Barnabas, Ananias, and the Fear of the Lord
First B Jackson
2024-12-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Spirit lit the flame. Now, this gospel truth of old, it shall not kneel and it shall not faint. By his blood and in his name and his spirit, I am free. For the love of Jesus Christ that's resurrected me. Isn't that good?

Ray's brought us up to chapter four. Here, let me see if I can get this clicker working. There it is. Enjoy this picture of him as I share some review. That's one of my favorites of him.

He can share the story with you later. So Luke picks up where the gospels leave off. Jesus has risen from death. Just consider that for a minute. That is huge.

Jesus is risen from death. He's appears to his disciples several times. He tells them, hey, stay in Jerusalem. Well, the promised Holy Spirit comes and sure enough, what happens? The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost filling the believers and those from surrounding regions.

They didn't speak the language. They were confused because they understood. People from regions everywhere. How is it that we're hearing the wonders of God in our own languages? And Peter says, hey, listen, church, this is the Holy Spirit.

These guys aren't drunk as some of you may assume. It's only nine in the morning. God made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah. He says, repent. Turn to God.

Be baptized in the name of Christ. You too will receive this Holy Spirit. And this is the wonderful part. Moved by the Holy Spirit and the message, thousands come to believe that day. And they devoted themselves, I want you to hear this because it's gonna come up again and again today.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, what we're doing right here, to sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper and prayer. Those are the basics we never want to depart from. And so the church continues to grow in Jesus' name. Peter and John heal man that could not walk since birth. They heal this man.

The high council, they're walking past this person every week. They know what's happened. It's an undeniable fact that this man is healed and the high council, Peter and John stand before him, the high council goes, hey, knock that off, you guys. Would you stop this? And Peter and John say, nope, we can't.

We cannot stop talking about everything that we've seen and heard. So they get thrown in jail and then released for fear of a riot. And we left off last week where the believers gathered together full of the Holy Spirit, and they prayed for safety in preaching the word. Does that sound right? What did they pray for?

For boldness. They prayed for courage in sharing the word. So that brings us to chapter four verse 32. I'd like to read up to chapter five verse 11. This is the church's common life.

We'll get to see a description of the church. What is it that these believers did when they met together? We'll see a positive example, that being Barnabas, and then a negative example being Ananias and Sapphira. Of course, some application throughout. Are you ready?

We're going to have so much fun. So beginning with verse 32, it says this. Oh, it's not up there. Verse 32 says this, and the congregation of those who believed were one of heart and soul. So I don't want to skip over this part because at the foundation of this healthy and growing and vibrant church, there was unity among believers.

There was a common heart and there was a common purpose with Christ at the center. And this is the unity that Jesus prayed for in John. Do you remember this? Jesus says, my prayer is not just for them alone. I pray for those who will believe through their message, through the disciples message that all of them may be what?

One. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they be in us, the unity of the Godhead and the church, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Just so consider this for a second. Our unity together, our unity together shows the world that we belong to Christ. So disunity, not a great example.

Unity, a good example. And it's happening right here, one of heart and soul. And it says this, not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to him. Can I take you back twenty years? Twenty years.

So this was me as a youth pastor before I moved here to Jackson. The guy in the back middle row, no beard. By the way, Brad, you were right. A beard is really makeup for men, and thank you Brad for that. I'm wearing my makeup today.

And you know what's neat too? This so cool. Of that group in there, I got to officiate a wedding for one of those ladies in there. Over the summer, another one of those ladies came to Jackson for a visit with her family. She's married now.

She's got two kids. And it was just so sweet to see twenty years later these kids in this youth group that are, they're not kids anymore, they're adults. And and just how well they're doing and walking with the Lord and I'm just thankful. Anyway, this youth group and I, we took a a road trip to the inner city of Chicago. Oh, I'm hoping this will show up.

To a place called Jesus People USA. Has anyone ever heard of Jesus People USA in Chicago? You have. Okay. One.

I'll I'll explain. It it has been around for over forty years. It's now a group of about 200 people living communally in a 10 story building in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. And listen to this, they don't get paid directly for their work. Instead, the money that they earn goes into a common purse where, and here's the quote from the website, that it frees up individuals to give themselves wholly to the work of ministry and to family and life.

