Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00011B
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00:02 Welcome back to Books of the Book. Well, Mark, before the
00:05 break we were taking about the active role of the laity, the 00:10 church members, not the apostles in spreading the message of 00:14 Christ there in the book of Acts and we want to pick up in verse 00:18 five of Acts chapter 8. So here we find that there's a man 00:22 named Phillip. It says, then Phillip went down to the city 00:26 of Samaria and preached Christ to them. So this would not be an 00:30 apostle but a lay person. He was one of the seven but they 00:34 were lay people, just like our deacons today would be. And it 00:38 says that the multitudes with one accord, in verse 6, heeded 00:42 the things spoken by Phillip and it even talks about miracles and 00:46 miraculous things that Phillip was doing and the whole city 00:49 was stirred up by the work that was going done. Then it 00:52 describes how in the city there was a man named Simon who had 00:56 previously practiced sorcery in the city and everybody in the 01:00 city from the least to the greatest it says in verse 10 01:04 said this man is the great power of God. They were astonished by 01:08 the supernatural things that Simon the sorcerer was doing. 01:12 Yet when Phillip came and they heard his words they all 01:16 believed Phillip. They believed the gospel that he presented and 01:19 even Simon believed what Phillip was saying and all of them, 01:23 including Simon, were baptized. Now it gets interesting because 01:26 in verse 14 Peter and John the apostles who heard what was 01:32 going on in Samaria came down to Samaria and prayed that they 01:37 might receive the Holy Spirit, these believers there. And it 01:42 says in verse 16, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. 01:46 They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then 01:50 they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now it 01:53 is important to note that there are other times in the Bible 01:56 where they didn't lay hands on them and they received the Holy 01:59 Spirit and we'll get to that in a later program. But right here 02:02 I want to highlight what it says just after this because in verse 02:05 18 Simon seems excited about what has just happened with 02:09 the apostles laying their hands on these believers and they 02:13 received the Holy Spirit and Simon is starting to see 02:16 opportunity. Verse 18 says, And when Simon saw that through the 02:20 laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given he 02:24 offered them money, of all things, Saying give me this 02:28 power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy 02:33 Spirit. It's interesting to me that sometimes within the church 02:37 we have people who come from a business background or a 02:41 secular background and they come into the church and perhaps 02:43 think that things should operate the same way with the 02:48 same type of scenarios of promotion and everything else 02:52 that happened in their work place and it doesn't always work 02:56 that way. Simon was here making a little bit of a mistake in 02:59 thinking that he could buy the Holy Spirit; I should say a big 03:03 mistake. In verse 20 it says, But Peter said to him, your 03:07 money perish with you because that the gift of God could be 03:11 purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this 03:15 matter and, notice this part; for your heart is not right in 03:20 the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your 03:22 wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your 03:25 heart may be forgiven you for I see that you are poisoned by 03:28 bitterness and bound by iniquity Then Simon answered and said, 03:31 Pray to the Lord for me that none of the things of which you 03:35 have spoken may come upon me. It's not that Simon wasn't 03:40 wanting to be involved and wanting the Holy Spirit but he 03:44 was there for the wrong reasons. And sometimes the reason and 03:48 your intent makes all the difference. I know some people 03:52 they come to church and they see the fellowship there and all 03:57 the wonderful people and they get to know certain people and 04:01 you know perhaps they were in an environment where they didn't 04:04 have that and like wow I really want this. I want to be a member 04:07 of the church. I want to be baptized. Well that's a 04:11 wonderful thing to want to be baptized but ultimately that's 04:15 not the reason to be baptized. And there are others who say 04:19 you know what wow there's a nice looking young lady here at this 04:23 church. You know I'd like to spend some time and I think if 04:26 I'm going to have any chance with her I'm going to have to 04:30 become a member myself. So I need to study and... So there 04:34 are lots of different reasons why people might get into 04:37 religious faith and we need to recognized that the power of the 04:43 gospel and the benefits of the church can only really come when 04:48 the cost and the commitment accompany them. So you really 04:53 need commitment to understand the cost of discipleship in 04:58 order to really be able to benefit from the gospel. There 05:02 is no splitting of the two. We need to recognize that there is 05:06 a cost and there is a commitment and there is no free 05:11 gifts from the church that really will bring peace into the 05:15 soul. That's right and Peter 05:16 understood that and it's important I think as you've 05:19 mentioned that that we will find people and sometimes we 05:22 ourselves don't realize our own intentions toward certain things 05:26 and there will be those who want to be joined to the church 05:29 without necessarily wanting to be joined to Christ and humanly 05:32 sometimes we just feel like well I'm just glad they want to be 05:35 around us and maybe by osmosis they're going to get this 05:38 Christianity thing and we don't want to say anything. But Peter 05:42 was very clear with Simon that you have wrong motive and it may 05:45 sound a little bit harsh if we look at that. Peter, why weren't 05:48 you more accepting and love him into the church but Peter knew 05:51 that he'd never come into the church unless somebody pointed 05:54 out that he needed a different motive. When that was pointed 05:58 out Simon himself said pray for me and sought, perhaps, that 06:02 different direction. Now we see as this continues on in the book 06:07 of Acts chapter 8, verse 26 tells us that Phillip moved on 06:10 in his ministry. In fact, the Lord moved him on. It says, An 06:14 angel of the Lord spoke to Phillip saying arise and go 06:17 toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem 06:22 to Gaza, this is desert. So he arose and went and behold a man 06:27 