God’s Zeal for the Purity of His Church (Acts Sermon 11)

Adam, Achan, and Ananias, what do these three biblical stories have in common other than these three names all begin with the letter A?, I believe that they all show God’s zeal for holiness and His hatred of sin at the beginning of an era of redemptive history. Effectively, God’s sticking a timeless banner into the earth in all three accounts saying, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God am holy.” In all three accounts, He also establishes for all time this truth: the wages of sin is death. Adam’s sin was the first and most significant of these three. In Adam, the entire human race we’re told, sinned and died in one single act of disobedience. The eating of a piece of forbidden fruit resulted in sin entering the human race and death. The death of all of Adam’s descendants, Romans 5:12, “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.”  Four verses later, Romans 5:16, “The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation.” By death entering the world through that one sin, God showed forever the link between sin and death. 

In Achan’s case, not so well known, it was at the beginning of the Jewish reign over the Promised Land in The Old Covenant.  It was the start of the Jewish history in the Promised Land under God’s commandments, the beginning effectively of The Old Covenant. At the very beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land at the city of Jericho, God had clearly forbidden the Israelites from taking any of the plunder whatsoever. The entire haul of that city was to be given over to the Lord as a holocaust, as a burnt offering, not a silver or gold coin was to be taken as plunder. Achan, one of the Israelite men, saw in the process of the conquest, a Babylonian robe along with some silver coins and a bar of gold. He coveted it, he took it and hid it in his tent.  

But God sees everything, and He spread the guilt of Achan’s sin to the entire nation. At their next battle at Ai, God gave them over to defeat and they had to flee before their enemies. At that point, the whole nation was in terror, but God exposed Achan’s sin progressively choosing his address, as it were, by lot. Sequentially first his tribe, then his clan, then his house, then the man himself. Achan died that day to purge the sin from the nation of Israel and now this morning we have a similar lesson. 

Ananias together with his wife, Sapphira, are singled out for an object lesson, a timeless object lesson. God sticks a banner of holiness over the church era, over all of church history by this story,  at the beginning of time with Adam, at the beginning of The Old Covenant with Achan, and at the beginning of The New Covenant church with Ananias.  He taught the same lessons: be holy because I am holy, and the wages of sin is death.

I. Content and Contrast

We need to look at the context and a sense of contrast. If you look at Acts 5: 1, it begins in most of the translations with the word “but”. “But a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property.” This word “but” is a disjunctive. It’s a contrasting word. All the major translations except one begin with the word “but.” The story of Ananias and Sapphira and their terrible duplicity stands in direct contrast to the amazing grace we’re seeing at work in the life of the early church. John Calvin wrote that up to this point, we have seen that the people who were gathered together in the name of Christ were more like angels than men. We see the remarkable unity and generosity of the early church in general in Acts 2: 44, 45. It says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.”  Again, in Acts 4:32, it says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”  A few verses later, there were no needy persons among them from time to time, those who own lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostle’s feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. 

Then at the end of Acts 4, we have a specific case study of this generosity, this spirit-led unity and generosity. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means ‘son of encouragement’, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostle’s feet. A few months ago I spoke at a missions conference in Cyprus right at the bay where Paul and Barnabas began their first missionary journey, and there was a church there dedicated to St. Barnabas and the Orthodox tradition there.

Barnabas was a very important figure in the early church. He was the one who advocated for Saul of Tarsus immediately after his conversion and his experience in Damascus when he went to the church at Jerusalem.  The church  was fearful and skeptical of Saul with good reason, but it was Barnabas who put an arm around him and advocated and vouched for him. Barnabas was the one dispatched from Jerusalem to Antioch to investigate and then approve of the work done among the Gentiles there in the church at Antioch. He was called there in that passage, a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Of course, he is best known, I’ve already mentioned a moment ago, for the missionary journey he took with the Apostle Paul  recorded in Acts 13 and 14. Here he is introduced by the name we don’t know him as, and also told that he is a Levite. He’s of the Jewish priestly class. 

How he came to own property, we don’t know because in The Old Covenant, generally Levites didn’t own anything, but by now we can see The Old Covenant strictures had begun to fall away, and he had come into some property. To sell a piece of property is a huge sacrifice. It’s one thing to give of your surplus. It’s more to give your actual source of wealth, your inheritance, your nest egg, something you can lean on for the future. To actually cut the string on that and give the money and put it at the apostle’s feet showed great faith and sacrifice and love for the brothers and sisters in Christ.

 Note, by the way, this regular pattern, once the money, the property, the house, or land is sold, the money is put at the apostle’s feet. This was a symbol of complete trust in the integrity of the apostles and also a clear display of their leadership over the early church, a form of submission to God-ordained church authority.  They were saying, we trust you with the money, do with it as you see fit, distribute it to needy persons among. We trust you with that. I think it’s also that way with the elders at FBC. If we think about the authority of the elders in a local church, I think it’s primarily to spend the spendable resources that the church gives, that metaphorically, it puts at the feet of the church, the time, the energy, and the money of the church. How shall we spend it? What direction should we go? What’s the strategy? What is God calling this church to do? I think that’s a large part of the authority of the elders in any local church. So that image, I want that to stick with you, putting that money at the apostle’s feet and then it being distributed. That’s the context of Barnabas’ gift in the larger context of a church of remarkable love and unity, a church of remarkable spirit-led generosity.

