Acts 8:1-25 "The Gospel and Ancient Enmities"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with

the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Standing, let's bow our heads in prayer for a moment.

Father, we know from your Word that evil spirits often gather even in times when Christians gather

in worship. And we know, Father, that at different times in our week and in our day, and maybe even in

a very powerful way, Father, these evil spirits speak slander and lies to us and entice us and tempt us

and belittle us and harm us. So Father, I stand before you with no power in or of myself, but I am your

child by adoption and grace. And Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that any demons that are present to

us and those online, that Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that you would bind and silence those

demons and take them far from this place, never to return. And that, Father, none of us would be left

empty, but that your Holy Spirit might move within us and among us with might and power and deep

conviction, that your Son's hand of grace would be upon us, and that your Holy Word and your Holy

Gospel would enter very deeply into us, so that we might be free to love you and to worthily magnify

your Holy Name. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated. For some of you may be present or online. I might have shocked you with that prayer

a little bit, but I prayed the prayer, both because it's a good prayer to pray, and also because our

scripture text is going to talk about topics like this. In fact, our scripture text today is going to

look at two great enmities, ancient enmities that are dealt with by the gospel. And so, if you

would help me and help yourselves, if you open your Bibles, we're going to look at Acts chapter 8,

Acts 8 · chapter mention

beginning at the first verse, Acts chapter 8, the first verse, as we continue our way through the

Acts 8 · chapter mention

book of Acts. Now, just before I start reading this, two things of context. We haven't looked at Acts for

a couple of weeks now. The first is, this is an eyewitness-based history of the first 30 years,

approximately, of the Jesus movement that started after the death and resurrection and ascension of

Jesus. And it's an eyewitness history, eyewitness-based history, written when many eyewitnesses

were still alive. And so, one of the things which is remarkable about this book is that it withstood

whatever challenges there would have been from eyewitnesses. It means we can have a high degree

of confidence in it. And the second thing is that immediately before this, we were told the story

of Stephen, the very first person who was killed for being a Christian. And that's what immediately

goes just before it. And just to sort of catch you up on it, just went on right before this is at the end

of, you know, how Stephen was stoned to death. And as Stephen is being stoned to death, the people doing

the stoning bring their cloaks and robes and leave them with a young man by the name of Saul,

who most people nowadays know by his Greek name. Saul would have been his Hebrew name or Jewish name,

and Paul would have been his Greek name or Roman name. And the language implies that one of the guys

organizing the stoning was this guy, Paul. And that's then how this chapter we're beginning,

takes right on from that. This is what it says in verse one. And Saul, whom we know as Paul,

and who we know eventually wrote a large part of the New Testament, that's the person that we're

talking about, Paul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution

against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and

Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women

and committed them to prison. Now, just two things about this. We're going to talk about Saul more

later. We're going to read about his conversion a couple of chapters after this. In fact,

the very next chapter is how this man goes from being such a hater and a murderer to becoming a

Christian. And we know from other places in the book of Acts that this ravaging include killing people.

Paul laments in his letters and later on the Acts that he was responsible for killing men and women

in the coming out of his great hatred of these Christians. And there's another thing which is

important for the rest of the book of Acts and very important for us. I don't know if anybody here

is Jewish. If you are, welcome. If you're watching, welcome. But we only became Christians because

somebody told us about Christ. And somebody told them and somebody told them and somebody told them

and somebody told them. And you go all the way back and you get back to the early apostles.

And some of those people who told people who told people had to be what we now call missionaries.

There's been this profound missionary expansion of the church. And one of the things in this story,

this little brief introduction, which is very significant, and it's probably something that we don't

reflect upon enough in our own lives. What Paul did and the other people involved in this was an evil.

And nowhere in the Bible is that evil diminished. They say, oh, you know, it wasn't that bad.

And in no ways do they say, well, because something good came out of it, it's not that. No, no, no, no.

What they did was horrific and wrong. And there's never any moral confusion around that.

But God used this evil act, which was designed to try to stop Christianity from growing.

And God used that to grow the Christian movement. God used the evil for good purposes.

In fact, what had happened is that when Jesus had ascended, if you go back and read the story,

he said, listen, you guys, you need to go. Of course, you have to tell people about me in Jerusalem.

