Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Acts 4:32-5:11
Pastor Dennis Tuuri

God’s word that demonstrates the truth of what we’ve just sung in the history of the church recorded for us in the book of Acts. The sermon text is Acts 4:32 through 5:11. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Acts 4:32 through the 5th chapter and 11th verse.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought the things which he possessed was his own. But they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

Neither was there any among them that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite and of the country of Cyprus, having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”

And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all of them that heard these things.

And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, “Tell us whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yay, for so much.”

Then Peter said unto her, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.” Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost.

And the young men came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illumine it to our understanding.

—

After a long hiatus, we return to the book of Acts. I thought it’d be good before we get started in this particular chapter at the end of chapter 4 going into chapter 5, we’d review a little bit of where we’ve been in the book of Acts to sort of set up what we’re talking about today.

You remember we started off in chapter one of the book of Acts with of course the ascension of the Savior. You remember he had spent 40 days teaching the disciples about the kingdom at the end of that time. The question recorded for us in the opening chapter of the book of Acts is when will the kingdom be restored to Israel? And Jesus said it’s not for you to know the times or seasons. And then he goes on to say but you shall receive power from on high. Wait until you receive power from on high. You’ll be my witnesses then to Jerusalem then out into the uttermost parts of the earth.

I think that question he answered was directly related the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. The church is the true Israel, those who would rule for God. And what we see in the book of Acts, I believe, is the unfolding of the kingdom of God, the kingdom being restored to Israel.

Now, that is a not an interpretation that is shared by many in our day and age, but I believe that’s what the scriptures teach us. In any event, we certainly see in the opening chapters of the book of Acts, tremendous images of the salvation of the world. In chapter 2 before the descent of the Holy Spirit we read of the replacement of Judas by Matthias as an apostle.

Remember we talked there about how this gives us the flow of biblical history. Those who would not exercise office or position for God are removed and judged and supplanted by those who would. The first Adam is supplanted by the second Adam and so on. Throughout the scriptures we see that the first firstborn frequently falling away—and Abel for instance—and the second one is the righteous one. And so we see a flow of biblical history painted out for us as the apostles’ number is completed with the calling of Matthias and the flow of biblical history being the supplanting of those who would not rule, who would not be Israel in the sense of not ruling for God but rather would be ruling for their own purposes.

So we then saw the preparation by the completing of the number of the apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. And I believe that what we see in the day of Pentecost is a symbolic or typological salvation of the entire world. Remember, people are gathered from all corners of the world. We don’t know if that was literally true. The scriptures want us to think in terms of all the world being gathered together at Jerusalem where the church is birthed by God.

The reorganization of the church that is in the new covenant, this side of our Savior’s resurrection and ascension. And then the Spirit comes in mighty power upon the disciples. They begin to speak in other languages which are understood by those people that are gathered together. And so what we see in the opening chapter is a picture of what Acts is all about. The acts are the acts of Jesus Christ through his church through the apostles conquering the world unto himself.

And we see that symbolized in the conquering of Jerusalem and all the world being gathered there together, the same way as in the book of Joshua, we see in the conquering of Jericho, a symbolic conquering of the entire land. And so we see right in the very opening chapters, victory to the people of God.

Now we see also on the day of Pentecost the first sermons being preached and these sermons are quite important to us. These sermons teach us that God’s word is a relevant word. In that sermon the idolatry of the day is rebuked. The church is called to repent. The church that existed at that time that had rejected Messiah is called to repent. And this sermon given is a word also that will be taken out into the neighborhoods of the world. They’re to go not just in Jerusalem but to Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

So right there in the opening chapter of the book of Acts, we have all these things brought up together as there are men from Jerusalem, men from Judea, and men from the uttermost parts of the earth. And that sure and relevant word calling people to repent based upon the fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached forth and men from all over the world are saved.

Following this, of course, we have then a description at the end of chapter 2, a description of the community of God. And we’ve talked about this four-fold ministry in terms of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth being one model for how we look at the preaching of the gospel in our day. This is who we are called also to extend the good news of the ascension of the Savior King to. We also see a four-fold pattern laid out for us in the description of the community of God at the end of chapter 2. That’s also very instructive for us.

