"Fake Gospel Community"

Acts chapter 4 beginning to, read at verse 32. All the believers were 1 in heart and mind. No 1 claimed that any of their possession was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the lord Jesus, and god's grace was so powerfully at work in the mall that there was no needy person among them. For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put his at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Joseph, for Leviite from Cyprus, whom the apostles call Barnnebus, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostle's feet. Now a man named Ananias together together with his wife Zafira also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles feet. Then Peter said, Hannah Nious, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for your self, some of the money you received for the land. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold?

And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to god. When Annanias heard this, He fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. About 3 hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, tell me, is this the prize you and Annanias got for the land? Yes. She said, that is the price.

Peter said to her, how could you conspire to test the spirit of the lord? Listen. The feet of the men who buried your spend are at the door, and they will carry you out also. At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young man came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

Great fear sees the whole church and all who heard about these events. Great. Thank you for reading that for us. Sue. Please keep the passage open in front of you.

And, yeah, we've just got a bit of, a bit of housekeeping to do at this point. So we've got a sheet for those probably primary school age. We've got a sheet for you to fill out. So Maggie's got that and there are pens and pencil. So if you want 1, hands up, boys and girls, you'll need 1.

So and while that's going round, great. Well done. While those are going round, just to say, my name's Bart. I'm pastor here at Hope Church, and it's great to have you here. And if you're new or if you're visiting, great to have you with us.

As I said, last week, there is a danger with these all age services that, and particularly for the talks that no 1 thinks this is for them. And that's because, boys and girls, you're in, you're normally at hope kids. And so you're in the service, and you think, well, this isn't really for me. An adults, you think, well, this is more geared towards the children, so this isn't really for me either and therefore no 1 thinks it's for them, and it's no good whatsoever. But if we all assume this is for us, we will all learn.

Alright? Now adults parents. If you wanna help your children to concentrate, if you need to say something to them, that's fine. Whatever you need to do to help them concentrate to help them listen, and there are fill in the blanks on the sheet so you can fill them in. But you might need to wait to fill them in until you know what the answers are.

Okay. And we need the passage open in front of us as well. So if you've got that, thank you for handing those out. Okay. We're ready to begin.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you teach us, and we pray please now that you would help us to pay attention to your words. Help us to understand it, help us to know how to change as a result of it, amen. Okay.

Can you spot the fake? Can you spot the fake? Are you good at spotting things that are fake? There are a lot of things that maybe images that you might see online that might not be real. They've been generated.

And with AI, it can be really difficult to spot when something is real or when it's fake. Some old pictures that were in fact fake, Here's 1 of Donald Trump at the time. He actually it was the time when he was he he could have been arrested, and there was these photos going around fake photos of him being arrested, or this 1 of Pope Francis, which was not real. But I think it's quite good. That should have been an image he should have gone for.

What about this? This is a 10 pound note. What can you spot that's fake about that 10 pound note? Can you spot anything that's fake? Hands up if you can spot something or just shout out.

What's wrong? What's fake? How can you tell that that's fake? What's wrong with it? Yeah?

There's Wales at the bottom of London at the top. Okay. Yeah. Good spot. Yeah?

Is the wrong image? What wrong image? The face? Yeah? Yes.

You've got David 10. It's a bit doctor who themed this 10 pound. No? Anything else that you've spotted on there that shows it's fake? Yeah?

Say it again, a bit louder? It says BBC on it. Yep. Very good. Well spotted.

Campan notes don't normally have that. Anything else? Tardis, well done. What does it promise to give the bearer? 10 Sats rumors, well done, well spotted.

I quite like that as a fake, but there you go. It's easy to spot that that one's a fake, but some things are not so easy to spot that they're fake. In the book of acts, we see the gospel community. We see god's people proclaiming the gospel and living out the gospel in community in relationships with 1 another. And we also we've also seen dangers for the church, They've come under attack.

Attack from the outside. That is Peter and John last week, we saw they were thrown into prison, and they were told you must not speak about Jesus. And remember last week, we heard if people tell you to stop speaking about Jesus, you pray for boldness, and you keep speaking. Now today, we see a different danger, and it's not an attack from outside the church. It's an attack from inside the church.

