The Awesome Presence of God
The Awesome Presence of God
Acts 4:32-5:11
We meet some characters in our story in Acts this morning who prime us perfectly for our time at the Lord’s Table which will follow.
We’ll meet a Levite whose name is Joseph; you probably know him by his nickname ‘Barnabas.’ Barnabas will be our positive example. Barnabas will be the one that causes us to say to ourselves, ‘Now I want to be like that!’
Barnabas, I think,beautifully models the idea of consecration when he takes a step to give some of his wealth to the Lord.
F.B. Meyer says this about the word ‘consecration’:
POWERPOINT
Consecration…
The act of consecration is to recognize Christ’s ownership and to accept it; and to say to Him with the whole heart, Lord, I am yours by right, and I wish to be yours by choice.
F. B. Meyers
We don’t use the word consecration very much today, do we? But it’s a concept that we need to be reminded of.
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Well besides Barnabas we’ll also meet a famous couple—I suppose we should say an infamous couple—whose names are Ananias and Sapphira. I’m sure that most of you know they’re stories; they even make most children church curriculums. They’ll be our negative examples. We’ll reflect on their lives and conclude, “We don’t want to be like them!” We don’t want to be remembered as they are remembered—as theliars and hypocritesof the early church.
God hates lying: He hates deceit. It is an abomination to Him. We saw that in the verses that Ben read from Proverbs 6.
POWERPOINT
Proverbs 6:16-19
16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Ananias and Sapphira probably committed six of the seven sins in those verses in Proverbs.[1] The only sin on the list that they didn’t commit is ‘shedding innocent blood’.
God hates lying… God hates lying because He’s the truth. To lie is to oppose Him. Every time we lie we strike a blow to all that He stands for. And every time we lie we take a step toward the father of lies, Satan, who incidently makes a cameo appearance in our passage this morning.
Well God hates hypocrisy also. He hates play-acting, He hates it when people try to appear different than they really are, when they preach a good sermon but don’t really live it.
■Hypocrites don’t practice what they preach.[2]
■Hypocrites give and pray and fast to be praised by others, seen by others, and noticed by others, respectively.[3]
■Hypocrites see specks in other people’s eyes but look past the logs that are in their own eyes.[4]
■Hypocrites give lip service to God when their heart is far away from Him.[5]
■Hypocrites emphasize minor things and overlook important things.[6]
■Hypocrites focus on the outside and ignore the inside entirely.[7]
And finally…
■Hypocrites are men-pleasers instead of God-pleasers.[8]
You see it seems that Ananias and Sapphirawere play acting. As best we can tell, they embellished the amount of a gift they gave to the church to garner the praise of their fellow church members. They were hypocrites. They lied and God judged them.
And again we’re headed toward the Lord’s Table today after the message. Are their attitudes or actions that we need to forsake? Are there further steps of consecration that we can take?
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If you’re familiar with the Ananias and Sapphira story, you know it can feel a little like a drive by shooting—where God does the shooting. And I’m not trying to be clever there. There actually are several stories in our bible that have that feel.
Donald Grey Barnhouse, some 45 years ago, preached a sermon entitled “Men Whom God Struck Dead.”[9] Barnhouse’s sermon included three bible stories.
His first story was the story of Nadab and Abihu from Leviticus 10 where the two brothers offered unauthorized fire before the Lord and fire came out from the Lord and consumed them.
His second story was the story of Uzzah in 1 Samuel 6. In that story the ark of God was being carried on a cart and it became unstable. Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and was struck dead by God.
Well Barnhouse’s final story was our story today, the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
What I’d like to do before we actually get into our passage todayis lay out some biblical principles that will ultimatelyhelp us understand the story better.
The first principle on the screen is…
POWERPOINT
Biblical Principle
1. The church is the place of God’s holy presence.
I think we forget this principle. And I think that we can forget that it’s a biblical theme that we can trace back to the Garden of Eden. Let me explain that thought with another slide.
Here’s the point of the slide. Whenever and wherever God has touched down on earth in a local way, the place of His presence is holy. It’s holy because He is holy.
