Sapphira - Partner is Crime - Acts 5

⁷ About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. ⁸ Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

⁹ Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

¹⁰ At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. - Acts 5:7-11

Everyday, members of the universal church lie to God.  They give half efforts and are half committed.  There is a very real war in Christians with their own carnality.  They want what they want and submission to the leadership of a Holy God and serving a risen Christ above themselves is a choice difficult to fulfill.  I think I've heard one Christian or another justify about every sin that can be committed on the earth.  Perhaps there is none better at justifying the enemies war effort.  You can be sure that Ananias and Sapphira had a well rehearsed justification prepared for their actions so their friends would disapprove of the judgmental and self-righteous church and not them.

A key tell-tale is that Christians following God don't justify their actions.  If asked about their actions they simply say they are following God.  The asking person must deal with God.  There is peace in that.  But when those professing to be Christians start justifying their actions, you can be sure there is not peace in their soul.  They are looking for support for their actions which they are in some kind of internal conflict.  

The church is important to God.  He is very purposeful in protecting the church here.  When He does it, the whole church is “seized” with fear.  What are they scared of?  …  What many in the church had failed to realize at that time and most of the church fails to realize today is that the mission of the church to spread the news of the gospel is way more important than their lives.  The disciples understood this.  They were so full of the Spirit and is such a completeness of belief that giving their life for preaching or healing or teaching was an honor.  To go to jail or be persecuted was praiseworthy! 

And I’m preaching to myself here, but oh if we would see the lost world and the preaching of the gospel as more value than us today, the church would no longer be on a road to irrelevance in American society.