Acts is an account of the birth of the church. God called out a people who would be
the body of Christ by great power and signs and wonders. In Acts we see something of a New
Testament parallel to the Israelites coming out of Egypt by great signs and
wonders of Moses. And in yet
another parallel, we also see that the devil attacks the congregation of the
Lord in various ways, through persecution, and through corruption from within.
So as the church is growing mightily, there is also
strategic attacks on the church from without and within. We saw that played out with Ananias and
Sapphira back in chapter 5, as they lied to the Holy Spirit. Their sin was a deadly leaven that
threatened to corrupt the church from within that had to be dealt with severely
in order to preserve the sanctity of the congregation.
But Satan is a clever and deadly adversary. He like any good general, marshals his
forces to attack on several fronts simultaneously. So almost immediately after Ananias and Sapphira were dealt
with, Peter and John are arrested and beaten and imprisoned. But that too fails to hinder the
proclamation of the gospel. In
fact it only serves to embolden and empower the apostles to do more. So Satan enlists his forces from the
religious realm to arrest Stephen, one of the seven young men who had been
recently appointed as one of the leaders in the church. And as we saw last week, rather than
that shutting him up, Stephen took that to be an opportunity to preach the
gospel to the high priests and ruling council, convicting them by many Biblical
proofs that their belief in God had in fact not saved them, but that they were
enemies of God, outside of the kingdom.
And what he preached enraged them so much that they rushed on him with
one accord and threw him off a cliff and cast stones on him, making Stephen the
first martyr.
Now in chapter 8 we see that this young man named Saul
mentioned in the previous account who watched over the affair and held their
coats while they stoned Stephen was now persecuting the church with a renewed
intensity. But rather than
persecution shutting down the church, it only served to strengthen it.
Tertullian is credited with the saying that the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the church. And we see
that seed now being scattered throughout Asia as a result of persecution. Satan thought that he had silenced a
preacher of the gospel, and yet he inadvertently helped to spread the gospel
from Jerusalem, to Judea, then Samaria, and ultimately to the uttermost parts
of the earth. Acts 8:4 “Therefore, those who had been scattered went about
preaching the word.”
Last week we looked at the last sermon of Stephen, which
illustrated several principles which revealed that the religious leaders of the Jews were
not true believers. And those
principles were instructive for us as well, as we compared our salvation with
the template that Stephen was proclaiming to be the gospel. These religious leaders had a form of
religion, they claimed to be worshipping the One True God, they kept the Old
Testament scriptures, they were extremely zealous for certain religious rituals
and ceremonies, and yet they were not saved. And so I pointed out how we too must carefully examine our
faith in order to see if we truly are of the faith, according to the examples
given by Stephen in his last message.
And in a similar way, today we will look at the message of
Philip, another of the original seven, who has gone out from Jerusalem as a
result of the persecution, and he is now called the evangelist. He is preaching the gospel of Christ to
the Samaritans and many signs and wonders were happening by his hand, and many
people were being saved. But at the
same time Satan is attempting to duplicate and deceive through a false prophet
named Simon that is also doing signs and wonders, and when he cannot compete
with the ministry of Philip, he professes to believe and is baptized. So we are going to examine today in
light of this passage the contrast between the true faith and message of Philip
and false faith and false message
of Simon. I have titled this
message, false faith, false follower, and false prophet.
So in this passage the Holy Spirit deliberately contrasts authentic Christianity with that of a
false and counterfeit faith. Simon the Magician, or Simon Magus as he is
sometimes called, appears in this passage as yet another means of the devil’s
attack against the church, this time from within. Remember that Jesus had said
in the parable of the tares and the wheat that though He was sowing good seed
in the field of the world, an enemy would come at night and sow bad seed in the
midst of the wheat, and that they would grow up together. The wheat and tares would initially be
indistinguishable. And that is what we see here with Simon becoming identified
with the church.
So let’s look at some of these characteristics of false
faith, or false Christianity. And
by the way this is not just ancient history. We must not be so foolish as to think we are past all of
this sort of thing today in the church.
No, the devil is continuing similar attacks on the church and even more
so today. In fact as time marches
on towards the end of the age, Jesus told us in Matt. 24:24 that it will
increase. He said, "For false
Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so
as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Deception will grow worse and worse. Satan just keeps
repackaging the same old deceptions in new false prophets, and people are
deceived and keep on being deceived, often to their damnation.
