Our king is still on the throne. Okay, Acts chapter 8. Remember Saul, who later on becomes known as the Apostle Paul, he's going around persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem. Now, it's the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians that are targeted here because they were the first to see, like Stephen, they were the first to see that Jesus had fulfilled the temple sacrifices. There was a lot of money to be made in the temple and there was a lot of tradition. And people don't let go of traditions too easily, okay? So, they didn't have patience for the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians. So at this point, the apostles were safe to stay in Jerusalem. but Stephen was put to death, Philip fled, a lot of the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians had to flee, and we talked about that, that we might have to flee, but we must still preach Jesus, okay? Believe me, I like being safe. I like being healthy. I love being free. But God didn't put me on this earth to be comfortable. Okay? God didn't put you on this earth to be comfortable. We were created for one reason. That is to know Jesus and to proclaim his name throughout the earth. And so we live for Jesus. He died for us. Least we could do is live for him, 2 Corinthians 5, 15. So we might have to flee, but even if we flee, we preach along the way. And that's what Philip was doing. So, Philip ends up going to Samaria. You know, if you have maps in your Bibles, in the back, you'll see that, you know, Israel during the time of Jesus or during the time of the apostles, and you'll see that Jerusalem is to the south, and he's fleeing north towards Samaria, the next region. So, there's a region of Judea, then there's Samaria and then there's Galilee to the north and the cream of the crop Jews they lived in Judea around Jerusalem and then the lesser respected, less respected Jews lived in Galilee to the north but Samaritans were hated by the Jews because the Samaritans were Gentiles who claimed to be Jews, who thought they were Jews because the Assyrians had conquered that area when they conquered the ten northern tribes took the Jews captive, the Israelites captive and then repopulated the land with Assyrians, with Gentiles. So there were probably some Israelites still there but they intermarried so much so The Samaritans were a reminder of one of the biggest shameful defeats in the history of Israel, and so it was a slap in the face to Jewish pride, and then these were Gentiles going around saying, we're Jews too. And so the Jews are going on saying, we're the chosen nation of God. And the Samaritans are saying, well us too. And so the Jews hated it so much they wouldn't even allow the Samaritans into the court of the Gentiles in the temple. So the Samaritans ended up building an alternative temple which God never accepted in Samaria. So, Philip though is understanding, he's understanding, he's not as caught up with Jewish tradition, and bogged down by Jewish tradition, he sees that Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial laws, so he understands, wow, he actually understands whether he heard it or not, or read about it or not, he actually understands Jesus' message to the Samaritan woman. She asked Jesus, where are we going to worship? You Jews say you worship in a temple? We Samaritans worship on this mountaintop. Who's right? And Jesus said, a time is coming, and now is, when you'll neither worship God on this mountaintop or in Jerusalem. For God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus broke down the wall. The wall of separation between the pagan Gentiles and the Jews. Jesus is our peace. Philip got it, and because he got it, that nationalistic Jewish pride reached a boiling point to where they had no place for the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians, and they had to flee, and so he had to flee. So he's one of the seven deacons, he's on the most wanted list. These guys, the apostles were not even wanted at this point. The Jews were taking Gamaliel's advice, you know, just leave the guys alone, we'll see if it's from God at this point. And so they're, the persecution of the very Jewish, the Hebrew-speaking Jewish Christians, they're not being messed with. But it's the Greek-speaking ones that are realizing, you know what, we don't need to offer sacrifice in the temple anymore, Jesus has fulfilled that. And So Philip's on the most wanted list, one of the seven deacons, remember? Picked in Act 6 to wait on tables of the Greek-speaking Jewish widows who weren't getting as much food. Their needs weren't being met like the Hebrew Jewish Christian widows. And so he preaches Jesus, he performs miracles, an entire multitude accepts Christ. The problem is he baptized them in Jesus' name. Throughout Acts you find them baptizing people in Jesus' name. Now take a look at what Jesus' command was in Matthew 28. And this is His command, not only to the apostles, but it's to us as well. Matthew 28, 19 and 20, in fact we'll start at verse 18. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now when you're battered and beaten, you're feeling like you're alone, don't tell yourself, well, most of the authority has been given to Jesus. That's false, that's a lie from the pits of hell. Jesus doesn't have most authority. He has all authority. If this government decides it's going to declare war on Christians, I think it already has, and they come down on you, the powerful people of this world, and they start beating you, you just got to remember, Any authority they have is given to them by the Lord, just like Jesus said to Pilate. All authority has been given to Jesus, nothing is going to happen to me, nothing's going to happen to you, no matter how bad, nothing is going to happen to you without Jesus giving the okay. And if Jesus gives the okay, some way, shape, or form, he's going to work it for good. You might say, well, Pastor Phil, how can he work what I'm going through for good? I don't know, I'm not God. We got a God who's infinitely wise. If I have all the answers, it's a false God that I'm preaching. Okay? We better study His Word. If God has spoken, you better study His Word. And you better handle accurately the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2.15. But the idea that we have all the answers, He didn't give us all the answers. If He gave us all the answers, we wouldn't be able to handle it. Okay? But he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. It's not our goal to lead people to Christ. It's our goal to lead people to Christ and disciple them. It's our goal to make mature Christians. So if you lead somebody to Christ, you better get them plugged into a good, solid Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. Get them plugged into weekly Bible studies. Otherwise, we know better than the guy who makes babies and doesn't take care of them and goes somewhere else. You lead people, somebody to Jesus, you're their spiritual father, like it or not. You could be twenty years old and you just led a ninety-year-old guy to Christ, well right now you're his spiritual father. And you gotta take care, you gotta care about that person's well-being. Quality discipleship is what the Great Commission is all about. Go therefore and make disciples You know, if you're living a totally undisciplined life in all ways, are you really a disciple? That's where we get the word discipline from. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So, he commanded the apostles, and us as well, to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, throughout the book of Acts, it says that they went and baptized in the name of Jesus. They baptized people in Jesus' name. they didn't quite understand who this Holy Spirit is. Now I think after they thought for a while on John chapters 14, 15, and 16 and Jesus' baptism they figured out the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. The one true God is three persons. But they didn't have it totally figured out. I mean it was crazy enough for them to start worshiping Jesus alongside the Father and acknowledging that they're two distinct persons and still saying, but I only worship one God. How could you worship two persons and only worship one God? Well, there's one God, there's at least two persons. Well, now they're slowly finding out about the third person of the Trinity. We'll come back to Acts chapter 8, verse 14, Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, pretty much to investigate. They probably freaked out. What? The Samaritans? And then, you know, John said, hey, you know, Jesus did preach to the Samaritan woman, a whole village got saved. They're not outside the sphere of those who are savable. They can be salvaged, they can be saved. And so they sent them. Peter and John, the two leading apostles to go check it out, who when they had come down, if you look on a map it looks like they're going up, they're going north. But that's not the way, you couldn't even afford scrolls, you didn't even look at maps back then. So when you're talking about going up and going down, it's because Jerusalem is on four mountaintops. So when you leave Jerusalem, you're going down, okay? And so, and so they, and when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. These are people who are already saved. Verse 16, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. I think at this early stage of Christianity, you see, you've got a, it's a really crazy time. You've got Old Testament saints. See, how were the Old Testament saints saved? They were saved the same way we were. In the same way we are saved. We're saved by God's grace alone. It's a free gift, you can't earn it. Through faith alone. You don't trust in yourself, you trust in Jesus. By God's grace alone, through faith alone and Jesus alone. Okay? Now they didn't know what Jesus' name was going to be. But even before the Jews came into existence through Abraham and his son Isaac, even before they came into existence, right from the garden, God promised there's going to be a man born a woman who's going to crush the head of the serpent, who's going to defeat Satan, even though he gets bruised in the process. It was a prediction of a suffering Savior. And Judaism did not stifle that proclamation. It made it even more clear that he's going to come from the Jews through Abraham's seed. all nations will be blessed. God blessed Israel to be a blessing to all nations. God never blesses us so that we're blessed. He always blesses us to be a blessing to others. God blessed Israel and chose Israel because He wanted to bless all mankind and He wanted all mankind to come to His salvation. And So this proclamation went out, so the Jews were supposed to, if you're a Jew in the Old Testament, you got saved because you said, look, I'm trusting in Yahweh, the God of Israel, who will someday send Messiah to save me. Okay? And I'm trying to obey God's laws. They're good guidelines for living, but God demands obedience from the heart. I can't do that. I fall short. So the law is a substitute teacher leading me back to belief in Messiah. The bloodshed of animals doesn't take away my sins, but someday God will send the Lamb of God. who will take away the sins of the world. And so you've got to understand, there were many Jews, thousands of Jews who were already saved, who didn't even know yet that Jesus was the Messiah. They were trusting in Him, but they didn't know. So you've got that going on, okay? Then you've got people getting saved and they never even heard of the Holy Spirit. Okay? The church, they were already believers, and then on the Feast of Pentecost, they got