Quit Playing With Sin - Jacob Harkey

When I was a boy growing up in the 90s, I don't know if you've heard of the 90s. It's a long time ago. I loved spy movies. Spy movies, spy shows, spy video games, books, novels. There's something so interesting to me of the intrigue of it all. I grew up on movies like the Bond movies with Pierce Brosnan, Golden Eye, and Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise, who is still doing Mission Impossible 30 some odd years later. But these movies had these suave, cool heroes that were fighting evil, and they had these terrible, sinister villains that just looked like villains doing nefarious things to destroy the world. And I loved that, but I was shocked the first time that I went to the spy museum. I went to the spy museum as kind of a kid, and I got to see all of these real-life spies, and they were infinitely less interesting, infinitely less extraordinary, and nefarious, and thrilling. It was just normal, everyday people. They went to church like everyone else. They worked nine to fives like everyone else. But secretly, quietly, they would do things like take money from other governments and give them plans, give them documents. It didn't look like the wonderful display of a spy movie.

It was boring, everyday decisions to go against their country. Why do I bring this up? Because we've already seen one story of how outside of the church, religious authorities have tried to clamp down on the early church and acts, but we're gonna see today the first internal threat. And it doesn't look like a supervillain. It doesn't look like someone with this big, diabolical plan. It looks like everyday, ordinary people who've given their hearts over to selfishness, that are playing with sin and threatening to destroy the community. Before we get to that, let's close out chapter four, because I think it sets the stage. As we look at this threat to the church, I want us to learn to avoid the same mistake. But first, we have to understand where they're at. We're in an inflection point in the life of the church. I don't know if you've been tracking with us the last month, but up until this point, everything has been up and to the right. Everything is looking good for the early church. Jesus has ascended. He's given them this mission to proclaim the gospel, to share the good news of what he has done. These religious authorities try to clamp down, but they've got nothing to hold them against. You see the church boldly praying together,

gathering together, fellowshipping together. They're all in together. It's beautiful. And so in this moment, we're gonna see something shifts. Luke, throughout the book of Acts, he's the author, he'll do this. He'll jump around from here's this really detailed sermon or prayer or story, and then suddenly he's summarizing years and decades worth of things. And so he gives us these summary statements, and that's what we read in chapter four. It's a summary statement where he highlights some of the themes. He gets big picture. And we read it, but I'll summarize. He says, all those who believe were together, and they were one heart and one soul. We see that language throughout the first four chapters of the book, that this was real, genuine friendship. Many of you are part of organizations, and you know that loving each other is not a prerequisite. Caring about each other, being on the same mission is not a prerequisite. But for this community, it was genuine, true friendship. They were united together. And they didn't say that anything that belonged to them was their own, they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So not only are they united, but they are united

on a mission, to proclaim that Jesus has conquered death. Jesus has rose again. The Messiah has come. So they're not just a social group, they are a movement pointing people towards Jesus. And grace was upon them all. So you have this unity around a mission to proclaim good news, and the rest of that summary showed us that unity was displayed through supernatural, culture-defying generosity. That it wasn't just, oh, we kind of like each other, but you could see how much they loved, because generosity poured off of this community. A couple of different things that it says here. It said, they said, nothing I have is my own, but everything was held in common. I love that it says, they said nothing was their own. It doesn't say nothing was their own, that they just pooled all the resources and it belonged to the church and it belonged to the community. No, it says, that is their mindset, that the people were saying, this stuff I have, it's not mine. If it helps someone else, if it helps the community, I'll sell it. That this doesn't matter to me, the community matters to me. It was a choice they made. We talked about this a few weeks ago. It wasn't forced. It wasn't required.

It was a personal decision. It was a fruit and response and overflow that when they have seen what Christ has done and how he has conquered death and the grave for them, their response was, let me be generous with everything I have. My time, my resources, my gifts, everything is for this mission. And we talked about this again. It's not, it wasn't this kind of picture of communism. It wasn't this, hey, you're forced to give us this. We're going to pool all of our resources. We determine who gets it. But at the same time, it's very counterculture to where we are today. This individualism of no, these are my toys, my things. You don't get to touch them. I earned this. It was a culture that just defies what we have in front of us today. And it says there's no need among them. Again, care for enemies, care for the other, care for the community, the city. All these things are important and they're taught in Scripture. But I think it's important to ground ourselves here that they're talking about among them, the church, this group of people, their community. In the community, they had those who had land and had homes, which would have been kind of a part of a small middle class of people. And it said that they were willing to sell and bring the proceeds to the church. The verbs there imply continual bringing and selling the proceeds, giving them to the church. It wasn't a one-time act. It was a culture that was part of this community. That as needs came, people would say, you know what? I've got this one. I'll sell my land. I'll sell my home.

