Anaias and Sapphira want to look godly. The believers are saying that nothing belonged to them, that their things were not their own. Ananias and Sapphira didn’t want to give up everything for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the Body of Christ.

Could you see all your possessions as not YOUR possessions?

Anaias and Sapphira couldn’t.

They want to be part of the crowd. They want others to see them doing what the others were doing. They want to look like they are being selfless and generous.

They sell a piece of property and keep a piece of the profit. There was nothing sinful about it except what was in their heart. As Peter points out to them, it was yours. The property was yours. The money was yours. You could do with it as you pleased.

The church wasn’t claiming the property and money of others. They weren’t telling people they had to sell their property and give the money. That was all a spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit among them.

The question Peter asks them is very interesting. The Holy Spirit is working among the people moving them to give up what they own. Peter asks Ananias, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?”

Satan, not the Holy Spirit, was filling their heart. It’s our first sign, in this picture of perfect unity, that there was another spirit at work. Where there is Christ, there is antichrist. Where there is grain, there are weeds.

All sin is against God. Peter tells him that he’s lied to God, not man, and Ananias drops dead. God was keeping His church pure.

I find it amazing that after three hours Sapphira hadn’t heard what happened to her husband. To me that seems like a work of God. She confirms the conspiracy and dies as well.

Our actions show what’s in our heart. Their action that showed their heart wasn’t bringing money to the church, but keeping some back and conspiring to lie about it. And anyway, God can always see what’s in the heart. Pray for a pure heart!