SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong is a gospel-centered community-serving Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, and the parish of the Anglican Network in Canada.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to connect with you.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to reach out to us, you can find our contact information at Newsongport Perry.ca.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you through the ministry of the Word.
SPEAKER_02: Our reading from Acts this morning is taken from chapter four, verses thirty-two to chapter five to verse eleven.
SPEAKER_02: Now the full of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
SPEAKER_02: And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
SPEAKER_02: And with great power the apostles were giving, were given their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And great grace was upon them all.
SPEAKER_02: There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
SPEAKER_02: And it was distributed to each as to any had need.
SPEAKER_02: Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a piece that belonged to him, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
SPEAKER_02: But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back a portion of it for himself, and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostle's feet.
SPEAKER_02: Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
SPEAKER_02: While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
SPEAKER_02: And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?
SPEAKER_02: Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
SPEAKER_02: You have not lied to man, but to God.
SPEAKER_02: When Naya heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.
SPEAKER_02: And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
SPEAKER_02: The young man rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
SPEAKER_02: After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Yes, for so much.
SPEAKER_02: But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
SPEAKER_02: Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.
SPEAKER_02: And when the young man came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out, and buried her beside her husband.
SPEAKER_02: And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who had heard of these things.
SPEAKER_02: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own.
SPEAKER_01: And great grace was upon them all.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, holy God, there is no one like you.
SPEAKER_01: There is none beside you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, as we open up this challenging word in the book of Acts, would you open up our eyes in wonder to show us who you are, to fill us with your heart, and to lead us in your love to those around us.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's favorite Bible story.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel and the lion's den, that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: David and Goliath, that's pretty good too.
SPEAKER_01: But Ananias and Sapphira, that's top shelf material, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: That's not really how we feel, is it?
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we sort of encounter the story as we sort of launch into Acts, and we're kind of left asking, what just happened?
SPEAKER_01: It seems so out of place from what's preceded it and where the text goes.
SPEAKER_01: The text goes on and talks about the signs and wonders that the Holy Spirit continues to do through the life of the church.
SPEAKER_01: We've been going through the book of Acts, we've seen the great commission that the church receives from our risen and ascended Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You will be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: He says to his disciples in Jerusalem, you know, in your community, in Judea, the wider community, the region, in Samaria, across cultural borders, and to the ends of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And here we are gathered in Port Perry.
SPEAKER_01: And if anything registers as ends of the world to disciples in Jerusalem, I have to think here we are, beneficiaries of the gospel that has gone out.
SPEAKER_01: And it's our commission as well to take up that we will be witnesses to the reality of the risen Lord Jesus and the restoration and the renewing work that he is up to in his world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see in chapter 2 of the book of Acts the day of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit is sent from the Lord and descends upon the disciples and empowers them to bear powerful witness to the gospel, empowers them for unity, empowers them to do the mission he's calling them to do.
SPEAKER_01: And we see an example of this in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Pastor Matt brought us through the text of the lame beggar heels.
SPEAKER_01: We see the Holy Spirit at work in renewal and restoration in the needy person's life.
SPEAKER_01: We see the Holy Spirit's restoring power at work, and then just as quickly we see Ananias and Sapphira, and we go, what just happened here?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think Luke wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Luke the author wants us to see in this text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I think if we can make sense of this, we can make sense of why Luke felt it was so important to include this difficult episode of the early church in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we need to understand, I think.
SPEAKER_01: For better or worse, you belong to what you treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: You belong to what you treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go, that sounds a little counterintuitive, then you're tracking me here.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to explore that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before we jump into the Book of Acts, I want to encourage you to pull out your Bibles, pull out your order of service.
SPEAKER_01: Important we're looking at the text for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: So that you know I'm not just making it up on the fly here.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to investigate this episode for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And just as you're pulling out your scriptures, I guess I would just want to make a quick note here, because you know, there's maybe like five, a list, a short list of five or six kind of Bible texts.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the pastors tend to sort of whip out in around financial crisis time, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Anonizen supplier is sort of one of those texts that, you know, some pastors sort of see fit to pull out when, you know, we need some big checks and we need them now, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna, you know, dive into that.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I guess I just I want to say is that is not the subtext for this sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not looking for monster donations today, uh, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: I won't say no.
