Come as you are and be changed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:32-5:11)

 

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon March 9, 2008

One of the challenging things about studying the book of Acts is that because it is packed with so many details about the activities of the apostles and people’s responses we can easily forget who was behind it all. Another appropriate title for this book would be “The acts of the Holy Spirit.” Again and again, we need to remind myself that we cannot take the Holy Spirit out of the picture. Without him, it is utterly impossible to explain whole lot of things that were going on in the book of Acts. How do you explain verse 41 that the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name apart from the fact that they were gripped by the Holy Spirit, they were filled with the Holy Spirit? You cannot explain this radical rejoicing thing in the midst of suffering, persecution, threats apart from what the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives. We need to constantly revisit Acts 1:8 where Jesus told his disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is what it explains it all. The stories after stories in the book of Acts explain plainly what happened when the Holy Spirit met people where they were in their sins and brokenness.

So, as we read and study the stories in this precious book, our task is to reflect our stories through the stories in Acts. When the Holy Spirit came on them, they received power. And, the power they received was not power to make much about themselves, but to make much about God. As I put it last week, the power they received when the Holy Spirit came on them turned them from being engrossed with self-conscious, self-obsessed, self-love to being Jesus conscious, Jesus-obsessed, Jesus-aware, Jesus-love. My prayer is that as we immerse ourselves in stories of the early church, we too will discover that our stories begin to explain what’s happening as we come as we are and the Holy Spirit moving us from self-consciousness to Jesus-consciousness, to live out the mind and the heart of Jesus Christ.

1. To experience the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to come as you are without pretending or faking you are someone you are not.

I want you to pause for a second and ponder with me this seemingly contradicting statements between 5:13 and 14. 5:13 says, “No one else dared joined them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.” Well, this makes whole lot of sense when you remember how the couple, Ananias and Sapphira died because they pretended to be someone they were not in 5:1-12. Yes, in Ananias and Sapphira was this love of money, this self-conscious desire to preserve, maintain a certain lifestyle. Now, if they were true to themselves, they shouldn’t have cashed their property to give to anyone and they wouldn’t have lost their lives for pretending and lying about it. Where it went wrong was when they decided to pretend to be someone like Barnabas who sold his possession because he was overcome by the generous self-giving Spirit of Christ.

Now, something like this happens to us, if God were to deal with our hypocrisies immediately and severely that some of us face death in instant, if some of us while passing the offering plate were suddenly to fall off the chairs and die, and the story were to spread you can understand why some would hesitate to join our church. In fact, I should have warned us in the light of the message from last week to be careful when you pass the offering plate, offering time can be dangerous.

So, you can see why those who heard what happened to Ananias and Sapphira would not dare join the church. Before joining the church, they had to think twice about it. It was like this huge banner with these words stared at any perspective visitor who thought about joining the church: “Join at your own risk because you can get killed here if you fake it, if you pretend to be someone you are not.” Or, it might read, “Please, come as you are for fakers and pretenders can get killed here.” Well, I understand why no one dared join.

But, it says in verse 14, “Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” Some of you might respond like I did. I thought, ‘Hey, this doesn’t make sense. Verse 13 says no one dared join, but here it says with the bold “Nevertheless” more and more people believed in the Lord and were added to their number. If no body dared join, how can it be said that more and more believed and were added?’

Here is how I understand. When Luke recorded that no one dared to join the church, he is referring to the people who could not bare the thought of being real. It was those people who felt that they had to keep a certain profile, a façade, a look about themselves; it was those who couldn’t be honest about themselves, who had to fake it, pretend it to be someone who they were not. It was those who convinced themselves that they could improve upon their own shortcomings, inadequacies, and become a better person with no help from God. It was those who had to maintain their own little kingdoms against the kingdom of God.