Now, I am not I am not suggesting that you move to Chicago and pull your resources. My wife is like, sounds a lot like socialism. I'm not suggesting that you do this and move there and all that. But I will say, I will say that this was fun to witness. It was fun to see these believers, and what was fun to see is that they were holding loosely to what they owned.

And with a common heart and a common purpose with Christ at the center and Jesus teaching at the center, they were feeding and clothing the poor, and they were buying up buildings, and they were turning them into women and children's shelters and on and on. They do a great work. So like the early church, all things were common properties. Just thought I'd throw that illustration in there. So verse 33, with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

It's like this. It's like Peter and John saying, listen, we cannot stop talking about what we have seen and what we have heard. They were filled with his spirit. They're doing miracles in Jesus name, and God was using their witness to draw people to himself. There was momentum and the church was growing.

And it says this, this is one of my favorite parts, that abundant grace was upon them all. You know that I love grace. You know that I talk about grace a lot. God's unmerited favor that he just gives to us. There was plenty of that to go around, and church, there still is.

God's abundant grace is available to us. I love that. Verse 34, for there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them, and they'd bring the proceeds of the sales, and they would lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that they had need. Now some say it was a special era in the church that some knew that because of Roman occupation that that their land was going be taken anyway. And so they some say that they just gave of their land.

They they they sold it and used the money. Whatever the reasons, it's not only generous, but k. Luke is our author here of Acts and also the Gospel of Luke. To Luke's Jewish audience, for him to include believers taking care of the poor would have signaled back to the Torah in Deuteronomy where this practice was supposed to be happening through the temple and through its leaders. Look at this from from Deuteronomy.

It says, there should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land that he's giving you. Goes on to say, give generously, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. This was supposed to be happening in the temple. This was God's intent. But here's what I love.

Now the Holy Spirit has come. Now the Holy Spirit has come, and there's a new temple where God resides where? Right here. Right here. It's not about a building.

God resides right here. We, church, are his temple. The believers in Christ, the local church, fulfilling the purpose for which God always intend intended to fill the temple, us, with his spirit and with love and with unity and with generosity, testifying about the risen Christ. And look at this, I I love this part. This comes after Luke chapter two verse 42 that as the disciples were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer, they were filled with his spirit and with love and with unity and with generosity testifying about the risen Jesus.

And what's better is that these friends, these these things right here, church, these are still as winsome and attractive as they ever were. These will always work. And first b, I want to encourage us. I do because and I want to fan the flame because I see these things in our body. And of course, we're not perfect.

We make mistakes. But to the best of our ability, as God leads, we are pursuing this right here. So may I pray just for a moment on that? In fact, I wanna do this. First, I'm gonna shut the blinds for these poor folks here.

Watch this. Batteries are dead. We just changed them yesterday. Or not. Sorry if some of you like sunlight.

I'm just watching these poor folks squint over here or practically crying. May I may I pray here for a moment? Lord God, would you help us to to continue oh gracious, to be to continue to be this kind of a church, a church that is full of your spirit and love and unity and generosity and batteries that work in the blinds, and God, to be a channel of blessing, to be a channel of blessing to this community and to the ends of the the earth as we devote ourselves to the scripture and fellowship, sharing meals and prayer. In Jesus name, Lord, thank you for your church. Alright.

Here we go. Moving on. Verse 36. Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth. So this is a Jewish believer from the island of Cyprus who is also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated mean means son of encouragement.

He owned attractive land and he sold it and he brought the money and he laid it at the apostles feet. Barnabas. I love this guy, the encourager. Now, I don't know who these ladies are. This is just a Google image.

But I like their bus. It's the Barnabas bus. It's the Barna bus. Barna bus. Moving on.

Look what it says about that's a dad joke. Look what it says about Barnabas in chapter 11. And this in chat when we get to chapter 11, this was a very difficult time in the life of the church. Stephen had just been martyred. The church is scattering from Jerusalem.

You can imagine the anxiety and the fear that the church must have felt. And Barnabas goes to Antioch and it says this, that he encouraged them to remain true to the Lord with all of their hearts. He was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Doesn't sound like the kind of guy that you want to know?

The kind of guy that encouraged the believers. And Barnabas went to Tarsus. He went to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so for a whole year, Barnabas and Paul became best buds, and they met with the church, and they taught great numbers of people.

Isn't that awesome? That this is the guy that was discouraging excuse me, encouraging the discouraged saying, friends, church, stay true to the Lord. Keep running this race. It's gonna be okay. Keep on keeping on.

So full of the Holy Spirit and faith, he taught with Paul. Later, he would mentor John Mark, and he would be a conciliator between John Mark and Paul. You remember the split? Barnabas was the one who brought them back together. I love that part.

But all to say, he used his gift of encouragement well. And may I encourage us from Romans 12 verses six through nine. Here's some application here throughout. We have different gifts according to the grace given to us. Every one of us in here has different gifts to be used for the body of Christ.

If your gift is prophesying, foretelling or forthtelling, prophesy in accordance with your faith. If your gift is serving, serve. If it's teaching, teach. If it is to encourage, give encouragement. If it's giving, give generously.

If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. And I can see the faces around this room as I read these gifts and I'm looking at you going, there's that gift, there's that gift, there's that gift, there's that gift, and I love it. Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, and cling to what is good. So this is a great segue into chapter five.

We've looked at a description of the church's common life from Acts. We've looked at a positive a positive example, that being Barnabas. And then we get to Ananias and Sapphira. No doubt, this is a very difficult teaching. I've been wrestling with this for weeks.

Now you get to. And and and Lord help us to take in the whole counsel of scripture, the good examples and the bads. So here it is starting at five verse one. I'm just gonna read to 11 and you can follow along with me here. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, they sold a piece of property.

And they kept back some of the proceeds for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the lamb? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? Was this not yours to do what you wanted to with it?

And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you've concede this deed in your heart? You've not lied to men, but to God. And as he heard these words, Ananias collapsed and he died, and great fear came over all who heard about it. Verse six, and the young man got up and covered him.

I've been thinking Ray kept saying to me, and the youth group came and they took him away. And I just I just had a funny image of mine, Carl and his youth group carrying this person away. It's not funny actually at all. Sorry. But why the youth group?

I don't I don't I don't know. The young man came up and they covered him and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now an interval of about three hours elapsed and his wife came in not knowing what had happened. Poor thing. And Peter responded to her, tell me whether you sold the land for this price.

And she said, yes, for that price. And then Peter said to her, why is it that you've agreed together, collusion, to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who've buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well. And immediately she collapsed at his feet and died. And the young man came in, and they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

Verse 11, and great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard about these things. Again, this is a very, very difficult teaching. Ray did give me the option of not of not preaching. He said, you you could stop at at Barnabas. And I thought, I'm a big boy.

I can handle it. I'll do it, Ray. But it does raise a lot of questions, doesn't it? You know, why why did Ananias and Sapphira lie? You know, what was their motivation for not telling the truth?

Was it recognition? They saw Barnabas and they thought, oh, I want to be like Barnabas, but we'll keep back some of this, you know. And then of course, the question is, you know, why such a severe punishment? And the truth is, I don't know. I really, I don't know.

But I do know this, that the enemy was at work in the church and in the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira. And Peter exposes it. He says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? He'd not lied to men, but to God. This is an offense against the Lord.

And why have you agreed to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? And and really the bottom line here is that these are the things that threaten the integrity and the unity and the purity of the church. This new era that God was ushering in, the holy led by the Holy Spirit, and the believers are all united together, and this was bringing disunity. And as one of Ray's seminary professors points out, if God acts to preserve the integrity and commune of the community that the Gospel produced, we can have an increased confidence in the truthfulness of the mess itself. Let me read that again.

If God acts to preserve the integrity of the community that the gospel produced, we can have an increased confidence and the truthfulness of the message itself. That's good news for the inquirer, but bad news for anyone who would take a casual approach to entering the kingdom of God. So that's been sitting in my lap for a while. Now I get to set it in yours. You're welcome.

And then verse 11 ends with, great fear came over the whole church. And this can actually mean real fear like terror, but it can mean reverence and awe and respect, a recognition of God's power and holiness. So in the negative sense, fear of judgment or danger, but in the positive sense, a reverence for God. But as we go on in Acts, we're gonna see as a result of that fear, look at this, when we approach this next week, that the fear of God, it produced this in the church. Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number.

