A Study of ACTS 4:32-37, ACTS 5:1-11 

 WELCOME & INTRO

Today we will be talking about our God who is all-knowing and all-seeing, amongst other things, being able to see what’s in our hearts. 

I want to give you all a question to start off, one you can ponder throughout the lesson:

Q1: Sin Vs. Spirit…ual Fruit             .

: What is one sin that flies in the face of every fruit of the Spirit?? 

Those being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

SET-UP & SUMMARY

Today we’re at Lesson Six of the Fall Quarter of 2025

• LESSON TEXTS: Acts 4:32-37 and Acts 5:1-11. 
• TIME PERIOD: 30-31 AD
• LOCATION: Jerusalem
• LESSON TITLE: God Sees Our Hearts.

ACTS 4 

32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 

33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the LORD Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 

34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. 

36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, 

37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

ACTS 5 

1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 

3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. 6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. 7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. 

8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. 9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. 10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. 

11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

(King James Version)

The Church is meant to hold everything in common amongst each other. 

This means that no one person takes ownership of or makes claim on anything. It’s not my food. It’s our food, it’s not my money, It’s our money. And so on. 

If we as followers of Christ are in Covenant with Him, should we not act as though we are in Covenant with each other? Meaning, should we not be willing to share whatever we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ? 

There are many verses in the Bible that illustrate this point, including the story in today’s lesson text that we just read, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. 

OBSERVATIONS: COMMUNITY (ACTS 4)

I learned that:

• •Those who believe are and should be of one mind and one heart in Christ Jesus (UNITY)
  • This can only happen
    • By The InDwelling Of, 
    • Communion or fellowship WITH, and
    • Upon the submission TO…
      • The PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT Of GOD!!
        • (TRANSFORMATIVE POWER of PARAKLETOS The LOVE <3 

• •The Church Is referred to as The Body Of Christ; thehealthyBody is supposed to go out into the world and bringhealing to those who are sick… just As our LORD Jesus Did.
  • Some sought Him out
  • Some were brought To Him
    • The only way we can do that is to bring the SICK and SUFFERING TO The Great Physician.  (MISSION and THE GREAT COMMISSION)

• •In a proper community of TRUE, or “TRULY-SOLD-OUT-To-JESUS” believers, no one person takes ownership of anything, but everyone takes ownership, or rather stewardship, of everything.  (SHARING)

• •The community takes care of itself and those around it. (CARING)

• •The Lord gives grace to all, but he gives more to those who believe because we are imperfect and we know it (BELONGING or QUALIFYING?)

• •If the body of Christ truly follows what they are told, none will lack anything that God says they need. Putting forth everything that you have and allowing it to be used in its entirety for God’s will is what is meant to be and it is what makes the church self-sustaining; it is this decree of the one true King that helps the church to not only survive, but thrive. (SUSTAINABILITY)

That was more of a preliminary set of things that I noticed as I read, what follows is a more-detailed and in-depth analysis on what I was given as understanding from the Holy Spirit. 

OBSERVATIONS: ANANIAS & SAPPHIRA (ACTS 5)

The story of Ananias and Sapphira illustrated to me several different things:

• •Mankind can be greedy and selfish.
  • “I want all the things!”
  • “I want the most!”
  • “TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH!”
  • “MORE MORE MORE!”
  • “ME, ME, ME!”
  • “I’m NUMBER ONE!”
  • “I’m LOOKING OUT for Number One!!”
  • “I’m ONLY looking out for Number One!”
  • “You can’t tell me what to do!”
  • “God can’t tell me what to do!”
  • “Is there even a God?”
  • “There IS no god!”
  • “I AM GOD!!!”

• •God set man as the head of the household; he’s the leader; the wife may follow along with plans born of selfishness (& reeking of “garden-variety” Human Nature, Eve shows that women can lead men the wrong way, too. 
  • •Therefore, we must learn what The LORD expects of us, so we can:
    • Accomplish His Will, and 
    • Avoidweightsthatslowusdown & holdusback, as in Hebrews 12:1,“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurancethe race God has set before us.” (NLT)
      • Avoid wickedness, as in Proverbs 4:14 (“Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil,” ESV)

• •We must use discernment to know when someone—even our spouse!— might be pointing us in the wrong direction, aka
  • AWAY From God! :(((
    • •Sally’s Main Takeaway > > > 
      • • > > > Unity is ONLY good… when GOD Is The GLUE

• •The story also shows what humans may or even will do when they do not trust God to Be their provider.
  • They will hold back what God Himself gave them, either in whole or in part as a “just in case” measure.
    • Further, they will BE “held back” in terms of what they were Designed and MADE to do in the first place. This is a problem. 
      • The Bible clearly indicates that Righteousness, ObedienceTo, and FaithIN God are pleasing To Him,
        • Without faith it’s IMPOSSIBLE to please Him, (Hebrews 11:6) and even that
          • He DELIGHTS in the details of His beloved children—when we obey Him and try to be Like Jesus (Psalm 37:23). 

• Even when we feel as though our lives are out of control, and that we’re flailing in one or two areas of our lives, or even hanging on by a thread “across the board,” how comforting is it to know that
  • while WE are out of control of our circumstances, while this world seemsbeyondrepair, God Is IN Control of things,
    • •He CAN, DOES, and certainly WILL (Always)
      • fix what’s broken beyond recognition, and 
      • •redeem what once seemed unsalvageable. 

