Our text for this morning comes from Acts chapter 8. We pick up where we left off with verse 9 and read through verse 25. If you're using one of the blue Bibles from the back of the room, you'll find that on New Testament page 98. Acts chapter 8, verses 9 through 25. something over a year ago my family and I attended a homeschooling convention up in Denver and you know how these things work there's the main big sessions that where the big names speak that everybody came to hear and of course there's all the stuff for sale in the in the you know, the big place where you wander around and shop and spend three times as much money as you intended to when you came. And then there are the seminars, the little things in different places all over the place that happen simultaneously. And so you look through the schedule and you try to pick which things you'd be most interested in. Of course, the three you most want to attend are all happening at the same time. I don't know why they arrange things that way. It seems like they always do. But one of the seminars that my family went to see was Andrew Padawa. Poo-da-wa is how they say it on the video, I think. I looked at a video on his website trying to figure out how to say that. Poo-da-wa, I think, is how they say it. How do you say it? Poo-da-wa. That's how we say it. All right. Most of you don't know him, so it doesn't really matter. He teaches writing. methods of writing and how to be creative with that and so forth. He was giving a lecture on fantasy and fairy tale and how we should think about that. It was even more interesting than I expected it to be. And one of the things that he talked about was the different ways that magic and sorcery are treated in the Harry Potter series versus the Lord of the Rings, and mentioned Louis's Narnia in that context as well. You may remember when the Harry Potter series was still being written and was so insanely popular, there was a lot of buzz about that, a lot of conversations about that, and particularly a lot of Christians were talking about the prevalence of witchcraft in these novels. And what are we to think about that? The Bible, after all, does in fact condemn witchcraft. And so maybe our children shouldn't be reading these things, so I don't know, what do you think? Of course, one of the things that came up was Lewis's Narnia and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, perennial favorites with Christians, and both of these also contain references to magic and so forth. And I thought Andrew was interesting on that. He said, now, in Harry Potter, Magic is a thing that is ordinary in the world of the novels. And the main characters with whom the reader is encouraged to identify are those who practice magic, and they do so by means. They go to school and learn how to do magic. There are incantations or spells that they speak. You need a wand. There are certain gestures involved and so forth. And so magic is this mechanical thing you can learn to manipulate, and the reader is encouraged to identify with those who do. Now it's very different in Tolkien, especially if we zero in on the good sorcery, on the wizard, Gandalf. How he does what he does is a total mystery. In Tolkien's writing, magic is a thing that comes in from the outside, as it were, and is inexplicable. And while Gandalf is a favorite character of many, it's not written in such a way that the reader is encouraged to identify with Gandalf. We identify with the weakest main characters. We have no idea where Gandalf came from or how he can do the things that he can do. Think what you will of all of that. I bring it up to ask this question. Is the Holy Spirit a power? that we need to get more of and learn how to make use of in order to accomplish the things that we want to do? Or is the Holy Spirit a sovereign, divine person who makes use of us as his instruments to do his will? Before we read the text for this morning together, let's go to the God who wrote it in prayer. Father, we give you thanks for your Word, most holy, most helpful, for revealing to us by it who you are, what you require of us, what you have done to save us, and in this passage, revealing to us something of your Holy Spirit, who you are as Holy Spirit. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would be with us now, As he inspired Luke to write these words, will he be at work in and among us that we might rightly understand them. Grow us up in your grace by your word, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Acts chapter 8, verses 9 through 25. But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And they heeded him, because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned with bitterness and bound by iniquity.' Then Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. Thus far, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. May he add his blessing to the reading and to the preaching of it. This is a passage that presents us with numerous difficulties and questions, doesn't it? We don't have to think very long or very hard before we start to puzzle over a number of things. And so before I get to the main outline of