Petrified

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is once more an honor to stand before the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church with the intention of sharing the Word God in Spirit and Truth.

This morning, I would like for all of us to focus on our reason for being here. Beyond that even, what is your purpose for identifying as a Christian? Why do you do the things that you do?

For some, if you’re here this morning and you do not identify as Christian, let me just say, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you’re here at the invitation of a friend or family member. Maybe you’re somewhat interest in trying to figure out what it is these people gathered together believe. Whatever your reason for being here, I’m glad you’re here and it is my aim to rightly present to you God’s Word with the intention that you will see the glory of the God who gave us His Word. If you do not claim in faith in Christ, today will be an interesting look under the hood of those who do. We will be primarily focussing on what makes the Christian “tick.”

For those in listening today who do claim faith in Christ, today will be an evaluation of sorts. We will be looking at a case study in motivation for service in and around the church.

Too often in our context, the word used to describe Christians is “Hypocrites.” Sometimes this is a baseless accusation made from an uncharitable place of disagreement in worldview. We affirm that Christians still sin, that we struggle with putting the sin that remains in us to death. It’s not actually hypocritical when we are owning our failures and seeking to do better. But, if we are being honest with ourselves this morning, dear Christians, too often we are actively and willfully hypocrites! We want to fane an appearance of righteous, moral superiority while not actually caring all that much about our own sin.

There once was a rather pompous looking deacon who was trying to impress on a class of young men the importance of living a godly, Christian life. The deacon asked the class, “Why do people call me a Christian?” There was a pause in the room until one of the young boys in the back piped up and said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”

If you’ve been around the church for sometime, you’ve heard me talk about meaningful membership. Theres even tab referring to it in the bulletin you received this morning. “Christians are called to join together in local assemblies for mutual love, service, and accountability.” In that little illustration a moment ago, that boy certainly gave the deacon a little bit of accountability! But it illustrates that as we live out meaningful membership, as we live lives together as a part of the local church, our heart, our character is exposed to one another. In the healthily functioning, God-glorifying church we are exposed to one another, warts and all, and met with both love and accountability.

Those two things are not opposed to one another and in fact they both flow from God. God is Love and God is just. God is the Good Father who gives good gifts to His children and God is the Good Father who disciplines His children. Within the context of the church, we must be a loving group that cares for the good of one another and part of that caring is confronting, in love, when I, or any of our fellow believers are living contrary to what we say we believe.

With that said, turn if you would to Acts 5. Today and for the next two weeks following this morning, we are going to be walking through the entirety of this chapter. At the end of last year, we walked through the first four chapters of this book, leading up to where we are picking up today. If you weren’t with us or didn’t hear those messages, the overarching trajectory of this series looks at the historical narrative of the very early church, what God did to create His church that still continues today, and how from there connecting application to how we function as the church today. The early church was burning with passion and zeal for serving the Lord, though God may be using different events, we must ask ourselves, as a church, do we desire to be burning or burnt?

The form of our message this morning will be a little bit different than how I typically present. I’d like to in just a moment read the entirety of our text and then we’ll go back in looking at select verses as we draw application. As a bit of a side reminder, the Bible is a collection of different genres. All inspired by God. All profitable. All true. But we wouldn’t read song lyrics the same way that we read a biography. Similarly, we approach the historical narrative of Acts in a different way than we would a psalm. This morning we will read through the story, draw out facts, then seek to make meaningful application. Allow me to read for us Acts 5:1-11

Acts 5:1–11 ESV

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 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. 3 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? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And 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 man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

As I have mentioned, we are going to be looking at this passage as a bit of a case study on our motivation for service in the church. In just a moment, I will lay out the facts of our case from our direct text morning. Before we get to that, in any investigation, you are aided by background information. So let’s set the stage for what we have just read.

This event is happening in the early church in Jerusalem. All of what we have read here and the previous 4 chapters of the book of Acts takes place in the first year since Christ rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. The church is young and growing. God has moved in a miraculous and awe-inspiring way to declare and share that Christ is King. In a short time, thousands of folks have come to faith in Christ. The church is burning with passion. At the end of chapter 4, directly before where we picked up this morning, we hear about how the members of the church are sharing with one another, taking care of one another. And there is a man named Joseph, also called Barnabas, son of encouragement, who sells a field that belongs to him and gives all of the money to the apostles to support the ministry of the church. Chapter 4 ends on high note! That’s why the last time we looked at the book of Acts, we used that as a good point to finish out our series. But as I have mentioned before, while the Word of God is completely inspired, true, and beneficial, the numbering of the chapters and verses came at a later date and are not inspired. As a side note, this is why I wouldn’t take much stock in anyone giving a message claiming to tie a chapter and verse number to a specific date on our calendar. Like connecting something that happens on March 16th to John 3:16 because march is the third month, or something like that. First of all, the Gregorian calendar we follow wasn’t adopted until the 16th century after Christ, over a thousand years after the New Testament was written. Secondly, The New Testament wasn’t divided into chapters and verses until the 16th century. And third, as much as I appreciate the verse references to assist us in memorization and reading together, sometimes they’re a bit off. The story of Acts 4 continues straight into Acts 5. The conjunction “but” in Acts 5:1 is tying this narrative directly to the presentation of Barnabas selling his field and giving the money to the church. This is intentionally setting up a contrast and explaining the subsequent events.

