But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
Acts 5:1-5
Let’s keep in mind that the bulk of Christendom believes and teaches that the Church, the Body of Christ, started in Acts 2 with the apostle Peter at Pentecost. With that in mind, as we move beyond Acts 2 and into a chapter such as Acts 5, we must ask certain questions of the text.
Few passages within the Bible are as eyebrow raising as the passage above. Here, in Acts chapter 5, we are told about a husband and wife who are struck dead instantly because they lied about an offering.
Throughout this account, the student of the Bible has to eventually ask the question, “is this what grace looks like?” “Was Ananias’ and Sapphira’s punishment too harsh?” “Did Ananias and Sapphira die saved?” “Should I also live in fear of instant justice if I do something counter to what God instructs of me?”
Those are all very serious questions that must be studied out. But in order to properly understand what is being conveyed to us here in Acts 5, the student of the Bible must actually ask the question, “was something else happening in God’s unfolding plan here in Acts, and just where are we at within God’s timeline as we read of the events that take place within Acts 5?”
The fact of the matter is that only when we “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV) are we able to see why God acted the way He did, and why it is that He deals with us differently now, under grace.
Setting: Kingdom Believers or Members of the Body of Christ?
The key to understanding how it is that this chapter seems so out of place within our Bibles is found in realizing that Ananias and Sapphira were not “Christian hypocrites” found within the Body of Christ. Ananias and Sapphira were part of Israel’s Kingdom church, the Little Flock (Lk 12:32), formed in Jerusalem under Peter’s message in Acts 2 through 4. Acts 2:41-47 describes them:
“They that gladly received his word were baptized … and continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine…”
The doctrine mentioned here was not Paul’s gospel of grace, but the prophetic Kingdom program being offered to Israel. Peter preached repentance and water baptism (Acts 2:38) in view of Christ’s soon return to establish Israel’s prophesied Kingdom (Acts 3:19-21). Ananias and Sapphira had experienced the promised outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16-18). They lived in one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). They appear to have been Spirit-filled Kingdom saints and certainly were not members of the yet-unrevealed Body of Christ (Eph 3:1-6).
“All Things Common” within the Kingdom
The four Gospels and the early chapters to the book of Acts are chock-full of commands from Jesus and His 12 apostles instructing their followers to sell all their possessions. Even Barnabas, a once member of the Little Flock, did as he was instructed:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Mt 13:44
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
Mk 10:18-22
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
Lk 12:32-33
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
Mt 19:21
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Lk 18:22
And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Acts 2:44-45
Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Acts 4:34-37
But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
Acts 5:1
Members of the Little Flock, the Remnant, expected the Kingdom on earth soon. Why else would anyone have total confidence in selling their earthly possessions, the material items that they would have no use of within Christ’s Kingdom? What we see within the various verses above is not “Christian communism,” as some have preached, it was obedience to Kingdom law in preparation for Daniel’s 70th Week and the soon reign of Christ on earth.
Ananias and Sapphira wanted the same reputation, they wanted to be seen as holy and trusting in the Kingdom program, but their show was without the same faith as true members of the Little Flock. Ananias and Sapphira lied in order to look spiritual and in order to look like they were “sold out” to the prophecies found within the Old Testament and Christ’s fulfillment of those prophecies.
An Evil Heart of Unbelief
In the end, Ananias’ and Sapphira’s lie wasn’t just about money, it was about faith, or rather, their unbelief. Peter said: “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost…?” (Acts 5:3). They were in a Spirit-filled community, yet their motives were filled by Satan. That is exactly what Hebrews 3:12-13 warns Israel’s remnant about:
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Heb 3:12-13
Ananias and Sapphira were hardened by deceit. They turned from faith to falsehood, and under the Kingdom program, that brought swift judgment.
Warnings in the Hebrew Epistles
Their story foreshadows the very warnings written later to Israel’s believing remnant:
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:4-6
This precisely describes Ananias and Sapphira. They experienced the Spirit’s power, but they turned away from it.
