[Darris McNeely] Good morning, everyone. And, for those of you watching this later via videotape, welcome to the Acts classes. A bit of a program note for those online watching these later notes and handouts on these classes are connected with the link that you have on the website to view the video classes here for the Book of Acts, and we'll be adding more as we go along and get into some of the other specialized topics here as we go along with the Book of Acts. I am going to probably be creating more time later next semester to do more classes in Acts this year since we're taping them. I will probably take some time to go deeper into a few topics that are kind of sidebar topics here in the New Testament study of Acts. And I believe we'll be able to do all of that and still get done and get all of these in but it may take a few extra hours of classes. But, since we're laying these down for posterity's sake on the web, I think that that's what we will be doing.

But right now, we are in the fourth chapter of Acts. We have come to a point where the first effort to squelch the gospel has been mounted by the Jewish authorities. And Peter and John, as a result of miracle of healing with a lame man at the gate called Beautiful at the Temple, have been called into account before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership. We talked about that last time, and they have been questioned, threatened, and told no longer to preach in the name of Jesus and what they were doing. And so they were threatened. We picked this up in verse 23. As they were threatened, told to stop their preaching, they were let go, it says in verse 23. So, they're released from their captivity.

Acts 4:23 Tells us, “They went to their companions and reported all the chief priests and elders had said to them.”

And so they went back to wherever their companions, which would be friends, which would be fellow Church members, likely not the entire assembled Church because at this point in time if we add up all the numbers, we're looking at several thousand of people that were in the Church, at least have been baptized and are connected with the Church at this point in the story. So, we wouldn't say that they were with everybody in one great collected assembly, but perhaps some of the closest leadership, the other apostles that were there and other members that were, let's say, you know, very much aware of what was taking place.

But it says “they were with their own.” Companions is in the italics, but to be with their own indicate certainly fellow Church members. And they reported all that had been said to them by the chief priest. And, one of the things that is important to know about this is the importance of friendships. I think this is just a practical aspect of how to survive as a Christian. Certainly, we all have relationships. We have friendships that we accumulate during life and different levels of friendships. But when it comes to friendships of the heart and of the faith, they are going to be very, very important to us in holding firm to our belief and our convictions. And what Peter and John do by going and reporting to their closest companions what had happened to them gives us a very important principle to look at and to think about in terms of our own life.

It's good to have close friends with whom you can share your ups and your downs, your trials and your difficulties, and be able to cultivate those through a lifetime of experience is valuable. And so those that you are going to be making while you're here at ABC, in some cases may turn out to be lifelong companions for you. We hope that that will be the case through the relationships that you develop here. Others may just be companions and friends while you're here, and it may go no deeper than that, but we hope that you will maintain contacts. But those that we draw closest to us can be those that from whom we can develop the principle from the proverbs of iron sharpening iron. And I think that what Peter and John do here is go to, you know, their companions that are very close and they report and everyone's feeding off of this experience.

It's a fearful experience, it's a concerning experience, but they're not intimidated. And the ones that were not there in front of the Sanhedrin are learning from the experience of Peter and John, what they said to them, no doubt, drawing encouragement and faith. "Hey, they stood up. God answered the prayer. He gave them what to speak in the moment, according to the promise that Christ had made to the disciples." And, Peter and John were able to give an answer for their hope and for their faith, and for what they were doing. And so, they fed off of that. And my point is this, if you develop that type of friendship, people who can strengthen you when you might be a bit fearful, or intimidated, or uncertain, or you can do the same to others, you're going to be sharpening each other and you're going to be developing a very important relationships that, frankly, we all need.

I mean, I've had close friends through my years in the Church and in the ministry, and those that I've been able to cultivate relationships with that have endured, I think we've sharpened each other and we've worked off of one another. And at times when I may have been thinking in a way that might have created a bigger problem or whatever in some situation I was having to face and deal with, I sought somebody else's counsel, it's kept me from making bigger mistakes, or it's caused me to back off, or it's helping to make the wise decision. And so those are the types of friendships that you want and that you want to maintain and develop. And one other thing, any type of friendship like that that will endure through the years, it is worth the investment of your time and of your money.

By money, I mean, to keep it up, whether, you know, we don't spend a lot of money on long-distance telephone calls anymore, but travel, time together to feast or, you know, you put out the time and the effort and the expense maybe to visit back and forth, or to go to certain activities where those relationships are developed, it's worth it. It is worth it. Weddings, and other life events that go along. Those things are worth it. I may be preaching to the choir here with your generation because I think you do more of that than my generation did in terms of keeping up those relationships, and that's good. But the ones that will be relationships and friends of faith will serve you well throughout your years in serving God.

