Episode 222: Not a Gas or Ghost! | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

You guys, if you have a Bible open to Acts five, and if you're like me, sometimes I have lots of Bibles, but a lot of times all I have is my phone. So go ahead and go there to Acts chapter five. But first, we got a little quiz—a little quiz. We're going to do five truths and a lie. Five truths and a lie. And don't be like the kid in the front row of school that has to blurt out the answer. I want you to wait till the end. Okay? Alright. Here we go. Five truths and a lie. Tell me which one is the lie.

I, Quigg Lawrence, am a twin. I went to three colleges. I worked on the U.S. Olympic doping team and had to carry urine samples from event to event. I was an Eagle Scout at age 13. I wet my bed regularly until I was nine. I got lost in the woods on the parkway and over a hundred people, including multiple jurisdictions of EMS and friends from Church of the Holy Spirit, came looking for me. The next day, I was in the newspaper, TV, and radio.

Which of those is a lie? Which one was that? Which one? And remind me what the second one was? The Olympics. Colleges. Anybody else have a guess? The doping one. The doping Eagle Scout. See, it's hard to tell. Actually, you're right. I went to five colleges. I went on a tour. That's impressive.

Okay. So, bottom line is it's good to have these fun little games. But, you need to know what's a lie and what's truth. And I think for a lot of us, we've been taught things all our lives about God, about scripture, that oftentimes are not true.

For example, with the Holy Spirit, when I was a kid, we called them back in the old days, King James, we called them the Holy Ghost. And as a young kid—younger than you are—I was scared to death of the Holy Ghost because ghosts are creepy. And today, we're gonna learn about the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, and who he is.

So, let me just give you a kind of bottom line up front. That's what they do in the military. It's called bluff. Bottom line up front. Here's what I want you to learn today and then hopefully we'll learn it.

The Bible teaches that there is how many gods? Yeah. A lot of the world didn't agree with that. But the Bible says, hero Israel, the Lord your God is one.

But Christians from the earliest days have known that God is one God in three persons. There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And most of us would have no problem with God as father. I never hear arguments about God being father. You hear more arguments about whether Jesus is God.

But if you actually read the scriptures, it's very clear he claimed to be God. That's why they killed him. He used phrases like, I am. Do you remember when Moses said, hey, God. Who should I tell Pharaoh and all the people who sent me? And he says, I am that I am.

So, when you're in the New Testament and Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. I'm the gate. I'm the door. Etcetera. I'm the resurrection. I am the life. All that. On and on and on. All the I am statements. He's basically not even whispering. He's revealing that he is God in the flesh.

You've seen me. You've seen the Father. He's the expressed image of the Father. So there's God the Father, God the Son. The third one is God the Holy Spirit. And most people don't really know what to do with the Holy Spirit. We think it's something that only Pentecostals get. Or we think it's some kind of magic force field where we get filled up like a helium balloon.

But in fact, I hope to teach you today that the Holy Spirit is actually a person. He's actually God himself. He's not less than the Father. He's not less than the Son. He's equal. Co-equal. Co-eternal.

Now, what do cults do? Cults always do the same thing. They pull God down. Mainly, Jesus. They pulled Jesus down to be less than God. And how much more? They pull the Holy Spirit down to be less than that. That's what cults do. Pull Jesus down and often pull the Holy Spirit down. And who do they push up in his place? Man. Pull Jesus down, lift man up.

And so today, we want to have a right view. We want to have a right view.

So, you have your Bible, I want you to get to Acts chapter five. And we're going to dig in there. But as I started to read it about Ananias and Sapphira, and how they sold a lot of land, and they brought the proceeds and laid them at the apostles' feet. Something had happened just before. So I want you to see this verse because it's kind of disturbing for us capitalists, you know. We see this and we think this smells like communism. Kinda like, what's the guy's name? That old creepy dude in the fifties who thought everybody was a communist? McCarthy. Thank you.

So, a lot of people use this passage right before Acts five as proof that Jesus was a communist. They do. No, I'm not kidding. They do. So, let's look at it. Verse 34, chapter four of Acts. It says, so in the early church, as the Holy Spirit was moving. There was not a needy person among them. For as many as were owners of land or houses, they sold them and they brought the proceeds of what was sold and they laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need.

And then there in verse 36, there's an example of one guy who did exactly that. Joseph also known as Barnabas. It says in verse 37, he sold a field that belonged to him. Interesting. That belonged to him. He sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

So, you get the context? The early church was selling what pieces of land and other things they had and they were bringing the money from that and laying it at the feet of the disciples, so that they could pray and say, Lord, what do you want us to do with all these resources? How can we allocate these dollars? How can we send these dollars to build up your kingdom so your name will be great?

