There’s nothing like a New Year.  All kinds of hopes and dreams and diets are reborn.  All kinds of plans are made that will soon be forgotten, lost in the shuffle, or stripped of every ornament and left out at the curb. 

But still, we love the idea of a New Year.  There’s something happy about it: the dawn of a New Year always brings with it the idea of a clean slate—a new beginning.

Even if it’s just an accounting gimmick since really it’s that one day flows to the next.

Our Christian lives, however, are no mere gimmick.  When we become Christians, we are not gently tweaked versions of what we were before.  We are not slight improvements. We are not last year’s model polished up for eBay or a garage sale.  We are not the same person only thinner, thanks to Nutrisystem.

We are reborn into an entirely new life, a new start, a new attitude, a clean slate, new manner of living, and we are born into a whole new thing: the Church.  This is one new thing that God cares VERY deeply about.

And this new thing called the Church demands our most careful attention to keeping the good thing going and not allowing it to become polluted.  As believers in our day, we’re not too good at keeping it from being polluted.  When you think of the Church these days, you see probably see headlines of scandals and abuses and all kinds of pollution that grieve the heart of God.  Pollution takes what Jesus died to give us and turns it into hypocrisy at best and fraudulent, self-aggrandizing ineffectiveness that defames the Name of Christ on the other.  How God must weep over what we have done… with what His Son… did!

Have you ever noticed that pollution is a one-way street?

Put clean clothes accidently on the dirty laundry and it’s all dirty.  It never miraculously makes the dirty laundry clean.  When we go to the mall and we put our clean hand on the railing of the escalator, we don’t make the escalator suddenly free of flu germs, we catch the flu if we’re not careful.

Which brings us to the passage of Scripture that I referred to last week.  You may remember that last week we talked about how Christians are supposed to share and share alike.  That a really good guy named Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, was a role model, an encourager, who sold some property, brought the money to the disciples for it to be distributed to the needy.  In the Church at Jerusalem, there were many needs since it was a poor place with many elderly Jews coming to Jerusalem to die in the Holy City and be buried there.  There was an abundance of widows and not enough money to go around…if it weren’t for people like Barnabas.

No doubt people saw what Barnabas did and wanted to be like him.  They wanted the recognition that Barnabas received, the favor of all the people…to be known as a good person, an encourager!

Let’s look at Acts 5:1-11 and learn 7 principles regarding the early Church and for our lives today as a New Year Holiness Challenge.

But first, let’s backtrack a bit to the prior verses to put today’s passage in its proper context and then explore these principles.  Acts 4:34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. 36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet

Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

Principle 1:  Encouragement is contagious.

Barnabas didn’t have to parade what he did.  He just had to do what he did and it encouraged others to want to do likewise.  Others wanted to imitate, emulate his behavior because they saw the favor he received from doing the right thing.

Encouragement is contagious!  But it’s not a one way street or unidirectional.  You see, we often view encouragement as being something good, but things like “peer pressure” and bullying are nothing more than encouragement to conform to someone else’s standards or expectations.  So for example, three-quarters of the Florida State Seminoles in a show of poor sportsmanship followed the leader—whoever the first one was–into the locker room instead of crossing the field to shake hands with the team from Oregon that defeated them in the Rose Bowl.

You may have heard the quote “Imitation is the sincerest [form of] flattery”.  But what you may not know is the author Charles Caleb Colton was an English cleric whose curacy was the vicarage of Kew and Petersham.  Colton’s job performance was profoundly erratic, described as “at times conscientious and brilliant while at other times cursory and indulgent.”  Eventually, he fell away.  He left formal church employment, fled from his creditors, invested money he owed others in an art gallery and fine wines in France where he took up residence.  He gambled his life away in the gaming salons of the “Palais Royal” –at first being quite successful, but eventually he became destitute, living off of family members until he died.  Not a life worth imitating.

Colton obviously didn’t imitate the right things.  He must have been sleeping in his theological education when they covered Ephesians 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

In our passage today, you know what?  Ananias and Sapphira were little different.  They didn’t choose to imitate the good.  Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 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.

“Why is this bad?,” you might wonder.  After all, it was their property.  It was their money!  Didn’t we talk about this last week that property rights are A-OK? Yes we did.  Now we will see what makes Ananias and Sapphira’s actions bad.

