There's one thing the Lord never does, He never divides. He never divides a church.
People do that. We're good enough at doing that. We're good enough at creating division and animosity. God never does.
He'll add, He'll multiply, and yes, He will subtract. Learn more about the martyrs of the Christian faith who came before you. Today's modern martyrs actions mirror the courage of a long line of brave Christians. And as believers, it's important that we know the heroic sacrifice of those who gave it all for the Christian faith so that we too can boldly stand for Christ.
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Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online and connectwithskip.com slash offer. Great, let's get started. We'll be in acts four as Skip begins today's lesson. Now the multitude verse 32 of those who believed were of one heart. Look at this beautiful description of the first Christians in Jerusalem. The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
Similar to chapter two. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all who were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet. And they distributed to each one or to each as anyone had need. Now I want to just reinforce something I told you a few weeks back. Some love to sort of wear rose colored glasses when reading the Bible and look at this through the eyes of socialism.
And say, see the early church. This was a pure form of communism. They couldn't be more wrong. This is not communism. This is common ism. And there's a huge difference, a massive disparity between communism and common ism. Common ism is enforced. Common ism is voluntary. Common ism says what's yours is mine.
Common ism says what's mine is yours. That was the early church. It was a temporary fix.
Why? Well, most of the jobs in Jerusalem were related to the temple. Who in Jerusalem ran the business of the temple? The Sadducees. The Sadducees are the enemies of the early church. Remember I told you that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the two groups. The Sadducees are the ones that are hostile toward the apostles.
Why? Because the apostles say that Jesus rose from the dead. The Sadducees didn't believe in any spirits, didn't believe in heaven, didn't believe in hell, did not believe in a resurrection. So all of those temple related jobs, all of those people who believed in Christ were no doubt fired from their jobs. It was difficult to live their lives having no income. So the church got together to support one another during this difficult time. And it gets so bad that Paul will even take an offering of gentile churches that he visits on his first, second missionary journeys, take up a collection and bring the money to the poor saints who are struggling through this at the earliest church in Jerusalem.
So it was all purely voluntary as they shared what they had with one another. Now notice this, verse 36. In the light of that spirit of giving, and Joseph, and I have an asterisk in my Bible and it says, or Joseph, some of the newer translations say, his name was Joe. That was his name, Joseph. So we'll think of him as Joe. Guy named Joe in the early church who was also named Barnabas by the apostles. So his name is Joe, but the apostles decided to give him a nickname. Now, why did they do that? Why do you think that the disciples said, hey, we have the right and the freedom to just sort of name people whatever we want?
Why do you figure? Well, here's my take on it, because Jesus did that. He said to Simon, hey, Simon, I'm giving you a new name. Your name means hearing, but you don't hear all that well. I'm going to call you Peter, not as in a big massive stone. You're not like Rocky, but you're like a little tiny pebble.
You're pebble boy. Little Rocky. So Jesus had the freedom to do that. He also did that with the Sons of Thunder, right? Named the James and John, the Sons of Thunder.
He did that on a few different occasions. Matthew, he called Levi. So I think that sort of friendly nicknaming sort of caught on as a practice that, you know, we're going to we're going to name Joe. So let's call Joe Barnabas, because Barnabas means the son of encouragement or one who encourages.
And wherever Joe went, you know, he would go up to people, hey, my name's Joe. What's your name? Hey, how can I help you? How can I further your faith? How can I bolster your belief? So he is called the son of encouragement by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement.
Now notice this. He is a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Having land, he sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Now, if you are shrewd Bible students, you read this and you go, hmm, what's a Levite doing owning land privately? Because I know my Bible in the Old Testament, in the Book of Numbers, where it talks about Levites not having any portion of the land of Israel because God is their portion, Numbers 18 tells us. So what's with this?
Is this a backslidden Levite? You know, we like to get very pharisaical with our Bible characters. Well, you're right, shrewd Bible student. It says that they're not to own land, but own land in the land of Israel. So there's nothing about owning land on the island of Cyprus, which is where he's from. So he could own land on Cyprus, or perhaps he's married to his wife whose family owns land in Cyprus, and they passed on, they gave it to him.
There's a couple of different ways this could go. Don't take this and demean his character as somebody who's a backslidden Levite and had nothing to do with the priesthood. Just said he owned land. But the good thing, having sold it, he brought the money and he laid it at the apostles' feet. So Barnabas, and you'll read more of him in the book of Acts, he encouraged people. He first encouraged people by finances. Have you ever thought of your finances as a way to encourage someone?
I know you're thinking, somebody could feel free to encourage me tonight if, in that respect, I could always use a little encouragement with that. But it can be, as Barnabas believed that what God had given to him, God had shared with him, he could give to others. That he was a steward, he was a conduit of a blessing that God had done for him, and he knew that his brothers and sisters were in need.
