The Threat to Christian Community

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at how the Church is supposed to be united because we have the same purpose and calling. In looking at the end of Acts 4, we saw several examples of what the early church did with their respective unity as they assisted one another and were of one heart and mind! This is a beautiful picture and a model for the modern church to follow after. We know that unity is important and we are also realistic enough to know that we don’t always do the best job of maintaining our unity! We mess up. We sin. We prioritize the wrong thing and fail to prioritize what truly matters. Whenever we do this, there is a consequence.

Over the last few weeks ants have become a bit of a pest for many people as they have begun to make their way into homes in search of food. Have you ever seen a bunch of ants marching from their hill to a food source? It’s quite a sight, although I hope if you have they were not marching through your house! A pastor once saw several thousand ants doing this and said, “Why are these ants so organized?” The reason why is because ants are excellent followers. They simply follow the ant in front of them and half of the ants are walking towards the food source and the other half are marching back to the ant hill. There are no detours or breaks for these ants. They are efficient and united in their task.

Now, suppose one of these ants decided to go off and forge his own path and make a name for himself. This would present a severe problem because the ants behind him would likely follow him rather than doing what they are supposed to be doing. It just takes one ant to not be paying attention or one ant going his own direction and the whole colony could pay the price and not have enough food!

Thankfully, we are a little bit smarter than a colony of ants, but don’t we struggle with this same temptation? We struggle with going our own way rather than following the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Luke has been sharing a lot of incredible stories about the early church thus far in Acts as there have been miracles, massive numbers of converts, deep unity in the body, healings, and other things as well. However, Luke is also an honest historian. This early church had problems. As great as the leadership, as unified as the body was, as hard as they tried to follow the Holy Spirit, they weren’t perfect, not even close. This is a reminder to us that we will always have room to grow and improve when it comes to unity within the church and following God’s plan for us as a body.

In our text this morning, we see the consequence of a simple lie in the early church. Maybe you’re wondering why a little lie is worth Luke mentioning in the first place? To quote CS Lewis

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Lie)

“A little lie is like a little pregnancy—it doesn’t take long before everyone knows” (C. S. Lewis).

You might be a really good liar and you might be able to keep something from others for a time, but just like pregnancy, others are going to find out at one point or another. Lying, greed, jealousy, lust, stubbornness, pride, and others are a severe threat to unity existing in the church! Today, we are going to study why these things are such a big problem and how we can steer clear of them in order to fulfill our God-given purpose and walk worthy of our calling as Paul talks about in Ephesians 4:1

Ephesians 4:1 CSB

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,

This is not something to be taken lightly and we have to be honest enough to say that there are genuine threats to unity in the church today. Will we allow them to drive a wedge or will we step up, address them, and walk in the light as God is in the light? This is the choice before us today!

Acts 5:1–11 CSB

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. 2 However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife’s knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? 4 Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.” 5 When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard. 6 The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. 7 About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 “Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the land for this price?” “Yes,” she said, “for that price.” 9 Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. 11 Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things.

The Threat: Hypocrisy (1-4)

What is the greatest threat to the church of Jesus Christ? If you went and asked some Christians this, they would say the government. The powers that be are the biggest threat because they oppose Christ and they want to pass legislation that will go against what the Bible says. They are the biggest threat to the church. Is the government a threat to the church? It can be. Is it the biggest threat? Absolutely not. The Roman government in the early church did far worse things to Christians and passed far worse legislation than our government could even imagine to Christians and the church survived just fine. What else could it be? Some Christians think that the biggest threat to the church is society as a whole. The government is bad but society is so depraved and so far gone that people oppose the Bible and are a threat to the church. This isn’t wrong, there are many people who believe in things that are not Biblical and they would love for the church to struggle. Again, though, the early church was placed in an environment where many people in the surrounding society hated and persecuted Christians. They reported Christians to the government, they refused to hire Christians, they refused to sell to Christians. Is this a threat today? Sure. Is it the biggest problem? No. What is the biggest problem?

