Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Let's be serious about not playing church and trying to be esteemed as more spiritual than someone else, or that we know the Bible, or our prayers are fancy, or I'm more religious than you. Man, we need to all be very clear: we're all sinners, we all fall short, we're here because we need the help of God, and we're sinners who need the grace of Jesus Christ. We need to keep it all in perspective. And then great things will happen. As the word increases, the church will multiply.

Narrator: Pastor Brett Meador reminds us the strength of the church is reliant on power from above. Ananias and Sapphira appeared as outstanding members of the early church in Acts 5, but an act of hypocrisy led to their dramatic destruction. By examining why God made an example of them and many throughout scripture, we uncover the seriousness of hypocrisy in the church. Yet in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador highlights God's grace and mercy cover us despite our many faults.

Brett Meador: In our study of Acts, one of the things we're gleaning, and not only the Bible in general, but the book of Acts shows the beginnings of the early church and we learn so much about what the church should look like. We saw in chapter four, great power was given to the apostles and great grace was given to the church. That's what it says. And the church is just getting blessed out of their socks.

But like the Bible, have you ever noticed you'll be in a happy little story and then all of a sudden, something really crazy happened? Well, that's about to happen. It's Acts chapter five, verse one: "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?

Whiles it remained, it was not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy 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, carried him out, and buried him.

And it was about the space of three hours after this 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."

And she fell down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men 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. Great fear. I guess so, upon the church and all that had heard this. What a strange thing. The church is booming, 5,000 people now in Jerusalem. It's like a mega-church and the Lord's blessing in chapter four.

But then with those things, people bring problems. Ananias and Sapphira are bringing the problem of, "Hey, we want to get some honor, some notoriety in the church." And we're going to do this and we're going to lie before God. Did you notice there's a hint of the Trinity in our text? The Trinity? Yeah, God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, one the same. We see that there in verse three.

Satan with a word of knowledge, if you know what that is in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, with a word of knowledge Peter says to Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie against the Holy Ghost?" So they lied against the Holy Ghost. But notice in verse four at the very end it says, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." Same as the Holy Ghost. Peter sees them as one and the same: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Great fear came upon the church. Why? Because they thought whatever we do, we better go by the rules and not be messing around, not try to get glory for ourselves. And this is something that happens I think as a precedent setter. So what the problem is, it's one of the great problems really in the church. You could say lying, yes; trying to get glory themselves, yes. But really it's the word you see in the Bible a lot and that is the word hypocrisy.

I like what G. Campbell Morgan said. He said the church has never been harmed or hindered by opposition from without, it has been perpetually harmed and hindered by perils from within. I think he's right. Whenever the church has been hit from the outside with persecution, the church grows. It's like the church is blessed. But it's always, it seems like, when the church is doing badly it's because of shenaniganry going on inside of the church.

Whether it's hypocrisy or moral failure or people wanting to get the glory for themselves, all these things we've been talking about. That's where the church goes wrong. The Greek word for hypocrite is *hupokritēs*, which is a fancy little word, but it means an actor, a stage player, a pretender. These guys were pretending to give all the money and they were the holy ones of the church, just like Barnabas at chapter four. They gave all, all to him I owe.

And then they died because they were play-acting, they were pretending, they were lying. The word *hupokritēs* is not only the definition there, but it's also an item. If you were to go in that culture and say *hupokritēs*, they would think of the theater mask. And this is what Ananias and Sapphira, they wanted the mask of giving, super spiritual. They were the holy ones like Barnabas who gave a bunch of their money, but they were lying to God and God struck them down to make a point.

How big is the hypocrite problem? Jesus talked directly about that in Matthew chapter six, verses one through four. Red letters. He said, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets."

Who's blowing a trumpet? Well, the Pharisees did that. The Pharisees with all their little paraphernalia they'd walk around? They had these little trumpets with them, little bugle horns. And remember the guy at the beautiful gate that was crippled? If they gave money they would put a shekel in and then they would grab their little bugle and they'd blow it and everybody would go, "Wow, look at the giving Pharisee. Look at how giving they are."

