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Lessons From Acts 5
Lessons From Acts 5
So many lessons from this chapter! Here is a partial list:
· Satan can tempt us by ‘filling the heart’ to sin.
· Christians CAN lie, and they can lie unto God / Holy Spirit.
· What we ‘possess’ is a stewardship unto God, one that we must give an account of.
· Such stewardship shows that the early church was NOT a socialist communistic society, but each had control over his ‘own’ things.
· Material wealth often produces covetousness.
· People often desire to be known for being of a certain character (benevolent, etc.), even if they are unwilling to do that very thing.
· Disciples can sin and then die in their sin without repentance.
· Such willful sin is a ‘testing of the Spirit of the Lord’ and can come with severe consequences.
· Such examples of God’s judgment should cause us to fear the Lord and serve Him with a good and honest heart.
· Early Christians were believers in the message of the apostles and part of that faith came from seeing the miracles, signs, and wonders that God did through them.
· Religious people of the first century (the high priest and those with him) opposed the message of God and persecuted the disciples of Jesus.
· God used angels to accomplish the care of His people.
· Angels did not preach the gospel to people, but did minister on behalf of those men who did.
· Disciples can be faced with the tough decision to obey God and thus be disobedient to rulers (and thus suffer the consequences that such earthly rulers can dole out).
· The Jewish leaders were held responsible for the death of Jesus.
· Jesus was crucified.
· God raised Jesus from being dead.
· God exalted Jesus to His right hand - thus Jesus is our leader and savior.
· Through Jesus we can be forgiven of our sins IF we repent.
· Disciples can rejoice EVEN when they suffer for the cause of Christ.
"What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (Phil. 4:9). What we also see in such narratives as Acts 5 are things that we should NOT do. As Paul also said about many of the narratives of the Old Testament: "Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1Cor. 10:11-12). Even so we see many examples, both positive and negative, in the book of Acts.
Hugh DeLong
