A Community of Truth and Grace

English

A COMMUNITY OF TRUTH & LOVE

ACTS 5:1-11, 6:1-7

I'll take you today to two snapshots of the early church as we read about it in Acts. On first glance, you may think that these two things cannot be true of the same community. In the eyes of our world, they seem to be absolutely contradictory. They are not.

Watch the video of Acts 5:1-11 and then read Acts 6:1-7.

What we see in these two sets of scripture is that a church community in which God rules must be a community 1) of truth and 2) of compassion. Not one or the other – but both/and. Let's look at them.

#1: A Community of Truth (5:1-11)

The episode of Ananias and Sapphira has often frightened churchgoers – and so it should. In the passage recorded just before this story, a man called Joseph had seen there were needs in the church community and had sold one of his fields to help meet the needs. Apparently, this had brought about a lot of gratitude from within the community toward him so the people called him "Barnabas", i.e., the son of encouragement.

Possibly hoping that they too would get some acclaim if they were made a contribution, this married couple sold a piece of their property and intentionally plotted to deceive the church by bringing only a part of the proceeds but saying they were bringing it all to the church. And, as we saw in the video clip, it led to their death. We know that God did not always judge deception this quickly or with such finality. Even the Apostle Peter, who was called upon to administer discipline in this situation, is a man who not so long before had been a deceiver himself. A few months before, Peter had firmly told a group of people, "I did not know this Jesus" as Jesus was dying on the cross. So, what's going on in Acts 5 with this judgment?

There are two other occasions in the Bible which deception is judged severely, both at the beginnings of a new work of God. The first is in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and intentionally plotted to deceive him by hiding in the bushes. The result was that they were banished from his immediate presence and death began in human experience. The second time in the Bible God judged dishonesty quickly was in the story of Achan when Israel was first being established in the Promised Land. In Joshua 7, we learn that a man named Achan pillaged gold, silver and a costly garment and then hid what he had done from the community. The result of this was also judgment ending in death.

When we look at these three out-of-the-ordinary times of God judging severely, we see that each was a time in which God is laying a foundation of values that are to shape the future of his people. Essential among them is that a community that bears the name of God is to be a community of honesty, transparency and integrity. God is a God of truth. Jesus identifies himself as being the truth. Jesus insisted that truth sets free. So, as God's work is being established in this new church in Acts 5, it could not go forward without acts of dishonesty and deception being judged.

From this, there are several points that I want you to remember:

1. God has promised to judge dishonesty and deceit. In these three cases, he did it more quickly and immediately than usual. But, be assured of this: The holy God of truth will not be mocked. Whatever we sow will be reaped. The command to be utterly truthful is in the Ten Commandments and this episode graphically declares to us that transparency and truthfulness of central importance to the God whose church we are. Thanks be to him – God is almost always longsuffering. But deception that is not confessed will result in judgment. Jesus bore the punishment that we deserve for our sin – but we must open up those parts in our lives that we are hiding, confess them to him, turn from them, and then walk in truth.

2. One of the surest signs that you can look for in your life is whether there is something that you are hiding. If you are hiding something about your finances that you cannot bring out into the open, you probably are in danger. If you have a relationship with someone that you are hiding from others, you need to beware. If there are websites you go to that you must find a way to hide from those close to you, you need to turn from that and live in truth. Adam and Eve, Achan, and Ananias and Sapphira were in trouble when they were hiding things. Let us learn from them.

3. The main lesson from Acts 5 is that we must be a community that teaches the truth as found in God's Word and then calls people to live lives of truth consistent with Scripture. I tell you this: That kind of honest community is a trustworthy community. Truth sets free! But hiding things separate us from one another. We need to take the teaching of the truth and the living of the truth as seriously as did the early church.

Some people are shocked by v.11: "Great fear seized the whole church..." Let me tell you that, although many kinds of fear are damaging and debilitating, some fears are life-giving. It's healthy for me to fear sticking my hand in a hot fire. It keeps me from self-destruction. I find that it's healthy for me when I fear deceiving or dishonoring someone I love. I really do not want to dishonor my wife Chris... or my children... or you as those I love in my church family. And the Bible says that the bottom line in this is a foundational verse for all of life: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 9:10)." When we seek to please God, we will be people of integrity because God values integrity. When we fear him, there is nothing else in this entire world to fear.

