Acts chapter five starts out with a bang. A couple brings some money into the church and the next thing you know they are dead.  I think that sounds like a perfect fundraising idea.. ’come on down and donate money to our cause and you just might die!’ Perfect.  Or the Sunday School version goes something like this… Kids, a couple lied so God killed them.  Even better!

Wow this story about Ananias and Sapphira is a serious buzz killer.  Dr. Luke just got done telling us the stories of miraculous healings, rescues, sacrificial giving and how the church is at an all time spiritual high. Then like a slap to the face two well meaning nice followers that gave lots of money are dead. What is up with this?

Then I realized this wasn’t some simple misunderstanding of a couple.  This was a calculated effort of two people to experience the spiritual realm through natural means. They would have just encountered the great joy of Barnabas when he gave all the proceeds of the sale of his property. I would speculate that they wanted what he had and they thought they had the financial resources to make that happen.

But the fact is you can’t manufacturer the spiritual realm through natural means.  No matter how hard you work up a sweat or how hard you study or how much you give you can’t push God’s hand in your favor through your own efforts. This story didn’t have much to do with money or telling a lie and everything to do with how the spiritual world is real and is not a game to be played through human means. 

The foundation of our faith is happening here in chapter five.  Just like a cancer to the body this idea that you could buy spiritual rewards through human efforts needed to be removed.  If you try to have spiritual results by natural means you get problems… hopefully it isn’t death. (oh by the way it never says God killed them. I wonder what did?)