the sermon where we talk about how we should think about and relate to the Holy Spirit, which I've already introduced, I just want to try to take care of some of those things, make a few notes, answer a few questions, at least in part, so that maybe those things are a little less distracting to us. The first thing is just a note that I wouldn't probably have to make, but I just can't help it. In verse 14, we are told that when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Please notice, the apostles apparently, including Peter himself, failed to recognize that Peter was the pope. He's sent, and he goes. Not what we would expect if he held such a post or office. He may have been first among the apostles in some ways, but not in such a way as to direct them with a superior authority. Second, this bit about practicing sorcery. It's just not something we know of in our experience, and so it grabs our attention and we wonder, what's going on there? And there are commentators who positively assert that Simon is fooling people and knows that he's fooling people by sleight of hand, essentially what we call today magicians. That's what he is. He's like a street performer. He's out there with the cups, and you can't guess where the pee went to. He's fooling people with this sleight of hand. I find that hard to believe. That for a long time, all those in this capital city, from the least to the greatest, are amazed by this man. They call him the power of God, and they heed what he has to say because of the things that he can do. I don't think these are card tricks. There is such a thing as demonic power, which can and at some times in history has been active in the world. Made me remember Exodus chapters 7 and 8, when Moses and Aaron first arrived in Egypt to demand of Pharaoh that he let the people of the Hebrews go out into the wilderness there to offer sacrifices to their covenant God. And God has given them certain signs to display. not only to the Hebrews apparently, that's the way it sounds when God gives them these signs, but also to Pharaoh. And so Aaron casts his rod down on the ground and it becomes a serpent. And then he reaches down and grasps the serpent by the tail and it becomes his rod again. You remember what happens? Pharaoh says, wow, that's amazing. No, he said, big deal. He calls in his magicians and they can do it too. Now I'd like to see one that we call a magician today pull that one off. They act by demonic power. There's a reason why the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. They too are aware of demonic power active in the world. I don't know how Simon manipulated those powers or to what extent he also was self-deceived, but I think there's real demonic power that's being overcome here by the preaching of the gospel. And then we come upon another question. What are we to think of Simon's conversion? Verse 13, Luke flatly says, Simon believed, and he was baptized. There are some who have argued for the genuineness of Simon's conversion. We're not perfectionists. We don't believe that the moment one comes to faith in Christ, then all our doctrine is correct, and the way that we think and conduct ourselves in life is all perfect. It would take some time for this man to become fully liberated from his former way of thinking and doing, and perhaps that is all we see later on in this passage. seems hard on him. His words to Simon are harsh, particularly if we think that Simon is a genuine convert. This is a friendly way to speak to a brother, and yet were not the Lord's words equally harsh to Peter himself? Get behind me, Satan. Peter does, in fact, call for Simon's repentance, pray to the Lord if perhaps the wickedness of your heart might be forgiven you. There is there a call to repentance and the extending of the possibility, at least, of forgiveness. And yet we may also mark that Simon is disobedient, it seems, from this passage. He does not pray and repent. He asks that Peter would pray for him. It's not what Peter commanded him to do. In the end, of course, we have to admit it's just, it's hard to tell. We can't really know his heart. Peter seems to have been given some insight into Simon's heart. I see that you are poisoned with bitterness and enslaved to sin. That doesn't sound good for his genuine conversion. But we can't know his heart. We don't really know, do we? We know that he heard the outward call. He heard the preaching of the gospel. We know that he professed faith in the message. We know that he received the outward confirmatory sign, that sign that confirmed and sealed those promises that had been preached to him as true. That sign was put upon him. He became a member of the church visible. And all of this just to say this is an example of why the Reformed have always said The church has a visible and an invisible aspect. Luke can say, without qualification, without qualms, Simon believed and was baptized. There are outward signs and outward manifestations of this. Was he truly converted? Invisibly, in the heart? We don't know. What became of him later on, we don't know. There's a warning here to us as well. There's a legitimacy to