SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/8/2017 8:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Wrong View
of Self
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:9-11
Message of the verses: “9 Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; 10 and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, "This man is what is called the Great Power of God." 11 And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.”
I have been watching a TV show that is about cops and one
of the things that I hear over and over again from the mouths of the cops and
also others who are in the show is “this man or this woman is really a good
person.” I realize that this is how the
world looks at people, but not the way that God looks at people. Paul writes in the book of Romans “All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God.” He writes in another part of Romans “The wages
of sin is death.” I have written in the
back of one of the oldest Bibles that I have the following: “Total Depravity: Now that we
are as bad as we could be, but we are as bad off as we can be.” John MacArthur writes at the beginning of
this section in his commentary: “A
faulty view of man keeps myriads out of the kingdom. The view that man is essentially good is
pervasive as it is damning. It lulls its
victims into a false sense of security, causing them to think that God applauds
their good deeds. In reality, He views
the supposed good works with which they clothe themselves as ‘a filthy garment’
(Isa.64:6). Any view of man as basically
good and capable of earning acceptance with God deadens people to the reality
of God’s impending judgment and blinds them to their need of a Savior. Those who fail to see themselves as sinners
will see no need for a Savior.”
As we begin to look at this section about Simon we find
that Simon thought way too highly of himself as he was “practicing magic in the
city, and astonishing the people of Samaria” which led him to claim “to be
someone great.” This kind of reminds me
of Romans 12:3 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of
himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” I realize that Paul was writing to believers
in Rome and he was about to go into the subject of receiving spiritual gifts
from the Holy Spirit, and this is why I believe he begins this section
reminding these believers that the gifts that they had actually had little or
nothing to do with themselves, but it was a gift from God. Now in the case of Simon, Luke is not
speaking about a believer, but he wanted people to think he was a great
person.
I believe that we could say that Simon saw Philips
teaching and all the people who were listening to him and he probably was
jealous as he was losing people who were following him. John MacArthur writes
“Magic referred originally to the lore of the magi—the priests of the
Medo-Persians. It was a mix of science
and superstition, combining astrology, divination, and occultic practices with
history, mathematics, and agriculture. It
could be trickery or demonic.”
I have mentioned in early SD’s that I see irony in the
book of Acts and as we have looked at the persecution which actually was headed
up by Satan in Jerusalem we see that the believers had to flee and what they
took with them, that is their faith in Jesus Christ they would spread to other
parts of the region. In the case of the
Samarians we see that Satan had a hold on the people there because of people
like Simon who was using magic to control them.
Philip comes into town with the true message of the gospel because he had
to leave Jerusalem and not the people of Samaria were hearing the truth of the
gospel. We read from verse ten about
Simon that “all of them from smallest to greatest were giving attention to him”
as they were impressed by his occult powers, and so they exclaimed that “This
man is what is called the Great power of God.”
Simon thought that he was a god.
“And Jesus said, "I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT
THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN’ (Mark
14:62).” This shows that Jesus did not
think that He was a god, but that He knew that He was God, unlike Simon.
John MacArthur writes “That Simon viewed himself as God
betrays the most heretical view of self imaginable. The early church Fathers reported that Simon
was one of the founders of Gnosticism and that he viewed himself as God
incarnate:
“The first two teachers to propagate Gnostic
ideas within Christian circles were Simon and his successor Menander. Unlike later and more famous representatives
of Gnosticism, both Simon and Menander claimed divinity for themselves. According to Acts 8:9-11, Simon called
himself the ‘great power of God.’ The
Greek term he used, dunamis, was used by later, more orthodox theologians in
reference to both the Son and the Holy Spirit…Justin Martyr also reports
Simon’s messianic claim. (Harold O. J.
Brown, Heresies.)
“Simon’s perverted view of
himself gave Satan an opening to use him to spread false doctrine through the
church. His false teaching, later
elaborated into full-blown Gnosticism, was to threaten and embattle the church
from Paul onward for centuries.”
Spiritual meaning
for myself for today: Romans 12:3.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to love others as Jesus loves them.
Memory verses: Philippians 8:1, 8 “1 Therefore, my beloved
brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the
Lord, my beloved.” 8 “Finally brethren,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Thyatira” (Acts 16:14).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who caused Naboth to be
stoned to death?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/8/2017 8:50 AM
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