The best and worst of the Church
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The Best and Worst of the Church
The Best and Worst of the Church
acts4.32
acts4.32-
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.
To see a large number of people all on the same page is something that gets attention real quick. Can you think of a large group of people that you have seen who are all on the same page to the point where someone would say, “they are of one heart and soul”????
And just for the record we are talking about the early church here, and they could have over 5,000 people at this point. They were not all in one gathering, and met in homes through out their city daily. And yet it says that the FULL number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
The message this morning is one of contrasts. The best and worst of the church. We need to remember where we are in the story of the NT though. Jesus has lived a perfect life and died an innocent death. His disciples were all in hiding when he appeared to them. IN the beginning of the books of Acts Jesus tells them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit before going anywhere and telling anyone about him.
In they receive the Holy Spirit and Peter stands up to preach the gospel to a large crowd. People from all over the known world were in Jerusalem to worship the Lord, and they all miraculously heard the gospel in their own language as the disciples that were waiting for the Holy Spirit were now speaking in what is called tongues, meaning other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak. This spectacle is the reason why Peter has such a large crowd to preach the gospel to. It says that 3,000 got saved that day.
acts 1
In we are told that Peter and John are going into the temple to pray when they come across a lame beggar. They are used by God to heal this man and again there is a large crowd of people wanting to know what is going on, so Peter preaches to the again. This continues on into where the religious leaders of that time are now coming to arrest Peter and john for this disturbance. They are told to not speak about this Jesus anymore, and Peter tells them he would rather listen to God than man. Ultimately they are released and go back to tell the other believers what happened. At this point they are praying and asking God for boldness to continue to preach the gospel, and all of the sudden the place they are praying was shaken and they were again filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak with boldness. All of this leads us up to this passage we have here today.
Let’s look at this in light of the context...
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.
This is the best of the church… This is what it looks like to be a true biblical community of believers.
Notice that the Full number of them were in one heart and soul. Something so powerful had happened to them that it overruled any of there regular differences. This is a big thing! There is visible fellowship with other believers.
“One of the ways our faith in Jesus is displayed to the outside world is through the visible fellowship of believers with one another.” Al Mohler
Al Mohler
This is when the church is at its best - when it is united. that is what we see here… the full number of those who believed were in one heart and soul...
The church is at its best when we are united
The church is at its best when we are united
According to this text they were truly united. This is an ideal way of being united, to the point where no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own. This is how a congregation should approach its mission and relate to its members. By displaying unity to the point of being willing to share anything you have because it really belongs to all you are with.
Unity is more than agreeing on a statement. It is more than just sharing whatever is in your hand. Unity is a matter of the heart and soul. When we say heart and soul we mean this… The heart is representative of your passions and affections. Your soul is seen in your mind, will and emotions.
When we say someone gave their heart and soul to something, what do we mean by that? This is more than their best efforts, it is deeply connected to there inmost being. Unity is not something that is flippant… True unity is rare and it cannot be faked!
Today many churches will try to obtain unity with people by ignoring doctrine, and by watering down the gospel message to make it more palatable to people it may offend. But we cannot dilute the message of Jesus and his exclusivity, the reality of Hell, or the fact that we are sinful. The unity we must pursue is founded on sound doctrine.
That is why God showed so many miracles at the onset of this new truth being preached. People needed to know that God validated what was being said. And so we see that Luke testifies to us why this unity existed.
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.
So yes, there was great power being demonstrated, but that isn’t the key, as much as some would like to make that way. Why was there great power and great grace?
Because they were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This is the central theme to the gospel! This was at the core of their message, and it was their great mission to spread news about the resurrection of Jesus.
R.C. Sproul said it this way - “The crowning proof of the salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ was His resurrection from the dead.”
The crowning proof of the salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ was His resurrection from the dead.
These guys were eyewitnesses to this and that is what they were telling people about. These men walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus, and they now were telling everyone how they had witnessed his resurrection. They did this with great power, with fierce passion and unwavering hope. And because they were preaching truth about the resurrection of Jesus, Great grace was on them all!
The church is at its best when sound doctrine is preached
The church is at its best when sound doctrine is preached
Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2015). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (p. 1920). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust.
There is nothing more central to Christianity than preaching about the resurrection of Jesus. This is the basic of sound doctrine. And this strong preaching of Jesus bring great grace on them all.
What did that mean? Great grace was upon them all? Well, remember I said that a few chapters ago the religious leaders of that day asked them to no longer speak about this Jesus and teach in his name. It would seem that all of the believers were giving testimony about this Jesus, that the great grace was for them to stand up in the face of oppression and testify about Jesus.
