Fear of God

Good morning.

So for those of you who don't know me, I'm Bernard.

I'm one of the members here at Watermark.

And thank you, Christina, and thank you, Betty, for reading.

It was more uplifting than the Tim Burton edition of what we saw.

If you've been with us for the last few weeks,

you would know we're going through the Book of Acts.

And one of the things that we've been tracking is the growth of the early church in the Book of Acts.

And what we've seen in the first four chapters is really the church growing and growing and growing.

And then in chapter four from last week, what we saw was a threat.

With the growth of the church, there was also some opposition.

But one of the key things behind the entire growth of the church

was we were introduced to the Holy Spirit.

And to be honest, I had a bit of a struggle myself trying to understand the Holy Spirit.

What's the role?

Okay?

I mean, we know, you know, we kind of know God's role in creation

and kind of put everything in place.

And we know Christ's role to become man and to die on the cross.

But why do we need the Holy Spirit?

What's with the third leg?

You know?

So one of the things, and it's key to understand the Holy Spirit as we go through Acts.

And one of the things that helped me was J.I. Packer is a British-Canadian theologian.

And he explained it this way.

And he called it, what he explained is the floodlight ministry.

So floodlights, you know, the lights that kind of light up buildings.

So this is what he wrote.

I remember walking to a church one evening, one winter evening,

to preach on the words, He shall glorify me.

Seeing the building floodlit as I turn the corner and realizing,

this is exactly the illustration I needed for my message.

When floodlighting is well done,

the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them.

You're not, in fact, supposed to see where the light is coming from.

What you're meant to see is the building on which the floodlight is trained.

The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not have been seen for darkness

or to maximize the dignity by throwing all of its detail into relief

so that you can see it properly.

This perfectly illustrates the Spirit's new covenant role.

He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight for our Savior.

So let us just start with a prayer.

Lord, we just ask you, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would just come amongst us this morning.

It would shine a light on this message from Acts 4 and 5

on the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

And Lord, we just ask you that you'd be able to show us

what you want us to take away today.

So last week, if you remember, Chris gave a really quite good summary

of the first seven chapters of Acts.

Basically, what he said is, chapter 1 to 4, we saw, chapter 1 to 3, we saw the early church growing.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

You see things like there was 1,000 new converts.

There was 3,000 new converts.

And then chapter 3, there was 5,000 new converts.

So basically, it's just growing in the thousands, okay?

Now, chapter 4 last week, you saw was an introduction of some opposition.

Where there's growth, often there's opposition.

And what chapter 4 to 7 tells us is really Luke, the author of Acts,

warning us about the oppositions that the early church faced.

And the reason he told us about this is because we are going to face similar oppositions

as the church grows, as we go into ministry and as you spread the gospel.

So what we saw is initially in chapter 4, the threat was external to the church.

They were kind of the high priests and the establishment and the high priest's family

and basically the Jewish authorities that didn't like seeing this new fledgling faith coming aboard

and then actually people leaving them to go to become Christians.

Now, what we see in chapter 5 is something quite different.

So maybe we can go to the next slide, the table of content.

Maybe I should move over here a little bit.

What we see here in chapter 5 is, so what I want to go through today is in four sections.

One is the sharing community.

We just want to start and explain it at the end of chapter 4 what that looks like.

And then the second is the threat from within.

And then I'm going to talk about the sin beneath our sins and then the ultimate Barnabas.

So let's move straight into the sharing community.

What we see in that latter half of chapter 4 is a new radical community.

You heard Marissa talking about one of the things that she appreciated most about Watermark

was the community that we emphasize on.

So what we saw was a young, faithful community that lived out its faith in a very authentic way.

And what it did was it shared a lot of things.

Now, when you originally read this passage and you say, well, you know, people sold fields and gave to the poor,

the first thing that came into mind is, is this like communism, right?

I mean, it's kind of like, sounds like something Lenin and Marx kind of thought up, right?

Actually, if you just read a little bit into it, it is not, okay?

And I want to just explain that because some people just have this misconception.

Firstly, the people who sold the properties and the land and gave, they did it by choice, okay?

