You Can't Fool God! (Acts 5:1-11)
Billy Milton - June 27, 2004
I don’t know how you feel, but there are a number of passages in the Bible that leave me feeling distinctly uncomfortable. My immature human judgment is that God is not behaving fairly. I’m thinking for instance of passages like the one in Matthew 21 where Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit and of course it dies. Why? What wrong had the poor fig tree done? I can explain that later if you don’t remember me preaching on that in October 2002! I’m thinking of Jepthah and his poor daughter in Judges 11; I’m thinking of Lot’s wife and many other passages that are hard to understand given our view of fairness.
This passage in Acts 5 is another one of those uncomfortable passages that the Bible never shirks from. And that’s one more reason why I trust the Bible stories so much. It never tries to whitewash over the difficult stories and unsavoury incidents. This to me is proof of its authenticity. Here in Acts 5, along with the thousands being saved is this awful story of Ananias and Sapphira. They do a similar thing to that which Barnabas did last week and sell a piece of property and give most of the proceeds to the church, via the apostles. What a lovely gesture and one that every Pastor would be delighted with I’m sure. Do you remember the rejoicing here a couple of years ago when someone in the church gave a gift of 80 000 pounds to Beulah? We need more people like this, don’t we?
Peter apparently didn’t think so. Peter, that man who never did anything wrong in his life (NOT!), begins to question Ananias about his gift and accuses him of lying to the Holy Spirit. Then Ananias, whose name rather ironically means “God is gracious”, falls down dead. The next thing in comes Sapphira, who hasn’t even been told that her husband is now dead AND buried; she confirms that they had held back part of the money; and Peter, the man who always told the truth (NOT!) pronounces judgement on her also and she too dies and is carted off for burial. No wonder it says in v11 that ‘great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events’.
I suspect that I’m not alone in feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the tough punishment God chooses to bestow on this apparently generous couple. But, as I thought about this story, I had to ask myself two questions:
1. Why do I feel uncomfortable and, 2. Why is this story in the Bible?
Why do I feel uncomfortable?
Well, I want to give three reasons why I feel uncomfortable – you can add some more of your own if you want.
1. We are dealing with holiness here to a degree that I don’t understand. We know in theory that God is holy but this story serves to remind me in vivid and frightening terms just how holy he is. Very, very, very holy! This is the first time that the word “church” (ekklesia) is used in the NT and the message is quite clear – right from the outset God wants his church to be utterly pure. That level of purity and holiness frightens me somewhat.
2. This could be me. I know that I too am prone to enjoying the praise of man, and if God so chose, he could use me as an example just as he used Ananias and Sapphira.
3. The third reason that it makes me a bit uncomfortable is that it reminds me there is more to God than the all-loving, all-forgiving grandfather figure that most people are comfortable with. This passage is a necessary warning against the apathy and luke-warmness that has crept into most churches, sadly ours included. A culture has developed over recent years where we have worked hard to try to make church acceptable to the masses who don’t come. I’m not saying that I disagree with that, the church was due a good over-hall after years of being irrelevant to the people it was supposed to reach out to, but I do believe that church should be a bit scary to people. We are dealing with the creator and sustainer of all things – that should be a bit scary. The amazing thing was that, despite people being frightened as the story of God’s holiness spread, the early church still grew in leaps and bounds. People were still prepared to step up to that challenge of holy living because quite simply it was the truth.
Why is this story in the Bible?
Well some scholars just come straight out with it and say that it shouldn’t be! It shows God up in a bad light. I disagree with them, mainly because I believe that the Bible, every single letter of it, is inspired by God and is there for a purpose. Let’s look at the story in a bit more detail and see what we need to learn from it.
A. No-one made Ananias and Sapphira do what they did. 5:4
In the early church, no one was forced to give anything, never mind everything. The decision to give their property was entirely up to them. Maybe there’s an element of pride creeping in here? They’d seen the fuss that was made when Barnabas sold his field (4:37) and gave the money to the church and they wanted a piece of that praise. Its very tempting isn’t it?
