Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received [the] Holy Spirit.
Philip preached in Samaria, and a whole city believed. But the Holy Spirit did not come on them until two apostles arrived from Jerusalem — which raises three questions: what were these believers missing, why the wait, and does the same order hold today?
The Samaritans were not half-converted. Commentators say their place before God was already settled. One blessing, though, had not yet reached them.
Believers they were. Children of God they had become. Saved souls they certainly were. But in belonging to Christ (Rom. 8:9), and in being members of His body (1 Cor. 12:13), they had not yet shared. These spiritual blessings depended on receiving the Holy Spirit... So we see plainly that people may be believers and yet not be what Scripture calls sealed (Eph. 1:13) — that is, not partakers of the gift of the Holy Spirit. But God does not want to leave anyone in that condition.
The laying on of hands did not stand alone. It followed prayer, and that prayer was not a nervous experiment but a claim on a promise already made.
And what could be more fitting in servants of Christ when they came down? They "prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit." God had so far withheld this, the great and characteristic privilege of the Christian. But the apostles in Jerusalem were moving in the current of His will and ways. Peter and John were there. They saw what was lacking and spread it out before God. They did not doubt. They counted on His faithfulness to make good the promise of the Spirit.
The delay was not an accident. Writers point to the old rivalry between Jerusalem and Samaria as the reason.
Jerusalem and Samaria had long been religious rivals, as John 4 shows. So there must have been a strong pull to carry that old prejudice into the new conditions. It would have meant a Samaritan church standing apart from the Jerusalem church, if not in rivalry with it. Any practical expression of the "one body" would then have been put at risk, even before God had revealed the truth of it. Instead, they received the Spirit only when Peter and John came down and laid hands on them. That act tied the apostles and the church in Jerusalem to these new believers in Samaria. So the church stayed one.
So what did the act itself say? It declared that the two sides belonged together, and the choice of these two men made that all the sharper.
The person who laid hands on another declared by that act his oneness and sympathy with him... Peter and John acted for the Christians in Jerusalem. They expressed their oneness with the new group of believers that had sprung up in the city they had always hated and despised... In this way God showed openly that the Church is one, whether planted in this city or that... The choice of men was remarkable too. Peter was the strict, conservative Jew, who had always judged it unlawful to visit or keep company with a man of another nation (Acts 10:28). John was the son of thunder, who once asked his Lord if he should command fire to come down from heaven and burn up the Samaritans.
Here the Spirit came only after the apostles laid on hands. Some have built a two-stage Christian life on that. The letters written to the churches rule it out.
The Samaritans had not yet received the Holy Spirit. He came to them only after Peter and John arrived from Jerusalem and laid hands on them. This has puzzled many earnest students of the Word. It has also led to mistaken teachings, as if a person must receive the Holy Spirit in some special way after conversion... The letters to the churches unfold the great truths and blessings of salvation in Christ Jesus. Not one of them says a word about receiving the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. Not one tells a person who has trusted Christ and is born again to seek the gift of the Spirit afterwards.
The practice itself has the same limit. In every case of this kind, the hands were apostolic.
In all these cases, notice who lays on hands: the apostles, or Timothy. Timothy was an apostolic delegate, so he acted under Paul's direction and authority. That is why no one could practise it now, unless they claimed "apostolic succession." There is not even the shadow of a proof for that in the Scriptures, which in fact disprove it easily.
- Saved, then sealed. The Samaritans already believed and were children of God. The Spirit was a further blessing, and God does not want anyone left without it.
- Delayed on purpose. The gift was withheld until Jerusalem arrived, so that old rivalry could not harden into two competing churches.
- Prayer first. Peter and John did not presume. They asked God, counting on His faithfulness to His promise.
- Hands mean oneness. Laying on hands said "we are one with you" — Jerusalem owning Samaria as its own.
- Apostolic, not repeatable. No letter to the churches tells a believer to seek the Spirit later, or through hands. To claim this practice today, you need a succession the Bible never grants.
