Acts of the Apostles (19)
Introduction
After the apostles had laid hands on the seven men who were to help administer aid to the widows, two of those men come to the forefront as powerful preachers and miracle workers in their own right. We have considered the story of Stephen, who face his martyrdom with remarkable courage and grace. The story of Stephen ended with an introduction of Saul of Tarsus and his early persecuting career, but Luke’s main focus first moves on to a second man among the seven, a man named Philip.
Now remember the “table of contents” from Acts 1. Jesus had said they would travel as His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit was poured out in Jerusalem (Acts 2:2-3), and all the early activity happened there. Then, in the persecution that broke out after Stephen’s death, the believers scattered into Judaea and Samaria (Acts 8:1). And then Luke follows Philip into Samaria (Acts 8:5). We are now at the second stage.
The Text
“Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city . . .” (Acts 8:5–25).
Summary of the Text
Samaria was both a city and a region, and Philip went there to preach Christ (v. 5). It says that the people in that area gave heed to Philip “with one accord,” both hearing and seeing his miracles (v. 6). He cast out unclean spirits and they came out with a loud voice (v. 7). He healed the lame and the palsied (v. 7). As a consequence of his ministry there, the city was overjoyed (v. 8).
Now there was a sorcerer in the city named Simon, bewitching the people, and passing himself off as a great one (v. 9). They used to call him the great power of God (v. 10), and because of his sorcery, they had followed him for a long time (v. 11). But then they believed Philip concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, and both men and women were baptized (v. 12). We learn here that the rite of initiation, unlike the old covenant, is applied to men and women both. Simon also believed, and after he was baptized, he followed Philip around, marveling at the power being displayed (v. 13). The apostles at Jerusalem heard about these events and sent Peter and John (v. 14). When they arrived, they prayed and laid hands on the Samaritans so that they would receive the Holy Spirit (vv. 15, 17). These converts had been baptized in the name of Jesus, but they had not received the Spirit (v. 16). When Simon saw this, he offered them money so that he might be able to bestow the Holy Spirit (vv. 18-19). But Peter said to him, “may your silver be destroyed right along with you—imagine thinking the grace of God could be bought!” (v. 20). He said, “you have no part in this because your heart is not right” (v. 21). He then calls him to repent in the hope that he might be forgiven (v. 22), which was greatly needed because Simon was “in the gall of bitterness and the chains of iniquity” (v. 23). Simon answer meekly, at least on the surface (v. 24). And so Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages as they went (v. 25).
Apostolic Solidarity
What is the central point of this story? Why do the Samaritans not receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John come to lay hands on them? This was not because there was some special power laid up in the apostles, such that without it you couldn’t even be saved. Peek ahead to Acts 15—the single greatest controversy in the early church was whether or not you could even become a Christian without becoming a Jew first. And so here were these despised half-breed Samaritans. God withheld the blessing of the Spirit from them until two of the foremost apostles showed up and demonstrated their solidarity with them. It would be hard to exclude the Samaritans from the fellowship of Christ now—and there would be those who would want to exclude them. After all, apostles had come from Jerusalem and had touched them and then the Spirit touched them.
In short, in the transition from the old covenant (centered in Israel) to the new covenant (to be resident in every people group), God was making sure to get them all off on a unified right foot. Peter, spokesman for the apostles, was present at Pentecost (Acts 2:14), he came to be present here in Samaria (Acts 8:14), and he was divinely summoned to the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius (Acts 10:19-20). This solidarity was really important. Peter’s crucial argument at the Jerusalem council hinges on it (Acts 15:7-11).
This context also helps to explain the fact of baptism in the name of Jesus. Jesus had commanded that all the nations be discipled, baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). But at Pentecost, Peter says to be baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38). And then the same thing happened here—Philip had baptized them in the name of Jesus (Acts 8:12,16). But we need to remember where these people were in this time of covenantal transition. The Jews and Samaritans already had a knowledge of God the Father and the Spirit of God. What they needed to confess was the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12). Pagans out in the world needed to be brought up to speed on everything concerning the one true God. And so our formula for baptizing is correct, but a first century Jew (or Samaritan) being brought into a fuller confession of his faith could be baptized in the name of Jesus, and that circumstance has now passed.
Ethnic animosities are completely natural to the natural man. It is hard to get a carnal man in the grip of this sin even to see that he might be displeasing God. The Jews had “no dealings” with the Samaritans (John 4:9), and the Samaritans were happy to reciprocate (Luke 9:53). And one of the themes of this book of Acts is that of establishing table fellowship between groups that previously would have had nothing to do with each other (Acts 10:28). Remember how eating bread together with Hebrews was an abomination to the Egyptians (Gen. 43:32).
So you are here watching an apostolic battering ram take down centuries of bitterness and enmity in real time. But there is only one way to do this, and His name is Jesus Christ. It cannot be done with any secular humanist nonsense. The Lord’s Table has to be at the center of it. Christian catholicity is not the same thing as secular diversity, equity, and inclusion. The former is the way of God and the latter is a soul-destroying heresy.
Simony
The sin of simony, which means purchasing a church office with money, derives its name from this thwarted attempt by Simon. Simon’s response to Peter’s brusque rebuke is not a belligerent one, but according to some early church fathers, like Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, Simon did come to a bad end later as a false teacher. Some early fathers say that he was the founder of Gnosticism, although this is not certain.
Simon does provide us with our earliest example of a perennial pastoral problem in the church. His conversion was the result of following a hot trend—he had clambered onto a bandwagon. The text says that he also believed (v. 13) along with the other Samaritans, and he was baptized as well (v. 13). So he was a Christian in this sense.
But then, after he tried to buy the gift of imparting the Spirit, Peter curses him. Satan had been attacking the church with outward persecution, which is one of his basic methods, but he was also seeking to corrupt the church from within, which is his other method. This is the second time that internal corruption is attempted, the first one being Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). Both of these attempts had to do with money. Some translations render Peter’s rebuke in really strong language—“may you and your money both go to Hell.” Peter says that Simon’s heart is still all twisted (v. 23). He was a Christian in one sense and not in another. Remember what Paul said at the end of Romans 2 about the man who was a Jew inwardly and the man who was merely an outward Jew (Rom. 2:28-29).
Christ in Truth
But if you try to determine that you are a real Christian by looking to your own perfections, you will be disappointed. You don’t have any. And if you try to determine that you are the real thing by refusing to look at any of your imperfections, you will also be grievously disappointed when you hear that grim sentence—“depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.” So where do you go? Where do you look?
Philip came and he preached Christ to them (v. 5). Philip was preaching the name of Jesus Christ (v. 12). Their baptism had attached the name of Jesus Christ to them (v. 16). Your baptism points to the Lord Jesus Christ and does not point to you and your righteousness. No, it points to Christ, and unlike Simon your faith and life need to point away from yourself and in the same direction—to Christ. Christian baptism does not point at a regenerate heart. Rather it points to Christ and Him crucified, and it places the one baptized under an obligation to have his life point in the same direction as his baptism does—to a righteousness not our own, to a righteousness that is outside ourselves. This is something that Simon’s heart did not want to do. But if you are baptized, then Christ is saying to you by means of that baptism what He said to Peter and James and John by their boats. “Come, follow me.”