Principle 2: Deception is contagious and dangerous.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted the full recognition for doing what Barnabas had done, but as a show for their own glory and accolades and not at all as sincerity.  They decided to deceive the Church, letting the other believers think that Ananias and Sapphira were doing exactly what Barnabas had done…while not being completely forthright about the truth of what they were doing.

Is this really that bad?

Yes it actually is.

Pure hearts and holy people are what God wants, not a culture of deception.  But, in our present-day culture, deception is the name of the game.  Lies are thought to be fine so long as you get away with it.

It hasn’t always been like this.

When Richard Nixon lied to the American people, it was a headline.  His name became synonymous with “I am not a crook!” even as he lied to the American people.  Nixon is probably best remembered for lying to the nation he swore to uphold and protect, ending with his resignation and receiving a Presidential pardon.

* * *

Back then, lying was a huge deal.

* * *

Today, however, we still don’t know the truth about any of the present-day “phony” scandals, we cannot keep our doctor or our insurance as we were promised, and Chicago probably runs a close second to Washington, DC in numbers of lies told per political official.  OK, well, maybe New York City and Detroit are in there, too…because you see, unchecked– deception is contagious and dangerous!  It’s like invasive cancer and people get hurt.

So Principle 3: Purity matters.  Encouragement is contagious, Deception is contagious and dangerous.  And Purity matters.

3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 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 to men but to God.”

Was Peter being greedy as the overseer in charge of the finances of the Church?

Did he just want more money than they were giving him?  No.  He pointed out that it belonged to Ananias both before and after he sold it.  What Ananias and his wife did, however, was to deceive others intentionally, to pretend to do exactly what Barnabas had done as the full amount…and get equal accolades for doing it…all the while keeping some for themselves in a secret way.  Deception.

One way that we can tell that Peter wasn’t being greedy is that he didn’t have x-ray vision to see in Ananias’ heart.  He had no way of knowing what we know thanks to the narration in the verses.  Rather, it was God was speaking through Peter.  Ananias didn’t lie to Peter.  He lied to God.  And God was watching.

God doesn’t want money.  He wants pure hearts and pure lives…and a pure Church!

Principle 4: Accountability prevents contamination.  Encouragement is contagious, so is deception.  Purity matters so God demands accountability.

I don’t particularly like this section of the story.  It seems to me rather harsh.  No second chances, no explanations, no nothin’.  Peter recounts what God thinks and then boom,

5 When Ananias heard this [You have not lied to men but to God] he fell down and died.

That’s a pretty instantaneous consequence.  No elongated Pinocchio nose to let everyone know he’d been caught. No 3 strikes and you’re out.  No warning this time before a ticket.  No excuse even allowed to be offered.  Why?  Because the same God who knew about the property, who knew about the sale, who knew about the money and the decision to deceive…also knew the heart of Ananias –a heart that would choose to lie to God in the first place.  God doesn’t need to be further insulted by having some deceiver offer a flimsy excuse…which Pastor Greg Laurie says and excuse is a “skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”

Ananias died.  Why did God take such drastic action?  Well, first, one thing’s for sure, Ananias is never going to do that again.  The death penalty guarantees it.  But look what else happened:

And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

Principle 5: God doesn’t mess around when it comes to holiness.  His Church will be pure if people must be destroyed to make that happen.

I know that doesn’t sound like the God of love we all know and love.  But we must understand the intricate balance of love and wrath in the Godhead–love for God’s image bearers but wrath against sin.  If the God of love wants His pure gospel and His pure Church to reach people to communicate His love, He can’t have an impure gospel or an impure Church doing it.  Our actions have consequences.  Just like cancer requires drastic measures to get rid of it, deception in the church must be dealt with.

Sometimes destroying people or letting them destroy themselves will happen gradually as those who contaminate the Church fall away.  Maybe they leave the church and move to France like Charles Caleb Colton of Imitation and flattery fame, to gamble and drink their lives away.  Maybe those people move to another church that will catch them in what they’ve been doing all along which is what we see in the headlines of sex abuse scandals. Maybe it will involve getting caught and going to jail for a little while.  But maybe it will be redemptive because the heart of the person is willingly changed and takes a Holiness Challenge.

