Acts 4:32-5:16 | “Barnabas, Ananias, & Sapphira”

Drake Daniels continues a series on the book of Acts.

Transcript

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Man, it's it's sunny outside. Uh you guys are talking. Uh, this is awesome. Guys, good morning. Welcome to King's Church. So excited uh that you guys are here. If we haven't met, uh my name is Drake. I get the privilege to be uh one of the pastors here, and uh I'll I'll just say this like our church is is growing in awesome ways. God's doing an incredible thing. Uh, one of the ways that we are growing uh is because you guys are doing the natural thing of how to grow something, and that is by reproducing. And there are uh two babies in the room where this is their first sermon. I feel bad that it's me, but I'm thankful that they're here. Um, guys, can we give it up for Carly and Brent? They're on staff right now. Uh Carly's on staff. Um, but then then there's also uh another couple that I saw sneak in the room, and praise God for them. Uh we have Nick and Angie, who their uh baby Gideon uh was just in the NICU this past week and by God's grace was able to come out. They just got home this weekend and uh now they're here. So props to them for that. Love it. Uh love that they're here. Uh it's a great Sunday to worship Jesus. And uh hey, we're back in our study through uh the book of Acts. And so if you guys have your Bibles, you want to be proactive, go ahead and open them up to Acts chapter four and five. That's where we're gonna be camped out as we just continue through this journey, going line by line through Acts. And we got a wild story uh on tab for us today. And in many ways, this this story kind of serves as a little bit of a wake-up call. Okay, I don't know if you've uh ever experienced like a metaphorical wake-up call in your life. I've certainly had a few. Uh maybe the most memorable wake-up call for me uh was when I was uh dating uh my wife. Uh at the time she wasn't, but I was dating her for uh seven months, and I thought, you know what, like I'm I'm ready to put a ring on it. And so now would be the time to say I love you, you know, for the first time. And so uh I do that. I I look at her, I'm like, babe, uh, you know what, I I love you. And uh she looks at me and it's in this moment where it's what dreams are made of, rom-coms are built around. And as soon as I said I love you, she said those infamous words, thank you. And uh she immediately followed it up with how do you know? Which I'm like, I don't know, you know, like how do you know that you know all that kind of stuff? Um come to find out that it was actually me later on uh dragging my feet and I didn't propose in a timely manner that she wanted, I guess. Um but anyways, at least that was a wake-up call for me because at the time I was like, man, maybe this relationship isn't progressing quite as quickly uh as I would like. For others of you, I don't know what a wake-up call, maybe, maybe it was a breakup. Heard that from some college students recently. Uh maybe for you, uh a wake-up call could be like a job review at work where you're like, oh wow, I thought I was crushing this job thing. My boss isn't too pleased with me. Guess there's no bonus, you know. Um I don't know. May maybe maybe for some of the moms in the room, um, maybe for you, your wake-up call is is when your husband shows you the receipt for the target orders this past month, and you realize you spent the mortgage at Target. Um I don't know what the wake-up call might be for you, but wake up calls really they can be a moment of clarity, right? Like, like kind of like a check engine light on your car when it where you have some recognition, like, oh my goodness, hey, something came up. I should do like some internal diagnosis right now. Like I can I can see maybe what's broken, maybe what's wrong, and actually start to fix it, start to change some things as a result. And and I start there this morning because honestly, that's where we kind of find ourselves in our study through the book of Acts, okay? Acts Acts 1 through 4, really the church has been full steam ahead, going 100 miles per hour. They're seeing amazing fruit, God's doing incredible things, and really it's been up and to the right up until this moment. And all of a sudden in Acts 5, it feels like someone pulls a parking brake and pulls a puts a halt on all of it in one second. And so we're gonna be seeing this wake-up call in Acts chapter 5. But before we get there, we gotta see Acts chapter 4, because Acts 4 is really gonna set up where we're going in Acts 5. And so Acts chapter 4 is the setup. Let's start in verse 32. It says this. Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them. For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed to each person as they had need. Okay, just pausing right here. This is a pretty awesome early description of the church, and we've seen this before, this kind of sentiment before in Acts 242, almost saying the same exact thing about the description of the early church. And so I don't want to spend too much time here, but I just at least want us to see that we see this radical generosity, that they didn't claim anything as their own. And this radical generosity really it flowed downstream from this radical unity that they had in Jesus. That Jesus, he had changed everything for these people. Okay, and so I've heard it said like this that because of the gospel, the early church had a loose grip on their stuff and a tight grip on each other. Which that's what the gospel does, right? Like when the gospel invades a community, when it invades a group of people, our grip on the things of the world begin to loosen, and our grip onto each other, the people of God begin to tighten. And so these people in the early church, they're like, man, my stuff's not my own. Right? They're like, I I don't even claim my life as my own. These people would have known I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. They would have known I've been bought with the price. And so for these people, they don't claim their life as their own, and so certainly they're not claiming their possessions as their own either. And what Luke does at the very end of Acts chapter 4 is that he moves from this like general description