An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 4:35-5:11 for Sunday, July 7, 2024, with the title, “Accountable.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:   ??? What is a name you would NOT give your child, because that name has a bad connotation for us today???

(EX: Adolph, because of Hitler; Judas, because of the traitorous apostle;  Benedict, because of Benedict Arnold, and so on.)

Then = This morning we are going look at a passage which features two characters whose names have gone down in Bible infamy: Ananias & Sapphira. This lesson is actually not as negative as one might think; there is also a great positive example of sacrificial giving in this passage, as well as the famous negative example of hypocritical religion — and of God’s judgment on those who practice it.  

CONTEXT

We’ve been in the Book of Acts for the last several weeks, looking at the first days of Christian church after the Holy Spirit came upon them at the Day of Pentecost. We saw in Chapter 2 how that church was a model for us in many ways, in their commitment to God’s word, fellowship, prayer, and so on. We saw early in Chapter 4 how they boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ as the only way to God: “No other name under heaven … by which we must be saved.” 

One of the characteristics we saw of the Early Church in Chapter 2 was that they sold their possessions and shared them with those who had needs. We see this emphasis repeated at the end of Chapter 4, where :34 says that there were no needy among them, but that all who owned land and houses would sell them, and bring the proceeds to the Apostles, and they would distribute them to anyone who had a need. 

It’s in this context that we come to our text for this week, Acts 4:36-5:11, and the infamous story of Ananias and Sapphira. 

OUTLINE

I. The Positive Example of Sacrificial Giving (4:36-37)

II. The Negative Example of Insincere Giving (5:1-2)

III. God’s Judgment of Hypocrisy (5:3-11)

TEXT

I. The Positive Example of Sacrificial Giving (:36-37)

:36 ‘Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means ‘Son of Encouragement’), (:37) and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

An important character in the Book of Acts is introduced here. In fact, this is characteristic of Luke; he’ll introduce a character in a brief way, who will be somebody important later. He does this here with “Joseph” — nobody would think you knew him in Acts — except it says he was also called “Barnabas” — somebody we are all familiar with (Paul & Barnabas on the first mission trip, and elsewhere). It says they called him Barnabas because it means  “Son of Encouragement.”  And it says he was of “Cyprian” birth, which means he was from the Island of Cyprus, just off the coast of the Turkey/Palestine area in the Mediterranean Sea. (You might show your group a MAP of where Cyprus is)

You may just want to briefly share about Barnabas here, as an encourager. We will see several examples of his character as an encourager in Acts:

— In Acts 9:26, when no one would have anything to do with Paul immediately after his conversion, it was Barnabas who took him under his wing and gave him entry to the church. :27 says “BUT Barnabas …”. 

— In Acts 11:19-24, when they were checking out the new believers at Antioch, they sent Barnabas, and :23 says “He began to encourage them.”

— THEN :25 says he went to look for Saul there, and took him in and discipled him. 

— Then when Paul wouldn’t take Mark back with him on the 2nd missionary journey, Barnabas took up for him (15:36-39)

So in all of these instances we see that Barnabas was an encourager.

And here in our passage for today, we see his example of encouragement of others by his GIVING. Verses 34-35 had said: “for all who were owners of land … would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.” 

After sharing that principle that this kind of thing was happening, Luke then gave a specific example of someone who did this: this Joseph, or Barnabas as we would come to know him, sold his tract of land, and laid it at the apostles’ feet, as a gift to help support the needy of the church.  So Barnabas is a great example of someone who ministered to others not only through his encouragement, but also through his giving. 

You might want to share some other Biblical examples of sacrificial giving:

— Mary giving the ointment to anoint Jesus’ feet in John 12. Judas said it could have been sold for 300 denarii. A denarius is about a day’s wage for a working man — so this gift was basically a YEAR’S salary for a working man, that Mary lavishly gave Jesus! It was a very costly gift!

— The Apostle Paul commends the churches in Macedonia for their sacrificial giving in II Corinthians 8:2 “their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.”  So they gave sacrificially out of their POVERTY! 

In fact, some of the most sacrificial gifts come from those without great means:

— Jesus gave us an example of that, didn’t He, with the story of the widow at the Temple in Luke 21:1-4, who gave the 2 “widow’s mites” — He said she gave more than them all. So it’s not the “amount” of the gift that matters; it’s the sacrifice. 

