Put to Death

Several weeks ago, when we began this series I’ve called “Sin, According to the Experts,” I told you that we are all experts at sin.

I told you that we all love sin, and that the evidence for that being true is the fact that we all continue to sin.

From time to time, we all, whether we’re followers of Christ or not, choose to reject the image of God in which we’re made and embrace the image of Satan, the deceiver, the angel who wanted to take God’s throne for himself.

We’ve talked about the covetousness of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and of the people of Babel, who built that great tower intended to reach into heaven. In both cases, the goal was to remove God from authority over them.

We’ve talked about how, in various ways, Cain, and Samson, Judas Iscariot, and even Simon Peter, rejected God.

We’ve talked about how Noah seems simply to have given up on faith, substituting for it a drunken stupor. And we’ve talked about how Abraham tried to buttress his sometimes weak faith by lying to protect himself.

We’ve talked about lust in the lives of both Samson and King David. They both fell for the lie that fleeting and forbidden physical pleasures were worth giving up the lasting spiritual rewards promised to them as God’s chosen men.

We’ve seen how King Hezekiah — a man nearly without equal among the Old Testament kings in his love for and loyalty to God— allowed pride to shift his trust from God to the kingdom of Babylon.

In each of the cases we’ve looked at, what was at the root of the particular sin we saw was a failure to trust God.

Indeed, that’s what’s at the root of ALL sin — a failure to trust that God is good, that He loves us, and that the things He’s kept from us are things that will hurt us and hurt others.

It’s a failure to trust that God SHOULD be in authority over us, because when WE try to take authority for ourselves, we make a mess out of everything.

It’s a failure to trust that He will provide for what we need, when we need it, and that HIS plans for us are better than our own plans.

It’s a failure to trust that what He promises for eternity is better than anything we could have in our short lives here on earth.

In one way or another, each of the people whose lives we’ve studied during the past nine weeks has failed — either partially or completely — to trust in God. And because of their lack of trust in Him, they sinned against Him.

Today, however, we’re going to look at a group of believers that could be identified by their remarkably complete trust in God.

They trusted Him in the most difficult of circumstances, and they trusted Him in ways that are hard for us to imagine today. And their great trust in God had some striking and wonderful results that can be instructive to us today, as the body of Christ, His Church.

And then, sadly, we’ll see that not even this group of believers was immune to the lies of Satan.

We’ll see how he entered this body of believers, just as he’d entered the Garden of Eden and just as he’d entered Judas Iscariot, and we’ll see how he wrought destruction through their sin.

And finally, we’ll see that God’s response to their sin is a picture of how WE are to deal with sin in our own lives.

Turn with me, if you will, to Acts, chapter 4.

Now, to place the passage we’re studying into context, remember that, by this time, Jesus has ascended in His resurrected and glorified body back into heaven.

But as He’d promised to do, He’d sent His Holy Spirit — the third person of the Trinity, whom He’d described as “another helper” like Himself — to live within each person who turned to Jesus in faith.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, the 120 or so disciples who’d gathered in the upper room of a home in Jerusalem, went out into the city and, led by Peter, began proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

And on that day, about 3,000 people were saved. Then, by chapter 4, the number has grown to about 5,000.

This was the beginning of the Church, and it’s characterized back in chapter 2 by its devotion to the Apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer.

It’s also characterized by its unity. The people were of “one mind,” Luke says near the end of that chapter. They were glorifying God together, and they were sharing the gospel “with boldness.”

Now, let’s pick up Luke’s account of the early church in Jerusalem in verse 32 of chapter 4.

Acts 4:32–35 NASB95

32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. 34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales 35 and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.

What Luke describes here in the early Church is something pretty incredible. The people are of one heart and one soul. Is that something you’ve EVER seen in church before?

This isn’t the modern church, which is so often characterized by division and mistrust. This isn’t the modern church, where so many are disengaged from its ministry.

This isn’t the modern church, where too many seats are filled by people who seem to be there just because going to church is what you’re supposed to do on Sundays.

This isn’t the modern church, which so many who call themselves followers of Jesus seem to see as a place to get a weekly spiritual fill-up, neglecting the fact that the POINT of what takes place on Sundays is to equip us all to go out and make disciples.

What we see in this passage is different. What we see in these verses is a church united in its focus on glorifying God by its complete trust in Him.

This was a unique time in Church history. We see a church united, heart and soul, in the Holy Spirit.

