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Dead faith that rises in the true Gospel
preaching and true miracles.
Hook: Suppose you have a one-year-old child
sitting on your lap and suddenly in the window
there is a beautiful bird and you start pointing
with your hand at the bird. and say, "Look, look
at the bird." What does the child look at? He
looks at your hand and the sign you are making
with your fingers. He might even try to imitate
the sign by putting out his index finger.
He sees the sign. He is excited because you
are excited. He joins in imitating the sign as best
he can. But the problem is he never sees the bird.
The whole point of the sign is missed. That is
what happened to Simon the magician here in
Acts 8. He saw the signs that Philip was doing.
They were better than his own magical signs.
He got excited about them. He followed Philip
around and wanted to imitate him. But he never
saw the bird in the window. He never saw the
ugliness of his own sin, the need for repentance,
and the glory of Christ in the gospel who forgives
and makes new and clean.
That’s why we are going to look at 3
warnings from the passage this morning.
1. Simon’s dead or not saving faith
First, there is a "faith," there is a
"believing," that does not save, even though it
rises in the presence of true preaching and true
miracles.
Verse 12 says that Philip was preaching
good news about the kingdom of God and the
name of Jesus Christ. Verse 13b says that Philip
was doing "signs and great miracles." So true
preaching and true miracles were being done in
Samaria by Philip the deacon (Acts 6:5).
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Then we notice that verse 13 says, "Even
Simon himself believed, and after being baptized,
he continued with Philip."
In the first century everyone who believe
were baptised in day one.
But then something happens that shows
His "belief" he had to be false. The apostles come
down and lay hands on the Samaritans so that
they receive the Holy Spirit. Then beginning in
verse 18 here's what happened:
READ verses 18-21
What we learn from this passage is that
Simon wasn’t really converted. He has no part or
share in the ministry. His heart is not right
before God. He is still in sin and not yet
converted. This is confirmed by the entire
tradition of the early church that says Simon
went on to become a heretic and not a true
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Christian (cf. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Jerome,
etc.).
And yet Luke says in verse 13a, "Even
Simon himself believed." The point I draw out of
this is that there is a "faith" or a "believing" that
does not save, even though it rises in the
presence of true preaching and true miracles.
Let us look other similar passages from the NT.
John 2:23-25 read
This "faith" or "believing" was not genuine and
Jesus could see into the heart and knew that it
wasn't.
The same kind of "faith" is seen in the
parable of the four soils. In Luke 8:13 Jesus
describes the second soil like this: "And the ones
on the rock are those who, when they hear the
word, receive it with joy; but these have no root,
they believe for a while and in time of temptation
fall away." The faith is not real saving faith.
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Paul thought the same possibility in
1 Cor. 15:1-2
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to
remind you of the gospel I preached to
you, which you received and on which you have
taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if
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you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
There is such a thing as "believing in vain."
James called it "barren" faith or "dead" faith
(James 2:20, 26).
So I conclude that Luke's point here in Acts
8 is that Simon's "faith"—his "believing"
(described in v. 13)—is not a saving faith but a
false faith, dead, barren, empty. That's the first
step in Luke's warning to us. There is such a faith
and it can rise right in the presence of true
preaching and true miracles.
2. The object of Simon’s faith
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The second step of Luke's warning is that
the object of Simon's faith—the thing in which he
believes—is the power of supernatural
phenomena—the power of miracles that you can
see with the physical eye, not Jesus Christ and
the glory of his grace.
Simon was a sorcerer. That means he dealt
in supernatural power before he ever heard
Philip preach or ever heard of Jesus Christ. He
used his magical arts for a long time in Samaria
(according to Acts 8:9–11), and amazed the
people. He knew real power when he saw it.
So when Philip came to town and not only
preached but performed signs by healing people
and casting out demons (Acts 8:7), Simon knew
the power was real, and that it was stronger than
his power. So he was ready to switch sides. He
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even tried to buy the power with money because
he wanted it so badly (v. 18).
So the object of his faith was the power of
signs and wonders. This is what he believed—he
believed that Philip was a real miracle worker.
There is real power here. He didn't doubt it. He
was not a skeptic. He was ready to leave his own
magical arts to join Philip and use this new
power.
Philip had stretched out the finger of signs
and wonders to point to the glory of Jesus, and
Simon had fixed on the finger. He believed in it.
He wanted to be able to point like that. He would
pay money to point like that. But he never turned
his head to look at the window.
The glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
crucified for sinners, risen in power, reigning
over a humble and holy people was not the object
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of Simon's faith. And therefore it was not true
saving faith. What was it?
Simon's "faith" was simply amazement.
Amazement at Philip's signs, not brokenness for
sin and not humble trust in Jesus as Lord and
Savior.
Look at how Luke makes this plain to us.
He uses the word "amaze" three times. In verse 9
he says that Simon had "amazed" the nation of
Samaria with his magic (sorcery). Then in verse
11 it says again that Simon had "amazed" them a
long time by his magic.
Then in verse 13b, after Philip had shown
the power of God, it says, "And seeing signs and
great miracles performed, he [Simon himself]
was amazed."
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In other words what Simon had been Signs and wonders are the finger pointing
producing in the Samaritans by his sorcery, he to Jesus. True faith comes when we see the glory
was now experiencing in himself when he saw of God in the face of Jesus. We can have all the
Philip's miracles, namely, amazement. spiritual experiences possible by looking at the
And amazement at supernatural power is not finger of power. But until we turn to the Lord
saving faith. Believing that supernatural power is himself, there will be no true faith.
present and being amazed by it so much that you
The final step in Luke's warning is that the
want it so badly is not an experience of true faith.
root of Simon's false faith is a crooked heart.
Aplication:
o What does amaze us in this church?
Is it the healings we get, is when we
3. Simon’s crooked heart read verse 21
see people are falling down etc..
At the root of Simon's false faith was a
o We should be amazed to see what
heart problem. And that is the way it is with
Jesus did for us on the cross…
every one of us. His heart was not straight before
God; it was crooked. His heart needed to be
What was Simon missing?
changed.
Verse 22 points to what was missing. Peter says
He was not a simple one-year-old sitting on
to Simon read the verse
his mother's lap staring innocently at her
pointing finger instead of out the window. He

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was a man with a crooked heart who willfully

suppressed the knowledge of the true God, whose
Spirit cannot be bought. He fixed on Philip's
finger of power because deep down he still
wanted to be a great power broker, just like it
says in verse 9b—he was "saying that he himself
was somebody great."
So there its. Luke's warning to us: there is a
false faith that does not save; its object is the
power of supernatural signs and wonders, not
Jesus and the glory of his grace; its nature or
experience is amazement, not brokenness for sin
and humble trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior; its
root is a crooked and vain heart.
Application:

If you are here for the first time open your heart