And one thing we can say about God is He knows what’s going on, what’s required, and what it will take to keep the Church alive and holy.

6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9 Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

God doesn’t mess around when it comes to holiness in His Church which brings us to a 6^th principle:

Principle 6: If Holiness is important to God it should be important to us.

11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Great fear seized people after Ananias died. 

Great fear seized people after Sapphira died. 

God intended that it would be this way so that the cancer of deception would be cut out before it spread.

Chances are really good that the same encouragement to share and share alike that Barnabas and his actions showed in the positive, was displayed in the negative by the case in point of Ananias and Sapphira—also recorded for all history as deceivers.  Everyone noticed the good and the encouragement of Barnabas.  Everyone was scared to death to follow the examples of deceivers.

God doesn’t tolerate sin in His Church.  His Son Jesus died for the Church and will be the bridegroom in the last day, marrying His Bride (the Church).  The purity of this Bride is paramount!  We need to take God’s holiness seriously!

Which brings us to the final principle for today:

Principle 7:  Live Pure or Die.

That’s the principle for the Church.  The Wall Street Journal just had an article yesterday about all the big empty church buildings in Europe.  Big buildings.  Lights are on.  Nobody’s home.  Young people don’t go to church.  They close the doors and die out.  Nothing left behind but a big, empty building.

In the US, we don’t have to look too far to find a lot of mainline church denominations in decline.

Live Pure or Die. 

Harsh words, but if Ananias and Sapphira’s example teaches us anything, it’s that God has absolutely no problem—whatsoever—with letting pretenders die.  And frankly, there are a lot of churches out there with fancy robes and large crowds and dark, deceptive hearts.  They aren’t preaching Jesus at all.  Pretenders.  Deceivers.  God is not impressed.  He wants pure hearts, not crowds.  They’re dying from the inside out.

Live Pure or Die. 

Consider the holiness of the One we’re coming to worship.  If He were to walk through that back door right now and walk up here to the microphone, I dare say we’d all be scared to death.  We don’t know what holiness is truly like.  We don’t see purity very often in our lives.  We’re so accustomed to pollution in our world, in our lives, in our governments, and in our churches, that we don’t even know what holiness is anymore.  We don’t expect it of our churches, ourselves, or others from the federal government on down to our kitchen table.

Live Pure or Die. 

God doesn’t want any of us to play church. 

To show up when we feel like it and to treat it as just another day-planner item, something to fill up a Sunday morning slot between the newspaper and the football game.

On this Communion Sunday, let’s remember that Christ died for this church.  So, let’s get rid of anything impure.

Live Pure or Die.  Each of us, in the silence of our hearts would be wise to bring our failings and deceptions before God and ask His forgiveness.  Each of us should look at our lives at the start of this New Year and see where we can take the New Year Holiness Challenge to Live Pure.  As individuals.

But also to look around this church and ask whether we’re a church that honors Christ and whether we’re displaying the name Christian with the beauty and purity that He gave His life to create.  He paid for our sin so we’d be pure.  New life.  New Beginning. The Church universal matters deeply to God.  This church matters to God.  And as uncomfortable as these 7 principles are—from the examples of Barnabas (positive) and Ananias and Sapphira (negative)—we’d be wise to remember:

1. Encouragement is contagious,
2. Deception is contagious and dangerous. 
3. Purity matters.
4. Accountability prevents contamination. 
5. God doesn’t mess around when it comes to holiness.
6. If Holiness is important to God it should be important to us.
7. With the result that we’d choose to Live Pure, rather than die.

This sermon entitled “The New Year Holiness Challenge” (based on Acts 5:1-11) was first preached on January 4, 2015 at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI.  Click on this link to listen to the audio version on YouTube.

