Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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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
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!
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!”
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:
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.
Is it sin?
Peter’s calls it out as such:
And it wasn’t the holding back, it was the lie!
What are the consequences of sin in this new “Christian” kingdom?
Under grace and forgiveness, is sin even a big deal anymore?
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.
She doubles down on the lie and Peter again calls her out.
And BOOM! Immediately!
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.
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!
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