The awesome presence of God (Acts 4:32-5:16) // On mission with the risen Jesus

Available so we're I'm going to be reading from Acts chapter 4

Acts 4:32

verse 32 through to chapter 5 verse 16.

So in the church Bibles, the green Bibles that starts on page

1096, all the believers were one heart, one in heart and mind.

No one claims that any of their possessions was their own, but

they shared everything they had with great power.

The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of

the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in

them all that there was no needy person among them.

For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them,

brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet,

and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called

Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he

owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet.

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira,

also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge.

He kept back part of the money for himself, but bought the rest

and put it at the apostles feet. Then Peter said, Amnias, how is

it that Satan has so filled your hearts that you have lied to the

Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you

receive for the lands? Didn't it belong to you before

it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't

the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing

such a thing? You have not lied just to human

beings, but to God. When Ananias heard this, he fell

down and died, and great fear seized all who heard what

happened. Then some young men came

forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him.

About 3 hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had

happened. Peter asked her, Tell me, is

this the price you and Ananias got for the land?

Yes, she said. That is the price, Peter said to

her, How could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord?

Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the

door, and they will carry you out also.

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died.

Then the young men came in and finding her dead, carried her

out and buried her behind her husband.

Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about

these events. The apostles performed many

signs and wonders among the people and all the believers who

used to meet together in Solomon's columnade.

No one else dare join them, even though they were highly regarded

by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men

and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

As a result, people brought those who were I'll into the

streets and laid them on beds and mats, so that at least

Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing

those who were ill and those tormented by impure spirits, and

all of them were healed. So as Kate has said, we are

actually in quite a challenging and almost disturbing bits in

the book of Acts. And it's a passage the kind of

challenges our our natural way of thinking.

As I've talked to people over the years about the God

Christians believe in the God of the gospel.

There's a common assumption people make both inside the

church and outside the church. And it's this that the God of

the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are actually

very different in the way they relate to people.

So the God of the Old Testament, people think, well, he's the

angry God who judges sins, and the God of the New Testament,

he's the loving God who forgives sins.

And that's how a lot of people think to the point it's almost

like 2 separate gods sometimes. And in church history, some of

these people have had to fight heresies that have said, yes,

almost like 2 gods in the Bible. But this bit of acts challenges

that way of thinking. Here at the very heart of the

New Testament, after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,

the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, we come across

this account of God judging a married couple, Ananias and

Sapphira, 2 members of the early church in Jerusalem, who sell

some property. They claim to give the full

amount to the church, but they keep some of the money back for

themselves. And how does God respond?

God judges them for their hypocrisy and lies by striking

them dead immediately on the spot, one after the other.

And that doesn't sound like the God of the New Testament, we

think. But I see this pastor reminds us

the God of the Old Testament, God of the New Testament.

It's the same God. He is the same godfather, Son

and Holy Spirit. And he's a God we need to take

seriously as individuals and as a church family.

So who is the God that we meet in this next bit of acts?

I want to say he's the God who gives generously to us and

causing his people to be generous with each other.

He's the God who judges sin and causing his people to take sin

seriously within the church. He's the God who transforms

lives and calls on his people to be his witnesses to change the

people around them. We see in this passage the

awesome presence and power of the living God at work.

It's a power to judge and to heal.

It's a power that that punishes sin and forgives sin.

The God we meet in the book of Acts, He's not a tame God, a

safe God, a God we could ignore or control.

He's the God who is holy. He's different to us.

He sees what is in our hearts. He hates hypocrisy among his

people. He's a God he hates and we

pretend to be more spiritual than we actually are.

And he's a God. He loves his people enough to

expose hypocrisy and to judge our sin so that we can live as

witnesses for Jesus in this world with honesty and

integrity. That is what God is doing in

judging Ananias and Sapphira. He's loving the church enough to

expose their sin and hypocrisy. And on either side of this

disturbing account, we have the God who heals, the God who gives

generously, the God who transforms his people.

Also, the other people around them can hear and respond to the

good news of Jesus through the life and witness of the early

church. So the central bit of our

reading is, is a passage we can struggle with.

