Acts #10: Believing in Christ: The effects of the Gospel (Acts 8); Patrice Berger

Previous text Acts 6:8 – 8:3

Through the texts that speak to us of Stephen that we went through the last time, we saw that through Jesus, the uselessness of religious laws, holy places, and « holy persons » in enabling us to find favor with God. Constraints, virtuous efforts, pilgrimages, objects of devotion, recourse, or prayers to emblematic religious figures are therefore useless. God is not contained in a place, object or matter. Amulets, lucky charms, idols, or domestic temples are useless.

It is even the opposite; these practices belong to the occult world.

Admittedly, these practices are common: animism, which is the matrix of the majority of the religious systems of humanity, gives spiritual virtues to objects as if God could be contained in matter.

That is certainly not the case.

If ever an object has a power, rest assured that it is not from the Eternal One but a satanic trap.

God does not call us to superstition in objects, places, or people who have lived, but to have faith in Christ who is alive, God the creator of life, re-creator of our fallen lives into lives reconciled with the ‘Eternal.

Teaching Joseph’s Journey

In the story of the seed of Jacob (Genesis chapter 37 to 50):

• The sons of Jacob had sold their brother Joseph into slavery.
• A few years later, they are again confronted with him in Egypt.
• But Joseph became prime minister of Egypt.
• Joseph has all the powers and what to eat in times of famine.
• Needless to say, the slave brothers are petrified!!!

But Joseph makes this beautiful observation:

You had planned to hurt me,

God changed it for good to accomplish what is happening today,

to save the lives of many people.

Genesis 50: 20

Same for Stephen

It is the same observation that we could make following the long passage that we meditated on the last time in the chapters which speak of Stephen in the book of Acts (Acts 6:8– 8: 3)

Terrible Persecution

A terrible persecution falls on the nascent Church of Jerusalem after the execution of Stephen. Many believers flee Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, the text of Acts 8 tells us:

On that day a great persecution broke out against the Church of Jerusalem

and all,

except for the apostles,

Others dispersed to various regions

• Judea
• and Samaria.

Great Reversal

Finally, the persecutors of the Church, Saul in the lead, thought they were putting a stop to the life of the Gospel, but the opposite happened!

Progression of the Gospel under Persecution

Despite persecution, the gospel clearly achieves the stages of progression announced by Jesus in Acts1:8

Mnemonic

You could say that Acts 8:1 is one of the answers to Acts 1:8

(Nice mnemonic)

Highlighted aspects in the text of the day

This morning’s text drives the point home: it begins and ends with a mention of Samaria and the positive proclamation of the Gospel in the towns of this region. It is as if our text were encapsulated by “Samaria” so that we understand its importance.

The Samaritans

Who were these Samaritans?

I saw that their origins were quite debated:

It seems that their origin comes from the populations who had settled on the lands of the deported Jews and who had adopted Judaism.

What is certain is that at the time, the Samaritans were considered a second-class population (in the eyes of the Jews of “perfect stock”), trivially, they were seen as “bastards”. “Samaritan” was a Jewish slur at the time!

Steps before the pagans

If Jesus mentions that the gospel must reach them, it’s a bit of a gradual step, certainly in terms of geography but also of identity before the gospel reaches the pagans.

Reading of Acts 8 (Check the Sidebar)

The Gospel Comes to Samaria

Like Stephen’s other assistant

Philip, the assistant of the church of Jerusalem, serves Christ, both practically (distribution of social assistance to widowed believers) and by the proclamation of the Gospel.

Same methodology

What is happening in Samaria is identical to what Jesus, the twelve apostles, and Stephen did. The preaching is given credibility by extraordinary signs (miracles) to show that it is the same inspiration, the same gospel as Jesus and the twelve apostles, so there is no discrepancy.

Meticulous reminders

At each stage of Acts: 8

• Jerusalem,
• Judea,
• Samaria,
• the ends of the earth,

we are going to be confronted with certain markers which show that it is the same message and the same gospel.

Same markers but not always the same methodology

Often, we have the same markers:

• miracles,
• preaching the gospel,
• clear reception of the Holy Spirit
  • for example:
    • sometimes speak languages ​​automatically,
    • or tongues of fire above their heads
• inauguration of the arrival of the Gospel by an apostle: Peter in particular.