II. Crime and Punishment

That’s what’s going on in the early church, “but a man named Ananias.” We see the contrast here. We’re going now in a different direction tragically. Ananias and Sapphira were different. Their actions are in direct contrast with the spirit and actions of the church. They were selfish. They were faithless and conniving. They wanted to be seen in as generous in ways and to a degree they really weren’t. They still had some basic materialism, a love of money. Why else would they do what they did? They were hypocrites. They acted wholly in ways that they really weren’t. They were really sinful and God exposed them for it and killed them for it. The text clearly implies it is God who put them to death, not a hand was laid on them. Peter didn’t do anything. None of the church did anything. They just dropped dead. It’s crime and punishment in the local church. 

So what happened? The gift is presented by Ananias but falsely in Sapphira. Look at verses 1-2, “But a man named Ananias together with his wife, Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostle’s feet.”  Peter then deals with Ananias first. Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received from the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing?” You have not lied to men but to God.” 

Some key insights. We’ll discuss Satan’s role later. Peter sees Satan as instigating this, but also that Ananias is ultimately responsible for his own thoughts and actions, but it’s instigated by Satan planting the temptation. We’ll also discuss the Holy Spirit’s role later, we’ll get to that. But for the time, let’s understand the nature of the sin itself. Ananias lied and Sapphira lied about the money, the amount.  The Bible does not command all believers everywhere to sell everything they have and give everything they have to the poor and needy.

We understand there’s that story of the rich young ruler. Jesus has tested him. We understand that. But in the next chapter in Luke, Zacchaeus pledges half of everything that he owns. Zacchaeus, the tax collector said, “Look, Lord here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I’ve cheated anybody out of anything, I’ll pay back four times the amount,” and Jesus praised him for that. He said, “Today’s salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.” That’s incredibly generous by Zacchaeus, half of everything, not everything but half, fine. Great. So Christian giving is always seen as voluntary.

Second Corinthians 9:7 gives a timeless principle for giving, “Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver.” What that means is Christian-giving just flows freely from the heart. It’s what you want to give, there’s no point in giving it reluctantly or under compulsion. God doesn’t need your money. You need to give, and so not reluctantly or under compulsion. Then Jesus said, concerning the poor in Mark 14:7, “The poor you’ll have with you always, and you can help them anytime you want.”  They’re always going to be there. I’ve always added in my mind and we’ll talk about that on Judgment Day, how much that was. That’s true, but you’ll always have opportunity to help the poor and needy, so Christian giving. 

As I said earlier, this early church’s lavish unity and generosity is not some early form of proto-communism. What is that? That’s government-mandated and government-enforced wealth distribution. It’s absolutely reluctantly and under compulsion. That’s not what’s going on here at all. Peter makes it very plain that Ananias’ property was his and Sapphira’s to do as they saw fit. They didn’t need to sell it. There are no laws in the church to do this. If you don’t want to sell it, don’t sell it. Then once you sold it, then the money was yours. You can do what you want with that. The money is at your disposal as well.  It’s your money. So private ownership is still there. That’s what makes giving, giving. That’s what makes it generous. It’s because it’s ours to give. The issue is lying. They lied about it. That was the problem. You’ve not lied to men, but to God, he said.

They had a fundamental evil in their hearts. They disrespected God. They were living for earthly benefits, honor from the church, money for themselves, et cetera. That’s the issue. Then we have Ananias’ immediate judgment by God. Verse 5, “ When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died and great fear seized all who heard what had happened.” Ananias immediately drops down dead as I’ve said, not a hand was laid on him. God struck him dead. Peter didn’t kill him. No human being killed him. He just died. God has absolute power of life and death. As Acts 17:28 says, “In him, we live and move and have our being.”  In James 4:15 it says, “If the Lord wills, we will live.” We should say that all the time. “If the Lord wills, I’ll be alive tomorrow.” Some would say that’s morbid. No, that’s real. It’s biblically accurate. It’s good to be mindful of that. If the Lord wills, I’ll be alive tomorrow. God willed that Ananias should die immediately for his sin. Keep in mind the Bible makes it clear, the wages of each and every sin is death. There’s no exceptions. All sin deserves a death penalty, so Ananias drops dead. In verse 6, the young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out, and buried him. Immediate burial underscored the terror that had come upon them all.  It was also the custom of that hot weather climate, they had to dispose of the body quickly. 

Then Sapphira comes later. The opportunity to come clean.  God chose to deal with them separately. This was not random, but clear providence on his part. First Ananias and then later Sapphira, they stand on their own. It’s very important to her case that she does not know what’s happened to her husband. It’s three hours later, God was teaching Ananias’ headship in that God dealt with him first, just like Adam and the Garden. God knew exactly what happened between Adam and Eve and the serpent and all that. But He comes and He asks for Adam, “Adam, Adam, where are you?” He’s upholding that headship with Ananias, but He’s also dealing with Sapphira as He deals with Eve, she’s accountable for what she did.

