“Dead Hypocrites”
Acts 4:32-37; 5:1-11
Pastor Allan H. Kircher
Sermon Series; Acts
Introduction
The story of Ananias and Sapphira illustrates a recurring theme in Luke's writings in his gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.
The recurring theme is hypocrisy and God's outrage in the face of it.
In classical Greek HUPOKRITES meant "actor", a theatre actor.
Gradually the word was extended to mean "dissembler, deceiver";
Then the word was extended again to include all the connotations of someone who is intentionally a fake, a phony, a fraud.
Over and over in Luke's gospel Jesus is found hissing, "Hypocrites!"
HYPOCRISY, a practice that Jesus repeatedly condemned as He did in Matthew 6:1-2 when He said,
"Be careful not to do your 'ACTS of righteousness', [or PRETENDING], before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets, as the HYPOCRITES do in the synagogues and on the streets."
Later in Matthew's gospel our Lord went so far as to warn that Hell would be populated by hypocrites. (Matthew 24:51)
And the fact is, one of the ways that we all sin is by doing the same thing, we deceive others by donning "masks" of various kinds in order to PRETEND to be something we're not.
When our Lord came upon the calculated deceptions of religious phony’s he denounced them on the spot.
Few things provoked his rage like the calculated conniving of pretending to be holy.
Jesus does not flay those who aspire to godliness and transparency yet fall short of their aspiration.
Any sincere person falls short.
And for all sincere people who fall short our Lord has the tenderest word of mercy.
But falling short of godly aspiration is as far from calculated deception as the east is from the west.
Our Lord leaves no doubt of this at all.
Peter told Ananias and Sapphira that by their crafty, cunning, two-faced racket they had "tempted God", "tested God".
Now to "test God" is a Semitism, a Hebrew idiom that means, "to see what one can get away with".
When Jesus was tempted or tested in the wilderness he refused to throw himself off the highest point of the temple and see if he would land on the ground intact.
Quoting the older testament he had replied to the tempter,
"You shall not tempt the Lord your God" -- meaning, "We ought never to see what we can get away with."
Christians love God. Loving God includes obeying God.
Then how can anyone who loves God try to see what they can get away with?
We try to see what we can get away with only when, in a moment of sin-born folly,
Our folly-fuelled craftiness overshadows our love for God.
Folly? Yes, folly, because the truth is, in life we get away with nothing.
Only a fool thinks that the holy God indulges unrighteousness.
The prelude to Ananias and Sapphira
Let’s go back now and look very closely at what has happened here.
First, I want you to note that this "chapter" from the history of the first church starts out great!
I mean, the first few verses of this portion of Luke's history book record further proof of the health of this amazing church.
They enjoyed powerful teaching through the apostles, which means Peter and John were doing what the Sanhedrin told them NOT to do, teach about the resurrection of Jesus.
And they also had a wonderful fellowship; truly, there was a "sweet, sweet Spirit" in that place!
As Luke says in verse 32, "All the believers were ONE in heart and mind!"
These first Christians actually experienced the UNITY that Jesus had prayed for that night in the Garden.
Plus, they readily ministered to each other's needs.
These Christians enjoyed powerful Bible teaching and moving worship but they actually let it impact their daily lives!
Their worship experiences issued forth into powerful ministry as they worked to meet practical needs,
feeding the hungry, providing clothing, shelter, ALL IN JESUS' NAME.
In fact, as verse 34 says, they were so faithful in this practice, that there "were no needy persons among them."
And I'm glad to say that for the most part, Christians in churches STILL behave this way today.
Christians still work to help meet the physical needs of their fellow man.
I mean, there are still mature Christians who, like those first believers, know that being a Christian, following Jesus Christ as Lord, means BEING A GIVER.
They know that Christian worship is more than what we do in sanctuaries like this on Sundays,
It is a lifestyle of sacrificially giving to meet physical needs.
Luke tells us that it became a common practice for someone to sell property and bring the proceeds to the apostles to be distributed to anyone who needed funds.
Now, understand, this was a very costly, sacrificial thing to do back then.
You see, it meant liquidating capital assets that could be irreplaceable.
