To Samaria

Introduction

We pick up from last week remembering that persecution has run amok in the early church.  Saul was ravaging the church, Christians are getting thrown into jail, Stephen is stoned.   Stephen’s trial really got to Saul, and he responded with frenetic violence.  Because, sometimes that is how people respond to conviction… lash out against the message AND its messengers.

The people are scattered… The apostles stay in Jerusalem… regular Christians go and fulfill the great commission.  I believe this to be true both in their day and in ours.  The church grows not by the preaching of a few anointed Apostles, but when every believer is filled with the Spirit and testifies to the gospel in the streets.  If you want to see this world change for the Lord, every one of us has to work at it in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools.  

Acts 8:4-25

Context/Story

• Who is Philip?
  • An ordinary guy, Another one of the deacons, Second on the list.
• Samaria was about 40 miles from Jerusalem.  4 days walk.

• Who were the Samaritans.

1. Jews who had intermarried and intermingled with pagans.  (After Solomon’s death (922 BC), the northern kingdom split, especially unfaithful to God, God sent the Assyrians (722 BC) to conquer them and take them to exile.  They intermarried with the Israelites, and the offspring came back to the land of Samaria to repopulate it.)
2. Samaritans were half Jew, half Gentile.
   1. Jews were really big into purity, Jews wouldn’t wear mixed clothing, They wouldn’t even sit on a chair that a Samarian had sat in.
   2. If you were taking a trip from the southern part of Israel to the northern part.  Samaria is in the middle, and Jews would NOT go through their land. Instead they would travel around the land which added an entire day of travel, just so they wouldn’t have to mix with these half blood weirdos. 
3. They had created their own religion, own priests, own temples, and their own identity, separate from Israel.
   1. Mountain smoke signals for war (lord of the rings)
   2. Launch pigs over the temple wall during Passover
   3. Jews retaliated by destroying their temple.
4. These are like college pranks except people died.  They hated each other
   1. So for the gospel to be presented to the Samaritans was astounding.

Hearing and Seeing

• • Philip’s ministry in Samaria is extremely simple.  It was a ministry of both Word and Deed.  He preached “the Christ”.  Samaritans are hearing about Jesus, AND they are seeing the power of Jesus manifested.   Spiritual deliverance and physical deliverance.

• Word

• • • • This isn’t the first time Jesus was preached in Samaria or to Samaritans
        • John 4:9 – The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
        • Luke 9 – Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem, and he travels through Samaria to get there.  
          • Jesus didn’t go around Samaria as was a common practice in that day, he went through Samaria, preaching and teaching as he went.
            • But it says that they rejected him.
              • They would have been willing to have Jesus, providing He validates their religion. He needs to go to our temple. He needs to support our leaders. He needs to reinforce our theology. But if he won’t do that… rather than repenting, they rejected Jesus.
          • We need to take great care that we do not cling to our traditions more than we cling to Christ.  We cling to our people group more than we cling to Christ.  We cling to our comforts, or our old lives or our sins, more than we cling to Christ.
        • That is who the Samaritans were.  They had a reputation for rejecting Judaism, and even rejecting Christ himself. 
          • But God is the God of second chances.  As long as there is still breath in your lungs, Christ says, “Come!”

• Deed

• • • • Philip is using the power promised in Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power”
        • demon possessed people are freed, Demons are cast out and the people are liberated. Those who are disabled, ill, Physically compromised are healed.  Needs are being met!
          • Maybe you can’t cast out a demon, but there are a great many other needs you can meet. 
      • 1 John 3:18 – Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
  • Apply
    • True witness always involves both Word and Deed
      • James 2:14-17 – What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
        • We mess this up all the time, 2 extremes on the spectrum
        • True evangelism is not just what you are saying, but also what you are doing.  BOTH ARE NECESSARY.

• Vs 8 – There was much Joy in the city.

• • • • Is there much joy at your workplace because of your work and witness?  Is there much joy in our city because of our presence?  If Celebration Church died tomorrow, would anyone weep over our death if we were gone?
        • Ask yourself the question, “what can I do to bring Joy to my workplace? To my School? To my Neighborhood?  Ask God to show you the needs you can meet!

• Fostering program

• Examples of Celebration Groups Outreaches

• • • • • • Volunteer at Shepherd’s Hand
          • Delivered cookies to those who are new in town – Creepy Cookies
          • Or help our Delta Chaplain with Prison Ministry
        • Help us plant a new church!

