Acts 8:5 to 40

okay welcome back as we continue our verse-by-verse Bible study through the book of Acts last time we start in chapter 8 and we got along to about verse 4 so what do you get too terribly far along last time so today we're gonna start in verse 5 and we're gonna look at a guy named Phillip Phillip will be the one that we're talking about today so here's Jesus Christ and here's the Christ on the cross and we saw that at the beginning of the book of Acts the main figure pretty much was a guy named Peter and the Peter was running around with John so Peter and John and then up show Stephen well here we are in chapter 8 and in chapter 8 we see Philip but we also see at the end of the chapter 7 and chapter 9 is going to be the conversion of this guy we see Saul who's name is later changed to Paul and we see Paul then chapter 10 and 11 is gonna be about Peter again but after that going from like 13 all the way to the end of the book it's all gonna be about an old Paul so Paul plays a big role in the book of Acts and he's shows up pretty soon he shows up there in chapter 7 at the end of the book as Saul when Stephen was stoned they placed there their clothes at the young man's feet his name was Saul so we looked at Stephen today we can look at Phillip now who is Phillip well Phillip is one of those that we found in Acts chapter 6 so he actually does show up in Acts chapter 6 but it doesn't mention him much let's go to back to Acts chapter 6 in Acts chapter 6 look at verse 1 and in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration administration I told you that the graysons our Grecians would have been those that were before Greeks or Gentiles who had converted to Judaism by being circumcised I said they would have become juice and then they would have become believers in Christ they would have believed that Jesus was the Messiah now verse 2 then the twelve called the multitude of disciples unto them said it is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables verse three wherefore brother Luke II out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom he whom we may appoint over this business verse four but we will give ourselves continually to prayer into the Ministry of the word now verse five and the Saint please the whole mild multitude and they chose stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost aan now who's the next guy Philip and approach pro chorus and nightcore and Timlin and parmenas and nicolas a proselyte of antioch okay so we have back in Chapter six both Stephen and Philip mentioned so I'll have to put back here six now I've told you before that all chapter seven is about Stephen in all chapter eight pretty much is about Philip and I think Peter makes an appearance but in chapter 6 is where we first see mentioned these two guys they're one of the seven alright I think that's interesting the disciples are the twelve and then so the disciples were the early apostles and then I call these the seven I call them the Deacons so you could call them a deacon if you like many today they say that they're there what you would call an Deacon so that's where they say deacons come from so that it makes sense if it's the early church the early church had the Apostles the preachers if you will and then they chose men to help work in the church and help which would be like the Deacons all right so this is where we see old Philip so go to Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 Saul was consenting to the death of Stephen there was a persecution against the church and I showed you last time look at what happened okay there were four places that that they were told by Jesus to go Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem then Judea then Samaria Samaria and then the utter most parts of the earth so what we'll see here and what we saw last time we only got four chapters the four versus along but what we saw and I let me number of these here you here for you is that a lot of the early church they left Jerusalem except for the Apostles I find that so funny that the Apostles decided to stay even though there was persecution but then the rest of them they left number three well actually verse two we find Stephen buried there's the burial of Stephen verse three here we have salt entering into the church into people's houses Halle men and women into prison merciless he was very evil and yet he was a religious zealot so he thought he was doing right Paul really thought he was doing right in what he was doing thank God he gets saved later on and it's actually the next chapter now by the way Paul's conversion of how he got saved is very different than how we get saved today got to remember God remember what is the book of Acts the book of Acts is a transitional book so how how these early people got saved or is not how we get saved today you say you didn't mean there's different ways people got saved in the book of Acts yeah yeah go back I can't remember what chapter it was we've gone through seven chapters so far but I give you five different ways people get the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts yet today according to Paul there's only one way so the book of Acts is a historical book but it's not a Chinese buffet where you can go back and pick some of this stuff back here you've got to understand that it's written in chronological order and a lot of the things that happened back here was for the nation of Israel and they're not doing those things anymore over here it's about the individuals getting saved and now we go to individuals and tell them how to get saved the nation God has put them on hold the nation of Israel he'll go back to dealing with them and relation period the time of Jacob's trouble but not now so now we come to the guy named Philip in verse four therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word verse five then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them Jerusalem Judea Samaria so you've got this guy Philip who's obeying what Jesus said to do in the early part of Acts Acts chapter 1 of verse 8 the Apostles they only stay here they only go here now what did Stephen do well it appears that in the preaching of Stephen that was to everybody he called all the early ones together so I would say that Stephen kinda you know even though he was preaching in Jerusalem he was going to all of Judea in the sense that he was trying to go directly to the leaders of Israel and the way to reach all of Judea which is all the nation of Israel if you will all the modern day nation of Israel is to go directly to the leaders if you get the leaders safe well then that will trickle down to everybody else so I guess that was the thinking of Stephen as well let's just go to the top and what happened it backfired they killed him then we see Samaria well that's Philip Philip ends up going to Samaria so you see a lot I talked a lot last time about foreshadowing and how the book of Acts is full of foreshadowing how there's little clues of what's gonna happen later in the book in there and in acts 1:7 Jesus says now you're gonna go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the other most parts of the earth and as we read the book of Acts we see that's exactly what happened they start