Many years ago I was at a church where they were preaching through Acts, and I just remember feeling like I was taking a geography lesson about some ancient civilization. Whatever truth there was to be gained for me was obscured by the confusing and often boring geographical details of Paul’s missionary journeys.

So today I want to avoid focusing on all the stops of Paul’s journey and the various particulars of each city or culture, and instead I want to direct your attention to the point of Paul’s mission. The point of Paul and Barnabas’s missionary journey is the same in every city and every culture and for every person that they meet. And that is that they preached the gospel. As Spurgeon said, Paul may have changed his tone, but never his matter. The gospel is effective and powerful for every culture, every kind of person, every kind of situation.

In Romans 1:16 Paul writes later, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Don’t let familiarity with that verse dull it’s meaning. Paul is saying, having learned from his own experience, that the gospel is the dynamis of God. That is the Greek word – dynamis. It’s the root word for dynamite. The gospel is powerful, able to blow up and destroy fortresses. 2Cor. 10:3-4 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” But it actually goes even further than simply the idea of power, but it really means miraculous power. It is the power to save. Salvation means to deliver by miraculous, dynamic power.

You know, many of us fall into the trap of agreeing that theologically the gospel has the power to save our souls from hell, but then think it unreasonable to that the gospel alone has enough power to defeat the power of sin. Is it able to deliver a soul from hell, but unable to deliver a body from addictions? Which is harder? To heal the body or to heal the soul? Is the gospel God’s miraculous dynamic power to save or is it only effective in the spiritual realm? I emphatically proclaim to you today by the authority of the God’s word that the gospel is miraculously powerful to save and deliver from all sin, any sin, all effects of sin, the power of sin, and the penalty of sin.

Paul said it again in another place, 1Cor. 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul said that the preaching of the gospel is foolishness to those that are lost, but to those that are being saved, it is the very power of God. The power of God is immeasurable. The power of God holds the earth which weighs trillions of tons, and causes it to spin on it’s axis at 1000 mph, and then send it rocketing through it’s orbit at 67000 mph at just the proper distance from the sun. That is just the strength of one little finger of the power of God. And Paul is saying that same tremendous miraculous power is unleashed in the gospel through salvation. There is no force in the universe greater than the power of the gospel. Jesus said, things that are impossible with men are possible with God because God is a God of unimaginable, immeasurable power.

So Paul, wisely enough, as he goes from town to town, preaches the gospel. He doesn’t use the wisdom of men, he doesn’t use psychology, he doesn’t rely on entertainment, he doesn’t use technology, he simply preaches the powerful gospel of salvation to every people in every region, in every culture. No matter where he went it didn’t change. When Paul goes to Ephesus, he preaches the gospel. When he goes to see the Greek philosophers in Athens, he preaches the gospel. When he goes to Rome to see Caesar, he preaches the gospel. When he is taken before kings, he preaches the gospel. Because he knows the gospel does not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. And so we see that illustrated for us in this chapter.

Notice in vs. 1 Paul and Barnabas went first to the Jews in the synagogue at Iconium, and what did they do there? They preached the gospel. Then it says in vs. 3, in spite of the Jews stirring up bitterness towards them, they continued to preach the gospel for quite some time. Finally, persecution got so bad there that they had to flee town because they were about to be stoned to death, so in vs. 6 it says they went to the Gentiles in some nearby towns called Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe; and what did they do there? Vs. 7, “they continued to preach the gospel.” Boy, these guys were a one trick pony, weren’t they?

Then while they were in Lystra, Paul healed a lame man. We will talk more about that in a moment, but notice vs. 15 which says that Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel to them as well, which resulted in the pagan crowd first trying to worship them as gods, and then when they were finally convinced that Paul and Barnabas were not gods, they stoned Paul and left him for dead. But Paul got up and went right back into town and I suppose continued preaching the gospel right where he left off.

The next day, Paul and Barnabas left Lystra and went to a nearby town called Derbe, vs. 20. Guess what they did there? You guessed it, preached the gospel. Then after they had made disciples there, they went back to the cities that they had preached in previously and preached some more, strengthening the believers and appointing elders in the churches that were now started in those towns.

Then finally they traveled to Perga, and preached the gospel there as well. After all that preaching of the gospel to all these various regions, they went back to their home church in Antioch and reported to everyone there what God had done through them in their journey.

So preaching the gospel was the pattern to Paul’s ministry. He said later he relied not on cleverness of speech but the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what exactly is the gospel? Literally, it is the good news. It is the good news that sinful, dying men and women who are under the penalty of death and cut off from God have had their penalty paid by Jesus Christ, who is the very God incarnate, that is God in human flesh, resulting in eternal life for those who believe. Paul says it very succinctly in 2Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Did you get that? God made Jesus, who was sinless, to become sin on our behalf, so that we might become righteous with the righteousness of Christ. God transferred our sins upon Jesus, put Him to death for us, and transferred the righteousness of Christ upon us, that we might be reconciled to God. That we might be made sons of God. That we might be given new life, eternal life in Christ.

Now that is the doctrine of the gospel, but how is it made efficacious for us? Well, the gospel rests upon two twin pillars which are repentance and faith. Repentance and faith; they are codependent. One alone cannot suffice. They must both be present for the gospel to go from theology, to being efficacious to your salvation. Jesus declared that in his first message recorded in Mark 1:15 saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” So repent and believe, the twin pillars of our faith. Listen how Paul sums it up in vs. 15, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.”

Now look closely at what Paul is saying. He rebukes them first of all for worshipping false gods. They were actually thinking that Paul and Barnabas were the gods Mercury and Zeus and they were preparing to offer sacrifices to them. So Paul rebukes them and says no, we are also men the same as you, and we preach the gospel to you, which is that you should turn from vain idols… Now stop there for a moment. That is what repentance is, to turn. To turn away from sin. God’s law defines sin and at the very beginning of God’s law He says you shall have no other gods before Me. You shall make no graven image. But you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. And Paul said that they needed to turn from that sin unto God. So repentance is not simply feeling sorry for whatever situation you find yourself in, or feeling emotional, but repentance is turning, 180 different direction, from following sin, to following God. Now maybe you are so caught up in your sin that you want to repent, you want to turn, but you don’t think you have the power to turn. Well, that’s typical. But thankfully the power to turn does not come from ourselves. You don’t have to sober up to come to God, or get cleaned up to come to God. You come to God asking to be changed by His power. The power to change comes from God through salvation. We simply confess our sins, our sinful nature, confess that we are trapped in it, and believe in faith that God is able to deliver us from it. That is when God applies the power of salvation. The power to deliver you. The power to forgive you. The power to save you. The power to free you. The power to heal you from the effects of sin that serve to trap you.

So the first pillar is repentance and the second is faith. Let’s finish Paul’s sentence; “that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.” Repentance is turning as we have already shown, now then faith is believing that God is powerful enough to save you, powerful enough to deliver you, that He is powerful enough to make the earth, send it’s trillions of tons spinning on it’s axis, rocket it into orbit at just the precise distance around the sun (which He also made by the way) at 67000 mph. And that the same power of God that made the earth, and the sea, and the stars and everything that is in them, can certainly, surely deliver you from not only the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. If you believe that, then you have faith. Faith is not believing that you can do it, or that you need to clean up or sober up or get your life together first. Faith is believing that God’s power is enough to save you and deliver you. Faith is believing that Christ’s sacrifice cleanses you from sin and transfers you to the kingdom of God.

Now let’s see the effect of the gospel. Someone once said that every miracle in the New Testament is a parable, designed to illustrate physically what God can do spiritually. And I certainly think that is the case in the miracle of healing the lame man here in this chapter. It is illustrative of the power of the gospel.

Let’s look at what happened in verse 8. “At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.” Now if you had written that sentence in English class your teacher would have probably marked your page in big red letters saying that is a redundant statement. The author Luke says that the man is lame in three different ways. Why? Well obviously, he wanted to emphasize that the man was lame.

But if you consider it more closely, you will notice Luke says that he had no strength in his feet. In other words, he was powerless. Then he says he was lame from his mother’s womb. In other words he was born that way. And then that he had never walked. He didn’t know how to walk. He had never walked. He had no experience of walking.

And I would suggest this lame man is a picture of all mankind in their fallen, sinful condition. We have no strength to walk after Christ. We are powerless to live the Christian life. We are powerless to reach God.   Secondly, we were born that way. Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” We are natural born sinners, and as such are bereft of God.

And then thirdly, we don’t know how to walk in righteousness. We have never walked in righteousness. Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteousness is as filthy rags.” We don’t have experience in righteousness. 1Cor. 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

So in every way, this lame man is a picture of the natural man who is unsaved. And then notice that Paul was preaching the gospel and this man was obviously very attentive. And Paul seeing him knew that this man had the faith to be healed. How did he know that? It was undoubtedly a prompting by the Holy Spirit as he saw this man listening and drinking in Paul’s message. He could perceive this man’s response to his message. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Our faith is not founded on our feelings, or on wishful thinking, but on the promises, the word of Christ.

And notice how Luke describes it in vs. 9: “This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well.” The Greek word for made well is the word sōzō. Guess what sōzō means? It means to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction. So it’s not just a physical healing that is presented here, but symbolically and literally I believe in the life of this man, a spiritual healing. As I said while ago, every miracle in the New Testament is a parable, designed to illustrate physically what God can do spiritually.

Then let’s look at the power of the gospel to save as illustrated in this miracle. Paul said in vs. 10 “with a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And he leaped up and began to walk.” Here is the process of salvation. The lame man typifies repentance by the fact that he knew that he was lame. He knew he was born that way. He knew he could never walk. That is a picture of repentance. He wanted to be made well. And when he heard the gospel preached he believed in Christ, and all that Christ represented. Then Paul ordered him to stand upright on his feet. So the man had the faith necessary, but at that point it was all theoretical. He needed to act on that faith. He needed to stand up in obedience to Paul’s command even though he had never stood up.

We are told to obey to the call of the gospel are we not? To confess our sins, to repent of our sins, to believe and trust in Christ and to follow Christ. The first step to following Christ is obedience and then that is demonstrated by being baptized. Baptism symbolizes repentance and faith all wrapped up in this demonstration of your inward change.

So he had repentance and faith, and then notice the powerful result of salvation. The lame man leapt up and began to walk. Notice that this man who had no strength in his feet and legs leaped up. He didn’t grab hold of a walker and start to pull himself erect. He didn’t have to go to physical therapy class for 6 weeks to get his legs strengthened. This man who had no strength in his legs suddenly had the strength to leap up. Hallelujah. I feel like leaping myself just thinking about it.

And he began to walk. From a human, scientific, commonsense perspective, that just can’t happen, can it? He has to learn to walk. He has to build his muscles, build his strength, learn to keep his balance. But actually, no he didn’t. God was able to supernaturally heal him. Give him the full power to walk as a disciple of Christ.

Folks, I don’t know about you but I take great comfort in that illustration. I don’t have to worry that I have a sinful nature. God will give me a new nature when I am saved. I don’t have to worry that I have never been righteous. God will give me the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I don’t have to worry that I don’t know how to walk, God will give me the Holy Spirit to live inside me that will teach me and help me to walk as I step out in faith.

Some of you here today are thinking, wow, that sounds terrific. Sounds like good news. I wonder if I could have that power of salvation. I’m here to tell you that the message of the gospel has not changed. It is good for kings, for peasants, for Jews and for Gentiles. It is one size fits all. It is effective for you if you will just repent and believe. It is the power of God. And that power can and will deliver you from not only the penalty of sin but the power of sin.

