Getting Caught Up in a Religious Show – by Greg Albrecht

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Acts 5:1-11                      The story of Ananias and Sapphira
Here’s a story that might seem as if it belongs in the Old Testament rather than the New. The story related by our keynote passage begins with an idyllic picture of new Christians, living together and sharing their lives. But then, in the midst of this upbeat picture of God’s favor and blessings, comes a depressing story of a man and his wife who gave an offering to God, but misrepresented the actual amount of how much they gave. In the middle of this time when God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all (Acts 4:33) God took the life of this husband and wife.

Our keynote passage causes us to ask: What does God taking the life of this man and wife have to do with his grace? Let me offer seven points to ponder as we consider the implications and teachings we can glean from this passage:

#1 Let’s first examine what this passage doesn’t mean. This passage has been misinterpreted as a warning. The account of the sin of Ananias and Sapphira has been, and continues to be, preached to wide-eyed congregations and Sunday schools and classes at Bible colleges as a threat— “God might do the same thing to you if you lie to the leadership of the church.” People are told by a religious authority, “If you don’t tell the truth, you might suffer the same fate as Ananias and Sapphira.”

The story of Ananias and Sapphira does not appear in the book of Acts so that religious authorities can use it to beat people into submission!

#2 The sin of Ananias and Sapphira is not what we normally call lying—it’s far more than lying. Hypocrisy is the real issue under critical review, hypocrisy driven by the expectations of religion, driven by a total misunderstanding of God. Ananias and Sapphira, a husband and wife, conspired to “get their stories straight” in a vain attempt to prevent their lie from being discovered. This kind of conspiracy happens all the time, doesn’t it? It happens between siblings, who try to protect each other so that mom and dad won’t find out the truth. It happens in the workplace, in the home, in courthouses, jails, government offices, police stations—and yes, it happens in churches.

#3 But the sin of Ananias and Sapphira is far more involved than merely attempting to prevent the truth from being told. Why did they lie and conspire together to get their stories straight? They weren’t children, afraid of being punished by their father and mother. They weren’t facing jail time—they weren’t going to be fined. So why did they do what they did?