Episode 132: Simon's Experience with the Holy Spirit

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the Light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Of the holy apostles of our Lord

and our Savior Jesus Christ. Chapter 15 Last episode The

church in Antioch was met with a dilemma over circumcision of the

Gentiles who were converting and receiving the Holy Spirit and

receiving the Holy Spirit even before being baptized.

Now some men, both Gentiles and Jews, Jews and Gentiles who had

believed and those Gentiles who were more closer to the Jewish

faith and acceptance of the Jewish faith, held on the that

circumcision had to be adhered to.

So some of these men who held on the circumcision, who came from

Judea, by the way, in Syria to Antioch, they were teaching that

if you're not circumcised, you don't have salvation or you

don't have the life in our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.

And Saint Paul And Barnabas knew that that was not the case, that

all that was required was faith and the fulfillment of the

commandments of Jesus Christ. Now we're reviewing this just

for those people who are listening to these podcasts for

the first time or this episode. So they along so that that is

Paul and Barnabas along with the church, those who are for and

against. So a group of those who are for

circumcision, against the circumcision of the Gentiles,

along with Saint Paul and Barnabas decreed to travel to

Jerusalem and to meet with the apostles, that is Saint Peter

and Saint James and the elders. That is the precipitous, oh, the

priest, the elders, so that they can come to an agreement.

And while they were there, some of the believing Pharisees now

who had believed stood up saying that it is necessary for the

Gentiles to be circumcised and to command them to keep the law

of Moses. So they need to keep the law of

the Moses and be circumcised according to God's covenant with

Abraham. And we know that they were

referring to such Scripture as Scripture.

And I'm going to read it again. I know I read it last episode,

but again Genesis chapter 17 verses 10 to 13, God said to

Genesis 17:10–13

Abraham and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and

it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

And a son of eight days shall be circumcised among you.

Every male of your for your generations born in the house

and bought with money from any son of a foreigner that is a

Gentile that was not from your seed to curse the circumcise.

They just need to be circumcised.

Let the one born in your house and brought with your silver be

circumcised. And my covenant, this covenant,

this law, this decree will be in your flesh among you for an

eternal covenant. It's an eternal covenant.

It's an eternal fleshly covenant and the uncircumcised male whose

flesh of his foreskin will not be circumcised, that soul will

be destroyed from his people. He has withdrawn from my

covenant. Genesis again, chapter 17,

verses 10 to 13. So being an eternal covenant, we

discussed that it was simple enough to solve the problem and

move on according to the Old Testament scriptures.

Sol Scriptura and God's law given to Abraham.

But we will now learn that wasn't the case and there was an

appeal by the apostles not only to the Scriptures.

Obviously that already referred to the Scriptures, the apostles,

maybe some of the apostles and some of the elders and the, the,

the Pharisees have already appealed to the Scriptures, but

they not only appeal to the Scriptures, but to something or

someone greater than the Scriptures.

What can be greater than the Word of God?

Well, we'll discuss that. And now who steps in?

We're going to read in this time no other than Simon the Rock to

whom Jesus entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, not the

keys of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the

Pauline letters and Revelation and the Psalms.

No, no, no, the Kingdom of heaven, which is the Gospels

themselves, which is Jesus Christ, which is the church and

the Kingdom of heaven. Matthew 10, Matthew 1619.

Now before we continue, there are many other important factors

in this chapter. I don't want to do it injustice.

There are many other factors in this chapter that we can learn,

but we're focusing on what the apostles appeal to so that they

can overcome this issue and solve it.

And we are trying to see if sola scriptura really played a vital

role. Was it just the scriptures?

There's a lot of other factors were according to the Protestant

Reformation, for example, the moral teaching of the Old

Testament don't apply to Christians.

That's what they say. They use this chapter to say

that's it. It's done, abolished.

No, beloved, we're going to read that and we're going to learn

that. We'll also touch up on that when

we come to the verse. When we come to the verse, we

will see that the primacy of Peter also is in question here

and the primacy of Pope is also going to be in question here.