If you read your communist history, there's not a lot of choice involved, okay?

So generally, what happens in a communist state is the state owns everything, okay?

They, you don't, there's no private property, okay?

The state owns everything and then you work a job and you get a salary, okay?

What we see here in Acts is people still own properties, okay?

And people still own private, so private property was still very relevant,

but people gave and sold property voluntarily, okay?

And then we actually saw a little bit later on that it talks about an individual's name is Barnabas

and it kind of uplifts Barnabas as their example.

Now, you wouldn't put somebody up as an example unless they did something voluntarily, right?

I mean, you wouldn't say, well, here's a good example, I've confiscated your land.

Well, that's not an example, okay?

The fact here is in the early church, people voluntarily sold property to cover the needs for the poor.

So what they actually did is they truly owned their possessions and their possessions didn't own them, okay?

So what I want to talk a little bit about is how does this community work?

And I just put a few bullet points there.

A couple of things that in the later half of chapter 4 it talks about,

the community was devoted to Scripture.

It came together and studied the Scripture together.

It was devoted to fellowship, okay?

They met together, not just on the night that their CG met,

they met together throughout the week.

They broke bread together, they ate together,

they also shared communion together,

and then they prayed together.

And I think that's a critical point that we continue to hear, emphasize again and again.

And then they were generous with one another.

But that generosity was really just an outliving of how the Holy Spirit was changing them, okay?

So this is exactly the model we're trying to create within Watermark in the community group.

So if you kind of think, well, where did Watermark get the idea of the community group from?

It's right here in Acts 4, okay?

So this is exactly the model.

And you say, well, that's fine,

and probably in the first century Palestine everything was like that.

You know, this is Hong Kong 2017.

It's different.

We have a complex environment.

Things are harder now than it was in the first century in Jerusalem.

Not really.

And firstly, this sharing community was radical in the first century Palestine.

We know that because when the Romans first tried to basically squash the Christian faith,

we have actually a letter from the Emperor Julian, okay, who was the last Roman Emperor,

stating his frustration.

And this is what he wrote to his governors.

Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of those Christians as their charity to strangers.

Those Galileans provided not only for their own poor, but they provided for ours as well.

So one of the things that helped spread the Christian faith was really the generosity,

how they were able to share.

And this was so shocking to the Roman Empire.

So, you know, you may think, well, okay, once again, thanks, Bernard,

and thanks for the history lesson.

But, you know, we live in Hong Kong.

2017, it can't happen.

This is not a realistic thing.

I want to share with you just a little experience both Angie and I had recently in our own community group.

So a little bit of a shout-out to Breaking Bread community group.

So about a month ago, just kind of just before the Easter break,

we wanted to, we as a family, wanted to take our younger two children for a holiday in Taiwan.

We had one small problem, and our oldest daughter, Abigail, was studying for exams,

and therefore we couldn't leave her at home by herself because there would be no study happening otherwise.

So, anyway, so we said, okay, we've got a bit of a problem.

We can't go away, yet, so what can we do?

So we sent a WhatsApp out to our community group, and we said, look, we have this problem.

We want to go away.

We want to give Abigail some time to study.

Can anybody help out?

I swear, within an hour, this other chat starts up.

Okay, you know there's activity with millennials when a new chat group gets formed.

Okay, and within an hour, they had devised a schedule of different people who will be staying at our place with Abby,

looking after her, and ensuring she studies.

But, and this was a work week.

This was not the holiday week.

This was the work week before Easter, okay?

So, you know, I know we talk about giving, and we immediately think it's financial, it's money.

But you know what?

One thing that we all have the same amount of is time.

And this was just a really touching thing.

And I just want to give a shout out to our community group that they were able to just come together,

and they were able to share, give up, rearrange their work schedules,

so that they were able to come up and be with Abby, and we were able to go to Taiwan.

So, let's move to Chapter 5, our couple, Ananias and Zephira.

I don't know why in Tim Burton-type cartoons, evil people always dress in pinstripes, if you ever noticed.

Dark grey pinstripes, so never wear pinstripes.

