Through the Bible

He is lured at the end of chapter 6 into some discussions, some arguments with this group of men from the area that was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen back in verse 9 and I believe Paul was probably part of that since some of them were from Cilicia, which is where

against this holy place and against the law. Those are the three main charges they bring against him and that's what Stephen answers here in chapter 7. So the high priest said, are these things so? And Stephen said, hear me, brethren and fathers. So he's speaking respectfully. As we're confronted, we need to remember that. We need to remember to speak respectfully to those in authority.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and he said to him, leave your country and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you. Now Stephen is a Hellenistic Jew, a Jew born outside of the bounds of the nation of Israel, but nonetheless he's speaking with authority. He is fluent in Greek, which is his primary language, but he's probably speaking to them in Hebrew and affirming the fact that he knows the history of his ancestors, that he is just as Jewish as they are. Begins with Abraham, begins with God, the God of glory calling Abraham and he tells him to leave your country and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.

Verse 4, Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and he settled in Haran and from there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. But he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground. And yet even when he had no child, he promised that he would give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him. Now you need to notice that one of the things Stephen is doing is emphasizing the fact that everything that God has done for us, speaking to his leaders there as Jews, everything that God has done for us has been by grace.

We did not merit it. That's one of the things he's establishing before them. So he talks about the promise of God, even though Abraham didn't have an inheritance, he promised him that he would give this land to him as a possession and to his descendants after him. But God spoke to this effect, verse 6, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years.

So he reminds the leaders that God told Abraham this before it happened, that there would be a time when his ancestors would go to Egypt and they would be there as slaves for a period of 400 years. Verse 7, and whatever nation to which they will be in bondage, I myself will judge, said God. And after that they will come out and serve me in this place. So rather than just saying that God called Abraham and through Abraham he brought the nation, Stephen is establishing the fact that God's the one that did this, totally and completely, even bringing them out of bondage in Egypt.

After saying that they would go to Egypt, God is showing his omniscience, or Stephen is showing the omniscience of God, and again the grace of God, the mercy of God bringing them out of the slavery in Egypt and come out and serve me in this place, in this land. And he gave him a covenant, the covenant of circumcision, or the sign of the promise of this covenant that he was making with Abraham was circumcision. That was the sign between God and Abraham and Abraham's descendants of the sureness of the covenant of this promise. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day to continue on the promise of the covenant.

And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. So he shoots through that history real quick. And the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him. And I believe Stephen understands the parallel between Joseph and Jesus and he goes right to Joseph though to show them how they got to Egypt to remind them.

They know this but it's one of the things that God is bringing to their remembrance because he's bringing them along to the point of showing them their sin through their disobedience to God. So he says Joseph was sold into Egypt and yet God was with him, verse 10, and he rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household. Now famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan and great affliction with it. And our fathers could find no food.

And there he quickly identifies himself again with the same heritage as the leaders here. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt he sent our fathers there the first time, the twelve, the sons, and the first time he sent our fathers there the first time. Now there he's showing they went in their own strength. They went to get food. They went to get grain and sustenance.

On the second visit, the second time they went, Joseph made himself known to his brothers and Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh. So it was on the second visit, you remember the story, he kind of passes over that, but the second time they went they really didn't want to go. And they ended up in a position where they thought they were going to die because they thought they were framed and that they betrayed Pharaoh and all of that. Joseph reveals himself so now that it's by faith, it's not by their own strength, it's simply by grace, the grace of God through extending that through Joseph to them that God provided.

So again, by faith, God blessed them by his grace. So verse 14, then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died, just as God foretold. He's affirming the truth of what God had said. And from there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased

for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. So there again he's showing God is in control, God's grace and favor took care of Abraham and Joseph even after they were dead. God's grace was there and sustained and provided and took care. But as the time of the promise was approaching, the time of bringing them to Canaan just as he promised to Abraham, the people increased, approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.

And it was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive. And yet again God took care of them, His grace and His mercy was there in the midst of that, Stephen's reminding them of that. It was at this time that Moses was born and he was lovely in the sight of God and he was nurtured three months in his father's home. And so here he begins to answer their first charge back in verse 11 of chapter 6 that he's down in Moses, he's down in Moses, the great one, the great lawgiver.

Well, he's brought them, shown them God's favor by grace through faith from Abraham to this point. And he's showing Moses now, God moving again, God's grace, he was lovely in the sight of God, he was nurtured three months in his father's home, and after he had been set outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own.

And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and he took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian in his own strength. Just as the patriarchs had come to Egypt originally, first time in their own strength, then secondly in grace, or in faith, and then they found the grace of God. So here too, he's affirming the fact that Moses made this move of being their redeemer in his own strength first. Verse 25, And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

So just as Jesus, Moses, the Savior of Israel from that particular bondage of Egypt was rejected the first time he came. He was rejected. His people supposed his brethren understood, but they did not understand. On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, Men, you are brethren. Why do you injure one another?

But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, Who made you ruler and judge over us? You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you? And at this remark Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. And so here Stephen is affirming the fact that God was in control, moving Moses to this place on the backside of the desert, breaking him and humbling him, breaking his flesh and humbling him, preparing him for service as the one who was going to bring them out of bondage.

After forty years had passed, verse 30, an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning thorn bush. And when Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight, and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So there he's answering the fact of the God of Israel, and he's affirming the fact that this is the God of Israel. So in the way that he's answering by going through the history, I mean, he could have said, No, I don't.

