The Danger of Being the Temple
The Danger of Being the Temple – Ananias and Sapphira
In a compelling Bible Teachings delivered at Founded in Truth Fellowship, Matthew Vander Els explored the profound significance of participating in the community of God and the serious consequences of approaching this sacred connection with anything less than complete honesty and commitment. Drawing extensively from both the Old and New Testaments, the teaching centered on the cautionary tale of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, illuminating the dangers of hypocrisy within the fellowship of believers.
The speaker began by establishing a foundational understanding of God's relationship with humanity, referencing the Old Testament and the boundaries God set for Israel to be a people set apart. These boundaries, encompassing distinctions between clean and unclean, holy and profane, were intended to honor God, even extending to practices like abstaining from pork. While some of these regulations were tied to the physical Tabernacle, they represented a commitment to honoring God's holiness. The state of being unclean, though not inherently sinful, restricted access to God's presence in the Tabernacle, acting as a separation from the intimate dwelling of the divine. Examples such as childbirth, bodily discharges, certain diseases, and contact with dead animals or bodies led to this temporary state of uncleanness.
However, as time progressed in Israelite culture, these practices, initially rooted in respect for God's presence, gradually transformed into a checklist for affirming one's identity within the Covenant. This shift intensified after the Babylonian exile and the Maccabean Revolt, when adherence to these commandments became markers of Judean identity, a way to distinguish themselves from the surrounding cultures. The speaker highlighted how Yeshua, or Jesus, strongly criticized the Pharisees for this very mindset. Their emphasis on outward displays of holiness led them to judge others based on their adherence to these self-imposed checklists, neglecting the crucial aspect of inner transformation and the heart of God. Yeshua condemned their hypocrisy, comparing them to beautiful cups filled with decay and whitewashed tombs concealing death. Turning faith into a means of self-exaltation and judgment of others, according to the teaching, amounts to idolatry, placing one's own perceived value above God's true intentions.
The teaching then transitioned to the concept of God's dwelling place throughout history. Initially, God's presence was associated with the holy mountain, Mount Sinai. This presence then moved to the Tabernacle, a tent, and later to the Temple in Jerusalem. In each case, the holiness of the location stemmed not from its physical structure but from God's dwelling within it. The New Testament introduces a radical shift in this understanding. Yeshua proclaimed that he himself was the new Temple, as seen in John chapter 2 when he spoke of destroying the temple and raising it again in three days, referring to his own body. This marked a transition where God's presence would no longer be confined to a physical building but would reside within individuals.
The speaker elaborated on this New Testament understanding, citing passages from Ephesians, 1 Peter, and 1 Corinthians. Believers are described as being built together as a spiritual house, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. Individually, the body of a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit signifies that believers have become sacred, set apart not through their own merit but because of God's presence within them. This new reality brings immense privilege but also carries significant responsibility.
To illustrate the seriousness of this new covenant relationship, the teaching focused on the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. The early Christian community was characterized by a remarkable unity and generosity, with believers sharing their possessions and ensuring that no one was in need. Barnabas is presented as a positive example, selling a field and laying the proceeds at the apostles' feet. In stark contrast, Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property but secretly kept back a portion of the money for themselves while presenting the rest as the full amount. Peter, recognizing their deceit, confronted Ananias, stating that he had not lied to humans but to God, to the Holy Spirit. The immediate and severe consequence was Ananias's death, followed shortly by Sapphira's when she corroborated the lie.
The speaker emphasized that the harshness of this event underscores a crucial point: participating in the community of God is not a trivial matter. With the gift of the Holy Spirit comes the ability to manifest God's presence in the world, demanding reverence, respect, and honor. Ananias and Sapphira's temptation was to appear loyal to the community and receive honor while also being deceptive for their own gain. Their sin was not merely withholding money but bringing a divisive and deceptive spirit into the holy community. It was a form of partial commitment, offering some to God and some to their own selfish desires. This act devalued the significance of being part of God's dwelling place and the power of the Holy Spirit within them.
Drawing a parallel to the Old Testament, the speaker referenced the story of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who offered unauthorized or "strange" fire before the Lord in Leviticus chapter 10. Their transgression, though not explicitly detailed, appeared to be an encroachment on the holiness of God's dwelling place, resulting in their immediate death. Just as Nadab and Abihu approached God with incorrect protocol, Ananias and Sapphira approached the new temple, the community of believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, with deception and partial loyalty.
The teaching highlighted that being the temple of God is an incredible privilege and opportunity to participate in God's plan. However, there is a danger in attempting to manipulate this sacred reality or treat it as commonplace. True participation requires a transformed heart, evident not in outward displays of a checklist of rules but in how one responds to others, the extent of their generosity, forgiveness, and mercy. The world often operates on principles of withholding forgiveness, limiting grace, and prioritizing selfish gain. In contrast, followers of Yeshua are called to embody the character of God, offering forgiveness, extending grace, showing mercy, and practicing radical generosity.
Application for Everyday Life:
- Examine your motives: Regularly assess your reasons for participating in your faith community. Are they rooted in genuine love for God and others, or are there elements of self-seeking or a desire for outward approval?
- Embrace wholehearted commitment: Avoid partial loyalty in your relationship with God and your faith community. Strive for complete dedication and honesty in your actions and intentions.
- Practice radical generosity: Look for opportunities to give generously of your time, resources, and talents, following the example of the early believers.