So, one of the things, what we've seen up until now, as I said,

the threat to the Christian community was from the outside.

High priests, and there was the authority, Jewish authorities, and so forth.

What we see here is something quite different.

And Ananias and Zephira, Luke wanted to warn us that threats to the Christian community

is not just going to come from the outside, but actually the greatest threat are from the inside.

Okay?

And this was the first time we've seen this.

And I don't know about you, if you've been in churches for a little bit,

could be in Hong Kong, could be in Canada, could be in Australia,

it doesn't matter where it is.

You kind of know, one of the deep, kind of, not-so-secret secrets is internal church politics

is kind of ugly.

Okay?

Somebody once said, there are only two things you never want to see.

One is how sausage is made.

The other is how a church operates.

Okay?

And there's some truth to that, right?

Because it's kind of, sometimes you see the ugliest things that happen within internal church conflicts.

And what Luke is trying to tell us here is,

be careful.

There's threats within a church.

Okay?

Now, just to give you an example, one of the common things is,

I would say, C.S. Lewis kind of warned us in Screwtape Letters,

he said, one of the things that the enemy or the devil will always want to do

is make you dissatisfied with something at church.

Okay?

So if you read Screwtape Letters, this is what he said.

He kind of said, after you start going to church,

and then at some point you say, maybe I don't like the song,

I don't like the worship music,

or I don't like the sermon.

Okay?

So, I don't like the sermon.

Not this one.

I just don't like the sermon.

In general.

You know, how they preach, I don't like it.

I don't like the style.

I don't like the kids program.

Okay?

So what the enemy wants to do is make you into a discerning consumer within the church.

Okay?

If you look at the book of Acts,

you don't see a discerning consumer within that community.

Okay?

You see a community of people that are looking to find ways to serve one another.

Okay?

Now, with Ananias and Sapphira, another threat,

another internal threat is happening.

So, let me just recap the story.

You saw that they sold a field, okay,

and they took some money.

They took the money to the apostles,

but they didn't take all of the money.

They took some of the money,

and they kind of kept some themselves.

So, what was the problem?

Peter, obviously,

had a session with them to say,

Ananias,

separately,

Ananias,

why have you done this?

So, what was the thing that they're being judged on?

Okay?

Now, firstly,

I do want to kind of touch up on this point.

We are not very comfortable with judgment.

In 2017,

we don't like the God of judgment

or the God of anger.

Okay?

We think the God of judgment,

the God of anger,

kind of belongs in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament,

in our time,

2017,

we like the God of love,

the God of compassion,

a very progressive God,

of God of forgiveness.

We kind of like that.

And we have this misconception a little bit

that judgment and anger

is the opposite of love.

I just want to clear up that point.

Judgment and anger

is not the opposite of love.

Hate is the opposite of love.

And the ultimate form of hate

is indifference.

Okay?

So, judgment and anger

is not the opposite of love.

Hate is the opposite of love.

And the ultimate form of hate

is indifference.

Let me just give an example.

Just think about somebody you love.

Okay?

Could be your spouse.

Could be your children,

and if you have children.

It could be a really good friend.

And think for a moment

that there's some bad influences

is ruining his or her life.

Okay?

So, maybe a bad crowd,

maybe some bad friends.

I just...

just leading them astray

down the wrong path.

Okay?

Now,

are you going to say,

well, I'm not going to make judgment.

You know,

you know,

my best friend

is hanging out with the wrong crowd

and just going off the rails,

but I don't want to make judgment.

Okay?

The fact here is

you're not going to say that.

You're going to make a judgment,

and then

you may get angry.

In fact,

you should get angry

if

something bad

is ripping

a loved one's

life apart.

Okay?

So,

the fact here is,

in fact,

if you don't get angry

and you don't make any judgment,

there's probably

a good

grounds

to question,

do you actually love that person?

Right?

Does that make sense?

You know,

do you actually love that person?

You have to make a judgment,

and you have to get angry

if something bad is happening.

This is exactly

what God was doing

in this passage.

Okay?

God saw

the early church

was being threatened

by a very serious threat

in the form of

Ananias and Sapphira.

