Ananias and Sapphira

Scripture to lesson this evening is found right where you would expect it to be

Acts chapter 5 Acts chapter 5 we continue with our study from this morning continuing our study of papyrus 45 and we are in Acts chapter 5 before we look to God's Word let's ask the

Lord to bless our time together Heavenly Father now we ask that you would help us to quiet our hearts to focus our minds to hear your word and to be benefited by the ministry of the

Holy Spirit and the word amongst us we pray in Christ's name Amen this morning we began looking at this section and we noted that the division specifically acts 5 -1 is somewhat of a unfortunate division it is not really a logical breaking point that the story that is being told has a consistent thread that goes from chapter 4 into chapter 5 and specifically it is the rather unique situation of the early church in those very very primitive days before the sending out or being cast out of Jerusalem but the sending out of mission amongst the

Gentiles you have a very homogenous group you have people selling land and bringing material so that no one has need we look this morning at what that does and does not mean as far as the teaching of the

Apostles and things like that and we noticed right at the end of chapter 4 the story of Joseph a

Levite of Cyprian birth who was also called Barnabas by the Apostles now this is a man who is going to become fairly well known in the church he is the son of encouragement and this

Barnabas evidently had some wealth and so he owned a tract of land and he sold it and brought the money and laid it at the

Apostles feet and so we speculated that in all probability as a result of this there would be well how would we put it

I don't want to use the term praise but certainly amongst the people of God in the early church there in Jerusalem he would be looked upon with great favor how's that for a nice way of putting it there would be many people who would look at him as being a particularly godly individual

I don't get from reading the words of Barnabas or the actions of Barnabas that this was something he was looking for this was not something where he was it was not like the the scribes and the

Pharisees in the temple that would blow trumpets when they put their money into the Treasury and this kind of a situation but the word does get out and as a reason there is a result from this there are certain people in the congregation who see this and go

I like what he's I like what's going on here I like the fact that people are looking at him and and you know people are approaching him and he's being treated in in a way that people recognize what he's done he didn't do this and to gain that but that's what happened and so we have this strange somewhat difficult of Ananias and Sapphira neither name especially when taken together carries amongst the

Christian people a very good reputation there are some other

Ananias's in Scripture I don't think there's any other Sapphira's maybe I've missed one someplace but Ananias and Sapphira are a couple and the story of what happens to them is a story well known to all of us to anyone who has read the

Scriptures and certainly we understand the the general teaching of Scripture regarding these two individuals but it is important I think to put it into its context to really appreciate what is being communicated to us here and so let's look at the story beginning chapter 5 verse 1 but a man named

Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property now it says they sold a piece of property they seemingly maybe had others and kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge and bringing a portion of it he laid it at the

Apostles feet but Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land while it remained unsold did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not under your control why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart you have not lied to men but to God and as he heard these words

Ananias fell down and breathed his last he expired and great fear came over all who heard of it the young men got up and covered him up and after carrying him out they buried him now there elapsed an interval of about three hours and his wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter responded to her tell me whether you sold the land for such a price and she said yes such a price that was the price then

Peter said to her why is it you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well and immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last and the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things well such an uplifting story one that would undoubtedly result in very peppy clappy praise choruses at the end of the service this evening well no

I I don't think that that's normally how this story is is viewed but there are some things that I think can be of benefit to us as we consider this brief story from the early church now what is very clear is that what

Ananias and Sapphira have chosen to do is to try to imitate what happened with Barnabas that's why the division of the chapter is somewhat unfortunate and sometimes what

Barnabas did is disconnected it can't be because it's the background it's the it's the foundation of why

Ananias and Sapphira did what they did they wanted to receive what Barnabas received as far as the view of the people were concerned but they didn't want to do what he did because it's plain that when

Barnabas sold the land if there was any discussion about what it cost or anything else he was honest and straightforward it's fairly obvious that what he sold it for is what he then gave to meet the needs of the

Saints but what's very clear from the looking at the whole story is that when

Ananias and Sapphira seek to recapitulate this in their own experience not only do they amongst themselves choose to hold back a price some of the price of the land for whatever reason but they then somehow either they were asked or I get the feeling they volunteered what the well

