Title: The Heart of Worship Text: Acts 5:1-11

Good morning Calvary Hills. We are studying the book of Acts together as a church family. Here at this church, we believe that the is the inspired Word of God - the direct revelation of God to man - and everything we need for salvation and living the Christian life. And so because of that, we treasure the Word of God and seek to study it in its context, preserving the intended meaning of the original author to the best of our ability. That’s why I study the text line-by-line.

That means that you know what we are talking about today - if you will turn in your to the end of Acts chapter 4, and we will get into the beginning of Acts 5 today.

I want us to start by comparing two different moments when an offering was given. It’s a normal day of worship at the First Baptist Church of . The time comes for the offering to be taken. These were the days before electronic giving or even checks - so it was much easier to know how much people were giving to the church. In this particular church, they walked their offering to the front basket to drop it there. This basket was made of metal that clinked when coins were dropped in it. You could hear the offering.

An older widow walked up to the offering box and dropped in two coins. It was a pathetic sound. It was the sound like that of dropping two dimes into an empty oil drum. Clink Clink. Some of the religious people in the congregation chuckled to themselves. They began to do the math in their heads based on the sound that they heart. “What did she give like, twenty cents?” The widow returned to her seat.

Next, a wealthy man and his wife stood up. They owned a lot of property on the West side of Jerusalem and everyone knew that they had money. They gave a lot to the church throughout the years and everyone knew it (there was even a memorial plaque on the pulpit to let everyone know who bought it). The man remarked to his wife as they approached the front of the sanctuary (just loud enough for others to hear), “I’m just glad we can help the church. All the money from that field we sold will really do a lot here.”

He struggled to lift up the bag of coins and slowly poured it into the metallic container and the sound of falling coins filled the room. Clink clink clink pitter patter pitter patter

1 times a thousand. It was like someone turned over a rain stick. This was a different sound than the widow’s - these were hundreds of thick, heavy coins. Awe filled the room. What a generous offering - to give the entire proceeds of their sale to the church. The pastor was seen doing the moonwalk behind the stage. Judging from the sound of all those heavy coins - it must be hundreds of thousands of dollars. And everyone knew it.

Now, which of these two offerings was more pleasing to God? This actually isn’t a parable - as this really happened in two separate stories in the Bible.

The story of the widow and her small gift occurred in the ministry of and you can find it in Luke 21:1-4. Jesus stood up and praised the widow for her gift and said she had given more than anyone on this day.

And the other story is our passage today - Ananias and Saphira. Except when they gave their offering - they died immediately afterward - and the text implies that God put them to death. They were an example to the young church that was growing and booming.

But how can that be? How can God prefer a smaller offering than a larger offering? How can there be stipulations on what we bring before God?

The lesson that I want to show from the Scripture today can be boiled down to the idea - When it comes to our worship of God - can cannot adopt the mindset that “anything goes.” God cares about the heart behind the offering more than He cares about the offering itself.

It’s a powerful moment in the life of a Christian when you realize that God doesn’t need my money to exist, God doesn’t need my singing to exist, God doesn’t need my serving in the church to accomplish His work. God already has everything. So He’s not easily impressed by man or man’s offerings. But what I do want to show you today is that God, most of all, wants our hearts. God desires a heart devoted to Him, giving and singing and serving out of a place of purity of heart - not of hypocrisy.

Church, we will have an opportunity today to examine our hearts and ask the Spirit to cleanse any hypocrisy or impurity from us - to pass the refiner’s fire over our motives. From this text - we will be challenged to give and serve because we love God, not for the praise of men.

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So the story really begins in chapter 4:32. This is a good time to mention something that 9 out of 10 don’t know - that the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were added much later to the Bible. They are not inspired. When Luke wrote Acts, he did not make chapters and verses. The Wycliffe English Bible in the 1300s AD was the first Bible to include chapters.

