All right, we're in the 8th chapter
of the book of Acts. And we started last week, according
to our outline, the tribulation of the saints is the basic challenge
that we are confronted with in chapter 8. It opens up a very
pivotal transition from the blessed ministry of the apostles in Jerusalem
to now a persecution breaking out upon the death of Stephen
I told you last week that chapter 8 is really about Saul of Tarsus. That's why we have the subtitle
Saul, Philip, and then what? Saul. So Saul is really where
the Spirit of God and where Luke wants us to go in our study. But between the Saul of Acts
chapter 8 verse 1, which says, Saul was consenting unto his
death the his here is whom Stephan and Saul was consenting unto
his death and at that time there was great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem they were all scattered abroad
throughout the region of Judea Samaria except the Apostles and
then verse 3 says and as for Saul so Luke is really setting
up the primary subject of our consideration for the next several
chapters. And as for Saul, he made havoc
of the church, entering into every house, hailing men and
women, and committed them to prison. So Luke opens up with
Saul on the attack and the assault against the church. And this
is why we opened up with our first point, Saul, a symbol of
whom? Satan, Saul, a symbol of Satan. And we work through the implications
of that statement, recognizing that when you are part of the
church of the living God, and you have an adversary, that adversary
is serving as an emissary of the devil, because the goal of
the devil is to destroy God's work. And God's exclusive and
primary work in the world is the church. So Saul, interestingly
enough, is featured here having first consented to the death
of Stephan, which means he is a co-conspirator to the martyrdom
of the first New Testament saint. And then we see him in verse
three, wreaking havoc. The word there is an old English
term, which means to destroy, to destroy, doing everything
he possibly could to dismantle the movement of the local gospel
church in Jerusalem. He was, if you will, hell-bent
on destroying the church. Look how bad it was. He was entering
into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them
to prison. This is the way Luke opens up
chapter 8, giving to us the first subject If you will go over to
chapter 9 verse 1, I want to show you something briefly before
we go back and deal with our second subject, which is Philip. That will be the large portion
of our consideration tonight. So now notice what it says in
chapter 9 verse 1. Are you there? And Saul, yet
breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples
of the Lord, went unto the high priest. Do you see that? So you
have these two bookends. Saul consenting to the death
of Stephan, Saul wreaking havoc on the church, and Saul yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughters. All this while you and I now
are going to pay attention to a lengthy discourse about brother
Philip. So understand that in the backdrop
is a man that's seeking to destroy God's church and his name is
Saul. So if you have your outline,
remember point one points A, B, and C. He was an enemy. He
was a destroyer, right? He also was a what? Blasphemer. He also was indicative of a means
or a tool of scattering the people of God. Is that true? And didn't
we learn last week in Luke 11, 23, Jesus says, he that does
not gather with me does what? Scatters. It becomes another
principle of self-examination on our part it basically underscores
this reality that we don't live in a vacuum and neither are we
neutral when it comes to God's Church we don't live in a vacuum
and neither are we neutral meaning we are either on the Lord's side
or we are not and if we're not on the Lord's side our life counts
for something because we're not on God's side we are therefore
on the enemy side now that is a very difficult proposition
to have to hold intention with the the positive message of the
gospel but it must be asserted that when you and I are meeting
with acquaintances and having friends and relatives even close
acquaintances if they do not know the Lord if they do not
love and serve the Lord Ultimately, their worldview and their life
stands as an obstacle to the will of God. That's Luke 11,
23, by the way, just in case you don't know, there is no middle
ground. Remember the Old Testament taught, why haunt ye between
two opinions? This is when God was speaking
to Israel through Elijah, another wonderful account where God holds
them accountable for idolatry and paganism that was ranked
at that time, syncretism, and a real compromise on the part
of the gospel. He said, why are you halting
between two opinions? If Jehovah be Lord, then do what?
Serve him. And if not, serve these other
pagan gods. So the real challenge is to understand
that when we are not part of this positive, progressive movement,
progressive in the biblical sense movement of God as he's accomplishing
his work of redemption around the world, we are an obstacle
to it. We can be an obstacle to the kingdom of God just by
our worldview. And the next thing we know, we
are developing a kind of angst and indifference And maybe it
may even develop into a small antagonistic agenda against a
loved one that we know is a Christian, and we are finding ways to stop
them from progressing in the faith. It can be opposition to
a spouse. It can be opposition to a peer
or a sibling. Every time you think about them,
you think about their forward, optimistic, assertive, open love
for Christ and desire for Christ to be exalted in the lives of
men and women, you find this desire to push back against it.
And then you look for opportunities for conflict. At that point,
you are an adversary of the devil. This is what the Bible is clearly
saying. And principally, you and I, if we're in that position,
we're no different than Saul. This is why our Lord, when he
was teaching the doctrine of sin, he would say things like
this. If a man is angry with his brother in his heart, he
has committed murder already. Because the root of anger or
murder rather is anger. So a person can't a person ought
not to assume that because they haven't laid hands on a Christian
and thrown them into prison or put them in a position where
they have lost their job or had their wealth taken from them
that because they're merely contemplating in their mind hostile thoughts
that they are better than Saul. They're no different principally.
Didn't we learn last week it's only the grace of God that keeps
us from doing any wrong any more than Hitler, Mussolini, you know,
Jeffrey Dahmer, anyone else. It's only the grace of God. And
so we thank God for his grace of restraining, but we need God
to continually renew our mind so that we are more disposed
to do the will of God because there's no neutral ground. And so we saw also that not only
was he part of the scattering work, which God uses, we saw
that the apostles maintained their stay in Jerusalem under
that assault and attack. Look again at verse 2 of chapter
8, or verse 1 rather, the latter part. The church which was at
Jerusalem, they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions
of Judea and Samaria, except whom? Except the apostles. And we mark that because it was
noteworthy to mark, wasn't it? Here's a persecution that breaks
out. Here's an assault that takes place, a systematic Assault inquiry
imprisonment on the part of the government Religious or otherwise
where Christians are now being taken they're being targeted
marked out and taken from their homes And here you are in the
same city where this is occurring. You have the option of leaving
or staying Why would you stay? The only reason you would stay
is because you felt that there was some noble cause by which
your staying would advance the cause of God or the gospel or
the people of God, because that's a noble thing. Why would you
leave? You would only leave because
you saw no real basis for staying to advance a noble cause, to
help the saints, to preserve them, to watch over them, or
whatever the case may be. Or you may leave because you
are a coward and you don't want to suffer for Christ's sake,
right? It was kind of the three options you stay because there's
some virtue in it you leave because there's no virtue in it You leave
because you're trying to save your own skin the Apostles stayed
because they had learned their lesson remember The Apostles
had learned the lesson that I just stated a little earlier that
if it weren't for the grace of God there go I So it's so very
important for Christians to know that that we're no better than
anyone else by nature and that the distinguishing factor by
which I might maintain my integrity and do what God has called me
to do is only the grace of God. That's not like a pious platitude.