out in Jerusalem then they go to Judea what happened the early other believers say they left Jerusalem when in Judea Samaria and Philip when it's Samaria as well so this guy is so amazing this guy Philip now go back to verse 1 it says and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which is at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad about the regions of Judea and Samaria okay so early Christians went to these two places as well not just Philip except the Apostles I just cannot that just bothers me why wouldn't the Apostles obey why didn't the Apostles want to do what Jesus told them to do to go to these other places as well what was so great about Jerusalem that they didn't want to leave I don't know all I know is it looks like they didn't abate but who did obey Philip Philip obeyed who was Philip well he was one of the seven in Acts chapter 6 also in Acts chapter 8 verse 5 and 6 we read this about Philip then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them and the people with one Accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did so this is interesting Stephen if you'll remember he did miracles if you remember the Apostles did miracles Philip we're told did miracles matter of fact Jesus did miracles and why were there miracles well those were called the signs so who needs the signs the Jews so we're still seeing and preaching to Jews and it's very important to see that that the signs are for the Jews so that the Jews might believe now there's one more place that Stephen and then that Philip shows up and that's Acts 21:8 so let's go over to Acts chapter 21 and verse 8 this is toward the end of his life this is way toward the ends of Paul's ministry and this guy Philip shows up again and 21:8 acts 21 8 we read and the next day we were a Paul's company departed we that were a false company departed he came unto Caesarea and we entered into the house of Philip the Evangelist which was one of the seven in abode with him so this must be one of the Deacons this guy Philip that was one of the seventh in Acts chapter 6 and look where it says he ended up says he ended up in Caesarea but notice what they called Philip Philip was called an evangelist I don't know why but I think that's why I like Philip do you know that the word missionary is not in the Bible now that doesn't mean you can't be a missionary I have a heart for missions I was a missionary for many years but the word evangelist is in the Bible what is an evangelist well according to the Bible if you look at this guy Philip it's someone who travels and goes to preach the Word of God so it sounds like an evangelist the same thing as a missionary I say that because when I was traveling around as a missionary oh I was going to churches and asking for support to to go to Honduras as a missionary and after seven years in Honduras I couldn't stay in that country anymore so I said well Lord would you have me to do when the Lord says do more of the work of an evangelist so I went around to all these same churches I said well now Lawrence called me to do the work of an evangelist they said well we don't support evangelist we only support missionaries and I thought but the word missionaries not in the Bible with the word evangelists is it's just it's so weird how people follow tradition rather than the Bible so I say well let me pray about this and I said you know what does the missionary missionaries $0.01 what is an evangelist one who evangelizes okay I know God sent me and I know that I need to preach and focus in on the gospel so I said you know what I'll do I'll call myself a missionary evangelist so I called these churches up and I said brother I'm a missionary evangelist this man speaking people and that's part of my ministry that I've been fulfilling ever since then but I've also been going to the english-speaking people as well and I travel at least a couple times a year to different spanish-speaking countries it looks like I'll be traveling a lot more and you know what some of those churches they said you know brother record will continue supporting you because you're a missionary I said well I appreciate that but evangelists they're the Bible to the other supportive Angeles as well as missionaries they just wanna throw that out so I'm doing the work of an evangelist but also as a missionary because I do travel and I found the easiest way to travel is through YouTube I can't come to your town or your country or your state or your city personally I would like to if I could but because I can't travel personally I found that the Internet is a great way to travel and take the gospel to the lost and dying world so I like Philip I really do because Philip was an evangelist and I just I think that's so amazing that he's an evangelist tonight I identify with that as an evangelist I've traveled a lot of places perching the gospel of Jesus Christ a lot of people don't know of what my ministry has been a lot of people think I'm just some guy that preaches on the internet no no I pass in the church while I was in Bible School up the road here got some point Baptist Church I went to Honduras and came back I've been to 49 of the 50 states I've been to every country in Central America never been in South America unless you count Panama but I still count that as Central America maybe someday I'll get to go to South America maybe someday I'll be like Paul get to go to Spain I would look forward to that someday but I travel I preach I've done a lot for the Lord and I just like Philip because he's someone that has traveled and wherever he went he went and he did the work of the Lord now I'm not a map maker so please don't think that I'm very good at making maps but here would be the Dead Sea and then here's the see if whatever that is so more or less right here is Jerusalem so as we go through when we read all this I'm gonna try to show you up on the map and I find it quite interesting what this guy is doing this guy Philip so this right here is Judea Judea or Judea all this up here would be what's called Samaria now down here would be well this will be Egypt down here you know the Mount the Nile River would come down here that'd be the Nile River and all that one of the Dewar's of we're as we're continuing here talking about Philip I wants to see where he goes Philip travels a lot a lot of people today they think well if you're a preacher and you're traveling all the time well you're just you're not serving yard you're just somebody that likes to travel around well I will admit I love to travel when I was younger especially when I wasn't married yet I didn't get saved I was thirty something years old so I was able to travel a lot and preach a lot it's just like Paul says in the Bible he that is married cares about things the world how many please his wife but he that's not married cares about the Lord how he may please the Lord and is a man who was unmarried boy was it was wonderful the things that I got to do in the places I got to go and preach and teach places that that I would be afraid now to take my life because there were such dangerous places but by myself I wasn't afraid and sometimes I took another brother with me that I'd led to the Lord in Honduras or some other country and we went to