If you recognize yourself in this portrait of the lame man, you recognize you are a sinner from your mother’s womb and the impossibility of your spiritual condition, then I urge you to accept Christ today. Turn from your sin and believe in Christ and know the power of salvation. It is available to everyone without cost. Jesus paid the price. All that is necessary for you is to repent, believe and be willing to stand up and walk in obedience to Him. He will supply the miraculous power of salvation.

So far in the book of Acts, we have studied the record of a couple of notable sermons, particularly the first message of Peter as well last sermon of the martyr Steven. Today, we look at the first recorded message of the Apostle Paul. As I noted last time, in this chapter, Paul transitions from being called Saul to being called Paul, and he is no longer called Saul on any longer, which indicates to me that he began his apostolic ministry at this point. This apostolic commission was attested to with signs and wonders as an attestation of the Spirit’s appointing him as an apostle, but it is interesting that Paul’s first attendant miracle is not that of healing but of cursing. He pronounced blindness on Elymas the magician as we saw earlier in this chapter.

And perhaps that illustrates the double edged nature of the gospel as Paul indicates in this sermon. That on the one hand is offered salvation for those who believe it and accept it, but on the other hand condemnation and judgment is upon those who reject the gospel. The gospel is a two edged sword, it cuts both ways. And we will see that illustrated in this sermon.

For the sake of time we will forego some of the geographical details that give the context for this sermon. But what should not be overlooked is that in vs. 13, after explaining the logistics of their trip, Luke says without fanfare or explanation that John Mark left them and returned home to Jerusalem. We are not given the answer to the question of why in this passage. And even later, in Acts 15, we are only told that Barnabas and Paul have a sharp disagreement over letting John Mark accompany them on a later mission due to the fact that Paul considered him a traitor to the cause on this first mission. And so at that point, Paul and Barnabas go their separate ways. I will add though that at the end of Paul’s ministry, he welcomed a much more mature John Mark in his company, so obviously there was reconciliation between them.

However, I think the point needs to be made that the young man John Mark is illustrative of a type of Christian that is unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary for the kingdom of God and departs from the ministry. And as such they can cause great harm to the cause of Christ. In addition to hurting their own testimony by setting aside their calling, they also can be a source of great discouragement, even to the pastors of the church themselves. I must confess I am so very often dismayed by young people falling away from the fervency of the ministry in favor of pursuing the desires of the flesh. I would to God that we had a few men who are more like Timothy, that served God from their youth and matured to be great men of God. But I’m afraid that so many today seem to fall victim to the appeal of the ungodly culture. And obviously, that sin is nothing new. It seems to have happened in the case of John Mark. And it seems to be flourishing today in our times as well. As mature Christians, we need to do all we can to try to encourage and strengthen the next generation so that they do not fall into the temptation of the world.

So skipping all the logistics, we find Paul and Barnabas in Pisidian Antioch, which is a town in Galatia rather than the Antioch of Syria you are probably more familiar with. And on the Sabbath day they go to a local synagogue and are seated most likely in the seat reserved for rabbis. Paul would have qualified for that position. And there was a certain order of service that was followed in the Sabbath meetings which is helpful for us to understand.

Notice vs. 15 says that after reading the law and the prophets. Now this wasn’t just a haphazard approach. But rather the Jews had a schedule for scripture readings that was practiced every Sabbath. The law which was read indicated the entire Pentateuch, broken down into 53 sections. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were divided up so one section was read each week so that the entire Pentateuch was read through in a year’s time. And then following that there was read a corresponding section from the Prophets. Now commentators tell us that because of this schedule they can pinpoint exactly what passages were read on that occasion, even though Luke doesn’t specify them.

But I don’t offer that as an interesting tidbit just to teach you some neat little historical fact so you can impress people at some Bible study some day. The point I want to make is that Paul preaches his message as an exposition based on the very scriptures they had just read. I believe that what we have recorded here is actually just a synopsis or outline of Paul’s message. The opening words of Paul refer to Deuteronomy 1-3 and that would have been the law section for the forty-fourth Sabbath in the year, which fell in July or August; and the corresponding passage from the prophets being Isaiah 1:1-27, from which he also preaches. He starts, as was the apostle’s tradition, from the Old Testament scriptures as the text of his sermon.

I happened to listen to a sermon by a very close friend of mine the other day who is also a pastor of a fairly good sized church. And as I listened to him, I was struck by the fact that he began his message without any Biblical context at all. He just started talking about some topical thing going on in the culture. At one point about 15 minutes into his message, he gave a vague mention of a brief verse of scripture which he did not quote or give a reference for. At the 25 minute mark, he sort of paraphrased the first part the first sentence from Genesis 1:1. And at about the 35 minute mark, I cut it off. Folks, if we should attempt to preach without the scriptures as our guide, then we foolishly rush in where angels fear to tread. Paul preached expositionally, and that should be our example in the church as well.

So when they had read the passages of scripture, they invited Paul to speak. Now this was the normal order of their service. I suppose that they started out with 45 minutes from the praise band, accompanied by an interpretive dance number, and then followed that with a skit, you know one of those pantomime kinds where no one speaks, and then they showed a video clip of their mission trip, and finally Paul got up and cracked a few jokes for 15 minutes and closed with a heartwarming story. No, I don’t think that is what the text tells us. They read the scriptures and Paul stood up and preached from the scriptures. How antiquated.

Note also that Paul, like Peter and Stephen before him, preached the gospel from the Old Testament. Today we tend to think that the Old Testament needs be done away with in favor of the New. But in fact, 2Tim. 3:16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

So Paul starts out by prefacing his exposition by stating the historical context for the text.   His text is mentioned in vs. 18, which says “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness.” And the translation of the words “put up” is an unfortunate rendering. Because where Paul gets this idea is from Duet. 1:31 which was the text which was read in the law. And that text speaks of God providing for His people all during that time, nurturing them, as a man might bear his son. Listen to how the Deuteronomy text reads, Deut. 1:30 “The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God.”

The text in Deuteronomy is talking about the rebellion of Israel, God’s chosen people and how God carried them even though they rejected the sovereign rule of God. Please understand something. The children of Israel were supposed to be a foreshadow of the church. Old Testament Israel is not one dispensation which did not work out so it was thrown away and in it’s place the church was placed and we don’t have any relevance to the Old Testament nation of Israel. On the contrary. It was a picture, a foreshadowing of the church. God dwelled in the midst of them in the Holy of Holies, just as God dwells in the hearts of His church today. So what happened to Israel serves as a lesson for us. Israel, from the very beginning rejected God’s rule, as Paul illustrates in his message.

Paul goes on to say that for about 450 years God put up with them, God nurtured them, proving Himself to them over and over, rebuking them at times, even causing many of them to die in the wilderness because of their unbelief, but being patient towards them, that they might know the good news of His promises to them. Then after that, Paul reminds them that they were given the judges up until the time of Samuel. Then came the climax to their rebellion. They asked for a king like the nations of the heathen. God was supposed to be their king. They lived in a theocracy. But after hundreds of years of God’s kindness and providence towards them, they rejected the rule of God over them and asked for a human king.

The heart of God concerning this rebellion is found in the text from the Prophets that was read before Paul’s message. It is found in Isaiah 1. I’ll read just a few of the verses there to give you a taste of what the scripture said concerning Israel’s rebellion. “Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me.An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know,My people do not understand. Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him. Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me? Says the LORD. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD, Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Oh, what a contemporary warning for the church, is it not? The Lord said, I hate iniquity in your solemn assemblies. When you spread your hands in prayer, I will not listen. Wash and make yourselves clean. Remove the evil deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil and do good. That isn’t a message preached very often today is it? If you continue to rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. This idea that we can sin and get away with it is not a Biblical principle ladies and gentlemen. To rebel is as the sin of witchcraft. To call sin good, and good sin, is to rebel against the word of the Lord. It’s to lie against the truth, and it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God. I fear for the greater church today in America which is lying and subverting the truth of God’s word for a PC version dictated by the culture.

Well, Paul says that Israel continued to rebel by asking for a king, so God gave them a king, he gave them Saul. Saul was a man that people admired. He was good looking. He was tall and handsome and looked like a king. But his heart was not right with God and he rebelled against God’s word. So God removed him from power and gave the kingdom to David, a man after His own heart.

David sinned grievously in the sight of God, but David also repented with a broken and contrite heart which God did not despise. The great danger to the church is not that we sin, but that we desire to justify our sin, as Saul did in his rebellion. We want to say that what God declared as sin is not really sin.

Paul shows a contrast between the rebellion of King Saul, and the willingness to do the Lord’s will of King David. David was called a man after God’s own heart. He had faults; he committed sin; but who does not sin? He was guilty of great offences; but he also evidenced sincere, humble repentance, and consequently God forgave Him.

Then Paul uses David to introduce Jesus, saying in vs. 23, “From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.” To an Israelite, they looked for the promise of the coming Messiah to be a King, the son of King David, who would restore unto Israel the former glories. But Paul shows that the Messiah is not only to be King, but a Savior, to restore man to his former glory with God before the fall.

To see Christ as King and not Savior was to miss the purpose of the Messiah and the point of salvation. And just as grave an error can be made in reverse, which is to see Christ as Savior and not King. The Jews were guilty of the first error, and the church guilty of the second. We live without regard for the fact that Christ is King over all.

Hence it is necessary in order to receive Him as Savior that there would first be a baptism of repentance. The baptism of repentance; so it is called in Matthew 3:2; repentance being a precondition to receive the mercies of God in Christ resulting in eternal life. Faith is the outcome of repentance. One cannot exist without the other. To think faith is simply believing in the existence of God or Jesus Christ is to say that the Jews who witnessed Jesus’ life were already saved. Believing in God doesn’t save you. James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

Believing in Christ unto salvation requires first repentance, acknowledgement that you are a sinner, without hope, lost, and being willing to give your life completely to the charge and care of God so that you might be changed. It requires a change of direction. Salvation is not adding religion to your life. It is not adding some Jesus to your life. But it is dying to your old life, and being given new life in Christ so that we might live for Him.

That is why Paul points out in his sermon that before Christ could come, John the Baptist came and preached baptism of repentance. Matt. 3:6 speaking of John the Baptist: “And [they]were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” Lots of churches practice baptism today, don’t they? Some may sprinkle, some may dunk, we go out in the surf. But do they teach that baptism is a mark or sign of repentance? That we bury the old man in the water, and the new man is raised out of the water? That is repentance, ladies and gentlemen. It is not feeling sorry you got caught. It is not feeling emotional, or weepy when you hear that Jesus suffered on the cross for you. It is coming to the point of dying to sin. Dying to the world. Dying to your will. And being raised up in newness of life. Old things are passed away, all things become new.  And by the way, how does an infant confess their sins when they are baptized? I don’t think they can. You need to be baptized as a sign that you have repented and are saved, not as a means of salvation.

Paul then gets to the heart of the gospel message, and that is it is for you who fear God. Vs. 26. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We fear God because we know that we are sinful, we know the depravity of our sin, and we know the judgment that God promises towards those who rebel against His word. The gospel is for the lost. Jesus said I came to seek and to save those that are lost. Not those that are satisfied, those that are self righteous, those that claim to be religious. But to save those that recognize that they are lost.

Then referring back to the prophets, Paul says that the rulers in Jerusalem unwittingly fulfilled those prophecies, by putting Jesus to death. Though they found no fault in Him, yet they persuaded Pilate to execute Him. But though the rulers of the Jews condemned Jesus, God proved Christ’s righteousness by raising Him from the dead. God proved not only His righteousness, but also His divinity.

