Ananias & Sapphira

Today's reading is out of the book of Acts, beginning in chapter five.

But a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds, and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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

While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not yet lied to man but to God.

When Ananias heard these words he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard it.

The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

After the interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened, and Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much, and she said yes, for so much.

But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?

Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.

Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

And when the young men came, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband, and a great fear came upon the whole church, and upon those and upon all who heard these things.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God, may be seated.

Well, good morning.

Um I'm James Rathman, I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

Um so if any of you have uh talked to James this morning, um, well, that's all you did, because he can't talk back.

So I um so we're we're we're batting the the B team this morning.

Um but maybe we'll be like high point in game one, not in game two, and uh still win this morning.

So James um yeah, he lost his voice late last night, and so I found out about 10 o'clock last night that I'm I'm up.

Um so thank you.

So went through his notes, uh kind of did the thing.

And um, so anyways, the upside is uh especially for those serving kids, um I mean we're probably gonna run half of what James does this morning.

So um so we got that.

We'll get to Parish Olympics uh much quicker than we thought.

But um with that said, you know, it's interesting how you know best laid plans, um, but God God has plans.

Um and it's you know it's not a so I ask for your grace this morning, but also it's not about who delivers the word of God, it's that the word of God is delivered.

And that's that's what I aim to do this morning.

And uh so hopefully we'll we'll get through um uh and get something out of a very kind of a strange story, one that I think um the point of it often can be misconstrued sometimes.

So we'll get into that, um, but first we'll ask God to uh attend this uh attend this service and um and and be with me in uh as I preach a pretty fresh sermon.

Um God, we come before you and we we know that you are in control of all things, and then we know that you are good and you always take care of your church.

Um God, thank you for giving us your word, um, that it's your word that gets preached.

It's your word that um along with the Holy Spirit that that teaches us and penetrates our hearts.

It's uh it's not the deliverer or thankfully the delivery um that does that, but it's it's it's your word.

And uh, and God, we want to trust in your word this morning.

We pray that that would be a lesson that we get to learn today is that um as long as your word is preached, that you are glorified.

We just ask that we'd receive it with gratitude um and uh and that you would just bless bless us this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, so uh as we look at this story of in Acts, we come to Acts 5, and obviously we've there's already been some wild things that have happened in the book of Acts, and um and and we continue.

This is this is no different.

And so we're gonna look at kind of what this is about and what we do with this passage.

But first uh we're gonna go back a little bit.

So James preached through the book of Ecclesiastes, and this this is really a good place for us to start.

So um the book of Ecclesiastes uh leaves off kind of where Proverbs begins.

Proverbs uh chapter one, verse seven says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

And at the end of Ecclesiastes, it says, The end of the matter, all has been heard.

Fear God and keep his commandments.

For this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

When we fear the Lord and we turn from evil, it brings it brings life, it brings uh his compassion, it bring it it gives us uh it gives us confidence in him, and ultimately it brings the forgiveness of sins.

Um just a few verses before we read uh for the pardon of sin this morning, actually in Psalm 103, verse 11, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

Psalms 103:11

So if you're uh I know many of you are in some of the first John studies.

So you may be thinking, um, well, doesn't he say that there is no fear in love, but for perfect love casts out all fear?

And and yes, you're right, it does say that.

So we must understand um what kind of fear we're talking about.

What what kind of fear, which fear before the Lord uh we're talking about.

And that's not a cowering type of fear, it's not a hiding from God kind of fear.

If we're hiding from God, um, if we're hiding from God, we don't have any confidence in his compassion.

It would be the kind of fear that we would show maybe towards uh a strong enemy, right?

Someone to be afraid of.

But with God, it's something very different.

So um a few maybe a week or so ago, we do these we do these family devotionals um through this this book, and it's kind of going through the the Gospels and and Acts.

Um and my son Jack, whose ninth birthday is today, um, yeah.

So I just thought I'd tell him that.

He he really wanted us to all sing to him, he but but but we're not gonna, but I told him that we probably shouldn't do that.

Um but he so he asked me uh this idea of the fear of the Lord came up um in one of the devotionals, and he and he asked me what that meant.

What does it mean to fear the Lord?

Um and I think it's it it's a tough thing to describe because there's there's obviously there's no comparison to God.

Um there's there's no one on earth like him.

Um but uh we do have some analogies, we have some things that while uh they don't maybe grasp the fullness, they get us most of the way there.

Um so I've got two.

And and one, I think, uh is is like a father to a child.

So as a father, um we're we're larger than our children, at least, at least for a while.

