Acts Chapter 8:1-12

I believe the lie for a long time that you couldn't have a good time as a Christian. As a matter of fact, if you're going to become a Christian, that was it. No more good times, no more fun.

That's it. God doesn't approve of fun. I believe that lie. I believe the lie of the world saying, okay, well, you can't have fun following Jesus. How do you have fun? Well, here's the way you really have fun. You drink until you're an idiot. You take drugs till you're busted and you'll just have a beautiful time.

I believe that it didn't work. I may have got a lot of things. I didn't get joy and it is amazing, but this morning we can be in here gathered with one another. Some of you might be going through hard times and tough stuff, but there is that joy that's in you that the world can't give you and the world cannot take it away. It's a wonderful thing to have. What a gift from God.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Are you sharing your Christian joy with your face? Well, Following Christ was never meant to be boring. In fact, Following Christ is a great adventure and can be filled with joy. Today, Pastor David explains how to have joy in our relationship with Christ as he continues teaching in the book of Acts chapter 8.

And now here's David McGee with part two of his teaching, Persecution Strengthens the Church. Last week, we were looking at Acts chapter 7 and Stephen was martyred and were introduced in that chapter to a new character, this guy named Saul. And it says that they laid the guy's clothes, or they laid clothes at Saul's feet as they were throwing rocks and executing Stephen. And we talked about the fact that that may have meant that Saul was actually in charge of what was going on there.

We're not sure, but it's one theory. Now, before we jump in, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this book. It's an awesome book, God.

And, Lord, for too many years, it just gathered dust on our shelves. But, Lord, not this morning. Not this morning. This morning, we're looking into it. We're going to see what you have to say about the early church and what you have to say to us. And, Lord, I ask that you would speak to each person in here right where they are or right where they're not with you. And, Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts to your word and open your word to our hearts in Jesus' name. Everybody said, Amen.

Amen. So Acts chapter 8 verse 1 says, Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Verse 3, As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Verse 5, Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitude, the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. God had told them this was going to happen. God had told them that this was going to happen. God had said, If you do this, it's what I'm going to do.

Remember one of the key verses in the book of Acts is chapter 1 verse 8 says, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So God was bringing this verse to pass. Now they were in Samaria. They were telling people about the goodness of God.

Why? Because God's always faithful. And God has some of these verses that if then and this is an if he said you're going to receive power from the Holy Spirit. And then you're going to not only be witnesses in Jerusalem, but in Judea and Samaria and into the end of the earth. And it's cool because that's the way the Lord works. Verse 7 for unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

There was great joy in that city that speaks of unclean spirits and people being possessed. And some people will tell you that that used to happen, but that doesn't happen any more. But they will not use the Bible to tell you that.

You know why? Because the Bible nowhere says that people used to get demon possessed and they no longer do. As a matter of fact, if you really read the papers and look at the news on the internet and you believe in demon possession, it actually explains a whole lot of stuff, doesn't it? And what that means is that demonic forces will control somebody's thinking and control somebody's action because they've opened themselves up to it.

I think we see it a lot in the world today. And the Bible talks about it as a truth. Now, demons are fallen angels, angels that rebelled against God and are now our adversaries and God's adversaries.

And we need to understand that. Now, let me say something else so we don't think there's a demon behind every corner. Christians, I believe firmly from the Bible, Christians cannot be possessed by demons.

Once you come to the Lord, you're sealed by the Holy Spirit is what the Bible says in Ephesians. And can you be bothered? Oh, you betcha.

Can you be distracted? You betcha. Can you become demon obsessed and read all stuff about dark stuff?

Oh, you betcha. But the Bible says whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are simple. Those focus your attention on those things.

Because a lot of places, you know, they do believe that. They do believe that a Christian can be possessed by a demon. And then, you know, what happens is you say, well, I'm struggling with this. You know, I'm struggling with lust. Oh, you got demon of lust. We'll just cast that thing right out of you. Then you won't struggle with lust anymore. No, I wish it was that easy, huh?

