I am indeed being facetious because for most of us, most of the time, it takes a job loss, a broken relationship, an injury, or some other uncontrollable circumstance to get us to move from a place that's comfortable to a place where God is calling us that might not be quite as comfortable. When and if that happens in your life, trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. He is always working for your good. It may be less comfortable where he calls you, but it is better wherever he calls you.
Trust the Lord. Verse five. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. This is not the Apostle Philip, who was one of the Twelve and would have stayed in Jerusalem. This Philip is one of the seven Hellenistic Jews, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, chosen to oversee the care of the widows.
In Acts chapter six, like Stephen, his faithfulness led the Lord to entrust him with an even wider ministry. And when we check in on this Philip much later in the Book of Acts, we find that at that time he's come to be known as Philip the Evangelist. Now, before we go on, we need to understand the significance of Samaria, of her people, and why it was such a shocking and amazing thing that the Gospel was being shared there. And so we need to understand a little bit of the history of Samaria. It's located about 40 miles, or 64 km north of Jerusalem.
In the Book of First Kings, we were just actually reading this recently in our home groups. We read that God judged Solomon for worshiping false gods. The judgment was that Solomon's son, Raya Bohem, who took the throne after him, was made by the Lord to listen to some bad advice which led the ten northern tribes of Israel to rebel against his leadership and split off from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who stayed in the south in Judea around Jerusalem. The result after the split was a southern kingdom around Jerusalem and then a northern kingdom of Israel that included Samaria. And further north in Israel, the city of Samaria would be built by King Amri to be the capital city of the Northern Kingdom.
After around 150 years of rebellion against God and worshiping pagan idols, the Lord sent judgment on the Northern kingdom in the form of the Assyrians, who conquered the city and brought an end to the Northern kingdom. Around 722 BC, the Assyrians had a devilishly brilliant policy that was designed to weaken the territories they conquered and reduce the likelihood of future rebellions. You see, what they would do is they would relocate most of the people from the territory they just conquered to other territories that belonged to the kingdom of the Assyrians. And then they would take some of the people from those other territories and import them to the territory they had just conquered. Mixing cultures and ethnicities together.
As a result, the cultural and ethnic identity of the territory they had just conquered would be completely eradicated within a couple of decades. And when there's no unique cultural and ethnic identity, the odds of an uprising are significantly decreased. And so in this area of Samaria, the resulting mix of Jews and Gentiles became the ethnic race known as the Samaritans. They were looked down on and despised by pureblooded Hebrew Jews as halfbreeds and dogs. The Jews would go out of their way to avoid Samaritans.
The spiritual results of this mix of cultures in Samaria are described this way in Scripture. It says they feared the Lord, but they also worshiped their own gods according to the practice of the nations from which they had been deported. So they had this group of people, and collectively, they kind of worshiped Yahweh and kind of worshiped other gods too. Not okay. In 538 BC.
Through all this, the Lord Jesus remained seated on his father's throne at his right hand, glorified in heaven over all things and holding all things together. And we see evidence of that in verse four, which provides a crucial detail about those who were scattered. It says so those who were scattered went on their way, and then underline this, preaching the word, they went on their way, preaching the word. Those who fled Jerusalem did not do so with their faith in Tatters. They left absolutely on fire for Jesus.
And everywhere they went, they shared the good news that Jesus was the Messiah. And people got saved. And as they returned to their villages and towns, they formed little churches in each of these places. The church in Jerusalem was seemingly dismantled almost overnight. But also overnight, the network of the church suddenly exploded, and there were churches all over Judea Samaria and other parts of Israel.
The picture you should have in your mind is an enraged Saul and Sanhedrin trying to stamp out the fire of the church in Jerusalem, unaware that the harder they stamp their feet, the more embers they launch into the sky, which are caught by the wind and land all over the place, starting little fires everywhere. These believers wanted to be used by the Lord. They listened to the Holy Spirit and they boldly shared the Gospel every time he prompted them to. And we must do the same. We must want to be used by the Lord, we must listen to the Holy Spirit.
And we must be unafraid to share the Gospel when he prompts us to do so at work, at school, perhaps in prison one day, wherever the Lord leads us. And here's what's so amazing. Do you remember what Jesus told his disciples in Acts in verse eight, before he ascended back to heaven? I put it on your outlines. He said, you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
We've seen Jerusalem minister in Acts chapters two through seven. In Acts eight, verse one, we read that all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. The progression is clear. Jerusalem, check. Judea, check.
Samaria, check. And soon to the end of the earth. Jesus didn't say, I will give you the option to be my witnesses. He said you shall be my witnesses. In what must have felt like a chaotic and perilous time, the Lord's plans were coming to pass exactly as he ordained them, exactly as he said they would.
Remember? This was one of Stephen's points to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter seven. The people of God don't get to dictate to God the manner in which he should fulfill his promises. We don't get to tell God that he's made this promise and this is how he needs to fulfill it. He does it however he wants.
And in this way, the Jerusalem church was just like us. They liked being comfortable. Talk about a universal passion shared by all men and women, right? We like to be comfortable. Nobody who is enjoying the sweet fellowship, the sweet queen in Jerusalem was thinking, oh, maybe I should just leave this and go somewhere else in Judea and Samaria and take the Gospel there.
No one was thinking that. They were thinking, this is great. This is heaven on earth. I love eating at other people's houses. I love praying together.
They were thinking, this is great. It took the persecution of Acts eight one to bring about the Lord's promise from Acts one eight. Thank goodness we're not like them, though. Thank goodness the Lord never has to speak to us through our circumstances because we are just so in tune with Him, open to the spirits, leading, and quick to obey. These guys were rookies.
Despite this wave of persecution, Jerusalem was still a mission field. because these devout men were likely not Christians. They were not believers. Luke uses the term devout elsewhere in his Gospel and the Book of Acts to refer to pious Jews. The most likely explanation is that these were friends of Stevens from the Hellenist synagogue that he attended in Jerusalem who had not yet converted to Christianity.
Their loud lamentations were actually forbidden by the Mishnah because Stephen had been condemned and executed by the Sanhedrin. So for these men to do this was tantamount to making a public protest about the death of Stephen. They were saying, we believe this man was wrongly executed by the Sanhedrin. There was still the hope of evangelism among sincere individual Jews in Jerusalem, and these would be the kinds of men that the apostles would reach out to in the days ahead. Verse three.
Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison. So, consumed by a demonically inspired hatred of Jesus and having received authority from the chief priests, Saul continued to spearhead this wave of persecution against the Church. He was literally going from house to house, kicking down doors, dragging out Christians, and taking them away to be tried before the religious leaders on charges of blasphemy. Paul will later confess that he would even press the sanhedrin to issue the death penalty where possible.
Verse one and verse three understand this are happening simultaneously. As I mentioned earlier, the Jerusalem church is being scattered as Paul is persecuting them, and they scatter all the way down to the place where only the apostles and their families are left in Jerusalem. Saul, after getting every Christian he can get his hand on in Jerusalem, likely starts going to the nearby towns like Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, and then going out into further away towns in the southern part of Israel known as Judea. And then we learn later that he goes all the way to foreign cities to persecute them. The sweet fellowship among believers that they had shared in homes for three years, the sweet fellowship over meals together and times of prayer together, singing together, having the holy Spirit speak to one another through words given by the Lord.
All of that was completely dismantled in Jerusalem. The church was completely broken apart in Jerusalem. Before Stephen's arrest and execution, only the apostles had been subject to persecution from the religious authorities. But that changed under Saul's direction, and anyone in Jerusalem associated with Jesus became a target. And then anyone just outside of Jerusalem associated with Jesus became a target.
Anyone in Judea, anyone in Israel, anyone in a nearby country. Jesus had warned his disciples of this, telling them, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you, and they will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. And that's certainly what Saul thought he was doing, serving God by persecuting blasphemers.
Paul, as I said, will later write that he pursued them even to foreign cities like Damascus and Syria. Such was his misplaced zeal. In his letter to the Galatians, paul was frank about what his goal had been. It was to destroy the church. That was his goal.
The Gospel in Samaria Date:10/16/22 Passage: Acts 8:1-25 Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Persecution crashes down upon the young Church in Jerusalem, scattering her members across Judea, Samaria, and beyond. As they flee, they preach the Gospel and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. This study focuses on some amazing developments that unfold as the Gospel is preached in Samaria.
And as we rejoin our study in the Book of Acts in chapter eight, Stephen has just been stoned to death after a sham trial before the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious council in Jerusalem. His execution marks him as the first martyr of the Church. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul would later write that the Gospel came first to the Jew and then to the Greek or the Gentile. Stephen's execution seems to mark the final time the Jews were collectively as a people presented with the Gospel, only to reject it. And as a result, the time arrived for the Gospel to move outward to the Gentiles.
Most scholars reckon verse one places us around three years after Pentecost and the events of Acts. In chapter two, we read the first sentence sorry, we read the first sentence in verse is in our previous study, and so we'll pick things up. In the second sentence it says, on that day underlying on that day, the day of Stephen's execution, a severe persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were, and then underline the rest of this sentence, scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. All scholars agree that pretty much everybody who had a home outside of Jerusalem, so all those who came originally for the feast of Pentecost three years ago and ended up staying because this amazing thing called the Church happened, all of them head back to their old homes that would have included all of the Hellenistic Jews. That means all the Jews who were not ethnically Hebrew but were still religiously Jewish.
