Beyond Jerusalem - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Acts 8:1-25, the early church faces persecution in the wake of Stephen’s death. Many of the believers scatter, and the gospel is brought to the Samaritan people.
Transcript:
And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered, preached the word wherever they went.
Earlier this week in our family devotions, my son raised an interesting question that the school's pastor posed to the students. Why do bad things happen to good people? Now, as I told James, and as I could go into greater depth with you, there are a few ways that we could respond to this question. We could talk about the fall of humanity, the curse of sin, and how we are all subject to the consequences of humanity's separation from God.
I could even point out that no one except Jesus is truly good, and so because I deserve death for my sin, I have little ground to stand upon in really complaining about the suffering that I would endure, and these would be interesting and worthwhile avenues to explore, but I imagine they miss the heart behind the question. When we believe, when we become Christians, when we are adopted as sons and daughters of God, we might imagine that our suffering should come to an end. After all, God loves us and we are righteous in his sight because of Jesus Christ. And so unless we ourselves are caught up in some sin, we might imagine that bad things shouldn't happen to us, but they do.
I can't explain all the reasons for your suffering. I can simply say this. It is only by the power of God that your suffering can be redeemed. Apart from God, our suffering is meaningless and we can only try to make the best of things, but God, God is so powerful that he works even bad things towards the fulfillment of his good purpose.
Paul tells us this in Romans 8: 28. We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And we see this most clearly in the case of Jesus, his terrible crucifixion, which made the way for our salvation. I set this backdrop for you so you understand God's purpose and what is happening to the early church.
Until recently in Luke's record given here in the Book of Acts, until recently, things have seemed pretty idyllic. The church in Jerusalem enjoys great harmony. They're overcoming challenges and they're growing. Everything seems to be growing great. It's, it's kind of seemed like you wish you could be there to just kind of soak it all in.
But now tragedy has struck their beloved Deacon Stephen, a man full of wisdom in the Holy Spirit has just been stoned to death. And as we see here in verses one through four, that's just the beginning of their troubles. It says there in those opening verses of chapter eight that Saul, who again was an onlooker of Stephen's death, watching over the coats of those who are stoning Stephen. Says that Saul approved of Stephen's death, and as part of the fallout of Stephen's death, a great persecution broke out against the Christians, against the church in Jerusalem, and many of the believers except the apostles fled Jerusalem and went out into the countryside, going into the areas of Judea and Samaria. We get a glimpse of just the very real sense of loss, the true sorrow in mourning, which occurred because of Stephen's death by the note that Luke gives us here, that they buried Stephen and mourn deeply for him. And even as they're in this time of mourning, hard things are continuing to happen to them with this persecution, particularly spearheaded by the man Saul.
Luke says that he began to destroy the church. He went from house to house, and he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Now, there's something interesting to note here when you're reading the newer translations of the Bible, NIV, a lot of times they'll include both genders just to indicate, because sometimes in older translations or different translations in the Bible, they'll just say, men, and it's meant to be inclusive. You're meant to understand it's not just exclusive to males. And so sometimes the NIV will say men and women. Here though, in verse three, that's not an interpretive choice.
It's not a translator's choice. Saul is literally, specifically, it's being noted that he's arresting not just men, who you might expect to be the ones that might be targeted as kind of, you know, leaders in the household. You and, and you might expect that they might not bother, he might not bother women and children and that kind of thing, but no, Saul is so aggressive and in fact it seems to indicate that he realizes that the women could cause problems too.
They're part of the life of the church that he's arresting both of them. He's dragging 'em off to prison. And in fact, later on when Saul becomes Paul, he testifies to his past saying that he was imprisoning the Christians and beating them. And in fact, not only was he imprisoning and beating them, but in fact when they got to prison, he was voting in favor of some of them being executed.
So it's very brutal oppression, which is going on here against all the Christians. But what's interesting to note here is that it says in verse four that as they're fleeing the city, as they're scattering across this countryside, it says in verse four, those who've been scattered, preached the word wherever they went.
Now we might imagine that if a great persecution arose like this, that the Christians might be disillusioned and be like, okay, this isn't for me. I'm done with this. I don't wanna be imprisoned, beat up, killed, stoned. I don't want any of that to happen to me. That's not the case though. There's just exercising some common sense.
We have to be willing to suffer for Christ, but that doesn't mean we have to step right in front of the stones. And so the apostles, they did stay in Jerusalem, and I think that was kind of a sign of that, them being steadfast and being like, we're immovable. The others didn't have to stay though. And as they're going, they demonstrate their faithfulness to the mission by preaching the gospel.
They still believe in Christ, and in fact, what they are doing is fulfilling the commission which Christ gave the disciples. You'll remember that in Acts one, verse eight, Jesus tells the disciples this, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
And then it goes on, not just in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Up to this point, they had been faithful and following through with Christ's command and sharing the gospel in the city of Jerusalem. But we can imagine that it would've been very easy for them to stay there.
