I invite you to turn to the book of Acts this morning as we continue our study in the book of Acts. And I feel like the Apostle Paul said as I'm working through this book, who is sufficient for these things? I preach things and realize that only the Spirit of God can help us to practice what is here said, especially in Acts 8. But what a wonderful section of Scripture. If we looked at everything that Revelation was showing us as we work through the book of Revelation with all of the visions this is showing us Revelation playing out in the history of the church that's what Acts is it's showing us the truths we learned in Revelation right here as the Lord is working everything you learned about victory and the Lord's purposes being fulfilled in the darkest moments of the early church we see what Revelation's teaching us play out. So this is Acts chapter 8. We'll read the first 25 verses. This is the word of the Lord beginning at verse 1. And Saul approved of his execution. That was Stephen's. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed so there was much joy in that city but there was a man named simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of samaria saying he himself was somebody great they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying this man is the power of god that is called great and they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic but when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized both men and women even Simon himself believed after being baptized he continued with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed he was amazed now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for he had not yet fallen on any of them but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given to the laying on of the apostles hands he offered them money saying give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit but Peter said to him may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money you have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is not right before God repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity and simon answered pray for me to the lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me now when they had testified and spoken the word of the lord they returned to jerusalem preaching the gospel to many villages of the samaritans and there is the reading of god's word well we have started uh an evening service uh series on prayer and one of those that we'll be coming to shortly is your kingdom come we are taught by the lord to pray your kingdom come do you ever think about what you're really asking when you pray that petition well of course you're asking god to advance his kingdom through his word on the earth that that his kingdom would flourish. But do you ever think about how you are asking and what you are asking God to do it and how you're asking God to do it? When does the kingdom advance the most? In good times or the challenging times? That's the question that I want you to think about this morning. When does it advance the most in good times or in challenging times i can tell you that when we come in periods of trial and hardship and testings and persecutions it is then that we see the surprising graces of god and his power put on display in ways that you never expected this is what is before us this morning in acts the most dreadful thing has now come upon the early church the most dreadful thing i'm trying to think of a more dreadful thing that could happen and it has happened to the early church the first major persecution and a martyr of one of their remembers Stephen but through it we see God begin to fulfill what was promised by Jesus himself in Acts 1 remember the whole plan of Acts the whole plan of Acts was that you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth well here we are they're now in Samaria. How did God accomplish that? How did God accomplish that? That's what I want you to think about this morning. As I said last time, I challenged all of us, don't live in fear of the world. Don't live in fear of what it says. Don't let its message become what dominates you. Don't try to compromise with the world and listen to what the world is saying through all of its threats. Don't let it change our message. This is what Acts is showing us. These guys were relentlessly focused on their task and mission. And even though the world was changing, even though everything else was happening in the world, it did not affect what they did. They stayed focused on what they were called to do. They did not change in it. And God's showing us something here that when things are what we think are the worst when things are bad these are the great moments when we clearly see his power in fulfilling what he told us to do well what we have then in chapter eight is the church in jerusalem falling now under the time of persecution how that in turn opened the door to the progress of the gospel in samaria and how god used these events to open this is so important, to open the hearts of the apostles to the Great Commission. That might sound a little surprising to you, but their hearts still had to be worked on to be open to the Great Commission, and the Spirit was doing that. So that's what's before us today. You'll remember what happened last time, if you were here. Stephen was martyred. There was a lot of tension given to that in the book of Acts, where he had been falsely charged by many of the leaders in Jerusalem for attacking the temple and the law. And remember what we looked at. He surveyed the whole redemptive history, the whole story of the Old Testament to make one grand point as they were so focused, Jesus is the fulfillment of all of this. Jesus has always been the fulfillment. Jesus is the reality. And after he had charged them with unbelief, they were so angry they ground their teeth together and they rushed at him grabbed