Ananias did anyways because this was done at separate times volunteered what the actual price of the land was so that it would appear that what he was doing was a direct parallel to he was doing the same thing that Barnabas had done he didn't say you know we sold this land and we've decided to give seventy percent to the needs of the

Saints of the price of the land he didn't do that and so there is not only conspiracy between Ananias and Sapphira but there is also this desire to be looked upon in a particular fashion by the rest of the congregation

I think one of the first things we need to see here is this goes directly against what is said earlier about being of one heart and one mind it's wonderful when that happens but it simply has not been the experience of the church down through the years that that kind of thing can last for a long period of time simply because we need to remember that no matter how great the mountaintop you might have how great you know there sometimes there are things that happen in a fellowship that draws everybody together and everybody pulls together because of a tragedy that takes place or a sickness or a disease or the building burns down or whatever else might be it it pulls people together and and people put aside all the petty stuff and and all the stuff about me myself and I and and putting myself out there and all the rest that stuff and there's there's great unity and there's great peace but the church is made up of sinners and we live in a fallen world they're gonna be divisions there's gonna be eventually you know you you can't you can't help but look at the reality that by the end of the

New Testament John is having to write first and second and third

John and he's warning about Antichrist that are drawing people away and and denying the resurrection and causing schisms and all sorts of stuff like this and that's why

I said this morning that it's important it's so easy for us to think well if we could just get back to the apostolic period well exactly what part of the apostolic period you know a few weeks a few months we don't even know how long it was but this is the reality of living in a fallen world and and yes they were all together one heart one mind and then someone does something good and they're doing of something good kindles an improper desire in the heart of other people in the congregation that results in what we see here

Barnabas certainly had no intention of causing such a problem like that the

Apostles didn't have any intention in the acceptance of Barnabas's gift to to you know in some way prompt this kind of an attitude and a part of Ananias and Sapphira but that's what happened and there are many times you look through the history of the church looks through just the history of our own fellowship and and sometimes when there are problems you couldn't have seen it coming if you tried

I mean it you give good counsel and it seems like you give the best wisdom you can and it doesn't turn out the way you want it to at all couldn't see that one coming things to learn from that but here's the situation and so here is the first insertion of a sinful situation and my it is dealt with very very severely so Ananias comes in and he lays the money at Peter's feet now we don't you know it's it's easy we read this and we sort of sit back and go well did the

Apostles just sort of sit around during the day and people come in and ask questions was there just a eight hour long church service all the time or you know it's hard to tell where was this was it a particular room a particular building what's what's we're not told we're not given that information but however it was whatever was going on what could happen with Ananias could happen without Sapphira knowing about it now we don't know why that is but she was not there when

Ananias first brings this money and lays it at Peter's feet and Peter is given supernatural knowledge

I mean how else would he know I mean unless Peter was related to the realtor or something that was involved

I don't think they had realtors back then but you know what I mean Peter said

Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the

Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land so Peter knows you know those who would take a more naturalistic look at the

New Testament might say well you know Peter knew Ananias and Peter knew that Ananias wanted to be viewed highly by other people but he knew is also you know sort of Scottish and therefore skinflint and cheap and so there's no way that he would he would give the whole thing or something along those lines you know people try to get around it that way but given that Peter uses a fair amount of supernatural language

Satan the Holy Spirit and of course I I should mention in passing that this is one of the texts in the

New Testament that are almost always listed as one of the references to the deity of the

Holy Spirit because you'll notice lie to the Holy Spirit but then at the end of the next verse you have not lied to men but to God and so lying to the

Holy Spirit lying to God the same same thing and you can't lie to an impersonal active force

Jehovah's Witnesses for example believe the Holy Spirit is like running water or electricity good luck lying to electricity we have some electricians amongst us you don't you treat electricity with with with respect but if you find electrician talking to electricity that might be an indication that they've been out in the

Sun a little too long just saying so obviously the

Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal active force you you lie to a person and that is what is taking place in this situation and so Peter knows and can you imagine and again the naturalist is going to go wow well

Ananias had just a really weak heart and so when Peter knew the truth about him that his heart rate shot up and he died something along those lines well maybe that's what the

