But there was a certain
man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles,
claiming it was the full amount. With
his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Then
Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some
of the money for yourself. The property
was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours
to give away. How could you do a thing
like this? You weren’t lying to us but
to God!” As soon as Ananias heard these
words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone
who heard about it was terrified. Then
some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not
knowing what had happened. Peter asked
her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” And Peter said, “How could the two of you
even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just
outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she
was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and
everyone else who heard what had happened.
The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the
people. And all the believers were
meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. But no one else dared to join them, even
though all the people had high regard for them.
Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of
both men and women. As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were
brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall
across some of them as he went by. Acts
5:1-15(NLT)
In our text the phrase great
fear gripped the entire church is used to describe what happened to
the good church folk of the First Church of Jerusalem. I looked up the Greek words used in the
manuscript. “Megas phobos” (ìÝãáò öüâïò) – means just that, great
fear! Those folks were
afraid…VERY afraid; they were
terrified! There is no need for further
clarification; there is no need to try to dance-around the meaning of
“fear”. We don’t need to substitute reverence
or awe;
they were petrified! These early
believers had their knees knocking over what had happened.
The incident recorded by good Dr. Luke is not about our
responsibility to give; it is more about our responsibility to be genuine – not
hypocrites. The explanation of that is
in the context. There was much
generosity and sharing going on.
Barnabas had sold a house and gave the proceeds to meet needs in the
church family. That was generous, and it
was genuine.
Many others were selling
possessions and bringing the money to help the poor. These were acts of generosity driven by a
sense of genuine spiritual joy and thanksgiving, as well as compassion for
those in need. By contrast, the actions
of Ananias and Sapphira were motivated by the hypocrisy of wanting to be
thought spiritually-mature, by a big show of giving, but not actually
letting-go of the money. They were
greedy, but wanted everyone to think they were generous. They were not genuine; they were hypocrites.
The very premise of the story proves how spiritually-immature Ananias and his wife
were; they were attempting to impress the people at the church, and ignoring
the Lord of the church. How dumb is
that? Ananias assumed he was able to
hide his real intentions from both man and God.
That is certainly impossible. You
may deceive men, but God always knows what is in your heart.
We have an example of that
in the process of selecting the young shepherd boy David to be king, God
revealed the way He looks at us all…
The LORD does not look at the
things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b (NIV)
The fact that what happened to Ananias and Sapphira caused great
fear to seize the church, leads me to conclude that (first…it was a pretty
smart church group!), but that God really wanted great fear to seize
the church. God wanted the church to
unite under the banner of fearing God. I
believe that is true today; God wants us to fear Him, to reverence and worship
Him.
But, it seems there has never been a time when God has been less-feared
– unless perhaps the day of Noah. In our
day, as with Noah, God is mocked, ignored, defied and blasphemed to an extent
that seizes this preacher with a great fear for the next knock on the church door. There are times I wonder who will be carried
out next.
In the last few generations there has been such an emphasis on the
love and tender mercy of God. That is
good, however I believe we have begun to forget that God is also a holy and
righteous God. He did not look the other
way to ignore the sin and hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira; He will not ignore
it in us today!
As we prepare to receive ashes, a visible sign of our inner
repentance and sorrow over personal sins, it is a perfect time to talk about
examining one’s life for such hypocrisy in our dealings with each other and the
world.
I would like for us to
consider perhaps the main teaching of this passage. It is found in the connection of the fear
caused by exposure of sin, and the mighty things that God did when that fear of
God became the unifying call for the church to live obediently.
Did you notice the
progression?
· Ananias and Sapphira sinned
· God judged
· the people feared and began to live obediently
· God went to work healing people and growing the church for His
glory.
Now, that is a
domino-effect which you can trace, not only here in this text, but all
throughout the Scripture and church history.
Let me cite a few examples:
There
is an echo of Ananias and Sapphira in the Old Testament account of Joshua (7)
and the children of Israel defeating the city of Jericho. You may recall the miraculous victory; they
marched around the city once-a-day for seven days. On the seventh day they circled the city
seven times, blew the horns and the walls fell flat…not one stone left standing
on another.
One
of the clear directives God had given was to take no spoils…all the silver,
gold and livestock belonged to God, and was to be returned to Him as a
sacrifice offering.
