44 Acts 7-8 - Pastor Chuck Smith - C2000 Series

let's turn tonight to Acts chapter 7 in the early church when a dispute arose among the Grecians that is those Jews of the Grecian culture they were actually Jews but they had followed the Grecian culture which was a universal culture as the result of Alexander the Great's conquest of the world he left little pockets of Greek culture in the major areas and in Jerusalem there were many who were no longer kosher no longer following the Hebrew culture but had adopted the Grecian culture though they were still Jews they felt that there why their widows were being slighted when the church was doling out its welfare program and so they complained to the Apostles who said let us appoint seven men that are a good report full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to take care of this Ministry of administering the church's welfare in order that we might give ourselves continually to fasting and prayer and so Stephen full of the Holy Spirit was chosen as one of the seven as also was Philip now these men were chosen for the task of waiting tables however the Holy Spirit had other plans for them but I do believe that their faithfulness in those little things is what qualified them for the greater ministry that God had we really don't start at the top in our ministry for the Lord you have to start off with the little things you have to start off with the plain simple task and as Jesus said thou has been faithful in a few things now I will you ruler over many and I think that this is the process that the Lord does follow our faithfulness and the little things so often a person comes and says I want to get in the ministry and I say go to the Sunday School Department and volunteer that's the best place to start in the ministry if you can learn to relate God's truth to children then you can relate it to anybody but it's important that we get started in you know the Sunday school or in some small tasks in order that we might develop our own abilities as well as test and see if this is what God has actually called this - so many times when people say I want to go into the ministry they expect me to dismiss Romain and put them in his place on the staff and there have been those that have requested that we do that but I'm convinced that every church needs a Romain so Stephen was one of those that was chosen full of wisdom full of the holy spirit of good report but Steven soon got into trouble not with the church but because the Lord was working mightily through his life with great wonders that is the works of God that would cause people to wonder at them and miracles that he was doing and so there were those of the synagogue of The Libertines who called him and challenged him and they were not able to really deal with the spirit of wisdom and all by which he spoke so they hired some men to bear false witness against Stephen and as stephen was standing there in the council to face these charges they all saw his face as though it were the face of an angel that shining beautiful glow of the Spirit upon Stephen and so that brings us to chapter 7 as we note chapter 7 Reedy is just picking up a continuation of 6 and you can't really start just straight off in 7 you've got to have the background from 6 to understand the beginning then said the high priest are these things so you see you've got to have chapter 6 where the accused Stephen of blaspheming God of saying that the temple was going to be destroyed and of blaspheming Moses speaking against Moses the temple and these are the false charges that were made partially true and of course a partial lie is probably one of the hardest things to fight partial truth partial lie is extremely difficult to combat and outright lie is no problem but partial truth partial lie is difficult to combat and this is what he was facing he no doubt had declared that Jesus was going to establish a new order and that God was not met just in the temple but God is now dealing with men everywhere in their hearts and lions so the priest said are these things so and he said men and brethren and fathers hearken so now begins Stephens defense before the council which is going to lead to his death he is going to sow anger that they are going to pick up stones gnash their teeth against him and stone him it is interesting that in his defense he is first of all the accused they have made these accusations against him but before he is finished with his defense he becomes the accuser and he accuses them and there his accusations of them was something they couldn't handle it was more than they can handle and they took up stones and killed him so he starts his defense in recounting their history and as he recounts their history going back to their father Abraham whom they all acknowledged as the father of their nation how that God had called him out of the land of his father's to come to a land that God would ultimately give unto him into his seed for a possession how that he journeyed to Haran until his father died and then came on to the land that God had given to him however though God had promised him the entire land he did not personally gain any inheritance in the land except that when his wife died he bought a cave to bury her in and that was the only part of the land that Abraham ever possessed the burial cave that he had purchased from the the people of the land but then God had told Abraham that his seed was to go into a strange land where they would dwell for 400 years at which time God would deliver them from that land and at that time he would give to them the land that he had promised unto them and that God would then judge the nation that had made them serve in such terrible bondage so he gave to Abraham the Covenant verse 8 of circumcision and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day and Isaac begat Jacob and the twelve patriarchs and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs and the patriarchs moved with MV soul Joseph into Egypt but God was with him now the Jews not only lived in the present they also lived in the past their history is extremely important to them they have