Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to our online audience. I'm Stephen Fieth, lead pastor here, and throughout this series that we've called Activated, we've been exploring the question what does it look like to live a life guided by God's Spirit? What does it look like to actually live a life guided by God's Spirit, and specifically in the real life, not just in moments of crisis when, oh my goodness, I need to lean on the Spirit because how will I get through what I'm going through if I don't have God? Not just in times of worship. It's easy to get caught up in the emotion of a worship experience and we're really experiencing God and that's great. But what about life in the Spirit outside of this one hour that we've gathered together today? What would it look like in our everyday choices, how you listen to one another, how we make decisions as a couple, how we show up in all of our relationships and how we live together in community? So far in this series, we've seen that life in the Spirit includes a bold witness unity in a purpose. We're not just a club. We have a purpose. We are people sent on a mission and generosity in action. The big difference that we're seeing here between the early church and a lot of churches today is that the early church wasn't just inspired. It's easy, it's comfortable to come to a church gathering or a service and to be moved by the music, to be inspired by the message, to feel a little bit better temporarily, but then Sunday night or Monday morning hits once again. So the difference with us and them is that they weren't just inspired. They were that, but they were also empowered to take on whatever came next after the inspiration ran away or fell off. Today's passage actually adds a sharper edge to that. So, if you want to follow along, we're going to Acts, chapter 4, and into chapter 5. And it's going to present us with two portraits One of a spirit-formed community characterized by trust and generosity. That's the first one. There's going to be a community, trust and generosity is occurring. And another of a couple whose deception undermines the trust and the unity that this community is building up.

Speaker 1: 2:25

I think today, when we get to the end of our talk here, you're going to feel maybe inspired, but I would imagine, if I do my job well, you will also feel a little unsettled. But beneath it all really is an invitation. Whether you feel inspired, unsettled, something else, there's an invitation to live honestly, to walk in the light and in the trust that the Spirit who empowers us is the same Spirit who forms us as a people of integrity. So, after being threatened by the religious leaders this is what we talked about and dove into last week Peter and John returned to the church. They're not filled with fear, but they're filled with boldness, and they get back with the church and they say, hey, we're not going to pray that God lets us avoid the pain and suffering, that we don't die, that justice or revenge is delivered, but instead they pray for courage. God, we know exactly we are where you want us to be, exactly where you want us to be, and that's hard, but rather than get me through it quicker or get me out of it, I'm praying that you give me the faith to keep going through it. Well, and after that prayer, these are people who are filled with the Spirit, and what follows then is a glimpse into a Spirit-shaped community. Yes, they're unified in heart and mind, they're unified in bold witness, but they're also unified in radical generosity.

Speaker 1: 3:44

We read in verse 32, all the believers were united in heart and mind and they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. Now let's talk about this verse, because I think that, despite how this passage has been presented a lot by some today, we need to clarify this wasn't a forced sharing. The early Christians didn't abolish ownership. They just reimagined what ownership looked like, whatever they had as individuals. If you and I were a part of that early church, whatever I had, whatever you had we would have held on loosely to that. And if we gave, it wasn't out of guilt, it wasn't out of obligation, but it was out of conviction, and sometimes we confuse conviction with guilt or obligation, but this was a spirit-filled conviction to be generous.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Now, in 2025, the year we're all living in now, we tend to ask the question how much should I give? This is a regular conversation I have with people what about tithing? How regularly should I give? Should I give up more than just 10%? Less than 10%? What are the rules? Now is what I'm asked. But I'd like to ask a better question, and that's the question that they asked. They weren't asking how much I should give. They were asking what do I have that I don't need to keep? They evaluated their assets, everything that they owned, and they said what isn't imperative to my life Now this was just as inspiring and shocking to them as it is to you today. Okay, this isn't like they all just accepted this.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Most of them were poor, land ownership was rare and oftentimes it was tied to identity. It was your family. The reason you own land wasn't because you bought land. For most people it was because your dad gave it to you and his dad gave it to him and his dad gave it to him and, depending how many siblings you have, it gets divided up between them. So chances are you probably have like one-thirtieth of what your grandpa had, and so most were poor. Again, the land ownership was rare. So when people sold their properties this little bit that they owned tied to their family identity, and then they took it and gave it to the apostles, it wasn't performative, it was profoundly sacrificial. It was a sacrifice that they were making.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Luke notes that because of this kind of generosity, there were no needy persons among them, and this actually echoes Deuteronomy 15.4 of a just society under God's rule. God says when I am in charge, when the kingdom has come, when my will is being done in the world, there will be no needy people. And Luke says when the church was the church and acting like the church, not just as a community but as individuals. There were no needy people among them, and generosity precedes that. Let me point that out. They didn't wait and say, hey, tell me what the needs are and then we'll go and we'll try to meet those needs. Generosity came first. The church was so well-funded that they were able to meet the needs as they came up, but not just meet the needs as they came up. They were able to help make systemic changes to the people around them, to lift families out of poverty.

