Sunday, July 27, 2014

Acts 7:1-60 "Staying the Course"

                I want to quickly remind you as to what was going on at the start of our text for today.  I want to remind you of what things looked like as we ended last Sunday.  Stephen, a newly appointed Deacon in the church, was standing trial before the Sanhedrin.  Some of the priests had trumped up charges that Stephen had been “speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” (Acts 6:11) after they were unable to successfully dispute him as to the good works and signs that he was doing amongst the people.  They accused Stephen of having said that Jesus was going to destroy the temple and the law.  They asked him to defend himself against such charges, but what they got instead really wasn’t a defense at all, it was something entirely different.

                Stephen’s speech, with all due respect to figures like Moses, David, and other figures, is really more of an Old Testament 101 than a defense against the accusations made by the priests.  There’s a video on the internet that supposedly has the entirety of major Old Testament events listed in chronological order that takes roughly about 10 minutes.  Now, Stephen isn’t really concerned with the major events per say, but with the major covenantal promise between God and His people.  He doesn’t start with any information about the Garden of Eden (where God’s relationship with His people began), but instead with Abraham.  There’s an important reason for doing so.  You see, while we may call this Old Testament 101 (or at least a start to OT 101); this was really more of an account of Jewish history.  Stephen was simply speaking about the history of Israel’s relationship with God.

                He walked through the history of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He spoke of circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and His people in the Old Testament.  He spoke of the promise that God made to Abraham about the giving of the land to him and his offspring despite Abraham having no children and already being at an advanced age.  He spoke about Joseph and how his brothers sold him into slavery and how despite such evil occurring, God worked through these heinous events to actually care for and provide for His children.  He spoke of the days after Joseph had died, when the Pharaoh in Egypt didn’t know Joseph and he looked upon the Hebrews more with disgust than anything else.  He spoke of Moses (the very one who he was accused of blaspheming against) and how Moses (directed and led by God) delivered Israel from the hands of slavery, out of the land of Egypt.  Stephen spoke of the forty years in the wilderness and God’s coming to dwell with Israel at Mount Sinai.  He spoke of the rebellion of Israel and the worship of the golden calf.

                This is where Stephen really started to press home his primary point.  Nothing that he said in his speech was out of line with what had actually taken place.  However, we all know that sometimes when we present the facts to someone in a very plain manner; it can tend to rub them the wrong way.  Stephen spoke about how Israel had rebelled against God in their worship of the golden calf.  After speaking very briefly about the leadership of Israel under Joshua, David, and Solomon, he spoke about how God had continuously sent prophets to teach them about things like the need for repentance, coming judgments, and most notably the coming Messiah.  Yet, almost every time the prophets were rejected.  Then, when God did send the long awaited Messiah, he too was rejected by the Jews.

                During the midst of his speech, Stephen was also pointing out that one of the charges against him was something that by Jewish traditions shouldn’t even be an offense.  You see, Stephen’s giving the history of Israel and their relationship to God also pointed out that it wasn’t as if the temple was absolutely necessary for the worship of God, at least not the grand temple that they somewhat worshipped.  As Stephen spoke about the time of Israel in the wilderness, he spoke about the tabernacle (the portable “temple” that the Hebrews took with them as they traveled).  He spoke about how God was very much present within that place of worship.  We know from history that David designed the temple and that his son Solomon was king for the construction and completion of it, but it’s interesting that Stephen chose to say of that temple, “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.”  Our first thought in reading those words is to somewhat balk at them.  After all, the temple was blessed by God at the time of Solomon’s having it constructed, and it was a point of emphasis for the prophets that it be reconstructed after Israel had returned from exile.  Even during Stephen’s time, the temple served as a central place for daily living in the community.  So what could Stephen possibly have meant when he said that God does dwell in the temple?

