Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00008A
00:21 Welcome to Books of the Book. We're so glad you could join us
00:25 today. My name is Jim Howard and I'm here with my brother Mark 00:28 Howard. We both pastor in the Michigan Conference of Seventh 00:31 day Adventists. Mark, the last time we were here to study this 00:35 book of Acts that we've been going through, we saw one of the 00:39 most fearless sermons ever given in the Bible by the apostle 00:44 Peter, the same apostle who had denied Jesus vindicated himself 00:49 as it were with a fearless and courageous address that actually 00:54 had not only the power of convicting those that he was 00:58 speaking to but also of turning many to the Lord. And where we 01:03 pick up or where we left off I should say was in verse 31 and 01:06 where we're going to pick up is in verse 32 of Acts chapter 4. 01:10 So if our viewers have their Bibles, we would invite you to 01:13 join us. But before we dive in, we would like to start with a 01:17 word of prayer. So let's ask God to bless our study of his word. 01:21 Father in heaven, we're so grateful for the opportunity 01:25 to study the Bible. Make it come alive to us today and speak to 01:30 our hearts is our prayer, in Jesus' name, Amen. 01:33 Now we're begin reading in verse 32 just at the conclusion of 01:39 some wonderful preaching and then a beautiful prayer in which 01:44 the disciples were given great boldness to speak the word of 01:48 God. It talks about the impact on the church. Verse 32 says, 01:52 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and 01:55 one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he 01:59 possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And 02:02 with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection 02:05 of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all, nor 02:08 was there anyone among them who lacked for all who were 02:12 possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the 02:15 proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the 02:18 apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone 02:22 had need. Now as we read this account, we're reminded that 02:26 there was a reality here in the book of Acts that we don't 02:29 experience too often. This fledgling group of 120 had very 02:34 quickly become 5000, men only, right, that's not counting the 02:39 women and children. So this was a large group of people that now 02:44 they've got to figure out how they're going to minister to. 02:47 And of course we recognize that later they'll establish some 02:50 special help in the structure, but even here early on in the 02:53 book of Acts they are talking about how they needed to 02:58 sacrifice for the sake of those who had less. It just seems that 03:02 the heart of sacrifice is built into the church in the book of 03:06 Acts. Right from the very beginning they saw this need 03:09 to if others had need to sacrifice their plenty to help 03:14 others. The story brings us to an account that is little bit 03:20 unique and it's really the focal point of our study today in the 03:23 book of Acts when it comes to chapter 5. Let's pick up in 03:27 verse 36 where it says, and this is in chapter 4, and Joses 03:33 who was also named Barnabas by the apostles which is translated 03:37 son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cypress, 03:41 having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the 03:44 apostles' feet. The chapter 5 verse 1 begins with the word 03:48 but. Everything was going well but as a certain man named 03:54 Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a possession. Why don't you 03:59 pick up there in the story? Okay. Well in chapter 5, and 04:02 it's interesting; it doesn't seem, Jim, that everybody is 04:05 selling things. It says back in chapter 4 verse 34 all who were 04:09 possessors of lands or houses sold them. In fact, Jesus 04:14 himself said the poor will always be with you. There are 04:17 always those who have more and those who have less and God's 04:20 intent is that those who have more would share and that's 04:23 what we see happening here. Those who did have an abundance 04:26 were selling it off and apparently Ananias and Sapphira 04:28 his wife fit that category. And it goes on there in chapter 5 to 04:33 say that when they sold their possession, verse 2 he kept back 04:37 part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it and 04:41 brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. But 04:45 Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the 04:49 Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for 04:52 yourself. While it remained was it not your own and after it was 04:56 sold was it not in your own control. Why have you conceived 04:59 this thing in your heart. You have not lied to men but to God. 05:03 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed 05:07 his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these 05:13 things. I mean, that was pretty swift. And it goes on to say in 05:17 verse 6, and the young men arose and wrapped his up, carried him 05:21 out and buried him. Now it was about three hours later when his 05:25 wife came in not knowing what had happened. I mean, I guess we 05:28 don't know how far they lived from the church or from where 05:31 they were meeting and collecting the money but evidently three 05:34 hours had been quite a long time and his wife, Sapphira, came 05:37 looking for her husband. And verse 8 says, and Peter answered 05:41 her tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said 05:46 yes for so much. Then Peter said to her, how is it that you have 05:50 agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord. Look, the 05:53 feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door 05:55 and they will carry you out. And immediately she fell down at his 05:59 feet and breathed her last and the young men came in and found 06:03 her dead and carrying her out buried her by her husband. 06:06 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard 06:11 these things. That's an incredible story. When 06:15 I look at what happened here in chapter 5 and specifically 06:20 Ananias and Sapphira's particular hypocrisy, we could 06:26 call it, it's notable that this was not really something that 06:31 God was forcing them to do. As you look at this in verse 4 it 06:35 says... Well even before you go there 06:37 it's interesting along those lines in verse 3 the question 06:41 was asked Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the 06:45 Holy Spirit? Now we talked about this already a little bit. 06:50 The Holy Spirit works through bringing conviction of truth and 06:54 we studied that in one of our previous episodes where we 06:57 looked at John chapter 16 verse 8 where it says, Then when he 07:00 the Spirit of Truth has come he will convict you of truth and of 07:02 righteousness and of judgment. So evidently as we see the 07:07 people distributing their possessions it would appear here 07:10 that in one of the apostles, at least one of the apostles 07:14 addresses the Holy Spirit had brought conviction on those who 07:18 had possessions to sell them to help those in need and Ananias 07:22 and Sapphira evidently had responded to that conviction. 