PT-2 "Purity" (Acts 5:12b-14)

 SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/14/2017 12:15 PM

My Worship Time             Focus:  PT-2 “Purity”

Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Acts 5:12b-14

Message of the verses:  “They were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. 13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. 14 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number;”

Some like me may be wondering why we did not start with the beginning of verse twelve, and the answer that John MacArthur gives is that from verse 12b-14 form a parenthesis as the thought began in the first half of verse twelve and then resumes in verse 15.  I will quote it here but we will be looking at these verses in a few days after we finish this section:  “12 At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; 15 to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. 16 Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.”

I hope that as you read this that like me, you understand this much better.  Now the section that we are looking at now speaks of the purity of the church and as noted earlier the Lord began the purity of His church with the discipline of Ananias and Sapphira as He took them home to be with Him after they had both lied to the Holy Spirit.  As Jesus mentioned in Matthew chapter 18 it is the job of the church to keep it pure.  

Now we move on to look at this last half of verse twelve which speaks of the church being in “one accord in Solomon’s portico.”  Now I think it best if we know where Solomon’s portico is and also some of the things that happened there.  John MacArthur writes “Solomon’s portico lay along the eastern side of the temple, facing the Court of the Gentiles.  It was the site of Peter’s second sermon (3:11ff.)  and one of our Lord’s discourses (John 10:23ff.).  It had become a favorite gathering place for the believers, who met there daily for prayer and worship.” 

Now we want to look at a paradoxical truth from the pen of Luke who wrote “none of the rest (those who were unbelievers) dared to associate” with the believers, however he goes on to write “the people held them in high esteem.”  There are people who I witness to from time to time who have respect for me, and yet they do not want anything to do with what I am telling them about on how they can be saved.  Some think that my life is lived in a good way and are happy for me for what I believe, and if that is good for me then they are happy for me, yet they want none of it.  As we look at the case of the disciples, the crowds knew that they had been walking with Jesus, and they also knew that by doing this their lives had been changed, and they also knew that these men had power given to them to perform miracles as they had seen them.  These people had just seen the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira and seeing this must have given great fear to them that if they became believers that might happen to them to if they sinned against a holy God.  MacArthur writes “The practice of sternly dealing with sin helps maintain a pure church.  People do not rush to join a church that will expose their sin.  Discipline is thus an essential key to evangelism, because it purifies the church and keeps the shallow and merely curious away.  It is startling to see churches today that will purposely not make sin and issue so as to attract the shallow and curious.”  As I read that last statement it reminds me why I left a church that I went to for 32 years, and that was just one of the reasons.

It seems today that many leaders of the church do not want to discipline anyone in their church for fear of driving people away, but in spite of what went on after the discipline of Ananias and Sapphira and unbelievers being fearful of this along with believers we read “all the more believers in the Lord were constantly added to” what we could call an exploding church.  We have been reading how many believers were being added, that is the number, but now we read Luke had actually lost count and described the growth “as multitudes of men and women.  We can be sure that the growth was purity.

We will continue to look at this subject of purity in our next SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  No one likes discipline, but it is needed in the church to keep Christ’s bride pure.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will give me the wisdom and insight given to me from the Holy Spirit to teach the Sunday school class I am teaching tomorrow.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Ahab” (1 Kings 17:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where in Europe was the Gospel first preached in response to the Macedonian call ‘come over and help us’?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/14/2017 1:04 PM