The Sorcerer & The Servant

Acts chapter 8, as we continue our study in the book of Acts, called to be witnesses we are, and that's our overall theme for the study of the book of Acts. And in this particular section we're looking at hearts, how appropriate. This is Valentine's Day weekend and we've been looking at four different hearts. There was a man named John Blanchard who stood up from the bench, straightened his army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station.

He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he did not. The girl with the rose. His interest had begun 13 months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf, he found himself intrigued, not so much with the contents of the book as much as the notes that were penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and an insightful mind.

In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, a Miss Hollis Maynell, and with time and effort, he located her address. She lived in New York City, and he wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month, the two grew to know each other through the mail.

Each letter was like a seed falling on fertile ground, on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting, 7 p.m., Grand Central Station, New York City.

You'll recognize me, she wrote, by the rose that I'll be wearing in my lapel. So at 7 p.m., he was in the station, looking for the girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen. I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened. He said, a young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears.

Her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit, she was like a springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.

The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away, and I felt as though I was split in two. So keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible. Her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate.

My fingers gripped the small, worn, blue-leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her.

I don't know what this is about, son, she answered, but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. She said if you were to ask me out to dinner that I should go and tell you that she's waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of a test. He goes on to write, the true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.

Hussein writes, tell me whom you love, and I will tell you who you are. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. So let me ask you this morning, how do you tend to respond to the unattractive? Unattractive people and unattractive circumstances. You see, Satan seeks to tempt us with the attractive things, with what seems to be appealing

to the eye. But God most often tests our hearts by the unattractive things. Jesus was not born in a palace. He was born in a barn, in a stable, to questionable parents. Young teenage girl who had become pregnant while she was still espoused, not married, to a man who was old enough to be her father. Isaiah tells us that Jesus was not comely or desirable. He wasn't handsome so that you desire him by his appearances.

He was not attractive, but he was really unattractive. He would not have been drawing. His features would not have been physically alluring. When God gave Moses the blueprints for the tabernacle, it was the inside of the tabernacle that was appealing. When you read in Exodus and Leviticus about the construction of the tabernacle and the

The rings that held the rods that supported the curtains would have been made of silver and their settings that the stabilizing rods sat in were made of brass. The candelabra was of pure hammered gold. The table of showbread was acacia wood overlaid with gold and gold filigree around the edges of the table. It would have been gorgeous inside and yet outside we read that it was covered over with what the Bible, and it depends on your translation, says are badger skins.

Some of your Bibles as you read that it will say porpoise skins. The authors really don't know, the scholars really don't know what type of skins but they were unattractive skins. So from the outside it was not appealing, it was not until one was inside the tabernacle that they beheld the beauty and the wonder and the awe of the majesty of the interior. We learn later that the tabernacle was a type of Christ, it was a picture of Jesus, not

to draw you to focus your heart upon the Lord, to draw you to be obedient to His Word. In these particular situations not to listen to your heart or your flesh but to respond in obedience to what you know God's Word would have you do. Always God's Spirit is drawing and it's usually through unattractive circumstances and that's why there's such a struggle because Satan uses the physically alluring. And we can be drawn off so easily because this is attractive, it's beautiful, it seems so right, it feels so good and that's usually the temptation that leads us astray and leads us into sin and often into consequences that can lead to death.

But God's Spirit is drawing and Saul resisted that Spirit and by ignoring God's Word and resisting God's Spirit he ended up destroying the lives of many, many individuals. Then we began looking at Philip last time, last Sunday and we saw that in Philip's case his life of normalcy had also been overturned. He was a Hellenistic Jew. He was one of the seven chosen to minister to the Hellenistic widows, Hellenistic Jewish widows.

So chances are he wasn't from there and after Pentecost he had no home probably to go to, disowned by family. He stayed there in Jerusalem but several years have passed and he's made his home there. He has become accustomed to life there even as radical as it was. People taking others in, the fellowships from house to house as well as the prayer times at the temple, ministering to the needs of one another.

