Acts · chapter 5 of 28
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Acts 5 tells how Ananias and his wife Sapphira lie about the price of a property and die, and how the church grows with many signs. The apostles are jailed, an angel frees them and they keep teaching in the temple. Before the council, Peter says we must obey God rather than men, and Gamaliel advises leaving them alone; they are beaten and leave rejoicing.
After Barnabas's generosity in Acts 4, this chapter shows the opposite danger: hypocrisy inside the church. Then outside pressure returns, and the council tries again to stop the apostles. The chapter teaches that God guards the purity of his church and protects the proclamation of the gospel.
A man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sells a piece of property and, with her knowledge, keeps back part of the price and lays the rest at the apostles' feet as if it were the whole. Peter tells him that Satan has filled his heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and that he has not lied to men but to God. Ananias falls down and dies. About three hours later Sapphira comes in, not knowing what has happened, repeats the lie and also falls dead. Great fear seizes the whole church.
Many signs and wonders are done through the apostles, and crowds of believers are added to the Lord. People bring the sick into the streets so that Peter's shadow might fall on them, and from the surrounding towns the sick and the tormented come and are healed.
The high priest and the Sadducees, filled with jealousy, arrest the apostles. During the night an angel of the Lord opens the prison doors and tells them to go to the temple and tell the people the whole message of this life. At daybreak they are teaching in the temple, and the council finds the jail locked and empty. Before the council, Peter and the apostles answer that we must obey God rather than men, and proclaim that God raised Jesus to give repentance and forgiveness of sins.
The council members want to kill them, but the Pharisee Gamaliel advises against acting: if this is of men it will fail, but if it is of God they cannot overthrow it. They take his advice, beat the apostles and order them not to speak in the name of Jesus. The apostles leave rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name, and every day, in the temple and from house to house, they keep proclaiming Jesus as the Christ.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Peter tells Ananias that Satan filled his heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and that he did not lie to men but to God. The couple's sin was not keeping part of the money, which was theirs, but pretending to give everything. God demands sincerity from his people.
Peter and the apostles answer that we must obey God rather than men. The church respects authorities, but when they ask it to silence God's word, its highest loyalty is to him.
Gamaliel advises leaving the apostles alone: if the movement is of men it will fail, but if it is of God they cannot overthrow it. Though not a believer, his caution was a means God used to protect the apostles.
The apostles leave the council rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. For them, suffering for Christ was an honor, not a defeat.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: They kept back part of it and presented the rest to the apostles as if it were the whole. — Acts 5:1-2
Answer: The Holy Spirit, that is, God, not only men. — Acts 5:3-4
Answer: The sick on cots and mats, so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on them. — Acts 5:15
Answer: An angel of the Lord, who told them to go to the temple and tell the people the whole message of this life. — Acts 5:19-20
Answer: To leave the apostles alone, because if their work was of men it would fail and if it was of God they could not stop it. — Acts 5:38-39
Answer: Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. — Acts 5:40-41
The story of Ananias and Sapphira is not about inadequate offerings but about pretending. God cares about the truth of the heart. In your group you can ask where you pretend to be more generous, more spiritual or stronger than you are, and confess it to God and to a trusted brother or sister.
The apostles show the other path: courageous obedience and joy in the cost. They do not seek suffering, but they do not stop speaking when told to. Ask what clear command of God today requires perseverance even when it is unpopular.
Acts 5 ends with the apostles teaching every day despite the threats. Acts 6 will show a different, internal conflict, the unequal distribution to widows, and how the church resolves it by appointing seven men to serve.
The text does not explain everything, but it shows that their sin was a deliberate lie to the Holy Spirit at the church's beginning. It was a warning: God guards the integrity of his people. The text does not call them unbelievers, and Christians debate their eternal fate; what is clear is the reverent fear it produced in the church.
He was a Pharisee and teacher of the law, highly respected by all the people. Paul says later that he studied at his feet. His advice shows not faith in Jesus but caution, and God used it to halt the persecution for a time.
The text says people brought the sick so that Peter's shadow might fall on them, but it does not claim the shadow healed. It says all were healed, and the chapter's focus is on God's power working through the apostles.