at
which the
tender young society had arrived in certain moral aspects. The
prompt and
peremptory “course of the Spirit” on this occasion was not for
any external defense
of the body of the infant Church, but for the INNER
DEFENSE
of it, of its very heart, of its self. In this
swift visitation, whatever
of kindness
there was, that the
communion of the true should
not be
poisoned
by the presence of the false, and whatever of stern example there
was to operate
as an immediate counteractive and deterrent, alike the one
and the other
meant mercy and consideration toward an infant heart. The
elements which
went to make that heart just what it now was have already
been passed
under review. We know full well that the Church was not
permitted to
depend long for its purity upon such witness as this.
Nevertheless,
the memory of it and of the principle contained in it has ever
lived, lives still a powerful witness in itself,
both for the Church and for the
world.
OF THIS SIN. “Great
fear came on all them that heard these things” (v. 5);
“Great fear came
upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these
things” (v. 11).
Ø The impression that was produced was one
of a healthful sort. Many
times as fear
finds false occasion, this was an occasion most just. Human
hearts need betimes
such rousing. “Since
the fathers fell asleep all things
continue
as they were from the beginning of the creation of the world”
(II Peter 3:4),
is the languid complaint of the life of far more than those
from whose lip
it is heard. When God is “strict to mark iniquity” now, men
begin to fear,
and they think, and they believe, for an hour at least, in the
reality of moral
distinctions. Pity and shame it is that men do not
understand and
believe that there is a sense in which God assuredly is and
will ever be “strict to mark iniquity,” so that they should “fear
before him
all
the day.” It is God’s
mercy which wakes fear betimes by methods such
as that under
consideration; for that fear is helpful to remind, and to arrest
attention, and to suggest INWARD THINKING! And it is not less God’s
mercy that He
does not use such method very often. For it would make
harder those
who will be hard. And it would deprive the willing and
obedient of the
opportunity
o
of testifying what faith they have, and
o
of testing that faith, and
o
of getting greater strength to it.
Ø The impression was one that wrought on
saint and sinner, on the Church
and on “all
that heard” of what had transpired. The Divine judgment no
doubt aimed at
this twofold ministry, in one and the same providence.
o
Though
the “fear” were of the nature
of a shock to the disciples that
formed that
cheerful and holy society, yet it tended in the most direct
manner possible
to recover them from the greater shock of such a
sight as this, falsehood and hypocrisy and unreality triumphing,
or
even permitted to breathe amongst them. And
o
because
the “fear”
was of the nature of a shock,
it worked caution
and the awe of reverence on the part of THOSE who were
OUTSIDE the Church. These were very forcibly reminded that to
be true disciples meant something more and deeper than in an hour’s
enthusiasm joining themselves to a happy company, whose very
earnestness had it in it to enlist a natural sympathy. The sympathy
that joins any man to the Church of Jesus Christ must be something
different from a natural sympathy. It must be an inward, deepest
sympathy WROUGHT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!
The First Hypocrisy (vs. 1-11)
Hitherto all had been bright and beautiful in the new-born
Brotherly love, disinterested kindness to one another,
heroic courage in the
face of danger, unhesitating devotion to the service of the
Lord Jesus
Christ, and an unflinching profession of faith in His Name,
had been the
common characteristics of the multitude of them that
believed. The Church
was as the garden of the Lord in the midst of the world’s
wilderness. It was
a bright spring-tide, soon, alas! to be checked by the cold
blasts of
selfishness and the love of this world. The time of
millennial blessedness
was not yet come. Satan was not yet bound. On the contrary,
he was
unusually busy, with persecutions from without and
temptations from
within, in his endeavors to hurt and corrupt the children of
the kingdom.
Indeed, we may notice, as a universal feature in the economy
of the
kingdom of darkness, that every great step in advance of
the kingdom of
light is followed by some corresponding movement intended
to defeat it.
The sowing of the good seed is the signal for the sowing of
the tares. The
salvation of God is confronted with some counterfeit of
Satan. The faith of
God’s elect was opposed, even in the first century, by
subtle heresies of
man’s or Satan’s devising. The glorious spread of the
gospel in all lands
had a counterplot in the extraordinary growth of the imposture
of
Mohammed. The great Reformation in the sixteenth century
was hindered
by the hypocrisies and fanaticism which sprang up by its
side. And so it
was now. The great enemy of man could not look on the
blessedness of the
company of Christians without trying to mar it. He must
have some portion
even within the enclosure of Christ’s Church. Even there
all must not be
guileless truth, all must not be unselfish love. He must
have some to do him
service even though they called Christ their Lord. But how
could he find an
entrance into those holy precincts, how climb up into that
heavenly fold? In
human character the highest rank consists of those who love
righteousness
for its own sake, and with various degrees of success
actually attain to it.
There are those among them who attain the sublimest heights
of virtue and
godliness, and there are those who at the best, and amidst
many stumblings
and falls, are only struggling upwards. But they all belong
to that highest
class who really desire to do the will of God and to be
conformed to His
image. But there are others who do not belong to this class
at all. They,
perhaps, admire virtue in others. But especially do they
covet the praise
and high esteem which virtue conciliates to itself. In a
religious society they
perceive that certain actions are praised of men and bring
certain
pleasurable consequences to the doers of them. These fruits
of goodness
they desire to possess. But then they will not make the
sacrifices, suffer the
losses, endure the privations, which are inseparable from
such actions. The
double heart immediately casts about to find some method
of obtaining the
good without making the sacrifice. To be thought righteous, good,
religious, not really to be so, becomes the aim and object.
Fraud, deceit,
lies, false pretences, are called in to help, and the
hypocrite stands, kneels,
gives alms, talks religiously, by the side of God’s true
saints, till his
hypocrisy is brought to light, and he stands revealed as
a dissembler before
God and man. But
meanwhile, in the sight of the world, true godliness is
discredited by each fresh exposure of the hypocrite. The
defamers of God’s
people are encouraged to say that there is no such thing as
the pure love of
God and disinterested obedience to His will; and they argue
that the most
consistent livers are only the best dissemblers. There are,
doubtless, many
other useful lessons to be learned from the study of this first
hypocrisy in the
detection, and upon its awful punishment, because it is
only a type of
countless other cases which have since happened, and are
daily happening,
and which, whenever they do happen, do injury to the cause of Christ. We
may learn in this melancholy example how the love of money,
or the love
of the praise of men, or a greedy appetite of applause, or
an ungodly
emulation of the fame of other men, or the habit of
thinking of appearances
more than of reality, and of putting on a religious garb
without taking care
that our hearts are really moved and guided by the Holy
Spirit of God,
may, almost before we are aware of it, be leading us into
the paths of the
hypocrite instead of into the way of the just. And in the
fearful exposure
and punishment of these first Christian hypocrites, we may
learn how
certain it is that sooner
or later every hidden thought and every secret of
the heart will be brought to light; and that none will be
able to stand before
the all-searching eye of God but those who walk before God
in godly
sincerity, while they trust with a steadfast faith in the
merits of their
almighty Savior. But anyhow we may be sure that this
example of
hypocrisy by the side of eminent holiness in the primitive
Church, is thus
set forth in its distinctness by the inspired historian, to
be a touchstone by
which to try future actions, to be a type of an evil which
would be found to
exist in all subsequent ages, and to be a warning to the children of God to
watch against the very first beginnings of declension from simplicity and
sincerity in their relations TO ALMIGHTY GOD!
The Sin of Heart: Untruth and Its Punishment (vs. 1-11)
As the shadow follows the light, so Christianity has been
marked in its
progress by a deep and broadening shadow of hypocrisy. After the glorious
picture of sunny days of the Spirit’s life in the preceding
chapter, a dark
view of human deceit is presented. The root of bitterness
springs up amidst
the Divine delights of the time, and many are troubled.
acting of a lie. The
part of the produce of the sale was put before the
apostles as if it had been the
whole. Many will act lies who will shun to
articulate them. But the value
of actions in a moral point of view lies in the
expression they give to feeling.
The motive cannot be left out of
consideration. This action was
intended by the guilty pair to pass with
others as having a
moral quality it had not. The
understanding was that the
whole and unreserved produce of
the sale of property should in every case
be given in. The act of the
couple was intended to be received in this
meaning while that meaning did
not exist. We are responsible for the
constructions which we know will
in certain cases be put upon our actions.
And the action of Ananias and
Sapphira is typical of all those by which we
dishonestly compromise with
conscience, or seek to pass under false
colors. There are times when it
is a duty to abstain from action, if we know
that our action will convey an
impression that is false, have an appearance
to which no reality corresponds.
mysterious. Let us not pretend
to fathom them.
Ø The dark source of crime — “Satan
filling the heart.” The deeds
of sin
are dark in
every sense: they excite shame in the doer; they shun the light;
they are lying
in their origin, process, and consummation.
(“For every
one
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, because
his
deeds were evil.” - John
3:20)
Ø The struggle involved in sin. The opposition of the good, the striving of
the Holy
Spirit, is ever felt. No man lies to his
fellow-men until he has first
lied
to the truth revealed within. Discussions
about the personality of Satan
and of the Holy
Ghost are foreign to the spirit of the simple New
Testament
language, and only divert the mind from the solemn truth of
immediate inner
experience. The meaning of these dread figures of speech
is sufficiently
clear without any dialectics.
Ø The peculiar aggravation of this sin. It had not the excuse of
overwhelming
temptation. They need not have sold the property at all.
There was no
law or special apostolic edict requiring it. The free spirit of
love alone set
the practice on foot. Certainly those sins which men commit
under no
pressure of necessity or of sudden and strong coincidences of
opportunity
with desire, are the worst. Gratuitous sin, so to speak, shows
so diseased a
moral state that it infers a person will require a temptation to
do right, will
go wrong without temptation at all. It was a fixed and
deliberate
determination, this act of Ananias, taken in the full daylight of
conscience. In
all probability it was the crowning act of a life long directed
to counterfeiting goodness. For how true the proverb, that no one
falls
suddenly into
the extreme of baseness! His life in Judaism had been a
counterfeit,
his conversion a sham, his participation in the joy and power of
the time a
mockery; the act which he intended to seal his Christian
reputation
fixing on him the damnation of the devil-led impostor. And
through all or
much of this there doubtless ran a vein of profound
self-deception.
Ø All
moral offenses are irreligious. This
is important, for the craft of the
heart would
often separate morality from religion. But a lie to men is a lie
to
God under all circumstances; it is He whose light is in the breast which
falsehood
confuses, His truth which is practically denied. There is no
genuine
morality which is not founded on reverence for the living God.
And no security
that men will speak truly or act rightly when the pressure
of fear or the
mechanical action of habit is not felt, except in the sense of
the eternal
imperative of God.
Ø
The complicity of the wife in the guilt
adds another element of
aggravation. The one should have restrained the other. The guilt of their
joint act was
like a mutual agreement of unfaithfulness. The sanctity of
marriage rests
on the recognition of the covenant between each soul and
God; it is
broken down and defiled by the common consciousness of a
crime.
It was received in both cases in
silence — a tacit confession of its justice.
Thus did sin long nourished in
the heart at last come forth, full-born, only
to meet death. “Sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15)
Great dread fell, as well it
might, on all who heard and on the whole Church.
It was like a bolt out of a
clear and serene sky. And we should learn the
solemn lessons that suggest
themselves for every time.
Ø Moral dangers lurk near every scene of
spiritual manifestation.
Ø The highest features of spiritual
character and action will always find
false
imitators, and this in the very bosom of the Church.
Ø Hence the need of heart-searching for
ourselves (for we may
be
hypocrites without
knowing it), of constant prudence and vigilance. “Our
enemy
goeth about.” “Behold, I have told you before.”
Conspiracy against God (vs. 7-11)
While much in the previous paragraph repeated here, a new
phase of sin
presented. It was distinctly on the ground of deliberate
agreement to tempt
the Spirit of the Lord that Sapphira’s death was added to
that of her husband.
with THE RENOVATION OF HUMAN SOCIETY.
Ø Family life, domestic intimacy, the root of
public life. We must choose
all our
relations with the light of God in Christ.
Ø The conspiracy of Ananias and Sapphira was
a blow at the work of the
Spirit in
raising up a new spiritual life on the basis of self-sacrifice and
absolute
truthfulness.
Ø The awful judgment was a proclamation of
mercy — Come and hide
under this
Divine power and be safe.
the apostles. The words of Peter
an example:
Ø Of the Spirit of truth and grace in him;
he proceeded with the utmost
care,
publicity, tenderness, pity. The wife had the opportunity of
repentance,
while the appeal was made, not on the ground of terror, for she
knew nothing,
but on the ground of simple truth — Tell me the truth.
Ø Of the spirit of discernment and, in the
Name of the Lord, of prediction.
Had not Peter
under supernatural impulse foreseen the death of the
woman, he would
not have dared to utter such words. As it was, it was a
responsibility
which none but an inspired man would have assumed. Such a
fact speaks
volumes on the supernatural state of the Church at that time.
Ø To the Church itself. The solemnization of fellowship. God thus
said,”
Take heed how
you join my people.” The ethical set in the light of the
spiritual. “Be ye holy.” The sins of falsehood, presumption,
avarice, self-
confidence, set
forth. The Divine kingdom clearly revealed. If God is so
near, and yet
to all who trust in Christ near to bless, how glorious this
time! What is
He not doing? and how little need we fear the world’s
opposition when
He can strike dead our enemies? “Stand still and see the
salvation.”
Compare the
Israelites looking back on Pharaoh’s host and
forward to the
promised land. (Exodus 14:13)
Ø To
the world. “All that heard these things.” Such facts preached, loudly
and widely,
where the preacher’s voice did not reach. We must remember
that grace and
providence go hand-in-hand. Fallow ground broken up by
the ploughshare
of terrible events and warning dispensations. “Judgment
begins
at the house of God; what shall the end be,” etc.? Yet the “fear was
a fear mingled
with the light of hope;” for these deaths pointed to the way
of life. The
Church was the more conspicuously revealed as a refuge
opened by God
for all. So in the terrible times of human history religion
has gone forth
with special power. What
message has philosophy at such
times? Where
are the rationalists and the doubters in the great crises of the
world? Press
home the facts upon those who tempt the
Spirit of the Lord
by
untruthfulness, rebellion, indifference,
worldliness.
12 “And by
the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people; (and they were
all with one accord in
Solomon’s porch. By the hands of the
apostles, etc. Two things are here
remarkable. The one that Christianity at its beginnings was
mightily helped
and advanced by miracles done in the Name of Jesus Christ. The other that
the authority of the apostles as the rulers of the Church
was greatly
strengthened by these miracles being wrought exclusively by
their hands.
We cannot understand either the external relations of the
Church to the
world, or the internal relations of the people to their
spiritual rulers, unless
we duly take count of these two things. With one accord (see ch. 4:24,
note).
In Solomon’s porch (see ch. 3:11, note). It is quite true
to nature that Solomon’s porch, having been the scene of
the miracle,
became the place of frequent concourse. There is a
difference of opinion
among commentators as to whether the all refers to
the whole Christian
laity as in ch. 2:1, or to the apostles only. The opinion that the whole body of
Christians is meant seems most probable, both from the use
of the words in
ch. 2. I and from the phrase ὁμοθυμαδὸν
– homothumadon
– with one accord –
(especially in connection with ἅπαμτες – hapamtes - all), which
seems more applicable to a mixed multitude than to twelve
colleagues like
the apostles. You could hardly say that all the queen’s
ministers met in a
Cabinet Council with one accord. There is no need for the
parenthesis as in
the Authorized Version.
13 “And of
the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people
magnified them.” But for and, Authorized
Version; howbeit for but,
Authorized Version. The
rest seems most naturally to mean those who
were not included in the ἅπαμτες above, viz. the Jews as
distinguished from
the disciples. The effect ‘of the miracles was that the
Jews looked with awe
and reverence upon the
curiosity or with any idle purpose. But, on the
contrary, the people magnified
them, treated them with the utmost respect, and spoke of them with
all honor.
