Acts 1:8 Begins

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The text today we see the gospel go to Samaria.

It went there because the disciples scattered after the death of Stephen. If you are familiar with your bibles you know there is this hatred between the jews and the Samaritans.

If you remember Jesus himself went and preached the gospel there during his ministry.

John 4:4 ESV

4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

And through a conversion with the women at the well you read this…

John 4:20–21 ESV

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

This is the fulfillment of that.

So we see in the text a man who is not one the apostles bring the gospel to these people. The early church spread the faith not through professional clergy but through the laity

Acts 8:4–8 ESV

4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

traditionally if the people of God were scattered in the old testament it was a sign of judgment. You see that during the tower of babel… You see in Dt. that the lord will scatter people so they serve other Gods.

But its different here.. The gospel is breaking down the barriers that had been in place for years.

Jesus originally broke that barrier by going to the women at the well. He heals the leper and he even remember made a samaritan a hero of a parable.

So Philip goes and proclaims to them Christ. Philip a Jew goes where no man would want to go prior to being changed by Jesus.

and something happens that is every pastors dream. the crowds paid attention to what was said. There hearts were ready to receive the word. Maybe they remembered Jesus coming to them but never less they recieved the good news of the gospel.

( We see here in the text something unique to the times ) That was the gospel message was accompanied by signs. And these signs physically and spiritual healed these people.

We have to pause here for a moment and speak about the fact that this book is a historically account of the early church, and these things though God can do them are not the norm. And we don’t have to practice these things today in order to share the gospel with others…

But the result of belief and healing here in Samaria was joy.

And it did not end.

Acts 8:9–13 ESV

9 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. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 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. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

We are introduced Simon here who was a sorcerer who used his power of magic to wow his followers its appears that the people thought he had the power of God, because of all the things he could go.

And he was a false prophet because he sought his own glory.

True prophets the scripture says looks like this…

1 Peter 4:11 ESV

11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

SO Philip comes and preaches the gospel to them. And what Simon was saying and doing was not so appealing to them anymore. In fact they turned away from him, and turned towards the gospel, and were saved and baptized.

Even Simon believed and was baptized and went along with him seeing all these incredible signs and miracles.

Acts 8:14–17 ESV

14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

The apostles hear about what happens, and go and see for themselves what had happened. Remember the gospel was not yet full global yet, though Jesus himself said this would happen.

For some reason the Lord sovereignly did not allow the people at that time to possess the Holy Spirit. It was most likely so the apostles themselves could see that the same Holy Spirit that lived in them, would also live in the people of Samaria.

And that is what we see. God’s church was now growing outside the city walls.

Lets read on Acts 8:18-24

Acts 8:18–24 ESV

18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

Simon wanted this new power which he did not have. He thought he could buy it. He offered them money, and Peter rebukes the guys and tells him the Holy Spirit is not for sale. God cannot be bought. In fact Peter stresses to him your heart is not right with God.

And Peter does something here and that is he gives him the chance to repent. Now it you look back at verse 13 you see the text say this man believed? But did he have saving faith? can you believe and not have saving faith? Yes you can.

One man I was studying this week for the passage said.. true faith is the result of the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit regenerates people, they are set free, no longer slaves to sin. There is a kind of faith that is merely cognitive, which is likely what happened to Simon. Simon could not deny the reality of what he had seen with his own eyes, but he did not have saving faith. His trust was not in Christ, and he was still looking to continue his career as a successful sorcerer.

And it seems to me Simon asks the apostle to pray to the Lord that he does not have these things come upon him.

Did he have the right response still?

