God’s Way for Unstoppable Expansion

along with us today. Good to see all of you. A very early happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Hope you all have a great week as you celebrate with friends and family. It's gonna be a great time. And with that, let's continue our worship as we go before the Lord to get ready to hear his living and active word. Would you pray with me? Our great Father in heaven, we give you the glory and honor and praise. What a privilege it is to celebrate you with praises from our lips, seeking you in prayer and getting ready to hear your living and active word. Lord, we gather because you and you alone are worthy of all of our honor and praise. We pause during this week to tell you how great you are. And we're so thankful for your word because we wanna hear you. Because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly

by saying the word, amen. Amen. Have you ever followed the Lord and done everything he's asking you to do and watched your life begin to fall apart? I mean, have you ever had that situation where as your life is falling apart and pressure is mounting that you're looking around and you're reading the word and you say, I think I'm doing everything I was supposed to be doing. I honored the Lord the way he wanted. I really sensed he wanted me to go this way. I really sensed he wanted me to do this. Oh, by the way, I'm living obediently to him. I'm doing the things that he requires. Why is my life hard if I'm doing it all? Why does my life get difficult if I'm doing it God's way? I don't understand. I was told that if I follow the Lord, that blessing came with that. And why is it so difficult? Here's the truth, if you're a Christian, you're gonna ask that question at some point in time. Because the reality is, no matter who you are, when you begin to follow the Lord, there are seasons, especially when you're obedient. There's seasons, especially when you're doing the work of the Lord. There's seasons when you're doing what God wants you to do. That it's gonna appear that everything on the outside

is falling apart, but I got good news for you today. It's not. The good news is that God is still in control. The good news is that when you say, I didn't expect this to happen, or why is this going on? Or how come this outside force is there? Why am I dealing with this internally? That our God is still in control. That our God is still doing what our God wants to do. It's interesting because Jesus told the disciples that they were gonna spread the gospel. That they were gonna start in Jerusalem, the Judea and Samaria, and then go all the way to the ends of the earth. That's what he told us. He said, that's what we're going to do. And yet, even when they're spreading the gospel in Jerusalem, and they have a difficult time, they're trying to figure out what's going on. Because as we left off in our story in the book of Acts last week, as we covered almost 70 verses in the book of Acts, we looked at Stephen's martyrdom. So here, one of the first deacons in the church, one of the first servants in the church, stands up, preaches one message, and gets thrown under stones, and pelted, and dies. So one of the leaders in the church is killed because the leader in the church is doing what the leader in the church is supposed to be doing,

and that's proclaiming the word of God. Jesus told him to go make disciples of all nations. Jesus told him, this is what you're gonna do. So why is it so difficult to do what God wants us to do? And today, as we look at God's way for unstoppable expansion, and what he's trying to do in our lives, it'll give us insight into how God does his work in situations that don't seem to go the way we want. To do that today, we're gonna be in Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight, we're gonna take a look at 24 verses, but let me set this up for you as you're getting ready, because Stephen has just been martyred. He's just been killed, and here's what it says in chapter eight. He says, Saul was in hearty agreement, putting him to death. And on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison. So this is how the story's taking place. Jesus says, follow me. Jesus says, do what I tell you to do. Jesus says, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. As they pray, as the Holy Spirit comes on them, they preach, 3,000 people are saved. They're told not to preach in the name of Jesus. They continue to do it. Another couple thousand people are saved. They're told, stop doing that. They get beat for doing that. They still preach, and now multitudes of people are getting saved. But Stephen, when he stands up and preaches, he's martyr. And notice what it says. It says, Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. We know that this Saul, in about another chapter, he's gonna be converted. We're gonna call him the Apostle Paul. But take a look at his heart right now. I mean, take a look. He's giving hearty approval to Stephen's death. Now think about that just for a moment. Stop being religious and just think about that. I mean, have you ever watched somebody in a fight get beat up? I mean, it's not a glorious thing to watch, right? And Stephen didn't just die. It wasn't just like he died and he was saying, oh yeah, he's dead. He got pelted with stones. I mean, it was a brutal death.

I mean, you're watching somebody get cruelly beaten to death and your response is, that's a good thing. What does that tell you about his heart? It's wicked. It's far from God. It would be the one that we would look at and say, that guy's unsavable. That guy deserves hell. But here's the truth of the Bible. We all deserve hell. Apart from Christ, we're all wicked. It goes to show you God can go to any lengths to get anybody at any time that he wants to do, amen? So I was giving hearty approval. It's not like I'm glad Stephen died. It's like, I love the way he died. Do you remember when that rock hit him in the head and he just bled out and we saw some of his brains? That was awesome. That's what he's saying, right? That's what Paul was doing. And notice what goes on. On that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Now take note of that. Everybody's scattered except the apostles, except the 12. The 12 stay in Jerusalem.