Let’s read :32-37 together. 32 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. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 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 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of , 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

So there are two noteworthy setups in the text that will matter later. First, the first church began to adopt a practice of radical generosity. People were divesting themselves of their assets and instantly/immediately bringing a remedy to poverty within the church family. Now remember the church is probably 20-30,000 people strong at this point. This was effectively the size of a megachurch but where every member was active and radically on fire for The Lord.

At this moment in church history, there were no deacons (those common chapter 6). It was very Apostle-heavy up front. And it makes sense, because they were the ones doing the bulk of the miracles and signs and preaching. So they were the representation of Christ to the people, and they handled the distribution of people’s offerings. Also remember that they recently were kicked out of the temple - so they are figuring out what church will look like going forward.

The second setup is that we are introduced to Barnabas - who will later play a role with Paul in the first missionary journey. Barnabas is presented as the “anti-Ananias” in this passage, a direct contrast to what we are about to read. So Luke purposefully positions Barnabas as this encouraging man who participates in the offering and is without blemish in this story.

3 Now, let’s read the main text - and then I will give you two major lessons that I see. Acts 5:1 says this…

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 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. 3 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? 4 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.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Now, let’s just be honest. You can understand how this story might strike people as strange or even out of place. It’s really the first sin of the church listed in Acts. Everything is going swimmingly. People are getting saved. People are giving away their assets to eradicate poverty in the church. Things are awesome! Sure persecution has reared its head from without - but now there’s a problem from within.

A warning call is sounded.

Now, I said that I can understand if you find this story to be strange, especially if you’re just reading the . But you know why it’s not strange to me - I’ve read the Old Testament. This is exactly in line with God’s ways. I think that this story was included to remind New Testament readers of a truth that we need to hear today - The Jesus of the New Testament is the same God as the God of the Old Testament. Things like sin, and purity, and holiness didn’t take a backseat when Jesus came on the scene.

But this story reminds us about God and about man. It tells us what God wants from us and what He doesn’t want from us. What does God want from us as we worship Him?

1. GOD DESIRES OUR HEARTS.

4 So as we look at (husband and wife). They were a part of the church - so they were Christians. They were doing what many others in the early church were doing - liquidating their assets rather than accumulating wealth - so that other fellow believers could be lifted out of poverty. This is a beautiful thing on the surface.

But as we discover from the text, they had devised a plan to present the offering AS IF they were donating the entire profit from the sale of the property, but they would only give a percentage of the profit.

So in case you’re not following - let’s say I go and sell my Taylor guitar for $1200. I then take $800 and donate it to the church, keeping $400 in my pocket. Now, is that already a generous thing to do? Sure. Did I have to sell my guitar to begin with? No, not unless The Lord told me to. Did I have to give any of the profits to the church? Not unless The Lord told me to. So the only problem would be if I presented the information inaccurately, as if I had given more than I did.

That was what happened here. Ananias and Sapphira conspired to act like they had given 100% of the sale of their property to the church - but they didn’t. Now v4 is so great because it reveals Peter’s questioning to Ananias - “Why did you do this? Nobody pressured you to sell the land - when you owned it you had 100% of it. And when you sold it - nobody asked you to give 100% of the proceeds. It was your money. You didn’t have to donate it. Why did you lie about it?”

And I think that Ananias revealed something that we all struggle with. We fundamentally miss out on what God wants from us. We think that God wants our stuff more than He wants us. Or we think that God will love us more if we give Him more. Or we think that what other Christians think about us will increase the love that God has for us.

Think about what Ananias and Saphira tried to do. They wanted to project an image of themselves to the church that they were generous, too. They wanted others to look at them and say - “wow look at those Christians - they are always giving, always serving. They are always there anytime the doors are open. They are always doing the right thing.”

But at the core of this false positive reputation was a lie. They were hypocrites. They brought a false offering based on a lie to gain affirmation in the eyes of the church, not affirmation of God. They brought impure hearts to the altar of God’s worship.

