Christ is Life Podcast

Well, I don't normally put titles to my sermons, as most of you know, but based on what you just heard, Natalie read the passage that we're going to be looking at, I have titled today's sermon. You ready to hear the title? The title of today's message is simply this, give or die. I it, and so I am going to have the ushers come back forward. That is not the title of today's message, but to say the least, this is a little bit of an uncomfortable passage of Scripture, uncomfortable place that we find ourselves in this message series that we've been in called life in the Spirit. We've been going verse by verse through the book of Acts, and have landed in this spot reading these things today. And what we've been looking for, as you know, if you've been here, is what is life in the Spirit supposed to look like like? What did it look like for the early church when the fir, the spirit, first came on the scene? And what does that still mean for us today? If anything, what did the early church look like? If we're the same church today, that is the same church that was in the beginning, then what is that supposed to mean for us? Is it supposed to look the same? And so we've been asking these questions, going verse by verse, saying, What is life in the Spirit, and what does it really look like? And so what I want to do today is work our way back through this passage. Slow down just a little bit, talk about the context and show you how this really doesn't mean, even though you might hear some people preaching that title of a message, give or die, it's not really what it means. The very first thing that Luke says in this section is that all the believers the church, the early church, those who had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything that they had. And so the first thing that we see, and Luke's alluded to this already in different earlier passages, is that the church was living in Unity. God had united them together through the Holy Spirit, first and foremost, to himself as the head, and then to each other as the members of His Body in a spiritual sense. And so there was this, this unity that had been established. And then, as they lived life in the Spirit, they continued to live in unity. They were of one heart and one mind. There was no one that's coming up going, you know what? If we don't do church my way, I'm out of here. There's no Burger King mentality. Got to have it my way, right? So all the believers were of one mind and one heart. They were living in unity, and that unity led them to do this, to share everything that they had. They were of such one mind and one purpose in doing life together, that they shared everything that they had. Now we are also told why they were able to share everything that they had. It was through a certain mindset they had a mind. Mindset that led to the sharing of everything that they had. And the mindset was this, that no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own. Their mindset was simply this, my stuff isn't really my stuff, it's God's stuff as the creator of all things, and the one who owns all things as the one who provided me with my stuff. My stuff really isn't my stuff, and so I'm just a steward of it. And so if it's God's then he can lead me to do whatever it is that he wants. And we know that he has a heart for other people, he's put us together as a family and family takes care of each other. We talked about last week how at the end of or Luke says going into a prayer that the early church was praying that after getting arrested and being persecuted, they went back to their people. When you have a people, you care for your people, and they care for you. This is life in the Spirit to be living in unity of one heart and one mind and sharing of the possessions that the Lord provides for us as they continue. We see how this kind of played out 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. Let's just pause right there. There's been so much attention on the apostles and what it is that the Holy Spirit was doing in. Through them in their leadership position in the early church. But notice that God's grace was so powerfully at work in who everyone. Of course, we're seeing it in the apostles and those who were the leaders of the church and those who had spent three years with him. But it wasn't just them. It was all of them, everyone in the church was experiencing God's grace powerfully in their lives, and in this particular way, that grace was working powerfully through them, the Holy Spirit, so that there were no needy persons, as verse 34 continues among them. And here's what we're told from time to time. You can underline highlight that those who own land or houses, sold them, brought them money from their sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. So when we talk about them sharing their stuff, it wasn't like they sold everything and brought it all together in one community pot and just shared everything all together from time to time they had stuff. God had provided stuff that continued to stay in their possession. But as needs arose and the Holy Spirit made them aware of those needs, they the Holy Spirit prompted people to sell land or houses or things that they owned, bring the money to the apostles and allow the Holy Spirit in and through them to decide who is really in need, and as a result of doing things, I mean, what we see in verse 34 is astounding. Life in the spirit was leading them to sell things that they had and share everything that they had, so that there was literally no needy persons among them. Can you believe that not one single person in the early church living life in the Spirit was in need? Wow, that's the goal. That's the goal for us, as well as we trust in the Holy Spirit under his church today, and he works in and through us to meet the needs of others. That we could say at some point, because we're living dependently upon the Holy Spirit in us, that there are no none, no needy persons at Colonial Hills Baptist Church.