So Paul quotes Psalm 2 to prove that Jesus Christ was not only the promised King and the Savior of the world, but also the very Son of God. Vs. 33, quoting Psalm 2, “YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.” And also he quotes Psalm 16:10 in which Christ is called by God “My Holy One.”

Paul uses these Psalms of David to show that it could not of been of David himself that it was written, because David was buried and his body underwent decay. But Christ who was raised from the dead so that His body did not suffer corruption. Vs. 36 “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.”

And I would also point out that years later Paul would write in 1Cor. 15:23 that Christ is the first fruits of those that are Christ’s. Meaning, that we that are saved will have the same benefits of Christ. As Paul said in our text, the holy and sure blessings of David. Which are spoken of again in Romans 8:11 which says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

The point being, that as Christ was raised, so we too will be raised to eternal life. But not only after we fall asleep in Christ, but also it has import on how we live in this present life. As Matthew Henry said, “Our complete separation from sin, is represented by our being buried with Christ. But he rose again from the dead, and saw no corruption: this was the great truth to be preached.”

The great reformation theologian John Calvin said something similar; “Because we have the truth hereof in Christ, whilst that being buried together with him we put off the old man; therefore the old figure is past.” What that means in layman’s terms is that the promise of Christ is for you as well, that promise of not seeing corruption; both the eternal corruption of the dead, and the practical corruption of the living. Salvation frees us from not only the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. Sin no longer has power over us if we have died to sin, buried it in the baptism of repentance. So that we might no longer live to sin, but live to Christ. That is the promise of salvation, that we might be freed from the corruption that is in the world. In fact, that is one of the great benefits of the church to the world; that we are the salt of the earth. We are the salt that prevents total corruption on the part of a dead and dying world. But let us remember what Jesus said about that salt in Matt. 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” Beware Christian, that you do not lose your saltiness. You are the light of the world. Therefore, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

The final point of Paul’s message is the great invitation to be saved. Vs. 38 “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.” Notice that Paul repeats “to you”, “to you” and says, “everyone who believes.” The good news of salvation is given to you, to everyone who will believe. It is not exclusively a Jewish religion. It is not only for the righteous. But salvation is freely given and paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ to whosoever will call upon His name.

However as I said at the beginning, the gospel of salvation is a double edged sword; it cuts both ways. It saves on one side, and condemns on the other. Because as Paul indicates, some will be scoffers, some will not believe, and they will surely perish as the former prophecy of Isaiah warned they would. The same Messiah King who came the first time as a Savior will return the second time as a Judge. And woe is he who disregards His sacrifice for sin and continues in his rebellion.

Well, that is Paul’s first sermon, what was the response on the part of the congregation? I would suggest that it was pretty typical of the gospel message as it is preached everywhere. There were some who were excited about it and asked for Paul to preach again the next week. And then after the meeting was over their were some that followed Paul and Barnabas. That means that they became disciples. You know being saved is not the end, it is the beginning. It is beginning a new life in Christ in which you walk after the Spirit. It is becoming a disciple, a follower of Christ. And that is why in vs. 43 Paul was urging them to continue in the grace of God.   What does that mean, to continue in the grace of God? Well, it means to continue to follow Christ, to walk as Christ walked.

You know I was talking to a young person the other day and we got on the subject of Buddhism. And this young person was sort of complimentary about the nature of Buddhism. The proponents of that religion seemed to them to try to be nice people, they didn’t hurt animals, they didn’t believe in war, they tried to meditate and be kind and pursue peace. It sounds good, but I tried to explain that this religion had no real hope for the afterlife. The best that they could really hope for was to find some sort of transcendent state where they blocked out reality and found some sort of tranquility by eliminating all physical distractions, pain, loss, hunger, sleep or whatever. Just training themselves to block out reality. And I tried to point out the hopelessness of that existence, because all that stuff is still there when you come out of your meditation.

But then I tried to point out to this young person that if the church was keeping the commandments of Christ, then we would be the type of people that the world would admire, like they admired the Buddhists. We would not only be able to offer them hope for eternal life, but we could offer a better existence here as well. If we truly loved our enemies as Christ taught, if we forgave those who mistreated us, if we gave to them that needed, if we did onto others as we would have them do to us. If we loved one another. If we served one another. I’m not talking about replacing the gospel of salvation from sin for a social gospel of doing charitable deeds and yet neglecting their salvation. But I am saying that the response of salvation is to do  works that glorify God. That we might be a light to the world. As Paul said, to continue in the grace of God. As God gave you grace, show grace. Continue in it.

Back in our text, the Jews saw a crowd coming to synagogue the next Sabbath to hear Paul and Barnabas and got jealous. So they stirred up some people and started contradicting what Paul was preaching. They were even blaspheming. I think that still happens today, people get jealous of our preaching and so that start backbiting and contradicting our teaching to keep others from coming to Christ.

Well Paul got wind of it and he never was one to mince words. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’”

Then he and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet in protest and left town for Iconium. See when the Israelites had to go over pagan territory outside of the nation of Israel they didn’t even want the dirt from that country to be carried on their shoes into Israel. So they would make a big deal about stopping on the border and taking off their sandals and dumping the sand out of them before going into Israel. Because they thought they were righteous and everyone else was heathen. So Paul and Barnabas turn the tables on them. As they are leaving town, they stop and shake the dust off their feet, indicating the were leaving the town of the heathen unbelievers. Jesus said in Mark 6:11, “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.”

Well, Paul laid out the gospel pretty clearly. I cannot improve upon it. I would just remind you in closing of the choice that he laid before you. To believe in Christ as King, as Savior and as the Holy One of God and in repentance and faith receive the forgiveness of sins. Or to reject Jesus as King, as Savior and as your God and continue in self righteousness and rebellion. One way leads to life incorruptible, one way leads to death and decay.   To you the gospel has been preached. To you the choice is given. I hope that you will turn from your sins and trust in Christ as your Savior today.

Last week we looked at government’s attack upon the church as evidenced in chapter 12 when Herod imprisoned Peter. And through that study we understood that though governors and rulers of government are granted their authority from God, yet at the same time they are often used by the ruler of this world, Satan, to bring persecution upon the church of God.

Now this week we are looking at another passage which illustrates the two pronged strategy of Satan’s attack on the church. He uses external means, such as governments, to attack the church, but he also uses internal means to attack the church. And I would have to say that from my perspective, which is also supported by Scripture, the internal attack is more effective.

The internal attack against the church is more effective because it comes in disguise. 2Cor. 11:14 says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. I just saw on the news that they are going to unveil a statue depicting Satan in Detroit before planning to move it to Arkansas where it will stand next to a monument of the 10 Commandments. And this statue features a man’s figure topped with a goat’s head. Satan is often portrayed in literature and art as a menacing figure. But in reality the Bible teaches just the opposite. It teaches that he was the most beautiful of all the angels that God created. So these depictions that we often see are dramatic interpretations at best, and find an audience among the naïve and superstitious.

Satan is real though, no doubt about that. But according to the Bible he would rather come in disguise than be seen as he really is. The Bible says he is a thief, and what he steals is the truth. He twists it and subverts it, yet all the while claiming that it is still the truth. And as such he is very effective. The Bible says that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. That means that he is a ravening wolf that wants to destroy the church, while pretending to be a shepherd.

Now in the new Gentile church they were seeing great ground being gained for Christ. And the beachhead of this new Gentile church is in the town of Antioch, which was also one of the most depraved cities in Roman Empire. But in spite of the depravity of that culture, there is a mighty work of God there. That illustrates the principle that God often works most mightily in those who seem the least unlikely.

And to that end, God had brought together in this church a group of men from various backgrounds and cultures to be the leadership of this new church. Now this was a Spirit led, Spirit filled church. And God presents this Gentile church to us as a template for our church today. And in the process of looking at how Satan attacks this church, we will also note the characteristics of a godly church that will not only withstand but triumph over those satanic attacks.   As Jesus declared, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Yet we dare not take lightly Satan’s schemes. They are a very present and real danger to the church, and many have fallen away from the truth because of Satan’s deceptions. But if we follow the paradigm set forth here with the Antioch church, then we can be triumphant over Satan’s schemes.

The first thing we should notice about this church was that it was led by spiritually gifted men. Vs.1 lists these men. “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” It’ so obvious a point that it could easily be overlooked, but to be a church that triumphs over Satanic attacks, there needs to be the right kind of leadership.

Now though the text gives two titles, it is really just one position; prophets and teachers or you could say preachers and teachers. But though it describes two different styles of discourse, it is speaking of only one position. Today we would call that person a pastor. A pastor is a preacher/teacher. Don’t be misled by the word prophet that is found here. A prophet is simply one who proclaims the truth of God. In the case where we have the scriptures which are the inspired word of God, then we are prophets in the sense that we proclaim what God has said. In times past when there wasn’t the written word, then they spoke the words that they had been given by Christ when they followed Him as disciples, or they spoke the word of God which was being given to them directly through divine inspiration. Today we have the complete, inspired word of God written down for us. So there is no new revelation today being given through prophecy. There are no new scriptures being given. We proclaim and preach the written word of God which has been preserved for us in the Bible. So we need to understand that prophecy is not just future telling, but primarily forth telling. Proclaiming the truth of God.

That is job one of the pastor, by the way. If the pastor is not preaching the whole counsel of God as it has been given, in it’s completeness, rightly dividing the word of truth, then he is abrogating his most important responsibility of leadership.   Ephesians 4 says that when Jesus ascended on high He gave to the church gifts and the first priority of those gifts were it’s leadership. Ephesians 4:11-13 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians says that these men are given to the church, to preach the word in order to build up the body, to equip the saints for the work of service, so that the church grows up to maturity and in unity of doctrine.

And we see that evidenced here in this church in Antioch. These spiritual leaders were engaged in ministering to the Lord, vs. 2. “While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting…” What does it mean to minister to the Lord? Well, it means to serve the Lord. The pastor’s job is to serve the Lord. To faithfully proclaim the message that God has given them to the people. And whoever serves in the church should do so as unto the Lord, don’t we? When I explain to a man and woman the responsibilities of marriage, I tell them that according to Ephesians 5 they are to serve one another as unto the Lord. When Ephesians 6 says to servants, or workers how they are to work for their employers, it says to do their work as unto the Lord. Children are told to obey their parents as unto the Lord. Whatever we do, we do it as unto the Lord. That is how we serve the Lord in all we do. And if you can’t do something as unto the Lord, then you need to stop doing what you’re doing.

You know, in the armed services when a soldier leaves his unit and goes off on his own, it is called going AWOL. Absent without leave. And you can be court martialed for that. And in the Christian life if you are not a part of a local body of believers, then you have gone AWOL as well. When you became a Christian you were joined to the body of Christ, and your duty is to be a part of that local body. There are no free agents in the Christian church. All are called to submit to the local authority of a church and take responsibility for the role you are given there. There is a dangerous practice emerging today of treating church like a smorgasbord, going here one week, and there another week, and failing to understand your responsibility to support a local, Bible teaching church.

But as a pastor, it’s important that we are focused on serving the Lord, not just serving the people. It’s easy to become focused on pleasing the people, thinking that in order to win them to the Lord we need to concoct all sorts of programs and devices to try to please people. But instead, we need to serve the Lord, preach and proclaim His word, and let God take care of the people’s response. It’s His word, it’s His church, and our job is to declare His word, rightly interpreting it, and teaching it, knowing that as teachers we will receive a greater judgment for what we teach or fail to teach.

