I did not pray for a voice, I should pray for a voice, I think. Please excuse me. Please turn to Acts chapter eight. We're going to, in just a moment, pick up in Acts 8 9. Last week, we began to look at Acts 8. We were introduced to some of the ways that God transforms our messes by his grace and power. That was our theme last week. It's gonna continue this week. I settled on that word mess only because I couldn't think of a better word that describes so many of our experiences and challenges in everyday life. Life is messy and hard so much of the time. So last week we looked at two particularly ugly messes at the beginning of chapter eight. First, there was that mess of very harsh persecution brought against the church, led by Saul, in which Christians were forcibly dragged out of their homes. Men and women forcibly dragged out of their homes, families torn apart, taken off to prison, or they were driven from their homes into other lands and other regions, scattered elsewhere. So it was a mess. It was a mess. not of their own doing. This was the power of evil, power of Satan, bearing down on the Church of Christ, seeking to destroy it. And wonderfully, we saw last week, God steps into that mess and he redeems their persecution so that they're scattering. When they were scattered into this kind of homeless exile, it only served to advance the gospel into the regions in which they were driven. Into the mess of great evil bearing down on us, God overcomes and overwhelms and overpowers evil. He turns evil against itself to care for his people. That was the first mess, that persecution, which only served to spread the gospel. The second mess was really the mess of the Samarian people, the Samaritans, Their mess was self-imposed. It was a willful rejection of God's words and promises. They followed part of the Old Testament, but really rejected most of the Old Testament scriptures. They were a kind of a lost people and it was by their own choice and into their mess, God brings his grace and he calls these Samaritan prodigals home. into his kingdom. And we saw, and we'll see it when I read through our passage today, the spirit falls on them. And that language for the spirit falling on them is the same language that Jesus uses for the father in the story of the prodigal son falling on his son and embracing him when he comes back home. And that's the picture of these Samaritans. They made a mess of their own choosing, and then God falls on them in grace and embraces them in the midst of their mess. Those were the two messes last week. A third mess this week, and this time it is in the person of Simon the magician. He is a Samaritan of some importance, we're going to see, but he is utterly lost and blind. And we're gonna see what happens to Simon's mess of a life when God confronts him with his grace. So let's read Acts 8, starting verse 9 through verse 25. Here now God's holy and inspired word. 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 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. When they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in 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 of 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. Please excuse me, I'm gonna get another drink of water. I apologize for this. You should have just banished me all winter because of my voice. Excuse me. 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, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. 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. 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 bondage 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. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. We once had a member of our church who was a magician, professional magician. It's how he made his living. Many of you remember him, Doc Dixon. He would sometimes perform at some of our kids' events, and he was a good friend and a very talented musician that you have to be if that's how you make your living. He eventually moved to another state with his family. And then just a few years ago, he appeared on the, the television show, the Penn and Teller television show Fool Us. Some of you might have seen that television show. Penn and Teller, famous magicians. And the premise of the show is if you can do a magic trick that fools Penn and Teller so that they have no idea how you did the trick, then you win. You fooled them. And our friend, former member of our church here, he goes on the show and he does a trick with the shell game. And you kind of know the trick. You have like a pea under the shells. He had walnut shells, I think, and you shift them around and then the pea appears where you least expect it. And he did this trick and it was really incredible. Because he would only like switch it once and then all of a sudden the P had jumped so you knew where it was Except it wasn't there and it was incredible but the little twist he did with the trick was he had pin sign the P with a marker and and for the last trick the pea disappeared and it ended up in an unbroken walnut and he broke the walnut open and the pea that was signed was there in the walnut that hadn't been broken and Penn and Teller were fooled. They didn't know how he did it. So he won the