What would would do if a sorcerer came to your church service with a pocket full of silver and a hankering to serve God? I’m not sure what I’d do, but it happened once in the book of Acts.
The Sorcerer’s name was Simon and he’s the quintessential example of a New Testament tare. His spiritual hypocrisy is second only to Mr. Iscariot himself.
Immediately after the persecution of the church in Acts chapter eight, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them” (Acts 8:5). The Samaritans heard the gospel preached, turned from their idolatry and placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone.
“Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed” (Acts 8:13).
Simon was a churchgoer who heard the gospel, believed it intellectually, got baptized, continued along in Philip’s ministry, was consistently amazed at all the miracles, and yet was 100% unsaved.
Once Simon saw that the Spirit’s power came “through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:18-19).
Some people want to believe that Simon the Sorcerer was genuinely saved, just immature in his faith. Yet the apostle Peter did not believe that at all.
In fact, “Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:20-23).
Notice how Peter described Simon’s spiritual condition. He declared that Simon’s money would “perish” with him, that he had “no part or portion” in the ministry, and that his “heart is not right before God.”
He didn’t stop there either.
Peter also told Simon that he believed him to be “in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” The gall of bitterness? The bondage of iniquity?
Really? A slave of sin? In possession of a heart not right before God? Does that sound like the spiritual status of a genuinely saved Christian to you?
No, it does not.
Simon the Sorcerer was not regenerate. He was spiritually dead—not spiritually immature. He was a believing, baptized, unrepentant, church-attending tare mingling in the fields of early church Christianity.
I think it is extremely important for us to understand how Peter ministered to that unsaved, churchgoing tare. His words may seem harsh at first but they were precisely what Simon needed to hear at the time.
In fact, after being radically confronted with the reality of his spiritual bankruptcy, only then did Simon become more interested in the need for prayer than he was previously about money.
I do not think Simon got saved right then and there, but I am convinced there is a lot to learn from studying how Peter handled that churchgoing tare.
Hey, let’s start a conversation here. Answer this question:
What would you have done with Simon if you were Peter?