Everybody else is scattered. Why are they scattered? Because everybody's getting persecuted. You're gonna read the next verse. Paul is going from house to house. He's Saul at this time. Saul's going from house to house, dragging Christians out to take them to prison, to have them beat. Here's the guy that's giving hearty approval to this violent crime and now going after everybody that claims the name of Jesus and dragging them out, hoping the same thing happens to them. It was not a great time to live in Jerusalem as a believer, right? This is what's taking place. But the church was still for Jesus Christ. When the church centers on Jesus, even in the midst of persecution, God does great things. And here's my first point I wanna make is this, that God uses pressure to strengthen and advance his purposes. God always uses pressure to strengthen and advance his purposes. So notice what happens. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. I always tell people in our culture, we do a horrible job as Americans of grieving. We're one of the few cultures that doesn't bury people

the same day that they die. We dress them up, we embalm them, we make them look better when they're dead than they were when they were alive. And then we open a casket and look at them. We spend a lot of time, but we don't really grieve them. We're not good at grieving. We think a 30 minute to an hour service is grieving and then we're gonna get on with our life. And anybody that's gone through the loss of somebody they love realizes that doesn't cut it because grief is cyclical and it lasts and it lasts and it lasts. What were they doing? They're making loud lamentation over him. They were bawling their eyes out. This is Stephen, their friend. This is Stephen, their brother in Christ. This is Stephen who did nothing but proclaim Jesus who was brutally killed and they're lamenting over him. They're noble men, they're burying him, they're crying. And notice what's going on. Oh, that's going on. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women and he would put them into prison. Now, if you're a Christian in the first century, you may say, well, wait a second. Jesus, you told us to take the gospel to all nations. You said we were gonna be your witnesses in Jerusalem,

Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We're doing what you want and now we're facing severe persecution. Yeah, why? Because God uses pressure always to strengthen and advance his purposes. Notice what happens in verse four. It says, therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Now, remember what we said in verse two? Who was scattered? Everyone was scattered except who? The apostles. So the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. So who was scattered? Everybody else, like normal people, like non-preachers, non-clergy, non-apostles. They're the ones that are scattered and what were they doing? They went around preaching the word. Why? Because everybody's called to proclaim Christ. Everybody's called to proclaim Christ. They didn't need the apostles. It was God's way of saying, everybody's capable of sharing who I am. We're all called to proclaim Christ. Maybe not behind a pulpit, but we're all called to proclaim him in our sphere of influence.

We're all called to live for Jesus. We're all called to let people know, this is why I make the decisions I make. This is why I make the decisions in the family I make. This is how I handle my marriage. This is how I handle my singleness. This is why I handle my money. It's because of Jesus. So what were they doing? Because they were scattered. Everyone who except the apostles, the leaders, the 12, they're still in Jerusalem. Everybody else is scattered and what are they doing? They're going on a. claiming the word. Now, where were they scattered? This is really, really important. Where were they scattered? They're scattered, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and begin proclaiming Christ to them. Now, you remember Philip was one of the seven that was chosen in the food distribution problem. First, we had Stephen, a man full of faith, and we also had Philip. So what you see is that the people that were selected within the body of Christ to help the body of Christ were some of the most faithful people in the body of Christ. It wasn't like, okay, I'm not doing anything, I really don't have a life, I'll help move chairs.

I mean, no, people in the church that were being elevated to positions of leadership in the church were the people that were the most humble servants that were the most filled with the spirit that were doing the work of the Lord. That's what was going on. And Stephen went down to Samaria. Do we know anything about Samaria? Do we know anything about Samaria? What did Jews think about Samaritans? They hated them. They hated them. When they traveled, they would avoid Samaria. They'd walk all the way around Samaria to get up to it. I mean, it'd be like if you hated people in Wyoming, for some reason, which I don't know why you would, but to get to Montana, you'd go around, you'd go through Idaho to get to Montana. We're not going through Wyoming. That's how they treated the Samaritans. That's why Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan. Why? Because nobody liked them. Everybody hated them. Samaritans are representative to us of our prejudice in our own life towards the people groups that we would say, I want nothing to do with them. But why did they go there?

Well, because if you go back to Acts 1, verse eight, Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and Judea. Judea was the surrounding countryside of Jerusalem and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Here's what he was saying. I'm gonna take my gospel where I wanna take my gospel and I'm gonna get it where I want it to go and it doesn't really matter what you're doing. And if persecution hadn't come and if pressure hadn't amounted, everybody would have just hung out in Jerusalem. What a great church. We have a megachurch, a massive megachurch in Jerusalem. So what's God do? Sends persecution so that everybody except the apostles are scattered and they're sharing the gospel and where does he take it? Right where he told him he was gonna take it, Jerusalem, Judea. Oh, we're going to Samaria. Well, why did they go? It's not because they made a mission trip plan. It's because pressure mounted and that's the only place that they could get and he began proclaiming Christ to them. Notice this, the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. Again, I just draw your attention to this.

