After Judgment, Revival
“And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)” — Acts v. 11-14.
THE case of Ananias served several important ends. For one thing, it bears a very emphatic testimony to truth. Such a testimony was needed, and therefore it is given in the record. Those who have come into personal contact with the heathen, the civilised as well as the savage, bear witness that the grand difficulty in dealing with them lies in their want of truth. Among the native populations of India you do not find a sense of truth that can be depended on. A merchant who had resided a number of years in the Western Presidency narrated to me the following case: —
One native sued another at law for the recovery of a loan. He adduced witnesses, who proved clearly and minutely that he had lent the accused a certain specific sum at a certain place and time. When the defender was called to plead, he I distinctly owned that he had received the money according f to the testimony of the witnesses, but called other witnesses, who proved with all clearness and fulness that on a certain day and at a certain place lie had repaid it. He was absolved. An Englishman who knew the defender, and knew that he had never received the loan, asked him why he had acknowledged a debt which was not due. He replied that the debt was legally proved against him “by false witnesses; that he had not witnesses to refute their evidence; but that as his adversary had, at small cost, proved the debt, he had been able as cheaply to prove repayment. He had no alternative but to meet one falsehood with another. Such is heathenism, even where it is cultivated and refined.
The judgment that fell on Ananias and Sapphira is of the nature of a miracle. A true miracle is never wrought unless when there is a worthy object to be attained. Now, falsehood in the very heart of the world was a great barrier in the way of the infant Church. The new society founded by Christ was beginning its career in a world that lacked truth. It was difficult to build even that Divine edifice without a foundation, without something in humanity of which it might take hold. Unless the Church find or generate truth, it will not overcome the world; it will sink as in a mire. At the outset a pen of iron and the point of a diamond must be employed to print truth, as on the rock for ever. A blow must be dealt against falsehood, which will vibrate down to the end of time, giving all men to know that the lie which is cherished in the bosom of the world must be cast out from the body of Christ.
From the beginning till now the Christian Church is exposed to two distinct dangers; it is liable to be assailed from without, and to be corrupted from within. It is in danger from open enemies, and from false friends. This spiritual body, like the natural, may be injured either by the stroke of an adversary or by poison mingled with its food.
In the infancy of the Church the hand of the Lord was directly stretched out for its preservation on either side. While the Church was a child the everlasting arms were thrown around it; on one side it was protected from the violence of the persecutor, and on the other from the corrupting effect of falsehood within its own bosom. In the fourth chapter we learn that the Lord interfered to keep the persecutor off; in the fifth, that he interfered to cast the leaven of hypocrisy out. Enemies shall not be permitted to crush the Church by power; falsehood shall not be permitted to poison the springs of her life.
In the beginning, when the system of the world was first set agoing, there were miracles; but miracles do not interpose to carry the system on. At the beginning of Christ’s kingdom in the world miracles came to its aid; but miracles are not needed, and are not employed in its ordinary administration.
That the system of the world is, proves there was once a miracle; that the Church of Christ is, proves that it was established by a miracle. The death of Ananias and Sapphira is the arm of the Lord revealed to deliver the body of the Church in her youth from a consumption which, if not so checked, might have brought her down to an early grave, although no breath of persecution had ever blown upon her. We learn here that the work of God to cast out of the body the poison that would secretly undermine the life is as stupendous as his work to shield the Church from the power of her foes. Danger of dissolution through internal corruption is as great as the danger of destruction by external violence.
The question put to Ananias by Peter is suggestive: “Why hath Satan filled thine heart?” Satan is, and acts. Evil in man is not originally a spontaneous growth. It required, so to speak, two factors — the soil and the seed.
The Church in the Hottse.
The seed was injected by an adversary. An enemy hath done this. The revelation that sin in our race had a definite beginning and an alien author leaves room for the blessed hope which the gospel brings to light, — the hope of ultimate and final deliverance.
But though the suggestion of evil is attributed to Satan, the question is addressed to Ananias. This intimates, that he could have closed the door of his heart against it, if he would. Give not place to the devil; and wanting “place” given by yourself, he has no foothold to strike any blow. The real strength of the defence of Paris against the Germans lay in occupying beforehand all the positions in the neighbourhood from which the city could have been assailed. The Parisians took care, as far as they could, not to give ‘place to their adversary.
Satan filled the heart of Ananias; Barnabas was filled with the Holy Ghost. The human spirit is capacious, and it cannot remain void. It must be filled with good or evil. These two — the Spirit of holiness and the Spirit of evil — cannot dwell together in one room. They cast each other out, like night and day.
As a result of these events, great fear came upon the Church itself, and also upon the surrounding spectators.
Great fear came upon the Church. It is a healthful symptom, a needful discipline. “Lord, is it I?” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
It is of the wicked one that these dark deeds occur, but it is of the Lord that their occurrence is recorded in the Word. It was Christ himself that said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Many centuries after the fact, he directed that it should be kept in memory. These dark monuments have obtained a place in the Word that liveth and abide th for ever, that their warning may be available in all nations and all times.
Fear came also on as many as heard. As a natural consequence we learn that “of the rest durst no man join himself to them.” This, however, does not intimate that subsequently there were few accessions. The opposite is immediately declared. Great multitudes were then and there added to the Lord, and enrolled in the membership of the Church. The meaning is, that those who were not of them dared not pretend to be of them. The stroke of judgment scared the hypocrites: but believers came flowing in like a stream. Believers were “the more” added; that is, the judgment upon the false professors hastened, instead of hindering, conversions. This terror of the Lord effectually persuaded men to take refuge in his mercy.
Believers were added to the Lord. It was not enough that their names were found in the communicants’ roll. Your life, ye living, is hid with Christ in God. The living branch is in the vine, and also interwined with its sister branches. All its life depends on being in the vine; although some portion of its fairness and fruitfulness may depend on its being interlaced in bonds of love with other branches.
And multitudes were added. This is the common experience still. A great number come at one time with a rush; and a period of comparative barrenness supervenes. Again there is a revival, and again a period of coldness. From the beginning, tides have flowed and ebbed in the Church as in the ocean. This phenomenon, springing in the inspired record, observed from time to time throughout the course of ecclesiastical history, and emerging in bold features within the range of our own memory, is fitted to touch our hearts and impart a solemn lesson. Has the tide risen in my time, and carried in many on its wave, and am I left without and behind? Even when the heaving of the spiritual tide in my neighbourhood has ceased, the door is not shut. We are as welcome when we come one by one as when we press in with the crowd. Now is the accepted time: whosoever will, let him come.
“Both men and women.” The inspirer of the Word is the Spirit of wisdom. There was a reason for specifying that the converts were not all of one sex. This feature of the narrative throws out right and left a needful warning. The converts were not exclusively men, for the gospel owns and elevates and enfranchises woman. It is in the Word and Law of her Maker that her claim of equality is secured. It is a bright incidental glory of the gospel that it reinstates woman in her original place, as the adequate and equal companion of man — the necessary complement of his being. Women have cause to love the Lord. They owe to his Divine and discriminating wisdom not only their home in heaven when they are redeemed, but also their rightful place in the society of time.
Nor women exclusively: for when the Word comes in power it makes quick work with that lordly pride in which men wrap themselves, when they select philosophy or politics as their sphere, and leave religion to women. Under this outpouring of the Spirit these high things were brought low, and these crooked things made straight. When the apostles in their first fervour preached Jesus and the resurrection, strong men bent their heads and wept, and cried, What must we do to be saved? Good for these strong men that they yielded, ere it was too late, to the melting power of grace; for what would their strength avail in the day of the Lord?
How the Seed grew.