Bible Study: June 30, 2021

Okay. Well, last week, you will recall, we got midway through chapter 8. We came across a man named Simon, who's a very interesting character. But as we paused last week, we learned, as we have in every chapter of Acts so far, many things and some firsts along the way. The first eight chapters of Acts have shown us many things that were the first in the New Testament church, from the people gathering together, to the first miracles, to the first preaching of the gospel, to the first martyr, to the first persecution.

Now we're in chapter 8, and as we go through today, we're going to see a couple more firsts of the New Testament church. After chapter 8, we're going to take not a break, but we'll pause and I'm going to send out some review questions for us to just go back over next week. And I'm not sure what I'm going to get to it since we in America, we have this Fourth of July holiday. I'll try to get it out to everyone by Monday. But I think we'll just spend next week going, you know, in a review session and highlight, you know, go back over the first eight chapters so that we have it in our minds, what we've talked about, the things that God has taught us through these chapters and have some discussion on that.

And then as we get into chapter 9 and beyond, we see the church spreading into the Gentile areas. We see Paul becoming the apostle to the Gentiles. So this will be a good review point or a kind of pause point for us to review everything that we've learned because there's quite a list. There's quite a list if we go through it and see everything that God has taught us in these first eight chapters here. But last week we paused, and I think we, my notes say that we finished here in verse 17 of chapter 8.

You'll remember that Philip, in chapter 7, Stephen is martyred. And then one of the other deacons that were ordained in, that was ordained in chapter 6 of Acts begins preaching. The persecution comes to the church. Philip flees as Christ directed the people in Jerusalem when persecution comes.

Flea, they did, and they preached the gospel in the places that they went. Philip was one of them. We've been reading about Philip here. He developed, you know, God developed quite a following of Philip in chapter 8. He made quite an impression on the people there with the talk and the message of Jesus Christ showing them that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, is the Messiah. You remember, as we read through chapter 8, God allowed him and God threw him, worked miracles and healings, casting out demons, and it was quite something that fascinated the city as Philip worked as God directed him to work. There was a man, Simon, there was a Simon who was looking at all this.

Simon, as we recall, was quite a man of note in Samaria as well. He was a magician. And if you watch the Beyond Today program that we mentioned last week, and that I sent out a link for, you'll see that it is likely that it was demonic powers that were allowing him to do the magic tricks that he did and the magic acts that he did.

But he developed quite a following, and people looked up to him, and Simon used that to draw attention to himself. Simon, if we look at first aid again to remind ourselves a little bit of who Simon was, because we're going to look at his personality and some of the things that caused him some problems as we finish up the story about Simon today and finish up the story about Philip and how God used him in the disbursement or the preaching of the Gospel.

In verse 9, though, it says here that Simon, you know, he was a sorcery, you know, says practice sorcery, the real translation of that should be magic acts, magic acts in the city. He astonished the people of Samaria, and he claimed that he was someone great. So here we have someone who's full of pride. He's really enamored with himself. He loves the crowd.

He loves the adulation. He loves being set apart from the people. He's used to having people look up to him, and it's become part of his character. That is what he does. Now he listens to Philip, and, you know, he believes, the Bible says, and it says Simon is baptized, and he's a follower. We come down to verse 17.

Remember that many people were baptized, but Philip never laid hands on them. Philip was able to baptize, but he didn't lay hands on them. The laying on of hands is required for the Holy Spirit to be given to someone. And in verse 17, we see the apostles, 16 and 17, we see the apostles come from Jerusalem, and they're the ones who lay hands on the ones who have been baptized in Samaria, and when they lay hands on him, they receive the Holy Spirit.

We don't know what it doesn't say in the Bible, but when we look at verse 18, we have to fill in the blanks a little bit, and I know we don't add to or take away from what the Scripture says. But we know that, you know, unless you had an experience unlike most of us or me, you know, when you received the Holy Spirit, there wasn't bells going off and whistles going off. You didn't begin to speak in another language.

You weren't doing great acts. There was nothing noticeable about you that people would say, oh, he just received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us, it grows over time as we use it. We see the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and so we know the Holy Spirit is in someone, but at that moment, receiving the Holy Spirit isn't something that the people around you would say, oh, he received the Holy Spirit. I want the Holy Spirit, too.

But it did happen when the apostles came to Samaria and laid hands on the people who had been baptized, because in verse 18, it says Simon. Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given. So perhaps he just believed, but probably, and I'm going to say probably because we don't know, God works in mysterious ways, but there must have been, it appears that there was something that was evident.

Something happened when hands were laid on them. When the Holy Spirit was given to the people there at Samaria who were baptized, it was notable something happened. Just like back in Jerusalem in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit was given to these disciples that were gathered there on the day of Pentecost, it was very evident that the Holy Spirit had come. Through what went on in the room with the sound of the rushing mighty wind, with the divided tongues that descended on everyone, and then them going out into public and speaking in, or speaking or being heard in all manners of languages that were there in Jerusalem today.

It was evident something had happened. So it appears that something evident happened here in verse, as Simon saw hands being laid on him, or not on him, on them. Notice it never says that hands were laid on Simon, I guess. When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money. So there's a problem here with Simon. Right off the bat, what happens to Simon is something that, I say it's not dissimilar to what happened to Judas when he betrayed Jesus Christ.

Simon had a fault in him that was so deep-seated. In Ty's past, I said Judas had a cancer in him that he never did allow God or ask God to heal and ask God to remove from him. He never yielded that to God, the complete trust and the complete giving over of himself to God, that that cancer of the love of money would be taken out of him. So Judas, you know, it became his Achilles' heel. It became the thing that killed him. He loved money, that he was so enamored by it that he was willing to sell the Messiah and betray him for 30 pieces of silver.

And here we have Simon. Simon, who we know, here's a man who, in his own mind, was a great man. He loved the audience. He was full of pride. He was used to doing things that no one else could do. And as he followed Philip, and as he listened to what Philip had to say, you know, the Bible never tells us that he was a false convert. The Bible never tells us that he was just pretending to believe. It appears that he was called. But when he saw the apostles come, and whatever he saw, whatever happened that day, something triggered in him, I want to be them.

I want to do. This is something that they do that I have never seen anyone do before. I want to be the one to be able to make that change in people.