But then after that, you need to go to Judea. And then after that, you need to go to Samaria.

And then after that, you have to go to every single people group in the world.

And here a year or so after this, they're all still in Jerusalem. They haven't been moving.

And so God uses this terrible evil to scatter the church. Look again at what it says here.

And they were all scattered throughout the regions. All probably just is a bit of a hyperbole,

but it means many, many, many, many Christians scattered to Judea and Samaria.

And what happened when they went scattered? They got scattered. Well, that explained in verse 4.

Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word. And that's a bit of an unfortunate word.

Really what they say, it's the first place in the, not the first place, it's one of the places in the book of Acts where,

well, basically what it means literally is they went gospeling.

They just went gospeling. They shared the gospel as they went. Just ordinary people.

You know, this is very important as well. It wasn't as if the apostles sat down and came up with a grand strategy

and did fundraising and got prayer partners and organized mission teams and trained them.

No, no. They just all went. And in a sense, what happens is it's organic, what we would now call organic growth.

These people flee, but rather than fleeing and being terrified about telling anybody about Jesus and what he had done for them,

how he, the life he lived, the miracles he performed, the brilliance of his teaching,

the genius of his teaching, his death upon the cross, his resurrection, his ascension, the Holy Spirit,

rather than being silent about that, they told people about it.

That's what they did. Just ordinary people like you and me.

And now what Luke, the writer of this eyewitness-based history does, is he gives one particular example,

and he does this particular example.

I'm going to talk about one type of ancient enmity, which is also discussed here,

but because it deals with another very, very, very important ancient enmity,

and something that happens in this forever changes the nature of the church and the Christian movement.

Well, what is it? Let's look at verse 5.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

And the crowds, with one accord, paid attention to what was being said by Philip

when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

For even spirits, crying out with a loud voice,

for, sorry, for unclean spirits or evil spirits or demons,

crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them,

and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

So there was much joy in that city.

Now just sort of pause here for a second.

The word sign is an easy word for us to be a bit confused about.

If you talk to many people, many secular people, they'll say,

you know, I took it as a bit of a sign that I should do this, you know.

I'd been thinking about what to do, and then I was walking down the street,

and I bumped into a person, and they started talking to me about, you know, this university.

I took it as a sign that that's the university I should be going to.

Or, you know, I was trying to figure out what to do about my investments,

and then I came upon this article, and I took that as a sign that that's how I,

you know, that's where I should put my money, and that's why it's been so successful.

So many people in our culture still talk about signs,

and it's a very ancient type of idea.

And really what our secular friends and neighbors are referring to are omens.

That's a very old word, that there's some omen,

some communication that gives them a direction that they should go.

Many Christians inadvertently talk like pagans looking for omens,

and the Bible never promises Christians omens to give them direction like that,

at least not in that particular sense.

But what Luke is talking about here are miracles,

and he's emphasizing something which is very important for us as Canadians to get our minds around,

because we Canadians have developed into a type of people

where we have boxes inside of our mind,

and the boxes are sort of different areas of thinking or believing,

and they don't communicate with each other.

And there's been other times in history where human beings have been like that,

but there's been times, especially under the influence of Christianity,

where it's not like that,

where you want to have just one mind, so to speak,

one way of thinking.

And so what it's saying is,

because if you think about it,

and I've talked about this before,

I'm not going to talk about it very much.

Like, if Jesus really did rise from the dead,

that's a miracle, and it's also a sign.

It points to something.

It has meaning.

And to my friends who are watching,

or those of you who are here,

it means that Islam's not true.

It means that Buddhism isn't true.

It means that Hinduism isn't true.

It means that what most of us are taught,

and what our culture primarily tries to talk about,

which is that basically there's just a type of secular world

where there's just matter and energy and people

that you can touch and feel,

that that's wrong.

It's incomplete.

Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism are incomplete in significant ways.

Native spirituality is not true.

Well, why?

Well, because if that actually happened,

it's not just sort of like you have a little box here

for religious stuff or, you know, that type of stuff.

You have another box here for how you do science,

and then you have another box over here

about how you do finances,

and another box over here, another box over here,

and how you think about politics,

and they're all separate boxes,

and they never talk to each other.

That's to live an unexamined life.

If these miracles have happened,

it points to something.

