WWUTT 2596 Introducing Philip (Acts 8:1-5)

We've read in the book of Acts about Peter, we've read about Stephen. Now we're going to be introduced to a guy named Philip, who also is going to go about preaching the gospel and performing many great signs and wonders when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Acts 8 and the Scattering of the Church

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come now to chapter 8. We finished up chapter 7 with the speech of Stephen, concluding with him being stoned to death at the end of that chapter.

Now in chapter 8, the Christians are going to be scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, going about preaching the gospel. I'll begin by reading the first eight verses, hear the word of the Lord. Now Saul was in hearty agreement with 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. And 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 was delivering them into prison. Therefore those who had been scattered went about proclaiming the good news of the word.

Now Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them. And the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was being said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was doing.

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 and lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. And of course, you might recognize here that what we are observing is the fulfilling of what Jesus had said to his disciples in Acts 1 .8, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, which we've read about all the way through chapter seven in Judea and Samaria.

Now we have that scattering and to the ends of the earth, which will come later with the gospel going out even to the Gentiles. That'll begin with Peter in Cornelius's house in chapter 10. Now before looking at this block of text that we've got here today, this pericope as it is called, let me recap what we've seen so far and what we will be looking forward to in the next several chapters.

So far, the main character in the book of Acts, if you don't mind me calling him a character, not fictional. Of course, this is a true story. But the main character has been Peter. Peter was the one who presided over the choosing of the 12th apostle to replace Judas in chapter.

One.

He had proclaimed the gospel at Pentecost in chapter two. That's Peter's sermon there that we have at Pentecost. And then you have the healing of the man at the beautiful gate in chapters, well, that really goes chapters three and four.

Then you had the saga with Ananias and Sapphira in chapter five, but then the apostles continue to be persecuted there in that chapter. Then there was the selection of the seven deacons at the beginning of chapter six.

And in those deacons, among those deacons were two men, Philip and Stephen. Now we read about Stephen in the rest of chapter six and on through chapter seven. Again, as I mentioned with Stephen's speech, he has the longest sermon of anybody who preaches in the book of Acts.

Stephen becomes the first martyr. So the first martyr in the church is a deacon and he was put to death as he was dragged outside the city and stoned to death at the conclusion of chapter seven. And that stoning of Stephen leads to the scattering of the believers about Judea and Samaria, as we read here at the beginning of Acts chapter eight.

Now, Luke is, of course, the author of the book of Acts, and we have these occasions in which he will focus on one person's story. So Peter has been the focus thus far, and he will be up through chapter 12.

But we will have occasions in which there will be a focus put on another person. So we had Stephen, of course, in chapter seven. Here in chapter eight, we're going to be reading primarily about Philip.

He is the main character for Acts eight. Then when we get to chapter nine, it will be Saul. That's the famous chapter where Saul is on his way to Damascus rounding up Christians and Jesus appears to him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

But then after that appearance to Saul and his conversion to Christianity, of course, he becomes known widely as Paul the apostle rather than Saul of Tarsus. But anyway, after that, we have Peter. We come back to a focus on Peter again in chapter 10.

And Peter becomes the first really to go to the Gentiles, not Paul, even though Paul has been chosen by Christ to be an apostle to the Gentiles. But Peter goes to the house of Cornelius in chapter 10, another famous chapter in the.

Book of Acts.

They're all very popular, right? And then it continues on after that with persecution that will come upon Peter. And really, Peter's story ends with the death of King Herod. Once Herod dies, the attention shifts over to what the apostle Paul is doing and how widespread his ministry becomes on his missionary journeys.

And then that will be the rest of the book of Acts. So that kind of puts into perspective a little bit what we've seen thus far coming through Acts and how Luke will focus on some different characters occasionally.

Again, as we're here in Acts chapter 8, we're going to be focusing on Philip. The whole time that we are reading through this chapter. One of the most famous instances in Acts 8 is, of course, the conversion of the Ethiopian.

Eunuch.

And we'll get to that one. I don't know if we'll get that far this week, maybe on Wednesday. But in the meantime, we'll focus on these first eight verses because we see the gospel going out to Judea and Samaria.

Just as Jesus said, the gospel would go out into these regions and then ultimately to the end of the earth. Now Saul, we begin here at the start of chapter 8, mentioning the apostle Paul again, who would become the apostle Paul.

This is Saul of Tarsus. This is Saul, a Pharisee who is persecuting the church. And we see in these brief mentions here, just in the end of chapter 7, the mention in chapter 8 and then him going to round up Christians in chapter 9.

