The Blood of the Martyrs Is the Seed of the Church
First B Jackson
2013-08-04

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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We're up to Acts eight. Acts eight one through 25 in our study of Acts and I've heard a lot of different ministries in the time This is a very, very rich book. There's a lot here. There's a lot in every verse it seems. So we've been going and plotting through but if you will think back to where we were the last time that we were in this study two weeks ago we had Kelly and Charice Smith here last week we were at the very close of Act seven and that's where Stephen is murdered.

One of the, it's a phrase that comes up again and again in study, I think it's Eurenais, I'm not positive, could have been fulfilling, think it's Eurenais. He said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. We'll see that today in this passage how that goes. The I wanna clear something up though.

The blood of the martyrs being the seed of the church. Jesus did not die as a martyr. Jesus died as a savior, as their When we go in to Acts one through eight one through 25 verse one introduces us to a guy that we'll start to see very often in this book but it's just our introduction. Acts one says Saul first word Solace Saul later to become Paul, Saul was one of the witnesses and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. When I said that about Henry senior, he was a rough character, but he did see a light.

Praise God. It's the same light Saul would see to become Paul. He's still active. He's still at work. God still does this.

Saul was one of the witnesses and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. Now some devout man came and buried Stephen with great mourning. This verse, I say every verse has something in it. That we would just go over.

Oh, they have a funeral procedure. Big deal. No. Stephen was killed. He was killed for believing what he believed, for proclaiming what he did to mourn the death of blasphemer.

Stephen was not a blasphemer. Stephen knew the truth. Luke recounts it that some devout man, those godfears, didn't follow the law on that point because they knew he was not a blasphemer. He was proclaiming the very truth of God as he would do up to the very instant of his death when he saw Jesus standing up welcoming him. Amen.

So, something about me and him buried Steven with great mourning. I'm just getting through the introduction before I get to the actual sermon, but Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. So this is just setting the scene. What it does, it introduces us to Saul who will later become Paul and features so heavily in the book of Acts toward him especially on his missionary journeys.

So we're introduced to Saul. Next thing is we know what Saul is about the business of doing. Now he will repeat his conversion story two other times, the time beside the time that Luke held it. Paul will repeat it a couple other times in the book of Acts. So we're gonna hear this a few times.

Saul is about what? The business of destroying the church. The the action verb there is a present tense verb in Greek which means this is a continual action. He lives for this. That's what he's always doing, to destroy the church.

But Jesus said, I will build my church. Now who's gonna destroy that? Right. We also see in this that persecution scatters the believers. Now the scattering that came up in that last verse is gonna come up again in the next verse.

But the believers who were scattered preach the good news about Jesus wherever they went. Scattered. There are two different words in Greek for it. One of them is to scatter, like we would say, scatter someone's ashes. We do not expect goes out all over the whole house.

Scatter that. It's not to be recollected. Scattering just dispersed. That's not the term here. The term here is scattering just as someone would scatter seed and a solar went forth to scatter family.

To scatter the seed. Now that's important because they were being planted to places they were being scattered. That make sense? God had been cultivating the soil. Think about Jesus and a woman who left.

Where were they? Samaria. Who was Samaritan? He was covering some ground there. He was setting in motion the plow, if you will, cultivation.

He was starting the process. Now the process had been going back for Samaritan in a long, long time. Thousand over a thousand years as a matter of fact. They believed in the Pentateuch, they believed in the first five books of the Bible. The prophets and everybody else were the ones who really got into mixing racism and mixed worship and all that sort of stuff, but they held to Samaritan held to a version of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible is Moses.

So they had some basis. They're kind of an intermediary step though between the Jews of Jerusalem and the Gentiles of the the pagan Gentiles out of the world. They had some hint about the gospel because they did have the word of Moses. They did have Deuteronomy 18 that says, to be looking for one like me, a prophet that would come like me, to have the Hebrew word. The prophet, deliverer, redeemer, the one who would come, who will be raised up from among all people like me and that's what Jesus and the woman of oil was talking about when she said, I sense that you are a prophet.

Okay? So they have some basis, some background. The believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus everywhere they went and I bring that all up about Samaria because Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and he told the people there about the Messiah. This is it's nonspecific in this I mean, it's specific in this version right here, went to the city of Samaria, probably the capital city of Samaria, although Samaria is a general term that didn't have real strict boundaries. It's probably the city of Samaria and he told the people there about the Messiah.