We've already seen the sort of life that they shared together. It was, it was a beautiful scene. It was very comfortable, and it was at risk of them just kind of staying a very just tight knit clique there in the city and not going outward with this gospel message. And so we see that God is able to use this terrible thing, Stephen's death and the broader persecution against the Christians for this purpose of extending the gospel message beyond the walls of Jerusalem. And let's not overlook how essential this is, because while they were comfortable and the persecution caused them a great loss and great hardship, it would've been great tragedy if the gospel stayed in those walls because that would've meant all the other people in Israel would've have been deprived of the opportunity to be forgiven of their sins, to be freed from the power of sin and death.
To have the hope of resurrection life, and by extension it means we would've been deprived of that if they had just stayed in Jerusalem.
And so God works out this great good from a great tragedy. Now it doesn't take long to see this purpose, this good appear as the Deacon Philip brings the gospel to Samaria. Continuing on in verse five, it says, Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said, for with shrieks impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
So there was great joy in that city. Now, for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people both high and low gave him their attention, exclaimed, this man is rightly called the great power of God.
They followed him because he amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. Now, if you're not familiar where Samaria is, it's kind of in the smack dab middle of Israel, kind of between the area of Judea, Jerusalem, and then Galilee. You can see it in the green there. See Galilee up there, Judea, Jerusalem. You can see some of the cities up close there.
And as you think about Jesus' earthly ministry, you might recall the times in which they passed through Samaritan cities, and it's because it literally lies right in between Galilee and Jerusalem. They didn't have to go out of their way to go through Samaria. In fact, they would've had to go out of their way to avoid Samaria.
Philip has gone to Samaria and he's brought the gospel message there, and he's performing miraculous signs, the same sort of signs that were performed in Jerusalem, and is getting the attention of people. The signs are underscoring the truthfulness of the message that he's bringing. He's healing people.
He's casting out impure spirits. Now among some of the Satanic forces present in Samaria is this fellow named Simon, who was a sorcerer. Now, he had gained a following because of his sorcery, because of the powers that he had been demonstrating. So much so that he became known as the great power of God, which seems like a very kind of blasphemous sort of nickname, because it was that the people figured there was something almost divine about this fellow, but there was in fact nothing divine about him. He was relying on the powers of demons for the me, for the signs and miracles that he was performing. Now, what's interesting as we think about Philip going to Samaria, the gospel going here is it's a profound step because of the divide that has existed between the Jewish and Samaritan people. Some of you who have been the faith for a while may be familiar with this divide, but might be fuzzy on the details.
I have to admit, I'm, I've been fuzzy on the details for a while myself. If you wanna read a really great, it's only 30 pages, but it gives great detail about the development of this divide between the Samaritans and the Jewish people. There's this article written by Wayne Brindle called The Origin and History of the Samaritans, and this summary comes right from the article that he writes on this.
And basically what he accounts is that the divide between Jew and Samaritan was a process. The first thing that you have to understand about the Samaritans is that they are part Jewish. Their Jewish ancestry goes way back to when the Kingdom of Israel was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
And Judah was ruled by the Davidic kings. Israel was ruled by kings of different tribes. Now, eventually the Northern Tribes, the Northern Kingdom, became overcome by the Assyrians. The people there intermarried with non-Jewish peoples and adopted some pagan religious practices. And yet over the course of their history, it was eventually brought about that there was some revival of a return to the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel, but they had become their own version of it, a different sect. And so we see that when the Jewish people come out of exile from Babylon and rebuild the temple, the Samaritans who are living there, again, these people have Jewish ancestry, they find themselves at odds with the Jews that are returning to Israel. And later on in that history, it leads them to build a temple of their own since they had no part in the temple in Jerusalem.
And this really further the, the divide all, all the more, because the Jewish people said, there's only gonna be one temple. There can only be one place where we're gonna offer these true sacrifices to God. And as the history proceeds further, divisions are created because of empires that come in, you have Antiochus Epiphanies the fourth, who drives a wedge between them all the more because he desecrates the temple in Jerusalem and the Samaritans skip out on the persecution against the Jews by all of a sudden denying the fact of their Jewish ancestry and surrendering their faithfulness to the, to the God of Israel.
Then following that, their temple is destroyed by the high priest John Hyrcanus. And so, I mean, there's so many details that I'm, I'm just kind of skipping over here. But the point is, it's been a divide that's been in the making of hundreds of years, growing hostilities and harassments. It's a both sides sort of thing.
They, they really don't like each other. And so it's incredible that Philip would bring the gospel to them with any expectation that they might be receptive to this Jewish man who's, who's bringing this, this message of a messiah who's come. And yet continuing on verse 12, we see that something new has truly begun.
