The Divine Response To Persecution - [Acts 8:4-8]

I'm sure many of you subscribe to this magazine. Probably get it in your home every month.

It's called Preaching Magazine. How many subscribe to that? Chuck, okay. I've never heard of it either.

But I did find it on the internet the other day. The founder of the magazine compiled a list of the greatest preachers of the 20th century.

And I thought, oh, that would be interesting. I'm sure that we'll know many of these names. We will know some of these names.

Number ten we don't know. I don't think it's any relation to Paul McCartney, but Clarence McCartney made this list.

Now I did like this part. He's not the lifelong bachelor part, which is the first part.

Avid student of scripture, champion of theological orthodoxy, good, who stood in opposition to Fosdick's liberalizing influence.

We'll get to Fosdick here in a minute. Fosdick preached his famous sermon, Will the Fundamentalists Win?

And I like McCartney's counter, his own powerful sermon, Will Unbelief Win?

A liberal says, you know, will the fundamentalists win? And so the right thinking orthodox fundamentalist says, will unbelief win?

That's the counter to that. McCartney's ministry took him successfully to pastorates in three downtown churches, culminating in the

First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. His preaching, now I hear this and I sort of, his preaching was topical in style, often biographical.

Hmm. I don't know. His sermons were painstakingly prepared and delivered with directness and evangelical fervor noted for his imaginative illustrations, keen insights into the human hearts.

That's what I said. Number nine, here's somebody we know, D. Martin Lloyd -Jones,

Martin Lloyd -Jones, Welsh preacher who was a brilliant expositor, he says, and this is notable, fervent

Calvinist, who succeeded Campbell Morgan as pastor of Westminster Chapel, led the church to even greater growth, says

Lloyd -Jones demonstrated the power that is possible through the careful and systematic exposition of scripture in the pulpits.

Amen. He was trained as a medical doctor and gave that up in response to his call to ministry.

Number eight, John Stott, John Stott, favorite preacher among evangelicals around the globe.

I did learn something about him in this. John Stott is rector emeritus of All Souls Church in London, I knew all that stuff.

But here's the interesting part. He was appointed chaplain to the

Queen from 1959 to 1991. I did not know that.

Since his retirement, he has invested much of his ministry in working with pastors, church leaders, and students in the third world, wrote over 40 books, etc.

Number seven, I almost said this guy's name wrong, I wanted to say William Gangster, it's

William Sangster, a strongly evangelical Methodist preacher, served for 16 years in London, preached weekly to 3 ,000 souls.

Here's what I found interesting about him. During World War II, he had the largest Sunday evening congregation in London, filling the 2 ,500 seat hall.

I mean, we think, oh, it's during wartime, people are going to want to go to church. But on the other hand, in London, where they're dropping bombs, that would be a little scary.

He concluded the ministry as head of the Home Mission Department of the Methodist Church. Listen, before his deterioration and death because of progressive muscular atrophy.

So just continued to serve. Okay, number six, somebody else that you may have heard of,

G. Campbell Morgan, called by many the

Prince of Expositores. Born in England, raised in Wales, he lacked formal education, but his absolute confidence in scripture made him an avid student and interpreter of the word.

1904 to 1917, he served London's Westminster Chapel, and then he went to America, came back in 1933 at age 69, and served for a decade during one of the most dangerous periods of Britain's history.

He was right there in London. Okay, number five, Mr. Fosdick, Harry Emerson Fosdick.

I'm sorry, if I'm compiling a list of great preachers, I can't put a fraud in there, and that's

Fosdick. Fosdick's ministry coincided with the growth of radio, contributing to his national prominence.

He was minister to the Rockefellers and other prominent businesses and civic leaders, and was known as an advocate of social change.

Fosdick has had a continuing influence on the shape of American preaching into the present day.

He was a practitioner of what's called, now listen to this, life situation preaching.

What's another way to put that? I'd say it's practical preaching. Give me something

I can use. It says here, a homiletical model which focused the sermon on human need, and climaxed in a call not to repentance, but to human action.

So not a fan. His model gave a new shape to American preaching, including much evangelical preaching.

