Acts 5
The Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsIn our message today, we see a variety of issues in the early church and how they responded.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
July 10th 2022
Series: The Book of Acts
Sermon Title: Acts 5
Topic: Journey through the book of Acts.
Key Passages: Acts 5:
Sermon Blurb: In our message today, we see a variety of issues in the early church and how they responded.
Holy Spirit truth nugget:
Sermon:
Well, hello everyone!
Thank Pastor Kevin for filling in for me last week
Re-cap church-wide event & Pics
Today we jump back into the book of Acts.
If you want to grab your Bible we will pick up where we left off in Acts 5.
PAUSE
Now if you are new or newer to Family Church let me explain how we approach messages.
We are a church that really believes in the word of God, the Bible.
What we do as a church, week in and week out, is we bring our Bibles to church.
We open our Bibles.
We read our Bibles.
We study our Bibles.
And we ask God….how can we apply this to our lives today.
And so, we will simply do that today.
PAUSE
If you do not have your Bible with you I would encourage you to download our FamilyChurch.App.
There you can find the sermon notes, a free Bible and so much more.
PAUSE
If you are new, or newer, to Family Church we are on a journey walking through the book of Acts…
And since we do not want anyone to feel like they are behind, let me share a few things to catch you up on if you are new or newer today.
The book of Acts is all about how the church we know today started.
We are walking through how the church started and grew.
We are seeing how the church operated in the culture and country they were a part of.
We are seeing the church being attacked by the culture around them and how they respond by just pointing people toward God and not trying to tear down their culture or even really fight their culture.
Instead of protesting things they do not like, like we do today…
Instead…they are just sharing about how Jesus can save people eternally…
Instead of protesting, they are living their lives for Jesus…no matter what culture does to them….
And when people see this…they are so attracted to the culture of the early church….they convert and give their lives to Jesus in ever-increasing numbers!
And I wanted to say that today because I know we have people all over the political spectrum here, and that is great, but we all need to know that if we call ourselves believes in Jesus….
Our model is NOT culture…it is the Bible….
PAUSE
I love reading the book of Acts because it shows us that healthy churches are growing churches!
But we also know that with growing…..we are also changing….
And as much as we might not like to change at times….it is a fact of life…and let me show you quickly how I know you all know this!
PAUSE
We all start out life in diapers…..but how many of you still wear diapers?
Why make that change?
Isn’t it easier to not have to go find a bathroom all the time?
How many of you still ride a horse to go everywhere?
Some of you did growing up; why change?
How many of you still record what you spend in a checkbook?
The younger generation doesn’t even know why you would!
Any adults that still curl up in their mom and dad’s lap?
No….if you still did all that it would be weird….right….
As times change….so do we….and that is part of what you are going to see today is God leading more change in his church.
PAUSE
All last month we saw how the early church was about the work of God and as a result, the church was growing like crazy!
They were DAILY reaching the lost with the gospel of Jesus!
Chapter 4 ends with it repeating that all the believers shared their possessions and had great joy in doing so.
And I know that sounds weird to a lot of you…but if you think that is strange check out what happens next; I will read this whole passage and then explain it!
So let’s pick up our Bible and read from them today and see what God has for us to learn….Acts 5 starting at verse 1…
Acts 5: Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
Yikes….that is intense….
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
So, they lied about what they gave to God….
So……We are going to take up our Tithes and Offerings now….and I want to let you know tithing is 10% of your income and so that is what we are going to expect you put in and then one by one you are going to tell me if you did it and we will see how many die today!!
I am just kidding!!!!
Now I know this passage sounds weird.
Confusing.
Crazy…..
PAUSE
Here is the deal. And here is what I want you to understand from this passage.
Ananias and Sapphira wanted to be a part of the club.
They wanted to be a part of what God was doing…..but they did not want to go ALL IN.
They wanted to hold some back to make sure they were safe….
They wanted to keep their Plan B….
They wanted to keep their safety net.
They wanted to make sure they were going to take care of themselves if God did not….
