All Flash, No Sizzle

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist church. Our church exists by grace for glory in love.

This week, I learned a name that was new to me but some of you may be familiar with it, Elmer Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler was born in 1903 and Started his working career as a reporter. He lost his job during the Great Depression of 1929 which led him to become a salesman. And he was great at it! He would go on in his career to consult for Coca-Cola, Ford, Macy’s, and General Electric, helping them refine their sales pitches to better connect with consumers. Even though Wheeler’s name isn’t widely recognized today, his principles live on in everything from Super Bowl commercials to online marketing strategies.

Wheeler spent a large portion of his career writing books and coaching salesmen through speaking engagements. One of the key principles Mr. Elmer would teach salesman was “Don’t sell the steak—sell the sizzle.” In an interview he once said:

“It’s no so much what you want to say, as what the customer wants to hear that makes sales.”

He explained his principle, “Don’t sell the steak—sell the sizzle” like this, “It’s the sizzle that sells the steak and not the cow. Hidden in everything you sell in life there’s a sizzle. The sizzle is the tang in the cheese. The crunch in the cracker. The whiff in the coffee, and the pucker in the pickle.”

Now, I don’t know anything about the personal life of Mr. Wheeler, but I know from his work that his approach to sales was emphasizing benefits over features. The product wasn’t near as important as making people think they need it…whether they really do or not.

And, maybe thanks to Mr. Wheeler, that is how it goes in the sales world. 10 years ago I was a sales representative for a cell phone company. Part of our monthly goals were based on selling a certain amount of low-end tablets. These tablets were not very good. They could be used, but they had their problems. Now, as a salesman, I wanted to be honest so I would try to explain the devices limitations, but if I’m being honest with you all this morning, I did not spend too much time highlighting the shortcomings of these tablets. I focused on the sizzle. On the portability. On how their small size meant they were easy to travel with. On the simplicity of the interface.

And not every time, but sometimes, it worked! I’d sell a tablet! I’d hit my goals! It always felt great. But unfortunately for me, pretty often within the 14 day window, my customers would return the tablet. I may have sold them on the sizzle, but it turned out to be a pretty bad steak and they weren’t going to keep it.

When it comes to sales, theres nothing inherently wrong with promoting a product’s sizzle. However there IS a problem when the sizzle sold doesn’t match the product. This has been come to be known by the phrase you may be familiar with, “All flash, no sizzle.” It’s the play of the con-man. Making something sound good, knowing full and well that the product doesn’t back it up.

We can all recognize this in the world of sales. Maybe you’ve been sold a lemon vehicle before. Or bought a set of encyclopedias you never used.

While its never fun to feel that you have been taken advantage of, there is a deadly application of this concept when it is intermingled with religion.

With this in mind, open your Bibles, if you have not already, to Acts 8. Today we will be looking at a man named Simon the Magician. He was a religious figure of sorts and he was in Samaria during the time of the early church. And Simon has a problem. He’s all flash, no sizzle. His approach to religious concepts is the same. This morning we will see that true faith in God isn’t based upon gimmicks and fancy features. Rather, faith in God is rooted in the absolute truth of His goodness and grace. Let’s begin looking at Acts 8:9-13.

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.

All Sizzle

So let’s break down the scene. We have this man named Simon we’ve come to know this figure as Simon the Magician. If you remember back to last week, Philip has been sent out of Jerusalem to Samaria and is there preaching the gospel to anyone and everyone who would listen. Philip was the predominant Christian voice, but as we all know, Christianity isn’t the only form of spirituality being proclaimed in our world. The text this morning lets us know that before Philip ever got to Samaria, Simon the magician had already been there. He was amazing the people with his magic. Now in our culture, we tend to view magicians as a source of entertainment. I like to do card tricks myself. The people of Samaria were certainly entertained by Simon. We see in verse 11, “they paid attention to him [Simon] because for a long time he had AMAZED them with his magic.” Simon had captivated his audience.

Now, we have to ask ourselves, what exactly was Simon doing? We aren’t given a big description other than that he was practicing magic. In our context, we know that the magicians who fill the theatres in Vegas are doing optical illusions. That is, they make you think something spectacular is happening while there is a reasonable, rational explanation. There are hidden chambers where the assistant hides that make you think they disappeared. The coin is hidden in the palm of the hand. They are certified, entertaining tricksters. All flash, no real sizzle.

