Power, Prejudice, and the Gospel | Holy Disruption

Summary

Podcast Summary: Brew City Church — “Power, Prejudice, and the Gospel | Holy Disruption”

Date: April 26, 2026
Host: Brew City Church

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the Book of Acts (Chapter 8), examining the disruptive movement of the early church as it is forced out of Jerusalem, exploring themes of power, prejudice, and God’s transformative work beyond religious boundaries. The message challenges listeners to honestly confront their own biases and to recognize how the Gospel disrupts comfortable religious orders and reaches those we might least expect.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dangerous and Disruptive Stories in Acts (03:01–09:37)

• The speaker introduces the day’s text as a “dangerous story,” asserting that Acts challenges tidy theological systems and order, disrupting comfortable religious norms.
• “The very scriptures we look to for clarity are going to bring some blurriness. And it seems as if God actually wants it that way.” (07:08, Speaker B)

Notable Insight:

• Religious systems naturally gravitate toward order, yet the early church encounters repeated disruptions as God's Spirit overflows beyond their boundaries.

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2. Jerusalem’s Centrality and the Push to the Margins (08:19–09:37)

• Until Acts 8, the early church’s story has revolved around Jerusalem, the symbolic center of Jewish religious life.
• The movement outward, initiated by persecution and the scattering of believers, marks the beginning of true “Holy Disruption.”
• “Imagine that when the church moves out of the safe, nice buildings ... really exciting and dangerous things start happening.” (08:37, B)

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3. Prejudice and Privilege in the Early Church (10:05–14:33)

• Acts 8:1–8 is discussed, highlighting how persecution targets the Hellenistic (Greek-influenced) Christians rather than the Hebraic apostles, revealing ingrained privilege even in the early church.
• “Privilege existed in the church even in these early moments.” (13:53, B)
• “There’s always a hierarchy in human organizations, unfortunately, including the church.” (14:33, B)
• Lament for Stephen’s death is an act of resistance, rejecting Roman prohibitions on mourning executed criminals (15:37, B).

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4. Gospel Expansion and Messy Theology (16:01–21:28)

• Philip, one of those scattered, preaches in Samaria—beyond the boundaries of Jewish religious purity.
• The Samaritans and Jews had deep-seated animosity, rooted in centuries-old disputes about worship and sacred spaces.
• God brings the Gospel “to people that his people hated.” (21:51, C)
• “God doesn’t wait for our arguments, our religious, theological fights and hatred to dissolve … God is just moving forward into places that we would never expect.” (22:21, B)

Memorable Moment:

• The speaker humorously compares church infighting over doctrine (baptism, communion, eschatology) to children’s squabbles, questioning whether God is exasperated by human obsession with being right.

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5. Power, Signs, and Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–25) (23:00–34:07)

• Philip’s ministry in Samaria exposes a new challenge: Simon Magus, a local sorcerer, believes and is baptized but demonstrates a desire to purchase spiritual power.
• “Just because you believed in these signs and wonders, Jesus ... kind of knew that we're fickle ... maybe believing in the great spectacular things doesn't replace just the good old fashioned way of following the way of Jesus.” (29:38, B)
• The church’s fascination with power and charisma can corrupt—from Simon Magus to modern televangelists, the lure of influence repeatedly distorts the gospel’s heart.

Notable Analogy:

• Simon Magus is compared to infamous televangelists whose love of power, money, and influence damaged the church’s witness and drove people away.

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6. Baptism, the Holy Spirit, and God’s Surprises (35:54–44:02)

• The unique sequence in Samaria—baptized without initially receiving the Spirit—has led to much church debate.
• The speaker dismisses formulaic explanations, suggesting the Spirit's delay teaches the apostles (especially Peter and John) that God is present among those they’d marginalized.
• “The Holy Spirit just delayed a moment to say, there’s something special going on here? … I want Peter and John, I need the Jerusalem church to see what’s happening here.” (44:02, B)

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7. Personal Application and Self-Examination (40:27–46:56)

• Challenge: Even “progressive” Christians, who pride themselves on openness, are not exempt from prejudices.
• “Can we please just look inwardly and say, who is God waiting for, for me to actually say, man, they are loved by God?” (41:13, B)
• Who would shock you if they came forward for communion? Who do you secretly reject or “other” in your heart?

