SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of licensing saints in Kansas City following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Now is the time to turn on the microphone.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: Now's the time to read scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're standing, you can continue standing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're sitting, please stand in honor of God's word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be from Acts 8, verses 4 through, I think, 25.
SPEAKER_00: I know when to stop.
SPEAKER_00: So okay.
SPEAKER_00: Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
SPEAKER_00: Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
SPEAKER_00: For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
SPEAKER_00: So there was much joy in that city.
SPEAKER_00: But 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.
SPEAKER_00: They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called great.
SPEAKER_00: And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
SPEAKER_00: Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip.
SPEAKER_00: And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the apostles at 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.
SPEAKER_00: Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.
SPEAKER_00: You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said will come upon me.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome everyone to the Way Church.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Zach.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the lead pastor here.
SPEAKER_02: Um, if this is your first time here, if you're new here, um we're a new church plant who exists to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together.
SPEAKER_02: That's the journey that we've been on.
SPEAKER_02: It's been a joy-filled journey.
SPEAKER_02: Um we've been on that journey for about um a year and a half now, and the Lord has been faithful to build his church.
SPEAKER_02: That's something I always try to remember.
SPEAKER_02: It's like it's not up to us, it's not up to any one of us, it's not up to our staff to build the church.
SPEAKER_02: Christ will build his church.
SPEAKER_02: That's what his word says.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we are genuinely glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: And my prayer this morning is that you would meet Jesus in his word and among his people.
SPEAKER_02: We um have been in a sermon series through the book of Acts, and this series is entitled Living by the Spirit and Following the Way.
SPEAKER_02: Um, really, what we're doing as we look at this text is we're we're tracing what happens when the risen Christ empowers ordinary believers through his spirit to do extraordinary kingdom work.
SPEAKER_02: We're all who have called on the name of Jesus ordinary believers.
SPEAKER_02: There's no one among us who's anything special.
SPEAKER_02: Hate to break it to you.
SPEAKER_02: Um we are proof of what happens when the risen Christ works in a people to build his kingdom, and that's the mission we're trying to live out.
SPEAKER_02: Um as Teresa read, we're in Acts chapter 8, verses 4 through 25.
SPEAKER_02: And uh today's passage it gives us a striking contrast.
SPEAKER_02: It shows us first what real faith looks like, and then it shows us what counterfeit faith looks like.
SPEAKER_02: It shows us joy breaking into enemy territory, and it shows us the danger of approaching God with the wrong heart.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember last week, the text we look at was looked at was Stephen being martyred, being killed for his faith.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and today we we see as the the church, the early church, spreads out beyond Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: With that, we're offered two contrasting stories.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a world of difference between being impressed with Jesus and actually following him, between admiring spiritual power and actually surrendering to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: What we see in Acts 8 is both.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 8 shows us both.
SPEAKER_02: There's true faith that empowers believers for service, while the desire for power without understanding leads to spiritual deception and emptiness.
SPEAKER_02: With that, there's four truths that we're gonna examine today.
SPEAKER_02: First, we're gonna see the scattered church become a preaching church.
SPEAKER_02: Second, we're gonna look at spectacle versus spirit, spectacle versus spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, we'll see that true spiritual authority is received, not taken.
SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, fourthly, we'll see the danger of a bought faith.
SPEAKER_02: I'll pray and then let's dig in.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here today.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you for your word, the living word, Lord, the divine words that you've spoken to us, that we we can encounter you through your word here in 2025, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that you move in this space, that right now you would prepare our hearts, prepare our minds, prepare our ears for the words that you have for us, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, would you move me out of the way?
SPEAKER_02: Would you speak through me?
SPEAKER_02: God, would you would you make us a people who are hungry for you, who are hungry for your word, who who desire to be transformed by it, Lord?
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you for sending your son, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Would you guide, guard, and direct us today, Lord?
SPEAKER_02: We love you, we praise you, and it's in the mighty name of Jesus I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, so point number one this morning is the scattered church becomes a preaching church.
SPEAKER_02: The scattered church becomes a preaching church.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 8, verse 4 through 8, the word says, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
SPEAKER_02: Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
SPEAKER_02: For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
SPEAKER_02: So there was much joy in the city.
