I. Introduction
--
turn in Bibles to Acts 5:1-11
Acts 5:1-11 (NIV)
1 Now a man named Ananias,
together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.
3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had Happened.
6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price."
9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
-- just a
few years ago, a man was at an estate sale here in Valdosta
and bought a picture of the Washington
Monument
-- as he
was taking the picture out of the frame, he noticed several signatures and
initials on the back that caught his attention -- so, he carried the picture in
for evaluation and found out it was the original drawing submitted by the
architects in 1846 for the design of the Washington Monument-- the signatures on the back were all original and included such prominent names as Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James Polk, John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster
-- this guy paid $30 for the picture and it is estimated to be worth about $2 million dollars1
-- obviously, the owner of the picture didn't know it's true value, or he wouldn't have sold it for $30 -- so, does this guy who bought it at the estate sale owe anything to the original owner or is it just a case of getting a good deal?
-- what's the ethical course of action in this situation?
-- while
most of us will never have to struggle with million dollar questions like this,
we do face similar ethical questions every single day of our life on issues
that are just not black or white
-- is it
okay to tell a white lie to spare somebody's feelings? -- if you walk out of a restaurant and forget to leave a tip, should you walk back in and try to find the waiter?
-- what if you go to a meeting at another office and you realize when you get home that you accidentally picked up a pen or a notepad -- is that really stealing? -- should you take them back? -- they're just minor office supplies and nobody's going to miss them anyway
-- these things come up every single day -- and while we may think these are just minor issues with no real wrong or right, decisions on issues like this ultimately will determine the direction of our spiritual lives
-- we see that right here in the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira
II. Ananias and Sapphira
-- look
back at verse 1-6
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira,
also sold a piece of property.
2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the
money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. 3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
-- here we
see the setting of Ananias and Sapphira's downfall -- Ananias and Sapphira had
a piece of property that they sold -- obviously for the express purpose of
raising money to donate to the church
-- many other people had been doing that very same thing -- look back at Acts 4:34-37
Acts 4:34-37 (NIV)
34 There were no
needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses
sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
36 Joseph, a Levite from
37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.
-- and so
Ananias and Sapphira sold their property just like these others so they could
help support the needy people in the church -- but rather than give all the
money to the church, they decided to keep some back for themselves but not to
tell the church -- they wanted the church and the apostles to think they had
given all the money from the sale of the land as an offering to God
-- but God
revealed their hypocrisy and their lie to Peter -- and as he confronted Ananias
in the midst of the congregation, Ananias fell down and died and his body was
carried out and buried-- verse 7
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what
had happened.
8 Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and
Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the
price." 9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
-- just a few hours later, Sapphira came to the place where the church was meeting and was confronted by Peter about the money she and Ananias had offered to the church -- he asked her point blank, "Is this all the money you got for the land?"
-- Sapphira looked Peter in the eye and said, "Yes, it is" -- and the same judgment that fell on her husband fell on her -- Sapphira dropped dead on the spot and was carried out and buried next to her husband
-- at this
point when I teach on the story of Ananias and Sapphira, I always like to pass
around the offering plate, but I'm not going to do that today
-- in all
seriousness, the story of Ananias and Sapphira has always been a difficult
story for us in the church -- it just doesn't seem to fit into the character of
God as we saw expressed through Jesus Christ -- it just doesn't seem to fit in
with the rest of the story of the New Testament -- and we really don't know
what to do with it -- we really don't know how it applies-- on the surface, it's a simple story -- Ananias and Sapphira cheated God and lied to the Holy Spirit and were killed because of it -- even a casual reading of the story tells us that
-- but since it doesn't fit with what we know about God and how He deals with us as sinners saved by grace, we try to explain this away by saying that Ananias and Sapphira were not really Christians -- they had joined the church, but they were not real believers -- we hear the word hypocrite thrown out a lot in this passage
-- and so when they pull their little stunt by claiming to give all the money to the church but secretly keeping some back, God killed them as a warning to others who were trying to join the church but who were not really believers and were lying to the Holy Spirit
-- but I don't think that's necessarily what's going on -- there is no indication in the text that Ananias and Sapphira were not believers
-- in fact, go back to Acts 4:32-35
Acts 4:32-35 (NIV)
32 All the believers
were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his
own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
-- there's a connection between believers -- we can recognize each other even if we don't know anything about the other person -- a few years ago we had some contractors come in to Moody to talk to us about a project they wanted to do for the base -- and when I walked into that room, I was drawn to one man in that group of contractors -- we looked at each other and our spirits connected and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this guy was a Christian -- at this point, I didn't even know his name, but I knew he was a fellow brother -- and I'm no Peter
-- and when Peter confronts Ananias and Sapphira in this passage, not once does he condemn them for being spiritual hypocrites or unsaved sinners -- not once does he say, "You need to accept God's forgiveness" -- and I contend it's because they were believers -- they were part of the church -- and they had the Holy Spirit indwelling them, just as we do
-- so what went wrong? -- how could these two believers fall in such a great and tragic way?
-- and when cases like this occur, we always ask the question, "How? -- How did they let this happen?"