him and stoned him to death all of it with a ringleader named Saul this is amazing to study when you know who this figure is isn't it now this is how chapter 8 begins Saul agreed to putting him to death blood is all over this man's hands this man was ravaging the church he was making havoc of the church that's what it says here on that day on that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of judea and samaria remember jesus's statement you will go to judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth the scattering has happened devout men buried stephen there was a great lamentation over him saul however was making havoc in the church he was a running around in jerusalem house to house to find out who are the christians and he was dragging them off and throwing them in prison and he didn't withhold even the women and the children he dragged them off too who is this rebel here's what happened the death of stephen inaugurated a persecution unlike anything they had ever known one death triggered it satan of course knowing his ways and his work saw this as the great opportunity right then and there to stamp out the whole thing i will rise up against them with all the rage that i can and destroy this group called christians breaking into houses hauling them all off you imagine i want you to notice um you will notice he's vicious paul was vicious saul was vicious saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord this is a later record he said i persecuted this way to death binding and putting both men and women in jail acts 22 and he said this i actually did this in jerusalem and i locked up many of the saints in prison since i had received authority for that from the chief priests when they were put to death i was there casting my vote against them blood everywhere on this guy i have to stop and say it's really remarkable and powerful what he would later write and he said god saved me the chief of sinners that i might be a pattern for all who would believe he could do it for me he can do it for you you see we'll come back to that what do you fear the most right now living as a christian in our time in our country you say it all the time. Our freedoms are being taken away. You say it all the time. This is what the gunfight is about. We are constantly hearing right now it's time to hunker down. It's time to grab the guns and hunker down. That's the mentality. That's how we're thinking. What are we worried about? What are we worried about? Well, I think we're scared about what could happen to us. I'm there with you. I don't want to go through what the possibilities could be. I really don't. But if truth be told, all the fear that we're seeing right now from Christians is a fear that is rather godless. It's rather godless. It assumes that God is not in control. it assumes that what's happening in the world is outside of him and escaping him. Or that what is happening, he really is not on the throne and we have to somehow take this matter into our hands. I know the awful atrocities of history of what things could happen in countries and what could happen to people. I don't ever want to go through that. I've read enough history to know what people have suffered. I get it. But this is what I'm trying to show you in Acts this morning. Acts is showing us, through this mess, what God is doing. That's what Acts chapter 8 is all about. He's not bubble wrapping them. He's not doing that. Sure, no one could see it at the time. You can't see it right now. It doesn't seem like anything good could ever come out of a persecution or anything good about the changing times and the seasons in which we are in. Nothing good could come out of that. We see the hatred of Christianity growing. And as we've noticed, the devil has ripped apart right now every people group in the earth. He's loving it right now. The end game, as I said last week, is to make biblical Christianity and the claims of Jesus a crime. That's the end game. It discourages us. It makes us cower a little bit. It makes us hang our heads in fear and discouragement, I understand. We say, oh, the times, they're so bad, they're so bad. and we panic, and then we just talk like everyone else talks. Discussion, discussion, discussion. There are a few things I want you to see here this morning. The first is this. Persecution. Remember, Jesus said, blessed are the persecuted, by the way. If I say anything, remember, those are his words. Persecution was God's way of judgment on that city. What was happening in Jerusalem? They were expelling Christians. They were expelling Christians. What did that mean for them? Well, what that meant was in Jerusalem, the light was being thrust out. You are the light on the hill, of course. You are the Lord's light. He has told you that in Matthew 5. He is talking about His people. They were squelching out. They were putting out the light. Whenever a people or a nation or a country or a city does this to God's people, they have judged themselves unworthy of the Word of God. This is the principle in Acts that you're going to see develop here shortly when Paul would soon say since, and Peter, since you have judged yourselves unworthy of the gospel, we turn to them. That's the principle of Acts. That's how the Great Commission happened. First, Jesus was preached, he was rejected, then they moved on. This happened first to Israel. How many prophets, said Stephen, have you stoned over the years? How patient was God with Israel? Persecution came, and that was evidence of God's judgment on their land. That's what's so sad. I think you have to look at things differently. We look at our times in our country. If the mighty works, you can imagine Jesus saying, if the mighty works that have been done here in our land and in our time, after all this preaching, after all these churches, after all of the announcement of the gospel had been done in this