{"id":14115,"date":"2025-06-29T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=14115"},"modified":"2025-06-29T23:05:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:05:34","slug":"impressive-magic-or-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2025\/06\/29\/impressive-magic-or-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressive Magic or Message?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 8:9-13 9<\/sup>But a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was someone great, 10<\/sup>everyone from small to great paid attention to him, saying, \u201cThis man is the power of God that is called Great.\u201d 11<\/sup>And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with magic. 12<\/sup>But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13<\/sup>And even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he became devoted to Philip; seeing both signs and great miracles done, he was amazed.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Philip experienced great success in sharing the gospel with the Samaritans. The next story explores the topic of motives when coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Verses 9-11 introduce Simon the magician, who lived in the same Samaritan city where Philip went to preach. Simon was an astonishing person who had amazed people with his abilities with magic.\u00a0<\/em>His type of magic was trickery that fooled people into thinking that he had the power of God with him. He developed a reputation that led people to call him “The Great One.” Modern magicians have also claimed similar titles, though not claiming to be “God touched.” Magicians of all times have been able to do their tricks quite convincingly and in ways that cannot be explained. Simon impressed the lowest to the highest in the city for a long time. Lots of people knew of him and may have seen his latest show. Everything said about Simon in these verses indicates someone self-centered and self-assured.<\/p>\n

When Simon came to town, people’s attention shifted from Simon to Philip. Verse 12 shows that Philip had something much greater that people needed than mere entertainment. He had the words of eternal life. The main topic of Jesus’ preaching was the kingdom of God<\/em>. The phrase is not mentioned much outside the Gospels, and only eight times in Acts (1:3, 6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 28:23, 31). The topic must have been of particular interest to the Samaritans since it is mentioned in this passage. That Luke mentions it here could also reflect on Simon’s problem of control and sovereignty. Was his willing to submit fully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n

Luke notes in verse 13 that Simon did believe and was baptized. The gospel is such\u00a0good news<\/em> that any honest person can believe it. He was also impressed with Philip’s miracles. However, Simon had the problem of shallow faith and commitment, as the story goes on to describe. As noted by Justine Martyr, a Gnostic heresy developed in the second century that traced its roots back to Simon the Sorcerer (Justin, I Apology<\/i> 26:3). There is no clear evidence that Simon started any sect, but more likely, a Gnostic sect claimed him as their authority figure. The gospel calls people not simply to believe a concept but to accept Jesus’ sovereignty.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 8:9-13 9But a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was someone great, 10everyone from small to great paid attention to him, saying, \u201cThis man is the power of God that is called Great.\u201d 11And they paid attention to him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14135,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14115\/revisions\/14135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}