We learn that the community is characterized by four elements. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ instruction first of all. And so the church of God is to devote itself to an intellectual understanding given by the Holy Spirit of God’s word. We’re to devote ourselves to instruction. Our minds are important to God and very important in terms of the understanding and application of the gospel.

But secondly, they devoted themselves to the fellowship of the saints. And so the idea of community, body life, the unity of the church in terms of our relationships with one another is another second aspect that the church is called to focus upon at the end of Acts chapter 2. This community of God is characterized as a learning community. It is also characterized as a fellowshipping community.

And third, it’s characterized as a worshiping community. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ instruction to fellowship and to the breaking of bread. The breaking of bread there is a reference to the partaking of communion or Eucharist. Eucharist means thanksgiving. Thanksgiving to God for what’s symbolized in the elements of holy communion. And that points to the liturgical structure of the early church.

It is a learning intellectual community that understands the word of God. It’s a fellowship community, but it is also a worshiping community. And then finally, all these things are done with the dependence upon prayer, an understanding of the dependence upon God for prayer. Prayer also speaks to liturgy. And so you could say that the liturgical elements in those four-fold patterns really are very strongly phrased.

It is the liturgy of the church and the Lord’s day worship of the church that instructs us in the word primarily. It causes our fellowship to come together and gives us the model for instruction in God’s word and fellowship together that works its way out into the rest of the week.

And so right away we see the conquering of the world, but we also see the importance of the establishment of the church with this four-fold ministry. And these things are ways in which we can evaluate our own church and give us goals relative to these four-fold aspects of the community of God.

Finally, that community is a community that rejoices. The end of that in the end of chapter 2, it’s talked about as a rejoicing community. And if those four things are operative in the community of God, we do see rejoicing.

Remember, we also talked that in a very real sense we need to once more see the unity of the church and this is a primary theme of what we’ll talk about today from Acts 4 and 5 as well. But the unity of the church in these aspects is very important. Remember we said that there are some churches and some traditions of churches that are primarily characterized by an understanding of the instruction of the word. By community is primarily characterized by tremendous intellectual endeavors. One of the first things that drew me to Reformation theology was the depth of understanding of God’s word.

And there are other churches that have stressed the idea of community. The Congregationalist churches have stressed more the community of the church. Certainly the Baptist churches or dispensationalist churches in our day and age have stressed a lot the idea of body life. And then there are other churches that have stressed liturgy. The Episcopalian tradition primarily or Lutheran tradition as well. They’ve stressed the liturgy of the church and the importance of that.

And what the scriptures tell us is that these things must come together for the church to be truly victorious and united, and effectual then in the proclaiming of the gospel in power. And so we see in the very opening chapters of the book of Acts, we see an indictment of the modern church in America and across the world today. But we also see the glimmer of what God wants us to move toward in the future. And we see that’s a responsibility of this church.

It’s a responsibility of this church to work in concert with other churches to bring about this aspect of the equal ultimacy, so to speak, a reliance upon intellectual attainment of the word of God, the apostles’ instruction, liturgy, the breaking of bread, community, the fellowship of the saints, all in its humble submission to God, prayer. And one might say that each of these traditions doesn’t necessarily have to do this, but frequently each of these traditions becomes prideful of their particular part of the pie, so to speak.

People talk about how those Episcopalians, they just do that liturgy thing, but we’ve really got the understanding of the word of God in these Presbyterian circles, etc. It doesn’t have to be that, but frequently it does. Remember, that’s one of the primary characteristics of men who are called by God is to walk humbly before God, to love mercy, to do justice as the book of Micah tells us, but also to walk humbly before God. To the extent that the churches of today—Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopalian—humble themselves before God they’ll see their need for the elements that the other groups have stressed. And churches will then start to reform and eventually become organized and Catholic institutionally as well.

—

So we saw this salvation of the world, the establishment of the community of God and then Acts chapter 3, we saw the restoration of all things being pictured in the healing of the lame man at the door of the temple preparatory for worship. The man is healed. Remember we said that people have to understand that to be restored by God to be transformed so to speak and restored to ability to worship him correctly to exercise vocational calling, one must recognize their need.

And then after this there’s some persecution that occurs. And the second sermon is preached. And the second sermon talks about the restoration of all things and the reformation of all things that’s beginning to take place in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see the conquering of the world through the preaching of the gospel, the salvation of the world typologically portrayed in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost.

