Religion always leaves you empty.
It might be beautiful, it might have ornate practices and traditions and songs that make you feel good, but at the heart religion doesn't satisfy anybody. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Pastor Skip shares a message showing you the difference between religion and the Gospel. Now here's an opportunity for you to learn more about the martyrs of the Christian faith who came before you. We are witnessing an escalation in Christian persecution like we have rarely seen since the first century. Many people don't realize that today thousands of Christians are dying cruel deaths throughout much of the world. The New Book of Christian Martyrs commemorates these modern day heroes, highlighting key martyrs of past centuries and featuring stories of contemporary martyrs around the world. This compendium of heroes from the first century to the 21st century, from Europe to Africa and from Asia to the Americas is sure to inspire you to courageously stand up for your Christian faith just as they've done for countless Christians around the globe. The New Book of Christian Martyrs comes as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to keep messages like this one today on the air for you and others, equipping you to know God's Word and follow His will with courage and conviction. So request your copy when you give today.
Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Ready to get started? Great! Let's turn to Acts 8 as Skip begins. Verse 12, But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed.
Before you get your hopes up, go, oh, awesome! Because that's what we do. When we hear somebody famous, some rock star, some actor who just drops God in a sentence, we go, oh, he's saved. Even if they say they believe in God. So it says he believed, but watch. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and the signs which were done. Now we're going to be questioning his salvation by the end of this chapter because of the things that the apostles will say to him. But he's amazed, seeing the miracles and the signs but he's amazed, seeing the miracles and the signs that were done.
I'll just put it out there. I think it was a fake conversion. I think he's losing business. He's losing adherence. His church isn't growing. His group is dwindling.
People aren't looking to him anymore. They're looking to Philip with this new message of the gospel. So he comes along and he looks and he's amazed also at the miracles, genuine miracles, not sorcery, genuine healing miracles.
He's getting a little jealous because his business has been dropping off. The basis of Simon Magus' faith seems to be not in the God who does miracles but in the miracles of God. It's the miracles.
It's the signs. It's not God. This is not different from Acts chapter 2 where it says when Jesus goes to Jerusalem, Acts chapter 2, the end of the chapter, and many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did but Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men. And he had no need that anyone testify of man for he knew what was in man. He could tell true faith from shallow faith.
I think Simon Magus has this shallow faith. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. We covered some of this in our little prequel to the book of Acts, our three part series on the Holy Spirit. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
So it's time for follow up. The crusade has been very effective. A lot of people have come to make decisions to follow Christ but you know a deacon did this so let's send out the big guns, the apostolic big guns of Peter and John to kind of validate this, give it the sanctions.
So give it the sanctions. So they left Jerusalem, they go up to check it out. And when they come to Samaria, these two apostles start praying for them in favor of them that they might be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now here's why I'm smiling because you know this, you're just not remembering it right now but there's a little background you need to know about especially with these guys.
So let me read it to you. This is out of the Gospel of Luke. It came to pass when the time had come for him, Jesus, to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face and they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him.
But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. Remember the animosity that's been going on. And when the disciples, James and John, so John was there, same John who's with Peter in Acts, saw this they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Just as Elijah did. So they've gone, they've gone nuclear.
They're ready to push the red button. He turned and said, rebuked them and said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. And so they went to another village.
Isn't that amazing? The apostles who were praying fire come down from heaven are now praying that they would be filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit. They once wanted them scorched. Now they want them saved.
Very different and humorous because at one time they thought, I think it'd be good just to wipe them off the face of the earth. Don't you, Jesus? Isn't that in your heart of love to do? Oh, no? Okay. We'll just go on then, I guess.
So I wanted to bring that to your attention because here's the deal. Aren't you glad for second chances? You blew it the first time you come back the second time and say, oh, thank you, Lord. I'm glad you didn't honor my prayer when I said, kill them all.
I love it. Second chances. So they prayed and they, verse 17, received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered the money, saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, now listen to Peter here.
I think this sort of gives us our verdict. Your money perish with you. I'll tell you in a moment how strong that actually is. Because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Then Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken of may come upon me.
Again, it's all about the consequences and the power, not about the change heart. Now what we just read is where the idea of a word comes from. There is a word in our language called simony. And simony, you could look it up in your dictionary, please don't do that right now on your little phone. But simony is a word that means to buy or to get to obtain an ecclesiastical office by paying money.
To get some church position, you know, I want to get ordained, I want to pay money so that I can become an officer in the church. That phenomenon known as simony comes from Simon Magus of Sumeria saying, hey, I got some money here, I want to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, simony became a problem in church history. If you know your church history, you know that sometimes the office of Pope was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Sometimes there was not one pope, but there were three popes duking it out, fighting for the church, fighting for power.
