Acts 8:4-25

Philip in Samaria
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

Simon the Sorcerer
9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”
25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.



Dig Deeper
One movie that nearly everyone who grew up as a teenager in the United States during the 1980’s will remember is the teen classic “Can’t buy Me Love.” In that movie a very unpopular and nerdy young man who had been saving up $1500 for a telescope bumps into his dream girl at the mall. This very popular cheerleader had borrowed an extremely expensive dress from her mother without asking, had worn it to a party only to ruin it, and was at the mall trying to exchange the dress for a new one at the store where her mother had purchased it. The young man overhears her plight and immediately hatches a plan. If she will pretend to be his girlfriend for one month he will give her his $1500 dollars so that she can buy a new dress and her mother will never know what happened. His thinking was that if everyone at school thought that they were dating and in love that he would quickly become very popular as well. She accepts the plan and things start out going well, but in the end he discovers that he was sadly mistaken. He could not buy either popularity or love. It was just as the Beetles had sung in the 1960’s, “I don’t care too much for money, ‘cause money can’t buy me love.”

That movie has always reminded me of the old saying that declares that you cannot buy love or happiness. That is true I suppose. You really cannot purchase true love or true happiness, there is little dispute to that. This passage in Acts makes it clear that there is at least one other thing that can be added to the list of things that money cannot buy. Money might be able to buy goods, services, power, prestige, and many other things but it cannot buy the important things in life. It cannot buy love. It cannot buy true happiness. And it cannot buy the Holy Spirit. In fact, thinking that the Holy Spirit is a commodity that can be purchased from men or even from God by doing the right things or “giving generously” so that he will “bless us” with the Spirit. As Jesus made clear, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8). The Holy Spirit is God and his power can neither be purchased or harnessed. To attempt to do so, is to demonstrate a crucial and exceedingly dangerous misconception as to the very nature of God and his work in the world.

Acts 8 is another of those great passages that demonstrate the sovereignty of God. Time and again, what man plans for evil, God uses and turns for good. The Sanhedrin had given Saul permission to put his zeal for God to good use and to stamp out this new movement of Jesus followers. They had believed that the old adage “if you cut off the head, the snake will die,” would hold true for those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but they quickly found out that they were wrong. These people had the power of the Holy Spirit moving in them and among them and animating the common life that they shared as the family of God. So rather than being truly harmed by the persecution of Saul and the Sanhedrin, it actually facilitated the next stage in the spreading of the gospel as Jesus had promised that they would be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Phase 1 had begun and now as they were scattered into other places, they continued to preach the word wherever they went, including the area of Samaria which would have taken great boldness as the Samaritans and Jews did not get along at well. But this was always to be one family of all nations as was symbolized at Pentecost day as Jews from every nation received the message of the gospel. In this passage Luke will show us how the gospel began to be preached to those that were firmly on the fringes and were considered virtual outcasts of the Jewish people.

Although going to preach in Samaria was a bold move, it would not have been completely out of context. Not only had Jesus foretold that the mission would eventually go into Samaria, the Samaritans also believed that God would send a prophet or Messiah as he had promised in Deuteronomy 18:15. Philip was one of the seven men who were giving the responsibility of overseeing the ministry of bread distribution to the widows and on whom the apostles had laid their hands, giving him the Spirit-given ability to perform signs and wonders through the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. As he came into the region of Samaria, he boldly preached that the resurrected Jesus was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. To demonstrate that his words were truly from God, he performed the kind of authentic signs and wonders that caught the attention of the people. It was confirmation that God was really behind this message.

This all brought the notice of Simon. Simon was a man who had practiced sorcery and wowed the people for some time and thought that he was truly a big deal. Philip was stepping into his turf and gaining the attention that was normally Simon’s. We aren’t told exactly what sorts of sorcery Simon had performed but it was enough to sway the people and fool them into thinking that he had the power of God flowing through him. But Simon’s great works only pointed people to him. Philip was different. Not only did his signs and wonders evidently seem to be of a different level of truth and power, they also pointed not to Philip but to the kingdom of God. As they accepted Philip’s message of the gospel, they were baptized into the life of Christ and became full members of the Messiah’s family. Even Simon was apparently so amazed by Philip’s works that he was baptized as well, probably with the hopes that his own powers and abilities would increase all the more. But as Luke continues on in this account, it becomes quickly obvious that Simon’s faith wasn’t real. It was more along the lines of the Jews who “believed” in Jesus after hearing his message (Jn. 8:31) and then tried to kill him just a few minutes later when they heard the totality of what he was truly preaching (Jn. 8:59).

