Bible Study: June 23, 2021

Okay, well, last week we were talking about the New Testament church. We talked about the first deacons that were ordained in the church, the seven that were selected by the congregation. And then we saw one of those deacons begin to preach very, very powerfully, you know, Stephen, and, you know, in a situation that he didn't anticipate being in. But as we have gone through the first pretty much seven chapters, and we will get into chapter eight tonight and see another deacon that was among that first seven, that begins preaching in a very powerful way, and God working through him to bring the gospel beyond Jerusalem and into some other areas tonight. As we see God working his will in the New Testament church, we know we can pause and just remember some of the things that we've learned already about what God's will is, about how his church is formed. He gave people the New Testament church a commission that he wanted to follow. Remember in Acts 1, he said, you will be witnesses to me. You'll be witnesses of Jesus Christ, that he is the Messiah, that the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures were fulfilled perfectly. So he is in no doubt the Messiah. We have seen people repent. We have seen them baptized. We have seen the Holy Spirit given to them on the day of Pentecost. And we have seen the church and the people bond together as one body. They voluntarily sold their properties, lands, whatever it was. They moved to Jerusalem, and they became one body, continuing in the apostles' teaching.

They were praying to God because God is the reason that we are all in a fellowship, a partnership in the community and the family that we're in. They got to know each other, they got to love each other in a way that we have yet to experience, I think, in this lifetime. And they did those four things that we read about in Acts 2.42 that made them a church. We know that God was pleased with what they did because he kept adding to the church. Through the apostles, he began to work great miracles, and they healed people.

And through one of those miracles that Peter performed to the lame man that was begging daily at the temple, God gave Peter and John an audience to the leadership of Jerusalem and Judaism. And they had an opportunity to preach Jesus Christ to them, which the leadership didn't want to hear. And so then we go through, you know, we begin to see some of how Satan attacks the church as we get into chapters five and six.

And we see God at work in calling people, and we see the deacons that are made deacons or deidacons as God put that order into the church. And then we see Stephen. We see Stephen as he's called before the council because of what he's doing. And God is working through him, you remember, in chapter seven. He is out doing miracles, if you will, miracles of healing.

And God is working through him. And of course, he draws the attention of the Jewish establishment again. And so they call him to account. And that's where we were in chapter seven last week. Now, remember, as Stephen is speaking there, he's not an ordained minister yet.

He's a deacon. He hasn't come in chapter seven preparing a message. He hasn't spent hours going over what he's going to do. But he's fulfilling and he's relying on God to give him the words, just like you and I, sometime in the future, may have to just rely on God to give us the words.

Well, we're called before magistrates and kings and authorities and give an answer as to what we believe and why we believe it. And Stephen gives an eloquent, an eloquent and a powerful sermon here, where he gives the history of Israel, the history of Judah to the Jews.

And his consistent theme is every time God sent a messenger to you, you killed him. You rejected him, you didn't pay attention to him, and you killed the prophets. You did it over and over and over through history. Jesus Christ came as Messiah. You did the same thing to him. You lied about him. You railroaded him into death. You wanted nothing more than to silence his message and you put him to death. And now here's Stephen, and they're doing the very same thing to him. So we saw Satan's tactics. Stephen, you remember, he had convinced this group of Jews that were there in that one synagogue with the various foreign countries that were there.

He convinced them that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. They didn't want to hear it. So what did they do? They started lying about him. They started spreading misinformation. They got the Jewish leadership involved. And here they are with Stephen in front of them. Let's drop down to chapter 7, verse 51. We read 51 through 54 last week, but let's pick up the story there and complete chapter 7 and then see what God is working.

Because we're going to see more twists and turns, I guess, when we want to put that way in the New Testament church. Things that they learn, things that we are going to learn too, is the way that God works and how he always works and what he does is always to further his plan and always with us in mind to do what he has called us to do.

So, I guess before there, any comments, any questions before I go to verse 51 or anything I've left out that someone will want to talk about? Okay, let's pick it up in verse 51, then. Here's Stephen. As he's going through his sermon, he comes down to verse 51 and his words are very direct as he's talking to the Jewish leadership. You know, Kyle gathered there together before him that day. Verse 51, he says, He says, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

He doesn't miss any words there. As you read those, I think I commented last week, it reminds you of Jesus Christ's words in Matthew 23 when he's upgrading the Pharisees. And he gets very direct with them before he's arrested and eventually crucified because there is a warning message that needs to go out that Stephen is making sure the message goes to these people. But beyond that, you can see the power of God's Holy Spirit.

Here it is that Stephen, as he speaks these words, as God gives those to him, they sound very much like the words that Jesus Christ was given as well. When we have God's Holy Spirit and it's working in us and God is letting God lead us, we will think more and more like him. We will become more and more like him. And the message will be the same. It's one message that God gives. So here's Stephen. He's laying it on the line to this group of leaders that's assembled there.

And he goes on to verse 52.

You can kind of feel the tension rising as he says these things to it and imagining what the reaction to the Sanhedrin is as they listen to this.

And basically what he's telling that is, you know, God gave you the law to keep God gave you the way of life to follow. You're not doing it. You may have the trappings of it. You may be keeping the Sabbath day in the way that you determined that the Sabbath day should be kept. You may be keeping the Holy Days in the way that you determined the Holy Day should be kept.

You may be applying all the other laws in the way that you determined that it should be, but you aren't doing it and you're not living life the way that God determined that you should live it. You have the same elements, but you are a different religion is what Jesus Christ is saying. Jesus Christ came to start his church that would live the way of life that God had purposed and had designed for mankind that would lead to happiness and joy and peace and everything mankind has looked for. So in verse 54 of Acts 7 then, we see that the Sanhedrin...

Now, I guess I should pause here for a moment. You would hope with Stephen giving this long message and laying out the history of Israel that you have always rejected God, you have always rejected the prophets, you have always put them to death, you did it to Jesus Christ, and what they were going to do is do it to Stephen as well.

That you might think that the leaders assembled there would stop and think, well, you know, he does have a point. We keep doing the same thing over and over again, or at least pause, take a time out and discuss among themselves is what he's saying the truth.

Do we put the prophets of God to death? Do we do what he's saying? That would be, we would hope, the Christian way of responding, right? If we, if someone tells us something and says, you know, this is what you always do, you aren't handling this in the right way, I would hope we would be people who would stop and think, you know, maybe we need to pay, maybe I need to pay attention to that. I need to look at myself through God's eyes, through the Bible's eyes, and how am I living my life?

How, what am I doing? But that isn't the response of the Sanhedrin at all. Their response is very much what we would often get from the world and this past, well, this past Sabbath and one of the congregations we talked about the sway of this world and the way of this world and what it is.

And the Sanhedrin respond very, very angrily. They don't want to hear it at all. They want, don't want to be told that anything that they're doing is wrong at all. Verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. You know, when it says cut to the heart, that's the same phrase that you use back in Acts 2 when Peter is giving his Pentecost sermon.