So Greek Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and people from all over the world who are not Hebrew Jews, but of different nationalities, they all unquestionably headed to their homes. And most believers believe that sorry, most scholars believe that those believers who had lived in Jerusalem previously might have taken a little bit longer, they might have delayed a little bit more. When the persecution hit, those who had homes in other places kind of said, we feel like we need to go back to our homes. Those who had homes in Jerusalem said, yeah, we probably need to go. Let's just see how bad it is.
And we'll see that they likely filtered out of Jerusalem over the coming days and weeks when they realized this persecution was especially vicious. And yet it says, all except the apostles were scattered. And so we're going to lean toward taking that at face value. It doesn't mean it was one day. On the day that Stephen was executed, on the day that persecution broke out, everyone left.
It meant that was the end result. When this thing had run its course over the coming days and weeks, the apostles and their families were the only ones who stayed. And this hit me because I'm a pessimist by nature. And so when I come to Church and attendance is low, my first thought is like, well, I know what happened. Half the Church has recanted their faith and walked away from Christianity.
That's obviously what happened. That's obviously where everybody is. And then someone has to come to me and say, well, Jeff, I happen to know for a fact this person is going to a family wedding this week, and this person has obviously not recanted their faith. And they walked me back from the edge of the cliff, and I go, okay, okay. All right.
Fill us with boldness. Help us to obey immediately when you prompt us by Your spirit. Please work through our weaknesses and our fears to add people to Your family by using us to share the good news about Jesus. And, Lord, help us to be like Philip, who was full of Your spirit, eager to be used by You, enthusiastic in his obedience to You, and faithful in his devotion to You, whatever circumstances he found Himself in. Help us to be fully present wherever You've placed us for this season, do Your work within us there.
Make us more like Jesus. Use us to minister to others. Give hope where nothing seems to be happening. Give peace where we are restless. Give joy where life seems mundane. Fill us with gratitude for all that we have in you. Fill us with Your spirit, Lord, and bring glory to Your name through us. We love you. Jesus. It's in Your name we pray. Amen.
When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days. Jesus would be raised from the dead, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished. Jesus would successfully accomplish the will of God. After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.
The result of Jesus becoming a servant in human flesh would be and will be the justification of many. Millions and millions of people will be brought into the family of God, because Jesus has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven by taking our sins upon Himself. Verses twelve therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels. Here's the contrast again yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels and that's the gospel, that's the divine exchange. Jesus became like us so that we could become like him.
Jesus became our sin so that we could become his righteousness. Jesus came down and joined the family of humanity so that we could join his family in heaven.
The love of Jesus, as we see with the Ethiopian, seeks out those who want to be part of his family.
It sought him out on a desert road in the middle of nowhere. It sought out every person who belongs to the Gospel City Church. And if you don't yet belong to Jesus, I want you to know that the love of God is seeking you. He is seeking you. And that's why you're here today.
That's why you're listening to or watching this message. It's because God loves you. He is seeking you. Jesus loves you, and he wants you in his family. And I'm not asking if you understand everything perfectly yet.
I'm asking if you do understand that you need Jesus and you want to be part of his family. And if you do, please don't leave today without talking with me or BJ. This is very important. But a Gospel said we don't generally do an emotional hype thing. This needs to be for real.
And if you're for real, come and talk to BJ or me after the service. Even if you just want to know more about Jesus, you have questions, come and talk to us. We'd love to talk with you about it. Don't wait. In Isaiah 55, the prophet says, seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call to him while he's near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord so he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will freely forgive.
And with that, I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes, bow your heads and we're going to pray together. Father, we just love you so much. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving what is most valuable to you, your only begotten son, so that we could become adopted sons and daughters in your family.
Jesus, thank you for loving us with your life. Thank you for what you endured in our place. We love you for it. And we ask that you help us to love you every day by taking up our cross and following you. We ask that you help us love you by obeying you and honoring you with our lives.
And Lord, your word declares the same. Lord of all, richly blesses all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him?
And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. So, Lord, we ask that you would lead us into interactions where we can bring good news. Fill us with your spirit.
He endured them because we were outcasts. He was ending our pain, our suffering, our sickness. And instead, people said that man must be cursed by God because he's a fool, he's an idiot, or he's a bad man, completely unaware that, yes, that man was being cursed by God in our place.
He had come to endure all those things in our place and endure them without ever sinning. He had come to live the perfect life we could never live and meet the perfect standard of God in our stead. But instead of being grateful, the world treated him with scorn.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion. He was crushed because of our iniquities. And the punishment for our peace was on Him. And we are healed by his wounds. What happened to Jesus in his life and death is what should have happened to us.
It's what we each deserve and so much more for rejecting the God who created us. And instead of getting what we deserve, Jesus stepped in front of the judge and said, pierce me, crush me, punish me. And Jesus gets pierced, crushed, and punished so that we can be healed. Healed. Why does Jesus do that?
Because he loves us. He loves us. The truth of the matter is found in verse is we all went astray like sheep. We have all turned our own way. We've all rejected God; we've all sinned against Him.
We've all acted as gods over our own lives instead of serving the true God who created us to be part of his family. We're all guilty.
But here's the glorious truth that to this day, if I'm honest, I still can't wrap my head around we're all guilty. And the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of a soul.
That's why we love Him so much. That's why we sing songs about it. That's why we study the Bible because it's all about Him. That's why our whole lives revolve around Him. That's why there's just Jesus, and everything else isn't even on the scale, just Him.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. Jesus died for us willingly. He said, no one takes my life for me, but I lay it down. He knew it was unjust, he knew he was innocent, yet he did not protest because he wanted to die in our place.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate, for he was cut off from the land of the living. He was struck because of my people's rebellion. After he died, a handful of people mourned. The disciples hid for fear they would be next. Life went on very quickly, and most people didn't give it a second thought.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. Jesus was executed as a criminal and died on a cross between two criminals. Following his death, he was laid to rest in the tomb of a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely, and the word pleased here simply means that it was acceptable. Jesus was judged by God to be an acceptable substitute for all humanity because he was God Himself and because he was sinless.
In the cosmic math of the eternal, it would be acceptable and balance the scales of justice if Jesus himself became a man, lived a perfect and sinless life, and then suffered and died in the place of all humanity. The math works because Jesus is infinitely valuable. The math works because Jesus is worth as much as all of humanity across all of time, and even more. Therefore, Jesus was an acceptable substitute for all of humanity to be severely crushed in our place.
He was like someone people turned away from. He was despised, and we didn't value him. Jesus was not especially good looking. He was ordinary. That's why Isaiah wrote he didn't have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire.
Jesus lived his whole life without ever sinning, and yet those around him didn't love Him for his goodness. They hated him for it. And when we first hear that, we think, that doesn't make sense. How can you hate a guy who never sinned, who's just good and loving all the time to everyone? Like, how could you not like that guy?
But I want you to imagine by thinking back to your own childhood, imagine a kid who always does the right thing, is always loving, is always kind, doesn't have a mean bone in his body. And then imagine that child in middle school. Imagine him in junior high. Imagine him in senior high. And when you do, you'll understand that that kid wouldn't be popular.
Everyone wouldn't love them. He'd be lame, he'd be weird, he'd be an outcast, and he'd be viewed as a naive fool, whatever the opposite of cool is, it's him. Because his actions were not driven in any way by conformity. His actions were not driven by the need to fit in. His actions were not driven at all by the need for the approval of anyone else who had no power over him.
No sweat. It didn't matter what everybody else was doing. He was just going to do the right Godly thing all the time. That kid is not popular. Not only does he not fit in because he won't do what everyone else is doing, but everyone hates him because there's a pardon them deep down who looks at Him and knows they should be like him.
They should be doing what he's doing. And his very goodness, in and of itself, innately convicts them, because they can't lie and say, oh, it's fine because everyone else is doing it. Well, Jesus, isn't. It's fine to make fun of them so that I can fit in with these kids over here. Well, Jesus isn't doing that.
I can't hang out with that guy, he's a loser. I got to fit in. Well, Jesus is hanging out with him. Why would we work hard? There's nobody around to see if we're doing a good job or a bad job.
Jesus is doing a good job. Jesus is working hard even when nobody's watching. They hated him, and it wouldn't have gotten better as he got older. Jesus would have grown up from a very young age being mocked for his mother's claim that God had made her divinely pregnant. They would have said things about his mom that I can't repeat in church, because everybody knew she must have hooked up with a Roman soldier.
They would have said stuff about Jesus' dad and how stupid he was to actually believe that the Holy Spirit made Jesus' mom pregnant. What an idiot. "Jesus, your dad's an idiot and your mom is a fill-in-the-blank." all the time growing up. He didn't grow up in big towns. Jesus grew up experiencing pain, rejection, loss, temptation, and all the frailties of the human condition.
Whatever hardship you're going through in your life right now, Jesus has been through it. He's been through it. He knows whatever your pain is firsthand he's endured. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from. He was despised and we didn't value Him. And here the prophet makes a contrast again between how Jesus was received by us on the earth and what was really going on. We humanity treated Jesus like trash when he was on the earth, but here's what was really going on. Here's what he was actually doing.
Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses and he carried our pains. But we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted throughout his life. The hardships Jesus endured weren't because he was an outcast.
It begins in Isaiah 50/ 213 and continues all the way to the end of Isaiah 53. It's been rightly referred to as the fulcrum of the Bible, the hinge of Scripture, as the mega narrative of all scripture is captured in its lines. So turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah 50 to verse 13. It's a little bit in front of the center of your Bibles, but don't be too proud to use the index in the front of your Bible either.