SPEAKER_02: So to start with, Luke tells us that those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
SPEAKER_02: These are believers that had just fled Jerusalem after the martyrdom of Stephen, after the violent persecution that he endured.
SPEAKER_02: It looks like tragedy, right?
SPEAKER_02: It looks like defeat for the early church.
SPEAKER_02: It looks like retreat for the early followers of the way.
SPEAKER_02: But family, what we see right here in this text is that this was not defeat, that this was not retreat, that this was divine redirection.
SPEAKER_02: In God's hands, scattering becomes seed spreading.
SPEAKER_02: Philip, one of the seven chosen in Acts 6, goes to Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: And to travel like this, it might feel normal to us with our like hyper-connected world.
SPEAKER_02: But in the first century, traveling like this, it was almost unthinkable.
SPEAKER_02: For one, there was a distance, but secondly, Jews and Samaritans, they carried generations of hostility.
SPEAKER_02: They carried generations of racial tension.
SPEAKER_02: They carried religious conflict, they carried political resentment against each other.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to do some more research, you can look back to 2 Kings 17, to Ezra 4, and even to John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: Their hostility to each other was so much that they didn't share food or water or space.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Samaritans, they were a mixed people with a mixed religion.
SPEAKER_02: They were ethnically, they were part Israelite, part Gentile, religiously, part Torah observant, part syncretistic, so they blended with the religions that were around them.
SPEAKER_02: They considered themselves descendants of Jacob, but Jews in the first century did not consider them true Israelites.
SPEAKER_02: So they were a people who were hostile to the Jewish people, and the Jewish people often hostile to them.
SPEAKER_02: And I think what we see by Philip going and preaching there is that the gospel does not respect human hostility.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit sends Philip right into the place that many Jewish people avoided.
SPEAKER_02: Because what we see is that ministry across lines of hostility is exactly how the Spirit builds Christ's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Philip, he effectively becomes the first-cultural cross-cultural missionary that we see in scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: The fact that Philip goes there, it signals the widening of the gospel promised in Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_02: As a refresher, let's look at that.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of been our kind of thematic verse through this series.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 1, verse 8 says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So that's what we're seeing.
SPEAKER_02: We're seeing this to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria sort of transition here.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 1 through 7, focused on Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 8 through, I think 12 or 13, Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: And then the remainder of the book of Acts ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So that's what we're seeing.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 1.8 coming to life for us in real time.
SPEAKER_02: So Philip he goes to Samaria, he preaches the gospel, and what happens?
SPEAKER_02: He proclaims Christ, demons flee, bodies are healed.
SPEAKER_02: A whole city pays attention because the spirit of the living God is moving in Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: And what's the result?
SPEAKER_02: Well, verse 8 says that there was much joy in that city.
SPEAKER_02: There was much joy in that city.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that beautiful, family?
SPEAKER_02: Louis doesn't think so.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing: the gospel brings joy where there was oppression and spiritual bondage.
SPEAKER_02: Signs accompanying the word, the preached word, validate the gospel's advance into new territory.
SPEAKER_02: Many likely thought that the gospel would be silenced when Stephen was martyred earlier in Acts 7.
SPEAKER_02: But persecution did not silence the church.
SPEAKER_02: No, it mobilized it.
SPEAKER_02: What looked like loss became a seedbed of mission.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing: the spirit turned suffering into mission.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a few applicable truths for us this morning.
SPEAKER_02: First, you don't need ideal conditions to be faithful.
SPEAKER_02: You just need a willingness to obey wherever God scatters you.
SPEAKER_02: For us, we've been scattered to Kansas City, right?
SPEAKER_02: We've been scattered in Rosedale and across the metro.
SPEAKER_02: But even more so, like, really drill into your own personal life.
SPEAKER_02: Like, is it a workplace?
SPEAKER_02: A workplace that may feel hostile to the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a school that feels spiritually barren.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a school that your children are going to that feels spiritually barren.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a neighborhood that feels resistant to the gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: What I want you to hear this morning, family, is that the same spirit who empowers Philip empowers you.
SPEAKER_02: And the gospel that still pushes God's people across every dividing line, across cultural, racial, political, and relational dividing lines.