It wasn't just the apostles that were doing signs and wonders. It's the Holy Spirit through whoever he chooses that he was doing that. That happened through Stephen, it's now happening through Philip. When I hear people say only the apostles had that power, that's not what the text teaches. God can use anybody, anywhere, at any time to do anything he wants to get done if you're walking in the fullness of Christ. Now, I don't believe that Philip nor Stephen was looking to be a miracle worker. I don't think they were praying to do miracles. I think that's just what God was doing through them. I don't think we have to walk around and pray for God to use us in a certain way. I'm just drawing your attention to the fact that God can do what he wants to do. Notice verse seven. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed were being healed. So there was much rejoicing in that city. So what's taking place? Well, people are being physically healed and they're being spiritually healed. They're being spiritually cleansed where they were demonically oppressed, they're now being set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ

where people were physically ailed. They were seeing the healing power of Jesus Christ even though Jesus Christ was at the right hand of the, at the throne at the right hand of the father, he's still able to do everything that he was doing on the earth, but now he's doing it through his church. He's doing it through his people. And that's what we see here. That's what we see taking place. So there's great rejoicing in the city. Now, why is there great rejoicing in Samaria? Because God put pressure on his church, on his saints that he loved. Friends, when you're doing the will of God and you're doing what God wants and pressure's mounting, it's mounting at your work, it's mounting in your home, it's mounting. It could be that God's using that pressure because when pressure happens and things get squeezed, you find out what you're really made of. When a berry gets squeezed, the juice comes out. You see what that berry was made of. When a lemon gets squeezed, lemon juice comes out, right? When an orange gets squeezed, orange juice comes up. When a Christian gets squeezed, the fullness of whatever's in their heart begins to come out. If they're filled and controlled by the spirit, the spirit of God comes out all over people.

If it's pride and self-centeredness, all of that comes out. Pressure reveals, trials reveal who you really are. That's why God. God uses trials in our life, right? Blessed are you when God uses trials in your life. I mean, think about the half-brother of Jesus, James, when he starts out his letter, he says it this way. He says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. So when you're going through a trial, here's what the Bible says, wow. Contemplate it for a second and say, this is so joyous. You got a health issue, consider it all joy. You got a financial challenge, consider it all joy. You're following after Jesus, you got relational challenges, consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and endurance must have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. So what do trials do? They perfect you. Trials perfect you, which means this, as a believer, you're either getting ready to go into a trial, you're in a trial, or you're just coming out of a trial. That's true of every believer until you meet Jesus. And if you're like, whew, glad I'm not in one, you're about ready to experience one, right? And a trial means this, a trial is not a consequence.

A consequence is when we sin or do something stupid and there's a consequence for that. For instance, if I say, you know what, I don't believe in gravity and I go down to the tallest building in Denver and jump off of it, that's a consequence of stupidity. That's not a trial. Jumped off the building, I'm really facing a trial, I broke every bone in my body. No, you were stupid, right? That's not a trial. Or I talked back to an officer, I tried to take a swing at him and now I'm facing, that's a consequence, that's not a trial. A trial is when you're doing what God wants you to do and then things get really difficult. It's not a fault of your own, you didn't choose this, you didn't do this, and now why is this so difficult? When you ask the question, why am I having to go through this if I'm doing everything you want me to do, that's a trial. And God gives the trial because he's producing something in you because he's perfecting you until the day of Christ Jesus. We know this when it comes to the making of diamonds, how much pressure gets mounted, unbelievable pressure so that the beauty of the diamond can be seen, right? Pressure is what opens up opportunities for us. For those of you that are football fans,

you know a blitz is when they send extra rushers to go get the quarterback, right? And you see them coming, but every time they send somebody extra in, it opens up something else that wasn't there. And if you can recognize it's coming and see what the opening is, great opportunity is there. This is what's going on in the early church, there's incredible pressure in Jerusalem, but there's a great opportunity out there. Sometimes we just need to open our eyes and look up and open our eyes and look out and say, God, why is there so much pressure here? What are you doing? What are you building? Are you sending me somewhere? Are you changing the way I think about something? Or am I to hunker down here and stay? The apostles were called to stay in the trial. The apostles were called, you remain there. Everybody else, you scatter. What's the Lord tell you, right? I mean, what's it look like when you're in that trial? So God uses pressure. And this is a verse that we sometimes overuse and sometimes don't think about enough. Oftentimes we use this verse at a funeral. Oftentimes we use this verse when somebody's going through something really difficult. It's a great verse, but it's not a Band-Aid

for a tough time, but it is soothing for the soul if you'll meditate on it. In Romans chapter eight and verse 28, he says this, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. God works it all out. When pressure comes, God's in the middle of doing it, working it all out, for who? For those who love God and those who have been called according to his purpose. If you love Jesus and you wanna do what God wants, God is using that pressure, that trial, to conform you to the image of Christ. He's forming something beautiful in you and for those all around you. And so when difficulties come, know that he's strengthening you to advance his purposes in the world. And when you get a hold of this, it changes the way that you respond to everything. You remember the Apostle Paul when he was writing to the Philippians and he's writing under house arrest in Rome and he's saying this, now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well-known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren

trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. What's he saying? Hey, I want you to know I'm in prison, but it's actually been really, really good. The whole Praetorian Guard knows that I'm a Christian. All the brothers in Christ, because they see how I'm living, they're more bold in their faith because courage begets courage. So I want you to know while you're praying for me, and while this isn't the best of circumstances, God's really using them in a powerful, powerful way. Why? Because he loved God and he was called according to his purpose. When you love God and are called according to his purpose and trials come, it's a good thing, even though it doesn't feel good. When I say it's a good thing, I'm not saying, oh, you're gonna love it. I'm not saying you're gonna want to embrace it. I'm not saying it's ever gonna feel good. There's gonna be every part of you that's gonna look to the heavens and say, why? Why me? Why not them? I'm the one doing what you told me to do. I'm the one that loves you and you're making it more difficult for me. Here's why.

