'Ac 4:32-37

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Sin, cleansing and further growth (Ac 4:32-5:16) Believers continued to sell their property and bring money from the sales to the apostles for distribution among the poor (Ac 4:32-35).

One example of generosity came from a Jew from Cyprus who so consistently helped and encouraged others that people gave him a name to suit his character, Barnabas (meaning ‘son of encouragement’) (Ac 4:36-37).

There was no rule that forced people to sell their property. When Ananias and Sapphira sold some property, their sin was not that they kept part of the money for themselves, but that they lied through saying they had handed over all the money. After the unbroken triumphs of the weeks since Pentecost, this entrance of deliberate sin into the church must have shocked the apostles. As often happened when there was deliberate sin at the start of a new stage in God’s unfolding plan for his people, God emphasized the seriousness of sin in a dramatic judgment (Ac 5:1-10).

(Comparable judgments on deliberate sin occurred in the Garden of Eden, at the establishment of the Levitical priesthood and upon Israel’s entrance into Canaan; Gen 3:1-24; Lev 10:1-7; Josh 7:1-26.)

Such severe judgments emphasized the holiness God demanded. They also reminded his people that all were sinners, and only his grace kept them alive and allowed them to serve him (Ac 5:11).

Far from slowing down the growth of the church, the judgment removed the sin that could have hindered growth. Although people saw that insincerity had no place in the church, vast numbers continued to join the church. Meanwhile, the healing ministry of Jesus continued to operate through the apostles (Ac 5:12-16; cf. Matt 14:35-36).