Peter questions her and gives her a chance to come clean and tell the truth. Verses 7-8, “About three hours later, his wife came in not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, ‘Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?’” Verse 8 is a moment hanging in time. “Tell me, is that the price?” Sometimes you only get one chance to tell the truth. She only had one chance to tell that truth. “’Is that the price you got for the land?’ ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that was the price.’ Peter said to her, ‘How could you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also.’ And at that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and finding her dead carried her out and buried her beside her husband.”

every single man and woman will stand before the Lord alone on Judgment Day to give an account for his or her actions

Just as Ananias can’t blame Satan for his sin, neither can Sapphira blame her husband for hers. This pattern shows every single man and woman will stand before the Lord alone on Judgment Day to give an account for his or her actions as Romans 14 makes plain, for we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. “It is written as surely as I live,” says the Lord, “every knee will bow before me and every tongue will confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” This is pictured in this account.

The reaction is fear. Look at verse 5,  “When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died and great fear seized all who heard what had happened.” Again in verse 11, “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” Both times it says great fear. But why? Why the great fear? Well, the conviction of the spirit has come on them. Every person knows. Every honest person knows I deserve the same judgment too. We are all liars. The Bible makes that clear in Psalm 116: 11, the psalmist said, “In my dismay, I said, all men are liars.” That’s why they were afraid.

What about me? We know that if a lie gets dealt with in that way, what about the other sins? What about all my other sins? This event doesn’t just singling out Ananias and Sapphira or just singling out lying. There’s a comprehensive principle being taught here. What about my complaining? What about my arguing? What about my lust? What about my covetousness, my greed, my selfishness, my laziness, my foul language, my pride? What about all of these, my sinful anger? What about those? I honestly could drop dead at any moment for any of those. That’s what I get out of this text.

III. The Outcome:  Holy Fear, Renewed Fruitfulness

There is behind this, a biblical fear of God’s perfect holiness. Hebrews 12: 29, “Our God is a consuming fire.” Psalm 19: 9, “The fear of the Lord is pure enduring forever.” Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” A.W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, basing it on Proverbs 9:10 said this, “When men no longer fear God, they transgress his laws without hesitation. When men no longer fear God, they transgress his laws without hesitation. The fear of consequences is no deterrent when the fear of God is gone.” In olden days, men of faith were said to walk in the fear of God and to serve the Lord with fear or to be a God-fearing man, however, intimate their communion with God, however, bold their prayer is, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God is awesome and dreadful.  Wherever God appeared to men in the Bible, the results were the same. An overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. When God spoke, Abraham stretched himself upon the ground to listen. When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush, he hid his face in fear to look upon God. Isaiah’s vision of God rung from him the cry, “Woe is me”, and the confession, “I am undone because I’m a man of unclean lips.”

God killed Ananias and Sapphira that day to put a great fear in the church, not just that one day but for all time. That’s why He wrote this account for us. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Luke wrote this down so that we would take in this lesson that the fear of the Lord would purify us. You remember that dreadful day that God appeared to Israel at Mount Sinai? He appeared in a dreadful darkness and he descended in the mountain in fire with lightning and thunder, with a mighty earthquake and the sound of his voice so overpowering that the people were afraid to listen to Him say another word. They thought they would die just from hearing His voice. Then God said in Exodus 20:20, this is a very important verse for this sermon, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

A healthy fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning, and if you have that healthy fear of God, you don’t need to fear anything.

That’s the point of this whole sermon. That’s the point of this story. A healthy fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning, and if you have that healthy fear of God, you don’t need to fear anything. So He says, “Do not be afraid. God has come to you to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” If you really genuinely believe that you could be Ananias and you could be Sapphira and you fled to Christ through faith, you don’t need to live in fear. I’ve asked myself, what is the point of this sermon? Is it to put every member of this church in a spiritual minefield so you can’t walk north, south, east, or west or any direction without being afraid the wrath of God will blow you up? No, there must be a healthy and an unhealthy fear.

We have to understand the difference. We have to make distinctions between them. Some people say fear is just inappropriate at all in the Christian life, or they might cite Romans 8:15, “You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship and by him, we cry, “Abba, Father.” So we don’t have any fear at all. That’s absurd. Three chapters later, He tells the Gentiles concerning the Jews who are cut off and stripped from the olive tree. He said, “Do not be arrogant but be afraid.” So wait a minute, I guess there is a fear. We’re back to fear again. You just have to make distinctions. There is a slavery to fear, a slavish fear that He said, “We don’t need to fear anymore. We don’t need to have anymore because we have the spirit of God in us crying out Abba, Father.” But there is a healthy fear of arrogant, prideful rebellion that we should fear.

I believe that’s a lesson on discipline, isn’t it? In Hebrews 12: 6, the Lord disciplines those He loves and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son. If you’re going to be a son or daughter of God, He’s going to discipline you for sin. Don’t be afraid of it, but we should fear in advance what God will do as a response to our sins. We’re not in a spiritual minefield like we can’t go any direction, but God is holy and if He really loves you, He’s not going to give you over to your sin. He’s going to discipline you. That’s the lesson here.

IV. Timeless Lessons

Let’s walk through some four kind of headings of timeless lessons here. Sin, Satan, the Spirit, and soul winning. First sin, the Bible’s extremely honest about the sinfulness of all people including the saints. The Bible tells us both of the greatness of Moses and his courageous leadership, but also the sinfulness of Moses in striking the rock twice when God told him just to speak to the rock and God said, “Because of this, because you did not honor me in front of all of Israel, I will not allow you to go into the Promised Land.” I was thinking this morning about death, thinking about people who drop dead and all that. What happened to Moses? I mean, think about that. I mean he was energetic and vigorous. He climbed up that mountain to see the Promised Land. How come he never came back down? Interesting question. I mean, God took his life, but I don’t think He regretted it.