Says, but when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized, and he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
So we have here a profound turn of events. Peoples were once alienated from them, from each other. Jew and Samaritan are now being reconciled in Jesus Christ. Among all the miracles and signs that Philip is performing, I think there is no greater miracle than this. And in fact, as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy in Ezekiel 37, verse 16 through 17.
It's foretold that those of Israel and Judah, the north and the south would be reunited. So son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him. Then take another stick of wood and write on it, belonging to Joseph, that is to Ephraim, and all the Israelites associated with him.
Join them together into one stick so that they'll become one in your hand. They had been divided, but God prophesied that the people of Israel would be reunited, and this reunion. This reconciliation is brought about by Jesus. And Jesus in talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, foretells this himself in John 4: 21 through 24, this woman, she wants to get in a debate with him, a classic Samaritan Jewish debate about the place of worship, whether it's on Mount Gerizim or if it's in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.
Jesus tells her Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you'll worship the Father neither on this mountain nor on Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
Notice what Jesus is saying here. He's not giving a thumbs up to the Samaritans to what they've been doing. They've been, they've been off path, they've been off base in what they've been doing, and yet he's not asserting that worship is to be centered to Jerusalem on Mount Zion at this temple. What he's saying is that something new is coming, something new that while we would say that, yes, the Jews have been right up to this point, there's a new invitation to worship that's not going to be exclusive to Mount Zion, but is going to encompass all those that would come to the father in Jesus Christ and worship him in spirit and in truth. Now this change is just so profound that even Peter and John, the apostles, go to Samaria to see what has occurred, and again, what's so profound about this is just we think about the apostle's own antagonism towards the Samaritans. In Luke nine verses 54 through 55, it says that the disciples, James and John, John being one of the ones that went is, is going here with Peter to check out what's going on.
It says, James and John asked, saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? They were talking about the Samaritans and the way that they were responding. Now, Jesus at the time, turned and rebuked them, but that's the sort of attitude they had. They were like, Jesus, can we just ask God to nuke these people?
Like, we're done, we're done with them. So they had no love for them. But now everything has changed. Even the disciples themselves have changed. And we notice here that Simon, this sorcerer is, is carried along also in this upswell of turning to believe in Christ. And it seems like he is maybe starstruck a little bit by just the power that's been demonstrated.
So it says that he believed and was baptized. However, this raises, should have a question here about sincerity of his conversion, the authenticity of it, and as we go on, we'll see that there's good reasons to question this. But returning back to the apostles, looking at verse 15. It says, when they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them.
They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostle's hands, he offered them money and said give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.
Now this is very interesting. It's very interesting that the Samaritans believed in Jesus. They were baptized in His name, and yet they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. The reason why this is interesting is because that's not how things normally go. We can be assured that as far as someone has genuinely put their faith in Jesus Christ, when you are baptized, you're not just baptized in water, you are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The person of the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And in fact, we get to taste the first fruits of eternity by that indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit because we begin to become the sorts of people that God created us to be for all eternity. So eternity begins today as the Holy Spirit begins to dwell within us, and yet he is not dwelling within the Samaritans at this point, and we ask why.
Well, the reason why would seem to be, again, it's not expressly explained here, but it would seem to be that this is an opportunity for God to demonstrate reconciliation, the true unity now that's been created in Jesus Christ. The divide no longer lays between Gerizim and Jerusalem. Instead, all are becoming one in Jesus Christ.
And Peter and John are on hand for this great reunion, and they literally lay on their hands. Jewish men laying their hands on Samaritans so that they may receive the Holy Spirit. And if you think about it, this is almost a recapitulation of what occurred with the disciples. They believed in Jesus. They certainly were baptized, but they had to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit was sent.
And now through these apostles, the Samaritans wait for the Holy Spirit to be sent. The apostles arrive and they share this gift of the dwelling, presence of the person, of the Holy Spirit with them and they are one.
Now, Simon the sorcerer sees all this going on and he is like, wow, that's really impressive. And he says, I'd like that power. I've, I've had some pretty good tricks in my day, the things I could do, I'd love this power to be able to give the Holy Spirit to other people. And so he approaches Peter and John with a proposition saying, how much would it cost?
You know, how much do I have to pay you in order that I too would have this ability. Now, what this reveals is that there's a real twist in Simon's heart, and it leads us to question about, you know, the authenticity of his conversion, and Peter addresses him accordingly. In verse 20, it says, Peter says, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money.
You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Then Simon answered, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
Peter's point of condemnation is this, is that Simon thinks he can buy that which God gives freely.
God offers salvation freely. He offers the gift of the Holy Spirit freely. It recalls the prophetic words in Isaiah 55: 1 and verses six through seven, where God offers this invitation freely. He says, come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on them and to our God for he will freely pardon. See, the problem with Simon is, is he has, he continues to have a very pagan notion here about the powers that he's seeing on display.
