The Gospel Spreads | Acts 8 | Pastor Keith

Open your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

The book of Acts chapter 8, Chapter 7 we know ended with the

Acts 8 · chapter mention

first martyr Stephen stoned to death.

Praise for forgiveness for those who are killing him.

Saul, member of the Sanhedrin of Pharisee, is standing there.

He's got all the clothes of those so they can free them up,

so they can throw stones and kill this person, Stephen.

And that's where we left off. And now we move to chapter 8.

And it says now Saul was consenting to his death, to

Stephen's death. Think about that.

Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah.

I think this is just great. You need to understand this and

learn this about Saul because then when you realise for me,

especially when he gets saved, he meets the Lord on the road to

Damascus Sunday and he spends those three days alone and the

rest of his life. He's a driven man because he

knows he's passed his blood on his hands.

But for the grace of God, he tells us in one Timothy, but for

the grace of God, God chose him. Me a blasphemy.

And so this was the fire that drove Saul to become Paul.

And as you and I study it tonight, we have this

understanding. So then when we get to Chapter 9

and Sunday, you'll have the background.

It's important. So Saul was consenting to his

death. There's another thing that we

want to touch on. The death of a St is never

pointless. The death of a St is never

pointless. When someone dies who's a

believer in our family, in the church, Billy Graham, Chuck

Smith, there's always an impact that it has.

Death is the doorway that opens us to go home, to be with the

Lord. It's the medicine that stops

pain, sorrow and grief for the person who's dying.

And the death of a St is never pointless.

The Bible says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death

of his Saints. So Stephen's death was not well.

That's a waste of a young life because no, because Stephen

prayed and it was about to fuel something.

We're going to read what Stephens death did.

Philip James Elliott, most of you know him as James Elliott.

Jim Elliott 1956, on his first missionary journey, flies down

to Ecuador to reach the Orca Indians, hops up the plane and

is speared to death was a waste. No, because the gospel after his

death flooded that nation. So a Saints death is never

pointless. We would want that for our own

lives. When you die in particularly in

your family, you're a believer. You're here when you pass.

We want our deaths have an impact, we want our life to have

been lived for God to its maximum, and each day God gives

us to live on this earth is a day for us to achieve that.

And at that time, the time of Stephen's death, a great

persecution, not persecution, not just persecution, a great

persecution rose against the church hasn't had this.

It's only been against the apostles previously, hasn't it?

The apostles been Peter and John and then the 12 they've been

beaten up told don't preach in Jesus.

Now it's on, it's it's it's a released Satan is now releasing

his persecution on everyone who names the name of Christ.

This is a massive change. And they were all scattered

throughout the regions of notice, Judea, Samaria, and

we're going to see later on somewhere else God allowed this

persecution. Acts chapter one, verse 8.

You shall be witnesses for me in Judea, Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.

And so as you and I read the texts and Scripture, we now see

God is allowing this because what's going to happen?

A devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great

lamentation over him. That's just kind of inserted in

there. Why is that?

Far too many times when a Christian has died, I've seen

many unwise Christian brothers and sisters go up to the

grieving family. Go well, you know, you know you

well. He's, you know where he is now

and he's now wanting, you know, hang on a minute, hang on a

minute. Wise as serpents, gentle as

doves. You know, when a Christian dies,

the family weep. There's grief.

It's not like, well, he's a Christian.

So we don't grieve. We don't cry.

I know we're very stoic. No, no, no.

It says there was great lamentation.

And so I want you to always be aware of that.

And also when someone dies who is a believer and someone is

telling them, you know, all the good stuff that's going to

happen, they can read that, they can learn that they can talk

about that in a in in the right time, but weep with them, sorrow

with them. You know, it's allowed by God.

It's OK for believers to lament over those who have died.

It's part of how God has made us tears.

It's, it's God allowing us to grieve.

We have this emotion called grief.

And many times maybe in your situation, you're, you're,

you're able to say to something, you know, it's, it's, it's all

right. It's all right to weep.

And then there's this other classic that often people come

up and say as well, you know, over time you'll get over it.

Don't say that. And there's this other word,

closure. Don't say that because when

someone dies, those who are left will have good days, bad days,

good months, bad months, good hours, bad hours and and there's

no such thing. Oh well, it's been 10 years now.

Don't don't even worry about it. Stop that.

