16. September 2010 by admin.

The Witness Of The Early Church: From John MacArthur…

Arristidies, an unbeliever viewing the early church, wrote, “They abstain from all impurity (which is shocking in itself, right?) in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world. As for their servants or handmaids or children they persuade them to become Christians by the love they for them and when they have become so they call them, without distinction, brothers. They do not worship strange gods and they walk in all humility and kindness and falsehood is not found among them and they love one another. When they see the stranger they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as over a true brother. And there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities they will fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with the necessary food. They observe scrupulously the commandment of their Messiah. They live honestly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and all hours on account of the goodness of God toward them they praise and laud Him and over their food and their drink they render Him thanks. And if any righteous person of their number passes away from this world they rejoice and give thanks to God and they follow his body as though he were moving from one place to another. And when a child is born to any of them they praise God and if again it chance to die in its infancy they praise God mightily as for one who has passed through the world without sins. Such is the law of the Christians and such is their conduct.”

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16. September 2010 by admin.

John MacArthur notes that the early Christians were NOT socialist communists, selling all of their possessions and simply sharing from a common kitty. Here’s the excerpt!

Source: http://m.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1709

There’s a third thing about this churches character. It was a sharing church. Verse 44, and we’ll just look through these “And all that believed were together and had all things common”, they just passed stuff around, unselfish, oh selfless people they were. Humble, loving selfless people. In fact verse 45 says, “They sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need and they continued daily with one accord”, stop there. Just imagine being together all the time, everyday and still being of one accord. Umph. no strife. You say,-There it is, that’s my passage to prove communal living. Oh really! Yes, you see, as Christians we should sell all we have, pool our interests and dole it out on an equal basis and all live in the same building. You know, that’s being propagated a lot today, communal living Christians. Boy, that’s very, very popular. Let me just say a word about communal living. Is this teaching that they lived in communes, that they pooled everything and had a kind of Christian communism where everybody’s resources went into one pot and they doled it out on an equal basis? Is that what they’re saying? The answer is no. I think if we carefully examine the text we’ll find that’s exactly what they are not saying. Now let me show you what I mean.

At this time in Jerusalem there were many pilgrims who came for the feast. Right? It was a very common custom in Israel that at anytime of religious feasts, historians tell us, that there was a sharing of everything For example, when all of these people as many as a million would move in at a feast time, they would have to have housing. Well, of course, there weren’t enough inns to accommodate. People would open their homes, they never rented their homes they gave them. They would allow a person to come in and live with them, stay in their rooms, use their ovens, their pots, their utensils all of the things they had. The city even provided water for these individuals. And so that this was a very common thing because of the nature of Judaistic religion that when the pilgrims infiltrated the city everybody shared everything. So that spirit pervaded many, many historic feasts in Israel and it was nothing new. Now to add to that thing many of these pilgrims had received Jesus Christ undoubtedly from out of town. That was part of the design of the Spirit for the spread of the message. So consequently there were some immediate pressing problems. What do we do with these people who having received Christ are now lingering around to grow in their faith and to sit under the apostles teaching. Right? They did not want to go back immediately but remained to be taught in their new faith.

Consequently the financial pressures did exist. In addition to that there were many poor people in Jerusalem whose income may have been cut off by certain Jews when they had named the name of Christ. So they had an immediate problem of dispensing welfare to these individuals. And of people, who perhaps for a little season, had ceased their employment in order to sit under the teaching of the apostles and would later on go back to their employment. And so there were these pressures.

Now in order to accommodate this they shared what they had. It doesn’t say that people quit their jobs. It doesn’t say that people pooled their money. In fact it says they still owned their own houses down in verse 46, They broke bread, the Greek is, in private homes. Apparently they maintained their own homes. There was no pooling of a communistic nature, even in the Christian sense. But the key thing to understand are the two verbs in verse 45, there are two verbs there; sold and parted. Now there are two types of past tense verbs, if I can use an English phrase in the Greek; aorist which means a point action and imperfect which means a continuous action. For example, if I say, I said: you understand that I said it. If I say, I was saying; you understand that I was in the process of speaking. There is a difference just as there is in English. Now what is translated in verse 45 appears as if it’s aorist, sold parted in the Greek it is imperfect. It reads this way. And were selling their possessions and goods and parting them to all men as every man had need. You say, - What’s the big deal?

The deal is this, at no one point did they ever sell all they had and pool their funds. They did not do that. A continuous process was going on whereby I in the economy in which I live and with the same processes of my daily routine with my own things, possessing what I possess and owning what I own would see a brother in need and as the need came I would sell what I had, perhaps, and give him to supply. There is no idea here of selling everything and throwing it in a common pot and dispersing it. The idea here is simply that when somebody had a need somebody then sold something and supply that individuals need. That’s all that it’s saying. Please understand that They did not live in a communal life, this is so important because I believe that God has ordained the family unit to be such and to be independent enough to function as God designed it to function as the building block of society. They did not live a communal life. The money and the possessions given were not put in a common fund from which all received equal portions.

There is no word that those who were supporting themselves gave up their employment and pooled their earnings. They were selling their possessions, that Greek word means their land holdings and their portable goods and parting them as people had needs. If I had a need and you had a lot then the willingness on the part of you to sell that was all that was being said here Now is that any different then what we do today? I trust not. I trust today that we’re willing if we see a brother in need to supply his needs. That’s all they did. Now, undoubtedly, some of the pilgrims were sleeping in the homes of those folks and eating in the homes of those folks who lived in Jerusalem. That’s far from communal living. Distribution was made only as every man had a need. Do you see? And those who sold possessions did so completely voluntarily. You say, Uh-uh, Ananias and Sapphira? But Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5 they sold what they had, the sin was not, the sin was in not giving all the money. The sin was in lying to the Holy Spirit about what they got. God didn’t say you have to sell that. God didn’t even say you have to give it all to Me. God just says, Be honest. That’s a pretty good principle. And no other church founded after this one do we ever find the sharing of goods, there’s no necessity for it, this was a unique situation at a feast time in Jerusalem. In fact, it’s interesting to recognize that if you go from here on throughout all the other churches in all the book of Acts you never find this concept. It is not a part of Christianity. God has designed the family as such. God has designed people at different levels of income and different levels of employment according as He designs them to be witnesses in different parts of a society all according to His plan.

And so they shared and that’s the beauty of it. And you know something This is a much more glorious testimony than a regimented communism. It’s a much more beautiful testimony for us as Christians to willingly supply the need of each other then to be regimented into throwing everything we’ve got in a common can and having it doled out. That takes away the responsibility from me of giving as the Spirit directs me. That makes the gift of giving non-existent frankly. They had all things in common in the sense that anybody who needed received.

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16. September 2010 by admin.

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