Okay?

In fact,

you know,

he would call it

a clear and present danger

to the early church,

and God acted

to eliminate

that threat,

and he also

wanted to warn

the future generation

like us

that this threat

could also ruin

your community,

Now,

what was

the threat?

Okay?

In the first reading

of the story

of Ananias and Sapphira,

you may think,

well,

it's greed.

You know,

it's greed.

They kind of,

you know,

they wanted to give some,

but they didn't want to give.

And I would firstly argue,

I don't think it's greed.

Okay?

They,

firstly remember,

the giving was voluntary.

If they were really greedy

for money,

they didn't have to give any,

but they actually did

give some money.

Okay?

So,

I would argue,

I don't think it's the greed

of money.

It may be greed

for something else.

I'll come back to that.

Okay?

So,

this,

what Peter actually told us

in,

in,

um,

chapter five,

verse four,

is,

you lied not to man,

but you lied to God.

So,

there was clearly

an integrity issue.

Okay?

So,

it was an integrity issue.

So,

the word integrity

came from a Latin root word,

integer.

Okay?

Those of you who are math majors

or science majors,

you know what an integer is.

Integer is a whole number.

In fact,

those of you who got through

grade five math

should also know

what an integer is,

because if you don't,

that,

there's a slight problem.

Anyway,

an integer is a whole number

versus a fraction.

Okay?

So,

what does integrity mean?

Integrity mean

there's a wholeness.

Okay?

The external

is in line

with your internal.

So,

there's wholeness.

It's not a fraction.

Okay?

There's no fracturing.

There's no disintegration.

There's a consistency.

Okay?

That's what integrity means.

Now,

in Ananias and Sapphira,

when they died

and it was disturbing

and,

you know,

even the cartoon

was a little scary,

when they died,

when Peter questioned them,

what we are actually seeing

is the external reflection

of what's already happened

to them internally.

It's the external reflection

of what's actually happened

to them internally.

There's been fracturing

internally.

And what God is showing us

is

when they died,

there was an external disintegration

of themselves,

but it had already happened

within them.

And what Luke,

the author of Acts,

wanted to warn us against

is

be careful.

There's great danger

in nurturing sin

in our hearts.

Okay?

Now,

that's something

that we're also

not comfortable with

in 2017.

Sin is a virus.

I know there are lots

of medical professionals

within here.

Okay?

And you know,

a virus doesn't stay dormant.

It may take some time,

but it doesn't stay passive.

At a point in time,

the virus will break out

and it will consume you.

Okay?

I think C.S. Lewis

puts it best.

And you heard it

in the little cartoon

that

Anunnites and Sapphira

was unhappy

that Barnabas

got all the recognition

and they were grumbling.

Okay?

And they're brewing about it.

And this is how

C.S. Lewis put it.

Hell

begins with a grumbling mood.

Always complaining.

Always blaming others.

But you are still

distinct from it.

You may not even,

you may even

criticize it in yourself

and wish you could stop it.

But there will come a day

when you can no longer.

Then there will not,

there will be no you left

to criticize the mood

or even to enjoy it,

but just to grumble itself

going on forever

like a machine.

This is not a question

of God sending us to hell.

In each of us,

there is something growing

which will be hell

unless it is nipped

in the bud.

Okay?

In each of us,

there is something growing

which will be hell

unless it is nipped

in the bud.

Okay?

So,

what we see

in the story

of Ananias and Sapphira

is

this sin

is harboring

within each of us.

Okay?

And we've got to be careful.

We don't go and nurture

that sin.

I don't know how many of you

and I've certainly been guilty.

Somebody's wronged me

or somebody's said something.

I've kind of nurtured

that grudge.

Okay?

Just kind of fed it

over time.

And you know what?

It just grows bigger

and bigger

and bigger

until it consumes us.

And Luke wanted

to share with us

this is serious business.

This is cancer.

This is not just

some little petty thing.

If you don't deal

with those sins

in our hearts,

it will consume us.

Okay?

So,

now,

we have a bit

of a problem

with Ananias and Sapphira

because

we said

it wasn't greed

but it was

an integrity issue

but

there's a bit

of Ananias and Sapphira

in each of us.