That's the goal. We keep
our eyes fixed on Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to lead us in the practical outworking of that. So now that Luke has shared this general mindset, none of their possessions of their own, they realize it's God's stuff. He leads them to share them as he we steward those particular things in all of this. We're told about an example. Here's a positive example. Like, okay, we see that that's in general. But what about what does that look like in someone's life? Well, it looked like this, as we read about earlier, 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 this is the introduction. Many of you are familiar. You've read your New Testament. Who Barnabas is. He goes on missionary journeys with Paul. We're going to read more about him as the book of Acts continues and as we get into it a little bit later. And we're told here that he sold a field that he owned, and he didn't hold anything back. Now that was not required. He chose to do that, the Holy Spirit laid it on his heart, and he followed through with that. He could have kept some of it, as we're going to see in just a moment. But sometimes the Holy Spirit doesn't just lead us to sell things and then give part of what it is to people and then hold some back for ourselves, but to just give it all. I mean, life in the Spirit sometimes looks like not just generosity, but like extravagant generosity, things that don't make sense so much so that the outside world looks at us and goes, Wow. Look at the extravagant generosity among those people. What's gotten into them.
So this is life in the Spirit.
Barnabas sells a field, lays it all at their feet to provide for those in need. Now that he's given us a positive example, He gives us a negative example. The reason we know that this is a negative example, and even though this is chapter five and we just finished chapter four. Keep in mind that the chapters and verses were not there as part of the original writings. It wasn't like Luke got to that sentence and put a period there and went, and I'm going to put a chapter break here and go right into the next one. They were just writing it all this together. We did that. People did that, so it would just be easier to find. And so this is a continuation of what was just said. And here's the other reason we know this, because the NIV translate this conjunction right here, and you can kind of subtly get Now, okay, so compared to that, it's a contrast. But most translations here use the word, but the conjunction. There, all right, so, so here's a positive example of Barnabas and life in the Spirit and the extravagant generosity there. But now here's an example of not living life in the Spirit. A man named Ananias, together with his wife, Sapphira, also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge. He kept part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles feet. Now that's really not the issue. The issue isn't that they kept part of it, and we're going to see that as we continue to go on the the issue here is that they lie about it. They they say that they brought it all when they really didn't, and they kept part of it for themselves. One of the questions you may ask is, why? Why? Why do that? Well, we do it all the time. Maybe not. You sorry. I've done it before, right for recognition. It's very easy in our flesh, sometimes not life in the Spirit, but in my own power and my own strength to give to something, to contribute to something to do. So not because I really care, and because I'm trying to help that person out, because
makes me look better.
I look like a good person for having given to that I get recognition. God, Aren't you proud of me for giving some of that stuff? And other people are proud of me for giving some of those things. And so it's very possible to do nice things, not really to give because we have a heart for them, but to make us look good, give us a sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, value, worth. Jesus even called this kind of thing out. He called this thing out among the Pharisees. You may remember in Matthew there's a chapter, verse or chapter 23 where he's calling out the Pharisees and giving them woes, and he says, Woe to you Pharisees and teachers of the law, you hypocrites, you people who are pretending to be someone you're not. Sometimes we give to things, and we're pretending to be someone that we're not, and that's what they were doing. We even see Jesus highlight this in 23 Matthew 2035 in that passage, he says, Everything they the Pharisees, everything they do is done for people to see. This is what's going on here. Ananias and Sapphira are doing this for people to see, for the recognition, for what they'll get out of it. And now the Holy Spirit shows us how this was revealed to them, that that wasn't really all of it, because the Holy Spirit revealed it to Peter verse three as Chapter Five continues. Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit? See, there it is, and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land. Didn't belong to you before it was sold. You could have, you know, just not given it all, and instead, that's what you gave, right? Actually been honest. And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal. Again, you could do whatever you wanted to with it, what the Holy Spirit might lead you to do, what made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to just human beings, but God. Now, before we really dive into that, I just want to quickly point out, because this is a whole series on the Holy Spirit, and we've said this in the beginning, but he mentions the Holy Spirit and lying to the Holy Spirit, and then he references that he's lying to God here, and we need to highlight that and make sure that we're aware and we're clear of the biblical truth of who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is not some force that we're talking about. It's not like the force in Star Wars or whatever. We're talking about God Himself. We're talking about the third member of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons, but one God of one essence, not three gods, one God who's made up of three distinct persons and one essence here, and so we see that in this part here. Now, one of the things as we talked about this is a really uncomfortable passage, because of what we see happen to Ananias and Sapphira. And it makes us question, what's this really all about? And one of the questions that people have is, well, are they really believers? Like, are they true believers, or are they not? And there's a lot of things written about this and why people believe certain things, but, but I will tell you, and again, this is just my personal opinion, and I'll share why and what we're going to see here, and what it's based on, that they were not that they were not true believers. They were not part of the family of God. And the reason why, mostly, is because of what we see in this phrase right here, that Satan had filled their hearts. You. Do you know what happens to believers, people who put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation? When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them,
they receive new hearts.
