The coming of fall announces the arrival of football, the World Series, school, a new allergy season, and a new TV season. Many of us have waited all summer to see the outcome of our favorite TV show’s cliffhanger ending.
Returning to TV this year is a show that features the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) line, “You’re fired.” It comes from the lips of Donald Trump on the reality show The Apprentice. It is a show about power.
(The show is about a group of adults chosen to work on projects assigned by Donald Trump. As the series progresses, the participants are weeded out one by one, and the winner is given a chance to run one of Trump’s companies.)
This past Tuesday, I watched most of an episode on CNBC. The two teams, the men’s and the women’s, were given a new assignment to create an ad for Lamborghini, makers of one of those fast and expensive Italian sports cars.
From the start, the men’s project manager was at odds with one of the men who had been the previous project manager on the last episode. The result was that due to this conflict and the neglect of this relationship, this new project manager heard the words, “You’re fired!”
This past Monday was our annual state general assembly. The featured speaker was Dr Robert Duhlin, who pastors the Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit. His presentation was entitled, ‘Leadership in the Community of God,’ and he said this about leadership, ‘Leadership is about who we are as people and how we handle power, authority, and rejection.’
Power is also an issue in our text, which also includes verses 9 through 25 of Acts 8, for this morning. It is about a grab for power that is rejected because it is about the purpose of power in God’s plans and not our own.
I remind us that Jesus’ call to witness was a call to do so in ‘Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ‘ends of the earth.’ Last week, we encountered Stephen, a man ‘full of faith and the Holy Spirit’ whose death through stoning caused the church to scatter and leave Jerusalem.
This morning our text introduces us to a man named Simon, who is the opposite of Stephen, and who seeks to gain a power that you cannot buy.
The beginning of our text this morning finds, as was shared last week, that because of the persecution which began following the death of Stephen, the early believers leave Jerusalem and scatter into the surrounding areas and beyond. And as Luke calls our attention to Philip, (‘For example,’ as we read in verse 5); Luke is giving his readers a concrete example of how the gospel spreads into the region. And it is an interesting and important example because it is an illustration of what kind of opposition and issues were to be encountered as the faith spread; opposition and issues that are the same today.
We notice as we read that Philip gained credibility as he, through the power of God, performed miracles of healing and deliverance as indicated in verses 6 through 8. Credible testimony of a changed life is the greatest testimony to the power of God. This pattern would be repeated as we read the rest of Acts and the New Testament that gives us some more background information especially the books written by Paul to specific churches, which are mentioned in Acts.
None of this was lost on one person who had a stake in what was going on because his power was threatened. His name was Simon and some Bible scholars have suggested over the years that Simon became the chief leader of a group who held views about God and faith that was considered ‘dissenting’ or incorrect by the larger church.
Yet as we met Simon for the first time, we are told in verse 9 that he was a ‘sorcerer…claiming to be someone great.’ In other words he was a magician who (verse 11) ‘was very influential because of the magic he performed.’
Simon had influence over the Samaritans to which Philip had now come, because he had power. It was not the power of God but it was some kind of power.
Some would say that it was Satanic power because of the magic involved and we dare not discount this view because it does it exist. Others would say that it was power that came with ‘slight of hand’ ability.
Yet, because Simon performed magic of some kind at some level, he had power because he had influence over the people. We encounter such people today.
Some have power because of their financial insight and ability. They know how to make (and keep) money and because they do, they have power. But there is more to life than money.
Others have power because of their knowledge and expertise in a given field. When they talk, we listen and they have power. But there is more to life than knowledge and expertise.
Simon is representative of many people who seek, and hold, all kinds of power, except one kind of power – the power of God to change lives. Even then, there are those such as Simon who seek to appropriate God’s power for their own benefit.
As we continue our walk, we find in verse 13, ‘Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the great miracles and signs Philip performed.’
I really hate to admit this but this verse forces a question to be asked. ‘Do we really know what we are getting ourselves into when we are saved?’
This verse forces me to look at my motives for following Jesus because there is a link between action and motive in verse 13. The action is Simon’s conversion and baptism but the motivation of fascination in the power of God that Philip displays is still there. Where was Simon’s heart directed? Was it toward the Lord or toward the power of God that was displayed by Philip?
When you decided to be saved, to confess your sins to God and ask for forgiveness, why did you do it?
Was it because you wanted to avoid what Gil Stafford calls ‘the eternal no?’
Was it because you wanted to see so-and-so again in heaven?
Was it because everybody else was going forward and you did not want to look bad?
Was it because you thought this is ‘in’ thing to do?
I have shared this before and I share it again. I like what Patrick Morley says about the tendency to ‘add’ Christ to our life but fail to realize that to do so requires us to ‘subtract’ something as well.
Think about it this way; it was 23 years ago this past Wednesday that I proposed to Susan. It would also have been my father’s 74th birthday had he lived.
I was in love with Susan (still am). But I also admit that I was in love with the idea of marriage and had no idea what it truly meant. I am still learning how to be married to Susan.
