Acts 5:1-11

What do you think Ananias and Sapphira did wrong?

V 1-5

Barnabas at the end of Chapter 4 sells a field and donates everything to the church to help its function

Ananias has claimed to have given the whole sum of the sale to the church while yet he has actually only given part

What he is seeking is public praise for his deeds without sacrificing anything

Peter then tells him that the issue at hand had nothing to do with whether or not he gave the money but his deceitfulness

V 7-11

Sapphira is asked about whether or not she had given everything to the church

She doubles down on the lie that ananias tells

She has also “tested the Spirit of The Lord”

What they both did was lie in the face of the spirit of the Lord in order that they themselves might benefit spiritually in their image before man

They wanted the credit of spiritual leadership without doing its work

What could be a modern example of this situation?

Someone bragging about a monetary gift to the church

Claiming to be a devoted member of the church without any participating in it

Desiring a position of leadership or to preach for the sole purpose of image boosting

Is this punishment too harsh for the sin that has been committed? Why or why not?

Complex question

Tension to be held here of there is some answer, but we must sit in the uncomfortable nature of this

2 answers:

No

They had committed a sin that would have hurt the church at its inception

this could have set a bad precedent for what is allowed and what is not

They had sinned against God and Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death

While it is awful to witness, we should marvel at the fact we do not receive this same punishment that they did

It’s uncomfortable

just because a passage of scripture is hard to sit with, does not make it any less true

What can we learn about God’s character? How much of a value does he put on sin?