Let's continue reading the Scriptures.

Acts chapter 15, verses 6:00 and 7:00.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Then the apostles and elders assemble to consider this

matter. Notice, notice very carefully

the apostles and elders, not the entire church, not the

laypeople, not the faithful who had believed in Jesus Christ and

were baptized. No, it was the apostles and the

elders. Hence we call it the holy

Apostolic and Universal Church. Then the apostles and elders

assemble to consider this matter, to discuss this matter.

And after much controversy, there must have been a lot of

argument. And no, but you know, Genesis

17, Isaiah and, and Ezekiel, and you know, they were reading all

these Old Testament scriptures and there was a lot of

controversy. Simon Peter rose up and said to

the men and brethren, You know that from the early days God

chose that from my mouth. The Gentiles should hear the

word of the gospel and believe God did it through His Holy

Spirit. What is he referring to?

If we go to Acts chapter 10, we read about one person.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

His name is Cornelius, a centurion of the regiment which

is called the Italian. He was a devout, righteous

person, but he was a Gentile and God received his arms, his

prayers, his faith in the one true God.

And what happens then? Simon goes.

Now Simon, remember Simon was reluctant.

In that chapter 10, we see that Simon sees a vision when God

says to him, Simon, get up and eat.

There was all these creepy and crawling things in a in a in a

plate, let's say, or in a, in a sheet.

And Simon Says, Oh Lord, no, nothing.

The father's come into gone into me.

He said eat what I have purified.

You cannot defile. So Simon listen appeals to a

vision. Simon appeals to an experience.

Simon not only appealed to the Old Testament and the Scriptures

because they did this, they would have gone back to the

Scriptures and said that this is the covenant with God.

OK, but now Simon is also appealing to something else.

Let's read on. And God, which is the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Really, praise be to the name of

the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, one God.

And God who knows what is in the heart has testified according to

them, the Gentiles, and has given them the Holy Spirit, just

as He did to us. And He did not discriminate

between us and them because the purify, because He purified

their hearts by faith. God, who knows everything has

already done this. This is grace, beloved, this is

grace. God has already done it.

God has accepted them. So why are we now arguing about

what was written in the Holy Scriptures and only adhering to

that? God has done it.

So are we going to now dare to say, Oh Lord, your words are not

everlasting because you said something in Genesis 17.

You said something in Genesis 17.

Now you've changed your mind. Can the apostle have said this?

Can they have argued with Simon and said no?

But why did God do this? Why did God perform this?

Why did God bestow the Holy Spirit upon these Gentiles who

are not circumcised? And it is God who said my

covenant is eternal because at that time that needed to be the

case. Beloved, God was working with

men. God came down and took flesh.

God became man. You know, God could took on body

through this this people God took on flesh.

You know, I was I was mentioning in the Assyrian section that we

need to talk about this God in the Old Testament whom we say so

loving this God that we see in Jesus Christ.

The God that Jesus portrayed in the holy Gospels is different to

the God of the Old Testament. He is telling people to smite

and to obliterate children even right.

We need to talk about that one day.

It's the same God, but it's not God who's doing that.

We'll talk about that one day, I promise you.

So God has already done this. What are we worried about?

What can we can we go against God?

You know, I think he's, he's remembering his own

admonishment. Now, you know, we say in a

Syrian Cresam and Perdesa, the, the rod from paradise.

I think it, it refers to the, the, the spear that the Angel

held in any case, right? There's some Perdesa, right?

He's remembering, listen, I went against God.

God told me that he's going to do this.

And I said, Oh no, Lord, I can't be defiled.

And he's referring to Acts chapter 10, verse 15, those

Acts 10:15

things which God has purified. Simon, God tells him you shall

not make impure. And it's the same message that

he is relying or relaying. So where's our Scripture here?

So did they? Did they?