You notice that, you know, he knew that Philip was, you know, Philip miracles were being done through him back in verse seven, unclean spirits were being cast out, people were being healed, paralyzed and lame were healed. That didn't trigger it in Simon. He didn't say, give me the whole, you know, give me what you have, I'll pay money for it because I want to heal people. He kind of listened. But something that happened when the apostles came, he thought, I want to be them. Maybe he just saw that the power God had invested in the apostles, that he thought, I want to be the preeminent one. They're able to do something that Philip wasn't able to do. I want to be chief. I want to be the head. I don't know what it was. But Simon fell prey to something that was already Indian, that he didn't let go of. The pride overcame him. The desire to be the greatest overcame him. And he spoke words to Peter that absolutely showed Peter, this man is a difference above a different spirit and there was a deadly sin in him. A deadly sin in him that was evident by the words that he spoke. Because here we are in verse 18, and he says something that we haven't seen in the Bible before. Give me the Holy, let me be like them. And he offered them money, saying in verse 19, give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Well, we know. You can't buy the Holy Spirit. God isn't impressed by the things that we have and what we give him. He's looking at the heart. Are we giving him ourselves? Are we yielding ourselves to him? Are we humble as we come before him? And all the things that we can talk about, Simon, you know, none of those things that God is looking for are evident in the words that he said. He kind of revealed to Peter and to us, you know, through his words, what he was still about. He had much, much to overcome.

In the program last night, in the B ollion today program, if you watched it last night, it talked about Simonie. It's such a thing here about selling, you know, about buying religious favors through money that they actually named that practice. That is extant in the world today. They named it after Simon, you know. So let me pull up a thing here. If you ever see the words, Simonie, you'll know what it is. Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir.

I was just wondering if they had hesitated or told him that he needed to, I don't know, express his repentance more deeply or something that for some reason they were hesitating to lay hands on him. That's why all of a sudden he offered money. You know, it does make you wonder because it doesn't say hands were ever laid on him. Maybe when he saw it, you know, that was the signal to Peter, this man isn't ready.

This man has some things I don't know, but it is noted that doesn't ever say he had hands laid on him. Right. He was there. You would expect him like maybe to be next in line or something to have hands laid on him. And why all of a sudden did he offer money if it was going to happen anyway?

You know, it's interesting that you bring that up. Because sometimes, you know, when you're working with people, you'll see and they believe in whatever. But every once in a while, working with someone, a comment will come out. And it kind of gives you insight into some of the characters, some of the things that they need to do. Right. That's what happens to Peter here. And he knows immediately that this man is not ready. And I think, you know, God does work with us because he does, you know, he does want all of us. So if we hear something, he's going to kind of make it so that the person has an opportunity to repent.

We're going to see Peter tell him, repent. You've got you got some things to repent of here. We're going to see Simon's reaction. You know, Simon's reaction to that. He never does repent. He goes off in a different way because now in his mind, he has, you know, this idea that he needs to be the greatest one. He needs to be like the apostle and be the preeminent one of here.

Let me pull up this, this simony. Okay, simony says, is the buying or selling of something spiritual or closely connected with the spiritual. More widely, it's any contract of this kind, forbidden by divine or ecclesiastical law, of course, is taken here from Simon Magus. You know, the Bible is pretty clear that you do not, you do not ever use the way of God for personal gain. You know, we were well aware of the verse in Matthew 10 where he's sending out the disciples and he says, freely you have received, freely give. And so, you know, it isn't something that we would ever, you know, the church would ever look to make money off of nothing that we would ever make money off of that we would sell services.

You can't sell God. I mean, if that's what we're doing, boy, there are there are some prices to pay for that. And God talks pretty, pretty sternly about that. Let's, let's look at a few of them here in Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34. God talks about prophets, you know, our ministers, shepherds who, who would use the sheep for their own personal gain. And he, you know, he talks about the shepherds in Ezekiel 34, and you know how they haven't served the sheep, how they have instead served themselves, and that Christ will come down and be their shepherd.

But it's a warning, you know, to every, certainly to every, every minister to be aware that we're never doing anything like this. God calls us, every one of us to serve, not to enrich ourselves from anything that God has given us. He's the one who provides. We just trust Him. And as He told those, those in Matthew 10, go out, don't provide for yourself. I'll provide everything you need. We trust in God to do, to do just that.

But in Ezekiel 34 and verse 2, He tells Ezekiel, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds, woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. That's not what they were, that was not what they were called to do. That's not what they were ordained to do, to look how they feed themselves. What are the shepherds who feed themselves? Shouldn't the shepherds feed the flocks? Yes, they're there to to make sure the flock has water, to make sure the flock has has food, to lead them to green pasture.

Not to worry about themselves. God will take care of that. Verse 3 says, You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you don't feed the flock. Your interest is more in what's in it for you and what you do. You have an ulterior motive in mind. What can it benefit from me? Even as we look at the world around us today, and we see so many so-called Christian evangelists that aren't true Christians, and TV ministries, and whatever, you always see money attached to it.

And that's part of what God is talking about here. They, their own way, devising their own gospel, devising their own words, you know, they will preach a message, but they are getting very well paid for it, and that's the ulterior motive in mind. Send a donation for this. Buy a book from this.

Buy a ticket to my rally. Whatever it is, there's always some money attached to it. So where is the heart? God says, you do it from the heart, the shepherds of God, not for any kind of personal gain. On a verse 10, He says, Behold, I'm against the shepherds. I will require my flock at their hand.

I'll cause them to cease feeding the sheep. There won't be those shepherds anymore, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more. But I will deliver my flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them. No longer be food for them. Mr. JB? Yes. Okay, this is Karen. My mother wasn't Catholic, but she knew people who were, and after she died, I received some Mass cards in the mail.

It's my understanding that that's somebody paying to have prayer said. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct. Yes, that is exactly what they... Yeah, exactly.

And then if you pay for those prayers to be said, apparently it moves people from purgatory closer to heaven, that you can buy your way into heaven by the more people praying for them. Yes, one of those things we're talking about. So...

And if you look closely at the religions of the world, you see this simony all over the place. The world has kind of gotten used to it. It should never be in the true Church of God. It should never be there. That should never be an element of it.

Let's look at Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23 and verse 23.

23 and 23.

23 and 23. Buy the truth, but don't sell it.

You know, whatever. It should remind you of the pearl of great price. Sell whatever you have for that pearl of great price. But don't sell it. Don't look to make money off of it. Don't look to recoup your investment. Buy the truth and do not sell it. Also wisdom and instruction and understand it.

You know, Peter, I've mentioned a few times when you look at Peter's epistles later on in his life and some of Paul's as well as we go through and watch the experiences that he goes through. You see some of these elements that appear in their epistles as they probably were thinking back to these early New Testament experiences they had. Let's look at First Peter 5. Now verse 2. You know, as Peter progressed through his ministry of the apostleship in Jerusalem where he stayed most of the time, he says this in chapter 5 verse 2. He says, You know, Paul says labor is worth as due. Jesus Christ said that as well. But he's saying don't do it for dishonest gain. You know, don't look to make yourself money off of that. God will provide.

Be there and let your motivation be that you are serving the people of God and that you are serving God in the way that he wants you to serve. Mr. J.B. Yes. Yeah, Paul. That sounds an awful lot like our instructions when giving offerings. That's right. That's right. Give it to God from the heart. Don't worry about the rest of it. But, you know, just give it to God and give it from the heart. So now we give ourselves to heart. That's what God is looking for.

