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Tag: witness

Stephen: Witness and Martyr
μάρτυς – martys – a witness
Acts of Stephen – Witness for Christ’s Church
Witness to a “stiff-necked people!”
Returning now to our drama of Stephen on trial in ~A.D. 33:
Witness of the Author
μάρτυς – martys
False Witnesses
Stephen’s Indictment of his Accusers
Sentencing!
A Jewish Execution of the Law
Witness of a Martyr
μάρτυς – martys
Impressions from an injustice witnessed
STEPHEN GUILTY! BLASPHEMER EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY!
‘Call your next witness, counselor.’

Many of us remain fascinated with the testimony of a witness impacting the outcome of a trial.

μάρτυς – martys – a witness

WE are simply spectators at a trial, not a familiar rerun of a fictional courtroom scene by Erle Stanley Gardner six decades ago, but an actual ancient trial of an accused defendant, Stephen, from two thousand years ago.

Like the legal dramas whose complex plots draw us in, we know that the defendant is innocent. His advocate, however, is supernatural and his jury includes dozens of Stephen’s accusing judges.

And the outcome? Preordained. (Think of it as ‘prerecorded’ by the Author of this great mystery.)
μαρτύριον – Testimony

Strong’s G3142 – martyrion

From a presumed derivative of

μάρτυς (G3144) – martys
The KJV translates Strong’s G3144 in the following manner: witness (29x), martyr (3x), record (2x).

Acts of Stephen – Witness for Christ’s Church
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Contemporary summary of Stephen's defense thus far from Luke's transcript in Acts 7:
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You men, brethren, and fathers of the council know the Law of Moses, by which you judge my words.

I, too, revere Moses and the Prophets, and present their testimony in my defense. WE the people of the Way of Jesus love the same LORD our God and Father, who appeared to Moses before we entered the land of God’s promise. The same Lord who appeared to David before his son brought the tabernacle of witness into the Temple of Solomon.

Acts 7: continued

49 ‘Heaven is My throne,
And the earth is the footstool of My feet;
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My rest?
50 Was it not My hand that made all these things?’
Acts 7:49-50 NASB – Stephen quotes the Prophet Isaiah 66;1-2

Witness to a “stiff-necked people!”
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Here is a courtroom scene with the witness Stephen called to the stand in his own defense. And he seems to confess guilt. But as in most murder mysteries, this twist in the plot is not quite what it seems.
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Public trials laden with false testimony in the temples of stiff-necked people.

There’s nothing new under the sun, wrote King Solomon, builder of Jerusalem’s first Temple.

A thousand years later King Herod, who had sought to murder Judea’s Messiah, would build it back better through an alliance with Rome. The Empire already occupied Jerusalem and would soon burn down Herod’s temple in A.D. 70, less than two score years after a trial of thirty-year old Stephen in ~A.D. 33.
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Here's some background investigation from Luke's first century account of Stephen's trial. 
Many acts have taken place outside the courtroom of Jerusalem's one-hundred-twenty man council.

(This trial scene will play like a mid-sixty's [A.D. 60's] rerun to most of Luke's readers some thirty years later.) 

Some 21st century Christians may be unfamiliar with this current explosive climate of the Capitol City of Jerusalem (in ~A.D. 63), not to mention our ongoing political turmoil in Rome (our Babylon of this era).
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Two years earlier the trial of Jesus had been a political public charade staged by the same officials of these ‘whitewashed tombs‘ of the Sanhedrin.

Then the entire assembly of them set out and brought Him before Pilate.