Ephesians 6 talks about the armor of God and we are called to put on this armor so that we can

Ephesians 6:11 NASB95

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

We are involved in a war. Not just against flesh and blood that we can see, but Paul makes the argument that our main battle is against dark, spiritual forces in the heavens. In our Wednesday night study in Genesis, we just wrapped up looking at the Fall of Man in Genesis 3. We looked at how there was temptation from Satan and Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s command. They sinned and we have a fallen nature as a result. Due to this fallen nature, what is our natural desire? As the song Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing notes, “Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God.” Our natural state is to wonder away from God. To do whatever makes the most sense. To follow our heart. To try to look good in front of others. This is what comes natural, and sadly, this is contrary to what God wants from us. God desires genuineness. He desires honesty. He desires us to praise Him. Yet, more often than not we go the other way or at least are tempted to do this.

In our text, we see Ananias and Sapphira sell a piece of property. This is a noble thing to do, right? They didn’t have to do this, as we looked at in Acts 4:32-37. This was voluntary. Good on them for stepping up to the plate! Yet, we see in verse 2 that they worked together and kept back part of the proceeds from the sale. Why is this a big deal? They did something good, after all! They were not honest with what they had done, yet they claimed to give all that they had received.

Tony Merida gives 7 things that Ananias and Sapphira did that were wrong. We’re going to list these and spend some time breaking down each offense

They were spiritual posers

They were praise seekers

They were liars

They were greedy

They were deceivers

They were Satan’s instruments

They were Spirit grievers

There are some lists that are inspirational and helpful, this is no such list. This is not a list that you want to find yourself on!

1st, we see in the text that they knowingly kept a portion of the money back from what they gave to the apostles. Again, they did something good! They donated some money voluntarily, similar to Barnabas in Acts 4, but they didn’t give it all. Isn’t this a temptation at times? We do something nice and the story kind of exaggerates over time? How many of you have ever heard a story about a person catching a fish? The first time you hear the story the fish was a foot long, the next time the fish was 16 inches and the 5th time you hear the story the fish was about the size of the fish that swallowed Jonah in the Old Testament! We exaggerate at times as humans. Churchgoers do this too at times, right? Two families who attend different churches meet up for lunch on a Sunday afternoon and one husband asks the other how church went and he replies by saying that it was great and attendance was up. Nearly 500 people were present. Next to these families stands a volunteer whose responsibility is to count the attendance of that respective church and he waits a little bit before chiming in to say that the 300 people at church represented a new all-time attendance number for the church. It’s easy to overestimate and exaggerate, but the story in our text is different still. This couple wanted to look the part of being genuine whenever they were actually just playing the game. Sadly, this is a temptation for people today too!

2nd, we are not told the specific reason that they gave and voluntarily sold their land, but in contrast with Barnabas who gave with a sacrificial heart we see that these people give with hidden motives. It can be easy to live for the applause of others and the recognition that comes with something nice, but that shouldn’t be the reason behind why we do things. It’s not to be celebrated in public, it’s about praising God and that starts first in our hearts! It’s all about Him, not about us.

3rd, they simply lie. It’s not as though there was some confusion in the amount they received in this sale. They did this together, as a couple! Does God love lying? Proverbs 6 says otherwise as the Lord hates several things and 2 of those are

Proverbs 6:19 CSB

19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

This is exactly what these people do here! Why would they lie not just to their church but to God? Why do we lie today? Whenever we minimize and fail to understand how holy our God is, it is easy to justify a litany of sins. As one commentator describes this passage: God’s holiness is dangerous. A dangerous holiness is God’s response to a determined hypocrisy.

Not only are they liars, 4th, they are also greedy. In verse 3, we read that they kept back the money at their disposal that was to go to God.

In the Old Testament we read of another person who is greedy and keeps something back for himself. After the Israelites entered the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, they experienced victory after victory because Joshua acknowledged that the battle belonged to the Lord and as long as they were faithful to Him, they would experience His covenantal blessing. However, in Joshua 7 we read of a stunning defeat. This was due to a person named Achan

Joshua 7:1 CSB

1 The Israelites, however, were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites.

They were commanded to not keep anything for themselves, yet Achan kept a cloak, some gold and silver. He was greedy! What was the result of his disobedience?

Joshua 7:25 CSB

25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought us trouble? Today the Lord will bring you trouble!” So all Israel stoned them to death. They burned their bodies, threw stones on them,

He and his family were stoned to death! God takes disobedience very seriously as we will look at in a moment.