He's looking. He's looking for what we give, denying ourselves, becoming like him, becoming the humble, teachable people that he wants us to be. I won't turn to 2 Peter. As you read through 2 Peter, you see him talking a lot about false prophets and talking about false apostles and people that rise up looking for their own followers after themselves.

Maybe as he was writing that 2 Peter as God was inspiring it, he might have thought back to Simon and thought, here's a man. Here's really, I guess, the first recorded person who was baptized who turned against the church and was looking to develop a following for himself. He wanted the power. He could not let go of that. He wanted to be up front. He wanted people looking at him, and he wanted to be the one leading the way.

And, you know, if you listen to the Beyond Today program, he preached a different gospel. Even though he believed he didn't preach the same gospel as Philip, he preached in gospel because he wanted the same adulation that he saw, or the same power that the apostles had. So he wasn't going to yield himself to it. Instead, he was going to try to take that power for himself. Let's go back. Let's go back to Acts. Because he's a notable character, and, you know, as we run into these people who are very devout to God, we look at their character traits, we look at what they've done, and those are lessons for us what we should do.

We run into other people like Simon, and we look at that and think, whoa, if there's anything like me, anything like him and me, maybe it's not, I want the power, I want, you know, I'll buy this or whatever.

But if there's that fatal flaw in us, and it's ever brought to our attention, boy, we should pay close attention to that, unlike what Simon did here. So let's go back. We were in Acts 8 and verse 20. You know, Peter hears this comment, and immediately Peter knows this is not of God. This is a man that's got a fatal flaw in him. There's a cancer in him that's going to kill him spiritually if he doesn't overcome it. So Peter rightly tells him immediately, he says, in verse 20, Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.

It absolutely cannot. It absolutely cannot. And he says you have neither part nor portion in this manner, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. He doesn't mince any words. You know, if we see something that's of a grievous nature like Peter responds to, you know, we shouldn't let it go.

If we see a fatal flaw, you know, in something, it should be addressed immediately. If you don't want to address it, then it should be brought to the ministry so that not to get people in trouble, not to tattle on them and not to tell stories, but that it could be addressed, because it's the eternal life of people that are there. And we're not looking to see just make friends and make nice and smooth things over. We're here and we have the responsibility to lead people to Jesus Christ.

And when we see something to bring it to their attention and ask God to please help them repent and that they would repent, we're here to see that everyone is brought to Christ, not just to be nice and smooth things over. And we're going to run into the things like this, right? Probably in your history of the church, we've already run into some situations like this, where there is a flaw in someone and it's brought to their attention.

And how do they respond to it? What is done? Again, it's not friendship that's at stake, a friendly, you know, human friendship. It's eternal life at stake. And that's what Peter was saying here. So he missed no words with Simon. You don't have any part or portion of us. Your heart isn't right to the sight of God. And he tells him exactly what he should have. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness. And pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Interesting that the word perhaps is in there. I think when Peter saw those words come out of Simon's mouth, he thought, this is a tough one. This is a tough one. This is what this man's heart is. And even after he's been following this inordinate desire to be preeminent is in him. That he's willing to, it's like it's overtaken him in this instance. So Peter, you know, rightly tells him, repent and ask God to forgive you. Something we shouldn't deal at all bad about doing if we see that in someone. Again, this one's very clear, you know, sometimes you might, I think we'll know when we come upon that.

Your margin references 2 Timothy 2 verse 25. Let's look at 2 Timothy 2 and verse 25. We can see what Peter has done there in that instance. And Paul, Paul, you know, as he's training a young minister, he instructs him in exactly the same way that Peter handled that situation. We'll begin in verse 24 where the sentence begins.

He goes, And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God, there again, perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. You know, Peter was pretty stern with Simon. We would, as we talked about Matthew 1815 and in recent months, talked about approaching someone gently, but if you see something like that to be very direct and don't make excuses and beat around the bush, you know, this is not right.

If God perhaps, an interesting word again that Paul throws in, that God inspired, if God perhaps will grant them repentance. Oh, you know, that God's will. God's will is that everyone would come to repentance. But it's up to the person, right? God doesn't do repentance for us.

He'll lead us to repentance, but we have to be the ones turning ourselves to God, yielding to Him, acknowledging the sin, and asking Him for the strength and the understanding of ourselves to wipe this out of us and help us to become humble before Him and teachable. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses. Isn't that interesting? That they may come to their senses. Remember the Holy Spirit God gives us is the spirit of power and of love and sound mind.

But they will come to their senses. They'll let go of this idea that they have. You know, there was there was Simon, you know, you pray, could you come to your senses let go of this, let go of this desire to be preeminent and to buy, but they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by Him to do His will.

That's what happened to Simon. That's what happens has happened to many. You know, as we as we go through the book of Acts, I mentioned before, we see Satan's devices. We're well aware of them. We're seeing them at work here with the New Testament Church. Here with Simon, we see, we see one of his devices that captured Simon. He fell prey to it. He fell right into his trap. And his spiritual life was over, just like Judas, his spiritual life was over.

We need to be aware of those things that when something's brought to our attention, always remember, boy, we don't, we don't put ourselves first. We put God's first and what His will is and be willing to repent and ask God to, I mean, get on our knees and fast, whatever we, whatever we do to ask God's forgiveness. So verse 22, if we go back to Acts, Peter is telling Simon that, you know, repent, that the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

His words, remember His words revealed what was in His heart. Jesus Christ said, by the abundance of our, our, our mouth, I guess it is by the abundance of our mouth, our heart is revealed. By the abundance of our words, our heart is revealed. And Peter could see right into what was Simon's in Simon's heart. Verse 23, he uses some harsh words. I see that you are poisoned. When we're poisoned, what does that mean? There's death in us. If the poison isn't removed, we're dead.

Right? And we can be poisoned to others as well. You know, Simon, Simon became poisoned to other people as well. I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Just from that one comment that was so telling. What God inspired Peter and Peter saw right through it. Pope Peter saw right through it and gave him exactly, exactly what, what the truth was.

You know, the, the, I guess the comparison of sin to poison here is something we see in other parts of the Bible as well. Let's go back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, when God is talking to Israel, Judah, as they depart from him and as they've been captivated by sin, they were never able to completely yield themselves to God. They might have gone through the physical motions of obedience for a time, but their heart was not really with God.

Jeremiah 2 and verse 19. Yeah, actually, you might might later on you might go back and, you know, pick up the whole stanza there beginning with verse 14. But let's just look at Jeremiah 2 verse 19 now. He says, Your own wickedness will correct you and your backslideings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing. Now there's the word bitter here that you have forsaken the Lord your God and the fear of me is not in you, says the Lord God of hosts.

You know, Peter could well have said those words to, you know, to Simon. The fear of God was not in him at all, because he didn't respond to Peter the way a converted person would respond.