So I'm living here, I don't need the land in Cyprus, let's sell it and give the money to those who need it. There's an important principle in the New Testament about financial giving. In the book of Philippians, and we're studying that on Sunday morning, we'll get to it in chapter 4, but Lord knows when. So in that book, Paul writes to the Philippian church and he says, when I departed from Macedonia, there was no other church that shared with me concerning giving and receiving except you only. That's a way to say no other group, no other church financially supported me, but you did.
I was on your missions role. You supported me as one of your sent out missionaries. And he said this, not that I seek the gift, but I'm seeking fruit that would abound to your account. See, he understood the principle that when you give for the Lord's work, that God keeps account books in heaven and you will get fruit. The Lord will reward you one day openly in heaven. He'll reward you. And so he says, not that I'm looking for the gift, you supported me and I thank you for that, but it's not like I want the gift as much as I want the fruit that God will write on his account books for you and reward you for it. So we need to start looking at what we have, what we own as we're stewards of God and he's keeping his own set of books and he will hold us accountable for how we stewarded what he placed in our hands. So Barnabas thought it was good to encourage and he was the son of encouragement.
He first encouraged by giving his finances. Now that's the end of chapter four. We're going to get into chapter five.
But let me just throw something out at you. So far in the book of Acts, we have seen the Lord adding to the church. Right, Acts two forty seven, the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. That's what the text says the Lord has added so far.
Chapter two, we've also seen the Lord multiply in chapter four, verse four, thousands upon thousands more were added to those who were initially saved on the day of Pentecost. So we go from adding to the Lord multiplying. Now we're about to see the Lord perform another math function, subtracting. Two people in the church, he's going to subtract as Alan Redpath called that a blessed subtraction.
And the Lord does add and the Lord does multiply and the Lord does subtract. There's one thing the Lord never does. He never divides. He never divides a church.
People do that. We're good enough at doing that. We're good enough at creating division and animosity. God never does. He'll add. He'll multiply. And yes, he will subtract.
So verse one, chapter five. But not a good word to begin after reading about him. Son of encouragement.
Such an awesome dude. Gave his finances. Joe was Barnabas, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the proceeds.
His wife also being aware of it. And brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet, a certain part. The word Ananias in Hebrew, a Hebrew name means God is gracious. Beautiful name. Sapphira is an Aramaic word that means beautiful. Talk about two people that really didn't live up to their names.
Mr. Gracious really isn't so gracious in his lie here. And Miss Beautiful does something that's not so beautiful. Now when I read about Ananias and Sapphira, can I just play with this a little bit? Could you just go back in your mind and think of them meeting for the first time? And then as they courted together the butterflies they would get when they were around each other. As their relationship blossomed and grew and they had those puppy love eyes.
As Ananias, Mr. Gracious looked at Miss Beautiful and she swooned. Not knowing how they would end up. And as they said their vows to one another on their wedding day, especially that part, till death do us part. They had no idea that they would die within a few hours of each other on the same day. And that their names would go down in history.
As the two that the Lord subtracted from the church to make it pure. Well, that's what this first part of the story is about. Acts chapter 5 is the third miracle in the book of Acts. Do you remember the first? The first miracle was a man by the gate, Beautiful, who was lame from birth. That's the first miracle. He was healed. Peter raised him up. Peter and John going into the temple. He was walking and leaping and praising God. That's the first miracle recorded in the book of Acts. Second miracle recorded in the book of Acts is in chapter 4 when the building shook. It was miraculous. This is the third miracle. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because, do you know how often I hear people say, Man, I wish we could see more miracles like they had in the book of Acts. Do you really? Because you're about to read of another miracle in the book of Acts.
But I bet this is one miracle you're thankful to God that you don't see. Interesting story. Some of you will know the name if you're read in biblical commentaries. The name Donald Gray Barnhouse. Donald Gray Barnhouse, many years ago, was the pastor at the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Donald Barnhouse felt very strongly. He had deep convictions about the hymns that his church would sing. And there were certain hymns, certain verses of hymns that he did not want his church to sing because he knew that you couldn't sing them without being a hypocrite.
And Barnhouse used to say, if God, if the Holy Spirit acted today in the same manner he acted in the book of Acts, that you'd need a morgue in the basement of every church and a mortician on staff. I mean, imagine if we were singing, I surrender all, but if God the Holy Spirit were acting with the same level of purity that he did here. Because if you're not surrendering all at that moment, if you're holding something back and you're really not surrendering all of your life, but you sing it, just one person, boom, down. And you could hear, you know, the security goes, yep, row three, she's down, boom. Oh, man, that couple's down in the back. Wow, a whole bunch of people are falling over. Not slain in the Spirit, slain by the Spirit.