And as the people hear the proof of Jesus Christ, as they hear and recognize He is the Messiah, what have we done? We have put Him to death. We have rejected Him. And it says there, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. It made a huge difference in their lives. And they were committed then to following and they asked Peter, what do we do?

Remember, he said, repent and be baptized. Repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. But here, this is a different cut to the heart. This is also something that the Sanhedrin, that the leaders, they are making a commitment here. Thou, they are dead set against Stephen. They are dead set against this message. They are not going to listen to it. And what their purpose from here on out is to, as we've discussed, cancel the message. Do the cancel culture thing of the Old Testament.

We don't want to hear Jesus Christ's name anymore. We don't want to hear this message anymore. We don't want to talk about it anymore. They were cut to the heart and they were angry. They gnashed at Him. They gnashed at Him with their teeth. So, Stephen, watching all this, watching all this as he is speaking to the people, knowing that he has given them some pretty tough words to swallow.

You know, he doesn't do what maybe some of us might be tuned to do when we look at people gnashing us at our teeth and saying, Well, you know, maybe you didn't take that quite the way I wanted to. Maybe I was a little harsh with you or things like that. No, Stephen didn't back out at all.

Those were the words of God. He was telling them the exact truth and there was their job to hear it. But God, in verse 55, showed and gave Stephen encouragement in a way that we can recognize. You know, I don't know that this will ever happen to any of us the way it happened to Stephen, but it does remind us that God is always with us.

When we do his will, no matter how difficult life might be or how difficult the situation is, we have to remember God is always there. Jesus Christ says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. He knows exactly what we're going through. And in verse 55, Stephen gets encouragement in a way that I'm sure he didn't foresee, but it certainly helped him, certainly helped him through the situation that he found himself in.

It says, but Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Can you imagine what that would be like? You're going through a trial, you have people that are lined up against you, you know they all hate you, they don't want, they could care less if you live or die. And then you look up and you know that God is pleased. God is pleased with what you've done. You have been a witness to him, you have fulfilled what he wanted you to do. And that had to be a tremendous, tremendous step of encouragement for Stephen. You know, over and over when we read about Stephen, we hear about being full of the Holy Spirit.

And as we do God's will, as we yield to him, you know, God will give us more and more of his Holy Spirit. You know, Stephen was just a disciple, if I can put it in that way. They're important to be a disciple, but he completely yielded to God. Look what God worked through him. And so as he's looking and he's gazing up and he sees this vision that God has given them, that's encouraging to him, you know, he makes a statement, he makes a statement that just simply sends the Sanhedrin over the earth.

He says in verse 56, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

That's the final straw. That's the final straw for the people that are gathered there today. They are just beside themselves. You know, they, you can almost see the action that they get into. You can almost see the anger, the passion, the rage that comes out of them.

Verse 57, they cry out with a loud voice. Stop their ears.

You know, I mean, when you get the vision of what they're doing, you know, sometimes you'll see little kids who, you know, will make loud noises, right, to cover over what someone is saying. And they go la la la la la la la la. Or they stop their ears out. They don't want to hear what you have to say. And it's very childish. And here's what the Sanhedrin is. We don't want to hear any more of this. Don't talk about Jesus Christ. We don't want to even know what you're seeing. So they run around and they have this rage that they're in. That's what's my page here. Back to chapter 7. They cried out with a loud voice. They stopped their ears and they ran at him with one accord.

I didn't look it up, but I have to think that probably the phrase, one accord, appears in the book of Acts more than any other book in the Bible.

We keep reading one accord, usually about the disciples of Christ. They were all in one place in one accord. Here we have the Sanhedrin. They are 100% united against David. They are 100% against the message that he has delivered. They are 100% against Jesus Christ in any message or any any message or any sermon or discussion that would have Jesus Christ and the Son of Man part of it. They just simply run after him. They simply run after him. In verse 58, it says, They don't go to the Romans and say, you know, hey, we have this against David. He's a blasphemer. We want him put to death. They just take matters into their own hands this time. They're just mad. They pretty much take the guy, take him out of the city, and one by one or little by little they stone him. Now, I don't think any of us can really imagine what it's like to be stoned. It cannot possibly be. No death is pleasant, but certainly not an easy death. One of the more difficult deaths is you have a crowd gathered against you throwing stones at you. But here's what the Sanhedrin, without taking a break, without assembling, without discussing anything at all, they just run and they rush at Stephen and they take him out of the city and they stone him.

Is it legal? No, it's not legal. No, it's not legal. We never hear what the consequences of this are. If the Sanhedrin ever got in trouble for this, they just did it. They just took matters into their own hands and stoned him. Now, in their minds, they would think that they were following Old Testament law. So let's just look at Old Testament law concerning blasphemy and stoning.

So if we go back to Leviticus 24, and remember, as we were talking about Stephen, there were false witnesses that were gathered against him. When they couldn't disprove what Stephen was saying from the Bible, the Jews got people to lie about what he's saying. They got people to spread misinformation about Stephen, called him a blasphemer. They couldn't disprove him, so they decided they would just use lies to frame him. And so the Sanhedrin here has determined that he's a blasphemer. In Leviticus 24 verse 16, this is what they're doing as they take Stephen out of the area there and stone him.

Leviticus 24, 16 says, Now that's an Old Testament command for the nation of Israel. Certainly we don't abide by that today, but the nation that Israel did. God was putting the evil out of Israel at that time. Verse 23, if we drop down to the last verse of that chapter, says, Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they took outside the camp him who had cursed and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses. So it was the way that they stoned people was to take them away and outside of the camp to do that.

As you read through some of the Jewish histories and whatever or the commentaries, it'll say that it was the Sanhedrin. No one was stoned in the presence of the Sanhedrin. They might sentence someone to death. In this case, they didn't even do that. The crowd just took him and stoned him.

They didn't stop it or try to stop it in any way. But they did exactly what the Old Testament said. They took him outside of the camp away from the area that they're there. And they proceeded to stoned him, calling him a blasphemer, which of course we know he wasn't. In Deuteronomy 17, Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir.

Just a thought that came to mind as we're going through that was how God talked about the finding fault with them. You know, whenever he had to bring about the New Covenant. It just made me think about the fact that these people all thought they were following that Old Covenant perfectly in what they're doing. But it was their inability to understand the spirit of that law and to follow it perfectly. Why God had to amend it. The Covenant bring about a New Covenant. And I just thought this is a prime example, I think, of that verse. Yeah, yeah. Finding fault with them.

Finding fault with them. Their ability to follow the law. Very good. Deuteronomy 17 verse 7 sheds a little bit more light on what we're reading here in Acts 8. Deuteronomy 17 verse 7 says, Remember there were the witnesses, the false witnesses against Stephen. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you. So when we go back to Acts 8 and we see the witnesses, it tells us, casting or laying down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, they were the ones who brought the charges against Stephen.

He was not tried. He was not convicted. They just determined among themselves in a fit of rage that he was a blasphemer. And so those witnesses were the first to lay there, just like we would take our coat off if we had something to do, take our coat off, go and lay it in front of this young man we're introduced here named Saul. We know who Saul becomes later on in the book of Acts. And they go, and they're the ones to cast the first stone, first stones at Stephen. And then the rest of the crowd gathers in until Stephen dies. So as they are looking at this, they would say, we have followed God's law.

