The Church Described After the Great Purfication

Please turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 5. We will be in verses 12 to 16 tonight. Now here in these verses I want you to notice that we are in between two major events in the life of this church. In verses 1 to 11 we have that great and terrible event when Ananias and Sapphira brought sin into the life of the church and as a result they died. They died. God purified his church. God purged out of the church the sin of hypocrisy that had infiltrated the church through the sins of Ananias and Sapphira. Notice I said sins. They didn't commit just one sin. Now if you've not gotten those messages I encourage you to do that.

I took two messages to cover the infiltration of sin into the life of this church. Then in verses 17 to 42, notice I'm skipping ahead, we have the second outbreak of persecution against the church with the first being back in Acts 4 verses 1 to 22 just after the healing of the lame beggar. And just like before we will see how this church reacted to this second round of persecution. I'll give you a hint. They reacted wonderfully. But here in our verses tonight we find ourselves at the third brief description of the church here in Jerusalem. And again we're still in their early days.

I have called these descriptions snapshots but we have seen that they are anything but black and white pencil sketches. Luke gives us the short snapshots of the early church but they are full of color. We see the church full of life. We see the fullness of the work of the Spirit of God in them and among them. And we see them doing the work of the church and the fullness and the power of the Spirit. Now let me real quickly let me refresh our memory here. The first description of the church that we studied is found in Acts 2 verses 42 to 47. And I titled those messages the church described the early days.

And the second description of the church is found in chapter 4 verses 32 to 37. I titled those verses the church described the later early days. And when we were in chapter 4 I made the statement that we could combine chapter 4 verses 23 to 31 with the second description. And the second description is in verse 32 to 37. And chapter 4 verses 23 to 32 described the boldness of the church after that first persecution. Or we could see these verses as another snapshot. I'm torn. You can study. You can decide. Go back into those verses and maybe you wrestle with that question. If that is another description art just meant to all go together.

But here in chapter 5 verses 12 to 16 we have the last of Luke's short descriptions of this early church. And as we will see this description comes on the heels of and it is connected to the great and wonderful purging and purification of the church that took place with the sin and sins of Ananias and Sapphira. Now this leads me to how I am titling these verses. The church described after the purification of the church. The church described after the purification of the church.

Now before we read our verses and get into the message I want to point out something about this church and these events that is the opposite of how we naturally view the church. Church life and church growth. In verses 1 to 11 of chapter 5 we saw two basic things that took place in the life of the church that became known to all in the church and outside the church. Sin infiltrated the church through Ananias and Sapphira. They brought hypocritical giving into the life of the church. They jockeyed for a place of prominence and prestige in the church by pretending to be sacrificial in their giving. But God would not have it.

Through Peter God brought about a great purification and purging work. He exposed their sin and He judged Ananias and Sapphira by killing them and removing them from the church and the result was two-fold. Great reverential fear in all came upon all of the believers in the church and those outside of the church had great respect for the church but they dared not associate with them. And notice how these events are the opposite of how men naturally view the church, church life and the work of the church and the growth of the church.

Many today would say that a high profile very public financial scandal in the church will damage and ruin the reputation of the church. Have you ever heard language like that? Many would say that a high profile very public financial scandal in the church that would damage and ruin the reputation of the church. Some of you know this but years ago in our early years we had a financial scandal. Someone was embezzling money. It was a loophole in the financial system. We seized control. We sorted that out. It turned into a kind of ugly church discipline case. There's some that would say you need to keep those things hush hush.

Now one podcast that would be good for you to go listen to, many of you know that brother John O. Sims, pastor of Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church, is an anchored in truth church. Years ago their church went through a large embezzlement scandal. In his Faithful Expositor podcast he did a podcast on that embezzlement scandal. It was very very high profile. But some would say something like that. Being very public will hurt the church. Many people today, even church leaders, would say that to severely judge sin in a very public and high profile way, even when it's grievous sin, they'll say doing something like that will damage the church.

I'll never forget hearing pastor within the anchored in truth network. I won't call his name. He was dealing with church discipline and engaging in church discipline in the life of his church. And he went to a very very prominent southern Baptist pastor, very well known. And he got some counsel and that pastor said, "brother if you bring church discipline in the church it will ruin it. It'll destroy it." Well he went back and he studied the Scripture more and he said, "I've got to obey the Scripture rather than one of my heroes." But I'll pose another scenario. Sadly there are churches that deal with sexual abuse scandals.