When someone did this they were reducing their personal security.
They were giving up a potential source of future income.
But these first believers seemed GLAD to do this, and I think they were for two reasons.
They knew that Jesus had given His life for them, He had died for their sin.
So there was nothing they wouldn't do for Him. They gave as a response to His giving.
They were so willing to give this generously because they understood a very important principle of stewardship.
They knew that when we give in Jesus' name, as we do through our tithes and offerings, we turn something temporary into something eternal!
So you see, giving money is a way of making temporary things eternal.
As someone once said, "Misers hang on to things forever and they become MISERable.”, but not givers.
Barnabas’ example
Well, as an example of this practice of sacrificial giving Luke tells us about the actions of a man from Cyprus named Barnabas.
His real name was Joseph, but the apostles gave him the nick-name of Barnabas which means, "son of encouragement."
And I must say that I feel fortunate as your pastor because we have several "Barnabases" here at Shell Point, who are always ready to give of their time and talents, without being asked to do so!
Their selfless actions are a source of ENCOURAGEMENT to me and to the rest of our church family.
In fact, when I say this, I'm sure many of you are having names pop into your head!
Well, like many others, the first "Barnabas" sold some land...and brought the entire proceeds to the apostles to use as they saw fit.
I'm not sure why Luke decided to mention his gift.
Of its size? Came in a nick of time? He’s an encourager
But the whole church was rejoicing about it, everyone was talking about Barnabas!
Acts 5
And at this point Luke introduces us to a married couple, named Ananias and Sapphira, who also sold land and brought money from the proceeds to the apostles.
But their gift was different.
Their actions illustrated not SELFLESS giving but SELFISH, HYPOCRITICAL giving.
You see, they were using their gift to PRETEND to be something they weren't.
Barnabas. Gave freely, with no strings attached, but they gave to be noticed.
They gave, not to meet a need but to look good to others,
They wanting the kind of acclaim that Barnabas was getting.
I imagine Sapphira said to her husband, "I wish people were praising us like that. Look at all the attention he is getting.
Why, he's even been given a nickname, Barnabas.
Wouldn't it be good for our friends to look at us that way!?"
So they decided to sell their property, but unlike Barnabas they held back part of the proceeds.
Now, maybe they had intended to give it all at first.
But the more they looked at the money, the more they loved it and so the evil of their hypocrisy was hatched.
This is a good illustration of the fact that one way to break the grip that MONEY can have on us is to GIVE it away,
to give it to meet the needs of others in Jesus' name.
But these two didn't do that.
They thought, "Nobody knows how much we got for the sale of this property, and we certainly have enough expenses these days.
Why don't we just keep part of it? Nobody will know.
Let's keep part and give the rest. Then people will say, 'They are just like Barnabas!'"
Money does funny things to people. The Bible calls it a snare/trap.
I picture in my mind them looking at all that money the during the week saying, we haven’t saved anything for retirement, for vacation.
I wonder if we say that with our paychecks and tithing before considering God as the first choice.
Well, by Sunday they had half the $ in the bag and half under their mattress.
So, they decided to lie to Peter and to the Spirit of God as well.
And, in this decision and its consequences we see the words of James come to life.
"Their evil desire gave birth to sin and their sin when full-grown, gave birth to death." (James 1:14-15).
If they had come and said, we sold land for 50k and we feel led to give half and keep half…that would have been fine…but they just had to try to keep up w/ the Barnaby Jones’ [Barnabas].
We can point the finger, but 3 more are right back at us.
How many times do we sing All to Jesus I Surrender…but not come back to church for just the slightest excuse.
Or, Sweet Hour of Prayer, knowing we haven’t prayed 10 minutes!?
Or, sang a special for our own glory and not the Lord’s?
Or, debated about the church budget, only not to participate in giving at our church?
Or, taught that lesson on sin, only to go home intending to sin privately.
Lead kids in song, O be careful little eyes…then surf the net or TV lustfully!
Satan’s infiltration v.3
Satan infiltrated the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira.
I point this out so you will note that Satan altered his tactic here.