show. He won the show. It's very cool to see your friend up there fooling Penn and Teller. And then eventually went on the show a second time and he did what I thought to be, I was watching, I thought this looks really similar to the first trick that he was doing. And it was very similar to the first trick. And after he did this magic trick, Pin, in a very humorous way, lays into Doc Dixon, and he keeps saying, how dare you? How dare you come back on our show and do the same trick that you did before a second time? How dare you? It was really funny, but he wasn't, they weren't fooled that second time, needless to say. Doc Dixon, Christian, he's a member of our church, and he's a magician. You can be a Christian magician today because it's understood You're just doing tricks. You're just doing tricks. You're fooling people with sleight of hand or hidden mechanisms and quick movements and distractions. What you're not doing is making a pea magically disappear from one shell and be transported into another shell. And so you can be a Christian magician. It's an honorable profession if you choose it. This is not the kind of magic that Simon the magician was doing. Look at verses 9, 10, and 11 again. It says, 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. You have a sense that they're seeing amazing things from him. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. Now for Simon, the purpose of his magic, it seems to be, was to do it as a kind of rival to God, to the power of God, as a kind of imposter. Simon did magic to possess the very greatness of God for himself. Verse 10, he himself claimed to be somebody great. Verse 11, the people of Samaria called him the power of God that is called great. Verse 12, everyone paid attention to him because of his magic. You see that sense there of what he's doing. So Simon, Simon is using his magic for wicked ends to supplant the greatness of God with his own greatness. And also, Simon's magic was probably not a trick. When scripture speaks of people practicing magic, It typically is speaking of someone who has somehow tapped into some kind of demonic power that defies natural law. The most obvious case of this that I think of is Pharaoh's magicians in the book of Exodus, who almost match Moses. When Moses' staff turns into a stake, they turn their staffs into snakes. How did they do that? How did they do that? I don't think it was a trick. I think it was what we would maybe call black magic. They could only do that thing by tapping into demonic powers. And of course, Moses' snakes swallowed up their snakes. It says his staff swallowed up their staffs because the power of God is always greater. But there is a demonic, black magic that defies the laws of nature. And this seems to be what Simon was practicing in order to make himself great and rival God. So Simon is caught up in this bleak net of some kind of what we would certainly call demonic practice. This is Simon's mess. This is the mess that he's in. And it's his own doing. He's sold himself into the service of demonic powers, and he's done it to gain a reputation in front of others, to be somebody, to be great. Some of you just hose me down with it, I guess. I don't even know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take all of next winter off, and I'll come... Thanks, Terry. So Simon is, you know, he's caught in this net of this demonic magic. You might've heard of Robert Johnson. He's one of the most famous sort of historic blues players. And the story of Robert Johnson, it's a legend, is that one night in the Mississippi Delta at the crossroads of US 61 and 49, he sold his soul to the devil in order to play blues music like nobody else could play blues music. And this seems to be a little bit like what Simon has done here. Now, Robert Johnson, I think that's a legend. I think he practiced really hard at guitar and was naturally gifted. But Simon sold himself to the demonic in order to be seen as somebody great, to use the language of verse nine. And this is where we're gonna pause and really reflect on what is happening with Simon here, because I think Luke is being very careful in relaying Simon's story to us with important details, such as this, Simon's motive. He wants to be known as someone great. And here, when we're looking at Simon and his mess, we recognize that this is one of the most powerful temptations that we face. And this is the kind of temptation that can lead us into the same kind of mess that Simon is in when we live by this need to be great or be seen as great in the eyes of others. The Greek word here for great is megas. Megas. We know that. I don't even have to interpret that or to translate that. Megas. It's the same word that's used when the disciples at the Last Supper are debating who would be the greatest. Jesus is speaking of his suffering and dying as a servant for our sake. And the disciples respond by having a debate among themselves about who is the greatest. It's the most extraordinary perversion of everything that Jesus was about that you could imagine as they are talking about who's the greatest, who's the greatest. But I think all of us can relate to that temptation, right? We want to be someone important. We want to be great. Megas is the word