“Truth or Consequences”
Acts 4:32-5:11
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Introduction: In a world of moral relativism, where people think there is no hard fast truth, we stumble around in our lives and in our relationships. Truth is important, because without it there is no trust. In the gospel of John, 17:17 Jesus prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.”
In our passage this morning, we see a lack of truth and integrity on the part of Ananias and Sapphira. We see here in their lives an incongruity between what they claim (to be followers of Jesus Christ) and their actions. We just read in Acts 4:32 how the believers were of one heart and soul. There was connection in the body of Christ, and a big part of that was in being truthful with each other. And the way we see this truthfulness come out is in their sharing of their property and wealth. They were living in community, in openness, in trust, and by living this way they were being a witness to Jesus Christ.
I. Living in Community- (Acts 4:32-5:11)a. Being generous- This description here at the end of Acts chapter 4 is
reminiscent of Acts chapter 2. In chapter 2 we se the coming together of church life after the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come upon the believers, and because of this Peter is moved to speak a message from God. From his message, many more come to believe. And they began to live as the church. Acts 2:44 is a wonderful verse of living in this community: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
We have talked about the concept of tithing before, where we are called by God to give a tenth back of all that we have so that God’s work can be done, and God’s people can be cared for. Here in chapter 2 of the book of Acts we see the community go even farther than that; they were utilizing a community pot, where all the money and goods would go, and then the disciples would distribute it as people had need. This was an unbelievable level of generosity, where the concern was on meeting the needs of all!
In one sense it is kind of like falling in love. If you might remember a time when you fell in love with someone, there is great excitement. This excitement leads you to want to do everything you can do to care for that person and show them you love them. You spend a great amount of time with them, and spending money on them is if no concern at all. It’s almost as if anything they want, you will provide for them. And we see this same act of generosity that took place in chapter 2 happening here in chapter 4. There was selling of land and houses, and then bringing those proceeds to the apostles so that they could distribute the wealth to those in need.
Again, don’t miss the point that it was a spirit of generosity. There was not an expectation that this would happen, or that there would be any kind of punishment for not doing it. Because they were feeling of one heart and soul, they were giving out of love. It was about the freedom of being separated from the control that money and possessions has on a person.
b. Great fear- But then we have a great turn of events. An event
where the outcome is terrible. The fact is that Ananias and Sapphira chose to lie to the apostles and to the community. And because of this they dropped dead. Now an important point needs to be made here. Their sin led to their death, but they were believers. Their death was used by God to make a point to all. But we see how they were weak in the expression of their faith.
Remember back how all the believers were not claiming that anything was their own. There was this common agreement about sharing what they had. This was the level of trust, the level of truth that was expressed. But then Ananias and Sapphira come along and hold something back. Even more, they lie about holding it back. It is quite possible that their death was at the shock of being found out, of letting the community down, for there is no pronouncement of death on Peter’s part. We see how God used this as in both verses 5 and 11 great fear was experienced by the whole community.
Example- There is a story of a woman who was flying with her infant daughter. After they landed she and her baby were met by her father who took the baby while the woman went to get the luggage. While standing there waiting for the luggage she realized that she was still holding her baby’s pacifier. Then she noticed a flight attendant looking at her, and then at the pacifier. Finally the flight attendant spoke: “Excuse me, miss, is this your first flight?”
There is nothing like a pacifier to calm your fear, right? J There are different kinds of fear. The fear that is experienced here by the community of believers is their concern of whether or not God was the one who caused their death for their sin. But probably all the more, the fact that it is a serious matter to live untruthfully and to let others down. To live a life of deceit is to go against all that God would approve of. To live a life of deceit is to bring the name of God down. And in this, we should live with a bit of fear. This fear will keep us on the right track.
II. Hypocrisy and Unbelief- (Acts 5:3, 9; James 2:17-18)a. Shock- On more than one occasion I have heard stories of people who
were trying to quit smoking. I have been told by people that smoking is one of the hardest habits to break. So these people are trying to stop smoking, but they just can’t seem to break the habit. They may quit for a day or two, but then the stress comes back and they find themselves smoking again. But then one day they go to the doctor, and the doctor tells them that if they don’t quit smoking they will surely die in the not too distant future. WHAT DO THEY EXPERIENCE? Fear and shock. And this fear and shock leads them to ultimately quit smoking.