There's a particular meaning.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit more in a moment.

And that's why Luke and some of the different Bible writers,

sometimes they'll use the word for miracle,

but other times they'll use the word sign

to refer to the miracle.

Now, let's continue,

because we're all in the middle of this story,

and I've just said there's much joy in that place, right?

Philip has come.

He's telling, gospling.

He's telling people about Jesus.

And as he's telling people about Jesus,

he's also dealing with unclean spirits

that have been oppressing or even possessing human beings,

and he prays and casts them out.

And he's also been doing works of healing.

In verse 9,

but there was a man named Simon

who had previously practiced magic in the city

and amazed the people of Samaria,

saying that he himself was somebody great.

They all paid attention to him

from the least to the greatest,

saying,

this man is the power of God that is called great.

And they paid attention to him

because for a long time

he had amazed them with his magic.

But when they believed Philip

as he preached the good news

about the kingdom of God

in the name of Jesus Christ,

they were baptized,

both men and women.

Now, just sort of pause here.

And the word magic is an unfortunate word.

It's very literal.

But it's not like what you go,

if you go to Las Vegas,

I've never been to Las Vegas,

but if you go to Las Vegas,

I take it that there's lots of people

who do magic shows.

In fact, actually,

you'll notice that the stage

is set up a bit different than it was last.

It's completely empty.

Last week there was some curtains

about halfway through the stage.

That was because for the last week,

you know, for a week and a half,

there were magic shows

every evening here

at the Ottawa Little Theatre.

In fact, last week,

I met the magician,

saw his gadgets

that were all sort of stacked up

all around there.

And they do magic shows, right?

Try to, you know,

cut people in half

and all that type of stuff.

That's not what's meant here.

What's meant is sorcery.

Sorcery.

What's meant is dealing

with supernatural or spiritual beings

to affect things that we see and touch,

to affect human beings

and affect events.

It's curses and supposed blessings,

but it's not curses and blessings

as Christians understand them.

It's by Philip had an ability

to deal with supernatural

or spiritual beings.

Now, just, we're going to,

let's just park here for a second.

So the first thing I want to say

is that I know that

in a Canadian context,

I don't know where you all are

in terms of being a Christian or not,

and I don't know,

especially for those of you who are online,

there's two different fundamental ways

that Canadians look at this.

There's a very significant number

of Canadians who basically just say,

la, la, la, la, la,

yeah, yeah, yeah,

angels, demons,

blah, blah, blah, blah,

that's just all mystical gobbledygook.

It doesn't exist.

We believe in science.

We believe in reason

and stuff like that.

It's just complete nonsense.

So what I'm going to say next,

and you can send me an email if you want.

Well, maybe in the weeks ahead,

I'll talk to you about this.

I'm not talking to you right now.

I'm going to talk to that other

very significant part of Canadian population

that does believe that there are,

in fact, spiritual or supernatural beings,

which is a very, very significant number

of Canadians who believe in casting spells,

are okay with a seance,

believe there's ways to use talismans

to ward off curses

or attacks by evil spirits,

or to use crystals

to channel spiritual powers,

supernatural powers,

and there's a large number of Canadians

who are like that.

One of my great failures

in sharing,

trying to talk about Jesus with people,

and if by chance he's watching,

I give a shout out to you.

There's this fellow that I had

for three months or so,

four months,

I had very deep conversations with him

about the Christian faith,

and this fellow had grown up

in a completely atheistic culture.

He'd grown up on the other side

of the Iron Curtain,

and he had a PhD in nuclear energy,

and he was very, very good friends

with another person in the coffee shop

who was a very, very Christopher Hitchens

type of atheist,

very public,

and I'd had lots of conversations with him,

and the two of them were good friends.

So I actually,

for the first three months,

I talked to this fellow,

we'll call him Bob,

as if he was an atheist.

I mean, why not?

He grew up in a communist country,

he had a PhD in nuclear physics,

and it looked like he was great friends

with this Christopher Hitchens,

Richard Dawkins type atheist,

and so I would be talking to him

about things,

and our conversations

were always sort of convoluted,

and then one day,

it dawned on me,

and I asked him directly,

he said,

no, no, I'm not an atheist.

I grew up with all that stuff,

and it's bankrupt.

It's completely wrong.

