Things have been going so well for the infant church in the first 4 chapters of Acts: many coming to faith in Christ, miracles are taking place, lives healed, changed, the HS has been poured out upon the early believers…church community is healthy, vibrant, thriving…
There has been the start of persecution from the religious leaders (ch.4)…but overall it has only served to strengthen the church and deepen the resolve of the believers…
Now, if I were Satan, I would want to mess up this wonderful new thing God is doing… sooner than later…and this is exactly what Satan is trying to do… by employing three strategies:
1. persecution from the outside…intended to crush the movement, silence it, intimidate, create fear…this will continue and intensify throughout the book of Acts and beyond…
2. distraction from within the church…(ch. 6): get the leaders pulled away from their main priorities and focus…which is prayer and the ministry of the word…
-happens today: get the whole church body distracted with all kinds of activities, busy-ness…internal issues, conflicts… that we drift away from the main calling/purpose which is to bring lost people to JC…proclaim the gospel…reach unsaved folk…
…get us to invest our energy into things of secondary importance so we have little left for the things of primary importance…
3. infiltrate the church through sin and compromise…weaken the church through deliberate sin by its people so that the whole body is weakened and affected…which gives Satan a foothold so that he can keep us defeated, discouraged, powerless and ineffective…
Which brings us to the story of Annanias and Sapphira in Acts 5…
Warning: this story is troublesome and difficult: it will bother some of you…it should if you honestly engage with it… …we’ll be facing some deep and challenging questions about God, sin, judgment, grace, etc.
Prayer…read…start at 4:32…
Pertinent Questions
1. what did Annanias and Sapphira do that was so bad?
-the sin of Annanias and Sapphira was not in keeping back some of the money…at no time was anyone in the early church forced to sell land or possessions and give all the proceeds to the Lord…it was voluntary - same as it is today…
-Ann and Saph could have sold the property, given a portion of it to the church leaders, told them honestly what they were doing…the gift would no doubt had been gladly received…and life would have gone on quite happily…
But, what they did instead was to lie and deceive…they made it appear that they were giving all the proceeds to the early church when in fact they weren’t…
The sin, then of Ann and Sapp was hypocrisy, lying and deceit…it was trying to appear more committed than they really were…they were pretending to be something they were not…
** if you stop to think about it, the church (life) can be a prime breeding ground for phoniness and pretense…esp churches where religious conformity and outward appearance are emphasized…pressure to conform to some high standard can lead some folks to fake it…want to fit in…be a perfect Xn
* Please don’t be anything but who you really are around here; no need to pretend to be perfect when you’re not…
But it’s what Peter says in v.3 that gets to the root of this sin: read v.3…
-there was something going on in Ann and Saph’s life that opened them up to the influence of Satan and filled their heart with the deliberate rebellion against God that manifested itself as lying and deceit…
And what God could see that no human could, was that this was an extremely dangerous threat to the health and purity of the early church and so it had to be dealt with quickly, decisively and completely…
-behind the scenes here, in the invisible spiritual world, what is happening is that Satan is trying to destroy the infant church from within through the disobedience of some of its members…by introducing sin and compromise…and God is not about to let that happen…
2. don’t people today do that kind of thing all the time? lots of people lie and get away with it. Why doesn’t God strike them down dead?
-it is true that people sin all the time and get away with it; ppl lies and deception are all to common…and it is true that this sudden judgment by God in Acts 5 is not the way God usually works: it does appear to be a one-time event for a particular reason.
So let me give you two reasons why God dealt with this particular sin so severely:
1. it was a judgment on Satan
-as I’ve already said, this severe act by God wasn’t just a judgment on Ann and Saph, but also…actually mainly on Satan…who is the author of this sin…
-Christ is serving notice to Satan, “No way Devil: I will not let you spoil what I am doing in this new kingdom of God movement…this is My baby and I am going to take care of it and protect it, especially from you…”
2. it was an early lesson to the church on the importance of purity
-sending a strong message to the people of God that purity in the church is essential and foundational for its healthy growth and effectiveness…sin will not be tolerated…
-notice that this severe judgment by God did produce a healthy fear of the Lord…v.11
-and if anything is needed in the church, especially today, it is a healthy fear of God…
-we have so emphasized God’s mercy, love and compassion…which are all true…but we have spent so much time focusing on those attributes of God…possibly to make our message more appealing to people, not to offend anyone, to make God seem more likeable and desireable…?