And they began to bring charges against Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”
Gospel of Luke 23:1-2 NASB

Returning now to our drama of Stephen on trial in ~A.D. 33:

Witness of the Author

μάρτυς – martys
- a witness
  - in a legal sense
  - an historical sense
    
    one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
  - in an ethical sense
    
    those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.”
ACTS 1:9 – The instruction of Jesus to the Apostles
– 1:10 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Prior Testimony

And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
Acts 4:33 NASB

“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
Acts 7:44 NASB – Earlier testimony of Stephen

False Witnesses

Stephen, Dynamic Preacher of God’s Word

Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Acts of the Apostles 6:8 CSB

But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines,” and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

Then they secretly induced men to say,

“We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moshe and God.”
Acts 6:9-11 Hebrew Names Version

And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said,

This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Acts 6:12-13 KJV

Stephen’s Indictment of his Accusers

“You stubborn people!
You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth.
Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?
That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!
Acts 7:51 NLT – Stephen’s closing argument!

Does the prophet speaking with the face of an angel, a shining face like that of Moses coming down from the Presence of the LORD on Sinai, not have to speak the TESTIMONY of God’s truth?

Is Stephen’s WITNESS FOR CHRIST, even in the face of inevitable execution not gospel truth to Law-breakers?

Of course. By the Power of the Holy Spirit this is exactly what Stephen does as conclusion to his testimony

.

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One,
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Herod certainly would have had full support of Jerusalem's High Council when he had beheaded John the Baptist, who was witness to the LORD anointing the ministry of Jesus in the Jordan.
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and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;

you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
Acts 7:52-53 – Stephen’s closing argument to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem

Sentencing!

The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.

55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

“Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:56b NASB – a final witness of Stephen before the Sanhedrin

57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

A Jewish Execution of the Law

the Stoning of Stephen- painting by Rembrandt

24:14 הוֹצֵא אֶת־הַֽמְקַלֵּל אֶל־מִחוּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶה וְסָמְכוּ כָֽל־הַשֹּׁמְעִים אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ וְרָגְמוּ אֹתוֹ כָּל־הָעֵדָֽה׃
“Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp,
and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head;
then have all the congregation stone him.
Vayikra (Leviticus) 24 ::

False witnesses against Stephen would have been the first to cast stones against him! Not only were they without sin, but their stiff-necked opposition to the Son of God had brought them by their own testimony to the place of executing an angelic saint of Stephen.

Their own leaders had arranged false testimony to shield their own sins and covetous clinging to whitewashed leadership image of a PEOPLE already condemned.
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(Of course THAT was twenty-one centuries ago; an opportune ACT that could never happen now... Would it?) 

Unresolved trials WE THE PEOPLE endure daily seem to never end - an unresolved eternity preoccupying this brief life. 
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But Stephen’s case must convince us and convict US: true witness with eternal judgment will come to a conclusion WE must not ignore.

Witness of a Martyr
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I remind US once more of the definition above, also linked below.
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μάρτυς – martys

ACTS 7:58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!”
Acts 7:59 Hebrew Names Version

“Father, forgive them..”

Stephen had heard it before from the parched tongue of Jesus on the Cross. He had preached it with the power of the Holy Spirit.

But now as his own failing flesh of this short life suffered at the hands of his false accusers, Stephen utters one last word – a lasting impression on a leading disciple of Gamaliel.

Then he knelt down and began to pray crying out with a loud voice:

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”

Having said this, Stephen died.

Impressions from an injustice witnessed

The crowds of officials must have been gloating with gratification as the stone-battered body of Stephen lay lifeless in that pit – like Golgotha, a place of shame beyond the walls of THEIR CITY.
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'WE can justify our ACTS by demonstrating OUR power (like this) over these PEOPLE we represent in their Temple; 
so WE can say anything and they will believe US, because WE rule this 'chosen' NATION under God.' 
'I think we can eliminate more of these religious opponents like this. Don't you?

(Okay, I confess my most contemporary take on their first century victories which filled crowds with anger, false witnesses and political cover without accountability. 
Who would believe such lies told by so many of every party and false witness HEADLINED in so many places? - RH)
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The religious and political leaders and their constituancies all return to the comfort of Jerusalem’s walls, with lavish celebrations under watchful eyes of their Roman Centurion ‘friends,’ men like them who seem just a bit more apprehensive about religion and Judean political disagreements lately.