It’s not always the same things that happen:

• sometimes miracles, but sometimes not (e.g., Cornelius Acts: 10),
• sometimes to inaugurate the advance of the Gospel, requests
  • through prayer to the Holy Spirit
  • the laying on of hands (but this is not always the case: example Corneilius – Acts 10)

There are, however, enough clear events to show us that it is still the same gospel.

The inauguration is non-normative for us, but very understandable

This inauguration phase of the Gospel is not prescriptive but, at the same time, it never leaves one in confusion.

We understand that it is the same message that Jesus preached.

Warm Gospel Welcome

The Gospel receives a warm welcome in Samaria. In opposition to the closure in Jerusalem. The contrast is well brought out in the plan of the book of Acts:

• Previous text with Stephen, refusal in Jerusalem (Acts chapter 6:8– 8:3 (Bible S21))
• Text of the day with Philip, Joy in Samaria (Acts chapter 8: 4-25)

The refusal of the Jews benefits others

It’s a bit of a snub, it’s the Samaritans who accept the gospel!

It is also the same situation as with Jesus when we observe the gospels. The refusal of his people, the Jews, mainly by the politico-religious authorities, leads Jesus to also address those who were not the first to be logically concerned.

There, the persecution in Jerusalem is ultimately a blessing for Judea and Samaria.

To go deeper into the subject:

• Romans:11
• Deuteronomy 32:21 and Romans 10:19
• Acts 13:46

What accompanies this first proclamation of the gospel?

The proclamation of the Gospel is therefore accompanied here also by deliverances from occult servitude, sound health regained for some.

Purpose of miracles

John 20

30 Jesus also performed, in the presence of his disciples, many other signs which are not described in this book.

31 But these have been described so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This first proclamation is accompanied by joy

And joy presides, while the previous text spoke to us of persecution. Acts 8

8 There was great joy in that city.

The new arrival of the Gospel, inaugurated by Peter

The apostles and in particular Peter are witnesses of the arrival of the Gospel.

The presence of Peter « officially inaugurates » this arrival in the different stages of the progression of the gospel.

The missions of the first apostles were particular

• Peter is the tool of this “officialization” (gift of the Holy Spirit, here in particular through his action as Peter and John). We see that Philip did not have this role.

Founding Mission of the Twelve Apostles + Paul

This example, among others, shows that the apostles, the twelve then Paul, had a totally unique ministry to launch and frame the beginning of the Church.

All other ministries of believers will be different from theirs in this regard.

The term “apostle” in the sense of the early Church no longer exists.

This is why the verse of Ephesians 2:20 relies on this constitutive, founding part of the Church made by the apostles:

You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

21 It is in him that the whole building, well-coordinated, rises to be a holy temple in the Lord.

22 In him you also are built up with them to form a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Consequences and importance

The Church is not to be reinvented. Solid foundations are laid. We have our part in this construction and our part will never be the same as that of the apostles. It was unique.

Laying on of hands and gift of the Holy Spirit

Understanding this particular role of the apostles, it is easier to grasp what happens with the laying on of hands and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, following the acceptance of the Gospel by the Samaritans, Peter and John are led to pray by laying on of hands so that baptized believers receive the Holy Spirit.

The laying on of hands is not magic. It is an official gesture of association, solidarity, and designation.

And I can tell you that it was not an insignificant gesture for a Jew to do it to a Samaritan, the Gospel had worked the hearts of the apostles well.

It’s like a current Orthodox Jew doing it with a Palestinian, for illustration.

It is an inaugural role: Peter and John do not have the « fluid » of the Holy Spirit in them which they would then pass on to their initiates.

Moreover, it is a question in the text of the day, that the Holy Spirit must “come down” (verse 16). It is therefore not in the apostles that there would be a force that they would transmit.

Unique ways of doing things in the book of Acts

The arrival of the Holy Spirit happened sometimes, but not always, like the book of Acts.

• We no longer have this mention in the epistles.
• Even in the book of Acts, two chapters later (thus the 10th), the arrival of the Holy Spirit does not happen like that.

Different for us today

We therefore cannot conclude that what was done at the time of the Acts is a way of doing things for believers today.

• What corresponds to believers now is set forth in the epistles.

Sunday, June 6, 2021, I attended and was very happy to proceed to the baptism of one of my goddaughters. She did not receive the Holy Spirit afterward, it was already done, following her acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord.

