Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
We’ve learned a few things in our study through Acts so far, haven’t we?
The Holy Spirit came
And we immediately saw the effects of that with the apostles preaching to people of many different nations
God was working through them
And the believers were all together in one mind, one spirit, giving generously to each other
And they were taking the “work” God was doing, and were spreading the good news of Jesus Christ
We saw about the lame man being healed, and how that wasn’t the greatest miracle, but the greatest miracle was God healing man’s sin problem
And then we’ve also seen the persecution start to set in against the apostles, where we looked at Peter and John, and how they refused to back down
Why?
They knew who God was, and they understood it, and their hope rested in that, and nothing else
Let me be honest with you....
I’m very burdened for you guys tonight, and so I ask that you will give me your full undivided attention as we look at this passage.
What’s Happening
So, when we left off in chapter 4, I mentioned briefly a man named Joseph, who was also called Barnabas.
Now this guy, had sold a field that he had owned, and had brought the entire amount of money and laid it at the apostles feet to distribute among the body of believers as needed
This practice had become very common among the believers as we’ll read.
They valued Christ above everything else, and they loved others as they loved themselves, and so they were giving what they had, selling property they owned, and giving it to the church for distribution.
What a radical idea right?
How many people would even entertain the idea of doing this nowadays?
Maybe when we die, but not while we are alive
But Barnabas, whom we will come back to in a couple of minutes, had sold a field that belonged to him, and brought it all before the apostles.
And so, we come to the story of Ananias & Sapphira, two members of the church, who as we are going to read, sold a piece of property as well.
Read -11
So, here’s the first thing we need to realize from the church in Acts, and the thing you need to ask yourself tonight:
When you fall in love with Jesus, you fall out of love with worldly ambitions, you fall out of love with the love of money, and you fall out of love with selfishness and pride.
When you fall in love with Jesus, you fall in love with Him and with each other
Verse 32 tells us that.
One way that is demonstrated is how the believers acted.
This is kind of one of the themes we see from Luke’s Gospel.
But Matthew as well, teaches you cannot serve both God and money.
Teaches this idea that God becomes our supreme treasure.
And so we read this story of Ananias and Sapphira, and we at the surface level can walk away and miss the point.
The point of this story is not this:
“Well, they were killed because they kept some money back for themselves.”
Yes, that’s partially true, but the true sin is that they lied about what they were bringing
And that’s the deepest sin, and that’s what we’re going to look at tonight
And so I want you to ask yourself, are you guilty of lying about what you are bringing before the Lord?
Voluntary Giving
Ananias & Sapphira, we have no reason to think they weren’t a vibrant part of the church.
And so they would have seen this radical giving mentality that their friends would have been engaged in.
We’re not really told much about them
But what we do know is they were part of a church body that was extremely selfless and extremely giving....BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO BE
The people in the church were not required to give a certain amount of money each week
They weren’t required to sell excess property and give the money
They weren’t required to live on a certain amount of money and give the rest away.
This isn’t socialism
Look at verse 4 with me where Peter is talking to Ananias, “ While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?
Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
You have not lied to man but to God.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.
(2016).
().
Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
And so what I see happening here is this desire inside Ananias & Sapphira to give like everyone else, but at the same time, this internal struggle to hold on to the things and comforts of this world
And you guys, I’m going to be really really honest with you all tonight:
I see this very same struggle in many of your lives, and I fear for you and I pray for you often that you will let go of the things of this world.
Sure, your struggles are not in regards to selling a piece of property that you own.
But in regards to letting go of the world and giving all of yourself to Christ, there are a majority of you who aren’t doing that.
I see this battle going on in your lives where you are trying to keep a foot in both worlds, and I worry that you haven’t experienced true freedom in Christ, that you haven’t experienced salvation.
And here’s why......True faith brings Freedom
But when you come to faith in Christ, you are freed from the offers of this world.
There is a parable in Matthew (13:44) that talks about a man who finds a treasure buried in a field.
And when he finds it, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field, so he can have that treasure.
This is a picture of us with Christ
If you, if I, truly find Christ, then everything else should lose it’s value, we should be willing, we should be happily willing to give up everything else to have Christ!!!
Deceiving Themselves
Now listen to me carefully, if this is you, you are deceiving yourself, just like Ananias & Sapphira were deceiving themselves!
Read verse 1 & 2
Ananias
Can you picture this with me.
Here is Ananias, he just made the sale, and is holding all of this money in his hands
And they convince themselves
And he and his wife, decide that they would only bring part of the money to the apostles, and that they would testify that this was how much they got from the property they sold
I mean, that’s what everyone else is doing, isn’t it?
They’re all bringing the entire proceeds before the apostles, so Ananias and Sapphira had to follow suit, they had to be like the other Christians.
And so, they were going to fool people, and maybe they did fool some people, until they got to Peter.
Isn’t this us, isn’t this you sometimes?
We judge ourselves based on Christians around us, and we just try to make it look like we are doing the right thing.
Or maybe he didn’t, maybe it was always in his mind to hold on to some of it
And can you see Ananias walking up to Peter, laying the money down, and feeling good about himself.
You know, “I’m a good Christian, I did this.”
Again, we are very good at this, aren’t we?
Peter
And Peter already knows what is going on, how, we’re not sure, but it’s most likely by way of God through the Holy Spirit.
Read verse 3-6
And the outcome is Ananias dies
Sapphira
Peter actually asks her this time, “Did you sell the property for x amount of money?”
And she responds, yes, that’s exactly right
And, she dies as well
Our Deception
Alright, let’s get real
Some of you are sitting here tonight, probably quite a few of you, and you are guilty of bringing only part of yourselves to God, and you think you’re getting away with it, you think you can fool people and God.
You think you can fool me and the leaders, and maybe you can, but I’m pretty sure you aren’t.
We see this deep apathy in a lot of you.
Like, even just looking at your faces, there doesn’t seem to be much interest in this book every week that we open it.
And when I ask questions, hardly anyone seems interested in learning
Here are some other ways that I see this playing out in this very room:
Most of you claim faith, but you’re still in bondage:
To sports, to work and extracurricular school activities, to our phones and social media, to video games and t.v. and movies
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