5 There is a phrase in Catholic Theology that I want to tell you about because it is related to what I am describing today. It is the Latin phrase “ex opere operato,” meaning “from the work worked.” This phrase means that when the sacraments are taken in the Catholic Church, for example when the Priest gives the parishioner the communion bread, it is an effective means of grace whether there is faith on the part of the Priest or the Parishioner, or whether there is no faith at all. In layman’s terms, you receive grace in the sacrament whether you (or the priest) believes in any of it. “Ex Opere Operato,” From the work worked - it works either way - as long as you physically do the ritual.

I think a lot of us operate like that in the Protestant church even though thats an absolutely untrue principle. Our bodies go through the motions of worship but our hearts are disconnected.

What we see here in the case of Ananias and Saphira is that it absolutely mattered what was the condition of their heart when they came to worship God. See this is not a mechanical thing. There’s not a point system in heaven with a chart containing gold stars and smiley faces for the good deeds we do. There’s no “Jared gave his offering this week - plus 10 righteousness points.” There’s no “Gene sang out loud this week - 5 righteousness points.” There’s no “Tina went to the serve day on Saturday - 30 righteousness points.” No such scale exists in heaven.

And that’s because of a fundamental truth close to the heart of God that says - God desires our hearts more than He desires what we do for Him.

Let me tell you an Old Testament story that always grounds me, and reminds me of God’s heart (and what He truly wants from us). It comes from the book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament.

King Saul had just been appointed the first official king of Israel. Samuel the prophet had been holding things together, but the people wanted a King - and so they got Saul. In those days, everyone wanted to take your land all the time, so you had to fight and go to war a lot. There was a nation called the Amalekites, and Israel was going to fight against them. But Samuel the prophet said to Saul before the battle - “God told me to tell you - don’t leave anyone alive. Take no prisoners. Keep none of the spoils of war. Nothing. Scorched earth - and come home.” Saul said OK.

6 You see, Israel had a hard time. Whenever they were exposed to the foreign religions of nearby people - they quickly forsook God. So God told them not to keep anything after the war so that they would not be tempted.

And so King Saul led the men out to battle, and they won. The next day, Prophet Samuel goes out to meet King Saul. Samuel hears a noise at the campsite - bahhh… bahhhh. Samuel says - “what is this? Sounds like sheep! And why are there oxen over there? And where did you guys get this gold from?” And to cap it off - there’s the King of the Amalekites, King Agag, tied up and alive. Samuel throws up his hands and says - “Saul tell me what I’m seeing? You heard me say what God said to do.”

King Saul says - “Oh we decided to keep some things, but don’t worry. We brought back the spoils of war so that we can make a sacrifice to The Lord.” Sure. A sacrifice.

Here are the words that Samuel said to Saul - and I want you to meditate on these words.

22 And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

And from that moment forward, David was God’s King over Israel. Think about that prophetic sentence. “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice.” What does that mean? It means that God doesn’t care what you do or don’t do for Him if He doesn’t have your heart.

Jesus said - if you love Me - keep my commandments. If you love God, if He has your heart - listen to Him and obey Him. Saul thought he could get points by disobeying God in making an offering to God. Ananias and Saphira thought they could get points by disobeying God by making an offering to God.

7 Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount - “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What is the opposite of being pure in heart?

That’s what I want to look at in our next point. We have seen what God wants from us - HE desires our hearts. Now let’s see what God doesn’t want -

2. GOD DESTROYS OUR HYPOCRISY.

Peter twice reveals to both Ananias and Saphira exactly what was at the heart of their sin… in v3 Peter says to 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 again he says to Saphira in v9 - How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?

I always find it interesting that Peter appeals to the Holy Spirit here. The Greek for that verb “to lie” in v3 is pseudomai, where we get our English “pseudonym.” It’s to present a false front, to falsify the Holy Spirit. So literally its as if Peter is saying - “you are making a false presentation of the Spirit’s work.”

We know that Jesus did not like this. In His earthly ministry He took serious issue with the saying that His miracles were done by the power of Satan. This is when Jesus accused them of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin. This is the opposite example of Ananias. The Pharisees said that Jesus’ true work of the Spirit was a work of Satan, while Ananias did a work of Satan but tried to pass it off as a work of the Spirit. This is a serious issue to God.

