Fake Faith
Acts 2021 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:32
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· 436 viewsIs your faith genuine? See what fake faith can look like in this message from Acts 8:8-24.
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Can I ask you to seriously ponder a question with me this morning: why do you want God to work in your life?
Don’t answer too quickly. I want you to stop and genuinely think through your answer before you give me your holiest church look.
If you were with us last week when we talked about God working through us, why did you want Him to work?
Last week, we were introduced to Phillip’s ministry in the region of Samaria.
Over the next two weeks, we are going to examine how two different men responded to the message Phillip preached.
One man, named Simon, responded with fake faith.
The other, a man we only know as “the Ethiopian Eunuch”, responded with genuine faith.
As we look at the two stories, we are going to see a very noticeable contrast between the two:
Fake faith is all about the eyes; genuine faith is all about the heart.
This week, we are going to see how Simon’s fake faith was all about the eyes. Next week, we will see how the eunuch’s faith was a genuine heart response.
To get a good picture of what Simon’s faith looks like, let’s read the whole section of Acts 8:9-24.
There’s a lot going on here, so let’s take a few minutes and highlight four ways that fake faith is all about the eyes.
Fake Faith is all about the eyes because it:
1) Loves to be seen.
1) Loves to be seen.
(9-11)
From the very beginning, we see that Simon is clearly a man who loves to be recognized.
Look at how he is described in verse 9…
He was a magician.
In those days, that means he would have done everything from tricks to science and math to rituals that we would say are occultic.
He may even have had some demonic powers that he could draw from to impress and scare the people in Samaria.
He had even earned a nickname: “The Great Power of God”.
That nickname would have meant that the people thought he either was God or at least was possessed by a god.
In fact, early church traditions indicate that Simon went on to start the Gnostics, which was one of the largest heretical groups to challenge the early church.
Verse 11 tells us that he used to wow the crowds with his tricks and his knowledge, and they ate it up.
All that attention would have fed Simon’s pride, puffing him up, and making him want it all the more.
Although these verses take place before Simon supposedly got saved, we see the same characteristics in his encounter with Peter later in the chapter.
The desire to be seen can be a key indicator of a fake faith.
Although we all struggle with the desire for recognition at times, a person whose faith is not genuine will predominately do what they do so that others will see.
This is what we have talked about when we have talked about pride before: Pride is putting “I” in the middle.
He had fame, he had notoriety, and it made him feel important.
Whether he believed he was a god or not, he was acting like he thought he was. He wasn’t submitting to God’s Word or trying to honor him; instead, he was trying to show how special he was.
Remember what we saw last year when we looked through the Sermon on the Mount about doing things just so others will see how good we are?
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.
So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.
But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.
Let me ask you again: why do you want God to work in your life?
Is it so that others will notice how spiritual and good you are, or so that you will gain some kind of prestige?
If so, you need to seriously examine your heart. You may have the same heart as Simon the magician…a heart that wants notoriety more than you want God to be made famous.
Fake faith loves to be seen. It just makes sense, then, that fake faith…
2) Focuses on the outside.
2) Focuses on the outside.
(12-13)
Read verses 12-13 with me.
If this is all we had of Simon’s life, we would think he was saved.
The text says he believed, and isn’t that what it takes to know Jesus?
Yes and no.
If belief doesn’t impact the heart, it is fake faith.
James said it this way:
You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
You know who understands theology better than you? Satan.
The sworn enemy of God knows more of the Bible, more of who God is, and more of what the Christian life should look like than any of us do.
That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light”
He knows and believes these things are true, but he doesn’t trust God for anything.
The same thing happens for us: We believe that Abraham Lincoln really existed and that he did a lot of great things for our country, but we don’t trust him to save us.
It seems like Simon was the same way—he may have believed that God had power, but he failed to see his need for Christ.
Not only did he believe, but Simon also went as far as to be baptized.
After that, he followed Phillip around.
It seems, though, that none of it impacted his heart!
Here’s something that scares me: I am afraid of preaching week after week after week, getting to heaven, and realizing that someone in this church family didn’t make it.
Listen to me: Religious actions that aren’t based on repentance cannot make you right with God.
If your belief doesn’t change you at a heart level, you don’t know Jesus!
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for the same thing:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity.
In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Is Jesus describing you this morning when he says this?
Don’t be like a pretty grave; you can put all the flowers on it that you want, but it still has a dead person inside!
In the same way, fake faith tries to do all kinds of outward activities, never allowing Jesus to transform the heart.
dFake faith wants to be seen, so it does everything possible on the outside withdiscoout ever affecting the heart.
It may be a desire to be seen by others, or possibly even a desire to impress God with how good you can be.
Either way, it isn’t sincere faith, because sincere faith understands that I have nothing that I can impress God with, so all I can do is surrender and ask for his forgiveness and mercy!
Without true repentance, you are living in a fake faith that is all about you.
Since fake faith doesn’t genuinely transform a person, it doesn’t have a true part in what God is doing.
That’s why, just like with Simon, we see that fake faith…
3) Watches from a distance.
3) Watches from a distance.
(14-19)
Let’s take a few minutes to look at what’s going on.
