When hypocrisy stepped into the church
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WELCOME:
I want to express how encouraged I am by your participation in kingdom work.
Last week we packed shoe boxes full of items for children so they could have a Christmas. The generosity of your donations and giving towards the cost of shipping has truly blessed me.
I also want to say how much I have enjoyed our Wednesdays together. Something truly special is happening here and I am grateful to be apart of it.
Next Wednesday is our Thanksgiving meal. There is a sign up sheet in the foyer for food. Please make plans to attend 5:30 this Wednesday.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Psalm 106:1–3 “Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord, Or can show forth all His praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, Who practice righteousness at all times!”
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“The Goodness of God”
Words and Music by Hillsong’
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen
SERMON
INTRODUCTION:
George MacDonald said, “Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.” How true is this in our world today. The temptation is always there to make our selves out to look like someone that we are not.
There is no place that this is often truer, than in the church. For two thousands years the church has attracted all sorts of people who desire power, who are greedy, who want influence, who want to take control, and who desire glory and recognition. And what is true of the church today, was also true of the early church in its infancy stage.
Tonight we are going to look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira were the world’s first church hypocrites. And God made an example out of them before the whole church on that day 2,000 years ago and recorded it in Scripture to serve as a warning today.
ACTS 5
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 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.
Context:
We are kind of jumping in the middle of a story. And we know that because of that little conjunction, “but”.
So lets back up to the last two verses of chapter 4, and we will get a little better idea of what is going on. Acts 4:36–37 “Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet…But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 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.”
Church members are selling their personal property, land, houses, and bringing the money to the apostles to meet the needs of the church.
And Scripture highlights two individuals in these verses: Barnabas who sold land and gave it all and Ananias and Sapphira here who only bring a portion.
There was no pressure by the apostles to give in this way…this was COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY GIVING because the Spirit was at work in the hearts of these people and in the midst of this church.
So what was the bid deal?
Let’s get the picture here. Imagine being in this worship service with thousands of people
And seeing Barnabas go up to the alter during the service with bag full of money because he sold a plot of land that he owned and took that money and laid it down at Peter’s feet. And everyone in the service was watching him in awe.
It would be no different if someone did that today, sold their land for $200K and brought the cash to the alter and set it down and said, for the glory of God and furthering of the gospel. How would we respond? With awe!
And don’t you know the people were amazed then and saying, wow what a godly man! What a person! Can you believe he did that!? I just can’t believe someone would be willing to give that much up!?
And sitting in that same church service were Ananias and Sapphira. Professing believers who saw and heard members of that church praising and admiring Barnabas for what he did! What a man of God! Man I bet God is going to use him greatly! I want to have faith like Barnabas!
And Ananias and Sapphira thought, “we want to be known like that as well.” They wanted the plaque on the wall with their name on it that said they donated everything for the cause of Christ. They wanted rumors spread about them that they were among the very godly. They wanted people to say those same things about them.
BUT, they were greedy. And the heart of Barnabas was to give sacrificially to meet needs, Ananias and Sapphira gave to only to get recognition.
So they conjured up a plan and said hey, we’ll sell our property too! And we’ll do just like Barnabas and bring it to the alter and lay it down, BUT NOT ALL OF IT! We’re gonna keep back some of it for ourselves and no one will ever know the difference! And Sapphira must have said, boy thats good: win, win!
Bridge:
What this is is a classic case of hypocrisy. Someone pretending to be someone on the outside that they really are not on the inside. A form of deception to make other people think they were really godly people
A hypocrite is just an actor. An actor comes to the play, puts on the costume, and then plays the part, and pretends to be someone that he is not. When he leaves, he takes off the costume, assumes his real self, and go goes about his real life.
That was Ananias and Sapphira. They were actors playing the role of Christians.
Application:
And you’ve probably heard this statement in the church: “well were all hypocrites”. No, no were not.
Hypocrisy is NOT falling short of our pursuit of spiritual maturity. Hypocrisy is NOT striving to become more Christlike but not being there yet.
Hypocrisy IS trying to convince people that we are someone that we know we are not.
Listen to what Peter has to say to Ananias:
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? “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.” And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.
Explanation:
1) First, Peter identifies the spiritual influence behind this deception: Satan “Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart”
When they saw Barnabas get all that praise and glory for his sacrifice, Satan must have whispered in Ananias’ ear: “You could have all that praise and glory too, and you don’t even have to give up all your stuff. Here’s what you do: Go ahead and sell that property, but instead of giving all the money to the church, keep some back for yourself! No one really cares! Just tell them you did just like Barnabas and they’ll admire you too. No one is going to know!”
He did the same thing with Judas.
Judas one of the 12 disciples, the only one whose heart was not for Jesus. He played the part, he pretended to love Jesus, but the Scripture says the night he betrayed Jesus, Satan entered into the heart of Judas.
The great enemy of the church was not Ananias and Sapphira, but Satan.
Satan was behind this deed. Satan had sowed these thoughts into Ananias’ mind, which tempted him to sin against the church.
Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
If the devil cannot tear a church apart from the outside, he’ll destroy it from the inside. He’ll sow tares among the wheat, hypocrites into the church to corrupt the church with a little sin like this cause it to spread and corrupt the whole thing!
How do hypocrites hurt the church?
1) They destroy the testimony of the church. They affiliate with a church, and pretend to walk the walk on Sunday morning, but out in the world the rest of the week they live just like the world and the people see these professing believers who do not live the Christian life and conclude the church is a phony.
