Acts 5:1-16, A living Church 2

Acts 5:1-16, A living Church 2

 In Chapter 4, a living church was filled with the Holy Spirit, prayed unitedly, and boldly preached the gospel despite external persecution and tribulation. Also, they were freed from worshiping money as a god and devoted himself to offering God and sharing members.

1. A living church also defeats internal attacks from Satan.\

  Difficulties came to the church through Ananias and Sapphira. Their hearts were filled with Satan, so they deceived God the Holy Spirit, hid some of the price of the land (3,4), and pretended to give it all to the Lord, hoping to gain recognition and fame from people (4:34-37). It is a sin of hypocrisy. *Are you not like this? Just as God judged Achan's sins in the first era of the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 7), God judged the sins of this couple at the beginning of the early church.

2. A living church overcomes Satan's attacks that try to lead the church into division, lies, and hypocrisy.

  Just as God works through people, Satan also works through people. Satan controlled their hearts(3). 1) Jealousy + desire for fame 2) Material greed 3) Satan’s control over the mind 4) Marital conspiracy 5) A hypocritical atmosphere was planted within the church. Even today, Satan makes threats (Ch.4), but he is more subtle in deceiving the church(John 8:44) or creating a bad atmosphere (Ch.5). It deceives not only people but also God the Holy Spirit (lies, contempt, vanity, betrayal, hypocrisy, etc.). *Are you filled with the Holy Spirit and able to defend well against Satan’s attacks? Gal.5:16,25, “Live and walk according to the Spirit.”

 Dear saints, as a living church, we must live as the people of Jehovah Nissi who overcome external and internal tests well and win every day. Amen.