His response would be, because my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts and I love you and I know what I'm forming in you and you don't see what I'm forming in you. And if you'll just stay with me, I'm perfecting something in you that can only come through this trial, through this sickness, through this illness, through this difficulty, through this disability, through this relationship, through this thing that you have no control over, through your job, through your school, through your coach. I'm doing it in you. I'm doing it for you. Isn't that beautiful? Because all of us would say, oh, I want to be strengthened. I want to advance Christ's kingdom. I do. Who doesn't? And God's like, good, I'm glad you do. I'm gonna put a lot of pressure and send trials your way. Since that's what you want, I'm gonna make sure that you receive the full measure of that. It's what does God use? What does God use? God uses pressure.

He uses trials to strengthen and advance his purposes. But not only does God use those things, then what does God choose? Who does God choose? God chooses people and places you often avoid. Who does God choose in his mission? Well, God chooses people and places that you often avoid. I mean, I believe with my whole heart, and there's nobody, but nobody, that was thinking, can't wait to go to Samaria today. They really need Jesus. Not one. If the trial hadn't come, if the persecution hadn't arrived, there's no Christian that's going to Samaria. There's plenty of other places that you can go. Maybe you could work with athletes, maybe Hollywood stars. I'm not going to Samaria, right? That's where God sent him. And notice what happens next. It says, now, there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. And they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving him attention, saying, this man is called the great power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time

astonished them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. So let me just stop right there. They're giving a little history. So there's this man named Simon. Some people refer to him as Simon the Sorcerer, some as Simon the Magician. He was practicing dark arts. He was channeling demons is what he was doing. You've seen this. They put this on TV. You can watch people do it. I don't encourage you to. Definitely don't go to the people down the street that do. But that's what's going on. When people are like, hey, you know what? Did you have a family member that was an Atlanta Braves fan? I see kind of an Atlanta Braves. Oh, that's my uncle. Yeah, here's what he wants to tell you. That's demon channeling. That's all that is. That's all that is. This is what Simon was doing. He was channeling demons. And when he was channeling demons,

people were saying, oh, that's the power of God. That's not the power of God. Demons don't know the future. Demons don't talk about the past. That's not what they do. Demons come to destroy your life, right? They come to welcome themselves into your life. This Simon had power, demonic power, and was doing things so much that people in the city in Samaria were saying, that guy's the great power of God. That guy's unbelievable because he's got power, because he knows things that nobody else knows. He's got secrets that nobody knows about. He's got secrets that pastors don't even know. Stay away from people like that. If the word of God is not revealing it, there's not a secret knowledge out there that you need to be privy to. That's a heresy. It's called Gnosticism. It's this idea that there's a secret out there, and the world is a force, and if you tap into this secret and this law of attraction, you can have everything you want. It's totally demonic. It's demonic in every way. Jesus Christ is Lord, right? He died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead, and through repentance and faith,

you can be saved from hell and have the spirit of God live inside of you. So as Philip was there speaking, as they were seeing people cleansed of demons, people being healed, and he was proclaiming the kingdom of God, that Jesus Christ died and rose, that he's the Messiah, and he's who you're looking for, and you're big. This challenge is your sin, and you need to repent and trust Christ. You need to get your life right because you will die, and when you do, you'll stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to give an account for your life, and the only way you'll be welcomed in is if you repented of your sin and trusted Jesus before you get there. And what was going on in the city is people were believing him, and they were being baptized publicly, saying we're gonna follow Christ now. Now notice this, and we'll come back to this later. It says this, even Simon, I'm in verse 13, even Simon himself believed, I'm putting believed in quotes, and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. So take in mind this, he made a profession of faith, he himself was baptized, he's watching Philip do all this, and here's what he's in awe of.

He's in awe of the power that Philip has. It doesn't talk about he was grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't talk about how his faith was deepened. He doesn't talk about how much he loves Jesus. It talks about this man who was performing magic is now watching Philip, and he's saying to Philip, wow, look at where you get to, you have a lot of power. He was impressed with the presence of Philip. He wasn't impressed with Jesus, so keep that in mind. And here's what I want you to see, is God chooses people and places you often avoid. Now just think about this so I can kick your prejudice just for a little bit. Think about those groups of people that you say, that group's far from God, there's no good that comes out of that group. I mean, all that group is just on their way to hell. And you may be right when you say that, except for the fact that God created them in his image and they have value because they were created in the image of God. And God can save people out of whatever group you say is unsavable, and he'll save people out of that group and transform who they are, right? God saves people out of groups all the time. God saves people out of the LGTBQIA alphabet mafia agenda all the time. And when they get saved, they say things like this.

