The Second Serious Threat to God's Church

Introduction

When I was pastor at Starr Road Baptist Church there were three incidents that threatened the church: one minor, one major, and one mega incident. I don’t have time to discuss the mega incident this morning, and in doing so I would betray confidences, so I won’t talk about that one. But let me mention the other two:

One night, during evening service, while we were worshiping, two of the boys from different families came running into the sanctuary all excited because of what they found. Apparently, they found a skunk outside. But, they assured us that everything was okay, because they chased it away with a stick and it went to hide under the building.

In another case, a much more serious case, a man and woman were caught in adultery after meeting as counselors at youth camp...

As a pastor, I have four major biblical responsibilities: to pray, to preach & teach the Word of God, to equip the saints for ministry, and to protect & shepherd God’s flock.

Part of that protection is to recognize serious threats to the church and do what it will take to protect the flock from those threats.

It’s probably the hardest part of the job. And one that often burns pastors out.

Likewise, the pastor has a unique responsibility to protect the flock even from himself. As someone said to me recently, “Pastoral ministry is the only job where if you fail at home, you fail at your job too.” That’s true.

That’s because God loves His flock and expects that His flock will be taken care of.

Last week we saw the good example of caring for one another within the early church in Barnabas:

Acts 4:36–37 “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

It would have been great if this was the example of every believer within the church. Unfortunately, humans are sinful.

This morning we are going to see the second serious threat to God’s church, how God dealt with it, and learn the timeless truths that we should apply to ourselves today.

Body: Acts 5:1-11

Verses 1-4

This is the second serious threat the first century church experienced. And, this threat was a greater threat than the opposition of the religious leaders.

In fact, I would go so far as to say this second threat was greater than even the persecution that would come from the Jewish religious establishment and even later from the Rome. I’ll explain why in a second.

Notice that Ananias’ sin isn’t really greed or refusal to share, those these things are significant and are part of his sin problem.

In fact, Ananias and Sapphira where well within their rights to keep all the money for themselves; it was their land.

But his real sin is attempting to deceive God. And that is why it is such a serious threat to the early church. Allow me to explain.

First, through his actions the testimony of the whole church was at risk.

If the church had people who would attempt to deceive even their own God, why would others want to listen to what they had to say?

Someone might be tempted to think, “Wow, your god is so impotent that he can’t even tell if you are lying?”

Second, it takes the focus away from the Gospel and puts it on someone’s selfishness.

When the church is dealing with internal sin issues it’s not focusing on spreading the Gospel.

In fact, this has plagued the church throughout church history. When the church is soft on sin, full of unrepentant sinners, stops preaching holiness, and starts attempting to play-act Christian living, the Gospel calling no longer becomes the focus.

And, when the Gospel calling is not the focus of a church, a church can hardly call itself the church of Christ Jesus.

Third, Ananias’ motive for his deception was simply to look good in front of other believers.

Ananias wanted people to see him as generous, like Barnabas. But, he was play-acting. He wasn’t as generous as he would have liked to have appeared.

Something that continues to plague the church to this day is signaling. People love to signal that they possess certain character traits by behaving a certain way while people are looking. But, true integrity is really proven on how we act when no one is looking.

We don’t know how Peter and the apostles learned that Ananias was lying, but it is reasonable to figure that the Holy Spirit revealed it to them.

What’s important is that Ananias believed that he got away with this, but Scripture tells us something different:

Numbers 32:23 “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Verses 5-6

When faced with his sin, Ananias dies right on the spot.

Was this punishment more than the crime?

To begin, we don’t know exactly how Ananias died. It could be that he had a heart-attack or stroke. We don’t know.

However, God allowed this to happen, so ultimately it should be seen as the divine judgment of God.

In fact, the Greek word here is typically used in accounts of death as a result of divine judgment.

“But, isn’t this a little extreme?” a person today might ask.

As we already saw, this was a serious offense.

There was a great danger that the testimony of the young church would be forever hurt by their actions.

So, in allowing this to happen great fear of the power of the Lord came upon the church and, as we will see in verse 11, upon all who heard it.

God defends His church.

This doesn’t mean that nothing bad would ever happen to His church. But, the church is God’s church and He will never allow anyone or anything to destroy His church completely.

If Ananias and Sapphira got away with this, the message would have been clear: The God of the Christians wasn’t truly concerned about the integrity of the members of the church.

