Acts 4:32-5:14 | Circle of Treason: Satan's Disruption of God's Work

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Well, we're glad you're here, and uh Jason asked me to preach this uh this passage.

It's probably one of the more controversial passages.

Thank you, Jason.

You owe me lunch.

Uh but but it's been a great study.

I I thoroughly enjoyed my time preparing for this passage in Acts 4, 32, and I'm gonna take us all the way to chapter 5, verse 14.

But as an introduction, I want to tell you about this book written by Sandra Grimes, who worked for the CIA.

The acid is a book about a circle of treason within the CIA.

It's actually a factual account of a traitor named Aldrich Ames, Aldric Ames, who worked in one of the most sensitive areas in the CIA called the counter-espionage unit.

This is really a story, a very sad story about treason and earthly treasures.

You see, Ames was a master at deception.

No one ever expected Ames to be leaking information and secrets to the KGB.

He was so good at deception, and he even passed several polygraph examinations with flying colors.

But Ames was considered by many as one of the most damaging counterspies in CIA history.

The story of Eldrick Ames and his circle of treason has a lot in common with our story here of Ananias and his treason within the church.

The title of today's message is Circle of Treason, Satan's Plan to Disrupt God's Work.

So far in the book of Acts, we've learned that when the apostles preached the gospel faithfully, the church expands and grows.

The church has grown and expanded exponentially.

And in one sense, you wonder whatever happened to the words of Jesus when he said back in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

It seems at first year that the gates of Hades are no match for those who are filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

But behold, Jesus did warn that while the gates of Hades shall not overpower the church, that is true, Jesus never said that the gates of Hades will never push back.

Here's the first occurrence of the gates of Hades launching a full-scale attack on the church.

Acts 4.

That's the passage we preached, and the attack would come from outsiders who would persecute the church.

Acts 4.3.

It says they and they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

You see, outsiders from the church persecuted the church.

The gates of Hades will be no match for the power that is operational within the church, because way right back there in verse 4 of chapter 4 it says, but many of those who had heard the word believed.

And the number of the men came to about 5,000.

Satan pushes back, but cannot overpower God's work within the church.

But let me tell you, one thing we will learn in the book of Acts is that Satan is never pleased with church growth.

He is never happy about church unity.

He's never delighted in purity within the church.

These are things that are problematic for him.

And once again, we see the gates of Hades or the gates of hell, as some translations have it, will now attack the church from within.

The attack will come from insiders who will now disrupt the unity and purity within the church.

Beginning in Acts 4.32 and going to verse 13 of chapter 5, I have three lessons prepared for you.

And these lessons will hopefully prepare us when Satan attacks us within, from within.

No church is ever spared of Satan's attack.

But today, so many churches are never attacked by Satan simply because there's nothing to attack.

They are his.

And because he shares with us, we share with others.

And this church was indeed a blessed church to the extent, as Deuteronomy 15, 4 says, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you.

The people of God and the church here were blessed.

They were blessed so that they could bless others.

And they laid verse 35 there, my friends.

Look at verse 35.

They lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as they had needed.

Now this phrase, lay something at the apostles' feet, occurs like three, four times in the passage.

It's a cultural idiom.

It's the idiom speaking of giving up something, surrendering one's right to something for someone else's benefit.

I remember where I attended seminary, uh, most of the seminary families uh lived in dark and dodgy apartment complexes and gang-infested neighborhoods of places like Panorama City.

Everyone was poor living there.

But everyone was generous.

I remember the one day this this family invited us over for lunch, and we go into this apartment complex.

And man, it's it's dodgy.

I mean, it's like, right, Maricky?

Met and uh Tina, they invited us.

They were poor, but they invited tons of people over for lunch.

And we're sitting there having lunch in the apartment, and this kid walks in, he doesn't even knock on the door, goes into the bathroom, I'm like, what's going on?

He walks, comes out, walks out with a bathroom scale underneath these.

I'm like, man, these gangbangers start young.

I mean, they just walk in and they walk out.

And and Tina, our host, said, uh, let me explain.

We're the only people here with a bathroom scale, and so everybody just comes and use it as they need it.

And I thought, wow, that that is New Testament, right?

People always say, we want to be a New Testament church.

Have you heard it?

He was like, Yeah, we we're part of a New Testament church.

We no longer part of a big church, we got a home church now.

We want to be New Testament.

Okay, let's see how that New Testament works out.

Because if you apply that principle that we see here of spirit and power generosity, things might look like this.

