Acts 4:32-37 Great Unity, Power, Grace, and Love
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter four. This morning we are going to look at verses 32-37, and that’s on page 912 in the pew Bibles.
When people describe CrossRoads Church, there is a term, a word, that is most common in their description. Can you guess what it is? After they describe how witty and handsome the pastor is, thoughts generally focus on how this church is a family, a real family.
In large part that is because of passages like this one that we are going to examine this morning.
This passage contains a description of what life was like in the early church in its infancy, before it got all grown up and complicated and ruined. But what do we know about the description of the church in the book of Acts? It is a prescription for the church to follow.
Well let’s read this description of the early church and see if we can’t discover, or maybe, recover, the prescription for this church family to follow.
32 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. 36 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.
Let’s pray.
In Matthew 22 the Pharisees challenged Jesus, and Jesus’ answer to their question has put in place a simple framework for the church family to follow and that we can see at work in the early church described here in Acts 4.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Everything that we are going to talk about this morning boils down to the truth of these two commands: Love.
As I read our passage I see four greats in it, these are not four points, there is only one point and I told it to you already. The four greats: great unity, great power, great grace, and great love.
There was great unity despite such a large number. The church numbered in the thousands now in Jerusalem but verse 32 says that the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
Psalm 133:1-3 , one of my favorite Psalms, says,
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.
In other words, unity is really, really good!
The church enjoyed true harmony of purpose, their inner thoughts and feelings were in alignment. Now, this is generally speaking, this is a pretty broad brush stroke.
Not everybody was swimming in the same stream as we will see when we get to chapter five, but for the most part the church enjoyed a great sense of unity of spirit and purpose and that was really, really good.
Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus from prison several years later said,
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Great unity is God’s design for His church.
This sense of great unity of purpose was also accompanied by great power to accomplish that purpose.
Their prayers for boldness to preach the gospel and for accompanying signs in the Name of the Lord from verse 29 were answered and the Apostles continued to powerfully testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
The early church recognized that its purpose was to share the gospel and gather those new to the faith together and they were united in this purpose.
Verse 33 says, 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.
What does that mean, “great grace?”
The Greek word for grace is charis, which means, “favor, or good will.” And great grace was upon them all. This was not the good will of the High Priest and the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders, certainly not, this was the good will of God upon the church.
The church was enjoying, what Ray Steadman called, “the enrichment of life that is a result of the love and power of God.” In other words, good things were happening as a result of God’s great blessing on His church. This is a spot that every church wants, or should want, to be in.
All of this kind of tills the soil for what was growing. There was great unity of heart and soul and purpose, there was great power in the faithful preaching of the gospel, there was great grace as the Father poured out His blessing, and in and through and all around all of this was great love.
Verse 32 says,
no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
And down to verse 34,
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.
JP Lange wrote, “Each one felt the sorrows of the other, bore his burdens, and regarded his own possessions as common property. And as faith demonstrates its truth when it actively works by love, divine grace was with all, and upon all.”
Each one saw the needs of the others and did what was necessary to fill that need, whether it was selling a house or a field like Barnabas did in verse 36, and distributing the proceeds to each as they had need or simply sharing what they had to help those that needed it.
Now this is not Communism, the early church was not communist. Each one shared voluntarily to meet the needs of others.
This was not a rule, this was not a command from the Apostles that everybody sell everything and redistribute the wealth. Communism is forced, this was community and connection and was voluntary and motivated by love.
This was the church doing what Galatians 6:2 says to do: Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
And what is the law of Christ?
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus said in John 13:33-35,
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Hebrews 13:1 says, “Let brotherly love continue…”
1 John 3:18 says, Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
This was the church loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving their neighbor as themselves.
Matthew Henry wrote, “For we can call nothing our own but sin. What we have in the world is more God’s than our own; we have it from Him, must use it for Him, and are accountable for it to Him.”
All of 2 Corinthians chapter eight is about this idea, and rather than read that for you, you can all study that as homework.
So what’s the lesson here?
Where Christ is preached with fidelity, true faith will manifest its power.
Where true faith exists, a genuine Christian love will prevail.
Where Christian love prevails, all will flourish.
That is the description of what was happening there, then, and it is the prescription for what should be happening here, now.
If you find yourself feeling like you are falling short of this prescription Scripture has a two step solution for missing the mark: repent and believe.
Turn from your sin and believe the Word of God. Turn from your rugged individualism and embrace the connection of this family so we can each live for each other and all live for Jesus.
Amen.
