I want to speak for a few moments
to some of the younger people. And this is a famous story from
the earliest days of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. But it's also a very solemn story
and a very challenging story, I'm sure, to all of us. We read in verse one of Acts
chapter five, but a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira,
his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price,
his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part
and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? and to keep back part of the
price of the land. Whilst it remained, was it not
thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.'
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost.
And great fear came on all them that heard these things. And
the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and
buried him. And it was about the space of
three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came
in. And Peter answered unto her,
Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea,
for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How
is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at
the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway
at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And a young man came in
and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. And great fear came upon all
the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. Last week we were reading a few
verses before this and we learned about a man who sold his property
and gave the proceeds of that property to the apostles to distribute
to the poor believers in the church. Can anyone remember that
man's name? Barnabas. Barnabas, that's right. Barnabas was a man who is recognised
as the very foremost amongst the early leaders of the church
in Jerusalem. Indeed, sometimes in the Acts
of the Apostles, Luke calls him an apostle. So Barnabas sometimes
gets called an apostle and while there were the eleven apostles,
Judas taken away and Matthias added to their number to make
up again to 12, there are occasions in the New Testament where other
people are called apostles also. And Barnabas is one of those
men who takes on this name. And he was a man who was well-respected
and well-regarded. And it seems as if, from the
very earliest times, he was keen to commit everything that he
had to the well-being of the church and the Lord's people,
and to spend his life helping and ministering and encouraging
and comforting the Lord's people and the church. We're told that
at that time in the church, that there was a movement to help
the poor people, the poor believers, and they had all things in common. They shared together as men and
women had need, then their needs were satisfied out of a common
wealth that the apostles distributed. Ananias and Sapphira were two
members of that early church. In fact, because we don't know
about them before this time, it may well be that they have
been around the apostles from even before the time of Pentecost. They may have been part of that
group at an earlier stage. And now we find that Ananias
and Sapphira have an idea. They've seen what Barnabas has
done. They've seen how well Barnabas
is respected. They know something of the high
esteem in which he is held amongst the church members. And they
think to themselves, wouldn't it be good if we were viewed
like that as well? and they concocted a plan. They would sell their property
and they would give the proceeds of that property, just like Barnabas
had done, to the apostles and they could distribute it to the
poor people in the church. But they wouldn't have to give
everything. They would tell the apostles
that they were giving everything, but they would hold some of it
back. After all, they were getting a very good price. And I don't
know whether they held back a little bit or a lot, or maybe they split
it 50-50. But they only gave a portion
of what they got from the proceeds of this sale, but they told the
apostles that they were giving everything. I suspect these people
wanted the honour of being known as being generous givers to the
poor. And this reminds us, this shows
us, that from the very earliest times, there have always been
hypocrites in the Church of Jesus Christ. That's just the way of
things. Even the apostles, had to deal
with those who were not faithful, who were not true, who were liars,
who were pretenders, who acted the part, but in their hearts,
they were hypocrites. These people had no knowledge
of grace and love and salvation, but they talked a good story. and they pretended to the other
disciples that they were followers of the Lord Jesus. And it also
reminds us that God knows the hearts of men and women. And God protects his church against
the schemes and the deceptions of those that would take advantage
of them. False members and false professors
may not be known to the individuals of a congregation, but they are
known to God. And God holds the well-being
of his church and his people close to his heart, and he is
careful that they will be protected. We can see how the story unfolds,
how that Ananias came in first and he said to Peter, well, here's
all the money, Peter. And Peter knew. I don't know how he knew. Perhaps
it was simply that the Holy Spirit revealed it to him. You remember
when we were talking about Naaman the Syrian, that Elisha knew
what Gehazi had done. when Gehazi went to speak to
Naaman and said, give me some of the robes, give me some of
the suits of clothes, give me some of the silver, and I'll
take it back to my master. Gehazi never intended to take
it back at all, and he thought he had done all these things
in secret, but the Holy Ghost told Elisha what Gehazi had done. And here it appears that we have
a repeat of that Same thing. And Peter is informed about Ananias'
hypocrisy and effectively his theft. A little bit later, Sapphira
comes in and she hasn't heard about the death of her husband.
And she is inquired of, she is asked by Peter what the situation
and what the facts of the case were. And she repeats the scheme,
and she repeats the lie. And her life is required of her
too, and she falls down dead at the apostles' feet. The death
of Ananias and Sapphira testifies of God's judgment against sin. No sin will go unpunished before
God. Either our sin must be laid upon
the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ and have Him pay the price
for them, or our sins will be carried on our own souls and
we will pay the price for them. This is the promise of God that
the soul that sinneth it will die except a substitute and a
representative be found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a fearful condition wicked
men and women are in. Why do you think Ananias and
Sapphira died immediately they had told this lie? People can
lie all their lives. People lie all the time. People
make a living out of telling lies. And yet God doesn't require
their lives from them immediately upon making a false statement. but he did with Ananias and Sapphira. Why must they die so dramatically? Well, I believe that it was a
sign, I believe that it was a warning, and I believe that it was a comfort. God showed his care and his love
for his church, his bride, by protecting them from these two
schemers. And God warned others not to
deceive her, not to deceive themselves, and not to try and deceive him. And God comforted his church
in all ages, by showing them that all who try to harm her,
all who try to deceive her, all who do her down, will have it
held against them. If they raise their hands against
his church, they raise their hands against God himself. Peter accused Ananias and Sapphira
of lying against the Holy Spirit, lying to God. And in a sense,
all sin is against God. On the surface, this lie was
about money. It was about property. It was
about honour and the desire for it. but it is a greater sin to
profess that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, to
act like a Christian when there is no true knowledge of grace
in our lives. You know, we can pretend about
a lot of things. We can pretend to each other
that we know the Lord, when in fact we are mocking God by our
hypocrisy. I would wish both in the church and in the
world that there was something of the fear of God that had been
established on this day established in the hearts of men and women
and in the minds of men and women, when they realize just how jealous
God is of his own glory and of his own people. Ananias and Sapphira
are a warning to us all. Verse 11 of chapter 5 says, great
fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these
things. It's a precious privilege to
be a member of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
is a precious privilege to be a member of the local congregation
of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who squeeze
in wrongly Those who claim to be Christians when they are not. Those who pretend to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ when they do not. They abuse and they misuse
the privileges of God's church. And they are in great danger
for what they are doing. Let us realize something of the
seriousness of professing the Lord Jesus Christ when we know
Him not. And let us be aware that out
of the example of Ananias and Sapphira, God will hold all men
and women accountable for their sins and for their statements
and for their professions. May the Lord bless these things
to us and teach us and guide us in the ways of his truth.
Amen.