Who who made this stuff up? We can grieve.

There are times and moments in your life you'll think of

something that comes up and you just that moment again.

So we need to be sensitive around our brothers and sisters

in Christ. We need to to give them wisdom

and understanding in how grief works.

And so the best time that Job's counsellors gave him when he

lost his family and his wealth and his health, they really

comforted, you've heard the term Job's comforters.

They helped him immensely by being there until they open

their mouths, until they open their mouths.

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house

without having studies and prayer, dragging off men and

women, committing them to prison, beating, having them

beaten and killed. This is Saul and he was on a

personal vendetta. Therefore, those who were

scattered when everywhere preaching the word note that you

see, if you're saved, you love the Lord no matter what happens

to you, you still preach the gospel, you still preach the

gospel. Corrie, 10, Boom's sister, still

preach the gospel on concentration camp.

They went everywhere preaching the God.

They didn't quit, they didn't go oh, OK, we let's learn a lesson

everybody where we go, Don't tell them we're Christians.

You know, they proclaimed the gospel.

So we see the Lord driving this, allowing this.

Then Philip, he's one of the seven, Remember, he's a waiter

in the church. He's just passing out the bread.

That's all he's doing. But he was a man full of honest

report, full of the Holy Spirit. Remember qualifications.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria.

Samaria was hated by the Jews because they were considered

half breeds in the bread. The Jews that had been there had

been attacked by many people over the years.

The northern part of them when the 12 tribes separated and then

10 went to the north and called themselves Israel and they had

many invasions and, and then finally the Syrians came down

and they would take them captive.

They would have them in to marry with everyone.

And then eventually there was only a small group of Jews in

that area and and they became into bred.

So the Jews from Judea, the other two tribes didn't like the

Samaritans. They said they were unclean

because they basically became classified them as Gentiles, as

Gentiles. Philip went down to the city of

Samaria and he preached Christ to them.

Wow. Why did he do this?

Because of the persecution. He goes down there.

For Philip, this was the work of God.

He went from serving tables to preaching to multitudes, and

multitudes with 1 accord heeded the things spoken by Philip.

Why is that? Because what had happened in

Jerusalem was an act of God. The persecution, the death of

Stephen was the catalyst. God was new was this, this was

on. He welcomes Steven home.

He says don't worry, Steven, your death, this is what's going

to happen. And boom, off they went

everywhere. Philip goes to a place where no

Jews went. Revival breaks out down there

and they're coming to the Lord, and miracles are being performed

by Philip for unclean spirits. Crying with a loud voice came

out of many who were possessed. Many who were paralysed and lame

were healed, and there was great joy in that city.

Now we come across this fellow called Simon.

There was a certain man called Simon who previously practised

sorcery in the city and astonished the people of

Samaria, claiming that he was someone great.

This was his ego, to whom they all gave heed from the least to

the greatest saying. This man has the great power of

God, and they heeded him because he had astonished them with his

sorceries, his magic, for a long time.

But when they believed Philip as he preached the things

concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ,

both men and women were baptised.

Then Simon himself also believed.

Now hold that because the question I want to ask you is if

we stop there, is Simon a Christian?

That's why you need to read the context of all the Bible.

And he was baptised. Well, does that make him a

Christian and continued with Philip.

He hung out with Philip was amazed seeing why was he amazed?

He saw the miracles and signs which were done.

You see the good news always brought joy and joy came to

Samaria. But you know, as the enemy

brought persecution. I want to tell you tonight also,

there is true faith and there is false faith, and this is my

greatest fear for the Church of Calvary Chapel, Secret Harbour

prior to the Rapture and to the coming tribulation period.

There's true faith and there's false faith.

There's good soil and there's bad soil.

There's wheat and there's tares in the church.

Jesus said you can't tell the difference.

In Matthew Chapter 7 verse 13 Jesus says enter by the narrow

Matthew 7:13

gate. For why does the gate broader?

The way that believes to destruction?

There are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate,

difficult is the way which leads to life.

There are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who

come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous

wolves. You will know them by their

fruits and drop down to verse 19.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and

thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you'll

know them. Verse 21 Not everyone who says

to me notice Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but

he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many, not just

a few, many will say to me in that day, the day of standing

before the Lord, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your

name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your

name, and then I will declare this is Jesus to them.

I never knew you. We've never had a relationship.