We go forward to Jeremiah 4. Jeremiah 4 and verse 14. You know what God would tell us to if this ever comes to our attention, if someone says, you know, I see what's in your heart, you need to repent. You know, verse 14 says, Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? Remember what God's calling us to do is become pure to wipe, to cleanse our minds, to cleanse our hearts, to become pure. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims affliction from Mount Ephraim.

Make mention to the nations, yes, proclaim against Jerusalem that watchers come from afar country and raise their voice against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field, they are against her all around because she's been rebellious against me. Now, Simon was rebellious against God. He said, I'm not doing it. I'm simply not doing it. You know, I will see as he refuses to repent. Your ways and your doings have procured these things for you.

This is your wickedness because it is bitter. It reaches to your heart. It reaches to your heart. In the New Testament in Romans, Romans 3. No, it should have gone. Well, yeah, let's go to Romans 3, then we'll go back to Psalms. You're headed that way already. Romans 3 and verse 13. Verse 13, here's those verses that talks about who's doing, who's righteous, you know, and then God opens these verses where he quotes from the Psalms. There's no one, no one righteous, no, not one.

Not gone to verse 13. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they've practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. See how powerful words are? How powerful and revealing words can be. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. All these things that come when there's something inside us that is so overwhelming that only with God's strength can we overcome and put behind us. It's the cancer that cannot be killed by self or masked forever.

It will eventually kill us if we're not working on it, and it will reveal itself. It will reveal itself just as it did with Simon. If you're taking notes, you can mark down Psalm 5 verses 9 and 10. It's one of the Psalms of David. He talks about the same type of things. The bitterness, the poison, that sin is in us. It's the thing that kills. As we go back to Acts 8, we see it's going to be the thing, just like with Judas, that cancer of the love of money killed him.

Simon's pride in his determination that he was going to be preeminent no matter how he had to get it. If the apostles wouldn't give it to him, he was going to give it to himself. Back in Acts 8. So, Shabib? Yes, sir. Peter told Simon that, among other things, he was bound by iniquity. That may be key to the things that he taught later on. Iniquity being lawlessness, perhaps he was the origin of the gospel of the law is irrelevant. You don't need to keep it. Interesting comment that he told him exactly those words. I think those words are telling bitterness.

Bitterness is an interesting word there, too, because when you leave God and when there's sin that takes you out, you become a bitter person. You become bitter against it, you convince yourself that it's everyone else's fault. I'm sure it's Peter's fault, is what Simon would say. He wouldn't put lay hands on him, whatever the situation was there. And bound by iniquity. It's the slave concept that we talk about, that Paul talks about in Romans 6 and 7.

We are slaves to sin. Here, Simon, he's bound by iniquity. It was going to be the thing that would kill him. I got it brought up. I do have a thing on Gnosticism. If you listen to the Beyond Today program, I heard it talk about Gnosticism. I guess everyone knows what Gnosticism is, but it is commonly believed, even though the Bible doesn't tell us, that Simon went out and preached another gospel.

We've talked about Nicholas before. Perhaps he was the father of the doctor of the Nicolaitans, but this concept of Gnosticism did erupt or did arise in the first century. It's still with us today. It's a word that probably we've all heard.

It's good to remind ourselves what it is, because as we read through this definition of Gnosticism and what it can do, we can see that even in our church, among people that even attend with us, we can see these elements of Gnosticism as part of some personality.

As you listen and hear the words and the things that they do, you see some of these things. We need to be very aware of it. Remember that Paul said, there will be people around you who are speaking misleading things and trying to lead you astray. It's always about leaving God's church and leaving the truth or where God put you behind and elevating self. Let's just read through this definition. Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises.

First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only. Now, I hope I've never seen that anywhere in the Church of God, that first one, but what they would say is whatever we do outside, whatever we do with our bodies, fine. It's a spirit that counts. God knows this body that we have, and he knows we're sinful people and that he's okay with it.

Now, we don't see that in the Church. If we saw that in the Church, they would be put out of the Church immediately and talk to them. The second one, though, here is something that we do see among some people, and you can kind of see it start, and if it's not arrested, eventually it takes them away. Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge. That's where pride comes in. It claims to possess an elevated knowledge, a higher truth known only to a certain few.

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means to know. Gnostics claim to possess this higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plane of existence.

Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God. Now, that is a danger. The first one is, but that is a danger in the Church of God today. Some people do think they have this secret revelation from God. They get out on a twig on something, and they will be there, and they will be there, and you can talk to them, and you can go back to the Bible and talk about it. But it's their thing. It's that pride that can set them apart, that they think they're special. They have knowledge no one else has. And pretty soon you see them drifting, and pretty soon you see them walk on their own. You know, when the Bible cautions about staying in the Church, being part of the body, not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together, being teachable, being humble. Right? This is all something that Simon wasn't. You know, he was not a teachable person. He thought he would have it all. He wanted to be preeminent. And today we find people that just simply, you know, there's more. There's more than what the Church is teaching. There's got to be this little thing here. I could probably, if I was going to sit down and write a dozen things over the last 10 years since I've been a pastor, I can tell you people have gotten up on a twig on it. They've got some special knowledge. The one that comes to mind is, you know, at least two people at two different times. They didn't know each other. They left the Church because they believe they found the secret to the Ten Virgins. That there was a group of people that would be exempt from the Ten Virgins and that they were going to follow that way because if they did this, this, this, this, can't find it anywhere in the Bible. Took them both out, and I guess they're still practicing that today or whatever they've done, they've never come back to Church. A little higher knowledge, a little bit different. Watch out for that in yourselves. Stick with the Bible. Stick and have your nose in the Bible. Believe what the Bible says. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Let God reveal knowledge to you. Don't go to the Internet and look and search for all these little special things that can lead you astray.

If you find one of them, talk about it. I say often, come and talk about the things that you do. Let's go back to the Bible and be dedicated to seeing what the Bible says, pre- but from His Word. Because many go astray when they go outside the Bible and look outside the true Church of God for meaning. There's an awfully lot of lies out there in other religions, and you've got to be very careful that you're staying with the truth.

Apparently, Simon didn't repent. Verse 24, if we go back to Acts 8, Peter admonishes him, repent, go back. If Simon was converted, he would have thought, whoa!

I guess a good example of this would be with Peter himself. Remember when Christ rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, get behind me, Satan? Because Peter, you remember the incident, Peter was saying, no, we don't want you to die, Christ. But Christ knew it was the will of God. It had to happen. That was God's plan. And in something like that, Christ said, get behind me, Satan.

Peter didn't run. Peter didn't say, well, I'm not listening to him anymore. Peter was converted. Peter searched. He examined his heart. He came to know what Christ meant, but he didn't leave. He didn't run. He was teachable. He was teachable, and he was humble, and he was dedicated to following. Simon here, he's not any of that. We need to be. If someone corrects us, it's a difficult thing. It's a difficult thing to correct someone. It's a difficult thing to be corrected, but we need to be humble, teachable people. Go back and ask God to show us what to do. Simon didn't do that. Verse 24. Notice what he said. Peter says, go and repent. Simon said, well, you pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.