Yes, it did, but not for the better. Number four, Martin Luther King Jr., a gifted

African American preacher and civil rights leader whose sermonic appeals for justice and personal activism helped change the course of American life.

True. He was a theological liberal, but I thought this was interesting too. As King's ministry progressed, his preaching grew increasingly more evangelical and biblical.

His sermons became more Christ -centered with a growing emphasis on the cross. I thought, okay, that's something

I need to study, but interesting. Number two, Billy Graham.

I skipped over number three because esoteric again. Number two, Billy Graham, dynamic preacher and evangelist through the televising of mass crusades.

Graham's preaching is simple and straightforward, filled with illustrations drawn from the day's headlines, and each sermon is focused intently on a single purpose, to draw men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

That's a good purpose. Number one, James Stewart.

I kept waiting for somebody really, I don't know,

MacArthur, Sproul, somebody, but nope. Alistair Begg. I'd settle for,

I don't know, who else? Who? Barnhouse.

Yeah, Barnhouse, good. James Stewart. Most of the readers will be surprised that Stewart's name appears.

Yep, we are. The gifted Scottish preacher taught New Testament at the

University of Edinburgh, but I thought this was interesting. Stewart was committed to expository preaching and preached with an earnestness and energy that was warmly received by his listeners.

His books have inspired tens of thousands of preachers to strive for greater effectiveness in their proclamation of God's word.

Now, I thought effectiveness is good, but if I'm making a list, what do I think? I want somebody who caused the preachers to think,

I want to be more faithful to the text. So, we're going to see why this plays a part here in a moment, because we're going to be dealing with a preacher today.

Let's turn our Bibles to Acts chapter 8, and our text begins in verse 4.

Acts chapter 8, verse 4. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

So there was much joy in that city. That is just kind of a recap of where we are, bring us up to speed.

It's been quite a ride as we've gone through the book of Acts so far. We've gone from the ascension of Jesus Christ to Pentecost, then on to the amazing growth of the church.

We've seen the apostles doing miracles, which strangely, and I say strangely because you would think that when people do miracles the response would be good, but instead it brings on persecution.

First Peter and John were arrested and warned not to preach or teach about Jesus any longer.

The next arrest was all twelve of the apostles. God sent an angel to set them free with instructions to return to the temple and preach, which they did.

Then they're re -arrested and flogged, given thirty -nine lashes, and of course they go back to preaching and teaching about Jesus.

Now after he was selected as one of the proto -deacons, we've been talking about Stephen for the last few weeks, these seven godly men who were taken, who took some of the administrative burdens off of the apostles,

Stephen is then arrested for the crime of preaching, teaching, doing signs and wonders, and really befuddling the

Hellenists who were following him around trying to heckle him, except he wasn't exactly arrested.

He was grabbed by a mob, I called it a lynch mob, I think that's right, and brought before the

Sanhedrin. In the last two weeks we examined his speech, which had two major themes.

God is entirely trustworthy, and Israel had not been trustworthy, had not been faithful.

When Stephen pointed the finger right at the Sanhedrin and the Hellenists, the group exploded with anger.

They seized him, took him outside of the city, and stoned him to death. Saul and others,

Saul held the cloaks, basically, of those who stoned him to death, the witnesses, and Saul and others began persecuting the

Hellenists. In fact, Luke describes Saul as doing what? As ravaging the church, going from house to house, taking men and women to jail.

So the upshot of that is, many are forced to flee Jerusalem, many of the

Hellenist believers are forced to flee. Now this morning, many of you didn't know about Preaching Magazine, although many of you will probably go home now and try to subscribe, but if I say

IP, you will think what? Intellectual property.

Because that's what you do nowadays, you take an intellectual property and you translate it from one genre, or should

I use the French pronunciation, genre, to another. You take a book, you make it into a movie.

You take a game, you make it into a movie. You take everything, you make it into a movie. You take a song, you put it into a movie.

But IP, intellectual property, that's what gives you the rights when you transfer from one field to another.

So IP, three of them. The impelled and persecuted, because I had to stick with IP.

Secondly, the impressive preacher, and third, the improbable product. We're seeing this morning, and we talked about this,

Acts 1 -8, when Jesus says, you're going to be my witnesses, what? In all of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then all the world.