Join himself (κολλᾶσθαι
–
kollasthai – to be being joined).
The word occurs in
the New Testament ten times, of which seven are in Luke’s Gospel or in the Acts.
The other three are in Paul’s
Epistles (see for the use of it in the sense it has here,
ch. 8:29; 9:26; 10:28; 17:34; Luke 15:15).
Hindrances to Belief (v. 13)
These are suggested by the expression, “Of
the rest durst no man join
himself to them.”
It seems that the first body of Christian converts made
Solomon’s porch their place of assembly. This they did,
probably, for the
convenience of its situation and arrangement, and possibly
for the sake of
its association with the teachings of their honored Master.
The historian
records that while the opposition of the Sanhedrin was
feared, “none of
the other people who had not yet joined the new community
ventured to
attach themselves intrusively to the Christian body.”
Whatever conviction
may have been wrought by the apostolic teaching and
miracles, it was
repressed, and men were hindered from full confession of
their faith in
Christ. This is the simplest explanation of the expression,
but some think
that reference is intended to the “multitude of those who
were not yet
converted, but whose attention was at the same time
arrested by the
spiritual power of Christianity;” or to the “Pharisees, who
resorted to the
portico, but had not the courage to attach themselves to
those with whom
they really sympathized.” It is evident that there were
many lookers-on,
who, from one cause or another, were hindered from belief.
Dr. Dykes
says, “To the friendly attitude of the common people there
stood
contrasted, exactly as during Jesus’ ministry, the displeasure
of the official
and educated classes.… Somewhat later a number of the
rank-and-file even
of the priesthood went over to the new faith. At this
period, however, all
the sacred and ruling orders appear to have been kept aloof
from the
Church by a public opinion of their own, so strong that no
individual
member of these orders had as yet the courage to oppose
it.” The term,
“Of the rest,” may
include:
partly of Pharisees. Both were
hindered from belief in Christ by prejudice.
Doctrine blinded the Sadducees;
pride of ritual holiness blinded the
Pharisees. Sadducees were
offended by our Lord’s miracles and spiritual
demands, and hopelessly enraged
by the report of His resurrection, which
they regarded as a mischievous
absurdity and an impossibility. Their
doctrines prevented their being
persuaded. Pharisees were prejudiced to a
ritual system in the observance
of which alone could salvation come. To
their notions salvation by faith
in a person, and such a person as the
Nazarene impostor, was, on the
face of it, unworthy of intelligent beings.
These classes are but examples.
Still the prejudice of doctrinal notions, and
the delusion that somehow salvation must be by works, keep men from
Christ.
parties in a state have
adherents, hangers-on, people who watch and take
their cue from them, and hope to
get their own benefit through the party.
These men are always ready to
avoid what their party avoids, and to shout
what their party shouts. Such
men there were in
the apostles, and, whatever
might be the force of conviction and persuasion
brought to bear upon them, they
were hindered by personal interest.
Joining the Christians would not
answer their ends, and they could not see
their way to offending the party
that was in power. Time-servers never can
believe until they put away
their time-serving. Self-interest and faith cannot
dwell together.
singers, etc. These were
hindered by the spirit of officialism,
one of the
most narrowing and conservative
forces acting on men. The new is always
suspected by the official mind.
The routine and order must not be touched.
There was much, both in our
Lord’s teaching and in that of His apostles,
that could not fail to grieve
and alarm the temple officials. And still,
stiffened creeds and rigid
ecclesiastical forms are often fatal hindrances to
those who teach the creeds and
minister the forms.
observing what a poor lot
the first Christians were, and class pride kept
them from Christ. It was the constant sneer of the enemies of the early
Church, and is fully expressed
by Celsus, that the Christians were drawn
from the very dregs of society,
from the publicans and the slaves. Yet we
glory in this, that “God
hath made the poor of this world rich in faith, and
heirs of the
kingdom.” (James 2:5)
14 “And
believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of
men and women.)” Added to the Lord; as in ch.11:24, not as in margin.
Multitudes; πλήθη
– plaethae
- multitudes, found in the plural nowhere else in
the New Testament.
Elements of influence (vs. 11-16)
Instead of the sin and death of Ananias and Sapphira
proving disastrous to
the infant Church, the melancholy event was followed by a
period of
extraordinary success: There was a high tide of prosperity;
the gospel
showed itself a great power in the community (v. 14). Here
are some of
the elements of that power.
(v.
11). “By
terrible things in righteousness” (Psalm 65:5) God sometimes
answers us and impresses us. The fearful has a work to do in
inspiring awe
and leading to conviction and
conversion. There are awful truths in
connection with the gospel
(Matthew 21:44; 24:51; 25:46, etc.), as
well as terrible facts happening
in the providence of God, which do their
work in the mind, solemnizing,
subduing, preparing for thought, devotion,
consecration.
beneficence took the form of
miraculous healing, and it was most
efficacious in attracting and
winning men. Now it takes other forms hardly
less effective. The hospitals of
the missionary in
philanthropic institutions in
the
Christian sympathy and
self-sacrifice, are great elements of power.
Christian
kindness, taking
a thousand shapes, flowing in a thousand channels, is an
untold,
incalculable influence for good.
whomsoever this applied, whether
to the apostles only or to the band of
believing disciples, it is clear
that a certain reverence was paid to those
who bore about them such marks
of close association with the Divine. To
those who walk with God, who are
men of prayer and of real devoutness
of spirit as well as
blamelessness of life, there will attach a certain
sacredness which will cause them
to be “magnified by the people,” and
their word will be with power.
verses, that the publicity
gained by the “many signs and wonders” of one
day brought together a still
larger congregation of the sick and the
expectant the following day.
Success in
cities round
about.” The moral and spiritual
triumphs of the truth have
been elements of influence of
signal worth. What God has
wrought in
opening blind
eyes of the mind and cleansing leprous souls has been the
means of extending the healing
and renewing power of Christ on every
hand. What stronger argument
have we than this — What Christ has done
for such sad and sinful souls He
can and will do for you?
the hand of the ministers of
Christ.” But the supernatural
is with us still,
though the miraculous is gone.
In connection with the preached
Word, and
in answer to believing prayer:
Ø
the iron will is bent,
Ø
the rocky heart is broken,
Ø
the blind eyes are
opened, and
Ø
from the grave of sin
dead souls come
forth to newness of life.
15 “Insomuch
that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid
them on beds and couches, that at the least
the shadow of Peter passing by
might overshadow some of them.” Even carried out for brought
forth,
Authorized Version. and Textus Receptus; that, as Peter
came by, at the least
his shadow for that
at the least the shadow of Peter passing by, Authorized
Version; some one for some, Authorized
Version. Insomuch; not to be
referred back to the first part of v. 12, as indicated by
the parenthesis in
the Authorized Version, but to the whole description of the
Church’s glorification
in vs. 12-14.
16 “There
came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto
bringing sick folks, and them which were
vexed with unclean spirits: and they
were healed every one.” And there
also came together the multitude from for there
came also a multitude out of, Authorized Version; about
which were, Authorized
Version. And there also came together, etc. One great
result of these numerous miracles would be to manifest that the Lord Jesus was
still with His Church
as truly as when He was upon the earth (Matthew 28:20),
and this manifestation
remains for the comfort of His people, even now that such
miracles have ceased. With regard to what is said in v. 15
of the shadow
of Peter being thought to have had a healing power, it may
have been true
that it had, as Christ could heal by a shadow as well as by
a word or touch,
but we cannot say for certain that it was so; anyhow, it was a marvelous
season of refreshing to the Church, preparing her for the coming trial.
The Healing Personality of Christ’s Servants
(vs. 12-16)
are consecrated to the service
of doing good. Here especially the hands. It
is a beautiful organ, the human
hand, and may stand in Christian thought as
the very symbol of beneficence.
Signs and wonders are wrought,
betokening that God is in
immediate connection with the agency of man,
that His presence is loving and
healing, that Christianity brings in an era of
deliverance from pain and
sickness.
are scared by the presence of a
true man. They are in polar antagonism to
him. They cannot bear his direct
glance, his clear tones, his indefinable
influence. There are those whose
presence silences the ribald jest and scoff.
The holy man awakens dread and
love wherever he goes. Society seems to
divide into its elements as he
approaches. He is magnetic. Hence the
slander of some is an equal
testimony to moral greatness with the
admiration and love of others.
it in their inmost heart. And
not for long can the sympathies of the
multitude be held except by
goodness. In this case Divine power set its seal
too plainly upon the character
and work of the apostles to be resisted. In
the vast concourse of sick and
suffering in the streets and open places of
has been the religion of the
poor and the suffering. It remains the Divine
will that the Christian minister
should be the healer, the comforter. His
pattern is to be found in the
description Christ gave of His own mission in
the synagogue at
somewhere when the public organs of
Christianity fail to command the
attention and to
supply the heart-wants of the lowly and the suffering. By
the ordinary laws of mind to
work for the spiritual help of such is better
than all the power to work signs
and wonders. Let every Christian minister
be like “Peter’s shadow,” a
refreshment and a rest by his spirit and teaching
to weary souls.
Clear Shining after Rain (vs. 12-16)
The blessed effects of what at first is not fully
understood. The outpouring
of judgment may be a preparation for the outpouring of
mercy. The Church
has to be made and kept pure; then the deeper the work of
grace among
God’s people becomes the larger the work of the gospel in
the world.
Notice:
Ø In the working of miracles, which had their special value in rousing
attention
and proving the nearness of
God’s kingdom.
Ø
In
the separation, and magnifying in the eyes of the people, of the true
Church. The rest durst not join them; the people magnified them.
Ø In the solidifying of the Church as a society. Solomon’s porch;
one
accord.
Ø In the work of conversion. Multitudes — men and women;
notwithstanding
the awful deaths.
Ø In the diffusion of the glad tidings in the surrounding neighborhood, not
as mere idle
rumor, but as a practical appeal which brought the needy and
suffering to
the feet of Christ.
the place of meeting still. The
center of new life in the midst of the old
corruption. Invitation to
both Jews and Gentiles. Public place, yet
connected with the temple. The
Divine society inviting all to
new life — a
life that healed, that cared for
the sick and dying, that drew the multitudes,
the miracles giving confidence
and pointing out the way. The manifest
testimony of the world to the
Church, speaking of man’s preparation for
the gospel, The marvelous
progress of the truth in the growth of the
Church a sign that the grace was being abundantly bestowed. A time of
great awakening and many
conversions is a time of tremendous
responsibility. At least the
shadow of the messenger falls upon us, as he
passes by. It is not said that
the shadow healed, but it may help to the faith
which is a prerequisite. The
people magnify the work, though they may not
receive the blessing. God works generally
from the lower to the upper
strata of
society. All great moral changes have begun among the people.
The rich will resist, for it is
hard to them to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. The Church must look
well to itself if it is to be the power of God
in the world. The circle of grace
will widen if only the force keeps going
out from the center. We must avoid the fatal mistake of enlarging that
circle by mere human methods. Let God do it in His way. What we want is
not large Churches as,
communities, or wealthy societies, or great signs
and wonders wrought in our
cities, but “believers added to the Lord,
multitudes both of
men and women;” and they will be “the more added”
because the rest dare not join
themselves unto them because the Spirit of
God is manifestly among them.
Our great danger is impatience and
unbelief. Resorting to our own
expedients, because we think God’s
methods fail. Out of the dark
cloud of Ananias’s and Sapphira’s sin broke
forth a new baptism of zeal, devotion, and
spirituality.
While we read these fewest verses of what was going on in
of how “multitudes from the cities round about
“mother of them all,” to seek, not in vain, healing
virtue, we seem to be
removed by a world’s diameter from the
heart and its very sky darkened by the Crucifixion. And we
also seem
removed by centuries from the time when certain lips (which
could not
open but to speak truth whether simplest or deepest) had
said, “O
and when Jesus “wept over it, saying, If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least
in this thy day,
the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are
hid from thine eyes.”
(Luke 19:42) On the contrary, we are in fact separated
only by weeks from the dread
solemnities of the Crucifixion, and scarcely by
months from the lamentations of Jesus over
shining again; storm, darkness, and nothing less than the
chill of severest
winter are passed over; and summer days, with striking
similarity to the
best of those of Jesus Himself, burst on
summer with
and they were bright in their own brightness; yet, alas! to
linger but for a
while. Meantime what a touching evidence they were, for
unrevengefulness of Jesus, of His forgivingness, of the
very wistfulness of
His loving-kindness! Let us notice the distinguishing features of these days.
GRANDEST OF THE DAYS OF CHRIST’S OWN MINISTRY. That
such a thing could be said with
literal truth was part
Ø
of the condescension
of Jesus; again, it came
Ø
of the genuine reality
contained in the profession that He wore human
nature; and
Ø
of the one absorbed
interest of His heart in the work of man’s
salvation.
The point is surely worthy of
attention, so beautiful in its own moral
bearings; so significant of the
intention of Jesus to share His ultimate
triumph and glory with His own
people, and their captains and princes not
last; and so great a contrast to
the methods and the “inward thoughts” of
the “world” and “the kings of
the earth.” Jesus is not of those who would
cut off from the followers in
His train those who might be successful
imitators of His career, sharers
of His renown. He is exactly the opposite of
this. He calls, invites, incites us all to seek to be in every
best sense
imitators of
Him, and promises that so we shall not fail of a just share of
His renown. The likeness between these days and days in the ministry of
Jesus Christ is patent in respect of:
Ø The miracles which found a place in them.
Ø The beneficent character of those same
miracles.
Ø The abundance and the variety of them —
ranging from the healing of
“the
sick” to the healing
of those “vexed with unclean spirits.”
Ø The very methods by which the friends of
the afflicted compassed the
bringing of
them within the reach of the “virtue” which in some way
“came
out” of the apostles.
The “touch
of the hem of the garment”
must be allowed
to be equaled by the device of securing the chance
for some
impotent man of the “shadow of Peter… overshadowing him.”
Ø The eager, longing, thirsting
appropriation of such blessings on the part
of the masses
of the people. Crushed by want, by suffering, by sin; hope,
light, nay,
almost the mind crushed out of them; — with what irresistible,
unceremonious
tide do these ever press forward, and sweep round or over
every obstacle,
when genuine help, precious,
precious, precious salvation
proffers
itself! What care they for Sanhedrin and
Sadducee? They are the
rulers, and the
others are cowed and cower before them.
Ø The widespread practical success of the
miracles — “they were healed
every
one.”
Ø The moral triumph which “the
people” accord to the authors, or those
who appear
as the authors, of their blessings. They repudiate
sophistication,
and “render
honor to whom honor is due.” Indeed, there are
not wanting
very satisfactory and sufficient indications now that “the
people,” on the one hand, rendered to the apostles
the distinction justly due
to them as the
trusted servants of their vanished Master, and, on the other,
recognized the
fact that “the power was of God.” Infidelity was not
altogether
either the prevalent or the hardened fact in some directions then
that in some
directions it is now. “The people” had a great idea of the
impregnability
of the position of the
man who did “works such
as none
other could
do,” and “such as no man could do save
God were with Him.”
THEIR PROPER DIGNITY AND STATUS TO THE COMPANY OF
THE APOSTLES. Peter
and John are the two apostles whose names and
whose work had hitherto received
prominence. Of these Peter has been
with evident and with just design
by far the more prominent. Till Paul shall
come upon the scene he will also
remain similarly conspicuous. But during
these days the whole college of
the apostles seem to receive the baptism of
their work, as on the day
of Pentecost they had received the baptism of the
Spirit for it. They are “all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.” And the
chief evidence of the dignity
and status, not artificial but real, which were
now given to them, may perhaps
be best expressed in a somewhat
antithetical mode of statement,
viz. that:
Ø while “the people magnified them” with
hearty acclamation for instant
and
grateful acknowledgment,
Ø “no man of the rest” (i.e. presumably of those who would not care to
be classified
altogether among “the people,” and who would have been
quite prepared
to snatch at any possible dignity at which they could “dare”
to snatch) “durst
join himself” to those apostles. They did not dare this,
because
their abilities could be IMMEDIATELY PUT TO THE PROOF~
They did not
dare it, because of the warning, so fresh, of the end of Ananias,
when he had
tampered with the sacredness of the society organized by the
apostles. And likely enough, in many cases, they did
not dare it from a
sincere awe and
an intelligent, respectful reverence for men who were doing
the things that
the apostles were now doing. Any way, the result was obtained
that round
these apostles was drawn the cordon of a moral regard and a moral
support, which
would be a strong comfort to the believers and a strong
condemnation to
the unbelievers. A very few hours were to find the use of
this. And a
very few hours would show that it inferred no danger of the
access of
superficial vanity or the incursion of deeper pride.