• Consider the high priest and all his associates, the members of the ruling party of the Sadducees. Verse 17 says that they were filled with jealousy. You see these religious leaders were faking it, they were pretending they were empowered by the Spirit of God to live with the Messiah-conscious, Messiah-aware, Messiah-obsessed mind and heart. But, how could they live with the Messiah-consciousness when they deny Jesus Christ, the true Messiah. They denied Jesus Christ and they dared not join church because they had their image, the façade to maintain. The disciples of Jesus Christ had the real, authentic spirituality backed up by the powerful demonstration of the evidence of God’s Spirit upon them and the Jewish religious leaders didn’t.
• They not only were filled with jealousy, verse 33 tells us that they were furious and wanted to put them to death. When the real shows, what is the fake to do? Either the fake needs to concede its complete pretension and deception, or get annoyed by the real but don’t do anything about it, or the fake will try to get rid of the real. As we move along in the book of Acts, you are going to see the relentless and numerous attempts by the fake to get rid of the real.

The banner over the church is this, “Come as you are to Christ and the Spirit of Christ will change you.” No reason to pretend, or fake it here because you can get killed for that. Now, going back to what it says in verse 13, it says that the believers were highly regarded by the people. What people saw was the real massed up people, who were real with who they were with their sins, brokenness, emptiness, anxiety, insecurity, greed, lust, self-conscious people coming as they were with all their ugliness to Jesus Christ and being changed by the Spirit of Christ to be self-giving Jesus’ conscious people.

To experience Jesus’ promise, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses,” we need to come as we are without pretending or faking it.

2. When you come to Jesus Christ as you are, and when you learn to obey, the Spirit of Jesus Christ will empower you to be his witnesses in joy.

Someone said that until you found something worth dying for you haven’t found something worth living for.

There are kingdoms in conflicts. From their own little kingdoms the Jewish leaders and the people shouted, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” in Matthew 27:25. They thought of God’s kingdom through the death of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as weakness. How could God’s kingdom, the power of the Almighty bow to the violence in the hands of men? Their minds in their little self-obsessed kingdom created for their own good couldn’t fathom the power in laying down one’s life for others.

“Which is more powerful, to die or to kill?” This is asking, “Which is more powerful, to lay down one’s life for others in love or take someone’s life in hatred?” Or, “Which is more powerful, meaningful, and fulfilling, to love or to be loved?”

In the eyes of the people, the cross of Jesus Christ is weakness, but the real truth is the cross is the demonstration of the power of Christ’s love. What is thought of as weakness in Jesus Christ is proved the power. Apostle Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 13:4, “he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you.”

We see the real power of God working in the apostles’ lives in Acts 5. First they were condemned in Acts 4:18 not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. There they replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” And, in Acts 5, we see the apostles carrying out their conviction that it was more important to obey God than men. So, they went ahead and did the ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. This got them into trouble with the Jewish leaders. They were jailed, but not too long after the angel of the Lord showed up and opened the doors of the jail. And they were told to go and stand in the temple courts… tell the people the full message of this new life.”

Do you see what happened? Peter came to Jesus as the cowardly person who denied Jesus three times. Jesus found Peter on the beach and spoke to him. Peter came to Jesus as he was without pretence. You see this encounter between Peter and Jesus in John 21. It is truly a beautiful picture of Jesus restoring this man who was heartbroken over his denials. When he came to Jesus who found him, he later received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. And, there was the Spirit working in him to direct him to be Christ’s witness in boldness. In Acts 5:29-32, Peter spoke boldly, “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead-whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Only when Peter and other apostles obeyed the Holy Spirit when he directed them to speak, did they receive his power to testify boldly.

So, the truth that we see in this account is that not only we must come as we are to Christ we also must learn that Christ means business with us. When Jesus met Peter who was disheartened by his denial of Jesus three times, Jesus was not messing around with Peter’s emotion, to try to make him feel guilty. No, Jesus was into restoring Peter, to define and to make him to what he could not become on his own. Jesus was into redefining, recreating Peter no longer as the one who denied Jesus, but as one who would be weak in him and thereby live by God’s power through the Holy Spirit and carry out the ministry of Jesus.

What we see in him and other early believers is this being captivated by the power, the beauty, the fulfillment, the great delight in laying down their lives for the cause of Jesus Christ. They finally found the cause that was worth living for when they realized Jesus was worth dying for.

That is what we see in verse 41. When they left the Sanhedrin after getting beaten up so bad they could hardly walk straight. Deep muscle tissue damages, skins swelling and bleeding, even Tylenol #3 with Codeine won’t get rid of the pain. Yet, we see them rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Instead of dampening their zeal and their spirit, verse 42 says, “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 Christ.”

