The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 5, verses 1 through 11.

Tony Clark: Jesus responded very wisely and correctly in verse 9 and said, "Today salvation has come to this home." Anytime a person's willing to give half his goods, half his money, and really willing to restore somebody four times the amount, salvation has come to that house. Love accomplishes what the law never can.

Now we pick up the story in verses 1 and 2. Look what it says there. It says, "But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the proceeds, his wife being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet."

The conjunction "but" that starts verse 1 introduces a strong contrast between the actions of Barnabas in chapter 4 and those of Ananias and his wife Sapphira in chapter 5. They too sold a piece of property. But unlike Barnabas, Ananias kept back part of the proceeds and his wife being aware of it, according to verse 2.

Withholding part of the money for their own use was not a sin, as Peter will clearly state in verse 4. Nowhere in the Bible are believers commanded to give everything away, except with the rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19. Jesus told him this because riches and possessions had become his god.

Giving in the New Testament is voluntary according to 2 Corinthians 9:7. Their sin was lying, but publicly pretending to have given all of the proceeds of the sale of the property. And so we see this with the Greek word "kept back." That Greek word is "nosphizo." It's an amazing word. It means to put aside for oneself or to keep back or misappropriate.

And that sin was the outward manifestation of a deeper sin, and that is the sin of hypocrisy. They desire the approval of men for their sacrificial act and to be thought of as being part of the spiritual elite. No sin drew a sharper rebuke from Jesus than hypocrisy. In Matthew chapter 6 and verses 1 through 4 and then again in verse 16, Jesus rebuked the people for this very issue.

He says don't do things like giving financially, praying, or fasting to be seen by men as being spiritual because this is what the hypocrites do to try to impress people. Hypocrisy is a deliberate deception trying to make people think that we are more spiritual than we really are. The word "hypocrite" comes from the Greek word "hupokritēs," and it means one who is wearing a mask.

It refers to the actors who wore large masks on the stage with exaggerated expressions so the people in the back can see the expression or the emotion that they were acting out. So hupokritēs were those who had two faces, one for the stage and the other for the street. This is what the phrase "two-faced" came from. And Ananias and Sapphira were playing the hypocrite.

Ananias, whose name means "God is gracious," will soon find out that God is holy. And Sapphira, whose name means "beautiful," will show us the ugliness of the sin in her heart. And as they only brought a certain part of the money and laid it at the apostles' feet, according to the end of verse 2. Oh let's see what's happening. Look at verses 3 and 4.

It says, "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.'"

Now in these verses we see that Peter wasn't fooled by the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira. He saw right through their lie and said in verse 3, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?" What a contrast we see between Barnabas in chapter 4 and Ananias in chapter 5.

One person's giving was spirit-filled and the other was satanically inspired. Peter said, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds?" I want you to notice who it was behind the idea of the lie but Satan himself. John 8:44 calls him the father of lies.

Satan is always behind us deceiving people, lying, and keeping back money you initially wanted to give to God. Satan knows that he cannot defeat the church from without because Jesus said in Matthew 16 and verse 18, he says, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church." So he knows that he cannot defeat the church from without.

So he believes, and I believe he's the one who inspired the saying if you can't beat them, join them. So he began to work from within the church. And Satan knows how to lie to our minds and hearts to get us to carry out his orders. Oh we see this in 1 Chronicles 21 and verse 1 when it says that Satan moved David to number the children of Israel.

See this was a sin rooted in pride because David can sit back and say, "Look at my army. Look at the victories I have won. Look at the orders I gave that brought about great victory." A sin rooted in pride. Now how did Peter know that they were lying? Well the Holy Spirit told them. And this is another aspect of the Holy Spirit is discernment.

So not only does the Holy Spirit give us the boldness to speak for Jesus like we saw in Acts chapter 4 and verse 31, but he gives us discernment like we see here in verse 3 to discern between truth and error. This discernment comes through a word of knowledge. That is knowledge that has not been previously learned, or knowledge that cannot be obtained through the study of books.

Jesus moved very beautifully in this particular gift in John chapter 4 with the woman at the well. You remember Jesus said, "Hey this is a great conversation, it's good, but why don't you go get your husband?" She said, "I don't have a husband." He said, "That's right. You've had five of them and the man you're living with right now is not your husband." She said, "Whoa I perceive you a prophet."

Jesus moved very beautifully in this particular gift. Oh we see this with Peter as well in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 23. After having a revelation from God of who Jesus is, you know he Jesus asked them, he said, "Who do man say that I am? What are the rumors out there about me?" They said some say you're Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said, "That's fine, but who do you say that I am?"

Peter said, "You're the Christ, the son of the living God." And Jesus said, "Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father which is in heaven." I'm sure Peter was feeling pretty good. I got a revelation from God the Father. Y'all heard that? Because you know they were always arguing over who was going to be the greatest. So no doubt Peter was like, "Y'all heard that? The Father spoke through me."

And so Jesus began to tell them about the cross and how he had to go to the cross. And all of a sudden Peter said, "Step aside boys. Far be it from you, Lord. You're not going to this cross." And Jesus looked at Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan, for you're an offense to me. For you're not mindful of the things of God, but for the things of men."

He said, "Get behind me, Satan," because Satan was behind the idea of keeping Jesus from going to the cross. This is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira as well, listening to the lies of Satan. This is why we're encouraged in Ephesians chapter 6 and verses 10 through 17 to put on the whole armor of God.

But one of the pieces we're told to put on is the helmet of salvation, which protects our minds from the lies of Satan. Another piece is the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts and other vital organs from the attacks of the enemy. I can always know when I have left one of these pieces off, and it is when I begin to have doubts about the love of God, the goodness of God, the plan of God for my life.

I begin to accuse God of something evil. I already know that I left the helmet at home. So we have to be on guard against Satan's attacks so we aren't deceived into thinking that we're doing the work of God when we are doing the work of Satan, like in the case of David, Peter, and Ananias and Sapphira did. Now verse 4, Peter says, "While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

In other words Peter was saying, "Ananias, no one made you give this money to the Lord. But lying about how much you gave is where the sin lies." And so what happened after Peter told him this? Look at verses 5 and 6. "Then Ananias hearing these things fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these words. And the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him."

Now after hearing the words of Peter, verse 5 says that Ananias fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. I bet it did. And the young men arose in verse 6 and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. Now the question is what happened to his wife? Oh look at verses 7 through 11.

"Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, 'Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?' And she said, 'Yes, yes, so much.' Then Peter said to her, 'How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and guess what? They're about to carry you out.'"

"Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things." These are some incredible verses. Verse 7 says now it was about three hours later, Sapphira comes in, not knowing what had happened to Ananias her husband.

There were no cell phones and text messages. He couldn't have texted her and said, "You better look out. Don't come here. I've fallen down but I can't get up." There was none of that kind of thing. And Peter asked her to tell him the story. He said, "Tell me the story about the sell of the land. Tell me that story." And she said in verse 8 that they did sell the land for so much money.

Then Peter said in verse 9, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?" Then he told her to look back. He said, "You see those guys at the door? Guess what? They carried your husband out dead for telling this lie, and guess what? They're about to carry you out too." Then verse 10 says immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

And the young men who carried her husband out carried her out too and buried her by her husband. Then verse 11 repeats what verse 5 said to stress the importance of what had happened. It says so great fear came upon the church and upon all who heard these things. Now in verse 11, Luke the author uses the word "church" there for the very first time.

The Greek word is "ekklesia." It means the called-out ones. We've been called out of this world so we can experience the grace and love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ so we can go back into this world and introduce that same Jesus, that same love, and that same grace to the world that we've been called out of. The problem with a lot of people is they've been called out by Jesus and they stay out.

They never go back into the world to reach those who are lost as well. This is to me, in my opinion, the Amish community and people like that. They stay separate. We're not called to be separate like that. We're called to have contact without contamination. We're called to reach this world. And so here we see an amazing story that's here.

Now there are four things I want to bring to your attention about this story. Number one, notice how in each case God gave them room to repent. He gave Ananias room in verse 3 and his wife Sapphira in verse 9. Number two, even though Satan filled their hearts to lie, they were still held accountable for their participation in the sinful act.

This shows us how merciful God is that he gives us time to repent. He did it with Judas in Luke 22 and verse 48 when he asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" At that moment he could have said, "Yes I am. I'm sorry, please forgive me." He could have done that. He gives us room to repent. So God gave this couple the same opportunity but they chose to continue in the deception.

Now this is what I'm going to spend the rest of the time and close with. I want you to notice the question Peter asked Sapphira in verse 9. He says, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?" This is the third thing I want you to see is number three, they agreed together to lie.

I wonder how many couples today are agreeing together to sin by either not paying all of your taxes or by robbing God and not paying your tithe. But at the same time taking trips, cruises, vacations around the world, Disney World, and all kind of other things. I wonder, I just wonder how many couples are agreeing together to lie and deceive about something.

Ananias and Sapphira agreed together to lie about the sell of the land. Men, single parents, we're going to be held responsible and accountable as the leader of our homes if we're getting our wives and children to agree together with us to lie about something. Whether that is tell them I'm not at home and you're standing right there.

Or lie about your financial status, crying about how broke you are, then we see vacation pictures of you cheesing all over on some beach on social media. What are you agreeing together to do? When we travel, you tell them I'm your husband and you're my wife and all the time you're not married, you're just living together. Agreeing together to lie about things. Oh I've seen this all the time.

Couples agreeing together, "Hey how you guys are doing?" "Oh we doing great. We doing great." And all the time you're lying about it because the marriage is on the rocks because you don't want people to know your business so you come and you lie to us about what's really going on. Lying destroys the unity of the body of Christ. This is why, Ephesians 4:25, it says putting away lying, let each man speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another.

We have to put away lying. "Apotithemi" is a Greek word. It's an amazing word. It means to put away, to put aside, to lay aside. It's the same Greek word that's used in Hebrews 12 where it says lay aside every weight and sin that so easily besets. It's the same word. And I see all the time couples are agreeing together to lie about things.

Agreeing together to lie to the children about what's really going on. "Oh everything is great, Mommy and Daddy are all right," and all the time y'all just signed divorce papers. But you're agreeing together to lie to the children. You're agreeing together to lie to the neighbor, to the coworker. "Let's pretend that we're still together." I know a family right now, they took wonderful, beautiful family pictures and had them all over social media.

I said, "Oh they must be still together or they got back together." All the time they are divorced. But they gave the picture, they gave the idea that they are one big happy family. We are agreeing together to lie about a lot of things. And the Lord is calling us out about this sort of thing.

The fourth thing I want you to see is how God dealt with sin in the early church, swiftly and quickly. And this is why fear came upon the whole church. Now why did God deal so severely with them and why is it that God doesn't do this today? If God did this today, who would be here? You wouldn't be out there, I wouldn't be up here, it would be an empty building.

And how we know the building is empty because there'd be no one here to open it up to see who's in here. If God did this today... so we're going to see the details of this and why God dealt so severely and quickly with this, God's will, next week. Let me conclude with this: Liar, liar. In these verses we saw how God feels about lying and hypocrisy.

He deals with it severely and quickly. However even in judgment, watch this, he shows mercy because he gives us time to repent. Is God giving you time to repent from something? Then do it before judgment comes. Finally, have you agreed together to lie about something? Then repent today. God loves you and he wants to bless you and not judge you. There's going to be some people available...