We see the establishment of the community of God. And then we see that community and preaching of God’s word is effectual for the transformation, the restoration of all things in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what we’ll see fleshed out in the history of the church in the book of Acts and then the epistles as well.

And finally, we saw some opposition to that, of course, to the healing of the lame man and the message of restoration. We saw persecution being raised. The first formal persecution of the church occurs and this persecution is in response to a message of restoration. We see that’s one reason why there’s not much persecution today is the church is not preaching really the restoration of all things. The church doesn’t give normally a relevant word to the restoration of man and his vocational calling and his calling as a worshiping creature, etc.

Rather it’s a truncated gospel. Usually it’s personal peace and influence of preparation for salvation and eternity, a salvation message and that’s about it. To the extent that the word is preached forth in its power and lives and communities become transformed then and restored by the grace of God, then we will see more active persecution from the civil state or actually the persecution coming primarily from the old church.

After all, in the period of the Acts and certainly when we looked at this in Acts chapter 3, the persecution didn’t come primarily from the Roman authorities. It came from the Pharisees and Sadducees. It came from the existing church structure who didn’t like their apple cart being upset so to speak.

We talked about one of the means of this persecution was the call to credentialism. These apostles weren’t credentialed men. They didn’t have the seminary education. They didn’t have the correct ordination credentials from the old church. And so they were looked at as scams. We see in Acts chapter 3, the beginning of the persecution being focused on two groups of the existing church: the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Sadducees are those who had compromised away essential elements of the faith, including the resurrection. They liked relationship with Rome. They didn’t want anything upsetting that problem. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were quite orthodox. They went beyond the law of God by making up other laws. They became ingrown, no evangelistic thrust at all, a personal purity of their own community.

And so these Pharisees and Sadducees are two ends of the spectrum, so to speak. And we see the same thing in our day and age today. Reverend James B. Jordan talked about both these groups in his talks this last week. Both these groups exhibiting a disobedience to the third commandment. They take the name of God in vain. They carry the name of God as supposed believers in Yahweh but in vain, emptily. The Pharisees because they did not take the message of God into all of life and into all the culture around them. They were retreatist and they added laws to God’s laws. The Sadducees taking it in vain because they compromised the world around them.

And so these are warnings to us as well as a picture of the persecution that was given to them, their warnings to us to avoid these sins. And that takes us up to where we’re at now. The victory of God comes in spite of that persecution. The persecution yields affliction for the moment. But throughout the scriptures, again, as Reverend Jordan pointed out in the life of Joseph, persecution, imprisonment, whether it’s in a hole in the ground or whether it’s in a jail in Egypt, is a precursor to victory by God and establishment and power.

So Joseph went from jail to seeing the conversion of all of Egypt and him assuming power second only to the pharaoh who was converted. And so we see in the early church the disciples being quite happy when they are first of all persecuted imprisoned then released they immediately quote from Psalm chapter 2. They say why do the heathen imagine a vain thing why do they try to break off God’s bands of authority? God will have victory. They understood that message and the church today needs to hear that message again that persecution comes only as a precursor to the church to prepare it to humble it and prepare it and give it power on high for victory.

—

Okay, that’s the backdrop of what we’re at today. And we come now to Acts chapter 4. We have a section of scripture here. And one of the first things you’ll notice in this is that we’re going through half of chapter 4 and half of chapter 5 roughly. And remember what Reverend Jordan said over the weekend, that a week and a half ago, that the scriptures are not written with these chapter divisions and verse divisions.

It’s just one long word of God, one long score. If you look at it that way, sometimes these chapter divisions can be quite unfortunate. Here’s an example of that where this is broken up. This one narrative, this literary structure that God gives us in Acts chapter 4, the last half going through chapter 5 is broken up by the insertion of this false chapter division. You’ll see on the outline that I provided, we’re going to look at the text a little bit first and then try to draw quickly five lessons from the text for our lives.

The way I think this chapter really divides itself is the first statement is verse 32, which is a summary statement of what’s to follow. In verse 32 we read: the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and in one soul. Neither said any of them that any of his possessions which he possessed were his own, but that they had all things common.

