Throughout our lives, we will be met with many choices. Where to go to school, who to be friends with, how to react to each circumstance, what type of attitude to have, and what to believe in are just a few that each person faces. Every day we choose to do the morally right choice or the easy one.
If you knew that doing one sinful act would lead to your death, would you still do it? Or if that one bad habit you refused to get rid of could lead to the downfall of your entire family, would you still keep it close to your heart?
All the bad things that we do, the sins we commit, lead to consequences that affect both us and those around us. The choices we make determine the outcome we will receive. And yet we do not control the outcome. Only God can change the fate of our future and give out the consequences for our wrong actions.
Yet we live day to day, not afraid of how each choice will affect our tomorrow. Or how much damage it could cause to ourselves and others. We embrace our sin because we believe it is making our lives better. We believe the lie.
What if I told you that your sin is killing you? It is hurting you and not helping your life. God tells us that He views all sin as detestable in His eyes. Do you? Or is it just everyone else’s sins that you can’t stand? Their wrong choices and lack of moral character annoy and bother you, but pick up the mirror. Look at yourself and see the problems that are within.
God sees the heart, He knows our thoughts and motives. Little did Ananias and Sapphira know that God was looking at their hearts.
The bad choice of Ananias and Sapphira led to a surprising outcome. One that put fear in the hearts of those who saw and heard.
Before the Sin (Acts 4)
To really understand the full story of Ananias and Sapphira we must look at the setting and context of the story.
Their story begins during the earliest days of the church’s beginning. As soon as Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to Heaven, those who believed in him were sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts. This Spirit is God dwelling within us and will be there until the day we die. It is 100% God without being God the Father, it is God the Spirit. This body of believers with the Holy Spirit was known as the church.
The church was not and is not a place you go to worship God, nor is it people following a specific person or denomination. It is all people that have the Holy Spirit in their hearts and we receive the Holy Spirit through our belief in Jesus and His removal of our sins.
When the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers they began to speak the word of God with boldness. They had changed their identities. They had changed their direction in life. They had made a different choice and changed their destiny forever.
The Bible says that many of them in this congregation were of “one heart and of one soul”. Their hearts were knit tightly together because of their faith and they had the same desired future. Being passionate about their faith caused them to put in a combined effort for the desired outcome. They were a body of believers who had one belief, one mission, and one prayer.
“All to the glory of God.”
They began to look at their possessions in a different light. They were no longer an abundance of joyful things that God had blessed them with, now they were an opportunity to bless someone else. They did not desperately cling to their physical and sentimental goods, now they were focused on what truly mattered, people. Bringing people to Christ and showing His love to them.
They truly embraced the saying, “What’s mine is yours. Mi casa es su casa.”
Many believers began to sell their land, houses, and possessions. They brought the entire amount of selling price to the leaders of the church and gave it to those who needed it the most and for the amount that they needed.
They were not forced. The apostles did not preach to the people that this is what God wanted them to do. They voluntarily did it. They felt led by God’s Spirit to do it. They desired to do it. They could have given 10% of the selling price and it would still be seen as a wonderful, compassionate act in God’s eyes.
And although this was an extremely selfless act, there is always a positive and a negative side to each choice we make.
The Positive Side to selling and giving up their money:
People who desire to do good will make choices based on that. Their motives will be pure and unadulterated. And with good choices and good motives, a good outcome will follow.
- Believers were lifting each other in love and not tearing each other down. There were not looking down upon the poor. They were not judging their poverty as God’s punishment on them because of sin in their life. They only saw each other as family, family in Christ, or family adrift. And some family members decided to help the other family members because of love. They did not desire to take care of them their whole life, nor did the others wish to have continuous charity. They took care of one another in that season.
- This act of kindness was an amazing testimony for the church amongst those who were not believers. It was unheard of to sell your possessions, that you worked hard for, to give them entirely to someone else. Someone you were not related to. Someone that could never benefit you in any way. It baffled them to no end. But it was undeniable that what they were doing was kind and worthy of admiration. They were seeing God’s love in action.
- It goes to prove that when believers come together with one heart and soul, they get the impossible done. It seems impossible to get so many different cultures and backgrounds, ages, genders, and nationalities to agree and move forward towards the same goal, and yet it was done.