That's a theologically rich and necessary God glorifying position
I must take. I must not take credit for being
any better than anyone else because the truth is I'm not. And so
because I am graced to do something that God has called me to do,
which sets me apart, it does not do so with the objective
of me feeling as if intrinsically I am better than others. I'm
simply at this point being used of God. But what God would do
for you and me before he puts us in a position to use us is
he will let us fall so that we can know that we can fall. And
so he let the apostles fall. before he gave them their apostleship.
Remember that? He let them fall grievously so
that they might know that they are not standing on their own
strength. So when the shepherd was smitten, the sheep what?
And they remember all of that ignominious, shameful, cowardly,
inwardly trepidatious attitude they had toward the little girl
who exposed Peter for being a Galilean and how the rest of the disciples
were up in the upper room, trembling, afraid that the high priests
were coming after them. Cowardice is in all of our hearts,
apart from grace. Cowardiceness and yet they're
staying here this time. Why because God had given them
grace to become true shepherds That's what we're about to get
into actually tonight as we move from Saul to whom Philip Philip
will now be the He will now be the in the individual with whom
we will now be contemplating this this great grace of that's
taking place in the life of the church, at least at this moment.
Philip will become our topic of discussion. Philip, as you
have it in your outline, is what we will call a what? Super deacon. I love it. Philip, the super
deacon. There's a number of things to
mark with that. So for the moment, we're gonna
bracket Paul, or Saul rather, and leave him alone, okay? And
if we do that and we actually start focusing on Philip, Philip
becomes for us in the narrative, what? He becomes a parenthetical,
doesn't he? Like if we were to take the whole
story and account of Philip out of the text, the story would
continue to run seamlessly with the person of Saul attacking
the church and wreaking havoc on the church and destroying
the church until he meets the Lord of the church. So a parenthetical
is a statement or commentary that's inserted in the midst
of a previous narrative. That narrative is not really
broken, it's just interrupted shortly. You guys get the picture? We're in a parenthetical now.
A parenthetical. Because this is something God
wants us to see. We saw in verse four, therefore
they that were scattered abroad went everywhere doing what? They
went everywhere preaching the gospel. We're so thankful for
that. In other words, the persecution that drove them out, the persecution
that drove the church out, drove them out from their location,
but it did not drive them out from their mindset to do the
will of God. And what we learned with that
is that they were really fixed on this ministry called preaching.
So they saw this scattering as a door. Do you guys have your
outline in front of you? In your outline, we have under
point number three, persecution is a catalyst to what? Hallelujah. So last week we talked
about the spirit of faith. In 2 Corinthians chapter four,
around verse 14, the apostle Paul said, we all having the
spirit of faith, that is as it is written, because we believe,
therefore we what? Speak. Because we believe therefore
we speak look at it again chapter 4 of 2nd Corinthians And then
let's just kind of note that before we go on. Why would a
person? Preach the gospel in the context
of a situation that could be harmful for them for three reasons
one of which is the spirit of faith in 2nd Corinthians chapter
4 verse Verse 9, notice what it says. Persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Christ might be made
manifest in our body. You guys see verse 9 and 10?
This is what we call the tension, right? Persecuted, not forsaken. Cast down, not destroyed. That's
a perspective, isn't it? Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we call mortification,
right? It's a crystal-centric or cross-centered theology where
we embrace suffering. Watch. That the life also of
Christ might be made manifest in our body. Verse 10 becomes
an axiom. Verse 10 becomes an axiom. Think
about it for a moment. Can I talk about that for just
a second? Here's a principle. I think virtually every time
you and I have to share the gospel with somebody, with someone,
but nine times out of 10, there is a necessary mortification
of our carnal nature, our fallen nature as a prerequisite to that
grace. That there's something about
our fallen nature that does not naturally want us to talk about
Christ. that in order for me to actually
broach the subject in a context with people who are not believers,
and the topic has not opened the door for me to actually talk
about Christ, in order for me to enter into a dialogue with
somebody about Jesus, I must die. Am I making some sense,
brother? because there's a natural aversion
on our nature that says you're going to be mocked, you're going
to be ridiculed, at least you're going to be kindly rejected,
you're going to be put off, you're going to be dissed, you might
even be beat up. All of those possibilities are
there because mankind by nature does not like the truth. So what has to occur for me to
be able to break through that natural sense of self-preservation?
I've got to embrace a cross theology that says for me to live is Christ. But what is Christ? He's Christ
crucified. He's Christ crucified. Paul gave
us the axiom in Galatians chapter 220. I have been crucified with
Christ. Aries says, I have been. This
is a past fact. It's a reality at present. I
have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I what? There's
your paradox. So what he operated on was the
principle that a cross-centered theology gives him the grounds
to do something for the glory of God that might get him killed.
But he's already reconciled that under this concept. I'm already
crucified. What can you do to a dead man?
Do you understand the point? I have been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. If we're doing an exegetical
on that passage, it would be a profound revelation of the
essential nature of the cross producing in the Christian the
life of Christ by which he does the will of God flowing from
the reality that he's dead with Christ. Because you can't harm
a dead person when they know they're dead. and the life of
Christ operating through them to share the gospel with men
and women already anticipating I could die for this message,
but that's okay. I'm already dead. You can't do
anything with me, but usher me into my blessing. This is profound
because if I know that I'm already dead by faith, this is the spirit
of faith we're going to be talking about here in a moment. If I
know that I'm already dead with Christ and that my Life of ministry
and the word of God to others is Christ in me, the hope of
glory. If I really believe that kind of spiritual union where,
and I've, I've experienced the power of it where, where Christ
gives me the grace to open my mouth and I eloquently declare
the word of God. And I know it's him, not me.
Cause I can't put two sentences together without the grace of
God. I'm a bumbling idiot when it comes to talking. You understand
what I'm getting at? So then I know it's Christ in
me sharing the gospel, but I have the potential prospect of dying
for the gospel. What then is my reward? Glory. Glory. What then is my motive? Love. Love for whom? Love for Christ and love for
that sinner. So I'm going to share a message
with that sinner that I know might get me killed, but I'm
doing it because I love Christ And I'm doing it because I love
the center. These are one of the principles we learn in evangelism
class You cannot be effective at evangelism if you don't love
people You cannot reach people with the gospel if you do not
love them it requires love for people to share with people the
medicine of biblical truth and So here's what the Apostle says
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Following because our verse is verse 13
for we which live always are delivered unto death. He's explaining
in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 4, his basic experience is a
constant dying for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death works in
us, but life in you. Man, you know what we call that?