It would seem that the believers had love for each other because they first had love for Jesus. They knew that there material goods would fade away but the joy of the resurrection will indeed last forever. This is why it is easy for them to give up what they do not need so that other can have what they do need. and so we continue to see the best of the church in the next two verses.
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.
2 things to notice here.
First, the giving that happened spontaneously because of the needs around them. It doesn’t appear that they had a special service to highlight the need of a people group, or that they needed a marketing campaign to help raise funds for their next outreach.
Nope, they just said to themselves, “I don’t need this extra house, or field”, so they sold it.
The church is at its best when it meet the meeds of those who belong to it
The church is at its best when it meet the meeds of those who belong to it
There may not be a more un-american version of the church than this one right here. We literally live in a land of riches and opulence. We have TV shows about people who have so much stuff that they cant get rid of anything, we call them hoarders. We live in a society that is guilt driven and likes to give only when something hits them in a unique way or tugs at certain heart strings. Yet this isn’t what we see here about the early church. It says there was not even a needy person among them...
And while this may seem crazy to our culture, it had special meaning to them. Remember these were Jews who were trying to live a certain lifestyle in worship to God. Before Jesus they were still trying to obtain covenantal promises from God by obeying the law. And what we have just read about there being no needy people among them is actually what their goal was.
4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—
This promise made the to Children of Israel was to be seen in sabbatical years when debts were forgiven. It was a product of following the law given to them and was a goal of their society. And yet they could not see this happen unless it came to the time when they had to forgive debts and extend mercy beyond what was normal.
Yet here in the books of Acts we see that the church experienced this, and it wasn’t because they were law keepers but because they believed the gospel to the point of living a life that demonstrated love and beauty in such an extravagant way that hey freely gave things away.
So, their giving was spontaneous acts of generosity in response to the need they saw amongst themselves as a newly formed people.
But also notice what they did with this money from the land they sold...
35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
The second thing I want you to notice here is this… They trusted those taught them.
Not only did they give freely but they also simply laid it at the Apostles feet and let them deal with the distribution. They trusted their leaders.
John MacArthur said it this way about this passage… “It illustrates an important pattern concerning giving in the local church. The donations are to be placed in the control of the spiritual teachers, who then are responsible before God fro their use.”
The church is at its best when it trusts its spiritual leaders
The church is at its best when it trusts its spiritual leaders
There was no suspicion of pastors, there is no hint of people putting disclaimers on how they want the money to be spent, they simply trust their leaders to help meet the needs of the people around them in the community.
I am not talking about when you mark Missions on your giving, or about any large gifts that come in with special requests to how it is spent. We praise God for that kind of generosity. I am talking about when people want to tell you what you must do before they give.
I once had a man tell me he would donate a significant amount of money to a church I pastored if we would name our Gymnasium after him...
This is not the kind of giving we are supposed to be partaking in. For the Christian we are not to attract attention to our giving. Jesus taught them this...
matt
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
As a rule, most giving doesn’t ever have to be in front of people. this would certainly make things easier for the text we are in today. None the less, they were laying gifts at the apostles feet. This did happen in front of others, and this is where things get interesting.
People are getting noticed, and up till now there is no problem, because needy people are being helped and everyone is partaking in that as they can. no special treatment to anyone for giving, just meeting needs of those who need help. This is beautiful. Every gift was a special story of care for the community of believers. So much so that one was pointed out to us...
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.
What makes this note worthy is two things. First, Joseph is later called Barnabas. This is important because he becomes someone we will get acquainted with more in the rest of the book of Acts. This Barnabas is the same one who in chpt 9 prays for Saul, in chpt 11 he encourages the Church in Antioch, in chpt 13 he leads a missionary work, and he even continues missionary work in chpt 15 after having a falling out with Paul.
Barnabas is not some rich guy who sold a field. That bring s me to the second thing about him… He was a levite, and Levites did not have any inherited land. Because levites were the priests they would receive some of what others had given them but the were not supposed to own land.
Barnabas was included in this story because it was so uncommon for a levite to be able to sell land. One would think that if a Levite was able to finally own land of his own, he wouldn’t sell it and give it away, but that is exactly what Barnabas does. This is an extraordinary gift from an unexpected person, and it was a beautiful picture of what it means to give to the community of believers.
