As the early church began to grow both in numbers and in depth, and the message of the Gospel gained momentum, there also came pressure from outside and tension from inside. What did that tension look like and how did God make His love for His people known? The story of the death of Ananias and Sapphira has puzzled many Bible readers over the years. What can we learn from what they did and what happened to them? Join Pastor Jim for this insightful study of Acts 5:1-11.
Sermon Notes
“Each person should give what they have decided in their heart to give, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
1. We won’t always understand the ways of God.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
Isaiah 55:6-9
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable his ways! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:33-36
2. We must never minimize our sin
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3.23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
“The wrath of God is not a fiction. There are truths intended to convict and alarm the careless, and one reason there is so little sense of the seriousness of sin today is that these truths are little preached.”
Iain Murray Heroes
“Grace takes sin seriously or there would be no need for grace, so real faith in God’s grace never results in not caring about sin.”
Paul Tripp
3. We must not attempt to “use” God to make ourselves look good.
4. One of the great delights of the Gospel is the freedom to be honest with God.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” – Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Proverbs 9:10
“The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.” – Proverbs 10:27 “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.”
Proverbs 14:27
“The fear of the LORD teaches wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” – Proverbs 15:23 “Through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.”
Proverbs 16:6
“The fear of the LORD leads to life: That one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.”
Proverbs 19:23
“The modern church is missing a good, healthy fear of God. Fear is only part of a relationship with God, and I am not proposing that we forget the love of God. However fear seems to be the part that we most easily forget, and maybe that is why Scripture mentions it so often.”
Dr. Dan Zink