February 15, 2009: “The Severity of Christ’s Love for the Church” from Acts 4:32 – 5:11

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Though forward progress always meets some kind of resistance, it is God’s design for the Church to move forward. How much does Christ love the church? So much that he died for her. But there is more: he also killed for her. In this text, we see the severity of that love in God’s radical action against Ananias and Sapphira—an action that preserved the advance of the gospel in the early church.

The unity of the early church is displayed in the latter part of Acts 4. The believers “were of one heart and soul” despite the fact that their differences in dialect, language, culture, politics, diet, and other areas would have been significant. This unity in diversity was a powerful and attractive force in their witness.

The dishonesty and hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira might potentially have disrupted the church’s unity. But the greater peril was the potential withdrawal of the vital, life-giving, empowering presence of the Spirit of God in the church. God’s murder of Ananias and Sapphira is a shocking testimony of his gracious and special love for the church and his desire to use them in the unstoppable advance of the gospel.