God Will Strike You Down

This week, I will be preaching on Acts 5 as we get into the story of Ananias and Sapphira. This has been a hard passage to study and apply to my own life because it is very revealing. All of us have a little of Mr. A and Mrs. S in us. It is convicting and scary all at the same time.

A few weeks ago I got into an online argument with a PCUSA pastor who has graduated from a school that is very liberal in it's view of the Bible. These types of schools have unapologetically attempted to destroy the authenticity and veracity of the Scriptures. This man's education came out of him in our online debate about Mormon's and whether or not they should be included as "Christians". I won't get into the details.

To be honest, I was a little jealous of him in a weird way. He was able to pretty much say whatever he felt like saying. His truth was not based on the authority of Scripture but rather he based his claims on whatever he felt should be right. He could throw Scripture out the window and still call himself a theologian and biblical scholar. I was constrained to the truth of Scripture. I was jealous because there were times when I just wanted to "go off" at him but knew that I couldn't.

I share that story to share this with you--it is stories like Acts 5 that prove the inspiration of Scripture. Why would Luke include this account when it demonstrated the warts of the early church. Not only this, but it would be so much easier if I could misinterpret this passage to make it say whatever I wanted.

The facts of the passage are that a believer in Christ was decieved by Satan, fell into sin from temptation, attempted to lie to the church and Holy Spirit and ultimately died as a consequence for his sin and to demonstrate to the rest of the church that the Kingdom of God was serious business--so to speak. These aren't easy pills to swallow.

I am looking forward to preaching this passage, but only with some fear and trepidation. I pray that I would not be like Ananias any longer. I pray that I would not hinder the Gospel in any way, but that our church would be a shining light for Jesus Christ. To God be all the glory.