there. Mega Aaron. Imagine that. Mega Aaron. How cool would that be? And we relate to the disciples. We relate to Simon. Jesus had to correct the disciples, teach them the greatest must become the least. He has a completely different notion of what greatness is from the perspective of the kingdom of God. Luke is bringing this word great into our focus as Simon's demonic, zealous pursuit. Typically in scripture, when the word great is applied to anything other than God, it is a diabolical problem. It's a diabolical problem when the disciples try to apply greatness to themselves at the very moment Jesus is speaking of his suffering and death. It is clearly diabolical when Simon is seeking this greatness for himself by tapping into these demonic powers to wow and amaze other people. It's diabolical in the Old Testament, when Nebuchadnezzar, he looks out at his kingdom, he's the king, he looks out at his kingdom, and he says in Daniel 4 verse 30, he says, is not this great Babylon, he applies that word to his nation, is not this great Babylon, and then he says, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty, There's Nebuchadnezzar, Nebs, as I call him. He calls his kingdom great. He says, look at what I've done. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, it's not the original Hebrew, but it uses that same word, magos, in Daniel 4, as Nebuchadnezzar speaks for himself. And it's diabolical. He claims to have made his kingdom great by the exercise of his own might and power and glory and majesty. That's his worldview. And his pursuit of this greatness is so diabolical that God immediately strikes him with the mind of an animal to roam the wilderness until the Lord allows him, it seems, to repent at a later day. Remember, the idea here is when this word great is applied to anyone other than God in scripture, it is typically a diabolical application. Later in Acts 19, we'll find silversmiths who make their money making idols. They make their money making idols and they have this wonderful idol in Ephesus that they worship. And when the gospel threatens their work, right? The gospel will take all their business away. They cry out to their demonic God. They cry out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great Magos, that same word there, they're worshiping their demonic God in this view of greatness. In Revelation 12, there is a great red dragon. I have two glasses of water here, two, we're gonna make it, we're gonna make it. There's a great red dragon in Revelation 12, Magos, great. And he has a multitude of crowns on his head. He is a picture. It's radical apocalyptic imagery of everything that worldly greatness and power is. which is to say that he is the embodiment of Satan claiming greatness for himself, this great red dragon in Revelation 12, that's how it falls out. Again and again in scripture, when this word great is applied to anyone other than God, when it's claimed by anyone other than God, we can be assured that we are entering into a diabolical mess. Look at what Luke is doing. He's very deliberately calling our attention to this word, great, as the source of Simon's self-chosen mess. What I would say the diabolical source of Simon's self-chosen mess. Verse nine, Simon, as a public figure, claims the title of great for himself. Verse 10, Luke now makes it crystal clear. This claim of greatness is a diabolical rival to God's greatness. Remember, there is only one in scripture who is great, and that is God alone. And so this claim of greatness is a rival to God's greatness, which is clearly the idea of verse 10. The people were saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And you see what's happening. The greatness that belongs to God alone is being claimed by Simon. It is a diabolical mess of his own choosing. I wanna make three points of application as we look at Simon's mess, the situation that he's in. And as we do this, especially with our last point, we'll see how things fall out for Simon as the passage goes on. First, Luke is using Simon as an example. Remember, he's being very careful in how he presents Simon to us. Luke is using Simon as an example to warn us against this kind of diabolical pursuit of greatness for ourselves. It is not hard at all for me to put myself in Simon's shoes. I very much want to be thought well of by others. I'm already failing this morning, because I can hardly talk. So I feel that. I want people to hear me, and I can hardly talk. I enjoy it when I receive compliments, when others pay attention to me. Yesterday, we went up to Lacey's in Kerwinsville and went to her family, her parents, and I lugged my guitar up there. And then when Lacey's dad saw that I had my guitar, he got on the phone and called in other family members to bring their guitars. So a couple other family members came, way better than I am at guitar, and we played and we played. And at one moment, I'd been really working hard on bluegrass flat picking, and I sort of learned the song. The Banks of the Ohio, this old bluegrass song, and to flat pick it, and I'm really not very good at all, and that's the honest truth. But I'm slowly improving. There was a moment I was playing yesterday, and everybody was looking at me, kind of a crowded house, and everybody