- Extend forgiveness and mercy: In your interactions with others, even those who may seem undeserving, choose to offer forgiveness and mercy, mirroring God's character.
- Cultivate inner transformation: Focus on the condition of your heart rather than solely on outward religious practices. Allow God's Spirit to transform you from the inside out.
- Recognize the sacredness of the community: Understand that as believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you and your faith community are the temple of God, deserving of reverence and respect.
- Be honest and transparent: Avoid hypocrisy and deception in your dealings with God and your fellow believers.
- Bear the weight of responsibility: Recognize the privilege and responsibility that comes with being a dwelling place for God's Spirit and actively participate in God's mission in the world.
Read the transcript (9,915 words)
Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.
foreign do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you to something bigger for a community to be a part of a place founded on Truth and Love A Place To Worship the King of Kings the Lord of lords and the Son of God welcome to found it in Truth where we're more than just a fellowship we're a family so welcome home foreign everybody uh we are so excited that you are here today among all days uh if this is your first time visiting our community or watching services online uh we are a community of families with diverse backgrounds and individuals who love the
Sabbath we find joy in the entirety of the story of the Bible and the Torah but most of all we're a community that seeks first and foremost to orbit the person of Yeshua Jesus and so welcome to founded in Truth Fellowship we are so glad you're here so today I want to talk about the seriousness of what it means to participate in the community of God as a part of the expanding Temple the place where God has chosen to dwell and to place his spirit and what happens when we ignore the sacredness of what that looks like in a community in the Torah we see
in the story God gives boundaries for Israel lots of boundaries and these boundaries are specifically set forth so that they are to be set apart from the Nations clean and unclean holy and profane and here we honor as many of these things as we can even though for many of them they were in the context of having a physical Tabernacle that's why we don't eat pork and such it's a way that we can go above and beyond and honor God as well as enter another form of worship toward God and being unclean we talk about that a lot in the Old Testament if you do
certain things you're made unclean and it's not a great status but it's not a sin it's not a sin um but it did restrict you from approaching God's presence in the Tabernacle if you had the status of being unclean that's what it was it was an extra boundary it was a space that was put between you and the Holiness of the Tabernacle but it was not a sin some of the things that gave you the status known as unclean kind of odd I don't fully understand them but giving birth to a child gives you a temporary status of being unclean any type of discharge from
most just some discharges from the body usually sexual intercourse and such unclean status for a short period of time certain diseases like leprosy uncleanliness what else geez if you touch certain dead animals and clean if you touch a dead body that's the big one that's not one you could just wash off you needed these elaborate this elaborate ceremony involving these ashes of red heifer and the priest would have to do all kinds for touching the dead body also if you find yourself in a building where someone passed away You're unclean all the same and as much as we do our part to at least honor
these types of boundaries it's rather difficult to keep them today I used to work at a hospital it's also the city morgue down the road here in York County I'm unclean and I'm so sorry because all of you that I've ever hugged over the past eight years ceremonially not to make too light of the subject but that's the contrast right but we have all of these boundaries all of these boundaries and it's a status of separation from the intimate presence of God in the Tabernacle if you approach the Tabernacle in an unclean state where that's when it became considered a severe encroachment because of the
Holiness or the kadusha of the Tabernacle so as time went on in Israelite culture these things rather than remaining in the context of God's presence and out of respect for it they became kind of a checklist to reaffirm one's identity as being in Covenant this definitely started to transform after the Babylonian exile but it reached its peak and more so permanence of society or of Israelite Society after the maccabean Revolt that was the time when the Greek Empire attempted to strip the identity away from the judeans and so the I guess many of The Commandments were then transformed as identity markers in Judean culture it
wasn't simply that you did them out of a heart for God now it was what made you part of God's people as like the Jersey you would wear and they became a checklist if you will to reaffirm one's identity Yeshua criticizes the Pharisees for this type of thinking very harshly because this was the type of thinking that became a way to not only reaffirm your identity which is fine it's Traditions but also to contrast your identity in God against someone else's it was used as a way to judge people to raise yourself up if you checked more things off of a checklist than they did
and Yeshua says he says you blind leaders you strain a gnat but swallow a camel two people got it okay it's meant to be what can you swallow in a camel it's like a political cartoon I guess you can kind of see ah it's spitting and stuff I don't know you strain a gnat the unclean bug but you end up swallowing this huge unclean animal you are like a beautiful Cup on the outside pretty cup pretty cup but have mold and old food built up on the inside a beautiful tomb that's been whitewashed but inside just decaying corpse flesh bones maggots the Pharisees had come
to depend on their outward display of holiness to justify their identity in a relationship with God as long as I look holy to everyone then I can claim the identity of being the people of God to the point where their entire Faith or at least some their entire Faith was grounded in this principle of making sure other people thought they were holy and not actualizing the heart of God on the inside and whenever you turn the Bible into a checklist that you believe you can manipulate or use to manipulate God's love and mercy and forgiveness and Grace with that's when you become an idolater you
fall on your face before the idol of your own extravagant self-attributed value above everyone else and it's always rooted in Pride arrogance and must be accompanied with manipulated Judgment of others as you eat the fruit of the tree this is what Yeshua was completely against this principle of outward religion but a neglect of the transformation of what actually should be the foundation of everything that you live out because of your connection with God what happens in your heart it got so bad that the Pharisees were constantly trying to one-up each other in the first century that's how you have so many different sects that used