And the kind of transparency and commitment to truth demanded in Acts 5:1-11 is a big part of what made a beautiful episode in Acts 6 possible. This community of truth then had the possibility to be a community of compassion.

#2: A Community of Compassion (6:1-7)

In Acts 4:34, the Bible tells us that "there were no needy persons among them" in the church. But, by Acts 6, there were needy persons there. It wasn't that the resources in the church were insufficient to meet needs. And, it even seems that there was a heart of generosity among the people that led them to give when they knew about needs. So, what was the problem? I think it may have been two-fold: 1) the spiritual leadership probably didn't know about a group in the church that was hurting. 2) They were not structured to be able to meet the needs. The leadership was called to study the Word, to teach the truth, to spend time with God in prayer, and to make sure the community was living according to God's Word as they did in Acts 5.

Do you see how it might have happened that the deep needs of one group went unmet? The Jerusalem church had grown very quickly to become a church almost exactly the same size as Lake Avenue Church (when we add all those who are here in worship, adult classes, children's ministry, student ministry and Commuidad). And, as we've seen from Acts 2 and on, this church in Jerusalem was quite diverse.

So, let me try to put together for you what I see:

* The Aramaic speaking majority leaders (it was in Jerusalem with the apostles all being ethnic Jews and culturally/linguistically Aramaic) almost surely were not even aware of the needs of this growing group of Greek speaking believers who were so culturally different from them. They may not have even been aware of the needs because their life-experience and close relational circles would not have included this group. Widows were one of three groups marginalized and uncared for in much of the 1st century world – the others being orphans and immigrants. But, the apostles probably hadn't heard that their needs were not being met.

Why do I say this? These needy widows were Jewish but they were culturally very different from the majority group in the early church. Like 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants to America, these women had become culturally more Greek than they were Hebrew. It would have been very much like the situation of many people here in the San Gabriel Valley and in our church. These women looked Jewish, were Jewish by heritage, but they thought culturally like the larger Greek world in which they lived. By Acts 6, they had become a part of the church. That meant that they were sisters in Christ just as much as the Aramaic speaking people were in this local gathering of God's family in Jerusalem. And these widows had a need. What would they do? Would they keep the need to themselves? Would they be open about it and seek help?

* The Hebrew-speaking apostles had a calling from God that was all-consuming. They simply had to teach the Word. That was God's call upon them. That's what the church needed them to do too. Teaching the Word and making sure people lived in accordance to it was absolutely essential to the body. The apostles were the ones called and gifted to focus on this. And, let me add this, in their Jewish culture, the "priests" did all of this in their synagogues -- teaching, caring, settling problems, etc. But, by Acts 6, the church had become so big that they could not do it all. If a church was to be a community both of truth and compassion, how could they possibly be both? Truth and compassion were both non-negotiables if the church was going to reflect who God is to the world. I contend they still are.

* It would have killed the church if they had said, "Well we can't do everything so this is what we do and the way we do it. If it doesn't fit them, then they can go elsewhere." (I see that spirit in many large churches in our world) No, they said this: "To be a community in which God rules, we must teach the truth (and call people to live by it) and care for the needs of those who come to our body. If we expect the apostles to oversee the compassion, they will get worn out, their teaching ministry will suffer, and we will all hurt. But, teaching must flow into us being a community of compassion. Doing what we're doing now the way we're doing it now won't get us where God would have us be. How do we address both of these issues?"

* The early church was guided by the conviction that, if they were to please God, they had to both teach the truth and be a community of compassion. They were nimble enough to find a way to be both. The fear of displeasing the Lord by failing to reflect either his truth or his compassion was the beginning of a wise act. What they did to bridge the cultural gap surely was not easy but they knew that their church was God's church. They would have to make changes in order to please God.

