Acts 8:14 - Meaning and Application

God had wonderfully blessed Philip in his work as an evangelist at Samaria. Yet Philip could only do what belonged to an evangelist. Some special powers were reserved for the apostles, to keep their office in honor, and now we are told what two of them, Peter and John, did there. The twelve stayed together at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), and good news reached them that Samaria had received the word of God (Acts 8:14). A great harvest of souls had been gathered there, and more seemed likely to follow.

The word of God was not only preached to them, but received by them. They welcomed it, accepted its light, and submitted to its authority. When the apostles heard this, they sent Peter and John to them. If Peter had truly been, as some claimed, the prince of the apostles, he would not have waited for an order, or he would have gone on his own. Instead, he followed the church’s direction, as a servant to the whole body, and went where he was sent.

Two apostles were sent, and they were the two most prominent, to Samaria for two reasons. First, they were to encourage Philip, help him, and strengthen his hands. Ministers in higher places, especially those with greater gifts and grace, should look for ways to help those in lower positions and make them more useful and encouraged. Second, they were to carry the work forward among the people and to give spiritual gifts to those who had already received heavenly grace.

Notice first how they helped those who were sincere and truly converted. It says, “The Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them” (Acts 8:16), meaning not in those extraordinary powers given when the Spirit came at Pentecost. None of them had yet received the gift of tongues, which seems to have been the usual immediate sign of the Spirit’s outpouring at that time (Acts 10:45-46). This was a clear sign for unbelievers and very useful for believers as well. They had not received these outward gifts, but they had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So they were joined to him and shared in him, which was necessary for salvation. In that they had joy and peace (Acts 10:8), even though they could not speak in tongues.

Those who truly belong to Christ, and who have felt the Spirit’s saving work, have reason to be thankful. They have no reason to complain if they do not have gifts that only add outward beauty and distinction. Still, they were meant to move forward into the fuller blessing of that time, for the greater honor of the gospel. It seems likely that Philip himself had these gifts, but he did not have the power to give them to others. The apostles had to come for that purpose. And they did not do this for every baptized person, but for some of them, likely those meant for special service in the church, or at least for active and useful membership. Some received one gift, and some another (1 Corinthians 12:4, 1 Corinthians 12:8, 1 Corinthians 14:26).

To do this, the apostles prayed for them (Acts 8:15). The Spirit is given, not only to us for ourselves (Luke 11:13), but also to others in answer to prayer. God says, “I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27), but he also says this must be asked for (Acts 8:37). This should encourage us to pray that God would give the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit to those we care about spiritually, our children, our friends, and our ministers. We should pray earnestly that they may receive the Holy Spirit, for that includes every blessing.

Then they laid their hands on them, showing that their prayers were answered and that the Holy Spirit was given. Through this sign, they received the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues. In ancient times, laying on hands was used in blessing by those who had authority to bless. In this way the apostles blessed these new believers, ordained some for ministry, and confirmed others in their Christian faith. We cannot now, and no one can, give the Holy Spirit this way. But the action still teaches us that those we pray for, we should also do all we can to help.

Notice next how they exposed and removed the hypocrite among them, Simon Magus, the magician. They knew how to distinguish the precious from the worthless. Simon’s bad proposal exposed his false heart (Acts 8:18-19). When he saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the apostles’ laying on of hands, this should have strengthened his faith in Christ’s teaching and increased his respect for the apostles. Instead, it made him think of Christianity as nothing more than a higher kind of magic, and he imagined that he could stand on the same level as the apostles. So he offered them money and said, “Give me this power also.”

He was not asking them to lay hands on him so that he might receive the Holy Spirit himself. He did not expect to profit from that. He wanted the power to give the gift to others. He wanted the honor of an apostle, but not the heart and spirit of a Christian. He wanted glory for himself more than good for others.

In making this offer, he insulted the apostles, as if they were greedy men who would do anything for money, and loved it as much as he did. Yet they had left all they had for Christ, and were far from trying to gain more. He also insulted Christianity, as if its miracles were done by magic, only of a different kind from what he had used before. Like Balaam, he was after the rewards of divination. He would not have offered money for this power unless he hoped to make money from it. His proposal also showed a proud heart that had never truly been humbled. A man like him, just brought out of such sin and admitted into the church, should have asked, like the prodigal son, to be made one of the hired servants. Instead, he wanted a place no less than one of the household stewards, trusted with a power that even Philip did not have, but only the apostles.