Lord used but there's clearly something more important going on here then as we noted this morning it is very important to know while it remained unsold did it remain your own so much for the command to communism in in Acts chapter 5 there is no command to communism there was no commandment to Ananias and Sapphira to sell this land it was theirs and if if you possess something it's because God has placed it in your hand you are responsible for it but there is no concept here whatsoever of saying well you had this land we know that we just need to make everybody equal and we need to animal farm the

New Testament well no that's that's not what's going on here while it remained unsold did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not under your control there would have been nothing wrong if Ananias and Sapphira had sold the land kept 50 % for their own retirement fund or something and gave the other 50 % of the church the point was the lie the attempt to create a representation that simply was not true that made them look like or made

Ananias at least this point look like Barnabas in the eyes of the early congregation there in Jerusalem and so even after it was sold didn't you have control of it couldn't you have done with it what you wanted so clearly there was no compulsion there was no doctrinal demand that you were to rid yourself of all your public all your private property and turn it over to public control like what has happened down through history like what specifically as I mentioned this morning did in fact happen in Munster as we will be talking about in the church history class in a matter of weeks why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart well

I think Peter probably knew but this was more of a rebuke of Ananias he has this is this wasn't something they just did on on the spur of the moment this was conspiratorial this was sitting around going did you see how everybody was looking at Barnabas you know we've got that land over there and it's gonna take a lot of work to do anything with it how about how about we sell it and and we'll say we we got

X amount of drachmas for it or however you know certain amount of silver and we'll keep back part of the part of the price because we need to do this we need to do that the dishwashers on the last leg and so on and so forth and but but we'll say that that that we we got

X amount and and okay that sounds like a good idea there was there was forethought involved here and it shows a a fundamental disunity with the rest of the body as to why they were doing what they were doing and so even at this wonderful beautiful time of one heart and one soul and unity sin crops up and sin decides to make itself known and brings about division in the body you know years and years ago we weren't heroes at another church and we would go on youth retreats and some of them were really special and you know sometimes we reform folks have a have a tendency to make fun of some of those things but those are some of the most formative times in my life

I remember a couple of summer youth retreats that were extremely important in in the the forming of my

Christian character as a young person and things like that and and I'm very appreciative for for those experiences some were just up in Prescott in places like that there was a couple over in a place called

Glorietta New Mexico which is really beautiful area over there but you know you you can be in the midst of a of a spiritual high beautiful worship and and I remember one year

I was dealing with the issues of doubt and and concern about one's salvation and things like that and man there was a it was it was a very very important time you you lay down some some foundations that's a important period in a person's life and yet I can't help but remember that I had to focus upon truly spiritual things because there were a lot of folks a lot of folks in our group that were not there for overly spiritual things oh they may have had to have shown up for the for the worship services and the afterglows and things like that I've never figured out that term afterglow but anyway but you just you just knew better than the youth ministry and youth staff knew they were there for completely other reasons and it did bother you that you were really wanting to be there and you really wanted to be serious about your faith and and you really wanted the the

Lord to do something but you just knew that there were a bunch of the folks that were singing those songs with you and clapping along and everything else you just knew they were just they were doing it for other reasons and I suppose you you know in the back of your mind just go well you know leave it up to the

Lord maybe he'll do something later on I don't know but the fact is this happens in the

Christian fellowship and this doesn't change the fact that there was one heart and one mind and the

Apostles were powerfully demonstrating the resurrection of Christ and and this is a vitally important part in the time period in the history of the church and the establishment of apostolic authority and all the rest that stuff but they still had to deal with this and I don't know about you but I don't get the feeling that Peter you know when

Ananias his eyes roll back in his head and he falls dead at his feet I don't think Peter is standing there going yeah don't mess with us

Apostles I think he was just as astonished as anybody else and it it says you know very clearly great fear came over all who heard of it well

I'm sure that everybody that was there can you imagine can you imagine what this looked like I mean

I remember once there was a little girl named Wendy in my I can't remember it was first grade or fourth grade in first grade in fourth grade all the girls are bigger than the guys anyways but I just remember we were in a in a