I'll sell my PS5. I'll sell my car. Whatever it takes, I'll do it to help that person out because I am part of this with you. This was the culture they had. And it said they laid it at the apostles' feet for distribution. A public act of obedience and trust. That I'm part of something and I'm going to be part of that with my money. There's a space for broad philanthropy, but this isn't it. This is the church gathering together to do incredible things. And then it moves from the broad to the specific. It says, you know, people are doing this. And they said, hey, just to clarify, Joseph. Y'all know Joseph, right? Barnabas. Barnabas, he did this. Barnabas is going to pop up later. It's kind of like Luke does this a lot. It's almost like a Marvel movie where you watch the post-credit scene and somebody gets mentioned. Barnabas is going to play a huge role in the church. And it's going to really embody what they just said, that he is the son of encouragement. But right here, how he expresses that encouragement is he says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to sell my field and I'm going to take all this money, put it at the apostles' feet and say, do whatever needs to be done with this money to support our community. And I know what some of you are thinking and why it's maybe a little quiet in here. You're thinking he's about to ask for some money. He's going to put the giving back on the screen. We're going to run it back. Nana, get up here. We're doing it again. We're not going to put the QR code on the screen.

The Dropboxes are still in the lobby, but let me just say this. This is not a giving talk, but it is a talk about giving because our treasure and our heart are intertwined. Scripture tells us this over and over again. It talks about money a lot and that's because what we do with our money says something about what matters to us. And we're going to see that play out in a horrible way in Acts 5. So it's worth reiterating that generosity is important. It's not just a modern invention to line the pockets of a few. It's a mark of the people of God and it always has been for thousands of years. God doesn't need us. He doesn't need our money like Nana said, but he wants us. He invites us to put our money where our mouth is and say if we're part of this, I'm going to be part of it with everything I have. He's always done it this way. So you, let me say this and then I'll move on. You are called to be faithful with what God has given you. You are called to steward what resources are in your hands. This text, it's more descriptive than prescriptive. This isn't an IKEA guide to like step one, sell your home because I know most of you do not have homes. We've done a survey. I know the ages of the people in this room. None of you have homes. So you're like good. I don't have to give. This is descriptive more than prescriptive, but descriptive text show us principles and themes. And the principle here is that the people of God are called to be generous, to not hold things back from God, but say I'm part of it with my resources. So you have to ask yourself what your response is to Jesus with your generosity. upon what he has done for us, it is on your heart to say, God, this is everything that you've given me, and I give it all back to you. We often ask how little and not how much, and this has convicted my heart

to really have this posture of generosity. Thomas and I, we had a preaching class together, and there's guys from kind of all over the region that would gather for this class, and we met a man who, great brother in Christ, he preaches up in Philadelphia, his name was James Walker, and he gave this line in our preaching class that I instantly wrote down, so this is me crediting him because it was so good, and he essentially said, I'll paraphrase, that our budget is a theological statement, that where you put your money or don't put your money says something about what you believe about God and what you believe about yourself, and your lack of budget is also a theological statement. If you're just kind of running with it, that says something about you as well, this convicted me that when I sat down and I put a budget in front of me and I start allocating my money, my resources, my things, it says something about me if it's all about me and making my life better and more comfortable, and I don't once consider, God, how can I be generous what you have given me? So the stage is set, a unified community, a generous community, they're all on mission, you've got guys like Barnabas living it out, and we're gonna turn the page and see that this is not a perfect world, that there is beauty in the early church

and there is mess in the early church, and we get to this story of Ananias and Sapphira. I read it already, so I'll summarize, but together with his wife, Ananias and Sapphira, they sell this piece of land and they keep a little bit back for themselves. So it's parallel story, it reads almost the same, but a huge difference, they kept some of the profit. The Greek verb used here has a negative connotation that it's often used for financial fraud. There's this reflexive voice to it, which means, hey, we didn't just keep some things back, we kept it back for ourselves, the verb is happening on them. We kept back some of the proceeds for us. Something deceptive is happening. And as we move through the narrative, I just wanna challenge us, as we look at this story and how they have gone astray, I wanna challenge us to ask ourselves some questions to avoid doing the same. My first challenge is this. Like Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, are you surrounding yourselves with a community that corrects you or conspires with you? It's telling that they emphasize this couple's complicity. Do you have people in your corner that look at the things you're doing on Friday night that are at the bar with you, that are at the thing with you,

