What's in it for me?

Written by Marv Thiessen

Pastor Marv Thiessen

Calgary First Mennonite Church

May 30, 2010

 

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Acts 8:9-25

 

I. Introduction

I’ve told you a few stories about Yertle van Zanten’s pastoral experiences and here’s another. It was during Yertle’s first year as the pastor of the church he first pastored when he received an unexpected phone call one Sunday afternoon. The call came from someone who had recently begun attending the church. This gentleman complimented Yertle on the fine sermon he had preached that morning so Yertle was feeling good about the phone call. Then the gentleman went on to express his view that pastors tended not to earn as much as they should, considering all the skills required and the stress generated by the pastoral role. Now Yertle was feeling even better about the phone call. Here was a man who truly appreciated Yertle’s contributions and situation in his role as pastor.

But Yertle’s good feelings about the phone call evaporated as he realized the man’s intentions. The man went on to explain to Yertle that he had a proposition for Yertle. God had provided him with substantial economic profit over the past few years and he would like to share that with Yertle. He had become involved in a network marketing company and would like to give Yertle the opportunity to join him in this company. Would Yertle be interested in reviewing some material he could give him? Yertle didn’t think he had time to pursue additional work beside what he was doing as a pastor but he also didn’t want to rebuff this man who had recently begun attending his church, so he said he would review the material. Several days later, after receiving the material, Yertle read some literature and popped in the promotional videotape and realized that he was being recruited to sell Amway products. Now, he knew for sure that he didn’t have time for this network marketing work and he politely declined the offer.

The experience left Yertle feeling slightly unsettled because he wondered about this man’s motivation as he attended Yertle’s church. Was he there in order to ferret out new recruits for his network marketing? Was he looking at connecting with the church or responding to God because he thought he could get something good out of it for himself? Yertle’s first reaction was to think it was a bad thing if the man was thinking that way. But then he caught himself by reminding himself that Christians of all sorts follow Christ or become involved in the church, anticipating that they will get something good out of it. Was that such a bad thing?

II. Self-interest and Simon

I think the question that Yertle posed to himself is a question that follows quite naturally on the story from Acts 8:9-25 that we want to look at today. Let’s think about this man, Simon, and his actions and motivations. Then, we’ll come back to considering in what ways we might look like Simon and how to respond to that. The story begins by telling us about this man named Simon who had been practicing sorcery in Samaria for some time. Simon evidently had some magical powers and he had impressed the people of Samaria by his use of those powers. The storyteller, Luke, takes pain to tell us that people of low and high class alike thought highly of Simon. He appealed to educated humans just as much as to uneducated humans. In fact, people were inclined to think of him as being god-like. They called him the Great Power and followed him, recognizing him as a spiritual leader.

But then Philip appeared on the scene. Philip was one of the men who had been selected to be a deacon in the Jerusalem church in Acts 6. After a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem following the death of Stephen, Philip fled Jerusalem along with many other Christians. He came to Samaria and proclaimed the good news of Jesus there as well as healed sick people and cast out evil spirits. It seems that the people of Samaria were more impressed with Philip than they had been with Simon. Verse 12 of Acts 8 tells us that that the people believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and that they were baptized. Even Simon believed and was baptized.

Because Simon was later rebuked by Peter for a suggestion he made as we shall get to shortly, his belief might be viewed as questionable. It seems to me that we should allow Luke’s words about Simon to stand. Luke doesn’t actually criticize Simon in the text. Here he simply records that Simon became a believer and an avid follower of Philip. I take it from that that Luke considered him to be a follower of Jesus. I think it’s also worth noting that this was a remarkable conversion. Throughout the Bible, the practice of sorcery or of the magic arts is seen as something completely opposed to God. That tells us that when Simon believed the message of Jesus, he likely abandoned the practice of sorcery. Luke doesn’t tell us that specifically but it is logical to expect that that’s what happened. I offer that insight simply to have us be impressed with the power of God to change lives that have been opposed to him. And then I repeat my understanding that Simon’s belief was genuine.

