Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1171 Ananias and Sapphira - 2024/10/31
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to "Worship Call" with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them," Revelation 17, 14. This is A.W. Tozer in his pursuit of God for October 31st. But we'll do that. The human race has always been quick to blame the world's disaster, floods, famines, flags, and natural causes, but in the end of the age when the final judgment of God begin to fall, how long will it be until people confess that there is another real, though invisible force in operation? We should understand that during this time. Truly the wrath of God will leave no hiding place for sending alienated men and women, men and women. John, in the Revelation, speaks of the mighty triumphs, trumpets that will sound and the woes that will descend upon the earth. And in my own view, I link these events to the dramatic period throughout the earth when the Antichrist has prevailed by deception and force. When God is finally ready to define and restore the earth, everyone in heaven and on earth and in hell will know that no human laboratory could compound the fire that will be poured out upon the earth. God has promised that he will not hide his wrath forever. It is prepared to speak in supernatural manifestations in that coming day of the Lord. And this is the fifth day of the week in God's created order, the 31st day of the 10th month, 2020, fourth year of our Lord. And this is another fine day in the Lord that has turned to our Heavenly Father in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity this morning to fellowship in your Word. And we pray Heavenly Father, God the Holy Spirit will continue to enlighten us and motivate us through your Word. May we find that growth through it. And as we continue to be taught by the Holy Spirit, we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we were in Ananias and Sephi, Ananias, and we were in Acts 4 sharing among believers. And one thing I want to make sure that we do understand and this narrative will bring it out clearly that giving is the privilege of the believer priest in the Church of Age. I mean, there's nothing that there is no 10%, there's no tithing as we see in the Old Testament. And yes, many churches and pastors and everything will raise their eyebrows on that. But giving must be in the light and be motivated by our spiritual growth as we're growing in the Lord. And I don't know where you are in your spiritual life. And again, this is going to be the lesson today. But there are things that you want to hold on to as a baby. The baby is the most selfish thing in the world. And we know it from children, in my mind and their world are so self-centered. And so are we even after becoming believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be coveting things that of this world and our possessions and things that we want to hold onto its mind. And we don't want to freely give it away by chance, by our behavior and all this. Listen, you can't expect a four-year-old to act like a grown adult. And it's very important and as maturity as we mature in the faith. And ours is our priority is not in the giving. Our priority is in the Word of God, to grow in God's Word, to establish our spirit's priorities. And through the love of God, we come to a personal love for God. And when we come to that personal love to God, our hearts are open to giving. And so there are the things that we are not so motivated to do. And I'll say this, if you do not want to part with a single dime. And I've said this at church and it made some people a little anxious. You know, if you don't want to depart with the dollar, the $5 or $20 in your pocket, don't even reach for your wallet, just leave it there. Because God loves a cheerful giver. And if your heart is not in it, you are lying to the Holy Spirit, just like Ananias and Sophia is going to do as we're going to study. Their heart wasn't right. When your heart is not right on giving, you've got a bigger issue than the amount of money that you're putting in the collection plate. So that goes with your doing. You may not want to spend much time praying. You may not want to spend much time doing this and doing that. You don't know why that you're not motivated to pray more, to read your Bible more. Read the Bible. These things come with maturity. And you may be uncomfortable with being not wanting to do it. But once again, your first priority within the spiritual life is growth in the Scripture. This is learning God's word and becoming acquainted in. That is the spiritual priority under the spiritual feeding. And you may not want to do that, but that's the one thing if you do want the spiritual maturity. So what I'm saying is where you are right now, first of all, where others are, we need to have patience with them. Where we are, we need to have patience with ourselves. And with growth and with prayer and with the studying of the Word of God and maturity is coming. Then we're going to be able, our motivation is going to be changed. And we're going to give for the right reason. We're going to be motivated to pray. We're going to be motivated more to study God's word and the Lord and the Spirit's going to add fuel to that motivation. And our giving is going to be real. So as we grow in the Word, we will observe others. And we will experience the growth in ourselves as we continue to grow in the Church. So the Church and this early Church, they took care of their own. And its own was the