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's not the subtext.
SPEAKER_01: You can see in your bulletin, on the last page of your bulletin, we have a giving report coming out of the year 2023, and we can give thanks and bring glory to God that we are seeing such incredible generosity in giving in our midst.
SPEAKER_01: That God is providing for our needs even beyond what we could have anticipated.
SPEAKER_01: When you look at the fact that we ended the year in a uh$11,000, something surplus like that, uh, compare that to, I think, a budgeted deficit of$26,000.
SPEAKER_01: We can give God great thanks for moving generosity towards his mission.
SPEAKER_01: And so we do.
SPEAKER_01: We give glory to God for that.
SPEAKER_01: All good gifts come from him, and on top of that, we can thank God for an incredible gift of$150,000 towards the balance of our mortgage coming out of 2023.
SPEAKER_01: God has been so good and generous to us.
SPEAKER_01: So the subtext here is not we're in trouble and we need some checks.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, if anything, the context for us here at Newsong is a context of celebration, a context of trusting the Lord and giving thanks.
SPEAKER_01: But I guess I'm reminded of a particularly difficult proverb for me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Proverbs chapter 30, the teacher is sort of prayerfully, this is a book of general wisdoms.
SPEAKER_01: Generally speaking, these things hold to be true and they orient us towards the good and godly life.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the author is prayerfully sharing this wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches.
SPEAKER_01: He says, feed me with the food that is needful for me.
SPEAKER_01: Give me my daily bread, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
SPEAKER_01: So what's the author saying here?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Lord, would you give me neither too much material treasures, wealth, and give me, don't give me too much, don't give me too little.
SPEAKER_01: If you give me too little, I may be tempted to lie and steal and cheat and do whatever it takes to maintain my standard of living, and that would dishonor you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But don't give me too much, lest I decide I'm pretty self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: I've got no real need for you, God.
SPEAKER_01: I feel pretty secure in my own financial position here.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably not the proverb I would have written.
SPEAKER_01: If I were reading the book of Proverbs, I probably would have said, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches.
SPEAKER_01: On second thought, give me riches.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because for us, that can be a source of security.
SPEAKER_01: That can be where we depend.
SPEAKER_01: We can put ultimate importance on the money in our bank accounts to keep us secure.
SPEAKER_01: All that in mind, I think it's important we have a look at this text in Acts chapter 5 together as a church family, because this speaks exactly to our moment.
SPEAKER_01: Even in a moment where we've seen generous giving, lest we forget our gods, we need to take this text seriously.
SPEAKER_01: So, you belong to what you treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: The question we want to investigate is how does our material treasure, how does our relationship with our wealth, fit into the gospel-centered life?
SPEAKER_01: I think there's sort of two sections in our Acts passage today.
SPEAKER_01: There's a positive example, a positive exhortation, and kind of a negative cautionary tale, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the positive and then let's look at the negative here.
SPEAKER_01: Positively speaking, what does it look like to belong to what you treasure most?
SPEAKER_01: Verses 32 and uh and going forward, let's see what it has to say.
SPEAKER_01: First off, what does it look like to relate to our wealth?
SPEAKER_01: It looks like there's no entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but that they had everything in common.
SPEAKER_01: No one said, This is mine and no one else's.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Holy Spirit is working unity within the life of the church.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is working a sense of camaraderie, a sense of we are in this together and we belong to one another.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, no one is looking at the paychecks they receive and saying, Well, I've earned this and I get to spend it how I see fit.
SPEAKER_01: Folks are looking at what they receive and they go, it's true that I might have earned this, this might be mine, but you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If my neighbor needs it more than I do, by all means.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: This is a voluntary act, and it's really important that we catch that.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's characterized the church since chapter two, where we read that all who believed were together and had all things in common.
SPEAKER_01: They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
SPEAKER_01: So the bottom line here is there's no entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: Every material treasure is a gift from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gift from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the early church gets that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they hold everything they have in an open hand and they want to bless their neighbor with it.
SPEAKER_01: There's no entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: But why is there no entitlement?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we see verse 33, because there's no compartmentalization.
