WWUTT 2589 Simon Tries to Buy the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-24)

Simon’s Attempt to Buy the Holy Spirit

Simon Magus sees the apostles bestowing the Holy Spirit upon people, and he wants this authority too. He tries to buy it with money, but he is rebuked by Peter for his sin. When We Understand the Text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter 8, where Philip is in Samaria preaching the gospel, performing many signs and wonders. And he has attracted the attention of a magician named Simon.

Let me pick up where I left off yesterday. So I'm going to start reading in verse 14 and go through verse 24. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For he had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit had been bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you supposed 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 earnestly to 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 unrighteousness.

But Simon answered and said, Pray earnestly to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. So Philip, of course, has been in Samaria. Ever since the persecution of Stephen and the Christians have been scattered, Philip has gone to Samaria to preach the gospel, and he has performed many great signs and wonders.

There was a man there who was a magician named Simon, also known as Simon Magus, which means Simon the Magician. And he was astounding the people, claiming to be someone great. And they all thought that he had the great power of God.

Now as I talked about this yesterday, Simon could have been a snake oil salesman. So he had these tricks that he would do, maybe even giving elixirs to people, and they might work on one or two of them.

And then those people would say, I was sick with this, and he cured me. And so now people think that he's got the power of God. It could also be that he was working with some sort of sleight of hand, just like magicians do today.

It very well could have been the case even 2 ,000 years ago that magicians were operating by these same kinds of tricks. And he could have also been practicing some form of divination. So contacting evil spirits or predicting the future in some way, not really knowing the future, but just like we would see with a lot of charismatics today that will make these proclamations of prophetic predictions.

And they'll make a smattering of predictions. One or two of them will be right. And so then they'll boast in that, look, this really came from God, me being able to do this when all it is is just shotgun prophecies, as I've heard them described.

You just take a shot, one or two of those buck shots is going to hit the target, and the rest just scatters everywhere. So Simon is probably practicing that kind of a thing as well. But the people think he is something amazing.

Simon is witnessing genuine miracles here. So something about that leads me to believe that Simon knows he's a con artist. He knows that he's not really doing what he claims to be able to do. A lot of charismatic preachers out there today will make these declarations or these claims, and they really think they're doing it.

They really do think they have the power to predict the future or heal people or something like that. But then there are others that are just straight up con artists. And some of the examples that I've given of this in the past include Bethel Church in Redding, California, where they do the whole gold dust from the ceiling thing and claim that it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

They know exactly what they're doing. They know it is not a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Somebody is dumping gold glitter from the vents in the ceiling. It is an actual trick. It's a con. Or when they will drop feathers and claim that they're actually angel feathers.

Or there will be some misty cloud from a fog machine, and they'll say it's a glory cloud from the Holy Spirit. They know they are conning people, and the Holy Spirit is not actually appearing in such ways.

Todd White also uses gimmicky things like this, the so-called faith healer from Texas. He will approach somebody on the street and say, hey, the Holy Spirit is telling me one of you has back problems.

Well, it turns out one of them does, and I have back problems. My kids complain about having hurting backs. It's a common part of the body people have pain with. And so then he'll have them sit down, and he'll say, well, see, here's the problem.

Here's why you're having these back problems, because one of your legs is longer than the other one. And he's really just positioning one leg to be slightly like a half inch to an inch longer than the other one.

And then he prays that God will lengthen out the other leg. And really all he's doing is rolling back the ankle to even it with the other leg and make it look like one leg has been grown out to be even with the other one.

And look at this. This Holy Spirit miracle that has been performed right here in our midst. When Todd White knows exactly what he's doing, it's a con. And so that's Simon Magus. He operates in the same kind of a way.

He knows he's a con man, because when he sees Philip doing these actual miracles, he's amazed by it because he knows this is not a trick. Or he could have been studying Philip there for a little while, and it was like, okay, let's see what his sleight of hand trick is.

What is he doing to perform these mighty deeds? But upon studying it, following Philip around, as the text told us, he begins to realize Philip has an actual power. This is truly miraculous, whatever it is that Philip is doing.

And so he comes to believe in Jesus, and even he is baptized and is constantly astounded by what Philip does. All of this before the apostles even arise. So I've given that much kind of lead into the lesson today.

Now let's actually get to the text, verses 14 to 24. And as we look at this, we see this broken up in a few ways. First of all, we have in verses 14 to 17, there is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to be given.

And I'll come back to that. I don't know if you caught it in the text or not, but we'll come back to that here in a moment. But then in verses 18 to 19, there is this profane pursuit of power with Simon wanting this gift that has been given to the people, and he tries to buy it with money.

