David: [upbeat music] This is showing that the divided kingdom of Israel, that has been divided by idolatry for hundreds and hundreds of years, [chuckles] is now being brought back together because the same Lord is bringing them under his kingdom. The split that happened with Rehoboam and Jeroboam is now healed under King Jesus, and you now have a united kingdom where there was a divided kingdom, and you have one king, King Jesus.
Christine: [upbeat music] Welcome to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel is a ministry that's dedicated to speaking the gospel out of every corner of scripture. In Luke 24, Jesus told his disciples that every part of the Bible is about him. In each episode, hosts David and Seth work through a passage of scripture to see how it's all about Jesus and his good news. Let's jump in. [upbeat music]
David: Well, welcome, everyone, to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. We're continuing our walk through the Book of Acts, and as we talked about last week, we want to take some time to look at the Gospel being proclaimed as it goes out to all nations. What was the Gospel's content, and what was the effect of the Gospel being preached? Uh, but before we do that, we want to kind of weigh anchor, to use a, a Lucan term, [chuckles] because he loved ships.
Josh: Ahoy!
David: Ahoy. Uh, we want to, we want to stop in the, the three locations that Acts 1:8, that Jesus told his disciples that they would spread the Gospel, in Jerusalem is one, in Judea, Samaria, another, and to the ends of the earth, which is the third. Though we're gonna go a little out of order, call it what we're prepared for or what we're just too excited to talk about, we're gonna go to Samaria first, and we're gonna focus on Acts chapter 8. And so I've got with me again, Josh and Christine, and I'm excited to have a good conversation. Josh, when you have encountered the story of Simon the Sorcerer, what has come to mind? This can be, like, your, your earliest [chuckles] memory of Simon the Sorcerer or the last time you read it. But when you're like, "Simon the Sorcerer," and the story of him in Samaria, what comes to your mind?
Josh: I think just confusion. [chuckles]
David: Yeah. [chuckles]
Josh: Like, is... To sum it up in one word.
David: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
David: I know, I think I'd agree with you. I, I remember reading this and thinking, "Okay, Simon the Illusionist," and really not having a category for the practice of demonic activity or what we might call magic, um, or sorcery, which is outright condemned in the [chuckles] Old Testament, which means it's not fake or made up or, uh, like a, a Las- a Las Vegas magic show. There's something different happening here. But I remember reading this as a kid and just thinking, "Oh, he tricked people into thinking he had magical powers because he was like David Copperfield, and he could do these magic tricks." What was your encounter with this, Christine, like, growing up? What did you think about Simon?
Christine: I don't remember a sermon ever preached on it-
David: [chuckles]
Christine: ... So it wasn't one I was frequently taught from. And yeah, I haven't had much encounter, fortunately, with, [chuckles] with sorcery, so-
David: Yeah, that's a good thing
Christine: ... This I- yeah, it's a great thing. I'm very thankful-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... [chuckles] to all the Christians before me who got that out.
David: Which happens in the Book of Acts. They start burning-
Christine: Yeah
David: ... the spell books. [chuckles]
Christine: They start... Yeah, they start cleaning up Jesus' kingdom. And so I, yeah, I see kinda what you're talking about, about this sort of deception going on because he boasts- it says he boasts about being someone great and has people thinking he has the great power, whatever that is.
David: Oh, yeah, we'll get into it.
Christine: And so-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... I have a lot of questions around it and a lot of observations that I think are interesting 'cause... Yeah-
David: Okay
Christine: ... we can get into my questions later, but I'm keen to-
David: Well, great
Christine: ... jump in.
David: Well, I, I, I, I'm setting up Simon at the beginning, even though that's not really what this is about. It's about the Gospel going to Samaria, but Simon's just a fascinating figure in this chapter here, and he's a, he's a picture of what Jesus's kingdom is, going out and conquering, and so I, I think it's an interesting thing to bring up here. But Samaria is what we're actually focused on. So we've had Jesus rise from the dead after being handed over to death by Jerusalem and Rome. He has spent 40 days of preparation with his people, his disciples, his apostles, preparing them for new creation and his kingdom to break forth, and he's now empowered them with the Holy Spirit through his universal reign and the universal atonement, [chuckles] that he's cleaned the world so his Holy Spirit can come and, and start dwelling with people, which we talked about last time on the Pentecost episode, which was super fun. And now he's sending them out to take the Garden of God, like in Genesis 1, to, to be fruitful and multiply and cover the Earth, to start tearing down principalities and powers and instantiating the people of God and the kingship of God in these different territories. And what we see first is this happening in Jerusalem, where Peter goes to the temple and performs a miracle, and i- i- it's asked, "Well, what authority are you doing that in?" And he talks about the authority of Jesus instead of the f- the authority vested in the temple, and it causes this big problem between him and the temple authorities. We'll do an episode on, on Jerusalem and the persecution that that brings from Jerusalem. Again, just as they came against Jesus, they come against his people, and the first Christian martyr, Stephen, and his amazing testimony, his amazing faith, and his amazing forgiveness, where he repeats the words of Jesus, asking God not to hold the sins of his murderers against him, against them. And so we'll get to that, and we'll do an episode on Jerusalem, the Gospel going to Jerusalem, but we're gonna do the Gospel going to Samaria. And to understand kinda what's on the line here, we have to set up what is Samaria. So as I understand it, Samaria is associated more with the northern kingdom of Israel because before you had the divided kingdom after Solomon with his sons-
Christine: Rehoboam was Solomon's-
David: Rehoboam is Solomon's son
Christine: ... son and successor.
David: And successor.
Christine: Jeroboam comes back from Egypt after Solomon dies.
David: Yeah.
Christine: 'Cause Solomon-... exile Jeroboam. And so Jeroboam goes and hides in Egypt, and he comes back when Rehoboam is in power, and Solomon is dead.
David: Thing. And Rehoboam reigns in the south.
Christine: Yes, with only two of-
David: With only two of the 12 tribes-
Christine: The tribes
David: ... And the 10 other tribes go and follow Jeroboam in the north, and they set up idols right away.
Christine: Yes, two golden calves to make it more convenient to
Christine: go to worship Yahweh.
David: Mm.
Christine: But he's already breaking one of the commandments, which is to not worship God anywhere other than the place He assigns.
David: Yeah-
Christine: Which-
David: And not to make idols.
