09/16/2015 HEART AND SPIRIT
Acts 2:44-46 And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other, selling their possessions and dividing with those in need. They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness, praising GOD. [Living Bible translation]
Acts 5:1-3; 5 But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the HOLY SPIRIT and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?...You have not lied to men but to GOD.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. [Revised Standard translation]
DISCUSSION
The book of Acts, also called “The Acts of the Apostles,” describes the actions and sufferings of the Apostles after the ascension of JESUS CHRIST. Luke, known as the beloved physician (See Colossians 14:4), wrote the Book of Acts as well as the Gospel According to Luke. Both books (Luke and Acts) were written to the same individual, who was named or had the honorary title of “Theophilus,” which means “one who loves GOD.” (Luke 1:4 and Acts:1:1). Theophilus was probably a Gentile. As Luke explains in his letters to Theophilus, the purpose of writing these two books was so that Theophilus (the receiver of these letters) “might know the certainty (the truth) of those things wherein he had been instructed.” (See, Luke 1:4). Luke was not only “trying to make it plain” but given all the rumors about JESUS and the disciples and what was viewed in those days as a renegade religion (i.e. Christianity), Luke wanted to make sure that Theophilus also “knew the truth.”
In the Gospel According to Luke, Luke told Theophilus about the life and ministry of JESUS. In The Book of Acts, Luke continues the history of Christianity. Acts is rich with details, describing the ascension of JESUS (Acts:1:6-11); the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT on the day on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:12); Peter’s Pentecostal sermon (Acts 2:14); the communal life of the early church (Acts 2:44-46); and numerous conversions (Simon the sorcerer’s conversions (Acts 8); Saul’s conversion (Acts 9):the conversion of the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26); the conversion of Lydia (Act 16:11); the conversion of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:25) and others.) Acts describes the action and power of the HOLY SPIRIT on the lives ordinary men and women so that they did extraordinary things and became the church.
The story of Ananias and Sapphira in the 5th chapter of Acts is both a simple and complex story. It is worthy of a number of Sunday School lessons. Some might characterize it as a lesson on lying. Others might characterize it a lesson on giving. Still others might characterize it as a lesson on finance planning. Some of our ancestors might characterize it as a lesson on what not to do and of the importance of “not giving for form or fashion.” Some might liken this to another “Garden of Eden” lesson.
Some might even characterize the story of Ananias and Sapphira as a story about a spiritual “heart attack”--how the hearts of a husband and wife were so out of sync with the HOLY SPIRIT, they experience spiritual separation (i.e., a spiritual “stroke”) and died. The deaths of this couple might be characterized as a “spiritual tragedy,” because these deaths could have been prevented, had Ananias and Sapphira acted differently.