— Here’s another illustration of that: 

“Tiny Miss Noble carried on her arm a small basket … that basket held small savings from her more portable food, destined for the children of her poor friends among whom she trotted on fine mornings; fostering and petting all needy creatures being so spontaneous a delight to her, that she regarded it as much as if it had been a pleasant vice that she was addicted to. … One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.” (George Eliot, Middlemarch, p. 169)

Here are some other ILLUSTRATIONS OF GIVING you might consider using in Sunday’s lesson: 

When Jerry Rankin was President of our International Mission Board, he shared how he was visiting a man in the hospital who was on his death bed, and during the visit, the man had his deceased wife’s wedding ring with him — and he gave it to Dr. Rankin, and told him to sell it, and use the proceeds to send more missionaries to share the Gospel of Jesus around the world. 

“John Wanamaker, founder of the Philadelphia department store bearing his name, was a dedicated Christian. While observing missionary work in China, he entered a village where believers lacked money to complete a church building. In a nearby field he saw a boy yoked with an ox as the two pulled a plow guided by the boy’s father. Wanamaker’s guide explained that the boy had promised his father he’d help plow if his father would sell one ox to raise money for the church. The businessman reportedly fell to his knees and prayed, ‘Lord, let me be hitched to a plow that I may know the joy of sacrificial giving.’”

(Daily Readings From the Life of Christ, Vol. 2, by John MacArthur)

??? Can you share a personal example of someone you’ve seen or heard of, who gave in a very sacrificial way like Barnabas did here in Acts 4???

Then make the application: ALL of us as God’s people should tithe, as a matter of course. It demonstrates that we are thankful to God for all we have, and that we recognize that it all came from him. But then there are times when God calls us to give above & beyond that: maybe for a building fund, like that Chinese boy did, or to meet the needs of others, like Barnabas did here, or for some other thing the Lord lays on your heart. (If your church has a special fund going: for building, missions, etc., this would be a PERFECT place to mention that need here!)  

The Lord gave us Barnabas here in Acts 4  as an example of the kind of sacrificial giving that pleases Him.

II. A Negative Example of Insincere Giving (5:1-2)

Barnabas’ example of giving is a great one — but then Chapter 5 of Acts opens with the word, “BUT.” “BUT a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, (:2) and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.” 

BUT we also see here as Acts 5 opens, an example that contrasts with that of Barnabas, that of Ananias & Sapphira. 

It says they sold a piece of property, but he KEPT BACK some of the price for himself. But he laid it at the Apostles’ feet as if he was doing the same thing that Barnabas had done.  

The Greek word for “kept back” can mean to “pilfer” or to “embezzle”!  It’s interesting that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this is the same word used when Achan took some of the contraband from Jericho that God had forbidden the people to take. So God saw it the same way as that.  

Let’s clarify something:   ???Is it inherently wrong, in itself, to only give a portion of something you’ve sold to the Lord???

(Absolutely not! You can sell a piece of land for $30,000, and give $15,000 to the Lord, and that is fantastic; there is nothing wrong with that. 

The wrong here is of “keeping back some of the price for himself” — all the while passing it off as if they had given the whole thing to the church, like Barnabas did. They were lying to the church. They were trying to make themselves look better to others in the church, than they really were. As we will see, God knows and judges accordingly!

There’s a lot of application for us as God’s people today, isn’t there? 

For one, do WE ever try to make it appear that we are better givers than we really are?  A guy one once told me that he put an empty offering envelope in the offering plate when it went around, just so people wouldn’t think he wasn’t giving! Man, that’s really close to Ananias & Sapphira, right?

But do we ever do things like that? Do we try to make sure people see us give? Do ever try to make our giving look better than it is?  We need to beware this evil attitude of deception in the church, and the spirit of PRIDE that is behind it; wanting to appear better than we are. 

IN FACT: this not only applies to our giving; this is a heart matter that also applies to everything we do in the church: DO WE TRY TO MAKE OURSELVES LOOK BETTER THAN WE REALLY ARE IN ANY AREA OF OUR LIVES, IN THE CHURCH?

This can really be convicting, right?

??? You might ask your group: What are some ways we might try to make ourselves appear better than we really are, in church???

