Philip and the Samaritans, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, we've all seen or heard of people who say they follow Jesus. They show up on Sundays, sing the loudest and participate in the weekly Bible study.

Yet when you look just a little bit closer, everything about their lives seems to be a reflection of their own gain and not furthering God's kingdom. Today on Summit Life, as Pastor J.D. continues our study in the book of Acts, he helps us rediscover what it means to be focused on Jesus's plan rather than our own. If you're just joining us today, you can catch up any time by visiting our website, J.D.

Greer dot com. Pastor J.D. is teaching from Acts chapter eight. So grab your Bible and a pen and let's get started. This passage gives us a pattern for reaching our city. And if you are taking notes, jot down this definition because this is how we see our mission to our city. Evangelism in the New Testament is basically a group of ordinary Christians living intentionally in a city to bring joy to it through word and deed. The very first time the gospel expands beyond Jerusalem, it was carried in the mouths of normal people, not apostles.

This, I believe, is the Holy Spirit's sign to us for how the Great Commission would be accomplished. The church grows not by the preaching of a few anointed apostles. The church grows when every believer is filled with the Spirit and testifies to the gospel in the streets. That's what we do as a church because the greatest advances for the gospel are not coming from me up here.

They're coming when you are going into those places naturally. Ordinary people, through word and deed, this passage tells us that Philip's ministry was both word and deed, they heard him and they saw the signs that he did. Verse 7 explains to us that the lame were healed and the demons were cast out, which points to a physical deliverance, the lame being healed, and a spiritual deliverance, the demons being cast out because a true witness, hear this, always involves both elements. A true gospel witness always involves both word and deed. It has to involve word because the gospel is, in its essence, an announcement about what Jesus has accomplished.

You can't communicate that without a verbal witness. I've told you, the statement, you know, preach the gospel, if necessary, use words, is cute but completely wrong because there's no possible way to preach the gospel without words. The word gospel was not a religious word. The word gospel just meant an announcement of good news. A Greek general would use it when he won a battle. If a Greek general won a battle on behalf of Greece, he would send out a gospel announcing that he'd won the battle. He was not inviting other people to come help him with the battle.

He was not teaching people to do battle. He was just saying, I already won the battle, so you don't have to be afraid anymore because the enemy has been vanquished. That's the word that was chosen to describe our message. It's an announcement, not about how people should live, not an example that they should emulate. It's an announcement about what Jesus accomplished on our behalf when he went to the cross, paid for our sin, resurrected in victory, and we believe in him and have eternal life. That's the gospel, all right?

So it's in word. It has to be in word, but it was also always done in deed. Now, what you see in Acts is that sometimes these signs, like in Acts 8, are supernatural.

Other times, they're more, I might say, natural. In other words, just the way that they lived was a demonstration of the gospel. For example, Acts chapter 9. There's a story in there of a disciple by the name of Tabitha, and it says that she made so many cloaks for widows that when she died, the community gathered at her bedside and wept because of what she had done for them. Her cloaks were a demonstration of the gospel, the generosity of the gospel, the fact that the gospel creates this kind of attitude in people that they show to their community. 1 Peter calls it adorning the gospel. It's always done in word and deed. The result, here's the next little phrase in our definition, it brought joy.

It brings joy to the city. So here's my very simple question for you. Are you involved in that?

Because that's not because of a charismatic preacher, it's because of people like Philip carrying out the gospel in word and deed in our city. You say, well, how do I get involved? Well, start small.

Just ask this question. What can I do to bring joy to my workplace? What can I do to bring joy to my campus, to my neighborhood?

Ask God to show you needs that you can meet. Now, one more thing in this part of the story before I go to the second half of the story there. One of the primary sources of joy in this city, I don't know if you call it this, was the reconciliation of races. And most people long for this kind of unity, but we seem powerless to accomplish it.

It's easier than theory than it is actually in practice. Here's how you know you're in a multicultural church. At some point, you become uncomfortable. Because when people do stuff outside of your culture, you're like, I'm not really sure about that. That's not how we grew up, you know? But see, that's what happens in a multicultural church is the different cultures are influencing and the unity that we find in Christ outweighs any of the things that divide us. You see, these people, it shows no evidence that they sat down and got out the history books, went back and resolved everything in their history. They chose to put away mistrust and suspicion. It didn't say that they all magically, you know, decided they're going to listen to the same radio station.

They chose to put aside cultural preference and they found a unity in Christ that overcame the things that divided them. Do you want that? Because if you want it, it's not going to come naturally.

If it's coming naturally, you're not doing it right. It's going to become because we choose to let the gospel be a way to your reality in our church than any of our cultural preferences. All right, let's keep going because there are a couple of really important warnings for us that he includes.