great reverence for the dead and there is a feeling among the Jews that if you want to be near God then you should be near the body of his Saints so they have a common practice of going to the graves of the patriarchs to pray so at the Cave of Machpelah there in Hebron you'll find the Jews coming by the hundreds to pray there at the burial cave where Abraham and Jacob were buried you'll find in Jerusalem on Mount Zion there is a place called the tomb of David and any time of the day you can go in there and find the older men as a rule praying there by the tomb of David the same is true of the tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem and they go to the graves of righteous people to Rea because they have a feeling that the Spirit of God still remains around the graves of righteous people and that's a good place to get close to God they prided themselves in their fathers and they were always talking about our fathers and always with great pride Stephen in his address is going to be showing them where the history of their fathers isn't as illustrious and glorious as they would like to believe their fathers 4mv sold Joseph into Egypt they rejected Joseph sold him as a slave to Egypt but God was with him and he delivered him out of all of his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh the king of Egypt who made him the governor over Egypt and all of his house now there came a dearth over the land of Egypt and Canaan and great affliction and our fathers found no sustenance you notice our fathers but Joseph has been cast out by them but our fathers found no sustenance but when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt he sent out our fathers first he's really building the case on our fathers and showing them that Judah and Levi and all of these rotten brothers are actually their fathers and at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers and Joseph's family was made known to Pharaoh then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him and his family seventy-five altogether so Jacob went down into Egypt he died there and our fathers and were carried over into Shechem and laid in the Sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of a moor the father of Shechem but when the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till another king arose which knew not Joseph now he passes over from Joseph who was rejected by their fathers his brothers sold as a slave that's the first example he's going to give of a mistake that their fathers made of a God ordained leader the second example he's going to bring to them is that of Moses and so he jumps right in to Moses this Pharoah dealt subtly with our family and even entreated our fathers so that they cast out their young children to the end that they might not live that is the pharaoh you remember ordered that all of the boy babies be slain and the girl babies be kept alive and so he is making reference to that order of the pharaoh in which time Moses was born and was exceeding beautiful and he nourished up in his father's house for three months and when he was cast out Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son actually they were ordered to cast their children into the Nile River Moses mother hid him for three months and then when she cast him into the Nile River she had made a little ark out of the bullrushes and so she kept the order of the Pharaohs she put him in the river but in this little floating basket and the Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son and Moses was learned and all the wisdom of the Egyptian and was mighty in words and deeds and when he was a full 40 years old it came in in into his heart to visit his brothers the children of Israel and when he saw one of them suffering wrong he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and he killed the Egyptian for he supposed interesting he supposed that his brothers would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they did not understand now when Moses came down to his brothers he just felt well surely they will know that God put me in this position in order that I might deliver them but they did not understand this and so the next day when he showed himself again to them as they were fighting among themselves he said hey you fellows are brothers why are you wronging each other but he that was doing wrong to his neighbor thrust him away saying who made you a ruler and a judge over us will you kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday and then Moses fled at this saying was a stranger in the land of Midian in the land of Midian where he begot two sons and when forty years were expired there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in the bush and when Moses saw it he wondered at the sight and he drew near to behold it and the voice the Lord came unto him saying I am the God of my father's the God of Abraham the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob then Moses trembled and dared not to behold then said the Lord to him put off your shoes from your feet for the place where you stand is full the ground I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt and I have heard their groaning and I am come down to deliver them that to me is very comforting as God says to Moses I have seen I have heard and I've come to help what is true of God's people at that time is true of God's people always God sees God hears and God has come to help God sees your affliction God sees your trial God hears your cry God hears your call and he responds God has come to help and now I will send you to Egypt this Moses whom they refused saying who made thee a ruler and a judge the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush now in their fathers they have two classic examples of their fathers putting out God's anointed Joseph brothers sold him as a slave they would not they rebelled against Joseph's dream you remember he had a dream where the Sun Moon and twelve stars bowed down to him are the eleven stars he had a dream where his brothers and he were tying up their sheaves and his brothers she's all bowed down to his in these dreams