This week we are returning to our study in the book of Acts. The title of this series has been, “What a Church Should Look Like.” By now I hope we are beginning to see the structure of how Luke is writing. It seems as if he is flipping back and forth between two perspectives. One perspective is that he looks at the church from the inside. The other perspective is the church in its relation with those on the outside. On the inside he reveals to us continually the praying, the unity, and the generosity of those within the church. Concerning the church’s relationship with those on the outside he stresses their sharing the message of Jesus, their opposition, and their persecution.
In Acts 1 we see the apostles and the early believers alone with Jesus, being taught by Him and being told to go and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. Then Luke records how they were together praying, and how they chose someone to replace Judas. Chapter one is an inside look.
In Acts 2 we see the church out in the world. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came and filled the waiting believers. Peter stood up and preached to the multitudes and 3000 people became followers of Christ.
At the end of chapter 2 Luke shifts the focus back to the church and we see the wonderful fellowship, friendship, and unity they enjoyed.
Beginning in Acts three all the way to chapter 4 verse 22, we see the church out in the world again. Peter and John heal a man lame from birth then use that as an opportunity to preach to a huge crowd. As they are preaching they are arrested by a group called the Sadducees. They are thrown in jail and then warned and threatened to keep their mouths shut concerning Jesus.
In 4:23-5:11 we go back to the church. We see them pray for God to empower them to continue sharing the gospel despite the warnings not to. We see their generosity and the willingness to help those in need. And we see the sin of Ananias and Sapphira dealt with.
You see, Luke has a reason for presenting his account this way. He is trying to fix our attention on two aspects of church life. The first is the gathering of the church. This is that “inside look” I was talking about. The church has to be committed to developing and caring for its members. There has to be an effort to encourage one another, while at the same time exhorting and challenging each other. There has to be times of worship and prayer. This is why we are to gather together. We need each other. That is what Luke is presenting.
That’s one aspect. The other aspect of church life that Luke is showing us is what I want to call the “going” of the church. He shows the church at work sharing the good news of Jesus and the great numbers of people being saved.
These are the two aspects of church life and every church ought to have a healthy balance of the two. Some churches go to one extreme and in order not to be like those churches, others hit the other side of the wall. But if you’ve ever played on a teeter-totter you know that when there’s not balance its not pleasant.
This leads us to our text today and for next week. This early church is back on the outside sharing Jesus. This passage of Scripture is divided into two parts.
1. The church at work in the community.
2. The church on trial in the courts.
Today we will look at the first part: The church at work in the community.
[Read Acts 5:12-16]
I can’t help but notice when I read about this first church and compare it with the life of Jesus found in the gospels, that these church members were living and ministering just like Jesus. They were healing just like Jesus. They were loving people just like Jesus. They were preaching and teaching in the temple just like Jesus. They were a “Jesus Church.” The only difference is that there was only one Jesus, but there were a lot of these “Jesus look a likes.” And with more workers more got done.
Many of you are probably familiar with the classic novel, "In His Steps" by Charles Sheldon. I highly recommend it. The whole book is about a church that has some members that commit for one year to not do anything without first asking “What would Jesus do in this situation?” It changed their lives and it changed their church. Or perhaps you have seen the WWJD bracelets. This is the way this early church operated. They didn’t have the bracelets to wear on their wrists, but they had the attitude fastened on their hearts. This is the way we have to think and work as well. This church was just like Jesus. As a matter of fact, Paul described in 1Corinthians 12:27 that the church was the Body of Christ. We are to act, work, and minister just like Jesus.
This is why many churches are ineffective. Our members, and I’ll even go as far as to say our Pastors and church leaders don’t reflect Jesus.
Dieter Zander, the pastor of the first GenX church in America spoke at a conference about reaching people in the age of relativism. He cited a Barna study that asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious, humble." Then he asked them to use single words to describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive, self righteous, narrow and repressive."
Zander responded to this by saying, "There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news. We are the evidence! How we live our lives are the evidence. Everything counts--all the time."
He went on to say, "With previous generations, a strong preacher could give a good message, even if the church was hypocritical and critical and people would still get saved, but not any more. I’m seeing a change in what seekers are looking for. Not something they can relate to. They are looking for a transcendent God. They don’t want to be entertained they want to be transformed." (from sermoncentral.com)
People want to be transformed. They want something life changing. This pioneer church saw people transformed and lives changed. In this text we see 3 things we need individually in our personal lives and corporately in our church if were going to be life changers, if were going to be a “Jesus Church”, if were going to be effective in our work in the community.
I. They had purity from within.
[Read 5:12-13a]
Last time we studied the book of Acts, we looked at the sin and the judgment of Ananias and Sappira. Remember, it says they lied to the Holy Spirit and they lied to the church by saying they were giving the entire sum of money that they received from a sale of land while in reality they were holding on to some of it. They saw the recognition someone else got when they gave and they wanted the same recognition. In reality though they were hypocrites and allowed Satan to have a foothold in their lives.