Being a servant, that's a doulos. Verse 13, we having the same
spirit, pneuma, of what? Faith. according as it is written,
I believed and therefore I have spoken. Paul gives us the point
of passage in the Old Testament. Watch this. We also believe and
therefore we what? The reason why people do not
speak for Christ is because they do not believe and because they
do not have the spirit of faith. I'll let you guys work with that.
Notice in our outline, persecution becomes a catalyst to the preaching.
The spirit of faith is the motivation to share the gospel everywhere
they go and then the open door Remember that the open door now
go to first Corinthians chapter 16 verse 8 9 because now I'm
going to talk to you about another perspective critical to evangelism
What I'm sharing with you tonight is really important it's really
important because All of us who profess to be believers in Christ
are called to a character disposition of witnessing and evangelism,
all of us, without exception. Remember what I said, either
you're for me or you're against me. And we live in the world and
we engage with people and situations pop up every day, don't they?
And truth be told, if we were aware of and cognizant of our
mission, an opportunity to share the gospel might actually occur
every day. But if I'm not locked, loaded
and ready to bear, it won't happen. I'm telling the truth. So now
watch this, however, because the apostle now is going to explain
to us something about the mindset of an evangelist, which is nothing
but a full grown Christian. Write that down if you haven't
gotten it. Those of you who don't don't listen to me consistently,
write this down. Evangelist is not some special
person that holds tip meetings sawdust trails, you know with
a pipe organ in the back You know getting people to come to
the mourners bitch. No an evangelist is simply a mature Christian
That's all an evangelist is He's a mature Christian We're learning
some Greek terms in the Bible. You ain't your loss the gospel
you angle odd So the gospel you to to evangelize us to preach
the gospel the men are the women who is a Christian simply looks
for an opportunity to share the gospel. We're called gospelers. That's all an evangelist is,
right? And so that's just, that's what
a Christian is. He's a full grown evangelist. And so the text tells us in 1
Corinthians chapter 16, verse eight and nine, these words,
the apostle Paul speaking to the church at Corinth, I will
tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. Why? Because a great door and
effectual has been opened unto me. Isn't that crazy? Listen
to what the apostle said I'm staying here until pentecost
and then i'll see you corinthians a little later on down the line
Why are you staying there paul because a great door has been
opened See in his mind. He saw every 24 hours as a door A door being access, a door being
opportunity, a door being an occasion, a door being an entry
into a particular dimension by which he now can exercise the
spirit of faith. And he says, a great door has
been opened unto me and effectual. Here's what he says. And there
are many what? His attention. Watch this. He says, the door is open. I'm
going through that door. But there are many what? See,
that's the part we don't like. I don't mind going through the
door, but I don't want adversaries. Well, what I said a little earlier
was this. Christianity is such that it's designed to actually
deal with the reality that there will be adversaries. If you go
through any door to share the gospel, having a sense that God
is in that, that he has set that appointment, that he has May
that occasion come about. We'll see that in a little bit
as we move into the ministry with Philip. If God opens any
door for you to go into it, to share the gospel with the possibility
of someone being let out of prison, do you remotely think that the
enemy is going to just let you do it? Walk up into his camp,
his prison, unlock the gate and bring sinners out without giving
you hell? If he hears about it even before
you move If he hears about it even before you take one step
towards that mission if he hears about it He will swirl around
you with a host of demons And start dealing with your head
in such a way as to leave you paralyzed Both feet will be stuck
in cement I'm telling the truth I'm telling the truth. If the
enemy has his way, all you will do is sit there with your engine
revving in neutral, making a bunch of noise going
nowhere because he doesn't care about how much noise you make
as long as you don't make an advancement into his kingdom.
I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth. This is
why it's so hard to share the gospel. This is why we have lost
so much ground in the present evangelical church. Cause we
just don't have that disposition of faith to share the word of
God with people because we are concerned about the adversity.
Am I making some sense? The last one then is the obedience
of faith. We, we, um, we use that principle
all the time. The obedience of faith is given
to us in several verses. but one is Romans 16 verse 26,
where the apostle Paul said, he has been called to preach
the gospel to all the nations by the commandment of God for
the obedience of the faith. Meaning men and women are called
to obey the gospel, but in order for them to obey the gospel,
they must hear the call. Now the call is the gospel call.
Now, if they're going to hear the gospel call, you and I must
obey Christ and sharing the gospel that they might hear the gospel
call and then obey the gospel too. You guys got that? Which
means the obedience of faith is the fact that you and I now
are going to go into all the world and do what? That's right. That's Acts 1.8. So Acts 1.8
is actually being fulfilled in Acts 8.2. Go back to Acts 8.2
because we're getting ready to go to Philip now. So Acts What
a Terry here until you be endowed with power from on high so shall
you be my witnesses and And and so stay in Jerusalem because
you need to be bear record of my glory in Jerusalem in Judea
in Samaria and then where the uttermost parts of the world
So what we also saw last week, which is moving us into our text
is this That the scattering that took place in Acts chapter 8
verse 1 was not a helter-skelter scattering I'm getting ready
to show you this as we're getting ready to get into Peter But I
just need to lay these principles down Do you believe that when
you are the object of God's grace and mercy in Christ and you become
consciously aware of? His having laid his hand upon
you in the new birth in conversion so that you are actually practicing
as a believer That nothing in your life is outside of the scope
of his will and purpose for you. Do you believe that? I know you
believe that theologically. I know theologically you embrace
the idea that God is sovereign, God's in control, all things
are working after the counsel of his will, right? His own will,
Ephesians chapter one, seven through nine. You also believe
all things work together for good, right? To them that love
God. You believe that, right? You believe it right now while
you're sitting on comfortable chairs in a push auditorium with
air conditioned on and no adversity. Cause you don't act like that
when all hell breaks out. So I just need one witness in
the house. Remember honest people not going to hell See, you know what Christian
folk trip me out they really do because we'll quote these
verses We do not Practically believe Romans 8 28 Because otherwise
we would not be complaining as much as we do We complain way
too much Our eyes are blinded by self-preservation. We don't
even see the door of faith opening when God puts us in trouble.
Half the trouble that we are in is nothing but a doorknob.
Isn't that good? Half the trouble we are in is
nothing but a doorknob. Open the door. Take a look and
see with God's eyes what's in front of you. There's very seldom
are you going to be in a troubled situation where God is not sanctifying
you. I think you know that too by
now because God hasn't let us go. but he's sanctifying you
in order to use you. So why don't you try this at
least over the summer for me? Just try this for pastor, okay?
