Through The Bible - Acts 8 - Part 2

Guest (Male): Acts Chapter 8 records a remarkable time in today's word as the gospel reaches Samaria and many people place their faith in Jesus Christ. Formerly captivated by Simon's sorcery, the Samaritans now respond to the truth of God's word. As Peter and John pray for these new believers, Pastor Brett Meador notes the expansion of the church due to the power of the Holy Spirit.
Brett Meador: Well, we find ourselves here in Acts chapter eight and the story continues. It's quite a story. If you recall, the book of Acts is picking up where Jesus died on the cross and rose again. 500 people saw Him after He rose from the grave. The church started. In the beginning of the church, the thing that was so big is the Lord said, "I'm going to do a great work, a new thing, a new covenant, really." Here in Acts chapter eight, we see that story continue. We just saw the death of Stephen and we bump into a guy who's a major part of the Bible. It's funny how the Bible introduces him in a mysterious way. He's a little guy sitting on the side taking care of everybody's garments and he's consenting to the death of Stephen. His name is Saul. In chapter eight, we're introduced to four interesting people. That's what I'd like to outline this chapter in, these four interesting people. The first one we're going to see here is Saul, a zealous persecutor. We'll see him saved later on pretty soon. The second character of this chapter is Philip, the faithful evangelist. We pick that up in verse four: "Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them." Philip is a faithful evangelist. He's the first Christian missionary. If Stephen was the first Christian martyr, Philip's the first Christian missionary because he goes to other cities and the gospel is going to go into Samaria. A lot of people would have thought no. Even though Jesus had already gone there and met the woman at the well, there was still some apprehension by Jews to go. It's not like they were all together after Jesus was there. There's still some problems, but Philip goes there to share the gospel. He goes there and it says, "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them." Notice he didn't preach how to have a happy marriage. He didn't preach how to feel better about yourself and awakening the giant within. There was no TED Talk for Phil. Philip was the guy who said, "I'm going to preach Jesus Christ." That's a huge theme. You can't miss it in the Bible. If you miss it, you might find your church off course. Jesus is always the main thing and preaching of the word is a theme in the book of Acts, which is so important. Our third important person of Acts chapter eight is one Simon, a clever deceiver. Let's take a look at Simon. This is not Simon Peter, by the way. This is a different Simon. Verse nine: "But there was a certain man called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one." He did sorcery and bewitched the people. The word "bewitched" there means that people were just overtaken in awe by all of the stuff Simon used to do. He used sorcery. Simon's setting himself up to be some kind of great one. In verse ten, it says, "To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.'" People are falling for it hook, line, and sinker. They all gave heed to this guy, Simon the deceiver, the sorcerer, we might call him. They believed that he was the great power of God. This guy has deceived a bunch of people. Now Stephen comes in and he's doing miracles. You sense the tension. You've got Stephen doing miracles and casting out demons, but you also have Simon doing the same. Simon already has a reputation here in Samaria as the guy. Verse 11 says, "And to him, Simon, they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries." Did Simon have real power or not? Was it smoke and mirrors or was it satanic power? I would say that Satan does have certain power. The problems come when Christians get all freaked out about Satan's power. I've seen where over the years, there come times where Christians believe you can be possessed by a devil or a demon. If you're a Christian, you cannot be. Remember, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. If you're a Christian, I love it when the Bible says, for example, in 1 John 1:5-7, we're reminded that when light is in you, you can't have darkness. Where there's light, there can be no darkness. Like here in 1 John, it says, "This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." This is just a reminder that if you walk into a dark room, the answer to get rid of the darkness is to turn the light switch on. The darkness flees. There's no more darkness when the light's on. That's the point. When you have Christ in you, in your heart, in your life, the darkness cannot be in there. While Christians can't be possessed by demons, I've noticed how they can be obsessed with demons and obsessed with Satan things. That's something that we have to be careful of. We shouldn't be freaked out or running around acting like weirdos because the Lord is way more powerful than Satan. No doubt, Satan has certain power. I think that's something that could be happening here with this guy Simon the sorcerer. Wherever this kind of power is happening, it comes from Satan himself. There's an example of that in Egypt. This tells us a little something about when Satan uses his power. Whenever Satan uses his power, it's always bad. Remember Jannes and Jambres? Jannes and Jambres were the magicians of Egypt of Pharaoh. Those