I've never been your Lord, I've never been your Saviour, You've

never repented of your sin, You've never asked me to forgive

me, to forgive you of your sins. You've not accepted that I died

on the cross for you, that I rose from the dead the third day

and thrown in and it says depart from me.

You who practise lawlessness. Faith must be founded in truth.

1 John goes into great detail. John tells us what a Christian

looks like, how a Christian acts, and what we see, need to

see is true repentance. In Simon we see ego, man, he

said, look at what's happening here, man.

Look at the miracles. I'm going to have a bit of this.

He'd like to be in control. Now when the apostles were at

Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God,

they sent Peter and John to them, who when they came down

prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet He, the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them.

They had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Good question that comes up is why?

Why is this different? Why?

Why wasn't it like with the 2000 with Peter and and the 3000?

Why down in Samaria did this occur?

Because the Holy Spirit wanted the church back in Jerusalem to

know that Samara, the Samaritans were believers.

The gospel had reached outside of Jerusalem, and as they laid

and prayed for the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritans, then this

brought the connection of the Samaritan believers to the

Jerusalem believers. They were the same now, and it

removed this or there, that's them and where us here.

They prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit Now when Simon

back to him saw through the laying on when he's so he's

watching man as they lay hands Peter and John on the people at

the gift of God could be he he he he says give me some if I

give you some money, give me this power so that anyone on

whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.

Notice the language he's watching.

He's man. I, I, this, this is a gig I want

to give into. I want to have people see me as

the one who comes down and as his power, you know, how much

does it cost? So his mask comes off.

He was interested only in the ritual.

Yes, he had believed. Yes, he'd been baptised.

Didn't make him a Christian because his belief wasn't real.

Why is that? Peter tells us.

Peter rips into him. Peter said to him, how by the

Holy Spirit's discernment, your money perish with you.

Why? Because you thought that the

gift of God could be purchased with money.

How could you think that? You have neither noticed Peter's

telling him you aren't a believer.

You have neither part nor portion in this matter for why

your heart is not right in the sight of God.

In other words, you haven't repented.

You know all the words. You've come along, you've hung

out with us. You're only interested in having

this, this power. You're not a believer at all.

You're interested in the ritual, but your life hasn't

transformed. You're still same, the same

Simon who wants power and ego popularity.

Notice that. Because here Peter now tells him

what to do to become a Christian.

Repent. He hadn't done that.

See that that's the only way you get saved.

You know, we we so often people come to the front and and we've

got to get them to repentance. Otherwise they're just having a

religious experience. There's got to be a true

repentance. You can't have the salvation and

forgiveness of God until you repent and proclaim I'm a

Sinner. I need saving.

Peter says repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray if

perhaps the thought of your heart maybe notice the words

forgiven you ask God to forgive you of your sins, for I see that

you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.

See he's not a he's not a Christian at all.

He's playing the game. That's then Simon answered, He

hasn't got it. Notice this, he said, pray the

Lord for me that none of the things which you've spoken may

come upon me. Here's the deal.

No one can repent for you. You've got to repent yourself.

We have kids, we have grandkids. We can't save them.

They need to. And we have a baby dedication.

That child, when it grows, it needs to come to a place where

off its own lips it will say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins.

I ask you now to forgive me, come into my life.

I receive you now as my Saviour and my Lord.

Nobody else can do it for for anybody else.

Too often I see with well meaning parents with a runaway

son or runaway daughter and they're trying to live the

Christianity for them and it's it's it's like chalk and cheese.

The kids not there, they're not into it.

It's got to be an act of God. No one can repent for us.

So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord,

they returned to Jerusalem. Why?

Preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

They've come back with big news. Hey, everybody, You know the

Samaritans? Yeah.

We ain't going there. Oh no, the Lord has blessed

them. They're filled with the Holy

Spirit. See, there's that identification

there. We're of 1 body.

We're, we're the body of Christ. We're brothers and sisters in

the Lord. Now an Angel of the Lord spoke

to Philip saying, arise, go toward the South along the road

which goes down from Jerusalem. Notice that word Gaza, you know

that occupied place that the Israelis today claim it stairs.

Notice this. I just just no, I'm going to

that. It just irritates me when I hear

of so much. This is desert.

You see, God seeks to save the lost.