Key Quote:

• “The Gospel is always moving ... Are we going to be that people who are looking inward, who are asking the Holy Spirit, ‘Who are you calling me towards?’” (46:56, B)

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8. Transformation and Prayer (47:43–48:51)

• The closing prayer asks God to shape the church to see others and themselves as God does, to recognize “Simon within ourselves,” and to spot the “Samaritans around us.”
• “I want to be formed and shaped by you Jesus, in such a way that I see the people around me in the way that you do.” (47:54, C)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The very scriptures we look to for clarity are going to bring some blurriness. And it seems as if God actually wants it that way.” — B, (07:08)
• “God doesn’t wait for our arguments ... God is just moving forward into places that we would never expect.” — B, (22:21)
• “Privilege existed in the church even in these early moments.” — B, (13:53)
• “Churches and denominations split and are formed based on these questions … And what I wonder is if God listens to these arguments and he’s like me as a parent and is like, are you kidding me?” — B, (20:31)
• “Maybe believing in the great spectacular things doesn’t replace just the good old fashioned way of following the way of Jesus.” — B, (29:38)
• “Can we please not be hypocritical and think that this message is for everyone else? Can we please ... just look inwardly and say who is God waiting for, for me to actually say, man, they are loved by God?” — B, (41:13)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:01–09:37 — Introduction to the “dangerous texts” in Acts
• 12:27–14:33 — Privilege and hierarchies in the early church
• 17:31–21:28 — Jewish-Samaritan hostility and God’s disregard for human boundaries
• 23:00–34:07 — The story of Simon Magus and the lure of spiritual power
• 35:54–44:02 — Theological intrigue: baptism and the delayed Holy Spirit
• 40:27–46:56 — Self-examination: prejudice, privilege, and the challenge to love
• 47:43–48:51 — Closing prayer and reflection

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Tone & Style Notes

• Warm, self-deprecating, and conversational — The speaker regularly jokes about church life (“It’s not church unless there’s technical difficulties”), acknowledges personal and communal flaws, and encourages honest reflection.
• Challenging yet hopeful — The message pushes listeners beyond comfort and self-righteousness, inviting continual transformation by the Spirit.

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Summary Takeaway

The early church’s journey in Acts is not about retreating into religious comfort but being pushed by God’s Spirit into discomfort, crossing boundaries of prejudice and privilege. Whether through unexpected persecution, surprising conversions, or challenges to power, the Gospel disrupts even the cherished “order” of the faithful. We are invited to examine our own blind spots and to follow the Spirit in radical love toward those we've unconsciously or consciously “othered,” knowing that God’s purposes will not be bound by human divisions.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Brew City Church Podcast. We are a Christian church following in the way of Jesus and located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee. We're glad you've joined us and we hope you enjoy this week's message.

[B]

Good morning. Yeah, it's not church unless there's technical difficulties and things like that. You know what I mean? Just, I would make a joke about God trying to keep us humble and stuff, but we're already pretty humble group, I think. And by humble I mean simple. And I'm just gonna pray and stop getting myself in trouble. Let's pray. God, I'm always grateful for the time today, what I'm grateful for. I'll just tell you guys while I'm telling God, man, I. I love watching us serve communion to one another. Just so fun to be able to experience the Eucharist in a different way, to not only be served communion, but to serve the Eucharist. To be able to. To give this reminder to a neighbor, maybe someone, a family member or friend or someone we don't know at all. To be able to put in their hand a reminder of the life they have, a reminder of the one who loves them, a reminder of their true North Star. So, Jesus, our North Star, the one that we gather here and remember and just have spent a lot of our lives trying to seek after and trying to figure out, trying to clarify, trying to be more like you, Jesus, we just say, here we are again. Would you teach us, Spirit of God? Would you just like we're reading these stories where you incredibly and miraculously and dynamically broke through and led your church into craziness and beauty and life? Would you do that however you want, here, with us, in us and through us? Would you open our ears? Would you open our eyes? Man, it's so easy for us to miss what you're doing and what you're calling us to. Holy Spirit. Spirit. So I don't want to miss what you have for us, God. I don't want to miss where you are and where you're moving and with the. What you're doing. I don't want to miss it. So come and lead us. Thank you, God, for your scriptures and for this time. In Jesus name, amen.

[C]

So as we continue walking through the

[B]

Book of Acts, which is what we're continuing to do this morning, we are stepping into now some dangerous texts. We have come to a moment in the Book of Acts.

[C]

We have come to a transition in

[B]

our study in the Book of Acts.

[C]

And that transition is a couple of things. The first thing is that this is a dangerous moment. And when I say dangerous, I don't

[B]

just mean people's lives might be at stake. But that is the case, as we saw last week in Acts 7 in the first Stephen, the first martyr in the church.

[C]

It's become dangerous to be a Christ

[B]

follower in the book of Acts at this point. But that's not what I'm talking about. We've come in, we're stepping into some dangerous stories for the original church and

[C]

for us religious people. Because when I say these are dangerous stories, I mean these are dangerous stories if we want to keep and contain and kind of maintain our nice, neat religious order. See, we religious people are just like other humans. We like order. We like things that make sense. We like in our religion is no different. Our theology, it needs to make sense. It needs to be ordered. It needs to be understandable.

[B]

And so we've spent much of our

[C]

lives and much of our US religious people, we spent much of our lives and much of our religious, religious lives ordering and classifying and formulizing. I don't even know if that's a word, but making formulas and trying to make sense of this spiritual and religious

[B]

and theological landscape that we've been given. But see, we're about to step into some stories that if they're paying attention, they're going to disrupt that order. We're stepping into stories that if you're

[C]

paying attention and you're actually doing the stories in the text justice, they might

[B]

make you ask some questions about, like, the actual foundation of your theology and spirituality.

