Dwell in the Word: Acts 4:32-5:11

Think on these questions as you dwell in Acts 4:32-5:11:

1. Why did Barnabas sell his field and bring the money to the Apostles? How does his example contrast with the actions of Ananias and Sapphira?

2. What was the underlying issue in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, and why did their deception lead to such a severe consequence? How does this event emphasize the importance of truthfulness in the early church?

3. How should modern believers apply the lesson from the story of Ananias and Sapphira in their own lives? What does it mean to be a person of truth, and how does truthfulness reflect the nature of God?

Transcript:

 We have seen already how the early church had things in common and they shared so that people in need would be taken care of. Now, I talked about when we saw this before in the book of Acts, how this was voluntary, how it was not something that was normative in the entire New Testament. It has been normative in the rest of the history of the church.

And so now we're going to see an example of that, of how they did this. But we're also going to see something very bad that happens because there was not truthfulness in this giving. It was not done out of goodness of heart. There was deception involved. And so, we see here about how they had everything in common.

And so, what they would do is people would sell things that they had and then they would give the money to the Apostles, and they would distribute it to those who are in need. And we see an excellent example of How this was done with Barnabas in verse 36, thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means sons of encouragement.

He sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet. So, it was brought to the apostles. The purpose was to give it to the apostles so that they could distribute it to those in need. And this funded the ministry of the early church. This was important.  But there were two people who conspired to sell some of their land, and they said, Hey, let's say we're awesome people and giving all this money to the apostles.

But let's keep some for ourselves, you know, cause that's our land anyway. But we also kind of want the status and we want people to think that they've done this or maybe they were thinking that they would get some sort of, uh, there will be thought of more thought of better if they gave a larger amount and they didn't keep any for themselves.

But somehow we are not told exactly how Peter knows that they have not received the entire that they have not given the entire amount to the apostles, whether this comes from the Holy Spirit or, uh, they somehow found out who sold it. I'm guessing, uh, this was some sort of revelation to Peter.

Peter says to Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?  And then we see that this was in fact voluntary. In the fact that Peter tells them, Hey, when it was unsold, wasn't this yours? And after it was sold, didn't you have the money? And could you not have, you know, said, Hey, here's half and that’s what this is.

But instead, they've lied and said that they've given the entire amount. And so, what does Peter say? Why have you contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God. Now, before we look at what happens to Ananias and Sapphira, we have to see an important connection. that Peter makes here, right?

He says, uh, to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And then at the end of this, he says, you have not lied to man, but to God. Peter is letting us know that the Holy Spirit is not an absent force, but is God himself. That's an important thing to understand here. But then, we see what happens to Ananias and to Sapphira.

They both fall over and breathe their last. This is sobering, isn't it? It's a reminder for us of the importance of telling the truth and not lying to God because God, God knows we can't lie to God. God is sovereign. He's omnipotent, omnipotent, omniscient, omniscient, all of those things. And so, we can't lie to God.

Why would we do that? And we see that Sapphira, uh, you know, not knowing you see that they Contrived to do these things together. They conspired Because she says the exact same thing that her husband did and she also falls over and breathes her last, now, what's going on here? This is difficult for us to read, isn't it?

This is hard. We want to think of the New Testament being about grace. We want to think about the church not being, the early church not being something where, someplace where something like this happens.  But we see that this is important. The idea here is that the apostles have authority to teach.

We've seen that already. They have authority in the church. And you're not supposed to lie to God. You're supposed to take these things seriously. And don't conspire to deceive.  Now, you and I have done those things in our life, right? We have lied, and we haven't dropped over dead. Um, why did this happen here?

Well, it was going on in the early church. And also, this is a message to the other people that this is serious business that this is they're not moving from an old testament where god was concerned about sin to Being able to do whatever they wanted to in the New Testament, or the new covenant.

This is serious business telling the truth Telling the truth to God and to into caring for other people This is serious business. We don't know why specifically this happened, but it did. And so, while we could speculate, that's not the best thing to do. What the best thing to do for us is to think about what this means for us.

How can we apply this to ourselves today?  Well, I think the message that comes through more than anything is that we are to be people of truth. That we should not deceive others. We shouldn't conspire to keep things back for ourselves. We should tell the truth. Ananias and Sapphira had the opportunity to keep that money.

They had the opportunity to be honest about what they did. But it was their deception, it was their conspiring that was the issue here. But we are called, as the people of God, to witness to the truth of the gospel. And so, we want to be a people of truth. Now, I'm not suggesting, and I know you know this, but I'm not suggesting that God is going to knock us over dead if we don't tell the truth today.

But we should understand the gravity of truthfulness. that when we tell the truth, we are reflecting the nature of God because God is truth. So, we should take truthfulness seriously, very seriously. And so may we be a people of God as we go about our business as we interact with others. May we remember the severity of this story and the importance of truth that we might be Christ's witnesses in the world.