Will You Tell the Story? (Philip in Samaria)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[PRAYER]
[READING - Acts 8:5]
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.
[CONTEXT] Samaria was the only major city founded by Israel, the Northern Kingdom of God’s people after they divided. Omri, the sixth king of Israel, bought the hill of Samaria for his royal residence. When Omri’s son, Ahab, became king, he built an ivory palace at Samaria and made it the center of Ba’al worship. Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, also had many prophets of YHWH killed in Samaria.
Because of those and other rebellions, YHWH sent Assyria to conquer Samaria, not just the city but the whole northern territory, in 721 B.C. Many of the inhabitants of Israel in the Northern Kingdom were carried off into exile, but some remained. When Assyria sent captives from other places to resettles in Samaria, some of them intermarried with the Israelites who left behind. Once again, this led to the widespread worship of false gods in Samaria.
The Southern Kingdom of Judah was carried off into exile by Babylon in 586 B.C., and by the time God’s people return to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and its temple, the animosity between Samaritans and Jews was so great that Ezra and Nehemiah refused to let them help with the rebuilding.
In the days of Jesus, the relationship between Samaritans and Jews was even more strained. Jews wouldn’t travel through Samaria, choosing instead to take the long way around in order to avoid it and those they considered unclean.
Jesus, however, took a different approach.
When James and John wanted to call down fire on Samaritans, Jesus rebuked them (Lk. 9:55-56).
Jesus healed a Samaritan leper who then fell on his face at Jesus feet giving thanks to Him (Lk. 17:15-16).
Jesus held up a Samaritan as the example of loving your neighbor as yourself in His famous Good Samaritan parable (Lk. 17:11-18).
The woman at the well in John 4 was a Samaritan, and defying all social custom, Jesus, a Jew, asked her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink of water. Then He introduced Himself to her as the Messiah, the Christ, the living water that she really needed to quench the thirst in her soul (Jn. 4:7).
Jesus preached to the Samaritans Himself (Jn. 4:7), and then said to His disciples in Acts 1:8…
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
It was the persecution that followed the martyrdom of Stephen that moved the church out of Jerusalem into wider Judea, but they told the story of Jesus as they went.
And now with the ministry of a man named Philip, we read that the story of Jesus was also told to the Samaritans.
[INTER] How would they respond? How will you respond to Jesus this morning?
[TS] Notice first that the Samaritans received the joy of Christ. Look at Acts 8:5-8…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
The Samaritans received the joy of Christ (Acts 8:5-8)
The Samaritans received the joy of Christ (Acts 8:5-8)
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. 6 The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. 7 For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 So there was much rejoicing in that city.
[EXP] Philip was one of the seven chosen to serve the neglected widows in Acts 6. We know that he wasn’t the Apostle Philip because when the persecution of the early church broke out, the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem, and this Philip went to Samaria.
Once there, he began proclaiming Christ to them.
{app} What did this proclamation entail? What should we proclaim when we tell the story of Jesus? Philip proclaimed (and we should proclaim) the person and work of Jesus Christ.
When we proclaim the person of Jesus, we are telling who He is as the Christ.
As the Christ or Messiah, Jesus is the anointed Son of God who was sent to save His people from the eternal consequences of their sins.
When we proclaim the work of Jesus, we are telling what Jesus Christ has done.
God decreed that the price for sin is death, but God graciously sent His Son Jesus as the Christ to pay our price in our place upon the cross.
Then, because Jesus paid the price for our sins in full and had no sins of His own, He rose from the dead as proof that all who trust in Him will stand before God saved by the righteousness of Jesus.
That’s what Philip proclaimed and that’s what we ought to proclaim as well because that’s the only good news—the only news worth proclaiming.
The crowds who heard Philip attended to what he said about Jesus, but they also saw the power of Jesus displayed in the miracles he performed.
Unclean spirits came out.
The paralyzed moved freely.
The lame were healed.
All of this in the name of Jesus, by the power of Jesus, “so there was much rejoicing in that city,” (Acts 8:8).
[APP] The Good News of God’s grace in Jesus Christ was for these Samaritans too! Though they were despised by some of the Jews, there were not despised by Jesus! Though they were unclean as all people are before holy God, they were made clean by the blood of Jesus! Though they were held captive by sin, they were delivered by Jesus! And there was much rejoicing!
J. A. Alexander wrote, “The joy here mentioned is to be restricted, neither to the natural enjoyment of recovered health, in one’s own person and in that of others, nor to the intellectual pleasure of acquiring knowledge and discovering truth, nor to the spiritual happiness arising from conversion and assurance of forgiveness, but must be understood as comprehending all these elements, and therefore justly called a great joy!”
There is great joy in Jesus Christ!
Are you longing for great joy this morning? Then you need to trust in Jesus Christ!
I can’t promise that He will heal you.
I can’t promise that He will make you rich.
But Scripture promises that He will give you great joy—great joy that only comes in knowing that your sins have been wiped away and that your place in Heaven in secure!
There in His presence you will certainly be permanently healed!
There in His presence you will certainly experience the full richness of Christ Jesus!
But you can begin to experience this great joy now as you turn from sin and trust in Jesus as the Christ, the anointed One who was sent to take away your sins.
If you’ve already trusted in Jesus, do you know that many are longing for that great joy that you have in Jesus?
Perhaps, Christian, you don’t feel like you have great joy in Jesus. Perhaps you’ve been so wrapped up in the world that you’ve forgotten that your home is in Heaven with Jesus. If so, I believe this word from Acts 8 has come to you this morning priming the pump of Christ-centered joy in your heart once again; I believe your spirit is shouting in agreement with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, “Yes! There it is! I had forgotten for a moment, but I remember now that my great joy is not here on earth! My great joy is in Jesus! My healing, my wealth, my salvation is in Jesus! And one day I will see Him just as He is! How could I have forgotten? Oh Lord, help me to never forget my great joy again!”
Do you know that others want that joy in Jesus that you have, Christian?
How will they hear about Him unless you tell them?
[TS] Philip proclaimed Christ, and the Samaritans responded with great joy, but then they received the Spirit of Christ.
Look at Acts 8:9-13.
The Samaritans received the Spirit of Christ (Acts 8:9-13, 14-17, 18-24)
The Samaritans received the Spirit of Christ (Acts 8:9-13, 14-17, 18-24)
9 Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; 10 and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” 11 And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. 12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. 13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.
[ILLUS] I was once at a Christian youth conference, and there was a brother in Christ who was entertaining the teenagers with misdirection, distraction, and sleight-of-hand. He made it clear that these were just tricks, but the people were enthralled nonetheless.
I watched as a crowd gathered around him. He held out a deck of cards, and told a guy to pick a card. The guy chose one, looked at it secretly, and then showed it as privately as possible to some others in the crowd. Then he slid the card facedown back into the deck so the illusionist couldn’t see.
The illusionist then took the deck, shuffled the cards, spread them out face-up, and then began to go into how this was a difficult trick that he hoped he could pull off. He told the folks in the crowd to gather in real close so they could see the cards, so they all bunched in.
Except for one guy.
I was standing about ten yards away, and I noticed that when everyone else gathered in real close, this one guy acted like he was too, but then he circled behind the crowd, knelt down and placed a card under the shoe of someone who was standing on their tiptoes to see.
“Is this your card?”
“No.”
“How about this one?”
“No.”
“This is really embarassing. How about this one?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t know. What about the one under his shoe?”
Suddenly the crowd was astonished, “You’re amazing! How did you do that?”
But, as this Christian brother made clear, it was just a trick.
[EXP] This Simon in Acts 8 was some sort of magician who fooled the Samaritans with simple tricks like that, or with some scientific process that the Samaritans were ignorant of, or maybe (and this is perhaps most likely) he did what he did by way of demonic power. In any event, he claimed to be someone great, the Great Power of God—a blasphemous name that declared Simon as the greatest expression of all God’s power.
Simon duped ordinary citizens and elite citizens just the same, but when the Samaritans believed the message of the Kingdom of God in the person and work of its King, Jesus Christ; and when many Samaritan men and women were baptized in the name of Jesus, Simon also believed and was baptized.
One translation say that after his baptism, Simon “stayed close to Philip constantly,” (Acts 8:13). One commentator notes that the verb behind “stayed close” refers to a strict allegiance and suggests an unusual attachment to Philip. No doubt, Simon was trying to learn all he could about this power greater than his own.
[APP] We will come back to Simon in a few verses, but for the moment just notice that Simon had been in Samaria proclaiming himself while Philip came to Samaria proclaiming Jesus.
Simon’s message was, “Follow me!” Philip’s message was, “Follow Christ!”
Simon’s message was, “I am the Great Power of God.” Philip’s message was, “Jesus is the anointed Son of God!”
Let there be no doubt, we must be like Philip, we must preach Jesus.
[TS] But do you think Simon’s belief was genuine? Was his baptism real? Did he really believe it in his heart or did he merely profess it with his mouth?
Let’s keep going.
14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
[EXP] This is another way we know that the Philip in Acts 8 wasn’t the Apostle Philip. If the Apostle Philip had been there, there would’ve been no need for other Apostles to come. But why did Peter and John need to come? Why didn’t the Samaritans not receive the Holy Spirit when they first believed on Jesus for salvation?
In the book of Acts we see four scenes like this one in Samaria.
The first scene is at Pentecost in Acts 2.
The Holy Spirit came and the Apostles preached the Gospel to Jewish people from all over the world in languages that were unknown to them.