of what the church was like to a very specific example. It's kind of like a case study, like, hey, I'm not just making this up, look at this person. And so look down at verse 36. It's Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas, which is translated son of encouragement, sold the field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Okay, so this is Barnabas' introduction into the book of Acts. If we keep following Barnabas' kind of journey in Acts, we're gonna see he is mentioned six different times in Acts. Like he's kind of one of the key figures in the life of the early church. And yet what's fascinating is that nowhere in Acts do we see a sermon or even a statement from him. Okay, like there's no words of his being recorded. And yet, even though there were no words, his actions were really loud. Okay, to name a few, we're gonna see in Acts chapter 9 is that right after the apostle Paul was converted, formerly Saul of Tarsus, the terrorist, the one who persecuted Christians, he comes to faith in Jesus. And while everyone else is kind of nervous, like, I don't know if this Paul guy is legit. Like, is he just kind of making up this thing about following Jesus now? Barnabas is gonna be the first one to come over, put his arm around him and say, guys, he's one of us. You know, later on he's gonna help lead the church in Antioch. Um, he's even going to join Paul on his missionary journeys. Like, this guy is awesome. And then we could do a whole sermon series on him, but I want you guys to see that here in Acts chapter 4, these apostles, these people, they loved Joseph so much that they eventually named him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. Okay, evidently this dude was very generous with his words, and so instead of bragging on himself, he wanted to brag on other people. Okay, instead of being critical, he spoke words of courage into people's life. Like he was super generous with his words. And so I'll just say this is men, if you are an encourager in the room, can I just say, can you keep doing that, please? Okay, because the church needs some people with that type of gift. Like some of the most helpful things, I think, in my own life have been some dudes rallying around me, kind of like a young, somewhat guy at the time, and uh certainly insecure guy, and saying, Drake, we we see God working in you. Uh, Drake, we see God's hand on your life in this way. God, uh, Drake, you you've helped us in this kind of area. And so I think all of us, and man, hopefully this lands on you, is I hope that we all need some barnabases. I hope that you guys are barnabas in your life. You're just coming around people saying, Hey, you might not be able to see it, but but God's doing an unbelievable work in you. Hey, don't forget how faithful God has been to you. Hey, you can defeat this sin in your life because of God's work in you. You see, guys, the world is desperate for some barnabases. And in a world filled with so much criticism and chaos, I think one of the most counter-cultural things that we could do is to just be positive, to be some encouragers, to be some barnabuses in our church and in our community. One of the things that uh uh Zach had mentioned in his time in Morocco is that there's a pastor in our network of churches who one of the main prayers in his life is that he would have a godly glow about him. Yeah, I love that. That's been my prayer for this week, to have a godly glow about myself. And certainly I think if it was Barnabas, son of encouragement, you probably also could have put Barnabas a godly glow kind of guy. You know, and so uh man, I think absolutely. Like, is there a time for rebuking? Is there a time for being stern? Is there a time for calling out? Yes. Those have been some of the most fruitful times in my life. But man, there's other times where I'm just like, man, what if we all just we put down our rocks, we put down our stones, and we started picking up some pom-poms and we're cheerleaders for the people of God, you know? Try to be some Barnabases in somebody's life to encourage them to be faithful, to encourage them to fight sin, to encourage them to keep keep running the race, to try to be a little bit more like Barnabas in this area. But Barnabas, he wasn't just encouraging and generous with his words. This story is also showing that he's generous with his wealth. And so his words are life-giving, but his wallet is also open to the mission and the things of God, which is that's what we see in this story. I mean, we're gonna see Barnabas. He's wealthy, he owns land, he owns property, and that's a big deal. Like this guy wasn't a jump. No, he's he's doing great, but we see that Luke is highlighting this guy because this is the type of guy who's gonna say, Hey, nothing that I own. No amount of money, no amount of land, no amount of property, none of this is my own. It's all God's. I'm just a steward of what he has graced me with. And so by laying it at the apostles' feet, we see that it's he's basically he sold his land, he brings the proceeds to the apostles, and he's like, Hey, whatever would further the mission of God the most, I trust you to do it. That that that's his posture right here. And this feels radical. I'm looking at this and I'm like, man, I'm I'm struggling to sell like my $2,000 Ford F-150 sometimes. I'm like, that's a lot of money for me. This guy just sold his property. This guy just sold everything, and he's laying it at the apostles' feet. And yet it says uh at the very beginning, I don't know if you notice it, it says the entire group was doing this. All right, so it wasn't just it wasn't just some people in this group. No, it says the entire group, like everybody, they've received the grace of Jesus, and now they want to be generous with what they have. And this, again, this shouldn't surprise us. Like we're reading this, and we may be amazed, but it we shouldn't be surprised by this because when the gospel comes in, generosity is going to flow out. And here's what I've seen in my own life is that the most generous people that I know are the ones who have experienced God's grace in the deepest way. They've been the ones who experience God's grace in the deepest way. And here's why, okay? We have we have five generosity kind of convictions