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Agape Bible Study Acts 5
Chapter 5: Life in the Church in Jerusalem
Acts 5:1-11 ~ Peter Judges the Fraud of Ananias and Sapphira
3 But Peter, said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the hand? Judas' betrayal of Christ was also attributed to Satan entering his heart (Lk 22:3). In contrast to the honesty and generosity of Joseph Barnabas, Luke presents the cautionary tale of Ananias and Sapphira. We are not told how Peter knew of their sins, but in verses 3 and 8 he gives each of them the opportunity to repent.
Question: What was their sin and who did they sin against?
Answer: Their sin was a betrayal in their conspiracy to lie to the community.
Question: What are the contrasts between the two stories of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira?
Answer: Both stories are lessons for the community. The contrast is between the faithful Barnabas the faithless Ananias and Sapphira.
| Barnabas | Ananias and Sapphira |
| Barnabas gave truthfully and generously to the community from his sale of property. | Ananias and Sapphira conspired to defraud the community in lying about their gift of the sale of their land. |
| Barnabas' gift was an act of righteousness for which he received the gratitude of the community and a new name from the Apostles. | nanias and Sapphira used their gift and their lie to seek status within the community. |
| Barnabas laid his donation to the community at the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:37) | In the divine judgment of her sin Sapphira fell down at his feet [Peter] and breathed her last. |
| Barnabas' righteousness came from both loving God and fear of offending God. | Ananias and Sapphira did not fear God in testing the Holy Spirit by lying. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright 2013 | |
Acts 5:12-16 ~ Signs and Wonders of the Apostles
This is the fourth mention of "signs and wonders" (Acts 2:19, 22; 4:30 and 5:12). Verse 13 suggests that there were people who both feared and esteemed the Apostles and their mighty works in the name of Jesus the Messiah. The numbers of believers who joined the faith community continued to grow. The Apostles continued to heal the sick and the power of the Holy Spirit even poured forth from St. Peter through the casting of his shadow.
Acts 5:17-26 ~ The Apostles are Arrested and Miraculously Freed
Question: Why was the high priest so angry and why were he and the Sadducees jealous? See Acts 4:18 and 5:28. You will recall that Pilate perceived that the reason the chief priests wanted to put Jesus to death was because of their jealousy (Mt 27:16-18).
Answer: He was angry because the Apostles deliberately ignored the Sanhedrin's order not to teach or heal in the name of Jesus. He and the others were also jealous of the attention the Apostles were receiving from the people. They were jealous that their position of authority with the people was being usurped by the teaching and works of the Apostles.
Acts 5:27-33 ~ The Apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin
Question: The high priest (Joseph Caiaphas) accused the Apostles of wanting to bring the judgment of what man's blood down upon them?
Answer: The blood of Jesus who Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin condemned to death.
The Apostles as a group give the same courageous reply that Sts. Peter and John gave when they were arrested in 4:19-20 "they must obey God and continue to proclaim Jesus Savior and Lord.
Acts 5:34-42 ~ Rabbi Gamaliel's Counsel
Gamaliel was a respected Jewish teacher and a member of the Sanhedrin. He was also the teacher of Saul/Paul of Tarsus (Acts 22:3).
Question: What is Gamaliel's advice to the Sanhedrin?
Answer: He gives examples of contemporary movements that died out after the death of the leaders. His argument is if God is not the author of the Jesus movement, then the movement will die out, but if God is the authority behind the works of the Apostles, then they must be careful that they do not find themselves in opposition to the divine plan of God.
