Scattered to Spread the Good News First B Jackson 2025-01-12 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Good morning, everybody. Come on in. Come on in. If if you would stand, we'll sing and kinda sing folks in from the vestibule, narthex, foyer, whatever your tradition. Here we are. We're gonna sing Jesus is coming again. Here we are. Welcome. The marvelous message we bring, glorious carol we sing, a wonderful word of the king. Jesus is coming again. Coming again. Coming again. Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening, maybe soon. Coming again. Coming again. Oh, what a wonderful day it will be. Jesus is coming again. Forest and flower exclaim, mountain and meadow the same. All earth and heaven proclaim, Jesus is coming again. Coming again. Coming again. Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening, maybe soon. Coming again. Coming again. Oh, what a wonderful day it will be. Jesus is coming again. Standing before him at last. Trial and trouble all past. Grounds at his feet, we will cast. Jesus is coming again. Coming again. Coming again. Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening, maybe soon. Coming again. Coming Amen. Thank you, Judy. Six four time. Wow. Kinda has a skate rhythm to it. Yeah. I miss Scott Humphrey sometimes and this is one of those times. He always would do this. Open her. What's next? Make me a blessing. Make me a blessing. Also in six four ten. Out in the highways and byways of life, many are weary and sad. Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, making the sorrowing glad. Make me a blessing. Make me a blessing. Oh, save your high praise. Make me a blessing to someone today. Tell the sweet story of Christ and his love. Tell of his power to forgive. Others will trust him if only you prove true every moment you live. Make me a blessing. Make me a blessing to someone today. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Y'all look like reeds swaying in the wind. That is so fun from up here. Y'all don't even know you're doing it and you're doing it. I'm doing it too. Alright. Announcements this week, Awana is on. I don't think I have an announcement up there, but Awana is on for the week. So Teton Valley, Idaho Fellowship happened this past Friday. It's gonna happen on the second Friday of the month each month. If you wanna know more details, you can talk to Emily Anderson, (808) 639-4739 is her number, and she'd love for you to call her and ask more about it. It's just a time of getting together. This is a fellowship. There are other Bible studies and other stuff that happens, but this is a time for folks to be together over there. The JH Women's Community Bible Study is happening. It's on Nehemiah and they started this past Wednesday, but it's easy enough to catch up one week behind. So ten to twelve noon, 10AM to twelve noon at Gateway is where they're meeting this time around. You can go online on jhwomensbiblestudy.com and there is childcare available. If you wanna go to that, that's a great study on the book of Nehemiah. Connect hour. So on the twenty sixth, that's two weeks from today. Connect hour is a potluck, so please do bring a dish to share, but it is also a congregational meeting. So, the congregational meeting is normal one we have towards the end of January every year to kinda vote on the budget and to recognize volunteers. It's between services, so is the connect hour. So if you're business minded and you wanna be here, take the food down the hall first and let them at it, and then come on in here for the congregational meeting. We hope that there'll be plenty left over when the meeting is over. That's usually pretty quick. Twenty twenty five men's snowmobile trip is happening February 21 through the twenty third. It's up at the Old Faithful Christian Ranch in Island Park, Idaho. It's a $100 for adults and 75 for boys. If you want to know more about it, you can call Richard Largie. That's a fun time. I will say, when I first got here thirteen years ago, the first time I went on that, I have never done anything even remotely like that. And, I followed Grant Galloway around the whole time. He said, just stay close, not close enough to hit me, but not far behind me either. And, we had a ball. So, it's a really good time. It's also just a good time to be together. There's a lot of time in the lodge and there'll be somebody that will be speaking. Richard is heading it up. So, that's his number if you want to know more about it and I think, is that the last slide? Hey, open our eyes, lord. Anybody else have anything that I missed? No. Carl had the one about Awana in the first service. Awana is on for tomorrow night starting 05:45 registration, 06:00 right here in this room but if y'all would stand, we're going to sing open our eyes, lord and open our ears. Open our eyes lord we want to see Jesus to reach out and touch him and say that we love him. Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus. Let's do it again. Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him and say that we love him. Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus. Amen. This next one is change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. May I be like you. You are the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me. This is what I pray. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. May I be like you. The potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me. This is what I pray. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, God. May I be like you. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward and Lord God almighty, what a what a beautiful song to lead us into a time of offering. Lord, change our hearts. We want to be more and more and more like you just to ask for you to change our hearts as recognizing that we're not like you. It is by your spirit. It is by your power and we trust you and we trust the sanctification process lord. Wait, may we remain humble before you that we're ready and willing for the changes that you show us need to be made and can be with your power lord. I pray that you would make us ever true. May we be good reflections of you and your glory and your son. May we walk a line, lord, that is after our savior. What a great example, more than an example, but what a great example to follow. Lord, God Almighty, change our hearts and make us more like you. I also pray Lord that you would take back a portion of what you've given to us and that you would use it for the advance of your good gospel. Whatever route that that needs to take, lord, we trust you to show us how to do that. Would you take in these offerings, lord? And these tithes, would you take them in and would you do your kingdom's work? Lord, we just ask you to do it in your way. We wanna do your will in your way. Would you show us your way and allow us the strength and the grace and the power to walk in it. Amen. Amen. Go ahead, drive the nails in my hands, laugh at me where you stand. Go ahead and say it isn't me. The day will come when you will Yes. I'll rise again. Death can't keep me in the ground. Go ahead and mark my name. My love for you is still the same. Go ahead and bury me, But very soon, I will be free because I'll rise again. There's no power on earth can tie me down. Yes, I'll rise again. Death can't keep me in the ground. Go ahead and say I'm dead and gone, but you will see that you are wrong. Go ahead and try to hide the sound, but all will see that I'm the one because I'll come again. There's no power on earth can keep me back. Yes. I'll come again. Come to take my people you. Judy was just warming up in between and started playing that, and I haven't heard it probably since I was 10 or 12 years old. And I just started leaking out of both sides of my my head here, and my aunt Laurie used to sing that song around Easter time, and whoo. It's still I can't believe we made it through it. Alright. Where are we? Where are we? We're in Acts. We're up to Acts eight one. We actually covered verse one the last time that we were together last Sunday and we were last Sunday talking about the martyrdom of Stephen. The first listed of the seven first deacons of the church and the seven that were assigned to take care of the widows equitably and to do a good job with that. That was the last sermon was this martyrdom of Stephen and in Acts one, I'll cover what we covered last week that it says, Saul. Now, we will know Saul to become the apostle Paul but at this point, Saul was one of the witnesses to Stephen's martyrdom, to his testimony, to his death, the first martyr. His death for his witness for Christ. Saul was one of the witnesses that saw that execution, that lynch mob, not done properly, not done the way that it should have been done for a real case of heresy or blasphem church in Jerusalem. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jewish believer and the persecution that began that day sweeping over the church in Jerusalem probably from what we can tell, probably was more emphatic towards the Hellenistic Jewish believers than it was to the Hebraic Jewish believers. Now, a great wave of persecution began nevertheless, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem and all of the believers except the apostles and that except the apostles a little bit like, what? Except the apostles. They were not spread out or scattered in the same way that the rest of the believers were. All the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria and when you read in Acts eight one, Judea and Samaria, that close together, it immediately should take you back to Acts one eight where Jesus said, you're going to be my witnesses. You're going to be my witnesses and you're going to be my witnesses here in Jerusalem. Stay here until the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then, when you have that power, you're going to be my witnesses here in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the ends of the earth. So, that Acts eight one is how it starts off. Now, verse two says, now, some devout men came and they buried Stephen with great mourning and this should kind of give you a little bit. Wait a second now. I thought that if somebody was stoned for blasphemy, for stoned for whatever reason, we were supposed to not mourn those people. This is something that was a solemn occasion. You don't mourn somebody who died justly and this kind of points out that he didn't die justly. There were devout people that saw that what happened was a travesty of justice. It was not good and they came and they buried him with great mourning. They were loud about it. That's just a side note before this but Saul who agreed thoroughly with the killing, Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. An enemy of the church. He went from house to house and he was dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. Now, to see that sets us up for the latter half of of Acts when Paul becomes one of the main movers and shakers but this is this is Saul right here. He's going from house to house. He's dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison for believing in Christ. For their witness for Christ and if you think back, it's only been a