Now they know, they know, the ones, the witnesses, that they were false witnesses. They convinced themselves, you know, like people do, that what we did was right, the right thing to do, it was necessary, etc., etc.

But here they are, and we have, you know, I guess not the first martyr of the church. Jesus Christ would be the first martyr of the church, I guess. But here we have Stephen the first, other than Jesus Christ, who's put to death, put to death for what he believes, what he believes. And so Saul, you know, we're told Saul is there. He's right there among this group. He's watching what's going on. Verse 1 of chapter 8, he was consenting to what was going on.

We'll go back to verse 59 here. They lay their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, and they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God. I noticed the words he said. Again, very reminiscent of what Jesus Christ said when he was on the... Bob Longboy must be on. I see closed captioning going on in the corner down there. So, OK, Bob. Very reminiscent of what Jesus Christ said when he was on the...

when he was being crucified. And he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Just the magnificent love that he had for mankind, and the ability to forgive, even what they had put him through. Stephen echoes those words. He says, Lord, Lord, don't charge them with the sin.

And notice he says it. He gives us the adjective. He said it with a loud voice. He didn't just say it under his breath. As they were stoning him, he cried out, Lord, don't charge them with the sin. The people would have heard what Stephen had said. They would have heard what he had said.

Maybe some of them in the crowd thought back to the words that they had heard Jesus Christ had said as he was dying. Certainly Saul, who was there in the group, he heard that. He heard what this man Stephen, who was being unjustly put to death, said. And though perhaps those words echoed in his mind throughout the rest of his life, especially after Christ, after God called him and he became converted and preaching the gospel of Christ as well. Lord, don't charge them with the sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

He died. And Stephen remains buried today, awaiting the resurrection of Jesus Christ, just like everyone who has ever lived or died awaits one of the resurrections that will occur at the end of this age. We'll go into chapter eight here, because in chapter eight we're going to see another deacon. Stephen is one of the seven. He has now been put to death. We're going to see another of those seven deacons rise to the occasion and everything in this chapter.

But before I leave chapter seven, are there any questions or comments or anything that anyone has about what we've just seen? We've seen an awfully light in chapter seven as the New Testament church, which was at peace and had favor with all the people, remember?

And now all of a sudden they've got the Sanhedrin who has come out and has become their enemies and put one of them to death. Okay, well then let's get into chapter eight. Chapter eight, verse one. Now Saul, this young man that was there who was hearing and watching everything that was going on, Saul was consenting to his death.

He was okay with it. He too might have realized, this isn't right. This man hasn't been convicted. There hasn't been any trial. There hasn't been any pause here, but you know what? He deserves to die. Now Saul was consenting to his death.

And then notice the next verse. Literally, in a moment's notice, this Jerusalem church that has formed that was living in peace, all in one accord, had the favor, remember it says, of the people of Jerusalem. They looked at them and they held them in high esteem. But then literally overnight, if we can put it in that way, everything changes for that church.

At that time, a great persecution rose against the church, which was at Jerusalem.

So we have something happen that they didn't count on. They've had a moment or a time of peace, a time where everything seems to be going along well, that thousands of people who are living together, people who are voluntarily living with one another, supporting one another, bonding together, understanding the teachings of Jesus Christ, understanding the Bible, being led by the Holy Spirit, they're becoming one. God continues to add to them. And then they have this unforeseen circumstance occur and all of a sudden persecution comes.

And so, you know, one of the things of the Church of God, Jesus Christ said what happened is the church would suffer persecution. So we have the New Testament church in pretty short order and pretty quickly suffering persecution here.

You know, you hear me say it often, those of you in Orlando and Jacksonville, the word suddenly or sudden appears in prophecy many times. Certainly the Church of Jerusalem would say, boy, this happened all of a sudden. Things were going along so well. And then all of a sudden we're being persecuted. So here they are and they find themselves in a totally different situation.

And as we look at this, we live in a time where things could change very quickly too. You know, it's things change, things change quickly, attitudes change, and now the church is in persecution. And they were all, it says, scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. So as the persecution came to Jerusalem, what did the disciples do? They left. They left Jerusalem, except the apostles, Peter and John, they stayed in Jerusalem, but the rest of the people left. Did they leave because they were afraid?

They leave because they were afraid? Is that what they were doing? Well, we didn't count on that. You know, here we were living fine. All of a sudden the persecution has come. We better run. We better run. This isn't what we signed up for. Now, as we go through the chapter eight, we're going to find out that isn't why they ran it all. Let's go back to Matthew 10. Matthew 10. The apostles and others who heard Jesus Christ speak.

And as the Holy Spirit was in them, remember one of the things that Christ said the Holy Spirit in us would do would bring to remembrance things that we have heard before. Certainly things that we read in the Bible, things that we heard Jesus Christ say. In Matthew 10 and verse 23, he says this in verse 22, he prophesies, he says, You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.

23, verse Matthew 23. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. So when persecution came, what did the church do? They followed what Jesus Christ said. He said when persecution comes, leave that city and flee to another city.

That's exactly what they did, except for the apostles who stayed there in Jerusalem. We don't read anywhere here. In fact, chapter 8 is going to show us that, to the contrary, they weren't afraid of what was going on at all. There was no fear among the people at that time, at least in Mass. Maybe there were one or two. We don't know what the exceptions are. But the people left, just as Jesus Christ said. They were not afraid of obeying His command. They were scattered, it says, in chapter 8, verse 1 of Acts, throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Now, if we go back to Acts 1 and verse 8, remember what Jesus Christ said to His disciples that were gathered that day as they watched Him ascend into heaven. He tells them, remember, He says, you wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from God. Verse 8, He says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me. In Jerusalem, they have been doing that. They've been very good witnesses in Jerusalem.

Remember the Sanhedrin last week, they were telling Peter, you filled the city with your doctrine. You filled the city with your teaching. They did it very effectively. You will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. They did it in Jerusalem, and now, under persecution, they are fleeing, as Jesus Christ said to do, and where do they flee? To Judea and Samaria. Judea and Samaria.

And we'll see a little bit about what happens in Judea and Samaria here in a minute. But as we go back to Acts 8, Acts 8 and verse 2, we read about Stephen. Stephen has been stoned, he's dead.

And verse 2, it says, Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Remember Stephen, he was not charged, he was not tried, he was not convicted as a blasphemer, but he died the death of a blasphemer. He really died the death of someone who just felt the rage of the crowd and the anger of their spirit against the words of God.

But here it is, Devout men carrying Stephen to his burial. And so, you know, in all likelihood, doesn't say one way or the other, but Stephen was accorded a burial fitting a Jew. You know, we read what they did for Jesus Christ and how they prepared his body for burial. The same thing happens to Stephen. And notice it says, again, one of those adjectives that God puts in there, they made great lamentation over him.

