Tour de Acts, Stage 2

We spent we spent most of last week tucking in our microphone cord.

No, we spent last week Going over some of the main purposes of the book of Acts some of the main outline points of the book of Acts and Today what we're going to do is we're going to Go through most of the first book of Acts in survey or outline or overview form

As we said last week the book of Acts is a challenge to today's

Church and Today's Church is weak compared to the living Dynamic events of this book we discussed last week the three ways of breaking down the book and we're going to do

We're going to cover some of those ways this week Some of the portions of the book and some next week as well

One way as we discussed last week was dividing it around the two main characters of the book Peter and Paul Peter Will be covering most of his activity this week chapters 1 through 12 and next week most of Paul Which goes from chapter 13 in the book of Acts all the way to chapter 28 the end of the book

We also talked about the geographic expansion of the gospel that the gospel Went from as it says in Acts 1 8 the gospel went from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the very ends of the earth as It was considered at that time

This week we'll discover discover chapters 1 through 7 in Jerusalem chapters 8 through 12

Judea and Samaria and then next week 13 to 28 Again, you see how

Jerusalem Judea and Samaria also cover the same area of Acts as does

The activity of Peter so it matches up very nicely. It's a nice way to divide up the book And we also talked about the summary statements literary devices

Used by Luke to move the story forward and to summarize what has happened before This week is a couple of summary statements turn with me if you will to Acts chapter 6 and verse 7 acts 6 7

And we'll read the first of these summary statements again, you know Luke is trying to Luke is trying to get us to see where he's been and where he's going and so he uses these statements in Acts chapter 6 we read the

Word of God kept on spreading and a number of disciples Continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith

We looked at this last week didn't we and this occurs after the seven deacons if you will call them acts deacons were chosen to service tables and Relieve the

Apostles and the disciples of that duty and so we see one of the main things that we'll see again and again and again the

Word of God kept spreading and the number of Christians a number of disciples

Greatly increased and this is in Jerusalem It gives us the geographical locator of where God is working and where the gospel is spreading up to this point

The second one of these summary statements as we discussed is in acts 931 turn with me to acts 931

We're gonna be doing a lot of this for the next two weeks. So Wd -40 on the binding

I guess Acts 931 we'll see the second of these summary statements that help us to outline or break up the book in Chapter 9 verse 31.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being built up and going on in the fear of the

Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it Continued to increase so you see how Luke does this see how

Luke says the Word of God first of all is instrumental to what's going on here and you can see how

He gives us a geographic expansion of the church and he outlines the book that way

The third one at the end of chapter 24 Acts 24,

I'm sorry acts 12, excuse me verse 24 acts 12 24. We'll see the third of these summary statements

After the death of Herod Luke says But the Word of the Lord continued to be grow and be to continue to grow and to be multiplied

And what that means when he talks about the word spreading the word continuing to grow

The Word of God is not Growing, you know as we think of a child growing or something like that It's not an expansion in that sense, but it's an expansion of those who receive the word

So really it's a euphemism Luke's using that phrase the word continued to spread it's sort of a euphemism for people became

Christians or People believed the gospel. Okay, and then the third summary statement in Acts 16 5 will turn to me

Turn there with me if you would at 16 5 Paul here is visiting

Macedonia and in verse 5 of chapter 16 Luke says so the churches are being strengthened in the faith and we're increasing in number daily again

We see these summary statements and they occur at key points in the narrative of the book of Acts and they help us to understand

How the early church grew and they simplify for us sort of the main events

So we have these summary statements I think they're a great help as you study the book of Acts as you read through the book of Acts Next time you do your own personal reading notice how

These statements pop up and now that we've read them maybe as you read through you'll see them and go. Oh, yeah That's Luke summarizing what just happened there.

And so that's that's what we have going on This period the entire book of Acts took about 30 years

You know, we think about what happened 30 years ago that was 1977 right a lot of things happen, you know, we have the late 70s disco we have

President Jimmy Carter, you know, we have a lot of things going on And so we could probably give a reliable summary if you've been

I don't know if you've been a Christian Some people have been a Christian longer than that But you could probably give her give a reliable summary of God's activity in your life over that period

So a lot of historians that look at acts and they say well You know, it's not really a reliable Treatment of that early history,

I would submit that it's a very reliable history. In fact, a

Lot of people have looked at that and they've said This is one of the most reliable histories of ancient history

Reliable historical writings were reliable historical documentations of what happened in ancient times and So we also talked about last week how the summary statement and acts 242 to 47

Really talked about what the church back then had become and one of the marks of the church was that it was a learning church

Remember they gathered for the Apostles teaching We also talked about the fact that it was a loving church

How they were sacrificing their caring for one another it was a worshiping church there was formal and informal worship taking place in the temple and at home and Finally, it was an evangelistic church.