But you remember the story. God severely judged both of them by taking their lives. We are quick to respond, “Well, that’s kind of harsh. How could He do that?” The answer is simple. God was not going to allow sin and hypocrisy to threaten His church. And He wanted all to know that He takes sin seriously. After the sin was taken care of it says they were all in one accord.
What a lesson to us today. So many churches are in need of this. The purity of a church (by that I mean church members) will always determine its unity. Purity always strengthens the unity of a church, while impurity will always threatens the unity.
In 1997 USA Today ran an article about the Titanic. Scientists now say that a series of slits, not a giant gash, sank the Titanic.
The massive, 900-foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its first voyage, from England to New York. 1500 people died in the worst boating disaster of the time.
The most widely held theory is that the ship hit an iceberg, which opened a huge gash in the side of the liner. But an international team of divers and scientists recently used sound waves to probe through the wreckage, buried in mud two-and-a-half miles deep. And what did they discover? The damage was surprisingly small. Instead of a huge gash, they found six relatively small narrow slits across the six watertight holds.
“Everything that could go wrong did,” said William Garzke, Jr., a naval architect who helped the team with their analysis.
Small damage below the waterline and invisible to most can sink a huge ship. In the same way secret sins, and behind the scenes sins can destroy a church.
We as a church have to be committed to holiness and righteousness and purity. And when your sin threatens the unity and work of the church, God has given the church the power and authority to exercise discipline in your life if you are a member here. Why? Because He is holy, because He takes sin seriously, and because He hates sin. And He has told us that we have to be holy as He is holy. And that sin has the potential to slowly destroy a church.
[1 Corinthians 5:6-11]
This goes for unsubmissiveness to leaders, open sexual immorality, and open slander of another church member. It doesn’t mean we have the FBC police monitoring your every move or my every move, but it does mean that open and blatant sin will not be tolerated.
When a church is like this, people are not quick to join. But it shows they are not serious about the sin in their own lives. It says here that they dared not associate themselves with the church. The church was able to maintain its purity and holiness. And this type of action taken did not hurt their growth, but rather God used it to stimulate it.
II. They had respect from without.
[Acts 5:13]
The line had been drawn and the standards had been set. It wasn’t easy to just sign a card and become a member. The people knew this, so those that weren’t willing to repent of their sins didn’t sign up. But even though they remained on the outside they still respected and held in high esteem those that belonged to the church.
Again what an incredible lesson for us this morning. I want you to get this: While people may not agree with our beliefs, they ought to admire our behavior.
Not everyone is going to believe that God created the world, that the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, that Jesus is Lord, that He is the one and only way to God, and that we are commanded to repent and place our faith in Him as Lord and Savior. But, they will take the love we offer them. They will gladly accept our acceptance of them. When they have a need that they can’t meet at the time, they will gratefully appreciate our generosity. Nobody is going to wish you had a bad attitude towards him or her, or gave them the cold shoulder. No one is ever going to say, “I wish they would lie to me.”
Do you see what I’m trying to get at? People will respect our lifestyle and integrity and love even though they may not accept our beliefs. We just have to be careful how we live and act around them, because our lives may lead to them to wanting what we have, namely a relationship with Jesus.
[Colossians 4:5-6]
This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 that we as Christians are the salt of the earth. Now many people try interpreting what exactly Jesus meant by that statement. Salt is capable of doing several different things. One, it is a preservative. Before the days of freezers, they had to keep their meat from going bad by using salt. As Christians we too have that responsibility. As our culture goes from bad to worse, we are to be, through our witness and our conduct, a preservative that helps keep it from decaying.
Two, salt also flavors. As Christians we are too add flavor and excitement to a world full of hurt, pain, disappointment and death.
Three, salt stimulates thirst. The way a Christian lives his or her life should cause those around them to be interested and curious about what they have.
Jesus could have meant any of those things. But, I know one thing for sure. That the only way salt can preserve, the only way it can add flavor, or the only way it can stimulate thirst is through making contact. It doesn’t preserve a piece of meat if it doesn’t touch it. It doesn’t add flavor to your meal if it just sits in the saltshaker on your table. It’s not going to make someone thirsty if it isn’t touching their tongue. We as Christians have to get out of our comfortable saltshakers and make contact with those around us that are spiritually decaying, that are spiritually flavorless, those that have not had their spiritual taste buds activated.
All we have to do is live the life that God has called us to live in front of them and that will eventually create an opportunity to share Jesus with them. But as Jesus went on to say if a salt loses it saltiness it is good for nothing. That’s true.
You’re no good. You’re no good to the Christian because you are already saved and don’t need to be witnessed to. You’re no good to the Non-Christian because you don’t give them any reason to want to have Jesus if you’re not living any differently than them.
I’ve heard over and over again in my life how people don’t want to be a part of a church or have anything to do with Christianity because of how Christians treat one another and how they live their lives. They just don’t have any respect for us. I want to challenge you – don’t let that be said about your life. May your life be lived in such a way as to give someone a reason to at least consider giving their life to Jesus.
