March 5, 2025
#260 - Preaching Christ in Samaria: A Clash of Kingdoms - Acts 8.5-25
Today on Al Pastor, Pastor Brian walks verse-by-verse through Acts 8:5–25, where Philip boldly preaches Christ in Samaria. Explore the historical background of the Samaritans, the confrontation with Simon the Sorcerer, and the critical lesson that the true gospel is never for sale. Discover why discipleship matters, why miracles are no substitute for the Word, and how God calls us to a Spirit-filled life grounded in Christ alone.
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You're listening to Al Pastor, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor and eat more
tacos.
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I'm your host, Pastor Brian.
Welcome to the show.
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Hey friends, I want to welcome you to today's podcast.
We are continuing our walk through the book of Acts, and today we're going to pick up at verse #5 of
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chapter 8.
So again, that's Acts chapter 8, verse 5.
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We're going to see how far down we can get.
I'm podcasting alone today, so might might be able to get through this a little bit quicker.
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So that could be good or bad depending on your perspective.
I really do appreciate having Noah and, and some of you others that are on the podcast as well,
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because it kind of forces me to slow down and make sure that that whoever's in front of me is
getting it and understanding it.
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Now this particular week, we have our first Wednesday prayer.
So there's no Bible study, and as much as I love Bible study, prayer is just as much an important
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element of our walk with the Lord.
But let's get right into the Scripture today.
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Again, Acts chapter 8 verse 5 the Bible says then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and he
preached Christ to them.
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In the previous episode I really highlighted in Acts chapter 8 verse 4 the word for preaching.
Now if you mark in your Bibles, I would mark in verse 5 the word preached.
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Now, in the previous verse, the word preaching is the word that we get evangelism from.
Now, this word for preached in verse #5 is different.
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This is a word that means to proclaim, to be a herald.
It's different than evangelism in the sense of your everyday ordinary life, like if you're at the
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gym, if you're at school, if you're at the grocery store, if you're at the workplace, wherever
you're at.
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That's the idea of verse #4.
Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching.
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They were sharing their faith.
They were sharing the good news.
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Now, in the sense of Philip, this is a different context.
This is in the context of gathering a crowd together and giving what we would call a sermon.
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He was announcing.
He was heralding the good news and notice the subject of his preaching.
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Of course, it is Jesus Christ.
Now we need to make sure that we identify who Philip is.
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I feel like I have egg on my face and the reason is, is because I never quite realized and I again,
I'm embarrassed for saying this, that this Philip is not the same Philip who is the disciple that we
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encounter in the Gospels.
I need to go back and look at my notes, but it was, let's see, at least 21.
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I'm thinking how many weeks ago 2127?
Gosh, almost a year ago I remember preaching out of on John the gospel of John chapter 2 and on the
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topic of following Jesus.
And I talked about Philip and and and and and I had some statements where I had traced Phillips life
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from inviting Nathaniel and and Jesus encountered Nathaniel under the fig tree and how Philip was a
networker and he would bring people to Jesus.
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And then I had tied that into him preaching in, in Samaria and the Ethiopian eunuch in guess what,
this is not the same Philip I, I'm facepalming myself.
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This is Philip the one of the seven that was chosen.
So not part of the disciples or the apostles, the 12 apostles.
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He, he is different.
This is Philip the Hellenist.
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And Philip was a very common name.
So again, I want to emphasize that we are highlighting 3 different levels. 1st, we see the ministry
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of Stephen.
He is what we would call the the prototypical Deacon.
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Although it's not officially Deacon, you could use Deacon, it would not be incorrect.
But then we see God heavily using Stephen preaching the gospel.
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He's using the everyday ordinary folks that were scattered.
They are evangelizing and now we are seeing it come full circle with Philip and Philip is as a
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result of this persecution.
He is in the city of Samaria and what does he do?
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He preaches Jesus to them.
Got to give us a little bit of background on Samaria.
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If you are unaware.
What a great opportunity for us to be able to study some of the history.
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Now we have resources that are available to us and you say, well pastor, why don't you teach us?
Well, I can, but I also want to, I don't want to rob you of that opportunity.
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I know you're like really, come on.
Yes, really.
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Just super quick background.
Samaria is absolutely despised by the people of God that the nation of Israel, I should say at this
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time, although the people of God are now Christians, they did not like Samaria.
And this goes way, way back, hundreds of years as a matter of fact, because tin tribes were
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scattered through what we would call the Syrian occupation.
And then they begin to intermingle.
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So that that means that they begin to marry the the Jews that were captured.
They would marry non Jewish people, produce children.
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There's a lot of lot of background, a lot of information.
But if we were to summarize, we would say Jews despised Samaritans.
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They were the lowest of the low.
They were in fact lower than Gentiles.
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They were subhuman in in the writings of the Talmud.
And so it's highly significant that we see Phillip going there.
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And this is of course, not a surprise to us because this is God's plan from the very beginning,
right?
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I want to remind us of Acts chapter one, verse 8.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
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You'll be my witnesses.
Where?
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In Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria.
And so here we see this coming to pass and Jesus has already plowed some ground.
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If you remember in John chapter 4, that's the Gospel of John chapter 4, Jesus had an encounter with
a woman at the well.
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Now there is some background information that we could talk about.
I will highlight some of that.
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These are from resources that you might not have readily available to you by a scholar in the name
of Craig Kinger, but he gives us some background on how the Samaritans would worship.