| Jesus | Peter |
| Mission inaugurated by the Holy Spirit (Lk 3:22) | Mission inaugurated by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) |
| Jerusalem Sermon on the Last Days (Lk 21:5-36) | Jerusalem Sermon on the Last Days (Acts 2:22-36) |
| Lame healed (Lk 7:22; 14:13) | Lame healed (Acts 3:1-10) |
| Miraculous healings including curing the sick and casting out demons (Lk 4:33-35; 38-42; 5:12-13, 17-25; 7:1-10; 8:22-25, 27-31; 9:37-43) | Miraculous healings including curing the sick and casting out demons (Acts 5:12, 15-16) |
| Raising the dead (Lk 7:11-15; 8:41-42, 51-55) | Raising the dead (Acts 9:36-41) |
| Arrested by the priests, Temple guard and elders (Lk 22:52-54) | Arrested by the priests, Temple guard, and Sadducees (Acts 4:1; 5:17) |
| Trial by the Sanhedrin (Lk 22:66-71) | Trial by the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:5-21; 5:17-41) |
| Beaten by the order of the religious authorities (Lk 22:66-65) | Beaten by the order of the religious authorities (Acts 5:40) |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013 | |
Agape Bible Study Romans 8
Romans 8:1-13: Life in the Spirit
In Romans chapter 7:24 St. Paul asked the rhetorical question "Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death?" His simple answer in verse 25 was that Jesus Christ is our rescuer, but in chapter 8 Paul provides a more in depth response. The two opening verses introduce what main theme of this chapter: the Christian has been set free from the condemnation of sin and death by "the law of the Spirit of life" in Christ Jesus. Life is what the Holy Spirit guarantees!
Paul will present this theme in five parts:
- Romans 8:1-13: Christ has made it possible for us to live according to the Spirit
- Romans 8:14-17: The Christian as a child of God
- Romans 8:18-27: The glory of our destiny in Christ in 3 phases:
- verses 18-23: Creation anticipating Christ
- verses 24-25: The hope of faithful Christians
- verses 26-27: The coming of the Spirit
- Romans 8: 28-30: God's call to share His glory
- Romans 8:31-39: A hymn to God's love manifested in Jesus Christ
After the fall of Adam and Eve that resulted in the dis-graced condition of all humanity, original sin became our inheritance and set two directions or two choices before those of us who were born into this dis-graced state:
- Either we continue to seek the will of God in our lives and fight against the inclination to enter into sin, or
- We allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the selfish desires of the flesh and seek our own life apart from God.
In essence this is the choice between supernatural life through the Holy Spirit, or the animal life of the flesh.
Question: What is it that Paul assures us has set the Christian free?
Answer: The Holy Spirit
Romans 8:14-17: The Christian as a child of God
The reality of God the Holy Spirit's presence brings not only new life but a new relationship with God - a relationship of spiritual adoption. Through our adoption we become partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life and Jesus' prayer at Gethsemane in Mark 14:36 is placed on our lips because the Spirit makes us children of God: "'Abba, Father!" he said, 'For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.'" In this prayer we unite ourselves to Christ's sufferings as well as to His glory.
Question: Do adopted children choose their families? What is the implication for Christians being adopted into the family of God?
Answer: In Greek the word huiothesia, [hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah] "adoption", was a technical term expressing the legal assumption of a person into the status of son-ship in a natural family. Paul is taking this word, used in 1st century legal language in the Roman world, and is applying it to both Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians who through the Sacrament of Baptism have become members in God's covenant family. However, it is interesting to note that it is not the adoptee who "adopts" but the family and so Paul's term expresses the prerogative of election—of being chosen by the "family" of the Most Holy Trinity to become sons and daughters of the new and everlasting Covenant in Christ. The use of this word is also reminiscent of the election of the "children" of Israel as Yahweh's chosen people—God Himself chose the children of Israel out of all the peoples of the earth.
Romans 8:18-27: The Christian Destiny of Glory
Question: How did the Fall of man affect all of Creation? See Genesis 2:17 & 3:7-19; CCC # 400-10.
Answer: With the introduction of sin into the world and its by product of decay and death, the harmony which God had originally established with man and all of creation is broken. After the Fall both man and creation become enslaved; death and decay will rule the natural world—the natural world, created as a home for man, came to share in the fallen destiny of mankind but also in the promise of redemption.
Question: How did the redeeming work of Christ is not only to redeem mankind but to provide the means for the renewal of all of Creation? Why is all of Creation anticipating the fulfillment of God's plan for salvation history? See CCC# 1042-1050; 2 Peter 3:13; & Revelation 21:1-5.
Answer: At the end of time as we know it, Christ will return and the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. God has promised that the earth, all living beings, and the entire cosmos will be renewed and transformed and the just will reign with Christ forever, glorified in body and soul just as the material world will be renewed and transformed [see 1 Corinthians 15:28]. In this new creation God will establish his dwelling among men [Revelation 21:5]. All humanity, the visible cosmos, and the earth are destined to be transformed and returned to the state in which God first created it. As St. Irenaeus wrote in the end of the second century, "so that the world itself, resorted to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just.." At that time all of creation will share in the glorification of Jesus Christ [see CCC # 1047].