So what we see here is in the first half of this verse, we have a description of the unity of the covenant community of God, the unity of the church. They were one heart and they were of one soul or one mind. And then the demonstration of that unity is the second half of the verse. Neither said any of them that what he, the things that he owned were his own. They had all things common.

This does not mean some sort of forced communalism here. This means an assertion by everybody. The things which they possessed were not really their own, but were held in stewardship for God and for Jesus Christ and for his community. After all, if this was forced communalism, they wouldn’t have possessed any thing. The verse, the second half of verse 32 would make no sense. They said that the things which they possessed—notice they still had possession of these things—they said these are not our own. We had all things come common, and their view to the understanding of their possessions was they were stewards by God and that stewardship was also to see those things as necessary for the well-being of the covenant community.

And so the evidence of their unity is this assertion in their minds in their hearts and with their words and later here in the chapter with their very acts that they have a joint stewardship of the property that God has given to them.

So first of all we have the summary statement then we have an expansion. The same two-fold pattern is repeated: where you have the unity of the church being demonstrated then by unity of stewardship in the verses that follow.

In verse 33, first—and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. This is the foundation of the unity of the church. It’s founded upon the great power and the preaching of the apostles and the great grace shown to the covenant community all centered upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To have this kind of attitude is impossible for men to do really. If you think about it, the assertion that my property, if necessary, will be sold and dispersed to others who have more need of it than I do. That strikes right at the heart of much of our culture certainly and much strikes right at the heart of modern man who is autonomous and isolated. The idea of ultimacy of private property is here demolished.

Now socialism isn’t taught but private property is never private. Land is held in stewardship from God. And when God says he has need of it elsewhere, you’re to be sensitive enough, humble enough to God to love mercy by providing those things where God has directed the giving to go.

And so it seems to me it’s one of the ultimate demonstrations of the unity of the church. The fact that this one heart and one mind and one soul wasn’t just empty words or wasn’t just pious gush as they got together to worship. The demonstration of that is in the rubber on the road sort of reality that they saw their property as stewards as responsibility to be stewards under God. God’s property.

There’s really no such thing ultimately as private property. It’s all God’s property and he gives it to people for stewardship. And this is only possible to have this kind of attitude is only possible through the power of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection bringing conversion. Then great grace by God being shown upon them all. Grace that would usher forth in their willingness to let go of what we normally hold on to as tight as we can, possessions, physical possessions.

So I think the verses 33 restates the same truth of the first half of verse 32. There’s a unity in place here. A unity that’s based upon the resurrection of Christ. The great power demonstrated to the church in that and the great grace shown by God to those in the church.

Now this great grace could also be favor. Favor was shown to them. Jesus grew in stature and in grace or favor with man and God. And as God gives us grace so and favor so we find favor in the eyes of those around us.

Family camp. There was a picture of some of this last week. We came together, united in a very physical sense, being close together within, you know, on a few acres there. We came together and demonstrated the unity that we have. We ate commonly throughout the week. We had common possessions, so to speak, in terms of the stewardship of the things that were there. And the grace of God is necessary to do that successfully without a lot of problems, not a lot of fights.

But then as you demonstrate that grace, the context of your community. Those that see that also show favor to you. I don’t remember a family camp yet when we didn’t leave family camp as some sort of commendation quite strong from the men who are the proprietors of that camp. They always tell us you’re the best camp we have in here. You clean up great. Your men are cooperative. When we took down the tent on Friday, they said usually, you know, people are just standing around. They don’t want to get involved. Your people got right involved.

We have favor in the extended community because of the grace that is unto us in the way we work together and see ourselves as being good stewards under God of our property and certainly of our time as well.

So verse 33 I think repeats the same theme and gives us the source of the unity and then shows in verse 34 and following the results of that unity.

Neither was there any of them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles’ feet. Distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

And so this is a demonstration now this unity. Again through stewardship by unity. And this really increases the test so to speak on those who have unity. You notice here they don’t just consider these things in their heart as being available for the resources of other people in the community. Here they actually do it. Here they actually sell land and houses. And then not only do they sell these things for the good of other people, they don’t privately administer those things either.

What do they do with the money they make from that land? They lay it at the apostles’ feet. So now it’s not just trust in God showing me where need might be in the community so that I can do something about it. Now it’s trusting God’s representatives in terms of officers in the church, the apostles, with their land and the value of their land. They give it to the apostles to administer.