SPEAKER_02: Think of it like this.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a little illustration for you.
SPEAKER_02: Think of like a wildfire carried by a powerful wind, uncontained, unpredictable, unstoppable.
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's the early church here in this text.
SPEAKER_02: The church, scattered by the winds of hardship, by the winds of persecution, by the winds of Stephen's martyrdom, becomes the wildfire of the spread of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Where they land, here they land in Samaria, flames ignite.
SPEAKER_02: And right as joy breaks out in Samaria, Luke introduces a man who embodies a different kind of spirituality.
SPEAKER_02: A spirituality of spectacle, of awe, of self-exaltation.
SPEAKER_02: A spirituality that looks powerful, but yet is hollow on the inside.
SPEAKER_02: Next we'll look at point number two, spectacle versus spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Spectacle versus spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 8, verses 9 through 13, the word says, But 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.
SPEAKER_02: They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called great.
SPEAKER_02: And they paid attention to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
SPEAKER_02: But 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.
SPEAKER_02: Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip, and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
SPEAKER_02: So enter Simon, a local celebrity of sorts, a man who practiced magic, who practiced, you know, these kind of pagan ritualistic things.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like sleight of hand, like a fancy little card trick, but this was like occultic manipulation.
SPEAKER_02: This was ritual practices.
SPEAKER_02: This was spiritual control.
SPEAKER_02: The people called him the great power of God.
SPEAKER_02: And Simon, he loved that title.
SPEAKER_02: He fed on the admiration that he felt.
SPEAKER_02: He represented a counter-kingdom of false awe, of self-exaltation, and spiritual spectacle.
SPEAKER_02: For a little context, first century Samaria, they had a long tradition of this sort of syncretistic religion, of these sort of folk practices and magic arts.
SPEAKER_02: Sorcery, it was not, like I said, card tricks, but it was a blend of occultism and claims to spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_02: And for years, the Samaritans paid attention to Simon because he amazed them with his magic.
SPEAKER_02: But now, but now they're paying attention to Philip because he preaches Christ.
SPEAKER_02: This is, do you see this sort of contrast between Simon and Philip?
SPEAKER_02: Luke contrasts the crowds paying attention to Simon's magic in verses 9 through 11 versus them paying attention to Philip's message in verses 6 and 12.
SPEAKER_02: Luke is very deliberate in the language he uses.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Simon amazed the crowds, but Philip's message converted them.
SPEAKER_02: People believed Philip, not because of spectacle, not because of his showmanship, not because of having fancy words, but because he had the words of good news.
SPEAKER_02: The good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_02: And what's so crazy is as we read this is that even Simon, the magician, believed and was baptized.
SPEAKER_02: But look closely at the words used to describe him here.
SPEAKER_02: He followed Philip and he was amazed by miracles.
SPEAKER_02: Just like the Samaritan people were amazed by the magic that Simon was doing.
SPEAKER_02: Simon is amazed at the miracles that are being performed.
SPEAKER_02: His amazement is not directed towards Christ.
SPEAKER_02: His amazement is directed towards spiritual power.
SPEAKER_02: Simon gives us a picture of someone who is drawn to spiritual experiences, but not surrendered to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Got you, Crystal.
SPEAKER_02: This is belief as fascination, not repentance.
SPEAKER_02: And here's the harsh reality for us across the Western Church.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this church, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I hope not.
SPEAKER_02: But the reality is that there are people, including some in churches, who like Jesus, who like the idea of Jesus, but do not submit to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They enjoy the feelings of spirituality without embracing the great cost of discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: They're impressed with Christianity's aesthetic, not with Christianity's Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So the question for every one of us is: are we drawn to Christ Himself, or are we drawn to what we think Christ can do for us?
SPEAKER_02: Think about it like this.
SPEAKER_02: It's like someone who buys all the gym gear, who watches all the workout videos, who talks endlessly about fitness, but never actually trains.
SPEAKER_02: I'm that someone.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I can talk about fitness, I can talk about going to the gym, I can talk the talk, I know the lingo, but I never go.
SPEAKER_02: And granted, I have a newborn at home and it's like life's crazy right now, but like that's me.
