In-Depth Bible Study Notes for Acts 5:12-42
We have now moved into the second section of this chapter which describes how the apostles continue to heal and speak in the name of Jesus and are persecuted by the Sanhedrin as a result.
Read Acts 5:12. We've visited "Solomon's Colonnade" before. Let's review where this is in the temple complex. { Show picture from "Reader's Digest Story of the Bible World", page 134 }
Read Acts 5:13. What does Luke mean by "no one else dared join them"? I believe he is saying that no pretenders or half-hearted believers dared to join the Christians because of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. As we will read in the next verse, people were coming to Christ during this period.
Read Acts 5:14. As just an interesting side note, this is the first time that women are specifically mentioned as believing. In past verses only men were mentioned. Read Acts 4:4. Women will begin to be mentioned more often as we continue through Acts.
Read Acts 5:15. Here we have mention of Peter's shadow. Later we will see mention of Paul's handkerchiefs. Read Acts 19:11-12. We had a similar occurrence much earlier, with Jesus and his cloak. Read Matthew 9:20-22. What is going on here? My commentary says that none of these objects had any magical properties, but rather that they represented a direct means of contact with Jesus or his apostles. The story in Matthew states clearly that it was the woman's faith in Jesus that healed her of her illness.
Read Acts 5:16. Just as in Jesus' day, once the word got out that the apostles were healing people and driving out evil spirits, crowds began to gather in hopes of healing. Notice the key phrase "and all of them were healed." That must have caused quite an uproar in Judea! One or two healings can be faked, but with that many people affected, it is no wonder that so many people came to Christ during this time. Jesus gave the apostles the authority to drive out evil spirits during their earthly time with Him. Read Luke 10:1-2, 17-20.
As we can imagine, the Jewish leaders were not at all happy about what was happening. Back in chapter 4 they had arrested Peter and John and told them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus any more, and yet here they were not only preaching regularly, but healing in Jesus' name! Read Acts 4:18-21.
Read Acts 5:17. Here we get to the core of the Jewish leaders' motives: they were jealous of the apostles' popularity and their power. Notice there is no mention of there being religious reasons for their upset and anger. They weren't upset because they felt like the One True God was being profaned or because they felt like the apostles were heretics. They were simply jealous. I mention this in part because they are quite different from Saul (who later became Paul). Saul persecutes the believers out of what he feels is a godly, righteous zeal. Read Acts 9:1-2.
Read Acts 5:18. We are not told how many of the apostles are arrested, so we can probably assume that all 12 were. They were put into the public jail so that they could be put on trial the next day. Something that I couldn't help noticing is that there is no mention of the apostles protesting their arrest; there is every indication they went peacefully, though the arrest was unjust. How many of us would respond so submissively if we are treated unfairly by our secular authorities?
Read Acts 5:19-20. God sends an angel to let them out of jail and gives them a specific command: "keep doing what you were doing: preach in the temple courts." We have other examples of God sending an angel to rescue a believer from prison, but God doesn't always rescue the believer from prison, even when that means the believer is either tortured or killed as a result. Paul, we know, was eventually executed in prison. But why did God rescue the apostles this particular time? As we will read later in the chapter the apostles end up being flogged at the end of this particular incident, so rescue from physical harm can not be the reason. I can think of three reasons why this happened: 1) to encourage the apostles. Having an angel show up and tell them to continue preaching must have been a great affirmation that they were being obedient to the Lord. 2) to be a witness to the Jewish leaders. I think the Lord is being gracious and giving them another opportunity to see that the apostles are His, they are under His protection. He can step in whenever He wants and remove them from their custody. But as we will see, the Jewish leaders totally miss the warning. 3) to be a witness to everyone else in Jerusalem, both believer and non-believer alike. It will be clear that the only way the apostles could have escaped the jail was through supernatural intervention.
Read Acts 5:21. The Sanhedrin were the Jewish Supreme Court, consisting of 70 to 100 men. When court was in session, they sat in a semi-circle backed with three rows of disciples of the "learned men", with the clerks of the court standing in front.