True Greatness vs False Greatness

• • Simon the Magician
    • Vs 9 – Self proclaimed Great Guy, Like naming yourself Dr. Awesome.
    • He was attracting a crowd with magic tricks. Like David Blane.  People were entertained until Philip came to town.   
      • Philip brought real power, real greatness to Samaria, and everyone could tell that Simon’s tricks were nothing compared to the power of God.
    • Vs 13 – Simon Himself believes and is baptized.  But when Peter and John come to lay hands on them, so they might receive the Spirit.  Simon the magician tries to bribe them to gain their power.  
      • But check out how Peter responds.
        • Vs 20-23
          • He doesn’t entertain the idea, “how much do you got?”
            • Money has no power over Peter
          • He doesn’t sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened.
          • He calls out the evil inside of Simon and leaves no question as to whether His salvation is truly genuine. 
  • Here is a warning here for us about FAME AND MONEY
    • Fame – Simon is a leader who really enjoys the spotlight being on him. 
      • An older pastor once told a younger pastor, “sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between THY KINGDOM COME, AND MY KINGDOM COME, But they must be separated.”
        • When I was younger, I had aspirations of grandeur.  I went to seminary thinking I was going to be the next Billy Graham.  I wanted God to be glorified! And I wanted to have just a little for myself.
        • Then I got to seminary and realized that everyone was smarter than I was.  It was humbling. I needed a job, It wasn’t in a church.  It was at the DMV.  I installed and repaired garage doors.  
          • It wasn’t what I wanted, but God was humbling me, and it was the best thing for me.  God doesn’t need us, and He will share His glory with No one.  

• Now: Preach Christ, Die, and be forgotten. I just want my life to point to Jesus.  He must increase, I must decrease.

• Don’t let fame consume you

• • Money – And he is someone who believes that he can purchase the power of God with money.
    • Simon is trying to purchase the attention back from the apostles.
      • But the Holy Spirit isn’t for sale. Money can’t save you. It can’t purchase eternal security or the gifts of God. He isn’t our personal Genie put here to grant our desires.  He calls the shots not us.

Receive the Spirit

• Some contend that this text teaches that not all believers receive the Holy Spirit at salvation and must therefore seek a later spiritual experience, which is evidenced by speaking in tongues.  I believe this is misguided because of the historical significance of the event.  
  • Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
    • The power came to Jerusalem in Acts 2,  It came to Judea/Samaria in our passage this morning, and it will come to the gentiles (ends of the earth) in Acts 11.
      • the event in Acts 8 was a kind of “Samaritan Pentecost,” a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the people of Samaria, who were a mixed race of Jewish and Gentile ancestry, so that it might be evident to all that the full new covenant blessings and power of the Holy Spirit had come to this group of people as well, and were not confined to Jews only.
  • God, in his providence, sovereignly waited to give the new covenant empowering of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans directly through the hands of the apostles.  So they might see them not as foreigners, but as brothers and sisters in Christ. 
• Prove
  • Romans 8:9 – You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
• Apply
  • The spirit cannot be purchased, he cannot be earned, He cannot be caught.  He can only be given. And only to those who have submitted their lives to Christ. Repented of sin and made Jesus Lord.  
    • Have you done so this morning?
  • A warning for us in Simon the Magician
    • Not everyone who believes and is baptized is a genuine disciple.  A Lot of people get baptized, but a large number of them don’t go on to become actual disciples of Jesus Christ.  
    • And i need to say this to you because I need to make sure that you did not just get swept up in a movement like Simon did, where you got baptized, and you went through the ritual sinners prayer, but you have never actually repented of your sins, turned over control of your life to Jesus Christ, and began a personal relationship with him. 
      • Here is what false conversion looks like:
        • “I will let Jesus be a big influence on my life, but I reserve the right to opt out of anything that is uncomfortable or I don’t agree with.”
        • “Well I don’t agree with what the bible has to say about _______.” As if the Bible is a salad bar and you can leave the alfalfa sprouts if you don’t want them.
        • We have a lot of people in that category.  People who say, “well i don’t really agree with that” and I am always thinking, “Well, you don’t really get a vote”   
      • It isn’t me vs you here. The question is, “Is Jesus Lord?”
        • Hudson Taylor’s Famous Quote:  “Either Jesus is lord of all or He is not lord at all”

Lords Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23-29 – For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[b] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

LORDS SUPPER EXPLANATION – Stations with Juice and bread, The difference between a catholic priest and a Pastor.  I am not the mediator between God and man. Christ is.  You don’t need me to deliver to you.  You need Christ.  This is why I don’t hold the cup, why I don’t place the bread on your tongue.  You come get them when you are ready.  When you have repented of any sin, when you are right with God, during one of these next 3 songs, you come and partake in the Lord’s supper.