31st August 2010

Acts 8:9-25 – Simon the Sorcerer.

• “Process versus Purchase”.
• Simon was either just a magician who liked to control people or he may have been the leader of the Gnostics. We are unsure.
• The Gnostics were keen to emphasize different levels of spirituality and hidden spiritual secrets.
• Simon was ‘the man’ in both senses of the word.
• He was ‘the man’ in the sense of being famous and popular.
• He was ‘the man’ in the sense of a kind of spiritual authority in some people minds. Particularly so if he was indeed the leader of the Gnostics.
• Then these new upstarts come into town and do things in God’s power that he could only dream of.
• Simon does what so many other leaders think they can do… he attempts to purchase the Gift of God.
• He sees something others have, and perhaps in order to compete and secure his spiritual position in the community, he offers money for the gift.
• But the disciples did not purchase the gift of God themselves; they had been Jesus’ Talmidim for three years.
• They had gone through a process.
• I see this often in Christian leadership; We see a program in another church or organization and want to hire someone to come and create the same program for our own ministry.
• I see so few leaders really investing into others and committing to the slow, laborious task of taking others through the process in order to create a new leader.
• We just transfer leaders from one place to another.
• This principle applies to many areas of our lives; We must go through the process rather than be tempted to purchase the gift of God.
• Praying I will stay committed to the process and not look for shortcuts.
• Thanking God for Harry Letson who took me through the process.