Ananias And Sapphira, Liars
Biblical Studies
At Odds With God
Adult Bible Study And Sermon Resource
Ananias and Sapphira's problem isn't so much that they had
money and didn't give it to the church, but that they lied to
God. Remember, money is not the root of all evil; the love of
money is ...
(Note: Verse 11 contains the first reference to the followers
of Christ being called a "church' or ekklesia: the called
out/chosen ones.)
(Please read Acts 4:32--5:11)
Ananias And Sapphira
Ananias has just been carried out dead. Joseph of Cyprus (the
Levite who sold his field and gave the proceeds to the church)
and Peter are standing outside the house-church. They watch as
the corpse is carried off. A babble of voices is heard from
inside the house-church. The church is filled with fear. Peter
and Joseph walk away a little to talk.
Joseph: (Shocked and afraid) I feel unreal, beside myself. That
was awful. Ananias dropped dead. One moment life -- the next,
death.
Peter: (Afraid too, but strong; struggling to understand --
talking to himself ...) One moment the truth, one moment a lie:
One moment he was God's child, the next moment he belonged to
death.
Joseph: How are we going to tell his wife, Sapphira?
Peter: I imagine that, in a way, she already knows because of her
involvement in Ananias' scheme. She'll be around soon to see how
things went.
Joseph: Things went badly for Ananias. He just dropped dead. I've
never seen anyone so dead so fast.
Peter: He was dead long before he dropped.
Joseph: You mean he was a ghost?
Peter: Scarier than a ghost. He was a living man who lied to God.
He was dead the moment he lied because his lying separated him
from the truth -- and God is truth and life.
Joseph: I remember Jesus telling us, "I am the way, the truth and
the life, no one comes to the Father except by me."
Peter: My point exactly, "There is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which
we must be saved."
Joseph: Didn't mortal Ananias know that though? What got into
him? It was like "Satan filled his heart" the way you said.
Peter: Don't overestimate Satan or underestimate our own capacity
to sin without his help. Satan, after all, is a bumbler. He foils
his own plans because he forgets he is a creature like us -- not
a creator, not a divinity. There is only one true God. Yet Satan
struggles on to deceive the church. He bumbles on showing the
church the truth of his lies through his illuminating failures.
Joseph: "Illuminating failures," isn't that what Lucifer means in
a way: "The bright one?"
Peter: Hey, that's right. I'd forgotten that old tale: The big
pagan fertility god is absent during a drought so a substitute is
proposed and the Venus-star, little Lucifer, climbs up into the
throne ...
Joseph: (Laughing) ... But he is too tiny and ridiculous in that
big throne and has to climb down again to earth and reign there
ashamed and angry. Some god, huh?
Peter: Well, that sounds like our little Lucifer -- angry and
vengeful, and basically a real loser. Like the Venus Morning
Star, he tries to shine in his darkness, but only serves as a
doorman for the entrance of the sun. No, Satan is not to be
blamed alone for Ananias' lie anyway. Ananias must have planned
this on his own pretty well. I asked him, "How is it that you
have contrived this in your heart?"
61
Joseph: He didn't even try to defend himself. He didn't say or do
anything.
Peter: Dropping dead is doing something, but I thought he'd at
least try to defend himself. I thought his mouth would start
opening and closing like the fish we used to catch in Galilee --
caught out of their element of life. In fact, he was like a fish
caught out of the water. He was suddenly in the realm of the
Father of Lies, of death, of separation from our God who is life.
Joseph: I think he realized that and his heart was broken.
Peter: He broke his own heart. He killed himself for money.
Joseph: Was it the money, though? I mean, not all of us have land
to sell. I did. So did Ananias. Not many of us have much to give
to the church. Did the money kill him?
Peter: There's nothing wrong with having money and land. They're
a way to get through life, to care for God's creation, to help
others. The love of money -- that's what kills you. Whether or
not you have money, the love of it is the root of all evil --
Ananias' evil in this case: the evil of lying to God.
Joseph: So the problem wasn't that he owned land or sold it or
even decided to keep some of the money for himself. It's that he
contrived to lie about his being part of our communal family of
faith. He wanted the money more than the church, more than the
truth, more than God.
Peter: That's it. We can't afford to "put the Spirit of the Lord
to the test." In short, we can't afford to buy God.
Joseph: Besides, he gives himself freely to us in Jesus.
Peter: Amen to that. I wonder now what Sapphira's end will be?
Joseph: We'll have to confront her with the truth.
Peter: Oh, it can be such a wonderful thing to live in the truth.
Joseph: And such a terrifying life to live if you live a lie.
Peter: There isn't such a thing as a life lived as a lie. It is
death plain and simple -- as plain as Ananias' death. It's
something for us all to remember.
Joseph: Yes, one of those oddly holy lessons that Lucifer assists
in teaching us.
Peter: (Laughing quietly) I bet you he's mad as a hornet!
Joseph: (Joining in) Yes, the Father of Lies foiled again by the
truth -- who is Christ our Lord.