It wasn't just a few people, but there was great lamentation over him. Maybe as people saw what had happened to Stephen, who witnessed there that day and heard the story, they perhaps, and I'm just saying perhaps, you know, they realized this man was unjustly put to death. But anyway, he was buried. His job, his mission on earth is done, and, you know, he has fulfilled what God's plan for him was perfectly. I mean, he was a witness to God. He did exactly what God had in mind for him. He didn't fear death. He was willing to give his life to have that message preached through him. Verse 3, then, so we have Stephen. He's one of the seven deacons. Now he's dead. But then we have this man, Saul, who became Paul, and he's now a factor in Jerusalem. As for Saul, chapter 8, verse 3, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Again, we can imagine what this would be like. Imagine you were sitting at home. You believe in Jesus Christ. You believe in the Word of God, you know, everything that those of us in the church believe. And you have someone just enter your house, drag you off, throw you into prison because they don't like what you believe. They don't like what you believe. They don't want to hear what you have to say. You're a threat to the community. You're a threat to the place that you live, and that's what Paul was doing. Was it legal? I doubt if it was legal in Rome. I don't know that for sure. But it happened, and no one stopped them from doing it. Could the same thing happen today? Sure. Things can happen. Things can happen in nations that we've already seen things happen in our nation that maybe two years ago we would have never thought was ever a possibility of it happening. But we've seen it happen. Could this happen to you and me somewhere in the future? Sure.

We could have someone say what they believe is contrary to what the state stance on this is, or what the government stance is. They believe in God. And as we see the world go further and further and further away from God, we can see a time where they won't even want to hear the name of God anymore.

We read about the beast power and the man who raised the beast, he's got himself up as God. He doesn't want to hear about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He wants to be God. He wants to be worshipped. And so God is far from their minds, so people who believed in God and who worship Him aren't going to be in favor of that state, as we well know, because that state, pictured in Revelation 13 and on there, what it's dedicated to is the same thing with the Sanhedrin.

We're dedicated to put the word of God to death. If they follow God, kill them. Cancel the message. So yes, sir. I, you muted yourself, Savior. Oh, there we go. Thank you. This account reminds me that our earthly citizenships are but that they're temporary and we are really so during us. And then being scattered there was to remind them, A, you have a mission, but you have no permanent place here. And then going back to John 15 verse 19 tells us that if we were off the world, they would love us, but we're no longer off the world.

So they don't love us and they will eventually murder us. And that's it. They did it to Him. I think they're doing God a service when they do it, right? Yep. Very good. Very good. That's exactly what's exactly what's happening here. And Saul thinks he's doing God's work. You know, he's out there thinking that he's doing the best thing. Gather these people up, throw them into prison. Some of them are in prison, but in verse 4 in Acts 8, we see that the rest of them have scattered. They're no longer sitting there in Jerusalem.

They've moved on to other cities. Exactly what God, I know what Jesus Christ had commanded them to do. And then in verse 5, Philip, one of those seven deacons, now he is filled with the Holy Spirit. He too has been yielding to God more and more. And God is going to use him for the purpose, you know, that he has a purpose for all of us. And Philip is going to do what God leads him to do.

Verse 5, Philip, when he flees Jerusalem, he goes down to Samaria. Now remember Samaria, it was close to Jerusalem, but there was no love lost between the Samaritans and the Jews. They didn't like each other. They were in constant opposition to one another. The Jews looked down at the Samaritans. The Samaritans didn't like the Jews. There was absolutely no meeting of the minds between them.

Right? So Philip, he goes, he leaves Jerusalem. It says he went to the city of Samaria. What did he do when he left? I mean, here's persecution. That's something to be feared, right? I mean, these people want to take us. They want to lock us up. They want to hurt us. They might even want to kill us like they killed Stephen. So did Philip? Did he just go to Samaria and say, you know, I'm going to find a nice place to live? I'm going to just sort of sit back in my house.

I'm going to do absolutely nothing. I'm going to worship God alone. And you know what? I'm just not going to do anything. No, no, no. That isn't what he did. He wasn't a victim of fear. Remember Satan's tactics, their lies. He's dedicated to murder and killing, the words he also dedicated. He's also dedicated to fear. Right? And so persecution is a way of fear. And here the New Testament church is facing this fear in persecution.

Philip obeying God fled Jerusalem. He's in Samaria, but he's not sitting by, trembling in his house, all locked up. What is he doing? He went everywhere. I'm sorry. He went and preached Christ to them. Oh, you know what? I skipped verse four. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere. And what did they do? They preached the Word. They did what God asked them to do.

They didn't forget their commission. He said, You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the world. Persecution came. They remember what Christ said. They did it. And when they got there, they continued to preach the Word of God. They didn't fall back. They didn't fail. They didn't retreat and say, This is too hard. This isn't what we bargained for. Something has gone wrong. This is what God's will was. And they continue doing it. Now, it's very interesting as you see that.

And of course, Bill, we have the example there in verse five. He went to Samaria and he is preaching Jesus Christ. It's very interesting when you look at this, that what the Sanhedrin and what Saul, who became Paul, wanted was they wanted to shut the Christians up. Let's scare them to death. Let's throw them in jail. Let's kill them. Let's do whatever we need to can. Let's just kill this message. They leave, perhaps, the people in Jerusalem, the Sauls of the world, the Sanhedrin thought we've done it.

But no. What has happened is now we have people who were who were nurtured and in a body in Jerusalem. They were being taught. They were being led by God's Spirit. They know the doctrines of Christ. They are one body in one accord. They're scattered. And what are they doing? They're preaching the Word to Gentile nations. So what the Sanhedrin and Satan would have to be fearful for Israel has turned out to be just a furtherance of God's plan.

This is what he has done. Now the Gospel is getting preached in areas that it wasn't being preached before. The people have scattered as a result of persecution. And now the Word of God is being preached in areas that they never could have seen, that that's how it would be spreading to other areas around them outside of Jerusalem.

God works, remember, in very strange to us ways. But always remember, His will will be done. We may not know how, but what he says is going to happen is going to happen. None of those disciples that were in Jerusalem in that New Testament church knew what was going to happen, that they were going to be persecuted and scattered, and the Word was going to spread.

That New churches formed as a result of that. But they were ready, and they remembered Christ's commands, and they continued doing what He said. It reminds me of the man Joseph. Remember Joseph, who was sold into slavery? Let's go back and look at a few verses in Genesis 45. Because you can look at the young man Joseph. His brothers don't like him. He's the favorite of Jacob. They're jealous, and so they sell him into slavery. You can say, well, you know, that's not fair. That's not fair what happened to Joseph.

Look what they did to him. Joseph, as he went through many trials when he was in Egypt, first as slaves and in prison, but he ends up second in command of all of Egypt, and sees people through the famine that's there. There comes a time when those brothers who sold him into slavery come to Joseph. Notice what Joseph says and how he reacts. If we had that happen to us, we may be waiting. We may just be waiting for our brothers so we can nail them.

We can nail them for what they have done to us. But in verse 4 of Genesis 45, we see Joseph's reaction, a very spiritually mature reaction to the events of his life. Verse 4, it says, Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me. So they came near and he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now don't therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. You know what, Joseph had come to understand? It was God's will. He was exactly where God wanted him to be. He was there and God had put him in a place where he could do good.