Well, that’s pretty radical. As we were leaving camp, I saw this schedule from one of the camps that had been there previously and it said, “radically saved family camp.” Probably it was a youth camp or something, you know. But I was talking to my daughter and another young man from church there. I said, “Yeah, we’re radically saved.” Radical means root. And this is pretty radical stuff getting down to the root of the matter that we see all things as stewardship from God and trust him and his ordination and his providence in the church.

Well, that’s what these people were called to do and they responded correctly. You know, if churches did this today, you’d probably have some state law that you’d violated or you’d probably have people certainly—he’s talking about how you’re a cult. I mean, if we if we saw coming economic times or hard economic times in this church, for instance, and we saw a need to sell possessions and bring it to the church officers for distribution of the covenant community so we could stay together in hard times, can you imagine what that would look like in the papers?

That’d probably be civil laws we’d have to violate to do that today. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. You’d probably certainly have lawsuits from various relatives, etc. That kind of commitment demonstrates the unity that these people had unto the Lord Jesus Christ. His great power, great grace, there is mega dynamis, big dynamite, real heavy power from God is coming to the people through the preaching of the apostles and as a result great grace is ministered to them and they demonstrate the unity through this particular result.

The apostles administer free will offerings. These are not tithes. These are free will offerings that the people bring to them. The apostles administer these things given by those who’d sold their land for administration to those who had need.

—

Now, not only does this section then conclude with that statement, we then have a practical illustration of this both positive and negative. And this is where the chapters have to be bridged to see the importance of this.

The first example, the positive example of people who actually did this is Joseph or Joses, whom by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas in verse 36, being interpreted as the son of consolation. Barnabas, that’s a tough name and people don’t know exactly. They get son of consolation or encouragement out of that. Bar means son. Nabas—nobody knows exactly what that means. Some people think it’s probably prophet. So really Barnabas would be son of the prophet.

And a prophet’s job was to encourage or exhort people. And so they think that’s what’s being talked about here that Barnabas was prophetic in the sense of exhortation. The King James word consolation is probably better translated encouragement or exhortation. And certainly Barnabas in his act here is an encouragement or exhortation to the new covenant community that we see in the book of Acts to have this kind of unity of spirit.

We’re told explicitly in the text that he was a Levite and in the country of Cyprus. It’s interesting that Cyprus is mentioned here because that’s where the first missionaries are going to go. Barnabas was ready. He was from that area. And so there’s a link here right in the middle of this unity text to the missionary emphasis of the church and it’s a reminder that the mission—I think it’s here explicitly as a reminder that the missionary emphasis of the church is a result again of this kind of unity of heart and soul that takes evidence in results in evidence of that unity when necessary to hold things jointly under the officers of the church for the well-being of the church of Christ.

So I think that’s why this is pointed out there’s that link to the conquering that we see is the main model or motif or picture in the book of Acts.

Well, not only do we have this positive example of Barnabas who relates it to world missions, then we also have the negative example of Ananias and Sapphira in verse one of chapter 5.

But Matthew Henry says, “This is a melancholy butt here because we’ve had nothing but good news so far, right? These first four chapters, the book of Acts, all good news about the church. Everything’s going great.” And then we have what Matthew Henry calls a melancholy butt at the beginning of chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias—which means God has been gracious to—and Sapphira—which they think means sapphire or beauty—they did not live up to their names.

Certain man named Ananias, which—Sapphira his wife—had a possession and they kept back part of the price. His wife also being privy to it brought a certain part and laid at the apostles’ feet. Peter says, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” Here’s his sin. It’s repeated here several times. Ananias lies to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land.

When it remained, it wasn’t your own. See, this is more evidence. They didn’t have to sell this stuff. Barnabas didn’t have to. Ananias didn’t have to. Barnabas, if he had to sell his land, why cite him here in a commendatory way because he did what he had to do. No, Barnabas is an example and encouragement because he goes beyond what he has to do and he does what is a demonstration of the unity of God meeting the need of the moment.

But Ananias, he didn’t have to sell it. That’s clear clearly laid out here. And even after he sold it, he didn’t have to give all of it to the church. He could have said, “I’m going to sell my land. I’m going to give you part of it.” That would have been okay. It’s clear from the text. But he says, “No.” He says, “After it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in thine heart?” There’s premeditation being talked about here. “You’ve not lied unto men, but unto God.”

