ACTS CHAPTER 5:1-16, “THE DISCIPLINE OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA”
by
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our study last week we
saw how the fellowship (koinonia) and love (agape) of the church in
1.1.1.
We saw that as a result of how God was working in the fellowship and
body life of the early church that God was enabled to work in a powerful way
through the church
1.1.2.
We also were introduced to a man named Barnabas, a man who later will
become a special worker and helper of the apostle Paul, and how that this man
sold his property and came and brought the proceeds of the sale to the apostles
to distribute to whomever might have any needs
1.1.2.1.However, we will see in our
study today how that his selfless act and the resultant veneration that the
people had for him caused the temptation for some to seek out of impure and
hypocritical motives to be venerated by the people
1.2.
In our study today we will see that as the early church in Jerusalem
continued to have that wonderful fellowship and love towards each other, having
all of their possessions in common with each other, that suddenly impurity and
hypocrisy invaded them through the lives of a man and wife named Ananias and
Sapphira. We will see in this story of
Ananias and Sapphira:
1.2.1.
How God severely disciplined
this couple for this sin of their’s
1.2.2.
How pride, hypocrisy, lying, and deceit will tear apart any work of God
1.2.3.
How if the church is to be effective in this world that it must be salt
(preservative against corruption) and light (revealing truth and
righteousness), and that as ‘salt’ if it loses its ‘saltiness’ it is worthless
and can produce nothing but evil
1.2.4.
We will look at what our attitude should be towards those who fall into
sin in the church
2.
VS 5:1-2 - “Acts 5:1-2
1 But
a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept
back some of the price for himself,
with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the
apostles' feet. (NASB)” - Ananias
and Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept part of the money for themselves
but laid the rest of the money at the apostles feet
2.1.
As believers in
2.2.
The sin which
Ananias and Sapphira committed was that of lying and hypocrisy (making people
think that they were something that they were not).
2.3.
Ananias and
Sapphira were tempting the Holy Spirit by deceiving everyone into thinking that
in fact they were likewise giving the full price of their piece of land in
order to meet peoples’ needs.
2.3.1. They were
lying to God and testing Him to see if He would punish their sin.
2.3.2. Probably, Ananias thought that this evil plot of
theirs could have no significantly bad influence upon anyone else, however the
Lord revealed that what each of us does affects multitudes.
2.3.3. Likewise, in their minds they probably downplayed the
seriousness of their sin with the justification that the good that would be
done by their giving some money to help the needy would offset their motive.
2.4.
Concerning the
death of Ananias and Sapphira, G. Campbell Morgan writes, “The
tremendous, the overwhelming part of this picture, the thing that astonishes
and fills us with awe, is not the death of Ananias and Sapphira. It is rather that of the purity of the Church
that compelled that death; compelled it,
not by law and control, but by the atmosphere of the Spirit with which the church
was purified, and in which the Church was wholly and absolutely at the disposal
of the Spirit”.
2.5.
Lessons we in the
church need to learn from this story:
2.5.1. We in the church have to strive to not allow hypocrisy
into our lives. We must not allow
ourselves to be perceived as being more spiritual than we actually are.
2.5.2. Our motive for what we do is actually as important as
our actions, and many an outwardly good deed is in reality a very evil act.
2.5.3. In the world, people tend to want to do things so that
they will be seen of men and get the approval of men. We in the church should never have this as
our motive, however. Jesus condemned
this type of action while He was on earth, and likewise His sternest rebukes
were for the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees, who were hypocrites
of the greatest degree. Jesus called
them “white-washed tombs” which were “filled with dead men’s bones”.
2.6.
Hypocrisy
abounded among the Jews in Jesus’ day as we have seen in our study through the
book of Matthew, therefore it is no wonder that hypocrisy soon entered into the
church
2.6.1. Men would fast and not wash their faces and wear torn
clothes, however Jesus taught that when a man fasted, he ought to wash his face
and look as he would any other day.
2.6.2. Men would also pray out loud openly in public places
in order to be seen by men, however Jesus taught that men ought to go into
their closets and pray in secret to their Father in Heaven, who would also
reward them in secret.
2.7.
Jesus taught that
if men did their good deeds so as to be seen of men and get their acclaim, that
they would not be rewarded for those deeds by God, their only reward would be
on earth. We Christians should do our
good deeds in such a way that we will not lose our reward which will be waiting
for us in heaven.
2.8.