Conclusion

Wow, can you get you head around this? This is so powerful. Have we found Jesus to be our consuming joy, our delight, our most treasure that pales everything we have in real and perceived value?

For Peter and others, it began with coming as they were, not faking it or pretending they got it, because they really didn’t have it in them. When they came as Jesus found them, they were given the counselor, the Holy Spirit. And, it continued on with this relationship with the Holy Spirit who spoke to them, enlightened them to love of Jesus Christ, to fallen love with Jesus. And, what we see is the trust building in love, and the logical outflow of this trust and love was their obedience to the voice of the Spirit of Christ. And, this obedience led them to experience more of the Holy Spirit. The result we see is the Jesus becoming the cause worth dying for, the cause worth living for.

Jesus conscious vs. Engrossed self-conscious (Acts 4:32-5:11)

 

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon March 9, 2008

Recently a book by Margaret B. Jones titled “Love and Consequences” was destined to be a bestseller. It is Jones’ personal memoir in vivid detail of what she experienced growing up in South Central Los Angeles as a half-white, half-Native American girl in the foster home of Big Mom. She tells a story about how her foster brother was gunned down by Crips gang members just outside of their home. She recounts how she carried illegal guns and sold drugs for the Bloods gang. Her memoir gives a fascinating and intimate outlook on the life in South-Central Los Angeles through the eyes of a young girl growing up as a gang member. It is about the spirit of human triumphant.

Michiko Kakutani from the New York Times quoted her, “I made it out of L.A. with my life and without a prison record. Wait, let me reword that, as it is not entirely true as it stands. I made it out of L.A. with what life I had left. I wake up in the morning, and where I live, in a little house on a dead-end street in a small Oregon town, I hear birds singing in a big-leaf maple outside my bedroom window, and I thank God because I know it shouldn’t have been so.”[1] The memoir was destined to be the bestseller, and the writer the bestseller writer.

But, just few days ago on March 4^th, Jones’ memoir was discovered to be nothing more than a complete fabrication, a lie. Margaret Seltzer is her real name. She is not a half of white, a half-Native American, but white. Far from how she portrayed herself in the book, she did not grow up in South Central Los Angeles gangster hood nor was she raised in a foster home; instead, she grew up in an affluent Sherman Oaks of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley by her biological family; she was sent to a private Episcopal day school in the North Hollywood neighborhood.

She deceived her editor Sarah McGrath at Riverhead of Penguin Publishing Company for three years. MaGrath said, “It’s very upsetting to us because we spent so much time with this person and we felt such sympathy for her and she would talk about how she didn’t have any money or any heat and we completely bought into that and thought we were doing something good by bringing her story to light.”[2]

She deceived the readers as well. If you go to Boston NPR web site, you can listen to the host of On Point program, Tom Ashbrook, interviewing Margaret Jones before her memoir was discovered as a hoax. For forty five minutes, Margaret Jones interacted with Tom Ashbrook and the callers about her life in South Central Los Angeles. Callers after callers wanted to know what Ms. Jones thought about the issues on gangs, violence, guns, drugs, etc., all because she lived it as a former gang member in the South Central Los Angeles.

At one point, Jack a black man a former gang member called in and asked Ms. Jones what advice she would give to young children who may idolize the lifestyle of gangs that there are other options available to them. To this black man, a real formal gang member, Jones, a fake formal gang member, spoke with a voice of authenticity and authority on gang life. She spoke of the disparity that exists now in education between the inner city schools and the suburbia schools; she passionately spoke how this must change to curtail the gang activities; you hear her talk and you think she knows what she is talking about.

But, now the fact is known, her voice of genuine authenticity, respect, heartfelt warmness is nothing more than hollow, disingenuous, insulting betrayal. It was a fake.

Today’s Bible passage speaks to the two realities, genuine or fake. We see the genuine quality in the early Christian community and exemplified by the life of Barnabas. And, we see the fake quality in the tragic lives of Ananias and Sapphira.

