Ananias & Sapphira
Sermon Notes
Let’s pass the offering baskets. Just kidding! We don’t even have offering baskets. Plus, this passage has nothing to do with money.
What just happened?
We might be tempted to skip over this story, but it matters a great deal in the book of Acts, so much that Luke chose to include it in the story. Remember, the story of the early church that he lays out for us took place over a span of 30 years. A lot happens in 30 years, a lot that Luke didn’t include in this book. He had to hand-pick the stories that were most important to his purpose: convincing a Gentile, an outsider, of the truth of the Gospel and the importance of the Church. In other words, this is a book for seekers, yet Luke included this story. Apparently, he has a different definition of “seeker sensitive” than we do today.
So, what is Luke trying to tell us? The same thing he’s been telling us all through the book of Acts. Thesis statement: The Church is body of Christ, the temple of the living God. In other words, the Church is a community within in which God himself lives. Remember way back when we started this series and we discussed the Day of Pentecost, we talked about how the fire of God always indicates the presence of God, the place where God lives. And when the fire fell on the Church, they became the house of God, the temple, the place where heaven and earth collide.
And, so far, we’ve loved the Church being the temple, with all the powerful manifestations of the presence of God: wind, fire, tongues, healings, radical generosity, etc. But we have to remember that being the temple of the living God is not just about songs and sermons and miracles and potlucks.
When we think about the Church as temple, this story makes a lot more sense. I want to give you three images from the temple in Jerusalem to help us understand the Ananias and Sapphira story:
The Curtain (God)
Behind the curtain was the most holy place, where only the high priest could go once each year and only after undergoing a thorough preparation and only with fear and trembling (wearing bells and a rope). Why? Because God is awesome.
This has become a terribly weak word in our society. Almost anything can be awesome these days: a restaurant, a song, a book, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, in-n-out. But, this is not what I mean when I say, “God is awesome!” Not in the way that coffee and a warm blanket is awesome, but in a hanging onto the edge of a sheer cliff by your fingertips with no rope or riding down the face of a 30-foot wave sort of way. You’ve never been more alive, but you very well could die. I’m not just being metaphorical. Have you read the Old Testament recently?
Moses (“No one can see me and live”)
Nadab and Abihu (“I must be treated as holy”)
The word the Old Testament uses most often is “holy.” It is the quality that makes God God and not us. And it is absolute.
In fact, so heavy is the holiness of God that even objects that are placed in his presence are soaked in it, they become holy themselves. (What is a seraph: a burning one).
Uzzah (“Don’t touch the box”)
Now, I’m not trying to leave the impression that all God does is run around striking people dead. There are plenty of other Scriptures I could go to that point to record non-lethal moments when the Biblical writers are absolutely awestruck by God, but for now, I’m trying to make a point. I want to make sure that we all understand something extremely significant about God: He is awesome! There is no one like Him. And, I don’t mean that in the way we say it to one another: “You are a special snowflake, a pretty, pretty butterfly, there’s no one else like you.” No, what I mean is there is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be anyone like Him. He is entirely unparalleled in the history of the universe. He is infinitely interesting, infinitely beautiful, infinitely glorious, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-encompassing. He is not the perfect blend of mercy and justice, glory and love, peace and power, grace and holiness; He is completely all of these things, all at once, all the time. He created everything with a word. I know I say that all the time, but stop and think about what that means. Today, in the 21st century with all the wonders of modern technology, human beings cannot actually bring anything into existence. Everything that we can make we make out of stuff He already made, with a word. That cliff you’re hanging onto: He spoke and it appeared. That 30-foot wave your riding: it moves because He wants it to. If you’ve ever been amazed by anything, know this: He made it. He is stunning, terrifying, wild, fierce, uncontainable, irresistible, unknowable, unstoppable (not safe but good). I know that we spend an awful lot of time talking about His nearness, His love, His gentleness, His immanence (that is His “with-us-ness”)--and we should!--but will you stop for just a second to realize exactly who it is that we’re talking about, who it is that draws near to us, loves us, touches us, is with us? We are talking about God! May we never find Him so familiar that we think of Him as less than who He is. May we never speak of Him at all without a deep awe filling our souls. May we never treat Him casually. May we never come into His presence unaware of the fact that we are quite literally walking where angels fear to tread. God is awesome!
And he is still awesome in the New Testament. This story puts to bed the silly discussion about Old Testament God vs. New Testament God: “Peter was more shocked by Ananias’ actions than by the consequences. Why? Remember, Peter did not think of himself as starting a new religion: he saw Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the continuation and fulfillment of Judaism. The Old Testament was their Bible, and when they began to understand that Jesus was God with them, they were talking about the Old Testament God. Jesus was the name they dared not say aloud come among them. Why do you think their response to him so often was terror?
Now, with that image burned into your minds, do you see why the Ananias & Sapphira thing was such a big deal? Because they walked into His house, into His presence, and they ignored Him completely. They didn’t even see Him. Isn’t that what Peter says to them? “You didn’t lie to men but to God.” In other words, “Don’t you see what you’ve done?! You didn’t even consider the fact that this is His house. You didn’t even consider Him. You walked in here completely oblivious to the presence and reality and power of God!” This is their first, biggest mistake and the root of all of their problems.
And this is why Peter is so outraged by their actions: You have not lied just to human beings but to God.
The Altar (us)
The altar is the place where the people and the priests come together to make atonement for their sins through sacrifice, and the altar shows us that God considers sin a big deal. Far more significant than the altar, is the thing that the altar pointed to, a cross that shows just how seriously God takes sin. The reason we must stop at the altar is that, in our society, the notion of sin has become fairly “outdated.” The new “law” is, “Do whatever feels best to you.” This is why we’re so offended by the story of Ananias and Sapphira. What did they do wrong? They just did what was right by them.
The problem with sin is that it replaces God with an alternative, going all the way back to Adam and Eve. The reason they could walk into the house of God without even noticing him is that they πwere fixated on something else. What exactly? Themselves. Their own reputation. What did these two do wrong?
Not money. They were actually comparatively generous.
Ego. The comparison to Barnabas is illuminating. They wanted to be like him. Rather, they wanted to be seen as being like him. Insecurity leads to comparison leads to deception. They wanted to use the Church and the One who built it to make a name for themselves.
The Lampstands (the world)
The lampstands in the outer courtyard illuminated the city for the sake of the world.π
The temple has a purpose. God dwells among his people for a reason. Throughout the book of Acts, the apostles have described this purpose in simple terms: over and over again, they say, “We are witnesses of these things.” God dwells among his people so that they can see and know him and can then show him to the world. Remember our first core conviction, the Church is the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit fills the Church and empowers so that they can be Jesus in the world. We are to be his representatives. That’s why God has a people, why he doesn’t save us out of the world but into it.
Now, look at Ananias and Sapphira in this context