Revival - Acts 8 // 13 September 2026

You guys can sit down.

I just um I'm just thinking as we're singing that song.

Let's just close our eyes for a minute.

I just was thinking about that song and the different times in life.

We've all probably sung that song.

And I got this sense and this excitement in my spirit that you probably right now, as your eyes are closed, can think of a moment in your past where you sung that song.

A moment of joy, a moment where God was doing something, a moment where he was moving, something was stirring.

And can you think of that moment for a minute?

Can you build some of the excitement from that moment?

I just think that's one of the songs that takes us back.

And so I was thinking about that as we worshiped, and I was thinking about asking you guys to close your eyes and picture that moment and put yourself in that moment.

And then I had this like hesitancy in my spirit, and I felt a word boil up in my spirit that some of us never left that moment.

Some of us still sit and look back at what God's done in the past and think it's the good old days.

And we have this view that it's not going to get any better moving forward.

We've had the best.

And if that's one person or a few persons, I just felt like God wanted to say to you right now, here today, He doesn't work that way.

That He has something better coming for you, that your best days are ahead.

And so I don't know who needed to hear that this morning and how many people needed to hear this this afternoon.

Um I just felt like that's what we needed to hear.

So let me just pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for what you've done in the past.

But let us not live in the past but what you've done.

Let the past stir our future.

Let the past build a foundation of anticipation because we know what you're capable of.

But let us believe what to come is greater than what's behind.

Provoke us to believe again, to be excited again, and to dream again.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

I'm really excited to be here this afternoon.

I um at the start of the week was preaching at 4 p.m.

Uh and so I I got into this on Monday and Tuesday, but I had to put it down on Wednesday to focus on the 10 a.m.

sermon.

So I couldn't pick it up again until midday today.

So it was all down.

I put it together, but I could not wait till midday today to pick this up again.

Because you know, sometimes when you look at the Bible and you see something you've never seen before, I got that excited on Monday.

I was like, I've seen something I've not seen before.

Now, you guys, I know you're much more um mature and um have been through more than me.

I just need to remember that I'm young.

Um and you've probably already seen this, but when I'm excited about it, but first and foremost, let's remember where we're at.

For the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at the topic of revival.

Revival is a spiritual outpouring, a sovereign act that happens en masse.

Now, it happens to correct spiritual drift, but it also transforms whole geographical areas.

Uh, throughout history, we've seen moments where large portions of the body of Christ got knocked off track, and revivals happen to put them back on track and remind us who is the real head of the church.

Now, revival though, sometimes is confusing because sometimes what we're looking for is not really what revival is.

So sometimes we're trying to look for revival through the wrong things.

We look for emotionalism or sensory excitement, or we look for large crowds and packed churches, or we look for viral contents or performances.

Now, some of that can be a part of what happens in revival, but it would be really sad if that's all it is.

Because God is much bigger than that.

Now, revival can cause large packed churches, but usually revivals don't start in large packed churches.

Some of the biggest revivals have started with just a few people praying in a basement who were really committed to wanting to see something of God happen.

There's more substance to a move of God than just a crowd and a story.

So, what we look for when we're trying to articulate what revival is is the first thing we're looking for is deep repentance and confession that leads to significant moral change en masse.

So that's the first marker we're looking for.

The next thing is we're looking for unified prayer, we're looking for bold witness, and we're looking for overflowing joy.

That's just that's much more than uh emotionalism and a sensory experience.

So this afternoon we're going to look at a revival in Acts chapter 8, which was known as a Samaria revival or the Samaritan revival.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And so let's just place ourselves in that moment for a minute.

If we look at Acts chapter right, we're gonna start with verse one.

You guys gotta help me with my words if I start to mumble.

When I'm tired, my dyslexia means I mispronounce words really quickly.

So just tell me to slow down and think of what I'm saying.

So, Acts chapter one, Acts eight, verse one.

We did brilliantly there.

On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him, but Saul began to destroy the church, going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

So we need to understand in the narrative of the early church what just happened, because it's a significant moment.

Stephen was stoned to death, which shifted everything because the church was originally really witnessing Jerusalem, even though Jesus said go to all ends of the earth, but it was what happened to Stephen and this persecution that follows that scattered the early church beyond Jerusalem.

Now that's exciting because they needed to go beyond Jerusalem, but it's a moment of crisis.

It's a moment of hurt, it's a moment of pain.

I mean, we could call it a difficult moment, but I think that would be really underselling what has happened.

Now, I think it's really important to mention this moment first because it's a moment of crisis.

And our faith establishes our beliefs, and together they form our worldview.

Now, worldview is really important because worldview doesn't always represent reality.

So your faith and beliefs means that your worldview sees the world different than others without those same faith and beliefs.

So what others may seem as crisis because they don't have a God or they don't have a faith, you could see as something completely different because of your worldview.

However, crisis tests whether your worldview can really stand up against the reality around you.

You see, what crisis does is it acts like a storm and starts to strip surface things away, which means you start to actually understand how deep your faith and beliefs really are.

Whether they are your faiths and beliefs or whether they're just down to habits and comfort.

And so when we find out how deep our per uh our faith is, we find out whether it's about tradition or community.

And then what happens is something like COVID.

COVID comes away and it takes away your community, it takes away your gathering, it takes away your programs.

And what we saw is some people too today still haven't returned from COVID, which shows how deep their belief actually was compared to just the habit of the practice and the gathering and the community.

So crisis shakes things up.

So then understanding that, it's really powerful now to read this next part of Acts.

So we're going to verse 4.

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.

For with shrieks impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

So there was great joy in that city.

So you you've got out of this crisis, out of this scattering, Philip going to a city in Samaria and preaching and a revival happening, which is really exciting and we can celebrate because it happened in the name of Jesus.

However, I think it's really easy to preach on this and it not be sticky.

I think we can make this really tangible and sticky if we actually zoom into the person named in the story, which is Philip.

Now we don't want to get confused, it's not Philip the apostle who walked with Jesus, it's not Philip the keyboard player, or Philip who comes to men and brings me the best chocolate chip cookies.

It's Philip known as the evangelist.

Philip known as the evangelist.

And at this point in Acts, we haven't known him for long.

And so I wanted to share his story with you because I think it makes it more sticky and tangible, and this is where I got a bit excited.

So we got to go back to Acts chapter six.

That's where we first start to hear about Philip.

Let's see what's happening in the early church at the beginning of Acts chapter six.

It says, in those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebrew Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

So what you've got is you've got Greek-speaking Jews complaining to Hebrew-speaking Jews that their widows are being overlooked and not prioritized, which is a bad thing because their religious tradition was you had to look after the widows and the orphans.

So you've got this grumbling happening because whatever infrastructure they have in place isn't ticking the boxes, and people are feeling like some are getting looked after and some aren't.

So then you see that the 12 gather all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait tables.

Really love how that's written.

Sounds really harsh.

Like us important people should not be taken from the important thing to wait tables, which is obviously demeaning to us important people.

I just, I don't know if you hear that.

That's what I heard, but I'm sure it's not how it's written.

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom.

We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

So this proposal pleased the whole group, and they chose Stephen and Philip and uh and five other people.

They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them.

She knows why I said five other people, because she knows I didn't look into how to pronounce the other names.

So the word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Growth brings growing pains.

So the church is growing and there is growing pains.

And so what the apostles realize is this burden needs to be shared.

This responsibility has to be carried by more.

And once that burden is shared and that responsibility is carried and that infrastructure is there, growth is released.

Growth is released.

You know, that's what I've always been proud of being a part of one church.

I've been to a lot of churches where that burden's not shared.

That responsibility is not shared.

I don't think it's hard to find people who want to serve at one church.

I really don't.

You know, and and I just think that's something special about who we are across ten and four.

And when that happens, growth is released.

But then we get back to this phrase that's used to describe the serving position.

Wait tables.

We've got to find some people who will wait tables and we'll do the less important things.

So the important people, the apostles, can stick to the preaching and the teaching.

And it just really worded in a way that makes you want to go, oh, this isn't an important task.

But but there's something to learn here that's I think I've never seen it before.

I've never seen this before, and I got so excited about it.

Because God wants the work through the faithful, and he'll take it every humble day service and transform something in it.

And so you've got to look at the wider narrative of the book of Acts to get excited about this.

So if you go from the beginning of Acts to the end of chapter five, the focal point of the book of Acts has been the apostles and their teaching, their miracles, what they're doing, and it's heavy Peter.

They are the focal point, they are the main characters.

And then we get to this moment in Acts chapter six where they realize they are stretched too thin.

We need more infrastructure, and we've got to bring these other seven in to serve.

And we see wait tables, and we're like, oh, this isn't it, this is insignificant, this isn't important.

But then look what happens.

The next three chapters, the focal point shifts from the apostles to Stephen and Philip, who are two of the seven that were chosen to step up and wait the tables.

