Acts 8:9-25
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! You can be seated. Turn in your
copy of God’s word to Acts chapter eight. Our reading today will
be verses nine through 25. As you’re making your way there,
remember that Jesus made a promise to his disciples after his resurrection
and during the 40 days or so he spent with them, preparing
them for his continued mission of salvation to the ends of the
earth, his upper room ministry with them. He told them that
he would make them witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria,
and then to the ends of the earth. And so in our study of Acts,
we have seen them witness in Jerusalem and the surrounding
area of Judea. Now, because of persecution,
particularly Saul’s persecution, Stephen’s death, they have scattered
into Samaria. So they’ve gone north into the
area of the 11 tribes of Israel. not Judah, but the other 11 tribes.
And now they are witnessing the good news of Jesus salvation
in that area. And people are receiving this
good news with great joy. And so coming up, I think in
a couple of weeks, we’ll see the conversion of Saul. He will
take the gospel from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. He wants to take
it to the ends of the earth. By the end of Acts, we’ll see
him ministering Jesus to Rome and perhaps Spain. And so now
we give our attention to God’s word. Before we read it, let’s
pause and pray. Lord, give us ears that will
hear your very word. Give us eyes that will behold
your glory, your glorious work of salvation. Give us hearts
that are settled for a few moments to receive your word, life, giving
bread from heaven. And we pray that you would work
on our wills, our hands, our feet, that we might desire to
leave this place and to go and serve you all by your spirit’s
help that we greatly need. We ask now through Jesus, amen. Hear God’s word with me from
Acts chapter eight, beginning at verse nine. 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. They all paid attention to him
from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power
of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him
because for a long time, he had amazed them with his magic. 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. Even Simon himself believed and
after being baptized, he continued with Philip. and seeing signs
and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,
they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for
them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not
yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on
them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now, when Simon saw that
the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’
hands, he offered them money saying, give me this power also
that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, may your
silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain
the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot
in this matter for your heart is not right before God Repent
therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord
that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven
you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in
the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, pray for
me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon
me. 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. People go to church for all kinds
of reasons. I think in Sunday school, we
heard a lot of people keep the Sabbath. Well, sometimes you
got a new dress, so you got to wear it, show it off. You gotta
look good in your suit. You gotta make business connections. If you’re a person in the community,
it’s good to be seen in church. Why do people go to church? Well,
at least it used to be a respectable thing. It’s what was done. Why
do we go to church? Sometimes maybe to earn credit
with God, to see people, to have a social need met. Maybe there’s
a program we like. Do you go to church for the wrong
reasons? Maybe, maybe so. Maybe it’s for
personal gain. Maybe it’s for selfish reasons
or to get something out of it for yourself. Maybe an emotional
need, a social need. Better question, do you go to
church for the right reasons? Do you go to church to meet with
God, to worship Him, to give Him thanks for your redemption? I think we heard in Sunday school,
The reason for the Sabbath, it’s part of God’s creation ordinance.
God rested after six days of labor, making the world and everything
in it. And so on the seventh day, he
rested, he sanctified it. Then you get to the two sets
of commandments, one in Exodus 19, the other time the commandments
are mentioned in the Bible or Deuteronomy chapter five, one
connects The Sabbath, while we go to church with creation, God
rested in creation, so that’s why we should. The other connects
it with their redemption from Egypt. Deuteronomy 5 says, remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy, gives all the things, you know,
give your ox and donkey and manservant, maidservant rest, all those things
that are in Exodus, but it says, Keep the Sabbath because you
were slaves in Egypt. It’s almost as if God is saying,
you’ve been slaving away, now it’s time to rest. And so he
had promised them rest in the promised land. But do you go
to church for the right reasons? Because you want to love and
worship and serve God? Do you want to remember your
redemption like the Israelites did? And don’t you think more
importantly, we should remember the cross as we worship? It’s to be with other Christians.
It’s to have your faith strengthened. Do you go to church for the right
reasons, the wrong reasons? Why do you go to church at all?
