Anaias And Saphira - Wasn't It Just A Tad Ott To Kill Them?

Worship should be towards God. Its about God. And lets not make the mistake of thinking that right worship is about having the right music or the right instruments. Its about giving glory to God.

Hypocrasy

Then we get to the related topic of hypocrasy. In fact we’ve really been dealing with this already. We’ve been looking at hypocritical worship. But there are other ways that hypocrasy can rear its ugly head in the church. The general way that most people associate hypocrasy with the church is that it is full of people who act holier than thou when in church but in reality are no different to anyone else and are just as dishonest and corrupt as everybody else. Its one of the chief reasons some people give for not going to church. They think there better than us but actually their not. To be fair, they got a point. Some people who go to church are like this. I hope there’s no one in our church like that.

But that’s not the main criticism of Jesus when he called people hypocrites. No Jesus point was not that they claimed to be doing one thing then doing the opposite behind closed doors, but that people were keeping one set of laws scrupulously but neglecting others which were even more important. Jesus did not accuse the Pharisees of making a big show of giving their tithe while actually it was forged money or not the full amount. No he accused them of giving their tithe but neglecting their duty to care for their parents in old age. He didn’t accuse of them of going through elaborate washings in public but not washing when no-one was looking. No he accused them of going through all the rituals but having no love for the poor. We can fall into exactly the same trap. We would never dream of buying stuff on a Sunday, but think nothing of buying products from companies that use slave labour or exploit their workers. We concentrate on being quiet and respectful in church but don’t love our neighbour because he’s young, noisy and disrespectful. We say all the prayers right, turn up to church twice a week and sing the right hymns, but have something against someone else in the church and we will just not forgive or let it go.

The story of Ananius and Saphira

And so we come back to the story of Ananius and Saphira. Why were they struck dead by God? Why such extreme action, after all in Corinthians Paul talks about this one member of the church who is engaged in such appalling acts of sexual depravity that even the pagans are appalled. Why doesn’t God strike him dead? Surely that was much worse that what Ananius and Saphira did wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t, which may come as a bit of a surprise to some. The integrity of the church is very important and things that detract from that need to be dealt with. This wasn’t just a way of dealing with Ananias and Saphira but was a warning to the rest of the church as well. It was setting a precedent in a very clear and unambiguous behaviour that hypocrasy would not be tolerated in the church. God wasn’t going to have his church degenerate into the same kind of problems that Jesus was attacking in some of the Pharisees. As we looked at when I was last preaching, God wants people of integrity. Who can be taken at their word and who don’t cover up sin with a veneer of religiosity.