these places so it's not a sin to travel it's not a sin to travel around I just want you to know that but as I get older I find I don't like traveling because when you travel usually you don't sleep well because you're not in your own bed with your own pillow oftentimes you don't get to shower I mean I've been to many places way out and boondocks over mountains and we went across mountains and horseback or mule and you don't get a bath you don't get to bathe but like every three or four days I like my shower I like staying home and getting a shower and sleep in my own bed and I find that the older I get I just the less I like to travel so don't think that someone who is a preacher and who's a missionary or an evangelist that travels a lot don't think that's a blessing and I've told people say well I wish I had your life and I travel all the time well guess what when I travel I almost always get sick and I get something wrong with my belly and it takes weeks when I get home to finally get better so I don't like to travel but I'll do it I'll sacrifice for the Lord I'll do that I'll get sick for Jesus I mean I don't I don't mind serving God but I just want you to know that this guy he was an evangelist and what God wants he wants us to go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature so it's all about reaching people and the best way to reach people is go to them and I found that the Internet is a great way because I can go everywhere at once through the Internet so we're gonna look at this guy Steven and I see some of the places that he traveled and we're gonna say Steven man he Stevens going all over the place he really is so here we go to book of Acts and verse 6 Steven did some miracles number 7 and where is he he's in Samaria so some areas up here above Jerusalem so the first thing he does is he goes north so look we'll put blue here will be his first first place that he went and the first place that he went was up north and then I guess well well do a different color will do we will do red for a second and everybody loves to talk about the missionary journeys of Paul and we'll probably will do that too as we go through the book of Acts but I find it fun to look at the missionary journeys of Philip and a butler says I read the Bible there's more than just the missionary journey of Paul so he goes to Samaria so he goes due north so he goes up here and he goes north to Samaria first now here he is in his verse 7 for unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with policies and that were lame or healed and there was a great joy in that city and what was the city well city of Samaria so somewhere in that zone called Samaria there was a city called Samaria now notice what he's doing he's going and he's doing some of the same things that the early apostles did healing people that were sick casting out Devils but what is Samaria Jesus and ends earthly ministry only went to Samaria once and he said I didn't come for you I came only for the Jews that's what Jesus said because Samaria was where there were half-breeds there were people that were half Jew and half Gentile and if you study your history you find that the Jews didn't like the Sumerians because they didn't like that the Jewish ancestors that lived in Samaria they mixed with the Gentiles you see all of this is the nation of Israel and the ten tribes went north and the two tribes Benjamin and Judah stayed down here and so Israel was divided and those in Samaria those that were choose they mixed with the Gentiles so here we see it's starting out the book of Acts with Jews and then it's going to those that are half Jew and like I showed you in Chapter six why it's the Grecians they were Greeks that had converted to Judaism so I guess you could say they were they were Jewish but they were have Gentile and well learnt you now if they were proselytes but then we're gonna read about a guy named the ethiopian eunuch ethiopia where would that be well if the lp is down here place so and whose an Ethiopian well that would be where the where the black people are so we're seeing it change from the nation of Jews when God went to juice he wanted Israel to pure Jews to accept him as a nation when they didn't they God started saying okay well let's go those that were proselytes let's go to those that are were Gentiles but converted and then we'll go to the Gentiles so I want I wanted to put that up here so you can get a idea of how we're seeing it go from Jews to those that are half juice and then to Gentiles so God is in the business of saving everyone he wants all people to be saved that was all part of his plan anyway that he would eventually save everyone so now we get to verse eight and there was great joy in that city so the Samaritans were happy that they too were seeing the things that Jesus did for the Jews in Judea now coming to Samaria as well now verse nine but there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and '''but which the which the people of Samaria having gone out that himself giving out that himself was some great one now there's a guy named Simon now here's something that I wanted to explain in those days there were really not that many people today we have over seven billion I think there's eight billion people in the world back then there was maybe a couple hundred million people in the whole area I mean it was way different than it is today so in those days there weren't as many people and so when people named people they weren't very inventive in their names they're often that gave the name of the grandfather or their father so as reading the Bible it can be confusing because sometimes you see the same name twice we're talking about a man named Philip that was one of the seven well did you know that one of the original disciples the twelve of Jesus his name was also Philip so there's two Phillips Peter his name is also Cephas and Simon so sometimes he's called Simon Peter so you have a Simon Keter well now we have here another guy named Simon so Simon and Simon not the old TV show Philip and Philip so sometimes there's a lot of names that are used over so I just want you to get a hold of that so you don't get confused because we're about to see Peter show up and make sure you don't confuse him with Simon Peter because this is a way different Peter so here he comes here and it says but there was a certain man called Simon verse 9 which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself with some great one so what was he he was a witch he was a warlock he was a person that was using sorcery and witchcraft and what is witchcraft witchcraft is using spells to get demons to do things for you a lot of people they don't know what witchcraft is years ago I got a book by King James we use the King James Bible King James wrote a book called demonology and he talked about what demons are and he talked about how when he was King and someone had a demon or someone was a witch he burned him at the stake because he saw what they were and how they were evil and he talked about what witchcraft is and how it's so wicked and basically it is speaking to demons or unclean spirits which the Bible calls devils and it's making a deal with them that they will do things for you if you do things