Speaker 1: 7:10

The apostles testified boldly about the risen Jesus and people who heard that message couldn't help. But by responding with a self-giving love. Their unity wasn't emotional, it wasn't that it felt like it. Their unity wasn't based on political ideologies hey, we agree. It wasn't based on, hey, we like the way that you do church or the way that we do church. It wasn't just theological. Their unity was practical, it was economical, it was sacrificial and it was spirit-formed.

Speaker 1: 7:45

And then Luke is going to transition. He says this is what's happening in the community. But let me give you a story of a person within that community, because Luke doesn't want you to lose sight of that. A community is a group of individuals, and so he transitions to a man named Joseph and Joseph. He sells the field he owns and he brings the full proceeds to the apostles. There's no pressure for him to do this. He voluntarily does it. There's no spotlight and there's no expectation. He simply gives freely and faithfully.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Now I want to point out that someone with a common name like Joseph for him to own land, it was definitely, or most definitely, an inheritance, family land passed down through generations. And by selling that land, joseph wasn't just being generous. I don't want to lose this. Joseph gave up security. He was giving up a future that he might have been able to pass on to his kids. As a matter of fact, if you were one of Joseph's kids, you're probably a little angry, right, like what do you mean? You're giving it away? Like that's supposed to be mine. What do I have? I have nothing. Now, that wasn't a donation. That's what surrender looks like. Now, luke doesn't tell us how much it was worth, because that's not what matters. It didn't matter how much that field was worth. What mattered was the heart behind Joseph, and at that moment, the apostles give him a new name.

Speaker 1: 9:09

They call him Barnabas, son of encouragement. He lays down a plot of land that's where I was and he picks up and steps into his calling. This is where I'm going. It meant letting go of something most would have held on to reasonably very tightly. Barnabas lived in a spirit-filled, persecuted minority where generosity was both a sign of trusting God and a demonstration of solidarity. Together, he was generous not just because of what he believed in God and God's sacrificial love but in solidarity, not just with the words. I say, not just showing up one day a week, but I'm going to alter my life the way Christ altered his, the way that Christ alters ours. We are now in this together in a real, tangible way.

Speaker 1: 10:06

This brief story introduces someone who will go on to play a key role in the church's mission, the early church. We're going to talk about Barnabas a lot, so let this be your introduction to him. His leadership begins not with an impressive resume, not with a bunch of certificates or education, not because he's super charismatic or super gifted or because he comes from a really great family. Barnabas's leadership begins with character, begins with someone who does the right thing, not because he's forced to, but because it's the right thing to do, and he doesn't just say the right things, he lives them out in a tangible and sacrificial and even trustworthy way. Now Barnabas becomes the bridge between the beauty of Acts 4. Here's this great community and, for example, there's this guy named Barnabas, and this is what he did. But Barnabas is one story of many stories within the early church, and now Luke is going to transition to an example of who takes away from that. Ananias and Sapphira will embody performance. Away from that, ananias and Sapphira will embody performance. The contrast is going to be intentional and sharp.

Speaker 1: 11:20

So along comes Ananias, along with his wife Sapphira. They sell a piece of property and then they bring in part of the proceeds to the apostles, but they claim it was the full amount. So here you got a couple. They sell some property. They're seeing it all around them. We're told that the community is doing this. We hear about Barnabas. He's doing this.

Speaker 1: 11:38

So Ananias and Sapphira, they want to get in on this. So they sell some property and they come to Peter and they give him the money and they say we sold that. And here all of it is. Now they lied, they just gave him part of it. There wasn't the full amount. The issue isn't I want to clear this up before I even dive into it. The issue isn't that they kept some of the money, peter himself. You can read this yourself in chapter 5. Peter is clear the land and the proceeds they were his, to do with whatever he pleased. Don't sell it. Keep it for all I care, but if you're going to sell it, at least tell the truth about it. Sell it and say, hey, I'm going to give you half of it. Hey, I'm going to give you a big part of it.

Speaker 1: 12:19

The problem here is deception. And Ananias wanted the appearance of somebody who was radically committed and super generous, without actually being radically committed or super generous. He just wanted to look that way. He didn't lie to avoid giving. He didn't lie to avoid giving. He lied to appear to be someone he wasn't. That's what the lie was about. The lie was look at me and how great I am. And then Peter declares hey, this isn't a problem between you and me. He says in verse four you weren't lying to us but to God. You weren't lying to us but to God. And what's revealed isn't just a false donation, but really this is an attempt to manipulate God and God's people. And what happens is Ananias drops dead on the spot. There's lots of theories and theologies as to why, how, what actually happened here, but Luke doesn't mention it and so I'm not going to dive too much into it. But the fact is that, for whatever reason and however it came to be, ananias lies, whatever reason and however it came to be, ananias lies, and there's a profound sense then of dread, as it would be, that settles over the community.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Now, this is the first internal threat to the church. If you're reading in Acts, we're only in Acts, chapter 5, this is the first internal threat, and what I mean is that up until this point, the church faced external pressures. Right, pharisees, sadducees, the Sanhedrin they're all of these outside forces, people who didn't believe the same way that they did were coming at the church and they were like we're bound together and we can overcome this together. But for the first time in Acts, we read now that there's an issue in-house. The threat isn't coming from the outside, the threat is coming from the inside. The threat isn't coming from the outside, the threat is coming from the inside. We're lying to each other, we're being deceptive to one another. The danger is within and Luke is showing us spiritual pretense, even when subtle, is a serious danger to communal trust and spiritual vitality.

Speaker 1: 14:29

The generosity of Acts 4 isn't undone by need, but hypocrisy. This is such a generous church. There's no one with needs in the community, and what begins to go wrong isn't that there are so many needs that they can't keep up with giving. It's the hypocrisy that exists within the church, the lying. The early church was small and interconnected and today many churches are large and it's anonymous.

Speaker 1: 14:59

It's easy for you and me, whether we go to church at Madison Church or we go somewhere else, it's easy to curate an image of I'm a super spiritual person or I'm deeply involved in my faith, without any sort of accountability, to have to back that up, and as such we do. We get labeled hypocrites and it's probably not an unfair label. We need to be confronted from time to time about what we say and what our motives are and what we do and where we're coming from. Now, when Peter calls him out Ananias out, he didn't just protect the community, he was honoring the holiness of God's presence among them. This story confronts us with a sobering truth. Not all giving is spirit-led and not all appearances reflect reality. The spirit who empowers the church also purifies the church. Integrity before God is never optional. Integrity is essential to life and community.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Well, three hours after Ananias drops dead, his wife Sapphira enters and she's completely unaware and Peter, rather than just exposing her outright, telling her what happened or this is what happened he gave her a chance to come clean. He says was that the full amount? To which she says yes. And that shows Peter, it shows the community around them that this wasn't impulsive, it wasn't circumstantial, this was deliberate. They planned this, they talked about it, they came up with their story, they double-checked their notes and they were going to try together to conspire against the early church. Peter says how could the two of you even think about conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord? Peter's words are serious. To test the Spirit is to treat God's presence like a force that can be controlled, a presence that could be manipulated and used rather than honored.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Sapphira, just like her husband, falls dead on the spot and the fear kind of continues to grow within the church. But it's not out of hysteria, it's out of reverence Because, wow, god is real. We aren't just the club, we aren't just a group that believes these things. God is here among us. And so, by the time Sapphira falls, the story hits its sobering. The fire falls. The story hits its sobering peak, but Luke wants us to feel the contrast. This isn't a random tragedy. It's a mirror held up to you and me and the believers all over the world today, believers who lived a thousand years ago and 500 years ago and 1500 years.

Speaker 1: 17:48

I told you a little bit that Joseph, given his name, it was very likely he did not come from money. You wouldn't name a common Jewish boy, joseph or something else, if he had more. Sapphira's name literally meant beautiful or precious like a sapphire stone, and we know from history that Sapphira is a name often associated almost exclusively with wealth and privilege, and in her culture she wouldn't have married below her social class. So if she came from wealth, that meant Ananias also came from wealth. So you're talking about a woman who comes from wealth and a man who comes from wealth. I mean they had more than anyone More land, more reputation, more status and yet they gave less. But here's the thing not less in money, we have every reason to believe whatever they gave, even if it was only 50% of it or 80%, whatever it was, they gave more than Barnabas. We have every reason to believe that what they gave less of was less truth, was less integrity, less honesty. Joseph gave what little he had and he told the truth. And Ananias and Sapphira? They held on to more and they told a lie. Barnabas lost land and he gained a new name, a new future, a new calling. The others clung to an image and in doing so they lost themselves.

Speaker 1: 19:20

This isn't a story about giving. It's a story about giving honestly. The Spirit doesn't demand perfection from you and I. We're imperfect, god knows it. But God does call us to live in truth, because what we hold back, when we pretend to be someone that we are not, it will always cost us more than we think, and not just us, but those around us.

Speaker 1: 19:50

This passage marks a clear turning point. For the first time in Acts, luke uses the word ecclesia, which means church, but it's the first time he's used it. Before this, he's talked about the community, the disciples, the apostles, new converts, but now he uses ecclesia, and now we see something more Ecclesia, this is a holy people formed by and in the presence of a holy God. God is not building a safe religious gathering. He's shaping a community that will live in truth, and what follows you can imagine if you were. I mean, I read this story and I'm like man. That must have really been bad marketing for the church, right? Like if you give only part of it or if you lie, you drop dead. I imagine that nobody wants to be part of that community. I know I would have some second doubts before I joined a community Just right there on the website. Hey, you know, if you lie, these are the consequences.

Speaker 1: 20:44

But what happens instead is a surge of power, growth and awe within the early church. It didn't paralyze them, it purified them. It helped them step up, to step out and to all God had for them. And this story reminds us that grace and reverence are not mutually exclusive. They are together, they belong together. We are people covered in grace, but we can still have the fear of the Lord, because God isn't just trying to form a bold and generous church, he's also creating a holy one, one that is set apart.

Speaker 1: 21:24

And so what is Luke showing us throughout this story? Well, yes, it's about honesty, it's about money, it's about community, but I think more deeply, or perhaps more above, is the confrontation with integrity. I think that this is a passage about integrity, not the pursuit of perfection, but just the call to live truthfully before God and others. The issue with Ananias and Sapphira was that they wanted the appearance of complete devotion without being completely devoted. They weren't just withholding funds, they were withholding themselves. I'm reminded of a quote from CS Lewis that many of you have probably heard. He says integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. And that's what was broken here. When no one is watching, and that's what was broken here, ananias and Sapphira were doing the right-looking thing for the wrong reason and hoping that no one, especially God, would notice.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Having integrity as a believer, as a follower of Christ, means aligning our inner lives with our outer actions, and that theme runs throughout the whole arc of scripture. Jesus warns be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. His harshest words are not for the weak but for the fake. James calls us to confess our sins, not to cover them up. And Paul tells us to let love be sincere and warns against self-deception. From the beginning to end, god has called us, his people, to be a people of truth. This isn't just an issue of morality. People of truth. This isn't just an issue of morality. It's one of formation, not just community formation, but your own spiritual formation. Dallas Willard once said the most important thing in your life is not what you do, rather it's who you become, because that's what you will take into eternity. Who you become, that's what you take into the next life.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Acts 5 isn't simply a cautionary tale. It's a mirror asking us to become, or who we're becoming, when no one else is looking. And what makes the story so sobering to me is just how familiar it feels. And what makes this story so sobering to me is just how familiar it feels While our context is different. We're a less communal society. It's easier to be a less visible follower of Jesus. You know, the temptation remains for us. We want to look committed, I think, at times without being surrendered. We want to build a reputation.

Speaker 1: 24:10

Instead of having genuinely healthy and good relationships, we try really hard to curate an image of ourselves that's passable to the rest of the world, rather than live transparently before God and others. So let me say this that I don't think integrity is having nothing to hide. I think integrity is about choosing not to hide. We all have stuff. We're all imperfect, Addictions, times we fail, things that embarrass us, things we regret we would have done differently, things we actually put a lot of thought into and we did the best we could with what we had but it turned out to be the wrong thing. And integrity is just choosing not to hide. It's the kind of honesty that invites grace to work in our lives. Where integrity begins is where resurrection life can begin to take root. When we open up and say, hey, I can't, I didn't, I won't, I failed, that's where God can come in and say I know You're not perfect, let's do this together.

Speaker 1: 25:15

Integrity is about alignment between what we say and how we live, between our public image and our private reality. It is not about being flawless. I don't want you to go away thinking this was a message about being perfect. It's not. It's about being truthful. And that kind of integrity isn't just tested in dramatic moments such as selling property or facing public accountability. It shows up in the ordinary. How might you practice integrity in the ordinary Well being involved or being honest about money when it comes to your relationship with your spouse, not withholding that information?

Speaker 1: 25:53

Owning up to a mistake at work rather than hiding it, resisting the urge to exaggerate your spiritual life in small groups or to give the impression that you're more prayerful or more generous or more surrendered than you actually are. It means shifting from I'm trying to create, curate a life that impresses those around me to cultivating a life that pleases God. Is what I'm doing pleasing to God or does it just make me look good to my friends, my family, my co-workers, my community? And that shift begins with honest questions Again. Are we more concerned with appearing godly than actually surrendering to God? Do I avoid confession to protect my image? This message for me, as I worked on it this week, is really confronting a lot of the stuff I'm working through individually.

Speaker 1: 26:47

I want to be clear that integrity doesn't mean telling everyone everything. That's kind of where I fall. If I'm going to have integrity, I need to be open and honest about everything, and that's not honesty, that's just oversharing. I'm coming to learn, but healthy privacy is not the same as deception. In fact, learning how to have boundaries in what we share and what we don't share is a sign, I think, of emotional and spiritual maturity. Integrity just means living a life of alignment and it doesn't necessarily mean overexposure. It's absolutely okay to keep some things in private, but when we withhold information. When we withhold information to give others a false impression, or when we ask others to keep secrets that protect my image or your image, or to manipulate an outcome, we are no longer practicing integrity. We're managing our appearance.

Speaker 1: 27:46

Modern psychology affirms this. For those of you interested in that, therapists often distinguish between privacy, which protects your well-being and your relational boundaries, and secrecy, which protects your ego or shame. There's a difference right between privacy and secrecy. One fosters connection and safety. Privacy fosters connection and safety, whereas secrecy isolates and distorts. Scripture echoes this distinction. It's not just modern psychology, but thousands of years ago the writer of Proverbs, 11, verse 3, says the integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Integrity guides. It doesn't overwhelm or control others with our full story, but it also refuses to live a double life or to build trust on false appearances.

Speaker 1: 28:40

So the call here isn't to be exposed or overexposed, but rather to be honest. You don't have to tell everyone everything, but you should be able to say at the end of the day thing. But you should be able to say at the end of the day, the end of the conversation, what I've shown you is real. What I've shown you is real and for those in leadership, whether it's here at Madison Church and you're in leadership or business or at home integrity means never, ever using spiritual language or authority for your personal gain.

Speaker 1: 29:17

This is one of the most sobering ways that we take the Lord's name in vain. It's not swearing you might hear. You know somebody swears and you're like, oh, don't take the Lord's name in vain. That's actually not what it means. It means don't invoke God's name to back your own plans, to prop up my ego or worse, and how we've seen it used a lot in the church world is to shut other people down. I disagree with you, or you're bringing up some points that overly challenge me. Well, god told me aha, stop, that is taking the Lord's name in vain, when saying that God told me this when he didn't. Using spiritual language to manipulate rather than to serve is not faith at all, and God does take that seriously, because his name is not a weapon for us to wield. His name is hope to be revealed.

Speaker 1: 30:12

The story of Ananias and Sapphira isn't here to scare us into perfection. It's here to invite us into honesty. God isn't looking for polished performances. He's just calling us to live in the truth, to let our public lives reflect what's actually going on in our hearts, because the spirit who empowers is the same spirit who purifies. The same spirit who formed a generous and united church and act is still forming one today, but only if we're willing to be real. So the question as we enter into our time of communion today, the question is am I living with integrity before God or am I just trying to appear put together in front of others? Let this be a moment of courageous clarity and if there is a part of your life that you've kept hidden, confess it. If you've been pretending, drop the mask. Integrity doesn't begin with perfection. It starts where pretending ends. So step into the light, because that's where God's grace meets you, that's where fundamental transformation begins, that's where the resurrection of life takes hold.