(Galatians 6:2)(I Thessalonians 5:11)(Colossians 4:5-6)
The Negative Side to selling and giving up their money:
When people make a choice with bad intentions or even just selfish ones, it becomes tainted. And although they might be doing the same action it will lead to a different outcome due to a difference in motive.
- It can lead to pride developing in their hearts. They might begin to feel like better Christians than those who did not give up their money. Or they might judge those who didn’t do it as those with less faith. They will begin to inflate their ego and forget the reason they did it was for love, not to promote themselves.
- It can also lead to hypocrisy in the believer. Their motives might not have been totally pure but they want to seem like they are doing it for the right reasons. To act like they have the same heart and soul as those around them but they are giving up the money to be seen and praised by all who see and hear. They are doing it for self-glorification and to appear as something they are not.
- When other people are doing something sweet and generous around us, sometimes we feel pressured that we must do the same. We don’t want to be seen as uncaring or stingy but if our heart is not in it we are simply doing it because we feel forced. That is never a good reason to do a good deed. If it does not come from the heart then it is not a blessing. It will only bring about frustration, stress, regret, and resentment in the person feeling forced. A good deed done because of pressure and not desire will result in bad emotions and eventually a soured relationship.
- It can make way for wolves in sheep’s clothing to enter God’s church leadership. Let’s be honest. Sometimes people go to church to gain status, recognition, and power. They are not true believers. They do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts. They have found a way to work the system, and appear to be authentic and in the end, they lead the church and its members to ruin. They have tried to steal God’s place of worship to promote themselves and have instead ruined His testimony amongst the world and shattered the lives of those who truly loved God.
Throughout the telling of this great movement in the church, no one is ever mentioned by name. But for some reason, God felt it important to tell us about a certain man named Joses. He didn’t do anything more amazing than anyone else. He sold land and brought the money to the apostles just like everyone else.
Why I believe he is important to this narrative is due to the verse that comes next.
It begins, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife,”
According to Collins Dictionary, you use but to introduce something that contrasts with what you have just said.
So the author is trying to show us that Ananias and Sapphira are distinctly different than Joses. But how?
(Galatians 6:4)(Philippians 2:3)(Proverbs 11:2, 27:2)(Romans 12:3)(Matthew 6:1, 23:27-28)
An Oblivious Church
At this point of our story, the mood is one of joy and elation. Quite a few people have already sold land, homes, and possessions and have brought the money to the disciples for distribution. The church is rejoicing over such generosity and many people are rejoicing because their needs are being met. There is a jubilee amongst the congregation! Praises are being sung to God for His great works.
It was a time when many new people were coming to the church and being drawn to its progressive and revolutionary ways. And when you let all types of people in that’s exactly what you get, people with different motives and desires, and not always for good.
But amongst the people, this is a time that will always be remembered and talked about for generations to come. It was a defining moment that God chose to cement in the minds of those around them, to be something they would never forget.
We do not know specifics about Ananias and Sapphira. We do not know if they were part of the believers who received the Holy Ghost together or if they joined the church sometime after that. We don’t even know if they were truly a believer or not. We will never know the heart nor the motives of Ananias and Sapphira. All we can do is speculate based on the words that God has left with us.
The Lies of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11)
Remember how I mentioned before that they were contradictory to Joses? Joses had given all of the money for the sale of his land. He did it as the other believers, willingly and with the right motives.
Ananias and Sapphira made one big difference to Joses.
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.
Acts 5:1-2
Ananias and Sapphira decided to sell a possession. Why? We can only assume that it was because they had the same heart and soul as everyone else. That they wanted to do it because the Holy Spirit led them to…but did they?
Were they just like Joses in motive as well as action?
Personally, I don’t believe so. Their first difference shown in this verse was they kept back part of the price, this in and of itself was not a problem. There was no covenant made or promise to keep. They owed no one this money. They didn’t have to give anything and they would have still been right with God. So why did keeping back part of the price become a problem?
Because they decided to lie. They both did. Ananias spoke the lie but Sapphira was aware of it and did nothing to stop it.
But why did they lie? Why not just keep back the money and say you gave part of the money? That still would have been alright. Like I said before, they didn’t have to give any of the money! So why lie?! What was so important about people believing that you gave all of the money?
