Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 4:32-5:11)

Welcome and Announcements

Annual Business Meeting after Sunday AM Worship today followed by lunch in the Activity Room. All are welcome to join both the meeting and meal.

Prepare for the Lord’s Supper on November 13, 2022, during Sunday AM Worship.

Pre-Thanksgiving Love Feast on Wednesday, November 23rd in lieu of Bible Study & Prayer. Dinner starts at 7pm and will include the Lord’s Supper.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 66:5-7)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 66:5-7, which remember is a psalm of thanksgiving. In this section, Psalm 66 turns to give thanks for some of the mighty miraculous events that God had done for Israel. You’ll notice that part of the praise in this section of the psalm is focused on giving praise for the crossing of the Red Sea. Please stand and read with me Psalm 66:5-7—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 66:5–7 ESV

5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. 6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him, 7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations— let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

Congregational Singing

Creation Sings (29)

To God be the Glory (19)

All Glory be to Christ (133)

Scripture Reading (Gen 7)

Our Scripture Reading this morning continues the historical account of the global flood. In Genesis 7, we read about some of the details of the flood itself and the results of the flood. Deane, can you read Genesis 7 for us?

Genesis 7 ESV

1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. 17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 4:32-5:11)

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you please turn it to Acts 4:32-5:11.

I don’t have much in way of introduction this morning, but let me remind you that we’re currently in a section of Scripture that started on the Day of Pentecost with Peter preaching multiple Gospel messages that resulted in the conversion of several thousand people. We read about the first trial with the Sanhedrin and we saw the response of the apostles and the disciples—to pray for God to grant them boldness as they went against the Sanhedrin and continued to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We’re continuing in this historical narrative; let’s read Acts 4:32-5:11 together.

Acts 4:32–5:11 ESV

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts, (1) The Generosity of the Local Church (4:32-37) and (2) The Sin of Ananias and Sapphira. (5:1-11) The text at hand is a bit lengthy, but I think you can tell from reading the text that it’s actually of one and the same, even though our modern-day chapter numbering separates the paragraphs. What we’ll see here is how much the local church cared for one another in contrast with a sin committed by a couple named Ananias and Sapphira. Today’s sermon will encourage generosity, but it will also warn us against the sin that Ananias and Sapphira committed, which might not be what you think it was.

Prayer for Illumination

The Generosity of the Local Church (4:32-37)

Our text starts by continuing the historical narrative.

Let me remind you of what all has happened thus far:

We’ve seen multiple Gospel sermons preached by the apostles.

We’ve seen the apostles being threatened by the Sanhedrin and the High Priests that they ought to stop preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last week we saw the apostles leave this faux trial with the Sanhedrin, go back to their friends, and then pray for greater boldness as they continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus despite the Sanhedrin’s command for them to stop proclaiming the Gospel.

What we see in vv. 32-37 is Luke mentioning this idea of commonality again.

This isn’t the first time that this idea was mentioned, we see it back in Acts 2:42-47 just after the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And just like the first mention of commonality, we do want to be sure that we understand that this is not speaking about commonality of personality—meaning, the idea isn’t that every person within the church was exactly the same personality-wise, they have different personalities, but they have common feelings and thoughts about certain issues.

In v. 32 we read that “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.” — heart referring to the seat of the emotions and soul, which in this case can also be translated as mind meaning their thinking; or in other words, Luke is saying that those who were believers in Acts 4, felt the same and thought the same.

They had the same mindset about certain issues in life and they all felt the same about these different issues.

In particular, it had to do with the physical needs of the people of God.

The second part of v. 32 says, “and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”

They were of one heart and soul about the physical needs of the people and in their case, they made the decision to share material possessions to meet the needs of the people.

This commonality amongst the people—the like-feelings and like-mindedness brought about two results—the apostles were able to give their testimony of the resurrection with great power and there was great grace upon all the people.

What we see is that this like-mindedness and this like feeling provided an atmosphere conducive to the proclamation of the truth and the care of the people.

Or in other words, because the people shared common beliefs and a common philosophy of what it meant to be the church, they were free to hear the truth preached and they experienced God’s grace.

In making this decision to share material possessions to meet the needs of the people, some of the people decided to sell excess land or houses for the good of the people. We see this in vv. 34-37.

Vv. 34-35 show us the extent of what it was like to live in the early church and see these people give up their earthly possessions to provide for each other. Vv. 34-35 say that “there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

Now, just as a side-note, there have been many that have misrepresented these verses and the coming verses concerning Ananias and Sapphira to propagate a Marxist or even communistic mentality, but let me point out that that isn’t the point of these verses.

We know this because this same pattern of the church selling their earthly possessions isn’t actually commanded anywhere in this text nor is it is something that we see regularly occurring throughout the rest of the New Testament.