That is one of the reasons why this story of Ananias and Sapphira is in the Bible. It helps us to deal with the important issues of hypocrisy and unbelief. It helps to wake us up to the fact that God’s word is truth, and we really do need to follow it as best we can. We need to take seriously this whole aspect of obedience (that we talked about last week), and understand we shouldn’t take God and God’s truth lightly. The issues we are dealing with here are important.
So let’s look at little deeper at what happened, especially at the 2 questions that Peter asks in verses 3 and 9. To Ananias, Peter says in verse 3: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?” Remember, Ananias and Sapphira were under no obligation to sell their property. In fact, Peter even says to them in verse 4: “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God.” Wow, powerful words. Shocking, as we said before.
There was nothing that told them they had to sell the property. And after they sold it, they could have given only a portion of the sale.
b. Hypocrisy- Peter is being straight with Ananias here, telling him that
what he couldn’t do was misrepresent themselves. Peter lets Ananias know, and the community of believers as well, that this lie has come about by letting Satan deceive him. The problem here is that Ananias is being a hypocrite. He wanted to have the reputation of being generous, as someone who was a faithful steward, as a person who cared for others. But he didn’t deserve that reputation.
What is it about us that makes us want to claim things that aren’t true of ourselves? Why do we long to be regarded as something we are not? One reason is the fact that we know who we are, and so by pretending we are something we are not, helps us to feel like we are what we are pretending to be. We want to be well thought of, praised, and cheered. Along with that, we are expected to perform a certain way in the communities in which we live. In other words, since we are in a community of believers, we want others to think that we are a true follower of Jesus Christ. And so in this pressure, we are actually encouraged to live out hypocrisy and deception.
The problem is that we can’t pretend to be a Christian. To be a Christian means that you give your heart, your life, to Jesus Christ. In doing this, you put yourself in a place where you allow God to mold and shape you by learning the truth of the Bible, and then seeking to live it out. In the book of James we read a very wonderful, yet challenging verse, 2:17-18, which says: “Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead,, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”
To Sapphira, in verse 9, Peter says: “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?” The idea behind this question is to challenge Sapphira in her thinking, that God doesn’t notice or care what His people do. That she has decided to test God in regards to His oversight of the church, and God’s righteous standards. She and Ananias had come up with a plan thinking that they could fool God and get away with sin.
III. How Free Are We?- (Matthew 6:24)
a. Giving up claim- One of the great challenges of life is to give up claim
to that which we feel we own. Ownership is a big part of our lives. So much so that we even feel at times like we own people. But when we have this level of ownership, there is a real tug on our hearts that keeps us from living a free life. That which we feel we own actually comes to have ownership over us. This is true when we try and give something away, only to find that we can’t. That is why Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24- “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one or the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
This is why it was important for God’s people, in this first Christian community, to have common property. To give up ownership is to give up its control of you. And even more, we cannot truly love God, follow God, or serve God, until we have given away all that we possess. We have to learn that what we have is owned by God, and then given to us by God.
Oneness of heart with other believers promotes godly stewardship. Meaning that when there is a need, we have a true spirit of generosity, and a true spirit of giving, because we have the heart and mind of God; not our selfish, sinful, possessive, heart and mind. It actually is a form of hospitality; a generosity of dispersing our goods to benefit those in need as God leads.
I remember when I was younger and working on the whole aspect of tithing. Even though I was only making $600 a month, and my rent was $300, I still was able to give the 10%; the $60 a month I wanted to give. The fact is, sixty dollars didn’t seem like that much. But as I got older, and my salary rose, so did the number that represented 10 percent. And now that I make around $50,000, to give $5000 a year is a big chunk of money. But if I trust God, then I can continue to be a faithful steward. And the truth is, God always provides for me, and I am blessed to know that the money I give is a blessing to those who have needs.
b. Permission to struggle- A second aspect of our lesson this morning is
for us to consider whether or not we give one another the permission to struggle. What about people like Ananias who want a reputation for doing well, but fall short in their actions? If someone admits to struggle, are they disregarded, set aside, or loved less? Ray Stedman, a professor from Fuller Theological seminary, in his commentary on the book of Acts, said this in regards to this passage: “The minute Ananias and Sapphira pretended to be something they were not—death! When we come to church we put on a mask of adequacy, but inside we are inadequate, and we know it. We are struggling with problems in our homes, but we don’t want to tell anyone about them. We can’t get along with our children, but we’ll never admit it to anyone. The pride that doesn’t want anyone else to know what is going on between husbands and wives, and between parents and children, keeps us from sharing. We come to a service, and put on a mask that says everything’s fine! Everything’s wonderful! Somebody asks us how things are going, [and we respond] ‘Great, great! Fine!’ ‘How’s everything at home?’ ‘Oh, wonderful! We’re having a wonderful time!’ The minute we say that and it’s not true, we die. Death sets in. Soon that death pervades the whole church.”(When the Church Was Young, 1970-71, Discovery Publ.)