So now we're seeing the witness part play out in Samaria. So first, IP, the impelled and persecuted.

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. When I say impelled, you should be thinking what?

Pushed out, because that's what the Holy Spirit does to Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, sends him out into the wilderness.

There's a well -known axiom of church history, and that's this. It's so well -known,

I couldn't think of it. The blood of martyrs is what? The seed of the church.

What does that mean? It means that as Christians suffer, Christianity spreads.

The more the gospel is spread, in other words, as a result of Christians being persecuted.

John Stott said this about the Jews in Jerusalem are persecuting

Saul and others, they're persecuting these hellness, trying to drive them out. And it works, but Stott notes it has the exact opposite effect of its intention.

They mean to shut these people down, to stop the spread of the gospel, and instead, it enhances, it contributes to the spread of the gospel.

In fact, as we think about this, if we think about 1

Peter, and what he writes in 1 Peter 3, verses 14 and 15, listen, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, and now you can just think about these people being driven out from where they're staying, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, who? Those who are persecuting you. Nor be troubled, but in your hearts, honor

Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense, to give a reason to anyone in Apologia, to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Paul wrote that, or Peter wrote that later to believers spread throughout Asia Minor, but it could have easily been his parting words to the

Hellenist Christians. They didn't have any kind of a secret hope, any kind of, we're not going to tell anybody about this

Jesus, they wore it out on their sleeves. As they were driven out, they spoke well of Jesus.

And that they've been driven out is plain by the verb that's translated here, scattered.

The new English translation, the net translation, puts it this way, now those who had been forced to scatter.

Scattering is something that is done to you, it's passive in other words, you don't actively do it, it's done to you.

They were driven out, they were forced to scatter. And how do these Christians respond to being forced out of, their adopted home of Jerusalem?

I mean, if you think about it, it'd be easy to be afraid, be easy to be angry, be easy to want revenge, and it'd be easy to even kind of say, okay, now

I'm going to shut up. I'm going to mind my own business because being identified as a

Christian has been a negative. It cost me my friends, my home, my church,

I'm just going to shut up and move on. That's not what they do. Everywhere they pass through, the text would tell us they are evangelizing.

As they're going from town to town, as they're maybe even going back to where they were before, or back to their roots outside of Jerusalem.

So we could easily say that they're giving a reason for the hope that is in them. They're kind of a living out of 1

Peter chapter 3. Their hearts were not set on the things of this world because those things have been taken away from them.

And it's true, isn't it, for each of us? Whenever we suffer a great loss, and we kind of then are forced to take inventory.

Well, what do I have left? You know, I lost my job, I lost somebody dear to me. I lost,

I lost, I lost, whatever it is, my favorite car, whatever it was. And you start thinking, okay, that was just stuff, or that was a relationship.

Yes, it was important to me. But I still have the single most important thing in the world, and that's

Christ. If I have to start from square one, if everything's taken from me,

I still have Jesus. Well, why is that so important? We know this intellectually, and sometimes we have to be forced to think about it.

What do we know intellectually? That if I have Jesus, I have everything. Why? Because none of the things that I've named, even people,

I can't take with me when I go. When I die, what's the most important thing?

That I have Christ Jesus. That I'm in Him. More importantly, that He has me.

That He's going to welcome me into His kingdom. And being in that mode of thinking, these

Christians habitually tell those that they come in contact with the good news. So that's the impelled and persecuted.

Secondly, the impressive preacher. The impressive preacher. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the

Christ. Now first, I have to say, this isn't even in my notes, but so many commentators mention this.

It's probably not the city of Samaria. It's just a city.

It could even be where the woman at the well is from. We don't know. But there are a number of reasons why they say it's probably not the city of Samaria.

But that aside, it's interesting when you're talking about Philip, because you say, well, why is he an impressive preacher?

In Acts 21, verse 8, Luke refers to Philip this way. He says, On the next day we, he's talking about himself and Paul, On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea.

They're on their way to Jerusalem. And we entered the house of Philip the

Evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. So years later, they enter the home of Philip the

Evangelist. That's what he's known as. Philip the Evangelist. Now, whether he was, you know, given the office of evangelist, or if he was just seen as particularly gifted, that's quite a title.

