Satan is not far from us, and we need to be careful lest we be deceived by him. If we would avoid Satan’s deception, we must reject, condemn, and abandon the ambition to be somebody in the church life. Whenever we have the thought of being somebody in the church life, Satan has the ground to deceive us and, spiritually speaking, to bring us into death.
Ananias and Sapphira had the ambition to be somebody in the church; they had the ambition to have a name. Because of their ambition they were deceived, and that deception brought them into death. As the record indicates, both Ananias and Sapphira died physically.
We should not think that because there is no physical death in the church like that of Ananias and Sapphira, that this means there is no death at all. On the contrary, the ambition to be somebody, the ambition to be a leader, brings the ambitious ones into spiritual death. Those who are ambitious may not die physically, but they will die spiritually. We have seen cases like this in the Lord’s recovery. These cases make it evident that ambition results in spiritual death. Concerning this we all need to be very careful.
The fact that Ananias and Sapphira suffered the punishment of physical death does not mean that they will suffer eternal perdition. Although Ananias and Sapphira were saved, they committed a sin unto death (1 John 5:16-17). In God’s governmental dealing, some of His children may be destined to physical death in this age due to a certain sin. This was the situation of Ananias and Sapphira, who were punished with physical death because of their lying to the Holy Spirit. Their case teaches us to be extremely careful about ambition and dishonesty in the church life.
The Holy Spirit used Luke to record the case of Ananias and Sapphira to point out to us that although the church life may be wonderful, we still need to be careful concerning ambition. We should not have any ambition to be somebody in the church. We should not have the ambition for rank, position, or name. If we have such an ambition, we shall give the enemy the ground to bring us into spiritual death.
In 5:4 there is a word related to having all things common: “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And when it was sold, was it not in your authority?” This indicates that to sell possessions and distribute them to others was not considered by the apostles a practice of legality. The believers were not required to have all things common. That was something that should have been done willingly. If Ananias and Sapphira did not want to sell their property, they were not required to do so. Furthermore, the money from the sale was in their own authority. Their sin was that they intended to lie to the Holy Spirit. It would not have been sinful to keep their property or to keep the proceeds from the sale of the property. Their sin consisted in lying to the Holy Spirit. Their intention was to cheat the church and to get a name for themselves by lying. This was a gross sin that offended the indwelling Spirit. Their sin was a willing cooperation with Satan, the evil resident within them. We all need to learn the lesson afforded by the case of Ananias and Sapphira.
In 5:3 Peter told Ananias that he lied to the Holy Spirit. Then at the end of verse 4 Peter said to him, “You did not lie to men, but to God.” This proves that the Holy Spirit in verse 3 is God.
Later, when Peter was speaking to Sapphira, he said to her, “Why was it agreed together by you to test the Spirit of the Lord?” The Holy Spirit in verse 3, God in verse 4, and the Lord in verse 9 are all one, especially in the experience of the believers.
In verse 11 Luke closes his account of the negative scene by saying, “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all those who heard these things.” The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia, composed of ek, out, and a derivative of kaleo, called; hence, the called out (congregation), the assembly. This is the first time that the church is mentioned in Acts as a local church. As we shall see in a later message, 8:1 speaks of the church in Jerusalem. This was the first church established in a locality. It was established within the jurisdiction of the city, the city of Jerusalem. It was a local church in its locality, as indicated by the Lord in Matthew 18:17. The church revealed in Matthew 16:18 is the universal church, which is the unique Body of Christ. The church revealed in Matthew 18:17 is the local church, the expression of the unique Body of Christ in a certain locality. The record of the New Testament concerning the establishment of the church in its locality is consistent throughout (Acts 13:1; 14:23; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Rev. 1:4, 11).
Acts 5:12 says, “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders took place among the people.” The record here is very similar to that in 2:43, where we are told that “many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” We need to realize that wonders and signs are not part of God’s central testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. Neither are they part of His full salvation. Rather, wonders and signs are only evidences that what the apostles preached and ministered and how they acted were absolutely of God and not of man (Heb. 2:3-4). This means that wonders and signs are neither a part of God’s central testimony nor a part of God’s salvation. Wonders and signs are means used by God to prove that the preaching and ministry of the apostles are of God. At the apostles’ time there was the need for signs and wonders to be done through them. No doubt, that caught the attention of the multitude. However, we today should not emphasize wonders and signs.