Peter’s rejection of Simon’s offer was sharp and just (Acts 8:20-23). Peter first showed him his sin (Acts 8:20): “You have thought that God’s gift can be bought with money.” In doing this, Simon had greatly overvalued the riches of this world, as if money could buy anything. He acted as if, since wealth can answer many needs in this life, it could also answer everything in the life to come, and purchase the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life.

He had also undervalued the gift of the Holy Spirit and put it on the same level as ordinary gifts of nature and providence. He seemed to think an apostle’s power could be bought with a good fee, just like a doctor’s advice or a lawyer’s counsel. That was a great insult to the Spirit of grace. The buying and selling of pardons and indulgences in the Roman Catholic Church grew out of this same wicked idea, that God’s gift can be purchased with money, even though divine grace is offered freely, without money and without price.

Peter also shows Simon his true character, based on this sin. We cannot say every wrong thing a person says or does proves he is a hypocrite in religion. But Simon’s action was such a deep error that it could not fit with a state of grace, that is, a life saved and ruled by God’s favor. His offer of money, and money gained by sorcery too, was clear proof that he was still under a worldly, fleshly mind. He was still what Paul calls a natural person, someone who does not receive the things of the Spirit of God and cannot know them.

So Peter tells him plainly that his heart was not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:21). In other words, “Though you profess faith and have been baptized, you are not sincere.” We are what our hearts are. If the heart is wrong, then we are wrong. God sees the heart, knows it fully, and judges us by it. If our hearts are not right before him, then our religion is empty and will help us nothing. Our great concern should be to please him in honesty, or else we fool ourselves into ruin. Some take Peter’s words to mean especially that Simon’s request was refused because his heart was wrong in making it. He did not want God’s glory or Christ’s honor, but only to use the gift for himself. He asked, and did not receive, because he asked wrongly, to spend it on his own desires and still be thought of as some great man.

Peter also says that Simon is in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, or sin’s bondage (Acts 8:23). This is plain speaking, and plain speaking is best when we are dealing with souls and eternity. Simon had a great name among the people, and even a good name among God’s people for a time, yet Peter gives him a hard judgment. A person can still be ruled by sin and yet wear a form of godliness. Peter says, “I perceive it,” and this came not so much from a special gift of insight as from Simon’s own words showing what he was like. Hypocrites often get exposed quickly. The wolf’s nature shows through, even when it is dressed in sheep’s clothing.

This description of Simon is really the description of all wicked people. First, they are in the gall of bitterness. They are hateful to God, as gall is bitter to us. Sin is a disgusting thing, which the Lord hates, and sinners are made disgusting by it. Indwelling sin, the sin that lives within us, is a root of bitterness that bears gall and wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18). It corrupts the mind and turns it against what is good (Hebrews 12:15). It also points to sin’s painful end, which is bitter like wormwood.

Second, they are in the bond of iniquity. They are tied over for God’s judgment because of sin’s guilt, and they are held under Satan’s rule by sin’s power. They are led captive by him at his will, and that is a cruel slavery, like Egypt, where life was made bitter.

Peter then tells Simon what will become of him in two ways. First, he says his worldly wealth, which he had valued too highly, will perish with him: “May your money perish with you.” By this Peter rejects the offer with great anger and contempt. “Do you think you can bribe us to betray our trust and place this power in unworthy hands? Away with you and your money too. We want nothing to do with either.” When money tempts us to do evil, we should remember that money is temporary and refuse to be guided by it. The upright person shakes off bribery and will not even touch it (Isaiah 33:15).

Peter also warns him that he faces total destruction if he stays in this spirit. His money will be lost, and everything he hoped to get with it will be lost too. As food is for the stomach and the stomach for food (1 Corinthians 6:13), so goods are for money and money for goods. But God will destroy both money and the things it can buy. They pass away in the using. Yet that is not the worst of it. Simon himself will perish with his money, and the money with him. It will make his ruin heavier that he had money he could have used well, like laying it at the apostles’ feet as a gift, which would have been accepted (Luke 16:9). Instead, he tried to push it on them as a bribe, and it was rejected.