-- but I'm convinced that such major falls are not the result of one decision, but a plethora of minor choices that change the spiritual trajectory of a life
-- in other words, spiritual failure usually doesn't come as a result of a sudden cataclysmic event -- it comes through spiritual drift
-- I think this is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira -- I think they started out well -- I think they were part of this group of believers who truly loved the Lord and were living in unity through the bonds of the Spirit -- loving all and sharing freely with others -- but one wrong choice led to another and another until it ended up in their death
-- you can
clearly see here in this passage the original source of their downfall -- when
Barnabas sold his field and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet,
he was recognized by the church -- for right or wrong, he was singled out and
pointed out to others -- and Ananias and Sapphira saw this and wanted this same
recognition
-- and so
the first wrong step was made -- they sold a piece of property just like
Barnabas, but they did so with the wrong motive -- they sold their property seeking
man's recognition rather than out of devotion to God -- and the first step on
that slippery slope of spiritual downfall was taken-- and once that first step is taken, the second is even easier -- Satan whispered in their ears and convinced them that the church would never know how much the land was actually sold for, so why give it all to God? -- why not keep some for themselves? -- no one would know and they would still get credit with the church
-- and after they thought about it for a while, it seemed like a good idea -- so both of them agreed to let the church think that the money they offered was all they got for the land
-- you can see their thought process here -- it isn't really a lie -- we're not coming right out and telling the church that this is all the money we got -- we'll just let them think it is -- and if they get the wrong idea, well, nobody's going to get hurt
-- the thing is God didn't ask for them to do this in the first place -- this was supposed to be a voluntary offering -- and God didn't tell them they had to give all the money or 10% of the money or any certain amount -- God wanted this offering to be from the heart for proper motives rather than a legalistic endeavor
-- as Peter pointed out, the land belonged to Ananias and Sapphira before it was sold -- and even after it was sold, the money was theirs -- if they had decided to keep some back, no one would have faulted them -- but they decided to lie to God and now it was going to cost them
-- Ananias never actually lied -- he just kept the full truth to himself -- but Sapphira took that next step -- when Peter confronted her, she boldly lied to his face -- and suffered the same punishment as Ananias
-- what began with a wrong motive ended up in the death of both Ananias and Sapphira -- through a series of steps they drifted into spiritual sin and suffered the consequences
III. Closing
--
spiritual failure comes as a result of small choices that lead us away from God
-- remember the story of Lot from the Book of Genesis? -- if you've been
following along in your daily Bible readings this year, you've read in Genesis
14 through 19 how he and Abraham were forced to separate because of the size of
their flocks and households-- Abraham told Lot to pick a direction -- if he went west, Abraham would go east -- if he went north, Abraham would go south -- and the Bible says Lot looked towards the cities of the plains -- towards
-- and just a few chapters later, we find Lot has drifted all the way to the city of Sodom -- no longer is he content with living on the plains, but now he lives in town and holds a seat at the city gate -- although he was a righteous man, he made wrong choices and turned from God to the very evil God detested
-- we do
the same thing, too -- none of us here consciously think, "Today I think
I'll go steal supplies from my boss" or "Today I think I'll ruin my
marriage and have an affair" -- no, it begins with a wrong step here and
there -- a wrong choice that leads to other wrong choices -- and, before we
know it, we find ourselves in the same place as Ananias and Sapphira and Lot --
doing exactly what we never thought we'd ever do
-- I want
to close by sharing with you the story of Robert Robinson -- Robert was just a
little boy when his father passed away in 18th century England -- without a
father in the house or a strong male figure to guide him, Robert quickly fell
in with a bad crowd, and was soon given to all sorts of bad influences -- night
after night he would go out carousing with his friends, drinking and gambling
and enjoying all the vices the world had to offer
-- one
night, he and his friends found a drunk gypsy woman, and they began to harass
her and they demanded that she tell them their fortunes for free -- finally,
she pointed a finger at Robert and said, "This one will live to see his
children and his grandchildren" -- that struck a chord with Robert -- he thought to himself, "If I'm going to see my children and grandchildren, then I'm going to have to change the way I'm living" -- shortly after this experience, he decided to go hear the Methodist preacher George Whitefield
-- in order to avoid seeming weak in front of his friends, he suggested that they go with him and heckle Whitefield and the crowd that came to see him
-- Whitefield preached on the text: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7) -- Robert left in dread, under a deep sense of sin that lasted for three years
-- finally, at the age of twenty, he made peace with God and immediately set out to become a Methodist preacher himself -- two years later, in 1757, he wrote a hymn which expressed his joy in his new faith -- a hymn that we most of us know and have probably sung in church, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
-- but Robert's story doesn't end there -- not long after this hymn was written, Robert left the Methodist Church -- he left his ministry -- he left his faith -- and he wandered again along the roads and byways of his youth -- traveling again along the path of iniquity
-- one day he was traveling by stagecoach and there was a woman sitting there across from him reading a book of hymns -- she ran across a hymn that she thought was wonderful and started to hum it quietly to herself -- finally, one verse just caught her attention, and she asked Robert what he thought of it
-- "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I love -- here's my heart, O take and seal it -- seal it for thy courts above"
-- Bursting into tears, Robert said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."
-- the sad
and tragic story of Ananias and Sapphira is not the story of two people who
just got caught in their sins -- it's the story of two people who made a couple
of wrong choices and ended up in the bottom of a pit -- who suffered the
ultimate punishment for their sin of lying to the Holy Spirit and trampling on
the blood of Christ
-- but this
story is one we should take to heart and keep close, because if we're not
careful, it can become the story of us -- in Hebrews 2:1, we are told to
"pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we
will not drift away" -- and over in 1 John 2:28, we read, "and now,
dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and
unashamed before Him at His coming"-- the warnings are all around us -- it is easy to drift away -- to slip away -- and to find ourselves right were Ananias and Sapphira were -- we have to continue in Christ -- we have to make a conscious effort every single day to obey Him and walk with Him if we hope to grow in grace and not fall away
-- so, as I close today, will you join me in prayer to ask God for His help and His grace to keep us close -- to keep us safe -- and to never let us stray from His word or His commands
1. http://www.walb.com/story/5182158/valdosta-man-finds-priceless-treasure-at-yard-sale?clienttype=printable
No comments:
Post a Comment