A Dangerous Holiness
Acts 4:32-5:11
Abby Odio, Pastor of Teaching and Formation
The story of Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5 invites us to consider areas of our heart and life God longs to transform, by paying close attention to the following themes:
Holiness
Grace
Power
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
As the kids named in the children’s moment, share one thing you liked about your father.
Pastor Abby affirms that Acts 5 names for us that this holiness is a dangerous business.
Consider the fact that we are now the visible, embodied presence of God on earth; in light of what we see in the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, what level of responsibility does this holiness have on your life today?
Are there ways in which you are still “having it both ways”, where despite good intentions you may still be allowing a status quo to continue that doesn’t reflect the justice, peace and mercy defining God’s kingdom?
What daily practices connect you to the deep, ongoing, inflowing affirmation of God, of his grace? Are there inhaling practices that would allow you to live as a recipient of this stream; detaching money, image and status from being no longer needed to give meaning to your story?
Pastor Abby invited us to a practical application this week.
Have you had moments this week where you’ve found yourself confronted with your own brokenness or feeling defensive towards another? In what ways did you respond?
(Be encouraged to pay attention to those responses; to consider them doorways into the journey of sanctification that Ananias and Sapphira missed. Abby provides examples in her notes on different ways this may look)
Consider taking 4 minutes of silence as a group to take space and quiet time to listen. What comes to mind? Don’t be overwhelmed- don’t retreat into defensiveness. If you’re uncomfortable, stay with it, trust that in your discomfort you are actually on the right road- the road to holiness.
Pastor Abby outlines different examples of how to share power:
- Power is people selling property and giving away their profit because nothing matters more than the dignity of another.
- Power is when a person born into privilege says maybe my perspective, my understanding of history is limited, but I want to learn in the name of relationship and keep learning.
- Power is a king named Jesus pausing to listen to the story of a woman at the very bottom of the social hierarchy - a woman no one else would hear.
- Power is a God on a cross, who defeated evil in our world to the very last fiber by entering into relationship with that world and giving everything he had to it.
How would you answer the following questions she poses which are simple but not easy?
- How is God’s grace at work in you?
- Where is God’s grace ushering you into deeper holiness?
- How is holiness manifesting as God’s great power in your life?
- Where are you moving into deeper relationship?