SPEAKER_02: That sort of person, they love the aesthetic of transformation that comes from the gym, but not the discipline of it.
SPEAKER_02: And so for this text, that's Simon.
SPEAKER_02: And if we're honest, that's us far more than we'd like to admit it.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what's what's so sweet.
SPEAKER_02: God loves Simon enough not to leave him there.
SPEAKER_02: And family, he loves us enough not to leave us to stay in a shallow or self-centered faith.
SPEAKER_02: So what he does next is he reveals what what real spiritual authority looks like.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we'll look at in point number three.
SPEAKER_02: True spiritual authority is received, not taken.
SPEAKER_02: So Acts chapter 8, verses 14 through 17.
SPEAKER_02: Now when the apostles at 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.
SPEAKER_02: For he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying On of the apostles' hands, he offered them money.
SPEAKER_02: So word gets back to the apostles in Jerusalem that Samaria of all places has received the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: So the apostles send Peter and John, and that's significant.
SPEAKER_02: These are lifelong Jews walking into Samaritan territory in order to affirm the new work of God that is taking place.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Luke says that the Spirit had not yet fallen on the Samaritans, and I just want to like take a pause there real quick.
SPEAKER_02: And before we move on, like it's important to say this like this passage has different, differing views over what the meaning of these three verses is.
SPEAKER_02: There's been discussion throughout church history, and even among faithful believers across churches, across maybe even within our church.
SPEAKER_02: So some see this moment in Acts 8, when the Spirit comes after the Samaritan's belief as teaching like a second experience of the Spirit's power that believers should seek today.
SPEAKER_02: Others see it as a unique transitional moment in salvific history, marking how the gospel was crossing barriers for the first time from Jerusalem to Samaria and not a pattern for every believer.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I want to say.
SPEAKER_02: Wherever you land, what's clear is that the same spirit who fell on the Samaritans is the same spirit who fills every follower of Jesus today.
SPEAKER_02: He is not divided, he does not give himself in portions.
SPEAKER_02: Every believer is indwelt, and yet all of us can be freshly filled.
SPEAKER_02: So rather than, here's my hope, rather than us dividing over timing or labels, my hope is that we are united in our desire to see the Spirit move powerfully in us and through us.
SPEAKER_02: Just as he did then, to bring healing, to bring reconciliation, to bring new life to our city.
SPEAKER_02: So why does God do it this way?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it's done in this manner to make it unavoidably clear that there's one church, that there's one spirit, that there's one body, that there's one baptism.
SPEAKER_02: Jew and Samaritan are united in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The apostles lay hands on them, they pray, and the Spirit comes.
SPEAKER_02: Not because Philip himself lacked power, and not because the Samaritans were not saved yet, but because God is stitching, He's molding, He's grafting His church together in unity.
SPEAKER_02: So the Apostles' presence, it guards the unity of the early church and affirms Samaritans as full participants in God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: So this merit moment, it carries a true crucial truth.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritual authority, it's not seized, it is received.
SPEAKER_02: It's not achieved, it is given.
SPEAKER_02: It is not controlled, it is submitted to.
SPEAKER_02: The God of the universe cannot be controlled, family.
SPEAKER_02: We do not command the spirit, we posture ourselves to receive him.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing, ministry done in the flesh, it may impress people.
SPEAKER_02: But only ministry done in the spirit transforms people.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I what I tell people often.
SPEAKER_02: Like I I was in the nonprofit world before church planting, and there was times when I could just get by through my own, you know, natural strength and talent and pick myself up by the bootstraps, and like I could get by and have a semblance of success, and my bosses would be impressed with me and all those things.
SPEAKER_02: But what I know is true today, that through the journey of church planning, what the Lord has revealed to me is that every single good thing has been a result of the Lord, of the Lord's work, of the Spirit's moving.
SPEAKER_02: It ain't nothing I've done, it ain't nothing any of us have done.
SPEAKER_02: It is all the Lord's moving and the Lord's willing.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know about you guys, but that's the sort of place, that's the sort of posture I want to be in for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_02: That's the sort of place of just dependence on the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like, God, I don't know what to do, but you do, and I'm gonna I'm gonna receive what you have for us.
