Was God heavy-handed with Ananias and Sapphira? (Acts 5:1-11) Part 1

This is the beginning of my Sunday morning sermon for January 10, 2010 at Church of Grace:

1But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." 9 But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole churchand upon all who heard of these things. (Acts 5:1-11)

If there’s such a thing in the Bible as getting “slain in the spirit” this is it right here. To be “slain” means to be put to death; to be killed. This is precisely what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. The Holy Spirit put them to death hence they were “slain by the spirit.” I don’t mean to sound facetious. There is no doubt that this passage presents a problem to many people. It’s a hard passage to stomach, but if we are going to be consistent with the rest of what the Bible reveals concerning God’s nature then I don’t see why this passage should be as difficult as we’ve made it out to be. When people look at this passage they may feel that Ananias and Sapphira were dealt a heavy hand and that it just seems like overkill on God’s part. Those feelings are understandable, but we must not ever allow ourselves to stand in judgment of God. God doesn’t need to justify himself to anyone. “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (Rom 9:20). God always does what is good and holy. God is not evil. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Don’t get me wrong. When I say we are not to question God I do not mean that we should not seek to understand why God does what he does. God certainly has answers for genuine truth seekers. God loves to reveal himself to those who sincerely seek him, but he shuts out the mockers. What I mean by not questioning I mean we are to not act as judges over God and demand for him to justify himself to us for what he does.

Think about the passage. What’s so difficult about it? Does not the Bible teach us that God is a judge? In fact he is “the Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25). So then what’s so difficult about a judge exercising judgment? You might say,

“Chris, I understand the concept of God judging, but in the case of Ananias and Sapphira the judgment seems so arbitrary. They aren’t the only ones who have been guilty of hypocrisy so why does God seem to single them out? I mean if he is going to slay anybody that puts on face and practices dishonesty in the local church then you might find that you won’t have much of a church left when he’s done.”

That kind of objection reminds me of a Bible study I had in my apartment a few years ago. In that study we arrived at a section in the Bible that says God chooses people unto salvation and that it’s his prerogative do so only to hear a certain person heatedly object. I mean this guy became hot. His nostrils flared up and after hearing him out and trying to reason with him for a short while I simply asked,

“Ok. Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are telling me that God has no right to choose people. It’s either he saves everyone or he saves no one, but he has no right to pick and choose?”

And he said,

“Yes. That’s what I am saying.Either he should save everyone or no one, but he doesn’t have the right to say ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe.’”

Of course that’s an unfair caricature on his part. God doesn’t really say, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” but you get the point. The spirit behind such an objection is the same kind of spirit that often finds its self even judging God’s actions as wrong. They might say,

“Well, if he’s going to kill Ananias and Sapphira he might as well kill everybody because everyone has played the hypocrite at one time or another and practiced dishonesty, but the truth of the matter is that he doesn’t kill everyone. He seemed to have just arbitrarily picked out Ananias and Sapphira, but why is that so? Why do we not we see this happen today? Where’s the consistency in God? When was the last time you witnessed someone die in the presence of God?”

There is an answer as to why we don’t see this happen often today, but I don’t want to provide a full answer just yet. I'd like for you to note however that I didn’t say it doesn’t happen at all anymore, but only that it doesn’t happen often. For now I’ll just tell you up front that in one sense God’s swift judgment on Ananias and Sapphira don't have much to do with the gravity of their sin of lying and testing the Lord, but in another sense it has everything to do with it.