Why Did Ananias & Sapphira Die? Acts 5 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, ready to go for another 30 minutes. And for all of you here in the studio audience, I've already told you we're going to be going back to Acts chapter 5. And for those of you joining us on television again, we like to make you aware constantly, we don't make any money on these, we just hope for enough to come back to cover the cost of the printing and so forth. But all of our teaching since Genesis chapter 1, and that's been a little over four years now, they're all available, not quite all, but they're going to be soon available in book form. And I'm amazed, when I read them I don't think they're all that great, but a lot of folk love these little books, and we're getting a lot of good comment on them. So if you are one who likes to read rather than watch video tapes, the book might be the way to go. We've got all the references and everything that you can study with us. I think that's all we have for announcements now, let's get right back in to where we left off two weeks ago in our program at least, and that would be at the end of Acts chapter 4, and we're ready to go into Acts chapter 5. Now I was just sharing with Merlin Teenybell here, I happen to be going through one of my old teaching Bibles, now this is my fifth one. I've got four that are totally war out at home, and I was going through one of them the other day, and this fell out that I had copied out of the book by William R. Newell. Now those of you who like to read, you might want to take down the title and the author. William R. Newell was a great famous Bible teacher in the Chicago and St. Louis and Detroit area back in the 20's and the 30's. And in this book which is titled, Paul vs. Peter, on page 10, so I'm hopefully giving all the right credits. This is what he writes, and I'm reading this to sort of settle folks down who may have gotten a little exercise that I make too much of Paul, and I make a point of separating Peter and Paul, because to me it's the only way you can understand Scripture. But anyway this is what William R. Newell wrote on page 10 of that book. Now is it not strange that 17 of the 28 chapters of the book of Acts should be given to that apostle who was not one of the original 12, and was not converted until long after Pentecost? Must there not be a deep reason for this? And what is the reason? One thing is certainly evident already, that we Gentiles have a relation to Paul that we do not have to the other apostles. Exactly what that is we must prayerfully seek to discover, and that says it in a nutshell. Because until you can separate the ministries of those two men, Peter and Paul, you're going to be like most of the rest of Christendom today, total confusion. And that's the reason for the confusion, and we have to get to this place that we can see that all of these early chapters of Acts, it's Peter, Peter, Peter ministering to the Jew, the Jew, the Jew. And then I just told some of the folks waiting for the program to start, I'm getting anxious to get to chapter 9 and the conversion of Saul so that we can see more evidently these vast differences, but it's just amazing that folk can't understand that as Peter is the apostle to the Jew, God is going to lay out so clearly that Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles. Now those are two different groups of people, those are two different doctrines, the same God, and everything is all fitting together as we showed you on the board. But nevertheless we have to understand that Peter is still under the covenant program that began with Abraham, and remember that all through Christ's earthly ministry. Why was he ministering to the Jew? To prove that he was the King coming in fulfillment of that Abrahamic covenant. Now here in chapter 5 again I'm going to make the statement, and I hope it doesn't make folk angry because I've said often enough in this program, I don't expect everybody to agree with me, and if you don't agree with me I don't call you a heretic, and vice versa just because I'm a little different don't call me a heretic, because I'm still blood bought, I'm still a firm believer in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and that's what's fundamental to all this. But here in chapter 4, and I'm going to go back and review just a few of the closing verses and on into chapter 5, I maintain it's not church ground or the body of Christ as the church. This is the Jerusalem assembly, primarily Jewish believers of the fact that Jesus was the Christ. There has been no mention yet of a salvation based on His shed blood, on His death, burial and resurrection. It's only on His who He was. He was the promised Messiah. Now if you'll come up into those closing verses of chapter 4 where we ended a couple weeks ago. Ephesians 4. Verse 34 Ephesians 4. And neither was there any among them that lack for as many as were possessors of lands and houses, sold them, brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet. And distribution was made unto everyone according as he had need. And Hosea, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite, of the country, or the island of Cyprus, having land, sold it, turned it into cash, and what did he do with the cash? He brought it to Jerusalem, and