Power to Preach (Part C)

They've all sort of lockstep, I think, out of the fear of the Book of Acts, that if we tell you that the gift of tongues is still available, that somehow you're all going to go crazy and start speaking tongues on the telephone with each other.

And it is these fears that these well-meaning and analytical and great minds try to come up with ways to say, well, it was for them and the gifts have ceased, but yet they still promote the gift of teaching. I don't see how you can cherry pick it. You know, you can't take that approach. They don't do it with other doctrines.

Why do it with this one? This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Acts.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion, part three, of his message called Power to Preach in Acts chapter eight. The apostles come down and they discern that there's salvation here, that these people are baptized, and yet they're still lacking something. They're lacking a personal Pentecost. They've had a personal Calvary experience. They've come to the cross. They've dealt with their sins.

They've even publicly announced that they've done this in the water baptism. But there's another part of Christianity still available to them and they're missing it. And the apostles pick up on that.

There's no mention of Philip catching that. There's a difference between being a believer who admires God, admires salvation, admires the word of God, believes and is saved, versus a believer who also admires but also adores. It's on another level. It's passionate about God's word, passionate about salvation. I've met believers. They believe Jesus Christ as Savior.

There's no one else. But they have no passion. There's no fire in them to reach lost souls. There's nothing in there to stand up and protest against Satan's lies. That person has not been immersed in the Spirit. Not talking about salvation. We'll open that a little bit more.

And there's a lot of commentators. Here's where we begin to part. I don't want to spend too much time on that because many preach it. No, there's no third experience. There are three facets that belong to Christianity. One is when Christ draws you to Him through the Holy Spirit. You become a Christian. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit is in you. You are saved.

And then there's that next experience that now not only is He in you, but He's flowing out from you. And that's what they're lacking. And this is what this is about. This is what we're being taught. You can't say, well, that was back from the apostolic age. No, this is today too. Verse 16, for as yet He had not fallen upon, for as yet He had fallen upon none of them.

They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Saved? Yes. Filled? Yes. Overflowing? No.

A third experience of the Holy Spirit. Again, objected to by some well-meaning Christians and Christian authorities. And those that don't agree with me on this, I don't think less of them. I just think they're wrong on this point. 15 years ago, I would have hated their guts. No, I would not.

I just would not have wanted to read anything about them. But I've learned. I've matured a little bit at my pace, which is not very fast.

But anyhow, you know, matured on the outside a lot, but not so much on the inside. They were believers. They had been baptized, which means the Holy Spirit was in them. Acts chapter 2, Peter said, repent that every one of you may be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Okay, that happened. Then Peter says, and you shall receive the Holy, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Well, these haven't gotten there yet. They did when Peter preached to the Jews, but the Samaritans aren't there.

And there's a reason why. Again, it is one thing to have the Holy Spirit in you, doing the inward work of conforming you into the image of Christ. Every believer gets that.

The decency, the righteousness, the desire to please God. But it's another thing to have the Spirit, again, bursting forth, looking for opportunity to share. I don't mean, you know, jamming the gospel down people's throat or, you know, sneaking tracts into their sandwiches, stuff like that. That's not being led by the Holy Spirit.

We, you know, the Jehovah Witnesses are out there thinking that they're, you know, knocking on doors and therefore they're doing everything right, but there's no leading of the Spirit in that. Even the apostles did not do it that way. Anyway, coming back to this, this is what they were receiving, the releasing of the Spirit of God to go forward. Jesus said this in John chapter 7, he who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So when you meet a Christian, we get to them in chapter, I think it's 19, we get to Ephesus, we get to Christians that we haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit.

And Paul discerned that and of course the things then change. So, he who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow living waters, verse 17, then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit affirms that the Samaritans are believers now also, fully, just like the Jews, exciting them in their faith. Salvation again is one thing but to be able to have a desire to get others to be saved, that's another thing. There is a distinct interval of time between the new converts being converted and baptized and the coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives and that's very interesting.

