WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:05.679 I heard some of you say, thanks be to God. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.919 It's kind of a rough story. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.720 But we're going to talk about it and what it might mean. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:16.640 Because it means something. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:23.760 So this week I heard several people say, I don't care that the Eagles won the Super Bowl. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.679 I'm just really glad Tom Brady did not win the Super Bowl. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:29.679 And maybe you're in that camp. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:37.679 Most of us, at least most of us, I think, sort of nod in agreement because the guy just comes off as so perfect in front of us. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:43.840 And I've talked about that before because I have a little bit of a man crush on the guy, even though I wanted him to lose because he just keeps winning. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:50.640 I mean, all the Super Bowl rings, the salary, the wife, the houses, he doesn't eat regular ice cream. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:53.359 He eats avocado ice cream. 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:56.880 And he doesn't seem to age and he keeps winning. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:58.240 And you know this, right? 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:12.079 When somebody does something so great and so quickly we skip over like appreciation or, you know, um gratitude for like this great person who's doing these great things, and we just move into judgment. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:13.519 Not them on you, right? 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:18.640 Like Tom Brady doesn't know who we are, but you on yourself because of somebody else. 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:20.079 And you know this feeling. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:23.840 This is the feeling of I'm not doing enough. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:26.799 I'm not enough. 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:28.799 I don't have enough. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:36.719 And this is where this really incredibly strange story in Acts 5 actually comes into play for us. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:41.359 So this is one of the stranger stories in the New Testament, this Acts 5 story. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:43.439 Maybe it's the first time you've ever heard it. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:44.480 You sort of just want to leave. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:46.239 You're like, and that's why I don't go to church. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:47.280 Is that story right there? 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.359 That's the kind of thing that gets me to stay away. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:56.079 Uh it sort of feels like an Old Testament story that slipped in post-resurrection of Jesus. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:03.599 The kind of story maybe that we've always just read over and been like, and I'm not gonna pay attention to that one. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.599 But what does the story actually teach? 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:06.239 What does it mean? 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:14.719 What could it possibly mean to us who so often so easily live in comparison and in self-judgment? 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.360 Now, we need to remember what just happened. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:29.919 So last week we talked about Acts chapter 4, and in Acts chapter 4, all the believers were from one heart, they were in one heart, they were in one mind, and they had become an incredibly generous people. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:37.039 And then it says, this guy, Joseph, pops up, he sells everything he has, and he gives the money to the church. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:43.680 Then, in a method of contrast, in literary contrast, the writer says, but there's this other guy. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:56.560 And this other guy, Ananias, he sold a field, he decided to keep back some of the money and gives the rest of the money to the church, but he pretends like he gives all the money. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:09.840 So Peter, the church leader, he says to this guy, Acts 5, uh, verse 3, he says, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself parts of the proceeds of the land? 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:12.639 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:15.199 And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:17.919 Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.560 You have not lied to man, but to God. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:21.840 Then verse 5. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:29.599 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.560 So then three hours later his wife comes in, Sephara, comes in to Peter. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:39.840 Peter says to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much, and she said, Yes, for so much. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.919 But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:48.719 Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.800 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:59.280 When the young men came in, they found her dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:01.919 Thanks be to God. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:03.599 You're not sure, right? 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:05.199 This is a strange story. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:12.400 And this is the point where I just have to say, just be really honest, I have wrestled with this story all week. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.360 In part because I don't like this story. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:19.600 If I was designing the Bible, I would not put it in here in Acts 5. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:22.720 I didn't design the Bible, though, and this story is here. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:25.600 I don't view God as vindictive in this way. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:28.079 So this story challenges me. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:39.600 Now that's not to say I don't believe God is not the king of the universe, is fully just and can do as he chooses in judgment. 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:45.439 But I just simply believe all that judgment and justice was satisfied in Christ. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:52.319 So I have a hard time with this story since Christ just died for all sin, including this lie. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.199 So this is where perhaps you will disagree with me for the next few minutes. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:03.120 Because at this point in my life, I'm wrestling with the common view of this passage. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:16.160 I even called my friend who's a Greek scholar and professor, and I said, Hey, is there anywhere in this text, so I read all the English versions, and I called him, I said, Is there anywhere, look at your Greek, look at your Greek. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.879 Is there anywhere in this text where it says God did this? 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:29.040 And he said, Well, you know, no, it's but the implications certainly there, all the people in the story are reacting as if this is the implication. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:30.639 And I said, Well, here's what I'm wrestling with. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:32.720 He's like, I don't know if I would preach that. 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:34.319 So I'm just saying. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:45.279 So I just say the next few minutes are kind of ponderings, and then when I'm done pondering, then I'll tell you when we can just all hopefully be in agreement. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:54.639 So here are my ponderings is this the wrong, the wrong that Ananias and Sephora did was acting like they were doing something they didn't. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.800 It was the lie, it was the pretending. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:02.000 Then if we follow the text, he's called out, he's exposed, then he dies. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:06.800 The wife shows up, she's called out, she's exposed, then she dies. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:12.879 And my pondering on verse 5 is this, and it could be a stretch, I fully admit it. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:20.160 Is it possible Peter's words and the judgment and the shame these people felt is what killed them? 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.959 Now, the people in the story do react as if it is God. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:26.879 I will fully admit that. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:33.279 Definitely, the people are reacting, they are afraid as if God struck these people down. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:35.279 Peter seems to think this. 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.040 But does that mean God struck them down? 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.199 And that's where I'm off pondering. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:47.199 Now, what is certain is that we live, we live quite different than these people. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:49.519 Because we have the full scriptures. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:52.000 We have the full narrative. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:58.160 We have Paul's writings of the understanding of the full sufficiency of the grace of God in Jesus. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:09.199 These people were working off of past beliefs of law without grace, rules and punishments, and then the unfolding implications of Christ's salvation. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:24.319 So my ponderings have been this: as quickly as we assume it is God's judgment because the people in the text assume it is, we could assume it's not God's judgment because the text never states that it is God's judgment. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:27.279 Either way, we're making an assumption on the text. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:40.160 Either way, we're making an assumption that either it's these people's reactions that will inform our assumption, or the rest of the New Testament and Paul's writings will help us make an assumption on the text. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:46.959 So I see this story through the cross where God already decided how he feels about these people. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.800 So that puts me in great tension with this story. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:54.319 All the wrath of God was put upon Christ. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:56.160 It was satisfied. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:00.639 Our sin was cast upon Jesus, his righteousness is put upon us. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:02.720 So we are forever the beloved of God. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.920 Ananias and Sephar were forever the beloved of God. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.720 Their sin was as far as the east is from the west. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.040 So what's left is loving discipline. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.360 What's left is consequences, surely. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:17.439 But this, the seemingly kind of zap them dead judgment. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.680 That's where I'm pondering. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:21.839 Okay, pondering's over. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:22.399 All right. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.399 Now I think we can come together on these few points. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:29.120 Point number one, judgment kills. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:30.720 Judgment kills. 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:32.879 Maybe God did kill these two people. 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:34.080 I don't know. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:45.039 I mean, maybe this was him communicating, needing to communicate to the early church the importance that God is still just, even though that justice is fully met in Christ. 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:46.960 Never forget God is just. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.799 To live under judgment kills your soul. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:57.840 You know what it's like to see a Joseph, right? 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:14.960 To somebody who sells all their land and gives away all of their money, and then you go to sell something and you're like, oh, like I sort of want to be like him, and like the community is really respecting him, but man, hold back a little money would be good. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:18.559 And so you hold back a little money, which doesn't appear to be the evil here. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:23.679 What appears to be the evil is when they begin to pretend and act like they do. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:26.159 Right? 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.559 I mean, to have a Joseph around you. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.399 It might feel like Tom Brady's your older brother. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:37.519 And you are a pastor of a small church in Marietta, Georgia. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.799 And he owns a jet, and I own a mountain bike. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:42.320 Tom Brady's not my brother, by the way. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.399 I don't want to confuse anybody. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:46.960 He eats avocado ice cream. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:50.080 I still don't know how to get into the avocado. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:51.120 Right? 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:53.360 It's just Ben and Jerry's. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:00.000 But it's so easy to have somebody in front of you that is judgment, and that judgment kills us. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:06.080 This week I found myself thinking about that great Seinfeld character, Sue Ellen Mishke, the heiress to the O. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:07.759 Henry candy bar fortune. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:14.720 And this lady, she was Elaine's friend, and she's tall and beautiful and graceful, and everything came easy to her. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.039 Everything worked out for her. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:24.639 And she shows up throughout the show, and she's a symbol, an image of everything Elaine is not. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.720 And she's judgment and she's shame to Elaine. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:35.679 And Elaine hates everything about her, but for some reason, she always tries to please her. 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:42.799 And then hates that she's trying to please her because that's what we do when we live in comparison. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:51.600 Sue Allen always sent Elaine into a downward spiral because judgment kills. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:54.399 And the scriptures will show you. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:56.559 The scriptures will actually do this. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:10:59.600 You read who you should be? 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.879 You read how you should act, the motives you should act. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.039 I mean, the Sermon on the Mount is designed to do this to you. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:11.039 Jesus is doing that when he says, Oh, you haven't committed adultery? 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:11.600 Oh, great. 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.840 But what about lust in your heart? 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.080 Like he in the sermon, that's what he's doing. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:24.639 He is putting before you the standard of perfection so that you have no option but to need the grace of God, to need him. 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:33.840 We aren't always who God asks us to be or who we want to be, not in deed, not in motive, and we pretend to be something we aren't. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:35.360 That's Acts chapter 5. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:37.440 That's what these two people are doing. 