PAUSE
Here is the reality we see……and this was hard back then….just like it is today!
They were willing to be partially surrendered to God but not fully.
They wanted to get praise from the people in their church, and church leadership, for being generous……. but they were living a lie…
PAUSE
Maybe today you can relate to that.
Maybe you feel like you are living a lie.
Maybe you know there is something in your life that you are hiding….and you know your hypocrisy….and you are hoping that no one ever finds out.
Maybe you pretend to be a Christian for your family but you really do not believe it.
Maybe you are lying at work.
Maybe you are deceiving someone you are in a relationship with.
Maybe you have your house of cards and you are wondering when it is all going to crumble.
Let me say something….because I know that is a reality for a LOT of people….
STOP HIDING!
STOP faking it!
PAUSE
Let me jump out of Acts for one second because someone here needs to hear this.
James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
I want you to note what this says…. And what it does not say… it does not say confess your sins:
To your Priest
To your Pastor
To your stuffed animal
To your therapist
To your psychic
It says confess your sins to WHOM church?
Each other
Who is each other?
It is the people sitting around you!
And then what should the people we confess to do…..look at your Bible…..
It DOESN’T say then you judge that person!
It DOESN’T you say WOW I didn’t know you were that messed up!!
It DOESN’T say then go gossip about that person behind their back!
What does it say church…..what should we then do for that person….
Pray for each other
PAUSE
Can I make a suggestion today…….Stop hiding your sin…..
Understand this, and it is what we see in this story:
Confessing your sin leads to freedom! Hiding your sin leads to DEATH!
Repeat
Sin keeps you in bondage and you know it is true!!!
Think about it.
When you know you do something BAD:
What do you do?
You spent a TON of time making sure no one figures it out.
You spent a ton of time thinking about it.
You spent a ton of time beating yourself up over it.
You spent a ton of time covering up….
When you get caught you start lying and making up stories!!!!
PAUSE
When you admit your sin….it might be hard for the person you sinned against to hear…..but that is what allows healing to come and it will lead to FREEDOM!
Not sure who that is for….
But it was for someone…..
Or maybe a lot of people….
Let’s be a real church filled with real people who admit they have real issues.
And let’s pray for each other to get over those issues to become more like Jesus and not judge each other.
PAUSE
And I think we do a good job of this as a church…..
But let’s keep it up so we don’t have to carry any bodies out of our church ok????
LOL…..
PAUSE
Let’s keep reading…..verse 12….
12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
Stop there…
Yet again what do we see?
God wants us to understand His church is growing.
This is now the 5th time in the book of Acts God has felt the need to tell us that.
Clearly, growth is important to God…...
Just like it is important to our church!
That is why we moved for one service to two services.
From two services to three….
Then from one location to two….
Then from three services to four!
Then from four services to five.
Then from two locations to soon three locations!
Why?????
So, we can reach as MANY people as possible for Jesus!
So, we can grow Jesus’ Kingdom and save as many people as possible!!
So, we can be like the early church example we see….
Let’s keep reading….Verse 15
15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
People flocked to the followers of Jesus because of the amazing things that were happening!
Because miracles were happening!
People were being healed!
Sickness was disappearing!
All because this new church was not afraid to pray BIG prayers and share Jesus with everyone around them!
And also note here that they were out in the community!
They were not just living like a Christian in church!
They did church sure….but they were sharing Jesus out in the community they lived in!
And because they were out fearlessly talking about Jesus….look at what happens next….
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
Pause here….
The church leaders of that day got what? What does it say?
Jealous
Think about this for a second.
The people that had determined how church was done.
The people that had led the church for years and years were seeing others following this NEW way of doing church and did NOT like it.
The people that had always been leading got jealous because these new forms of ministry were clearly working and reaching the lost….
So, the leaders of the OLD guard got mad!
They were not about to admit their ways are not working!
So……
They had the new leaders of this new church movement arrested!!
And look at how they and God respond….
19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
God rescued them! And look at what God says for them to do…..
20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
Hold up……
They get arrested for helping people and leading them to God.
God rescues them and gets them out of jail.
Then God says….go right back to where the people that jailed you will be and start preaching again!
PAUSE
Think about that….
Imagine one of our many amazing police officers in our church arrested you.
Imagine God wakes you up at night while you are in jail….and all the doors opened, and you walked right out.
Imagine God then says to you….
Ok, now I want you to go right back to where they arrested you and start preaching the good news of Jesus again!!!!
PAUSE
How many of you would be excited to run right back? Anyone?
PAUSE
Well….let’s see what they did….
21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
Note they came in the back door….because they are ABOVE coming in like the regular people!
And since they are above the regular people they didn’t see what was going on!
Let’s keep reading….
22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. 25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”
Someone finally notices something is going on right on their DOORSTEP!
And it goes on to say….
26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
PAUSE here
You are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.
They are saying, you are trying to say we are guilty of killing Jesus.
Which by the way they are the group that called for and motivated the people to call for the death of Jesus.
They ARE guilty of it and they are stuck where we talked about before….stuck hiding their SIN!!!!
Don’t hide your sin!
Let it out!
And that is where you will find freedom!
And look at the freedom that Peter has:
29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.
31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
They speak without FEAR of man and speak truth….
They do not care that the leaders of their culture are throwing them in prison!
They do not care that the leaders of their culture or ordering them to do what goes against Jesus.
They do what God says and God alone!
How refreshing!
Well….unless you were one of the cultural leaders….they it says in verse 33:
33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
Sound like the response of a Godly person? Nope
But if you are honest today….some of you in this room have been called out for your sin before and you wanted to hurt that person right?
You blew up on a person who was right…..
That happens to us….when we are caught in our sin….we tend to lash out at people.
PAUSE
I was recently got to teach my daughter, Addie, about this.
We were driving to school and I asked her how she was doing at leading some of her friends who do not believe in Jesus toward Jesus.
She snapped at me.
So I said….Addie let me teach you something I learned back when I was being trained in purchasing and negotiating.
If someone snaps on you it means 1 of 3 things:
1. They are lying and you caught them.
2. They are trying to hide something.
3. They feel guilty and are trying to cover it up.
So, I said…which of those three is this for you?
And she admitted it was the 3rd…she felt guilty that she had not been doing much to lead them toward Jesus.
PAUSE
Addie snapped at me because she got called into account and did not like it.
The leaders here snapped at Peter because they were called into account and did NOT like it.
PAUSE
But one wise leader stands up and says….verse 34….
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone!
Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
PAUSE here….
WOW! Think about the good advice that man gave and is recorded in the Bible for all of us!
Let me sum that up in one sentence.
Let God battle for you.
Repeat
Stop and think about that in light of your life today.
If you are resisting people why?
If you are snapping at people, why?
If what they are doing is of human origin it will fail!
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it!
That is what the Bible says!
PAUSE
Stop and think about that in light of things going on in
Your Life
Your Job
Your school
In our nation.
In our world.
Why are you fighting some of the change?
Or even use our church as an example.
If what Pastor Adam, and our leadership, are doing is of human origin it will fail!
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it!
And you will find yourself fighting against God…..
PAUSE
Let’s wrap this up…..Verse 41:
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
Verse 42 talks about what we said all last month.
Day after day, in the temple courts
Week in and week out, they were in church
Week in and week out, they were met in homes.
Your relationship with Jesus is about more than just coming to church!
It is about what this verse ends with….keep it on the screen….
Let’s read it aloud today after that comma…..:
they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
We are all called to be in church and in our homes together!
We should all sign up today to get into a group if you have not already.
Seriously grab your connection card right now and fill out the top and check off small group on the front if you have not already.
And we should ALL, not just your Pastor, be proclaiming the GOOD News about Jesus the Messiah.
PAUSE
Life Application: Examine your life this week. Do you feel aligned with other believers? Would anyone call you radically generous? Discuss with someone you can be open with.
Let’s Pray…..