SPEAKER_02: And that's I think I think that's Christian maturity.
SPEAKER_02: That's us maturing in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Christian maturity, it looks like humility and expectancy.
SPEAKER_02: Hands open, hearts surrendered.
SPEAKER_02: So, church, that's my encouragement for you this morning to pray for a posture of humility, to pray for a posture of expectancy.
SPEAKER_02: It's so kind of almost ironic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Like we can't, left to our own devices, we can't like self-will our way to humility.
SPEAKER_02: We can't just say, hey, I'm gonna be more humble.
SPEAKER_02: Like that ain't how it works.
SPEAKER_02: Or, hey, I'm gonna expect more from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's not, we can't self-will our way into that.
SPEAKER_02: It is only the Lord that can do that work.
SPEAKER_02: So, church, pray for a posture of humility.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for a posture of expectancy.
SPEAKER_02: Think of it like this receiving a gift that you could never earn or purchase.
SPEAKER_02: I think one of the most beautiful pictures of that is adoption, right?
SPEAKER_02: And I often think of my wife Chelsea.
SPEAKER_02: For the first nine years of her life, it was her and her mama, um, single mother doing life together.
SPEAKER_02: And then Nate, he adopted her.
SPEAKER_02: And now when we we go down there for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, it's like this big bash with like 50, 60 of her closest family members, all on her dad's side.
SPEAKER_02: So her and I both have been adopted into this massive family, many of them following Jesus, one of them a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: And I just think that like that's a gift that we did nothing to receive, that we could never earn or purchase, right?
SPEAKER_02: These gifts come to you through another's initiative and grace, not through payment.
SPEAKER_02: And it's that same sort of gift that we receive from Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that we can do to earn Christ's grace, Christ's love.
SPEAKER_02: There's there's nothing we can do in and of ourselves to deserve Christ's grace, to deserve his love.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's a free gift.
SPEAKER_02: All we do, open hands, open hearts, we receive it.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what's what's crazy.
SPEAKER_02: While the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit as a gift, Simon sees the Spirit as an opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: A chance to elevate himself again.
SPEAKER_02: And that leads us to one of the sharpest warnings that we see in the entire book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: Point number four, we see the danger of a bot faith.
SPEAKER_02: We see the danger of a bot.
SPEAKER_02: B-O-U-G-H-T faith.
SPEAKER_02: Acts eight, eighteen through twenty-five.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.
SPEAKER_02: You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_02: Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
SPEAKER_02: For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.
SPEAKER_02: And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: When Simon sees that the spirit comes through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offers them money.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to buy that sort of power.
SPEAKER_02: Give me this power, he is saying.
SPEAKER_02: Not give me the spirit, not I receive the spirit, but give me this power.
SPEAKER_02: Simon attempts what later becomes known as a Simony, buying spiritual influence or office.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter's response is scorching.
SPEAKER_02: May your silver perish with you.
SPEAKER_02: This is covenantal judgment language.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a curse of hatred, but it's a call to recognize the deadly seriousness of his request.
SPEAKER_02: Peter, he diagnoses the issue.
SPEAKER_02: He shows that the problem is not ignorance, it is idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Your heart is not right before God.
SPEAKER_02: Your heart is not right before God.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe here this morning we need to examine our own hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Is there a place in which our heart is not right before God?
SPEAKER_02: Where we have an idol that's taking the place of God in our lives?
SPEAKER_02: You know, idolatry looks different in our day and age.
SPEAKER_02: It's not, you know, the uh, you know, like physical metal sort of idol, but there's things that we can make an idol of in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: There's things that we put in the place of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Could be money, could be power like Simon, it could be influence, it could be success, it could be popularity, it could be, you know, what is it for you?
SPEAKER_02: Like, really, like pray for the Lord to reveal that to you.
SPEAKER_02: Because my hope for us is that we would be a people that God would say our heart is right before Him.
SPEAKER_02: Simon, he wants influence without repentance.
SPEAKER_02: He wants impact without surrender, he wants power without holiness.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to use God instead of being used by God.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that this is a warning to all of us.
SPEAKER_02: We must hear this church, we must guard against transactional Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: Approaching prayer, scripture, church, or even like service, or even like outreach as ways to get something from God rather than simply responding to his grace and obedience.