Now, why does Peter say that? Well, because Ananias thinks he’s just lied to men. He hasn’t—in a prayer—lied to God. He has lied to God because he’s lied to the apostles. He’s told him, “This is all the money I made for my land. You guys can have it.” He’s probably told a lot of people this, ’cause Ananias is probably looking for personal favor here. He wants to be seen as a good guy, a guy who’s out there doing his best. He’s like Barnabas. His name should go in the book, too, because he’s a great guy. He lies to men. He lies to the church, and he lies to the officers of the church. And in so doing, he lies to God.

Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came on all them and heard these things. He dies immediately. Bam. Just like that. No trial, no warning. Apparently, no call to repent. He’s dead. He falls down dead.

Not only does he fall down dead, but the story goes on. Of course, the young men arose, wound him up, carried him out, buried him. And about the space of three hours after—now it could be here that they were observing the three hours of prayer. Every three hours there was a prayer cycle. So this may have been formal worship going on here. At any event, three hours later—and his wife, not knowing what was done—she came in and Peter answered to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” She says, “Yeah, that’s that’s how much we got for it. Yeah, that’s you got it all there.”

Peter says to her, “How is that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at thy door and shall carry thee out.” Then fell she down straight at his feet. The word of God’s servant here, the apostle, slays this woman. Isaiah says that his lips shall utter forth breath, which will consume his enemies.

We have the acts of Christ through the apostles. Christ’s word burns this wood and stubble up. Ananias and Sapphira in the church, slays them immediately. She fell down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth, buried her with her husband, sinned with her husband, rebelled with her husband, buried with her husband, in hell together with her husband.

Great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things.

—

Well, we see power in this text. We see power that gives men the grace to see things not in terms of personal possessions and grasping on to what God has given to us as stewards, being able to open our hands up and give as we’ve been given to. And we see great power as well demonstration of the power of God to curse those who would trouble the church.

And so these people fall down as a result of the great power. And as a result of that great power and great grace, great fear is the third necessary element. Great—repeated three times in this text starting with great grace, or great power rather, great grace and then twice as mentioned great fear—double emphasis to the need for fear in the establishment of Christ’s community. Fear is not simply reverent awe. Fear is frightening. The word here, the specific word for fear as translated later on in the epistles is bearing children. Women will save themselves for the bearing of children. That kind of fear.

Now, men, we don’t know about that kind of fear. Those of you who have borne children do know about that kind of fear. If you hadn’t had an anesthesia, if you were talked into this natural method of child birth particularly, you know what that fear is like. Great pain and fear that you’re not going to make it through. That’s the kind of fear that’s talked about here in the context of the church is necessary for the building up of the community of God for victory.

Great fear must accompany great power and great grace and the providence of God.

—

Well, let’s look now at some lessons from this text real quickly.

First thing that the text points out to us is—well, it’s rather enigmatic. A repeating cycle demonstrates the importance of community.

If you look, and we’ll look at this more as we go on to the next couple of chapters, but what you see in the first few chapters of the book of Acts is this cycle where the preaching of God’s word produces the community of God. Miracles then occur in the context of that community. Persecution is the result and then victory of God’s people in spite of persecution.

And then we see community being created again, miracles coming forth, persecution and victory.

In chapter 2, we saw the community life being described as the result of the preaching of God’s word in the beginning portions of chapter 2. And then we saw miracles happen with the healing of the lame man in chapter 3. Then we saw persecution in response to that and leading to the victory of the people released from jail and their acknowledgement that Christ is victorious and has given them victory.

And here we see another cycle starting. We see community life being described in the verses we’ve read today. And then we’re going to see shortly in verses 12-16 of chapter 5 miracles occurring in the context of the apostles and the people. And then we’re going to see intensified persecution in the end of chapter 5 leading to victory again at the conclusion of chapter 5. We’ll see the same pattern repeated in chapter 6.

Community life preaching of God’s word brings forth the people that people exercise miraculous gifts. Those gifts are then the result of persecution by the old church leading to victory. Community is the thing that gets all of this going when God’s word is preached. And this repeated cycle shows us the importance of community.

