Acts: Salvation and Bitterness

Let's pray shortly before we uh talk about this passage.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we uh as a community we proclaim that we believe in your Holy Spirit and the power of your scriptures, and we ask in these moments that your spirit would do that great work that we cannot do of convicting and comforting and counseling.

So have mercy on us sinners, especially the one who speaks.

Amen.

So if you remember back at Lent, we were talking about this make-believe couple, Randy and Sandy.

If you're with us, it's probably been a month ago or so.

But I have another story about Randy and Sandy, make-believe couple that we talked about.

This was back before their marriage was having problems, if you remember all of that and how that played out.

But this was back when their kids were little and their marriage was not having any problems, and they were on vacation with their two kids, Randy Jr.

and Sandy Jr.

They'll just keep it easy for us.

I know we need to make it easy.

And they went to Disney World, right?

Great vacation, and Randy and Sandy were so excited about this vacation.

It was gonna be so great.

And maybe you've been there, you've probably been there.

It's an amazing place, it's a world of imagination and cleanliness.

I mean, the whole time I'm there, all I'm I'm just looking for trash.

I'm just saying, like, is it possible for a piece of trash to be somewhere inside of this park?

Because it's all dialed in.

It's so perfect, it's all designed for you to have the greatest day, right?

And isn't that what you always get when you go to Disney World?

You just get an unbelievably great day.

Is that what you had happen when you went?

Maybe?

A few of you?

Well, Randy and Sandy, they got up real early with their little ones and they got to the park early to get that head start, to get to the rides early, to get a few rides in before the rest of the crowd.

And as soon as they walked in to the park, Randy Jr.

had a tummy ache.

And so they spend the first 30 minutes in the restroom there at the park.

That's a great way to start.

Your head start's already over, right?

And finally, Randy Jr., he finishes up, he comes out.

Sandy Jr., Randy, and Sandy, they're all there together.

And Sandy Jr., in her little mind, she had decided that the first thing they were gonna go ride was it's an amazing world.

The amazing small world.

The small world.

You can tell how important that ride is on my list.

It's a small world.

That was gonna be her first ride.

But not Randy Jr.

Randy Jr., he had decided it was gonna be the race cars.

And so right away, now we have conflict, and they start talking about it, and before long, they're not just talking about that.

They're talking about how they had to share a bed last night in the hotel room.

And Randy Jr.

was kicking, and Sandy Jr., she was stealing the covers and all of this.

This is the beautiful family vacation of Disney World, and they haven't even passed that first big flower bed when you walk in the park.

Right?

Maybe you've experienced it.

Here's my point.

You are in Disney World, and these problems still exist.

A world created of perfection, and still problems exist because we carry these problems in.

And here's my real point.

My real point is this you come into faith in Jesus, right?

He is loving, he is sufficient for you, you have absolution, you have acceptance, you have all of this, and you find out as a person of faith, real faith, you've carried stuff in.

You're still holding on to stuff.

So that's what this Acts passage is about, Acts 8.

We have this guy named Simon, who's a magician, he's been doing these tricks in his town.

He's kind of got a little bit of a reputation, he's a little crowd, he's a person of influence, and then the apostles show up in his area, and these guys have real power, they have real tricks, like real healings going on, and they they take us thunder.

Because all of a sudden his little magic tricks just aren't that great.

But in some ways, Simon's actually influenced by this.

Simon's amazed by this, he's convinced by this.

He comes to belief in their message about Jesus.

Then an unexpected thing happens.

I'll reread what Christie read for us, Acts 8, 18 through 24.

Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, right?

Like because he wanted it.

And this is after he's come to belief, saying, Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

For I see that you are in the gal of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.

And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

So Peter calls him out for one cause bitterness.

Despite Peter's despite Simon's salvation in Jesus, his belief, his real conversion, he's still bitter.

So Jesus didn't solve all his problems.

Faith didn't solve all his problems.

The problems didn't just all go away all of a sudden.

He's still bitter.

They stole his thunder.

They came into his town and he believed, but at the same time, he's sort of missing that power and that influence, and he's bitter toward them.

And you know what I'm talking about, because you still have bitterness.

I still have bitterness with that friend or that parent or that neighbor, that sibling, Randy Jr.

It doesn't mean you're not a person of faith.

It simply means you're a person who's still growing in grace, letting the Holy Spirit work the gospel into deeper places of your heart.

So a few points.

Point number one, we are positionally healed of our sinfulness.

And it is sinfulness, it's wickedness, even this bitterness.