* The solution was to become a community of people serving people. The word used for the early church's compassion ministry in 6:2 speaks of people who serve. It's people who "deacon" (that's the word here) one another. One of the trademarks of a compassionate church is that all people in that church serve to meet the needs of others. And that's what begins to develop in Acts 6;

Notice that it demanded an administrative change. The apostles had to give up some of their authority to empower others to serve. And, they needed godly people to focus on/coordinate/be held accountable for compassion reaching all its people – and that included the fact that they had to steward the benevolence funds. The apostles had previously done all of this. These people who gave leadership to the compassion ministry needed to have among them godly leaders who did life with the Greek-speaking community. (All the names of those who were made "deacons" were Greek names.)

As I read the it in Acts 6, all people in the church are to "serve" -- but a church simply must have a godly group identified to administrate the compassionate serving. I think we have so much to learn from the early church in this. Don't you? We too are a large and diverse community. Right now, we have ways of identifying needs – like asking you to come and share and pray with us after the services. We also have many small groups in the church where needs might be identified and met. But, as our community changes and new people join us, we may need to be as nimble as the early church was and make some changes so we can be sure to identify needs and be a community of compassion.

The few leaders in the early church could not do all the caring needed. And the same is true here at LAC. I want us to be a community centered in Jesus that teaches the truth of God's Word faithfully AND develops a culture of compassion. I know this would bring joy to our Heavenly Father.

Let me tell you the rest of the story. This "truth with compassion" shaped the church and made it different from the world around. The world saw things different in the life of the church from the rest of the world. A part of that difference was that people actually began to living out the truth they heard taught each week. Christians' marriages were stronger. Families were closer. Allegiance to God's truth made them bold – bold enough even to give their lives to further the truth of God.

And, at the same time, they were compassionate – both to one another and to those in their local neighborhoods. Listen to the words of sociologist Rodney Stark:

In the midst of the squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity of ancient cities, Christianity provided an island of mercy and security. Foremost was the Christian duty to alleviate want and suffering. It started with Jesus: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me... . . .. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:35–36, 40)

In contrast, in the pagan world, and especially among the philosophers, mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity as a pathological emotion: because mercy involves providing unearned help or relief... This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. Moreover, the corollary that because God loves humanity, Christians may not please God unless they love one another was even more incompatible with pagan convictions...

And note this:

These charitable activities were possible only because Christianity generated congregations, true communities of believers who built their lives around their religious affiliation. And it was this, above all else, that insulated Christians from the many deprivations of ancient life. Even if they were newcomers, they were not strangers, but brothers and sisters in Christ. When calamities struck, there were people who cared—in fact, there were people having the distinct responsibility to care! All congregations had deacons whose primary job was the support of the sick, infirm, poor, and disabled.

From Rodney Stark's The Triumph of Christianity, 2011

I love Acts 6:7. It starts with "so". This decision that facilitated the teaching of the Word and the compassion of Christ led to Jewish priests becoming "obedient to the faith". (Isn't that a wonderful way of talking about becoming a Christian!) The implication: The priest who had to be both teachers and server of needs saw a community of servants -- all committed to serving the needs within the body -- and they saw it was good. They were drawn to it.

What do I want you to do? Many things. But, perhaps I can offer two applications:

1. Find a place to serve – When you serve, you are brought into relationship with people and you begin to see how you can make a difference in their lives. And they will make a difference in yours too! One place readily available right now is our upcoming Vacation Bible School. We have hundreds of children wanting to come and we need lots of us to serve them. It's only for a week. It will give you a chance to begin to serve and see how God has equipped you for service. We'll have people out by the student Center ready to talk with you and to help you find a place to begin to serve.

2. Get to know the people seated around you. When you do, be a person of truth. If you are in a place of great need today, you've got to let those around you know. (That's not easy for some of us – but transparency and truth are necessary if we will develop a culture of compassion.) And, be open to serve those around you. We all have different needs. I believe God has given us all the resources required to meet all the needs of this family. But the compassion cannot be done by a few. We must become what God says he has brought us into being to be, i.e., a group of people who serve people as God has served us.

With God's help, we will grow more and more to be a community of truth – and love... to His glory.

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor