Scripture Reading Acts 4:32–37

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul, neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all, nor was there anyone among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need. And Joseph, who also was named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated, Son of Encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Opening Prayer

Oh Lord God in heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks again that we have this opportunity to come before you to sing your praise and to consider the truth of your word. And we pray that you would give us understanding and insight to the passage that we can come before this evening and that you would lead us and guide us to your truth all to the praise of your glorious name. We pray all these things in Jesus name, amen.

Introduction: Parallels with Acts 2

Well here at the end of Acts chapter 4, in many ways parallels the end of Acts chapter 2.

In both chapter 2 and chapter 4, remember there was a tremendous display of the power of the Holy Spirit.

• The outpouring of the Holy Spirit leading to the disciples speaking in foreign languages in chapter 2.
• And then of course in chapter 4 it was the healing of a 40 year old man who had been born lame.

These two miraculous events, though, led to a great commotion and the gathering of a large crowd, which gave opportunity for Peter to step forward and to proclaim the gospel.

And the result was that a large number of people repented of their sins and believed the gospel, thus being added to the roles of the church in Jerusalem.

There were 3,000 in Acts chapter 2 that were added, and then at least another 2,000 here in Acts chapter 4.

One of the key differences, of course, is that in Acts chapter 4, the apostles had now faced opposition to their preaching for the first time. And this, of course, is just a foretaste of something that has become more prevalent for them.

But the concluding comments about the life and the ministry of the church between Acts chapter 2 and Acts 4 are also very similar.

And the one thing that’s especially amazing is the great amount of unity that’s stressed that was existent among this ever-growing body of believers.

The Challenge of Rapid Growth

Having a large influx of new believers in the church is truly a wonderful blessing. And it certainly is.

It’s a further demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit goes forth with the proclamation of the word and hearts are made alive and converted.

But think about all the challenges that would come about with such a huge increase.

Certainly, there would be a lot of adapting and adjusting, whether it’s going from 120 to 3,000 members or now from 3,000 to over 5,000.

There certainly would have been some growing pains.

And they could no longer, of course, meet in a large upper room. They were meeting in the courts of the temple publicly.

They also, later we get an indication that perhaps they were broken up into smaller groups. They were meeting house to house.

And so, yeah, they had to make some adjustments and it would have been a great challenge to do this. Even just keeping track of everyone and kind of managing the crowds.

Well, indeed, as we’ll see in chapter six, the apostles realized that there are other changes that will need to be made in order for the church to function as a much larger group.

Yet, because this was a work of God through the Holy Spirit, early on, rather dramatically and amazingly, it seems as though the church was able to absorb these huge additions without any loss to the sense of community and unity that was enjoyed when it was just 120 members.

And that is, again, a tremendous miracle.

In our own situation, of course, we enjoy a great deal of unity and community in our own local body of believers here.

And it seems certainly we would be very hard-pressed to maintain that if we suddenly grew by several hundred members, let alone several thousand. We definitely would need a new meeting place, that’s for sure.

But as we see here in Acts 4, at least for a time, this was possible and in fact the unity and fellowship of believers was something that made the body of believers really stand out to the rest of the community and to the rest of the city, those who were there in Jerusalem, which then of course led to even further growth as they were a witness to others.

And certainly the comment that Luke makes here in verse 33, that great grace was upon them all, seems to be rather an understatement.

Certainly there was great grace that was upon them all in order to bring these things about and to preserve this great unity.

The Blessing and Pursuit of Unity

Well, it’s also important to highlight as well that as the sense of unity and community within the body of Christ is a great blessing.

And one again, that ought not to be taken for granted.

But of course, aside from the miraculous outpouring of God’s grace, without which, of course, it surely would be impossible, it’s something that ought to be sought after and worked toward within any congregation of God’s people, no matter whether it’s a big congregation or a small congregation.

And of course, here we remember Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17, that He prayed that those who would believe on Him would be one in Him, even as He and the Father are one.

And so when we as a local body of believers strive toward unity and the fellowship of the unity, we bring glory to God because we’re seeking to bring about this very thing that Jesus prayed for.

We’re fulfilling his desire for the church, but also being a witness to a watching world.

How Unity Was Demonstrated

And so how was this God-glorifying and witness-bearing unity demonstrated here in the early church in Acts chapter 4?

Unity of Heart and Soul

Well first, we see that there was a unity of heart and soul in verse 32.

The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.

They were united together in heart and their soul.

This is a spiritual unity. A spiritual unity rooted in the common belief and faith in the gospel.

The gospel that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, that He was the Son of God come in the flesh, that He lived a perfectly righteous life, that He laid down His life to pay the penalty for our sins.

