Acts 5:1-11
Please remain standing and turn
in your Bibles to the book of Acts. We have not been in Acts
maybe for close to two months now, so it’s in there somewhere,
the fourth book in the New Testament. We’ll be reading chapter five,
verses one through 11. And if you’d like to use the
Pew Bible, it’s on page 913. While you’re finding your way
in Acts chapter five, I’ll just remind you of a few things about
Acts so far. Remember that our risen Lord
stayed with his disciples for 40 days. He taught them everything
they would need to know to continue his ministry on earth after he
had ascended into heaven. When he ascended, they waited
a few more days and Pentecost came, the Holy Spirit fell upon
The people, the apostles were able to preach and do many signs
and wonders, proving to those who heard that they were indeed
from the Lord. And so we saw the church beginning
to grow over 2000 people. They gathered for prayer, for
fellowship, for food, for the apostles teaching. And last time
we left off at the end of chapter four, they were holding all their
wealth and possessions in common. There was economic difficulty
in the uh, the land of Israel. And so they shared all things
in common as each had need. No one, um, no one had need because
it was met by the church. And there was Barnabas, uh, who
sold a piece of land and gave it, uh, to the church for help. Before we read, uh, chapter five,
verses one through 11, let’s ask for God’s help. Pray with
me. Our Lord, we need, uh, eyes that see, we need our ears unstopped
that we might hear We need our hearts softened and melted and
molded so that we might love what you love. And most of all,
we need hands and feet to leave this place and to go and do all
that you ask of us. So grant that help. We pray in
the name of Christ. Amen. So here the word of the
living God beginning at verse one of chapter five of Acts says,
but a man named Ananias with 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? 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 men, but
to God. When Ananias heard these words,
he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon
all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped
him up and carried him out and buried him. After an 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. When the young men
came in, they found her dead and they carried her out and
buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the
whole church and upon all who heard these things. Amen, the
word of the living God, you may be seated. We probably should
have an altar call now if anybody needs to come up and amend your
offering. Now would be a good time. Wouldn’t that make a good altar
call for this sort of passage? This is a difficult one. This is a tough one. A question
comes to my mind, and this question comes to my mind nearly every
day. Lord, could I mess the church up? Could I, because of my sin,
because of my selfishness, because of my own desires, could I mess
up a good thing? That’s a question that’s on the
forefront of my mind. It’s a question each of you ought
to have. Could I bring into the church of Jesus Christ, my sin,
my selfishness, my greed, my desire to be known and admired
and loved and maybe honored and recognized. Could I bring that
into the life of the church and mess things up? This is a sobering account of,
well, a couple that did just that. They got selfish. They got self seeking. They desired
honor. They wanted notoriety in the
church. In fact, it looked good for Barnabas. And so maybe that night at Pillow
Talk, Sapphira says to Ananias, maybe the other way around, honey,
we can sell that little piece of land out there on the road
to Bethlehem. And we could keep 50% and maybe
give another 50%. But we could tell everybody,
we give the whole thing, just look at us. We’ll get our plaque on
the wall. We’ll be on the climbers club at the church. Everybody will know. And this
will be a good thing for us. And so that’s what they set out
to do. Well, God doesn’t take too kindly
to it. He shows up. And he shows up
in a mighty way. Well, we have an account of us
before us of God purifying his church. Whatever you think of
these events, whatever you think of Ananias and Sapphira, whatever
you think of God or whatever you think of Peter, whatever
you think of the details or the lack thereof, we have to consider
this. God’s church must be pure. God’s church must be a holy community. God’s church must be a communion
of saints devoted to Jesus and devoted to one another in unity. Well, you might be asking in
your head, what’s the big deal here? What’s the big deal? They gave some money to the church
after all. Well, the big deal is this. They
hatched a plan. They were hypocrites. They were,
they were liars. They pretended to do one thing
when in fact they were doing another only wanting credit and
honors. The problem is for Ananias and
Sapphira is it didn’t go as planned. They didn’t have the unveiling
of their plaque on the wall, right? Their statue in the church
at Jerusalem is not there to this day to be reminded or all
to be reminded of how benevolent they were, how gracious they
were. This is a big mess for them. I want us to think through this
passage in a couple ways, some of the spiritual things going
on, the spiritual ideas, lessons, themes. The first we want to
think about is Peter’s perception. Peter comes to Ananias or Ananias
comes to Peter with this gift and Peter’s response is something
like, how dare you? And the reason his response is
so strong is by God’s grace, by the gift of the spirit, he
is a leader in the church perceives something smells bad here. This
gift, this attempt at benevolence doesn’t pass the sniff test. Something is up and it’s not.
