ACTS CHAPTER 8:1-24, “Persecution Of The
Church/Simon Magus”
by
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our study today we will
see how that real and severe persecution finally came upon the church at large
in
1.2.
We will look at this man
Saul (whom we all know after his conversion as the apostle Paul) who became the
heart and soul of the persecutors of the church in
1.3.
We will also see how that
God used Saul’s past as a persecutor of the church in a great way to remind him
of the pit of sin from which He had been saved by Christ
1.4.
We will look at the how the
gospel was finally preached in all of the world and disciples made because of
the scattering of the church as a result of the persecution that began by the
Jews against the church in Jerusalem
1.5.
Finally, we will see the
first heretic to enter the new church which was formed in Galilee as a result
of the preaching of Phillip
2.
VS
8:1 - “8:1 And Saul was in hearty
agreement with putting him to death.
And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in
2.1.
In this
verse we see the man Saul before his conversion, before he became known as the
apostle Paul, and here in his flesh as a Pharisee of Pharisees, he was zealous
for the law, and we see that he is ‘in hearty agreement’ with putting Stephen
to death.
2.1.1. Paul gives his consent to the death sentence
pronounced against Stephen, and thus he participated in his murder.
2.1.2. In the third chapter of the book of Philippians the
apostle Paul listed all of his credentials of being a Pharisee of Pharisees in
order to mention that all of the stuff that he counted gain in his life before
coming to Christ he had counted as loss, and in that listing of his credentials
Paul mentions the depth of his zeal as being reflected in the fact that he
persecuted the church.
2.1.2.1.You know many times that people can think that they
are serving the Lord and doing the things that are pleasing to Him, as the
apostle Paul thought here, yet their hearts are so far from His and their
purposes are going against the things that He is trying to do.
2.1.2.1.1.This same principle extends to other religions besides
Judea/Christianity, for think of the many Islamic suicide bombers or even a
Timothy McVeigh who thought that by murdering people in brutal acts of
terrorism that they were being pleasing to their god, yet nothing could be
farther from the truth.
2.1.2.2.Tradition has not passed down to us individual stories
of the martyrs that were persecuted during this period of the persecution of
the early church, however we know that it must have been a horrible thing to
witness the families that were torn apart by the savageness of Saul and others
who were persecuting the church in the name of Jehovah. To give an idea of what it might have been
like for families to be persecuted during this persecution I want to read a
story from Foxes Book of Martyrs of a couple of women who were persecuted later
in the history of the church under the Roman persecutions in northern Africa a
Roman province, it is the story of Perpetua and Felicitas, “Perpetua, a
young married woman who was still nursing a child; Felicitas, who was then pregnant, and
Revocatus of Carthage, a slave who was being taught the principles of
Christianity. Other prisoners who
suffered at the same time were Saturninus, Secundulus, and Satur. These latter three were made to run between
two rows of men who severely lashed them as they passed. After an appearance before the proconsul
Minutius in which she was offered freedom if she sacrificed to the idols, Perpetua
had her still-nursing baby taken from her and was thrown into prison. Describing her faith and life in prison, she
told her father, “The dungeon is to me a palace.” Later, she and the other prisoners appeared
before Hilarianus, the judge. He also,
offered to set her free if she would sacrifice.
Her father was there with her baby and begged her to do so. She replied, “I will not sacrifice.” “Are you a Christian?” asked Hilarianus. “I am a Christian,” Perpetua replied. All of the Christians with her stood fast for
Christ, and they were ordered to be killed by wild beasts for the enjoyment of
the crowd on the next pagan holiday. The
men were to be torn by lions and leopards and the women set upon by bulls. On the day of their executions, Perpetua and
Felicitas were first stripped naked and hung in nets, but were removed and
clothed when the crowd objected. Upon
returning to the arena, Perpetua was tossed about by a mad bull and was stunned
but not seriously hurt; Felicitas,
however was badly gored. Perpetua
hurried to her side and held her while they waited for the bull to charge them
again, but he refused to do so, and they were dragged from the arena, much to
the crowd’s disappointment. After a
short time, they were brought back to be killed by gladiators. Felicitas was killed quickly, but the young,
inexperienced gladiator assigned to kill Perpetua trembled violently and could
only stab her weakly several times.
