Good morning family!
Thank you for being here. I don’t know how often we realize just how lucky we are to be able to gather together with the family of God, to lift our voices, to sing, to praise, to be the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Do you realize? Do we comprehend? Does it not affect you that we get to do this? We get to do this.
So thank you for the privilege of being able to do this with you–together.
We’ve got an interesting one today. It’s a story in the New Testament that we tend to avoid because it makes us uncomfortable.
It’s a story that has caused many people to laugh it off as some ridiculous ghost story the New Testament believers would tell each other and their children to keep them in line and scare them into generosity.
Listen, when I was in elementary or middle school, I was riding the bus back after some sort of sports ball event. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact details, but here’s what I do remember. The other kids on the bus began sharing scary stories, as youths are prone to do from time to time, especially when it’s dark, and especially if it provides some sort of street cred. If it makes you seem tough in front of those you care to impress.
Eventually, one kid, I think it was a girl if you think that makes this story even more embarrassing for me. This girl began recounting the plot of the movie IT. If you’re not familiar with that movie. Oh, there it is. Lovely.
In all fairness, I’ve never seen this movie. Never will. Never want to. The original or the remake. One girl simply described the plot to this movie and it scared me so much that I slept on the floor next to my parent’s bed, or on the couch in front of a blindingly bright TV, or with the covers pulled over my head. I did this until I got married and Jenny basically forced me to sleep in a bed like a normal human being.
You can ask my parents. They’re here. You know them. I’m not lying.
But this is not a ghost story. This is not a fairy tale like the Brothers Grimm. Or one of Aesop’s Fables. This is a true story.
And this is shocking!
It’s shocking because we tend to compartmentalize and separate in our minds the God of the Old Testament with the version of God we see in the New Testament, as though they were opposite entities or like God evolved over time.
If this story showed up in the Old Testament we wouldn’t bat an eye. We’d almost expect it. Like, God’s smiting people once again.
For example, there’s a story in the Old Testament that’s almost exactly like this one in all the ways that matter. If you’ve ever heard someone teach on this passage of Acts, they’ve probably mentioned the sin of Achan from Joshua 7. The Israelites had just fought the battle of Jericho–and the walls came tumbling down. They won a decisive victory at the mighty hand of the Lord and they think to themselves, this next city is not anywhere near as fortified as Jericho. We can easily take with just a few thousand men. So they go, and they fight, and they lose. And their thinking to themselves, “what could have possibly gone wrong?”
God tells Joshua, you’ve sinned. That’s what’s wrong. You were supposed to completely destroy everything from Jericho, but someone sinned and held some of these things back for themselves. So God has each tribe present themselves and the tribe of Judah was chosen, then the clan of the Zerahites, then the family of Zimri, then Achan. “[And] Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me’” (Joshua 7:19). He confronts him just as Peter confronts Ananias.
It turns out Achan had stuff buried in his tent that no one else could see.
He had skeletons in his closet. He was holding on to secret sin and it was tearing apart the people of God.
So we read this story with Ananias and Sapphira and it seems to us as though the OT God is creeping into our covenant of peace, and love man. Groovy. The part of God we like to forget is ruining our happy, and dreamy stories of beauty from ashes. But God is consistent.
The Bible says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Numbers 23:19 says that “God is not man that He should lie or a son of man that He should change His mind. Has He said and will He not do it. Or has He spoken and will He not fulfill it.”
God is consistent.
God doesn't heal everyone who is infirm and, thankfully for us, He doesn’t kill all sinners on the spot. He wasn’t going around calling fire down from Heaven on every evildoer in the Old Testament either. This may be the one of the only stories of its kind in the New Testament but it is not establishing a rule of law–of how things always happen. It’s establishing the character of God and the seriousness of sin.
It further establishes that the Church has an enemy.
I came across a video series on RightNow Media just the other day called. “Your Story has an Enemy.” And that’s true, God has an enemy and so His people have an enemy, a wounded foe that will stop at nothing to drag as many down with him as possible (2 Peter 3:17).
As Warren Wiersbe says "We must face the fact that Satan is a clever foe. If he does not succeed as the "devouring lion" (1 Peter 5:8+), then he attacks again as the "deceiving serpent" or an "angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:3, 13-14). Satan is both a murderer and a liar (John 8:44), and the church must be prepared for both attacks.”