of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the 06:30 queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all her treasury and 06:34 had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning and sitting in 06:37 his chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet and the 06:40 Spirit said to Phillip, Go near and overtake the chariot. Now 06:43 this whole account, I'm not taking time to read through all 06:46 of it is probably one of the most well-known stories in the 06:50 New Testament of baptism and here is Phillip, again this lay 06:54 person, who the Lord comes to and tells him I want you to go 06:58 and intercept this Ethiopian. Why? Because the Lord knew that 07:02 that Ethiopian eunuch was seeking truth. It's interesting 07:06 to me, Jim, how we see this. For example, Ananias was sent 07:09 to Saul and God told him the specific place to go. Here we 07:13 have the Lord seeing where this seeker is and connecting him 07:19 with somebody in the church. It says, it tells him to go near 07:24 and overtake his chariot. As he comes near the man is reading 07:29 and so the Lord tells Phillip to go and Phillip goes. He just 07:32 does what God tells him to do and when he went without fully 07:36 knowing what to expect when he got there, the Lord provided the 07:40 opportunity. I think there are times he directs us to go and if 07:44 we would just have the faith to go where he says, he would open 07:47 up the opportunities. Yeah and I think that's a key 07:50 point. As we pick up the account in verse 30 it says, Phillip ran 07:54 to him, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you 07:58 understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I unless 08:02 someone guides me? And he asked Phillip to come up and sit with 08:06 him and the place in the scripture which he read was this 08:10 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before 08:13 its shearer is silent so he opened not his mouth. In his 08:17 humiliation his justice was taken away and who would declare 08:21 his generation for his life is taken from the earth. So the 08:24 eunuch answered Phillip and said I ask you of whom does the 08:28 prophet say this, of himself or of some other man? And so 08:33 began this beautiful Bible study that ultimately Phillip was 08:37 enabled to give. I find it very interesting that when Phillip 08:42 came up to the eunuch and heard him reading from Isaiah he said 08:47 Do you understand what you are reading? He actually probed a 08:51 little bit, he probed a little bit and sometimes we're afraid 08:55 to do that. We think well people are going to learn on their own 08:58 and we just need to give them space to do that and there's 09:01 truth to that. Certainly the Lord was working on the heart 09:05 of this eunuch before Phillip came around, but at the same 09:08 time it makes me think of when I experienced my own conversion. 09:16 Because I was 22 years old. That was a while back and I remember 09:23 I was in the basement of my parents' home and I hadn't read 09:28 my Bible since I was a little boy and probably curiosity got 09:33 a hold of me and I read my Bible and I experienced a conversion 09:37 just from spending a few weeks reading my Bible and it just 09:40 gripped me right from the start and you know what? I never had 09:44 someone come and share anything with me, I never had an 09:46 evangelist come, I didn't have a big meeting that drew me. I just 09:50 read my Bible and the Lord converted my soul. It tells me 09:52 that there's power in the word and the Lord will work on us 09:55 individually. But having said that, when I became connected 09:59 to the church I needed the writings of others and teachings 10:04 of others and guidance. There was so much that I was blessed 10:08 by and benefitted by eventually through that Church experience. 10:12 So even though works on us individually, 10:15 He sends His people to share. 10:17 What if Phillip had not asked. Sometimes I wonder 10:20 you know. There may be many people who come to visit our 10:23 churches who we run into and different experiences in work or 10:27 family who we see there might be an interest but we just are 10:32 friendly but we don't ask, would you be open to studying the 10:36 Bible together? You know there would be so many opportunities. 10:40 Sometimes I think there's a good reason why we don't have 10:43 opportunities to share the Bible with people. And that's simply 10:46 that we don't ask them. Right here we see Phillip asking. 10:50 And the eunuch is open. You see the humility that he has. 10:55 How can I unless someone guides me and then Phillip begins to 11:00 express in this scripture that this is a Messianic passage. 11:04 It's speaking of the Messiah. You can see that that's a key 11:07 that has begun to unlock the early apostles because the way 11:12 that the Messiah is spoken of in these different passages and 11:17 they're now able to share because of what Jesus shared 11:20 with them just how powerfully these were fulfilled in the life 11:23 of Christ. That's right. So we find then as 11:26 he preaches Christ that the Ethiopian eunuch wants to be 11:30 baptized and he says here's water now what hinders me from 11:34 being baptized and Phillip says that if you believe with all 11:37 your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you may be 11:41 baptized. So he gets down then and there and baptizes him. 11:45 You know sometimes that creates a question from people. It seems 11:49 that we take more extensive time to prepare people for baptism 11:54 but we have to remember that this eunuch had come to 11:57 Jerusalem to worship it says in verse 27. He had a working 12:00 knowledge of the Lord. It also tells us in verse 12 that 12:03 Phillip is baptizing people who believed concerning the kingdom 12:06 of God and the name of Jesus. Not just the name of Jesus. 12:09 In other words there were teachings associated with the 12:13 kingdom of God that Phillip was teaching and when the Ethiopian 12:18 eunuch received those he was baptized. It's important for us 12:21 to have an intelligent knowledge of what we're committing to and 12:25 when we do the Lord opens the way for that baptism. 12:29 Absolutely. You look at verse 39 and the chapter concludes. 12:32 It says, Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of 12:35 of the Lord caught Phillip away so that the eunuch saw him no 12:39 more. In verse 40 it says, Phillip was found in Azotas and 12:42 passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to 12:46 Caesarea. So Phillip, this lay person is active. He's moving 12:50 again to share his faith. Would to God that all of us would have 12:54 that same spirit of sharing our faith with others. 12:56 We'll see you next time on Books of the Book |
Revised 2014-12-17