Now not all programs are bad. There are some good programs that the church can do, but it may not be in the best interest of the pastor to do them if it deters him from the ministry of the word. For instance, in the beginning of the church in Jerusalem the needs of the widows was being neglected. Taking care of the widows was a good thing. But the apostles said pick 7 godly men full of the Spirit to do that, as for us, we must not neglect prayer and the ministry of the Word. That is our calling, our responsibility, and without it the church cannot survive the attacks on it by Satan.

The word minister is an interesting word which comes from the Greek word litourgeo. It was used to describe the duties of the priests that served the temple. The temple was the place where God met with His people in the Holy of Holies. It was the place where worshippers came to offer sacrifices and offerings.

I think it’s part of the diabolical plot of Satan that the word worship has been co-opted today to mean something different than the Bible teaches. Today in most churches, worship is merely singing, or listening to people sing, maybe raising or clapping your hands. And that’s it. But worship in the Bible is always pictured as coming to God in submission, bowing before Him, even prostrating oneself on the ground. And worship is always pictured in conjunction with a sacrifice. We’ve lost the sense of sacrifice today. We’ve lost the sense of coming to God with an offering, with our gifts, and with our sacrifice.

Yet these Old Testament worship rituals were not meant to be forgotten about in the new covenant, but were meant to be examples to us as pictures of how we are to worship. Today we don’t slaughter a lamb for our sins. But we should understand that Jesus was slaughtered for us on the cross so that His blood atoned for our sins. We need to understand the principle that a sacrifice cost something. Every sin in the old covenant required a sacrifice. So if I lied, I would bring a sacrifice to the temple. That dove, or that lamb cost me something. I had to watch it die in front of my eyes, so that I might understand the significance of my sin. I had to pay out of my pocket the cost of a lamb so that I might be redeemed from the penalty of that sin.

Now the New Testament teaches that by one sacrifice of Jesus Christ all my sins have been atoned for. But woe is me if I do not value the blood of Christ as much as the cost of a lamb. Heb. 10:29 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

God still requires sacrifices from those who would worship Him. David said in Psalm 51:16-17 “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

And Romans 12:1 describes another kind of sacrifice that God desires. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”   How do you offer your body as a sacrifice to God, how do you worship God? Vs. 2, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” We set ourselves apart from the world, and are transformed through renewing our mind as we are taught the scripture and apply them to our lives, so that we might do the will of God.

There is another aspect of their ministry, not only the preaching of the word, but the ministry of prayer. They were fasting and praying. Fasting is often misunderstood. It’s not a means of twisting God’s arm. I don’t think God cares if I eat chocolate for a month or not, or if I swear off ice cream for 40 days. But what God does care about is my heart. If the desire of my heart is to hear from God, to know the will of God, then God is pleased with that. And one way that we manifest that desire is that we shun our physical needs for the sake of our greater spiritual need. Our desire to hear from God is greater than our desire for food. Fasting is an indication the fervency of your prayers.

I asked last week, how often do you pray intensely? How many times have you prayed all night long for something or someone? How many times in the last week or month have you prayed for a solid hour? I’m not suggesting a legalistic approach to prayer or fasting. I’m just suggesting that if you want to hear from God, then you need to become someone who is willing to forsake the world and even your physical needs in order to be able to pray effectively. We need to set aside time for prayer.

Well, these pastors were in the habit of praying and fasting. They were in the habit of daily ministering to the Lord, of daily preaching and teaching in the church. And in the process of doing that, God speaks to them. We aren’t told if it was audible, or in a vision, or if He spoke to one or all of them. But somehow, Luke tells us, the Holy Spirit said to them, “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” To set apart is to separate. Church leadership should of all people be an example of being separate unto the Lord. He’s not talking about joining a convent or going into a monastery. He is talking about separating from the world to perform a particular work of God. To be unique, set apart, for a specific task. It means to be consecrated to a holy purpose, as a chosen vessel for God’s use. Whether you are called to be a pastor or whatever position God has called you to in the church, we are to be consecrated to that responsibility, holy as unto the Lord.

And then we see that the church supported them. The church laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul to show solidarity with them. Laying on hands did not somehow elevate them to another level or confer some gift to them. But what it did was show affirmation with what the Holy Spirit had already indicated. The Holy Spirit called them and set them apart. The church simply confirmed the call of the Holy Spirit.

Listen, this is important; pastors are called by God, not by men. Not by seminaries. Not by denominational boards. God calls a man to ministry, not a church board. The worst thing possible for most churches is to convene a pastor search committee made up of the most diverse members of the congregation and give them the authority to hire a pastor. The pastor is not a hireling. He is the undershepherd of Christ and called by Him, gifted by Him, and given to the church by Him. No wonder the church en large is in such disarray today. Some poor guy was hired by a committee based on his looks, his personality and his wife’s wardrobe. I can promise you this, in most evangelical churches today the Apostle Paul would never get the call from the pastor search committee. He just wasn’t funny enough. He didn’t make people laugh. He didn’t look very cool on stage. He was a bent over old Jewish guy with a bald head and a beak nose. And on top of that he had this really sickening eye disease that caused his eyes to discharge corruption all the time. Remember what the church at Corinth said about Paul? 2Cor. 10:10 “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” Sounds like what they say about me. “Oh yeah, Roy preaches the word of God, but he isn’t very uplifting. I want someone who makes me feel good about myself. I want someone to make me laugh.”   Well, take it up with God. God wrote His word, I just declare it.

I want to say something else about the calling. In the lineup of pastors in Antioch, Barnabas was listed first, and Saul was listed last.   But when God calls two men, he calls Barnabas and Saul. Now Saul has been working with Barnabas for a while now, possibly several years. And up to this point he did nothing noteworthy. Nothing has been extraordinary about him. Considering his background, he probably was not the sort of guy that you wanted to promote to a major position in the church. After all, he used to persecute Christians. And if you really wanted to attract the best people in society to the church, then you should really consider Manaen. He was the foster brother of King Herod. Talk about connections. He had a royal upbringing. He knew people that could bankroll the church. He was educated in the finest schools. He would have been the most likely candidate.

But God called Saul. And this is the last time that he is called Saul. From now on he will be called Paul. I believe this is when Saul is elevated to the position of an Apostle by the Holy Spirit. You know after Judas killed himself, the apostles promoted Matthais to his position. Perhaps now that the Apostle James has been martyred as we saw in the last chapter, Paul has been promoted by the Spirit to take his place and to particularly be the apostle to the Gentiles. But unfortunately, we get the sense from Paul’s epistles that he is always having to defend his apostleship. The greater church at large did not seem to give him the respect that he deserved. But at least from our standpoint in history we can be assured that Paul was perhaps the greatest of all the apostles, though at the time he was considered the least. God often uses the weak things to confound the mighty.

Now a lot of what we have covered concerning the church of Antioch has focused on the leadership of the church. And leadership is important because as go the leaders, so go the church. They are to be the examples to the flock under them. Notice that the church sends Barnabas and Saul out in vs. 3, and then in vs. 4 it says the Spirit sent them out. The Holy Spirit uses people to work His will. We don’t just sit back and wait for the Spirit to do everything, but we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do what the Spirit tells us to do. That’s the way the Spirit works.

But now let’s turn our attention to the satanic attack against the church and see how the leadership responds. Barnabas and Paul start out at one end of the island of Cyprus and work their way across, going from synagogue to synagogue preaching the gospel. This is going to be the pattern for Paul as he goes on all subsequent missionary journeys. He looks for Jews first, many times going to the local synagogue where God fearing Jews would gather and there he would preach the gospel. Then from there he would branch out to the Gentiles. But his pattern according to the pattern of scripture, is that the gospel would be given to the Jews first.

So when they got to Pathos, word of their ministry had obviously spread and even the governor of the district had heard about them. In fact, he wanted to hear more about the gospel. So he invited Barnabas and Paul to come preach to him. But there was a man with the proconsul or governor called Bar-Jesus who Luke tells us was a false prophet. He was a Jew, but he practiced magic. This indicates that he claimed to be able to foretell future events by means of the stars or some other form of divination. And the text tells us that he was opposing Paul’s message to the governor, trying to turn him away from the faith. To keep him from being saved.

Now let’s notice a couple of things about this guy Bar-Jesus. That’s his Hebrew name, by the way. His Roman name was Elymas. But let’s focus on his Hebrew name, Bar-Jesus. His name means son of Jesus, or son of salvation. Now Luke tells us that he is a magician. You know, I can’t help but see a parallel here between the man called Simon Magus who was rebuked by the Apostle Peter earlier in our study of Acts and this man. Both were considered magicians. And both had a reputation in the district as a man of wisdom, a man who could do wonderful things by some magic power which we are told was satanic in origin and both opposed the apostles teaching. And what that tells me is that Satan uses the same strategies in the church over and over again. There is nothing new under the sun. Satan just repackages the same deceiving strategies for each generation and passes them off as something new when it’s the same old tricks.

Remember the verse I quoted at the beginning that said Satan disguises himself as an angel of light? Well, here he is in the person of this magician, this trickster, and yet he calls himself the son of salvation.   He pretends to be an angel of light. A messenger of salvation but actually he is deceiving the people and trying to prevent this proconsul from becoming a Christian.

And here is another interesting principle. As soon as an unsaved person seeks to hear the gospel, Satan has one of his false prophets right there to try to deceive and trick them. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this worked out in the church. I’ve seen young men who couldn’t find a girl to save their life, one day start to show some interest in salvation and suddenly they are the like a contestant on the most eligible bachelor or something. They suddenly get a girlfriend. And off they go, forgetting all about the need to get right with God.

Or I’ve seen someone come under conviction by the Holy Spirit, and before they can come to a place of confession they talk to someone else who convinces them that what they really need to do is go to Catechism class. And so they spend six weeks in Catechism class and come out a better Catholic, but still unsaved. However, now they feel a lot better about themselves. They got religion.

So here is this false prophet, opposing the witness of God’s true prophets Paul and Barnabas. Trying to turn this man away from the truth. Listen, this is the greatest danger to the church. The greatest danger to the church is not the homosexual agenda. Not the liberal media. Not the abortion advocates. Not the political liberals. No, the biggest threat to the church is from within, from false prophets masquerading as angels of light, pretending to be shepherds, when in fact they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. And their purpose is to ravage the church. 1Tim. 4:1 says, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

I tell you, if I had no other witness that we were in the last days, it would be the fact that many have fallen away from the true faith, by paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons which run rampant in the church.

God gave me a verse of scripture when He called me to be a preacher of the gospel. It is found in 2Tim. 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” And so I have attempted to do that for the last 9 years. But over that time I have seen many people who claimed to be saved turn away from the gospel I preach for another gospel. And the next verse in 2Tim. 4, vs. 3 explains why that happens. It says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”   And I would not be so concerned if that was where it ended. They go their way and I go mine. But that is not the way it works. Many of them go out of their way to try to keep others from coming to the knowledge of the truth. They cause others to stumble by their rebellion and by deliberately trying to turn them away from the truth, just as Bar-Jesus did.

I wish I was as bold as Paul was in confronting that sort of thing. But then again, I’m not Paul. But what Paul teaches us is that the way to deal with false prophets is to call them out. To unmask their hypocrisy. To uncover their deceit. See the devil loves to stay in disguise. But Paul calls him out and he doesn’t mince any words.