that was declaring that God had ordained Joseph as a ruler over his brothers but they rebelled against that and they tried to get rid of him selling him as a slave to Egypt and yet God did exalt him and make him a ruler there in Egypt and they came under his rulership later now the same is true with Moses they cast him out Moses thought that they would know that Goddard ordained that he would be a leader in a ruler among them but they did not know and they cast Moses out but 40 years later God brought him back as a ruler and a deliverer for the people and so he uses these two examples of the mistakes that their fathers made of recognizing God's ordained plan and God's ordained ruler there's a pattern that exists in this nation he brought them out after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years so Moses life divided up into three 40-year periods forty years in the schools of Egypt becoming something forty years in the wilderness finding out he was nothing 40 years leading the children of Israel through the wilderness finding out that God could take nothing and make something out of it and so the 40-year divisions of Moses life this is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren like unto me and him shall ye hear this is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake unto Him in mount sinai on the church in the wilderness the word church at cleshea in greek literally means the called out ones israel was never called the church in the land but they have been called out of egypt and thus in the wilderness were known as the called out ones the church today are those that God is called out of the world to be a special people of peculiar nation unto Him there on Mount Sinai with our fathers he received the living Oracle's which he gave unto us that is the Oracle is a spokesman of God's Word and their God gave to Moses the law his word to whom our fathers you talk about your father's God gave them these living Oracle's but they would not obey them but they thrust him out from among them and their hearts turned back again to Egypt you talk about your father's our fathers this and our fathers that your fathers rejected the law of God they again cast Moses out and in their hearts they returned back to Egypt saying to Aaron make us gods to go before us for as for this Moses which brought us out of the land of Egypt we don't know what's become of him he had been forty days up in the mountain the people became impatient and they came to Aaron and they said we're going to go back to Egypt get make us gods that will lead us back to Egypt we don't know what's happened to Moses and so they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands then God turned and gave them up to worship the hosts of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets oh ye house of Israel you have offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of 40 years in the wilderness yay he took up the tabernacle of moloch the star of your God refa figures which you made to worship them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon now our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus now Jesus there is a reference to Joshua in the Old Testament I have told you over and over again that the name Jesus is the Greek for the Hebrew name Joshua and because he is talking to them and it is translated here into the Greek the name is given in Greek but this is a reference to the historic man Joshua who took over Moses place and led the children of Israel into the land which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua that is the tabernacle of witness that was made in the wilderness they brought it into the land whom God drove out before the face of our fathers under the days of David who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob but Solomon built him a house how be it now he was accused remember of speaking against the temple and all Solomon build him a temple however he said the most high dwells not in temples made with hands as saith the Prophet and of course you can go back to the Old Testament even find that they say that the Lord doesn't dwell in temples made with ends the heaven of heavens cannot contain him and so Solomon was saying I I have no illusions that this is going to be your exclusive dwelling place the heavens of heavens can't hold you how much less this house that I have been built but Lord we want this house as a place where we can just come and meet you for the Lord said heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool what house will you build me saith the Lord or what is the place of my abode hath not my hand made all these things I think of that whenever I think of giving to God because anytime I ever give to God anything I'm only giving back to him that which is his anyhow didn't he make everything he lets me be a steward of his good and in my giving to God I'm only really giving that which is his anyhow and then he now gets to the application of the the points that he has been suddenly making and he presses now the application very directly you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do always resist the Holy Spirit as your father's did so are you guilty you're doing the same thing which of the prophets have your father's not persecuted and if you go back in their history you'll find that their father's persecuted every true prophet of God Isiah was persecuted so sought in to ultimately Jeremiah thrown in the dungeon for speaking in the name of the Lord Elijah Elijah real problems with the Kings because they spoke out against their evil your father's tell me now which of the prophets did they not persecute and they have slain those which showed them before the coming of the just one in other words these prophets who were telling them of the coming of the Messiah these true prophets of God they had killed these prophets who have prophesied of the coming of the just one the Messiah of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers I mean you're worse than your father's they killed all of the prophets that came to them who were telling them of the coming of the Messiah but you