That's really all we have with regards to what Saul was doing against the church. But then he's converted when we get to chapter 9. So there's only brief mentions here, but it's enough for us to recognize that Paul, also Saul, was a persecutor of the church before Jesus had called him to be an apostle.

And that was part of his testimony. He shared that many times, like when he was writing to the Galatians, or even when Paul was writing to Timothy and saying, I was a persecutor of the church, and yet God showed his grace to me.

So this was always part of Paul's testimony. As to one untimely born, Jesus appeared to him, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. To the rest of the apostles, they knew him in his earthly ministry. But Paul was a persecutor of the church, unlike the rest of the apostles.

And Jesus appeared to him and called him by his grace. For now, we are introduced to this character, Saul, who is persecuting the church and throwing Christians in prison. Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death, in reference to Stephen, who was stoned to death at the end of chapter 7.

And we also had that mentioned there in chapter 7, where the cloaks of the people who were stoning Stephen, they laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. That was in verse 58. Saul is actually regarded as rather young here in this part of his life.

Could have been about 30 years old. I often picture Saul as being maybe about the same age as Jesus. And so when we get to like the 60s AD, when we get closer to Paul being martyred for proclaiming the gospel in the Roman Empire, I would imagine—this is speculative, of course, but this is the way that I imagine it—I imagine that if Jesus had still continued his earthly ministry after his resurrection and had gone throughout the Roman Empire, that it might have looked like the ministry of Paul.

And so Paul, being roughly the same age, is in his 60s when we get to the 60s AD. And then he's put to death because he's been sharing the gospel, much to the emperor's dismay. So here we have Saul mentioned, young man, he's helping with the persecution of the church.

Eventually he's going to lead this persecution. And it says there in verse 1, on that day, on the day that Stephen is killed, 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 everything we've read about the church thus far, all the way up through chapter 7, the church has only been in Jerusalem. This is where the apostles were after Jesus ascended into heaven. They go back into Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit comes upon them. They preach at Pentecost in chapter 2. Thousands of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ. We've been reading that. And Luke has been sure to log, like 3 ,000 people are converted here, 5 ,000 people are converted here.

So we've had many thousands that have been added to the church. Where do you get so many people in the church to gather in one spot and be able to hear the preaching? Well, we know this was going on in the temple and that temple courtyard was so large.

It was big enough that thousands of people could have been in there. And with Peter or the apostles standing in Solomon's portico, able to preach and project that message out so that it could be heard.

But after the persecution begins, starting with the death of Stephen, the Christians scatter from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions, trying to get away from the persecution. So the death of Stephen becomes the catalyst that now emboldens the opponents of the gospel to start persecuting the church.

They have been trying up to this point to silence the apostles anyway. We've seen that over and over again. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, those who are leaders in the synagogue and in the Sanhedrin, bringing them into court, telling them, threatening them, saying, don't speak in this name anymore.

They would go out preaching the gospel anyway. Then they would bring them back in and beat them. And that still wouldn't silence them. Now they've put one of them to death. And so it has emboldened the opponents against the gospel to now start pressing even more against these Christians.

This is working because it's scattered them. So let's round them up and and throw them in prison is what Paul is going to attempt.

To do.

Saul, to keep the distinction, I'll continue calling him Saul until the text starts calling him Paul. But anyway, verse two, some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. So Stephen is not just forgotten here after he's stoned to death.

And then that was kind of it for Stephen. But the church still greatly loves those people who have devoted themselves to ministry and to the preaching and teaching. And remember, Stephen and Philip are both deacons.

They are chosen for their service. But these are also men who are very gifted orators. We've seen that with the speech of Stephen in chapter seven. And even here in chapter eight, Philip going about and preaching the gospel.

So with regard to deacons, in order to be qualified to be a deacon, they have to meet those qualifications like are mentioned in First Timothy, chapter three. They don't have to be able to teach. But that doesn't mean that a deacon can't teach.

I've actually known several deacons in every church that I have been a pastor of, which is three. Now I'm in my third. So the first church I was pastor of in Kansas, the church that I was in in Texas and now here in Arizona, in every one of these churches, we've had deacons who were also capable teachers.

Now there were also deacons who were just servants and did not have a desire to want to teach. I've known deacons who had the ability. They just didn't have the desire to do it. They probably were pretty good at getting in front of a group of people or leading a Bible study or something like that.

But they just had no desire to be a person that would take on that teaching responsibility. And that's fine because First Timothy, chapter three, one says that one must desire the position of an overseer.

And if so, then he desires a noble task. So a person who desires that teaching position must first desire to teach, not just have the ability, but want to do it. And so if you've got somebody who has the gift, but they don't really feel that call to have to exercise that gift, that's okay.