I mean, flat out dead, killed. Well, let's see it. They sold a possession, verse one, and kept back part of the proceeds. Now, at first, as we get into this chapter, it would seem like Ananias and Sapphira are doing the same thing Barnabas did. Barnabas sold land, laid it at the apostles' feet.
Ananias and Sapphira perhaps even had good intentions at first and said, you know, honey, we ought to do that. We've got some land we're not using. Let's sell it and let's give it away. Let's give the money.
No problem. It's just like Barnabas. The failure here that you're about to read that we're about to see was not that they didn't give the right amount, like, well, God is going to kill you because you didn't give a big enough offering.
It has nothing to do at all with that. It's they misrepresented what they gave. They said they gave one number, but they were giving far less. They were both lying so that people would think, wow, so extravagant, such a huge gift like Barnabas. I'm certain that when Ananias and Sapphira watched Barnabas sell land and give the money to the apostles, they thought, notice how the people are responding to what Barnabas just did. Did you hear the banter that we are hearing in church? They're saying, man, Barnabas, what an awesome, amazing, encouraging person.
So spiritual is Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira thought, man, I want to hear them say that about us. So let's sell the land. Let's not give it all. Let's just say we're giving it all. But we'll keep back some.
And that wouldn't be a problem. Peter's going to point out, not a problem. All you'd have to say is, hey, Peter, my wife and I sold some land. We sold it for this much. Our intention was to give it all to the people in the church who could use the money, but we just can't do that right now.
We've got to take care of some bills and we need some money to live on, so we're going to give this much. That would be honest. The problem was their dishonesty with it.
And they kept back part of the proceeds. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Now, Peter's not smiling at this point. Don't think of Peter, the big old fisherman, Ananias.
No, it's very, very somber here. Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?
Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? Notice this. You have not lied to men, but to God. Did you notice in the first sentence he says you lied to the Holy Spirit, and the second he said you lied to God. Okay, so it's easy to put those two together. What that means then is the Holy Spirit is God.
Please notice that. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. You've lied to God.
If you lie to Him, you lie to Him. The Holy Spirit is not an ambiguous force, as we talked about. It's a real person. It's the third person of the Trinity. I speak to people all the time and say, You Christians, you evangelicals, you talk about Trinity. The word Trinity isn't in the Bible. So the word rapture isn't in the Bible, but the doctrine of the rapture is in the Bible. The word millennium isn't in the Bible, but the doctrine of the millennial kingdom is in the Bible.
The word Bible isn't in the Bible, but I've got one. The word Trinity isn't in the Bible, but the teaching of the Trinity goes all the way back to Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is the Hebrew word Elohim, plural in meaning, singular in usage. In the beginning, Elohim, that compound plurality, created the heavens and the earth. Verse 2, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The first time a distinct personality of God is drawn up, it's in the second verse of Genesis, and it's the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters.
Same chapter, I think, down around verse 26 or 27. God said, let us make man in our image. So in the image of God, He made man. The interchangeable use of the plural and the singular, let us make man, God made, He made him. So the doctrine of the Trinity begins all the way back as far as Genesis and is developed and fully revealed in the new covenant. So you've not lied to man, you've lied to the Holy Spirit, so you have lied to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, I don't know what the look on his face is like, fell down and breathed his last.
So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. Imagine. Can you picture what this is like? Ananias walks up in front of the meeting with his offering of money. The organ is softly playing, I surrender all. Ananias puts that offering down, but suddenly he feels something in his chest. He grabs and his breath is short and just, bam, falls over. Breathes his last, he kicks the bucket. He's deader than a doornail.
And so great fear came upon all who heard these things. And the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. When I read about Ananias, and I don't want you to think that Ananias went to hell, he just died. I think he was a true believer.
In my opinion, he was a believer in Christ, because he had faith in Jesus. He's not saved by works. He's not saved by selling land and giving the money. He's saved by faith through grace, period. It's like, you know, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Just, boom, die, heaven, boom. God removed him, a subtraction. That's Skip Heitig with an eye-opening message about division in the church. It's a teaching from his series, Expound Acts. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. We love to partner with friends like you to help share God's Word with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitig. You can play a vital role in this work today with a gift to support this life-changing ministry and expand its reach into more major U.S. cities. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give generously and share the life-changing gospel with others.
That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888, 800-922-1888. Thank you for changing lives. Coming up tomorrow on Connect with Skip Heitig, Skip looks at the powerful testimony of the disciples in the series Expound Acts. Remember back in chapter 4, a law was passed not to preach in Jesus' name in Jerusalem?
Now listen to this and look. You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Oh, that the enemies of God today would say that about us. That we might have an accusation from the people in Albuquerque.
Man, you filled Albuquerque and New Mexico with this doctrine. I want them to say that. I want to fill this place up with truth. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. A connection. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
