The Gospel Advances

Introduction

In 1761 one of the greatest Christian missionaries was born. This individual had no interest in ministry or missionary work as a young man, but upon his conversion to Baptist teaching at the age of 23 he began to work as a part-time preacher. This man was busy - he preached, worked as a shoemaker, and even helped run a school. Further, he taught himself numerous languages in the little down time he had left. This man was William Carey - the first Baptist missionary. He once said this, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Carey had this deep desire to go and share the Gospel message to places that had not yet heard the name of Jesus Christ. To us, in 2021, we would say that this is a noble effort and we would likely support such a person who felt called to go overseas and proclaim the truth of the Gospel. In fact, we’ve had multiple missionary couples in recent years come and share with us what God is doing overseas in such conditions. How do you think the people in William Carey’s day responded to his idea of taking the Gospel overseas? One pastor said this to the young pastor, “When God chooses to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine.” To the older pastor’s defense, can God reveal Himself to someone without our help? Absolutely - He’s God! He can do anything He wishes. But the primary way He reveals Himself to others is through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by His servants.

In order for the Gospel to advance, people typically have to go. William Carey felt convicted that God’s plan for him as a 30 year old was to take the Gospel to India. If you’ve read anything about William Carey, you know that his obedience to God’s call was anything but easy. He lost friends in England who thought he was crazy for doing this. He would eventually lose his wife to poor health. He would lose children in India. He lost so many things along the way, but through his obedience to following God’s plan, the Gospel advanced. Through Carey’s efforts in translation work and making connections in the country, the New Testament was translated into 24 different languages during his ministry. He was able to start up a college in India that trained future teachers and preachers. Though this man had many difficulties, he had great resolve in God’s worldwide redemptive plan and his responsibility to take the Gospel wherever he went.

In the book of Acts, we see people with this same resolve. We see people who aren’t afraid of standing up for the truth of the Gospel, even though it might cost them. Last week we saw the first Christian martyr and we saw how the early church was beginning to be persecuted. We read about how Saul was ravaging the early church and how the Christians were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. On the surface this looks bad. Some of you have lived in your current home your entire life or at least for decades and decades. How would you feel if you had to get up and move to a completely new area simply because of your faith in Jesus? That probably wouldn’t feel the best - you’d likely be a little upset! Yet, in Acts we are reminded that God, in His providence, uses this persecution to expand His kingdom. Today we will see that the Gospel advances outside of Jerusalem to Samaria through Phillip. Even though the persecution wasn’t fun and even though it provided a significant inconvenience to the Church, Jesus was at work. Whenever you or I experience difficult moments, we must remember that our Savior is still at work and that we are not first and foremost citizens of this world - we are citizens of heaven. We are members of His eternal kingdom and our priorities should be set as such.

Acts 8:4–13 CSB

4 So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6 The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, as they listened and saw the signs he was performing. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. 9 A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and amazed the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God.” 11 They were attentive to him because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time. 12 But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13 Even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.

Persecution Leads to Production (4-8)

In our world, whenever someone does something bad or wrong they typically receive a punishment of some sort. This punishment is supposed to help reinforce what they did was wrong and help them in the future to not make the same mistake. Punishments come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Whenever a student disobeys their teacher, they are punished by being moved to a different seat in the classroom. Perhaps there are several students who cause trouble for a teacher and the teacher moves them to different corners of the room. The teacher does this in order to hopefully cut down on distractions and wasted time dealing with these students that were previously grouped together. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. There are other times where people disobey a leader or a boss and they are punished by being fired from said company or organization. The leader does this because they don’t want people to disobey them. The thought is that if you can eliminate people who disobey, your company will be better off because everyone left will fall in line. Whenever you have 10 of something, whether it be 10 cookies or 10 sandwiches, and you begin to take one away after another after another, your total of cookies or sandwiches will get smaller until you don’t have any left. This is just simple logic to us. If you have a certain number of something and you begin to take some away, the overall number gets smaller… This is the logic deployed by the powers that be here in the book of Acts! They have dealt with these Christians who have been steadily growing in Jerusalem throughout these first 7 chapters. They started with 120 in Acts 1:15, and then they grew by 3 thousand in Acts 2:41, and then they grew by several more thousand in Acts 5:14, and they grew by several more thousand in Acts 6:7. It is estimated that at this point in Acts there were perhaps 20,000 Christians in Jerusalem!