This is a safe place. No judgment. Turn to Isaiah 50 /213. Let's read through the Servant's Song and I'll share a few thoughts as we do. Isaiah 50 /213 begins.
See, my servant will be successful. He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. You see, this song is about the Messiah. It's about Jesus, who he is, why he came to the earth, what he accomplished on the earth, what happened after he left the earth, and then finally, what will happen in the future. The song begins by introducing Jesus as a servant, an astonishing posture for the God of the universe to take in human flesh.
My servant and I love this, after introducing Jesus as an inerrant, the song declares that he will be successful hundreds of years before he came as Jesus of Nazareth. His resurrection, his victory over sin was never in doubt. It was the plan before the foundations. Of the world were laid. The second line of the song has a double meaning.
That is the essence and theme of this song. It says that Jesus will be raised and lifted up. And I say there's a double meaning because that is prophetically fulfilled in two ways. As the servant of God in human flesh, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross to die in our place. But after suffering and dying in our place, he would conquer death, rise from the dead, and be glorified to the highest place of honor in existence.
He would be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. He would be raised on the cross, and then, following his resurrection, he would be raised to the highest place of glory in existence and the throne of God at the right hand of the Father. This song is about shocking, scandalous, glorious, and incredible contrasts between things like what happened to Jesus on the earth during His Incarnation, what happened to Him after His Incarnation, how we looked at him during the Incarnation, and how we will look at Him one day in the future, between whom Jesus was perceived to be when he was on the earth and who he truly is. It continues just as many were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being. Here's what Isaiah was prophesying.
He's prophesying that during his trials, Jesus was beaten and scourged to such a degree that his face was unrecognizable. You couldn't tell it was Jesus of Nazareth. He was so beaten and bloodied that he barely looked human. And all who saw Him in that state were appalled. They're speechless with horror and disgust.
And then we see the contrast. Just as they stared in amazement and were rendered speechless by the sight of the beaten and bloodied Jesus, they will stare in amazement and be struck speechless when they one day stand before the risen and glorified King of Kings. It says so many nations will marvel at him. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard. Isaiah now prophesied that during his incarnation, almost nobody would recognize or believe that Jesus is the Messiah, because he seems so shockingly ordinary.
He writes, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn't have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
What happened to Philip is probably what we would call teleportation. He disappeared in front of the Ethiopian and reappeared in a different geographic location, if any. Among the Ethiopian contingent were wondering if Philip was legit, that question was answered when he disappeared. Right before their eyes, the Gospel was fully in motion. Moving out across the earth, the Ethiopian continued to his homeland, rejoicing full of the Holy Spirit, and taking with him the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Gospel also continued moving outward among different people groups Hebrew Jews, Hellenistic Jews, half Jews, the Samaritans marginalized Jews like foreign eunuchs. And when we get to Acts chapter ten, Gentiles nonJews, verse 40, Philip appeared in Azatas and he was traveling and preaching the Gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Azatus was about 20 miles north of Gaza and was the ancient Philistine city known as Ashtod. Philip preached the Gospel there and in every town that he passed through as he made his way north to his hometown of Caesarea. And when we check in on Philip a couple of decades later, he's still living in Caesarea.
In Acts 21, he's described as Philip the Evangelist, and we read that Paul, Luke and others stayed with him during their missionary travels. He had a wife and four daughters who all fittingly, had the gift of prophecy. As one of the seven, Philip had waited tables and helped distribute bread to widows in Jerusalem. Then he was used by God to spark a great spiritual awakening in Samaria. Then he was removed to minister one on one to a man he likely never saw again.
And in Caesaria, he is noted for having raised four daughters who walk with the Lord and are, like their Father, in tune with the Holy Spirit. And I'm sure Philip found joy and purpose in each of those unique situations and callings in your life. There will be different seasons of ministry. The Lord will use you in different ways to minister to different people. Trust that the Lord is working in each of those seasons and give yourself fully to the Lord in each of those seasons.
Don't be looking or straining for the next season. Be fully present and faithful where he has placed you. Now, you might be single, and this might be a fruitful season of ministry because you have time, you have availability, and you might be dealing with situations in your family that are taking up all of your time right now that's your ministry. One is not greater than the other, and God is doing significant things in each season of our lives.
Remember that the Lord is so powerful and so profound that he is able to simultaneously work on us, making us more like Jesus, while also ministering to other people through us. In other words, the season that you're in right now is not just about what God wants to do through you, it's just as much about what God wants to do in you. And I didn't like this as a pastor. I was like, Lord, I want you to separate them. Do bless the church, grow the church, do all this stuff over here.
Leave me out of it. Let's keep these two things separate. And God says, no, actually, I want to work on you through the church and work on the church through you as well. I can do both at the same time. And so know that the Lord is doing that.
If you're just aching for a difference season, know that the Lord is doing good in you and through you, where you are. Be present, be faithful, be focused on what he wants you to do, where you are right now. Because here's what I know about the Lord everything he does, everything he's doing in us, everything he wants to do through us is good. I know that with absolute certainty. The Ethiopian was reading and trying to understand a portion of Isaiah that is part of what's called the Servant's Song.
The eunuch said to Philip, "I ask you, who's the prophet saying this about, himself or someone else?"
Scribes, scholars, and rabbis were divided in their opinions of this text. Some believed the sheep represented the nation of Israel. Others believe he represented the prophet Isaiah, while others believe that he represented the Messiah. The Ethiopian asked. Philip, what do you think?
And again, Philip must have said, wow, this is a softball if I've ever seen one. Just this nice little lob Phillips climbing in, getting ready to hit this thing out of the park. Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus and I want you to underline the word Jesus, because there is no good news apart from Jesus, beginning with that Scripture. The good news was that Isaiah 53 does not speak of the prophet Isaiah, but someone else, the Messiah Jesus. Make a note of this, and we'll keep talking about it.
Jesus is the key to unlocking and understanding the Old Testament. Jesus is the key to understanding and unlocking the Old Testament as it was for the Ethiopians almost 20 years ago, so it is for us today. When Jesus appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus following his resurrection, he said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them the things coveting Himself in all the Scriptures.
Personal stories are wonderful. Your testimony of what Jesus did for you is wonderful. But any effective presentation of the Gospel must be based on the word of God and must point to the saving work of Jesus. Far too often, the Gospel is presented in a whittled down form that robs it of its power by presenting it as a mere solution to stress, anxiety, shame, or loneliness. Yes, it's all of that, but it is so much more.
The Gospel is often presented as a means to fulfill your potential, find your purpose in life, and it will do that, but not in the way you think, because it is so much more than that, as we shall see when we read through more of Isaiah 53 later in this study, verse 36. As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, look, there's water. What would keep me from being baptized? And the answer to the Ethiopian's rhetorical question is nothing.
Nothing. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, nothing can stop the one who desires to be part of the family of God from being adopted into the family of God. It didn't matter that he was a foreigner, a eunuch, and ceremonially unclean, and it doesn't matter what your background is, doesn't matter what your history is. If you want to be part of the family of God Jesus has made a way. Jesus has prepared a place for you because he wants you to be part of his family.
I really want you to hear that he wants you to be part of his family. Unquestionably, Philip had explained to the Ethiopian that baptism was his next step of faith and providentially passing some water. The eunuch enthusiastically asked Philip if he could be baptized right there. So we ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. The man declared his faith in Jesus publicly by being baptized by Philip in front of everyone in the Ethiopian entourage.
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch did not see him any longer, but went on his way, rejoicing. With his most recent evangelistic assignment finished, Philip is supernaturally transported to his next assignment. Yes. Really? That's what happened.
As he does, we see how God was working to bring them together, perfectly placing Philip the Evangelist in the right place at the right time to cross paths with a sincere seeker of God who was looking for him in the Scriptures. And this is still how the Lord works generally, not specifically. Don't go hang around deserted roads thinking something's going to happen. Generally, this is how the Lord still works. He works through circumstances and people and relationships to cause his followers to be in the right place at the right time, to share the Gospel with men and women who are seeking the truth.
I know this when someone shares the Gospel with another person and they respond to it, neither party has any idea just how gloriously God has been working behind the scenes and for just how long to bring about that moment in time. May we find confidence and comfort in knowing that when we share the good news of Jesus with anyone, god was working long before we got there. God will be working in that moment, and he will continue working after that moment is gone. And that's why we don't stop praying for those in our lives who don't yet know the Lord. He's working behind the scenes all the time toward the greatest good of opening their eyes and hearts to the truth.
Verse 30. When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? The eunuch's entourage would have been sizable, but Philip was too focused on obeying God to be intimidated. He ran up to the carriage and initiated a conversation with the Ethiopian man about what he was reading. It was normal at that time to read aloud, especially Hebrew or Greek.
If you weren't a first language speaker. You'd speak it aloud because it's easier to sound things out that are written phonetically, as this would have been. So Philip is able to hear exactly what this man is studying. Now, as an aside for any of you who grew up in the church, I just noticed that, contrary to what I was taught in Sunday's school, there's no indication here that Phillips running up to the Chariot is a supernatural miracle. As I said, the guy is reading a scroll of Isaiah.
They're not traveling fast, but when I was in Sunday school, I was always taught that he runs, like, super crazy fast, and he's like Usain Bolt. And he's like, what are you reading? That's not actually what happened. As cool as that would have been, I'm sorry to ruin another children's Bible story for you. He literally just had to jog for a little bit, catch up, and then he could start walking next to him while he was ending.