priority. And whether some gave little, whether some gave none, whether some gave little, whether some gave all. It wasn't the concern of the congregation. But it was that what they had received, they shared with one another. People come for handouts and for charity. But at the same time, they reject a message. And the priority for that early Church was the Church to take care of those Church members. And we mentioned yesterday about people will come to Church. They don't want no part to do with God. They don't want no part to do with Scripture. They just want their lecture bill to be paid. They want their car payment. They want the needs of the Church to take care of them. But that's not the Church. The Church is to take care of the body within that believer. And then, where there is a need outside of that Church, then, then, and then as the Spirit of Dictate, it goes beyond, but not in the absence of the message. The priority, you know, the priority is to get the message out. So Jesus instructed Peter, "If you love me, be and tend my sheep." And so the Church, there is a Church function to care for one another, where there are those who have need, not as a giveaway, but as a function of helping others. So you help take care of the logistical needs, where there are needs, and where there is. First, it comes with family. I also want to say this, where there is a family to take care of family. The Church doesn't take the place of family. The Church doesn't take the place of parents over their children. And I think that's one of the fallacies of today with the local Church, that they want to be be all to the people, the family structure. You know, where there are children, to take care of their parents, that is a biblical thing. So there are those things outside the logistical, but where those needs, let's say, widows and orphans are a priority of Church. Those that have needs that are difficult to meet those needs. And those are taken care of, can be taken care of within the Church and the Church body. So the Church is not a crutch, but it will take care of those that are in need. And this is what these people are doing, and they were sharing, again, the strength of the Church, and that Church becomes a community within itself. And this would set the Church apart, because it was different. The early Church members were weird. It gave, other people saw that they were different. One that they looked outside of themselves to care for each other in a very selfish world. These crazy Christians would go out into the, Gahana, go out into the refuge jump. And they would rescue children. Babies that were, you know, aborted. And I'm not just talking about aborted before birth. I'm talking about aborted after birth, that it was a child that was unwanted. Maybe it had some type of birth defect. Maybe it was wrong sex. Maybe it had the wrong color hair. It didn't matter. If they didn't want the baby, they'd throw it out in the refuge dump. And here these crazy Christians would be going through the refuge dump, listening for the Christ, and they would rescue the baby. So where did orphanages come from? It came from the Church. Church would care for the health of others. Where did the hospitals originate from? It came from the Church. So, in our scripture, for all who were owners of men or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales. And later at the apostles' feet, okay, they took it out of their control. This is the idiom. Laying at the apostles' feet, they would lay at the apostles' feet. They would be the ones that would now have control to ensure that it would be used wisely. And they would be distributed to each as any had need. And this was free will giving. And the giving was motivated by the hearts of the believers. They were motivated by the Word of God. They were motivated by the Spirit. They were motivated specifically by the resurrection of Christ, the teaching of the resurrection of Christ. And we touched on this verse again. 2 Corinthians 9, 7 through 8, "Each one must do, as he is purposed in his heart, not gradually, or under compulsion, where God loves it, you're forgiven. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance of every good deed. As is written, he scatters abroad, he gave to the poor, the righteous endures forever." Acts 4, 36. Now Joseph, a Levite, a saprean birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which he's translated the Son of Encouragement. And who owned a tract of land, sold it, brought the money, and laid it at the apostle's feet. First of all, we're introduced to a motivator. I like Barnabas. I guess from this verse itself, I really like Barnabas. We see, and there were nicknames, often there were nicknames given there, and that fits a person character. So Barnabas, whose name is Joseph, he's a Levite. Now, first of all, here's a problem that we have. And the question arises. He's a Levite. Okay, Joseph is from the medical line. The one thing about the Levitical line that we find is that Levites did not own land, and yet we find Joseph here owning land. But a couple of things that may be his wife, a couple of answers to this is that the wife, herself, or his wife may have owned the tract of land, and they sold it together. Or, I believe it more so, here is Joseph, he's from Cyprus, and he may have owned land outside of the land. The Levites did not have any portion of the promised land. So I believe it was that Joseph, who was Barnabas, actually owned land outside of the promised land, and maybe being that Hebrew, he was