Acts 5:17-42

 Acts 5:17-42

 

The effect of the event of Ananias and Sapphira was not what we expected; the church grew. What can be expected when there is meaningful and healthy growth and maturity in the church? Jealousy. The word here may mean ‘religious zeal.’. They may have been trying to secure the traditions of Judaism from the threat of this new teaching. The Sadducees, who controlled the temple, saw the church as a threat to their power and control. Jealousy will never sit silent and passive, so in this case the apostles are put in the public jail.

Having been released from the jail by an angel, the apostles return to the temple at dawn and begin again to teach. When challenged by the authorities about their preaching, “Peter and the apostles answered and said, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” That is the summation and ultimate expression of what it means to be a disciple. The pressure to compromise our faith and life will come from almost every direction and will face us at every turn. Sometimes it will come in terms of compromise of personal holiness and moral conduct, and sometimes it will come in terms of external pressure to conform. But whether it happens as temptation for secret sin or public compromise, the answer of a disciple is always, “I must obey God rather than men or my own desires.” 

Such an answer will never be well received by the powers that oppose us. Without the Holy Spirit leading, convicting, and converting them, they will never be changed. They will never be satisfied with a ‘live and let live’ kind of relationship. They will always, as the Jewish leadership did here, attempt to silence the opposition. In verse 33 it says the leadership was “cut to the quick.”. They had a genuine and heartfelt response to the apostles’ message. The word is only used here in the N.T. It was used in secular Greek to describe the ways a saw cuts lumber. Rather than a heartfelt tenderness for their past sin, this describes a heart that is angry and hurt but clearly unrepentant. Not all heartfelt reactions to the Gospel lead to repentance. Some authentic heart reactions are filled with anger and violence. We must never assume that a person will, if we present the Gospel correctly, respond in faith. Sometimes we will respond with murderous intent. 

It is interesting that a voice of wisdom was heard in the Senate that day. Gamaliel gave counsel to take a wait-and-see approach to the disciples. If they were just another bunch of rabble-rousers, they would come to nothing on their own. If they were acting at the behest of God, to oppose them would be to oppose God. His words are timely. This senate may have believed that they had the right to order capital punishment, but Gamaliel’s question resulted in the apostles not being put to death. They were beaten and then sent on their way. Tradition tells us that Gamaliel became a disciple and, having been baptized by Peter, he worked on behalf of the church in the Sanhedrin while keeping his faith a secret. The evidence for this story is ambiguous at best.

What is clear is the response of the apostles. They rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer hardship for the Cause of Christ. In a day where the church works hard at making it easy to be a believer, we should perhaps revise our attitude so that we see hardship for the Kingdom as something to be embraced. 

"Lord, help me to love even the hardest of times that I have in the work of the Gospel. AMEN"

Acts 5:1-16

 Acts 5:1-16

 

A church will not be healthy and grow without church discipline. While the case of Ananias and Sapphira is unique and does not have any reproducible methods for the church today, there are certain principles that we would be wise to understand and apply. 

One principle is to understand people sometimes have their own agendas. As Christians we tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, which is good, but it can also lead us to an unrealistically positive view of people. We do not know what Ananias and Sapphira’s agenda was, but it was not simple generosity. We have often been told they wanted esteem like that given to Barnabas. That seems a little shallow and too easy. “Great Fear” is the description of the reaction of the people. This takes a little thought to tease out. If Ananias and Sapphira had been notorious, slimy, over-the-top wicked people, the reaction would perhaps have been more muted. Perhaps the church would have said, “Good riddance” or, “Finally,” but if they were well known as evil, great fear would likely not be the reaction to their death. The church was in “great fear” because they saw in Ananias and Sapphira God’s reaction to hearts that harbored hidden and unrepentant sin, a condition common in all to some degree. This moment was a call to take seriously personal holiness.

Church discipline is primarily about the restoration of the wayward believer. But at a broader level, it is about rooting out sin from the body as a whole and from disciples as individuals. It is a preventative to keep the destructive power of sin from spreading. No church, and this is an absolute certainty, that fails to address willful, open, and unrepentant sin will ever be effective. In fact, when sin is open, unrepentant, and not confronted, it is empowered and will come to dominate the congregation. 

Which brings us to the second principle we need to understand and apply. When discipline is direct, effective, and holy, something wonderful happens. In verses 1-11 we see God directly carry out extreme church discipline. In vss. 12-16 we see an explosion of the ministry of the church. It is no accidental coincidence that the Holy Spirit is seen leading great ministry in the aftermath of the discipline of Ananias and Sapphira. We know that God will not work with people who are hardhearted and unwilling to confront evil in their own hearts and lives. That is also true of congregations and churches. Before we ask if dying and stagnant churches need new tools, techniques, methods, or songs, we need to ask, “Do these churches need to confront the willful sin that has lived unchallenged in their midst for years?”

Church discipline is perhaps the least enjoyable thing a congregation will ever have to do. It seems so much easier to “go along to get along.”. There is a fear that confrontation will cause an ugly scene and the church will no longer be a happy family. Rather than a “happy family” analogy, let’s use a body as the metaphor. Unrepentant sin is a cancer. Surgery with a follow-up of chemo and radiation will not be pleasant. It will be painful, and recovery will take some time. However, if dealt with early, it will be easier to recover. If left untreated, it will be fatal. 

"Lord, give me the courage to both receive and practice godly church discipline.  AMEN"