Eden’s garden, prior to sin, was a holy place. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Moving along in the biblical story line, when God showed up in Exodus 3 and made an appearance in the burning bush, you remember what He said to Moses as Moses drew near… take your sandals off… for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then came God’s descent on Mt. Sinai and the mountain was holy. And then came directions from God to build a sanctuary, a sacred place, the tabernacle, where He could dwell in the midst of the people.[10] Solomon’s temple followed the general outline of the tabernacle and God dwelt in the “most holy place” in the temple.
When Jesus came, he spoke of the end the temple and with the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2 to indwell individual believers, individual believersbecame ‘holy places’ or ‘temples’ where God made his presence known and felt. There is a call on your life and mine to live holy lives.
Paul writes as much in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
But there is also a special sense in which the church—the collection of believers—is the temple of God also. 1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house.
And then 1 Corinthians 3:16-17…
16 Do you not know that you…and the ‘you’ is plural, ‘you all’, ‘you all collectively’are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?....among you all collectively…17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple “the collection of believers” together is holy, and you are that temple.
The church is the place of God’s holy presence today. And so it was in the time of Ananias and Sapphira. It makes sense that our Holy God would deal with sin ruthlessly.
The second principle….
POWERPOINT
Biblical Principles
1. The church is the place of God’s holy presence.
HIT ENTER - 2. God’s presence brings both grace and judgment.[11]
This is another principle we often forget. There is no grace unless there is judgment. We deserve to be judged for our sin and yet we receive grace.
The title of the message this morning is “The Awesome Presence of God” And I think you’ll be amazed when we get into the passage that grace and judgment appear together when God is present.
Often when we think of ‘judgment’ we think, “Oh that’s way off!” We think we’re safe from God’s judgment because we are Christians. We need to be reminded, and our passage this morning will remind us, that God sometimes judges Christian sinners. He judges them in this life ‘through reduced joy, through illness, and even through death.”[12]
God’s presence brings both grace and judgment.
The third principle…
HIT ENTER-3. Satan seeks to destroy the church.
As we all know, the arch enemy of God is Satan. And where God’s work on earth is prospering, we can anticipate that Satan will be at work to cause God’s work to unravel.
I bring this up because Satan makes a cameo appearance in our story.
Well that’s enough background and foundation laying, let’s dive into the text. We pick up in Acts 4, verse 32...Acts 4, verse 32
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
This is the second snapshot we get of the early church. The first snapshot of the early church came at the end of chapter 2.
Verse 32 stresses the unity and generosity that the early church experienced. They were of one heart (the heart in Greek was considered the vital center of every human being[13]--at the core these believers were unified) they were of one heartand soul.
Some have pointed out that it’s no accident that Luke picks up this phrase ‘one heart and soul’. It, as a phrase, is prevalent throughout the Old Testament, to describe total devotion to God.[14] Listen to Deuteronomy 6:5 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…
They weren’t only unified, they were generous. In fact they held their possessions with an open hand. They had everything in common, verse 32 says. Now we talked about this a couple of weeks back. This wasn’t a primitive case of communism here where there is no private property. Houses and property were sold as needs arose. Over in chapter 12, when we get there, we’ll find the disciples meeting in the home of a woman named Mary. In other words some disciples still owned their homes.
But here’s the point. The early believers were experiencing the awesome presence of God. And when God is present in an awesome way, uncommon generosity just kind of flows. It’s easy to hold your possessions with an open hand.
When God is present in awesomeness, believers have a confidence that He sees their every need, believers know that He loves a cheerful giver, and they know that He is able…fasten your seat belt I’m about to read the coolest verse on giving… 2 Corinthians 9:8…and when I pause you say the word all… And God is able to make ALLgrace abound to you, so that havingALLsufficiency inALLthings atALLtimes, you may abound in every good work.
God is able…
Verse 33…33 And with megapower the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and megagrace was upon them all.
You see why the sermon’s entitled “The Awesome Presence of God”?
And there’s the second biblical principle we shared up front… God’s presence brings grace and judgment.
34 There was not a needy person among them, …some see here an echo of Deuteronomy 15:4 where Moses prophesied that once the people of Israel entered the promised land that there would be no poor among them…it does seem like a lofty and beautiful goal to aim for…Jesus did say that when we give the hungry food, give the thirsty drink, when we welcome strangers and clothe the naked and visit the prisoners we do our actions unto Him[15]….34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
To lay the money at the apostles’ feet was to express obedience and submission.[16]
36 Thus Joseph,…here comes our positive example… who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus,37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
In verse 36, Luke introduces us to Joseph Barnabas. (It wasn’t uncommon back then to have two names especially when you had a common name like Joseph.)
From this point out in Acts, the apostles use Joseph’s nickname, Barnabas,exclusively, a nickname which Luke translates “son of encouragement.”
It could equally be translated “son of exhortation” and some scholars argue that
the name Barnabas (“bar”-son and“nabi”- close to the Hebrew word ‘prophet’) was probably connected with the Aramaic expression ‘son of a prophet.’[17] This is interesting because it could mean that Barnabas was known for his preaching and teaching.[18]
And that’s different from the Barnabas I’ve always pictured. I’ve always pictured the Barnabas who was a team player kind of in the background who just went around and encouraged everyone.
Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus(an island out in the Mediterranean Sea) and he sold a field that belonged to him. A field near Jerusalem? A field on the island of Cyprus? We don’t know; the text doesn’t say.
And because priests and Levites weren’t supposed to own land (Numbers 18:20, 24; Deuteronomy 10:9; 18:1-2; Joshua 21:1-41), some former scholars suggested that Barnabas might have soldhis burial plot.[19]That would have been quite a sacrifice wouldn’t it? But Josephus tells us that the restriction about Levites owning land had been forgotten or at least ignored by the first century;[20]there were wealthy landowning Levites in Jerusalem in the first century.
Now what’s interesting to me about these last two verses in Acts 4 that mention Barnabas selling his land and giving the money to the apostles, is that from this point out Barnabas enters the story line of Acts big time. All told, Barnabas is referred to, 23 times in the book of Acts.[21] And it starts here at the end of Acts 4.
It was this fact that caused me to think about the whole idea of consecration. You see the facts seem to be this—1) We could argue that Barnabas took a step of consecration in selling his field and giving the money to the apostles and 2) the next thing we know is that Barnabas is in the six lane freeway of God’s exciting plan. In Acts 13 the Spirit speaks in an Antioch prayer meeting, set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.
I found myself wondering if that’s how consecration works. A young man or woman in our congregation, for example, gets this sense that they want to draw near to God, that maybe God has a special purpose for them, and they take a step of consecration, dedicating themselves perhaps to read God’s Word through in a year, or dedicating themselves to go on a mission trip, or dedicating themselves to get involved in a ministry locally. A year passes, perhaps, and the Lord leads them to take another step of consecration, a further dedication of themselves to God in some way, and before long they are out there pouring out their lives for the gospel and leading a fruitful life for Christ. I wonder if that’s how it works.
You see when we follow the Lord’s leading and take a step of consecration, we’re saying to the Lord, here’s a little bit more of me Lord, use me!
I was interested to recently read that Kristyn Getty—we sing the Getty songs—found a prayer of consecration written by her grandmother way back in September of 1932. In the prayer, the grandmother consecrated the desk that she studied on to the Lord.
Listen to the prayer the Grandmother wrote:
5th Sept. 1932 "To the service and work of Christ do I consecrate this desk earnestly praying that everything written and prepared thereon may be done with the singleness of mind to His honour and glory. May His divine presence grace the hours spent in study and may there ever be a consciousness that His Spirit is in the midst so that all I do or say, write or otherwise may be acceptable by Him.”[22]
Could we imagine Barnabas praying a prayer like that as he laid his gift down at the apostle’s feet? Consecrate me Lord to they service now…
Well chapter 5 begins with the word ‘But’ and we have a contrast.
1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.