Luke tells us that when the Samaritans were baptized that they had “simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.” Although some have taken this to mean that Luke is saying that the Samaritans had the Spirit withheld from them, there is no indication of that. His point in telling this story is not as much to describe what happened with the Samaritans as a group as it is to describe what happened with Simon. Simon was taken aback and enamored with the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. He had no interest in the subtle but still powerful action of the Holy Spirit coming into the life of the believer at their baptism (Acts 2:38), the gift that serves as a down payment and guarantee of the inheritance of the believer (Eph. 1:14), and who gently guides believers in their transformation of the life of Christ (Gal. 5:22-26). These Samaritans were true believers who had been baptized into Christ and received the Holy Spirit just as had promised to all who believe but that was it. They had not received the miraculous power of the Spirit coming upon them, allowing them to perform the signs and wonders of the Spirit. This was a special gift that came only as the apostles laid hands on believers and allowed the Spirit to come upon them in this special way. This is what interested Simon.

His nominal belief and baptism had not given him what he wanted because he was not interested in the genuine life of Christ. But when he saw that the apostles laid hands on the people and they began to exhibit the same impressive signs of the Spirit as had Philip, that caught his attention. That is what he wanted. He wanted the power and prestige. Notice that he immediately offered money to the apostles to purchase that gift. But it wasn’t even the gift of the miracles that he wanted. He wanted the ability to pass on the gifts as the apostles had. He wanted what he saw as the real power and control.

But, we might ask, why would Luke have spent so much time to focus on Simon and what he wanted? Certainly this stood as a warning to anyone who thought that the power of the Spirit was there for their own advancement, excitement, blessing, or prestige. There are many who fall into this same error today, often referred to as Simony, or the attempt to purchase the gifts of God. Today, the appeals of this nature are much more subtle and spiritual sounding than Simon’s request to just buy the power, but the heart is the same. People are promised advancement, blessing, and spiritual power if they will tithe more, give bigger amounts, and sow seeds in the ministry of one person or another. These are attempts to control the Spirit which is exactly why Peter rebuked Simon so harshly. His heart was shown through his actions and he had no part in their ministry. Peter warned him harshly and made clear that the only hope that Simon, or anyone prone to that same error had, was to immediately repent and plead with the Lord for forgiveness. There was nothing down the road that Simon was heading except bitterness and captivity to sin. Simon wanted power not the Holy Spirit. With power comes self-adulation. With the Spirit comes self-denial. Simon couldn’t see the vital difference.

But there is another important reason why Luke likely spent so much time describing Simon’s encounter. (Which is not an insignificant thing considering the great cost of writing and copying text in the ancient world which meant that every word mattered greatly. There were no empty words in the ancient texts.) Christians of later generations would go on to describe Simon as a man who would become the greatest nemesis to both the apostle Peter and the church in general. He is attributed by some (as early as Justin Martyr in 150 AD) as being the father of the Gnostic heresies which appeared early in the Christian movement as an alternative to true Christianity and swayed many from the truth. Gnosticism appealed to a secret knowledge that was only available to some and would bring great advancement to those who engaged in the Gnostic form of Christianity. Justin Martyr would go on to say that Simon was very active in Rome (possibly by the time that Luke was writing Acts) and caused great trouble for those who held to the true gospel. It is quite possible then that Luke, as he was writing to Theolphilus, who was quite possibly an important Roman official, thought it necessary to describe the roots of Simon’s “belief” and warn others to stay away from him and to not go down his same path.

Simon’s final recorded words are quite interesting. He didn’t pray for himself for repentance or even ask Peter to, but asked Peter to pray that he would be spared from judgment. Luke doesn’t go any further into that but seems to indicate that Simon had sealed his own fate, as history verifies. Simon’s attempts to purchase the power of the Spirit for himself would fail and although they would lead many astray, the truth of the gospel continued to march through the rest of the Samaritan villages. False versions of the gospel may be quite powerful but they will never fully derail the truth. They can neither control the Spirit for themselves or keep it from others.



Devotional Thought
Peter was immediately able to discern Simon’s errors in his thinking about the Holy Spirit and he confronted him directly out of his love for the true believers. Are you equally able to recognize false teachings and attitudes and have the conviction to stand up to them when needed?