he too laid it at the apostles� feet. Now that�s not Church language. You know I�ve always maintained, as long as I�ve been teaching, how long could a pastor keep his congregation under his wing if he would ask them to cash in all their property and bring him the money? Well he wouldn�t last until Monday morning, not if he�s got intelligent people, but you see this is what they were doing, and there was nothing amiss. It was expected. Now the next thing I�m going to say, if chapter 5, the death of Ananias and Sapphira, if that is Church ground then there wouldn�t be a believer left on this earth. Have you ever thought of that? Because the minute they committed the sin of even lying a little bit, and it wasn�t that bad, what happened? Hey they were gone. How many believers haven�t done much worse than this? They�re not gone. Why? Well we�re under a whole different set of circumstances, but here this is approaching the Kingdom. Now I didn�t make this point in the last several chapters, and I should have. You see the reason they were so willing to sell their property and turn it into cash, and bring it to the apostles� feet, they knew that as soon as the King would set up the Kingdom, they didn�t have to worry about houses and lands. In the Kingdom there will be no poverty. In the Kingdom everyone would have everything, and so this was their prospect. They were looking down the pipe at the Kingdom just over the horizon. Remember according to the Old Testament program, just not long after they would reject the Messiah, then would come the wrath and vexation, and then would come the King. Well with that in view, they weren�t that worried about keeping their property, and so they gladly brought it to the apostles� feet, because the more the apostles could preach the Kingdom, the more Jews would be brought in as believers, and the faster it would happen, they�d have the King. And little did they know that it would all come to nothing. Now that should also give you a little insight. Why do you suppose every place that Paul went amongst his Gentile congregations, he was always taking up collections for whom? The poor at Jerusalem. Well why were there so many poor at Jerusalem? Hey, they�d sold all their property, they�d cashed everything in, and the kitty ran dry. And where did it leave them? Destitute. But God in His mercy still reckoned with the fact that they had done all that in obedience, and so God takes care of them then with the offerings from Paul�s Gentile converts. Now does that all make sense? I hope so. So here again we come into chapter 5, and Peter is still dealing with these Jewish believers there in Jerusalem, and the account says verse 1, But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, just like Barnabas did, except they made their big mistake. They kept part of it. And his wife also being privy, or knew what was being done, and they brought a certain part, and they laid it at the apostles� feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? In other words Peter says, it was up to you. You didn�t have to bring it, but why did you lie and say you had when you hadn�t? Was it in thy own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart, and thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God? Now that wasn�t all that big a deal. I dare say the average believer tells a bigger lie than that at least once in his lifetime, and if this was church ground we�d be gone if you�re going to use this as an example. But this is a better example of the circumstances in the Kingdom. Now we know death is possible in the Kingdom, not very likely, but if someone commits a horrendous act of rebellion against the King, that is his potential fate. He will be suddenly taken off the scene. So I prefer to think here that this is what these Jewish believers had to understand. They�re getting ready to come under the authority of the King who is going to rule with an iron hand. You don�t fool with Him. You don�t even so much as tell a white lie to Him, because if you do you�re going to be out of here. So this is really the lesson for these Jews, that they were now coming under a set of circumstances where their King is going to rule with absolute power and knowledge. You wouldn�t be able to hide anything from Him. Well you all know the account how Ananias fell down, and the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in, and Peter answered her, �Tell me, whether you sold the land for so much?� And she said, �Yea, so much.� In other words she agreed to it, it was all planned. And Peter said unto her, �How is it that you have agreed together to tempt or test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them that have buried thy husband are at the door, and will carry thee out.� Boy now that�s shocking isn�t it? That would be enough to shake up any group of people. Now verse 10, Ananias fell down straightway at his feet, yielded up the Spirit, and the young man came in, and found her dead, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Now verse 12, And by the hands of the apostles. Now come back with me again, so we don�t lose sight of what I�ve been trying to bring out. Come back with me to Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Acts 1, verse 8, when the Lord was speaking to the eleven just before He ascended, remember what He told them, �But you shall receive power. After that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be witness unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and unto most parts of the earth.� They were to receive power. What kind of power? Miracle working power. They were to be an extension of Christ�s earthly ministry. Everything that He and the twelve had performed in those three years, Peter and the eleven were to continue, because after all they�re dealing with the same people. They�re dealing with the nation of Israel, and they�re trying to convince the nation that Jesus was who He said He was, and He was still going to fulfill His promises would just simply believe it. So they continue on with signs and wonders, and they were all with one accord. Where? In the church down on First and Grand? No, in Solomon�s Porch. And where is Solomon�s Porch? The Temple. They�re still meeting in the Temple. They haven�t stopped taking their sacrifices, and they haven�t stopped Judaistic ritual. The only thing that�s been added to it is now that they have believed that Jesus was whom He said He was. Now I�m thankful for the archeologists tonight, because the archeologists now are finding more and more evidence that there were thousands of these first and second century Jews who were still practicing their Judaism, but they had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. And that�s what they�re uncovering. Now they were not Gentile adherents of Paul�s Gospel of Grace, they were Jewish people who were still believing the Gospel of the Kingdom. Now I�ll have to explain, and I hope the gentleman, if he ever finds out I�ve used his name, would not feel remiss. But I had taught maybe three or four years before I was comfortable, and I wasn�t comfortable at the end, with what I�d always been shown of the four Gospels in the Book of Acts. And I�d just sort of skip over it, and Larry and Nancy will probably remember that I did not spend a lot of time in the Gospels in the Book of Acts back in those days. Then one day I had stopped in to my folks for a morning cup of coffee, and on her coffee table was one of those little booklets that the old radio Bible class called the Day of Discovery. But one of their guest preachers from time to time through the year was a gentleman by the name of Paul Van Gorder, and when I mentioned it Alice went back through her records, and she found the little book, and the title of it was, Which Gospel When? And boy I mean I just bug eyed at that, and I said, �Mom can I have this one?� And she said, �Yeah, I�m through with it.� I took that little book home, and of course it was just a compilation of his one month of four radio Bible class lessons. And in those four lessons he laid out that during Christ�s earthly ministry it was the Gospel of the Kingdom, not the Gospel of Grace. When Paul comes on the scene, then it goes to the Gospel of the Grace of God, and that just totally changed my whole concept of Scripture. Now this is how God works. I had no more than finished reading that, and I thought I had seen a lot, and then somebody gave me a copy by Sir Robert Anderson, a book titled, The Silence of God, and I�ve made reference to that book before in this program. If you get a chance, you read it. And there Sir Robert Anderson does the same thing. He just lays out so clearly that in the Gospel account in the early Acts, it�s the Gospel of the Kingdom, and that�s what Jesus called it over and over. And then when you get into Paul�s letters, you never see that term again. You�ll never see the term, the Gospel of the Kingdom in Paul�s letters. Why? Well the Gospel of the Kingdom faded off the scene, and the Gospel of Grace took its place, and that�s just exactly what William R. Newell did. And I read that, and it all just kept piling up, and I said, �Man here�s where it�s at.� Now all of a sudden the whole thing begins to make sense, that when you come from the Jewish program, the Gospel of the Kingdom, based on the covenants, and based on Christ�s earthly ministry, and Israel continues to reject it, then God turns to the Gentile with that other apostle, which like I said, we�ll be introduced to in chapter 9. But here in this chapter we�re still dealing with the twelve who are ministering to the nation of Israel, and multitudes are being added. Now if this isn�t a repeat of the Gospels, I don�t know what is, insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets. Isn�t that exactly what they did when Jesus was on the earth? And they laid them on beds, and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. That was the Jewish program. Verse 16. And there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, and they were bringing sick folks, and them who were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed everyone. Now then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, the religious people, the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. You know religious people haven�t changed. There�s nothing that upsets religious people more than to hear the truth, because they don�t want the truth. Oh I�ve learned that over the years. Religious people do not want the truth, they want their religion. And as some of you have shared with me, you�ve tried to go back to some of your religious church members and they won�t listen to you. Why? They don�t want to be bothered. Hey I�m comfortable, leave me alone. And remember the world is full of religion. You�ve got the Hindus, it�s a religion, and they say the same thing. Leave us alone. And I don�t care what religion it is, they�re going to have that same stock answer. Leave me alone. I�m comfortable, I think I�ll make it, but then we like to come back and say, Hey wouldn�t you like to know that you�ll make it? And that�s the difference. So these religious Jews were filled with indignation, and they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. And the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth. Now I�ve always asked this question, ever since I read Sir Robert Anderson�s book, The Silence of God, he made the point. Do you know of a single account in Church history, a single time, that angels came down and delivered God�s people? Never. Now I�m not saying that God isn�t the God of miracles, don�t misunderstand me. I know that God can still answer prayer, and God can still perform the miraculous, but I�m talking about the kind of miracles that Israel experienced. Angels coming in and opening prison doors, earthquakes that could be so controlled that it would release all the prisoners who were in stocks and not kill any of them. Now that�s the supernatural that I�m talking about. That doesn�t happen. It hasn�t happened, and it�s not going to happen until God begins once again to deal with the nation of Israel. Then the supernatural is going to come back in foremost and a daily occurrence. But here we have such a supernatural intervention in the affairs of men, that an angel comes in and opens the prison doors, and lets the apostles out. Then you all know the account how they got all shook up and wondered how these things have happened, and now they�ve got to do something to stop it. So let�s skip a few of those verses just for sake of time. Ephesians 2.1a the twelve, and they set them before the council of the religious leaders of Israel. The high priest asked them, saying, Did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? Now you see there�s no mention there to the shed blood, and there�s no mention there to His death, burial, and resurrection, but again it�s His name. And as I�ve stressed in this class over the years, when you are to recognize a name, what is attached to it? The position. In other words like I said here in our last taping, if I drop the word, Bill Clinton, what do you immediately think of? I don�t care what you think of him as a person, but so far as his position is concerned, what do you immediately think of? The President, the White House. Now it�s the same way with Jesus. Whenever they heard the name of Jesus, they were suddenly to know that here was the One who had performed all these miracles, who had claimed to be the promised Messiah, the King, and that�s what His name was to imply. And that�s all that they�re stressing, who He was. Now let�s look at verse 28. Ephesians 1.2-3 Of course I think the nation of Israel has suffered for it ever since. Ephesians 1.2-3 Verse 29. Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 Now watch the language again. Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 on a tree. Now that throws a curve at some people. What does that sound like? Like they killed Him first, and then hung Him up on a tree. Now why did Peter use that kind of language? Well you see back in Deuteronomy chapter 5, if there�s a rebellious son in Israel, and he was so wicked and the parents couldn�t do anything with him, they were to turn him over to the authorities and say, �Here is a rebellious son, he�s a drunkard, we can do nothing with him.� And then the Jewish authorities would order him to be stoned, but didn�t stop there. Then to make him a public spectacle so that people would get the lesson, they would pick up that dead corpse and then hang it on a pole, when it was an extreme situation. Now what�s Peter doing? He�s bringing that picture to the nation of Israel, that this is what they had really done with their Christ. They had considered Him like a rebellious, drunkard, wicked son, and they killed Him, and they hung Him on a tree. Now of course we know that in actuality He became that on our behalf. He who knew no sin, became sin for us. Now I pointed out in one of the classes last week, you go into Hebrews chapter 13. Listen, the crucifixion was awful. The crucifixion was not beautiful. We have glamorized it with our jewelry, the golden crosses and all that, but listen the crucifixion was not beautiful. It was a curse, because God laid on Him the sins of the whole human race. But down here now Peter says, �Whom you slew, and hanged on a tree, to show the despicableness of his death.� Not that he himself was guilty of any of that, but that he became the innocent Lamb of God, on whom all the guilt of a sinful world was laid. Now I�ve made reference to it before, and we won�t have time to go back and look at it, but Isaiah 52 says that of anyone who ever lived, he was more marred, he was more or less human appearing as he hung on the cross, than anyone who had ever lived. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552. That�s Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.