Philip The Evangelist | Acts 8:1-25 | Sermon by John Miller

Acts chapter 8 beginning in verse 1 and Saul was consenting unto his death at that time there was great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem and they were all scattered and they were up they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea Samaria except the Apostles and devout men notice that verse 2 carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him as for Saul he made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women committing them to prison therefore they that is the believers in Jerusalem were scattered abroad they went everywhere preaching the word now you remember last Wednesday night we concluded with the stoning of Stephen Stephen was the first martyr of the church his name Stephen is the name Stefano's it means crown there are two crowns mentioned in the Bible one is the Stefano's this is the Victor's crown the other one is the diadem this is the king's crown so Stephen or Stefano's means the victors crown and he wore that Victor's crown the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord so Stephen this Deacon one of the six or seven chosen to be waiting on tables back in Chapter six he was actually used by God to preach the gospel and many heard the gospel and one of them that were in the crowd that heard the gospel was a man by the name of Saul turned back with me to chapter 7 I want to point that out to you actually go back to verse 54 of chapter 7 when they heard these things they were cut to the heart that is the people listening to Stephen preach and they gnashed on him with their teeth but he being full of the holy spirit referring to Stephen looked up steadfastly into the heavens and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said behold I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God the Son of man a title for the Messiah taken from Daniel 9 and so they cried with a loud voice verse 57 stopped their ears ran upon him with one Accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes and a young man's feet whose name was Saul and they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit and he knelt down and cried with a loud voice and said Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he said thus he fell asleep metaphor for the believers death he fell asleep because one day his body would be resurrected and reunited with his soul and spirit in heaven but what I wanted to point out is that Saul was there watching Stephen stoned in verse 58 of chapter 7 now this Saul and we're going to get to know him quite well in the next few chapters becomes Paul the Apostle you've all heard of Paul the great apostle and in the book of Acts that starts with a focus on Peter then it shifts to the focus on Paul it's really all about Peter and Paul and we're in the transition period between Peter and Paul we get a little Ministry of Peter tonight but before he was converted he was going by his name Saul the name Saul means asked for probably named after the first king of Israel and his name Paul actually met little or short of stature was Morris Greek name when he began to minister to the Gentiles he took on his Greek name the name Paul and became known as Paul the Apostle now when you start chapter 8 in the very first verse again he is mentioned and Saul was consenting unto his death whose death he was consenting unto Stephens death see in the Bible when it was originally written there were no chapter verse that's why chapter 8 starts with an an so it goes from chapter 7 to chapter 8 and Saul was consenting and the word consenting means giving active approval unto his death now in verses 1 to 4 which we just read we see that the Jerusalem church is going to be scattered from the persecution that starts as a result of Stephen stoning this is a very pivotal point in the book of Acts and in the history of the church the stoning of Stephen began the very first official organized persecution of the believers thus far it's just been the Jewish Supreme Court kind of attacking the Apostles but now it's a full-on full-blown persecution against all of the Christians all of the believers and Saul is going to be the leader of the hate I hate Christ club on his high school campus or college campus it's going to fall to his lot to kind of lead the charge and years later after his conversion this would still bother him that God would call him by His grace to preach the gospel then he once sought to persecute that he actually killed Christians so he was consenting to Stephens death those that stoned Stephen were laying their coats down and Saul was the one that said I'll watch your coats I'll watch your watches while you stoned this guy by the way I don't want to get sidetracked but stoning was a horrible way to die and the way they did it was is they would actually push you first off a cliff I just thought you'd all like to know how this works by the way they push you off a cliff and if the fall doesn't kill you then they begin to throw rocks at you literally just throw rocks at you until you are death you die by literally being stoned to death and that's what happened to Stephen is he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he prayed his prayer I believe that saw and will develop this more in Chapter 9 at his conversion but I believe that saw listen to Stephens sermon so he heard the Word of God in the spirit spoke to his heart and he watched Stephen die and he listened to Stephen pray and he saw Stephens faces have been the face of an angel and that God was going to use Stephens life to impact and bring about Saul's conversion when Saul was converted in Acts chapter 9 and the Lord says isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads he's