22

Acts 5:1-11 LESSONS FROM ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA

Introduction:

In our text today we witness a great sin being committed by A husband and

wife who were in the membership of the church at Jerusalem. We also witness

how the Lord dealt with them because of their sin. There are lessons in thie

event for both the saved and the unsaved.

I. The setting for the text

In our text last Sunday we saw a great unselfish spirit in the church at

Jerusalem. On the Day of Pentecost about 3000 souls had been saved and added to

the church. Then later about 5,000 were saved as a result of the witness of

Peter and John when a lame man was miraculously healed and apparently they also

joined the church. Most of these people had come from distant lands and had

left their homes and jobs back home and when they came to Jerusalem. They had

not come to Jerusalem with an intention of staying, but after they got saved

they joined the church there and just stayed. Pretty soon whatever funds they

had brought with them were gone and they had no means of lifelihooe. They

needed assistance until they could find work. Some of the people in the church

sold property and donated the funds to the church to meet the need of these

people.

In our text today we see one of the men of the church by the name of

Ananias and his wife Sapphira commit a great sin against the Lord. We will also

see how the Lord dealt with their sin and prevented the entire church from

suffering a great setback because of the sin of this one couple.

II. The sin and punishment of Ananias

V. 1-2, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a

possession, And kept back [part] of the price, his wife also being privy [to

it], and brought a certain part, and laid [it] at the apostles' feet.” Luke

tells us that Ananias and Sapphira owned some property at Jerusalem and sold it

to help buy food for those who were in need. At least that was a part of their

plan. In verse 3 we will see that the property which they sold was a piece of

land.

Ananias and his wife Sapphira discussed the matter beforehand and they

both agreed to sell this piece of land and give only a part of the money into

the church treasury to buy food for those in need. In keeping with their plan,

Ananias sold the land and brought part the money to the church and laid it at

the feet of the apostles to be used to buy food for the needy church members.

That sounds great. Doesn’t it? Up to this point it all sounds so

generous. It sounds great. It sounds great until --- as Paul Harvey says--- we

know the rest of the story. What we will learn as Luke gives us the rest of the

story is that Ananias pretended to give the entire amount that he got from the

sale of the land, but he didn’t. He pretended to give it all, but he actually

kept back a part of it for himself and Sapphira.

When Ananias laid that money at the feet of the apostles, he must have

felt rather proud of himself. He must have thought, “We are pretty smart. The

people will all think that we have given all of the price of the sale to the

church, but actually we will be keeping back a part of it for ourselves. They

will brag on us an praise us highly. But they won’t know that we have kept back

part of it for ourselves.”

Now I take note that Luke does not tell us how much they got in the sale

of the land. Neither does he tell us how much they kept back for themselves.

In the realm of possibilities they may have kept back only a small part of the

money for themselves. Or they may have kept most of it for themselves. Luke

does not say. I think they gave enough into the church to make it appear to be

the entire amount of the sale. If they brought too small amount to the church

the people would surely know that they got more money than that for it. But I

think they kept back all they could and still leave the appearance of giving it

all.

I think you can see the problem which Ananias and Sapphira faced. They

wanted to keep everything they possibly could for themselves. But they wanted

the praises of men badly enough that they were willing to give to the church.

So they chose to pretend that they gave it all when in reality they kept back as

much as they dared for themselves.

V. 3, “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie

to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land?” After

Ananias laid the money at the feet of the apostles I can almost envision the

proud look on his face as he stood waiting for Peter or someone to speak words

of praise. Can you imagine how shocked he must have been when the Apostle Peter

and asked him why he had allowed Satan to fill his heart and persuaded him to

lie about the amount of money he had give to the church. Can you imagine how

the expression on his face changed. I can envision that his face first turned

as red as a beet and then turned as white as a sheet.

Peter continued to dress him down right there in front of all who were

present. V. 4, “Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was

sold, was it not in thine own power?...” Ananias did not have to sell his land

so that he could give to the poor. land. The church did not require of him to

sell his land. Neither did the Lord require of him to sell his land. He could

have kept his land.

Even after selling the land he did not have to put the money into the

treasury of the church. Peter said, “Was it not in thine own power? You could

have kept the money. You didn’t have to put any of the money into the church

treasury for the needy. It was yours. You could have kept it all.”

Peter asked also, “Why did you lie about it? Why did you pretend to be

putting the entire amount of the sale into the treasury when you were keeping

part of it for yourself?” (V. 4), “...why hast thou conceived this thing in

thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Peter said, “You lied

and you thought you were just lying to us. You thought you were lying to us

apostles and to the church.” But Peter said, “In reality the One you lied to

was God. In effect you told God that you were giving your all, but you knew

that you were lying all the time. You lied to God.”