outward, external, visible membership in the church, visible participation in the external signs and seals of the covenant, but we are warned never to trust in them for our salvation. Simon had these things, and the pervasive and strong tradition of church history is that Simon was reprobate. One of the church fathers even asserted that he was the father of all heresies. It's extra biblical, we can't know, but we ought to be reminded we cannot trust in these outward things. Last of all, last kind of note and question that burdens us when we look at this passage before we get to the main outline. It's a lengthy introduction, I know. It's a short main outline. What are we to think about the work, the coming of the Holy Spirit? Here these Samaritans heeded the word of Christ. They hear the preaching. They turn away from Simon, this man whom they have been so impressed with for so long. They have heeded whatever he has to say because of the things that he can do. Now Philip comes, preaches to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they turn from the one in a short period of time and put their faith in Christ Jesus. Men and women are being baptized. And then we read, The Holy Spirit, as yet, had fallen upon none of them. Don't we teach that the Holy Spirit regenerates? That we cannot exercise faith apart from that faith being granted to us as a gift from the Holy Spirit? How can Luke say that they are converted to Christ and they are baptized without the Holy Spirit? What are we to make of this? Paul positively asserts in his letter to the Thessalonians, as well as to Titus, that none can believe apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. It's just the way it has always been. It was that way in the Old Testament also. Many of David's Psalms give evidence of his conscious awareness of the work of the Holy Spirit. And yet at Pentecost, something happened. Something new happened. The Holy Spirit was poured out in a newly pervasive and visible way. He's poured out on all persons then, and in this visible way, so that there are manifestations of the work of the Spirit that one can point to and be amazed at and be convinced by, which regeneration is not. Nobody's walking down the street and says, whoa, did you see that? That person just regenerated. Never seen anything like that before in my life. You can't see that. But the Spirit was poured out in a way that was visible. In order that the office of the apostles might be affirmed as one given by God himself, the message of the gospel that they preached might be authenticated as having come from God, and that people would therefore believe. So the apostles come to Samaria. They've heard that Philip has gone there. He's preached the gospel. They hear there is something happening there. Men and women are coming to faith in Christ. And so the apostles send two of their number, Peter and John, to Samaria. Now they do not come to supersede Philip, nor to exalt themselves. Peter and John do not show up and say, thank you very much, Philip, for getting things rolling. The big guns are here now. You may step back. We'll take it from here. They're not there for self-aggrandizement. They came, rather, in order that the conversion of the Samaritans might be evidenced to be the work of the same spirit who brought the Jewish Christians to repentance and faith. Follow that? One spirit at work in the conversion of the Jewish Christians and now in these Samaritan Christians and in order that the church there in Samaria might be known as a part of the same body with the same gospel and under the same leadership as the church in Jerusalem. So that the Holy Spirit works through the ministry of Philip to grow the church, and then through the ministry of Peter and John to unify the church. In other words, there's a sort of miniature repeat of Pentecost here in this place, in Samaria, in order to tie it to what is going on in Jerusalem. This is all one thing, all one God, all one Spirit. Now then, how are we to think about the Holy Spirit, and what do we see in this passage about attitudes toward the Holy Spirit? First of all, Simon. who sees the Holy Spirit as a power that he might use for his advancement. He has the wrong goal, and because he's got the wrong goal, he sees things wrongly in terms of his relationship with the Holy Spirit. Think about who this Simon is. Think of, well, let's think of all the articles we see advertised on the cover of People magazine or whatever it might be in the supermarket, the things we see online. We're fascinated, for some reason, by the lives of these celebrities. How many of them have good lives? How many of them seem truly happy and content? I mean, indeed, wouldn't you say, based on the evidence, one of the worst things you could do for your contentment in this life is become famous? We're just not built to handle that kind of applause and attention and accolade. People treat celebrities almost as though they're gods, and we're not God. We're not built to handle that, and Simon wasn't built to handle that either. He calls himself something great, and the people call him the power of God. It's guessed