First of all Paul fixes his eyes on him. I have to laugh at that one. I have a bad habit of locking eyes with one person sometimes when I am preaching. Especially on Wednesday nights. And it’s not because I’m trying to give them the stink eye or something.   It’s usually because they are the only one in the congregation that is brave enough to look at me. Everyone else tries to hide behind a lamp or something. So the poor guy that is willing to look at me gets locked on like a laser beam and I stay on him all night. But Paul isn’t doing that. I think Paul just locks his gaze on him in order to make sure this false prophet gets the full intent of his message.

And so Paul, full of the Holy Spirit, note that. He’s not full of vitriol. He is full of the Holy Spirit. It’s the word of the Holy Spirit that condemns this man, not Paul. He says, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?” I love that. Starts off by calling him a deceit and a fraud. You promise people life but only bring about death. You promise people truth and give them a lie. That is what false prophets do.

And then he says he is the son of the devil. Remember his name was son of Jesus, or son of salvation, but Paul says no, you are a son of the devil. The enemy of all righteousness. Will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

And then notice the curse. I don’t have the power to curse anyone. I don’t think anyone does. But God does. And so filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking by the power of the Spirit the words of God, Paul pronounces a curse upon this man. “Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.”

Now as I’ve said many times recently, very often a miracle in the physical realm is a picture of a spiritual reality. This man was blinded in order to demonstrate the spiritual blindness that such false prophets cause. I believe that is what is presented here. False prophets cause spiritual blindness because they hide the light of the gospel. Satan wants to keep men in darkness. And so God blinds him that he might be seen as a leader of the blind, the blind leading the blind.

But that wasn’t the victory of the church. Damning the lost is not the triumph of the church. The triumph of the church is winning the lost. The gates of hell, the minions of the devil, cannot stop the gospel from winning the lost. We are in a war, but not against flesh and blood, but against angels, against angelic powers and principalities. But we do not war with weapons of carnal warfare. We war in the power of the Spirit, by the ministry of the word and with prayer. And in that manner we see the victory in this passage. “Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.”

That is how we triumph over Satan as a church. Winning one soul at a time. Robbing hell of it’s citizens and making them disciples of Christ. We faithfully follow godly pastors who preach the word of the Lord. Who rightly divide the word of truth and who reveal false teaching for what it is. We pray earnestly and intensely for the ministry and seek the Lord’s guidance and counsel in all that we do. And in that manner we defeat the schemes of the devil. Because greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. When the church is set apart unto Christ, worshipping and serving Him in Spirit and in truth, then we can be confident that He will preserve and defend His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

Recent decisions on the part of the government, not only in America, but also in various other countries, have amounted to nothing less than an attack on the church. And I believe that this is just the beginning of a wholesale attack on the church which will continue to get worse and worse as we go forward. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days, perilous times will come.

Paul described such days as this in 2Tim. 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

Difficult times are coming for the church. We stand on the authority of God’s word, and as such are in opposition to those types of people, who want not only to be allowed to continue in their rebellion against God, but want to make us agree with their rebellion and redefine morality so that what they do is no longer considered sinful. It’s not enough for us to allow them their immorality, the church must be forced to condone it and even celebrate it in order for them to be satisfied.

So I believe that these are the beginning of perilous times for the church in America, especially. It is a difficult time for the church because we live in a country with a representative form of government that is managed by a peculiar type of leader called a politician. And a lot of politicians are willing to cater to whatever crowd will keep them elected. Many politicians seem to be willing to embrace anything that will endear them to enough people to guarantee their reelection.

But as I alluded to last week, I would encourage you not to be dismayed and give up hope. Over the last 2000 years, nations and governments and political despots have risen and fallen, and yet God’s church still stands. Jesus promised Peter, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” The church will survive until Jesus returns one day to reclaim it as His bride and there is nothing the world can do to stop it.

But that doesn’t mean that there will not be persecution of the church. I believe wholeheartedly that the church will endure persecution in the last days. I do not subscribe to the post millennial doctrine that things are going to get better and better until the whole world is saved. Neither do I subscribe to the pre-millennial view that the church will escape unscathed by a secret rapture. I believe that the church will go through the tribulation, and it has already started and will continue to escalate and will consummate with the second coming of Christ.

As Jesus Himself prophesied in Mar 13, saying, “And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. … For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect… But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, … And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”

Persecution is coming, but we should not be alarmed by it. Rather we should understand that God uses all things for good, even persecution, for them that love God, and to them that are called according to His purposes. (Rom.8:28) God uses even the death of His saints for His purposes and to build His church. As Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

The problem is that we value too much this present world, and value too little the next. We should remember that in Christ we have already died to the world, and if they should take our life, then so much the better for we will be present with the Lord. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

In chapter 12 today we see a perfect illustration of the principle that God will preserve His church against the attacks of the enemy. What I want to show you from this passage is three principles that we can be assured of as the church endures persecution from governments or any organization used by Satan to attack the church. The first is the persecution of the saints. The second is the protection of the saints. And the third is the judgment upon the wicked.

So first let’s look at the persecution of the saints. In this chapter we see persecution against the church ramps up from merely religious persecution by the Sanhedrin, to political or government persecution against the church. And yet, God illustrates through this passage that He is on the throne and in control. This passage illustrates that rulers and politicians are granted their power from above, for such a time as God sees fit. And when God decides that their time is finished, He can remove them from power.

Jesus told us in John 16:33 that we should expect tribulation; “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

As I mentioned, persecution at this stage takes the form of government persecution. It comes in the person of King Agrippa the 1^st.   He was the grandson of Herod the Great who had all the babies under 2 years old killed at the time of Christ’s birth. And like father like son, the Herod’s were an immoral, murderous lot that only were concerned about acquiring power and keeping power. His jurisdiction was practically all of Israel, which he had acquired in piecemeal through cronyism with Roman leaders. Furthermore, he was not a pure Jew by birth. He was an Edomite who had been circumcised and thus was considered part of Judaism, but never really accepted by the strict Jews.

If you remember though, in the last chapter Herod had intervened for the Jews with the Emperor Caligula to keep him from erecting his statue in the temple, which would have desecrated the temple. And the Jews were appreciative of his efforts. So when he saw that he was appeasing the Jews, he sought to further ingratiate himself to them by attacking the church. Because the church now was accepting Gentiles, and as such were even more odious to the Jews. So as it says in vs. 1 and 2, Herod began to attack the Christians in Jerusalem, and one of the most famous ones was James, one of the sons of Zebedee, the brother of John. And to please the Jews, Herod had him beheaded.

And then when Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well. He obviously intended to put Peter to the death also. And I just want to emphasize here that Herod had no legal grounds to arrest these men or have them killed. He just did it for political expediency. It was the politically correct thing to do.

I’m afraid we live in a culture today when it is politically correct to try to silence the church as we know it. The world has always been an enemy of the gospel, but in the past it was somewhat more discreet, today it is out in the open. There is a downright animosity, hatred even towards Christianity today that is unbelievable. The internet in particular seems to be a breeding ground for this hatred.

But as much as I am dismayed to see this today, I am reminded that Jesus foretold this 2000 years ago. Look again at Mark 13:12-13 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Now I want to show you an important principle here regarding trials and persecutions. God did not deliver James from death, but He did deliver Peter. And if you are like me you cannot help but ask why? Why would God allow Peter to be delivered but not James? They were both apostles. They both were a part of the inner circle of Christ.

And here is the first part of that answer, the second will be given in the next point. Why did God allow James to die while Peter was delivered? The answer; it was the sovereign will of God. It wasn’t a lack of faith or prayer or any effort of man. It was the will of God. Remember when Jesus prayed to be delivered from this cup in the Garden of Eden He prayed “Not my will but your will be done.” And it was the will of God that Jesus suffered and died on the cross. It was the will of God that virtually all the apostles and close disciples of Jesus would eventually die as martyrs. I don’t claim to know the mind of God or all the purposes of God. I have to trust His wisdom. But I can tell you this, James was immediately with the Lord, and as Paul would say later, that is very much the better. And I believe these men understood that better than anyone. They knew the reality of the resurrection. They knew that Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” They believed that from the bottom of their hearts, and that is why I think they were so bold in their commitment to Christ and willing to die for Christ.

I wish that more of the church had that kind of assurance today. The fact is that if we have truly died to the world to follow Christ, then there is nothing that the world can really do to us. Rom 6:8-11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That’s the secret to enduring persecution, to know that we will never die if we are Christ’s.

Then the second point we see in this passage is the protection of the saints. Peter is arrested at the beginning of the Passover Feast which lasted for 8 days. And during this time he is chained to a guard on either side, with two others guarding the cell. And there are four such squads of soldiers guarding him 24 hours a day. Undoubtedly, Herod had heard that Peter had escaped from jail before and so he wanted to be sure that he kept him locked up until after the Passover, when he expected to have Peter executed.

But on the night before Herod was going to bring Peter out to be killed, an angel of God appears to Peter. And Peter is sound asleep. So soundly asleep that the angel has to smack him on his side to wake him up. I would suggest that is not due to Peter’s sleepiness so much as it must have been that the entire guardhouse was put into a deep sleep by the angel in order to effect Peter’s deliverance.

So back to our question, why does God deliver Peter and yet He did not deliver James? The first part of that answer was the sovereignty of God. It was His will that James would become the first martyr of the apostles, and it was His will that Peter would live for several more years.

But I think I can add something to that answer by saying this; I think God rarely works to bring about a personal miracle unless it serves the greater good of the kingdom. And in Peter’s case God wasn’t finished with him yet. After this chapter, Peter sort of disappears from the book of Acts for the most part. The emphasis turns to Paul and his ministry. But God was still going to use Peter. Peter would go on to write two epistles, 1^st and 2^nd Peter, and he would also mentor a young man that is introduced in this chapter, vs.12, John Mark. John Mark would eventually just be known as Mark, and he would be Peter’s interpreter as Peter continues his ministry to the Gentiles. But even more importantly, Peter teaches this young man the words of Christ which eventually are written into the Gospel of Mark, one of the four gospels.   So Peter’s deliverance illustrates my principle which is that God rarely works to bring about a personal miracle unless it serves the greater good of the kingdom. And the greater good that God wanted to accomplish through Peter is the furtherance of the gospel through the written word of God.

We see that principle in the Old Testament as Joseph was delivered from prison after 17 years as a slave and prisoner and elevated to the second in command of Egypt. God performed a miracle in Joseph’s life because he was going to be the deliver for the children of Israel. He preserved the kingdom of God through his position. But that principle is also illustrated when John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas, and he was beheaded because his ministry was finished. His ministry was to herald and prepare the way for the ministry of Christ. As he himself would say concerning Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” His ministry was completed, so God took him home to glory. So much the better.

But there is another reason suggested by the text for Peter’s deliverance. And that is the prayers of the church. The church that was meeting at Mary’s house (who was the mother of John Mark) had been engaging in a week long prayer vigil for Peter. They knew that James had been beheaded by Herod, and so they were under no illusions about Peter’s destiny. So they earnestly were gathered together praying.

The church in Mary’s house had been praying for a solid week. I think that kind of prayer comes as the result of persecution. I’m afraid that kind of prayer is lacking today in the church for the most part. Yet we are commanded to pray like that. 1Thess. 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.”   Jesus told a parable in Luke 18 about a woman that petitioned a king and wouldn’t give up, to teach that we should pray at all times and not lose heart. Rom. 12 says be devoted to prayer. Eph. 6:18 says “pray at all times.” Peter says in 1Pet. 4:7 “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” And James says in chapter 5 that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Jesus was a man of prayer. He prayed all night on a mountain top alone many times. I asked the Wednesday night group last week the question, “When was the last time you prayed all night for your children or loved ones?” Jesus did it. This church in Mary’s house did it. I would estimate that it was after midnight at least when Peter came knocking on their door. That may have been why they didn’t think it could have been Peter outside. Maybe it wasn’t so much that they didn’t believe God could deliver him as much as they didn’t think it would happen in the middle of the night.