Now, remember, his purpose is to oppose the work of God, in fact, that's what his name literally means, "adversary."
So, where God is at work, Satan will be active as well, opposing that work anyway he can.
He had tried to stop the church w/ intimidation persecution…
but when he couldn’t stop it from w/out, he tried to stop it from w/in!…
If he couldn’t conquer the church, maybe he’d try to corrupt the church!
So he worked through the envy and hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira.
The same way Satan does today with people within this church and all churches.
He has the ability of planting ideas in the minds of church members for the purpose of hindering God’s work.
So, we have to protect our hearts and minds.
Now, understand, Satan is a limited being. He is not omniscient like God.
He does not know everything. He is not omnipotent or omnipresent.
But he IS powerful and he certainly gets around.
In fact, in Job 1:7 Satan himself says he "roams around the earth."
So, although Satan is not the equal of God, he is a very formidable enemy.
And he displays the effects of his stealthy meddling here in Acts 5.
Perhaps this incident prompted Peter to write in his first epistle, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8-9).
This is an important warning for us to heed today.
I mean, if we get serious about furthering God's kingdom, personally or in our church, as these first Christians did we can expect Satan or one of his demons to attack.
Remember, Paul's admonition in Ephesians 6 to put on the full armor of God was written to Christians, not unbelievers.
When God is working powerfully through His people, Satan will attempt to oppose it!
And, as we see here, often Satan’s tactic is to use weak believers to attack the church from within.
This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 16:17 when he said, "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions..." those Christians who are so weak spiritually, that Satan can use them to ruin the harmony and unity of shell point.
I have personally seen this as a pastor, I've seen numerous times in which the hypocritical,
Gossiping actions of immature believers showed that they were following the guidance of Satan instead of yielding to the Lordship of Christ.
And the time that this happens the most is when the church is moving forward!
It always happens that way. I can set my watch by it.
Holding back verse 3
Now, I want you to understand, Ananias' and Sapphira's sin was not in keeping part of the money.
It was in lying by PRETENDING to give it all.
When Peter confronts Ananias he says, "You kept back part of the proceeds of the land you sold!"
"Keep back" is the same verb in the Hebrew bible that is used in the story of Achan in Joshua 7.
As the Israelites defeat other nations militarily they are forbidden to plunder the goods of the conquered people.
Achan, however, covets the silver and gold belonging to the defeated people.
Knowing he is supposed to leave it alone, he and his family snatch it nonetheless and hide it in their tent.
When he and his family are discovered they are put to death.
"Primitive barbarism!" you say.
Not entirely; there is more than a little wisdom here.
We are told that Achan coveted.
If his coveting were indulged, if his coveting were tolerated, then Israel as a whole would be infected with coveting.
Once the people were infected with coveting they would be at each other's throats; the consequences for the community would be disastrous.
No community can thrive where coveting is unchecked.
Twelve hundred years after the incident with Achan Paul ranked coveting on the same level as the most lurid, pornography-abetted promiscuity.
(In both Eph. 5:3 and Col. 3:5 he weights coveting equal with "fornication and impurity.") Was he right?
The early church was as horrified at an outbreak of coveting and the deception surrounding it
as it was horrified at an outbreak of fornication and the closet-secrecy surrounding that.
Ananias and Sapphira wanted to advertise themselves as uncommonly generous people,
None are so ugly in God’s sight as those who flaunt a spiritual beauty they do not possess.
They were nothing more than sinning saints feigning spirituality.
They wanted to enjoy a reputation as the self-forgetfully saintly when all the while they were self-promotingly sleazy.
Through their lie, they'd get the glory of the church and would make some money on the side to boot.
These two thought no one would notice, but God always notices.
And let me ask you, do YOU believe that? Do you believe God sees EVERYTHING, our thoughts as well as our actions?
Remember, 1 Samuel 6:7 says, "Man looks at the outward, but the Lord looks at the heart."
God does hear our every thought, He knows our every intent.
In fact, Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, "For God will bring every deed into judgment, INCLUDING EVERY HIDDEN THING."
And that's what our Heavenly Father did here.
