Dumitru Duduman was a man who grew up in Romania during the cold war era, which was controlled by the Soviet Union.
At one time he served in the military and helped stop Bible’s from coming into Romania. But one day he heard a voice that told him to help bring the bibles in. So he did. But he found out later they weren’t making it through.
Years later he became a Christian, and began organizing a new way to smuggle bibles into Russia. Over fifteen years Dumitru helped bring in over 300,000 bibles into the country. But in 1979, due to informants within the church, Dumitru was arrested.
They demanded to know where the bibles were and how he got them across the border; but the Holy Spirit kept telling him, don’t be afraid, don’t tell them, I’m with you. They put him in a room full of rats, they beat his feet with rods, placed a wooden plank on his back and beat his back; they even attached him to an electric chair, but the Lord appeared to Him, and kept assuring Dumitru that everything would be OK.
For 5 months this went on. The colonel who led the tortures of Dumitru was Colonel Preston. Dumitru prayed for the Colonel, instead of hating him. They all knew Dumitru followed God. And one day, they were going to kill Dumitru, but then an officer walked in and told him, Colonel Preston was going over your file and suddenly died. We know your God vindicated you, and we are letting you go. Please do not pray to your God about me, so I don’t die. I never harmed you. And they let him go. He went on to travel to America, and speak everywhere about his story.
Dumitru Duduman’s story is powerful and amazing. But I want you to think about his situation, and how God set him free. God set an example powerfully, by striking the Colonel who was torturing him, and it caused them to set free Dumitru, so he could continue his ministry. Was God right in doing this, to protect his beloved saint? I think God certainly was. Keep this example in mind, as we study the scripture for today.
Last week we saw the disciples gather to pray, after facing persecution from the authorities. They prayed, united, and trusted in God’s sovereignty. They asked God for boldness, and miracles, and God gave both. As a result the church continued to grow.
We’re going examine two scriptures today, the last few verses of chapter 4, and the first 11 verses of chapter five, and we’re going to see both amazing unity, and a new problem faced by the early church, and how God chose to deal with it.
We’ll be studying today one of the most challenging passages in the New Testament, but knowing you are all growing in maturity in Christ, I believe we’ll all be able to receive it in the right way.
At the end of chapter 4, verses 32-37, we see a period of unparalleled unity among the early church.
It says this in verse 32: “All the believers were one in heart and mind.”
There was such a joyous unity among the believers, their hearts belonged to Jesus, and their minds were in alignment.
This is incredibly powerful. And it occurs when believers have centered their lives in Christ. They naturally walk in the ways of the Spirit. They naturally serve each other. They naturally unite together. They gather together at bible study or women’s group, or here in the sanctuary, and no one can quite explain it, but there is an electric sense of connectivity and shared action among them.
That’s what it means to be united in heart and mind. A church united in this way can accomplish great things for God.
But keep this in mind: It has to do with the heart, and the mind. Both are submitted to God. When one is out of alignment, or both are out of alignment there can be problems.
A heart in alignment is humbly centered on God and the leading of His Spirit.
A heart out of alignment may become hardened and drift away from God. Pride and jealousy creep in and soon this person is disruptive to the body of Christ, instead of in unity with it.
A mind in alignment is humbly centered on Jesus Christ, being renewed by the word, and seeking to think in alignment with the mind of Christ.
A mind out of alignment is centered on worldly concerns, carnal pursuits, a worldly mind isn’t concerned with the things of God, just entertainment and money, and tasks to do.
Where is your heart today? Is it soft and humble, or do you have to be right, do you have to be in control? Is there pride in it?
Where is your mind today? Is your mind centered on Christ, or your own pleasures and your own agenda, instead of the agenda of God?
Prayer: Father, we confess our need for a renewal of heart and mind. Please Father, mold and shape our heart into your likeness. Cleanse it from all impurity. Give us a soft heart, humbly submitted to your leading. We give you our hearts, and place them in your hands. Give us also a mind renewed by the word, and through prayer, a mind centered in humility, grant us the mind of Christ, in Jesus name we pray, amen.
If your heart and mind are centered on Christ, you will be an instrument of unity in the body.
Second part of verse 32: “No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.”