So you want to explore together what does this passage show us

about the presence and power of Godfather, Son and Holy Spirit?

And how should knowing this God change us as individuals and as

a church? So basically there are three

sections we're going to look through.

We're going to major on the middle one.

But the first section, the last bit of chapter 4, God's grace

towards his people makes them generous.

The keywords there are grace and generosity.

God hates hypocrisy in his church.

The keywords there are fear and judgement.

And God transforms lives through the witness of his people.

That's the healings, the signs and wonders we read at the end

of our passage. So first of all, God's grace

towards his people makes them generous.

Again, it's always helpful to remember where we've come from

in this series. Look back at verse 31 for a

moment. The early believers have been

praying together. We looked at that last week in

response to the opposition they were facing from the religious

leaders, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,

verse 31, and spoke the word of God boldly.

And so in this next section, verses 32 to 37, Luke is wanting

to give us another snapshot of what a spirit filled church

looks like. What does it look like for a

church to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

And according to Luke here, a spirit filled church is a church

marked by love, unity and generosity towards each other.

A spirit filled church is a church marked by love, unity and

generosity. Let me read from verse 32 again.

Luke writes, all the believers were one in heart and mind.

No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but

they shared everything they had with great power.

The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of

the Lord Jesus and God's grace was so powerfully a work in them

all that there was no needy person among them.

For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them,

brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet,

and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

It's an astonishing picture of generosity here.

And actually look at deliberately referencing an Old

Testament passage here when he has this phrase in verse 34.

And there was no needy person among them.

Well, that's a deliberate echo of a bit of the Old Testament,

Deuteronomy 15, verse 4, because in that passage God is calling

Deuteronomy 15:4

on his people, ancient Israel, to commit themselves to

cancelling debts and giving to the poor among them.

And he says, there need be no poor people among you, for in

the land the Lord your God is giving you, he will richly bless

you. So why is Luke referencing the

Old Testament in this bit of the New Testament?

Again, we might think, well sure, it's a different sort of

God, but no, it's the same God. And what Luke wants us to see

here is the early church in Jerusalem is like the new

Israel. It's the restored Israel.

It's Israel as Israel should have been.

It's an Israel transformed by the generosity and grace of God.

So they in turn are generous and gracious to each other.

The gospel message of Jesus, Jesus giving himself for us,

transforms his people into those who give of themselves to each

other. And you look down at verse 33.

The apostles message is about the resurrection of the Lord

Jesus. Jesus is alive, He is lured, but

he's resurrected because first he died first.

He gave himself for us. He gave everything he could to

us to save us. And in return he calls on us to

be generous and give of ourselves to each other.

There's another bit of the New Testament we looked at last term

or a couple of maybe last year at some point in two Corinthians

8. First, name the Apostle Paul

writing, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that

though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you

through his poverty might become rich because of God's generosity

towards the early church. The early church is generous

towards each other. And in case that all sounds very

idealistic or theoretical, then Luke gives us a solid living

example of a church member living that way, a man called

Barnabas. That's verses 36 to 37.

Just read that for us. So Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus,

whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of

encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and

put it at the apostles feet. This man, Barnabas, he's a

Jewish believer from the island of Cyprus.

He's going to play a big role in the second-half of Acts.

But here we are introduced to him.

He has sold a field he owns and instead of keeping the money for

himself, which he's fully entitled to do, he gave the

money to the apostles for them and to give to believers who

were in need. So in Barnabas looks shows us a

life transformed by the grace of God.

Barnabas knows God has given him everything in Christ.

And Barnabas then says, well, what I have I want to use to

bless other people in Christ. What does that have to teach us

today? In a sense, the Ananias and

Sapphira bit makes it even more clear.

But here with Barnabas, we learn that what we do with our money

and our possessions as followers of Jesus, it's a spiritual

issue. It's not like, well, that's the

practical stuff. I don't need to think about

Jesus with I'll I'll think about Jesus when I'm singing, when I'm

praying, when I'm doing church things.

But the money that's that's mine.

That's mine. I've worked for that.