Then we just form a line and we just do that all morning. And you know, nobody in here that struggles with lust would ever struggle with lust again. I think it was Origen. Early church father struggled with lust and he castrated himself to fix the problem. I'm thinking he was fairly disappointed a few weeks later when he realized the problem was within his heart and his head. But it is a very real thing. And so we need to understand that. And in verse eight of Cool Verse, and there was great joy in that city. I like that verse. You know why? Because the Lord showed up. So there was great joy.

You know why? Because whenever the Lord shows up, there's great joy. Whenever people get into touch and in firm contact and they take Jesus's hand, man, that brings great joy.

That's how you can tell if somebody has a real relationship with Jesus. There's just a vibrancy. There's just, you know, Jesus said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. And you can see it in some people and you can feel it in this place. And well, you come in here on Sunday morning, worship God, and you can just feel the joy of God in here.

That's an awesome thing. And what's really cool is to sit up here sometimes and see people, because you know, some of us have come from church backgrounds where you're not really supposed to express your joy on Sunday morning. You might get kicked out if you express your joy.

They might ask you to leave. And it's so cool to see some people come in here and, you know, when they come in here and they first, they're like, Oh my goodness, you know, and it's a warehouse. I don't know what's going on here.

How did I end up here? You know, and they're tense and they're okay. Ooh, that's loud.

Okay. All right, here we go. You know? And then a few songs later, they're like, yeah, praise the Lord. You know, then by the end of the worship set, they're like, Oh, you know, they're worshiping God, man. What a joy. What a joy to see that, to watch the joy on people's faces. Now again, let me ask you a question. Christians followers of Jesus, are we known for our joy in the world?

No, no. If you're saved, if you've been forgiven of your sins, do me a favor. If your heart has been cleansed from all the bad stuff, it's done.

Let your face know. So that as you go out into the world, you know, cause so often we're like, Oh yeah, come to the Lord and forgive me all the sins. And I'd like to share with you the joy I found. Yeah, but no wonder people are like, no thanks. I just seem, you look like you got all the joy.

And so, you know, I, what'd they do? Baptize you in vinegar or something? Look like a pickle. Life lesson here. Followers of Jesus should have great joy. Followers of Jesus should have great joy. You know, one of the things that's cool here, you know, just like you guys just laughed.

I think that's a great thing. We can come in here and we can learn about God. We can look at the Bible and we can laugh together.

Now there's some people that think that's very inappropriate. Shouldn't laugh in a church. Says here they had great joy. How did they express great joy? What did they just say? I'm very joyful right now. No, I'm thinking they were laughing, maybe clapping, maybe raising their hands. They were possibly having a good time. Oh, God forbid.

I don't know. Did, were you, I believe the lie for a long time that you couldn't have a good time as a Christian. As a matter of fact, if you're going to become a Christian, that was it. No more good times. No more fun.

That's it. God doesn't approve of fun. I believe that lie. I believe the lie of the world saying, okay, well you can't have fun following Jesus. How do you have fun? Well, here's the way you really have fun. You drink until you're an idiot. You take drugs till you're busted and you'll just have a beautiful time. I believe that.

It didn't work. I may have got a lot of things. I didn't get joy. And it is amazing that this morning we can be in here, gathered with one another. Some of you might be going through hard times and tough stuff, but there is that joy that's in you that the world can't give you and the world cannot take it away. It's a wonderful thing to have. What a gift from God.

And, and let me ask you a question. What gives you joy? What gets you excited? What gives you joy when you're in here on a Sunday morning? What happens in your heart when you see somebody make their way down to this altar at the end of a service to ask Jesus, to forgive them of their sins, loved one that should stir you up. That should melt even the hardest heart to get excited, to get joyful about what the Lord is doing and how he's doing it and get excited about what he's doing in our lives. I think that's an awesome thing. And the joy that comes with serving here in this fellowship, you know, if you're not serving, ask somebody who is serving, do you really have joy about serving?

You know, it's the most bizarre thing. You know, Saturdays, a lot of times I'll kind of make my way through the church. It's intentionally as people are serving and I'll encourage them and sometimes pray with them and stop and talk to them for a few minutes.