Second, Simon will miss the spiritual blessings he had treated lightly (Acts 8:21). “You have neither part nor share in this matter.” He has nothing to do with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He does not understand them and is shut out from them. He has blocked the door against himself. He cannot receive the Holy Spirit himself, or receive power to pass on the Holy Spirit to others, because his heart is not right before God. If he thinks Christianity is a way to make a living in this world, then he has no share in the eternal life the gospel offers in the next. Many people profess the Christian faith and still have no part or share in it, no part in Christ (John 13:8), and no share in the heavenly inheritance. They are people whose hearts are not right in God’s sight, not moved by a right spirit, not ruled by a right standard, and not aimed at the right goal.

Even so, Peter gives Simon good counsel in Acts 8:22. Though he is angry with him, he does not give up on him. And though he shows Simon his case is very bad, he does not call it hopeless. There is still hope in Israel. Peter tells him to do his first works. First, he must repent. He must see his error and turn from it. He must change his mind and his way. He must be humbled and ashamed for what he has done. His repentance must be specific. He must repent of this particular sin, admit he is guilty in it, and grieve over it. He must lay the blame on himself and not soften it by calling it a mistake or misguided zeal. He must call it what it is, wickedness, his own wickedness, the fruit of his own corruption. Those who have spoken or acted wrongly must, as far as they can, take it back and undo it by repentance. Second, he must pray to God, asking God to give him repentance and pardon through repentance.

People who truly repent must pray. Prayer shows a desire toward God and trust in Christ. Simon Magus, a famous magician who thought very highly of himself, would not be welcomed into the apostles’ fellowship on any easier terms than other sinners, repentance and prayer.

Peter also gave Simon hope by saying, “If possible, may the thought of your heart be forgiven you.” This reminds us that there can be great evil in the thoughts of the heart, in false ideas, corrupt desires, and sinful plans. Those things must be repented of, or we are lost. Yet even the worst thoughts can be forgiven when we repent, and they will not be held against us. When Peter says “if possible,” the doubt is not about God’s willingness to forgive a sincere penitent, but about whether Simon’s repentance is real. Or it may mean that Simon’s sin was so serious that pardon seemed doubtful, although the gospel promise removes that doubt when a person truly repents, as in (Lam 3:29).

Simon then asked the apostles to pray for him, saying, “Pray to the Lord for me, that nothing you have said may happen to me” (Act 8:24). He was shaken and confused by Peter’s rebuke. What he had expected to be praised was sharply condemned instead. That was a good sign, because he was moved by the warning and afraid of the judgment described, enough to make the boldest person tremble. He wanted the apostles to pray for him, since he believed they had favor with God.

Still, something was missing. He asked them to pray for him, but he did not pray for himself, as he should have done. Even in asking for prayer, his main concern seems to have been avoiding punishment, not having his sins defeated and his heart made right before God by grace. In that way he was like Pharaoh, who wanted Moses to ask the Lord to remove the plague, but not to remove his sin or stubborn heart (Exo 8:8; Exo 10:17). Some think Peter had spoken a specific judgment against him, as he did against Ananias and Sapphira, and that this judgment was held back because Simon submitted and the apostles prayed. Or Simon may simply have understood that some sign of God’s anger was coming and begged to escape it.

After this, the apostles returned to Jerusalem when they had finished the work they came to do. They were not yet to scatter in different directions. Though they had come for a task that belonged especially to apostles, they also took up work common to all gospel ministers whenever the chance came.

In Samaria, they were preachers. They testified to the word of the Lord, giving solemn witness to the truth of the gospel and confirming what the other ministers had preached. They did not claim to bring the Samaritans anything new, even though they were apostles. They simply bore witness to the Lord’s word as they had received it.

On the way home, they were also traveling preachers. As they passed through many Samaritan villages, they preached the gospel there too. Those villages were smaller and less important than the cities, but the souls there were just as precious. The apostles did not think it beneath them to preach to them. God cares for the people in his villages in Israel (Jdg 5:11), and we should care for them too.