God Proclaims the Gospel Through Everyday Believers

Introduction

Welcome

Good Morning CrossPointe

Thank you for worshipping together as a church family family this morning

My name is Steve McKenzie and I serve as the Lead Pastor

OPEN BIBLE

Pray

Hook

Question:

Do you ever feel insignificant or not official enough to share your faith with others - I’ll just invite my friend to church...

Sometimes people say their testimony isn’t dramatic enough - who am I? People won’t listen to me

Others may be saying - wow, how is this guy the pastor - I could do a much better job.

Answer:

Here’s what we are going to see in today’s passage - God proclaims the Gospel through everyday believers

Not just the preachers

Not just the professional Christians (as if that were such a thing anyway)

God delights to use the everyday Christian in the everyday parts of life to proclaim his good news.

Intro Passage

Read

Purpose

[] The Central Theme

Wait in Jerusalem where you “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Persecution is escalating

[] Warning to stop preaching in the name of Jesus

[] Flogged and beaten in command to stop preaching in the name of Jesus

[] Stephen is killed for preaching in the name of Jesus

Trhough this tragedy - The good news about Jesus begins to spread outside of Jersualem.

[] “On that day a great persecution arose against the church. People began fleeing

Saul - was dragging Christians out of their homes like you drag fish out of the water with a net

Men and women were sent to prison because they followed Jesus

Through this tragedy - The good news about Jesus begins to spread outside of Jersualem.

The Supernatural Response: Joy (8:8)

[] There was MUCH JOY in that city.

As the gospel spread - new cities were filled with joy is response to the good news being preached.

Hardship, fear - fleeing for your safety, tragedy - moved people

God had a purpose in moving them

Ultimately, these challenges were used to fulfill the purposes of God.

Application - What brought you to Central Florida?

As I’ve talked with people I’ve found some who love it here - the sun, the warmth, the culture

Based on a Forbes Article published in February 2018 - Orlando is the 4th fastest growing city in America

Others are here reluctantly need, out of necessity - jobs, family needs

Home feels like it’s someplace else, you live here but it isn’t home

Others - this is home, this is your neighborhood, near the streets where you grew up.

For both - I want you to walk away from our time in today’s passage with renewed vision for why God has you here in this city at this time. It’s not an accident, it’s not a mistake. God has a purpose and a plan. This is your invitation.

Big Idea: God alone is great and he desires to proclaim his good news through everyday christians.

God’s People Kept Moving & Speaking

(8.4) The Everyday Christian scattered and continued preaching

The Apostles didn’t scatter at this point, they remain in Jerusalem

God used the persecution to lead / push the believers toward obedience

“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 ends of the earth.”

Verses 5-8 in marks the movement of the gospel

Mission went wherever the people went

The people scattered to Samaria - naturally, the gospel went to Samaria

When I stand up here and talk about the gospel. Jesus being God, dying on the cross, and rising three days later. When I call people to repent, turn from your sin and look to Jesus Jesus for your hope and salvation - nobody is surprised. Nobody is like, “wow, the pastor talked about Jesus today at church.”

But when you go to work or you are with your friends and you tell people your story - who you were before trusting in Jesus - and who you are now because of Jesus - this causes people to sit up and take notice. You have a voice and you have something to share.

God uses the everyday Christian to fulfill his mission

We do have a mission - “Go and make disciples...”

We are called to go, to keep moving and keep sharing...

Someone once said that Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly.”

The Scripture compares Christians to sheep. While I lived in Israel, someone who understood shepherding in the area said, “the shepherd has to keep the sheep moving in new areas because if the sheep stay too long in one area together they start biting one another.”

God’s people kept moving and kept speaking of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus

God Provided People to Hear

[8:6] “And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip...”

God provided people to hear Philip’s testimony

Oo we believe this?

God says to the Apostle Paul, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

Paul ended up staying for 18 months even though he was frustrated

Do we really believe that God is drawing people to himself as it says in ?

As you drive through your neighborhood on your way home today?

As you walk through the office on Monday morning?

As you stand in line with people at the grocery store?