That's all that happened there. Philip asks the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you're reading?" And he says, "How can I unless someone guides me?" So, he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. I wonder what Philip said.
He's like, I might have a few ideas. Philip must have smiled. He must have laughed, at least internally, at just how ridiculously perfect the Lord had arranged for this to unfold. Verse 32, it says now the scripture passage he was reading was this. And these verses are found in Isaiah 53, 7 and eight.
Isaiah 53 is one of the most famous messianic prophecies in the Old Testament because it vividly prophesies incredibly specific details about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the Messiah. And Jesus would fulfill all of them perfectly hundreds of years later. It's one of the great evidences of Christianity. These prophecies of Isaiah are written hundreds of years before Jesus is even born, and Jesus fulfills them perfectly, including aspects he could not have had any control over. Here's the portion of Isaiah 53 the Ethiopian was pondering.
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied Him. Who will describe his generation for his life is taken from the earth. ,
At the time, he was traveling in what was likely a covered wagon of some sort. It was large enough for him to sit in, for somebody else to drive, and, as we shall soon see, for Philip to join him. And it was moving slowly enough for him to read a scroll. Here's the point. If this is like a chariot with just one other guy and they're driving super fast, he can't study a scroll, okay?
This thing is crawling along at a pretty slow pace. Now, being physically a eunuch, hebrew law condemned him as unclean all the time. It's in Deuteronomy 23 one meaning that he would have been forbidden from participating in many aspects of Jewish communal life and celebration during his stay in Jerusalem. He would have been restricted to the outer court of the Gentiles at the Temple Mount, and he would have been excluded from full participation in synagogues wherever he went. Even if he was visiting Alexandria in Egypt, where there was a large Jewish community at the time, he was legitimately a marginalized person.
Even though he held a high government position, he was a seeker. He wasn't deterred by how out of place he would have been as a black Ethiopian eunuch in Jerusalem, there to worship Yahweh. He wanted to know God. And even as he journeys home, we find him studying the Scriptures, seeking knowledge of God in his word. It was no accident that he was pouring over the scroll of Isaiah, for in Isaiah 1111, it is prophesied that Kush will be one of the regions from which Jesus will recover the Jewish people when he returns at the Second Coming.
And not only that I put this on your outlines, but in Isaiah 56, the Lord speaks through the prophet about what things will look like in the kingdom of Jesus when he rules and reigns over the earth from Jerusalem in the millennium. And God says this, no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, the Lord will exclude me from his people. And the eunuch should not say, Lord, I am a driedup tree. For the Lord says this for the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold firmly to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off.
As for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord and to become his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and who hold firmly to my covenant, I will bring them to my holy mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. This is the declaration of the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel. I will gather to them still others besides those already gathered. And this blows my mind, because if you're not tracking with me, foreign eunuchs is an incredibly small and specific demographic.
Really, really small. There's dozens of them. And yet, in the word of God, in the scroll this man is reading, god specifically addresses foreign eunuchs. Now, did the Ethiopian know this? Is this why he purchased the scroll of Isaiah?
We don't know, but as we shall see, it was no accident that he was studying Isaiah specifically. Verses 29 the Lord told Philip, go and join that chariot. Up to this point, Philip has no idea what he's doing on this desert road. He's just hanging there, waiting for his next instruction. But after obeying the Lord immediately, he now receives his next instruction from the Lord, which he will also obey immediately.
That's why we need to pray as the church did in Acts chapter four, that God would grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness.
Because two verses later in that same chapter, we read what happened after they prayed that prayer. When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the Word of God boldly. Prayer answered. There's a connection between being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking the Word of God boldly, even if it doesn't come to you naturally. And this is just one more reason why we need to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit every single day.
We need to be filled because we're asking God to do things in us and cause things to flow out of us that do not come naturally to us. We're asking Him to do things and have things come out of us that we don't wake up with. And so we're saying, Lord, fill us up with you. So that what comes out of me looks more like you than me, saying, Lord, fill me. I need it every single day.
We want to be full of the Spirit, available to be used by God and ready to obey Him when he leads us into an opportunity to share the Gospel. Continuing on it says there was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. Ethiopia was the land known as Kush in the ancient world. It was a kingdom whose borders were much larger than they are today. It lay on the Nile River, south of Egypt, and as I mentioned earlier, it was considered by the Greeks and the Romans to represent the limits of the known world.
It really was the end of the earth in Hellenistic thought. At the time, the Ethiopians believed their kings were incarnations of the sun God, and therefore the everyday affairs of government were considered beneath them. The real power lay in the hands of the queen mothers, who were known by the hereditary title Kandake or Candice. In English, it wasn't her name, it was her title, like Pharaoh or Caesar. The Ethiopian man introduced to us here is a high ranking government official who answered to the Kandaki and was essentially the country's minister of finance or secretary of the treasury.
The term eunuch didn't necessarily mean that a man had been emasculated. It was a term sometimes used in the ancient world for government officials. For example, Potiphar, who was Joseph's boss in Genesis 39, is called a eunuch in the Septuagint, and we know that he was married. However, because Stephen uses two terms for the Ethiopian man, referring to him as both a eunuch and a high official, and because he worked for the queen, it's likely he was actually physically a eunuch. It was a practice that was common in the ancient world, wherever amen needed to verses around female royalty, like a queen or a princess or a king's wife or a king's harem.
In my head, I was just imagining the scenarios where this must have happened to guys who worked for the king, and somebody brings them in and they're like, I've got good news and bad news. What's the good news? You've been promoted to be the personal assistant to the queen. What's the bad news? You might want to sit down.
I'm just good where I am. Middle management is fine. What about Steve? He's a great guy. You should talk to him.
He's ambitious. Continuing in verse 27, it says he, the Ethiopian had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. While we don't know much of his backstory, we can deduce that this man was a convert to Judaism who was sincerely seeking God. We see evidence of this in the great distance. He traveled to worship in Jerusalem, coming all the way from Ethiopia, and we see evidence of that in the fact that he had purchased for himself a scroll containing the book of Isaiah, the prophet, a costly investment.
I believe the Lord arranged the text that way, purposefully so that we might be warned to examine our own salvation and make sure we are sincere like the Ethiopian man, and not deluding ourselves with wrong motives like Simon. So let's jump in.
Acts chapter eight, verse 26. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the desert road. So he got up and went.
If you don't know in Hebrew literature, Jerusalem is up, whatever direction you're coming from. And whenever you're leaving Jerusalem, wherever you're going is down. It doesn't matter if you're going north or south, you always go down from Jerusalem, because it was the holy city, the city of God. This instruction must have seemed strange to Philip. Remember, the revival had broken out in Samaria, and now God was telling him to leave that ministry work and head toward a desert road that nobody was really using in the middle of the day.
But notice that God didn't tell Philip why he needed to leave Samaria and go to this desert road. God didn't say, Well, Philip, it's step one of a five-step plan. Let me fill you in on what the other four steps are, then I think you'll be on board. And yet we don't find Philip questioning God. He doesn't demand to know the full plan before he agrees to obey God.
We read, so he got up and went. And that's why God could use Philip. If Philip knew what God wanted him to do, he obeyed as best he could, as soon as he could. And far too often we delay our obedience to God, don't we? Well, we pretend that he's not spoken clearly to us when we know that he has.
And here's how we do this god's Word the Bible is clear on an issue, but we don't obey. We know what God has called us to do through His Word, but we delay our obedience. We pretend we need more clarity. Oh, pray for me. I need to find some wise counsel to confirm what the Bible is saying.
Let me put out a fleece before the Lord. I wonder if someone on YouTube has an interpretation that lines up with what I would like to believe not you. Of course, I'm speaking to our online listeners. I'm not talking about areas where the Bible isn't specific. I'm not talking about gray areas.
I'm talking about things where God's Word says, do not do this. It's evil, it's sin. Our response is, I wish I could discern what the Lord is saying here, but I'm not fluent in ancient Greek or Hebrew, and we play Amen instead of immediately obeying. Would you make a note of this? This is also a reminder that if we want the Holy Spirit to minister to others through us, we must be available and ready to obey them.
If we want the Holy Spirit to minister to others through us, we must be available and ready to obey them. If we're going to pray for opportunities to share the gospel, it means and I know this is tricky, but it means we must be willing to actually share the gospel when the Holy Spirit gives us an opportunity. And I don't want to be a hypocrite on this point BJ has a gift of evangelism, and it shows up because he's not scared to share the gospel at all. Some other people in our church are like this. I'll be honest.
I get terrified like most of you. Terrified, absolutely terrified. But guess what? I'm still called to share the gospel. I've looked.
There's no asterisk in my Bible on any of the verses on evangelism. And then at the bottom, there's no footnote that says, unless you're scared. I've checked every page. It's not there. It's not there.
There's nothing in there that says unless you really want people to like you, and they're scared you won't after you become that weird guy who talks about Jesus. It's not there any translation, any Bible. I've checked all of them, so you don't even need to look. I'm still called to be available to the Holy Spirit, and I'm still called to obey when he tells me to share Jesus with somebody.
The Gospel continues moving outward, as Philip is sent by the Lord to minister one-on-one to a marginalized Ethiopian Jew who is searching for God in one of the greatest Old Testament prophecies, the “Servant Song” of Isaiah 52 and 53.