It is possible that Simon was doing simple, practical illusions. But the text lends itself to something else. that phrase “practicing magic” in verse 9, isn’t referring to pranks or tricks, but rather what we call “black magic.” Now, this is uncomfortable for us to think about in our current cultural context, but I would suggest to you that Simon was doing what we consider legitimate magic. That is supernatural acts that extend beyond the limits of normal human trickery. “Pastor Brad, you sound crazy.” Here me out, there is biblical precedent. When Moses and Aaron went before the Pharoah God granted Aaron the ability to throw down his staff and have it turn into a serpent. Pharoah then had his own sorcerers do the same things as it says in Exodus 7, “by their secret arts.” Later, the Israelites are warned to stay away from all kinds of witchcraft. King Saul would seek out the witch or the medium of Endor. King Nebechanezzer had a whole council of magicians. That’s just a few examples, then you get to the New Testament and we see in Mark 5, a man living in the tombs who was so supernaturally strong that “no one could bind him, not even with a chain. … He broke the shackles to pieces.” We find in Mark 5 that that man was possessed by demons and that the possession was what gave him such power.

My point in this brief biblical survey is that there is reason, even from the perspective of grounded, conservative biblical to recognize that there is real, supernatural magic in this world, even if we think ourselves above it in our position of modernity. Sometimes it looks scary like the possessed man by the tombs in Mark 5. Other times it is enticing and celebrated like Pharoah and Nebechanezzer having mystical advisors, or in our case this morning, Simon amazing an entire city with however it was that this power manifested. And I would suggest to you that all forms of this sorcery, black magic, these dark arts if you would are ultimately demonic in origin. There is a clue that we see that in our text this morning.

Look again to verse 10. The whole town paid attention to Simon and said, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” And yet later in this section we see that while Simon was amazing the masses, he had no understanding of the gospel prior to Philip coming and preaching. He was received as an agent of God when he had no understanding of the True God.

The point for all us to understand is that even if the means are different, this is still a play of the devil today!

“Adrian Rogers gives an interesting True/False question - Satan is against religion - true or false? FALSE! Satan is not opposed to religion. He is in the religion business up to his ears. The first temptation [in the garden] was a religious one - to be like God. "Let me tell you how to be godly." It was a temptation to fall up, not down. Satan's chief weapon against the Gospel is false religion. God has been working in revival power and now there comes a conflict (Acts 8:8-9). There was great joy in that city. Heaven comes down and glory fills the soul. Revival brings joy and it also brings opposition. If you have never met the devil, it's because you and the devil have been going in the same direction. Satan's chief weapon against the Gospel is false religion.”

We’ll see this play out more in the end portion of our text this morning, but Simon was knee-deep in a spiritual mess that was appealing to others, even had some sizzle! with the seemingly amazing magic Simon wielded along the way.

But here’s the problem with sizzle, sizzle may be appealing in the moment, but you’ll ultimately be unsatisfied if the sizzle is coming from a bad steak. If you aren’t tracking with that metaphor my daddy used to say, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” You can be sold on all the best features of a product but when you open the box it still has to work.

Simon the magician had the crowds hooked on flash, razzle dazzle, and even legitimate magic. But the product he was was selling was nothing but a bill of goods.

Then we get to verse 12 and Philip enters the seem. Philip had some sizzle. We read in in verses 6-8 last week that there were some incredible things happening when Philip and the rest of the Christians came into Samaria, healings, casted out demons, signs galore. But all of that sizzle was pointing to the even better steak. Read verse 12 again with me. Acts 8:12 “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.”

Signs and wonders are great. But we can see in our story this morning that they aren’t trustworthy. Your faith ought not to be rooted in a particular experience or amazing thing you have seen. Your faith ought to be rooted in the particular person of Jesus Christ! They believed AS Philip preached. As they heard of what the God-Man Jesus Christ had done to pay the cost of their sins and defeat death on their behalf, they believed in the Lord! Many in the area were saved! They show their faith by being baptized. An outward expression of the inward faith they now hold that Jesus did for them what they could never do on their own, what no mystical experience in and of itself could accomplish. “Here is the important point - the faith of the Samaritans was not in the signs but in the Savior.”

Dear hearer of this message this morning, when you think about your faith, what is it in? Is it rooted in an experience? Is it in something unexplainable you witnessed sometime a long the way? Is it in a time when you got caught up in an emotional swing? OR is it in the unshakeable, unchanging good news and reality that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again so that all who believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life?