What’s happening in Acts 4—the selling of material possessions to provide for everyone else is something that was particular to the first church. Again, it’s not commanded nor is it necessarily to be expected all the time, but we do see something in Acts 4 that is to be expected in every local church.

And that’s the ideas of genuine care and generosity amongst the people of God—or in other words, while we aren’t necessarily required to sell our possessions and give everything to the local church, we are still required to genuinely care for one another and be generous toward one another.

We see these ideas elsewhere in Scripture, like when Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 to command to his church that they “17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”

Or when we see John say in 1 John 3:17 “17 But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him?”

We see the ideas of being generous and genuine in Hebrews, in Luke, 2 Corinthians, and even into the Old Testament.

Proverbs 19:17 “17 One who is gracious to a poor person lends to the Lord, And He will repay him for his good deed.”

Proverbs 22:9 “9 One who is generous will be blessed, Because he gives some of his food to the poor.”

David writes of the righteous person never being forsaken and how the righteous “are always generous” and they “turn from evil and do good” in Psalm 37.

The point in vv. 32-37 is that the church made the realization that there was something more important than owning the nicest house or having as much as they wanted.

Patrick Schreiner, “A small percentage of the rich controlled the money in this day, but in this new community the rich provided for the poor . . . Though this was a generous community, it seems from the rest of the NT that people still owned houses and other property (cf. Lydia, Jason, Philip), and therefore this may be the equivalent to selling off ‘extra’ to provide for those in need.” (Patrick Schreiner, Acts, Christian Standard Commentary, (Holman Reference, 2021), 189)

In vv. 36-37 we see another example of a person willing to part with earthly possessions to help the local church, “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

This shows us the extent that people were willing to go to provide for the others within the church.

It also sets up the next eleven verses—the next section.

Let’s look at ch 5:1-11 again.

The Sin of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11)

Acts 5:1–11 ESV

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Luke continues in this historical account by speaking of two people who intentionally chose to sin. They essentially saw all these people around them selling their possessions and extra land to benefit the church and they made the realization that if they did the same, they would receive some amount of praise from the people within the church—whether warranted or not.

So, they sell a piece of property, they discussed the amount of money that they made from the property, and then only gave part of the proceeds to the church.

Now, there is some amount of conversation that isn’t recorded in Acts 5, we can tell this because Peter suddenly makes an accusation in v. 3 that makes it apparent that even though Ananias and Sapphira decided together to only give part of the proceeds to the church, they also decided to lie and claim that they gave the whole amount to the church.

You can see already that there’s a contrast between Ananias, Sapphira, and Joseph called Barnabas.

Barnabas sold his land and gave it all to the church without hesitation.

Ananias and Sapphira sold their land, hesitated, gave part of the proceeds to the church, and proceeded to lie about it.

At this point in the passage, only Ananias is being confronted by Peter.

So, Peter confronts Ananias in vv. 3-4, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.’”

Peter accuses Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit, which is in itself an interesting concept that we’ll get back to, and Peter makes the point, essentially, that there was no reason for Ananias to lie through this whole ordeal.

Before the land was sold, it was his land—he didn’t have to sell it, he could’ve kept it. The church didn’t require him to sell it, he chose to sell it.

After the land was sold, the funds that he received for the land were his to use because it was his land and now it is his money.

If Ananias wanted to keep the land—it was within his right to; if he wanted to keep the money from selling the land, it was within his right to.

The issue is that he decided to pretend like he gave all the proceeds to the church—again, not something he had to do, but something that he could do because it was within his rights to keep the proceeds or give the proceeds.

The problem is that by claiming to give all the proceeds to the church, he has lied to multiple people—he lied to Peter, he lied to the other apostles, and he lied to the people within the congregation as well.

Most importantly, when he claimed to give the proceeds to the church, those proceeds then became the church’s. Thus, by not giving all that he said he would give, he essentially stole from the church.

This idea is reflected in the Greek words of the text. The word that’s translated as “to keep back for yourself” is the Greek word νοσφιζω, which really means that he embezzled from the church by not giving all that he claimed to give.

Essentially, what we see is that Ananias sold his land, told the church and really pledged to God that he would give all that he made from the sell of the land to the church and ultimately to God; but instead, stole what he had pledged to give.

And when confronted, he chose to continue in his lies, thus, in vv. 5-6, we see the consequence of this sin, “When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.”

We then see Sapphira come about three hours later in v. 7 and Peter confronts her as well in v. 8, “Peter said to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for so much,’ And she said, ‘Yes, for so much.’ But Peter said to her, ‘How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.’”

Peter accuses her of sin just like he accused Ananias of sin, but the difference is that he points at this idea of them testing the Spirit of the Lord.