I wasn't saying any of that.

I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, and I will send you to Egypt. So he's affirming that God heard the peril of his people, and he has seen what oppression they were going through in Egypt, and so he is sending Moses. And this Moses, verse 35, whom they disowned, saying, Who made you ruler and judge, is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

And so now Moses is going, actually, in the power of the Spirit rather than in his flesh the way he did the first time trying to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians forty years earlier. This man, Moses, led them out performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, Raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Now in the next chapter we're going to see where Philip meets with this Ethiopian eunuch and leads him to the Lord from the point this Ethiopian eunuch was reading in the book of Isaiah.

Here Stephen is presenting the gospel beginning with Abraham, beginning with God's call of Abraham. And in both instances it really shows us as Christians how we should be able to handle the word and have a knowledge of the word to the extent that when we're talking to somebody, wherever their background is, whatever they're going through in particular, and they may bring up something in the word. You know, I've always wondered about, you know, I've had this problem or whatever as you start, it's amazing how you start talking to somebody about God and they're kind of like the woman at the well who go into this religious talk about something that they perceive, you know, you Jews worship in Jerusalem and we say up here on the mountain is where we're

supposed to worship, you know, which is right? And we should be able to take somebody in any question that they may have, at any point

Redeemer, as a deliverer, and then brought in, very truthfully and very honestly, Moses said that God was going to raise up one just like me from your brethren. This is the one who was in the congregation, and he uses a Greek word, ekklesia, the congregation, the church, the congregation in the wilderness, together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and it was with our fathers, and he received living oracles to pass on to you. And our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but they repudiated him. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying, Darren, make for us gods who will go before us. For this Moses who led us out of the land of

Egypt, we do not know what happened to him. Now he's doing a very strategic thing here. See, they've accused him. One of the charges they brought against him, back in verse 11 of chapter 6, they secretly induced men to say, we've heard Stephen speak blasphemies, blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Okay, he's affirmed who God is, and he's affirming

that their own fathers blaspheme Moses. You know, claimed, well, who is this Moses? Let's make for ourselves gods who will get us back to Egypt. Telling Aaron, make gods who will go before us. For this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. And at that time, verse 41, they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their

hands. This is your father's, guys. You're telling me that I'm saying things that rejected Moses. I'm affirming, I know Moses, I love Moses, I'm adhering to Moses. But you've got to realize your father's rejected him. So, you're telling me I rejected him. You have a whole ancestry that rejected him. As he's going through now this section, he's beginning to answer their second charge, which is

back in, they put, verse 13, they put forth false witnesses who said, this man incessantly speaks against this holy place in the law. Well, it's blasphemies against Moses and against God, I guess. He's still dealing with that one, and this place, the temple. So back in verse 42, I'm sorry. But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven. He turned

his back, God turned his back on him, and just let him go ahead and worship the false gods and the host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the prophets, it was not to me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it? O house of Israel. God refused their sacrifices during that time. You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch

and the star of the god Ramphah, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon. So, Stephen has shown that their father's hearts were really not with Moses in the wilderness for the most part, and they weren't. Because all the ones that were over 20 years old died in the wilderness for their lack of faith in God. Lack of trust in God whom Moses was declaring to

them. And not only that, once they got in the land, they turned away from the tabernacle. You're talking about, you're saying, I blaspheme the tabernacle, the house of God. Well, it was your fathers who turned away from the house of Yahweh and went to the house of Moloch. And worshiped the god Ramphah, or Saturn. The images which you made to worship. And God said, I'll also remove you beyond

Babylon. He talks about the fact that because of their disobedience, God took them out of the land. You also took, well, our fathers, verse 44, our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness. And so here, beginning with verse 44, down through verse 50, he's answering the third question, back in verse 13 of chapter 6, that he speaks against his holy place and implied against the law. He says, our fathers had the tabernacle of

testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon disposing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. And David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for him. However,

now this is where it's, you know, he's established the building of the tabernacle that was given to Moses by God and built exactly by the blueprints that God had given to Moses, that Moses had seen on the mountain on Mount Sinai. And this was brought into the land at the time of David. And then Solomon actually is the one who built the temple. So he's given them the history from their beginning call by Abraham all the way to the temple.

Then he says in verse 48, however, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says, and he quotes from the Torah, heaven is my throne and earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place is there for my repose? Was it not my hand which made all these things? And now Stephen gets right down, and I believe he's pointing, and he says, you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are doing just as your fathers did. Now he's inspired to say these things definitely by the Holy Spirit. But I personally believe that Stephen very possibly had been among the disciples when Jesus gave the Pharisees what for? Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, in Matthew 23. I think he'd been part of the disciples, very possibly coming in to worship,

coming in to celebrate one of the feasts, coming in before the Feast of the Passover, which is when that rebuke happened, before that the Feast of Passover. And I think probably Stephen was really floored at the way Jesus spoke to them. But then after he was saved, Stephen understood what Jesus had said and what he had meant. And so now, as he is having his chance to stand before him, remember Jesus told the disciples not to worry when they're taken in before the kings and leaders and accused of these things, for it's at that time that the Holy Spirit will give you the things that are necessary for you to say. Stephen's full of the Holy Spirit

and God's bringing that up to him now in a way that it's not just automatic speaking, you know what I mean? If you've ever had the power of God move on you in a sense where you're talking to somebody and it's like all of a sudden you see it, you feel what God's wanting you to say and it's like you can't get it out fast enough. It's like God's just pouring it out on you. I was talking to Pastor Steve Bliss from Elk Falls the other day and he was telling me about last Sunday.