And it's the danger of fake gospel community, of fake gospel community. Now how are we gonna spot the fake? The way you spot a fake, apparently, those who are being trained to spot fake money, the thing they do is they study real money so that they know what that looks like, and then that makes it easier to spot the fake. So we'd first need to see what real gospel community looks like, then we can spot the fake. And the real thing is found in your Bibles, verses 32 to 37.

And you've got some fill in the blanks. You've got 4 things to fill in about real Gospel community. What did it look like? Well, the first thing I want you to spot is actually diverse before the 1 sue started reading sue read exactly the right verses, but I just want you to see the verse before it. So could you have a look at verse 31?

See if you can find it. Parents, if you need to help children spot where where it is. First 31, it says after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of god boldly. So on your sheet, it says they were filled with the what? What did he say in that verse?

A bit louder. Some people whispered it. What are they filled with? The Holy Spirit? Thank you very much.

Yes. Filled with the Holy Spirit, so you can fill that in on your sheet. So real gospel community is filled with the Holy Spirit. And the people in the gospel community, as we see in the in the passage from verse 32 onwards, they were very well, now I've put on the screen an anagram for you. Can you see what's that word?

Can you spot what that word is? What's the word? Generous. Thank you. They were very generous.

There you go. That's the proper spelling of it. Generous. Now how do we see that? Where do we see that?

Well, we could have a look at verse 32. Have a look at what it says. Verse 32, I'll read it. All the believers were 1 in heart and mind. No 1 claimed that any of any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had Okay.

Can you imagine being in a a church community like that? No 1 thought that their possessions were their own. They all shared. Clearly, they still had possessions. They had things that were their own.

But they didn't treat them as their own, but shared everything they had. So, for instance, if they had food. This was spaghetti. Maybe they had some. If they had food, but someone else didn't, they would say, well, I'll give you food.

Or maybe if they had toys and someone else didn't, they said, well, I'll give you mine. Or maybe it was if they had a car, I was gonna bring out my car keys, but they're in the other pocket. They had a car. And someone else didn't. And they needed 1.

They said, well, you can have mine because they shared. They didn't claim them as their own. And therefore, they were very generous. And the result was, verse 34. Beginning of verse 34 says there was no needy person among them.

Incredible amongst that community, There was no 1 who said I don't have enough food. There was no 1 who said I don't have enough money. There was no 1 who said I don't have enough clothes. I don't have because they share it. And it tells us what the people did.

It tells us what they sold. So verse 34 again. Have a look. See what it says, what they sold. Okay.

We got some pictures here. Things they might have sold, which on things on the screen did they sell? We've got down on on the screen, houses, burgers, land, flowers, pets. What things did they sell? What which of those did they sell?

Chloe, did spot 1? Land. Well done. That was 1 of them. There was 1 other.

Someone said it. Who did? Say it again, David? House. Thank you, houses, and land.

That's what they sold. Verse 34, it tells us. From time to time, they those who owned land or houses, sold them, brought the money from the sale, and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Now that's incredible. Just think about it.

They sold houses and land, in order to give to those who didn't have. And that is incredible. That's life changing giving. And the word I was I've gone for for that on that you can put on your sheet is I've gone for the word sacrificial, which in this context means it's giving in a way which changed their lives. They were giving away things where you go, well, once that's gone, that's gone, that's gonna change your life if you give that, that away.

If you sell that and give the money away. Now I reckon some here are thinking, okay, I can see where this is heading. You're gonna be asking for money. But that's not the point. What I want you to see is how unusual this community is because generally our attitude is, what's mine is mine?

I earned it, so I get to do what I want with it. And if you have less, well, that's unfortunate for you. And sometimes people can be generous, and they can give, but generally it's it's kind of to a level where you go, well, I've given from my spare, from the extra that I've got, but not such that it really drastically makes a difference to my life. But why was it this community? These Christians were so generous.

What was it about them? What happened? It wasn't because people set up rules. It wasn't because they said, right, everyone must sell a house and give the money away. They didn't set up rules.

It was that people wanted to do it. Why? Verse 33 is significant here. Verse 33 says, with great power, the apostles continue to testify to the resurrection of the lord Jesus, and god's grace was powerfully at work among them. Now, what I want you to spot is that verse 33, the verse before that talks about the law being generous.