Well, this study today of Acts chapter eight, nine to 25, I
think shows us some reasons to go to church and some reasons
not to go to church. This passage at first seems rather
straightforward. It’s the ministry of the scattered
disciples, particularly Philip, In Samaria, he’s preaching the
gospel. He’s having gospel success. He’s
seeing people baptized. Good news is being received with
joy, but there’s some underlying struggles here. One of them that
we see, false motives for church involvement. There’s Simon. There’s
a conversion, but it’s not to Christ. And then I think there’s
an issue, maybe you hadn’t caught it yet, I’ll point it out in
a few moments, there’s an issue of unity among the diversity
of believers. The Samaritans coming into the
church is a significant event in the life of Jesus’ church. Let’s think of this passage in
a couple little sections here. The first way we want to think
of it is the gospel into Samaria. The gospel goes into Samaria.
Jesus says, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and then the ends of the earth. So here we are in Samaria. I
have friends in the ministry and they use this little phrase.
You’ve probably heard it if you’ve been around the church block.
They say this, I want to be in the city. Can you fill in the
blank? for the city. And our little
joke among pastors is that’s code for you want to live somewhere
cool like Asheville. You want to live near Whole Foods
and Trader Joe’s and parks and things. In our denomination,
historically, the associate reform Presbyterians have been the rural.
And so some of us came up with a joke, we are in the sticks
for the Hicks. God saves people in the city,
doesn’t he? But here he is in the countryside
in Judea, or Samaria, and he’ll go to the ends of the earth. So the church should be, yes,
in the city for the city, Jerusalem, right? But in the sticks for
the hicks is also a wonderful little motto. Now, last week
I mentioned about Samaria, and I’ll just do it quickly again.
Remember, Samaria would be the northern section of Jerusalem.
Judea would be the tribe where Jerusalem is, the region where
Jerusalem is. All the other 11 regions or tribes
would have been what we call Samaria. Now remember when God
was angry with Israel, just a few hundred years after David and
Solomon, and then the kingdom split, northern tribes, those
11, southern tribe, Jerusalem, Judea, He exiled as he promised
he would, if they were disobedient. He exiled through the Assyrians
in 722, all the Northern tribes. Assyria hauled them off to their
own country. And generally what they did is
they repatriate an area with all kinds of people. Well, it
just so happened that a bunch of rabble repatriated the Northern
tribes. And so this area became Samaria,
a hated people, worse than the Gentiles. a terrible term, but
they were known as half-breeds. You know, we’re living in a tumultuous
time socially, and we have to be careful how we describe people,
what we call people. Well, they just made no bones
about it. We don’t like you Samaritans. That’s why when Jesus tells the
story of the man, remember, that got beat up and robbed and left
for dead? The priest walked by, did nothing. The Levite walked
by and did nothing, but who helped the man and took care of his
needs? It wasn’t just the Samaritan. It was the good Samaritan. And
so the gospel goes into Samaria, and you understand, I think,
that this was a significant challenge. This had social connotations,
racial connotations. It had attitude issues connected
with it. For sure, any self-respecting
Jewish person who came to Jesus would never go take the gospel.
among Gentiles or even among the Samaritans. And so Jesus’
plan of redemption, his plan of reconciling the world to himself
includes all kinds of people, includes ourselves. We’re outsiders,
we’re Gentiles. and it included the Samaritans.
And if you read verses nine, 10, and 11, you begin to see
the stage being set for some interesting times. There was
a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in this city
of Samaria. He amazed the people saying that
he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him
from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power
of God that is called great. They paid attention to him because
for a long time, he amazed them with his magic. Now rewind for
just a moment. Jesus had a little bit of a ministry
in Samaria. Remember the woman at the Samaritan
well? Jesus did some signs and wonders and guess what people
did then? They flocked to him until he gave them the call to
discipleship, until they counted the cost of denying themselves
and taking up their cross and following Jesus. And so the people,
same is true in our day, isn’t it? We go after amazing things. We like bright and shiny things. We like the wow factor. Now I’ve been a pastor going
on 20 years and I’ve kind of scratched my head and wondered,
why does some churches succeed? And I’ve recently had an epiphany,
the Lawrence Wilk Show. Any of y’all have to suffer through
that as kids? if we stayed with my grandparents,
the Lawrence Welk show. And the reason I realized this
is later in my life, when I was a teenager, we would go to the
beach with my grandparents. And my grandfather, who hardly
ever spent money on extravagant things, he used to pay for all
of us to go to a Myrtle Beach show. You know, Dolly’s Little
Theater or whatever. I mean, this was 25 years ago,
but I’ve been thinking about this in recent months. He loved
these music shows. He loved Lawrence Welk. He loved
these music shows. And if you go to a lot of churches
in America today, aren’t they the Lawrence Welk show? Aren’t
they the Dolly Theater? It’s a stage show that’s very
entertaining. And you go on the 4th of July
and you get patriotic hymns as if God has this special dispensation
towards America and our nation ought to be worshiped. We should
take the Lord’s day off and not worship the Lord, but worship
our kind of crummy nation we live in. That math just doesn’t
add up to me, but that’s what people like. And so Simon, the
magician, was doing very well among the people of Samaria.
He practiced divination. He practiced magic arts. He was
Simon the sorcerer. He could do all kinds of things,
certainly by the power of Satan and the wow factor. The wow factor
was quite high and the people of all ages, all statures flocked
to go see Simon the Magician, but the gospel comes. And what
begins to happen? Well, Simon’s out of business
because Philip comes to town preaching a better gospel, preaching
better news, preaching something that changes It doesn’t just
wow the mind and the emotions, but it reaches their deepest
spiritual needs. Remember last week, it says that
the gospel was preached and received with joy. They paid attention
to him and spirits, demonic spirits were coming out of people. The
lame were walking, the paralyzed were on the move again. And so
the gospel is received with joy and business. is looking a bit
slow for Simon. Now you read on in verses 12
and 13 of chapter eight. It says, when they, the Samaritans,
believed, Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom
of God, in the name of Jesus, they were baptized, both men
and women. And then it says, even Simon himself believed,
and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. Okay,
he signed up for this. He says, boy, what an opportunity.
My magic show’s not working. I’m going to sign up for this
gig. Begins to sound like American.
Christianity over the last couple hundred years, doesn’t it? Big
and exciting and thrilling. I’ll sign up, I’ll go anywhere
that will get me an applause or the offering plate gets passed
around and all those sorts of things. Even Simon himself believed,
verse 13 tells us. After he was baptized, he continued
with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed,
he was amazed. You got to stop here for a moment.
It’s only been a few chapters since Ananias and Sapphira. They
were pretty fired up, weren’t they? Boy, this church business
is great. You can give money and you can get a plaque on the
wall and people will thank you for your service to the church,
your donations and all of the sorts. So they sold their piece
of land. They lied about the amount and Peter finds out the
Holy spirit proves it and they are carried off and put in the
grave. because God struck them dead.
And so we ought to not forget Ananias and Sapphira as we see
the darkness of Simon on this gospel going into Samaria. The gospel is received with joy
by many people, but here is Simon the magician saying, boy, this
looks like a wonderful opportunity. Well, the second thing we wanna
see from this passage, in addition to the gospel going into Samaria,
is the Holy Spirit going into Samaria. Now, if we mentioned
the word baptism in American culture, you immediately have
the Presbyterians go over here and the Baptists go over here,
the Dunkers and the Sprinklers, and we wanna have a little baptism
debate. And then when you bring up the
word, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, well, you got the Pentecostals
and the charismatics versus, you know, us buddy, daddy Presbyterians
who think, um, a lot of stuff ceased with apostolic times. Uh, and we’re right. Cause that’s
what the Bible teaches. But, but you can, you can begin to
see, um, people putting up their Dukes, right? We gotta, we gotta
solve this right here and now. Well, it gets worse. So we got
baptism, we got the Holy Spirit. Well, then you got kind of the
congregationalist versus the Presbyterians. The congregationalist
who say we’re independent. We don’t need anybody looking
in on us. We can do church fine by ourselves. Thank you very
much. But we’re Presbyterians, we’re
connectional. Y’all will send me in a couple
weeks to our General Synod meeting where our national church will
make decisions regarding the health, peace, purity, prosperity,
worship, government, discipline of our church. Just a few weeks
ago, our Presbytery, our regional governing body met to do the
same things. And so we are a church connected
We are under the authority of the higher church courts. And
so you can get into all these little debates and all of these
issues pop up right here in Acts chapter eight. I bet you didn’t
see it or anticipate it, but I want us to see how the health
of the church, uh, is, is blessed here is the Holy spirit comes
into Samaria. It says, um, the apostles, Peter
and John heard, Well, all the disciples heard that the gospel
was coming to Samaria. So it says the apostles who,
they stayed in Jerusalem. Remember that little tidbit you
could have just passed over in your reading of Acts. Everybody
was scattered with persecution, but it says the apostles stayed.