Proud to listen intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message. It tweaked their interest. Philip and Stephen served together on the speaking board. We've been talking about that. They served together in ministering to the needs of the poor and then when they're scattered, Philip, I'm sure had absorbed a lot from Stephen, from the apostles and he was proclaiming the message of the Christ, the Messiah.

It was peaking their interest. He had their ear. They were leaning forward listening to what he had to say, and we'll see why that is in a few minutes. They were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs that he did. I have that in orange.

Signs Signs is very particular. We'll see it several times here. Many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims, and many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. What was happening here?

What do you think was happening here? It was a great lame. I recall it a revival, but it's hard to call something a revival if they've never had the Holy Spirit in the first place, if they never had the Gospel in the first place but they didn't have something to look forward to. I mentioned that part about what they had, the prophet that they're looking for and they were eagerly expecting it and they didn't like the division that they had between the Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans and the Jews American deal were considered to be inferior because they had set up a different temple.

Not the one in Jerusalem. They set up a different temple, a place to worship God, the God they considered to be the same God. That's God on Mount Gerizim. That was what the woman at the well meant when she was speaking to Jesus and he he said he asked her about her personal life and she said, so which one is God? The temple at Gerizim and the temple in Jerusalem.

She wanted to switch to a religious conversation. This great awakening, they were looking forward to something, and it was happening. It was happening when Philip started proclaiming the gospel of Jesus' life, sacrificial death, and freedom from sin and the consequences. And it was happening in Samaria. So revival happens.

That sounds great. Let's read on. Let's keep on going on. But revival is happening in Samaria. People are taking to the word, and we'll see that in a couple more verses, but we read on.

A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years. So he had been a sorcerer in the city of Samaria for many years. It says sorcerer. It doesn't say magician. It doesn't say charlatan.

It doesn't say huckster. Trickster. It says a sorcerer. He was dealing in the dark arts. He was dealing in other spirits.

He had been a sorcerer there for many years, and he amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke with him as the great one, the power of God. In fact, this guy in church history has often and almost always referred to Simon Magus. Simon Magus, m a g u s, meaning Simon the great. It's kind of like, most of magnificent or Chris Angel Mindfreak.

You know what I mean? It's one of those kind of a known it's a it's a name that magicians give themselves to appear to be greater than they are. He was amazing the people, the great one, the power of God. They listen closely to him. This is the people of Samaria before and listen closely to him because for a long time he had astounded, it's the same word for amazed that I aren't there.

Astounded and amazed him with his magic. But now the people believe Philip's message and what was Philip's message he tells us? Of good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. He was specific about it. It.

It was not just some general good news. It was not universal that all Jews and Samaritans would be free and they would all get to spend time sky high and sky It wasn't that. It was specific. It was news concerning the kingdom of God and how that kingdom was advanced and and the name of Jesus Christ. And as a result, many men and women were baptized.

So what was happening? Like I said a minute ago, Samaria was experiencing a great awakening or you might call it a revival. Then Simon himself believed, it's a tricky verse. Simon himself believed and was sabotaged, but if you keep looking at what he's believing in, I think we can find the key to this tricky verse. He began following Philip wherever he went and the bird there is kind of like a puppy would follow somebody around him.

Hey, Spike. You know that that convert that cartoon, the way that I have a little kid, the little puppy that's jumping around. Hi. Hi. I'll do it.

Hi. Let me do this. He began following Philip around wherever he went. He recognized the power that Philip had was greater than the power that he had been using and accessing and because of that he wanted that that Philip had and he was amazed. So the guy who was amazing and astounding people was himself amazed by what?

By the signs and great miracles that Philip performed. Just a word on the sign. This is this illustration I've heard from a couple of different places but this is a great one for me it clears things up. If you have like a one year old baby sitting on your lap and you see a hummingbird outside and you think oh, I want this baby. That'd be thrilling for a one year old.

I've never seen a hummingbird before. What do you do? You point to the hummingbird outside the window and what does the baby do? They look at your hand and then they start trying to figure out how you're doing that or they look back at your hand they try to touch it or they try to slap, they look at the sign, they're amazed by it, they're astounded by it and they're like wow they can bend their fingers at will and it looks like that. I wonder if I can do that.