by some commentators they think he's the Messiah. or that he is God himself, or some combination of that. Everybody hangs on every word that he says because he can do such amazing things. You suppose Simon was somebody you'd really want to know and hang out with? Not likely. He is used to having things his own way. He is used to power and influence. And now comes Philip on the scene, and people leave off heeding everything he has to say, and instead listen to Philip. And this went over like a ham sandwich in a synagogue, right? When he sees the laying on of hands and the descent of the Holy Spirit on people through this laying on of hands, he says, verse 19, sell me this power. that on whomever I lay hands, they may receive the Holy Spirit." Is his concern that a great number of people might receive the Holy Spirit? I don't think so. He's not interested in following in the train of the apostles and glorifying God for what He is doing through them. He's used to being the guy in the limelight. And he wants it back. These men are powerful. I want to be powerful. These men are influential. I miss that influence. Sell me this power so that on whomever I lay hands." And that reflects a wrong understanding of his relationship to the Holy Spirit. He offered them money. Simon's used to a power that can be bought or manipulated. How did he work this, I think, demonic power that he's used to wielding? I don't know. Did he have incantations? Did he offer up sacrifices? Sort through the remains of sacrificed animals to discern things there? Were there certain rituals that he performed? However it was, he's used to a power that he can manipulate in some way. If he will go through the right ceremonies, the right actions, say the right words, then this power will respond to him. And when he sees the power of the Holy Spirit, he interprets it similarly. Here's a power I can have if I will maybe offer money. How much does it cost? I'm a wealthy man. Name your price. Here's a power I want to manipulate. Of course, such control, even that control that he is used to having, was always an illusion. What does Peter say to him? I see that your heart is bound in iniquity. He's not free. He's not in control. This is always the lie that idols of every variety tell to us, that you can be in control, that you can be in the driver's seat. Everything in our culture is marketed to us as though we were in the driver's seat. We are the consumer. We have dollars to spend, and that puts us in control. Our business is courted, and so everything from from cars, to clothing, to food, to phones, to vacation destinations, to drugs, are marketed to us as though these things or services that are offered to us will make us happy. If we will just do whatever those things require of us to make that power work. Spend our money or whatever it is. So everything's marketed to us as though we're in control. But if we give in, we'll find that it's those things and those services that control us. They demand that we do this, that we spend this if we want what they have to offer, which is never enough. What's delivered is never enough. You know, it's interesting. I listed on the end of that list, there are a list of drugs. Pharmaceuticals marketed to us on the television screen. You can have your life back. You can be happy again. Look, sunshine and kids swinging on tire swings. You just take this pill. I wanted to know if the words used in the Greek here in our passage for Simon's sorcery were maybe the same Greek words that the Hebrews used when they translated their Hebrew scriptures into Greek at Exodus chapters 7 and 8 about these magicians. who worked enchantments in Egypt. It's not. There's a lot of Greek words they used there. It's not the same ones that we have here. But I did find something interesting. The word that they used for enchantments there in the Greek when they translated the Hebrew, it's the root we get pharmacy from. Drugs are just magic. They will just make your life so wonderful. Everything can be good again. If you will just take this little blue enchantment, you can be happy again. Religion and spirituality are thought of in the same way in our culture. Not just goods and services, but religion and spirituality is marketed in this way, the attitude that we all have toward it. Our culture doesn't believe there's anything as absolute truth. You don't believe these things because they're true. But if it helps you, If it brings you comfort, if it helps you to cope, well then more power to you. I don't care what it is. Spirit, or crystals, or meditation, or whatever you want, it's all good. It helps you out. Listen, we're fools if we think that we're not influenced by our culture on this. And the way that we think about our God, and about worship, and about prayer, and about Bible reading, we're impacted. By the way, our culture markets everything to us. What about Philip and the apostles? They see things differently. They know the Holy Spirit as a sovereign and divine person who has a right to make use of them as his tools to achieve his purposes. a wholly and radically different way of looking at everything. So