I've completely and utterly rejected it.

And I went, oh.

In fact, he really believed

in all sorts of spiritual beings.

I've been trying to talk to him

thinking it was this,

but he was actually

completely and utterly different.

And in a sense,

I don't want to make that mistake here.

I know that there are Canadians

who believe in all of these types of things.

So just a couple of things.

And by the way,

one of the reasons,

and I could see this with my friend,

and I think it's one of the reasons

that people start to investigate

supernatural powers and spiritual beings,

that many people sense

the meaninglessness

of a purely secular world.

And many people, I think,

feel a type of loneliness.

They don't want to inhabit a world

where there's just human beings

that you can see and touch.

They like the idea

that there might be aliens

that we might someday meet.

They like the idea

that there could be angels

or good spirits

that could help them.

They like the idea

that there's a type

of a thickness to reality

rather than just this thin gruel

of thinking that all that exists

is what we can touch and feel.

And they like that.

They long for it.

And one of the things

that you see here

is that the gospel

very humbly presents the idea

that your longing

for something more

is a good longing.

but it's ultimately

a longing for God,

for the triune God,

for your creator.

And once you come

to the creator

and are reconciled to him,

you realize that, in fact,

the world is more

than matter and energy.

There is a God

who hears your prayers

and you can pray to him.

And you can pray to him

about both the really big things

in your life

and the very, very small things

in your life.

And there is a God

who actually hears you.

And there are angels

that intervene,

but there's also,

in fact,

hostile spiritual beings,

which we Christians

call demons.

When Christ is your,

when the message

that Christ is your savior

is proclaimed,

it's not the case

that more people

start to interact

with the spirit world.

In fact,

you see in this story

it's the complete opposite.

as Jesus is proclaimed

as savior and Lord,

as he's proclaimed

from having,

being able to perform miracles

and that even though

he performed miracles

and he could have avoided

dying on the cross,

it means for certain

that when he died on the cross,

he died on the cross

purely because he loved you.

People can put two and two together.

If Jesus was able

to calm the storm

and do that,

then surely he could make it

that the soldiers

couldn't put him on a cross.

So he had to have died

voluntarily on the cross

purely and utterly

because he loves you.

And when he rises from the dead,

then you know

there has to be,

in fact,

a God that exists

and you listen to why

Jesus said he was doing

what he was doing

and what he was all about

and you realize

that Jesus has come

from the creator

of all things

and the sustainer

of all things

on a rescue mission

to rescue you

because God loves you.

He's for you.

He wants you to know him.

He wants you to know him

and all the freedom

that he brings.

And so when the gospel

is proclaimed,

it's not that more people

want to have dealings

with whatever

the spiritual world is.

They come to understand

that there is a devil,

that there are demons.

And as the gospel

is proclaimed,

people are delivered

from demonic oppression

and possession.

and influence.

That's what the gospel does.

Christ has defeated Satan.

His doom is certain.

He still has power,

but his doom

is absolutely certain.

This is the first

of the ancient hostilities

which is talked about

in this story.

That ever from the time

of the Garden of Eden,

there are unseen powers

and forces

and beings

who hate human beings.

And it is foolish

for human beings

to think that they can deal

with such beings

and tame them.

these evil spirits

will appear

as light,

as white,

like white magic

versus dark magic,

black magic,

good magic.

They'll appear that way,

but what's happening

is that we aren't,

no human being

is actually taming

these beings.

No human being

can do that.

These evil spiritual beings

are taming you,

oppressing you,

making you

hate yourself

and harm yourself

and hate others

and break up your family

and see the world

as a dark place.

and the light of Christ

and the love of Christ

and the goodness of Christ

and the mercy of Christ

and the truth of Christ

comes into your life

to deliver you

from all of that

because Christ is for you.

And so there's this

ancient hostility

which we need

to be aware of.

By the way,

just as a bit of an aside

on it,

you know,

C.S. Lewis

talked about how

there's two extremes.

It's a very wise way

of talking about it.

There are Christians

who see demons everywhere

and they talk about

like the demon of smoking

and all that

and they talk about

demons too much.

They actually end up

almost having

a type of paganist,

pagan understanding

of the world.

The other extreme,

which is the one

that most of us

are probably tempted to,

is to never think

of there ever being

anything demonic

affecting our lives

or the lives of others.