killed the Messiah what a charge because you were the betrayers and the murderers you have rejected the law by the disposition of angels you've not kept it he was accused of speaking against the Moses he said look you haven't kept it you've rejected it now when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth but he being full of the holy spirit looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and he said behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man is standing on the right hand of God your fathers rejected Joseph God made him a ruler your fathers rejected Moses God made him the ruler you have rejected Jesus Christ God has made him the ruler I see heavens open and I see the Son of man standing there on the right hand of God Jesus in the book of Revelation promises to those over comers in the Church of Thyatira that they will be granted to sit on their thrones in his kingdom even he said as I have sat down at the throne of my father but here he sees him not sitting on the throne next to the father but he sees him standing and I believe that it is significant I believe that Jesus has stood to receive into heaven the first martyr in the early church the first one of millions who would give their lives for the testimony of Jesus Christ and I believe that as stephen was ready to be martyred the Lord stood to receive him into that heavenly kingdom son of man is standing there at the right hand of God and they cried out with a loud voice they stopped their ears they did not want to hear the truth and they ran upon him with one Accord and they threw him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses lay down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul and they stoned Stephen and as they were stoning him he called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he had said this he fell asleep we find in the martyrdom of Stephen much of what we saw in the crucifixion of Jesus in that number one he was praying for those who were committing the crime you remember Jesus said Father forgive them they know not what they do Stephen is saying father don't lay this sin to their charge praying for the persecutors as Jesus said pray for those who despitefully use you and thus Stephen following the example of Jesus secondly we find that Stephen here is commending his spirit unto God even as Jesus went on the cross commended his spirit unto God and so following the example of the Lord in his crucifixion Stephen is now martyred and the first blood of the church has been shed and as the result they did not silence the witness of the church they only spread the witness all over the place for then began a great persecution against the church and we are introduced now to one of the chief persecutors a zealous young Jew a Pharisee of the Pharisees whose name is Saul and he was standing by consenting to the death of Stephen holding the coats of the fellows who were throwing the stones no doubt cheering them on but I have no doubt but what Stephens dad and his reaction to it had such a tremendous impression on Paul that he never got away from it and I believe that it was ultimately the background of Paul's conversion for you remember when Jesus finally apprehended Paul on the road to Damascus to imprison the Christians there the Lord said Paul it's been hard for you to kick against the goads and that death of Stephen was something that was a goad in Paul hearing this young man seeing his face like an angel and no doubt that witness that Stephen gave hey our fathers have been wrong Joseph was rejected by our fathers and yet God had chosen him to be the ruler Moses was rejected by our fathers yet God had chosen him to be the ruler could it be that we are also guilty of injecting God's ruler and of course Peter had said the stone which was said of nought of you builders the same has become the head cornerstone when I was speaking at a congress in Jerusalem in which the purpose was to express the Christians the evangelical Christian support for the nation of Israel at that Congress before I had a chance to speak I received a letter from one of the rabbis from the me assuring their the ultra-orthodox radicals and the letter was a severe rebuke to me for being involved in a Congress that was seeking to promote the Peace of Jerusalem and that's what the Congress was called the Peace of Jerusalem Congress this rabbi said Israel has no right to exist as a nation we have no right to exist as a nation until we have our temple again this nation is not a true nation and he went on really coming down on me for supporting the nation of Israel I have been witnessing to many Jewish people over there that have become friends of the family and so I took this radical hate-filled filled letter and I showed it to my friends I said look what one of your rabbis have sent me and as he read the letter he got all upset he said don't pay any attention to it they're crazy they're a bunch of radicals they're crazy don't pay any attention to it I said but they are rabbis oh yeah but they're crazy I said but there are the religious rulers they are the rabbis Oh doesn't matter they're crazy they're nuts they don't know what they're talking about I said that is very interesting have you ever stopped to think that it was perhaps men just like these who rejected Jesus Christ radicals crazy and you are still following their crazy radical conclusions he didn't have anything to say Saul verse chapter eight was consenting unto the death of Stephen and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him it is quite possible that these devout men are not Christians or members of the church and the reason why I say that is because they made great lamentation over him a true understanding of what happens to a child of God at death doesn't really provoke great lamentation but it provokes rejoicing for them who are there now with the Lord in the kingdom it could be that some of the Jews devout men you see it doesn't identify them as Christians at all just devout men and the Jew was usually described by his devotedness had taken Stephens body and perhaps they lamented that such a fine young