Getting the Gospel Wrong

On the day Stephen was murdered a persecution broke out against the Church so

intense all Luke could call it was a wave. A young lion with a gleam in his eye, named Saul, roared against the Church, took it into his mouth, and shook his mane. “Ravaged” is just another way to say Saul went wild. His singular life passion was to annihilate this movement, and he didn’t care how it happened. If it meant going from house to house and dragging Christians off to jail, men or women, so be it.

But as the early church father Tertullian made so clear: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Because what their murderers found out, over and over again, was trying to stamp out Christianity worked about as well as trying to get rid of dandelions by blowing on their puffs. The harder the wind blew, the further the seeds spread.
Instead of stamping out the Church, persecution only served to accomplish God’s purpose for the Church. Jesus had said to his disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria.”

But the fulfillment of the missionary mandate doesn’t wait until the apostles are ready to include Samaria. While they are trying to maintain Jesus’ claim on Jerusalem, the mission moves forward quite apart from any design or program on the part of the apostles.

Eugene Peterson says it best: “Forced to leave home base, the Christians all became missionaries.” Persecution didn’t stifle the Church! God worked in the midst of it to accomplish His goal for evangelism. It looked like a Church on the run, but it was really a Church on a mission!

The church in China today is a perfect example. Several decades ago the Chinese government kicked out all the professional missionaries thinking they could stamp out the church. What they didn’t realize is that every Christian is a missionary! We now know not only has the church in China survived, it has thrived.

Persecution doesn’t diminish the work of God. In one sense prosperity can be more dangerous for a church than persecution, because successful churches have a tendency to believe there are some things they can accomplish without God.

One of the missionaries of the Early Church was a waiter turned witness named Philip. His dandelion puff blew north into the ripe harvest field of Samaria. The original language says Philip went “down” to Samaria when in fact geographically he would have had to go up. But don’t miss the irony because for a good Jew, going to Samaria always meant going down.

Samaria was everything a kosher Jew was not. The Judean Jews viewed the Samaritans as half-breeds at best and foreigners at worst. Hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom, composed of two tribes, became known as Judah. The northern kingdom, composed of the other ten, kept its name as Israel.

The Assyrian Empire defeated the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. The victorious Assyrians deported 20,000 Israelites, mostly from the upper classes, and replaced them with settlers from Babylon, Syria, and several other nations, all bringing with them their pagan gods. Those Jews left behind began to intermarry with those brought in to repopulate the land. Their offspring were known as Samaritans.

136 years later, in 586 B.C. the southern kingdom of Judah was also defeated, this time by the Babylonian Empire. Their temple was destroyed and they too were deported into exile. When the exile ended, and the Judean Jews were allowed to return to Palestine, it was the Samaritans who gave the greatest opposition to rebuilding the Jerusalem wall and the temple. A very deep and abiding hatred between the distant cousins developed, and as a result the Jews had absolutely no dealings with the Samaritans.

Because the ethnic and racial tensions ran so deep, it was shocking to Jesus’ disciples, Judean Jews themselves, to see Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at a well. It was also scandalous to hear Jesus tell a story about a “good” Samaritan.

No wonder the Church had not ventured outside of Jerusalem. Even the apostles had a lot to overcome. Who knows? Maybe behind closed doors they were saying: “Do you think we misunderstood Jesus? I mean, a lot was going on, you know. Maybe He actually didn’t say we had to take this thing into Samaria.”

It was a challenge enough to preach in Jerusalem to the home folks, but it was hard to break through that Jewish-Samaritan barrier. The Lord knew it was going to be tough on them, and so while the Church was contemplating whether to go, God compelled them to go!

Who would launch the work in Samaria? God chose Philip. Philip was as close to a cross-cultural missionary as the church had at the time. Because he was a Hellenistic Jew he understood from personal experience what it meant to be considered a second-class citizen.