for them and they are very demanding I've talked to in my life some people that had dealt with demons and witchcraft and they always said that demons were the most pure evil they said we just can't even explain how wicked they are they're just pure wickedness and they told me that the way that they dealt with them is they they they would promise certain things and then the demons would do things for them in return so there are things that that witchcraft is a lot of people don't understand what witchcraft is it is evil it is dealing with demons so I please don't ever get involved with Ouija boards or our spells or you know the Harry Potter stuff it's wickedness okay and God is not in favor of that so we have a guy here that's doing this and what is he doing he's most likely talking to unclean spirits verse 7 so when the unclean spirits are with a loud voice and coming out of people that they had possessed he got back to this guy who was no doubt talking to these spirits and so he came up to me starts talking to Philip now verse 10 to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying this man is the great power of God so what are they saying they're saying that he is the great power of God they thought that this magician that this warlock the sorcerer was the greatest person on earth because he must have been doing things for the people what was he doing I don't know but the people took him as though he was a prophet of God not of who he was the devil or the devils verse 11 to him they had regard because that of a long time he had been witched them with sorcerers so what does it mean to be which people obviously he had some sort of spell on the people to think that he was something that he wasn't and somehow I don't know how it works and I don't want to know but somehow he had these demons blinding their eyes or something to where they couldn't see what this man really was they thought he was something that he was not that's kind of sad now verse 12 but when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God notice it's not the kingdom of heaven what is the kingdom of God it's it's a not meat and drink but righteousness join peace in the Holy Ghost Romans 14:17 so he's preaching the freedom of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized both men and women okay once again what was Steven preaching was he's preaching the gospel of faith in the blood that Paul preached no as a matter of fact he was not he was preaching them the name of Jesus so once again we have the who so even all the way up to here it's not oh I guess even up to where we are now it's still there preaching who Jesus is and it's all about that name of who he is and over here with Paul is where we start to see the importance of believing in what Jesus did now what we're about to read is pretty crazy I must say this is very interested first time I ever read this I said man this this is we and I thought to myself man the book of Acts is so hard to understand because look at what we're reading here and what it's about to say this is this is nuts Acts chapter 8 verse 12 but when they believed Philip concerning the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ so he's putting the emphasis on the name who Jesus is that he's the Messiah and that's what Jesus means Jehovah saves so Jesus must be God manifest in the flesh they were baptized both men and women okay that's water baptism then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done so this guy Simon he believes alright now watch this Simon believes and is baptized but I want to ask the question is he saved is he even saved look at this then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the signs of miracles which were done now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent unto them Peter and John okay so Peter and John show up yeah they're finally here so here comes Peter and here comes John now why on earth did they finally get off their butts remember except the Apostles the Apostles decided to stay in Jerusalem why did they finally come over because some other guy went over and preached now they're gonna come over and get in on what that guy did yeah go steal his glory huh I just I hate to see that but that happens all too often I've seen so many times a missionary goes start a work somewhere and something happens to wear that missionary can't stay there and so he turns that over to someone else or some other man comes and takes it over and then goes look at what I've started and brags on himself it's like no you didn't get the credit where the credit is do buddy this other guy started that you just took it over I hate to see that but so Philip he's the one that started all this work in Samaria then show up Peter and John now verse 15 who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost what what do you mean they believed how come they didn't receive the Holy Ghost look at verse 16 for as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus verse 17 then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost so this guy Simon believes and is baptized and these other people in Samaria that believe they believe but they don't get the Holy Spirit they get the Holy Spirit by laying on hands laying on hands what that is very very foreign to what Paul teaches go to ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and see what happens to us Gentiles today when we get saved we don't have to have some man put his hand on us to give us the Holy Spirit we get it the very moment we believe go to Ephesians 1:13 Ephesians 1:13 the Apostle Paul tells us these words the Apostle Paul says in whom you also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that she believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise so Paul tells us that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit the moment we believe so when we believe that's when we get the Holy Spirit that's today that's under the Ministry of Paul how come back here that didn't happen how come they believed but they didn't get the Holy Spirit somebody else had to come and give it to him you know why very simple because the book of Acts is a transitional book I'm telling you man the book of Acts is so hard to understand unless you say okay I can't take anything in the book of Acts and and unless I see if it lines up with Paul because that whole book of Acts talks about how it all goes to Paul at the end and how we're under Paul's ministry and guess what that doesn't jive with Paul Paul says that we today when we get saved we get the holy spirit and we're sealed with the Holy Spirit at the very same time so here you have in Acts chapter 8 something very different a guy gets the Holy Spirit or several people by the laying on of hands so verse 17 then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost now verse 18 when Simon saw through laying on the hands the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money so this guy Simon he goes man I see what you're doing there you're putting your hands on people and why they're getting the spirit now what was he thinking this Simon guy was a sorcerer sorcerer he was someone that that was was was dealing with unclean spirits before he probably had no idea what the Holy Spirit was so