that are living this certain lifestyle? They look at what you do and they say, that's fine. We can diminish it, we can rationalize it, we can ignore it for a season. When we turn 30, when we turn 40, then we'll start taking the faith thing seriously. Do you have people who look at your sin like that or people who lovingly call you to better? Not to shame you, not to make you feel bad for your life, but say, hey, God has so much more for us. Do you have a community like this? Maybe you've seen any celebrity documentary ever. It's always, hey, here's this entourage, here's this crew, and we went hard, we partied hard. My wife watched the Charlie Sheen one recently and I caught bits and pieces of it. And there's never that person who was out there partying with them that was like, you know what? All the drugs were laid out on the table and I was just walking around telling everyone, guys, we shouldn't do this. I came to this party. But no, it's always this entourage of people who's just like, it was fun. We were just living it up. I didn't know you would become addicted. I didn't know he'd start living crazy like this. We need people around us that we can confess to, that can hold us accountable,

that push us to be who God is calling us to be. Peter calls them out. Something supernatural happens. He gives them the money and Peter knows that this is not right, that something is happening here. And he says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself? What's the big deal with this text? Is this the first greedy mega church? Is this Peter guy just a little bit of a scumbag? He's like, I gotta get some nicer sandals. I need a nicer robe. He's just asking for a little bit more money. He's got this beach house he's building on the Mediterranean. Is that what's happening here? No. Reminder, giving wasn't required. They didn't have to give any of it. And Peter makes that clear. Before you sold it, did it not remain your own? It was yours to decide what you wanted to do with it. And even when you did, was it not at your disposal? It was your choice. You could give it. Give as much or as little as you please. Now you are called to generosity, but it is your choice to determine what that generosity looks like. And as a reminder, the church would meet

throughout church history in houses. So this wasn't, hey, everyone's gotta sell their houses, we're all just not gonna have them. No, some people kept theirs and that's where the church met and others sold them. So why did he call them out on not bringing the full amount? Their sin, the lie that Satan himself sowed in their hearts was religious performance. They are hypocrites. Ananias and Sapphira, to play this out, they saw Barnabas and they saw him sell his land, his stuff, come before the apostles and say, this is all that I've got, put it towards what the church is doing. They saw that and they said, I want the same praise he's getting. I want people to like me like him. I want people to celebrate me, but I don't wanna let go of my stuff. So I'm gonna fake it. I'm gonna pretend that what I'm doing is a much bigger deal than it was. They wanted people to like them. And it's not about the money. We have to make that so clear about this text that it's not, hey, everyone in here has to give this certain amount, it's their hearts were revealed through their action, through their choice to conceal, their choice to hide, their choice to lie.

It showed where their hearts was. And they didn't just lie to Peter. They didn't just lie to the community, the church. They lied to the spirit. The text here makes it clear. The spirit is God. You lied to God when you deceived. They're hypocrites. This generosity isn't an act of obedience, faithfulness, or trust in God. It's a premeditated attempt to garner praise from their community. And we see this all the time. I mean, how many times have you heard a horrible thing about someone's life who has a massive charity, who puts millions, if not billions, towards different things happening in the world, but it's all a cover-up to some sickness inside of them. We can open the newspaper any day and see someone living this out. And we would probably all agree that some of the worst hypocrites in the world are religious hypocrites, that there are men and women who throughout history, not just modern times, but throughout history, have lined their pockets and sought to gain things for themselves, all masking something sick inside of them. Hypocrisy that says, I wanna look like that,

but I don't want to make the sacrifices that are required of me, so I'll lie. I'll be someone else. And right here, you have members of the first church, the community of God. And I believe, based on how the story plays out, I would align with many commentaries that say these were believers. They're lying to the Spirit, they're testing the Spirit, that the Spirit is doing something in them that they are trying to conceal. So you have Christians, believers, who have opened themselves up to a kind of demonic possession. And it says here, Satan filled their heart to lie. Now, what does this mean? It's not in the sense of a spiritual authority who can wrestle control from the Spirit. This is not the enemy, Satan, some dark force that says, I'm more powerful than God, I'm more powerful than the Spirit, I can pull you away. No, what is happening here? I love how Thessalonians puts it in Paul's letter. He says that they've quenched the Spirit. And in this sense, how has Satan filled them? They have numbed themselves to the point where the enemy has ground in their life to influence their decision-making. They're playing along with what Satan is doing. And it says, the devil filled them,