And I'm going to need you to put on your theological seat belts because we're going to go. Verse 9, but there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and he amazed the people of Samaria saying, I love this, that he himself was somebody great. He was a self-proclaimed awesome guy. Verse 10, they all paid attention to him from the least of the greatest. Look what they said, this man is the power of God that is called great. Called great by whom?

Well, by himself, but they didn't seem to notice that. And so they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. Now, what kind of magic is this?

Well, it's not, don't think like card tricks. The scholars say this was a mixture of genuine education, mathematics, science, astronomy, a mixture between that and superstition, the use of amulets and charms and dreams and horoscopes and that kind of stuff, and then sleight of hand. In our modern era, you're looking for an equivalent. This would be the equivalent of somebody who reads horoscopes or uses crystals or claims they saw the Virgin Mary crying and got her tears together in a bottle and they'll sell it to you and you can sprinkle it on whatever hurts and it'll take care of it. Or they saw the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich, right? Or Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, I think it was, and grilled Jesus is now what they call it, and they'll sell it to you for $10,000 as the buy now price on eBay.

I wish I were kidding. But that is what Simon was. He was basically that back then. He had probably genuine demonic power. That's what Acts 13 says about these magicians. Verse 12, but when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women, even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip and seeing signs of great miracles performed.

He was amazed because, see, their miracles were not like his magic tricks. They were genuine miracles, and they didn't just point to how awesome the apostles were or Philip were. They pointed beyond themselves to a crucified savior who had come back from the dead and could give forgiveness of sins. Verse 14, now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them to Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them. They'd only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when they laid their hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit.

All right, real quick question. Why was the Holy Spirit not given to them immediately when they believed? Because everywhere else in Acts, the Holy Spirit comes immediately, except for Acts 2.

Here's why. There had been such hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans for so many years that God was seeking to validate the Samaritans' inclusion into the New Covenant that he sent a little ceremony to kind of signify that it was happening. The way of the analogy I've given you is when running water first came into New York City back at the turn of the 20th century, when running water went into the, there's five boroughs in New York City, as water would, the sewer would make its way to each borough, the mayor would go out, they'd have a little ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating, water's now come to Manhattan, now it's come to the Bronx. They didn't do that for every single house within the borough.

They only did it for the, you know, kind of the first one. So what you see in Acts is you see occasional ceremonies like this. Sometimes it's accompanied by the speaking of tongues, because it's basically a ribbon-cutting ceremony showing that the gospel has come into a place and that's what the Holy Spirit is now including them. But you'll see that various people after that, they don't have that same ceremony, and so for the believers from thenceforth and Samaritans, they're going to get the Holy Spirit when they believe. Verse 18, now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given to the laying on the apostles' hands, well, he offered him money. He was like, well, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

Because in those days, magicians would buy each other secrets and stuff. Verse 20, but Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And be blessed and encouraged.

Verse 24, Simon answered, why don't you pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. I believe, listen, that this story is included in here because it is giving a warning to growing churches. There's actually two warnings in here that are very important for us to heed. And so I wanted to take a time, even though it's kind of adding this on, because I think it's really important. There's a warning in here for you as a congregation member, and there's a warning in here for me as the pastor. So which one do you want first? Well, in my notes, you're first, so I'm going to go with you. Simon the magician is a warning to you.

Here's the warning. Not everyone who believes and is baptized is a genuine disciple. Not everybody who believes and is baptized is a genuine disciple. Even with the best preaching, Philip's preaching, you've got a guy like Simon who believes, is baptized, and by the way, he even continues on in a discipleship relationship with Philip. So he got involved in Philip's small group.

It says he traveled with him. A lot of people, listen, in our church get baptized, but a number of them don't actually go on to become actual disciples of Jesus Christ. A lot of people are in that category, and maybe some listening to me right now, because baptism ought to be the sign of repentance and faith, but sometimes people do it without ever having genuinely repented and believed. There are some pastors on our staff, two that I can think of, who got baptized here, well, one in college, and said it was later that I really came to genuine repentance and faith. And see, I want to say that to you because I need you to make sure that you have not just gotten swept up in a movement like Simon, but you have just gotten swept up in a movement like Simon did, where you got baptized and you went through the ritual, but you have never actually repented, turned over control of your life to Jesus Christ and received His gift as your own.

Is it a personal relationship with you? Because it is a dire warning. Thanks for listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. In case you haven't heard, we have had a brand new premium resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters this month. It's Pastor JD's new book, 12 Truths and a Lie, complete with a family friendly discussion guide, crafted to help you talk about the book with those around you. 12 Truths and a Lie tackles some of the biggest questions we all face.

How could a good God send people to hell? How should Christians handle political differences? And then, of course, there's the one big lie that so many of us have chosen to embrace, and you'll have to get your copy to find out what that is. Anyone who gives $35 or more to this ministry or joins us as a monthly gospel partner will receive not only Pastor JD's new book, but also a discussion guide we've created to help you talk through the book with someone on a deeper level.