And then you have the pronouncement of Peter in verses 20 to 24, a pronouncement of judgment. So again, the prayer for the Holy Spirit, verses 14 to 17, the profane pursuit of power in verses 18 to 19, and then the pronouncement of Peter about judgment upon Simon.

That's in verses 20 to 24. So first of all, verses 14 to 17, we see in verse 14 again, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John. And here comes Peter and John again, these two always hanging out.

Remember in John's gospel, he even writes that when Jesus had risen from the dead, it was Peter and John that ran to the tomb first. John even records that, but you're probably aware the way that John writes it in his gospel is that John was a little bit faster than Peter and he got there first.

But the two of them do seem to have quite a brotherly relationship with one another, even to the degree that they're probably a little bit competitive, considering some of the other things that we've read.

But here they come as fellow apostles to Samaria, having heard that they received the word of God. Now, remember that we read earlier in the chapter that when persecution began among the Christians in Jerusalem, that all of the Christians were scattering now throughout Judah and Samaria, Judea and Samaria.

But the apostles stayed in Jerusalem, it said. So they hear about the gospel having come to Samaria, that many people are believing they have received the word of God. So Peter and John have come to see it for themselves.

And verse 15, to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Now that's really important because Peter and John don't just come in there to start willy nilly blessing people with the Holy Spirit.

They're not coming there with this authority and power to lay hands on people and then just give them the Holy Spirit. They pray that the Holy Spirit would fall upon them. Now, if the people have believed and have been baptized, how is it that they don't have the Holy Spirit yet?

I kind of teased this out a little bit yesterday. What we're talking about here is not the salvific giving of the Holy Spirit. Every single one of us, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we have come to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is already upon us. We who have faith in Jesus Christ, everyone who is a follower of Christ has the Holy Spirit. Right? We should understand that about this spiritual baptism that we've all received.

Remember that John the Baptist had said, I baptize you with water, but he who is coming after me, whose sandals I'm not even worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So everyone who believes in Jesus has been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

We all have the Holy Spirit, that washing of the Holy Spirit, as Paul talks about even in Titus chapter three. There is a physical water baptism that we undergo, but we already had the Holy Spirit before we got in the water.

Our baptism signifies that we've been baptized by the Holy Spirit, that we've been buried with Christ in our sins and risen to walk in newness of life. So these people already have the Holy Spirit. The salvific work of the Holy Spirit has already been done.

So what is it that Peter and John are praying for? They're praying for a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. Just like we saw at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, that the apostles had the Holy Spirit come upon them and they were speaking in tongues and going out to the people and doing many great things among them, getting the people's attention before then Peter stands up and proclaims the gospel to them.

So what Peter and John are praying for is that this people would see and know, they would have a tangible experience to know that the Holy Spirit was truly with them. Obviously, the Holy Spirit is with Philip.

He's preaching the gospel and performing these great signs and wonders. But the people want to know and be assured that they have received the Holy Spirit too. And this was so important in the gospel work that was going on in the apostolic ministry at this time, because those Jews that had received the message of the gospel and believed in Christ, they had received the Holy Spirit.

And there was evidence of having received the Holy Spirit. So now that the gospel is gone, not just to Jews, but to Samaritans, Peter and John are praying that God would bless them with an evidential experience so that they would see for themselves that the Holy Spirit was truly with them and was truly upon them.

And as I teased this out yesterday, this is going to be the same case in the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, when the Holy Spirit comes upon the Gentiles, they begin speaking in tongues and then the Jews see it and they say, well, they have received the Holy Spirit too.

So this becomes a testament to others that the gospel has come to the Samaritans, that it's not just for Jews, it's even for Samaritans. And later on, the gospel is even for the Gentiles. So this is for people to see and witness that the Holy Spirit is actually upon them when they are performing signs of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands that had been done by Peter and John.

So going on in verse 18, now, when Simon saw that the spirit had been bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money. So verses 16 to 17, he, the Holy Spirit, had not yet fallen upon any of them, that they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So these are believers, they're Christians, they do have the Holy Spirit, just not in the way that is manifested these signs and wonders among them. So in verse 17, then the apostles began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.

It could be seen now and they could see, yes, the Holy Spirit is with us. And Jews could see the Holy Spirit has come upon them too. And Simon sees this, but Simon doesn't get the Holy Spirit. That's a very interesting thing.

Once again, we had read that Simon himself believed, that was back in verse 13, and he was even baptized and he continued on with Philip. And I think that this account here in Acts chapter eight, this is one of the arguments that I have used or a text that I've used to argue against baptismal regeneration.

So of course, you know, there are many traditions out there, the Lutherans, especially Roman Catholics also believe this, the Eastern Orthodox, but among Protestants, it's especially the Lutherans. There are those who believe that baptism saves, like going underwater and coming back up again is what saves, that that's where you get your salvation from.

