Dr Paul Allen

  In the opening chapters of Acts, Luke offers what is likely the most comprehensive description of a healthy church in the New Testament.  Here we learn that as “awe came upon every soul” (Acts 2:43), the Jerusalem Church listened to the apostles’ teachings, broke bread in each other’s homes, and shared their resources generously while the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37). By any measure, the Church of Jerusalem was healthy and thriving. And yet, while it’s easy to think that the Jerusalem Church was nearly perfect, Luke disabuses us of any such notion when he describes a shocking episode of moral failure and instant judgment—God strikes two people dead three hours apart! Their names were Ananias and Sapphira. After selling some property, they laid the proceeds from the sale at the apostles’ feet. But what looked like a generous donation was a work of calculated deception. What they claimed was a total donation of the proceed...

  Acts 5:1-2 Let us never forget that we have a subtle enemy to contend with. This chapter contains the first reference in Acts to Satan, v. 3, for wherever God is working, the devil plants seeds of hatred, division, and antagonism to the truth. In chapter 4, he unsuccessfully attempted to discourage the apostles through official intimidation (4:18-20). Now, he tries two new tactics: corruption from within the Church (Acts 5:1-16) and persecution from outside (vvv. 17–42). Luke occasionally breaks his narrative with a challenging summary of early Church practices, as in 2:41–47 and 4:32–37. In the latter, we learn that fellowship in the Jerusalem assembly was taken so seriously that some believers sold property and gave the proceeds to a common fund to aid poorer saints. This unconstrained exhibition of Christian love becomes the devil’s target. Barnabas’s selfless action, 4:36-37, provokes a Satanically-inspired imitation by Ananias and Sapphira. Their sin is calculated deception:...

The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 lets us know that despite the explosion of growth in the early church , they had moments of weakness, even gross sin . I believe that their deaths serve as a warning to the Church today, and that God has a lot to teach us—if we are willing to hear: 1. In the church, there are both genuine believers and non-genuine. On the outside, Ananias and Sapphira look just like another church member named Barnabas (introduced in Acts 4 ). Barnabas had just sold his property and brought the money to the apostles, and to the casual observer, Ananias and Sapphira were doing the same thing. But deep in their heart lingered a love of money and a desire for people’s praise. So they conspired together to present a portion of their money while passing it off as the entire amount. This is worlds apart from the attitude of Barnabas, but looks very similar. We may be able to get away with this sort of duplicity for a while, but if someone looks closely,...