WWUTT 2601 What is Simony (Acts 8:25)

Simony and the Sin of Buying Spiritual Things

When Simon the Magician tried to purchase the Holy Spirit from the apostles, Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you. This was not unique to Simon. It's a practice that still happens today when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter eight, still reading about Philip. And this week we're gonna be studying that account of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch.

So let me read that whole account from verses 25 to 40. Here, the word of the Lord. So when they had solemnly borne witness and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem and were proclaiming the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. So he rose up and went and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.

And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the spirit said to Philip, go over and join his chariot. And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, well, how could I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this. As a sheep is led to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.

In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will recount his generation for his life is removed from the earth? And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this?

Of himself or of someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. And as they went along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized?

And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he ordered the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized him.

When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away and the eunuch no longer saw him but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through, he kept proclaiming the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

The Gospel Going to Samaria and the Ends of the Earth

Now you might notice in the section that we just read verses 25 to 40, that it begins and ends with proclaiming the gospel in many cities. In verse 25, they bore witness, speaking the word of the Lord and were proclaiming the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Talking about the apostles there in the region of Samaria. And then at the very close, Philip is at Azotus and he kept walking through that area, proclaiming the gospel in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

So at the beginning and end of this particular narrative, we have the proclamation of the gospel. And of course, the Holy Spirit uses Philip to speak specifically to this Ethiopian eunuch. And this is another account of how the message of the gospel is going beyond Judah.

So at the start, we had Philip proclaiming the gospel in Samaria. That's what we've read in Acts 8, verses 1 through 24. And now Philip is proclaiming the gospel to an Ethiopian, a Gentile, and it doesn't get more Gentile than an Ethiopian from a totally different continent.

And here he was reading the prophet Isaiah. He had been worshiping in Jerusalem. Philip explains to him who the passage is about. And the eunuch becomes a believer in Jesus Christ and is baptized. And so this chapter, Acts 8, bears witness to the gospel going out to the Samaritans and even to the Gentiles.

Though a further proclamation to Gentiles and evidencing the receiving of the Holy Spirit doesn't happen until we get to Acts 10. But Luke still provides this account for us so that we may see the gospel is now going to the ends of the earth, just as Jesus commissioned his disciples to take it.

In Acts 1, what was that? Verse 8, you will be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth. So we have here the testimony of the gospel that's gone to Samaria.

And though the disciples have not yet made it to the end of the earth, Philip is testifying to a man that is clearly of the Gentiles, even of a different ethnicity. His skin, like you would know right away, this man is not from around here.

And in fact, even in the court, he is a court official of royalty from another nation as well. So we'll be looking at this account of the ministry that Philip does with this Ethiopian. Today, we're primarily gonna be looking at the ministry that continues.

So we'll look at the bookends, part of it, verses 25 and 40. But then tomorrow, we'll see the divine appointment that's given to Philip to go and visit with this Ethiopian eunuch. And that's in verses 26 to 30.

And then we want to consider even more deeply the gospel explained and received. And that will be verses 31 to 39. So the, and that includes, of course, the passage that Philip explains to the Ethiopian.

We will consider that together. You also may have written in your Bible, either that verse 37 doesn't exist, or you may have in your Bible, that verse is put in brackets. Well, that verse does not belong in the earliest manuscripts or it's not found in the earliest manuscripts.

It was an addition that was made later. Why is that? And should we consider it a part of this particular narrative? Was it inspired by the Holy Spirit? We'll consider that also when we get to that particular verse.

Maybe as I was reading it, especially if you're reading from the ESV, you may have noticed, if you're reading along, that verse 36 jumps to verse 38 and verse 37 isn't there. But if you're reading from the NASB or from the legacy, then that verse is put in brackets.

And then you may have another translation. I think the New King James does this where there could be a footnote. So you'll have like a number next to it. And in the footnote, it says, this verse is not found in the earliest manuscript.

So you may have a translation that says that as well. What's up with that? Yeah, we'll get to that later. But let's come back up to verse 25. So when they had solemnly borne witness and spoken the word of the Lord, who are we talking about here?

Well, we're talking about the apostles that had come up to Samaria to share the gospel there when it was told to them what had happened. Philip had gone there and was preaching the gospel and performing many miracles.

