The outward movement of the early church is highlighted through the persecution that scattered believers, leading them to preach the word in Judea and Samaria. Philip's ministry in Samaria, marked by miracles and the conversion of many, is contrasted with the sorcerer Simon, who attempted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. The core lesson is that salvation and spiritual gifts cannot be purchased with money, emphasizing the importance of a right heart and genuine repentance. The sermon concludes by underscoring that the gospel's outward expansion continued as apostles and evangelists preached in villages, leading to further outreach, including to the Gentiles.
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Now shall we turn to the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Acts chapter eight, please. Verse one, and Saul, let's read the last verse of the seventh chapter. And he, Stephen, kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep, the martyrdom of Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament. Verse chapter eight, verse one, and Saul was consenting, that Saul of Tarsus, was consenting unto his death.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. and devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with pauses and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Then Philip himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued, then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, When they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whosoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto them, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right from the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
But I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, then answered Simon and said, Pray ye the Lord, pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken unto me come upon me. None of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and they preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. May God bless us the reading of its precious word. Blessed Lord, we ask now this, I will take this portion of thy word and make it real to our hearts. We thank you we have these records in thy word of the acts and the doings of the early apostles of the early church.
We thank thee, Lord, for the wonders of those days when the power of the Holy Spirit was so manifest and men were healed and men and women were healed and there was great power and miracles were performed so that The early church could be established in these wonderful things. We thank thee for the preaching of thy word. We thank thee that the preaching of the word has gone on down through the ages. And although nearly two thousand years have passed by, we are together this morning for the same purpose to hear the word of God. And we pray that thou take the word of God and apply it to our hearts for thy glory this morning in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Now in our studies in the Acts of the Apostles, we've reached this eighth chapter which is an important junction in the story of the Acts of the Apostles. I think we have said many times, several times here anyhow, that there are three movements in the Acts of the Apostles. An upward movement, a downward movement, and an outward movement. In the first chapter of the Acts, the Apostles, the Lord Jesus went up. He was received up into heaven. In the second chapter of the Acts, the Holy Ghost came down upon them. But here in the eighth chapter, in... Verse four, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
That's an outward movement. Upward, downward, outward. And we have followed and studied and talked about and thought about the first chapter and the Lord's great promise where he said to them in verse eight, ye shall be witnesses unto me after ye have received the Holy Spirit. He shall have power, then, he said, to be my witnesses, and you shall go, beginning at Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. And we have watched them in their work, first of all, at Jerusalem. Now, some criticize, I won't say criticize, some wonder why the Apostle stayed so long in Jerusalem.
I wondered that myself. But... When I think I've been at Parker the Palms, eleven years, perhaps I've been here too long. The Lord wants us to move out, you know, and do things for him. I've always hoped that Parker Palms would be a great center, and that we brethren here who can teach the Word of God would be moving out to little groups all around, teaching the Word of God, and seeing other groups like this established. all over northern Florida, right out through the panhandle. What a field we have if we would just go forward. Let's see how God speaks to our hearts this morning about these things. They stayed in Jerusalem, the Apostle.
The Lord said, begin at Jerusalem. So, all right, that's what they did. That was all right. Beginning at Jerusalem. And then he says, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. And here in this age chapter, They go to Judea and Samaria. And when we get to the thirteenth chapter, that's another crisis point, another cardinal section point in the Acts of the Apostles. They began to go to the outermost parts of the earth. So chapter one, the Lord went up. Chapter two, the Holy Spirit came down, and they stayed in Jerusalem. And what a work happened.
It says in the end of chapter four that there were five thousand, the number of those that believe were five thousand men. And the Greek word Andres is men, not men and women. If it had been men and women, it would be five thousand Anthropy. But it's Andres which means men. Now there's usually more women and children than there are men, so there could have been ten, twelve thousand people in that short while in the early church at Jerusalem. I sometimes wonder how they met. They didn't have chapels like this to meet. Of course, they gathered in the temple and the temple precincts and the temple court they met and had open-air meetings there.
But for this vast amount of people, I suggested ten thousand. Where did they meet? Well, we read over and over and over again of the church which is in thy house, and I think they invited people into their homes, and they had Bible readings. What Bible did they have? They didn't have the Acts of the Apostles. They didn't have the epistles of Paul and Peter and James and so on. They had the Old Testament. That was their Bible, and they studied from the Old Testament, and God revealed the meaning of those scriptures, and they saw in the Old Testament... the prophetic outline of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus and the glory that should follow.
