Unity and Holiness: Lessons from Ananias and Sapphira
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1. "Instead, the big takeaway I wanted to explain was that this passage is here to help us understand how we're to take seriously the holiness of God and our call to unity in the church. And both these things go together in the story because it's difficult to be holy without unity. And it's difficult to have unity without holiness. And that goes both in terms of our relationship with God and our relationship with others. We actually need to pursue both as the community of God." [11:20] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "Through all this, we actually need to allow the gospel to be, we not just receive it, but we apply it to our lives. We actually need the good news of Jesus to actually change us. And this is going to change how we live in relationship with God and how we live in relationship with others." [13:20] (11 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "It's important to just always remember, like, though there, if you learned these stories when you're younger, often it's not that someone was necessarily taught wrong. Or anything like that. It's just that when you're younger, there's things that you're just not going to see. You're not at the point where you can really grasp all of that. So, sometimes there's more of that, we might call that low-hanging fruit. Like, some of the more immediate takeaways from this." [17:00] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "We never want to undermine the foundation for many people of how they grew up in church. So, that's one of the hard parts of that, of like, hey, like, your sweet Sunday school teacher, you know, 20, 30 years ago, didn't, like, mislead you. No, no. But taught you at the level that you were at. And that is true, while we can continue going back to the Word of God over and over again, because it's actually a living word. It's something that continues to change and grow. It's something that continues to grow with us as we mature. So, you never outgrow the need for the Word." [19:00] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "We don't know what the future holds for us. And so in all of that, that we should always walk in humility and we should always, be repentant. When we do encounter instances where we have sinned against God, we should be, we should be quick to that repentance. We shouldn't hold off thinking, oh, well, you know, I have time and passages like this remind us of, we don't know how much time, we have. We really don't. And so it's important to, have that posture of, to repent quickly." [28:00] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Ultimately there will be judgment at some point and the difference there in a follower of Christ and someone who isn't a follower is that if you're a follower of Christ, you can then lean on Christ in that moment of judgment. And he's the one who declares us sinless it's because of what he has done. And so at some point that is going to happen and, Ananias and Sapphira, it happened in this moment. And part of it was. God did this to build up the unity of the church, that he wouldn't allow this hypocrisy to continue, for the purity of his church, he allowed that, or he made that judgment to happen instantaneously in that moment." [29:20] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "I think we all have that responsibility, to defend the church and to uphold, its purity. And so you see that in Peter's reaction, he, he didn't let it slide. He didn't say, oh, I think these, I don't think this couple is telling the truth. I'll come back to them a month from now. Yeah. I'll, you know, we'll set up like he, he, he, we'll pray for them all, but he, he confronts them right in that moment. He's defending the purity of the church saying, Hey, look, you are lying. This is going to destroy the unity. This is going to, pull everything down, destroy the movement of what God is doing, but through your actions." [32:07] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "We should be finding common ground and, and being able to, find unity with each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is interesting that, that Peter says to them, Hey, you, you haven't sinned against people, but to God. He says that in verse four. And in many ways, that's an echo of what we see in Psalm 51 where David is writing. Really, this is a Psalm of repentance, after he had a sin against Bathsheba, of taking advantage of her, and really this, this horrendous scene in, in, in David's life. And, and he, he writes the Psalm of repentance and he says, against writing to God saying against you." [36:30] (88 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
9. "We can sin against one another, but, but our ultimate sin is actually against God. That's the thing that we should be the most concerned about is when we sin against him. And so this is what Peter is calling them to saying, Hey, like, you're not, you're not just lying to people. It, it, in comparison to that sin towards people versus the sin against God, it's almost as though, almost as though that sin never happened. It's the sin against God. That's the most important. But in reality, both have happened." [37:32] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
