31 March 2026
After the golden generosity of Barnabas, who sold a field and laid the whole price at the apostles' feet, Luke turns without warning to a married couple who did almost the same thing — with one crucial difference. Ananias and Sapphira sell a piece of property, hold back part of the proceeds, and present the rest as if it were the whole. Within minutes of Peter exposing the deception, both of them are dead. It is one of the most sobering passages in the book of Acts, and Harry's session sat with its severity rather than softening it, asking what this account reveals about the holiness of God and the true nature of the sin being judged.
Editor's note: This article is a written summary based on the substance of Harry's Bible study on this passage. It is not a verbatim transcript, and while it aims to reflect the heart of the teaching faithfully, it cannot fully convey the warmth, care, and encouragement of the class itself.
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your word and for the privilege of gathering together in the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ. As we open the Scriptures today, we ask that your Holy Spirit would illuminate our minds and soften our hearts, that we might hear your voice, grow in the knowledge of you, and be equipped to live and speak for Christ. We commit this time of study into your hands, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Harry opened by setting this account against what had just been said of the early church at the end of chapter 4, where believers sold land and houses and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet so that no one among them was in need, Barnabas among them (Acts 4:33–37). He noted that when the Holy Spirit is moving powerfully in the church, people are moved to repent of old, sinful patterns of living and to pursue holiness as they follow Christ closely — in revival, God is always raising the standard among His people. Harry shared his own experience of a time spent in a church where the Spirit was moving powerfully, when he found himself reluctant even to read the daily newspaper for fear of taking in something that would grieve the Holy Spirit.
It was against that backdrop that Harry pointed out something significant about Luke as a writer: having given very encouraging reports of the early church following Pentecost, Luke does not suppress its darker moments either — he records them honestly. Harry likened this to Oliver Cromwell, who broke with the fashion of his day for flattering portraits and insisted his likeness be painted "warts and all." Luke does the same with the church.
Harry stressed that Ananias and Sapphira's sin was not that they sold land, nor even that they held back part of the proceeds — Barnabas and others had sold property too. Their sin was that they planned, in advance and together, to present a partial gift as though it were the whole, deceiving the church into believing they had given everything as others had done.
Harry drew out a striking detail of language: the word used here for "kept back" is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) for Achan's sin in Joshua 7, when Achan took some of the devoted things from Jericho that were meant to be destroyed for the Lord, bringing disaster on the whole nation until his sin was uncovered and judged (Joshua 7:1–26). Harry noted that this word is used elsewhere in Scripture for robbery or embezzlement — Ananias and Sapphira were, in effect, stealing from God while appearing to give to Him.
Turning to the wider question of how to understand God's actions in this passage, Harry pointed to Paul's words in Romans: "Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off" (Romans 11:22). He explained that this severity is not arbitrary but is rooted in God's holy, just and righteous character, and is revealed in His actions against sin and evil. Quoting Wayne Grudem, Harry said plainly that "God intensely hates all sin" — and that this should be true of believers too, citing Hebrews 1:9, which says of Christ that He "loved righteousness and hated wickedness." Harry summarised the balance believers are called to strike as hating the sin while loving the sinner.
To place Ananias and Sapphira within a wider biblical pattern, Harry brought in two further examples of severe judgment. The first was Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, who offered "unauthorised fire" before the Lord and were consumed by fire from His presence because, as Moses said, "among those who approach me I will be proved holy" (Leviticus 10:1–3) — they did not treat the Lord as holy, and it cost them their lives. The second was Uzzah, who reached out to steady the ark of God when the oxen pulling its cart stumbled, and was struck down for his irreverence (2 Samuel 6:1–7). Harry observed that on the surface Uzzah appears to have done something well-intentioned, even helpful — yet it was nonetheless an act that violated God's clearly revealed instructions, since the ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the Kohathite Levites using its poles, never transported on a cart or touched directly (1 Chronicles 15:11–15, with reference also to Numbers 4:15, 7:9 and Deuteronomy 10:8). The lesson Harry drew was that good intentions, or the appearance of generosity, do not excuse disregard for what God has made plain.