Seeing how he trembled, Perpetua held his sword blade and guided it to a
vital area in her body. The fate of the
men was similar. Satur and Revocatus
were killed by wild beasts, Saturnus was beheaded, and Secundulus died of his
wounds in prison.”
2.1.3. Paul was at this point in his life still trying to
live his life in the flesh in such a way that he could please God by his towing
the line and keeping of God’s law, however as it happens to all who try to
establish their own righteousness before God based upon the law, he was
constantly failing to live up to God’s standards.
2.1.3.1.In Romans 3:10-20, after his conversion and
calling as an apostle, Paul would write of the fact that before his conversion
he was constantly finding himself unable to keep God’s law, no matter how hard
he tried, for there is not even one person on the earth who is righteous or
seeks after God, “10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even
one; 11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God; 12 All
have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not
even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open
grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips” ; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness” ; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery
are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace have they not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their
eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the
Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be
closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the
works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law
comes the knowledge of sin”
2.1.3.2.In Gal. 2:16, Paul wrote similarly saying that
a man is not justified by the works of the law but only through faith in Christ,
“16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law;
since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified”
2.2.
The
stoning of Stephen then began the first real persecution of the church in
Jerusalem, and the brothers, sisters, and children of the church in Jerusalem
now began to be beaten, stoned, dragged off to jail, and even killed for their
faith in Christ.
2.3.
The
apostle Paul should be an example to us Christians today for he was a man who
never lost sight of the pit of sin that the Lord had delivered him from
2.3.1. In 1 Cor. 15:9-10, the apostle Paul writes that
he was ‘the least’ of all of the apostles because of his persecuting the church
and that it was only because of the grace of God that was working within him
that was what he was, “9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not
fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by
the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain;
but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with
me”
2.3.2. In 1 Tim. 1:15-16, Paul wrote that he
considered himself the chiefest of sinners (present tense) and that he was
shown grace by the Lord to be an example to us that God can forgive the worst
of sinners who come to Him in repentance, “15 It is a trustworthy
statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 And yet for this reason I
found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might
demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in
Him for eternal life”
2.3.3. Many times we Christians lose sight of the pit that
the Lord saved us from and we begin to think that somehow the Lord owes us a
favor or that He is somehow repaying us for how good we are.
2.4.
The
result of this persecution was that the church in
2.5.
Luke
mentions here that the apostles stayed put in
2.5.1. We know also that all of the apostles with the
exception of the apostle John, who died an old man, that all of the apostles
suffered a horrible martyrdom because of their faith in Christ.
2.6.
We will
see as we go through the book of Acts that everywhere the church was scattered
we later see that churches were eventually planted, and it was because of the
brethren who were scattered in all of these areas where the apostle Paul later
journeyed during his missionary trips that the churches planted by Paul were
able to take root so quickly and grow and become healthy viable church bodies.
3.
VS
8:2 - “ 2 And some devout men buried
Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him.” (NASB) - Luke mentions here that ‘some devout men’
from the church in
3.1.
Brethren
in the church in
3.2.
It must
have been hard for the church to take the loss of a brother in Christ at this
point in time, for up to this point in time the church had lost only their
Lord, but He died upon a cross in a death that was glorious for that which it
procured for all mankind. The loss of
Stephen brought only sorrow, but the church would soon learn what it would be like
to lose many brothers and sisters in the body.
4.
VS
8:3 - “3 But Saul began ravaging the
church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would
put them in prison.” (NASB) - This
verse reveals the savagery of Saul the persecutor of the church
4.1.
We can
only imagine the horrible scenes that occurred here as families were brutally
torn apart and people were tortured by Saul who with his cohorts thought at
this point in time that what they were doing was pleasing to God and even a
great and wonderful sacrifice of themselves for God.
4.2.
During
the intense persecutions of the church by the Roman emperors of the first three
centuries of the church, the persecutors would usually give the people the
opportunity to recant their faith in Christ or to blasphemy Christ or God in
order to be set free. Sometimes they
would even tell parents that if they did not recant their faith that they would
have to watch their children butchered before their eyes.
4.3.
We can
only imagine the screams that the apostle Paul might have relived in his dreams
all of the rest of his life because of his brutality as a persecutor of the
church before his conversion.
5.
VS
8:4-8 - “4 Therefore, those who had
been scattered went about preaching the word. 5 And Philip went down to the
city of
5.1.
As I have
read the accounts of the first seven chapters of the book of Acts I notice that
though the Lord had commissioned the church just before His ascension up to
heaven on the cloud that they apparently had not really taken to heart His
command in Acts 1:8 that they were to take the gospel to the whole
world, “8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.””
5.1.1. In other words, the church in Jerusalem itself had
grown and done well in walking in love as they shared all things in common,
however they seemed to just have settled into Jerusalem and were very content
to just hang around there basking in the sunshine of what the Lord had done in
establishing that church, however no one seemed to have a burden or a plan for
reaching out and planting churches in Judea, Samaria, or the remotest parts of
the earth as they had been commissioned.
5.1.2. As a result of the church’s complacency the Lord used
this persecution which they were experiencing to plant churches in all of the
places where Christ had originally told the church that they were commissioned
to go with the gospel and make disciples.
5.1.3. Oh, how the church today needs to reclaim that burden
for winning souls and making disciples all over the world, for as I look around
the church at large I see much of the same complacency that the church in
5.1.4. If we Christians are not obedient to the Lord’s
calling in our lives, He has a way to thrust us into it, but it won’t be
pleasant for us. It’s much easier to
just listen the first time when He speaks to us.
5.1.4.1.For years my wife and I prayed to the Lord to make us
good stewards of money and the things that the Lord gave to us, but we didn’t
do anything to change our habits.
Finally, after several years of doing this the Lord made us go through
four years where our finances were just upside down and it was then in those
very trying years that we finally learned to be better stewards.
5.2.
In the
first part of chapter 6 of the book of Acts we were introduced to this man
Phillip, and at that time he was being selected to be a deacon at the church in
5.3.
As with
Stephen, one of the other deacons that were selected in chapter 6 of the book
of Acts, Phillip now began to perform many great and powerful signs as the Lord
used him to cast out demons and heal the sick.
5.4.
Luke
indicates here some of the phenomena that accompanied the signs that Stephen
was performing
5.4.1. The demons that were being cast out of people were
coming out making a loud shout as they were coming out
5.4.2. People who had been paralyzed and who were lame where
being healed
5.5.
Luke
includes something here that is really cool, he writes that the whole city was
rejoicing in the miracles that were being performed through Phillip.
5.5.1. It is a great thing when the unsaved people in the
city are rejoicing in what the Lord is doing through the church.
5.6.
I will
repeat what I mentioned when we were studying chapter 6 of Acts, when the first deacons were chosen, that the
Lord blesses those who are faithful in the small things, and here we see the
godly fruit of this man Phillip who was faithful first just to serve food to
the grippy widows in the church in
6.
VS
9:13 - “9 Now there was a certain man
named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the
people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; 10 and they all, from smallest
to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called
the Great Power of God.” 11 And they were giving him attention because he had
for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. 12 But when they believed
Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus
Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. 13 And even Simon
himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip; and as
he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.”
(NASB) -
Phillip meets up with Simon the Magician from
6.1.
Luke writes
here that Simon was ‘formerly’ practicing magic in the city because after
coming to Christ Simon had repented of his idolatry and paganism and now no
longer practiced ‘magic’.
6.1.1.Even though Simon thinks he is done with following the
devil, we will discover shortly that the devil is not done with him yet, for
having come out of his life of darkness to salvation in Christ, he is so
impressed by the manifestations of the Holy Spirit conveyed through the laying
on of hands by the apostles that he asks Peter and John to sell him the ability
to lay hands upon whomever he wanted and have them receive the baptism of the
Holy Spirit.
6.1.1.1.Having been in the trade as a magician, he had
probably in the past paid money to learn how to perform several tricks in order
to amaze people.
6.1.2.The New Bible Dictionary has
the following entry about the beliefs of this man called Simon Magus who was
the first heretic mentioned in the book of Acts for the early church, “In
essence a Levantine mountebank, Simon cultivated the legend that he was a
divine emanation—‘that Power of God which is called the Great Power’. The
concept and the title were pagan enough, but the Samaritans would by ‘God’
intend ‘Yahweh’, and Simon must have acclimatized himself to his religious
surroundings. He already represents, then, a significant syncretism of magical,
Hellenistic and erratic Jewish elements…Justin (the early church
father), himself from Samaria, says that Simon was born in the village of
Gitta; that his companion Helen, a former prostitute, was widely regarded as
his first divine ‘idea’, while he himself was acclaimed by multitudes in
Samaria and Rome as a divinity. Indeed, Roman adulation had erected a statue
inscribed Simoni Deo Sancto, ‘to Simon the Holy God’.”
6.1.2.1.The early church fathers
wrote of Simon as being a major heretic and that many false beliefs and cultic
groups had spun off as a result of him and his beliefs and teachings.
6.1.2.2.It has been surmised by many
that there are some cultic sects that came into being as a result of this man
Simon Magus, and there is even speculation that the heretical doctrines of
Gnosticism that came so strongly into the church at this early date had their
origin in him.
6.2.
Simon was a man who was dazzled by all displays of
supernatural power, and thus he was ‘constantly amazed’ at God’s genuine
working through the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit in the lives of
believers in this new church in Samaria.
6.3.
Now since the first century Simon has been considered
to be the first heretic in the church, but as we see throughout the rest of the
book of Acts as wells as the epistles of the New Testament there constantly
were people who were deceived and turning away from the clear road of truth to
follow false teachings and beliefs. Spurgeon spoke once about Paul’s
experiences with heretics in the church, “And, brethren, I scarcely need
to remind you, that with Paul as an overlooker of the Church the cases of
deception and apostacy were not few. “All they which are in
6.4.
Many of those who come into the church then as well
as today are also people like Simon Magus who are seeking manifestations of the
Spirit, but not necessarily truth and all of its ramifications and implications
in a person’s life, and thus Simon is not alone in having his motives in the
wrong place for wanting to do ministry.
6.4.1.Jesus discovered that many
people were following Him around just so that they could see miraculous works
and signs from Him, but not because they were interested in truly following Him
and making Him their master.
6.4.2.When I had just gotten out
of college 20 years+ ago I had a couple of Christian friends who were
mesmerized by anyone in the Christian circles who demonstrated any kind of
works of the Spirit, and they would go see a faith-healer one day, and someone
who would slay people the next, and on and on.
One day they decided that they were going to go see this one man of God
that they had heard was doing some kind of phenomena and they were all excited
about going, but I rebuked them for being just like the people whom Jesus
rebuked for only seeking Him because they wanted to see signs or to be fed, and
not because they loved Christ and wanted to worship and serve Him. They both were very convicted by my rebuke
because they knew that this was really where their hearts were at. Today, I see many around the world who claim
to be Christians and they are doing the same things that these two guys were
doing, and I think that it is really dishonoring to the Lord and that it has
grievous consequences in the spiritual growth of the people into these things.
6.5.
It says here that Simon practiced ‘magic’ and had
‘long astonished them with his magic arts’ in Samaria, and since today there are
many who claim to be Christian who dabble in occultic practices, we need to
take a minute and look at what the scriptures teach about the practice of
‘magic’, ‘sorcery’, and ‘divination’:
6.5.1.In Leviticus
19:26-28, 31
we are commanded not to practice ‘divination’ or ‘sooth-saying’, nor turn to
‘mediums or spiritists’, “26 ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor
practice divination or soothsaying. 27 ‘You shall not round off the side-growth
of your heads, nor harm the edges of your beard. 28 ‘You shall not make any
cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am
the Lord…31 ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be
defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.””
6.5.1.1.It is not God’s will for us
to seek out to know the future for to know the future would cause us not to
look to the Lord now and live by faith.
God wants us to know that we don’t need to know the future we just need
to know the One who holds the future.
6.5.1.2.Mediums are people who work
as a conduit to help people contact spirits in the spirit realm as well as the
spirits of people who have died, but it is not the Lord’s will for His people
to look to spirits for the only spirits that people will contact in doing this
are the fallen demons who are seeking an opportunity to enslave and destroy
people’s lives.
6.5.1.2.1.We see in the gospel story
Jesus taught of the rich man and Lazarus who are each at that time
being held in different compartments of Hades that there is a chasm that
separates them from each other as well as our visible world and that these men
are not able to come and go as they would.
Notice that I didn’t call this story a parable, for this story was not a
fictional story for making an allegorical point but rather this was a true
story about actual events that had occurred.
6.5.2.Likewise, in Leviticus
20:6 the
Lord promises that He will even cut off from His people the one who looks to
mediums, “6 ‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to
play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and
will cut him off from among his people’.”
6.5.3.We see in the story of Balaam in Numbers 22
and 23 that
Balaam practiced divination and that he was hired by Balak king of the Moabites
to pronounce a curse upon Israel, and of course we know that in many places in
the New Testament the name of Balaam is considered a by-word for those who are
willing to be false prophets and/or sell their souls for earthly riches.
6.5.4.In 2 Kings 9:22 we see that the wicked
woman Jezebel, the wife of the wicked king Ahab who ruled over the northern kingdom of
Israel, practiced witchcraft among her other sins.
6.5.5.In Nahum 3:4-5 we see that some of the
sins of the Ninevites which prompted the Lord to destroy them if they would not
repent was sorcery, “4 All because of the many harlotries of the
harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her
harlotries And families by her sorceries.
5 “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts; “And I will
lift up your skirts over your face, And show to the nations your nakedness And
to the kingdoms your disgrace.”
6.5.6.The arts of sorcery and
magic find their roots in the Babylonians, and there were so many different
varieties of ways in which these arts were practiced among the different people
groups of the day of the early church in Jerusalem, so we really don’t know
exactly how that Simon practiced his magic, however we know that he did
practice these arts.
6.5.7.Today in our world, there
are also such a variety of different occultic practices being used such as palm
reading, tea leave reading, tarot card reading, astrology, psychic reading,
reading auras, black magic, white magic, voodoo, transcendental meditation,
yoga, crystals, new age, having spirit guides, channeling, etc., etc. which can
be categorized under these condemned activities of magic, sorcery, and
divination, and we Christians must realize that dabbling in any of these
activities will have severe repercussions in our spiritual walk and stability
and that we will find the Lord’s hand and anger against us if we go in these
directions.
7.
VS 8:14-17 - “14
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word
of God, they sent 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 upon any
of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then
they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.”
- The apostles Peter and John come down
from
7.1.
Here again we see Peter and John doing ministry
together as they come to pray for the people of Samaria so that they might
receive the baptism of the Spirit, however contrary to Catholicism there was no
papacy in mind here since both Peter and John are dispatched for this work.
7.2.
One note here is that this is the last mention of
the apostle John in the book of Acts. We
do know that John outlived all of the other apostles, dying at an old age in
Ephesus, and that before he died early in the second century he also wrote his
gospel, three epistles by his name, as well as the book of Revelation.
7.3.
This particular section of verses has presented
problems for commentators through the centuries because it says that the ones
who had believed in Christ and been baptized in water had not yet received the
Holy Spirit, yet the scripture teaches in many places, such as Rom. 8:9 for instance, that salvation
occurs in a person’s life when they receive the Holy Spirit and that there is
no salvation apart from the receiving of the Holy Spirit, “9 However,
you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells
in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to
Him.”
7.3.1.Sometimes just when you
think that you have the ways of the Lord figured out something happens or you
find a verse that challenges your convictions.
However, there are some principles that a person needs to follow when
attempting to interpret scripture that appears to go against what the rest of
scripture teaches.
7.3.1.1.When a single scripture
seems to go against what the rest of the lake of scripture teaches, then you
must find a way to interpret that scripture in light of what the rest of God’s
Word says since God cannot contradict Himself.
7.3.1.1.1.Following this principle for
interpretation you could conclude that none of those in Samaria who supposedly
had a true saving faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior, even though they had
been baptized in water as a symbol of that faith, had not truly come to
salvation up to this point in time.
7.3.1.1.2.However, Pastor Chuck Smith
points out to us that the preposition used here for the Holy Spirit’s action
upon the believer is ‘epi’ or ‘upon’ and that therefore what is meant here is
that none of the people who had been saved had been ‘baptized’ in the Holy
Spirit, for Chuck writes that when Peter and John, “"had come down, prayed for
them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he was fallen upon
none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus."
........now it is interesting how that this has been a problem to so many Bible
commentators. The fact that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. That He
had not fallen upon them as yet. .....It is commonly acknowledged, that a
person is baptized by the Spirit into the "Body of Christ". And no
man can call Jesus, "Lord", except by the Holy Spirit. And the moment
a person receives Jesus Christ and is baptized, the Holy Spirit comes into
their lives. We know that you cannot receive Jesus without receiving the Holy
Spirit into your life. And so this pose's a great problem to the majority of
Bible commentators when we find that the people in Samaria had believed and
were baptized in water and yet the apostles sent them down that they might
receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen upon any of them....... I am
surprised that with all of these scholars, who are so problemed over this particular
text, that they have not noted the Greek preposition. You remember Jesus said,
concerning the Holy Spirit to his disciples, "For He is with you and shall
be in you." But later Jesus said, "You will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you." Now this is the same Greek preposition
" Hip peeee " that is used here. The Holy Spirit had not yet fallen,
" Hip peeee ", upon them. So the commentators have difficulty trying
to say, "Well, they were not filled with the Spirit, this was some special
case in Samaria, because this was the first time out of Jerusalem and all, and
they really wrestle and do all kinds of foolish things with this text because
they do not want to acknowledge that there is an empowering experience of the
Holy Spirit apart from conversion. But yet that is exactly what the text does
prove. That yes, we do receive the Holy Spirit "in us", when Christ
comes into our lives. But there is an empowering experience subsequent to our
salvation, were our lives are endued with the power of God's Spirit, as He
comes upon us, anointing us for power to serve God. And it's a very simple,
obvious solution, but it is one, that most of the Bible commentators, really
stumble heavily over, and I am amused at the various explanations they try to
give of this particular text when the answer is so simple”
7.3.1.1.3.One thing that we need to
see here is that Christianity is not a set of do’s and don’ts, not a rule or
code of conduct, it is not just a proper doctrinal formation that is to be
believed, it is a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, and one cannot
have salvation or come to know the Lord as one’s personal Lord and Savior apart
from receiving the Holy Spirit and coming into having a walk with God through
the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not
just important to have this, it is essential.
7.4.
God intended all along for the ones in Samaria who
had believed in Him up to this point to come to salvation and also to be
baptized in the Holy Spirit, however I believe that perhaps one of the reasons
that Peter and John had to come to Samaria to lay hands on the people so that
they might be baptized in the Holy Spirit was that Peter needed to confront and
rebuke openly this man Simon Magus, and that if this man had not been rebuked
in this open kind of way by Peter, then there may have been many more people
who would have been drawn away after Simon Magus and his heretical teachings
and perverse nature.
