When Sin Entered the Church

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 13 March 2016

Open your Bible to Acts 4. This section actually records the loving, caring sacrificial unity of the church. That’s in the first part. And then when we come to Acts 5, it introduces to us the first sin in the church. We know the new church was born on the Day of Pentecost. They were days of fellowship. They were days of teaching sound doctrine. They were days of breaking bread around the Lord’s Table, and eating meals from house to house with fellow believers.

The testimony of converted souls was loud and clear. The result in the early weeks of the church, had been an explosion of believers, to the point that perhaps as many as 20,000 people have now come to faith in Christ, and gone through the waters of baptism. Everything at this point in the church is joyful, and upbeat, and glorious. And when persecution broke out, the church met it head on. And the church was triumphant, even in the face of that persecution.

God was real. Christ was alive and the Spirit’s power surged through them. They met their persecutors with courage and boldness. Never had the world seen days like these. Never before had the atonement for sin been offered. Never before had the resurrection of the redeemer taken place. Never before had forgiveness of sins been offered. Never before had the Holy Spirit taken up full residence in people. Never before had there been new natures implanted in redeemed souls.

It was glorious, and the people were literally on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit, and the sheer force of the truth of the gospel. But Satan was still active. His first acts against the church with persecution failed to quench the fire. Eternal purposes were being unfolded. Eternal power was being unleashed. And external pressure was like pouring gas on that fire. Satan then knew that if he was going to do damage he had to get on the inside of the church.

It’s in this section that Satan causes the first open incident of sin in the church. This is the beginning and sin has had a foothold in the church ever since. This is the reality that Satan works in the church. Jesus said that Satan would sow tares among the wheat. The first instruction that our Lord gave to the church was that, if someone is in sin, go to that person. If they don’t repent, take two or three witnesses. If they still don’t repent, tell the whole church, and that’s essentially the first duty given to the church.

Moral sin and doctrinal sin have plagued the church ever since. This is where Satan does his greatest damage. History would tell us that to persecute the church externally only causes the church to become purer and more powerful and more effective. So, Satan now works mostly inside the church. And I pray that as you hear this, that it will make you perhaps more alert, more wary, more thoughtful about the seriousness of sin in the church.

This passage also demonstrates the honesty of the Bible. It would seem that the ugliness of this sin might well have been left out. But God will not give us something that is false, and certainly not His church. The church is not perfect. It wasn’t perfect in its beginning, and it is certainly not perfect now. It is a hospital for people who know they are sick and also know where to find the cure. There is always sin in the church because the church is full of sinners.

And God took that early church with its sin, its sinners, and transformed the entire world. The fact that the Lord, from the very beginning, had to work with sinful people, gives us hope. People say often, “I don’t want to go to church because there are a bunch of hypocrites there.” My answer is, “That’s right, and there’s plenty of room for another one.” We would say that’s also true of Israel and the church, and even true believers are characterized legitimately as an assembly of redeemed sinners.

But before we get to Acts 5, let us look at sin into perspective in verse 32-35, “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. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

The church gatherings were all joyful, loving, and unified. Here is the great illustration of that. Their unity and their love was genuinely sacrificial. How far would you got to meet somebody’s need? Are you prepared, if you own a piece of land, to sell your land and take the money, and hand it over to the church and say, “Do whatever you want with this money to meet the needs of people?” Are you prepared to do that? Loving unity should always mark the church.

Now, this became very practical. The church people owned land like Barnabas. They owned things. But people treated them as if they belonged to anybody who might need what they could provide. Look at verse 34, “There was not a needy person among them.” Amazing. How could that be? “For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought of what was sold.” Wow! What would it take for you to sell your house to meet someone’s need? This is the spiritual grace that has literally engulfed these people.

Why did they do that? Because they trusted the apostles to distribute them. They didn’t want to make that decision. That’s what you do also, when you give to the church every Sunday, you lay that money at the feet of the pastor and shepherds who make a decision as to how best that is to be used. That’s a pretty amazing level of confidence. And it was all voluntary. Everybody sold everything, it all went into one pot, and they doled it out equally.

Look at Acts 5:4. Peter confronts Ananias about a piece of land. “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?” They did not immediately sell everything and then distributed it to the people. People continued to own things. But whenever they saw a need, their sacrifice was great. Remember, there were thousands of people who came for the feast of Pentecost, when the church was born. They don’t want to leave because there is no church in their towns.