Read Acts 5:22-24. Here we see that yes, it had to have been supernatural intervention. The guards weren't even aware when the angel came, unlocked the jail doors, led the apostles outside, and locked the doors behind them! The captain of the temple guards would have known his men and known that they were not lying about not having noticed anything; I'm assuming he would have also known they were not bribable. For to accept a bribe to allow prisoners escape, I'm assuming, could cost the prison guards their lives.
Read Acts 5:25. I'm sure this announcement shocked a lot of people! The apostles sent a strong message with their actions: they were not afraid of the Jewish leaders and that it was more important to them to be doing what they felt God had called them to do. Even after escaping prison, they were returning to a place where they knew they would be arrested again. The Jewish leaders probably saw it as an act of insolence, defiance, and rebellion.
Read Acts 5:26. The fact that the captain of the guard did not use force indicates that he probably simply asked the apostles to come with him, and they did, without resisting. Here the captain is afraid that the people of Jerusalem will stone him and his officers for arresting the apostles. I found this interesting and somewhat sad, because as we continue reading in Acts we will see how fickle "people" are - look at what happens in chapter 8. Read Acts 8:1. Within months popular opinion turns against the Christians and they are driven out.
Read Acts 5:27-28. Something jumped out at me when I read these two verses - notice that the high priest refuses to say "Jesus!" He says "this name" and "this man." I think he knew, at some spiritual level, that the name of Jesus had power, and was actually afraid to speak it. The apostles, in their preaching, did repeatedly say that some of the Jews and some of the Jewish leaders had killed Jesus. Read Acts 3:13-15. This, of course, was true; many of the Jewish leaders had plotted to have Jesus killed. This shows the level of their self-deception - did they really think they weren't guilty of His blood? As I mentioned earlier, I find them (the high priest in particular) in dramatic contrast to Saul (who later became Paul) who publicly and fanatically participated in the death of Stephen. (back to Acts 8:1.) If you had questioned Saul right after Stephen's death I can not see him denying his part in the act and that he felt it was a righteous execution.
Read Acts 5:29. Here is a core belief of the apostles - obedience to God must always come over obedience to man. The apostles will all suffer greatly for following this belief, leading all but one to a painful death.
Read Acts 5:30. The high priest and his followers can try to deceive themselves, but the apostles know the truth and won't let them hide in their self deception. They had killed Jesus, but the God they all claimed to follow and honor had raised Him from the dead.
Read Acts 5:31-32. Here is the gospel message, blunt and to the point: Jesus is the savior and Messiah, and only in belief in him can one have forgiveness of sins. Peter speaks of the Holy Spirit being a witness. Jesus had told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin. Read John 16:7-11.
Read Acts 5:33. As one would expect, this message was not received with open hearts by the audience. In fact their reaction reminds me of how some people get literally enraged when you tell them that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that all other religions are deceptions. Today in America (most!) don't talk about having you put to death for saying this, but I do not doubt that their thoughts are just as murderous. We know in other countries this supernatural hatred has turned others to murdering Christians for their beliefs. We know from Revelation that the murdering of Christians will be a universal occurrence in the end-times. Read Revelation 6:9-11.
Read Acts 5:34. Gamaliel was the most famous Jewish teacher (rabbi) of this century and was considered very moderate in his views, as we will see confirmed in his speech here. He would have been greatly respected by Pharisees and Sadducees alike. We know that Saul was one of his students from Acts 22:2-3. Paul mentions here in Acts 22 that he was one of Gamaliel's students as a way to establish his credentials as a "real" Jew. I can't help wondering how Gamaliel reacted when Saul became a Christian; we never hear anything about him later. I would expect that Saul had been one of his "star" pupils and I wouldn't at all be surprised if Paul didn't, at one point, try to share the gospel with Gamaliel. Yet Gamaliel must have been present in Jerusalem during Jesus' visits, heard some of this talks (if only second hand), as well as known about all the miracle performed first by Jesus and then by Jesus' followers; it is somewhat disheartening to think of such a wise and learned man not seeing what was right in front of him: Jesus was the Messiah.