I mean, we have to say, come on, Simon. Someone else can't repent for you. You have to do it yourself. It has to be your heart that's changed, not Peter's heart. So there he's showing, I'm not going to do it. Well, you pray. You pray to God and ask that none of the things that you said are going to happen to me are going to happen to me. And that I'm poisoned, that I'm violent by iniquity, and I'm, you know, bitter. All these things. You can't do that. Repentance is personal. Only the person can repent. It's up to us to yield to God. It's up to us to be humble. It's up to us to be teachable. The things that Simon wasn't. Again, the example of a converted attitude is when something's brought, you listen. You take it to heart.

An unconverted attitude. I'm not paying attention to it. I'm not changing. It's your problem, not mine. Tell, tell things that we can see in life when we do it. And danger signals that we need to bring to people's attention. Again, it's eternal life at stake, not just a friendship, you know, and being nice to each other and having everyone, you know, just like us.

And that's the end of the story of Simon, right? So, you know, there's many legends, I guess, of what happened to Simon. Many people believe he went to Rome. You know, many people believe that he, you know, in the name of Peter, that he took Peter's name. When he went to Rome, he claimed that he was God, Jesus Christ, had the Holy Spirit, could do all those things he saw Peter doing, and that the false religion originated under him. And that, you know, many people believe Simon is buried in Rome. And yet they think that it's Peter's Rome because Peter buried in Rome because Simon took his name. I want to be like Peter, right? I want to be like Peter, so I'm going to go off and I'm going to preach a gospel that's different. I'm going to be like Peter, and people will believe me, and I'll be the preeminent one. And he went out and he did just that. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what happened to Simon. We're relying on historians like Eusebius and others who tell us or fill in some of the blanks. We don't know. But certainly, certainly we believe from everything that's written out there, Simon didn't repent. Simon went on and Simon was going to do what Simon was going to do. He was going to make himself as God before the people. And that perhaps he is the one who the Catholic Church thinks was the first pope who they wrongly think was Peter, which it absolutely was not. And we can prove that if anyone ever wanted to. Okay, that ends Simon. Any comments, questions on that or anything? The Bible just goes on to the next thing here. Okay, that episode is done. Philip is there in Samaria. The Simon issue, the Simonist is done. We learn a lot from Simon. We learn a lot of things to watch out for from Simon in ourselves and maybe in others and the way we can help them come to God. And then they get on with what they were doing there, preaching the gospel. That's what they were doing. Witnesses to Jesus Christ. That's why Philip was there. That's why God was working the miracles and healing through him. So in verse 25 it says, So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. Now that was the apostles, of course. The members of apostles had come from Jerusalem to lay hands. So while they were there, they preached of God.

They went to Jerusalem, but along the way, they stopped off them wherever they went. They witnessed of Jesus Christ. In verse 26 we come back to Philip then. An angel. Now remember, angel is the Greek word that can be translated messenger. So whether it was an angel or it was a messenger from God, whatever that means, somehow Philip was given a command here. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. A very simple command. No explanation given. God doesn't say, do this because this is what's going to happen to you. This is what I want you to do there. There's a simple command given. And we see in verse 28 or verse 27, Philip just simply did it. God said, do it. You don't need a reason. Follow him. It shows the level of conversion in Philip. God said, do it. I'm going to do it. It's noted there in verse 26. We'll see why later that this was desert. He was heading into a barren land. This is desert that he was going into. But God said, you go down this road, Philip. Philip simply went. Reminds us of Abraham, right? Because Abraham, when God said, get out of your country to a land I will show you. Abraham didn't ask why. What do you want me to do there? Why can't they do it here? Blah, blah, blah. Abraham simply went. We see the same thing here in Philip. You know. Mrs. Gable. Yes. Mrs. Gable. Yes. All right. Can we say that the Gaza, which is a desert, at that time is the same Gaza that's over in Palestine today, but they're doing all that fighting. Or is it a different Gaza? I know they call it the Gaza Strip over there. But I was wondering, was it the same area? You know. I know what someone else may know the answer to that. I think it is. But if someone else knows for sure, just speak up. I've always taken it was, but I haven't looked that up specifically. We all think it is. Maybe that's something we can look up and make sure. But I always assumed it was, and we should have checked that. Okay. So, verse 27, Philip went. And look what happened along the way. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning home. Right? So here it is. Philip's going on this road in the desert. He comes across this Ethiopian. Here we have the first Gentile, the first African convert, if you will. Philip is going to meet him. Not by chance. It wasn't coincidence. God knew exactly what was going to happen. Here's this man of stature returning home from Jerusalem. So the question is, well, was he a proselyte? Remember we talked about a proselyte before, that they were converted to, they were converted to, do I have the right word? Proselyte? Yeah. They were converted to Judaism. So was he in Jerusalem, worshipping God? Was he there for holy days, that he had gone up to Jerusalem and journeyed there? Now he was on his way back. Obviously, it says, he said he went there to worship. So he must have understood Judaism, and he went up there for that purpose, and now he's returning home after his time there. And Philip encounters him. Not by chance.

Because Philip did exactly what God told him to do, because God is going to teach us something here as well as this man then, as Philip encounters this man. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading of all things Isaiah the prophet. And the Spirit said to Philip. Now, you know, when we see this thing about the Spirit said to Philip, some people will say, See, that proves that the Holy Spirit is a person. It does not. You know, the Holy Spirit can influence our minds. It can put thoughts into our minds. It can direct us. It can direct us in various areas. So we could say, Well, the Holy Spirit told me that. I never speak that way. I don't think you speak that way. But we know that the Holy Spirit will lead us in the direction that God wants us to go. A thought may come to mind. You know, we may know someone who has need. And if all, you know, God leads us in a way to help them. We know, maybe we know someone who is spiritually struggling and God will put a thought in our mind. Pick up the phone and call that person or send them an email. Go out and have a cup of coffee. And God will influence us, you know. We can say it's talking to us, but it's really God's Spirit leading us because He is binding us together and His Spirit will lead us to do the thing. That's what happened to Philip here. You know, Philip has this thought as he sees this chariot here returning that God was encouraging Philip, go overtake this chariot. Catch up with it. So Philip ran to him. He followed exactly what God led him to do. He followed the lead of the Holy Spirit, Philip ran to him. And as he comes up to this chariot, he hears the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Well, he had no idea that this eunuch was returning from Jerusalem. He had no idea what he was going to do. He's just following, this is what God wants me to do. I'm going to do that. He hears him reading from the prophet Isaiah. And he knows. I think Philip knows then, okay, this is why God had me catch up with this guy. And he asks him, do you understand what you're reading? Interesting. Here's the man apparently reading outside or reading out loud from Isaiah. And Philip, and he's reading from Isaiah 53. You know, that's the chapter that talks about Jesus Christ as our Messiah and that he's been beaten for our transgressions, etc, etc. Do you understand what you're reading? And the eunuch answered, how can I? How can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now we see another way that God works in New Testament times. We talked about it before, but here's a man. God's led him to these scriptures in the Bible. He's reading Isaiah 53. He doesn't understand what he's reading, but he's drawn to it. And God has sent Philip to him to explain the scriptures.