here at King's Church. If you've gone through membership like Owen plugged, uh you know, you know these. I we don't have time to go through all of them, but let me just point out our number one generosity conviction, kind of one that sets the pace for everything, and it's this. Our first generosity conviction is that Jesus is the most generous person in human history because he paid for it all on the cross. Okay, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave Jesus, he paid it all on the cross, and not just that, but now he gives us his word, he gives us his church, he gives us his mission. We have a very generous king, and now we're called to come and follow that type of example. And so I know that overall, even looking at Barnabas, looking at kind of a money conversation, overall, money and stewardship and all that kind of stuff can be a little bit tricky uh in the realm of church. But here's all I would say is that I know that there are some people in here who you love Jesus, you're obeying him in so many areas of your life. You're you're reading your Bible, you're in community, you're confessing, you're serving, all these types of things, but at least with your stuff, you're with your property and your possessions, you're like, hey God, hands off of this. Hands off, I don't want you to touch this part. And for that, I would just say, man, I think if we had the posture of the early church, had the posture of Barnabas, we would we would realize, man, why would we trust Jesus with our salvation but not our savings account? Why would we trust him with the ultimate thing if we can't trust him with some little things in our life? And when we realize Jesus is the most generous king, I'm gonna be generous and follow his example as a result. And so here's how we can, I think, summarize Barnabas and his life is that this gospel transform man and this gospel transform community is that Barnabas, he lays down money and he picks people up. He lays down money and he picks people up. His hold on his stuff was loose, but his hold on others was tight. And I think if we were to stop the story right here, we'd be so encouraged, like we'd be like, man, the early church still rocking and rolling, they're generous, they're bold, they're unified, things are going great. But Luke doesn't stop here. And in fact, Luke he puts this at the end of Acts chapter four because he immediately sets up the story in Acts chapter five that this unified, bold, generous church, what we see in the very next text of Scripture, it's one of the darker texts in all of Scripture, and it's a clear warning for us and still serves to this day like a wake-up call for us. And so look down at Acts chapter 5. We'll start off in verse 1. You'll see that first word, but it's immediately contrasting the last story, and it says this But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. Alright, immediately you should be like, Man, this sounds familiar. The generous church is about to do their thing again. Verse 2 However, he kept back a part of the proceeds with his wife's knowledge and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. Okay, we're still tracking nothing necessarily wrong here, but look what's next. Verse 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? Wasn't it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn't it at your disposal? Why is it that you plan this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people, but to God. And when he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard. The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. So we don't shy away from anything. This is why we go verse by verse through the Bibles, because we believe it takes the whole Bible to make whole Christians. And right here, chapter 5 is a key moment in Acts, because this is the very first time that we see something ugly in the life of the church. Because right here, this is this is the very first time that we're gonna see a funeral. This is the very first time that we're going to see Satan show up in the life of the church, and we're gonna see the greatest threat to the church. You see, previously in Acts 4, we already saw there were some kind of like outside persecution from the religious and the political leaders of the day, but right here in Acts chapter 5, it's showing us that it's not the persecution from outside, but the perversion from within that's gonna be the greatest threat to the church. Okay, it's not the persecution out there, but actually the perversion of the gospel and who we are in here that's the greatest threat to the church. And we're gonna see this in a pretty dramatic way. Because what we see in this story with Ananias and Sapphira, it's it's pretty simple on the outside. Looks very similar to Barnabas, right? They they go and they sell their field and they decide, you know what, we're gonna give some of this to the church, but we're gonna keep back some of it for ourselves. We don't know how much they kept back, maybe they maybe they gave away 20%, maybe they gave away 30%. We don't necessarily know, but at the end, all we know is that they laid it at the apostles' feet and said, this is everything that we sold it for. Now, I want you to I want you to think about this moment for a second. Let's get a little creative, let's try to jump in a time machine and go back 2,000 years. Let's just say that we are at First Baptist Jerusalem here for a second, okay? And and last Sunday, uh what we saw was that during the the time of the offering, there was this man named Barnabas who comes up and he lays everything that he just sold his property for at the feet of the apostles, and you just have people going crazy. Like, yes, that's Barnabas. The girls are looking around, like, is that dude single? He is godly. I want to marry a type of guy like that. And all of a sudden, you see uh Ananias and Sapphira, they're like, oh my gosh, that is awesome. Like, hey, Sapphira, you seeing what's what's going on right here? And so he's like, hey, I got a plan for us, okay? We also own property. We also own some land. You know what we're gonna do is this week, you know, it's Sunday, we're gonna take a little bit of a break, Sabbath, whatever. And uh, but then this week, we're gonna go out to our field