That's what they're looking for, it's a sign, but they miss the hummingbird. They miss what you're pointing to because a sign points to something. Her construction sign, real time for the people pay attention to overnight. They they do point to something. Right?

There's a reason they're there. Well, Philip's sign were pointing towards Jesus Christ. They were authenticating the miracles. The miracles were authenticating the message. So that's the word about signs.

When apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, apparently, they had sent a runner back to say, hey, they accepted the message. They sent Peter and John there. Now, this is unusual and we'll come back to multiple times, but it's not every day that somebody sends to Jerusalem says, hey, send a couple of guys out here and check this. You can't do that with the gospel. We don't have, you know, fact checkers that run around and say, oh, yes, this person has been saved and and they seal that deal.

No. That's not the way that the gospel advances. It's not the way that we'll see it advance and act. It's not the way that we have seen it advance and act. But this is an unusual situation.

As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them in any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Again, this is very unusual. This is the only time in scripture that we see this happening this way. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now, I'll I'll stop right right here here and and mention mention this. This. I I wanna wanna read the whole passage and then come back and do a quick synopsis with some application at the end. But they're receiving the gospel but not yet having received the Holy Spirit is unusual. This is the only place in the book of acts that we see it.

We do see later in the book of acts in acts 19 I think is Paul finds a group of people in Ephesus who had been baptized with John the Baptist's baptism. And when they're baptized with John the Baptist's baptism, they just were baptized for the repentance of sins. They didn't know anything about Jesus or the Holy Spirit necessarily. They were kind of far flung from the action of Jesus's life. So Paul prays that they would be baptized in the name of Jesus and they receive the Holy Spirit at that point.

So, there is one other thing where people might say that but that's not that's not normally the case. They did not know about Jesus. When Paul brought that on, they received Jesus and the Holy Spirit at the same time. So anyway because it's here it's been taken in two various ways. Some people take this two stage reception as normative and those people typically fall on the the Pentecostal side or Catholic even some of the physical side.

We'll take it as a two stage blessing where you can receive the truth about Christ but not yet receive the spirit and then the Pentecostals would say you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a lot of them would say as evidenced by student income, not all but some would say that. And then others would say, the Catholic church would say we are authenticating the fact that you believe the gospel and we are inferring upon you the Holy Spirit. I don't try to misrepresent either side but that's the basic way that that goes. So two stages is normative typically is a Pentecostal or charismatic position or a Catholic position which don't often agree on much. So that's two stages.

The other is they take these two stages as exceptional. I actually take it as an exceptional thing with an humble stance before God on this because he can do whatever he wants to. I'm not gonna twist his arm into doing it the way I want him to do it. I believe though that it's exceptional. I think there's a cultural reason for that and we'll come back to that at the end or later.

So when Simon saw that the spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, offered them money to buy this power. You know, in the Catholic church and in the sense, anybody who seeks to buy ecclesiastical favor, whether it be office in the church or whether they seek to buy themselves into heaven. You know what that sin is called? Simon. Simon.

It's named after this guy because when Simon saw that the spirit was given when the apostles laid their hand on people, he offered them money to buy this power. That's the sin of Simon. Named after you. Wouldn't you hate to have a sin named after you? That's just awful.

Let me have this power too. He explained so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit. He wanted it on his terms. But Peter replied, may your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought. If you'll excuse me one moment on this point, the JB Phillips version translates this verse pretty accurately actually as to hell with you, Andrew.

That's that's JB Phillips version of this because he said, the gift of God cannot be bought and shame on you for thinking so. You can't have no part in this or you have no part whatsoever in this for your heart is not right of God. Repent of this wickedness your wisdom and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts. Peter would not even presume to say whether God would or would not because he knew it's up to God to forgive sins and unless God forgives sins, they are not forgiven.

Does that make sense? Peter could not forgive that man's sin. He knew it was up to God alone. For I can see that you're full of bitter jealousy and that you are held captive by sin. He might not have been able to see much, but he could see that.

Pray to the Lord for me, Simon explained, that these terrible things you said won't happen to me. Alright. And then the closing verse, this one's the one in your bulletin. I love this verse. It's one of those summary statements.