baptized with the Spirit. Here we see the Samaritans get saved, and they're not yet baptized with the Holy Spirit, and they get baptized later on. Okay? We find that in different cases. Cornelius, in Acts chapter 10, it's weird, they get baptized with the Holy Spirit even before they get water baptized, while Peter's preaching. they start speaking in tongues and so it's like wow Peter says they're saved and they're Gentiles I can't withhold water baptism from them so they were already saved and baptized with the spirit before even being water baptized now there's a big debate going on in the church and it's been going on for centuries about whether or not Salvation and baptism with the Holy Spirit are one event now, or two events later. And we don't have time to look at it, but Jesus says, look, I'm going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, or John the Baptist says about Jesus, one comes after me, I baptize with water, one's going to come who's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. A lot of people go around and say, I'm baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. No, you're not. It's either or. It's not both ends. The very next verse, Matthew 3.12, explains God gathers the wheat into the barn, symbolic of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and salvation, and then burns up all the chaff, all the garbage with unquenchable fire, symbolic of hell. So it seems to me that this is a transitional period. Peter says this baptism now saves you. So it seems to me, you get baptized with the Holy Spirit the moment you first believe now. Now having said that, I would take a better safe than sorry approach. When you lead somebody to Christ for salvation, also pray that they receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind, the Old Testament saints, they had to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they had to be born again to be saved. You'll even see King Saul got a new heart. Okay? The Holy Spirit had to apply the work of Christ, which was yet to be done, to the heart of the Old Testament saints for them to be saved. Yet, the Holy Spirit did not indwell them, and the Holy Spirit did not fill them, and the Holy Spirit did not baptize them. See, being baptized, being immersed with the Holy Spirit is the first filling of the Holy Spirit that you receive, and I believe you receive that when you first trust in Jesus for salvation. Now here's such a transitional period, people are just finding out who Jesus is, it's going to be a while before they even find out who the Holy Spirit is. Okay? Like I say, when you lead people to Christ, also pray that God baptizes them with the Holy Spirit. Okay? And so, it says, verse 17, then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. And so they're baptized with the Holy Spirit. We don't have time to look at it when you get a chance. Look at 1 Corinthians 12, that whole chapter. Paul says to the Corinthians, all of you, have been baptized with the Holy Spirit but then he says but not all you speak in tongues not all you have this gift not all you have that gift don't force your gift on other people but the Holy Spirit baptizes us and empowers us to do work in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come down and anoint the king of Israel and the high priest Jesus predicted in John chapters 14, 15, and 16, the Holy Spirit will come to you, I'm gonna send him to you, so you will not be an orphan. And he'll be in you, and he'll empower you, and he'll guide you into all the truth. And so, this is why Jesus said to John the Baptist, there was no man born a woman, excepting Jesus of course, no man born a woman greater than John the Baptist up to that point, but Jesus said the least. in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Because we got something John the Baptist never got. We get the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And so we've got to remind ourselves that there is more to salvation than just being forgiven. Let me repeat that. There's more to salvation than just being forgiven. We are also empowered by the Holy Spirit. Okay, when you keep making excuses and say, well pastor, I can't be godly because this, or I can't be godly because that, or I can't be all that God's calling me to be, you're actually bad-mouthing your God. Because Jesus didn't leave you as an orphan. He didn't leave me as an orphan. We've got the Holy Spirit indwelling us. He regenerates us, gives us a new birth like the Old Testament, but then He indwells us, and then He fills us to overflowing. And that first filling to overflowing is called the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But then you get many fillings there. Anytime you step outside of God's will, you need to be filled again. You can't be filled with the Spirit without prayer, without study of God's Word. You've got to cling to God moment by moment, day by day. And again, I'm going to give you this illustration. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit is like you're driving the car and the Holy Spirit's in the passenger side seat. That's being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Being filled by the Holy Spirit, you move to the passenger side seat and the Holy Spirit's driving. So it's not like you get more of the Holy Spirit when you get filled. He gets more of you. Being filled with the Spirit and being controlled by the Spirit are synonymous. Okay? In the New Testament, they're synonymous. And it may have been Some would say the text seems to imply that God postponed the baptism with the Holy Spirit because they had never heard of the Holy Spirit and Peter and Philip only baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. Others speculate that, you know, God, there may be another reason why God postponed the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that was so Peter and John and the Jerusalem church, the Jewish church, would see that the same Holy Spirit who regenerates and works through Jewish Christians is also at work in Gentile Christians, even Samaritans. even Samaritans. The Jews used to refer to Samaritans as dogs. That's why when Jesus gave the parable of the good Samaritan as an example of what being a good neighbor is all about, it blew away the Jewish religious leaders. It'd be like our media today never likes to show Christians in a positive light because it's got an anti-Christian narrative, an anti-Christian agenda. Well, the Jews had an anti-Samaritan agenda and Jesus was saying, no, I am such a big God, I can work even with the Samaritans. Now, by the way, just look at Luke. verses 9 to 13, Luke 11 verses 9 to 13 Jesus says this, so I say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be opened to you everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened so there's a lot of, you know false teachers on television saying, therefore, you know, claim a Corvette in Jesus' name. Just ask for it in Jesus' name. He's got to give it to you. That's not what he's saying. Look at verse 11. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. I'll stop there for a second. If you ask God the Father, in Jesus' name, for a good gift, God will give it to you. The problem is, what we think is good and what God knows is good for us is often, more often than not, two different things. Okay? We almost always say, God, take this period of suffering, this trial, from me. And God's like, no, I'm using this trial to cause you to grow, to catch your attention, bring you closer to me, to get you to stop trusting in your own wisdom, in your own power. So often what we think is good and what God knows is good for us are two different things. God knows how to give a good gift. Jesus said, you know, You know, I don't think I'm reading too much in the text there. If a little baby, a little child asks his father for a serpent or a loaded gun, the father would say no. I'm not...so you can ask, you can ask in Jesus' name for bad gifts. If God knows it's bad for you, God's going to say no. Okay? The secret of prayer is not dragging God off the throne to do your will. The secret of prayer is you, your will rising up so you desire for your life what God desires for your life. Okay? I think as you grow closer to the Lord, you stop praying less and less for selfish things and more and more for what is God's will. I remember praying with a bunch of Christians from a third world country who were being persecuted and uh... it wasn't a bunch it was about three of them and uh... and they asked me to lead them in prayer and so I prayed that God remove the suffering from them and they stopped me they said we're not asking for that prayer we're asking that just God comforts us in the midst of our suffering and uses our suffering for his glory okay I was thinking about their safety and well-being. They stopped me because they were thinking about the kingdom of God. Okay? Oh, that we would have that perspective. We'll get it. We'll get it. The way our government's going, we're going to be spiritually walking on water. We're going to be doing real good in our walks with the Lord because there's not going to be anything on this earth. for us to be attracted to anymore after the government gets through with us. Verse 13, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give, what does it say there? The Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. See, so the whole context about asking, seeking, and knocking According to Luke's Gospel, the whole thing there is that the ultimate thing to ask God for is more and more of His Holy Spirit. Well, basically, ask for the Holy Spirit and God's not going to deny you. If you're trusting in Jesus for salvation and you ask for the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name, you'll receive it. Okay? So, baptism with the Holy Spirit is not just for special Christians, it's for all Christians. I tend to think that once you trust in Jesus for salvation, you also get baptized with the Holy Spirit and that this is a transitional period. In case I'm wrong, when you lead people to Jesus, also pray that they get baptized with the Holy Spirit. Okay? And then don't dictate to God what gifts you receive. The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts of the Spirit as He wills according to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But remember, there's more to salvation than being forgiven. We are also empowered by the Holy Spirit. So you're not just supposed to be a forgiven person who just stays home and watches TV. or just search the internet or whatever it is you do. You're supposed to be a saved person who is forgiven and empowered to serve the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob. By Peter and John investigating the situation and baptizing the Samaritans with the Holy Spirit, God is showing them that there's only one church. whether it's Jew, Samaritan, or Gentile, we all make up one church, okay? And there are no second-class Christians. So Peter and John investigate the situation, baptize the new converts with the Holy Spirit, And now in verses 18 to 25, Peter has to confront Simon the sorcerer. Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about Simon the sorcerer and a guy who was into occultic magic, demonically empowered guy. He makes a profession of faith in Jesus and Philip baptizes him. And you might be thinking, boy, that was a big mistake for Philip to baptize that guy. Not really. When a person makes a profession of faith in Christ and you explain the gospel message to them, you have no way of knowing if they're lying. And in the early church, you make a profession of faith, they baptize you on the spot. It's only in America that we have a one-year training course or whatever it may be, and most people don't make it through that, so we got a bunch of people who say, yeah, I'm a follower of Jesus, I've just never been baptized. Okay? Water baptism does not save, but once you are saved, the first thing Jesus commands you to do is get water baptized. Okay? And so, Simon the sorcerer had been baptized. Well, let's look and see if he's a true believer. Verse 18, And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. They laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit. If I laid hands on you and prayed for you to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and you get baptized with the Holy Spirit, how would somebody know? Okay? Well, in some cases, not in all, but in some cases, being baptized with the Holy Spirit, some people would start speaking in tongues like the church did on the Feast of Pentecost. Look at Acts chapter 10, and Verses 44 to 48, Peter's preaching to the Gentiles, to Cornelius, Acts chapter 10, 44 to 48, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. Well, how do you know the Holy Spirit fell upon them? because there was some outward manifestation. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. Well, how did they know that the Holy Spirit was poured out on them? For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. then Peter answered can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord then they asked him to stay a few days so I'm assuming now there's no evidence that everywhere throughout all time especially since in the book of Acts it's a historical narrative it doesn't always say this is what happened therefore do likewise Okay? It's a historical narrative, you've got to put it in its proper context. At the same time, Simon the Sorcerer saw something and he said, wow, that made a change, so there had to be something outward that he saw and said, I want that power to do that. Okay? And so I think that in this passage they were speaking in tongues. Okay? It's possible they could have just been prophesying or something but something that really stuck out I think that they were probably speaking in tongues at that point and it's kind of like the first Jews, the first Gentiles, the first Samaritans to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, God made sure that it was made so manifest outwardly that there would be no confusion that the same thing that happened to the Jews on the Feast of Pentecost was also happening to the Samaritans and later on to the Gentiles. Okay? Now let me say this, There are some churches out there, hyper-Pentecostal churches, not Pentecostal churches, I don't have a problem with Pentecostal or charismatic churches, but hyper-Pentecostal churches where they'll pray over you for baptism with the Holy Spirit and then they think you have to speak in tongues. And if you don't, they'll say, okay, repeat after me. Okay? There's one church in Seattle that behind closed doors, if you can't get it, They take you to a back room and they'll try everything, the last resort is they make you say the alphabet as fast as you can. If you went to a church where they made you say it backwards, say the alphabet real fast backwards. Let me tell you, tongues can come from one of three places. It can come from God and it's a gift of the Holy Spirit. Okay? Not everybody has the gift of tongues. Number two, not every believer has to give the tongues. Number two, it could come from man. You can go to one of these churches, they say, just say the alphabet real quick, over and over again, and then you gotta practice your prayer language, and you get better and better at it. Okay? And then the third possibility, it could come from the demonic realm. You got people who don't know ancient Latin, don't know ancient Hebrew, that are demon possessed and during exorcisms have been known to speak in languages they were never taught. So this is something that the demonic realm can counterfeit. Okay? So we've got to be very, very careful. I had a guy that I was counseling. He still roams the streets of Bremerton with a far away look and but he was practicing his prayer language like he was told when he was 19 and he had a good job already and everything I confirmed it what he said through his mother talked to her on the phone but He said he was praying in his prayer language for over two hours on his knees on the floor in his apartment and then he said cartoon characters jumped off the wall into his head and from that day on he's been hearing voices. And now the poor guy they put him on all kinds of hallucinogenic drugs to try to give him some, he's on government assistance, can't hold work, still hears voices. And I asked this young man, just give me two weeks of not praying in your prayer language. Okay? To see where it's from. So basically what I am saying is God wants us to have all the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He doesn't want you to pick. Say, I don't want patience or self-control, I'll have the love and the joy. No, the Holy Spirit wants to bear all this fruit in your life. But when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts as He wills. Okay? There's too many people trying to force other people to have their gifts. I have the tendency to do that. As soon as a guy gets saved, I think, okay, this guy, I'm going to have to start training this guy to be a preacher. And he might not have the gift of teaching. He might not have any desire to be a preacher. But I just, you know, I'm like Paul, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. I can't even imagine living without preaching. So it's easy, I'm so in love with serving Jesus, it's easy for me to forget, to restrain myself, and I start thinking everybody should have my gift. Well, there's people who do