to argue with each other house of shamai House of hello and such different standards of how to keep the Commandments they just kind of inch up you know this is actually the correct way this is the correct way so they began expanding the checklist of Holiness outside of what the Bible says and God commanded in the Torah and they did this so they could view themselves even more Holier than other people and be able to look down and judge others how many of you guys have family traditions a couple people have true I love tradition tradition is awesome tradition breeds reverence right tradition in and
of itself is just something you do but generally speaking tradition breeds reverence for whatever it's connected to so if you have family traditions that are usually unique it's what you do I mean Mr waffle every single time we drive down 85 South there is this amazing Little Gym called Mr waffle and it's it's kind of like Waffle House but better and if you walk inside it is a time machine back to 1994 the prices haven't even changed you walk in there's a smoking section that is active I forgot what cigarettes smell like I walk in and where am I it's amazing the most of the
posters have changed uh the sign out front looks like it has not been updated since 1998. it's falling apart and it was just an amazing experience for us to finally go and I bought a t-shirt but every single time we drive past it tradition is to in the funniest voice ever all of us say I don't know why it's just something we started doing all the kids started mimicking it it's kind of a dumb tradition it's just a tradition but it breeds reverence of the connection of our family traveling that Highway and interstate so often that we're once again reminded of another adventure that we're
on now that's a small tradition other people have bigger traditions and so on and so forth Traditions are not bad they never are bad they tend to breed reverence that's what they're meant to do what the Pharisees were caught doing is instead of making Traditions that breed reverence to the Commandments that they begin making traditions that were added to the Commandments as a vessel as a weapon as a justification to look down on others and say I'm closer to God than you are Matthew chapter 15 verse 1. then some of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked
hey why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders they don't wash their hands before they eat now don't get me wrong I mean it's a good tradition to have Jesus replied and why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition for God said honor your father and mother and anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death but you say that if anyone declares what might have been used to help their father and mother as devoted to God they are not to honor their father and mother with it thus you nullify the word of
God for the sake of your additions things that you hold value to that are only used to weaponize your faith you hypocrites Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you imagine that Yeshua is going back to an Isaiah is condemning the Israelites before they go into Babylon Exile the ultimate punishment and Yeshua says yeah he's talking about you this is what got Israel put in Babylon your attitude Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you these people honor me with their lips but they're their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain they're teaching are merely human rules Jesus called the crowd to
him and said listen and understand what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them but what comes out of their mouth that is what really defiles them then the disciples came to him and asked do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this he replied every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots leave them they are blind guides if blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit then Peter said hey explain this Parable to us and Yeshua and all of his humility said are you so dull are you still dumb like why
are you how do you not get this I'd like to think he was joking you sure asked them are you still so dull Peter don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body anatomy everyone everyone knows that but the things that come out of a person's mouth they come from the heart and these defile them for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false testimony slander these are what defile a person but eating with unwashed hands doesn't defile them eating with unwashed hands is not a good enough reason for someone to
be concerned about you and your righteousness and holiness the people who thought they were the most holy and qualified begin to dictate the standards of Holiness even those outside of scripture your disciples aren't going to wash their hands before they eat and Yeshua calls them out again for outwardly showing that they are devoting and making gifts set apart for God holy to God resources that they're going to give to God they have these resources treasure money something that they're devoting to God so they can feed this internal fake system that fertilizes their pride and Judgment of others while ignoring their mother and father who are
in need harsh thing to be called out on and here Yeshua says you're worried about dust and dirt in the hands of disciples even more so you're so worried about what they are eating so you can contrast yourself from them it's not what they're eating that's the following them it's you trying to manipulate God and God's word that defiles you and guys I'm gonna go for the rest of this outline the rest of the message but I'm gonna admit I am so hypocritical when it comes to reading the scriptures believing the scriptures understanding how my heart is supposed to respond to the scriptures and actually
doing it all the time I practice I'm starting to practice every day every person I meet I've run the narrative in the script of who they are in the eyes of God and who I'm supposed to be I'm trying but I am not perfect but I hope one day one day I might get it totally right until then I continue practicing because I'm totally guilty of this totally guilty judging other people for no reason who cares about what comes out in the toilet so insignificant compared to what is being manufactured in our hearts and into our kids as a result and into the disciples that
you're making he says the Pharisees Yeshua goes on to say in Matthew 23 that this type of thinking produces disciples that you're making and they're actually Disciples of hell with the hearts that you have and the way that you manipulate God's word the disciples you're making are Disciples of hell not of God every plant that is not planted by the heavenly father will be rooted up Holiness is important but yeshua's teaching radically flipped those standards on their heads who cares about your checklist when you're just like the rest of the world on the inside it's a very serious thing and we're going to turn to
acts in a moment and see just how serious it is remember when Yeshua was tempted in the wilderness of course we do Luke Chapter 4 verses 1 through 13 it says Yeshua Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan and was led by the spirit Into the Wilderness where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil the devil tempts them as we know she was a little hungry 40 days Moses right it's the connection to the new Moses 40 days and the devil says hey why don't you turn these rocks into bread and Yeshua responds it's written that you don't live by bread
