The Sin of Simon the Sorcerer

Stephen has just been martyred while a young man named Saul looked on, approving and applauding. Stephen’s execution ignited “a great persecution” against the church in Jerusalem. The believers left the city and scattered across Judea and Samaria to escape it. Those scattered believers went everywhere preaching the word. Saul was hunting them down, house to house, city to city, trying to extinguish this movement. And the more he scattered them, the more the fire spread!

One of those scattered embers was a man named Philip, one of the 7 deacons chosen in Acts 6 alongside Stephen. Philip lands 50 miles north in Samaria, a place no self-respecting Jewish believer would ever have gone by choice. Philip went anyway and preached Christ to them. 

There was a man who walks into this scene of genuine revival – and everything about him appears to fit. He believed. He was baptized. He is amazed at the signs and wonders. He looks, from the outside, like exactly what every church hopes to see: a dramatic conversion, a changed life, a new believer eager to learn.

His name is Simon. And we need to pay attention to his story, because his sin is still alive and well in the church today. Please find Acts 8:1-25.