Luke goes along and he makes summary statements from time to time. And after testifying the preaching word of the Lord Samaritan, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem and they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach good news. This is what these people did. That's what they did wherever they went. The gospel goes forth with you.

If you're a Christian and you are open to God, he will give you opportunity to spread, to scatter that city. He'll do it wherever you are. I love that. They stopped in many Samaritan villages because think about them. They weren't Greek speaking Hellenistic Jews like Philip.

They were Hebraic Jews. Hebrews stopping in Samaria because why? Because they had just seen the Holy Spirit given to Samaritans. That's a great thing and that's the cultural crux that I think that this falls on. So there are three simultaneous spiritual plot points that are happening in this story.

I wanted to read the whole thing with a little introduction here and there so that you'd be thinking about these things. All of these are happening at the same time. It's hard to preach this sequentially because you run into Simon and then it goes to people believing and you run into Simon again. So it's hard to preach it in sequence. But these three are all happening at the same time.

There is a great awakening of Samaria. I've already said that. Philip proclaims the good news. Every great wakening and every revival is about the gospel. Period.

It's not about where you set up at the tent, how you invite the people, it's about the gospel. It is the good news that Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and was raised again. And he offers that freely to those who will believe and trust in him. Philip proclaims the good news of the gospel. Good news, gospel, same thing.

The crowds listen intently. It doesn't matter how hard you're preaching if nobody's listening. When people are listening and the word is being preached, God will work. Period. He always does.

That's the way that he does it. So the crowd listening intently to the good news reading proclaimed, this is what we can give credit for to God for the great awakening Samaria. I mentioned in the first service that I'm from Georgia and I mentioned it again before I started singing. In Georgia, we schedule revivals. We schedule usually every August.

It's normal. We schedule a revival. It's a normal thing to do this and at different points in the century we've seen revivalism come up. There are in fact revivals going on in the world that are true revivals and then there are others that are tent meetings that are still going. They just keep going.

I don't wanna thank God there either. He can work in that as long as his word is being proclaimed and the crowd is listening. God can and does revive. Miraculous signs authenticated this message and I think if we look at this culturally, we'll get into that in in just a minute. But the miraculous signs authenticated the message.

What had they been looking to before that? They had been looking to sign up. He was the famous one around there. He was the one that had been doing miraculous wonders and he was taking all the credit for himself and making himself great. But when Philip came along and was doing these, he was doing them in the name of Jesus.

There's a difference there. So the people believed and they were baptized. So the second thing. So the first one is there is revival going on. Second is the unusual visit of Peter and John.

I've already kind of alluded to it but I won't go through it. It is unusual. We don't see this anywhere else. Now I've I've got notes about half an inch pickup here on different places where we do see things happening in the book of Acts. It is always experiential.

There's always a way that when the Holy Spirit comes it is an experiential thing. It manifests itself when Paul later on would ask in '19, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed with those guys I was mentioning a little while ago that had John's baptism, they were baptized for the repentance of sins? He asked and flat out, did you receive the spirit? It's something that you will know. We don't see this type of visit anywhere else.

It is unusual. Was it prompted by the unusual circumstances? I believe that it was. I I take it as an exceptional instance, not a something we should see as normative. And considering the history between the Jews and Samaritans, there was a great possibility at this point of having a bred Jewish Christian church that's growing in Jerusalem and wherever they spread the gospel, but also having a Hellenistic Samaritan Christian church that looks to Jesus for their salvation but won't have anything to do with those Hebrewic Jews because of their past history.

So a divided church. What does Paul say later after he's not Saul anymore? He says there's one that doesn't one spirit, one church. And so it's worth it. God is overcoming cultural boundaries and he's bringing us together.

So considering the history, I think that God was protecting his church. You will be my witnesses, Jesus said. In Jerusalem, Judea, Jerusalem's in Judea by the way, Samaria and the uttermost parts. You will be, Jesus has said. So they knew what receiving the Holy Spirit looked like.

Peter and John both knew what it would look like. A noticeable change would take place. Sometimes in the book of Acts we see it with the speed of tongues, not every time. Sometimes we see it as great let me look at this notes for just a second. Sometimes there's a speaking in tongues like in chapter one and two.