man should be so mistreated by the radical crowd and as for Saul he made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women committing them to prison so Paul was empowered by the Sanhedrin to imprison those who called upon the Lord and he was going to the house fellowships and just wrecking havoc among the early church therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word and so far from stamping out the witness of the church all the persecution did was spread the witness all over the place for everywhere they went they were preaching the Word of God and thus the gospel began to spread throughout Judea and Samaria now Jesus had said to his disciples in the first chapter verse 8 and you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and remember they said to them you have filled this city with this man's doctrine and in Judea and in Samaria and so we find now the next movement of the church as it goes beyond Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria as the result of this persecution Paul being one of the chief persecutors of the church so Philip now we are introduced to a second of the seven who was appointed to the task of waiting tables in the early church and overseeing the church's welfare program God is taking another one now filled with the Holy Spirit full of wisdom and of good report and is using him now in the Ministry of an evangelist and later on we find years later that Philip is living in Caesarea and he is called there Philip the Evangelist and we are told that by this time he now has four daughters who possess the gift of prophecy and as Paul is returning to Jerusalem he stops and spends a few days with Philip in Caesarea and I imagine that Paul and Philip as they were there probably recounted some of the early experiences of Stephen and of Paul's being there and because Philip was there and around the situation - and how their pasig crossed earlier in life only when they were going different directions and how God has brought them together in the communion of the gospel here now later on in Caesarea so Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them and the remember the word Christ is the greek word for the messiah so he preached the Messiah unto them now the Samaritans were looking for the Messiah you remember when Jesus met the woman at the well there near Shechem she said to him we know that when the Messiah has come he is going to teach us all things they were looking for the Messiah they knew the scriptures that related to the Messiah and they were looking for the Messiah and you remember that the woman went into the town and started telling people come and hear a man who has told me everything that I've ever done is this not the Messiah and they came out and they heard Jesus and then they said now we believe not because what you have told us because we have heard and seen for ourselves and so the seed was already planted in Samaria and so Philip went to proclaim the Messiah unto them and the people with one Accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits crying with loud voices came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and those that were lame were healed and there was great joy in that city the city of Samaria the gospel is now being preached and the result of the gospel in the hearts of the people is that of great joy always the result of the preaching of the good news now there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and he bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one there was this fellow was probably a warlock he used sorcery he had the people convinced that he had great mystical magical powers and all of the people had given heed to him from the least of them to the greatest saying that this man had a great power of God and to him they had regard because for a long time he had been bewitching them with these sorceries but when they believed Philip and the preaching of the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized both men and women they were freed from the bewitching of this Simon and they were brought to the gospel and baptized now when the then Simon himself believed so and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and the signs which were done now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent him to them Peter and John Peter and John interesting companions in the gospel records men of different temperaments yet brought together and very closely associated with each other but it is interesting that this is the last mention of John in the book of Acts now Peter comes in for further mention the tension will of course later on turn to Paul and to Barnabas and to others but this interestingly enough in the book of Acts is the last mention of John now John did outlive the rest of the disciples and of course in the later years wrote his gospel his three epistles and the book of Revelation but later on as we are dealing with the church in Jerusalem and the issues that come up before the church council John strangely is not mentioned as in a in any type of a rule he's just its the witness is silent concerning John and I really don't have any real suggestion for that except that it's just not there and I don't know why but as John said in his gospel I suppose if everything were written that should be written all of the books in the world could not contain the things that should have been written about these things so when the church or the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent unto them Peter and John now that would take away the idea of Peter being the Pope because he was sent by the Apostles he was sent by them it didn't say that you know as the you know he had the Pontifical authority and was giving the orders but he was sent by the Apostles who when they were come down they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus now it is interesting how that this has been a problem to so many Bible commentators the fact that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit that he had not fallen upon them as yet and so they you see it is commonly acknowledged that a person is baptized by the