couple of months. It hasn't been very long, maybe three months that since Jesus said, sitting up on the Mount Of Olives to his disciples who were asking him about end time stuff, interesting stuff. What's going to happen? How's it going from here? And he says, there's coming a time when y'all are going to be arrested, and you're going to be persecuted, and you're going to be killed. And honestly, this is another little table of contents for the book of Acts that we've covered so far, isn't it? We've seen him arrested. We've seen him persecuted and now, in chapter seven, we saw Stephen killed. Y'all are going to be arrested, persecuted, and killed and you'll be hated all over the world because you are my followers. Wow. Thanks, Jesus. That's hard words. Well, he had the same kind of hard words in the upper room discourse. If you think about, oh, those four chapters of the gospel of John, fourteen, fifteen, 16, priestly prayer in 17 where he's speaking to his disciples and he's telling them how it's gonna be. In the near future. He says in the beginning of chapter 16, these things I've spoken to you, all this stuff in the upper room about abiding in him and I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I'm the vine and you're the branches. All the stuff that he said in the upper room discourse, he says, these things I've spoken to you so that you won't be led into sin. They are going to ban you from the synagogue. It's a given. This is going to happen. Yet, even still, there's an hour that's coming where everyone who kills you is thinking that they're offering a service to God and that's what Saul thought. These things they'll do because they have not known the father nor me. They just don't get it. It's coming. This is the way it's going to be. It's hard news. At the end of this chapter, this beginning of chapter 16. At the end of the chapter, he says, hey, in this life, you're going have trials and tribulations. This is some of them. But take heart because I've overcome the world. But the believers, here we are. Acts eight four says, but the believers, the ones who had believed and it might be kind of hinting towards it being the Hellenistic believers but it just says the believers. The believers, those believers who were scattered, scattered out from that heavy persecution within Jerusalem, they went and they preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. This little one sentence here, I I have heard it said that the way that the gospel spreads primarily is through the vast unchronicled witness. It's just the people who believe. It's like one beggar telling another beggar where bread can be found. The believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. Philip, for example, he's just one of the people. Now, we've seen Stephen the first name listed among those deacons and now Philip is the second name listed. It says, Philip, for example, Philip, here he is, second guy on the list from Acts six where they were supposed to take care of the distribution of food. Trustworthy guys, full of faith, full of the Holy Spirit, and the seven men were presented to the apostles and the apostles prayed for him, laid their hands on them to do this ministry. That Philip, actually, we hear about him again in Acts 21 and I think this is cool. Acts has a lot of, it's intricate, you know, it's trying to be very very accurate. Luke says, they, they, they, they, until the point where he gets together with Paul and he starts running with them and he says, we, we, we, we, we together and it and this is one of those where Luke is on the journey now and the next day, chapter twenty one eight, the next day, we went on to Caesarea. Caesarea and we stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist. That's the same guy. That's cool. He's the only guy that's called an evangelist in the book of Acts but this is why he's called an evangelist because he carried the evangel, the good news. He was one of those seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. He had four unmarried daughters and they all prophesied. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria. It says the city of Samaria. Samaria is a general location too. It's sort of general but Samaria was also the capital of Samaria. Philip went to the city of Samaria. They were scattered. This is where he ended up and he told the people there about the Messiah. Now, last week, I showed you Shekem in Stephen's speech when he said, Abraham, remember Abraham? Abraham was not here. He left the land where his father of his fathers and he came to the place that God had shown but you know what? He went from here to Egypt and when he was killed, his bones were brought back here but not here to Shekem. Shekem is in Samaria. And Samaria, the capital city from Shekem is only a couple miles away. It's just right there. Samaria is a general region but it's also a city and there it is. There and that's a picture. I'd say a more modern picture because it's a picture. The Library of Congress. You can get online just finds all kinds of stuff. This is what it looks like walking on a path up to Samaria which was a pretty defensible position, had a pretty good position to defend but they still were overcome by the Assyrians. The Babylonian exile long before when the Israelites were coming back. Some of them didn't make it all the way back. Samaria would have been in the Northern Kingdom Of Israel. There's already sort of a split between north and south. Don't we know it? Just happens that way. Samaria, actually, why was there prejudice against Samaritans? I I've got a a there are a few