The idea of testing the Spirit of God is to essentially tempt God to act. The sin that Sapphira commits is to essentially see how far God would tolerate their sin.

And it’s clear that God won’t tolerate being tested by man.

We see this in v. 10 where she “Immediately . . . fell down at his feet and breathed her last.”

Now, there are two brief side-notes or somewhat rabbit trails that we need to go through.

First, remember in our previous section how I mentioned as a side-note that people have utilized these verses to propagate ideologies like Marxism?

Certain people, primarily in prosperity-gospel false teachings have misused these verses to make the claim that if you don’t give generously, you’ll suffer the same consequence as Ananias and Sapphira.

The issue with this (and I hope you can see this after our study through the text), that isn’t what the text says at all.

If we look at the passage carefully, what sin or sins did Ananias and Sapphira commit? Were their deaths the result of not being generous with their material possessions?

No, when Peter accuses Ananias what does he accuse Ananias of? V. 3, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?”

When Peter confronts Sapphira, what does he accuse he of? Is it for not being generous? No, look at v. 9, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?”

Ananias and Sapphira weren’t judged for not being generous to the church; why were they judged?—They were judged because they stole from the church and they tried to lie to the Holy Spirit about it. Ultimately, they were judged because they tested God.

Second, some think that this passage is troubling because it seems as if Ananias and Sapphira were judged rapidly without an opportunity to repent. So let me briefly explain two details:

First, these are people who knew what was right and wrong ahead of time and they were people who chose to sin anyways. This wasn’t a situation in which they didn’t know that what they were doing was wrong, this was a situation in which they knew it was wrong, but didn’t care.

Second, their opportunity to repent was given when Peter confronted them. Their sin didn’t start just when Peter confronted them—they had pledged the money and lied to God about it before Peter said anything. When Peter confronted them, they had an opportunity to repent, but they refused.

Now, back to the text, v. 11 then closes this section by sandwiching the confrontation of Sapphira by pointing at the fear of the Lord. “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”

I noted that the section was sandwiched by this statement of the fear of the Lord and that’s important.

It’s important because the repetition and the sandwiching of the text tells us that the point of this being recorded is the fear of the Lord.

While generosity in the church is important and while taking care of one another as a body of believers is important, the point here is that the people grew in their fear of God.

Of course, we know that the fear of the Lord isn’t just the concept of being afraid of Him, but rather reverentially being in awe of Him.

Thus the idea here is that through the events at hand—because of what happened with Ananias and Sapphira—the church and all who heard what had happened had a much greater reverential awe of God.

Taken in context, what we see is that God truly cares for His church—so much so, that when someone tries to lie to Him and test Him under the guise of giving to the church, He takes action so quickly that it results in everyone in the church understanding who He is and developing a greater awe of Him.

Or put differently, what we see when we look at the context is God protecting His people and cutting off those who refuse to obey His commands.

It is of note that this context, where we see the gathered believers of Jesus Christ living generously and caring for one another; where they’re openly and boldly proclaiming the Gospel and doing the work of ministry; where we see God do amazing work that causes the people to revere Him and fear Him—this is the first time in the book of Acts that this group of believers is called the church.

What we’ve seen in Acts 4:32-5:11 is a passage that directly shows us what the church of God is supposed to be like; and it’s in this truth that we find our application. In the remaining few minutes, let’s look at some specific application.

Application

The Generosity of the Local Church (4:32-37)—in the first section of our text this morning, we see a beautiful description of the first-century church. We see a group of believers who genuinely cared for one another, who were unified in mind and heart, and proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This gives us a picture of what we’re striving for as a local church of Jesus Christ today. So, let me show you how we apply this portion of the text in our church and what that means for you:

The concept of the local church being of one heart and one soul or mind is emphasized in our church’s mission statement as well as our core values. You can find these printed every week in our worship guides, on our website, and even on the screens before or after our services.

This is intentional because I want every person who regularly attends our church and even those who are just visiting for the first time to know that we are not a social club, we don’t exist to entertain people, we exist for a mission and a purpose because we are of one heart and one mind.

Our mission as a church is to make mature believers of Jesus Christ with the vision to see our church continuously grow in our faith, reach the lost, and serve God and man.

We do this through expositional preaching and teaching, prayer, partaking in the Lord’s Supper, baptism, and the other means of grace.

As a church, we value biblical literacy, a focus on discipleship, authentic worship, growth and obedient service.

Theologically, we’re Reformed Baptist, which means that we follow Reformed theology, but Baptist ecclesiology and polity. We’re Bible-centered, doctrinally conservative, and Gospel-focused.

We embrace the Protestant Reformation while holding to the Baptist understanding of believer’s baptism and local church autonomy.

We affirm the Five Solas—Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, by Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.

