Poison or Rocket Fuel?

When reading narratives in the Bible always be aware of how stories are arranged.  Authors when writing a narrative or a history have a motive or a lesson behind which stories go together.  It is easy to read Biblical narrative and simply think, "Well, that's how it happened."  It certainly is how it happened but there are many other good stories or vignettes that could have been shared.  Always ask, "Why did the author choose this story and why did he place it here?"

The book of Acts is Biblical narrative.  The book is completely historically accurate and Dr. Luke does arrange his stories in chronological order, but he writes about a huge segment of church history and includes only some of the stories that are bound to have occurred.

This all brings me to Acts chapters four and five and a bit of six (this will sound familiar to those who were in the most recent adult discipleship class at Grace Baptist or those who have been through Tim Keller's study on Acts ).  There are two vignettes placed side by side.  One ends chapter four and the other begins chapter five.

After praying for boldness this is said of the believers:

"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.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  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 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." Acs 4:32-35

Can you imagine what the community thought about these believers? 

Acts chapter six also tells us how the believers came up with a way to make certain that widows of all racial backgrounds were taken care of within the church.  As a summary to that section Luke wrote, "So the word of God spread.  the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith." Acts 6:7

Why does Luke mention that a large number of priest became Christians?  Well, it is Luke's way of highlighting that the actions of the Christians in living out their faith convinced the Jewish priests that this faith was a fulfillment of the Old Testament commands.  The nation of Israel was commanded to be doing what the Christians were in deed doing. 

As Tim Keller said, "Luke is saying that the power of the apostles' preaching was both backed by and enhanced by the practical sharing of the Christian community."

So, following the story at the end of Acts chapter four, Luke tells a story that seems quite strange and inordinately violent to many of us.

"Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet.

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, 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." Acts 4:36-5:2

This man and woman seemingly wanted the adulation from doing what Joseph did but didn't want to make the same commitment (I mean the man even got a nickname out of his lifestyle).  The Apostle Peter later says that keeping some for themselves wouldn't have been wrong, but they lied.  They gave the pretense that they were making a bigger sacrifice so they could get the glory from others noticing.  Ananias and Sapphira were being hypocrites.

Peter confronted each with their lie separately and each lied again to his face and each dropped over dead on the spot.  Now, this has always struck me as a bit of overkill, pardon the pun, on God's behalf.  I've often thought that maybe he overdid it; not that God could ever overdo it, but it just didn't seem to me to match up to what I thought I might do if I were God.  But this is a powerful statement by God against hypocrisy.

As G. K. Chesterton was reputed to have said, "the greatest argument against the truth of Christianity is the lives of Christians."  Or for my dc Talk fans they may remember this quote from Brennan Manning "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.  This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Dr. Luke arranged these stories side by side for a reason.  I believe the reason is to tell us that how we live out our faith either helps the spread of the Gospel or hinders it.  Our lives can either be a living proof of the change the Gospel makes in the hearts of those adopted by Christ or our lives can shout that Christ's death doesn't change much at all.  Hypocrisy is poison to the church, whereas radical obedience to Christ's call to love the least of these and to trust Him with everything including our finances is rocket fuel for our witness.

Which is your life: poison or rocket fuel?  Does your life enhance the message of the Gospel or make Jesus out to be a liar?  Does your church live out the commands of Christ in a way that attracts people or does your church look like a white washed tomb?

Watch your life and in doing so watch your witness to a lost world today.