Turning to Peter's confrontation of Ananias — "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit... You have not lied just to human beings but to God" (Acts 5:3–4) — Harry made clear that Satan does not simply arrive and fill a person's heart out of nowhere; there is always a build-up. He connected this to Ephesians 4:26–27, "In your anger do not sin... and do not give the devil a foothold," stressing the importance of dealing with anger and pursuing harmonious relationships with fellow believers, since unresolved anger can give the devil an opening to do far worse. He set this alongside Ephesians 4:30–31, where anger, bitterness, rage and slander are placed in direct contrast to the Holy Spirit, whom believers are warned not to grieve.
Harry also warned about pride as a particular snare, referencing 1 Timothy 3:6–7, where a leader who becomes conceited risks falling "under the same judgment as the devil" and into "the devil's trap." He explained that Satan works to establish a stronghold in believers' lives — a deeply entrenched position involving patterns of thought, arguments, or pride that set themselves up against the knowledge of God — citing 2 Corinthians 10:4–5 on demolishing such strongholds and taking every thought captive to Christ, and 2 Timothy 2:25–26 on the hope that those ensnared might come to their senses and escape the devil's trap. Harry also noted Peter's pointed reminder to Ananias that the land, and the money from its sale, had been entirely at his own disposal throughout — the sin was never in keeping some back, but in pretending he had not.
Harry described how, on hearing Peter's words, Ananias fell down and died on the spot — an instant judgment from God that shocked everyone present and caused great fear to seize all who heard of it (Acts 5:5–6). He pointed out that Ananias's burial happened the same day and, unusually, without his family present, which Harry noted was exceptional and signalled that this was a man struck down by the hand of heaven. He connected this to the Old Testament pattern of purging evil from the community, where those who led Israel astray after false gods were to be put to death precisely in order to "purge the evil from among you" (Deuteronomy 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 24:7).
About three hours later, Sapphira arrived, unaware of what had happened to her husband. Harry walked through Peter's question to her — whether the sum she named was indeed the full price they had received for the land — and her confirmation that it was, which revealed that she had been party to the same conspiracy all along. Peter's verdict was even sharper this time: she had conspired "to test the Spirit of the Lord" (Acts 5:9). At that, she too fell down at his feet and died, and was carried out and buried beside her husband. Harry noted that the same judgment fell on her as on Ananias, because she was equally guilty of putting the Spirit of the Lord to the test.
Harry closed his walk through the passage by reflecting on its final verse — that great fear seized not only the church but all who heard about these events (Acts 5:11) — as a moment in which God's holy, righteous character was unmistakably revealed: His hatred of sin, and His determination, even now, to prepare a pure bride for His Son.
Harry was not asking the class to be frightened of a capricious God, but to take seriously a holy one — a God who cannot be treated as though appearances before other people matter more than truth before Him. The real sin of Ananias and Sapphira was never generosity falling short; it was wanting the reputation of total surrender while secretly keeping something back, and being willing to deceive the church, and ultimately God Himself, to get it. Harry wanted the class to see that such deception rarely begins as a dramatic decision — it grows out of small, unaddressed compromises, unresolved anger, wounded pride, patterns of thought left unchallenged, which is exactly the "foothold" the devil uses to fill a heart before anyone notices it happening. The call, then, was to examine their own lives honestly: to deal with anger and pride before they harden into deceit, to hold nothing back from God while pretending otherwise, and to hate sin as fiercely as God does — while still, always, loving the sinner.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you that we are gathered here in the Name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, open up our hearts and our minds that we might understand your words in the Scriptures and get to know you more, that we might live holy lives, and that we might share the Good News about Jesus in the power of your Spirit, for the building of your Church and the extending of your Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, in and through Jesus Christ, Amen.