Last Sunday? Sunday before last. Right after the election. And how he had really felt like, you know, he came to church with his study notes already for the study that they were supposed to go through. And he said before the service, as he was waiting for things to come down, he said, I just really felt God speak to my heart. He came upon me and just began to tell me

that's not what he wanted me to share. He wanted me to share something totally different. And he said, I'm sitting there going, wow, Lord. He said, I started praying. God, what do you want me to do? And he said, I went into prayer, which they always pray together before, you know, he gets with his leaders and all and they pray together before the service starts. He prays with the worship team like we do.

And he said, I almost couldn't wait to get done with prayer because he said, I just, I was standing there and praying. And he said, I wasn't really hearing what anybody else was praying because I just, God was just giving me an outline and, you know, scriptures. And he said, we finished with prayer. And he said, I just had to run and sit down. And on the back of my notes, I had to write out the outline for what God was giving me.

And he said, I got up there and started sharing. And he said, even though I had the notes that I, the outline that I scribbled down, he said, I really didn't even need to refer to it because it was like it was just fresh flowing through. He said, it was one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. And that happens on occasion, not just to pastors when you're teaching, but when you're talking to somebody, when you're talking to people at times, and God opens a door, you know it.

And it's like, here come the words, and you'd been thinking probably earlier, I don't know what I should say. And all of a sudden, here they come. And a lot of it's going to be what you've already read. And usually it's stuff you read that day, or something that you may have heard in a Sunday message, or something that you went through at a small group study just recently that week.

The Holy Spirit will use what you put in, what you take the time to put in. And that's why it's imperative that we take the time to put it in, and stay fresh in it. I didn't have time to do my regular devotions today. So I was out, and I had my Bible, and I did the five sections of the Psalms. You know, start with 19, 49, on through, since the day I was 19.

And God really spoke to my heart going through that. And I needed to read what he was giving me in the Psalms. And then I was able later to bring some of those things out in conversation. So it's imperative that we stay in it. And that's what Stephen was doing. So I don't think as he's rebuking these Pharisees, I don't think it's like his eyes are rolled back,

and he's this automatic speaker, you know. I think he knows, he's looking at them, and he knows exactly what he's saying, because it's like it's in there, and he just can't get it out fast enough. And he's probably understanding right then what Jesus did in Matthew 23. Let me just go back to 51 again. You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. Taken them in their law to show them that their fathers, that they're appealing to where Moses was concerned, rejected Moses. And the one who Moses said was going to come after him, they rejected and killed him,

just like God said they would. You who received the law, verse 53, as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it. So the very things that they're accusing him of, he was very able, under the power of the Spirit, to show them they're the ones that actually are blaspheming Moses, and they're blaspheming the house of God. Jesus had already told them that. They were making his father's house a den of thieves, a house of robbers,

rather than a house of prayer. And they were rejecting the very one that God had sent, the Messiah. Now verse 54, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick. I mean, it was like they were laid open. It's like they knew he was right, but they were mad at him for being right. And they began gnashing their teeth at him, growling at him. Literally, they'd been exposed.

But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now, Jesus was seated. Jesus had ascended into heaven, part of the Apostles' Creed that we affirm, that Scripture testifies to, is Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. Romans tells us that. Jesus is seated. The Advocate that we have in heaven is Jesus Christ the Righteous.

In Revelation, we see him eventually there on the throne with the Father. But here, Stephen sees him standing at the right hand of God. And he says, verse 56, he said, And I believe at that point Stephen, you know, the dimension parted. But the only one who had eyes to see it at that time was Stephen. And he saw Jesus ready to receive him in the glory. John chapter 14 tells us that God's preparing a place for us.

And if he's going away to prepare a place, then behold, he's going to come again. And he's going to come back. And if he's going away to prepare a place, then behold, he's going to come again and receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also. Now, as pastors, we use that a lot at funerals for the departed ones, that Jesus met them. And I do believe that somehow Jesus does meet each one of us when we go to be with the Lord.

Even however many thousand people die an hour in the world, and the ones that are believers that go to heaven. You know, it's not like, well, you're at the end of the line, and Jesus will be here in a minute after he greets the other 950 people or whatever. Somehow Jesus is there to greet each one of us just as if we were the only one coming in at the time. And Stephen is seeing that. He's realizing that.

They cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears. I don't want to hear the truth anymore. You know how that is. You begin to tell people the truth, they go, I don't want to hear the truth. You can't handle the truth. They don't want to hear it. And they covered their ears and they rushed at him with, in New American Standard it says, with one impulse.

This is rage. This would be murder in the second degree. This is not premeditated murder. This is murder in the second. They're in a rage and they're ready to kill him in this rage. He has incited their hearts and they rush at him with one impulse. And when they'd driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. Okay, now that'll cause pause as we're reading.

Remember, Jesus at least took him to Herod, or to Pilate, because they didn't have the authority. Well, nothing's changed. It's not like, well, Jesus died, now we have the authority to kill people. Nothing's changed. Pilate's still the one in control. They can't legally kill anybody without Pilate's approval. But they're in such a rage, when you're in a rage, you're not thinking rationally.