They blow their trumpet so everybody knows they did it. Jesus calls that out, says that's whacked. He says, "Do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

This is the mantra of how we're supposed to give and Jesus said that's not the way it should be. Don't even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. This is where Ananias and Sapphira went wrong. They wanted to have the glory of men and that's not what's going to happen. Jesus goes on in Matthew six after this that we just read, and he starts talking about not only the money that you're giving, but also the prayers that you're praying.

Hypocrisy can come out in prayer. The Bible actually tells us that God doesn't hear you for your fancy words or your eloquence, but people listen to how you're praying. Have you ever found yourself praying, worried about what other people are thinking about your prayer? That's hypocrisy. I've been praying and I thought, "Oh, I wonder what they think about what I'm praying." And that's a problem.

I love what comic Tim Hawkins talks about, the thesaurus prayers. Have you ever prayed with people that are like the thesaurus? "Oh, Lord, guide us, lead us, navigate for us, Lord, show us the way to go." It's like, okay, we get it, Roget, let's just get to the point. How about wrap it up, end, finish, conclude? Why do we do that? Why do we pray in a way that sometimes is more to be heard of men than to be heard of God?

Jesus will even call that out, pretending to be something we're not. Remember the two guys, one prayed, "Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this other man." And he was the Pharisee praying very eloquently. But then the other guy just beat his chest and he says, "Lord, help me a sinner." There's just something about a real honest prayer that Jesus honors and the other one, it's hypocrisy and he doesn't honor that. That's interesting.

If I'm a hypocrite in church, does that mean I'm going to go to hell? No, just a second. There's a lot of people that don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites. But did you know the whole world is full of hypocrites? I wonder why everybody holds the church to the highest standard. What's funny to me is the people that are saying that usually aren't Christians. They're atheists or people that are maybe anti-church, but they say they love God.

They hold the church to a higher standard, which means they believe the church should be a higher standard. The church, we claim to be a room full of sinners who've been saved by God's grace and we're still working on it. Man, we still have problems, we still fail. No Christian I know thinks they're perfect or not even close. In fact, most people I know don't even think we're better than anybody else. That's just Christianity.

So those that try to make this—you Christians are hypocrites. What if we held the hospital to that standard? I found in the hospital there's people that have died there. There's doctors who've done surgery and people have died during surgery and there's sick people there. Failure. Do you realize how dumb that is? Or let's not be so heavy. You go to the gym, "I am shocked, there's fat people at the gym. Look at that person on the treadmill."

"I'm not going to the gym because there's fat people there." Same dumb mentality when people are like, "I'm shocked that there's sinners at church." It is so ridiculous. Yes, the church has hypocrites and I'm one of them. But my goal is to not be. Obviously the Bible tells us not to be hypocrites and there's a precedent set here. It's really kind of scary when you read what will send you to hell or where you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

For example, first Corinthians 6:9, it says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" Boy, that's true. Scary but true. "Be not deceived." Implication: people are deceived by this. "Neither fornicators"—Greek word *porneia*, where we get our word pornography, sexual immorality—"nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous."

As I've been reading this list, some of you are sitting there going, "Check. Check. Check. I'm not an adulterer, I'm not a fornicator, I don't have a Baal idol in my living room." But this list, it's funny how we can almost self-righteously say, "I'm not any of these things." But when we get to the word covetous, that's an interesting one. Can you check that box? I mean, you ever been driving down the road and you see a boat in a guy's driveway and like, "Oh man, I'd like to have that boat." Covetous.

This is where you gotta read the whole Bible carefully and not just one verse. Because if you just leave it at this verse, you might say, "Well, then who in the world will inherit the kingdom of heaven?" Because the answer is kind of no one, unless you understand what the Bible teaches. Before I leave this one, there's another one that might even be a little bit worse. Can I show you which one that is? It's Galatians 5:19 through 21. Paul says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery."

The adultery one, you're all saying, "Well, I've never done that." But remember what Jesus said? If you even looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery. He said that on the Sermon on the Mount. A lot of you are unchecking that box right now. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings.

They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, I say when you look at this list, who makes it to heaven if you will not inherit the kingdom of God if you do these things? There's a couple things. The first thing that's helpful is the word *do*. This is where I have to reach back into my high school grammar classes which I didn't do very well in. This is actually helpful. When it's the word *do*, it's present active participle.