V. 5, “And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the

ghost...” Ananias fell down and his last breath went out of his body right

there in front of all who were present. Let me point out to you that Simon

Peter did not cause the death of Ananias. The rest of the apostles had nothing

to do with his death. They did not cause it to happen. The rest of the church

members had nothing to do with his death. It was to God to whom Ananias lied

and it was God who killed Ananias. He killed him on the spot.

(V. 5), ...and great fear came on all them that heard these things.” The

punishment that God brought on Ananias was swift and it was severe. But God got

the attention of all the rest of the church members. I think I can assure you

that nobody else lied to God about what he was putting in the church treasury.

I think we can say that they did not dare to lie to God about anything.

Whatever their faults and wrongdoing may have been, they confessed it to God.

They didn’t lie to God about it. They didn’t pretend that they had done nothing

wrong.

V. 6, “And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried [him] out, and

buried [him].” Without any delay, without any embalming, without even

contacting his wife, and apparently without any weeping, the young men wrapped

his dead body and buried it. They were all pretty much in a state of shock.

III. The sin and punishment of Saphira

V. 7-8, “ And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife,

not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me

whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.” Simon

Peter did not at first say anything to Sapphira about what had happened to

Ananias. Rather he asked a question which would reveal whether or not she had

been in conspiracy with her husband in lying about the matter. He apparently

named the amount of money that Ananias had brought to the treasury and asked her

if that was price that they had gotten from the sale of the property. She

confirmed that this was the amount they had gotten for the land.

It was then that Peter informed her what had happened to her husband. V.

9, “Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt

the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband

[are] at the door, and shall carry thee out.” Like Ananias, Sapphira must have

been stunned. And like Ananias, she, too, suffered the same severe penalty for

her sin. V. 10, “Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the

ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying [her] forth,

buried [her] by her husband.”

IV. Lessons from this event

V. 11, “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard

these things.” I have already pointed out to you that all of the rest of the

church learned a valuable lesson from this event. They learned that it does not

pay to lie to God. There are severe consequences when one lies to God. I am

sure that they were very careful not to make the same mistake that Ananias and

Sapphira made in lying to God.

We should learn the same thing. We should learn not to lie to God about

what we give to Him through the church. Oh, I am sure that nobody would claim

that he is putting a hundred dollar bill in the plate when he is only putting in

a fifty. But Christians have been known to stretch the truth when they did not

give anything in to the church. They have been know to say, “I wanted to give,

but I just didn’t have it to give” when the truth was that they did have it to

give. They just chose not to give. And Christians have been know to say when

they just gave a small amount, “I wish I could have given more, but I couldn’t.”

In addition to the matter about lying, I think they must have also learned

a lesson about pride. It is a sin to be lifted up in pride so that you have an

excessive desire for the praises of men. It is a sinl to be so filled with

pride that your ego has to be fed with the praises of men. If Ananias and

Sapphira had not been so concerned about getting the praises of their fellow

church members they would hve told the truth and they would not have gotten into

this trouble. Peter said, “You did not have to sell the land. And after you

dild sell it, you didn’t have to give all the money to the church. You could

have pept part of it. You dinn’t lave to lie about it. You did not have to

give any of it to the church. You could have kept it all. You didn’t have to

lie, but you wanted the paises of man and that got you into trouble.

They learned that sin cannot be kept secret from God. It cannot always be

kept secret from one’s fellow man. It can never be kept secret from God. God

always knows what we do.

They may have also learned a lesson about covetousness. The last of the

Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not covet.” They had an excessive desire for

mopney and for the material things of life. They desired them enough that they

lied in order to keep some of that money in their possession. They simply did

not want to part with it and they were willing to do wrong in order to keep it.

They were willing to lie in order to have it.

Luke also informs us that not only did the church people learn a lesson

from this, but all of the people out in the general public who heard about the

event also learned a lesson. They learned that God is a High and Holy God who

does not tolerate sin. They learned to respect God’s position as the Supreme

Ruler of the Universe and they had a great reverence for God as a result of what

had happened to Ananias and Sapphira.

We, too, who are present here today are now hearing about this event and

we, too, should learn to reverence God. Sin has grave consequences. It is not

just the sin of lying, the sin of pride or the sin of covetousness brings severe

punishment from God. But all sin brings the severe punishment of God. Adam ate

one piece of fruit and look what happened. God’s punishment on the unsaved will

be severe -- very severe. The sad truth is that unless we repent we would all

suffer severe punishment for our sins. We will all stand before God in judgment

and unless one has been saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord

Jesus Christ, then he will suffer the consequences for his sin throughout all

eternity.

Even those of us who are saved need also need to learn that there will be

consequences for our sins. Those of us who are saved will go to heaven in spite

of our sin because the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin. But

we should not think that we can sin and get by with it. . We will suffer the

chastisements of God in this life. Let us seek to live our lives in a way that

pleases God.