Do you believe that God is actively working, drawing people to himself?

Our voices as not spoken into a silent void

God uses our voices to compliment the work he is already doing to lives of the people around you.

If you truly believed this - how would this change you willingness and excitement to share with others?

How the church is growing globally? Encouragement (https://liveasfreepeople.com/2018/10/16/christianity-is-fastest-growing-religion-in-world/)

North America and Europe are not the global central hub (majority) for Christianity but Christianity is still growing according to a recent study by Harvard University.

The Global South is fastest growing

Africa

God Gave Signs

9 million Christians in 1900

541 million today

51% in recent years - an average of 33,000

Nepal - the world’s only Hindu kingdom

In 1959 there was one church with 29 members

Today there are more than 500,000 Christians

On October 27, 2017 the president criminalized Christian Conversion and Evangelism

Mongolia

1989 had only 4 known Christians

Today, over 20,000 Christians

China

1.2 million Christians in 1949

Today, move than 100 million

North Korea

In my research I found that today in the , International Day of Prayer, and Open Doors is inviting people to pray for the underground Church in North Korea.

Estimated 300,000 Christians in North Korea

50,000 are in Labor Camps

Hea Woo watched her daughter die of starvation, her husband was killed for following Jesus. She herself was tortured in one of the notorious prison camps.

God is Great, Not Us

It’s not about us or our greatness. Read []

Greatness Deceived

Simon said that he himself was somebody great

They all paid attention and said that he was Great

Greatness Displayed

Philip preached and people believed and were baptized

Simon was fixated on the miracles, the supernatural. He is isolated here from the crowds concerning his fixation on the miracles being performed.

As we’ll see in a moment, Simon with be infatuated with power and seek to actually try and buy it from the Apostles.

Where do our lives point?

Pastor and author John Piper gives a word picture of an adult pointing toward a bird so the child can see it. The child doesn’t see the bird and only sees the hands and begins mimicking the adult.

The object - the bird - is of greatest importance.

We often make way too much about the hand

Pride of Arrogance

Wear this beautifully bedazzled glove. Pastors need a platform. churches needs to become attractional.

Pride of Self-Deprecation

Look at my gnarly hand, nobody could see where I’m pointing

Do you see the warts, calloused fingers.

Motivation & Fear

It is hard to know if Simon was a true follower of Jesus or not. I’ve read scholars make arguments on both sides and maybe that’s the point.

Sometimes people say the right and may even be baptized but that are like the child mimicking the adult without ever seeing the bird for themselves

Sometimes though - people have trusted in Jesus and they mess up and God lovingly leads us toward repentance.

Questions:

Why did the Holy Spirit not immediately fill those who believed in Samaria?

Why did the Apostles need to come and lay hands on the believers to receive the Holy Spirit?

Should we expect this today? Is there a second filling of the Holy Spirit that comes after salvation?

Do Christians lack a spiritual power in the Christian life without a second or different kind of filling of the Holy Spirit?

Samaritans

Samaritans are technically “half” Jewish but were not seen as Jews at all. In fact, the were regarded as a lower status than Gentiles, people who were non-Jewish fully. The Jews of the day felt as though Samaritans did not have any part of God’s promises for the Jews.

They were racial half-breeds. When 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel was carried away into captivity, the King of Assyria sent foreigners to live in Israel in and around Samaria. The Israelites living in the land intermarried and began worshipping the idols of these foreign nations.

When Nehemiah began rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the Samartitans vigorously tried to stop them []

The Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizm and insisted this was the right place of worship.

The Issue Now in Acts 8:

What happens now that Samaritans have trusted in Jesus and have been baptized.

Should they start their own church? Are they part of the same church that was birthed in Jerusalem or is this something different?

What exactly is God doing in drawing other ethnicities to himself?

This may not seem like an immediate issue but it most definitiely was and is an issue.

Delay

It appears that God delays giving the Holy Spirit until the apostles arrive, in order to underscore the connection between the Jerusalem church and the Samaritans.

This was not normal, nor is it expressed in other passages.

This delay and apostolic blessing proved that the Samaritans were full brothers and sisters in Christ and part of one unified church.

As the Gospel continued to be declared in these expanding circles (from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth), the Holy Spirit provided signs showing that this was God at work.

at pentecost the people began to speak in other languages and the Spirit gave them ability

here they received the HS after the apostles laid hands on them

The HS fell on the Gentiles and the Jews were amazed

the HS came on gentiles and they began speaking in tongues, proving they had received the same HS

Apostles & Laying on of Hands

It wasn’t and isn’t normal that the Apostles had to lay hands on people for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

This was unique in this situation to show that different ethnicities and backgrounds receive the same Holy Spirit and are part of the same, extended church family.

This is meant to undermine and eliminate ethnic prejudice and pride.

Differences

A classic two-stage pentecostal teaching says:

The first experience is the incoming of the Holy Spirit - through Jesus - giving us eternal life at the moment of salvation

The second experience is receiving the Holy Spirit - allowing the holy Spirit bring spiritual refreshing and renewing power.

Normative Experience Today

[] “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism...”

[Acts2:38] Peter preached, “repent and believe and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

[] “He who establishes you in Christ… who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.”

[] Simon Tries to Buy the Power of God

In the book titled, Forgotten God, author Francis Chan says, “I spent years asking God to be part of whatever I was doing. When I read the book of Acts, I see people privileged to play a part in what God was doing.”

Conclusion

Right heart before God (Becoming)

Have you personally be transformed by the good news news of Jesus or are you just mimicking what you see others saying and doing?

Pray for the Persecuted Church (Intercede for the Joy of Others)

Share with one person (Testimony)

3 Verses in this Story that require our attention [] DETOUR

3 Verses in this Story that require our attention [] DETOUR

Questions:

Why did the Holy Spirit not immediately fill those who believed in Samaria?

Why did the Apostles need to come and lay hands on the believers to receive the Holy Spirit?

Should we expect this today? Is there a second filling of the Holy Spirit that comes after salvation?

Do Christians lack a spiritual power in the Christian life without a second or different kind of filling of the Holy Spirit?

Samaritans

Samaritans are technically “half” Jewish but were not seen as Jews at all. In fact, the were regarded as a lower status than Gentiles, people who were non-Jewish fully. The Jews of the day felt as though Samaritans did not have any part of God’s promises for the Jews.

They were racial half-breeds. When 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel was carried away into captivity, the King of Assyria sent foreigners to live in Israel in and around Samaria. The Israelites living in the land intermarried and began worshipping the idols of these foreign nations.

When Nehemiah began rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the Samartitans vigorously tried to stop them []

The Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizm and insisted this was the right place of worship.

The Issue Now in :

What happens now that Samaritans have trusted in Jesus and have been baptized.

Should they start their own church? Are they part of the same church that was birthed in Jerusalem or is this something different?

What exactly is God doing in drawing other ethnicities to himself?

This may not seem like an immediate issue but it most definitiely was and is an issue.

Delay

It appears that God delays giving the Holy Spirit until the apostles arrive, in order to underscore the connection between the Jerusalem church and the Samaritans.

This was not normal, nor is it expressed in other passages.

This delay and apostolic blessing proved that the Samaritans were full brothers and sisters in Christ and part of one unified church.

As the Gospel continued to be declared in these expanding circles (from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth), the Holy Spirit provided signs showing that this was God at work.

at pentecost the people began to speak in other languages and the Spirit gave them ability

here they received the HS after the apostles laid hands on them

The HS fell on the Gentiles and the Jews were amazed

the HS came on gentiles and they began speaking in tongues, proving they had received the same HS

Apostles & Laying on of Hands

It wasn’t and isn’t normal that the Apostles had to lay hands on people for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

This was unique in this situation to show that different ethnicities and backgrounds receive the same Holy Spirit and are part of the same, extended church family.

This is meant to undermine and eliminate ethnic prejudice and pride.

Normative Experience Today

[] “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism...”

[Acts2:38] Peter preached, “repent and believe and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

[] “He who establishes you in Christ… who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.”

[] Simon Tries to Buy the Power of God