God Works in Multiple Ways

Diversity in Salvation Experience

Luke 6:17-19 | Acts 8:14-25

There’s something intriguing going on in Acts.

It’s helpful and relieving to acknowledge that the journey of salvation in Christ can look different from person to person, situation to situation. Sometimes, in an effort to simplify things, Christians doing theology have sought to systematize what it is to become a Christian: Say this particular prayer, kneel at an altar, get baptized, join the Church, etc. For sure, each of these things is contributive and some of them, necessary to a high degree.

But God’s salvation is wider than a system that humans seek to codify and define.

Take for one Saul’s experience, whose salvation story we will soon see culminate in a very unique and particular experience involving losing his sight, hearing Jesus speak to him, and more. Soon enough, he receives the Holy Spirit and is then baptized.

Then there’s Simon of Samaria (so, not Simon Peter), who we first met in yesterday’s passage. He and a whole bunch of people were baptized when they heard about Jesus. But then (Simon) Peter and John came later and laid their hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. But even more notable is that Simon of Samaria had been baptized, but clearly still had some significant work to be done in his life and understanding of God (see the story below).

Ought this give us patience for people who are on the journey with Christ?

In his gospel, Luke tells us that power was going out from Jesus toward all sorts of people. His healing is for anyone who would come to him. But time and progression are real things in the story of God. Grace is the descriptor of what happens in one’s life both at once and over the course of time. And God’s grace is at once powerful, always available, and yet patient. (It might not feel that way if we’re subject to the stinging, yet true, words of Simon Peter - “May you be condemned to hell!”) But God’s grace and patience rule in the end.

So as we continue through Acts, do note the vast difference in experience for those who come to receive Jesus as Lord, from Saul→Paul to Simon the Sorcerer to the Ethiopian eunuch who we’ll also soon meet. God is big and his grace goes beyond our desire to systematize and explain everything.

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Luke 6:17-19

Jesus came down from the mountain with them and stood on a large area of level ground. A great company of his disciples and a huge crowd of people from all around Judea and Jerusalem and the area around Tyre and Sidon joined him there. They came to hear him and to be healed from their diseases, and those bothered by unclean spirits were healed. The whole crowd wanted to touch him, because power was going out from him and he was healing everyone.

Acts 8:14-25

When word reached the apostles in Jerusalem that Samaria had accepted God’s word, they commissioned Peter and John to go to Samaria. Peter and John went down to Samaria where they prayed that the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit. (This was because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) So Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon perceived that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. He said, “Give me this authority too so that anyone on whom I lay my hands will receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter responded, “May your money be condemned to hell along with you because you believed you could buy God’s gift with money! You can have no part or share in God’s word because your heart isn’t right with God. Therefore, change your heart and life! Turn from your wickedness! Plead with the Lord in the hope that your wicked intent can be forgiven, for I see that your bitterness has poisoned you and evil has you in chains.”

Simon replied, “All of you, please, plead to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said will happen to me!” After the apostles had testified and proclaimed the Lord’s word, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the good news to many Samaritan villages along the way.

Prayer

God,

I’m pretty sure my vision and understanding will never match the breadth of yours. So help me in my ignorance and limitation to at least give space for the experience of other people. I can’t help it - I have so benefitted from your love and grace that I feel like everyone else should, too. And the experience I know best is my own. But give me patience and understanding for situations with which I can neither fully empathize nor even understand. (There’s a lot of weird people out there, God.)

Broaden my vision for your work.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.