Acts 5:1-10 Give Willingly!

Acts 5:1-10  Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, 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 for the land?  Didn’t it belong to you before it was 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 just to human beings but to God.”  When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.  And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.  Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.  About 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 is the price.”  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 also.”  At that moment she fell down at his feet and died.  Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.  Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

In this morning’s breakfast, we see two members of the nascent church of the living God fail to be honest with the community of believers.  They had seen the church gladly and thankfully receive Barnabas' gift of money.  Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.  (Acts 4)  Barnabas' generous deed brought so much praise from the church that the author of Acts mentioned it.  Ananias and Sapphira saw how this gift impressed the believers.  Barnabas received much praise by the church and the evaluation of him as a good Christian probably rose greatly.  Ananias and Sapphira desired similar accolades and recognition from these early believers that Barnabas received, selling his property and giving the total amount he received from that sale to the church.  They then conspired to lie to the church.  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.  Their problem was they not only lied to other people, they lied to the Holy Spirit who was present in this gathering of believers.  Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, recognized immediately their devious plot to deceive the church about their goodness and generosity.  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 for the land?  Peter exposes the deception in their hearts before all of the church. This incident is recorded in Acts, revealing clearly the Holy Spirit is present with believers wherever they go.  He is not only present in a prescribed holy place like the Temple or Tabernacle of Meetings in the wilderness, but He is the omnipresent God in the body of Christ.  Because the promised Holy Spirit had fallen on the church, his active presence was with them.  This realization hits the church with full force in this incident.  Peter tells them and the church that God through the gift of the Holy Spirit is always abiding within them wherever they go, wherever they gather, wherever they settle.  Both of the conspirators die before them.  Both are buried immediately.  This reveals the quickness of judgment on those who try to deceive the church and the Spirit of God.  Great fear fell on the rest of the believers that day, great fear seized all who heard what had happened.  Christianity passed from a religion in their hearts to a reality of the eternal God inside them.  No longer was a belief in Jesus the Lord just another religion or idea, but it was a current and intimate relationship with the Creator of all life.  Ananias and Sapphira died before their ideas.  God creates and He also judges, and death is part of that judgment.  Paul tells the believers,  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  (Colossians 3:9-10)  We are now a new self, a temple of the living God.  Consequently, we should act with integrity, honesty and truthfulness.  We should be as God is, kind, generous, and loving.  Ananias and Saphirra were clothed in their own deceptive desires; their old selves had conspired to elevate their flesh before men and women, but they were really contaminating the unity of believers with their self-willed desires.  They were not discerning the body of Christ in their fellowship with other believers.  Paul points to this lack of discernment in the Corinthians when they partake of holy communion.  Some come to the communion table with selfish desires.  They quickly eat and drink everything they have brought to the table without considering the needs of the whole body.  Consequently, part of the  body goes away from the table without being satisfied.  They go away hungry, thirsty because of the selfishness of the greedy.  

Ananias and Sapphira were fixated on their own fleshly desires; they did not care about the unity of the body; they just wanted themselves to be elevated in the eyes of the early believers.  Their failure to discern the body of Christ and its unity got them in deep trouble with the Holy Spirit.  Their self-willed nature greatly interfered with the servanthood of the church.  Paul instructs the church to consider the whole body of Christ when taking communion.  So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.  For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.  (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)  In examining themselves, they should consider how they view the rest the body.  Are they living the life of Christ in a self-willed manner?  The self-oriented person will function in ways to benefit himself, but he is not discerning the body correctly.  The body of Christ is to image the Great Servant: Jesus Christ.  Jesus was the Great Servant to all mankind, even dying for mankind’s sins.  Now as the image of God, the church must reflect servanthood to all people, not as Ananias and Sapphira reflected in their conspiracy to deceive others for their perceived benefit.  No matter how much they gave or did not give would be honored by God.  For as Paul tells the Corinthians,  if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.  (2 Corinthians 8:12)  Any gift they would have given no matter how small, God would have greatly honored if it came from honest hearts, seeking to be faithful to a loving God.  All mankind will be judged someday.  Ananias and Sapphira experienced quick judgment as an example to the early church that God is with them and that He hears every intention of their hearts.  He is no longer far away in some temple or shrine, but He is now intimately involved with their lives.  We know since that day, many thousands have lied to the church, but few were judged quickly by God with death, so people can speak boldly against God’s church and unity and get away with it on the earth, but someday judgment will arrive for all people.  Someday people will face the living God and give an account of their lives.  A two penny offering in the Temple of God, given by the widow woman, will be acceptable and honored by God.  But money accrued dishonestly and deceptively will not be honored by God, no matter how much praise the person receives by the world because of the generous gift given to the church or the needy.  God sees all and knows all.  The church learned that on the day both of the conspirators died at their feet.  Paul talks about this faith journey we are on as Christians.  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  For we live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)  Everything that we do or do not do should be honest, open, clear to all people.  God will judge the goodness of our hearts and the love we have for others, even our enemies.

We see in today’s focus, that the Holy Spiirt was lied to.  We understand by this incident that the church was imbued with the Spirit of God.  He was present with them, and what they did or did not do was to be in his will.  They were now walking as Christ walked on this earth.  Christ was born from a woman.  He came as the Son of Man, epitomizing the best in men and women.  He always did the will of the Father.  His body image, the church, was always to do his will in unity and power.  The most obvious deceivers of Jesus’ time were the religious elite.  They hated this Jesus of Nazareth.  He was drawing people away from their religious activities.  They were losing control of the Israelites and their position of leadership within the Judaic society.  Because of their fears of Jesus, they claimed He was getting his power to heal and cast out demons from the devil.  They who were the biggest hypocrites in the Jewish society now claimed Jesus’ power was from the underworld, not from the God they served, even though so inappropriately.  Jesus addresses their accusations, he called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.  In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up.  Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.  Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”  (Mark 3:24-29)  He tells them very directly and powerfully that his works are from God and that Satan has no part in anything He does.  He also warns the Pharisees that their speech and accusations are fencing with the Holy Spirit.  If they call the Holy Spirit a spirit of evil, they will never be forgiven because the Spirit of God renews people and raises people from the dead to eternal life.  Without the Holy Spirit within lives, people will not be in the presence of the Father God in holiness.  So their adversity to the Spirit’s work will not cause them to have eternal life.  Without him, they are established in their sins forever; they will never find forgiveness.  In Ananias and Sapphira’s deception, we find their physical lives being destroyed.  We do not know their commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord, we only know that they were operating in the flesh.  And God wanted the church to know that functioning in the flesh is a dangerous place before God.  In their ignorance of the reality of the body of Christ, they made a huge mistake.  They lied to the Holy Spirit.  But they did not say the Spirit of God is of the devil.  They did not claim the works of God are of the devil as did the religious elite.  Salvation comes from the works of God, not man.  Being right or wrong does not make us right with God, but God makes us right with himself through the works of Jesus.  The great denier, Peter, was made right with God because of God’s work through Jesus Christ.  We do not know the hearts of either Annanias or Sapphira, or what happened to their spirits.  However, Paul tells the church of Corinth that they should hand the man who is living in incest to the devil for the destruction of his flesh  so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 5:5)   Maybe the death of Ananias and Sapphira was a gift from God so that their souls might be saved.  Breakfast companions, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, live lives of integrity.  Do not conspire against the Holy Spirit of God, and He will bless your pathway.