I suppose most of my recurring nightmares are school-related:

• Skipping Class All Semester Nightmare in which I find I don’t know any of the subject matter–even where the final exam is being held, which in my nightmare is always RIGHT NOW.
• Then there’s the Procrastination Nightmare with a whole bunch of assignments announced the first day of class on a clearly written syllabus…assignments which I didn’t end up starting until 15 minutes before the assignment is due.
• The Passing Note Nightmare which involves my getting caught by the teacher who reads some content in my note that is totally tabloid in nature and humiliating in every way known to man, and then says, “Should we share this with the rest of the class?”
• And finally The Chewing a Piece of Gum in Class Nightmare and having the teacher ask if I’d brought enough to share and then being chewed out publically for disobeying school rules which always seemed to be “Bring enough gum for everyone!”  Humiliating to show up in class with a single pack of Wrigley’s and being more than a dozen sticks short.

Given these recurring nightmares, you’d think that I was probably a really poor student.  Given these nightmares still occurring decades after the fact, you’d think it had really happened and I was traumatized by it.  But no.  I always liked school.

And what you’re probably really wondering about right now is what on earth it has to do with Acts 4:32-37.  I’d say, “Nothing, just a cheap attention getting ploy,” except that it ironically applies.  The applications are parallel:

1. Don’t skip the education.
2. Don’t procrastinate thinking there’s always time later to do things.
3. Share only what is good.
4. And follow the rules for sharing:  Share and Share alike!

In the book of Acts today, we see a church actively engaged in the fellowship of believers as a function of their Christian education.  It means these believers know what the Word says, they act on it, they share what they’ve learned, and they share in actions, too.  They do it willingly. Share and Share alike!

We’re ust coming off Christmas and all the gift giving.  Heading to the year-end close for tax donations.  And I didn’t want to close the year with what we’re talking about next week, a counterexample to this week’s sharing and giving.  Although next week, it will be “Happy New Year, Ananias and Sapphira are dead.”

Many preachers hate talking about money, but Jesus talked about it a lot…and not just on some “Stewardship Sunday.”

Stewardship is more than just money.  It’s a whole life deal and foundational to the early church.  As the church is getting launched, there are rules of the road and principles to live by.  In our passage today, we see the idea presented, reiterated, and displayed in a personal example of a man named Barnabas.  It isn’t the first time we’ve seen it.  Bill Slater preached on it as New Life Leads to New Living.  And if Luke points it out a second time, we’re wise to pay attention.

Let’s recap where we are:  The believers had just seen Peter and John and maybe even the formerly crippled guy who used to beg at the gate called Beautiful be thrown in jail.  They got scolded, prohibited from evangelizing, and were released with the idea they should never do that again.  Their worst nightmare.

So they get out, they pray, they praise God, and then ask Him to empower them do it some more…even more boldly next time.  The persecution of the church begins and it’s going to be very important during the infancy of the church that people understand how the church works.  It works by share and share alike.

That’s a summary of the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus gets all authority in heaven and shares it with believers in the form of His teachings and His commission to spread His good news!  The Father shared with Jesus.  Jesus shared with us.  Our job is to share alike.  To pass it along to others.

As I read these verses from our passage today, beginning in Acts 4:32, I want for you to listen to the unity going on.  The sharing. The commonality.

Acts 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

All the believers, one heart, one mind.  No one claimed possession as greed, but as something worth sharing with everyone.  Share and Share alike!

What we’re about to delve into is one of the most misunderstood passages of Scripture, a conservative theologian’s nightmare, and it’s where my school examples will help inform the distinction between social engineering and Christian living.  This passage has sometimes been called “Christian communism,” but it’s totally different!  It’s not social engineering.  It’s Christian living.  And they are as different as night and day.

In our passage, v 32 is a first description showing that people learned what Jesus said and they put it into practice.  Every moment was a time to learn and apply.  They didn’t skip class, they didn’t procrastinate.  They learned and applied it NOW.  They understood that every moment is exam time.  Every moment will be a test of what you’ve learned and who you love.  What’s the result?

33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

New Life Leads to New Living.  It witnesses!  When we do what Jesus says, His grace will flow from Him, to us, and out to others.  These disciples in the early church knew it all began with witness and it flowed as grace from Jesus to us to others.  Share and share alike.  It witnesses more and there’s power for the church in that.

The other bookend description in v 34 says basically the same thing as v 32, both of which serve to highlight the stuff in the middle.  Kind of like an Oreo.  The cookies are there to support the filling.  Not the other way around.  What’s the good stuff in the middle?  It’s verse 33.  Acts 4:33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Here begins the other cookie: 34 There were no needy persons among them.