I think He took him off Mount Pisgah. He wanted to see the physical Promised Land. He said, “Let me show you the real Promised Land. Let me take you to the real Promised Land.” But it was still his physical death, wasn’t it? It still was to some degree because of his sin. The Bible tells us of the great courage of David in fighting Goliath with five smooth stones and a sling, but also of course tells us of his wickedness in committing adultery with Bathsheba and then contriving to have her husband killed to cover it up. The Bible tells us of the great wisdom and incredible wealth of Solomon, but also of how his heart was led astray at the end of his life by his pagan wives and how he filled Jerusalem with idols.

The Bible tells us of the faithfulness of Jesus’s apostles in standing with him in all of his trials and difficulties. He said, “You are those who have stood with me in all of my trials.” But He also said, “This very night, you’ll all fall away in account of me.” And they all fled, especially we know of Peter who denied even knowing Jesus’ name, never heard of him. The Bible’s honest about the sins of the saints. This account therefore is a timeless warning to all Christians of the deadly danger of sin and its consequences. Some people may question whether Ananias and Sapphira were really Christians or not, but the lessons of the church are actually more powerful if they are insiders, and not outsiders. That’s why the church felt afraid. If some unbeliever out there dropped dead because of their sin, as will happen with wicked King Herod later, an angel strikes him down and he dies.  Nobody takes warning from that within the church. They’re just thinking that he gets what he deserves for his wickedness. But this is a poignant story if we’re talking about actual members of the church, Ananias and Sapphira, and it seems they have a personal connection with the Holy Spirit. They’ve lied to the Holy Spirit. The lesson hits more powerful in the church precisely because they are a part of the body of Christ. If genuine Christians can fall so grievously into sin and be judged so severely by God immediately and fatally, it is reasonable for all Christians throughout all time to fear sin and its consequences. The Scripture does in fact reveal that God can and does kill sinning Christians occasionally as a warning to others.

 First Corinthians 11 is a clear example of this. We have the whole problem with the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthians are a highly dysfunctional church, and it’s amazing to me that this would even happen, but they were glutting themselves and getting drunk on Lord’s Supper wine.  Paul revealed that God had taken decisive action on some of them because of this. First Corinthians 11:29 and following, “Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick.” So that’s illness, and a number of you have fallen asleep. That’s death but if we judged ourselves, we had not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we’re being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. In other words, the judgments that fall on our bodies in this life are meant to save our souls from damnation and the judgments that fall on some Christians are meant to be warnings to all. The takeaway is for all Christians to examine themselves and repent of all known sins and deal forcefully with sin so that this kind of judgment will not need to fall on them and on the church.

Sin’s nature is revealed here. There’s deception, there’s hiddenness, there’s secrecy. It flourishes and grows in the dark. Religious hypocrisy is especially evil in God’s sight. Presenting yourself one way as more generous than you really are. You get the honor of lavish generosity when it’s really not true. That’s repugnant. Jesus talked about being whitewashed tombs. Let’s not be that way. Let’s not present better to people than we really are.  Christ specifically warned against this kind of sin by Ananias and Sapphira giving money in a showy way to earn the approval of a religious community. In Matthew 6, He said, “Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before others to be seen by them. If you do, you’ll 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 in the streets. Be honored by men. I tell you the truth. They have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your giving may be in secret. Then your father sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

What motivated Ananias and Sapphira to lie about the money? What was their motive? They wanted a religious honor coming to them from the church. I don’t know any other reason to lie about it. I’ll get more honor if the amount is X than two-thirds X or half X or something, so we’ll just say it’s more than we actually did. They were looking for a combination of religious honor and approval and the money and they got neither. They end up with neither.

there are no secrets from God.

Fundamental to all of this, of course, is that there are no secrets from God. Luke 12: 2-3, Jesus said these words, think about them. “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden, that will not be made known. What you’ve said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” It’s incredible. I meditated on that. I know it’s talking about Judgment Day, but I also think it gives a glimpse into heaven. There’s literally no secrecy in heaven. The saints will hide nothing from one another in heaven. They will have nothing that they need to hide. That’s why there’s all this translucency in the new Jerusalem. Everything’s translucent, transparent. It’s just clear there’s nothing to hide at all. The angels, the holy angels have nothing to hide.

We will have lives completely open and free and full, fully exposed to each other for all eternity. He tells us this now so that we’ll live more and more transparently now. Now the time for that has not yet come. There’s still a reason for clothing, so to speak, and covering, and that’s why Jesus said if your brother sins go show him privately the sin. You’re going to keep it. There’s reasons for that, but we’re going in the future to a world where there’s no secrets, and at Judgment Day there are no secrets. Jesus has eyes of blazing fire it says in Revelation 1, He searches everything, He sees everything, the inclinations of the heart, nothing’s hidden. The remedy therefore is to fear sin and its consequences including the judgments of God to fear Judgment Day and the consuming of our works by holy fire so that we suffer loss and to wage war against our sins by the spirit.