God has always
shown severe discipline whenever He has entered into a new dispensation. For instance:
2.8.1. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, died before the
Lord because they offered strange fire as a sacrifice to the Lord (a sacrifice
God hadn’t ordered)
2.8.2. When Joshua took the people into the
2.8.3. The story of Ananias is a story in which as God was
beginning a new dispensation, the dispensation of the church age, He dealt in
severe discipline upon the sin of a couple named Ananias and Sapphira in order
to show the church that it is imperative that hypocrisy and impurity not be
allowed in His church.
2.9.
We in the church
need to realize that we have all sinned in the same way as Ananias and
Sapphira.
2.9.1. We have all pretended to be something more than we
are, to be more spiritual than we are.
We have all done things just to be seen of men and receive their
adoration. We have all lied to God about
where we are really at spiritually.
2.9.2. We in the church today need to realize that if the
Lord were working in the way in which He was on this day with Ananias and
Sapphira, that there would not be enough mortuaries to carry away all of the
dead from the churches.
2.9.3. We in the church should desire that we be pure and
holy in our life and conduct as the church in
2.9.4. And, we need to realize that we are wise if we confess
and repent of those actions now rather than have to face the Lord about it on
the day of judgment of believers. Nothing escapes God’s eye, and eventually
for every thought and deed we will be brought to account by the Lord. Therefore, it will be better for us to
confess and repent of our sins here and now rather than when it is too late, on
judgment day.
2.10. We in the church need to realize that moral dangers
will always rise whenever the Lord begins to move in people’s lives. Satan will set a trap in order to try to
hinder God’s work. He can be so subtle
and deceptive, and if we are not on our toes, spiritually asking God for
guidance and protection, Satan can wreak havoc in our midst through people that
we never would have suspected.
2.11. We in the church need perhaps to be less impressed by
the power and joy of the life lived in the Holy Spirit and more impressed by
the awful solemnity and purity of His work in our midst, for when He worked in such power in the early
church, no lie could live in His presence.
2.12. I have found it interesting as I have spent a good
many years in the church in a leadership role how that so many people are
willing to volunteer for the ministry opportunities in the church that have a
lot of visibility to them, yet it is very hard to find people who are willing
to serve in ministries where there will be little or no recognition from anyone
for serving.
2.13. In order to keep people from being tempted to do
things for the Lord in order to be seen of men, we in the Calvary Chapels have
as part of our distinctives that we try not to provide recognition for things
that people give to the church.
2.13.1.Many other churches will put people’s names on a pew
they have paid for, or put people’s names in the bulletin for service they have
rendered, etc.
2.13.2.One time a man came up to pastor Chuck Smith, pastor
of the first Calvary Chapel in
2.13.3.We want people to not lose their rewards in heaven
because they took the glory for doing them here on earth, so we try to avoid
giving too many of those types of opportunities to recognize those who do
things.
3.
VS 5:3-4 - “Acts
5:3 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why
has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?
(NASB)” - Peter realized through
the discernment given by the Holy Spirit that Ananias had deceived the church
3.1.
Now, the Lord
gave discernment to Peter in this incident and he saw that Ananias had lied
about the price of the land, however I do not believe that Peter knew that the
Lord would slay Ananias on this day, he just asked the question that revealed
Ananias’ sin.
3.1.1. It was the Lord alone who performed this act of
discipline in Ananias and Sapphira.
3.2.
Peter accused
Ananias of allowing Satan to fill his heart in this deliberate act of lying to
the Holy Spirit.
3.3.
Before I go any
further, please take note that a ‘power’ or an ‘influence’ cannot be lied to,
only a person can be lied to, so in Peter saying this about the Holy Spirit we
must see that the Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Trinity, not
just a godly influence.
3.4.
In this story, we
see that because of their sin, the Lord saw fit to deal with this couple
Himself, and in a severe way. However,
this story is not the norm.
3.4.1. We in the church must always realize that in matters
of church discipline that the Lord wants to “restore” people who are caught up
in sin. We must always have a view to
restoration when people are rebuked or even removed from our fellowship, as
Paul wrote about in Gal. 6:1, “6:1 Brethren, even if a man is
caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit
of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted”
3.4.2. We must “hope the best” and “believe the best” about
people, even when they are being disciplined (1 Cor. 13:7).
3.4.3. We must hope that they will one day find it in their
heart to repent and come back to the Lord and to the church. And, that door must be left open by us for
them, that is, if they are willing to repent of their sin.
3.4.4. In matters of church discipline, we today need to
learn from this story that we in are to ask the difficult question that reveals
peoples’ sin, but then we must realize that each person and situation is
different and we must look to the Lord
as to how He then wants us to proceed with the discipline.