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They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, which is known today's the Samaritan
Pentateuch.
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They did have similar beliefs and in anticipation of the Messiah who was to come.
However, they did differ with the Jews.
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They were highly focused on Deuteronomy chapter 19 about Moses's statement that God would raise up a
prophet like him and so their conception of the Messiah, although he would be a political one, not
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necessarily to the degree that the the Jewish nation believed.
They were more on the side of the prophet side for Moses, if that makes sense.
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I hope it does.
They also believed that God's holy place was Mount Garrison and of course Israel believed that that
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was in Jerusalem.
So there was a debate between the whole 2 holy sites.
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Well, here's the bottom line.
All of that gets blown out of the water at the foot of the cross because Stephen had already been
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preaching that it wasn't about ethnicity.
It is not about geography.
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It is about God's plan of redemption for the entirety of the world.
And so Philip is giving this good news.
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He is preaching again.
Hope you highlighted that preached.
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He preached Christ to them.
Now let's look at the results in verse 6.
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It says in the multitudes with one accord, He did the things spoken by Phillip, hearing and seeing
the miracles which he did.
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I want to draw your attention.
Please circle or highlight if you study the word he did.
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What we're going to see is we're going to see an invitation by the author Luke to compare and
contrast between Phillip and between this sorcerer named Simon here in just a moment.
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So I just will come back to this, but circle the word heated.
But I want you to notice that they heard and they saw God has engaged all of their senses.
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God is confirming his word with miracles and then it tells us some details about the miracles
unclean spirits in verse 7.
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They cried out with a loud voice.
They came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed.
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And lame were healed.
Now this is some some undeniable miraculous events.
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Again, highly significant that this is outside of the 12 apostles.
What is the messaging behind that?
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What is the take away that you and I have that God can use you and I when we keep Christ focused and
Christ centered?
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God can confirm His word any way that He sees fit.
And in this case, wow, he did it in a big way, didn't he?
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Verse #8 And there was what great joy in that city.
You know, I really like in our discipleship guide by Stanley Horton, he talks about the joy of
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salvation that had come to them.
We're going to go a little bit deeper in that here in just a moment because there are some folks
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that will argue, postulate, they will write, they will comment, and they would say, well, you know,
this really wasn't their salvation.
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Well, by all indications, they, they had Christ preached to them, they were baptized.
And this, this city, generally speaking, was thoroughly saved.
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Verse #9 But there was a man that was called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and
astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great to whom all gave heed.
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There's that word heed again in verse 10.
So notice that there is a transfer.
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We're at a pivot point.
Who did the people of Samaria previously give heed to?
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Simon the sorcerer?
And what kind of things did he do?
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He did he, he had claimed he was someone great, right?
And they even there was a saying in verse 10 it says this man is the great.
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Power of God.
So again, verse number six, we have the word heated, and then in verse 10 heated.
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And of course we also have the phrase that they were astonished in verse #9 So the people are also,
we're going to see that they're amazed by what is brought about by the hands of Philip.
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It's implied implicitly, not explicitly, but implicitly.
Now there is there is some debate and I'm wondering if it's profitable or not.
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And I would tell you that if you have time, it is profitable.
But the debate is this scene in verse #10 that says this man is the great power of God.
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And so there is some speculation as to whether or not this Simon the Sorcerer, if he was worshipped
as a deity, worshipped as a living God, or just operated in what they ascribed to be the power of
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God.
Now I know that we probably have got some questions on sorcery I had posted on, at least for those
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of you that are part of Arvind Assembly of God.
I posted a great resource from Craig Kinger in the Acts Exegetical Commentary on Sorcery.
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Now I have read through that, I've combed through it and I've got the various different backgrounds
to sorcery in there.
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Boy, let me tell you, there's a wide variety of opinions and backgrounds that go all the way back
into the Babylonian, the Chaldean, the Persians, all of these things.
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So we cannot be certain what type of sorcery this exactly is because the Greek word that's used here
is the word.
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Let me just pull it up.
It's Maggio Maggio where we get the where we get MAGA from now, whether you hold on hold, hold your
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pearls, FFO Are you saying really MAGA?
Yes, that's in fact don't want to don't want to give you too many details or alarm you too much, but
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the highest rank in the Church of Satan.
You can study this out for yourself as you go up the different tiers.
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When you reach the highest tier in the Church of Satan, you are called a Maga, a Maga and this word
maggio in Latin.
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You can go into Latin and Portuguese and you can go into Spanish and all that share in the same
family of language is where we get this idea of like magi Magas.
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So it can mean that he was either a wise man that practiced astrology and and new mathematics and
and astrological symbols.
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It could mean that he was well educated.
It could mean that he was learned.
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There is another word for sorcery in the Bible, which is not this word.
It's not as a magic, but it's where we get the word it.
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It's sorcery is also called pharmakeia, and that's a specific form of sorcery, which means the
mixing and the cutting of herbs and portion and potions.
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Now if you're wondering where that's found, that's found in the Book of Revelation, not Revelations.
Revelation, OK, that's the word for sorcery.
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Pharmakeia.
Now in this word for verse #9 in sorcery.
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It.
Could include the ability to mix herbs and potions.
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So if you think about a witch that is, you know what Halloween stirring a brew or stirring a pot,
that gives you the idea.
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But it's much more than that.
It could be it could be like a witch doctor or it could be like, you know, Chinese medicine.