PE class in the we called a multi -purpose rooms back then you know it was the cafeteria but it was also you know that's where he did everything else and and I just remember once I happened to be looking at her we're staying in line when her eyes crossed and she just went like a tree right

I mean whacked her head good I mean oh my goodness she just passed out she did not die but she just passed out and man when someone goes down like that when that body hits the ground goodness and yet everybody in that in that place knew this guy didn't hadn't just passed out he had just passed on and he fell down and and and the

English translation says breathed his last well yeah that's that's one way of putting it it means you know to die to expire it's sort of a nice way of saying it but Ananias is struck dead in the midst of the church can you imagine if something like that happened in the midst of the fellowship today

Wow hadn't happened before this was this was a new thing and I suppose we could we could identify this as the beginning of church discipline but it's interesting way of viewing its origin and it's it's all gone downhill from there as far as severity goes though you do have that reference in first Corinthians about the

Corinthians partaking of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner and some of them sleeping and that's normal term for dying so Ananias falls down and the young men got up and covering him up and after carrying him out they buried him so what was that conversation like where was he buried how far away was it a how'd they get the land was it we don't we're just not told

I mean these are all details evidently we don't need to know but can you imagine what how you would have been impacted as a young man a new believer in Jesus carrying a dead body through the streets of Jerusalem that just was struck dead in front of the

Apostles for lying I can guarantee you they never forgot that the rest of their lives and you can't help but be impacted by that and the rest of the story is about three hours later his wife came in came in where I wish

I knew wherever the Apostles are you know it's not like they have a headquarters or something at this point in time they're they're hunted men so somebody's home could have been the upper room could have been oh no it's not like there were it's not like they could have these big huge places and there were now thousands of followers of Jesus and so maybe they did sort of have to have all -day church services and rotate groups in and out

I mean I I don't know but about three hours later

Ananias comes in I mean Sapphira comes in and it's like not knowing what had happened hmm what was she doing was she out spending the money they held back doing some shopping someplace maybe she had gone far enough away that she wouldn't be recognized

I don't know I don't know but she comes in not knowing what happened and and Peter responded to her so that's an interesting because the term there apocrypha is is normally what you use when you respond to someone's statement so so maybe she had come in assuming well you know and Ananias has given the money so now

I guess I can come in and I'm the wife of the real the next real generous guy and so I wonder how people are gonna respond to me now you know and they get treat treat me the way and Ananias the way they they looked up to Barnabas you know and so maybe she was even cheeky enough to have greeted

Peter or something don't know but it does say he he answered Peter answered responded to her tell me if such -and -such was the the price that you received and she said yes such -and -such so whatever that price was there they're not the text isn't interested in giving us specifics it would be irrelevant to us anyways yep that's that's what we got mm -hmm mm -hmm and Peter said to her why is it that you have agreed together to put the

Spirit of the Lord to the test behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well and immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last and the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband it almost seems couldn't prove it but it almost seems like the young men are just now returning from having buried

Ananias that that's almost how it strikes me he says the the feet of those who've just buried your husband are at the door and so they walk in what what are they thinking

Wow what have we gotten involved with here what on earth is going on in this situation they the young men come in find her dead look at each other cover her up take her out start digging again wherever they had just buried

Ananias and great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things well that seems to me like somewhat of an understatement we can read about these things our minds immediately turn to the the lessons we can learn and things like that but I think it's it's very useful to spend just a moment trying to think about what kind of an impact this would have upon this infant congregation in Jerusalem I certainly see a danger of rumors false information going around isn't that the tendency of things to start blowing things up embellishing adding some things

I would assume that the

Apostles would make sure that everyone understands that Ananias and Sapphira had conspired together to lie to God and to misrepresent their actions for an evil purpose

I cannot imagine what would have been going through the minds not only of these young men who've buried these bodies but anybody else who had likewise been tempted in looking at how the congregation responded to Barnabas to do the same thing themselves so many things that you could consider what was the if there was congregational seeing at this point and we we get the feeling there was

I mean there was congregational seeing amongst the Jews and so it would have been natural for there to be congregational singing of the