When we know and we share, no one is need.  Not all of us are in the giving category.  God has made some of us in the dependent-upon-others category so that grace might be upon all of us.  If we get plugged up by someone not sharing what God gave them specifically to share, it becomes an abscess in the church and the infection takes hold and robs us of power.   We’ll see next week what God thinks of that.  Verse 34 continues

For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them,

It’s important to take a bit of a time out to mention that we do not see a problem with ownership or ownership rights.  It says from time to time, no indication of by compulsion.  Ownership was viewed with a clear understanding of where belongings come from in the first place.   Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”  When we view all belongings as originating with God, by His grace, we will be more likely to hold them loosely.

For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Isn’t this beautiful?!  People, totally free to own and sell, they were totally free to give away as well.

It was an outflow of being of one heart and one mind.  The Church is one body.  No stomach would withhold nourishment from the arms, eyes, and lungs.  One body! So people brought money that they didn’t worship… to the One True God whom they did worship.  Not worshiping money.  Worshiping God.  Of course, God puts people in positions of authority to be able to act on His behalf.  That’s what pastors and stewards are supposed to do.  The apostles too.  The Bible calls them Overseers because God is a God of order.

In God’s economy, we learn to be charitable by having someone to be charitable toward.  Let me say that again.

We learn to be charitable by having someone to be charitable toward.  If there is no recipient, there is no giving.

And by seeing someone’s needs being met, it reinforces the desire to do what one can.  That’s why some receive God’s grace directly in the form of ownership and material blessing, and others receive God’s grace indirectly as those who have learned what it means to be Christian live out the Great Commission and share everything with others.  Share and share alike!

I have had instances in my life in which a need comes to my attention, maybe even a Christian friend is in need.  (Like in our passage, which importantly refers to people in the Church!)  Maybe I could make a car payment for someone so their car didn’t get repossessed or help with a mortgage payment or bring someone’s account from below zero to help them survive until the next paycheck without a bank overdraft charge.  I say I…but truly I can only be a time steward.  Financially, in our family, it’s we.  Warren is our check-writer and oversees the whole gamut of stewardship even back at our church in IL.  Seeing how help—in a very tangible and clear way—meets a specific need–makes the act of helping even more rewarding.  It doesn’t go into a black hole somewhere.  Rather, it is visible in the life of someone in the Church.  It produces fruit.  It produces grace.

Charity has, in our modern age, received a bad name.  As we’ve shifted from the Church and their ministries doing redistribution of God’s grace (share and share alike)…to a current system of various entities with political priorities doing the redistribution, God’s economy has become profoundly warped.

1. Ownership gets replaced with greed on one hand, and adverse possession on the other where belongings get taken from one and given to another without the consent, will, or joy of the one whose property rights were violated.  God gets completely removed from this whole equation!  And you know what?  All the joy of personally, materially helping someone and being encouraged by it… gets diluted until it’s really not visible at all.
2. God’s economy also gets warped when selling freely gets replaced by compulsory taxation.  By ripping the freedom out of the giving, you know what?  All that’s left quite often is a bitter resentment of someone else deciding for you when you want to do what you are called by God to do.
3. God’s economy gets warped when charity and sharing that once characterized the early church got stripped of its grace and now receiving charity is considered to be bad.  Too insulting, embarrassing, or humiliating.  So we’ve replaced “the needy” with “the entitled.”  We’ve swapped the word charity for someone else telling us what is “doing our fair share.”  We call grace recipients, otherwise known as the needy, “clients” as if what’s important is the transaction, not the grace!  We’ve replaced gift and giving, with obligation and expectation.  We’ve replaced alms with taxes.  It’s all in the same category: graceless giving, graceless receiving.  But what did our passage say happens in the important middle of the cookie?  33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Charity witnesses.

Charity is the Church’s powerful testimony.

Charity brings about grace and more grace.  Share and Share alike!

But today, what do many people see?  A Church that has either dropped the ball on charity, or a Church that has willingly forsaken its witness by giving their God-given function over to the government.

