“The Good That Comes From Bad”
(Acts 8:1-25)
Series: The Church on Fire!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(9-23-07) (AM)
- Take God’s word and open to Acts, chapter 8.
We’re continuing our study through the book of Acts, going verse-by-verse through the book, believing that is the best way to study, learn, and apply the Bible. Our series is entitled, “The Church on Fire.” It’s a study of how Christianity began and how the first church 2000 years ago was birthed and spread all over the world. We’re also encouraging one another to “fan the flame” of this church on fire, by inviting as many as we can to Sunday school this month. Doc Turner’s class is to be recognized again for significantly increasing their average attendance for two times this month. Way to go! Remember next Sunday we are really raising the bar and shooting for 700 in Sunday school.
Now before we take a look at chapter 8 we recall that chapter 7 gives us the stirring account of the first Christian martyr in the church. We read about Stephen, one of the first deacons in the church. Stephen preached that wonderful sermon from the Old Testament that brought conviction upon his hearers and he was stoned to death. Stephen saw the windows of heaven open up and Jesus standing and welcoming him home. It was quite a story! Well the Bible says there was a guy standing their approving of his death. His name is Saul and we’ll be learning more about him as we go along. But this morning we’re going to see how Saul and others continue persecuting the church.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s word.
1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Back in June when our Brazil mission team prepared to leave Brazil and head home to the states, we had no idea just how long it would take to get back home. We worshiped that Sunday in Feira de Santana and then rode a bus to the airport in Salvador. When we got to the airport we learned some of our luggage was on the wrong bus, but figured we’d eventually get it so we rushed to the gate only to learn that the flight to Sao Paulo was delayed and probably wouldn’t be leaving for about another two hours. It finally did depart and we flew into Sao Paulo only to discover that the plane in Sao Paulo which was headed for Miami left without our group of 30. We waited in line forever and eventually learned we wouldn’t be leaving Sao Paulo at all that evening. It wasn’t till around 1 AM that we were getting this news and some of us debated sleeping on the floor somewhere there at the airport. We finally got settled into a local hotel at 3 AM only to rise three hours later to be back at the airport at 6 AM. Because I was supposed to catch a connection from Miami the day earlier to fly to San Antonio for the Southern Baptist Convention I made a few phone calls to let people know I wouldn’t be coming and would have to miss a pretty important meeting. After the 8 hour flight to Miami our family then had to get our tickets together to fly to Evansville. At one point a Brazilian airline representative had our tickets and disappeared for 2 hours. We just lost him. Nobody seemed to know who he was and we just waited. Finally he showed up and said we’d be spending the night there in Miami and leaving the next day. So we had left Brazil Sunday morning and got home Tuesday evening. It didn’t go as it was supposed to and the stress level was pretty high.
But you know, there’s another way to look at it. On that delayed flight from Salvador to Sao Paulo one of our team members led someone to Jesus Christ, prayed with her right there on the plane. That woman who was saved shared that she was traveling with several others from work and she couldn’t wait to tell them about Jesus, too. On one of the bus rides the next day to the airport and while waiting in line at the airport our team again had opportunity to share the love of Christ with others and pray for folks in need. Could it be that God allowed what we saw as bad to bring about a greater good?
Romans 8:28 says, “God works all things together for good to those who love Him.” God can bring good from bad and, in fact, He often does. So many times He shows us later on how He brought good from the bad, working everything together in such a way as to fulfill His perfect plan.
So often when bad things happen to us we want to cry out and say, “God, where are You?! How could You let this happen?!” but God knows what He’s doing. He’s the God who can bring good from bad. God can bring good from bad. Say that with me: “God can bring good from bad.” I want to share with you how God works through various events in order to fulfill the good of His perfect plan. Number one:
I. God works through Persecution [1-4]
The first three verses we read a moment ago don’t sound really good. They sound really bad. They speak of persecution in the church. The Bible says “a great persecution arose against the church.” Stephen has been killed and verse 3 tells us that Saul “made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”
Now Jesus had said that this would happen. In Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all manner of evil against you.” He had also said in John 15:20, “If they have persecuted Me they will persecute you.”
So God knew this was going to happen, but why did He allow it? What good could possibly come from the bad of persecution? Well do you remember Acts 1:8? It’s the key verse of the entire book. Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the utter ends of the earth.” Do you remember back when we started this series I told you how that verse serves as sort of a geographical outline for the book? Chapters 1-7 deal with spreading the gospel in Jerusalem, chapters 8-12 deal with spreading the gospel in Judea and Samaria, and then chapters 13 and following deal with the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. So here we are in chapter 8 and what do read in verse one? We read “At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered (where?) throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.”