And so when he preached Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, in Samaria it caught folks’ attention. The Holy Spirit worked miraculous signs and wonders, from exorcisms to healings, through the ministry of Philip. It was a clear sign to the people God had come to town. It’s amazing what a little witness shot through with God’s power will do to help people believe! That’s really all miracles are anyway---tangible evidence God is around.
It was all the evidence the Samaritans needed! All kinds of men and women believed on Jesus and were baptized. Including, a man named Simon. Simon was somewhat of a celebrity in town because he had a fairly profitable business. Simon was into three things: miracles, magic, and money.

Some of your Bibles may say he was a magician, but he was really more than that. He wasn’t just pulling rabbits out of his hat and hankies out of his sleeve. He was actually the town witchdoctor. He was a sorcerer who dabbled in occult practices. He had been around a long time and everyone was more or less in awe of him. People were in awe of him because he promised them a power to deal with life.

Nothing much has changed. There are still a lot of folks who look to magic to find the power to cope with life. Tarot cards, palm readers, psychic hotlines, the crystals of New Age, even astrology are really nothing more than tools in a contemporary witchdoctor’s bag.

Everyone was in awe of Simon. But the truth is nobody was more in awe of Simon, than Simon. He liked to refer to himself as: Simon the Great. But there was something compelling about Philip’s message because even Simon was convinced. Simon prayed the sinner’s prayer, read the Gospel of John, and signed up for baptism. He appeared to be pretty serious about his new life.

He started following Philip around like a rock star groupie. They even thought about changing his name from “Great One” to “Great Shadow.” To quote the great theologian Forrest Gump: they were like peas and carrots. He was so mesmerized by the miracles and the power that exuded from Philip he got in his hip pocket and watched his every move.

Things were going well in Samaria. People were turning to Christ. Lives were being changed! Finally, Philip fired off an email to FirstChurch@Jerusalem.com and said: “You guys need to get down here right away. You won’t believe what God is doing in Samaria!”

Luke doesn’t tell us this, but I can only imagine what the apostles must have been feeling: We don’t have enough problems already? We’re already up to our eyeballs in persecution and now Philip has to start bringing Samaritans into the picture! The Bible says: The apostles sent Peter and John to check things out, which might be another way to say they flipped a coin, and Peter and John got tails. At any rate they were the ones who got Samaria duty.

When Peter and John arrived in Samaria they found a brand new church filled with brand new believers. They could see God was at work doing a new thing among the Samaritan people. And so they laid their prejudice aside and said: Welcome to the family! They laid hands on people they had vowed not to touch with a ten-foot pole, and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. And suddenly these new believers who had been under the influence of the Spirit were now filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered to live the new life they had begun!

Simon was impressed! He’d seen power before--even experienced it. But this was a whole new angle. This had real potential. Being a good businessman he saw more than a spiritual victory--he saw a way to make a profit. It was a Yahoo moment for him--buy low, sell high! I mean what would it hurt to add another power to his bag of tricks?
And so without even blinking an eye, Simon reached for his wallet, licked his fingers, and said: “How much boys? Let me in on it. C’mon, show me how you did that! Name your price!”

With those words Simon became the patron saint of an age-old spiritual problem called Simony. Now traditionally, “simony” means buying and selling offices within the Church. It was not uncommon, especially in the Middle Ages, for an office like a bishop to be given to the highest bidder. It would be similar to someone in our church saying: “I’m going to use my money to get on the church board. I’m going to use my influence to buy votes.”

But the most common form of simony in the Church today happens whenever someone projects themselves as someone great and equates the gift of the Spirit with worldly standards of power and success.

Now I don’t know if Simon had become a Christian or not. I read at least two-dozen books and commentaries looking for an answer here and nobody can seem to agree. Some say Simon had never really become a Christian. He only believed about Jesus but never believed in Jesus. Others say Simon’s faith was superficial--he was only interested in the miracles and the power. He wasn’t really converted, only strongly impressed with the miracle working power of Philip and Peter. And even others would say Simon was saved, but he wasn’t sanctified.