Cyprian, which is from a person of citizen of the island of Cyprus. He probably owned some land in Cyprus, and that may have been a pretty good work, pretty good money. So, Joseph, the Levite of Cyprian, Cyprian, Berth, who is called Barnabas the Apostle, by the Apostles, which translated it means son of encouragement. He's going to pay a big role, maybe not a big role in the Bible, but Barnabas, the encourager, and in the church there are a, there's different spiritual gifts. And there is a spiritual gift of helps, there's a spiritual gift of giving, there's a spiritual gift of administration, that which serves the body of Christ. But there's also what Barnabas appears to have is the gift of encouragement, which is a very wonderful gift. We've all had, as Christians, and God has provided, I'd almost call him angels, that God will provide that one person when we truly need it. And see, once again, this goes with the personality of the church, and the importance of the church. And you know that I've become a big advocate of the church, and as I've said, there's a lot of problems with the church today, and we might even call the church a lukewarm church. And my humble opinion is that the family is also dysfunctional, we might call the church dysfunctional these days. And it may be, but so are families, but we don't abandon families. Within the church families, there are going to be those people that's going to be able to touch other people in certain ways. There's going to be people that will have that gift of encouragement, and they will be able to touch people in a certain way. They have this knack of knowing what to say, when to say it, whether even to say it, and just being around them. And I've heard, and I don't know, you can remind, I tried looking it up, but I was listening an interview the other day with Glenn Beck and Kurt Cameron. Very good interview, by the way. But Glenn Beck was talking about one of his heroes, it was a story, and he didn't know the name of the priest, he was just recycling a story. But this priest who was arrested, who was in time of persecution, that wherever he went, he encouraged people. They threw them, and the people around them, they were uplifted, and the jailers didn't like it. And they finally threw this priest in the dungeon, in the worst part underneath the palace, or a building structure, or whatever it was. And next thing you know, and where the worst criminals went, and next thing you know, after a time they started hearing singing, that they would be singing in that pit. They finally had to kill the priest, just to get rid of him. But ours should be in any common place, those who have that encouragement that can lift other people's up in there in the time of distress, and we all go through distress folks. There are times when we all need that encouragement, and again another reason why we are to assemble together as believers, because there's something that we have to offer and encouragement to others, and Barnabas here had something to give to others. And so we give much more than what's in our wallet. Barnabas was a person who encouraged others. Now Barnabas would be a key player in the life of Paul, and he would accompany Paul in his missionary's journey. So Paul was one that probably was a person who may not be a motivator in sense. He had something to give. Barnabas, I would say the team, Barnabas and the Paul team, well Barnabas, where Paul was the teacher, was the giver. I would pitch a pause being a more stoic type individual concerned with distributing the word of God. And compared to Barnabas was the one who was the personality of the two. And that's just me speaking. I could be wrong and I could change my mind on that. So within the church body all have been given spiritual gifts, certain gifts, and one of those gifts may be encouragement. So the miraculous display of gifts may get one's attention, but it's the gift of encouragement keeps on giving. That keeps on lifting up. That helps someone to, when they're going through long and burdensome situations, that it is that person that helps another one Christian helping the other, keep going, keep going. So Barnabas would be a great encourager, not only to church, but also to Paul, which is later to come upon the scene. Alright, let's go to Acts chapter five, moving in from four, five, we're moving right along with the books back, so we're all ready in that. I hope I'm not moving too fast. Alright, let's read this. We'll just introduce it today. Here is a contrast. Luke brings us and introduces us to Barnabas. And for this reason, I think it's for a contrast. Here is a properly motivated believer. He's encouraged. He loves the Lord. He gave. He sold property. He laid it at the apostles' feet and gave it to the church. And here we start up with Acts chapter five. And it begins with, but this is a contrast. On one side, you have one view. But now here is another view. These are controversial views. And here is the first time that Satan, we see that Satan is starting to spearhead or look to influence the church through an evil heart. Alright, but a man named Ananias and his wife Sophia sold a piece of property. And they kept some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge and bringing a portion of it. He laid it at the apostles' feet. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? Yeah, remember that they are filled with spirit. I'm wondering if someone told on him or if this was a supernatural understanding. I believe it was a supernatural understanding. Nothing is hidden from God and under the spirit, Peter already knows what the deal is. And Ananias sold some property. I want you to straight up and we'll run out of time, but straight up from the very beginning, I want to tell you that the property belonged to Ananias and his wife Sophia. It was no problem with them giving all that the whole full price, half price, or none at all. Remember what we said at the beginning that is giving must be done freely and is motivated by the believer that holding anything back was not a sin. What was a sin was what he's going to do was that what he gave was long motivation and the line that he did trying to build himself up as being something that he wasn't to be along with the other believers who were giving. Remember what we said, you can't expect a four year year old to act like an adult, given a little bit of time. Ananias and Sophia may have had the motivation to give rightly. This is where I said you have patience with yourself. But Peter said to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart? This reminds me of when Jesus said to Peter, get behind me Satan. So he sees the influence of Satan upon these two. We kind of weeding into the church and he goes on verse four. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own and after it was sold, was it not under your control? It means it was yours. You can do whatever you want with it. And under your authority, you do whatever you want with it. Why is it that you conceived a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God, hence there is the sin. It wasn't holding back anything. It was his. He wasn't stealing nothing. It was his property. But what he did do was lie. It was the lie. It was the seeking of his own glory. And these were the things that was Ananias sin. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last. And the great fear came over all who had heard it. The young man got up and covered him. And after carrying him out, they buried him. Now, there elapsed an interval about three hours and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her. She got one chance to tell the truth. One critical chance he didn't. She didn't know that she was on a hot seat. Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price. They're looking at the price. Peter's got a certain amount of money sitting right there, getting ready to go into the ledger. And did you sell this, this land for this pricing in a sense, giving it all to, you know, so he met, let's just say he's got, he's got $500, you know, as we know there. Is this what you sold the land for? Yeah, that's what we sold the land for. Well, she's holding on to another $1,000. So that sold it for $1,500. We sold the land for $500. They're holding back there. So she has one chance to come clean on this. And she said, yes, that was the price. Then Peter said to her, why is it that you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have been buried your husband are at the door and they'll carry you out as well. And immediately, she fell at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole church and overall who had heard these things. The, I'm wondering if this is one of the reasons why they had graveyards at churches. I had questions about this, you know, because if the line, you know, churches, some churches are filled with liars. And I wonder if, you know, if that's the case, you know, why are they not dropping dead here and here and here and here all over the place. But nonetheless, this sets of precedents, the seriousness, the foundation of the church was being laid. And, and so there was a protection of, of that, that it would not will. Once again, an analysis of five, they had the freedom to do what they did with, with their money. And if they want to hold back all of them, fine. They would have been still treated with the love and the admiration of the church and with patience as part of love and over a period of time. And that's where, once again, I'll bring that up again, is that we're at different places. And again, the importance of the assembly. There are believers in church. There are some church, there are some adolescents, there are some baby believers. Not everyone is at the same spiritual level, apparently. But the last file was not. They were rich and that rich, that affluency, like Jesus said, that it's easier for a camel to enter into an eye of needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. What they had was theirs, they wanted to hang on to it. But with the love of the church, with the growing, their motivation could change over time. They didn't need to lie. They didn't need to look at building themselves up any further than what they were. They were love and they were respected for who they were. But they had to have a show of this and it offended the spirit, it offended God and they were struck dead for him. But, alright, if we get anything else from any nice fire, we'll have to wait for tomorrow for it. So, let's turn it out. Let us close it out for our Father and have a thank you for this opportunity of fellowshiping in your Word. And we pray Heavenly Father, God the Holy Spirit, will continue to lighten us to these things in Christ and we pray. Amen. Alright, so now let's find out Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting good, fight of faith. Lord Will, Spirit, God, and Rapspin. We'll be back here in the AM. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons, and get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Giving must come with the right motivation.