This unity led to the sharing of possessions and resources. Any Christian who was in need, the church would look for ways to provide.
About 6 months ago, my wife Chelsey and I were praying for a vehicle, and God used several church members to help make that happen. We are so grateful for the body helping meet needs.
Many bring food for events, others volunteer time, others give money for special projects. But I think we can go even further with this concept, what if we had a needs textgroup? What if we were able to help with the needs of our people at a greater scale? Pray God would do this even more among us.
Next, verse 33: “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all”
They continued to testify. They didn’t get weary and give up. They kept proclaiming in the marketplace, in the streets, and in people’s homes that Jesus rose from the dead. God’s action in their boldness was to bless it all with His grace.
Verses 34-35 continues, God’s grace was so powerful…
“34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”
There was not a single needy person among them. Those who had land or houses, sold a property, sold a house, sold a field they owned, and gave all the proceeds to the church.
Does this mean you have to sell your house to be a good Christian? I don’t think so. It says in other portions of Acts that they were meeting in each other’s homes. So many still kept their homes. But this passage appears to be people who had many assets, selling them and giving the money to the church to care for the needy. Which is a beautiful thing. But it was by choice. There was no force. It was by the leading of the Holy Spirit. They saw believers who were poor and homeless, and sold assets to care for their needs.
I want you to notice the level of generosity. They were giving big. Some of you have that spiritual gift of giving. You give generously, financially and you give assets for the church and for those in need. Use that gift as God leads you. Give abundant. Give big. And enjoy it. It’s fun to give. It feels good to do God’s will and it’s so rewarding to see how God uses it.
Verses 36-37, I think are a good example of what was happening:
"36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet."
He didn’t sell his home and become homeless, he didn’t give up all his assets. But he had a field he owned, and he sold it for the good of the church. That’s pretty amazing.
What if you did the same thing, by the leading of the Spirit? What if the Spirit is saying sell that boat and give the money to the poor? What if the Spirit is saying give up something big for his kingdom?
Now if it’s your first visit today you may be thinking oh my goodness, all this church teaches about is money. That’s definitely not true. But I would challenge every Christian here today, we should all be tithing and giving offerings every Sunday. Because the church needs our money? No, because our hearts need to submit our wealth to God, and when we do, God blesses us abundantly.
I remember about ten years ago, I wasn't tithing, and a church member testified to me, that he had begun tithing faithfully many years ago, and God had blessed him so abundantly he was now a millionaire. I was in deep debt at the time. But I decided to trust God. I sat down and calculated what 10% of my income was. And I began to give it in check form each Sunday. And in two years, I was out of debt. By submitting my first fruits to God, God blessed my finances. For years I never had enough, but now, by honoring God with my money, I had an abundance. Money always seemed to slip away, now it seemed to gather.
So the early church were on fire for the Lord, bold, sharing the gospel, and giving big for those in need.
Now, flip over to Acts 5.We are going to see a problem develop in the church. Satan was not making the progress he desired by attacking the church from outside. In fact it just seemed to cause them to rely upon God even more. So we’re going to see Satan attempt to infiltrate the church from within.
Acts 5:1-2 says, “Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 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.”
So we have a married couple, who see people in the church selling properties and homes, and giving the money to the apostles, and they decide to do something similar.
But something is very wrong within the hearts of Ananias and his wife. They take an action to attempt to deceive the Spirit. The people selling property were giving all the proceeds. But, this couple does something different.
They pretend that they are giving everything, but they actually hold back part of the money for themselves.
Now the issue isn’t that they didn’t give enough, or that they shouldn’t have held back money, but it’s that they lied. They pretended to be giving all, but they weren’t.
And we see the Lord speak through Peter against this deception:
Verse 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?”
Verse 3 helps us understand the severity of what is really going on spiritually in this situation. It’s not money, or even lying. It’s an issue of the heart.
Very few in all of scripture are said to be filled with Satan. The one who comes to mind is Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
In Luke 22:3 it says: "Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve."
I think there’s a lot more going on in this passage than we realize. Ananias and his wife have reached a state in which they are filled with Satan.
It’s a heart issue. And he says, you didn’t just lie to people, you lied to the Holy Spirit.