So the apostles back in Jerusalem, here the gospel is coming to
Samaria and they send Peter, and they send John, they send
an official delegation. Let’s go see this work of Jesus,
this work of the gospel in Samaria. Apparently this has been going
on a couple of weeks, long enough for word to get up and down the
road. And so if you look at verses
14 and 15 and 16, it tells us that when the apostles who were
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word, they sent
to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that
they might receive the Holy Spirit for he had not yet fallen on
any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of
the Lord. So they laid their hands on them.
They received the Holy Spirit. Um, this, this, this little passage
brings up all these things I mentioned. You’ve got the word baptism,
you’ve got the Holy Spirit, and then you’ve got an official delegation
of the church. And so maybe in a good Presbyterian,
uh, I’m going to tell you the Presbyterian sent their, uh,
delegates into the local, region where the church had been planted
to oversee the work and make sure it was in good order, good,
decent order. This is a unique situation though.
The Holy Spirit had not come upon these Christians. Now, some
of you’ve got your thinking caps on and you’re saying, but when
a person comes to faith in Jesus, does not the Holy Spirit come
into them immediately? And what’s the answer? Yes, so
why not here? Why had they not received the
Holy Spirit here? And there’s gonna be one other
place in Acts where it’s the case. Well, remember in Acts,
we’re in these apostolic times where God is sending his word
and his ministers into the world to preach the gospel. And there’s
things that aren’t fixed and firm just yet. Those will be
fixed and firm at the end of the apostolic times when the
ordinary means of grace, the ordinary ministry of the word,
order of churches with ministers, elders, and deacons begins to
be the norm and the practice for the rest of church history.
But here the Holy Spirit does not come upon the Samaritans
and all kinds of reasons come up charismatic say, well, they
didn’t get the second blessing. Well, that’s whatever. Um, some
will say, well, they really weren’t converted. And so of course the
Holy Spirit didn’t come. They heard the gospel when Peter
and John showed up and then the Holy Spirit came. Here’s the
best answer. Here’s the real reason. The apostles
came to verify that the gospel had indeed been preached and
received and that faith in these Samaritans who remember there’s
all these racial and attitudinal tensions because of who the Samaritans
are, they came to see that it was so, and in order for God
to verify it, the Holy Spirit came before the apostles’ eyes. And so, what do you think Peter
and John do? They go back to Jerusalem and say, yes, indeed,
the Holy Spirit has come upon these Samaritans. These people
are saved. Now, you think, he’s making this
up. Okay. A couple of chapters from
now, the apostle Paul is going to get converted. He’s going
to go off to Damascus. He’s going to hide in the wilderness
of Arabia for a couple of years. Jesus is going to spoon feed
him the gospel so that he can be the great missionary to the
Gentiles. And then he’s going to show up to Jerusalem. And
what are the apostles going to say? Oh, it’s you. And then he’s
going to give testimony. And what are the apostles then
going to say? He’s safe now. He’s been converted, it’s a sure
thing. They’re gonna lay hands on Paul
and his associates and they’re gonna send them on all his missionary
journeys that we are told about in the rest of Acts. So you see
the apostles have a unique ministry here. So as the gospel goes into
Samaria, the Holy Spirit also comes onto the Samaritans through
the laying on of the hands of the apostles. I know that’s a
lot of words and a mouthful to say, but you understand now,
I think what is going on in the life and the ministry of the
advancing church. So you’ve got the gospel going
on, going into Samaria, the Holy Spirit has come into Samaria.