Well how do you deal with a sexual abuse scandal? Do you deal with that publicly? Or do you try to squash that down and hide that? You know some will say something like that will ruin the church. No, you deal with something like that by calling 911 real quick. I've said this before jokingly. I have the cell phone number of the chief of police in my phone. If something like that goes on I'll call that number quick. Many people believe that we should welcome the lost into the church. They say, "do not preach about sin. Do not preach on the blood of Christ.

Do not preach or sing about the holiness of God." Some even designed the church to attract the sinners so as to include them in the life of the church. Now that approach, the church, or that soteriological model is called the seeker sensitive church model. And in that model the programming, the message, the overall goal of the church is to make the unsafe feel comfortable and welcome in the church. The idea is to make the church comfortable for the lost and not threatening. Now what am I wanting us to see here? The church at Jerusalem did not view nor approach sin, the lost, church, and church life like a natural man would.

The church at Jerusalem did not conduct church business like the world would or like many so-called church experts do. The church at Jerusalem did not relate to the believers in the church and lost outside the church like many do today. And the lesson here for us is this. Grace Life Church at Brookhaven and especially leaders and men, especially me as the pastor of the elders, we must seek to be like the church at Jerusalem even if the so-called church experts tell us to do otherwise.

Now this is kind of a side note meaning you know that the seeker sensitive model really came out of two or three places but one of the most high profile was Saddleback and Rick Warren. If you have a book by Rick Warren just know that it's full of heresy. Now let's get into our verses and get into the message. Verse 12. "Now many signs and wonders" that would be miracles "were regularly done among the people by the hands or through the apostles and they were all together in Solomon's portico." That's there at the temple.

"None of the rest dared to join them but the people held them in high esteem and more than ever believers were added to the Lord multitudes of both men and women so that even so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats that as Peter came by at least his shadow may fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all healed." Now out of these verses I want us to make four observations about the church and in these observations we will see this church full of the Holy Spirit.

We will see this church operating in the fullness and the power of the Spirit and the result was this church being full of life, Holy Spirit life and if I can use this term that can sound worldly very successful spiritually. Now here are our observations. The first I want us to see the miraculous power of the church. See that in verse 12 and at the end of the scriptures verses 15 to 16. Second I want us to see the purpose of the church there's a small portion of verse 12 we'll focus on here. Then next or third I want us to see the purity of the church and we'll see this in verse 13 but we're going to look at a big portion of scripture there.

Fourth I want us to see the saving power of the church there in verse 14. So let's get started. Notice number one the miraculous power of the church. The miraculous power that is seen emanating coming out of this church. Now if we pay attention we can see that these verses have two bookends. Here we see the purpose of the church. I mentioned that. The purity of the church we see the saving power of the church but these verses begin with and end with the miraculous power of the church. Verse 12. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. Then look at the end verse 15 and 16.

So that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits that would be demonic spirits and they were all healed. Now right here we need to ask a question and this pertains to things that we've already studied but we desperately need to make sure we remember these things. What was the purpose of those miracles? I mean think about it. Even Peter's shadow was healing people. What was the purpose of those things?

Now we've already seen this through our study so far in Acts but there were actually two purposes for these miracles. First these great miracles were for the purpose of pointing people, the lost, to Jesus. As we've seen every time a great miracle was performed one of the apostles would step forward and preach two basic things. First they would preach that Jesus was the true messiah of God. They would preach Christ crucified, Christ dead, Christ buried, but especially Christ risen. And then second they would preach the truth of God's Word. Many times they would go back into the Old Testament.

So these great miracles were for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus and the truth of God's Word. Now those of you who were with us quite a few years ago when we went through the Gospel of John we saw that. When Jesus would perform miracles those miracles were always to point them to who He was. Second these great miracles were for the purpose of authenticating the apostles. As we have seen the 12 apostles were the leaders of not only the specific church here in Jerusalem. Now right here at this point in time in the life of the church that's where they all are. That changes a little later.

But as we will see when the work progresses in Acts they were leaders of the entire work of the church. And of course there were others associated with the apostles. So these great miracles were for the purpose of authenticating the apostles as true men of God. But there is a question or two we need to ask. Were these great miracles intended to continue? Do we see apostolic miracles later on in the development of the church? Now more personal do we see apostolic miracles today?