Do you see it? In case you missed it, verse 4 says, “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching (or proclaiming) the word.” It’s not preaching like I’m doing, standing before a church, it’s evangelizing, proclaiming the gospel. So persecution leads to proclamation. God allows the bad of persecution to accomplish the good of proclamation. Another way of putting it is like this, “Had there been no persecution of the church in Jerusalem, the Christians wouldn’t have been as likely to get out and share the Good News with other people outside of the city.” So God sovereignly and providentially allows the bad of persecution to accomplish the good of proclamation. The Bible says the Christians are scattered beyond Jerusalem now and are taking the gospel outside of their hometown.
See God doesn’t want us to just sit here in our city and soak up all the spiritual truths for ourselves. That leads to spiritual stagnation. Churches face the temptation of just building bigger buildings for themselves only and keeping all their resources within their hometown when God has called the church to share the gospel all over the world. I shared with our BodyLife graduates yesterday in our workshop about how First Baptist Church gives 15% of our budget to the Cooperative Program, the strategy of the Southern Baptist denomination that includes the support of world missions, paying the salaries of missionaries all over the world. Most Southern Baptist churches give just 3 or 4 percent. 15% here at First Baptist and that doesn’t include other missions giving in our church that takes us up to 22% of missions giving from our annual church budget.
So God brings good from bad. He works through persecution. You take a stand for Jesus at work or school or in your family and God will bring good out of that. He honors obedience. And it means that whatever you’re facing, however bad it seems, the same God is in control of those circumstances, too. Trust Him to bring good out of bad.
II. God works through Power [5-13]
The next few verses stress the power of God, power to work miracles and healings. This is something we see again and again in the book of Acts, God working through His power, power to bring good from bad.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
6 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
8 And there was great joy in that city.
That stands to reason, doesn’t it?! When you get saved from your sin and you know you’re going to heaven when you die, what do you have? You have joy. Not just joy, but “great joy!” No, that doesn’t mean that you’re never going to have any problems again. That doesn’t mean the bills stop coming in the mailbox (but wouldn’t it be great if they did?!). That doesn’t mean you’re never going to be persecuted for your faith, but it means you have a deep down joy from Jesus that tells you everything’s going to be okay because you’ve taken care of the main thing and God is going to take care of you. Great joy in the city. Verse 9:
9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,
10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.”
11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.
Now we’re talking about how God works through power and here we’re reading about a guy who claimed to have some kind of power of his own. Verse 9 says he is Simon and he astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great. I mean, he’s going around saying, “I am great! I am great! I am great!” and the people believe him. Verse 10 says “they all gave heed.” How easy is it to be led astray? How easy is it to be lured into following false teachings? Very easy. Witness the number of cults today, Jehovah’s witnesses, Mormonism, New Age mysticism, Scientology. Question: What kind of person can be led astray? Educated? Uneducated? Answer: Everyone. Look again at verse 10: they “all gave heed, from the least to the greatest (see that?), saying, ‘This man is the great power of God” and they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.” Who heeded him? “The least to the greatest.”
Simon used some kind of magic to lure people into believing that he was someone great and had great power. He had a racket going. I mean this guy was quite the charlatan. But look at verse 12 as God works through His power to squelch all other power:
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
So the people of Samaria are following this charlatan, this false teacher named Simon, this guy who was going around claiming to be someone great, and God sends Philip down there to straighten them out. Philip shares with them about the true power, about Jesus Christ and the Bible says people believed him and were baptized. So powerful is this work of God that verse 13 says, “Simon himself also believed.” I love that! I mean, Simon has been going around using some kind of magic to lure people into thinking he’s someone great, but he knows he’s a fraud. So when he hears Philip and sees the real power of God working through Philip he’s like, “I know real power when I see it and I’ve just been faking it the whole time. I’m going to become a believer, too!”
We’ll come back to Simon in a moment. Right now can I stress to you how important it is for you and I to know the truth? We must know the gospel, the pure, whole gospel. We’ve noted before that cults get their converts from where? From the church; from Christians! Why? Because too many Christians know only a little truth here and a little truth there. And some Simon comes and knocks on your door and claims to be someone great, having the great power of God. You’d better know your Bible. How? Stay connected in church, in worship, in Bible study! Know the truth and know real power. God works through persecution, God works through power. Number three:
III. God works through People [14-25]
Now we read about Peter and John entering the picture and we see God working through people, teaching a couple of lessons. First we see that God works through people:
1) Teaching us about Unity (14-17)
The next four verses have caused a great deal of confusion in the church. Are you ready for these verses? Let’s read them.