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Take a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
It could be something to numb pain.
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So there could be people that could go to the sorcerer in a city, or a wise man, a magi.
And in fact, I don't know if you know it or not.
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So don't get offended at me.
Daniel in the book of Daniel was part of the company of wise men, right?
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He was able to interpret dreams.
He was highly educated.
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He was the best of the best that Nebuchadnezzar drew out of the land of Israel.
And so sorcery again can include pharmaceutical aspects.
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Now there's so we've got, we've got the ability to look at the signs of the times, Astro,
astrologically, astronomy, but also try to predict the future.
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Perhaps they were some of them were so good at math that they could even calculate the rotation of
the sun.
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Although you you'd say really, yes, yes, they even though they might not be able to explain all the
science behind it, but they could tell you if there was going to be an an I don't know if it's an
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eclipse or eclipse depends, I guess if you're from Oklahoma or Texas, who knows?
And the an eclipse and you know, it would be as if like in three days, you know, whatever deity you
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are worshipping, like Artemis will show you a great sign.
Well, guess what?
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They acted as if they would prophecy.
And because they knew that there would be, you know what, full eclipse or quarter eclipse, whatever,
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what have you.
And then everybody would be stunned.
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So we're talking about ancient secret knowledge.
We're also talking about education and mathematics and science.
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So I say all of that to say we're not sure exactly what form of sorcery most likely.
OK, I'm just giving you my opinion based on everything that I've read.
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I believe that he is more in the lines of a formal witch doctor.
People could go to him for home remedies and different concoctions and potions that could actually
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bring some benefits.
Now you might also wonder what did they have drugs back then?
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Yes, absolutely.
The 1st century excavations in different Roman provinces would have frescoes of the poppy and what
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is derived from the poppy plant.
That would be heroin.
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We also have there have been ancient samples of different altars to different deities that would
have residue of THC on it.
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There is cocaine that has been found.
So we're talking about cross all the spectrum intoxication from wine.
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So imagine that you needed to go to your local pharmacy where you need somebody that knows what
they're talking about.
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South.
Most likely Simon the Sorcerer was being ascribed as some type of a healer.
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Some.
Type of a drug dealer.
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It could be that he made his living off of this.
I cannot prove this.
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Please listen to me full Full disclosure, you got to study this out for yourself and what I'm giving
you is just my opinion doesn't mean that it's right.
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Don't take my word for it, but that is what I believe most likely was going on.
Now is there some real dark art magic also possible?
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The answer to that is yes.
We see it from the Bible.
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The Bible does not shy away.
There is people that traffic in what we would call not only doctrines of demons, but powers of of of
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the dark side, right?
There's necromancy, which is forbidden by the Bible.
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Astrology is forbidden by the Bible.
So there were real things that were occurring.
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Now Craig Keener goes on and he sets up this section as the gospel being antithetical or the
antithesis of sorcery, witchcraft in magic.
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And he goes and he begins to set up on, on what I had drew your attention, the astonishment, the,
the transfer from them giving heed to him to now the gospel.
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And apparently in this process, Simon himself had become converted.
We'll talk a little bit more on that.
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Now.
Let me give you the last aspect.
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So we've I've covered some different aspects of sorcery.
There was also what we would call full.
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On quackery that would be involved.
Like quackery, is that a word?
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Yes, full on quackery.
All that simply means is.
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That they would be fake and fraudulent.
It would be like your party magician you would take to a 5 year old.
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Or if you wanted to go up the ladder, we could go to like Las Vegas stuff, right?
David Blaine.
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And so that was also well known.
And in fact, sorcery and witchcraft and all things supernatural was highly, highly interesting to
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people.
It's also interesting to note that people haven't changed a whole lot either.
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It seems that is you ascended the intellectual ladder within 1st century Rome, the less likely you
would be a believer in things supernatural.
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And so I find that interesting.
Now, I'm not saying that your intelligence or intellect is a direct correlation to things
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supernatural.
But you take that for what it's worth.
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I believe that we serve a God of miracles and I do believe that there is also not equal.
I think it is completely inferior.
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But there is also power on the other side and if I'm anti intellectual by that then so be it.
I've seen God do too much, not only in my life, but in the lives of others.
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And I have seen quite a bit on the other side.
Not that I ever have, you know, practice witchcraft or sorcery, but I've seen I've seen darkness as
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well.
And I got to tell you the light is always brighter than the darkness.
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And so verse. 10 settled out there.
Here's the problem, guys, I'm sitting here, I'm talking to myself, but at the same time I'm going
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bad.
I'm sitting here thinking in my head, is anybody still following me?
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Because I'm not talking.
I feel like I'm not talking to anybody.
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I don't have Noah here and he's not asking me a question or anybody else, but that's OK.
All right.
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Verse #10 So they had given him all heed from the least to the greatest, saying this man is a great
power of God.
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Again, there is some, there is some discrepancy as to what this phrase mean, like does he have the
power of God or of a God, or is he a God?
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And I can't give you an answer to that.
People are, you know it.
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It's speculation verse #11.
And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries.
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For how long?
A long time.
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Verse 12 but when they believed philipped Philip as he preached the things concerning the Kingdom of
God and the name of Jesus Christ.
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Both men and women were baptized.
Isn't that beautiful?
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He's preaching about the Kingdom of God.
What do you think Philip was saying?
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I mean?
Just in this verse verse #12 we have.
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The understatement of the century, don't we?
I mean, would wouldn't you have loved to have been there, Philip?
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What were you saying?
How were you saying it?
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How long were you saying it now?
I I think he's he was probably there several days.
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He's having revival meetings, right?
Is what we would call or some old timers would say it.
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I think our young people need to know about some revival meetings too.
But he's preaching the things concerning what the Kingdom of God and if you remember what is the
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Kingdom of God included includes repentance.
We've been seeing that all throughout the book of Acts starting in Acts chapter 2 with Peter going
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all the way through with Steven.
And what did John the Baptist do?
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He came out preaching the Kingdom of God saying repent.
What did Jesus do?
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He came and says the Kingdom of God is here.
Repent, right?
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The Kingdom of God is at hand.
And so Philip, hey, man, he's being faithful.
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He's being faithful.
And guess what?
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People are bending the knee to King Jesus, both men and women.
And guess what?
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They're getting baptized.
They are getting baptized.
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Now, conceptually speaking, this this event did not happen in isolation.
You say, well, what do you mean, pastor?
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And why are you saying that?
Well, the reason I'm telling you this is because it's not like you're going to parachute into a
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tribe that's never heard the gospel before or the things of God and just expect these, you know,
same type of results.
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Now, I've got to tell you, God can do whatever God wants to do, but you need to understand the
background of this.
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You need to understand that the Samaritans were worshipping God, right?
Yahweh God.
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They had the five books of Moses, even though they, you know, were at a loss when it came to the
Psalms and the prophets and all of those things.
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But they also had an expectation and an anticipation of the Messiah.
And they got a preview of the coming of tractions when Jesus went into Samaria.
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And so this is not happening in isolation.
These people had been primed and prepped.
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The ground was ready.
Some plant and some water and some harvest, don't they?
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And here's Philip and what's he doing?
He's getting a good harvest.
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Verse #13 It says then Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized continue with Philip.
Now notice here.
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And it says he was amazed.
So notice the people had been astonished in verse 11.
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The same concept.
They had been amazed at Simon the sorcerer.
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For how long?
A long time.
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And now you have you have Simon.
And he was he continued with Philip.
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OK, let's not Passover that.
What does that mean?
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He continued with Phillip.
He's following him around.
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He's accompanying him.
He's listening.
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He and how long was this?
Guys, we're not talking about here.
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Come over here.
I've got some nice cute little cutesy wootsy 40 minute sermon that I preach once a week and if you
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want to see me again, come back next week.
No, Philip is there.
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He's preaching all day every day.
He's preaching the gospel.
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And by the way, we already know the content.
He's preaching Christ, He is preaching about the Kingdom of God.
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But you know what else he's doing?
What a wonderful place.
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He probably says, you know what, you guys have the Pentateuch, you have the Torah.
Let's start in the very first book.
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Let's start in Genesis.
And So what he's doing is he's teaching and discipling and reframing, and he's doing exactly what
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Jesus had done with the disciples and what the disciples have done with the seven.
It is a beautiful thing.
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So notice that Simon continued with him.
It's not like, hey man, I'm walking.
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I'm here in Arvin and I'm just going to walk a couple of blocks.
You want to come with me?
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No, that's not the idea he continue.
He's he he's staying with him.
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He might even be carrying Phillips Bible for him.
We don't know.
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But notice he's amazed now the the the very one who had created astonishment and and wonder is now
amazed himself by what seen the miracles and the signs which were done.
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Now one of the questions that I have and and ultimately we can't prove all of this stuff.
This is at this is, you know, it's like, Oh well, let's think about it.
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Is Simon more attached to the miracles then he is the message?
That is my contention.
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This is what I believe.
I believe that he was probably he he, he repented he he raised his hand.
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We would say like he raised that chubby little hand and said let me accept Jesus.
Now even Stanley Horton and I've read plenty of other guys, they say we cannot say like people want
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to question was Simon saved?
Right.
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And Stanley Horton takes a firm stand and and I agree with him.
He says, yes, the Bible says he was saved, why he was baptized.
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It says that he believed as well, and so he was saved.
But here's my question.
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If you don't continue on in true discipleship, you can get attached to things that are not the best
for your life, that could lead you to a crossroads.
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And that's exactly what we see happening with Simon.
So I think that he got caught up in the hype.
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I think he got caught up in the miracles.
The point of Philip going to Samaria, yes, there were some people that needed the touch of God, but
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you know what?
They needed more, They needed God's word.
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They, they truly did.
They needed to be discipled.
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This is the Matthew 28 Band-Aid, right?
Go into all the world, preach the gospel, OK, Make disciples.
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And so I believe that it is highly significant in verse #13 that he saw the miracles and signs which
were done.
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I think that's where he's attached.
Let's go on.
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It says Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem, I got to pause there for a second.
Aren't you glad they stayed that they didn't run and hide when we go up to the beginning of of
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chapter 8, right?
Remember when, when, when Jesus was crucified, these guys fled out of fear.
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But guess what?
This time they stayed.
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I praise God that they're just right down the street in Jerusalem.
So when the apostles who were there heard that Samaria had what received the word of God.
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Oh, I love that they sent, they sent.
Notice who it is, Peter and John.
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It's always Peter and John, isn't it was It's Peter and John at the gate, Beautiful.
He, Peter and John at the lame man.
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Peter and John at the trial of Jesus right in Caiaphas's house.
I mean the good pairing right there.