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:43.039 And what starts out as a good plan, it just begins to go so wrong and it kills us. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:51.840 So we compare and then we pretend, we lie, and then it ends in exhaustion and shame and death. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:56.320 Because it all turns back on you as you can't maintain all of it. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.240 Point number one, judgment kills. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:02.480 Point number two, the truth about us apart from grace is overwhelming. 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:09.039 The truth about us apart from grace is overwhelming, but the truth about us is God's grace. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:12.080 See, the gospel says you aren't perfect. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:20.240 But in the same breath, the gospel says, yet in Jesus all your sin and imperfection and shame has been taken care of. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:21.360 It's taken care of. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:22.559 It's gone. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:40.879 So if all you hear is the exposing truth, which Peter lays on pretty clearly, pretty thick here in this passage, but you don't hear the relief of grace, then death or exhaustion or fear or anxiety will always be the end of the story. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:51.120 But the truth about you from the beginning has been that you were beautifully created, and yet in brokenness desire to save yourself. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:54.240 And yet God pursues you in his grace. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:13:09.039 And God's kindness leads us to repentance and freedom from comparison to compare ourselves to Joseph or anybody else, which gives us point number three: Christ is your salvation. 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:16.960 Maybe one of the reasons I wrestle with this story so much is I know I am Ananias and Sephora in this story. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.519 If you have to peg yourself as anybody in this story, that's who you are. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.759 I love to be seen as something that's not always true about me. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:31.840 I love to use my merit as self-justification, and when it's not enough, I'll just pretend like it's enough. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:37.519 And anytime I do that or you do that, we're on a path of exhaustion and shame and death. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:45.360 It's a self-salvation project, a rejection of Jesus as enough for you. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:52.000 And in the process, we lose our freedom because pretending and performing lying. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:53.600 They're prisons. 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:56.399 God deems it evil. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:59.279 God is just, and he deems that evil. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:04.399 And the reason he deems it evil is because it is exhaustion and death for us. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.960 It breaks peace inside of you between you and God. 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:18.720 His kindness leads you to repentance so that you can admit who you are before him as not perfect, as a sinner. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:20.480 As a sinner who needs grace. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.559 But I don't think he'll kill you. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.360 And I don't think he's waiting to kill you because you're pretending or because you're lying. 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:29.919 I don't. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.120 I just don't. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.240 He killed himself. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:39.919 He humbled himself into the death we deserve that we might know life. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.039 In a way, when I read this passage, I love Peter. 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.120 There's part of me that loves Peter, right? 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:46.799 He's acting pastorally. 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:50.240 He's just putting in front of them exactly what they did. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.240 Like, guys, guys. 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.200 I'm this right in front of them. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:56.960 Here it is. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:14:58.240 You were lying. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:14:59.919 You were pretending. 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:02.320 That is a horrible thing to do. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:04.720 And maybe he said more. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:07.600 It's possible he said more and it's not recorded, right? 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:11.600 I'm assuming this conversation was not, you know, five seconds long. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.399 I'm assuming there might have been more going on in this conversation. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:15.360 We don't know. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:17.279 What we have is enough. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:18.320 We know that. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:21.120 But maybe he said more, but we don't have it. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:26.559 But what I what I do feel like is what's recorded is not enough for these people. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:39.840 It's enough for us now to read the story and learn something, but these people, they needed to hear the truth about who they were, and they either needed to remember what Peter just preached, Christ is your salvation, or they needed to hear it again. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:41.600 And Peter didn't say that. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:44.399 Not according to the writer at this time. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:47.039 And these people needed to hear that. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:52.159 They needed to hear Peter say again what he had just preached, Christ is salvation. 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:59.759 They needed to hear what Paul expounds on and just stretches out and lays before us the rest of the New Testament. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:11.039 That Christ is your wholeness, your justification, your righteousness, your absolution, your value, your rightness with God. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:20.480 You lied to God and you lied to me, you pretended and you weren't perfect, but Christ is perfect for you. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:22.879 You don't have to pretend anymore. 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:24.639 That's what I want these two to hear. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.399 You don't have to pretend anymore. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.320 Christ is your salvation. 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:33.039 My brothers and sisters, you don't have to pretend anymore. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:35.519 Christ is your salvation. 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:36.559 Let's pray together. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:38.799 God, thank you for this text. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:44.720 That reminds us that you are just and you're the creator of the world, and it is your world, and we are humbled by that. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:49.360 And in the same moment, it reminds us that we do not have to live in comparison. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:17:03.440 We do not have to live lives of pretending and performing, but you have called us in your kindness to repent of such lives, to get honest before you, that your grace is enough for all of us, the good and the bad. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:14.079 And that's that very confession in honesty is what begins our process with you, of us understanding how beloved we are. 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:22.960 Help us to trust greater in your Son, who paid the full price for us. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:24.559 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:25.359 Amen.