Is there a problem here that the apostles are not adhering to the

perfect word of God that is eternal and everlasting?

Let's keep going. So Saint Paul is saying, listen,

we circumcised St. Peter, I'm sorry.

We have circumcised and received the Holy Spirit.

These people have also received the Holy Spirit.

Now you can't now argue and say, well, no, that was not the Holy

Spirit. No, Simon witnessed that himself

while he was preaching. He saw the Holy Spirit descend

on those Gentiles who were listening.

And he said, can we we withhold water baptism, which is very

important. You talk about that one day

water baptism, which is very important.

Can we withhold the water baptism from these people?

No, they've received the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit was being received before even being

baptized. So do you see the argument?

Do you see the argument? So, you know, let's sort of not

wrap it up, but just let's let's talk about this.

You know, when when we come to discuss the church, the life of

the church, the traditions of the church, the oral traditions

of the church, the written traditions of the church, we

can't just base our appeal on the Holy Scriptures and say,

what is it in the Scriptures? WWJD.

No, it's actually WH TCD. What has the church been doing?

I forgot the BWWJD. No, Jesus has done it.

He's established it. He's laid the foundation,

entrusted it to the Church. How has the Church been

practicing this? Circumcision, Baptism, the

reception of the Holy Spirit? Right.

So we always go back to and say, well, how has the church for the

past 2025 years being LED? Was it only the Scriptures?

No, because there are a lot of things in that not written in

the Scriptures, but they were passed down by the word of

mouth, oral tradition and a verse should be now echoing in

our minds because if we're still thinking, well, I don't feel it

out of I've always said it, it, you know, it doesn't matter what

you feel and what you think. It's what the Scriptures say.

They rely on the scriptures. They appeal to the Scriptures

and what the Holy Spirit had led the Church, how the Holy Spirit

has been leading the Church, and there should be a averse echoing

in your minds now. Exodus 3320 I shall take pity on

him on whom I shall take pity, and I shall love him whom I

shall love. Romans 915 So, Lord, how can it

be? Lord, You commanded that there

has to be circumcision. You even said to Abraham the

foreigners, but now you're changing your mind.

No, God does not change his mind.

No, it is in his nature, the goodness of God that is now

being, the grace of God that is now being, being present and

evident. Verse 10 Now therefore, why do

you tempt God by putting a yoke upon the necks of the disciples,

which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Amen to that. Amen to that.

Listen, we had the law, we had the Mosaic law, we had

circumcision, we circumcised, we were received into God's people

and we were called God's people, but we sinned.

We continued to sin. They sinned without the law.

We sinned with the law. They sinned with the law of the

nature, the law being written on their hearts.

We had the written law. You know, that's what Paul talks

about in Romans. But we all sinned.

We received the Holy Spirit. They have also received the Holy

Spirit. So let's not burden them.

It was even unbearable on their fathers.

Paul goes on to say, sorry, I keep saying Paul.

Peter goes on to say, but we believe that through the grace

of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they let

me read that again Now therefore, why do you tempt God

by putting a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which neither

our fathers, which neither our fathers nor we were able to

bear. Why?

Because they continued to sin. Why St.

Marisudat writes it and comments because they were continually

subdued under the weight of curse and the multitude of sins.

This is history. This historical beloved verse 11

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

we shall be saved even as they have, we shall be saved.

Why? Because Romans 223 Because we

have all transgressed the Jews and the Gentiles.

We have all transgressed against the law.

God Himself we have despised and disgraced.

Romans 223 shut the version Beautiful.

We have all fallen short of grace of God.

No, no, actually it says we have all transgressed against the law

and God himself we have despised and disgraced.

We are all fallen short. Grace.

The word grace, that's the first time it appears in the book of

Acts. What does it mean?

It means that God has already done it.

God has done this. We don't need to do anything.

We don't need to go back and now argue whether it is right or

wrong. You know, when we, when we, when

we do that, it's though as though Jesus has failed.