Saul is persecuting the Church in Jerusalem, causing all except the apostles and their families to flee across the regions of Judea and Samaria. In our previous study, we learned how Philip, a helicopter holistic Jew, stopped and preached the Gospel in Samaria as he was fleeing Jerusalem. The result was a revival, a spiritual awakening in the region as many turned to Jesus. In this part of the Book of Acts, the focus shifts from events in Jerusalem and the establishment of the Church to how the Gospel message, the saving good news of Jesus, spread across the earth. Throughout redemptive history, God has worked through a chosen group of people.
First, it was the Israelites, and God told them through the prophet Isaiah, I have called you for a righteous purpose. I will appoint you to be a light to the nations. Sadly, for the most part, Israel failed to fulfill her calling. Throughout the centuries of the old covenant era, Israel either became self-absorbed and wanted nothing to do with any foreigners, wrongly believing that God had blessed Israel because he only loved the Jews and hated everyone else, or Israel would break their covenant with God and join with the surrounding pagan nations in the worship of their false Gods. When we reach the time of the ministry of Jesus and the birth of the Church in the Book of Acts, Israel is no longer involved with paganism, but they are instead in a fiercely nationalistic mindset.
And the worship of God has been corrupted into a religion that preaches salvation by good works. In other words, follow these rules, do these things, and you will be right with God. The belief is that one can earn their way into heaven by being a good person. As I said, Israel failed to be the light to the nations that God created her to be. She became so lost in her legalism and nationalism that she missed her Messiah when he appeared as Jesus of Nazareth.
And so God created a new people to bless the world through the Church. And the Church was tasked with taking the light of the Gospel to the nations. And unlike Israel, the Church would embrace all of the nations. In Acts One eight, Jesus told his disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Church was almost exclusively Jewish for her first three years of existence in Jerusalem, and so God had to step in and say, guys, I said, the Gospel will go to all nations to spark that evangelistic work.
God worked incredibly through Saul, who spearheaded persecution against the Church, arranging for Stephen's execution as the first Christian martyr. We read in Acts Eight, verse one, that on that day a severe persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. That's a good start. And we read a few verses later that those who were scattered went on their way, preaching the Word. As people fled, they took the Gospel message with them.
As we continue reading in Acts chapter eight, we will witness the Gospel reaching a man on his way back to Ethiopia, a region considered at the time to be the end of the earth. If you study Acts chapter eight, you will also find that the Lord has placed the conversion stories of Simon, the sorcerer, who we talked about last week, and the Ethiopian man we're going to talk about this week back to back. Simon's conversion was insincere. The Ethiopian's conversion will be sincere, and I believe the Lord arranged the text that way, purposefully.
And here's where I'm going with this. When we talk about retirement in western culture, it's generally code for when I don't have to work anymore. I'll finally have the freedom to be as selfish as I've always wanted to be, but just didn't have the time to be. I'll finally have the margin and the time to devote my whole life to myself. I'll get up when I want to get up.
I'll go to bed when I want to go to bed. I'll play poker on my phone all day if that's what I want to do. I'll go out with friends if I want. I'll stay home if I don't. Me.
Me. My whole life is about working towards two to three golden decades of total self absorption. That's the dream that advertisers sell, right? It's the vision that drives saving for retirement in our culture. But it's not God's dream for us.
And you won't find anything like it in the pages of Scripture. Because for the believer, some things don't change at all when it comes time to retire. Most importantly, write this down jesus is lord over your life the day before you retire, and Jesus is lord over your life the day after you retire. That doesn't change. And your decision-making process is still to be based on the same question what should I do, Lord?
Retirement doesn't take the title of Lord away from Jesus and give it to us. Our free time does not belong to us before retirement or after retirement. Now. Praise God. The Lord wants us to have healthy rest as part of the rhythm of our lives.
He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He rested from creation on the 7th day. But whether we work, rest or play, all of it should be under the Lordship of Jesus at his command.
If you've never watched John Piper's legendary sermon from 2000 called Don't Waste Your Life, you have to go watch this. Every Christian has to watch this message. Just go to YouTube and search for John Piper and the word seashells and it will be it will be the top result. If you are close to retirement, especially or you are retired, you must go watch this. Tabitha shows us what should happen in a believer's life when they have the gift of much free time.
The Spirit will stir a desire to be generous, a desire to bless the church, and then the Spirit will provide opportunities to be generous. And those who are submitted to the lordship of Jesus will walk in those opportunities. Paul would later write to the church in Ephesus that God has prepared good works ahead of time. For us to do that should encourage us, because it means whatever stage of life we're in. There are good works that God has prepared for us, and we can walk in them if we continue to live under the lordship of Jesus.
If you're retired or close to retirement, think on these things. Reflect on them. The final decades of your life may be the most fruitful of your life. If you are submitted to the lordship of Jesus, that's what he wants for you. For the rest of us, if you can save for retirement, you should.
It's wise. But I want to urge you, however old or young you are, not to embrace a vision for retirement that is centered around your own selfish desires. Rather, look forward to retirement as a new season, when you can be more available than ever to be used by the Lord Jesus to bless his church and to grow in the knowledge of him. But how sad. If you take the final quarter, the final third of your life, and say, this just isn't going to matter.
I'm going to take the last two to three decades of my life and just have them not matter at all. That's no way to end a story. So make us more like Tabitha, the Lord. I plan to be teaching God's word until Jesus comes back. I die or I lose my mind.
And I know that if we thought for a little while, each of us who've been walking with Jesus for more than a year could tell stories about things that we had to realize, that we wish we could have just realized like this. But the Lord had to take us on a journey. Why? Because we're just not that bright. He's like, okay, I'm going to take you into conversations.
I'm going to draw you some pictures. I'm going to show you some videos. I'm going to put you in some situations, and slowly, slowly, you'll begin to understand this truth. And we go, oh. And then we always say, like, ma'am, why didn't the Lord just tell me?
I mean, I would have just obeyed. No, you wouldn't have. And I promise he tried. And if any of that says that to him when we get to heaven, he'll be like, I can play you the tape of, like, 100 times that I tried to tell you, and you just pretended that you didn't hear me. He's like, that's why we went on this whole long journey.
This is how elaborate we had to get just for you to understand this. And we'll go, oh, okay. Okay. Peter is no different, and that encourages me. Our story now shifts from Luda to Joppa, a distinctly Greek and Gentile town it sat on the Mediterranean coast about 10 miles or 16 km from Luda, and, like Luda, was home to a community of believers.
It says in verse 36 in Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated dorcas. She was always doing good work and acts of charity. At verse 39 will tell us that these good works and acts of charity included making robes and clothes for widows in the church. There were extremely limited employment opportunities for women at this time in history. Outside of prostitution, if you were a widow with no family or children to care for you, you would be faced with destitution.
Therefore, the early church placed a special emphasis on caring for widows and orphans among the body of believers. You know, when I needed help working on my car this past week, I did not call BJ. Do you know why? Because I didn't need a pastor, I didn't need an evangelist. I didn't need someone to say, hey, yeah, your car does need some work, but the good news is Jesus loves you.
If I'd wanted that, I would have called BJ. But I needed somebody who knew how to work on cars. And I won't tell you who I called because I love and appreciate them, but I called somebody who knew how to work on cars. You see, these widows needed bible studies, but they also needed clothes. They had practical needs.
Praise God, the lord provided for those needs through the ministry of Tabitha. The church needs more Tabithas. We need more people who can cook sow clothes, do accounting, help people budget, fix cars, work with AV equipment, help people with home repairs, and meet practical needs. Scholars believe that Tabitha was likely married to a wealthy man and therefore had much free time. And instead of spending it all on herself, we see the effect of the holy spirit on her life.
You see, the spirit tends to produce generosity in the heart of a believer. And Tabitha begins to ponder the question, how can I bless the church with my time? She didn't seek a platform. She sought to bless the people of the church. The spirit stirred that question within her and then directed her to the answer, which was making clothes for widows.
She's a wonderful example of a godly woman. For most men and women in the Western world, this kind of free time only appears at the age of retirement if you're fortunate enough to have that financial ability. But I want to suggest that the Western concept of retirement, as the culture perceives it, is in conflict with the Christian's view of life. And I'm not trying to pick on anybody who's retired or is about to retire. I just want to bring something to our attention and love and remind us how the lord has called us to live.
Jesus has told his disciples they will do these kinds of things, declaring, these are on your outlines. These signs will accompany those who believe in My name. They will lay hands on the sick and they will get well. When Jesus commissioned the Twelve Matthew 10, one tells us, summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. Every disease and sickness.
An astonishing time in the church. It's not a coincidence that Peter's words to this man, get up and make your bed, are remarkably similar to the words of Jesus in John chapter five, where he walks up to a disabled man at the pool of Bethesda and tells him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And we read that instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. You see, through the apostles in the early church, the risen Jesus was continuing to heal as they walked in the footsteps of Jesus himself.
Here's something you might not have noticed, even though you might have read the Book of Acts many times before. Verse 35. It says, so all. Would you underline the word all? So all who lived in Luda and Saran saw him and turned to the Lord.
Underline that word turned. That word all is astonishing because as you Bible scholars know, in the original Greek, the word all means all. It means all. And it says all who lived in Luda and Saran saw him. The man who had once been paralyzed had been paralyzed for eight years.
