I'm turning now in the word of God to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, and reading verse one. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, and reading verse one. And Saul 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 our subject for this evening's study is divine momentum. We see here in God's providential dealings with his church, his guiding hand in propelling the work of the gospel forward, moving his church to the next great phase of the commission, their commission, which he had commissioned them. Remember the words of the Savior, go into all the world, preach the gospel in Jerusalem first, then Judea, then Samaria. And after that, well, he said all the parts to the uttermost parts of the earth, but then from there, there would be Asia Minor, then Europe, and then further afield. Well, this is such an important and pivotal point in the New Testament church's history, early church's history. This chapter is such an important phase in the church's history, as we now see that the gospel is going to move beyond Jerusalem and further afield. It's such a wonderful chapter, and there are some encouraging lessons that we can derive from it. At this time in Jerusalem, there are many, many believers. The Lord had so granted his blessing upon the apostles' preaching, starting from the day of Pentecost, and now there were thousands, there were thousands of believers in Jerusalem. And the influence of the Christians in Jerusalem was so great that we might be tempted to think or we might be tempted to say that Christianity in Jerusalem had now reached almost its full potential. the church was bursting at the seams. And so now it was time in God's timetable to move the church by the Spirit of God to the next phase, to expansion of the truth, the expansion of his church beyond the city and to further regions outside the city of Jerusalem and eventually the world. So this is a very pivotal an important chapter in the Book of Acts, this next great phase in the church's work of the gospel. And if we look at the Gospel of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, I beg your pardon, from a bird's eye view, it's so wonderful to see how God is sovereignly leading his church, leading his people, guiding them in all their affairs and in the progress of their gospel labors. We see these things. Indeed, we see that the Gospel of Acts is a bird's-eye view of this brief history, and we see how God works through the difficulties and the persecutions In this chapter, we see this great phase, this next great work, this commission. The Lord Jesus Christ commissioned to his disciples to move the gospel ministry and the truth and the expansion of the church beyond the city. And he himself would ignite it. God himself would ignite this movement. How would he do this? Well, he would remove his restraining hand from the enemies of the church. Stephen would be the first martyr for the church, for the New Testament church, and this martyrdom, this killing of Stephen sparked a great hostility and persecution against the church, and God allowed this to happen. He removed his restraining hand from the enemies of the church, and in doing so, using also persecution, of course, and the Saul of Tarsus being at the forefront of this persecution. And from God's point of view, this would be a motivation for the church then, and God's people then, to spread the gospel further. This is the chief purpose why he did it, why he allowed this persecution to ensue. And Christ himself said this would happen. Christ himself said these things to his disciples. May I remind you of this in Matthew chapter 10 verse 23, speaking to his disciples, but when they persecute you in this city, referring to Jerusalem, flee to another. For verily I say unto you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man come. So when they start persecuting you in Jerusalem, go to another city and spread the word there. This was God's timetable. This was his plan. This is what was happening now. This is the next great phase in Acts chapter eight. But not, of course, not everyone, not all the believers left that city. We read here in verse 1 that all scattered abroad. It's not to be taken in a strictly literal sense. Not every single believer in Jerusalem left. That's the Luke inspired by the Spirit is using hyperbole. So not literally everyone left. Of course, there were some believers left there. We believe that many left Jerusalem, or most left Jerusalem. The apostles were still there, we're told. They were the leaders of this great movement. And whether God inspired the apostles or spoke to them by divine revelation to remain there, we don't know. We're not given any information on that. But they stayed, and they continued to inspire the church there. That was the headquarters of the church. Of course, that would be a foundational church, but that wouldn't be like Rome. There were other churches which would be autonomous, looking to the Lord directly. So, but we see this great work of God. And verse 2, and devout men, brave believers, brave men, devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. By the way, all these things in verses one to three are all happening at the same time. This is all happening in a very short period of time. At the same time, while there was bitter and fierce persecution against the church, Christians at the same time were frantically fleeing the city in their droves. Many were leaving the city. And at the same time, these devout men, these believers were burying Stephen publicly and they were brave in doing so and lamenting and mourning over the death of Stephen. They had lost a great champion of the faith, but they ought not to have mourned as others mourn without hope. Of course, it was perfectly legitimate to do so, to be sorry that they had lost such a servant of God, but Not only if they knew what was going to happen next, if they knew what God was bringing about by the means of persecution, if they could foresee what was going to happen. Well, I don't think they would have mourned as intensely as they did. because not only, well of course they knew this, not only was Stephen now in the presence of his savior in glory, but by means of Stephen's death and the persecution that followed, the blessings, the spiritual blessings that would result from this, including the raising up of dedicated servants of Christ, and we're particularly thinking of the apostles of the Gentiles, that Paul himself, or Saul at that time, Saul himself, bitter persecutor against the church, he himself would be converted and mightily used of God. Well, if they could have foresought seeing these things, they would have not sorrowed as intensely, not to say that their mourning was wrong. Of course, it was right that they were sorry for the loss of such a servant of God, but they no doubt had peace that he was with the Savior. But we read in verses three and four, the intense, and relentless persecution of Saul of Tarsus. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere, preaching the word." The word here, havoc, literally means to lay waste and destroy. So intense was Saul's efforts to stamp out this new heresy, or from his point of view as well. And we read in verse 1 that when Stephen was being stoned, Saul was there holding the outer garments of those who were stoning him, and he was looking on with great satisfaction. He probably had a great sense of satisfaction and even pleasure as he saw Stephen being stoned to death and he consented to it, he endorsed it, he was satisfied and he was zealous to for this to be the fate of many more Christians, as we read in verses 3 and 4, his relentless efforts. He was a key organizer, if not the key organizer, in this wave of persecution against the church. He was ruthless, he was cruel, he was pitiless, and As I said the word havoc literally means laid waste or destroy. He was like a bloodhound Sniffing out this new heresy wherever it could be found going from house to house searching out Houses to see if he could find these Christians and when he found them where the men or woman he violently dragged them out of their houses to the prison and he was he His appetite to stamp out this faith and his zeal for it was insatiable he gives testimony of this later on when he when he comes to the Lord and he returns to Jerusalem and The people he has a chance to share his testimony with the people He says this in Acts chapter 22 verse 4. I persecuted this way unto death He so hated Christians. He so hated Christ. I persecuted this way unto death Binding and delivering into prisons men and woman so he would stop at nothing. But he didn't realize, the apostle didn't realize, or not the apostle, not yet at any rate, but the apostle, Saul, the persecutor, he didn't realize that the greater efforts he put into persecuting the church, the greater the Lord would use his efforts to spread the truth and the gospel and the church. God was using Saul and his persecution and others with him to spread the faith like wildfire. And Saul didn't realize this, that he was actually promoting the faith through his attempt to destroy the faith. And we see this glorious truth revealed in verse four. Therefore, they that were scattered as a result of the persecution, scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the word. And this wonderful truth is repeated in scripture and in other places in the scripture. Let me just turn your attention to a few verses. Psalm 76, verse 10. Listen to this. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. Was that not the case with Saul? His wrath and his bitter hatred towards Christ and the church? In God's providence, the Lord was glorified through it. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain. And the testimony of Joseph with his brothers. Genesis chapter 50 verse 20. But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. How wonderful are God's ways, past understanding, using the evil plots of men, turning their plots and schemes upon their head for his own glory and for the expansion of his truth and the salvation of souls. These things are marvelous in our eyes. We see the work of God and how he's sovereign over all these things. And we need to hold this truth dear to our hearts, dear brethren. We need to really appreciate this truth because we're living in difficult days. We're living in days of such rampant atheism and unbelief and growing antagonism towards the church. And so this particular truth of how God can use the difficulties that we go through and when we see the hardness of people's hearts and the hostility they have, well, we must endeavor not to be discouraged by these things. We must come to the promises and we must remember truths like this, that God can use these things and the difficulties that we go through to open doors, to open doors of opportunity for the gospel. Just as God went before the early church and he was ordering the events of the church, we see God was moving his church to further expand the gospel. They didn't plan these things, but God went before them. and using painful events like persecution and martyrdom to open further doors of outreach and expansion. And God will do the same for us. We serve him, we look to him by faith, and sometimes we can go through painful trials and difficulties in our lives and as a church, but God can use these things. He's working behind the scenes. We don't know what's coming next, but we believe by faith that he will, that he will guide us and he will and he will bless these things. He's preparing us, not only for heaven, but he's preparing us for future service. Thou therefore must be a good soldier, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Lord will use me, even me. Often when a door, sometimes when a door of opportunity closes for us as a church or as individuals, it may be the reason that God is opening a door somewhere else. He doesn't want our attention to be so diverted with this particular issue. He's causing affliction and trial in this area So there's another door can be open We don't know but we but this is why it's so important as God's people that we commit all our labors to him in prayer Because we understand and here we have an example in Acts chapter 8 that it was God that was directing the church what to do next by the ordering by his sovereign ordering of persecution coming in. He didn't create the persecution. He didn't create the evil, but he used it to open a door of opportunity. And so when we, this is why we have prayer meetings. This is why we commit everything to the Lord first, because we believe he will move and go before us and prepare hearts, open doors of opportunity. He will do it. We're convinced he will. Think of the apostle Paul when he did become an apostle, when he was converted and His first imprisonment, it wouldn't be his last, but when he was first in prison for the gospel, did his gospel labors come to an end now that he was in prison, now that this door of opportunity was closed? Was that it for the apostle? Well, not according to his words. I just draw your attention to this in Philippians chapter one, verse 12. But I would, ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me, speaking about his imprisonment, The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds, my chains in Christ are manifest in all the palace and all other places. My testimony in prison is spreading like wildfire. Roman soldiers I'm speaking to them when they come when what my gods who are with me I'm sharing the gospel with them and they in turn are sharing the gospel with others My the influences is spreading. God is using me Yes, he's closed one door, but he's opened another door and this is how we must see it in our situation as well We walk by faith not by sight. We believe that the Lord will open doors for us and Well, we draw our attention now to verses, from verse five onwards, the Holy Spirit pays special attention to Philip and his ministry as he flees Jerusalem. And he is guided, I'm sure, by the Spirit to go to Samaria. 