God fully gives the Holy Spirit

All followers of Christ receive the Holy Spirit as a result of their acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord. They receive it generously and completely. There’s no need for a second coat or booster shot like vaccines.

When the apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he has work to do! It was a pretty dysfunctional church. Their cultural background led them to a rather shocking Church life.

Yet Paul says of them that they were all “immersed” (baptized) into the person of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13

We were all baptized into one Spirit into one body and we all drank of one Spirit.

God gives in a full and whole way even to believers who obviously had a lot to settle.

God gives in a full and complete way for people who really turn to Him through Jesus.

Simon?

The subject of the gift of the Spirit brings us to consider the example of Simon who is the opposite of the person that Philip will meet in the following text Acts 26:40

Contrast (the importance of the plan of a biblical book):

• Ethiopian eunuch wholeheartedly receives the gospel, he reads the Word of God
• Simon adopts the codes and hopes to be able to take advantage of this situation but has obviously not accepted Christ. He absorbs all the techniques to give himself power.

Who is Simon?

Stating the situation, he is an important character, that subjugates the Samaritans.

Ambiguity on the perception of divinity

He is credited with divine power, verse 10

Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, listened to him attentively and said:

“This man is the power of God,

In Greek “Dumanis” was used later by theologians to speak of the Son and the Holy Spirit

The rest of his life also seems to cultivate this ambiguity. He seems to take himself for God (see below)

It captivates, that’s for sure

The world that surrounded characters of this type is not only demonic. It is rather a mixture of serious and scientific knowledge of the time, of illusion (prestidigitation), of multiple religious beliefs, idolaters, initiators, and occult powers. To sum up, one could say that there was not too much of a boundary between astronomy and astrology!

Certainly, the Magi who come to worship Jesus had much of this pedigree!

Real power

Their powers were not negligible. We see that the entire Samaritan population is overwhelmed by what Simon was able to do.

The Bible tells us, for example, of the power that certain people had to do something similar to Moses before Pharaoh at the beginning of the famous plagues of Egypt:

• The rod changed into a serpent,
• Water changed to blood (plague number 1),
• The frogs (plague number 2).

Exodus chapter 7 to chapter 8, verse 11

They will not be able to follow because the occult power is limited.

It is not that of the creator (the occult world is the celestial creation of God in revolt. It is by far no match for God.)

• Mosquitoes and all other plagues (plague number 3 and following).

Exodus chapter 8 verses 12 and following verses

Simon also overwhelmed by God

It’s a bit like Simon’s observation: what he sees being done through Philip goes far beyond what he was able to do. Moreover, the Samaritans understood this well and they are turning away from him to Philip.

Does Simon join the gospel?

At first, it seems that Simon is giving up what he was for the gospel:

• Simon believes like the other Samaritans,
• Simon is baptized in the name of Jesus like the other Samaritans who believe.

Faith was not in Christ

However, we understand from the mouth of Peter, enlightened by God and by His Spirit, that Simon believed in the strength that he could draw from Jesus through the Holy Spirit and he, therefore, submitted to the ceremonies and the initiation. (in its design), thinking to acquire the same capacities as Philipp which took away his prestige.

A transaction shows the bottom of his heart

The bottom of his heart is unmasked when he wanted to acquire the power of the apostles through money.

Where does this idea come from?

Why does he do this?

Prestidigitation

This is the practice in the world of prestidigitation, for example. To teach you a trick, you have to pay whoever teaches it to you. A prestidigitation trick can be bought.

I had an acquaintance who does conjuring and once I asked him to explain one of his tricks to me but he told me it was not possible because he had to buy the explanation. He was therefore not going to popularize it for free.

Occult world

But on the occult plane, those who are the strongest, the most powerful, are those who acquire the strongest powers.

Exactly like powers in video games: there is an aspect of power and/or stacking.

Exorcism aside (a similar mechanism)

As such, an exorcist will most likely be someone more charged with a powerful occult force. He can subdue someone with less powerful spirits.

Consequences:

• it doesn’t solve the problem,
• one puts oneself under a cup of greater domination.

Even the « prayers », that is to say, the incantations, are never free.