Okay?

Now,

there's something

a little bit deeper.

What is behind

the integrity issue?

Is it just lying,

lying,

you know,

lie, lie,

pants on fire?

No.

It's not just

a lying issue.

It's not just

an integrity issue.

Something drove them

to lie.

What do you think

drove them

to lie?

And this is

something I think

we need to take away

from the passage

because I think

within each of us

there's that

desire

to lie

like Ananias and Sapphira.

Why did they lie?

They wanted the respect

of the community

that

they were in.

They saw Barnabas

was well respected,

you know,

kind of thrown into the air

and celebrated

and they wanted

that respect.

Basically,

what

the root

of why

they lied

was

they saw

that Christ,

what Christ

did for them

was not enough.

They needed

something else.

They needed

something else

other than

Christ's salvation.

They needed

the respect

of the group

that they were in.

Chris put it

in a really

powerful way

last week

and he said

we want

to be important

in the eyes

of those

who are important.

Okay?

So we all

want that.

We all

desire that

and you know,

I think nobody

put it better

than

a famous

20th century

American playwright

Arthur Miller

once said

in his play

After the Fall

his character

was kind of

having a tough time

and he said

for many years

I looked at life

like a case

at law.

It was a series

of proofs.

When you're young

you want to prove

how brave you are

or how smart

what a good

lover

then a good

father

finally

how wise

and powerful.

So

we all want

to feel

we're good enough

and Ananias

and Sophia

also wanted

to feel

they were good

enough

and they were

willing to go

and sell the land

and lied about it

to try to

gather the

recognition

of the group

that they were

part of

part of the

early church.

Now in

2017

in Hong Kong

what does that

look like?

You know what?

We strive for

financial success

so that

we may

have enough

money

make us feel

better about

ourselves.

We strive

to nurture

our talents

so we can be

adored.

We strive

to get our

life in

control

so we

can be in

control of

our lives.

We strive

to be

strong

so that

when tough

things and

challenges

come to us

we know

how to deal

with it.

Now C.S.

Lewis is

probably one

of the best

known theologians

and philosophers

that came out

of England

but there's

one other

that I

greatly

respect

and it's

a group

of philosophers

named

that you

may know

of

called

Coldplay.

So

Chris

Martin

my favorite

Coldplay

song

is

something

just like

this.

Some of

you may

know it

some of

you may

not.

I want

to sing

it but

I will

spare you

from it.

But

the opening

lines of

what Chris

Martin wrote

in the

Coldplay

song is

I've been

reading books

of old

the legends

and the myths

Achilles

and his gold

Hercules

and his gifts

Spider-Man's

control

and Batman

with his fists

and clearly

I don't

see myself

up on

that list.

Now

at one

level

it's

about a

young man

trying to

ask

and to

date this

girl

and he

feels like

he doesn't

have any

of the

qualities

the girl

is looking

for.