So to start with, the first characterization of Simon’s
false faith was self exaltation.
Contrast that to the ministry of Philip; Philip it is said in vs. 5,
proclaimed Christ. He preached the
gospel of Christ and God validated that preaching with signs and wonders which
served to glorify God. But Simon,
as a false prophet, glorifies himself.
Vs. 8 says that he was claiming to be something great. And his magic arts enabled him to
convince the people of Samaria
that he was something great.
They called him the Great Power of God.
There is actually some very fascinating history written
about this man in several contemporaneous non-biblical writings. But what the text tells us, and
from what history tells us, this man practiced a form of magic, professing
secret knowledge, whereby he was able to astonish the local people. The word magician is from the root word
magi. You remember the three wise
men who visited Jesus’ birth?
These men were known as magi from the East. They were learned in astronomy and the sciences and some
practiced the secret arts as well, such as astrology and the occult. Obviously, Simon is one that has that
sort of knowledge which is called sorcery.
Now the text indicates that he did certain feats of magic or
sorcery in order to exalt himself.
To bring attention to himself and probably make himself money in the
process. That is always a
characteristic of false prophets, by the way. They are self aggrandizing people who set themselves up in
such a way as to bring attention to themselves. They claim to have great power from God. And I want to be very clear; beware of
people that focus on signs and wonders as testimony to their Christianity or
their spirituality.
Do you know that the devil is able to authenticate his false
prophets by signs and wonders as well?
There is more hocus pocus going on in the church today than ever before
and it’s because our people lack discernment. They aren’t taught what the word of God says. They are taught that we need to
experience God. And so whatever
experience that comes along in the context of the church they then attribute to
God. Today in the church there is
everything from people falling down acting like they are drunk, to entire
congregations laughing uncontrollably, to gold dust falling from the ceiling
and angel feathers floating from the rafters. And all of it is attributed to God. However, it’s nothing short of
demonic. It’s blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit. God is not the
author of confusion. Beware of
signs and wonders that are purported to be done today, which are in effect only
serving to enable false teachers to deceive gullible and superstitious people
who are ignorant of what the scriptures actually teach.
Furthermore, its says in vs. 10 that the people both small
and great from all quarters were giving him attention. False prophets are always popular. They attract great crowds even today. Ancient
writers such as Justin Martyr, Jerome and Irenaeus give a sordid history of
this man Simon and the way he eventually became a great enemy of the
truth. He is credited with being
one of the forbearers of the great heresy known as Gnosticism which arose in
the first century to deceive many people.
Simon went on to be one of that heresy’s foremost prophets. He taught that he was the manifestation
of God, that divine knowledge resided in him.
Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means
knowledge. It is a blend of
different religious philosophies that believed in a higher knowledge, a
spiritual plane that it was possible to reach that was separate from the body,
from matter. They believed that it
was possible to exist on a spiritual plane in some measure of godliness, but
which was unaffected by the physical.
So you could live in immorality or any such sin and yet be unaffected by
it spiritually. It bred a false
doctrine called antinomianism which is what James and Jude and John were
warning against in their epistles, this false knowledge that puffs up. Jude 1:4
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God
into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
But again, I would warn you, that Satan has repackaged much
of that philosophy today and sold it to the church once again. There are false prophets who are known
for their signs and wonders that are immensely popular in so called
Christianity today, that are preaching a form of antinomianism which has it’s
roots in Gnosticism. False
prophets today like the televangelist Joseph Prince teach that you can be holy
spiritually in God’s eyes, but be something else in the physical realm. They
teach that you can be a child of God, and yet live in sin and not have any
conviction of your sin. They teach
that in fact it is impossible for a believer to sin, and you never need to
repent of your sins. It’s first century
Gnosticism repackaged for the weak, immature and often immoral church of
today.
But not only is this Simon Magus an example of a false
prophet, he is emblematic of those that are of a false faith. Their faith, as it were, is founded on
serving their pride. They are all
about self aggrandizement. They
practice their religion to be seen of men, to draw accolades to their piety. They are interested in signs and
wonders because it pleases their vanity to be seen to have some great spiritual
power. They are interested in some
higher degree of knowledge that relieves them from the conviction of something
so petty as sin. They want to
profit from religion, both economically as well as in their social standing.
And yet their actions reveal that they are prideful. They have never humbled
themselves in the sight of God.
They never repented of their sins.
And that leads us to the next characteristic of Simon as an
example of false faith, and that is he had a incorrect understanding of
salvation. Vs. 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. 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.”
At first glance, it sounds pretty positive, doesn’t it? Sounds like this false prophet, this
great celebrity of Samaria actually became a Christian. After all, it says he believed. Isn’t that the requirement for
salvation? Isn’t that what is
being taught today? Just believe
in God and he will accept you just the way you are. But the Bible says that the devils believe and tremble and
yet they are not saved. Why
not? Well, first of all because
salvation is not offered to angels, but only to men. But even if they could be saved salvation would require
repentance. And they have believed but not repented. That’s why Jesus went
about preaching first and foremost, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at
hand.” Repentance is the polar
opposite of pride, do you understand that? Repentance is confession that you are a sinner, and that the
Bible says that the penalty for sin is eternal death. You confess that you are a sinner and you admit that you are
guilty and worthy of the punishment.
But there is nothing said of Simon repenting. In fact as you read on, you will see that he had not
repented, and when Peter told him to repent, he excused himself.
What Simon did was find himself attracted to the church by
the signs and wonders. He liked
the display of power. He imagined
how that kind of power might benefit him.
He might have even had a certain mindset that if you can’t beat them,
then join them. He had been duping
the people with his magic arts, he had been enjoying this fame and prosperity
that came with it, and suddenly along comes Philip with true knowledge, with
divine power to truly heal, and so his act is completely eclipsed. So he joins this movement, or appears
to, in order to learn and acquire this knowledge to add to his own bag of
tricks.
By the way, I don’t doubt but that Satan has certain
practitioners that can perform some signs and wonders. But I think that for the most part it
is a deception. I have studied a little
bit about some well known pseudo evangelists, and I have noticed a pattern in
some of being trained in and practicing hypnotism. I think a lot of the fake faith healers set up their shows
ahead of time with willing accomplices or they weed out the truly handicapped
in favor of those with some sort of psychosomatic disorder. And so these people are selected who
might be very easily persuaded by means of hypnosis or some other trick. But it’s not long thereafter until they
find they are no longer healed.
One of the saddest tales I have heard on this subject came
from the well known Christian speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed
from the neck down in a diving accident when she was a young woman. And in the early years of her illness, one
day in desperation she went to a famous faith healer’s service in hopes of
being healed. And she relates how
that she and other quadripalegics and people who had serious problems were
escorted to a special wing and then left there while others with non visible
maladies were healed. She relates
the horrible feeling of abandonment at the end of the service as they were
wheeled out of the back door still in their wheelchairs. Such false prophets are an abomination
to God and will one day face God’s judgment for their false faith message.
But back to Simon, he supposedly believed, and he was
baptized. According to at least a
couple of different denominations out there, that should have sealed the deal.
He was baptized. To some
denominations, becoming a Christian is like making instant oatmeal. Just add water and you’re good. So he joined the church. He made a profession of faith, he was
baptized, he effectively joined the movement. He began following Philip around. Folks, please understand that Satan loves nothing more than
to join the church. Jesus taught
another parable about the church,
in which He said that the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed that
was planted in a garden and it grew into a great big tree, so big that the
birds of the air came and nested in it’s branches. This parable was taught immediately after the parable of the
tares and the wheat. The picture
He is giving is that the church will grow bigger than normal, first of
all. The church will grow and
spread far beyond it’s normal growth into a great tree, instead of a normal
bush. And it’s branches extend out
so far that the birds of the air come and nest in it’s branches. Jesus said in the parable of the soils
that the birds of the air are the devil and his angels. So Jesus is saying that the devil and his angels are nesting in
the branches of the church. That
is a reality that is true today more than ever before as we see every sort of
abomination welcomed and embraced by many modern churches today.
The number one way the church has been rendered weak and
ineffective, more than any other, is by unregenerate people coming in and
taking on the outer garments of Christianity, calling themselves Christians,
but remaining still unchanged in heart and life. That has ruined more churches
than any external attack possibly could.