SPEAKER_01: There's no compartmentalization.
SPEAKER_01: I can barely get that word out this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Compartmentalization means we separate one part of our life from the rest of our life, right?
SPEAKER_01: We silo something off.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no compartmentalization here for the early church, verse 33.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it seems like a verse that's out of place because we just ended off by saying all the believers had everything in common.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34, it picks up there was not a needy person among them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the same flow of thought.
SPEAKER_01: But jammed in there like the cream and an Oreo is verse 33, and it seems a little bit out of place at first reading, but Luke is so intentional here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 33, there's no compartmentalization.
SPEAKER_01: With great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this was a church that was characterized, that was defined, that was permeated by the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is a truly gospel-centered church.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel of the risen Lord Jesus is being proclaimed, that's good news.
SPEAKER_01: We are seeing God's ministry go forward, we're seeing great grace, God's unmerited, abundant, generous favor resting upon his people, permeating them.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel of grace relates to all of life.
SPEAKER_01: And the early church gets that if the gospel relates to our whole life, then we don't get to silo or compartmentalize parts of our life away from it.
SPEAKER_01: We don't get to say that the gospel is the thing we love on Sundays, but on Monday, when I'm back on the grind, my paycheck is my own, right?
SPEAKER_01: The early church gets the gospel permeates all of life, so of course it encompasses our attitude and our practices around our finances.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and this is this is this is nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen this in the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the gospel writers talk about a rich young man or a rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_01: He's got position, he's got power, he's got influence, he's got stuff in his bank account.
SPEAKER_01: He goes to Jesus and he wants to know how to have eternal life, and Jesus tells him you live a life in keeping with God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Yeah, yeah, I'm doing that.
SPEAKER_01: What else do I need to do?
SPEAKER_01: And he and Jesus, it's like he zooms in on exactly what his heart is clinging to, on exactly what he's made, the ultimate concern of his life, and it's this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to him, pardon me, I should say this, Jesus looking at him, loved him.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: He loves this man.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: But disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had many, he had a great many possessions.
SPEAKER_01: That's a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus invites him to follow him, to find his true treasure in following him.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, because his heart clings to his material wealth and treasure, he doesn't take up the offer.
SPEAKER_01: He leaves Jesus in the dust.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's no compartmentalization here.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus makes a claim, when he says, follow me, he's not saying, follow me with this part of your life, follow me with this part of your week.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, follow me with everything you have.
SPEAKER_01: That might look like selling everything we have, like the early church.
SPEAKER_01: It might not, but it looks like saying to Jesus, everything belongs to you, and of your own have I given you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to live the gospel-centered life.
SPEAKER_01: Every material treasure relates to the gospel of grace.
SPEAKER_01: There's no compartmentalization.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, there's no entitlement, there's no compartmentalization, there is no self-centeredness here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
SPEAKER_01: So God has given generously to me, and I do the same.
SPEAKER_01: God has given me an abundance, while of my abundance I'm going to make sure my neighbors' needs are met.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this interesting biblical pattern, Old Testament and New Testament, that God, when He gives us material treasure, when He gives us wealth, He gives us an abundance, so that some of that can belong to His ministry, His mission, and to our neighbors' needs.
SPEAKER_01: We don't think that way.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that way.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak for myself.
SPEAKER_01: I have a natural scarcity mindset.
SPEAKER_01: So I am always thinking, do we have enough?
SPEAKER_01: How are we going to make ends meet?
SPEAKER_01: How are we going to make this work?
SPEAKER_01: God looks at my bank account and says, I've given you more than enough.
SPEAKER_01: How is it that you're going to use this towards the gospel work and towards your neighbor's needs?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a challenge to our mindset that way, but there's no self-centeredness here.
SPEAKER_01: God has given generously to the needy, so we do the same.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there is good stewardship to bear in mind here.
SPEAKER_01: Good stewardship bears in mind that God has given us what we need to take care of our needs.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it honors God if we uh give everything we have and now we ourselves are dependent on everyone else's charity.