1. Untainted and pristine expression of self-giving, Jesus’ conscious in the church

Through chapter 4, what you see is the community of believers growing in a remarkable pace without any blemish. You see the untainted and pristine growth of the church in Acts 4:32-37.

The attitude that defined the church’s pristine and unblemished growth is summed up by this phrase from verse 32, “One in heart and mind.” This was the self-giving, Jesus’ conscious.

And, the way you see this Jesus’ conscious of being one in heart and mind expressed is through voluntary sharing. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had” reads verse 32. You see the result of believers sharing in verse 34, “There were no needy persons among them.” How was this possible? It says that time to time meaning as occasions rose, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. The lands, the houses, the assets were sold and the proceeds from the sales were put into a common purse, which then could be made readily available to meet any need on demand.

What you don’t see in this description is the idea of enforcement. The apostles didn’t impose or force people to share.

But, what you see is people acting with Jesus’ conscious. Verse 32 says that the central message of the apostles was “to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” and it says, “much grace was upon them all.” They preached resurrected Jesus Christ; where Jesus Christ was preached lives were changed; where lives were changed, people became Jesus’ conscious; and they were defined by the spirit of sharing and giving.

This makes a perfect sense when you consider that the gospel is really about God’s voluntary sharing of his most prized possession, his very own Son Jesus Christ, with the utterly undeserving people like us.

When the self-giving spirit of the gospel, the very life of Jesus Christ takes deep root, is experienced and appreciated, when the self-giving spirit of Christ overtakes and dictates a person, the natural consequence is this growing understanding life is not about me, life is not about accumulating more stuffs, more money, more space for me, but is about becoming God’s conduit to bless others. When the self-giving gospel of Jesus Christ dominates our thinking, our beliefs, the result is this life altering countercultural conviction that ever deepens, “I exist to bless others,” “I exist to help others in need,” “I exist to help others to draw closer to God.” When the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shapes us, we move from the world shaped by what I want for myself to the world shaped by how I can give more, how I can do more to be God’s conduit of his blessing. When the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ dominates us, defines us, we become hands and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, we become Jesus’ mouth piece, we become the expression of self-giving love of Christ. When self-giving love of Jesus Christ gets hold of our hearts, the burden to care, to love others grows while the attachment for things for self weakens. When you and I are immersed in the gospel, we become Jesus-conscious rather than self-conscious. This is what you see in the early church.

2. Barnaba’ Jesus conscious act.

Now, let’s talk about Barnaba’ Jesus conscious act described in 4:36-37. This is the first time Luke introduce to us a man named Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus. The apostles called him Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement. He is truly a remarkable and humble man of God you are going to grow to love as we journey through the book of Acts.

Verse 37 says that Barnabas sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. As explained, you do not see any kind of external force working here to compel Barnabas to sell his possession. You also don’t see that he sold everything; he sold a field that he owned.

His action was not a result of some outside coercion, but an outflow of the inner transformation. He was one in hear and mind with all the believers. He didn’t consider his possession as his own, but as means to bless others in need. He was not self-conscious, but Jesus’ conscious, overflowing in desire to bless others in Jesus’ love.

3. Ananias and Sapphira’s engrossed self-conscious act

Now, in chapter 5 we are introduced to a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira. They have beautiful names. Ananias means “God is gracious” while Sapphira means “beautiful.” Would they live up to their great names? Would Ananias testify to the gracious character of God through his action? Would Sapphira live out a beautiful life that glorifies God?

There is one thing common about Ananias and Sapphira with Barnabas. They both sold a piece of property that belonged to them. But the similarity ends here.

Verse 2 declares that with his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself and brought the rest to the apostles’ feet. Now this doesn’t sound bad at all knowing that they were never forced to sell their possession in the first place. It was done all on voluntarily. Whether they sold their property and kept part of the sold price, it would have been no body’s business, but their own, their decision, their choice, their will.

But, here Luke chose to use the expression, kept back that meant in Greek, ‘misappropriating funds for one’s own benefit’ or simply ‘embezzling.’ Let’s take a look together and see why their action rose to the level of embezzlement.