And I think that that's what happens here because of the ensuing prayer and spiritual discussion. And what they do, they have a spiritual discussion which results in a prayer.

Acts 4:24 It says, "When they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord…"

There was a unity, and they said to God...and what begins here then is really a prayer. But again, think of this as a spiritual meeting, relationship, conversation, bull session. And again, get back to the types of gatherings that we have among ourselves. We may not be praying all the time, and they would not always result in a group prayer, although if it did, that would be fine, too. But, the point, I think, is that your focus, your attention, your words turn to things that are spiritual and to things of God.

And this is what happens here. And it really is a prayer beginning in verse 24 because they raised their voice to God, and what we have here is a prayer. And let's go ahead and look at that and read it accordingly as we see what they say. They address God and say,

Acts 4:24 "...You are God who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them. Who by the mouth of your servant David, have said."

And so then they begin to quote what is Psalm 2. It's the 2 Psalm here that begins to be quoted, which again, gets into kind of an exegesis of the account here, but their attention is focused on God. And notice a friend that says, "The God who made heaven, earth, and the sea, and all that is in them." That's the God of creation. That is the great God. Even as they understood God, they understood him to be the creator of all life as they knew it, understood it, examined it within the science, the scientific knowledge of the first century, which was a far cry from what we know today.

I gave a sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles this year, the opening sermon called "The Privileged People." And I worked off of a book called "The Privileged Planet," which we have a copy of here in our library and there's been a whole video series made. Some of you may have seen these videos called "The Privileged Planet," but it's done by a couple of scientists, the book. And basically, the point of the book, a privileged planet shows how the world, the Earth is positioned at a unique point in the entire known universe within just a specially designed galaxy at a precise point with a moon and a sun, all aligned in the right ways for life as we know it to develop on this planet.

And no other planet, no other galaxy, no other part of the universe that has been observed has anywhere near the right conditions that we have here on earth, in terms of the rotation of the earth, the tilt of the axis, the position within the galaxy. The galaxy itself within the position of the entire universe is a fascinating study, and I could recommend that. And you look at that and you realize that, you know, God did that, that it's not just by design, there is a mind behind that, that we identify as God. That's the vision, that's the view that we should have when we address God, when we think about God, when we run up against an obstacle, a trouble, a time of persecution or, you know, even on our own level where there's a trial we're going through, we have to keep our eyes on God.

We have to keep our eyes focused on this God that we serve, who has created all of this, and He is able to guide our lives. He is able to bring us out of trial and difficulty. And so in their perspective from the first century, they at least had the same thing that we would have today. We might add on layers and layers of additional knowledge, but the ultimate result for both is that of faith. Now, it says they go to Psalm 2, as I mentioned here in verse 25, and they raised this question that comes out of Psalm 2.

Acts 4:25 “Why did the nation's rage and the people plot vain things?”

And that's what David, as he wrote Psalm 2, understood and thought as he was led and inspired by God at that time to write what becomes Psalm 2. He looks at the nations and the peoples outside of Israel. That's how this phrase, "nation," should be understood. David isn't talking about the other nations apart from Israel at his time. And, you know, in the phrase that we use in the New Testament period a lot, it's the Gentiles. Gentile is not a pejorative term, it's just a term that means...it comes frankly from the Hebrew word, which means nations, and it means every other people, nation, tribe, other than Israel, the descendants of Abraham.

So understand that about the concept of Gentiles. And David is saying they rage, they plot vain and empty things. We've just gone through an election, midterm election here in the United States at this time. And, you look at any point in time whether it's an election year or just any normal period of what is going on among the nations, whether it's war, conflict, policies and decisions and things that are going on, there's always a lot of activity, and politics can engender differences of opinion, sometimes rage.

But beyond that, with our current scene, we have culture wars that are taking place, and a lot has been churned up in terms of rage among people to divide in many different ways. And again, probably the big lesson from this most recent election is just how divided the United States are. We have a whole issue on the beyond today at this time about that, and highlighting that, but we're divided. It may almost 50/50 in some cases, but there is a great deal of division and that causes problems. And we look at this and we see, you know, the nations, there's two malt, there's rage. And vain things are plotted. People's ideas to push this agenda, somebody else's idea to create this policy, and things clash. And, when compared to the Bible...