So now, with the background information provided, let’s walk through the story this morning employing the 5 W’s of investigation so that we can see what is really happening here in the beginning of Acts 5. Who, what, when, where, and why. After that I’ll add another category I call “so what”? Where we will get into the application of our text this morning.

Who

Our selection of Scripture primarily involves three people. Ananias, Sapphira, and Peter. Peter is the apostle, the under-shepherd of this fledgling congregation. It was Peter whom confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and upon the confession of Peter that Christ established His church. We know that Peter was not flawless. He is also the disciple who not long after that moment, would go on to deny Christ three times throughout the trial of Christ. But despite his short-comings, Peter played a valuable role in the formation of Christ’s early church. Upon the resurrection, Christ restore Peter to service. Peter was then anointed with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and shared with the nations the gospel of Christ. And he is in our text this morning we see that he is functioning as a primary leader and authority figure in the early church.

Then we have Ananias and Sapphira. A moment ago I mentioned that Barnabas’ name means son of encouragement. That was name that would coincide with the character of Barnabas. For the two in our text this morning Ananias means “God is Gracious” and Sapphira means “beautiful”. We will get into the specifics of their actions in just a bit but it should be noted that there is great irony in their names. Their actions are not beautiful and neglect to properly respond to graciousness of God.

But before we all get ready to wag our fingers at the filthy sinners, Ananias and Sapphira, I want to make one thing very clear that will alter and enhance our understanding of this narrative. While I am not the Holy Spirit and thus I cannot make the final determination on what I am about to say, I think that all biblical evidence points to Ananias and Sapphira as being genuine, born-again believers in Jesus Christ. Why do I think this? Well first, if we remember that chapter 5 is a continuation of the thought at the end of chapter 4, then we will see that they are included as a part of the “number of those who believed.” Their participation in the church is a byproduct of conversion. Now, I’m not saying that everyone who has ever joined a church has truly understood Christ as Lord, but the desire to be a part of a body, practicing the one another’s with other believers, is certainly a sign of being a believer. When it comes to Ananias and Sapphira, their being believers is also supported throughout the text. In verse 3 you see that they had some understanding and relationship with the Holy Spirit. We know from other passages that believers can “grieve” the Holy Spirit when we sin. The Spirit still seals us for the day of redemption, but we grieve Him in our sin. Then we will also see that everything that happens in this passage has a direct effect on the rest of the congregation. It teaches the congregation to avoid similar errors. As one pastor put it, “if they were not Christians, what lesson about sin did this give to teach all the rest who were true believers?”

You might read through the text and see two things that would indicate they were not believers. Verse 3 also says that Satan has filled their hearts. We would think that could not happen to a believer. But remember that our adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to diminish our ministry and detract from the glory of God. The Christian’s primary struggle in life is not against flesh and blood, but against powers, the world forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness. All throughout the New Testament, continued through the early church, and with us still today their are believers sealed for glory that continue to fall short of the glory of God. This is not an excuse for sin, but a warning against it! Satan and you own flesh are going to cause you to stumble. We bust be vigilant, repentant, and thankful for the God who is greater than our shortcomings.

The second reasoning that some may give for Ananias and Sapphira not being believers is that their punishment in our text this morning was death. This can be a hard-pill to swallow, and we must be very careful in trying to thrust these reasoning on the situations we see around us, but sometimes the Good Father’s good discipline for His children IS taking their earthly life. This does not mean that every time we lose someone we love in the church that it is a direct punishment for an egregious sin, but it certainly can happen. When we do the Lord’s Supper I often read for the church from 1 Corinthians 11. In that chapter Paul tells the church that reason they are sick and dying is because they are taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner.

I believe it is within the bounds of Scripture to view Ananias and Sapphira as Christians. And from that perspective we can learn all the more from this narrative.

So now that we know Who is involved let’s move to the next W.

What

What is happening here?

