Acts 8:9-25
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.
Listening guide
“Simon said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”” (verse 19)
Do you want to ______ _________?
“Simon offered them money.” (verse 18) “you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.”
“You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God” (verse 21)
You’ve got a great __________ to play your _________.
What good can we do around here?
Sermon
I’ve never been happy, I think I will always have some regrets, that we left China. When we left for China in 2010, we knew it was only a guaranteed 2 years. Everything after that was up for grabs. But when we left, we went to stay. We sold our cars. We got our will and trust and life insurance taken care of. We – alright I – committed to learning Chinese. We went to stay. But after 2 years, there was no funding and I just accepted it was time to move on. We moved back.
I spent the next couple of years explaining to Chinese friends and other people why we left. Why did we stop doing a good thing that we were good at? Who cares how hard it was? Finally I realized, why did we come back? It would have taken some jumps and some risks. We gave up doing something good because of respect and even more, the danger, challenges and hard things that would have come if we had stayed on our own.
I got to leave that one with God. Thing is, I think that’s how most of us behave most of the time. We give up good for others, maybe because of respect, but even more because we avoid danger, the challenges, and the hard things that would really let us do something good.
During the pandemic, a couple of people have told me that they felt uncomfortable walking into a gathering at church and they just walked out. They either felt like people were sitting too close together or too many people didn’t wear masks.
We’ve all got opinions and we’re all sick of this stuff.
For the most part, what people haven’t done is talked to the other people and tried to work something out. They haven’t talked to me and asked me to put on something else for them.
Someone might say, they shouldn’t have to. We should go out of our way to accommodate them. I hear that. I want to accommodate people as I can.
Very few of us want to be police officers and firefighters
We don’t get involved in conflicts at work
I can’t help but compare these choices we make to the distinct times in history when people chose to face danger, hardship, and struggles to do good for other people. Not just for themselves but for others.
For example,
“In the early fourth century, the historian Eusebius wrote about a plague that was rolling over the eastern half of the Empire. Healthy people would flee the cities for the safety of the countryside. But one group largely stayed behind—Christians. “All day long, [Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them.”
It doesn’t even have to be such a big thing. I think of one time someone did good for me. They spoke up and defended me at a public meeting or gathering. They didn’t risk their physical life, but they certainly risked their reputation and good relationships with other people.
What about you? Has anyone ever faced danger, hardship, and struggles to do good for you?
And this week, we’ve got a great example from a man named Philip. He went into the city of Samaria, It's a city that was primarily composed of individuals hostile to Philip and the other early Christians. He didn’t just preach. He also did miracles and good things for the people.
Adventure/Promise
Easter doesn’t just promise a new creation breaking into the world.
Easter doesn’t just promise a new story for our lives. A story that makes us ask, what is Jesus saying to me in his Word?
Easter also says something about the part you play in this new creation and new story. The promise is that you get a great part. (verse 21)
Let’s get that.
Development
We’re learning this with the story of man named Simon from Samaria today. He is often called Simon Magus or Simon the magician.
I think this is a neat event. Why? Because it is a story of a guy. He isn’t really religious at all, but he is very spiritual. His life is entirely turned upside down because of the Easter message.
He’s a famous guy in Samaria. He can probably do supernatural tricks. So when he sees Philip, Peter, and John, not their preaching, but the things they can do by the gift of the Spirit, he is really excited.
“Simon said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”” (verse 19) Now, he is obviously clueless. But realize, Simon sees that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the greatest good we could give to someone else and he wants that.
Even as a guy who can do supernatural tricks, mini-miracles and signs, he recognizes that the gift of the Holy Spirit would do a lot more for people.
I’m sure he is a little selfish. He wants to gain popularity and attention. Still, it’s hard not to see that he wants to be part of a good thing for other people.
Simon kind of calls me out. He gets this basic principle, this basic truth. You and I are far more than what we accumulate. The real measure of us is what we do for others. Simon wants to do good for other people more than I often do.
I was talking with another guy this week and we were talking about how easy it is to get upset with the people when no one shows up at events and how easy it is to be ecstatic or super happy when all kinds of people do show up for gatherings and events. And we were saying, I don’t think that is because I’m happy for them or upset for them. No, we’re upset because we, we don’t feel loved and successful and important if nobody shows up. And if we feel super happy its because we feel loved and successful and important. You see what I’m saying?
How bad is it that me, a guy who has the Holy Spirit, wants what I can get from you. Simon, a guy who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit, wants it so he can do things for others.
I thought about it a couple of other times this week. I was talking with a young person about future jobs. This person said they wanted a different job because they wanted to help people. For other people. Do we realize how great that is? That someone doesn’t just want a job to become rich? That was the norm in America in the early 90s. Sit in a classroom and ask kids what they want to do when they grow up. Be a basketball star and make a lot of money. I just want to be rich. Maybe that’s changed. People didn’t say I want to do good for others.
(Do you want to do good?)
Here is what I’m saying. Simon from Samaria is not a particularly religious person. He is a spiritual person. But he wants something good for other people more than many religious people.
Do you want to do good for other people?
You can’t buy your way there. “Simon offered them money.” (verse 18) but Peter rebuked him saying, “you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.” Simon didn’t realize how much of a jerk he was. Peter said this was wicked and he was captive to sin.
You and I can’t buy the gift of God with money. Why?
Because someone else has already bought the gift of God for us. Not with money. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay for all the wickedness that you and I do. He could buy it with his holy and precious blood. Let me give you this illustration.
One time a young freshman student at college sat next to a 26-year-old single mother trying to get her degree. The two started to talk about the grace and mercy of Christ in the cross. He didn’t know it at the time, but she really needed. She wasn’t just a single mom but she was having an affair. The student and some other guys would go over and babysit her child and try to talk with her. A friend was in a band playing at a church in the area and they invited her to hear him. She agreed.
The minister got up and said we would talk about sexual activity. He had this red rose. That was his object lesson. He said you, pure, undefiled are this rose. He smelled it, he looked it at. He said it’s beautiful and smells wonderful. He threw it out in the crowd and told them to smell the rose. He then began one of these terrible, horrific handlings of what sexual activity is and isn’t. It was one of those were the pastor screams at the listeners saying, “Do you want get diseases?”
He was thinking there with this mom next to him. “What are you doing?” As the minister wrapped up, he asked, “Where’s my rose?” Some kid brought the rose back and it was broken, leaves shredded, and almost all the petals pulled off. His point was to hold up the rose and say, “Who would want this rose?”
The student, he was filled with anger. He couldn’t shout. But he said quietly, “Jesus wants the rose!”
The illustration makes us realize...we really are badly off. We might want to be beautiful. We might want to smell lovely. We might want to feel velvety smooth like the petals of a rose. We might want to bring a smile to people’s face, like a beautiful bouquet of roses on mother’s day. Speaking of which, mother’s day coming. Don’t forget.) But we don’t!
We’re ragged, we’re tattered. We’re broken. We’re ripped apart. We can blame it on others and say, they won’t let us help them. But it’s really because we are so much more of a mess than we’d like to admit.
Jesus wants the rose. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/a-shepherd-and-his-unregenerate-sheep, accessed 12/08/2018).
It is absolutely true that you cannot get the gift of the Holy Spirit apart without repenting. If you can’t say, Lord, for all my talk of doing good, I really don’t do. I’m sorry for this. … If you can’t say that, you won’t get the Holy Spirit. And it is even more true that there is absolutely nothing you can pay.
Jesus paid the price.
The great value of Jesus is that he gives his life “for us”. What does that little word “for” mean? Let me expand on this illustration of the rose a little bit.
If I was a gardener and I had a beautiful garden of roses, there are all kinds of ways I could work for those roses. I could simply devote my life to the care of the roses. I water them. I prune them. I fertilize them. Another way I could work for the roses, I could actually work to get the roses. I could sneak into the garden late one night and sneak one out. I’d be working for the rose. If a rose got smashed and trampled on, I could prune it or maybe even dig it out and cut it back. I could put it in a special pot and help it start over. If I wanted to go really far, if a storm was coming one night, I could go out there and put my body over the roses.
The one thing I would never do is take the place of the roses. If a storm swept through that garden and broke all those roses, I could never putting on little rose petals and standing in the middle of the garden.
In the greatest act of love known, Jesus doesn’t just prune and correct you and I. He doesn’t just give us a fresh start if we get trampled down. He doesn’t just cover us with his body and shelter us. He actually gets planted in the garden. In our place. He puts on the thorns. He gets ripped apart and shredded by the storm. He gets crushed. He dies. He comes back to life. And he grows to restart the garden. For us. In our place.
This is the way to get your right and do good. (“You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God” (verse 21)
That word “right” doesn’t mean “righteousness” or “rightness” or goodness” like it often does in the Bible. The word “right” here means “straight” or “direct”.
Jesus says the more you see that I was the guy who paid the price... the more you see that I’m guy who brings life. The more I will set your heart straight.
He wants a personal relationship with you. Every other founder of a major religion died and just left you his teaching. That’s all you can do. Follow the teaching and try to figure out how to straighten out your life.
Jesus has died and risen so you can follow him personally. If you pray, you’re not talking to some dead guy. Give him real prayers. Repent. Get beneath the surface. Let him straighten you out.
If you worship, you’re not worship a king from an old story. You are worshiping the living Lord of the universe. Pour out your heart before him. Hold nothing back!
When you love, you aren’t just following the rules. He is loving through you. Feel his power coursing through your veins. Let his heart make you alive.
That’s your great heart.
You’ve got a great heart to play your part
Action
So friends, if we’re getting great hearts, let’s get to some good around here. That’s the next small step we can take.
If we’ve asked, “What is God saying to me and what am I going to do about” and we’ve asked, “What is Jesus saying to me in his Word”, what you and I can be sure of is that we’re guided by more than just our little ideas and dreams.
We’ve been set straight by the risen Lord Jesus. I know a few weeks ago some of you were asking, hey, where did this ramp thing come from? Why are we installing these ramps? That happened because someone around here was asking that question, what good can we do around here? And others of you remember last year when we sent out cards to a lot of people and made the huge heart on the wall. Again, a couple of people said, “what good can we do around here?”
Unlike Simon, we aren’t buying a great heart. Our hearts been bought and paid for. We’ve got a great heart to play our part.