alone takes them up to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the earth and their Glory I will give all of this to you which is funny because we have a high mountain it's Everest or it's the other one that's a little bit higher than it obvious Kilimanjaro is it it's one of them and you can stand on the top of that mountain and still not see all the kingdoms of the earth I don't know it's just kind of a weird phrase there and and I almost wonder if they're trying to get you to play the movie in your head of seeing
all of the kingdoms of the earth and that's what the devil presented before Yeshua because Temptation always kind of starts in our heads doesn't it it always starts as a movie that begins to play and the Temptation is where the movie ends up and maybe if we indulge we can have what's at the end of the film that we just fabricated in our mind anyone else you meditate on sin when you're tempted you sit there and watch the movie all the kingdoms of the Earth all of them in their Glory will be yours no Worship the Lord your God and serve him only was yeshua's
response devil tells him to throw himself off the top of the temple so everyone can see the angels that come down and save them not even your foot hit the ground do not Test the Lord your God do not test and what happened right before this remember before Yeshua goes in the wilderness when he's baptized right we're going to be jumping between Luke and ax here but a few things I want to point out how the author which was who of the Gospel of Luke Luke how the author Luke directs the scene in his film because all of the Gospel authors have their film that
they're directing right their presentation of the ministry of Yeshua so what happens right before this temptation takes place you have the baptism of Yeshua and what comes down from heaven when he's baptized Luke chapter 3 verse 21 when all the people were being baptized Jesus was baptized too and as he was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice Came From Heaven you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased so when Yeshua is baptized the Holy Spirit comes and it is accompanied by sounds and a visual manifestation God's
voice and a dove then Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and he's led by the Holy Spirit and he vanquishes the devil when he's tempted defeats the devil holy spirit's given fills his heart he's tempted the devil's defeated and this is how the ministry of Yeshua begins in Luke this pattern Luke this author also wrote another book that we find in the New Testament it would be the book of Acts all right and it's called Acts because why it's the acts of Yeshua and the Acts of the Apostles so Luke is about the ministry and the acts of Yeshua and how that played out
and acts is when that Ministry begins to be carried on by the apostles and the church so how does the ministry of the followers of Yeshua begin well it begins with a baptism right this is when Yeshua himself is at the beginning of Acts is ascending into heaven and here's what he has to say in Acts chapter 1 verse 5 for John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit there's a baptism at Pentecost and what comes down from heaven at Pentecost the Holy Spirit and it is accompanied with sounds and a visual manifestation like a rushing
wind and tongues of Fire the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of the people and they're LED with the Holy Spirit and they Vanquish the devil defeating them and they they begin expanding this new Humanity that Yeshua has begun has started and that's how it all starts right that easy kind of kinda sorta a couple bumps in the road the Holy Spirit does come the Holy Spirit does fill the Believers and they are led to create a community that is so set apart from the rest of the world specifically through the attributes of its generosity towards others through their selflessness through their passion of what God
is doing and through their love mostly the first generation of Christ followers saw themselves as this new Humanity of New Creation that lived under the reign of King Jesus having a new heart filled with a new spirit the life-giving spirit of God the Holy Spirit and Luke is not shy to overlap the stories of yeshua's ministry in his gospel account with theirs and acts I think I have a little a little table of contents yeah lots of parallels and I believe that Luke intentionally crafts together or highlights emphasizes to make these connections yeshua's message is rejected in Nazareth in Luke 4. the community's message is
rejected in Jerusalem in Acts three to five Herod animus intends to kill Yeshua in Luke 13 or Luke 1 3 while Herod Agrippa attempts to kill Peter in Acts 12. Luke 14 through 18 contains the gospel to the outcasts while acts 13 through 20 contains the gospel that now includes those who were outcasts the Gentiles we see the preaching of the Old Testament fulfilled in Yeshua in Luke 4 24. and Peter preaching the same thing in Acts 2 casting out unclean spirits in Luke Peter does the same thing healing the lame in Luke Peter does the same thing raising the dead and Luke Peter does
the same thing healing by touch or Shadow clothes Luke 8 woman with the issue of blood touches His Garment acts 5 Peter walks around and his shadow hits somebody that's cool I was like whoa I it's awesome of course it did you know it's like that's so awesome Luke is smart the way he's directing the story right because he could have directed it I mean the events happened right he has a security camera footage but he can only tell one aspect of it and this is how we choose to form chose to formulate it he's retelling the story in such a way that you see
Yeshua being duplicated yeshua's Ministry is still going it's still doing the same pattern he is still working except for now he's being fruitful and multiplying his images are growing so everything is going great right everything's going great according to plan except for the part about defeating the devil and overcoming temptation because there's a story right near the beginning of this community where there's a married couple and they have become Yeshua followers and they are well known among this new scandalous radical diverse community and they give in to a Temptation and their names are ananias and uh and uh not Superior thank you Sapphire sometimes it
doesn't click Sapphire so let's read it Acts chapter 4 verse 32 all the Believers were in one heart and mind no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own but they shared everything they had with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them for from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them they brought money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone in need Joseph A levite from
Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas which is called the son of encouragement he sold a field he a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet so there we go here's part A of the story this new community has committed to each other on such a level of loyalty such a commitment toward one another that the things they gave value to while in the world these things are so temporal now that they let them go sold it all and poured it back into the community there was no needy persons among them it's an echo from a verse a scripture