You own a snowblower.

Your Christian neighbor does not.

He cannot afford one.

You are never to tell your brother he is free to ask, to use the snowblower whenever he wants to.

No, no, no.

You insist that he never asks, just help himself with the snowblower.

That's what it means.

And this is what's demonstrated here in verse 36.

Look at verse 36.

Thus Joseph, and here Luke is tuning us into that people's names mean something.

And that people could change their names according to how people perceive them.

Now hold on to that thought.

This guy, his name is Joseph, he's from Cyprus, but the apostles call him Barnabas, which is the Aramaic word for son of encouragement, son of upliftment.

He goes and he seals a piece of property, a piece of land, and he and he takes the proceeds and he lays it at the apostles' feet.

He's like, Look, let's do this.

Winter is coming.

There's a lot of people here who can't afford snowblowers.

Why don't we just get give everybody who needs a snowblower a snowblower?

That's really what happened here.

And he just lets it go.

But Luke now, by contrast, introduces us to another man.

His name is Ananias.

And guess what his name means?

God is gracious.

He walks around, people go, oh, he's just the epitome of graciousness.

Look at him.

That long, fluffy gray beard.

He's such a gracious guy.

He is married to Mrs.

Sapphire.

That's really what her name means.

Sapphire, Jewel.

She's a jewel.

Her name is probably something connected with her elegance, her beauty, her opulence.

Acts 5-1.

But what is the butt there for?

That didn't sound right.

But a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira.

Something is happening here.

But it's not the same as Barnabas.

It's different.

And it's problematic for God.

Here we see someone who's acting consistently with their names, and it could have been their nicknames, Mr.

Gracious and Mrs.

Beauty.

Like Barnabas, they too sold a piece of land and they laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet, and everybody went, oh.

So sh so generous.

Wow.

Look at her.

Look at her beauty.

That Rolex just matches it again.

I mean, it just these people are just so amazing.

But Luke introduces them with what is called a contrast and conjunction.

That means appearances can be deceiving.

Barnabas was obviously motivated by the Holy Spirit to encourage others.

But Ananias was motivated by Satan to edify himself.

Did you know that the name of Barnabas features twenty-five more times in the New Testament?

After this point, you'll hear of Barnabas twenty-five times.

You know how many times you would hear of Ananias?

You'll be done.

Verse 2.

Ananias with his wife, his wife's full knowledge and agreement, kept back some of the proceeds of this property, and they brought only a portion of the proceeds to the apostles.

They cut back some.

You know, maybe the property they sold, they didn't make quite the money that they hoped to.

Like, well, honey, you know, we we we sold this little property there at the side of Lake Galilee, and you know, we only made 40% gains here on our investment.

How about we keep some of it back to make up for the losses?

And she's like, Ananias, that's why I married you.

And before the eyes of the church, everybody is fooled, everybody thinks the sale of the property laid at the apostles' feet is such a wonderful act of grace and beauty.

But one thing, Ananias did not contend for.

But God sees the heart.

God knows exactly.

That's why 1 Corinthians 4 5, Paul says that don't you be quick to praise somebody or judge somebody because you do not really know what's in the heart.

But there's coming a day when God will unveil the motivations.

So what is God going to do one day?

He's whatever act of generosity and goodness you and I did, my friends, God will tell one day show everybody the motivations why you did that.

That's his frightening thought.

But you see, the more frightening thought is that Satan filled the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit.

Just as he did with Judas, he filled the heart of Judas to betray Jesus, Luke 22 3.

Both Judas and Ananias had one common passion property and possessions, Luke 22 5.

They loved money.

Verse 3.

But Peter said.

Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

You could have done whatever you wanted with that money, Ananias.

But what you were doing was pretending to be what you thought we won't see.

Very interesting.

Luke is using the same verb there in verse 3.

Satan filled.

The same verb is in Acts 431, filled by the Holy Spirit.

One man is filled by the Holy Spirit, and one man is filled by Satan.

The man filled with the Holy Spirit, Barnabas, he was an instrument of encouragement.

But Ananias was an instrument in the service of Satan, as Paul points out in 2 Timothy 2.26, that there are some people in churches who are trapped in the snare of the devil, and they become an instrument in his hands to do his will.

2 Timothy 2.26.

You see, Ananias would become somewhat of an Eldric Ames, an instrument in the hands of that which is diabolical.

Ananias, an instrument in the hands of Satan, Eldric Ames, an instrument in the hands of the KGB.