guys duplicated a lot of the things that Moses did. Do you wonder what happened in Moses' heart? The Lord says, "Throw down your stick and it'll turn into a snake." He tries it. He picks it back up by the tail and he marches off to Egypt. "I got a cool trick that I'm going to show Pharaoh." He throws down his rod in front of Pharaoh and it becomes a serpent. Moses is like, "Check that out. Now are you going to listen to me?" Jannes and Jambres, the two magicians guys, come up and throw their rods down and they too become snakes as well. I wonder if Moses was like, "Okay, Lord, now what? It's two against one." If you remember the story, Moses' serpent ate up Jannes and Jambres' serpents. The thing that we notice in that little snapshot of the Old Testament, these demonic sorcerers from Pharaoh, whenever they're from Satan, they're making matters worse. One serpent's bad enough, but they made two more. It gets worse. Do you remember what happened when Moses turned the Nile River into blood? Do you remember what Jannes and Jambres did? They ran off, found the last bit of water they had, and they turned it into blood as well. They turned the bucket of water they found, the last fresh water they had, into blood. "See, we can do that too." It's funny they keep making matters worse. That's always the way of evil. It's making matters worse, generally speaking. Even if it looks good, it's still bad. One of the things we should always be cautious of is miracles don't really bring about true faith. That's why you have to be careful with this one. There are some people that still believe if we can show them miracles, then people will believe. If you follow your Bible carefully, people do not believe when they see miracles. They might believe for 10 seconds, but it doesn't produce real lasting faith. You'd think the Jews, after seeing the Red Sea part and them safely cross and then Pharaoh's army drowned, after seeing that miracle, those Jews from that day forward should have just said, "We're just going to believe in God from now and forevermore." Ten seconds later they're like, "Moses, you brought us out here to die in the wilderness." Right after the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, they're already forgetting. Miracles don't produce faith. It gets back to the question, what produces real faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 says that. Here is where we get interesting. We have this Simon the sorcerer and this is going to be a little confusing as we keep reading. It says in verse 12: "But when they believed Philip's preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." Even though they were bewitched by Simon, all these people said, "Philip's preaching something that's true." They all got baptized. They're all getting saved. Verse 13: "Then Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done." Simon the sorcerer is intrigued about the miracles. He's really stuck on the miracles. Again, is that what produces real faith? We have to ask the question, does Simon have a real faith here? It's going to look very real. In fact, I'm going to suggest that Philip might even think it is real and maybe he's wrong. I'm not sure that's Philip's job to discern always who's real and who's not. I'll show you what I mean in a second. Basically, Simon himself believed also. At this point, up to Acts chapter eight, verse 13, there's nothing to indicate that Simon's belief was false or insincere yet. It will be tested whether it's a real faith and we're going to see it by his conduct and we're also going to see it by his response over time. Mark that. Time will tell whether this is a real salvation. He got baptized. He believed, it says. You're like, check, Simon's a believer now. But not so fast. Don't forget, faith and believing, there's a little more required than just general belief. Even Satan believes in God, right? Does Satan believe in Jesus? Yes. We're reminded there in James chapter 2:17: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, 'Thou hast faith, and I have works.' Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well. The devils also believe, and tremble." James is saying, "Good for you, you believe that God exists. But so does the devil." When we talk about faith, we're talking about something a little more than just this idea, "I believe God exists." This is why we have to wonder when it says here with Simon, verse 13, "Simon himself believed also." The question we have is was it belief in the best sense or in the worst sense? You might say do you believe Jesus exists or do you believe Jesus? Do you believe what Jesus said, what He stood for, what He said He would do for you? That's where Satan breaks off. Satan believes Jesus existed, but Satan didn't believe and accept the work of Christ or His plan of salvation for humanity. There's a difference of true belief and true faith. True belief has to do with your reliance on something or dependence on something rather than just believing something exists. The illustration I always use is putting all your weight on something to believe that it's going to be able to hold you. That's the truest sense of belief when we're talking about this kind of faith in the Bible. It's like that story I've told, in Auckland, New Zealand, where we were up in the Sky Tower. It's a little taller than the Space Needle in Seattle. There was a glass floor. You walk up there and this glass floor and you can walk on it and it's hundreds and hundreds of feet down to the road down below in the city. When we went up there, nobody was walking on it. Everybody was circling around. This little kid says, "Mom, can I go out there?" And the mom's like, "No, you can't walk on that." Everybody was afraid to walk on the glass. I decided to just freak everybody out because nobody's going to do it. So I went out there and just started hopping up and down. They're all watching me out there. The little kid looks to his mom and says, "If he can do it, then I can do it." There was a little size difference there, but you can put all your weight, all your trust in Jesus Christ. That's what this idea of believe actually means. That's the question we have to raise with Simon. Does he have a real belief? This is interesting to me as a pastor who baptizes people and prays the prayer of salvation with people. I've been asked, "Well, Brett, how do you know they're sincere? How do you know it's coming from their heart?" I do try to discern that so that I can adequately express what is needed if a person wants to be saved. I also know that Philip got duped by Simon. He baptized him. He's following him around as a believer. We're going to see he's kind of not here in a minute. It's interesting to me that Philip, like us today, could not actually see into Simon's spiritual heart and know with complete certainty that he was sincere in his faith. But he had demonstrated enough to make his faith seem real and Philip even took him in water and baptized the guy. This might just be a somber warning to anyone who's like, "Yeah, I accepted Jesus and I have a faith and I was baptized." You have to make sure that you have real faith and that it's not just kind of a sort of Simon-like faith. You have to be careful about that. Let's keep going here because we're going to see how this shapes up. In verse 14 it says, "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John." It is interesting that the apostles, Peter and John, weren't the first ones. Again, some argue that Philip had a better audience because he didn't look as Jewish. But now, because they've all accepted Christ, they're ready to receive Peter and John, sort of the big guns of the early church. Maybe they wouldn't have been as well received had Stephen not gone and done the preliminary preaching of the gospel. What changed that John and Peter could go? The gospel brought change to the people. What is the ultimate answer to racism and bigotry? I'd say the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love Galatians 3:28 that says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ." Jesus is the one who brings us all together. Unity around Christ. Now John and Peter and everybody's getting in on the action in Samaria. Verse 15 says Peter and John, "Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." Here's where a lot of debate happens within the church. This has to do with the Holy Spirit and when does a person receive the Holy Spirit? There's some that say, "No, when you accept Christ and you're baptized, you have the Holy Spirit." Others say, "No, you're not saved at all until you have the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Then you're truly saved." Other people say, "The Holy Spirit's not really for today at all, and if you're accepting Christ and baptized, you're good to go." These arguments and this passage cause problems for some because it says they believed and were baptized. In most Christian circles you go, "Okay, so they're saved, these Samaritans, when they got baptized by Philip." Yet they're only baptized in Jesus Christ. Some would say, "Isn't that good enough?" I would say if you're baptized in Jesus Christ, that's good enough. Why then would Peter and John come and say, "Okay, now we got more work to do. Everybody get around. Let's lay hands on these new Christians and pray for the Holy Spirit to come on them"? Why were they doing that? This is where some of our Baptist brothers would say there's no need for that because once they accepted Christ, they have the Holy Spirit. The answer lies in something that I've taken great pains to try to communicate with you all. Does anybody remember what is the answer to this apparent dilemma? Do you remember the three relationships we have with the Holy Spirit? What's the first one? "With." Before you're even saved, the Holy Spirit was with you. Genesis chapter six, the Holy Spirit will not always strive with man. That's something that happens before you were saved. The Holy Spirit's tapping you on the shoulder "with" you. Jesus said then, "The Holy Spirit is with you, but He shall be in you." That's the second response of the Holy Spirit. Prepositions are important when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Before you were saved, He was with you. When you became a Christian, He's in you. Question: Does anybody remember when the disciples had the Holy Spirit come in them? John chapter 20. There when the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews and Jesus appeared to them and He breathed on them and He said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." What was going on there? Jesus had now died on the cross and rose from the grave. He appears to them and says, "Guess what guys? You can be saved now because the church has started. No longer is it Old Testament or New Testament. You're saved by grace through faith. I'm going to now have you receive the Holy Ghost." That was the "in." Jesus said to them, "The Holy Spirit was with you, and He shall be in you." That happened in John chapter 20. This is where again people have trouble because they don't understand the third one that is talked about. Jesus said there in Acts chapter one, "You will receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." The Greek word is *epi*. If you don't read your Bible carefully, you miss some of this stuff. There's a third relationship with the Holy Spirit. They waited around there in Acts chapter two until the Holy Spirit came upon them. That's when the tongues of fire, they spoke in tongues and Peter preached a sermon and the Spirit was upon them. In the book of Acts, we're going to see that sometimes the Holy Spirit would come upon the church by the laying on of hands. There would be this practice where they would ask for the Holy Spirit. Remember what we always say? If you want to have the Holy Spirit come upon you, how do you get that to happen? You ask. It's that simple. You fathers, Luke says, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your kids. How much more will the Father give the Holy Ghost to them that ask? There is a model, and I don't think it always has to be this model, but where there's the laying on of hands that people would receive the Holy Spirit. That is the coming upon of the Holy Spirit. The confusion here for some people is very cleared up when you realize those three relationships. These people are saved now because they were baptized and they believed. By the way, even the baptism, as much as that's an obedient thing we all should do, it is still not what saves you. Otherwise, the thief on the cross wouldn't have been saved. He didn't get down. Jesus didn't say, "Let's get off the cross. I'll baptize you and then I can say today you'll be with Me in paradise." That's not what happened. Baptism doesn't save you. Baptism is this beautiful outward expression of what happened in salvation. It's important, but you can't do a work of any kind to save you. These guys were believing in Jesus. Whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. They believed in Jesus, they were baptized, and then John and Peter show up. "Hey, we got more work to do." What do they do? They lay their hands on them. In fact, verse 15 says they sent to them Peter and John who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Verse 15: "For as yet He was fallen upon none of them." Notice the word "upon none of them." Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. What did they do? Verse 17: "They laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost." That is the coming upon of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Why would the Holy Spirit do that? Because that's what's going to make the Samaritans powerfully do something really cool. Speak in tongues? No, not necessarily. Why would the Holy Spirit come on them? So that they could preach the gospel in Judea, Jerusalem, and in Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world. Remember that's what we read. That's why the Holy Spirit comes upon. It's not just for the magical things of the Holy Spirit. The main reason the Holy Spirit comes upon His church is so that the gospel will be preached. That's what's going to happen. This is how the spread of the gospel—does that all make sense? I think it's important. There's a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering why are they praying for the Holy Spirit after they already accepted Christ? The answer is in those three relationships: the with, the in, and the upon.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador drawing good insight and understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit from our passage in today's word of Acts chapter eight. And you're invited back for the conclusion of our study next time. I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Pastor Brett is here now. The Bible talks about how we are made in the image of God. If we truly believe that, He knows us better than we even know ourselves. Brett, does God have a master plan for each of us?
Brett Meador: Kurt, I'm glad you asked that because I really believe the answer is yes. As I read the word, God is very intentional about everything. We're not accidents drifting through life without purpose. I think the secularist thinks that. As Christians, remember Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." God is doing a work. The word workmanship, I love the Greek word is *poiēma* where we get our word poem. We're like a work of art that God has preordained that we walk in the way that He wants us to walk. That means God has a purpose and He desires to accomplish His work in each of us. That doesn't mean every detail's forced upon us like robots, but it does mean God knows us, loves us, has gifts and opportunities that He wants us to walk in. I think one of the saddest things is when people spend their life chasing success but never really discovering what God's real purpose is for them. As God's plan unfolds, we start to see His beautiful plan for our lives. To be patient and to just trust in the Lord for that. God writes better stories for our lives than we could ever write for ourselves. Let's go with His.
Guest (Male): That's a good reminder because it is so easy just to plan out our own life without really trusting God for what He has for us, which God always knows best. Thank you, Pastor Brett. If you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Acts and we'll witness God advancing His gospel despite opposition. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.