It’s not a small matter, it’s a big deal. And imagine Peter
in his mind is thinking back to the Old Testament. He’s thinking
back to the formative times when God is advancing the Israelites
into the promised land. That’s what we just read of in
Joshua chapter seven. Joshua is about the conquest
of Israel into the land of Canaan. We’re reading now in Acts. It’s the conquest of the people
of God and Christ. to Jerusalem and to Judea and
to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. You have two conquests,
one into the promised land, one into the world, to the ends of
the earth. And in both cases, selfish people messed up the
church. In the early case, Achan, he
took from the city of Jericho, which they so wondrously and
triumphantly destroyed by God’s power, He took some of the things
devoted for destruction and he hid them in his tent for his
own blessing, his own benefit, and it brought death to him.
And in the same way as the early church is making ends into the
world through the preaching of the word, a family gets selfish. And instead of costing the church,
again, God says, these two must be put out of the people of God
in order that there will be purity and peace and unity. And Peter
perceives this. He perceives this. How could
you hatch this plan? And did you catch the language? Lie not to men, but lie to almighty
God. Several years ago, I was having
a difficult stretch in church ministry. I won’t tell you where
it was, but it was here. Um, and, and as I would, as I
would preach every Sunday, literally there, there were a good number
in the congregation, uh, arms crossed and not preached. It was so discouraging because
you could tell they, they didn’t like me or what I had to say.
And I used to kind of take personal, Kind of hurt, you know what I’m
saying? I went to lunch with a pastor friend and he said,
brother, it is not against you. It is against the Lord. And we’ve got to remember, brothers
and sisters, as much as our feelings get hurt or we don’t like something
in church, it is against the Lord. It is against his Christ. It is against the Holy Spirit.
And that’s exactly what Peter perceives here. He remembers
his Old Testament. passage from Joshua and he remembers
the seriousness of the things of the Lord. And he says to Ananias,
how could you lie to God? How could you do this to the
church? How could you break faith? How could you, uh, there, there’s
a, there’s a word here that it’s in the Greek new Testament in
Acts, but it’s in the Greek version of the old Testament of the book
of Joshua. And it’s an embezzle word. And
interestingly, in God’s sovereignty, this word only appears in Acts
and only appears in Joshua 7, not in the Hebrew version, but
the Greek version. And it’s an embezzle word. And don’t you
think God and his wisdom when he moved holy men of old to write
the scriptures and moved men later to copy the scriptures,
particularly that Old Testament into Greek. He wanted to drive
home this lesson. It’s, you know, when you’re driving
in a nail, you give it that extra pound, you know, to get it in.
That’s what this is, this word. It’s an embezzle word. Peter
says, how could you? How could you embezzle from the
church? How could you lie to God, the
Holy Spirit? So there’s Peter’s perception
here. There’s also the madness of sin. Sin still remains in
Christians. Yes, we are pardoned. Yes, our
sin is subdued in us and God is sanctifying us, but we still
have sin remaining in us and it rears up its ugly head. And
in the church, oh boy, just get into fundraising. If you give
a hundred bucks to the church, we’ll put your name on the wall.
That is the worst thing you can do. Flip open your hymnal, if
you will, inside the front cover. Somebody gave us these hymnals
about five years ago, four years ago, and all it says, given to
the glory of God, there’s no name. And the person who gave
these is now with the Lord. But I believe this person who
told me when they handed the check for these hymnal, I’ll
kill you. If you tell anybody who gave this money, this person
could probably haunt me pretty good. You know, we don’t want
to get into that, but who knows? But we sing praise to God out
of these hymnals. There’s no name, there’s no plaque, there’s
no fanfare, there’s no keeping tabs. The madness of sin when
it comes to church money. I don’t know if you know this
about our church history, but we come from the Church of Scotland
in the 1600s, 1700s, and our associate and reformed background comes from two groups
that pulled out of the Church of Scotland over various issues.
One of the issues that one of the groups pulled out for was
a patronage issue. And maybe you’ve studied your
European history. You know about the feudal system,
the lords and the peasants, right? The lords owned everything. The
peasants worked for the lords. Well, when it came to the church,
There was a system called patronage where the richest landowner got
to pick the preacher. Translate that into today’s terms,
whoever gives the most or whoever thinks they give the most, they
get to call the shots. We got a bunch of pastors in
the room, right? A bunch of preacher’s kids in the room. You know how
this goes. It doesn’t go well. Sin is maddening. And especially
when it comes to finances, we get rather irrational. We get
rather squirrely. You know, it’s winter out and
we’re driving down the road and you see a squirrel, recommend
you don’t hit the brakes because they’re going to go this way,
that way, this way, that way, this way, that way. And that’s what sin
does to us. And you put money and church
together and really the whole donor thing together. Sometimes
you, you get, well, you get problems. It can be part of our history.
