Speaker: Jerry Cisar

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is hard to forget. It also raises a lot of questions for our curious minds. Can Satan fill the heart of a believer? How did Peter know it was a lie? Did Ananias and Sapphira go to heaven or hell? Was selling property to give to the poor something only for a special era in church history? I could add to the list, but what each of these questions does is provide a distraction from the questions the text is asking us.

This text has questions of its own. Questions coming from Peter, the lead apostle through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Questions which are ultimately one question repeated three times. The repetition is intended to penetrate us in those times when we are about to find ourselves in the same trouble as Ananias and Sapphira.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is far more applicable to the church today than we might think. It wasn’t written just to inform us about what things were like in the early church. It was written because it speaks to vital areas of our own lives before God. This text no less than the others we have seen in Acts is about worship—pure worship in the fear of God. It’s about the worship of Ananias and Sapphira for the sake of your worship and mine.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2014/07/20140706.pdf