With that in mind, we see Ananias and Sapphira wanting to do the same thing, sort of. Right? So, they saw everybody else selling their land and bringing the proceeds. They saw Barnabas doing that same thing. So then, they go off and they sell. God didn't say they had to do it. But they go off and sell a piece of land. And it says in chapter five, verse one, a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. And with his wife's knowledge—that's good, man. Always talk to your wife before you make major sales. Okay? With his wife's knowledge, he kept back—kept back. See, that's what we do. We keep back. We contrive.

It says, with his wife's full knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. Now, at that point, had he sinned? He sells a piece of land. Imagine, let's just make a number up. He sells a nice little piece of land over there. He makes $100,000 for 10 acres or 15 acres or whatever it is. Is he obliged to give the church or the Lord or lay at the feet of the apostles all $100,000? No. There's no indication of that at all. Right? It's kind of free will. But he wanted to be well thought of. He wanted people go, wow, Ananias. You're so generous. So he concocted. He contrived a way to make himself look generous when in fact, he really was a thief.

So it says, oh, first, what does the name Ananias mean? You always need to look at this when you go to Scripture. I go to Blue Letter Bible. Letter Bible. Put your verse in. Go to the name. Click on it. It'll tell you what it means. Ananias means he whom God has graciously blessed. Do you find some irony in that? This dude is getting ready to steal from the Lord and lie, is named He whom God has richly blessed. Blessed and yet he doesn't get it. He has a tight fist.

A man named Ananias. And what was his wife's name? Remind me. So I looked that up and it's not quite as fascinating. Sapphira just means sapphire. Men, that means she was beautiful. She sparkled and shined like a sapphire. But maybe your mom told you this, maybe your grandmom told you, not everything that's pretty on the outside is pretty on the inside. Fellas, you may chase after the prettiest woman and she may end up being a nightmare. Girl, same thing. You may go with a handsome hunk of a man. He may be beautiful on the outside, but God cares more about what's on the inside. It's the inside that gets you to the finish line.

So anyway, Ananias and Sapphira, they sold their property. They kept back some of the profits and proceeds, and they laid it at the apostles' feet. I love that phrase, laid it at the apostles' feet. There's a time in my life when I just started giving and I wanted to be generous, but I didn't want to give it to that church for Pete's sake. It's like an institution. I feel like it's giving taxes to Washington D.C. I'd much rather dole it out as I see fit. I get more kudos. Right? I feel good. I get to make choices. Who wants to put in a bucket? Who wants to put in a general bucket?

But the pattern we see in the early church over and over again and over and over again here is when they got their money, what did they do with it? Did they just throw it out however they want? No. They laid it at the apostles' feet. That actually is a way of like releasing control, where you actually don't get a blessing with anyone except for the Lord. They laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now, let's finish with the story. It says, but Peter said to Ananias it's almost like the Lord had given Peter insight. He said to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie? I mean, it is one of the commandments, isn't it? Right? Don't lie. And so Peter was given this word by the Spirit and he says, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

You've lied to the Holy Spirit. And in verse four, while it remained unsolved—while what remained unsolved? Help me. I'm tired. I've been traveling on an airplane. Let me tell you, that's a miserable experience these days. Okay. Peter says, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds? It says, your land remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

See, what I want to tell you is, if you just read that passage in Acts four, you would think, oh, communism. Hold all things in common. That would be a fair reading, but a wrong reading. Because you interpret verses with other verses. And even here, we see that Ananias and Sapphira owned property. How about other places in the New Testament? Can you think of other places in the New Testament where somebody owned something? The widow had two copper coins and she gave out of all that she had. She owned that. How about the little boy with two fish and five loaves? It wasn't the government. It was his.

How about Jesus' and Paul's instruction to us as believers to give what the Lord has entrusted to our hand? So, you can't give what you don't have to give. How about it says, if one of you has a sheep and it falls in the ditch, would you not pull it out of the ditch? The very fact that they say, those who have a sheep—that means there's ownership. How about, well, that's an oxen. Sorry. What about a sheep that goes astray and you leave the 99 and go after the one? Implies ownership. And so we see here with Ananias and Sapphira, they had property. While you had that property, was it not yours to decide what you wanted to do with it? So, communism is not in the New Testament, friends. Let's keep pushing on.

Generosity is. So, we pick it up and it says, after your land was sold, was it not your at your disposal? You have—not you have not lied. Ananias, you've not lied to man but you've actually lied to God. Now, hold on just a second. In verse three, it says, Ananias had—why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You've not lied to men, but to God.