spirit into the body of Christ and no man can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit and the moment a person receives Jesus Christ in his baptized the Holy Spirit comes into their lives we know that you cannot receive Jesus without receiving the Holy Spirit into your life and so this poses a great problem to the majority of Bible commentators when we find that the people in Samaria had believed and were baptized in water and yet the Apostles sent them down that they might receive the Holy Spirit for he had not yet fallen upon any of them I am surprised with all of these scholars who are so problem Dover this particular text that they have not noted the Greek preposition you remember Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit to his disciples for he is with you and shall be in you but then later Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you now this is the same Greek preposition hippie that is used here the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen hippy upon them so the commentators have difficulty trying to say well you know they weren't yet filled with the spirit this was some special case in Samaria because you know this was the first time outside of Jerusalem and all and they and they really wrestle and do all kinds of foolish things with this text because they do not want to acknowledge that there is an empowering experience of the Holy Spirit apart from conversion but yet that's exactly what the text does prove that yes we do receive the Holy Spirit in us when Christ comes into our lives but there is an empowering experience subsequent to our salvation where our lives were are endued with the power of God's Spirit as he comes upon us anointing us for power to serve God and it's a very simple obvious solution but it is one that most of the Bible commentators really stumble heavily over this and I am amused at the various explanations they try to give of this particular text when the answer is so simple they had received Jesus Christ they were baptized so obviously the spirit was dwelling in them but they had not had an empowering experience like the Apostles experienced on the day of Pentecost for he was not yet fallen upon any of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then lay their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given he offered them money saying give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands the Holy Spirit was imparted there must have been some kind of visible or audible evidence that they were being empowered with the Holy Spirit else why would he ask for that power if there was just they would just lay hands on they received the Holy Spirit received always retreats the Holy Spirit and there was nothing visible or audible to signify that the gift was being imparted there wouldn't be this great desire by Simon to possess the same kind of power no doubt there was some type of evidence that these people were receiving an empowering of God's Spirit upon their lives and I really do not doubt but what they were speaking in other tongues and perhaps prophesying as was the case in Ephesus in the nineteenth chapter though it is not here declared I personally feel that this probably was the case and that is why Simon desired to purchase this power now his desire to purchase the power or a position in the church is where the name for that evil which later permeated the church was originated Simon II that is the purchase of a position within the church and unfortunately the church went through a very dark period of history where positions in the church were auctioned off to the highest bidder and there were times where the Pope the position of the Pope was actually auctioned and purchased by the highest bidder that awful evil known as Simon II that did come into the church that purchasing position or authority this is a common practice among magicians if a magician has a good trick other magicians will seek to buy that trick how it is done and and there is among those who are practicing that art of legerdemain the common practice of selling the tricks to one another and so Simon being a sorcerer being a deceiver bewitching the people having in his past purchased various types of information thought that he could purchase now this gift of God but Peter said unto him your money perish with thee because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money what a horrible thing you have neither part nor a lot in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God and so Peter exercising now this gift of discernment begins to really deal with the issue of Simon's heart repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven thee for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity now though he had followed Philip and was a great admirer of that works that Philip was doing yet within his heart there was the gall of bitterness probably bitter over the fact that he was no longer looked up to the people as he had once been bitter over the fact that the people were now following a new leader even Jesus Christ whom Philip had declared unto them and that his little crowd had turned from him unto another and that bothered him deep down within his heart though on outwardly he was there with Philip and followed Philip and was baptized inwardly it was eating away the bond of iniquity the gall of bitterness what a terrible thing bitterness is how sad it is that a person would Harbor bitterness in their heart bitterness can only hurt you it only does you harm you really can't afford bitterness and he was told pray that God might forgive you of this for down in your heart you have bitterness the bond of iniquity then answered Simon and he said pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken will come upon me and he asked for prayer and I believe it was sincere and they when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord returned to Jerusalem and they preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans so John and Peter became evangelists and as they were returning back to Jerusalem they stopped in the villages of Samara the Samaritans and preached the gospel unto many and the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from jerusalem unto gaza which is desert and so he arose and he went and behold a man of ethiopia a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all of her treasure and who had come to Jerusalem for to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet now this is interesting in several respects first of all it is interesting because it gives us an insight into how God leads us by his spirit so many times I have people say I wish I knew what the will of God was for my life and usually by that they are saying I wish God would sort of show me on a screen my future I'd like to know what my future holds I would like to know what God has planned for me then I can determine whether or not I wanted to it but in wanting to know the will of God usually we want to know on down next year five years from now we want our five-year program or ten-year program our 20-year program now God you know lay it out but God only said to Philip go down to the road that is going from Jerusalem to Gaza toward the desert he didn't tell him anymore that's the first step in the will of God now God did not speak to him again until he had taken the first step so many times when God has given us the first step we don't want to go until he gives us the second step and the third step and the fourth step and we are prone to say Lord why in the world do you want me to go to Gaza there's nobody down there that's a desert area Lord why would you want me to leave this great meeting here in Samaria Lord you're making a serious mistake here there are hundreds of people are being saved you know they're coming and they're listening to the gospel and this is exciting Lord why should I go to Gaza and I want the Lord to tell me why he has given me the first step I want to know the whole plan the whole program that God is doing but God so often only gives us step one and step two does not come until step one has been taken and I am certain that had he stayed in Samaria arguing with God seeking to have further clarification of this call that he never would have received it God would have sent someone else to meet that Ethiopian eunuch one step at a time that's how God usually directs our lives that's how God has directed my life just one step of it at a time it used to bother me it used to bother me severely that God would only lead me one step at a time now I find it rather exciting and I always like it when it's God's move you know when I make my move and then I say okay Lord it's your move I am obedient to what the Lord told me to do and now I wait to see what the next instruction is from him I don't like it so much when it's my move I have difficulty many times with my move but it's always great when I've made my move and I turn and say okay now Lord your move again Philip obeyed the first move he left no doubt had many questions in his mind but he left Samaria the great revival and he went down to this area from going from Jerusalem to Gaza to the desert place notice that this man had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was returning sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet I believe that this man was a sincere seeker for God in his heart he was really seeking after the Lord for no doubt the spirit have been drawing him and in his search for God he came to Jerusalem the center of the worship coming from Ethiopia they were familiar with Judaism because when the queen of sheba returned from her visit to solomon she took back to ethiopia the hebrew religion and there began then in ethiopia the phalanges movement those Ethiopians who were Jewish in their faith and practices now according to their traditions the queen of sheba also took back to egypt in her womb a son of solomon who they aptly called the Lion of the tribe of Judah and Halle Selassie the recently few years back deposed leader of Ethiopia did claim to be a direct descendant of Solomon and the king of Judah and the head over this faction in Ethiopia who followed Judaism thus because Judaism was well known in Ethiopia and Jerusalem was the center of Judaism in the search of this man for God it would only be natural that his search would bring him to Jerusalem the tragedy is that while in Jerusalem he did not find what he was searching for and now he is returning to Ethiopia just as empty as he came a heart still yearning after God but God saw the yearning heart I believe that God sees every yearning heart and that God will take measures to bring his love and truth to every true seeker after God if a person is genuinely seeking after God and his art I believe that God will reveal the truth even by miracles or whatever and I think such is the case God saw this man and so he stirred the heart of Philip in the midst of the revival and said go down to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza that desert place when he got there he saw the chariot and the man sitting in the chariot and the Lord said unto Him go near and join yourself to this chariot step 2 but step two did not come until he was fully obedient to step one and Philip ran up to him and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and he said do you understand what you read and he said how can i unless some man should guide me and he requested that Philip would come up and sit with him there in the chariot and the place of the scripture which he read was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before her shoot before his Shearer so open he not his mouth in his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth Isaiah 53 that prophecy of Isaiah of the servant of God who would be despised and rejected the servant of God whose life would be taken away who would be slain as a sheep without really responding to the charges and the eunuch said I pray thee of whom is the prophet speaking this of himself or of some other man then Philip opened his mouth and he began at that verse the same scripture and he preached unto him Jesus and as we pointed out this morning it wouldn't have made any difference where the man was reading in the Old