…that we have drifted away from the reality of God’s holiness, justice, hatred of sin…
-so essential to keep a balanced, biblical view of God in order to live a life that honors Him…
But here’s an even bigger question I believe that arises out of this story, and it has to do with God:
3. Is God justified in His swift and decisive judgment of sin?
Now I know most of you are thinking that the answer to that is “yes”…and you would be right.
But instead of a simple SS answer to this question…let’s go deeper: why is God justified in swiftly and decisively judging sin?
Here is a profound answer: going to seem so simple, but we have no idea how important this is…Because God is holy.
It is God’s holiness that compels Him to hate sin, and it is His absolute perfection and purity (holiness) that qualifies Him and Him alone to be the judge of all and any sin…
And in the interest of keeping biblically balanced…it is God’s love that compels Him to offer mercy and grace to those who do sin…
A message you’re hearing less and less from pulpits in North America is “God hates sin”. Because God is holy, He hates sin. Always has, always will. He loves the sinner, which is all of us, but He hates sin.
Through Christ, that hatred of sin has been directed to the cross: while hanging on the cross, God the Father placed all of His anger and hatred of sin upon JC…the theological term for that is propitiation (appeasement of the wrath of God against sin through Christ’s death…)
-and that’s why God doesn’t hate you or anyone who sins…and that’s why God doesn’t strike us down dead every time we sin today; because JC took that upon Himself on our behalf. JC was struck down dead on the cross to appease the wrath of God against sin…so God isn’t mad at us…
But that doesn’t change the fact that God hates sin, even today; sin is abhorrent to God…it grieves Him and breaks His heart…God sees the damage sin does…He loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to give in to sin and cause so much heartache for ourselves and others bring so much dishonor to the glory of God…
Acc to Pr. 6: 16-19, there is a list of sins that God hates; it appears that there are certain sins that God hates even more than others…
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Notice that lies/lying are directly mentioned twice in that list…and the others all involve a deceitful heart bent on evil…
Why is it that lying and deceit in particular would be so grievous to God? I believe it’s because lying and deceit is straight from the heart of Satan and goes right back to the origin of sin and evil itself…
Jn. 8:44: (addressing the Pharisees) You belong to your father, the devil… He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
That could be one of the reasons God hates lying so much, especially when it finds its way into His church…because it was born in the heart of Satan and got everything messed up in the Garden in Gen. 3, so the potential damage and destruction it can cause is worth every effort to oppose it and stand for truth…
eg. for those of us who have raised children…when they clearly do something wrong…give us that innocent look…deny that they did anything…probably each one of us at one time or another has had that conversation…” All I want is the truth…it’s the lying that hurts the most…”
Lying corrupts and twists all that God stands for and it is a breeding ground for Satan to mess up a family or church.
4. is an emphasis on God’s holiness really helpful today?
-doesn’t it only reinforce the image of the church as being old-fashioned and draconian, blowing a trumpet call that no one is listening to anymore…
Yes, more than yes! it could not be more necessary!
It is necessary for the following reasons:
a. understanding God’s holiness will help to keep us from sin…
I’ve been searching for a long time for a convincing and compelling reason to give people to live a holy life…to keep myself striving to live a holy life…what’s it going to take?
eg. parents/pastor: “because I say so…because the Bible says so…because God says so…because it will make your life go better and you’ll be happier…”
God has given us a reason to be holy…it is this:
1 Peter 1:14-16: As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
-we find our greatest reason to choose holiness and not sin in the person and character of God…
** I’m going to explore this with you further next week…
b. understanding God’s holiness will make His grace that much more amazing…
-when we realize that a perfectly holy God who has every right to judge sin in any way He wants, could strike us down dead at any time for the sins we commit…when we realize that He could, but He doesn’t…because of His grace: mercy, love, compassion…then grace becomes that much more amazing…
-we become that much more grateful that JC went to the cross as our willing Substitute and took upon Himself the death sentence and punishment that we deserve…
Is 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Conc’l
-let’s spend some time letting all this sink in…as we gather around the communion table and remember Jesus’ death on the cross…remember the reason He had to die…and be so thankful for a holy God’s amazing grace…
-let the HS stir within you a desire for holiness…
Prayer…Worship…