And of course, that’s all He accomplished when He died on the cross.

But it’s also believing that death didn’t hold him as he secured salvation for his people when he rose again from the dead on the third day.

And then, of course, he ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, where even now he was reigning, ruling over all things for the blessing and the benefit of his people, the church.

But there’s more.

According to the promise that Jesus had made, he poured out the Holy Spirit upon his people to apply the blessings and the benefits of the salvation that he secured.

And this profession and confession of faith, then, is what really then unites these believers together.

And it’s just not the believers here, but it’s what unites believers together in every nation, in every generation.

This is, again, was the desire Jesus had for the church in that high priestly prayer.

In John 17, he prayed, I do not pray for these alone but also for those who believe in me through their word that they all may be one as you father are in me and i in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me.

So there again we see that connection that Jesus envisions his church and his people becoming one that it will be a witness to the world and people will believe that Jesus was sent by God the Father.

And so hearts that are renewed in Christ by faith are united together with Him and with others in Him.

And again, what a tremendous blessing it is when you’re traveling, perhaps, and you meet a professing Christian, and almost instantly there’s a common bond.

There’s a sense of brotherhood and a fellowship of Christ because of that common faith in Christ.

Indeed, this is a great blessing of our fellowship with one another.

Even here, we know that there are others who are close to us, our family, our friends, and our neighbors, even in this community, who share this common faith.

And so this is what unites us together as one body in Christ.

But beyond the unity of a common faith, we often will have a more close-knit fellowship and unity with those who share the same understanding of the Scriptures so that our doctrine, our substance of our faith, is also a source of great unity.

And we see this here as well in Acts 4, that the apostles preaching and teaching within the congregation as well as evangelistically outside the congregation, again, was a key purpose of the church’s mission that united them together.

The Role of Right Doctrine

In verse 33,

and with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

And so right doctrine provides a foundation for unity among believers.

And here, the right doctrine that is preached and proclaimed is giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the apostles only taught about the resurrection of Jesus. Obviously, we know that they taught about other things.

But Luke states this here as a summary of the gospel itself.

Because you can’t speak of the resurrection without first speaking of the atoning death of Jesus as a once-for-all sacrifice for sins.

And you can’t begin to speak about that unless you also first declare that Jesus had come as God’s own Son, as the appointed Christ and Messiah, as the One who would have saved His people from their sins.

And of course, as we’ve seen in Peter’s sermons before this, that this is done by pointing the people to how Jesus had come in fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures.

And so all this, the prophetic witness to the coming of Christ, the incarnation, the suffering and death of Jesus, the resurrection, and even his ascension to the right hand of God, where he reigns even now, is summarized here in the Apostles testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And this doctrine or teaching again, is what united them as it is truly what unites us.

True unity in the church is to be found in the truth of the gospel. It’s to be found in right doctrine.

Again, too often today, many Christians try to unite over things like politics or social justice causes, or even by totally gutting all truth from doctrine, removing what is seemingly offensive, and they try to gather around that.

But as we see here, at the heart of the unity of the believers was the right doctrine and a commitment to proclaim and teach that right doctrine to the glory of God.

Now, belief in the gospel and holding to a right doctrine are, again, essentials for true unity.

Because without either of these, there will be no true, lasting unity.

Unity Manifested in Practical Love

But Luke highlights here, as he did back in chapter 2, the way that this unity manifests itself among the believers, that not only do they believe and teach the same things, but they demonstrated unity in how they lived their lives together, especially in their care and their concern for one another.

And again, we see this in verse 32.

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

And then further in verse 34,

nor was there anyone among them who lacked, For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and they distributed to each one as anyone had need.

And so the sense of community was so strong that people had this attitude of, what’s mine is yours.

And people were willingly and freely sharing what they had.

And what’s even more extraordinary was that the believers, as they were doing this, they willingly and freely gave up what was rightly theirs, even, for example, personal property that they owned.

And it meant that they could then bless their brothers and sisters who were in need by selling that property.

Now, some might read this and think, wow, this sounds a little bit like communism. Maybe we need to step away from this.

That, of course, communism being the political economic philosophy that no one possesses private property, but everything should belong to the collective, that is to all the people together.

But before we start selling everything that we own and shunning private property, we need to understand that what we read here is actually very different from what we think of and what we know of communism today.

Because note the key difference.

The apostles weren’t requiring people to sell their property or even to share it.

They weren’t taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

They weren’t using force to compel people to share.

No, the key difference is that the people themselves, on their own, out of their great love for their brothers and sisters, freely gave and shared what they had, often in response to real needs that arose from among the body of believers.

