Sermon Tone Analysis

I want to begin a short series called The World of Knockoffs.

When anything from food, clothing, movies, technology gains popularity, then some version of a knockoff is created to profit off of its counterpart’s successes.

Usually a logo is similar but changed just a bit.

For example, in China you can enjoy Sunbucks Coffee instead of Starbucks.

Same color scheme in the logo but a slight alteration.

Maybe as a kid, your mom served you the cheaper Fruit Rings instead of Fruit Loops.

These knockoffs are harmless, but they are those that are much more dangerous.

Our enemy, the devil is a deceiver, and his primary goal is to deceive people in their understanding of and in a relationship with their Creator.

His deceptions come in the form of spiritual knockoffs that I want to cover for the next few weeks.

Our first message this afternoon looks at False Conversions.

Rapport-

Aaron Dallas, in Colorado and a strange medical condition he discovered.

He developed headaches and sores on his head.

Ignored his symptoms for a while until he started finding blood on his pillow and loss of sleep.

Went to Dr. –said it was shingles Problems persisted, bleeding and intense pain.

Aaron thought he was going crazy because he said he could hear and feel something moving in his head.

2nd Dr. Visit- confirmed that it was not shingles, but 5 botfly larvae were living the life of a parasite, with his head as the host.

As disgusting as that may sound, there is a spiritual lesson that can be applied today.

This man, Aaron, at first ignored his symptoms, but the evidence that something was wrong was overwhelming and that led him to seek professional help.

His first diagnosis-Shingles.

Still feeling something was wrong, he got examined by a specialist and the truth was realized- he was hosting a party for five parasitic botflys in his head.

I wonder how many people are in the church today that are ignoring the physical evidence in their life that something is wrong with them.

It is not a physical problem, but a spiritual one.

The signs and evidence in their life points to one thing- they are not truly saved.

Christ is not Lord of their life and if they died, they would spend eternity in hell.

These condemned souls have experienced false conversion.

They said all the right prayers, they walked down the aisle, they participated in church, sang in the choir, but yet they are not truly saved.

They may even be like Aaron, our Botfly guy, who got help concerning their problem from a professional, in this case a pastor, but they were misdiagnosed- or given assurance of their salvation when there was never true faith in Christ Jesus.

God’s word gives compelling evidence that false conversion is a reality.

In Matthew 7, when Jesus warned his disciples that false conversion is a reality among people in the church.

I always thought of these false prophets as intentionally trying to deceive the masses with their false gospels and their wicked lies.

I am not denying that they are a deception but I think a lot of them actually are deceived by Satan into believing that they are proclaiming truth.

Here is why I think that!

Now this shows me that on the day that we stand before Jesus, many will be SURPRISED that they are not making it into heaven.

If these people whom Jesus is referring are proclaiming the gospel, and performing ministry, and yet at judgment, they discover they are not truly saved, then what about the people in churches who just claim to love Christ yet do not the things that he says.

How many of us in here tonight will be surprised to find out that we will not make it into heaven because we were not truly saved?

On the day of judgment, there will be some who claim to be Christians who will be turned away from God’s kingdom.

They will be like counterfeit money when it reaches the bank.

Suppose you are given a counterfeit bill in change at the store.

Thinking it is genuine, you use it to pay for some gas.

The station owner uses it to pay one of his employees, who uses it to buy groceries.

From there it goes to the bank where the teller says, “I’m sorry, but this bill is counterfeit.”

The bill may have been used to do a lot of good while it was in circulation, but when it arrived at the bank, it was exposed for what it really was and put out of circulation.

A counterfeit Christian may do many good works, but still be rejected at the gates of judgment.

In our passage today, we will see a sad example of a man who I believe was one who looked on the outside like one professing faith in Jesus Christ but inwardly was never truly converted.

His story serves the church as a warning to examine ourselves and makes sure we are in the faith.

Let me share with you 4 OBSERVATIONS ABOUT FALSE CONVERSIONS

A WORK OF THE ENEMY

Let me give you some background to this passage so you will know what is going on in the history of the church.

Acts is all about the power of the Holy Spirit and the use of the Holy Spirit’s power through the Apostles and the church to spread the gospel message or the good news of Christ Jesus all over the world.

Jesus leaves earth to go to heaven, sending out his disciples who are now called apostles, which means sent out ones, with the commands:

Now I want you to see in this introduction, how the sovereign power and rule of God is never absent or void- it is always active always working to fulfill the will of God.