Of course, we don’t need just that literary device that God has used in the opening chapter book of Acts. What we have here is the people being of one heart and one mind is obedience to the second commandment. Right? We’re to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our mind with all our soul and all our might and to love our neighbor as ourselves in the same way. And here these people are of one heart and of one mind or soul. This unity is central to the Christian faith. The unity of the church.

Matthew wrote that this was the blessed fruit of Christ’s dying precept his disciples to love one another and of his dying prayer for them that they all might be one. Indeed, the unity that we see described here was prophesied of in the Old Testament. For instance, in Jeremiah 32:39: I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them.

Throughout the Old Testament prophets, we see this being prophesied, the unity to come. And as we said that was Jesus Christ’s prayer for his people in John 17. He prayed that they might be one even as we are one. He prayed this to the father. He prayed that they all might be one as thou father art in me and I in them that they also may be one in us. In verse 21 of chapter 17 of the gospel of John, this unity was prophesied of.

It was prayed for by Christ and it was expected then to happen and it did happen. So we see here in these last verses of chapter 4 of the book of Acts the tremendous ushering forth the fruitfulness of Christ’s prayer, the prophecies to come in the latter days and the fruitfulness then of that unity together that the people of God have.

This is the continued theme also the exhortation of the epistles that we may be of one mind. Strive to perfect that unity. Romans chapter 15 for instance: Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. Ephesians 4:3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There’s many, many verses we could quote. The epistles are filled with references that this unity is vital for the people of God. And this unity is what Ananias and Sapphira struck against in their sin. One of the things they did was to strike at the very essence of Christian community through their deceit of the covenant community and through their selfishness revealed in that deceit.

Matthew Henry said they would pass for some of the most fruitful trees in Christ’s vineyard. This is Ananias and Sapphira. When really the root of the matter was not found in them. And we have known people the same way who want people to see their talents, their abilities, their gifts, and their money, but really their heart is never with the community of God.

And they forsake it. And we see people sin against that community repeatedly in church history. And we’ve seen it in the history of this church as well. Bullock in his commentary on this text says that for the first time in the community of the saints, two persons set out deliberately to deceive their leaders and their friends to build a reputation for sanctity and sacrifice to which they had no right.

And also in so doing that they would then menace all love, all trust and all sincerity in the community of God. Not only was this sin against human brotherhood, but against the spirit of God. Remember David said, “Against thee, against thee only have I sinned.” If you sin against the body of Christ, which these people plainly did in terms of their sin against the community of God, ultimately your sin is against the spirit of God himself, “against thee, against thee. Only have I sinned.”

They thought they were lying to men. But they were lying to God. This is the first sin recorded in the covenant community and has the impact for us if we understand the message here correctly of that first sin as the serpent creeping into the garden of Eden or of Achan and his sin in the book of Joshua demonstrating the wickedness of those in the body of Christ, the body of the people who would be ushered into the fruitfulness of the land, the wickedness they would have and striking out against that very fact.

This is a sin against the aim then and prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can understand the quick and rapid punishment given to them.

And as I said, we’ve seen this sin against Christian unity in this church as well. Now, we also have seen tremendous demonstration of the unity that’s pictured for us here. Unity is important in the context of the church. And we’ve seen this church grow in unity.

Our family camp this last week was probably one of the most blessed ones I’ve ever seen in terms of unity and well-being and lack of tension, etc. It’s a great gift of God. This is a result of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the preaching of his gospel under understanding of his word by his people and great grace of God showered upon them. And I’m very pleased that we have that evident in this church.

And we want to see that unity extended out into the extended household of God as well. And that’s why we do things. It’s why I’m trying to meet with pastors. That’s why we’re trying to write a golden rule of cooperation amongst local churches. The importance of the unity of the church in terms of the proclamation of the gospel is stressed over and over and over again.

That’s also a time of evaluation for ourselves. You’ve seen the great demonstration of that unity in this particular portion of scripture relative to our possessions. And it’s worthwhile meditating upon the fact, thinking through how much you hold on to your possessions, the fruit of your labor. Is this the result of your hand? Or is God giving you these things for the purpose of correct stewardship? If need be, if we did have that time of economic collapse in this country, which we surely will at some point in time, God doesn’t allow fiat money to last forever.