Not all the threats are from the outside. We just got an outside threat story. We will get more in weeks to come. This is an internal threat awareness story. And that’s why it’s here. We must be duly aware that the threats from within the Church are just as pervasive and threatening as those from outside. And those threats come from within our own hearts where we bury our sin away in our tents hoping that nobody will ever find it.
We have divided hearts.
This is a tale of two hearts–as it were.
I think it was John Newton who said there are two kinds of people in the Church, “people who have had genuine experiences with the wonder and love of Christ and there are people who have learned to be good imitators.”
There are two kinds of people in the church and they are nearly impossible to distinguish them apart by outward appearance. In fact, Jesus says let them grow together until the day of judgment and then I’ll send my angels to sort them out.
He tells this parable in Matthew 13:24-30, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. 27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said… “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ 29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Some things will have the appearance of the Spirit and the appearance of movement. The church is a movement of people we belong to. Some people will have the appearance of movement.
We have to be aware of the possibility that grain and weed will grow together within the field of the Church. That’s an option. Just because someone looks like grain doesn’t mean they are inwardly filled by the spirit.
This is a story of two hearts.
Two hearts because we are given two examples. Two stories placed in contrast. Chapter 5 starts out with the word “but”… That’s a contrasting conjunction.
What is it contrasting?
We start out with the picture of Barnabas.
It says, “32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had… 36 For instance…
[Exhibit A], there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.”
The disciples were deeply devoted to one another. They were unified, of one heart and mind praying and moving in the same direction. They were filled with the Spirit and they held all things in common.
They had let go of things. And they were holding tightly to people.
They loosened their grip on stuff. And they were tightening their grip on each other.
As the gospel takes root in your heart more and more, material wealth and a comfortable lifestyle fail to be the goal of life. And just because you don’t have a lot of stuff doesn’t mean you’re not clinging to possessions and a lifestyle of comfort you are used to. We let go of our comforts, whether they be many or few, and we press into our spiritual family.
Barnabas is always laying his money down and picking others up. He shows up several times in the New Testament. He’s the first to recognize Paul as a chosen instrument of God and advocate for him. He takes him under his wing, and disciples Paul in a way. He defends John Mark when Paul rejects him and Paul later recognizes that he was right.
In Acts 11 he’s described in this way, “24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord” (Acts 11:24).
Actually, his name is Joseph. But he’s given the nickname Barnabas which means son of encouragement. In the Bible, a name change is reflective of a heart change. Barnabas is a Levite, who owns land, and so there's probably quite a lot that scholars can infer about him from what little facts we know about his life pre-Jesus. But what we can tell is that his gaze has shifted toward Jesus, and then to others, and away from self.
He lets go of his stuff and he holds on tightly to his brothers and sisters in Christ.
“5 But…
There was a certain man named Ananias [Exhibit B].
…who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest” (Acts 4:1-2).
Barnabas’ heart is so filled by the love of God that no other affection dare compete.
The hearts of Ananias and Sapphira were filled with something else–something other than God.
They may have been genuine believers at one point in time, but what they eventually became really good at was imitating and hiding what they didn’t want others to know. They became really good at wearing a mask. Playing the Christian while hiding their heart.
And the word the Bible uses to describe such people is hypocrite. One who puts on a mask and pretends to be something they are not.
Jesus warns against hypocrites in the sermon on the mount, he says, “2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get” (Matthew 6:2).
Ananias and Sapphira did what they did to be seen by man. They were motivated by the praise and honor of men and so cared little of the fear of God. And they received their reward. Though it only lasted a few minutes or seconds even.
And the poignant reality, the complexity of the situation is that all of us have our ananias and sapphira moments. We all have our skeletons in the closet.
Peter, himself, had experienced great failure, as he denied even knowing Jesus three times in a row (Luke 22:54-62).
Like Achan, we have all packed our treasures away in our tents hoping no one will ever find them. We hold on to stuff, for the praise of people. We presume grace and continue in our sin, justified in our own self-righteousness.
We cannot presume grace for the sake of sin.