And they saw also some of the tremendous things which we also see of what God is yet to do in his future plans for this world. So the church at Jerusalem grew and the apostles stayed there with them and served the Lord. You remember, as we were studying, we came to the sixth chapter where there was a murmuring about the Grecian women and the Hebrew women about the distribution of the daily allowances, because they lived in a communal way, many of them did, that did allow out this morning. Seven deacons to look after the distribution, that practical work in the operation of the early Church of God.
Now in this eighth chapter then, we start a new section, And I'm always glad in studying the Acts, I'm always glad to get to the eighth chapter. All these other chapters in the beginning are so interesting, but in the eighth chapter you begin to see some action. And that's what we need in the Church of God today. Action. The first man that we talk about here, read about here, is Saul of Tarsus. We shall hear more of Saul of Tarsus when we get to the next chapter, the ninth chapter. But just in passing one or two remarks, go back to chapter six.
When they had appointed these seven deacons, it says in verse eight, Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among people, and arose a certain of the synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines, and the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and then of Cilicia and of Asia. Now this is where Saul came from. And they disputed with Stephen. It seems to me that Saul of Tarsus was in this group that disputed with Stephen. And he must have seen Stephen's face. It says that they sat in the council.
Looking steadlessly, verse fifteen, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. When God did speak to Saul of Tarsus, he said, Saul, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks or kick against the goads. And I believe myself that in this council chamber, God was goading the Apostle Paul. As he saw, not the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, as he saw this man's face shining with the glory of God. He was a raging lunatic, mad. He wanted to destroy all the Christians. And he was the one who consented to the stoning of Stephen.
And later on in giving his testimony, he said, I consented to his death, and the young men laid their clothes at my feet. I was one of the instigators and the leaders in the stoning of Stephen. Devout men took Stephen and they buried him. But Saul was consenting unto his death. That's the first sentence of our chapter. Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there arose a great persecution. Now we have said, I suppose it's true, we have said that in order that the Lord... to have his word fulfilled, he commanded them, when you have the power, he said, I want you to start at Jerusalem and then go to Judea and Samaria, and they didn't go, and it's been suggested, maybe rightly, that the persecution was sent in order to make them go and do what the Lord had commanded them to do.
It says there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. and they were all scattered abroad. They were all scattered abroad. Now you'll find, I think it's the eleventh chapter, it says that they that were scattered abroad, and I don't know if I can put my finger right on the verse, but anyhow it's there, we won't turn to it. They that were scattered abroad, they got down as far as Antioch. That's where a large church was formed. But here in this beginning of the outward movement that we're talking about, They were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, just where they should be.
The Lord said, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. And he saw that they went there, but it was persecution that sent them there. Now, we know nothing about persecution in this land. We don't know what it is to be uprooted and lose everything. I've been through that experience of not persecution either. We had to leave Greece like that, two hours to leave everything we had in the world and get out. That's part of life's experience and that makes you value the things of this life very little. The things that are seen are temporal. When you've lost them all two or three times as I have, well, you don't think much about them. But the things that are seen are eternal.
But these people, they lost everything and they were scattered abroad. They had to flee from Jerusalem because of the persecution. and they were scattered abroad. Now look what they did. Well, let's read a little bit. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial. They made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house. Look at these awful words. Entering into every house, and hailing men and women committed them to prison. This was the persecution. You'll be sleeping in your bed at night and they'd come and arrest you and take you off, put you into prison, destroy your home and all you've got.
And that's how they suffered for Christ's sake in those days. And that's going on in the world today. Still in many places it's going on. Suffering for Christ's sake. Losing everything for Christ's sake. That's when you find out that the things that are seen are temporal. That's when you'll find out you can live without all this stuff we gather around us. We can live without it. We've got to live without it when we are forced out. Verse four, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere. What do they do? Looking for a place to build another house and settle down again? No, it says they went everywhere preaching the word, preaching the word.