                Well, remember that one of the charges that Stephen was facing was that he was saying that Jesus was going to destroy the temple and the law?  What Stephen was saying in his speech was that “Yes, that’s exactly what Jesus has already done, but just not in the ways that you’re thinking.”  That’s why I say that this really isn’t a defense because a defense would refute the charges.  Stephen is saying that the charges are exactly right, just that their understanding of them was off.  Jesus didn’t destroy the temple, in fact, he was the temple.  He was the very place where God dwelt with man; it was in him that man was and is able to come to its greatest understanding of God.  And as for the law, Jesus didn’t destroy the law and customs of Israel, but fulfilled them.  He lived a life of complete perfection, in complete obedience to God’s will.  They weren’t left destroyed, but were completed.  Those ceremonial and cleaning laws of the Old Testament were rendered obsolete by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.  Yes, the social laws are still in play, but those aren’t the things that Stephen or Peter or John or any of the others who proclaimed Christ as the Messiah were speaking about.  The laws and customs that they spoke most against were those cleansing rituals and the Pharisaic laws that had come about as a corruption of God’s initial laws.  Stephen was pointing out that Israel had in the past, and was continuing to turn away from God, even when He provided for them a means by which they might be saved.

                Now, as we would expect, Stephen’s words didn’t sit well with the Sanhedrin.  They responded by stoning him.  Now, I’m not going to go into any detail about this, but I want you to notice who is mentioned briefly in verse 58.  “Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.  And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.”  Now, Saul would later come to be Paul, the Great Apostle.  The witnessing of Stephen’s stoning on Saul’s behalf we will see had a profound effect of Paul’s faith later on down the road.  But for our text today, we see Stephen offer up a few final words, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  Both of these phrases sound very similar to those uttered by Jesus as he breathed his last upon the cross.

                Now the question is put to us, as we continue our look at Acts as a study of the early church, what lesson from the early church are we to have in mind as we seek to be a more biblical example of the church today?  Well, there are two things that I think we can take from Stephen’s example.  The first is that Stephen knew the story of the Church; he knew the history of Scripture.  The only way in which we can truly understand what it is we believe is to have an understanding of what has happened to get us to this point.  If we only want to know about the now and how we are to currently act, then we’re missing the foundation, and without a foundation there is no chance for any long-term stability or lasting faith.  If we only know about the now, then we are actually missing out on the whole of what Jesus did.  When we read the New Testament and the gospel accounts in particular, we stand amazed at Christ’s work.  However, when we read about what he had to do and what he had to fulfill from the Old Testament, our amazement grows exponentially.  The second thing that I think is really important to note from Stephen’s speech is that he was unashamed.  He was completely unashamed of the gospel that he was presenting and he was completely unashamed and unapologetic about doing so in front of a group of folks who were hostile to his message.  He knew full well that they literally held his life in their hands, and yet he delivered his speech anyway.  We need that faith; we need that courage; we need that sense of being unashamed of the gospel message even in the midst of a group or situation that is hostile towards it.  Stephen is known as the first martyr of the Church.  He’s by no means the last or possibly even the most famous.  However, there is something special when you’re the first.  You’re the one to which all others look to for advice, leadership, guidance, and even comparison.  Now, hopefully none of us will be added to the list of martyrs in the traditional sense, the sense in which we give up our lives for the gospel.  However, I do hope that we all experience martyrdom in a much smaller sense, the sense of unashamedly proclaiming our faith without any regard or really even care for what or who is around us.  After all the Greek word that we get the modern term martyr from is actually a term that means witness.  In being a martyr, we are simply to be witnesses for the gospel and see what happens.  If the response by those around us is hatred, so be it; because we are not to worry about our own selves, but are to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33).  May each one of us be given the strength of Stephen in our moments where we are presented with an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Acts 6:1-15 "How It's Supposed to Work"

                Or text for today is a fascinating one on a multitude of levels.  There are numerous directions that we could (and will) go with this text.  There’s the fact that this little spat within the church is another attempt by Satan to destroy the bride of Christ.  There’s the establishment of a position of authority, an office within the church that still exists to this very day.  Then there’s also the reminder that those who serve God will always come under attack as a result of their faith, even from others who look to God as well.