07:26 That's the only way you could be said to have lied to the Holy 07:29 Spirit. In other words, they were under conviction much like 07:31 when we hear the preaching of the word or when we're studying 07:34 the word when the Holy Spirit pricks our hearts and brings 07:38 conviction and calls us to do something about it and we make a 07:41 decision. Okay Lord I'm going to do it. Okay Lord I'm going to 07:45 follow you we are making a commitment to the Holy Spirit 07:49 and ultimately to God and that's what it says here. He says, 07:52 Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy 07:56 Spirit and keep back a part. So they had evidently pledged 08:01 something under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and then when 08:06 it came time, when they left that atmosphere, and I say this 08:10 because this can happen to us when sometimes we're convicted 08:14 that we need to make a change, we're hearing a powerful sermon 08:18 or in some other way God is bringing the truth to our heart 08:22 and our mind and we're convicted that we need to do something and 08:24 we say I'm going to do it and then we leave that atmosphere 08:27 and then we start to rationalize and it would appear that they 08:31 began to rationalize here and decided that they weren't going 08:34 to follow through. Therefore, what they said they were going 08:37 to do they didn't do. They lied about what they were going to 08:40 do and they lied, not to man, but to God. 08:42 That's exactly right. Going back to that... That was an excellent 08:46 point. Going back to verse 4 where it talks about the freedom 08:50 that they had to make a decision Sometimes we look at this and 08:54 think that everybody had to get rid of their things and so poor 08:58 Ananias and Sapphira were just trying to find a way out of this 09:01 oppressive... They were manipulated... 09:05 Right. But this statement by the apostle is very clear. While it 09:09 remained was it not your own, it says in verse 4. And after it 09:12 was sold was it not in your own control. They didn't have to 09:16 pledge everything that they had from this sale. They didn't even 09:20 have to sell it at all. That's exactly right. But this makes 09:23 very clear that the fact that they were moved by some 09:27 conviction that they should do what's right and they did pledge 09:32 to give that money. Well now it brings in another entire 09:36 equation and that is that when we make a commitment to God we 09:40 need to keep our commitments. When we make a commitment to 09:44 our spouse in marriage we need to keep that commitment. 09:48 It's one thing if we decide that we want to break off an 09:52 arrangement before we've made that commitment. But once that 09:55 commitment is made we need to keep it and that's what they're 09:59 being held accountable for here. And it seems to me that, and we 10:02 don't have all of the details, but you can imagine that Ananias 10:06 and Sapphira after coming to this realization that, wow, we 10:09 should be giving of our proceeds we should sell what we have, 10:13 because we have much, we have plenty and helping these out, 10:17 that after that happened and they began to rationalize. You 10:21 know, maybe there's other people around who have money and 10:24 they're not doing that. Or maybe they think about the fact that 10:29 well these people who didn't do anything to give their money are 10:34 being helped by this common pool Perhaps if we just gave half 10:38 that will still be more than what some are giving. If we give 10:42 half then we can keep back the other part for ourself. It does 10:45 not specifically say half but they kept a part and they gave a 10:49 part and you know I think that sometimes we have that same 10:53 thing happen in the church today We have those who decide well 10:58 you know, the Bible is clear that I need to return a faithful 11:03 tithe to the Lord, but the interesting thing about this is 11:08 if it weren't for the Holy Spirit revealing it to Peter 11:13 they would not have known that Ananias and Sapphira gave only 11:18 part of the price. Nobody would have known except God, but that 11:23 same scenario happens today. We may say well I return a full 11:27 tithe to the Lord and nobody knows. The treasurer of the 11:32 church doesn't know, because they see a number in there but 11:36 really we maybe not returning a full tithe which means a tenth 11:40 but maybe a part of the price. 11:42 But why would anybody even go that route? 11:44 Well the reality is that there is inside each one of us a 11:49 danger that when nobody knows the temptation is stronger. When 11:55 somebody travels and stays in a hotel and nobody knows what they 12:01 are watching, nobody knows what they're doing, we find that 12:04 awful things sometimes happen. When there's no accountability 12:08 in those areas that are private in our life we find that they're 12:12 hardest areas to be true to God. But being true to God is 12:17 revealed in our private life. We can be true to God outwardly 12:21 that which people can see because reputation would drive 12:25 us to be that way. But to be true to God in our heart of 12:29 hearts and in our private life is the true test of character. 12:33 Ananias and Sapphira didn't pass that test. 12:35 No they didn't. What we're talking about here is hypocrisy. 12:40 This was not new to the Jewish church. We see Jesus probably in 12:44 the most well-known place in Matthew 23 over and over and 12:47 over referring to the leaders as hypocrites, you scribes and 12:51 Pharisees, hypocrites. The word actually comes from a Greek word 12:54 hupocrites which was a word if we were to use the word today 12:57 it would be an actor. We would talk about some Hollywood actor 13:00 and when we say the word actor, the Greeks would say hupocrites. 13:03 And Jesus was saying, you guys are a bunch of actors. In other 13:06 words, they were living a lie. They were saying one thing, 13:09 their profession was one thing, but what they really were was 13:14 being down inside that nobody else knew was something entirely 13:18 different. This danger of hypocrisy is something Jesus 13:22 warned very strongly about. We're going to actually take a 13:26 break here and when we come back from our break we're going to 13:30 look at some of what the scripture says and warns about 13:34 the danger of hypocrisy; the leaven of hypocrisy. So stay 13:37 tuned. We'll be back in just a minute. |
Revised 2014-12-17