As we progress in the growth of the church, the spread of the church, as we progress in the development of the church, especially when we move from Acts all the way through the rest of the New Testament, we see that things change quite a lot. Now it takes some paying attention to notice this. For one thing as the church develops we see the development of the New Testament Scripture. We know that at the time of Acts chapter 5 the only Bible the church had was the Old Testament. But as the church developed and as time went on God was inspiring men to write what we see as the New Testament Scriptures.

And God was spreading those writings to the New Testament churches. We see that in Revelation. God inspired John to write those letters to those seven churches and those were circulated among those churches. But as the church developed and as time went on we see the development of the Scripture and the spread of the Scripture. And as far as apostolic miracles are concerned as the church developed those apostolic miracles faded. First the apostles were dying and they were fading from the picture. Second the New Testament Scriptures were being developed so there was less and less need for the miracles.

Speaking of this Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12, 12, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works." And what Paul was saying here is this. He was attributing those apostolic signs, wonders, and miracles to the apostles and the times of the apostles. And the point here in these bookends was this. Luke was showing the unique gifts and ministry of the apostles.

He says in verse 12, "At the hands of the apostles great miracles and signs were performed." And in verses 15 to 16 he says that people from far and wide came bringing their sick even the demon possessed that they may be healed and they were. But remember those apostles did not heal the sick and cast out demons and that was that. They did those things so as to prepare the people for the truth of God's Word and the saving message of the gospel. And as a result over and over we see that many even thousands came to saving faith in Christ.

One scholar that I ran across this week said that Luke mentioned the fact that there were multitudes of men and women that came to faith because they couldn't be counted. Now a question I've asked before on a personal level for us. Can God heal today? Does God heal today? Yes he can and I'm sure that he does. God can certainly heal today if he so chooses and I could not say that he does not in certain circumstances. Again that's his business. He may do that. But we do not have apostolic healing today. The apostles died and when they died their office died but we have their office within the scripture.

So if you want to talk to an apostle read Paul. If you want to see what the apostles taught read the scripture. They are dead but yet they are still living. Now before I move on I want to point out the difference between the fake faith healers of today and the apostles and their healing today. You can add to this. The fake healers today they heal for personal fame and fortune and luxurious living whereas Peter and John rejected fame they rejected fortune and they suffered and they died.

The fake healers today they always seem to preach miracles and themselves whereas Peter and John never emphasize self and they always preach God's Word and they preach the gospel. That was the main point. The fake healers today their fake miracles always seem to be an end to themselves. But with Peter and John the end of the miracles was preaching the gospel so that those hearing and seeing would be saved. Now let me circle back to our verses in these healings. One more thing I want us to see. Really I ran across this in some John MacArthur material. These signs and wonders and miracles were a direct answer to their prayers.

Remember back in Acts 4 verses 29 to 30 when they reacted to that first persecution after they suffered persecution they seemed to have this impromptu meeting they gave a missions report and in those verses we learned that they prayed that God would perform great miracles through the name of Jesus and they prayed that God would enable them to speak the Word with great boldness and power. So this was an answer to their prayer. So the miraculous power of the church. Next number two I want us to see the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church.

Now here we have one short phrase that can be overlooked but really and truly this jumped off the page for me. Look at the second part of verse 12. It says they, that's the believers, were all together are gathered together in Solomon's portico. The amplified says and by common consent they all met together at the temple in the covered porch called Solomon's portico. Now notice what we have here. This is simple. Albert Barnes says and I'm quoting they were doubtless there for the purpose of worship. That's a great summary. They were doubtless there for the purpose of worship.

Simply this one phrase tells us that they, the church, these believers, they were purposeful and committed together for worship. Now there are two details that I want us to focus on here. First the text says they met in Solomon's portico. Now we've seen this before back in Acts three but Solomon's portico was this large large patio. It was called a portico and it was on the eastern side of the temple and it faced the court of the gentiles.

This was a place where a large group of people could meet and it had become a place where these new believers, this new church, they would meet for prayer, they would meet for worship, they would meet for hearing, the Word of God preached by the apostles. Acts 3 11 says that Peter was preaching at Solomon's portico. But I like something else that Albert Barnes says here. I really put it in my words. He says this does not mean that they met constantly but regularly. He pointed out that they met for certain specific purposes. For worship yes but for prayer, for instruction from God's Word and for temple service.