[C]

They might make you question things that you thought were, were one you once thought and for a long time thought

[B]

were just givens about how God operates. These stories that we're diving into, and

[C]

I'm going to remind these, are stories in the sacred, the holy text, the scriptures.

[B]

These are stories that if we're actually paying attention, I promise you, they're going to cause us to rethink some things.

[C]

But the problem is, is that way

[B]

too many of us religious people engage in dangerous stories, just like we're about to today. And moving forward, I mean, it's going to be dangerous story after dangerous story after dangerous story to our nice, neat, clean, tidy theologies. And I find that ironic that the

[C]

very source that we point to as religious people of this need and this urge to be formulaic and tidy and neat and understandable and sensible, we look to the Bible as being the source of all this, all of our religious understanding and theology. But the thing that we look to

[B]

for order is actually going to fracture some things for us. That's interesting that this thing that many

[C]

people in our religious tradition think is the. Is the thing that kind of makes everything easy to understand,

[B]

gives us nice categories and boxes to think about God and understand God and it's going to disrupt those things. Isn't that interesting? The very scriptures we look to for clarity are going to bring some blurriness. And it seems as if God actually wants it that way.

[C]

See, these stories were very dangerous and

[B]

very disruptive for the people that we're about to study about and think about

[C]

in the stories that we're going to be that we're diving into this morning and for the next couple of months, probably we're to going in this bridge

[B]

section of the Book of Acts.

[C]

Up until this point, the first seven

[B]

chapters of the Book of Acts, which

[C]

doesn't sound like a lot, but it feels like a lot to me.

[B]

I don't know about you, it feels

[C]

like a fair amount has happened in the Book of Acts and in the early church. So far we've been through some things

[B]

together,

[C]

but the whole story has been centered around this place where you would expect, if you're a good religious person at this time, you would expect the story to be centered in the. What is the name of the city

[B]

that the whole story has been centered in? Jerusalem.

[C]

If you were going to kind of restart a religious order out of Judaism, which is what Christianity is, you would fully expect it to start and live its life in Jerusalem, the holy city, where the temple is, where everything important

[B]

happens in this religious order. Of course it's going to happen in Jerusalem. But this morning we're going to see the beginning of this movement, the church pushing out of Jerusalem. And that's when really crazy and exciting things start to happen. Imagine that when the church moves out of the holy and sacred places. When the church moves out of the safe, nice buildings. When the church moves out of all the places we thought once held and contained God. When the church moves out of those spaces is when really exciting and dangerous things start happening. That's when the movement of Jesus starts actually taking root in the world is when the movement spills out of those places we thought can contained it. Are you with me? This is just a little teaser here,

[C]

but man, this is fun stuff. So we're going to get into Acts 8 in the Dangerous story of the

[B]

Diaspora happening right here.

[C]

If you remember, we had a couple weeks ago we had seven, seven Hellenistic Jewish Christian men appointed to take care of the Hellenistic Jewish, Christian widows. There was some dehumanization happening, some marginalization, some prejudices taking root in the church.

[B]

Go figure, right? That doesn't sound crazy.

[C]

And these men were appointed to kind of wait on tables, it says. But this, this one of the guys who was appointed to wait on tables, turns out he didn't follow those rules very well. His name was Stephen. And Stephen stepped out of that, that task he was given and started preaching the gospel. And he started. He just couldn't contain himself. He was in love with Jesus and he got in trouble for it.

[B]

He got killed for it. And now we're going to see what happens. After Stephen was martyred says this in Acts 8, verse 1.

[C]

On that day, a great persecution broke

[B]

out against the church in Jerusalem. This is one of the.

[C]

We're not going to hear about the church in Jerusalem so much.

[B]

It's going to happen less and less as we move forward.

[C]

On that day, great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. And all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he gathered up off.

[B]

He dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

[C]

When the crowds heard Philip and the signs that saw the signs he had performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out

[B]

with many of many. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. That's interesting. It's always the outcasts and the marginalized, we just pass by. The paralyzed and lame were healed. But that's just a way of saying

[C]

all the people who were outside of

[B]

the doors of the normal insider spaces, all the people who couldn't get themselves

[C]

to the important places, all the people who were kind of seen as dirty and unwanted, the people that you pass

[B]

by on the sidewalk, the gospel was transforming their lives and the movement started there. No one would ever guess that. So there was great joy in that city. Now, let's pause there. We're going to move forward, but I

[C]

just want to think through a few dynamics here that we're encountering in our text. Let's just kind of break down the text. Then we'll go further in the text and we'll break that down a little bit more. The first thing that I want to

[B]

point out to you and just. Let's just quickly go Through a few things.

[C]

It says on that day a great persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. That's interesting. All except the apostles.

[B]

All except the apostles.

[C]

Why not the apostles?

[B]

I want to ask.