If you are a Jewish or Roman leader who isn’t a fan of these Christians, and you know that there are about 20,000 of them, what would you do to eliminate them? You’d probably start to persecute those 20,000 Christians. You’d make them stand out. You’d imprison them. You’d beat them up. You’d possibly kill them. Why would you do this? Because the more that you eliminate, the fewer that there will be to mess with. This just makes sense from a human, logical standpoint… Yet, we read last week in Acts 8:1 that the Christians were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. They fled from Jerusalem and went to surrounding places to keep on preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. They were persecuted, imprisoned, and even killed, yet the number of Christians doesn’t decrease… It increases! How can we explain this? How does persecution lead to more Christians? Because Jesus promised to build His church. Whenever we seek to follow His plan and whenever we make discipleship and evangelism the most important things, we will naturally see people being added to the family of God. We have to remember that it’s not so much about us or the number of Christians that exist, it’s about Who we belong to and what He has promised to do. It’s His work!

In our text we read as these Christians go, they proclaim the Word to others. Isn’t that what we’re called to do as followers of Christ in the Great Commission?

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The Great Commission tells us that we are supposed to tell others wherever we are - “as we go” make disciples of all nations. Some people take this to be a command just for the elite or the “super Christians” out there but not for the average Christian. During my junior high years, I had the opportunity to go on several mission trips for 5-8th graders to Texas, Oklahoma, and even SW Missouri. During these trips, I witnessed kids take the Great Commission more seriously than I had seen some adults take it! Church, the Great Commission is for all of us. In fact, in the Great Commission there are a lot of verbs but there is only 1 imperative command and that command is to “make disciples.” This is what it’s all about - this is our command. Not to make converts. Not to just go. Not to just show up and attend and check something off of our “to-do” list. But to go and make disciples of all nations. This is how the Church grows even in the midst of persecution!

How are you doing at sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others? It’s one thing to proclaim the Gospel whenever it’s convenient… But how about when it could possibly get us in trouble? Are we willing to step up to the plate and fulfill our calling then? I pray our answer would be like that of Stephen and Phillip. I pray that our response would be like that of Polycarp, the pupil of John, who when faced with martyrdom said this, “86 years have I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

The Gospel changes lives. It’s been doing so for 2000 years and it will continue to do so until Christ comes again! We see in Acts 8 that Phillip goes to Samaria and proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ to them and something interesting happens: The Samaritan crowd actually pays attention. The Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along - we know this from John 4 as Jesus breaks so many cultural laws and rules whenever he goes and meets with the Samaritan woman at the well. What does Jesus do? He talks with her. Simply associating and talking with a Samaritan male would be seen as beneath a Jew. Why is this the case? Because they aren’t Jews, but they also aren’t gentiles. This requires us to know our Old Testament history.

After King Solomon, what happened to the once united kingdom of Israel? It split into 2 halves: Israel to the North and Judah to the South. How many tribes were in Israel? 10. Which tribes were in Judah? 2 - Judah and Benjamin. In 722 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib captured Israel and these tribes intermarried with the Assyrians. Therefore, the true ethnic Jews looked at them as half breeds. The Samaritans have their own temple, they have their own form of the Scriptures, they still consider themselves to be followers of the one true God. These people were looking for their own messiah. What will Phillip share with them? The true Messiah has come and He hasn’t just come to save the Jews, He has come to save you and all who will believe in Him! This is a worldwide message of good news!

Phillip, like Jesus in John 4, had to explain to the Samaritans the truth of the matter. Like the Jews, the Samaritans thought they knew what to look for. They wanted someone who would rectify the wrongs done to their people and restore true worship to the region. Phillip will explain to them that Jesus restores them to their holy God. How will Phillip do this? Through the power of the Holy Spirit.

How are you and I able to minister to people in need and help them see the truth of Jesus Christ? Is there anything you or I can do to make someone lost become found? We can pray really hard and try really hard and say all the right words, but at the end of the day, if the Holy Spirit isn’t in it our work won’t get the job done. We require the help of the Holy Spirit - and in our text we see the Holy Spirit work through Phillip and heal these people in miraculous ways just as the Spirit had worked through the apostles in Jerusalem.

We see signs, unclean spirits being released, lame people healed, paralyzed people be able to walk, and possibly other healings that aren’t recorded here. We see that the people have great joy in this time.

Let’s think together for a moment, though. If you are sick, and you pray to be healed and God answers your prayer, there’s a temptation to place our faith in God’s work rather than in God Himself. Whenever we trust in God because we believe that He will always heal or make our lives easier, it’s not really God that we’re trusting in, it’s His power. Now, we do trust in God’s power, but ultimately we trust in His plan and character above all else! Some people follow God because of what He gives them… But whenever persecution comes, what happens to these people? They split. We read about this last week in our Sunday school lesson from 1 John 2 as John shares this

1 John 2:19 CSB

19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

Why do some turn their back after they’ve seen the power of God? Because they’re in it for selfish reasons - as we’ll see next week. Faithful Christians aren’t followers of Christ solely for His power - they’re followers because they have faith in His goodness and godliness and His promise to save them.

Faithful Christians will always produce disciples. In times of persecution and in times of harvest - they will continue to share the good news and take the time to make disciples like Jesus commands. Are you making disciples today? In your homes, are you playing the role of a Suzanna Wesley and training up your kids to trust in the Lord with all their heart and to know Him intimately like Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs us to do? Are you going the extra mile with your coworkers or with a friend you have to share with them the importance of living for Jesus, not just attending church on Sunday or Wednesday? Whenever we are sold out for Jesus, we will produce disciples. We breathe in His grace, we breathe out His praise. We must make disciples.

The Gospel Changes Guilty People (9-13)

One of the temptations that many people face in their lives is to be authentic. As Christians we face this temptation regularly and there is a temptation for non-Christians to face this temptation as well. One of the main things that the younger generation longs for nowadays is authenticity. They can smell whenever someone is a fake and they hate it. To an extent, no one likes a fake. We don’t like someone playing a part and not being themselves in order to fool us. In our text, we see someone named Simon who was extremely well known among the Samaritan people. It appears in our text as though this manis a genuine follower of Christ after Phillip’s proclamation, but instead he is simply in it for the power.

This Simon fellow is known as either Simon the Sorcerer or Simon Magus and he is a leading heretic for the early church. He leads people astray! We’ve been talking about in our Sunday school material about 1 John and how the early church battled heretics who believed and preached something called gnosticism. What is gnosticism? The idea that there was secret knowledge waiting to be discovered and only some people could find it. They believed that the flesh was evil and the spirit was good. Jesus, therefore, really wasn’t a human like you and I, because matter is bad, He just appeared to be human… He was like a phantom. Who came up with Gnosticism? Church tradition tells us that it was this man… Simon Magus. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both share that this man corrupted the church by sharing these false beliefs and, further, was worshiped as a god. In our text we see that this man had a great following before Phillip and was called, “The Great Power of God.” He amazed people - and now he saw this man named Phillip doing things that he could not do and could not explain. He saw Phillip healing people who were lame, he saw him cleansing people possessed with demonic spirits, this man was obsessed with power and he wanted what Phillip had.

People start getting baptized and what does Simon do? We read that he believes and is baptized and follows Phillip. From the outside looking in, if Luke stopped here, we’d assume that this Simon man was born again and a new creation as 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

We know that this is the power of the Gospel that Phillip is proclaiming. Sure, the name of Jesus can heal and cleanse, but ultimately the name of Jesus saves sinners! Simon, and others in our world, can be so tempted to follow Jesus for the healing and the power that they miss the main point of following Jesus: the saving!