And it's harder and harder for me to touch base with each and every person, but that's an opportunity. And just to see the joy that the people have as their servant, it's such an awesome thing. I mean, you know, in the natural, as you're mopping the floor, you shouldn't be happy, but they are. In the natural, emptying somebody else's icky trash, you shouldn't be happy about that, but people are. It's an awesome thing.

Oh, and here's another cool thing. Great joy in the city. Who was in the city? Well, primarily the Samaritans. Who else was in the city?

The Jewish people. They were celebrating together. There was unity there. And that's a beautiful thing. Now we tend to be, you know, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas.

We tend towards that. What does the Bible say? Galatians 3 28 says, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female for you are all Christians.

You are one in Christ Jesus. That's part of the way joy comes to. Cause when we start building walls, man, we start to lose our joy. And don't you know, people were looking on watching the Jewish people and the Samaritans. And that was a witness to them. Like I thought these guys hated each other and here they are. They're, they're having great joy and they're worshiping and they're fellowshiping together.

What's up with that? It was an awesome witness. Ephesians 2 14 says this for he talking about Jesus. He himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. The wall of separation between us and other people.

And there's a couple of pictures there. Actually the wall between us and other people. He came to tear down. Also understand that in the Jewish temple, there was a wall that non Jewish people couldn't go past that point.

As a matter of fact, there was a sign that said, if you're not a Jew and you go past this point, you could be executed. That wall through Jesus Christ was broken down. And of course, what do we do? We start building the wall back again because that's what we do in it.

You understand? Jesus likes to tear stuff up. That may totally mess with your theology.

If it does, I'm happy to do it. Jesus likes to tear. See, even as I say that some people are like, Oh no, that's wrong pastor. Jesus tore up the temple. Oh, pastor. He did. He turned tables over in a temple.

Don't miss that. You know what happened in the temple when Jesus died? The veil was written to port. Now most of us think of a little curtain like is on our drapes at home.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This curtain was about six inches thick. As a matter of fact, one time they put two horses on each side of it and couldn't tear it apart.

This veil was written too. Why? To give us access to God. It says it was torn from the top to the bottom. You know why?

From the top to the bottom. So we would understand a man didn't do it. God didn't. God did it. Man didn't do it. Have you ever thought of something? Do you realize what they probably did after that happened?

They sewed the veil back up. That's kind of bizarre, isn't it? Is it? You understand? We do that. Oh, not for ourselves. We like having access through the Holy of Holies.

We do it for other people. We look around and go, Oh, you can't go in there. You can't go in the Holy of Holies. You can't have access. You can't have a relationship with God. I'm throwing the veil up for you.

So you don't wander in there. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Merlin, Pendleton, Portland, Powell Butte, Prairie City, and Redmond, Oregon. Lord, we thank you for the people living in these cities. Lord, we pray that you would draw them into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for their homes, that there would be unity and love, that they would follow you with all their heart, soul, and strength as a family. Lord, we pray for the pastors and churches in these areas. God, that you would anoint them to teach your word verse by verse even. Lord, that you would give the pastors wisdom and discernment on how to serve and love the people that God brings. Lord, we love you. We thank you for these cities, and we pray that you do a mighty work in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 9. But there was a certain man named Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city, and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.

A long time. It's interesting. Simon evidently was enjoying this display of sorcery and having people come to him and go, Wow, this is, you know, this is the power of God. And what we see in the Bible is it talks about in the end times that people will be given these powers to actually fool people. So I think we need to be careful somewhat when it comes to the realm of the miraculous. And any time you have somebody that's taken a bow for what God is doing, friend, be careful.

Be careful. When you have somebody begin to brag about the fact that they have the gift of healing, it really makes me wonder, do they have the gift of healing, or did that gift even come from God? I know those are hard words, but we have to be careful when God does something that God gets the credit and anything, anybody you ever see God using, give God the glory, not a man, not a woman, but give God the glory. And they're given Simon the glory here in verse 12. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

This was cool. Simon was pointing to himself. Who was Philip pointing to? Jesus.

He's pointing to Jesus. Now quick background on Philip, just a refresher. Philip is the same Philip that we looked at in Acts chapter six, when the disciples were serving food to the widows and they said, look, you know, we're, we're very, we're busy.

