No Small Parts - Simon the Sorcerer
December 13, 2020 Sunday Evening Study

Almost 8 years ago, my oldest daughter came to me and said that she wanted to learn how to play guitar. She was 10 years old, and we lived in Arizona. I myself, having been a drummer for twenty plus years at that point, had tried on a number of occasions to pick up guitar, but it never stuck for me. Here I thought, I have the opportunity to do something together with my daughter, so I said let’s learn together. A guitar player at our church wanted to learn to play drums, so we set up a barter and went to work.

We ended up only taking a handful of lessons from him - learning the very basics of chords. Unfortunately for Kahlan, it was very slow-going and she struggled quite a bit. For me, however, with my background in music I was able to pick things up really quickly. In light of my success despite her difficulty, Kahlan gave up the guitar. It was right after beginning to play that we moved to Colorado, so when we got there, I knew a few chords and was beginning to be able to strum through a couple of worship songs.

For me, guitar was new and exciting, and it was what I wanted to do all the time. Even though I played drums for our church, I would always bring my guitar to practice with me and play along whenever I could. I got to a point where I was passable as a player, and when we started attending a new church in Aurora, I presented myself as a guitarist who also plays drums. I started playing electric guitar on that worship team, largely fumbling my way through songs for several months.

I decided it was time for me to take lessons again. Understand that the reason I had learned guitar in the first place was two-fold - I wanted to support my daughter, and I wanted to play worship songs. I was not interested in being in rock bands and such like I had been on drums. I found a teacher, and this guy was basically a guitar god. I took lessons from him for a few months - constantly trying to learn the fancy stuff he did. Yet in the midst of this time, I found that I was improving far more as a player just by playing on the worship team than I was learning all the fancy stuff from my teacher.

It occurred to me that I was so impressed by his playing that I was trying to learn to play like him - not necessarily just become a better player. Essentially I had lost my original motivation for playing, and found that I was only improving when I was serving in my playing. For me, it had come down to a question - did I want to be a guitar god, or did I want to be able to worship with a guitar?

Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 8. We are about to meet a fellow that had risen to greatness in his own way, but even he knew real greatness when he saw it. As a result of his ambition, he totally misses the point of what is happening - and in missing that point, he actually has quite the legacy of people influenced by his error. Read Passage - 8:9-13 and 8:18-25

Now a shadowy figure appears on the scene. There was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic among the Samaritans and for a long time had astounded them with his tricks. Like Theudas (mentioned by Gamaliel as we studied last week) he had been somewhat pretentious, boasting “that he was someone great.” That his personal claims were considerably beyond the ordinary is indicated by the acclamation of the people that he was that divine power called “the Great Power”. Whatever else might be said of Simon, he seems to have made some claim to at least embody the very power of God.

Luke clearly depicted Simon as a worker of magic, a charlatan who made money from his bag of tricks. Yet early church history also records the exploits of Simon even beyond the account in the New Testament. The early church fathers tell of a heretical Gnostic sect of Simonians in the second and third centuries who traced their beliefs back to the Simon of Acts. The earliest account is that of Justin Martyr from the middle of the second century. Justin was himself a Samaritan and wrote that Simon, a Samaritan from the village of Gitto, was worshiped by “almost all” of the Samaritans of his day as “the first god.” He spoke of Simon’s journey to Rome, where he was worshiped as a god and had a statue erected to him with the inscription “to the holy god Simon.”

Now we do not know at what point in Simon’s life this episode with the apostles takes place - whether it is before or after his journey to Rome. And honestly, it could easily be either because this story makes it clear that Simon did not “get it” - the evidence points to his conversion not being genuine. So what happened? How did he miss it so badly?

Simon may have held the attention of the Samaritans for a long time with his dazzling tricks, but that completely changed with the preaching of Philip. The content of the preaching is variously described in this passage. In v. 4 it is “the word”; in v. 5, “the Christ”; and in v. 12, “the kingdom of God” and “the name of Jesus Christ.” All refer to the same reality, the salvation that is in no other name. The Samaritans entrusted themselves to the gospel and were baptized en masse, men and women.

The passage states that Simon also believed and was baptized, but there is no object given for his believing—no “kingdom of God,” no “name of Jesus Christ” as is stated for the rest of the Samaritans. In fact, the only response connected with his baptism was his following Philip everywhere, totally entranced by his miraculous signs. Seems Simon had found his guitar god.

Then Peter and John come on the scene and begin praying for the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. Just as Philip’s miracles caught Simon’s attention, so the visible outpouring of the Spirit was absolutely irresistible to the magician. Just what he “saw,” the text does not say, but it must have been quite the spectacle. Whether Simon himself received the Spirit is also not related here. One would assume he did not from the drift of the text. He appears as more the onlooker than the participant, and his behavior scarcely betrays any spiritual enlightenment on his part. As a professional Simon was impressed with the commercial possibilities of the phenomenon he had just witnessed. He therefore offered Peter and John money for the trade secret of how to dispense the Spirit through the laying on of one’s hands. Though a complete misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit, Simon’s behavior was completely in character for a professional magician. Tricks of the trade were often exchanged among them in financial transactions. They were viewed almost as commercial commodities, and he wanted in.

Throughout Acts human greed is always clearly depicted as a most destructive force. It was for Judas, for Ananias and Sapphira - and it will continue to prove true. Simon was explicitly depicted as wanting the right to dispense the Spirit, but he probably desired the ability to manipulate the Spirit at his own will, to be able to work miracles and the like. He completely missed the point of what was happening - the purpose behind the gift. His belief and worship was for the signs and the experience, and not for the Creator.

Now besides being the object of worship for a heretical sect in the second and third century, Simon leaves other legacies as well. One of the major corruptions of the orthodox church which led to the Reformation at the end of the Middle Ages was the act of paying for positions within the church - aptly named Simony after this man. There are several writings about him in the apocryphal books of the New Testament - specifically in The Acts of Peter and Paul which tells the story of Simon’s death. In the context of a debate in front of the Emperor Nero, Paul the Apostle is present along with Peter, Simon levitates from a high wooden tower made upon his request, and dies "divided into four parts" due to the fall. Peter and Paul were then put in prison by Nero while ordering Simon's body be kept carefully for three days (thinking he would rise again.)

We could draw a number of lessons from this man’s life - the cost of arrogance, the folly of chasing success and greatness, etc. I think the most appropriate lesson here is that intentions matter - reason matters. On a much lesser scale, for me I was not finding success in my journey to play guitar when I stepped outside of the context of God’s call. We saw from the beginning that the object of Simon’s devotion was not God - it was what he could do for himself if he could harness God’s power. Often the reason why we do something is as important - or even more important - than the things themselves. This is where as Christians we can often be misinterpreted as being haughty and pious rather than obedient - because oftentimes, especially in how the media portrays us, the intent is lost. Genuine faith and obedience is attractive - elitism is not. Let’s be keeping track of our intent as well as our deeds, constantly testing to see if we are reflecting the image of God. Let’s pray.