• Money or not, it is the life of the person which is always the currency, (the occult world never gives but transfers or exchanges, for example, the temptation of Jesus: Satan proposes to give everything to Jesus in exchange for His obedience, submission, and worship (Matthew 4:1-11)

This is Simon’s situation

So Simon is in this situation: he thinks that Jesus, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit

are more interesting, stronger powers that he needs to regain his status, his influence, his domination, and his prestige in Samaritan society.

God stops Peter from this misconception

God leads Peter to unmask the horror of this false conception embedded in Simon’s heart and of this logic inspired by human tradition and the occult world.

Does this cause Simon to repent?

You could believe and hope that Simon is going to be touched in his heart and really turn to Christ.

Fear from him but no repentance

But, he is afraid for himself but has no repentance (repentance is always turned towards God, otherwise it is remorse when it is personal), he does not pray himself but asks the apostles to pray so that nothing happens to him. Again the consequences but not the heart.

The cocktail that locks it up

The apostle Peter discerns that his thoughts are colonized by wickedness, bitterness, and the reign of evil.

To follow the movement of the gospel by interest

• Simon followed the movement of the Samaritans because he was losing influence, he thought to recover an additional and stronger power to regain his place and his influence.

He believes beside the Gospel

He did believe in miracles and in the power of the Holy Spirit but not in the author of miracles (God/Christ). His heart was not touched, he understood nothing of the gospel.

Callous heart

He did not provide a fertile ground for the gospel to take its measure. It remained like hard ground, rock (Parable of the Lands Luke 8: 4-15).

And after?

What happened to Simon?

The early Church claims that Simon is one of the founders, along with his successor Menander, of Gnosticism and that they considered themselves to be God incarnate!

(In the Gnostic there is always the idea of ​​initiation into a spiritual dimension which is only accessible to people who have this knowledge, totally opposite to what Jesus showed. He did almost everything in public in a transparent and completely understandable and accessible Bible.)

Simon gave the term « simony »: buying ecclesiastical offices.

Simony consists of the buying and selling of spiritual goods, sacraments, hierarchical positions, ecclesiastical offices, or intelligence services. It developed mainly in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Renaissance, in violation of the Council of Chalcedon.

Note on Baptism

Small aside: Simon was baptized in the name of Jesus, but it did not transform his life,

baptism did not bring, confer spiritual or change anything to him.

The act of baptism in itself does not have a force in itself.

Biblical baptism only makes sense if it reflects an interior reality of a person touched by the horror of what he is and who has completely abandoned himself in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of his life.

In this, we as an assembly understand baptism in the biblical sense (like many evangelical churches including Baptist churches and not in the traditional sense (like historic churches).

Therefore, baptism is practiced by immersion. It must flow from genuine conversion and a conscious confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is a unique act of obedience, by which the believer manifests that he is dead to sin and alive for Christ. It is the sign of the remission of the believer’s sins in Christ and of the offering of his life to God. He expresses his resolution to live for God and materializes his belonging to the Church.

What this text tells us

The gospel for all the families of the earth

Already the gospel is progressing identically beyond the Jewish circle beyond Jerusalem and Judea. The promises of Jesus (Acts 1:8) are fulfilled just like those of the Lord to Abraham (Genesis 12:3 b) “All the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”).

Don’t be mistaken in faith

Difference between believing the gospel or gravitating with the world of the gospel.

The gospel is the understanding that our lost lives are abhorrent to God and have no issue but in Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives.

What the Gospel is not: rites and attitudes of the Church.

It’s not just another aspect of our lives.

The gospel is a metamorphosis of our lives surrendered into the hands of Christ. Romans 12. 1-2

1 I, therefore, encourage you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. It will be reasonable worship on your part. 2 Do not conform to the present world but be transformed (metamorphosed, literally) by renewing the mind to discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing, and perfect.

The effects of faith are not saving faith

• Simon believed in miracles and in the power of the Holy Spirit, but it didn’t change his heart, miracles don’t save.
• The Holy Spirit is not the Saviour, he did not go to the cross.

And for us?

This is a good question for us:

Have we been attending an assembly out of habit forever? Are we in motion like Simon?

Or do we come because Christ is our Savior and Lord and out of gratitude and admiration we are there for Christ?

Belief is not an end in itself

Believing is not enough, it is what we believe and how we believe that matters.

Simon believed in all that was obvious and visible: miracles and signs of the Church like baptism. Maybe he believed in God? But, demons believe in God. James 2:19 Do you believe there is only one God? You do it right; the demons also believe it, and they tremble.