But some recognize the accusations as false and not all process back to Judea’s Capitol abuzz with tomorrow’s HEADLINES of their victory this day..

STEPHEN GUILTY! BLASPHEMER EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY!

JUSTICE DELIVERED IN OUR NATION’S CAPITOL!

Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. – Acts 8:1

And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
ACTS 22:20 KJV – Later confession of witness by Saul of Tarsus, who Christ would call as Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul.

Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
January 22, 2022
That’s Not Fair! Possessions and Community
The Saga of Ananias and Saphira

From a background of my own evangelical christian American thinking I had always squirmed with a certain sense of unfairness that Ananias and Saphira died instantly at Peter’s feet when the Apostle confronted them about a sale of THEIR OWN possessions.

Wasn’t the profit from THEIR MONEY from a SALE of their land one of the most generous GIFTS of CHARITY anyone could have given to the Apostles? They gave most of it to the CHURCH. It was certainly more than a 10% tithe.

So how much should Anaias and Saphira have given to the CHURCH?

Our Offerings to ‘the church’

Here’s MY gentile ALL-AMERICAN take on what Peter and the Apostles should have expected.
- Wouldn’t giving EVERYTHING to the Apostles make the saints of the first century Church COMMUNISTS, or at the very least SOCIALISTS?
The COMMUNITY of the Jerusalem Church seems unlike everything WE THE PEOPLE of the United States have come to expect as a 21st century christian ‘church.’ Yet most of our our preachers love to proclaim such generous gifts of substance from leading contributers like Ananias and Saphira to the church. (We know who they are.)
- How many of US would sell our possessions just to give money to our local church?
- WHY would GOD strike DEAD any believer in Jesus for holding back a few possessions for themselves?
  - It seems ‘un-American, doesn’t it?
  - OUR hearts recoil as our tongues to cry out, ‘THIS IS UNFAIR.’
ACTS of the Church in context
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Most Christians know this story from ACTS 5:1-11 and the generosity of Joseph of Cypress from the preceeding two verses in Acts 4.
 
I have not skipped this story until now to avoid controversial contempory issues, but rather to maintain a storyline of Peter as the first leader of the Church.
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A Chronological context of Acts from a first century perspective

Luke published Acts of the Apostles in about

the year of our Lord, 62,

just prior to empire-wide persecution of the Jews (including the sect of Christ followers) and the Jerusalem War which led to its fall in A.D. 70.

The Forgotten Saga of The Way

Christians reading Luke’s historical account of events some thirty years earler (in ~A.D. 30’s) would already have suffered persecution, loss of their possessions and lands, and even deaths of family and other saints of their church as most fled with little left to places of reletive safety.

This sect of The Way, along with Jerusalem’s former ruling classes, would no longer have enough possessions to sustain daily life in Jerusalem, some even without food to eat.

Why DO the nations rage?

We looked at a few of these AD 1st century events earlier

Short list of a few more historical events impacting AD 1st century readers of ACTS;

source
- 28 AD John the Baptist is executed by Herod Antipas, son of King Herod in Judaea.
- 32 – 36 AD Estimated date of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
- 44 AD Judaea is annexed as a Roman province after the death of Herod Agrippa.
- 49 AD Claudius passes an edict expelling all Jews from Rome.
- 64 AD The Great Fire of Rome speculated to have been started by Nero to make room for his palace. Christians Persecuted as scapegoats. Nero begins construction of the domus aurea (the Golden House).
- 67 AD The future Emperor Vespasian is sent to Judaea to put down a Jewish revolt.
  - Death of Paul the Apostle.
Some believe Luke wrote Acts after the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70; his death was probably in the mid-eighties).
It is more likely, however, that he wrote much earlier, before the end of Paul’s first Roman imprisonment (ca. A.D. 60–62).
John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – Acts

Early examples of faith

Who should these new disciples of the Apostles ACT like during these desparate times of yet another jewish diaspora due to persecution?