I didn't know that there was a God who could love me like he does. And I used to behave like this because I was blind and dead in my sin. But now I live like this because Jesus Christ is my Lord. And I'm telling you any group anywhere that you would say, well, that group's unworthy or that group says, God wants to save people out of that group. It doesn't mean you need to be best friends. It doesn't mean you need to identify with, but don't avoid because God's not avoiding them. And how are they ever gonna hear the gospel if you're not the one telling them? So instead of getting all mad about how they're lost, go share Christ with them so they can hear why they're lost and give them the way, amen? That's why God sent him to Samaria because every Jew would have said, we don't care about them. I mean, do you remember? Do you remember? I think it was, wasn't it James and John that asked Jesus if they wanted to call down fire from heaven on them? Should we just smote all of them? Like we hate these people, right? Jesus didn't hate anybody. Jesus doesn't hate the most vilest of offenders. And the most vile offender to date at this time

is Saul of Tarsus who's dragging people off to prison who has given hearty approval to Stephen's death and God hasn't even given up on him. As a matter of fact, God's gonna use him to be the foremost missionary evangelist in the church and to write two thirds of the New Testament. God doesn't give up on anybody. You don't give up on anybody either. You don't identify with them. You don't say, hey, what you believe is okay. You don't need to do that. But you love them enough to say, Jesus Christ is who you're looking for, amen? That's what it's about. Now notice this. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John. So the apostles, Peter and John, obviously they're still in Jerusalem. Now they're coming to Samaria who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen on any of them. They had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. They began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, let's just pause just for a second. These verses get used all the time to say this.

There's a second baptism of the Spirit. And if you haven't been baptized in the Spirit, you're really not living the full life of Christ. Some might even say you're not saved. Some might say you're not speaking in tongues and that's evidence that you don't have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That is not what this text is teaching. That's not what this text is teaching. There's a pause and a delay of the Spirit of God coming upon the Samaritans. And I believe there's really good reason for that. If you go back to Acts 1.8, like I've been referencing throughout the morning, Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and where? Samaria. Nobody believed Samaritans were worth anything. Word would have been sent back to Jerusalem, Samaritans are coming to Christ. They would have said, no way. We don't believe that. We know Samaritans. People like that don't come to Christ. So what? They sent Peter and John, hey, you go witness it for yourself, right? You go see it for yourself. There's several things that were going on here. Number one is this. The fact that the Holy Spirit was delayed

united the Jews and the Gentiles. It united the Jews and the Gentiles. He wasn't just in Jerusalem anymore, just Judea. Now he's going to Samaria. The apostles are coming to see it with their own eyes. It shows, number two, intentionally shows the expansion that everything Jesus said was gonna happen is exactly what happened. Jesus was prophetic. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria. That's where the gospel spreads in the order it spreads. It shows the intentional expansion. And when they had Peter and John go, it showed number three, it showed apostolic verification. Because now Peter and John who are filled of the spirit, they go, they recognize, okay, you believe in Christ. We wanna tell you something else that just happened for us. And what just happened for us is you need to know this. If you have Christ, you have the fullness of the spirit in your life. And they were laying hands on them and imparting the spirit to them. Now here's what we know from the scriptures. First Corinthians 12, 13 says, for we are all baptized by one spirit into the body of Christ. That's spirit baptism. That happens at the moment you're converted. What's going on in the book of Acts is the transition

between Jesus' ascension and what's being spelled out. And as he goes from place to place and people group to people group, you see the Holy Spirit coming in to show the unity of what Christ is doing and how he's building it up. Here's the truth for you today. If you believe in Jesus, you have the spirit of God. Ephesians 4, 5 says, for there is one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I mean, there's one baptism, there's one spirit baptism. One Lord and Savior who is above all and in all and through all. And Romans 8, 9 says, if you do not have the spirit of Christ, you are not of Christ. So when we're saved today, we're baptized into the family of God. We have the fullness of him. You're not missing out on extra special blessings. But what you do have is if you walk in obedience to Christ, you'll be more filled with the spirit, which really means be more controlled by the spirit. Ephesians 5 says, do not be drunk on wine, which leads to wastefulness, debauchery, dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be controlled by things that are controlling you. Be controlled by the spirit. And if you walk in obedience to Christ and are more and more controlled by the spirit, you may or may not have different experiences along the way. More and more and more as you continue to grow up.

No problem with that, but you're not missing out on a second spirit baptism. So if somebody asks you as a born again believer, have you been baptized with the spirit? What's your answer? Yes, at the moment I was converted, I was baptized with the spirit into the body of Christ. Of course I was baptized with the spirit, right? Now our charismatic brethren, people that love Jesus will say different, you're missing out. You need to speak in tongues. You need to do all that. I believe there is still a gift of tongues. I believe in all the gifts for today. I believe in all that, but I don't believe that spirit baptism. If you're a Christian, you're a Christian. Now, could you maybe walk more in the fullness of Christ? Yes. Could you maybe be more obedience to Christ? Yes. Are you missing out on the spirit in your life if you don't get baptized a second time? No, because the Bible doesn't teach that anywhere. As a matter of fact, it teaches just the opposite. So what we're seeing here in the book of Acts, this historical document is a transition of how the spirit was being dispensed. And where does he go? He goes to those that we would never choose.

