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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Today we're gonna be talking about Acts. Again, Acts eight and if you're coming up to Acts eight one through 25 the last thing that we have seen is the martyrdom of Stephen And there's a very famous quote. I think it's Irenaeus that said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and we have thought one at this point. Jesus did not die as a martyr.

Jesus died as a saint. We have one martyr. We got what we believe in at this point. And that's Acts one Acts eight one through 25 starts off and it's telling us Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed to complete with the killing of Stephen. A great label of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem and all the believers except for the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

That's Acts eight one. That's I'm not a numerologist, but Acts one eight comes to mind where it says that Jesus says to the disciples you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts and into the earth. This is probably not the way that they would have chosen to spread out But it is the way that God had for them. So Saul was one of the witnesses. This is just an introduction he would become Paul.

Second verse here, I'm really preaching on four through 25 but the first three are so full, so rich. Saul, we just get that introduction. This would become Paul. The next chapter we'll see that Carl will be preaching on that in a couple of weeks. Great wave of persecution over the church.

You have to kind of get into the moment before you see what's going on. Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning. We still have the 613 rules, the Old Testament law that the Jews tried to follow that were so cumbersome to them. One of the rules was that you not mourn someone who was found for blasphemy. Devout men, people who love God, God fearers came out with great wailing and they buried Stephen.

And he they didn't care. He saw that basically is what he was pointing. But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. That was his intent. The the nature of the verb there is that this was his continual habitual action was destroying the church.

That's what he saw as his purpose. You remember when Jesus said there will come a time when those will persecute you and they will kill you believing that they are doing what God has for them. Saul was one of those people that was doing what he thought God had for him and it was killing Christians. Again, we'll get to Saul becoming Paul. He went from house to house dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

So here we see we're introduced to Saul who become Paul and he's about the business of destroying the church but we know he was present at Stephen's execution. Can you imagine a Pharisee hearing Stephen and be impressed with it? You can't help but be impressed with that sermon that Stephen gave two weeks ago. That we went over two weeks ago. And we see that this persecution scatters the believers.

I wanna mention one more thing about these first three verses. The word scattered there is gonna come up again. It's gonna come up in verse four right here. Says, but the believers who were scattered, so it says scattered. And it says the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus everywhere they went.

The scattering, there are two different words in Greek to be used with. Maybe more, I'm not an agricultural guy, but there are at least two of them. One of them means scattered. That's kind of like you do with somebody's ashes. You scatter them into the wind and you scatter them into the sea and there's not any real thought that they will ever be collected again or that anything happens from there, just spread out scattered.

The other one is scattered like there was a sower who went out into the field. He was scattering the seed. That's the word right here. They were scattered. Sown, a scatter like the little thing that we push around our yard to spread the fertilizer.

It was spreading them out. That's what it was doing. It was just taking them to one location where there's a high concentration and sending them out to a place where it was an area of low concentration. So the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaritans and told the people there about the Messiah.

I'm gonna just kind of interject along the way, read the whole passage and then come back at the end and try to make some application with this. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria. That could be the city, the capital city of Samaria or a city of Samaria, most likely the capital city downtown Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. That was a bold move on Phillips Park. He was getting out of town to avoid persecution.

You could say that he was a scaredy cat or that he was just trying to save his life. But where he went was not even a whole lot better for him. He went into Samaria. Now if you remember back, Philip was a Greek speaking Hellenistic Jew. So he was Jewish.

He practiced the rights of Judaism. He did all of those things, but when he recognized the Christ, he didn't have the same cultural baggage that that Hebrews speaking Jews did. When he went out, he didn't have exactly the same thing. He knew the Jews and the Samaritans didn't get along and he did apply. There's a long standing history of hatred.

The Jews saw the Samaritans as half breeds both religiously and ethnically. They did not see them as being someone that they should respect and they felt themselves to be superior to them. And Philip knew this, but he went anyway to the city of Samaria. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and to see the miraculous signs he did. I'll point out signs.

There are several places where we see the word signs. I want you to think about it. It's not just saying miracles, it's not just saying wonders, it's not just saying healing, it's saying signs. Many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims and many who had been paralyzed or lame or healed. So we've seen Jesus do this, we've seen Peter do this, we've seen Stephen do this, and now we're seeing Philip do this, all by the power of God, none of them would have taken credit for themselves.

Jesus it says considered did not robbery or considered equality of God not something to be grasped. None of them would have taken the credit for themselves but given it to God alone. So what? There was great joy in that city. That's fantastic.

