Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Introduction.

I have entitled this sermon, ‘misunderstanding the gospel,’ because that’s what the passage is about.

And what we’re going to see is that misunderstandings can be catastrophic, as it in in this case.

Of course they can also be hilarious.

For example - take a look at this sign...

[Show picture of sign]

This is a sign in Wales, where the signs are in both English and Welsh.

And the person who whote the sign, sent the English text to their translator to get the Welsh translation of the sign.

However, the translator was out of the office, and had set up his email to automatically respond with an ‘i’m out of the office’ message.

So when the email was sent, asking for the translation, the reply came back…in Welsh...

I am not in the office at the moment.

Send any work to be translated.

But because it was in Welsh, the designer of the sign didn’t understand it and thought that what he received was the Welsh translation for the sign.

And that’s what the bottom part of the sign says.

So the top of the sign says, ‘no entry for heavy good vehicles.

Residential site only.’

And the bottom of the sign says, ‘I am not in the office at the moment.

Send any work to be translated.’

A misunderstanding, kinda…but not terribly consequential...

Pause

However, there is another misunderstanding that I want to share with you…and the results were not so great...

There was a case where a patient who was diagnosed with diabetes, was taught how to inject themselves with insulin.

So they were shown how to inject the insulin into an orange.

So the patient went away and then was readmitted a couple of days later with dangerously high blood-sugar levels.

Turns out the patient went home and thought they had to inject the orange with insulin and then eat the orange.

And of course that shot their blood sugars way up to dangerous levels.

Pause

Misunderstandings can have serious consequences.

And we’re going to see an example of this today.

However, have you ever stopped to wonder how a misunderstanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ could have serious consequences?

In our passage today, we have that very issue...of a man who completely misunderstood the gospel of Jesus Christ - and at the end, we’re left without knowing whether or not he corrected his views.

Pause

So what’s happening in this passage?

Well, what’s happening is that in Samaria, there is this guy named Simon, who has magic powers.

Now, when we hear, ‘magic powers,’ we think Harry Potter, science fiction stuff and we think that this stuff is for the movies and it’s real.

This guy, Simon is under the influence of Satan, who is giving him the powers to do supernatural things in order to wow the people in this city in Samaria and lead them away from the true gospel.

And this stuff is real.

Only a couple of weeks ago I heard about a person who used to be a witch.

She was a charmer and was under Satanic power - she came to faith and was freed from this demon.

But she said that when she was walking down the street, she could spot Christians because they glowed.

Now, I don’t know what you make of that, but regardless - Satan’s power is real and it is supernatural…and this man Simon had it.

And everyone in this city in Samaria loved him.

In fact they thought he was the manifestation of a god’s power - and the way the Greek is here, Simon would have called himself this too.

He was in the limelight because he could do stuff that nobody else could do.

And he loved it.

However, as we saw last week...as a result of the persecution of the church in Jerusalem, the Christians are scattered to Judea and Samaria..and Philip goes to this city and HE performs signs and works of power that is BETTER than Simons, under the power of the Spirit.

And as a result of Philip’s preaching the miracles that he does, many believe in Jesus Christ, are baptised.

And also, people are healed and demons are being released from those inflicted…Simon perhaps being one of them.

Becuase verse 9 says...

Simon had PREVIOUSLY practiced magic in the city.

So, in my understanding of the text, when Philip casts out the demons, it looks like Simon lost his power and his magic, because he’s not practising magic anymore, because the demon has left him and it’s the demon that is giving him the magic power…it can come from nowhere else.

Pause

But Simon believes in Jesus (verse 13) and he hangs around Philip and is amazed at the power that Philip has...

So you can see what’s coming here...

Simon used to amaze people with his magic - he was considered a god.

Now that power is gone and he sees Philip with this amazing power.

He latches onto him and it’s like you can see his envy of Philip and his power.

Pause

And then the apostles come from Jerusalem because they hear that Samaria have heard the word of God.

So they come down and lay hands on them becuase they haven’t yet received the Holy Spirit.

Now, we need to very quickly highlight something for a second…when you become a Christian, you immeditaely receive the Holy Spirit.

There’s no delay.

There’s no second baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And this is confirmed later in Acts when we see the immediate coming of the Holy Spirit when Peter is with Cornelius.

So what’s happening here?

Why the delay?

Well, the Samaritans are a separate group of people who worship the same God as the Jews, but in a different way.

And the scholars think that this delay is to show the Samaritans tha their church and their faith is now legitimate because it has been santioned by the Jerusalem church.

In other words - God delayed his Spirit coming so that the Samraitans, who were previously cast aside by the Jews, could be officially welcomed into the Church as a legitimate Church through their faith in Jesus Christ.

So just a reminder that this is not the normal way things happen.

This was a one-off event.

Pause

But when the apostles get to this city in Samaria, they lay hands on those who had believed and were baptised and these guys receive the Holy Spirit.

And this reception of the Holy Spirit must have been something like what happened at Pentecost, becasue Simon wanted a piece of this action.

And you can see the cogs turning in Simon’s heads… “If I lay my hands on people and be able to make all this amzing stuff happen, then people will think I’m a god again.

I want this power because I want this recognition… Hey Peter, how much for this power?”

...

And Peter rebukes him, because his heart hadn’t changed at all.

And the scholars say that Simon was more intrigued by the signs and wonders of Philip than by the message he preached.

And what did Philip preach?

Philip preached about Jesus and what it meant to be part of the kingdom of God.

And it looks like Simon wasn’t paying attention to that - his eyes were just glazed over at the signs and wonders.

And so it looks like Simon believed just so that he could get a piece of this miracle-action.

And that becomes evident when he offers to pay Peter and John for this gift of God.

And notice how he is misguided.

Notice how he has misunderstood the gospel.

Look at what Simon says...

There’s no mention of faith.

There’s no mention of believing in Jesus.

There’s no mention of repentance.

All Simon wants to do is go around touching people and seeing this amazing stuff happen.

His motives are wrong.

His heart is wrong…He has misunderstood the gospel and, as Peter says - he’s destined for destruction.

Pause

Now, at this point, it looks like Simon has seen the error of his ways…because his repsonse is this...

But Luke has deliberately left it ambiguous.

On one hand, Simon is perhaps repenting and asking for forgiveness for his misguided thoughts.

On the other hand, Simon only wants to escape the bad stuff that Peter says will happen to him.

And many of the commentators that I looked at said that Simon wasn’t truly repentent - he just didn’t want to be punished for his sin.

And that made me wonder....