And that's also

an improper extreme.

we live as if

we're rationalists

or naturalists

or technocrats.

And I just want

to encourage you

to pray for me

and us to pray

for each other

that the Lord

would give us

a discernment.

Sometimes what

we're dealing with

in our life

is in fact

a type of demonic attack.

Sometimes what we're

dealing with

in high places

or low places

or in work situations

or in cultural situations

is in fact

a type of demonic attack.

And we need

to be willing

to be seen

as being

ignorant fundamentalists,

knuckle-dragging

charismatics,

and pray into it.

the devil will create

all sorts of

odd ways

for us to think

about ourselves

so that we won't

want to actually

just do something

simple like this

as to pray

that in the name

of Jesus

whatever spiritual

beings,

demons,

are involved

that we ask

the Father

in the name

of Jesus

to bind them

and cast them out

and that the power

of Christ

will come instead.

be a fool

for Christ.

It doesn't necessarily

mean you have to do it

in public.

It means maybe

in your private prayers

that that's how

you not only

have to ask

the Father

for wisdom

about what to say

but you need

to pray into it.

Now there's

a very,

very

other

big thing

which is going on

which I haven't

talked about

because I want

to get to the point

that makes it

very obvious

and that's what

it comes up here

a little bit later.

Let's,

I think,

I can't remember

where I left off

in reading.

Let's read verse 11

and they paid attention

to him,

that Simon,

for a long time

because he amazed

them with his magic

but when they believed

Philip as he preached

the good news

about the kingdom

of God

in the name

of Jesus Christ

they were baptized

both men and women.

Even Simon himself

believed

and after being baptized

he continued

with Philip

and seeing

the signs

and miracles

performed

he was amazed.

See here we see

that the power

of the true

and living God

is greater

than any demon

than the devil

himself.

Philip,

a purveyor,

one who frequented

the company

of demons

and amazed

people

is completely

gobstruck,

amazed

when he sees

the Holy Spirit

move and work.

Verse 14,

Now,

when the apostles

of Jerusalem

heard that Samaria

had received

the word of God

they sent to them

Peter and John

who came down

and prayed for them

that they might

receive the Holy Spirit

for he had not,

that is the Holy Spirit

had not yet fallen

on any of them

but they had only

been baptized

in the name

of the Lord Jesus.

Then they,

that is Peter and John,

laid their hands

on them

and they received

the Holy Spirit.

Now,

when Simon saw

that the Holy Spirit

had been given

through the lay

in honor of the

apostles' hand

he offered the money

and we'll just sort

of pause there.

So this is a very

puzzling text

and even with,

if those of us

who are,

I'm not going to talk

about how there's

two different groups

within the Christian world

that take this text

and build a lot

of doctrine on it.

I'm going to say

they're both wrong.

That's not what

the text is saying.

But even if you read

the book of Acts,

it's a very odd text.

If you go back

and read Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the very, very first

Christian sermon

on the day of Pentecost,

Peter says that if you,

you know,

what's just happened,

are we all speaking

all these languages

and all of these things,

it's all because

Joel has been fulfilled

and the Holy Spirit

has fallen upon us

and that's why

these things are happening.

And then Peter says

at the end,

if you give your life

to Christ,

you also will receive

the Holy Spirit.

So here we have

a whole pile of believers.

They've given their life

to Christ.

They've been baptized.

And somehow or another,

there is this perception

they haven't received

the Holy Spirit.

So what on earth

is going on?

Now,

I think

the way to understand

that is this,

and this is the second

great enmity

that's in the text.

You see,

if the gospel

is going to go

to the ends of the earth,

that means,

and to every single

people group

on the planet,

it means it's going

to go to people groups,

let's just be honest,

that we hate and detest.

I know you're good Canadians

and we don't hate

or detest anybody,

but yeah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

you're just not being honest.

Okay,

all I have to say

for those of you

who spend all your time

watching the CBC,

you've got to go

to people who wear

MAGA hats.

Okay?

You know,

for those of you

who like watching MAGA hats,

you've got to go

and you've got to go

to people who have

really multicolored hair

and lots of things

and are very, very pretty.

You have to share

the gospel with them,

okay?

And it doesn't matter.

You can just multiply things.

I've had,

you know,

we've had a multicultural

congregation downtown

for quite a few years

and I've talked to people.

I remember talking

to one woman

and I said,

there's only this other

person's Romanian

and she's asked his name

and when it turned out

he was Russian-Romanian,

you could just see

her whole body tense up

that she didn't want

to talk to him.

I remember talking

to this one couple

who were Czech

and I said,

oh,

there's this other person

from Czechoslovakia

and they asked their name

and they said,

oh,

they're Slovak

and they,

you could just see

they all tensed up.

The Czechs don't like

the Slovaks

and vice versa.

You know,

West Germans

don't like East Germans.

I mean,

there's just this,

in the case of

what's going on here

between Samaria

and Jewish people

in Jerusalem,

there's two different

ways to count it.

One way to count it

is a thousand years

of enmity.

One thousand years

of enmity.

And that thousand

comes because,

you know,

the United States

are friends to the south.

They had a big civil war.

Many,

many people died.

It ended up,

though,

that the country

was united.

The North won.

The country was united

under the North.

And the United States

is just one country today.

But what happened

is just after Solomon died,

there was a civil war

in what was Israel.

And that war

never came,

like,

that never came to an end.

They never,

the two groups

never merged

into one country.

And for 300 years,

there was frequent warfare

between the north

and the south.

And then,

in the 700 BCs,

the northern kingdom

was taken over

by Assyria.

And what the Assyrians did,

which is a very common thing

throughout history,

is they took a whole pile

of the Jewish people

and they scattered them around

throughout the Assyrian Empire.

And they brought people

from other places

that they'd conquered

and they put them there

in the northern kingdom.

So now you had a mixture

of pagans and Jews

living in what used to be

the northern part of Israel.

And they intermarried

and their religions

became intermingled.

And so there's 700 years

where the southern kingdom,

Jerusalem,

viewed these other people,

now called Samaritans,

as being half-Jewish,

pagans,

everything that they despised.

And there were 700 years

of hostility.

I don't know how many of you

have ever had to go

to marriage counseling.

One of the things

they talk about

in marriage counseling is,

so you know,

the man and the woman,

they come into

the marriage counseling

and maybe not visible

to the other person,

they come pulling

a whole pile of resentments

about the other person.

One person I heard

use the analogy,

it's as if they're pulling

a little red wagon

stacked up with resentments.

And you both come

to the session

pulling your little wagons

of resentments

piled high.

Well, imagine if you had

700 years of resentments.

So the real danger was

that these Samaritans

would become Christians

and they would become

Samaritan Christians,

that from that point

in time on,

there would be

Samaritan Christians

and Jewish Christians.

Separate churches,

that dividing wall

of hostility and estrangement

between Samaritans

and between the Jewish people

would not be removed.

In fact,

it could even grow on,

it might still be there today

amongst those

who are Christians.

So I think what happened

is that God did not want

that to happen.

I mean,

we might loosely talk

about Canadian Christians

and Nigerian Christians

or Indonesian Christians,

but we don't really mean it

in any type of serious way.

If we do,

it's a serious error.

There's no hyphenated Christians.

There's just Christians.

That's all there is.

There's just Christians.

And so what God did,

somehow or another,

Philip had a discernment.

Our charismatic friends

would call it maybe

a word of knowledge,

that these Samaritans

hadn't received the Holy Spirit.

We're not told how Philip

came to that conclusion,

but he tested.

He wanted to test it.

So Peter and John come down.

They do an examination.

They also come to this perception,

somehow or another,

that the Holy Spirit

hasn't fallen.

And Peter and John

are the two leading apostles.

And so they pray.

And as they pray,

the Holy Spirit

falls upon the Samaritans.

And the Bible doesn't say

how they know that.

They just say,

the Bible just says,

if you go back and look at the text,

that they see something.

Now here,

I'm just going to speculate.

Okay?

It's not the Bible.

It's just George speculating.

If you go back

and you read the first book

that Luke wrote

called the Gospel of Luke,

there's a scene in there

where John is one of two people,

but probably with the support

of all the apostles,

a Samaritan village

has treated Jesus badly.

So John says,

and his brother says to Jesus,

can we call down fire from heaven

and have this place destroyed?

And Jesus says, no.

I don't know.

This is my speculation.

You know,

in the day of Pentecost,

one of the signs

that the Holy Spirit had fallen

was that tongues of fire

came and fell

on everybody in the room.

And I wonder

if what they saw

was that John

finally got to call down fire

from heaven.

But it wasn't fire of destruction.

It was the fire

of the Holy Spirit.

And they had

incontrovertible proof

that the same Holy Spirit

that fell

because they were believers

in Jesus in Jerusalem,

the same Holy Spirit

that came upon

every Jewish Christian.

It's exactly

the same Holy Spirit

that falls

when the same gospel

is preached to Samaritans.

And you're going to see

something very similar

when the next

great estrangement

happens in chapter 10

when the gospel comes

to the first pagans

to believe.

And you're going to see

something very similar there.

It has to have an apostle

and there's something

that makes it

clear

that these ancient divisions

in the gospel

have come to an end.

You see,

there's one creator.

There is one creator.

One triune God

has created all things,

including human beings.

And when human beings fell,

we needed God to save us.

And God does save us.

He sends his son.

He sends one savior

to one humanity.

And that means

there's only one gospel.

There's not a Muslim gospel,

a Buddhist gospel,

an African gospel,

a Canadian gospel,

a European gospel,

and Chinese gospel.

There's just one savior

and just one gospel.

And when we hear that gospel

and receive Jesus

as our savior,

he puts us into one kingdom.

One kingdom.

There's not gay Christians

and straight Christians.

There's just Christians.

When I was organizing

a Dig and Delve event

and apologetics

about this issue

and somebody said to me,

well, what do you call

a gay Christian

if you don't call him

a gay Christian?

And I said I call him my brother.

That's what I call him.

My brother.

He's my brother in Christ.

There's only one gospel.

And it's for every single

people group on the planet.

So one of the things,

if the first thing,

just in closing,

is that I think we need

to be aware of the fact

that sometimes

the devil can't be converted

in the mystery of God's providence,

at some point in time,

the angels that fell,

there's no turning back for them.

Now there's an ancient enmity

and we are involved

in a spiritual war against them.

But there's no equivalent war

for human beings.

And we need to,

I think,

have the discipline

of praying for our rivals,

our persecutors,

the people we don't like.

If you are a very,

very committed follower

of Donald Trump,

you need to pray

for people you know

who are very,

very, very different

from you politically

and vice versa.

Like it's good for your soul

to pray for their conversion.

I just want to close

with one thought.

I think it's very Christian

that we should pray

that Hamas

will be defeated

soon.

I also think

it's very important

that we pray

that people

who are members of Hamas

come to a saving faith

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And those are not

contradictory things to pray.

They are both

Christian ways

of praying.

You have to deal

with evil,

but you also have to pray

that for those

who are consumed

with evil,

that they will come

to a saving faith

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I invite you to stand.

Bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we give you

thanks and praise

that for those of us

who are Christians

here or watching online

or downstream,

Father, we give you

thanks and praise

that somebody shared

the gospel with us

and that your Holy Spirit

moved in our heart

that we said yes

to this good news

and that Jesus

became our Savior

and he also became

our Lord.

We ask, Father,

that you grant us

opportunities

and courage

to share

and bear witness

to Jesus to others.

And, Lord,

you know our hearts.

You know we might pretend

that there aren't people

who are our rivals

or our enemies

or who have hurt us

or that we are

prejudiced against,

but, Father,

you know that's not true

within us.

And so, Father,

we ask that on one hand

you both gently convict us

of the truth

about ourselves,

but that you would help us

to pray not only

that our tormentors

or persecutors

would stop it, Father.

We know that you want us

to pray for that.

But help us, Father,

to pray for their conversion.

And, Father,

we pray right now.

We ask, Father,

for the swift defeat

of Amas.

And we ask, Father,

that many who are caught up

with that ideology,

that they would repent of it,

that they would put their faith

in the Lord Jesus Christ

as their Savior and Lord.

And we ask that

not just for those

who are followers of Amas,

but for all involved

in that conflict,

for the Jewish people

and Muslims

who aren't members

of Amas.

Father, we pray

that many of them

will come to a saving faith

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we ask all these things

in the name of Jesus,

your Son,

and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.