We can see this in the story of Acts as the Holy Spirit falls upon the apostles in Acts 2 and through that manifested power, and the gospel proclaimed, thousands of Jews were saved and the Christian church began.

But with this work of the Spirit in the world, comes great opposition to that transformative change.

From Acts 2 up until Acts 8, where our passages tonight, the gospel and its messengers have focused strategically upon the area of Jerusalem where many of the Jews were populated.From chapter 8 we can see three areas of spiritual darkness at work that is combated and defeated by the light and power of God working through the church.

1.

As Saul is persecuting the church, we know that Satan is behind such evil acts of hatred and violence.

He tries to exterminate God’s people by throwing them into prison and even killing them.

When Stephen is stoned at the end of chapter 7, verse 8:1 tells us that Saul approved of his execution.

Satan wants to destroy God’s people and he uses those who are enslaved to sin to carry out his purposes.

But we know that while Saul experienced limited victories, we know the rest of the story as to how the Lord gained victory.

Through the persecutions, the church grew rapidly as they scattered.

Also, the Lord himself calls the enemy of the church to salvation, and makes him the chief ambassador for the gospel.

Saul’s conversion to Christ and his name being changed to Paul is a display that of the power of Christ’s work over the enemy of God.

2. Notice also the ministry of Philip in verses 4-8.

As Philip heads to Samaria to preach, he encounters a heavy era of demon possession.

Verse 7 tells us that the people of Samaria were greatly influenced by demons and with the preaching of the gospel, great liberation came where demons had seized and even crippled the people there.

Satan not only influenced people through their own sin to corrupt the gospel and attack the church, but he literally sends forth his demons to possess unbelievers to do his bidding.

We should not assume that his strategy has changed in our time of history.

Although the time of Christ and the early church seemed to experienced an unusual amount of demon possession, there is no reason to believe that Satan has ceased from such combative actions against the gospel and God’s people.

3. Finally it makes sense, that the story of Simon Magnus in our passage of study today also represents a strategy of Satan to attack the church.

But his attack is not a bold persecution of the church or the possession of humans by Satan’s minions.

Instead, it is subtle, sly and sneaky

His sly playbook of attack comes in the form of alternative beliefs about god.

For Samaria, they were amazed by the power that Simon displayed while practicing magic.

Their belief of Simon was that he possessed the “great power of god.”

He proved to them his power by performing magic that amazed them.

Pay special attention to that word AMAZED for we will see it again.

It is used twice in v 9 and v11 as a quality of the people in relationship with Simon.

This magic, we can assume is not simple card tricks with the slight of hand.

It is best believed that this is the occult practices which include incantations, spells, and witchcraft of some kind.

History shows that many of the nations that influenced Israel in the OT and NT practiced occult magic and worship.

Just in the book of Acts alone we see three scenarios including this one:

In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas arrive on their missionary journey to the island of Cyprus where they encounter a magician named Eylmas who opposed the preaching of God’s word.

Paul calls this magician a “son of the devil and enemy of all righteousness.”

With God’s power the magician was blinded to show God’s defeat over evil.

Notice Paul’s identification as this magician as a “son of the devil and enemy of all righteousness.”

Magic is still practiced in our day and it is an outworking of the evil of our enemy the devil.

Hollywood and media try to normalize such things as fun and entertaining but behind magic is Satan himself laughing at those he ensnares under the ruse of harmless fun.

In Acts 19, Paul was ministering and teaching in Ephesus where he encountered demon possessed people.

When he showed the power of God over evil among the people, a great act of personal repentance swept across the city.

Among that repentance were people who practiced magic and upon coming to know Christ, burned their books of magic arts.

These two accounts, plus our study today show us the great influence of magic in the world of the early church.

This is by far not a David Copperfield illusionist account but instead a meddling in the evil practices of Satan’s schemes of robbing God of the glory due to his name.

I believe these verses including our story today show us that Satan wants to deceive people into believing that they are truly saved when they are really NOT!

He DOES NOT want people to turn to the difficult road of making Christ Lord over all our lives…time, money, families, aspirations etc.

He DOES NOT want people to turn from their sin that offends a holy God.

He DOES want people to believe in an inclusive God that loves all people even if their live in habitual sin.

He DOES want people to continue in sin, be blinded to the true gospel that calls for repentance and faith as Jesus as Lord.

Illustration: Have you ever seen a beekeeper tend to his bee hives?

He uses this smoke that he blows into the hives that allows him to be safer from attack.