III. They had power from above.
[Acts 5:14-16]
People were being saved and transformed, and having their lives changed in incredible numbers. In Acts 2, we read that 3000 people were saved. In Acts 3, we are told that the number had grown to 5000 men, not counting women, were saved. Now, we are not given a number, but are told multitudes of men and women were added to the church. Some believe that by now there were 10,000 believers. That’s impressive when you consider that it was a town of about 40,000 – 50,000 in population. The only explanation for this was the power of God. Only God through His Holy Spirit can accomplish something as big as that.
Luke also shows us the incredible healing ministry of the apostles. People were experiencing the supernatural healing that God provided through His apostles. Now some are quick to ask, “Why don’t we see this today in our churches, people being healed like this?” We have to understand that this wasn’t a miracle working church, but rather a church that had miracle-working apostles. God enabled them to do miracles in order to confirm that the message they preached was from Him. The miracles were done to point people to the message not the miracles themselves. These people like people today get all wrapped up in the miracles that they miss knowing the God that provides miracles. It says they thought that by just standing in the apostle’s shadows would heal them. They became superstitious and filled with misunderstanding.
Yes, I believe God still does miracles. No, I don’t believe in miracle workers, especially the ones on TV. God’s power is in His Word. And God’s Word is sufficient.
I don’t want to get all tied up in that subject and debate this morning. Rather, I want you to see the power of God in these people’s lives. In chapter 4:23-31, we see them praying for the Spirits power and we see the result of that in our text today.
I want to give you this: God empowers us with His Holy Spirit to witness when we are devoted to prayer and purity.
I want to give you two passages of Scripture to study and learn and strive to apply.
[Luke 11:9-13 – prayer, 2 Timothy 2:20-22 - purity]
Do you have a longing to be used by God? Do you have a hunger to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to witness and see people saved? It takes a continual commitment to prayer and purity. God doesn’t use disobedient rebels.
As we look at this text we see three characteristics that we need. And I don’t want you to think this morning that I am just preaching at you. This is mostly a message for myself. I’m with you. I want to see God work in and through my life and in this church. And there are areas in my life that I’m learning to give to God. Sometimes I lose my focus. Sometimes I lose my desire to reach people or I rely on myself instead of seeking the Holy Spirit’s power. I still fail in praying passionately and persistently. And the Lord knows I sin everyday.
But even though we are imperfect God wants to use us in ways we could never imagine. Don’t you want that for your own life? So many churches do not. Instead of living like what we find in our text, they don’t have a standard for holy living. As long as you don’t murder anyone, you’re okay. They treat their pastor like trash. People on the outside don’t respect them. Their church never experiences the power of God in seeing people saved. And the bad thing is they couldn’t care less.
Let’s not let our church fall into that category. Rather let us be the type of church that if someone read Acts 5:12-16, they would say, “That sounds like First Baptist Church of Granite City.” If we are not like this, it means two things - that we are living below our potential and we are living beneath our privilege.
A pastor told the children’s story one morning at the worship service. He had a sack full of acorns that he had picked up at his house. With the children gathered around him, the pastor peeked into the sack and said, “I have a miracle in this sack. How many of you children would like to hold a miracle in your hands?” All the hands shot up, of course, so he gave to each one of them an acorn. Then he told this story. God had put an oak tree in each of those acorns. Once planted in the ground, along with the warmth of the sun and the nourishment of the rain, a great oak tree could grow that would produce millions of other acorns – all out of that one acorn.
God does super natural miracles through little, worthless things like us. We just have to allow Him to plant us where He wants us in life.
Later, as the people were leaving church, a mother and her son stopped before the preacher. The mother said, “Go ahead and tell the preacher,”
With the greatest seriousness, the boy responded, “Preacher, I lost my miracle.”
Church, I don’t believe we have gone so far as to not see God’s power at work in our church. But at the same time I don’t believe we are being used of God as much as we could be. What does God want us to do?
[2 Chronicles 7:14]
1. We have got to humble ourselves. God doesn’t bless those that are too proud to recognize they have a need and are empty.
2. We have got to pray. Every great church, whatever else could be said about them, had a passionate prayer life. We must be persistent in asking God for the essentials, namely, to fill us with His Spirit so that we can reach this community for Jesus Christ.
3. We have to seek God. This simply means to long to know Him. It means to draw close to Him. It means to be intimate with Him. God wants us to know Him and enjoy Him, not just enjoying what he can give us. It’s a time to Worship the Giver not the gifts.
4. We have to turn from our wicked ways. Whatever sin you have in your life, turn from it. God’s hates sin. But he also extends grace to you when you fall. His Word simply says confess it and turn from it. Look at it the way God does and understand if you don’t turn, you will hinder the work of our church.
God promises that if we do these things then He will honor that and use us. We are never beyond His reach. He is always willing to restore His people.
Some would say, “Well, you’re in a bad neighborhood, or you don’t have the money to do a big event, or your people are to old.” When people say things like that, they are saying more about God than they are us. And if our trust is in those things, we will fail. But if our trust is in a great and awesome God and we hunger to be filled with His Spirit and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we are just the type of church that God is just waiting to bless, empower, and grow.