Reed read isn't anymore, but um, but we are we're larger than our kids, we're stronger than our our children.

Um but it and we're also responsible for disciplining them.

But also they shouldn't, they don't you don't want your kid to be afraid of dad, right?

And and they and they wouldn't be if you demonstrate your love towards them.

So I remember uh when I was so when I was a kid, my dad was also a much bigger man than he is now, at least to me.

Um and he had this, you know, this deep booming voice, and you know, um and I and I'm small, and and I remember we must have been in the summertime or or something like that, because we were home.

He was at work, and I I'd done something, I don't remember.

You guys can ask mom about it later if you want.

Um, but I had done something, and she said, she said, John, do you want me to spank you right now, or do you want me to wait till your dad comes home?

And I said, right now.

So let's do it right now.

Um, because I had I had this healthy respect, this healthy fear of my father, where it's like, you know, we've got this great relationship, and he loves me and we do all these wonderful things together, but at the end of the day, he's also the one that's gonna discipline me.

Um and there was a healthy respect for that.

Um RC Sprawl puts it this way: even though we are to come before him boldly, and we can call him father, he's not our chum, he is not our pal, he is the Lord God omnipotent.

When he appears, we are on our face before him, trembling before his majesty.

You see the difference?

And I've kind of explained that to our kids sometimes.

Like, God's not your buddy.

That doesn't he's something more than that.

And and I'm so glad too, right?

Um, I don't really want to serve my buddy.

I want I want to serve Almighty God because that's because that's what he's worthy of.

Um and then the the other example, the last example, I think which is really uh a great one, and Jack and I talked about this too, is the idea of Aslan in Chronicles of Narnia.

So the exchange that Susan has with Mr.

Beaver in The Lion the Witch in the Wardrobe went like this.

Mr.

Beaver says, Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion.

Oh, said Susan.

I thought he was a man.

Is he quite safe?

I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.

Safe?

said Mr.

Beaver.

Who said anything about safe?

Of course he isn't safe.

But he's good.

He's the king, I tell you.

Do you see the difference?

It's it's hard to put our finger on it.

I think it's something we almost have to catch rather than just describe.

Um, my notes are out of order.

Uh here we go.

Sorry about that.

Um it's more of a concept, right?

I think we can catch it.

Um but while he made us, he's not like us.

He's something altogether different, all something altogether more glorious.

So our text today comes right on the heels of this uh this really wonderful boldness and unity in the church.

Um there's this little detail, this just little description at the at the end of the chapter we covered last week, about a man named Joseph, who he received the name uh Barnabas from the apostles, which means son of encouragement.

So he also he also sold a field that belonged to him, and he gave all the money to the apostles.

And it's it's such a beautiful picture of generosity in the church.

And so I think I think that it actually makes perfect sense that right after that, this is where Satan takes an opportunity to divide the church.

So in verse 3 it says, Satan filled their heart, there being Ananius and Sapphira, Satan filled their hearts to lie to the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Well, because they feared men and not God.

See, um they they must have cared what they looked like before men.

Maybe, maybe uh they wanted to be, you know, um counted with the same reputation that that Barnabas uh had in the church of being this generous, generous person, right?

Um but they also wanted to keep their money, or at least some of it.

So they cared what they looked like to men and not to God.

And that this is hypocrisy.

This is exactly what hypocrisy is: fearing man rather than God, and and thinking that we can even somehow trick God, pulling over on him, right?

So um in Acts, so Peter wasn't tricked, by the way.

Peter was not tricked.

The Holy Spirit spoke to him.

It says in Acts 5, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

Okay, so the truth is exposed to Peter, and he must preserve the purity of the church.

So let's think about this for a moment.

Um, so I remember back uh you know not so long ago when myself and James and Ryan and Zach and we're trying to get this church off the ground, and we just we just relaunched this thing, and we're meeting over there at uh at the elementary school, and we're hoping to get this place, and we're thinking, okay, hope like we if we could just get in the black, that's gonna be good.

It's gonna be a good year.

And we had a few years that we were not in the black.

I mean, when you're just getting a church rolling, um money's important.

You gotta, you know, I mean, things, I don't know if you just knew this, things cost money.

Everything costs money.

Kids, you're you everything costs money, okay, whether you guys are paying for it or not.

And so I can see, you know, I I can even just see the tough spot that Peter's in here, right?

I mean, Ananias and Sapphira, they are giving something.

They're giving, and it could have been substantial still.

We don't know, right?

We don't know.

They sold this field and they gave a portion.