The story then moves on to record the reaction in Jerusalem to the spread of the gospel to Samaria and the church’s sending of Peter and John to Samaria. We discussed that aspect of this story in a previous sermon, so we’ll move on to the interaction between Peter and Simon. Simon responded to the events he saw that were brought on by the ministry of Peter and John. That was that when Peter and John prayed for the people of Samaria and laid their hands on them, the people received the Holy Spirit. Most likely, given the other stories of the reception of the Holy Spirit in Acts, this meant that the people spoke in tongues. Most certainly, there was something in that event that was visible and impressive because when Simon saw the results of this laying on of hands and the reception of the Holy Spirit, he wanted a piece of the action.

In verse 18, Simon offered Peter money so that Peter would give him the ability to grant the gift of the Holy Spirit when he laid his hands on people. As we read that, we are struck by how unknowledgeable Simon was at this point. The granting of the Holy Spirit was something that came from God. Human beings didn’t receive the ability to give the Holy Spirit to others. We would think that Peter could simply have educated Simon at this point. We would also wonder if there was actually anything wrong with Simon’s request since it might simply have been an ignorant request.

But Peter saw something very objectionable in the request and rebuked Simon vigorously. He viewed Simon as wanting to use his money to buy the gift of God and concluded that Simon’s heart was not right with God. He called on Simon to repent for this terrible thought and concluded that Simon was full of bitterness and a captive to sin. This is strong language and I wonder if Peter evaluated Simon’s motives correctly. Luke doesn’t tell us what Simon’s motive was. He just wanted this gift. Peter evaluated Simon’s motive negatively. He saw in Simon a profound self-interest. I think he thought that Simon wanted this gift so that he could profit from it. I think it’s entirely possible that Peter was wrong since Simon immediately asked for Peter to pray for him so that bad things wouldn’t happen to him. He may have been genuine in wanting to learn from Peter and genuine in wanting to be forgiven for a mistake. On the other hand, he may have been self-interested and just asked Peter to pray so that he would escape any negative judgment from God. I don’t think we can conclude what Simon’s motives were but Peter’s discernment of his motives can lead to some profitable self-examination for us.

III. Religious Self-interest and us

If Peter was correct in judging in Simon a high level of self-interest as he came to God, we would ask how we might also be people who come to Jesus or to his church with an attitude of self-interest. Even if Peter wasn’t correct, this is still a good question for us to ask of ourselves. Do we come to Jesus or to his church out of self-interest? And is it wrong to come to Jesus or to his church with an attitude of self-interest?

The answer to the first question is one that you’ll have to answer for yourselves although I’ll suggest some leading thoughts. I think it’s very possible for us to come to Jesus or to his church with an attitude of self-interest. Haven’t we all responded to the gospel message at some level because we think it’s good for us? We expect that God will bless us in some way. We expect that we will experience greater levels of peace and joy in our lives. We anticipate the promise of eternal life. In all those ways, we’re thinking about ourselves when we come to Jesus.

And don’t we all tend to think about our participation in a church in terms of what we’ll get out of our participation in that church? I believe that the strong impulse of individual self-fulfillment in our culture affects how we think about church. We can easily be inclined to evaluate our church based on what we get out of it. Are the programs such that my needs are met? Is the worship style one that I fully enjoy? Do the pastor’s sermons meet my needs? We all evaluate church with those kinds of questions in mind at least to some extent, don’t we?