• Our Great and MIGHTY JEHOVAH JIREH provides for His dear children; our Great Physician, JEHOVAH RAPHA, In His INFINITE Wisdom, may or may NOT  (according To His PERFECT Will) Grant PHYSICAL healing to every single person in every single case EVER,
  • aka We’ve gotta die SOMETIME!! 
  • The Plan of our planet-producing PAPA and the Death Of our Sweet SAVIOUR, LORD JESUS (AND The Empowering Of Our Eagerly-Awaiting, Ever-Enabling, Tears and Tongues-Translating Heavenly Helper, AWESOME Advocate, and RIGHTEOUS ROOMMATE Made it possible for us to be “healed” of the always-terminal, definitely-eternal, and MOST-infernal disorder of demonic dis-ease, dubbed the second death. 

BUT GOD!

• •So… We’re FINE!
  • •As long as we stay in line
    • •With His LAWS 

• •It’s SUPER that our Supernaturally-Skilled Surgeon Specializes in 

SALVATION!!

• •Soul-sucking stuff
  • •Spiritual stagnation 

Sadness 

• Supposed “Psychosis” 
• Supernatural stuff
  • Spiritual warfare 
• •ALL things Spiritual, come to think of it!

• •Remember how we just discussed the exhortation/warning in Hebrews 11:7, that without FAITH, it’s impossible to please God? 

• •(I DO realize that there are peeps who don’t actually CARE about pleasing God, btw. And while I DO, CERTAINLY, care about their salvation and their Walk With Jesus, my lament about them—and my plotting about them—is beyond the scope of this discussion.(For the moment, anyway…)
  • Also, we’re here to find out how to walk more-CLOSELY With Jesus, and how to avoid Grieving The PRECIOUS Holy Spirit

• •Well, as mentioned in the previous point, we do, sometimes, have a hard time giving up control (To God) and walking away from our own plans or pasts. 
  • •It’s only natural, even if we DO realize that strolling down Memory Lane or “briskly walking” back into our less-Godly plots or plans on our own legs may, in fact, end up in our being carried out by others, as Ananias and Sapphira experienced.

• •That said, it’s vital to realize that
  • Bad company corrupts good morals, and to know that 
  • God BLESSES the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, who doesn’t stand in the way of sinners, who does not sit in the seat of scoffers, as in the first Psalm.
    • Like when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were being mean to my BRO, Nehemiah

• •It’s equally important to internalize the notion that sometimes, God WILL ask you to give your promise back, as with Abraham and Isaac. 

• •Sometimes, He WILL “invite” you to leave everything you’ve ever known and start over again, “from scratch” or “with just the shirt on your back,” as with
  • Abraham, of course, and also 
  • as illustrated in 1 Kings 19:21, where
    • Elisha burnt his plows and put every last ox of his on the BBQ grill.
      • In so doing, this about-to-be prophet destroyed every safety net that he could’ve fallen back on… IF his plan to follow God (in a cloak) and hang out with Elijah didn’t work out the way he wanted it to or thought it would go. 
      • By destroying his “Plan B,” Elisha was demonstrating that he  trusted God enough to follow him without that “just in case measure”.
        • •This isn’t as insane as it might seem, since > > >

• •This story shows several attributes of God. 
  • It shows His omnipotence, 
  • it shows His omniscience 
  • it shows His omnipresence.
    • “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” psalm 147:5 

• •God knows all and sees all
  • you cannot fool him. 
  • You cannot lie to him.
  • You can’t hide from Him
  • You can’t hide anything from Him
    • He knows the objective truth—and the truth about everything embedded in your heart.
      • Including your feelings

And fears

• And tendencies.
• Including your motivations
• And memories

Tantrums 

• Trauma 
• Tears (crocodile and otherwise)
• Total number of hairs left on your hands, head, and chin
• Temptations 

Mess-ups 

• Good intentions 
• And anything else I forgot to mention
• And He loves you anyway, knowing everything about you
• He HELPS you, doesn’t DOUBT you 
• Doesn’t NEED you, but would REALLY not live without you

• •Since He KNOWS all, He “could” REVEAL all. 
  • When He Deems it necessary, anyway.
• •God will at times give his representatives, the ones he puts in charge of something, words of knowledge as to what might be going on behind their backs as is the case with Peter in the story.

OBSERVATIONS: LYING

• •The story also shows his disdain for and the consequences of lying to him.

• •God will never lead you to lie to or misdirect someone; the temptation to deceive is exactly that, a temptation… which only comes from Satan. “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” James 1:13

• •Lying will tarnish both your reputation and witness with not only believers in a congregation, but also and many times more impactfully, the leadership of whatever institution it may be. It’s a tool that the enemy uses to do exactly that. To make you seem untrustworthy and to make anything you say be doubted or easily discredited. In the case of someone who may be called to preach, this can and will be disastrous. Tarnishing your witness in front of unbelievers can also be disastrous to your reputation and their own walk with Christ. Your lie may hinder their walk if not completely halt it. 

• •The portion of scripture in which Ananias and Sapphira die in front of Peter can also be looked at as a spiritual death. Why? Because lying is a sin and sin itself kills spiritually as well as physically.

• •It seems as though both of them were made to be an example for everyone around; to even the ones who did the right thing, it may have been a warning. Something like “you may be doing the right thing now, but don’t think you can lie because you will be found out, you will be confronted, and you will be punished.” It may not be here on earth but you will.
  • •As Numbers 32:23 puts it, “Be sure your sin will find you out.
    • And, as described in The MSG version of Acts 5, verses 5, 6, & 11: “That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it…11 By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.”

So. Communities and Lying. Opportunities to serve and care for and share, as well as lie, cheat, and “steal.”

But was it really stealing? 

And…

Do you believe that Ananias and Sapphira DID, in fact, “Steal” from their community? 

Let’s briefly discuss this question and a few more… next time!

♥️🙏✝️