Liar Liar

Liar Liar

Acts 5:1-11

A single man named Jerry had a pet cat that he loved very much.

One year, he decided to take a vacation to England, so he left his cat with his brother Dan.

As soon as Jerry got to England, he called his brother Dan.

“How is my cat?” he asked.

“Your cat is dead,” Dan said.

“Oh my!” he shouted. “I’m in shock! Did you have to tell me that way?”

“How else can I tell you that your cat is dead?” asked Dan.

“You could have led me up to it gradually.

First, you could have told me that the cat was on the roof,

But the fire department was coming to get her down.

Then, the next day when I called, you could have told me that the fire department accidentally dropped my cat

Broke his back, and he was taken to the veterinarian.

Then, on the third day, you could have told me that the vet did all he could for my dear cat

But she quietly passed away.

That way, it wouldn’t have been such a shock.

That would have been much easier on me.”

“By the way,” he continued, “How’s mother?”

“Mother?” answered Dan.

“Oh, she’s up on the roof, but the Fire Department is coming to get her down.”

Ephesians 4:25 tells us

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

We are to be truthful in everything we do

In today’s politically correct society we can’t always tell the truth

Political correctness at its core can be a good thing

It is not P.C. to call someone retarded or to use racial slurs when referring to people with a different skin color

And that’s good

But sometimes people try to hide the truth by using politically correct language

A few examples

Instead of saying “I’m lazy,” they say “I’m motivationally deficient.”

Instead of saying, “I’m fat,” they say “I’m horizontally-challenged.”

Or instead of saying “I’m short,” they say “I’m vertically challenged.”

Instead of saying, “I’m wrong,” they say, “I’m logically different.”

Instead of saying, “I’m ignorant,” they say, “I’m knowledge-impaired.”

Instead of saying, “I’m a liar,” they say, “I misspoke the truth.”

But the truth is the truth

It is always best to just tell the truth

Honesty and integrity should be characteristics of all Christians

Honesty is being truthful in your relationships

And integrity is being true to yourself, true to your convictions

In our passage we read of a married couple, Ananias and Sapphira

Who display no honesty, and no integrity

Read Acts 5:1-11

Things were going great in the early church

In the previous chapter we read in v 33

Acts 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

The church was in the midst of a great revival

As I hope our church is right now

But let me warn you

When God’s church is experiencing revival, that is when Satan is at his worst

That is when Satan attacks

Satan is always the enemy of God’s plans

And he was persecuting the church from the outside

Using civil and religious authorities

But this tactic had proven ineffective in stopping the advance of the Gospel

So he tried a different strategy and attacked from within

It is always tragic when Satan can use Christians to wreck the church

One thing that can be encouraging to us today is the fact that even the early church had problems

It goes without saying that every Baptist church ever founded was had its share of trouble

Most of them from within

But we should learn from the early church leaders

To keep our focus on what is most important

Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ

For some background on this passage we look to vs. 36-37 of chapter 4

Acts 4:36-37 And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, [37] Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Barnabus, Joseph’s nickname means Son of Encouragement

Was singled out among the many who had sold their possessions and gave the money to the church

Barnabus plays a huge role in the N.T.

God used his relationship with Paul at one point and with Mark at another to keep these men going when either might have failed

Barnabus was responsible for convincing the church of Paul’s conversion

We can only wonder what might have happened to Paul without Barnabus

In contrast to Barnabus’ behavior we learn of Ananias and Sapphira

They had beautiful names, but they had crooked and deformed natures