Acts
8:14 ¶ Now when the apostles which were
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto
them Peter and John: 15 Who, when they
were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none
of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 Then laid they their hands on them,
and they received the Holy Ghost. 18 And
when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was
given, he offered them money, 19 Saying,
Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the
Holy Ghost. 20 But Peter said unto him,
Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may
be purchased with money. 21 Thou hast
neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God. 22 Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven
thee. 23 For I perceive that thou art in
the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. 24 Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the
Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.
25 And they, when they had testified and
preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel
in many villages of the Samaritans.
Notice the difference
in how the Holy Ghost was received in the early church. I talked in chapter 2
how the receiving of the Holy Ghost is mentioned as coming at different times
in the early church or is not mentioned at all. It is assumed except for here
where they receive the Holy Ghost later than when they believed, perhaps
significantly later.
The worldly and cynical
Simon is entranced by the power given to the Apostles by the Holy Ghost and
even thinks he can purchase it, that it was something these men possessed and
like a magician’s trick was a secret that could be passed on to others, a secret,
arcane knowledge as in the philosophy of the day rather than the power of God
working through His chosen vessels.
Peter accuses Simon of
being in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. His heart
is not right in the sight of God. He came to Christ with the absolute wrong
attitude, a worldly error that glorified himself and gave power over the things
of God to money.
The gall of
bitterness is a reference to false worship and holding something different
in your heart than what is on your lips.
Deuteronomy
29:18 Lest there should be among you
man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the
LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be
among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the
words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have
peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to
thirst: 20 The LORD will not spare him,
but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man,
and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the
LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Bitterness would
refer to the expression of that falseness through one’s speech, by
cross-referencing.
Romans
3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness:
Ephesians
4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and
anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Simon has spoken
falsely in extreme iniquity. He has made a sham of his shallow faith. The bond
of iniquity means that Simon is a slave to sin. This is a very disturbing
charge for Peter to make against Simon.
It doesn’t look like he
repented and turned. It looked like he was just afraid of being punished. That
is different than repentance, of course. Being afraid of Hell is not salvation.
Turning to Christ is.
The attention the
Christian Jews paid to the Samaritans is remarkable but in keeping with
Christ’s teaching in Luke.
The Samaritans and the
Jews were in conflict over where they were to worship which resulted in them
refusing to receive Christ after He diplomatically sent messengers to alert
them of His coming thereby invoking the wrath of His followers. They knew He
was headed to Jerusalem and their worship was focused on Samaria.
John 4:20 Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship.
2Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of
Assyria took Samaria, and
carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the
cities of the Medes…24 And the king of
Assyria brought men from
Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim,
and placed them in the cities
of Samaria instead of the
children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria,
and dwelt in the cities thereof…26
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which
thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he
hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not
the manner of the God of the land…28
Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and
taught them how they should fear the LORD.
The Samaritan religion is called Samaritanism and is based on the
Samaritan Torah. They believed they most closely followed the true religion of
the Jews that existed before the Babylonian captivity. They worshipped at the
ruins of their temple in Mount Gerizim. The mount is mentioned in Deuteronomy,
Joshua, and Judges. The temple was destroyed by the Jews in around 100BC. The
Jews did not regard the Samaritans very favorably.
In fact, the Samaritans were hated. They worshipped in a different
place. They had a different history than the Jews and the Jews regarded them as
inferiors, spiritually, politically, and every other way. They were not just
somebody else but they were somebody else the Jews expected nothing good out of
and looked down their noses at. But Jesus pointed out that the
victim of robbery in Luke, chapter 10, had no mercy shown to him by a pious
priest and then a Levite. It is the proverbial, “Good Samaritan,” who renders
aid. This story taught the lawyer Jesus was speaking to that one’s neighbors
included anyone you chanced upon and even someone whose ethnicity or religion
you hated might be someone that God would want you to aid in their time of
distress.
Picture for yourself
from an American perspective the Samaritan in the story in Luke 10 being a
black person from the inner city or a ragged mountain redneck from the Ozarks.
Maybe picture a person of another political party you despise or a Yankee or a
Southerner or anyone that you hold in contempt as a people. Maybe you need to
think of a Catholic or a Methodist or charismatic. But, you can imagine what
Christ is doing in Luke 10 in breaking down barriers.
As Christ breaks down
false barriers set up by man, His followers, of mostly Jewish ethnicity, preach
to the hated Samaritans and give them the good news of the gospel of Christ.
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