One of the soldiers named
Achan tried to grab some of the choice items for himself. He hid the gold and silver in his tent,
thinking he’d gotten away with a real sweetheart 401(K) retirement plan. He was right, except that retirement came the
next day when God brought his sin to the surface. He was brought to the edge of the camp and
stoned to death with his entire family by the whole nation of Israel!
The epilogue to Achan’s
sin was that the nation of Israel became convinced that when God told them to
keep their cotton-pickin’ hands off something, He meant it! And they did it! It led to great unity and obedience, and
eventually, great victories.
Years later, Ananias and
Sapphira (as part of their upbringing) had been taught this story in synagogue
school; they should have known better.
The pattern is sin, judgment, fear and repentance, God’s forgiveness and
healing.
Another example:
In 1734 Jonathan Edwards
of Northampton, Massachusetts began to preach sermons that
depicted the foul state of obedience to God which existed at that time. Many people who heard his sermons began to
experience the judgment of God, and the revival became known as The
Great Awakening. Sin was
exposed, judgment fell, people feared God and repented, and the Lord changed America.
Here, 284 years later, we
have largely forgotten that fear. Massachusetts, the
cradle of a God-honoring revival that feared God, now is the poster child state of homosexual
marriage and abortion.
We sing of the sweet
forgiveness and mercy of the Lord; we refer to the loving God as the man
upstairs as. We treat God as
if He is always on our side, no matter how we live…or as if He is insignificant
– not part of life’s equation. That, my
friends is how Ananias and Sapphira treated holy God.
Today, in a religious show
we casually come to the Lord’s Table with little or no self-examination. Today there are people all over America who
will, without so much as a thought, eat the bread and drink the juice; it will
trickle down, past hearts so blackened by unconfessed sin and animosity towards
their fellow man that it will sour in their stomachs, and they won’t even know
it. Like Samson, they haven’t
got a clue that the Lord has departed[2].
Lives are lived in an
expedient, pragmatic way these days. Sin
is winked at; anemic Christianity is excused as the best I can do,
when it is really all I want to do, and the body
of Christ is weakened daily in a show that makes the unbelieving world laugh,
and the Holy Spirit of God weep.
Avoiding the Sin of Ananias & Sapphira
When we come to Lent, the
season of preparation there are opportunities set before us, and challenges to
those opportunities. The challenge may
present itself in different ways; however the main thrust is always the
same:
Will we lie to the Holy
Spirit – or will we be genuine with God and each other?
The Scripture has given us what happened to Ananias and
Sapphira. Death for them was
instantaneous…and God could do that again.
More often the death is by increments…by degrees, little steps, if you
will.
· We die a little on this hypocrisy of saying we love and accept
each other when we really don’t.
· We die a little more when we gossip about that brother or
sister.
· We die a little more when we fudge the Income Tax form.
· We slide further down the path when we fail to do right.
· We scowl and get sick.
· We complain and the body of Christ aches.
· We remain negative and unbelieving…death, death, death!
The other choice in the challenge is to be repentant, fearing an
Almighty God, a holy Lord. In living
that way we will be unified, thankful, joyful, lifting each other. And when we act that way, with great
fear seizing the church…in the next heartbeat you will see many signs
and wonders.
It will not be the sign of prosperity, or the wonder of all the cream
of society coming to join our church.
· It will be the dregs of humanity showing up at our doorstep, weak,
sick, hungry, poor, sinful, spouse abusers at the end of their rope.
· It will be those on their 5th or 6th
marriage wondering if there really is something of value in family life.
· It will be the descendants of those who were brought to be laid in
Peter’s pathway, simply hoping to catch a little touch of his shadow as he
passed by.
And if the Lord brings
such to our doorstep, it will be a sign and a wonder. It will be the Lord’s way of saying to us, …this
is my beloved church…well done good and faithful servants.
Are you ready for
that? Caution!!! Only
say that with a heart that means it.
God expects us to be
afraid; be VERY afraid! So…be afraid –
fear the Lord right now. Feel the thirst
and hunger after righteousness. Sense
your need, give-in to His call, and come to the ashes and be marked for him.
Let the church say Amen in
the Name of the Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!