But Simon, having seen that by the laying on of the hands of the apostles the [Holy] Spirit was given, offered them money,
Simon the sorcerer had been baptized with the crowds in Samaria. Then he watched Peter and John lay hands on the new believers. What he saw made him reach for his money — and the offer exposed him.
Commentators differ on what Simon actually saw. One writer holds that what struck him was outward power, not the inward work of the Spirit:
Something was passed on, and it was visible even to the eye of unconverted Simon. He could not see the inward communication of the Spirit of holiness, nor could Peter impart it. Simon had no wish to give sanctification to whomever he pleased. But he did want to hand on the gift of miracle, and he offered money to buy the power.
Kelly reads it differently, and asks why the apostles' hands were the channel at all:
There was certainly something to be "seen." But that does not change the truth: the Spirit Himself was being given inwardly. It was not merely "gifts," still less only what men call the miraculous gifts of the Spirit… But why should God not give the Spirit this way if He pleased? It is for Him to judge His own best methods. At Pentecost God gave the Spirit without the laying on of hands. Now He was pleased to honour the apostles as the channel.
Hole gives a reason why the apostles had to come:
There had been religious rivalry between Jerusalem and Samaria… So the Samaritans received the Spirit only when Peter and John came down and laid hands on them. That formally tied the apostles and the church in Jerusalem to these new believers in Samaria. The oneness of the church was preserved.
Baptism had put Simon among the believers. The gift of the Spirit sorted him out from them:
When the Holy Spirit was given, the line was drawn between what was real and what was not. Not everyone baptized proves to be real, but the Spirit is only given to those who are. So at Samaria the baptized Simon was left without the Holy Spirit… He would never have said, "Give me also this power," if he already had it. Nor did he understand it, as his offer of money proves.
He had made his living from wonders, and he judged this new power by the same measure:
The sorcerer looked on in amazement, watching the apostles' power displayed in giving the Holy Spirit. He knew well how people regarded anyone who claimed supernatural powers. He knew, too, what profit he had made by dazzling the crowds with his sorceries. If only he could have the power Peter and John had shown, what money he would make! … The power to give the Spirit was what he wanted, not the blessing of receiving it. For that he did not care.
The word coined from this scene is still in use, and the writers point out how easily it is aimed at other people:
The unhappy man has given us a new word; but sadly, how many of those who call others guilty of "simony" have been openly guilty of the same sin themselves!
The offer showed what Simon thought God was like:
He betrayed his complete ignorance of God. God has revealed Himself as a giver, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. He has given His Son, and in Him eternal life to us. The Spirit too is His gift, resting on the work of Jesus. But of all this Simon knew nothing. It was power that had attracted him, and power was what he craved. He was after making himself great, not the glory of God.
Simon had believed. Kelly looks at what that kind of faith rests on:
As I see it, the Spirit of God here lays bare the source of Simon's faith: it was merely natural, unlike the faith of others. And so it is with all faith founded on "evidences," which the mind weighs and accepts on that basis. It may not be insincere at all. Those who believe this way may be the quickest to fight for their creed if needed. But there is no life, and no repentance, no link with Christ formed by the Holy Spirit through receiving the word.
One writer traces a pattern through the early chapters of Acts:
This is the third recorded outbreak of evil inside the circle of those who had been baptized. First Ananias. Second, the complaint about the neglected widows. Third, Simon the sorcerer. In each case, notice, money was involved. In this third case we see Satan beginning to turn the pure faith of Christ into a money-making religion. In Samaria it was only a trickle, running through one man. It soon swelled into a flood.
- Gift — God has shown Himself to be a giver: His Son, eternal life in Him, and the Spirit resting on the work of Jesus. Simon knew nothing of this.
- Gaze — His faith rested on "evidences" that the mind weighs and accepts. Such belief can be sincere, even ready to fight for its creed, yet carry no life, no repentance, no link with Christ.
- Grab — He asked for the power to give the Spirit, not for the Spirit Himself. Money and standing were what he was after.
- Gulf — The gift of the Spirit drew the line between real and unreal. Baptism had not made him real, and his offer of money proved he did not have the Spirit.
- Growth — What began as a trickle through one man in Samaria swelled into a flood: religion run as a business.