Here me rightly here, God may very well use an experience, something unexplainable, or an emotional response as an aspect of opening your eyes to your need for Christ. But your faith never ought to be in THOSE THINGS, in the sizzle. Your faith must be in the meat of God’s Word, the reality that Christ is THE Savior and Christ is YOUR Savior.

Many in Samaria were coming to that understanding in our text this morning, verse 13 suggests that even Simon may be beginning to understand the gospel. The Apostles back in Jerusalem here about all the Sizzle happening where Philip is preaching, so they come down to see if there’s good steak behind the sizzle. Check out the next section with me.

We read in verse 13

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.

Quality Check

What we’re seeing in this section is a good ole quality check. We see this all the time in good businesses. High ranking officials go to check out a new branch to ensure that the quality of what it is happening there is up to the standards set. That is similar to what is happening right here in our text. Word had made its way back to Jerusalem about all the incredible thing that were happening in Samaria. This is the first time in the history of the church that the complete gospel has been preached and received outside of Jerusalem. And so the Apostles, as leaders, wanted to come down to make sure that everything was legitimate. They know that true salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ and they wanted to make sure that everything was legitimate.

As a quick point of application, it is not unloving to check in our brothers and sisters and help them gauge where they are at in their relationship with God. It’s not unloving for churches to check in on other churches they have a relationship with. Holding one another accountable in faith and practice is God-honoring and a fruit of the gospel.

The Apostles weren’t coming down there with a negative intention of tearing down this fledgling group of believers. They wanted to encourage them. Remember that the Samaritans had been at odds with the Jews. There was cultural separation and contention. Back in Luke 9, John, the same John now coming to confirm this group of believers, had asked if Jesus should destroy a group of Samaritans. Now, he comes as an apostle and an encourager, showing the unity that can only exist because the gospel of Jesus extends beyond cultural boundaries.

And the Apostles, John and Peter, are excited by what they find! They pray for these people and lay on hands that they would receive the Holy Spirit. Now there is a lot of wonky theology that can come from a misinterpretation of verses 15-17 here. To try to sum it up briefly, some suggest that this passage Christians regularly have this second experience of the Holy Spirit that is separate from professing faith. Others say that these Samaritans didn’t really believe until the apostles got there. But there is a simpler solution. It is to remember that Acts is a history book of the early church and that not everything is a direct command for regular practice in the church going forward. We don’t ever see the Apostles being called in to confirm and give the Holy Spirit to another group as the gospel continues to go out throughout the rest of Acts. This is a unique case of the gospel’s first movement beyond Jerusalem since Christ’s Ascension, and God sovereignly waited to give the Spirit until the apostles could be there to witness it. Now the Apostles could go back to Jerusalem and testify that the Samaritans were given the same Holy Spirit that the Jewish Christians had in Jerusalem. Bitter enemies were now brothers and sisters in Christ, members of the same household of faith. “The Jerusalem believers had received the Spirit at Pentecost, and now, at the proper time, apostles were there to witness and welcome the incorporation of the Samaritan believers into God’s church. This confirmation was not a lack of faith on the Samaritans side or an addition step we all must go through to receive salvation. It was a gift of God to help these believers be united in the further promotion of the Gospel.

But not everything happening in Samaria could be affirmed by the Apostles. Look with me at the final section of our text this morning verses 18-25.

Acts 8:18–25 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.” 25 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.

The Real Steak

If Simon’s story had ended for us at verse 13 we would have a pretty picture. We read that Simon himself believed, we was baptized and amazed by the great miracles he saw. However, given his interaction with the apostles, it is within reason to assume that Simon’s profession in verse 13 was a false profession. Simon’s first instinct in watching the Apostles was to try to purchase the power for his own benefit. Now, believers are not perfect. Not a one of us in this room could claim we have never sought our benefit a single time since coming to faith. What is more indicative of Simon’s lack of true faith in this case is that the apostles tell him his heart is not right before God in verse 20. Simon had seen the sizzle and bought the hype, but never ate the steak. He didn’t want the real Christ, just the glory that went along with it.