(There are TONS of possible answer to this:

— Acting like we are really concerned about someone, when we really aren’t.

— Nodding to making it look like we know the answer to a Bible question, when we really don’t. 

— I’ve known people pretended they were turning to a passage of scripture, when they had no idea where it was!

— I think there’s a lot of things we might do in church, that if we do not do at home, could be considered hypocritical. If we kneel for prayer at church, do we ever kneel at home, or by ourselves? If we raise our hands in worship, do we only do that in public at church, or do we also do that when it’s just us and the Lord? 

Back in the early 2000s, when I first started raising my hands in worship, someone in our church told me they asked a senior adult lady, who was a matriarch in our church, about it. She told me that this woman said, “You know, as long as he does it at home too, I don’t see anything wrong with it.” I thought that was a wise answer. Let’s don’t do things at church just to be seen; if we do it at church, let’s make sure we’re doing it at home, and elsewhere too. 

You/your class can talk about this, and just warn them: we need to beware of this spirit, of trying to make ourselves appear better than we really are. it is a spirit of pride, and God will judge that in us — as we will see in the next verses.  

??? Why do you think Ananias & Sapphira did what they did? What might their motivation have been???

(Of course, they may have been motivated by money. They may have just been greedy and wanted to keep the money for their own purposes.

But it’s also striking that this story comes right on the heels of the story of Barnabas, right? Barnabas sold his property, and gave all the money to the church. Perhaps they saw the response of others to his gift, and THEY wanted that kind of response for themselves: they wanted the attention, and the awe, and the respect that he had received.

You/your group can share your thoughts about that.

But then I would say: You know, WE really CAN’T know what was in their hearts, can we? Only God knows hearts. Only HE knows the motivations: WHY people do what they do. You & I can only see WHAT they do; God knows WHY — as we will see in the next section!  And that’s why we need to be careful about judging people, one way or the other:

— We might laud a person who gives some great gift — but we don’t really know their motivation. They may have evil intentions, like Ananias & Sapphira did — we don’t know!
— Or we may think someone only gave a small gift — but we don’t know that like the widow in Luke, they were giving all they had!

This is why we need to be very careful about judging people. Only God knows hearts.  R.C.H. Lenski, one of my favorite commentators, wrote: “To those who looked on, Ananias appeared as a second Barnabas.” But God knew differently. This is, again, why we need to withhold judgment. We don’t know hearts. But God DOES know hearts, and will judge — as we see in the final section:

III. God’s Judgment of the Hypocritical Giving (5:3-11)

So Ananias & Sapphira did this — but the Bible says they did NOT get away with it.

You may want to address this in two sub-points:

— A. God KNOWS (:3-4)

— B. God JUDGES (:5-11)

A. God KNOWS (:3-4)

:3 “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? (:4) While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.’”

So the Bible says Ananias did NOT get away with it. God knew. This is just a very sobering reminder, that God knows everything. 

We never “get away” with anything. God knows everything that happens, and He even knows our hearts.  

Of course this is taught all through scripture:

— Psalm 139:2 says “You understand my thought from afar. Verse 4 says “even before there is a word on my tongue, behold O LORD, You know it all.” 

— Psalm 90:9 “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”

— In Matthew 9, when Jesus told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven, and the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes”; :4 says “And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said …”. 

God knows our thoughts. He knows everything we do. 

Psalm 139 goes on to say “Darkness and light are alike to you.” We can’t hide anything from God. As someone said, our “secret sins” here on earth, are open scandal in heaven. He knows it all. 

MY STORY: Once I found a great sermon by Charles Spurgeon (“The Prince of Preachers”) on Psalm 90, entitled, “Your Secret Sins.” So I highlighted it and send it to print. And the little dialog box came up, and said: “‘Your Secret Sins’ are being sent to the printer”! That startled me for a second, then I chuckled! But it is a good reminder to us: God DOES know all our “secret sins” — there really ARE no “secret sins;” He knows them all — as Acts 5 makes extremely clear to us here.  

The point is: is there is anything in your life that you are trying to “hide,” you can’t hide it — not from God. He knows, and as we will see, He will judge you for it as well.  

B. God JUDGES (:5-11)

Then :5 says “And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard it.

:6 “The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.”