We have difficulty being real with each other. In fact, we ask someone, ‘How are you doing?’, and if they actually tells us how they are doing we are surprised. We say this as a form of greeting. We don’t really want to know who they are and how they are doing. When we come to church, we get all dressed up and believe we have to act like things are all okay; no problems; no struggles; no sin. But this isn’t reality. And by doing this, we create an environment of untruth.
Lately I’ve been reading a book called Quitting Church, which looks at why people are choosing not to go to church. In one of the chapters I read, I was surprised to read about how many ministers are leaving the ministry because they feel like they are not allowed to be real. If the congregation sees that their pastor is struggling, or that their pastor has sin in their life, then they get judged for it. So the pastor puts on this façade of untruth. But then in time doesn’t like to live in this deception, so ultimately leaves the ministry. But wouldn’t it be nice if the church was actually a place where we could be real? Wouldn’t it be nice if the church was a place where we could share what is really going on, and not be afraid of being judged? Wouldn’t it be nice if the church was a place where we could reveal our struggles and know that we could get help?
Conclusion: Jesus said in Matthew 6:21- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…” Jesus came to free us from bondage. Part of the bondage in our lives is to money and possessions. A second bondage is the fear of rejection. This fear causes us to act in ways that are not true. In our passage in Acts 4 and 5 this morning, we see there is a challenge to us, a challenge to be a people like the early church, where we seek to care for others when they are in need. Where we care for others when they are struggling. Where we allow people to share openly so that we can love them, and encourage them, and help there.
I pray that as a people of God, we will start to head in this direction; the direction of giving over control to God, and let God shape us and mold us to truly be His people. If we do this, then we will start to see God more and more in our lives, and in our church. We will see people coming to this church to be loved and helped. Let us be like the first Christians; let us be people of truth. Amen.
Acts 4:32-5:11
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Introduction: In a world of moral relativism, where people think there is no hard fast truth, we stumble around in our lives and in our relationships. Truth is important, because without it there is no trust. In the gospel of John, 17:17 Jesus prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.”
In our passage this morning, we see a lack of truth and integrity on the part of Ananias and Sapphira. We see here in their lives an incongruity between what they claim (to be followers of Jesus Christ) and their actions. We just read in Acts 4:32 how the believers were of one heart and soul. There was connection in the body of Christ, and a big part of that was in being truthful with each other. And the way we see this truthfulness come out is in their sharing of their property and wealth. They were living in community, in openness, in trust, and by living this way they were being a witness to Jesus Christ.
I. Living in Community- (Acts 4:32-5:11)a. Being generous- This description here at the end of Acts chapter 4 is
reminiscent of Acts chapter 2. In chapter 2 we se the coming together of church life after the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come upon the believers, and because of this Peter is moved to speak a message from God. From his message, many more come to believe. And they began to live as the church. Acts 2:44 is a wonderful verse of living in this community: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
We have talked about the concept of tithing before, where we are called by God to give a tenth back of all that we have so that God’s work can be done, and God’s people can be cared for. Here in chapter 2 of the book of Acts we see the community go even farther than that; they were utilizing a community pot, where all the money and goods would go, and then the disciples would distribute it as people had need. This was an unbelievable level of generosity, where the concern was on meeting the needs of all!
In one sense it is kind of like falling in love. If you might remember a time when you fell in love with someone, there is great excitement. This excitement leads you to want to do everything you can do to care for that person and show them you love them. You spend a great amount of time with them, and spending money on them is if no concern at all. It’s almost as if anything they want, you will provide for them. And we see this same act of generosity that took place in chapter 2 happening here in chapter 4. There was selling of land and houses, and then bringing those proceeds to the apostles so that they could distribute the wealth to those in need.