Now, the Lutherans would argue that it is a faith infused salvation that is received. So a person that truly believes will be baptized and therefore be saved. But the Lutherans nonetheless argue for baptismal regeneration.

And here we have it being said, Simon believed and was baptized, but he was not transformed, was he? He was not saved. And later on, we even have it from Peter. Your heart is not right before God. Pray that the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

So Simon is not a genuine convert here. He is a man who has believed, he's professed belief in Christ, and he probably really does believe that Jesus rose from the dead and only by faith in him can your sins be forgiven.

But then he's baptized and it doesn't change the condition of his heart, even to the point that the Holy Spirit does not come upon him. So Simon offers the money in verse 18, and then in verse 19, he says, give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

So he wants the power to give the Holy Spirit to others, not just have the Holy Spirit and perform these great signs and wonders, but he wants the authority to grant the Holy Spirit to other people. But consider once again that the apostles prayed for the people to receive the Holy.

Spirit.

They did not even come in there under their own authority, as though they had the ability to just grant the Holy Spirit as they wished. They prayed that it would be God's will that the Holy Spirit would come upon this people.

And so it happened and was confirmed by great signs and wonders. Remember what said in Hebrews 2, 4, God testified with them, talking about the apostles, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

So the gifts of the Holy Spirit are according to the will of God, not even according to the will of the apostles here. They prayed that the Holy Spirit would come upon them and God answered their prayer.

And so now as we've had this attempt, this profane pursuit of power by Simon here in verses 18 and 19, now we have this pronouncement of judgment by Peter in verses 20 to 24, Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you supposed you could obtain the gift of God with money.

And by the way, lest anyone think, well, maybe Simon really was saved. He was just committing an error here. No, Peter says you will perish. You are going to perish because you are not right with God.

Verse 21, you have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God. And this is not just a matter of a Christian having missed, having misstepped somewhere. He took a wrong turn, but he'll get back on the path of righteousness.

This is Peter saying that you are in a state of coming to destruction. That's where you are. May your silver perish with you. Verse 21, I read that one, verse 22, therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray earnestly to the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

Now consider we've had prayer mentioned twice in the passage that we've looked at today. In verse 15, the apostles came and prayed for the Samaritans that they might receive the Holy Spirit. We don't have anything about Simon praying.

Simon tries to buy this authority with money. And so now Peter tells him, you must pray, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray earnestly to the Lord, meaning that he would mean it when he prays to the Lord.

If possible, that the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. So that would even be by the grace of God that Simon would turn from his wicked way to the Lord and seek forgiveness and be saved. That your heart, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

And then Peter says in verse 23, for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bondage of unrighteousness. Now, bitterness in this case isn't referring to Simon's mood, because whenever we use the word bitter about somebody, that's probably what we mean, right?

Why are you so bitter today? Or that person is bitter towards somebody else, or we might talk about bitterness as holding a grudge. But here, bitterness is often used in relation to the unpleasantness of sin.

In Deuteronomy 29, 18, lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood and a similar expression used in Hebrews 12, 15, lest any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you. It's not talking about holding a grudge or being bitter towards somebody, but rather just talk about the unpleasantness of sin and its consequences.

It is ruinous in its character. It's like a poison that comes upon the person who is in their sin rather than in the grace of God. So in this case, Peter is saying, I see that this is your condition. You are still in your sin.

It has not been washed away by your faith, by your baptism, by the Holy Spirit. Simon's conversion has not been genuine. It is a false conversion. And so Peter is telling him that if it would be the Spirit's will that you would repent, then pray.

Pray that it would happen for you, that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. But instead of Simon saying, thank you, and saying that he will pray, look at what his response is in verse 24.

He said, pray earnestly to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. So Simon again thinking, all the authority is with these guys. So maybe if they do it and they say it, then I'll truly be forgiven.

But Simon doesn't actually take it upon himself to come before the Lord and repent and seek forgiveness from God. And so my friends, when it comes to our confession before God, we must be genuine in our confession as well.

And we must put away all bitterness that might be within us and taste sweetly of the Lord who gives us his mercies every morning, new mercies every day. Taste and see that the Lord is good. As we read in Psalm 34 8, how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

And may that be us. May that be said of you, my friends. Put away all sin and every weight that so easily entangles, as said in Hebrews 12, and look to Jesus who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

Genuine Conversion, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit

Heavenly Father, as we have read these things today, I pray that it works out in us this desire for the goodness of God, that we would turn from any wickedness or sin, and we would desire the sweetness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

Every day for us is a treat because we know of what we have been forgiven by faith in Christ. If any sin may come our way, if we stumble in temptation towards sin, we bring it to Christ to be cleansed of all unrighteousness and then lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.