But here God does use this famous rabbi to save the apostles from death. The fact that we have the words of his speech here to read (when the apostles had been put outside) tells us that there was at least one believer present amongst the Sanhedrin during this time. (Or, perhaps, his speech was written down by one of the clerks and this then became part of public record, for others to read.)
Read Acts 5:35. Gamaliel is a voice of reason and calm amidst the raging of his fellows. I can just see this aged man standing up and raising his hands to get everyone's attention. The whole room would have fallen silent out of respect in order to hear his words.
Read Acts 5:36-37. I do not doubt that Gamaliel was an excellent lawyer! He presents his case by first reminding his colleagues of two other revolutionaries or terrorists that had had Jerusalem in an uproar in the past, Theudas and Judas the Galilean. We don't know anything about Theudas except what is mentioned here, that he "claimed to be somebody." Perhaps he claimed to be a prophet, but the message he preached was probably one of rebellion, against Rome, and he was killed and the uprising put down. We know a little bit more about Judas the Galilean from Josephus: apparently in AD 6 (the days of census) he refused to pay tribute to Caesar and started a revolt against the Romans. His revolt was crushed but his movement may have lived on in the party of the Zealots. Gamaliel reminds his audience that these men had had many followers and had appeared to be a threat, but in the end they, too, were destroyed, with no action required by the Sanhedrin.
Read Acts 5:38-39. Gamaliel wraps up his case quite elegantly and I think his words says it all. If this new movement is of men, it will fail; if it is of God you don't want to be fighting against God. Stand back and wait and see what is going to happen. Clearly Gamaliel did not feel there was enough evidence to say either way, which I find interesting. A very logical minded man - I hope his "logic" didn't keep him from finding the One True God!
Read Acts 5:40. Gamaliel's speech saved the apostles from death, but it didn't save them from a flogging. They had been ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus, yet they had continued to do so, so the Sanhedrin felt they had valid cause to punish the apostles for their "crime." The flogging would have consisted of being beaten with forty lashes minus 1. I do not know what crimes were considered punishable by flogging, but apparently this was one of them.
Read Acts 5:41. This verse always makes me marvel: to have such an attitude that one responds to flogging with rejoicing! { Ask group what they think it means to be "counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." Why is this a good thing?}
Read Acts 5:42. Obviously being flogged didn't deter the apostles from continuing to do the Lord's work, preaching and teaching the gospel. Here we see mention of "house churches" as the apostles preached not only in the temple courts, but also in homes. Note that the apostles are not immediately arrested again: many of the Jewish leaders, I do not doubt, were very frustrated and angered to see that they were basically powerless to stop the apostles. They knew that to arrest the apostles and have them flogged again was not going to stop them from preaching. In fact, it would probably only make the Sanhedrin look silly and ineffectual since the apostles refused to abide by their ruling. Others, perhaps, were following Gamaliel's advice and just sitting back to see what happened: would this new cult be put down by others and die out naturally, or would it continue to flourish, as if by God's hand?
Blessings!
Sources
Editors. Reader's Digest Story of the Bible World
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version
Written by Gail_Sanders
Having worked with Oscar winning actors Hillary Swank, and Helen Hunt among many others, including Leonardo Dicaprio Michael Clarke Duncun, Hank Azaria and Jim Carey, Larry Moss is consider to be an acting coach that is a legend in his own time. Synthesizing the work of the great coaches that have come before him, Meisner, Addler, Hagan and more, Moss adapts his style to the needs of actor he is working on. A big believer in script analysis, we covered a lot in this interview. Moss is passionate and informative. If you're an actor or interested in the process, watch this show and read his book, "The Intent to Live". Video Rating: 4 / 5
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