So what was happening? It was a great awakening. It was a revival. They believed the word that he said. He was proclaiming the gospel and they were believing it.

And in Samaria, I say great awakening. I've heard lots of guys and read lots of guys this week that said revival. It's hard to call something revival when it's never happened before to me. I feel like a revival is what we go through as Christians when God gives us this feeling again where we remember what's like the joy of God's salvation. But it was a great awakening in Samarit too.

That sounds great. But we read on there's a lot going on here. Our final closing on this is gonna be about the three plot points that are happening simultaneously. There are three things that are going on. So the people are believing in Samaria.

A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years. Amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as the great one, the power of God. In fact, the name that we have for him in church history when we're talking about him, we call him Simon Magus. Simon Magus is like Simon the magician or Simon the great in Latin Magus being great.

He's Simon the great, the benevolent, the wonderful, the magnificent, imaginative, amazing, that sort of thing. Simon the great one or even the power of God attributed to God. They listen closely to him, They they listen closely to Simon in the past because for a long time he astounded them with his magic. It does not say science. Okay?

It's magic. And he's already been called a sorcerer. This is someone who's not a shyster or a charlatan. He is dealing in the dark arts. He's dealing with evil spirits, evil things.

Whether they're masking themselves as great or not, he has astounded them with his magic. But now the people believes Philip's message that they had turned away from what they had been believing, which was Simon's message. But now they believe Philip's message. And what was Philip's message? It was about the good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

And as a result many men and women were baptized so they believed the gospel and they were baptized. This is a sticky passage. Since Simon himself believed and was baptized. So they turned away from his teachings and his being amazed by him. They saw Philip and they listened to him and they listened to the gospel, the good news of the kingdom and they believed him.

And then Simon says himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip where we went and the idea there and that verb is that he followed around like a little puppy. He was like, oh, I gotta have this. He's wandering around after Philip and he was amazed by the signs and it does say signs again about the signs and great miracles that Philip performed. Here's a note on signs.

If and I stole this illustration but if you take a one year old baby sitting in your lap and you see this bird flying around outside, say hummingbird comes up to the feeder outside and you point to it, what does the baby do? You point to the hummingbird outside, hey look, what What do do they they do? Do? They look bleary eyed at you and then try to make the sign doing what it is that you're doing. They don't get that you're pointing to something that's really cool, a lot cooler than an index finger.

That you're pointing to something outside that you want them to look at. You have to go over about there and tap the glass and run the bird off to get them to actually look at that direction. Do you get what I'm saying? Signs point to something. When we have construction road signs, when we have other kinds of signs, they're pointing to something.

It's not for the sign itself. It's not just for the sake of having something cute. It's not this, but the baby will emulate that a lot of times until they get older and they figure out, oh, this sign is pointing to something. I'll look at what they're pointing towards. So that's about signs.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, They set Peter and John there. That seems unusual, doesn't it? It does to me. We'll come back to that. As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers, so they were believers to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit did not yet come upon any of them for they've only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is an unusual thing, it's an odd thing. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. So now they're believers that have received the Holy Spirit. They received the gospel but had not yet received the Holy Spirit.

I want to point out how unusual that is. It's unusual in several points. For one thing, when Peter preaches in chapter two, he says repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. That's the normal course of action that happens. It is someone turning from their wicked ways to God because he's drawing and they repent.

Baptism is an outward symbol following that up and then they receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of belief, the moment that they surrender their life to Christ to receive the Holy Spirit. And that's what we normally think of today in most cases. But because of this one text, people have taken it over the years in a couple of different ways. Some take the two stages to be normative and they follow opposite ends of a continuum. Typically the Pentecostal movement takes it to be two stages.

You can accept Christ without receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit but it's a two stage process and needs to both be done twice and a lot of them would put other signs on it to show when you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The other end is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has conferred because Peter and John were the ones that came and laid hands on them before they received the Holy Spirit. They're taking a line, direct line they say, all the way down from the Apostle Peter and they have convert upon one another the ability to convert the Holy Spirit upon people. So that's if you take it normally that this is the way that it should be in two stages, they would baptize a baby or an infant and then teach them about the word and they could be believing that word but until they have had confirmation they don't receive the Holy Spirit.

I'm just giving you history. I'm not trying to shade it either direction. If you take the normative, that's the way it goes. It's a two stage thing. But in the Bible, this is unusual.

The normal thing about it though is that I believe that it's exceptional. I believe it's an unusual instance. It only happens this one time and I think that the reason is culture and we'll get to that in a little while. My slide up and should cover that. Now when Simon saw the spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power.