Now the third thing, trouble in Samaria. Back to the question
we asked earlier, why do you go to church? Why are you a Christian
minister maybe is a good example, a good question to ask. You’ve
kind of caught the trouble in this passage in verse 13, there’s
trouble looming as Simon, the magician who, what did he even
say about himself? I am great. He’s amazed at the
signs and wonders of the apostles and he wants to get in on that
game. And then, We see in verse 17, oh boy, you can lay hands
on people and boom, the spirit comes. I want in on that. Well,
verse 18 says that even Simon was saved. What do you have to
do to get involved in the life of the church? Well, you gotta
tell people you’re saved. Is it possible for a person to
come into the church and say, hey, I’m saved, I love Jesus,
and really not be? Yes, it is. And so the apostles
are there to verify that these things are so. And so what does
Simon do in his zeal? He says, look, I’ve got this
sack full of money. Now you bring up a sack full of money to Peter
and John, who do they immediately think of? Judas. who betrayed
their Lord for silver. Here’s, here’s, here’s money.
You give me this power also. I mean, you got to remember this
guy’s out of business and he’s an entrepreneur and it’s time
to get back in business because if you’re out of business, you
need to be in business. Otherwise you’re on in the poor house. You’re not eating, you’re not
enjoying things. Ministry looks good to this fella.
Ministry looks profitable to this fella, and he wants a piece
of the pie. And I have to tell you, in my
time as a minister, but also growing up in the church and
being involved in a lot of other ministers’ lives, you see people
and it’s a shared experience. People are attracted to the ministry.
I can’t tell you during my short years in ministry, how many people
have said, man, I love what you do. I would love to go to seminary
and I’d love to be a minister. And I’ll say, I don’t know about
that. They want the glory, but not the cross. They want the
goods, but not the service. They want the applause, but not
the, the hard path to get there. And it’s very true. So when somebody
comes to me and say, I think I’m being called to the ministry,
my antennas go up. Because I think in our day and
age, if you want attention, you either go into politics or ministry.
And there’ve been lots of studies that have shown If not politics,
ministry is a wonderful place for narcissists, people who seek
power, people who seek glory, people who seek prestige. And
I think it’s why in America today, most ministers of the big successful
churches look like they can also play a character on General Hospital. They’re really good looking,
right? They’re really sharp. They’re really fit in the eyes
of maybe the American public for ministry. And they would
never pick Jesus, oh no. Despised, rejected, not much
to look at. They would never pick the Apostle
Paul. He was short and stubby and kind of nearsighted and ugly,
as most scholars will tell us. But ministry looks really good. But what is Jesus, the crucified
and risen Savior? If you wanna be a servant, a
servant is never above his master. And so the way of Jesus, the
way of the cross, is the way of his servant. And so another
thing that pops up, I think, in today’s culture, of the American
culture, but also the church culture, we like to mix Christianity
with other things. And I think it’s true in other
nations. We hear tell of the church on other continents where
they’ve mixed Christian practice with voodoo or they’ve mixed
Christian practice with ancestor worship. They’ve mixed Christian
practice with all these other things. Well, in America, what
do we mix Christian practice with? We’ve mixed it with prosperity.
And so we only want the best and the brightest, only the good
looking. We can never have a servant be put up front and center. It’s
a mix in America, I think, of Christian things and worldly
things, and eventually one takes over. And sadly, it’s not the
Christianity, it’s the worldly things. And it’s wildly popular
in today’s culture. You can go to church and you
can feel good. You can never have a negative experience, never
hear a negative word. And what does Peter say about
this? May your silver perish with you. May it not be so in
the church of Jesus Christ, he says to, Simon, and if you want
to be rather strong about it, actually, Peter really says you
and your silver can go to hell. That’s how strong Peter is about
these things. And so as we think about the
gospel going into Samaria, the Holy Spirit coming into Samaria,
trouble in Samaria, we now have to end by thinking about order
in Samaria. You know, I’m really harping
on American church today, I think, but it needs it. Church growth. Church growth in our country
says, do whatever it takes to get the most numbers. And it
really doesn’t matter if you’re unfaithful. It really doesn’t
matter if you ignore God’s commands and laws. And particularly in
the area of worship, we have watered down the church. We have
dumbed down the church. No, we have gutted the church.
of what is her best tool for real church growth. And we’ve
gone the pragmatic way, whatever, however, as long as it gets them
in the door. And so we’ve seen in the last,
oh, what, 20, 30 years, we’ve seen make the church as easygoing
for non-Christians. Well, who is church for? It’s
for Christians to worship God and grow in grace. Can a non-Christian
come? Of course they can. And hopefully they’ll hear the
gospel and receive Jesus. but we need order in the church.
