Preached · September 15, 2019
Text · Acts 8; Acts 8.5-25
Opening: Where We Are in Acts
We're going to dive right into the Scriptures. We're on Acts chapter 8, verses 5 through 25. For the year of 2019, possibly beyond, we have been looking at the book of Acts, because it's the first history book of the church — of what happened after Jesus lived, after he died, after he was resurrected; what happened to the church, what happened to those believers. That's what the book of Acts is all about.
Over the past few weeks, we've been talking about a few very important people here in the book of Acts — famous names, names like Stephen and Philip and Paul. We've been hearing the story of Stephen, how he was bold in proclaiming the gospel to those who opposed him, and because of that, he was killed. He was assassinated. He was murdered in the streets because of his love for Jesus. And it's in that moment where the Jerusalem church, the cradle of Christianity, is shaken to its core and scatters. And the scattering is not something bad. It may have been a reaction of fear, but God uses it to reach new people in new ways with the gospel — and they have new problems because of it.
So, Acts chapter 8. If you are able, I invite you to stand for the public reading of God's word.
Acts 8:5-25
Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is rightly called the Great Power of God." They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized, and he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When Peter and John arrived, they prayed for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of hands, 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." Peter answered, "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 in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me." After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
Would you join me in a word of prayer? Great and almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your word, that it may instruct and teach us in your will and your way. God, I pray for these people here before me, and I pray for myself, that we may not be just hearers of your word but doers as well; that we may see the example of the early church and not set it aside as unattainable, not set it aside as something that happened in the past that could never happen again, not set it aside as something unworthy of our attention that we could never possibly live up to. May we see your word as a living example of what it means to follow Christ. And then, God, may we not master the word, may we not master the Scriptures, but rather may they master us, that we may be changed and transformed into people that others can see and not help but think they look like Jesus. God, I pray that you would open up our minds, illuminate the Scriptures for us in this moment, in this day. We pray in the unity of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Main Idea: What Got Us Here Won't Get Us There
Today, our main idea is this: what got us here won't get us there. What got us here — to this moment, to this place at this time — will not get us there, to where we're going, to what's next, to what God has in store for us.
Acts 8 makes the shift out of Jerusalem into Jewish and then Samaritan and then Gentile territory. Jesus had given this commission in Acts chapter 1. He said, "I want you, church — disciples, apostles — I want you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." And we've been spending the past eight to nine months looking at the book of Acts, where the church has basically stayed in Jerusalem. They followed the first part of Jesus' command, but they're just getting started. And unfortunately, the thing that finally gives them the swift kick in the pants is the death of Stephen. But because of that, they make this shift out into new territory, to preach the word to new people in new ways, and to expect new solutions and new problems.
The lesson for us today is this: if we want the church — capital-C church, the worldwide church, the American church, the church in Dickinson County, the church in Okoboji — if we want the church to continue, to keep going, the message of the kingdom to keep going, then we can't expect the same old methods to do the same old tricks. We can't expect the same old methods to do the work for us. Let me put it this way: if you're trying to get to the moon, you don't just build a bigger ladder. If you're trying to move freight across the country faster, you don't just strap on another horse to the buggy. You've got to do new things in new ways. And if we think that the church doing the same things we did ten, twenty, a hundred years ago is going to be successful in passing our faith on to the next generation, then we're in for a rude awakening.
Forty-two million people — that's the number of young people who will leave the church by 2050, according to current trends and statistics. Forty-two million people will leave the American church over the next thirty years if current trends continue. The percentage of Christians in the U.S. has dropped by 8% as a total representation of the country over the past seven years — that's more than a percentage point a year. And the number of religiously non-affiliated — in other words, the nones, those who don't claim a religion, don't claim any affiliation with the church or anything at all — has increased by 40%; it's now nearly a quarter of the U.S. population. So if we think that doing the same things in the same ways is going to turn those numbers around, then we don't understand how statistics work, because it's because of what we're doing now that those trends keep happening.
First and Second Generation Leadership
Jesus made this proclamation: be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And the first-century church didn't have a Barna, they didn't have CNN, they didn't have Time, they didn't have the news. They needed a swift kick in the pants to help them recognize that if they wanted the good news, the gospel, the message of the kingdom, to expand, they had to get out of their comfort zone, out of Jerusalem, and into places they never thought they would be. Because of this persecution — interestingly, led by a man named Saul, as we see in verse 3, where Saul began to destroy the church, going from house to house, dragging off men and women, putting them in prison — because of a man named Saul creating this persecution, the church has no choice but to leave Jerusalem, to leave Judea, and to go to new places. The church spreads like a grease fire: the more water is poured onto it, the more it spreads.
