Practicing Purity

Good morning Church!!! I am excited to get into the Word of God today!!! Who is excited to hear a Word from God today?

Context

Last week, we ended with a bang. Peter and John were released from prison, tried by the religious leaders, and then sent away with a stern warning not to teach in the name of Jesus anymore.

Are you not glad that they did not listen to them? We are here today because they did NOT listen to them. We are here today because they were bold enough to go against the worldly ways of their time and continue to magnify Jesus no matter the cost!!!

We were able to see what the result of their faithfulness brought them! The church glorified God in prayer and were filled with the Holy Spirit to proclaim His Word.

It is wonderful to see what can happen when men and women of faith follow God, but it is equally important to see what can happen when men and women of faith do not follow God.

In the text today, we are going to see the first sin of the Church and the consequences of it. We are speaking on the topic this morning of “Practicing Purity”!!!

Acts 4:32–5:11 NKJV

32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. 34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. 36 And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, 37 having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part 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 keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. 6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. 7 Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?” She said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. 11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

Content

The Beauty of God’s Blessings (Acts 4:32-37)

Let’s take a look at some of the blessings that God placed on these people for their faithfulness:

Unity (vs. 32)

The Holy Spirit of God was able to do in the NT church what seemed to be utterly impossible in the OT nation of Israel. We see so many times in the OT scripture where the people were anything but united together in God. They were selfish and prideful. Many times they were punished simply for not believing in the power and sovereignty of God.

Hebrews 3:19 NKJV

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

On the contrary, we see in the this text that the Holy Spirit of God has brought the Church into unity. They “were of one heart and one soul;” They were able to let go of so many worldly things and then replace the empty holes those worldly things left with Godly things.

They replaced the unbelief with steadfast belief; pride and selfishness with selflessness; bickering with unity; and murmurings with praise.

The difference from then to now is the movement of the Holy Spirit within. In the OT, the people followed a man, as he followed God. If the man performed well, the people were with him, but if he performed badly, the people were still with him. Even in some cases, when the leader God had chosen performed faithfully, the people wouldn’t follow him them.

It was a struggle to have a personal relationship with God then, but here in the NT, every person had the same Holy Spirit of God filling them from the inside out. There is only God and one Spirit. If they were all in unity with the Spirit, then they would naturally be in unity with one another.

The main thing to remember, is that our desire to be in unity must be focused upon God. If we are constantly trying to please other people, then we will be unhappy with ourselves. If we are constantly trying to please other people, someone will always get left out. But if we are constantly trying to please God, then the God in me will not fight the God in you. We will be able to be unified from the only perspective that matters. As we are unified with God’s will, we will also naturally be unified with one another.

Powerful Preaching (vs. 33)

The power of their preaching came from the Holy Spirit of God. The power came from God and then focused upon God. The content of their message was Jesus, but notice what aspect of Jesus was focused on: The Resurrection. We do a good job at preaching what we are saved from, but we do not always do such a good job at preaching what we were saved for. We were saved from sin, but we were saved for the glory of God. How do we glorify God? We glorify Him as we live in obedience to His Word and then share that Word with others.

God’s Grace (vs. 33)

Without the grace of God upon our lives, we are destined to fail. These disciples of Jesus lived in a dangerous time. They lived in a time where they were persecuted for their faithfulness. God’s grace was upon them to do what naturally could not have been done without it.

Selflessness (vs. 32; 34-37)

They gave out of their abundance. They sold their “extra” and gave it to the Church, so that others could be blessed by it. Notice the plural tense of vs. 34: “lands or houses”. Those who owned multiple houses and multiple pieces of property sold what they did not need and gave that money so that it could bless others.

vs. 32 says that they did not consider what they possessed their own. They considered it to be a gift from God. Because of this thought process, they sold it and gave that money to God’s people.

All of this was done in faithfulness. They sold their excess, but kept what they needed for their families (vs. 34); they gave liberally to those in need (vs. 35); They trusted the apostles to distribute accordingly (vs. 35)

Only the needs were met of those who received help (vs. 35)

This is absolutely beautiful. Can you imagine a time such as this? Everyone who could work did. The Church took care of those who couldn’t. There were no arguments from either side. How amazing to see God move in such a mighty way.

The Depth of the Devil’s Deception (Acts 5:1-10)

As with all things, the devil likes to tamper with what God is doing. I want to stop here and say that the devil does not have creative power. God created the world and everything in it, and when He created the world and everything in it, He said that it was good.

What the devil likes to do, is take what God has created and meant for good, and then distort it and make it evil. The devil will do this with absolutely everything. We see many examples of this right from the Word of God:

1 Corinthians - Spiritual Gifts

Sexual Immorality - The Whole Bible

Acts 5 - Money and Greed

Ananias and Sapphira were part of the Church. They sold their excess property, like Barnabas and many others had done, and then brought the money to the apostles.

The difference was two-fold: they kept part of their money and then lied about it.

Now, we need to cover a few things with this:

It was their land to do with as they wished. (vs. 4)

They lied about the price to the apostles (vs. 3, 8)

They lied to God (vs. 3-4)

This is a classic example of impurity. It is when we decide that we want part of God’s glory. They could have told the truth about the price and I am sure the Church would have gladly recieved their monetary donation. Instead, they wanted to be recognized as others were, for selling off possessions and giving it to the church, but they still wanted their money too. They sold the land, told the Church that the full price was being donated, and then kept part of the money for themselves. They wanted to be glorified by others, instead of seeing others glorifying God. This is the devil 100%. This is exactly why Satan was kicked out of heaven. He wanted God’s glory, overthrow the throne of God, and take control. Instead of giving God the glory, He wanted to get the glory on God’s behalf. They performed a spiritual act and then lied to get the glory that God deserved.

We must make sure that we do not allow the devil to take what God is doing for good and then twist it into something bad. The intent of our hearts will tell the story. God was doing something amazing within the Church at this time, and there was no room for error. The truth would have come out about the money at some point, it always does. Your sin will always find you out. The Church did not need this reproach. It would have torn apart their unity. It would have clogged the flow of the Holy Spirit’s movement. It would have caused so much damage to the Church.

For this reason, God showed the people that this type of impurity would not be tolerated.

The result was that great fear come upon all the church, as well as those who just heard about it.

Commitment

To God be the Glory!

We must constantly have our hearts guarded so that we do not make the same mistake these people made. We must be sure that when we are representing God, we must have the purest of motives. We should not be doing something that looks Godly externally, just that we can receive the glory that He deserves.

The term Christian means “Christ Follower”. As we represent Him in our lives, we must be sure that we are doing our duties with the proper intent. We should not long for others to glorify us, but that they might glorify Him.

We must use the grace of God upon our lives as a tool to bring glory to His name. We must use the spiritual gifts that God has so graciously given us for the glory of His name. We must use our Bibles to bring glory to His name.

Are you bringing glory to the name of God? If not, what is the next step that you need to take for this to happen?