It can be part of grand church history. But the madness of sin
enters in and we don’t always do the right things for the right
reasons. A lot of times we do the right
things for the wrong reasons. And usually those reasons that
are wrong are out of selfishness and out of pride and out of seeking
notoriety. And that’s exactly what Ananias
and Sapphira do. Now these are their lesser sins.
They’re conspiring and lying against the Lord. It’s their
greater sin, but they began to do things that would trickle
down into the life of the church. Peter perceives this. It shows
us the madness of sin, but it also reminds us of the penalty
of sin. The wages of sin is death. And we do thank God and bless
God that in Christ Jesus, though we will die as the wages of our
sin, death has lost its sting. There is no more victory over
us for Christ has won the victory over the grave. But dear friends,
you will still die. Now, I would doubt that any of
you for skimping the Lord 10 bucks on a Sunday is going to
be struck dead in the sanctuary. The men of the church will not
have to carry you out because you skimped on the Lord. There’s
a greater sin we ought to be reminded of here. They conspired
against the Lord and lied to the Holy Spirit. We don’t know
the ins and outs and details, but can’t you imagine as a Christian,
you know that the Holy Spirit reminds you of truth, the Holy
Spirit warns you of error, and the Holy Spirit sometimes restrains
you from doing things. And sometimes what do we do?
I’m gonna do it anyway. You said to step across that
line, you watch God. I’m going to step across that
line. You know, this in your Christian life, we do it often too much
more often than we’d like to admit, but God knows. And the wages of sin is death. Now what’s the big deal here?
Well, remember sin is cosmic treason. against the Holy one
of Israel. Sin is not measuring up to God’s
standard. It’s transgressing his law and
God cannot overlook sin. Otherwise he would not be just.
And so we remember the penalty of sin, the wages of sin is death. And then there’s part two in
this passage. If it’s not shocking enough that Ananias gets struck
down by God in the midst of the congregation, maybe they’re at
Solomon’s portico in the temple, maybe one of their usual places
that they’re gathering, but here’s part two, it’s three hours later.
And you have to use a little imagination. Ananias has come
up with, or Sapphira’s got a little windfall, so why is she not there
with him? Well, she’s been out shopping,
right? She comes back three hours later
and she’s got a new purse. And, you know, well, she doesn’t
even know her husband’s dead. And Peter, again, the perceptive
prophet apostle says to her, did you sell the land for thus
and so? Oh, yes, we did. And we are just
so happy to give the entire amount to the church. And we can’t wait
for our statue to be unveiled and to be named gold climber
members and all the rest. You get the picture. And he says
to her, the feet. of them that carried your husband’s
body to his grave are now through the door. And there’s something
that ought to be said about both of their deaths here. Yes, God
strikes them down. Yes, God executes them. And yes,
this is Old Testament God coming up in the New Testament. That
argument falls pretty quickly, doesn’t it? That Old Testament
God was mean and unkind. Well, here he is in the New Testament,
keeping his church But something ought to be noted about their
death. It’s a rather unceremonious death,
isn’t it? Struck down by God, carried off
by men, buried outside the city. It begins to sound a little bit
like Achan and his family. Get them out of the city of Jerusalem. Get them out of the precincts
of holiness. Get them out of the camp of Israel.
Get them out from among the people so that their impurity, their
sin, their wickedness will be removed from the people of God
and God’s anger might be abated from his church and from his
people. That’s how we ought to think, dear friends. That’s the
biblical way to think about the purity of God’s fellowship. Oh,
but we tolerate everything, don’t we? And guess what we especially
tolerate? The people we think are the biggest
givers. Oh, we don’t want to upset them. They really support
the church. And so we tolerate sin, which
God cannot tolerate in order to somehow divest people of their
money. What a backwards church we’ve
become in the modern day. And so we come to that question
again, can I mess up the church? Oh yes, you could. You could
really badly, but thanks be to God. that he keeps his church
pure. And I’m not talking about quirks.
You know, we have our folks that maybe talk too much or nose into
each other’s business. You know, we have people that
track mud into the church. You get what I’m talking about.
We have our quirks. We’re just people. But it’s a
terrible, awful thing when we allow ungodliness into the church
and we allow ungodliness, especially lying to the spirit to remain.
We’ve got to be reminded that we are an outpost of heaven.
We are not a company of hypocrites. We are an outpost of heaven.
We are to be a light to the world. We are to have purity and order
and unity. And yes, we are weak and wounded. Yes, we sometimes get into Arminianism
or we get into being too big of a jerk about our Calvinism
or we misunderstand a Bible passage or we’re unkind to each other.
