Estate Sale
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To Sin or Not to Sin
To Sin or Not to Sin
This week we had another tragic example of the devastation and damage that human beings can do to one another. Another kid shooting other kids at school in Highlands Ranch. The damage and danger of sin.
It is hard to understand why God allows that. Why does God allow the sin, the despair, the anger, whatever drives someone to do that...
Why does God allow the sin of one to do so much damage to so many?
This world is broken and full of broken people.
It is such an extreme contrast to what we are reading now in the book of Acts.
The Perfect Church
The Perfect Church
Everything is going so well. Thousands coming to faith and the church has just prayed for boldness… and they are bold! Filled with the Holy Spirit. Growing. Doing miracles! What could be better.
The picture we get is of this perfect, idyllic church here at the end of Acts 4. And things just keep going so well!
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
Charis. Grace. Gift.
What is grace? Undeserved favor.
Megas Charis.
and this isnt just grace. It is “great grace”. as well as great power. And that power is a gift of grace too, isn’t it?
So this church is going so well, and “great grace” says they were constantly looking around saying “I don’t deserve to have it this good!”
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Not proto-communism but generosity. Not “all equal” but a giving of self to meet the needs. Beautiful and perfect.
How did this actually work? Well, for example, Barnabus did this:
Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Will this be the new way? Are we really going to love one another this well? This is EXACTLY what Jesus told us to do!
What about sin?
Step into the moment. You already have an answer… but did they?
They know Jesus is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He took away their sin. They are forming their understanding of salvation and sanctification RIGHT NOW! It is all in process.
Could it be that “sin” is simply in the past and the community of God is going to be able to be this free and open and loving and generous?
But… a man named Ananias.
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Is it sin? Peter’s calls it out as such:
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
And it wasn’t the holding back, it was the lie!
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
What are the consequences of sin in this new “Christian” kingdom? Under grace and forgiveness, is sin even a big deal anymore?
When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
Now, it doesn’t say that God struck him down. Maybe his heart couldn’t handle it. To make both the sin and the consequence clear, in walks Saphira.
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.”
She doubles down on the lie and Peter again calls her out.
But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
And BOOM! Immediately!
Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
What is the result of this? Now it is FOR SURE that this is a judgement from God. Not from Peter, he didn’t strike them down dead. God did.
Why? There is no reason to think, in the text, that these aren’t “real Christians”. There is no reason to think they are just pretenders faking it the whole time. Ananias and Sapphira have no distinguishing characteristics to separate them from every other of the thousands of believers in Jerusalem… except that they shaded the truth here.
They gave in to the temptation to look a little bit better in the eyes of everyone else.
Maybe they had great reasons to hold some of the money back. It was to start a business, pay for a surgery, for noble or innoble reasons, the sin wasn’t holding back the money. But Barnabus had just given the whole proceeds from the sale of his property, Ananias thinks. Am I going to go up there and do less than Barnabus. I mean… I am, but I have my reasons and my reasons are my own!
As far as they have to know, I am every bit as generous as the “son of encouragement”.
Ananias wants to look good in the eyes of his fellow believers. Sapphira wants to look generous in the eyes of the church. And they shade the truth to get greater respect. It is sin. But is it a big deal?
God sends a POWERFUL message that YES! It is a big deal! Sin is as dangerous as ever, as damaging as it always has been. Sin has the power to rip churches apart, to destroy and divide.
And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Great FEAR! Megas Phobos!
They were afraid! Why? Because this is a disaster.
Sin is an absolute disaster!
Maybe they are afraid of sin running rampant in the church. Good! Because that’s going to happen.
Maybe they are afraid of God punishing sin this way from now on. Because they know that they are sinners too! How long did they go, you think, after being baptized in the name of Jesus before they realized that temptation didn’t just go away. Sin didn’t just go away. The old sinful-self was still going through the motions.
God makes a powerful example of Ananias and Sapphira, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is not the “first sin in the Christian church”.
Maybe the first very public sin. It certainly made an impression.
Maybe if God had continued always punishing sin this way the church would be a cleaner place. But… it’d also be an emptier place. I don’t think I would have made it. We would be dragging people out every week!
Of course they were afraid!
Satan is at work in the church. Sin is at work in the church. God makes it absolutely clear that sin is still a big deal, a matter of life and death in the church.
The true miracle is that these people were all broken before.
The beautiful church we read about in Acts 4 where everything is going so well? Those were broken people too.
And are Ananias and Sapphira the end of the beautiful church?
Where does the text go from here?
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Right back to beauty. Right back to grace and miracles and Holy Spirit continuing to move.
This story of brokenness is framed in by the beauty and wonder of the church on fire filled with the Spirit and acting in power.
God is building beauty from the broken. The church has been that way from the start.
God builds the beautiful from the broken
God builds the beautiful from the broken
There is brokenness right now among us, isn’t there.
Any sinners in here? Has your sinfulness and sinful behavior ever affected anyone else in this room?
Have you been hurt by the sinful, the selfish, the greedy, the misguided, the anger, the willful stubbornness or the foolishness of others in the church. Oh yes. Ow. We all have.
I know where I stand right now only ever magnifies my own sin and stupid… and it breaks my heart.
And the people were filled with “great fear.” Because they saw what sin and the consequences of sin could do.
and yet, God, still full of “great grace” build his church anyways!!!
We are a people of covenant. That means we commit to one another, knowing we are going to mess up… but committed and committing anyways. Knowing it is going to be hard… we commit anyway.
Covenant of Next Step Christian Church
Covenant of Next Step Christian Church
Having been, as we trust, brought by divine grace into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, we solemnly and joyfully covenant with one another:
To take the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.
To maintain the public worship of God and the ordinance of His house.
To uphold each other in Christian love and concern.
To walk together in Christ, whom we serve, in brotherly love.
To give a voluntary cheerful offering to the Lord, according to our ability, for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom in the world and towards meeting necessary expenses of the Church.
To work in maintaining a Godly walk in all our family, social and business relations, through obedience to His Word.
We are broken. May God show us great grace.
In his great grace, may He continue to build us into something beautiful.
Beautiful people. Beautiful church. Beautiful Kingdom.
Standing confident and unashamed as His children.