The church is at its best when there is true Biblical Community visible
The church is at its best when there is true Biblical Community visible
Everything we see here is a visible display of true biblical community. Love shared, money given, needs being met, leaders trusted, Sound doctrine being preached, and great grace on all who believed. Even those who no one thoughts could participate did. It was an encouragement to the church, and changed how this one man was to be known from this point forward.
What a beautiful display of love they were experiencing.
I wish I could walk away and end this message here, but I cannot. Yes even in Christs’ church there is still sin to be eradicated, and everything it touches will be effected. the story takes a turn.
acts5.1-
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.
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.
In contrast to the beauty of biblical community we now have a picture of the brokenness that sin exposes us too.
We are introduced to a couple in the church, and we are not given any permission to think of them as anything other than believers. 3 reason why we believe this couple was true believers even though they sinned and died for it.
1 - they are included in the “full number of those who believed” as this story is an extension of
2 - they were involved with the Holy Spirit, so obviously they had some sort of relationship with him. Unregenerate people don’t lie to the Holy Spirit, they have no relation to him.
3 - As John MacArthur points out - “If they were not Christians, what lesson about sin did this give to teach all the rest who were true believers?”
The appropriate view of this couple is the Sinning Saint. And that is the worst of the church.
The worst of the church are the sinning saints within it
The worst of the church are the sinning saints within it
This story stands to warn believers of the reality of sin and their enemy Satan.
This story should not be seen in light of there sin as personal though. the reality of sin is even private sinful things can become public affairs, especially if they threaten the unity of the church that Jesus died to redeem!
And it would be easy to read this almost devotionally and apply it to our own hearts for every little sinful thing we have done, that would miss the point we are intended to see here. There was great grace on them because of the unity they had and how the gospel was being preached. They were a visible display of the love of God for a people who do not deserve his love.
What this couple was doing was so dangerous, and yes they lied to the Holy Spirit, who is God, but even more so they were jeopardizing the unity of the congregation and the visible display of love.
It is clear that this couple did this because they wanted to be noticed like Barnabas was. They wanted to be seen as somebody special, but it didn’t end there for them. This was double profit for them they thought… They could gain spiritual prestige and still make some money on the side. This was a false sense of humility in giving and a desire to be seen by others rather than to care about God who see all things. It it obvious when we read it, look at it...
acts5.1
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.
The clue is in the language here. He did this in private with his wife’s knowledge, and went public in pretending he was like everyone else who had done this. If he wanted to keep part of the proceeds, he could have told Peter that when he brought the gift in, but it only says he laid it at the apostles feet. The same language of what has been happening before this story. This is meant to convey the idea that he was pretending to act spiritual in front of others.
Publicly acting like you are one thing by pretending to give all your proceeds away. It was all a sham and meant for public displays so others would think much of them.
The worst of the church is when believers act like something they are not
The worst of the church is when believers act like something they are not
There is no need for you or I to act like something we are not. I would praise God for those who can give large amounts when I cannot. But for me to pretend to be super spiritual like someone else and publicly do something to get attention not only angers God, but is sinning against all of my brothers and sisters, because it is sin against Christ.
Jesus and his church are one, and when we sin against the church we sin against him.
12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
When we act like something we are not, when we sin against the church by publicly acting like something we are not in order to be seen as spiritual, we are sinning against Christ.
And what we find out about this kind of sin, is just how unnecessary it is.
Why couldn’t they be happy to see their land and give part of it and tell them that they did that? Why did they have to let others think they were doing something more than they were? The answer is in Peter’s response to them.
acts5.3-
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.”
They could’ve kept as much as they wanted of that money. In fact they didn’t have to sell anything at all.
It is clear that Satan had tempted them and they went along with it. And it wouldn’t have been a sin to withhold part of the proceeds, but it is a sin to lie to the Holy Spirit about it.
Satan wanted them to lie to God about what they had done? Why?
Notice what Peter says in vs 4 - “Why is it that you have contrived this deed in YOUR HEART?”
Satan may have tempted him but the responsibility of sin was with Ananias. Satan Tempts us to sin, but that does not negate the responsibility we have when we sin.
This is the worst of the church… Sin, and more specifically when we fail to take responsibility for it.
The worst of the church is when we fail to take responsibility for our sin
The worst of the church is when we fail to take responsibility for our sin
The crazy part about this, is how counter-intutive it is to Christianity. Here is what I mean.
You cannot become a Christ follower with first seeing your sin and repenting of it before God. Only Sinners need a Savior, and ever saint in the church is a saved sinner. When we fail to remember that, we do not take responsibility for our sin, and that goes against how we were ever able to come into this family… By acknowledging our sin and repenting of it.