Certainly the daily lives of every saint of the early church read like an unseen saga of suffering known to early readers of the GOSPELS, ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, the EPISTLES and THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST to John.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

Possessions of the Church + Banking on the Risen Lord
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We return now to Luke's second account ACTS of the Apostles in about AD 32-36, as we have learned, and a fledgling gathering of saints in Jerusalem who increasingly must depend on the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the cohesion of love binding their community to each other.
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ACTS of the saints of the CHURCH 4:

The Apostolic Community of 1st Century Jerusalem

Luke reveals their agreement or community compact:

For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need.
ACTS of the Jerusalem church 4:34-35 NASB – AD 30’s

This NEW community in the Spirit of The Way in Jerusalem applied Christ’s love for each other AND IT WORKED.

Luke tells later saints of the church how the Apostles gave us this example.

Luke begins with a positive example.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas, (translated Son of Encouragement) sold a field he owned..

Joseph, from the priestly Levitical line, is a faithful Jew who traveled to Jerusalem for its major festivals. Then after the Holy Spirit fills the community of faith on Pentecost, Barnabas (Joseph) fully commits to this new community of The Way led by the Apostles.

Joseph of Cypress (Barnabas) sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
ACTS 4:37 CSB

Luke encourages the poor and needy commuinties of Christ who will read of their sacrificial generocity years later while many saints suffer severe persecution.

32 Now the multitude of those who believe were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
.. all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
ACTS 4:33,35b-36 NKJV of the Jerusalem Chruch after Pentrecost

Luke continues with a negative example

Are these really YOUR possessions?

ACTS 5 of Ananias & Saphira

Lying to the Holy Spirit

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.

Unlike Joseph of Cypress, Luke does not give us much detail about this couple, but his name, Ananias, would have been familiar in their community of fellow Jews.

Ἁνανίας – Ananías, an-an-ee’-as; of Hebrew origin (H2608); Ananias, the name of three Israelites:—Ananias.
1. a certain Christian [at Jerusalem], the husband of Sapphira: Acts 5:1-6.
2. a Christian of Damascus: Acts 9:10-18; Acts 22:12
3. a son of Nedebaeus, and high priest of the Jews circa A.D. 47-59.
Ananias = “whom Jehovah has graciously given”

(Luke the gentile Physician likely understands this irony as will the Apostles.)

The Hebrew root of Ananias also points to a familiar Scriptural example from Daniel: חֲנַנְיָה
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Hananiah = "God has favoured"

the godly friend of Daniel whom Nebuchadnezzar renamed Shadrach; one of the three friends who with Daniel refused to make themselves unclean by eating food from the king's table which went against the dietary laws which God had given the Jews; also one of the three who were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to a graven image of Nebuchadnezzar and who were saved by the angel of the Lord.

source: BlueLetterBible.org Lexicon :: Strong's H2608 - ḥănanyâ
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Ananias is a leading man of means among these five hundred or so followers of the Apostles. And he has sold some of his possessions for the church to graciously give to others in need of his charity.

(But is their generous gift to the church truly their own?)

Psalm 104 excerpt
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מָֽה־רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְֽהוָה כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶֽךָ׃

  יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים מִן־הָאָרֶץ וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־יְהוָה הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃
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LORD, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your possessions…

May sinners be removed from the earth
And may the wicked be no more.
Bless the LORD, my soul.
Praise the LORD!
Tehillim (Psalms) 104:24,35 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC), NASB20

His ‘portion’ of the proceeds

ACTS 5:2 However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife’s knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

WHY?
- Didn’t Luke tell us that ALL brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles’ feet?
- AND also, these ACTS of GENEROSITY of ALL sharing ALL of their possessions resulted in
  - the Apostles distributing to each as anyone had need?
The offering of Anaias’ portion of the sale may have exceeded the value of what most could contribute who shared everything they sold. So often leading contributors of the Church receive public accolades for their ‘generosity.’

Yet what had Peter learned from Jesus preaching about our portion of riches?