Testament it would have been possible to begin at that very scripture and preach Jesus for the Old Testament is the story of Jesus from beginning to end Jesus said you do search the Scriptures for in them you think you have life but actually they are testifying of me I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me O Lord and then again we read how that there's one other scripture that refers to the Old Testament being filled and I don't slip I might get to it a minute but he opened at that scripture and began to preach unto him jesus oh Jesus expounded to the disciples on the road to Emmaus all of Moses and the prophets the things concerning himself how you must suffer and die and rise and as they went on their way they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water what does hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if you believe with all your heart you may and the answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and so he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both of them into the water I guess he didn't sprinkle him both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they were come up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away that the eunuch saw him no more but he went his way rejoicing Philip had a ministry that brought joy to people remember in Samaria the result of the ministry the city was filled with joy now he's ministered to this man who continues his journey no longer searching he is found and as the result of his finding a real relationship with God he is rejoicing and from that time in history there has always been a church in Ethiopia and he no doubt had great influence on the establishing of the gospel in the church in Ethiopia he went his way rejoicing now here's an interesting thing Philip the Spirit of the Lord caught a wave Philip now by what means or whatever I don't know there have been times when I wish the Spirit of the Lord would catch me away when I'm facing a long hike back and you're weary and tired but Philip was found at Azotus it would appear from the language that it was sort of a miraculous catching away that what the language would indicate but of course nothing is really mentioned of methods or whatever else so to speculate is worthless you know why why make guesses who knows we don't but Philip was founded as Otis and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea now in a chapter or two we're going to find Peter going down to litter and preaching to the church in litter and healing a certain man by the name of Aeneas who have been in bed for several years and then we'll find that the church in Joppa when they hear that Peter is in litter send to him requesting that he will come quickly to Joppa because a certain woman Dorcas had died and so Peter went then to Joppa and ministered to Dorcas now how is it that there was a church in Lydda and in Chapa if you will look at the map and look at Gaza and then look at as Otis and we are told that he went from Azotus in all of the cities preaching till he came to Caesarea I believe that these churches in Joppa and litter were probably established by the evangelist Phillip because these are some of the cities that he would be passing through going from Gaza to Caesarea are going from Azotus to Caesarea these are some of the cities he would be passing through and I think that that that his ministry there resulted in the birth of churches in these areas that Peter later came down and ministered to it seems that when he came to Caesarea that he made Caesarea his home and I can surely understand why it is such a beautiful the port city there on the Mediterranean the water of the Mediterranean there takes on a special blue the beaches are gorgeous and if I had a choice of places to live Caesarea wouldn't be a bad choice at all and so Philip stayed there in Caesarea established his home there and years later Paul visited with Philip there in Caesarea remaining with him there in his home before he continued his journey to Jerusalem and so we'll come back to Philips house in Caesarea later on in the book of Acts we'll return to his house and we'll visit for a while with Paul when we get to that point so that's why I emphasize his house in Caesarea because we're coming back to this house before we're through with the book of Acts as we go on into chapter 9 next week we will get to the conversion of Paul the interesting aspects of his conversion and then Peters visit to litter and to Joppa and then the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in chapter 10 on the gentiles in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea where Philip ends up now it is interesting that God would call Peter for this work it could be the Philip was not yet in Caesarea at this time or it could be that again he had planted seed and that's why Cornelius was such a devout man let's pray father we thank you for your word and the excitement that is generated in our hearts when we see men so used of the Holy Spirit and we realize that they are just common men like us and so Lord we desire that our lives be used by the holy spirit to share the love of Jesus Christ with a world around us Lord we offer you tonight our lives our bodies as living sacrifices that we might will God be instruments in your hand doing your work touching the needy world around us Oh Lord we recognize that we need the power of your Holy Spirit to do any work that is truly effective and so Lord anoint us with your power in Jesus name we pray amen may the Lord bless give you a beautiful week fill you with his love and with his spirit and may he use your life as his instrument accomplishing his work in Jesus name

Channel: Ken Zenk

Views: 12,058

Rating: 4.7714286 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christ, Love, Hell, Death, Sex, Marriage, Drugs, Satan, Porno, Cancer, Sports, Girls, Music, Holy Spirit, Children, Family, Heaven, Healing, Pregnant, Aids, Gay, Movies, TV Shows, Animals, Israel Prophecy, Last Days, Christian, Jewish People, Gentiles

Id: RphmL64kfWY

Length: 82min 49sec (4969 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2013