But one more thing I need you to see here.
The Holy Spirit is not a force, or a feeling, or a presence in a room when music gets really good… The Holy Spirit is a person! You can’t lie to a feeling or a force. And what is more wonderful about this is that the Holy Spirit is God! That is what Peter is teaching us through this. You are not lying to man but to God, yet he said you lied to the Holy Spirit.
Acts5.
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.
See, we can read this and get very nervous about the implications for us, but that is only part of what we are to get out of this text. The Bible is about God, it is a revelation of God to us. So we must ask ourselves the question, what does this teach me about God?
Are we meant to see God as angry and hateful? NO… Why, Because when Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost he was extending forgiveness to those who actually crucified Jesus. Would a God who is angry forgive those who killed his Son? Nope.
We are meant to see God as perfectly HOLY! You see this story reminds us that God is infinitely Holy and he must be worshipped as the holy God he is! This is something that lacks in our modern preaching of the Gospel… The Holiness of God!
“One of the biggest problems with modern Christianity is that we have lost our sense of God’s limitless perfection and moral purity.”
Al Mohler
We must reclaim the holiness of God in our preaching and even more in our daily living! I like what R/C Sproul said about this in his book “The Holiness of God”
“When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of his holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and hopelessness. Helpless sinners can only survive by Grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God’s wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects of God’s nature, we will never appreciate what had been wrought for us by grace.”
(R.C. Sproul - Holiness of God - pg.183)
The worst of the church is when we fail to remember God’s holiness
The worst of the church is when we fail to remember God’s holiness
I wonder what would happen if we would once again take personal holiness serious in our lives. I wonder what would happen if we constantly reminded ourselves of God’s perfect holy nature every time we came together to worship him.
Would it cause us to shrink back or would it cause our emotions to rise?
If we are only hearing this in regards to our sinfulness, it would certainly cause us to shrink back, and rightly so. Yet the gospel is a message that declares this holy God has done something to brings us who are far from him because of sin close to him by the blood of Jesus!
Church we need to remember the holiness of God and how much he loved us to make us holy as he is holy. Jesus’ death and resurrection was not ab out God bragging how strong he is… It is what was necessary to buy us back from our slavery to sin. Only a holy God could love so fiercely his own.
When we remember our sin, we shrink back and then we hear the gospel and we are reminded that this God will forgive us our sins if we confess them to him. And this process makes us more holy!
The same God who punished Ananias and Sapphira is the same radically merciful God who offers grace even to those who arranged the crucifixion of his Son. Why should we cower in fear because of our sin, when he wants us to confess those things and repent, turn from them and turn to him!
So this text applied to our hearts means a couple things.
1 - Christians must be people of truth.
Jesus told us that Satan is the father of lies. He came to deliver us from the works of the devil and change us. When we speak falsehoods, and half truths, we do not reflect the glory of God.
2 - Christians must never value money or personal reputation above our holiness.
If compromising who you are in Christ means being seen as something you are not to others, is it really worth it for you? What is the price that can be put on your salvation? if someone can buy it then you probably do not posses it.
3 - The Church needs to remember and preach the holiness of God.
The true marvel at this passage is not that God killed Ananias and Sapphira, but that he has not executed on all of us. Instead his Son came to die so that there might be a church community that enjoys God favor and salvation, which means connection to a Holy God forever!
And there is one final application we can get from this text today… The only way to respond to a Holy God is how the early church did...
11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Church we must fear God in awesome reverence.
God could kill us all for everything that we have done, and yet the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord has saved us from his wrath. God is our loving father who pursues the good of his children, but we should never forget his holiness. This was recorded in scripture for us to remember and behold even his wrath. Do you fear God?
Question 1 - What does true Unity look like within our church?
Question 1 - What does true Unity look like within our church?
We can see how the early church experienced it, but can we also partake in such a divine unity?What were some of the elements of the biblical community of believers in ? Can we display the same things here and now? Why or why not?
Question 2 - Why is personal holiness important?
Question 2 - Why is personal holiness important?
Is there is price you can be bought for? Are you willing to pretend you are someone that you really are not, in order to get a better reputation from those around you? What are your limits? Where should they be? What are your big struggles, can you be honest about that?
Question 3 - How can we help remind each other of the Holiness of God?
Question 3 - How can we help remind each other of the Holiness of God?
We do not often like to talk about God’s Justice or wrath, but we need to more. What are some natural ways we can be more mindful of this? What is the churches role in this? what is your role in this? If we take it seriously, will we remind each other about it?