Let me have this power too, said Simon the great, He exclaimed. So when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, may your money be destroyed with you for thinking that God's gift can be bought. Is it a free gift? It is a free gift.

Salvation is a free gift. The Holy Spirit is a free gift. It cannot and does not need to be bought. You can have no part in this for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord.

Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts. Even Peter is not making it God's he's not taking away God's prerogative to listen to this prayer because only God knows the heart. And Peter can see that his heart is not right but only God knows the heart so he said you pray to God and perhaps he will forgive you your evil thoughts for I can see that you're full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed. These terrible things you've said won't happen to me. And after testifying preaching the word of the word of Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem and they stopped and many Samaritan builders long played to preach the good news.

Think about how awesome that is. These are good Jewish boys, Hebrew Jews, big time. And they're stopping in all the Samaritan villages on the way home. I just wanna point these things out as we go. The three simultaneous spiritual plot points I'm gonna try to hit in the next five minutes.

There are three things that are going on here that are amazing because God is at work in all three of them. There's a great awakening Samaritan. I call it a great awakening because I don't call it a revival. I just don't see that unless perhaps it could be a revival from the time that Jesus had visited that woman at the well went back to her city and the gospel spread to her. Maybe we can call it a revival.

The disciples were with Jesus and Samaria on that occasion. A few chapters later, Peter will call back and say, I've never put anything unclean in my house. Never have I done in my mouth. He would leave with these folks, cultural. Bill proclaims the good news.

This happens when there's a great way to do your great revivals because the gospel is being preached. It doesn't happen any other way. The crowds listen intently, that helps. If you're preaching really hard and they're not listening, it doesn't matter. Miraculous signs and I say signs again authenticated message.

Say signs because they authenticate meaning that the signs were pointing towards something they were pointing to the truth of the message that Bill had and even Simon recognized it. Simon knew he had power whether it's dark or not. He knew he had power but he recognized that the power that was within Philip was greater than the power he had. They believed and they were baptized. So that's the first thing.

There's a great spiritual awakening. And oh don't we pray for revival? In the South we schedule them in August every year. Number two, the unusual visit of Peter and John. It is unusual.

There's not another place. Can you imagine how busy Peter and John would have been walking around Palestine back in that time when when anybody knew got saved. It was gonna be a pretty happening time. Next thing that's coming next week and I was hoping to get to it before the gal's left for Africa because Philip and the Ethiopian unit when the gospel spreads to the edges of what they consider to be the habitable world to let that happen. The unusual visit of Peter and John is unusual.

I keep mentioning that. We don't see it anywhere else, but we do see in Luke that it is always experiential when someone receives the Holy Spirit. Is it always manifested by speaking in tongues? No. It would be wrong to say so, it's not.

Is it sometimes? Yes. Is it ever confusing? No. When people are speaking in tongues, they're speaking in other tongues so that people can understand.

God's not author of confusion, but he is a changing and transforming God and when his spirit comes in something different will come to pass. There will be a noticeable thing. Was the visit prompted by unusual circumstances? I consider the history, I say yes. And the reason I say that culturally, Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.

That's John four. Jews have nothing to do with them whatsoever. If they have nothing to do with them, but the gospel spreads through some, you know, Greek speaking Jew. If the gospel spreads to the Samaritans, we are in danger of having two separate churches. And he did so mercifully by taking him out of the church.

He's done this in different ways protecting the purity but he wants to protect the unity here and in doing so Peter and John have seen the Holy Spirit come down and when they see the Holy Spirit come down they will know that it's true and they'll be able to report back. We actually see a report of this event in Acts 15 where he says, it's just like we did. I know that it's true. We don't have to consider the Christ that knows you, Gentile, Greek, slave, free, man, woman, it's all the same. God's blessings over everyone.

So considering the history, I believe that's why that that unusual visit was necessary. It does not say in the text that he sent for them, Philip sent for them, but he did send words that they had received the message. I imagine, I'm not sure of this. I cannot prove it by the text. But I imagine when he sent it back, he said, they received the word but they have not shown forth any of the sign of the spirits activity in their life.

Come see what this is all about. Come check this out. I think that's probably what happened, I'll I'll say I am going out on prison. Acts one eight, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other uttermost parts. They knew John Peter and John knew what receiving the Holy Spirit looked like.

A noticeable change will take place. When you receive Jesus, you accept him as true, this noticeable change should happen in your life. It should happen in your life. As we examine ourselves today before communion, we should think about this whether or not the Holy Spirit is actively about changing who we were. And then the next thing is get into all both of those.