The same word is used to describe the action of Achan in Joshua 7 in the Old Testament translated in Greek, called Septuagint. When God miraculously destroy the wall of well-protected and fortified city of Jericho, he commanded the Israelites in 6:17, “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord,” except Rahab and her family who trusted God of Israel. To devote to the Lord was meant giving over things or persons to the Lord by totally destroying them. But, when Achan saw the plunder, a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 5 pounds of silver and 1 ¼ pounds of gold, he coveted and took them. Here is the word, taking, embezzling. These were to be destroyed because they were given, devoted to God. But, Achan out of his love for things, he embezzled from God; he thought he could get away with it. If you read on in chapter 7, you find that Achan faced a terrible death, a judgment from God, just like what we see in Ananias and Sapphira.

Both cases of Achan and Ananias and Sapphria happened at the very important time in the history. In the case of Achan, Achan belittled God and his command when the Israelites were just beginning to take God’s Promised Land. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, they thought they could cheat, deceive, lie against God and get away with it when God was beginning to establish his church. In both cases, God dealt them with the immediate and harsh judgments as object lessons. God would not be taken lightly, dismissed as though he doesn’t exist, or won’t act, or could be deceived. It was important for God to make this very clear to the Israelites and now to the church from the beginning.

Apostle Peter was able to discern by God’s help what was really going on beneath the appearance of Ananias’ generous spirit and act. Here are some observations from what Peter told Ananias.

• Ananias allowed Satan to fill his heart.
• Ananias’ deception, his lie was foremost against the Holy Spirit, against God.
• The deception, the scheme was to appear before people and ultimately before God that they were giving all the money they got from selling their property. They wanted to look good like Barnabas did. The only problem was that Barnabas didn’t sell his property and donated the whole thing just to appear really cool nice guy. He did it because he was acting out of Jesus-conscious.
• The money belonged to them when they sold the property. It was at their disposal, meaning that they were under no outside compulsion to sell their property in the first place, or to give everything.

As I already mentioned, for Ananias to keep back with his wife’s full knowledge has the meaning of embezzling. To embezzle is to appropriate fraudulently to one’s own use. Yes, it was their property. Yes, it was still their money when they sold the property. But, where it gets wrong is the fact that they wanted people to think that they were donating the entire money from the sale to be used for good purpose, while keeping, embezzling some for them. It would not rise to embezzling if they didn’t give the deceptive appearance of giving all the money. It would have been perfectly fine to give just the portion or nothing at all, for they were under no compulsion to give in the first place.

The greatest sin was the fact that Ananias and wife thought they could deceive, not alone the church, but the Holy Spirit and God. What would make people believe that they could deceive God? It might be that they really didn’t believe that God exists and the Holy Spirit is living and active. They might have had the intellectual knowledge about God and the working of the Holy Spirit, but had no real heart knowledge of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. They might have thought that God wouldn’t hold them responsible for lying. Whatever it was their thinking, their action to deceive God and people reveals that they had low and defective view of God.

Along this audacity to think that they could deceive God, they were motivated by the two selfish desires, the desire to look good before others and the desire for what money can do for them. The desire to look good before others is the sin of hypocrisy and the desire for what money can do is the sin of materialism. Hypocrisy and love of money made them engrossed with self-consciousness, rather than Jesus’ consciousness.

Conclusion

There are two road maps lay out for us; we either live by Jesus’ conscious or engrossed in self-conscious. We can either be defined by genuine care, genuine generosity, and integrity like Barnabas was. Or, we can be defined by foolishness and attempt to fool God and people, be engrossed with ourselves, and be filled by Satan’s lies.

God is most offended by us when we treat him like he doesn’t exist, he doesn’t know our thoughts, when we can fool him. This undermines who God is all powerful, all knowing God who deserves everyone’s utmost attention and worship.

John Calvin says, “God cannot stand unfaithfulness, and pretending to be holy is contemptible mockery.” He also said, “we should reflect how one day we will have to stand before God’s judgment seat. If we are trying to deceive God and not be punished for our misdeeds, we are despising His sacred power and majesty.”

When we are self-conscious with the engrossed self-awareness, self-preoccupation, we will justify the means to exalt ourselves. The only remedy to this sin of engrossed self-consciousness is to being saturated by Jesus’ consciousness where we become acutely aware of Jesus’ presence and we get preoccupied with matters that Jesus cares.