referring to the conviction of the Holy Spirit I believe that it was a result of God convicting Saul through the life of Stephens preaching and through the life of Stephens presentation the way he preached the gospel and the things that he did the prayers that he offer so it's interesting how God can take what seems to be a tragedy in the death of Stephen and out of that you have a Paul the Apostle and not only out of that you have a Paul the Apostle but in the context here of these first four verses you have actually the church being scattered someone put it like this Stephens death resulted in persecution verse 1 and then it resulted in dispersion verse 1 or the church being scattered see they were all kind of like a little holy huddle in Jerusalem but yet Jesus had said that when the Spirit comes upon you you were going to be witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and catch the Samaria and then the uttermost parts of the earth jesus also said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature but they weren't doing that they were just kind of huddled in Jerusalem and so God allowed persecution to scatter them I believe that God sometimes will kind of rock the boat for us or shake us up or pull the rug out from under us or bring persecution in our life to kind of break us out of our comfort zone and to forces out to depend on him and maybe even take the gospel somewhere else so God was using this for his glory even though Satan intended it for evil God meant it for good and the God was turning it around and the gospel would go out and so as in Acts chapter Jerusalem Judea Samaria uttermost parts of the earth we now go to Judea specifically Samaria and then it will go to the uttermost parts of the earth the church begins to spread out it's like a fire started and Satan tries to stomp on it and it just sends out the flames and spreads it even greater so I want you to go back with me and notice this great persecution begin in verse 1 against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered so these are the everyday believers the body of Christ many thousands of them perhaps not every single one but a majority of them are being scattered except the apostles notice that verse 1 so the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem it doesn't tell us why but they stayed there in Jerusalem and that still continued to be the headquarters of the church and it says then that devout men verse 2 carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him now Bible students are kind of not sure they're kind of argue over these devout men who are these devout men that carried Stephen to his burial the term is used for two different groups they're used for Jews that are devout and love God and keep the law and it's used also for believers but most often it's used for non-believers that are just Jews that are pious and religious and devout so we don't know for sure who these devout Jews were but one of the best theories I believe is that perhaps that they weren't believers that they were actually Jews who like Stephen and believe that his death or his stoning was a horrible thing maybe they were even Friends of Stephen that hadn't become believers yet but they sympathized with Stephen with the cause that he had in the preaching that he was doing and they carried Stephen it's possible that because now you have the official persecution that the believers were there's there's even church history that says that the the Jews did not allow the Christians to bury Stephen that the other Jews that were devout had to do that and so they wanted to make sure that he had a proper burial which would explain why they made great lamentation over him not that believers don't lament or cry when someone they love dies as a Christian but the bible does say that we saw not as others who have no hope but they made great lamentation it means literally to beat the chest and to beat their head they were lamenting and wailing over Stephens death and it could be that they were just some pious Jews that felt sympathetic towards Stephens cause as for Saul he made havoc and that word havoc in my King James translation literally means to make savage out it was used for the a wild beast that would tear into another animal so he was just making savagery out of the church he was going into every one of their homes and he was arresting them and he was doing it to men and women and committing them and to prison so not only the men but even the women and he was imprisoning them therefore they here it is verse 4 were scattered abroad everywhere and when they scattered what did they do they preached the good news they preached the word they preached the gospel that phrase literally means to evangelize now the word evangelize our evangelistic or evangelical actually means the idea of proclaiming good news so that doesn't mean that they necessarily were evangelists that they rented out a stadium and they had a crusade but it means that wherever they went they shared the word I believe that every one of us as believers are to go everywhere and share the gospel the whole church is to share the whole gospel with the whole world amen and you may not be evangelists that sense but we're all to evangelize I believe that with all my heart you may not be given the gift of evangelism but we are called to evangelism it's not just giving it to someone else we need to pray we need to go we need to give and maybe one on one when you're going about your business and the city you encounter people we as that Christians every day should pray and we're gonna get into it more next week we're going to talk about how to share your faith but we should all be saying God use me today open up the door for me to talk to someone