                By this point in our journey through the book of Acts, the church is pretty much established.  We’ve seen a system of care seemingly put into place with the giving of moneys to the apostles and their dispersing it as they saw fit.  We’ve seen an evangelistic outreach program of sorts through the constant community-based ministry of the apostles.  And we’ve also seen the church worshiping together, especially in times of celebration and rejoicing.  However, much of the story of the early church thus far has been about the apostles, it’s been about the leaders and not the people.  Well, that’s about to change.  The needs of the church (at least of some of those in the congregation) had become so great that the apostles were left unable to do their full list of duties because there just simply wasn’t enough hours in the day.  The Greek-speaking Jews were saying that the other Jews, those who spoke Hebrew or Aramaic, had received more from the church than they did.  They felt that the church was showing favoritism to the Hebrew-speaking folks and meeting more of their needs simply because of their nationality and background. 

                So think about this for a second; both groups were receiving aid from the church, but one group was complaining because they felt like the other group was getting more than they were.  When we read statements like this about the early church, it makes us realize that in some ways we are still as flawed today as we were back then, and there’s a reason for that.  We noted a few weeks ago that the church is made up of people, flawed, fallen, sinful people.  With that being the case, there’s a foot-hole there for Satan to try and destroy the church.  We’ve seen his efforts to do so by persecution (the constant threatening and arresting of the apostles) and deception (the lies of Ananias and Sapphira).  Now, we’re seeing Satan work through division.  He’s tugging on those all-too-familiar heartstrings of jealousy, envy, and want within the lives of these folks.  Instead of seeing what they had received as a gracious and merciful gift, all they could see is what they didn’t have.  Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it?

Regardless of the outlook of the Hellenists concerning the gifts they received from the church, the apostles came together and decided (inspired by God I might add) that there was a need for a division of the work of the church.  So they decided that there were to be seven (a significant number in Jewish culture, think of the seven days of creation) leaders.  They are to be men of good repute and full of the Spirit and of wisdom.  Notice that they weren’t chosen because of their financial abilities or because they are qualified at dispersing things fairly, they were purely chosen because of their spiritual qualifications.  Now, this office (although it has been seen as the beginning of the office of Deacon) is really somewhat of a mixture between that of what we in our Presbyterian tradition calls Deacons and Elders.  There is a great deal of governance, such as there is in the office of Elder, but there is an even greater aspect of service, which is the primary role of the office of Deacon.  Hence why this has been seen more as the establishment of the Deacon instead of the Elder (plus the office of Elder had already long-since been established).  Whichever way we choose to interpret these offices, the office described here does not perfectly mirror either of the two described by Paul later on in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus.  However, I don’t want the primary focus to be upon which office these men were called to, but instead our focus should be upon the fact that they were called to an office.  For so long, the apostles had been doing really all of the work of the church.  Now, it was time for someone else to do the work.  You may have never noticed this before, but after the appointing (and ordaining) of these seven men here, we really don’t hear much about the apostles (at least not this particular group) for a while.  The focus shifts to this group of new officers within the church.  Later on we will see some more from Peter, and of course there’s the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and the work of the soon-to-become Apostle Paul, but this is the turning point from these folks who used to be disciples of Jesus doing all the work to that of there being those appointed within the church to share the responsibilities. 

What happened because of this new system and structure that was put into place?  “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”  So, not only were the complaints of the Hellenists calmed and quieted, but the Church was able to function on a much greater level in terms of evangelism and outreach.  Even some of those who had opposed the church (the priests) came to faith in Jesus Christ.  In other words, a sharing of the responsibilities of a church leads to a much greater effectiveness of the church for the kingdom of God.  For years, the sad but truthful statement has been that “twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work when it comes to churches.”  The even sadder truth is that in more recent times that statement has been amended to say that “ten percent do ninety percent of the work.”  Friends the church will only function as it ought to when everyone is doing the work.  The church will only work at its most effective level when every single person is active and involved in the ministry of the church as she seeks to bring about great glory for God’s kingdom.