The Evangelist. Luke sets the general picture for us here in Acts chapter 8.

There's this, in verse 4, this scattering of the Hellenized Jewish Christians. But now he zooms in on one particular

Christian, one particular Jewish by ethnicity, but not a

Jerusalemite, if I can make up a word here, and I just did. He zooms in on Philip.

Why? Well, because he's exceptional. And he's exceptionally blessed by the

Lord. And it's interesting because it says in the text here that he goes down into the city of Samaria.

What does it mean to go down? You know, to go downhill is what we think. And if you're reading the text, that's probably your first inclination is just to think, well, it must have been down into Samaria.

And the answer is what? Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. What's your point here?

Okay. My point is this. When you went to Jerusalem, the text always says that you go up to Jerusalem.

And when you leave Jerusalem, you always go down from it. And so it could be that he went down from Jerusalem and then up somewhere even higher than Jerusalem.

That's irrelevant. When you leave Jerusalem, you go down because Jerusalem is it.

To the Jewish mindset, Jerusalem. That's the peak place in the entire world.

But, of course, to a Jewish mind as well, there were few places that you could go on the globe that were lower than Samaria.

For a moment, go to Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew chapter 10. The context will be evident here.

Jesus commissioning these 12 disciples. Really, they're transformed here from disciples to apostles in our text.

Matthew 10 verse 1. And he called to him his 12 disciples, gather round, and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.

And it's important because we're going to see something similar in Samaria. And it's interesting here.

Verse 2. The names of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who's called

Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip, different man, and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector,

James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Of course, that's later. These 12, Jesus sent out instructing them, listen, go nowhere among the

Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

In other words, confine yourselves to the confines or to the limitations of Israel.

Don't go out into the Gentile world. Don't go anywhere where there are even Gentiles gathered.

And don't go into any town of the Samaritans. Now, Jesus went into a town of the

Samaritans, but he tells them not to go there. Now, there could be a number of reasons, but I can't help but think, well, if they had this experience of seeing healing, casting out of demons, then maybe it wouldn't be so spectacular when

Philip comes. But Jesus says specifically, don't go there. Back to our text here.

We're going to talk a little bit more about Samaritans, about why they despised them so much. Many of you know that they were of mixed ethnicity.

They were partly Jewish, and that is what bothered the Jews. They weren't fully

Jewish. The bigger problem though, because they had people who were proselytes, who became

Jews religiously, and we don't really see much discrimination directly against them.

The problem was that they were partly Jewish religiously. They held on to an odd grouping of Jewish beliefs and discarded others.

They held to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses. They circumcised their boys, just like the

Jews did. They believed they, now here's a problem, they believed they were

God's chosen people. Jews think they're God's chosen people. Samaritans think they're

God's chosen people. They were looking for one greater than Moses, a Messiah type.

Well, so were the Jews. They once had their own temple on Mount Gerizim, kind of a competing temple as it were.

And it's interesting, during a time of semi -independence where they weren't yet controlled by Rome and they had some freedom of action, the

Jews invaded Samaria and destroyed the Samaritan temple, an annex part of Samaria, took control of it.

That didn't last long as the Romans took the whole area over a few decades later. But it just ramped up the antipathy, the hatred between the

Jews and the Samaritans. You go to a war with people, then they tend to have hurt feelings.

Scholar Darrell Bock said this, he said, to eat with a Samaritan was said to be like eating pork.

Pork was unclean, and so even to eat with a Samaritan was considered unclean. Their daughters were seen as unclean.

In other words, you weren't to pursue them for marriage. And they were also accused, the

Samaritans generally, of aborting babies. I mean, they just had a horrible reputation with the

Jews. Suffice it to say that there were religious, ethnic and political tensions between the

Jews and the Samaritans. They did not like each other at all. So if you think, how are we going to, we, how's

Christianity going to reach the Samaritans? You need someone, probably somebody who doesn't speak the language of the

Jews, someone who speaks Greek, someone maybe who's got a little edge to him because he just got kicked out of Jerusalem.