And so there needs to be order in Samaria. Remember Jesus’ words,
the great commission go into all the world, preach the gospel,
baptize, make disciples, teaching them all that I have commanded. And so we have to work hard to
be a community of the redeemed in Christ, growing in our faith
and worshiping Jesus as he calls us to do in the whole of the
scripture. We then go into the ends of the
earth, proclaiming this good news. But sometimes friends,
we have to call out, may your silver perish with you. Sometimes
we have to call out, what’s wrong with you? And do you catch Peter’s
words here at the end of our passage? If you look at these,
these hard words, he speaks, he says, may your silver perish
with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of
God or the power of God. Some translations say with money. You have neither part nor lot
in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent,
therefore, of this wickedness of yours. Pray to the Lord that
if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see you are in the gall
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And so it’s right
for the church to maintain order and to say, may your silver parish
with you or your thoughts are not right before God. You have
no part or a lot with us. You know, so many times I think
in the American church, we do what it takes to get them in
the door and then we give them a job. And why do we do that? Because we want them to stay.
And the job sometimes, if they’re a person of position or influence,
can be a leader in the church, not minding whether or not they’re
a Christian or even have the gifts and graces or the competence
for these things. And so we build our churches
for the numbers and the nickels, and we build our churches in
order that we can look big or prestigious or whatever, and
we’re unwilling to say, may your silver perish with you. weren’t
willing to say, what’s wrong with you? Your heart is not right
before God, repent and pray. Now notice Simon’s response. This is a man who could do powerful
things and gain attention. Now, all of a sudden, he’s not
in the driver’s seat. He’s actually in a bad position
because he feels the weight and judgment of God. Now, mentioned
earlier, you can get into the baptism debate here. You can
get into the Holy Spirit debate here. You can get into the church
government debate here. Well, here’s a fourth debate you can
get into here. Was Simon saved or not? I tend to fall on the or not
side. I think it’s possible to profess
faith, but not possess faith. I think it’s possible in the
joy and the spirit and the movement of the church to say, oh, I love
Jesus. I can’t wait to serve him. And
then only to fall away. We know the parable of the soil.
Some seed falls on good soil, produces. Some seed falls among
the rocks or the thorns or the pathway. It gets trampled, the
birds eat it, or the cares of this world take the gospel away
from people. I think Simon stays in the bonds
of iniquity. I think Simon stays in the gall
of bitterness. Church history tells us that
Simon the magician went on to be one of the great heretics
of the early church. He went to be one of the founders
of Gnosticism, which was a mixture of Christianity and other things,
secret knowledge. We actually have coined a phrase.
after Simon the Magician, it’s a phrase called simony. And simony
was rampant, particularly during the era of the Protestant Reformation. If you wanted to succeed in life,
your parents sent you to school to be a doctor or a lawyer. And
if you really wanted to succeed in life, your parents would buy
you a position in the Roman Catholic Church. And so simony is the
official term for the buying and the selling of church office.
And so during the Protestant Reformation, you remember, from
our studies a couple of years ago, 2017, at the 500th anniversary
of Martin Luther’s nailing those 95 theses, one of the things
we recognized is that a man must be called to ministry. He doesn’t
purchase his office. He must be educated to take up
that ministry. He must have the hands of the
church laid on him because he’s competent and equipped and fit
for the church office. And so I would suggest to you
that Peter, rightly called out this heretic, this man, and called
him to repent. It is possible to profess faith
but not possess it. So back to the question. Why
do you go to church? What is your intent of your heart
before Almighty God? He knows, he sees. Pray with
me. Our Lord, we ask that you would
Search each of our hearts this very moment. Show us who we are,
and most especially, who is Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners? And even redeemed ones, Lord,
do not come to church with the purest of motives. We come to
be selfish sometimes. We come to seek and to get. But
help us to remember that the Son of Man came not to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Remind
us that we have been bought at a price, We are to be living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing lives. Live before your watching
eyes. Let the intents of our hearts
be perfect and pure by your grace, by your spirit. We do pray in
Jesus name, amen.