5th, they were deceivers and planned this as a couple.

6th, they were used by Satan as verse 3 says. Did Satan use greed in a negative way earlier in the New Testament? We read this from Luke in Luke 22 regarding Judas

Luke 22:3 CSB

3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was numbered among the Twelve.

Both Judas and Ananias were motivated by money and Satan used this against them! Doesn’t Jesus talk about the fact that we can only serve one master? Whenever money is our master, or whenever anything other than Jesus Christ is our master, we are commanded to repent and turn from that sin! These people did not repent, sadly and this serves as a warning for us!

7th. they grieved the Holy Spirit as Peter notes that they lied not to people but to the Holy Spirit.

These people messed up significantly. The threat to the unity in the early church was now significant and due to these people, the unity had been lost. They were of one heart and mind in Acts 4, but Ananias and Sapphira brought in division due to them not being truthful and all in… Are you all in for Jesus? Are you all in for fulfilling your purpose on this earth? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to maintain Gospel unity in Christian community? If so, let these words by John Polhill marinate in your head, “Ananias’ heart was divided. He had one foot in the community and the other holding a stronghold one the worldly security of earthly possessions.” We can only serve one master. Our foundation must be built on something! Where is yours built on? The solid rock of God’s word or the things that the world says will satisfy?

The Judgment: Death (5-11)

The result of Ananias’ offense is judgment from God. The judgment is severe and immediate! In Genesis we hear God say to Adam and Eve that whenever they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will surely die. Yet, whenever they eat of it they do not die a physical death. Could they have died physically at that point? Absolutely. God was gracious and patient with them even though they sinned. Yet, we know that the punishment of our sin is death as Romans 6:23 states. God’s judgment is righteous and fair and He would be just to take any one of us right now because that is how severe our sinfulness is in His sight! This is what happens here in Acts 5 as Ananias simply drops dead. Is this fair? After all, society tells us that God is love and that’s the end of the story. Everyone is a winner. Everyone goes to heaven. God would never let something bad happen. God hates sin. God hates it whenever we sin. Why? God is holy.

Billy Graham was asked about revival and he said that 2 things must exist for revival to take place: Christians must understand the holiness of God and Christians must understand the sinfulness of sin. Until we understand that sin is bad and God is holy, we’re not going to get it. Sin is not something to flirt with. It’s not something to consult. It’s not something to consider. It’s not something that we should contemplate. It’s not a good thing whatsoever! We are called to flee from ungodliness in 2 Timothy 2:22. Why? Because if we live in unrepentant sin, we run the risk of tempting the very wrath of God.

Romans 1:18 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

Ananias and Sapphira either didn’t understand what they were doing was sinful, thought they could get away with their sin, or simply misunderstood the holiness of God. Probably it’s all of the above. Sadly, there are people today who feel the same way. They don’t think that what they are doing is sinful. They can justify their action. God it’s not cheating, it’s just on the internet. God it’s not an anger problem, I just get upset. God it’s not a lie, I’m just not going to tell the whole truth. We have our PhD in justifying our own actions! But if the Bible says something is sin, our reasoning or opinion on the matter is irrelevant!

The tragedy in our text about these individuals is not just that they lost their lives, but the manner in which this takes place. Ananias drops dead and is buried quickly - the people were fearful of what happened and they immediately buried him - and 3 hours later his wife arrives without knowing what happened to Ananias and is asked about the money. She is given an opportunity to be honest and even to repent of their wrongdoing but what does she do? She and her husband had planned this out in the beginning and she was holding true to their story. She doubles down and she immediately drops dead as well. They lied… and they died!

What should our response be to the judgment of God in Acts 5? Some people say that God is only wrathful in the Old Testament and that Jesus and the New Testament is just a God of love and inclusion. Did we just read the same text? There is a serious punishment to lying to God. Sin is serious! Our response should be to genuinely fall on our knees and say thank you Lord for showing patience and mercy and grace to me. Our prayer should be to thank Him for the truth of 2 Peter 3

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

The Lord is patient. But this does not give us a licence to delay or to continue to live in sin, instead, we must...