Christine: Yes, which makes him different from local deities.
David: Yeah, 'cause local deities, you could just set up one of their shrines and worship them from wherever. But God says, "I am one, and you will worship me in this place that I choose, because you can't manipulate me [chuckles] and have me pop up wherever you want. I will tell you where I will dwell, and where I'll be worshiped, and how I will be worshiped, because I am the God here. [chuckles] And I'm not one- like, one of these demons that you think you can manipulate."
Christine: Yeah.
David: Okay? And so you have, from the beginning of northern Israel's story... And if you're familiar with the story of kings and, and all that, you have these two kingdoms that divide after the reign of Solomon with Jeroboam and Rehoboam. And you have Israel is the northern kingdom, and then Judah or Jerusalem is the southern kingdom. And it's the southern kingdom of Judah or Jerusalem, where the temple is, and where the Davidic line is meant to be carried through, where the line of David and the Messiah would come from. And it's the northern kingdom that's just always given over to this idolatry and to this idea that Christine's brought up, which is gonna be really important for us here, so we're gonna [chuckles] we're gonna define it, this idea of syncretism. Christine, you s- you studied missiology and stuff in college, so, like, w- you wanna take a stab at defining syncretism? [chuckles]
Christine: Well, syncretism would be
Christine: blending or adding something to the faith that is actually part of your culture or part of something else. It's, it's a blending of the pure faith with something else that can't,
Christine: can't gel with it. It's different from one of my favorite words, which is contextualization [chuckles]-
David: Yes
Christine: ... which is just a fancy word for making the Gospel, properly planting the Gospel in a way that's native to the soil, that makes it effective in that context.
David: Mm-hmm.
Christine: And it is a faithful transfer of the Gospel-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... to a foreign, new culture, where it can make disciples in a way that has the pure faith intact. Syncretism, however, seeks to dilute and bring in things that are not of God and make them to be like God.
David: Yeah.
Christine: So one example, which I don't know if this is syncr- this is more just outright ido- idolatry. [chuckles]
David: [chuckles]
Christine: But, um, the emperor worship that would be introduced in the 1st century is very much introducing a falsehood into what ought to be pure devotion to God and saying, "No, you must worship the, the emperor as a god as well." That's syncretizing if you think you can do that and have, like, an [chuckles] intact faith with-
David: With Yahweh
Christine: ... With Yahweh, yeah.
David: Yeah.
Christine: You can't blend those two. It's- syncretism is trying to blend two things that cannot be blended, in short.
David: That's a good way to put it. There we go.
Christine: Hi, doctor. [chuckles]
Josh: It's gonna be like, a modern-day example would be, like, if someone- like a, let's say, uh, like, a New Agey person, but they like the teachings of Jesus, and follow the teachings of Jesus, but that's kind of the extent of it, and, like, kind of this idea of, like, forming your own religion.
David: So New Agey stuff is actually very syncretistic. There's a lot going on there, where somebody might try to un- like, bring a Holy Spirit anointing on a home using essential oils or something, and, and trying to think through, "Well, I know that these oils do these things with these spirits," and, and they're getting that wisdom from somewhere, and yet they're evoking, invoking the name of Jesus, but using, you know, demonic or New Age [chuckles] we call it, practices to do that. And people are practicing that, and so, yeah, there's syncretism happening there. Israel kind of did it when they were like, "Oh, we have no king but Caesar." And we're like, "You, you don't? [chuckles] You, you were supposed to. [chuckles] Uh, and Yahweh was meant to be your king, and his Messiah was meant to rule over you. And you've just said, 'Nope, we're good being under Roman power. He'll be our king.'" Like, no, that's syncretism. Um, and so the reason we're bringing it up here is, is the, the, the real example that we wanna focus on here is Jeroboam. Uh, he comes to rule the northern kingdom, which are God's people, and for the sake of convenience, or [chuckles] for probably a bunch of other reasons, he imports these Egyptian gods as he comes back, and bl- and it's like, "Hey, you can worship Yahweh using the gods of Egypt." No, you can't! [chuckles] That is syncretism.
Christine: Or worship God the pagan way would be-
David: You can worship God the pagan way. That is good.
Christine: Yeah.
David: Yeah. Well, that is bad, but that's a good definition of syncretism. [chuckles]
Christine: [chuckles]
David: Yes. And so as the northern kingdom gets destroyed for its syncretism, its idolatry, its faithlessness to Yahweh, when the Assyrian Empire comes and destroys them in the 700s BC, they are... Uh, a lot of their leaders and things are taken away and, and dragged out, and what's left is this hodgepodge of Israelites, you know, who were a part of the 10 tribes. But other nations start to move in as the borders start to fudge and get blurry. Assyrians send their own people there, and it becomes this melting pot of culture and religion. And so this place known for syncretism is kind of handed over to the purest form of syncretism, which is a funny turn of phrase, 'cause syncretism is itself impure. But it is just the, the case study of syncretism, and it's the homeland of it. In, in Israel's imagination, that is the place where our religion, our faith in Yahweh, our kingdom, has gone to get polluted. And so Samaria is just this-
Christine: ... it's this half-breed-
David: ... byword.
Christine: -place.
David: Half-breed kind of place.
Josh: It's like you don't associate with those people.
David: No, and so a lot of people might be familiar with the idea that if you're gonna, if you're gonna go on a, on a journey that would require you to go through Samaria, if you're a, a devout Jew, you go around Samaria to get there. You don't go through it.
Christine: 'Cause there's this idea of idolatry pollutes the land, too.
David: That's right. Yeah, I thought-
Christine: And so that's a place that's polluted by idolatry, and especially people who've returned from exile are like, "We want nothing but purity and-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... just devout faith in God in order to bring the Messiah."