They saw him walking and turned to the Lord. Everyone who lived in the town of Luna and on the surrounding coastal plain of Sarah came to see the miraculously healed paralytic, heard Peter preach the Gospel, and turned to Jesus. And I'm pretty sure that meets the definition of a revival when everyone just gets saved. Yet we'll count this one. We're told that those who became believers turned to the Lord, they turned to the Lord.
And that phrase is so important because it paints a picture of what happens when we become a follower of Jesus. It means repenting, which means to change one's mind. Giving one's life to Jesus means changing your mind about who he is and accepting Him as God, Savior, and Lord over your life. It's a change of mind that inevitably results in a change of direction in your life. Why?
Because previously you were the captain, you were the driver. You were the one calling the shots in your life, and you went wherever you wanted to go, and you did whatever you wanted to do. And when Jesus becomes your Lord, he becomes the captain of your soul. He sets the course of your life. He says we're going here.
We're doing this. We're not doing that. And inevitably, it means your life changes course. It changes course. There is no turning to Jesus without a turn happening in your life.
A change of direction. That's what the people in Luda and surrounded, they turned to the Lord. They were going this way. Now they're going this way because that's where Jesus is. This region was semigile.
That means partly Jewish, partly non-Jewish. In Peter's experience in Samaria and his ministry to the church across Israel, we can see the Holy Spirit graciously taking him on this journey of discovery and progressively opening his eyes to the truth that the gospel is for everyone. And I love the way this plays out over this chapter in the next chapters in the Book of Acts because this is Peter. He was with Jesus for three years. He heard Jesus teach that he had come for everyone.
He heard it. And yet Peter takes years, years just to wrap his mind around the concept. Hey, maybe by all, Jesus meant all, even non-Jews, even Gentiles. And this process takes Peter years. The Holy Spirit has to take him on this whole journey through different experiences and encounters because he just can't wrap his mind around it.
The focus shifts from Saul to Peter, and we see God work two remarkable miracles through him as he travels across Judea, ministering to the scattered Church.
Here's the key clip from John Piper's legendary message at the "Passion: One Day" event in 2000, referenced by Jeff in this message:
As I mentioned at the end of our previous study, we will shift the focus away from Saul for a few chapters and return our focus to the Apostle Peter, whom Saul met with during the 15 days he spent in Jerusalem. We last saw Peter in Acts 8/25, returning to Jerusalem after ministering with John in Samaria. If you recall, Philip had been used by the Lord to spark a revival in that region. Still, the Lord chose to delay the giving of his Spirit to the Samaritan converts until Peter and John could be summoned from Jerusalem to lay their hands upon their new brethren. That experience rocked Peter's world as it proved the Gospel was not only for Jews but also for the Samaritans, who were considered half-Jews by the pureblooded Hebrews, like the apostles. So, let's turn in our Bibles to Acts Nine, verse 32.
As the focus shifts to Peter, we read, that as Peter was traveling from place to place, he also came down to the saints who lived in Luda. After ministering in Samaria and returning to Jerusalem, it seems that Peter started making trips all over Israel to visit the church that had been scattered by the persecution of Saul and grown through the ministries of men like Philip, who had preached the Gospel all the way to his hometown of Caesarea. As a result, there were little congregations, and little churches starting all over the place. The Spirit was leading Peter, preaching the Gospel as he had opportunity and ministering to the scattered saints of the young church. One of these ministry trips took him to a community of believers in Luda known as Lord in Hebrew.
It was a long day's journey from Jerusalem and was a local government hub in Judea, the southern region of Israel, with main roads that connected to Egypt, Syria, Joppa, and Jerusalem. We read in verse 33 there he found a man named Isaiah who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. Now, we don't know whether Inaeus was a follower of Jesus at this time, but as we shall see if he wasn't one before his encounter with Peter, he definitely was one after his encounter with Peter, Peter said to him, Jesus Christ heals you. Would you underline that? Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed.
And immediately he got up. Remember that Isaiah was a real person. He was a real man who had spent the last eight years lying in his bed, paralyzed. Can you imagine the scene? Can you imagine how he felt when Peter said, Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed.
The overwhelming joy as feeling and sensation returned to his whole body, the little bit of fear that he was dreaming or that somehow this wasn't real, or that when he tried to stand up, he would fall over. But he doesn't. He stands up and his legs and his body support him. After eight years. What a moment.
This healing is an example of the special anointing and power that God gave the apostles. Through them, God healed many people instantly. And the New Testament only records instantaneous and complete healings. As we've shared before, this display of the spirit's power was to be partnered with the teaching of biblical truth to prove that the message the apostles were preaching was indeed from God. It lined up with the Scriptures and had a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
s you go free from condemnation that comes from a judgmental and critical spirit, you will begin to naturally overlook the faults and shortcomings of others because you will be so secure in who you are in Christ. You’ll become a cheerleader for the Body of Christ and an excellent representative of the love of Jesus to the world. Instead of saying, “Look what you did,” you’ll say, “We’ve all fallen short at one time or another. But you can do it! I’m with you in this.”
Warning Sign No. 4: You Feel Unworthy “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8 (ESV) Do you ever feel like you have to prove yourself? In today’s world, that’s what you have to do, right? On the job, among friends and even at home, the pressure is on to convince those around you that you deserve the salary, the friendship and even the love they give you. Why? Because you feel unworthy. Feeling unworthy is the next warning sign that you may be living in condemnation and that something’s just not right.
If you’re feeling unworthy of anyone’s love—be it a family member, friend, co-worker or even God Himself, you have to know and accept the truth: God considered you worthy enough to send Jesus Christ to die for you. That’s how He showed His love for you, and that’s how He showed you that you are worthy. Your life is very important to God.
If you feel unworthy, it’s time to get a revelation of the love God has for you. First John 4:16 says, “We have come to know and to believe the love God has for us…” (ESV). You can’t just know in your head that God loves you, but you must believe the love, or in other words get a personal revelation of it.
As Kenneth Hagin said, “Believing takes place in our heart, not our head.” How do you do this? Meditate on scriptures that talk about God’s love for you. Ask God to reveal to you that He loves you. Then, be on the lookout for God to show you. He will. This revelation will revolutionize your whole life! To be loved by God and to believe it from personal experience…it’s a marvelous thing!
Next, you need to understand that, as Christ’s servant, you are called to please God, not man (Galatians 1:10). It pleases Him when you understand the high value He places on your life and when you have faith in His love for you.
Remember, God hasn’t based His relationship with you on your worthiness in and of yourself. He knows where you’ve missed. He knows you’ve fallen short. But when He looks at you, that’s not what He sees. You know what He sees? He sees the worthy blood of Jesus covering you. He sees you perfect in every way, ready to complete every good work He created you to do in this world. You don’t have to struggle to prove yourself to Him. As far as He’s concerned, you’re a proven success.
So, the next time you catch yourself struggling to make up to God for something you’ve done wrong, or you find yourself working to win His approval or the approval of others, stop and rest in His love for you. Remind yourself of how much God loves you. You are worthy to be loved by God Almighty! Your job is to please the Lord with your life. You already measure up.
Watch Gloria and Kellie Copeland talk about how the devil uses shame and how you can defeat him.
Well, how did you do? Did you notice any of the four warning signs that you may be living in condemnation and that something’s just not right? Once you resolve to stop living in your past, forgive yourself, quit judging others and realize you are worthy of God’s love, receiving from God will become much easier! Jesus has paid the price for you to go free from condemnation and receive all the gifts He’s already given you. He came to give you life and life more abundantly. It’s time to begin living the abundant life—free from condemnation today!
Related Articles: A Daily Confession to Overcome Condemnation
If you discover that you just can’t seem to forgive yourself, it’s a good time to ask, “Why?” What do you lose by letting go of the past and accepting the truth that Jesus washed away your sins and mistakes? What do you gain by holding onto past hurts?
Ready to build a deeper prayer life? Learn the 7 Steps to Prayer That Bring Results here.
Living in condemnation because you just can’t seem to forgive yourself is self-focused, and receiving forgiveness is God-focused. So, turn your focus back on God, forgive yourself because Jesus has forgiven you, and start living in victory!
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland pray for their Partners every day. Want to be under their covering? Find out more about partnership HERE.
Find A Daily Confession to Overcome Condemnation here.
Warning Sign No. 3: You Have a Judgmental and Critical Spirit “For you’ll be judged by the same standard that you’ve used to judge others. The measurement you use on them will be used on you.” –Matthew 7:2 Another warning sign that you may be living in condemnation is if you have a judgmental and critical spirit about you. What is a judgmental and critical spirit? It is one that looks for flaws and failings in others and forms a verdict or opinion about them. Criticizing and passing judgment on another person can help make us feel a bit superior in areas in which we feel we have the upper hand. At least I don’t do that! you may think to yourself.
Why is this a warning sign that you may be living in condemnation? Often, we judge people because we ourselves “feel” judged either by God or by people. When we feel judged, feelings of condemnation abound. However, often, we are only feeling judged by others because of condemning thoughts replaying in our heads. If we knew the truth of the matter, we’d probably be surprised to find out that the person we “felt” judged by didn’t ever give us one thought!
If you find yourself observing, judging and criticizing the faults in people—spouses, friends, family, co-workers, political leaders—or even pointing them out to others, the Word of God has some advice for you: Stop it now! The Bible clearly warns us of the dangers of judging others. When you sow judgment, you will reap judgment (Matthew 7:2), leading to more condemnation. It’s a vicious cycle!