[C]

See, when persecution is happening today in the church around the globe. If you hear about persecution happening in China, for instance, or in the global east, many times what happens is the pastors are the ones that are arrested.

[B]

Am I right?

[C]

Like it's a very common thing that the pastors or the church leaders who are up front and doing all doing that, they get arrested. But here the apostles are seemingly untouched.

[B]

They're left alone. They stay in Jerusalem. What's going on here?

[C]

Now most scholars think, many scholars I

[B]

should say think that what's going on here is that this is a clue that the Hebraic.

[C]

All the apostles were Hebraic. They were, they were classic Jewish men

[B]

who are following Jesus.

[C]

So many scholars think that this is a clue that this persecution against the Church was actually not persecution, maybe against the whole church, but against the Hellenistic Christians, the more Gentile Christians, the more

[B]

Greek influenced Christians, in other words. And this word sometimes is a dirty word for some of us in the Church. But I think what the scholars are telling us is that privilege existed in the church even in these early moments. Like I think what this little, little half sentence is telling us. All except the apostles were scattered among Judea and Samaria and were persecuted. All except the apostles. There's always a. There's always a hierarchy in human organizations, unfortunately, including the church.

[C]

And there's some of the danger that

[B]

I was talking about is more real for some and not others. And I think we're just looking at a product of that here. And it's interesting to me, these hierarchies and prejudices and marginalization that happens in our religious systems are just happening here. And it just says it very matter of factly.

[C]

Then it says, godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. In other translations, that verse two says they lamented loudly for Stephen. And the reason that Luke wants to put that in here is that because according to Roman law, if someone was executed, you had to bury them quickly, but you also had to bury them quickly in a kind of a quiet, subdued manner. There was to be, by law, there was to be no grieving for or mourning for the executed because they were executed. You shouldn't care about them. It's kind of a taboo. But Luke goes out of his way to tell Us, they mourned and lamented loudly for Stephen.

[B]

Luke wants us to know he, the disciples did not care about what's legal

[C]

or not legal, legal or illegal, what's approved of by the Romans or not.

[B]

These followers of Jesus lamented loudly for Stephen. And then it goes into the story of Philip. Philip went down to a city.

[C]

Those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in

[B]

Samaria and preached the Messiah there. Now, what's easy to think is that

[C]

Philip was just one or he was the guy in this diaspora who's preaching the gospel wherever he went. But really, Luke's just giving us one little example in Philip of many people who were scattered and preached the word of the gospel wherever they went.

[B]

And now that's interesting to me.

[C]

It makes me wonder. It makes me do this kind of

[B]

ancient Jewish work called Midrash, this idea

[C]

of filling in the gaps in the stories. And it just makes me wonder who else was preaching the gospel and what was that gospel that they were preaching. See, we think all of this is so neat and nice and tidy, but this is a time when they're trying to clarify their theology and what we believe and who Jesus is and was what the spirit of God is doing. I'm wondering who else was preaching the gospel in these places and what were their messages and. And was it neat and nice and tidy? Did they all have the same message or were there some messiness to it?

[B]

See, this is an interesting time in the church where things are happening. And then it says that Philip went down to Samaria, a city in Samaria, and proclaimed the Messiah there. Now we know if we're paying attention

[C]

in the Scriptures, that Jewish people and Samaritans did not like each other. If you just paid attention to the Gospels, you just realize. You go to John 4 and you see this conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and it becomes clear. She says it. The Samaritan woman. You guys think we're trash. You don't like us. There's this huge historic division between Samaritans and Jews. And it goes all the way back to the end of the book of Deuteronomy, all the way back before the Jewish people are even in the promised land. This division starts, and it kind of culminates around the temple. And which temple and which city should we worship in is where this huge division starts, to the point where this division starts with the temple in the middle of it. And it gets so serious that Jewish people won't even step foot on the land of the Samaritans, won't even step foot on it. That is some serious religious fighting, infighting and hatred going on over the temple.

[B]

It reminds me I've only got one son here, so. Finn, I'm not talking about you, okay? Just. It reminds me of when my kids are arguing and bickering about something that makes me want to just punch myself in the face. If you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Where you hear your kids arguing about things that just drive you mad because they are not worth arguing about. But see, arguing and splitting off because of where you think we should worship

[C]

or not, or where the temple should be or not, or we're going to

[B]

build a rival temple to your rival temple.

[C]

I wonder if. See, if God, like we have this

[B]

metaphor of God as father or even God as mother. If God as a parent is listening to these arguments.

[C]

It reminds me of arguments that I grew up with. See, I grew up in the church,

[B]

like many of you. And man, we were obsessed about some divisions between Christians. You know, I'm talking about, like, I

[C]

just ran into someone the other day who was.

[B]

Who is kind of.

[C]

We were talking about infant baptism and believer's baptism.

[B]

Anyone have arguments or debates about that? That coming of age in the church, right? We're convinced that if you baptize your

[C]

babies, you're a heretic, or if you

[B]

don't, you don't take baptism seriously.