You know, all of the church growth strategy books have got
it wrong. The church doesn’t need to
attract more unsaved people. The church doesn’t need more pew sitters in the
congregation. It doesn’t need more
spectators. The church needs holy
and sanctified workers for the harvest. Matt. 9:37-38 “Then He said to His
disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
"Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."
The church is the body of Christ, not a collection of the unregenerate seeking
validation while still in their sins.
Simon is missing one major ingredient in his salvation. And that is he is unrepentant. He may have professed to believe in
God, but nothing had changed.
Listen, repentance is a change of direction. It is coming to the end of yourself. It is mourning over your sin. It is realizing that you are depraved
and without hope and you need God to transform you. Simon just added the outward garments of Christianity to his
carnal nature and nothing had actually changed.
Next, Simon misunderstood the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. This is still a major
problem in the church today, isn’t it?
A complete misunderstanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit and His
function in the church. But let’s
look first at some background. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that
Samaria was receiving the gospel and people were becoming saved, they sent
Peter and John there.
Now the important distinction here is that these were
Samaritans. They had traditionally
been excluded from Israel as half breeds, half Jew and half Gentile. And so what is being described here is a
manifestation of the Spirit upon the Samaritans, to indicate and affirm that
they were also now part of the body of Christ. God’s plan was not to have a church in Samaria which had
different customs and beliefs than the church in Jerusalem. But as the scripture says there is one
Lord, one faith, one baptism. And
so that is why it is important that the apostles come from Jerusalem and lay
hands upon them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, to show by the
signs that followed that they were all of one body.
But it’s important to understand what is happening; no one
can be saved without the agency of the Holy Spirit. They had been saved.
They had the power of the Holy Spirit manifested to them when they were
delivered from illnesses through the ministry of Philip. And they had the joy of their salvation
in vs. 8 which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. The thing that was missing was that they needed to be
baptized in the Holy Spirit to bring them into communion with the church, to
make them part of the body of Christ, to show that they were in no way inferior
to the church at Jerusalem.
That is the significance of the laying on of hands. We lay hands or even shake hands to
show solidarity with other people.
So the fathers of the church in Jerusalem came to join hands with the
Christians in Samaria in order to show full fellowship with them. And there
were undoubtedly certain signs accompanying the baptism of the Holy Spirit
similar to what had happened at Pentecost to authenticate by the Spirit what
the apostles were affirming, that they were a part of the church. It’s interesting, because in each of
the 4 occasions in Acts when this happens, it happens under slightly different
circumstances. This is the only
time that the laying on of hands occurs with the baptism of the Spirit. And I believe that is because it
signifies the right hand of fellowship that is extended from Jerusalem to these
Samaritans who had long been estranged from Israel.
So there is the same manifestation of gifts in Samaria that
there had been at Pentecost. There
would be the same manifestation of signs at the household of the Gentile
Cornelius which Peter goes to preach to at the bequest of the Spirit. And all because God is indicating that
there is no more Jew nor Gentile nor Samaritan in the church; we are all made
one in Christ by the self same Spirit.
But Simon seeing this is moved to approach Peter and ask him
if he could buy that ability.
There is a word in the English language which is simony. It is the buying or selling of
religious offices or powers. This
man’s name is the origin of this word.
He is attempting to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to buy it so that he could
profit by it. And while I don’t
think many people today are so bold as to try to buy the power of the Holy
Spirit, I do believe that many in the church today are trying to profit by the
Spirit. They attempt to use a
false power that is attributed to the Holy Spirit for ungodly gain. I once personally knew a man that was
duped into thinking that Benny Hinn was a great power of God, and he regularly
would go fly somewhere to one of his crusades and pay him $10,000 for a private
meeting so that he could receive his blessing. He ended up going bankrupt. False prophets like Benny Hinn seek to profit from the Holy
Spirit.
Simon thought that he too could profit from being able to
administer the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And so Peter’s response illustrates the last characteristic of Simon’s
false faith, which is that he lacked true repentance. Simon revealed that he had held onto his sin. He professed to believe, he
participated in the ritual of baptism, but he had never truly repented. And that lack of repentance became
evident when he tried to buy the Holy Spirit.