Jesus rebuked the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane because they could not pray with Him for one hour. How about you? Have you ever prayed for one hour- much less all night, how about one solid hour of prayer? If not, why not? Jesus prayed so fervently in the Garden that He sweated drops of blood. Can you imagine that? Lord, if the church would get an urgency about prayer then I think we could still turn our communities, if not the world upside down. Prayer is one of the only two weapons that we have at our disposal according to Ephesians 6. The word of God and prayer. And most church members avoid both of them like the plague. No wonder we are in the mess we are in today. I would suggest that the mess we have in America is a mess of our own doing. We have neglected our duty and our responsibility, due to our romantic entanglement with the world.

Listen, God gave a promise about prayer in 2Chron. 7:14 which we would do well to remember is a promise given to the church! “If MY people, which are called by MY name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” We don’t need to worry about the pagans and the atheists becoming more sinful, ladies and gentlemen. We need to consider our own sins. The church needs to get on our knees before God Almighty and repent from our wickedness and call upon the Lord to hear us and heal us, and then He will heal our land.

Jesus said we are the salt of the earth. The church is what is supposed to stave off corruption in the world. But if the salt loses it’s saltiness, then Jesus said it is worthless and should be thrown into the road to be trampled underfoot. We need to humble ourselves and pray, ladies and gentlemen. As long as God is on His throne we need to pray.

There is one more reason I can think of why God did not allow Peter to be killed. And that is because of the promise of Christ.   Jesus had promised that Peter would live to an old age. Jesus said to Peter in John 21:18 “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”

I would suggest that is another reason that Peter is sleeping so soundly. He knows that Jesus predicted his death, and it would be when he was old. Peter wasn’t old at this point, it being only about 10 years since Jesus’ resurrection. Listen, that teaches an important principle. Our faith is not founded in wishful thinking. Some preachers teach that if you just believe hard enough you can get whatever you pray for. That is not taught in the Bible. The church in Mary’s house shows their lack of faith and yet God answers their prayers. But when we pray according to the will of God we pray the promises of God. If God said it, then I can trust Him to perform His word. But God is not some genie that responds to our incantations and mutterings. No God is sovereign, and I am His servant and so therefore I can trust Him to protect me as long as He needs me here.

Finally, the last point that the passage makes about the attack on the church is the judgment of the wicked. And we see the judgment of the Lord upon the wicked illustrated in the life of Herod. Herod was a wicked man, like his grandfather before him. He has imprisoned Christians and killed James for no reason other than political gain. And after Peter is delivered, Herod shows once again his ruthlessness by having the guards put to death. Very likely, that meant all 16 guards were executed for something that was obviously a miracle of God. This miracle should have been a reason for Herod to repent of his wickedness when he realized that he was working against God. But instead he hardens his heart and puts the guards to death.

But soon afterwards Herod leaves Jerusalem and goes to spend time in Caesarea. And while he was there the people of Tyre and Sidon try to appeal to his vanity in order to gain food for their cities. So to gain an audience with Herod they bribe his chamberlain, named Blastus, and he arranges for Herod to address the people.

Now Josephus, the Jewish historian tells us some additional details which Luke does not. Josephus said that Herod dressed in his royal attire which was made of silver threads, and when he came out into the sunlight to address them from the rostrum, the sun shining on his garment made a dazzling spectacle. And the people seeing this dazzling light emanating from Herod, and hearing his oratory, began shouting praises to Herod, calling out that he was a god and not a man. And it pleased Herod’s vanity. He accepted their praises, and he did not give glory to the true God of Israel, but accepted their praise. And the Bible says that the angel of God smote Herod with worms and he died. Josephus adds that he immediately fell down and was taken out in the middle of the ceremony, and then died a horrible death four days later.

Listen, the church needs to be assured that the judgment of God upon the wicked is a certainty. The word of the Lord assures His church that He will reward the iniquity of the wicked. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay.

Psalms 2:2-6 declares that “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”   Do you understand what David is saying? He says the kings of the earth don’t want the constraints of God’s law upon them. They cast away the cords of restraint that God establishes in His word. They want to do what they think is right in their own eyes. They want to do as they please. They think that they are autonomous. And they forget that it is Jesus Christ the Soveriegn King that grants them any authority that they have, and Jesus can and will remove all authority that opposes His will when He sees fit.

You remember when Pilate told Jesus that he had the authority to put Him to death, Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” It would behoove our elected officials to remember this statement, that God gives them their authority, especially in light of recent events. But even more in light of what happened to Herod. God delivered Peter, but he judged Herod, not only in his flesh eaten by worms, but for eternity in hell where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. And the Bible teaches that there are degrees of punishment in hell. We aren’t given specifics as to how that works, but if the statement concerning teachers is that we are under greater judgment because we are teachers of the gospel, then it must be equally true concerning governors and officers of the state that they are also under a greater judgment and will be held to a higher standard for what they have done with the responsibility that God gave them. “To him who has been given much, much shall be required.”

Oh church, do not be dismayed because the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. Peter wrote in 2Pet. 3:9, “The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” Christ came the first time in mercy, but He comes the second time in judgment to vindicate His church and execute revenge for the death of the saints.

John, the brother of the martyred James says in Rev. 19:11 says “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

O Church, do not be dismayed at the persecution that has come upon you. Peter writes in 1Peter 4:12-13 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” He goes on to say in vs. 17 “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?”

Jesus is coming again as the Judge of the whole earth. Kings and princes will bow down to Him. Every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord of all. Judgment is coming. But our job as the church is to preach the gospel, the good news that Jesus has made it possible for man to be reconciled to God, for man to be saved from the judgment to come if they will just repent of their wickedness and believe on the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And that is what we see described in vs. 24 “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.” The church continued to grow and spread the gospel and people were being saved in spite of the attacks against the church. That is the purpose of the church. And the gates of hell will not stop the word of God from going forth and accomplishing it’s goal. Let us not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which has come upon us. But let us be about the Lord’s business of spreading the gospel. Let us be men and women of fervent prayer. Let us be citizens of a higher kingdom, servants of a greater King. The Lord is coming soon. As we see these things going on in the world, as we see the persecution against the church ramping up, let us keep looking up. Jesus is coming soon.

Last week as we looked at the previous chapter, we studied the way in which God brought the gospel to the Gentiles. If you will remember, Peter had a vision in which he saw a great sheet lowered down out of heaven with all kinds of animals and creatures in it, which contained animals considered both clean and unclean. And I will not take the time this morning to review the details of that story. Peter himself reviews it once again in this chapter as we have just read.

But I would ask you to consider the importance of such an event in light of the fact that the Holy Spirit inspires Luke to recount the details of this event three times. There were surely many other things that happened in the church that were noteworthy in the 10 years or so between the day of Pentecost and the church starting in Antioch. But God chooses to review this one event in detail, occupying almost 2 chapters out of 28 altogether in the book of Acts. In fact, in these chapters, we find that this story is recounted three times. Now it is significant when God mentions something once. That should be enough. After all, it is written down, so that we might read it as often as we like. But to have it written down three times shows the great emphasis that God makes of this event.

So the question for us then as we look at this is why? Why does God make such a great deal out of the conversion of the Gentiles? And the answer is that it is significant because it was a major step in the progression of the gospel, when the church is opened up from being strictly a Jewish religion to encompass the entire world.

When God originally gave Abraham the promise of a seed, God said in Gen. 26:4, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”   The first part of that promise to Abraham had been fulfilled through God’s covenant by Abraham’s seed producing the nation of Israel, through whom was promised the Messiah. But now the second part of that promise was being fulfilled in all the nations of the earth becoming blessed through the gospel of the Messiah. The Gentiles were now being included in the church. And this is a major thing in the history of the gospel, but it does not come about without causing serious consternation among the believing Jews. It’s going to change their whole way of thinking. It’s going to affect their inherent prejudices against the Gentiles. That is why when Peter comes back to Jerusalem, he finds that word of the salvation of the Gentiles has beaten him back there and the believing Jews in the church at Jerusalem are ready to take him to task for it.

So Peter patiently reviews for them the whole situation, everything that happened just as God brought it to pass. He culminates his argument by saying in vs.17 “Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

Then notice their response in vs.18, “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” Now that phrase is really the starting point of my message today that I would like to develop this morning. “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance unto life,” is how the KJV reads.

I want to show you how the new born Gentile church in Antioch responded to the gospel. I want to show from this chapter the characteristics of Gentile church. And I believe that we will see in this account many similarities between what happened on the day of Pentecost when the church in Jerusalem was born, and what happens in Antioch as the Gentile church is born. Because it is the same church. As Paul would declare later in Eph. 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

This is why this passage is so significant. And this is why the Holy Spirit confirms it three times. Because there is not a Jewish faith and a Gentile faith. There is not a church in Jerusalem and a church in Antioch. But there is one church, one body, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism by which all are baptized into one body. There is no more Jew or Greek, no more Israelite or Gentile, but one man in Christ.   And from that foundation, the local church in Antioch will grow and be a part of the body of Christ. And in a moment we will look at some characteristics of this church that are evidence of being in the body. But first I want to camp out on the aspect of being born into the body. And that is highlighted by the phrase, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance which leads to life.

If you have been in attendance over the last few weeks, then you might have taken notice of several of my attempts to clarify the way you are made a part of the church of God. Before we can be part of the church, there must first be a supernatural conversion by which sinful men and women are born into the family of God. If the church is, as the Bible states the body of Christ, living temples of His Spirit, a holy priesthood, then there must be a supernatural means by which unholy, sinful men are transformed into sons of God and indwelt by the Spirit of God to do the works of God. That is the distinctive of the church.

The church is not an institution, it is not an establishment, it is not a 501-3C organization, it is not a building. But the church is the body of Christ wherein He dwells in His people. You cannot enter this spiritual body by birth, or by nationality, or by certain rights of government. Membership in Christ’s church is conferred by God, through Christ, for God’s purposes. It is entirely possible to be a Catholic, or Methodist, or Baptist, or any other denomination, and yet not be part of the church of God. It’s possible to belong to a denomination and not be in the body of Christ. In fact, no one can be a part of the church, unless they are born again by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God residing in you, makes you a part of His body.

I believe that all the problems besetting the church today find their roots in this principle. Churches are trying in all sorts of ways today to attract the world into the church. The problem is that the church is not made up of unsaved people, but of born again people.

The problem is that unsaved people are described in the Bible as being dead. You can have a body but be dead, to not have life. And that is the natural state of all men. Eph. 2:1 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” It goes on to say that all men are dead in their sins. But in vs. 4 he adds, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

Now that is wonderful news, but how is it accomplished? How does this transformation from being dead to being made alive happen? You see, there is a serious problem today in the church, because there are many that have a form of religion, they claim to believe the tenets of the gospel, they tacitly believe in God and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and yet they are unsaved. They have not been born again. And that is obvious by the lack of fruit in their lives. It is obvious that they do not have the life of Christ living in them.   That is the mark of being the body of Christ, is it not? That the Spirit of Christ lives in your body? Is that not what it means to be made a part of His body, the church? As 1Cor. 6:19 makes clear; “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” That is the acid test of being born again. That is the test of whether or not you are in the body or not in the body, in the church or not in the church. I don’t care if you have a paper signed by someone or not. I don’t care if you have been baptized or not. If you do not have the evidence of the Spirit of God living in you and through you so that you are not your own anymore, but you are bought with a price and therefore you glorify God in your body, then you obviously are not in the body of Christ at all. If that is the case in your life then I hope to God that you have your eyes opened to see that.