2) They are also stumbling blocks to church members and new converts. New converts see these people who claim to walk with Jesus, yet live in sin and causing them great confusion and often causing them to sin and fall away.
2) Secondly, Peter says: “You have not lied to men, but to God.”
I find this fascinating and very enlightening for us. What Ananias did in his dishonesty was not to lie to men but to God.
How? Because at the heart of every community of believers is the presence of Almighty God.
So when someone isn’t going to show up on Sunday morning and they make up some excuse, they lie to God
And when someone says they can’t go out and share the gospel because of something that is not true: they lie to God
And when someone tells the whole church of how godly they and claim to do things they do not do: they lie to God.
Do you know what God wants from us?
TO BE HONEST! God does not expect people to be someone who they are not, and God knows exactly who we all are.
So approach the congregation with honesty!
Approach the pastor with honesty!
And most of all, approach the Lord with honesty!
And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.
Explanation:
Now it is hard thing for us to imagine, in the world we live, that God would do such a thing to someone who did something that many would consider a minor offense compared to some things we see in churches today
So if God judged Ananias and Sapphira then, why does he not judge people who do much worse today in the church today?
I think if we look in Scripture as a whole, we will see that God makes examples out of people during different periods of salvation history as a warning against sin!
After the perfect harmony in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve fall into sin (Gen 3). God brought instant judgement, and banished them from the garden.
After humans began to populate the earth, the Bible says, the sons of God and the daughters of men intermingle and the people became increasingly wicked (Gen 6:1–4). God brought the flood and wiped out all but 8 of the human race.
After God’s brought out Israel from Egypt, Israel manufactures the golden calf at Mount Sinai (Exod 32). 3,000 people fell that day.
After Moses is installed as a leader, Aaron and Miriam spoke against him and God made Miriam a leper instantly
Now a husband and wife sin at the very beginning stages of the Christian church and disrupt and threaten the fellowship of the church and God once again brings instant judgement.
When we first started this church plant, there was an individual who became a problem early on.
He was loud, had a very domineering spirit, and caused many problems. He made my life very hard for a couple of years.
One Sunday morning, I was going over the story in Genesis 3:15 about Adam and Eve and the first announcement of the gospel. And as I was talking about this, this guy starts in on me, claiming I’m wrong. I don’t remember the extent of his argument, but it was very disruptive and uncalled for and biblically incorrect.
But in the middle of his rant, he stopped, clutched his chest and bent over in pain. Everyone stopped and looked at him wondering what was going on. The pain subsided and he looked up toward heaven and said, “I’m sorry Lord”.
He ended up going to the doctor and they told him he had a heart attack.
I think that was a small form of God’s instant judgement because this church plant was so new and God’s hand was upon it.
Bridge:
God CAN and will at certain times intervene in human history and bring instant judgement upon people!
We must not think about God as One who no longer judges people, and now is in a period where He overlooks sin.
Just because someone does wickedly today and does not receive judgement only means that judgement is being delayed, but it is still certain if that person never repents and and turns to the Lord.
To all the people who play the hypocrite in churches all over the world, this serves as a great warning to them that if they do not change their ways, this is what is to be expected when they stand before God on judgement day.
Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 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.”
Explanation:
Now can you imagine this taking place today in the church?
Husband tragically dies. Struck dead by God by Himself right in the middle of the sanctuary. Young men come in to find the man dead, carry him out, bury him, AND SAYING NOTHING TO THE WIFE!! Three hours pass, and she knows nothing….comes into the church and Peter says not a word about her husband, but gets right to the heart of the matter.
And she goes right along with the plan that her husband had divised for them. This is our story and we’re sticking to it.
Let me say a word to husbands, our responsibility to our wives is to love them like we love our own body. Love her like Christ loved the church.
If we encourage our wife to sin, in any way, we have failed her miserably as a husband. There is nothing worse we can do for our wives than to encourage or get them to conspire with us to sin in any way. There is nothing better that we can do for them, than lead them to live pure godly lives.
That being said, each of us is responsible for our own sin. And none of us will be able to say, my husband made me do it, or my wife made me do it.
Our choice to sin is our own choice, and we will each be held accountable for the decisions we each make.
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.” 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.
What does it mean to “put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?”
It just means yo see how much one can get by with before God will do what He says He will do. It’s like a child who tests their parents. The parents tell them not to do something, and they do it, and do it, and do it, testing them to see how much they can get by with.
Do you know what is really foolish? Knowing that God does not want us to do something, yet we continue on and on because it doesn’t look like God is going to intervene at all.
Notice its not just God’s concern about sin in the church, but Peter’s concern as well.
And it should be the concern of every church leader who preaches and lives the gospel!
Why? Because sin will destroy the church. Sin in the church will take everything good out of it and cause it to implode.
Do you know what happens to churches who do not deal with sin in the church? They self-destruct.
When sin is not dealt with by church leaders and the congregation as is instructed in Matt 18, the church will fall and lose its influence.
And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.
This is the first time the word church has been used in the book of Acts. And here is, coupled with “great fear”
Their fear of God increased becuase they saw first hand what God thinks about sin and how God deals with sin.
May we fear God this way, not because we have seen God strike down a man and his wife for deception, but because we have read about it and we Beleive it. And that is enough!
~PRAYER~