And may be a servant to the church in other ways. So a deacon can be a teacher, but it's not required for a deacon to be a teacher. And here we have two of the greatest teachers in the history of the church.

In the very beginning of the church, as it was starting in Jerusalem and now going out into the surrounding regions, two of the greatest preachers in that early church were deacons. You have Stephen, which was the focus of chapter seven, and now Philip will be the focus of chapter eight.

And you can see how beloved Stephen was among the people with whom he served. Some devout men buried Stephen. They made loud lamentation over him. But as the apostle Paul says in first Thessalonians chapter four, we grieve for our loved ones in the Lord who pass away, but we don't grieve without hope.

We have hope in knowing that they are in the presence of God now and their bodies will be raised from the dead on the last day also. And so will all of us who are in Christ Jesus. We will be together in that eternal kingdom on the day of Christ.

So we continue on into verse three, but Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He was delivering them into prison. Now we never have a mention in Acts seven, eight or nine, or even when Paul is later recalling his testimony and talking about how he was a persecutor of the church.

We don't have mentions anywhere of Paul directly putting anybody to death. He does not raise his hand against anyone and kills anyone, but he was there at the stoning of Stephen, holding everybody's cloaks.

And chapter eight begins with him being in hearty agreement to put Stephen to death. Saul is zealous. He is zealous for what he believes to be the correct interpretation of the word of God so that he's putting Christians to death.

Those who are following after this Jesus, he believes with the rest of Stephen's accusers at the end of chapter six, that Christians are blaspheming God and the law of Moses, the writings of Moses. And so that was what Stephen was on trial for, and that's what he gets put to death for is because they believe that he's actually a blasphemer by calling Jesus the Christ and saying only by faith in him can you be forgiven your sins and have eternal life.

You are saved by faith. By the way, their reaction to Stephen further cements that blessed, wonderful doctrine of justification by faith alone. Because if Stephen was saying, you can believe in Jesus, but you also have to keep all these laws in order to be saved.

If he was saying that, that would not have stirred the crowd to anger the way that they were stirred to anger. I mean, they still would have been upset about him preaching Christ because it's like we don't know who this Jesus is.

And this Jesus claimed to be the son of God. So he was blaspheming. You need to stop platforming or elevating that guy and saying that people need to follow him. As long as these men were saying that you had to keep the law of Moses, then there, then the oppressors would not have been so angry.

But that's not what they were saying. They were saying salvation, the only way to inherit the kingdom of God is by faith in Jesus. You're keeping the law won't get you there. And you're keeping the law will not absolve you of the sins that you have already committed, those occasions in which you have broken the law, you're keeping the law doesn't undo that.

This is what the Christians are saying. You know, and you have all those religions today that will deny those that will claim to be Christian and they deny justification by faith alone. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the most prominent, but also Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses and many others that will claim to be Christian that will say that justification by faith alone is not how a person is saved, that they have to do, do, do.

They have to do all of these, all of these rules, all of these laws. They have to keep all these things in order to be saved. It's doo doo theology. You just do, do, do this and then you will be saved.

It's the same error that these men were committing who were persecuting Stephen and persecuting the church. They hated hearing that it's by faith in Jesus that you are forgiven your sins and you have eternal life.

And that's why they were accusing Stephen of blaspheming God and the law of Moses, because you're saying it's only by faith. Then what do we do with the law? Of course, Paul gives a great apologetic about that in the book of Romans.

We don't overthrow the law by this faith by no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. So now in Christ Jesus, we keep the law, but our keeping of the law is not what saves us. It is faith in Jesus Christ that saves us.

So being angry about that message, you have Saul going, ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He delivers them into prison. But because of this persecution happening, the Christians are scattered throughout the region and they are going about proclaiming the gospel.

Therefore, those who had been scattered went about proclaiming the good news of the word, it says in verse four. And Philip goes down to the city of Samaria and begins preaching Christ to them. That's where we will pick this up tomorrow as we continue our study of Acts chapter eight and being introduced a little bit more to this deacon named Philip.

Justification by Faith Alone and the Gospel of Grace

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and I pray that it just reminds us of that wonderful, blessed doctrine of justification by faith alone. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. This is what the church had been proclaiming from the very beginning.

It's really what the scriptures have always testified to. It's what Jesus taught. It's what his apostles proclaimed. It's what we truly understand to be salvation according to your word. And so may it be upon us to put our trust in Christ, to flee from sin, to walk in holiness.

But we do those things in light of the gospel that has been proclaimed to us, not because our doing them saves us, but because we are saved. We delight to live lives of holiness before our God and blessed King in this present.

Day.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus name we proclaim.

Amen.

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