David: It's easy to make this sound like racism or something like that, but there's a lot more going on. It's kind of like how we, we talk about the Pharisees and kind of, quote, unquote, "unfair ways," where, "Oh, they're just legalists." It's like, no, they're trying to bring the Kingdom of God through obeying the Torah, uh, but they're getting it wrong [chuckles] but there's some real decent motivations behind that. Same for this separation from Samaria, is they don't want to become unclean and experience another exile. Uh, they're, they're trying to let, like, have the Messiah come back to them, and so they need to remain clean for that to happen. And so when you have all this going on, and then Jesus, the Messiah, the King, comes, and He travels through Samaria, He goes into Samaria, He has a conversation with a Samaritan adulterous woman and invites her into the kingdom. He tells parables that make Samaritans the hero of the story, the, the parable of the Good Samaritan, as, as we call it. And so Jesus is subverting and poking at this idea, um, for several reasons, but I think one of which is to say, "Jerusalem, you are no better. [chuckles] You are syncretistic as well. You have folded in all kinds of practices into the pure worship of Yahweh, and you're gonna prove it when you crucify me. But Samaria's not the only ones doing these things, so if I can save you, I can save them." [chuckles]
Christine: So what I hear you saying, then, is that with Samaria being this capital of syncretism, as it were, it would make sense why in Acts, Simon, this Jewish-named man, is a sorcerer by trade, and it also begs the question, well, we just learned in the whole Pentecost thing that, okay, the worldwide atonement has occurred, so now the ground is clean. So what about this place called Samaria?
David: Yeah. Has God made Samaria clean? Is He going to bring His kingdom to Samaria? I mean, if you've read Acts 1:8, spoiler alert, it's coming. He's bringing His kingdom there. And so He does so by sending, uh, Philip the Evangelist to them, one of the seven chosen alongside Stephen, the martyr. Are they called deacons of the church, or is that-
Christine: Yeah, they are appointed by the apostles in Acts 6 to help with the food distribution in Jerusalem because there were some Greek widows who were being overlooked.
David: Mm-hmm.
Christine: And so the apostles were like, "This is an important issue, but we need to devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, so make sure you get... You appoint people who are full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and have these people take care of the need that we see, so that we can give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
David: Yeah.
Christine: So that's how Philip comes on the scene.
David: Yeah.
Christine: So he's commissioned, and he and Stephen and five others are, yeah, serving the Church at this point.
Josh: Yeah, one other thing to name that's just, uh, it really interesting to me is that in the first few verses, we learn that it's through the persecution of the Church that Philip ends up going to Samaria-
David: Uh
Josh: ... is, is at least, is what it looks like. So-
David: Now those who were scattered went from place to place proclaiming the Word?
Josh: Right.
David: Verse four.
Josh: And being scattered because of Saul persecuting the Church.
David: That's right.
Josh: And, uh, and so I just find it interesting that God uses, uh, persecution as a vehicle, in a sense, to further the spread of the Gospel-
David: Yeah
Josh: ... to other regions.
David: Yeah, 100%. I kind of wish I want- my brain wasn't thinking this because I would rather emphasize what you just said [chuckles] 'cause it's better, but my brain is thinking, "Yeah, wh- why would we go to Samaria? Well, if we have to [chuckles]"
Josh: Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
David: It's like, "Well, I guess we have to get away. We'll go there." [chuckles]
Josh: Or I'll die.
David: Or I'll die. It's so cool that, uh, yeah, God uses, again, the evil of, of man for His ultimately good plans. And so because of the persecution, Philip goes into Samaria and starts proclaiming the Messiah to them, and crowds... I'm reading now in verse six: "The crowds, with one accord, listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed, and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city."
Christine: That's so cool. He's doing exactly what Jesus has been doing in His ministry on Earth.
David: Yeah.
Christine: Like, this is Philip doing Jesus' ministry in Samaria.
David: Yeah, you could pop into one of many stories in the Gospels, replace the word Philip with Jesus, and it would read almost exactly the same. Jesus comes into a new town, proclaims the Kingdom, heals the sick, drives out demons, and that's how you know the Kingdom of God is among you.
Josh: Yeah.
Christine: That's how you know you've made it, if your name could be subbed for Jesus-
David: Yeah, that's the dream, right? [chuckles]
Christine: ... and nothing would change.
David: That's the goal.
Christine: That's the dream.
David: That's the goal. [chuckles]
Josh: That's awesome.
Christine: Good job, Philip. [chuckles]
David: Good job, Philip. You did it, brother. Yeah, that's incredible. And so he does this, "And a certain man named Simon," this is verse nine, "had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great. All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, 'This man is the power of God that is called great.' And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic."... So we get the, we get, like, the protagonist comes into the story in Philip and starts spreading the Kingdom of God, driving out demons, healing the sick, and then we get the antagonist, the, the syncretistic force, um, of Simon, uh, the sorcerer comes in. There's a lot to unpack here. Before we do, we've hinted at it a bit with kind of me saying I always thought this guy was David Copperfield, but he was practicing magic. I think for me, I don't know about you, Josh, for others, this feels very foreign, this idea of actual magic being practiced in a very closed-world, Western mindset. Like, all magic is fake.
Josh: Oh, yeah, so foreign.
David: Yeah.
Josh: So foreign to me, for sure.
David: So I don't know, like, when- what's going on with magic? Like, what-
Christine: Magic is manipulation.
Josh: Hmm.
Christine: That's what we learned in class. [laughing]
David: Did you really?
Christine: Um, yeah, we had... Oh, gosh, I had such a fun major. It was intercultural studies, which just teaches you all kinds of stuff about-
David: [chuckles]
Christine: ... how reality works in different parts of the world, and so yeah, I had a class called Village and Tribal Cultures.
David: Wow!
Christine: We were all over the magic sphere and what kind of... It was very interesting to learn. But yeah, magic is essentially manipulation. So it's often different from idolatry because you are emphasizing a, a formula of sorts to get results. So if you do the right motions or have the right ingredients or do things in the right order, you will gain a result. So think love potions or things like that, where you're trying to manipulate someone, you have a formula to accomplish that. And so magic, in one sense, is... It, it's always manipulation, whether you're trying to manipulate a spirit or manipulate a human being, the goal is to control someone or something, control your environment.
David: And so this is why, um, and this is an actual question, [chuckles] this is why when we see magic, even today, portrayed, there's incantations, hand motions, and for- like, formulations of certain things, 'cause they're following some kind of rule that's meant to manipulate the physical world, the spiritual world, demons, to cause a certain effect?
Christine: Yeah, it depends. So, like, with the love potion example, you are trying to manipulate a human being.
David: Mm.
Christine: When you're trying to get... And oftentimes, you manipulate a spirit first in order to get the human being, but there is that the magic you're doing is trying to control something in your environment that would otherwise be out of your control. And so whether that's cursing your enemies or trying to get someone to fall in love with you or having some future outcome be favorable to you, you would have to go through these motions and things, and usually, the- there would be an order of things you'd need to do or something like that, and there's a lot of nuance here.