We talked about some of the theological Points of acts what Luke is trying to do theologically

Particularly with the idea of salvation the idea of salvation occurs quite frequently in the book of Acts In many different ways the way

Luke describes salvation people being saved Happens again and again in the book of Acts Well, let's take let's start again at the beginning of the book.

If we may let's go back to Acts chapter 1 and we've sort of hit some of the high points of the book of Acts and Point out some key things as we go along Acts chapter 1 and If you had if you don't have

Acts 1 8 memorized, I suggest if you want to memorize verses Scripture memory is a very good

Practice if you want to memorize the key verse for the whole book of Acts It's Acts 1 8 many of you have memorized it, but I'll read it this is

Jesus speaking to the disciples before he ascends into heaven and He says but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit comes upon you And you shall be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and Judea and Sumeria and even to the remotest part of the earth

And so we see again Luke is setting the stage Christ has said this is what you're going to do. This is where you're going to go well

Did the Apostles just go? This command was issued Christ prophesied this is where you're going to go.

This is what you're going to do What happened? How did they get there? Persecution that's correct.

They were persecuted. What happened? What what prompted the persecution? Does anybody know? Well an easy way to find it an easy way to remember it as you go through the book of Acts if X 1 8 is

The theme of the entire book that same verse just reverse the numbers acts 8 1 go to acts 8 1

We'll find out how this was fulfilled how God sovereignly Sent the people out

Stephen is stoned put to death by stoning at the end of Acts chapter 7 and we'll see acts 8 1

Saul this is Paul the Apostle now Saul before he was converted was in hearty agreement with putting him

Stephen 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 So the entire church thousands of people Were scattered particularly the other leaders throughout

Judea and Samaria with the only exception being the Apostles the original

Apostles 11 plus the replacement for Judas the 12th So we see here don't you have acts 1 8 seeing this glorious sending

Commission of Christ But don't forget the church had to be kicked out of Jerusalem to fulfill that Commission and so Sometimes we look at our lives and we look at persecution and we say oh that's from Satan, you know

Satan buying this persecution from me. Okay, but sometimes it's not like that at all. Sometimes it's designed by God to move us

When we're stationary When God wants us to go somewhere Yet we don't sometimes

God moves us through the use of persecution Well, let's go back to Acts chapter 1 and we'll read through some of the high points in Acts chapter 1

We have Christ ascension Starting in verse 9.

He leaves physically. He's gone into heaven four times. It says he has gone into heaven in this chapter Jesus is coming again.

If you look down at verse 11 The men are standing up just looking up in the sky

After he goes up and wondering what's going to happen now. Well, he's gone Christ has gone into heaven in verse 11

They also said the angels that had appeared men of Galilee. Why do you stand looking into the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven Will come back in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven

So when we think of the return of Christ we now in these last days we're now in the last days

We look forward to the return of Christ when Christ will come back again from heaven

Down as it says it from the clouds of heaven. It's not going to be a secret return There'll be no secret

Christ sort of in this little corner of the world Every eye will see him the Bible says and so it will be visible just like it was visible

When he ascended to heaven it will also be visible no mistaking when Christ returns

The only debate for Christians is when that will happen But that's minor compared to the fact that we believe that Christ will return visibly to earth so Luke here in Acts records that the angels told them that's exactly how he's going to come back and We are to preach a message until he returns

Daniel question. I don't know how widespread that is.

The question was Those who say that Christ's return will not be visible I'm aware that even back in the time of the

Apostles the New Testament. There were those who taught that There's a number of heresies out there.

We don't have time to go into them right now But that kind of teaching is just a recycling of an ancient heresy that teaches that It's sort of a

Gnostic tendency where the body is bad. The spirit is good. So Christ's body according to some people is still in the grave

Only his spirit ascended because the body could never ascend to heaven because in their mind the body itself is evil or bad or dirty

Louis she had a comment on that, right?