Philip may have been a somewhat naïve young preacher, a
beginning evangelist that God was using, but Peter had the gift of discernment
as we saw evidenced in the passage about Ananias and Sapphira. So Peter says to Simon in vs. 20, “May
your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of
God with money! You have no part or
portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of
yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be
forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the
bondage of iniquity.” The literal
translation of Peter’s rebuke is “may your silver go to hell with you!” Peter sees immediately that this man is
still in the bondage of sin. He
never repented. His heart is
alienated from God. He describes
Simon as bitter, that would indicate he was jealous of Philip.
Listen, the Gnostics, the antinomians, think that as
believers you never need to repent, because you never sin. But I would remind you of Psalm 51, a
Psalm of David when he sinned against God, he said, “Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me. Against
You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when
You judge.” Was David saved when
he sinned with Bathsheba? Yes, he
most certainly was. Was he saved
the same way we are? Yes, he
certainly was, he was saved by faith, through grace, just as we are. He looked forward to Christ, we look
backwards to Christ, but we are both saved the same way. And yet David by divine inspiration
calls his sin, sin. He said against
God he had sinned, and his sin was ever before God.
So what was David’s solution? Repentance. He
confessed his sin as sin, as an affront to God. And then he asked to be changed. “Create in me a clean heart,
O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Listen, David was saved and he still sinned against God, he
still needed forgiveness, he needed repentance that he might have fellowship
with God. This idea that you
can live in sin and be ok, that you can come as you are and stay as you are, is
not the gospel. It is not the
gospel that Peter is preaching. He
turns to Simon and says, “you are still in the bonds of iniquity.” You were never released from your sins
because you never repented of yours sins.
I am convinced that the church today is full of people who
profess to believe, who have been baptized or been catechized or been through
some experience or ritual and they believe they are part of the church, but in
fact they have no part at all in the body of Christ. They are still in the bondage of iniquity. That is the only explanation for why
the divorce rate is as high in the church as it is in the world. That is the
only explanation why our church members are living in immorality. That is the only reason why our people
are living fleshly, carnal lives, chasing riches and material things of the
world. They have a false faith.
They are still in the bondage of sin.
Unfortunately, Simon has no interest in repenting as Peter
tells him to do. Instead he says, “Pray
to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come
upon me.” He wants to escape the
judgment of sin, but he is not willing to forsake the presence of sin. There’s
no confession; there’s no self analysis; there’s no acknowledging of sin. There’s no trust in the Lord; there’s
no asking for forgiveness; there’s no repentance, nothing, but possibly even a
scornful comment, “Why don’t you pray for me yourselves, so that what you’ve
said doesn’t happen to me.”
Simon is never mentioned in scripture again. But history tells us that his
unrepentant heart led him further and further away from the truth and into
abject heresy. According to some
sources, he became a constant adversary of Peter, going before him into various
cities refuting the gospel that Peter was preaching. His doctrine became more and more heretical, even to the
point of denying that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, denying the divinity
of Christ, meanwhile making himself out to be god. According to Justin Martyr, there was a statue erected in
Rome that bore the inscription testifying that he was a god. He became the father of Gnosticism,
which is the grandfather of all heresies.
Listen, there is a great danger in refusing to repent of
sin. At the very most you cannot
be saved without repentance, without humbling yourself and being willing to
forsake your sin. And at the very
least, if you are by some miracle a Christian, you break fellowship with God
and you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and you trample underfoot the blood of Jesus
by refusing to confess and repent of your sin. Either way your unrepentant heart will lead you further and
further away from God just as surely as leaven eventually corrupts all of the
dough.
I don’t know whether you folks listening to me today are
wheat or tares. I don’t know
whether or not you are of the faith, or of a false faith. I don’t have the level of discernment
that Peter had. But I do know that
Jesus said that by their fruit you shall know them. What is in the heart, eventually comes out of the
mouth. Simon should be a warning
against a false faith, false followers, and false prophets. 2Cor. 13:5 “Test
yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not
recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you
fail the test?” Be sure you are not of a false faith, a faith without
repentance. Believing without
repentance can never produce saving faith. But as David said, “a broken and contrite heart O God you
will not despise.” Let us pray.
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