And thus we're introduced to Philip in verse 5. Now, there are two Philips in the New Testament. There's the Philip of the Gospels, the apostle Philip, called by Jesus; and then there's this Philip, Philip the Evangelist. Philip was one of the seven deacons the twelve apostles had chosen to help minister to the poor in their community. And deacons are not merely those who do the grunt work of the church. They are gifted in mighty, mighty ways — as we see in the life of Stephen, who proclaims the gospel to the religious authorities of the day, and in Philip, who becomes this renowned evangelist of the church. So Philip is introduced, and he goes to a place where you simply don't go: he goes to Samaria.
And here's what I love about this: we see this torch, this baton, being handed off between the first generation and the second generation of believers. The first generation are those who were directly called by Jesus — people like Peter, and James, and John, and Levi, and the twelve apostles, and the seventy. We see this baton being handed off from the first generation, who are staying in Jerusalem, to the second generation of believers — people like Stephen, and Philip, and (spoiler alert) eventually a man named Paul. And what I love is that it's the second generation who start doing some of the more radical, interesting things. We know the stories of Peter, James, and John from the Gospels. But it's Stephen, and Philip, and Paul who start breaking boundaries that the first generation, those immediately close to Jesus, weren't immediately comfortable with. It's the second generation who go to new places, proclaiming the gospel in new ways to new people.
The Gospel Should Bring the City Joy
Now, let's take a look at verses 5 through 8 again. "Philip went down to a city in Samaria." Samaria is a place of a lot of racial tension. Jews and Samaritans typically hated each other. Jews called Samaritans half-breeds. Samaritans called Jews a bunch of progressive liberals, because they added to the Pentateuch, to the Scriptures. Jews thought Samaritans were worshiping in the wrong place; Samaritans thought Jews had become buddy-buddy with the empire, with Rome. It's a bad relationship. But Philip puts himself smack-dab in the middle of it, goes to Samaria, and proclaims the Messiah, the Christ; he proclaims Jesus there.
"When the crowds heard Philip, they saw the signs he performed, and they paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed, and so there was great joy in the city." The message of the gospel is proclaimed. Miracles and signs are done. Preaching and signs — proclaiming the message, and the actions of the gospel — go hand in hand. Things get markedly better because of Philip's presence, because he is starting the church in Samaria.
Which means: if the church doesn't fill a city with joy, we're doing it wrong. If the church isn't making the city a better place, if it isn't changing neighborhoods for the better, if it isn't helping the sick get well, if it isn't helping the hungry feel full, if it isn't making the city a place that reflects the kingdom of God, then the church is not actually fulfilling its mission. If all the church does is preach and proclaim, that's only half the message. That's only half of what Jesus did. Jesus proclaimed and he enacted. He preached and he healed. And Philip is going in the same pattern of Jesus, going into new places, dangerous places, and filling the city, through God's Spirit working through him, with joy.
The city should notice when the church arrives, and the city should notice if the church were to disappear. If Good News were to shut down today — if I were to say, "Brandon, Brennan, they're not coming back; they love the mountains too much; and I can't do this on my own, and Kelly can't do this on her own, so we're just done — see ya" — the city of Okoboji should say, "Oh no!" — because Good News makes such an impact, makes such a difference, makes the city such a better place. But if the city is more like, "Eh, too bad, so sad — we hate signing all their waivers and permission slips anyway," then we're not functioning properly. The church has not done its job.
Martin Luther King Jr. puts it like this: "Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial." Any religion that professes to be concerned merely about souls — "we've got to get those souls saved" — but is not just as concerned about the body, about how people live today, MLK says that church, that religion, might as well die.
Simon Believes and Is Baptized
We keep reading, verse 9: "Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, 'This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.' They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But then they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, and they were baptized. And Simon himself was baptized, and he followed Philip everywhere." Now, we're introduced to this Simon the Sorcerer, and he has some sort of magical powers — probably more than likely to be demonically inspired. But Simon himself believes, and he gets baptized.
Just a quick aside: I want you to note that the proper response to salvation is baptism. So if you've never been baptized, either as an infant or as an adult, we're going to have an opportunity on Sunday, November 24th, to receive the sacrament of baptism — to receive that gift, to make that public proclamation that you're part of the family of God. If you're interested in baptism, there's a form on the website, and as always, you can contact the church office or talk to me. So notice that there's that response: Simon believes, he gets baptized.
Wow Before How
Now, verse 14: the apostles in Jerusalem "heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, and they sent Peter and John to Samaria." So the head honchos basically realize something new is happening; something is changing in the church. We're no longer just a local organization in Jerusalem and Judea; Philip has gone and done a new thing, in a new place, in a new way, with a new people, and people are responding. So the church sends Peter and John — some of the two biggest head honchos of the church you could hope for. Peter, the disciple who mouths off all the time, and John, who's called the beloved disciple — they send those two to basically go check it out. And they arrive, they pray for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and then they lay hands and the believers receive the Holy Spirit.
