Acts Bible Study: Day 13
Today’s passage: Acts 8:4–25
Focus verse: You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. (Acts 8:21)
Remember how Jesus’s followers scatter after the Jews kill Stephen? Philip goes to Samaria. In Jesus’s name, he does amazing supernatural things.
He heals people who can’t walk and exorcises evil spirits from others. Because of this, the people pay attention to what he says. The city fills with joy over what God does through Philip.
But not all that’s supernatural is good.
We learn this from a man named Simon. We call him Simon the Sorcerer. He also lives in Samaria. He’s an accomplished wizard and impresses everyone with the amazing feats he performs.
Simon boasts in his witchcraft abilities and claims to be someone great. All the people in this town think highly of him and his supernatural power. They’ve followed him for some time.
When Philip shows up, things change. The people listen to what he says. They believe in Jesus and the kingdom of God. To confirm their belief, they’re baptized.
Even Simon believes and is baptized. Impressed with Philip’s supernatural power, Simon follows him everywhere.
Hearing what’s happening in Samaria, Peter and John show up to check things out. They pray for the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit, because they had only been baptized in Jesus’s name.
When Peter and John place their hands on the Samaritan believers, they receive the Holy Spirit too, just like what happened at Pentecost.
When Simon sees how the touch of Peter and John imparts the Holy Spirit to others, Simon wants this ability too. He offers to buy this power, no doubt eager to add it to the supernatural abilities he’s learned as a sorcerer.
He doesn’t understand.
He wants to combine spiritual practices that shouldn’t be comingled—that can’t merge. The Holy Spirit has no part in sorcery. The two don’t mix. They’re mutually exclusive.
The spiritual practices of following Jesus stand alone. Adding other supernatural pursuits don’t enhance the journey as a disciple of Jesus. Instead they distract from it.
Even worse, Simon wants to buy Holy Spirit power. But the Holy Spirit is not for sale. Remember, the Holy Spirit is a gift sent to Team Jesus from Papa. Emphasis on gift.
Peter knows this. He harshly condemns Simon. Simon believes in Jesus and was baptized, but his heart isn’t right. He’s not fit for ministry.
“Repent of your wickedness,” Peter says. “Beg God to forgive you, because I see that you’re not right with him and headed in the wrong direction.”
Implicitly Simon does repent when he asks Peter to pray for him. However, Luke doesn’t record the outcome of Peter’s prayer. This leaves us to speculate on Simon’s fate.
Questions:
- Are there unbiblical spiritual practices that we have wrongly added to our faith in Jesus?
- In what ways have we tried to buy God’s favor?
[Discover more about sorcery in Deuteronomy 18:10, Deuteronomy 18:14, Malachi 3:5, Acts 13:6–12, and Acts 19:19.]
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Read more about the book of Acts in Acts Bible Study: Discover How the Early Church Can Inform What We Do Today, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
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Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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