about you maybe during lunch break or maybe in the office or maybe when I go to the store maybe when I encounter a neighbor lord help me to be sensitive in the conversation to bring it around to the gospel and to share the good news with others so they went everywhere and the word scattered in verse 4 is used of the scattering of seed and when they sowed seed in those days Jesus told the parable of the sower and the seed the men wore long flowing robes they would actually pull the robe up and gather it in their hand and it would form a basket in front of them they would fill it full of seed and then they would go down the furrows of the field throwing the seed just throwing the seed as you go down I saw a neighbor in my neighborhood the other day and he had a bucket and he was just throwing seed on his grass and I'm going that dudes a professional man that guy really knows how to throw the seed I thought maybe I can talk him coming over and doing my yard you know he was just cool his hand was just going really fast and it reminded me of this it's like that seed that is just scattered and so that's just what the persecution did the church has never been hindered by persecution it only fans the flame the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and the seed just starts getting thrown everywhere and God starts using their witness and he cut he breaks him out of their comfort zone as in verse 4 they were being scattered so went from persecute to disportionateately large head one of the seven deacons to wait on tables remember when there was the argument in the church between the Grecian widows and the Helenus widows the Greek widows felt like they were being neglected in the distribution of the food and so the Apostle said we shouldn't leave the Word of God to serve tables pick seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to take care of this matter and two of those seven first one was Stephen and he became a preacher and was stoned and the second one was Philip by the way you don't hear it much but the name Philip means lover of horses it doesn't have any kind of deep profound super spiritual meaning to it but that's kind of what the name means and it's kind of always stuck in my brain so if you're a Philip tonight your name means you love horses don't know if that's true or not but Philip maybe was really into horses and they said your name is Philip so Philip went down to the city of Samaria and what did he do preached Christ unto them verse 4 they went everywhere preaching the word and you know what it means to preach the word in the context here they went everywhere verse 5 preaching Christ this is the mission of the church it's great to feed people it's great to educate people it's great to build homes for people it's great to get jobs for people but the job of the church is to preach the word to preach Christ and we need to get back to the business of preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified they men that's what the church needs that's where the power lies Paul the Apostle said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it's the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Gentile so we need to get back to preaching the gospel ministers need to preach the gospel the people and the pew need to preach the gospel we need to go everywhere preaching the gospel just take the group that is here tonight and this Wednesday night service you imagine if all of us left here tonight with the determination that this week we're all going to share Jesus Christ with somebody who needs to hear the good news think of how many people would hear the gospel this week if we all just said Lord here am I use me help me to share with my gardener help me to sell with my grocer help me to share with somebody at the store a neighbor just helped me to be faithful to preach the gospel to tell someone so wentest Cimmerian preached the gospel and the people with one Accord verse six gave heed to those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits verse seven which are demons crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies that were lame were healed and there was great joy in that city now there's a lot that we can talk about but I don't want to miss this notice verse one great persecution verse two great lamentation verse eight great joy there are three great joys mentioned in those first eight verses great persecution great lamentation and great joy wherever the gospel goes there is great joy now fill up as I pointed out was one of the seven deacons chosen again to wait on tables but faithful and little things God raised him up and he became an evangelist again I believe with all my heart that if you want to be used by God don't despise the day of small things okay if you really want to be used by God you won't just sit around and wait for Billy Graham to call you on the phone and say can you preach for me my next crusade you'll teach a Sunday School class you'll be a greeter church or not sure you'll come and help clean pews or vacuum or dust it's just what can I do to serve the Lord I just want to be a blessing I just want to use what I have I just want to do anything I can do to serve the Lord and when you're faithful in little things then God will open up the door for greater things but it's being faithful and doing it as unto the Lord for the glory of the Lord you're just saying to God I'm here I'm available I want to serve you and by the way this great evangelist Philip is the only individual in the Bible who is actually called and evangelist Philip the Evangelist later on in the book of Acts in chapter 21 verse 8 he's known as Philip the Evangelist as we find dr. Luke and Paul stay with him in his home and says areia so Philip