If you think about it, if the disciples were meeting from house to house, well then obviously not everyone was selling all their property and their land. Because where would they be meeting?

The implication is that those who were selling property had actually more than what they needed, and they were able to use what they’d been blessed with in order to bless others.

And so their overflowing generosity resulted in all the needs of those in their midst being met.

Again, what a tremendous blessing and a beautiful display of love and unity.

Indeed, it’s a wonderful demonstration of what Jesus desired of his people in John 13.

By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

What a great demonstration of love for one another by sharing with one another so that all needs are being taken care of.

The Example of Barnabas

Now Luke goes on to give an example of how this worked.

In verses 36 to 37 he says,

And Joseph, He was also named Barnabas by the Apostles, which is translated, Son of Encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land and sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles’ feet.

And so here we have Joseph called Barnabas, who would later become a great encouragement in the work of the ministry and the work of the gospel in the early church, not just because of here and what he does, selling a piece of property and using it to benefit the church.

But later, of course, we know that this is the same Barnabas who would become the Apostle Paul’s companion, joining Paul on his early missionary journeys to spread the gospel to distant lands.

And so Barnabas was a Levite. And he was also foreign born. He was from Cyprus.

Perhaps we think that maybe Barnabas may have been one of those disciples who heard the disciples speaking in foreign tongues on the day of Pentecost.

Or maybe he was there in Jerusalem for this most recent feast and heard the words of Peter being proclaimed.

But we’re told here that Barnabas had this piece of property And he sold it.

And again, there’s no force or compulsion.

He willingly sold this piece of property.

But with a heart filled with the Spirit, gratitude, and love, and encouragement, Barnabas desired to give this gift to the church.

And so he sold the land and gave all the proceeds from that sale to the church, laying it at the apostles’ feet.

And the apostles would then distribute it to those who had need, so that, again, all the needs of the people were truly met.

Now, this begins to kind of set up the challenge of what will come in chapter 5 that we made reference to this morning with Ananias and Sapphira.

But that’s what’s going on here.

And Barnabas is honored.

People say, hey, this is an amazing thing. This guy, he had this land and he sold it and he gave it all to the church so that people’s needs could be met.

Again, it’s hard for us, perhaps, to imagine how all this sharing worked.

But again, we can see here that it was a great blessing to the church.

Indeed, when we’re generous and diligent in sharing what the Lord has given to us, we know that he uses those gifts to not only bless others, but even to bless ourselves as well.

You see, when people are set on looking out for the needs of others before their own, which we’re called to do throughout the scriptures, and Paul has instructions for the various churches to do that very thing, to seek the needs of others, especially in the church, to seek the needs of others before our own.

If everyone in the church was committed to that very principle, well then all the needs, including your own needs, would be met.

Application and Challenge

And so let’s be challenged then with such a ministry of giving and sharing, not again from a sense of compulsion or even guilt about it, but out of our love and our gratitude to God and to demonstrate our love and our unity that we have with one another and the common faith that we share in Christ Jesus.

And as those around us see this love and unity, we know that we will in a very real way bear witness to them of the glorious power of the gospel to change and transform lives to the glory of God alone.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do rejoice and give thanks for this blessing, this encouragement, this desire that we would have, even as your people gathered here, that we would strive for greater peace and unity within the body, that we would have this mindset of looking out for the needs of others, and that this would be, again, a tremendous witness that people would see the love that we have for one another.

They would see the unity that we have and the common faith that we profess and confess and the truth that we uphold and believe as your truth.

And we pray, Lord, that this would be a great witness to those around us, to this world that is often caught up in neediness and selfishness and that this would be a way for us to truly stand out as they would look upon us to see that great love and unity that we have for one another.

And so we just pray that you lead us and guide us in this, that you’d bless us, that you would give us opportunities even as you have given us opportunity just fairly recently to serve and to minister to those in need.

And so we rejoice and give thanks for that.

And we pray that you would give us other opportunities and that you would continue to lead us and guide us and bless us in the work that you’ve, in the ministry that you’ve called us to here.

And so father we just praise you and thank you for this day again for the lord’s day the opportunity that we’ve had to rest from our labors to gather together for worship and for fellowship and just we pray that we have been had opportunity to be refreshed to be renewed by your word and your truth and by your spirit and by the encouragement and the edification of the saints for one another and that you would now be with us as we go into this week that lies ahead especially as we look to the new year that is quickly coming and all the plans and the hopes that might bring as we look to the future, but also even as we look for this opportunity to serve the youth of our presbytery at the retreat next week.

We pray that you would lead us and guide us in that, and that it would all be to the glory of your holy name.

We pray all these things in Jesus’ name, amen.