he said now I'll give you some money for the Holy Spirit what was he thinking he was probably thinking there's just one spirit that's better than all the other spirits that I'm used to dealing with what sure like to pay for that now look what happens so what does that mean that means even though he believed it was baptized he still didn't get the Holy Spirit boy that's weird because today we get the Holy Spirit but when we believe so do you see how the book of Acts has so many weird things going on in it now it's probably because these people were half to you and half gin top I don't know all I know is it's different here than it is in the Ministry of Paul and he says here verse 18 when Simon sold it through laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given then he offered them money saying give me also this power that on once over I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost now Peter speaks up verse 20 but Peter said unto him thy money perish with thee because thou has thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money thou has neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God verse 22 repent therefore of this thy wickedness at pray God in perhaps the thought of thine heart might be forgiven thee Wow Peter says Simon repent if it might be that you might be forgiven does that mean he wasn't forgiven but wait a minute he just believed and he got baptized does that mean he was lost Peter says you need to repent in order to get forgiven yet he'd already believed it got baptized and still didn't even have the Holy Spirit today when we get saved through the gospel Paul's gospel first Corinthians 15 1 through 4 the gospel today when we get saved we believe the gospel we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise the very moment we believe and we are forgiven at the same time but this guy he believes in his baptized in water and he still doesn't have it and Peter says man you need to pray for forgiveness he's like but I already got back to faith is he believe in the gospel no he's not blaming Paul's gospel because Paul's gospel hadn't been giving it so he's just believing that Jesus was God or Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews but he didn't even have the Holy Spirit so do you see how the book of Acts is such a hard book so many things going on you can't try to force that to today and say today the only way to get the Holy Spirit is by the laying on of hands that's not today that's not what Paul says but that happened back then so the book of Acts is crazy there's unless you write lean abiding when you rise with a bite you say yeah that was back then there's no problem that happened then Anna did that was in that time but the book of Acts is transition so it's not quite settled the doctrine yet so that's how God chose to deal with those people okay verse 23 for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity then answer Simon said pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me all right so did he get saved he leaves his hanging who wrote the book of Acts Luke Luke completely leaves us hanging with this guy we're left going Barbaro any good saved he believed that Jesus was the Messiah and baptized that water but it didn't get the Holy Spirit we're not told that they laid hands along to give it to him and they're just told hey you need to forget to repent and get right with God and we're seeing her going Diddy we don't know so even that odd I mean that is so incredibly wild so what happens well we don't know the last thing we hear is this Simon guy saying hey please pray to the Lord and that none of these things happen to me so pray e to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me now verse 25 a day when they had testified preach the word of the Lord return to Jerusalem and preach the gospel many villages of the Samaritans so here's a guy that was baptized in water and believed in Jesus and it looks like he's still lost because Peter says you need to be forgiven yeah but he believed it was baptized so what was the problem maybe he's still had an unclean spirit I don't know he said his heart wasn't right he was thinking he could by the Holy Spirit Peter did say an interesting thing he said that the Holy Spirit is a gift well we're told in Paul that salvation is the free gift so we get the free gift of eternal life and salvation through Christ and we are sealed freely through the Holy Spirit when we're safe so this is one of those places in the book of Acts and there's going to be a bunch like this place as we go through the book of Acts so where you just look at that and you go huh I don't know what to do with that but you know why it's not a big deal because all that is before the Ministry of Paul and so that explains to us that hey today it's this way we don't have to worry about what happened there now we do get the Acts chapter 19 where something weird happens - when we get to Acts chapter 19 there's another time when there's a laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit but I want you to remember this when we get to that those people were Jews they weren't Gentiles and nobody else in Paul's ministry has to have the hands laid on him to kigali Spirit but those guys did because they didn't go through this and all they knew was this John John the Baptist so there's a lot of stuff in the book of Acts that make you go huh and you gotta understand the book of Acts is a transitional book and all we know is what Paul says that's for us today so you've got to go by what God told Paul in his epistles what we should and can and it's great to read the book of Acts and it's good to scratch your head sometimes go wow I don't know what to do with that but hey one thing I do know as Paul as our apostle so I'm gonna go by what he said in Romans through Philemon and in Hebrews all right so what happened they returned and they testified they preached the word of the Lord and they went and preached any other villages of the Samaritans now they is they just Peter and John or as they also this guy well they is also Philip then Philip went back to Jerusalem so he went up there and then he came back here if he's one of the day it could just be talking about John and Peter or it could be talking about Peter John and Philip but here's what happened something happened in verse 26 all right they preach the gospel in many villages what was the gospel at that time it was the good news that Jesus was the Messiah who had come so that's what they were preaching they were still preaching who Jesus was they were preaching the gospel gospel means good news so where they were preaching the good news hey the Messiah came they were preaching trust the blood of Jesus yet that's not the message yet 4:26 in the angel the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south unto the way which goeth down from jerusalem into gaza which is desert any arose and went okay verse 27 so where is gaza now from what I understand all this down here is called Gaza so somewhere down here is a place called Gaza so here's the second trip our second missionary journey if you will of this fella he goes all the way down here so this is Philip we're looking at Philip and his missionary journeys and Philip is by the