was looking at me, and I thought, They're paying attention to me. They think I'm something else. And then of course it was really, they're like, what is he doing probably? But then, you know, Lacey's family member is just full of compliments for me and my playing. And, you know, that's the temptation we feel. That's the temptation we feel. I'm a pretty lousy guitar player, but I desire to be seen as great in the eyes of others. And maybe you feel that at work. You feel that desire to be known. You are known as the one on whom really the whole operation depends. The whole company depends on you. And that's the way you want it to be. You want to make sure everybody knows that. or in your community or even, this is the hard part, in your Christian service or in your family, everyone is looking to you and you've sort of worked hard that everybody looks to you because somehow, verse nine, going back to verse nine here, you seem to be the power of God that is called great to them in their eyes and you enjoy it. and everyone needs you and depends on you and looks to you, and your name means something to others. And if this is our temptation, we need to learn from the example of Jesus about what greatness is. When the disciples are arguing about who will be the greatest, this is the rebuke Jesus gives them. He says in Luke 22, Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest or the least, and the leader as one who serves." And then Jesus says, for who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? That's the worldly idea of greatness. And then Jesus says, but I am among you as the one who serves. And the service he's speaking of here particularly, remember this is at the Lord's Supper, is the service of his sacrificial love. It's the service of giving himself up in humility and in love for others. It's the service of becoming a servant or a slave to others even. The second point of application, so that's kind of just that temptation I think we all face. Think of Simon's role here as what's clear from Luke is he's a public figure. And Luke is using Simon. He's a public figure in a land that is a mess. That's what we saw last week. Samaria is a mess. They've got problems. When the disciples think of Samaria, they want to blow it up. Jesus' disciples, we saw that last week. They want to blow it up. It's a problem place. And here's Simon. He's a public figure. He himself seems to carry the promise of this greatness, maybe for his old land. And Luke is using Simon as an example to warn us against falling under the spell of public figures who promise a kind of diabolical greatness. Twice, twice for emphasis, Luke says that the people all paid attention to Simon, verse 10. They all paid attention to him. Verse 11, and they paid attention to him. Everybody's following him. Why did they pay attention? It wasn't because he entertained them with his magic. That's why we pay attention to Doc Dixon or Penn and Teller, because they entertain us. That wasn't it. It was because through his magic, he promised a kind of greatness for all who would follow him. If Simon is great, then by following him, we can be great. Samaria can be great at last. The temptation here is the temptation of being blinded by the spell of public figures who promise you greatness. One of the realities here is it's not just Luke who is emphasizing this word great. It's the people themselves who are fixated on this word great. Simon introduces the idea in verse nine. Simon claims to be somebody great. And then verse 10, it is the people that are now latched on to that word. The reason they pay attention to Simon and follow him, they've fallen under his spell, is because he promises something of the greatness of God himself. And you see what's happening here. Simon is charting this diabolical course. Remember, in scripture, when the word great is applied to anyone other than God himself, it is always of diabolical origin. And Simon is charting this diabolical course, and the people have been blinded because of this appeal of this worldly greatness to their own hearts. Think of Samaria despised by the Jews, particularly, and certainly other places. They were nobody's. And here comes Simon, and he brings this promise of greatness through his magic. Luke is warning us. And really all of scripture is warning us to have clear biblical eyes so that we will not be led astray by public figures who compete with the greatness of God. Remember over and over again in scripture, when the word great is applied to anyone other than God himself, it is of diabolical origin. Most plainly seen, what I've already mentioned, that great red dragon in Revelation 12, wearing his crowns of power, deceiving the nations with his own promises of greatness over them. Now wonderfully, in Acts 8, when Philip shows up in Samaria and preaches the gospel, When Philip comes in, what does he start speaking of? He starts speaking of the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ through the kingdom of God. He starts speaking of the greatness of Christ in his victory over sin and death and Satan. He's preaching Christ. We see this in verse 12. Philip preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. And when Philip comes, the people wonderfully, beautifully, they