I like this. They went everywhere preaching the word. down in the next verse, verse five, it says, Philip went down to Samaria and he preached Christ unto them. They went everywhere preaching the word. He preached Christ unto them. When Paul went to Athens, it said, in the agorah and the market there, It says, he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. That's all the same thing. They preached the word. He preached Christ. He preached Jesus and the resurrection. And Paul says, to the Corinthians, I declare unto you the gospel, brethren, the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
That's the word. that he was buried and that he rose again according to the scriptures. So they preached the word, the scriptures. And again I repeat, they didn't have a New Testament. The New Testament was not yet written. They only had the Old Testament, but they preached the word unto them. And God used that. Now God said, X. Philip, he was one of the seven deacons. I said we've mentioned two. We mentioned Stephen who was martyred. And then Philip comes on the scene. It's interesting to note, and I think we did note it as we pass through this chapter, that they all have Greek names.
They were from the dispersion. They were not Hebrew Jews. They were what they call Hellenistic Jews. It's rather good that because the complaint was with the Grecian women about the troubles in distribution of food, and God graciously allowed that the seven men that were going to look after it were Grecians. That's how God did it. So they'd be quite satisfied with what happened. There was nobody saying that. They put the Hebrews in and put the screw on it at all. No, he let the Hellenists look after the Hellenists. These Hellenists, of course, were people, Jewish people, of course, Jewish people who lived, people of the dispersion, who lived all over Asia Minor, and who were saved.
People who believed God. Although they were Jews, but they had to live under the Hellenistic rule there, under the Roman rule, and they were called... Hellenists, I take it they're people that were left over in Asia Minor from the days of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great conquered the whole world and he forced the Greek language on the whole then known world. Then of course the Bible, the Old Testament was written in Greek then. And Alexander, but then that was God's plan.
God was getting everything ready so that when the fullness of the time was come, he sent forth his son, but it was already. There was a common language throughout the whole world. He had it already. And the Old Testament was written in the Greek language. God had in his plan to save Gentiles as well as Jews. If he was only going to save Jews, he would have kept it all in the Hebrew language, but he had it translated into the Greek language so that he could, the Gentiles could understand the word of God when the time came. And they went preaching the word. Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. What happened?
What's bound to happen when you preach Christ? I expect many of you can look back with thrill and joy on some happy days long gone by when perhaps you had some part in a tent mission. I know Mr. Wardenberg can and I can, and many of you when we've been able to set up a big tent and gather people in and preach Christ. What a thrill and what a joy. I remember long before we, well not long, but just before we went to Greece, way, way back when we were first married, we got very much engaged in a tent mission in the city of Hull in Yorkshire, England.
and we had a tent mission and all that. The summer of nineteen twenty-nine we baptized thirty-eight people and the next summer we baptized forty people and then we build a new chapel and oh what a thrill and what joy when God is working. Souls are being saved. and the works going on. I don't know whether Philip preached in a tent what he did, but he went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ, and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. The whole city turned to God. Now the Lord Jesus had been to Samaria. I don't know what remnants were left from his visit, but I'm sure there was, because It says in John four, concerning his visit, when he talked to the woman at the well, and then she went and told the men of the city, And the men said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, For we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
And the Lord Jesus spent two days there in Samaria, and taught these Samaritans many more believed because of his own word, it says. So there was a nucleus in the city of Samaria of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they went down there and the doors were opened and a great work was done. Now then the gospel is going out. This was God's plan. Start at Jerusalem and go out. And it's been going out ever since. It's still going out. It's a great joy to when we were over in Great Britain to meet young people who were recently saved and many were being saved and there's a lot of work going on as there is in this country amongst the youth and God is blessing and souls are being saved.
It's not all falling away and not all declension and everything getting smaller and that's dead and that's dead. I hear them say, oh, what about that? Oh, that's dead, that's dead. It's not all dead. God is moving, God is still on the throne, and souls are being saved, and the gospel is going out. And Philip was in the thrill of this thing, preaching the gospel down in Samaria. The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Now, in the early days of the church's history, God gave special powers as we know.
He gave gifts to men and whilst in Ephesians four the gifts for teaching and building the church are enumerated, the gift of evangelism and teaching and preaching and so on, but in one Corinthians twelve there are other gifts mentioned, the gifts of miracles and healing and God gave those gifts in the days, the early days of the church and they used them. It says, Uncleaned spirits, verse seven, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, many taken with pauses, and that were lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city.
Not only did he preach the gospel, but God gave the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, and a great work was done in those early days. Now, I'm not going to limit the power of God. In our day, God can work miracles still. But generally speaking, those gifts have passed away. They belong to the apostles and these early preachers of the gospel. And that's how God, what God used to establish his church in those days. Now we've got nearly two thousand years of church history. If you want to know how God works and establish the things of God, read what he's done down through the years. God's just the same. But these people got such a blessing.
They got such a lot of physical help as well as spiritual help. But then there's a little black spot here. This man, Simon, came on the scene. He seemed so sincere in the beginning. And it says, He believed. Well, what can I say? When a man believes, I say he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. Of course, you can say, I believe, and you don't believe anything. You believe that Jesus lived and died. That doesn't save you. You've got to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You have to accept him as your personal Savior to be saved. What happened to this man? I don't know. But Peter said to him, you're in a gall of bitterness.
You've done anything about this thing. You've deceived yourself. He actually got baptized. And when he saw that the apostles could put their hands on people and the Holy Ghost fell on them, he said, you give me this power. I want to do this. And he offered the apostles money. That's where they found him out. He said, I'll pay for this. If I can get this thing, I'll pay for it. Now, let's stop a minute. There are hundreds of people in the world today doing this. They may not be paying money to get salvation, but in effect they are. They're giving of their time, of their talent, of their property, and of their money.
I noticed in all these old churches I visited in England, these wonderful old cathedrals and places, there's a band of people working so hard to keep these things up. We went into one old church, the church where Miss Barcomley's mother and father are buried, and she so wanted to take us to see this old churchyard. And there's a man there cutting the grass, working away, He said, it's such a hard job, but I'm at it. I want to keep this place clean. We went to another church. There's a man working in amongst the tombstones, cutting the grass and cleaning it all up, laboring, laboring, laboring in it all through the days.
of the summer working to keep these things going. In their societies for the preservation of the church and the building and everybody working. What are they working for? Well, if they're real saved people and they're working for the glory of God, wonderful. But if they're working to get salvation, oh, what a deception. This man said, I'll give you money if I can only buy this salvation. You can't buy it. And you and I know you can't buy it. You can labor and work and try it, but you can't buy it because salvation is free without money and without price. And Peter said, Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Let's examine our hearts, every one of us. in our own relationships with the things of God. Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. What is our motive? Are we doing it for the glory of God? Are we doing it because we love the Lord? Do we do it because we expect, oh, how many people think that by doing that they earn eternal life? Can't be done that way. He said unto him, Repent of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven. Did he repent?
I hope he did. I don't know. I don't know. We never hear about him again. There are traditions say, some traditions say that he was the first one that was ever known by the name of Antichrist, this man Simon. But I don't know. I would like to hope that he did repent. He says, repent. And he seemed so sincere. He said, Pray the Lord for me. Pray ye the Lord to the Lord for me. That none of these things which he has thrown come upon me. Was he sincere? Did he repent? I can't tell you. But I do know this. For every man and woman it will repent and come to the Lord Jesus Christ for his eternal life. That's the message of the gospel.
Now finally, let's look at these apostles. Peter and John came down from Jerusalem. Because they heard of this great work going on in Samaria, and they had been there with the Lord years before. So they had some link with Samaria, and they went back to see the great work, and they rejoiced at the wonder that God had reached the Samaritans, and God was working with them. And they went back to Jerusalem to make their report. But on the way back, what did they do? They didn't go straight back. They stopped in all the villages and preached the gospel. See what it says? when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
So, don't let's say Peter and John stayed in Jerusalem and they didn't go down. They did. Philip went to the city of Samaria, but Peter and John went to many villages of the Samaritans and preached the word of God, and God blessed. So this is the story of the beginning of the outward reach in the Acts of the Apostles. We'll try and pick it up from there next time we speak. Philip is called from that great work and sent to reach and speak to the Ethiopian eunuch and the Gospels beginning to go out to the Gentiles. May God bless these remarks. Shall we commit ourselves to him? Blessed Lord, we thank you for thy word and we thank you for the accurate record thou hast left.
in the pages of Scripture of the work that thou didst do in those early days of the church's history. Now, Lord, thou art the same today, yesterday and forever. The church is still on earth. Thou hast not yet called us to be with thyself. We expect in thy call any moment now. It's so near the end. But we pray, Lord, that we might be active. We pray for these towns and villages around here where we live and work, that we might make contacts. Help us as we meet men and women day by day that we might make contacts. And we might have the joy of seeing many villages reached, many people reached, many souls saved.
Oh Lord, give us to not waste our time with gossip and talk and bakerings, but may we spend our time on the things that count, getting the gospel out to the people around us. We seek thy blessing and ask thee to lead us on in the precious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.