Content difference

• But it is another thing to believe in the reality of God (that He exists) and to believe in the sense of putting your life in the hands of God through Christ because we have understood that we are sinners.

We can:

• go to church,
• love the stories of Jesus,
• find coherent developments,
• love the praise, the atmosphere of the Church,
• believe in the « magic » of the Holy Spirit,
• find people more or less likable,
• appreciate brotherly love and community.

But the stories of Jesus do not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

Theology does not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

The fire of praise does not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

Brotherly love and peace do not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

The Holy Spirit is not going to the cross for the forgiveness of sins. He does not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

The Church does not save.

It is Jesus who saves!

Atmosphere & heart of the gospel

You can be in the « groove » of the Church for years, since your childhood, and miss the point!

The faith that saves is a person: Jesus Christ who died and rose again, because

• of the sin of humanity,
• my sin

that made me

• guilty and,
• lost forever.

Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12 and Romans 8:1

That He bore the condemnation that was due to me, His sacrifice was entirely acceptable to God and He had victory over death, therefore over sin.

This is why Christ is at the heart of our faith which gives itself to Him.

Nothing can be bought

There is no « simony » in the Church of Christ. Nothing can be bought, everything is given generously by grace, by Christ. All that is exchanged, and purchased is part of human traditions and the occult world!

God’s Generous Gift of the Holy Spirit

Especially the Holy Spirit.

God gives it totally to every person who surrenders their lost life to Christ as Lord and Savior of their life.

The passage from 1 Corinthians 12:13 is about believers in Christ who had a lot of progress to make!

Indeed, whether we are Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, we have all been baptized in one Spirit to form one body and we have all drunk of one Spirit.

Baptized: literally, permanently immersed (like pickles in a jar of vinegar)

Practical Consequences of Living Faith

There is therefore no need to ask anyone to invoke or pray to him.

It is a double error.

• the Holy Spirit
  • helps us,
  • inspires us to pray to God and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not the goal of prayer. It is the Eternal One and His Son Jesus Christ who is the goal.
• Invoking the Holy Spirit would correspond to imitating traditional human, even occult practices.

In this, prayer or hymns to bring the Holy Spirit or to have more of it are at least useless.

God has given generously and beyond what even our imaginations could conceive.

A fair request

The problem is not to have more Holy Spirit, but to have him working more in me.

Encourage the action of the Holy Spirit by a heart and thoughts well disposed to His suggestions, a favorable soil. We can pray for this. Psalm 51:12

• By prayer to God and to Christ who thus responds to the suggestions of the Holy Spirit
• By reading the Word of God, the Bible,
  • completely written by men and
  • completely inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21)
• Associate with people who also live with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, believers and therefore normally followers of Christ.

No Holy Spirit Transmitter Guru

The Holy Spirit is not transmitted by someone (this is a conception drawn from magic),

but it is God who gives it.

2 Corinthians 1:21

21 And he who strengthens us with you in Christ, and who has anointed us, is God, 22 who has also sealed us and placed in our hearts the down payment of the Spirit.

Interesting

Deposits cannot be withdrawn.

Once paid, they remain the property of the person who received them (this is different from a deposit that can be returned if the deal is not done).

The presence of the Holy Spirit is an eternal guarantee of our belonging to God through Christ.

The illusion always ends up being unmasked

We can deceive those around us by “believing” or being baptized, but there always comes a time when the expression of faith shows what the reality of the heart is.

The parable of “The Tares and the Wheat” Matthew 13:24-30 ultimately shows the true nature of the seeds planted: an expected useful seed, the wheat, and a useless seed, the weed, sown by an enemy. In the beginning, we do not see the difference, after one and the other have pushed, there is no picture! We see immediately the wheat or weeds!

We can make style in the midst of the children of God but in the end, what is in the heart will reveal itself.

Acknowledgment

How good it is to be Christ’s, that’s perfect and clear.

There is nothing fishy, ​​we are dealing with generosity, and recovery, not enslavement. But in fairness, whatever our starting point or our origins, there is no need for conditioning, rites, money, or powers; it is the simplicity and the truth of the hearts.

Texts like this push me to appreciate Christ more and more.

What He does is transparent.

The verse that gave me joy is verse 8, which says

There was great joy in that city.