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They sent Peter and John to them who when they had come down, prayed for them that they might
receive the Holy Spirit.
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Let's hold on for a second and I you've got to understand, are these people saved?
The answer to that question is yes.
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Why are they saved?
They've had Christ preach to them.
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They have, they have been baptized.
They have been taught the things concerning the Kingdom of God.
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All, both men and women were baptized.
There really shouldn't be a debate here as to whether or not these folks in Samaria were saved.
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But what happens is, is when you go and you read material, and I'm not trying to throw anybody under
the bus and I'm not being highly critical because I love these the resources of many, many, many of
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the pastors.
Do I say pastors, scholars that write things such as the Zondervan exegetical commentary, Daryl
30:03
Bach, There are several others.
They have a difficult time with this because they're trying to understand, well, what do you mean
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receive the Holy Spirit?
Because here's the thing, if you lump your salvation with the receiving of the Holy Spirit in this
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sense, you're going to be in trouble because there's a delay here.
So these folks got saved and they didn't receive the Holy Spirit when the way they would frame it,
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the answer to that would be, yeah, there is a delay.
And So what they fail to realize is what we believe is Pentecostals as Assembly of God doctrine, is
30:39
that there is an experience, there is something that God has for you that is subsequent to
salvation.
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That is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial physical evidence of speaking in
other tongues.
30:57
And so the people at Samaria had gotten saved and guess what?
Now they are candidates to receive the fullness of God with this precious gift of, of, of the
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baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And so when they had come down, they send Peter and John verse 15, who when they had come down,
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prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Now here's the reason, verse 16.
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For as yet he had not fallen upon none of them.
They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Now I, I, I have said this, I teach this, I preach this.
This is not in the sense that they don't have the Holy Spirit when you were born again.
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It is the Holy Spirit that makes your new birth a reality on the inside of you, right?
This is this is actually what's really interesting because if you go back to John chapter 4, Jesus
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talks about salvation to the woman at the well and he likens it to a spring that would be on the
inside of you that would spring up to everlasting life.
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Now the Holy Spirit does reside on the inside of us, but he wants to do something else.
He wants to take if you, if you're a visual person, he wants to take a big old bucket and he wants
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to pour it over your head.
So you've got the Holy Spirit in you and now he wants to saturate you.
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He wants to fall upon you.
He wants to baptize you.
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He wants to dunk you in the baptism.
And so they've been, they've been saved.
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They've received the Holy Spirit on the inside, but they need more.
They've they've only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Verse 17.
Then they laid hands on them and guess what, they received the Holy Spirit.
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Now this is what we would call one of one of the proof texts, even though it doesn't say that they
spoke in tongues.
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How did they know that they had received the Holy Spirit?
Well in verse #18 it says when Simon saw that through the laying on the apostles hands the Holy
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Spirit was given, he offered them money.
Now, in other words, I want you to think through this logically.
33:17
If Simon the sorcerer, he's now astonished, He's seen the lame walk, he has seen demons cast out.
He himself is amazed at what is going on.
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He sees something that is tangible, that when the apostles lay hands on them, that there is an, an,
an, an evidence that they had received the Holy Spirit.
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Now Luke is not being explicit in this because he's already said a spirit, a precedence already in
the book of Acts.
33:47
And you might say, well, what is the precedence that when people receive the Holy Spirit, guess
what?
33:52
They speak in tongues.
Sometimes they also prophecy.
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That is the normative standard in in the what we would call the evidence of the Holy Spirit.
So Simon sees sees this that through the laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Spirit was given
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and what does he do?
He offers them money.
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Now this is also an indication of how Simon had previously, because he he had previously practiced
sorcery, how he made his money.
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And by the way, it it is, it is believed I happen to agree with most most scholars that talk about
Simon.
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He probably made a really good living.
Not only was he not only were people heeding him and astonished with his miracles, he was probably
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one of the most wealthy people in Samaria as well.
And so now he's out of business, right.
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So what's he going to do?
He offers them money and what does he want?
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He says in verse 19, he says give me this power also that on on that anyone on whom I lay my hands
may receive the Holy Spirit.
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Now the problem, the problem here is not that he wants other folks to get saved and be baptized in
the Holy Spirit.
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The problem is is that he's offering them money.
He is still, although we I agree again with Horton, I believe he's saved.
35:19
He still has some baggage in the way that he's thinking.
He has not yet been totally renewed in his mind.
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And so here's Peter.
I I love this right?
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Like here's here's the response of Peter.
Peter said to him, are you kidding me?
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Like I'm just paraphrasing now.
He's like, man, your money perish with you because you thought, right?
35:44
Think about this is the indication of something that's going on in his head because you thought that
the gift of God could be purchased with money.
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I mean, this isn't what you do to new converts, right?
You're supposed to be sweet and love on them and we do believe me, I we don't want to be too.
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I I say it most the time.
I often have more grace for folks that are new to the faith and you know, most, most 20304050 year
36:15
old Christians, but God's working on me, right?
He's I'm still being saved folks, right?
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I was saved.
I'm being saved.
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One day I will be.
That's what we say about sanctification.
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But I'm just astonished at Peter Peter his boldness being led by the Spirit.
He says because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with money.
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And then he says you have neither part nor portion in this matter.
If if you if you circle or highlight circle or highlight the word matter in verse 21, what's what's
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the point of that?
The word here is where we get the word is the word logos.