and we're gonna sell it. We're gonna sell our land, and here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna sell our property for $500,000. You never believe the inflation these days. Um, we're gonna sell our property for $500,000, but we're only gonna tell people our uh like zestament, you know, on Zillow. It's only $300,000, and so we're gonna tell people, hey, $300,000 we sold this thing for. And guess what, babe? We're gonna get praise for being generous just like Barnabas, but we're also gonna have some dough to buy a land in the Mediterranean or something. I don't know. That's probably that could be what they're thinking. So next Sunday, 10 a.m. service, that first Baptist Jerusalem comes around and people are coming in on their, you know, donkeys, horses, whatever. They're probably showing up a little bit late, maybe saying hey to the kids, Melchizedek, everything over there. And then they come in and the same type of thing happens on this Sunday where it's like a normal sermon, some worship, and then a time of offering comes. And Ananias is like, It's my time. Here we go. And he had brought all the money that he had, and he comes and he lays it at Peter's feet, and he's expecting a round of applause once again. He's like, Let's go, this is my time, this is what I've been waiting for. And yet they he hands over the cash, expecting Peter to be blown away. But what happens instead? Look at verse 3 again. Ananias, Peter asks, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Okay, somehow, some way, whether that's through a word of knowledge, divine discernment, whatever it is, Peter is able to realize, hey, these guys aren't being honest, these guys are not being authentic. And God is teaching us, really, through Ananias and Sapphira in this moment, he's teaching us, hey, there's no secrets with me. There's no secrets with God. And so Peter responds and he says, Wasn't it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, was it wasn't it still at your disposal? Why is it that you have planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people, but to God. And so what was wrong with what they did? Like, is this just another ploy to for the early church to you know get money? Like just another yacht for a mega church pastor, that's probably what Peter was. No, was this a whole money thing? Like what's going on here? Well, no, not at all. Peter even says it. He says, Man, the land was yours. Like nobody was asking you to sell this land, no, nobody was coercing you into doing this. And even after you sold the land, nobody was saying, Hey, all that money that you just had, nobody was asking you to sell everything to us. Like that wasn't, you didn't have to give anything. And so this is important. You see, the issue that Peter is pressing into, it's not the quantity of their gift, it's not a money thing. It's not the quantity of their gift, but it's the quality of their heart. Right? You see, they they wanted the appearance of sacrifice without the reality of surrender. Okay, they wanted the reputation of holiness without actually being holy. And so here's the reality is that Peter, and ultimately God, is not worried about the percentage of the proceeds, but about the hypocrisy of their heart. Like that's the problem here in the story. It's not a money thing, it's about the hypocrisy of their hearts. That they lied, they were being hypocritical. Okay, I love how one pastor puts it. He says, They tried to purchase the reputation of godliness at a discounted price. They wanted the affirmation and the status of Barnabas without actually doing what Barnabas did. And man, let me just tell you is that when you start to maneuver your life and practice your righteousness and say certain things to certain people or lift up your hands and worship or do a bunch of these different things solely for the fact of maybe trying to look better than you actually are, for the affirmation of men over the anointing of God. When you try to maneuver your life in such a way, that's a dangerous path to be on. Okay, you can just ask the Pharisees how Jesus thought of that. Right? And so in this moment, divine judgment rained down. That's why in verse 5, when he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead in great fear. We're gonna come back to that. Great fear came on all who heard. The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. So those those young men, almost certainly probably first year interns for First Baptist Jerusalem, you know, it's like your job description is to make some coffee, stack some chairs, and carry out dead people if that happens. Um just the normal things, you know. Um, but the story here, it isn't done. And and Peter, he actually wants to see was Sapphira was she a part of the sin, or did she do this unknowingly? Okay, because we're gonna see a few hours had passed. She didn't have you know email or text or find my friend. She didn't know what happened at this moment, and so word hadn't gotten out yet, and yet, verse 7 about three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Tell me, Peter asked her, Did you sell the Land for this price. Yes, she said, for that price. And 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. 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. And so what we see in this story is that she participates in the lie. She agreed to this plan. Like this was her decision as well to follow suit as a result. And so we're going to get into a little bit some of the heavier things that I see in this passage, but I think I'd be amiss if I at least didn't uh say this sidebar. You see, every single relationship that you have is either going to lead you closer to God or farther away from Him. Every single one. Okay, and specifically marriage, okay. I love this principle is that your spouse will either be a launch pad for you or a lid for you. And so and so maybe maybe you already are married and you can think, man, where where have I been lately? Have I been a launch pad for my spouse? Have I been a lid for my spouse? Or maybe for you college students and young adults, you're thinking about, man, who is the type of person that I want to marry? Who's the type of person that I want to lock arms with and head towards the mission of God with? And