One cold, crisp, clear, and snowy January morning nearly 40 years ago now, I knelt at altar and asked Jesus into my life. It was a profound experience. However, I had no idea what the next 40 years would bring and I had no idea ‘what it meant to be a Christian.’ I am still learning what it means to follow Jesus.
Simon had no clear idea what it meant to follow Jesus, and I think that he also was in love with the power that Philip demonstrated for the wrong reasons. It got him in trouble and it can get us in trouble as well when we get our eyes off the Lord and on to something else.
Please hear me at this point; I am not trying to get any of us to doubt our salvation experience for God truly knows what is in our hearts and motives when we for the first time experiencing the saving grace of God. But, what I am trying to say, and Simon illustrates this in the next segment of our main text, is that our motives and reasons for following Jesus must change and mature over the years as we grow in our faith. We need to be ‘childlike’ in our faith but as Paul writes in I Corinthians 13, ‘When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.’
This is what Simon would need to do as we come to verse 18. But we need to back up to verse 14 and pay attention to some important things.
News of what is happening through Philip’s ministry gets back to the church leadership in Jerusalem and they send Peter and John to find out what is going on and bring back a report. As we read in verse 15 through 17 Peter and John help, bring these new believers from an initial experience of salvation to the deepening and necessary work of the Holy Spirit.
The church term for this work of the Spirit is called ‘sanctification.’ Now it is not about decaffeinated coffee. It is about a maturing and deepening faith. It is about a greater obedience and commitment to God. It is about the further development of our character as evidenced by the ‘Fruits of the Spirit,’ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.’
It is also about empowerment to do the work of God through the power of God because Jesus, as we heard at the beginning of Acts, links the mission of God with the arrival and empowerment of the Spirit. These new believers needed the empowerment of the Spirit to get involved in the mission of the church – the witness of everywhere!
Simon included…
Power is seductive and addictive, but in our text, we find out that the power of God cannot be bought because it is God’s power for His use to accomplish His mission and purpose. Simon would learn this important truth very quickly.
Verses 18 and 19, ‘When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people’s heads, he offered to buy this power. ‘Let me have this power, too,’ he exclaimed, ‘so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!’
Simon had some growing to do here and Peter saw a grave danger and condition that needed to be addressed. It could be called the seduction of the ‘dark side.’
And I can think of no better illustration of such seduction than that of Anakin Skywalker in the last Star Wars movie to be released. Slowly turned to hate and grabbing power to express his pain and anger, Anakin literally becomes the sub-human Darth Vader. As I left the movie that night I thought, ‘All of us are Anakin. All of us are capable of becoming a ‘Darth Vader.’
Simon was in danger of sliding backwards into the darkness because he was more interested in the power of God than in God Himself. We are in danger of the same seduction.
Peter, no stranger to the issues of the ‘dark side,’ speaks to him sharply as we read in verses 20 through 23, “But Peter replied, “May your money perish with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought! You have no part in this, for your heart is not right before God. Turn form your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see that you are full of bitterness and held captive by sin.”
Simon’s focus was on the wrong thing. Where is your focus at this morning?
Let me put it another way: What do you love? What do you love?
Do you love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
Or, do you love the power of God? What about the benefits of the God?
This is something that I am learning to understand more clearly: I am learning the importance of loving God, period, and learning to be grateful for what He has done for me. I don’t think that I am ‘splitting hairs’ on this point.
God wanted Simon to experience His grace and forgiveness but He also wanted Simon to love Him and not love what He could do for Him or His power. The same holds true for us.
As we come to end of our text, we notice that Simon expresses some fear and regret, “Pray to the Lord for me,’ Simon exclaimed, ‘that these terrible things won’t happen to me!’ His power grab caught nothing but thin air and rebuke.
Power, and all the perks that goes with it, comes and power, and all the perks that goes with it, goes and I am reminded of this in a humorous way in the autobiography of Colin Powell who related an incident that takes place the day after he retires from active duty as Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
‘I woke up the next morning without the benefit of an alarm clock for the first time in memory,’ writes Powell. ‘I got dressed in slacks, a polo shirt, and a pair of loafers, ambled down to the kitchen of the home we had bought in the Washington suburbs, and joined Alma for breakfast. I was embarking on a full-time job I had been moonlighting at for years, husband.’
Alma looked up from her coffee. ‘The sink’s stopped up,’ she said. ‘It’s leaking all over the floor.’
No problem, I thought. I’ll call the post engineer. Then I remembered. What post engineer? I spent my first civilian morning crouched under a dripping sink. The Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs had become Harry Homeowner.’ Then he said this, ‘When I stepped from four stars to civilian, overnight my personal staff of ninety disappeared.’
What Colin Powell was left with was an important relationship – his marriage – and his love for his wife, and later on as you read, his family. He would take time out of the limelight to make time for them. He would leave power behind.
Do you love God? How is your relationship with the Lord this morning? Are you seeking God alone and not the benefits of God, which He gives us in His grace and mercy?
Our call to witness in our Jerusalems, Judeas, Samarias, and the ends of our world, is call to serve through the power of God in us and through us. Let us use it well and wisely because we cannot buy it and we cannot control it. Amen.
Sources: My American Journey, by Colin Powell. © Ballantine Books 1995. Page 576