Although it was radical it had become normal, it had become his regular lifestyle. And now with Saul's threatenings Philip's normalcy is overturned and his life is thrown into chaos.

Even beyond the attractive, even beyond the beauty and that's what Philip had come to understand. That's what Philip had come to love was that precious heart of God and he knew God was in control. He followed God's Spirit wherever God would lead. He affirmed God's control and thirdly, he proclaimed God's Word. He held to the Word. He preached the Word, it said back in verses 4 and 5.

Proclaiming God's Word, that was paramount in Philip's life. That was a key to him. Phil had simply used it to get him where he wanted to go, but Philip trusted it. And although the circumstances, as we mentioned, were unattractive, Philip's heart was drawn to the Lord's heart. Philip's heart wanted what God's heart wanted in spite of what the circumstances seemed

to say, just like Lieutenant Blanchard in the story at the beginning of the study. Now today we look at the third heart. We begin looking at this third heart, the heart of Simon, the sorcerer.

Well, the word for sorcery in the Greek that's used here in NIV is the word Magos, M-A-G-O-S. In Strong's it renders it as an oriental scientist or an eastern magician or a wise man. Thayer's Lexicon expands that and says probably Babylonian in origin, the name given to the wise men and teachers and priests and physicians and astrologers and seers and interpreters of dreams, soothsayers and sorcerers, the Magos or the Magion, the group of them. You've heard the word before, the word Magi, really Magi, but the Magi we see in Matthew's Gospel is the name given to the wise men who come after seeing this remarkable star and

They were taught the ways and all the backgrounds in medicine and language and in astrology and all. Daniel, you remember, is taken and brought before Nebuchadnezzar and seeks to... or Nebuchadnezzar tells him that he's had a dream and none of his men can interpret it.

he knew their superstitions and their practices, and he now had an opportunity, God had raised him up with the opportunity now to school them in the Torah, in the prophecies of God, the God of gods and the Lord of kings, as Nebuchadnezzar had declared him. So they were well versed in the prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah. Now this is centuries before Jesus is born, but evidently that schooling carried on down

you unto himself, how much his Spirit longs to bring you into that communion with him, that one-heart type of communion, like in that love story at the beginning of the study. That's what God desires for you. Back to Acts chapter 8. So Simon is part of the Magion. He's part of this group of instructed wise men who, though he knows about the things

I want people to like me and to respect me and to think that I'm okay. That's the heart of the world today. And if we were honest with ourselves, we wrestle with that every day in our own lives. We want those same things. We want control. I want to feel like I'm in control. I hate it when I feel like I'm out of control. I want power. I want prestige. I want people to like me.

I want respect from others. Simon had that kind of a heart.

They kept that one camera on it and they put this screen down and brought the screen up and it was gone. And even walked around back there. And I'm sitting there the whole time going, I know it's really there, but it's not there. And I was amazed. I mean, I was just really beside myself with the, how did He do that? And that's, that's what that word means. He amazed all the people of Samaria by what He did.

And that was His desire. That's what He wanted to do.

that it was you, you know, rather than just doing something to bless her, you want her to be sure and realize it was you and not one of the kids. You did it. And so we do things to get noticed so that people will take notice. Maybe you notice, I've visited other churches before and you go in and you walk in and you sit down and you're sitting there in the pew and right there in front of you on the pew is a little brass plate that says, this pew is donated in memory of.

You take the hymnal and open it up and on the inside cover it says, this hymnal was donated in memory of. You walk down, I like to walk down and look at all the instruments when they have instruments and there's a plaque on a piano and a plaque on the organ, you know, this is donated in memory of, you know. Somebody wanted to make sure that when you went to look at that, you realized that they're the ones that donated this. That's Simon's heart and that can be the heart of all of us at times if we don't watch it.

There are a group that take care of things around here that you don't even know. You're not even aware of. They come and clean and they do things to be done and they do it at times because they don't want people to notice. They just do it because it's something that needs to be done and they've seen the need and they move to meet it and that's exciting. That's a servant's heart.