I don’t know about all of that. All I know is Simon got the gospel wrong. He got the gospel wrong! He thought it was for sale, and it wasn’t. He thought it would change his life without changing him. He was more interested in what he could get, instead of what he could become.

And it’s not so different today. Will Willimon says: “Missionaries must also be theologians because everyone’s idea of good news is not necessarily the good news of Christ.”

Some are so attracted to something they see in the Church, which may or may not have anything to do with the gospel, they are blinded from truly understanding the gospel. And they come to Christ out of a desire for control rather than a desire to be controlled. They think following God will be their path to the easy life. I’ve talked to some folks who thought becoming a Christian was like rubbing the Genie’s lamp and making three wishes.

Mark Twain’s, Huckleberry Finn, said he tried prayer and found it didn’t work. He put a shoebox under his bed and prayed it be filled with gold. He awoke in the morning and the box was still empty. So much for religion! But whatever Christians mean by the effectiveness of prayer, the power of the Spirit, and the grace of God, what we do not mean is magic.

You would think Peter would have had a little better response than he did. I mean, in a time when the Church was fighting for its very existence, you would think they wouldn’t be picky about what it’s new members believed. Peter might have said: “You know, even though I disagree with some of Simon’s techniques, he does draw quite a crowd and helps a lot of people.”

But he didn’t. Peter said: “May your silver perish with you.” “Perish” is not a kind pastoral word from pastor Peter. Apoleian means perdition or eternal punishment. And just in case you still don’t know what we’re talking about, in modern English Peter said something along the lines of: “You and your money can go to hell!” That’s no way to win friends and influence people.

Simon thought he could buy the power of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to have the life Christ promises without surrendering his life to Christ! But Peter said: “Simon, you can’t buy what is given. If it could be bought with money then only powerful people could have the power. But you can’t have the power of the Holy Spirit and keep power over your life at the same time! May be that happens in your magic kingdom, but not in God’s righteous kingdom. Any attempt to manipulate God for personal gain is sin.”

“Simon, the best you can do is repent. Change your mind. Turn away from your sin and turn toward God. See the world through God’s eyes. You want to believe in Jesus and still believe in the old patterns, in the old paradigms, in the old habits, in the old worldview. But I’m here to tell you, Simon, that’s getting the gospel wrong!”

“And so, pray Simon! Pray like you’ve never prayed before. Pray until you get it right. Pray God will forgive the condition of your heart: the intentions, the motivations, the focus. As it is you may think you’ve changed, but you’re still tied to the ball and chain of bitterness and self-preservation.

“You’re still captive to the compulsive determination to continue in a direction you know is wrong. You want the Lord on your terms without a surrender of your will. There’s no freedom in that! That’s just dressing up the old Simon with new clothes and saying everything’s different.”

“But you don’t have to stay there, Simon! You can be changed from the inside out. You can experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit! And so, pray!”

This story teaches us some very important lessons about the Church of Jesus Christ. The first thing we cannot miss is how inclusive this gospel is. Everybody gets in: Jews and Samaritans, men and women, magicians and people who follow them.

Anyone can believe in Jesus. Anyone can be baptized. Anyone can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Anyone can serve the Church. Nobody gets left out! Rich and poor, black and white, liberal and conservative. All are welcome in this inclusive gospel!

But here’s the second thing we cannot miss. This inclusiveness also calls for a radical change in those so included. And the radical change is called repentance.

We’ve watered down “getting saved” to some kind of emotional experience that feels good--kind of like taking a warm bath and getting a pedicure. But to repent isn’t just saying: “I’m sorry. Now make me feel better.” To repent is asking God to change the whole way you see the world. It’s asking God to change the old habits, the old routines, the old paradigms, the old lifestyle, the “old” you.

Christians are not magicians who have gotten control over God to make Him do what they want. Christians are those over whom God has gotten control so we will do what He wants.

God is forgiving but He’s not on a leash. God is God from start to finish! When we realize that, there is the willing turning of the control of our lives over to Him. That’s called conversion.

The message of the gospel in a nutshell? Be included, but be changed! That’s called getting the Gospel right.