Philip is perfect for this role. And Philip's message to them is probably, well, it's certainly more pointed than what the general message of the

Hellenists was. They came out and they were preaching the word.

They were preaching the counsel of God, Luke says. But when he gets to Philip, he says he preached

Christ. Well, is there a difference? And I think the main difference is this. Luke just wanted to underscore what

Philip was proclaiming. It was the same message that Peter, John, the other apostles, and Stephen proclaimed.

That's what Philip came to preach to the Samaritans, Jesus Christ. And it's also interesting, if we just think about this, whatever the loathing was for the

Samaritans, Philip discarded that. Why? Well, first of all, we know that Jesus said that his apostles were to bring the gospel to the

Samaritans. But I think it's also because the gospel is transnational.

It crosses every ethnic line. There is one human race, and so no matter what the

Jews might think of the Samaritans, God, and therefore Philip, viewed them rightly, which is they're soul bearers.

They're image bearers. They're one day going to give an account before God for what they've done with the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so Philip goes with that sort of attitude. Pivoting back to John chapter 4 for a moment, right before the passage that I read,

John 4 verses 24 to 29, God is spirit, Jesus speaking of course, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman, the Samaritan woman, said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He is called

Christ. When he comes, will he tell us all things? Jesus said to her, or when he comes, he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. In other words, he said right there,

I'm the Messiah. I'm the Christ. I'm the one that you Samaritans are waiting for. Just then, his disciples came back.

They marveled that he was talking to a woman, but no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her jar and went away into town and came to the people.

What did she say? What's her testimony? Come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

In other words, he laid bare all my sins. I won't go through all of it. And then she says, can this be the

Christ? That's a rhetorical question. She knows. And we saw earlier when

I read that, many end up coming to Christ in that town in Samaria.

But now back to our text, none of the apostles had gone to Samaria since that visit by Jesus when they'd been with him.

Now Philip comes to proclaim Christ in this little town in Samaria.

What will he tell them? What does it mean to preach Christ? Well, he has to tell them that Jesus is truly

God. And he could use the words of Jesus himself. If he just said this,

John 8, 58, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. In other words, Jesus said that.

Well, what does that mean? We know this. It's a reference back to Exodus 3, 14. It's a reference to both the eternality of Jesus that he always existed and also to his aseity, to his self -existence that he's uncreated.

So both those things are true and both those things make him God, deity, divine.

Philip would also say that Jesus is truly man. Again, the words, well, this isn't the words of Jesus.

These are the words of John. John, the beloved disciple, he says, In the word, speaking of the eternal word of God, became flesh, the second person of the

Trinity, and dwelt among us. In other words, John says, I have experience with this eternal

God who took on human flesh and dwelt among us, lived among us.

He would also tell them that Jesus died for the sins of those who believe. Jesus' words in John 10, verse 11,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Now, if we just read that in isolation, we might think, well, is he just sacrificing his life so that the sheep can live physically and live in peace, maybe.

He didn't lay down his life to protect their physical life, but really to redeem their spirits, to grant them eternal life.

Jesus, in fact, said that he was the only way to be forgiven of our sins, that we could be forgiven of our sins, that the

Samaritans could be forgiven of theirs, and to enter into heaven. When he said in John 14, 6,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

People don't like that, that exclusivity, that zero -tolerance policy.

There's no way to get to the Father. There's no way to go to heaven except through Jesus Christ.

So he died for the sins of his people. Faith in him alone is essential for salvation.

And then also, that he was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven. John 2, 22.

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

They remembered that he said, if you destroy this temple, I'll raise it up in three days.

There is no proclaiming Christ. Philip cannot proclaim Christ apart from explaining these truths to the

Samaritans. And they listened. Masses listened. Look at verse 6.

And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him.

This was not a one -off. This was not a one -shot sermon. It says, crowds, multitudes.

One crowd here, one crowd there, one crowd, he just kept preaching and they kept showing up.

Philip was gifted at preaching. People locked in when he spoke.

Now, he had a few advantages. He was a fresh face, which with a fresh message.

But what was his greatest advantage? Why were people really locked into him?

Well, he was propelled by the Holy Spirit, filled with Scripture, and a desire to see souls saved.