land, had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented a long time ago in sackcloth and ashes. This is not sad for us. This is sad for this country. this is sad for for what's happening they're pushing out the light that's one reason persecution is a blessing for god's people but it's also one of god's purposes to judge and move and move now hold that thought the other reason why after all when jesus said you are blessed of God when they persecute you, we know that when everything is peace, the church loses its purpose in the world. Priorities are lost. Laziness fills us with regard to what God is calling us to do. I read this week in a secular news article talking of the challenges of the church today, and it was interesting how they view us. What was being said of us the title was why this generation is less christian than ever and that's good news and what they went on to say is we've created a disneyland environment that's not preparing christians at all for the world that we're living in we bubble wrap our kids we create a disney world-like environment for them in the church and then we wonder why they have no resilience in faith or life in fact what we end up creating are just adult adolescents in the church students are entertained but they've not prepared they're not prepared they've had a lot of fun but they're not ready to lead we need to stop pretending that if we entertain teenagers they'll stick around after they graduate we need to stop pretending that if we protect them from everything they won't question doubt or walk away and we need to stop pretending that a few minutes of moralistic, watered-down Bible lessons on Sunday morning will prepare them to stand firm in their faith. This was on Fox News' site. I thought to myself, if that's what Christianity has become, then we need to be shaken up. It's time. It's time. And that's what's shown to you here. That's what Acts 8 is. What happened? They're losing their wonderful homes. They're losing Jerusalem. And guess what's happening? The Lord's forcing them out to do what? To boldly go, if you like Star Wars, where no Christian has gone before, right? God doesn't really like gated communities too much. He took down the gates for the Great Commission. I love what one pastor said, when you pray, Lord, make us a more mission-minded church, or thy kingdom come. Perhaps the very last thing we intend is that God would bring persecution and disturb our comfort and ease. Perhaps the next time we pray something like this, we should ask our brothers and sisters if they're ready for the consequences. Praying for missions can really challenge your comfort zone. That's Acts. That's Acts. You know, in 1949 in China, The national government was defeated by the communists. 637 missionaries had to flee. 600. It seemed like a total disaster. All these missionaries running out of China. Within 34 years, almost 300 of them went over to Southeast Asia and Japan. And those that had been evangelized in China under that severe persecution began to multiply. Forty times today the number of when those missionaries left. This is what happened. God sent the believers out. God sent the believers out of Jerusalem. And we start to look at what began to happen this way. Look at verse 4. This is where we see it. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Preaching the word. It's really an amazing thing. Remember, the apostles is not the apostles. This is you. It's not the formal declaration of the word. They're speaking the word of God. They're sharing the word. This was the program of Acts in chapter 1. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and all of Samaria to the ends of the earth. persecution is how god was making this happen you realize to this day to this day you are debtors to somebody who left lands and houses and home and comforts to bring the gospel here you're debtors to him you realize that many fled to this country for this reason they had to come over on boats this was how the great commission happened i love to study this it's so helpful for us god had to pry people out of their bubble wrapping he had to pry them out with persecution what if one day we were forced to flee to china or russia you ever thought about that that sounds so radical to you you couldn't even imagine it what if now at this point the story zeroes in on philip philip was another of the magnificent seven and it says he went down to samaria and had great success there philip preaches in samaria you'll remember there was a mutual hatred of jews and samaritans this was the greatest one of the greatest barriers to the gospel going out you have hatred of two ethnic groups so strong so powerful you know this jesus dealt with the woman at the well remember they were considered half-breeds by the jews they had false worship they had their own mountain mount gerizim philip begins to go and preach this greek remember he these are great the beautiful thing about act 7 was that when the problems happened and they were accused remember the hellenists were complaining because the Jewish widows were getting better treatment, they appointed all Greek-speaking men to handle the problem. They chose the other people to deal with it. It's really fascinating. The studies, well, here's one of the Greeks going out and preaching in Samaria. Where are the apostles? Hold that thought. Philip preaches. Verse 12 tells us that they believed as Philip was preaching. The good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. It's a surprising grace and surprising power now that is flooding out of Jerusalem and into their enemy's territory. Jerusalem falls under persecution. In contrast, Samaria falls under what? Great joy. Did you see that? Great joy for the gospel. God is opening up the door to Samaria. But he does something surprising for us here to think about. Have you ever thought about how you're delivered and how you were saved? The Holy Spirit had to do something for you. The Holy Spirit had to do something for you. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus, remember, when he was explaining to religious Nicodemus, who had always been in the church and always received everything, you don't know you need to be born again by the Spirit. You have to have life put in your heart. All your Jewish traditions aren't saving you. Peter was so affected by that later, he would write, you have to be born again. You have been born again, not by perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. And this word, this is how it happened. It was through, you were given a new birth by the word of God, and this was the word of the gospel preached to you. When the gospel was preached to you, the Holy Spirit worked, and he changed your hearts. That's the new birth. You must be born again. And God uses means. He uses the preaching of the gospel to do it. That's why this is so important. This is why we keep saying it for you and your children. But we have a surprising interjection here in verse 14, don't we? Now, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John. Well, that's an interesting moment, isn't it? For John was the one who said, when the Samaritan villages rejected the gospel, you want us to call fire down from God and kill them right remember they sent them who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit who had not yet fallen on any of them but had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then they laid their hands on them and they received the Spirit now this passage has been made havoc people have made havoc of this passage and this is where we've had the teaching of second blessing pentecostalism that the spirit there's a second blessing of the spirit that has to happen that is not the point of this at all what is being shown to us they believe but the holy spirit in the way that he seals believers had not yet fallen this was not normal this was an exception this was a strange moment for the normal course of preaching why did you notice what was said above all the christians in jerusalem fled except the apostle that's interesting isn't it the apostles were jewish they were so revered everyone feared them they were so respected and feared it seemed as if they were totally exempted from this persecution nobody nobody wanted to mess with them and i started thinking as i was working through this you know the apostles themselves struggled with their own mission in chapter 11 god will save cornelius the italian centurion and the apostles will struggle with the whole thing until Peter has to go and give his report. Remember, here's what Peter says. And as I began to speak the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. That was the normal way. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave the same spirit to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who was I that I could stand in God's way listen to this when they heard these things apostles they were silent can you just feel it and they glorify God saying then to the Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life they struggled with this they needed hearts opened up to the mission itself it wasn't just to their own people what do they need to see i think that leads us to the question of this very interesting figure in simon the sorcerer what did they need to see they needed to see simon the sorcerer what do i mean by that he was a god-like figure in the region this guy was a god in the region later associated with gnosticism which probably isn't fair and probably not right he's labeled as magnificent who could astonish the people with his magic powers notice what's said here he claimed to be somebody great from the least to the greatest they all said of him this man is the power of god who's great he was considered a god in the area and remember a whole rival kingdom had been set up in samaria you have a false jesus right here everyone's worshiping him he had all samaria under his control to which I say how sad isn't it how tragic multitudes under the control of a man like this do we care you see think about what just happened God didn't allow the normal way the Holy Spirit didn't fall through the normal way through Philip's preaching but only through the apostles for what reason? Because their hands needed to come and their hands needed to be placed on the Samaritans. You see now what the message is in that? How good was that for them? How good was that for them? To go put their hands on the Samaritans, their enemies. Jesus' hands had been there. That woman went out after she had been saved and told the whole city and they came back to Jesus and he put his hands on them. John had wanted to call down fire on this village. Lord, do you want us to call fire on them? It was Peter who would withdraw from the Gentiles in hypocrisy. The message is clear. They themselves had to be pried out of Jerusalem. And they themselves had to come and place their hands on them. And they themselves had to learn the need of these people. They needed to see the darkness they were in. You know what sits behind this pulpit? I sometimes see it when I'm sitting here. Yeah, here it is. Sir, show us this Jesus. John 12, 21. Do you know who asked that? Gentile. Asked Philip, would you show us Jesus? The apostles go here and what do they see? What do they see? Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money saying, give me the power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Peter is furious. He needed to be roused up a little bit. Remember, when we're in the bubbles, we're not roused up about what's going on. They don't see. that entire region under the control of a wolf who was all about himself a false christ preaching and doing signs and great things and deceiving them and peter looks at him and says you're full of gall of bitterness says in front of all samaritans you are full of the rot of bitterness jealous of jesus and you just want a power so that you will wow men by your power and bring them to you. You're not right in God's sight. You're no Savior. Your money's going to perish with you. They had just had a strong lesson in the reason for the Great Commission, didn't they? They had a strong lesson in the reason for the Great Commission. These people were under the power of a false deliverer who wanted the power to control the Holy Spirit. I think there's a lot more to that we could spend time on it's god who gives the spirit sometimes the spirit would come with the apostles present sometimes without sometimes with the laying on of hands sometimes no sometimes with baptism sometimes not you can't control the spirit god's in control of his spirit i think as peter spoke that he must have realized what jesus taught the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it it cannot tell where it comes from where it goes so is everyone who is born of the spirit dear apostles god sends his spirit sends you where he wishes right to a people whom he wishes whenever and wherever he decides you will go and not often know you do not often know where it comes or where it's going and how the lord is exactly working and which way the spirit will come so is everyone who's born of the spirit you need that lesson you see why it's important then one pastor said we spend more time worried about hollywood and the culture when all along people are dying without ever having an adequate presentation of the Gospel. I think the apostles needed this. They needed to experience this. You know, there's people all around us in our community right now. You don't have to go far. There's people all around us in our community in darkness gripped by false saviors. Gripped. You ever talk to your neighbor and invite them to church? Or are we so focused here just on us? That's a challenge, isn't it? Your neighbor's next door. You don't have to run always down to Mexico. Next door. I think I'm guilty of that. What if we all prayed, Lord, make us a mission-minded church? What might happen? You may find yourself in a mess like this. It might get messy, right? It might get messy. But you see, in the darkest moments, when persecution came, God thrust them out of all of their earthly comforts because that's why they were here. You can't do it. I know you can't. I can't do it. I like comfort too much, my earthly comforts. I just like it too much. But God sometimes has different plans for us, doesn't He? And He may do surprising things this way that challenge us that show us the sovereign work of his spirit that he's still working and that's what you see how this ends don't you look at how this ends now when they the apostles had testified and spoken the word of the lord they returned to jerusalem we'll come back to that thought preaching the gospel to many of the villages of the samaritans they would have never thought they would be doing that and there they were preaching the gospel of the Samaritan the apostles right there they were beginning to own and fulfill what Jesus said they would do as for Saul he's making havoc in the church he is persecuting you know what God's going to do to him right the great persecutor of the faith the worst persecution the early church had known was done by a man who soon in the next chapter will meet God's sheer power, throw him down, blind him, and he will say, what do you want me to do? You can't kick against the goads, Paul. It's over. You're mine. Well, he put out that pretty quick, didn't he? You have nothing to fear. Isn't that the message? What's the worst thing that can happen to you? chapter 7, and then Jesus will get off his throne and receive you. I have one question. Are we ready to pray, thy kingdom come? Are you ready to say, Lord, make us a more mission-minded church? Well, if you do, he might bless you with persecution. Jesus, after all, said, blessed are the persecuted. Or he might really pull you out of your comfort zone, and then you'll be able to appreciate all the more what Jesus said, you are my witnesses. Acts 8 is telling us it's not just for the apostles. It's for you too. You are his witnesses to the ends of the earth. That's why we're here. I hope that encourages us that in all that's happening in the world, you can be bold. You can be confident. The Lord is working out His purposes. He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail. Let's really believe that and pray to the Lord and ask His kingdom to come in all of its glory. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word of truth. Thank You for Your Gospel. Thank You for being a missionary God. For caring. Sometimes we're all so focused only on our own aches and pains we forget people are going to hell and we need to be challenged this way it's good for us it's healthy for us but thank you as we see with the apostles that you are so patient sometimes we're impatient as we throw up our arms and think when is it is anything even happening and you're in the midst of all this patience is demonstrated to your people thank you lord for saving us thank you for loving us thank you for coming to us through missionaries years ago who sacrificed a lot to bring the gospel to us so that we can be here today and let us then become a people who think more about this may your kingdom come make the escondido urc a more mission-minded church and help us lord in this remember when we become discouraged or we look at society and we look at the changes in the world but you are indeed in control you are indeed sovereign and thank you for saving samaritans we bless you lord and look forward to the day when all of us are together in glory around the throne and there is no more of this But until then, make us useful for the master and witnesses to the ends of the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.