Now, I was really terrible in school because I was usually reading Boy Scout magazines or dreaming about a camping trip or whatever. But there's this thing, A equals B, B equals C. Therefore, I mean, think about it. A equals B. B equals C. Therefore, A equals C. So, when he's saying, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. You've not lied to men but to God. You've lied to God. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. You've lied to God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God.

If you want to go any place in the New Testament, there are lots of places you could go to prove that God is Father, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. You go here. You've not lied to men, but to God. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. And why does that matter? We'll get there.

Alright. So after he says that, verse five, it says, Ananias, when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and he breathed his last. You guys, this is a weird—this is a weird verse. It kind of reminds me of when Uzzah touched the ark when, as it was falling, and all he was trying to do was help God out. And God struck him dead.

God had said, do not. I don't mean sort of kind of do not touch the ark. Uzzah touched the ark. God killed him. That seems weird. That seems mean. But God is holy. God is holy. When he speaks, he means it. And he's holy because he loves us. He says no to some things because he loves us.

And here, we're seeing the holiness of God. That he takes sin seriously. And you might be, that's so unfair. So unfair to Uzzah. That's so unfair to Ananias. I would say it was more unfair to Jesus. So God is a holy God. And so Ananias, when he heard these words, fell down. He breathed his last and great fear came among all who heard it.

Now, I'm not saying today I want you to leave here seized with fear that God has like this big gun up in the cosmos and he's going to zap you if you don't give right or if you don't if you tell a lie. I don't think we're going to apply this to every situation. If so, we'd all be dead. But it does speak to the holiness of God—that God does not want us to lie. He doesn't want us to steal. He doesn't want us to contrive. He doesn't want us to keep back. And so, Ananias, just like Uzzah, he hit the ground. He was dead as a doornail.

It says in verse six, the men rose up and they wrapped him up and they carried him out and buried him. And what's funny is, look at verse seven. It says, after an interval of three hours, his wife came in—not knowing what had happened. And so, Ananias got a quick burial. Wham, bam. Done. In the ground. So, three hours later, who comes? The beautiful and lovely, the lovely and beautiful Sapphira.

Sapphira. She comes up after three hours. She has no idea what's going on. And in verse eight, Peter says, hey, Sapphira, tell me whether you sold that land for x amount of dollars. And she goes, uh-huh. Now, lied. Everybody's lied sometime in their life. Do you remember when you were a kid and your mom goes, did you eat those cookies I told you? No. That's not really a premeditated lie. Just got caught and of no kind of came out.

But this lady told a bold-faced lie. Sapphira, did y'all give all the prophets to the apostles? And she said, yes. Peter's like, is that your final answer? That's for Michelle. Sadly, it was her final answer. She lied just like her husband and God's no respecter of persons. Just as he took Ananias out for lying to the Holy Spirit to himself.

It says, Peter said to her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said, yes. Peter said to her, how is it that you've agreed together to test the Holy Spirit of the Lord? And behold, the feet of those men who have buried your husband are at the door. And they're going to carry you out.

Verse 10, it says, immediately Sapphira fell down at Peter's feet, and she breathed her last. And when the young men came in and they found her dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And then in verse 11, our last verse, it says, and great fear came upon the whole church.

Application

Friends, the point here today is not to get you afraid that God's going to whack you. The Bible says fear has to do with punishment. And Christ has been punished for us. We acknowledge that, and we stand in that grace. At the same time, we don't forget that God is a holy God.

I think there's almost no fear of God in our country. The only time I hear God's name during the week is people using it in vain. I don't have any sense that anyone else thinks my life is the Lord's. I've been bought with a price.

So here, with Ananias and Sapphira, we're learning that the Holy Spirit is God. We should not lie, and God is a holy God.

Now, why does it matter that the Holy Spirit's God? When Jesus says, I'm going to the Father and I'm going to send a helper to be with you. I'm going to send the Teacher, the Comforter. He's not sending a gas. He's not sending positive thinking. He's actually coming himself to live in your temple.

You struggle with low self-esteem. You know what? Even some of us that talk a lot, we struggle with low self-esteem. Some of you, some of the big awards, the degrees. In the dark of your room at night, you're struggling, wondering about your worth and your worth to God.

But what I want to tell you is, it's God himself. If you're a Christian, it's the Lord himself who has chosen to take residence in your humble temple. It's God himself that is your teacher. Not a gas, not a rabbi. God himself is your teacher.

It's God himself that comes along to encourage you and to teach you and to lead you into righteousness. And so, friends, it matters. Truth matters. But it matters that the Holy Spirit is God. When Jesus says, I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. He didn't leave you with philosophy or some mystical power. He left you with himself.

You are not alone. You are his children. The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen.