My Guy Harry Potter Over Here

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Pentecost

The Gospel advances through Jerusalem.

Signs and powers

The church forms

Persecution begins

Stephen is killed

Saul is into it

The Gospel advances to Samaria

read 4-13

This persecution starts and it seems like a terrible thing, and it most definitely is in one way, but it also isn’t because it’s all part of God’s plan that Jesus explained back in Acts 1:8!

Do y’all remember Pokemon Go? I thought that game was over, but I saw some people playing it recently. What’s the mission of Pokemon? Gotta catch ‘em all right? But what if you have to go somewhere you don’t want to go? You still gotta catch ‘em all! Even if you have to go… you don’t want to go, but you do want to catch ‘em all! That’s your mission and the trip is an opportunity.

That’s how the early church is treating this scattering from Jerusalem. They had to tell ‘em all… about Jesus!

This situation that is bad, but God has a plan for it, it’s part of his plan. It reminds me of Joseph…

So as they are scattered, they are sharing the Gospel. They aren’t pastors, they’re just “ordinary” Christians who understood the mission Jesus gave his church and know that it’s a mission they carry to every place and every situation.

We have the same mission! Jesus hasn’t come back yet, so we still have to be telling people about Jesus! God has brought us in on it, given us a role in his plan!

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

We have to tell! If you are a Christian, do you feel this?

Some will believe, and we see a couple things.

When people believe

read 14-17

We see a couple things happening here in Samaria with these new believers. These are not all the things that do or should happen when a person becomes a Christian, just two of them.

Before getting into it, I know you aren’t all members here or even at Baptist churches, so I may teach something different than what you have been taught and believe and I want to say a few things about that if you have a different doctrine on these things:

I think our understanding is right and yours is wrong.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re a Christian.

I still love you in Jesus!

Baptism

Follows a profession of faith in Jesus

By submersion

On our cruise last week we had all these incredible desserts at dinner every night, and we could get as many of them as we wanted! And Dawson just got chocolate chip cookies and milk every night. With a glass of milk. And he’d take his cookies and dunk them in his milk. Not just a little piece of the cookie, but he’d break it in half and dunk the whole half under the milk, so far that his fingers would go into the milk too. It bothered me on multiple levels.

But what he was doing with his cookies, completely submerging them in milk, that is the action that is described by the word in scripture that we translate as baptize. In the Greek, that word means to submerge.

Not necessary for salvation, but commanded after salvation

Matthew 28:19 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

If you are a Christian, you have placed your faith in Jesus to save you, you have been commanded by Jesus to be baptized. If you need to do that or have questions about that, please come talk to me!

The Holy Spirit

What’s happening in the beginning of the book of Acts is a little funny, a little different that what the norm is…

We receive the Spirit when we put our faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 1:13 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

These things are not essential for salvation, but they are important! And again I am happy to talk with y’all about any of them! They affect all who hear the Gospel and believe, but not all who hear the Gospel truly believe.

Not everyone who hears believes

verses 18-25

Some people respond to the Gospel in a way that seems to be them putting their faith and love in Jesus, but they actually believe that Jesus is just a means to an end, a way for them to get something else they want.

How do we know if someone has truly put their faith in Jesus? We can’t know their hearts, but here’s what Jesus said...

Matthew 24:13 ESV

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Do you see Jesus this way? A way to get something you want?

When people do not believe, we keep the invitation open. If you haven’t believed, the invitation is open!