The Cure for Selfishness, Part 1

Series: Acts
January 28, 2018
Acts 5:1-16
George Robertson

Periods of great blessing are often followed by periods of testing.  We will observe that pattern throughout our study of Acts.  The sweet description of the Church’s fellowship in chapter 2 is followed by the bitter persecution and ridicule of chapters 3,4.  And the wonderful description of the Church’s health at the end of chapter 4 is followed by this sad activity by Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5.  However, Ananias and Sapphira’s actions reveal that attacks on the fellowship of God’s people can also come from among God’s people.  The enemy is not always on the outside.  And the chief enemy from within the Church is the chief enemy inside each one of us—selfishness. 

 

For some years now, I have been studying the First Great Awakening in this country.  What got me interested in that miraculous movement was the revivalists’ passion in applying the Gospel to the primary sin of the country—selfishness.  To the revivalists, the greatest social problem was selfishness.[1]  In an introduction to David Bostwick’s sermon “Self disclaimed and Christ exalted,” Gilbert Tennent identified the root cause of all schism in the Church to be selfishness, “‘the most egregious, enormous, and blasphemous villainy! [It is] “‘pregnant with numerous and crimson iniquities,’ and is ‘the fatal source’ of the evil and calamities that have forever plagued ‘this lower world.’”

 

Selfishness is the root of all sins and it is so powerful that it blinds us to our own and angers us when we see it in someone else because we view it as competition.  It also takes many forms:  self-serving, self-preserving, manipulation and ad nauseam.  Selfishness is any attitude or act which is more concerned with self than serving others. The cure for selfishness requires strong medicine and this passage provides it.  The strong medicine is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it works in two ways:  first it drives us to repentance with the threat of judgment, then it woos us to Jesus Christ for healing

 1. Gospel Judgment

Because selfishness is such a deeply imbedded sin, our gracious Father knows that radical therapy is needed.  Here he openly displays what will happen to one’s soul if selfishness goes unchecked.  Before we go any farther it is important to ask what Ananias and Sapphira actually did to so anger God.  Some might think that it was because they did not tithe accurately.  Others might conclude that it was because God demanded the surrender of everything in those days.  However, Peter corrects both of those mistakes when he tells Annanias that the field was his before it was sold and the money was his to do with as he pleased after it sold (v.4). 

 

No, the sin was that the couple brought a sum of money and declared that it was the entire purchase price (v.8).  In other words, they were promoting themselves before the assembly as extremely generous people, when in reality they were keeping some for their own indulgence.  They were under no obligation to give anything.  The egregiousness of their sin was hypocritical self-promotion.  And God ripped off the mask.

 

More than exposing us, selfishness is, at its core, a departure from who we are in Christ. Let’s look at the different ways this is true and see why we need to turn to the gospel to be cured of this root of all sins.

A. Departure from New Identity

Selfishness is first a departure from the new and beautiful people grace makes us.  While Ananias’ was a common Jewish name, it should have reminded this early Christian of who he was.  His name meant, “the Lord is gracious.”  What an insult to God’s grace in crafting our new identity when we try to act like the old people we were when enslaved to sin.  As a result of our salvation, every one of us has that same name, “the Lord is gracious.”  Gratitude for that grace demands selfless and honest living.  Likewise, Sapphira departed from her new identity.  Her name meant, “beautiful.”  Her selfish attitudes were a regression to ugliness, a spurning of the beautiful new identity she had been given in Christ.  I ask you the same question Paul asked the Romans in regard to some of the behaviors you are engaged in:  “What benefit are you now deriving from those things of which you are now ashamed?” (Ro. 6:21). 


B. Departure from God

Notice that there is no indication that these two went to hell; rather, they were severely disciplined as Christians in this life.  Ultimately, it was a gracious act toward them because it arrested their sin.  I am convinced that I have known some people who died prematurely because God desired to arrest their wayward behavior and bring them home early for glorification. 

 

Ananias and Sapphira represent our own gross ingratitude for the Gospel and serve as a warning to us that such ingratitude can be deadly to the body if not the soul. This departure from God makes us ugly but the Gospel is able to make ugly things beautiful again. Therefore, we need to turn to the gospel to be healed of this sin that separates us from God.


C. Departure from Reason

Then notice that selfishness is a departure from reason.  It is the Holy Spirit who effects the transformation of our minds.  That is why the Spirit is specifically mentioned as the one against whom they sinned.  It is he who indwells us and convicts of righteousness, judgment, and sin.  Ananias, consciously overrode the Spirit’s promptings and lied to him about his intentions.  Sin is always a flight from the rational.  Ananias should have remembered that the Spirit lived in his heart and that everyone always stands exposed before God’s throne (Pr. 15:3).  When we sin as believers with new natures, it is because we choose to do so. As Christians who have tasted something better than the sin of our former selves, it is insanity to turn back to that which we have been saved.


D. Restoration of Order

This passage may seem shocking to us in the severity of the consequences Ananias and Sapphira receive. But notice that God’s Gospel judgment was not an end in itself.  His judgments are always intended to drive to repentance.  He loves us at all times, even when we sin.  And his disciplines are expressions of his Fatherly care.  Repentance was the result of this event made obvious by Luke’s frequent mention of the people’s “fear” (2:43; 5:11; 19:17). Ananias and Sapphira’s sin and subsequent death served as a warning to others and was therefore a restorative measure of God to keep people from sin.  

 

In the Bible, fear refers to a comprehensive awareness of God’s primacy in all things.  When one is afraid of an enemy, fear of God looks like trust.  When one is sorry for his sin, fear of God looks like gratitude for forgiveness.  When one appreciates his creation, fear of God looks like wonder.  And when one treats God with careless contempt, fear of God looks like terror.  The full range of these emotions is probably captured by the one word fear here.  The whole Church was suddenly reminded that their gracious God demanded to be first.  And unbelievers were shown that God is no one to be dallied with. 

 

In all this, we must be reminded that the gospel works! Though selfishness causes us to depart from the identity we’ve been given; though it causes us to depart from God himself; and though it causes us to depart from reason, the gospel is the only thing powerful enough to restore us. In our selfishness, we look for freedom but what we find is that selfishness is bondage to the sin nature which we were once held captive. Only the gospel frees us and enables us to live as God intended. Turn to the gospel and be healed!

 

[1] Howard Miller, The Revolutionary College:  American Presbyterian Higher Education 1707-1837 (New York:  New York University Press, 1976), 31.

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