I get that. OK, Jesus, you died to to pay

for my sins but but I worked to pay for my house and my car and

this holiday, but actually know what Barnabas demonstrates for

us If someone for him. Jesus was lured over his money

over his possessions over his bank account.

If they had such a thing. This is talking about the

lordship of Jesus. It's calling on God's people if

we've received lavishly from the grace of God in Christ, and

everything we have is a gift from him.

Everything we have is to be used to worship Jesus and bear

witness to Jesus. Barnabas shows us that.

And again, this passage doesn't command or mandate that all

Christians everywhere must sell everything they own and put it

into a common fund. We see that in the case of

Ananias Zephyr. Peter's really clear.

With him, you were free to do what you wanted with your

property. You didn't have to bring the

money to us, but Barnabas shows us someone who willingly wants

to use whatever opportunity he has to bless others who are in

need in God's people. One possible expression of that

we'll look at verse 34 to 35. This kind of struck me this week

that the early church seemed to have a common fund that people

could give towards for the benefit of the needy.

I think we discussed as a family meeting a few months ago.

In the past Ave. Summers has had a hardship fund

where to a separate pot of money that people can give towards,

held separately from our general giving.

And then we then have that money available to help anyone in our

church family who is struggling or in need.

And quite a few years ago we were facing financial challenges

as a church, so we chose to to to finish that fund for that

season. But again, this past makes you

think, is that something we need to explore?

Again, having some sort of a hardship fund, a common fund

that we can give towards and go, God has been good to us.

We want to help other people, even if we don't know who those

people are. We want to support and love each

other. That's just a thought, a

possible application of this. But Barnabas, he's a life

transformed by the grace of God. And we learn in chapter 5,

there's another couple in the church who like the look of the

praise that Barnabas has received.

And Barnabas, his name is Joseph.

He gets a whole new nickname by the apostles, Barnabas, son of

encouragement. And there's a couple in the

church going, I'd quite like that sort of nickname.

I'd quite like people to think that of me.

And that couple are Ananias and Sapphira.

This is the middle section of this passage, the most

challenging and disturbing one, where God judges Ananias and

Sapphira for their sin and hypocrisy.

And the opening verse is a sobering reminder to us.

Acts chapter 5. God hates hypocrisy in his

Acts 5 · chapter mention

church. He hates hypocrisy.

Now this is a really challenging passage.

I think just a few things to comment about them.

The first thing is this actually Luke is writing a reliable

history of the early church here.

It would have been easier for Luke just to focus on the

positive stories of the early church in Jerusalem.

The last bit of our reading even has amazing signs and wonders.

Lives being transformed by the power of the apostles in the in

the power of the spirit that look at you said, well, let's

skip over analysts of fire because that's a bit depressing.

But no, he really wants to to write an honest and accurate

history of the church. He's not writing Christian

propaganda. This isn't an airbrushed story.

This is the church, warts and all, it's great strengths and

it's alarming weaknesses, it's triumphs and it's failures, It's

heroes like Barnabas and it's cautionary tales like Ananias

and Sapphira. I think the second thing we need

to see here is this is Satan attacking the early church.

Peter unmasks Satan in verse 3, but this is Satan working very

subtly to destroy the church. In Luke's gospel, we saw Jesus

and Satan clash on multiple times.

People who are demon possessed when when the devil tempts Jesus

in the wilderness, there are these moments where Jesus and

Satan clash and Jesus triumphs. And we might even think, well,

maybe is is Satan is sitting done for him, maybe actually

not. He's not active anymore.

But no, we get this reminder here.

Satan wants to stop what Jesus is doing in his church.

He wants to corrupt the church and destroy its witness, and he

will do that in any way he can. Now, sometimes Satan attacks the

church through persecution and violence, and we saw that in

chapter 4. We're going to see that again in

chapter 5 when the apostles are arrested for preaching about

Jesus. But here with Ananias and

Sapphira, it is a much more subtle strategy.

Satan tries to bring down the church through the hypocrisy of

its members. That's what he's doing with this

couple. Verse 3 Peter says, how is it

that Satan has so filled your heart?