It's as though we don't accept what Christ has already done for

us. No.

God sent the Holy Spirit upon these people.

God saw their heart. When Cornelius was praying and

offering his arms his his charitable work, God saw the

heart that is a a contrite spirit, a pure heart, truly

searching for the true God or worshipping the true God through

the law that is written on the heart.

And God accepted that. Hence God sends Simon for him to

go and preach in order for him to receive the Holy Spirit and

for in order for him to be baptized.

So now we see that the appeal to the Scriptures wasn't the only

appeal by the apostles. The appeal to the Scriptures was

not the basis of Simon's argument and support of the

Gentiles, no, but rather the experience he had with the Holy

Spirit. That's why I mentioned God, the

Triune, God the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Simon was moved by the Holy Spirit.

Simon experienced something which pertained to the Gentiles

to be, to come into Christianity, to believe and to

be baptized and to receive the Holy Spirit.

Simon saw this, God told him, and he relied and appealed to

the guidance and the work of the Holy Spirit.

That Holy Spirit that Jesus promised in John chapter 14

John 14:26

verse 26 but he, the paraclate, the Spirit of holiness, whom the

Father sends in my name, He shall teach you everything and

He shall remind you of all that I have said to you.

The church today relies on the Scriptures, relies on the

appeals to the Scriptures, but also relies on the

interpretation, the guidance of the Holy Spirit according to the

Scriptures, beloved. So if we argue solar Scriptura,

if it is only the Scriptures, there is nothing that is

required more and above and outside of the Scriptures.

Well, we go back again to this early church.

These are Simon and James and Paul and and the the believers

and the the presbyters. These people did not only appeal

to these scriptures, they had the authority we love.

They were being led by the Holy Spirit.

You know that authority that was vested in the the apostles, what

you bound on earth is bound in heaven.

Now it was all according to the will, the direction, the

appeasing of the Holy Spirit. And as I said, there's other

lessons we can learn and we will learn, beloved, as we come.

You know, as I said, Chapter 15 of the book of Acts is known to,

to, to totally separate the old and the new, the old covenant

and the new covalent and, and totally annihilate the old

covenant and abolish. But no, we'll see that that's

not the case. They still, they still appeal to

appeal to the, to the circumcision of the Old

Testament, but it was now a new covenant that Jesus had given

through his commandments and his life.

So when we want to be living the life that is appeasing to God,

when we're confused because we hear all these different

messages, why don't we pray to the Holy Spirit, beseech the

Holy Spirit, the third Kanuma of the Holy Trinity, the third

hypotheses, the third persona of the Holy Trinity.

Oh Spirit, you lead me, you guide me.

And if at times and and how do we ask the Spirit to lead and

guide through the Scriptures? Amen.

Through the life of the church, the framework of the church,

through our conscience, our minds, our hearts, our thoughts,

our intents. And when the Holy Spirit is

speaking through us through the conscience and maybe hearing his

voice at times, and even if it may be contradicting the Holy

Spirit now, not contradicting in a way that to prove the

scriptures are wrong, no. But if it is not adhering to the

scriptures, well, are you going to argue?

But hang on, Holy Spirit, you said this.

But now, yes, I said that there's a purpose why I said

that. There is a reason why I was

commanding the slaughter of nations.

That wasn't me. God is unchangeable.

God is love, beloved, love. But there is reasons why

sometimes we see the harshness of God.

We see some harsh words in the Holy Scriptures and not only

that harsh deeds, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah.

So going back again, plead with the Holy Spirit to lead and to

guide. Because of that is what Jesus

left his church. Beloved, Jesus didn't leave his

church with the New Testament. The Old Testament was there, the

Pentateuch was there, but Jesus left his church, entrusted his

church to the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit led the

apostles that we today adhere to their teachings and their

understanding and their interpretation of the

Scriptures. Praise and glory be to Christ's

name now and at all times and forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

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Until next time, God bless you all.