Everybodies got a Price (Revival Message 4 of 5)

This was probably the one I enjoyed the most as I got to talk about professional wrestling as a lot of you know, I'll take any chance I can get to work wrestling into a sermon! I also love Ted DiBiase's testimony.

Pastor Glen

Acts 8:14-25

Everybody’s got a price.

Good evening everyone. Turn if you would to Acts 8:14-25 as we continue our journey with Phillip and The Gospel. Tonight’s message is entitled “Everybody’s got a price.” Any professional wrestling fans in here tonight? Let me rephrase, anyone willing to admit they are/were wrestling fans? I grew up watching wrestling with my grandfather and still enjoy it today. I loved Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and Sting. Yet the person I despised most, was probably Ted DiBiase, the million-dollar man. He was a great villain. He would use his almost limitless wealth to pay off referees, announcers, other wrestlers, so he could win and gain even more power and wealthy. In his interviews he would always say “Everybody’s got a price.” Tonight, we are going to see that everyone does indeed have a price, but it might not be what you think.

Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Phillip has a successful ministry going! Phillip started off as a deacon on the run due to persecution. He ends up starting a church in the most unlikely of places. The church has great success. People are being healed physically and spiritually. People are coming to the Lord and getting baptized after they hear and believe the good news of Jesus Christ. Even Simon the sorcerer, the man once referred to as “the great power of God” has believed and gotten baptized.


Word has gotten back to the church in Jerusalem. Peter and John are sent to investigate this. After all, this would be the fulfillment of Jesus words in Matthew 28 where he mentions the Gospel would be preached in Samaria. Equally, the testimony of Peter & John would go a long way in smoothing out hundreds of years of ruffled feathers between those in Jerusalem and those in Samaria. They pray and the Holy Spirit comes down just as it did at the beginning of the book of Acts.

The fact that these Christians received the Holy Spirit in what seems to be a subsequent experience to their salvation has caused much controversy; there have been different explanations offered.

I. Some say they were never truly born again (converted) under Philip’s preaching. When Peter and John came, they really trusted in Jesus and then received the Holy Spirit.

We something similar to this when an adult gets baptized and they tell a story about how they were baptized as a child but didn’t really understand what they were doing.

II. Some say they were truly born again. Then, in a subsequent experience, they received the Holy Spirit in a pattern that believers should follow today.

This is the stance a lot of our charismatic & Pentecostal brethren take. They view it as a graduation ceremony of sorts.

III. Some say they were converted in response to Philip’s preaching; yet God, in a unique move, withheld the gift of the Holy Spirit until Peter and John could bestow it on them. God’s purpose in this was to ensure continuity between the church in Jerusalem and the new church in Samaria, guarding against division.

IV. Some say they were really born again and did really receive the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion, but were given special gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit at the laying on of hands by Peter and John.

While these last 2 are hotly debated theologically they are functionally about the same. God displayed His grace in a special way as a stamp of approval for this particular church. This was to promote unity and community between these two churches and one church didn’t have an initial experience that the other church didn’t, or there would always be that argument over which church was better than the other. Thankfully, no such rivalry between churches exists today.

Now I see some of you thinking, well this is ridiculous, they are all Christians and they should get along. I agree. Let’s be honest about this for a moment, do all of you get along? There was a time when the Southern Baptist method of church planting was when half your congregation left and started their own church because they were angry over something. These are people in the same town! These are two different churches in two different countries with several hundred years of bad history between them. The Gospel here conquers hundreds of years of hatred in a mere moment.

¹⁸ And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Simon the Sorcerer sees Peter & John, people that Philip considers his boss for lack of a better term. He sees the Holy Spirit come in power and immediately thinks. If only I could do that! I could regain my title, I could truly be the great power of God!

He slips right back into his old ways of thinking. Before we get to harsh on Simon we have to remember he’s been a Christian for a few months at both. He’s a baby Christian at this point and babies poop their pants.

We have a tendency in the church to let people have too much too soon after their conversion. It’s great when someone has that come to Jesus moment and is on fire for the Lord. They want to be at church every time the doors are open and want to share their testimony to whole congregation. So many times somebody makes a change in their life, and right away we let them or even press them into becoming some kind of marketer for Christ. You have to understand what Christ is about first. My first two months or so as a Christian I didn’t have an understanding beyond my way wasn’t working so I was going to try Jesus. The first time I gave my testimony on a youth retreat is the reason David now screens what people are going to say ahead of time. Ask him about it sometime when you would like a good laugh.

Simon falls back into his old ways, after all old habits die hard and Peter responds.

20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

I love Peter. He just gets right to doesn’t he? Sounds kinda harsh doesn’t it? You have no idea. If I were to ask you what the word Perish means how would you answers? You’d likely say “perish the thought” as in don’t think that way, or like when you leave the milk on the counter and it goes bad, it perishes. The greek word that we rendered perish is a bit more specific. It means “the destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell.”

Peter calls out Simon and cuts to the root of the problem. Your heart is not right in the sight of God. The thoughts of his heart were his problem, he didn’t murder anyone, commit adultery, rob a bank. Yet, none of that mattered. He sought his own glory instead of the Lords.

24 Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.”

25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

Simon realizes his guilt, his sin, and requests prayer. He is humbled by the rebuke and has a contrite response. All his power, fame and money did not impress Jesus, or those that were walking with Him.

A few years ago I read Ted DiBiases Autobiography and an interesting thing happened to him. In the early 90’s he hit rock bottom. He had started thinking he was the character he played on TV and then reality sunk in. He was about lose his second marriage due to his infidelity. He turned to a pastor friend of his to help. His pastor let him know that he had an intellectual relationship with God and nothing more and that’s why his life had become such a mess. The Pastor, Hal Santos, told him that he was in a storm and that the only way to find peace would be to cling to the cross. DiBiases did exactly that and has ever since. "I can tell you with all assurance that I walk with that peace today," DiBiase says. He became an ordained minister in 2000. He serves in charitable organizations, has founded ministries, and works full time as a minister and evangelist.

I remember seeing him on TV a few years back and he was talking about the irony of how his old character said “Every bodies got a price,” and now as an evangelist, he goes around preaching to everyone 1 Cor 6:20 “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”