FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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SIMON THE MAGICIAN 

Villa Rica 2/23/03

Acts 8:9-24

About the time I was born a magician named Harry

Houdini died. I saw a movie one time on the life of

Harry Houdini. It was very interesting. He apparently had no peer when it came to escaping from hand cuffs, straight jackets, shackles, locked rooms, locked and chained containers.

In a typical act he was shackled with irons and placed in a box, which was locked, roped and weighted. The box was submerged under water from a boat. After freeing himself he returned to the boat.

In another outdoor exhibition he allowed himself to be suspended, head down, about 75 ft. above the ground in which position he freed himself. Such things have always fascinated men. The fascination of magic is its unexplained power to do things that seem impossible. In this it has an appeal to man religious nature. It touches on that part of man which hungers for God and which appears to give an evidence of His presence.

Magicians are in a business that has grave dangers to the soul. A man who dapples in the business of magic is a candidate for the fires of perdition. Why? Because the Bible condemns sorcery, Spiritism, mind reading, witchcraft, soothsaying and so forth.

God warned Israel:  Deut. 18:-12  “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. 10“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12“For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you.

Magicians are not always in the category of this scripture but they are certainly subject to the temptation to widen the range of their skills to include some of the things scripture forbids.

Harry Houdini, whose real name was Ehrich Weiss and whose father was a rabbi, campaigned against mediums, mind readers and others who claimed supernatural powers. But he conducted experiments in spiritualism with his wife. They had an agreement that the first to die was to communicate with the survivor. Houdini died in Detroit in 1926. His widow, Beatrice Houdini, declared the experiment a failure before her death in 1943.

One of the signs of the times is the popularity of astrology, witchcraft and spirit mediums that try and contact the dead. One of the most popular television shows was "Bewitched". On that show there was the witch housewife who had a witch for a mother and a warlock for a father.

Another one was Jeanne that had a girl Genie who appeared and disappeared like the Genie in Aladdin's lamp. And one of the all-time favorites is the movie "The Wizard of Oz" The latest popular movie is about a boy magician named Harry Potter. Two of the best selling books on the current  New York Times bestseller list are Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of  Azkaban.

 I understand that Germany is really going in for black magic and spiritism. And England has long been a ghost hunter's paradise. Sybil Leek of Burley, England tells how she and other witches get together every Halloween for a witchcraft session. She said, "I'm a witch and I practice witchcraft because witchcraft is the only true religion. And please don't get any notion that we are a lot of cranks.

She claims that witchcraft is a great deal older than Christianity. And it is, for the Bible portion I just read tells us so. When asked how many witches and warlocks live in Britain, she said, "I know of at least 600 covens." That works out to 7,800 practioners of witchcraft in England. I am sure we have many more than that in the United States.

Question: could a man or woman who practices witchcraft or black magic be converted to Christ? The answer is yes. In the 8th chapter of Acts we learn the story of Simon the Magician or Sorcerer. He had amazed the people of Samaria with his feats of magic.

But along came Philip the Christian deacon turned evangelist. God's power began to be manifest and souls were converted to Christ. Among them was Simon the Magician.

I.  Peter And John Are Dispatched To Samaria

A. Having heard of the awakening to the gospel that was taking place by the preaching of the Word of God they were sent by the apostolic college at Jerusalem.

This surely shows that Peter and John are submissive to the authority of the body of the apostles and do not presume authority apart from the brethren who share in

the ministry with them.

They come and thus show the unity of the church as the Gentiles of Samaria are coming into the fold. This was the first instance of large-scale conversions among the Gentiles to the Gospel. The Samaritans were part Jew and part Gentile. They were not in fellowship with the Jews for the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. But here comes an apostolic delegation to have a first hand look at what the Lord is doing among the Samaritans.

B. God had withheld the gifts of the Holy Spirit pending the arrival of the apostolic delegation. Philip was a Jew but he was not an apostle. God honored and blessed his preaching to an extraordinary degree but the scripture tells us here that the Holy Spirit had not fallen on any of them in Samaria even though they had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So now the apostles pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and they began to lay hands upon them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.

My own understanding of this is that God works through his chosen apostles to establish the church in Samaria. The church is one. We are not a Gentile church or a Jewish church. There is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The church was spreading out from Jerusalem and on this historic occasion of the beginning of the Samaritan church there is an interval between the preaching of the Word with signs following and the giving of the Holy Spirit to the new believers.