Romans 8:28-39: God has called the Christian to Share in His Glory
In Romans 5:5 and 8 Paul spoke of God's love for the justified, poured into their hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. Now Romans 8:28 Paul writes of those who love God, using the same Greek verb agapan, which by the Christian definition came to mean "self-sacrificial love"—the love Jesus commanded us to give to one another just as He has loved us [John 13:34]. Paul writes:"28 We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good." For Paul it is this "agape love" that defines what it means to be a Christian.
Sacred Scripture clearly teaches that it is God's desire that everyone come to salvation. If this is indeed God's desire then He would not predestine anyone to damnation:
1 Timothy 2:1-4: "I urge then, first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be offered for everyone, for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live peaceful and quiet lives with all devotion and propriety. To do this is right, and acceptable to God our Savior: he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth."
It was God's plan from the time of the fall of Adam that the Christ's death would be for all humanity, not for a predestined group. Jesus was sent to be Savior of the world!
Jesus the New Adam died for the sins of humanity: just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all:
- 1 John 2:1-2
- 1 Peter 3:18
Jesus' death was the perfect sacrifice—for all humanity and for all time:
But because Jesus is God He knows the mind and heart of all people, therefore, He knows who will respond in faith to His universal call to salvation: "...but Jesus knew all people and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about anyone; he could tell what someone had in him."
The Catechism addresses the destiny of humanity for salvation in CCC# 257: "...Such is the 'plan of his loving kindness', conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: 'He destined us in love to be his sons' and 'to be conformed to the image of his Son,' through 'the spirit of son-ship.' It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church." And in CCC# 381, our destiny to be reborn in the image of God the Son [see Romans 8:29]: "Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God's Son made man, 'the image of the invisible God' (Colossians 1:15), so that Christ shall be the firstborn of a multitude of brothers and sisters (cf. Ephesians 1:3-6; Romans 8:29)." That it is this destiny of redeemed man to image Christ is what St. Cyril taught to the newly baptized in the 4th century of Jerusalem: "God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called 'Christs.'" Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechism mystogogia 3,1
Addressing this tension between the exercise of our free will and God's foreknowledge the Catechism teaches in CCC# 600: "To God all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of 'predestination,' he includes in it each person's free response to his grace...". It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that all humanity is called to cooperate in God's divine plan of salvation and all who respond to that call ["the elect"] are justified according to His plan, and are united to the image of God the Son, fulfilling their destiny as justified believers who receive a share in the glory of His presence. Catholic scholars down through the centuries have dedicated themselves to trying to reconcile the tension between our free will and God's foreknowledge but all agree in the end with St. Paul's assessment in Romans 11:33-34a that God's knowledge of human destiny is an unfathomable mystery: "How rich and deep are the wisdom and knowledge of God! We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways. Who has ever known the mind of the Lord?"
At this point in the letter Paul's words burst forth in a hymn of God's love and faithfulness!
Romans 8:31-39: A Hymn to the Love of God Made Manifest Through Jesus Christ
Paul has written that it is through Jesus Christ that Christians have been freed from the dominion of sin and death; freed from love of self and slavery to the old law. He has assured Christians that through their rebirth into the family of God they have been given the freedom and power over the forces in life that drag humanity down into iniquities that lead to destruction of body and soul. Jesus Christ in assuming humanity's fragility has triumphed through His death and resurrection and has not only conquered all these forces, but He has communicated that victory to those who have accepted God's call to salvation and have been "molded to the pattern of his Son, ......those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory [Romans 8:29b-30]." These are the ones Paul first wrote of in Romans 1:17, "Anyone who is upright through faith will live!" Now in a jubilant hymn of praise Paul sums up all the gifts of divine love which had been given to humanity through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
| Verse 31 | "After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us?" |
| Verse 32 | "Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts?" |
| Verse 34 | "Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice who can condemn?" |
| Verses 35-36 | "Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ...can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence; 36 as scripture says: 'For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered?" |
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