I mean, I've never seen that before.

I've never really taken note of that.

But there's no insignificance there, is there?

Because the focal point of the book of Acts shifts from the apostles for three chapters to Stephen and Philip, two of the people who were chosen to wait on the tables.

See, God is showing us how he moves and he's showing us where he does place significance.

I think that's really powerful.

That's what I'm really excited about.

But the scholars say it couldn't have been more than a year from the selecting of the seven to the stoning of Stephen, which means in 12 months, God took Philip from being someone who was happy to help serve waiting on tables to starting a sub a revival in Samaria.

Less than 12 months, because Philip was willing to serve.

He was available and he was willing.

And the only requirements they were looking for was that he was full of faith and full of the spirit.

They weren't looking for ability, they were looking for their availability.

They were looking for full of faith and full of the spirit.

I know I'm looking at some people here.

Some people, old people, full of faith, full of the spirit.

Who feels full of faith and full of the spirit here today?

Come on.

Yeah, some hands went up, some hands went up, some hands stayed up.

But as he served, God was preparing something more.

And I thought about this, and if I was in a real proper Pentecostal church, I'm sure the sermon would be From Service to Influence.

How God took Philip from waiting tables to preaching to revival.

That would be the sermon title, wouldn't it?

And it would be a cracker of a sermon.

And I reckon if you were preaching from service to influence, you would go from chapter six to chapter eight.

Because you wouldn't want to touch chapter seven at all, would you?

Because that wouldn't fit your narrative of influence to service.

Because chapter seven speaks to disruption, it speaks to pain, it speaks to hurt, it speaks to loss.

Now it doesn't say whether Stephen and Philip were close, but we know that the early church was known for their love and how they loved each other.

So we can almost guarantee if these two men were serving together in this role for 12 months, they were close.

And in that, as Stephen's public ministry starts to emerge, he's caught and stoned to death.

And that infrastructure that they were establishing as a church growth is immediately scattered out of Jerusalem.

So in the middle of this great influence, a service to influence, there's actually pain, loss, hurt, confusion.

I reckon there's even probably frustration.

The interesting thing is they say there was about a year from them being chosen to serve and the stoning, but they reckon it was probably days or weeks, not months and years, between Stephen's death and the revival in Samaria.

Which tells you a lot about Philip.

It tells you that he loved Jesus.

It tells you that he trusted Jesus.

It also tells you, because the revival was based on joy, that pain and joy can coexist.

Because in that moment of pain, crisis, and hurt and confusion, it said that he proclaimed Jesus with joy.

The revival then was marked by a wave of joy across that city.

He moved in the Holy Spirit, performing signs, healings, and casting out demons.

And he doesn't stop being the focal point there.

If you want to pick it up when you get home, you'll see that the Spirit takes him elsewhere and has him move in other ways.

But I want to stay here because I feel like this is what's speaking to us this afternoon.

So I think there's three things for us to take from this this afternoon.

So I'm just going to give them to you.

The first thing I was praying on this verse, and the first thing I felt that we were meant to take from this is all of us are of use, and all of us are of value.

All of us are of use and all of us are of value.

And I think that that for those who don't feel that or haven't felt that for a while, I think this passage is an encouragement to us that God works with all who are willing and all who are available.

And He's looking for that availability over ability.

And sometimes we feel like we're not of use because we're not being asked.

Sometimes we decide because of our circumstances, we're not of use because of our situation.

Sometimes because of our age.

I mean, Nigel's pretty old and he's doing kids right now.

I think that was a bit nicer to pick on Nigel then.

No, we don't do that.

Exactly.

The requirements are simply that you're full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

He's just looking for people who have a heart to serve.

And when we say serve and of use, we're not talking just about the church.

We don't exist just to run a service on a Sunday.

God wants you to serve your family, to serve your home, to serve your workplace, to serve your community, to serve whatever club you're a part of.

You've got a sphere of influence, and God's calling you to step up and serve in that sphere of influence.

When you do communion, you are reminded to proclaim his name, his death, his resurrection until he comes again.

We don't need that proclaimed here.

We need that proclaimed in your sphere of influence.

All are of use, all are of value, and all are called to serve.

That's the first thing we've got to take from this.

But there's another point that I really felt just brewing as I was reading this passage.

Because I felt there was something really powerful about how Philip handled everything that happened.

And so I think the second point is don't let your undealt loss rule you out.

You see, when we say we want to serve and we want to get involved, it's very easy to get hurt.

But you know, sometimes that hurt that then rules us out from serving again actually is partly our own fault.

You see, God wants us to serve for his glory.

So when we go to serve, we're serving him.

But what can happen sometimes is we get a little bit excited about the role.

We get a little bit excited about the position.

And what starts to happen because we're human is we start to attach our identity to what we said we would do.

We start to attach our identity to that role or that area of service.

And so it doesn't just become his name being glorified or serving him.

We actually start to become something because of our role or what we do, and it starts to build our identity.

So when something happens and that's taken away, we can't adjust like Philip adjusts and just follow the Spirit into where he's calling us next.

Because you took away my identity.

You took away my title, you took away my role.

Do you know how many churches I've been to that have different kinds of ministries that I would probably nicely call sacred cows that they can't shut down because the same people have been doing it for so long that if we shut it down, we would crush those people.

But it's no longer serving anything close to what it was serving when it was first started.

It's because our identity has been tied to what we do when our identity should be tied to who we serve.

And so sometimes we started serving and we stopped serving because we've been hurt, and we have to actually ask do we have any responsibility over that hurt?

Now, what I don't want to do here, really carefully, is this doesn't justify any bad behavior or wrongdoing by any other side.

That's still not okay, and that needs to be dealt with.

However, we also Have to ask, do we have any responsibility in our hurt because of how we misplaced ourselves and what we get from the role and the position?

The position became our identity instead of the one we serve.

You know, Philip could have quite easily gone.

Well, now the church is scattered, now they've taken away my job.

I'm done.

I was one of the seven.

We weighted the tables.

That is what we did.

Within days, maximum weeks.

He was preaching the gospel miles away with joy in his heart.

I mean, that's powerful for us.

And so the last point then is fear.

I think lastly, some of us aren't able to move in the prompting of the spirit.

I'm not even not talking about serving here.

I'm talking about how Philip was able to move in the prompting of the Spirit and go wherever the Spirit prompted him.

And I think sometimes what holds us back from the prompting of the Spirit is fear.

You know, I've learned a lot about fear in the last couple of years.

And I think fear is only empowered if we feed it.

Fear is only empowered if we feed it.

So often we feel like fear's got power over us and we can't do anything, or we can't move, or we can't step into something, but we don't realize that the way we are responding to that fear is actually feeding it.

So we're only giving it more power over our situation and ourselves.

What would happen if we fed our faith instead?

You know, the Bible actually tells us that fear doesn't have to have the power over us.

Look at these scriptures, 2 Corinthians 10, 5, one that I have said to myself so many times over the last two years, it teaches us to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

So it's teaching us to take this thought that we feel like has control of us, this thought that we feel like is crippling us, and hold it up against the truth of what we know about Jesus, the truth we know about his word.

And if they don't match, then we sit here, we don't sit under here.

The Bible tells us we we have the ability to have cognitive control over the things we think control us.

I once talked about this passage to a non-Christian psychologist in my life, and she said that's the kind of cognitive behavior training they would give you if you are suffering from anxiety or depression.

It's in the Bible.

Romans 12.2 encourages believers to transform by the renewing of your mind, showing that mental transformation is a continuous, God-supported process.

And Philippians 4.8 directs focus towards what is true, noble, and pure, offering a guide for shifting attention away from negativity.

It's only going to have power if we feed it.

So figure out how you're feeding it and feed faith instead.

And I don't want to make it sound like, oh, cool, have more faith.

That just might mean we also need a bit more of each other, like I preached last week.

We might need to widen that canvas and ask for help.

I've done that myself.

I am not above that.

So all of us are abuse.

Have we stopped serving because of the hurt we created for ourselves by making what we did our identity instead of the one we serve and free?

Are we feeding fear and allowing it to have power over ourself?

I think those are great thoughts now to take into a time of worship.

And as they worship, we've got people here that are willing to pray with you.

Who's resonated with any of those points today?

Put your hand up.

I mean, I did.

There we go.

There we go.

So we we will have a lineup for prayer then, because now I see in everyone's hand, so I'm gonna keep track of who then follows up with prayer and who doesn't.

Dear Lord, I thank you for who you are.

Let our faith rise as we believe without a doubt there is power in the name of Jesus, that there is healing in the name of Jesus.

That Lord, you can move in our circumstances and our situations in ways we we couldn't even imagine, Lord.

So I pray right now that as we worship, you minister to us and give us the courage to ask for prayer so we don't have to take home with us some of the things we didn't want to bring with us in the first place.

In your name we pray.

Amen.