And both men had a great way of pretending and being good hypocrites.

Outwardly, Ananias, his name means God is gracious, and everybody's like, see, I told you Ananias is such a gracious, magnanimous giver.

He's so full of grace.

But lo and behold, he's enlisted into the Satan's Secret Service.

Acts 5.4.

And Peter said to him, Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

This is very methodical, very thought through.

And he says, You have not lied to man but to God.

My mother used to say, if you can lie, you can steal.

But what if you think you can lie to God?

What are you capable of doing next?

You see, there are many people like Achan and Joshua 7, who took some stuff that was devoted to God, and he took it and he thought, you know, I will fool Joshua and everybody else.

And you know what?

Who's not gonna see?

God's not gonna see, but Joshua 7 1 says, and the anger of the Lord burned.

Similarly, the anger of the Lord burned against Ananias, who thought he could fool both men and an omniscient God.

Thomas Constable makes a very stunning observation at this point.

He says, when Christians act hypocritically by pretending a devotion that is not theirs, or a surrender of life that they have not really made, they lie to the Holy Spirit.

That's powerful.

Let me read it again.

When Christians act hypocritical by pretending a devotion that is not theirs, or a surrender of life they have not really made, they lie to the Holy Spirit.

You see, what you were what Ananias was doing was very dangerous.

He was trying to imitate what the Holy Spirit was doing in Barnabas.

He was an imitator.

Next comes his wife, Sapphira.

And all her opulent femininity, three hours later, this jewel of a woman comes to the apostles.

Maybe to get like a little thank you note.

I don't know.

A little note, ah, thank you for being so generous.

But looks can be deceitful.

Sapphira would prove that she's not a jewel.

She is not the epitome of opulent femininity and beauty.

She was nothing but a whitewashed tomb, which on the outside appeared very beautiful, but in the inside she was full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

Matthew 23, 27.

Some would say Sapphira was a victim here.

Her husband came up with the plan, but no, no, no.

The Bible is very clear.

She is co-conspirator.

Look at verse 9.

This is this is cool.

Verse 9.

But Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit?

That phrase, agree together, you know we get the English word symphony from it.

And what does a symphony do?

A symphony are different instruments playing together in harmony.

Is that a good definition, Webb?

I mean, I'm no musical guy.

But you know, there's something here about Ananias playing the flute of deception and Sapphire playing the harp of hypocrisy, and together they play a symphony which they entitled, Let's Test the Lord, Opus 1 in C minor.

Now you may ask, what does it mean to test the Lord?

What does it mean to test the Lord?

I was kind of scratching my head.

What does it mean?

Well, number one, testing the Lord was Israel's ultimate sin, Hebrews 3.8.

The ultimate sin of Israel was testing the Lord in the wilderness.

The testing of the Spirit or the testing of the Lord would be the ultimate sin for this husband-wife duo.

In one sense, I Howard Marshall says that tasting the Lord means the culprit knows God's word, but deliberately disobeys it to see if God is really serious or not.

It's like testing the water to see if God will react and do what he says he would do.

That's what it means to test the Lord.

You know something to be right.

You do the opposite, and you're like, ah, God gave me a pass on that.

Let's do it again.

Let's do it again.

Let's do it again.

In another sense, the testing of the Lord means one keeps on sinning so that God's grace may abound.

Romans 6, 1.

You know, this is like, well, God is gracious, I'm gonna just do it again.

God is gracious, I'm gonna just do it again.

I'm keep on playing the hypocrite here because God is gracious.

And maybe that was the thing with Ananias and Sapphira.

They're like, well, that worked.

The apostles didn't see it, and guess what?

God neither.

And if God saw it, he's such a gracious God.

He's giving me a pass on that.

But let me remind you of the words for those of you who think today you can test the boundaries of God's grace.

Let me tell you, you are dabbling with your life just like Ananias dabbled with his life.

You are dabbling with eternal life.

Job 13, 16 says, This also shall be my salvation that a hypocrite cannot come before him.

No hypocrite, says Job, will see the face of God.

Hebrews 3.11 says, As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Ananias drops dead, Sapphira drops dead, three hours apart, now they are playing a perfect symphony in the grave underground.

As to whether Ananias and Sapphire entered God's rest, I don't think anyone can say for sure whether they were Christians or not.

The Bible just doesn't go there, my friend, and I think you and I should not go there either.

Do you want to dabble whether you will enter God's rest or not?

If you are consistently testing the boundaries of God's grace, it might turn out the way that God said it will turn out for Israel.

Hebrews 3.11.

As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

All we know for sure is that Barnabas was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, and his fruits proved it.

It proves it all through the New Testament 25 times.

Despite persecution, Barnabas keeps going and he produces good fruit.

Ananias, on the other side, he was a man filled with Satan and he bears no fruit.

He bears no fruit.

You see, God's word fell on the soil of Barnabas' heart and it produced a harvest a hundredfold.

The fruit was there.

But my friends, God's word also fell on the heart of Ananias and Sapphire.

But it got quickly overgrown with thorns and thistles.

You see, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for lots of possessions, those things choked out the word and the field was unfruitful.

You can go read Mark 420, the parable of the soil.

We must admit the adversary of the church, Satan, is a clever adversary.

He's smart.

You see, if he doesn't succeed as a devouring lion, he will succeed as a deceiving spirit or a deceiving serpent.

He parades himself as what?

An angel of light.

But it would not be long, be long before Christ will continue building his church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

But if Ananias and Sapphira's deception and hypocrisy went unchecked, it would have ended up eroding the unity and the purity in the church, which is paramount to God.

Purity is paramount to God.

Remember what I said.

If you can lie, you can steal.

If you think you can lie to God, imagine what you can do without any blink of an eye or second thought.

And look at what happens after Ananias and Sapphira drops dead.

Acts 5.11.

And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things.

I think it's about three or four three times in the passage that it speaks about this overwhelming fear.

The Greek word is phobos, so don't let anyone tell you, well, it was just this reverence.

It was reverence, but phobos means phobia, fear, scared.

I'm legitimately scared of going to church.

Why?

What did you see?

What happened?

I mean, they went to the offering plate, bam, they fell dead.

And the wife comes with all her curly hair and gold Rolex watch.

If you have a Rolex, no judgment.

Maybe a little judgment.

You should have bought something else.

Acts 5.11, and great fear came upon the whole church.

In Deuteronomy 13, 5, God says to Israel, purge out the evil one from your midst.

That's what God did.

First Corinthians 5 13, Paul says to the church in Corinth, purge the evil person from among you.

Why?

Why do why does God say to Israel and God say to Paul, Persia, the evil person from among you?

Well, it's going to be harmful to the testimony of the church if you don't.

You know what's the word's the world's first response if you want to talk about religion?

You should say, hey, you should come to church on Sunday.

We're having a potluck at church.

And they would say to you, No, I don't want to come.

Because the church is full of hypocrites.

Then you should say, Well, we can do with another one.

You see, hypocrisy in the church damages the witness of the church to such an extent that the church will stop thriving.

And this one commentator, John Pole Hill, says the church can only thrive as the people of God if it lives within the total trust of all its members.

You see, where there's hypocrisy, trust is eroded.

He says, where there is that unity of trust, that oneness of heart and mind, the church will flourish in the power of the Spirit of God.

But he says, where there is duplicity and distrust, the witness will soon fail.

There's so many little churches and little towns all over this country where people of the community just had it with the church.

They just had it.

Aldrich Ames created a climate of distrust in the CIA.

And likewise in the church, hypocrites will often erode the trust and the unity and the purity in the church.

The church will become a revolving door.

People will come and go all the time because it doesn't take long to spot the hypocrisy.

And frankly, no one likes duplicity.

But God purchased this early church of duplicity and distrust, and its witness continued.

Verse 13.

We see there that the people admired the church.

The outsiders admired the church, but they were like, I've got to think twice before I walk into church today.

None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

What?

In the church's infancy, God made it plain that hypocrisy and deception was not going to be tolerated.

God's judgment of Ananias and Sapphira helped guard the church's reputation and its witness.

In one sense, God laid the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira in the path of every hypocrite who would seek to enter the church.

Welcome.

We're having a revival meeting here.

Yeah, yeah, that's that guy dropped there.

Just step over him.

I mean, it's literally in the people's minds.

No one dare join them, but they held the people in high regard.

As one author said, if the church would raise its standard to the New Testament standard, it would stop the rush of superficial disciples into the church and actually win the respect of outsiders.

He says, now there is ridicule where there once upon a time was respect.

Christians, Christianity and the church at this point, was highly respected in the community.

People's like, whoa, those Christians, they're amazing people.

They are so so kind and generous and loving and caring.

They so sincere.

They the real deal.

But you know, I'm gonna wait a little before I rush to church because, you know, Mr.