This is the second time in the book of Acts we have seen the Holy Spirit coming to a group of believers.
In Acts 2, we see the Holy Spirit poured out on all those who were saved and gathered together, praying for Jesus to send the Spirit.
There is no mention of individuals receiving the Holy Spirit like that again until this section.
That doesn’t mean that new believers in Jerusalem didn’t receive the Holy Spirit when they were saved; it just means that it was a normal part of conversion at this point.
But now, verse 16 says that the Samaritans “had only been baptized in the name of Jesus.”
That implied that they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit when they got saved.
How could that be?
Keep in mind the context of what is taking place. You are dealing with a unique time in history, at the very birth of the church.
Much of what happens, especially in the first part of Acts, isn’t normal, and we shouldn’t draw a pattern from it.
That would be somewhat like saying that before you light your charcoal grill, you should douse the coals in water like Elijah did with the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel, or that you shouldn’t look for a ferry across a body of water, you should just follow Moses’ lead and hold out your staff.
Those were unique events where God was working in unique ways. The same is happening here.
So why didn’t the Holy Spirit come on them when they were saved?
Likely, God held off giving the Spirit to them to help the different groups in the church see that He was bringing everyone together into the same group.
Keep in mind that thus far, everything that has happened has centered around the apostles, their teaching, and Jerusalem. These were Jewish believers who were leading other Jews to saving faith in Christ.
Now, the Gospel has come to a large group of people who weren’t full-blooded Jews.
Not only that, but it wasn’t the apostles who had been preaching; it was a servant of the church named Phillip.
When Peter and John came down, they came to help support Phillip in what God was doing.
Once they saw that the Holy Spirit hadn’t come to the Samaritan believers, they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
That would have validated what God was doing as genuine, helping the Jerusalem church start getting the picture that what God was doing was really bigger than them.
God was saving the Samaritans the same way He was saving the Jews, and as we see in chapter 10, will save the Gentiles.
In all this, though, you have Simon. He’s been shadowing Phillip to try and learn some of his tricks.
When he sees Peter and John laying hands and people receiving the Holy Spirit, he wants to get in on some of that.
Can you imagine how much money you could make if you could manipulate the Spirit of God and give people God’s power?
That was Simon’s interest. He wasn’t participating in what God was doing; he was watching from the outside.
That’s reflected in verse 18—he “saw that the Spirit was given…”
Did you notice that it doesn’t say, “After he received the Spirit through the laying on of the apostles’ hands”?
He had not been a part of it; all he could do was watch and observe.
That’s the trouble with fake faith. Since it’s all about the eyes, all it can do is watch from outside.
Let me ask you this: Do you ever wonder what the big fuss is about? Why do people cry during songs? Why are people so excited when somebody gets saved? Why are people so feverishly devoted to their church?
If you find yourself “not getting it”, it may be that you don’t have a genuine faith.
Genuine faith doesn’t mean that you’re a blubbering idiot all the time, but it does mean that you have a part in the work of God that reaches to your core.
You aren’t simply watching from a distance like Simon. Instead, you are actively involved, and you can see Him at work in and through your life and the lives around you.
If you’re just confused about it all, it may be that you don’t have genuine faith:
But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.
For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Here’s the scariest part of all of it: Fake faith, with its desire to be seen and external focus will watch from the outside forever.
In fact, that’s the last reality we see in this tragic story. Fake faith…
4) Cannot save.
4) Cannot save.
(20-24)
If you had been holding out hope that Simon was saved, the strong language of the last few verses dash it pretty well.
Listen to Peter’s rebuke:
“be destroyed” – This is related to the word “perish” in John 3:16
“have no part or share” – Like we said, he was simply looking from the outside.
“your heart is not right before God”
“repent of this wickedness” – This is a phrase that typically is used of lost people, not believers.[i]
“poisoned by bitterness” – This pulls up images from Deuteronomy:
Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
“pray that…your heart’s intent may be forgiven”
Simon’s response doesn’t give us much hope. Look at verse 24…
He seems somewhat remorseful, but he doesn’t seem at all repentant.
Instead of calling out to God in brokenness and repentance, he asks Peter to pray that his punishments will just go away.
This man looked, at least for a season, like he had it all together. He went through the motions, but his heart had never changed.
He was all about the eyes: make outward changes so everyone will love you or respect you or think you’re special.
Inwardly, though, he was still completely lost.
Fake, outward faith cannot save.
That is the last thing we hear from this Simon in all the Bible.
Don’t let this be the last thing we hear from you.
“Aww, pastor, I’m fine. Just pray for me. The Good Lord knows my heart.”
You may be a good man or a well-loved woman. You may have done all kinds of things for the church, and you may be trusting in that to save you.
That is a fake faith that is based on you, and just like for this guy named Simon, it cannot save you.
The only faith that saves is a genuine trust and heart transformation.
We’ll see what that looks like next week when we see the Ethiopian Eunuch, whose heart was genuinely transformed.
I don’t want you to walk out of here this morning with just the bad news.
The reality is that Jesus can save you, if you’re willing to give up the outward show and actually turn to following Christ.
Endnotes:
[i] Bible Knowledge Commentary on Acts 8:13.