Tell The Truth

TELL THE TRUTH

Acts 4:32 – 5:11

S: Integrity

Th: Community

Pr: WE ARE TO BE OPEN AND HONEST.

KW: Section

TS: We will find in Acts 4:32 – 5:11 a community that is growing in faith and fear.

Type: Inductive

The ____ section of the narrative describes…

I. UNITY (32-33)

II. GENEROSITY (34-37)

III. HYPOCRISY (1-10)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Don’t live complacently.

• Don’t trifle with God.

• Be open and honest with people and with God.

Version: ESV

RMBC 03 July 05 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Truth (talking dog)

A man sees a sign in front of a house and is astonished to see this sign: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him that he can checkout the dog in the backyard.

The man goes into the backyard and sees a black dog just sitting there. "You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the dog replies.

"So, what’s your story?"

The dog looks up and says, "Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running. The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired."

The man is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says, "Ten dollars."

The man says, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

The owner replies, "He’s a big liar. He didn’t do any of that stuff."

When it comes to the truth, do you tell it?

This is the kind of situation we are facing in our study this morning.

Sometimes, we are afraid of the truth, but it is what builds us.

The lack of truth is what tears us down.

TRANSITION:

This month we will be working through the 5th chapter of Acts.

There is a reason why Acts is called “Acts.”

1. Acts describes the activity of the early church.

In fact, if you go to chapter 1, you will probably see the title, “The Acts of the Apostles.”

It is in this book we get a historical look at how the early church started and functioned.

Early in the book, the emphasis is on the apostle Peter.

Later in the book, the emphasis switches to the apostle Paul.

In this particular chapter, we are going to see that truth was an essential ingredient to the success of the church.

When they got truth right, things went well.

When they didn’t, there was difficulty.

There is a trend to make the early church the model that is to be followed.

The truth is, the church was developing and maturing with people that were just like us.

They made mistakes.

They were learning together all that it meant to be in Christ.

They were learning together what it meant to be a community of believers.

So…

2. We will find in Acts 4:32 – 5:11 a community that is growing in faith and fear.

So let’s follow the narrative, and see how the church grows…

OUR STUDY:

I. The first section of the narrative describes UNITY (32-33).

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. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

1. A Christian’s faith is demonstrated by a common heart.

The word common here is a strong one.

Their hearts were the same, which is, when you come right down to it – radical behavior.

In fact, they were actually sharing.

They were not acting like toddlers!

(It’s mine!)

There was a true expression of the union of hearts and minds.

They knew they belonged together and were in this together, so trivial matters were left to being trivial.

The text tells us that the apostles were talking about the resurrection.

This means that they were not going off center.

They were about Jesus.

They were continuing to testify about the central doctrine of the Christian faith.