[C]

Or even baptism, the nature of baptism. Does baptism save you if you're a good Lutheran person or Catholic? Or does it not?

[B]

I had a huge argument about that

[C]

right within my family. I had a Baptist Baptist mom and a Lutheran dad. And man, I heard about that.

[B]

My whole upbringing.

[C]

Or consubstantiation. Is this really the blood of Jesus and the body of Jesus? Did it transform somehow mystically into the physical body and blood of Jesus or not?

[B]

Churches and denominations split and are formed based on these questions.

[C]

End times, right? Like when I was growing up, when I was in high school, I mean, we would. We would determine how good of a Christian you were by end times eschatology, by what you believed about the end times. Are you pre trib or post trib or amillennial?

[B]

Even though we had no idea what those words meant. Or maybe we had too much of an idea. We were obsessed too much about it.

[C]

And what I wonder is if God

[B]

listens to these arguments and he's like me as a parent and is like, are you kidding me? You think I care that much about infant baptism and believers baptism. Oh, I'm going to make some people mad here. You think I care that much about

[C]

how you see some of these things?

[B]

Would you just stop it? Would you just listen to one another? Would you just love one another? I wonder if God has that.

[C]

But see these two groups of people,

[B]

these Jews and Samaritans, they hated one another. And what we find is that God didn't care. See, this is a story where the story gets dangerous because God is committed to this idea of bringing the gospel to people that his people hated.

[C]

This is where this story gets dangerous, is that God doesn't wait for our arguments and our religious, theological arguments and fights and hatred to dissolve and get over. God doesn't wait for us to be enlightened, to see one another as objects worthy of love. God doesn't wait for us to get over our prejudices. God doesn't wait for us to get over our hatred. God doesn't wait for us, for our. For our viewpoint to be expanded to God's viewpoint.

[B]

God is just moving forward into places that we would never expect God to move. See, God in the Gospel waits for no one. That's what this story is about.

[C]

Even if the apostles, even if the leaders of this movement are stuck in Jerusalem, the gospel will move forward.

[B]

More on that in a little bit. Let's continue this story. We're going to read further. And it gets weirder in a fun kind of way. All right, verse nine.

[C]

Now for some time. So Philip's in Samaria.

[B]

He's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[C]

He's doing these signs and wonders, and people are believing there's great joy in the city. Good times, joy alert.

[B]

Shelley, I'm paying attention even though I'm

[C]

reading my notes now. For now, for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the

[B]

city and amazed all the people of Samaria.

[C]

Sounds weird. It's 2,000 years ago.

[B]

These things happened.

[C]

He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and

[B]

low of position, gave him their attention and exclaimed, this man is rightly called

[C]

the Great power of God.

[B]

Now how about that for a name? The Great power of God.

[C]

They followed this Simon because he had

[B]

amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom

[C]

of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

[B]

That's awesome. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that

[C]

Samaria had accepted the word of God.

[B]

They sent Peter and John to Samaria. Interesting.

[C]

When they arrived, they prayed for the

[B]

new believer there that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

[C]

Because the Holy Spirit had not yet

[B]

come upon any of them.

[C]

They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

[B]

That's really interesting.

[C]

Then Peter and John placed their hands

[B]

on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

[C]

When Simon saw that that the Spirit

[B]

was given at the laying on of

[C]

the apostles hands, he's offered them money and said, hey, give me this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter answered, may your money perish with you. Because you thought you could buy the

[B]

gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Then Simon answered, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you said may happen to me. And after they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

[C]

Okay, couple of things I want to

[B]

touch on here in this story. And the first is this gentleman that we get introduced to and this is

[C]

the last we'll hear of him. Just that story that I just read to you, it's the first and last you'll ever hear of Simon. This Simon the sorcerer, or in church history he's known as Simon Magus.

[B]

So if in church history he's known as Simon Magus, that's what I'm going to call him, Simon Magus.

[C]

This is an interesting person and an interesting story.

[B]

Who is Simon?

[C]

It seems like Simon is kind of Luke portrays him. Remember these are really, really Jewish people who are seeing this and interacting with the story and it's their Jewish imaginations. And it seems as if Simon Magus is kind of a parallel to the Egyptian magicians in Book of Exodus, right? Where these, these people, these men, these normal guys have this power, this kind of supernatural or spiritual or magic power. But even those magic powers and sorcery that they have, it kind of comes in second place to the God of all creation and they recognize it.

[B]

Simon hears the Gospel and as this

[C]

man who's predisposed to love power, to seek after power. Simon is this man who is called by the people around him the great Power of God.

[B]

And when he meets Jesus, it says that he believed and was baptized.

[C]

Now, in the Christian world that I

[B]

grew up in, if you believed and were baptized, you were good to go.

[C]

Locked and loaded, right? Like that's the formula. What do I need, dude? What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

[B]

Believe and be baptized. It's in the scriptures over and over again. That's why we believe it. Believe and be baptized and you'll be saved, apparently, unless you're Simon Magus, because it didn't seem to do the trick for Simon. Peter has some really harsh words for him. Now, something about that, this whole believe and be baptized thing that's confusing because we've been given the scriptural formula of believe and be baptized. That's how you have eternal life. I want to say I don't think God's as big on religious formulas as we are.