Now before we leave this text, there’s one more thing that I feel needs to be discussed to be perfectly fair.  Yes, it’s sin that causes much of the problems that we find in churches today just like it was sin that caused the problems for the early church.  And yes, a church operates more effectively for Christ when the responsibilities are shared.  That’s true whether back during the early church or the church of today.  Many times, God uses the sin within a church to bring about a greater sharing of the work, just as He did with the Jerusalem church.  But there’s one more thing that we all need to be painfully aware of as we look to our text today and that comes in the second half of the text.   Stephen, a newly appointed officer within the church, we’re told was, “full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.”  Then, some folks became angry with him just as they had with the apostles numerous times before.  They tried to debate him, but they quickly found out that he (along with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) was a foe too great for any of them in the wisdom department.  We see that they basically had him arrested and brought him before a similar council to that which Peter and John and the rest of the apostles had already faced.  Now, we will see next Sunday what exactly Stephen said in response to their allegations and accusations.  We will also see that immediately after Stephen’s speech, that he was stoned to death.

Typically, we would look at Stephen’s seizure alongside his speech and stoning, seeing as they’re really all just parts of the same narrative.  So, why did I choose to include it in our text for today about sharing the work of the church?  Well, the answer is that we need to be reminded that the work of the church is hard.  The work of the church is laborsome, and at times it isn’t going to be pleasant.  When we go out and evangelize, we’re probably going to be met with more resistance than we are embracing.  Sometimes, our greatest efforts going towards God make things more difficult instead of easier in our lives.  So often, what happens is that we’re met with hardships and resistance and we just retreat to letting someone else do the work.  We tell ourselves that it’s best that we leave it up to others who are better and more qualified than us, but what we’re really doing is hiding from difficulty.  Hopefully, none of us are ever faced with the same situation that Stephen faced where it is our life that we are asked to give up for the sake of the gospel.  Don’t get me wrong, I would lay down my life for the sake of the gospel of Christ and the proclamation of God’s Word, but I’m just hoping that I’m not asked to (at least not anytime soon).  But as we continue to see the building up and sustaining of the early church, we see that it is crucial in order for the church to survive, that there has to be a multitude of people working with the same goal in mind.  Satan will try everything he can (division, distraction, disputes, etc.) to keep us from doing such work.  But that just means that we have to lean more upon Christ in order to carry out the tasks that he has set before us.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Acts 5:12-42 "God's Providence through an Unlikely Source"

                A few weeks ago, Amy and I were gathered together with her family at her parents’ house in Ocean Springs, MS for the Fourth of July.  As we were all sitting on the back porch talking about the past, present, and future of our family, a story came up about Amy and her cousins and a certain trip to a dude ranch out in Texas with her grandparents some years ago.  Now, I won’t go into the particulars of the story (at least not right now), but I’ll just tell you that it is the only time that Amy and the other three girls involved can remember their grandfather ever being mad at them.  It left such an impression upon these four young girls that they went out of their way (and still do to some extent) to never upset him again.  Well, a similar lasting impression is how we ended our text last Sunday.  God had left such an impression upon the church in Jerusalem concerning the severity of sin by His taking of the lives of Ananias and Sapphira that they were fearful.  They were downright scared that they could be next, and so they wanted to do anything they could to avoid such sin and punishment.  There’s even a chance that some of them might have wondered if they had, as a whole group, lost their blessing from God.

                Well, we quickly find out that that was not the case at all.  The very next words following “and great fear came upon the whole church” are “now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles.”  Obviously, there was no way that the apostles could have done what they were doing without God, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  However, there seemed to be some timidity on behalf of the people.  We’re told that “none of the rest dared join them,” which is a far cry from the worship that we saw a few weeks ago that caused walls to shake.  But we still find that even more people are beginning to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, mostly because of the numerous healings that were being done by the apostles as they walked through the streets.

                Then, in an almost “here we go again” type of situation, we find that some of the religious leaders became upset with the apostles once again.  I think that Luke very accurately puts it by stating that it was because they were “filled with jealousy.”  Yes, I’m sure that they were a bit upset that the apostles were continuing to do the things they were doing in Jesus’ name, but ultimately it was about the fact that the attention that the apostles were receiving should have (at least in their mind) gone to them instead.  We know that some time ago, that Peter and John were released and warned that if they continued to proclaim Jesus as Messiah and do works in his name that they would be taken back into prison.  So, the high priest and the Sadducees have the apostles arrested again and put into prison.