but they contrived to make the deed. It was cooperative. They have not forced to do anything. And so let me challenge you in that. Are you feeling increasingly numb about those pet sins in your life? Those little things that seem a little harmless, I just do this every once in a while, it just happens occasionally, it's not a big deal. Are you feeling increasingly numb about those sins? Those things that five years ago, 10 years ago, used to give you so much shame, but now you do it and it doesn't do anything to you at all. Be wary of a heart that has numbed itself to the Spirit in your own life. God uses guilt in the believer like a check engine light. That when we feel that guilt and we feel that shame, yes, it has been paid for on the cross, but when we start living a certain way, God will use that guilt in you to say something is wrong. Something's off. You're doing some things, chasing some things that are broken. That was the old you, but you're still living like this. If you start to feel that way, do not ignore it. You're playing with sin. It's fascinating to me when I first started reading this text and studying it and getting ready for the sermon, I kind of glazed over the Satan filling them part. I was like, okay, that's just Christian language

or Bible language, but I just didn't really center in on it. But I began to just get so fascinated by that concept, that idea. And I think for so many of us, when we think of Satan filling, you start going different places. You're like, oh, that's demonic, that's the exorcist, that's crazy, spooky Halloween things, that's a bunch of kids playing Dungeons and Dragons, that's what Satan and demons are. But no, what is demonic possession in this text? It's selfishness, it's pride, it's manipulating how people see you and distorting the truth of something broken inside of you. Demonic possession here is Christian performance on Sunday, but clawing to the top the way everyone else does on Monday. It's a Bible verse in your bio, but a broken sexuality as you navigate through the culture. It's a cross tattoo, but an uncrucified life. Satan has a foothold in your life when you care more about being seen as holy than pursuing holiness. That scripture, Christ calls us to holiness as he is holy. So we are called to pursue it and we are imperfect, broken people. But when you start to care more about looking holy than being holy, you are going down a path that you do not want to go down. You are going towards destruction quickly. Satan sees it as a foothold in your life

when you numb yourself that way. Too many of us fall for the trap of minimal effort to maintain an appearance, but reject the obedience that discipleship calls us into. There's a photo that's gonna shoot up on the screen, I just had to use this illustration. It happened yesterday morning, so we're doing this live. There was a tree two blocks away, massive tree, uprooted yesterday morning, covered the entire road. DC finally came out and started chopping it down. I walk by this tree and so many trees like it every single day. And on the outside, it has the appearance of health, that nothing is wrong, that everything is good. And in the same way, some of us come in and we're on a stage or we're welcoming people in or we're just hanging out with friends or we're going to the church event. And on the outside, it looks like everything is good and healthy, but our roots are shallow and we're rotting from the inside out. Don't let yourself fall into this trap. I've lived this in my own life and it has convicted me as I've prepared this word that I know firsthand how it feels to fall into the trap of chasing hypocrisy over chasing the Lord. That when I was a young man, I've shared in multiple sermons that when I was in college, I began to live a lifestyle that didn't look like what I was raised into in the church. And I began to chase after fleeting, temporary things,

the sins of pride, of people thinking I was cool and likable and chasing after partying in this lifestyle and this sexuality and getting into things I wasn't supposed to get in. But at the same time, trying to maintain a mask of I'm a good person, I'm a Christian, I'm better than the people who do that, while on the inside, something was rotting. I even interned at my church growing up and I remember it was the season of my life where I was interning at this church and serving at this church and there was a brokenness inside of me because I was going back to college to live the same way everyone else looked. We have to put to death that voice in our head that says that we can hide it. This should be a sobering reminder that we can fool people for a time, but we cannot fool God. Our hearts will always lay exposed to him. So let me challenge you on this. How often are your actions, your choices, your religious activity, your social media posts driven by a desire to be seen and celebrated? So many of us have been raised, not even anyone's fault, but just in a culture that says if you fake it for a while, you can fake it till you make it. Stop living that way. And that doesn't mean you kill the good things. I mentioned this last gathering that serving at church and chasing after a calling that God is putting on your life