And, you know, any of us looking at these issues in the world today from a biblical worldview, we're going to conclude that there's a lot of emptiness there in terms of the ultimate goal and what good it will do and/or where it may eventually wind up is what the Bible refers to as vanity or the people plotting vain things. And the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership were certainly doing that in the moment with the Church. And Satan was stirring them up to seek to stop what was being done. And this is important to realize because what we're seeing is, you know, one very key tool that Satan uses here in the Book of Acts and we'll see this here, religious leadership is being stirred up to oppose the Church and to stop the work of preaching the gospel and the advancement of the Church. At this point, it is very narrowly focused from the Jewish community. We'll see that this is going to grow beyond that, but this is what is taking place. Now, it's very interesting here also what is happening. You look at verse 26.

Acts 4:26 It says, "The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ."

And so, again, that ends the quote from Psalm 2. But what is happening here is the disciples are equating these various groups of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees that are primarily there at the time, they're being equated with the gentiles, with the nations. And so, whether they're a Sadducee or a Pharisee, this is, you know, the two leading parties at the time, the Church is equating them to Gentiles.

That's pretty strong. That is pretty strong is what is happening here. And it says “the kings of the earth”. Well, you know, it's mentioned in verse 27, is King Herod is mentioned. Now, this is speaking of Herod the Great, who was the originator of the Herodian dynasty who by this time is dead, but he is the one who first sought to kill Christ at his birth. And the rulers, you know, verse 27, again, mentions Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who also sentenced Jesus at that time, and the nations, the other Gentile authorities together with the people. So, it's really an indictment against a whole grouping of people, the people of Israel and all who are gathered together, as verse 27 says, against your holy servant Jesus.

So, they acted against Christ, and this is the same group led by the same high priest who's Caiaphas, mentioned back at the beginning of the chapter here. We've already talked about the priesthood, the family of Annas and Caiaphas, but Caiaphas mentioned here in chapter 4 is the same Caiaphas who condemned Christ or who sought to have Him condemned by the Romans. And so, they are bringing all of this out here at this point in time.

Acts 4:28 It says, "To do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done."

Now, the prayer kind of is brought to a conclusion here at verse... Not a conclusion, but at least a thought within the prayer is brought to a conclusion here. And what has been done is this relation to the all the other Gentile nations and Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Jews acting in concert with them to bring about the death of Christ, and that did happen. And now, the Church is in a sense reviewing that as they are going through this prayer. But notice in verse 28, "To do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done."

We sometimes, again, just read over certain statements, and we don't think about what they're really saying to us. What verse 28 is telling us is this, as they address God, that they say your hand and your purpose, God's hand. If God stretches out his hand, it's usually to take some action, and they say to accomplish your purpose. We typically talk about the plan of God, God's plan, the holy day plan of God in terms of salvation. More often than not, the word purpose is what is used in scripture to talk about that plan and God's purpose. And in this case, this is what it is. God has a purpose. He has a purpose for human life. He has a purpose for creating that. He has a purpose for the Church. There is a purpose that is being acted out through prophetic events that culminated in, in this case, the death of Jesus. Christ's death was prophesied through the Old Testament in many, many places. Isaiah 53 is a very prominent chapter there. And what the Jews engineered, what the Romans did was by God's purpose. Now, think about that.

As horrible as that death was, it accomplished a very, very important part of the plan of God. And that is to provide a lamb that was a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. But Jesus had to go through that. And so, even the scheming, the lies of the leadership within the Jews, the Romans, and the action of killing Christ was according to God's purpose, and it all acted according to His will. Whatever part Satan had in that, God allowed to accomplish his purpose. And that is an important thing about the purpose of God prophecy and whatever event we are talking about. We often overlook this, but in Revelation 17, I didn't intend to go to reference this, but, hopefully I can find it real quick, with the work that is done in a final revival there, and...  Yeah, Revelation 17:17. This is in the context of the woman who rides the beast, and we'll get into all of that. This is part of your beast chart and the final revival of this Roman system there. But something we overlooked, again, we just...we don't overlook it, we just had to read over it. Don't really think about it.

Revelation 17:17 Says, "For God has put it into their hearts,"

and He's speaking of the beast and the Harlot and these Gentile powers that rise up at the final time of the end, God has put it into their heart to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. It's a very important statement of truth, and it comes back to what we are just reading here in Acts that God is in control of all of history, all of prophecy, and even the horrendous acts that are perpetrated even down to the death of his only begotten son.

