Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement),Joses, who by the apostles was also called Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of exhortation), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,
5 sermons cite this verse
… Leveraging your resources. Again, Acts 4.36. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. This is Acts chapter four. Now, you're probably familiar with this verse. It's one of those verses that's always used in building campaigns. Someone sold some land and they came and they put it at the apostles' feet. But I want you to understand the dynamic of what's happening. here. There's a moment where the church is either going to keep going in the power of the spirit, or it's going to dissipate according to human dynamics. And here's what had happened. You've got these Grecian widows in the New Testament who in essence, the widows received almost like a payment or a subsidy from the temple to enable them to survive. And so there was almost like an endowment that went out to provide for the poor and for the widows from the temple. When people converted to Christianity. They lost access to the resources of the Jewish community. …
… to simulate holiness and that's exactly what ananias and sapphira were trying to do back up a little bit and you look in the end of chapter 4 verse 36 the bible says joseph a levite from cyprus whom the apostles called barnabas which means son of encouragement he sold the field he owned and brought the money and put it the apostle's feet so you've got a contrast here you got barnabas who sold a field brought all the money put it the apostle's feet well then ananias and Sapphira see what Barnabas did and they say, we want to look like Barnabas. We want to do what Barnabas did. And so they sell some property, keep back some money for themselves and say, we're like Barnabas. And they come and they lay this down at the apostles' feet and they simulate holiness. Somewhere along the way, Ananias and Sapphira believed that Christianity was about religious regulations, was about doing things on the outside and getting an appearance, a perception from others in the church of you. …
… and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold the field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. Now, we've looked at how they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the Word. We spent three weeks looking at that. And then last week, we began to think about the community of faith, this next element. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship. Now, we're going to do a little Greek education this morning, and you're going to learn some Greek. And that first blank you've got in your notes says they devoted themselves to the fellowship. The Greek word that's used there, we're going to write down. The Greek word is koinonia. Koinonia. You've got it written up here on the screen. Can we say that together? One, two, three. Koinonia. See, don't you feel smart this morning? We're learning Greek together. …
What I want us to do is next week we're going to look at Acts 2, 42-47 as well as Acts 4, verse 32-37 and see the picture of community. But I want us to see what's sandwiched in the middle. It's a story of Peter and John and a guy who's crippled from birth in Acts 3, verse 1. And we'll start reading there. And I want us to see the significance of this story played out even in our community of faith here at the church at Brook Hills. Verse 1 says, One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. And then Peter said, look at us. …
… and he wants to highlight this guy named Joseph. And he says, Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. That guy made it into the scripture. Joseph made it right into the word of God. We got guys preaching and then put in jail and then threatened, and of course, Peter and John are gonna make it into the scripture. But the last person mentioned in this whole section is Barnabas, and he's mentioned because he's got an extra piece of land. We don't know if it's an investment property. We don't know if he inherited it. We don't know if he'd planned to build something on it. We're not sure of all the details. We just know at some point it dawned on him. We got people in our new burgeoning Christian community who have needs, and I got that piece of land. I'm gonna sell that land. …