Like when you make a list of people that you're gonna share the gospel with, that's great. That's your sphere of influence. I encourage you to do that. That's a great thing. But sometimes God's gonna bring you across the path of people you would never choose so that you would share your faith with them. And oftentimes, it's the people that you say, that's not the people I wanna talk to. I mean, do you remember the Old Testament? And one of the greatest revivals in the Old Testament was in Nineveh. God sent Jonah. And Jonah's like, I ain't going. Do you know why? Because those people aren't worthy of God. And I'm not going. So I'm gonna get on a boat and I'm gonna go the opposite direction. How did that work out for him? Not good. Got thrown overboard, got swallowed by a fish, got burnt back out, and then he went anyway. And when he goes, there's the greatest revival in the history of the Old Testament. And in Jonah 4, Jonah's hacked off. He's mad that God made him do that. He's like, I knew this was gonna happen. If you sent me, I knew they were gonna trust you.

And they're so unworthy of you. I didn't wanna spend eternity with them. So God grows a plant over his head. And in the heat of Israel, it gives him great comfort. And he likes the plant. And then God sends a worm to eat the plant and he's hacked off about the plant. So scalding. He's like, Jonah, you care more about a plant than you do about my people. And that's how the story ends. It doesn't end where Jonah's like, I'm so sorry. I love the people. He didn't love them. Right? God chooses the shameful things of the world to confound the wise. God can save anybody, anywhere, at any time. And oftentimes he will bring you in touch with people you don't wanna be in touch with just so that you can be the one that shares with him. And here's what I would say. Sometimes we as Christians are way too concerned about our own DNA and our own livelihood and what people are gonna think if than we are about the people that we're talking to. Yeah, I don't wanna be with those people because if I'm with those people, people will think I agree with their agenda. I don't wanna be seen with these people

because people will think I agree with their agenda. What was Jesus dubbed? He was dubbed a friend of sinners. He hung out with the wrong people. In Luke chapter 15, before Jesus tells the story about the prodigal sons and the lost sheep and the lost coin, what does it say? It says a great, great number of Pharisees and tax collectors and scribes and sinners were all gathering around who? Him. If Jesus was concerned about his reputation, he wouldn't have come to planet earth because all he could hang out with were sinners. That was his only choice, right? Now, God calls us as a church to surround ourselves with godly people. There's no question about that. They should be first and foremost. But when it comes to sharing the gospel, don't be afraid of your reputation and what are people gonna think if I spend time with them? You should spend time with them if that's the way the Lord leads because they need to hear the gospel and use that time to tell them about Jesus and the hope you can find. I mean, there's not one of us that doesn't love a testimony like when we hear about a prostitute that comes to Jesus or somebody who's in the sex trade industry come to Jesus

or somebody that was formerly gay or lesbian, they come to Jesus or somebody that was greedy or stingy and they come to Jesus. Every time we hear that, we're like, look at the marvelous change. Well, the marvelous change happened because God did a work because somebody was willing to stand in the gap and say, Jesus Christ is Lord and that's who you need, amen? So don't be afraid to share the gospel with people. I mean, think about Samaria today. I mean, if there was a do not go map in the first century, the bullseye would have been Samaria, like go anywhere but there. Where in your life would that place be? If Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan to you and he talked about the religious person and the pastor that came along first and then came up the, who would it be? Who would it be for the Democrat? Who would it be? The lesbian, who would it be? The homosexual, who would it be? The serial adulterer, who would it be? The greedy CEO, who would it be? The black person, the white person, the fat person, the skinny person, like who would it be? Like, where are your prejudices? Jesus wants to kick them out of your life. He wants to kick, there is no prejudice. Why?

Because everybody's welcome at the foot of the cross, amen? Everybody's welcome at the foot of the cross. I mean, I love hearing stories. I mean, we heard at our last baptism, somebody said, you know, first time I came to church, I didn't know if I could come. I thought everybody's gonna be looking at me, right? Because there's this thing inside of us that says I'm not worthy. And that is your sin. But what we're proclaiming is you're not worthy, but there's one who is worthy and he welcomes you home. Amen? That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And all these prejudices, they start young, don't they? They start when we're in, you know, elementary school. These kids sit together, those kids sit together. In high school, it starts expanding. By college, we pick institutions based upon how we're gonna separate, and then we start forming our own belief systems. And by the time we're done, we have two people that agree with us, and we're the smart ones. Do you understand? And that's not the gospel. The gospel kicks away all your prejudices for the sake of sharing Christ with others, amen? Now, here's the truth. We talk about what does God use?

Well, God uses pressure. And who does God choose? He chooses people and places you often avoid. But this is the third question. Who does God refuse? Like if he wants all people to come, who does he refuse? And here's what I wanna tell you. God refuses pride and unrepentant ambition. He refuses pride and unrepentant ambition. Notice how our story continues. We see people in Samaria coming to Christ, they're getting baptized, they're no longer calling Simon a great God or anything. We see Simon go along with that, give a profession of faith, get baptized, and he's awed by Philip. And notice what happens now. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, give this authority to me as well so that everyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. What was he saying? I love the power you have. I used to have a lot of power, but this Holy Spirit has more power than what I have. So I'm gonna pay you. How much money do I have to give you so that I can do what you do?