He wasn't able to see at the time that he was sold into slavery what was going to happen. But in the end, when he reviewed his life, he could see this was God's will all along. And so it was as the people were scattered from Jerusalem under persecution, as they got to where they were going and they continued to preach Jesus Christ. They continued to teach about the gospel, the gospel in the coming kingdom of God. They would see this was God's will. It wasn't that the Sanhedrin got one up on him. It wasn't that Saul sent them scattering to and fro and sent them out of Jerusalem.

It was God's will all along. He said that the gospel would spread to the Gentile areas, and so it's beginning. And it began with persecution, a very unpleasant event for the New Testament Church. Well, let's go back to Genesis. Genesis 8, or I'm not sorry, Genesis 8. And we see, you know, we see Philip now. Stephen, you know, we've seen, you know, we as we've seen Jesus Christ as he was out in, you know, living his life, God attended his ministry with healing of everyone who was brought to him of great miracles that he did.

And he would remind the people and say, you know, the kingdom of God is at hand, as we talked about a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago. And as he sent the disciples, remember out the 70 and the 12, two by two, he would say, go out, heal them in the name of God, cast out demons in my name, and tell them the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus Christ instead, you know, Peter and John, as the New Testament Church begins, what God gives them the same ability of healing, that same gift or the miracle of healing. And so it draws attention to the church, but it follows the tears, the church hears the tears, the group that God is with, because they have this power that God gives them to heal.

Peter had it. We see that Stephen had it, and now we see the man Philip, as he's in Samaria, that God's given him this gift as well. Philip, verse five, went down to the city of Samaria, and he preached Christ to them. Now they had been thrown out of Jerusalem, you know, where the people are who claim that they had the law of God, that they were the people of God, they were keeping the Sabbath, they were keeping the Holy Days, they thought they were doing everything right. But remember, they flat-out rejected, they killed Jesus Christ, they flat-out rejected, and they were cut to the heart when they put Stephen to death.

We're done with it. We're done with it. We close our minds to this, and we're making a final statement. We reject this. But here we are in Samaria, not a Jewish nation, as Philip is there, not an ordained minister, but a deacon that God is working through, says on the multitudes with one accord.

Here we have one accord again. We have, you know, the people in Samaria gathering together, and they're believing. God's opening their minds. They're believing what Philip is saying. The multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. So, you know, verse 7 we see, for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame, were healed. So again, we have the same type ministry that God has afforded to Philip as he is preaching and allowing him to heal these many people.

And the people of Samaria, in a direct contrast to the people of Jerusalem, they're embracing it. You know, they're all with one accord. Look at Philip. This must be the Word of God. Look what he's doing. This can only be of God. And verse 8 it says, there was great joy. There was great joy in that city.

So, when we embrace the Word of God, you know, there is. There is great joy. There is great joy in that city. So, you know, we begin to see, in verse 9 we go here into this man named Simon, who's an interesting character. We'll get to him in a minute. But we begin to see the church now that has been centered in Jerusalem, now being spread out to other areas. A couple things that we can pause and think about as we see this. You know, later on in chapter 8, we're going to see the apostles were not there in Samaria.

The apostles are remembered. They stayed in Jerusalem. It was the word of mouth, and it was the preaching of the people in that area, those who were scattered to the various cities that they went. It was their preaching, their commitment, the Holy Spirit working in them that God used them to have other people called. And so, as we look at the world around us today, you know, they didn't have. I want to say this in the right way, and I don't want to sound at all funny about things, but, you know, it wasn't Jerusalem.

It wasn't the apostles of Jerusalem that said, Philip, you go out to Samaria, you start preaching the gospel, right? It was Philip who went out there following God's command, and look what happened. And look what happened in other areas that we're going to see through the remainder of the book of Acts, how God used. And it was a grassroots movement, if you will, of the local people who were preaching. And it was in the local communities that the church gained recognition, and the word of Jesus Christ went out, and people believed. I'm going to fast forward for just a minute down to verse 14 here, chapter 8, and then I'm going to come back to verse 9 in a minute.

You see here, I mean, here's Philip, we've got this, we've got this going on. Everyone is believing in him, and everyone is following. God has opened their minds. And it says, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. And we'll see the reason they sent Peter and John to them. But we see this happening. We also, you know, see, we see something here that Paul, Paul is sitting here watching all these things. Paul was consenting to the death of Stephen. He's there wreaking havoc with the church. And Paul, who later becomes converted, writes something in Romans that's very telling as he thinks back to this time, and he sees what God's, you know, God's plan at work.

Let's go to Romans 10. Romans 10, and reading what we just read about the Sanhedrin who were cut to the heart. They were absolutely vehemently opposed to what God was trying to open their minds to see. Of course, he had blinded them so they couldn't see that. In Romans 10, verse 1, Paul writes, Paul writes this. He says, Now he's saying, you know, they know the Bible. They have a zeal for God. They want to do things God's way, but they don't do it the way that God said. They determined their own way of doing things. And he's going to say that in verse 3. They have a zeal, but the zeal is misplaced.

It's not a zeal for God, it's a zeal for doing things their way. Verse 3, for they being ignorant, ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And there he says, you know, they've written their own laws.

They've created their own religion. They've used God's word as a basis, but they've created their own religion. They're looking, they've defined righteousness for themselves. They haven't looked at what the Bible said, and they're not doing it the way God said. And they weren't listening to Jesus Christ who He is on earth, and they weren't listening to the apostles, and they didn't listen to Stephen either.

If we go over to chapter 11, as Paul continues this discourse here, and he talks about the Gentiles being grafted into the olive tree, and he talks about how the nation of Israel, of course, you know, Abraham was the father of the faithful, the nation of Israel descended from Abraham, God said to Abraham, and knew all the nations of the earth will be blessed, etc., etc.

But also recognizing that Jesus Christ died for all of mankind. He didn't come and just die for you and me, he didn't die for just the ethnic nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. He died for all of mankind, and it was always God's intent that Gentiles would be part of the body and the heirs of Christ, as well as those of the Gentile.

Anyone who would believe, anyone who would believe and come to Him. So in verse 17 of Romans 11, he's talking about this. And perhaps he's remembering back at the time that the word began being spread to the Gentiles at that time, and then he became, of course, the apostle to the Gentiles. He says, if some of the branches, that would be the Jews, right? If some of the branches were broken off, and those who were broken off, they were just, they completely left and rejected God.

If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, if you were grafted in as part of that family, part of the heirs, part of the children of God, begotten to be born when Jesus Christ returns, born as Spirit being into His kingdom, but developing and, you know, God nurturing us and developing us now.