what I'll say is that your spouse absolutely will be a launch pad or a lid. Okay, they will either be a launch pad that helps spring you more and more into the things of God, to help you fight sin even more, to help you pursue after the people and the things of God to make his name known where you are, or they will be a lid where they will stop you from growing. And at best, they're gonna they're gonna make you water, like have you settle for a watered-down version of Christianity, and at worst, they're gonna lead you more and more into a rebellion of sin and against him. And that and that's what happened with Ananias and Sapphira, right? And like instead of marriage being a place where they encourage one another and to pursue Jesus and to fight sin and to be a blessing to others, they actually begin to take. And one little compromise led to another little compromise, which ultimately led to their downfall. And as a result of this, 11, you're gonna see the same pattern, verse 11. Then great fear came upon the whole church and on all those who heard those things. Okay, that's the second time we see that Luke highlight this fact of great fear in this chapter. Even like the Greek word is gonna be like mega. They have mega fear right here in verse 5 and in verse 11. It's like he doesn't want us to miss this. And I want you to see the result of this fear. Like, man, what did this fear do to this early church? Well, look down at verse 14, it says this. What happened? What was the result of this fear? Well, believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers, multitudes of both men and women. Okay, now quick. I want you guys to see this idea of mega fear, this idea of fear, it has this idea of uh closely associating with both intimacy and awe. It's the kind of fear that makes you go, you know what, I'm not gonna play games with God. I don't want to fake it with God, I don't want to manage sin around God, and it's going to be a fear that doesn't push you away from God, but actually draws you into honesty before Him. And here's what's wild I think I think this is crazy, is that when the fear of God increases, the church doesn't shrink. The church and the mission of God actually expands even more. That when we see this often throughout Acts, the more that we go through Acts and throughout church history, is that the Spirit of God moves when a healthy fear of God grows. The Spirit of God moves most often when a healthy fear of God grows. So this story it's crazy, it's heavy, it's weighty, but I think there's some things in here for what Luke may be trying to reveal about who we are and who God is in our role in the church, for the and the reason that he would record this uh scripture, the reason that the Holy Spirit would pervert would preserve this for thousands upon thousands of years to get us to this place, not where we're thinking, oh, right after this, I know who I might be able to send this to, someone who might be flirting with sin in some type of way. No, it's for all of us to be a wake-up call type of moment and to see, man, is there any unchecked things in my own life and in my own heart? What is it revealing to me? And so I hope that you can lean in because I think that there's a few things that God wants to communicate in this passage, and I just want to point out three of them. Okay, three things that I think that this story communicates about God and about us. And the first one is this is that the holiness of God is greater than we think. The holiness of God is greater than we think. I think uh every single person uh that, you know, I typically when I'm sermon prepping, I'm bringing this to different people and I'm like, hey, what are you seeing? What questions might you have about the text? And almost every single person had two initial reactions when I brought this to them. One of them was, hey, it seems like God's being a little bit extreme here. Well, I I don't I don't necessarily know, but it feels like God's being extreme. That's the first thing that they said. And the second thing they said is, are you really the one teaching this? Like Zach Lucky, Zach left you with this one, right? You know, he gets the resurrection passage and the bold faith. You get tithe or die? Like what's going on here, you know? I don't I don't know. Um, first of all, Zach's such a gifted communicator. He's incredible. Um, and I love him so much. Um, but that those are like two of the initial reactions from this text. And and honestly, I I'm looking at this passage and I can relate. I can think, man, like God, it seems like you're a little bit harsh here, you know? Like that's my initial reaction, but I think we gotta understand this just as a biblical basis, some biblical theology for this, for us this this morning, is that the judgment, the judgment that came down on Ananias and Sapphira, it's only extreme if you minimize the offense by minimizing the one against whom the sin was committed. Okay, let me say it again. The judgment, it's only extreme if you minimize the offense by minimizing the one against whom the sin was committed. Right? That's why Peter says, Hey, you have not lied to man. You haven't lied to us. Peter's not worried, hey, you lied to me. No, he's he's like, you're not, you've not lied to people, you've not lied to man, you've not lied to this church. Ultimately, you've lied to God. Right? And this wasn't just a small lie, this was like a direct act of deception against a holy, perfect, and righteous God. And yet, even with all of that, I still think I'm reading the story, it's like, man, but God, you still seem like a maybe a little bit harsh here. Like it doesn't seem like the punishment actually fits the crime. And again, just biblical theology, what we have to understand is, yes, it does. Like in many ways, like you need to understand this principle, is that the seriousness of sin, it's not just what you did, it's who you did it to. Okay, I need to say it again just so we all are under understand it, all have the same foundation, is that the seriousness of sin is not just what you did, it's who you did it to. Okay, and we can we can kind of understand this intuitively, right? Like if after this, if you left here and after this you went and you kicked a car, probably not much is gonna