faithful God used him now what was Samaria the city of Samaria where he preached Christ and who are the Samaritan people that he preached Christ to again a very very significant pivotal point in the book of Acts basically Samaria was in the central part of the Land of Israel now we have a map but we want to throw on the screen and I haven't seen it actually yet up on the screen and I don't have my glasses on so I hope I can see it but Aaron enlarge the font for me but in the North you have Galilee and you have just to the right of the Galilee there the Lake Galilee and then running from the Lake Galilee down to the Dead Sea as the Jordan Valley with the Jordan River and then you have the central area known as Samaria and there you see the city of Samaria then to the South you have Jerusalem and that's in the area of Judea the regions there are Galilee in the north Samaria in the centre and Judea in the south but I wanted to just see kind of proximity that we have Jerusalem where the church was and then upon the persecution of Stephen it actually transferred up into Samaria now who are the Samaritan people you can take down the map now but who are the Samaritan people during the Old Testament time it was actually in 722 BC when the nation of Israel split into two groups ten tribes in the north and the to draw two tribes Benjamin and Judah in the south that the tribes of the north the northern area of Israel were taken away captive by the Assyrian Empire this is the first dis fora or dispersion by the way that scattered seed is the concept of dispersion or de spora and when we open up the book of James on Sunday morning he was writing to the twelve tribes who were scattered there's the same word that scattering of the seed the dysport so but these Jews in the northern area of Israel known as the ten tribes were taken out of the land by the Assyrians a small number of them remained a very small number of them remain the Assyrian Empire simply stated would conquer other nations and then they would actually displace the people that they conquered they would take people from other nations and they would put them in the Land of Israel and then these Gentiles that were conquered by Assyria place in land of Israel they intermarried with these Jews so Samaritans were and it's this is the important point Samaritans were half Jew half Gentile they were half breeds as far as the Jews were concerned they weren't full pure Jews they were intermingled or intermarried with Gentiles and there was a great great racial prejudice and hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans in John chapter 4 Jesus stopped at a well in psyche our which is in Samaria by the way that's in what's called the West Bank today so you unfortunately don't get to go there and visit that on a tour to Israel but Jesus sent down and a woman of Samaria came to get water you know the story and Jesus ended up sharing with her that he could give her living water and so forth and exposing her sin and she believed in him but she made this statement to Jesus that kind of describes the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans Jesus why is it that you're talking to me she said for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans you don't you don't talk to Samaritans and though the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans God so loved the world they men and as far as evangelism goes get it get it very clearly there's no such thing as limiting the reach of evangelism to certain nations saying well we don't like those kind of people there's no racial barriers when it comes to reaching lost people doesn't matter every tribe every kindred every tongue every nation every ethnic group and any part in the world go ye into all the world and preach the gospel well we don't like this people group or we don't like that people group God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son the gospel that's for the whole world amen and we should go to the whole world now the Samaritans and this can be significant in just a moment they had their own religion and they had their own temple when Nehemiah came back from captivity and started to rebuild the temple he'd that Jews wouldn't let them participate in rebuilding so they got all upset and they went up to Mount Gerizim and they built their own temple and they have their own former work there's actually still the small sect of Samaritans there in Jerusalem that there in Israel who still have their form of worship so they have their own separate religion they have their own kind of worship they despise Jews and Jews despise them and there was no intermingling then but God wanted to reach out to these people in Samaria and so the Apostles went there and Philip went there and began to preach Christ unto them and notice that God was using Philip and not only to preach but miracles were being performed unclean spirits crying with loud voices came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with the palsies that were lame were healed and great joy was in that city so he labored and preaching the gospel and God used him miracles were performed and great joy the work of the Holy Spirit of the fruit of the Spirit is always joy but I want you to notice beginning in verse nine down to verse thirteen that now Satan tries to hinder that work of evangelism in the city of Samaria says but there was a certain man and his name was called Simon which before time in the city used sorcery to bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that he himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying that this man was the great power of God any time you have somebody saying they're the great one and they're not pointing you to Jesus Christ and people