Just try this for pastor over the summer. Just one, just one
time. When the trouble comes, ask God
to help you put on his lizards and see the trouble as a doorknob. And then give me grace, oh God,
to open the door and see what's behind that door. Okay, just
once this summer. Get back with me, will you? Get
back with me on that. I want to see what God showed
you. I want to see what God showed you. Because if you'll notice,
though they were scattered abroad, notice what the text says in
8-1 again. They were scattered abroad throughout the regions
of what? Judea. And then what? That was an orderly
progression from Jerusalem according to the command in Acts 1-8. They didn't leave Jerusalem and
go to Africa. They didn't leave Jerusalem and
go to Persia. They didn't leave Jerusalem and
go to India. They didn't leave Jerusalem and go to Italy. They
went from Jerusalem right next door. They left Hayward and went
to Oakland. You get that? They left Hayward
and went to San Mateo. They went from San Mateo to San
Jose. So, you know, what the gospel
is doing is reverberating out right there where the people
are, because God has a purpose. He loves the Sumerians. This
is the next one. This is what we're going to get
into. He loves the Sumerians. Look at it. And as they move
from Judea to Sumeria, the Apostle state, we read now verse five.
Here we go. Let's get ready to deal with
us some super deacons. Philip and Stephen were the two
brothers that made me wanna be a deacon. You know how when you
read your Bible, you're 18, 19 years old, God saved you. Some
of us were young when God saved us. And of course, at least every
man, maybe some women too, but virtually every man wanna be
a preacher when you get saved. Tell the truth now. Every man
wanna be a preacher. That's right. Open your mouth
for Christ. But it never dawns on you to
be a deacon. You don't get saved, Lord, I
wanna be a deacon. Because we have such twisted
notions about deaconship because of the bad taste in our mouth
growing up in church, right? Remember, most of our deacons
in church are kind of lazy, not doing anything, kind of mean,
especially the old one, mean as goats. I mean, it's because
we love them, but I mean, they're just kind of in the way, particularly
with young people. You know, when you're a young
teenager or even a preteen and you're in church and you're not,
our young people kind of play around. They look around for
the deacon. The deacon is always right there breathing on them
with that bad breath. I am Rahi. I am Rahi. We love
our deacons. Don't get me wrong. We love our
deacons. But as I was growing in the word of God, 18, 19, 20,
21, and I made my way through the book of Acts, I was stupefied
by Stephan. I was blown away. I said, man,
he's a deacon. My goodness, you mean deacons
can do more than, you know, visit You know, sick people, see now,
again, when you're 18, 19 years old, that does not jazz you. The idea of going to visit sick
people. I'm just telling you, you know.
And then I come to find out this man is theologically rich, full
of the Spirit of God, and driven by a passion to preach. He is
actually doing what he is passionately driven to do. while at the same
time holding his office as a deacon. So you have to understand, I
taught our guys this years ago as we worked through the offices
of the church, to have the gift of preaching and teaching does
not mean you're qualified to be an office bearer. Like some
people are gifted to communicate the word of God effectively,
but their lives do not match up to meet the qualifications
to either be a deacon or an elder or a pastor, because those qualifications
are critical. So we make a distinction between
the gift of teaching and the office of deacon and elder. But how wonderful it is when
your deacons and elders have the spirit of Stephan and the
spirit of Philip, whom we are now going to enjoy. This made
me enter into the deaconship early in my ministry Because
I wanted to be the kind of deacon that not only served, because
remember, we already learned that the greatest deacon in the
world is whom? The Son of Man came not to be
ministered to, but to what? And when you look that term up,
you'll find that he was the great deacon of the church. How did
he teach us that? Right before he laid down his
life with his disciples in the upper room, what did he do? He
took off his clothes. put on a towel, took a basin
of water, and he what? Served them. He served them. He says, in the manner in which
I am doing it, you also must do. And so that humility was
forged in my mind of taking that office because of Stephan and
because of Philip. That tells us also, children
of God, that an office can be adorned by character. Can it? An office can be Coveted
because of character an office can be made to be long for because
of the character of a person in there, right? conversely an
office can be looked upon infamously and Scandalously and nobody wants
it if those who hold the office do not adorn the office and so
we're gonna look at another brother who I believe adorned the office
at the time in which the church was being persecuted and At the
time which they were being scattered abroad, they had gone from Jerusalem
to Judea, and some of them had moved towards Samaria. The text
says, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria. See verse
5? Now watch this. Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria, and he went down to the city of Samaria and
did what? Preached Christ unto them. So
he was very missional, wasn't he? Philip was missional. He accepted the movement out. He didn't stay with the apostles.
We don't know what that all entail, what kind of conversations the
people had with the apostles. We don't know what kind of dialogue
strategies were engaged in. We don't know. We don't know
what the apostles said to the church when they said, hey, you
guys go. Listen, it's nothing wrong for you to go. The master
already told us if they persecute you in one city, flee to the
next. Didn't he say that? So they were
not being disobedient. So how the, how the apostles
in the church negotiated the apostle stain and the church
scattering, we don't quite know. What we do know is that because
they had the spirit of faith, because they believe the gospel
and because they had a disposition to preach, this for them was
a door to preach. And it certainly was. And so
now our brother Philip, the other super deacon is before us to
help us comprehend some wonderful truths. In your outline, I have
an expanded outline. It was supposed to be a PowerPoint.
Oh, here it is. Good. This is a PowerPoint. It's
not in your outline, but you can follow the notes because
this will help you grasp my survey of these verses around Philip. The text says, then Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ unto them. Look at verse six. And the people
with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Look at verse seven. For unclean spirits crying with
loud voices came out of many that were possessed with them
and many taken with Palsy and that were lame were healed. And
there was great joy in that city. What do we conclude? God loved
Samaria. God loved Samaria. This is amazing. How does God show His love to
humanity? By sending a gospel preacher.
How does God show His love to sinners? By sending Christ to
them in the preaching of the gospel. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever... What? How
are you gonna believe on Him if you don't hear Him? How are
you gonna hear Him without a what? How's he gonna preach unless
he be what? See the text. That's why I say God loved Samaria. Now, I could ferret that out,
I could tease that out by the Old Testament historical account
of the conflict that went on during the times of the apostasy
of the ten northern tribes. back in second Kings, uh, about
700 BC where, uh, uh, the 10 Northern tribes was scattered
abroad. And then some were left in the city of Samaria and some
of the pagan gods of, of Syria had come in and pagan rulers.