SPEAKER_01: That's just part of God's providential plan here.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Thessalonians, uh, challenging some who are just content to live off the charity of others, he says, Aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands, that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
SPEAKER_01: So bearing that in mind, God gives us what we need to fulfill our own needs, and that's good stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: If we're if we're taking care of our needs, our family's needs, that's good stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: That's not self-centeredness.
SPEAKER_01: But self-centeredness does recognize that at the end of the day, what's in my bank account really isn't mine to do with as I see fit.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Lord's gift to me.
SPEAKER_01: You see the difference there?
SPEAKER_01: So important, so important that we get it that we grasp this because we have to take it forward into what follows.
SPEAKER_01: There's no entitlement, there's no compartmentalization, no self-centeredness for this earliest church.
SPEAKER_01: Every material treasure is uh is pardon me, every material treasure is valued by what it brings to my neighbor and not to me.
SPEAKER_01: I knew a uh a good buddy of mine, he's uh a priest in in uh Manitoba.
SPEAKER_01: He tells a story about um when his kids were very, very young, uh, you know, soda, pop, Coca-Cola, it was a real treat.
SPEAKER_01: That was a treat in their week.
SPEAKER_01: Once a week they got Coca-Cola, and he was a bold guy.
SPEAKER_01: So he used to, he had three sons, so he'd fill out three you know cups of of Coca-Cola, and he said, I would purposely fill one noticeably taller than the rest.
SPEAKER_01: And almost inevitably, one of the sons says what we all expect to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, that's not fair.
SPEAKER_01: And he he would say to his sons in this moment, almost became this ritual, the only reason you have to look at your brother's cup is to see if they have enough.
SPEAKER_01: Not to see if they have more than you.
SPEAKER_01: That's something, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: The earliest church knows that they belong to what they treasure most, the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That individually and corporately, God's generous grace towards them permeates their whole life together and inspires an attitude of abundance and cheerful giving.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the example we have with Barnabas.
SPEAKER_01: His name's not even Barnabas, it's Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: But it's like the gospel permeates his life so deeply that he gets this that his name reflects how gospel centered his life is.
SPEAKER_01: Barnabas, son of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: He sells his property and gives everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything to the church.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he's compelled to, but because he does so joyfully.
SPEAKER_01: Because for him, that is just such a natural response to how generous God has been to him.
SPEAKER_01: So, what's expected for Christians to give?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what we're starting to think.
SPEAKER_01: We're starting to wonder, am I supposed to be selling my house?
SPEAKER_01: Gets us a little nervous, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: On the one hand, we could talk about how much I should give as if it's amount.
SPEAKER_01: And we could ask, well, am I supposed to give everything?
SPEAKER_01: Because it seems like folks here are giving everything.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important that we notice the voluntary nature of what's being given.
SPEAKER_01: This is not compulsion.
SPEAKER_01: This is not mandatory.
SPEAKER_01: This is a voluntary, cheerful self-giving.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the real key here in verse 32 is that no one said or no one claimed their private property as their own.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean that it wasn't theirs.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't sort of like a, some talk about this like it's a proto-kind of communism or something.
SPEAKER_01: It's not really theirs and there's just so many reasons why that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: I would love to talk to you over coffee if you're curious about that.
SPEAKER_01: But here what you have is such a culture of generous giving that folks just well up to meet their neighbors' needs.
SPEAKER_01: And so no one's claiming the property for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and elsewhere we see in chapter three they're still meeting in homes.
SPEAKER_01: Like folks own their homes that they're meeting in.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, there's still a sense in which property is retained.
SPEAKER_01: And what follows in chapter five, Peter rightly says to Ananias and Sapphira, look, what was yours was yours to do with.
SPEAKER_01: Like it's, you know, belongs to you.
SPEAKER_01: So this isn't compulsion.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is not compulsory.
SPEAKER_01: What's given is voluntary.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a biblical practice that Christians have carried forward is the practice of a tithe.
SPEAKER_01: A tithe is giving 10% of one's income.
SPEAKER_01: And that's based on Old Testament texts primarily that speak to that as kind of your kind of your base goal of giving towards the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a helpful time-tested piece of biblical wisdom that that can be a goal for us in our giving.
