Acts - To Share or Not to Share: Part 2
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Transcript
Acts - To Share or Not to Share: Part 2
Acts - To Share or Not to Share: Part 2
Last week we saw the character Barnabas, a man from Cyprus, who sold some land and gave it to the movement, specifically for…
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
The money is for the poor, so that there are no needy
And the congregation is growing, quickly.
8,000 numbered so far, plus many more
I linked this to the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19
As we go into Chapter 5, we have the opposite side of the coin.
We are going to meet two characters, Ananias and Sapphira
They are going to function like the foil to Barnabas
Let’s read the whole text…
But a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property; with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God!” Now when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard of it. The young men came and wrapped up his body, then carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you and your husband sold the land for such and such a price.” And she said, “Yes, that was the price.” Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things.
How are you doing?
Intense story isn’t it?
You have Barnabas that precedes this
And now you have this story
Let’s open it up for a moment…
Tell me, what do you think the point of this story is?
There is a corresponding story in the Hebrew Bible…
Joshua 7
It is the story of Jericho… (retell it…)
As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it. But all silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”
So, they do as they are told, the walls fall down, the people are defeated, Rahab the prostitute and her family are rescued, and they plunder the cities treasure.
They burned down the city and everything in it; only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
But there is a problem…
But the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things: Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites.
They go to the next city, AI, and Israel is unable to defeat it and some of their soldiers die
Joshua has a meltdown…
Joshua said, “Ah, Lord God! Why have you brought this people across the Jordan at all, to hand us over to the Amorites so as to destroy us? Would that we had been content to settle beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned their backs to their enemies! The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name?”
God responds…
The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings.
Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.
And in the story Achan is found out, he buried the goods, he is taken out and suffers the fate of death
Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him to death…
Several things are at work here:
First, Ananias and Sapphira dedicated by word all they had
Then they gave a portion and held back some for themselves
You might say, the LORD did not claim their property as in the Joshua story
Correct, but it was spoken and became the property of the congregation
The congregation, we will later learn, is the temple of God
Second, the Joshua story speaks of things ‘Devoted to the LORD’
The plunder of Jericho was to be put in the treasury of the House of the LORD
But Achan held some for himself
It brought disfavor on the entire congregation
Third, because of the disfavor, God tells Joshua, ‘The Israelites broke faith’
When Israel moved against AI, they failed
Israel, they have taken devoted things
They have stolen
They acted decietfully
They put them among their own belongings
Therefore, Israel is unable to stand before their enemies because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. (Josh 7:12)
But the primary issue is this, and this is the important comparison:
What was dedicated to the congregation in Acts
is equated to what is dedicated to the LORD in Joshua
God did not unilateraly take what was Ananias and Sapphira’s
But their ‘giving it all’ made it God’s possession.
Peter recognizes this and calls them out so that God does not disqualify the congregation from effectiveness
It is done to set the tone that God is going to treat the congregation of Peter with the same intensity as Joshua
For us…it is a warning
There was not an expectation that Ananias and Sapphira give it all
There was peer pressure to raise their glory among the group
Achan’s name means “troubler,”[1] a designation that carries significant weight given his transgression. While the specific stem used in Achan’s name appears nowhere else in Hebrew, the related stem denotes serious disturbance[1]—the kind of trouble Jacob faced when his sons embroiled him in blood feuds, or Jephthah experienced when his vow demanded he sacrifice his daughter.[1]
The name’s meaning proved prophetic. Achan violated Joshua’s order and God’s command by keeping spoils from Jericho,[2] and his disobedience contributed to Israel’s subsequent defeat at Ai.[2] When his guilt was discovered, Achan and his family were executed in the valley of Achor—a name meaning “trouble” or “calamity”—[2] creating a wordplay between the troubler and the place of his judgment.
In 1 Chronicles 2:7, his alternate name Achar (“disaster”) appears in Hebrew,[3] underscoring how thoroughly his identity became bound to the consequences of his actions. The biblical record specifically characterizes his conduct as “the troubling of Israel,”[1] making the name not merely descriptive but definitional—Achan was the one who brought calamity upon the entire nation through his covetousness.
[1] Willis J. Beecher, “Achan,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ed. James Orr et al. (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 35.
[2] Walter R. Hearn, “Achan, Achar,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1:16–17.
[3] Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, in Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 9.
Acts - To Share or Not to Share: Part 2
Acts - To Share or Not to Share: Part 2
