Philip in Samaria

Transcript

Hi Everyone, welcome back to the Living on Prayer podcast. I’m Emily and I’m glad to have you back again for this series on spiritual distractions. I mentioned that these few episodes here in the middle of the series were about some people, some stories, examples from the scriptures. Today’s episode will be the last one for this series before I jump back over to the topic of spiritual distractions completely. If you haven’t noticed the loose tie ins to the topic of spiritual distractions on the last two episodes then don’t worry I’ll definitely tie them back in soon. But today, let’s talk about a story from the book of Acts, Chapter 8 about the disciple Philip who was preaching in the city of Samaria. Before we start into the story itself let me give you some of the backstory of what’s going on here. This scripture picks up after Stephen has been stoned to death and because of his death there was wave of persecution that started in that area on the believers of Christ. I won’t get into those details because that’s another story I’d love to tell later on. But that persecution caused the believers to scatter. But even though they were scattered they still preached, they still got out there teaching about Jesus Christ. And that’s where I want to pick up for today’s episode. Starting in Acts, Chapter 8, verses 4-24.

“But the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the city of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as ‘The Great One - The Power of God.’ They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic. But now the people believed Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed. 

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. 

When Simon saw that the spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. ‘Let me have this power too,’ he exclaimed, ‘so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit.’ 

But Peter replied, ‘May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought! You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive your evil thoughts for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.’ 

‘Pray to the Lord for me,’ Simon exclaimed, ‘that these terrible things you've said won't happen to me!’”

 Ok so here’s what we’ve got going on here. Philip is preaching in the city called Samaria, where a sorcerer named Simon has been known as the Great One to the whole city. Now this is a city, not a village, not a town, it’s a city ok. And Simon has been amazing this town with his magic for what the scriptures described as a long time and many years. That’s never good because that means it’s messed up all those people’s paths. He’s been lying and deceiving them for a long time, not good. And Philip comes in and it says that he is casting out evil spirits and the scripture talks about evil spirits many times and I always find it interesting that when the evil spirits are cast out that they don’t leave their hosts, their victims, quietly. It says in verse 7, many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims. You know, why wouldn’t they? They’ve had rain and terror over their victims for so long. Why would they leave quietly? They’re being forced to leave by the Holy Spirit by the way. It’s not like they want to leave. But when they’re told to go, they have to go and so they’re going to scream and pitch a tantrum as they’re going. They’re being forced out of their victim and in parallel the victim is being healed at the same time. 

So of course how many people there in Samaria had been believing in Simon, the sorcerer for so long? How many of those evil spirits were because of his sorcery? This Great One that the people thought was so great. And it just goes to show that people will believe in something great, especially if they have nothing else to believe in. So it's really important that the word is spread and that believers are out there helping others and getting the word out. And that’s what Philip was doing in Samaria and that's what all the apostles were doing. All of the apostles, the disciples, the Christians, the believers were doing and are continuing to do. To spread the word as much as we can, to help each other and help others as much as we can, because if not, then people will believe in anything. And this example goes to show how people believed in a sorcerer and his magic had astounded them for years. 

And magic can astound all of us if we let us. But remember that magic is a slight of hand performed by man. It’s not miraculous. It’s not the Holy Spirit and it certainly won’t get us to Heaven. Keep that in mind when you’re distracted by any shiny magical slight of hand things that might be waved in front of you. 

Ok now then we go to the end of this passage after Philip baptizes the ones who have accepted Christ, Peter and John come to town and laid hands on those believers for the Holy Spirit to be received. So look let me talk about this whole baptism process because I love to discuss it with other Christians. There are denominations, sects, whatever you want to call them of Christianity that believe in various formats of baptism. I don’t care about all those different ways. I’m a Christian, period. But what I will say here is that the scripture says it was performed. Baptism was performed, absolutely it was performed. But it does not make you a believer. These folks were baptized. Notice that Simon was baptized too but the baptism was symbolic of their desire to accept Christ, their outward acceptance of Christ, their public display to the world that hey I believe this now and it represents washing away your old life and being reborn into the new one. But you can also think of it symbolically like having a wedding. You’re saying to the world I want to marry this person and I want people to witness it and know about it. But did you sign the marriage certificate? Did you really mean it when you said the vows? Or were you just going through the motions? Ok, so baptism is similar to a wedding ceremony. It’s symbolic to yourself, to others, to God that you wash away your old ways, your old life, and are born again. But remember, God knows your heart and the Holy Spirit if given as part of himself to enter into your heart to live there. If your intent isn’t real, and only you and God know your real intentions, then the Holy Spirit won’t enter. If you’re just faking it, he doesn’t come in. So if you’re just getting baptized to make Mom and Dad happy, to get the spouse off your back, to make the preacher shut up, to make the kids think you’re a good parent then you can fool the outside world by going through the symbolic ritual of baptism but you can’t fool God. He won’t give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And what does that actually mean? It mean that when you get to heaven and you stand at the throne God will turn you away saying He doesn’t know you. Your name won’t be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You need to understand that baptism isn’t the way to heaven. That you can fool the world but you can’t fool God. So like what happened with Simon when John and Peter got there, he didn’t get the Holy Spirit. John and Peter quickly knew that Simon’s heart was still wicked, he still hadn’t repented. He didn’t really mean it. He was still the same as he had always been. He might have been baptized and he might have said outwardly that he wanted to accept Christ. He even followed Philip around trying to be like him but deep down they realized Simon was just trying to fool the world. 