And there was this syncretism among the people where we are
told in second, uh, Kings around chapter 23 or so that they worshiped
half worshiped. They have worshiped Jehovah and
they have worshiped the pagan gods of the land. I don't want
to digress, but that's what we call syncretism. That's the idea
that somehow you can conflate a biblical worldview with a secular
worldview and somehow harmonize those two systems. This is part
of the demise of the church today. But the Samaritans were considered
pagans. They were considered ignorant
folks. They were considered Definitely less than Jews, even though they
did have some bloodline to the lineage of Abraham through Jacob. They were actually Jews, but
they had such a mangled theology that was a hybrid of paganism
and Judaism that, for all intents and purposes, the Jews had no
dealings with the Samaritans. Remember that? So we won't go
into that too far. Even though the Jews didn't have
any dealings with the Samaritans, Christ did. This is what I love
about the gospel. I love the scandalous nature
of the gospel. I do. I do. I know it's part
of my corrupt nature. I know because I grew up as a
thug. I know that. I understand that. But I just
love the idea. See, listen, the nature of the
gospel is this. Everyone will reject you. But
Christ will not reject you. That's and actually the real
sinner has to get that The real sinner has to get when the world
rejects you it does not mean that Christ has rejected you
And in fact the way the gospel works as a rule again as a mo
Those things that are set at naught. That's what the word
means to reject God highly esteems That's right. The gospel is a
sinner's gospel It's for sinners. And part of the problem of the
church is that we have stopped actually utilizing the gospel
in that way. We make the gospel a church gospel. We make the gospel a civil gospel. We make the gospel a reasonable
gospel. We water down the gospel and
make the gospel palatable to human beings. So we make it a
humanistic gospel. So, and what we do with our gospel
today is we basically say that as a human being, the worth and
dignity and royalty that you possess makes you compatible
for the love of God in Christ. We basically shape the gospel
to affirm our humanism and to deify it, or at least enhance
it. This is true. But that's the wrong door to
enter into with the human being. in your proposition of the gospel.
Now, you know where I'm going, don't you? I'll tell you, the
word that I'm about to use is out of date today. It doesn't
work in most theological circles, but it's essential to an accurate
presentation of the gospel. The gospel is not for human beings.
It's just not for human beings. The gospel is for sinners. Did you get that? The gospel
is for sinners. It's a sinner's gospel. That's
right. It's a sinner's gospel. And a
lot of times we want to try to make synonymous the concept of
being a human with a sinner, but the reality is everyone will
own their humanness, but not everyone is owning their sinnership.
That's the real battle. And again, in evangelism class,
one of the things I had to teach us is that you got to understand
where people's worldviews are coming from. If you don't understand
people's worldviews and their basic presuppositions about life,
how they view the world, how they view themselves, you will
be talking apples and oranges with them and never know it.
And why your gospel doesn't stick as plaster on the wall with them
is because your assumption is they know that they're sinners
when in fact they have long, long ago erased the concept of
sinner from even being plausible. Now the gospel can have no effect
because there's no plausibility in their reference point to them
actually being a sinner, having offended a holy God and having
committed travesty against the justice of God by the very breath
that they breathe. Am I making some sense? So what
I love about the Samaritan account that we're getting ready to deal
with for the next 30 minutes is that the gospel is going to
them as the saints are being persecuted by the enemy under
the supervision of an absolutely impeccably sovereign God. Yes,
now all things are working together for good, and everything is now
working after the counsel of his own will. So the devil is
God's servant to push God's people out, to move God's people into
the obedience of faith, among whom are the Samaritans. You guys got that? The Samaritans. Pastor, who are the Samaritans?
The Samaritans are you and me. Yes, practically speaking. We're
not Jews. Most of us didn't grow up in
a pure religion of Christianity. We grew up, many of us grew up
under high bridge pagan Christian concepts. That's exactly right. With a great deal of mysticism
and superstition and idolatries of all sorts. Don't you fool
yourself. Very few of us grew up in a solid gospel context. It was mostly corrupted by the
kind of syncretism that here depicts our Samaritan brethren.
And all the superstitions that go along. Do you guys remember
how superstitious you were? Do you remember the superstition
that just stuck to you? Now the thing that didn't stick
was the gospel, but superstition stuck. See, see, so I know that
you wanted to push back on me assigning to you the idea of
being a Samaritan, but see, I can prove you were a Samaritan and
probably your mom and daddy too. And it's beautiful because if
we accept that particular nomenclature at the moment, we then can enjoy
what happened. Because in our account, and pull
our PowerPoint back up, leave it back up there. In our account,
we see the grace of God operating in the life of both Philip and
the people. Look at what happens. There was
no resistance. There was no apparent opposition.
Philip went down to the city of Samaria, preached Christ unto
them. Every one of my brethren here
who are prepared to preach the gospel would love a door like
that. We would love a door where they
can just go and preach Christ, but the one thing we do to breathe
we exhale Gospel, that's what we ask for us. It's all pent
up until we can share the gospel We can't wait to unleash the
gospel anywhere. We can Philip is doing that He
preached the gospel to them. I want to share with you three
things in that a prepared and people prepared for the gospel.
Do you see that? And then we're gonna look at
these signs shall follow. You got that? And then I want
to talk about the evidence of the kingdom of God. That'll be
all that I will work with today. And so as we deal with Philip
under this first point, the superdeacon, I actually want to share with
you three or four ideas under preparation. The first is is
that we have a prepared people Because we also have a prepared
messenger Who is coming with a prepared message? You got that
so we have a prepared people I'm gonna show you this in the
Word of God a prepared people and I think that this is critical
and then we also have a prepared preacher With a prepared message. And the operative word is what?
Prepared. Right? Is preparation critical
to the success of the gospel? I think it is. We have a prepared
preacher. We have a prepared people with
a prepared message. Nice little sort of three-point
sermon if I wanted to develop that. What do we mean by prepared
people? Here's what we mean by prepared people. We mean a people
to whom God had gone before he sent the preacher and prepared
their hearts for the message. That's what we mean by prepare
people. And this is going to be interesting, too, because
I don't think tonight maybe I will. I'll get into the adversarial
element that comes up, because remember, when an open door is
given, there's also going to be what? Adversity adversaries
we may get there. We may not but when I say that
in order for us to Have confidence that the gospel will be successful
to whom we preach God must go before us And this is what I've taught
our people in evangelism class do not essay to go out and share
the gospel with anyone I Until you have first prayed that God
go before you and prepare their hearts Do not assume that you
can win anyone to Christ by argument eloquence or kindness and definitely
the third one kindness because you're not that kind of a person
and I'm just telling you. I mean, you're all that, but
you're not that kind. You're not going to be so kind
that you can kind people into the kingdom. God doesn't save
that kind of people. I'm just telling you, most Christians
that I know are just rough people. We're trying to get there, but
we're not kind. We're not as kind as the unsaved. I tell you, they are smooth as
butter. the humanist, the compromiser,
the false witness, the lover of all men and a lover of everything
who hates no one at any time. Remember, that's how they talk.
I love everybody. No, you don't. No, you don't. You don't love God. You don't
love truth. And you really don't love me
when I'm finished talking to you. Can I keep it real? I love everybody. This is why
the Proverbs says, watch out for her. Her words are smoother
than butter, sweeter than honey, but her end is bitter as death. These are the compromising preachers
of our present day and the harlot church that swallows up people
with smooth things. And people in the audiences are
that way too. They're so nice. Aren't they
so nice? Come on now. Nice. It just humbles me. You're so nice. I just want to
throw something at you. You're so nice. Get mad once,
just get mad once. I'm kidding. So nice. And why would God use you like
he does to share the gospel with people? And you know, you, you're
just rough behind the ears, man. You, you mess in yourself. Aren't you a walking contradiction?
Tell the truth. Own it. Own it. Own it. Remember,
we already said we know what kind of gospel we have. We have
a what kind of gospel? Sinner's gospel. Sinner's gospel. Sinner's gospel. We have a sinner's
gospel. Do you own that? Well, if you
are a possessor of that gospel, that's your gospel. It's your
gospel because it got you. And it got you. Because you were
a sinner. Are you hearing me? That's right. That's the only way you will
be gotten of the gospel is that it will pierce through and affirm
your sinner hood and start dealing with you right there, right there
at the core of your nature, showing you who you really are and what
you really need. And when you know who you really
are and what you really need, closing with Christ is easy.
Yes it is. Yes it is. And so when we talk
about a prepared people by a prepared message with a prepared gospel.
We are talking about a principle that we can find in Proverbs
16, verse one. Look at Proverbs 16, verse one.
I just want to show you why it's important for us to know that
the people in Samaria toppling over and just completely submitting
to the preaching of Philip was no accident. This was not some
anomaly. There was work that had already
taken place beforehand preparing them for the coming of Philip. And do you believe that everything
is beautiful in its own time? You believe that? Do you believe
that there's time for everything under heaven? That's right. Look
at Proverbs 16, verse 1. Are you there? Here it is. The
preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. Do you see that? The preparation
of the heart in man. And the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. There is this symbiotic dynamic
that must take place where God speaks. That's the answer of
the tongue from the Lord, where God speaks and the heart receives
what is said. There has to be a preparation
of the soil in order to receive the words spoken by God. in order for that word to actually
germinate and produce fruit. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The preparation of the heart, the arrangements of the
heart, the ordering of the heart, the structuring of the heart.
Interesting Hebrew term for preparations there. It's a word that basically
means to order, to put in rank, to structure in a way where an
individual now is ready to receive. It's the antithesis of chaos
and confusion It's the opposite of mangled thoughts, confused
thoughts, a life that is so disjointed and messed up and confused. The point that I'm making is
this, God has to order the heart. He has to start arranging the
mind. He has to start clearing up the
mind, ordering the mind, preparing the mind. putting the mind in
a position where biblical truth makes sense. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? He has to start arranging the
emotions, arranging the intellect, arranging the volition, arranging
your thought patterns, where now biblical propositions are
starting now to penetrate your thinking and bring clarity to
what the topic of the Word of God is all about. See if we can
just use an anecdotal story. You've been sharing the Word
of God with an individual for months, and it doesn't seem like
you're getting anywhere with them. Well, sometimes you think
you're making progress, and then they say something really dumb,
and you go, I'm back to square one. I'm just back to square
one, right? And then one day, they get it. Well, it wasn't merely that just
one day they were better in their mental disposition. God had been
working all along. You know what he was doing? According
to Hosea chapter 7 around verse 1, he was breaking up the fallow
ground. That's what the Spirit of God
has to do. The Spirit of God has to go before you and me and
deal with that sinner in their conscience and deal with that
sinner in their heart to start actually arranging the soil of
their soul so that the word SOWN can actually take root. bear,
take root downward and begin to bear fruit on the inside even
before it bears fruit on the outside. But see, sometimes when
God is dealing with a person, He's actually converting them
in their mind and heart before giving them clarity of ascent
to that biblical truth in an articulate fashion. Yes. Yes. By the time they come to
the point of saying, you know what? I believe the gospel. God
had been working long time with my soul. I think we see it like
this in one of our old reform songs. I sought the Lord and
afterwards I knew. He moved my soul to seek him
seeking me. It was not I that sought O Savior
true. No, I was found. Was found of
you You were long beforehand working with my soul Way before
I opened my mouth and said yes to Jesus So the Bible tells us
in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 one souls Another waters and God
does what? As we talk about evangelism in
our church, and I tell our brothers and sisters about evangelism,
you have to have a full biblical view in order to be an effective
and accurate evangelist. Evangelists have to have the
patience of a farmer. Isn't that what I teach? An evangelist
has to have the patience of a farmer. You cannot believe in a soul-reap
concept in five minutes. You have to be willing to sow
as long as God is giving you the assignment to sow. And you
have to believe that someone is watering, if it's not you,
as long as God is meaning to water that heart. And you have
to wait as long as is necessary for that heart to bear the harvest
of faith. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Otherwise, you're going to be inclined to a false evangelism
that bears a false fruit just because you're trying to look
good at getting converts in your church. And so I say that what
we have in our texts, go back with me to our texts, is a prepared
people because of a prepared preacher with a prepared message.
What makes my position valid? You remember what happened at
least three years earlier, at least if not five or six, At
minimum three, we're in Acts chapter eight now. I can safely
say we're in the ballpark of three or four or five years because
the Apostle Paul was converted, as we understand the history
and chronology of the book of Acts, some five or six years,
at the most, after Christ rose again from the dead. Let's just
say that Jesus went through Samaria quite frequently during his ministry,
but there was one time in particular when he went through Samaria,
did he not? And when he went through Samaria, did they receive
him? Yes, they did. Yes, they did mightily and he
laid down a lot of truth for them. Did he not? Did he not
give them hope? Did he not give them a revelation
of his glory? Did he not prepare them for the
event that we're dealing with now in Acts chapter 8? Are you
guys seeing the picture? See, because they're toppling
too easy. They're toppling too easy. They're just receiving
Philip. And look at what it says. And
there's some other things here that are worth noting too. But
let me just simply say that Philip would have been very clear that
his ministry and preaching to them and the success of his entering
into them, entering into the Samaritan camp and being able
to preach to this city. Look at verse 8. And there was
great joy in that city. Lord, let it happen to us. So don't miss that. You know,
we get the joy of seeing an individual converted or maybe a family converted. We're so happy when a family
comes to church and it comes under the gospel and is actually
born again and loves Christ. But a city. It's amazing. Can God do that? How about him
converting nations? Don't let me start talking to
you about church history. So what I am saying is that the
kind of response that the Samaritans are demonstrating is not the
consequence of just a whimsical one-time act. This was a preparation
that would bring glory to God because the Samaritans were ordained
unto eternal life. That's right. That woman at the
well, she was a precursor to it, wasn't she? Yes, you and
see she can't remember she was in false religion wasn't she
but there was in the dysfunctional Deficient understanding of Messiah
a longing for him was she waiting for him life jacked up She couldn't
join our church for nothing her life all jacked up Bob ex-husbands,
especially in some of our reformed churches You marry that many
people you can't you can come to church, but you ain't joining
the church. I You beat and you beat and messed up our church
with your testimony I'm just telling you I grew up in the
reform community. Listen Reform folks many of them
and this is true of all religions. Don't get me wrong You we know
the stories in the Methodist Baptist on but the reform folks
who pride themselves in doctrine and knowledge of God in history
and listen They really do draw a line. Cause see, you know, I'm not
Dutch. Can you tell? I'm not Dutch. I'm not German.