Then we’re given this story about an angel of the Lord letting the apostles out of prison at night and sending them to the temple to preach.  Then, the next morning the apostles weren’t in prison when the guards went to bring them before council.  The guards found that even though the apostles weren’t there, they had no clue how they escaped because the prison door was securely locked, just as it was when they had left them there the night before.  Someone eventually came and told them that the apostles were in the temple and teaching people about the very things that landed them in prison in the first place.  Finally, the captain of the temple and his officers got the apostles to stop and made their way to stand before the council.  However, notice that our text says, “but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.”  Now, I get that the fear of the people might have been real.  No one wants to anger a mob and insight a riot, but if what the apostles were doing was really thought of as being wrong, don’t you think that at least some force would have been used.  But that’s a discussion for a whole other time.

So the apostles went before the council and were questioned and reminded about their previous encounter with them.  It almost seems like everyone knew how this was going to go.  It’s kind of like when my kids do something that I told them not to do.  “Now you remember what we told you was going to happen if you didn’t eat all your dinner, don’t you?”  It’s as if the council is saying, “Ok guys, y’all remember that last time we told y’all, that we weren’t going to stand for you teaching in Jesus’ name anymore.”  Peter then gave in essence the same response that he gave the first time, “we must obey God rather than men.”  He then went on to speak of how they had Jesus killed and how God exalted him after that and how they were going to be faithful witnesses for the gospel no matter what.  And this infuriated the council and they had the knee-jerk reaction of putting the disciples to death.

Then, we have something that really seems a bit odd at first, but after thinking about it, there might be good explanation (as I’ll suggest in a moment).  But we have this Pharisee named Gamaliel who stood up against the killing of the apostles.  Now, for those who don’t know about Gamaliel, he was a teacher of the law and a very distinguished and honored man, just as our text tells us.  However, he was also the teacher of a man named Saul, who would later be come to know as Paul, the Great Apostle and writer of a large portion of the New Testament.  Gamaliel reminded the entire council, in the midst of their fury, that he had been around for quite some time and had seen a number of folks come around claiming to be the Messiah.  He reminded they of a man named Theudas and another named Judas who both claimed to be the Messiah.  He also reminded them of the hundreds of followers they had and how after each man had died then their followers dispersed and their ideas went away.  He wisely told the council, “keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.  You might even be found opposing God!”  In other words, “let’s all just wait and see where this goes.”  You see, we have to remember that even though there were many (in fact probably a majority) of the religious officials of Jerusalem who were primarily concerned with their status and position, there were still some, like Gamaliel, who were first and foremost concerned with serving God; even if that meant having to accept an entirely new set of teachings and an entirely new way of worship and living.  So, the council decided to take Gamaliel’s advice (sort of).  They did take a wait and see approach with the apostles, but not before beating them and warning them about continuing to speak in Jesus’ name.  Nevertheless, the apostles were released instead of being sentenced to death.

When we read about this encounter, we wonder why in the world Gamaliel would speak up.  After all, he was a Jew and fully thought that they apostles were wrong.  Well, the first reason, which we’ve already stated, was that he was first and foremost a man of God.  He was willing to be lead in whatever direction God would allow him to be lead, even if it was a way that he thought was wrong.   Secondly, I think that the simplest explanation for why Gamaliel spoke up was God.  Now, this can be divided into two different categories itself.  The first of which is that God inspired Gamaliel to speak.  Now, there is no scriptural evidence for this, but it’s plausible that God inspired this man to speak to the council.  The second category is that God spoke by using Gamaliel’s actions and words.  In other words, God acted through the ordinary chain of events to preserve His people.  God worked through the natural unfolding of events to bring about the deliverance of His people from the hands of their oppressors.  This is a glowing example of the providence of God.  There was a plan for the upholding of God’s people, and that plan was carried out by this Pharisee. 