10. "We need to take unity in the church. So, seriously because it is not just a sin against one another. For some people, I think disunity is just a, just a squabble between people. But you can still be good with God. Actually saying here, like, no, no, a squabble between people is, is actually an issue in your relationship with your heavenly father. This is, this is actually a serious matter that we need to be aware of. And, and so I think like all of that, we need to keep in mind when we think of sinning. And so in this, what it leads us to is repentance towards God." [39:30] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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2. "Through all this, we actually need to allow the gospel to be, we not just receive it, but we apply it to our lives. We actually need the good news of Jesus to actually change us. And this is going to change how we live in relationship with God and how we live in relationship with others." [13:20] (11 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "It's important to just always remember, like, though there, if you learned these stories when you're younger, often it's not that someone was necessarily taught wrong. Or anything like that. It's just that when you're younger, there's things that you're just not going to see. You're not at the point where you can really grasp all of that. So, sometimes there's more of that, we might call that low-hanging fruit. Like, some of the more immediate takeaways from this." [17:00] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "We never want to undermine the foundation for many people of how they grew up in church. So, that's one of the hard parts of that, of like, hey, like, your sweet Sunday school teacher, you know, 20, 30 years ago, didn't, like, mislead you. No, no. But taught you at the level that you were at. And that is true, while we can continue going back to the Word of God over and over again, because it's actually a living word. It's something that continues to change and grow. It's something that continues to grow with us as we mature. So, you never outgrow the need for the Word." [19:00] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "We don't know what the future holds for us. And so in all of that, that we should always walk in humility and we should always, be repentant. When we do encounter instances where we have sinned against God, we should be, we should be quick to that repentance. We shouldn't hold off thinking, oh, well, you know, I have time and passages like this remind us of, we don't know how much time, we have. We really don't. And so it's important to, have that posture of, to repent quickly." [28:00] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Ultimately there will be judgment at some point and the difference there in a follower of Christ and someone who isn't a follower is that if you're a follower of Christ, you can then lean on Christ in that moment of judgment. And he's the one who declares us sinless it's because of what he has done. And so at some point that is going to happen and, Ananias and Sapphira, it happened in this moment. And part of it was. God did this to build up the unity of the church, that he wouldn't allow this hypocrisy to continue, for the purity of his church, he allowed that, or he made that judgment to happen instantaneously in that moment." [29:20] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "I think we all have that responsibility, to defend the church and to uphold, its purity. And so you see that in Peter's reaction, he, he didn't let it slide. He didn't say, oh, I think these, I don't think this couple is telling the truth. I'll come back to them a month from now. Yeah. I'll, you know, we'll set up like he, he, he, we'll pray for them all, but he, he confronts them right in that moment. He's defending the purity of the church saying, Hey, look, you are lying. This is going to destroy the unity. This is going to, pull everything down, destroy the movement of what God is doing, but through your actions." [32:07] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "We should be finding common ground and, and being able to, find unity with each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is interesting that, that Peter says to them, Hey, you, you haven't sinned against people, but to God. He says that in verse four. And in many ways, that's an echo of what we see in Psalm 51 where David is writing. Really, this is a Psalm of repentance, after he had a sin against Bathsheba, of taking advantage of her, and really this, this horrendous scene in, in, in David's life. And, and he, he writes the Psalm of repentance and he says, against writing to God saying against you." [36:30] (88 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
9. "We can sin against one another, but, but our ultimate sin is actually against God. That's the thing that we should be the most concerned about is when we sin against him. And so this is what Peter is calling them to saying, Hey, like, you're not, you're not just lying to people. It, it, in comparison to that sin towards people versus the sin against God, it's almost as though, almost as though that sin never happened. It's the sin against God. That's the most important. But in reality, both have happened." [37:32] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
10. "We need to take unity in the church. So, seriously because it is not just a sin against one another. For some people, I think disunity is just a, just a squabble between people. But you can still be good with God. Actually saying here, like, no, no, a squabble between people is, is actually an issue in your relationship with your heavenly father. This is, this is actually a serious matter that we need to be aware of. And, and so I think like all of that, we need to keep in mind when we think of sinning. And so in this, what it leads us to is repentance towards God." [39:30] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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