[C]

We love and it's an understandable drive and impulse to turn these things into formulas. Say, tell me how to get from

[B]

A to Z and fill it in for me.

[C]

But see, even Jesus. And now you might be saying, wait, believe and be baptized. That sure seems like everything that a

[B]

person has to do to get to be saved. Even Jesus.

[C]

Let's go in Conrad, in John 1 or John 2, this is right before John 3, this magnificent, incredible verse that we're going to be quoting forever. It says now, while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to

[B]

them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in. He knew each person.

[C]

See, what is happening there seems to be similar to what's happening here.

[B]

And that's Jesus was skeptical of this faith that was born just because of the signs and wonders he was doing. It seems similar to me, to this parable of the weeds and the sower that Jesus.

[C]

There's a number of parables that Jesus spoke to that speaks to this dynamic,

[B]

which is, I think some of us

[C]

in particular, if we grew up in

[B]

charismatic traditions that were signs and wonders,

[C]

we're kind of this stamp of approval

[B]

of the presence of God in your life. I think we need to be careful because it says here that just because you believed in these signs and wonders, Jesus really didn't kind of knew that we're fickle and maybe that isn't. Maybe believing in the great spectacular things doesn't replace just the good old fashioned way of following the way of Jesus. I mean, I've got friends who, and it breaks my heart, who've walked away from the faith because they didn't see the signs and wonders happening for them that happened for other people. That's confusing. That's rough. I mean, they're like, maybe.

[C]

I bet you any money some of us grew up in a tradition like that or saw these amazing miraculous things happening to other people.

[B]

And we were like, why not me? Have you ever had that thought?

[C]

Like, what's so special about them? I, as a church leader have had this thought, what's so special about that church? That that church gets to have all the dramatic conversions, or that church gets to have all the miracles happen? Or that church has all the prophetic words happening in it? Or that church, you know what I'm talking about.

[B]

See, people have been attracted to power for way longer than we've been alive. And I don't think anything replaces just good old fashioned committing ourselves to the way of Jesus. It's the only way that I know that's kind of foolproof, both in the scriptures and in real life experience. Are you with me?

[C]

And now

[B]

as we think about Simon,

[C]

what we find, what scholars tell us, is that Simon developed a really, really

[B]

bad reputation in the early church.

[C]

As a matter of fact, in post apostolic writing, Simon Magus, who we encounter here. And again, I want to remind you, this is the only place in scripture we find Simon but post apocalyptic leaders of the church. And whenever apostolic, I mean, in the first several centuries of the church, whenever there's writing about Simon, he is seen as the father of all Gnosticism. In other words, Simon Magus Here in Acts 8 is seen as this huge betrayer of the faith. Now, some scholars today think that there

[B]

was probably some bias built in there from the early church fathers. And this reputation may or may not have been one in legitimate ways.

[C]

But see, Simon reminds me.

[B]

I feel like I see Simon Magus all around me in the church today.

[C]

As a matter of fact, Simon, as

[B]

I have been studying this passage and sitting with it and letting it live

[C]

inside of me, I feel like Simon

[B]

reminds me of some characters that I grew up with on my television. And by that I mean, again, I've been a Christian for longer than I can remember.

[C]

And is anyone old enough to remember

[B]

guys by the name of like Jimmy Swigert or Jim Baker? Right.

[C]

I can go on down the list,

[B]

but I don't want to name names that might offend somebody.

[C]

But these guys were called televangelists for

[B]

friends who are too young to remember to live through that.

[C]

And televangelists. I'm convinced that some of these guys, hopefully all these guys, were genuine followers of Jesus.

[B]

That might be startling because I don't like people who are hypocritical, judgmental and money chasing and power hungry people like televangelists.

[C]

But I think that most, if not all these guys started out with maybe even good intentions, loved Jesus from the beginning. But I'm guessing that they loved power, I'm guessing that they loved money and wealth. I'm guessing that they loved popularity and influence more than the gospel. Or they brought that love of power and they brought that love of money, they brought that love of influence, they brought that love of popularity to the gospel with them. And they turned into televangelists who, who turned off millions of people, like millions of people followed them. But now how many millions of people in their wake have left Christianity because

[B]

of their love of power and their love of influence and their love of popularity and their love of wealth?

[C]

And that's what I'm trying to say,

[B]

friends, is that what we see in Simon is nothing. It didn't end and die with Simon.

[C]

As a matter of fact, it's easy to take texts like this and even point them our fingers at people like

[B]

televangelists and the big slick leaders.

[C]

But I want to tell you, this kind of thinking and love of power and money and popularity and influence, it is alive and well in the church today. Many church leaders have this same kind of disposition and understanding of what leading a church should look like in it. I think it's this dynamic that explains why we see an overwhelming amount of people who say I follow Jesus, support corrupt political leaders, corrupted political and religious leaders. Because we love power.

