Thoughts From Acts 8 - Part 3

  When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 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.26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”  Acts 8:14-17,26

    Yesterday we looked at Simon the sorcerer and questioned was he truly saved? I have to believe that like the other Samaritan believers, he received the Holy Spirit when the Apostles with apostolic power and authority, laid hands on believers. I think he was one of them. The problem is, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit still battles against our flesh. If not, you and I would be sinless. Simon's sin was that he wanted to be that guy that could lay hands on people. He wanted to buy his way into apostleship. He wanted to be somebody. Is that you? Is that me? Are we content with being nobodies? In Luke 17, the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, and he tells them a story about servants waiting on everyone and then He asks the disciples, "What should they do when they're finished - sit down and have the master wait on them? No, keep serving." The way to increased faith and increasing responsibility in kingdom matters is to prove yourself a worthy nobody. Annanias and Saphira wanted to leap over nobodies, too, with money. They wanted to be up there with Barnabas. Money talks in the Kingdom of Earth but it shouldn't talk and doesn't talk in the Kingdom of Heaven.

       Unfortunately, money does talk in today's church. The quickest path to church leadership is to be the biggest giver. If you prefer organ music to guitars and drums, donate a pipe organ with pipes worth tens of thousands. If you want an "in" with the pastor, let him vacation for free at your house in the Keys. Fly him to conferences on your private jet. As a person with means or influence, it takes a deliberate effort to be a nobody. Simon went from being a somebody to being a nobody and his flesh didn't like it.

      Are you content with being a nobody, an anonymous servant of Christ? Am I? Now actually in the whole scheme of things we aren't nobodies, we are children of the King. But the king has a million children. Are you content with being one in a million? The history books of the Old Testament are full of accounts where children wanted to rise above others. I'm watching House of Dragons right now at one of the resident's suggestions and though I don't know what's going on because I jumped in at season 3, one thing I can tell is that all the white-haired siblings are fighting to be superior. There would be no drama and no show if this wasn't the case. There should be no drama in the family of God. In fact, the only stories or documentaries you see about the church are based on people wanting to rise above being nobodies - being servants. What a boring story that would be if we all considered others more important than ourselves. That's what Jesus wants - He isn't into drama.