SPEAKER_02: The the Holy Spirit, it's not an accessory.
SPEAKER_02: I think of Kyle Moody's he he collects and restores vintage watches.
SPEAKER_02: Watches are an accessory to Kyle's boots and you know his his pearl snap and all that.
SPEAKER_02: But the Holy Spirit is not an accessory.
SPEAKER_02: He is not a tool.
SPEAKER_02: He is not a means to personal advancement.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit is God and God cannot be bought.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what's great.
SPEAKER_02: Peter, he calls Simon to repentance.
SPEAKER_02: True, true repentance.
SPEAKER_02: The kind that Christ welcomes.
SPEAKER_02: And that repentance is always the doorway back into life.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine trying to buy a friend.
SPEAKER_02: We follow the Lord who loves us unconditionally.
SPEAKER_02: I think back to my life before Christ, before I was radically saved from the darkness of addiction.
SPEAKER_02: And so many of my relationships were just that.
SPEAKER_02: They were transactional.
SPEAKER_02: It was what can I get from you?
SPEAKER_02: What do you have to offer me?
SPEAKER_02: An eye for an eye.
SPEAKER_02: But what I found since following the way of Jesus is that the best relationships are unconditional.
SPEAKER_02: And the greatest relationship, the relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus, it's unconditional.
SPEAKER_02: Unconditional grace, unconditional mercy, unconditional love.
SPEAKER_02: We don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: We don't earn it.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing we can do to merit it.
SPEAKER_02: It's simply a free gift.
SPEAKER_02: So where does this leave us?
SPEAKER_02: Ashley, you can come and close us in song.
SPEAKER_02: Where does this leave us this morning?
SPEAKER_02: Well, a few things.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a a few things to just a kind of tie a bow on it to recap us.
SPEAKER_02: True faith.
SPEAKER_02: It receives Christ with open hands.
SPEAKER_02: False faith tries to grasp spiritual power with clenched face.
SPEAKER_02: First, the Spirit sends us out, even through hardship, to proclaim Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Second, the gospel dismantles long-standing hostilities and brings joy.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, Christianity is not spectacle, it is surrender to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Fourthly, the Spirit is a gift, not a product.
SPEAKER_02: Lastly, repentance is the doorway into the authentic Jesus life, into real spiritual life, into the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this morning we need to just simply repent.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe there's something that you need to lay down at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to seek the gift of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to surrender your seeking of power.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe there's some hostility that needs dismantled in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe it's you need to put your yes on the table and be sent.
SPEAKER_02: Go to your Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the Lord wants to send you on mission somewhere.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it is for you.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord does, the Spirit does.
SPEAKER_02: Flesh that out with Him.
SPEAKER_02: Happy to discuss with you too.
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you this though.
SPEAKER_02: What draws you to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Is there an area in your life where you are resisting repentance?
SPEAKER_02: Do you hunger for the Spirit Himself or only for His benefits?
SPEAKER_02: Do you hunger for Christ Himself or only for His benefits?
SPEAKER_02: Do you hunger for God Himself or only for His Pit Him?
SPEAKER_02: Do you hunger for the triune God Himself or Himself or only for His benefits?
SPEAKER_02: Until his passage points us to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, the one who crosses boundaries to redeem outsiders, the one who offers forgiveness freely to all who repent.
SPEAKER_02: The one whose power is not thought, but giving.
SPEAKER_02: As we take this story as a whole, what we see, just to summarize it for you, is we see a place long marked by division, by confusion, by oppression, because there was much joy in this.
SPEAKER_02: So there was much joy in the same area.
SPEAKER_02: So there was much joy in Kansas City.
SPEAKER_02: So there was much joy in Rose City.
SPEAKER_02: If Jesus can renew Samaria, he can renew Kansas City.
SPEAKER_02: If the Spirit can bring centuries of hostility, he can reconcile neighborhoods, families, and hearts in our city.
SPEAKER_02: If joy can flood Samaria Christmas, joy can fly Kansas City through a people who preach Christ wherever they're strong.
SPEAKER_02: The words that you've given us through people to seek your spirits.
SPEAKER_02: So there's much joy to see.