David: Yeah.
Christine: There are some things that, you know, involve hand motions, and, you know, like, controlling the weather sometimes is an entirely different thing.
David: Hmm.
Christine: We won't [chuckles] get into that.
David: Yeah.
Christine: I don't think that's relevant for this.
David: Well, I think-
Christine: But-
David: Yeah, I think-
Christine: Yeah
David: ... at the bare minimum, what I'm hearing and seeing here, even as it pertains to the story that Acts is laying out for us, is you have this power, and I want to get into that, that is controlling people, and, and it's what they says, that they, they were under his power. They listened to him eagerly. He amazed them with his magic. They were following him, and we're gonna see how, how much they were following him very sh- very soon. And this is ultimately a microcosm of the macrocosm of the problem that Jesus is solving, that we are all under this elemental power of Satan, of sin, of oppression, and we need the Messiah, Jesus, to come and conquer and drive out that power and set us free. And so that's what Stephen is doing here in this- or, or, or sorry, not Stephen, what Philip is doing here in this territory. So more on Simon: you have these, these two phrases here in nine and 10, that he amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great, and then we get it on the lips of the Samaritans, "This man is the power of God that is called great." And so this isn't- this is not, maybe not the most helpful translation, although it is a very literal translation, but there's more going on here because he's the power of God who is called great. They're naming a god here, and he was claiming to be not someone great, he was claiming to be the supreme power, is maybe a better translation, that he was claiming to be maybe even the power of the Most High God incarnate here on Earth.
Christine: Oh, so are you saying he was a pseudo Jesus?
David: Yes, I am saying that.
Josh: Wow.
David: Yes.
Christine: Wow!
David: He is a pseudo Messiah. Again, so height of syncretism.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Christine: Yeah.
David: He is claiming to be the supreme power working on Earth, in- energized by demons.
Christine: Wow!
David: So what, what the Pharisees accused Jesus of [chuckles]...
Josh: This guy was actually guilty of.
David: Simon is, is guilty of.
Christine: Of course, it's Samaria. [chuckles]
David: Yeah, right?
Christine: Wow.
David: And so this is the height of syncretism here.
Christine: That's crazy.
David: Um, so much so that, and arche- I, I want to caveat this, archaeologists are still debating this, but there has been statues, a statue found of Simon, the supreme power, in and around Samaria, and that this was a man who was worshiped as a god incarnate.
Christine: He was a force to be reckoned with.
David: Definitely.
Christine: Like, yeah, this isn't... I know Peter will come into this later, but it's, if I'm not mistaken, this isn't the last time Peter and Simon have an altercation, 'cause I think Simon comes after him in Rome, too.
David: Again, it's one of those moments where the closer you are to the history that's being described here, the less information you need because you know who Simon, the supreme power, is.... there were statues to him. People talked about him, people worshiped him.
Christine: That's wild.
David: He was performing miracles out in Samaria, and pe- he had a huge following. And this is who Philip's going toe-to-toe with, not some ragtag, roadside show illusionist. Like, [chuckles] this is someone demonized-
Josh: And highly revered by the people.
David: And highly revered by the people, who was claiming to be the supreme power on Earth. I mean, this is, yeah, a king among men, in, in a sense. And so there's this huge showdown happening here, and, uh, he comes to him, and, uh, this is verse 12: "But when they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. After being baptized, he stayed constantly with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took place." Okay, a lot's happening here. So-
Christine: That looks good.
David: That, that looks good, but there's gonna be a big old twist coming. Uh, he's gonna start using magic again, and he's gonna try to use it against God, but we'll get there. Uh, and [chuckles] Peter's gonna be like, "God doesn't work that way, man." And so you have Philip, the true... I don't know what word to use, vessel of the Most High God?
Josh: Well, I mean, you just said earlier, like, "Oh, replace the name Philip with Jesus."
David: Right, right. [chuckles]
Josh: Right? Yeah.
David: He is- this is what Jesus continued to do-
Josh: Right
David: ... here on Earth through his, his apostles. And so Philip brings the power of the Most High God and absolutely humiliates the, the magic powers of demons. They don't hold a candle to what God is doing through Philip, and it impresses everybody so much that they leave Simon and start following Jesus and listening to the, the gospel he's preaching. And even Simon himself ends up bowing the knee, in a sense, and jo- trying to join this kingdom of Jesus, which is an incredible story. Before we get into the details there, I wanna zoom way out, 'cause we actually haven't talked about it in our Acts series yet here, is he proclaims to him the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.
Christine: That's the gospel, isn't it?
David: Yeah. [chuckles]
Christine: Yeah.
David: So, like, what are we meant to think about when... Like, why is that what makes people start believing and start changing and start being baptized? What are they hearing? Like, the, what's this gospel content? And again, we're gonna do a whole episode on the gospel content of the Book of Acts, but we have this good news being proclaimed. What's- what are we to think about?
Christine: Yeah. Well,
Christine: we've caveated previously that the good news proclamation changes shape depending on the audience, and so I feel like I'm in a catch-22, and it's the half, half-Jew, half-not-Jew crowd. But it's something along the lines of, "God has vindicated a human to His right hand to judge the living and the dead, and He proved who He chose by raising this man from the dead. And this is Jesus," and insert a bunch of Hebrew scripture to prove this is the case-
David: Yes
Christine: ... and signs that show that this Jesus has the power to heal because He conquered death, so healing your child is no problem. And
Christine: here we have everyone amazed, so it's something along those lines, maybe-
David: Yeah, yeah
Christine: ... And there might have been a polemic against Caesar, we don't know.
David: Yeah.
Christine: But-
David: I mean, there, that- at least the polemic against Caesar is at least the nearest referent to just this word, good news.
Christine: Yeah.
David: Euangelion in the Greek, which is the, the royal proclamation of the deeds and reign of a king.
Christine: Yeah, his accomplishments and that he's coming.
David: Yeah. So, you know, in, in pre-Christian literature, you would have about the Roman emperor, uh, the Euangelion of Caesar the Lord, and Caesar is Lord, and here's his gospel. It is that he has conquered these enemies, he has taken this territory, and he is coming to a territory near you, so get ready! And this is the proclamation, that, that he is Lord. And so when Philip is coming, he's saying, "There's a new Lord in town, and there's a- and that town is the whole world [chuckles] and his name is Jesus, and he has been vindicated by the Most High God."
