That true Christian service requires complete surrender to Jesus, using the story of Ananias and Sapphira to illustrate the dangers of hypocrisy and selfishness. The early church's example of unity, prayer, boldness in speaking God's word, and communal living is contrasted with Ananias and Sapphira's deceitful attempt to appear generous while withholding their own property. The core lesson is that God desires our wholehearted devotion, not just outward displays of piety, and that genuine surrender leads to great power and grace. The application calls believers to examine their own lives for hidden selfishness and to invest all they are and have for God's purposes, recognizing that nothing truly belongs to us.
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Verse twenty nine, or rather we are in- interjected into the prayer in verse twenty nine, and I want you to notice three things about the portions that we read. There is, first of all, a glowing background, and then secondly, there is a human tragedy, and finally there is a solemn effect. Verse twenty nine says, and now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness, and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
Now here you have the glowing background. Now let's read about the human tragedy. Chapter five and verse one: But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to do- to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land?
While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these things, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours afterward when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much. And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost, and the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
There's the human tragedy, and the solemn effect is found in verse five: Great fear came on all them that heard these things. And verse eleven: and great fear came upon all the church. Let's bow for another quiet moment in prayer, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, these are very, very solemn things. And we have found it possible tonight to sing together hymns that have spoken of having nothing between our souls and thee, pleading for a filled vision, and manifesting a desire to know all that we have and are, surrendered to the Lord Jesus.
And now we are face to face with the solemn experience of pretending to be one thing and being something that is altogether different. That is so possible for us when we are young and taken up with that which is going on around us, but it's no less possible for those of us who are older, when our lives have become established in a certain way and have moved for a long, long time in a certain direction, to become unaware of the fact that while we profess one thing, we live another.
Our fathers speak to our hearts, both speaker and hearer alike, that hearing thy voice, we shall go away with our hearts solemnized, asking ourselves some very real and earnest questions about our relationship with thyself. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. We have a story here, and I wanted to get away from it. I really didn't want to talk to about it tonight because... it speaks to my own heart, and it says things to me that are not very easily pondered.
It says things to me that are not easily faced, and I think that probably before we are through, some of those things will be echoing in your own hearts. This is a story that is calculated to make us catch our breath. It is, is, it's a story that God intends to use to make us realize what a solemn thing it really is to be a Christian, to be born again, and how much more solemn to have surrendered our hearts to the Lord Jesus who gave himself for us, and then to be unwilling to surrender our lives.
You will notice the story of the church, the early church, in all of its enthusiasm, as we have mentioned earlier today. When we realize what God is, and when we realize whom the Lord Jesus is, when we realize all that has been done for us and the pit from which our feet have been digged, it shouldn't be difficult for us to become enthusiastic. And as we study the early church, as we look at the things that are said about the early church, we realize what a wonderful thing it is to be newly wrought upon by the Spirit of God. Do you remember the day when you were saved, maybe only a year ago, maybe five years ago, maybe sixty years ago?
You remember how you made your way homeward and you couldn't feel the sidewalk under your feet, this brand new experience of being right with God, of being in touch with God, of knowing that all your past was dealt with and your sins were expunged. Do you remember how enthusiastically you sought to share it with others? Do you remember how the tears used to steal down your cheeks as you would think about those unsaved people that you knew, some of them in your own family, some of them among your own friends, some of them with whom you worked with, with whom you worked day in and day out.
Even verses thirty one and thirty two tell us a lot about this early church. First of all, we find the believers together. They were assembled together. Now, they chose to do this because they meant something real to one another. It mattered to them that they should be able to encourage one another. As iron sharpeneth iron, so at the countenance of a man, his friends. You know, it did me good this morning. I ran my eye across the congregation, and it was hard to believe that the conference was not still on. Do you know how many we had in at our eleven o'clock service? One hundred and twenty people here to hear the word of God during a non-conference period.
That should be very encouraging. I have an idea that at least a little of what characterized this early church characterizes us as a group. We like to be together around the word of God. We like to assemble ourselves together where we can hear the truth of God. I wonder whether we'll have a hundred and twenty again on Thursday night. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that be nice? You know, we are ve- we are a very fortunate assembly because with very few exempl- exceptions, nobody has to stay at home and babysit. And so we can both come along together, and that's a very nice feeling. It's a wonderful thing for the church to be gathered together.
