Peter and simon the sorcerer7/3/2023 The writers of the New Testament don’t clearly explain why this is the case. What we will see in the book of Acts is that there is a varying order of the process of salvation in different accounts. Some apostles had to come, pray for them, and lay hands on them before those Samaritans received the Spirit. It is fascinating to me that through Philip’s ministry the power of the Spirit is clearly evident, but though the people of Samaria have believed in the Gospel and been baptized, the Spirit had not been given to the Samaritans. In verses 14-17 the apostles who were still in Jerusalem hear that people in Samaria have become followers of Jesus, so they send Peter and John to Samaria to lay hands on the converts and give them the Spirit. But stay with the story because it’s about to get even more interesting. Did Philip respond by entering into a discipling relationship with Simon? Or is Simon just a consumer here, asking Philip to “do more tricks”? What is Simon’s motive? No doubt he is entranced by the miracles Philip is doing. Simon believes too, and is baptized, and starts following Philip everywhere. Simon had some cool tricks, but nothing like the power of the Holy Spirit that was flowing through Philip. In verses 12-13 we read that the response of the people to Philip’s ministry is that “they believe and are baptized.” I suspect Simon was even more astonished than the average person in Samaria because he knew that the miracles Philip was performing, he, Simon, was unable to replicate. This is a classic human story, so keep reading to see how it unfolds. Let me ask you this: how does it often go when one person in power is upstaged by a new guy? Not well. But that is all about to change when Philip shows up. As you can see in verse 10, he was very well respected by the people in Samaria because he had impressed them for many years with his abilities. His magic, or sorcery, could involve both magic tricks like sleight of hand, and possibly supernatural ability like witchcraft. If you’re reading verse 9 in the ancient Greek language Acts was originally written in, the word for sorcery is “mageo.” I mention that because you can see that this is where we get our English word “magic.” Simon was a mage, one who practiced magic. Are we about to have a showdown? Simon the Sorcerer versus the power of the Holy Spirit? But there was already a man with great power in Samaria, Simon. One of those earliest Christians, Philip, had traveled to Samaria and started demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit. ![]() ![]() All week long we’ve been studying Acts 8:4-40, learning about how Christians should get woke like the early church.
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