Psalms what was that like in the next service I'm not trying to make light of it

I'm just trying to put this in a real -life experience because it happened in history what what kind of an impact normally what you hear is wow we need to take very soon we are dealing with the

Living God in this situation and that's quite true that is quite true that's normally what you hear and that is a proper application but there would have been a tremendous impact upon the normal believers in that church when faced with the reality that you're dealing with life and death you're dealing with sacred things everybody's thinking about a number of stories from the

Old Testament I mean that's their Bible that's the only scriptures they have they don't have the story of Ananias and Sapphira that just happened so they're thinking of Uzzah and they're thinking of Aaron's sons and they're thinking of Korah, Dathom, and Abiram and the rebellion against Moses and there's there's been a few times when

God's has broken forth but this wasn't for violation of rules and regulations this was from lying to God this this was this was doing something voluntary something most of us would consider to be generous but their motivations had been exposed this

God that we have to deal with man he looks at the heart there's no way to hide anything there is no faking in front of this

God that's what is going to be very quickly understood by every single person that congregation and so when it says great fear

I've told you many times before and my my now colleague but former

Greek professor dr. Barrett likes when I repeatedly tell him when we get together once in a while that I'll never forget sitting in the life and letters of Paul class he was droning on about Paul and half the class was asleep

I was wide awake as I was already involved in apologetics and therefore I knew how important this stuff was and I remember exactly what room

I was sitting in what direction I was facing when when dr. Baird with great wisdom and scholarly acumen in talking about the term the fear of the

Lord and the Apostle Paul says now the Greek word for fear means fear and I I dutifully wrote that down that's a wonderful scholarly tautology because it actually was meant to communicate something and there was yes it can mean respect and reverence and all those things but it never stops meaning fear and in fact you are you know what the

Greek word for fear is whether you know that you know it or not it's phobos which we get phobia and so great phobos

Megas that's that's that's what it's that's what it says right there the the third and fourth words in verse 11 in Greek phobos

Megas mega fear great fear came over the whole church now is this a fear that I'm gonna run away from God no but it's a healthy improper thing to realize that you are dealing with God and I don't know about you but if what calls itself the church in America had a phobos

Megas you would not see 99 % of the foolishness that we see and you wouldn't see 99 % of the silly teaching we see either if there was a phobos

Megas amongst the people of God innovation in teaching innovation in worship shows a lack of the fear of God that's what that's where it's that's the origin and source of it just don't take it seriously just don't take it seriously it is a great thing and I will never forget and I've mentioned this over the years that what truly grabbed hold of me when

I first came here and you'll have to ask Roxy now where it was I sat she does remember that first night on a

Sunday evening it was somewhere over here I do remember that back toward that section but she remembers what

I was wearing again it's very frightening she may have written on a sticky note

I don't know there when when she goes she may she may we may well discover an entire library of sticky notes

I'm not sure if there is a sticky note scanner that we can digitize all this with for the entire

Chronicles or Roxy or whatever it is but but she remembers and she's mentioned it a few times to me and I just remember that what really really grabbed hold of me that night was the the reverence the the way at the

Word of God was handled yes but but just it was so different than what I was accustomed to and there was a reverence for the

Word of God I hope we never lose that I hope that's always a part of our of our experience and so Ananias and Sapphira God takes very very seriously his worship and in this instance what we see again this is a period of time where apostolic authority is being established you walk before an apostle he's representing

Jesus Christ would you lie to Jesus that way this is his church this is his body you don't try to promote yourself within that body by lying about what you've done and trying to make yourself look better in the eyes of others

God punishes this very directly in this situation and we learn from that that God takes very seriously what takes place in his church may we as his people in this body always take very seriously what he has called us to may we show him reverence in all of our worship let's pray together our grace

Heavenly Father we do thank you for your word even when it is difficult to read and to consider and Lord as we have considered this difficult story this evening we ask that you would once again help us to understand the seriousness of what we do here the handling of your word the handling of your truth may we show that we understand that by living our lives in light of your word in this coming week may we not be amongst those who make that strong and sharp distinction between who we are when we're amongst the

Saints and then who we are out in the world may we be one in service of you in both of those places

Lord thank you for this evening give us traveling mercies as we return to our homes we pray in Christ's name