as they come to Samaria, they have a totally different goal than Simon's goal. They're not there for self-aggrandizement. They're there for the growth and unity of the church to the glory of Christ, because they know the Spirit. Philip is obedient to the Spirit's call to preach and to baptize. Perhaps he even had a specific instruction to go to Samaria. We don't know why he went to Samaria. It's possible that's home for him. So when he fled from the persecution in Jerusalem, he just went home. Maybe the spirit called him to go there either overtly or just through providence led him there. He's obedient to the call that he has to preach the name of Jesus Christ and to baptize those who come to trust in Christ. Peter and John come. Now, Simon witnesses them laying hands on people, and when they lay their hands on them, the Holy Spirit is poured out. That's what he sees. Perhaps he missed what happened first. Maybe what happened before that was not public, was not something that Simon could have been privy to. Maybe we missed it as we read through the passage. They don't just show up in Samaria and start laying their hands on people. Verse 15, when they had come down, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. See, Peter and John recognize they're not in control of the Holy Spirit. They can't tell him what to do. Laying their hands on people is not some magic ritual that they've been given that the Holy Spirit has to obey. There's no ex operae operato here. By the work worked. If you lay your hands on them, it happens. And they know this, and so first they pray. They asked the Lord that He would choose to do what, I think, they knew He sent them there to do. So they knew that their goal of unifying and building up the Church to the glory of Christ, that wasn't something they had the power to do. They need the Holy Spirit to act. And they came as tools of the Holy Spirit. He's not their tool, they're His. They're seeking His action through them to achieve His purpose. And because of that, listen, that can sound to us because we're so used to, you can have what you want. You know, just go to the store and buy it. It can sound to us like a kind of helplessness or even slavery that we don't like, that we rebel against, that the Spirit's in control and He uses us to achieve His purposes. The flesh rebels against that. That's not where I want to be. I want to be in control. I want to get to choose what happens, and He'll do it for me. But listen, because they have this right attitude, because they understand these things, then they could know the comfort and confidence of resting in the Spirit's sovereign work. Can they do this? No. Does that destroy them? No. It's not their job to make this happen. What if they fail? Can the Holy Spirit fail? No. Then why should I worry? If this doesn't go the way I wanted it to, if people don't listen, God's really disappointed in me now because He sent me here and I wasn't able? It's the Holy Spirit who is sovereign and who works. There's comfort and confidence in that, and we can know these things too. We can be comforted and confident in our life lived before the face of God. We can know that if we exercise faith in Christ, it's only because the Spirit has worked faith in us. We rejoice in the work of the Holy Spirit. If I have faith in Christ, that's not kudos to me. I couldn't make that happen. It can only be because the Holy Spirit is at work within me. If we're effective in serving His church, whether that's through prayer, or worship, or evangelism, or encouraging and counseling one another, serving one another, whatever ways it is that maybe we're effective in ministering to the church of Jesus Christ, that can only be by His power through us. With whatever you have been gifted, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the grace of God. It's not your power. It's not your talent. It's not your intelligence or eloquence. It's the Holy Spirit who ministers his grace to his people through his people. If we expect any good from God, it can only be as the Spirit works for us to apply to us the redemptive work of Christ. You've been washed, sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit. He applies to us what Christ has done. So we can live in the comfort of knowing, in the confidence of knowing that the divine Spirit of God Almighty, all wise, all loving, is at work in us. By grace, you've been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. He's at work in us, and through us, and for us. Let's thank him. Oh, Holy Spirit, we acknowledge that you are God and we are not. that all that we can have or do or know that is good comes not from us, but from you, and comes not at our calling upon you and manipulating you to give us the good that we want, but comes at your initiation to do us the good we didn't even know to ask for before you gave it. We thank you for your great goodness to us. We ask that you would cause us to live in conscious and confident dependence upon who you are in us and for us with a humble willingness to be used by you in whatever way you deem best. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.