Acts 5

₁There was a man whose name was Ananias and his wife's name was Sapphira. They also had some land and they sold it ₂and gave some of the money to the apostles. They did not give all the money, but they lied and said they had. They kept part of the money for themselves when Ananias gave the money to the apostles. ₃Peter said to him: ‘Ananias, why did you listen to Satan? Why did you do what Satan told you to do? Why did you lie to the Holy_Spirit? You said you gave us all the money that you had, but you did not. You kept part of the money for yourself. ₄It was your land before and when you sold it, you were free to do with your money what you wanted to do. Why did you lie and say that you gave all the money? That was wrong. You did not lie to people. You have lied to God.’

₅When Ananias heard this, he died and fell to the ground. And all the people who heard of this became afraid. ₆Some of the young men came and they put cloths over his body and went and buried him. ₇After about 3 hours, Ananias' wife came to them. She did not know what had happened. ₈Peter said to her: ‘Tell me, did you sell your land for as much money as Ananias said?’ She said: ‘Yes, that is how much money we got.’

₉Peter said to her: ‘Why did you and your husband agree to lie to the Spirit of God? The young men who buried your husband are standing at the door and they will also take you and bury you.’

₁₀She died immediately and she fell to the ground at Peter's feet. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her next to her husband. ₁₁All the believers and a lot of other people heard about what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira and they were all afraid.

₁₂The Lord gave the apostles power to do a lot of signs and miracles in front of the people. All the believers came every day to Solomon's_Porch. ₁₃The other people were afraid to come and sit with them, but they respected the believers. ₁₄Later the Lord saved more and more people, men and women, and they came with the believers to worship the Lord. ₁₅The people of Jerusalem carried the sick people out into the streets. They laid them on sleeping-mats and beds and hoped that Peter would walk past them and that his shadow would fall onto the sick people. ₁₆There were also many people from towns near Jerusalem that started to bring their sick people and people who had evil_spirits in them. And the Lord healed them all.

₁₇The high-priest and Sadducees and other leaders became jealous of the apostles and they decided to do something bad to the believers. ₁₈They arrested the apostles and put them in jail. ₁₉But an angel of the Lord came in the night and he opened the doors of the jail and he led the apostles out. ₂₀He told the apostles: ‘Go to the temple and preach to the people about Jesus so that they can have eternal_life.’

₂₁The apostles went to the temple very early the next morning and they started to teach the people.

The high-priest called all the people of the Jewish_Council and the leaders_of_Israel together to talk. They sent guards to the jail to go and get the apostles. ₂₂But when the guards came to the jail, they did not find the apostles there. They came back and told the Jewish_leaders: ₂₃‘When we came to the jail, the jail was closed. All the doors were locked and the guards were standing at the doors. But when we opened the doors, there was no one inside.’

₂₄When the officer of the temple-guards and the chief_priests heard what they said, they were surprised. They did not know what to think. ₂₅Then someone came and said: ‘The men that you put in jail are standing in the temple and they are teaching the people.’

₂₆The officers and guards went to the apostles and asked them to come back to the Jewish_leaders, but they did not arrest them. They were afraid that the people would throw stones at them. ₂₇They brought the apostles and asked them to stand before the Jewish_Council. The high-priest said to them: ₂₈‘We have warned you and told you not to teach the people about Jesus. But now look what you have done. People all over the city of Jerusalem have heard you teaching and you have told them that it was we who killed Jesus.’

₂₉Peter and the apostles answered and said: ‘We must listen to God more than we obey people. ₃₀You killed Jesus on a cross, but the God of our forefathers made Him come alive again. ₃₁God made Jesus our Leader and Saviour and God has given Him glory and said He may sit next to God at the most important place, so that the Israelites can turn to God and live as He wants and so that He can forgive their sins. ₃₂We are here to tell you about these things that we have seen and God the Holy_Spirit, who is the gift of God to those people who listen to God, is also the Witness that this is true.’

₃₃The Jewish_leaders became very angry when they heard this and they decided to kill the apostles. ₃₄Then one man in the Jewish_Council stood up. His name was Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee and a teacher_of_the_Laws and all the people respected him. He asked the apostles to go out of the room for a short while. ₃₅Then Gamaliel said to the Jewish_Council: ‘Friends, you must be careful and beware of what you want to do with these men. ₃₆You know that some time ago there was a man with the name of Theudas. He told the people that he was a very important_leader and about 400 men followed him. But someone killed him and all the men who followed him ran away. We have not heard of anyone talking about Theudas and his men again. They are gone.

₃₇Then there was a man, Judas, from Galilee. He rebelled_against the government when the Romans were counting all the people and he said all the people must rebel with him. But they also killed Judas and all his people ran away.

₃₈And now, what must we do with these men today? We must let them go and we must not do anything bad to them. If their plans and the things they say come from people, then their plans will disappear and they will stop. ₃₉But if it is God who told them to do this, then you can not stop them. You might see later that you are fighting against God.’

The Jewish_Council listened to Gamaliel. ₄₀They told the apostles to come back to them and they said the guards must beat them with whips. Then they told the apostles that they must not preach about Jesus. After that, they let the apostles go. ₄₁The apostles went away from the Jewish_Council and they were very happy that God decided that they were good enough to suffer because they believed in Jesus. ₄₂They went to the temple every day and to the houses of people, telling them the Good_News that Jesus is the Christ.