Now, I want to take a little bit of a leadership turn here. What is it to be a leader in the church? What is it to be someone in charge of what's going on? How do you respond when something new happens? Here's an Andy Stanley quote: "When you're presented with a new idea, say 'wow' before 'how.'" Have you ever been in a meeting — maybe with your kids, or your parents, or an employee, or a boss — and you present a new idea? "Hey, wouldn't it be great if we didn't sell lead balloons, but helium ones?" And don't you feel immediately deflated — no pun intended — when the bosses' or the parents' or the child's immediate response is, "How?" Because then you're just faced with a hundred logistical questions and concerns. Now, don't get me wrong: "how" is important. We've all probably been in a meeting or an organization where no one asks "how," and it's just a bunch of new ideas but nothing ever gets off the ground — pun intended — because no one's asking the hard questions. But what I'm saying is that when you're first presented with a new idea, a new way of doing things, make your first response "wow" rather than "how," because "wow" will get you further into the conversation, further through the door of new things and new ways of reaching new people, than if you immediately shut down the new idea with "how."
And so we see this with Peter and John. They are sent to check things out, as they should. They should make sure that things happening that are new in the church are worthy of the church, worthy of the gospel. But they don't come with a thousand logistical questions: "Well, how did you baptize them? What temperature was the water?" They don't ask those questions. Their response is that they pray for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit. They don't come in and say, "Well, they didn't receive the Holy Spirit — I guess, Philip, your whole organization's a sham; shut it down." They pray. "Let's see what we can do to make this situation better." They respond with "wow" rather than "how."
There's no faster way to kill a great idea than to weigh it down with logistical questions. Logistics are important, but they can almost always be solved. But if it becomes focus number one, the idea dies. So Peter and John investigate. They pray. God confirms the works. The new believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, almost like a mini-Pentecost — as if Jesus were saying, "Yes, I really meant Samaritans. Yes, I really meant the ends of the earth." And the leadership lesson is this: give new leaders permission to do new things. Check the work. Confirm that it's worthwhile. Then celebrate the work. And then look back at verse 25: "After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages." They not only check out what Philip has done, not only pray for him, not only confirm the work, not only see a new mini-Pentecost for the Samaritans — they then imitate Philip. The first-generation leaders start doing what the second-generation leaders are doing, and the gospel spreads yet again, even more.
Leaders, parents, teachers, anyone who has a say in what happens in the church and their community: take a look at what those younger leaders are doing. Confirm it. Ask good questions. Celebrate it. Then imitate it. That's what will move us forward. What got us here isn't what's going to get us there. Change is inevitable.
Simony: Buying Power
Let's turn our attention back to verse 18. Now, Simon — remember, this is Simon the Magician, not Simon Peter, this is a new believer — Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands. He offers them money and says, "Give me also this ability, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." Now, this is the idea of simony. Simony, or simonizing, means to purchase power or position — typically in the church. It can be used in other contexts, but typically in the church: to grease someone's palm and say, "Give me position, give me authority, give me power." And it's from this passage that that term comes.
So notice what Simon is actually asking for. He's not asking for the power of the Holy Spirit; he wants the power to give away the power of the Holy Spirit, and he wants to do that via money. Now, I know some of you will find this hard to believe, but there are people who — maybe they don't grease palms, maybe it's not bribery — but what they'll do instead is withhold a tithe or an offering because they don't like what the church is doing. They'll go to a church leader and say, "I'm going to stop tithing, I'm going to stop giving, I'm going to stop offering money to the church," in order to exert control over the church. "I don't like what the church is doing, so I'm going to withhold my money until you change your mind." Using your money is a way to get what you want.
Crazy story — it's true, I promise. In a different church I served, there was an altar, a communion table, at the front of the stage, kind of like this one. And there was a decorating committee in charge of making sure the communion table was well decorated — usually seasonal. And an associate pastor at this church realized that in all the months and years of decorating, there had never been a Bible on the altar. So he decided he wanted to place a Bible there. He made the mistake of failing to consult the decorating committee. Some of you know where this is going. He laid a very nice large pew Bible on the communion table, and he was then summoned to a meeting with the decorating committee, who made it clear that they were going to withhold their tithes and offerings from the church until that Bible was removed. Silly, but true. To anyone who does that — withholds tithes and offerings — it's simony: trying to purchase power or position within the church, using your money to exert influence.