And the guy who won had the biggest pot of money. So simony has marked the history of some portions of the church. In fact, Benedict IX, who was a scoundrel, pope, a very profligate individual, sold his position as pope to another guy, Benedict VI. It was John, somebody else, but he took the name Benedict VI, and so he took the money, the guy, and just retired with the money. It was just all done.
It was simony. So notice what Peter says. Peter said to him, your money perish with you. Now, one of the translations of the Bible called the J.B. Phillips translation, it's a very colorful language, it's a very modern language, translates this verse, I'm quoting now the verse so don't get mad at me, don't get mad at me, to hell with you and your money. What Phillips is trying to do is show the strength of the original language in English. You get the point with that translation. So here he says, your money perish with you.
It's a very, very strong rebuke. And he got the message. And all the people of Samaria went, whoa, whoa.
Don't mess with that dude. Have you heard the name Jerome in church history? Jerome founded a monastery in Bethlehem. Jerome said, when you preach, always aim at pricking the heart, not stroking the skin. Well, Peter didn't know Jerome, but I bet they would have been buddies. I think Peter would go, yeah, what he said, because that's how I preach. Then in church history, there was a guy named Billy Sunday. I talked about him a couple weeks ago on a weekend service. Billy Sunday was a baseball player turned evangelist.
He was filled with joy and filled with life and at the same time, very, very pointed in his preaching. So on one occasion, he said, so on one occasion, he said, they tell me that I rub the fur the wrong way. I don't let the cat turn around. He was calling for repentance. He goes, I'm not, I'm not like, I'm not going against the flow.
You just need to turn around. It'll be all right. Repent, he says, therefore your wickedness and pray God of perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Where I've seen verse 23, you are poisoned by bitterness and bound with iniquity. How did he know that? How could he say that? Well, there is a gift of the Holy Spirit called the gift of discernment.
It's the same discernment this man, Peter had in Acts chapter five with Ananias and Sapphira. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You haven't lied to men. You've lied to God. Bam, you're dead. Wife come in. Why'd you lie to the Holy Spirit? Bam, you're dead. Take them out, boys.
Bury them. How did he know that? How did he know it here? Gift of discernment.
He had insight. And let me just say the gift of discernment is not a fun gift to have. It's a very unfun gift to have because if you're one of 10 people and you're the guy or gal with the discernment and you see what nobody else see, oh, it's wonderful ministry. It's a great church. It's great book.
It's awesome. Oh, no, it's not. See, the gift of discernment is like the liver in the body. The liver detects the poisons and filters it all out and keeps the body clean.
But it's not a fun organ to be. I'm a liver. And so those with the gift of discernment are like the liver in the body of Christ.
At this point, the liver is Simon Peter. Verse 25, let's try to finish this up. So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert.
And he arose and went. Behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship. Ethiopia, the ancient kingdom south of the Nile, south of Egypt, was considered by the Greeks and Romans the outer limits of the world, the outer limits of civilization.
But it was a great empire. Now when it says Candace, the queen, Candace is not a name like her name would be like candy for short. It wasn't a name, it was a title. There were many Candaces in the history of the Ethiopian nation. So the name Candace isn't a name, it's a title like Pharaoh or Caesar. She was a queen. So a eunuch, the name, the word actually means a bedkeeper.
And you can guess what this guy did. This in antiquity kings had lots of gals, a harem of women. And the eunuch was the one who was in charge of the apartment, the housing complex for the gals, for the harem. And here's a guy, but it says under Candace.
Why is that? Because Ethiopian kings were considered to be incarnations of the sun god and government was beneath their dignity to actually do administrative work. That's for the chicks. You know, that's what they thought.
The women can do that. So the government was actually administered by a queen mother. One of the kings, her mother or his mother was a Candace, a queen. And she administered it, but there was a king of Ethiopia, but they just thought it was, it's below the dignity of a sun god to actually do any work. So his mom did it all for him. He was a mama's boy.
The Ethiopian eunuch was the secretary of the treasury under this queen, Candace. But what's interesting is he must have been a Jewish proselyte, because he has come all the way from Ethiopia to the feast worship in Jerusalem. Now he's going back.
It's a long journey. He was probably a gentile who came to believe in the god of Israel. So he's a proselyte, a convert from Judaism or into Judaism. And so he has come back, he has come to worship, and he's leaving like so many do who are into their religion. He's coming back empty. Religion always leaves you empty. You're going to see he's empty and his heart's going to be filled because he's going to hear the gospel. But religion always leaves you empty.
