The Beauty and the Danger Within The Church (Acts 4:32-5:11)
A Sermon preached by Pastor Nayan Narzary, Gospel Community Church, Guwahati. The early church is often admired and praised by many preachers, and I myself have spoken many times about how biblical the early church was. And that is true. However, the early church was not a perfect church either. In the history of the Christian church, we see both beauty and also the problem of sin within the church. So far in the book of Acts, from chapter 1 through chapter 4, everything seemed to be going well in the church at Jerusalem. People were genuinely converted through faith and repentance. They devoted themselves to God, to the apostles’ teaching, and to one another. There was unity, generosity, love, prayer, and bold witness. But in today’s text, we see both beauty and danger existing side by side within the church. On one hand, we see believers sacrificially loving and serving one another. On the other hand, we also see sin, hypocrisy, and spiritual deception entering the church through Ana...