He judges it. He’ll judge it here. I don’t know if it’ll be in 5 years, 10 years, or 100 years. Eventually, this economy will collapse unless it’s reformed according to biblical law. When that happens, will we be ready to come together as a Christian community and share resources if necessary? Or will we be driven to the four ends of the earth? Will we fade away from each other? And it’s every man for himself?

Otto Scott has said that ultimately, and Otto is a good, strong military man. He knows the importance of self-defense. He knows the importance of sound money, gold, and silver. But he said that the thing that will see people through in a crisis is a sense of community, a group of people you’re committed to.

We’ve seen good results in this church in the last year, but we haven’t seen the great test to come. It’s good for you to meditate upon your own heart relative to this church. You know, ultimately, you’re not talking about your understanding of the people, your relationship with the people. You’re talking about your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and his body in this church.

And we want to be so knit together that in times of trial, when the heat turns up. Will you burn up like wood and stubble like Ananias and Sapphira or will you shine brilliantly like Barnabas the son of encouragement, Joseph whose name means to be added unto? Will you add to this fellowship or will you detract from this fellowship? Those are the two paths we should ponder in our lives and commit ourselves to God to in whatever ways we can train ourselves to be ready to sacrifice for the sake of the extended body of Jesus Christ.

Now this truth of the importance of unity in this text through the thematic cycles pictured for us in the first six or seven chapters of the book of Acts, prophesied, Christ prayed for it, Christ wanted this for his church he establishes it for his church the need of this unity is why victory will not come to the Christian church in the next few years in this country. We’re not going to be victorious culturally if we cannot get churches who share common doctrinal beliefs to cooperate together. It’s just not going to happen.

And so that’s why the focus must be now. In many ways we have to defend ourselves culturally. We have to have an impact in society but it’s very important that this church participate as much as possible and avenues are opening up for us now in a dramatic fashion. Participate as much as possible in urging the extended body of Jesus Christ to this kind of unity.

This unity is not being talked about as a local congregation. The unity existing in the book of Acts probably had several congregations who met. You’re talking about at least 5,000 people who were saved here. I don’t think they all met together at the Colosseum for Lord’s Day worship. They had a number of churches, but these churches all saw themselves interconnected as well. That’s the unity being pictured for us. And that’s what we should pray to the end that God would establish in America again. And we should pray and be patient while God brings that to pass.

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All right. Unity is important in the context of this. Secondly, land. This is very interesting, and I won’t dwell a lot on this, but it is important. The sale of this land, did that decapitalize these people or did it recapitalize them? You know, land—it’s interesting as I pondered this—the fact that Barnabas is pictured out as a Levite to us. He’s a Levite. The Levites could own land yet he had land could have been in Cyprus.

There were portions of the land he could have bought. We don’t know. But I think the fact that he’s a Levite that is mentioned here is important for us to recognize that land ultimately is not the goal of what we do here on earth. You don’t see a lot of stress on land and the importance of accumulation of land in the New Testament. You know, some are fond of saying, and it’s true, that the scriptures produce a land-based faith in the Old Covenant, but it’s not a land-based faith in the New Covenant.

It’s a people-based faith. You see, you have this whole transition from the tabernacle and temple to the new temple of the body of Christ. And so these people bring their free will offerings to build the new temple of the body of Christ. The same way the temple was financed through the free will offerings of the people. It wasn’t financed by tithes. You know, everybody said, “Well, I have this contribute. I have this contribute. They brought all these goods together and they made the temple for themselves. People’s contribution to the temple.

Well, here we see the contributions taking place, the establishment of the church in the book of Acts, free will offerings, not for the building of a temple, not for the accumulation of real estate, but for the well-being of God’s people, for the building of the temple that is the stones. You’re the living stones in this temple. And so we have this whole thrust of a diminution in our own minds of land relative to the church.

Now, land is good. The scriptures say land is good. It’s a good thing to try to have it, etc. But it’s bad if that’s your primary goal. And covetousness is a great sin that we should be warned against through this text. Now, you know, when you come into uh the faith, the distinctives of a whole Bible approach, you begin to have a new appreciation for land and for silver and for gold and for guns to defend yourself, whatever it is. These are all good things. But people, be very, very careful. You’re playing with dynamite here. You’re playing with poison.