MIRACLE IN THE DIRECT SPIRITUAL RESULTS WHICH THEY
RECORD. (v. 14.) It is
quite possible that, among the “multitudes both
of men and women” who now were “added to the Lord,” some may have
proved apostates as time went
on. On the other hand, the supposition
would be most gratuitous that
any disproportionate number turned thus
away. The fair inference from
what is said here and from the tenor of the
history that follows would be,
if anything, in a contrary direction.
Assuming this or contenting
ourselves readily with the other and lower
estimate, in either case
we are justified in noting the kind of use to which at
this time miracle was ordained
to be subservient. It is not to be disputed
that the fervent attachment
which bound not a few to the person, yes, and
to the character and truth, of
Jesus during the days of His flesh was
wakened and fixed by some
miracle that He had wrought for them or theirs.
Nor need it be denied that that
attachment answered to a genuine spiritual
change, a change of heart, evidencing
itself in a change of life.
Nevertheless, it can scarcely be
said that this was the clear rule in the
operation of the miracles of
Jesus, or that this was their aim. Neither,
perhaps, now was this the
primary object of the miracles and “the many
signs and wonders
wrought by the hands of the apostles.”
But the miracles
were distinctly the pioneers of those spiritual results. In the
track of miracle
went a most
efficacious working of the convincing and converting Spirit!
The miracle drew many together;
it wakened and held the attention; it
undoubtedly did have this
practical and so far forth moral effect, viz. the
effect of compelling many to
say, “Lo,
God is here!” and to feel it. To deny
the possibility of a
miracle-falls nothing short of denying a personal God.
To allow the fact of any
individual miracle is to allow that God is offering
to the help of a poor memory, to
the help of a struggle always arduous
enough against sense and the
numbing sway of habit, to the help-of
conviction itself, the
enlivening touch of His personal
presence. Sophistry
has a vanity in weaving its web
to snare miracle, but vainly weaves. The
faith that inheres in the
world’s great heart is too strong for it, and sweeps
away that vanity with equal ease
and contempt. In the track, then, of
miracle viewed for a moment thus,
it is quite optional what follows. The
miracle, like all other mercy,
may be to condemnation, as Jesus said, “If I
had not come and
spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they
have no cloak for
their sin If I had not done among them the works which
none other man
did, they had not had sin.” (John
15:22-23). The miracle
may be what it so often was in
the very dearest specimens of it, those of
Jesus Himself, to the great
gratification of curiosity — that of people, of
priest, and of ruler, and after
a while to their deeper sleep and their more
reckless disbelief. But it may
also be all the blessed contrary. In the track of
what or of whom would the
quickening, enlightening. convincing,
converting Spirit Himself rather
follow? And this is what was seen now.
When Jesus Himself wrought His
own mightiest works, the Spirit’s course
seemed restrained. But,
wonderful grace! when His disciples and apostles
are facing the world and
encountering the inevitable dangers involved in
doing so, mighty miracles are
brought home by the mightier Spirit, and
spiritual results follow such as may be described in terms unknown to
the
lifetime of Jesus Himself. “Believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both
of men and women.” Nevertheless, then
were plainly
fulfilled the words of Jesus to
His disciples, “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater
works than these
shall he do: because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
Bodily Healings May Prepare for Spiritual
Ones (vs. 15-16)
Comparing apostolic miracles with those wrought by our
Lord, it should be
noticed that He showed power over nature by stilling
storms, walking on
waters, multiplying food, and withering trees; but the
apostles’ power was
limited to various forms of bodily danger and disease. In
each case the
miracles illustrated the higher work of those who wrought
them. Christ’s
miracles illustrated His Divine claims and mission as the
revelation to men
of the Father. Apostolic miracles illustrated their mission
to preach Christ
to men as the Healer of the soul’s disease,
Redeemer from sin’s penalties,
and Savior from sin.
The question is often discussed whether the power of
miraculous healing has been lost to the Church. Claim to
such power has
been made in every age, with more or less confidence, and
such claims are
made now. Singular and interesting instances of bodily
healing in response
to faith and prayer are narrated by sober witnesses; and it
may be admitted
that there are certain classes of diseases which can be
affected and relieved
by the strong will and faith of a fellow-creature. But it
is difficult for us to
recognize the properly miraculous character of such
cures. We may
consider:
efficient healing agents for all
man’s diseases, He has given to some among
men healing skill, to be used in
the service of others. No nobler ministry is
entrusted to men than that of
healing. A vast and almost overwhelming
mass of human suffering calls
for the healer’s art. Though some forms of
bodily disease are beyond human
cure, few, if any, are out of the reach of
relieving agencies. Apostolic
healings materially differed from those of the
ordinary doctor.
Ø They were immediate.
Ø They were without the use of medicinal
agencies.
Ø They were complete, without peril of any
return of the disease.
Ø They were wrought by spiritual power — and that not the apostles’
own, only
operating through them — reaching the very springs of vitality
and giving new
life. How such healings illustrate the Divine work in sin-sick
souls may be
fully shown.
apostolic ministry. The end was
not reached when a suffering man was
cured; that was but the means to
a further and higher end, even that soul-
healing which comes by
the reception of Christ the Savior, whom apostles
taught. Illustrate how medical
missions are made the agency for winning
the attention of the heathen to
the gospel message. Point out what are the
particular points of spiritual
teaching which gain effective illustration from
bodily healings; e.g.:
Ø The assertion of a necessary relation between SIN
and SUFFERING.
Suffering is no
accident, no mere calamity; it is the divinely appointed
fruitage and
consequence of sin. It is designed to fix the character of sin, to
give men
conviction through feeling, vision, and sympathy, of THE EVIL
OF SIN! When more clearly understood, suffering is
seen to be the
corrective agency
through which man may be delivered from sin.
Ø The assertion of the Divine relation to
suffering. God does not pass
aside of the
diseased or disabled;
every day He is working gracious works
in
sick-rooms and hospitals. Of this His constant work Jesus gave full
illustrations
in His miracles, when He came to “show
us the Father;” and
of
this apostles
renewed the assurance when they healed, in Christ’s Name, all
the sick and
suffering ones that were brought unto them.
Ø The consequent assertion of the Divine
relation to sin. God would not
concern Himself
with the mere effects; we may be quite sure that He deals
with the cause.
The great Physician is concerned about OUR SIN!
He would not
that any of us should perish in our sins. And, therefore, when
the apostles
healed a sufferer they preached unto him Jesus, who is precisely
this, “GOD SAVING MEN FROM THEIR SINS!”
17 “Then
the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him,
(which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and
were filled with indignation,”
But for then, Authorized
Version; they were filled for were filled, Authorized
Version; jealousy for indignation, Authorized
Version. The high priest rose up.
It was high time for him and his friends the Sadducees to
be up and doing, if
they wished to stop the spreading of the faith of Jesus
Christ and the Resurrection.
Which is the sect of the Sadducees (ch.
4:1-2, note). It does not appear
that Annas himself was a Sadducee, but his son was, and
hence it is highly
probable that the Sadducees should have attached themselves
to Annas,
and made a tool of him for suppressing the doctrine of the
Resurrection.
The sect; αἵρεσις – hairesis – sect; heresy - (see ch. 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:4; 28:22).
The word was applied first by Jews to Christians, and then
by Christians to sects
(I Corinthians 11:19; Galatians 5:20; II Peter 2:1). Jealousy scarcely so well
expresses the idea of ζῆλου – zaelou – jealousy
here
as indignation does. It is
only occasionally that it means that kind of anger which we
call jealousy. The
high priest and his party were indignant at the defiance of
their authority, and at
the success of the doctrine which they had made it a
special object to put down.
18 “And
laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common
prison.”
Laid hands (as ch. 4:3, Authorized Version and Revised Version;
for laid their hands, Authorized Version. and Textus Receptus; in public ward
for in the common prison, Authorized Version. Laid hands, etc. Laid their hands
is equally right, even when αὑτῶν – auton – their – is omitted, as
the translation of
τὰς
χεῖρας – tas cheiras - the hands. There is no difference in the sense in the two
renderings, or in the two passages, though in ch.4:3 the phrase
is ἐπέβαλον
αὐτοῖς
τὰς
χεῖρας
– epebalon autois tas cheiras - they laid
hands on them and ἐπέβαλον
τὰς
χεῖρας
αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους
– epebalon tas cheiras auton epi tous apostolous –
and laid their hands on the apostles. In public ward. The Authorized Version. is
more idiomatic and expresses exactly what is meant by the
phrase τηρήσει
δημοσίᾳ -
taeraesei daemosia – public custody.
19 “But
the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought
them forth, and said,” An angel for the
angel, Authorized Version; out for forth,
Authorized Version. An
angel, etc. The
phrase is a translation of the Old Testament
phrase מַלְאַך
יְהוָה. But in Hebrew it is impossible to insert the definite
article before
יְהוָה, and therefore the phrase is properly rendered, “the angel of the Lord.” In the
passage before us and other similar passages, Κύριος – Kurios – Lord - seems
to stand
for יְוָה, and therefore the rendering of the Authorized Version.
would seem to be
right, in spite of what is said by eminent grammarians to
the contrary. Compare,
too, the phrases ὁδὸν
εἰρήνηνς – hodon eiraenaens - (Luke 1:19); ῤῆμα Θεοῦ -
rhaema
Theou – word of God (Luke 3:2); φωνὴ βοῶντος
– phonae boontos –
voice of one crying (ibid. v. 4); and see especially ibid.
ch.2:9, where,
ἄγγελος
Κυρίου – aggelos Kuriou
- the angel of the Lord) and δόξα
Κυρίου –
doxa
Kuriou - the glory of the Lord
stand in parallel clauses. The Revised Version
inconsistently renders the first “an angel,” and the
second” the glory.” In like
manner φωνὴ
Κυρίου – phonae Kuriou (ch.7:31) is “the voice of the Lord;” and in
Psalm 29:3-5,7-9 the Septuagint have uniformly φωνὴ
Κυρίου
for קול
יְהוָה
(see ch. 8:26, note). Out (compare ch. 12:7, etc.).
Angel-Help (v. 19)
Angels are constantly referred to in Holy Scripture. The Angel-Jehovah,
or
angel of the covenant, who appeared in human form to the
patriarchs as a
sign and foreshadowing of the Incarnation, must be
distinguished from the
ordinary angelic appearances. The Old Testament conception
of angels is
that they were agents or executors of Divine missions to
individual men or
to communities. Thus we have angels visiting
pestilence; angels guarding Jacob, etc. From the earlier
poetical and
imaginative point of view, the angels were veritable
beings, belonging to
other spheres but able to communicate with men in the
earthly spheres. To
our more formal and scientific notions, angels are regarded
as the
personification of material agencies, as used by God for
moral and religious
purposes. “He maketh winds His angels, and flames of
fire His ministers.”
(Psalm 104:4) Very
little can be really known about angels, and no doctrine of angelology can be pressed
on universal acceptance. The New Testament
conception of angels is given in Hebrews 1:14 (Revised
Version), “Are they not
all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of
them that shall
inherit salvation?” The
precise work of ministry is that entrusted to them,
and apostolic assertion of the fact of their ministry is
probably designed to
oppose the Sadducees’
teaching that “there is neither angel nor spirit.”
Ø Angel-announcements
and preparations for His birth.
Ø Angel-comfortings in the time of his
desert temptations (Matthew 4:11).
Ø Angel-strengthenings in the moments of His
conflict and agony in Gethsemane.
Ø Angel-attendance upon His resurrection.
Ø Angel-announcementsts concerning His
ascension and His coming again.
From these
instances we may learn the kind of help which angels may be
expected to
give to Christ’s tempted and tried disciples.
forms.
Ø As deliverance from prison (see text, and
incident narrated in ch.12:7).
Ø As communicating Divine messages (see ch. 8:26;
10:7).
Ø As ensuring safety in times of peril (see
ch. 27:23). It may be
observed that
what may be called the materiality of the angel began
gradually to
fade away, and the visionary realization of the angel-help took
its place. In
this we trace the transition to the form in which we now may
apprehend the
help of the angels. No man may expect such actual working
in the physical
spheres as Peter knew when his prison doors were opened.
Even in Paul’s
time this work was done by the natural shakings of the earthquake.
that it is granted. The only
question is — In what manner do we realize the
help? Spiritual forces are around us. We are influenced, for good and for
evil, by unknown agencies. This
is as yet almost an unstudied Christian
phenomenon; one, however, which
often brings comfort as a sentiment to
pious souls. Such angel-help is
very properly put into a secondary place in
our consideration when we have a
full and strong conviction that the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself
is with us, the Inspiration, Guard, and Guide of our
whole life and
thoughts. They who consciously realize
the presence of the
Master will make comparatively
little of the presence of the Master’s
ministers and servants working
out His gracious purposes for Him.
We may properly
cherish the idea of angel-help in everything that is good.
20 “Go,
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of
this life.”
Go ye for go, Authorized Version.
In the temple; not in the house,
but in the courts. The
words of this Life; i.e. this
life which is in Christ, whom
ye preach, through His resurrection from the dead (compare
John 6:68,
“Thou hast the words of eternal life;” see too the whole chapter and
I John 1:1-3).
The Church’s
“Go, stand and speak,” etc. Acts of apostles the model for acts of
God’s
people always. Lessons on relation of the Church and the
world. The Gospel
began to lay hold of the masses. There were envy and hatred
of the Sadducean party,
because a religion which lifted up the people, they
thought, would lower
the wealthy and ease-loving. We must expect social
difficulties as the
kingdom of righteousness spreads, but the angel’s message
is the rule of all
times; while opportunity offers, stand and speak, not your
own message,
but “all the words of
this life.” While we listen to the
angel’s words, we
should keep our eye fixed on the unveiled secret of Divine
strength
delivering and protecting all true-hearted preachers of
Christ’s truth.
Ø
Copy the example of
the Master. “Common people heard him gladly.”
Ø
Best on the adaptation
of the gospel to the people’s wants. They are
deceived by false teachers,
run after false remedies.
Ø
Take courage by the
facts of the early history of Christianity. All moral
prowess from the people.
Illustrate in the course of Christianity in the
especially in
the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
Ø
Note the events. The
future in the hands of the people. Speak to them of
Christ; for their power is
great, and they may abuse it to the destruction
of society. Babel-greatness must
end in confusion and misery.
Ø
Consider the
responsibility of Christians. Believe, and therefore speak;
silence is shame. Activity is
the hope of the Church, the cure of its
strifes and the uprooting of its
doubts.
Ø Reality — life. Men’s daily
struggle is about life. Yet the world full of
delusions about
life. This life! That life! We invite the people to live the
true life, Christ’s life, the life that death cannot touch.
Ø Announcement. “Words
of this life.” We
proclaim facts, a
Divine
Person,
a life that can be
described by example, confirmed by testimony,
studied in the
written pages. Religion no dream of enthusiasts, no mere
sentiment
floating like a cloud in the air, no empty ritualism, but words of
life translated
into action.