He says, if you are one of those, don't boast against the branches. Don't think it's something special about you. Don't look down on the Jews. Don't talk about them as how stupid they are and how ignorant they are. You know, God has blinded them. Just remember who you were, he says, something that we can all remember. Don't boast against the branches, but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

It's God who called you. It's not because you were so smart that you had all this, all this, these talents that God needed. He didn't need any of us. It's His blessing that He's called us and opened our minds to it. So He says, remain humble. Remain humble. Don't do the games. Don't look down on other people. It just wasn't God's will to open their minds now. You will say, verse 19, you will say then, branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well said. Because of unbelief, they were broken off. The Sanhedrin flat-out rejected God. Because of unbelief, they were broken off and you stand by faith.

Don't be haughty. Don't be proud. Don't let it go to your head. But fear. Fear God. Fear Him. Follow Him and always remain humble. For if God didn't spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell, severity. But toward you, goodness. If. If you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And so, you know, there are those few verses. Paul, you know, just kind of re-emphasizes again what the Bible says that so many of the churches in the world don't want to believe and don't preach.

It isn't a once saved, always saved message or Christianity. It's not you're baptized and you are sealed and you will have eternal life. It is you have to continue in the way of God until the very end. Paul here says, the same thing can happen to you. You believe now, but if you stop believing, the same thing can happen to you that happened to these Jews who have rejected Jesus Christ. We read the same thing in Hebrews 6.

We read the same thing in Hebrews 12 when we were going through that book. We see that when we have the calling of God, our responsibilities continue to walk and to grow and to develop and allow God to work with us to become who He wants us to become, always putting to death the person we are and allowing Him to develop in us who He wants us to be. Verse 23, and they also, if they don't continue in unbelief, they'll be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again.

If they were to repent, if God opened their minds and they repented in their deeds, they could be grafted back into the tree. There is repentance. Remember, God isn't willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance to find Him.

For if you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

Again, he's referring to Israel and the ethnic nation of Israel, but he's saying they could be grafted back in just because they have disobeyed, just because they have rejected God now, perhaps in the future they will repent. God opens their eyes and they come back to Him and they can be grafted in again.

So we don't want to look down on people, judge people, think about how great we are versus how not so great they are, and look how foolish they were to give this up. Verse 25, for I don't desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion.

Lest you should be wise in your own opinion. We all have our own opinions, right? That's why we stick to what God says and look what the Word, what He says. We might speculate on things, but never count on it as that that is gospel, what we believe. Lest you would be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And so, you know, we know that there's a time of the Gentiles coming in again. We read that in Revelation.

You know, we can see rudiments of it in society already as we look at the banter around us and everything like that, and I don't want to go into all that right now. But as Paul is saying, when he's converted, when we see him in chapter 9, and God is working with him and he becomes an apostle to the Gentiles, I'm sure he was thinking back to Stephen, thinking back to those events of chapter 7 and early chapter 8 of Acts.

And realizing what God had done and that God's plan was progressing exactly as he had planned. None of them knew. Saul didn't even know he was part of the plan, even though he was a guest God at that point.

You know, God's plan was to call him later, which he would in chapter 9, but, you know, always remember, you know, whatever God knows what we're going through. He knows the situation we're in.

You know, nothing takes God by surprise. It might take us by surprise, but we have to become established, settled people who trust in God and know that when he says something is happening and he's well aware of what's happening to us, we can turn to him, look to him, and ask him, and he will give us the strength and he will give us the determination what we need to do to keep marching forward to do his will. That's the faith and the trust that we need to have in him that Philip and this New Testament church did have as they went into these new areas. And they continued in the face of fear that was being foisted on them by the powers of being in Jerusalem of the Sanhedrin, you know, that they would be thrown into prison or whatever.

Always follow what God says and just continue doing, you know, what he said is the message for us and know well what his word was. Because as the Jews face that, they face that persecution, they remember it. Flee, go, and then God's word was progressed. Let's go back to Acts 8, verse 9. If there's any comments or questions, I don't know if I made if I was clear in the things I were saying or not, but...

Okay, so we're back in Acts 8, verse 9. We're in the city of Samaria. Philip is teaching. God is given. Philip, you know, the power of healing, casting out demons, etc., etc. The people are receiving God's word. There's joy in city. And then there's this man we encounter in verse 9 whose name is Simon. Verse 9. There was a certain man called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city. Now, sorcery there is really a mistranslation when we think of sorcery. It's not the sorcery that we read in Revelation 21, verse 8. That's the Greek word, pharmacia. It's the Greek word. I didn't write it down. It begins with M-A-G. It means one who practices the magical arts.

And so the man, Simon here, often is referred to as Simon Nagas. M-A-G. Simon the magician. He's a magician. He is able to do things that we read here in verse 9. People are absolutely astonished by what he could do. Now, we have magicians among us today in society, right? I don't pay much attention to magicians, but I read things about magicians. You hear things about them.

They do things that just kind of defy the imagination. You have to wonder how can they possibly do that? It's beyond human what they can do. Perhaps there are demons who are involved in helping some of these people do these what would seem to be seemingly impossible for humans to do. It's not just a matter of a few card tricks or the type of things that people may play with that has a little bit of sleight of hand or whatever.

But this is something that no one can explain. You can't explain it in human terms. We have those among us in the world today. I don't know. Probably some of you can name some of those names of magicians who people marvel at.

But Simon was one of those people in Samaria. He previously practiced sorcery or magic in the city, and he astonished the people of Samaria. They were just kind of like a nammer. Wow, this guy can do things that we can't even imagine. He must have the power of God, claiming that he was someone great. I got ahead of myself here. Claiming that he was someone great. So we know something about Simon of that. Here's a man who's used to having the accolades of people. He is, as one commentary put about him, he's addicted to magic. He's addicted to the crowds. He loves to be.

He loves the acclamation of people. He wants to be the center of attention. He wants to be there, up there, on there. He's got an enormous amount of pride, and it has become part of who he is. It defines him. He proclaims himself that he is someone great. Look at me. I need to be out in front of everyone, and everyone is enamored with what Simon Magus does. It says in verse 10, these people in Samaria, as they saw what he was doing, says to whom they all gave heed.

From the least to the greatest, even the leaders of Samaria, saying, this man is the great power of God. How can he do these things? It must be by the power of God that he does it. Can I make a comment real quick? Absolutely. Yes, please. I was watching America's Got Talent, which I don't know if I'm going to watch it too much anymore.

There was a magician that was incredible. He told everyone that he sold his soul a long time ago. Simon Cowell said, oh, that's great. That's why you're welcomed here. He knew what he thought. Wow. Not too many people understand what he's talking about, but we understand what he's talking about. He did things that absolutely astonished the crowd, didn't he? He would have saw it. It was unbelievable. I want to make that quick comment. Yeah, very good. Matthew said something. May I say something? Yes, please.

To me, a family member was a man. He was the first prophet to come. He summoned great. He had all his power. That's what he meant, not that man. The future beast. Okay. The false prophet in the future. Yes, the false prophet will do similar things. Very good. Yes. Remember, it says lying wonders. Lying wonders that he will do. It's not of God. It's not of God at all. Very good. Okay. So in verse 10, that's what we have. We have the city who is enamored by this man, Simon. It says in verse 11, they hated him because he had astonished them with his sorceries or his magic arts.