He thinks this is something he can acquire by, by buying it. And the thing about magical powers is it's all about manipulation, about exerting your desires to accomplish your will. This is not the power of God. This is not the power that we see being displayed in the case of the disciples and the, in, in the case of Philip.
They're submitting to the will of God, and is God working in accordance with his will. There's nothing magical going on here.
Peter is concerned about this bitterness that is in within Simon's heart because it is completely opposed to the ways of God and it has no place among the people of God. It's reminiscent of the command given in Deuteronomy 29: 18 where it says, make sure there's no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose hearts turn away from the Lord our God, to go and worship the gods of those nations.
Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
Simon has no part here, no part or share in this ministry because he has a bad heart. His heart's not in the right place, and so they call upon him to repent and seek forgiveness. What's interesting is that it's not totally clear whether he heeds their exhortation. It does say that he asked them, he says, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.
Does that reveal genuine repentance? Is he seeking forgiveness? It may be, or it could just be that he's continuing to have kind of a pagan assessment of things. He's like, well, I don't wanna be under a curse so please pray for me, so I'll avoid this. In fact, it reminds us of Pharaoh's response to the curses that were brought upon upon Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go. Multiple times, Pharaoh asked Moses to pray, pray to the Lord, to take away these, these curses, these plagues. He even asked Moses to pray that his sin would be forgiven, and yet Pharaoh's heart remained cold and hard towards God.
The same may be here in the case of Simon, and if you ever come across the term simony, literally the name Simon, just with a Y at the end, Simony, it's referring back to this instance and later on in history, it takes on the characterization of those that were trying to purchase religious office for their benefit.
We see this happening all the time in the medieval period as part of what led to the Protestant Reformation because people are literally buying offices as bishops and cardinals because of the gain that they got from it. And what it has in common with what we see here with Simon the sorcerer, is it's all about your personal gain rather than looking for the benefit of the kingdom in the church.
So Peter and John, after they correct Simon, they continue to expound on the, on the truth of the gospel. And then we see that they get in on the action preaching in Samaria on their way to Jerusalem. And again, this is just profound because these are the places they would've avoided in the past. So they were not brought to Samaria reluctantly. They did not reluctantly place their hands upon the Samaritans, they did so joyously and so now eagerly they go to these places. They once went outta their way to avoid, and now they're going to them bringing the gospel. So step back now and consider what these events reveal to us. To start, we see very clearly how God is able to bring about great good even through terrible suffering. We hear no complaints. We see no divisions. Many of the believers flee Jerusalem, but they're not fleeing the faith. They're leaving Jerusalem, but not Jesus. They're committed as ever, preaching the gospel to the loathsome Samaritans who they now love.
They had nothing worldly to gain from this. They shared the gospel freely with the Samaritans, even as they knew this could just bring on more trouble on them. Their attitude and the attitudes of Peter and John stand in stark contrast to Simon the sorcerer. Simon's interest in the gospel was only in what he could gain from it.
His interest was to upgrade his repertoire of powers. He tried to buy the power to bestow the Holy Spirit as if, as if this gift, along with our salvation purchased at the cost of Christ's life on the cross, could somehow be matched with silver. The riches of our salvation are given to us freely by Christ.
As we turn to him in faith, we could never purchase what we receive freely from him. From Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria, the free gift is to be given. To the ends of the earth it is to be given. The gospel is global just as Jesus Christ's victory is total. Jesus Christ is the prince of peace who makes enemies brothers and sisters. We will have trials. There is power here, but no magic. There is salvation here, but not safety. We have here the free gift, but no personal gain. This world is full of trouble. We don't escape that trouble. When we become Christians, we take it on, we take up our cross. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair.
Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Yes, we have trouble, but trouble does not have us, for Jesus tells us to take heart, I have overcome the world. And so wherever life takes us, whether it keeps us within the familiar walls of Jerusalem, or out into the great unknown. We go with Jesus and share his gospel wherever we go so that all may seek the Lord while he may be found and call on him while he is near.
Let us pray.
Dear Father, we come to you confessing the weakness of our understanding. Father, we cannot comprehend all the things that happen to us. We don't know all the reasons. But Father, as we see from this account in the early church, what we see, Father, here is that your good purpose and plan remains intact even when things may seem like they're falling apart. Father, help us to trust in you.
Help us to trust in you and to be faithful in the mission that you've given us. Even in the face of trial, Father, give us the vision that those early Christians had to take the gospel to all people, excluding no one so that all may receive freely the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit by turning to faith in Jesus Christ.
Father, give us a mind that is kingdom-minded. Let us not be out for personal gain as Simon was but fill with hearts of love that are willing to lay down our lives as we follow up Christ in carrying the cross after him. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)