time we get done with this I was thinking whether I should say this or not when I was putting these notes together and I think I should Philip literally runs circles our the early apostles because of what he's doing he's doing so much more than them I find that so amazing so what happens well the angel Lord told him to go down to Gaza so here's Gaza so went north now he's going back down south and in verse 27 he rose and went behold a man of ethiopia a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship so he heads south first he headed north now he's heading south and he comes across an Ethiopian a black man all right now let's back up up here chapter 6 in chapter 6 we have am I gonna write this chapter 6 we had the Grecians the Grecians well that would be the white folks that would be the Greeks chapters 1 through 6 or the Jews who were the Jews well they there your your olive skin people I guess you could call them there they're the ones that come from Shem the whites come from Japheth and now here in chapter 8 we have an Ethiopian eunuch an Ethiopian well that's an African that would be the black guy and that's from ham so a lot of people they say where do the races come from and in the world there's people say there's three races now I I'm starting to think there's just one human race but there's three different races if you will a lot of people say based upon the Bible and those would be the three sons of Noah and Noah had three sons the oldest was Japheth Japheth when he left the ark the ark came over here in Turkey someplace when Japheth wet he went over and settled all of Europe that's where the white people come from then they had a son named sham sham went and settled all this area Shem would be where the Jews came from and the Asiatic people to this day if someone is very against the Jews he's called an anti-semite from Shem and then the other son of Noah was Hammond ham went south and he inhabited where all Africa is so the black people so the three different races come from the sons of Noah and look at what we see we see all three races showing up here in the first eight chapters of the book of Acts that shows me God is a God that cares about everybody it doesn't matter the color of their skin he wants everybody to be safe so here he goes down he's talking to this person and look at what it says here in verse 27 and who had the charge of all her treasure who had come to Jerusalem for to worship so he came from Ethiopia which would be way down here and so this Ethiopian eunuch came all the way up to Jerusalem and then he was going back why would the Ethiopian eunuch go all the way to Jerusalem well I think it's because the eunuch was a proselyte so as a Jewish proselyte he would have converted to Judaism and he would have been circumcised and as the law says to go to Jerusalem three times a year while he went there to the feast so he would have gone to that Passover and he would have listened and he probably would have heard Stephen he might even seem Stephen being crucified I don't know but he's reading his Bible he's reading his Old Testament this Ethiopian eunuch okay now watch what happens here in verse 28 was her turning okay he was returning from Jerusalem to his place of Ethiopia and sitting in his chariot red-eyes is okay which is Isaiah people say why doesn't it say Isaiah because this is written in Greek and in your transliterating the name Isaiah in Greek it's essayist but it is Isaiah the prophet first when I did the spirit capital s the Holy Spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot and Philip ran thither to him Wow Philip is obeying God he's not just walking he's running and the apostles they're just except the apostles they stayed in Jerusalem and they you know they come down from time to time but they're staying but Philip runs Philip ran hither and heard him read the Prophet Esaias and said understand that what thou readest verse 31 he said how can i except some man should guide me and he desired philip that he would come up and sit with him alright so this a Theo Theo Theo P Munich is reading the book of Isaiah and he's reading it out loud and he's probably I think reading it in Hebrew because he's a convert to Judaism and Judaism teaches Hebrew now some evil people will say no he was reading it in Greek in the lxx or whatever whatever I don't believe Jesus used a Greek New Testament Jesus went to the juice and the juice spoke Hebrew so he would have speaking hoped book in Hebrew but it says here how can i except some man should guide me so Philip says you understand what you're reading there he goes I don't know I need some guidance explain it to me he says okay verse 22 the place of the scripture which he read was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his Shearer so opened 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 and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or some other man then Philip open his mouth and began in the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus so he said you know what this is this is isaiah prophesy of jesus and it's like his eyes are open he's like the Lamb of God remember that's what John the Baptist said behold the lamb and this is the first time in the entire book of Acts the thought ever pops in anyone's head that hey Jesus is the blood atonement the lamb sure John the Baptist said behold the lamb of God but no one would have thought of that they're all still preaching who Jesus is they didn't say now trust in what Jesus did so this is the first time that you get a foreshadow a prelude if you will to what Jesus did and what did Jesus do he became the blood atonement for our sins now one of the greatest places in the entire Old Testament to point people to salvation today through Paul's gospel is Isaiah chapter 53 so let's go to Isaiah 53 because what he quotes here in verse 32 and three is isaiah 53:7 and eight and here's something i find so amazing there's lots of youtube videos about this but every Jewish synagogue for some reason they refuse to read Isaiah 53 as they do their readings in Jewish synagogues throughout the world when they read the Book of Isaiah they skip this chapter this is called the chapter that is hidden or the chapter that they cannot read and if they just read it they could not help but see who Jesus is there's no doubt especially in the Hebrew language that this is about Jesus Christ so verse 7 and 8 is what we just read in Acts let me read it to you he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her Shearer's is dumb so he openeth not his mouth he was taken from president from judgment who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of living for the transgression of my people was he stricken now I'm gonna read the entire chapter quickly because I want you to see that this is all about what Paul preaches Jesus the blood atonement dying in our place for our sins so this is the first time it's revealed and it was revealed to Philip first and it was given to a black guy first you know I can't see how someone would be racist when God gave a black eye first the message of salvation by the blood but again this had there had to be something else because Paul says what he got he got from Jesus and was real to him