And remember, all of this had happened right after the martyrdom of Stephen. The church is being persecuted and they scatter. They go to areas where persecution is not yet taking place. Now, of course we see, and we'll see this happen even as Acts continues, the further the gospel goes out, the further the persecution that follows it.

Paul would even have people following him from one town to the next because he'd proclaim the gospel here. They would persecute him. He would go to the next town. People from the previous town would follow him there and try to stir the people up against him so he would not continue spreading the gospel.

So as the gospel spreads, so will persecution. But in this particular case, Philip has gone to the Samaritans and they have received the gospel with zeal. They love it. There was great joy in that city, it said back up in verse eight.

And then there was also the account of Simon the magician who saw Philip doing what he was doing and he was very captivated by this. The scripture says he became a believer but was not truly a believer.

I mean, we can understand this from the text that though he became a believer and was baptized, he wasn't a convert. He was a false convert. So he comes to the apostles. Once Peter and John get there and they're performing miracles and laying hands on people and they're receiving the Holy Spirit.

And there's a sign, there's an evidence that they are receiving the Holy Spirit. Once Simon sees that, he wants the Holy Spirit for himself. He wants this power too so that he can lay hands on others and they will receive the Holy Spirit.

Of course, we know from what the narrative tells us is that Simon the magician is only in this for himself. He doesn't really want the Holy Spirit of God. He just wants another power to continue his influencer ministry.

This is like the influencer of his day before there was a social media influencers. So this was what Simon was doing. And Peter rebuked him. Once he came up to Peter and said, give me this authority and he tried to pay for it.

He wanted to give money so that he could get the Holy Spirit so that everyone on whom I lay my hands, he said, may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, verse 20, may your silver perish with you because you supposed you could obtain the gift of God with money.

I was thinking about this recently because in some of the things that I read on social media, on X in particular, there are several people that are pointing out that if you want to go get baptized at an Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, et cetera, if you want to get baptized in an Eastern Orthodox church, you got to pay for it.

And it could be a significant amount of money. It looks like about the average is something around $250. 250 bucks to go get baptized at an Eastern Orthodox church. Even worse is that the Eastern Orthodox teach, you have to be baptized in order to be saved.

So they're basically selling salvation. Pay me 250 bucks and you can go to heaven. And I was thinking about that. Some of the amounts get higher than that. There was another person that shared with me an Eastern Orthodox church that was charging $1 ,000.

And when I said something about this, somebody fired back at me. Well, no, the baptism is free, but there are other costs involved. Like you got to pay for the facility. You got to pay for the priest who does the liturgy and all this other kind of thing.

And I'm like, I have never charged for a baptism. Nobody's ever paid me extra money to go baptize somebody. I think the only thing that I ever have asked to be paid for is a speaking engagement at another church.

I think that's it. And it was just to cover my expenses. And I don't even really do that anymore. If I can, if the church that I am a pastor of now even provides enough for me that I don't have to ask for payment for anybody else, I'd be willing to go anywhere for free.

But sometimes the church that I go to, they're just kind, they're hospitable, and they're willing to put forward some money that covers my expenses or take me out to eat or something like that. I used to charge.

That was when I was younger and not as wise. We'll just say that. But there was more that I used to say that I wanted. I think a lot of that actually stems from when I was an independent musician. And so I did have kind of a fee, to come sing, it's 500.

If you want me to bring my band, it's 1 ,000. And that was what it was 20 years ago. It's going to cost more than that. It's cost that much to fill up my tank now with where gas costs are. But anyway, so I don't even charge for anything.

I won't charge for a funeral. I won't charge for a wedding, let alone for a baptism. But if you want to get baptized in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which again teaches you must be baptized to be saved, you could probably be paying $1 ,000 or more to go to heaven.

It's absurd. And I thought of this when I was seeing some of those things that were going around in the circles that I'm in on social media. I thought of exactly this. Simon's response, sorry, Peter's response to Simon the Magician.

Peter is Simon as well, but yeah, I don't want to get the Simons mixed up. Anyway, Peter's reply to Simon the Magician, "'May your silver perish with you, "'because you supposed you could obtain "'the gift of God with money.'".

