GOSPEL MEDITATION # 15
Acts 4:32-37 & 5:1-11
They had Everything in Common & Ananias and Sapphira
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- Some 5000 new believers in Jerusalem and many of these had homes far away, necessity was laid upon the new born Church and the Holy Spirit was working powerfully.
- “One heart and soul”—a common saying meaning they experienced homothumadon meaning one mind.
- The apostles continued to preach Jesus and the resurrection.
- They operated under two principles: one, they depended upon the apostles to distribute funds, and two, the distribution was based upon need.
- Luke now introduces the reader to Barnabas, one of the most significant figures in the early Church.
- Now a shift—Ananias and Sapphira connive to sell property but withhold a certain amount for themselves. It would be thought that they brought in the whole amount; perhaps they wanted the attention and honor of the apostles.
- First Ananias, after questioning by Peter, drops dead. Probably not due to fright and fear, but by the hand of God. Then, 3 hours later, Sapphira, the wife, has the same thing happen to her. They are buried, no official inquiry is made, no report to authorities is made either. We are not sure of what would have been proper or expected in that situation.
- This is not the first time something like this appears in Scripture. It is necessary now to study the story of Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, found in Leviticus 10:1-11. These two priests offered, drunkenly, worship in an unauthorized manned. They paid for it with their lives.
16. The account of Ananias and Sapphira shows a shift in the life