It would have potentially fallen into the trap of the antinomianism or epicureanism that have historically reared it’s ugly head throughout Christian history.

Antinomianism comes from the terms “anti” meaning “against” and “nomos” meaning “law”. The idea was that because of Christ’s finish work on the cross, that moral law no longer mattered.

Epicureanism is the philosophy of Greek philosopher Epicurus that taught that the chief end of man was to limit pain and suffering and maximize pleasure and happiness.

If the Christian movement began to embrace either of these philosophies, it was doomed. God would not allow that.

Verses 7-10

Sapphira had a chance to escape her husband’s fate, if she allowed the Holy Spirit to convict her of her sin. She failed to do so.

Her sin was the same as her husband’s trying to deceive the Holy Spirit. Thus, her fate was the same as her husband’s.

Now, earlier the text tells us that this was Ananias’ idea, but his wife had full knowledge of it.

Thus, her guilt remains. She could have, at any point, told her husband to do right by the Lord. She did not. And thus, her punishment was the same.

Again, we have no idea how she died, but the point remains: God is protecting the testimony of the early church.

Verse 11

A couple things to take note of here:

This is the first time the Christian movement is called the “church” in Acts.

Fear of the Lord and his power is a good thing. It’s holy reverence and honor.

In fact, the idea of fear here is awe. God’s power was displayed. It was frightening, and at the same time awe inspiring.

This God who the Christians worshiped took the testimony of the church very seriously.

And it will lead to another time of growth for the church, but also lead into another time of opposition and then to persecution.

So What?

The testimony of the church matters to God.

God will not necessarily exact this kind of judgment on someone who lies to the church today. In fact, I can’t think of any situations where this has verifiably happened in my lifetime.

But, what I have seen is far too many professed Christians reputations were killed because of their sin.

Think about how many pastors who have committed a major moral failing...

What happens to their ministry?

Most of the time, even the good things they have done is forgotten about.

It’s important to remember that the Gospel matters more to God than your reputation.

God is most passionate about His own glory...

And, therefore, the testimony of what God has done for us through Christ Jesus matters greatly to God.

Nothing hinders that testimony faster than God’s people willfully committing sin and getting caught publicly.

And, so what often happens is God, over time, removes that person so the testimony of the Gospel can continue on unencumbered by unrepentant sin.

What we do when we think no one is looking has an effect on the church.

Private sin doesn’t stay private forever. That should be humbling for all of us. In fact, in many ways it terrifies me because I know that many of us struggle with private sins.

And, in many cases, we believe that it doesn’t really effect anyone else. That’s because we forget that we are part of the body of Christ. And because of that fact, what we do effects that body as a whole.

I have arthritis in my back...

When my back hurts because of the stupid arthritis, it effects my entire body. I’m not functioning as I should.

If the modern church is to have the impact for Christ Jesus that resembles the first century church in Holy Spirit impact, we have to start taking sin seriously.

We have to rediscover the art of confessing our sins to one another.

We have to rediscover the beauty of Christian accountability.

We have to rediscover the call to hate sin.

Romans 12:9 “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

Hebrews 12:3–6 “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.””

Jude 23 “save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

Attempting to deceive the church is really attempting to deceive God Himself.

Here’s the reality: you can fool people.

Years ago, at the last church I pastored we had a man coming to the church who had a rare form of cancer...

As it turned out, it was all made up. He was deceiving us all along.

Apparently, this is something he often did.

This is probably not something good to say as a pastor, but I have been deceived a couple of times in ministry.

Even though I was raised by a police officer and taught to not easily trust people, a good enough story can, at times, pull on my heartstrings.

But here’s the reality: you might fool pastor Ben, but you can’t fool God!

I might not find you out. The church might not find you out. But, be sure of this, the same Holy Spirit who revealed Ananias and Sapphira’s sin to the first century church is still just as passionate about His church today.

This isn’t a promise that you will drop dead...but I’m not sure I want to test it either!

Finally, maybe you hear this and you haven’t always been forthright with your story.

Maybe you’ve deceived Pastor Ben, or the church, or a friend or colleague. Maybe you’ve deceived your spouse.

I have hope for you: the God who forgives sinners is willing to forgive you.

See, Sapphira had a chance to come clean, confess her sin and repent. But, unfortunately for her, she didn’t take that opportunity.

But you are still alive and there’s time to repent. Confess your sin to God. Confess your sin to the person or people you’ve wronged. What does God promise?

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”