Okay, we don't know what they got for it, but it could have been substantial, even though it wasn't all of the money.

Um, and it's just getting off the ground.

Uh any, you know, any extra money coming from any place, okay, you could definitely justify kind of sweeping this thing under the rug and saying, hey, you know, we'll use this for the greater good anyways.

It's fine.

Um but but see, this is the lie.

This is what Satan was using right here to try to divide the church, to try to squash the church before it even really got off the ground.

And so while on the surface, it actually looked like an act of generosity.

Um, and had this not been exposed, it might have been allowed to fester.

Um, maybe, maybe a root of pride in Anairis and Sapphira would have spread throughout the church.

Um, we we we don't know what would have happened, but we do know that secret sin allowed to go unchecked, allowed to go unrepented for, will destroy.

We know that.

And that's what this would have been.

This would have been a secret sin that would have been allowed to manifest itself in the church.

So Anoniris and Sapphira have already been pulled into sin, and now the church and the and the apostles are at the risk of doing the same.

But Peter fears God and not men, and so he seeks the purity of the church.

Acts 5, verse 4 says, While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

Acts 5:4

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to man, but to God.

Okay, so this is interesting here.

Um I think I think something, maybe a misconception that this story could be misconstrued by is um well, I mean, this could definitely be used, you know, to scare some stingy tithers into you know loosening their purse strings a little bit, right?

Um so there's that.

Uh I think, and then I think the other thing is this idea maybe have even been a little bit weaponized to you know to make it seem like the church was originally built as some kind of uh you know, hippie commune type of thing, you know.

But um this was like this wasn't communism then.

And this is not what the Bible was getting at.

This is not what Scripture says.

And I think one way we know that is because we often take for granted the eighth commandment, right?

Thou shalt not steal.

Well, if you can't steal something if it doesn't belong to someone else.

If somebody else doesn't possess something as their own, then why would you have the command not to steal if everything is communal, anyways?

So private property was was and is a real thing, and it was something that was a real thing in the early church as much as it is today.

So Peter said, he said, the field was yours, you didn't have to sell it, but you chose to.

That's fine.

Once you got the money for it, that money was at your disposal.

You weren't required or coaxed into giving all of it to, or necessarily any of it to the church, for that matter.

We have commands to tithe, but this isn't what we're this isn't a scripture about tithing.

So um, so what Paul, this is this is the same thing that Paul was concerned with when he was talking about the heart of the giver in his or in his exhortation to the churches in Corinth on giving.

And he kind of brings it to a final point.

Second Corinthians 9, 6 through 8 says, The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctant or under compulsion.

But God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that all so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

So the point is they didn't have to give everything for the proceeds of this sale to the church.

Um they contrived this deed in their hearts in order to lie to God.

They thought they could pull one over on him, right?

They thought they could trick him, swindle him, bamboozle God.

It sounds absurd, right?

Especially when I put it like that.

But but I think aren't we tempted to do that?

Maybe sometimes we do that.

So how often when we when we think of uh of hiding a sin, or we think of whether we should come clean with something, I mean, where does our mind go first?

It goes to like what's it gonna cost me?

Is it gonna cost me this uh relationship?

Is it gonna cost me maybe it is actually money?

Is it going to cost me money?

Is it gonna cost me the disappointment of my wife?

Is it gonna cost me this with this person, this with my boss?

We oftentimes how we how our standing is before God doesn't isn't always the first thing that comes to mind, is it?

And that's convicting, right?

And so with that, it's that that's a way that sometimes we put the opinions and our standing before man, before standing before God.

So if if they had decided to give part of the proceeds of the field, and they told the apostles that, this would have been a cause for rejoicing.

It would have been a it would have been an act of generosity.

They would have been clear and and transparent with what was going on, but they didn't.

They didn't fear him, they didn't believe God would reward them for their generosity.

Or punish them for their lies.

See, the fear of God requires both, right?

To step out into faith and say, I think that God will honor this, and I trust Him to do that.

And also that there are real consequences for sin.

We fear God as He has revealed Himself to us.

Therefore, we believe that He will punish disobedience and bless obedience.

This is the nature of all hidden sin, and we can't con God.

What is beneath the idea that we can con God is simply a lack of a fear of God.

So let's take it to the church level.

A church with no fear of God at the top is a church that's run by the fear of men.

And the fear of man in that default setting is all of our humanity, and all of it is trapped in sin, right?

Pandering to what culture is telling us, wanting to make sure we look a certain way, making compromises that are not in line with God's word.

Because some of the things in God's word are hard.

They're hard, but they're good.