And this is important for us to see. But in gathering at the temple like this, this shows us that these new believers, remember they're all Jewish, they had not quite broken away from Judaism and worship at the temple. We will see this more through the book of Acts. And this reminds me of Hebrews. Remember those Jews had a hard time breaking away from the temple. And another important thing to see here is this. By worshiping at the temple this put these new believers in constant contact with Jews and Gentiles. Remember they were near the Gentile court.

Therefore they had powerful opportunities to preach God's Word in the saving message of Christ. Now what do we need to learn here? This church, even in its infancy, even when they face persecution, they've already been persecuted once, another round was coming, they had a particular place for regular worship. And although they may have met at different times than we do, they met regularly. And the lesson here for us is this. We should be faithful to the regular meeting times of our church. And by the way, no one will persecute us for doing that. And notice something.

Every time we meet, I'm talking about Grace Life Church Brookhaven, we gather to do the things that we see that the church should do. We do not waste your time. Look at our weekly schedule. What do we do? What is the purpose in what we do? Small groups is biblical. We see it taught and exemplified in Scripture. What do we do on Sunday morning? We have the Word of God taught. We sing praises to our Lord. We pray. What do we do on Wednesday night? We pray. We gather together to be under God's Word. And we gather together on Sunday night and Wednesday night to instruct our younger ones. Look at even the special events that we do.

We don't just have special events for special events. They all have purpose. Vacation Bible School is a lot of work. Takes a lot of time. But what are we doing? We're pouring God's Word, the gospel, and truth into our young people. Now I want to ask you a few questions here and I'm going to be very personal. I might get up in your Jell-O and get in your grill, but I want you to ponder these things. I want you to think about them, talk about these things with your spouse. The things that keep you from faithfully attending, are they worth it? The things that keep you from attending faithfully, can they be arranged, rearranged, changed?

Now I'm not being illegalist now. I'm not. I'm just asking some questions we should ponder. Are the things that could keep us from being faithful, are they worth it? Can those things be changed or rearranged or moved to another day? I've seen people have to look at certain activities in their life and just say, "I'm not doing that anymore." What impact does faithful attendance to every part of the life of our church, what does that have? What kind of impact does that have on our family and our children? Again, we don't waste your time. We don't just do stuff. You've never come to church here and I've said, "Well, I'm not going to preach.

We're going to have a magician." I've seen that. You've never showed up here and I've said, "I'm not going to preach. We're just going to have a concert." I've been to concerts and they're not bad. Look at what we do. It's all purposeful and intentional and one impact those faithful attendance to every part of the life of our church have. What does that have on our family and our children? I'm not against vacation. We're providentially hindered. Sometimes the children get sick. One day I'll challenge you men. You know, does it take two of you to stay home and wipe a runny nose? I'm serious.

Maybe if the little one is sick, mom stays home and takes care of the little one, you come and you be under God's word and you take what you learn and take it home to mom. Second, they met in one accord. The King James, the legacy standard says that they met in one accord. Of course, this is not a car. The Amplified says by common consent they all met together at the temple in the covered porch called Solomon's Portico. And this simply means that they met faithfully, consistently by common consent. And this is great unity. Matthew Henry says that they were unanimous in their doctrine, worship, and discipline.

He says there was no discontent, no murmuring about the death of Ananias and Sapphira. Think about that. Let me repeat that. He says there was no discontent, no murmuring about the death of Ananias and Sapphira as there was against Moses and Aaron about the death of Cora and his company. He goes on to make a little application out of this. Henry says, and I'm quoting, "The separation of hypocrites by distinguishing judgments should make the sincere cleave so much the closer to each other and to the gospel ministry." Now there's a lesson here, an observation I want us to make.

After we, quite a few years ago, went through so much division and when those who were so divisive were gone and the dust settled, there was a lot more unity in the life of our church. Some of you know. And a greater work of unity went on among us and in us after we passed those tests. And look, there is a lesson here. Divisions will come. We will have divisions and we will have to make judgments, even harsh judgments in the life of our church concerning sin because sin will come into the life of our church and divisions may come. So here in this one portion of this verse, we see the true and the ultimate purpose of the church.

That is to meet in great spirit-borne unity to be the church and to do the work of the church. Now before I move on, I want to reiterate what we've seen and I want to add a little. We must understand, accept, and make it a matter of life and death. The purpose of the church is that all believers meet regularly in and with great spiritual unity to be the church and to do the work of the church. And this is made possible only by and from a work of the spirit. Now let me give you some of my thoughts here. I believe we have great unity here. I do. But I'm not going to fool myself. There very well could be people on the fringes.