Ø Philanthropy. “All the words.” Different from mere human teachers with
their
reservations and selfishness. Philosophers taught for money. Christ
says, “Speak
all to the people freely.” Religion in the hands of priests has
made the people
enemies, but this new message in the temple would shake
down the wails
of superstition, prejudice, and pride, and build up a new
humanity. In
our message we must put so much heart that the people see
we
give them all that we have, because we love their souls first and their
earthly
interests as included in their spiritual welfare.
Ø Aggression. “Go,
stand in the temple;”
“Be not afraid of their faces.”
(Jeremiah
1:8) Bold policy always the wisest in
spiritual things. Special
necessity
that the
desecrated temple should witness
the faithfulness of
Christ’s
messengers. False religion the great obstacle to progress
of the
gospel. People
misunderstand the message; think of priests as their enemies;
have reason to
think so. The gospel does not reject what is good in other
systems, but
plants itself in the midst of the world as it is; finds in the temple
of the old
religion a standing-place from which to preach the new tidings.
Every fresh
instance of Divine interposition should embolden us. You are
free now, go to
the work again. In all fields of labor discouragement must
be absolutely
excluded. Follow the Spirit of God, and He will point to
new
platforms. We shall speak with fresh power if we refuse to
be thwarted
by
opposition or put out of countenance by suffering.
The Theme of Themes: The Angel’s Charge (v.
20)
“Go, speak, of this life.” There can be no doubt as to what is essentially the
reference in this expression used by the angel. But
whence the angel, so to
say, borrowed it admits of a thought and a question. The
angel speaks of
the life involved in the fact of the Resurrection —
that fact so unwelcome
to the pinched, impoverished Sadducees, who now were the
leading
persecutors of the apostles. However great the single fact
of the
resurrection of Jesus, its greatness is magnified by some
infinite number,
when we regard it as an earnest and “first fruits” of very
much in its train.
Had it been a unique fact, and been designed to
remain so, it would have
been shorn of the crown of its glory. Solitary grandeur
and majesty must
necessarily have robbed it of its
power to thrill unnumbered millions with
hope and joy, and
to point all humanity to the one quarter from which light
arises to it. And probably the simplest will be the best
account of the
angel’s naming it “this life.” “Go, stand and speak in the
temple to the
people all the words of this life,” viz. the
life which has been the unceasing
theme now for some days, of your thought, your one unbroken
affection,
and your testimony. We have here an angel’s charge. Let us
notice of what
it is made up. The angel urges:
OF EARTH IS NOW TO BE THE
BURDEN OF THE APOSTLES’
PREACHING. Some
persons object to the prominence given in preaching
to what is to come and the
circle of subjects involved therein. They think it
unnatural, artificial. However, not
to do this is to put off again the
unspeakable
advantages of revelation. That the practical duty of the
present life should be
preached by the Christian preacher is a truism. That it
should be preached without
the light of the eternal future, and what is most
distinctive of it revealed in Scripture, is to turn the
back on the priceless
GIFT OF REVELATION! Hence come the mightiest of living practical impulses for
right, for elevated, for holy life on earth. The mind stirs with a new and
wondering gaze; the imagination is divinely tempted — not to be either
deluded in the nature of what it
takes hold upon or defrauded in the
measure of it; and the heart is
reached to its deepest wants. The infinitely
enlarged horizon that comes of
the revelation of eternal life does neither
affect nor for a moment wish to
alter the foundations of moral truth and of
duty. But it does throw a light
and color and interest into the very midst of
them, and for the mass of
mankind first brings them into the class of
acknowledged practical forces.
At any time machinery is one thing, and
motive force another. Christ’s
destruction of the boundary view death, and
his illimitable extension of the
boundary view onward to eternal life,
legitimately make the very
essence (not at all of the foundations of
morality, but) of a very large
part of the force of His appeal to mankind.
The angel’s charge is dead
contrary to anything looking in the direction of
affecting to be able to dispense
with his method or to throw it at all into the
shade. And the centuries that
have passed since the angel released the
apostles at early dawn from
prison, and bade them go and preach “the
words of this life,” have
vindicated his charge. The preaching that has been
filled with moral aphorisms has
been dead and barren of force. That which
has reverently but confidently
dealt with the tremendous realities of the
great future
unseen — unseen except by the light of
revelation and faith —
has been the preaching that has
been fruitful of influence and has shown
changed hearts and changed lives. (“While
we look not at the things
which are not seen, but at the things which
are not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are ETERNAL” - II Corinthians 4:18)
APPEAL TO “THE PEOPLE.”
The distinguishing facts or doctrines of
Christianity know no distinction
of esoteric and exoteric. They are what
may be understood of the people,
and they are what may be trusted to the
people. Sadducees and others,
not a few who would profess themselves
conversant with these higher
matters of life and its outlook, are putting
from them their grand
opportunity. But to “the people,” “the gospel,” “the
words of this
life,” are preached. The gospel is to
try its genius and its
force among them, and then it
tries it ever, not altogether in vain. It is to be
noticed that this crowning
doctrine or fact of the future life or eternal life is:
Ø
to be announced in
closest connection with the personal history of
Jesus Christ — with His
Resurrection; and
Ø
that it is to be
announced with all the fullness and variety of which it
may admit — “All the
words of this life” are to be enlarged
on without
stint:
o
what it is in its own
intrinsic self,
o
what it is as gained
for man by Christ,
o
what it is as
illustrated by Christ’s own resurrection.
MERE MEN, MEN UNASSISTED BY ANY EARTHLY POWER AND
EXPOSED TO ALL EARTHLY DANGERS. Jesus Christ has done His
work, so far as the part of it
on earth was concerned. Angels, it clearly
appears, have their share too in
furthering the work of Christ on earth. But
their share is of a more
indirect kind. When Jesus goes, men, feeble, erring,
sinful men, are called to
take up the work, are honored to take it up. Let
this mean what it may, and
harmonize with what it may or may not, the fact
merits probably more thought
than all it has yet received. And if it is to be
rightly estimated, equal regard
must be paid to two facts:
Ø
that man is to be the
worker, and that
Ø
the man who is thus to work is to
be one “called” and one qualified by
the Holy Spirit. Thus called and thus equipped within, he is to “go,
and
stand,” as though in unassisted strength, and to stand in
the place of
courted and solemn observation,
in the publicity of “the temple,” and to
take heed that he “speak to the people all the words of
this life.”
21 “And
when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the
morning, and taught. But the high priest
came, and they that were
with him, and called the council together,
and all the senate of the
children of
This for that, Authorized
Version; about day. break for early in the morning,
Authorized Version; prison-house for prison, Authorized
Version. About daybreak.
In the hot climate of
Matthew 26:57, 75). But the high priest, etc. The
narrative would run more clearly
if the passage were translated more literally, Now when
the high priest and
they that were with him were come (to the council-chamber the next day)
they called together, etc.
The narrative is taken up from vs. 17-18.
Having (v. 18) put the apostles in prison, they met the
next morning to
decide how to punish them. The council (τὸ
συνέδριον – to sunhedrion –
the Sanhedrin); i.e. in the Hebraeo-Greek, the Sanhedrin, the
great council of
the nation, consisting of seventy-two members, usually
presided over by the
high priest. It is frequently mentioned in the New
Testament (Matthew 5:22;
26:59; Mark 14:55, etc.; and ch. 4:15 22:30; 23:1). On the
present occasion,
besides the members of the Sanhedrim, there were gathered
together all the senate
(γερουσίαν
– gerousian
- senate) of the children of
occurs only here, but which seems to comprise all the elders of the Jews, even
though they were not members of the Sanhedrim. But some understand it as merely
another phrase for the Sanhedrin, added for explanation and
amplification.
The council, of course, were ignorant of the escape of the
prisoners. The
prison-house (δεσμωτήριον
–
desmotaerion - prison (Authorized
Version)
represents φυλακή - phulakae – jail - in the
next verse.
22 “But
when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they
returned and told,” The officers
that came for when the officers came and,
Authorized Version and Textus Receptus; and they
returned for they returned,
Authorized Version.
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.” Prison-house for prison,
Authorized Version,
as in v. 21; we found shut in all
safety for truly found we shut with all
safety,
Authorized Version at
the doors for without before the doors, Authorized
Version and Textus
Receptus. But the within at the end of the
verse seems to require the without of the Textus
Receptus.
24 “Now
when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the
chief priests heard these things, they
doubted of them whereunto
this would grow.” The captain of the temple for the high priest and
the captain,
etc., Authorized Version
and Textus Receptus; words for things, Authorized
Version; were much perplexed concerning them for doubted
of them, Authorized
Version. The
captain of the temple, etc. Meyer, followed by Alford,
retains the
Textus Receptus, in which the word for the high
priest is ὁ
ἱερεὺς – ho hiereus. It is
true that this word occurs nowhere else in the New
Testament for “the high priest.”
But in the Old
Testament כֹהֵן is very frequently used to designate the high
priest, as
Exodus 29:30; 35:19; Numbers 3:32; II Chronicles
22:11; II Kings 22:10; I Kings
1:8, etc.; and in such places is represented by ἱερεὺς in the Septuagint. So that
Luke may very probably have used it here where the context
made the meaning
clear, and where he intended to use the word ἀρχιερεῖς – archiereis - for “the
chief priests.”
For the captain, see above (ch. 4:1, note). He was
especially interested as being, probably, the officer who
had arrested the
apostles the day before. Were much perplexed concerning. The verb
(διαπορέω
– diaporeo
– were bewildered), which only
occurs in the New
Testament here and ch.2:12, 10:17, Luke 9:7, and (in the
middle voice)
Luke 24:4, means properly “to be in doubt which road to take,” hence generally
to be in doubt, perplexity. Them may apply either to the words, the strange things
just reported to them, or to the apostles about whom
the things were
reported. It seems most natural to refer it to the words.
They were in doubt
and perplexity as to what it would all grow to.
The Hopelessness of Fighting against God
(vs. 21-24)
The narrative indicates that the Sanhedrin had fully
entered on the work of
checking and crushing the party of Christ’s disciples.
Gamaliel expressed
what the nature of their action might possibly prove to be
— it might be
even a “fighting against God.” Some effort
should be made to realize what
they thought about their work, and how they deluded
themselves with the
notion that they alone were guardians of the truth of God,
and in opposing
the Christian party were really fighting for God. It is one
of the saddest
effects of cherished exclusiveness and self-confidence that
these things
actually blind men, and make it impossible for them to receive
truth as
newly presented to them. A little self-criticism, a little
skill in testing their
own motives, would have revealed to these men the low and unworthy
passions and prejudices by which they were permitting
themselves to be
ruled. So often
we need to “see ourselves as others see us,” and may
thankfully welcome any light that reveals ourselves to
ourselves. These
men were really “fighting against God.”
TEMPORARY SUCCESSES.
Only apparent, because they always lead
men on to attempt further
schemes, which involve them in utter ruin. Only
temporary, because God has the
long ages in which to secure the
outworking of His purposes.
Illustrate by the success of the Sanhedrin in
the conviction and death of our
Lord, and in the imprisonment of the
apostles.
BEYOND HIS REACH. And
they are sure to master him. Compare man’s
range of power with God’s.
Illustrate from the treatment of Christ; death
was man’s limit, resurrection
was in God’s power. So with apostles;
imprisonment was man’s limit,
angel-deliverance was in God’s power.
God’s miracles
then, God’s providences and overrulings now, surely mate
and master man’s utmost
antagonism. This is true of persecutions,
infidelity, or other forms of
attack on Christian men, the Christian faith, or
the spread of the Redeemer’s kingdom.
25 “Then
came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye
put in prison are standing in the temple,
and teaching the people.”
And there came one for
then came one, Authorized Version; behold for
saying, Behold, Authorized
Version and Textus Receptus; the
prison for prison,
Authorized Version; in the temple standing for standing
in the temple, Authorized
Version. Standing implying
the calm, fearless attitude of the men. There is an
apparent reference in the mind of the writer to the
words of the angel in v. 20,
“Go ye, and stand and
speak.”
26 “Then
went the captain with the officers, and brought them without
violence: for they feared the people, lest
they should have been stoned.”
27 “And
when they had brought them, they set them before the council:
and the high priest asked them,” But without for without, Authorized Version;
lest they should be, omitting ἵνα – hina – that - for lest they should have been,
with ἵνα, Authorized Version and Textus Receptus. Lest they should be, etc.
The best way of construing the words, whether ἵνα is retained
or not, is to make the clause “lest they should be stoned” depend
upon “not with
violence;” putting “for they feared
the people” into a
parenthesis; thus explaining why they thought it dangerous
to use violence.
Arrest of the Apostles (vs. 17-26)
Ø Zeal.
It is good or evil in its
effects, according to the objects to which it
is directed.
There is no mood of which more opposite descriptions have
been and may
not be with justice given. In the excitement of feeling, the
fire and fervor
which zeal implies, egotism may be so easily mistaken for
public spirit. Our self-passions may and must mix with those of a purer
kind. Resentment against injury to our
interests or indignity to our party, or
contempt for
our opinions, is constantly mistaken for pure zeal for the
Ø
Whenever
anger and violence break out it is a proof that the dangerous
force of
zeal is at work. The only
way to correct its mischief is by denying
any personal
interest which is apart from that of the truth. It is the clear
calm gaze at
truth which cools the undue heat of zeal, or gives the force its
true direction.
Here violence showed that egotism was the principle of
priestly zeal,
and passionate interest, divorced from truth. The apostles are
seized and put
in prison. Zeal is blundering, thinks that force is a remedy
for moral
feebleness, believes that truth and spirit can be put down.
comes as an emissary of freedom,
for the Word of God cannot be bound.
And freedom means new scope for
duty. God does not give liberty to
tongue and hand for nothing. “If
our virtues go not forth from us, ‘Tis all
as one as though we had them
not.” Freedom imposes duties. If God sets
us free front the fear of man,
which muzzles the tongue, then let us go and
publicly speak to the people “all the
words of this life.” Again, with
freedom courage is given. The apostles
go at daybreak to the temple, and
in the teeth of ecclesiastical
prohibition proceed to teach. How truly is
courage the gift and grace of God! Too often we think of it as a mere
pagan virtue founded on pride.
Far otherwise with the true courage of the
Christian soldier. “It was a
great instruction,” said Mrs. Hutchinson, in her
‘Memoirs,’” that the best and
highest courages were beams of the
Almighty.” As every passion and
energy of the soul contains its opposite,
so moral courage contains fear
of God, moral cowardice contains the false
courage to be untrue to God. The
apostles, having chosen the fear of God
and obedience for their guide,
knew no other fear.
of the human heart. When men are
blinded by passion, the strongest
arguments and warnings of God
seem only obstacles on which wrath
breaks with the greater
vehemence. The news comes that the prison is
empty, and under significant
circumstances. The guard stands as before at
the door, unconscious of the
prisoners’ escape. The tidings are confirmed
from another source. The
prisoners have escaped and are again in the
temple, teaching. Was not this
the finger of God? Would not men in their
senses, free from the madness of
passion, have argued that they did wrong
to offer violence to a power so
majestical and so contemptuous of the
fetters of force and the
ordinary laws of nature? Yet once more the foiled
attempt of human force against
the will of God is renewed, and the
apostles are brought with a
gentleness due to the fear of their captors
before the tribunal.
The Sanhedrin are at the outset
again baffled and defied.
Ø Authority weak without moral support. The judges can only helplessly
repeat themselves.
They refer to their former command and ask why it had
not been
obeyed. As if the apostles had not warned them it should not be
obeyed. Might
without right can only repeat its experiments and its
failures and is
no match for right which rests upon
eternal might.
Ø Physical weakness mighty is moral support. Here were but a few
unarmed men,
without armed following, only temporarily backed up by the
uncertain
sympathy of the crowd. What is the secret of their immovable
bearing? It is
moral. Obedience to the higher law is the secret of all
command over
the minds of others. Here again is the coincidence of
opposites. The
servant of self-interest is weak, though he sits on a throne
and is
surrounded by guards; while one moral will, one divinely determined
personality,
suffices to set a city in commotion and to overturn
established
order.