And as I mentioned, that happens in chapter 19. They're already believers but there's this long period of time before they enter into this third experience. Here, it seems that the Holy Spirit is delayed in his filling because he wants the apostles to introduce it. I do believe that Peter and John are sent up, the Holy Spirit overseeing this, because it must have their stamp of approval in the initial phases.

This is transitional. Matthew 18, 18, Jesus speaking to Peter, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. These are the kings of the kingdom, what belongs to that.

I don't have time to get into all of it. But here's where Peter's actually, it's in Matthew 16, but Peter's getting the keys. Here in Matthew 18, this is the authority to administer church discipline and authority in the apostles. And so it is important to note that the Samaritans did not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when they believe. Philip, who was empowered to perform miracles, was not able to impart, to lay hands on them and give them this third experience in the Spirit. First experience of the Holy Spirit, he draws us to him. Second experience, we become saved.

Third experience, we are filled to overflow. So when Jesus says to Peter, I give you the keys of the kingdom, we see Peter the one unlocking the filling of the Spirit to the Jews in chapter 2, to the mixed Samaritans here in chapter 8, and then in chapter 10 to the Gentiles. It's Peter each time, unlocking this transition from Judaism and non-Christianity into Christianity with the Holy Spirit.

He is unlocking doors and he is confirming it. I don't want to get too far ahead, but no Christian should feel like they are a second class citizen, whether they have been filled with the Spirit or not. Once you believe in Christ, you are a citizen of heaven.

But there's still more. Romans chapter 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. And that's what we see happening in Acts chapter 2, chapter 8 and chapter 10, this progression that all the people are being drawn in equally to salvation.

And this should excite us. But I want to go back to these three experiences from the scripture. John chapter 14, Jesus speaking, I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper, that is the Holy Spirit, that he may abide with you. Now that Greek word for with, that preposition is para, coming alongside of the Spirit of truth, verse 17 of John 14, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you. Now that preposition, en in the Greek, en, and will be in you. That preposition, that promise, he will be, he's with you, he's in you, but he's not yet overflowing from you.

That's what Jesus is saying. And that Greek word, that preposition in the Greek is epi. It means everything because when we get to chapter 8, we read, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Epi, there's that preposition again. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Philip is a witness in Samaria, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, is flowing out of him, epi.

All three experiences have been captured. One to woo you to Christ, the other to bring you to Christ, to make you form, shape us into the image of Christ, 2 Corinthians 3 13. For we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. There's that process that begins once we come to Christ and the Spirit is in us, but that third experience is what's lacking. I know I'm repeating this, I'm repeating it on purpose because there aren't many churches out there that preach this because they've all sort of lockstep. I think out of the fear of the book of Acts that if we tell you that the gift of tongues is still available that somehow you're all going to go crazy and start speaking tongues on the telephone with each other.

And it is these fears that these well-meaning and analytical and great minds try to come up with ways to say well it was for them and the gifts have ceased but yet they still promote the gift of teaching. I don't see how you could cherry pick it. You know, you can't take that approach. They don't do it with other doctrines. Why do it with this one?

Because of the abuses. We covered this in the introduction to the book of Acts. Verse 18, and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, verse 19, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. And so Simon is impressed by this. But he was first impressed by the preaching of Philip and that's how he got converted. But he makes what is not uncommon a rookie mistake.

He brings strange fire into it. Well, Abraham's sons did that. Doesn't mean they went to hell, they were struck dead, but so was Uzzah. They weren't unrighteous men. They were just out of bounds at a critical stage and God made that message clear.

We don't read of it happening again because that's how clear it was. And here, Simon makes this rookie mistake, applying the old life ways to the new life. Now, even today, magicians have a history of buying and selling their tricks. They come up with an illusion and another magician will say, I'll give you $100,000 for that. That's a pretty neat trick. And so here's Simon, he's probably thinking, well, this is how we do business. What do you think I learned all my stuff?

I've been going around the ancient world buying these tricks and it's made me somebody. Well, I'd like to buy this one now because he doesn't understand what's going on. And which again, we can't fault him, he's a new convert. But Peter, oh man, Peter is not going to have any of this.

He's going to be brutal. And so we'll get to that in a moment. But what is surprising, not surprising that Simon would make this mistake, what is surprising is that there are people who pay for prayer cloths and holy water and holy oil.

I mean, what are you doing? Don't you have faucets at home? You actually think that somebody, I don't know, in some other state can pray over a bottle of water and sell it to you as holy water?

Do you really think that? What about the oil? I mean, it's just olive oil, double virgin. I mean, it's just, these are symbols, there's no power in this stuff. I mean, they would sell you the ark if they could get you to buy it.

So I don't get it. Abysmal ignorance of biblical things in the name of Christ. Simony is a word that we have buying and selling spiritual benefits or church positions.

In the dark ages, you know, 980 something to 10 hundred and something, there was open bribery in the Roman Catholic Church where the office of the Pope was being sold repeatedly to the highest bidder. That is along the same lines. You say, don't these people read the Bible?

No, only the parts they want. So, anyway, too bad Simon didn't ask Philip, how do I evangelize? He said he's just attracted to this power. Now, verse 20, here comes the hammer. Peter, the hitman apostle, Peter said to him, your money perish with you because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with money.

You would think that would be enough. Okay, Peter, you got him. Oh, Peter's just getting started. So what Peter is doing is upholding truth because to Peter, truth was more important than people joining the church. Hmm, God's truth more important than filling the pews. He was willing to lose somebody from the congregation rather than forfeit the truth from God's word. Today, there would be church goers who have no relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, maybe they do even and just because church goers can be born again on fire for Christ and still wrong.

It's never happened to me, but I'm sure it's happened to you. Okay, back to this. Today, these church goers, some of them, would say that Peter was unloving, that he was harsh, he was mean-spirited, he was arrogant. Peter is right on. And, you know, Calvary Chapel, the movement under Pastor Chuck, God gave another gift to the church other than Pastor Chuck in the form of a man named Romaine. He had no other name, just Romaine. Why they named him after lettuce, I don't know, but every time I think about him, I want a salad. Anyhow, Romaine was no nonsense. I mean, he was the bodyguard, church guard.

He kept those hippies in line, and he would flay them. And so, when I come across a Calvary pastor who doesn't like Romaine, I don't like them. It's like, sorry.

I'm serious. Because I don't want to say I don't like them, but they won't be preaching in this pulpit because they're telling me that they missed the point of somebody having to shield the pastor. Because if the pastor goes around and says, hey, get your feet off that seat, well, that's not going to work well for the church. If the pastor's going around correcting people on that level, but to have a guy like Romaine do it, that works pretty good. Because they see the pastor still loves me, but we got this guy over here.

And it worked wonderfully. Now I'm being very short about this and throwing in some humor, but the bottom line, he was a gift to Calvary Chapel. And we would not have experienced the movement as we have if God did not send such a man. We need people to stand up to people who are wrong.

And there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Peter has no body to do that. John doesn't really have, well, take that back.

John called fire down like him and his brother wanted to do earlier. But Peter is the one that's doing it. Verse 21. Now if I have excited questions about Romaine, feel free to ask me because I love talking about him.

I've got stories on him and he was just really a gem and I miss him very much. Anyway, verse 21, you have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. So not merely was Simon wrong on the outside, he's deep wrong in this view on the inside.

Simon says I'll buy it. Peter says you're wicked. Verse 22, repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven. So Peter is now disfellowshipping him. But he's giving him a chance to be reinstated at the same time.

He said you can't come back to this church unless you fix this. And in this case he can fix it right away. Sometimes they can't fix it right away.

They've got to go home and do it. But here he's giving him the solution. And solutions usually are better than executions.

Solutions are usually better than executions. Verse 23, for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound in iniquity. Man, this is a heavy hit. Imagine the pastor saying this to you. You go to visit a church and you do something and he tells you you are poisoned by bitterness and bound in iniquity. You're tied up in evil. You've got shrink wrap of evil all around you. So we picture here a well that is poisoned.

That is Simon. A fresh water well in his conversion that has been poisoned by an old life view. Exodus 15 23, now when they had come to Marah they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were bitter.

Therefore the name is called Marah. They were poisonous. Or at least so sulfur ridden you couldn't drink it. We get Elijah purifying a well for people to drink. So do not consider the Holy Spirit as an unholy man who can be brought. Hebrews 12 15, on the subject of bitterness. Looking carefully lest any of you fall short of the grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble.

And by this many become defiled. There are various types of bitterness. There's ones from I hold a grudge against you. You still, my blood pressure goes up when I think of you. I can't stand you. I never want to see you.

That kind of stuff will destroy you. And you better learn to deal with it. You better learn to parry that kind of bitterness. Jeremiah 2 19, your wickedness will correct you.

And your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken Yahweh your God. And the fear of me is not in you says the Lord Yahweh of hosts.

Jeremiah's two iniquities. Psalm 116 verse 16. Oh Yahweh truly I am your servant. I am your servant. The son of your maid servant.

You have loosed my bonds. The iniquity freed from it. Remember he said Simon was bound in iniquity. Proverbs 5 22. His own iniquities entrapped the wicked man and he is caught in the cords of his sin. Well that is true and that's why you know Christ says if the son makes you free you will be free indeed. The gospel liberates. And Simon is tangled up here.

And Simon Peter is not, he is being very thorough with this. You know as a pastor if a new Christian says something to me that is wrong I have to say something. I can't let them go away and then a year later come back and say why didn't you tell me I was wrong with that? It may hurt them it may keep chasing from the church but I can't give them a pass.

If there's something minor I'm certainly not going to slam them. But if they say something like you know Jesus is one of the saviors man they're going to get it. It's like you will not say that to me and in the church that I pastor and me just blink at you.

And it should be that way with with you too. They're just you don't call yourself a Christian you've got co-saviors. Verse 24 then Simon answered and said pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken may come upon me. Well see that's the voice of a man who wants God who submitted. It's not a voice of a man who's being deceptive and has a false conversion. He would have said something like who do you think you are? We were fine before you got here Peter. He doesn't do that.

There is repentance to salvation and there is repentance within salvation. Do we not understand that? You'll find out when you drive out of here. You're driving down the road and that person just makes you irritated. I get irritated at what other drivers might do. That's how bad it is for me sometimes.

You know he might cut me off I never liked him. Hyperbole. Anyway trying to identify with your struggles. Anyway we're almost done. This illustrates for us that when people are delivered from Satan by the Holy Spirit through Christ they may bring in ignorantly blasphemies. They don't even know they're doing it because they don't they've not yet been schooled. Who needs teachers if we just know everything right away.

Well God has given us teachers. New citizens must learn how the laws of the kingdom work and Simon is learning. Verse 25. 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. So the apostles they are beginning to see the work that Christ started goes beyond the Jewish people. They were Jewish and they're now saying you know the Samaritans can get saved too. We saw the Holy Spirit confirm this for us which is one of the reasons why this at this transitional stage is so critical. God first used the Jews to spread the good news to other peoples and we're all equal now.

So I hope we've covered a lot with you know the argument about have the gifts ceased was it just for them. There's no mention of speaking in tongues. Did they speak in tongues with that the sign. No who knows maybe they just praise God zealously. It doesn't have to be tongues that confirms that you're filled with the Spirit. It can just be you go up and start sharing the gospel with people.

May we may we not be biased in our theology but may we remain objective. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit cross reference radio dot com. That's cross reference radio dot com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the cross reference radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at cross reference radio dot com or simply search for cross reference radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts right here on cross reference radio.