That's all true. He spoke Greek with great fluency. That's all true. But he also had miracles.

And they're connected. They paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

They heard him. That was great. Then they saw the signs. Why signs?

Well, again and again, we've explained that signs are acts that can only be explained by divine power.

Signs and wonders, they attend those who are commissioned by God to deliver a message from him.

And these signs were consistently happening during his sermons. It's a small wonder that everyone was paying attention.

You listen, and all of a sudden, somebody is healed. You listen, and all of a sudden, somebody is delivered from a demon.

What do we see in so many who claim to do miracles these days? Well, I'll tell you what we don't see, or rather what we don't hear, is a clear proclamation of the

Gospel. When the supposed healings happen, what else is going on? There's some kind of show.

And it's music, and it's drama, and it's throwing about, allegedly, of the

Holy Spirit, and all this kind of drama centering on the person himself. And there may be a hallelujah or whatever, but you can watch and you can listen.

What you won't hear is the Gospel. You won't hear any talk about sin. You won't hear any talk about redemption.

You won't hear any talk about the resurrection. In fact, the reality is there's no reason for miracles today.

There is no new message, and there is no new messenger that needs to be authenticated, that God needs to put, as it were, his stamp of approval upon.

So what does that mean concerning those having so -called miracle services, so -called delivery ministries where they say that they cast out demons?

Well, it means that they're either frauds or deluded frauds.

Take a pick. They could be sincere, but they're definitely sincerely wrong.

Now, also notice the delivery that he is providing by the power of the

Holy Spirit. Verse 7, the first part of it, For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them.

These people inhabited by demons, and Philip cast them out.

And these demons did not go quietly. They screamed. I mean, this must have been a horrible sight to watch, just the sheer agony of a demon being taken out of a person.

But again, it really is a growing, I'll just call it what it is, an industry in so -called

Christian circles these days to do delivery ministries where believers go in and someone will cast a demon out of them.

Brothers, sisters, you are the property of the triune

God. The Father chose you before all time and indwells you.

Jesus told us that he indwells you. The Son died for you and dwells in you.

The Holy Spirit seals you and dwells in you. The creator and sustainer of everything in the universe, including the demonic hordes, is not sharing his dominion, that is to say you, with the fallen workers of Satan.

Well, what about unbelievers? Should we expect to see demon -possessed people?

Well, I mean, you could argue that probably most of the people are demon -possessed these days.

I wouldn't say they're demon -possessed. I'd say they're demon -influenced. It doesn't need to take up resonance in them because if they have the spirit of the age, if they think like everybody else does, there's no need to limit themselves to living inside of them because they control them anyway.

We see movies or there are books. You know, people are all caught up in this kind of thing.

But I will say that people who are obsessed with drugs, even legal drugs, or who open themselves up to this kind of thing could be

Satan -possessed. I can't rule that out. I mean, a few months ago, I think it was the beginning of May, there was the so -called

SatanCon in Boston. 800 people attended. Anybody here?

There? I'm just wondering because we will have a, you know, casting out afterwards. I mean, that's just bizarre, right, to go to that kind of thing.

Now, can I tell you if somebody is possessed? No. Have I ever seen somebody that's possessed?

I don't know. I mean, I can give you lots of stories. I remember, you know, just as a college kid,

I was riding a bus into downtown L .A. and saw somebody acting bizarrely and I thought,

I mean, this woman was half my size and I'm going, I'm stepping carefully around you. And when

I worked in the jail, I saw somebody, you know, without getting too descriptive, chewing on his own arm.

That is not normal. That is not something you expect to see. So could that person be demon -possessed?

Yes. Well, what do you do about that? Do you cast out demons today? Well, think about this.

Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, pastoral epistles, to young men whom he loved and he said, men,

I want you guys to run these churches, right, Crete, Corinth. Here's what

I want you to do. And he gave them explicit instructions on all kinds of things. What's notably missing?

Demon casting. No instructions on that at all. If that was something that was going to come up in the normal course and scope of their duties as pastors,

Paul would have said, by the way, guys, here's what you do. Had he cast out demons? Yes, he had.

So why didn't he give instructions? I think it's because it's something we're not going to come across in the normal course and scope of our duties.