Here are 2 truths we know:

The blood of Jesus Christ can change anyone, anywhere, at anytime. There is no sin too great that Jesus can’t heal. There is no one too lost for the Gospel.

Think of some of the people Jesus ministered to in His earthly ministry. Lepers, tax collectors, legalists, hypocrites, adulterers, and others that society deemed unworthy of love and acceptance. What do we see happen to these people? We see Jesus Christ change their lives! We see this with the example of Saul later in the book of Acts - Saul persecutes the church and imprisons Christians left and right. Yet, on the road to Damascus in in subsequent time, Jesus Christ changes Saul’s heart and entire outlook on life. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, there is no sin too great for the cross of Jesus Christ. We must repent of our sins and turn to Christ and place our faith in Him as we live as a new creation. There is time to repent today - if you have not done so, know that only He can give you true, lasting peace.

There are some who go through the motions who aren’t a legitimate follower. They say the right words, they might’ve even been baptized, but they aren’t born again.

(goes with 1 truth) We see Jesus Christ change their lives!

The sad second truth is that there are people who profess Christ - they have all the stats memorized, they have the checklist with all of the “right” stuff on it, they might’ve even been baptized and gone on mission trips, but they aren’t born again and their lives haven’t been changed by Jesus. Information doesn’t save. The right last name is meaningless to Jesus. Good works don’t “work” either. We must be born again! How can we say this? For 1) Scripture, for 2) We see it in our text with Simon Magus - specifically, we’ll see it next week and we’ll spend much more time on this specific subject and its prevalence in our world today.

What must we ask ourselves in response to the Gospel message? Simple: How has the Gospel changed my life? We read in Scripture that we at one point were walking in darkness as children under wrath, but for those in Christ, we’re no longer under condemnation or walking in darkness - we’re children of the light! We know that Jesus opens eyes that have been blinded by the evil one

2 Corinthians 4:4 CSB

4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

If your eyes have been opened today, if you are serving Christ with gladness, if you are living as a new creation, if you’ve been changed - rejoice because of Christ’s work and walk in His light today!

Conclusion

Phillip leaves Jerusalem because of the persecution brought on by Saul and other Jewish leaders. Yet, he doesn’t leave with a frown on his face or a discouraged spirit, he leaves knowing that God is still on His throne and that Christ has called him to be His witness wherever he goes. Wherever you go, you are called to proclaim the Gospel!

We are living in a day and age where it’s easy to simply assume that everyone has heard the truth about Jesus Christ because of technology and the internet and the news. If you know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to find this information out - however, if you’re not exactly sure, there’s so much information out there and there are so many things vying for our attention that many people go their entire lives without hearing what Jesus Christ has done for sinners on the cross.

Whenever we think of places and people that haven’t heard of the Gospel, we often think of people overseas or in the Middle East. Did you know that there are people in Southwest Missouri that have never heard the name of Jesus? Did you know that you likely have family members who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Maybe they’ve come to church and maybe they’ve even been baptized, but have they been born again? Are they a new creation? Do they have faith in Jesus Christ or do they just know the stats of Jesus Christ? Are they just interested in church and Jesus because of His power or for monetary gain like Simon Magus?

Friends, Jesus changes lives and He commands us to go and proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth. This starts with our household and community - it starts in our Jerusalem. But it can’t stop there! Giving to missions is a great thing to do, but if that’s all we do and if we don’t verbally and externally share with those around us, we’re failing to advance the Gospel in the manner we should. As we proclaim the truth, we will be opposed and persecuted… Rather than that discouraging us, let that motivate us as we realize that persecution leads to the production of more disciples. Let’s be encouraged to declare to a lost and confused world that there is hope and purpose found exclusively in Christ.

Let’s do our part in advancing the truth of the Gospel.