Most of all, God loves you so much, He sent His one and only Son to die for you. Because you have accepted this free gift, you are no longer condemned; therefore, you are free from the thoughts and judgments of others. God says there is now no condemnation for you because you belong to Him, so His Word and love for you trumps everyone else’s opinion.
Other signs of a critical spirit fueled by condemnation include: Being highly critical of yourself and comparing yourself to others Needing constant affirmation from people around you Craving compliments, while feeling threatened if others are complimented. How do you go free from a judgmental and critical spirit?
Repent. This means to change your ways to God’s ways! Ask Him to show you the root of the critical spirit. If you truly believe someone is in error, refuse to criticize him or her, but pray instead! The Scripture says, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Romans 14:4. Refuse to gossip or speak negatively about anyone, ever (Ephesians 4:29). Be cautious of what you share about others, knowing that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), which means it doesn’t highlight or gossip about the failings of others. Walk in love by choosing to speak life and build others up with your words. Go out of your way to say something nice to or about someone. When you’re living free from condemnation, you’ll find yourself eager to build others up.
The No. 1 warning sign that you may be living in condemnation and that something’s just not right, is if you think about your past sins and the negative experiences of your life a lot. Recalling these memories can leave you feeling guilty, ashamed, and like you’re never quite good enough.
This is why God tells us to leave what’s in the past in the past and to press forward into our future. God wants to do something new and wonderful in your life, completely apart from your past, but you have to stop looking to your past in order to receive it!
How do you do this? Know that Jesus already took the condemnation for your past upon Himself. As a born-again Christian, you have been made free from every sin you’ve ever committed. Jesus bore all your sin, shame and guilt on the cross, so you could live free of condemnation—FOREVER.
It isn’t enough to just mentally acknowledge this truth, however. As long as you keep allowing yourself to replay bad choices or experiences, you’ll keep yourself spinning on the condemnation merry-go-round. Are you ready to get off?
Here’s how to do it: Take your thoughts of the past captive and make them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). When a condemning thought from your past crosses your mind, stop it dead in its tracks by speaking out loud. Say, “No. I don’t live in the past. Jesus has made all things new and given me a prosperous, guilt-free future. I am living fully in the present, and I look forward to what God is doing in my life right now.”
This might be a daily effort at first, so don’t give up if the thoughts of your past don’t immediately stop. Plus, you have an enemy who doesn’t want you to succeed, but remember, he’s already been defeated! So, whenever the devil tries to call you with reminders of past mistakes—hang up on him. Inform him that he’s been placed on your Do Not Call List, and you will not be receiving any more of his attempts at communication.
Make a decision today. Leave the past behind, and focus on the here and now, and your glorious future!
Warning Sign No. 2: You Can’t Seem to Forgive Yourself “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” –2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) If you find yourself beating yourself up for days, weeks and even years after you make a mistake, that’s a strong warning that you may be living in condemnation, and something’s just not right. Feelings of rejection, fear of failure, insecurity and depression are all connected to condemnation.
When you became a Christian, you literally became a new creation, a species that has never before existed. The old person you were passed away, spiritually speaking. The best news is that all of your past and future mistakes have been blotted out by the blood of Jesus! If Jesus can forgive you for past and future sins, who are you to not forgive yourself?
To forgive yourself, you must renew your mind to the truth of God’s Word that says you are forgiven and have been made new.
Remember, when you sin or miss the mark, confess and repent as soon as you realize it. Next, receive your forgiveness and cleansing from the Lord (1 John 1:9), and then take the next step and forgive yourself! Holding onto guilt and shame is refusing to receive His forgiveness, and it just wouldn’t be right to refuse this beautiful gift!
What’s more, satan will take anything about which you’ve not forgiven yourself and beat you over the head with it. But if you forgive yourself, he’s neutralized.
This is such a vital concept to grasp, you may need to spend some dedicated time with the Lord to inquire of Him and search your heart for any areas where you have not received God’s forgiveness and have not forgiven yourself.
Are You Living in Condemnation? 4 Warning Signs That Something’s Just Not Right June 27, 2019 Are you living in condemnation? The devil is sneaky, so don’t answer until you check out these four warning signs that something’s just not right! Do you believe that God is the Giver of healing, prosperity, deliverance, peace, salvation, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, a spouse, children, and every other good thing, but don’t feel worthy to receive those things?
Wait, don’t answer just yet…keep reading. Many Christians are refusing the gifts Jesus Christ has made available to them through His shed blood because they think of themselves as unworthy. Because of their past sins and mistakes, and the past sins and mistakes of others, they do not feel good enough to receive from a holy God.
Now you can answer. Does this sound like you? If you answered yes, then…Houston, we have a problem. If you’ve been having trouble receiving healing, financial breakthroughs or anything else you need from the Lord, and you struggle with feelings of shame and unworthiness, you may be living in condemnation that needs to be resolved.
What Is Condemnation? Simple definitions of condemnation include feelings of guilt, shame, regret, fear, and unworthiness…usually stemming from a past mistake or experience. These past sins could have happened 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago. Anytime we miss the mark, and we all do from time to time, the enemy will try his best to bring condemnation on us.
So, what are we to do? We are to believe and stand on the Word of God! The Bible clearly tells us in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Psalm 34:22 says the Lord redeems the life of His servants, and no one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned. If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). He blots out our sins and does not think of them (Isaiah 43:25). He does not punish us for all our sins or deal with us as harshly as we deserve (Psalm 103:10). Another important point to remember is that there’s a difference between conviction and condemnation. The Holy Spirit will let us know when we’ve missed the mark by convicting us of sin from our past or present, but He is a gentleman. He doesn’t aim to make us feel guilty, unworthy, and fearful, but He leads us to repentance. Correction usually comes by a quickening from the Holy Spirit as you read and study the Word of God, or through a minister or pastor teaching or preaching from the Word. It can also come from a fellow believer who is walking in love. Condemnation, on the other hand, is brought on by the devil, and he wants to make you feel all the bad things—unworthy, afraid, and guilty. He will often invade your thoughts or use people to accomplish his mission.
But there’s good news! You don’t have to live in condemnation, because Jesus paid the ultimate price for you to be free! So, it’s time to ask yourself, Am I living in condemnation? The devil is sneaky, so it’s always a good idea to check and see if he’s been pulling any of your strings and trying to cheat you out of the abundant life Jesus came to give you.
Below are four warning signs that you may be living in condemnation and that something’s just not right.
Warning Sign No. 1: You Think About the Past—A Lot “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” –Philippians 3:13. Do thoughts of your past seem to creep up out of nowhere? Sins and mistakes from 10, 20, or even 30 years ago? Or maybe you keep reliving a negative life experience that left you hurt—over and over and over. Perhaps you’ve even found yourself saying on repeat, “I wish I would’ve…” or “If only I wouldn’t have….”
John Newton had rejected his mother's teachings and had led other sailors into unbelief. Certainly, he was beyond hope and beyond saving, even if the Scriptures were true. Yet, Newton's thoughts began to turn to Christ. He found a New Testament and began to read. Luke 11:13 seemed to assure him that God might still hear him: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him."
Deliverance - Salvation of John Newton; That day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton remembered ever after: "On that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters." Many years later, as an old man, Newton wrote in his diary of March 21, 1805: "Not well able to write; but I endeavor to observe the return of this day with humiliation, prayer, and praise." Only God's amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God. Newton never ceased to stand in awe of God's work in his life.
New Directions - John Newton's Conversion; Though Newton continued in his profession of sailing and slave trading for a time, his life was transformed. He began a disciplined Bible study, prayer, and Christian reading schedule and tried to be a Christian example to the sailors under his command. Philip Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul provided much spiritual comfort, and a fellow Christian captain he met off the coast of Africa guided Newton further in his Christian faith.
Newton left slave trading and took the job of tide surveyor at Liverpool, but he began to think he had been called to the ministry. His mother's prayers for her son were answered, and in 1764, at the age of thirty-nine, John Newton began forty-three years of preaching the Gospel of Christ.
John and his beloved wife Mary (At the end of his life, John would write that their love "equaled all that the writers of romance have imagined") moved to the little market town of Olney. He spent his mornings in Bible study and his afternoons visiting his parishioners. There were regular Sunday morning and afternoon services and meetings for children and young people. There was also a Tuesday evening prayer meeting which was always well attended.
John Newton having become ashamed of having had a part in slavery became an Abolisher of slavery.
In 1725, Newton was born in Wapping, a district in London near the Thames. His father was a shipping merchant who was brought up as a Catholic but had Protestant sympathies, and his mother was a devout Independent, unaffiliated with the Anglican Church. She had intended for Newton to become a clergyman, but she died of tuberculosis when he was six years old. For the next few years, while his father was at sea Newton was raised by his emotionally distant stepmother. He was also sent to boarding school, where he was mistreated. At the age of eleven, he joined his father on a ship as an apprentice; his seagoing career would be marked by headstrong disobedience.
As a youth, Newton began a pattern of coming very close to death, examining his relationship with God, then relapsing into bad habits. As a sailor, he denounced his faith after being influenced by a shipmate who discussed with him Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, a book by the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. In a series of letters Newton later wrote, "Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me." His disobedience caused him to be pressed into the Royal Navy, and he took advantage of opportunities to overstay his leave.
He deserted the navy to visit Mary "Polly" Catlett, a family friend with whom he had fallen in love. After enduring humiliation for deserting, he was traded as crew to a slave ship. He began a career in slave trading.
