20231022 Acts 4:32-5:16 Internal Threats to the Church

The first half of Acts 5 is one of the hardest texts in the NT. In Acts 5, a couple acts deceptively, and God puts them to death. The author, Luke, does not try to defend God, he narrates the events as they were told to him. In Acts, the church was empowered by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Jesus that the kingdom would expand. Until this point, the only kind of pressure they had faced was external with persecution. This text shows us that there are internal threats as well.

We are first, going to look at the story as it reads in the text. Second, we will look at other parallel passages and learn from the biblical patterns. Third, we will talk about the difficulty with this text and God's judgment. I will end with some general applications of being a church made up of sinners.

1 The Story

Acts 4:32-37 is one of those summary statements in Acts like Acts 1:14; Acts 2:41-47; 5:12-16; 6:7; and 9:31. Acts highlights over and over the marks or characteristics of the church. Acts 4:32 reports that “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.” This includes thousands of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. They were united through giving to the needs of those in the community. They were also united around the apostles’ teaching. They were bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The resurrection affects everything, so people are giving sacrificially. This is the natural response to hearing about Christ’s sacrifice of himself for us. The gospel unites all who believe it. Acts 4:36 highlights a particular individual, Barnabas and his gift to the church. The text then transitions to Ananias and Sapphira.

According to Acts 5:1-11, Ananias and Sapphira sold some land. They claimed to give the whole proceeds but this was a lie. They kept some of the money for themselves. Their sin was deceit. There was nothing wrong with keeping the money. Peter makes it very clear in Acts 5:4 that the property was theirs. Once they sold it, the money was all theirs. When Peter questions Ananias, he makes it very clear that Christians and church members are free. Their giving is voluntary.

A principle for the church throughout the ages is that a church cannot demand more of its members than what the Bible commands. The church is an organization that is voluntary based. Members can serve in ministries as they please, they give as they please, they help other members as they please. People transformed by the love of God will give, will serve, and will commit to one another and meet each other’s needs. These aspects of church life cannot ever be mandated with consequences for disobedience.

A second application for us is theological. This confrontation is a key text to prove that the Holy Spirit is God. The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is one God. The Father is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinct persons. To make this case, our text is often used to prove the deity of the Holy Spirit. Ananias and Saphira sinned when they declared that they gave the whole proceeds to the church. Peter knows they are lying. Peter confronts Ananias and accuses him of lying to God. In Acts 5:3 Peter asks, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…?” In the next verse, Acts 5:4, Peter declares, “You have not lied to man but to God.” Therefore, according to Acts 5:3-4, the Holy Spirit is God.

Flowing from this last point, a third application that ultimately all sin is first and foremost against God (c.f. Gen 39:9; Ps 51:4). In Gen 39:9, the reason Joseph gives for not committing adultery is that he does not want to sin against God. After David commits adultery with Bathsheba, he writes to God in Ps. 51:4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.”

A fourth application is that an important element of the Christian life is the fear of the Lord. Following this confrontation, Ananias, “fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.” Peter confronts Ananias’ wife, Sapphira, separately. She also lies and she also dies. We cannot keep secrets from God. To this case the couple claimed to have given all the money away but kept some. Acts 5:11 repeats “great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” We can learn from this account. In this life we will continue to sin, this is because The Holy Spirit is still sanctifying us, he is still making us more like Jesus. He is not done yet. In the meantime, we cannot fool ourselves, secret sins are not secret to God and they hinder our intimacy with him. In some extent we do need to live in the fear of the Lord and turn away from sin.

2 Biblical Parallels

In a second point, we see that this story in Acts fits a pattern in scripture. A big fall always follows pictures of an idyllic situation. Gen 1-2 portray a picture of eternal life. There was harmony between the man and God, the woman, and his environment. Then Gen 3 happens, there is hostility between the Man, God, the woman, and the environment. In Joshua, the people of Israel have entered the New Eden, the Promised Land. They were obeying God and God was winning their battles. All was going well, until the sin of Achan in Josh 6-7. Before the destruction of Jericho, the Lord warned Israel not to take any of the possessions of that city because it was all devoted to destruction. Achan disobeyed and his family was destroyed.[i] There are also parallels with Luke 22 and the devil filling Judas to betray Jesus when he was setting up his new Israel.

In Gen 3// Luke 22:3// Acts 5 are parallel due to Satan being the tempter. Both Gen 3 and Acts 5 include a couple. Luke 22:3 and Acts 5 also the purchase of land. Similar to Adam and Eve, Achan, Judas, Acts 5 ends with Death. We learn from the pattern that in particular times in redemptive history God needs to insist that he is serious. The church is so important in the outworking of God’s plan in the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth that he shows how serious he is about her purity. The repetition of “great fear came upon all who heard these things” in Acts 5:5 and 11 teaches us Luke's intent. There should be “a great fear among us” to hate our sin and turn from it. This is not in order to earn God’s favor since we already have it if we are in Christ. However, it is out of love for God and respect for Christ who died for sin that we turn from sin.

3 Hardship with this passage

Thirdly, I want to talk about the hardship in this passage. When people say they prefer the NT to the OT, I ask, what about Acts 5? Acts 5:1-11 is one of the hardest texts in the NT. I don’t think I can twist this story around to satisfy us. Any attempt to explain this text in a way to minimize the fear of God opposes the author's intention. This text is important. If you ask people what they do not like about the church, the most common accusation is that Christians are hypocrites. That is exactly what Ananias and Sapphira were, hypocrites. They claimed to do one thing – generously give all their proceeds from a sale, while that was just for show. All along they knew they were keeping some for themselves. We could highlight that they were still generous in giving what was probably a lot of money. Their sin is not their lack of generosity but their hypocrisy.