I mean, Jesus was premeditated murder. That was murder in the first degree. They plotted and they planned. They premeditated. They wanted to kill him. They knew how they had to do it, how they legally had to do it. And they manipulated that system. But here it's a rage. They totally bypassed the system. They were just going to go out. I don't even think they were thinking about consequences.

And obviously none happened. They weren't told any was. Probably because there's such things going on, and Pilate's going, hey, get rid of one more. That's great. Keep the thing quiet. But it's just interesting that they didn't even go the legal route. They just, in their rage, they took him out and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Again, probably one of the accusers from back in chapter 6, from the synagogue of the freed men. And they went on stoning Stephen. So they're stoning. And they would throw him into a pit. There would have been a pit somewhere, a depressed area, down from where they were. So they would be throwing rocks down on top of him. And they're throwing with a vengeance.

I mean, you know, these guys are, you know, pitchers for the Dodgers or something. They're just throwing with heat as fast as they can throw. And the rocks are hitting home. And they kept on doing it. And as they were doing that, he called on the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Verse 16, then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,

Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. Now, two things. It just, it has to be the power of the Spirit when you're getting stoned, when you're being, when you're falsely accused, and now you're being falsely executed, wrongfully executed according to the law, rather than throwing a fit about that and saying, hey, you know, where's my trial? Where's my legal trial? And all of that.

He's entrusted himself into the hands of God. He's trusting the Lord completely. He's not fighting for his rights or anything. He has yielded himself to God. He's yielded himself to the authority of the Lord. And he committed himself, he knew he was dying, he knew he was going to die, and so he just committed his spirit into God's hands. And I think with things that are coming,

I don't know how many of you are on the list, and received the email I sent through that I'd gotten from a couple of you, and then I ran across it again, so I thought, okay, Lord, any time I see something like that three times or more, I'm going, okay, you're bringing it to my attention, you need to send it through. And it's talking about the predictions of a secular economist for our nation who has been right in every one of his projections economically since he's been making these projections. He projected Black October, the crash in October, the stock market crash back in October of 87, I think it was. He projected this that we're going through now.

And he said that he, within the next four years, we're going to see revolution, we're going to see riding in the streets, we're going to see no more, well, people be buying stuff for Christmas. The end of retailing for Christmas is upon us. People are just going to be hoping to eat, being able to eat in this country by Christmas. He foresees tent cities, he foresees, you know, just chaos.

And he's been right every time. Everything that he has said from a secular point of view has happened to the country. I don't know what's ahead. I don't know what's ahead. I think something dire like that is ahead. Now, how much of that the Lord's going to let us go into before he catches us out, I don't know. I don't think we're totally abstained, absolved from any of it.

I don't think we can go, you know, well, before that happens, we have to be out of here. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. I think this nation will get one last glimpse before we're caught out of the church being the church in the midst of chaos. Of the church pulling together. And, you know, we talk about, wouldn't it be great? You know, everybody's trying to emulate the first century church.

Everybody's trying to be like the church was in the first century. Like, you know, they were eating together and breaking bread together from house to house and praying and they had all things common and they were together in the Apostles' Doctrine and the breaking of bread in prayer and all. And we're trying to manufacture that. It's just going to happen, OK?

God's going to bring it to pass when things start to fall apart. I think the people are going to see the church being the church ever so briefly before he catches us out of here. And so we need to be ready for that. And some of us may go through this kind of persecution and death. And we need to be ready because we know where we're going. We just get a faster ticket there.

And we just need to be yielded to the Lord where all of this is concerned. And trust God in the midst of this. Like Stephen did. And then I love this. The second thing I was going to bring out is having said this, the end of verse 60, he fell asleep. Now, for a long time, I did not like that. I did not like anywhere in the New Testament we're talking about believers.

falling asleep. I didn't like it every time I would share in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 about the rapture of the church, verse 13-17. And Jesus will bring with him the souls of those who are asleep in him. And I'm going, no, those souls are those that have died. Let's talk about death. I realized that the way that the writer wrote it, the way that the Holy Spirit gave it to the writer, and it's translated

sleep, sleep, I think in most of the translation, is because that's what this body is going to do. We know that we're alive and for us to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. But this thing's just going to sleep. It's just like it's sleeping. It's temporary. Sleep, the idea that, and he fell asleep, that sounds like it's temporary. Jesus told the disciples

when Lazarus was sick, and he said, he said, Lazarus is asleep. And they said, well, let's go wake him. You know, and then he said to them plainly, Lazarus has died. And then Thomas said, well, let's go so we can die with him. We're just going to go and be killed too. You know, when he used the idea of them dying, it seems so final. When you use the idea of him sleeping,

it's like, well, let's go wake him up. Well, that's the intent. Death is nothing for us as believers. Nothing. Zero. Zip. It's nothing. Nothing. And Stephen understood that. And he's an example to us. The first martyr is a tremendous example in the book of Acts of how we need to look at life and the possibility of dying. The possibility of death through whatever means.

It's not that big a deal. It really isn't. Let go of the stuff here. Let go. Lay aside treasures in heaven. Your family. That's it. Make the family saved. The family's going to be with God. All these people who've lost everything out in California. That's a whole other story we could talk about. And the opposition to Proposition 8. And where exactly the fire burned. They won't ever show that, but just take a

gander at the areas where the fire burned out there. And the homes that were lost. And realize the sections of those that had really outspoken against Proposition 8. And the sanctity of marriage and all. A lot of them are just falling apart. Because the stuff that they have here is no more. Let go of the stuff in your mind. Let go of it. It's God's. He can have it. He can use it.