that with tongues, there's people who do that with the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing. Let me tell you, It's the fruit of the Spirit that will determine your spiritual maturity, but allow the Holy Spirit, pray to the Holy Spirit, say, I don't want, Holy Spirit, I don't want to quench you, but I don't want to grieve you either. Grieve, when you grieve the Holy Spirit, you start a fire He never wanted started. You're sinning, okay? When you quench the Holy Spirit, you don't, you put out a fire that He wants started. So if the Holy Spirit wants to do something through you, allow him to do that. Okay? But don't think because my friend Johnny has this gift, I gotta have that gift too. You know? And by the way, if we all have the same gift, we're not a body. We're like a bunch of elbows. A bunch of elbows. You could pile up elbows up to here and you don't have even one body. Okay? The body of Christ needs elbows. It also needs forearms, it needs hands, it needs eyes, it needs a mouth, it needs a nose, the list goes on and on. And so if you think, boy, I don't have his gifts, praise God. Okay? Probably one of my biggest failures in building the church throughout the years is I tend to attract guys who have the same gifts as me. rather than attracting guys who have gifts that complement my gifts. Then when I find one whose gifts complement my gifts, then I gotta be real prayerful that I don't work the guy to death. Okay, not speaking about anybody in particular, Pat. But, you know, I'm zero on technology. He knows how to do things I can't even imagine doing through technology and because of people like him, I could preach to 60 people on Sunday and then it goes out to thousands throughout the week and throughout the months and throughout the years. But whatever the case, understand that you just want to use the gifts that God has given you. So they baptize with the Holy Spirit, they're probably speaking in tongues, Simon the Sorcerer says, I want that, that's a power I don't have. Okay? Let me tell you, Simon the Sorcerer is not the first guy to follow Jesus because he wanted power. Okay? Seems to me Judas Iscariot, he was pro-Messiah. He wanted to see Messiah come. He was pro-Jewish. If he were in America today, he'd be like a patriot. Okay? he thought Jesus might be the Messiah so he followed Jesus because he wanted the political power then when Jesus kept talking about they're going to kill me I'm going to die and then I'm going to rise from the dead and he kept thinking look if he's not going to lead a rebellion against Rome if he's not in it for the power if every time we gather thousands of people and he thinks that they're not following him for the right reasons he pushes them away by what he says I want to be where the power is And Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. Then when he found out that the Jewish religious leaders considered the money blood money, and his God was dead because his God was political power, he hung himself. But Simon the Sorcerer was a guy who was just in it for power. See, let me tell you something. He's the same with the gifts of the Spirit too, by the way. Don't fall in love with the gifts. The gifts are supernatural abilities, supernatural powers given to you by the Holy Spirit to do what God's called you to do, fulfill your mission. Don't fall in love with the gifts because then you'll stop falling in love with the gift giver. Okay? Just fall in love with Jesus. Just stay right up there. Don't even come down from Calvary. If you're in your 90s, like, remember Stella in her 90s in prayer work? She never got far away from Calvary. People could say, well, she wasn't the greatest theologian on the earth. Duh, what does that mean? She was a woman whose heart never left Calvary. She was there with Jesus. Calvary, she was there with him at the empty tomb. and fall in love with the gift giver and then don't quench his spirit. And Simon saw that through laying on the hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, your money perish with you. because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither pardon nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, that means turn from your sin, repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Then Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. So Simon, the sorcerer, tried to buy spiritual power from the apostles. He was not a true believer. Peter tells him his money would perish with him. You see, not all who profess to believe are true believers. What's even worse than that, if a person has charisma and people follow that person, if that person is not a true believer, then they're a great candidate for being wolves in sheep's clothing in the church. Okay? You don't have to look far today for wolves in sheep's clothing, just turn on the television set. Now there's, you know, I am so, I'll tell you, I'm so bummed out. On Saturday nights, I can turn on one Christian station and Billy Graham is preaching a powerful message from the Lord. And then I turn on the other Christian station and Charles Stanley is preaching a powerful message from the Lord. And I thought, Lord, couldn't you just work it out so you stagger it a little, so that there's a heretic preaching when Graham is preaching, and there's another heretic that's preaching when Stanley is, and it seems like all the godly guys are on at the same time, and then after a while you just look at station after station, it's nothing but heretics preaching. But you don't have to go far to find wolves in sheep's clothing. By the way, The test of Simon the Sorcerer is going to be the test of American pastors and preachers today. Some pastors have built big, powerful empires in their ministries. I'm not even slamming them for that. I mean, the apostles, Peter preaches his first message, 3,000 