Listen again if you would, to the passage I already read from First Corinthians 11. These are very important words. First Corinthians 11:31-32, “If we judge ourselves, we will not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we’re being disciplined so that we’ll not be condemned with the world.” In other words, if you deal directly and decisively with your own sin patterns, God doesn’t have to do it and He’s patient waiting for you to do that, but you don’t know how long that patience will last.

First Corinthians 11:31 says, “If you want to forestall this kind of judgment, then deal decisively with your own sin,” and what does that look like? Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “If your right eye cause you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. And if your right hand cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Deal decisively with whatever’s causing you to sin. Also, Paul says in First Corinthians 9:27, “I beat my body and make it my slave lest after I have preached to others, I myself will be disqualified from the prize.” And again in Romans 8:13-14, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live because those who are led by the spirit of God these are the sons of God.” The Spirit leads you to mortify the deeds of the flesh, put them to death, starve them to death. “Be killing sin,” John Owen said, “or sin will be killing you.” Take it seriously. That’s what we get the fear of the Lord should lead to intensified efforts at mortification and holiness.

Second, Satan. Peter directly ascribed the temptation to Satan. Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?” Satan filled his heart with the temptation. Satan and his demons can’t pull the trigger through him. You have to make the choice. So if you sin, you can’t blame Satan or the demons, but just understand the activity. He is adept at implanting ideas and thoughts and feelings. He’s very, very good at it.  I thought about this because we’re coming up on the celebration of our Lord’s birth and we know that after He was born, Herod tried to kill him. Herod the Great sent soldiers to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem. Remember how Joseph and Mary and Jesus escaped? It was because an angel of the Lord was sent to Joseph to speak to him in a dream. That’s an interesting mechanism. How does an angel give a human being a dream? And if angels can fill your mind with a dream, then demons can do a dark form of the same thing. They have the access to put ideas and thoughts and feelings in, but they can’t make you sin, so you have to be aware of what Satan’s doing.

It says in Second Corinthians 2:11 , “In order that Satan might not outwit us for we not unaware of his schemes.” What’s a scheme? It’s a dark evil plot or design, a stratagem. Satan is good at that kind of thing. Satan is the dark mind that invented Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism, atheism and agnosticism, and materialism, and all of these isms and religions there are that are lies. Satan concocted them. He’s brilliant, darkly brilliant. He is the God of this age and he’s crafted a whole world of alluring temptations. He is clever and relentless and powerful. We must be self-controlled and alert Peter tells us because our enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but he is not responsible for our sin. It says in verse 4, “Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?” Ananias and Sapphira were responsible for their thought process ultimately.  We’re supposed to therefore identify bad thoughts and kill them. Take every thought captive; say, that is not what the Lord is telling me to do. That’s a demonic thought implanted in my mind. 

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit. This passage is vital for our understanding of the person and the personality of the Holy Spirit. First, He is a person. Peter said they lied to the Holy Spirit. Some people conceive of the Holy Spirit as like the force, like Star Wars, “Use the force, Luke.” “May the force be with you.” The Holy Spirit’s not like that. No, He’s not. The Holy Spirit is a person. He makes plans, He has feelings. He can be grieved. Israel grieved the Holy Spirit by the idolatry. We’re commanded not to grieve the Holy Spirit by our lying and our sinning. He has an emotional response. He’s a person, and we can have a relationship with the Spirit.  Secondly, He’s God.  You have not lied to men but to God. By lying to the Holy Spirit, you’ve lied to God.

 Finally, soul-winning. The holy fear that came on the church and everyone who heard about these events was essential to its fruitfulness. Last week I preached about revival. One of the essences of revival is a commitment to holiness in the part of the church. That’s the first thing that the Lord does. It’s time for judgment to begin with the family of God. It starts with us and “If it starts with us,” Peter says, “What will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel? It’s going to be much worse for them.” We begin by fearing the holiness of God in a healthy way, and then fearing on behalf of lost people. I fear on behalf of anyone that came in here today in an unconverted state, and as I was sitting there right before I came up to preach, I wrote the words, “preach the gospel.” Don’t just speak of the fear of death and any of that. The good news is that Jesus died so we won’t have to. The good news is that Jesus drank death so that we’ll be free.

I was looking up verses about this at certain moments in the service. I looked up some verses and in John 8:51, Jesus said, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” Think about that. John 5:24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he’s crossed over from death to life.” We don’t need to fear the real death, which is the second death, and we don’t need to live in fear of the first death, the physical death. Our times are in God’s hands. We know that we sin. We know that we lie.  We know that we are deceptive from time to time. We should hate all of that sin and make a consistent effort to put it to death. What then is the healthy fear this passage gives us? It’s an awareness of God’s holiness, awareness of our own sinfulness, and a destruction of any complacent arrogance about any of that. A fear of the Lord that causes us to walk in obedience to his commands and confess sin quickly and to not allow cancerous tumors of wickedness to grow within us, but instead shine the light of his Word and the Spirit and get rid of those darknesses. We’re not living therefore, as though in some kind of a minefield, wondering whether we can go north, south, east, or west and we’re going to get blown up at any moment. It’s not like that. Instead, fearing God, we need fear nothing else. And fearing him, saying, “Lord, you know me. You’ve searched me. You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. Show me if there’s any evil in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this sobering text. We thank you for the chance we have to consider its lessons and what you intended by doing it to Ananias and Sapphira and then recording it for all time through Luke’s writings. Lord, work in us fear, holiness, and also security in Christ, work in us an understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection and faith in Him as our strong tower to which we run and are kept safe. In His name, we pray. Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Adam… Achan… Ananias

What do these three biblical stories have in common, other than that all three men have names beginning with the letter “A”?