happen to you, especially if there's no cameras, you're like, I don't know, nothing really happened. So if you go out of here and you kick a car, probably not much will happen. If you go out of here, if you kick an animal, all right, maybe you know, there's some might be some community service happening, you know, a level increase of maybe a little bit more uh harsh punishment. If you go out and you kick another person, you might have some jail time. You know, if you just go out of here and you roundhouse kick somebody out there, Jordan, one of our cops, he's gonna come after you, you know? You can't just kick some, you can't just kick a person, but if you go and you kick the president of the United States, you're probably not seeing the light of day for a while. Okay? And we can see this like intuitively, we know this, that a sin against a lesser being deserves lesser punishment. A sin against a greater being is gonna deserve greater punishment, and you gotta see this. A sin against an eternal and perfect holy being deserves eternal and just punishment. Romans 6 23, for the wages of sin is death. I think that's a verse that many of us who probably grew up learning, grew up, yes, of course, the wages of sin is death. Maybe we memorize it in Iwanas, whatever. And yet it's so hard to actually believe it often for us. Like, yes, the wages of sin is death for them, but not for me.

unknown 30:00

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SPEAKER_00 30:00

But I think it's so significant because when we water down the meaning of sin, we water down the sacrifice which paid for it. When we water down really what our sin actually is, going against a holy and perfect and righteous judge, we water down the sacrifice which ultimately had to pay for it. And so I think the natural reaction at this passage is going to be to be sort of taken aback. Like, are like, are you serious in this moment? And yeah, I think that that actually is the proper response to this passage, but we need to flip it. I think the proper response should be that we should be taken aback, but we should not be amazed that judgment fell on Ananias and Sapphira. We should be amazed that it has not fallen on us. See, that's mercy. That's mercy. Every single day that we wake up and we breathe, that's going to be mercy. That's gonna be God's undeserved mercy towards us. Every breath that we take, it's going to be mercy that God has on us. And that mercy, it shouldn't cause us to feel casual about sin. Mercy shouldn't cause us to flirt with sin and be flippant with grace. No, mercy should come to us and it should cause us to flee sin and be floored by how much grace has actually been shown to us by God Himself. And in light of God's holiness, I think that's one aspect that we see from this story. I think the flip side of the coin, and point number two that I think that we should take from this is if the first thing is that the holiness of God is greater than we think, the second thing is that secret sin is more dangerous than we admit. Secret sin is more dangerous than we admit. You see, for Ananias and Sapphira, we actually see in this moment that there were a couple of idols being protected. Okay, they they wanted money, certainly, but they also wanted praise. And here's the interesting thing, I think, about that is if those are kind of like the idols that are surfacing up for them, they could have had either one. Right? Like if all they wanted was money, they could have just sold the field and they could have been rolling in the dough. Right? And they could have been secure off of the blessing of finances. But then if all they wanted was praise, well then they could have just given all of the money and they would have been praised just as much as Barnabas. And yet they had these two competing idols in their heart, and to keep both of their idols happy, both praise and money, they had to cover both of them with a lie. And so they said they gave it all for the praise of people, and yet they kept some back for the blessing of finances. And so, because of their sin, there's death that is produced in this text. And even though this is not God's typical way of dealing with sin, I want us to see that death is also produced in our own lives when we continue in this secret unrepentant sin. Because that's what sin does. It always overpromis and underdelivers. Sin, it always produces death in our joy in our relationships and our security. And so it's hard to actively pursue Jesus. It's hard to say, man, I want to just run after Jesus and fight hard for him and try to hear his voice and where he's leading me in life when we're consistently and we're bent on trying to pursue after sin. It's gonna be hard to experience him in the same way. Because I've heard it said like this is that sin will always cost you more than you want to pay, and it'll always keep you longer than you want to stay. Okay, it's good. Sin is gonna cost you more than you want to pay. Satan's biggest lie is that it's not gonna cost you anything. But sin, it's always gonna cost you more than you want to pay, and it's gonna keep you longer than you want to stay. And so let me say it like this is that I think so much, like just like Ananias and Sapphira, I think for many of us, we don't like have a sin problem that you're hiding. I think you have an idol that you might be protecting. Okay, and so so the question I have for all of us is that what is that for you? Like, what might you be covering up? What are you managing in your life instead of killing? What are you keeping in the dark that just needs to be brought into the light? And man, I I know I'm young, so let me let me quote some old, old dead people for you, some theologians that might be more skilled and thought through this. JC or John Owen says this, and maybe the most famous idea is that you need to be killing sin or sin will be killing you. JC Ryle says a small leak will sink a great ship, a small spark will kindle a great fire, and a little allowed sin will ruin an immortal soul. Why? Well, because as long as sin stays hidden, it stays powerful in your life. As long as sin is gonna stay hidden, as long as you don't reveal it to people, as long as you keep putting up a front, it's going to stay powerful in your life. That