However he wants to use it. But that's not my goal anymore is stuff. Lay aside treasures in heaven. Make sure your family, keep interceding for family so that they can be there. Okay, enough of that. Chapter 8. Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. The idea in the Greek, the word in the Greek for hearty agreement means voting. Saul voted. He was a part of the vote that voted to put Stephen to death.

And on that day, a great persecution began in the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered. Word in the Greek means to scatter as you sow seed. Scatter like seed. They were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Except the Apostles. The Apostles stayed there. Because at that time, the originals, they felt that God hadn't moved them out.

They were still there to be a strength for the church. Persecution started and the church really came alive and began to move out. God began moving them out. Now the book of Acts shows us over and over and over. We're going to see this over and over and over. So get a handle on this because somehow this idea of prosperity in the church is somehow if I have enough faith to get it all right,

my problems are going to diminish. And I'm going to have prosperity in the sense of the lack of trials. The greater the faith, the less the trials. What you see in the book of Acts, and we'll see it all the way through, is the blessing of God and then persecution. And then the blessing of God and then persecution. Blessing, trials. Blessing, trials. Blessing, trials. All the way through. And the book of Acts does not end.

We'll get to the end of the book of Acts, the last chapter, and it doesn't end like Salutations Paul or whatever. It just stops because it indicates it's still going. We're still a part of the book of Acts. We said let's go back to the beginning. We're still a part of the beginning. We're still a part of the book of Acts going on today. Blessing of God, persecution. Blessing of God, persecution. It's going to be that way

until Jesus comes. Let's get used to it. And let's flourish in the midst of the persecution. Because it's in the midst of the persecution that the blessings of God are really manifested. That's when we really see Him. That's when we really take note of Him. Well, verse 2, some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentations over him. The idea of that phrase, that term that's used for

the devout men as really indicating those who are outside of the household, outside of the brotherhood, outside of the believers. They are possibly very devout Jews, very religious Jews who hadn't accepted Christ as their Messiah yet, but they had seen the grace of Stephen manifested through his service and they heard him sharing with the leadership and their hearts were cut and they very possibly, as a result of this, did come to Christ. But it doesn't say some of the brothers got Stephen. These are just some devout men and they made lamentation over him.

They fulfilled the burial and the ritual of burial of the Jew, of the Jewish law, of how the law of burial was to go. Remember when Joseph brought Jacob back from Egypt, he asked for a period of time that he might go mourn his father as it was according to the law. And Pharaoh gave him that time and sent a whole entourage with him. And they mourned there for him for 40 days.

That was as of the way the law was. That's the way they did. That's the way their burial procedures were and that's the as they lamented over Stephen. They fulfilled that particular law. But Saul began ravaging the church and that word for ravaging in the Greek is a term that's used in Greek literature outside of Scripture as an animal tearing apart flesh, just ripping it apart. So it gives you the indication that

that Saul just came in and started. He wanted to tear the church apart after hearing Stephen say what he said and what was, what had all been happening. And he entered house after house dragging off men and women he would put them in prison. Therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. They didn't hide. Remember Peter went and hid right after Jesus

died and was buried. Now the Holy Spirit's come. The threats are there. They boldly proclaim the word. Went out and preached the word. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Philip was one of the deacons. Was one of the seven deacons in Acts chapter 6. He and Stephen. Hellenistic Jew. Scattered now because of the persecution that's starting.

But he went down to Samaria. In 732 BC Israel had split

after prophet up to the northern kingdom warning them. You need to stop that. Turn back to God. And they didn't heed and he said I'm going to bring along a people group. And he even told them who he was bringing. He was going to bring the Assyrians. And they were a ruthless people and they would ravish them and overthrow this northern ten tribes. Which they did. They tried to come against the southern

two tribes. But God stopped them. And kept them. Pushed them back. Gave the southern tribes another 100, 150 years before he brought the Babylonians in. And he took the Assyrians. But the Assyrians took the northern tribes captive. And he left the poor and the destitute and the lame. And they took, the Assyrians took these guys off and planted them somewhere else. And where some other places that they

had conquered. They brought the people from there and transplanted them there with the Jews that they'd left in the northern tribes. Now the Jews that were left there intermarried with these Gentiles. And they became half-breeds. And those were the Samaritans. That was the group that when Ezra and Nehemiah go back to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, they came and wanted to help.

And both Ezra and Nehemiah said, Nope. Don't want your help. Stay out. And so this animosity developed between the Samaritans and the Jews at that particular time. Samaritans hated the Jews. Jews hated Samaritans. And so then you see Jesus coming through and the woman at the well and all that. Jesus making the bridge at that particular time. That the Son of Man

came to save that which was lost. And it didn't make any difference who you were. Jesus started making the bridge. Okay well, Philip goes to Samaria. Before a taboo place for the Jews. But he went about preaching down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them. And the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard. And they saw

the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice. And many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. And so there was much rejoicing in that city. And there should be as a result a revival. Now again, during our time right now, we can tend and some churches tend to try

and reproduce that. Put a big emphasis on that. This was just as Philip was going proclaiming the gospel. He didn't have a tent revival going or anything. He was just going to this area of Samaria, outcasts, and talking about Jesus. And God was moving mightily to affirm His word. Listen, if we have things come down, as this economist has forecast, and we have chaos, and you

as the church began preaching Jesus boldly, you can bet we're going to have signs like this happening again. And it's not going to be that we're looking to create it or say, come here and we'll do it. You're just going to be going. And as you're proclaiming, God's going to move mightily through you wherever you are. And we're going to see healings take place.

We're going to see revival take place if we are here when all of that comes down. There's a chance we may not be. But if we are, rather than anticipating the chaos and the rioting in the streets and all that stuff, and oh my, what are we going to do? May we have the boldness of Stephen and Philip to say our priority is to tell these people about Jesus because we know the Antichrist is soon to follow. If we're still here when

this stuff starts happening that they're forecasting, the Antichrist is almost on the scene. And they have very little time to receive Jesus. And our lives here are immaterial or inconsequential apart from telling them about Jesus. And then we'll see the outpouring of the Spirit of God like we haven't seen it in our generation. So rather than anticipating the chaos and the rioting

and all that stuff, anticipate the power of God moving like we haven't seen it before. Like this. Demons coming out. There was much rejoicing, verse 8, in that city. Verse 9, now there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. And they all from the smallest to the greatest were giving attention to Simon saying, this man is

what is called the great power of God. And depending on your translation it may say this man is a God or this man is God. That was the idea was that the magic that he was doing, the people looked at him as a God, a God-like character with the power of God. So he was doing magic, he was a magician and the people were oohing and aahing at him and they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip

preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ they were being baptized, men and women alike. Now verse 13, even Simon himself believed and after being baptized he continued on with Philip and as he observed the signs and the great miracles taking place he was constantly amazed. Now kind of mark verse 13 because this kind of baffles people with what's coming. And we'll talk about it.

Simon himself believed and he was baptized and he's following along and he's amazed with what's happening. Now Philip is not remember the important thing to Philip is not signs and wonders, it's the gospel that they might receive the gospel, that they might receive Jesus as Savior. The signs and wonders are just happening. That's not the focus but it is for Simon. And unfortunately

it is for many people today. The signs and wonders, not the gospel. The power in the signs and wonders, not the power of God in the gospel to change the life. Simon himself is baptized and follows amazed. Verse 14, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

Verse 16, for he had not yet fallen upon any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The phrase he had not yet fallen in the Greek, it's in the tense that implies something that should have already been done that wasn't. Something should already happened that hadn't happened yet. We'll get to chapter 10 here and Peter preaches at Cornelius' house. He goes to the house of Cornelius

the Gentile and while he's preaching, the Holy Spirit falls. That's the idea here. Something should have happened if they believed Jesus. If they believed in Him and made that profession and were baptized, something should have happened that hadn't happened yet. The Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Well, Peter and John came up and

verse 17, they began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now my question to you is, how did they know? Well, they had evidence. They evidenced the same thing that I believe Cornelius did and we'll see that in chapter 10 when he receives the Holy Spirit. They began speaking in tongues. They began praising God in these tongues and Peter says

in chapter 10, how can we refuse baptism to these Gentiles who received the blessing of the Spirit as we did in the same way that we did? Affirming that the way it came upon them in Jerusalem at Pentecost and they began praising God and worshiping God in other tongues is what happened with Cornelius. This is the same thing that happens here. They received the Holy Spirit and it was evident because they began praising God in other languages, with other tongues.

There are those who teach that that is necessary and it's something that's subsequent to salvation and that everybody should have it. It's an evidence of the fact that you've been saved because it's evidenced here that way with the Apostles in Acts chapter 2, with the Samaritans here in Acts chapter 8, we're going to see some Old Testament believers here in a chapter or so and then in chapter 10 with the Gentiles. So it's obvious that if you receive Christ, it should be with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Then you go to the rest of the epistles and it's never mentioned that that happened.

Matter of fact, Paul even says, you know, I wish that you all did. Implying that many of you don't. It's not something that's necessary subsequent to. Why is it shown this way in these chapters? I believe it's evidencing that the groups that were at odds with one another. First, in Acts chapter 2, you have the core group, the disciples, the followers of Jesus. Okay, now we have this group of

Samaritans, enemies. I mean, okay, it's okay if they believe in Jesus, they're just less than us Jewish Christians. They're Jewish Samaritans. But no, it's been evidenced that they're on equal plane with the Jewish Christians, with the Hebrew Christians. Samaritan Christians, Hebrew Christians, both received the same gift of the Holy Spirit in the same way,

evidenced the same way. Okay, we've got the Samaritans and we've got the Jews, and they're believers in Jesus, that's okay. But then we have the Gentiles, the goyim, the dogs. Okay, they can believe in Jesus too, but they're the dogs, they're the Gentile dogs. They have evidenced it with the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way that the Jewish Christians and the Samaritan Christians,

they're brought in the same way. What about the Old Testament believers, who had not yet even heard about the Holy Spirit? And all of a sudden they do, and they hear, and the Old Testament believers are restored, brought into the same level. It's an affirming of receiving Christ, you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. And Paul affirms such in Ephesians 1, verse 13.

Inasmuch as you were sealed with the Holy Spirit when you believed. So, as the church is established with the groundwork that everybody who can, who wants to, can come. Nobody's less than anybody else when you come to Christ. And Paul affirms that. There isn't anymore Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female in Christ. There's no hierarchy. We're all believers.

We're all family. We're all one. That's what's evidenced by the emphasis on the speaking of tongues. And so this waited here, it doesn't wait anywhere else in Samaria. It doesn't happen a little bit later with the Ethiopian, in just a few verses. It's just with these different ways that God's bringing these things about. Bringing the oneness to the church. So, it was evident that they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Verse 18.

Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, give this authority to me as well so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Now, he offered them money. is a magician uh... if you've been to branson you've seen some of the magicians over there the things that happen over there uh...

you watch the ones on t.v. you watch any of them they have their tricks and their and their when they learn and they they will sell them to other magicians but it's a great price it's a great cost you learn my trick it's going to cost a lot of money in simon's way of thinking that's how he's looking at this these guys are magicians they know tricks that i don't know okay i'll pay you how much how much i i'm i'll give you money teach me your trick in essence is what he's saying so that when i lay my hands on people give me that authority show me what you do give me that give me that thing so that so when i do that this happens to them as well i'll start speaking that way do that for me

verse 20 but peter said to him may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of god with money now there and i haven't heard of it in in my generation or day but down through church history there was a term called simony which was associated with people who would buy their way into leadership positions within the church they would pay so much in the methodist church the old methodist church uh... after the wesleys had died you you could go into some of the older methodist churches back east in eastern uh... united states and you'll see sections of pews uh... that had the plaques on them for the different families who had purchased their position in that church this was the

fry section and this was the whoever section and this was their section and then the commoners that sit at the back because these people bought their pews and so they bought their location up closer to the pastor well then you had a move among methodism where just like in catholicism you had you had the the uh... reformation and and martin luther who said that's not right in methodism you had the reformers in methodism who said that's not right so they became the free methodists who they were you can come worship you can sit wherever you want there's no particular section here that's reserved for anybody else you don't pay to get a seat but that paying for position in the church became known as simony named after simon

uh... who tried to pay the disciples to get this particular gift of the laying on of hands and the giving of the power of the holy spirit peter says silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of god with money verse twenty one you have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before god therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the lord that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven for i see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity well wait a minute back up in verse thirteen it says even simon himself believed and was baptized did he lose his salvation or what? four seeds were sown in the parable of the sower only one of them produced fruit

one fell along the path the birds came and ate it before it had any chance to do anything that's satan grabbing it before it ever sets in the heart two of them rocks and thorns began to spring forth began to seemingly evidence real growth but certain pressures came along certain temptations temptations of the world pressures of persecution and they withered didn't produce any fruit only one that falls on a good ground brings forth a great plant and produces fruit thirty sixty and a hundred fold that's the only one of the four that was true the other three weren't simon wasn't saved evidenced by the fruit went through the motions was baptized like a lot of people in the church today

i've been there been down the road been down came down to the front was baptized that's great what are the evidences in your life that it was real whether it was there a hunger and a thirst for righteousness is there a brokenness before the lord is there an other centeredness in your life are you an unprofitable servant seeking the welfare of others before your own of those evidences of that fruit there if not what's the difference how can you tell me you're no different than simon my name's on the roll i tithe i've done all these things name's not in the book of life it doesn't make any difference the other stuff you do it's in the book of life you will be loving as god loved there's no way you can help that because his seed is in you

first john read the whole book of first john simon answered verse twenty four and said pray to the lord for me yourself so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me there's another example of the fact that he's evading personal responsibility to repent no you pray for me i don't want to repent you pray for me i want this gift you know you pray for me i don't have to do anything for i don't take the personal responsibility have to say i was wicked in in the gall of bitterness in my heart's not right before god that's something that i have to do each one of us has to do personally it's a personal responsibility the each one of us does to come to the lord in salvation nobody can do it for us

we have to do it ourselves simon was reluctant to do that first twenty five so when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the lord they started back to jerusalem peter and john didn't work preaching the gospel to many villages of the samaritans but an angel of the lord spoke to philip saying get up and go south to the road that descends from jerusalem to geyser this is the desert road and so he got up and went my goodness there's this great revival going on in samaria i mean you know it would be easy to look at it and say but lord you know that look at what's going on here god says get up and go move to this other area go do this thing be willing be willing just be willing just be yielded to the lord if god has you go

to do something in a certain way i sent through marie's email and i don't know if you had a chance to read it tonight before you came because i just got home late and saw it and she sent it after she got out uh... marie marie holt was in the hospital uh... gallbladder surgery ended up having a gallstone size of a golf ball in one of the bile ducts so they had to send her to wichita she had surgery on that yesterday had that removed and they sent her home she was talking about how god blessed and how normally in every other surgery she's had a private room but this one try as they might they couldn't get her into a private room she was in a a semi-private room and there was another lady in there that she got to talking to uh... and the lady

you know was uh... really nervous about surgery she was going through today and uh... uh... had some kids and in there they're talking she found out that her kids were in foster care

in that semi-private room don't buck the lord god has situations and circumstances planned for us and it may not be what we want but just trust him through it continue to honor him in the midst of it let him take care of the circumstances period okay i'm going to get what i'm going to get it got insane just go to get to get on a road to get it on the on the road literally that goes to geyser don't even go to geyser just get on the road that descends from jerusalem to geyser so he got up and he went and there was an ethiopian eunuch a court official of candace the queen of the ethiopians who was in charge of all of her treasure and he had come to jerusalem to worship he's an ethiopian eunuch

that means he's a proselyte he's not jewish he's an ethiopian he's a eunuch he's been castrated or emasculated to serve in the court of candace the queen uh... so that he could serve in her presence and was the treasurer to her in ethiopia but he had somehow heard about Yahweh and had come and surrendered become a jewish proselyte and now had obviously been in jerusalem with everything that had gone on been there for passover evidently and been there for pentecost and there's questions in his heart about what's going on he doesn't understand what's going on as is evidenced in the next few verses and so he's on his way back to ethiopia uh... he's returning sitting in his chariot and was reading verse twenty eight the prophet isaiah and so this now

that means he was rich he was because you didn't just nobody not just individuals own scrolls the scrolls cost a chunk because they were hand scribed that's what the scribes did was copied the torah and they copied the scrolls he's reading the same scroll that jesus read the same scroll of isaiah that jesus opened at the temple in nazareth or at the synagogue in nazareth and quoted from out of isaiah sixty one this is just so he purchased he had scrolled no telling how many scrolls he had but he just happened to have the scroll of isaiah out and was reading the scroll of isaiah for whatever reason that the spirit had prompted him to do it and the spirit said to philip go up and join this chariot and philip ran up and

he heard him reading isaiah the prophet so he was a proselyte who was ethiopian who could read hebrew he was schooled he was schooled in languages so he could read and he was reading in hebrew and he says do you understand what you're reading verse thirty one and the ethiopian eunuch said well how could i unless someone guides me and he invited philip to come up and sit with him and now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this from isaiah fifty three he was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent so he does not open his mouth in humiliation his judgment was taken away who will relate his generation for his life is removed from the earth

and the eunuch answered philip and said please tell me of whom does the prophet say this of himself or someone else man you talk about an open door he'd just been there for the passover and for pentecost he'd no doubt had heard the commotion he'd probably seen jesus hanging on the cross during the passover and he just happens to be reading isaiah fifty three who's he talking about himself or someone else verse thirty five philip opened his mouth and began from this scripture beginning from the scripture he preached jesus to him that's we should be in touch with the lord to that extent that we can open the word and and take that and go and just say hey where you are here this is what's going on

and this is who he's talking about this is what's happening in he preached the gospel preached jesus to him they went along the road they came to some water and the unit said look water what prevents me from being baptized that you're in your concern you have a bracket if you're reading international you have a an asterix and this next part isn't there and philip said if you believe with all your heart you may and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is a son of god the reasons bracketed in american standard and it's footnoted in niv is because uh... in the manuscripts that we uh... the manuscripts are used for that the texas receptus is newer than some of the the older manuscripts that have been

the manuscripts the manuscripts that they've dated older than that one doesn't have this particular burst in it and so they leave their footnoted or bracketed and they'll say it's not a part of it uh... the uh... the older manuscripts it's it's actually found a later manuscripts and it does that in several places there's one in in uh... first john as well it could be a scribal entry later then it may it may not be but the thing is is that in all the places that that happens in scripture it does not add to or take away from i mean this is this is the truth this is exactly philip if you believe with all your heart you may and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is a son of god and that's what's necessary if you believe in your heart

that if you confess with your mouth romans ten that that uh... jesus christ is lord and you believe in your heart the god raising from the dead you shall be saved for with uh... the mouth confession is made under righteousness with the heart uh... uh... faith is is given under salvation i can't remember the exactly that but what he says here is exactly what's confirmed

that you believe that jesus is the christ the son of god first thirty eight he ordered the chariot to stop and they've been both went down to the water i didn't say anything back when it says here's some water how convenient in the desert you know you have planned oasis from here and there as you're going to the desert you know this oasis is here and so you make a trip as such you can make it at that oasis wall so here's some water well did they just happen to get to an oasis ur did god just make some water there look there's some water i don't know but that's not it's just the lord as we got that that there's a lot of it so they go down they go into the water and uh... uh... and philip as well as uh... into the water philip as well the unique and he

baptized the unique now again baptism is identification doesn't say they just identified when the unit was converted to judaism when he proselyted to judaism he was baptized in the bullet salon and identified in his baptism with the away i'm i am a follower of the god of the jews so now he's baptized as identified as a follower of yes you are how much he had jesus in the shot in jesus the messiah and when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord snatched philip away that's exactly translated himself some of your versions say it doesn't just mean that he moved on philip's heart philip went somewhere it means he took him there he just was there and he wasn't he not walk with god and then he was not for god snatched him god took him

got translated him out that's the only place we see this in the new testament and and uh... you know i can you'll testament got translated uh... that's what's gonna happen to us in a moment when they have a nice to snatch us out of here we snatched philip away from eunuch and philip found himself as a as odyssey as odyssey is nineteen miles from gaza or gaza so he was at least nineteen miles away from where he'd been all of a sudden uh... here i am i'm in the zodiac is one of five the five uh...

uh... cities of uh... the philistines so he's in one of the five cities he passed through he kept preaching gospel to all the cities so he went through all five of the cities preaching gospel to the philistines god loves the philistines as much as he loves the ethiopians as much as he loves the samaritans much as he loves the gentiles and then he came to caesarea and things are gonna happen quickly now is it's all going to be converted in all in chapter nine god it's exciting it's so exciting to see your church birthed and grow and move and then move to the uttermost parts of the earth just as you said it would and you're the one that moved it and uh... you're the one that's still moving and so lord we just pray for

your spirit to come upon us in boldness and in power that we might be witnesses to every everybody we come in contact with may we take advantage of every opportunity like marie did today uh... praying with her with her roomate and uh... father may we just be sensitive to others in this way for the time is so short strengthen us prepare us for what's ahead that we might bring glory to your name for it's in jesus name we pray amen god bless you