This scene in Samaria is the second scene.
Here the Holy Spirit came on Samaritans (half-Jews and half-Gentiles) who believed in Jesus. The Apostles laid their hands on them and prayed for the, and the Spirit came in this obvious way as a verification that salvation had come to the Samaritans just as it had come to the Jews.
The third scene is among the Gentiles in Acts 10.
Peter preached in the house of a Gentile named, Cornelius, and the Spirit is poured out on the Gentiles who believe in Jesus as well. They too began to exalt God in languages they didn’t know just like at Pentecost.
The fourth scene is among the disciples of John the Baptist is in Acts 19.
Paul met 12 followers of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ, and when Paul told them about Christ Jesus, they believed and were baptized. Paul then laid his hands on them and they received the Spirit and preached the Gospel in human languages they did not know.
The text doesn’t say it, but I don’t doubt the Samaritans also proclaimed the grace of God in human languages unknown to them, but the point is that the Holy Spirit came on these different people groups after baptism to show that the Gospel message wasn’t just for Jews but also for Samaritans and also for Gentiles and also for all who will turn away from sin and believe on the Lamb who took away the sins of the world.
[APP] Some today teach that the sign of the Holy Spirit coming on you is speaking gibberish that no one can understand.
The careful reader of Scripture knows that isn’t true.
Some today teach that a so-called prophet or apostle must lay hands on you in order for you to receive the Spirit.
Again, the careful reader of Scripture knows that isn’t true.
Some today teach that you must believe on Jesus for salvation, follow Him in water-baptism, and then pursue the baptism of the Holy Spirit afterward.
That also isn’t true.
The Spirit came upon different people groups in Acts after their belief and baptism to show that they all of them belonged to Jesus just as the Jewish believers at Pentecost belonged to Jesus.
In other words, the coming of the Spirit like this in Acts was unique in history—it was to show that there are no second-class Christians.
Whether you are a Jew, a Samaritan, or a Gentile, if you turn from sin and trust in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away your sin, then you are saved and you have already received the Holy Spirit.
It’s only by the Spirit that we can genuinely say, “Jesus is Lord.”
[TS] But it’s obvious that something happened when the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit because Simon the Magician saw something and wanted to buy it.
Look at vv. 18-24...
Simon tries to buy the Spirit (Acts 8:18-24)
Simon tries to buy the Spirit (Acts 8:18-24)
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” 24 But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
[EXP] Earlier we noticed that the text said Simon believed and was baptized in the Name of Jesus, but because of the rebuke he received from Peter here, there are many who doubt that his belief was genuine. I read where one biblical scholar listed six reasons Simon’s belief wasn’t genuine, but there’s one reason that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his belief wasn’t genuine: Simon didn’t receive the Holy Spirit.
Philip preached Christ Jesus. The Samaritans believed and were baptized. Simon said that he believed and he also was baptized, but when Peter and John came and laid hands on those who believed, praying that they would receive the Spirit, they received the Spirit, but not Simon because Simon did not believe.
Because he only witnessed the physical signs of the outpouring of the Spirit rather than receiving the Spirit himself, he tried to buy the Spirit from Peter at which point he is rebuked by Peter.
Rather than repent and pray as Peter commands, Simon asks Peter to do it for him, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Simon knew that what Peter said was true: Simon had no part or portion in this matter, for his right was not right before God.
[ILLUS] One ancient writer in the church compared Simon to another well-known sorcerer, Apsethus from Libya.
Apsethus attempted to convince people he was divine by training a flock of parrots to repeat the phrase, “Apsethus is a god.”
He sent the birds out to spread his message, but some who heard the parrots retrained them to say, “Apsethus had tricked us, and he is not a god.”
Upon the new message being parroted, the Libyans, who had been duped by Apsethus, burned him.
The ancient writer in the church was likely telling his readers that Simon the Magician in Acts 8 likely faced a similar experience in eternity.
[APP] You can’t fake faith in Jesus forever. You can’t buy the Holy Spirit like a cheap trick. The Lord knows those who are His. They are sealed with His Holy Spirit. There is not fooling Him.
Simon may have fooled Philip.
Simon may have fooled Peter and John at first.
But Simon did not fool the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, if our belief in Jesus is not genuine, the Lord knows, and the forecast for our eternity is hot.
We may fool others, but we will not fool Him.
[TS] The Samaritans received the joy of Jesus. The Samaritans received the Spirit of Jesus.
And many other Samaritans did too, because we in v. 25…
25 So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
[EXP] All the way back to Jerusalem, Peter and John were telling the story of Jesus and more Samaritans were receiving the joy of Jesus, and more Samaritans were being filled with the Spirit of Jesus.
[APP] This what happens when we tell the story of Jesus.
Will we tell the story of Jesus as we go?
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]