think they're the great power of God you know you're in trouble you know not to follow that person so to him they gave regard because that for a long time he had bewitched them with their soul with their sorceries but God's antidote for deception I love this but when they believed Philip preaching the thing concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ then they were baptized both men and women and then Simon himself verse 13 believed also when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and the signs which were done now again there's a lot that we can go into here but I want to keep the story in the narrative falling basically Phillip goes to Samaria there's a great revival people are being healed people are being saved many of being baptized great joy in the city and then there's a guy that lived there his name was Simon now in church history is known as Simon Magus which is the Greek word for sorcery and he's famous for being an apostate some feel that he might have been truly saved but certainly the scriptures seem to indicate that his conversion wasn't genuine and it wasn't real my theory or hypothesis is is that he just got caught up in the miracles and the excitement and he didn't have a real genuine conversion he kind of joined the Christian movement but he was all about himself he was all about having power he was all into signs and wonders and the miracles and his focus wasn't on Jesus Christ beware of people who focused on the miracles and not the miracle Giver I'm all for God doing miracles but the focus needs to be about the one who did the miracle not the miracle itself it's really hard for people to stay focused on Jesus when miracles are happening and miracles by the way the greatest miracles is a conversion of the life we get all excited because God heals the sick person that's awesome that's wonderful but I promise you whoever got healed that sick person eventually if the Lord tarries they're gonna get sick and die sooner or later just thought I'd encourage you and that's they all will forget it then just be sick we're going to go to heaven all the earlier but think about that and you can you know sooner or later sooner or later you're your body's going to go it's just going to go the way of all flesh so the real miracle is salvation that God would open the eyes of an unbeliever and show them theirs and grant them repentance and then the Bible says if anyone being Christ old things pass away all things become new that's a miracle they met and so they were all the dis Simon was all enamoured by the miraculous and the people were being deceived by him be careful by the way as I mentioned there are many deceivers that are gone out into the world today and if there's anything the church needs it needs discernment based on the Word of God and given by the Holy Spirit but I loved the fact that Philip preached Christ he believed he preached the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ and they were baptized both men and women and then the question in verse 13 is whether Simon the sorcerer was truly converted not just because it says he believed doesn't really mean that it was saving faith in the book of James we're talking about that there's a faith that's not real because it doesn't produce works it doesn't change the life so just because someone says they're a Christian and comes to church and just because someone's been baptized and just because someone walks down an aisle and prays the center prayer doesn't mean that they automatically are going to go to heaven now it says in verse 14 now when the Apostles which were Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent unto them Peter and John notice the two apostles that are sent to Samaria Peter and John now Peters going to pass off the prominent place in the book of Acts and a little footnote here that John the Apostle this is the last time he appears in the book of Acts he'll be mentioned one time later but this is his last appearance in the book of Acts and another interesting tidbit is that John is being sent with Peter down to Samaria to check out what's going on they would lay hands on the Samaritan believers for them to receive the Holy Spirit and I'll talk about that in just a moment but it was John in Luke's Gospel he records that because the Samaritans during the ministry of jesus rejected him it was John with his brother James that said Lord would you like us to call down fire from heaven right now and roast them on the spot consume them on the spot you talk about being a fiery preacher that's like going witnessing with a flame thrower Turner burn camp Jesus said no he goes you don't know what man or spirit I am oh I haven't come to destroy men's lives I've come to save them this is why he was given the nickname a son of thunder he and James was we're called the sons of thunder because they wanted to bring down fire on these very people that now they're going to minister to I can imagine as Peter said John we need to go down the Cimmerian why there's a revival there too getting saved and we need to go check it out because those are the people I wanted to roast a few years ago now you want me to go pray for them again we need to have a heart for the whole worlds so when they were come down they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for jet he'd fallen on none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then laid their hands on them verse 17 and they received the Holy Spirit now I probably should could preach should preach could preach and would like to preach but I'm stuck now because I'm covering a lot of other stuff kind of a whole study just on these little vs. right here about going to Samaria laying their hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit and this is this is the reason why the question is how is it that the Samaritans received verse 14 the Word of God and and earlier it says that they were baptized it seems that they were genuinely converted and saved and became believers but they didn't receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John showed and would have been at least a few days later and laid hands on them for them to receive the Holy Spirit well again III it's hard for me because I there's volumes I could say but let me say just a few things and keep it as simple as I can remember what I talked about early in my study of the book of Acts that whenever you interpret the book of Acts you need to understand the kind of type of literature you're in you're in historical narrative and that the book of history book of Acts needs to be interpreted through the lens of the epistles the doctrinal teaching so you need to be a little bit careful when you build a doctrine on a narrative passage from a historical book whether it be the Old Testament or the Gospels or here in the book of Acts now why do I say that because the question is is this normative for the church today is this the what happens - can you believe in Jesus and be saved and not have the Holy Spirit my answer to that is no it's not normative no that doesn't happen the Bible is very clear that if you have not the spirit you're none of his the moment you believe in Jesus Christ the moment you trust in Jesus Christ the moment you receive him as your Lord and Savior you are born again by the Holy Spirit and you are in dwelve by the Holy Spirit you can't be a Christian without the Holy Spirit so it's impossible for you to be saved without the Holy Spirit but here we have an example and I believe because it's transitional and for another reason because of the enmity and hostility and the hatred that existed between the Samaritans and the Jews and the fact that they had their own religion and the Jews had their there was a great danger listen to me very carefully and I know that some people might say well you can't interpret the Bible just from a historical perspective but listen to me very carefully the danger was that the church could become too divided between the Samaritan Christians and the end Jewish Christians that the church could have been split into two groups two bodies and we know that the Bible teaches there's only one true church there's only one body of Christ so that they might understand that they were brothers in Christ accepted by Christ there was the delay of the Holy Spirit given until the Apostles went down and they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit but this isn't what happens normative today so what happens is people take this historical narrative this story and they build a doctrine on it and they go about a thousand different ways there's all kinds of shades and variations where they teach that you can be a Christian but not have the Holy Spirit or that you can be a Christian and you're not baptized in the Holy Spirit or you can be a Christian but you're not filled with the Holy Spirit I do believe the Bible teaches the moment you are born again you have the Holy Spirit he is dwelling in you he becomes a permanent possession and that you are baptized instantly by the Holy Spirit into Christ which is your union in Christ that every believer shares in that same experience 1st Corinthians 12:13 makes that very clear we say well why is there delay so that they could know that Jews and Gentiles were one and why is it not normally because as we go through the book of Acts and I'll point it out this isn't happening happened in every instance nor is it necessary for an apostle or somebody in direct secession from the Apostolic chain to lay hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit nor is it necessary for somebody to lay hands on you right now to receive the Holy Spirit they laid hands on them to show that there was a unity and a bond and a fellowship between the Samaritans and the Jews so basically what I'm arguing is is that it's not the normal not everything that took place in the book of Acts can we say must happen or does happen now can it happen I suppose God is sovereign he can do whatever he wants to do and I'm not going to try to limit a sovereign God but basically I don't believe that that's normative and that's not what the Scriptures teach at the moment you are saved you get the Holy Spirit now we are commanded to be filled by the spirit and that's an ongoing continual appropriation of the spirits power in our lives but we'll talk more about this as we get into other sections that deal with the subject so I believe that the idea is there's only one church one body not two Samaritans and Jews but only one body in Christ so they laid hands on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit now when Simon saw verse 18 that through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given he offered them money and he said give me also this power so evident he saw the change in their lives or some theorize possibly it doesn't say that they spoke in tongues they began to praise God or got bold and preached but something happened and Simon saw the power when the Spirit came give me this power then on whomsoever I lay my hands I may receive the whole they may receive the Holy Spirit and then Peter said unto Him the money your money perish with you because thou has thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money thou has neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God and he tells them to repent therefore that the wickedness of thy heart I pray thee perhaps the thoughts of thine own heart may be forgiven thee for I perceive that thou art and