B. Deceit was the issue. Ultimately, Ananias and Sapphira sinned, not by holding back some of the proceeds of the sale, but by being deceitful. I’m afraid that we live in times of such public lying and deceiving that we almost expect it now. It’s not such a big deal. But I want to say this morning – lying is such a big deal! What a forest fire is started by a little lie! How many marriages are wrecked by a little lie? How many people are cheated in business by a little lie? How many wars are fought because of lies? Our own government is being accused of lying to the public in order to get us into war with Iraq. “Saddam Hussein can have weapons of mass destruction landing in London in 45 minutes.” Remember?
I cut this out of a paper last week READ BILL CLINTON HEADLINE.
But, I hear you say, isn’t this judgement a bit severe? After all they did presumably give quite a lot of money to the church and no-one got hurt by their deceit. Surely God wouldn’t judge people in a similar way today? Evidence would suggest that he doesn’t appear to but, if he did, where would I be? Leaving a recorded message to an empty church probably!
C. This incident is a reminder that no church is perfect, not even the early church and, whilst I love KRC, it has been brought home forcibly to me in recent months that a number of Christians in KRC are harbouring secret sins. The result of this secret sin, if it is not exposed in time, is that individuals are damaged, families are hurt and the testimony of this church is dragged through the mud. Yes, God judges, but out of love for his church rather than from cruelty to individuals. He judges us to waken us up. Dishonesty or deception causes serious problems among Christians.
D. Impressing God is much more important than impressing each other. Our motives are such complex things. A & S had obviously seen the respect and honour accorded to Barnabus when he had made his offering and fancied a bit of it themselves. Its easily done and most of us are tempted in this direction. When I was working in an office environment people used to stay at their desks long after 5pm trying to be seen by the boss so that he would be impressed by their dedication, but as soon as he left the building the place almost miraculously emptied a few minutes later. The strange thing was – the boss knew! Trying to impress people just makes you look fake. If it’s true of the office then even more so its also true of the church.
E. Whether you like it or not, many look to you as an example of faith. Dishonesty ruins our witness with outsiders and, once our testimony is spoiled, it’s very difficult to recover it. Our most effective witness comes not only through what we say, but also through what we do. We need total integrity, especially amongst the leadership.
F. We must be honest consistently, not just sometimes.
Charles Swindoll in “Growing Deep in the Christian Life,” writes about a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The attendant at the fast food outlet, however, accidently gave him the day’s takings - a bag of money instead of the food. After driving to their picnic site the two of them sat down to enjoy some chicken. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken - over $800! But he was an unusual guy. He quickly put the money back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Honest got out, walked in, and became an instant hero.
By then, the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, “I want you to know that I was given a bag of money instead of the chicken I’d ordered. I suspect you want it back.”
The manager was thrilled to bits. He said, “Let me call the newspaper. I’m gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You’re one of the most honest men I’ve ever heard of.”
The man quickly jumped in: “Oh, no. No, no don’t do that!”, he said. Then he leaned closer and whispered, “You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife. She’s, uh, somebody else’s wife.”
It’s harder to find an honest heart than lost cash and people are looking for more than just a moment’s honesty but rather a consistently honest lifestyle.
G. Be committed to the truth regardless of how much it hurts. Some of you might remember Robby Fowler’s grand gesture a few seasons ago when he was a footballer with Liverpool. STORY OF WRONGFUL PENALTY AND HIS TAP TO THE KEEPER. I can’t remember if Liverpool won the game or not but I do remember the commentators calling Robbie Fowler crazy for risking potentially millions of pounds on a grand gesture. Personally I admired him. Am I committed enough to the truth to suffer for it?
Conclusion
What about you?
~ Is there something lurking in the shadows of your soul that you need to confess to God?
~ Is there deliberate sin that is constantly affecting your life?
~ Are you caught in a secret sin that you think won’t harm anyone?
~ Are you in a job situation that is constantly asking you to purposefully sin?
~ Are you constantly giving excuses for your sin while it hurts those close to you?
Whatever your situation may be, God knows everything you are saying, thinking and doing. Ananias and Sapphira found that out the hard way.
In Matt. 11:28 Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” I think it is time to turn your deliberate sin over to Jesus and to find accountability and rest. As most of you well know – you can fool me most of the time but you can’t fool God!