And in v9 Peter uses the word peirazo, when he says that Saphira tested the Spirit of the Lord. This is not a kind phrase - it is the same Greek word used when Satan met Jesus in the wilderness to tempt Him and test Him with those three false tests.

Now we know enough Bible language to sit here and wag our heads and say things like - how terrible that Ananias and Saphira would do something like this. But don’t we do a lot of the same things in our lives?

How many times have we tested God in our lives? Have you ever repeated the same sin over and over even after you came to understand that it was sin? That’s testing God isn’t it? To keep sinning over and over to see of God will stop you…

8 Have you ever done something to misrepresent yourself to look better in the eyes of others? Have you gone to lengths to hide how sinful you really are so that you can keep your status among your church?

Did you know that you’re no better than Ananias and Saphira, and God could’ve killed you at any time? Me too. If every time we served or offered worship of any kind with any hypocrisy laced within - someone dropped dead - we’d probably have to keep an ambulance on standby here at the church.

Our flesh wants to present a perfect image to those around us, while hiding the darkness within our own hearts. That’s the nature of man. But Peter said that this is lying to the Holy Spirit. It’s from Satan. So what are we supposed to do?

What is the opposite of hypocrisy? Honesty. Sincerity. Authenticity. That’s what God wants from us.

Listen to this parable of Jesus from Luke 18 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

As God sits in His throne, two prayer offerings rise up to Him. Both prayer uttered from the lips of sinners. One man recognized who he was, one covered up who he was. Which prayer offering did God honor?

Not every offering that is presented before God is accepted - just ask Cain and Abel. Just ask Nadab and Abihu. Just because something is offered doesn’t mean that God wants it. And when it comes to our hypocrisy and our inauthentic worship - God doesn’t want it. More than that - He often exposes hypocrites. He judges hypocrisy.

Now, we don’t like to think of God as a judge. I’ll spare you the suspense and tell you why… The Judge in any situation is the one with power. The Judge can say what is right and wrong. And if God is the Judge, then that means that we are not. And that’s why the cultural cry of the 21st century is “Don’t judge me.”

9 But listen, that may make us feel good in the short term - but it’s just not reality. God is the judge and He is going to judge. He can see our hearts and He knows what we do in hypocrisy - and what is genuine.

And in the story of Ananias and Saphira, God sounded a warning call to the church. V11 says 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Do you know what stifles a church from catching fire? A lack of trust that people are being genuine. When trust breaks down and people begin to question the motives of others - it is going to have a wet blanket effect on the church. And either someone is going to fall over dead, or the Spirit of God will just stop working.

This young church in the New Testament was Spirit-powered up until this moment. And as Warren Weirsbe said - “If Satan cannot defeat the church by attacks from the outside, he will get on the inside and go to work.” And that’s what he did here.

But in this case, God brought immediate judgment rather than delayed judgment for sin. God was protecting His young church from dangerous hypocrisy within.

And so church I want us to take a moment to examine our hearts in light of this passage today. When you worship God - are you bringing your heart with you? Are you engaging your heart meaningfully with God, or is this all for some other reason?

People do strange things. People will fake a religion to please their parents. People will tithe actual money for a guilty conscience. People will sit through a sermon so that they can network for business reasons with with other church members. People will bring their kids to church because they want activities for their kids, even though they aren’t worshipping Christ at church. Why are you here? Are you seeking to offer your heart to the true God?

Are there areas where you’re presenting a picture of yourself that is hypocritical?

The lesson of the day is this - God cares more about the heart behind your offering (praise, money, serving) than He cares about the offering itself. God wants your heart in worship. He wants you to love Him and connect with Him and to have joy in knowing Him.

10 And so church, we will catch fire only when we root out the hypocrisy in our own life and offer our hearts wholly to God. That’s what a Spirit-filled church looks like. Let’s ask God to make us into a church that trusts the Spirit of God and offers our heart to Him.

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