Old Testament prophets over and over condemned religious hypocrisy in Israel. Jesus did the same with the Pharisees in the gospels. Now, in Acts, God shows he is serious about the integrity of the church, its credibility and trustworthiness. Following this shocking story, we read in Acts 5:14, “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.”A church serious about her sin, grows.

There is a sociological index called Social Trust. It reflects whether people believe those around them will do the right thing. If you look it up, it is fascinating. People are surveyed in different countries with the question, can most people be trusted? In Norway, 73% answered yes! In Colombia, only 4% said yes. Other samples are Germany 45%, the Netherlands 58%, France 18%. There was no data for Belgium. In light of everything we have read in the book of Acts about the church – that is devoted to the apostle’s teaching, united around the belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son of God, they were eating meals in each others homes, and meeting each other’s needs, they were finding favor with outsiders – where should we expect Social Trust to be the highest? I would hope, the church! In practice, when you suffer, or struggle, is the church the first place you turn to? Often it is not for factors ranging from past hurt, judgment, gossip, rather than being met with care you may have been met with condemnation. This text teaches us that God cares deeply about trust in the church. This is why this story is included in Acts. The church is to be a gathering known for its sincerity, humility, and love.

Another element that I try to remember every time I struggle with the harshness of a passage is to see that anticipates the final judgment. This is also a hard doctrine but it is also a promise that God cares about abuse, wickedness, torture, oppression, slavery, and will one day make all things right. Passages about judgment remind us not to seek revenge. Revenge will not satisfy our thirst for justice. Revenge belongs to God alone, and he will make all things right one day. In this case, God’s wrath shows that he is protective of his church.

4 Broader implications of Fallen Church – The Church is Imperfect

Lastly, I want to addresses where a text like this leaves us. In his commentary, F.F. Bruce summarizes this text saying, “The incident shows, too, that even in the earliest days the church was not a society of perfect people. Luke’s picture of the primitive community is no doubt idealized, but it is not over-idealized. Lest his readers should overestimate the unity and sanctity of the first believers, he has recorded this incident which not only illustrates his honest realism but is intended also to serve as a warning to others.”[ii]

This sin of Ananias and Sapphira is placed between summaries of the life of the church, so the book of Acts presents a tension. The church is a new creation community that experiences the transformative power of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the gospel. The church worships God in Spirit and in truth. The church is a university to learn, an orphanage where the lost find families and belonging, and hospitals where the spiritually sick are cared for. However, the church is not perfect. Everyone is going to be hurt by the church.

This is a double warning. We are not perfect so don’t let your guard down. Don’t let your guard down concerning yourself, and concerning those around you, we are sinful. Secondly, be suspicious of people who downplay the ongoing power of sin by means of our flesh, the world, and the devil.

I have personally been in churches or Christian institutions in which a woman was told to stay with her violent abusive husband. Women who were abused sexually were condemned for putting themselves in the situation in which it could happen and then warned not to seek assistance from law enforcement because it would give God a bad name. A pastor told a friend who disagreed with him on an issue about worship, that “God was very angry with her.”

The church is far from perfect and it is also my favorite thing on earth! I am grieved that often the church correctly has a bad name, but when I think of friends who lead churches, I am also hopeful. In light of this tension, what do we do?

Acts 2:41-47 teaches us the simple activities of a thriving Christian community. Let us devote ourselves to God to the apostles’ teaching, to gathering together, prayer, baptizing, taking communion, meeting each other’s needs, having meals together, and praise! These are the elements God uses to grow us in Christlikeness so that we are a community that is healthy spiritually, socially, emotionally and we foster a healthy environment for gospel transformation to happen. One key of a healthy church is that we do not develop a celebrity culture. Don’t make much of musicians, preachers, pastors. Preaching allows us to sit under the authority of God’s word, it is not a platform to make much of oneself. In response to our fallen condition we need to hear the good news regularly, worship biblically, and love one another deeply.

5 Conclusion

This is a hard text, it is useful for many reasons – teaches that the church is not perfect, that the Holy Spirit is God, hypocrisy grieves God. God judges sin so we must live to please him. If you have been hurt by the church, please come talk to me or someone you trust. Hurt will happen. If you stick around, we will likely hurt some of you. This church is not perfect. Our goal to honor God through teaching, worship, and being a caring community. We want to anticipate hurt by committing to grace, so that even in our failure, we will present the Gospel. One who repents quickly shows the repentance that God asks of all. One who forgives quickly shows they know the forgiveness God offers in Christ. A community that is honest about sin and hurt and is committed to repentance and forgiveness becomes tightly knit with the gospel. God uses hurt in the church for his witness by the power of the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus and draw people to know him.


[i] Bruce writes, “In both narratives an act of deceit interrupts the victorious progress of the people of God. It may be that the author of Acts himself wished to point this comparison: when he says that Ananias ‘kept back’ part of the price (v. 2), he uses the same Greek word as is used in the Greek version of Josh. 7:1” in Bruce, The Book of the Acts. Acts 5 Intro. .


[ii] Bruce, The Book of the Acts. Acts 5 Intro.