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You have no part or no portion share in this thing that is being spoken, this thing that is being
uttered, this thing of Jesus Christ.
37:15
And so he says, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
Verse 22 is our favorite phrase, isn't it?
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Repent therefore of your wickedness.
OK, now you might say, well man, you know what, He was just ignorant.
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He didn't know.
Let's give him a break.
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No, Peter understood exactly what it was.
It was wickedness.
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It it is wickedness.
And he says and pray God, if, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you folks, this
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blows most of our modern fluffy church theology right out of the water.
What do you mean if perhaps I mean, I mean, if we confess.
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Listen, it's more than just saying, all right, Lord, I'm so I'll confess, right.
I'm recording this today on Lent.
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And you know what I went to, I went to Sam's Club today and I am not disrespectful to Catholics in
any way, but everybody's running around with ash on their forehead.
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And, and what really burns me up is it's like it's about, it's about your heart, right?
It, it, it if, if we just go through some formalized ritual without truly being changed and
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transformed and discipled and, and the pursuit of holiness and the pursuit of being Christ like
we're in trouble.
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And so I believe that this captures this this verse 22 captures the heart of what I'm telling you.
Repent therefore of your wickedness #1 acknowledge that what you have said is wrong.
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Make confession that means to agree with God's word.
Yes, Lord, I see that this is wrong.
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Now Simon could be arguing mentally like, what do you mean this is wrong?
I, I just want to buy this gift.
39:06
I need to make him a living it and it seems to be good.
I want to help people out.
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Nope.
Repent of your wickedness.
39:12
And then he says and pray God, if perhaps like I cannot guarantee to you because of the gravity and
the severity of this situation, that God can forgive you because you're going to have to have a
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change of heart, a change of mind.
You're going to have to renew your mind.
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In other words, you cannot continue in this lifestyle.
You cannot continue in this way of thinking.
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And then he says the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
And then he says in verse 23, for I see that you are poisoned, poisoned by bitterness and bound by
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iniquity.
Isn't that heavy?
40:00
Peter is going see we have the fruit, but Peter is going down to the root.
Now there should be something similar to us.
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We should be thinking of Acts chapter 5 isn't the isn't because this is how Luke writes.
It was revealed by the Holy Spirit to Peter in Acts chapter 5.
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Do you think that he's still operating the same way?
Just honest question.
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Of course he is.
Of course he is.
40:30
The Holy Spirit is revealing things about his heart and he's saying, listen, this guy, he's he, he,
you know, something we could laugh at?
40:38
Like you really think you can purchase this?
No, you have.
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You're being poisoned.
That it, what does it mean to be poisoned?
40:47
Now you can drink some forms of poison, be instantly killed, or you could be slowly killed.
Here's the message.
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Poison should not be messed with at all.
And you are at this moment being poisoned by bitterness, and you are bound right.
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You're bound by what?
Iniquity.
41:08
What is iniquity?
It is unrighteousness.
41:13
It is a sense of injustice that he would go and try to pervert and twist the things of God.
For what?
41:22
Well, most likely his motivation was let me purchase this and then I will go out and package and
sell this gospel message and this power.
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And listen, here's the antithesis.
This is why we would call this a anti the antithesis of magic.
41:43
It's an apologetic against.
It is a it is a a I'm trying to think of the other word.
41:49
It's a it is AI can't think of it, but that's OK.
That means it's time to time to wrap this thing up.
41:56
If my brains not working.
It's a polemic.
41:59
There's the word oh, now we can't end it.
It's a polemic, a strong sermon against magic because magic came at a price and the gospel comes
42:10
free.
Do you get that?
42:12
So that the disciples are the antithesis.
Simon was doing things for his own fame and his own glory.
42:20
Philip and the apostles were doing all that they did for a different name, the name of Jesus.
They weren't.
42:31
They weren't charging.
They weren't trying to sell.
42:34
They weren't trying to package this thing.
And so Peter's words are strong.
42:41
Let's see his reaction in verse 24.
Then Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken
42:53
may come upon me.
Now I want to pause there.
42:56
There's an indication that Peter's words have penetrated his heart.
Now, the wording here is a little clunky, so it depends on some of your translations, but the idea
43:07
is he's saying pray to the Lord with me.
It could be for me or with me.
43:12
Pray to the Lord with me that what you're saying is not true.
Now, is he being genuine?
43:17
Well, we don't know.
I, I can't answer that question for you, but I can give you some scriptural examples where some
43:25
people it worked out for and others it didn't.
You know, Pharaoh actually tried this with Moses like, and when we get into the second play, we had
43:33
all the, you know, the water turned to blood and there was frogs and all that kind of stuff.
And then Pharaoh's like he, he says, I repent to Moses.
43:41
Pray to the Lord for me right and and and and God is so good.
You know what he did he he he brought some relief.
43:49
He brought some refreshing fact.
It's that same refreshing that Peter was talking about in in the book of Acts chapter 2, right
43:56
Repent and be converted.
So your sins may be blotted out in the times of refreshing might come that word refreshing links
44:04
right back to this.
And so Pharaoh, Pharaoh repent and he he tells Moses, pray to the Lord for me.
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And guess what he did?
He turned around and he hardened his heart.
44:13
Now I'm not telling you that that's what happened with Simon because I don't know.
I really, really don't know.
44:20
There is so much speculation out there.
And so I believe that in this case, in this case, the Bible is sufficient.