I think your margin even says magic arts. They're with his magic for a long time. He's the celebrity. He's the celebrity in Samaria. But then along comes Philip preaching the word of God. Along comes Philip, who God has given the power to heal the lame, to cast out demons, and to do these miracles that really benefit people.

Things that Simon Magus can't do himself. He can't heal the lame. He can't cast out demons. He can do magic tricks. He can kind of excite the senses by the things that seem impossible. But here's Philip. He's got a message to preach. And he's backed by the word of God. He's backed by all these prophecies that point to the Messiah. And he's speaking of Jesus Christ, and he's talking about the power that Jesus Christ has in the kingdom of God.

And he's attended by all these miracles that God has allowed him, that God has given him the gift to be able to do. And in verse 12, it says, When they, Samaria, believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

So we have a city here that's not Jewish. They're in opposition to the Jews. They're in conflict with the Jews. And yet they believe in Jesus Christ. It's a contrast when you look at how they have embraced the word of Christ, embraced the messiahship of Jesus Christ, while Jerusalem flat-out rejected him. We don't want anything to do with him. But here's Samaria that has embraced Jesus Christ, and they are now being baptized. You know, one city says, kill him. The other city, we repent. You know, as they heard Philip's preaching, when they recognized Jesus Christ, when they saw the miracles of God that Philip, you know, that God worked through Philip, they were baptized.

And remember what baptism is, is preceded by repentance, turning from our way, turning to God. So as Philip was baptizing people, we have to assume he was the one baptizing here, because we know in verse 14, the apostles aren't there yet. He's baptizing. He's baptizing there. So he knows that repentance needs to precede it. He sees what God is working in that area. He sees the people turning to God, and both men and women were baptized. And then in verse 13, it says, then Simon, Simon, this great magician who's addicted to magic, it says, who's addicted to the accolades of the crowd who has to be the preeminent one among them, Simon himself also believed.

And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip. And he was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now, it's interesting when you read some of the history and some of the commentaries, there's a few commentators who will say that Simon was probably just pretending, probably just pretending to believe. Others say, no, he really did believe. I believe what the Bible says. Simon himself believed. Simon himself was baptized, and Simon himself continued with Philip. God opened his mind, it appears. He could see what Philip was talking about. He believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and he continued with Philip.

He continued in the teaching of the Word of God, just as that New Testament church in Acts 2.42 did. And he continued with the group that was baptized as he watched what was going on. It appears that he himself really, really was. He really was called by God, and he was sincere at this point. And he himself, who was used to people being amazed at him, he's amazed at God and what God is working through Philip.

He was amazing, the miracles and signs which were done. And so, we have this group of people that are baptized now, and of course they could understand God, because remember John 14 verse 16, it says, the Holy Spirit will be with you, Jesus Christ said, or it has been with you, but then it will be in you. And there's a difference between the Holy Spirit with you and the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit with us enables us to understand the things of God, but as we repent and as we turn to God, we have God's Spirit in us.

God's Spirit in us gives us the mind of God and allows us to be developed, grown, overcome self, overcome our past problems and become like God as we go through the course of our lives. So, here's a group of people that the Holy Spirit is with, but it's not in them yet. They have only been baptized. So verse 14, when the apostles, who were a Jew, Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Again, this had happened in the local area. This is something that happened in the local area.

And we might pause and just ponder that a little bit in the modern day that we're in. For most of the time that all of us have been in the church, the gospel has gone out through a central message. And nothing wrong with that. There's been TV shows, there's been magazines, there's been all these things. But in the New Testament church, it wasn't that way. It wasn't all centered from Jerusalem. It was as God worked in local areas. And perhaps in the future, when we look at a society that is becoming better and better at shutting down things like Google, shutting down internet, shutting down YouTube, shutting off even the printing presses, perhaps, as they try to stop the message of God and then don't want that disseminated, it may well be that what we will be doing is, in the local areas, we can still be talking.

We can still be preaching to a group of people about the kingdom of God, what God's plan is. You know, as God leads us and as God wants us to do what we do, we will follow His lead and do what He wants us to do. But it's notable that that's what happens here in the book of Acts as the church is beginning to spread into other areas. So Peter and John. Peter and John come down from the Home Office, if you will, from the headquarters church, from Jerusalem. And what are they going to do? Well, they're looking to see what happens.

Here's this church. These people in Samaria, of all places, Samaria, they believe the gospel, they're being baptized. And the apostles, you know, they sent Peter and John to them who, when they had come down, verse 15, prayed for these people who were baptized, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet, the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. See? It's what we talked about and what we talk about always. It is a two-step process that God has us when we come to Him.

When we repent, and we turn to God, and we're baptized, immersed in water, and that water pictures the death of souls. And we're putting ourselves to death. We are voluntarily committing to Jesus Christ that our old way, and we're putting the old man down, and from here on out, we want to follow Him and His way implicitly. And just as newly-begotten children, we are nurtured by God. We are brought to understanding, and we follow what God says as He has put His Spirit in us, His DNA, if we want to put a spiritual DNA in us, so that we begin to develop toward maturity, and the time when we can be born into the Kingdom as Spirit beings, that we do that, and God works with us in that way, just as the fetus inside the womb grows and grows until it's time to be born.

And so that happens, but the people had not received the Holy Spirit yet. They had committed, they had committed, they had said, we want to follow you, we purposed to follow you, and we want to put ourselves to death, but they hadn't received the Holy Spirit yet. Philip couldn't do that for them. Philip could preach, but Philip wasn't an ordained minister. What we learn here is that it had to be an apostle or a minister who would lay hands, and that upon their prayer, God would give the Holy Spirit.

Or as yet, verse 16, the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an important step. Have to do it. Mr. Shabri? Yes, yes. I just said, one thing that was brought up, and I was just asking what your thought is, where it said had fallen upon them. And someone made a comment that upon, not in, but upon, as in like Moses, and I think Joshua, the Spirit fell upon them. Not in them, but upon them. I was just wondering, that's not what that means. Upon means in them. Correct? I'm sure, you know, I didn't look up that word, but we need to. But I'm sure that's what it means. The Holy Spirit wasn't in them yet. It was with them, but it wasn't with them. What I believed too. I was just wondering what you thought. Okay.

And so what the apostles did when they came? They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. The same thing we do in the church today. You know, when we're baptized, we baptize, and then usually it's part of the same ceremony. The minister is there. And after baptism, we lay hands on the person and ask God to put His Holy Spirit in them. It's a necessary part. It's a necessary part of conversion that many, many people just overlook. But here we have, you know, in black and white, in God's Word, this is the way that He orchestrated, this is the way He ordained, this is the way that the church does it. Until hands are laid on, people do not have the Holy Spirit in them.