in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 15. it's an echo from the ideal Utopia that God offers Israel if they do not Harbor self-centeredness in their hearts and they respond to the world as the most generous Nation out of everyone it's Deuteronomy 15 4. how be it there shall be no needy among you for the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it now Deuteronomy 15 is speaking of this release of debt that happens every seven years the shemitah or of some suggest an alternative Jubilee account but the idea is that the Sabbath would extend beyond
a single day observance once a week to an annual observance every seven years all debt all loans all anything borrowed would be wiped a reset button slaves would be set free there would be no nothing no Financial or economic burdens on anyone now one side of me is like yes that sounds great another side of me is like that makes me anxious because I don't understand how any of that could work with the I'm used to this economy I understand how this works I don't know how it works that's scary all of that credit card debt everyone just got excited now yeah this is good
yeah wiped wiped and this is what God said listen you do this and do not Harbor in your heart I don't know it's going to be the year of release coming up and I don't want to give out any money I don't want to support anybody I don't want to do anything poor people I don't want to mess with them I don't want to have to lose anything says don't say that in your heart don't be self-centered in this nation don't be self-centered and greedy among your people and if you are willing to drop your pride and arrogance and greed of you you and look
at us us you will never want the needy will not be among you in fact you will grow to be the wealthiest nation in the world you will become a patron because of your generosity to All Nations they will come to you for resources and you will distribute it to them even and that is the promise that God gives to a nation that practices generosity on such a scale and we know they didn't do that but that's where that Echo comes from in Acts as people are attempting to live out this promise among each other this is what the community was attempting to do they
had experienced the greatest Jubilee the Sabbath incarnate into flesh Yeshua and now they're living it out as a community again gives me anxiety I love you all I do gives me anxiety they were doing it and this levite sells his land not a requirement don't have to do that it's just the spirit of generosity and commitment that was so prevalent that it was contagious and he brings the money of the land he sold and placed it at the feet of the Apostles Luke gives us a positive example of what the member of this community does to show his loyalty to it and then we go
to the next verse which begins chapter 5 verse 1. now there was a man named ananias together with his wife sapara also sold a piece of property 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 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 from the land didn't it belong to you before it was even 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 just human beings but to God when ananias heard this he fell down and died a great fear seized all who heard what had happened then some young men came forward wrapped his body and carried it out and buried him and three hours later his wife came in not knowing what had happened Peter asked her tell me is this the price you and ananias got for the land yes she said that's the price that's all of it every bit of it Peter said to her how could you conspire to test the spirit
of the Lord listen the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well and at that moment she fell down at his feet and died then the young men came in finding her dead carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events this is the first time Ecclesia is used the Greek word for church is used this point after the refocus and the severity of what it means to be this community of God and after this is when the gospel breaks
forth and thousands among thousands are impacted by it and the Ecclesia the church expands out but it seems a bit harsh right no one else reads that manner they lied a little bit and maybe it's because you know we lie a little bit seems a little harsh they died they lied and they died they weren't required to sell the land they were not required to give all the money they lied and dead they sold the land and they tried to imitate what Barnabas did I sold it all and here's all the money I got from it it's harsh and the reason why it's so harsh
this story is because I believe Luke is trying to portray a very important point about the believing community it's not a game it's not a game it's an extremely serious thing to say that you participate in farce Holiness is unacceptable if you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit you need to realize something you have been given the ability to invoke the spirit of God through your actions and faith and there are boundaries that come with that there is a formality and a respect and honor that comes with that and here this couple was tempted wanted to show that they were loyal to the
community just like everyone else they wanted to be honored but they also wanted to be deceptive and lie say that they were giving all the money but in reality they kept some for themselves so in Acts the launch of the ministry of the Apostles and Believers baptism happens Holy Spirit comes noise and seeing things and then Temptation comes just like Yeshua and instead of the Holy Spirit filling the hearts of this married couple Satan fills their hearts instead of trying to defeat the Devil they now bring a divisive and deceptive Spirit into the holy community and Peter calls them out on it Peter calls out
the devil's plan and he protects the community from allowing them to influence it with the ways of the world and how the world operates and having a heart of the world just with Holiness spray painted on it there's a parallel story in the Old Testament that echoes are heard from here and it's another story where two people wanted to offer something and end up dying as a result it's the sons of Aaron the first high priest in the Torah in Leviticus chapter 16 we read that's what it says Aaron's sons this is right after the the the priests have been inaugurated Aaron's sons nadab and
by who took their sensors put fire in them and added incense and they offered unauthorized fire some of your translations say Strange Fire before the Lord contrary to his command so fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord Moses then said to Aaron this is what the Lord spoke of when he said among those who approach me I will be proved holy in the sight of all the people I will be honored and Aaron remained silent Moses summoned Misha L and Zella elzavan sons of Aaron's uncle uzal and said to them come here carry your
cousins outside the camp away from in front of the sanctuary so they came and carried them and they were still wrapped in their tunics outside the camp as Moses commanded pretty peculiar story we've all heard of it at least other translations as I said the Strange Fire they offered Strange Fire before the Lord and we're really not told what specifically happened plethora of theories but from the language used it appears they encroached on the Holiness of the dwelling place of the spirit of God the glory of God the presence of God they took sensors put fire in it and then put incense on it and