and generosity like Ananias and Sapphira, these are all good virtues, good things to do. You don't kill the good. You kill the sin that's underneath the good. You kill the pride. You kill the hypocrisy. You kill the selfishness. You kill the desire to be seen and you keep the good that God is doing in your life. So when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. Great fear came upon all who heard it. Judgment is swift. Some try to explain this away, but it doesn't really account for the fact that his wife is about to pass the exact same way a few hours later. So he falls dead. There's an unceremonious burial. People are in shock, and let's finish the story. So three hours later, his wife comes in, and Peter gives her a chance, a chance to repent. And he says, tell me, did you sell the land for this much? You guys are pretending that, hey, just like Barnabas, we sold our land, we sold our house, we brought all this money to you, this is all we got. Look at us, look at this great thing we did. And he's saying, did you actually sell it for that much? And she lies. When confronted with your poor choices,

is your impulse to confess or conceal? Look in your own heart today. Like her, when you are given a chance to confess that here's the broken thing in my heart, is your impulse, I've gotta hide it. Our daughter, River, she's three years old, she'll be four soon, and we're entering into the lying period of toddlerhood. So much fun. So much fun. Where she does something wrong, and we'll kind of try to lovingly teach her, like, hey, we don't act that way, we don't live that way, and we'll ask her about it, and she'll just lie to our faces. Then suddenly, it's not about the action, it's about the lie, it's about the fact that you're being dishonest with mom and dad. So we're in this period where we're having to navigate how do we teach our daughters how to be honest. And so I was convicted recently in the fall, I got a speeding ticket. Whole family was in the car, and we went and got a Christmas tree, and we got pulled over. Going a little fast up in Maryland. I could explain why it happened, but I won't do that here, I'll save that for Thursday when I go to court. We get pulled over, and that impulse in me swells up

of just like, ugh, but you don't get it, like, everyone else was driving this speed, and I didn't see this sign, and I didn't see this, and that impulse in me swelled up, but as a parent with my daughters in the back seat, I'm like, I've gotta just, I just gotta bite it on this one. I've just gotta, daddy drove too fast, that's why we're stopped here. Daddy broke a rule, daddy's not supposed to do that, and daddy's gonna pay the consequences. All $160 of the consequences. But why do I tell that story? Because so many of us are quick with an excuse. We're quick with an explanation. We're quick to say, but you don't get it, God, I needed this money. You don't get it, God, this just lets me relax a little bit if I do this, if I drink this, if I take this, if I act this way. You don't get it, God, if I don't claw my way to the top, if I don't push people down on my way, then I'll never climb the ladder and get to where you want me to be, right, God? We lie, we conceal, we hide, we do all these different things, but just repent and say, I shouldn't have done that. And in the same way that Adam and Eve in the garden had this moment where they tried to conceal themselves, here you have Ananias and Sapphira trying to hide.

And the pastor, John Ortberg, I saw a clip from him this week talking about this text, and I love that he said this. He said, spiritual power cannot flow when people hide. So they had this chance to conceal, but they hid it. And something was broken and wrong inside of them. Don't be quick to an excuse. Peter said to her, how is it you have agreed to test the spirit of the Lord? Again, it's not about the money. They're testing God, they're playing with sin, they're pushing the boundaries of what can I get away with? It might've started here, and if they didn't get caught, they didn't get punished, God knows where them and so many others would've taken it, of we can just exploit, we can just do what we want to do. Who knows if the church even gets off the ground with people living like this. And in the same way, she falls dead, and they bury her, and great fear came upon the whole church. So, let's get to it. What's the elephant in the room? Why was the punishment this severe? And why the timing? Surely, there's so many Christians throughout time and throughout history who have done worse and worse than this, and that is true. So why did they fall dead? What happened here?

Paul lays it bare for us in Romans, the two verses I wanna look at, Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of God's design for us. And in Romans 6.23, he says, in the wages of sin is death. What is owed to us because of our sin is that we deserve death, that we have a holy God and we are seeing his righteousness and holiness at full height in the midst of this church. No statement is repeated more in Scripture than the declaration that God is holy. He is complete perfection, moral purity, he is set apart, he is other. And so with a God like that who created us and gave us life, The freedom to make a choice and we chose against him and broke faith with him and broke away from God distance ourselves from God We have chosen against him and because of that our sin is not a bummer to him. Our sin is not God I'm so sorry. I'll try to do better next time Our sin has torn the most important relationship that we are created for it has broken us from God Our rebellion has broken us from God And a function of his holiness is that he is just God is judge ultimate judgment for our sin because we sinned against him belongs to him as judge and him alone there's a tendency in us to Diminish the parts of God in scripture that we don't like That we don't feel comfortable with that. It's so easy to come up and say, you know, I've just loved the love of God I love the grace of God the kindness of God a mercy of God. Let me just list all these great beautiful Absolutely true things about God but justice we like to cram in the back of the refrigerator