You receive a new heart. I mean, this was even prophesied about in the Old Testament, saying, when I do something new and send the Messiah, one day, I'm going to give you a new heart. Let me show you where it is at in Ezekiel, chapter 36 verses 26 and 27 this is God speaking, and he says, One day in the future, when the Messiah comes and I do this work through him, I will give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit in you. I will remove your heart of stone, your old heart, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you. So when that happens, which it did happen, this is what we read about, and we talked about in Acts chapter two, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in believers. And then through that union, there was a new heart. The Holy Spirit is now joined to our spirit, to their spirit, the believers, and then they were given new life. They were given a new heart. Their old nature was dead, buried and done away with, and now they have a new nature that they did not have the moment before. And so they have new hearts. They've been regenerated. And so here's what I'm trying to say, if God's Spirit is united to a believer spirit in the place of their heart. This is an eternal union. Satan cannot fill this space. Satan cannot possess what Jesus already possesses. Do you see it? Satan can certainly influence our minds. He can influence our emotions and situations and circumstances and things that are going on in our lives, but he can't fill our hearts. And yet, what we're told right here in Acts chapter three is that Satan had filled his heart, and so I say, not a believer. He's not a true believer, because that can't happen to someone. They're like the Pharisees, who Jesus called the hypocrites, people pretending to be who they weren't doing things for show to be seen by others, to find their value and worth through these things, rather than in Christ. The other thing that we see here is that Satan is the one ultimately at work, of course, in them and through them. Satan does not like the movement, the addition of all the numbers, the momentum, what's happening in the early church, he tried to kill Jesus and be done away with this forever. God raised Him from the dead, and now he knows that, and he's been defeated forever, but he is trying to disrupt their unity. Remember, they're all of one mind. They're life in the Spirit one accord. There's nobody complaining my way or the highway. Everybody's doing it together, sharing everything. So what does Satan do? Works his way into the midst inner workings, trying to divide and disrupt it from within and the people who are all around. Satan was at work in the early church.
He's still at work today.
He's still at work trying to disrupt the unity and the church being of one mind and one purpose, and keeping the main focus on the main things, and trying to divide us over all the little things that don't really matter as much as the big thing. But when this happened in the early church, God stepped in and he protected his church, and he, of course, as we've seen, already, took drastic measures to do so. Verse five, when Ananias heard this, he fell down and died, and great Fear seized all who had heard what happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. This is the other reason that I believe that Ananias and Sapphira were unbelievers. I believers, God killed them.
Now it doesn't say that literally, and there are some people who don't think that's what happened. Maybe it was the shock of the moment he got caught. Heart started. A race experienced a heart attack or something else and just died of natural causes. But the way this is written, the way it doesn't just happen to him, but it happens to his wife. I mean, what are the odds of that? It sure seems like that this is something that God did to them. And so this, if this is punishment, if this is punishment for lying and trying to divide the church and pretending to be someone that they weren't and they were real believers,
What's the punishment here?
They got to go to heaven. You see what I'm saying? Like,
if the punishment is this is such a bad thing. You're going to be killed as punishment. They're going woo hoo. We get to go be with Jesus in a place that's perfect, forever, no more pain, suffering in any way that sounds like reward, not punishment. To me, second, we know the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that he offered himself up as a one time sacrifice for all sins. At the cross, he paid the penalty for all of them, received God's wrath for all sins. There's no more punishment. There's no more wrath to be received for sin, and that's why Scripture declares in Romans 81 that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. And so if Ananias and Sapphira are believers, then there's no condemnation for them if they're in Christ, Jesus, they shouldn't be being condemned and sentenced to die as punishment if there's no condemnation in Christ. And then finally, the last thing is just, we don't see a continuation of this. If God was about punishing believers for lying and trying to disrupt the unity of the church, there'd be a lot of people dead. So this is why I personally believe that they weren't really believers and truly a part of the early church. Now if I'm wrong, which I won't take a bullet for that, that's my personal opinion, what I see, and I think it's got merit. Hopefully you've seen what we're talking about, how I'm not just sharing my opinion, I'm validating it through scripture. But if I'm wrong, what we see happen here is, is, is God having to take two of his children, who he absolutely loved and adored so much that he allowed his one and only son to go to a cross and die for them.
