Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon April 20, 2008
Here is a MasterCard commercial made I want you to see featuring Peyton Manning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8kMrLx6_aQ).
I have some objects I would like to show you… (Show pictures and the little gifts that my girls drew for me.)
Now, the truth is that I know for sure that none of these pictures would ever be sold for any significant money. Simple reason is no one will find these pictures highly desirable and valuable to them. But, to me these are objects that cannot be priced. They are made by my girls, given to me and I like that very much.
Some time this past week, I came home and my Audrey greeted me. She handed me a tiny, all crumbled up, nail size scrap of paper and told me, “Daddy, this is for you.” Well, I thought she wanted me to throw it away. So, I went and threw it away. Few seconds later, Lyn told me that it was actually a gift from Audrey. I was so touched by it. Really, what I thought was a trash was a gift from my girl!
Thomas A Kempis said, “A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.” We are conditioned to think that money can buy us anything we want. Yet, these examples show that there are things that money simply cannot buy because they are priceless.
Today’s sermon is about experiencing the fullness of the Holy Spirit, from Acts 8:4-25.
- You can experience the priceless love of the Giver when you know God who is faithful to his promises.
Let me set up a context for you which will help you see how God, the giver was at work behind the scene in Acts 8:1-5. Last week, we learned about life of Steven, one of the seven chosen men to administer the mercy fund to meet the needs of widows in the church. We gleaned how God is not limited by time and space through his message. And, we also saw how he was a man who understood the priceless value of the relationship with Jesus Christ. He would not trade the joy of being known by and knowing his Savior, his Lord for anything, even his own life. And, we see him pay for his conviction with his life.
Acts 8:1-3 records what took place after Steven’s death. Some godly men buried his body and mourned for him. And, on this very day, it says, “a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” The apostles were either too well known to be persecuted or they simply took risk to stay behind to care for the church.[1]
And, what verse 4 tells us that those who scattered preached the word wherever they went. And, one of those who scattered was Philip. Verse 5, he went down to a city in Samaria. We are not sure exactly which city he went down to; but what was certain was just like the others who scattered preached wherever they went, Philip also proclaimed the Christ in Samaria. Along this message, Philip did miraculous, supernatural things, such as casting demons out of people, healing the severely impaired people. The God Philip believed in through Jesus Christ gave him the spiritual gift to heal, cast out demons.
We see right here our God, the giver of his priceless love operating mightily. Back in Acts 1:8, Jesus promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And, now in chapter 8, we see Jesus’ promise to expand his witnesses beyond the boundary of Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria being fulfilled. What might have appeared as an utter failure, to be driven out of home, neighbor, or to flee for safety was not a failure after all. God was fully in control to advance his promise as his people took the gospel to Samaria.
- You can experience the priceless love of the Giver only when you subject yourself to the whole counsel of God’s word.
V.9-25 tells a story about a man named Simon, the Samaritans, the apostles from Jerusalem. Verse 9 gives a brief description of this man as having practiced sorcery. Sorcery is “the technique of manipulating supernatural or supernormal forces to attain one’s own ends”[2] according to a theological dictionary. He was quite good at manipulating people that he amazed people. The Samarians were so impressed with what Simon had done that they called him “the Great Power.” When we understand the background story behind Samaritans, it makes sense why they were easily deceived by this false sorcerer.
Back in the days when Israel was separated between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, Samaria was the capital city of the Northern Kingdom. And, later Samaria was referred not only as the old capital city, but the whole region occupied by the Northern Kingdom. In 722-721 B.C. the Northern Kingdom’s capital Samaria was destroyed by Assyrians and the Israelites living there were exiled to Assyria. And, during the reign of Sagon II, a king of Assyria (721-705) he began to settle non-Israelites in Samaria. And, these foreigners married the remaining Israelites. So, the people group out of this period was called Samaritans. They were not considered full blooded Jews therefore the Jews looked down on them. Their religion was mixture of Jewish and other religions. The Samaritans believed in the first five books of the Bible, but rejected the rest of the Old Testament scripture. They also rejected the temple in Jerusalem. Although they anticipated the Messiah, they saw no need for connection to Jerusalem, to Judah, to the line of David. Instead, they made their own temple at Mount Gerizim apart from Jerusalem. The Jews and the Samaritans didn’t get alone for these reasons and others.