44:27
It has given us everything that we need all the information this year.
All right, verse 25.
44:38
So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem preaching
the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
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Oh, isn't that just beautiful?
I think it is.
44:51
I hope you do too.
But they, they, they are, they're going about and they're, they're preaching head back to Jerusalem
45:00
and they stop at every little village.
I know that you probably have questions, and if you do, feel free to send them my way.
45:12
I don't know, though, if I can give you all the answers, and I don't know if I'm supposed to.
I don't know what happened to Simon.
45:19
I do believe that he genuinely was saved, and I believe that what we're given here is not the
answer.
45:25
And I think that that is actually supposed to be intentional.
I believe that we are meant to be left hanging.
45:33
I think that we're meant to stop and pause and think and reflect and be in awe of God.
And we need to understand that this process of salvation isn't just a one and done.
45:47
It is an entire lifetime of discipleship.
And so there are some things that we can get our focus away from, OK, when we begin to get our
45:58
focus.
I told you earlier that I believe that one of the key elements here is yes, he, he's, he's a baby.
46:04
But I think that he was fixated on the miracles of God rather than the message.
And I think that that is what what he missed the most because he continued with Philip.
46:17
So was he give, Was he really giving heed or was he enamored with the supernatural?
And I don't apologize for what I'm about to say at all because I'm absolutely convinced and
46:34
convicted of this.
I've, I've, I've been around the block and I've, I've done this for enough time, not a long time,
46:40
but enough time to know that most people, they're good, good people.
And I'm not saying they have bad intentions, but we've got 22 tracks.
46:51
Can you hear me talk a lot about the modern church and and fluffy church and modern church
movements?
46:57
Right.
Well, you've got another track.
46:59
And this is all about the supernatural.
It's all about the glory.
47:03
And as I am speaking at this very moment, do you know that the majority of the charismatic church
now there I make a distinction between charismatics and Pentecostals.
47:17
That's probably a different conversation.
But most of the charismania that is going on today is actually being exposed for fraudulent fake
47:28
things.
I, I know many good people that I'm still friends with today that will go, we call the expression is
47:36
go from spout to spout where the glory comes out.
And they're always looking for a word from the next man of God or for the next prophet.
47:44
They're so focused and enamored and mesmerized by miracles.
And let me tell you, most of these things are not legit.
47:53
And you say, well, pastor, do you really mean that?
Yes, I do.
47:56
I believe God does miracles, but not the not the trickery, not the the forgery in the fakery that we
are seeing, the tomfoolery that we're seeing today.
48:07
You know, early on in my years when I was in Bible college, I remember taking the class theology of
prayer.
48:12
And at that time there was some hints of revival coming out of Florida and Lakeland, FL And many
people were asking, and I know I most of you might not have contacts for this, but there was also a
48:25
Brownsville revival many, many years ago.
And so something similar they thought was happening in Lakeland with a guy by the name of Todd
48:32
Bentley.
And people were flying.
48:36
I know people first hand that flew from Bakersfield to go to Lakeland, FL with this TomTom Bentley.
And I was one of the the only people.
48:45
And I don't see this as like bragging to raise my head.
It was actually probably one of the most difficult times in my life because I was the one of the
48:54
only ones.
I was, I was still a baby.
48:56
And I'm like, this thing is not of God.
I, I, I, I would plead with people even in class and I would say this, this is not, I mean, they
49:03
were, they were talking about angels and gold dust and feathers that were popping out.
And boy, it was something else.
49:12
Well, I've got I've got invited.
I probably need to do a separate podcast on all this stuff, but I got invited to a seeking meeting.
49:23
Now, when I say seeking, I'm not talking about seeker sensitive.
I'm talking about like, let's pray the fire down, right?
49:29
Let's let's pray the Holy Spirit down.
So I got invited to go speak.
49:33
So I'm out at a bonfire and there's, I don't know, maybe 40 something people, not, not a whole lot.
And I'm up there and I'm preaching, man.
49:41
I'm and you might ask, what were you preaching?
I can't remember exactly, but it probably had something to do with like, let's get right with God,
49:48
let's repent, all that kind of stuff.
Well, anyways, people were like, there was a feather that came floating down and I didn't see it at
49:56
the time I was preaching, but somebody had grabbed it because this sign of feathers was happening
everywhere.
50:01
And they came up to me after and they said, oh, look at this feather.
God confirmed the word and I about lost it.
50:09
And so I, I, I didn't, I didn't take out my spiritual bazooka and just blast this sister out of the
water.
50:17
But I, I was, knew her and her husband quite well.
And so we went and we talked, I went over to their house.
50:22
I don't remember if it was the next day or a couple of days after and got to her house and I
discovered that she had been collecting these feathers.
50:29
And you know, here's the thing.
The enemy always wants to get people's eyes off of Jesus and off of his word, and he wants them to
50:37
be able to put it on things that detract from who he is.
And so she had a binder, like imagine if you're collecting baseball cards.
50:48
She had all these different feathers that she had been collecting.
And she had become so spiritually woo woo that I, I pled with her.
50:58
I said, listen, get back to the simplicity of Jesus Christ.
And you know what ended up happening?
51:03
I praise the Lord for this.
We ended up burning those feathers.
51:06
We had a little bonfire and she repented and burnt all those feathers.
I say that to say I've got story after story after story.
51:14
The gold dust that was happening.
In fact, there was also a move of God.
