SABBATH

God's Gift to Us

Biblestudy: Acts (Part Seven)

Acts 5 & 6 Confrontation with the Sanhedrin and Stephen's Testimony
#BS-AC07

Given 11-Oct-88; 65 minutes

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description: Ananias and Sapphira were executed for their deceit and hypocrisy (an event parallel to Aachan's deceit and execution), pretending to have sacrificed more than they actually had. In this same account, Luke records the volatile confrontation of the apostles (who had been instructed by an angel to stand their ground and not back down) and the Sanhedrin. Amazingly, the apostles found an ally in a prominent wise Pharisee named Gamaliel, a grandson of Hillel, advocating tolerance to a group he had considered another sect of Judaism. In Acts 6, a bifurcation of the responsibilities of physical serving (such as serving the widows) and spiritual serving (prayer and preaching) takes place (with the understanding that both aspects of serving are intertwined). One of the new appointees to the new physical office, Stephen, boldly proclaimed that Christianity was not just another sect of Judaism, thereby bringing down the wrath of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.