So why wait? Give a one-time gift or join us as a gospel partner today by calling 866-335-5220 or by heading to jdgreer.com. Thank you for your ongoing support that makes this program possible.

We couldn't do it without you. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD on Summit Life. Simon's conversion or kind of fake conversion had this problem, right? He genuinely believed in Jesus as the Christ, but here was his problem.

This is the problem I find with most false converts. He had what we would call a Jesus and gospel. Jesus and his magic and his agenda and his personal platform.

A lot of people are like that. They have a Jesus and me conversion. In other words, they say, I'll follow what Jesus says. I'll let Jesus be a big influence on me. But I reserve the right to exempt myself out of various things that he says that I just find a little, you know, hard or objectionable. So I don't like what the Bible teaches about that. So I'm just going to like circle that and kind of opt out of it like the Bible's a salad bar and you can leave the alfalfa sprouts if you don't want them, right? We have a lot of people that are in that category and it always amazes me how many people say, well, I just don't really agree with you. I just don't really agree with that.

And I'm like, you don't really get a vote because it's not me versus you. It's is Jesus, is he Lord? And have you acknowledged that as the Lord, he makes all the rules. See, if you're 99% committed to Jesus, that means you're still 100% in control. Because ultimately you decide which 99% he gets to be in charge of and which 1% you get to hold onto. And you can change the terms at any point. The analogy I've given you is say a man is having an affair with his wife.

That'd be awesome. Say a man is having an affair, not with his wife where he should be having an affair, but he's having an affair and his wife. Ask him, are you faithful to me? And he says, well, yeah, 99%. Now that's probably technically true because 99 women, he knows, you know, he's not having sex with 99 of them, but one of them he is having sex with. So I'm 99% faithful. That's not how you would say that.

He is wholly unfaithful. You've either given Jesus full control or you haven't given him control at all. For some people it's Jesus and other gods, right? Well, Jesus is my way, but not necessarily the way. I had a friend who was a Buddhist who was in a church service. And the guy gets up, basically give some kind of gospel presentation. At the very end, get this, has the whole audience stand and then says, I want you to repeat this after me. And he just has them repeat like Lord Jesus coming to my life and save me or something like that. Then he says to the whole audience, congratulations, you're all now Christians.

You can sit back down. That's the worst gospel presentation I've ever heard. So, but my friend goes home and she's like, well, I guess I'm a Christian now, so I better figure out what I believe. So she gets a Bible that she'd gotten there and she starts to read because she, as a Buddhist, she thought, well, I just put kind of Jesus on my shelf of gods. Now I'm, you know, a Jesus follower and all these other things. She said, I'm very quickly reading the New Testament, figured out that Jesus wasn't sitting on no shelf with a bunch of other gods.

In fact, he came to tear down the shelf, but he was either going to be the only one or he wasn't going to be one at all. And she genuinely became a follower of Jesus. There are a lot of people that are in that category that they, Jesus, they've added Jesus to their life, but he's never become their Lord and savior. Maybe it's Jesus in some area of your life. You just say, I'm just not going to give that to you, Jesus. There is no Jesus and it's just Jesus.

It's just Jesus. Simon represents a guy, many of whom I fear in our church, maybe not with magic, but they represent an addition of Jesus to their life without actually full control. He takes you to heaven. That's awesome.

He's there to help you out in a jam. Fantastic. But you have never really just crawled up into his hand and said, you're the Lord. You make all the rules. You're the savior. Take me to heaven.

I just, I'm yours. There's a big difference in those two. And I'm afraid that there are people here who are like Simon, who have added Jesus to their life, but never really been born again. Jesus said, if any man comes after me, he's got to take up his cross and follow me. Take up his cross means total death. You cannot be partially in control because in your heart, there's a throne and a cross. And if you're on the throne, Jesus is on the cross. But if Jesus is on the throne, you got to be on the cross. And that means death to everything.

Have you yielded yourself to Jesus? That's the warning for you. Simon is a warning to me because he represents a religious leader who really enjoys the spotlight being on him. And he's a religious leader who believes that he can purchase the power of God with money.

Right? So what you see is Simon trying to buy this because Simon is jealous that the focus is not on him. The contrast to Simon, watch this, is Simon Peter, who's the one who confronts him. Simon Peter has a power that doesn't come from money. Simon Peter has a power that comes from grace. And the result is that money is powerless over him.

All right? Because what does the real gospel say? Simon thought he could purchase, you know, power of God with money and that it would all come back on him. The real gospel, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So in other words, the real gospel is a gift of grace. It's power given as a gift from the Holy Spirit. It's righteousness given as a gift.