It might be beautiful, it might have ornate practices and traditions and songs that make you feel good, but at the heart, religion doesn't satisfy anybody. And he's returning, having converted to Judaism, having relinquished the foreign gods of Ethiopia, he would have to do that to be a Jewish proselyte. But he's coming back.
Something's not settled. And enter now, Philip. So he's returning, verse 28, sitting in his chariot, and he was reading Isaiah the prophet. And the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? That's a good opening line.
He's reading the scripture. See somebody in Starbucks, hey, do you understand that? Now, they might go, yeah, I like better than you do. Okay.
Well, maybe not. Maybe he's going to say to you or she's going to say what he says. He says, how can I unless somebody guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. And the place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before it shears the silence, so he opened out his mouth.
In his humiliation, his justice was taken away, and who will declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth. He just happens to be reading Isaiah chapter 53, the great messianic text. So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him.
Now, as he went down on the road, down the road they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here is water, what hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart you may. And he answered and he said, if you believe with all your heart you may. And he answered and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Philip sees the chariot, he starts walking toward it, his heart is pounding, but he's got to know this is a setup because the Holy Spirit said, go, go, go, you got this, go.
Talk about a setup. Here's a gentile convert to Judaism with a copy of the scriptures, unheard of. First of all, first of all, a copy of the scriptures is in the synagogue, nobody privately owns them unless they got a lot of bank. Moreover, gentiles were never allowed to have a copy of Hebrew scriptures proselyte or otherwise, but he had one because you know what, money speaks louder than tradition, so he has one, he's reading his own copy.
And his heart is open, he's teachable, so perfect, right time, right place, right person, right attitude, just all came together. He said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Beginning with that scripture, he preached Jesus to him. The seawater wants to get baptized, Philip said, if you believe with all your heart you may.
And he answered and said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. Signifies immersion, they went into the water, not just like, let me sprinkle this on, he went into, it was a full immersion.
I know it was full immersion, by the way, I'll explain in just a second. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, I'll explain that next time, so that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing, but Philip was found, wouldn't you love this as a transportation method? Philip was found at Azotus and passing through, he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. To be a convert to Judaism, number one, you need an instruction. Number two, if you were a male, you needed circumcision. Number three, male or female, you needed full immersion into water as a symbol of cleansing. And Jews afterwards had several cleansing before they went to worship, that's why there were these pools of water in Jerusalem and in gatherings where Jewish people met, it's called a mikvah, mikvah means a collection of water. They would go into the mikvah and come out of the mikvah and they would be cleansed. If they had touched a dead body, they would have to go through a ceremonial washing.
If there was a bloody flux through a washing, if they defiled themselves through a washing, et cetera. So baptism was actually Old Testament before it became New Testament, but it speaks of for us, buried with Christ, united with him in resurrection. And so Paul says, Romans chapter 6, even so we should walk in newness of life.
Just trying to end this up quickly because I'm a minute over time. So it speaks of your new status in Christ. When we baptize people, we tell them, we're gonna bury you in the water, but then we're gonna bring you back up.
We're not gonna like leave you there. We take them down and we bring them up and that going down and coming up is like death, burial, resurrection. Now walk in newness of life. It symbolizes the reality of what Jesus has done. You're identifying with his death, burial and resurrection. Now we walk in newness of life.
That's the symbolism of it. If you haven't been baptized, get baptized. Don't wait 20 years. I always ask people, so when did you get saved? Oh, 40 years ago. Okay.
And you're waiting, why? Oh, I just never got around to it. You know, in the New Testament, it was like pretty immediate. You get saved, you get baptized. In other countries, you get saved, you get baptized.
And they often will give them a new name. They will often do it in the town square so that their other neighbors will know, that guy's a Christian now. He's making a public declaration. So let me encourage you, if you're a saved man or woman and you haven't been baptized as a knowing convert to Christ, in the words of Nike, just do it. Your gift today can help connect people all over the world to the good news of Jesus so that they can truly know the God who seeks them out. Your generous gift will also help keep these faith building messages coming to you and so many others around the world. You'll help grow this ministry to reach people in more major US cities and all across the globe. Visit connectwithgift.com slash donate to give generously and share God's love with others. That's connectwithgift.com slash donate, or call 800-922-1888. 800-922-1888.
Thank you for changing lives. Tomorrow, Skip begins to look at Saul of Tarsus and what motivated him to persecute the church. If you were to interview Saul of Tarsus and you'd say, Saul, so what's up with this?
Why are you so intent on hurting these Christians? He would tell you that he's just being a good apologist. He is stopping a false doctrine, a heretical movement. He wants to keep Judaism purified. That's probably what he would say, I want to keep it purified.
But in attempting to keep it so purified, he's going to make it putrefied. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