Going back to the story of Margaret Jones who wrote the fake memoir, “Love and Consequences,” she faces now all her books being recalled by the publisher and even possibly being sued by the company. She sought to be an acclaimed writer, but because she used deception, all she now has is “Shame and Consequences.” Wouldn’t it be tragic to live a fake life and be discovered and face shame and consequences?

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/books/26kaku.html?pagewanted=2&ref=books

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/books/04fake.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

Jesus Conscious Vs. Engrossed self-conscious (Acts 4:32-5:11)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon March 9, 2008

Recently a book by Margaret B. Jones titled “Love and Consequences” was destined to be a bestseller. It is Jones’ personal memoir in vivid detail of what she experienced growing up in South Central Los Angeles as a half-white, half-Native American girl in the foster home of Big Mom. She tells a story about how her foster brother was gunned down by Crips gang members just outside of their home. She recounts how she carried illegal guns and sold drugs for the Bloods gang. Her memoir gives a fascinating and intimate outlook on the life in South-Central Los Angeles through the eyes of a young girl growing up as a gang member. It is about the spirit of human triumphant.

Michiko Kakutani from the New York Times quoted her, “I made it out of L.A. with my life and without a prison record. Wait, let me reword that, as it is not entirely true as it stands. I made it out of L.A. with what life I had left. I wake up in the morning, and where I live, in a little house on a dead-end street in a small Oregon town, I hear birds singing in a big-leaf maple outside my bedroom window, and I thank God because I know it shouldn’t have been so.”¹ The memoir was destined to be the bestseller, and the writer the bestseller writer

But, just few days ago on March 4^th, Jones’ memoir was discovered to be nothing more than a complete fabrication, a lie. Margaret Seltzer is her real name. She is not a half of white, a half-Native American, but white. Far from how she portrayed herself in the book, she did not grow up in South Central Los Angeles gangster hood nor was she raised in a foster home; instead, she grew up in an affluent Sherman Oaks of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley by her biological family; she was sent to a private Episcopal day school in the North Hollywood neighborhood.

She deceived her editor Sarah McGrath at Riverhead of Penguin Publishing Company for three years. MaGrath said, “It’s very upsetting to us because we spent so much time with this person and we felt such sympathy for her and she would talk about how she didn’t have any money or any heat and we completely bought into that and thought we were doing something good by bringing her story to light.”²

She deceived the readers as well. If you go to Boston NPR web site, you can listen to the host of On Point program, Tom Ashbrook, interviewing Margaret Jones before her memoir was discovered as a hoax. For forty five minutes, Margaret Jones interacted with Tom Ashbrook and the callers about her life in South Central Los Angeles. Callers after callers wanted to know what Ms. Jones thought about the issues on gangs, violence, guns, drugs, etc., all because she lived it as a former gang member in the South Central Los Angeles.

At one point, Jack a black man a former gang member called in and asked Ms. Jones what advice she would give to young children who may idolize the lifestyle of gangs that there are other options available to them. To this black man, a real formal gang member, Jones, a fake formal gang member, spoke with a voice of authenticity and authority on gang life. She spoke of the disparity that exists now in education between the inner city schools and the suburbia schools; she passionately spoke how this must change to curtail the gang activities; you hear her talk and you think she knows what she is talking about.

But, now the fact is known, her voice of genuine authenticity, respect, heartfelt warmness is nothing more than hollow, disingenuous, insulting betrayal. It was a fake.

Today’s Bible passage speaks to the two realities, genuine or fake. We see the genuine quality in the early Christian community and exemplified by the life of Barnabas. And, we see the fake quality in the tragic lives of Ananias and Sapphira.

1. Untainted and pristine expression of self-giving, Jesus’ conscious in the church

Through chapter 4, what you see is the community of believers growing in a remarkable pace without any blemish. You see the untainted and pristine growth of the church in Acts 4:32-37.

The attitude that defined the church’s pristine and unblemished growth is summed up by this phrase from verse 32, “One in heart and mind.” This was the self-giving, Jesus’ conscious.