SPEAKER_01: That 10% is something that I'm going to feel.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to remind me that my God is not in my wallet, and it's going to keep me dependent on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Not leave me with too little, not give me too much.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: So I think that that's a helpful goal to bear in mind.
SPEAKER_01: But if we take the Bible's whole counsel, especially the New Testament's counsel, we see far less far less being taught about the amount that needs to be given and far more about the attitude with which it's given.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's really, really key.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about giving here at New Song, we'll talk about giving as willful, cheerful, and sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: It's willful giving because it's voluntary.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, each person must give as he or she has decided in their hearts, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_01: It's not compulsory, it's an invitation to respond to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And there we also see our second attitude, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Cheerful.
SPEAKER_01: This is a rejoicing response to God's great love towards us in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That of course we're going to render our material treasures to him.
SPEAKER_01: We treasure him even more than our treasures.
SPEAKER_01: And it's sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: We feel it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a proportional thing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in Luke chapter 21, we read the story of the widow who gives two copper coins, and Jesus singles her out and says, you know, all these rich folks, they've given a portion of their abundance.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they've given the equivalent of millions.
SPEAKER_01: But here she's put in two pennies into the box, but that's all she had.
SPEAKER_01: That's all she had to give.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, she is given sacrificially such that she's, well, she's the one who's being singled out here.
SPEAKER_01: So the point is giving is sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: Giving is something that is felt.
SPEAKER_01: It means that we have to plan financially based on how it is that we're giving.
SPEAKER_01: That's part of the attitude here.
SPEAKER_01: It's willful, it's cheerful, it's sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: All of it is a response to God's willful, cheerful, sacrificial giving to us in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because He's given first and we respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: You and I belong to what we treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: The vision for the early church is we pay attention to what it is our hearts are inclined to cling to.
SPEAKER_01: We're inclined to cling to our treasure as if it's our ultimate concern and security.
SPEAKER_01: But we belong to what we treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: I want to quickly cover Ananias and Sapphira here since this is what we want to dive into.
SPEAKER_01: That's the positive vision for how a Christian relates to material wealth.
SPEAKER_01: It's not entitlement, it's not compartmentalization, it's not self-centeredness, it's a response to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And here's where we see Ananias and Sapphira fall short on all three accounts.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 5, verses 1 to 11, Ananias and his wife Sapphira sell a piece of property, okay, and they, you know, get the proceeds, and they give a part of it and lay it at the apostles' feet.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: All good so far.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what they decide.
SPEAKER_01: They decide we're gonna give a portion of this sale to the church, keep a portion for ourselves, but we're gonna tell the church that that is the total that we sold the land for.
SPEAKER_01: Why would they do that?
SPEAKER_01: I think it's because they're looking at Joseph, Barnabas, the son of encouragement, and the reputation and generosity and notoriety that he's gained in his community.
SPEAKER_01: They're saying, well, we want that for ourselves, but we want that without the pain of, you know, abundant sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: So we want the reputation and we want the treasure.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: The real issue is not that they gave a portion and not everything.
SPEAKER_01: The real issue is that what they gave, they gave dishonestly, deceitfully, hypocritically.
SPEAKER_01: They were mocking a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: And we ought to catch the fact here that Peter does not lay hands on them, Peter is not invoking some Jedi power or voodoo curse or something that strikes them down.
SPEAKER_01: Peter is simply confronting them with the word.
SPEAKER_01: And here you have Ananias and Sapphira who treasure their money and their reputation above everything else.
SPEAKER_01: They are entitled, they have compartmentalized the gospel from their finances, they are self-centered, and now God, in his severe mercy, has in this moment, in this space, and in this time said, if that's what you treasure most, then your will be done.
SPEAKER_01: Because where does our material treasure really get us?
SPEAKER_01: We know that we can't take it with us.
SPEAKER_01: We know that it can't get us to where it is that we want to go, and here God, in his severe mercy and his divine judgment, has handed them over to what it is that they treasure most, one after the other.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor John Stott reflects Ananias and Sapphira were not so much misers and thieves, but above all they were liars.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted the credit and the prestige for sacrificial generosity without the inconvenience of it.
SPEAKER_01: So in order to gain a reputation to which they had no right, they told a brazen lie.