Because I want this power, because if I have this power, people will know how powerful I am. That's what I want. Now, how do other apostles do it? How do you think the apostles gonna respond to that? How do you think they're gonna respond to that? I mean, if he was really being genuine and humble and saying, wow, it is amazing what the Spirit of God is doing in this place, I just wanna be a part of this. You know, no matter what role I play, I just, I love seeing life transformation and, you know, teach me more how to be humble and teach me more how to walk in obedience to the Spirit. The apostles may have had a different response, but notice what the apostles say. But Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. I don't often quote the message Bible. And the reason is it's a paraphrase. Eugene Peterson paraphrased the Bible. It's not a literal translation. It's not a Bible that I would study. It's a paraphrase. It gives you some paraphrastic understandings of what was really going on. And you know how Eugene Peterson wrote that part? He says a paraphrastic understanding of what Peter was saying.

I mean, this is literally what Peter said. I mean, this is the word of God. Peter says, may your silver perish with you. May you die because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. Message Bible says this. Peter said, to hell with you and your money. That's what he said. That's how strong he's saying this. He's telling this guy in the church, I don't care about your money. God doesn't care about the money and woe to you because you thought money earned you a seat at the table. Woe to you because you thought something on the outside would bring you more favor with God. You don't even understand the gospel. The gospel is not what you do to get right with God. It's what God does to make you right with him. And it should humble you and it should cause you to repent. It should cause you to walk differently. What do you think you can do to buy it? You don't channel this. It's not power for you. It's not about your influence. It's not about you at all. It's about Christ and you're not even talking about Christ. You're talking about how is it that I can make a name for myself through Christ. So get out of here. And notice how he responds.

Peter says, you have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God. What's he telling him? He's like, you're not even a believer. Your heart's not right. You have no share in salvation. You have no portion in this. If you really think that you can buy things from Jesus so that you can make yourself more powerful, that's not the gospel. Friends, you can make a profession of faith. You can get baptized with water and still not be a believer. Did you know that? It's your heart that must be transformed. You can walk through all the religious motions and all the spiritual hoops and still not be born again. That's why Jesus told the parable of the soils. Sower goes out to scatter the seed and it fell among different places. Some fell on the hard soil. So the birds came and ate it. That represents a heart that's far from God, doesn't want anything to do with them. But the second soil fell on rocks. So it got a little root, it sprung up, but when the sun came out, it withered. And Jesus said, that's one who also doesn't have a root. That's just like the first soil. And when trials and tribulations come, it wilts away.

And then there's others that fall among the thorns, which are the cares, worries, and deceitfulness of wealth in this world. And it chokes it out, making it unfruitful. So all the first three soils, the hard soil, the rocky soil, and the weedy soil, produce nothing because they're all unsaved. But that which falls on the good soil produces a harvest of 30, 60, or a hundredfold. He who has ears, let him hear. There's nothing wrong with the word of God and there's nothing wrong with the gospel. And if you have the true gospel in your life, you will change. You'll change 30, 60, or even a hundredfold. You'll produce fruit, more fruit and much fruit. That's true of every single believer. Now I can tell you from walking with the Lord for 35 years, I've met plenty of false professors. I've met plenty of people that come to church for five or six years that love the Lord and then blow out on their families and blow out on their wives. And it turns out they were drug users all along and they never had a relationship with Christ. And you go sit down with them and say, what's going on? And you realize they want nothing to do with Jesus and they never did. But boy, they put on a nice face for about five years. It's all gonna be known on judgment day.

It's all gonna be known. Just because you come to Brave and you profess faith or you've been baptized or you gave your testimony or you're in a cadre or you serve in the core, that doesn't get you to heaven. Only Jesus Christ gets you to heaven. And if you've repented of your sins and trusted his death on the cross alone for all your forgiveness and his resurrection from the dead for your life, you have the right soil for the word of God to take root in you. And when the word of God takes root in you, you will change over time. As we say all the time, not perfectly, but what? Increasingly, it's true of every single born again believer. When you meet someone who's in the same spot now that they were 30 years ago when they trusted Christ, strong possibility they never trusted Christ. Like, how is it that the Holy Spirit in your life has a hold of you if you're not changing? He's trying to change me every. single day, I mean, there's no week that's gone by where I would say, I haven't sensed his presence, I think I'm doing perfectly. I mean, I'm married, I have children, I run a church, I mean, there's so many things in my life that the Lord shows me, hey, the way you handle this, the way you do this, here's what you need to grow in. What does God refuse?