[B]

Not them, just only we. We love power. We love people who give us power. We love wealth, money, and what it does and what it gives us, the doors that it opens. We love popularity and influence. We'll do anything for it. In many ways. Maybe we need to stop being surprised when we see majorities of the church supporting things and people that we're really uncomfortable with. See, because it's been happening forever. So we have that weird thing with Simon Magus. And then we have something even weirder. Oh man. About baptism in the Holy Spirit. Let's just.

[C]

Verse 14. It says, when the apostles arrived in

[B]

Jerusalem and heard that Samaria.

[C]

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,

[B]

they sent Peter and John to Samaria. I wonder why.

[C]

And when they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they may

[B]

receive the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. They had simply been baptized and in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

[C]

Now, that's weird. In this little section here has been the source of tons of debate within the church, and it's been the source of all sorts of weird and bad theology because of this one section. There's whole sections of the church even today that think you need. There's kind of two baptisms, right?

[B]

You need.

[C]

I remember when I think I've told

[B]

this story here before.

[C]

I remember being in Mayfair Mall years

[B]

ago as a person who was like,

[C]

in ministry, following Jesus, loved Jesus. And I had a couple of guys who were probably from some local charismatic

[B]

Bible school who came up and had.

[C]

I was their project, right? And they came up to me as I was looking in the. In Barnes and Noble and they said, hey, have you ever been baptized by the Holy Spirit?

[B]

And I was like, dang, bro, like,

[C]

that's how you start a conversation, huh? Nice icebreaker. Maybe you should make that as our meet and greet some Sunday morning. Have you ever been baptized by the Holy Spirit? I still remember that conversation to this day because they were of the belief

[B]

that even though I was baptized, I was not actually baptized into and by the Holy Spirit. And then praying in tongues would be evidence of that. This section here is where that begins.

[C]

And so the question for theologians, since this was written down, was, what's going on here? Why didn't the Holy Spirit, like, immerse these people in the Spirit of God's presence? Why did it have to wait for the apostles to come and lay hands on them and bless them in the name of the Holy Spirit? What's going on here? Some questions. One would be, is it just kind of this apostolic kind of power that only the apostles can impart the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?

[B]

Is that it? Because when Peter and John.

[C]

It didn't. Until Peter and John kind of did that, it didn't happen.

[B]

Well, it can't be because we don't see that anywhere else in the New Testament happening. So it can't be that it just

[C]

needs apostolic approval or the Spirit of God is given.

[B]

When the important people lay their hands on you and pray for you, it

[C]

can't be that, because we see that happening all over the scriptures. Then the next question is, maybe Philip, because remember, Philip was just designed, supposed to just wait on tables. He wasn't supposed to be one of the apostles preaching the Gospel. Maybe he made a mistake when he was baptizing these Samaritans and just baptized them in the name of Jesus, not in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, because boosh, then you would

[B]

get the Holy Spirit unlocked, right? People have thought that, but it can't

[C]

actually be that he was baptized in the wrong name or that he was baptizing in Jesus name. And it didn't happen because if you go to Acts 2:38 Conrad in Pentecost, in Peter's message, after the Spirit of God descends on all people, it says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit right there. And there's precedence all over the Book of Acts and in the New Testament of people being baptized in the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes

[B]

upon them and kills them and does

[C]

what the Spirit of God does.

[B]

So that can't be it either. What's happening here? What's happening here? Two things that I want to end. I'm going to save what I think is happening here for like three minutes from now. And I want to just kind of take away perhaps two things from this story as we're finishing up our time here. Two things that I've been marinating in and thinking about and been challenged by in this text. And the first thing is that. And I said this when we're talking about the Samaritans and the Gospel coming to the Samaritans. And I said this, this thing that God won't wait. And I just want to sit with that idea for a moment. See, because all of us religious people have people that we just inherently think are less than.

[C]

We're pretty.

[B]

I would say now here's where, like, real lack of humility alerts, like, here comes some pride in our church.

[C]

I think we're pretty solid as far

[B]

as, like, loving people who a lot

[C]

of the church doesn't love. Like, I think we do a above average job at it.

[B]

Can I just.

[C]

Can I say that? Like, I think we do probably a below average job at a number of other things, but I think we're really good, above average for churches like ours or churches in America at loving people

[B]

that our people don't really love very well. And that's a challenge for a text like this because people like us, that means, think that we get to kind

[C]

of let this message go right over

[B]

our heads and we get to Point at everybody else in the church, right?

[C]

And man, that's great, but they're not

[B]

here listening right now. We're here together. And I just want to say were not exempt. Like just because we're these enlightened progressive Christians who have had this illumination that God loves more people than we were told doesn't mean that we don't have our own prejudices. It doesn't mean that we don't have people who we think the gospel is going to be really tough to get through all that garbage in there lives. Do you know what I'm talking about? This is just a couple of weeks ago I was talking about this impulse that we have to dehumanize one another and how we see this in the scripture. So I just want to just let this land with you. Friends, let us not feel like we are exempt from lessons like this because we are in this like enlightened state as Christians. Can we please not be hypocritical and think that this message is for everyone else. Can we please, can we please just look inwardly and say who is God? Who is God waiting for? For me to actually say, man, they are loved by God. Like who would be the startling one to walk up and take the body and blood of Christ in this place? Who would be the one that you see this person come up and take communion and you think, I sure as heck hope the leadership doesn't let them take communion today. Is there anyone like that? Is there anyone you fantasize about owning? Like, I would love to tell this person what Jesus is really like because they don't get it. Where does that come up for you? See, because God doesn't wait for our prejudices, in our hatred, in our bitterness, in our sanctified prejudices. God doesn't wait for us. God, just the gospel and the Spirit of God keeps moving and asks us to follow. That's what happens and that's what this story is telling me is that God loves the Samaritans, who the Jewish people love to hate so much. God doesn't wait for the disciples. God just goes and the disciples might catch up. And I think that might help us with understanding this question about what's the deal with the baptism in the Holy

[C]

Spirit and why doesn't this work?

[B]

See, it made me wonder. And then as I kept reading, there

[C]

were scholars who were saying, yeah, that

[B]

makes us wonder this too actually.

[C]

What about this? What if the Holy Spirit didn't show

[B]

up in the baptism in the way they expected it to? Because the Holy Spirit had something to teach Peter and John first.

[C]

What if the Holy Spirit just delayed

[B]

a moment to say, there's something special going on here? And I need Peter and John, I need the Jerusalem church to see what's happening here. So they send Peter and John, and

[C]

Peter and John probably maybe are thinking,

[B]

well, duh, the Holy Spirit didn't anoint

[C]

these folks, these Samaritans, because the Holy Spirit doesn't do that.

[B]

What if the Holy Spirit, what if God in this story is actually waiting for Peter and John?

[C]

See, John has this history with the Samaritans, and Luke wrote it.

[B]

If we could.

[C]

Conrad, can you go Back to Luke 9? In Luke 9, there's this story. I'm not going to give you the background, but there's Jesus is ministering in and among Samaritans. And it says he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome

[B]

Jesus because he was.

[C]

Did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples, James and John, same guy, saw this, they asked, lord, do you want us to call down fire

[B]

from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them.

[C]

This is the way John and the disciples saw the Samaritans is they rejected Jesus. And they're like, oh, here, Jesus, don't worry about it.

[B]

I got it. I'll pray for God, for the Father to actually send down firebolts to destroy

[C]

them, to burn them alive. This was John's perspective on the Samaritans is when they rejected Jesus, it's time for them to burn to a crisp.

[B]

And maybe this is the spirit of God saying, I want you to see something. I want you to see that those people who you thought God was going was so incensed with and hated so deeply that you thought God wanted to send down bolts of lightning and fire on them. I want you to see the Holy Spirit filling them and inhabiting them and seeing the gospel take root and come alive in them.

[C]

I want to teach the church, I want to teach the leadership something about where this gospel is going. And that means that it has no walls and no boundaries. See the Holy Spirit. This dangerous presence of the Holy Spirit, this disruptive presence of the Holy Spirit doesn't respect our boundaries and our walls and our divisions and dividers that we put up. The Spirit of God in the Book of Acts is going to continue pushing us further and. And further towards the people we love to hate.

[B]

So, friends, are we going to let this message of the Gospel in the uncompromising nature of the Holy Spirit to go. That doesn't wait for us, doesn't wait for our prejudices and our hatred and our othering that the gospel is always moving. Are we going to be that people who are looking inward, who are asking the Holy Spirit, who are you calling me towards? Where are you inviting me, Spirit of God? How does that look? This story in the Book of Acts is going to get juicy and dangerous. Let's stand up if you're able, and just end our time in prayer. And a closing song here. God, I'm

[C]

I love diving into these

[B]

stories and seeing them from different angles and different shapes and seeing.

[C]

And trying to get into this world and inhabit it and see what you're

[B]

doing in our world.

[C]

I want to be formed and shaped by you Jesus, in such a way that I see the people around me in the way that you do. I want to be formed and shaped by you Jesus, in such a way that I see myself in accurate, in real ways. I want to be formed and shaped by you Jesus, that I interact with the world around me in a different way.

[B]

And I sense you wanting to do that to transform us and to reshape us and to reorient our vision in and through the Book of Acts. And so would you continue to do that, not just on Sunday mornings, but

[C]

would you continue to form and shape and transform us through these stories and as we live our lives, would you help us see them happening around us? Would you help us see Simon within ourselves? Would you help us to see Peter and John within ourselves? Would you help us to see the Samaritans around us?

[B]

Thank you God for these stories. Would you form and shape us in Jesus name? Amen.

[A]

Thank you again for being with us. We would love to have you join us if you are ever in the Milwaukee area and and we hope you have a healthy place to gather wherever you are from.