And sharing everything. The verse after that talks about them all being generous, give selling things, giving things away. Therefore, the verse in the middle relates to the things on the outside. Why was it that they were so generous Why was it that they would sell houses and field? Because they'd heard the gospel, the good news of the lord Jesus and his resurrection, and that's what fired them up to give.

Because if you've met Jesus. If you've heard about Jesus, if you've heard the good news of Jesus, if that has sunk into your heart, it frees you up to give generously. You see, there's a connection between the apostles speaking and their generosity. So the fourth thing I'd want you to put down there on your sheet is real gospel community comes from gospel preaching, big words, but That's where it comes from. That's what sparks it.

That's what gets it happening. Is gospel preaching. Ow. There's a verse that helps us. I've not put it on the screen.

Just gonna have to is from 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, which says. For you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, so so that you through his poverty might become rich. That's saying Jesus went from riches to poverty, from the glory of heaven to poverty on earth living in a family dying on a cross He went from riches to poverty so that we could go from poverty to riches. He did that for us so we could be really rich, not with money, but in relationship to god. And when you see that you have those riches, when you recognize that you are rich beyond anything this world has, when you know that, that frees up your heart and frees you from feeling everything is just mine so that you can give and be generous.

When the good news about Jesus gets into our hearts, we want to give. We want to share. We can't impose this on people. So it'd be wrong. We've set up gospel communities, which are our small groups.

People meeting in homes to open up god's word and to love 1 another and do the 1 anothers together. But we can't do this by rules. We can't just say, right, here are the rules for how we're gonna love 1 another because that doesn't work. Rather we have to focus on the gospel and hearing the good news of Jesus and then be as generous as you want to be. So that's real gospel community.

And in a few moments, we're gonna think about fake gospel community. And I've got some young people who are ready to act and to help, but that's not quite yet because we're going to sing first. And we're gonna sing, about the about the certainty that we have in Jesus that I hope hope is built on nothing less than him. So let's stand to see. Okay.

So we've seen real gospel community. We're now gonna think about fake gospel community. Now we've got a couple of examples in the passage. There are some people who are described for us, and the first 1 is inverse 36 and 37. So you need your pa the Bible open again, page 1096, And you've got this guy called who was known as Barnabus.

His name was Joseph, but he was known as Barnabus, which means son of encouragement, and he was known as that because he was just such an encourager. It was great. People loved having him around. He was a son of encouragement. Now what did he do verse 37?

Can someone shout out for me what he did? Oh, look. Boulder field he owned. Thank you, Ziki. Well done.

Solarfield he owned, and then brought the money, and where did he put it? Yeah. At the apostles' feet. So we're gonna have someone to be barnabas, and that is Ziki. He kind of volunteered to be, when I asked, there were plenty of people volunteering, but these, these are the guys who who, got the got the parts.

So Ziki, you're gonna come with me to the back, So you are barnabas, and you sold a field, you son of encouragement to you, and you bring that money you're gonna bring it to the front. That's it over your shoulder. Very good, good acting. Well done. And you bring it to the front, and you place it before the apostles feet, and well done, and you go off.

And well done. Let's give him a round rule. And you say, you see, so this was an example of real gospel community. Barnibus, the son of encouragement, brought the money, put it at the apostles' feet, and then he went. But then we meet a couple of other people.

In chapter 5, they're put right next to each other so that we can try and spot the difference. And the next person that we see is Annanias. And his wife, Safira. So we've got, and a couple of people who are gonna help with that. So Lewis and Chloe, could you come to the back?

Alright. So you actually, you head to the back, and I will be with you in a moment. Alright? You head to the back. Now what did they do?

Verse 1 of chapter 5? Was what did they do? I been louder, sold a piece of property. Thank you very much. So they sold a piece of property.

And, so they took the money, and they didn't come together. Not sure why not, Anne and I got up earlier, maybe. This is your money, and you bring it to the front. So you stay there. Alright?

Safara. You bring it to the front, and you put it at the apostles' feet. And you think I've missed something? Okay. Great.

Thank you. Just stay there for a moment. So he brought money and he brought it at the up to to the apostles' feet. Now, I want you to see, first of all, how similar this is to Bonovis, sold something, brought money, put it at the apostles' feet. And therefore, in your fill in the blanks, fake gospel community, They were generous.