In Romans 6, Paul asks us this question, “6 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”
By no means…
Get rid of the skeletons.
Come out of hiding.
Expose what’s in the tent and let God's healing come in.
Our sin is a big deal.
This section starts off by talking about the unity of God and then shares the dire story of when that all falls apart. Sin puts at risk the unity of God’s family.
“Sin hurts our relationship with God and ourselves. It leaves us broken, selfish, and self-centered. It hurts others, causing pain and destruction.”
Sin is a big deal. So we must take it seriously–especially in our own lives.
Thomas Watson said, “Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”
I think Eliott shared a version of this quote from a pre-marriage counseling book he and Anna read. “Love cannot be sweet unless sin is bitter.”
The bitterness of sin leads us to the fear of God.
It says at the end of this story that “11 great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened” (Acts 5:11).
They were gripped by fear. This intervention of God’s judgment so extravagantly on display led to the fear of the LORD. It led to worship.
Fear is a part of worship.
You can’t forget about the judgment of God. Jesus saves us from it but it is ever before us because it will be a great and terrible day.
If we go back to the words of John Newton once more, he famously wrote in a song I’m sure we all know, “twas grace that taught my heart to fear, then grace my fears relieved”. The grace is precious because the fear is real. Gods’ first work is to help you see the magnificence of who He is. The radiant splendor of His all-consuming fire. The fear of the Lord.
It’s the fear of God that intensifies the love of God. It is awe mixed with intimacy. It’s the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit working together.
Because God knows the depths of our heart.
In Mark 7, Jesus tells us, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man…”
You will not succeed in hiding your heart.
There is “nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known (Matthew 10:26)”
We keep our hearts hidden because we’re embarrassed, because we don’t want to feel the cost of our sin. Because we are afraid of rejection. We lie because we are worshipping something other than God. Whenever you lie, you are worshipping something other than God.
And the reality is that you’re only as healthy as your secrets!
“Shame is a powerful force. It can undermine you by making you feel unlovable. It can be exploited by others to manipulate you, bend you to their will.
But shame’s power is completely dependent on secrecy. As soon as the secret is let out, the burden of shame is removed.”
And so, there’s lots of questions we can ask ourselves on the other side of this passage. Has the Gospel taken root or are you just putting on a great show? Or, where are you looking for man’s praise and approval?
But I think the most important point for us right now, today, is to invite you to open up the tent and come out of hiding.
The funny part of all of this talk of skeletons and secrets is that they are completely unnecessary. Your secrets are unnecessary!
1 John 3:20 tells us that “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
They didn’t have to hide! They didn’t have to pretend!
And you don’t either.
Your secrets are unnecessary. Confess them.
The gospel is good news because through the blood of Jesus you can stand before the judgement seat of the most High God unashamed.
Come out of hiding. Bring it all to light.
“11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light” (Ephesians 5:11-14).
Confess your hearts and just maybe I’ll give you a rarely seen, yet seemingly on the rise, Hoffman Hug. I will not reject you and not just because I don’t have the emotional intelligence to reject you. We will not reject you. Most importantly, God will not reject you.
So what we’re going to do now, is respond with a time of confession and prayer, then we’re going to celebrate by taking communion together and lifting our voices together in praise and adoration of our Heavenly Father.
There’s this incredible story later in the book of Acts where, in the city of Ephesus a great “fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was [greatly honored]. 18 Many of those who were now believers came, confessing [their sins]. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all… 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
We’re going to come together just as they did at the birth of the church and we’re going to pray together, and confess, and pray some more, and celebrate, and rejoice in the great goodness of God. Go ahead and break up into groups of 4 or more.
Resources (*the views expressed within the following content are solely the author's and may not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Mountainside Church):
https://summitchurch.com/series/sent-acts
https://midtowndowntown.com/series/tag/Acts
https://www.preceptaustin.org/acts-5-commentary#5:1
https://www.gotquestions.org/Achan-in-the-Bible.html
https://christgreenfield.church/blog/2023/06/06/why-is-sin-such-a-big-deal
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stonewall-strong/201803/youre-only-as-sick-as-your-secrets
Phone: (828) 202-9143
Email: hello@mcboone.com