Yeah, the ancient heresy Lewis referred to is that Christ never actually came down from heaven Bodily that there was

I mean he did he was incarnate but he was never really incarnate It was just a spiritual presence and he just seemed to be

Physically manifest, is that correct? Yeah, there was no real physical body there He was just sort of like a ghost or a spirit that looked physical

I believe that heresy was called dosatism meaning to seem or to think that Christ was actually here.

Yes Steve Yeah, the physical resurrection of Christ the bodily resurrection of Christ is central to Our faith and so we must affirm that and anything that's

Outside of that is not Orthodox. It's it's not Christian So they can call themselves whatever they want but we can't believe that because Denying the bodily presence of Christ denying the deity of Christ are both signs that that those people do not believe the gospel

And we can say that without reservation Okay, the good input, thank you the the

Next there there are a number of speeches as we discussed before a number of times where Luke records

Enacts the speeches the actual words of the Apostles and So we have in chapter 2 we have the upper room

Let's let's talk about the upper room for a second the day of Pentecost. Let's go to Chapter 2 the end of chapter 1 they again they select a replacement for Judas who?

hung himself who committed suicide after betraying Christ and they select a replacement and That person is

Matthias Matthias was selected by lot Now lots were kind of like dice used in ancient times by folks

Are we supposed to use lots today? question Should we use lots today?

Is that something we should emulate? Yes or no. What do you think? No Why not?

We have the written word Okay, we do have the written word that is true and how does that take the place of lots how would that supersede using of casting of lots

Okay, so because the word we have the printed word

We no longer do things like casting lots and we depend on dreams and visions as the Apostles did when they were

First compiling the scriptures for example Steve Right good good.

So again sort of the fulfillment the Giving of the Word of God that things like this aren't necessary You remember the book of Jonah remember how the sailors cast lots and a lot fell to Jonah and sure enough

He was why the boat was sinking in this terrible storm came up Kind of comical in a lot of ways because we look and we say how could

Jonah have done that? How could he been so foolish, but God didn't identify Jodah through the use of this tool of these lots

Well, this is the last time casting of lots appears in the Bible in the New Testament Church Also, remember that the

Spirit came in power in Pentecost Okay, the second part not only will you be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth

But you'll receive power and in chapter 2 we see the disciples receiving that power and so it's interesting that has happened just before that event and So we could conclude from that now that the the

Apostles had the Holy Spirit in power They were empowered not only to witness but also To get that illumination from the

Spirit and the inspiration to write the scriptures And so that follows with what Lewis and Steve said that we don't need these these

Decision -making tools anymore because we have the Word of God to guide us and as Christians We have the Spirit of God to help us make decisions and give us the mind of Christ so we have in chapter 2 the day of Pentecost and I'll start reading in chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and Suddenly there came from having a noise like a violent rushing wind and it filled a whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them

Tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance and Then we read on how they went out and they were devout

Jews at the Feast of Pentecost Which was a was a dual festival harvest festival as as well as a religious festival

Commemorates the giving of the law interestingly enough. That's what Pentecost was. And so we we have this

Phenomenon that happens to the disciples three things happen. First of all a sound like a like a blowing wind

It wasn't a tornado It wasn't a natural event But it sounded like it could have been a tornado or that kind if anybody's been through a hurricane or a tornado

I think a lot of us have even up here You get that violent rushing wind Papers weren't blowing around parchments weren't blowing around that upper room

But there was a sound like there should have been a huge wind blowing through that room.

That's what it sounded like Many times in the Old Testament Wind the word for wind and spirit are one in the same

Many times in the Old Testament Wind was a sign of the Spirit descending on God's people in a figurative sense.

Okay, so you have the wind sound secondly you have the Fire little tongues as a fire wasn't fire.

Nobody's hair was burning. Okay, we had this symbol as of fire

Remember the burning bush in the Old Testament, right? Take off your shoes Moses your sandals where you're standing is holy ground

We have the pillar of fire when they were in the wilderness children of Israel We had the pillar of fire by night that led the children fire on Mount Sinai fire over the tabernacle this

Clearly was a sign of God's presence when this fire came above the disciples

God was present there and Finally these languages that began to speak

The Holy Spirit filled them with these new languages these new tongues that they could not utter

Well, they went out and they're Galileans, you know, they speak Greek they speak

Aramaic they speak Hebrew But they're speaking in another language They're all speaking in languages the people who were on pilgrimage

Coming to Jerusalem So that they could understand what these men were saying and those who didn't understand these other languages accused them of being drunk

You look down at verse 12 13 Well, I'll start with 12 and they all continued an amazement with great perplexity

Saying to one another what does this mean? But others were mocking and saying they're full of sweet wine.

