Summary
Transformation and Struggle: Acts 8
Acts 8 marks a major turning point in the spread of the Gospel. Jesus had told His disciples they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth Acts 1:8. The first seven chapters cover the witness in Jerusalem; with the persecution that scattered the church, the Word now pushes outward into Samaria. There the evangelist Philip encounters a striking figure named Simon, and through him we see both the power of the Gospel to transform a life and the reality that struggle with sin continues even after conversion. See Transformation and Struggle Acts 8:9-25 1-20-19.
Simon the Sorcerer Believes
Before Philip's arrival, Simon had captivated Samaria with sorcery—not stage tricks, but practiced occult arts. The people called him "the power of God that is called great," language that, when read alongside Jesus' words in Mark 14:62, amounts to a claim of deity. Simon was happy to be seen as God in the flesh. Yet when Philip preached the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, Samaritans believed and were baptized—and Simon himself believed and was baptized Acts 8:12-13. This is exactly the heart of God, who "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" 1 Timothy 2:4, and over whom heaven rejoices when one sinner repents Luke 15:7.
Samaria Receives the Gospel—and a Special Gift
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard Samaria had received the Word, they sent Peter and John. The significance is hard to overstate: Jews and Samaritans had despised one another for centuries, going back to the exile and the intermarriage that followed. The Gospel was now leaping that bitter divide.
Acts says that until Peter and John laid hands on these believers, the Holy Spirit "had not yet fallen on any of them" Acts 8:16. Read carelessly, this can sound as though baptized believers were without the Spirit. Scripture interprets Scripture. 1 Corinthians 12:3 teaches that no one confesses Jesus as Lord apart from the Holy Spirit, and Titus 3:5 calls baptism "the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." These Samaritans had faith and baptism; therefore the Spirit already indwelt them. What was being given here was the same particular gift seen at Pentecost in Acts 2, and again with the Gentiles in Acts 10 and the Ephesians in Acts 19: the ability to proclaim the Gospel in known languages they had never learned. It is a sign-gift that establishes the church as the Word breaks into each new sphere—Jew, Samaritan, Gentile—and then recedes.
A Believer Who Still Struggles
Simon saw this gift and offered money for it Acts 8:18-19. Peter's rebuke is sharp: "Your heart is not right before God." The old craving for adulation—the heady experience of being called "great"—had not vanished at his baptism. The pattern reaches back to Eden, where the woman "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise" Genesis 3:6. Sin is preoccupation with the self: I want, I want, I want. Simon was a believer; Simon also struggled.
Every Christian can fill in that blank. It may not be a craving for crowds, but worry, fear (Scripture says "fear not" hundreds of times for a reason), pride, disordered priorities, selfishness that quietly turns other people into props for our comfort. Transformation by the Word is real; the struggle is also real. There are, as it were, two "yous" in every baptized Christian: the new self born of water and the Spirit, and the old Adam and old Eve who, as Luther's catechesis reminds us, are drowned in baptism but are remarkably good swimmers. That is why baptism is daily—a daily drowning of the old through repentance and a daily rising to new life.
Repent, and Hear the Promise
Peter does not write Simon off. He calls him to repent and to pray that the intent of his heart may be forgiven, and Simon, convicted, asks for prayer Acts 8:22-24. This is the rhythm of the Christian life: the law convicts the old Adam, and the Gospel turns the sinner back to the Savior who bore our sin on the cross, came out of the tomb, and claims us in the waters of Holy Baptism.
For the believer who still struggles—and that is every believer—the word from Acts 8 is not despair but promise. God keeps coming with His Word to put the old self to death and raise the new. He keeps saying: you are forgiven, you are mine, I have given you faith and I will keep you in it. The two "yous" remain only until the day Christ takes us home; then there is just the new you, standing before the Author of life. Transformed by grace, in the midst of struggle, listen for the promise.
Video citations
- Transformation and Struggle Acts 8:9-25 1-20-19 — Would you open your Bible, please, with May 2 8th chapter of the Book of Acts? You'll recall last week as we moved into the 8th chapter of the Book of Acts. That was a very, very important…