It's called wickedness, but we are positionally healed of it.

Maybe not practically, but positionally.

Two weeks ago we were in New York for a theological conference, and the conference had ended, it was the afternoon, and so I go to get on the subway to go somewhere else.

I get on the subway, so it's the afternoon, everybody's getting on the subway to go somewhere.

It is slammed-packed, like shoved up, small people's heads in the armpits of tall people.

Have you ever been on the subway?

And I'm a tall person, just as awkward for me as the small person.

You're just shoved together, you don't want to look at anybody, you're tight.

There was a lady here, and then there's a guy here, I'm here, a guy here, and we're shoved, and the door's about right here.

Right when the door about is just about to shut, right when a lineman of a guy, a big boy, he was a big boy, and he was rough looking.

And he comes and he just pushes his way in.

And as he gets in, uh, we all, the entire train that is shoved packed, realize what he's doing.

He has his phone, he's holding his phone up about right here, and it's on full blast.

As loud as you can get that little speaker, it's going, and he has got a song going.

And not only the song going, he's singing the song out loud, full blast, as well.

He's having a great time.

The only problem with all this is the song was filled with language you did not necessarily want to hear.

It had one particular word in it, the word in it repeatedly, over and over and over again, and I cannot, I will not lie to you.

As his face is right here beside mine, his iPhone's about right here, right?

And somebody else is here, somebody else is here, we're all together in this great moment, and he is letting it rip.

And this, probably 37, I would guess, of this one word in probably about two minutes.

Full on.

No shame.

He is going for it.

Nobody, none of us know what to do.

We're not looking at him, we're a little scared of him, to tell you the truth, because he's looking rough, he's bit bigger than anybody on the train, nobody's gonna tell him to turn it off.

I I don't want to know what the song was about.

I don't want to Google it, that's for sure.

I don't want to see that video.

And then the strangest thing happened.

Like 30 seconds before the next stop, he turns his phone off and he turns and he looks at me in this like really tender voice, like a like a normal, like a like the voice he would use with his grandmother or something.

And he says, Do you have any spare change?

I'm not feeling charitable at this moment.

I say, No.

I have nothing for you.

I don't like you.

I wish you weren't on this train.

Somehow you can afford the iPhone.

I'm being very judgmental toward you at this point.

And he turns to the next person.

Do you have your spirit changed?

Turns to the next person, nobody gives the guy anything.

I mean, I wanted to give him a lesson on fundraising, right?

Share a vision, make an emotional connect, make an ask, follow up, don't say a lot of cuss words.

Hey, this is what I want to share with the guy.

And what I realized as he went person to person, as I finally looked at him, was he was just a kid.

He was probably 15 years old.

I did not realize it yet because I I wasn't gonna look at him as he was singing quite loudly these cuss words in my ear.

He was just 15.

You see, in an instant he became who he really was.

Just a kid, just a kid.

He's just a 15-year-old kid.

But the old act didn't go away.

Right?

So, like, here's this moment, this moment in time where in the same moment, he's just a 15-year-old kid, and yet at the same time, he's still the one who polluted us at the same moment.

Right?

You see where I'm going.

We are simultaneously sinners and saints.

Positionally, we are saints, even while practically we are still imperfect in our sinfulness.

Point number two, we too, like Simon, Acts 8, we too are magicians when it comes to bitterness.

See, Peter calls out in Simon something that had been there the whole time.

Our growth in grace is not a movement that we're gonna reach in some perfection in this life.

It's a never-ending process of seeing stuff like this.

Stuff like this popping up, right?

Bitterness popping up, resentment popping up, something popping up, our inability or unwillingness to forgive somebody, or our total judgment toward a guy on a subway train, right?

Like it's this stuff popping up and us being willing to face it, repent of it, reflect enough on it to let the Holy Spirit speak to us about this bitterness and why is it there?

Do you remember the Ruth and Naomi story I told you a few weeks ago from the Old Testament?

Naomi and her family, they had moved to Moab because there had been a famine where she was growing up with her family.

So Naomi, her husband, two sons, famine happens.

They move to Moab because they they just got to move where there's some food.

They get there, husband dies, and then the two sons grow up, they marry, two sons die.

So now it's down to her and her two daughters-in-law.

Eventually, her and one of the daughters-in-law, Ruth, Naomi and Ruth, they move back to the town where she's from.

And it's interesting.

She gets back there, like to a place of safety.

A place where she could face things, perhaps.

Her friends see her in the street.

And her friends say, Is this Naomi?

She's been gone a long time.

Is this Naomi?

And Naomi says, Don't call me Naomi.

She's saying, Don't call me lovely.

That's what her name means.

Don't call me lovely.

Don't call me that.

Call me Mara.

Call me bitter.

That's what Mara means.

So she says, Don't call me lovely, call me bitter.

For the Lord has dealt with me bitterly.

And then she says, I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.

You go, oh, that's that's really depressing.

Oh, here's the interesting thing about it.

The interesting thing about it was it's like all of this was already there.

Right?

When she's in Moab, I mean, her husband and her sons had already died.

All this bitterness, it was already inside of her, but it wasn't until she was in a place of safety where she could catch her breath enough to go, oh, this is all inside me.

This wickedness, right?

This thing that destroys me and destroys relationships, destroys relationship with God.

And here's the key.

The key is this is the gospel will give you the secure home your heart needs because you no longer have to try to please God as to be enough before Him.

Your sins have been cast upon the cross, his righteousness is given to you, so you are secure.

It's like Naomi back in her hometown, she's safe enough to finally say, This bitterness is in me.

And because you are a child by grace and you are valued by grace, now, because of Jesus, you can deal with something like bitterness without it destroying who you are.

Last point, point number three that which can heal us can only be received.

We can see it in the text, verses 19 through 21.

Simon wants this power.

Give me this power also, so that anyone whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

You see, you cannot buy God and his graces.

You can't buy salvation, you can't buy approval by God, you can't buy acceptance, you can't buy absolution.

It is all given.

No money, no merit.

And while on one side that's incredible news, you go, oh, that's incredible news.

Why would anybody want that?

Well, it's because it's incredibly offensive to you if you have any pride in your merit, any desire for control.

But if you're a person of poverty of spirits and incredibly freeing, and then you have the power of the Spirit of God in you because you're not living by control, but you're living by surrender.

I saw someone this past week that reminded me of someone else.

So it's all one guy who I associate with another guy, and this other guy I hold incredible bitterness toward.

This is a person that used to be a part of my life, that I have no desire for this person to be a part of my life anymore.

And that's fine, that's a boundary.

That would be fine for you and your life if you need that.

But what I realized is uh there's a lot of bitterness still inside of me.

Um, this is because I had a list of what this guy should do and be, and this guy demolish that, and I still want to make him pay in some way, right?

That's what bitterness does.

But really, it's just inside of me.

He's probably not even aware of it.

Right?

I mean, bitterness is deep ill feelings of resentment towards someone that ends up only hurting you.

I sat next to a man this week who's in his last days, and I got the privilege of asking him, are you at peace?

And he said, Yes, I'm at peace.

And he said it very, very peacefully, honestly, reflected.

And I left thinking, that's that's how you want to die.

That's also how you want to live until you get until when you die.

And this is where the gospel, a life of surrendering and receiving rather than controlling and earning, has something to say because first off, we know we are Simon.

We are a people that form and hold bitterness, and yet we're incredibly grateful that God forgives us in Jesus and counts none of it against us.

I can't summarize it any better than Tim Keller, the author and the pastor, he wrote on an article on community and peace, and we actually read this quote in our Explore Redeemer class, so many of you have probably heard it before.

You can remain bitter towards someone only if you feel superior.

If you are sure that you would never do anything like that.

To remain unforgiving means you are unaware of your own sinfulness and need for forgiveness.

When Paul says he is the worst among sinners, he's not exaggerating.

He is saying that he is as capable of sin as the worst criminals are.

The gospel has equipped him with emotional humility.

At the same time, you can't be gracious to someone if you are too needy and insecure.

If you know God's love and forgiveness, then there is a limit to how deeply another person can hurt you.

He or she can't touch your real identity, wealth, and significance.

The more you rejoice in your own forgiveness, the quicker you will be to forgive others.

You are rooted in emotional wealth.

My brothers and sisters, may you rejoice in your own forgiveness that was earned for you by Jesus on the cross and may you forgive others.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you call us away from such wickedness like bitterness that is wickedness to our hearts, and wickedness to relationship, and wickedness in front of you.

Would you call us to repent of it that we might honor you, that we might know freedom?

Help us to see this kind of stuff in our hearts quickly, and help us to be people who repent quickly.

God, forgive the ways that we hold this in our hearts, in our lives, and forgive the ways that we try to purchase before you the thing that we need, the way that we try to use our merit or our goodness to try to earn your power in our lives.

Help us to be a people that are poor in spirit, that we might know your spirit's activity in our hearts and our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.