Questions About The Story
Questions For You
(This playlet is fictional, based on the scripture quotations
found in it. However, the basic conflict between God's will and
the will of humanity is not fictional. The following questions
based on this conflict may help you see that your conflict with
God is real because: You're real and God is real.)
1. What were Ananias and Sapphira trying to get away with?
Why?
2. When Peter confronts them, does he actually convict them
of their act? What actually convicts them?
3. What kills them?
4. How many ways can you think of in which lying kills
people?
5. How can the truth "kill" in the midst of lies?
6. How does one learn to lie?
7. How does one learn to tell the truth?
8. How often do you tell the truth? Give a percentage rating.
9. What percentage of "untruth" is left in your life?
10. How can the truth make you free?
Reflection By A Famous Christian On:
Liars
"I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but
because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the
truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who
confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from
the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, then you will abide in the Son
and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal
life."
-- 1 John: 2:21, 22a-25
A Prayer Starter
Dear God, it is true that you became flesh and dwelt among us,
full of truth and grace in Jesus our Lord. Keep me in this truth
and help me to bring others to this truth so that we may live in
truth together now and forever.
Suggestions For Practicing Your Prayer
1. Remember the last time you didn't tell the truth. How did
you feel? Did the truth finally come out? Did you finally tell
the truth? How did it feel then?
2. What truth do you need to tell someone today at work, at home?
3. What truth do you need to admit to yourself?
4. Pick one person to tell the truth to today; one person -- one truth.
5. Pick one person to talk to today about Jesus being God.
A Suggested Order Of Worship
For
Ananias And Sapphira, Liars
(Note: You may want to break into small groups for discussion of
the story and then join together again for the closing worship.
If so, select discussion leaders to help people reflect on the
questions in the book. Or, you may want to stay together and
reflect silently as the questions are read.)
Opening: Greeting and introduction of "The Conflict Of The Will:
Our Trying To Fool God."
Hymns: "We Give Thee But Thine Own" or "God, Our Help In Ages
Past"
Read: Introduction to Chapter Six, page 59
Reading: Acts 4:32--5:11
Meditation: Ananias And Sapphira, Liars
Discussion: Break into discussion groups and follow "Questions
About The Story/Questions For You" or read aloud for group silent
reflection. When finished, quietly return to worship setting.
Read: "Reflections By A Famous Christian"
Read: "Prayer Starter"
Invitation: Invite people to add their own prayers
Read: "Suggestions For Practicing Your Prayer"
The Lord's Prayer
The Apostles' Creed
Hymns: "The Old Rugged Cross" or "Thine Is The Glory"
Benediction And Dismissal: "Go in peace and serve the Lord."
money and didn't give it to the church, but that they lied to
God. Remember, money is not the root of all evil; the love of
money is ...
(Note: Verse 11 contains the first reference to the followers
of Christ being called a "church' or ekklesia: the called
out/chosen ones.)
(Please read Acts 4:32--5:11)
Ananias And Sapphira
Ananias has just been carried out dead. Joseph of Cyprus (the
Levite who sold his field and gave the proceeds to the church)
and Peter are standing outside the house-church. They watch as
the corpse is carried off. A babble of voices is heard from
inside the house-church. The church is filled with fear. Peter
and Joseph walk away a little to talk.
Joseph: (Shocked and afraid) I feel unreal, beside myself. That
was awful. Ananias dropped dead. One moment life -- the next,
death.
Peter: (Afraid too, but strong; struggling to understand --
talking to himself ...) One moment the truth, one moment a lie:
One moment he was God's child, the next moment he belonged to
death.
Joseph: How are we going to tell his wife, Sapphira?
Peter: I imagine that, in a way, she already knows because of her
involvement in Ananias' scheme. She'll be around soon to see how
things went.
Joseph: Things went badly for Ananias. He just dropped dead. I've
never seen anyone so dead so fast.
Peter: He was dead long before he dropped.
Joseph: You mean he was a ghost?
Peter: Scarier than a ghost. He was a living man who lied to God.
He was dead the moment he lied because his lying separated him
from the truth -- and God is truth and life.
Joseph: I remember Jesus telling us, "I am the way, the truth and
the life, no one comes to the Father except by me."
Peter: My point exactly, "There is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which
we must be saved."
Joseph: Didn't mortal Ananias know that though? What got into
him? It was like "Satan filled his heart" the way you said.
Peter: Don't overestimate Satan or underestimate our own capacity
to sin without his help. Satan, after all, is a bumbler. He foils
his own plans because he forgets he is a creature like us -- not
a creator, not a divinity. There is only one true God. Yet Satan
struggles on to deceive the church. He bumbles on showing the
church the truth of his lies through his illuminating failures.
Joseph: "Illuminating failures," isn't that what Lucifer means in
a way: "The bright one?"
Peter: Hey, that's right. I'd forgotten that old tale: The big
pagan fertility god is absent during a drought so a substitute is
proposed and the Venus-star, little Lucifer, climbs up into the
throne ...
Joseph: (Laughing) ... But he is too tiny and ridiculous in that
big throne and has to climb down again to earth and reign there
ashamed and angry. Some god, huh?