Justice is that condiment that we're like we use it for one recipe and we're like, I think I might need this again so let me just cram it in the back and we pull it out when someone does something we don't like and Suddenly, it's you know, God's just for that guy God's just for that girl for that party for that person for that decision We like to get a little bit of justice a splash of it for our enemies a dab of it for the people we deem Worthy, but we don't determine the standard of God's justice One of our professors at DTS Dr. Hannah is just formed so much of my thinking and he he said this once and I wrote down the notes So I paraphrased him. It's not exact But he essentially was saying what is ethical and good is not predicated by the best of humanity Because the standards of the world will shift throughout all of human history the standards of what is good what is ethical what is right Has shifted and will continue to shift What is ethical and good is not predicated by the best of humanity. It's predicated by the holiness of God So to put it most simply why this punishment because sin is serious Because they sinned against God and death was due to them was deserved to them Because of that sin and is owed to all of us all of us have sinned against God and all of us are worthy of That condemnation worthy of that death When we play around with sin, it's like we're playing around with matches Even though our whole lives are doused in gasoline. We think this won't affect me This isn't a big deal. But at any moment you could blow up everything you could blow up yourself You could blow up your life. You could blow up a church. You could blow up a town anything could be destroyed By sin in our lives. We have to take it seriously So why here why now? Okay, you're saying that Justice was owed to them that death is a right punishment for what they did. But I lied to God this morning. I Said I was gonna wake up and be at the 930 and I'm here at the 1130 I say God I'm gonna do my devotional and I'm on week five and I'm halfway through it. I haven't done anything yet Or maybe for some of you you're like, okay sin is worthy of death. Well explain this I've sinned three to five times since you started talking

I'm sinning right now. I don't even hear you talking right now because I'm ignoring you and I'm thinking about something else Why this timing it's not wrong to be shocked or surprised by this passage The speed and sequence of events is not absent from Scripture, but it is uncommon We see some stories like this that Akin and Joshua 7 that they conquered Jericho and they said hey don't plunder Don't plunder it like this. Don't take these things Don't do it this way and Akin does and he's stoned for his decision You see Aaron's sons and Leviticus that they start playing with some things. They cannot and God strikes them So you see it, but it's uncommon. This is not God's Typical mo he's not less than holy and just but he is much more than that. He is merciful He is kind. He is good. He is gracious. He is slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love time and time again He delays judgment that is what this book is about is that time and time again when we were worthy of so much Condemnation he delayed He put it off He waited he said I'm gonna wait until the last moment. I'm gonna give you a chance. He sent his son for us So all of that is true of God, yes, he's just yes, he's holy But he's also merciful and kind and good and gracious. So why did this happen? What makes this situation unique? I believe and many scholars would agree that this is a moment of transition in the life of the church That you have this community that's been oriented around the Temple the temple of God where God's presence was and now they are the temple God's presence dwells in Them and at this moment We're seeing the first recorded sin in the history of the church and in this transitional moment The cement is still wet That these early people are going to determine what the church looks like and I believe that in this moment God acted quickly and swiftly in his justice to protect and preserve the church And call them to holiness They're just starting to hear some threats that these religious elites and these people are going to try to clamp down on what the church Is doing but that's minor league ball compared to what's coming They're just starting to a little bit get a little bit of pushback and God refused to allow them to set this tone