So John and Peter had to call Simon out. Simon made the mistake of asking them how he could buy their power. What an idiot right? And Peter basically rebuked him and told him that his heart was not right and that you can’t buy God or God’s gifts and because his heart isn’t right he can’t have the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t a true believer. That he needed to repent of his wickedness and pray to God for forgiveness. And Simon responds with ‘Pray to the Lord for me that these terrible things you've said won't happen to me!’ I want to point out here that pray is a key element. I mentioned that some of the complex spiritual distractions are doubt, fear, accusation, shame. Right? Well, these types of distractions can come into play when people are struggling to come to Christ a lot of times too. When people don’t feel like they are deserving of Christ’s forgiveness or they feel like they aren’t worthy of His love. They feel like they’ve done too much wrong in the world, hurt too many people, sinned too much. Perhaps they are way worse than others around them. Like Simon here. He was truly the worst in that city, the most wicked, and even worse he had then made a public profession of faith and was still trying to buy God’s secrets after that. But when the mirror is held up to his face and the evil is shown within him and he’s told to pray to God for forgiveness, he asks the apostles to pray for him. Why? Because he’s so ashamed. Would you want to pray to God directly at that point or would you ask an ally to help you and hope that they would? And listen, God doesn’t put shame in us. He doesn’t make us feel any negative feelings like that. Satan does. God wants to draw us closer to Him, not farther away. So this is where I emphasize prayer. We, as Christians, can help ourselves and most importantly, we can help others, all others, by praying for them. We are able to act as their allies when Satan has tried to block their hearts and minds from feeling like they can go directly to God. So please pray. Pray for yourself, pray for the ones you love, for the ones you like, for the ones you dislike, and for the ones you don’t even know. Help the Simons of the world. Let’s truly make heaven overcrowded. I’d just love that!

Alright folks, we’re going to close out today’s episode with Psalms Chapter 23. Psalms 23 is one of the most well-known scripture references. We reference it as the Lord is my Shepherd or just Psalms 23. My older brother loves this scripture reference. He’s former military and also a first responder and I’ve seen many folks in those areas that love Psalms 23, who have it as tattoos or keychains or have magnets or stickers with it somewhere like on their car windows or coffee mugs or computers. I think this one is special and meaningful because it really says how we feel as Christians in our faith and going through our toughest, darkest trials that we truly believe God will not only be there with us but he will shepherd us and provide us everything we need but in the end we believe he will get us that goodness and mercy and even vengeance as needed and sit us at a place and table before our enemies. He will make it all right for us and we trust him and faith in him to let him handle it. It’s a powerful scripture. It’s very hard to live by especially if you’re in the military or a first responder. It’s tough to live that life and fight on the front lines of evil and sickness and difficulty every day and still believe that God will take care of your life and all of the terrible things you see and come across every day too. But it’s such a good one to hold on to. It’s a good scripture reference to remind ourselves that King David had to do it too. He was fought constantly under battle and constantly had people wanting to kill him. So he wrote this scripture to remind himself that the Lord is his shepherd and we can use it as much as we want to as well. Before I read it, I also want to mention that there is a Christian song that I listen to often that is also about Psalms 23. If you have time please take a listen to it as well. It’s called Still Waters by Leanna Crawford and it’s so beautiful. I love the song and think she does a great job singing about that scripture. So Still Waters, Leanna Crawford. Ok, so I’m going to read Psalms 23 and instead of reading it from the NLT version like I usually do, I’m going to read from King James because that’s the version I’m most accustomed to and I actually prefer. Here is Psalms 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Though preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: though anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Thank you all for joining me again this episode. I’m glad you were here with me as always and I look forward to having you back again next time. Please remember that God loves you and he looks forward to hearing from you always so please reach out to him and keep the lines of communication open in your relationship. Until we talk again, please as always stay safe. Bye everyone!