ananias and sapphira | He Bids Them Come

Hi all! Today’s story is from Acts 5 (and the end of Acts 4).

So all the people who believed in Jesus were meeting together (like church). they lived together and shared everything they had. They all helped take care of each other so they could tell other people about God.

One man sold some of his land and brought all the money to the disciples to share with everyone.

Now a man named Ananias, and his wife Sapphira (can you say those names?) also sold a piece of property. Ananias made a bad choice (and his wife’s knew about it). He kept some of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet and he pretended that was ALL the money.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept for yourself some of the money you received? It was YOUR money?! You could have kept as much as you wanted…but you pretended this was ALL the money. What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to us but to GOD.”

When Ananias heard this, do you know what happened? He fell down and died. And everybody watching was VERY afraid.

Later that day, his wife came in, not knowing Ananias was dead. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this all the money you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is all the money.”

Peter said to her, “How could you ALSO lie to God?”

At that moment SHE fell down at his feet and died. Everybody who heard about these events was very afraid.

Do we always die right away when we lie? No. But God was showing His new followers that you can not try to trick Him. We can not lie to God. He always knows. And He takes us obeying Him seriously. He tells us to always tell the truth (say exactly what happened.) He made an example of Ananias and Sapphira to show all the people they must obey Him and that it’s impossible to lie to God.

If they had just said, “We made a lot of money and kept some…but here is the rest.” It would have been ok. But instead they tried to trick God.

This video is a “tim burton style” version of this story posted by Dan Stevers. (It is more appropriate for middle/older elementary than preschool as it’s a bit dark…but nice artistry and good storytelling.)

This video by LC LifeKids is a bit more for preschoolers.

For our craft today, we cut out a basic shape of a man and a woman with a bag of money in the middle. We drew Xs on their eyes and glued some sparkly money to the bag.

Our text reads: Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5, Don’t lie to God!

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Hello again. Today we’ll be covering a story from Acts 5–about Ananias and Sapphira.

So during the early days just after Jesus had gone back to heaven and the people had received God’s Holy Spirit…all the people who followed Jesus, gathered together and lived together, worked together and shared everything. They shared their money, their houses, their food…everything. Some people even sold some of their things so they would have extra money to help take care of the disciples who were telling people about Jesus.

One man and woman, Ananias and Sapphira were some of these believers. They sold some of their land to help pay for the disciples’ food and clothes. But then, they made a bad choice. (Everybody makes bad choices sometimes…even people who love Jesus..even grownups.)

Ananias went to Peter and the other leaders and he took the money they had gotten from selling their house and land and he hid some of it (maybe behind his back or in his pocket). And he said “Here’s all the money from our land!”

But God told Peter that Ananias was lying. Peter said “Is that really ALL the money you got?”

Ananias said “yes…this is all of it.”

Peter said, “How could you lie to us? This land was all yours, the money was all yours…there’s no need to lie about how much money you got?! But since you did lie to us and to God!”

And then…Ananias fell down DEAD.

Then, a little bit later, Sapphira came in and Peter said “Is that ALL the money you got from selling your land?”

She said “yes, it is” (even though she knew they were hiding some.)

Peter said “How could you also lie to us and to God?!” And then right there, she died too.

This story is important because it shows us that God always wants us to be honest (to tell the truth) and that there is no tricking God. God knows everything.

Isn’t is wonderful to know that even when we make bad choices that God still loves us? He does! But He also wants us to come to Him and tell Him the truth. And He wants us to obey. Just because Jesus died on the cross for our sins (bad choices) doesn’t mean we can sin all the time or anytime we want! We still need to do our best to obey God and to always tell Him the truth.

Our craft was a picture of this story (we used aluminum foil for the money)

Next time we’ll cover the story of Stephen.

Love to you all!