(Subtitle because I was indecisive: Are You Looking For Christmas Magic To Save You?)
GIST: If in your heart you love yourself more than God, it doesn’t matter how good you look on the outside; you’re still lost.
SCRIPTURE: Acts 8:9-25
Merry Christmas! I absolutely love this time of the year. I look forward to nearly everything about it, so it’s such a blessing to be able to celebrate with all of you today. Yet, we know, what makes this time of year truly so special isn’t the lights and the general goodwill, as nice as they are, but Jesus. Without Him, any hope we try to celebrate would be completely manufactured and entirely powerless to actually effect any meaningful change. However, knowing the Gospel--Jesus, God in human flesh, coming in the form of a baby, living a perfect life, and dying in our place, taking our punishment, then rising again offering salvation to all who belief and put their full trust in Him--that’s hope!
Now, let’s just address the elephant in the room real quick. The passage we’re coming to this morning is not a traditional Christmas passage. In fact, I really considered switching gears here and taking a break from our study in Acts for this service. Nonetheless, every time I’ve considered that in the past, I always end up coming back to the passage we would have been coming to anyway because God is far wiser than me. Therefore, I trust that this is where we need to be this morning, and even if it does not at first appear to be “Christmassy”, I think upon closer examination, it will be evident that it is exactly the message many of us need to hear...especially on Christmas.
Last week, we saw how persecution led to the expanse of grace--as Christians were forced from Jerusalem and carried the message of Jesus’ salvation with them. Today, we’re going to see the effect this had specifically on one man in Samaria.
"9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called Great." 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. 14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, "Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." 20 But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." 24 And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." 25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.”
Packaged within this story of the expansion of the early Church, we have a stern warning to those going through the motions of belief, but in reality putting themselves before Jesus. That right there makes this a relevant Christmas message. Part of what makes this time of year so magical is the general expectation of happiness and good cheer. In our culture, this often gets associated with doing good things like...coming to a Christmas service. However, what we see here is pretty straight forward (and this is our gist for this morning): If in your heart you love yourself more than God, it doesn’t matter how good you look on the outside; you’re still lost.
Let’s walk through the passage, and then we’ll close with a few takeaways.
I. IF YOU’RE A LOVER OF SELF
The individual who comes to the forefront of this passage is a man named Simon. He becomes our example of false faith. So, let’s start by looking at→
The Original Condition (9-11) of his life. In verses 9-11, we’re introduced to a well known and influential magician. In fact, other ancient historical texts also record information about this man, and he appears to have been a sort of celebrity. People knew him...and he loved that! Noticed that he “amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great”. He wanted people to think highly of him...and because of the magic he was performing, they did. In fact, they were enthralled by him. They were amazed and gave him their attention. They even called him “the power of God that is called Great” which means they regarded him as a powerful being someone on level of an angel or one of the many ancient pagan false-gods. This is the treatment he was used to until→
The Disruption of Grace (12-17) Philip came to town preaching the good news about Jesus--that we’re sinners who need salvation and Jesus is the only Savior--and the town gets flipped upside down. There was a change because grace doesn’t leave things alone. When people heard this message, they paid attention, believed, and were baptized! The attention they formerly gave to Simon, they were giving, not to Philip, but to the truth he was proclaiming. Caught up in the excitement and blown away by the miracles performed by Philip, even Simon claims to believe and goes through with baptism.
After this, Peter and John come to down to see what’s going on here and end up praying for the Holy Spirit to fall on these people. This might seem like an odd passage at first glance because we know that receiving the Holy Spirit is exactly what happens when you’re saved: you are filled with the Holy Spirit as you give God control of your life. However, this is not expressing that these people were not yet saved. Instead, this is used as a confirmation that the God who is changing lives in Samaria is the same God who has been saving lives in Jerusalem. Remember, previously these two groups had hated each other. This was all about unity! Remember, grace changes things. This whole culture is being revolutionized! This wasn’t the establishment of just a Samaritan version of Christianity. This was God continuing to move!
It’s in that context, however, that we see→
The True Heart Revealed (18-19) Seeing this, Simon assumes the apostles have magic tricks like him...just better, so he offers to buy the trick off them. Here we see his true heart. His interest in Jesus’ salvation was power driven. He saw the tides changing, and he wanted to stay on top of them. He didn’t want Jesus, he wanted his praise and power back!
II. YOU’RE STILL LOST--REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCE
In case there is any doubt about Simon’s condition, let’s look at the→
The Rebuke (20-21) he receives from Peter. In fact, let’s just read that again, “20 But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” The words he’s using here are very stern. Basically, he’s saying Simon is... hell bound. He has no part in this salvation because his heart is seeking self instead of Jesus! He doesn’t mince words. But, he doesn’t leave him there either. Instead, he goes on to point to→
The Need (22-25) He needs to repent. His heart is stuck in sin, and he needs to turn from that and be forgiven. This is the gospel! Jesus came not just to condemn, but to forgive! We need a savior, and He came to save. Simon didn’t see his need; he just wanted to keep his fame. So, Peter calls him to repent or face the consequences. This isn’t a scare tactic; it’s just reality. And...it jars Simon. He asks them to pray for him. While this request in itself is not evil, it is flawed because their prayers would not save him. He needed to pray. He needed to repent. And here, we don’t see that he did that. We just see that the apostles went on preaching the gospel because this is the need of everyone, and he’s left in his condition of unrepentant despair.
To wrap this up, I want to quickly look at→
The Contrast of Belief (35-39) I don’t want to go too far into next week’s passage, but I do want to close with this contrast. After leaving Samaria, Philip is led to a one-on-one encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch. While we’ll talk about him more next week, for now I want to point out that this man responded to the same gospel as Simon, but his response was quite different.
“... 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" ... 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing."
Here’s the difference. One wanted to keep what he had (power/influence/praise), and one wanted to be changed! The eunuch left praising God. Simon wanted to be praised as a god and left this passage condemned. Where do you stand?
TAKEAWAYS
Ok, so what does this possibly have to do with Christmas? Let’s just wrap up with a few quick takeaways that I feel are especially relevant this time of year.
1. Jesus came as the ultimate “self-disruptor”! Our natural state is to look out for our own interests, but He won’t leave you to your selfishness without conviction. He’s come to flip your life upside down because it needs flipped.
2. Motions are meaningless if pride remains our purpose. We’re here. Good! But does it mean anything? Simon went through the motions, but was not changed. How about you?
3. True joy comes from praising the true King! You’re not the Lord of your life--but He is! There is purpose. There is meaning. It comes from Jesus and Him alone!
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