Is fear ever a good thing? Some people would say no, they believe fear is destructive. And fear can be very destructive. For some people life is crippled by fear, in some cases ungrounded fear or worry. In the New Testament we find that Jesus, time and again says to his disciples ‘do not fear’; probably on balance that is what most of us need to be told. Many of us suffer from fears that are a hindrance in our lives.

But yet there is also an appropriate place for fear. Jesus also taught that we should fear God. That is a truth that is firmly established in the scriptures. In the modern western world in the late 20th century, the fear of God generally became a discarded idea. If you spoke of the fear of God, you were regarded as rather naïve; the general consensus was that God is quite benign. At times the church has been guilty of using fear in a destructive way, but where the church has abandoned the idea that there is such a thing as an appropriate fear of God, then far more destructive fears have materialised.

There is much fear in our modern world. Fear of terrorism, fear of the future, fear of the unknown; these are all things that trouble people in our world today. It is far better for men and women to have a healthy fear and respect for a loving God, than to be at the mercy of fears of the unknown in a world they believe is meaningless and out of control. Many people do believe that life is meaningless and the world is out of control and live in the despair that results from such beliefs.

The reason why fear is necessary is because we live in a fallen world. Our fallen, lazy, selfish human nature needs a degree of fear to motivate us to do the right thing. If we lived in a perfect world, perhaps we wouldn’t need fear; we would do the right thing out of a motive of love and the goodness of our hearts. As Christians we should be moving toward those higher motivations, where we do not need fear as a motive. Perfect love casts out fear. But for most us, our love is still not perfect.

For many people, learning to fear God is a vital part of their conversion. It was for me. Facing up to fact that one day I would have to face a holy God was part of the process of bringing me to repentance and discovering the wonder of God’s love and forgiveness. It was so for hymn writer John Newton. He expresses it so clearly in the words we know so well: ‘twas grace that taught my heart to fear….’

There are some people however, for whom fear plays no part in conversion, some people respond to God’s love out of gratitude and joy, they are like the man who finds treasure hidden in a field and goes out and buys the whole field for joy. People are different; God works with different people in different ways. But fear is an instrument that God in his love and wisdom often uses to keep us and guide his children and his church in his ways.

In our passage this morning we see something of the fear of God at work in the early church. In Ch 5 v 11 following the incident with Ananias and Sapphira we read that fear seized whole church. Lets look at that dramatic story, and see what we can learn from it. The story begins in the context of the extraordinary generosity of the early Christians. Believers were in the habit of selling property, and bringing the proceeds to the apostles to use to provide for the needs of the fellowship. At the end of chapter 4 there is the example given of Barnabus, a Jewish believer from Cyprus who sold a field he owned, brought the complete proceeds of the sale to the apostles to be used for providing for the needs of the fellowship. Now lets be quite clear about this, Barnabus did not have to sell the field; he sold it of his own free choice. When he had sold the field, he was free to do what he liked with the money, he could have kept it, or he could have given all or part of it away; it’s all clearly spelt out by Peter in v4. The giving in the early church was done on a free voluntary basis, within the context of love for God and each other.

But then thing go tragically wrong. Ananias and Sapphira come on the scene. They too sell some property. But deception comes into play. They lie about how much money they made for the land. They tell the church that it was considerably less than they actually received. Then they bring this lower amount and give it to the apostles, on the pretext that they are giving all they had received.

Their sin was dishonesty and pride. They wanted the kudos that they thought Barnabus had gained by his generosity, but without exhibiting the same generosity. It was the old sin of hypocrisy that Jesus had so strongly condemned in his teaching, the sin of pretending to something you are not. Why was the punishment so severe? Dishonesty is such a destructive thing in a community. It causes trust to break down. Honesty and trust are so vital to human relationships.

Peter gives us something of a clue. As to why it was such a terrible thing to do. He says you have lied to the Holy Spirit. That infant church there in Jerusalem was Christ’s presence on earth. It was the community entrusted with being the light of the world. Theirs was the task of proclaiming the gospel to all the world, not only proclaiming it, but also living it out with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We need to remember too that the Holy Spirit is Holy. He is completely pure because he is God. Holiness and sin cannot mix. What is by far the most common outcome when sin manifests itself in the church is that the Spirit is grieved, and the Spirit to an extent leaves a church. We know from church history how the Spirit can leave a church. In the letter to the church at Laodicea, the Spirit has left the church, and Jesus says to that church I am standing outside knocking at the door.

The Spirit can leave a church because of sin, but the Spirit will be present in other churches, shining the light of the gospel. But there was no other church in Acts 5, just the church at Jerusalem. Perhaps it was because the witness of that church had to be maintained at all costs that this severe judgment came upon Ananias and Sapphira.

How can we guard ourselves from the sins of pride that were the downfall of that unhappy couple? We all have a tendency to pride. We really would like others to see us as paragons of virtue. The temptations are so real. May be one thing that will help in this respect is something that Jesus taught about doing our giving in secret. If we give secretly, no one will know, there is no temptation to show off our giving.
That’s one reason why I think its far better to have bags for the offering rather than a plate. Another thing that can help us it to beware of the fear of what people will think of us. To some extent this was the temptation that Ananias and Saphira fell for. Their main concern, the thing that motivated their actions was a desire for human praise. The thing that we have to remember is that all that really counts in the end is what God thinks of us.

A third thing that can keep us on the right track is the thing that we will be reminded of in a little while when we share the bread and wine around the table. The basis of our relationship with God, the basis of our belonging to the church is that we are sinners who stand in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are people who have faced up to our sin, who have swallowed our pride and accept that we are dependant on God’s grace. We are people who know the terrific privilege of encountering a holy God made possible through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Like the early Christians in Jerusalem, it is good for us to have a healthy fear of the holy God who opposes the proud, but welcomes the humble. They also found a joy and security in God’s love for them and the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit that meant that they did not have to fear anyone else. They met openly in the temple, and the truth of the gospel was evident for all to see. The power of God was at work. The apostles were continuing to do what Jesus had begun. The church continues to grow; more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

In spite of opposition, the good news continued to spread. The Good news that through repentance, men and women could be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ the risen Son of God. You see those apostles had come to terms with another fear; the fear of death. We find in verse 33 that the Sanhedrin wanted to put the apostles to death. Yet still the apostles are fearless. Still they insist that they must obey God rather than man.

The apostles, with the help of the Holy Spirit had learned what Jesus had taught them. They no longer feared those who could kill the body, but after that could not harm them. They looked at life in an eternal context.

We should do that too. We may not face the persecution the early Christians did, but we all have to face the fact that one day we must face death. We believe in a saviour who has defeated death. We live in a world where many people live with a fear of death. The gospel is that death has lost its sting. Jesus is risen; death has been conquered.

The end of this life is the beginning of a better life, a life where there is no fear; a life where perfect love reigns supreme. It is a life when we will be different, we shall be like Jesus.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But Jesus says to us do not fear do not be afraid. By his death on the cross he has enable frail human beings such as you and I to be acceptable to a holy God. By his Holy Spirit, he helps us to know the reality of being sons and daughters of God, secure in his everlasting love.

Amen.

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