Power
encounters
Acts
8:4-24
Making
disciples is not easy; struggles and success go hand-in-hand. All of us can
look back and remember people who we thought were firm believers but who fell
away for one reason or another and other people who we never thought would find
faith and yet they did. Here’s a story that helps us understand this, a story
about mission and people’s motives and the mixed outcomes we’ll inevitably
experience.
1)
Philip
is not a special missionary sent by the church. He’s been forced to leave his
home by persecution. He has to fund his daily living in a strange place and
while he does that, he shares his faith and seeks to make disciples. This is
Matt 28:19 in action, a life lived for Jesus and an explanation of it:
i) words (4, 5, 12) Philip proclaimed the life-changing
message of Jesus and his Kingdom. The Samaritans were looking for a messiah – Taheb,
a prophet like Moses (Deut18:18):
ü
Philip
tailors his message to show how Jesus fulfils their hopes. To do that he knows
his audience and his message intimately. Can we say the same about ourselves in
relation both to the gospel and the hopes and fears of our neighbours?
ü
The
gospel is a more powerful story than the one Simon told the Samaritans, that
they had followed up to now (9-11). The gospel is a more powerful story than
any our neighbours follow; it explains their lives and shows them a better way
to live: are they hearing it from us?
ii) works what Philip did provoked both interest and
great joy (6, 8) and then faith (12): the Samaritans saw that the gospel had
power to change lives, achieve things in a better way than Simon’s teaching. So
they wanted to find out about it. Might iPad, Contact and Friends International
have the same effect? Are we praying that they will?
2) Motives
Luke
draws a stark and fascinating contrast between Simon and Philip – the latter
always seeks the welfare of others; Simon’s motives are muddier.
i) love: Philip is an evangelist to marginal people
– Samaritans and black eunuchs; he wants everyone to hear, respond to and
benefit from gospel. Do we? Or do we think the good news as we have it is just
for us and people like us?
ii) unity: the apostles’ presence when the Holy Spirit
comes is heaven confirming that in Christ the deep enmity between Jew and Samaritan
is over. Jews thought the only good Samaritan was a dead Samaritan; they destroyed
the Samaritan’s temple in 128BC. Now God draws them into the heart of his
people and he does so by having the leaders of the
iii) power: at the
heart of this story is what power are we seeking and why? The thing about
power is that it’s so insidious, we don’t think we’re either seeking it or
using it or in thrall to it – but we are! We can seek power for two reasons:
ü
power
over others, exercising influence, being in a place of importance – Simon used
power for his own ends; and he thought he could buy more of it from Peter: did
he actually believe Philip’s message or did he merely covet his power?
ü
power
to live a new life for the sake of others: v21-22 are key here: Simon’s request
perverts the core of gospel. The early church pooled and shared resources to
further mission and build community; by it money’s power was disarmed and brought
under Christ’s Lordship, for his use: so a crucial question for us is what’s
our money for: to feather our nests, buy influence, to hold the church to
ransom or invest in the future and the Kingdom of God?
3) Mixed fortunes
Luke is always
realistic about progress:
ü
many
found faith, churches were planted, the good news spread; great!
ü
Many
didn’t; and what about Simon? There is an ambiguous end to his story – not as
final as Ananias and Saphira (5:1-11) but hardly conclusive. The door was open
for him to repent – did he? Luke doesn’t tell us
The
story boils down to this: what power do we trust – God’s or another? What story
do we live by? Are we sharing it?
Further questions
for discussion: [there
are a number of questions dotted through the notes – do remember to use those
as well]
Look back over your time at the church: who
can you think of who has stopped coming? Why have they stopped? Have they
stopped following Jesus or have they left for other reasons?
What are your neighbours longing for? How
can we tailor our message to help them see how relevant it is to their lives?
How do we promote the unity of the church?
What’s our attitude to people who aren’t like us – racially and culturally? How
can we overcome our prejudice against certain kinds of people for the sake of
the gospel?
Do we think our contribution to the weekly
offering gives us the right to determine how the church spends it money? If so,
how do we decide what we should be committing our shared resources to?
How easy do we find it to share the good news about Jesus? To tell people what he means to us? What he’s done for us? How can help each other to do this better?