Newton often openly mocked the captain by creating obscene poems and songs about him, which became so popular that the crew began to join in. His disagreements with several colleagues resulted in his being starved almost to death, imprisoned while at sea, and chained like the slaves they carried. He was himself enslaved by the Sherbro and forced to work on a plantation in Sierra Leone near the Sherbro River. After several months he came to think of Sierra Leone as his home, but his father intervened after Newton sent him a letter describing his circumstances, and crew from another ship happened to find him. Newton claimed the only reason he left Sierra Leone was because of Polly.
While aboard the ship Greyhound, Newton gained notoriety as being one of the most profane men the captain had ever met. In a culture where sailors habitually swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the worst words the captain had ever heard but creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery. In March 1748, while the Greyhound was in the North Atlantic, a violent storm came upon the ship that was so rough it swept overboard a crew member who was standing where Newton had been moments before. After hours of the crew emptying water from the ship and expecting to be capsized, Newton and another mate tied themselves to the ship's pump to keep from being washed overboard, working for several hours. After proposing the measure to the captain, Newton had turned and said, "If this will not do, then Lord have mercy upon us!" Newton rested briefly before returning to the deck to steer for the next eleven hours. During his time at the wheel, he pondered his divine challenge.
About two weeks later, the battered ship and starving crew landed in Lough Swilly, Ireland. For several weeks before the storm, Newton had been reading The Christian's Pattern, a summary of the 15th-century The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. The memory of his own "Lord have mercy upon us!" uttered during a moment of desperation in the storm did not leave him; he began to ask if he was worthy of God's mercy or in any way redeemable.
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both religious and secular purposes.
Newton wrote the words from personal experience; he grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they took as his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed into service with the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy. While this moment marked his spiritual conversion, he continued slave trading until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring altogether. Newton began studying Christian theology and later became an abolitionist.
Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became the curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. "Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may have been chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton's and Cowper's Olney Hymns but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States, "Amazing Grace" became a popular song used by Baptist and Methodist preachers as part of their evangelizing, especially in the American South, during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. It has been associated with more than 20 melodies. In 1835, American composer William Walker set it to the tune known as "New Britain" in a shape note format; this is the version most frequently sung today.
With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world. American historian Gilbert Chase writes that it is "without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns" and Jonathan Aitken, a Newton biographer, estimates that the song is performed about 10 million times annually.
It has had a particular influence in folk music and has become an emblematic black spiritual. Its universal message has been a significant factor in its crossover into secular music. "Amazing Grace" became newly popular during the 1960s revival of American folk music, and it has been recorded thousands of times during and since the 20th century.
When you pray with Me, bow your head and close your eyes, Lord, thank You for Your word, and thank You for revealing to us clearly just how serious the sins of deception and hypocrisy are. And Lord, Lord, you know us you know our issues. You know our insecurities. You know that many of us are scared to let somebody know we're not doing well, to confess where we've fallen or just willingly walked into sin and are now ensnared. Lord, help us not to be hypocrites.
Holy Spirit, I pray that you will shine a light right now on everyone who sincerely desires to follow you. And if there's any area of our lives where we're walking in hypocrisy, Lord, reveal it to us that we might repent, that we might confess it, that we might be healed of it, delivered from it, and set free from it to walk in truth after You, Jesus and Lord, we ask again, would you fill us with a healthy fear of you? Might we be wise in the truest sense of the word. Understanding just a little bit of who you are. How awesome and worthy and mighty you are.
And how incredible it is that we are a people in Your presence. In Your Midst. That we're able to sing about you and to you. To approach you as a father. Not because your glory has been diminished in any way by the work of Jesus on the cross.
But because You've robed us in the righteousness of Your Son. Jesus. That we might be in your presence. You've raised us up in Christ to be seated with him in heavenly places. You have not diminished. You are an awesome and Holy God. More than we could possibly understand this side of eternity. Amen
A church that fears the Lord is a wise church. And when we get to Acts Nine, we'll read this is the church throughout all of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened by living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It increased in numbers. That's the goal to live in the fear of the Lord and live encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, may the Lord grip us with a right and healthy fear of Him, that we might interact with Him as we should, that we might keep ourselves from sin and yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Having a right fear of the Lord, not taking him lightly. Were Ananias and Sapphirea believers? I think they were grammatically. Acts 4/32 includes them among the entire group of those who believed. Peter implies they had a relationship with the Holy Spirit and shouldn't have lied to him.
If they weren't believers, it wouldn't have served as a lesson to the church the way it did. Based on Scripture, God will sometimes end the life of a believer prematurely if their witness becomes too damaging to the church and the reputation of Jesus. We see that here with Ananias and Safari and we see Paul writing about it in One Corinthians 11 where he explains to the Corinthians that some of their brethren have died because they were treating communion with contempt by taking it in an unworthy manner.
Sometimes Jesus will look down on a believer who is giving the name of Jesus such a bad reputation and doing so much harm to the brethren. And Jesus will say, I'm doing you a solid and I'm just bringing you home right now. Bringing you home right now. He will do it. A study worth looking into is the parallels between Ananias and Sapphire here in Acts chapter five.
And the sin of Aiken in Joshua, chapter seven. In Joshua, God is in the process of building the nation of Israel, a people set apart for him in Acts, Jesus is in the process of building his church, a people set apart for him in Joshua, Aiken is part of Israel in Acts and in Israel and safari are part of the church. In Joshua, Aiken lied to the Lord and kept some gold and silver for himself in Acts. And the safari lied to the Lord and kept some of the money for themselves. In Joshua Amen is killed by Israel at God's command.
Safari is killed by God himself. I believe both Aiken Ananias and Safari were believers, but their sin was so serious and so damaging to the community of faith that God had to deal with it to send a message to everyone else about how serious it was and is to be part of the family of God. I also think that God intervened so dramatically during the decades of the early church because sickness and disease are much more dangerous early in life. They can alter the trajectory of a child's development significantly. And if deceit and hypocrisy had been allowed to fester in the church during the first few weeks of her life, the consequences would have been devastating for her spiritual health.
Some of us may be guilty of wanting to be perceived as more devout than we truly are. And some of us might say, well, that's not me. I'm not looking for any spiritual glory prestige or admiration. But there's a form of hypocrisy that isn't marked by deceitful claims or words. It's marked by silence.
And I think this form of hypocrisy is far more prevalent than the other. Sometimes we stay silent about a struggle we're having or a sin we're battling, or we simply share nothing with anyone about how we're really doing. We know full well that by doing so, by withholding that information, they will assume we're doing far better than we really are. It's easy to use our silence to present a version of ourselves to our brothers and sisters that is not remotely truthful. As I said, I think far more of us struggle with this form of hypocrisy than the other.
online today!bcjenny Blog Comments (4,317)
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
I am indeed being facetious because for most of us, most of the time, it takes a job loss, a broken relationship, an injury, or some other uncontrollable circumstance to get us to move from a place that's comfortable to a place where God is calling us that might not be quite as comfortable. When and if that happens in your life, trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. He is always working for your good. It may be less comfortable where he calls you, but it is better wherever he calls you.Trust the Lord. Verse five. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. This is not the Apostle Philip, who was one of the Twelve and would have stayed in Jerusalem. This Philip is one of the seven Hellenistic Jews, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, chosen to oversee the care of the widows.
In Acts chapter six, like Stephen, his faithfulness led the Lord to entrust him with an even wider ministry. And when we check in on this Philip much later in the Book of Acts, we find that at that time he's come to be known as Philip the Evangelist. Now, before we go on, we need to understand the significance of Samaria, of her people, and why it was such a shocking and amazing thing that the Gospel was being shared there. And so we need to understand a little bit of the history of Samaria. It's located about 40 miles, or 64 km north of Jerusalem.
In the Book of First Kings, we were just actually reading this recently in our home groups. We read that God judged Solomon for worshiping false gods. The judgment was that Solomon's son, Raya Bohem, who took the throne after him, was made by the Lord to listen to some bad advice which led the ten northern tribes of Israel to rebel against his leadership and split off from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who stayed in the south in Judea around Jerusalem. The result after the split was a southern kingdom around Jerusalem and then a northern kingdom of Israel that included Samaria. And further north in Israel, the city of Samaria would be built by King Amri to be the capital city of the Northern Kingdom.
After around 150 years of rebellion against God and worshiping pagan idols, the Lord sent judgment on the Northern kingdom in the form of the Assyrians, who conquered the city and brought an end to the Northern kingdom. Around 722 BC, the Assyrians had a devilishly brilliant policy that was designed to weaken the territories they conquered and reduce the likelihood of future rebellions. You see, what they would do is they would relocate most of the people from the territory they just conquered to other territories that belonged to the kingdom of the Assyrians. And then they would take some of the people from those other territories and import them to the territory they had just conquered. Mixing cultures and ethnicities together.
As a result, the cultural and ethnic identity of the territory they had just conquered would be completely eradicated within a couple of decades. And when there's no unique cultural and ethnic identity, the odds of an uprising are significantly decreased. And so in this area of Samaria, the resulting mix of Jews and Gentiles became the ethnic race known as the Samaritans. They were looked down on and despised by pureblooded Hebrew Jews as halfbreeds and dogs. The Jews would go out of their way to avoid Samaritans.
The spiritual results of this mix of cultures in Samaria are described this way in Scripture. It says they feared the Lord, but they also worshiped their own gods according to the practice of the nations from which they had been deported. So they had this group of people, and collectively, they kind of worshiped Yahweh and kind of worshiped other gods too. Not okay. In 538 BC.