there's only one event where something with this same prescription takes place and it's found in Leviticus 16 verse 12. for the day of atonement Yom Kippur it's the one day of the year where the high priest is allowed to go Beyond the Veil and only his tunic linen tunic he goes beyond the veil into the holiest of holies but before he goes in he takes a sensor and he takes fire from The Altar and puts it on the sensor with the coals and then he takes incense in and as soon as he gets there to enter into the intimate presence and Dwelling Place of God
he puts the incense on it to fill the place with smoke and incense and the aroma Aaron's sons went into the presence of God with an incorrect protocol something they did something with their offering that minimized The Dwelling Place of God and they dropped dead before the Lord and some young men came and carried them out still wrapped in their tunics as they were taken outside the camp in the Hebrew Bible we learn how God is first introduced as the god of the mountain Mount Sinai right my Horeb Moses is on the mountain and is the mountain holy that God resides on yeah there's a
bush on fire and what's he say take off your sandals for this is Holy Ground was the mountain in of itself holy no what made it holy God's dwelling on it his occupation of it made it holy and so God's dwelling went from the mountain and it transitioned to a tint the presence moves to a tenth the Tabernacle a bunch of poles and animal skins was the tent holy in and of itself no it was made holy because of the presence of God that dwelled within it and the presence of God transitioned and moved away from a tent into a house a temple and was
the temple holy in and of itself no it was made holy because of the dwelling place of God's presence within it a transition takes place when we're introduced to the New Testament and the story of Yeshua coming so Yeshua has this vision and this mission that there's going to be something bigger that's going to take place God is going to invade Earth in a way that no one Humanity has ever seen and it's going to cause such a shock wave it's going to be crazy radical and not just life-changing but world-changing and he saw a vision where God's presence and Dwelling Place would actually manifest
itself among the people as they would become the temple not in a house and we see this in John Chapter 2 Yeshua starts his ministry in John by going into the temple and flipping tables over causing a big Ruckus right instantly people mad at him and here's what it says in John 2 19 they're asking though what are you doing he says Jesus answered them he says destroy this Temple and I will raise it again in three days and they replied it's taken 46 years to do the renovations on herod's Temple and you're going to raise it up in three days and here we have
little authors note here from John but the temple he had spoken of was his body after he was raised from the dead his disciples recalled what he had said then they believed the scripture in the words that he had spoken hmm Yeshua speaking of a transition of the dwelling place in the presence of God that's going to take place another transition not from a mountain to a tent not from a tent to a house but from a house to himself another transition is taking place of God's presence and it started with Yeshua because he is the Chief Cornerstone of the new Temple but who makes
up the bricks and the stones of the rest of the Temple this new Temple that God's presence is going to make his place known in Ephesians 2 verse 20 Paul's a big fan of this perspective says you are built on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the Chief Cornerstone in him the whole building is joined together and Rises to become a holy Temple in the Lord and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God Lives by his spirit Peter first Peter 2 5 you also like living stones are being built into
a spiritual house to be the holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ First Corinthians 6 19 do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you if that's not just something to stop and meditate on who was in you whom you have received from God you are not your own and this is one of these verses that I feel like we'd love to use as a clobber verse you know what those are right yes right we love to use as a copper and because the context is something much more severe here we we I
used to use it to justify I went through a little crunchy time and I don't drink sodas because it's bad for you or whatnot but I love sodas now but anyway um and you know this would be a perfect verse someone drinking sodas and I'm drinking Zevia you know it's the kosher soda and hey don't you know your body's the Temple of the Holy Spirit and you're drinking that soda or smoking that cigarette it's not good to smoke cigarettes Little Death sticks it'll kill you kill you but that's not the context of this verse and then do what you eat preservatives that's your own thing
probably gonna die early but that's not what this verse talks about here's the here's the context here's what Paul's saying about it he's speaking about a level of Holiness of what we're doing with our bodies to our bodies and he says this flee from sexual immorality all other sins a person commits are outside the body but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God you are not your own drinking that soda is not a sin let's not lighten the scripture and make
it a diet aspartame-filled scripture that was bad I know it's something much more serious that we're supposed to embody here God help me practice the severity of this if you've committed yourself in Allegiance or faith to Yeshua to Christ and Christ Alone the scriptures say that you receive this gift of the Holy Spirit and that's an amen moment the presence of God dwells within you and among you as his people wherever the presence of God dwells is just like the mountain in the tent in the house is Holy you have become something sacred and set apart not in and of yourself but because the presence
of God dwells in and among you act speaks of the followers of Yeshua invoking the Holy Spirit it manifesting through them and healing and testimony proclaiming the gospel this new type of world that exists right now a world of Life blessing of Mercy forgiveness of generosity that is under the reign of King Yeshua and it's not something to be taken lightly and I believe that is why Luke is so intentional in the way he tells the story of these people and how it sounds so harsh because he did not have to include this story in his film I would not have because it's a bit
of a downer of the of the trajectory of what is taking place and all of a sudden he thought it needed to be in there Luke is including it in here to let us know that just because we are priests just because we have intimate access to the sacred and the holy presence of God that does not mean we're entitled to it nor does it mean we can devalue the level of respect and Holiness that it deserves ananias it's fire were the white-washed tombs filled with a heart that had not been transformed hey dab and abihu offered something that was disrespectful in God's presence in