51:19
I'm not going to say the church, I'm not going to say the pastor.
I'm not going to say where it is, maybe I should one day, but I just, I don't feel that the Lord
51:27
would have me do that, especially in this moment.
I'm, I'm being not trying to sound too spiritual, but I mean this with all sincerity.
51:36
There was a church that we were assigned to go to because there was inklings of a move of God.
And so here was our assignment and I thought this was just absolutely dumb.
51:48
Go and observe and see what happens.
And there had been a reported sightings of gold dust and angels and manifestations of light.
51:58
And so we go to this place and guess what?
I wasn't, I'm not sitting there trying to be a skeptic or a critic, but it was absolutely just, I'm
52:11
trying to be nice about it.
It was absolute utter nonsense, just repetitious over and over and over.
52:20
What I call woo woo, prophetic hippie stuff, bouncing beach balls, shoot less people dancing with
streamers.
52:28
And I'm going, OK.
And then everybody be like, ah, and then they would be like a little bit of fog and it looked like
52:34
it was coming out of the vent or something.
Or I'm going like, oh boy, really?
52:37
And then the profit got up and they begin to call out to somebody, somebody here God is telling me
this and I don't remember the details.
52:49
Me.
It was like maybe your license plate starts with A98U and somebody's setting up like it's the price
52:56
of riding.
They be like me, me, me come down and they would be.
52:59
Let the cold reading begin.
Well, when I say that the charismatic church is an absolute mess right now, we're talking now, I, I
53:09
don't, I'm not afraid to name names in this sense because they are public at a national level.
We're talking Bill Johnson, Jesus culture, absolute mess, right?
53:20
Everybody that is on his staff, all his supposed prophets, IHOP of Kansas City, this is Mike Bickle.
This is all of the, all of these folks you go into the East Coast.
53:31
Morningstar Ministries with Rick Joyner, Absolute mess.
I know people that in the previous election, the one that Trump lost four years ago, I know of a
53:43
group of intercessors that flew out to Rick Joyner's ministries for Morningstar to go out and anoint
the ground and pray during the Liberty Bell.
53:52
And there was a I'm telling too many stories.
They they were praying and and it was at 3:00 AM the bell begin to ring and they believe that it was
54:03
an Angel that was sounding the Liberty Bell and they would blow their shofars.
Now, before you have a problem with all, you know, everything that I'm saying, it is found out the
54:15
Morningstar Ministries is absolutely fraudulent, fraudulent in their finances, fraudulent in their
in their prophecies, fraudulent and sexual abuse.
54:24
All of those things.
I'll probably get flagged on this.
54:27
Well, probably not through Spotify, but through YouTube, but fraudulent, fraudulent even out of the
Bill Johnson camp.
54:34
Fraudulent in the sense of you would go, you would register for a conference.
You know what they would do?
54:40
This is all public information guys.
I've I've been saying this for several years.
54:44
You register for the the conference that would get your name, your information, your e-mail.
You're already paying a couple 100 bucks anyways to go.
54:52
So you, you're given all your info, then they would scrape social media and they would get all the
details about you and your life all the way back.
54:59
I mean, imagine some folks got Facebook that go back 10-15 years.
They would look at the pictures, they'd look at your captions, they would put all the pertinent
55:07
information down and they would have a file on you.
And then you would be in a crowd of like thousands and they would say, does somebody today have, did
55:16
somebody's grandmother pass away on February 1st?
And and then all it's like going to a John Edwards psychic reading guys, this has been exposed out
55:28
of what Bill Johnson, Bethel, IHOP, all of these known ministries.
So not only do we have fakery and forgery, we also have scandals in the finances.
55:40
We have scandals and sexual abuse cases.
And there are so many that it it grieves me to even talk about it.
55:49
Now you might say, what is the point?
I don't even know if anybody's even with he's still with me at this point.
55:55
But that's OK, That's OK.
Here's the point.
56:00
What happens when we begin to get our eyes off of Jesus and our eyes off of his word And we and
remember I told you about two tracks.
56:10
You got the track of the seeker sensitive, the fluffy church.
That's that needs to just wither up and die.
56:16
But then you have another track and care what I call, I'm going to call it Cara's mania, right?
Like Hulkamania.
56:23
And then these folks just want to chase after God and I appreciate their zeal.
I mean, really they but they they take it to the extreme.
56:31
What I call prophetic woo woo.
And then these prophets, I call them prophet.
56:35
Reverend Big bottom wants to come through town and give somebody a word.
No, you need a word.
56:40
You need to open your word right?
And I think that part of this is, is the lesson that the Lord would have for us right here in the
56:48
book of Acts.
I do believe that Simon became enamored and attracted with these gifts.
56:55
And I don't think that the the if there was a route, right?
I want you to I want you to think about this.
57:04
He's poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.
Something didn't penetrate his heart all the way.
57:12
And what would that something be?
God's word.
57:16
All right, I'm going to end it on there.
Just as a heads up, I probably will not get to fill up in Acts 826 until I can't even promise
57:29
Saturday.
It might not be till Sunday, guys.
57:33
And so I'm going to be tied up the next couple of days.
Keep preparing for Sunday.
57:38
Thank you for tuning in.
And you might be saying we need Noah back.
57:43
We'll see you on the next episode.
Thank you for listening to Al Pastor with Brian Overturf.
57:56
If you found value in this, please subscribe and get updates.
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58:02
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58:12
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Until then, we'll see you later.