Miracles were taking place among these believers, and, as Luke puts it back at the end of chapter 3, “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

This was a time — perhaps the last to date in the history of the Church — when all followers of Christ were truly united in love, in purpose, and in the Holy Spirit.

And one of the manifestations of this unity was the sort of financial unity Luke talks about in this passage. Everybody shared what was theirs with everybody else.

Generosity wasn’t the ONLY way this unity showed itself. Remember that the people of the Jerusalem church were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper, to glorifying God together, and to prayer.

All of these were ways that the Holy Spirit manifested His presence in and among these believers.

But the spirit of generosity among these believers in the early church was another very real and very observable evidence of how the Holy Spirit was conforming them to the image of Jesus, making them to be like HIM.

This spirit of generosity caused those who’d been blessed with substantial financial resources to use those resources to bless others, who were not so well-off.

Just as Jesus had given up the glory that was His in heaven so He could bless those who’d follow Him in faith, THEY were giving up the wealth they had so they could bless those among them who were suffering.

It’s probably important to note that famine and political unrest were contributing to economic uncertainty in Jerusalem at this time.

This was especially true among those Jews there who’d converted to Christianity. They were now beginning to experience the beginning of a growing trend that ostracized them from social and economic benefits and would eventually drive many of them out of Jerusalem entirely.

In short, the Holy Spirit drew the believers living in these times and circumstances into a lifestyle of generosity that would’ve been a living testament to the life-changing power and mercy and grace of God.

And the living testimony of love in the Jerusalem church during this time would have been a powerful tool for God to use to spread the gospel.

Nonbelievers in Jerusalem would surely have known what was taking place in that church. They’d have known that some of the wealthier of the new Christians were selling their property and giving the proceeds to the poor.

They’d have wondered what would drive people to do such a thing, especially considering how hard they were making it for these new followers of Jesus to trade and find work.

The smart thing would’ve been for them to hold onto their money for the even harder times that were surely ahead for them.

And much to the church’s credit, neither the generous believers nor the ones who benefitted from their generosity were shy about sharing the reason for this unusual behavior. And they didn’t take credit for themselves.

Verse 33 anchors their witness in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In other words, they publicly proclaimed that the wondrous thing taking place within this congregation of believers was directly connected to Jesus’ death and resurrection. And the abundant grace they were receiving was a direct result of their collective faith in Him.

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they were trusting completely in God, even with their finances, even in the face of persecution and wondering if they’d ever find work again.

Now, what Luke writes about here isn’t a prescription for the Church in all ages and circumstances. Instead, it’s a description of the appropriate results of the Holy Spirit working in the Church at this particular time and in these particular circumstances.

This is what unity of love, unity of purpose, and unity of Spirit look like in the the type of circumstances the Church faced when it was beginning to feel the effects of true persecution.

And now, having described the spirit of unity and generosity in the church, Luke gives us a couple of examples of how it played out. Look at verse 36.

Acts 4:36–37 NASB95

36 Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), 37 and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Just as Luke described in the earlier part of this passage, Joseph, whose other name, Barnabas, means Son of Encouragement, did just what his name suggests: He encouraged the church by selling a tract of land he owned and giving the proceedas for use by the church.

In fact, we see Barnabas being an encourager for the church throughout the Book of Acts.

He was the one who helped Paul become accepted by the Christians in Jerusalem after Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.

He was the one the Jerusalem church sent to Antioch to encourage the new believers there and the one who brought Paul to minister and teach there for a year.

He traveled with Paul on his first missionary journey. He returned to Jerusalem with Paul to describe what God was doing among the Gentiles in bringing them to Christ. And he and Paul then returned to Antioch with the letter that said the Gentile believers were under no compulsion to be circumcised.

In Acts, chapter 11, Luke describes Barnabas as “a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”

And it was his faith in God that had led Barnabas to make this contribution to the church that we see at the end of Acts, chapter 4.

Barnabas seems to have ben the preeminent example of faith, generosity, and love in the early church, and we can easily see why he figured so prominently in the rapid growth of the Church.

But then, Luke gives us another example of generosity and faith — or lack of it — in this early church.

We’ll pick back up in verse 1 of chapter 5:

Acts 5:1–2 NASB95

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Now, the key to understanding what takes place with Ananias and Sapphira is in the Greek word, nosphizomai, which is translated here as “kept back.” It means to pilfer or embezzle.

You can’t embezzle what’s yours, so we have to assume either that it was the practice in the early church to pledge the full proceeds of such a sale to the church or that Ananias and Sapphira had made such a pledge on their own.