You know, what God does is he works in the New Testament. We have people and teachers that he appoints, you know, for people to learn the truth. Let's go to Romans 10. We've read this not too long ago, but I think it's in context here of what's going on because this is exactly what God is having Philip do. The man needs help in understanding the scriptures. It's God's church who should be there to help him understand the scriptures. And God sent Philip to him to help him understand it. Romans 10. We'll pick it up. Pick it up in verse 12. Romans 10-12.

So, and then in verse 16, he quotes from Isaiah 53 as well. That's exactly where the Bible is going to be.

And that's where it begins. So, as you know, Paul is writing that he has this in mind. Perhaps he's remembering or somehow Peter told him the story about the Ethiopian. I have no idea. But as we look at the story of the Ethiopian, that's what happened. He's being called by God, but God doesn't show him what those scriptures mean. He needs the help. He needs to be what someone God sends to help him understand what he is reading. And God will open the mind at that time. He's the one who brings it together, and we work within a body. I keep coming back to that. Jesus Christ started a church. He didn't start a bunch of individuals all over the world by themselves doing their own things. He brought people into a body. He established the church, as we've talked about many times in Ephesians 4. He's the one who sent it in order. He's the head of the church. He's the one doing these things. In Ephesians 10, we have Philip sending to this eunuch to help him understand the scriptures that God is opening his mind to understand. So we'll go back to Acts 8. Verse 31. Acts 8, verse 31. I'll get my notes here to make sure I'm not skipping something I wanted to talk about. Verse 31. And he said, How can I let someone guide me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which the eunuch was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before a cheerer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. Now we know who that's referring to, but the eunuch didn't. So the eunuch asked the question. Nothing wrong with asking questions if you don't understand, right? I mean, I hope everyone always asks a question. And if we don't know, we'll ask God to open our minds to understand scriptures.

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? Good question. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now it wasn't a little one-word answer. It wasn't that, you know, we spent two minutes saying, oh, he's talking of Jesus Christ, he's the Messiah. You know, when it says that Philip opened his mouth and at the beginning and beginning of the scripture, preached Jesus to him, there was a journey that was going on here. Peter had, or Philip had, Carl opened up into the chariot with the eunuch, and they sat and they talked about Jesus Christ. They talked about the Messiah's share. Philip opened up the scriptures to him, showed him the prophecy, showed him that Jesus Christ is absolutely the Messiah that the world was working for. It wasn't a quick answer. There was a Bible study going on in that chariot, and Philip was up to the task of knowing when he was asked a question, he was able to answer it from the Bible, from the scriptures, and the eunuch understood. You know, God opened his mind to understand that. It was God's, God who has orchestrated this whole thing. Now, it's a lesson to us that, you know, there are times in our lives when there are opportunities for us to witness of what we know, preach the gospel, if you will, and not, you know, yes, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And sometimes we have to have our ears open. Where's the opportunity to do that? I don't know that we do that. I don't know that I do that, you know, frankly. And maybe there's been opportunities I've missed as I've been with people or neighbors or whatever that just kind of overlooked or thought, don't have the time to do that. But sometimes when questions come, if there's a question, you need to answer it. But other times where people might speculate on something or make a comment that you can go to and see. Are they interested? Is this something? Or do they just kind of walk away and you know they're not interested?

It is something that we can think about that I, you know, find myself thinking about. Am I missing opportunities that God gives because it's all our responsibility. You look at the New Testament Church, it wasn't started, as we said, by the apostles in Jerusalem. It wasn't started by telecasts and magazines coming out of Jerusalem Church. It was by local people who spread the word as they talked to people and as the word spread. So, you know, something we can look at here is Philip. You know, he follows what God said. There's an opportunity and he speaks to the eunuch here. And as they go along, they come across some water. Some water. Well, the eunuch understands, the eunuch believes at this point. He's seen the Scriptures. He gets it. His life has been changed. He understands Jesus Christ is a Messiah. Philip has done a very good job of explaining the Scriptures to him. God, of course, has opened the eunuch's mind. He's also been there with Philip to give him the words that he needs because God always will give us the words we need if we pause to ask him. You know, that we always pause to ask him what we need and he will provide when it's for the right purpose. So as they went down the road, they came to, and it's interesting, it's just the word some, to some water.

As they came, walked, went down the road, they've been on a journey for some time to come to some water. Just a coincidence? No, not a coincidence. It's exactly as God had planned to be. Notably, remember, this is desert area.

This is desert area. So the fact that they come to some water is a unique event. And as they're talking and as Philip is working with the eunuch, they come to some water in a desert region of where they're traveling. And the eunuch asks, well, what hinders me? What hinders me from being baptized? So obviously, Philip had gone through the process.

He had explained who Jesus Christ was. He had explained to him what the process of conversion is. You have to repent. You have to believe. You have to be baptized. All those things are necessary for salvation. And so when they come to water, the eunuch says, well, what about me?

Why can't I be baptized? Why wouldn't I be baptized? Might seem a little quick to some of us today because today when someone comes, we do the thing that Jesus Christ said. We have people count the cost. We explain to them, understand that Philip was doing some baptismal counseling in that chariot as they were going along. He was explaining the truth to them. And he could see the response of the eunuch. So he knows that the eunuch fully understands what's going on. And he can see the demeanor of the eunuch as this is going along.

And in verse 37, the eunuch says, look, there's water. How convenient is that? Wow! I mean, look at this. We're in a desert. Here's water. What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe, if you believe with all your heart, if you believe with all your heart, you know, all your heart, we take that for granted, you know. But remember, whenever we see the word believe, almost every time we see the word believe in the New Testament, it's the Greek word, pistoio.

P-I-S-T-E-U-O. It doesn't mean believe as in, you know, I'm just going to I just acknowledge the fact. It's a deep-seated belief that changes the core of you when you believe. And that's what Philip is telling the eunuch here. And Philip can see it in his demeanor.

I see the way you are. I see the recognition. And of course, God was there leading Philip to understand what was going on, too, and that the eunuch was converted. If you believe, because when we believe there's a change in us, we can never go back to where we were before, or I shouldn't say never, because that's the wrong thing.

We can go back to the way where we were before. We shouldn't. There's a change in us, and we know that we should never go back to the way we were before. If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.

And the eunuch answered and said, I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's a huge, a huge acknowledgement, a huge change in this man, you know, that he said. And when we understand Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Jesus Christ as the Messiah, it should make a difference in us. When we understand the magnitude of that truth, now what the responsibility to us is, is that if we believe, we have to change to be what Jesus Christ is.