Focus on preaching the word. Do that kind of stuff. Find yourself some good elders, some good deacons.

Again, we are surrounded by people who are under control of the evil one. They follow the course that he sets.

Demons are a limited number. You know, people wonder if they're afflicted by demons or even I've heard people say that they think they're being tried by Satan.

Well, think about it. Satan is a limited being. He can only be in one place at one time. Why would he choose you?

No offense. He's got bare fish to fry.

You know, send your emails to Patty. Why did Steve say that?

She'll be like, I have no idea. And finally here, after the casting out of demons, healing.

Healing. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 2 ,000 years ago, there was little medical knowledge compared to what we have now.

I think there were probably people who were paralyzed who probably did not need to be paralyzed, but they were. There was no treatment for them.

Life was hard. You got injured and there was no way to fix it. There was no surgery.

You know, if leeches didn't heal it, you were stuck. Work itself was miserable.

And during these sermons, people were fully, completely healed.

So we've seen the impelled and persecuted, the impressive preacher, and finally the improbable product.

That's our last IP. Verse eight. So there was much joy in that city.

Philip goes to the Samaritans and the result is much joy in that city.

Commentator Paul Hill says, ultimately it was the gospel they responded to, not the miracles.

And you say, well, how do you know that? He's casting out demons. He's healing all these people. How can you say that? Because of verse 12.

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Maybe they came for the miracles. Maybe their motives weren't right. But they believed

Philip as he preached good news. As he gave them the gospel.

Now consider how Christianity is portrayed. Right? You go to work. You tell people, I've had this experience.

You tell people, I've become a Christian. What do they say? I'm sorry. You know, your life is over. No more fun for you.

Right? You can no longer smoke, chew, or go with girls who do. I mean, you're done.

Is that true?

No. These people weren't even just happy because Philip had taken a lot of disturbed, possessed, and disabled people and made them whole.

They had experienced something life -changing. I'm going to close here in Romans 6.

That idea that your life is fun as an unbeliever and that freedom, when you get saved, the freedom is just gone and your life, all the fun is just gone.

Romans 6 verses 4 -7 explains it well. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.

In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in, listen, not oldness of life, newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, do you think they were happy to have been set free from demon possession or having to deal with somebody in their life who was possessed by demons?

Yes. Paralysis and all manner of injury?

Yes. But salvation is the beginning of joy, not the end of it.

Why? Because this life is temporary. What is eternal is

Christ. What is eternal is heaven with Christ. Now, just a word in closing because I hope

I'm talking about the greatest preachers according to that list. Who's the greatest preacher you've ever heard?

And you can give me a lot of different names. I'm sure you would. You know, we'd come up with a lot of people that weren't on that dopey list.

But I'm going to tell you who the greatest preacher ever for each one of you was. And you're like, how can you do that?

Is this some kind of Steve have magic powers? The greatest preacher and the one who will instantly bring you to tears is the one you listened to when you got saved.

That's the one. That's the greatest preacher. He's the one that the

Holy Spirit used to convict you and to convince you to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. What does Paul write in Romans?

Blessed are the feet. You know, if you just see them, you get kind of choked up.

I mean, whoever it was, I don't care, you know, obviously if it was Billy Graham, well, that'd be a shock, right?

But whoever it was, if they're still alive, if they just showed up here and stood next to you, you'd be like, this is the guy.

This is the woman that I was listening to when I got saved. There's something just spectacular about them.

And that's the way these people would have thought about Philip, this great preacher. Let's pray.

Father, we know that this wasn't really about Philip at all, and he would have said that.

If we could talk to him, he'd say, I pointed to Christ by the power of the

Holy Spirit. He did the work. He transformed lives.

He gave them new affections, new hearts.

He gave them ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to believe.

Father, we know that salvation is all of you. Father, let us never be pulled aside, distracted by spectacular kind of carnival acts who want us to be awed by their supposed miracles.

Father, the miracle that you do still perform all the time is the transformation of lives.

Father, there are many in our families, immediate friends, dear ones to us, who are lost.

Would you bring about the great preacher, the one who would be used by your spirit to convict them, to convince them that Jesus is the