SPEAKER_01: Their motive in giving was not to relieve the poor, but to fatten their own ego.
SPEAKER_01: I'm uh reminded of a scene from The Simpsons when uh Homer is getting kind of chummy with his boss, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns, and Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns is just the ruthless uh American industrialist who owns the nuclear power plant that Homer works at.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting chummy in this episode, they're getting to know each other, and Homer's kind of taking in, you know, one of Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns' luxurious properties, and he leans over to Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You know, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns, you're probably the richest person I know.
SPEAKER_01: And Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns, you know, sort of pensively says to Homer, Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I would trade it all for a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and it reminds me of something else that J.D.
SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller said.
SPEAKER_01: I've probably quoted this before.
SPEAKER_01: J.D.
SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller is, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Burns is no small part a parody of someone like J.D.
SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he's the, again, the American industrialist in the last century.
SPEAKER_01: He's being interviewed by a journalist.
SPEAKER_01: He's one of the wealthiest men in the world, and journalists ask him, well, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller, how much money is enough money?
SPEAKER_01: And he thinks about it and he says, a little more.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: We think that money is the thing we possess and it gives us security.
SPEAKER_01: But in the end, our money will possess us.
SPEAKER_01: If it's what we treasure most, we will belong to it.
SPEAKER_01: And what we sow is what we reap.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we have in front of us, friends, is an either or.
SPEAKER_01: No one can serve two masters.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve God and money.
SPEAKER_01: There's no mistake to be made here.
SPEAKER_01: Choosing wealth, like Ananias and Sapphira, or material treasure, is rejecting God, who is the source of our life.
SPEAKER_01: And if we reject the source of our life, what else do we reap but that which Ananias and Sapphira has?
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, what will we choose?
SPEAKER_01: Ananias and Sapphira is a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: It is a heartbreaking tragedy because not only was it so avoidable, but they missed out on the greatest treasure of all.
SPEAKER_01: It was right there offered to them.
SPEAKER_01: But they preferred to uh they preferred their own material treasures to the heavenly treasure.
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul is instructing uh the church in Corinth about their giving, he wants to remind them that their giving is everything to do with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You know that the you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the exchange there?
SPEAKER_01: Christ sets aside his heavenly glory and comes to us as one of us so that he can draw us to himself and raise us to share in his heavenly glory.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is not a result of endless, hard moral effort that earns us riches.
SPEAKER_01: This is a regs, pardon me, a riches to regs, so that regs can become rich story.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the invitation.
SPEAKER_01: This was the invitation to Ananis and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_01: This is the invitation to us, that we would receive the great treasure of abundant life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that life and that love will transform us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel a little anxious right now, if you feel a little tense about this story or how it relates to how we give, let me encourage you, because if you feel the anxiety there, strangely enough, that's not so much a condemnation of your giving or your attitude or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Strangely enough, it's evidence of gospel work in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit stirs in our hearts and convicts us when we withhold our whole self from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And inevitably we withhold something.
SPEAKER_01: We're sinners.
SPEAKER_01: We need grace.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to expose those parts we try and compartmentalize and hide away.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we feel some anxiety over this, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: If we feel indifferent towards this text, if we think this doesn't apply to us, then perhaps we need to humble ourselves and consider God's claim that we cannot serve God and money.
SPEAKER_01: You belong to what you treasure most.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel cannot be compartmentalized.
SPEAKER_01: We are called to give in such a way that we refuse to make our material treasure our ultimate treasure.
SPEAKER_01: We give willfully, cheerfully, sacrificially, but only as those who respond to God's generous giving to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, New Song, we have an opportunity here to be a church family that bears witness to the gospel in our generosity towards ministry and mission, towards the needs of our church family and our community.
SPEAKER_01: And when our life together reflects the gospel that's at our center, we as a church family can be of one heart and one soul with no entitlement, compartmentalization, or self-centeredness, and we can know whose treasure we are, and we may know that God's grace rests upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening today.
SPEAKER_01: We follow a generous God who calls us to give willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially towards gospel ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong is one hundred percent funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to learn more about how to give towards Newsong's ministry, you can do just that at newsongportperry.ca slash giving.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you and keep you today and every day.