There are spiritual dimensions. This is a spiritual war going on

in this moment. Finally, I think this is meant

to be a picture of the coming judgement of God.

I see throughout the book of Acts the future keeps breaking

into the present. Every time someone is healed,

every time there is a miracle, that is the future new creation

breaking into the here and now through the church.

And that can still happen today around the world and among us.

By nice as if I was like the flip side of that coin.

This is the future judgement of God on hypocrisy and sin,

breaking into the present through this couple.

This is a trailer of the judgement to come, given in

advance to warn us to be ready and to run to Jesus for him to

take the judgement we deserve. So what do we learn about this

couple, Ananias and Sapphira? A few very obvious things.

They're members of the early church in Jerusalem, where we're

told that we need to pause for a minute there because they looked

like everyone else. They look like genuine

believers. They would have been baptized

like the other believers. They would have come to faith.

They're living among the early church members and to see what

struck me as well is their marriage is a strong and united

1. Yet how often do we sort of

aspire that as Christian. If you want a strong united

marriage and we learn in verses one and two that that Hannah

survived. They're A-Team.

They're in this together. Verse 2, with his wife's full

knowledge, Ananias kept back part of the money for himself.

This is a strong marriage. Tragically, from Luke's

perspective, it's one united in hypocrisy, lies and greed.

We learned that they're looking for the same praise Barnabas

received. Again, their actions look really

similar to Barnabas actions on the outside.

Barnabas had some property, so did Anas and Sapphira.

They sold the property. They brought the money to the

apostles feet. They they say this is for the

needs of people in need in the church.

It looked exactly the same, looked identical on the outside.

And yet Peter recognizes their deceit as an attack of Satan on

the church. Verses 3 to 4.

Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your

heart that you've lied to the Holy Spirit, and I've kept for

yourself some of the money you received from the land?

If Peter makes it clear, no one forced Ananias into this deceit.

He and Sapphira had been free to do whatever they wanted with

their property. Verse 4 Didn't it belong to you

before it was sold, says Peter, And after it was sold, wasn't

the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing

such a thing? You're saying, what have you

done, Ananias? He's done such a foolish and

terrible thing. You have not lied just to human

beings, Peter says, but to God. And as a result God judges

Ananias for his sin. Verse 5.

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died, and great fear

seized all who heard what had happened.

Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body and

carried him out and buried him. Great fear seized the church.

We often think the early church would have been such a time of

joy and wonder, seeing God healing, transforming, growing.

This church 3005 thousand more here they suddenly have this

encounter with a God who judges hypocrisy and sin, because that

was at the heart of what Ananias and fire were doing.

It was hypocrisy. There was greed involved, but

the sin behind the sin was hypocrisy.

And that's a that's a big word, plenty of syllables, but a

definition I read the last few weeks has really hit me.

One way of defining hypocrisy, but tell you in this passage is

it's just pretending to be more spiritual than we really are.

That's what Ananias survivor are doing here.

They're pretending to be more spiritual than they really are.

The same root for that word, hypocrisy is, is the word for

play, acting, acting out a part to convince other people, even

God, that you're better than you are.

And that's what Ananias inspire we're doing.

And they believe they could get away with it.

Peter points out the madness of what they're doing, verse 3.

They're lying to the Holy Spirit.

They're lying to God himself. It's a personal rejection of the

God who always speaks the truth and always seeks honesty from

his people. Hypocrisy is a big deal for God.

And I want to say actually, just as we pause for a second, that

is really good news about the character of our God.

We have a God who hates hypocrisy even more than we do.

You look throughout the Bible, you see in the Old Testament,

but tell you the prophets, they are always challenging ancient

Israel. You claim to follow God, but

look at what you're doing. You're exploiting the poor.

You're you're, you're working on the Sabbath.

You're not trusting God. You claim one thing, but you

live a very different way. Jesus in his ministry is so

gentle and compassionate to those caught in sin, to those

who confess their sin, but to those who say, no, we are fine

without you. Jesus, the religious leaders, he

denounces their hypocrisy again and again.

It is self righteousness that the Son of God is angry about

and it's self righteousness that is the heart of what Ananias and

Sapphira are doing here. I want to say this is good news

about God because most of us hate hypocrisy when we see it,

whether that's in the world of politics or celebrity or our

friends and family members see people claiming one thing, but

then we see, hang on, that's not what they say.

Well, why did you do that? They always said they do this,

but they're doing this instead. Of course, hypocrisy is one of

the most damaging accusations people outside the church level

at Christians. That's why the stakes are so

high here. Why does God hate hypocrisy?

Because of who he is, because he's the God who is light and in

him is no darkness at all. He's the God who tells the

truth. He's the God who wants honesty

from his people. And God hates hypocrisy because

of the damage hypocrisy does to the life and witness of his

church. I can think of the number of

times it is so often when I've spoken to people about

Christianity, they say, oh, but Christians, they're all

hypocrites. They, they say one thing, but

they do another. They, they claim to, to, to love

people, but actually they're just as as as greedy and selfish

as the rest of us. Why would I want to be a

Christian? Why would I need to go near a

church? It's just full of hypocrites.

If you've ever felt like that and if you've friends, family

members who feel like that, I want to see the God of Acts 5 is

good news for them because the God of Acts 5 hates hypocrisy

even more more than we do. This is a loving God stepping in

to protect his church from the danger of hypocrisy.

For the good of his church and the sake of our witness, God

steps in and judges this couple as a warning for the rest of the

early church. Instead of hypocrisy, God wants

his people shaped by honesty and humility.

Instead of being hypocritical, claiming to be more spiritually

are he wants to be honest. Actually, I am struggling to

pray right now. I actually I don't love God as

much as I should. Actually I am.

I am putting my trust in my job or my family or my wealth.

I am not always trusting in God. Actually, God wants that level

of honesty. Blessed are the poor in spirit,

says Jesus, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven, not the

people who claim they've arrived.

They're sorted. God wants honesty from his

church and he wants humility, self righteousness says I don't

need God's grace. That person over there might.

I don't. God wants humility, the humility

that says actually I need Jesus, I need forgiveness.

God invites us to be honest to him.

I seem interesting. In the middle of this passage,

this dark passage, Peter the apostle invites Sapphira to be

honest with him. Look at verse 7, we're told

after the death of Ananias, his wife Sapphira comes looking for

him. She doesn't know what has

happened yet and Peter asked her a question.

Verse 8 tell me Sapphira, is this the price you and an

Ananias got for the land I want to see this is the grace of God

being offered to Sapphira. Just tell the truth Sapphira.

You don't have to face the same fate as your husband.

Yeah, I've been in that together.

But I if I was given an opportunity here to repent, to

acknowledge what they've done. But she chooses the path of lies

and hypocrisy. And she too is struck down by

God and buried alongside her husband.

And verse 11 comes the summary. Great fear sees the whole church

and all who heard about these events.

This is like a moment in the life of the church that no one

would forget. And how do we respond to this

astonishing story? A few things stand out for us.

We've already said it, but we need to be honest with the

living God. We need to be careful not to

pretend to be more spiritual than we are.

I see for any of us who in any teaching capacity, that is a

huge challenge for us. And I include that we'll say

parents hunger leaders. The danger is we will present as

more spiritual than we are, but we cannot lie to the Holy

Spirit. It is foolish to even try, and

we should not lie to God's people for their precious to

Him. The great tragedy of Ananias as

fire is they refuse to confess their sin, their needs of God's

grace. We need to be honest with the

living God and we need to come to Jesus in repentance and

faith. There's a big danger actually

with any passage like this may be a challenging 1.

The the the message of it could be well, make sure you're not

like Ananias and Sapphira sort it out.

You know, be better than that. Make sure you don't struggle

with hypocrisy. Otherwise God's going to strike

you dead. I don't believe that's why Luke

records this for us. He records this for us to say,

Christian, don't think you can save yourself.

I don't think you can play act your way into God's family.

You need the grace of God. You need the life, death and

resurrection of Jesus in your place so you can be welcomed by

a holy God. Our only hope, Ananias and

Sapphira's only hope was Jesus life, death and resurrection.

So come to Jesus, Luke says, for the forgiveness and new life.

He alone can give us this fear, the impact he's having us to go.

I'm not going to mess around with the living God.

I want to be honest with him and honest with his people, honest

about my need, honest about my dependence on Him.

I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not.

I want to be honest and come to Jesus because Jesus welcomes me,

warts and all. It was a children's song we used

to sing a few years ago an Ave. Jesus died so I don't have to

hide anymore. I love that line.

Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.

He's not ashamed by anything you've done.

What he wants is honesty, confession.

Come to him, humble yourself and say, Lord, here I am.

You know the mess I am in, Lord, would you forgive me because of

your life, death and resurrection?

That's if you like the individual application.

I think corporately we just need to take sin seriously in the

church. And I said fire.

There are members of the early church.

They looked the part, claimed to trust in Jesus, but they had let

hypocrisy and greed sneak in. And God steps in to stop that

because the holiness, the the Christlikeness of the church

matters to God and it should matter to us.

God steps in here through the leadership of Peter and the

other apostles to expose hypocrisy, confront sin, and

protect the church. And it's for those reasons that

Christians throughout history, including Ave. today practice

what is called church discipline participant is is that is that

thing we do for one another. And it happens most of the time

informally in a very natural way, where we speak the truth in

love to each other. Where we seek to .1 another to

Jesus and away from the world. Where, where we seek to listen

to and live out the word of God together on Sunday mornings in

our home groups. In other times when we see a

friend, a brother or sister in Christ making wrong decisions

and we love them enough to say something about it, we say it

humbly. We don't say it arrogantly, but

we say something about it because we know God takes in

seriously and so do we. I want to say that that

category, church discipline, it happens all the time, week on

week at Ave. informally and formally.

We have had to practice church discipline on a number of

occasions over the years where where a church member has just

been unrepentantly defying what God says in his Word.

The elders have met with them. We've tried to plead with them

overtime. Eventually we'll bring it to the

whole church. We pray for them.

And then sometimes tragically, we have had to remove people

from membership. Why?

Because sin matters. Because hypocrisy tarnishes the

witness of God's church. Because actually to love one

another, we need to challenge when we are getting it wrong.

I have had people challenge me over the years and I have needed

it. I have wanted to be more like

what the world wants. And I can think of actually a

teenage friend of mine who just said, Richard, you watch TV and

just go with what it says. I was like 1516.

I remember those words. I'm so grateful my friend had

the courage, and I love to say that to me.

We need to do that week on week. This is why we need each other.

Church discipline should be happening all the time in our

church. Informally, it happens sometimes

formally when the informal hasn't worked.

I think that is a principle we get from passages like Acts 5.

It's about taking sin seriously. It's about the glory of God,

about loving one another as God's people, and about

protecting the witness of the church.

This is the presence and power of God at work in the early

church to judge sin. The final little section of our

reading, very briefly is, if you like, the flip side.

We see the power and presence of God to heal and transform lives.

Great fear seizes the church, but actually we learn verse 12,

they are out serving as witnesses to Jesus in Jerusalem.

God is answering the prayer they pray back in verse 30 of chapter

4 when they pray Father, stretch out your hand to heal and

perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy

servant Jesus. That is precisely what God does

in verses 12 to 17, verse 12, the apostles before many signs

and wonders among the people and all the believers used to meet

together in Solomon's colonnade. This place in the temple, a

large gathering place where Peter had preached when he'd

healed the lame man in chapter 3.

And now they're proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom through

word and through deed. This early church is not being

known for its hypocrisy. It is being known for the power

of God at work through them. And there are unique moments in

this passage. In the original Greek and verse

12, we learn it's through the hands of the apostles.

Many signs and wonders are taking place, it seems, at least

at this point. In the early church, the signs

and wonders are restricted to the apostles.

Not every believer is performing these signs and wonders.

They're a continuation of the healing ministry of Jesus

because actually it's Jesus himself healing through the

apostles. And we get these astonishing

moments. Verse 15.

Even Peter's shadow had the power to heal the sick.