Well some time recently before where we picked up this morning, the congregation was blessed with a gift from Barnabas selling a field and giving the money to the church. Within the life of the church, sometimes movements and service can be contagious. This can be a very good things! I think of the Great Awakening in America during the 1700s. Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached across America and many folks were coming to Christ. On a more local level, but no less important in the grand scheme of glory, we’ve seen this at our church over the last few weeks. One child professed Christ! What a joy! That is something we should celebrate! Through that occasion, God has used it to cause others in the children’s ministry to ask questions and last week we saw a second profession! This is an exciting time in the life of the church! Our God is a God of means and works through events to show Himself to others! But in each of the conversations I’ve had with the various children throughout this joyous time, I’ve made sure to ask what their intentions are in making a profession. I said would you still want to do this if Will hadn’t done it? Because if you’re doing it to simply model Will or to receive a high five from the congregation, then it ultimately doesn’t mean anything. I can assure the church that in the conversations that I’ve had with the children that they personally and individually understand they are sinners in need of salvation and the Christ paid the cost of their sin and desire to serve Him! Amen!

In our text this morning, we’re not looking at salvation being being contagious, but rather service in the church. It’s a tale of two fields. Barnabas sold his field and gave the money for it to the church. Ananias and Sapphira saw that and thought they could get in the good graces of the congregation by doing likewise. However, they weren’t willing to actually go all the way with their transaction. They sold their field but said to themselves that they weren’t going to give it all to the church. Instead they would keep some for themselves.

Ananias brings some of the proceeds to lay the feet of the apostles. In his mind, this was his big moment! He was going to be recognized with a similar joyous reception that Barnabas got! Right? No. He is chastised for his actions and winds up dead, petrified, on the floor. A few hours later Sapphira walks in without knowing what had happened. After a short interaction with the Apostle Peter, She follows the same fate.

So as we are looking at what happened here, we have to ask ourselves, what is the sin? What caused there to be such an extreme penalty? Was their sin in that they didn’t give all the money to church? Does that mean that because we save for our own retirement or take care of the needs in our own house that we are at risk of similar fate? The answer to those questions are no. There sin wasn’t providing for their own family by giving some to the church and keeping some for themselves. Their sin was making a show of religion to gain the approval of the others in the church. They wanted people to think that they had done just as “good” of a deed as Barnabas had done just a short while before them. There sin was wanting to be head honchos of their earthly country club rather than humbly serving the Lord. We will dive into why this is a big deal in a moment. Let’s first quickly walk through the when and where.

When/Where

We wont spend a whole lot of time here. We’ve already mentioned this is the early church in Jerusalem, just following the Ascension of Christ and the Day of Pentecost. The text does not tell us exactly when this event took place during the week. One pastor likened it to happening during a Sunday morning service while “I Surrender All” was being played on the organ during a hymn of response. The emotions are pumping, and all eyes of those who are gathered would be there to witness the mighty act that Ananias was claiming to preform. This is of course a bit on conjecture, but the intention is clear, Ananias and Sapphira were intending to make a show of their gift, knowing that it was not what they were doing fully what they claimed.

So let’s look at Why?

Why

As I was studying through the text, there were two different “why” questions that stood out to me. Why did they do this? and Why did they die? Let us effort to answer both of those questions.

Why did they do this? We have touched on this throughout the sermon thus far, but Ananias and Sapphira falsified their offering for a few reasons. First they saw what Barnabas did and wanted to follow up with a similar action. Second, Satan has filled Ananias’ heart to lie. We can take that at face value. Ananias were tempted with a potential to better their reputation and they took it. Third, though they may be believers, they live in the flesh and verse 4 reveals that Ananias, though, tempted contrived this scheme in his own heart. Verse 9 shows us that Sapphira was just as in on the scheme as her husband. They lied about their offering because they sinfully desired to do so. They thought the applause of men for a seemingly pious act was worth deceiving the congregation. But the God to whom they were falsifying their donation would not be deceived.

The second why question is why did they die? Isn’t this extreme? They still gave something to God. It may not have been everything, but why were they struck down. Allow me to give a few answers that will piece together the whole. First of all, on a very general level, no one is promised tomorrow. Believers are promised eternal life through faith in Christ, but even believers lose this temporal life. Everyone in that first century church was going to pass because it was not yet time for the Lord to return. As far as we know, it’s still not. Secondly, as I alluded to a while ago in our sermon, sometimes loving discipline from our Good Father is applied through the loss of this temporal life. Remember I mentioned the text on the Lord’s Supper where people were taking it in an unworthy manner? That text says, 1 Corinthians 11:30–32 “30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” After mentioning the weak, the ill, and those who have died, the apostle Paul writes, “when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined.” The hard truth to swallow is that the discipline of God is sometimes loss of this temporal life. Ananias and Sapphira, if true believers as I suggest they are, get to now enjoy the glories of heaven, but they missed out on more opportunities to glorify God through faith and service in His church. Discipline of God does not negate the grace of God. And the third reason is that the events that took place here stand as an example of, as one pastor put it, “sanctifying discipline” for the church. “The way Ananias and Sapphire attempted to reach their goals was so dramatically opposed t the who thrust of the Gospel that to allow it go unchallenged would have set the entire mission for the Church off course.” This served as a wake up call to the church for the seriousness of continuing in sin. “The destruction caused by spiritual pretense is clearly more far-reaching than we can imagine. We know it has poisoned the life of the Church throughout its history. ‘Hypocrite’ is the secular cliche for the churchgoer, too often RIGHTLY so.”