It produces that change in us to want to please him, to desire to please him, to do the things that Jesus Christ wants us to do. If we believe, it will produce that in us. And so they are here in verse 37, and they're baptized. So verse, you know, Philip hears this. They understand the Greek word and the magnitude of the word, and here's the man saying, yeah, I get it, I get it.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Verse 38, so he commanded the chariot to stand still, stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now there's the immersion. They went into the water. You know, you read some of the commentaries, and they'll say, well, it doesn't necessarily mean they did a total immersion. Oh, yes, it does. Yes, it does. I mean, people are always looking for ways around things or whatever.

Yes, they went into the water. That's exactly what it is saying. They went into the water just like when we baptized, we go into the baptismal pool or a pool or the creek or the ocean or the lake or wherever it is we're baptizing, we go into the water. And someone is baptized. They're completely immersed just as John the Baptist did and Jordan, just as Jesus Christ was baptized, just as all of us were baptized.

And when they came up out of the water, I'm not clear as that, right? Came up out of the baptismal waters, the Spirit of the Lord, you know, so something is the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away. Now, interestingly here, I mean, here we have the first, you know, the first Ethiopian that's baptized, right?

The first, I guess you would say, Gentile, if I can use that, the first African. And here it is, you know, he's not a Samaritan. He doesn't have any ties to the Jews at all. There's no, you know, here he is. And he's a proselyte. He's, you know, God is already opening his mind. Here he is baptized. I don't know what, you know, we don't know.

And maybe someone can correct me. I look to see if we encounter this eunuch again somewhere later in Scripture to see, well, we're hands laid on him because we know Philip didn't lay hands on him. We know Philip baptized him, but we know Philip didn't lay hands on him because Philip didn't lay hands on the people in Samaria. He waited until the apostles came from Jerusalem to do that. So here we have the eunuch that's baptized. You know, later, perhaps we don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us, you know, whether he ever had hands laid on him or not. But he did believe. He did believe and, you know, he surrendered to God and he committed to God and as soon as we were washed away at that point, what happened to him after that?

We don't know. We'll find out, I guess, when Jesus Christ returns. But then they come up out of the waters of baptism and they, I guess, get back onto the chariot or maybe they don't get back on the chariot. Philip has done exactly what God has asked him to do. He's going down the road God sent him to send in a desert. He didn't ask questions. He simply yielded and obeyed God. He's spoken with the eunuch. He's witnessed of Jesus Christ to the eunuch. He's done the job that God sent him to do very well. The eunuch believes the eunuch is baptized and then the spirit of the Lord, it says, caught Philip away so that the eunuch saw him no more.

It's like, well, the job is done. Your job is done, Philip. The way it's written there, we don't know exactly what happened to Philip. Was it kind of like Elijah, the guy just took him and took him and transported him to Azodas here, the city that it talks about in verse 40? Was it like Elijah? Was it like Enoch? Or was it like Jesus Christ who was able to maneuver through the crowds without being seen when they were ready to capture him but the time wasn't there? Or does it just mean that the Holy Spirit, as it said to him, as we read back earlier in the chapter, the Holy Spirit told him, it's time to leave.

Your job is done. Greet the eunuch, send him on his way, get on the way to to Azodas. What does it mean? We don't really know. And the verbiage doesn't really tell us exactly what it is. Quite Philip away. You know, well, if God said the job is done, Philip would have followed wherever God sent him to. The eunuch saw him no more, and he, the eunuch, went on his way rejoicing. He was very happy. Should be very happy, right? He had questions about the Bible.

He was troubled. He knew there was something that he didn't understand. And look what happened to him on his way home from Jerusalem. He understood the Scriptures. He knew who Jesus Christ was. He was baptized. He has a spiritual satisfaction that only God can bring. And God brought it to him in a way that no one could have foreseen. No one could have foreseen. The eunuch was ecstatic. You know, ecstatic over the truth that he had and the fact that he was at one, you know, at one with God.

Maybe not with the Holy Spirit at that point. You know, that would come later. But here we have now a convert in Ethiopia. What he did with the position that he was in, a position of responsibility, and the court of Kansas the Queen, you know, we don't know.

But we have, fellow. Go ahead. Someone had a comment? Mr. Shaby? Yes. A couple of things struck me when I first read this. Two things. He must have been very well off, and he was a very high official. But the thing that struck me one time was the fact that he could afford to have his own copy of the book of Isaiah. Good point!

He must have been very wealthy, to have his own chariot, too, and to be able to take time off, so to speak, to go to Jerusalem to worship. It makes me wonder that he must have gone back and had, I would think, had a very large influence on the court and whoever else he was because of his high position and his wealth. I would agree with that. That's a good point. And well respected because the Queen didn't say, no, you can't go to Jerusalem. Yes, go! And worship in a way that she probably didn't understand. So, good point. He was a man of influence, so perhaps when he went back, he was able to preach the Gospel to some of them there as well.

Yeah, one thing that's remarkable about the account also is that Philip was able to preach to him Jesus Christ's repentance and even water baptism out of the Old Testament because that was the only scripture they had available. So, people that say that the Old Testament is irrelevant or useless or outdated, there's proof here that you can preach Jesus Christ and being him the Savior from the Old Testament. Yep. Yeah, he did. And he would have had the experience that he would have had the knowledge of what went on in Jerusalem, too, on the day of Pentecost. I'm sure he talked about that as well. So, okay. So, we have Philip. He's done the job that God has wanted him to do with the eunuch, and the eunuch goes on his way rejoicing. Happy ending there whenever we do things God's way. It works out well. All things work together. It says, but Philip was found at Azotus. Okay, so he wasn't caught up in the heaven. He was there at Azotus. That's the Old Testament. If you remember the word, the city Ash God, that's where he was. And his job isn't yet done, right? Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities. Notice that all the cities. He kept preaching. He kept doing God's will. He preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

So God used this deacon, you know, in a way, in quite a way. He had quite an influence wherever he went. God gave him that gift, and he used that gift that God had given him. Now, we don't read anything more about Philip until we come to Acts 20. It tells us there he's an Ash God or Azotus, and he preached in all the cities as he went from Ash God or Azotus to Caesarea. And in Acts 20, or I'm sorry, Acts 21, and verse 8, we see Philip again. On the next day, this is Paul, you know, accounting for his journeys, on the next day, we who were Paul's companions, well, this is Luke writing, of course, on the next day we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea. Right? We just read about Caesarea. Philip preached from Ash God through all the cities until he came to Caesarea. On the next day, we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven. So he knows exactly the same guy, one of the seven deacons that were ordained there in Acts 6, and entered the house of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. And he tells us, this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. They understood the Word of God. They were able to teach the Word of God, or they were able to, people did it, not meaning that they were in churches teaching and whatever. Now, this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied, and then it goes on from there. So we see the Philip, you know, God brought him to Aesthet on the Caesarea, and apparently he settled there, had his family, and taught his family well, because look at his four daughters. They were all well trained in the way of God. They were able to explain the Scriptures. As Philip did, he did a good job in marrying his children in the way of God, and when they were older, they followed in those footsteps. So, you know, we have, you know, we have quite an example in Philip there, and apparently when he came to Caesarea, God let him live the rest of his life and see how he would do it in the private sector, if you will. So let's stop there, but I will open it up for any questions, comments, observations, or anything at all. There is one question I say I wrote down that, but let me open it up for you to discuss about anything.