Where else are you going to get your encouragement? Where else are you going to get fired up? Where else are you going to get exhorted? Where else are you going to find something to feed your soul? The Word of God says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. If the early church needed to be assembled together, the early church didn't need it any more than we needed today. And because time is rapidly running out, maybe our need is even greater. The believers were together, and that's a very, very happy thing.
But these believers were praying together. Now that's going a little bit further. They were praying together. I suppose that one of the things that made them anxious to pray together was the fact that they were surrounded by their enemies, and they were threatened, and they had their backs to the wall. But I don't think that these Christians would have failed to pray together, even if their situation had not been such a trying one. Now, we ought to be very, very anxious to be together and to be found praying together, because it's where the brethren dwell together in unity and pray together in unity that the Lord commands the blessing, even life forevermore.
And then it says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. See what a, what a glowing picture this is? Here you have believers together, and here you have believers praying together, and here you have praying believers together, all filled with the Holy Spirit, and it says they spake the word of God with boldness. Did you notice what their prayer a little earlier had been? I read it to you. Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. How quickly their prayer was answered, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Do you know why this was all true of this early church? It was because, as it says in verse thirty two, they were believers with a common heart. They cared for one another, and they shared a love for these, these, uh, spiritual, spiritual things. My voice is breaking. It says, the multitude of them that believe would have one heart and of one soul. Now see what follows. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.
Let me ask you, do you ever feel sometimes that your life is colored with selfishness? Do you ever feel a little disturbed sometimes when you're praying, that your life has become very circumscribed, and that really and truly you don't reach out in your concern very much to other people. I know you've all heard, because I've told you before about the man who thought he was very pious because he always said grace before meals, the same grace. Lord, bless me and my wife, our George and his wife, us for no more.
He thought that he was a very pious man because he said grace before meals. But how very selfish, how very self-centered. But how far did these believers carry this thing? Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own. Now that's being fanatical. Now that is being fanatical. What's wrong with being fanatical? Did you ever ask yourself, what are baseball fans? What are football fans?
What are tennis fans? What are celebrity fans? The word fans is just an abbreviation of fanatic. What's wrong with being fanatical in the right direction? I wonder whether you have any things that very, very carefully you hoard and very, very tenaciously you hold, it is mine, it is mine, and this is what characterizes you with regard to that thing. These believers got over that. And you know, I'm sure that God from time to time put them to the test to see if they were willing to give up, among other things, some of the things they counted most dear.
Don't you think so? But because they got to this place and were fanatical to this ex- this extent. It says, with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. That's a glowing background. Now that's the reason why the story in chapter five stands out so very, very starkly. Because the selfishness of Ananias and Sapphira, the self-centeredness of this man and wife, the determination with which they were going to cling onto what they had, stood out against the unselfishness and sacrificial character of the church at large at this time in its history.
But mark you, Ananias and Sapphira didn't want it known that they were selfish. They wanted to put on a good front. Now I stand convicted here. How many times in my own life have I felt it was important to put on a good front? How many times in your life have you felt it was important to put on a good front? And even though sometimes it meant stooping to deception, you went ahead and did it.
Now I've stopped preaching and I'm meddling now, aren't I? But you know, we do have to be reminded of these things. We do have to be stirred up from time to time to realize it is not difficult to slip into a selfish way of life. It's not difficult to slip into a contented way of living so that others, though others suffer around us, we really show no concern about them, and although others are dying in their sin at our doors, there's no real concern for them gripping our hearts. I want you to notice four things that are involved in this human tragedy.
There's a possession in verse one, there's a price in verse two, there's a part in verses two and three, and there's a power in verse four. And these 4 things make up the story. Now, what can we say about the possession? What can we learn about the price? What is there to be gleaned about the part? And what about the power? Now, of the possession, we can say immediately, according to the story, it was land. This was what they owned. They owned a piece of property. A certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession.
Now Peter says in verse three, why did you lie to the Holy Ghost to keep back part of the price of the land? So the possession that they had, it was land. Now what can you do with land? Oh, there are several things you can do with it. First of all, you can hold it, and it can lose its value. Now, in these days, of course, it doesn't very often. Land has a way of accruing value, but the day may yet come when a real recession will hit the country, and then land prices will zoom downward.
