OPEN: (I opened with an old Camp Song which I sang at the beginning of the sermon)
Ananias and Sapphira got together and conspired
a plot to cheat the church and get ahead
They knew God’s will but didn’t do it tried to cheat the Holy Spirit
Peter prophesied and then they both dropped dead
APPLY: That was a cute little camp song that we used to sing when I was younger… But when I went looking for those words on the Internet, I came across a Christian site that was absolutely appalled by that song.
I. And I can understand that - As cute as that song is, the story behind it is very unsettling.
ILLUS: Years ago, I was studying thru Acts with a group of men. When we got to this story, I commented that it was a dangerous thing to lie to God… and that Ananias and Sapphira had paid for their lie with their lives. God had struck them dead.
One of the men got very agitated at that. He passionately argued that Ananias and Sapphira must have died of natural causes… because the God he believed in - the God of New Testament was a God of love… not judgment.
ILLUS: In his book, Home Town Tales, Philip Gulley recalled many long Sundays as a child when he would sit through a boring church service and envied his unchurched neighbors.
One Sunday, he slipped out of the church and went to the local candy story, where he spent his offering money on Tootsie Rolls. He returned to church just in time to hear the sermon, which was about Ananias and Sapphira.
After the service, he remembered praying passionately for forgiveness for his misdeed. He even stayed up all night chanting, "I love Jesus I love Jesus," in the hopes that this would convince God to spare him.
It is not a comfortable idea to realize that God might just bring judgment on us for the way in which we give our gifts to Him. But… that’s precisely the message we’re getting from today’s text.
THE SETTING:
Just a few days (or maybe a few weeks) before this, Peter stood before a large crowd of Jews gathered for the feast of Pentecost. Peter preached such a powerful sermon that day, that over 3000 people were convicted of the need to change their lives, and were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
Now, the Jews in that crowd had come to Jerusalem from over 14 different countries, and once they became Christians, nobody wanted to leave.
Everybody wanted to stay in Jerusalem and enjoy the fellowship.
Now, that was great… except for one thing - many of these new Christians didn’t have jobs now. And so, many in the church responded by selling personal property and bringing it to the Apostles to be distributed to the poor and needy among them.
One man, named Barnabas, went and sold a field he owned to supply for the needy. Barnabas becomes a very important person in the early church, even becoming a co-worker with Paul on his missionary journeys. But, this is the first time in Scripture that we read of him. And it may be that he was the one who began this pattern of selling land and property to help the poor in their midst. His self-sacrifice was so obvious that his is the only name mentioned in the text and I get the impression that a lot of people were really impressed by his sacrifice and that he may have become recognized as an important leader in the church from this day forward.
This did not escape the notice of Ananias and Sapphira. They had a piece of land they could sell too. And they figured, if they copied Barnabas, they could become important people too.
Only thing was… they didn’t want to give the full amount from the sale to the needy. However, they realized that - if they didn’t - they might not receive the praise they so dearly wanted.
Sooo.. they came up with a simple scheme. Sell the property… but just don’t tell anybody how much they got for it. Then give a portion of the sale to the church and pretend they were giving the full amount. Nobody would be the wiser… and they could be elevated in the eyes of all those in the church.
But it didn’t work out that way.
Instead of praise and power… they received condemnation and death.
II. Now, there are a couple of other things this story teaches us
1st - This was a "free-will" offering
Peter told Ananias: Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? (Acts 5:4)
Peter tells Ananias - the land was yours… you didn’t have to sell it
AND - once it was sold, the money was yours… you didn’t have to give it
The church has always been supported by "free-will" offerings.
The Bible no where teaches that we are REQUIRED to give any specific amount to the church.
Now, as we learned last week – God has always liked the tithe… and that’s a great place to start. And over the past few weeks we’ve learned that what we give on Sunday morning is our act of worship… but all the offerings we give on Sunday Morning are free will offerings.