Ø Truth irresistible. The truth
of the place, time, persons, circumstances,
launched from
firm lips, is certain to go home. This is infallible. If we fail
with the truth,
it is because of want of respect to some of these conditions.
o
The
act of God in raising Jesus is again insisted on. Fearful fact in its
grandeur,
disquieting in its stubbornness, illustrated now by the events
of every hour.
o
The
guilt of the crucifiers again emphasized. Their own dark passions
are reflected
in the cross of wood, and at the same time God’s rebuke
of them and
disappointment of them.
o
The
exaltation and dominion of Jesus again set forth. At the fight hand
of God; at the
apex of the moral universe, he now draws men unto him,
changing their
hearts and pardoning their sins.
o
The
living evidence again appealed to. We, living, acting
men, working
works that by
the confession of one of your number (Nicodemus) no
man can do
unless God be with him; we, not in our independent name
and
personality, but as vehicles and agents of a holy power, are the
evidence that
these things are so. And if they are so, then is the power
of the
Sanhedrin, with all its support in Roman arms, the mere shadow
and ghost of
authority. It is superseded by that of Jesus the true King
of
conviction, all
the more penetrating because it is in the
minds of all,
yet adored by
none.
§
The
root of courage, energy, moral influence, and command
lies in
conscience, or obedience
to God.
§
Where
men combine against conscience and conspire against
truth,
they undermine the foundations
of authority and
prepare
their own
ruin.
28 “Saying,
Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach
in this name? and, behold, ye have filled
doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s
blood upon us.”
We straitly charged for did not we straitly
command? Authorized Version
and Textus Receptus; not to for that ye should
not, Authorized Version; teaching
for doctrine, Authorized Version. We
straitly charged, seems to require a
question to follow. Your teaching (for the command, see ch.
4:18). Intend to
bring, etc. Here
the secret of the persecution comes out, The guilty
conscience winced at every word which spake of Jesus Christ
as living. The
high priest, too, would not so much as name the name of
Jesus. It was “this
name,” “this man;”
as in the Talmud, Jesus is most frequently spoken of as
Teloni, i.e. “such a one,” in
Spanish and Portuguese Fulano, or still more
contemptuously as “that
man” (Farrar, ‘Life of St. Paul,’ vol. 1. p. 108).
This terror of blood-guiltiness is a striking comment on
the saying recorded
in Matthew 27:25.
29 “Then
Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to
obey God rather than men.” But for then, Authorized Version; the apostles
for the other apostles, Authorized Version; must for ought to, Authorized Version.
Peter is the spokesman, the sentiment is that of the united apostolate.
Must obey God, etc. The rule is a
golden one for:
o
all men,
o
all circumstances, and
o
all time (compare ch. 4:19).
“We
ought to obey God rather than men” (v. 29)
(or, “we must,” Revised Version). A great
principle requires to be seen in
the full daylight before it can be made the foundation of
great action.
Fanaticism borrows its strength from the night of
ignorance, not from the
noon of truth. Persecution may vindicate itself on the
ground of obedience
to God, but it proves itself to have no title to such a
principle because it
destroys freedom.
Ø
It is a requirement
abundantly set forth in the
Scriptures, in conscience,
in the teaching of providence in
connection with revealed truth, and
especially in that inspired
guidance which no true and earnest man is
left without.
Ø
Enforced by the work of the Church,
by the dangers of the world, by the
deceitfulness of the heart,
by the promises of God’s Word.
Ø
Rewarded by the
sense of inward strength, by superiority to
circumstances, by successes in
Christian effort — if not in this world
fully, IN ETERNITY!
Ø Human laws, human requirements, human
errors, human passions, all
may say, “Obey the voice of man rather than of God.”
Ø Compromise the great danger of the Church.
Under its new disguise of a
pantheistic
submission to inevitable law of development, specially subtle.
Ø Lack of moral courage and conviction,
obscuring principle and
magnifying the
strength of surrounding obstacles. We
need the Holy Ghost,
upholding
the work of God in our own hearts, penetrating the deceptions
of
the world,
arming us with spiritual preparation against inevitable assaults
from without.
Ø Individually the same great question to be
settled between ourselves and
God.
His controversy. “Yield yourselves to God!”
Three Things Divine (vs. 17-29)
The success of the Christian cause had the effect which
might have been
anticipated; it aroused the intense hostility of the
enemies of the Lord, and
their bitter opposition found vent in a speedy arrest and
imprisonment of
the apostles (vs. 17-18). But man’s adversity was God’s
opportunity,
and we have:
shut out those whom God would
have to enter, to shut in those whom He
would have escape! The hour had
come for His interposing hand, and all
the contrivances of man’s wrath
were broken through as if they were but
“the spider’s most attenuated
thread.” We often wish for the direct
interposition of God now; we often
ask for it; we often wonder that it does
not come, thinking that the hour
for Divine manifestation must have
arrived. The duty and the wisdom
of true piety are:
Ø
to ask God to
deliver in His own time and way;
Ø
to expect His
delivering hand at some time and in some way;
Ø
to wait in patient
endurance till His time has come;
Ø
to recognize His
gracious hand in whatever ways He may be
pleased to act.
this life” (v. 20). Doubtless the apostles well understood what was
the
tenor of their commission. They were to speak all those words which
would enlighten
their fellow-citizens on the great subject of the new
spiritual life which they had begun to live. They who stand now in the
relation of religious teachers
to the men of their own time, may take these
words of the heavenly messenger
as a Divine instruction to themselves.
They are to “speak all the words of this life;” i.e.
Ø
to explain and
enforce the truth, that beneath and beyond the life which
is material and temporal
is the life which is
spiritual and eternal;
Ø
to make known the
conditions on which that life is to be entered upon
— repentance toward God, and faith in a
crucified and risen Savior;
Ø
to make clear the way by
which that life is to be sustained — by
“abiding in Him;”
Ø
to assure all
disciples that “this life” is to be
perpetuated in the
other world.
(v. 29). God demands our first
obedience — that is the teaching of His
Word; it is also the response of
our own conscience. We agree, when we
consider it, that God has a
claim, transcendently and immeasurably superior
to all others, on our
allegiance. That Divine One who called us ourselves
into existence; by whom we have been endowed with all our faculties; in
whom “we live, and move, and have our being;”
from whom we have
received every single blessing we have known; who is the
righteous and
holy Sovereign of all souls throughout the universe of being; on whose will
absolutely depends our future
destiny ; — to Him we owe our allegiance in
such degree, that any claims man
may have upon us are “as nothing, and
less than nothing.” There are
many reasons why we should yield ourselves
to His service — the example of
the worthiest and the best of our kind; the
excellency, dignity, exaltation
of that service; the present and future
advantages we gain thereby; the
awful issues of disloyalty and persistent
rejection, etc. But there is one
thought which should weigh the most, and
be of itself sufficient — “ we ought to obey
God.” We cannot decline to do
so without violating the plain
teaching of our moral judgment. When we do
yield ourselves to Him, we put
ourselves in the right and have the strong
and blessed sanction of our
conscience. We should hear the voice within,
saying daily, hourly, in tones
which will not be silenced, “You ought to
obey God.”
Peter does not
deny having received the prohibition, but pleads
the superior force
of the command of God, as set forth in the following verses.
30 “The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree.” Hanging
Him for and hanged, Authorized
Version. The God of our
fathers, etc. Observe
how carefully Peter preserves his own brotherhood with the
Jews whom he was addressing, and the continuity of the New
Testament
with the Old Testament as being the
sequel of the acts of THE SAME GOD of
anistae
– shall be raising; upstanding; raising, as ch. 3:22, 26. Some,
however
take ἤγειρε, as here used, to mean “raised
up” in the wider sense of ἀναστῆσαι –
anastaesai - as in the
Textus Receptus of ch. 13:23, where, however, the Textus
Receptus has ἤγαγε. Slew;
viz. with your own hands, as διεχειρίσασθε
–
diecheirisasthe
- slew; lay hands on - means. It only occurs besides in ch.26:21.
31 “Him
hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a
Savior, for to give repentance to
Did God exalt for hath
God exalted, Authorized Version; remission for
forgiveness, Authorized
Version. With His right hand; i.e.
by His mighty
power, as the instrument of Christ’s exaltation. A Prince (ch. 3:15, note).
Repentance first, “a new heart and
a new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26), and
forgiveness next (compare ch. 2:38; 3:19, etc.).
The Throne of Mercy (v. 31)
“Him hath God exalted,” etc. The Jewish temple a material symbol of the
Divine method of grace. The chief chamber was the place of
God’s glory
— the innermost presence-chamber of the great King; its chief feature, the
mercy-seat, a proclamation of love to all. Yet access to
the blessedness
only by the appointed way, through the consecrated rites
and persons; thus
the will and righteousness of God sustained at the same
time as His mercy.
Compare heathen ideas of Divine favors — slavish, cruel,
degrading,
capricious, destructive of righteousness both in God and in
man.
Moreover, no heathen system appealed to a universal
humanity.
Ø Deliverance from sin, both by remission and
moral elevation. Show that:
o
the
conscience regains satisfaction,
o
the
life security, and
o
the
heart peace.
Ø A free and unpurchased forgiveness, lest
we should be:
o
burdened
by their inequalities,
o
destroyed
by their despair,
o
seduced
by their errors, or
o
enslaved
by their superstition.
Ø Confidence without fanaticism, peace of
mind without inertia, and a
sense of
righteousness without pride.
Ø It is built upon facts — a personal
history, an accumulation of historic
evidence, an
ascent from
supernatural
absolutely necessary to hold up the human spirit in its greatest
emergency.
God’s right hand must be seen, must be conspicuous. We
cannot depend
on mere human sympathy, wisdom, or strength.
Ø The twofold character of Christ meets
the twofold demand of the soul,
for the
greatness of the King and the compassion of the Savior. The
exaltation of
Christ was both human and Divine. We recognize the great
fact of mediation
and reconciliation.
Ø The one supreme test of sufficiency, the gift of the Holy Ghost. We do
not appeal to
men on the ground that God can save them, or that there is in
Christianity a
satisfactory theory of the atonement, but on the ground that
the Spirit of
God is saving them, that the gift is there — repentance and
remission.
Jewish world was the
condemnation of all men. If God so wrought for us,”
“how shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3-4)
The gift has all God’s heart in
it. Return His love.
The Present Royalty and Rights of Jesus (v.
31)
It is interesting to notice how the Jewish conception of
Messiah, as a
conquering King of the house of David, gave form and tone
to the earlier
ideas which the apostles had of their risen and ascended
Savior. He proved,
indeed, to be a King in quite another sense than that in
which they had
regarded Him, and at first they felt much disappointment in
the crushing of
their national hopes; but still they knew that He was a
King, they gradually
gained clearer notions of the spirituality of His kingdom,
and they freely
asserted His present royal rights, demanding the immediate
submission of
men to His authority. The claim of sovereignty is closely
joined to the
promise of salvation. If Christ
seeks to rule over men it is that He may
save them. It is
usual to note the meanings of the Resurrection viewed in
its relation to the redemptive scheme; but it is not so
usual for Christian
teachers to dwell on our Lord’s office, dignity,
commission, authority, and
active operations as exalted to the right hand of the
Father. The circle of
the Christian doctrine is by no means complete on this
side, and the
mystery of the Ascension is but very imperfectly unfolded.
A sentiment has
been allowed to prevail that Christ is practically absent
now from us; the
affairs of Christ’s Church are delegated to the ministry of
the Holy Spirit,
and Christ is coming
some day to assume place and power, and establish an
everlasting kingdom here on earth. The apostles declare that
the Lord is
exalted now to His royal princely place. They affirm
not only that He now
has, but also that He now claims, His royal rights. It is
not their way of
putting it to say that “He will take to himself his
great power and reign;”
they say, “Him hath God exalted,” or, as
Revised Version, “Him did God
exalt.” This is a
truth which the modern Church needs to have more fully
and frequently presented to it. Due attention to it would
relieve the
tendency to exaggerated representations of salvation by
faith in our Lord’s
work. The salvation is
revealed to faith in the Lord Christ Himself, the
Prince and Savior. Christ is actually now:
as the direct rule of Jehovah,
and show that the idea is realized spiritually in
our Lord’s present relation to His
Church. It should be no disability to
regenerate and spiritual men
that He is unseen. The quickened
soul can
have spiritual
communications, and the secret
soul-life of the Christian man
is His real life. Whoever
controls it controls the whole bodily life and
relations too. In the line of
the text it may be shown that, as Prince,
Christ’s law and claim, brought
home to men’s souls, bow them down to
penitence; and Christ has in
full commission the expression of the Divine
mercy in forgiveness and restoration.
be a result of man’s faith in
Christ’s redemptive work, but of man’s faith
which opens his soul and life to
the present redemptive workings of the
living Savior. The moral forces
now actually working at:
Ø
the subduing,
Ø
persuading,
Ø
renewing, and
Ø
sanctifying of men
are the present and active
forces of Christ, the exalted and glorified Savior. So apostles preached unto
men “Jesus,”
bade them open their hearts to His love
and power, carry to Him the
burden of their sins and needs, and expect that
He would as really — though in a
spiritual manner — deal with them as He
dealt with the sorrows and the
sins of men while He was with them in the
flesh. This is the great glory
of the gospel message, and the point of it to
which prominence should be given
in these our times — “ JESUS LIVES!”
He is exalted, He holds His
commission. His “Father worketh hitherto, and
He works.” As the Prince,
He demands our submission and our
obedience. As
our Savior, He
takes our whole case upon Him, and:
Ø
delivers,
Ø
redeems, and
Ø
sanctifies.
32 “And we
are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them that
obey Him.” Witnesses for His
witnesses, Authorized
Version and Textus Receptus; so is the Holy Ghost
for so is also the Holy Ghost, Authorized Version
and Textus Receptus. We are
witnesses. The direct
reference is to the command recorded in ch. 1:8, which they
felt imperatively bound to obey. So is the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost
bare witness to the gospel preached by the apostles by the
powers which He
gave them to heal and work miracles, and by the conversion
of many who
heard the word: “the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven” (I Peter 1:12). Mark the solemnity and authority which
Peter
claimed for the gospel by thus asserting that the Holy Ghost was the witness
with the apostles to the truth of their testimony
concerning Jesus Christ.
The Cross and the Crown (vs. 30-32)
In this address which Peter delivered to the Sanhedrin we
have another
epitome of the gospel.
hanged on a tree” (v. 30). The Son of God was “made a little lower than
the angels,” even a Son of man, “for the suffering of death”
(Hebrews 2:9).
He stooped to the level of our
humanity, in order that He might “taste
death for every
man.” And He underwent that experience
in its most
dreadful form — in darkness, pain, shame, desertion, inexpressible agony
of soul. He went deliberately down to the very lowest point to
which He
could stoop, that He might finish the work the Father had given Him to do.
our fathers raised
up Jesus... Him hath God exalted with His right hand to
be a Prince and a
Savior” (vs. 30-31). “From the highest
throne of glory
to the cross of deepest woe” He
had come; now He re-ascended from the
grave to the throne, to the seat
of heavenly power and blessedness. He has
become an enthroned Redeemer, a sovereign Savior,
Ø
occupying the
foremost place in heavenly rank,
Ø
dispensing
salvation to the lost children of men,
and
Ø
receiving the willing
homage, the affectionate service of the multitude
He has redeemed.
What more honorable, enviable,
blessed position can we conceive
than that of One who, seated in
the very highest post of honor, is conferring
the best of all imaginable
blessings, and is receiving, in return, the
freest, richest, most rejoicing
worship and service of His redeemed, both of
those who are about His person “in the heavens,”
and of those also who are
serving Him and striving to
follow Him below?
a Savior, “to give repentance.., and forgiveness of sins.” How does
the
exalted Lord carry on His great
work as He reigns in heaven? By giving
repentance and remission.
Ø
He gives to human
souls a sense of the heinousness of their sin.