But you understand, this is a company of saints, an outpost of heaven. This is supposed to be a place
where the realities of heaven are made manifest on earth. But there’s no fear of God in
the American church, is there? We come in casually. We come
in, it’s a social club. We come into church and we come
to get our itches scratched. And yes, we happen to be in the
context of Bible teaching and Bible preaching. We happen to
be in the room when Holy Lord’s Supper is served. We happen to
be in the room where worship is held, but we still have no
fear of God. And I remind you, not only of
this passage, this serious and sobering passage of Ananias and
Sapphira, and connect it back to the sin of Achan, but think
about in other places where people drew near to God and they fooled
around, And he took their lives. I think of Nadab and Abihu, the
sons of Aaron, who offered unauthorized or strange fire on the altar
before the Lord and God struck them dead. Their bodies were
carried off by their cousins. And Moses says to Aaron, you
better hold your peace because God has told you, he has warned
you, your sons have been instructed, we who worship in God’s house
have been instructed that those who come into the presence of
God shall be holy. And yet there is no fear of God
so often in the church of the living God. Now you say, what’s
the big deal? Why did God do this? Why did
God strike them dead? What’s the big to do here? I don’t know if I can serve that
sort of God. Well, I think you can, because I think you remember
that his own son came into this world. He took on all the disobedience
of his children and he carried it to the cross. And at the cross
of Calvary, God didn’t say, oh, it’s not a big deal. Jesus, I’m
just fooling with you. I’m going to do to you like I
did to Abraham’s son, Isaac. I’m going to get you all the
way to the altar and the knife is going to come up and there’s
going to be a ram in the thicket. No, Jesus is that ram in the
thicket. Our heavenly father did not withhold
the life of his own son because of sin. and because of justice
and because of wrath and all that had to be satisfied. And
so as we think of a passage like this, and we see God take the
lives of those who would hurt and harm the church, we realize
how serious it is to be in his family, to be in his church and
how serious he takes, seriously, he takes the purity of the church. Now, thanks be to God. that we
don’t have this same sobering sort of event take place. But
let me connect what we’re hearing with the Lord’s supper as we
prepare to approach the table. The church at Corinth was a messy
church. If it could be done in the name
of sin, they did it. And Paul visited, he painfully
visited them. He wrote them multiple letters.
We only have two of them. But he says to them in 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 about their practice of the Lord’s Supper. Some of
you are getting drunk. Some of you are overeating. Some
of you have something to eat and nothing to share with the
poor in the congregation. And he goes on to say to them,
this is serious business. This is the church of God, a
light to the world, pressing on into the world of the Roman
empire, and y’all are fooling around at the Lord’s Supper.
And you know how we speak at the Lord’s Supper about examining
ourselves to see if we can rightly discern the body and the blood
of the Lord Jesus, know our sin, recognize our Savior and approach
in a worthy way, a serious way. Paul says to the Corinthian church,
because you were fooling around in worship, because you are taking
sacred things and handling them in profane ways, some of your
congregation have died. Y’all remember that in first
Corinthians at 11? And then he says, some of the rest of you
are sick. That’s very interesting. We don’t often think of God’s
temporal judgments on us, his judgments in this life. We think
I’m saved. God will never punish me. And
that’s true. He punished Christ, but God will
discipline you. And he will discipline us, as
the book of Hebrews says, as sons. What earthly son does not
have a father who will discipline? How much more do you have a heavenly
father who will discipline you? God will chase in you. And sometimes
it’s through sickness. Sometimes it’s through hardship.
Sometimes he hits your idols where your loves are the most.
And yes, sometimes he will take your life. It doesn’t change
your justification. It doesn’t keep you from going
to heaven. But friends, God does not play
around. And there’s a reminder as we
come to the Lord’s table, whose table this is, it is the Lord’s
table. And the Lord’s own son bought
us at a great price in order to purify his church. So could
you mess this thing up? Oh yeah, get selfish. Seek honor,
be greedy. It can happen to the best of
us, yes. But cling to Christ and his mercy and his grace and
you will be safe in the arms of almighty God. Pray with me.
Lord, we thank you for sobering reminders of your holiness, your
majesty. Lord, forgive us for playing
church. Forgive us for coming for the wrong reasons. Forgive
us for coming to have our itches scratched and our egos massaged
and all the wrong reasons we come. Lord, let us come because
you are holy. You are to be worshiped. You
are to be adored and praised. And we are to come to receive
from your storehouses of grace, from your word and now from your
table. We pray that you would hear us,
help us and change us. In the name of Jesus, we ask.
Amen.