I say they all show God’s zeal for holiness and his hatred of sin at the beginning of an era in redemptive history. God sticks a timeless banner into the earth in all three accounts saying “Be holy because I am holy.”

In all three accounts, he also establishes for all time this truth:

“The wages of sin is death.”

Adam’s sin was the first and most significant. In Adam, the entire human race sinned and died. One single act of disobedience—eating a single piece of forbidden fruit—resulted in sin entering the human race and in the death of all of Adam’s descendants:

Romans 5:12  Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned

Romans 5:16  The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation

By death entering the world through one sin, God showed forever the link between sin and death.

In Achan’s case, it was at the beginning of the Jewish reign over the Promised Land in the Old Covenant… it was the start of the Jewish nation in their land under God’s Commandments. At the very beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land, at Jericho, God had clearly forbidden the Israelites from taking any of the plunder whatsoever. The entire haul was to be given to the Lord as a burnt offering; not a silver or gold coin was to be taken. Achan saw a beautiful Babylonian robe, along with some silver coins and a bar of gold, he coveted it and took it. He HID it in his tent.

But God sees everything. And he spread the guilt of Achan’s sin to the entire nation… at their next battle, at Ai, God gave them over to defeat and they fled before their enemies. The whole nation was in terror at that point. But God exposed Achan’s sin… progressively choosing his address by lot—first the tribe, then the clan, then the house, then the man… Achan died that day to purge the sin from the nation of Israel.

And now, this morning, we have a similar lesson. Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, are singled out for an object lesson…

God sticks a banner of holiness over his church by this story.

At the beginning of time… with Adam

At the beginning of the Old Covenant nation Israel… with Achan

At the beginning of the New Covenant church…. with Ananias

The same lesson:

“Be holy, because I the Lord am holy.”

And “The wages of sin is death.”

I. Context and Contrast

Acts 5:1  But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property

The account begins with a word of contrast… a disjunctive “BUT” in all the major translations except the NIV.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira and their terrible duplicity stands in direct contrast to the amazing account of the life of the early church

John Calvin: Up to this point we have seen “that the people who were gathered together in the name of Christ were more like angels than men.”

A. The Remarkable Unity and Generosity of the Early Church

1. In general

Acts 2:44-45  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Acts 4:32  All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

Acts 4:34-35  There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales  ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

2. In specific

Acts 4:36-37  Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement),  ³⁷ sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet

Just recently I spoke at a missions conference in Cyprus right at the Bay where Paul and Barnabas began their first missionary journey

Barnabas was a very important figure in the early church; he was the one who advocated for Saul of Tarsus—Paul—to the skeptical church at Jerusalem immediately after Paul’s conversion

He was the one dispatched from Jerusalem to Antioch to investigate and approve of the work among the Gentiles there… he was called “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith”

And of course, he is best known for the missionary journey he took with Paul as recorded in Acts 13-14.

Here he is introduced as a Levite… of the Jewish priestly class. How he came to own property we don’t know, because usually they were forbidden. But by now the Old Covenant strictures had begun to fall away.

To sell a piece of property is HUGE SACRIFICE! It is one thing to give of your surplus… it is more to give of your actual inheritance and wealth and property. Once the property is sold, it is gone forever.

Note that all the people that gave money to the church in those days put it at the apostles’ feet. Meaning, they trusted the apostles to do the right thing with it. It was a form of submission to church authority. The apostles were entrusted with the responsibility to spend wisely what the church donated.

[So it is now with the elders of FBC: the primary authority the elders have it spending the time, energy, and money of the church wisely for the glory of God and the advance of the Kingdom of Christ.]

SO… that is the context.

Barnabas’s gift, in the larger context of the church’s general pattern of generosity.

B. BUT… Ananias and Sapphira were tragically DIFFERENT!!

1. Their actions are in direct contrast with the spirit and actions of the church

2. They were selfish and faithless and conniving

3. They wanted to be SEEN as generous in ways and to a degree they really weren’t

4. They had some basic materialism still… a love of money; why else would they do what they did

5. They were HYPOCRITES… acting holy when they were really sinful

6. And God exposed them and killed them for it.

II. Crime and Punishment

A. The Gift Presented But Falsely

Acts 5:1-2  But a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.  ² With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

B. Peter Deals with Ananias First

Acts 5:3-4  Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?  ⁴ Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Key insights:

We will discuss Satan’s role later… Peter sees Satan as instigating this, but Ananias was ultimately responsible for his actions.

We will discuss the Holy Spirit’s role later as well.

For the time, let’s understand the nature of the sin itself: Ananias lied about the money.

The Bible does not command all believers everywhere to give everything they have to the church or to the poor

When Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, was converted, he said this:

Luke 19:8  “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus PRAISED him for this!

Luke 19:9-10  Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Christian giving is always VOLUNTARY…

2 Corinthians 9:7   Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Mark 14:7  The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.