things. Religiously, they believed the first five books of the Bible but they had a slight twist on some of it. The Samaritan Pentateuch. The books of Moses, they took as canon. They tried to believe. They tried to follow Torah but we know what the law does. The law just shows us where we fall short and they did about as good. Maybe I'm overstating but they did about as good as following the law as the wilderness wanderings Israelites did. None of us do really well with the law but why was there prejudice against the Samaritans? They had a lot of syncretistic stuff going on. They believe not just in Yahweh which they said they believed in. They also believed in other local gods, small g gods, and they carried idolatrous practices, and as we'll see, sorcery was a big part of what they did. And in our age, new age stuff, tarot cards, and all that. If you all think that stuff is happening, it's happening. I had somebody come in for counseling a while back, so my mama told me I had to come. Okay. This sounds like a fruitful thing. I said, well, what what is it how do you make decisions in your life, you know? And she said, well, I've got crystals. Not miss Crystal, like crystals. She's got crystals. And I was like, what do crystals do? I'm just wondering. And she said, well, one of them swings on a chain over my bed and I ask it questions and depending on which way it swings, that's what I make the decision on. And I was like, woah. That's that's the truth. And she was here for suicidal thoughts. It's everywhere all the time and I would say, why was there prejudice against the Samaritans? There's prejudice everywhere all the time. I have not ever lived anywhere where the folks there weren't prejudiced against somebody. Have you? I'm from Georgia and I'm I mean, I'm not talking about the black white thing. That's obviously, I'll think about that when you hear my accent and I know that. But I mean, I live 25 miles from Alabama. Somebody says Alabama, go, ugh. Maybe that's because state's rights was just beating our heads so much when we were little that that's the reason state be proud of where you're from. And there's a little bit of be cool to your school in all of us that's just prejudiced against everybody else. It's it's the team mentality that we have and we talk about that a lot. I talk about that a lot. I see the red team and the blue team and I just go, good gracious. That's just the way the world is. Never been anywhere where they didn't kind of look down on the folks next to them. And I this is might get in trouble for this one but if you ask somebody from South Carolina where they're from, say South Carolina, just like that. If you ask somebody from North Carolina where they're from, usually they say Carolina. They don't even want to say north. It's still hanging around. Like, just the way it is. Why was there prejudice because they were half breeds? That's the way the Jews saw them as you had it part right but you ignored all the prophets. You ignored all of the rest of just kept the books of Moses and you reinterpreted those a little bit but they were looking for, we've we've already seen twice in the book of Acts. You are to be looking for a prophet like me that God will give you and when you see him, you need to recognize him and listen to him and the prejudice against the Samaritans was just, it just was. They sided with the wrong people during the revolt of the Maccabees. They sided with Alexander the Great. They sided with the wrong people over and over and they interbreeded with other folks, not Jewish folks. John four, when we see the woman at the well in Samaria in the middle of the daytime, it seems like she's trying to avoid the people. And when Jesus begins the conversation, she said, why why are you even talking to me? I'm a Samaritan woman and you're a Jewish man. Like, this is unheard of. We know that y'all hate our guts. And when Jesus confronts her personally, little more personally, she immediately goes to the religious stuff that she know divides them and she says, y'all say that we ought to worship on the mountain in Jerusalem and we say it should be Gerazim. They actually got permission to build a temple up on Gerazim. By this time, it was torn down. Jesus talking to her was a big deal because of that prejudice that was there. He didn't have that prejudice. He did not have it and I think it's cool because when he confronts her and when when she comes around, she leaves her water pot there and she runs back to town and she tells everybody in town, come see this guy. The Taheb, the one that Moses said we're supposed to be looking for. She recognized him and she said, could this be him? Could this be that prophet? Yeah, I see that you're a prophet and she brings the people back and then Jesus and the disciples stay in Samaria for three days. That's huge. This is on down the line a year or so, maybe, maybe further than that two, three, I don't know but John four is one of the places and then Luke 10, acknowledging the prejudice that exist when Jesus tells the story about the guy in the Wadi who has been overcome by robbers and he's been beaten up and he's lying there left for dead and a Levite, a priest, and a Levite both walked by. Both of those are supposed to be good guys in the story and they just walked by praying but not wanting to be near that unclean person. Might be dead. I don't want to touch a dead body. Not wanting to be involved but a good Samaritan and the fact that it was a good Samaritan is in the context of all of that prejudice. I've mentioned just little prejudices. There are bigger prejudices and