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 a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and That were lame were healed and there was great joy in that city so now the Philip is flees Jerusalem and he goes to Samaria at first we're not going to cover the the witness to the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch in this study. God willing, we'll look at it next week. But we're just going to look at this ministry in Samaria with the message, following the last remaining moments of this message. So God sends Philip to Samaria. He preaches the gospel and The Lord so blesses the gospel ministry there. The Lord is so with him. And so much so that there is revival in that place. There's revival in the city. Many people are turning to the Lord. And God blesses his servant and authenticates the gospel preaching with miracles. Demons being cast out of people people who are crippled being healed and many other miracles like it Because Philip is very closely associated with the Apostles and my and he loves the Lord and he's fully committed and persuaded to preach the gospel God is with him and authenticates him with miracles following his preaching and so there's great revival in that city, but I also believe that that this revival in Samaria can be traced back to the ministry of Christ. Because Christ visited Samaria, as I'm sure you know. In John chapter four, he goes to the well at Samaria and he speaks to the Samaritan woman. And I'm persuaded, and I'm sure you are as well, that When Christ spoke to the woman, then she goes and tells the people in the city, and they themselves listened to Christ. Well, let me just quote you some of these verses. The Lord Jesus Christ prepared the ground for Philip. John chapter 4 verses 39 through to 42 and This is the Christ in Samaria and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified He told me all that I ever did so when the Samaritans were come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days and many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying but For we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. So by the time Philip arrives, God has prepared the ground. Christ has prepared the ground for him. And we pray that will be the case with us as we pray in our gospel endeavors, as we plan to do things, we pray that the Lord will go before us and prepare hearts. But now the people in verse 8, they're rejoicing. There is such great joy in the city, not merely because people were healed of their infirmities and demons were cast out so that people were no longer enslaved by these demonic entities, but the greatest reason for rejoicing surely was because of the newfound faith of these people, their faith in the Savior, the newfound faith which they had discovered. The spread of the gospel is not without trouble, as we see here in the following verses. But there was a certain man, verse 9, called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, magic arts, and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was a 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 of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. So the people so revered this man, they believed he was God's mouthpiece. They believed he was some great and powerful one, and that he possessed such miraculous and supernatural gifts, he possessed no such power. But he used his trickery, his magic arts to, well, by trickery and fraud, he deceived people into thinking that he possessed great power, and he didn't. But when Philip arrived on the scene preaching the gospel, the reputation of Simon would be absolutely shattered. because there would be true authentic power, the true authentic power of God. And as Philip preached the gospel, God authenticated his servant with miracles, with wonderful miracles that you couldn't deny. And this happens as well today in a similar way. When the gospel is preached and God in his grace blesses the gospel preached, he also does the same. Not in... in those days with people, although God can heal people if we pray for them and so on, but chiefly through the means of what God does in hearts and people's lives when the gospel is preached as well. The systems of this world which people rely on and depend upon can be shattered through the preaching of the gospel as the gospel truth is revealed. God takes away the scales from people's eyes as they realize that these things cannot help them. They cannot depend upon these things. They realize and they understand that they're being deceived by their own hearts and their appetites. And these things can only be understood, these spiritual realities, when the gospel is preached and when it's attended with God's power. So we take encouragement from this. People understand that this world is fading away, and they cannot pacify the cravings of the soul, things people accumulate and what people are into nowadays. And sometimes people do these things to try extinguish that guilt they have inside, but it's vain. It's a vain attempt. Actually, the guilt becomes worse. And when they hear the gospel, And God so works in their hearts. They understand these things. They know what the problem is. They've never understood it before, but they realize. And when by faith, they see Christ and his great love and mercy and compassion. And they realize that all these other things are broken systems and useless, as that Sunday school hymn, that wonderful Sunday school hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look on his wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Well, again, this