Philip & Simon - Acts 8:1-25

7:1-4 - In the time following Stephen’s martyr, “there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.” Remembering that there was an encampment relatively close to Jerusalem where the followers of Christ lived the law of consecration, the persecutors, of which Saul was the main player, “made havoc of the church.” Saul went “into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” It makes it sound like Saul went door to door in Jerusalem, but any of the believers would have left Jerusalem to live with the other believers, so I think that all this is happening in the settlement of Christ’s followers.

In addition to imprisonment, disciples of Christ suffered as “they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria… therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” The IM comments, “because of this persecution, many of the followers of Jesus Christ traveled beyond Judea for safety, where they continued to preach the gospel and accelerate its expansion. A theme throughout the book of Acts is that the work of God will progress despite persecution.”
I’m sure that when the believers grabbed their children and ran as fast as they could out of their settlement and away from their homes to escape persecution, they weren’t thinking “great now we can spread the gospel to everyone.” The concept of Jewish nationalism was still ingrained in these people, and simply moving away from the land that they’ve always known is a big step in moving outside of their known attitude of inferiority towards other people. Not only did they move away from what they knew, they saw other people outside of Judaism to be worthy of receiving the gospel as well.
Despite them probably not planning on using this time of scattering as a missionary tool, God did, and it just goes to show that God can take any event, any resource and use it to further his work. Christ’s followers could have thought “I was told we would be protected if we followed the Savior, but now we are being expelled from our homes for our beliefs” and left the church, that would have been a reasonable reaction. But what we have to consider is that because of this scattering, because Christ allowed his people to suffer and be removed from the land that they knew, the gospel was able to be taken to other people. Foreigners were able to benefit from having the gospel in their lives because it was brought to them by these refugees, who wouldn’t have been there if Christ had stepped in to miraculously save them.
7:5-25 - I got a little bit confused here because Luke talks about “Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” I thought that we were talking about Philip the apostles, because I thought that there was a Philip among the Twelve, but as we move on we see that Philip did not hold the Melchezidek priesthood, which I didn’t understand. But the IM explains, “Philip was one of the seven men chosen to assist the Apostles in caring for the needy.”
In Samaria, Philip cast out “unclean spirits”, healed the lame and “many taken with palsies”, and taught the gospel with great power. The teachings of the gospel in Samaria was well received by the inhabitants and “they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” But there was in Philip’s audience and man named Simon, “which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria.” We know that Samaritans worshipped a mix of Judaism and Paganism, so it would have made sense that they would have looked to a “sorcerer” for spiritual guidance, and this guy Simon could deliver.
With that sorcery came power, influence, respect, and surely money, but to his credit, instead of fighting with Philip or trying to kill him so he can remain the top dog, “Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip.” There is such a stark contrast between the how the Jewish leadership acted towards the preaching of the gospel and how Simon, this Samaritan town’s spiritual leader reacted. On the one hand, those who worshipped the true and living God tried to kill the prophets because they stood in the way of their money and power. But Simon, the witch doctor was able to recognize truth and follow it no matter the consequences.
Philip had baptized many people in Samaria, but because he apparently only held the Aaronic priesthood, he couldn’t bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, so Peter and John came down so “that they might receive the Holy Ghost.” As per protocol, Peter and John took the newly baptized converts and “laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.” This, of course, is right up Simon’s alley and “he offered them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.”
Let’s cut Simon a little slack here. He wouldn’t have had the Mosaic law in it’s true form, the Samaritans didn’t have a temple of doctors of Jewish law or anything like that, so it was really a “fend for yourself” type of situation spiritually in Samaria, I would imagine. But he believed in Christ and that was significant, and he just stuck with what he knew, money. I do want to note here that it is significant that Simon asked for the power to give the Holy Ghost to others instead of asking for the power to perform mighty miracles. If Simon were to be able to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, etc. he would definitely be right back into the situation where he was popular with the people and using the priesthood more for show.
If Simon simply wanted the priesthood so that he could regain his following and status in the community, then he would have asked specifically for the gift to perform miracles, basically the good side of the dark magic that he had been performing previously. But he doesn’t ask for that, he asks for the ability to give the Holy Ghost to others, the Holy Ghost that testifies of Jesus Christ, the teacher of gospel truths, and the builder of testimonies. It seems more to me like Simon wanted to be effective in taking the gospel to others, or perhaps leading his people in the gospel after Philip, Peter, and John left. Simon must have learned that the Holy Ghost is essential to conversion, and wanted it in his tool belt to use in strengthening his new found faith.
Peter, of course, does not sell Simon the priesthood for money and rebukes him, calling him to repentance, “for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.” But again, to Simon’s credit, he asks, “pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.” I don’t think that Simon knew he was wrong when he asked to buy the priesthood; it’s probably what he had always known. But once he was confronted with the truth and (harshly) called to repentance, he fell in line with God’s will. That doesn’t sound like a man who is using the gospel for personal gain, it sounds like he’s a man who had been doing the same thing one way for his whole life and is trying to adapt to his new found beliefs and is just struggling a little bit to do so.