DAY #187: Acts 5:1-25

At the inception of the church, the practice of selling one’s possessions in order to give money to those in need showed the believers’ willingness to help other believers. Not everyone was liquidating everything, nor was there pressure to do so. This was a freewill offering, and it appears to have been practiced only here in the early church.

It seems that the positive response of the church to gifts from people like Barnabas became a source of envy for Ananias and Sapphira. They also sold some property. They could have given any amount of the selling price, but because they apparently desired the esteem that Barnabas had received, they pretended to give the full amount they had received for the field. Instead, however, they kept back part of the money.

Given insight by the Holy Spirit, Peter saw through Ananias’s lie. When Ananias realized that Peter knew all about his scheme, he fell to the floor and died. The Greek word ekpsucho literally means “to breathe one’s last, to die” and usually connotes death by divine judgment. Peter didn’t kill Ananias, nor did he ask the Holy Spirit to kill him. Peter condemned the lying, and the Spirit of God executed judgment.

Sapphira showed up about three hours later. She didn’t know what had happened to her husband. Peter’s questions to Sapphira exposed her complicity in the deed. Peter gave her the opportunity to tell the truth, but she told the same lie that her husband had told. In so doing she revealed a hardness of heart that had not been touched by the grace of God.

The entire direction of this lie by Ananias and Sapphira was wrongheaded, self-serving, church-destroying, and sinful. Ananias and Sapphira had conspired together to mock God, to lie and think they could get away with it as if God would not know.

Like her husband, Sapphira fell to the floor and died. As she and Ananias had been joined in their “testing” of God, so they were joined in death. This is more than just a historical record of events in the early church. This serves as a warning that no one should trifle with the Holy Spirit or take lightly the importance of telling the truth. God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira produced great fear among the believers, making them realize how seriously God regards sin in the church.

Even as word spread of the sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, the apostles continued to preach boldly about Jesus right in the Temple courts. Large crowds continued to gather. Miraculous healings and exorcisms gave credence to the message. Because of the power of God and the faithfulness of his people, the gospel was spreading, taking root, and bearing fruit in lives.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)

Lord, weed out the sin in our church family and begin with me. Show me any area of my life that You are not pleased with.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting." Psalms 139:23-24 (ASV)

God, break my heart with seriousness of sin. Give our people a sensitivity to sin and a heart to repent of what displeases You. In a world where wrong is right and right is wrong, show our people Your way and lead them in the way everlasting.

"My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. 11 If they say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood, let's waylay some harmless soul; 12 let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"-- 15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; 16 for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood." Proverbs 1:10-16 (NIV)