You could say, but Pastor Brad, verse 13 said Simon believed. No argument there, nor am I trying to make receipt of the gospel have any additional steps. But I want you to make a note in your bibles to reference back to John 2:23 and 24. You’ll see that same greek word rendered belief used for this: John 2:23–24 “23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people” The people in John 2 saw the mighty miracles that Jesus did. They believed in His power to do those things. Seeing the signs and believing that Jesus did them are a great start, but while they believed that Jesus was great, they were not entrusted to Christ because they saw Him for His miracles, not for the Savior they needed to be reconciled to God. It says that Christ saw their hearts, he knew what was in man. And they had not repented of their sins and believed in Christ. They had simply appreciated the power of Christ, not the significance of Christ. This is the same as to what happened in our story this morning with Simon.

One Pastor shared this Illustration of Simon's Error - he said 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.”

There are a couple of big applications we have to pick up on from the story of Simon this morning.

First we have to recognize that Philip baptized Simon. This a reminder that works, acts, even following the Lord’s command in being baptized is not the means or assurance of salvation. Our relationship with the Lord is not something that can be transferred through taking a plunge in the pool. We should also note that until that run in with the apostles, there were no red flags about Simon to make Philip doubt his profession. People can say all of the right things and pronounce biblical truth without possessing a contrite heart that bows at the feet of Jesus. This means that we do not find the assurance of our faith in the fact that we have been baptized nor in our membership in a local church.

This also means that as a church, none of us being the Holy Spirit, can assume that people are always genuine when they make a profession of faith. Recently a video has spread online of a church that was beginning their service with a baptism and when the pastor asked the person being baptized if they believed in Jesus as their Savior the man said, “I am Jesus.” This man had gone through classes and conversations and never given reason prior for the church to present him for baptism. It turned out that he had been hiding his true intentions until he was able to make a scene in the service. But this shouldn’t cause the church to be gun shy in baptizing people, it just means that as individuals we will all give account for our lives before God. If we as a church are doing what is best within our abilities to point others to Christ and help them live in obedience, it’s not us who are going to be the fools in the long run. Even in this case with Simon, the Apostles rebuke him, but they don’t stop preaching the gospel and seeking others to make professions. Verse 25 says they kept preaching to many villages in Samaria on their way back to Jerusalem.

Now, having said all of this, it can be easy to look at this story of Simon and come away fearful. You might begin to doubt your own salvation. If that’s you this morning, I want to show you two things that Simon was missing so to help you understand where you are before God.

First, in verse 22, we see that Simon is called to repent. To turn away from his wicked ways. Repentance is the other side of the coin of faith with true believe. Meaning they are two sides of the same action. When you believe that Christ is YOUR Savior who is the only one capable to save you, you are simultaneously seeing the ugliness of your own sin in comparison to the beauty of Christ. As you turn to Christ, you turn away from your sin. This doesn’t mean that you never falter and sin again in your life, but it does mean that you see the ugliness of your sin and when it is exposed, you reject it. The christian life is a life of daily repentance. So, do you repent of your sins?

Second, still in verse 22, the apostles tell Simon to pray to the Lord, that he may be forgiven. As you walk through the next verses you see that Simon is a little shocked by the apostles statements. He doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. But Simon is unconcerned with his own need for repentance. He isn’t bothered enough to call out to God and pray on his own. In his mind he wants these “magical” apostles to do everything for him. He doesn’t even desire to go to God himself in prayer. So, for us, do we humbly and boldly desire to go to God, bringing our burdens, our praises, and yes even our repentance to Him in prayer?

If you see your need for the Savior and desire to be near to Him, not using Him for what He can do for you, but serving Him because of what He has done for you, you don’t need to doubt your salvation.

Matthew Henry wrote this prayer, “Grant us, Lord, another sort of faith than that which made Simon wonder [over power] only, and did not sanctify his heart. May we abhor all thoughts of making religion serve the purpose of pride or ambition. And keep us from the subtle poison of spiritual pride, which seeks glory to itself even from humility. May we seek only the honour which cometh from God.”

I’ll say it like this, may we not be so caught up in chasing the sizzle that we don’t eat the steak.

If you have questions, concerns, or desire any guidance in searching your heart, in knowing your own position before God, we’re going to have a time of response during this next hymn. Don’t delay. Come forward I’ll listen, I’ll pray, and together we’ll do everything we can do to glorify the God who loved us enough to die for our sins, to spur our repentance, and seal us for glory.

Respond today.

Let’s pray.