I'm not Scottish. I love all my Dutch, Scottish,
German brethren. I love them. Yeah. I love their
contributions to life and everything, but I lived with them for quite
a long time. And I was like the step brother
in the church. Am I making some sense? Not even
that, huh, Dolly? I was like the step step brother. I was like Cinderella without
the slipper, without, without the, without, without the, you
know, without that one night out. I'm just telling you how
it went. Crazy. I love God. Don't you love God? It's so interesting because it
has come full circle for me. because I have been able to actually
preach these glorious truths that have their history in the
Reformation now for over 20 years, particularly 20 years with grace.
And one of the wonderful experiences I had last year with Dr. Mueller,
you guys remember Dr. Mueller? We had him here doing
his evolution versus creation series. He did a great job, didn't
he? We plan on having him back out, but he's like pure, 100%
bona fide Dutch, right? And y'all don't know nothing
about that. Maybe a few, you know, but I mean, pure, I mean, pure,
so pure that his English is still twisted with his Dutch accent. Right. He came into grace because
we invited him to come. He knew nothing about our church.
You know, didn't know anything about me. I don't think he even
did the research, but he came in before we did our our program
because we were setting up the the presentation for him, that
four day presentation. That was a long presentation,
but it was good. And he's looking around, and he was surprised
at the size of our facility. And he looked at our literature,
and he saw that it was, for him, orthodox. And he saw we actually
do the doxology. He's like, whoa. Black people
do the doxology. Whoa. It was so funny. It was so funny. So, you know,
I realized that he was into a culture shock because it, it, their communities
are primarily mono ethnic. Okay. They, they don't, they
don't cross over and, and you know, they, we, we, we, we had
a long history of apartheid with our brother. And if you know
anything about church history and stuff like that. So for him,
he was really afraid that he was coming into an environment
where we were just running around acting like fools. because that's
the depiction on their part of much of the evangelical church
because it doesn't operate out of protocol. Most of our evangelical
churches are not structured in order. You know how we are here
because we believe in honoring God, don't we? And he was crying
the first worship service we had. He sat between two of our
sisters about the fourth row up. He's 80, about 80 years old,
right? And he was crying during the
worship. Why was he crying? because he
was actually worshiping with a people from every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue. Can you believe it? Crying. Crying. It's amazing. This is the triumph
of the gospel that I'm talking about. I'm talking about the
triumph of the gospel. And the gospel is the only thing that
makes us one. Only the gospel. And the gospel has to do it.
And we have to become one. And we're not talking about being
one in a uniformitarian sense. We're talking about being one
in Christ. You and I are not going to be one if we're not
one in Christ. To the degree that you bring
Christ down to that degree, you and I will not be one. I tell
preachers this all the time. The moment you lure Christ, we
become enemies. You understand? Because there's
no basis in the universe for us to be one except in him. God
has made it the father has made it that unity is found in him
through his son by his Holy Ghost through the true church There's
no unity with the true and the Living God except through Christ
So to the degree that we morph him and distort him and twist
him and mangle him To that degree we lose our unity brothers and
sisters Every other unity is false And where our unity is
in Christ Watch this. There is great liberty for us
to be who we are. You guys got that? Great liberty. Philip is a, he's a Greek. He's a Greek Jew, Jewish, Hellenistic
Jew, who's going to these Gentiles of which just a few years earlier,
there were no dealings. No dealings. Look at what's happening
here. Look at the text. He went down
and he preached to them. and they received his word. That
word entered into them. And the text says, there was
great joy in the city, verse eight, right? And two things
had occurred. These here, we're gonna close
it down here in about five minutes. These here are critical observations
that I wanna share with you, essential to gospel ministry. Here's a couple of observations
and we'll unpack the the ministry of philip as it was with stephan
in the area of um Of the of the gifts of miracles because we
see that in verse 7 For unclean spirits crying out with loud
voice came out of how many many that were possessed with them
and many taken with the pulses And that were lame were healed
the emphasis in verse 7 is that there was a major profusion Of
the spirit of god in the life of philip as it was in stephan
whereby Philip is operating out of a powerful apostolic ministry. Out of a powerful apostolic ministry. And he's just a deacon. But the
signs of an apostle are operating in his life in a powerful way. And the signs of the apostles
were nothing other than the spirit of Christ, which was also on
Christ. Because one of the things we
learned about his ministry when he healed Paul Lloyd, many were
healed and he healed many. And in fact, with Christ, guess
what? He healed them all. He healed them all. As many as
needed healing, he healed them all. These were the unique messianic
signs of the presence of our savior when he came. These are
the unique messianic signs of our Savior present with the Samaritans
and the ministry of Philip presently with us. So I can say this about
the Samaritans. This is a good way to sum it up. The Samaritans
had a promise, didn't they? They had a promise even before
the Savior came. Then the Savior came in person,
didn't He? Did He come in person? And when
He came in person, He did His work of redemption as He told
them. And when He left, guess what He sent? Power! And the
power that He sent that is presently working in the life of Philip
affirms the presence of Christ among them by His Spirit. They had the promise. They met
the person. They're experiencing the power.
because of the presence of the Spirit of God. You guys see that?
They had the promise long ago. That woman heard about it. She
met the person. He said, woman, if you knew the
gift of God and who it is that's talking with you right now, right
now, you would ask for living waters and you would go away
satiated in your soul. What a blessing that woman had
that morning in her mundane task of going to get some temporal
water. But why did that happen because christ loved the samaritans? He ate and drank continually
with sinners This is why the pharisees didn't like him. He
ate and drank with sinners That's how they used to put it. You
see him. He ate and drank with so he called himself the messiah
eating and drinking with sinners Who else he's going to eat and
drink with? That'll that'll that'll come home in a minute Who else
he gonna eat and drink with? That'll come home in a second.
That'll come home in a second. He, the scriptures are clear
in Proverbs chapter 8. He was daily his father's delight
and his delight was with the sons of men. And when he assumed
the human nature, didn't we see it? Did he not commune with sinners? Did he not hang with sinners? Did he not live among sinners?
Did he not become salt and light among sinners? Did he not draw
sinners to himself? Did he not preach the gospel?
Did he not heal? Did he not give and serve and
lay down his life for sinners? Did he not do it? Listen, that's
the model we have. That's called evangelism, ladies
and gentlemen. I got a few more minutes and
I'll shut it down. That's called evangelism. Did Stephan do what
Christ did? Is Philip doing what Christ did?