That's how the Lord wants us to move. That's how the Lord wants us to deal with each other and leave the recognition to him. But it's a struggle, even knowing that it's a struggle because we have our flesh and Satan controls with the attractive and you see the attractive situations happen to others and why aren't they noticing me and it's easy to feel like you're not in control and forget that God is and seek to move like Simon's heart to have people notice him and you begin to do things with that kind of a motive to get noticed, to get recognized. In the middle of verse 9 it says, he himself boasted that he was someone great.

He boasted that he was someone great. Now again, I'm sure you don't do that with other people. You don't stretch things and maybe when you're talking to somebody that you really would like to think you're cool, like you guys when you were dating and you wanted the girl to think you were all right, you know, and you'd, yeah, yeah, I've done this or that and you've never done it. You've never, you've seen it on TV maybe, but you've never done it.

I did that. I was a fool.

But I know you guys don't do anything like that. Make stuff up, stretch it to impress others. How do you fill out your resume? No, I was involved with this or that and really, you know, what you did was you took the trash out from that room in the classroom in the school and dumped it. He himself boasted that he was someone great. When you're in a conversation with others, are you quick to want them to know about you?

You know, somebody says something and, well, I think, you know, and they go off talking and, well, no, what I think is, and you know, you just, you want people to know your opinions, to know about you, rather than really showing a concern for them. We've mentioned this before about if you really want to get to know someone, just ask them questions about themselves. We're quick to want to talk about ourselves.

I found this really easy to meet people. This is not part of the thing. It's easy to meet people because all you have to do is ask them about themselves. Hi, you know, what's your name? Where are you from? Are you from here? Have you lived here long? Were you born here? Where did you move from? Are you married? Do you have kids? How old are your kids? What does your wife do?

What do you do? You can ask them all kinds of questions and you can talk for half an hour and they just talk and talk because they love to, you know, this guy likes me, you know, and they'll leave and they don't know anything about you, but they'll go home and tell their wife, I've got a real good friend, you know, I met this guy. I don't really know what his name is, but I feel like I've known him forever, you know. Because people like to talk and it's real easy for us to want to dominate conversations, to tell others about us instead of providing an ear, an opportunity to listen and see how

And it says, and all of the people, both high and low, gave him their attention. All the people, both high and low, gave him their attention. That's what he wanted. He wanted to be noticed. He wanted to be somebody in the eyes of somebody else. And he would do whatever he thought was necessary to be recognized, to be well known. Hold your finger here in Acts and go back to 1 Samuel, chapter 18.

We've been in Samuel on Wednesday nights at our home fellowship and looking at the lives of Saul and David. 1 Samuel, way back. Samuel, anointed David King, and they wrote about it in the Chronicle, the morning paper there in Israel. So you've got Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. 1 Samuel, chapter 18. In this section, Saul is really unnerved by David. And the reason he is, you can look at verse 12 and in chapter 18, Saul was afraid of David

because the Lord was with him, but the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul. So Saul could see in David's life that the Spirit of God was with David and it unnerved him. And just a few verses back up, you can see, well, as a matter of fact, verse 11, David was sitting there playing his harp for Saul and Saul tried to chuck his spear at him twice. We brought that up Wednesday night.

He not only chucked it at him once, but he threw it twice, which indicates that after the first time he threw it at him, David was still sitting there. Now, if I'd have been sitting there and he'd have chucked his spear, there would have been no twice. I'd have been out of there. But David was sitting there. Why? Because that's what he was called to do. You go back a couple of chapters and you see that they came and spoke to him and hired

him, literally, to come and play his harp because there was an evil spirit that would come upon Saul. And when David would come and play, his music would drive the spirit away. And they hired him to come and do that. And that's what he was called to do. He was serving the king. And although he knew he was anointed to be king next, he wasn't going to push Saul out

of the way. He wasn't going to say, now listen, since you're chucking spears, don't you think you're a little over the edge and it's time to retire? He stayed there and he served. And he continued to serve even after management was hostile. And he continued to, it says, down in verse 14, it says, and everything he did, David did it with great success, it says in NIV.

