Guarding Against Frauds

Introduction

April’s story about missing federal jury duty...

We’ve grown accustom to fraudsters today in our society. In fact, I rarely answer the phone anymore unless I know the number on my caller ID.

But how do we as the church guard against frauds?

Jeff Iorg’s take home tests...

Dr. Iorg’s point was ministry is an easy place to cheat people because they church tends to trust leaders and most people don’t know what happens week in and week out at the church.

So, how is the church to guard against frauds? Frauds in leadership, but also other frauds within the church who would take the church off-course.

We can learn about guarding the church against frauds from our next passage of Scripture in the book of Acts.

Body: Acts 8:9-25

Verses 9-11

Samaria’s faith before the introduction of the Gospel could be defined as superstition, occult, and/or naivety.

Apparently they followed a man named Simon who they believed had special spiritual powers and could perform miracles.

In fact, he was a trickster, no different than illusionist today.

He was also arrogant and self-assured, something that is of key importance to understanding this entire passage.

Verses 12-13

After the Gospel was preached and after the people saw true miracles, they turned from their faith in Simon and turned, instead, to faith in Jesus.

The text shares, shockingly, that even Simon believed and was baptized.

All seems good, right? Not so fast!

Verses 14-17

Wait a minute! I thought that people received the HS when they trusted Jesus as Savior? How could these people have believed, but not received the HS until after the apostles laid hands on them?

Frankly, this is a difficult passage of Scripture to grasp theologically.

At the outset, it is important to see the movement of the Holy Spirit holistically throughout the book of Acts and not simply look at one story and build our theology on that alone. Why do I say that?

Because throughout the book of Acts, people receive the HS in different ways and under different circumstances. There isn’t really one way people received the HS.

With that out of the way, let’s look at some possible interpretations of this passage:

Reflects the weakness in Philip’s preaching.

This interpretation is that the Samaritans hadn’t genuinely believed until Peter and John (true apostles) showed up because Philip wasn’t a great preacher (i.e. something was lacking in his presentation).

This interpretation goes against the presentation of Philip in Acts and should be rejected.

Example of what is called the “Second blessing.”

Charismatic groups believe that the gift of the HS comes as a second blessing sometime after conversion, and is usually evidenced by the gift of tongues.

But what about those situations where no second blessing is implied in the text? Or when one is not gifted the gift of tongues? (Also, remember, the vast majority of instances of tongues in the NT is tongues for evangelistic purposes.)

Confirmation or release of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life

This view holds that all receive the Spirit at their conversion (Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”), but a release of the HS had not occurred yet. (i.e. believers should daily ask for the filling of the Spirit; daily ask for more of God to be released in their Christian lives.)

Confidence builder for the Jerusalem Jews.

This interpretation is that it gave the Jews back in Jerusalem confidence (via Peter & John) that the outcast Samaritans were indeed being converted.

This is the view I subscribe to. The reason being, the Jewish Christians needed to understand, and see for themselves the moving the the HS in the lives on the Samaritans (and later the Gentiles) before they would recognize the legitimacy of their conversion.

Verses 18-24

Simon wants to “buy in” to the power of the apostles. He wants to be, essentially, an apostle. But not to bring the Gospel to people, but so he can regain some of the power he had before Philip arrived.

Was Simon saved and lost his salvation? Was he saved, but was backsliding in his faith? Was he never really saved in the first place

The church fathers believed this Simon was Simon Magus, a sorcerer who is frequently mentioned in ancient writings outside of the Bible. Simon Magus became an archenemy of the church and one of the leaders of the Gnostic heresy.

Gnosticism taught that a person gains salvation not by the merit of Christ’s death for sinners, but by special knowledge about God.

So back to Simon’s salvation, it’s important to recognize that we don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that Simon is not a good example of how a believer and follower of Christ should behave. His motive, self-aggrandizement and greed, are deadly poisons that will destroy one’s walk with Christ, if they legitimately have one.

So, regardless of Simon’s salvation (which doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things to anyone other than Simon), his is an example to avoid, regardless.

As for his salvation, I’d break it down like this:

Someone who leans more Arminian in their theology would say likely say yes, but that he lost his salvation.

Someone who leans more Calvinists would say he was saved and couldn’t lose it despite his actions or that he was never really saved in the first place.

As for me, I believe Simon wasn’t really ever a true “believer” in the first place.

I believe his faith in verse 13 as a superficial belief, not a true conversion experience. (Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” or in the Parable of the Sower: Matthew 13:20–21 “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”)

If Luke would have ended things at verse 13, then I would have to believe he was truly saved. However, the proof of conversion is as much matter of time, not simply testimony.

As the old time preachers would say, he was “a professor, not a possessor.”

I believe Simon, being a magician, was taken in by the signs and not the message itself. We see here that he saw the ability to give the Holy Spirit as a power that he needed to have to further himself.

Thus, he tries to buy the HS.

Was Simon’s repentance legitimate?

I certainly hope so, but honestly I don’t believe that it was. Look at what he is concerned with: the consequences of his actions, not the offense against God that his actions were.

True repentance is recognizing one’s sins against God and genuinely being sorry to God for sinning against Him.

I don’t believe we see this in Simon.

Verse 25

It’s fascinating that Peter and John preach in various places in Samaria, since they were the most likely to have a bias against the Samaritans.

Notice that old walls were crumbling and prejudices were being overcome. Peter and John, two Jewish men were now taking the Good News to the Samaritans as they headed back to Jerusalem.

Today, most people in the church endorse the idea of reaching out to people with the Gospel, but fail to participate…

The Jerusalem Jewish believers were not simply endorsing the ministry to the Samaritans (a big deal in itself) but they were actually participating in it!

So What?

How does the church guard itself against frauds?

Continually preach and teach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church must be convinced that Jesus left us with one message: the Gospel. And we must keep the Gospel at the center of what we do as a church.

Not a watered down version of the Gospel for modern audiences...

Not a soften version of the Gospel that leaves out the “sin” and “guilt”...

The Gospel ought to be at the heart of everything we do as a church...(preaching the Gospel, teaching the Gospel, living out the Gospel)

Anyone who comes into the church that takes the church’s eyes off the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a fraud and ought to be disciplined or removed from the fellowship! (That’s pretty harsh Pastor Ben! Yep. But, what’s harsher than that: the church being poisoned and eventually dying because of that poison!)

Examine people according to the impact the Gospel has in someone’s life:

This is true of leaders, but also the laity.

Three questions I find in this passage:

Is there clear evidence of the Holy Spirit’s activity in the person’s life?

Can I actually see evidence of being led by the Spirit in this person’s life?

Christian leadership is only Christian leadership when it is spirit-led.

Does the person’s actions reflect God’s agenda or a personal agenda?

Our personal agendas seep into most places in our lives. However, particularly for our Christian leaders, do we see this person working towards God’s biblical agenda?

Does a person admit specific sin against God and man?

Here’s a biggie: if a man or woman cannot admit sin, they are probably not legitimately a follower of Christ Jesus.

Admitting sin is one of the first steps of becoming a believer.

I’d take it one step further: if we cannot admit specific sins, then we probably aren’t legitimately confessing our sins.

It’s just too easy to make blanket statements about sin and then move on. We must be specific about our sin.