So how does one become born again into the body of Christ? It starts with Acts 11:18, God granting the repentance unto life. To receive that life of God in your dead body, you must repent. What does it mean to repent? I will start by saying what repentance is not. Repentance is not just feeling sorry about the predicament or crisis you may find yourself in and wanting to get out of it. That is not repentance. Repentance is not just crying a few tears because you got emotional when you considered some experience of your past. The Bible says that Judas went out sorrowful, and later tried to return the money which he had received from selling out Jesus, weeping bitterly over what he had done and yet he was not saved because he had rejected Jesus as His Savior. It’s possible to feel remorse, to cry bitterly, to want to undo certain elements of your past and yet not be saved.

True repentance is coming to a point of hating your sin, mourning over your sinful condition, seeking to be cleansed of it, changed from it, delivered from it. True repentance, according to the Psalmist David, is a broken and contrite heart. It is coming to understand how much of an affront your sin is to God, that it has caused there to be eternal separation from God and deserves the wrath of God. That is the precondition of the heart that leads to repentance. It is hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of God and being willing to forsake and leave all that is sinful and offensive to God.

I’m sure that there are some here that are hearing this who say, “Does repentance really have to be so drastic? Aren’t you being a bit overly dramatic?” And the answer is yes, we do need to be so radical when describing repentance, because there is a tendency to think that we are not so bad, and by adding a little bit of religion to my life, I will be just fine. But that is the devil’s lie and believe me, he has caught a lot of people up in it. No a little bit of religion is a dangerous thing. Because unless you come to the end of yourself, unless you realize that you are dead, that you are in your sins and need supernatural deliverance, a completely new life as a gift from God, then there is no salvation. Because true repentance is being willing to surrender all that you are, to die to yourself, for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life. And that is the repentance that leads to life.

So that is how the Gentiles in Antioch were saved. That was how the Jews in Jerusalem were saved. That is how all men are saved. And as such, they are then born again, given new life in the Spirit, which is life in Christ’s body. They are born into the church. The church starts by conversion, salvation. And now there are just a few things I want to point out briefly in regards to the distinctives of the new born Christian church of the Gentiles. What things are emblematic of the believer AFTER you become a Christian. After you are born into the church. The following is the evidence that you have new life and are part of the body of Christ, that Christ now lives through your body.

One quick note before that though that I should point out about this church’s location. Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. And we all know how corrupt the Roman Empire was don’t we? Especially Rome was a terribly hedonistic, depraved place. A place where every sort of abomination was openly practiced. But I bet you don’t know this; Antioch was considered the river that corrupted Rome. In other words, Antioch was much worse than Rome. For one, prostitution of every kind, of the vilest sort was practiced there openly in the worship of the goddess Daphne. So I find it ironic that God picks the vilest culture in the known world to start the first Christian church of the Gentiles. Now I say that in light of the recent proceedings in the Supreme Court here in America. Christians are bemoaning the state of the Union. And what has become of America. But God has placed the church to be the light in the darkness. And the darker the night, the brighter the candle seems to be. So I would say to you, don’t despair that the wicked are wicked. But rather I encourage you to strengthen and encourage one another as we are the church of God, and Jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. This is not the first time in the history of the church that governments have aligned themselves in opposition to the church. But I can tell you this; The Roman Empire has been long gone from the scene, but the church of God stands firm. The Bible was written thousands of years before the Constitution of the United States, and it will still stand thousands of years after the United States is long gone. The word of the Lord endures forever. Matt. 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

So let’s look now at the distinctives of the first Christian Gentile church. The first sign or evidence that it was the living church of Jesus Christ in Antioch was that it was characterized by preaching the Lord Jesus. Vs. 20, “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.” Folks, in God’s church, preaching is not on the back burner, but it is the means of God declaring His gospel and His will to His people. The church at Jerusalem was founded on the Apostles doctrine. Peter and the Apostles were preaching the gospel and the multitudes were convicted and called upon the Lord to save them. The same thing happens here. They are preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord, the power of the Lord was with them and many turned to the Lord. The Christian church is a preaching church. The distinctive of the church is not what kind of music you play, or the programs you have, but whether or not you preach Jesus. 1Cor. 1:21 says, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Second, there was the testimony of their salvation. Vs. 22, “The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.” When these new believers were saved in Antioch word soon spread 300 miles back to Jerusalem that there was a new church growing in Antioch. So the elders of the church of Jerusalem, the Apostles, sent one of their choice men to go there and determine what was going on. Let me tell you something, when you are genuinely saved, people are going to hear about it. You will not need to be told by a preacher that you need to be telling people about your salvation. It is a natural outcome of being saved. You want people to know about your salvation because something fantastic has happened in your life and you want to share it with others. That is a natural thing when you’re born again.

Not only did their testimony reach Jerusalem, it also reverberated among the unsaved people of Antioch. Vs. 26 says that they were first called Christians in Antioch. You know, when the people of Antioch called them Christian they weren’t being complimentary, it was meant to be derogatory. It would be quite some time before Christians embraced that title for themselves. But the interesting point is that their lifestyle was different enough that the world had to coin a phrase to describe them. And the word the world chose indicated that they were considered to be like Christ. That’s not a bad thing to be characterized by the world as, is it? To be said about you that you are like Christ. What a testimony that is.

Thirdly, there is the witness of the grace of God in their life. Vs. 23, “Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.” What did Barnabas see there in Antioch which made him rejoice? The evidence of the grace of God. You know, it’s one thing to claim the grace of God, but it’s another thing to exhibit the grace of God, isn’t it? A lot of people today want to claim the grace of God but continue right on living the same way they always lived.

Listen to how Jude describes those people who claim grace but live lives that are unchanged. Jude, vs. 4 “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” What he is saying is they claim the grace of God but use it as a covering for continuing in sin, denying their Master who is supposed to be living through them.

But the Christians in Antioch aren’t guilty of that. What Barnabas sees when he arrives there is the witness of their lives that the grace of God has changed them. What transpired spiritually is being lived out physically. The grace which they received is evidenced by an overflowing of grace, being spilled out into the church around them. Grace means gift. As they received God’s gift, they gave in like manner to others. They served one another, as they served the church, through their gifts.

Fourthly, the church was taught the word of God. Barnabas goes and gets Saul to help him teach this church and they teach them for a year. I’m going to read in between the lines there a little and suggest that encompasses a bit more than meeting for an hour once a week. I’m going to suggest that it followed the pattern of the church in Jerusalem which we were told met daily in Solomon’s portico and were taught by the Apostles. Act 2:42 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” And you want to know how I can confidently say that was happening at Antioch? Because Barnabas had been trained in the church at Jerusalem. He was the one in chapter 4:36 who sold a piece of land and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet. So I am sure that he replicated that same style of church there in Antioch. That would have been the reason that the Apostles sent him to replicate in Antioch the same pattern that he had learned in Jerusalem. And so to help him do that, he brings in Saul, who will later become Paul. And there we see another important principle of church, there is discipling. A true disciple makes disciples. Taking someone under your wing and teaching them and encouraging them to become more effective witnesses for Christ. That’s what the name Barnabas means, by the way, Son of Encouragement.

Then lastly, a distinctive of this church was that they were a giving church. This falls in line with the grace of God that Barnabas witnessed when he first came. Because they received grace, they wanted to be gracious, to give, to help others and help the church. In vs. 27, we read that some prophets came down from Jerusalem, and by the Spirit of God disclosed to them that there was going to be a severe famine, which would hit Jerusalem and all Judea really hard. God disclosed that to the church at Antioch so that they could help those who had helped them. That is the Biblical principle found in Rom 15:26-27 where some years later Paul writes, “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.”

The principle was and is that those who share spiritual things are to be shared with in return by your physical things. That giving is not supposed to be under compulsion, but as a result of the grace that was given to you. If you received the gift of grace, then is it not reasonable that you return gifts graciously? Paul would say in 1Cor. 9:11 “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?”

The church of Antioch willingly, gladly gave to the elders in the church at Jerusalem. Acts 11:29 “And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.” According to the proportion of their means. Luke isn’t talking about tithing here. Tithing is an Old Testament law, but it has an even older precedent. Abraham gave tithes to Melchisadek long before the law was written. While it is not a law for New Testament believers, it continues to be a principle, and it is evidence of a new life in Christ. Now that you are saved, you should realize that God has given you gifts not just to help yourself, but to help others. And your first responsibility is to the church and to those who teach you the gospel.

I find it extremely uncomfortable to talk about giving to the church. So many preachers have abused this principle that I feel it has a detrimental boomerang affect. Consequently we go out of our way to not pass an offering plate or try to get people to pledge money or anything like that. I would rather suffer financially than cause the church of Christ to suffer. But my reticence does not eliminate the principle that the Bible clearly teaches, and furthermore to omit teaching that principle deprives you of the benefit of giving.   There is a blessing that comes from God from giving with a cheerful heart. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. There is a blessing that God gives to those who honor Him with the first fruits of their income. And furthermore, it is evidence of a new life in Christ. Christ was anything but selfish. He gave His very life for us, that we might have life in Him. So if Christ is living in us, through us, then that will become evident by our generosity towards His body.

So just to recap quickly, there cannot be a true church without people who are truly saved. Salvation begins by repentance which leads to new life. Life in the church is evidenced by certain distinctives, which are characterized by preaching the Lord Jesus first and foremost, secondly a vibrant testimony of your salvation, thirdly the witness of the grace of God in your life, fourthly regularly being taught the word of God in a Bible teaching church resulting in making disciples, and fifthly, being gracious, willing to give generously and liberally to supply the needs of the church, so that the gospel goes out to the world unhindered.

I hope that in the closing minutes of this service today, you will examine your life in light of this testimony of this early church and see if there are areas in which you have fallen short. Maybe you have fallen out of regular fellowship and need to get back into a Bible teaching church where you can be discipled and begin to make disciples. Or maybe you recognize that you have never truly repented. There is not any evidence of Christ living in you because you have never been born again by the Spirit of God. I’m here to tell you today the good news, that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Don’t leave this place today without calling on the name of the Lord in faith and repentance so that you might be born again. I would be happy to talk to anyone that wants to know more how they can be saved directly following the service today.

In Matt. 16:19, Jesus told Simon Peter that “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” As such, Peter had a unique ministry. This verse does not establish Peter as the first Pope, as some would try to say, but he is a special emissary of Christ as the chief representative of the apostles to open doors to the kingdom of God that had formerly been closed in Judaism. Once these doors are opened, we are going to see in our study of Acts that Peter starts to gradually fade from the scene, and the Apostle Paul becomes the focus of the ministry of the gospel to the world. Peter’s ministry was primarily to the Jews, and Paul’s ministry was primarily to the Gentiles. Of course there was much crossover.

But Peter is used by God to show that while salvation is from the Jews, it will go beyond Jerusalem to the rest of the world. Peter and the rest of the apostles were headquartered in the church in Jerusalem. God first gave the gospel to the Jews through Peter and the apostles. But now we are seeing the gospel spread outward, even as Christ said it would, from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world. And to do that, God uses Peter in a special way to symbolically unlock the doors to each new region. That is why we saw Peter first unlock the doors to the Jews on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2, then he unlocked the doors to the Samaritans in chapter 8, and now we see him using the last key to unlock the door to the Gentiles in chapter 10. All in all, a span of about 10 years from Pentecost to Caesarea.