Instant Solutions vs. the Long Work
There's another way of looking at this. Simon is basically doing all he can to have a short-term, instant solution to a long-term problem. Desiring the Holy Spirit, even possibly desiring the ability to lay hands on people and have miraculous things happen — I think that's probably a holy desire. But to want that in an instant way is desiring an instant solution to a long-term goal. Even after Peter's response — "Let your money perish with you; repent of this wickedness" — look at Simon's response. Again, Simon the Magician: he says, "Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you say will happen." He doesn't want the relationship with God; he wants other people to have the relationship with God on his behalf, and he just wants the benefits. He wants a long-distance relationship. He wants the pastor, the preacher, the apostle, the leader, to be his stand-in for a spiritual relationship with God.
But that's not how growth works. If we desire holy things — the power of the Holy Spirit, the power to preach the gospel, to see miracles happen — we don't put chicken in the microwave. It's gross. You need a long-term solution for a long-term goal, and that comes through spiritual habits and disciplines and prayer and waiting and time — just years, as you develop your relationship with God. No matter what the commercials say, you can't get gourmet from a microwave. DiGiorno is not better than delivery. And the Christian life is worth a lifelong investment that turns all of our values upside down and inside out. One-hour-on-a-Sunday spirituality is a great recipe for being a mediocre Christian.
Include the Old, Move Forward
What got us here — all of our story that led us to this moment, all of our history and biography and testimony — is worthy of celebration. It's wonderful. God used it to bring us to this moment. And yet he wants to do a new thing, to take us to new places. There's nothing more tragic to me than someone who feels like there's nothing left to learn, who's done the mental calculus that giving up their life to the pursuit of Christ just isn't worth the cost. There's nothing more tragic to me than a church that comes to a great opportunity, a new way of reaching new people, and says, "Eh, no thanks, it's not for us." We've got to proclaim the gospel in new places, in new ways, to new people, and be ready for new responses and new problems. In other words, what got us here won't get us there.
There are two terrible responses to new ideas. Response number one: "We've never done it that way." And response number two — this is the one I'm more guilty of: "We've tried that already, and it didn't work so well." Let me give you two to try on instead. When we hear a new idea, let's try: "What does it reveal about Jesus and his kingdom? Is it worthy of the gospel? Is it worthy of the church? Is it worthy of the name of Jesus?" That's a good question. And: "How can I help?" Not "We've never done it before," or "We've tried it and it didn't work," but "What does it reveal about Jesus, and how can I help?"
As we look at the church making this turn toward leaving Jerusalem, leaving Judea, reaching the gospel to new places, we want to be a church that imitates this — that doesn't look at it and say, "That's great for them," but a church that looks at it and says, "What's our response? How do we do the same thing? How do we become a church that brings the city joy? How do we become a church that doesn't leave the old ways behind?" Because the old ways are worth celebrating; it's because of the old ways that we're here right now. We include the old ways, we celebrate the old ways, and we move forward.
Invitation and Challenge
So I want to leave you with a few questions of invitation and challenge. If you've got a pen, or paper, or a phone to take a screenshot, go ahead and write these down, whatever makes sense to you.
Question number one: Does the Holy Spirit want to do a new work in you, or through you? Maybe the Holy Spirit needs to complete something in you, and that's fine. But maybe the Holy Spirit's tapping you on the shoulder and saying, "I've got something better, something new in store."
Question number two: What do you need to stop, so you can start being part of God's new thing? I'm someone who doesn't believe that God just lays on more burdens and more activities and a longer to-do list. I believe that often we need necessary endings so we can have new beginnings. So don't just add a bunch of new stuff — ask, "What do I need to stop, so I can start being part of God's new thing?"
Question number three: How are you passing on your faith and leadership to the next generation? Is this something that keeps you up at night, that you think about, talk about, pray about? Am I successfully passing my faith on to the next generation? And related to that: Can the next generation look at me and honestly say, "I want to be like that; I want to do what they're doing; let me be part of that"? Or would they look at my life and say, "I have no need to be affiliated with that"? And lastly: What younger leaders are you paying attention to, and joining, as they proclaim and enact God's kingdom in new ways?
Closing Prayer
I invite you to stand as the worship team comes; let's pray together. Father, Son, and Spirit, we thank you that you are a God who uses everything — who uses our past, who uses methods that are a day old or two thousand years old, to proclaim the goodness of your kingdom. God, you include it all; you are a God who uses our brokenness to make us whole, and to make the world whole. And we thank you that you are a God who is ahead of us — that you are already in eternity, already in the kingdom proclaimed and enacted, and that you are pulling us, moving us, sometimes dragging us forward into it. God, may we become willing vessels of your kingdom, that we might see even more people come to know you. May we be a church that's known to bring the city joy, because of how close we are to your heart and your values. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
This is a transcript of the sermon as preached, lightly edited for readability.