Again, as I said earlier, this early church lavish generosity was not communism… government-mandated wealth distribution

Peter makes it very plain that the Ananias’s property was his to do with as he chose. And after it was sold, so was the money.

No… the issues was their LYING about it.

“You have not lied to men but to God.”

They had a fundamental evil in their hearts. They disrespected God, were living for earthly benefits—honor from the church, money for themselves.

C. Ananias’s Immediate Judgment

Acts 5:5  When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

Ananias immediately died… God struck him dead. Not a hand was laid on him. Peter didn’t kill him, nor any other human being.

God has power of life and death.

Acts 17:28 “In him we live and move and have our being.”

James 4:15 “If the Lord wills, we will live.”

God willed that Ananias should die IMMEDIATELY for his sin.

Keep in mind, the wages of each and every sin is death. There are no exceptions. All sin deserves the death penalty.

Acts 5:6  Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

Immediate burial underscored the terror that came on them all… but also it was the custom in that hot-weather climate.

D. Sapphira Second… An Opportunity to Come Clean

God chose to deal with them separately. This was not random but a clear providence on his part. And it is especially important that she did not know what had happened to her husband.

God was teaching Ananias’s headship in that he dealt with him FIRST, just as he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The husband is the head of the wife… so he is more responsible.

BUT she is also directly and individually responsible for her sin.

Peter questions her and gives her a chance to come clean and tell the truth:

Acts 5:7-8  About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.  ⁸ Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

Sometimes, you only get one chance to tell the truth. This was her one chance.

E. Sapphira’s Sin, and Immediate Judgment

Acts 5:8-10  “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”  ⁹ Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”  ¹⁰ At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

Just as Ananias cannot blame Satan for his sin, neither can Sapphira blame her husband for hers.

This pattern shows that every single man and woman will stand before the Lord ALONE on Judgment Day to give an account for his or her actions:

Romans 14:10-12  For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  ¹¹ It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'”  ¹² So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

III. The Outcome: Holy Fear, Renewed Fruitfulness

A. The Reaction in Both Cases: FEAR

Acts 5:5  When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

Acts 5:11  Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Both times, it says “GREAT fear”… this fear came upon everyone who was there at the time, and also everyone who heard about these events.

B. Why? The Conviction of the Spirit!

Why? Because every honest person knows, “I deserved that same judgment.”

We are all liars.

Psalm 116:11  In my dismay I said, “All men are liars.”

Romans 3:13-14  Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”  ¹⁴ “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

And we know that if a lie gets dealt with that way, what about all my other sins? What about my complaining? My arguing? My lust thoughts? My laziness? My greed? My foul language? My sinful anger? My pride?

I honestly could drop dead at any moment for any one of these sins.

C. Fear of God’s Perfect Holiness

Hebrews 12:29  our “God is a consuming fire.”

Psalm 19:9  The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.

Job 28:28  God said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord– that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'”

Proverbs 8:13  To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

A.W. Tozer, in The Knowledge of the Holy: When the psalmist saw the transgression of the wicked his heart told him how it could be. ‘There is no fear of God before his eyes,’ he explained, and in so saying revealed to us the psychology of sin.  When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesitation. The fear of consequences is no deterrent when the fear of God is gone. In olden days men of faith were said to ‘walk in the fear of God’ and to ‘serve the Lord with fear.’ However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful….

“Wherever God appeared to men in the Bible times the results were the same – an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt.  When God spoke, Abram stretched himself upon the ground to listen.  When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush he hid his face in fear to look upon God.  Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, ‘Woe is me!’ and the confession, ‘I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.’  ”

God killed Ananias and Sapphira that day to put a deep fear in the church, not just that one day but for all time.

That the fear of the Lord would purify us

God appeared to Israel at Mt. Sinai in a dreadful darkness, in fire, with lightning and thunder and a mighty earthquake and the sound of his voice so overpowering the nation thought they would die just from hearing him speak.

God then said,

Exodus 20:20  “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

D. Some Might Say we are DONE WITH FEAR

Romans 8:15  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

But I do not believe that verse is given so that we would not fear God’s response to our sin. We are to fear his holy response to our sins… his disciplines:

Hebrews 12:6  the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son

Should I not fear what God will do to me if I sin? Does not that fear keep me from sinning??

IV. Timeless Lessons: Sin, Satan, the Spirit, Soulwinning

A. Sin

1. The Bible is extremely honest about the sinfulness of all people, including the saints

a. The Bible tells us both of the greatness of Moses in leading the Jews out of Egypt, and the sinfulness of Moses in disobeying the voice of God and striking the rock, such that God refused to allow Moses to enter the Promised Land

b. The Bible tells us also of the great courage of David in his battle with Goliath and his great sinfulness in committing adultery with Bathsheba; the same holy poet who wrote so many majestic Psalms was consumed with lust for another man’s wife, then covered up her pregnancy by deceit and having her husband killed

c. The Bible tells us of the great wisdom and amazing prosperity of Solomon, but also of his great sinfulness in being led astray at the end of his life by his many wives so that he filled Jerusalem with idols

d. The Bible tells us of the faithfulness of Jesus’ apostles in standing with him day after day in his sufferings, but then abandoning him in his hour of need; especially Peter, the chief Apostle, who denied even knowing Jesus’ name