They're drunk They're accusing them of babbling along and they thought they were drunk And we're not going to go through all of the speeches here

But I do want to say that You know Peter's sermon is important Peter sermons here in the first part of Acts are important.

He quotes Joel here Discussing how we're now in the last days.

These are signs Joel 2 verse I Had it written down here.

I don't have it right in front of me now, but Joel chapter 2 is quoted here by Peter To say that in the last days

I'll pour forth my spirit. He's explaining what's going on He's saying look what you're seeing is not a bunch of drunk guys at 10 o 'clock in the morning

What you're seeing is God pouring his spirit out upon The people this is inaugurating the new era of God the last days and this is what you're seeing and hearing here

Now at the end of chapter 2 we see a number of people gathered into the to the people of God as a result of this sermon

God used Peter and in verse 47 again The people were praising

God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day

Those who were being saved Now in verse 3 and chapter 3 chapter 4

We see some other speeches and she beginning chapter 3 Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer

In Jerusalem again, the faith was temple centered. It was Jerusalem centered. And so what happens is

They're preaching at the temple and They go along and they see a beggar begging there and he asked him for money and Peter said to him in verse 6

Amazing statement inspired by the Holy Spirit. He says I do not possess silver and gold But what

I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk

Now, wouldn't you love to be able to say that somebody who's asking you for money? I got a bad leg Would that be great?

I'd love to have maybe ever dreamed about doing stuff like that You read this in the book of Acts and you go

Wow, that would be so cool But we don't have the same authority or power that the

Apostles had But we still should if somebody asks us to give them money

But we could do and what a good friend of mine always does he says no, I'm sorry I don't have any extra money.

So he doesn't lie. He's got a hundred bucks in his pocket He doesn't say no, I don't have any money be careful of that. Be honest, but he said

I don't have any extra money But I do have something more valuable and he shares the gospel with him when people ask him for money because you know

Anybody is asking for money You know, they need something and there's more than likely a good chance that there's a spiritual need under that Okay, somebody's out in the road begging for money.

And so what we have is Peter telling him to get up and walk first of all, he tells him look at me and then he says get up and walk

And so we have this this miraculous healing just one of the many documented healings and miracles in the book of Acts and so all the people

Saw him in verse 9 and praise God and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful Gate of the temple and beg alms

It says later in this chapter that he was more than 40 years old

So we think about you think back to 1977 those of you who are old enough think back to 1967 if you knew a kid when you were born that couldn't walk at all and this very day

Somebody went to him and said in the name of Jesus Christ. I heal you and the guy gets up. He's up He's never walked a step in his life

That would make an impression on you and remember this was written close to these events Close enough where there were people alive who remember that if that didn't really happen.

Guess what? They could have come up and said I was there That was a trick

That's a little Benny Hinn action over here. Okay name names the guy's the guy is false teacher we have

People alive that knew that this had happened Luke documents it and so we see how

God was at work among the first apostles To give his word to save people and to perform signs and wonders as As my brother

Bruce mentioned last week in the book of Acts We see these signs and wonders at the beginning of the book and what you begin to see is you see

That these signs and these miracles start to fade There's a clear fading of the miraculous in the book of Acts not only healing miracles not only

Signs of speaking in tongues But really by you see some miracles of the

Apostle Paul, but you never see these Executed or accomplished by a regular layman

It's always by an apostle and I think as our church we would say that these things we are cessationist

You know what station this means? Most of you do we believe that the sign gifts all these miraculous gifts

Not that God ceases to work and that's an important distinction God is still working today God is still healing people.