It is all by God's purpose, and we have to understand that. We have to be able to recognize it and certainly not be caught up in it as Revelation 18:4 tells us to “come out of her my peoples,” meaning that Babylonish type system and the apostles were certainly not a part of it, but they were led to understand that all of this is according to God's purpose and He determined these things to be done. And so, they drew great strength from that. That's the point. And this prayer, which is a very bold prayer, then seeks to be a model for us to look at. Look at verse 29 now back in Acts 4.

Acts 4:29 “Now, Lord, look on their threats, which means that to hear their threats.” He's already heard them. Look on their threats. This is what they ask. “Grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your word.”

This is a prayer of boldness. And they are looking for strength to be bold, to what? Speak your word. By stretching out your hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And that's the end of the prayer. But let's think about this prayer for a minute. Let's think about what they asked. Let's start this by thinking about what you and I normally might ask in our prayers.

What would you ask if you were caught up in a very intense situation like the apostles here? You're being called to account for your faith, why you're going to the feast and it might jeopardize your schooling or your job, sabbath situation, or somebody asks you why you don't keep Christmas and, you know, maybe your belief about God and whether or not and why you don't believe in the trinity, or you're being put on kind of a difficult situation about your faith, your belief, who you are, or there's something else that is taking place, a trial in your life that just isn't comfortable that is happening with you. What do you pray for? Relief? Escape? God, take care of that person.

Look at what they prayed for. They didn't pray for relief. They didn't pray for escape. They didn't even pray for judgment on their oppressors. God, call down lightning on this whole Jewish leadership. They didn't do any of that. What they wanted was to be enabled to speak even more clearly and more boldly about the name of Jesus Christ and the work that they were doing in proclaiming the gospel. They called for God to act even greater by his power through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. So, the prayer wasn't on themselves. It wasn't about them. One of my favorite phrases. "It's not about you." When I was a camp director, that was my motto for our staff at camp. It's not about you. It's about the job, the mission, the campers, the goal we're serving at camp.

And I always told to stress this on the camp staff that I had. It's not about you, it's about the camp. It's about the program. And this is what they're doing. Their prayer's not about them, their prayer is about God, and about speaking more boldly and seeing the word go out. And it's when we put our mind on that and the outward man, you know, an outward focus of God, His Church, other members, their needs, the work of the Church, the mission of the Church, that the Church would be strengthened, that the Church would be unified, that the Church would have the abilities to boldly speak what needs to be spoken and said what needs to be said at any given time and accomplish its mission to preach the gospel is when we do that, that a lot of the other things that tend to eat at us or might even be a problem for us, or either sometimes disappear, or at least we then have the ability to deal with it, and in a sense move along and move through it.

Certain things are not going to go away. Maybe certain things won't change. We have to leave things up to God. But you know what? If we pray boldly, we pray with confidence, and if our mind is outward, then it's in God's hands, and our mind is in focus, as it says back in, you know, in this verse 24, "Our mind is upon the God who made heaven and earth and sea, and all things that are in them." And with that focus, we can't go wrong. We'll be able to deal with whatever is in front of us and not be overwhelmed by it. There are some things that God will answer prayers on, there are some things God will delay the answer, and there are some things that maybe God has already given us the answer and we just haven't been able to see. But if our mind is on God, it will become clear and we'll have the ability to accept whatever that answer might be and work with it. And so, this prayer comes to a close.

Acts 4:30 They ask God to “...stretch out His hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.”

And a very miraculous healing had occurred that drew immediate attention to the work of the Church and the gospel at that time, and God answered that prayer.

Acts 4:31 It says, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness."

So the Church was emboldened by the miracle of healing that had taken place, the lame man, the episode of, in a sense, a kind of a trial or a warning that was given to the apostles there and what they had heard, and then place had been shaken.

Now, this was probably just a shaking of that particular room, maybe, you know, some of the type of disturbance says that the place where they were assembled was shaken. So I don't take it that there was a earthquake throughout all of Jerusalem at that time, but just that particular place, and it was for their intent, for their encouragement. I've never had that happen where I have been. I've never been in a room where just that room was shaking. I've been in earthquakes and tremors before, but you look out and you see all the other buildings around you shaking and it's not just something that is localized. But it was meant to encourage them and to let them know...God letting them know that He was with them, and they were filled with the spirit of God and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

So that's why this is really a prayer not only of boldness, but for the bold. And, it's always good to ask ourselves, "Where do we fall in that?" How bold are you? There are a lot of things that will happen to us and come to us where we have to pray, and to be able to pray with boldness, courage, tenacity is going to be very, very critical to whatever the outcome of that prayer will be, your faith, and your relationship with God, and even, let's say, the collective faith and encourage of your companions and the Church as well. One of the things we gain from this insight of this early part of the picture of the Church is that they were a praying church, and they prayed together at times, but they were bold in that prayer, and God worked through them as a result of that. I think there's always a need for us in the Church to examine ourselves and, you know, have more prayer and certainly in our personal life, and there's times when we need to also engage in a collective prayer beyond, let's say, an opening and closing prayer at services.