Okay

he's not

rich

he doesn't

have Achilles

gold

he is not

talented

he hasn't

got the

gifts of

Hercules

he's not

in control

of his

life

you know

like

Spider-Man

and he's

not strong

like Batman

but as you

go down

to that

list

you look

at Achilles

and his

goal

okay

we all

desire

to be

adored

in wealth

Hercules

and his

gift

we desire

to be

talented

Spider-Man's

control

look

we all

know

Peter Parker

has got

control

issues

but

so have

we

and Batman

and his

fists

we all

want to

be strong

so we

can face

anything

that comes

before us

and

the final

line there

is

and clearly

I don't

see myself

up on

that list

I think

those are

the same

words

Arthur Miller

used

you know

I don't

measure up

all these

things that

I feel

like I have

to be

to be

okay

to be

justified

but I

don't

measure up

so

I don't

know about

you

I know

Chris Martin

is describing

me

okay

but

if you

get a

chance

you know

jump on

Spotify

later on

and have

listeners

watch the

video on

YouTube

because it

comes through

quite clearly

what he's

trying to

describe

so

just to

wrap up

now

on this

on what

we want to

talk about

today

what we

saw

was

Barnabas

was put

as an

example

of how

we should

be

of how

we should

sacrifice

our

lives

our

possessions

and

our

time

for

others

and

Ananias

and

Sapphira

the

warning

of how

we shouldn't

be and we

should look

out for

it

but

what

made

what

gave

Barnabas

the power

to put

aside

his own

needs

his own

insecurities

his own

fears

and be

able to

sell the

land

and give

to those

that are

in need

well

two months

prior to

this

incident

on a

hill

on Calvary

Christ

died

Christ

who was

supposed to

be the

ultimate

superhero

to free

the Jewish

people

from the

Roman

occupation

he died

on a

cross

he was

crucified

but three

days

later

he rose

again

and

after that

for 40

days

up until

the

Pentecost

he was

with

the

disciples

he was

with

this

early

church

community

teaching

this

early

church

community

why

he

had

to

die

you

know

Christ

was

meant

to be

the

ultimate

superhero

but

if you

look at

the

superheroes

we

know

of

like

Achilles

Hercules

Spider-Man

Batman

what do

you see

in common

okay

what you

see in

common

is

their

superhero

or their

superpowers

made them

invincible

right

Hercules

you probably

have a picture

of Brad Pitt

right now

from Troy

but they

were invincible

the reason

they were

invincible

is because

they were

superheroes

okay

but what

we saw

in Christ

was a

very

different

kind

of

superhero

okay

he

wasn't

invincible

in fact

he

became

man

so he

was

vulnerable

so he

was

killable

why

did he

have to

do

that

because

if he

came in

strength

to deal

with sin

we would

have to

die

because

the sin

is within

us

we

are the

perpetrator

of the

sin

and if

he came

in strength

we would

not be

able to

survive

the reason

why he

had to

be

killable

is because

his

superhero

act

was to

swap

places

with us

to

substitute

for our

to carry

our sins

and

Barnabas

understood

that

Barnabas

saw that

and what

Barnabas

was able

to do

is he

saw

every day

what Christ

did for

him on

the cross

how Christ

substituted

for his

place

on the

cross

and little

by little

he was

able to

sacrifice

he was

able to

sacrifice

by selling

his land

he was

able to

sacrifice

by really

giving up

his career

and following

Paul

to take

the gospel

into the

new world

in fact

ultimately

it's not

in the

Bible

but the

historians

believe

Barnabas

was martyred

at the

end of

his life

following

Christ

his superhero

into

the ultimate

sacrifice

so

how do

we do

that

how do

we

become

a follower

in Barnabas

footstep

I think

the key

here is

do we

take time

in our

community

do we

take time

ourselves

to look

up on

that cross

and really

understand

each day

what did

Christ do

for us

on that

cross

how he

substituted

and he

stayed on

that cross

he became

vulnerable

he became

killable

so that we

are able to

start

sacrificing

so

in closing

I think I

just want to

say

the way

to achieve

and the way

to head

down the

road where

Barnabas is

is

we've got to

aim for

heaven

and you get

the earth

thrown in

but if you

aim for the

earth

you get

neither

one

so let

us pray

Lord we

just want to

give you

thanks

we give you

thanks that

the apostle

Luke was

able to

pen the

book of

Acts

Lord that

you warn

us that

there are

dangers

within

there are

dangers not

only within

the church

but within

our hearts

that we

are so

hungry

for

recognition

Lord

that

sometimes

we are

willing to

compromise

our

integrity

for it

and Lord

but we

don't need

to do

that

for you

have

already

done

that

you've

already

given us

the ultimate

recognition

by dying

on the cross

for us

that we

are able to

be free

from that

continuous

striving

that we

are so

easily

caught in

in Hong

Kong

in 2017

Lord we

just thank

you for

the Holy

Spirit

that is

able to

shine a

light upon

your word

that we

can see

what you

have done

for us

and Lord

that let

us internalize

that each

day

that we

may be able

to start

sacrificing

for those

that are

around us

all this

we lift up

to you

Lord

in the name

of our

Lord Jesus

Amen

to

you

you

you