3.4.5. We must also realize in these situations that we
cannot judge people’s hearts for only the Lord really knows people’s hearts
3.4.6. In the Old Testament it says that “judgment is His
strange work”, as it is not the way in which He usually works, and it is
because the Lord does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked that today
He chooses to give to us His children a great deal of grace when we sin and lie
to Him rather than destroy us as He did to Ananias and Sapphira, for He would
much rather that we come to repentance than be destroyed because of our sin.
4.
VS 5:4 - “Acts 5:4
4 "While
it remained unsold, did it not remain
your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that
you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to
God." (NASB)” - Peter tells
Ananias that there was never any necessity that he sell his house and
distribute it to anyone
4.1.
There was no
necessity upon any of the people of the church in
4.2.
It would not have
been a sin for Ananias and Sapphira to hold onto that property and not sell
it. Likewise, it would not have been a
sin if they had sold the property and kept part of the money for themselves and
only given part of it to be distributed to the needy. What was sinful was that they gave the money
to the apostles in the same way as those who gave the entire price of the land
to meet the needs, and thus everyone would have thought that they too had given
the entire price of the land to meet the needs.
The sin was in the hypocritical deception itself.
4.3.
Peter tells
Ananias that his sin of lying was not a sin committed against men, but a sin
committed against God. For He was in His
heart lying to God.
4.3.1. In reality, all sin is sin against God, for sin is the
transgression of His law (1 John 3:4)
4.3.2. This past week in our Tuesday night home fellowship I
read David’s Psalm of confession where he pleads for God’s mercy and
forgiveness as he repents of the wrong that he had done, and in Psalm 51:4
David wrote that it was against the Lord and He only that he had sinned, “4 Against
Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight, So that
Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge.”
4.4.
God does not
force us today to give to Him or to meet the needs of the poor. Instead, God tells us that he loves a
cheerful giver, in 2 Cor. 9:7: “7 Let each
one do just as he has purposed in his
heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver”. If we cannot “cheerfully” give to the Lord,
then it is better if we do not give at all.
5.
VS 5:5-6 - “Acts
5:5-6 5 And as he heard these words,
Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard
of it. 6 And
the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried
him. (NASB)” – The Lord slew Ananias because of his sin of deception
and hypocrisy
5.1.
The Lord slew
Ananias after Peter asked him the question which revealed his sin and the
result of the Lord performing this act of discipline in the church was that
‘great fear came upon all who heard of it’, which includes those within the
church as well as those outside.
5.2.
I believe that it
is really a healthy thing when the fear of the Lord falls upon people, for then
they will not take the Lord for granted.
By fear I don’t mean really being scared to death that God will kill us,
but rather that fear of the Lord which is defined as ‘deep reverence’ for
God.
5.2.1. Thus it is always a good time to examine our own
hearts and motives, and see if there are things there which are not pleasing to
the Lord so that we can remove them from us.
5.3.
They buried
Ananias right away because that was the custom of the people at the time. They felt that in order to show the proper
respect for the dead person that they had to bury them right after they had
died.
6.
VS 5:7-8 - “Acts 5:7-8
7 Now
there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not
knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter responded to her, "Tell me
whether you sold the land for such and such a price?" And she said,
"Yes, that was the price." (NASB)” – When Sapphira returns Peter
asks her if she and her husband had sold their land for the amount they had
given to the apostles
6.1.
The ‘young men’
had taken the body of Ananias away to a place where they laid him. Then, three hours later his wife came in and
no one had told her what had happened to her husband.
6.2.
Because of God’s
mercy and grace Peter gives Sapphira the chance to tell the truth or repent by
asking her of the truth of whether or not she had sold the land for such and
such a price. However, she chose not to
repent but to further conceal her deed.
6.2.1. As did Peter, we in the church need to also give
people a chance to repent of their sins when we must confront them. It is only fair to do so, as not one of us is
righteous in God’s sight. We have all
many times sinned horribly against the Lord and His righteous law.
7.
VS 5:9-10 - “Acts
5:9-10 9 Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put
the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried
your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well." 10 And she fell immediately at his feet, and
breathed her last; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they
carried her out and buried her beside her husband. (NASB)” - Sapphira also falls dead at the hands of the
Lord
7.1.
Peter knew from
the Holy Spirit that Sapphira would likewise be slain by the Lord if she did
not confess and repent of this conspiracy to lie to the Lord. Thus, he tells her that the young men would
likewise carry out her body as they had carried out her husband. Then, she breathed her last and died.
7.2.
It is always
tragic when people refuse to repent of their sins, especially after they have
been given by the Lord chance after chance to repent.
