Bulletins From the Front 14
Simon Says
Would that be Simon the Sorcerer or Simon Peter?
In the middle of Luke’s story chronicling the Acts of the Apostles, there is an impressive supporting cast led by Stephen and Philip. This great story is crammed with heroes and villains. One character who could slip by without comment is the character actor, Simon the Sorcerer, a reformed practitioner of the dark arts. Simon represents the theological gloaming, the fuzziness and mystery of the religious experience. He belongs to that infamous peanut gallery of characters such as Cain, Pharaoh, Esau, Cyrus the Great, Judas, Pontius Pilate, Ananias & Sapphira, all useful to redemption, but in the end, probably to be found on the ash heap of history.
In the middle of Philip the Evangelist’s story, the unsavory sorcerer is mentioned.
“A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as “The Great One—the Power of God.” They listened closely to him because, for a long time, he astounded them with his magic.”
It’s an old story, isn’t it? You’re a star, you’re hot; “caliente!” Simon had a long run at the top; he had many years of drinking in the applause and adoration of his fans. He had street cred due to his works of magic. He was accustomed to oohs and ahhs. Performers talk about the adrenaline rush that comes with receiving a standing ovation; it becomes addictive, and without it, many lose their purpose, their identity, their joy. His reputation, at least regionally, was legendary, simply known as “The Great One.” It’s a title reserved for the Gretzky’s and the Ali’s, for Mays and Mantle, for Olivier and Brando, Streep and Dame Judy Dench. The modern religious world also has had its heroes, Billy Graham, John Stott, along with Popes and Pastors, but also its crooks and frauds. Many have been once great, but twice fallen. [1]
Gaining is losing
But Simon the Sorcerer seems not to have fallen from grace, but to have been swept up in a movement of grace.
Every convert to Christ loses something just as they gain something. Simon was amazed at the power of God. He was astounded by the movement itself and was so full of joy he didn’t realize what he was losing. The text doesn’t indicate that he aged out or was “washed up” like a once great performer who played stadiums and later appeared in local church Parish Halls. All converts who remain converts have, in one way or another, repented, meaning they have thought about what they were choosing by changing their minds about their life’s direction. They have left one way of life and moved in a new direction. Luke reports that this is what Simon did.
“But now the people believed in Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.”
Simon believed and was baptized. This means he would have confessed publicly that he was now a follower of Christ. His belief manifested itself in his following. The real question was and is, did he follow Christ as his disciple, or did he follow Philip to become his protégé? One doesn’t know, but when Peter came to town, the stakes got bigger.
People loved his act, and Simon had a good gig for many years. It brought fans, fame, and money. It was the dark arts, a spiritual underworld mixed with magic. Some of it involved pulling the proverbial rabbit out of a hat with all its abracadabra. It seems Simon had moved from Vegas to Branson, then to the local DFW Hall. His costumes were frayed and outmoded.
But some of his acts included real sorcery and the casting of spells, witchcraft, and reading meaning into the stars. Simon was walking the tightrope between alchemy and the darkness of the underworld. Like Carl Jung, he wandered the underworld of mystical experience, and when one does so, the flames will singe you. And not all the dross was cleansed from Simon’s soul. [2]
Can’t buy me love
Simon was caught up in his new world, which gave him new hope, hope that he could return to prominence. Oh, what he could do with this new bag of tricks. Simon, like any new believer who has said the prayer and been baptized, wondered, what’s in it for me? He wouldn’t admit that to himself, none of us do; we don’t want to admit to the treachery of our own hearts. Conversion does not mean the battle is won; it just means we now know we are in the battle. Before, we didn’t even know there was a battle, an unseen world populated with supernatural beings fighting for human souls. [3]
Attempting to know what was in a man’s heart 2000+ years removed is impossible. But our author, Luke, a careful man and historian, laid it out for us. Peter reported it to Luke, and so we do know the following:
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let me have this power too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit.” [4]
If we give Simon the benefit of the doubt, we might think the very best of him. He was thinking about how he could multiply and accomplish all this himself, advancing the kingdom of God. After all, that is what we do, isn’t it? We want what a successful person has, and to learn from them and be able to do the same thing. Then we can go do it, become a franchise, an outlet, maybe even our own ministry and church? Success dances about in our heads, and our hearts soar with hope. We can taste it, “Oh God,” we pray, “Why not me? Why not now?” Either Simon said the right words, or Luke is looking back on Peter’s advice and putting words in Simon’s mouth. Luke writes that Simon “exclaimed,” or said. These, then, are words spoken by Simon in the hearing of Peter, recorded by Luke. It is a bit like the over-zealous, super ambitious carnival barker who says, “Give me the power, and I will be big again, I’ll have my own residency at the Sphere in Vegas. I can make Jesus famous; he will be the toast of the town, and revival is just around the corner.