They're not quite as unified as you think they are. I'll never forget a few years ago I was counseling with an acard and truth pastor a friend of mine. He had someone who was a leader in their church. They were causing problems and divisions. And he said, "I don't understand it. They came from a sister church, a sister acard and true church, and they were there for 20 years. They were a model church member and they never acted like this. They were on the fringe all those years. They were critical of the pastor. They were critical of the work of the church. They were demeaning of what was going on but they kept those things secret.

But in the right circumstance they stepped forward. And so the point I'm making here is this. If you are on the fringe and you know it, why? Now I'm not perfect. We're not perfect in any of these things. So the purpose of the church. And there's more I can say there. Then notice number three, the purity of the church. We see the purity of this church. Now Luke alludes to the purity of the church here in verse 12 and 13. But to see the purity of the church at this point in time in the life of this church now, to me we really have to look at all of verses 1 to 16.

Here in verses 1 to 11 we learn that the sin of hypocritical giving came into the church through this husband and wife team who had been captivated by much sin, working in perfect concert with God and filled with the Spirit of God. We saw that Peter confronted this husband and wife team in their sin and sinfulness. Simply God killed them to purge sin from the church so as to purify the church. But God used Peter. Peter stepped forward to initiate this first church first case of church discipline and as a result God killed them and purified the church.

And then in verse 12 and 13 Peter mentioned certain marks of purity seen in the church after the purging of Ananias and Sapphira and their sin out of the church. Luke tells us that the church met in great unity and oneness. This is a mark of purity. No outsiders dare join them, yet they viewed the church and those believers with great respect and esteem that's a mark of purity. Now what am I getting out here? If we look at verses 1 to 11 and verses 12 to 16 together we see that Luke gives us a picture of the purity of this church. Now I have revealed these identifiable marks but I want to quickly point them out in outline form.

First the first mark of purity, sin had been expelled from the church. Question here, do you think that other believers took note of the sins of Ananias and Sapphira? I might say pastor if they died they took note of a lot. Do you think that those other believers took note of the sins of Ananias and Sapphira therefore they made efforts to be more pure and holy? Yes. Now on a personal level a couple of questions. What should be our attitude about sin in our lives and about any sin that we could hold on to and bring into the church? You see what would we do if some kind of sin was brought into the life of the church and it had to be dealt with?

Now that question must start with me as a pastor then the elders then the leaders and then everyone who's a member. What would we do if some kind of a sin was brought into the life of the church and it had to be dealt with? Second, the second mark of purity, unrepentant sinful believers have been removed from the church. Now I know this is a severe case of church discipline but this was church discipline. God knew that these two would be unrepentant so he removed them. Now the lesson here is very serious. We must never move away from church discipline ever. Let me repeat that.

We must never move away from church discipline and the minute we move away from church discipline is when we allow sin and sinning believers into the church as normal and when that happens the church loses her purity therefore her power. John MacArthur says and I'm quoting the church pays a steep price for disobeying the Lord's clear teaching on this matter. What matter? Discipline. The impure worldly church that is the inevitable result of the absence of confrontive holiness will not be an effective witness for Christ Jesus.

Disciplining of sinning saints is not an option but an obligation and I will add to that by saying it's not an option but an obligation and a commandment. But remember now you need this more than you know. Discipline is always for repentance and restitution never for some kind of a revenge. Have you ever seen church discipline and the motive behind it was revenge? I have. I've experienced it. Discipline is always for repentance and restitution. Now I've taught on church discipline quite a lot and if you're not familiar with that you need to go find that teaching and listen. Maybe we need to do another study soon. The third mark of purity.

All the believers lived in great unity. Now we've covered this when we examine the purpose of the church but it needs to be touched on. Simply a mark of church purity is great unity in the true purpose and meaning of the church. It's a mark of purity. Let me turn it around. If a church isn't unified well they're divided. Well if a church is divided they're not pure. The fourth mark of purity non-believers will not make it among them. Here we have this paradox seeming contradiction. The text says the lost respected the church but they dared not join them. It says they esteem the believers but they dare not fellowship with them as one of them.