Christine: And the enemy he defeated was death.
David: Yeah.
Josh: For the Samaritans specifically, too, could there have been a part of that gospel message where it's like, "Oh, you're invited back into the family of God"-
David: Definitely
Josh: ... "which you were once part of?"
David: Yes.
Josh: Okay.
David: And that's why they're being baptized-
Josh: Yeah
David: ... because that is part of the message to them-
Josh: Right
David: ... is that this Jesus is King, and he's not riding against you. He's riding to you right now and saying, "Hop on board and join the Kingdom!" And so they're like, "Yeah, we'll join that kingdom." [chuckles] And so they get baptized, and they join the Kingdom with Jesus.
Josh: And it must have been maybe even a little odd for them to, for, I mean, if, if there's so much, um, division between Samaritans and, and Jews at the time, to have a Jew like Philip come into your town and start preaching, like, that alone is a, is a big, would be a big deal, right?
David: Definitely. I mean, it's even- look at the Samaritan woman's reaction to Jesus. She- he starts talking to her, and what's her immediate reaction? "Who are you, a Jewish man, to talk to me?"
Josh: Yeah. "You're supposed to hate me."
David: Yeah, she knows this is messed up, and so there was a lot of cultural tension [chuckles] for poor Philip to get through.
Christine: Well, and
Christine: I'm not sure how much weight to put on names here, but you'll notice the seven deacons, among which Philip was one, they all have Greek names, which a lot of people do. But, um, I think it's noteworthy [chuckles] to say that we aren't, we don't see, you know, Simon and Joseph and whatever. It's, um, and Jacob. We have very much Greek names put in charge of ministry in the church, which is part of-... Luke's point, but even the fact that Philip is coming here with the name Philip, I don't know if he had another Jewish name, but-
David: Yeah
Christine: -that's also cool.
David: He could, he could have been Greek.
Josh: Right.
David: Yeah.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah, that was, could have been.
David: He would have been a Greek proselyte to, you know-
Christine: Yeah
David: Got baptized.
Josh: Okay.
David: Yeah, God fear, God fear. Uh, so we don't know, but regardless, it would've been
David: an interesting cross-cultural experience-
Josh: Right
David: ... no matter what was happening here. And so Simon himself gets baptized when he sees all these miracles start taking place, and he starts following Philip around, and we're like, "Okay, this seems pretty good." Uh, the powers
David: that were oppressing and, and lying to, and dissuading God's people are not only being defeated, but they're being grafted in, like, they're joining the kingdom it seems like. Man, that's a really powerful gospel.
Christine: Yeah, or the, yeah, the spirits behind the people and places are being pushed back and robbed of their charges-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... and the people are getting brought in.
David: That's a good way to put it. Yeah, definitely. So then, th- uh, verse 14: "Now, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet, the Spirit had not come upon any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." Okay, so now this is happening. I, I'll just start talking about what I think is going on here, and we can ask all our weird questions that have spurned on a bunch of denominations and factions and things, and maybe we can find some unity here and get [laughs] just bring some things into alignment. But I think what's happening here is this is another Pentecost moment, that this is... And you're gonna see it again in Acts 10, whenever the Gospel comes to Cornelius's household, and it, and the Holy Spirit breaks out among the Gentiles, is there are three big outpourings of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts.
Christine: That's cool. I didn't notice that.
David: Yeah, and he sets it up.
Christine: It's in Pentecost and Samaria or, like, yeah-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... Jerusalem, Samaria, and-
David: And the ends of the earth
Christine: ... Caesarea. Fascinating.
David: So he sets it up at the beginning in Acts 1:8.
Christine: That's beautiful.
David: "I will- I- you will be empowered from the, with the Holy Spirit on high, and I will make you my witnesses in these three places," and those are the exact three places that we see this big outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And we try to formulize that, you know, and I'm just- it reminds me of how we were talking about magic a second ago, where we don't treat God like magicians treat demons.
Christine: Isn't Simon about to do that?
David: Uh-huh. He is. He's going to-
Christine: He's trying to formulate the-
David: How to get this power.
Christine: Wow.
David: And we don't do that. God is free and does what He will, [chuckles] and He wills to pour Himself out on Jerusalem, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, and we don't need to formalize that. [chuckles] Um, so anyway, I think getting at the highest altitude, and I'm not trying to discredit some of the things that we're trying to learn from this passage, um, that people have real questions. I'm not trying to discredit any of that. I'm just saying, at the highest level, I think we can find unity there and say that, "This is at least what I think most people believe is happening," and then there's some details here. But at the very least, this is showing that the divided Kingdom of Israel, that has been divided by idolatry for hundreds and hundreds of years, [chuckles] is now being brought back together because the same Lord is bringing them under His kingdom. The split that happened with Rehoboam and Jeroboam is now healed under King Jesus, and you now have a united kingdom where there was a divided kingdom, and you have one king, King Jesus.
Christine: Well, and it's healed from syncretism-
David: Yes
Christine: ... because the, the reason why it split was, was because syncretism. There were those who did not want to mix what could not be mixed-
David: Mm-hmm
Christine: ... and those were, who were okay with it. So in a way, like, that split was good because you, you know, otherwise everyone would've been syncretized.
David: Yeah, right. Yeah.
Christine: But w- I think what you're saying is, like, the, there's healing from the syncretism. It's not that God is now okay with the syncretism-
David: That's right, no
Christine: ... but He is bringing people out of that, curing people from that, and uniting them-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... under one true Lord.
David: Yeah, He's redeeming and rescuing them-
Christine: Yeah
David: ... out from the power of syncretism.
Josh: And there's something sweet, I think, about, you know, like, not receiving the Holy Spirit until the apostles come to lay hands on them. Of like, "Oh, the ones who are sent by Jesus, coming to lay hands on you, to, like, almost, like, hug you and bring you back into the family," like Samaria-
David: Yeah
Josh: ... like, "Welcome home," like-
David: Yeah
Josh: ... that kind of-
David: And there's this-
Josh: sense.