We need some help with that. And they assigned seven men, including Philip to help feed the widows and notice Philip did it. Philip didn't say, well, you know, I'm really called to teach.

Don't really have time to feed the widows. No, he did what was needed. He was willing to serve in that capacity. And because he was willing to serve physically, the Lord used them to minister spiritually.

God counted Philip faithful and used him in a big way. And I think a lot of times we look for God to use us in big ways. And we're unwilling for God to use us in the small ways. And that shouldn't be Luke 16, 10 says this, unless you're a faithful and small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. You know, going back to the lottery, I've actually, you know, some people said, well, you know, if I won the lottery, I'd tithe then. So you're not being faithful with what God is doing for you now, but you think if you got a million dollars, all of a sudden you would inherit this great faithfulness with it.

I don't think so. That's not what the Bible says. Luke 19, 17, it says, well done. The King explained you are trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with a little untrusted to you.

So you will be governor of 10 cities as your reward. Most of you are familiar with the story, you know, that we started as a home Bible study for six months, hardly anybody came. It was basically me and my family. And it was a weird thing. It was hard to be encouraged when the, you know, there was four other people showing up and three of them were there because I would spank them if they weren't, but, but it was interesting. And then after a few months, a bunch of kids started coming. It was my kids and then five other kids. And in the middle of the week, we were in the book of Genesis.

And so there they are, you know, my wife and eight kids. And I remember going, well, Lord, what are we doing here? And Lord said, well, what did I call you to do? You called me to teach a Bible. Well, there they are. Teach them.

That's what I did. And not once did I say, well, it's just you kids again. And I will just skip the Bible part. No, I taught them the Bible the best I could, the most passionately I could, the clearest I could. And because I was willing to do that, God began to bless the ministry. Later on as the church grew, yeah, a lot of stuff needed to be done.

The emptying of the trash, the cleaning of the floor, the cleaning of the toilets. I did it. Why? Because it needed to be done. Well, I don't do that very much anymore.

Kind of miss the simplicity of it, you know? I mean, it's a little more complicated now, but there's a biblical truth here of being willing to do anything for the Lord. And that's why we've gone back to people serving here start out in sparkle, which they clean the church. And let me tell you, if something gets weird in your heart, that's not because of us, friend. That's because something is weird in your heart that you would think, oh no, I can't clean the church.

I can't help with landscaping. I'm supposed to do this, that, and the other. That's a big warning sign. We should be willing to do whatever. And keep in mind, I'm not talking about, okay, well, so if I want to be a senior pastor, I need to start out in sparkle.

No, no, no, no, no. You go to sparkle. And you know what? If you never go anywhere else, be content. Praise God. None of us is worthy to clean God's house or take out trash for God. But God in His love for us and His mercy and His grace gives us opportunities to serve Him. And we should take advantage of those opportunities.

We should be happy to have those opportunities. And Philip preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. Philip told him the deal. He said, look, guys, Jesus Christ died for your sins because all of us are separated from God. There is a gulf that we cannot cross between us and God. You can't be good enough to cross that. No amount of giving stuff away or serving other people is going to cross that bridge.

There's only one thing that can cross that bridge. And that's the cross itself. Jesus died for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins so that we could have a life with Him. That's the only way that we can be forgiven of our sins.

Some of you may have never done that. You may have never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Maybe you believe Jesus about Jesus in your head, but you've never asked Him physically, publicly to forgive you of your sins. And the Bible says, whoever confesses the Lord with their mouth and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So if you believe it in your heart, friend, let your mouth say it.

And it can be this very morning. Once that happens, begin to live for Him. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed this prayer, if you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. Visit crossthebridge.com and click on God's Plan for New Life to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God wants to bless you and encourage your relationships today. Whether you are married, considering marriage, or engaged to be married, we have a resource for you. Pastor David wants to send you his four-part video series, Allies Stay Friends. Allow God to minister to your marriage through His Word today. This was an unforgettable weekend that encouraged many marriages, and you and your spouse can be encouraged too. Allies Stay Friends is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give a gift of any amount and get your copy of Allies Stay Friends. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse through the book of Acts.