Peter: Well, that sounds like our little Lucifer -- angry and
vengeful, and basically a real loser. Like the Venus Morning
Star, he tries to shine in his darkness, but only serves as a
doorman for the entrance of the sun. No, Satan is not to be
blamed alone for Ananias' lie anyway. Ananias must have planned
this on his own pretty well. I asked him, "How is it that you
have contrived this in your heart?"
61
Joseph: He didn't even try to defend himself. He didn't say or do
anything.
Peter: Dropping dead is doing something, but I thought he'd at
least try to defend himself. I thought his mouth would start
opening and closing like the fish we used to catch in Galilee --
caught out of their element of life. In fact, he was like a fish
caught out of the water. He was suddenly in the realm of the
Father of Lies, of death, of separation from our God who is life.
Joseph: I think he realized that and his heart was broken.
Peter: He broke his own heart. He killed himself for money.
Joseph: Was it the money, though? I mean, not all of us have land
to sell. I did. So did Ananias. Not many of us have much to give
to the church. Did the money kill him?
Peter: There's nothing wrong with having money and land. They're
a way to get through life, to care for God's creation, to help
others. The love of money -- that's what kills you. Whether or
not you have money, the love of it is the root of all evil --
Ananias' evil in this case: the evil of lying to God.
Joseph: So the problem wasn't that he owned land or sold it or
even decided to keep some of the money for himself. It's that he
contrived to lie about his being part of our communal family of
faith. He wanted the money more than the church, more than the
truth, more than God.
Peter: That's it. We can't afford to "put the Spirit of the Lord
to the test." In short, we can't afford to buy God.
Joseph: Besides, he gives himself freely to us in Jesus.
Peter: Amen to that. I wonder now what Sapphira's end will be?
Joseph: We'll have to confront her with the truth.
Peter: Oh, it can be such a wonderful thing to live in the truth.
Joseph: And such a terrifying life to live if you live a lie.
Peter: There isn't such a thing as a life lived as a lie. It is
death plain and simple -- as plain as Ananias' death. It's
something for us all to remember.
Joseph: Yes, one of those oddly holy lessons that Lucifer assists
in teaching us.
Peter: (Laughing quietly) I bet you he's mad as a hornet!
Joseph: (Joining in) Yes, the Father of Lies foiled again by the
truth -- who is Christ our Lord.
Questions About The Story
Questions For You
(This playlet is fictional, based on the scripture quotations
found in it. However, the basic conflict between God's will and
the will of humanity is not fictional. The following questions
based on this conflict may help you see that your conflict with
God is real because: You're real and God is real.)
1. What were Ananias and Sapphira trying to get away with?
Why?
2. When Peter confronts them, does he actually convict them
of their act? What actually convicts them?
3. What kills them?
4. How many ways can you think of in which lying kills
people?
5. How can the truth "kill" in the midst of lies?
6. How does one learn to lie?
7. How does one learn to tell the truth?
8. How often do you tell the truth? Give a percentage rating.
9. What percentage of "untruth" is left in your life?
10. How can the truth make you free?
Reflection By A Famous Christian On:
Liars
"I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but
because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the
truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who
confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from
the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, then you will abide in the Son
and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal
life."
-- 1 John: 2:21, 22a-25
A Prayer Starter
Dear God, it is true that you became flesh and dwelt among us,
full of truth and grace in Jesus our Lord. Keep me in this truth
and help me to bring others to this truth so that we may live in
truth together now and forever.
Suggestions For Practicing Your Prayer
1. Remember the last time you didn't tell the truth. How did
you feel? Did the truth finally come out? Did you finally tell
the truth? How did it feel then?
2. What truth do you need to tell someone today at work, at home?
3. What truth do you need to admit to yourself?
4. Pick one person to tell the truth to today; one person -- one truth.
5. Pick one person to talk to today about Jesus being God.
A Suggested Order Of Worship
For
Ananias And Sapphira, Liars
(Note: You may want to break into small groups for discussion of
the story and then join together again for the closing worship.
If so, select discussion leaders to help people reflect on the
questions in the book. Or, you may want to stay together and
reflect silently as the questions are read.)
Opening: Greeting and introduction of "The Conflict Of The Will:
Our Trying To Fool God."
Hymns: "We Give Thee But Thine Own" or "God, Our Help In Ages
Past"
Read: Introduction to Chapter Six, page 59
Reading: Acts 4:32--5:11
Meditation: Ananias And Sapphira, Liars
Discussion: Break into discussion groups and follow "Questions
About The Story/Questions For You" or read aloud for group silent
reflection. When finished, quietly return to worship setting.
Read: "Reflections By A Famous Christian"
Read: "Prayer Starter"
Invitation: Invite people to add their own prayers
Read: "Suggestions For Practicing Your Prayer"
The Lord's Prayer
The Apostles' Creed
Hymns: "The Old Rugged Cross" or "Thine Is The Glory"
Benediction And Dismissal: "Go in peace and serve the Lord."