I went digging into what others thought about Simons conversion or lack there of it, and before I read you some of the insights I want you to say whether or not Simon had a faith that saves? I found a sermon by John Piper that had several good points I would like to talk about…

An Illustration of Simon's Error The simplest way I can think of to illustrate what went wrong with Simon is an experience every mother of toddlers has had. Suppose you have a one-year-old child sitting on your lap and suddenly in the window there is a beautiful bird and you hold out your hand to point at the bird and say, "Look, look at the bird." What does the child look at? He looks at your hand and the sign you are making with your fingers. He might even try to imitate the sign by putting out his index finger. He sees the sign. He is excited because you are excited. He joins in imitating the sign as best he can. But the problem is he never sees the bird. The whole point of the sign is missed. That is what happened to Simon the magician here in Acts 8. He saw the signs that Philip was doing. They were better than his own magical signs. He got excited about them. He followed Philip around and wanted to imitate them. But he never saw the bird in the window. He never saw the ugliness of his own sin, the need for repentance, and the glory of Christ in the gospel who forgives and makes new and clean. Four Steps in Luke's Warning to Us Let me unfold this from the text in four steps by way of warning for us. 1. Simon's Non-Saving Faith First, there is a "faith," there is a "believing," that does not save, even though it rises in the presence of true preaching and true miracles. Verse 12 says that Philip was preaching good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Verse 13b says that Philip was doing "signs and great miracles." So true preaching and true miracles were being done in Samaria by Philip the deacon (Acts 6:5). Simon "Believed" Then we notice that verse 13 says, "Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip." But then something happens that shows this "belief" to be false. The apostles come down and lay hands on the Samaritans so that they receive the Holy Spirit. Then beginning in verse 18 here's what happened: When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him "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 [or word], 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."

I take this to mean that Simon was not truly converted. He has no part or lot in this matter of Christianity. His heart is not right with God. He still needs to repent. He is still enslaved to bitterness and iniquity. He is still in his sin and not yet converted. This is confirmed by the entire tradition of the early church that says Simon went on to become a heretic and not a true Christian (cf. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Jerome, etc.). And yet Luke says in verse 13a, "Even Simon himself believed." The point I draw out of this is that there is a "faith" or a "believing" that does not save, even though it rises in the presence of true preaching and true miracles.

So I conclude that Luke's point here in Acts 8 is that Simon's "faith"—his "believing" (described in v. 13)—is not a saving faith but a false faith, dead, barren, empty. That's the first step in Luke's warning to us. There is such a faith and it can rise right in the presence of true preaching and true miracles.

2. The Object of Simon's Faith The second step of Luke's warning is that the object of Simon's faith—the thing in which he believes—is the power of supernatural phenomena—the power of miracles that you can see with the physical eye, not Jesus Christ and the glory of his grace.

Simon was a sorcerer. That means he dealt in supernatural power before he ever heard Philip preach or ever heard of Jesus Christ. He used his magical arts for a long time in Samaria (according to Acts 8:9–11), and amazed the people. He knew real power when he saw it.

So when Philip came to town and not only preached but performed signs by healing people and casting out demons (Acts 8:7), Simon knew the power was real, and that it was stronger than his power. So he was ready to switch sides. He even tried to buy the power with money because he wanted it so badly (v. 18).

So the object of his faith was the power of signs and wonders. This is what he believed—he believed that Philip was a real miracle worker. There is real power here. He didn't doubt it. He was not a skeptic. He was ready to leave his own magical arts to join Philip and use this new power. Philip had stretched out the finger of signs and wonders to point to the glory of Jesus, and Simon had fixed on the finger. He believed in it. He wanted to be able to point like that. He would pay money to point like that. But he never turned his head to look at the window.

The glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for sinners, risen in power, reigning over a humble and holy people was not the object of Simon's faith. And therefore it was not true saving faith. What was it?

3. Simon's "Faith" as Mere Amazement The third step of Luke's warning is that the experience of Simon's "faith" was simply amazement—amazement at Philip's signs, not brokenness for sin and not humble trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Simon Amazed and Was Amazed Look at how Luke makes this plain to us. He uses the word "amaze" three times. In verse 9 he says that Simon had "amazed" the nation of Samaria with his magic (sorcery). Then in verse 11 it says again that Simon had "amazed" them a long time by his magic. Then in verse 13b, after Philip had shown the power of God, it says, "And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he [Simon himself] was amazed."