not of men so this is a foreshadowing of the total revelation to Paul of now it's all about what Jesus did but but still let's let's look at Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 who had believed our report okay well that sounds like Romans chapter 10 and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he had no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there's no beauty that we should desire him well when Jesus was on the cross the Bible says his Vistage was marred more than any man he was a bloody beaten pope was it beautiful he was a mess when he died on the cross verse 3 is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not verse four surely hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did not esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted verse five but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with His stripes we are healed verse six we all like sheep have gone astray we have all turned every one to his own way and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of onus of a song behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world God the Father put the sins in the entire world on Christ and Jesus paid for our sins with his blood he was like a lamb brought to the slaughter verse seven who should declare his generation verse eight wine well because guess what Herod killed all the babies ages two and up so Jesus didn't have a generation everybody within two years of his age died imagine growing up without any one to play with it was your same age verse nine and he was made his grave with the wicked with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth verse 10 yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he has put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand what did Jesus do he became an offering percent he is the offering he's the sacrificial blood atonement he is the offering of blood for our sins verse 11 he shall see the trailer soul shall be satisfied by his knowledge so many so my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities there it is that's the message of Paul justified justified by it's blood so it almost looks like that God revealed it to Philip before I revealed it above and I wonder if Paul wasn't the back-up plan you know or if well Paul tells us you know he was chosen before of before of us in his mother's womb so God always had in his mind - to get Paul out there to preach the message but boy it almost looks like he's revealing it to Philip and to the seat the open eunuch before doesn't it verse well therefore will I divide him a portion with the Great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul into death he was numbered with the transgressors he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Jesus cry for my sins on the cross boy that sounds a lot like the what message that whole chapter Isaiah 53 is what Jesus did and it was all in past tense as a prophecy so in the mind of God it was gonna take place no matter what so in that amazing so again there's your foreshadowing that's gonna be the message that's preached by Paul and it just so happens this if you could be in eunuch is reading this message now back to Acts chapter eight did they get it well as we continue reading Acts chapter eight it does not look like that Philip took that and said okay from now on I'm gonna preach that you don't see anywhere where Philip says all right now that we read this now trust the blood of Jesus to be saved we don't see that rather it's the same old thing okay now believe who Jesus is and get baptized in water so I call this a foreshadowing of the future message of Paul but boys it's right there it's you're starting to see the change from this is what you preach preach about who Jesus is now I want you to know it's gonna be about this in the future remember how Jesus did at the beginning in Acts chapter 1 where he says now water baptism that was John the Baptist but it's gonna be this baptism the spirit baptism alright now this is what you guys are doing here it's all about who Jesus is and now it's gonna be about this over here the blood atonement of Christ so here verse 35 and he preached unto Him Jesus verse 36 and as they went on their way they came into a certain water and thence the eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized now why would he ask that unless when he was in Jerusalem he saw them baptizing people he goes I don't know what that's about but I kind of like get that done now verse 37 is removed by almost all new versions of the Bible they take out verse 37 now I'm gonna read it without verse 37 then I'm gonna read it with verse 37 and you tell me people say well new versions the Bible they don't affect doctor no doctrine of the faith is affected by our new translation to the Bible that's hogwash look what it says here and as they came as they went on their way verse 36 came to certain water and the eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me Tai's now verse 38 and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they both went down to the water both Philip for the news that eunuch and he was baptized all right so what do you have there salvation by water baptism why that sounds like if you leave out verse 37 like most new versions of the Bible do that Philip went down there and he said now get baptized in water and you go to heaven okay and he does and he saved by water baptism is that what happened no what are they leaving out they're leaving out faith they're leaving out believing you've gotta believe in something to be saved and what is he believing in nothing look at verse 37 as they went on their way they came into a circle water this is verse 36 and the eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized verse 27 and Philip said if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest now what is he to believe in from the heart well if it was Paul's message he was supposed to trust the blood atonement faith in the blood Romans 3:25 is that what happened no the eunuch says it and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God so back over here it's the who message the believed that Jesus is the Son of God so it's not believing in what Jesus did yet he's still back over here believing - Jesus is so even though it was revealed that Jesus Christ is the lamb to the slaughter who takes away the sin of the world he doesn't sound like they caught it yet it doesn't sound like they understood that yet verse 28 that he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both under water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized then verse 29 when they were come up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing now that's very odd because uh he went on his way rejoicing he caught him away that word in greek is harpazo which is the same word for for being raptured or caught up in the clouds which is the passage of the rapture so it's almost like you have a rapture here Philip is the first one that's raptured in the New Testament that's kind of weird so Philip was the spirit just kind of took him and said okay now I'm gonna take you over here so he was teleported I guess I no that's an interesting verse now verse 40 but Philip was founded a sotas