Ø
He dispenses to
them, through His atoning sacrifice, full and free
forgiveness of
their sin. Thus He leads men
everywhere away from their
iniquity, and restores them to
the favor and so to the happy service of the
Supreme.
ELEVATION. (v. 22.)
The apostles could assure the council that these
things were so; they could place
it beyond all doubt, inasmuch as:
Ø
they themselves were
witnesses of the facts, and
Ø
the Holy Spirit
had confirmed their testimony by the signs and
wonders He enabled them to work.
We too have testimony, both human
and Divine.
Ø
The human testimony of
the apostles of our Lord; also of all Christian
souls in all succeeding
generations, who have witnessed for Him and the
power of His grace; and also the
assurance of our contemporaries, who
rejoice in the liberty with
which He has made them free.
Ø
The Divine testimony
of that gracious Spirit of God, who, though He
works no signs and wonders around
us, does work conviction, comfort,
sanctity, strength, within us.
33 “When
they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel
to slay them.” But they,
when they heard this, for when they
heard that, they,
Authorized Version; were minded for took counsel,
Authorized Version and
Textus Receptus (ἐβούλοντο – eboulonto - for ἐβουλεύοντο
– ebouleuonto –
took counsel; they planned). The word for
were cut to the heart (διέπριοντο –
dieprionto
– were cut; harrowed ) is found only here and in ch.7:54, where the
full phrase is given. It means literally, in the active
voice, “to saw asunder.”
In Hebrews 11:37 it is the simple verb πρίω – prio – saw
asunder which is used
(ἐπρίσθησαν
– epristhaesan
– they are sawn); πρίω and several of its compounds
are surgical terms.
34 “Then
stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named
Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in
reputation among all the
people, and commanded to put the apostles
forth a little space;”
But there for there,
Authorized Version; in honor of for in reputation among,
Authorized Version; the men for the apostles, Authorized
Version and Textus
Receptus; while for space, Authorized
Version. A Pharisee named Gamaliel.
Luke had mentioned (ch. 4:1 and 5:17) that there was an influential party of
Sadducees in the Sanhedrim. He, therefore, now specially notes that Gamaliel
was a Pharisee. There can be no doubt that this alone would rather dispose him
to resist the violent
counsels of the Sadducean members, and the more so as the
doctrine of the Resurrection
was in question (see ch. 23:6-8). Moreover, Gamaliel
was noted
for his moderation. That Gamaliel here named is the same as that of
ch. 22:3, at whose feet Paul was brought up at
known in the Talmud as Rabban Gamaliel the elder (to
distinguish
him from his grandson of the same name, the younger), the
grandson of
Hillel, the head of the
Sanhedrim, one of the most famous of the Jewish doctors (as
the title
Rabban, borne by only
six others, shows), seems certain, though it cannot
absolutely be proved. The description of him as a doctor of the law, had
in honor of all
the people; the allusion to him as a great teacher, learned
in the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers, and one
whose greatness
would be as a shield to his pupils, in ch.22:3; the exact
chronological
agreement; the weight he possessed in the Sanhedrim, in
spite of the
Sadducean tendencies of the high priest and his followers;
and the
agreement between his character as written in the Talmud
and as shown in
his speech and in the counsel given in it, seem to place
his identity beyond
all reasonable doubt. There does not seem to be any
foundation for the
legend in the Clementine Recognitions, that he was in
secret a Christian. If
the prayer used in the synagogues, “Let there be no hope to
them that
apostatize from the true religion; and let heretics, how
many soever they
he, all perish as in a moment,” be really his composition,
as the Jews say,
he certainly had no inclination to Christianity (‘Prid.
35 “And
said unto them, Ye men of
ye intend to do as touching these men.” He said for said, Authorized Version;
as touching these men transposed
from the
order of the Authorized Version;
are about to do for intend
to do, Authorized Version.
36 “For
before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be
somebody; to whom a number of men, about
four hundred, joined
themselves: who was slain; and all, as many
as obeyed him, were
scattered, and brought to nought.” Giving himself out for
boasting himself,
Authorized Version; dispersed for scattered,
Authorized Version; came for
brought, Authorized
Version. Rose up Theudas. A very serious
chronological difficulty arises here. The only Theudas
known to history is
the one about whom Josephus writes (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 20:5),
quoted in full by
Eusebius (‘Ecclesiastes Hist.,’2:11) as having pretended to
be a prophet,
having lured a number of people to follow him to the banks
of the
by the assurance that he would part the waters of the
river, and as having
been pursued by order of Cuspius Fadus, the Procurator of
Judaea, when
numbers of his followers were slain and taken prisoners,
and Theudas
himself had his head cut off. But Fadus was procurator in
the reign of
Claudius Caesar, immediately after the death of King
Agrippa, ten or
twelve years after the time when Gamaliel was speaking, and
about thirty
years after the time at which Gamaliel places Theudas.
Assuming Luke
to be as accurate and correct here as he has been proved to
be in other
instances where his historical accuracy has been impugned,
three ways
present themselves of explaining the discrepancy.
1. Josephus may have misplaced the adventure of Theudas by
some accidental error.
Considering the
vast number of Jewish insurrections from the death of Herod the
Great to the
destruction of
2. There may have been two adventurers of the name of
Theudas, one in the
reign of Augustus
Caesar, and the other in the reign of Claudius; and so
both the
historians may be right, and the apparent discrepancy may have no
real existence.
3. The person named Theudas by Gamaliel may be the same
whom Josephus
speaks of (‘
a band of robbers
around him, and making himself king at Herod’s death
(‘Sonntag,’ cited
by Meyer, etc.). But he was killed by Gratus, and the
insurrection
suppressed. A variety in this last mode has also been suggested
(Kitto’s
‘Cyclopaedia’), viz. to understand Theudas to be an Aramaic form of
Theodotus, and
the equivalent Hebrew form of Theodotus to be מַתִתְיָה, Matthias,
and so the person
meant by Theudas to be a certain Matthias who with one Judas
made an
insurrection, when Herod the Great was dying, by tearing down
the golden eagle
which Herod had put over the great gate of the temple,
and who was burnt alive with his companions,
after defending his deed in a
speech of great
boldness and constancy (‘Ant. Jud’ 17:6).
A consideration of these methods of explaining the apparent
contradiction between
the two historians shows that no certainty can without
further light be arrived at.
But it may be observed that it is quite impossible to
suppose that any one
so well informed and so accurate as Luke is could imagine
that an event
that he must have remembered perfectly, if it happened under
the
procuratorship of Fadus, had happened before the
disturbances caused by
Judas of Galilee, at least thirty years before. But it is
most certain that
Josephus’s account of Theudas agrees better with Gamaliel’s
notice than
that of either of the other persons suggested, irrespective
of the identity of
name. The first way of explaining the difficulty above
proposed has,
therefore, most probability in it. But some further
corroboration of this
explanation may be found in some of the details of
Theudas’s proceedings
given by Josephus. He tells us that Theudes persuaded a
great number of
people to “collect all their possessions” and follow him to
the banks of the
them to pass over; that they did so, but that Fadus sent a
troop of horse
after them, who slew numbers of them, and amongst them
their leader.
Now, if this happened when the business of the census was
beginning to be
agitated, after the deposition of Archelaus (A.D. 6 or 7),
all is plain.
Theudas declaimed as a prophet against submitting to the
census of their
goods ordered by Augustus. The people were of the same
mind. Theudas
persuaded them that, if they brought all their goods to the
banks of the
the other side out of reach of the tax-gatherer. And so
they made the
attempt. But this was an act of rebellion against the Roman
power, and a
method of defeating the purpose of the census, which must
be crushed at
once. And so the people were pursued and slaughtered. But
apart from the
census of their goods, one sees no motive either for the
attempt to carry
away their property, or for the slaughter of an unarmed
multitude by the
Roman cavalry. So that the internal evidence is in favor of
Luke’s
collocation of the incident, at the same time that his
authority as a
contemporary historian is much higher than that of
Josephus. Still, one
desiderates some more satisfactory proof of the error of
Josephus, and
some account of how he fell into it.
37 “After
this man rose up Judas of
and drew away much people after him: he
also perished; and all,
even as many as obeyed him, were
dispersed.” Enrolment for taxing,
Authorized Version; some of the for much,
Authorized Version; as
many for even as many, Authorized Version;
scattered abroad for dispersed,
Authorized Version. Judas
of Galilee, otherwise called
the Gaulonite, as a native
of Gamala, in Gaulonitis. He was probably called a Galilaean
because
was the seat of his insurrection (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’
18, 1:1 and 6; also ‘
8:1; 17:8). He was the great leader of the Jews in opposing
the census
ordered by Augustus, after the deposition of Archelaus, and
carried out by
Cyrenius, or rather P. Sulpicius Quirinus, the Propraetor
of Syria, with the
assistance of Cumanus, the subordinate Governor of Judaea.
Judas, with
Zadoc his coadjutor, was the founder of a fourth Jewish
sect, nearly allied
to the Pharisees, and his sedition was founded on his
philosophic tenets.
Josephus speaks of him as the author of all the seditions,
tumults,
slaughters, sieges, devastations, plunder, famines, ending
with the burning
of the temple, which afflicted his unhappy country. He
gives no account of
his death. But his two sons, James and Simon, were
crucified by Tiberius
Alexander, the successor of Cuspius Fadus. Another son,
Menahem,
having collected and armed a large band of robbers and
other insurgents,
after a partially successful attack on the Roman camp at
miserably slain. The enrolment (τῆς
ἀπογραφῆς - taes apographaes –
of the registration, as Luke 2:1). The purpose of Augustus, which had been
delayed some years from causes not accurately known,
perhaps in deference
to some remonstrance from Herod the Great, was now carried
into effect.
Quirinus was sent, apparently the second time, as
Proprsetor of Syria, to which
make a valuation of all their property. The Jews had been
first persuaded by the
high priest Joazar, i.e. apparently in the end of
Herod’s reign, or the beginning of
Archelaus’s, to submit to what they greatly disliked, but
were now roused
to insurrection by Judas of Galilee (‘
Nothing is known of his death beyond this notice of it. Scattered
abroad.
Not crushed, for the insurrection broke out again and
again, having the
character of a religious war given to it by Judas of
Galilee.
38 “And
now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them
alone: for if this counsel or this work be
of men, it will come to
nought:”
Be overthrown for come to nought, Authorized Version.
39 “But if
it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found
even to fight against God.” Is for be, Authorized
Version; will not be able to
for cannot, Authorized Version; them for it, Authorized Version and Textus
Receptus; to be fighting for to fight, Authorized
Version.
A Study of Jewish Character: Gamaliel (vs.
38-39)
“And now I say unto you,” etc.
1. Reverence for the
Word and will of God — in truth and in providence.
The Jews, possessed in their Scriptures a good philosophy
of history.
They taught that God must triumph.
2. Sense of humanity
and righteousness deeply pervading all the Jewish
system. “Refrain from these men.”
3. Yet evidence of the
corrupt and formal state of the Jewish teachers —
temporizing policy, weakness of conviction, unwillingness
to face truth, the
ecclesiastical spirit in its mildest form.
Ø The influence of Gamaliel on Saul of
Tarsus (see Conybeare and
Howson;
Farrar) and so on the history of the gospel.
Ø The contrast between Gamaliel and his
fellow-counselors in the
Sanhedrin.
They agreed to him then, but how about their former action
and what
followed? The Gamaliel character was then exceptional.
Ø The contrast between Gamaliel and the
apostles. He was prudent, they
were earnest.
Consider the necessity of following conviction. Sweetness
and light are
not means but ends; they have to be fought for, not rested in,
before they are
fully obtained.
Ø The great appeal: “Lest haply ye be found… fighting
against God.” All
must
acknowledge it. How easily ignored! The position of the soul is here
indicated; it is either fighting with God or against God. Though Gamaliel
did not see it,
there is no middle position. “It is a fearful thing to fall into
His
hands.” (Hebrews 10:31)
40 “And to
him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and
beaten them, they commanded that they
should not speak in the name of Jesus,
and let them go.” Called unto them (προσκαλεσάμενοι
– proskalesamenoi
–
calling toward them)
for simply called, Authorized
Version; they beat them and
charged them for and
beaten them, they commanded, Authorized
Version; not to
speak for that they
should not speak, Authorized Version.
A Grand Victory for the Truth along the
Whole Line;
All the Positions of the Enemy Taken. (vs.
17-40)
The few hours that were covered by this portion of the
history must have
been hours charged with confirmation of the faith for the
apostles. It is not
merely that they are again attacked and again get in the
end the victory, but
that every position is carried for them by some strong arm
invisible. It is
not altogether the force of the truth, at least of the
truth as spoken and
spoken by them; still less is it their own force that gains
this glorious and
memorable day, although doubtless both of these are
involved in the day’s
achievements. But there was a
“fighting from heaven” for them, “and
the
stars in their courses fought against” their enemies. (Judges 5:20) And as
nothing so much daunts an enemy as the impression of this
latter, so nothing
can be conceived more reinforcing to the faith and courage
of the army or the
general who have evidence of the former. While, then, the
bold and faithful
utterance of “all the words of
this life” was now the loving care of
the
apostles, God’s watchful providence and the living Spirit whom
Christ sent
made the “heaven
that fought for” them. We may view the present portion
of the Church’s history under this light. It is the history
of a succession of
incidents, every one of which shows the foe as the party
signally
discomfited. The apostles are still the representatives of
the Church. They
sustain the brunt of any attack. And it is noteworthy, that
at present, so far
as we read, no private member of the Church is exposed to
any similar
treatment. Notice, then:
IMPRISONMENT. The high
priest and those who were acting with him
had not, it appears, learned the
lesson which their former failure might well
have taught them. It had been attended by circumstances and followed by a
sequel which should have made a
lasting impression on their memory. But
memory’s good offices were
scorned, and wisdom’s lessons set at naught
and lost. The experiment is to
be tried again, whether certain facts to which
the word of the apostles gives
great notoriety, with certain comments upon
them and explanations of them,
can be hushed up, and a prison’s doors be
mightier than miracles. This
very point was soon settled, and in the shape
that should have carried
conviction and reproof in equal proportions. It is
to be remembered that the
imprisonment policy stands condemned, not
altogether necessarily in
itself, but emphatically, in this case, because the
facts to which the apostles gave
the notoriety so unwelcome to the
authorities were facts within
the knowledge of those same, and because the
whole action of the apostles had
the abundant attestation of surpassing
miracles. Mouths can be stopped
by imprisonment, no doubt. And the
method may, no doubt, be a
legitimate method, even though there be
allowed to be prima facie a
likely moral danger attaching to it. That danger
has shown itself so repeatedly
and so malignantly — in matters of religion
to the oppressing of the
conscience, in matters of science to the clouding of
the prospects of truth and the
growth of knowledge. But the point of
interest and at the same time
the hopelessness of the present conflict
turned
on the fact that the method of
imprisonment attempted to stop the mouth
of God’s Word and truth. The enemy was confounded signally. An
“abundant door” of exit from the
prison for the apostles made a more than
ever “abundant door of
entrance” for the truth, and it occasioned “great
boldness” of utterance of “all the words of this life” in the temple of
temples, and before the enemy
was so much as awake.
BEFORE THE COUNCIL.
Ø In this proceeding embarrassment awaited
the council; they stumble
upon the very
threshold. The prisoners
are duly sent for, but they are not to
be found. The
prison is there; the keepers are there; the doors were shut
with all
appearance of safety, and if they had been opened, there is not a
sign of it
nor of any violence that might have effected it; the keys are
neither lost
nor injured; and the locks are not disobedient to their own
keys, as
though they had been tampered with. Yet to what all this, when
the prison
itself proves as empty as ever place was? The officers return
with tale and
face, no doubt, equally blank; but blankest of all was the
astonishment of
those in authority under these new circumstances. That
“they
were in doubt concerning them” (so the apostles) was no unnatural,
no unlikely
account of the case in which “the
high priest, and the captain of
the
temple, and the chief priests” found themselves. And perhaps it might
have suited
them and their reputation about as well if all had ended here.