Present active participle. What that means is the easiest way to remember it has to do with the -ing. If you add an -ing, it's present active. It means those who—you might read better in the Greek text it actually says it more like: "They which continually practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." There's a difference between somebody who does these things, but there's the difference between somebody—how could I get better at doing these things?

Practicing. Like when you practice piano or guitar or you practice tennis or you practice swinging a baseball bat and trying to hit—practice. That's the idea is continually doing these things without any restraint or check. Yeah, you're probably not going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. That makes you nervous, doesn't it? I hope there's no sins that I'm doing and I have to say, "Lord, are there sins that I'm practicing unchecked, unrepentant?"

Are you suggesting that a person can lose their salvation? For the record, I feel a very interesting tension in the Bible and the tension, I don't know that I have all the answers. Some people claim to have all the answers, but I can't really land with their theology on this issue. But here's the thing. I believe in God's sovereignty, I believe in divine election, that we're elected by God, chosen. I believe that God is sovereign and I don't believe you can lose your salvation.

But there's a few verses like this one that makes me kind of say: yeah, but don't play games with God. If you're going around saying, "You know what, I'm going to commit adultery because I'm saved by grace through faith. God already chose me." And I understand all the arguments—"Well, if you're going out having adultery, maybe God didn't choose you. Maybe you never really did accept Christ." Maybe.

But all I know is I talk to real people and real people can convince themselves they're saved. But the Bible gives us some of these verses like this that kind of say, "Man, if you're just doing stuff unrepentant, unchecked, this makes it a little bit stressful." The last list I gave you is this idea of effeminate, which is homosexuality is what that word was. And that's why people say, "You Christians, homosexuality is a pet sin." It's not a pet sin.

It's just one of the only sins on the list that we celebrate and have pride over and we've made flags and we're marching down the street saying, "We're going to be this sinful, we're going to be this sinful." Even though the Bible says it's sin, people are saying, "No, we're going to practice and we're going to get better at it." It's one of the few sins like that. There's not a lot of people going around like, "Hatred is one of these. We're full of hate, we're full of hate."

If they do that, if you're like a Nazi marching down the street—that word is tossed around a lot these days, but I'm talking about real Nazis that really did kill 6 million Jews. Yeah, you're not going to go to heaven if you're one of those guys, because you're continually practicing hatred. We could go on and on, but the point is you don't want to practice and you should be—well, here's the word: repentant. Repentant of sin.

What does a Christian look like? Are they perfect? If this list meant that you had to do this or else you're not going to heaven, then no one goes to heaven. That's the problem with that theory, because we all have these things. Jesus laid that out for us. Even if you have hatred or are angry at someone, Jesus said you're guilty of murder. So we're all guilty. That's the point of the Sermon on the Mount. But there is the idea of repentance.

And that means that you're going to change your mind about your sin. Does it mean you're perfect from that day forward? No. But I like what Paul told young Timothy. This kind of is a good picture of repentance if you ask me. He says, "But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called."

For you moms and dads, this is great family devotion material: three Fs. Flee, follow, fight. What a great three-part sermon for your kids. Flee from sinful things. Run for your life. That's a sign of repentance. You've turned the opposite way and you're saying, "I'm not going to choose to try to figure out how to be better at committing adultery. I'm going to run for my life from adultery and try in whatever I can do to avoid that sin."

You follow after righteousness, Jesus. Follow Jesus. Righteous, Jesus is our righteousness. Godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. If you're following those things, that means you're turning from your sin and following the right things. And then it says, "And fight." It's a battle. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. That's the person who's saved. The person who's fleeing, following, fighting.

That's what repentance looks like. And you lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Paul was the guy who knew what it was to wrestle with sin. Remember Romans seven? "I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do." And he says, "I find in my flesh, that is to say, no good thing in my flesh."

But he thanks God for Jesus Christ and his mercy and his grace. That's salvation. We're saved by grace through faith. If we get good at practicing sin and we're playing the game like Ananias and Sapphira—we put on the face of religiosity and like we're really spiritual, but really we got sin that we're practicing and trying to do better and better. I'm just saying you're in dangerous territory.

Are you suggesting I'm not saved? It's between you and God. I don't know whether you're saved or not. If you're going around committing adultery saying you're saved by grace, I'm not going to pat you on the back as a pastor and say, "Well, you're saved by grace, you accepted the Lord when you were six years old and you got saved there so you're in good standing." I cannot promise you that with integrity. But I would say: repent.

Turn to the Lord. Be saved. Accept Christ. Flee, follow, fight. This is the answer. In Galatians chapter six, verse one and two, it kind of pictures the struggling person, rather than the person who's taking on sin purposefully. Paul talks about that person. He says, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

"Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." In other words, if you find a brother in the church who's sinning and overtaken, there is a difference between someone who's overtaking sin versus someone who's been overtaken by sin. There's a difference. The person who's overtaking sin is that unrepentant sinner who's just trying to sin it up and get better at it, practicing sin. I worry about that person.

But if you're a person who's saying, "Man, I messed up and I did something I didn't mean to do," and that happens all the time for a lot of us, doesn't it? But if a man be overtaken in a fault, what do you do? You which are spiritual, don't be high and mighty, but come alongside of them and restore such a one in a spirit of meekness because the same sin might happen to you. That's the idea of this humble helping one another.

Great fear came on the church and I wonder if this kind of cleaned stuff up for a little while. What do you do? You repent. Secret sins are a mess. Once we start getting good at covering up like Ananias and Sapphira, this is the precedent God says, "I don't want you playing games at church." Secret sins that are covered up. This is what we read in James chapter five. It says, "Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed."

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The Catholics were onto something, I think, that we Protestants sometimes have lost. And that is confessional. Now, do you need a wooden box and a little screen and a priest on the other side? That's just stuff people made up, that part. But the idea of confession one to another, that's a biblical thing. The question is for you and me, are we willing to just be open and honest?

One of the things you can do is go and ask for prayer and even confess the things you're wrestling with, the sins you're struggling with. And the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's what James said. This secret sin here in Acts chapter five, it ends up with death in the church and fear. Great fear, it says. We had great power, great grace, and then we have great fear.

I think this is probably, sadly, a healthy fear that the church needed to have as it was getting ready to burst onto the whole scene of the world. And I pray that fear from the precedent-setting Ananias and Sapphira story, that precedent that was set, that we say: let's be serious about not playing church and trying to be esteemed as spiritual or more spiritual than someone else, or we know the Bible, or our prayers are fancy, or I'm more religious than you.

Man, we need to all be very clear: we're all sinners, we all fall short, I'm not better than you. We're here because we need the help of God and we're sinners who need the grace of Jesus Christ. We need to keep it all in perspective and then great things will happen. The church will multiply. As the word increases, the church multiplies. Let's get back to that, but watch out for the precedent of Ananias and Sapphira.

You're like, "Brett, this is a depressing sermon." Once in a while, I think we all need the splash of cold water. That's what Ananias and Sapphira's story is, just a splash of cold water to remind us: watch out for hypocrisy. Amen?

Narrator: From today's word, Pastor Brett Meador reflecting on a dramatic passage for the church from Acts chapter five of the importance of honesty, reverence, and wholeheartedness in devotion to the Lord. I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will be back to offer a closing prayer in just a moment. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador.

He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible.

We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. Well, now let's rejoin Pastor Brett Meador to conclude today's message with a word of prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, as we read this little story, I pray that we'd let it really sink in. Lord, that your word would be a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. And, Lord, would the light just expose the things in our own hearts that are amiss? Not to make us wallow in our misery as much, but to be repentant, to flee these things, to follow righteousness, to fight the good fight of faith, Lord.

I pray that we would not succumb to that personal pride of having people think more of us or more highly than we should. I pray that when we give, that our right hand won't know what our left hand is doing. I pray that when we pray, that we wouldn't pray the prayer of hypocrisy, but pray the prayer of integrity and honesty, Lord. Just being open before you, Lord. Give us that, I pray.

Help us with that. Show us, Lord, where we've kind of let the routine of prayer become sort of just a sanctimonious act. Forgive us for that. Lord, I pray blessing on these your people. So we go our way now, rejoicing that you've given us this loving reminder in Jesus' name. Amen.

Narrator: Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study in the book of Acts. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.