the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity then answered Simon and said pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which thou spoken come upon me so Simon this guy that was a sorcerer supposedly converted sees the power of God come on these people and I want to buy that if I give you some money can you give me this power this is why in the church's history it was known as simony the buying of a position in the church or the paying money for a favor and a blessing from the church and it was an abomination as what it was and Peter had the discernment I believe given to him by the Holy Spirit and he said thy money perish would be because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money you know we're not so far off today there are people today that think that if you give money God will bless you will God bless you bless you but it's almost like kind of a direct correlation the more you give the more God blesses you and if you give a hundredfold and God will bless you and it's true you can't outgive God but but it's it's not like rubbing a magic Genie lamp and boom you get a bunch of money I remember sitting as a baby Christian in a church service and the minister was actually I was getting ready to put what little money I had to put in the offering which and you know not that it matters but it was five bucks and I was just a saved hippie that had very little so I'm gonna put my oh five dollar bill in the offering and they went on for such a long time emphasizing that you must give to God you have to give to God and if you give to God God will bless you and if you give to God God will double it back so I I just thought I could use ten bucks I'll put five in I'll get ten that's pretty cool that's a good deal and then I stopped myself it so this is stupid this isn't like the Bank of heaven you know and the offering plate goes by you know put a five and you get ten back and you may not beat you know buying a position in the church but some people think they can buy favor from God or merit or earn or deserve blessing from God or if you give God something if I go to church once a week then God you got to bless me make sure you take note of that I'm a church on a Wednesday night you better write that down don't miss it and we think that we can purchase the blessings of God with our activity or with our money so the question is whether Simon the sorcerer was really saved or not he said for thy heart is not right in the sight of God and he called him to repent I suppose it's possible that he was a real Christian but I have a theory that he wasn't Justin Martyr who lived in Samaria a hundred years later in churches history said that Simon became a gnostic which was an apostate denying the true doctrine of Jesus Christ and by the way let's let's let's not be naive not everyone in the church is saved not everyone preaching in the church on every so-called minister in the church is saved and you better pay attention to what people believe dr. Li not just their personality or that they're nice or you like them or the church is big or it's a great place you better pay attention to the doctrine that they believe and hold to and consider the truth of the word of God let's not be naive he said for I perceive that thou art and the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity God sees our hearts some might have thought that Simon was truly saved but God knew his heart now in verse 25 in closing and they that is John Peter and John when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord returned to Jerusalem and they preached the gospel in many villages of Samaritans so Peter and John go back to Jerusalem and on their way all the little Hamlet's and the villages and little towns what do they do they preach the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ so they're evangelizing as well here's what the church is all about number one we're called to worship God that's our uh preach you were doing that tonight in song you're worshipping God right now as you hear his word I'm worshipping God as I share his word when you give to the Lord of your treasure or your time or your talents you're doing that as an act of worship that's our uh preach then secondly we have in reach we're here to encourage one another to pray for one Anna you're in the right place tonight you're with the family of God the body of Christ people who love you and can encourage you I really exhort you if you're discouraged tonight or you're struggling tonight find someone to pray for you and with you myself and the other pastors and members of the prayer team we're all up here from this platform and we stay here as long as we need to to pray for you but you can pray for each other I think it's kind of cool when you turn and pray for each other and I can go home pray for one another that you may be healed that's our in reach and then we have outreach we reach up when worship we reach in in fellowship and we reach out in evangelism amen and let's go tonight let's leave this place the minute you leave this church you are entering the mission field Philip became a missionary he was chosen to wait on tables and then God sent him to Samaria and people were saved and people were healed and people were delivered there's no telling what God can do with your life if you'll just say here my lord use me God can start a revival in your place of worker in your neighborhood just ask God to fill you with the spirit and open your mouth and begin to tell other people about Jesus Christ that's our outreach let's pray

Channel: Revival Christian Fellowship

Views: 5,495

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Id: TdOYUEzJX2s

Length: 48min 3sec (2883 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018