So What?

So now we have all the facts laid before us. What are we to do with all of this? What does it matter in our own lives and in our practice in our church?

First and foremost, we all ought to thank God for loving a sinful creature like us and sealing us for glory despite our shortcomings. If we were all put under the microscope today, I am certain that every single one of us could rightly be called a hypocrite in some form or fashion. It is only by the grace of God that we are here, able to hear and learn from the negative example of Ananias and Sapphira. He would have every right to make this moment the last breath we draw. So knowing that we are the continual recipients of God’s grace should that empower us to continue on living in hypocrisy? By no means! How can we who died to in still live in it? When the Spirit shows us our sin, even the sin that remains in us, praise God for the opportunity to repent and do it! For your good and the glory of God! Be a repentant people!

Second, we ought to realize the humbled posture with which we ought to approach service to Lord. Ananias and Sapphira thought they were big stuff for bringing in their offering. But as we have seen, God doesn’t need our false pretense in worship. Service in the church isn’t about gaining clout from the other church members around us. A good reflection question for us all to consider is this, “Do I recognize that I’m a sinner saved by grace and enabled to serve God, or if I’m being honest, do I think that God is lucky to have me, my talents, and my money?” If there is any part of you that identifies with the latter half of that question, may today be the day you repent and see Christ Lord! Not me! He doesn’t need me but He has allowed me to serve Him!

Third, when you find that you have sinned, hurting those around you, or even if it goes unnoticed, saying to yourself something like, “The Devil made me do it” is no excuse. Ananias and Sapphira were held accountable for their actions though they were tempted. We are to fight against the schemes of Satan. If we’re being real, in the moment, sometimes, maybe even more often than not, we fail. We fall to temptation. But that doesn’t transfer the responsibility away from ourselves. If you are struggling in sin right now, remember that if you know Christ as Lord, you have the the Holy Spirit. You have God’s Word. You have this body of believers to hold you accountable and spur you on in love and good works. You may incur temporal discipline and judgment, but use that as a grace of God to correct your actions and glorify Him all the more.

Fourth and finally, the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we don’t have to pretend to be more righteous than we are. You don’t have to fake piety to get people to accept you. Through the conversation with Peter recorded in our text this morning, we can see that if they had said something like, “We bring this gift to the Lord, we’d like to give everything from our sale like Barnabas did, but we need to hold on to some right now.” That would have been fine! Their sin wasn’t that they didn’t give enough, but rather that they lied to appear more righteous than they actually were. We don’t have to do that! I’ll let you all know when I talk about our church I tell people, we’re a group of sinners saved by grace. We don’t have to pretend to be perfect because we’re never going to be. I know a man in our church who tells people, “I’ll pray for you when I think about you.” As opposed to, “I’ll pray for you everyday.” I love that! It sounds a little off at first but its a recognition that in our feeble minds things fall through the cracks and we don’t always remember to do things as often as we should. As believers in Christ, we all should desire and commit to seeking the things that are above. We should be growing in our sanctification. We should be trying to do better for the glory of God. But we should not pretend to be something more than we are. We recognize our limitations and seek to serve well in spirit and truth. Our works don’t save us anyways. We are only saved by the blood of Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again to pay the cost of our sins so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. We don’t have to try to fill the hole in our hearts with enough pious deeds to make us feel good about ourselves or by receiving the praise of others. Those things can never fill the void that only Christ can fill. Rest in Him.

In a moment, we’re going to have a hymn of response. In that time I’ll be down front to speak with anyone really about anything. If you don’t know Christ, I’d love to tell you more about Him. If you know Christ but have been resting more on your own abilities than in His completed work, I’ll pray with you and help hold you accountable. But whether you come down front or stay in your seat, I would like to issue a challenge to all of here this morning. We’re about sing I am resolved. As we do, leave the pretense and religious performance behind. I am actually requesting that if you can’t full heartedly, sincerely meaning the intention behind these lyrics, then don’t sing. If you are not resolved, that is fully determined, to do these things, to no longer linger in the charms of the world’s delight, to go to the Savior and leave your sin and strife, to hasten to run to Christ, then don’t sing it! But if you do, sing unabashed. Give Him glory, and leave this place not resting in religious pretense but in the greatest, highest, true and just one, Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.