2. This account is a timeless warning to all Christians of the deadly danger of sin and its consequences

3. Some may question whether Ananias and Sapphira were genuine converts… but the lessons to the church are most powerful if they were

4. They had, it seems, a direct connection to the Holy Spirit in that their sin was seen as a personal affront to the Spirit; they lied to the Spirit

5. Secondly, this lesson hit most powerfully on the church precisely because they were part of the Body of Christ

a. If they were actually unbelievers, how do the believers take warning?

b. But if genuine Christians can fall so grievously into sin and be judged so severely by God immediately and fatally, it is reasonable for all Christians throughout all time to fear sin and its consequences

c. The scripture does in fact reveal that God can and does kill sinning Christians occasionally as a warning to others

d. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is addressing the grievous sins some Corinthian Christians were committing during the Lord’s Supper… some were actually getting drunk on the Lord’s Supper wine

e. Paul revealed that God had already taken action against some of them:

1 Corinthians 11:29-32  anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.  ³⁰ That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  ³¹ But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.  ³² When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

f. In other words, the judgments that fall on our bodies are meant to save our souls from damnation

g. AND the judgments that fall on some Christians are meant to be warnings to all

h. The takeaway is for all Christians to examine themselves and repent of all known sins and deal forcefully with them so that this kind of judgment will not need to fall on us

6. Sin’s nature: deception, hiddenness, secrecy

a. Sin flourishes in secret; it grows in the dark

b. Religious hypocrisy especially is evil in God’s sight: presenting yourself one way, but actually living a different way

c. Being a “whitewashed tomb” which looks beautiful on the outside but inside is full of evil and corruption and deceit

d. Christ specifically warned against this kind of sin by Ananias and Sapphira… giving money in a showy way to earn the approval of the religious community

Of his enemies, the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said

Matthew 23:5  Everything they do is done for men to see

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned:

Matthew 6:1-4  Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  ² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

What motivated Ananias and Sapphira to lie? The lure of a double benefit: earthly wealth AND religious approval from others. They ended up with NEITHER!

7. Fundamental lesson here: THERE ARE NO SECRETS FROM GOD!!!

Luke 12:2-3  There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  ³ What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Jesus sees everything, searches everything out:

Revelation 1:14-15  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

Concerning the hidden sexual sins of a prophetess named Jezebel in the church of Thyatira, Jesus says:

Revelation 2:22-23  I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

8. The remedy is to FEAR SIN and its consequences, including the fearsome judgments of God… to fear Judgment Day and the consuming of our works by holy fire so we suffer loss… and to wage war against our sins by his Spirit

Listen again to what Paul said about the Corinthians who were sick and who died under God’s holy judgments:

1 Corinthians 11:31-32  But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.  ³² When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

In other words, if you deal directly and harshly with your sins as you know them, God won’t have to bring judgments on you in this life

HOW??

Matthew 5:29-30  If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

1 Corinthians 9:27   I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Romans 8:13-14  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,  ¹⁴ because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

The fear of the Lord should lead to intensified efforts at mortification and holiness.

B. Satan

1. Peter directly ascribed the temptation to Satan

Acts 5:3  Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

2. Satan has been attacking this amazing church since the Day of Pentecost

3. He tried persecution, having Peter and John arrested for healing the lame beggar and then threatening them with further punishments if they kept preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ; he will resume that same attack later in this very chapter, Acts 5

4. But seeing that the persecution only resulted in more converts and in Peter and John’s bold proclamation of the gospel to the Sanhedrin, Satan tried a different assault… infiltrating the core of the church by sin… by greed, and ego and vainglory

5. Satan is relentless and devious

2 Corinthians 2:11  in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

The word “schemes” is also translated “devices” or “designs”… evil plots, with dark intelligence

Satan is the dark mind that invented Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Humanism, Evolution, and every false religion and cult there has ever been

Satan is the god of this age and has crafted a whole world of alluring temptations

He is clever and relentless and powerful

And we must be self-controlled and alert concerning his activities:

1 Peter 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

YET… Satan is never held responsible for the sins of God’s people. Ananias and Sapphira were directly responsible for their sins.

Yes, Satan filled their minds with the IDEA. But Peter held Ananias responsible:

Acts 5:4 Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

6. Our task is to be aware of Satan’s schemes and put on the full armor of God and resist the devil till he flees from us.

C. The Holy Spirit

1. This passage is vital for our understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit

2. First, he is a PERSON… Peter says that they LIED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

a. Some people think of the Spirit like an impersonal FORCE… like Star Wars, “May the Force be with you”

b. But the Spirit is a person, with a mind and heart and personality and emotions

c. We are told that the sins of Israel “grieved” the Holy Spirit, and we are told to not grieve the Spirit by our sin

3. Second, the Spirit is GOD

Acts 5:4 You have not lied to men but to God.

D. Soulwinning

1. The holy fear that came on the church and everyone who heard about these events was essential to its fruitfulness

2. God uses HOLY churches, not wicked hypocritical deceptive lying churches

3. Furthermore, the fear that came on outsiders caused them to respect the church more than ever before

Acts 5:13-14  No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.  ¹⁴ Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

4. The fear of God actually led them to flee to Christ for salvation

5. What about you???

V. Pray for the Holiness and Fruitfulness of FBC!