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:26-27
Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was deliberate. It was not ignorance, but rebellion.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
2 Pet 2:20-22
Peter’s warning fits perfectly with what happened with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Their physical death illustrated the Kingdom principle that God’s holy presence among His people could not tolerate hypocrisy.
Immediate Judgment
In Acts 5, God’s Spirit was visibly operating among Israel’s Kingdom saints. This was a foretaste of the holiness and justice of the coming Millennial Kingdom. The apostle Peter wrote “Judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Pet 4:17) and just as we see Revelation chapters 2 and 3 written early within the book of Revelation, here we see swift judgment being exacted early on within the life of the Little Flock. Just as Achan (Joshua 7) and Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) were judged instantly, so were Ananias and Sapphira, under that same covenant holiness. Their deaths were a sign to believing Israel:
And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
Acts 5:11-14
Within all of this, God was confirming that Peter and the Twelve apostles had divine authority and this account fits perfectly within the Kingdom program.
From Law to Grace, Dispensational Change
Israel continued to resist the Holy Ghost all the way up to the end of Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter 7, God provides us the brutal account of Stephen’s martyrdom. Within Stephen’s final words he stated:
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Acts 7:51
Because of this God set aside the Kingdom offer and raised up a new apostle, Saul of Tarsus, later Paul, with a brand new revelation known as “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2). Within this new program, judgment is postponed and grace reigns:
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 5:21
The Grace program has much different characteristics than the Kingdom program, which is all about law and covenants:
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:31
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Gal 6:1
Had Ananias and Sapphira lived during the dispensation of the grace of God and under Paul’s gospel of grace, they would not have been struck dead instantly. Their sin would have grieved the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30), but not provoked death. That is because:
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Cor 5:19
and:
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:9
The wrath of God is currently suspended within this dispensation of grace!
Our Lesson: Don’t Mix Programs
Though Acts 5 is not about the Body of Christ doctrinally, it still teaches valuable principles for us today (2 Tim 3:16-17):
- God still hates hypocrisy: Grace is not a license to lie or deceive (Gal 6:7).
- Faith produces honesty: We serve “in newness of spirit” (Rom 7:6), not in showmanship.
- Right Division protects sound doctrine: The Hebrew Epistles and the early chapters to the book of Acts deal with Israel’s Kingdom program, not the Church, the Body of Christ.
- Acts is a book a transition: From Peter’s ministry to Paul’s ministry, Law to Grace, Prophecy to Mystery, the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Gospel of the Grace of God.
- Tradition must be forsaken: The Church, the Body of of Christ did not start in Acts 2 with Peter. Acts 5 tells us that!
- We should not tolerate pastors allegorizing Scripture: Ananias and Sapphira were swiftly struck dead by the God of justice and when we put this account in its proper context, we no longer need to make up self-help sermons to explain away the text.
Mixing the two programs, Kingdom and Grace, leads to fear-based teachings and confusion about eternal security. No Bible-believing Christian should be subjected to that.
Conclusion
Ananias and Sapphira were Kingdom saints under Peter’s ministry, early in the life of the Little Flock. Their sin revealed unbelief and deceit and it was punished with instant judgment. Their story marks the transition between the severity of the Law and Kingdom covenants, and the revelation of Grace provided by our Lord through the apostle Paul.
In Acts 5, God judged to preserve holiness. In Paul’s epistles, God offers grace in order to produce holiness. It is the same God, but it is also different programs. Confusion is avoided once the student of the Bible realizes that there are different dispensations and that the Bible needs to be rightly divided in order to properly see them.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:14
Ananias and Sapphira remind us that God’s holiness never changes, but His program of dealing with mankind does. Under the Kingdom program, sin was and will be judged swiftly. Under Grace, sin was paid for on the cross. Under Glory, sin will be no more. That’s the wisdom of God, “rightly divided.”