So evidently God struck Ananias down for lying to the church, and to His Holy Spirit. Now, it does not “specifically” indicate “God struck him” — but Peter couches this in terms of God’s judgment being visited upon him and Sapphira:

— He said in :4, “You have not lied to men but to God”

— Then when he addresses Sapphira in :9 he says, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.’”
And :10 = “And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last.”

So it does not SAY “God struck them”, but I believe it’s very clear that’s what happened. They “put the Lord to the test;” they “lied to God” — and they paid the price for it. 

So we see clearly here that not only does God SEE what we do; He also judges what we do.

NOW: I think one important thing to address here is: 

??? DOES GOD ALWAYS JUDGE HIS PEOPLE IN JUST THIS SAME WAY??? 

(Of course the answer is “no,” He does not. I’ve said over the years, that if God held our churches today to the standard of Ananias & Sapphira, there would be dead bodies all over the place!  

But God is God. I read one commentary that said that this event causes a lot of people problems; that God would judge people so harshly. I was like, really? God is God! God is a holy God. We can’t think that we can just lie to the Holy Spirit, and present to Him hypocritical gifts, and think that we are not going to suffer for it. God is God, and He has the right and the ability to judge whomever and whenever He will!

Now, the fact is that usually He does NOT judge instantaneously like that. He is often more gracious to us than this — and how thankful we should be — because many of us would be on the floor along with these two if God was not gracious to us! 

But certainly God does have the right to do this, no question. 

And that might lead to another good discussion for your group:
??? Since God doesn’t always seem to judge this immediately, WHY DO YOU THINK HE DID ON THIS OCCASION???

(You/your group can discuss that, but I think at least part of the answer is found in this text:

— :5 after Ananias died: “And great fear came over all who heard of it.”

— :11 after Sapphira died: “And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.”

Why would God do this then? To cause a holy awe and respect in His church — especially important at that early time, to establish the purity of the church in its crucial founding moments, to ensure a strong and pure foundation for all that would follow.

??? A good discussion question might be: Did you ever know a coach, or a teacher, or supervisor, or anyone, who was very harsh in their judgment on someone, to set an example for others???

(I once heard a teacher say that they do this: the first week of class they are very harsh in their discipline, to set the example/ the tone for the rest of the students, the rest of the year.)

So God intended this as a word of warning, that we need to heed today: DO NOT MESS WITH GOD’S CHURCH! Don’t cause trouble it, or cause contention in it, or compromise its holiness with your own hypocrisy. God loves His church, and He will hold you accountable for what you say and do in it. He wants His church to be holy. He may not always bring the immediate judgment upon you that He did on Ananias & Sapphira (or He MAY!) but you can be certain that He WILL hold us to account.  

— ??? Was Sapphira judged just because her husband committed this hypocritical deed???

(NO: and you might ask your group to scan this text and look for indicators that she was judged for her own part in it:

OR have these verses printed and distributed for volunteers to read:

— 5:1 = “But a man named Ananias, WITH HIS WIFE SAPPHIRA, sold a piece of property”

— 5:2 = “and kept back some of the price for himself, WITH THIS WIFE’S FULL KNOWLEDGE”

— 5:7 “his wife came in … (:8) And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?’ AND SHE SAID, ‘YES, THAT WAS THE PRICE.’”

— 5:9 “Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that YOU HAVE AGREED TOGETHER to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?’”

So at least FOUR TIMES in this passage we see that Sapphira was complicit with Ananias in this hypocrisy. She wasn’t punished for HIS sin; she was punished for HER OWN.

And this is a Biblical principle: each of us judged for our own sin.

+x Jeremiah 31:29-30  “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ (:30) But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.”

You see what he’s saying here? That old saying, “The fathers eat the grapes but the children’s teeth are set on edge” — i.e., the kids are being punished for what the fathers did. This does NOT mean that our actions don’t have an impact on our children; they do. But God says here that each person is accountable to Him for their OWN actions.

And that is true for US as well. 

The Bible teaches the principle of individual salvation. YOU are accountable to God for YOUR sin; you are accountable to Him for YOUR response to Him in salvation. Encourage your group members to make sure of this if they have not already.

This is a very sobering passage for sure — and it should cause each of us to evaluate our own lives, and confess and repent of any hypocrisy we might have: either in our giving, or any other area of our life. God sees and knows, and He will judge us if we do not repent

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