That’s the 1st thing we learn.
2ndly, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira had nothing to do with HOW MUCH they gave…
Remember Peter told Ananias Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? (Acts 5:4)
The sin of Ananias & Sapphira was not THE AMOUNT of money they gave… they didn’t have to give ANY of it. Their sin was that they tried to use money to manipulate the church.
… AND, because the church belonged to God they were trying to manipulate God
God won’t put up with that. Once money is given to God… it’s His. And because the offering is His - it’s a dangerous thing to go messing with it.
ILLUS: I remember the true story of a preacher who was having a conversation with a disgruntled member of the church. The church member was angry about a decision the church had made, and he told the preacher (in no uncertain terms) that until that decision was changed, he would no longer be putting his offering in the plate.
The preacher explained that he understood and asked if the man would pray with him about it. Before the man could even respond, the preacher was on his knees praying. He prayed something like this:
"God we know that the church has made a decision this man disapproves of. And he believes strongly that You no longer deserve his offerings. Until the church changes their decision, this man intends to rob you of Your tithes and offerings…"
About that time, the church member was on his knees beside the preacher pleading with him to stop… he’d changed his mind.
Why was that man afraid? Because he realized that he was not just threatening the church with his offerings he was threatening God. He was trying to manipulate God so that he could get his way in the church
That’s why Ananias & Sapphira died.
III. Now, in spite of the fact that part of our worship on Sunday morning is the offering…
If we’re not careful money can have a very damaging effect upon the church.
There are people (even Christians) who treat money as if it were their TRUE god.
Paul writes to Timothy "… the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" 1 Timothy 6:10
ILLUS: One wit observed that someone made a mistake on our currency when they wrote "In God we trust." He said they should have written "In THIS god we trust." Why? Because many can… and do… worship the almighty dollar. And when that kind of thinking infiltrates the church it can even destroy a person’s salvation.
In fact, when that type of thinking infiltrates the church it has the power to create heresy and perversion. Peter wrote that heretics and destroyers of the church are often driven by greed: He wrote their eyes are "…full of adultery…they are experts in greed…. They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 2 Peter 2:14-15
The history of the church is littered with stories of the sinful perversions that can undermine a church when money is involved.
ILLUS: When the Catholic Church needed money for some of their more elaborate projects, they came up with innovative schemes to raise the cash.
For example… they would sell church offices (a practice known as "Simony")
They would sell certain services of the priests in the church
They would even sell something called "indulgences" - forgiveness of sins
These were some of the reasons that Martin Luther rebelled against the church of his day
He didn’t mean to start a new denomination. But the misuse of money had corrupted the church he’d loved and been trained in.
Money has a powerful effect on people… so much so that Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24
Churches and Christians that try to serve both Money and God have run into troubles.
Now, you might say… well that was the Catholic Church. We would never do anything like that
Oh… yeah we might - if money became so important to us that we lost sight of God.
CLOSE: Ananias and Sapphira got together and conspired
a plot to cheat the church and get ahead
The knew God’s will but didn’t do it tried to cheat the Holy Spirit
Peter prophesied and then they both dropped dead
The CHORUS to that song goes this way:
God loves a cheerful giver, give Him all you’ve got
He loves to see you smiling when you’re in an awful spot
So when the odds are up against you
And you don’t know what to do
Praise God, He loves you and He will see you through
Now I don’t know if they meant it that way… but the advice from that chorus is precisely the cure we need to avoid falling into the trap of Ananias & Sapphira.
1. Learn to be a cheerful giver
Don’t give because you have to… give because you love Jesus
2. Learn to trust God rather than your bottom line.
The Elders & Brad & I have often struggled with whether there is enough money to do
this project or that plan. And every time we find ourselves asking the question - is this what God wants? If it is, then God will supply the money and He has every time.
D.L. Moody
Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment;
trust in money and you may have it taken from you;
but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.