see things clearly. They see Simon clearly. They repent of their former blindness and they escape the real mess they were in by following Simon and his promises of greatness. And they believe and they follow Jesus. So the gospel brings sight to eyes that are blinded by promises of greatness out there in the world. The weapon we have to see things clearly in this world and not be deceived into a diabolical pursuit of greatness is always the gospel. It is always by beholding and seeing the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which centers ultimately on his sacrificial giving of himself through the cross, which is a form of greatness the world knows nothing of. Through the gospel, The people in mass here in Samaria repent, and there's joy, and there's hope, and there's this very beautiful thing happening, but Simon's repentance is very ambiguous, isn't it? Luke leaves us quite uncertain as to whether his faith is genuine or not. At first, he seems to have converted, verse 13. Even Simon himself believed, it says, and he followed Philip, was amazed by the signs and miracles that he saw. But then when he sees the power of the Holy Spirit granted through the apostles in verse 18, he offers them money for that same power. This is where Simon starts to be a little bit ambiguous. We thought he was a believer, and then he's trying to buy the Holy Spirit to have that power. Simon's still living out of his old mindset in that old pursuit of greatness. And so Peter tells Simon, verse 20, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. J.B. Phillips in his paraphrase translation, translates this as to hell with your money, Simon. In verse 21, Peter tells Simon his heart is not right with God. Verse 23, he tells Simon that he is in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. There's no indication that Simon is an amoral person, that he doesn't have the best interests of Samaria in mind. There's no indication that he was, you know, leading the people into the, very pits of hell, I guess we might say. They liked him, he was probably a decent man, but he could not escape this desire for greatness for himself. So Peter tells him, you're in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, and then we're left wondering, what happens to Simon? What becomes of him? Because verse 24, his last words that we know of are, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you've said may come upon me. And this brings us to our third point of application where Luke leaves Simon ambiguous. We don't know what's gonna happen. And Luke is using Simon as an example to show us that repentance from a heart that is set on worldly greatness is a very, very, very hard thing. Simon wants to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, so anyone who he lays his hand on can receive the Holy Spirit. It seems like a virtuous aim here, but his motives are exposed when he's trying to buy this power for himself. And why would he do that? Because he wants to keep making his name great. He's caught in this net. And Luke is showing us that repentance out of this aim of greatness, greatness, greatness is very, very, very hard. Peter makes it quite clear with his rebuke of Simon that his repentance has not penetrated to that heart that is fixed on being someone great. And so Peter leaves, I'm sorry, Luke leaves Simon's story very deliberately ambiguous. He's forcing the question on us, what will we do when we need to repent of the diabolical evil of making our own names great. What will we do? You see the ambiguity there is to force the question on us. We don't know where Simon's gonna end up. Luke is asking you, where are you? Simon is an extraordinary mess. We're left hanging. We don't know what happens to him. And the point of leaving Simon in ambiguity is to make sure we don't leave our own study here in ambiguity, in our own relationship with the Lord. So repentance for us, what would that look like? It would look like us recognizing no one is great, but God alone. Repentance for a heart consumed by these worldly ideas of greatness, very hard. But it's possible through the gospel, if you behold the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is great. The gospel of Jesus is the only thing that can remove the blinders from our eyes and show us the reality that God alone is great. And in fact, what is particularly helpful in removing those blinders from our eyes is when we see that God's greatness is revealed most clearly in the humility and in the service and in the suffering, in the self-giving love of our Lord Jesus Christ. which is the very form of greatness that we celebrate as we come to this table this morning. Let's pray as we do. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wealth of your word, and we acknowledge our own temptations personally to want to be great. We feel that pull. We pray, Lord, that you would guard us at every level from these temptations and continue to make us a people that happily acknowledge God alone is great. And we see that most clearly as Jesus is exalted in glory through his suffering, death, crucifixion, and resurrection. Bless us as we come to this table to celebrate these things, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.