Now it doesn't mean they saw them at Walmart and ran. It means that they dare not associate with them to pretend to be one of them. And notice how dealing with sin in the church relates to how the lost associate with the church. People were not quick and casual to associate with this church. Well why? Because sin had been so quickly and publicly dealt with. People were not so quick and casual to try to join in this church with these believers. Why? Because they saw how God dealt with hypocrites. And look church one of the marks of an unhealthy church is if lost people can join that church and function in that church even if they're not saved.

But one of the marks of a healthy church is if the lost are very reserved. They are very taken back from seeking to join and be a part of that church. Now notice a seeming paradox here. Yes we should see the lost among us. Yes the lost should be attracted to our love and the work of the church the gospel in us but the lost should never be able to just ease into the church and take up residence in the church. So the purity of the church. Then last number four the saving power of this church. The saving power of the church. Look back at verse 14 and more and more believers were added to the Lord multitudes of both men and women.

Again one resource I don't remember who said that Luke said multitudes because it was too many to count. Now what I want us to look at here is rather simple but let me explain. There is quite a lot that we could cover about how God was adding supernaturally to the number of believers in this church. Simply God was saving a lot of people and we have seen this over and over since Acts 2 when 3000 were saved. But I think it is important to examine this saving power of the gospel in and through this church here in this context. Now let me explain.

The description of this church comes on the heels of and is connected to the great purging and purifying work that was done within an ice and safara. And what we need to see here is this because of the great work of church discipline in this church because of the great work of purifying the sin and the sinners from this church God was working supernaturally to save great multitudes of sinners. MacArthur sums it up by saying the means of this growth was from hosting heaven's gates and hell's flames. Y'all ever been to one of those? MacArthur says the means of this church growth was having an area-wide crusade like a Billy Graham crusade.

This is not in my notes but years ago when I was on church staff because we were a part of a work like that in a community, I went to a training on how to counsel people for this Billy Graham model crusade and they asked the counselors to come down front first because that would create a flow of people coming forward. That's not in the Bible. That's manipulation, emotionalism, and it doesn't work. I remember talking in the middle of all that with one of the lead pastors and I said these people are not getting saved. They're confused. This is not right.

And he said we know that a lot of these people aren't getting saved but we hope they'll get involved in a church as a result of this and then get saved later. And I'm like no you're making tears among the wheat at best. MacArthur says the means of this growth was becoming involved in politics. How many churches are getting involved in politics now? Enough of that. MacArthur says the means of this growth was purity. The means of this growth, what is he saying? This growth, this evangelism growth came out of the great purity.

And look church he's right if we keep this great harvest of stoles in the context of what took place within a nice and safari and the purification of the church then we must see that the power of this congregation to reach the laws came out of their purity. Now what should this say to us? Individually our sin matters. I don't know how you live. I'm not coming to your house. I'm not the church police. How you live matters. Now if I'm aware of sin I may have to speak into that. Individually sin matters. Corporately sin matters. Corporate sin is serious.

What I mean by that is when an individual sinning member somehow is involved with some kind of a sin where it gets into the church and it becomes corporate and you know and we know and others know all that matters. I've seen men who are leaders in churches leave their wives and nobody say a word because they're respectable. They give a lot of money. And look for me as a pastor and elders sin in our lives is serious and how we deal with sin in each other's lives and in the church. All this stuff is serious folks. So the saving power that was in this church came out of their purity. Now I want to close with a lesson for us.

Now I'm going to revisit this lesson and I'm going to flesh this out some more when we come to verses 17 to 42. Now the lesson there's an observation here we need this in closing. The great health of this church, the success of this church as seen in verses 12 to 16 in this colorful snapshot comes after the church went through some very difficult circumstances. You see we just read a few verses. Ananos and Sapphira died. They carried them out. This was rough. And for us the health and success we are enjoying now has come after some very difficult difficulties. Sometimes my wife will say don't bring up some of those things from the past.

They should be brought up sometimes. We went through an embezzlement scandal. Those people involved would not repent even when we were very gracious. Then we went through a series of divisions where different people created division and then some we thought were very spiritual and very godly didn't handle those kinds of things right. It was difficult difficulties. There's some in here who saw all of it and experienced it. But what I'm trying to show you is this. The health we enjoy now, the success we enjoy now, some of you have come after those things and you're enjoying where we are.

That came after difficult difficulties and it will be the same in the future. When we go through more difficulties and difficult difficulties what's on the other side is worth it. So the church described after the great purification.