It's like Aslan, the lion, right?

It's not safe, but he's good.

That's what we see in the Word of God.

And when we put men above him in the church, the tail starts wagging the dog.

And that's what we see here.

But um but there is a way.

There is a way to get out of that pattern.

And this setting is broken by repentance, repentance.

Because when we repent, just like we did earlier today in our time of confession, we repent and we receive forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ alone, and being restored to the fear of God, whose love casts out all fear.

See, we get to our fear of God, our reverence for God casts out all fear, right?

All afraidness, right?

We're talking two kinds of fear, same word, two kinds of fear.

Our fear of the Lord means we don't have to be afraid.

Such a wonderful thing.

Because fear, afraid fear, has to do with punishment.

But we're not being punished by God because Jesus Christ has borne our punishment.

We are disciplined by God, right?

Scripture tells us that he disciplines those he loves.

We are disciplined by the Lord and we seek to obey him because we desire to please him.

Because we fear him.

So at the end here, so Acts, let's let's talk about the uh let's talk about the elephant in the room here.

Acts 5, 5 and 6.

When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.

And great fear came upon all who heard it.

The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

Okay, so Ananias is struck dead by the fear of God, or by the power of God, rather, in the presence of the apostles.

The punishment for trying to deceive the author of life was death.

And then Sapphira, three hours later, she arrives.

She's got no idea what happened.

And Peter, with the wisdom of Solomon, asks her, how much did you sell the land for?

She agrees to the exact same number that her husband had said earlier.

Verse 9, but Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?

Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.

Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

So you might be thinking, Well, they just lied about how much they gave, they actually even still gave.

Should they really be dead?

Okay.

So I'll say that again.

God can freely take life, any life that he has freely given.

Okay?

So God is the ultimate, he is the one in control.

But I think, you know, oftentimes when we feel this way in Scripture, and there, and there's this isn't the only one.

There's plenty of plenty of stories, plenty of verses throughout Scripture.

And oftentimes, you know, do you ever think, ooh, that's that one's that that that's harsh?

Um man, that that doesn't seem fair.

That seems like an overreaction, right?

Well, when we feel like that, when that's our reaction, that's that's failing to recognize our place before God.

We when we feel like that, and we feel like, ooh, yeah, that's that might be a little overboard, God.

Um I don't think that's fair.

Um when we do that, we act as if God owes us something.

But the truth is, we're the ones that owe him, and we can't ever repay it for what he's done for us.

See, it's it's ordering ourselves underneath an Almighty God, creator of everything, which means in his infinite power and his infinite wisdom, he can and ought to do as he pleases.

And sometimes those things are hard truths, but we have to rest in the fact that he is God and we are not.

The other thing, um, yeah, we exist at his pleasure.

And and the other thing that I think is worth noting here as it relates to this story as well, is there's often two sides.

Not often, there's always two sides to a coin.

Um uh but that it's so like a coin, there's there's two sides to this.

Um and this is a lot of times with these characteristics of God, right?

We look at wrath, which is what we're seeing here, wrath on Ananiah and Sapphira.

Um the flip side of that coin is there's love as well.

Um, Blake and I were talking about this, and and James has brought it up that love is the key to so many things, the key to all these things.

And and love is the thing that drives so much.

You think about, for example, I think it's so helpful to um you think of as a parent, you learn so much stuff about God because there's just so many of these things, and you're raising kids and you see how we relate to God.

And and I think, so for example, you think of uh think of violence, right?

Think of my capability to be violent.

Why would I want that capability to be violent?

Well, it's because I love my family.

What would be the orientation of that violence?

Well, it'd be against anyone who's looking to harm my family, those that God has entrusted to me, those that I care more about than anyone in this whole world, right?

So that violence applied to someone who's trying to harm my kids would simultaneously be an act of love.

Do you see how love drives so many things?

And in this, I can't help but wonder, and scripture's not clear on the motive of God, on why he struck them down.

We know the we know the act that they did that caused God to decide to strike them down.

But but the motive behind it, we scripture's not clear, but I don't wonder if this is not simultaneously an act of love and protection over his church, over his bride.

Because these two, these two were in the midst of the early church, and they not only did they conspire together to deceive Peter, to deceive the apostles, but they were trying to deceive God.

This this church, you know, God, God just scripture just describes the church, the whole church, as he described it as a mustard seed, right?

It's it's small and then it and then it grows and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

And we've been seeing that happening.

Well, this seed has just sprouted out of the ground.

I mean, this operation is just getting off the ground.

Whatever analogy you want to use, the plane's barely left the runway.