God is still performing miracles But there are not people that have the office of Apostle today

We can't write new scripture Okay, that was left with the

Apostles. We don't perform these signs and wonders like the Apostles did either We also don't see the gift of tongues

Partly as Lewis shared earlier that the canon is closed and we have our scriptures everything we need for life and godliness is can take in this book and so What we do is we take the position that The signs like tongues speaking in tongues were for that apostolic era only

There are some who take a position. Well, I'm cautious. I kind of want to agree with that. I'm cautious, but I'm open

Okay, there's some who take that position realize that there are others who say I'm open generally I realize

I still believe tongues are for today. I still believe people have healing gifts or apostleship, but I'm cautious You know,

I don't want to believe everything but most things and there and then there are those who are completely open to everything

We would follow on this end of the continuum Whereas a hyper charismatic group might fall in this area of the continuum

But there are many Christians in between who sincerely hold positions that are different I knew that's going to raise a question or two, but go ahead

That's right, that's right a known language that's the point that that there was a known language it was just not incoherent babbling exactly, right

I'm sorry, Daniel. I think your hand was up first Well, I think we have to be wise.

So the question was should we shun those who practice charismatic gifts as a church? I think

I think there are different levels of involvement Okay, if somebody was known to have spoken in tongues and admitted it and said

I believe this is active for today They probably wouldn't preach from this pulpit. For example,

I feel confident saying that I'm not one of the elders, but I think that's safe I think that if you have a

Christian friend, what I would do is with any issue It's not the gospel. This is not that issue is not the gospel

I would say what we need to do is be wise take them to the scriptures and Be aware and remind them that our

Christianity is not based primarily on our experience What is real and what is true is not based on what

I experience if I experience this ecstatic utterance Of babbling or a known language as somebody else understood.

There are three possible sources one is that it's legitimate It's really the gift of tongues is described in the New Testament one possibility.

Another one. Is that it's psychological That's been known in other non -christian religions to occur and the third one is is satanic

So I think we have three main there may be others, but those are three main Reasons why

Tongues can occur We also have to ask is it if it's biblical tongues? It would be a known language as Lewis said

I agree with that and so we have to be wise and kind of walk them through the

New Testament and You can challenge them just challenge them and say You know, why would we need these things if we have the

Word of God today primarily that's that's the tact I would take does anybody else have any anything they would add to that?

Yes Yes Good question.

Great question. I probably don't have a chance to answer that. Let me answer it partly today I'll try to give an answer for next week because I think one of the things we discussed last week

Remember last week we discussed in the book of Acts is the Holy Spirit One of the main things that Luke highlights in the book of Acts is the activity and the role of the

Holy Spirit. I Think there's a clear line Between Those things that were unique to the book of Acts Nearly unique in the history of the early church and those things which are documented to have gone on throughout church history

One of the things we're commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit Okay When we become saved

I'll explain what that means in a minute when we're saved we undergo what's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit Okay, you're baptized.

You're submersed into the Holy Spirit when you become a Christian. That's something that actually happens So you receive the

Holy Spirit as a Christian you're baptized in the Holy Spirit upon salvation You're also filled with the

Holy Spirit. We're commanded to continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit What that means is that means put your life under the control of God's Holy Spirit Essentially in a nutshell to boil it down the the

I've heard it Todd. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it's I've heard people say that it's like a sail being filled and moved along It's not like a jar or a vessel being filled up Like I've only got this much

Holy Spirit and I need more fill I need more Okay. Now I've got a quarter of the Holy Spirit. I want a gallon.

Okay, not like that at all What it is is it's more like a ship with a sail and then the filling of that sail with with the wind is more like being

Brought along or being led or being filled with the Holy Spirit in that sense Is that your life is under more and more the control of the

Holy Spirit? So so those are just touching briefly on some of the things the Holy Spirit does today Your question about the

Word of God The Holy Spirit also illumines us We don't have inspiration

The Apostles were reminded of things that had happened when they lived with Christ when they heard Christ when they saw

Christ do things That when they were came to writing down the scriptures the Holy Spirit Directed them didn't didn't control them completely.

There's still a personality there But he directed them and he used them in a way That exactly what

God wanted to be written down for our edification appears in these pages now when we as Christians read this what we have is we have a bit an ability

To understand God's Word that non -christians simply don't have There's a capacity there or an ability to apprehend spiritual truth that we know that we didn't have prior to that I've heard the illustration that it's almost like right now.

I don't know if any you listen to sports radio Weei, for example There's it is an amen from the back from the sound room right now

The sound waves and the radio waves from wei are going through this room. I'm sure Andrew could tune it in back there.