secret sin is more dangerous than we admit, which leads to my last thing that I think that we should see from this text is that every day you have the choice to conceal or confess. Every day you're gonna have the choice to conceal or confess. You see, I don't I don't know if you really noticed, if you if you picked up on it. I didn't after until I spent a lot of time in this text, but I think that there was actually a moment of unbelievable grace that God showed to Ananias and Sapphira in this moment, and and it was with Sapphira. Uh she comes uh to Peter and it said a few hours later, and she comes. And you can almost imagine like Peter probably begging God in this moment, like, God, would you allow her to repent? Would she see the error in her way? Would she see these things? Would you reveal this to her? And so I imagine Peter, maybe maybe with some tears in his eyes, like, Sapphira, did you actually sell it for this much? And you gotta imagine that there was some weight, some tension that was there in that moment. Did you actually do this? You have this unbelievable opportunity for grace to come clean, to confess, to do the right thing, and yet what does she do? She conceals it. She says, Yes, of course. We sold it for that much. And she faced what I think we all face every single day with sin. And it's the question, will I conceal this or am I going to actually confess it to some people who can help me? Will I conceal or will I confess? Because listen, you you gotta see this. I've seen it over and over again, is that what you conceal will eventually control you. What you conceal in your life will eventually control you. And I see that from the psalmist in Psalm 32 where he says, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away. So I don't know if you felt that. Maybe you feel like you're carrying something. Maybe, maybe you're even walking into a space like this. I've I've been there before in my college years where I've been into a moment, a religious type of setting, like, man, I hope nobody finds out about this. Oh man, I don't want people to know this dark spot about your or my life. And so even when I'm meeting with my uh discipleship kind of guys, when we're meeting, we're talking about our week, we're we're all we're we're usually asking, whether in various discipleship settings, hey, how are you feeding yourself this week? How are you feeding your soul? Like what is God teaching you in his word? And then I'm and then I'm asking, how are you feeding your flesh? Like what are some things going on in your life, or maybe maybe some sin is starting to creep in? And then my favorite question, because somebody had asked me in my own life, one of my favorite questions to ask people is, man, thanks for sharing. What's the last five percent? Is okay, yeah, yeah, you confess, and I'm so thankful for that. You want to bring things into the light. What's the last five percent of the confession that you're like, oh, I I want to I want to confess this part and so I can get it off my chest, but I I still don't want them to know about this. Like, what's the last five percent for them? And I've had people, man, you're you know what, you're right. And and they eventually confess it, and he and here's what they said, and and here's what the general principle I think that we see, and why I asked that, because it was so helpful for me, is that you're only as sick as your secrets. You're only as sick as your secrets, and so what's the last five percent for you? What would you actually be kind of scared to confess? Because it's when that comes that healing can actually happen, and we see that because God in his kindness has given us this different type of path for us. James 5, 16, it says this it says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. Why? Is it so that you can be saved? It's so God can forgive you, that you may be healed. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. And so, just so we are all on the same page for our idea of confession, we don't confess so that we may be forgiven. We are forgiven in Christ. Our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus, therefore we should feel free to confess our sins to other people. But here's what I'll say is that sometimes I think, just from walking with people, is that we don't walk in freedom and find victory over sin because you keep the sin to yourself. I think, man, God has given us this avenue called sin confession, and it shines a light, and where light goes, darkness starts to flee. And when light comes in and darkness starts to flee, what James 5.16 is telling us is that that's when healing is going to begin. That's when you're gonna start to find freedom in your own life. And so the question on the table this morning is, uh, hey, are you struggling with sin? That's not the question, right? All of us in here we're stumbling. All of us in here we're struggling. So the question is not, hey, are are you sinning? No, the question on the table is are you hiding it or are you bringing it into the light? Are you hiding it or are you bringing it into the light? Because every single day you have a choice to cons to conceal or to confess. And so those are the three things is we we get to see the holiness of God is greater than we think, secret sin is more dangerous than we admit, and every single day we have this choice to conceal or confess. And here's how I want to end because I want us to uh feel equipped and I want us to be encouraged and understand the Bible, because I think for some people in the room that there is still a tendency to read Acts chapter 5 and be like, yep, there God goes again. You know, like there's so many times in the Bible, I've I've heard like non-believers like throw this in my face is like, yeah, God, God just kills so many innocent people. God just continues to do that, whether it's in the Old Testament or the New Testament. It just seems like He's a God of anger and all these types of things. But I hope if I just clear some things up, this gives us a lot of hope and confidence. Because I want us to see that in the Bible, what the good news for us is that every single person, every single innocent person ever has been spared. That's the good news for us. The bad news, there are no innocent people.