Yeah. They were generous. They're still bringing money, and it was sacrificial. They'd sold property. So if you're filling in the sheet, that's the second 1 and the third 1 on on the fake gospel community.

Yeah? So they were being generous, they were being sacrificial. They sold property, and they gave them money. They did they would have looked exactly like Barn of us. They would have looked just the same.

What's the difference? What's different about what they did? What's the difference? First 2. What's different?

Can you spot it? Boys and girls have you spotted it? What's the difference first, 2. What did they do? Say it again?

Okay. So they kept some back for themselves. So we need to do a bit of a rewind in time. So you need to go back to to so fire it and do like you're going backwards. Alright?

Cause we've gotta go backwards in time. So go backwards or forwards. That's fine. So you gotta go back. And, okay, you guys between you, you decide to keep some of the money.

Alright. So we're gonna take some out of here. Okay. There we go. Okay.

So there's some where are you gonna put that? Have you got a pocket? You could put it in? You could put yeah. You could put it in there.

Perfect. That's right. And no 1 will spot. Brilliant. Okay.

So you've decided to keep some of the money. Okay. Now you go and take it to the apostles and bring it to okay. So bring it to the front. Yep.

Just you. And you lay it at the apostles' feet. Thank you very much. Except that Peter then says, Annanias. How is it that Satan has filled your heart?

Okay. Here's another difference. Yeah? What fills their hearts filled with satan? Not the Holy Spirit.

Okay. So that's something you could fill in. Peter says, Annanias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you've lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing?

You've not lied to just to human beings, but to god. So they kept some of the money back, but they lied. That's really significant. They lied about it. And what happens next verse 5, Anne and I has heard this and he fell down and died.

That's kind of scary. Then some young men came forward, and we've got Harry and Matt who are gonna be the young men. Come forward, please. And they carry him out. Which way are you going?

Going that way. Okay. Carry him out. Okay. So he's been carried out and buried.

No. You don't need to do that, man. Okay. Well done. Are you gonna stay there?

Okay. You're gonna stay on the floor. That's fine. About 3 hours later, it says his wife came in Safara, would you like to come to the front? Okay.

You can stand there. Okay. And Peter asks her a question. He says, tell me, is this Is this the price you and an ananias got for the land? And she says yes.

That's right. She nods ahead, says yes. Peter said to how could you conspire to test the spirit of the lord? Listen. The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.

At that moment, She fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and finding her dead carried her out. With her laughing. Thank you guys. And they buried her beside her husband.

Great fear sees the whole church and all who heard about these events. Thank you guys for doing the caring. Thank you, Lewis. Thank you, Chloe. You can go and sit by Now what's incredible here is the difference.

Now, this is really important that we grasp this. The difference between Barnovus and Annanias and Safira. It's not just that Annanias and Safira kept some of the money. It's not just that they kept some of the money. Because Peter does say to them, In verse 4, didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal?

In other words, he's saying to them, it was your property, it was your money. You didn't have to sell it. You didn't have to give any of it. You could have given some of it, and that would have been fine. But the point was you lied.

You lied about it. Now I want you to talk to someone with you, maybe a a parent or adults talk to the person next to you. Why would they lie? Why do you think they lied? Why do you think Annanias and Safira lied?

Talk to someone next to you. Why do you think they did it? Okay. Let's have 1 or 2 answers. Let's see what you got.

Why do you think they lied? Yeah. Go for it, Pat. Why do you think they lied? They thought they could fool god.

Interesting. Yeah, maybe. They thought they could fool god. What other answers have we got? Kanita, Fear.

They thought they might not have enough for themselves. Okay. So they kept coming back. Interesting. Yeah.

They wanted to look better in front of other people. I think that's probably the reason. They wanted to look right. It could have been those other things as well. I think it's that they wanted to look right.

In front of they wanted to look like a barnabas, They wanted to look as generous as a barn of us, but they didn't actually but they wanted to do enough, but but not actually give everything. They kept some back. And so it says, you've not just lied to people. You've lied to god. They did lied to people, but they lied to god.

They wanted to think people to think they were as generous as a barnabas, They wanted to fit in with the rest and have the reputation and respect that barnabas had, I think. Their gin generosity wasn't a response to the gospel, It was about looking good. And therefore, it was fake, fake gospel community, trying to look like the real thing. But not being the real thing, because it didn't come from the gospel. It may have been generous.