Peter continues: “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.”
Peter rebukes Ananias, and tells him, this property was yours. You could do whatever you wanted with it. Then when you sold it, again, you could do whatever you wanted with the money. You didn’t have to come here and lie about it. Your sin isn’t just against people it’s against God.
And I think what was really going on here is, Satan was attempting to begin to infiltrate the church, and through Ananias and his wife, he could’ve began to divide the church and cause problems. But God deals with this threat swiftly.
Verse 5-6, “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.”
God deals with this threat to the unity of the new and beloved early church, by immediately striking Ananias on the spot. And he fell down and died.
I think this is where we get the modern notion that people are afraid God is going to “smite” them. Or this fear that God is going to send a lightning bolt and hit us, or some fear that if they walk into a church they’ll burst into flames. But all of that is simply not true.
What we see here in Acts 5 is rare. I’m not saying it’s impossible, that God won’t move in and deal with someone in the world in this way if he chooses to. But, it is rare. God isn’t going to strike you with lightning, he’s not Zeus.
But he does deal with sin. And if it were us at the time of the birth of the early church, at a time of complete unity when the church is not billions like it is today, but a few thousand, and one of us came in with division, filled with Satan, I might be worried. But that’s not our current situation. God’s actions are very situational, depending on what is going on in the moment.
But let’s keep going and see what happens next.
Verses 7-8: 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.”
Sapphira apparently wasn’t there when her husband originally came in. But, she enters and joins in the lie of her husband. So, again we see the judgment of God land upon her.
Verse 9-10 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.
Same result, Saphira is judged by the Lord for her part in this scheme that served as a danger to the unity and witness of the early church.
The result of this double judgment by the Lord against the spirit of Satan entering the church?
It says in verse 11: "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events."
The fear of the Lord guards the growth of the church, it guards the church against compromise, and ultimately, the entry of Satan into the church.
The danger is serious, if Satan can sneak into the church, it can cause the church to lose it’s way, and become ineffective in carrying the gospel to the world.
I think that’s why God’s actions here are so fast and severe, he is protecting the early church from being infiltrated by the devil early on. As the church continues to form over the centuries, we see the Lord is more patient with people who bring evil into the church, but at this key early moment, the Lord was quick to deal with this issue.
It was at the core, a heart issue. We talked about how the early church was united in heart and mind. But these people were not. They in fact had Satan in their hearts. And that lead to God’s judgment against them.
The fear of the Lord is something we in the modern church need to rediscover. We need to remember the holy God we serve and tremble before Him, particularly when we're tempted to sin. God is holy. He is our loving Father, but sometimes, my wife's sister tells this story, that if she did something wrong, her mom would just go quiet, and she knew she was waiting for dad to get home. This brought fear. We love dad, but he we also fear dad. That's a good thing.
In conclusion, let us always remember the power of unity in the church, when every believer’s heart is filled with Jesus Christ, it brings powerful unity. But when Satan is in the heart of people in the church, it brings a dangerous situation that can cripple, divide or even destroy a fellowship of believers. So God deals swiftly with those kinds of situations, if we will pray and trust Him to move on our behalf.
But remember, It’s not our job to deal out the justice of God, it’s our part to speak his word boldly, to pray for our enemies, and pray for the church, and God will work out the rest. God is the only one able to judge in this way. So we ought to fear God, shun evil in our own hearts, and love and pray for those who persecute us. Because God will deal with them, in His timing.
Recall Dumitru Duduman, and how the man who tortured him suddenly died right before Dumitru was going to be executed. And we are grateful that God protected him. I think we should have a similar attitude about the incident with Ananias and Saphira, God was protecting the church from the presence of Satan which had entered their hearts.
God protects his church. When we pray, God moves. God will fight for the unity of His church, and deliver us from anyone who might bring the spirit of Satan into our midst. Praise the Lord.
I fear my God, I love my Lord, and most of all, I trust my God. God is worthy of our trust. If we don’t fully understand, we can still trust.
Prayer: Father, we love you and we fear you. We regard you as the Holy one. You protect your church. We may not fully understand the things of God, but Lord, we trust in you, and leave judgment in your hands, not ours. In Jesus name, amen.