I believe we can see the reason, or at least a reason, in the next couple of verses.
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?
While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Acts 5:3-4
Satan had filled their heart. If we look throughout the Bible there are only a couple of instances where Satan is even mentioned. And there is only one other time when Satan has entered into a person, that person was Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ.
Do I believe this makes Ananias and Sapphira not saved? Not necessarily. Jesus also rebukes Peter, the very Peter in the above verses, in Matthew 16:22-23. Jesus was telling his disciples about his coming death and crucifixion and Peter, trying to comfort Christ, told him that these things would not happen. Jesus then looks at Peter and says, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
Was he calling Peter Satan? Was Peter not saved? No, to both of those questions. But Jesus knew that those were words contrary to what God said and must then be from Satan. And if those were words of Satan does that mean that he “possessed” Peter and forced him to say that? No, I don’t believe so.
I believe it shows that even good people, people with Christ in their hearts can still be used by Satan to hurt God. So what were Ananias and Sapphira? Were they believers or not?
I don’t believe we will ever know. I am a true believer in only God knows the heart and that we can only make assumptions based on actions. I will never deny a person of their salvation, but if their character and behavior are contrary to godliness then I might have my doubts.
So is this a time when Ananias and Sapphira were Christians and just made one sinful choice? Or is this a time when they are not Christians and are pretending to be godly?
How would pretending to be godly benefit them if they were not saved?
Earthly Benefits
The church had become a new hot item around town. The miracles that were being performed, the popularity and fame that was being spread, and now the money that was coming in were great reasons to be part of the church. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
And to someone who did not notice the spiritual but only the material side of things it makes sense that they would want part of the action. But to get anything from this you would have to not just be a member but also a leader. You would need to climb the ranks so to speak.
The more godly you appeared to be the more trust you gained from those around you. The more trust you had the more responsibilities and power you held among the other members of the church. And the more responsibilities and power you had, the easier it would be to do whatever you wanted and no one would question you. No one would think to doubt you.
You would become a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Pretending to be part of the flock, but instead planning to eat it for their own prosperity.
You could easily steal money from the church, pronounce your own judgments upon the people, and stroke your ego. You would have a fan club. A group of people that adored you and looked to you for advice. You would feel like their God.
But the wolves never have God’s flock for long.
Satan, The Leader Of The Wolves
In many places throughout the Bible, God’s family of believers are seen as sheep: Isaiah 53:6, Jeremiah 50:6, Micah 2:12, Matthew 10:16, Luke 12:32, and I Peter 2:25 to name a few. We follow our Shepherd, we hear his call, and we know his voice. And just like anything else in the wild, sheep have a natural predator. Wolves.
Satan hates everything that has to do with God. He hates His presence, he hates His character, he hates His kingdom and he hates His flock.
He wants nothing more than to destroy it, and what better way than to destroy it from within?
Doesn’t the saying go, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”? This was most notably spoken by Abraham Lincoln regarding the Union and Confederacy on the topic of slavery but it was actually first spoken of by Jesus in Mark 3:25.
When a church is at war with itself, it will fall. When members of the church are not right with God or are not led by God’s Spirit, then it will fail. The saved will feel deceived and turn away from God. The unsaved will not want to be led by a God whose people are more sinful than they are.
Satan was making a way for Ananias and Sapphira to become his instrument to take over God’s church and make it collapse on itself. It was another way to cause the world to reject God. They might not have known it or they might have been ok with it. It depends on if they were saved or not.
Either way, they were being used by Satan in their sin.
Their one, small, little lie was opening the door for the downfall of the church. I believe that is what God saw. It was not just the lie that God was going to punish and rebuke them over. It was Satan in their heart. It was their selfishness and vanity. It was the future of His church that He saw and desired to protect and keep pure.
Satan’s Pattern in Behavior
If you learn nothing else from this blog, please remember this. Satan knows the right time to tempt and attack God’s children. He looks for the time when we least expect it, when we are at a high point in our Christian walk or when we are at our weakest physically, emotionally, or mentally.
When Jesus had fasted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness, he was tired, lonely, and hungry. His energy was all but gone. That was when Satan tempted Him to worship him.