It may have been sacrificial, but in the end, it wasn't a response god's love, it was giving in order to get something to make me look good. And that's really dangerous. It's not Holy Spirit filled. It's actually Satan filled. And we all have a danger of doing something similar.

I think there's a temptation for us to look at this passage and go, well, I haven't sold property and kept some of it back. Therefore, that's only this only applies in those situations. But actually, that would be to sort of narrow it down too much and to go, well, that's definitely not me. I think we're all in danger of doing this. It's a temptation for us.

It's a danger for us as a church. Be fake gospel community to give and serve not out of a response to the gospel, but for our own gain. And I'm gonna ask you some questions there might help you see that this could be in your heart too. And I ask you these questions, knowing full well that they're hard for me to answer because I know they hit me too. Okay.

Some questions which might show that you're serving and giving might be more about what you get out of it rather than as a response to the gospel of the lord Jesus. Here are the questions. We'll go through them fairly quickly. Do you think how much do I need to give or serve? Like Annanias and Farah, everything.

Well, we only need to give that right. We can, to keep the rest back. How much do I need to give? How much do I need to serve at Hope church? How much hospitality do I need to do?

How often do I need to come to church? How much time do I need to spend reading my Bible and praying? And if you ask those questions of yourself, you might then need to think, how much do I need to do those things to get what? To have a clear conscience, to be accepted by god, to have the approval of the leaders to be thought of as okay as generous as spiritual. And if we're doing that, our eyes when we're giving and when we're serving are really on other people, not on god.

So that's the first question. Second, do you feel you have to give or serve? Is it an obligation? Something you go, I have to do this. When no one's saying you have to, but you feel I have to do this.

You feel you have to because, well, what will people think if I don't? Do you feel you can't say no? It isn't a free joyful response to the gospel. By the way, these questions and boys and girls listen to them as well, but kind of they're they're for all of us, but maybe aimed a little bit more at adults, aren't we? Now linked to this, If you feel this kind of, I have to do this.

I have to give. I have to serve. That could be an indication that you go, well, why? What is it about? Is it to do with your eyes or on other people, or is it a response to the gospel?

Next 1, do you give or serve with little or no joy, is there little or no joy in your giving and serving? That can come about if you go. It's not a response to the gospel. It's for something that I want to get out of this giving. Next 1.

If no 1 notices your gift or service, do you get annoyed? No 1 spotted it. No. I don't know why I bothered doing that. Well, then maybe that's because our eyes are more on other people, and as a response to the possible.

And then last question, do you lie in order to look good? Do you lie in order to look good? And I think most of us would say no, but actually, do you at times say things which aren't true in order to look alright? So you might say, I'm giving all, like, can. I have no more time to give.

I'm serving all I can. I can't help. I'm not free at that time. When that it's not true, but also the Bible never said you have to give everything that you've got, or to serve with every minute that you've got. So why lie?

But good to others. We can all be tempted to do it. I think this is a danger for all of us. It would be so easy to look at this passage and say, well, I haven't lied about giving money. Therefore, this isn't me, but I think this actually does hit home for all of us.

Our danger is of a gospel community that doesn't spring out of the gospel. We try to give and serve, not out of love for the lord, but to be accepted and to look good. What's the answer to this? Do you remember what real gospel community looked like, filled with the Holy Spirit, generous, sacrificial, and comes from gospel preaching? And that's the key, I think.

If we're seeing in ourselves a temptation to love and serve and give more because of what, in front of other people rather than as a response to the gospel, come back to the gospel. Come back to the cross of Jesus, and the truth of the gospel, let it melt your heart again. See the love of Jesus, and then do what you want to do. Do what you want to do. After I'm responding to the gospel from a heart filled with the grace of god that that gives because of the generosity god has given to us and serves because god has served us.

Sperate. Emily father, we praise you for the gospel of the lord Jesus. Thank you that though he was rich, yet for our sakes, he became poor so that we, through his poverty, might become rich. Father help us to come back to the cross, to the good news of Jesus, help us to see your richness and generosity towards us, and the richness that we have through Christ's sacrifice for us, and then free our hearts, open us up, to be generous and sacrificial. While they fill us with your spirit, we pray, amen.