It’s true, isn’t it, that we all have some level of self-interest involved as we come to Jesus and to his church. But is there anything wrong with that? How does the Bible direct our thinking in responding to this question? Let’s divide this up. Let’s ask first if there is there anything wrong with choosing to follow Jesus out of self-interest. To some degree, I think Jesus would be puzzled with this question. When he called people to follow him, his expectation seemed to be that there would be difficulty ahead for those who followed him. His call for them to follow was not a call that was based on how good it would be for them. Rather, it was a call based on it being the right thing to do because it was the truth. He was the way and the truth and people should follow him due to that. I think that’s what we would say was the underlying basis for the call to come to Jesus. At the same time, Jesus did promise good things to his followers. Jesus said he would give them peace. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be with them to provide guidance and comfort. And Jesus did many miracles that benefited the people who followed him. My conclusion is that we can’t say that self-interest should be completely absent when we choose to come to Jesus. We believe that God is alive and active and giving good gifts to his children. There is good stuff available to us because we come to Jesus. It can’t be wrong to anticipate good stuff from God when we come to Jesus.

But if our sole motivation in coming to Jesus is our expectation of that good stuff, then our response isn’t all that it should be. Our positive response to the call of Jesus should rather be rooted in a belief that Jesus is the truth and that we are doing what we should do because the good news of Jesus is the truth. Our positive response to the call of Jesus should anticipate that difficulty may come to us because of that positive response. A response on that basis helps us to live with commitment to God and to others without demands of self-interest.

Then, how do we respond to the question of whether it’s good to come to the church out of self-interest? I commented earlier that self-interest is quite common as people come to church. I believe there is greater emphasis among churchgoers today on what they get out of church than what would have been the case in previous generations. There may be something positive in this. It may be that people generally feel more enthusiastic about the churches they attend because they’re making sure they like those churches.

To come to the church out of self-interest doesn’t seem very biblical to me, however. The commands to Christians who live in faith communities throughout the New Testament call them to work hard at living together in love and unity with the people in their faith community. The commands call Christians to serve each other and to put others interests at least as high as their own. That seems to speak against the idea of making self-interest important in choosing church. Church is where we learn to serve and live with different expressions and opinions. Church can be a place of difficult relational work. But that’s what we’re called to and it is in sticking with a place that we find doesn’t always agree with our ideas of self-interest that we grow.

Joseph Hellerman, a professor at Talbot School of Theology, recently wrote an essay with this idea in mind. He asked what the church would look like if "we put we before me." He opines that spiritual growth occurs in community and especially so when courageous Christians "stick it out through the messy process of interpersonal conflict." (Hellerman, "A Family Affair" in Christianity Today, May 2010, p. 43) He says that "long-term relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay grow." He argues that people who move from church to church looking for places that will better satisfy their felt needs are people who "seldom experience lasting, fruitful growth in their Christian lives." (p. 43) Those are strong words that argue against the common practice in our individualistic age of choosing church out of self-interest.

I conclude that our response to the question about coming to church out of self-interest should be similar to our previous response regarding coming to Jesus out of self-interest. Our primary motivation in coming to church shouldn’t be that of self-interest. Our primary motivation should rather come from a commitment to serve and contribute to the work of God’s kingdom in which the church is engaged. While we’re right to expect good things at church, self-interest should not be our primary motivation. Then, while you could argue that this is still a motivation of self-interest, we should look at church as a place where we can grow in difficult times rather than a place where we expect to get only good things for ourselves and to feel good all of the time.

IV. Conclusion

Let’s return our thoughts to the encounter between Peter and Simon in Acts 8. It seems clear that Peter thought Simon wanted the gift of granting the Holy Spirit to others because he thought it would benefit himself. It’s clear that Peter believed Simon’s motivation to be sinful. In response to that story, it’s good for us to ask ourselves whether we think primarily in terms of self-interest when we come to Jesus and to the church. It’s not very good if we do. If we think mainly of what we get out of it if we come to Jesus and to the church, then we’re not very different from the man in our opening story who viewed the church as an opportunity to grow his business and to make greater financial profit. And that’s not a good thing. It’s a much better thing for us to ask what we can do for the benefit of God than to ask what the benefit is for us. While there are good things in it for us, the question of "what’s in it for me?" a common question in our society, is not the best question for us to ask when we come to Jesus and to the church.