you all know what they are in Costa Rica when we live down there. It's easier when it's a foreign place. You're in a foreign place, you know. So in Costa Rica, we lived there for a year. Anytime I get in a cab, I'd start up a conversation with a cab driver and usually, it would turn spiritual at some point because why are you here comes up when you look like this, there, you know. And so the weirdo factor, I try to use to my advantage and and the conversation would oftentimes I'd say, what's going on? What do you think about Costa Rica? Tell me where do I need to see? What's going on? And as we're talking, there were one or two ways. I'd recognize an accent that was a little bit off, a little bit different than Costa Rican, and I'd say, where are you from? They'd say, Nicaragua because they came here to have a job and taxi cab, something that people can do and that's something that is right there and available for them. And I I thought that was great. I loved it. I loved it. If there was a Costa Rican cab driver and I'd say, what's going on? Oftentimes, I'd say, it was better before the Nika got here, the Nikas. And there was just this utter kind of disdain for the other. That is the context that we're talking about in Samaria. In both the Luke 10, Good Samaritan story and in John four and Philip finds himself there when they receive power from on high. God says, you're going to be my witnesses, not my judges, not my lawyers, my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and he puts that together. I actually use the NIV here because I think that that reflects the Greek accurately that Judea and Samaria in that sentence are right there together. Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So, Philip, for example, we're just getting started. Went to the city of Samaria, told the people there about the Messiah. Amen. And it says, crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message. That's good and to see the miraculous signs he did. That's fantastic too. It does say that he was doing signs, miraculous signs. The next verse, it says, many evil spirits were cast out. Many of them were screaming as they left their victims and many who had been paralyzed or were lame were healed. So, the crowds were listening to Philip because they're eager to hear his message. That's great. It's good to think that wow, people are going show up. If I'm going to tell them about the Messiah, people want to hear it but they were also there because of the miracles and the summary statement at the end of that says, so there was great joy in that city. Grace recognized produces joy. So, there was great joy in that city of Samaria. Now, a man named Simon, not Simon Peter. A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years. Justin Martyr actually tells us, Justin Martyr is an extra extra biblical source but early, really early and he says that Simon was from the city of Samaria. He says, that man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years. Oh, boy. If you know the Old Testament, sorcerers have nothing to do with these evil forces. Remember Saul going and consulting that witch, the sorcerer? Have nothing to do with these folks. This says a man named Simon there had been a sorcerer there for many years. Amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. That's what we know of Simon Magus actually, Simon, m a g u s, Magus. Simon Magus is a sorcerer. He was claiming to be someone great and everybody in Samaria from the least to the greatest all often spoke of him as the great one, the power of God. Now, he claimed to be somebody great. I wonder who put that in their ear that there he's the actual power of God. They listen closely to him because for a long time, he had astounded them with his magic. Simon Magus magic. Simon, the great, the great one. They listen to him because wait, there's a parallel here. It says in verse six, the crowds listen intently to Philip. First, because they wanted to hear his message but they wanted to see the miracles and as we saw in Jesus' ministry and earlier in the apostles ministry, we have seen that the miracles tend to authenticate the message. It was a time when God was very actively doing things to get the attention of the people and to spread the message. Simon Magus said they listened to him because for a long time, it astounded them with his magic. They couldn't figure out how did how he did what he was doing. He was claiming to be someone great. He vaunted self, if you want to get right down to it. This is, but now, now the people who had listened to both of them believed Philip's message and Philip's message one was of good news, the Euangelion, the gospel concerning the kingdom of God and the name specifically of Jesus Christ. Philip's message lifted up Christ. Simon Magus' message lifted up Simon Magus. Now, as a result, many men and women were baptized. That's good. I would say it's a revival but it's just kind of a vival, isn't it? It's just happening for the first time. This gospel is taking root and as a result, many people, men and women were baptized because they believed and this is the wrinkle here and then, Simon himself believed and was baptized. This this complicates things. Actually, right now, you might think maybe that's not too complicated. Great. The sorcerer, wonderful. He's now not a sorcerer. He believed in Jesus. He laid all that down beside him. We gotta keep on reading in the text to see what happens but it says that he believed. So, belief comes from hearing, hearing comes from proclamation. They were proclaiming, people were listening. Simon himself believed when he baptized. Well, let's keep reading. What happened from there? Simon himself. This sounds kind of crazy. He began following Philip wherever he went. Now, this is a magician, a sorcerer, a trickster, someone who was using illusion and deceit to his advantage, maybe real spells and ugly stuff from the dark arts, but he began following Philip wherever he went and he was amazed by the signs and the great miracles that Philip performed. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria, those hated Samaritans. When the people of in Jerusalem, the apostles heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message and they had also heard from Jesus. You're going to be my witnesses. This word's going to spread from here. He had also had a chance to tell him, hey, Israel was supposed to be a great light to the nations and now, you're going to be that light to the nations. You're going to see this go the beyond the bounds that you expect. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. Who better? They'd send Peter and John to go. As soon as they arrived, as soon as they arrived, they saw what was happening, they heard what the people had believed, they heard the new Philip's message was true and they saw that it says as soon before they received the Holy Spirit too. And so they recognized as soon as they arrived, they prayed for the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them for they had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and the believers received the Holy Spirit. Now, what did that include Simon Magus? I don't know. Doesn't say so. The rest of the text will keep on getting into but Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and think about the wonderful confirmation for Peter and John. When the Holy Spirit descends upon these believers and it's evident to them that we have one church. We don't have a Hebrew Hebrewic church in Jerusalem and a Hellenistic church outside of that. It's not a varsity junior varsity thing. God has given them the knowledge of Messiah and now he's given them the power of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit and they received it. Now, when Simon saw that the spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on the people, who's watching Philip close? Philip is not an apostle by the way. I might capitalize the A in apostles right there because I think it's important. These original apostles were given instruction by Jesus to go and they are important and this is a transitional book and these capital a apostles went and they witnessed that the people had believed and then laying hands on them in agreement and affirmation, the Holy Spirit comes upon them too. When Simon saw that the spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on people, he oh wait, offered them, that's the apostles. He offered the apostles money to buy this power. Do you all know the word Simony? You know what Simony is? Good. Connor, you want to explain it? No. There's the Simony is this. Simony is the religious in our religious vocabulary. Simony is the sin of trying to buy an office of the church or to buy influence in the church. Simon, he still exist but it's named for this guy. Simon was trying to buy the power to spread the Holy Spirit. Now, if that could be a good thing, if he wanted to spread the Holy Spirit and he's like, hey, all anybody I touch, I just go through here and like, boom. There you go. Hey, there you go. Holy Spirit, this is easy. Wow. This is the easiest revival I've ever been in. All I have to do is touch people and they receive the Holy Spirit. Thank you all for not speaking in tongues and rolling around on the ground. He offered him money to buy the power to bestow the Holy Spirit. No. He was offering the money to have power for sure. Let me have this power too. He explained, so that when I lay my hands on people, they're going to receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, may your money be destroyed with you. For even thinking that God's gift can be bought because God's gift cannot be bought. Freely, freely, you do do this anathema. That is a ridiculous assertion and no, may your money be damned with you basically, he says. You can have no part in this for your heart is not right with God. So, he said, it says he believed and was baptized but what Peter says, you can't have any part in this because your heart is not right with God. So, there are arguments that happen in among theologians all the time and commentators fall down on different sides of every possible question. The question of whether Simon Magus was saved or not comes up and people say, I believe he was or I believe I want him to be because the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus pardon receives. Yes, if he was humble before God, but all we see of him in this passage is he was not humble before God. He was proud. He called himself someone great to the point where everybody else started imitating saying he was great. You can have no part in this for your heart's not right with God. Repent, Peter says, not the first time he said to repent. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord directly. Perhaps, he'll forgive your evil thoughts. That's what he does. Repent of your wickedness. Pray to the Lord. Perhaps, he'll forgive your evil thoughts for I can see, Peter says, and he was humbled by God. He was used mightily of God and he did have some authority given by Jesus. He says, I can see that you're full of bitter jealousy. You want something that someone else has. That's covetousness. I can see that you're held captive by sin. That sounds like he's not saved. Like I said, people argue over whether he was or whether he wasn't. If you read any of the future text, not the canonical biblical text but some of the other excluded gospels with good reason that were written in the three hundreds of the four hundreds or later in the dark ages. If you read the fan fiction for the Bible, then you will see Simon Magus come up over and over again. He is always the opponent of Peter. Every story he and Peter, Simon Peter, Simon Magus against one another. Good historians, lots of scholars believe that Simon Magus resisted this, resisted this, resisted this, and he became the father of gnosticism. I don't know if that's true. That's not in the Bible but his thinking on this as evidenced right here and this, the next thing. He says, pray to the Lord for me. You're the one that knows him. Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed, that these terrible things won't happen to me. I'm scared for myself. Everything that he has been about the whole time has been about self. He he never really acknowledged. Even if he believed the message about Jesus being the Messiah, he didn't have, it didn't seem that he has the access to him. I won't pretend to judge him. I don't know but pray to the Lord for me. I I do know that in the position of being somebody that is given some authority deserved or not. Being upfront here and being in the office here and it being my job. I will have people who come to me sometimes and say, you pray for me. You pray for me. I don't know that guy. I'm scared of him. Well, I tell you what, we make pitiful saviors. Pitiful. I'm a pitiful savior. Paul was a pitiful savior even after he got good and saved, right? He says in Romans nine, he says, if I could, I'd die for those people that they would come to know the true one. He said, but my blood's no good for that. I can't do that. We make pitiful saviors. We're temporary at best only to connect them to it. Now, Peter said, go directly to the Lord and and repent of the wickedness and just ask Jesus but he says, you pray for me. Pray that these bad things won't happen to me like you said. I don't get it still. Now, after testifying and testifying is what witnesses do. Witnesses testify. They say, this is what happened to me and there's no theological arguments against the transformed life. So, after testifying, Peter and John could tell the whole story of their whole experience with Jesus but they didn't just testify. They testified and preached the word of the Lord. How? This is my experience but it's based on this, the word of God. So, after testifying and proclaiming the word of the Lord in Samaria, strangest of places so far, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. Now, their home base was back in Jerusalem. We see that they do spread out from there. We see where Peter ends up. We see where John ends up in the rest of scripture but after testified and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem and they stopped on the way back home in many Samaritan villages along the way to keep on proclaiming the good news because that's what happens when you know Jesus. You just want other folks to know him the way you know him. I think that's the last slide. It is. I need the every hour. I I look at the text and I think, what's the difference in Philip and his message and Simon Magus and his message? Philip's message lifted up Jesus. Philip was he is called the evangelist and we'll see him next week speaking to the the Ethiopian eunuch. He's been broadcast into these Samaritans and God lifts him up out of that revival and then brings him along this road alongside this chariot. His message always is from the word and lifting up Jesus and Simon Magus was always vaunting self and out for just self preservation. If we are going to be true every moment we live, if we're going to be have our hearts changed to be more like God, it is going to take the humility that was displayed by Philip by just go forward preaching the word and testifying to what it says and what it means. Instead of vaunting self and trying to buy influence and wanting power without relationship. I need the every hour is a perfect close to this. Would y'all stand with me? And we're going to sing, I need thee every hour. Most gracious lord, the altar is always open. Y'all are welcome to come forward anytime but if you want, I'll be here afterwards too till the last customer served. I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can peace afford. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, me now my savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour, stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power when thou nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee, Oh, bless me now my savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, o'er life is vain. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, me now my savior. I come to thee. On the last. I need thee every hour, most holy one. Oh, make me thine indeed, thou blessed son. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, me now my savior. I come Amen. And as a benediction today, I wanna go back to number six, the ironic blessing. From number six twenty four, it says, now may the Lord bless you and keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you so that you can see him and give you peace. Lord, that's what we pray and lord, that we would be able to express that peace, to express that and articulate the goodness of God to those we come into contact with. In Jesus name, may we always be lifting up Jesus. Amen.