is an encouragement to us because we believe and are persuaded that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. and to everyone who believes. And this is God's testimony of his revealed truth. So we endeavor to preach it and to proclaim it and speak of it at every opportunity we can. But Philip is mightily blessed. He is so blessed by God's spirit and the proclamation of the gospel that even Simon himself is moved by these things. We read of this from verse 12. And when they believed, many, many people believed Philip's, by his preaching, the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, wondering and beholding the miracles and the signs which were done. Now, when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that the Samaritans had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come, they downed, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. And it goes on to explain in these verses that as the apostles were laying hands on people and they were praying for them and they received the Holy Ghost, that Simon was looking at this and he was thinking to himself, well, he was greatly moved by Philip's ministry and especially the miracles. He was deeply impressed by these things and he made a profession of faith. But as we read down this chapter and these verses, we discover, well, it wasn't genuine faith. Because when he sees the Holy Spirit falling upon these other Gentile believers, he thinks to himself, well, if I could have this power that the apostles have, and if I could distribute the Holy Ghost at will, the Holy Spirit at will, think of the fortune I could make selling this gift to others. This is what Simon was thinking. I can give you money. He said to the apostles, I can give you money, lots of money, and you can give me this gift as well so I can sell it on to others and make a fortune. This is what Simon was thinking. And you have the apostle Peter's response in verse 20. But Peter said unto him, 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. Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond, the slavery of iniquity." So Peter's rebuke, it was very severe, but it needed to be. It needs to be severe because Simon had to realize that it was unthinkable that salvation or the Holy Spirit could be purchased with money. It was an absolute abomination what he was thinking. And the very idea that the gift of salvation or the Holy Spirit could be earned, as we say this today as well to people, People have this wrong idea, and it's natural because we're fallen, that we've got to earn salvation. And we must explain to people that this is absolutely scandalous. It's a gift. It cannot be earned. But this is what Simon was thinking. Think how much money I can earn from this as I give other people the Holy Spirit. And I can earn so much money, and I can give these people other power. Peter, give me this gift. give me this ability to distribute the Holy Ghost to others. This was his thinking. He was totally dominated by greed in his desire to do this. Although he was moved, he was probably like the seed that fell upon thorns, that he thought he was a genuine believer, but the riches of this world choked the seed and he was consumed with covetousness. He wanted to make money by distributing the Holy Spirit. And this, sadly, the spirit of Simon lives on today. It's alive and well today. That you think of the so many prosperity preachers and how these charlatans are making an absolute fortune in Bleeding that well, they see churches as gold mines They see their churches as a golden goose and a cash cow and they make so much money millions of the not just their congregations, but to those who give them through their TV programs and so on and they bleed they bleed the people of God not the people because many of them sadly are not even converted and but they bleed their congregations dry, promising them wealth and health and a prosperous life and sow your seed, give me your money and God will give you a hundredfold back. All these completely false lies and you hear of this, you feel so sorry for these people, these poor, gullible people. They will often Take out loans and and use credit cards to to send money to these Preachers to their to fund their opulent and luxurious lifestyle Lifestyles to pay to pay for a second private jet or another sports car. It's absolutely scandalous so the spirit of Simon lives on today with many who are using the worship of God and the Church of God for money and It's so sad, but not only not only this but you you you also you also see today um churches who uh they will especially the ones who are do this professionally they pollute god's worship and then they make it professional and they sell it to record labels and they make millions they make millions of pounds or dollars and they just use god's worship as a means to make money It's scandalous. Well, they would do well, people who are guilty of this would do well to lay to heart Peter's rebuke to Simon, because it's the spirit of Simon. It's what so many, well, people who take the worship of God and use it as a means to make money, or those who milk the people of God, or those in these congregations, bleed them dry, promising them prosperity and success in every field of life. Their motives seem to be identical to Simon's here. Well, despite this incident in here in Simon's, well, his covetousness and the fact that his confession of faith was not genuine, despite this trouble which the apostles and Philip encounter, we see nevertheless, we see the wonderful providence of God in this chapter, how he's guiding his people, how he's guiding his churches, how he's guiding the church into the next phase of spreading the gospel beyond Jerusalem into Samaria, into Judea, into Egypt. after this in Asia Minor, after that Europe, after that further on to the uttermost parts of the world. We begin in this chapter, we begin in this chapter for the first time, we start to see the prophecies of the Old Testament coming to life. We see the many prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the gathering in of the Gentiles starting to come into being in this chapter, this next great phase. But the The history of the church, well, it doesn't end with them. It doesn't end with the Acts of the Apostles. The day of grace is, we're still living in the gospel age. We're still living in the age of grace. And we trust and we look to the Lord that he may lead us also to this next phase of gospel expansion, even in our day and age, and even in our church. Amen.