Again, don’t miss the point that it was a spirit of generosity. There was not an expectation that this would happen, or that there would be any kind of punishment for not doing it. Because they were feeling of one heart and soul, they were giving out of love. It was about the freedom of being separated from the control that money and possessions has on a person.
b. Great fear- But then we have a great turn of events. An event
where the outcome is terrible. The fact is that Ananias and Sapphira chose to lie to the apostles and to the community. And because of this they dropped dead. Now an important point needs to be made here. Their sin led to their death, but they were believers. Their death was used by God to make a point to all. But we see how they were weak in the expression of their faith.
Remember back how all the believers were not claiming that anything was their own. There was this common agreement about sharing what they had. This was the level of trust, the level of truth that was expressed. But then Ananias and Sapphira come along and hold something back. Even more, they lie about holding it back. It is quite possible that their death was at the shock of being found out, of letting the community down, for there is no pronouncement of death on Peter’s part. We see how God used this as in both verses 5 and 11 great fear was experienced by the whole community.
Example- There is a story of a woman who was flying with her infant daughter. After they landed she and her baby were met by her father who took the baby while the woman went to get the luggage. While standing there waiting for the luggage she realized that she was still holding her baby’s pacifier. Then she noticed a flight attendant looking at her, and then at the pacifier. Finally the flight attendant spoke: “Excuse me, miss, is this your first flight?”
There is nothing like a pacifier to calm your fear, right? J There are different kinds of fear. The fear that is experienced here by the community of believers is their concern of whether or not God was the one who caused their death for their sin. But probably all the more, the fact that it is a serious matter to live untruthfully and to let others down. To live a life of deceit is to go against all that God would approve of. To live a life of deceit is to bring the name of God down. And in this, we should live with a bit of fear. This fear will keep us on the right track.
II. Hypocrisy and Unbelief- (Acts 5:3, 9; James 2:17-18)a. Shock- On more than one occasion I have heard stories of people who
were trying to quit smoking. I have been told by people that smoking is one of the hardest habits to break. So these people are trying to stop smoking, but they just can’t seem to break the habit. They may quit for a day or two, but then the stress comes back and they find themselves smoking again. But then one day they go to the doctor, and the doctor tells them that if they don’t quit smoking they will surely die in the not too distant future. WHAT DO THEY EXPERIENCE? Fear and shock. And this fear and shock leads them to ultimately quit smoking.
That is one of the reasons why this story of Ananias and Sapphira is in the Bible. It helps us to deal with the important issues of hypocrisy and unbelief. It helps to wake us up to the fact that God’s word is truth, and we really do need to follow it as best we can. We need to take seriously this whole aspect of obedience (that we talked about last week), and understand we shouldn’t take God and God’s truth lightly. The issues we are dealing with here are important.
So let’s look at little deeper at what happened, especially at the 2 questions that Peter asks in verses 3 and 9. To Ananias, Peter says in verse 3: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?” Remember, Ananias and Sapphira were under no obligation to sell their property. In fact, Peter even says to them in verse 4: “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God.” Wow, powerful words. Shocking, as we said before.
There was nothing that told them they had to sell the property. And after they sold it, they could have given only a portion of the sale.
b. Hypocrisy- Peter is being straight with Ananias here, telling him that
what he couldn’t do was misrepresent themselves. Peter lets Ananias know, and the community of believers as well, that this lie has come about by letting Satan deceive him. The problem here is that Ananias is being a hypocrite. He wanted to have the reputation of being generous, as someone who was a faithful steward, as a person who cared for others. But he didn’t deserve that reputation.
What is it about us that makes us want to claim things that aren’t true of ourselves? Why do we long to be regarded as something we are not? One reason is the fact that we know who we are, and so by pretending we are something we are not, helps us to feel like we are what we are pretending to be. We want to be well thought of, praised, and cheered. Along with that, we are expected to perform a certain way in the communities in which we live. In other words, since we are in a community of believers, we want others to think that we are a true follower of Jesus Christ. And so in this pressure, we are actually encouraged to live out hypocrisy and deception.
The problem is that we can’t pretend to be a Christian. To be a Christian means that you give your heart, your life, to Jesus Christ. In doing this, you put yourself in a place where you allow God to mold and shape you by learning the truth of the Bible, and then seeking to live it out. In the book of James we read a very wonderful, yet challenging verse, 2:17-18, which says: “Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead,, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”
To Sapphira, in verse 9, Peter says: “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?” The idea behind this question is to challenge Sapphira in her thinking, that God doesn’t notice or care what His people do. That she has decided to test God in regards to His oversight of the church, and God’s righteous standards. She and Ananias had come up with a plan thinking that they could fool God and get away with sin.