So you have lots of people with no homes, no jobs, who have abandoned Judaism. They are viewed as apostates and they are kicked out of the synagogue. They are basically outcasts that have to be cared for. Even the apostle Paul after this, travels throughout Asia Minor raising money to take back to give to the poor Jerusalem saints, many of whom never left. Some of whom gave everything they had away, and therefore had needs that had to be met.

Do you know that this is the Christian view of money? None of it really is ours. God does not say 90 percent is yours and a tenth is mine. It all belongs to God. It is God who gives you the power to get wealth. All of it is a stewardship of resources that belong to God. You belong to God. Your children belong to God. Your money belongs to God. Your abilities, your talents, your resources, they all belong to God, and they are all there to be used for His glory.

And when love was so compelling, so driving, people gave their stuff up easily. But this didn’t last, because much later 1 John 3:17-18 says, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” So, already when you get to the end of the century, Christians are being selfish.

Then Luke, in writing this history, gives us an illustration, verse 36-37, “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.” Now you know that Barnabas’ real name was Joseph. Barnabas was a nickname. It means Son of Comfort, or Son of Encouragement. He had the gift of coming alongside and strengthening people.

He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of faith. He actually became a co-pastor of the church in Antioch, in Acts 13:1. He was one of the group of co-pastors. We’ll learn more about him in the Acts 14 where he was called an apostle. Barnabas comes up again in Acts 15 in an argument about whether to keep John Mark who has been a disappointment to Paul. So Barnabas was a very important person.

Now back to Acts 4. Barnabas is a living illustration of what is going on. He sold property, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. We are talking about a significant amount of money to meet a special need. Amazing generosity. Barnabas is just one out of many that did that. He was Jewish, a Levite, attached to the service of the temple and he was significant. He gave out of the love of a pure heart, and he was sacrificial, really a model of what many others did.

So now we come to Acts 5:1-2, “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.” The name Ananias means, “The Lord is gracious.” His wife’s name Sapphire actually can mean beautiful. They had watched all of this going on and they wanted to get in on some of the honor, so they sold a piece of property but kept back some of the price.

It says that Ananias did this for himself with his wife’s full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. They are professed believers. We could even assume they are real believers. They are actually in communication with the Holy Spirit, as well as being strongly influenced by Satan. It says that they were real believers because of verse 32, “the congregation of those who believed.” It isn’t just the unbelievers in the church that sin; it’s the believers in the church that sin.

So they sell their property. Obviously, they publically stated that they brought the full price of the sale, but they kept back some of it, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Just as everybody else had done, they get in line to obtain honor for themselves. The sin is not that they didn’t give. The sin is not that they didn’t give enough. In the New Testament, there’s no amount prescribed. Their sin is in lying. God hates lying.

Verse 3, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? “ Yeah, of course they lied to Peter and to John and to the other apostles. But they most of all lied to the Holy Spirit. And secret sin on earth is an open scandal in heaven. It is a lie that is intended to make them look spiritual. They thought that they would be applauded for their sacrifice. And at the same time, they could free up a little cash and stash it away.

That is hypocrisy, creating a deceptive perception of one’s spiritual character. Hypocrisy is not just a lie; it is living a lie. They are the ones who want to be elevated in the church, and they have been around a long time. They want people to think highly of them. They put on a façade. Is the church full of hypocrites? Absolutely. None of us, truthfully, none of us lives as we ought to live. None of us lives the Christ-like life. But neither should we pretend that we do.

What sin would you have picked to be the first sin that the Lord disciplined in the church? Maybe you would’ve picked immorality or stealing or some form of blasphemy. Maybe you would’ve picked some relationship characterized by anger, hostility and lack of forgiveness. Those are all part of life in the church. But the sin that the Holy Spirit places here to inaugurate our understanding of sin in the church is the sin of hypocrisy, pretending to be something you’re not.

Verse 4, “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” The first sin identified in the life of church is lying to God. Well, lying to men, sure. But who thinks that nobody will know if you lie to God? We cannot deceive Him. He knows what is in your heart. He knows your thoughts.

This is hitting the church at its most deep point. This is why 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And that judgment begins with the spiritual integrity of the church. If the church is to be exposed, let it first and foremost be exposed for its hypocrisy. That deadly, hypocritical reality in a church is a kind of leaven that leavens the whole thing.

Have you wondered why amongst the people in the church there are so many Christians in name only who only pretend to be real Christians. Look at what Christ says in Matthew 13:25-26, “but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.” Well, we will see the consequences of all this next week when we will look at the results and the impact. Let’s pray.