So there was this good, healthy fear that was drawing people to the Lord and to the church. And so as a matter of application, I'm wrapping up here. Here are just a few points that I'm drawing from the text today. Okay? And they are to encourage one another to be alert and to fear the Lord.

Encourage one another, be alert and fear the Lord. Now, I understand that not everyone is a Barnabas. Right? But we can still do this. We can still do this.

We can still encourage one another and build each other up. Whether that is a word of encouragement, or an act of service, or generosity or compassion or whatever it is that God has gifted you with, we can use it to build up the body of Christ, to encourage one another and build each other up. So there's one application point. I also believe that there is a warning here that we can draw from the text, that to be alert. Do you remember Jesus in John 10?

And he says, the enemy comes to kill and steal and destroy. Do you remember that part? Do you remember what Jesus said he does? I've come that they might have full and abundant life. The enemy, however, comes to kill and steal and destroy.

Whatever unity God has placed in us and with one another, the enemy seeks to destroy that. First Peter says, he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to desire. This is awful. This is discord. This is this is disunity.

This is the wolf coming into the the the fold of sheep. The enemy did not want unity in the church then. The enemy does not want unity in the church now. And you can guarantee he is hard at work to to bring unit disunity and and and discord. The good news is here though, and I wanna say this, because it's not just about being alert, is we have the armor here of God.

You remember this in Ephesians six? We have armor to stand firm against the strategies of the enemy. And Ephesians six tells us, church, put it on. Put it on. Just even this morning as I was waking up.

And you know how you you have this kind of the the mind is a battleground, and you start to have a a thought, and you start to go down, you know, maybe kind of some stinking thinking and that kind of a stuff, that kind of stuff. And and it's like, we we do, we need to battle against this. And we have armor here, it says, from Ephesians six. We've got God's truth and his righteousness. We've got the gospel.

We've got faith. We've got the hope of our salvation. We've got the word of God. Now think of Jesus being tempted in the desert in Luke chapter four, and what does he use to combat the enemy's attacks? Use the word.

We have prayer, but all to say, we are not defenseless against the enemy. And the warning here is to be alert. And then last is to fear the Lord. I think we tend to see the fear of the Lord as something that is negative. Proverbs tells us this though, the fear of the Lord, that's the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one, that's understanding. These are good things. To fear the Lord is a good thing. And when we view God with reverence and awe and respect, recognizing him for who he truly is, every part of God, Not just his grace and not just his love, but to know that he's a conquering king. That when he comes back, he will judge the world.

This is true about God. And to fear him, that's the beginning of wisdom. That's the beginning of wisdom, for real wisdom. And so there it is. Acts four thirty two through five eleven, we've got a description of the church's common life.

Excuse me. We've got a positive example of that being Barnabas. Let's be a Barnabas to one another. And a negative example being Ananias and Sapphira. And a few application points here to encourage one another church.

And all the more as you see the day approaching, as the scripture would say, to be alert. It really is important that we are aware. To protect the unity and the integrity and the purity of the church, it really is that important. And to fear the Lord. To fear the Lord is a good thing, church.

And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a good, healthy reverence and awe and respect that God deserves. Amen? So with that, I'm gonna invite our worship team, well, a duo today. Some of our worship team got stuck at the airport yesterday and they're traveling back.

So thank you, Seth. Had to be up here not alone. And well and would you stand? And and while you're standing, can I pray? Lord God Almighty, I'm just absolutely amazed by you that you would speak to us through your spirit and through the word.

God, we're taking the whole counts counsel of scripture. The parts we want to hear and the parts, God, that are difficult to hear. God, may your holiness and your might and your power and your sovereignty, God, may we see it, recognize it, be in awe of you. And God, thank you for your church. As we devote ourselves, Lord, to your teaching and to fellowship and sharing meals and prayer like the early church did, God, would you fill us with your spirit and with love and with a real unity and generosity?

And as you taught us to pray, God, would you protect us from the evil one? Anything that would threaten the unity of the church. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Shall we sing?