People ought to see what is happening inside the Church –a whole lotta grace goin’ on— so that they will want to be part of the learning, the sharing, and the grace that form God’s economy.  But if they don’t see grace as share and share alike, we lose our witness and we miss the important stuff at the center of our scripture, witness and grace!

It’s a lesson we don’t want to skip.  We’ve heard it in principle.  God shows it to us in action.  36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Do you see how we’ve moved from a principle to an example?  From time to time, some people did sell what they owned and they brought the proceeds to the Church to minister to the needy…and one of those people was Encouragement’s son, named Barnabas (Son of Encouragement).  He did exactly what some others did, too…from time to time…as God blessed and inspired them to do.

We all need encouragers and living examples in our lives.  Barnabas was a great one.  He helps us to see the joys and encouragement of such living so that we might share and share alike.  Barnabas was a Levite (part of the religious order) and he was from Cyprus which will become important as the missionary journeys outlined in Acts unfold.  But for now, the best thing to note about Barnabas was that he was an encourager, a role model, and people noticed his setting an example for others and the positive recognition he likely received—Scripture even remembers Barnabas by name.  As a good and faithful steward of God’s material blessings.

Let’s take a time out to revisit my school nightmares and tie it to the outcome of stripping the grace out of charity.  I wanted to apply it to something about which many of us can relate because money is a really uncomfortable subject for many people.  Jesus, however, talked about money even more than He talked about hell, the devil, or sex.  Money was a big deal to Jesus because it has the terrible potential to confuse the gift with the Giver, the blessing with the Blesser, and money forms even today the most seductive and insidious idol of this world’s economy.  It sneaks up on us and draws us away from worshiping the One True God whose economy runs–not on money–but on grace.

So my nightmares show that we cannot skip classes on Christian living, avoid the final exam, and still get a passing grade in the class.  We’ll know the material if we learn it and apply it day by day, and from time to time.  Charity is something we need to always be on the lookout to provide as God enables us…and not always in the form of money.  It can be acts of service or a million other things.  But the bottom line is that the answer to the Skipping Class Nightmare is to learn the material.

Second, we cannot procrastinate to the very last moment before our death before deciding to be charitably minded and still experience the fullness of Grace.  Share and share alike needs to be now, not later.  It needs to be a reflection of unity.

Third, share and share alike doesn’t look like my Passing Note Nightmare of a teacher grabbing a note I’m passing in private and the teacher sharing the contents with the entire class.  Wrong as passing a note was, yet, it wouldn’t have been the teacher’s news to share.  Possessions that God has shared with you aren’t someone else’s to share with anyone.  We do not take and redistribute.  We are to share and share alike as God leads us.

Which brings me to the fourth, Not Enough Gum for Everyone Nightmare.  This Scripture doesn’t say that Barnabas sold all of his fields and became one of the needy dependent upon others.  Dependency is not the goal!  Grace is!  Not one of us has the resources to meet every need that exists.  God, instead, gives both blessing and responsibility to share His grace with others…in the perfect amounts as a body of believers.  Grace doesn’t always take the form of money.  Knowledge and witness never get exhausted.  Possessions, on the other hand, require stewardship.  God can always outdo us in giving, but He also wants us to be wise and to use resources where they will do the most good, exactly as He calls us to use them.  What matters is that we’re of one heart and one mind of honoring God.  Our hearts and motivations need to be right.  That’s where a third party can never discern for you or me where we ought to give…what is our fair share.  We don’t give to placate others and cannot judge them.  We give to bless others with the grace of God.  Share and share alike!

In God’s economy, the time is NOW to know and learn what it means to live as one heart and one mind.  There’s time NOW to do acts of charity for the blessing of others.  We share with others flowing out of Christian unity …all the while remembering that we are only redistributing God’s grace as share and share alike!

Acts 4:33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

This message entitled Share and Share Alike–on the beauty of charity in God’s economy of grace–was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine on 12.28.2014 by Barbara Shafer.  Click this link to enjoy the audio version of Share and Share Alike on YouTube.  Let’s be the Church by learning to share and share alike.

The message Because He Came was first preached by Barbara Shafer at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine on December 21, 2014.  You can read the text version already posted or listen to this message now on YouTube by clicking this link.