Sometimes, God’s plan seems to be unfolded before us in the strangest of ways.  I’m pretty sure that the apostles didn’t think that after the angel of the Lord came and freed them that they were going to be commanded to stay in the temple just so they could be arrested again.  I’m pretty sure that they weren’t expecting one of the most noted Pharisees to be the one who spoke up on their behalf (sort of).  I’m pretty sure that each and every one of us have seen God work in ways that we never would have imagined to bring about the glorification of His name.  We’ve all seen that unlikely display of God’s love.  We’ve all experience that care that God has shown us come from the most unlikely of sources.  Remember that much like the apostles, we have a job to do.  Our job is to proclaim the gospel and show the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to everyone around us.  In our doing so, God will provide, just as He did for the apostles.  God’s providence will sustain us and see that His will will be done.  God will care for us and provide for us, even in ways that we cannot even imagine or could never possibly expect.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Acts 5:1-11 "The Severity of Sin"

                Last Sunday, we began to shift our focus from Peter and John’s being persecuted by the Sanhedrin to looking more at the formulation of the Church itself.  We saw that after the deliverance of Peter and John from before the Sanhedrin, the group of believers gathered there in Jerusalem began to worship and work as a Church ought to.  We talked about how they prayed with such force and that the Holy Spirit was so alive and at work within their worship that the walls of the building where they were gathered began to shake.  We noted that there wasn’t fear for their lives in that moment, but unified worship of God.  We also looked at how various people within this community and religious group were bringing money to the apostles so that it could be used to care for the poor.  We saw that even those who were wealthy enough to own houses or land sold them in order to give the proceeds to the apostles.  We were even told specifically about a man named Barnabas (yes, the same Barnabas mentioned by Paul later on in his epistles) who sold a field and gave every bit of the proceeds to apostles, laying it at their feet.

                In fact, as our text closed last Sunday, we might have thought that we were looking at a picture of the perfect church.  Well, the truth of the matter is that there is not, nor has there ever been, such a church.  There is no such thing as a perfect church outside of heaven.  Charles Spurgeon once said to some members of his church who informed him that they were leaving in pursuit of a perfect church, “If I had never joined a Church till I had found one that was perfect, I would never have joined one at all! And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect Church after I had become a member of it.”  Even Spurgeon was well aware that there was no such thing as a perfect earthly church.  Well, the church in Jerusalem was no different.  Just because it was the first church (as it is labeled in the final verse of our text), led by the apostles, full of miracles and healings, and came about relatively soon after Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, it still wasn’t a perfect church.  In fact, a church can never be perfect because it is comprised of fallen men and women; and that fact is present in the early church here in Jerusalem with the examples of Ananias and Sapphira.  Although it is worth noting that they weren’t the only examples of sin within this church, but just the ones found here in our text for today.

                When we look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira, it’s a story of the effects of sin on believers.  And we have to understand that fact first and foremost, that this husband and wife were very much believers in Jesus Christ and dedicated members of his church and this family of believers gathered in Jerusalem.  However, they fell victim to a laundry list of sins, some of which we will point out, but some of which we will not for our purposes today.  The first sin, perhaps, that they fell into was that of jealousy or envy.  Now, there isn’t specific Scriptural evidence for this, but I would imagine based on the way in which Luke shifts the narrative so drastically from Barnabas’ giving to Ananias and Sapphira’s story that they were seeing the great praise that was being given to those who were selling their land and giving all the money to the apostles.  They became jealous of folks like Barnabas perhaps.  Who knows?  Maybe they weren’t jealous at all.  Maybe they started out by saying that they were going to sell their land and give all the proceeds to the apostles.  Either way, it is at the very least highly plausible that the sin of want and envy and jealousy had crept into their hearts and minds.