See, that's called the spirit of faith. It's really what we're
called to. That's really what we're called
to. And the text says they were all healed, all of them. So we are called upon now to
contemplate these signs following. You see that in your outline
under point number four, Philip, the other super deacon of people
prepare for the gospel. And then what? These signs shall
follow. I'm going to take my time next
week and actually deal with that, develop that, because I want
us to look at the continuum of that which took place at that
time. Because Philip is not doing anything that was not both necessary
and consistent with the nature of the message that he was preaching
in the context in which he was preaching it. So let me see if
I can say that again. The fact that Philip was used
to produce these kinds of miracles is not some abstract concept
that we can't anchor into the normative process by which God
breaks into a people group to let them know this is him. And
this is not just New Testament. This is an Old Testament principle.
So we're going to be able to apprehend both Old Testament
and New and understand that what Philip is simply doing is proving
that God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, especially
when he breaks into a new people group who have never had the
presence of God before. You guys follow me so far? So
now I'm going to share this one principle with you in terms of
gospel ministry. This comes out of 1 Thessalonians
2, verses 1-3. And I'll do that and close. Go
with me in 1 Thessalonians 2. I'll just do this here. This
is what we call an ethic of the gospel preacher. This is an ethic
of a gospel preacher. This is 1 Thessalonians 2, verse
1, 2, 3, and 4. Are you there? I'm going
to close here. This is an ethic. I have marked
for years and I try to implement in my own life and I certainly
want my men to get this principle. So here's what you can know about
a faithful gospel ministry and a faithful gospel pastor, a faithful
gospel servant. Here's what you can know. He
does not come to take anything from you. The job of the gospel preacher
is not coming, taking things. He doesn't come to take from
you, neither yours or you. That's not the job of the servants
of Christ. They never come to take from
you. They are not beggars. They are
not mercenaries. They are not men who are desperate
for anything. Their commission comes with a
plethora of self-satisfying, affirming truths by which they
themselves are satisfied intrinsically so that they covet no man's gold
or silver. Are you hearing me? That the
gospel minister, he himself is already full already. In fact, the gospel
minister is so full that his delight is in giving, giving. That's what he's compelled to
do. A gospel ministry is a ministry where men are giving to you,
pouring into your bosom, communicating to you, Essential eternal truths
that when you go away from the experience with them you have
received Something you haven't lost a thing. You don't go away
less you go away more You don't go away defrauded you go away
fulfilled You don't go away constrained you go away liberated Are you
hearing what I'm saying? This is a gospel ministry our
master did it His disciples did it and all through church history
every ordained called preacher of the gospel. He bears gifts
He comes with gifts He comes to give he comes to build your
faith edify your faith increase your faith If you don't have
any faith give you faith you have any knowledge give you knowledge
He is a vehicle of Christ to pour into your soul Am I making
some sense ladies and gentlemen? So now just listen to the narrative. This here is a necessary portfolio
for a gospel minister. We have no right to commend or
recommend any preacher who doesn't follow this ethic. Are you there?
For yourselves, brethren, speaking to the Thessalonians, and you
can read about them in Acts 16, 17, and we'll get there. For
yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you. Wonderful concept. He says you
guys know what kind of impact we made. You know how we came
in and operated among you, right? Listen to what he says. That
it was not in what? You know what the word literally
means? That it was not empty. It wasn't
empty. That when we came to do ministry
to you, we didn't leave you with nothing. Got that? It was not in vain. That's our
English translation not in vain. But what it really means is we
the gospel minister does not come in vain He comes bearing
gifts Watch this But even after that we had suffered before and
were shamefully entreated as you know at Philippi We were
bold in our God to speak unto you what the gospel of God is
Do you see that see said now centrally what the Apostle is
saying is we're coming with the gift We're coming with the gift
There is a central gift from which through this gift are several
other gifts. In fact, the gifts don't end
When once we come with the one gift, what is that gift the gospel? through whom Christ comes by
virtue of his spirit in the life of men and women. And therefore
that union with Christ produces in you the abundance of life
of which Christ promises in John chapter 10. I came to give them
life and that more what? Abundantly. So I know some of
my brethren have pushed back on this analogy that I've used
for years. But for me, Christ is God's pi?ata. Yeah. Our kids love that. Every year we do our picnics,
our fellowship barbecues and stuff like that. And we're looking
forward to doing it this year. And I've been wanting to stop
our pinata bus every year because our kids are just on the verge
of being absolute animals. I mean animals. And I tell my, it's crazy, it's
awesome. I love it though. I mean, I love
it. See, they're telling us they're saved by grace too. You really
have to believe that. I mean, because it's 60, 70,
I ain't get around and they airborne and pushing each other. And my
wife fixes these, I'm talking about gargantuan gospel style
pi?atas. Now you understand gospel, right?
She fixes these gospel style pi?atas where it takes two brothers
to carry the thing. Then we got a heave it over a
tree and lift it up and then the kids got a bust at it and
once it busts All the gifts come out Isn't that right all the
kids and we're not talking stingy. We're talking gifts and when
the father Laid his hands on Christ at Calvary Street 2,000
years ago and he smote him with the rod of his law smote him
Out came all the gifts pouring down upon the souls of men and
women like a pi?ata, little kids. Except you receive the kingdom
of God like a little child little kids Just sitting up under the
pinata receiving the gift you look at we got pictures of it
too, man Those kids think they in heaven the gifts have fallen
and then they just getting on their knees. They got their bags
You just see them loading their bags up. They put one bag in
the pocket They look over there at the other kids and they go
to taking this because it's just it's just pouring down It's pouring
down And that's how Christ is for us in the preaching of the
gospel. Just listen to it. For our exhortation,
we preach the gospel to you even with much contention. That's
par for the course. For our exhortation was not of
what? Deceit. Nor of what? Uncleanness. Nor in what? He
said, listen, gospel preaching and gospel preachers are clear
And we're simple. We're not so complex that you
gotta figure out the hook. See, that's false religion. And
you're getting ready to learn about that next week when we
deal with the crook in our text. Because see, we got a crook in
our text who was trying to find the hook. He was looking at Philip's
ministry. He said, now where's the hook
at? Because that's how crooks are. Crooks look for the hook. But he never found a hook with
Philip. You understand? Because Philip had a key. Let's
close in prayer. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for this Bible study.
Help us to conform to what it means to be true believers, faithfully
committed to your gospel, entrusted both with your Word and your
Spirit to meet the needs of hungry sinners. May we see such a revival
in our Bay Area, in California, as you did for those Samaritans.
May we know the joyful sound of men and women coming to faith
in Jesus Christ all over Northern California. May that be something
that is on your plan, in your purpose, in your goal for us
here in the Bay Area. And whatever you need to do to
prepare us for that end, that we might be like Phillip and
Stephan, oh God, do it. Do it, oh God, for men and women
Help us to tell the truth as it is in Christ and bless it
to the souls of our families, to our children, to our grandchildren
and great grandchildren and everyone about us. We pray these things
in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.