And it’s interesting that the same word appears in Joshua, chapter 7, in the story of Achan, who took gold and silver that had been consecrated to God from the spoils of the battle of Jericho.

“Achan received a judgment of death from God himself, and Luke may well have seen a reminder of his fate in the similar divine judgment that came upon Ananias and Sapphira. They too had embezzled what was sacred, what belonged to the community in whom the Holy Spirit resided.” [John B. Polhill, Acts, vol. 26, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 156.]

So, Peter confronts Ananias. Look at verse 3:

Acts 5:3–4 NASB95

3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? 4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Now, remember that this was a community of believers united by the Holy Spirit. They trusted one another, because they all trusted God, and they were all being led by God’s Spirit.

“But this was not so with Ananias. His heart was divided. He had one foot in the community and the other still groping for a toehold on the worldly security of earthly possessions. To lie with regard to the sharing was to belie the unity of the community, to belie the Spirit that undergirded that unity.” [John B. Polhill, Acts, vol. 26, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 157.]

In fact, when Peter says Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, in the Greek, the sense is that he FALSIFIED the Holy Spirit. That he was, in a sense, both denying the Holy Spirit’s presence in the young Church and acting in opposition to it.

Ananias, along with Sapphira, his wife, had betrayed the Church by pretending to be something they weren’t. They’d betrayed the Holy Spirit by pretending He wasn’t active and working in the church. And they’d betrayed God by trampling upon His holiness.

What we see here is the entry of Satan into the Church, and God took this threat very seriously. Look at verse 5.

Acts 5:5–6 NASB95

5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. 6 The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.

So, just as with Achan back in the Book of Joshua, we see God bringing judgment upon someone who has violated his holiness.

With Achan, it was because he’d coveted and stolen things that had been consecrated to God. But with Ananias, it was because he’d committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by denying His work in the church and acting against it.

And we see a similar, sad fate in store for his wife. Look at verse 7.

Acts 5:7–11 NASB95

7 Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?” And she said, “Yes, that was the price.” 9 Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.” 10 And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.

Peter gave both Ananias and Sapphira the chance to come clean, the chance to repent for their sin. But neither of them took that opportunity.

Both of them seem to have told the same story, and both of them were brought under the divine judgment of God, just as Achan had been back when the people of Israel first entered the Promised Land.

And that might explain why we don’t see such acts of divine judgment more often today, even though we these sins surely still take place today.

God acted early in the history of Israel in the Promised Land and early in the history of the Church to bring his people “great fear,” great respect, for Him.

Perhaps an early act of corrective discipline had kept the Israelites and the early church from falling headlong into sin and apostasy.

But there’s another lesson here that I don’t want us to miss, and it speaks to us of how we’re to deal with our own sin.

I think what we’re seeing at the beginning of Acts, chapter 5, is a real-life parable about how Paul says we’re to deal with sin, the deeds of the flesh.

Look at Romans 8:12-13:

Romans 8:12–13 NASB95

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Paul calls us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. And I see a parallel between what he says for us to do about sin in these verses and what GOD did about sin in the early church.

Just as God brought swift judgment upon the unrepentant Ananias and Sapphira, WE should bring swift judgment upon our own sins.

We shouldn’t allow them to remain and fester within us and spread any more than God allowed Ananias and Sapphira to infect the rest of that early church with their lack of faith in Him, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.

We’ve got to put the deeds of the flesh TO DEATH, not wait around and hope they get better. We’ve got to take ACTION against our sins. We’ve got to find them and root them out.

We’ve got to continually be evaluating ourselves to see how and where we bear the image of Satan and kill whatever is making us into HIS image so the Holy Spirit can be effective in His work to make us into the image of Jesus.

We’ve got to be looking for the sins in our own lives and sacrificing them to God in faith that He has something better for us.

THIS is the part that you play in your sanctification. Dealing with YOUR sin and doing it quickly, efficiently, and without mercy.

Ananias and Sapphira COULD have made a sacrifice to God. But instead, they lied to Him. And so, HE made a sacrifice of them, one that would protect the rest of the body of Christ from being polluted by their unbelief and blasphemy.

You can do the same with your sin. And you can start doing it today. You can bring that sin to the steps here this morning, lay it down, and give it to God as a sacrifice in prayer.

I’ll be happy to pray with you, if you like. Or you can do so on your own.

Either way, don’t let that sin fester. It’ll infect everything.