his Temple Anaya ananias and Sapphira offered something that was disrespectful in his Temple the Temple of the community of believers and the thing they offered wasn't money although that was the vessel for what they ended up offering The Strange Fire they offered and Luke is intentional about that he writes a lot about money in economics throughout his gospel account and acts filled with The Parables of the Yeshua Tales but the thing these two offered was not a partial payment but a partial commitment partial loyalty they will give some to God through the community but they are going to give some to Satan as well we
want to fit in we want to be praised everybody loves affirmation right unless you don't know how to respond to it and then it's awkward everybody loves to feel like they're doing a good job right we love that partial loyalty partial loyalty so they brought deception into the house of God the community of believers their Church this Fellowship the community they brought their idolatry of self-seeking agendas instead of selfless Pursuits that was their sin they devalued what it meant to be a part of the community of God they devalued the power of the Holy Spirit within them the things it gives you the strength and
the courage to actually do the people it gives you the courage and boldness to approach to show love and forgiveness and kindness to the ability the gift to be able to walk out in such a world filled with Hellfire and to embody A Little Piece of Heaven that it does not understand it's power Heather spoke about that just last week it was incredible ask the power but it comes at a sacrifice of the Heart of Stone that is a part of this world you can't take that with you it has to be transformed in order for the spirit to fill it so Ezekiel says they
devalued what it meant to be part of the community of God they devoured the power of the Holy Spirit within them they devalued the entire place where God chose to dwell and they died First Corinthians 3 16. don't you know here's another verse of p uh Paul don't you know that you yourself are God's Temple and that God's spirit dwells in your midst if anyone harms or destroys God's Temple God will destroy that person for God's Temple is sacred and you together are that Temple an important element in the book of Acts is the work in the presence of the Holy Spirit of course that's
the theme the power the Holy Spirit carried out the work of Jesus that he had done in the crucifixion in his ministry the Holy Spirit carried out God's Mission until the apostles were anointed the Holy Spirit gave birth to this early Community what we would call the church this early congregation was a Spirit-filled congregation it's been suggested as well that perhaps the crime of ananias and Sapphire were it wasn't withholding money or lying to the apostles but their crime was in their refusal or inability to see the community as a community born and led by the Holy Spirit as such their attempt at Deception was
a crime against the spirit itself symbolic of Satan's opposition to God they had allowed themselves to be used by Satan they had forgotten whose they were they belonged to the Risen Messiah not the devil if this new Fellowship this new church this new community was going to thrive it needed honest commitment from its members and the sin of hypocrisy could not be tolerated half in half out so punishment was Swift and sure another issue has to do with the severity of the punishment it's difficult I struggle with this part of the story God just strikes someone dead some commentators suggest that ananias and Sapphire behaved
like individuals in a context of people striving to be a community of one heart and one soul but not really going all in it's like Safari would represent people who seek getting something for nothing if you will these people want to reap big rewards without expending much time and energy in the community they want the status of being a part of the community without actually wholeheartedly being committed to it they think they can pull something over the system and kind of manipulate it and get through we're gonna have a little Nest Egg we can keep while getting the honor and they paid the price for
trying to manipulate and deceive others based on their own selfish wants not always clear May motivate some people everyone's different but sometimes people like that feel that they're owed something and they're entitled to something and so they come and they exploit the generosity and the resources of their community only trying to give enough as we see here to blend in as if they were actual members of it fully committed and this of course happens today all the time this is American lifestyle that we're taught specifically I would say the American Evangelical standard we feel entitled to what our fellowship can give us we're consumers it's
what we do we feel entitled but Maine never really want to become fully part of it never really truly be loyal in participating and because the very Foundation of our nation is to Buck leadership and buck Authority and always have an enemy to be 90 was it 93 of the years this nation's been around we've already we've been in war we love having an enemy that we can Buck against it's just who we are it's what our country is based on it's what it's founded on we're always ready to leave and divide the community as if it would never had any weight because of this
attitude in the back of our heads always have to have some type of conflict in order for us to maintain the way of life that we've been brought up in and so we Church hop at the slightest discomfort some of us are heavy consumers we like things and we spend large sum of money on things that we like Electronics big gadgets small stuff we accumulate stuff because it hits us with dopamine and we think it's going to make us happy if we keep doing it buy that new car and it's awesome for two months and you get a mortgage move not mortgage might as well
be a mortgage payment five or six years we Chase these things and our quest for bigger and better things it's our quest to keep up with the Joneses because we've never done that jealousy because we're consumer when someone else has something so easy it's fire and ananias had a grand opportunity to be a part of the community of God they had the opportunity to lean on the teachings of Yeshua and use the power and the trust of the Holy Spirit to defeat temptation they had the opportunity to show that hunger is not a given in the world based on how this community acted they had
the opportunity to show that widows and orphans could live better than second-class citizens in the first century as being a part of this community the opportunity to not invite people to come experience the presence of God and some physical Temple but to live out the presence of God expanding outward with no walls nothing stopping it like that shock wave and it comes by not looking and acting like the world as the Pharisees did Yeshua says looking like the world looks like faking your loyalty to the community of God because you wear masks and that's what the world teaches us to do they teach us to
wear masks and we swap out the masks to manipulate the situations that we want to excel in so we can benefit from them and here here they were invited in to take off the mask and stop that stupid Pursuit and live out with the power of what the holy spirit is calling you to do and practice the teachings of Yeshua wholeheartedly looking at the world looks like withholding forgiveness for example it's how the world operates looking like the world is not giving Mercy to those that the world says does not deserve it looking like the world looks like putting boundaries on Grace instead of your