I Don't have a receiver In my head to get sports radio

However, if I had that receiver, I would receive the signals and I would know what they're saying It's kind of like that with the

Word of God and the role of the Holy Spirit and understanding the Word of God When we have the Holy Spirit we have that receiver

So I how many people have you have have you had talked to you and say I've read it You know the eunuch we're getting the chapter 8 the

Ethiopian eunuch, I don't know what I'm reading Okay, let's flip over there right now. We get chapter 8 in the book of Acts nice segue, by the way

Thank you, and hopefully it's answering some of your questions. We can address it more next week Steve would you like to add while we're turning to acts 8?

Yes. Thank you. Yeah time is running short

We don't have time to really get much further into that But let's let's say and we do need to cover the last half of acts next week

What I want to do is we're gonna we're gonna end up in Acts chapter 8 and talk look at the

Ethiopian eunuch and Philip But just to basically give you the flyover again, we have chapter 3

Where we have the healing of the man the man born lame another speech by Peter They're arrested.

They're taken out of jail by the Holy Spirit, they're released and They continue to preach the

Word of God in Jerusalem Chapter 6 to 7 are chosen Then we have

Stephen in chapter 7 the one of the deacons who was chosen full of the Holy Spirit He did signs and wonders as well.

Here's an example of a deacon Somebody who is elder qualified Doing these kinds of signs and wonders and creating a great stir again authenticating the message

Understand that this was a new message you had the Old Testament with its message of the law of Moses the temple worship and these kinds of things now you had

Christ dying this this turning point in history and It was important for God to say

I put my stamp of approval on this and so this is why we see these signs these wonders these miracles these speech in tongues and Stephen gets up and he gives

The Jewish leaders a history lesson basically runs from Genesis Just about Genesis all the way down Through the prophets and a verse of six

Sorry verse 51 of chapter 70 says you men and this might have what got in trouble you men who are stiff -necked and circumcised

Uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit You're doing just as your father's did which one of the prophets did your father's not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become you who received the law is ordained by angels and yet did not keep it boom done they

Heard this they were cut to the quick. They began gnashing their teeth I have no idea what that means, but it sounds not fun and they and they gnashed their teeth and they rushed at him and they

He had a vision of Christ standing at the right hand of God and he he tells him about this and The crowd cried out a loud voice as loud as they couldn't they're covering their ears running at him how they covered their ears and they

Carried him along. Maybe it was just they had their ears covered and they pushed him I don't know. Maybe they had some who weren't covering their ears.

But anyway They they drove him out of the city They began stoning him and the witnesses laid their clothes at his feet

They went on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord and said Lord Jesus received my spirit In verse 60 the falling on his knees.

He cried out with a loud voice Lord Do not hold this sin against them reminds us of Christ on the cross when he asked him to forgive those who were crucifying him and having said this he fell asleep and We see the beginning of verse chapter 8 here starts the great this diaspora as it's called a great dispersion of the

New Testament Saints through the regions of Judea and Samaria and We have

Philip is one of those who's dispersed and he began preaching and doing signs and wonders in Samaria the city of Samaria began proclaiming

Christ to them again you know these signs and wonders accompanied the preaching of the gospel and the giving of the

Word of God so we have to understand that and The crowds were giving attention to what was said by Philip in verse 6 and saw the signs he was performing again

We see the miraculous wonders that God did through him There was much rejoicing in the city and and then we see in verse 9 a man named

Simon who wanted these miraculous powers And he wanted to give money. He wanted to pay the disciples and the

Apostles to do these wonders. Hey, give me that power that's so cool and They said to him, you know, that should not be

I'm sorry That was Simon the I'm getting mixed up my fault. Peter is the one who did that.

Sorry. We're back a few chapters Sorry, I'm doing this on the fly so you have to forgive me

Yes, I'm sorry later in verse after verse 14 he does do that I was right Peter comes and he says may your money silver perish with you.

You should not Pursue this for selfish ends

And so here we get to the your question Finally, we're in Ethiopia receives Christ the same

Philip who went into Samaria because of the dispersion Comes and he's reading the book of Isaiah and Philip the

Holy Spirit says go talk to that man audibly There's some way he told him go speak to that man up on the chariot who was returning from Jerusalem and Philip gets up to him in verse 30

Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet He said do you understand what you're reading? And he said well, how could

I unless someone guides me? Okay, we need that guide to understand God's word the teachers and he invited

Philip to come up and sit with him He's up on the chariot now Now the passage of Scripture he was reading was he was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent

So he does not open his mouth in humiliation His judgment was taken away who will relate his generation for his life is removed from the earth

The eunuch answered Philip and said please tell me of whom does the Prophet say this of himself or someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and began from the

Scripture beginning from the Scripture he preached Jesus to him Now understand when he says Scripture, he's talking about the

Old Testament So he showed him where in the Old Testament Christ was prophesied as coming. We see in Isaiah This is one of the many prophesies prophecies of Christ in the

Old Testament and Then he obviously became a Christian and he has the willingness

He said look water what prevents me from being baptized and they're in the desert, but there was water there somehow What prevents me from being baptized they go down?

