BARNABAS AND ANANIAS
CHILDREN, LAST week I told you about the first Christians and how they lived together sharing everything they had. I told you that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they preached the Word of God and therefore many other people joined them. Among those people were Barnabas and Ananias.
The Bible says that Barnabas had a field and decided to sell it and give as an offering the entire amount received. Children, nobody asked to Barnabas to take that attitude, he was not obliged to give as an offering the money of the field. However, that man was not attached to anything, so he gave what he had. Ananias also sold a land however he acted differently of Barnabas.
Ananias was married with Sapphira. They sold a property and seeing the value they received, their hearts were filled with ambition and they decided to save part of the money. Ananias took the rest of it, went to the temple and put it at the feet of the apostles. At that time people had this practice.
Then the disciple Peter, who was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, asked him:
- Ananias, why did you let evil to filled your heart enough to lie? Was not the land yours? Was not the money from the sell also yours? Then why did you lie? You did not lie to men, you lied to God.
And when he heard these words, Ananias fell down and died. Children, Ananias made no mistake by failing to put the entire value of the sale, but because he lied saying he was giving all the money he got from selling the property. But God, who sees everything, knew very well that he had saved some money and he was lying.
Three hours later, Sapphira got to the temple without knowing what had happened. The body of Ananias had already been taken. Peter asked her:
- It was for this value that you and your husband sold the land? And she replied:
- Yes, it was! And Peter said:
Why did you and your husband decided to put the Spirit to the test? Those men buried your husband.
On hearing what had happened, Sapphira died and the same men took her to bury with her husband. How sad! Sapphira had also chosen to live a lie and ended up suffering the consequences. God let them die for other people to see that you should not lie to anyone, especially to God.
CONCLUSION
Barnabas has chosen the way of faithfulness and truth; his attitude pleased God. However, Ananias and his wife have chosen to be unfaithful and displeased God, not because they had not given the total price of the sale, but because they have chosen the path of deception. They tried to deceive God and they lose their own lives. We must always be faithful and true; always making choices that pleases God, amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment