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 miracles1 performed, he was amazed.
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. 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 gall2 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.
Footnotes
[1]8:13Greek works of power [2]8:23That is, a bitter fluid secreted by the liver; bile
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 miracles1 performed, he was amazed.
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. 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 gall2 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.
Footnotes
[1]8:13Greek works of power [2]8:23That is, a bitter fluid secreted by the liver; bile
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
If you would, open in your Bibles to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Once again, this week, I'm gonna end about 5 minutes short because I want us to spend some time and prayer at the end. Don't worry. I'll make it up to you next week.
Jeffrey Heine:
I'll go 40, 45. Maybe I'll go an hour next week. Tonight, we're looking at a story I've always wanted to study. Next week, we're gonna we're gonna look at Philip and the eunuch, and that's one of my favorite passages to preach from. But I've never preached from the text tonight.
Jeffrey Heine:
I've always wanted to just because it's so bizarre and and I've wanted to spend a week and studying through this and it is truly a rich text. So we're gonna begin reading Acts chapter 8 verse 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. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time, he had amazed them with his magic.
Jeffrey Heine:
But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them.
Jeffrey Heine:
But they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money. Saying, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you.
Jeffrey Heine:
Because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before the Lord. Repent therefore this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.
Jeffrey Heine:
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. Pray with me. God, I pray that you would speak tonight with such clarity and conviction. Lord, that you would tear open our hearts where they need to be torn, that you would heal us where we need to be healed. Lord, no one needs to hear from me, from my words or death, but your words are life.
Jeffrey Heine:
I I pray that no one here is drawn to a man, but we are drawn to Jesus Christ, our Lord and our savior. So, God, I pray now that in this moment, my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words, your eternal life changing words remain. And may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
Amen. When I was in college, I remember hearing about a, a supposed revival that was happening in Toronto. It had become somewhat famous and it was known as the Toronto blessing. And, I had heard all these strange reports of all these miracles and all these these strange signs happening there. People were were falling out in the spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:
People were speaking in tongues. People were being healed. And so when one of the pastors from that church came to Kentucky, I did a road trip. It's like, we're gonna go. We're gonna go to this revival that this pastor is putting on in Kentucky.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so a number of my buddies, we piled in Kentucky. And so a number of my buddies, we piled in a car and we went up there. No idea what was gonna happen. I was, I was skeptical. But I I remember having this deep desire as I was even driving up there that I wanted these things to be true.
Jeffrey Heine:
I wanted them to be true. And so I went and I heard the pastor preach just a lot of fantastic tales, Talked a whole lot about the Holy Spirit, but never never worked through the gospel. Never really mentioned the gospel, which should always be a warning sign. If if ever you study through revivals, genuine revivals in church history, notice that the preacher's focus is always Jesus Christ and not the Holy Spirit. Every genuine revival is is preaching Jesus and preaching his atonement, preaching his work on the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then when the holy spirit sees that, hears that, the holy spirit who lives to exalt Jesus comes in power, and there you have revival. But the focus has always been on Christ. But but even even knowing that a little bit when I was in college, I still I I I wanted that preacher to pray for me. I wanted to experience something. And so I during the prayer time, I went forward and I asked him to pray for me.
Jeffrey Heine:
And, he he prayed for me. He put his hands on me. And, and then he pushed. And as I was falling down, I grabbed him and almost took him down with me. And I said, you pushed me.
Jeffrey Heine:
And and and, you know, maybe it was the Holy Spirit that felt like a hand, but it sure felt like felt like he pushed me and then one of my friends got got pushed as well. And when, when I cried out, you pushed me. It kinda put a damper on the whole revival thing that was happening. And I remember leaving really disappointed. And I'm not trying to discredit that that whole movement at all.
Jeffrey Heine:
God was really working in many ways. But I remember being disappointed because I really wanted. I wanted to see signs. I wanted to see those miracles happen. I think Luke includes this story in the book of Acts for people like me or for people maybe like I used to be.
Jeffrey Heine:
He writes the story for 2 2 main reasons. 1 is to serve as a warning. It gets a fixation on signs and wonders because we've been having a whole lot of signs and wonders in the book of Acts. And we believe in signs and wonders, but there's a danger of fixating on them. And so I think he writes for this reason.
Jeffrey Heine:
And second, it is a invitation to believe the gospel and nothing else. The gospel alone. So we're not to be amazed with just signs and wonders. We're really to be amazed when it boils down to amazed by God's grace. And this is a story about amazement.
Jeffrey Heine:
Look at, look at verse 9. Verse 9 says that Simon amazed the people. Verse 11 says that he amazed them with his magic. And then in verse 13, Simon is amazed at Philip's miracles. There's a lot of amazement going on here.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's really what this is about. Simon is this self proclaimed amazing magician. Luke says that he actually went around telling people he was something great. I mean, so he didn't struggle with humility here or, you know, he he just went out and he's, I'm something great. And he would tell people this, and he did amazing magic acts and he wowed the crowd crowds.
Jeffrey Heine:
And people thought when they looked at him, you've got the power of God in you. God's at work in you. It's obvious. And then p or Philip comes, preaches the gospel, people become saved, and it's like, oh, never mind. That's power, not you.
Jeffrey Heine:
And and they got to see firsthand what real divine power looked like when Philip preached. Now, in order to make sense of this story, you have to, try to get a modern day good picture of who Simon the magician is. Don't think Harry Potter, you know, or something like that, or wearing a wizard's hat or a magician's hat and holding a wand. That's that's not what this is talking about here. Picture somebody who would have been like a just a very powerful wise man or a Magi.
Jeffrey Heine:
Somebody who could possibly heal people or help people in powerful ways where they thought, wow, God's at work in you. This was a man held in great esteem by the people. Probably like the Samaritans. He was kind of half Jewish yet held to some other beliefs as well. Maybe some mystic beliefs from from neighboring nations.
Jeffrey Heine:
You know, that the Samaritans were kind of that mixed race there. And and I'm sure that Simon had a mixture of some of the Jewish faith, but a lot of mysticism in there with it. And so, y'all gonna laugh at this. But when when I picture the the modern equivalent equivalent, I picture somebody like Oprah Winfrey. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:
Or or or Doctor. Phil. And, not not to pick on those people, but they're they're powerful, and, respected people with enormous sway that help a lot of people and have somewhat quasi Christian beliefs with a lot of kind of mysticism thrown in there. When did you become a good doctor or something like that. It's like, I recognize I had these gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:
What you're doing is you're recognizing that there's something outside of you, some divine power outside of you that is enabling you. You're gifted. You're not just talented, but there's a divine power at work. And and so I don't mean to pick on Oprah or Doctor. Phil.
Jeffrey Heine:
I could I could probably pick on a number of, powerful respected, people with a lot of influence there. But those are the ones that came to mind. People with a mixed religious views help a lot of people, people with a lot of sway. You certainly don't cross people like that. I don't want to cross Oprah Winfrey.
Jeffrey Heine:
Okay. Nobody like report to her the things I'm saying because I I would be really scared of what would happen in the network that's out there. Okay? You don't want to cross people like this because they are so popular. They are so influential.
Jeffrey Heine:
Everybody holds them in high esteem. And so they need to tread carefully, you would think, around Simon. And Simon actually looks like for a moment he begins to believe what the apostles believe. Look at verse 13. It says that Simon himself was believed, believed, and was baptized.
Jeffrey Heine:
Now we find out later this is not a genuine belief. He believes in the power of the gospel, but not actually in the gospel. Okay. He believes in the power of God and and God, but he doesn't believe in actual, you know, God's saving work there. Look what happens right after he believes.
Jeffrey Heine:
Again, in verse 13, when it says, even Simon himself believed and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And because in seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. So he sees Philip with that genuine power ever the word devote used to describe of another person. Somebody's devoted to another person. In Acts 1:15, you have the apostles, that they are devoting themselves to prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:
Later in 2 42, you have people devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship and to prayer. Later in Acts 6:4, they devoted themselves to prayer and to ministry of the word, but they never devoted themselves to another person until now. We're seeing that this man is in absolute awe of Philip. He knows real power when he sees it. And so he attaches himself, not to the message, before the power.
Jeffrey Heine:
I think we see this, today all of the time. You certainly see it in the New Testament. You know, Paul's gonna confront this head on later in his letters, when these self proclaimed super apostles rise up in the church proclaiming to be somebody great, and they get these huge followings. People are becoming devoted to people. And Paul says, quit it.
Jeffrey Heine:
Quit devoting yourselves to people. Devote yourselves to God. Devote yourselves to the gospel. Don't don't attach yourself to someone. We do it by, whenever we name a church, we usually name it by the pastor's name.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yeah, I go to John Piper's church. I go to Tim Keller's church. Congregation thinking that way. But we don't follow people. We follow Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
We have to acknowledge though that we really love following people. We love following people like Simon. I can remember talking to somebody about their church. Their pastor had some really kind of horrible theology, preached the holy spirit at the neglect of the father and the son. Every message was was pretty much nothing but how to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:
And there was no gospel there. And and I talked to my friend about this. I said, I do appreciate some of the things your pastor influences, but I mean, his theology and just the way he goes about ministry. And he said, he goes, well, of course, I don't believe all of his theology or really the way that he he goes about ministry. But, man, look how people follow him.
Jeffrey Heine:
He does a whole lot of good, and you can't argue with that. It's like, that's Simon. That's Simon. Luke is writing us to warn us about people like this. And we see from this story that when Peter and John come down to Samaria, we see that Simon is drawn straight to them because he's drawn to power.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's drawn to power and he's drawn straight to them. And when he sees Peter and John laying their hands on people and the Holy Spirit be giving kind of like a second Pentecost now for the Samaritans And he sees that he's like, I want that. He didn't rejoice in glory God that God's spirit was coming down to the Samaritans. Instead, he just said, I want that power. I want it.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so He asked the apostles if He could buy this power. And just read with me verse 19. Saying, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. This is a strong, strong rebuke by Peter.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's it's actually an idiom of the day. And when he says, may your silver perish with you, he's really saying, may you and your money go to hell. I mean, he is just blasting him forever approaching him with that request. So I mean, you've got to ask yourself, why such a strong rebuke? What what's really a say?
Jeffrey Heine:
Because I don't know of a stronger rebuke than than this in the bible. What what evoked this out of Peter? You and your money go to hell. No. Something huge is at stake here, and I think it's something that separates Christianity from every other religion right here.
Jeffrey Heine:
And Peter saw the heart of the matter. Maybe I could describe it this way. When we leave here tonight and we go to my house and we grill out a bunch of sausage and corn and we're having a great time, I've invited all of my neighbors to come. You're gonna be around a lot of non Christians tonight, as they come. Now, suppose maybe, you know, between bites of sausage, you ask one of my neighbors.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're like, hey, so you want to become a Christian? You know, if the Lord leads you, say that. This is what they're gonna hear. So you want me to go to church? So you want me to quit living with my girlfriend?
Jeffrey Heine:
Are you telling me I need to turn over a new leaf? Are you telling me I need to change my lifestyle? That's what they're gonna hear when you say, do you want to become a Christian? They're gonna think, I've got to do something. I've now I've now got to do so.
Jeffrey Heine:
I've got to become a better person. That's what you're asking me to do. Because that's the default of the human heart. That's what we, that's how every religion operates is we've got to do something in order to win God's approval. We got to do things like go to church.
Jeffrey Heine:
We gotta quit drinking. We gotta quit smoking. We gotta do all this to earn his approval. And that's what my neighbors will hear if you say that. It's what any non believer is gonna hear.
Jeffrey Heine:
But this is not Christianity. We never do anything. We never pay anything for the gifts of God. That's what it's at stake here. Simon thinks that salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit are for sale.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he tries to buy it with money. Now we might not use money or, you know, maybe we think if we give a whole lot to missions or give a whole lot to the church, then we've done enough good works to get us into heaven. But usually we our currency is good works. We got to try to become a better husband. I need to try to become a better father.
Jeffrey Heine:
I need I need to just be a better person. If I can do these things, and that's my transaction, then I pay for my salvation. But the reality is we can't pay for something that's already been paid. And it has been paid on the cross. And Peter sees us at stake here.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's like you you don't try to buy salvation. Salvation is a free gift to you. That's why he says he cannot buy the gift, the gift. And so he gets the strongest rebuke possible by Peter. And Peter then tells him that he needs to repent, he needs to see that he is in the gall of bitterness.
Jeffrey Heine:
What a great term, the gall of bitterness. Look at verse 23. Says, For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. This is a really strange phrase, a strange biblical phrase, and people don't go around using it today. I think most commentaries that you you read are gonna tell you he's likely alluding to Deuteronomy 29 in which God gives a similar warning to his people.
Jeffrey Heine:
First God reminds them of his salvation. It's a great passage. He says, let me remind you. I displayed all my signs and my wonders before you, and I saved you. I I did the plagues.
Jeffrey Heine:
I parted the sea. I saved you apart from anything you did. And now I'm gonna take you to the promised land. Now as you're going to the promised land, you will be tempted by other nations to take on a little bit of their religion and mix it with yours. You will be tempted to take on some of their idols.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's not that you're gonna abandon me, but you just want to take on a little bit more. He says, and if you do so, he says this, he goes, lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. He says, don't do it. And And so he warns us, he said, I know you've seen God at work, but remember that the grace that saves you is also the grace that's gonna sanctify you, and it's also gonna be the grace that carries along. What can be the bitter roots within our church or any church.
Jeffrey Heine:
It could be a fixation on signs and wonders rather than God himself. It's not that we don't pray that God works in power. It's not that we don't rejoice when he does so. But we don't become so focused that we begin to seek the gifts rather than the giver. That's idolatry, And it will be a root of bitterness within the church.
Jeffrey Heine:
A bitter root can be trying to buy God's love through maybe acts of service, if you got up a little early and you had your quiet time, you read and you prayed, and now you're like, Jesus and I, now we're tight. That that's that's a root of bitterness. The fact that you can do something to make you tighter with Jesus. You know what makes you tight with Jesus? Is none of your righteousness, but it's what Jesus achieved on the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
And you cannot get any tighter because his righteousness has been placed on you. Now you can enjoy that more. You can enjoy the fellowship more. But there's no way you walk away as more tight with Jesus because you had your quiet time. That's the gospel plus something.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's not the gospel. And it will be a root of bitterness in the church. And you cannot get any stronger rebuke. And don't believe for a moment that if if if you're always just preaching grace, if you always just believe grace, they also need to become a church that just sits. Grace enables you because you're not you're not trying to work for salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're you're working out of worship and joy and gratitude for what God has worked in you. Whereas Paul would later say, work out your salvation because God is at work in you. So what god puts in you now becomes manifest outwards in good works. And the church we're gonna see after this will explode in good works and an outreach to the world. Times we make so little of the cross by making so much of our own good works and righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:
I pray you would convict us of that. The gospel plus something is no gospel at all. Deserves the strongest rebuke. So right now in this moment, we cling to no other righteousness than the righteousness of Jesus. We recognize forgiveness the only way it's possible is because of his death on the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
The new life we might have is only possible because of his resurrected life. In him and through him and to him are all things. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.