There's a great revival. There's an unusual visit, but there's also the exposure of Simon's heart. Now the tricky part about this is it says, and Simon also believed and was baptized. So he had up to that point what seems like a very similar experience. He believed Philip he knew that but what he was placing his trust in apparently were the signs.

He was like that little baby looking at that finger. And he was like, ugh, I want that. Cool. You can control all five of your fingers. Yes.

He was looking at that and going, I want that. That's better than what I've got. That's what I want. I want that. But he was not looking at Jesus and a suffering servant and what he might have for him to do.

He wanted the power for himself so bad that he was willing to pay for it. So the exposure of his heart, he's putting all his belief in the signs, he wanted the power for himself. And Peter points out that his heart was bitter and jealous because he had been the guy and now he had been supplanted. Christ was being preached. Philip was not saying, believe me because I am the righteous and great one, the magnificent.

No. He was saying, believe Christ because he gave his life for your sin. The consequences of sin have been overcome other than the sight of Christ. The anointed one and it's not me. Even in the face of God's glorious gospel, what he was looking for is the power for himself.

He would not face God without his own sin. When Peter said to him, repent from this wickedness and turn to God and pray for yourself. Pray directly. There's no intermediary necessary. Pray directly to God that he might perhaps, he would not even take that property from God.

Pray that he would take that sin and forgive it. Then you could have a part in what's going on. But he would not face God in his sin. What he did was he said, oh you pray for me that these terrible things wouldn't happen because he knew before in his life the power that he used, he wielded it against people or for people depending on how they pay him. He's saying Peter you take care of me, you deal with that.

I can't do that. I'm not about to admit that. I'm not going to do that. When that's all comes up it always means it's the end of the sermon. The application here is from those last those last three little points.

How does revival happen? Revival happens when we hang on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. That's how revival happens. God is speaking. The message has not changed.

The preacher's face may have changed. The the setting may have changed, but the gospel has not changed. Jesus Christ died once for sinners. Anyone that believes in him, that puts their faith in him will be saved. Period.

That has not changed. The visit of the apostles, well, I think it is unusual. I think that there's enough time for you to hear and it's great enough that we ought to be very, very, very open with other believers in the way that they understand this because have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like you were filled with the Holy Spirit? Yes, probably. Have you ever had one where you just felt like you were lacking?

Probably. We all walk through that. So I would say that take it personally, not so much theologically at this point. You say God where am I? I'm opening myself up for a great revival.

I will do what you want for me to do, open yourself up and God will do it. That's what he does. And the last one is the exposure of Simon and I's heart it'd be really easy to look at it and go well I'm not him I've never been involved in sorcery I've never tried to hurt anyone I've never tried to kill anyone or cause any problems I've never accepted money for that or tried to buy in favor with the church You know the sin of trying to buy favor with the church is called Simon E and it's named after this guy, Simon E. But everyone of us has a root of bitterness in our hearts from time to time. And the only way that they can be removed is by the blood of Jesus.

So I would say that taking a lesson from Simon that we pray directly to God. I'm gonna give you a chance to do that. I'm gonna invite the band back up. If you can come up, we're gonna sing a song called Sweetly Broken and we're going immediately right now to the time of communion. If I could have the elders come on up.

Matthew twenty six twenty six to 30. As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and he blessed it and he broke it into pieces and he gave it to the disciples saying, take this and eat it for this is my body. This do in remembrance me. Goodness and the truth of the gospel. Lord, I ask that you would continue that.

I ask you, Lord, for us to see your spirit at work in our obedience, in the praise of our life, in the courage to overcome the fear, given us a will to risk, great things for you. In Jesus name, we all have faith. Cup of wine after supper saying, this cup is a new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this time. Do this to remember me as often as you drink.

For every time you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death until he comes. Paul says, in another place in scripture it says, they did this Amen. And before we depart, the benediction today is gonna be a commissioning for all the ladies that are going to Africa. But all of come up that are here and just make your way forward right now and the elders too if you would come up we're gonna lay hands on them just like Peter and John laid hands on the people of Samaria. And I'm gonna pray because I have a microphone.

Lord, please, would you bless this this group, Lord, as they go? I pray for all the international travel arrangements, all of the stuff that's going on this weekend. Lord, we know nothing about, but we are sweetly broken before heaven. Holy surrender to your will. Do as you will with this team, through this team, to this team, or that they come back on fire for you.