unknown 39:46

Right?

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the best news in the entire world is that there actually is one killing of the innocent in the Bible. Okay, it's not in the Old Testament, but it's actually in the New Testament. And you gotta check this. The killing of the innocent in the Bible, it wasn't God to man, it was man to God. Man did it to God. You see, the only killing of the innocent that happened in the entire Bible was when God made Jesus, he who knew no sin, to be sinned for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, the holy and innocent and completely perfect, pure, spotless, righteous Lamb of God, the only one who has been innocent, actually went to the cross willingly, so that he could save people like Ananias and Sapphire. So he can save people like us. That is the good news for us. And Jesus did it went willingly for the joy that was set before him. He was the only innocent person ever to be spared in the Bible. Nobody else was innocent. All of us would come in here stumbling. All of us, as Augustine would say, is that the sin, our sin is deeper than the stain goes. There's so much wrong with us. There's so much things that just like Ananias and Sapphira, guys, I was back there behind our banners right before this, and I was thinking to myself, God, in many ways, I want to be liked by these people. I want to be funny, I want to be insightful. And so even as I'm coming up here, I'm having to wrestle things in my own heart of, man, I want the appearance of godliness in front of you guys. Like that's what I want in my own heart sometimes. And so the difference between me and Ananias and Sapphira in this moment is that mercy has fallen on me like crazy. And praise God that it has, and that can be the story for every single person in this room. We're not perfect. Owen literally stumbled on the way up here. Nobody is perfect. Nobody at King's Church is perfect. All of us sinned. We've all stumbled, and yet the good news of the gospel is that the one who didn't sin, the one who didn't stumble, the one who didn't do anything wrong, he actually came. He lived the perfect life and he did it willingly, went to the cross willingly on our behalf. And so I hope that Ananias and Sapphira can sort of be like a wake-up call, but I hope it's a wake-up call for us to fight sin. I hope it's a wake-up call to confess sin. I hope it's a wake-up to cling everything that you have to the cross, knowing that Jesus did what we couldn't. Jesus paid the price that I that I should have deserved. Jesus did everything for us, and I can have freedom in him. And so while the band comes up, let me let me pray for us. For so many, honestly, churches who have gone before me who have just said, you know what, there's some passages in scripture that might be hard, but we know that every single word from scripture, all scripture is God breathed, and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man and women of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. And Lord, we trust that Acts chapter 5 might be a wake-up call for people in the room, for myself, for those areas in my own life where I'm where I'm tempted to tempted to have a hypocritical spirit. Where I'm tempted to want to look more godly than I actually am, where I'm tempted to try to boast in my own strength rather than in my weakness so that I can show the sufficiency of you. And so, Lord, I'm so thankful for the gift of the people of God. I'm so thankful for the gift of the church. I'm so thankful that you would give us avenues of confession and that you would be gracious to us. Because Lord, I know knowing the wickedness of my own heart that I don't deserve your grace and your mercy, but you've freely given it to me. And so, Lord, I don't know what the next step may be for some people in the room. Maybe it's for the first time in someone's life just confessing to you that they have sinned, that they have fallen short of the glory of God, and that the wages of sin is death. And to just cling everything that they have towards the cross. Maybe for some people in the room it is just to realize the opportunity and the freedom of confession. And Lord, I pray it. If Acts 5 can show us anything, it shows us how beautiful you are. To forgive us, to give mercy to us. And Lord, I pray that that would cause us to walk in a newness of life, walking in a new direction, in a new way. Lord, to not cause your mercy to go for granted, but to actually pursue after righteousness. And so, Lord, I pray that King Church, that we would be a people who pursue after you boldly, who take our sins seriously, but who take the cross even more seriously, knowing that the cross is out of us all. And yet knowing that the resurrection can bring new life in each of us. Lord, you're holy and you're good. Would we sing because of that? And Lord, would you grant us hearts of repentance? In your name we pray. Amen.