Gospel of Luke 12:– Lying to the HOLY SPIRIT & GREED

10 “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him;

but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.

“Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the officials and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Peter and ALL of those touched by the tongues of fire on Pentecost have already experienced this.

But in this same teaching, Jesus warns again of the danger of riches to those who would cling to their possessions.

“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one is affluent does his life consist of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive..
Gospel of Luke 12:15b-16[21] NASB20 – Jesus cautioning against greed

AND IN THE END of Jesus’ parable:
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We know the expression, but hear little of it's context: EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY..

‘And I will say to my [SOUL], “You have many goods stored up for many years to come; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”’
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“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?’
Gospel of Luke 12:[19-20] NASB20

Why do you lie to the HOLY SPIRIT?

ACTS 5: of their Deceit

3 But Peter said,

“Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control?

Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to men, but to God.”

Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.

So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.

6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.
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FAR DIFFERENT from our 21st century receiving of this weeks 'offering' when we are obliged to put something in the basket (or plate) rather anonomously.
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Saphira
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I might easily expound at length on Saphira's role as the wife of Ananias. 

Should she agree with her husband's dishonesty OR tell the truth even when her husband is dishonest? 

Just a Scriptures familiar to her for your own consideration:
All quotes from BlueLetterBible.org 
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- and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24b
- There certainly was no one like Ahab who gave himself over to do evil in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife incited him. – 1 Kings 25:25
- His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. – Job 2:9-10
- An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,
  - But she who shames him is like rottenness in his bones. – Proverbs 12:4
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Gospel of Luke 14:26 + a caution of JESUS – v.27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

SAPHIRA, one with ANANIAS as his wife had a choice: Yet both also gave their word to the Apostles to remain one with the community of Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Which choice will SHE make when confronted by truth?

Three Hours Later
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Perhaps she had been window shopping in Jerusalem for some new clothes or possions appropriate to their high status. Maybe she had asked Ananias for some of their new-found profit. (This is just spectulation.)
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ACTS 5: of Saphira

..his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”

“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”

9 Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?

She must have immediately wondered, ‘HOW does he know that Ananias received more? I never thought that Ananias would cave in and tell him.’

Peter continues as she stands before these witnesses in shock at his words and she hears some men approaching the door of their meeting place..

Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.”

Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband.

Are your possessions worth your soul?
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ACTS of the Apostles - To be continued...
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December 8, 2021
Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
Gospel of John 3:8 – Jesus Christ teaching on the Holy Spirit
Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:
Acts 1:
Ascension of the Lord Jesus
The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!
The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV
ACTS in the Spirit
Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:

Acts 1:

Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.

We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.

What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.

Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …

Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:

“Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1:4b NASB
- https://www.youtube.com/@talkofjesus/videos
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV

Baptism

And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘

The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.

Ascension of the Lord Jesus

The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.

Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Acts 1:7 CSB

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses^G3144 ..
Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20

μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)
- martys [gk.] [Strong’s 3144] Definition:
- a witness
  1. in a legal sense
  2. an historical sense
    
    one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
  3. in an ethical sense
    
    those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
Roger@talkofJESUS.com

Jesus was taken up as the Apostles watched!

Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!

The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!

How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?

You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.

The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)

ἁγίου πνεύματος – hagios pneuma – the Holy Ghost

Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.

So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.

hagios – HOLY
- from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), saint.
pneuma – spirit

KJV translate this as:

GHOST
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(May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)

READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:
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Outline of Biblical Usage
1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
  1. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
  2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
  3. never referred to as a depersonalised force
2. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
  1. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
  2. the soul
3. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
  1. a life giving spirit
  2. a human soul that has left the body
  3. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
    
    used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
    
    the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
4. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
  1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
5. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
  1. of the wind, hence the wind itself
  2. breath of nostrils or mouth
ACTS in the Spirit

Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.
- And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
  - Acts 4:31
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Acts 5:32
- And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
  - Acts 15:8
- And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
  - Acts 19:6
Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:
- Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
to be continued..

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
September 21, 2021