If we want revival, if we really want revival, Jesus hasn’t changed His playbook. Perhaps there has been no revival because God hasn’t been able to find an army of Christians who are usable. If you don’t like this comment and are thinking to yourself: wait a minute I go to church, I tithe, I am in various ministries, I don’t get drunk, if not married I don’t have sex,etc. then these thoughts prove my point. Because thinking this way is religion. Religion is man’s attempt, usually through “good works” to please God. The main religion now is the religion of “good works” where most adherents deem themselves “pretty good”. They feel this way because they feel they can show others what they want and pretend that they are good. But they ignore the truth that God sees every thought, every motive, every hidden action (Hebrews 4:13). So we walk around with these masks, showing others only what we want to show them. Do you know what a mask wearer was called in Greek? A hypocrite. Do you remember who Jesus called hypocrites? The Pharisees or the religious establishment. We say we want revival, but God never used mask wearers and He still doesn’t. Jesus chose broken sinners to lead His movement.
We conclude chapter 4 describing Barnabas selling his land and laying it at the apostles’ feet in Acts 4:36-37. I’m sure this act was respected and admired by those assembled. With this in mind we come to 5:1-2, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Realize the sin taking place here is not as much selfishness or greed, but hypocrisy. Note Peter’s response in 5:3-4, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”” Ananias had every right to sell or not sell his land, and he had every right to give what he wanted. But he chose to pretend to give it all, while keeping part for himself. Hypocrisy is deliberate deception, by putting on a false front, we try to make people think we are better or more spiritual than we really are. Usually fueling hypocrisy is pride as they no doubt wanted to be elevated in the eyes of others. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira? We read the conclusion in Acts 5:5-11, how each one, three hours apart fell down dead.
Before we are too harsh on these two, if God enacted the same judgment to the sin of hypocrisy there would be no one left in the church. Hypocrisy works from the outside in: “I’ll try to appear like, act like, etc. and maybe some of it will be convincing.” Christianity works from the inside out. The Holy Spirit works on us from within. He changes us allowing us to be who He wants us to be. He loves us and wants the best for us. George MacDonald said, “Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.” Hypocrisy is always more evident than people believe. The world is not as fooled as everyone would like to believe. Hypocrisy eats away at the church itself. Besides God giving us Himself, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, He has lovingly given us each other. But we render ourselves impotent as long as we prefer to walk around with these masks of “pretty goodness”. With these masks we pray for one another safely and cautiously, not desiring anyone else to know our real problems. With these masks, we judge those within our congregation harshly. Rather than extending grace and mercy, we offer condemning looks. Just consider for one moment that 20-25% of all abortions at planned parenthood are performed on declared evangelical Christians. These young girls know the judgment they will receive and choose the hidden way out. If they knew they would receive grace and love, the abortion rate would plummet. So, as I noted at the outset, God has never chosen to launch revival with hypocrites, let us all take these masks off and render ourselves usable for His service.