Blind
But those bright lights are blinding, you can’t see much when you look into them, and you can’t see straight. Peter, a man who knew the dark side of the soul, a man who had jumped all over Jesus’ power and potential for kingship, quickly recognized a familiar spirit and took the sword of truth, slaying the sorcerer’s misguided dreams.
“But Peter replied, “May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought! You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.” [5]
It was a rebuke with a diagnosis and a prescription as well. The first blast from Peter was emotional, from somewhere deep in the Apostle’s spirit and memory. He knew how evil Simon’s impulse was; he recognized its face, because it could have been his own. He immediately, without deliberation, knew that Lucifer was standing just behind Simon and speaking through him. Peter didn’t hold back; it was not a time for a soft answer; it was time for a surgical strike, so he plunged into the truth. The heart is so deceptive, desperately evil, and only God can fully comprehend the deep pool of desires that nourish it. In the heat of the moment, Peter declares, “Your heart is not right!”
Another fool’s errand
There are many fools’ errands when it comes to the soul. The first among many is trying to understand our own hearts. I must tell you—you will never understand your heart and its many dimensions. [6] Motives are part of this, and often our motives are a tangle of good and evil knotted together, and somehow God uses ambition, even selfishness, along with the best of our motives to accomplish his will. [7]
Simon, like us, has only one way out of the dangerous place he finds himself. He can do what he failed to do in the first place: repent of his sins. And thanks to Peter, he has a name for what his problem is: “bitter jealousy,” and it has imprisoned Simon’s soul. This wasn’t just a recent problem, newly discovered by watching the Apostles and their spectacular works of power. It was a long history of addiction to the dark arts, magic, the kinds of substitutes for God’s power that had gripped Simon’s soul for years. Satan’s substitutes are the best show in town—until they aren’t.
Simon thought he could buy the commodity of God’s power package with all the attachments because Satan sells his stuff quite readily. After all, it’s the inferior product you can get cheaply in a dark alley. It’s healing with a hook in it, it’s power that loses its punch, it’s cheap thrills followed by enslavement. Simon was, as Peter said, a captive, locked in the prison that was as stupid as Milton’s Lucifer in Paradise Lost choosing to reign in Hell rather than to serve in Heaven.
Simon’s prayer?
Did Simon come around? Did he go the way of Judas, Cain, Pharaoh, or will we see him again? Here is what we have to go on, “Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things you’ve said won’t happen to me!”
At first look, it seems hopeful, and maybe it is. “Pray for me!” But reread it—that is not what he said, and that is not what Peter told him to do. Peter told him to repent of his sins and pray to the Lord. Simon wanted Peter to do the praying, to be the intermediary, because Peter seemed to have the Midas touch. All Peter’s prayers were answered and turned into gold. Peter was telling Simon, no one else can do this for you—this you must do yourself. Repent, go to God in complete brokenness, and “perhaps he will forgive you.” It’s not what Simon wanted to hear, and probably not what we want to hear. We like a sure thing, but I must say that sure thing you think you have with God, that commodity we call salvation, it might not be the real thing.
Bill Hull 2026
[1] Twice fallen means, first, the ancestral fall via Adam and Eve. The second being a fall from grace through an act of decadence or character flaw.
[2] Matthew 12:43-45
[3] Galatians 5:16,17
[4] Acts 8:17-19
[5] Acts 8:20-23
[6] Hebrews 4:12,13, Jeremiah 17:9, Psalm 139: 23,24.
[7] I Corinthians 3:10-15. God will peel back every layer of motivation and action; only he is qualified to speak of these things.