The result, watch, is that nobody would boast. Because what do I have to boast of? My salvation is a gift of grace. I'm not saved because I'm morally better than you. I don't have power with God because I've got talent. I've been given these things by a gift of grace. So the last thing, if I understand that, that I would want to do is boast.

Because I don't want you looking at me because I can't help you. I'm just one beggar telling a bunch of other beggars where they can find bread. So rather than you adoring your pastor, you should adore your savior because it is the grace that is in him. Peter had to learn that the hard way, did he not?

I mean, Peter was like the biggest bragger of all of them. If everybody else denies you, Lord, I won't do it. Boom, he denies Jesus. God has to put him flat on his face. Peter is the one that gets in an argument with the other disciples about who's going to sit at Jesus right and left hand.

I'm going to sit at his right hand because clearly I'm the most important. See, Jesus smacks him down twice on that. Finally, Peter's learned, listen, that the real gospel is about grace. And when you have been gripped by grace, listen, the sign is that money loses its power over you. See, because Peter's not like, oh, that's how much you got. You know, I'd show you a few tricks.

No, Peter's like that. Money perish for you. Because I realized that the real power doesn't come from money, it comes from God. For those of you that are thinking about going into ministry, or really any of you, you're thinking about going to the ministry. You have to understand, listen, the power of God and money's power over you are always at two different opposite ends.

And for you to have one, you've got to get rid of the other. And see, this is how you can pray for me. Because I know a lot of pastors who get really jealous when the limelight is no longer on them, just like Simon.

And I know a lot of pastors who have been overwhelmed by the power of money, and the result is that they lose their power with God. And I don't want to lose that because you don't need me. What you need is grace. And I want to be saturated with grace. And in order for that to happen, see, you've got to pray that God will help me hate to steal any limelight from Jesus.

And you've got to pray that money will lose any power over me. Charles Spurgeon, who I quote up here a lot, you know, Charles Spurgeon, P.T. Barnum was the guy, you know, the circus guy, in the late 19th century, P.T.

Barnum was building this circus circuit. And basically, he heard about this young preacher in London who could gather a crowd like nobody's business, Charles Spurgeon. He wires him a telegram and says to him, I want you to come preach for my circus.

I'll pay you any amount of money that you ask. We'll charge admission. You'll gather the crowd.

It's going to be a great venture. Charles Spurgeon wired him back a telegram from London with no words, just one verse reference, Acts 820. Your money perished with you because you thought the gift of God could be purchased by money. That's how you can pray for me, because it's a warning to me. It's a warning that if I want power with God, God has to liberate me.

See, from the idols of self and the idol of money. And he does that through the overwhelming story of the grace of God, which is where we bring all this back to a close. This whole thing is about the gospel going into a city, the gospel going into a leader, the gospel going into you. Has the gospel taken over you? Have you actually believed the gospel? Personally, have you believed it? I know that you got a story about when you got baptized, but have you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior? Is he fully in control?

And have you yielded yourself entirely to him? This movement we are witnessing in the book of Acts, the miracles, the power, the courage, it all came from the powerful impact of the gospel message. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We're in a series titled Scent. If you joined us late, you can listen again online or download the free unedited message transcript at jdgreer.com. Pastor JD, this month we're giving away your newest book to all of our donors. And this is one of the final days that our listening family can get a hold of it.

Tell us a bit about it. It's called 12 Truths and a Lie, Answers to Life's Biggest Questions. Yeah, Molly, I'm actually really excited that we're giving away this book to our gospel partners and to those who just help sponsor and support our ministry financially here. 12 Truths and a Lie are basically 12 answers to the biggest questions, most frequently asked questions I get as a pastor. The lie is that the presence of these kinds of questions and the presence of doubts means there's something defective about your faith or that you're a bad Christian. You know, some of the questions lean more of like, how do you answer the difficult question of a skeptic?

Some of them are more just practical. As an added bonus for the Summit Life audience, we got a chapter by chapter discussion guide that we will send to go along with the book. We've never provided that before, but we'll give it to you.

It should be really helpful and maybe studying with your small group or just being able to reference it when your teenager or your grandkid or your neighbor ask you one of these questions, being able to have a good answer. So request 12 Truths and a Lie and the discussion guide. You can request that when you give to support the ministry of Summit Life at jdgrier.com.

You know, it won't be long until this special two-part bundle goes away. So we would love to send you your copy of 12 Truths and a Lie, as well as the accompanying family-friendly discussion guide as our way to say thank you when you give $35 or more to this ministry or join us as a monthly gospel partner. To give a one-time gift or to join our gospel partner family, give us a call at 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. Or visit us online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Benovitch inviting you to join us Friday as Pastor JD explains the significance of the first short-term mission trip recorded in the Bible. That's Friday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.