That is astonishing, and I don't actually know many churches

today, whatever they think about signs and wonders, who claim

that shadows are healing the sick.

This seems to be a moment of astonishing power of God in

response to him working through his church.

We get a bit later in Acts where a handkerchief used by Paul

heals people. These these astonishing moments,

but this is the transforming power of God at work through his

people and the early church is growing.

It's growing beyond the binds of Jerusalem.

Verse 16, crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem.

Actually, this is Jesus command to be witnesses outside of

Jerusalem. It is happening through the

power and presence of the living God at work in his church.

And we'll pick up the next bits of this account in Acts 5 next

week. But our God transforms lives.

He exposes sin, and He brings healing.

Ananias and Sapphira missed out on the healing, the forgiveness

that would be theirs by hiding their sin and pretending they

were more spiritual than they are.

The living Godfather, Son and Spirit would not accept that He

wants honesty and humility from his people.

So as we leave this bit of Acts this week, what do we learn

about the God who is present and powerful among his people?

But we've seen He's the God who gives generously so that we

learn generosity. He's the God who judges sin so

we take sin seriously. He's the God who transforms,

lives as we live for him in this world.

He's a God who is holy. He is different to us.

He sees what's in our hearts. He hates hypocrisy even more

than we do. But if we are honest with him,

he's a God who heals, who transforms His people into those

who bear witness for him in this world.

This is not a tame or safe God we encounter in the book of

Acts, and it's not a tame or safe God we worship and trust in

as a church family here at Ave. But whenever I come across

passages like this, we're reminded of the awesomeness that

even the frightening power of the Lord.

I often go back to the Narnia stories that I used to read as a

kid, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

In that story you may know it for human children are

transported to the magical land of Narnia.

In that land, animals can talk. A cruel witch rules over the

land. And Narnia's only hope is the

return of the great lion Aslan to save them all.

Billy's not here right now, but she just loved these Narnia

stories. There are maps in her hand drawn

of Narnia around our house. She's to try and dig through

snow to get into Narnia. When it snowed as a girl, I can

say, oh, like, she's not here. But it's an astonishing story.

And the four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, are told

about this Aslan by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.

Let me pick up the story at this point.

Mr. Beaver, says Aslan, he's the king.

He's the Lord of the whole wood, the son of the great emperor.

Beyond the sea he'll settle the White Queen.

All right. Aslan is a lion.

The lion, the great lion. When the children hear it's a

lion, well, they're frightened. They're scared.

One of them says, well, well, he's a lion.

Is he quite safe? I should feel rather nervous

about meeting a lion. It's great 1940s English.

And the Beavers reply, safe. Of course he isn't safe, but

he's good. He's the king, I tell you.

The God we worship, the God of Acts 5, is not safe, but he is

good. He alone is strong enough to set

us free from sin and death and the devil.

He alone is strong enough to transform our hearts, to show us

what it means to live genuinely before him, not hypocritically.

He alone is our only hope because He's good and He is our

King. The early church saw that and

worshipped Him. We see that through His Word, by

His Spirit, and we worship Him. Today.

His presence and power is at work among us.

Let's ask Him to keep us trusting in Him and worshipping

Him for His goodness and His good purposes for us as a

church. Let me pray for us.

Let's, let's pray. Father God, this is a sobering

and challenging passage. Father, you know each one of us

how often we have, maybe even in the recent days, pretended to be

more spiritual than we are. We've been frightened of being

honest with you and with other people about our real fears or

struggles or doubts. Lord, we ask that through this

true story of what you did in Ananias and Sapphira's case,

would you bring us to our senses?

Would you keep us from trying to lie to the Holy Spirit about who

we really are, and instead remind us that we can be

completely honest with You? Not because we're good, but

because you're good? Not because we deserve

forgiveness, because you offer forgiveness.

Because Jesus lived the life and died the death and rose again to

reconcile us to you? Would we rest in His saving

grace? Would we be honest in the light

of his saving grace? And Father, would we love each

other enough to keep pointing one another to you day in, day

out? Until that time we see you, the

glorious King, face to face, and we ask that in Jesus name and

for his glory among us, Amen.