7.5.
One note here is that we don’t know how many people
after the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell directly upon everyone,
received the Holy Spirit after the hands of the apostles and church leaders
were laid on them, however we do know that in some cases, such as the case of
Cornelius in Acts 10 that the Holy Spirit fell upon them directly without the laying
on of hands of anyone.
7.5.1.I am glad that in the book
of Acts that the Holy Spirit fell upon people in different ways and situations
and that His falling upon everyone did not occur after hands had been laid on
them, for then there would be even more endless battles than there already have
been between church groups about who has the authority to lay hands on people
which are required for them to receive the Holy Spirit or His gifts.
8.
VS 8:18-23 - “18
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the
apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give this authority to me
as well, so that everyone 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 no part or portion in
this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 “Therefore repent of
this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of
your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of
bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”” - Simon offers money to the apostles in order
to get the power so that whomever he laid hands upon would receive the Holy
Spirit
8.1.
Simon Magus shows in these verses that his
conversion was probably not genuine after all, for his heart is filled with
pride and self-ambition in wanting to be able to obtain the power to impart the
Holy Spirit to people.
8.1.1.Peter confirms that Simon
Magus was a false believer headed not to heaven but to hell at this point in
his life by saying to Simon, “You have no part or portion in this matter”
8.2.
Simon was obsessed with ‘selfish ambition’, and this
is such a destructive thing in a person’s life.
I have seen so many Christians who have had this particular attitude in
their life, and many ministries that have been started not out of the leading
of the Holy Spirit but because of selfish ambition and compulsion.
8.3.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary has this definition
of ‘selfish ambition’, “Selfish
ambition (eritheiai) is a self-aggrandizing attitude which shows itself
in working to get ahead at other’s expense”, and I have seen that people obsessed with selfish
ambition are driven to such an extent they will do whatever they have to do in
order to get power, prestige, and riches.
8.4.
In the Calvary Chapels there has been so much growth
and new churches being constantly planted that a lot of young men tend to get
their minds set upon being pastors and going out and starting a work, but for
many of the young men their motivations are wrong for they are really wanting
to ‘be somebody’ and pastoring and church planting is a platform for them to do
it.
8.5.
We have to be careful though to not discourage young
men from using their gifts in ministry and from aspiring to be in ministry, but
attitudes of the heart need to be questioned when they are shown to be tainted
with selfish-ambition.
8.6.
I praise God for the boldness and discernment of the
apostle Peter for through the Holy Spirit he could sense where Simon Magus was
in his heart, and because he truly loved Simon with a godly love he was willing
to tell him the truth about himself, which gave him the opportunity to repent.
8.7.
Now Simon Magus was probably in the ‘gall of
bitterness’ because since the coming of Phillip and the conversion of so many
there in Samaria he had lost his following, and all of the people did not look
up to him anymore as if he were some kind of a god.
8.8.
Simon Magus was probably motivated by greed also as
he probably thought that since his earnings as a magician had ceased that he
could probably make a considerable amount of money using this power and
charging people exorbitant amounts in order to receive the baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
8.8.1.Perhaps he wanted to be the
first televangelist!
8.9.
Before coming to Christ, each of us was in the
‘bondage of iniquity’, for as Paul writes, “the one who sins is the slave of
sin”.
9.
VS 8:24 - “24 But
Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing
of what you have said may come upon me.”” -
Simon Magus asked the apostles to pray for him
9.1.
Simon threw himself upon the mercy of the apostles
in asking them for prayer that none of the bad things which Peter said to him
would come upon him.
9.1.1.It’s always a wise thing to
ask others to pray for you when you are in need of the Lord to change your
heart.
9.1.2.However, unfortunately we
see with Simon that all that he desired in this request was that he not suffer
the judgments mentioned, for he did not want to be delivered from the error of
his way.
9.1.2.1.It is such a sad thing when
people know that they are in the wrong and yet they are unwilling to do
anything about it, but they are comfortable living in their sin as they are.