But this was
not to be. They had meddled with strife, nay, had not
“forborne
them meddling with God”
(II Chronicles 35:21); and they
shall not
“leave off contention” before it has worsted them signally,
decisively.
For:
Ø A sudden relief from undignified
bewilderment leaves them no choice
but to go on
with a prosecution, hazardous much more to those who
prosecute than
to those who are prosecuted. That by this time they began
to feel this
there are not wanting certain indications.
o
Though
the narrative is very concise, very condensed, it does not omit
to describe the
tender handling of the prisoners found speaking in the
temple — a
tender handling the more notable because they were
escaped
prisoners. “The captain and officers went and brought them
without
violence; for they feared the people, lest themselves should
be
stoned” —an
unfavorable predicament, all things considered,
certainly.
o
Presumably
because the narrative is very condensed it asks a second
thought on our
part as to what is the precise meaning when it is said,
“The
high priest, and the captain of the temple, and the chief priests,
doubted
concerning them [i.e. the apostles], whereunto this would
grow.” We take it that their innermost darkness
began to be harassed
with dawning
day; their innermost mind with dawning convictions
that they had a
very new sort of men to deal with; their conscience
with dawning of
a fear very unfamiliar to their hitherto manner of
bearing
themselves toward that same conscience. Possibly, more
than possibly
afterwards, the same messenger who brought word as
to where the
apostles were and what they were doing stated also the
apostles’ account of how they had got out of the prison. He
would have
ample time to do this while the captain and the officers
went to bring
them. That awkward interval must have been filled up
somehow by the dismayed court. Nor can there be a
doubt that it was
filled up with
abundant talk and question and discussion. This or some
such view is,
it appears to us, essentially corroborated by the apparent
silence of the
court, when the apostles were at last ushered into its
presence, as to
their escape, and by its diligent abstinence from any
interrogations
upon the matter. Silence absolute on that subject were
certainly their
best wisdom when they had heard the real facts, and,
hearing, had seen
them with eyes forced open. The silence of the
narrative is
one thing, and is a token of historic accuracy and fidelity.
The silence of
the court is another thing, and is a touch true enough
to nature, in
fact, a great demonstration of nature, which sometimes,
in the supreme effort to cover defeat, then most convicts itself of defeat.
What,
therefore, with a certain underswell and muttering of conscience
first, and then
with the unease wrought by the plain discovery
of how things
had been, it may be reasonably imagined that the
high priest and
those associated with him wished already that they
were well clear
of the whole matter.
o
But
the moment has come for the arraignment itself. It is at all events
plain, its
meaning and. its implications not obscure. “You have
disobeyed our
strict command, have filled
we
disapprove, and are going far to fix on us the responsibility and
possibly the
vengeance of the blood of this man.” Probably a spirit
of contempt and
an intention to express it thinly veiled growing fear,
when they use
the words, “this name,”
and “your
doctrine,” and
“this
man’s blood,” instead
of naming the Name that was already
“above every
name” (Philippians
2:9) and naming the doctrine which
was certainly not “the doctrine nor after the commandments, of
men”
(Colossians
2:22), and naming “the
blood which speaketh better
things
than that of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:24)
o
But
the challenge is at once accepted by the apostolic band. They admit
their
disobedience to human command. They assert their obedience to
Divine command,
and assert the necessity of it — its moral ought.
They at once
honor, by a firm and repeated utterance of it, the Name
which had just
been regretfully flouted, but which, in very deed,
designated One who had known the unprecedented
transitions of
resurrection
and ascension, and who owned to the titles of
PRINCE
AND SAVIOUR OF MANKIND! His princely gift
is the power of
“repentance,”
his saving gift is the “remission of sins.”
Occupying a
position of vast moral purchase over their judges, the
apostles do not
propose to shield these from an iota of their
responsibility.
They had declined to name the Name of Jesus;
the apostles do
not shrink at all from naming the name of their
sin and guilt,
nor forbear to describe them as the persons
answerable for
the blood of Jesus. “Whom ye slew, and hanged on
a
tree.” And so they
make out their text. We “ought to obey God.”
And as God, the
God of our fathers, was He who “raised” Jesus,
and who “exalted”
Him, we are His “witnesses,” in these glorious
wonders, of the
history of His Son Jesus. And Peter adds, in one
of the most
pronounced of the claims of inspiration peculiar to
revelation,
that, in saying so much, he means that “the Holy Ghost”
in them is the real Witness, that Holy Ghost whom
God gives to
those who obey
Him. That God is to be obeyed, probably
the now
judges of the
apostles would not presume to deny. Peter and
the
apostles have
made out their case when they have proved that this
is all to which
their censured and imprisoned conduct amounts.
So the close of
their defense clenches the opening of it.
INCAPACITY IN THE COUNCIL. This experience was ushered in,
indeed, by one of a far more
pronounced character. In a word which itself
expresses an intensity of
suffering, we are told that they of the council
“were cut” to the quick, and in the first paroxysm of agony saw no
option
but to slay their prisoners. The
apostles were again called upon to retire
from the court (ch. 4:15) while
the state of things was deliberated.
And “in the multitude of counselors
was found safety” (Proverbs 11:14)
of some sort at least, and of
some brief duration, thanks to the sage
prudence that dwelt in one of
them, and apparently only one. Note here
to what different issue men have
been cut to the heart.
Ø Some to deep penitence, contrition,
conversion; so Peter
(Luke 22:61-62), and the first converts
(ch. 2:37).
Ø But other some to deeper condemnation, and
suicide either actual or
moral; so Judas
(Matthew 27:4-5), and those here described, with
many an
ancestor, many a descendant. The
blindness of intense anger and
the malignant
action of intense chagrin may be ranked among the certain
precursors of
incapacity, but here they
reveal it too. And that we read
under these
conditions, “they take counsel to slay them,” serves little more
than to make
assurance doubly sure that helpless floundering is the present
order of things
at the ostensible seat of justice.
AN UNDIGNIFIED POSITION.
A Pharisee — save the mark! — leads
the way out. And the way out
leads just back by the way they came in.
That the members of the council
put themselves as far as possible just
where they were before they
stirred at all in the matter is the policy which
Gamaliel propounds. It comes to
this, that he forcibly argues it were by
far
the best thing
to eat their own, both words and deeds. The
conservative
shrewdness and blandness of this
advice, and of the courteous way in
which it is advanced, are
equally unmistakable and in a sort admirable. It
were uncharitable, however, to
deny that it is open to intrinsic
commendation also.
Ø Gamaliel has noted and treasured and now
uses well the lessons of
history.
Ø Evidently he is before his time, and has a
large and open eye for the
principles
of even civil liberty.
Ø More remarkably still, he seems to have
grasped the principle and the
very basis of the principle of religious liberty. “These
men” (v. 35) are to
be looked at,
as some possibly sacred thing should be looked at. “These
men” (v. 38) are to be “let alone,” as men
possibly doing “the work of
God.”
And their present
would-be judges are to “refrain from” them,
because they
ought themselves to shrink, for their own sake, from
incurring even
the distant responsibility of “fighting against God.” The
principle of
religious liberty always postulates these two aspects-one
presenting the
view of the harm that may be done to others by hampering
their moral
convictions or nature; the other the harm that may be done to
self in
challenging the most solemn and critical responsibilities which even
“angels
might fear.”
Ø It is difficult to resist the impression
that Gamaliel was one of those who
were “not
far from the
scarcely
warrants our saying that he had a leaning to “these men” himself.
But this “doctor
of the law, had in reputation among all the people” (v. 34),
does seem to have
had this of religion in him, that “he feared God,” and
that he dared
to
say it in connection with taking a very unpopular side.
To the advice
of
Gamaliel his fellow-councilors “agreed,” glad to
escape the
position in which they again found themselves. They retreated
from it for
reasons which Gamaliel takes the credit of putting before them,
but which should have been before them long
before, and should have
saved
them from being where they now were. They do retreat, they know
they are in the
wrong, they are morally again beaten; but the only thing
which would
have taken from their retreat the description undignified
is withheld,
for they do not confess their error. On the contrary, we notice:
THE APOSTLES AND A BARREN COMMAND LAID UPON THEM.
Whatever may be thought or
charitably hoped of Gamaliel, the adviser in
this crisis, very clear it is
that those whom he had influenced had no deeper
sympathies with the grounds of
his advice. Against these they now as much
sin in principle as if they had laid
violent hands on the apostles, according
to the first dictates of their
rage. And so again do these men drop awhile
from our sight.
They drop into the ignominious shade,
while it fares far
otherwise with their beaten,
commanded, but withal released prisoners.
Cruelty is the covering with
which cowardice now chooses to take its
unavailing chance of
concealing defeat already too shameful, but which
rather adds to it and to the
revealing of it. They disappear from
view,
“beating” the apostles, and “commanding them not to speak in the
Name of Jesus.” But it is a token of the literal fact that they themselves
have been ignominiously beaten
along the whole line of battle, the
apostles and the truth
and “the
Name of Jesus” winning the day.
41 “And
they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for His name.” They therefore for
and they, Authorized
Version; dishonor for the Name, for shame for his Name,
Authorized Version and Textus Receptus (see I Peter 4:12-16; John 15:21).
42 “And
daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to
teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Every day for daily,
Authorized Version;
at home for in every hour, Authorized Version (see ch.2:46 note); to preach
Jesus as the Christ for
preach Jesus Christ, Authorized
Version and Textus
Receptus. The meaning is that they daily preached Jesus
Christ
both in the temple and in the house or houses where the
disciples were
wont to meet (see ibid.,
note). The spirit and conduct of the
apostles here recorded is a precious example to their
successors. To glory
in the cross, to count shame endured for Christ’s sake
the highest honor,
and to be unwearied and undaunted in teaching and
preaching Jesus Christ
through good report and through evil report, is the true
character and work
of every bishop of souls.
The Advancing Tide (vs. 12-42)
The gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ crucified and
risen again had
issued from
would it ever cease to advance? would it ever meet with
obstacles
sufficiently strong to turn back its current and to arrest
its progress? When
the flowing tide is hurrying towards the shore, some
particular wave is
checked by an opposing rock, and is shivered into spray
before it can reach
the shore. But wait a little and the rock is sunken beneath
the waters, and
the waves roll on unchecked to their goal. Sometimes a
temporary lull
seems to have fallen upon the languid waves, and three or
four in
succession do not reach the bounds which their predecessors
had attained.
But yet a moment and the tide advances in its unbroken
strength, and never
fails to fulfill its destined course. It is just so with the gospel of Christ. Its
advance is sure. Its strength is in the unchanging will of
God. It has a
course to run; it will run it. It has an end to fulfill;
it will fulfill it.
Hindrances, obstacles, defiance, it will meet with from man
in a thousand
varying forms:
have
intellect and philosophy on their side;
progress
of a hated truth;
these and such like hindrances may occasionally seem to
check the onward flow of the waters of life, and at times
to threaten its
further advance. But, like the irresistible tide of the
mighty ocean, God’s
purpose is pressing surely on; and by the time decreed by
His eternal
wisdom the whole “earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the
waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). The chapter now before us gives a
most striking view of this irresistible advance as well as
of the obstacles
opposed to it. One hundred and twenty men and a few poor,
weak women
are, as it were, the seed which the hand of the Lord has sown
in an
uncongenial soil. Immediately around them was:
·
all the bigotry of
Pharisaic Judaism, clinging with desperate and
impassioned
obstinacy to the traditions of their fathers, and ready
to
kill and be killed on behalf of the Law of Moses, on the one hand,
·
the hard, cold
skepticism of the Sadducees on the other, denying
with
agnostic incredulity the existence of anything beyond the ken of
their
eyes or the grasp of their hands,
·
the wider circle of
the outside world there was:
o
the iron heathenism of
o
imperial tyranny and
Caesarean power;
o
military force and the
despotism of the sword;
o
sensuality of
the deepest dye;
o
idolatry of the most
aggressive and all-engrossing kind; and
o
philosophies the most
adverse to the cross of Christ.
How and where could the gospel make its way? Would it not
die in
the upper room where it was born? But what do we read?
·
“There were added
to the Church about three thousand souls;”
·
“Many believed,
and the number of the men was about five thousand;”
·
“Believers were
the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and
women;”
and so on, marking the constant advance of the
while every effort was being made to check this advance. There
were already
“prisons oft.” There were the fierce threatenings of those who had power
to execute
them; there were stripes inflicted; there was the majesty of
the law and the authority
of rulers arrayed against them. But it was all in
vain.
to the persecuted.
The tide would flow on. It rushed over the heads of the
opposing rocks. And then
worldly wisdom came in with its prudent counsel, “Leave
these men alone.” And so
for a time the work of God went quietly on, gathering
strength and acquiring solidity
from day to day, in preparation for future hostility from
the world without, and
future hindrances from corruption within. But these first
fortunes of Christianity
have left to the Church in all ages A MODEL of the
conflicts that await her,
and of the only method of obtaining victory. They show us
that through
opposition and contradiction, in sunshine and in storm,
amidst
encouragements and under depression, the servants of God
have to
persevere steadily in proclaiming the grace of God and
the resurrection of
Jesus Christ,
have to go forward in an unswerving obedience to the
commandment of Christ and an unfaltering confidence in His
almighty
power, and that success is sure. “On this rock will I build my Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Second Persecution of the Church (vs. 17-42)
Notice:
1. It was the result
of marvelous success. We must expect
such opposition
when God gives us power among the people. The proud and
formal have
no liking for that which can be set in contrast with their
own inefficiency.
2. It proceeded from
the sect of the Sadducees, i.e. the
heretical school.
The league between the high priest and the scoffers was a sad
sign of
religious degeneracy. So it is. When religion
decays it becomes the food of
UNBELIEF!
The latitudinarians hate spiritual earnestness.
3. It was weak and
timid, evidently because there was a
reproaching
conscience and a growing apprehension in the background. The apostles
were put into the public ward or prison, but probably not
very jealously
guarded.
4. The empty form of
justice and wisdom was maintained — the council
was summoned, that the weight of ecclesiastical authority
might be used to
crush the feeble apostles, that the people might be awed by
the fear of
great dignitaries. They often are, but the Spirit of God overcome such
fear.
5. DIVINE WISDOM is more than human craft.
The public trial or examination
of the apostles was a public proclamation of the weakness
of their enemies
and the heavenly sanction given to their cause. The angelic
deliverance of
the prisoners became a notorious fact through all
the council, on the captain of the temple, on the populace,
must have been
immense. Evidently there was great excitement. “They
feared the people,
lest they should be stoned.”
6. The two weak
apostles in the presence of the council, boldly challenging
the contradiction of facts and appealing from man to God —
a striking
manifestation of spiritual power. “We are witnesses, so is the Holy
Ghost.”
7. The division in the
council between the furious fanatical party and the
temperate Gamaliel party, reminding us of the division in
the nation itself;
some dead to the voice of God, others ready to
follow it though not
recognizing it. The
influence of Gamaliel a sign of hope; there was a
remnant still according to the election of grace, and it
promised a future
restoration of
8. The whole
occurrence a great help to the Church, to feel its power, to
deepen its devotion, to rejoice in hope of victory, to
trust in the gracious
providence of God.
Power and Weakness (vs. 34-42)
is more deadly than that
inflicted by words of truth upon false hearts. If
the
heart will not receive the truth, the truth will pierce through it. And
murderous counsels show that
truth has been denied in the heart. Instead of
answering the witnesses with
reason for reason, the Sanhedrin seek to stop
their mouth with earth and put
them to death. A cause is lost when it can
be no longer argued in the court
of reason, when its only argument is the
sword, or the stake, or the rod,
or the prison-cell.
sense undisturbed by zeal — of
clear judgment unbiased by prejudice. It is
pretty evident that he did not
sympathize with the apostles; still less,
probably, did he sympathize with
the fears or the fanaticism of his
colleagues. He is perhaps “old
and cold.” Seldom do men of strong
reflective habit feel much
interest in novelties in religion. Seldom do the
observers of life, the students
of human history, expect much from sudden
popular movements or popular
teaching. Such was Gamaliel’s character.
But where so little is said
there is much room for difference of opinion as
to what that character really
was, how far really inclined to Christ’s
doctrine, possibly believing in
His mission, or a disciple in secret. In the
absence of further knowledge of
the man, we may consider his counsel,
and draw the following lesson :
Ø Prudence and caution are ever seasonable and
especially so where there
is a temptation
to violence and repression of others’ freedom. We should
never act
without a clear call to do so. The alternation of inaction is best in
doubtful cases.
Ø Experience shows that movements which have no
vitality in them come
to an end if
left alone. They die for want of fuel, while persecution supplies
that fuel on
which they live. Such had been the case with the insurrection
of Judas and
that of Theudas.
Ø Time is required that the true nature of a
movement be clearly seen.
Many a seed
springs up that cannot live; many a threatened man lives long.
A new force
cannot be judged by the first appearances and manifestations.
Ø There is always a danger in repression. The
force you seem to have
quelled for the
moment only bursts forth in a new direction. You may,
while you think
to be putting down your enemy, be rousing up a more
formidable one,
or exposing yourself to attack in some unguarded quarter.
Above all,
you may be contending against Divine
power and will, and
inviting its
vengeance.
Ø Faith in truth, utter contempt for falsehood and
imposture, is our safest
temper. This
gives calmness under every emergency. The truth can never
harm
us if we are on its side, nor
can it be defeated by any power on the
other
side. After all, this
true attitude was Gamaliel’s. He was a man who
understood and
believed in the moral laws. Well would it have been had
the Sanhedrin
shared his intelligence and honesty. And had his advice been
followed at
similar crises of religious history, much bloodshed and
retardation of
the good cause would have been avoided. In private life,
how many an
occasion when there is a restless desire to act, to fetter the
free action of
others, to stop the course of moral laws, when the simple
question is
pertinent! — “Can you not — let it alone?”
in its might resorts against
helpless and unarmed men. Rods are for the
backs of those who are not
amenable to reason. The chastisement which is
appropriate to the fool is
absurdly applied to the man who acts from
deliberate counsel and proved
determination. Blows are no match for
PRAYERS! The martyr is never
in the tyrant’s power. He clings to God’s
skirts, and malice cannot touch
his soul.
power starts from the very
seed-bed of pain. Pain may be to the soul the
expression of God’s displeasure
or of His love. If it is incurred in
obedience
to Him, the soul wears it as a testimonial of HIS GOODNESS! The honor of
suffering for God’s sake is one
of peculiar worth. There is a natural feeling
that any great suffering
entitles the patient to some respect. The
consciousness of being selected
for suffering in the noblest cause ennobles
the soul. It feels crowned and throned. Our capacity is enlarged both for
thought and feeling and for joy
by such an experience. It is strengthened,
and every fresh trial,
faithfully endured, prepares for new effort, goads to
perseverance, and so defeats the
persecutor by the very means of his own
weapons.
The Advice of the Cautious (vs. 33-42)
Such was Gamaliel. See expository portion for an account of
him, and of
the rabbinical school to which he belonged. Interest
attaches to him as the
teacher of Saul of Tarsus, but how great is the contrast
between the calm
and prudent Gamaliel and the intense and impulsive Saul!
The scene in the
Sanhedrin when this honored teacher rose to calm the
prevailing
excitement, and plead for what he would call a “masterly
inactivity,” may
be effectively pictured. The situation in which the
Sanhedrin was placed
was an exceedingly difficult one, and certainly one which
could not be dealt
fairly with while the council was under the influence of
roused prejudices
and religious excitement. The cautious temperament should
be described.
Those who have this characteristic quality have their
place, their influence,
and their work; they are often valuable drags on wheels
driven too
hurriedly; but they have also their disability, and lack
the capacity to enjoy
much that appeals to other natures. They know nothing of emotion,
enthusiasm, self-forgetfulness, or rapture. Such a one was
Gamaliel, and
his advice is quite a model of that always given by the
cautious man.
finds some instances that had
recently occurred and argues from them,
much as a modern lawyer does
from the “cases” he can cite. Precedents are
often very valuable. They
are often sad hindrances to enterprise. They are
always most annoying to
those who are of impulsive temperament. They
are a very doubtful good to
men of faith in a living God, who may be
pleased to work in fresh and
surprising ways.
OF NATURAL FORCES.
Gamaliel says — Wait and watch the working
of these things. Religious
excitements tend to exhaust themselves.
Charlatans have no staying
power. Leaders of sects want money
support, and as soon as this is
made apparent their followers dwindle away.
There is little need for any
interference, the natural process of exhaustion
will effect all you want. So,
still, the cautious man often checks the energy
that would deal vigorously with
social and moral evils, such as drinking
and vice. Earnest men cannot
wait for the long outworking of natural
forces. With faith in the God of
righteousness, they must enter and deal
with the evils as a new
redeeming force.
Though allied to the previous
consideration, this somewhat differs from it.
Time allays excitement; time
tests the value of all things. And the very
heads of the Jewish religious
system might surely be satisfied that time
would be on their side. But men are “perishing in their sins” while we wait;
and the earnest man hears God
inspire him to active endeavor when He
says, “Now is the accepted time.” “TODAY
is the day of salvation!”
PUBLIC EXCITEMENT. And
no doubt much evil attends such
excitement, but worse evils
attend stagnation. Public excitement only
alarms those who do not want
anything done. The cautious among us are
always seeking to repress
special missions, revivals, and reformations, and
fear that the blaze blown up so
high will soon burn out, and leave only bare
cold ashes. Men of faith will
ever plead that, maybe, the fire so lighted will
burn on forever. Cautious men
may sometimes do good work by wisely
checking over-impulsiveness and
unduly considered schemes. But they
may also check enterprise. They
who would do noble work for God must
often do as did the great
general — land on the enemy’s shores and burn
the boats.
Our Attitude towards God (vs. 33-42)
There are three attitudes it is possible for us to assume
towards our Maker
and Savior. They are those of:
indeed, as new as it is old for
men to contend with God and to oppose
themselves to those ends for
which He is working.
Ø
Good men do so
unwittingly; as when earnest and holy Catholics have
persecuted Protestant men and
women; as when devout Protestants have
thrown obstacles in the way of
their more energetic co-religionists who
have been evangelizing in ways
not considered legal and correct; as
when we ignorantly misconstrue
the sacred Scriptures, finding out,
farther on, that those views we
combated were in harmony with truth.
Ø
Bad men do so
deliberately and guiltily:
o
when they endeavor
positively to overturn influences which
they
know to be holy and remedial;
o
when they practically
encourage that which they feel to be
wrong
and hurtful.
with so much policy on this
occasion: “Let these men alone” (v. 38).
When any sacred cause comes up
before us, challenging our approval and
asking our aid, we may
determinately stand aloof, declining either to
befriend it on the one hand or
to withstand it on the other: we neither bless
nor curse.
Ø
It is impossible to
take a neutral position, upon the whole, in relation to
Christ. “He that is not with me is
against me.” (Matthew 12:30) Our
influence is either telling in
favor of His holy service, of Christian truth,
of eternal life, or else against
these sacred things.
Ø
It is possible that we
may assume a neutrality toward particular
institutions, usages,
movements, habits; and this neutrality may be:
o
necessary, because we
have not the means of arriving at a
judgment at all;
o
wise, because we have
not yet had the opportunity of coming to
an intelligent decision;
o
culpable, because
cowardly, selfish, unfaithful.
— an act of severe bodily
castigation was a grim method of “letting them
alone”; it was probably a
concession to the party of hostile action — they
did let them go, with strict
prohibitions in their ear. We are to be “coworkers
with Christ,”
“workmen together with Him;” and we
shall become
this by:
Ø
Speaking for Christ. “Daily in the
temple…they ceased not to teach and
to preach Jesus
Christ” (v. 42). In the Church, in the
school, in the home,
— anywhere, everywhere, we too
may speak for Him; uttering the truth
which He has taught us to prize,
more especially upholding Him
as the
one great Teacher, almighty Savior, Divine Friend, and rightful
Lord of the human soul.
Ø
Suffering for Him. The apostles endured
suffering and shame for His
Name; they did so gladly,
rejoicingly. We may be “counted worthy”
to do the same. Many thousands
of men, in heaven or on earth, have
had this high honor (Matthew
5:10-12; I Peter 4:13). And if we are
thoroughly true and
unflinchingly faithful to our Lord, serving Him
to the full height of our
opportunity, we shall surely:
o
suffer bodily
inconveniences, fatigue, exhaustion, if not pain
and
sickness, for His sake;
o
endure the dislike and
ridicule, if not the blows and imprisonment,
of the ungodly. In such ill
treatment we shall find occasion for
heavenly joy, as they did.
Joy in the Fellowship of Shame (v. 41)
“And they departed…rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for
His Name.” The
great types of Christian character begin to show themselves.
The appearances which we have here before us are unusual. They mean
something very unreal or else they begin to speak something true
to a higher nature than that
commonly found among men. It is against the grain
of nature to rejoice in suffering
and pain; it
is yet more against the grain of a high nature to rejoice in “shame.”
There must have been potent causes at
work when men are to be found rejoicing
in suffering shame, and in being “counted worthy to suffer shame.”
Neglecting the supposition, which could not be sustained in
this case, that
there was any affectation on the part of the apostles, it
would be still open
to question whether this attitude were a justifiable one,
whether it were a
lovely one, whether it did not betray a disdainful
tendency, looking toward
haughtiness, with regard to their fellow-men. Perhaps these
considerations
will be best met by simply asking on what grounds and moved
by what
influences the apostles now rejoiced.
They are not of those who
stoically glory in “suffering.”
They are not of
those who cynically or
self-relyingly glory in “shame.” They have not
courted the one nor flippantly
encountered the other. And these facts
shelter them from blameworthiness,
which might otherwise have very
possibly lain at their door. It
is a shame already existing, and which has
already dragged a long suffering
with it and after it — a shame
unoriginated by themselves or by
anything in themselves — that they are
willing, glad, proud to share.
This at once lends a character to their
rejoicing, and lifts it above a
common kind of joy. There has, indeed, been
an abundance of shame in the
world, and of suffering consequent upon it,
that could not in the very
nature of things have shed any glory on the
principals concerned in them.
Yet that abundance of shame and suffering
has found a very field of glory,
new untrodden paths of glory, and lofty
heights of glory for not a few,
who, having no part in the guilt, have
voluntarily entered into
fellowship with the suffering, and the suffering of
shame, which it has involved.
And here may be said to glimmer forth one
of the greater moral facts of
our nature. To offer to share and to be
permitted to share the joy and
prosperity of another can yield little praise to
him who offers, may yield some
to the person who permits; but to
volunteer to share, while
innocent one’s self, the ignominy and suffering of
another is all honor to him who
volunteers — in ordinary cases mostly
humiliation to him who receives
the advantage of that fellowship. To Him,
however, whose suffering of
shame the apostles now rejoiced to share,
humiliation of this kind there
was none.
THE MEMORIES ATTACHING TO IT, WAS TURNED FOR THEM
INTO HONOR AND GLORY.
Ø It “gathered round” Christ himself, One
whom they knew to be
supremely
great, supremely good. The center of this fellowship was their
own old matchless Friend, who had been such a
Teacher, such an Example
to
them; whom they had
seen do so many mighty and gracious works for
others; whom
they had watched for three years, and more and more
wondered at,
admired, and loved; whom they had seen tried for no offence,
and condemned
with no guilt on Him, and crucified for sins not His own;
whom a
self-denying grave had restored, and a self-opening heaven had
received; and
of whom a descending omnipotent
Spirit had given abundant
and
most touching attestation that He had not forgotten those same
disciples, nor
the word of His gracious promise to them.
Ø It “gathered round” One of whom each of
those apostles had, no doubt,
his own
individual and most precious remembrances. Take one example —
Peter. What
memories he had of Jesus. And now that, beyond all he
believed of
Jesus, before He suffered death, being “the Son of the living
God,”
he knew Him to
be such, how intensified in significance many of
those memories
must have become! — but not least that of his own at one
time great
reluctance to share his suffering Master’s shame, and his thrice
repeated denial
of Him! What a blessed revelation for Peter! And what a
forgiving
condescension of the great Master, that He permits Peter now to
take the lead
of his fellow-disciples, and gives him the opportunity of
showing how he
would, if he could, fain repair his old grievous
transgression! Personal experience of Jesus Christ brings any one of us to a
much more
hearty and thorough readiness of surrender to Him than all that
mere
description of Him avails to do, though you add to it a willing
admiration.
Ø It “gathered round” One whose suffering
and shame the apostles
specially knew
to be so unmerited, so absolutely uncaused by self and
unendured for
any necessity of discipline, improvement, or punishment to
self. And yet the suffering and shame had been extreme, and, they well
knew it, had
been borne so patiently, so meekly, and so forgivingly. How
thinking,
grateful hearts must have longed, when now at last they were
fully
enlightened, to share ever so small a portion of His unmerited shame,
though He
Himself had passed on and up, if it should serve His cause! We
wonder nothing
at the true devotion of those released apostles, but is there
no room left
for a wonder at the rare reproduction amongst ourselves of
the same
devotion? Evidently the
Spirit had wrought in those apostles a
real
sympathy with the heart of
Jesus, so that they
felt this an honor, not
such as the
world giveth, that they were permitted, were “counted
worthy,”
to stand in any sense
on the same level of suffering and of shame
with Him.
Though they might not, could not, suffer the same intensity of
suffering as
Jesus, yet they could suffer for the same sort of reasons.
ONE WHO OWNED TO A NAME IN THE FUTURE GLORY OF
WHICH THEY HAD UNQUALIFIED FAITH. “For His Name.”
Doubtless it has been these
twenty centuries the mightiest force and
motive of all. The apostles did
not rejoice to suffer with Jesus or in the
track of Him merely because of
their grateful memories, but also because of
their exulting faith in
Him and the career that awaited Him. Their very love
to “His Name” did not feed
only on past mercies and pensive memories;
these, indeed, were dainty and
tender pasturage for it; but it fed also on the
stronger food of faith. “For His
Name” was equivalent to an assertion of all
He would do and
all He would be to the world, as well as all He had done
and suffered for
it. And hence we are immediately told
with what
redoubled energy, with what
gladdened courage, the apostles did not cease
to teach and to preach Christ “in
the temple, and in every house.” Well
might men rejoice to be “counted
worthy to suffer shame for His Name,”
when that Name means all that
has been in living form most loving and
most beautiful, and all that is
to be greatest and most powerful in the
world’s onward history, till its
glory shall culminate in the day of triumph
in heaven. The apostles loved
the Name of Jesus; they had come to have a
perfect faith in it; they had
been divinely endowed with a full sympathy
with all they could understand
of it; and now they were learning, in
practical work and in suffering,
the things which would make them really
like to Him who bore that Name.
The “Name”
of Christ turned the cross
from shame into glory. It now
does yet more — it turns living men’s
estimates right round from the
false and the unreal to the real and the true.
That in which they once gloried
becomes their shame, and the reproach of
Christ their riches, honor, and
glory. So did this Master of men’s hearts,
sympathies, and lives, among
other things that He did by the humiliation
and shame to which He bowed,
secure also disciples and servants of
inflexible fidelity and
quenchless devotion and love.
The True Witnessing Spirit (vs. 41-42)
“And they departed…..rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame
for His name. And
daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not
to teach and preach Jesus Christ!”
Heroism may sustain strength,
but does not give joy, unless it is like the
apostles’. Had not the Name been
Divine, how could it have produced
such fruits in such men?
home, must be in the martyr
spirit. We must expect to suffer some
dishonor. But such a spirit is
invincible and victorious.
world. “Counted worthy.” God’s
reckoning. Spiritual worthies. The joy
was not
only a secret joy, it was the foretaste of
heaven.
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