BLESSED SUBTRACTIONS (5 OF 10)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: Acts 4:32, Acts5:32
This content is part of a series.
Blessed Subtractions (5 of 10)
Series: Upon This Rock
Jeff Strite
Acts 4:32-5:32
OPEN: I always loved Church camp. And I especially loved the camp songs. I'm going to sing one of them today, and if you know the song - sing along:
''Ananias and Sapphira got together to conspire
a plot - to cheat - the church and get ahead,
They knew God's power - but did not fear it, tried to cheat the Holy Spirit
Lied to Simon Peter and they both dropped dead!''
(I paused and smiled broadly)
Now, isn't that cute little children's song. We teach our youth that at church camp... ''They both dropped dead.''
You know, there's lots of folks that have a problem with that part of this story - where Ananias and Sapphira die - because it doesn't seem like God should do things like that.
ILLUS: After I graduated from Bible College, I settled into my home church for a while and started a Bible study in my home based on the book of Acts. Part of the group was a friend of mine who attended a liberal church in the community, and he got uneasy when we got to this story. The other guys in the group were talking about God killing Ananias and Sapphira and my friend abruptly said, ''No, God didn't kill them.'' That took the rest of a little bit by surprise and so we tried to point out why it was obvious God did do just that. He just grew more and more agitated. He believed their deaths were a just a result of their shame at being caught, or perhaps it had been a coincidence that they both died with hours of each other. But his main reasoning was that he believed in a God of Love... not a God of judgment.
Now (to give the guy credit) the text doesn't actually SAY that ''God killed them''... but there's no question that's exactly what happened. In fact, that's pretty much what everyone at the time thought. Acts 5:11 tells us that ''... great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.''
And the story even affected folks who weren't even IN the chur ...
Series: Upon This Rock
Jeff Strite
Acts 4:32-5:32
OPEN: I always loved Church camp. And I especially loved the camp songs. I'm going to sing one of them today, and if you know the song - sing along:
''Ananias and Sapphira got together to conspire
a plot - to cheat - the church and get ahead,
They knew God's power - but did not fear it, tried to cheat the Holy Spirit
Lied to Simon Peter and they both dropped dead!''
(I paused and smiled broadly)
Now, isn't that cute little children's song. We teach our youth that at church camp... ''They both dropped dead.''
You know, there's lots of folks that have a problem with that part of this story - where Ananias and Sapphira die - because it doesn't seem like God should do things like that.
ILLUS: After I graduated from Bible College, I settled into my home church for a while and started a Bible study in my home based on the book of Acts. Part of the group was a friend of mine who attended a liberal church in the community, and he got uneasy when we got to this story. The other guys in the group were talking about God killing Ananias and Sapphira and my friend abruptly said, ''No, God didn't kill them.'' That took the rest of a little bit by surprise and so we tried to point out why it was obvious God did do just that. He just grew more and more agitated. He believed their deaths were a just a result of their shame at being caught, or perhaps it had been a coincidence that they both died with hours of each other. But his main reasoning was that he believed in a God of Love... not a God of judgment.
Now (to give the guy credit) the text doesn't actually SAY that ''God killed them''... but there's no question that's exactly what happened. In fact, that's pretty much what everyone at the time thought. Acts 5:11 tells us that ''... great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.''
And the story even affected folks who weren't even IN the chur ...
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