Repentance, turning to God, baptism, and then the Holy Spirit. So, in verse 18, I'm going to stop here in a minute. I'm going to stop with verse 18. So, Simon, Simon, you know, Simon, who's used to having the crowds come to him and look to him. When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money. Things take a change here, and I want to pause there because I want to look at Simon a little bit more in depth than what we have here in the next 10 minutes, and I don't mean for a whole Bible study, but to examine who he is. But apparently, when the Holy Spirit was given to the people in Samaria, the Bible doesn't tell us what, but it must have been something that was visible that you knew that the Holy Spirit was in them. Whether they were able to talk in various languages or whatever it was, Simon saw something, and here was a power that the apostles had that he decided he wanted. Let's leave it there, and let's pick it up next Wednesday. We'll get through the rest of chapter 8, and then I think we'll do a review session of what we've learned as we move into the apostleship of Paul and the rest of the church. One of the things that came up this afternoon, I thought it was a good idea, someone mentioned that there is a Beyond Today TV program that is titled... Well, they told me. Anyway, it's about Simon Magus. Gary Petty did it. You might... I think maybe before next Bible study, if everyone will, if you have a computer, go on and watch that TV program. It's called... Anyway, it's got Simon Magus in it. I think if you go to beyondtoday.tv, type in Simon Magus, this 30-minute program will come up. And Gary Petty. Maybe it'll give some good background, and I'm sure it has some documentation in it on what happened to Simon, because what happened to him is a sad story, etc., etc. But maybe we could look at that before next week, and then next week we'll go through this and finish Chapter 8. Yes, someone had a comment, so... No one had a comment? I do. I do. Thank you, Amber. Bye, Karen. Hello. As far as the Old Testament, we know David had God's Holy Spirit, because he said, don't take it away from me. And we know Abraham, and I guess far back is what Mr. Armstrong used to say, that you can see that God had the prophets and such had the Holy Spirit. Okay, so we're saying New Testament, since Jesus Christ came and New Testament is spiritual, that's why we now go through baptism, and then a laying on the hands is the only way to have the Holy Spirit. It was different in the Old Testament. Yes, but remember the Holy Spirit wasn't given en masse to the nation of Israel, just to the selected people that God chose, right?

In the New Testament, there's large groups of people. Everyone who God calls has His Spirit, so the whole family has it. And then, of course, in the millennium, every don't pour out a Spirit of all people. So there is a difference there, but yes, more people have the Holy Spirit today. Okay. Thank you. There was a context where God told Moses to bring a few men of Israel, that He may share the Holy Spirit that was upon Him with them. And He did lay hands on those people.

So that trend has continued, but from now God has set the standard that this is the way it goes forward, unless He does something miraculous, like when He poured out the Holy Spirit on people, or when He or in the future, when He does that again. But He has the standard where we have to repent, baptize, receive the Holy Spirit, grow in grace and knowledge, until being born. But He did, because even one guy didn't burn up, and the Holy Spirit did come upon Him in the camp. And Joshua came back all excited and said, He's in the prophet's hand. And Moses said, Are you really jealous for me? But I looked at that word, the word that said upon, it can be translated within, but it has a unique sense to it.

It says, apt contact. You know, God makes us apt to speak, to teach, apt to teach. So we had not had complete apt contact with Him in them. It was among them, but it's a very unique word. Yeah, I had a couple of thoughts, if I might. Yes, Dale. Yeah, I just have to clarify. There's a proof text, of course, there's several proof texts about the Holy Spirit in dwelling. One is 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 11.

Searching water, what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, which was in them did signify. When it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Okay, just one example. I think of Luke 4.16.2, when Christ said, you know, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. When He was preaching the synagogue about the prophet of Isaiah, just a couple of things came to mind there.

Very good. Yeah, it probably is a unique word to the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's it. But upon end, it's something that becomes us. So, Mr. Shaby? Yes, James? Yeah, just kind of a comment on that. Then when we come to Acts 10 later, which we'll cover, and then we have the division of the sheep and so forth.

And we get to the end of the chapter there. Peter makes the comment, can anyone forbid water to these Gentiles that they should not be baptized? But he says, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So I was thinking the same thing when we were talking. So God makes what God makes, but they still went through the process. Maybe in that point, just a little different or what?

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. That's a complex subject for sure. But generally today, it is repent, turn to God, baptize, hands laid on, receive Holy Spirit. Hi, Mr. Shaby, how are you? Good, how are you doing? I'm doing okay. I would just like to make a comment on John chapter 20, verse 22. I'm going to read it again. 2022. Yes, we talked about this a few Bible studies ago.

He said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. And the thing is that they did not have the Holy Spirit in dwelling in them. It's like the Spirit was upon them. And on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit came and the close of fire on them, they actually got it in them. So in my understanding, when he said the Spirit is upon you, it means the same thing as John 2022.

What do you think? But you're agreeing, they did not receive the Holy Spirit as the Day of Pentecost, and after that account, right? He says, receive the Holy Spirit. So he isn't saying you are receiving the Holy Spirit right now. They will receive the Holy Spirit. So when it was there, they still had to go through the step and they had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come.

I like to look at that verse with the same meaning as the Spirit was upon them. It was upon them, but not in them, relating to what John 2022 is saying. Okay, so I'll just rephrase it so I can maybe correct me if I'm wrong. So you're looking at the people who were baptized in Samaria, right? And they're having to wait for the hands to be laid on them because the apostles aren't there.

The Holy Spirit was with them, and they would receive the Holy Spirit when the time came for the apostles. Right. So it was upon them, they have the power, but they didn't have that full power until the Pentecost came. The Holy Spirit was with them. The Holy Spirit was there, they were with them. It just wasn't there. Yeah, that's how I interpret it. Is that your thoughts as well? Yes. Okay, thank you. The Holy Spirit was not in them until after the whole operation. Right. Okay, Mr. Shabie. This was just a comment that was brought up. I didn't agree with it. I'm just saying that's what was brought up. Isaiah 11.2 talks about Christ to come. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. We know that he had a full portion of it. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. When Christ was baptized, what happened? A dove came down and rested upon him, which was right. Right. I believe rested upon means in. Yeah. So just like the tongues of fire were on the whole, on the men in Acts 2, right? Right. The Holy Spirit rested on them, but it was in them is what God was saying. It was there at that point. So.

Okay. Any other? Yeah, Christ did say the idea when he was being baptized, he didn't need to be baptized, but he did it to set the standard that all righteousness be fulfilled. Yeah. So that's a standard that has been set for each of us from here on unless God does something special. Exactly. He set the example and our job is to follow it. Christ was willing to be baptized. Boy, how do we how do we say we we wouldn't need it? So.

Okay. Any any any other comments? Any other thoughts?

Okay. Let me let me remind those of you in Jacksonville. Let me say Jacksonville. We have services at eleven thirty this week.

And those who can't be a services, we will zoom Jacksonville services to you in Orlando services are at one thirty. And that will be the regular webcast open to everyone on YouTube on our regular YouTube channel. So that's one thirty in Orlando. So hey, Zep and I. Hello.

Hi. Yep. So nothing else. I would let some you know, it's great to see all of you. Thank you for for for being on the night. Have a great rest of the week. A great Sabbath. We'll look forward to seeing some of you and hopefully we'll see the rest of you back here next Wednesday.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Everyone have a good rest of the week. Bye bye. And a good Saturday. Good night.