And and in this state, it's it's fragile.

And God intends for it to succeed.

So I don't wonder if this seeing the wrath of God here, as difficult as that is, can also be seen as an act of love and protection over his church to remove these two from them as God is looking to accomplish his plan through them.

So, secondly, uh, the whole mission of the church and the salvation of the world is at stake when the purity of the church is compromised.

So, in the book of Joshua, which which James has mentioned a few times, um Joshua is kind of an old covenant prototype of the book of Acts.

They they really fold on to one another pretty well.

Um in the book of Joshua, the nation of Israel, it's just the same thing.

It's small, it's fragile, it's just getting going.

Well, the same thing is happening with the early church.

So in Joshua, it was Jericho, and in Acts, it's the first city is Jerusalem.

It's where they are.

This is where the gospel is going to spread from, is Jerusalem.

So both are brought down by the word of God's people.

In Jericho, if you remember, they marched around it, shouted, blue horns, and the walls came down by their very words.

The same thing's gonna happen here.

The early church is growing by the preaching of the word by the apostles.

That's how that's gonna spread.

And after Jericho's fall, the people were prohibited from keeping for themselves any of the things that were in the city, any of the treasures, any of the wealth, because God wanted to, they were meant for destruction.

Devoted for destruction.

You cannot hold on to this as we're moving forward.

You cannot keep these things.

This is that was what he commanded.

He said, These things are devoted to destruction.

Do not take them with you.

But after the victory, uh after that victory, Joshua sends up a group of men to defeat a very small city.

City of Ai.

This should have been a layup.

But the men uh Joshua sent def sends are handily defeated.

Joshua tore his clothes, he mourned at the defeat, and sought God's counsel.

And this is what God said Israel has sinned, they have transgressed my covenant and I c that I commanded them.

They have taken some of the devoted things, they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.

Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies.

They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction.

I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

They are they were not living in the fear of the Lord.

They plainly weren't.

They disobeyed what he said.

And if we're not living in the fear of the Lord, the church will not be able to stand before her enemies.

The church has enemies.

It does.

Um, they are around us.

They're in culture, they're they're from the world, they're they're from Satan himself, which we see in these scriptures.

And if we do not live in the fear of the Lord, we will not be able to stand.

Instead, we would be bringing the devoted things from other gods, other cultures to hide them so we can have both, right?

There's just see this in our own lives oftentimes.

There's things that we just want to hold on to, right?

These little, these little things.

That's not so bad, right?

It's it's kind of innocent, whatever it may be.

But what are those things that God's calling you to destroy?

You cannot live with both.

Cannot live with both.

Acts 5, 11, last verse here.

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

God is jealous over his church, he is jealous for his people.

And that's a wonderful gift that we have a God who is jealous for us, a God who cares so much about who we are and how his church is operating.

Because this, his church, this is how he's going to bring redemption into the world.

It's going to happen through his church.

And so he cares about the purity of it.

He cares about the purity of his bride.

Because that's what we are.

And so we must have the right level of fear of the Lord.

And the great thing is we don't have to be sinless.

We cannot make ourselves pure.

He will purify us, but we must confess our sins before the Lord and trust that he is just and faithful to forgive them.

We can do that because he's able to do that.

So if we have that type of fear of God, then we can come before him, knowing that we don't have to be afraid of him.

We don't have to be afraid of a God who would send his son to hang on a cross to cover our sin.

That's not a God to be afraid of, but it's one to be feared.

Let's pray, and then we're gonna we're gonna take communion, um, and then we'll we'll sing a few more songs and we'll close out.

God, um thank you for your faithfulness to this church.

Thank you for your faithfulness to the church from from the days of the apostles um until now.

God, it it has not and will not be defeated.

And God, I just I ask that you would uh that you would purify your church, that you would um that you would do so by exposing secret sin, that you would give your people, you would give us, your people, confidence to come before you, confessing our sin, knowing that you are gracious and just to forgive them, that it is when we keep these things secret, when we care about what everyone else besides you thinks about it, that that is where things go sideways.

That that's not the gospel, but that we can come before you in confidence, knowing that you are not only strong, powerful, but gracious and kind and loving, that you are all those things at the same time, and that we can approach you with confidence.

Help us to understand and to shape our view of you in a way that gives us an accurate view of who you are, acknowledges your power, your might, your grace, and your wrath.

All of those things wrapped up into one.

We just ask you to help us to conceptualize that in some way, to wrap our minds around it in a in in a little bit deeper place.

God, we thank you for this church and the way that it's marched on.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.