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,
15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Some have taken those verses and taught that receiving the Holy Spirit is something you have to pray for and plead for and beg God for. They say you can be a believer and not have the Spirit because that’s what’s going on here. But we must remember we are reading a history of the church. By the time we have the Apostle Paul—later in history—writing the letters to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians we read that Christians receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion. Ephesians 1:13 says that when we believe we are at that moment sealed with the Holy Spirit. That’s the normative experience for the believer in Paul’s day and every believer since. So what we have here in the book of Acts is an exception. It comes before the Apostle Paul’s writings.
So the next question is, “Well, why does it happen this way?” I believe because God is working through people, teaching us about unity. Look, do you remember what kind of relationship the Jews had with the Samaritans? Did they love one another or hate one another? They hated one another. Remember the story in John 4:9 about Jesus and Samaritan woman at the well? John editorializes and he adds the words, “The Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.” The Jews and the Samaritans were enemies. They fiercely opposed one another.
So here we read that the apostles in Jerusalem, the Jews, hear that Samaritans are getting saved in Samaria. They must have been like, “Them, too?! Wow. Let’s go check it out.” So Peter and John go down to Samaria and they check it out. They find that these Samaritans believed the gospel Philip had been preaching. They were saved and baptized. Interestingly, however, the Holy Spirit had yet to fall upon them. So God providentially brings these two peoples together, uniting these two enemies together, so that the Jews reach out and touch the Samaritans and God indwells them in the Person of His Spirit. It’s a beautiful demonstration of unity in the church that also authenticates the message that the Samaritans believed. Peter and John see that the Samaritans are legit, they really are believers in Jesus Christ. They reach and place their hands upon their new brothers in Christ and the Spirit of God indwells them.
God works through people, teaching us about unity. God also works through people:
2) Teaching us about Purity (18-25)
Remember Simon? He’s back! Look at verse 18:
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Poor Simon. I really think he believed Jesus. I really think he was a believer, but he had a lot of learning to do. He sees some kind of evidence that the Holy Spirit indwelled the Samaritans when Peter and John lay their hands upon them and he’s like, “Hey guys, can I have that power, too? I’ll pay you for it.” Look at Peter’s response:
20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!
The original Greek reads literally, “To hell with you and your money!” That’s actually what he says. Peter was a straight-shooter wasn’t he? Why? Because he’s concerned about the purity of the gospel. He’s like, “Dude, do you have any idea just how far off base you are in this carnal, worldly request of yours?! Trying to buy spiritual advantage with money? You idiot!”
It’s from this text that the word “simony” is derived. It’s a word that describes the buying of religious prestige or position. It comes from this passage here about Simon. Peter continues in verse 21:
21 “You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
23 “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
So not only is Peter concerned about the purity of the gospel, he’s concerned about the purity of the heart. He’s like, “Simon, I don’t know whether you’ve heard about Ananias and Sapphira, but they got in trouble with greed and it killed them, so you’ve got like five seconds to repent!” Verse 24:
24 Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.”
Apparently Simon repents and fades out of the picture. Then we have this delightful summary verse that concludes the chapter:
25 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.
The chapter opens with persecution and closes with proclamation. The church is on fire in Jerusalem and God scatters the fire to Judea and Samaria. He brings good from bad.
Conclusion:
I remember when I was in Boy Scouts in the 8th and 9th grade. There was this guy in our scout troop named “Hal.” Hal was an unusually large guy who already had like a full beard in the 8th grade. You know how there’s some folks like that? Already looking like an adult in the 8th grade. I remember one time how Hal had gotten a little campfire started and then got distracted doing something else. He had just gotten it started and it was just like a couple of twigs. Some buddies and I decided to claim that fire. We just picked up the small twigs and moved them over to our spot and then grew that fire. It was burning bigger and bigger and then Hal came out. He saw what had happened. The little fire he had started had been hijacked, moved, and now was burning much bigger. I’ll never forget what Hal did next. First he got angry. He was a big guy and all he had to do was just sit on me. Like a big bear Hal came marching over to where we were and then he did something very unusual. He bent down there and picked up that fire! The whole thing! Just picked it up like you’d pick up a bundle of laundry. Just growled and picked it up and took it over to his campsite and put it down. I’d never seen anything like that. Didn’t burn his clothes or anything.
You say, “Why’d you tell that story?” I don’t know; it’s just a cool story! Seriously, God says we’re the church on fire and we’ve got a message we’re not supposed to keep to ourselves. God wants us to share our fire with others as we fan the flames and tell other people about Jesus. Fan the flame. Spread the fire for the glory of God!
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