"You have lied to the Holy Spirit of God and kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land." (Acts 5:3)
Well, when Peter said this, when he pronounced the verdict, God carried out the sentence and struck him dead.
He quickly removed this "spiritual cancer" before it could do further damage to His body the church.
Luke says that after Ananias died, young men came quickly to cover and bury his body.
They did this for two reasons. First the hot climate of Palestine made bodies begin to decompose quickly and second,
In Deuteronomy 21 God commanded that this be done when people died due to His judgment.
No wonder old churches put their cemeteries so close!
Well Sapphira, no doubt wondered what is taking her husband so long to deliver the money to the apostles.
She was impatient for word of their "generosity" to get out, so she decided to go to where the apostles had gathered.
And, when she entered the room, Peter questioned her about the sale, giving her a chance to confess her sin,
but PRETENDING in the same way her husband had, she repeated his lie.
And she too was stricken dead, and quickly buried next to her husband.
God acted quickly indeed here to stop this kind of sin from spreading.
These two believers were doing more harm than good so He brought them home to heaven.
They died! Saved by grace doesn’t mean you have a license to sin.
God judge’s believers…be sure your sin will find you out. God will not be mocked! We ALL reap what we sow!
Every believer undergoes 3 judgments
First, As a sinner. If you’ve been saved, your judgment as a sinner is in the past.
gvAs a sinner-judged on the cross, you died w/ Christ, God’s wrath toward your sin was poured out on Christ.
Sin was fully judged there.
The foot of the cross is the place to stand when judgment comes!
Romans 8:1 says, there is no condemnation for those..
Second, The believer’s future judgment as a Servant
Every believer will give an account of himself, and the Lord will judge the decisions he made—including those concerning issues of conscience.
This judgment does not determine salvation, which is by faith alone, but rather is the time when believers must give an account of their lives in service to Christ.
1 Cor 3:11-15
The Judgment Seat of Christ will reveal this.
A 1 on 1 personal interview w/ Christ…you’ll be judged not as a sinner, but as a servant,
How faithful have you been, what were your motives for service, etc.
Third, you are judged as a son right now! 1 Cor. 11:31-32
God sends individual chastening to push offenders back toward righteous behavior,
and sends death to some in the church to encourage those who remain to choose holiness rather than sin.
Even if the Lord were to strike us dead for profaning His table, it would be to discipline us, to keep us from being condemned.
The thought is powerful.
We are kept from condemnation not only by decree, but also by divine intervention.
God chastens us to keep us from falling from salvation, and will even take our life, if need be, before that could happen.
Ananias and Sapphira were saved. And they were being judged as “sons.” They died because they crossed a line w/ God.
God sometimes takes a believer home early because of sin.
And as news spread as to what had happened I'm sure there was a lot of self-examination in the church in Jerusalem.
In fact, verse 11 says that after the death of this couple, "great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events."
To me this indicates that others might have been guilty of considering this same hypocritical action but because of God's judgment they decided otherwise.
Now, at this point I want us to note something, NO CHURCH IS PERFECT.
I mean, even this first church, as wonderful as it was...had members like Ananias and Sapphira.
As has been often said, "Churches are not museums for saints. They are hospitals for sinners." No church is perfect so it is foolish to look for one.
This first church had powerful things done in and through it but it was still a "hospital" filled with flawed, imperfect believers just like churches today!
God did this as an example…He didn’t continue to kill everyone who lied in church, necessarily,
but He sure showed how He felt about sin in the church!
Sin in the life of a believer is more serious than sin in the
life of an unbeliever…for you are bought w/ a price, you
are His child, His ambassador.
Guard against hypocrisy in your own life…the same at
home as at church, in the closet as on the stage!
This morning, let's all come out of hiding, let's admit our sin to God and ask for His forgiveness...
let's commit to be REAL to each other and to God. Let's come out of hiding and seek His guidance.
If you've never done so, I encourage you to ask Jesus to come into your heart and life as Lord and Savior.
And, if you're looking for a church home, and feel God is leading you to join this IMPERFECT one, then come...we'd love to welcome you into the Shell Point family. Won't you come now as God leads?