When we begin a new work there must be a Presbytery commission to examine the men who are to serve as elders and then lay hands on them and ordain them before they begin to serve as elders of the newly formed congregation, thus we extend the church by the authority of the Presbytery. Men do not form a church by their own authority but by the authority of Christ, and that authority resides in God's ordained men.

The apostles represented the power structure of the

Church. It was necessary and good that the Jerusalem

Church should send a commission consisting of Peter and John to duly constitute the new church at Samaria by approving the work of Philip the evangelist and then being the authority of God to be the channel of Holy Spirit enduement of power.

No church can move forward without the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. This came after Peter and John arrived on the scene. God always does things decently and in order. There is the need for evangelists to go forth into new fields of labor with the gospel and then there is the need for follow-up by proper constituting authority.

One of the problems we had in the PCA in the early days was determining the powers of an evangelist. Can an evangelist lay hands on men and organize a new church, or does it not require the authority of a commission of Presbytery.

Philip was a deacon, not an ordained or commissioned minister. The apostles represented the authority of God for the establishment of new churches and it certainly seems clear from this scripture that the church is supposed to plant new churches according to the pattern shown to us here. Thus there is a unity between the existing church and new churches.

II. Simon The Magician's Hypocrisy Is Exposed  

A.  Here is a case of a man who apparently came to faith in Jesus Christ, was baptized, continued in the fellowship of the brethren and was constantly amazed at the signs and great miracles taking place but who secretly eyed these things with the thought that this must be something that could be exploited and made use of along the lines of his former occupation. This magic was the real thing. There was no fakery but Simon's heart still had the natural depravity that inclined him to profit from magic tricks.

It is never hard to predict the sort of temptations a person will be most prone to yield to. It will be the sins and activities that he engaged in before coming to Christ. Simon's initial faith is now corrupted by thoughts of profit and glory from the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit. Then, when Peter and John come from Jerusalem and begin to lay hands on the new believers and they are given the Holy Spirit, he wants this power also. And so he propositions Peter and John to sell him this power. After all, that is how he had acquired his knowledge of magic and sorcery. He had paid money to learn how to mystify and amaze. People thought he had God-like powers because of his bag of tricks. But such tricks are expensive. If you want to be a magician you must buy your way into the fraternity. At heart it is a seeking for profit and glory. And Simon still had that ambition and desire for gain.

Peter instantly discerned his hypocrisy. He merely wanted to manipulate God and acquire the power God had given to them for selfish reasons. ²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! ²¹“You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. ²²“Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³“For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” Acts 8:20 -:23

          Simon is not the first man to want to capitalize on the things of Christ and His Church. The term simony has been coined to refer to the purchase of church offices and church authority. Balaam in the Old Testament took money from Balac to tell him how to corrupt Israel so that they could be weakened and overcome. His covetous spirit cost him his life and his soul in the bargain.  But Peter held out hope to Simon. He could repent and ask God to change his heart and purge him of this wicked desire.

B. We are not told whether or not he did so but at least the final words recorded of him are that he did ask Peter to pray to the Lord for him so that nothing he had said would come upon him. His request might be taken as merely a request that he would not perish with his money. We can't be sure that he really wanted his heart changed. Yet the hope is there that he did indeed take the Word of God to heart and repent of his wickedness.

We, too, may be guilty of desiring recognition and authority and power in the church for the wrong reason.

Instead of seeking for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom and to help others find the Savior it is possible for us to have a hypocritical motivation. May God reveal any such to us so that we may repent of it.

         When we begin the life of faith we will be tempted to return to the sins of our past and the ways of the world. We still have a sinful nature that will be attracted to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. May we be on guard against those very real temptations. May we not yield to sin in any of its forms but rather repent, as Peter told Simon of the thoughts of our hearts that would keep us in the gall of bitterness and bondage of iniquity. To repent means to pass judgment on oneself and turn from any and all forms of wicked desire and intent.

          Let me close by giving out the gospel invitation. I offer Jesus Christ to every soul today. Come to the Lord Jesus and find salvation and forgiveness of sins in Him. Make today be the beginning of your conversion to a new life in Christ.