What would be, Mr. Shaby, what would be the reference to him as an evangelist? What would that mean? I think what it means is that, you know, he became an evangelist, right? He was probably, you know, a preacher there in Caesarea. That he, you know, remember in Ephesians 4 it says pastors and etcetera, etcetera, teachers, evangelists, apostles, that he became one of those. He, you know, he was ordained later as an evangelist.

That would be my read on that. If anyone's got another thought on that, please. Just like today, sometimes we have deacons and then they're ordained as elders. Sometimes they're ordained as pastors or go on to do things like that. So it could be a stretch to think that possibly when he baptized the Ethiopian, he had already been ordained. Well, I, you know, I guess the reason that might be a possibility is because the apostles were there with him.

The apostles were there when they saw the work he did. You're right. That could have happened. We don't know that for sure, but that may be exactly what happened. It's a good observation. Because it would have been them who would have ordained him. Mr. Shaney. Yes. Getting back to Simeon. Could we say that the Roman Catholic Pope succeeded Simeon because of the Roman religion? That is when Constantine changed the Sabbath to Sunday. And I think I remember reading somewhere where they invited the people in who were practicing the holidays and all of that thinking that once they come into the church, they would learn the truth and get rid of those practices.

However, it backfired on them. Because what happened was, my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, the people in the church started celebrating Christmas and Easter and the Sabbath on Sunday in the Roman Catholic area. So can we say that the Roman Catholic religion succeeded from Simeon? I am not making myself clear.

Yeah. Let me rephrase what you said. You tell me if it's what you're saying. Okay. Yeah, what happened in 325 AD is that the Catholic Church, what happened was there were a lot of pagans in Rome, right? They wanted the church to expand the church and they wanted the church to be everything to everyone.

So that they adopted some of those pagan customs and bought them and claimed that they were Christian religions. It's okay. We'll just use this Roman Saturnalia festival to say it's the birthday of Christ. We'll use this fertility festival in the spring and say that it'll replace Passover. They were replacing the way of God when they were trying to put God into pagan festivals.

So the Christians would think, oh, we're still pleasing God, but the pagans would come in as well. So what they were doing was mixing truth and error and therefore perverting the word of God. There was never the intent that they would bring the pagans in and have them go back to the God's holy days, right? The intent was they had moved. They had moved and they were putting to death people who taught the old way of life, calling it Judaism, calling it legalism, calling it whatever they wanted, because they had formulated this new religion that would appeal to everyone.

It was a compromised religion. It was truth mixed with error. It was absolutely wrong and a lie. So is that what you were saying? That's what happened, though. That's what the council just said. I see it was. And that's why they moved to Sabbath from the seventh day to another day, because they wanted nothing to do with Judaism. They wanted to separate themselves totally from it.

Daniel 7, there's words there about how the man changes times and law. And the Catholic Church did that. They changed times, right? They moved from Sabbath to Sunday. They changed the laws. The Ten Commandments they preach are not the Ten Commandments of the Bible. When we read in Revelation about the peace power coming, he's going to change times and law, too. He's going to set himself up as God, and he will determine for the world what his truth is that everyone should follow. They tried to replace the Son of God with the Son of God.

Do what? I'm sorry. Another thing is, sort of eerie to me, why do they call the Pope Holy Father when the Bible says you don't call anyone Father but God Himself? But you see these people, they're being crowds, you know, when he comes out on the balcony. And it seems to me they're worshiping this guy. They are. And he's called the Vicar of Christ, which means in place of Christ. They see him as Christ on earth today.

I went to Catholic school for the first three grades I was in, and you call the priest Potter. That's what you call it. When we came into the church and we began understanding that, it was like, whoa, we were calling this minister Father all the time.

And the Bible says, don't call anyone Father, right, except God. And so you kind of look at those things when you're coming out of it, you think, boy, there's just things that are clear in the Bible that they don't follow at all. And yeah, even when you, every time you walk into the church, you know, there's the cross of Jesus up in the front, there's a statue of Mary, you bow down to the cross, you bow down to Mary, you do all those things that you're taught to do and things like that, which is the antithesis of the second commandment, which isn't even in their list of Ten Commandments, notably so.

They've just taken that out. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. Is it likely that Simon was the one who was there? Yeah, I think it is likely that Simon was the one in Rome, you know, there are Eusebius and others will talk about this man Simon was there and how he positioned himself. You know, the Catholic Church believes Peter was the first Pope, you know, we don't even know that Peter was in Rome, the Bible never says that Peter was in Rome, we know that Peter wasn't the first Pope of the Catholic Church, that Simon positioned himself.

He wanted to be God, he wanted to be Peter, so he would have gone there and talked about that and, you know, probably was able to do some miracles and wonders there through the powers that were allowing him to do that when he did his magic acts and people listened to him and the approach to gospel that fit his will rather than God's will. But a lot of that is we know we filled in some history, we don't know that for 100% sure, but it appears that way so.

Okay, any other any other comments? So what, as you're thinking, I'll just remind people in Jacksonville services are going to be 11, 11am this week, right, and in Orlando 230. I'll be in both Jacksonville and Orlando this week, so 11 o'clock in Jacksonville, 230 in Orlando. I will try to have, you know, some questions out by Monday over the first eight chapters of it first eight chapters of acts.

We'll do it we'll do the discussion thing and go through those next time which I think will be interesting and fun, fun as we recall what we've done. And then we'll proceed on from there as the gospel goes into the Gentile areas so. Any other questions, comments, observations? Mr. Shaby. Yes. Just one point I read years, probably 30-40 years ago in a book about Simon the Magician, that in Rome, the time, there was a position called painter, P-A-T-E-R, sometimes called Peter with an E in English.

And so he had the title of Simon Peter as the position, not a name. And that's how they supposedly named that change, you know, that say, okay, Simon Peter was here. And how they took the verbiage. And more or less made it supposedly that was the real Simon Peter.

It's a fascinating story when you read through it to see what happens. And it all makes sense that it adds up that way. And it started from this, you know, this, just this man. So. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll let everyone go. Thank you for, thank you for joining and being here today. Everyone have a good Sabbath. I'll see many of you on Sabbath. I hope we see all of you back here next Wednesday. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Shaby. Bye.