David: And there's... It is beautiful. It's actually a very beautiful thing what's happening here because in the laying on of hands, you are, you are putting them before the Father, and you are, you are like, "I want to represent this, this person," or, "This person, uh, uh, wants to represent me." And that's why we, like, touch each other when we pray. Like, we lay hands on each other, and we're like, "Hey, God, I'm bringing this person before you."
Josh: And it's, it's like it's reconciliation-
David: Yeah, and we, yeah
Josh: ... between two groups that used to be family.
David: Absolutely.
Josh: And used to break bread together.
David: There's this physical element to it, which is cool.
Christine: Yeah, and it's drawing them under the apostles.
David: Yes.
Christine: It's not, "We are planting a Samaritan church." It's like, "No, we're, we're"
Christine: ... The church that Jesus established under the apostles is now, has Samaritans being brought into it.
David: Yes, there's not a Jerusalem faction and a Samaritan faction.
Christine: Yes.
David: And so whenever Peter and John, you know, those who are really leading in the church in Jerusalem, come and, and they, they put hands on the Samaritans, and when they do that, they're saying, "God, I'm putting them before you." Um, it, it's like what would happen when they would put their hands on a sacrifice in the Levitical system. They're saying, "God, I'm, I'm putting this before you," and so they put the Samaritans before God and say, "Yeah, bring them into your kingdom, Lord. They, they have been baptized into you. They have believed in the name of the Lord Jesus, so now, as clean brothers and sisters in Jesus, fill them with your Holy Spirit," and that's what happens.... and they're brought under this united church, and United Kingdom, and united rule of Jesus.
Josh: And then that contrasted with, you know, Peter's experience of sharing the Gospel with Cornelius and his household. It says that, "As Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit just fell."
David: Yeah.
Josh: There was no laying on of hands in that situation, and so it's almost like-
Christine: 'Cause it's not a formula.
David: 'Cause it's not a formula.
Josh: 'Cause it's not a formula. And even, you know, even in that context, too, I'm like, well, would Peter have even tried to lay hands on them? Like-
David: Yeah
Josh: ... if given the opportunity to, like, touch them?
David: Yeah, who knows?
Josh: Like, I, I don't know, you know? And so, yeah, so there, there is no formula for that.
David: Yeah.
Josh: It's just... Yeah.
David: Yeah. It's beautiful. So the Holy Spirit comes and claims territory in Samaria and starts freeing people from the powers that were, you know, energizing Simon, and were, uh, really oppressing this area, and had long oppressed the Northern Kingdom and Samaria, and led them into idolatry and syncretism. And like Christine was saying, God is now ransoming people out of that. And so, but now, [chuckles] in this, in verse 18: "Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me also this power, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.' But Peter said to him, 'May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness.' Simon answered, 'Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may happen to me.'" Okay, so here we go. The twist happens.
Josh: Rut roh.
David: Rut roh, as sweet Scooby-Doo would say. No Scooby-Doo? No, Christine? [chuckles] No, too bad.
Christine: Syncretism.
David: Syncretism. [laughing]
David: [laughing] Zorks.
David: So we do have this big shift here. You have this man who was claiming to be some kind of a god, who seems to have joined Jesus, um, in baptism and in belief. Now, he's said that has... He has no part in what God is doing here, because he's trying to buy this power of God with money. You know, Christine, what do you think is going on there? Why is Simon offering money to get this power, so that when he lays hands on people, he could give them the gift of the Holy Spirit? And why is there money involved?
Christine: Well, the mention of silver made me think of Judas, and how Judas tried to buy Jesus with silver.
David: Mm.
Christine: And now here Simon is trying to buy the Holy Spirit with silver. So I have observations only-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... and lots of questions. But it sounds like he wants to... I don't know, he thinks he can buy off-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... the gift, and I-
David: Yeah. I mean, it's-
Christine: -don't have a category for that, so I don't know.
David: Well, I mean, it's very pagan, this idea that you can procure favors from the gods through offerings or through money or through some kind of exchange, and that is the magic-is-manipulation idea here, is, "Oh, there's a power that is accessible to me, and I've learned how to harness those powers in the past. I can do that again. I bought spell books, or I bribed my way into these circles or these rings in order to learn these different bits of wisdom from the demons, and I can do that again." And, and we know that, uh, there's a bit of, of that going on here because of Peter's response, which feels kind of strange. "The gall of bitterness [chuckles] and the chains of wickedness," uh, this is actually a quotation of Deuteronomy, chapter 29.
Christine: Oh.
David: Yeah, so in Deuteronomy 29, we have just finished hearing from Moses about the blessings and curses that will accompany the obedience or disobedience, respectively, of God's law that He's given to His people. And then there's this plea with the people, reminding them of their conquest of the nations so far, like the King of Og, or is it King Og? Yeah, King Og-
Christine: King Og
David: ... of Bashan, which are these demonized powers, uh, these giant clans that have done similarly to what Simon has done in going in league with demons in order to gain powers. Well, Israel has dispossessed them through the power of Yahweh, but then he warns them not to go back into idolatry, not to go back into syncretism-
Christine: Oh, interesting
David: ... and then f- and therefore, fall back into slavery in Egypt. And in verse 18-- actually, I'm gonna go back to 17: "You have seen their detestable things." He's talking about, y- or actually, [chuckles] let me go back to 16. [chuckles] "You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. You have seen their detestable things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold," [chuckles] "that were among them. It may be that there is among you a man or woman, or a family member, or a tribe whose heart is already turning away from Yahweh, our God, to serve the gods of the nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth."
David: So h- this is what he's quoting. This r- this gall of bitterness is the same, is how the, the Greek translation of the Septuagint, of this Hebrew, is, is what, what Peter is quoting here. And so he's saying, "You, among you already, who have, who God has redeemed from Egypt, you're already of this root, this, this, this seed of idolatry in your heart, and you're already wanting to turn back-... to the gods of Egypt and the gods of the nations, and that's exactly what we see Simon doing. He was in full slavery to these national gods, and was in full league with them, and like Israel from Egypt, had been seemingly freed from their power, and joined this new family, new kingdom of God. And yet, Peter sees clearly what's going on here, is that in his heart, there is still this root of idolatry, that he is wanting to, uh, go back to serving the gods of the nations, and, and make that the way he serves Yahweh. This syncretistic problem is popping up again. And so he says that he already sees in him the gall of bitterness, which is that desire for idolatry, and the chains of wickedness. The chains of wickedness is slavery, going back under the slavery of idolatry. And so that's what Peter is s- saying here. He's saying, "You were just like Israel when they came out of Egypt," or you could say, "You're just like [chuckles] you're just like Israel after Jeroboam came back from Egypt and brought his gods with him," is this gall of bitterness, this, this penchant for idolatry and syncretism is rising up in you again, and the only thing it's going to lead to is more slavery.
Christine: So he's saying, in a sense, that you are still a Samaritan, and even though you've been baptized, you are not right with God because you're captive to sin? I'm using captive to sin-
David: Mm
Christine: ... 'cause that's the-
David: The chains
Christine: ... what my-
David: Oh.
Christine: Well, that's what my translation says-
David: Nice
Christine: ... is, "You are full of bitterness and captive to sin." And so is that... Yeah, I just have questions [chuckles] about that.
David: Yeah.
Christine: But it sounds like he is still, still not sold out for God, fully.
David: Yeah. Whatever repentance he has gone through hasn't completely killed this hunger for power or idolatry-
Christine: Mm
David: ... or whatever it is that he has left behind now or is trying to leave behind, or did he ever leave it behind? [chuckles] These are the questions. Like, we don't know the state of Simon's heart at this point. I don't think we're meant to know. I think what is trying to be shown to us here is not, well, is it once saved, always saved? Uh, can you fall from grace? Like, these are not the questions that are being asked i- in this passage. What's being shown is the grip of demonic powers and idolatry that is being held on the, o- over the nations in, in Samaria, and that while the conquest of God is successful, and that Jesus is going out and dethroning these people, real deep repentance is necessary because there is a root of idolatry that is still being held onto, and it can only lead to slavery to sin or slavery to wickedness, and real repentance is needed. The interesting thing here, too, is that there's this weird language here or, or that we can take out of context, where Peter says, "Repent and pray to the Lord that, if possible, He will forgive you." Why is he bringing this on the line here? It's because in Deuteronomy 29, it says that God will not forgive this sin, that this is the sin God does not forgive, is whenever He... You- He's brought you up out of slavery, brings you into the Promised Land, parade you in triumph over the, the gods of Bashan and Egypt, and then you go and worship those gods that He defeated. He's like, "That I will not forgive." And so Peter understands the severity of Simon's position and says, "Pray that, if possible, you will be forgiven." And I think he's actually escalating the mercy of God here, where it's says in Deuteronomy 29, God doesn't forgive that, and here he's like, "Pray that He might!" And, a- it's like, it leaves this door open for the radical mercy of God to continue to forgive even someone like Simon. So fascinating stuff.
Josh: So this isn't related to, like, the, quote, unquote, un- like, unforgivable sin that's talked about in-
David: Mm
Josh: ... the, the New Testament? 'Cause that's kind of where my mind went-
David: That's interesting
Josh: ... when you first mentioned that.
David: Blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Josh: Right.
David: Mm. It's interesting.
Christine: I think in some sense, it's highlighting that even in this, in these last days in the world conquered by Jesus or claimed by Jesus,
Christine: your choice of allegiance is yours. He's not forcing anyone to bend the knee as of now. Like, you can still choose to be in league with the powers you were rescued from, even though they're exposed to be losers [chuckles] in every sense of that word. But just hearing you talk about it, it sounds like Peter, though speaking very severe words, is telling Simon the proper diagnosis. It's like, "You're in crisis right now if you don't, you know, if you don't get this out of you, and so you have to repent and uproot this from the core, 'cause you're mixing something that cannot be mixed."
David: Yeah, and I think it's important that what is not said here is, "Sorry, buddy, there's no chance for forgiveness for you."
Josh: Yes.
David: That's not said.
Josh: Yeah.
David: What's said is, Peter tells him to repent and pray, that if possible, God would forgive him, and then Simon says, "Yeah, pray for me, too, that, that nothing you said will happen to me. I don't want to be cut off and cursed from God." So this story doesn't suggest to us that he's committed an unforgivable sin, but maybe that he's on the path toward one. [chuckles]
Christine: He also doesn't re- repent, though.
David: He also doesn't repent, yeah.
Christine: He just says, "Pray that this doesn't happen."
David: Yeah.
Christine: Which-
David: But again, I think we need to always read stories like this, not as, how do we psychologize Simon, or how do we, how do we build a systematic theology out of this text? I think instead, what the literary moment is doing here in Acts is showing us the conquest of Jesus is going out into blended, demon-oppressed, wicked territory, uh, and it will succeed, but there will still be a root of gall, a root of idolatry, and the chains of slavery and sin. And so there's this mix that's going to happen even now, and as the-... territories are conquered, not everyone in those territories will be conquered, because everyone has to do this repentance thing. And so, uh, and we're gonna see that play out again, and again, and again in the Book of Acts, that everywhere that they go, pretty much [chuckles] you hear some people were all in and loved it, and other people tried to kill them. And there's always this mixed response. Why? It's 'cause in every human heart, there is this bent and desire for, um, something else other than submission to King Jesus, and He will conquer it. But we have to repent and join that kingdom. So yeah, Simon, crazy.
Christine: Don't be Simon.
David: Don't be Simon. Um-
Christine: Simon says no.
David: [laughing] So that's terrible. Oh, okay, well, we've-
Christine: Okay
David: ... run out of time to, to jump o- to Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. We'll have to... And I want to devote a full episode to that anyway, but is there anything else on Philip and Simon here before we close out? Any questions, or observations, or last thoughts?
Christine: I like that the, the apostles go down to pray for them. I think, again, that's just showing the welcoming in of people who were formerly very ostracized, and they're being Jesus' -
David: Yeah
Christine: ... hands, as it were, receiving people who want to be a part of His kingdom. You know, the former things that divided us are not up anymore. Like, you- the, the only thing that is between you and Jesus are things that you set up. It's, you know... And in Simon's case, he had a lot of things that he still, um, clung to more than, than God, and
Christine: yeah, we know from this story not to be Simon [chuckles]. But I just love the fact that the Gospel goes out to Samaria.
David: Yeah.
Christine: Place historically very sullied with a lot of bad rap.
Josh: Yeah, I think for me, it can feel... It's easy to feel disconnected to this story because it's talking about, like, like magic, and the sorcerer, and, you know, all of these things. But yeah, I think what was most helpful for me is just grounding this as, like, manipulation. Like, even just the, the idea of like, exchanging money for the Holy Spirit, just it's like, "What? That is- seems crazy." But like you said, like, back then, it was probably very normal, and syncretist, and how they went about things, and so yeah. I think it's... One thing I'm still kind of wrestling with is just it feels, like, disconnected because, like, I don't see that kind of today. But I know there is, like, at least not in this sense, but I know there is, like, rampant idolatry that is going on today. So I guess m- one question I have is, like, how are we
Josh: seeing or encountering this today?
David: Yeah, so I think there's a couple of ways. One, and you've put your finger on it already, it's just not our context.
Josh: Right.
David: But there is rampant idolatry, real pagan idolatry, in the world active today. We know that, and people worship these gods, build idols to them, give them money. I was just in Japan visiting some missionary friends of ours there, and we went to visit some of the shrines, not to, [chuckles] not to participate in them, but to stand aghast and agog at them. And yeah, they would walk up and burn incense, uh, you know, uh, the incense of their prayers to their, their gods or their ancestors, and then they would walk up to the shrine, or they would clean their hands, and they would walk up to the shrine, and they would do two things. They would, uh, clap really loud to get the gods' attention because the gods don't care about you, or they're visiting another shrine, or whatever. And so you clap to get their attention so that they might pay attention to you, and then you throw money at them into this big offertory, and then you can ask for one thing. And, and every single Japanese person who participates in this goes through the same steps. You know, it's a formula. You walk in, you wash your hands, you burn the incense, you clap, you throw your money, you pray, you leave. And I, I know I'm messing that up. Sorry, if you're Japanese, I'm totally b- butchering this [chuckles] but that's what I observed. Uh, but I know that it's a formula and that they follow that formula. You know, you think about... And they, and people, they have those shrines in their homes. They have idols in their homes, and so, like, when our friends there in Japan are preaching the Gospel, part of the Gospel proclamation is, "Now that you're a follower of Jesus, get rid of your idols." It's part of their Gospel proclamation, and so this is still very, very real, you know, for people. Um, a- and so I think that's a huge part of it that we are disconnected from but is still very real in many, many, many parts of the world. And then I think there's, there's ways that are just as vile,
David: that we participate in pagan idolatrous practices, and we involve ourselves in syncretism with Yahweh and with Jesus. There's political national syncretism, where we, we blend our national identity as British, or American, or Australian, or South African, and our political climate and associations into our religion. And we say, "You know, you, you can't be Democrat and Christian," or, "You, you can't be a Christian and vote for that candidate," or, or we, we end up venerating and treating politicians the way that we should treat Yahweh [chuckles].
Josh: Wow!
David: And we... Or we trust in them for some kind of salvation for our country-
Josh: Mm-hmm
David: ... instead of in Yahweh. So we do it with political things, which is very common in Israel's history. They did that all the time. We do it religiously, where I think we do think we can manipulate God. We build formulas all the time out of the Book of Acts about God. We're like, "Okay, if I just do, you know, do this step, this step, this step, then He has to save me, and I've- I control God because I followed those four steps to salvation." And we treat God like magic.
Christine: If this sounds familiar, "God, I'm gonna fast, I'm gonna pray-... five times a day, every single day, and give money to charity, so you have to let my crush fall in love with me.
David: Yeah.
Christine: Or else you don't love me, or I have to pass this test.
David: Or you have to heal me.
Christine: Yes, if I do all these things, heal me. And then it's like, "God, you didn't heal me," and
Christine: anger-
David: Mm.
Christine: -ensues.
David: Yeah.
Christine: So there are ways we-
David: Yeah, we-
Christine: -try to manipulate God.
David: We try to manipulate God, and that's when we're being Simon, and we should be very afraid [chuckles] when we do those things. Instead, come to God and let Him be God.
Josh: Yeah.
David: And just submit yourself to Him, and let Him rule your life and drive out every root of manipulation, and submit to His will. Let His Holy Spirit be the only power that leads you, and let's not treat God like the pagans do. [chuckles] I think that's a very good lesson to take away from this.
Josh: Yeah.
David: Because He's so good! Like, He's so good. He forgives the people who murdered Him, like we talked about last episode.
Christine: And it's good news that He can't be bribed by someone-
David: Mm
Christine: ... richer or holier than you-
David: So good
Christine: -to do things against you. Like-
David: That is really good, yeah.
Christine: Someone who... Yeah.
David: No, that's-
Christine: I'll just repeat that, but- [chuckles]
David: Yeah, [chuckles] I would, I would, I would be happy for you to repeat that. We don't... Yeah, it's very good news that God can't be manipulated because it's the rich and the powerful or the holy that would bend His will, and He says, "No, I don't show favoritism."
Josh: Right.
David: "I show no partiality." That is such good news that God doesn't show partiality.
Christine: I-
Josh: Good news for the poor, for the outcast-
Christine: Yes.
Josh: -for the marginalized.
David: Yeah.
Christine: You do my works; I don't do your works.
David: Oof, yeah.
Christine: It's Jesus is the head, and we are the hands and feet, which is what we see Philip doing, and-
David: Yeah
Christine: ... Peter and John, they are
Christine: not creating a new, [chuckles] you know, church, a new head, a new something. They are doing the works of Jesus in the world, and so that's how we experience Jesus in the world, is through His people doing His works. If the opposite can also be very dangerous and scary to observe, if we see
Christine: people doing things in the name of Jesus that are definitely not the works of Jesus-
David: Mm-hmm
Christine: ... makes you wonder what's going on.
David: Yeah. Ooh, a sober note to end on, but an appropriate one, I think, for this passage. So hopefully, next time, we can continue looking at the rest of Philip the Evangelist's ministry as he goes to one of our favorite passages here in Spoken Gospel, uh, with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. It's kind of what we've built a lot of our ministry on, and so very excited to share that. We'll look at Jerusalem. We'll look at the ends of the earth, and who knows where else we'll go as we explore the Book of Acts. We have a lot we want to, to look at here, so we'll see what we all [chuckles] what we get to, but thank you guys so much for joining us, and we will see you next time. [upbeat music]
Christine: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel creates short films, devotionals, and podcasts like this one. Everything we make is free because of generous supporters like you. To see our resources, visit spokengospel.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks for listening. See you next time. [upbeat music]