own selfish tendencies in your heart looking like the world looks like justifying not being generous and making excuses for selfish gain so forgive your enemies forgive them the ones that the world says Needs To Die forgive him why well Yeshua says in Matthew 5 44 because that is how we imitate Our Father in heaven if we want to be holy like God that's how we respond to conflict that's how we respond to oppression that's how we respond to enemies that hate us give Grace where the world says it's dumb to do so give Mercy when the world says it's not allowed here and love love
those in the world through the power and courage the Holy Spirit and the strength the holy spirit will give you love those in the world that the world tells you are undeserving of it love those at the Pharisees we'll try to tell you our undeserving of it because the Pharisees are still around and they're still using the Bible as a weapon to exalt themselves up and to put others down teach your children the words of Yeshua to store up Treasures in Heaven where moths and Vermin cannot destroy it and thieves cannot steal it to be generous in radical ways to become such a part of
your lifestyle that what's Yeshua say your left hand won't even know what your right hand is doing I haven't gotten there yet because I always know but practicing and to do it in secret not to show it off so you can get honor as they did look I'm a part of the community too I'm just like you guys just like Barnabas why because where your treasure is that's where your heart is that's what Yeshua says great test by the way that nobody likes to take where's your treasure at and that's where your Allegiance and your devotion is those are the things in your life that
you give great emphasis and priority to sometimes it's good sometimes it's not you'll know pretty quick being the temple of God is an amazing privilege what an Incredible Gift and what an incredible absolute opportunity to be a part of God's grand plan foretold in the scriptures you are a part of that you're a part of that we talk about the reverence of the high priest going to the holiest of holies that's you why would he ever want this you are part of the explosion caused by God invading Earth and the question that Luke is asking is Will you participate in that will you live it
out with the seriousness that it deserves or will you just wear it as a bad Halloween costume while underneath you're content with where your heart has always been in the world there is a danger in being part of the Sacred Dwelling Place of God's presence and attempting to manipulate it to make it common practice the protocol of the priests not with farce examples of holiness showing off look I have my checklist but with what's here and how you're responding to everyone else in the world and what are you willing to sacrifice and how far does your generosity go and how far does your forgiveness go
that's a that's a tough one how far will your mercy go how far will you take your grace toward others how far will you take empathy for the wicked how far will you take the power of the holy spirit that allegedly is within us right now or will we squander it or even worse manipulate it and exploit it for our own selfish gain there is a danger in being the temple and so I want to conclude with Hebrews chapter 12 verses 28 through 29. and it says this therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us be thankful and so worship
God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire those tongues of fire that came upon the heads of Mary and the apostles and the Believers at Pentecost the same fire that shot out and killed Aaron's sons there is a weight to it and there's a responsibility to it and so please stand as we conclude worship and we're gonna conclude in worship and during this time guys I invite you to pray to meditate on being the temple to meditate on the spirit of God to meditate on what the strength that it allegedly gives you is supposed to be doing in your life
where's your heart and are you prepared to Bear the weight of what that responsibility is of being part of the community of God and so guys if you need prayer today we'll have a prayer team on either side of the room if you have something that you'd like to leave here today can be a situation you're going through it can be something that's just been weighing you down or maybe you have something that you found that you didn't know was inside your heart today you'd love some prayer for that guys take advantage of this Alvina volcano Our Father our King father we thank you for
your mercy your grace and we thank you for your forgiveness this opportunity to be your proxy in the world that you would give your spirit to us to manifest through us for your sake father I ask that you would remind us of the weight of that not in a way that would hold us back not in a way that we would be scared to be enabled to change the world father that would increase our focus on what we're supposed to be doing with that power with that strength with that comfort with your spirit of life and that you would give us the boldness to sacrifice
like Yeshua you would give us the boldness to be generous like Barnabas you would give us the boldness to have mercy to have Grace to forgive and to stand in the way of evil in this world that you would give us the boldness not to hesitate to approach another person in this world created in the image of God with insurmountable value in your eyes because they're of the world we're not called to judge father we're called to represent you may your Holy Spirit enable us to act actually do that in a way that transforms the world for your sake that your temple would continue to
expand until all of creation every soul is your Dwelling Place we thank you Father for your grace we thank you for your scriptures and we thank you for your grace as we practice being conformed to the image of Yeshua with this power and yeshua's name we pray amen let's sing the Shema eyes I don't know but shall give up live your life hero Israel the Lord Is Our God the Lord is one blessed is the name of his glorious Kingdom for all eternity and may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you
and may the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his shalom amen we pray this message has blessed and encouraged you and your relationship with God and we hope that it has made the Bible more beautiful and more powerful in its impact in your life founded in Truth Fellowship exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives if this message has blessed you or if you see God working in and through this ministry we invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us so that the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's
word continues to reach all nations if you would like to take part in this Mission and you can do so at foundingtruth.com give or you can scan the QR code on the screen these offerings go toward providing resources for both our local Fellowship as well as our online Ministry but also our many Outreach Ministries including our foster care and adoption Ministry local charity Outreach Ministry our International online children's ministry and any future Ministries that the Lord would allow us to walk through and walk in to impact the world around us with his love and the Bold proclamation of the Gospel of King Yeshua we thank
you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you next time shalom