He gets baptized and and Philip actually goes into the water with him when Philip comes up The Holy Spirit whisks him away.

It just says right? I don't know how he did I was reading this to the kids the other night in verse 39 when they came out of the water

Philip and the Ethiopian Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. That's the same word that's used for rapture

Okay, it's just taken away taken up and whether whether they saw him go or whether it was just invisible

And they didn't it just says here that And the eunuch no longer saw him but went on his way rejoicing that man was a newly regenerate child of God And so we see here and we'll stop here today

We'll start with a conversion of Saul next week, but just a couple of things as we close I just wanted to bring up.

Hopefully that's helpful. We can discuss it more if you have more questions next week about the Holy Spirit We will we will go over that but I wanted to I Apologize for going over so quickly.

We had a lot of questions. I think the discussion was good but what we have is I did want to discuss real quickly, you know, we're people of the book people of the

Word of God and sometimes I wonder if We need to spend more attention to our theology of the

Holy Spirit as we saw it today You know we have the charismatics. I mean they

Experience the Holy Spirit and They say they experience things that we would question and that we would say well, perhaps they're not legitimate

But as Christians, I wonder if we don't Underdo our attention to the Holy Spirit just a question to put out there.

I know for myself I Focus on the Word of God and and I do pray and I do want the

Holy Spirit to guide me But I'm not sure that theologically my understanding of what the role of the

Holy Spirit is was it what it should be I think that as Christians as Calvinists as conservative

Bible believing Christians if you will I think our understanding and our expectations of what

God's Holy Spirit the Bible says God's Holy Spirit will do for us sometimes is lacking and I would just encourage you

To without becoming charismatic in that sense that we understand today I think that we need to really understand the joy that comes from knowing

Christ and that spiritual power and spiritual strength that God wants us to experience as we read his word as we witness for him

You know one thing we didn't have a chance to go over is that in the early chapters We see the church get persecution and each and every time you know what they pray

Do you know what they pray They don't pray God get us out of this mess.

They don't pray that what do they pray? No, what they pray is give us boldness

We're persecuted God, please give us boldness and power to preach the gospel to these people that are persecuting us and we can take a page out of their book as well today when we're persecuted when we have the need to Seek God's face and pray and we're just struggling and people are on us

We need to think we need to pray Lord among other things one of the main things we need to pray is give us boldness boldness to preach in the face of persecution and that's

Great things the activity of God's Spirit here We get to see the gospel move out and from Jerusalem into Samaria and spread throughout the whole world and next week

What we'll see is The Apostle Paul as God saves him Uses him to reach the entire

Mediterranean world of the time David One last question. Yes, right.

Yes the great point. Thank you pastor day that the emphasis of the Holy Spirit We're not to focus on the Holy Spirit But we're to understand his ministry in his role and the focus we have should be on Christ excellent point.

Thank you Well as we close today, I just want to encourage you to If you have a chance to read through some of these chapters particularly after chapter 9 in the book of Acts Is where Paul appears?

It's not an assignment for next week. I'm sure you have enough to do and enough reading already What I would say though is

Next week. Let's let's as we gather back together We'll learn and see that God is a missionary

God and we'll see that God has in his heart the salvation of many and the salvation of souls and That should be our heart as well.

Let's close in prayer Heavenly Father we thank you this morning for our lesson

Lord. Thank you that you've given us your Holy Spirit Thank you that we are not left to our own devices.

It's it's added into us Lord from outside We can't earn our salvation and certainly the

Holy Spirit Teaches us convicts us of sin your Holy Spirit comes within us to empower us to witness to Christ And I pray

Lord as we as we go through this day that your spirit would even Illuminate our understanding as we hear pastor preach that the the word would be applied to our hearts

And if there are stony places within our hearts or those would be broken up by the hard words in the ministry of the

Holy Spirit that we would be more useful to you and Lord that you would build up this body here in West Boylston.