Pastor Ralph Posted August 11, 2021 Report Share Posted August 11, 2021 Q4. (Acts 5:1-11) What is the central sin Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of? Why is lying to Peter the same as “lying to the Holy Spirit” (verse 3), “lying to God” (verse 4)? How can acting toward the church as a mere human institution put us under God’s judgment? What does it mean to “test the Spirit of the Lord” in verse 9. Why was that wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yvonne Peterson Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 TInitial sin was lying. It applies to God who knows all and sees all. Nothing hid from him. We are the church. Christ the head of the church. Not a human institution. All spiritual in truth and love. They thought a bad thing in their hearts. Greed I guess. But all belongs to God. ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krissi Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 What is the central sin Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of? Why is lying to Peter the same as “lying to the Holy Spirit” (verse 3), “lying to God” (verse 4)? How can acting toward the church as a mere human institution put us under God’s judgment? What does it mean to “test the Spirit of the Lord” in verse 9. Why was that wrong? This passage frightens me. How often do I withhold information or slightly tinge the truth, or even, at times, outright lie, when I could have told the entire truth? I'll answer my own question -- daily!. The sin was lying to the church which emerge from their pride and desire for status/acclaim. What's so odd, to me, is that they were doing a good thing when they sold their property and gave part of the proceeds. Had they merely admitted that they had kept some for themselves, all would have been fine, I think. So this wasn't an evil couple. This was a couple trying to do the right thing, the expected behaviour of that church. Frankly, I think their deaths seem a bit like an overreaction. Lets say someone in my church claimed to be donating a larger percentage of his income than was the case. He's still donating! Just lying about the percentage-of-income. Does he deserve to die? Did this couple know that they themselves were lying to God or testing God, or were they merely trying to one-up other people in the church? They must have known. True, Peter accuses the woman of "testing the Spirit," so I must conclude that lying about the amount was the test. I tend to think there's more to this story, that this couple wanted to take over the group, or be powerful within it, and this was only one of many deceitful acts they had done. Still, not taking any sin seriously is wrong. Theirs wasn't a "white" lie, but a lie. (Now, I'm seeing my lies, almost-lies, white-lies, half-truths, withholdings and sorta-lies as ... well ... lies. Just lies. I'm going to pray that God helps me NOT LIE in any slightest way. Interestingly, telling part of the truth is like giving part of the money -- a sin.) I'm not sure what it means to test the Lord. All sins test Him. Why was this sin so egregious? I can think of many times I was flippant and unloving and disobedient, but no one has carried out my carcass ... .yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonprinsloo Posted October 14, 2021 Report Share Posted October 14, 2021 We should come under the authority of the church which has added us to. I guess these 2 people had a spirit of rebellion and pride. I think that was their sin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted October 15, 2021 Report Share Posted October 15, 2021 Q4.Ananias and Sapphira sinned in a few different ways in this passage but their main sin was to lie to the Holy Spirit and consequently to God. It was a sign of unbelief that they thought they could lie to God and get away with it. Peter is God’s appointed leader and His representative on earth, so to lie to Peter was the same as lying to God. If we act towards the church as a human institution we are showing that we do not realise or believe that it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore sin against the church is sin against the Holy Spirit and it will be punished by God. The testing of the Spirit means unbelief , that we test God to see if we can get away with sin, we do not believe that God sees all things and knows all things. It is arrogance on our behalf and sinful and will be punished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaleb Posted October 15, 2021 Report Share Posted October 15, 2021 The central sin of Ananias and Sapphira in which they were guilty of was to lie that the amount of money they brought at the feet of the apostles as a result of selling a piece of property was exactly the same of the whole amount sold in reality. They wanted to be seen as they have given great amount to the less fortunate while in secret it wasn't true. Lying to Peter same as lying to the holy Spirit and lying to God because Peter didn't see what they did, the holy Spirit saw what they did in secret. And it was the holy Spirit who testified to Peter about what they did and the holy Spirit is the Third person of trinity, He is God. Acting towards the church as mere human institution put us under God's judgement because the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Also board of management is responsible to God in heaven. Therefore sometimes we found ourselves under the punishment of God just because we failed to obey or failed to do things according to what the church of God gives us directions what to do. Knowingly or without knowing we must be very careful concerning what we treat the church institution. To test the Spirit of the Lord is to think that we can lie to God and get away with it. This is a terrible thing to do. It was wrong because it implies unbelief to God and to what is capable of doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanc Posted October 20, 2021 Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 I think the key word is "holy". This was a holy, monumental time, this beginning of the church. The Holy Spirit had just been poured out, miracles were happening....to me it's a BAD time to be playing with anything out of the scope of what God was doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haar Posted October 21, 2021 Report Share Posted October 21, 2021 Q4. (Acts 5:1-11) What is the central sin Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of? Why is lying to Peter the same as "lying to the Holy Spirit" (verse 3), "lying to God" (verse 4)? How can acting toward the church as a mere human institution put us under God's judgment? What does it mean to "test the Spirit of the Lord" in verse 9. Why was that wrong? The one so obvious to me is the sin of lying to God, against the Holy Spirit, and the the leaders. But there is also the sin of pride. The story is a lesson to us that we can put ourselves into trouble the way we treat God, the Holy Spirit and church leaders as we treat what we call our possessions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Jerry Posted March 23, 2022 Report Share Posted March 23, 2022 I think that the central sin that Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of is pride. They wanted to be seen as somebody that will give their all. Lying to Peter is the same as “lying to the Holy Spirit” because he was representing the Holy Spirit at that time. Acting like the church is a mere human institution puts us under God’s judgment because the things in the church are holy. We all belong to God and we need to treat all thing that is God’s with respect. To “test the Spirit of the Lord” is wrong because one thing the bible tells not to test the Lord. Not even Jesus would test the Lord. To test the Spirit is to do something that is wrong and see if the Spirit picks up on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmela Posted August 27, 2023 Report Share Posted August 27, 2023 Q4. (Acts 5:1-11) What is the central sin Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of? Why is lying to Peter the same as "lying to the Holy Spirit" (verse 3), "lying to God" (verse 4)? How can acting toward the church as a mere human institution put us under God's judgment? What does it mean to "test the Spirit of the Lord" in verse 9? Why was that wrong? I guess the central sin was pride. The desire to be looked up to. They lied about the amount that they were giving. Pretended it was the full amount, meanwhile they had kept some money back. There was no need to give it but they had decided between themselves to do so. This money was given to the leaders for distribution in their community as others had also done. The difference was that they had made as if it was the full amount that they gave. This was a lie to the Holy Spirit, a lie to God, because it was ultimately to God that this money was being given to. This was testing the Holy Spirit as it was ultimately to Him as the group was under His guidance. Thinking that He would do nothing about it . This incident reminds me of the one in Numbers 15:32-36, where the person was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day and then was brought before the community and God commanded that he be stoned. He had deliberately disobeyed. The church is seen as being under God's leadership. So whatever is said or done to harm or grieve this institution is ultimately done to God and thus putting us under God's judgement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crissy464 Posted February 19 Report Share Posted February 19 Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of lying. they had sold their property and used some of the proceed to help the church, however they lied saying they used all the proceeds but they had kept some for theirselves. The proceeds were his he didn’t need to lie about not giving all the proceed to the church he could have keep it all. But he lied and just gave some of the proceeds Peter was God’s appointed leader and His representative on earth, so to lie to Peter was the same as lying to God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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