And some of your translations, it'll say he did with wisdom or great wisdom, or he was very wise because the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw how successful or how wise he was, he was afraid of David. But all Israel and Judah loved David because he led them in their campaigns. Now, remember, David didn't seek to be a soldier.

Now, in the next few verses, you see where Saul's seeking to trick him. He wants to give him one of his daughters to be his wife so that he could hopefully snare him. And he offers that to David. But David says to Saul in verse 18, who am I? And what is my family or my father's clan in Israel that I should become the king's son-in-law? It's a place of honor.

It's a place of privilege. I don't just receive that. I mean, I'm nothing. Who am I?

Saul's wanting to kill him. David's just wanting to serve. He's just wanting to be obedient. Now, notice this. They come and tell David once they find out that Michael's attracted to him, and Saul wants him to have Michael. Verse 23, they came and said these words to David. But David said, do you think it's a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man, and notice this, and little known.

I'm not well known. I don't have all the prestige. I don't have all the honor. People don't look at me. I just do my job. It goes on. He tells David, well, this is what you can do. If you want to be honored, just go out and get 100 Philistine foreskins. You know, it's all in a day's work for a soldier, so. He goes out and gets 200 and brings them back, and Saul says, okay, here's Michael.

And it says, though, that verse 28, when Saul realized that the Lord was with David and his daughter Michael loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. And the Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success. He didn't get himself killed because he knew who he served. He was serving the Lord, and he was serving Saul as unto the Lord.

And then notice the last part of that last verse, and his name became well known. I just said back here in verse 18, I'm not anybody. Why are you seeking to esteem me? I'm not anybody. And all he did was serve. He didn't seek position. He didn't seek the higher ranks. He didn't seek to be in charge of Saul's armies. He just served the Lord faithfully by serving his boss as unto the Lord.

And God raised him up, and God gave him position, and God gave him power, and God gave him authority, gave him oversight of all of these areas. God caused him to be well known. That's how God wants us to be. David faced a whole lot of unattractive circumstances, spear-chuckers, conspiracy to wed, but he was faithful. His heart was faithful in the midst of these unattractive circumstances, and God raised him up.

Quickly, verse 10, the last half of verse 10, And the people exclaimed, This man is the divine power known as the great power. This man is the divine power known as the great power.

He will be extremely attractive. People will be drawn to him, very charismatic, very drawing, very alluring, does all of this stuff. He's going to be just like Simon the sorcerer. Now, there are people today who act like this, who do this. Watch out for them. Be aware when you see things like this and people moving in that way to draw attention to them. Just let the bells go off because that is the spirit of Antichrist.

That doesn't mean they're the Antichrist, but John talks about the spirit of Antichrist in 1 John 2. It's a self-centered, self-seeking person who loves the world and the flesh and the devil. Watch yourself, too, that you don't allow yourself to be swayed that way and that you aren't drawn that way to seek to please people in that way. Finally, verse 11, it says, They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.

Listen, people are drawn to power. People are drawn to position and prestige. It's a natural response of our flesh. We're drawn to that. So, when God raises you to a position of authority, a position of power, in your job, in a ministry, wherever, and you have a position and you have power and authority, beware. There's a lot of responsibility that goes with that, not just to your employer.

There's a lot of spiritual responsibility that goes with that because people are drawn to that. And people will come to you and appeal to you, not because you're a great person, not because they think you have a wonderful personality, but because you have power and position and prestige.

It's alluring. It spells security. They don't necessarily see that in their own eyes. That's the way they respond. That's the way the flesh responds. So be aware of that. People will use that to manipulate other people. And you, if you're in that position, will be drawn into that as well. And it'll be real easy to want to do things to make people think you're pretty good

rather than to do what's right, do what God's called you to do. Well, now, does Simon get saved? I mean, it says he believed and was baptized. And what about the baptism of the Holy Spirit here? How come they hadn't received the Holy Spirit yet, like it says? And what's Peter mean in his rebuke down here in verse 23 or 22, where he tells Simon to repent of this?

What does that mean? Well, we'll have to go over that next week. Just remember that the nature of the heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. Let's stand together.