and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea now this is down in Ethiopia so he's riding in a chariot with this guy okay so he's riding in a chariot now I don't know how far he got with this guy going down the Ethiopia but they're riding together and explained to him Jesus bindis called away where he he's kind of way too we don't know but he ends up with in a sotas where is a Sothis well I looked up the term Asoka and it says that a Sothis sounds like a Ashdod so there's a town here a Sothis from what i looked up on the internet of so this is the old town of Ashdod and Ashdod is one of five cities that were the philistines some Ashdod is the city of of sotas according to what i found on the internet so somehow he gets called away and he ends up right here so he didn't go back to jerusalem and then it says about him that he's in Caesarea now this is hard to find where Caesarea some people have Caesarea here some people have Caesarea over here and this is Caesarea of Philippi is what they call this one and then they have so this is safe area or this is say sorry Philip I either way it's way up north so either way from here he goes here or here either one of these two places either here or here so what is this guy's fill up doing remember he's called an evangelist what does it imagine someone who travels to evangelize someone who travels to preach how to be safe so look here's Jerusalem where the early apostles were and he leaves he goes up here and comes down he goes back down here and goes back up here it goes but he's literally doing circles around the early hustles boy he's doing a lot and he's doing everything he can to tell people about the Lord so if Phillip was found in a so - so passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea and he would ended up and sensory if it was this Caesarea like I said I found a lot of things where it's hard to pin down where Caesarea is if it's here close to the coast if it was over on this side Caesarea Philippi it's one of those two places wherever it is he's up there and he went in his ministry Philip farther than a lot of people when Jesus Christ was here Jesus never really went more than a hundred miles away from Jerusalem one time Jesus came up in here to Samaria and he came back down to Jerusalem so Jesus didn't travel much in his ministry and what we see we see Peter and James and John going up here with Philip and then coming back so it doesn't look like anyone is traveling as much as this guy Philip and that's why he's called the Evangelist because he's traveling all over the place so I fight Philip as a fascinating guy he's a man that the Lord used and the Lord used him to take the idea of the blood atonement to a black person first my third great-grandfather was a preacher somewhere I had a picture of him someplace in this office and he was a preacher Southern Baptist preacher in the 1800s and my third great-grandfather he was pretty cool he was a Southern Baptist preacher here he is showing you picture of him and uh I'm kind of kind of like this guy you know I don't know maybe I look like maybe I don't a little bit I kind of see those jaws there well this is my third great-grandfather here Jacob Manley candy breaker 1824 to 1894 kinda has my beard a little bit thank God I'm not balding like him but hey that's my third great-grandfather I did a lot of study on him he grew up in South Carolina and then in Key West Florida he passed her some churches in South Carolina in the 1800s this was before the Civil War and he was a Southern Baptist and in those days there were a lot of Southern Baptist a lot of them that did not believe that black people had souls and so they they would say we don't preach the black people we don't have anything to do with black people we want nothing to do with people that are black and we don't even preach to them and things like that and it's very to me it's very sad very sad to hear stories like that and so I was like oh I hope I hope he wasn't like that I began to study his life and I got to travel around see some of the churches that he passed her and some of the places that he was and when civil war started he was in Columbia South Carolina and actually before the Civil War when the South seceded when South Carolina seceded from the Union they were working on the State Capitol Columbia and so they tried to find a place to meet and they met at the First Baptist Church where he was the pastor and they talked about seceding from from the Union from the wicked Lincoln who was the despot and who wanted to take money from them with an immoral moral tariff well anyway I found out as I studied him that he wasn't like a lot of those Southern Baptists he had a heart for black people and he won a lot of black people to the Lord and he had a church and in those days well the black people set up in the balcony and the white people said below so they were divided and all that but many churches on fortune some of the pastors were just horrible racist they would even let black people come into their church but I'm just so thankful for my for my third great-grandfather how he he cared about black people he would go out and he baptized them and a lot of people that he led to Lord probably more black people he led to the Lord than white people so I think that's interesting I appreciate him he's an amazing amazing guy now there are some things that he believed that he was little off on but from what I gather he seemed like an okay guy at least he was preaching the gospel of Paul I think he wanted a revision of the King James so I don't appreciate that so I don't drink with that on everything but it's interesting to study his life and to see that he was not somebody that was anti black like some people are today and as you read the book you read the real you realize when it's something that when God went and the nation rejected him why one of the first people that he went to was a black person God has a heart for the blacks he wants to see them get saved just like every every other race amen how do we get saved today through Paul's preaching the gospel of Paul so that's Chuck chapter 8 of Acts I hope it's a blessing there's a lot more I wanted to go into but we ran out of time but I think that's quite interesting that the foreshadowing of the the the pointing toward in the future it's going to be appalled and what Jesus did the foreshadowing is already starting that it's going to be about the blood it's gonna be about Christ as the blood sacrifice and what does Paul get from God what does the revelation revealed unto Paul it has to be something to the fact that through faith in the blood you're justified and I believe that's what God revealed in to Paul and Paul says that what Jesus revealed in him was not of man but of Jesus Christ and so we see the foreshadowing here okay it's the blood it's all about the suffering of Christ for the sins of many all right thank you for watching next time we'll start chapter 9 the conversion of Paul

Channel: Robert Breaker

Views: 8,188

Rating: 4.8327527 out of 5

Keywords: Bible Study, Acts, King James Bible, Acts of the Apostles, Verse by Verse Bible Study

Id: 8HZowzpUqjA

Length: 63min 14sec (3794 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 10 2018