And, the way you see this Jesus’ conscious of being one in heart and mind expressed is through voluntary sharing. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had” reads verse 32. You see the result of believers sharing in verse 34, “There were no needy persons among them.” How was this possible? It says that time to time meaning as occasions rose, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. The lands, the houses, the assets were sold and the proceeds from the sales were put into a common purse, which then could be made readily available to meet any need on demand.

What you don’t see in this description is the idea of enforcement. The apostles didn’t impose or force people to share.

But, what you see is people acting with Jesus’ conscious. Verse 32 says that the central message of the apostles was “to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” and it says, “much grace was upon them all.” They preached resurrected Jesus Christ; where Jesus Christ was preached lives were changed; where lives were changed, people became Jesus’ conscious; and they were defined by the spirit of sharing and giving.

This makes a perfect sense when you consider that the gospel is really about God’s voluntary sharing of his most prized possession, his very own Son Jesus Christ, with the utterly undeserving people like us.

When the self-giving spirit of the gospel, the very life of Jesus Christ takes deep root, is experienced and appreciated, when the self-giving spirit of Christ overtakes and dictates a person, the natural consequence is this growing understanding life is not about me, life is not about accumulating more stuffs, more money, more space for me, but is about becoming God’s conduit to bless others. When the self-giving gospel of Jesus Christ dominates our thinking, our beliefs, the result is this life altering countercultural conviction that ever deepens, “I exist to bless others,” “I exist to help others in need,” “I exist to help others to draw closer to God.” When the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shapes us, we move from the world shaped by what I want for myself to the world shaped by how I can give more, how I can do more to be God’s conduit of his blessing. When the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ dominates us, defines us, we become hands and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, we become Jesus’ mouth piece, we become the expression of self-giving love of Christ. When self-giving love of Jesus Christ gets hold of our hearts, the burden to care, to love others grows while the attachment for things for self weakens. When you and I are immersed in the gospel, we become Jesus-conscious rather than self-conscious. This is what you see in the early church.

2. Barnaba’ Jesus conscious act.

Now, let’s talk about Barnaba’ Jesus conscious act described in 4:36-37. This is the first time Luke introduce to us a man named Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus. The apostles called him Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement. He is truly a remarkable and humble man of God you are going to grow to love as we journey through the book of Acts.

Verse 37 says that Barnabas sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. As explained, you do not see any kind of external force working here to compel Barnabas to sell his possession. You also don’t see that he sold everything; he sold a field that he owned.

His action was not a result of some outside coercion, but an outflow of the inner transformation. He was one in hear and mind with all the believers. He didn’t consider his possession as his own, but as means to bless others in need. He was not self-conscious, but Jesus’ conscious, overflowing in desire to bless others in Jesus’ love.

3. Ananias and Sapphira’s engrossed self-conscious act

Now, in chapter 5 we are introduced to a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira. They have beautiful names. Ananias means “God is gracious” while Sapphira means “beautiful.” Would they live up to their great names? Would Ananias testify to the gracious character of God through his action? Would Sapphira live out a beautiful life that glorifies God?

There is one thing common about Ananias and Sapphira with Barnabas. They both sold a piece of property that belonged to them. But the similarity ends here.

Verse 2 declares that with his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself and brought the rest to the apostles’ feet. Now this doesn’t sound bad at all knowing that they were never forced to sell their possession in the first place. It was done all on voluntarily. Whether they sold their property and kept part of the sold price, it would have been no body’s business, but their own, their decision, their choice, their will.

But, here Luke chose to use the expression, kept back that meant in Greek, ‘misappropriating funds for one’s own benefit’ or simply ‘embezzling.’ Let’s take a look together and see why their action rose to the level of embezzlement.

The same word is used to describe the action of Achan in Joshua 7 in the Old Testament translated in Greek, called Septuagint. When God miraculously destroy the wall of well-protected and fortified city of Jericho, he commanded the Israelites in 6:17, “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord,” except Rahab and her family who trusted God of Israel. To devote to the Lord was meant giving over things or persons to the Lord by totally destroying them. But, when Achan saw the plunder, a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 5 pounds of silver and 1 ¼ pounds of gold, he coveted and took them. Here is the word, taking, embezzling. These were to be destroyed because they were given, devoted to God. But, Achan out of his love for things, he embezzled from God; he thought he could get away with it. If you read on in chapter 7, you find that Achan faced a terrible death, a judgment from God, just like what we see in Ananias and Sapphira.