In other words what Simon had been producing in the Samaritans by his sorcery, he was now experiencing in himself when he saw Philip's miracles, namely, amazement.

And amazement at supernatural power is not saving faith. Believing that supernatural power is present and being amazed by it so much that you want it is not an experience of true faith.

What Simon Was Missing Verse 22 points to what was missing. Peter says to Simon,

"Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you." What was missing was a heartfelt recognition of sinfulness and a turning to Jesus with a broken and humble trust for forgiveness. Amazement and excitement about signs and wonders is not saving faith. Signs and wonders are the finger pointing to Jesus. True faith comes when we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We can have all the spiritual experiences possible by looking at the finger of power. But until we turn to the Lord himself, there will be no true faith.

4. Simon's Crooked Heart The final step in Luke's warning is that the root of Simon's false faith is a crooked heart. Verse 21: "You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right [literally: straight] before God." At the root of Simon's false faith was a heart problem. And that is the way it is with every one of us. His heart was not straight before God; it was crooked. His heart needed to be changed.

He was not a simple one-year-old sitting on his mother's lap staring innocently at her pointing finger instead of out the window. He was a man with a crooked heart who willfully suppressed the knowledge of the true God, whose Spirit cannot be bought. He fixed on Philip's finger of power because deep down he still wanted to be a great power broker, just like it says in verse 9b—he was "saying that he himself was somebody great." So there it is. Luke's warning to us: there is a false faith that does not save; its object is the power of supernatural signs and wonders, not Jesus and the glory of his grace; its nature or experience is amazement, not brokenness for sin and humble trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior; its root is a crooked and vain heart. Don't Misapply the Warning Now I close with a plea that we not misapply the warning. I know that there are many today who would say, "Well, if signs and wonders are liable to that kind of misuse, then why not just avoid them?" Especially, some say, in view of the fact that we live in a day when the occult, the new age, witchcraft, Satanism, and drugs are rampant; and rational, objective, clear, Bible-based teaching is so rare. Don't we play right into the hands of the emotionalism, subjectivism, relativism, and individualism of our day by asking the Lord to stretch forth his hand supernaturally to heal and deliver and speak?

My answer is this: Surely there should be no lessening of solid, objective, biblical teaching. But our day is not too unlike the situation in Samaria. Samaria was saturated with sorceries and magical arts and the occult. Verse 11b says that "for a long time Simon had amazed the people." They were all caught up in the "new age." They were sitting ducks for supernatural subjectivism. And into that situation Philip (not an apostle, but a "deacon") came preaching the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus (vv. 5, 12) AND doing supernatural signs of healing and deliverance (vv. 7, 13).

I think deacon Philip would do the same today. Not either/or, but both/and. The Danger Can Be Applied to Many Other Things One of the reasons I think he would is that not praying for supernatural healing and deliverance and guidance does not solve the problem of fixating on the pointing finger. Suppose the finger pointing to Jesus is a sermon. Do not many people just talk about the sermon instead looking at the reality?

Or suppose the finger is a children's musical pointing to the need to stay on the narrow road and persevere in faith and trust the God who is always there and love the weakest members of the body. Do most people go home dwelling on these things or do we talk most about all the work and the memorizing and good acting? Or suppose the finger pointing to Jesus is a choir anthem or a drama from the Refreshment Committee or a tract called "Quest for Joy" or a book called The Pleasures of God. Are any of those pointers immune from attracting attention to themselves instead of to Jesus?

In fact I would suggest that if we could rank all the pointers to Jesus today—sermons, tracts, anthems, musicals, drama, books, signs and wonders, etc.—with those at the top that attract least attention to themselves and most to Jesus, and those at the bottom that attract most attention to themselves and least to Jesus, I don't think signs and wonders would be at the bottom. Perhaps not at the top either. That's not the point.

The point is this: when we hear the warning about the danger of signs and wonders, let's be fair and realize it applies to every form of Christian witness. Which means that whether we preach or sing or act or write or heal, we are utterly and desperately dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit to straighten crooked hearts and cause people to look away from us to Jesus who alone can save.