And I would say the same thing to an Eastern Orthodox. It wants to charge somebody to be baptized in order that they may be saved. I mean, first of all, the doctrine is bad that you're teaching them that they're not saved unless they get dunked in water, which in the Eastern Orthodox, it's not even full immersion anyway.

And then to say to them, you have to pay for it, to require that in order for them to be saved. And then to try to excuse it by saying, "'Oh, well, you're not paying for your baptism. "'You're just paying for the person "'that's administering the baptism.'".

Oh, well, that's better. May your silver perish with you. What an awful thing that there are people out there who are charging this. Do you know what this is called, by the way? Do you know what the word for this is?

It's simony, S-I-M-O-N-Y. Do you know where that word comes from? This account in Acts chapter eight, it's named after Simon Magus, who tried to purchase the power to bestow the Holy Spirit onto others.

Simony is an ecclesiastical crime, meaning that it has to do with the church or utilizing the church to prey on others. It's the ecclesiastical crime of buying or selling spiritual things, such as church offices, sacraments or ordinances, or holy relics.

It's simony. And you will find this is a thriving business in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. A person cannot even be saved unless they're baptized, according to those traditions, but you gotta pay for it.

And by pay for it, literally money. Fork over the cash. May your silver perish with you because you supposed you could obtain the gift of God with money. Simon had said to Peter, pray earnestly for me so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

We don't see any evidence of repentance from Simon. So as far as we know from the narrative, he perished with his silver. But then after Simon goes away, that was what we had finished up last week, verse 24.

After he goes away, verse 25, when they had solemnly borne witness and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem. So the apostles continued to proclaim there in Samaria, the gospel message that Philip started by preaching.

Peter and John continue on with that. And after they're done preaching there in Samaria, they start back to Jerusalem. Remember, they were in Jerusalem. When they heard about what was going on in Samaria, they came up to Samaria.

So now they're starting back to Jerusalem. That's kind of a base of operation for all of the apostles. And then Paul is gonna come along and he's gonna become an apostle to the Gentiles. That's chapter nine.

We're not there yet. We'll get to that next week. So they were proclaiming the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans, going to village after village, proclaiming the gospel just as we saw happening in John chapter four.

So if you'll remember there, that's the account of where Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, at Sychar. That was the name of the town that was right there next to Jacob's well. They come into Samaria, which was unheard of for most Jews to do.

They tried to bypass Samaria entirely, even though Galilee is north of there. So you'd have to go through Samaria in order to get to Galilee or back down to Judah. But there were a lot of Jews that tried to avoid that route.

They would go the long way around because they didn't want to encounter Samaritans. So for the Jews, the Samaritans were just considered to be unclean. We're not going to associate with them in any way.

And here's Jesus and his disciples going deliberately through Samaria, exactly so this encounter could take place with Jesus talking to that woman at the well. She goes and runs into the city, says, I think this man may be the Messiah, come and listen to him.

And then an entire village gets saved because of the gospel that was proclaimed there. So the disciples have already witnessed this. They've already been a part of it. And so of course, Peter and John are happy to oblige and come up to Samaria preaching the word again to even more people than they had witnessed to previously at Sychar.

They go to many villages of the Samaritans proclaiming the gospel. And here we see the fulfillment of what Jesus said in the great commission in Acts chapter one, that you will be my witnesses, not just in Jerusalem, but even in Samaria.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Now, after this, we'll continue on to read about Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch. And we get to that tomorrow. We get to that narrative once again tomorrow. Who is this Ethiopian eunuch? Who is Candace, queen of the Ethiopians?

What is the significance of including this account? And what are we supposed to know and understand from this? We'll continue in Acts chapter eight tomorrow. But let us remember and be humble before the Lord.

Praising him for the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. A gift of salvation that is free. It does not cost us anything. And as somebody came to us preaching the gospel so that we could be saved, may we take it to others so that others may hear the gospel and they too may come to salvation, be reconciled to God and have everlasting life with Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Heavenly father, we thank you for the love that you have demonstrated to us through Christ who came and died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead for our justification so that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Guide us in your truth. We ask in Jesus name, amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand The Text.