III. How Free Are We?- (Matthew 6:24)
a. Giving up claim- One of the great challenges of life is to give up claim
to that which we feel we own. Ownership is a big part of our lives. So much so that we even feel at times like we own people. But when we have this level of ownership, there is a real tug on our hearts that keeps us from living a free life. That which we feel we own actually comes to have ownership over us. This is true when we try and give something away, only to find that we can’t. That is why Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24- “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one or the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
This is why it was important for God’s people, in this first Christian community, to have common property. To give up ownership is to give up its control of you. And even more, we cannot truly love God, follow God, or serve God, until we have given away all that we possess. We have to learn that what we have is owned by God, and then given to us by God.
Oneness of heart with other believers promotes godly stewardship. Meaning that when there is a need, we have a true spirit of generosity, and a true spirit of giving, because we have the heart and mind of God; not our selfish, sinful, possessive, heart and mind. It actually is a form of hospitality; a generosity of dispersing our goods to benefit those in need as God leads.
I remember when I was younger and working on the whole aspect of tithing. Even though I was only making $600 a month, and my rent was $300, I still was able to give the 10%; the $60 a month I wanted to give. The fact is, sixty dollars didn’t seem like that much. But as I got older, and my salary rose, so did the number that represented 10 percent. And now that I make around $50,000, to give $5000 a year is a big chunk of money. But if I trust God, then I can continue to be a faithful steward. And the truth is, God always provides for me, and I am blessed to know that the money I give is a blessing to those who have needs.
b. Permission to struggle- A second aspect of our lesson this morning is
for us to consider whether or not we give one another the permission to struggle. What about people like Ananias who want a reputation for doing well, but fall short in their actions? If someone admits to struggle, are they disregarded, set aside, or loved less? Ray Stedman, a professor from Fuller Theological seminary, in his commentary on the book of Acts, said this in regards to this passage: “The minute Ananias and Sapphira pretended to be something they were not—death! When we come to church we put on a mask of adequacy, but inside we are inadequate, and we know it. We are struggling with problems in our homes, but we don’t want to tell anyone about them. We can’t get along with our children, but we’ll never admit it to anyone. The pride that doesn’t want anyone else to know what is going on between husbands and wives, and between parents and children, keeps us from sharing. We come to a service, and put on a mask that says everything’s fine! Everything’s wonderful! Somebody asks us how things are going, [and we respond] ‘Great, great! Fine!’ ‘How’s everything at home?’ ‘Oh, wonderful! We’re having a wonderful time!’ The minute we say that and it’s not true, we die. Death sets in. Soon that death pervades the whole church.”(When the Church Was Young, 1970-71, Discovery Publ.)
We have difficulty being real with each other. In fact, we ask someone, ‘How are you doing?’, and if they actually tells us how they are doing we are surprised. We say this as a form of greeting. We don’t really want to know who they are and how they are doing. When we come to church, we get all dressed up and believe we have to act like things are all okay; no problems; no struggles; no sin. But this isn’t reality. And by doing this, we create an environment of untruth.
Lately I’ve been reading a book called Quitting Church, which looks at why people are choosing not to go to church. In one of the chapters I read, I was surprised to read about how many ministers are leaving the ministry because they feel like they are not allowed to be real. If the congregation sees that their pastor is struggling, or that their pastor has sin in their life, then they get judged for it. So the pastor puts on this façade of untruth. But then in time doesn’t like to live in this deception, so ultimately leaves the ministry. But wouldn’t it be nice if the church was actually a place where we could be real? Wouldn’t it be nice if the church was a place where we could share what is really going on, and not be afraid of being judged? Wouldn’t it be nice if the church was a place where we could reveal our struggles and know that we could get help?
Conclusion: Jesus said in Matthew 6:21- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…” Jesus came to free us from bondage. Part of the bondage in our lives is to money and possessions. A second bondage is the fear of rejection. This fear causes us to act in ways that are not true. In our passage in Acts 4 and 5 this morning, we see there is a challenge to us, a challenge to be a people like the early church, where we seek to care for others when they are in need. Where we care for others when they are struggling. Where we allow people to share openly so that we can love them, and encourage them, and help there.
I pray that as a people of God, we will start to head in this direction; the direction of giving over control to God, and let God shape us and mold us to truly be His people. If we do this, then we will start to see God more and more in our lives, and in our church. We will see people coming to this church to be loved and helped. Let us be like the first Christians; let us be people of truth. Amen.
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