                Whatever their motives for selling their property might have been, it isn’t as if their only sin was rooted in their reason for selling their land.  We read that Ananias, with Sapphira’s full knowledge (a statement that we will see as extremely important in the overall narrative in just a moment) withheld a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the land.  Who knows why he withheld a portion of his money.  Maybe it was personal greed or insecurity.  Maybe it was just that he didn’t want to give it all away.  In honesty, Ananias was perfectly within his rights to do so.  It wasn’t as if he was commanded to give everything he had to God.  The issue here isn’t the amount given to the Lord, but the lie about what was given.  We’re never even told exactly how much he withheld; it may have only been a small portion of what he sold his land for.  Peter even acknowledges that it is Ananias’ right to give to God whatever he chooses since it was his to give in the first place.  The problem was that Ananias laid his money at the apostles’ feet as if it was the entirety of his proceeds.  Instead of just admitting that what he had given was only a part of his money, Ananias claimed to be following the example of those like Barnabas.  However, what he was doing was lying.  He lied to the Holy Spirit; he lied God.  As Peter rebuked him, “You have not lied to men but to God.”  This is the root of the sin here and the reason that we see God deal so harshly with both Ananias and Sapphira in this account.

                God dealt with them by taking their lives, first Ananias and then Sapphira.  This is why that phrase “and with his wife’s knowledge” is so crucial to our understanding of Sapphira’s punishment.  She was just as complicit in Ananias’ sin as he was.  Let this serve as an example and warning to all of us that knowingly allowing sin to take place is equally as offensive to God as the sin itself.  The blame and punishment placed upon Sapphira is a mirror image of that which fell upon Ananias.  Now, it’s here where I think that I need to clarify one thing before moving on to the ultimate theme behind this whole text.  Yes, God took their earthly lives as punishment, but nowhere in our text does it say that they were thrown into hell.  Nowhere does it say that He turned His back to them and forsook them.  One of the 5 points of Calvinism, a set of beliefs by which we adhere to in various amounts, is known as perseverance of the saints.  In essence, this doctrine teaches that those whom God has called into communion with Himself will continue in faith until the end.  In terms of Ananias and Sapphira, it isn’t as if God became so infuriated with them that He cast them aside.  Know that there is a great difference between the ending of one’s earthly life and their being cast into hell.

                So the question that we probably want to ultimately ask is why.  Why did God punish Ananias and Sapphira for their sins by taking their lives?  We have read about and could name numerous biblical figures that did things that seemed much worse without nearly as severe a punishment.  The first one that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about sin is David.  David committed adultery and his life wasn’t taken.  However, we need to remember that his son, the product of his adultery, did die as a result of his and Bathsheba’s sin.  There were other figures in the Old Testament who God struck down immediately:  Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah.  What is the meaning and reasoning behind the taking of Ananias and Sapphira’s lives for something that seems somewhat trivial.  God took the earthly lives of Ananias and Sapphira to prove something, to teach something to the first church there in Jerusalem.  “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”  God punished them so because He wanted His church to understand the severity of sin.  He wanted them to see that as His chosen people, that sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, harmless, or personal, is just as grave as those things like murder, adultery, and heresy.  This is the first time in the New Testament that the Greek word εκκλεσια (ekklesia), which means church, is used.  I don’t think it’s any coincidence that as God’s Church is sort of officially being instituted, that the first thing He would choose to do is to teach them about the severity of sin.

                Friends, we’ve all seen what sin can do to our lives and the lives of those whom we love.  We’ve all seen how sin can cause of strong marriage to crumble into adultery and die.  We’ve all seen how sin can take a person of great character and faith and lead them down a path that we could have never imagined.  It’s no mystery why God would want to start out at the very beginning of the establishment of His Church by teaching us about the severity of sin.  Sin is a force that separates us from the glory and love of God.  Sin is the force that tries to entice us by telling us that our earthly and fleshly desires are just as important, if not greater than, our obedience to God.  Sin is a slippery slope, a slippery path to destruction.  Sin takes many shapes and many forms.  We must recognize it, identify it, and kill it as quick as we can.  God wants us to be in communion with Him.  However, He knows that the only thing in this world that can really pull us away from His communion is the presence of Sin within our lives.  Each and every one of us need to pray without ceasing that God would give us the strength to overcome Sin in our lives.  We need God’s help to overcome Sin so that we may dwelling in His presence forever and ever.  Don’t misunderstand or underestimate Sin, but remember that God has the power to overcome whatever Sin places in our way.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.