I've at times led my congregations in a prayer for healing of people in the congregation that struck the congregation at a particular point. One time, I led the congregation in prayer for all of the expected mothers that we had in the congregation at that time. I think we had four or five pregnant ladies, and one of them was having a particular problem at that particular moment. And so, I just led the whole congregation in a prayer for all of the unborn babies in the congregation at that time. So there's the time and a place to do that. I never take that for granted and take it to God and do so with boldness. Now, let's go on in verse 32 here.

Acts 4:32 “The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.”

And so here's, again, this expression of unity, of being with one accord, one heart, one soul. These expressions come up in these early chapters of Acts. One accord, one heart, one soul. I mean, that really gets kind of really down into the marrow of the bones and knitting together people when people really do feel for one another, when there's an empathetic concern and you genuinely know that. You know when someone is just tersely, you know, how are you doing today? But when they stop, maybe look you in the eye, sit down with you, "How are you?" And the tone of their voice, the fact that they pause, they take the time to look you in the eye, you know that there's empathy there. And, more times than not, you're going to respond to that and tell them what's really going on, how you feel, because you know that they care. How do you get to a point of being of one heart, one accord, one soul? Show people you care.

At the end of the day, people don't care about what you know, they care about the fact that you care. Every minister's got to remind himself of that. You can give a powerful sermon, you can know all the scriptures, you can get all your scripture memory cards right, and you should on your quizzes. But at the end of the day, it's not how much you've memorized, it's not that you know the 70 weeks prophecy, or can recite the Webieste chart, or whatever it might be, or know all of this knowledge. I mean, those are important because you want to pass the test, right? No, it's just that you care.

When you show that you really care by your whole demeanor, your tone, your voice, your time, your attention, then people are going to be knit together. There's going to be that unity. And that care, you can call it love if you want. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples," Jesus said, "If you have love one for another." But, you know, we show that love by, you know, just letting people know we care. That's why I said in one of our recent classes, there's times you don't want to go to church. It may be you've had a bad week, or you don't want to listen to that particular speaker, or it's cold outside, or whatever it might be, but you need to go. You don't want to forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

And that means, you know, over the long-term, there's a time when you're not going to go for sickness, and, you know, certain other situations that'll come up, but the forsaking has to do with you just completely stop because you don't want to be around maybe the people, and that's a pretty critical situation. But to stay with it, to go, to be present, and to be a part of the Church, and to let people know you care number one about the Church, that small congregation, that 18 people, you care about them enough that you're going to be there when you can, and then you come early enough and stay late enough to talk and to fellowship and to do whatever has to be done to make it all apart, that's when you're showing that love, and, you know, that you really do care. And then the best thing you may do that week is to be there. But if you then talk to somebody and you hear their story for the week, and you really do mean it when you say that, "I'll be praying about your situation," and you do pray about it, and they know that you will, then people will be impressed or drawn together and knit together in one accord, one heart, and one soul. They will know that. So let's go on.

Acts 4:33-35 It says, "With great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all, nor was there anyone among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need."

Now, this is the second time this is mentioned as well in scripture as the work continued on. The grace that is mentioned here in verse 33 is the word charis. And it's typically the word that is found in the New Testament for the word grace. And it means favor. It means kindness. It has a multitude of different meanings, but it means...in this case, it is talking about God's favor that was upon them all. God was pouring out a spirit of, again, this unity of heart and soul because He was pleased with what was being done. There's one other example... Well, there's several others, but I want you to turn over to Acts 11. Acts 11:23, where this word grace is mentioned again here. This is in the case where Barnabas is sent down to the city of Antioch to find out what has been transpiring with a group of disciples that had been down there preaching. We'll get to that story ultimately.

Acts 11:23 It says, "When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord."