And we’re in agreement with the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

This is our mission, this is what we believe, these are our core values, and a run-down of our philosophy of ministry.

This is what unifies us, the doctrine, the Gospel, and the desire to make disciples and help believers mature in the faith.

And we invite all who are like-minded and like-hearted to join us as covenant members.

When we’re united by faith, by true doctrine, and like-mindedness, it frees us to genuinely care for one another.

When the doctrine and theology of the local church is sound and the philosophy of ministry, mission, vision, and core values of a church are agreed upon by all in the church, the believers in the local church can then focus on mutually building one another up.

To encouraging love and good works, to helping one another, and even providing for one another when necessary.

It may not result in you selling all your material possessions and giving the proceeds to others, but it does involve the mindset of generosity and genuine care.

Or in other words, when we’re united by faith, by true doctrine, and like-mindedness, we stop focusing on our individual selves and start focusing on the church as a body.

What this looks like is this, when it comes to essential doctrines, we’re unified. When it comes to issues of opinion and issues where Scripture might be unclear, we grant grace.

This also looks like a church that is focused on genuinely loving each other because of God’s love for us.

Now, you may hear all this and you might think, ok that’s great—that’s why I joined the church or this is why I’m thinking of joining the church, but how exactly do I apply this in my own life?

It’s simple, help us become and remain a church that consistently stays on mission and stays like-minded in our philosophy of ministry.

Know what the point of our church is, know what our core values are, make sure you know what our church believes and what we’re trying to do.

And then keep each other accountable as disciple-making disciples. Keep each other on mission, stress our core values. Keep me accountable to stay theologically sound, on mission, with the vision that we’ve set forth.

We exist to make mature believers of Jesus Christ in Central Pennsylvania, help us accomplish this goal. That’s how you apply this.

Help us make mature believers knowing the truth, proclaiming the Gospel, caring for one another, and being unified in truth and doctrine.

Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11)—in the last section, we see Ananias and Sapphira sin, get confronted for their sin, and be judged by God for their sin. Though it might seem a bit shocking, it is a reminder of how God sees sin and it teaches us how we should view both God and sin as a church, which means this:

As we seek to learn truth and learn what we believe as a church, part of doing so requires us to develop a proper understanding of truth. In particular, this passage’s focus is on understanding how the church ought to view God and how the church should view sin.

As a church, we ought to have a healthy fear of the Lord—we should reverentially awe Him.

Now, I’m not saying anything that anyone in a church would automatically nod their head and agree, but let me encourage you to consider whether you actually live this way.

As a believer, do you have a healthy fear of the Lord? And do you live like you do?

What this looks like is a willingness to obey His commands, a desire to seek after Him, an understanding that He is God and you are not.

This means that everything that we do as a church ought to be done in light of who God is.

This is why we sing the songs we do, this is why we read Scripture together, pray together, and do the things that we do as a church.

The goal is for us to continue to grow in our knowledge of God through Jesus, to continue developing that healthy fear of the Lord.

This also means that as a church, we ought to view sin the same way that God views sin—we ought not have any tolerance for unrepentant sin.

We ought to graciously and lovingly confront the sins of our brothers and sisters in Christ with the intent of their repentance.

We ought to do this in light of Matthew 18, 2 Corinthians 2, Galatians 6, Ephesians 5, and a few other passages.

This means that when a brother or sister is in sin:

Those who are spiritual ought to restore that brother or sister in the spirit of gentleness.

If the sin was against a person, that person ought to be the first to confront the other person, if that doesn’t work, then the spiritual one ought to go with another person, and if it still doesn’t work, an elder ought to get involved before finally bringing it to the church.

This is what happens in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 when a man is caught in significant sexual sin, refuses to repent, and is removed from the church.

Church discipline is important because the purity of the local church is important—we see this in Acts 5:1-11.

And If we want to be the church described in Acts 4:32-37—the biblical church, the first-century church, we cannot tolerate the impurity of sin that destroys the sanctity of the local church.

Don’t tolerate sin in yourself or within the local church—as John Owens said, “be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Keep each other accountable; keep me accountable, learn to fear the Lord rightly so that we keep the same mind about sin and the right mind about who God is.

Put simply, what we learn in Acts 4:32-5:11 is that our local church (1) needs to be of one heart and mind (with the same mission, philosophy of ministry, and the same goals), (2) needs to be community-minded and focused on genuinely loving one another in unity, and (3) this involves properly understanding God and sin—and not tolerating sin for a false sense of unity. And I’m asking for your help as we seek to be a church like this—keep this one heart and mind, continue being community-minded, love one another, and develop your understanding of God and sin.

Or in other words, we share the same goals, same ideology, and same understandings of truth; so that when we come together, we can focus on simply loving Jesus and loving one another. This is what the church is supposed to be.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

All I Have is Christ