He refuses pride and unrepentant ambition. Notice what he says to him, he says, you have no portion in this matter, therefore, he says, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord, pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. Like, here's what you need, you need to repent and ask the Lord to forgive you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity. It's interesting, no pastor talks to any parishioner this way today. But sometimes they probably should because it would be very loving to do that. I mean, this is how Peter's talking to him. He's like, you better repent and you better pray the Lord will have mercy on you because I can tell right now your heart is so far from God. It's wicked, it's ridiculous. Now, notice his response. His response is not, I'm repenting, I'm wrong, I'm doing, here's what he says. But Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me yourselves. I'm not praying to him. Pray for the Lord for me yourselves so that nothing of what you said may come upon me. I'm not praying to the Lord, but would you pray to the Lord for me

because I don't wanna have bad things happen to me. When you share the gospel with a non-believer, what non-believer doesn't wanna go to heaven? What non-believer doesn't wanna experience God's blessing? If you present the gospel as you're a good person, and if you just pray this prayer, God will bless you and your eternity will be secure and everything in your life will go well. Who's gonna say no to that? That's not the gospel. The gospel is are you willing to exchange your sinful, wicked life for the righteousness of Christ? Are you willing to turn from your sin and trust Jesus? Are you willing to let him be the Lord of your life from this moment onward now and forevermore? And no matter what, you'll hang on to him with everything you have because you realize that your life is not worthy of pleasing God, right? And if you do that, you can be saved to the full. Simon never was, Simon never was. Now, I've never met Simon, you've never met Simon. Some of our church fathers knew of Simon. Some of our church fathers heard about Simon. This is all we ever hear about Simon. So I just wanna tell you what some of the church fathers said about him. Justin Martyr who lived from 180 to 165 said this, his verdict was that Simon never repented and he became a powerful deceiver. Irenaeus who lived between 130 and 202 AD

said that he was claimed, Simon claimed he was the incarnation of the supreme God. Do we see people doing that today, this day? I'm Jesus, yeah, we see that. Simon taught salvation by Gnosis, which is that secret knowledge, the Gnostics. You'll see it today. I mean, just look at Oprah's book club, you'll see it. I mean, there's some secret knowledge out there. And if you read this book, there's a secret way you can get in touch with the universe. And if you're in touch with the universe, then you can invite the force into your life. And if you invite the force into your life, then the force will bring you these great things. All it does is tell you your sin's not important, repentance is not important, Jesus is not important. He's not the one who should be the center of the world, you should, that's Gnosticism. Spirit good, flesh bad, that's Gnosticism. His, Irenaeus' conclusion was Simon is the fountainhead of every Gnostic heresy. Cyril of Jerusalem said he was a magician who became the prototype of the Antichrist. His heart was never right before God. And Eusebius says that he was full of every evil heresy. I mean, every church father said this guy was messed up. Well, why are we surprised? Some of Satan's greatest servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.

Some people who pastor large churches and some people who pastor medium-sized churches and some people who pastor small churches will spend eternity in hell because they don't have a relationship with God. But they've got a secret knowledge and they win people over and they tickle people's ears, but they don't talk about Jesus and holiness and righteousness and heaven and hell and the reality of the coming Jesus and how you need to repent and trust him and God loved the world so much that he came for you. God refuses pride and unrepentant ambition. I mean, it's kind of like the athlete that wants the jersey but just doesn't want to work out, right? It's kind of like poison in the water supply. I mean, if I told you, hey, the water supply, 95% clean, but there's 5% poison, you're not gonna drink it, right? This is what we see in James. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Psalm 51 says a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. First Peter five says, humble yourself under God's mighty hand. What is a sign that you've trusted in Christ? It's your humility. It's recognizing that you have nothing to bring to God and you have nothing to offer God and you can do. nothing for God, but it's what God's gonna do for you. Here's my question, brave.

Have you trusted the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Is he truly the Lord of your life? Or are you one of those professors that like, well, I don't really get involved in church, but I believe Jesus. I mean, I have nothing else wrong with that. I mean, what else would I believe? Do you really believe him? Like if you knew today was the day you were gonna meet him in the sky, would you be ready? Would you know, like my whole faith and trust is in him. If not, make this the moment, make this the day, make this the hour, make Jesus Christ your Lord. He's already Lord, you don't quote, make him Lord, like, okay, I'm ready to make you Lord. He's Lord, what you're willing to say and to do is I'm willing to submit to you as Lord. Are you willing to submit to him as Lord? Because in a moment we're gonna celebrate communion together on our campuses. I'll come back up here, our campus pastor will come up in Westminster, we'll take the elements together. But this is what centers us in Christ, the body and blood of Jesus. This is all that matters when you get to heaven. Did you trust his death on the cross and his shed blood for the forgiveness of all your sins? If you haven't, make the moment now. If you have, as you're holding this in your hand

and as a song is gonna be sung over you, would you prepare your heart and remind yourself of the grace of God and all that he's done for you? Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you glory, honor and praise. And Lord, as we hold these elements in our hand, remind us that all that matters is your body and your blood, that you gave your life for us on Calvary on that cross. That's it, that you were buried, that you rose from the dead, validating that you're indeed God's one and only son, that you're the way, the truth and the life and that there's no one that comes to the Father except through you. Lord, to convict all the hearts that are listening to me and the names that talk about you as an afterthought, that talk about you so their friends at work are impressed or their friends at school think they're cool. Lord, knock that out of us, knock the pride out of us. And Lord, let us humbly receive you as our personal Lord and Savior. Lord, we give you praise, glory and honor for who you are. If you're here today and you never trusted Jesus, please pray this simple three-word prayer. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Believe you died and rose, save me now. God, we give you all the glory and honor. We sing to you, we pray to you, we prepare our hearts any way that you would lead us.

In Jesus' name, amen.