36 For before this there was Theudas, who said he was someone important, to whom about four hundred men gave their support: he was put to death, and his band was broken up and came to nothing.
But there was a certain man named Simon, who in the past had been a wonder-worker and a cause of surprise to the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was a great man:
Are you by chance the Egyptian who, before this, got the people worked up against the government and took four thousand men of the Assassins out into the waste land?
If, then, they say to you, See, he is in the waste land; go not out: See, he is in the inner rooms; put no faith in it.
But from those who seemed to be important (whatever they were has no weight with me: God does not take man's person into account): those who seemed to be important gave nothing new to me;
Give no belief to false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction, Who puts himself against all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself forward as God. Have you no memory of what I said when I was with you, giving you word of these things? And now it is clear to you what is keeping back his revelation till the time comes for him to be seen. For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way.
And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name.
These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men's position in the hope of reward.
And he took me away in the Spirit into a waste land: and I saw a woman seated on a bright red beast, full of evil names, having seven heads and ten horns,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 5
Commentary on Acts 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
In this chapter we have,
Act 5:1-11
The chapter begins with a melancholy but, which puts a stop to the pleasant and agreeable prospect of things which we had in the foregoing chapters; as every man, so every church, in its best state has its but.
Act 5:12-16
We have here an account of the progress of the gospel, notwithstanding this terrible judgment inflicted upon two hypocrites.
Act 5:17-25
Never did any good work go on with any hope of success, but it met with opposition; those that are bent to do mischief cannot be reconciled to those who make it their business to do good. Satan, the destroyer of mankind, ever was, and will be, an adversary to those who are the benefactors of mankind; and it would have been strange if the apostles had gone on thus teaching and healing and had had no check. In these verses we have the malice of hell and the grace of heaven struggling about them, the one to drive them off from this good work, the other to animate them in it,
Act 5:26-42
We are not told what it was that the apostles preached to the people; no doubt it was according to the direction of the angel-the words of this life; but what passed between them and the council we have here an account of; for in their sufferings there appeared more of a divine power and energy than even in their preaching. Now here we have,