Simon the Magician, from the Other Side of the Tracks

Transcription

1 Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Studies in Acts, Lesson 10 Scripture: Acts 8: 9-25 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: December 2 nd, 2018 Simon the Magician, from the Other Side of the Tracks Acts 8:9-25 (ESV) But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called Great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Introduction The passage before us is a fascinating piece of the Book of Acts. We are back across the tracks! But I m afraid this text in Acts doesn t have anything to do with Christmas, clinical depression, substance abuse, marriage, child-rearing, social justice or self-esteem. I suppose I could try to work one or more of those ideas into the passage That is the risk of preaching expositionally and I believe the Word of God merits its own central place in preaching. And since we are doing a series in the Acts of the Apostles here is where we arrive at today. But do not misunderstand me here we have Christians at risk, in general, which is relevant today. We have a fellow who wants to mimic real Christianity, for profit and that is certainly a thing we still see today.

2 We have authority being exercised by Christian leaders which is always relevant, if not appreciated. We have the subject of magic do we hear about that today? There are a number of things in our passage which have strong echoes in our world today, twenty centuries later and on the other side of the planet from Samaria in the Middle East. I am not acquainted with every stress, every current situation, every temptation or every challenge that the saints in DBC are facing today but my belief is that a diet of the Word of God will always strengthen you to FACE and achieve victory over whatever you might be currently facing Our passage begins with verses 9-13: But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called Great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. From the other side of the tracks (Samaria), Simon was the kind of fellow we can clearly imagine he is a Samaritan local and an IMPORTANT local boy. A very early church father, Justin Martyr, who lived from about 100 to 165 AD, wrote about Simon: Justin presents many details about Simon the Great (Magus). He was called by many a first god, was from Gitta, ended up in Rome, travelled with a woman named Helena a former prostitute who was the first idea generated by him, etc. His reputation was iconoclastic and syncretistic in his desire to connect to Christianity. 1 1 Darrell L. Bock, Acts Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament, 2007, p.325 2

3 He was a sorcerer, more gently called a magician. His magic would involve charms and incantations and predictions. Whether the phenomena were real or not or truly produced supernatural results would have been somewhat secondary PROOF of genuineness is more a Western, rationalist need. In his day Simon just said he was something special and for a great many that was enough. Luke says people said This man is the power of God that is called Great (the dunamis Theou megalu ). It was quite an acclamation! And people believed it. We note that Luke does not say that Phillip, who had Simon come along side of him and was even baptized, disputed it. Simon was impressed with what Phillip was doing and the people he was winning to Christ. Then Luke tells us that the news of the stir in Samaria made its way back the forty miles to Jerusalem Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The Jerusalem HQ dispatched their two big guys in support. Peter and John, who figure heavily in the early chapters of Acts travel the forty miles to the city of Samaria and are happy to enfold the new believers there into the body of Christ. Here is an example of the transitional nature of what is happening all through the book of Acts. Notice the CHAIN OF EVENTS here: 1. Samaria received the word of God, spread there initially because of persecution (even though it should have been taken there deliberately by the apostles (see Acts 1:8). 3

4 2. Converts were baptized. 3. Peter and John are sent there to firm up and more deeply establish the body. 4. They dispensed the Holy Spirit through the laying on of their hands. Now Luke is not writing a guidebook for how things are supposed to happen in every place. He is describing what happened THEN. This is a major mistake that is made today by many who see something written in Acts and assume that what is described there is supposed to happen routinely, normally, regularly. As we understand it when a person any person believes in Christ they are given the Holy Spirit at that moment. There might be, in fact will be many fillings of the Holy Spirit and I would not be so arrogant to predict all the ways that He may choose to fill a believer. But the GETTING of the Holy Spirit, as the seal of redemption occurs at the moment of belief and will do so until Jesus returns and ushers in the next AGE. But the real point of this passage revolves around Simon the magician. Notice that Phillip seems to be more of an evangelist than a shepherd. Luke reports no skepticism or tentativeness in Phillip. Phillip is too busy preaching the Gospel to get distracted by a fellow like Simon. This shows us that the body of Christ needs ALL the spiritual gifts that there are. We need evangelists, people who love to preach the Word, introduce the Gospel and win people to Christ. But the body also needs teachers and discerners and elders and shepherds. There are lots of people today, just like Simon. They want to meld with Christianity. They see certain features of Christianity that appeal to them and they want to connect. They might even want to bring their reputation from some other walk of life along with them right INTO the faith. We see this with sports stars and entertainers and politicians who ARE somebody in the world, and expect to import their notoriety along with them right into Christianity. But it is phony. If someone is a good singer, or a good basketball player or a powerful lawmaker and they make some profession of faith, that still doesn t mean he is a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, having really turned his life OVER to Him! It is powerful to me that right here, still pretty early in the Book of Acts we have, what in Luke s mind is a notable illustration of the potential to counterfeit the faith. In our era a good EXCEPTION to this would be Chuck Colson ( ) who was at the time by all accounts the 4 th most powerful person in the government of the United States. He was special counsel to the President. He got caught up in Watergate and spent seven months in jail, came out and founded Prison Fellowship. He lived the rest of his life, forty years, for Christ and went home to be with the Lord in

5 You will notice what Simon offers: to purchase the dispensing of the Holy Spirit. In fact we have the word Simony, the act of buying an ecclesiastical office which has wrecked havoc throughout church history and was one of the main sparks that triggered the Reformation. He says nothing about his personal need of the Holy Spirit, just that he wishes to buy the power to dispense the Spirit. This is very revealing. He was a person of public power and influence and with this new asset being demonstrated, he wants to acquire this influence too. Peter s response is important and YES, it is probably a timeless principle: May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God (verse 20). What a basic truth! No person can purchase the gift of God it wouldn t be a gift, would it? It is a cosmic absurdity and when people operate with that assumption, their hearts are not right with God it is that simple. The word perish is used another time in the New Testament: John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Perish APOLEIA (ἀπώλεια) means destruction. Destruction is not necessary nor the fate of anyone who believes in Jesus, but it WOULD be the fate of Simon if he did not change his mind. But notice what Simon asks for (verse 24): Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. He was terrified of the consequences that Peter predicted, but is there any evidence here at least that he saw his personal need of Christ? Regret is not the same thing as repentance. On the day of final judgment there will be incalculable regret. Souls will see the truth and will see that a just God was rendering a just judgment. They will see, with no doubt, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was TRUE but on that day there will be no repentance just a terrible, tragic and complete regret. It is not enough to just give ascent that the Word of God is true and that you are on the losing end of that Word, and have not heeded the warnings and the offer of eternal life. 5

6 Peter still holds out hope for Simon, though (verses 22 & 23): Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. This is Peter s critique of Simon s state, still without Christ: bitterness and bondage to sin. People are trapped, really, in their own sin without Christ. We can t open their hearts but we can tell them this, as did Peter to Simon. Verse 25 finishes the section and is another of Luke s summarizing statements (which I love!): Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Luke is not through with Phillip yet but the record is complete about Samaria. Well, this passage may not seem very Christmas-y. But Christmas, amidst all the secularism and redirected festivities that move people s minds away from Jesus, is about Jesus Christ. The news of Jesus spread to Samaria, on the other side of the tracks. Many will come to Christ and ARE coming to Christ who were not predicted to do so unlikely candidates! But some will filter in who are not really repentant and just want one or another of the symptoms of saving faith. I think my favorite Christmas song is the one we sang at the beginning today! Let s sing a stanza of that one more time 6