It could lose its value. You can till it, and you can fertilize it, and you can plant it, and so you can make it produce. And you can go out and enjoy, as my wife is doing, except when she compares hers with Mr. Kaiser's, she can, uh, uh, revel in her little vegetable plot. But you can really take the land and you can make it produce. Again, you can take it and you can build on it, and then it will appreciate because houses are going up until that recession hits, of course, and so you can make your land so much more valuable with a house upon it.
Or you can go out and sell it and let somebody else do something with it. So many things you can do with land. And all of these options were open to Ananias and Sapphira. So here was their possession. It was land. Now, what about the price? Now, the price, it was legitimate. The owner had set a price upon this land. He and his wife had an agreement together. They had set a value upon the property. The buyer had come along, and he had agreed that this was an equitable price, and so both of the parties had been satisfied, and the transaction had been completed.
Now, mark you, there is some question about the motive behind this transaction. It could be that Ananias and Sapphira had been thinking of selling this land for a long time. On the other hand, it could be that since they had seen other believers selling land and then handing the money over to the church, that they said, you know, we're not going to look very good in the eyes of the other Christians if we have a piece of land and we still hang on to it, maybe we had better sell it too. But however, the price that was gained from the land was perfectly legitimate. It was agreed upon by both parties, and the transaction was consummated, the deed was done, and the money changed hands.
But the thing that stands out in the story is a certain part of the price. That's where things begin to go awry. It says, verse two, they kept back part of the price. It says, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. Now the possession, it was land, and the price, it was legitimate, and the part of the price, it was laid down at the apostles' feet. Now, I want you to observe that it is called a certain part.
Why? Because God focused his attention on that part of the price. It was a certain part, but it also had a counterpart. There was a certain part that was laid at the disciples' feet, but there was part of the price that was held back. I don't know whether my wife has her right purse with her tonight, but you know she has a purse in which she carries two mites. Do you have it with you, honey?
Yes. I'm going to ask her to take those two mites out, and in a moment you shall see them. The Lord Jesus once sat over against the treasury, and he watched the people putting in of their riches. And then he saw a woman, and she came in and she put in two um mites. And thereafter we have all heard of the widow's mite. I don't know why. When we talk about the widow's mite, we do despite to this woman. If she had put in a single mite, she would only have put in half what she had, but she put in two mites, and that was every single thing that she possessed.
It didn't look like very much. Let me go and get two mites for you. Do you have them there? Thank you. Would you bring them up to me, please, Mr. Willie? It really doesn't look like very much. Two mites. If I hold them up, you may not even see them. Thank you. There's one, and there's the other. We bought them last November, down by the pool of Siloam. Two mites. Doesn't look like very much, does it? There's one there, and there's one there.
But it was everything that she possessed, and the Lord Jesus said, she hath put in more than them all. Why? Because she didn't hold anything back. That's why. She didn't hold anything back. The Lord Jesus saw a certain part that was laid at the disciples' feet, but he knew that that was not all. Now, that was not so bad, but it was because Ananias and Sapphira had agreed together that they were going to pretend that it was all. Now the Lord knows when pretense is brought with our giving.
The Lord knows when we pretend to give more than we are really giving, because while he sees the certain part, he also sees its counterpart. It isn't what we give, you know, so much as what we hold back that indicates the kind of givers that we are. Now, if I was meddling before, I'm meddling more still now because preachers are not supposed to talk about giving. But I don't hesitate to do it when the Bible does it, and here you have people giving. You would have thought that that would have rejoiced the hearts of the church and the disciples and the heart of God. They were actually giving. Do you know it would have been better if these two had never given?
Because when they gave, they gave in order to deceive, but they couldn't deceive God. The price, you see, was divided into two parts. They held back the one, and they handed out the other, but they pretended that they'd handed out all that they had. You know, if you and I, from time to time, would take a look at what we hold back, even though in our giving we're not pretending we've given everything we've got, we might be stimulated to give a little bit more. I remember saying to you when Mr.
Magonia was going to talk to you on stewardship, in the words of the poet, it's really a little bit of doggerel. Do your giving while you're living, then you'll be knowing where it's going. And that's the sounded adv- soundest advice that I could ever give about giving. But in your giving, don't pretend, will you, that you're giving more than you really are, because God knows what it is you're holding back. Now look at the power in verse four, will you? While it remained, was it not thine own?
You had land. You agreed with the buyer on a certain price. You accepted the price, the transaction was completed, the money was handed over to you, and it was yours. Every single shilling of it belonged to you. Every cent of it was your very own. After the land was sold, was the money not in your own power? Did you not have a choice? Could you not do with it, since it was your own, just what you chose? You had the power of choice. Then says Peter, you chose to be dishonest, and God is going to judge your dishonesty.
And Ananias dropped down dead. I'm so glad, glad that God hasn't dealt with me down through my life like that. Aren't you glad that God hasn't dealt with you down through your life in that fashion? My, if we had gotten what we deserved, how tragic would have been our state today? It was not that they sold their land and kept some of the money for themselves. It was that they gave deceitfully in order to put on a front.
Now we all of us need to remind our hearts that it's a very, very foolish thing to try to pass yourself off for something that you're not. I hope you young folk at school show by your lives that you are what you profess to be. I hope that the each of us, as we move around in our lives, make our lives back up our testimonies. You know, really, we ought to ask ourselves, is it not worthwhile to give all that we have and do no holding back? The Word of God says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
You know, we worry so much about the future. We really worry so much about the future. I think I've told some of you before about an old lady I used to visit up in New Jersey. She was kind of sickly. She was sure all her money was going to run out before she finally died. Somehow she wasn't going to have enough to take care of all the sicknesses that she was sure were going to come upon her. And she finally died. And among the money she left was sixty thousand dollars to the Red Cross. I just think of what that money could have done, invested in the work of God, and she loved the Lord. Nothing pleased her more than that I should read the word of God with her and pray with her.
But she died and left her money to the unsaved. I just wonder how the Lord's gonna feel about that in a coming day, and what he's gonna say. The solemn effect of this upon the people and upon the church. It says those that observed what happened, great fear came upon them. And it says the church at large was brought into a state of great awe because they hadn't seen God work in that fashion before. Now, the story has been written to encourage us not to sell our land and hold back all the price and say, well, it's a dangerous thing to give to God because God punishes you if you don't give it all.
That's not the thing at all. But to just weigh up the situation and say, really and truly, nothing that I have belongs to me, not a single cent. But as Peter said to Ananias, you have power over it. It comes back to that matter of stewardship again. It's true of our time, and it's true of our talents, and it's true of our strength, as well as being true of the little that we may have been entrusted with as far as our bank book is concerned. Nothing that we have belongs to us, it all belongs to him. And you know, every day that dawns should be a day when we lay ourselves out before God very simply and very solemnly and arrive at that place and say, Lord, here I am, and all that I am and all that I have belongs to you.
Lord Jesus, you purchased it with your precious blood. Today I have power over what has been put into my hands, and I tremble at the stewardship. Lord, make me faithful today. God will answer that prayer, you know. And then instead of fear coming down upon the church because judgment has fallen, great joy and blessing will come upon the church because of your faithfulness. Giving of yourself. You know, God doesn't really want what you have first and foremost. That's the least important to him. It's what you yourself are that God wants.
He wants your life. You say, my life is behind me, I'm seventy years of age. What is left of it, God still wants. And the investment of it can still bring great dividends. Don't ever let let us get to the place where we feel our day is really done. You mean so much to him, and your life is so valuable to him. The thing is to find out the areas in which what is left of your life can be invested, so that it still continues to produce for God.
Shall we bow in prayer and think about it? Our Heavenly Father, what a wonderful thing it is for us tonight to realize that even though we may just be in our teens, it's possible for us to invest the long life that seems to stretch in front of us for thee so that it will produce eternal dividends. It's even more wonderful that those of us for whom most of li- life has already passed by, to be able to look at the few years that may still lie ahead for us and say, these can still be invested for God to bring tremendous returns. Oh, help us to see how valuable our lives are to thee, how much they mean to thee, and how much thou canst still do through them.
Oh Lord, we ask that we might be a happy people, because we are living lives that are putting thee first, with all that we have an hour, surrendered to thee. To that end, Lord, wilt thou bless thy word. We've talked together about solemn things. We've talked to about things that touch our very lives, every one of us. May we face them in the power of thy spirit, allowing him to do his work in our hearts, applying this word so that it shall produce in us what thou hast in mind to do. We ask it for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen.