Missions Paul

3 hours
Acts 5:7
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

When Jesus hung on the cross darkness came on the land. What was happening on the cross was hidden by this darkness. For three hours no one knew and no one could see the wrath of God upon His Son.

For three hours Sapphira was out in the cold, she was kept in the dark at what had been taking place. She hadn’t witnessed his lie though she knew he was going to do so. She hadn’t witnessed the judgment of God upon Ananias nor did she know the burial had already happened. A lot can happen in 3 hours.

There maybe things you do not know. Today you may arrive into a situation. You have a chance to put the story straight. You don’t have to do what you had decided previously to do. This is your moment. You are today in centre stage. What will it be?

Let the young come forward
Acts 5:6
“Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.”

Let the young men come forward.
There are some things that just need wrapping up, carrying out and burying!
Not all mistakes are made by young men sometimes it is the older generation that are at fault.
We need a new generation who are tired with the pretence, the razzmatazz and the arrogant lies that are being portrayed today. We need a new generation who will say we want to get rid of that. It has no place in the body of Christ. Let’s be real, let’s be true. Let’s create a new culture.
What has died in your life? Not necessarily a physical death. It could be a whole number of things. Why mourn over what will not return? It has been taken from you. Then wrap it up, carry it out and bury it out of your life. Move on.

Die
Acts 5:5
“When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.”

What’s it going to take for you to fall down and die?
What do you have to hear?
To surrender your all and die to your self.
I am trying to fall down but I want to stand and run with my life.
I am trying to die but I want to live mostly. I want to experience everything.
Dying is so painful. I don’t want to lose anything.
But that is the heavenly call.
“If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”
The call has not changed. It is the same today.
So right now learn to surrender and give it all up for Him. Die to your wants and ambitions and desires and plans. Die to you. Die to your reputation. Let it all go.
If Ananias had truly heard from God and obediently fallen to his knees in worship and died to his flesh then He would have lived to give his testimony. But he didn’t and may we all learn from his error.

Thinking
Acts 5:4
“Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

What made you think that? This is a big question. It indicates that our thoughts can evolve from something else. That we can be in control of what we think. That we can actually think our thoughts. A thought is a thought but we can ponder on them, we can think on them.
Some of our thoughts are destructive, some lead us to act in ways we never thought we would. What made you think of doing such a thing?
1. A previous thought: the money was at his disposal. He was not forced to give the whole or any of the amount from the sale of his property. So what was he thinking? Most probably he was thinking something along the lines of: “I want to be noticed also for being generous”. What people think of you can sometimes overwhelm your wisdom.
2. A Pressure of circumstance: he was part of the church community where extravagant giving was taking place, people were doing amazing things in the area of generosity. So what was the pressure on him? Most probably other people and their strength of character and perhaps what he saw as some accolade for their giving so impressed him, he wanted to be like them. He wanted what to be like them. The pressure to be like someone else will always lead you to think wrongly.
3. A persons agreement: this was with his wife’s full knowledge. So they had discussed it. When you can find someone to agree with your thought then it can sealed and it won’t be long before it is delivered into an action. An agreement from a person is not an agreement from God.

Get a hold of your thoughts today.

The Lie
Acts 5:3
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

Ananias has just placed the offering at the apostles feet for them to once again to distribute to the poor and needy. His testimony would have been, “We believed led of the Lord to sell our property and give the money in this season of extravagant giving.”
Now whether Peter knew approximately how much their property was worth and could tell they hadn’t given everything or whether it was a gift of knowledge that revealed the truth it matters not. Peter announced that Ananias in lying to the apostles and the church community was actually lying to the Holy Spirit. When we try and make other people believe and look at us in a way which is not real we bring a false testimony of what the Spirit is doing in our life. It looked like the Spirit was moving powerfully through him, he wasn’t. We have lied to the Holy Spirit. Of course the lie never works and the Spirit is never mocked. Peter views this so seriously he calls it a move of Satan in his life. Even when the Spirit is moving powerfully Satan can be prowling looking for someone to devour.

Hidden Agendas
Acts 5:2
With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

They sold their property and they received the money.
Then they talked.
At some point in the conversation they began to think about themselves.
But of course they have a problem because they are in a move of God when everyone is giving everything they have.
‘Kept back and brought the rest’ was not happening when people sold their property.
It wasn’t a wrong thought. They no doubt had lots of justifiable reasons why they needed some of the money.
They should have been honest and spoke with the apostles to see if they were happy to receive ‘the rest’ of the money.
But they wanted people to know they were 100% givers. What people thought of them was more important than truthfulness.
There are givers for self-promotion.
Many years ago in my early days of pastoring a member offered me £20,000 so long as I told the church who had given the gift. I knew this request was revealing a hidden problem the man had of ego and control. I thanked him and refused the money.
Ananias and Sapphira chose to pretend they had given all when they hadn’t. Their decision revealed an underlying problem in their lives that was at odds with where the church was at in this move of the Spirit.
It still happens today sadly.
Not every pledge is fulfilled. Even in a mo e of the Spirit there can be hidden agendas.

Titles and Names
Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

Without doubt the Church was in a season of a strong moving of the Holy Spirit. This manifested itself in an unprecedented extravagance of giving from the Church.
The same Spirit who enabled Jesus to give everything on the cross was here in the church once again moving the believers to surrender everything for other people. As this happened the testimony of the church grew.
The church has withstood the attacks from outside and inside they are experiencing the mercies of God. Their world may be ugly but inside the community it was beautiful.
The irony of the story that we begin to read today is that the name Ananias means ‘God is merciful’ and Sapphira means ‘beautiful’.
This couple (and nothing else is known of them) were members of the Church witnessing the Spirit and they became participants of this move of God. God is merciful and Beautiful acted like everyone else was doing who had property, they sold theirs.
What we will find out is even people who benefit from the work of the Spirit and who carry titles and names that suggest they are being used by the Spirit can be nothing more than fraudulent members of the body of Christ. It is shocking, the darkest of times for any church. We must tip-toe through this story with a renewed sense of the awe of God. Earthly titles and names are no guarantees of heavens approval.

The fields of destiny
Acts 4: 37 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Judas had a field.
Joseph had a field.
Judas received a reward of money and bought the field.
Joseph had already owned it but then sold the field.
Judas had money.
Joseph had money.
Judas fell to the floor.
Joseph knelt at the floor.
Judas had everything taken from him.
Joseph surrendered everything.
Judas’ field was given a name, the ‘Field of Blood’.
Joseph was given a new name, ‘Barnabas’, the ‘son of encouragement’.
The fields of destiny.

Encouragement
Acts 4: 36 “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”)”
Whenever God’s people did anything significant in the Bible they needed encouragement. Are you an encourager today? Do people talk of you in such a way?

Encouragement is powerful.
1. Encouragement will take someone to a place they thought they could never enter and get them to do something they thought they would never do.
“Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.” Deut 1:38
2. Maybe you should look around at all that people do to make your church a great church, look at their faithful service and encourage them to continue to do that work.
“Josiah appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s temple.” 2 Chronicles 35:2
3. Encouragement takes the time to listen
“You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” Psalm 10:17
4. Encouragement is a gift that we need to ask God for.
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us … if it is encouraging, let him encourage.” Romans 12:6,8
5. Encouragement leaves us with hope for our future.
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
6. To be an encourager means that you will have to be strong at times.
“Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet.” 1 Thess 5:14 Msg.
7. Encouragement gets people to the places where they should be – church services!
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25

Extravagant giving
Acts 4:35 “for from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”
Does this happen in your church?
Actually there wonderful examples of such generous giving found in many church building and mission projects.
But the verse is powerful to imagine. Here are some of my reflections on it:
The people trusted the leadership of the Church with their money.
They didn’t lay claim on their gift, they gave it to the leadership to give the gift.
The people saw their money going to meet needs.
This happened on a regular basis, seasons of extravagant giving came upon the church.
The Church leadership was not ignorant of people’s needs.
Any needy person was given money, there was no favouritism.
The people seemed to be giving freely and not after emotional persuasion.

Proverbs 11:24: “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”

What stops this kind of giving?
1. The fear of not having enough.
2. The fear of not experiencing it all.
3. The fear of being hurt.
4. The fear of being left alone.
What is your worst fear right now?
It is calling you not to give anything never mind everything.