He allowed them to come home early
and to protect his church, to get the attention of the others around to say this unity, this thing of what I'm doing to protect it from Satan and the real division this pivotal period of the early church, to get it launched off the ground. If I'm wrong, that's what's going on here. It's not we have this text today to make sure that we live life in the Spirit, in complete fear, in running from God all the time, whenever we sin.
That's not what this is really all about.
Didn't just happen to him, as we said, it happens as we go on. About three 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 are bear who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also. And at that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. And then the young man came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great Fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. So overall, these 11 verses that we have, the first 11 in chapter five, are one big negative example, the opposite of life in the Spirit, the opposite of Barnabas, who is living life in the Spirit in extravagant generosity and not doing so to be seen by others and look at me, and I'm such a great guy. You guys encourage me. He's the son of encouragement. He's the one who's looking at really caring about others and building others up in that way, and now he's showing us of the unselfishness and the negative example of what it looks like to not be in the spirit and living life in the Spirit. And so now that he's done that, he's given two examples of the unity, he comes back and goes now that God protected his church through this event, moving forward, they continue to be living in that unity, and he continued to be doing powerful things after he protected his church in this way. Verse 12, the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people and all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by all the people, nevertheless, more and more people, men and women, believed in the Lord, put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, and they were added to their number. The church grew. We talked about this a while ago. That doesn't mean the roll numbers increased on paper. When you see that they were added in number, that means lives were transformed and changed. Old hearts were removed from those people, and new hearts were put in. Old natures were removed, new natures were put in. And so when we're talking about added numbers, we're talking about, Okay, God took care of these things, protected the church, and continued to have them living in unity and together and caring for each other's needs, and then even adding people on the outside in who were seeing the unity and extravagant generosity
on the inside.
Then he finishes up as we looked about earlier. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets. These are people that can help. They can help with real life things going on. Brought the sick into the streets and and laid them on beds and mats, so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passes by, crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were
healed. This
sounds a lot like what we see Jesus doing in the gospels, doesn't it? Jesus drove out impure spirits, helped people who were being tormented by impure spirits. He was healing people and people who would touch his cloak were were even healed that had faith in Him. And we've highlighted this a little bit as well. But the reason it sounds like what Jesus did in the gospels, because Jesus is still doing it in and through them. He's still the one doing it. I know we're talking Peter's shadow on all that, but Peter already told you in a previous speech, impassioned by the Holy Spirit, to declare, it's not us nothing special about my shadow. It's Jesus dwelling in me and through me, and they believed and walked by faith and life in the Spirit and and people were healed and impure spirits were cast out. And by the way, that reminds us again, Satan we mentioned that earlier, is at work in and through the church, there are impure spirits, things that you and I don't seen in an unseen realm that do not like you. They don't like anyone, but they especially don't like you. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus, and they will attack and torment and they can't feel you, they can't possess you, but they can influence and disrupt and take your mind and deceive and all of those things. And so we are aware of those things, and we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and what we have in Him. And so again, throughout this whole passage, what we've seen is that their unity, life in the Spirit, means one purpose, one mind, when a church is living life in the Spirit, you will see a church of one mind and one heart, people focused on mission together. We're on this adventure and mission to go make disciples of all nations together. The Holy Spirit led empowered them to meet each other's needs and go outside and share the Gospel. And so when we see this, when we see everything that's written here, and what life in the Spirit looked like for the early church, we asked the question, the same way we've been doing through the whole series, what does that have to do with me today? If that's what life in the Spirit look like for them, what does life in the Spirit look like for us? And well, because we end it here, even though this is only the last two verses, and we'll get into the overwhelming focus of what was really going on here, we're told about healing.