Both cases of Achan and Ananias and Sapphria happened at the very important time in the history. In the case of Achan, Achan belittled God and his command when the Israelites were just beginning to take God’s Promised Land. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, they thought they could cheat, deceive, lie against God and get away with it when God was beginning to establish his church. In both cases, God dealt them with the immediate and harsh judgments as object lessons. God would not be taken lightly, dismissed as though he doesn’t exist, or won’t act, or could be deceived. It was important for God to make this very clear to the Israelites and now to the church from the beginning.

Apostle Peter was able to discern by God’s help what was really going on beneath the appearance of Ananias’ generous spirit and act. Here are some observations from what Peter told Ananias.

• Ananias allowed Satan to fill his heart.

• Ananias’ deception, his lie was foremost against the Holy Spirit, against God.

• The deception, the scheme was to appear before people and ultimately before God that they were giving all the money they got from selling their property. They wanted to look good like Barnabas did. The only problem was that Barnabas didn’t sell his property and donated the whole thing just to appear really cool nice guy. He did it because he was acting out of Jesus-conscious.

• The money belonged to them when they sold the property. It was at their disposal, meaning that they were under no outside compulsion to sell their property in the first place, or to give everything.

As I already mentioned, for Ananias to keep back with his wife’s full knowledge has the meaning of embezzling. To embezzle is to appropriate fraudulently to one’s own use. Yes, it was their property. Yes, it was still their money when they sold the property. But, where it gets wrong is the fact that they wanted people to think that they were donating the entire money from the sale to be used for good purpose, while keeping, embezzling some for them. It would not rise to embezzling if they didn’t give the deceptive appearance of giving all the money. It would have been perfectly fine to give just the portion or nothing at all, for they were under no compulsion to give in the first place.

The greatest sin was the fact that Ananias and wife thought they could deceive, not alone the church, but the Holy Spirit and God. What would make people believe that they could deceive God? It might be that they really didn’t believe that God exists and the Holy Spirit is living and active. They might have had the intellectual knowledge about God and the working of the Holy Spirit, but had no real heart knowledge of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. They might have thought that God wouldn’t hold them responsible for lying. Whatever it was their thinking, their action to deceive God and people reveals that they had low and defective view of God.

Along this audacity to think that they could deceive God, they were motivated by the two selfish desires, the desire to look good before others and the desire for what money can do for them. The desire to look good before others is the sin of hypocrisy and the desire for what money can do is the sin of materialism. Hypocrisy and love of money made them engrossed with self-consciousness, rather than Jesus’ consciousness.

Conclusion

There are two road maps lay out for us; we either live by Jesus’ conscious or engrossed in self-conscious. We can either be defined by genuine care, genuine generosity, and integrity like Barnabas was. Or, we can be defined by foolishness and attempt to fool God and people, be engrossed with ourselves, and be filled by Satan’s lies.

God is most offended by us when we treat him like he doesn’t exist, he doesn’t know our thoughts, when we can fool him. This undermines who God is all powerful, all knowing God who deserves everyone’s utmost attention and worship.

John Calvin says, “God cannot stand unfaithfulness, and pretending to be holy is contemptible mockery.” He also said, “we should reflect how one day we will have to stand before God’s judgment seat. If we are trying to deceive God and not be punished for our misdeeds, we are despising His sacred power and majesty.”

When we are self-conscious with the engrossed self-awareness, self-preoccupation, we will justify the means to exalt ourselves. The only remedy to this sin of engrossed self-consciousness is to being saturated by Jesus’ consciousness where we become acutely aware of Jesus’ presence and we get preoccupied with matters that Jesus cares.

Going back to the story of Margaret Jones who wrote the fake memoir, “Love and Consequences,” she faces now all her books being recalled by the publisher and even possibly being sued by the company. She sought to be an acclaimed writer, but because she used deception, all she now has is “Shame and Consequences.” Wouldn’t it be tragic to live a fake life and be discovered and face shame and consequences?

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/books/26kaku.html?pagewanted=2&ref=books

2 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/books/04fake.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin