Sermon by Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah
October 2, 2005

"Authentic and Honest"
Acts 5:1-11

I received one of those "Do you ever wonder?" e-mails this week. Do you ever wonder why doctors call what they do "practice"? Do you ever wonder why you’ve never seen the headline, "Psychic Wins the Lottery"? Here’s one: If con is the opposite of pro, does that mean Congress is the opposite of progress? Ever wonder why lemon juice is made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons? The world in which we live is full of artificial ingredients. What looks like wood or brick or stone in many of our homes is really just a façade. Artificial additives are put in our food and drink. I read recently that without artificial coloring, Coca Cola would be green!

While it can be argued that in many applications artificial is good, in one area it’s clearly not. Artificial Christianity, involving people who are followers of Christ in appearance only, is not good. They act pious in church, while during the week they pursue activities so sinful that nobody would ever suspect them of being Christians. They say all the right words about Christ and the Bible and the church, but you struggle to find anything in their behavior that would indicate that what they say is what they live. Our passage looks at two Christians whose behavior was artificial; they made it look like they were really generous when they weren’t. This is not a popular passage to address. On one hand, it’s the story of one of the great scandals in the early church. We like to idealize the church of the Book of Acts, focusing on the remarkable sense of community, caring and sharing, and the mighty miracles performed. And second, it’s the story of a punishment that many find harsh and excessive. However, there are times when we can learn from negative examples, and I think that’s the case here, as we see what it means to be real and authentic, a way in which we glorify and enjoy God.

First, let me provide a few comments about the background of this incident. The church was just getting started. In fact, the first mention of the word church is found at the end of this passage. So people were looking at these Christians closely and asking questions like, "Can we trust these people? Is God in who they are, what they’re doing? Are these people living what they’re teaching?" These were important questions then, and I think you’ll agree that those are important questions to ask of Christians in every era. Looking at the punishment in this incident, it’s clear that God establishes at the beginning of His church the importance of honesty, authenticity, and purity among His people. Next, we need to be aware of what’s happening in Acts chapter four, which tells of a time of incredible harmony and generosity in the church, personalized by the example of Joseph, who sells a piece of property and brings the money he made from the sale to the apostles. For this act Joseph is given a new name, Barnabas, which means, "son of encouragement." What a great name for Joseph, what an encouragement this man is to all of us! Unfortunately, there were two believers observing all this who wanted to be recognized and acclaimed like Barnabas. They thought, "Look at all the attention, the positive strokes Barnabas is getting. I wish people were praising us like that." So they decided to sell their piece of property and do the same thing. Well, not exactly the same thing.

Ananias and Sapphira, like Barnabas, sold some property and brought the proceeds to the apostles, saying that they had brought all of it. The problem is that they didn’t give it all. They held some of it back for themselves. They pretended to be more generous that they really were. They wanted the apostles to think that they were just like Barnabas. They wanted approval, the praise of men and women. Withholding part of the money for their own use was not a sin, as Peter clearly states in verse four. Nowhere were the believers commanded to give everything. Their giving, like all New Testament giving, was voluntary. The sin was lying by publicly pretending to have given all when in reality they hadn’t. Their lie was an outward demonstration of hypocrisy, as they sought a spiritual recognition and praise that were artificial, not true to their inner spiritual condition. Let’s stop right here and ask, "Is it bad to want people to think well of us?" No. We’re told that one of the qualifications of officers in the church is that they be "well thought of" in the community, that they have a good reputation. However, it is bad if we "fake it," if we deceive others in order to have them think we’re more loving, more generous, more faithful, more mature than we really are. It’s for this sin of "faking it" that God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead.

God doesn’t normally strike people dead today for their sin. What are we to make of this, especially when we realize that because the church (our church) is full of imperfect people, and because if we’re honest, we’ll admit that because we enjoy the praise of others, hypocrisy is something we’ll all struggle with in our lives? God’s Word has three important truths for us. First, we do well to realize no sin drew a sharper rebuke from Jesus than hypocrisy. In the Sermon on the Mount, He warned, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." He repeatedly denounced the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!…You snakes, you brood of vipers!" (Matthew 23:23; 27; 33; also Matthew 15:7; 22:18). He also said that hell would be populated with hypocrites (Matthew 24:51). None are so ugly in God’s sight as those who flaunt a spiritual beauty they don’t possess. Second, if you’re a Christian, you are wise to be afraid of the devastating impact of sin, and God’s holy wrath against it. Notice at the end of verse five, after Ananias died: "And great fear came upon all who heard it." Then again in verse 11: "And great fear came upon the whole church and all who heard these things." This is the lesson: sin, in this case, hypocrisy, "faking" generosity in the presence of the holy God is a fearful thing. Third, spiritual honesty is a godly guard against hypocrisy. First John 1:8 speaks to being spiritually honest: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." To be real and authentic is to be open and forthcoming about our own shortcomings and failures. We confess that we’re sinners and never pretend that the sins we commit are less wrong than the sins of everyone else. Indeed, I believe one of the marks of spiritual maturity is regarding the sins in your own life as being worse than the sins of others, so that we don’t present ourselves as better then we are or better than another person. This truth is stated positively in Philippians 2:3: "in humility consider others better than yourselves." So we acknowledge and confess that we make mistakes, we stumble and fall, and at the same time we constantly seek to grow in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit alive within us.

I have three points of application today. First, in verse nine Peter asks Sapphira, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?" Ananias and Sapphira were testing the reaction of the holy God to sin. Let me ask you: Do you test God with sin in your life? Do you ever think, "I know it’s wrong, but God understands. He’ll tolerate this little indiscretion. He loves me and He always forgives, doesn’t He?" I’ve tested Him that way. It shows I don’t appreciate the holiness of God, or the incredibly evil and destructive impact of sin. Second, are you honest about hypocrisy in your life? Hypocrisy is not failing to live up to the standard God calls us to. We all fail. Hypocrisy is when we deliberately deceive, when we intentionally create an artificial appearance that isn’t true. So we say, "I love you," and yet in reality we harbor resentment and anger toward the one we say those words to. We say "I forgive you," but in reality keep inside bitterness and antagonism. Or we ask for forgiveness from those we’ve hurt without any personal repentance on our part, that is, without changing the behavior that produced the hurt in the first place. Or we smile and say all the "right things," yet inside we "trash" that person constantly. Is what we present to others, to God, true to what we are in here? Lastly, there is no place at this Table for pretending, for "faking it." The Christ you meet here is God, Who knows everything. He knows you through and through. You can’t hide from Him. And the amazing thing about being known through and through by Him is that He accepts you as you acknowledge and confess who you really are in here; He forgives you and loves you and empowers you to live in Him, in what is true, real, honest, and authentic.