7.3.
Considering the
very bad example of Ananias and Sapphira in our story, we in the church today
ought to look at another man in the early church as our example of how to live,
the apostle Paul, for in regards to greed and possessions, for he said in the
book of Philippians, Phil 3:7-8, that he had suffered the loss of all of
the things in his life that he had once counted as gain, and he counted them as
“dung” in order that he might gain Christ
7.4.
Spurgeon once
spoke some profound words about the fact that God is always pouring out His
judgments upon the church, “That story of Ananias and Sapphira — it is
often used most properly to illustrate the danger of lying; but that is not the
point of the narrative. Ananias and Sapphira were members of the church at
Jerusalem, and they lied not unto men, which would have been sin enough, but in
lying to the church officers they lied unto God, and the result was their
sudden death. Now, you are not to suppose that this was a solitary case.
Wherever there is a true
7.5.
The
work of the church is too important of a work, and the awesomeness and holiness
of God is too great for Him not to discipline His church (of all eras) and make
it a bride that is holy and pure.
8.
VS 5:11 - “Acts 5:11 11 And great fear came upon the
whole church, and upon all who heard of these things. (NASB)” – Great fear
fell on all after this incident
8.1.
Luke repeats here
what the result of this discipline of the Lord upon Ananias and Sapphira
produced, namely, ‘great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who
heard of these things’, Christian and non-Christian.
8.2.
It is sad for me
to see that in the mainstream church today there seems to be so little ‘fear of
the Lord’ as the early church had, and as a result Christians and often even
church leaders are often brazen in their rebellion against the Lord
9.
VS 5:12 - “Acts 5:12 12 And at the hands of the apostles
many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all
with one accord in Solomon's portico. (NASB)” – The church enjoyed great
power in its service for the Lord
9.1.
This section
begins to discuss some the many things that resulted after the Lord disciplined
Ananias and Sapphira.
9.1.1. Luke records that now ‘many signs and wonders
were taking place among the people’.
9.1.2. The Lord began working in their midst in an even
greater way than He had worked before the discipline of Ananias and
Sapphira.
9.1.3. THE
PRINCIPLE TO BE LEARNED IS THAT WHEN THE CHURCH IS PURE IN HEART THAT THE LORD
CAN WORK IN A MIGHTY WAY.
9.1.4. Luke again remarks on the beauty of the fellowship of
the people of this church in
9.1.4.1.He says that they were ‘with one accord in Solomon's
portico’, the place where they met.
9.1.4.2.They were all bent on one purpose and goal under the
Holy Spirit’s leading.
9.2.
If we today in
the church were as pure in heart and mind as this early church in
10.
VS
5:13-14 - “Acts 5:13-14 13 But none of the rest dared to associate with
them; however, the people held them in high esteem. 14 And all the more believers in the
Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number; (NASB)” - The response of the general populace was
varied
10.1. There were three results of the purification of the
church which Luke points out in this verse.
10.1.1.There were some who ‘dared not to associate with them’
because of fear of what might happen to them, for after all they could end up
being slain by the Lord because of their impurity and sinfulness.
10.1.1.1.The Lord used this discipline of Ananias to keep out
unholy influences from the church you see, and that is a good thing.
10.1.2.Regardless of their not daring to associate with them,
the common people still ‘held them in high esteem’.
10.1.2.1.This work produced at the hands of Peter was used by
God to produce a holy respect and reverence for him and for all of the
apostles, for it produced credibility for them.
10.1.3.‘Multitudes of men and women’ were constantly being
saved and joining up with them in the church.
10.2. When something as drastic as discipline in the church
should occur, we in the church should not be overly concerned about the effects
produced by church discipline, for when the Lord prunes out the unfruitful
branches from the church, He can then produce more fruit which is healthy.
11.
VS
5:15-16 - “Acts 5:15-16 15 to such
an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets, and laid them
on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall
on any one of them. 16 And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of
11.1. Luke records here the extent to which people were
healed through the ministry of the apostles and some of the other brethren in
the church, he writes that ‘all’ of the
people who came to them for healing were healed.
11.2. In the east, it is felt that the shadow of people
conveyed and influence and power. They will flee from being in the shadow of a
wicked man, and they will likewise occasionally seek to be in the shadow of a
good man. Because of their great respect
for him, the people here actually sought to be in Peter’s shadow so that they
might be blessed by simply being under that influence produced by him.
11.3. Oh, how I wish that we in the church today would live
such holy and godly lives that people would want to come and just be around us
so that they might in some way be blessed as they observe God’s favor upon us
and all that we do!