Jesus is a healer. He can heal,
and sometimes he chooses to heal in and through people. It's just the apostles. Well, wait till we get to Stephen, because Stephen's coming in a few chapters, and he wasn't an apostle, and we'll tell that he did wonders and signs that people, God healed people in and through Him. And so, so, so was it just a work. It was something that did in and through the church. And I don't know how all that works and what that necessarily means for everyone today, but I do know that Jesus is a healer. And so what does that mean for us? Well, we pray and we ask him to heal, and we have faith that he still does so today, and we rest and leave it in his hands
for whatever results he causes in those times you.
But the overall focus, the majority of what we see here today, in this passage, is this, that life in the Spirit means that we will not see our possessions as our own, and that He, the Holy Spirit God, will use us to share our possessions with others in need. One of the ways that we do that here at Colonial hills, one of the ways that the Holy Spirit does that here is through our Deacon benevolence fund. Many of you are aware of that, but we have a whole benevolence fund that our deacons oversee that goes to help meet people's needs in the church, people who are part of our family, people that we're doing life with our people. And so sometimes people Holy Spirit prompts people to give over and above their general giving to the deacon benevolence fund. And when we have money in that fund and we're made aware of a need, then there are members that are a part of that Deacon benevolence team within our overall Deacon ministry, who look into those needs and who the people are and what's really going on, and find the best ways that we can help them. And sometimes that means paying utilities and in rent or for for car repairs or for whatever it is that's going on in their lives. And in some people's situations, they have taken care of and trusted the Holy Spirit with all of those finances, and things have been good, but there has been something that's happened that has rocked their world, and they really need just a way to get out of that hole, and then they're moving on track with what the Holy Spirit had done, and put them in better position to keep moving forward in that way. And sometimes it's because people have made a complete mess of the things that the Lord's provided with them, not really being the best stewards of the things that God has blessed them with. And in those situations, we don't go, you're a terrible person, and you could have, should have done better, and so just deal with the consequences. Right? The Holy Spirit invites us to go, here's how we can help now, and here's how we can help you in the long run. And so we'd love to come alongside of you and help you learn how to budget and help you learn how to do this if you need help with that way. And we can be of assistance in those ways. And so sometimes, when we're made aware of a need, that's how life in the Spirit, what life in the Spirit looks like through our church. There are other times when individual needs are recognized through someone in a Sunday school class, and because those people are involved in doing life even more intimately together than we are like in an overall big setting here, then they make the rest of the members of that class aware, and then resources are pulled together collectively to help meet that need of someone in their Sunday school class. And then finally, there are people who sometimes are led by the Holy Spirit and made aware as an individual, of a need that is has arisen, and they use their own resources to meet that need. I had someone come to me after a service and made me aware when we were talking about things similar to this right here, and just said, Hey, I just want you to know that my wife and I have understood for a long time that the Holy Spirit works in and through us to meet people's needs. Whenever the Holy Spirit makes us aware of them, and we have set aside money in our own budget just for that thing, knowing that at some point in time it's going to come up. This is how the Holy Spirit works. And Jason, I just want you to know it's always available, like within seconds, I can get that for you if you are made aware of someone in need, and we can help in any way, you be sure to let us know, and that wasn't done in some way, to go look at me, Aren't I a great person that was going I have been blessed in this way, and God is wants to be a blessing to others in and through us. And so if you're aware of any needs, then be sure to let us know and see if this is something that we can help with as well. The other thing, when we talk about this, and I should have put it up here and written it down as well, but there are sometimes when the Lord's blessed us and he lays it on our hearts to collectively or individually help meet someone's needs who's walking through a tough time. But sometimes you're the person in need. You're the couple that's in need, you're the family that is in need. And so when we see a passage like this and how the church, the Holy Spirit, leads the church to help make sure that there's no needy persons in the church, then one of the things that you have to do, what does it mean for you if you're in that situation here is you are led by the Spirit to make us aware you. When you don't do that, let's just be honest. What you're calling it is or what it is is pride. I'm too prideful to ask for help. That's not the Holy Spirit. That's your flesh. If you're seeing the truth of Scripture is that God uses the church to help meet people's needs, then the Holy Spirit's going to lead you to make us aware that you have needs, so that we can help pray about meeting those needs and declare at Colonial Hills Baptist Church, there's no needy person at all. And so I don't know where you find yourself and which part of the spectrum you're on with all of those, but we simply ask the question, Holy Spirit, how are you leading me to respond today, and as we close in prayer, I want to give you a chance to think about that in this moment.