Gracious and Mrs.

Jewel, she dropped dead.

My friends, where are the days when the church was highly regarded in the public eye?

Where are those days?

Chuck Swindle tells a story about a time that he wanted to buy a washer and dryer at a local Mon Pop appliance store.

And the guy wrote down he applied for credit, I can't remember exactly the details.

And they and he says, occupation, pastor.

And he goes, the store owner goes, oh, one of those.

Nope.

I'm gonna give you credit.

You Christians are all the same, you nickel and dime everybody.

There once was respect where there now is only ridicule upon the church, and to blame is what?

Hypocrisy.

Where are the days when you said, I'm a Christian, and people actually thought, that's pretty amazing?

Oh, you're a Christian.

Okay.

Yeah, you don't need to sign your will, just do a handshake deal here.

Where are the days when contractors love to bot for church contracts because they knew the church will pay them fair wage?

They will not be nickel and dime nowadays.

People are like, yeah, nope, I'm not gonna bet for the church's contract.

You know, I'm not gonna replace the whatever.

Why?

There are too many superficial disciples in the church.

The church are filled with people who do things under false pretenses, and they think they have everyone fooled.

God sees, and it's only a matter of time that other people will see.

And that's why there is only ridicule where there once upon a time was respect.

But praise God, here in Acts, the story ends happily.

Maybe not happily ever after, but at least it ends on a high note, verse 14.

And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number.

Despite the fact that people were a little kind of like cautious, a little fearful.

People are like, I want to do this Christian thing.

Because it's the right thing to do.

It's good.

God added numbers to The church, men and women, multitudes of them, and they were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for their sins and rose from the dead for their justification.

My friend, if you have not made those words who you were, you will not enter God's rest.

The church was purified of hypocrisy.

The CIA also needed to be purged of hypocrisy in order to get back on mission.

Sandy Grimes was nearing retirement, and the traitor was not found.

And then one good morning she walks into the office there at Langley and she says, Let's look at the finances of Aldrich Ames.

Let's just check how his money business looks like.

And there a Pandora's box would be opened up, and it would be the coffin.

The nail in the coffin.

What she discovered was that Aldrich Ames made sixty thousand dollars a year back then, but he owned a property that was six hundred thousand dollars.

And guess what?

He paid for it in cash.

They found five Rolex watches in his house.

He earned sixty thousand.

He spent, on average, six hundred thousand a year.

How can he do it?

And who says hypocrisy doesn't pay?

Ames received a total of 4.6 million dollars from the KGB.

To do what?

Play the hypocrite and work for the KGB by selling secrets.

He pretended to be what everyone pretended not to see.

That's in one sense the definition of a hypocrite.

Pretending to be what everyone pretends not to see.

Ames was eventually arrested in 1994 on the charges of high treason.

He immediately pleaded guilty.

It was over in a few minutes.

Well, not a few minutes, but it was over quickly.

And he was sent to prison in life.

He's in the prison in Indiana.

He's like 84 years old.

And after the Ames affair, Congress finally made a push for the reinstatement of the death penalty for foreign espionage.

I think that's a good thing, right?

Death penalty for the re uh the death penalty for a traitor.

That used to be the thing.

One author says if the death penalty for hypocrisy in the church was reinstated, maybe the most flourishing business would be funeral undertaking.

But nevertheless, God is gracious.

We can come to his throne, repent of hypocrisy.

My friend, let me just put something straight here, which I learned from R.C.

Sproul.

He says you can't be a hypocrite and expect to see the face of God.

You cannot be a hypocrite and expect to enter God's rest.

But we're all guilty of the sin of hypocrisy.

We're all guilty of the sin of hypocrisy.

There's something different.

There's a difference between being a hypocrite and the sin of hypocrisy.

The sin of hypocrisy has to be taken to the throne of grace.

Repent of that, and let God renew you.

Let's ask God to help us in this amazing thing of maintaining the unity and the purity within the church.

I pray God that we will work hard for unity in the church.

But we will do it in a peaceful way.

That we will insist on unity and purity.

Help us to be clean vessels, as you say in 2 Timothy 2 22, that the vessels that are clean are useful for the Master's use.

Lach one of us be an instrument, a witness, a testimony simply because we speak the gospel and we live the gospel.

We preach what we love and we love what we preach.

May it be true of everyone here.

May we confess our sins.

May we confess our sins of hypocrisy.

Purify your church.

Knit us together in unity in the bond of love in your spirit.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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