This is to where Philip and other early Christians scattered. With their mixed religious practices and deficient biblical understanding, it is easy to see why they easily embraced Simon. The Samaritans really didn’t know the scripture. They just read the first five books and rejected the rest. So, they didn’t know much concerning the prophecies that anticipated coming of Jesus Christ. By God’s grace the Philip’s preaching pointed out to them Jesus Christ, in the line of David, from the tribe of Judah, was truly the Son of God, the true Messiah they had waited for long time.
à Apply… this is one reason why I wholeheartedly believe that as believers we need to read the Bible through and through. The Samaritans didn’t have the solid biblical foundation to reject Simon the sorcerer. We too will face the same risk of being susceptible to the false teachings if we only read few verses here and there, and never finish any book in the Bible, not alone read through the whole Bible.
- You can experience the priceless love of the Giver when you put your root down in the biblical Jesus.
Verse 14-17, we see a unique account regard to conversion and receiving the Holy Spirit. It was not until the apostles from Jerusalem, specifically Peter and John, not until they put their hands on the Samaritans that they received the Holy Spirit. They already believed the gospel; they were baptized, yet they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit.
David Gooding explains it this way. God “refused to authenticate their profession of repentance and of faith in the Lord Jesus until they submitted to, and identified themselves with the apostle from Jerusalem.”[3]
Their rejection of the temple in Jerusalem meant the rejection of God’s plan to bring the Messiah through the line of David, the tribe of Judah who was prophesied through and through in the Old Testament. Their insistence on diverging worship in Mount Garizim, rejection of the Messiah from the line of David, Judah, they needed to reject these and accept the biblical Jesus.
To believe Jesus other than Jesus of the whole counsel of the Bible is to risk in false Jesus.
- You can experience the priceless love of the giver when you stop trying to manipulate God, instead submit to him.
Now, going back to the story of Simon, it says in verse 13 he along with other Samaritans believed and was baptized. And, that he followed Philip everywhere astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
And, verse 18, when he saw the Holy Spirit was given when Peter and John put their hands on the Samaritans, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
What was he thinking? He was thinking that the work of the Holy Spirit can be bought by mere money. His understanding of the Holy Spirit was really not much different than the demonic spirits he was working with as a sorcerer. Only thing that he seemed to care was harnessing the Holy Spirit’s power so that he could be the one who usher the Holy Spirit on others.
Listen to how Peter answered in verse 20-23, “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
From what Peter said, we can reasonably say that Simon’s purported conversion was fake. Conversion without submitting one’s life to the author of life, the creator of the life, the Almighty God, the Savior for his way is no conversion at all. His professed faith and baptism didn’t reflect regeneration of his heart, change of direction and actions. He used the demonic spirits to be known as the Great Power. Having witnessed the power of God, he now thought that he could subject God to his use with money.
à Apply
How about us? Do we do that? Again, Thomas A Kempis said, “A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.”
- When we read a verse or two verses a day and think that we’ve heard from the Lord…. devalues God’s prophetic voice.
- When we try to minister to people out of our own strength… devalue God who works through us.
- When we are preoccupied with what God can do for us, how he can come through for us, how he can make our lives easier, more comfortable…. Devalues God’s Lordship
Relationship! Relationship!
[1] Darrel L. Bock, Acts: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2008, p.318.
[2] NIDNTT, G3404, mageuvw.
[3] David Gooding, True to the Fatih: Chartin the Course through the Acts of the Apostles, Gospel Folio Press, 1995, P. 132.
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