The Solution: Fear of the Lord (5:5, 11, 9:31)

What does it mean to fear the Lord? Why should we fear the Lord? Didn’t Jesus die so that we don’t have to fear anything? There is an appropriate and inappropriate fear of the Lord. Proverbs begins in chapter 1 by talking about this very concept

Proverbs 1:7 CSB

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.

The Lord disciplines His children. Fools despise it, but those who fear the Lord understand that God has a purpose and a plan. Whenever we think that we can get away with things in God’s sight, whenever we think that it’s ok to treat others poorly or speak ill of them, whenever we think that it’s ok to lie or pursue things with greedy and lustful intentions, we need to remember the fear of the Lord. In Acts 5, we see that after Ananias and Sapphira were killed, fear came upon those in the church and all who heard what had happened. Put yourself in the shoes of the young men who carried the bodies of these individuals. You likely were present in the room whenever they breathed their last. You saw God strike them dead for their hypocrisy and lying and you’re understandably afraid for your very life as well because you realize that you’ve been a hypocrite. You’ve lied too! Will God strike me down? We shouldn’t live our entire lives with this fear that every time we sin, we’re going to be zapped dead by God, that’s not the point, but we should understand that it is a good thing to fear the Lord and to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Remember the same God who created all things, who sustains all things, He calls us to be holy like He is holy. This is our calling! The solution to hypocrisy, lying, greed, pride, jealousy, and every other threat to Christian Community is to be like Christ.

In a few chapters, Luke chronicles the early church growing rapidly and says this

Acts 9:31 CSB

31 So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Conclusion

The church has never been perfect and our church won’t be either. We are all sinners and we have differences. We are wired differently and we have different ideas and preferences and traditions. Guess what? That’s ok! It’s ok to like different Bible translations, styles, worship songs, clothes, and cars. What we have to be aware of, though, is that the biggest threat to Christian Community is not something outside the church - after all Christ promised to build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it! Rather, the biggest threat is internal. Once you are saved, you belong to Jesus Christ for all eternity because you have been sealed with His sovereign stamp. Satan isn’t stupid, he realizes this. If Satan can’t win your soul, what can he do instead? He can hinder your witness. He can bring in confusion and tempt us with all sorts of false fruits. If we are not careful, Christian unity can be lost in an instant. As a result of this, how should we proceed?

4 pieces of application

Be like Barnabas, not Ananias and Sapphira

We couldn’t find a more stark contrast in Scripture than what we find here in Acts 4:32-5:11. Barnabas did not love things or money, he did not lie, he feared the Lord. Ananias and Sapphira did the opposite. Be a generous giver and follower rather than a hypocritical one!

Repent of our sin

When given the opportunity to repent and be honest, Sapphira doubled down on her lie. How easy is it for us to do the same and to continue to live in sin? God is not to be mocked. He see’s all! He calls us to repent and turn to Him. Whenever we live in sin, it fractures our Christian Community regardless of if other people know about the sin or not.

Work together for good

Ananias and Sapphira worked together in lying about what they had done. There are times in life where we are tempted to work together with someone to do something bad. We might be tempted to work together for something neutral. We might be tempted to fight for our opinions on things that ultimately don’t matter all that much in church life. These are things that can bring in division. Rather than work together for those things, let’s work together for good. Let’s be united with one another as we fulfill the Great Commission!

Walk in a manner worthy of our Calling

At Youth Camp this week, we had a time of Bible study out of Ephesians 2:1-10, one of the greatest passages in the entire New Testament as we are reminded of what God has done. We were dead in our sins…

Ephesians 2:4–5 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

We have been saved by grace through faith in Christ and verse 10 says

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Why are you saved? To fill up a seat on a Sunday school roster? No. To attend church once a month? No. To sing songs out of a hymnal? No. To go through the motions? No. You are saved to serve and fulfill your God-given purpose. To walk in a manner worthy of your calling as Ephesians 4:1 states. This is a ginormous task that we cannot take lightly. It requires us to let go of our greed, selfish ambitions, preferences, and everything else and fully trust and live for God. Are you willing to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ? To quote CS Lewis, if only 10% of people lived out holiness, the whole world would be converted within the year. Let us strive to be united with one another as we seek to live a holy life as our heavenly Father calls us to.