to set this standard because if this hypocritical Performative religion became the standard the church was dead in the water before it began God preserved his bride And that should be a word and a warning for the church today to take our sin seriously I Was thinking about this this week that you see all the time people who have fallen because of their sin Pastors who have thrown everything away because of horrible decisions They make people outside of working in ministry that have thrown their life away over horrible Decisions and I was thinking about that and on the outside looking in it looks like oh that is so horrible That's so bad, but I began to realize that it is a great mercy That they got caught in their moral failures It was a great mercy that their sin has been exposed and yes, they're gonna suffer consequences But they are given the chance to repent when they're caught The Puritan Thomas Watson Wrote this if God's people should be tampering with sin though the Lord does not damn them He may send them to hell in this life. It is mercy That we don't look like Ananias and Sapphira That the sin in our life we have the moment now to say God no more take this from me Help me fight this sin Lord. I don't want to go down this path And so they fall dead and we'll close here God's decision has the effect it intended twice. It says great fear came upon the whole church We don't spend a lot of time talking about the fear of God But it is a prominent theme in Scripture David prays that the Lord will unite my heart to fear your name Solomon says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom when Mary finds out that she's having Jesus She prays the Lord's mercy is for those who fear him Isaiah says the spirit of the Lord will be upon Jesus the spirit of knowledge and a fear of the Lord So there's this type of fear that scripture is making it clear to us. It's not a bad thing It's a good thing a healthy thing to have this fear And we need to have this fear of the Lord in our lives. So what does that look like?

our friend Brennan Has some land and he has some animals. He has some two horses One of them is the largest horse i've ever seen in my life I mentioned my daughter my two daughters We took them to brennan's farm to kind of see his animals play with his animals a couple months ago And two different responses to animals My daughter river who I think we have a picture of right here She loves animals She absolutely loves them our other daughter who I don't have a picture of because she was running in fear From ducks pigs goats Horses, she's just terror absolute terror for her. So you have two different girls With two different reactions. One of them is running in fear cowering the other Is kind of getting too close to the animals Now horses aren't it's not a wolf. It's not trying to come and kill you. It's not trying to eat you It's it's has so many uses and they're these beautiful creatures But you have to take it seriously You don't say hey, hey girl just run up behind it run up behind the horse pet it from the back It'll love that everything is going to go great So I have these two daughters and they're modeling two different things that we don't want to model We don't want terror We don't want to be terrified of god this type of fear. I love the Dr. Michael reeves wrote a book on the fear of the lord that I love he called it sinful fear Puritan john bunyan called it ungodly fear Upstream from this fear is sin It's terror. It's running from god in shame trying to get as far away as possible There's a type of fear that is bad That we don't want to model

But then there's this other type of fear godly fear a right fear of god and it's some like to use the word respect or awe or reverence, and I do think it is that, but it's so much more intense and deep than that. The right fear of the Lord has a overwhelming appreciation for how awesome and powerful and glorious God really is. And it understands how patient he is being, how merciful he is being, and that type of fear doesn't take our sin lightly. It elevates God to his proper height and says, I cannot play with this anymore. My fear of you does not make me run away, but it makes me fall on my face and say, the things that I'm running to are broken and are killing me. I'm going to you instead. That is a right fear of the Lord. And that is what they are called to. That is what happens to them as they truly fear God. They fear him, and it will change the trajectory of the early church. I love the Chronicles of Narnia. Susan asks about Aslan. He's a lion. He's this picture of Christ, and she's like, oh, that seems kind of scary. And this famous quote that she asks good old Mr. Beaver, safe, he says, who said anything about safe?

Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. That is the right fear of the Lord, that we look at what happens here to Ananias and Sapphira, and we do not take for granted the fact that every day we wake up and God showers us with mercy, even though we choose against him. But at the same time, we realize, I cannot play with these things anymore. I cannot run to these things anymore. This isn't a call to walk in shame. It's a call to turn from selfish desires. It's a call to say these broken things cannot fulfill me. They cannot save me. Only Christ can save me. We have to fear him by taking him seriously. I was talking to someone last week about this sermon, and I was struggling a little bit, because I was like, where's the good news? We're gonna leave a little sad, I guess. And they told me, the different people I was talking to, they were like, sometimes we just need to hear about the holiness and fear of God, and I believe that's true. But here is the good news. I quoted Paul, and many of you know this. We're gonna see Paul in a couple of weeks. Did far worse things than Ananias and Sapphira by most standards, persecuting Christians, killing Christians, until Christ came and took hold of his heart.

And I quoted Paul earlier, and I wanna give those full verses in context here. What did he say? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but are justified by his grace as a gift, through redemption that is in Christ Jesus. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Unlike Ananias and Sapphira, every day, every breath we take is a fresh opportunity to cast ourselves on the grace of God, to throw ourselves at his feet, to say this free gift that you've given me, Lord, let me hold onto it and cling onto it, because nothing I do can fix me, only you, only the free gift you've given me, and I'm gonna take you at your word. I'm gonna open my arms to this gift of salvation and say, Christ, let me become more like you.