Acts 5:1-16 - Smelling Salts

Listen along as we continue our series through the book of Acts.

Notes//Quotes:

Acts 5:1-16 - Jack Reading
Title: Smelling Salts

“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.” 
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
  turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
 and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
 for everything you do flows from it.
(Proverbs 4:20-23)

“Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.”
- George MacDonald

 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 
(1Peter 5:8 NASB95)

 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 
(James 4:7 NASB95)

“do not give the devil a foothold.”
(Ephesians 4:27 ESV)

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” 
(Eph. 6:12 ESV)

“if God acted in the same way today that he did in the fifth chapter of Acts, you’d have to have a morgue in the basement of every church and a mortician on the pastoral staff.”
- Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse

“…you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
 (Matt. 16:18 ESV)

“Our takeaways from the text should probably be no more and no less than that of the people who witnessed the event: fear and awe. God is a holy God who vanquishes evil and zealously defends his holiness. His judgments are his, and he only makes some of them known. Why did God strike down Ananias and Sapphira rather than give them a chance to repent? How is it that Satan filled Ananias’ heart to lie (v. 3) but that Ananias also contrived the sin himself (v. 4)? Why didn’t Peter show the same grace toward Ananias and Sapphira that he was shown for his deceit and denial of the Lord (Matt 26:69-75)? We do not know. The text does not speak to these questions, though other passages may help us find answers. Ultimately, though, it’s the text that demands an answer from you: Do you fear God?”
- F.F. Bruce

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
(2 Cor. 5:10&11 ESV)