people get saved. What am I going to do? Say, well, Peter, you've got a megachurch, you're a heretic. No. I'll tell you. I don't want any more people in our church than we can effectively disciple. I don't want to take warriors from little churches and build a big church by making them spectators in our church. Statistics show most megachurches did exactly that. They took warriors out of small churches and then made them spectators in bigger churches. I don't want any more people in our church than we can effectively disciple. Having said that, the Great Commission says disciple as many as you can. So, when I stand before the Lord, I would hate to hear from the Lord, you know, you had 30 people in your church that you weren't really discipling. That'd be some scary word. I want to hear well done. Well done now, good and faithful servant. But I also don't want to hear, you know, I gave you a really good ministry. I taught you a lot of stuff there, a lot of truth, Fernandez. And there was another extra 50, 100, 200 people I wanted you to disciple. And you just weren't diligent enough. Okay? We want to be pleasing to the Lord. But I tell you, we're coming to a day where the test of Simon the Sorcerer is going to be a test that every minister is going to have to face. There are some ministers that have built powerful ministries and they're going to have to decide what's more important to them, the power or Jesus. Okay? I am not anti-power. Okay, Tony Kampala, speaking of heretics, Tony Kampala, he preached one good message They put it on a Christian radio and everybody thought it was an evangelical. It never really was. But Tony Kampala once said that you can never exercise power and love simultaneously. And my first Bible teacher loved that message and gave me the audio cassette. It was back in the days of the audio cassettes. It was like right after the Stone Age. And so I listened to it and my old Bible teacher said, what did you think? I said, I thought it stunk. I thought it really bombed. He said, what are you talking about? I said, well the guy's main premise, his whole thesis, is you can't exercise power and love simultaneously. Last I heard, God is eternally all-powerful and he's eternally all-loving. If this guy's right, if Tony Kampala's right, God can't be God. He can't be all-powerful and all-loving at the same time. I said, I think he needs to go back to Bible college and take Theology 1 all over again. And I bummed out my Bible teacher, because he liked the message. I'm telling you, don't be anti-power. We serve an all-powerful God. But make sure it is God's power, and you're using God's power the way God wants His power to be used. Okay? If I'm anti-power, I'd be anti-love, because I'll tell you, I don't know any more powerful thing in the universe than God's love. Okay? So you could be loving and powerful at the same time, but there's some people who worship at the altar of a human kind of power. of even a satanic, a demonic kind of power. And there's going to be a lot of pastors that are going to say, well, I can continue to have my church of 5,000 people and I'll be honest with you, I can continue to have my church of a smaller group of people, 60 to 80 people so long as I get on board with the government's agenda. And if the government says something is not a sin anymore, if I agree with it. In other words, if I just start preaching political correctness, if other pastors start preaching political correctness, we can keep what little or what great amount of power we already have. But that decision is going to be a tough decision for some pastors. I'm telling you, there's going to be some big mega-churches that when biblical Christianity just becomes illegal across the boards, it's already illegal in some aspects when you deal with gay marriages and things of that sort. There's already people losing their careers, their jobs, due to that getting fined, getting threatened with jail time. But there's some churches that are going to do just fine because they're going to be like chameleons. They're gonna just change with the changing views of man. And Simon the Sorcerer wanted power. He didn't want Jesus. Judas Iscariot wanted power. He didn't want Jesus. Where are you? I'm telling you, there's a lot of good you can get out of Christianity without getting Jesus. some of us we just had no friends so we trusted in Jesus for salvation now we got lots of friends but it's not the family that makes you get up in the morning it's not the family that is your reason to live what makes your heart beat what makes you happy to take that next breath what makes you get up in the morning The whole reason why you live, the name is Jesus. It's not power, it's not anything else. You know, if you're, if you quote-unquote believe in Jesus for something, anything other than Jesus himself, you've got to question whether you really know him. And so, now Simon did fear God's judgment. I wish I could say that he did repent. The only things written about Simon Magus, Simon the Magician, Simon the Sorcerer after this, some of the early church fathers say he was the founder of Gnosticism. one of the earliest Christian heresies. Now, most scholars doubt that, most scholars just think that the early church fathers took his name of his first demonic wolf in sheep's clothing and just applied it to Gnosticism, so it's really tough to figure out because it seems like Gnosticism really didn't come into existence for about another 120 years. I don't have time to go into a big dissertation on it, but there's full-blown Christian Gnosticism, which is a heresy, and then there was Jewish Gnosticism, which predates it, so maybe he was part of one of those earlier views. This view was Gnosticism, the Greek word, gnosis, for knowledge, it means salvation by secret knowledge. So instead of salvation by God's grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus alone, It's not who you know, it's what you know. See, with us, it's who you know. Okay? It's kind of like sometimes you get the job because of who you know, not what you know. Some people say, well, it helps to have friends in high places. Let me tell you. It helps to have three friends in the highest place. the triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one true eternal God. But whatever the case, it's who you know that saves, not what you know. These guys will go behind closed doors, secret handshakes, secret wisdom, secret knowledge. The first Gnostic writing was the Gospel of Thomas, which Thomas never wrote. The secret teachings of Jesus to Thomas. Then there was the Gospel of Judas. That Jesus really wanted Judas to betray him. And that Jesus didn't really physically die on the cross for our sins. In fact, he wasn't really physical. He only pretended to be human. All this secret knowledge, okay? Let me tell you where Gnosticism came from. And this is why Simon the Sorcerer, even if he's not really the founder of Gnosticism, has so much in common with him. Gnosticism really is forbidden knowledge, forbidden wisdom. So secret occultic knowledge, secret magical demonic formulas, okay? You know where that started? That started when Satan, speaking to a serpent, said, no, if you eat from the tree of the forbidden fruit, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, knowledge that God has forbidden you to eat from, you'll become like God. It's a good thing. You won't die. Satan made that same offer to Simon the sorcerer and he bought it. What about you? Is it Jesus? Or is it the forbidden knowledge that the world and Satan and the demonic realm offer? And so then after that, Peter and John preached through Samaria and returned to Jerusalem. But just remember, not all who profess to believe are true believers. There are wolves in sheep's clothing in the church. There's one pastor in Seattle that I've often said his strongest His biggest blessing, his strongest point is his charisma, but his biggest curse is his charisma as well. And watch out. Watch out for people with a lot of charisma. You better test what they say. Some people are just tempting to follow them no matter what they say. Great speaker. Boy, I want to follow this guy. Well, test it with the Word of God. Okay? And I'm not talking about the other guy, I'm talking about me. Test what I say from this pulpit. John preached last Sunday. Test what he preaches from this pulpit. Test what you hear on television, on the radio. It's the Word of God that's the final authority, not the wisdom of man. And so, Two main points I want to leave you with. We'll talk about next week, Philip leading the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ. I don't want to rush through that. But, well, several points. Number one, even in adversity, preach the word. Even in adversity, preach the word. You might say, well, I can't preach. I don't, you know, I don't feel like preaching the word. You know what? To be totally honest with you, I don't feel like going to this camp. And being away from my wife on her birthday, I don't feel like going there. But God's called me to preach the word. And so I'm going to pray for his anointing, I'm going to preach the word. But some of you are suffering. You're going through all kinds of physical ailments and all, even in adversity, preach the word. Number two, the gospel is for all people of all nations. Okay? We got a president and a government that wants to make it look like Christians are a bunch of racists. I'm telling you, the Christian church is the most multicultural entity on the planet Earth. If there's a people group on the planet Earth who never heard about Jesus, then believe me, New Tribes Mission is trying to figure out how to reach them. Okay? The Bible says there's going to be people from all nations and having the Gospels for all people of all nations. If you have an ounce of prejudice or racism in you, rebuke that in the name of Jesus. Get rid of that. Because last I heard, my God sent his Son to die on the cross for all mankind. If there's somebody out there that you don't love, that's your problem. My king loves him. My king died for him. The gospel is for all people of all nations. Number three, not everyone who professes to believe is a true believer. Well, he said he's a believer. You know, if I had a dime for every young Christian guy who marries a gal because she says she's a believer, and every Christian gal who marries a guy where he said he was a believer, Not everyone who professes to believe is a true believer. And then number four, true believers are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. You know, when you feel alone, you feel down, you feel like nobody's there, you're not alone. You're not an orphan. God did not leave you as an orphan. You're indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit. Allow Him. Unleash the Holy Spirit in your life. Be all that He called you to be. I'm a loud mouth, so God called me to preach. You might be a quiet person, well then God's calling you to serve. And believe me, we got people here who can put you to work. Whether you quietly serve other people, you can go with Willis and quietly serve other people. I think Pastor Willis and Don will supply all the loudness that is needed. You can just supply the quiet service. If you need to teach people, believe me, there's plenty of senior citizen homes out there. that need a preacher. And be all that God called you to be. You're not an orphan. Stop making excuses. The Holy Spirit wants to be unleashed in your life. And allow the Holy Spirit to control your life. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father in Jesus' precious name, Our king is still on the throne