In Samaria, we know that Simon saw later on. He saw and was amazed by this and wanted the power to make it happen. So, it was evident to him looking from the outside. In Caesarea in the house of Cornelius in a couple of chapters, there was speaking in tongues and there was praising God. Anytime though that they're speaking in tongues, it is so that someone will understand.

God's not the author of confusion. He is doing it so that people will understand in their own language. At Paul's conversion, there's an extraordinary boldness and an empowering witness. And in Acts five, it says, God gave the Holy Spirit to all of those who were obedient to him. So there's something that is a change because as normal human beings, are not obedient to the will of God or to his direction or to his demands.

So they knew what receiving the Holy Spirit looked like, that's John and Peter, a noticeable change would take place. Now the third thing is Simon Magus' heart, it's the exposure And I think I can say this with certainty that anytime that there's a time of great revival, it's gonna be because people are hanging on the every word of God. They're hanging on his word and hanging on the proclamation of his word and it's convicting them of sin and of righteousness and of good works and they go forth. God is working because he's working through his word. His word is a two headed sword, but either it's gonna drive you into obedience or it's gonna expose your sin.

Simon Magus was looking at the hand, not at the hummingbird. He was looking at the signs and he was putting his faith in that, hey, if I can just figure out how to do that and imagine how much money, imagine how great I could be. He was looking at the signs not on the earth. He wanted the power for himself. Peter tells us that his heart, Simon's heart, was bitter and jealous Even in the face of God's glorious gospel.

And Peter tells him to repent of this wickedness. Repent of the wickedness and turn to God. And he says it directly, pray yourself to God. Repent of your sin. Pray to God that he may it's one of those subjunctive terms again, that he may forgive, perhaps he will forgive because Simon, Peter, sorry, Peter, not even wanting to take upon God to say the prerogative of God and say he will.

No. He knows your heart. I don't know your heart. I can see your ability to bitterness, jealousy, probably even rage, but we do see that Simon would not even face up to God. He says, you pray this for me.

I'm not gonna admit this to God. I can't go to him. He tries to go to Peter and say, you do this. But Peter's telling him there is no intermediary. Jesus is the only way.

The great news of the gospel, and you heard it and you know it, and you say that you believe it. If you believe in Jesus, you can pray directly to God, and he will forgive you of your sin. I think that's getting us to the Lord's supper. As we come to this time, I'll ask Scott and the man if y'all would come back up. This is kind of a it's kind of an invitation, but it's really an invitation to to experience the Lord's supper here among the body of Christ, a fellowship of believers.

I want you to look back at those points and think what was happening in Samaria? Why was there a Bible? Well, God's word was being proclaimed that people were listening and they were being obedient. That was happening. I want you to think about the how much God cares about his church and unity among believers that he would have these guys.

Later on in Acts 15 they report back to the Jerusalem Council and said no, we saw it happen, we saw God receive the Holy Spirit come down exactly like you did with us. We know that this is true and good and there's one church and then consider your own way. Paul tells us about taking the supper, the Lord's supper unworthily And when he does, he says that we should examine ourselves before eating of the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread and drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you're eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. So I am gonna give you a chance right now.

I'm gonna sing. God's gonna play. The band's gonna play. If y'all know the song and would like to sing along, I think it's almost last time, Cleanse Me. The first verse is about cleansing and we're gonna pray through that verse that God will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Whatever it is, he says that if we will confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. So we have that promise. John one nine. During the second verse we're going to distribute the bread so if I can get the front line team or the elders up front to distribute the bread and the cup during the first verse we're going to distribute the cup and when they come back up we're going to take that together. The third verse will distribute the wine and then we'll take that in between and then we'll all stand saying the last verse together.

So cleanse me. And after giving thanks to God for it, Jesus broke the pieces and said, this is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus. Jesus, thank you for coming And thank you for endowing us with your Holy Spirit, Lord.

I pray that you would be with us as we remember you. I ask you also to bless this cup. Amen. In the same way, took the cup of wine after supper saying, this cup is a new covenant between God and his people, an agreement that's confirmed in my blood. Do this each time that you do as often as you drink of the remembrance of me.

Paul goes on to say that for every time that we eat this bread and drink this cup, we're announcing the Lord's death until he comes and that is the truth, his death but also his resurrection. Would you stand with me as we sing the fourth verse of this song? Just pay attention to these words that went so well with the sermon today.