Same word, charis, but another example here that as Luke uses it in Acts to show God's favor. God was well pleased with what was being done within the Church at this time. And when we come back here to chapter 4, this grace of God was upon them and producing good works. Now, specifically what comes out of this here is this generosity, this sharing of goods.

Now, this is the second time that it's been mentioned. We encountered that back in chapter 2 and talked about it at that time. But it says that all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet and distributed to each as anyone had need. Now, we're going to see later in the Book of Acts that not everyone sold everything they had. And so, as Luke uses it here, he's kind of making a general statement about the spirit and the mood that was among the Church members here that shows, again, this unity of heart and soul and care for one another and a love in that people, it comes down to how the people looked at what they had, looked at their possessions, their land, their house, the food stores, the amount of money that they might have had, how they looked at that.

They looked at it as in a sense not theirs. They looked at it as something to not only give and provide for their family and their needs and to lay up for their children or whatever, but to as they had means to share. They looked upon what they had as something that could help. If they didn't need it then, and/or there was excess, or they could give a portion of either money or food to others, they could, while they still had food, while they still had clothes on their back, while they still had a roof over their head. They didn't give, you know, everything to completely impoverish themselves or their children. That's not what is talked about here. But it comes down to their attitude toward things. And they used them. They understood they came from God, but they also understood that where they had opportunity and maybe excess and part of that could go to help others in their need.

And that's what's being described here. It's not a completely socialistic type of ideology that is being described. They are looking at what they have and they're giving it to another. Now, an example is used here in verse 36 of Barnabas, who we just referenced when we went over to chapter 11.

Acts 4:36-37 And it's a specific example, “Joses who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated a son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.”

And so Luke is inspired to focus on Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement. And when we get into his full story later on the Book of Acts, we'll see that indeed he was a man of encouragement and faith and confidence, but he sells... It says he sells his land and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now, did he impoverish himself? I don't think so. We find him functioning with Paul on the first journey that they go out to, and somehow he's got it... You know, I don't think he went on the dole, as we say. He didn't go on welfare as a result of this, but he did make a commitment, and he was probably in contrast with what we're going to see in chapter five with Ananias and Sapphira, he was probably very open with what he was doing. It's interesting, he's mentioned he's a Levite from the country of Cyprus. Now, Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean, kind of north of where Israel is located. We're going to see that as a place where Paul and Barnabas go on their first stop later on the first tour that they go out and make. They'll go to Cyprus.

And it's logical because he's from Cyprus, at least living there. What a Levite is doing in Cyprus, we don't know. When you go back and look at the story of the Levites and the description, they didn't have land, and they were largely centered, you know, within Judah and the temple and service there. But for some reason, which we don't know, Barnabas winds up in Cyprus, and then he sells what he has. The implication is that the land that he had was in Cyprus. Some commentators wondered if the land may have been back in the land of Israel, but others assume that it's land in Cypress. He comes and he lays it at the apostles' feet and allows them to use it as necessary.

And so, this spirit of giving and generosity is quite strong here. Concern for one another. And what they do give, and even in Barnabas in this case, is not...they're not doing it by compulsion or coercion. There's no edict from the ministry, from the apostles and the Church to sell everything and to push everything toward the Church and the work. That's not being done. So, what they do comes from the heart and it is balanced and wise and certainly does not impoverish them or their family.

When we look at an application of this in our own life today, I would say as a general rule, if, let's say you find yourself able to help somebody in need, somebody comes to you needing some money or borrowing something or whatever, if you have it within your means to help, if it's money and you can give it, loan it, whatever, I would say a real good rule of thumb is if it's somebody needs it, let's say $1,000, and you have that thousand dollars and you can still make your payments and live and everything else, if you give that, fine. If they pay you back, that's great. If they don't, you should be able to go on and live without it.

So ask yourself that question. If you were ever called upon to write a check, give somebody money for whatever reason, you have to make those decisions. And if you give that money, kiss it goodbye. And if you get it back, that's good. If they say they will and they follow through on it, it may not always happen, whether in your family, church family, or someone else. If you give that $20 bill to somebody, don't ever expect it to come back, but don't let it be the last $20 that you have either, or the $20 that's going to keep you from making your car payment, or your house payment, or put food on your table. You have to be wise in these things while you have compassion and... I think that that is some of the underlying spirit behind what we're seeing here in the generosity that the Church had one for another. So, this is going to set us up for chapter 5, which we will cover in the next class, and the story of Ananias and Sapphira who'd had a different spirit in giving and will contrast that with Barnabas and a result of that, which was quite disastrous.