When Job was blessed beyond measure, with no problems in his life, that is when Satan struck. He took everything from him. He caused his high point to become his lowest point. All to cause him to reject God. He even used Job’s wife to encourage him to curse God and die.
I have a very specific sin that I have struggled with since I was 11. Now that I am older and deeper in my faith, it does not affect me for most of my life. But if the desire to partake in that sin pops up again, it is always when I am alone, feeling emotionally detached from people, and circling in my mind the same lies that Satan has always told me.
He can speak through that biblical mentor we look up to or even the child in our home. We must always know what God has said first so we can “test the spirits” and know if it is from God or Satan.
God will never tempt us and He will never put us through a trial that we cannot get through or escape from. If Ananias and Sapphira were being tempted by Satan, God had provided them a different way, they chose to follow Satan.
They chose an outcome, whether they realized it or not.
(I John 4:1)(James 1:13-15)(I Corinthians 10:13)
The Outcome Of Their Choice
So what happened to Ananias and Sapphira? What did God decide to do with them?
After hearing the words that Peter spoke Ananias “gave up the ghost.” He died. There was no room for debate, there was no asking for mercy, and there were no second chances. It might seem harsh, but God’s judgment is never wrong. He knows our hearts and minds. He is fair. He holds our choices in the balance of right and wrong.
And He believed what Ananias and Sapphira had done was worthy of death. Since we do not have all knowledge or know the future we will just have to trust Him.
But it was not just Ananias that died. Three hours later Sapphira came looking for her husband. She had not heard what had happened to him yet. She was not aware that God had punished him for lying.
But the people who were there and saw what happened knew. And they had great fear in their hearts. Becoming part of God’s family and part of the church became more than just words. They could see God was not playing around or just being their friend and loving all the time.
They understood now the seriousness of their actions. They were no longer their own person. People saw God when they saw His flock. And God would punish those sheep that were hurting lost sheep from coming to His saving grace. They had a higher calling. They were being given God’s power. And with great power comes great responsibility.
She came to the apostles and they gave her a chance, to tell the truth, and not receive the same punishment.
They asked her, “Did you sell the land for this amount?”
And she said, “Yes, for that amount.”
Then Peter said, “How is it that you have agreed with your husband to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, those which have buried your husband are at the door and they shall carry you out too.”
Then she also fell to the ground and “gave up the ghost.” The young men who had buried her husband came in and buried her next to her husband.
What a stir this made amongst the community, both to those in the church and those who were hearing about it. Everyone that heard, whether saved or unsaved, was gripped with fear over the events that took place. They realized God’s power. They realized God’s character. They realized God’s church was to be authentic, transparent, and pure.
If you are a wolf trying to take advantage of the sheep and steal the flock, beware. God will not tolerate Satan in His house. Your time will come. God will judge you. Even if He allows you to take over His church and lead it astray, you will get your judgment and it will be harsh.
If you are a sheep and you decide to sin and hold fast to that sin, beware. God will not be mocked because of His children. Those who turn away from God to do what they want to do will not be spared. They might not die like Ananias and Sapphira. But they may be sent out of God’s church and be taken in by Satan.
Why This Story Should Matter To You
As I said in the beginning, do you hate your sin?
Do you look in the mirror? Do you search your soul? Do you constantly ask God to show you the areas that you need to change? Do you actually care about staying right with God and being His ambassador to the world?
If Ananias and Sapphira had looked at themselves and evaluated what they were about to do, they might have saved themselves from death. They could have continued to grow in faith and maybe be used greatly by God someday. But they cut their own lives short because of their sinful intentions.
If we never look in the mirror we will never see the blemishes. Our eyes are the gateway to our soul, what do your eyes say? What does your heart feel? Are your actions and motives with God or against Him?
Look in the mirror and desire to be purified.
For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
Luke 12:2
To read a little more in-depth into Ananias and Sapphira and the lessons we can learn from them, I would greatly suggest this article from the Philadelphia Church of God. I am in no way affiliated with them, nor am I in agreement with everything they preach. I do believe, however, that this article is very good at enlightening certain areas of this story and is worth reading.
https://pcg.church/articles/3409/learning-the-lesson-of-ananias-sapphira
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