So we've had Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, what was the next part

in Acts 18 out of most parts of the world, Africa, you see this,

this is Acts 18. It's this is God going, this is

what's happening, just like I said.

And so it says. So he arose and went, oh, if

only we would do what God asked us to do.

This is why Philip, he went from serving tables to a revival.

And now from the revival in Samaria, he doesn't say, oh,

God, man, I, I, I, I've got, I've got people, you know, my

people need me in Samaria. I've got this great ministry

going on. Now he says I've got one person.

He doesn't even tell him he has one person, but he's going to

minister just the one person. Why?

Because God is interested in the one person, He's interested in

the one person that's lost, who's seeking.

Because God has come to seek and save the lost.

Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the world, Africa.

God is leading Philip, and Philip is able to be LED.

And this is half the time why we don't end up in the right place

because we're not obedient to what God has told us to do.

We don't get to Part 2, part three, part four of our lives

because we just can't get past one Part 1.

God's not going to give us any more information.

He says, do you do this one thing first?

And then as you obey, God starts giving you more, from serving

tables to revival. Now an Angel speaks to Philip,

sends him down to Gaza. So he arose, and behold, a man

of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the

queen of The Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and

had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning.

He was sitting in his chariot. He was reading Isaiah the

Prophet, chapter 53. Then the Spirit said to Philip,

Next step, notice, go near and overtake the chariot.

So you notice until you do 1, you don't get 2.

So Philip ran to him, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.

By the way, in these days, the times of Christ and that time

when you read anything, when you read every reading, there was no

silent reading. All reading was reading out

loud. Anytime someone read, it was

read out loud. And so the Ethiopian eunuch is

reading out loud as was normal. Isaiah 53 for US versus 7 and 8.

And he said, do you understand what you are reading?

He's interested, but he's ignorant, doesn't know.

And he said how can I unless someone guides me?

And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

The place in the scripture which he read was this.

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before

it's cheer is silent. So he opened not his mouth.

In his humiliation his justice was taken away.

And who would declare his generation?

For his life is taken from the earth?

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I want to, I have a

question. I love this.

Of whom does the prophet say of this?

Is it Is he talking about himself or somebody else?

Then Philip opened his mouth and began at this Scripture

preaching Jesus to him. This is how, this is how you

witness. Now as they went down the road,

they came to some water and the eunuch said see here is water,

what stops me from being baptised?

You see, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

And here we have a true conversion.

And you know when you converted and you read about baptism, you

know what you want to do, you want to be baptised.

We shouldn't have to put up a list to say who wants to be

baptised. People should be, hey, I'm

saying I am not baptised. That's how it's not like I'm

thinking about it. Well, no, you get saved.

You want to be baptised. You want to do everything that

Jesus did. You want to do everything that

the Bible says. This is what I'm going to do as

a Christian. He says, what stops me from

being baptised? Because salvation.

Now notice and we can say this when we have our baptism, but

Philip said, oh, you want to be baptised?

If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, and here's why you can get baptised.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He understands that who he was reading about who suffered and

died. Philip has gone into other

detail, telling him through the Scriptures who Jesus was.

He's the Messiah who had to suffer and die.

But he rose again on the third day.

He says I want, I want him. And so he commanded the chariot

to stand still, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into

the water, which tells us this is immersion.

They go into the water. They go into the water.

And he baptised it. Now when they came up out of the

water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so that the

eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

So now we have the first Christian convert in Africa and

he takes the gospel to Africa and it's spread all through

Africa. Those of you here tonight from

Africa, thank the little eunuch. Probably not little, it's

probably a big fella, but the eunuch, you're here.

And notice he went on his way rejoicing.

You know, when people get saved and, and, and they come to the

Lord, I, I really want to hear them go.

I just say, oh, wow. Because salvation always brings

joy when it's kind of like, yeah, you've had all your sins

forgiven. Salvation always brings joy.

But Philip was found as a Zoetis passing through.

What did he do? He preached in all the cities

until he came to our first stop on our tour, Caesarea.

And so Acts chapter 8, Can you see the hand of God here?

Acts 8 · chapter mention

As we look at it, we could think, oh, it's terrible.

Look what's going on and terrible things happen.

Stephen's death, oh, but Stephen's death.

He went home. His job was done.

Now the fire was lit. By the way, when Stephen died,

there was a fella called Saul and he's doing terrible stuff.

The death of a St is never wasted.