And each time Peter unlocks the next door, we see a confirming act by the baptism of the Holy Spirit to show that these new believers are part of the body of Christ, the church. That is the significance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Samaria and now in Caesarea. Each time the gospel moves to a new people, there is an accompanying sign of the Holy Spirit to show that they are now considered a part of the church body, just as the Jews were. On the day of Pentecost the converts were made up of Jews, not only from Israel, but those Jews who had been scattered all over the Middle East and were visiting Jerusalem for the feasts. Then the second baptism of the Holy Spirit is given to show that the Samaritans, who were considered half breeds by proper Jews, were now brought into the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ and were part of the body as well. And now the gospel moves even further out to include the Gentiles, who formerly were completely outside of the prior covenant with Israel. They now receive the gospel as well and there is the confirmation of the Holy Spirit with the same sign that He gave to the Jews at Pentecost, the half breeds of Samaria, and now to the Gentiles.

Now today we want to look specifically at how God unlocks this last frontier of the gospel, which is the Gentiles. The name Gentiles of course is given to all non Jews. This title would include those of us listening here today. We too are Gentiles. And so this is particularly our history as Christians. Now there are four acts to this great drama of God. And the first act is that of preparation. God had to prepare not only the Gentiles, but prepare the apostles, particularly Peter in this case as the chief representative of the church.

Peter had to be prepared because Jews and Gentiles were traditionally enemies of one another. Jews had been given strict laws concerning diet and dress and customs in order to keep them isolated from intermarrying and intermingling with the pagan cultures that lived around them. God knew that if they had no social restrictions upon them they would soon be influenced by the neighboring pagan people and end up adopting their idolatrous ways. So God had specifically given strict guidelines to keep the Jews separate from the Gentiles.

But that had morphed into something that God had not designed, and that was a hatred of the Jews for all things Gentile. And that had resulted in the Gentiles hating the Jews right back. But God’s plan was to use the gospel to reconcile all men, Jews and Gentiles to Himself. From a Gentile’s perspective, they knew that they were considered enemies of Israel, and therefore they assumed, enemies of the Jewish God as well. The fact is though, all men are by nature enemies of God. Because all men are by nature sinners. And Paul in Romans 5:10 says our sin nature makes us enemies of God. But God’s plan was to reconcile man to Him through Christ.

And He is going to use Peter to do that. But first, God has to prepare Peter because of his natural prejudice towards Gentiles. And at the same time, God prepares the Gentile. God uses the agency of the Spirit as the first step in the process of salvation. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” So to prepare the heart of both the centurion and of Peter, the Holy Spirit works in each of them through a vision.

Let’s look first at Cornelius, the centurion. Verse 2 says that he was a God fearing man, who gave alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. Added to the fact that he was a Gentile is the additional stigma that he was a Roman soldier. Yet amazingly, this man was seeking after the God of the Jews. He had done so by giving alms to the Jewish people, probably to their synagogue. He had come out of pantheism to the conclusion that the God of the Jews was the only true God and he prayed continually to Him. It’s likely that he followed the formula of most devout Jews, by praying three times a day, 9am, Noon and 3pm.

It’s interesting to note that this text shows that a person can be very religious and yet not be saved. They can be morally a good person. They can be religious and even pray fervently and yet they are not saved. There are many people like Cornelius today. They worship God after a manner of speaking. They are religious. They belong to a church. They believe in God. And yet they are not saved. The difference between Cornelius and most people in this situation though is that Cornelius knew that his religious efforts were not enough to save him. Many people today are satisfied that their good character and moral compass and their religious efforts are enough to please God. They follow the logic of Martin Luther before his conversion, that a good God will accept those who do their best. But not Cornelius. I believe that as he considered the God of the scriptures, he was convicted ever more of his sinfulness and how far short he was of the kingdom of God. And so he prayed continually that God would show him the way of salvation, that he might be righteous before God.

Well, God heard his prayers and sent an angel to tell him to send for Peter. For the last couple of weeks I have raised the question of why God designed man to be the instrument of His gospel. Why not use angels to write in the sky the flaming letters of the gospel, or declare it from their mouths as they are revealed in their full glory? And the answer is that God uses fallen sinful men to declare the gospel, because man can be redeemed, whereas angels cannot. God could have used the angel to convey the message of the gospel to Cornelius, but instead the angel tells Cornelius to send for Peter to come from Joppa who wil tell him how to be saved. Peter could give testimony to the gospel because Peter was a testament to God’s grace, God having saved a sinful man such as Peter and restored him who had denied the Lord to the position of a preacher of the gospel. Peter was a living testimony to God’s grace.

And then at the same time, God must prepare Peter’s heart. But God will also confirm His word spoken to Cornelius. I think that is important to see here. I don’t think God very often speaks in visions today since we have the completed word of God already written down for us as a more sure word. But in that age, the New Testament scriptures had not been written, and so God did occasionally speak through visions. But even then, God needed to confirm the vision of Cornelius to Peter by the word of God in a vision. Consequently, when the delegation from Cornelius shows up even as Peter is still in the vision, the Spirit tells him to go with the men who are at his door. If Peter had not had the vision, then why should he have believed these Gentiles? He probably wouldn’t have gone with them.

You know, the early Christians were taught that they were to confirm every fact by two or three witnesses. We need to be careful about people claiming to have some vision from God that is not confirmed by scripture. I’ll never forget getting ready to go out of the country once on a short term mission trip and some lady called me and told us that she had a vision that I was killed in the plane so I should not go. Well, I went anyway, because her vision was not something that was confirmed to me by God. And it’s obvious her vision was not from God because I stand here before you today. Colossians 2 warns us about false prophets taking their stand on visions they have seen, inflated without cause in their fleshly minds.

But there is another reason for Peter’s vision and that is to show that God is not a respecter of persons. In the dream Peter sees a great sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of animals and creeping things in it. And a voice from heaven calls out, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter responded, “No Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” And each time the voice responded, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happens three times, not only for confirmation, but also for emphasis. Now I could go off on a tangent here and say this proves that God’s plan is not for us all to become vegans. But while that may be true that is not the point of the vision. The point of the vision was to show that the dietary laws regarding clean and unclean animals not longer pertained to the church. We are free from the dietary restrictions of the Jews. But there is a greater purpose even than that, which is that Jewish dietary restrictions were not simply for health reasons, but for social reasons. It was meant to put a wall up between the social customs of Jews and Gentiles so that they would not intermarry and cohabit and live together, and as such the Jews would become corrupted by the immorality of the Gentiles.

Now God through this vision was eradicating that wall of separation, so that there would be no more Jew and Gentile, but all men would be able to receive the gospel. Peter doesn’t understand all of this at first. Peter is hungry, he was waiting for lunch to be fixed and so he went up to pray until it was ready. So what Peter is thinking about is food, not about evangelism. But when the men from Cornelius knock on his front door, the Spirit of God tells him go with them without misgivings, because the Lord had sent them himself. And that is when the light starts to dawn on Peter. It will take a couple of more days to sink in, but when he eventually gets to Cornelius’s house and hears what he has to say, then he will finally understand what it is that the Lord desires out of this; that God is not a respecter of persons. But that whosoever will may come to salvation. As 1 Tim. 2:4 says, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

There is one other matter in regards to preparation that we don’t want to miss, and that is prayer. God prepares as man is praying. God uses our prayers, requires our prayers, and answers our prayers in mysterious ways. It is mysterious that He should desire us to participate at all. But He does, telling us to pray at all times. To pray earnestly and fervently. And what happens so many times is that prayer precedes revival. Prayer conditions the sinner’s heart to receive the word, and the saints heart to present the word. I like the fact that both Peter and Cornelius were engaged in regular scheduled prayer when God intervenes. Do you schedule your prayer time? I think you should. Otherwise it will not happen. These men were praying at the regular customary prayer times which were three times a day.

The second act in this drama we will call the explanation. Peter hears the message of explanation from the delegation at his door. He invites them in to lodge with him overnight, which was already evidence of a great work that had begun in his heart, since Jews would not allow a Gentile in their house. The next day, Peter gets 6 believing Jews to accompany him and he travels for two days to go to see Cornelius. When he arrives, Cornelius falls down at his feet to worship him. But Peter urges him to get up and says “I too am just a man.”

Today in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, thousands line up to kiss the toe of Peter’s statue so that the toe is completely worn away. These poor people need to be taught that Peter forbad the worship of him, since he too was a sinner saved by grace, a man just as we are.

Cornelius gives his explanation of why he had summoned Peter and what he wanted from Peter in vs. 30.             He told of the appearance of the angel and his obedience in sending for Peter as he had been instructed. You know, this is a good illustration of how faith is always tied to obedience in some form or another. It is not just enough to claim to believe, but faith is to trust in obedience and follow instructions. Perhaps that is why God chose a soldier to be the first convert of the Gentiles. He knew how to obey instructions.

Notice that what is being taught here is Cornelius’s morality, his sincerity, his belief in Judaism was not enough to save him. There are not many roads to heaven. There are many roads to hell. There is only one way to God and that is through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Secondly, note that God sees hearts, not skin color or race or nationality. No matter where a man might be, if he truly seeks salvation from God then God will see his heart and answer his prayers.

And third, note the attitude on the part of Cornelius and those assembled in his house. This is the attitude of a congregation that would hear from God; they were all present, they wanted to hear the word, and they listened attentively, believed with their whole hearts, and obeyed. They were the shining example of a receptive congregation.

And that leads us to the third act in this drama of redemption, the act of proclamation. God has ordained according to 1Cor. 1:21 that by the “foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Peter didn’t start out with 8 worship songs and a skit, he just went right into proclaiming the gospel of Christ. They already were practicing religion. They needed to be saved. And Rom. 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Faith is not founded on feelings, or experiences or sincere hopes, but on the written promises of God.

I believe we just get a glimpse into Peter’s sermon here, I don’t think this is much more than an outline. But Peter preaches Christ; the life, and death and resurrection of Christ. That Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets. His plan of salvation starts with the standard of salvation; fearing God and doing what is right. That is the outcome of salvation. That is the way of life for a Christian.

Peter then summarizes the historical basis for the gospel through the life of Christ. Jesus was anointed by God, filled with the Holy Spirit, whose works were evidence that God was with Him. And yet He was put to death by hanging on a cross. But God raised Him up from the grave the third day, and it was witnessed by the disciples who ate and drank with Him. Jesus then ordered them to preach the gospel and to testify to everyone Jesus is the Messiah who now lives and has been appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead. And that whoever believes in Him has received forgiveness of sins.

That is the gospel in a nutshell. That God sent Jesus to be the promised Messiah, who would take the sins of the world upon Him, and die on the cross in our place, so that we who believe in Him and confess Him as Lord, will receive forgiveness of sins. The essence of sin is that we substitute ourselves for God. And the essence of salvation is that God substitutes Christ for us. 2 Cor. 5:11 says it this way, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God through Him.” This is the good news for all that recognize that they are outside of the kingdom of God. That their righteous efforts are not able to outweigh their sinfulness. But by calling on the name of the Lord, believing in Him, we might receive the gift of righteousness which was purchased by Christ for us. Whosever believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sin. That is the only way to achieve the righteousness that God demands.

And that leads us to the last act, validation. Now when they heard this good news, the whole assembly immediately believed. The indication there is that Peter had not even finished his sermon and they believed. They were ready to accept the gospel. So simply believing that Christ had died for them, and trusting in Him as Lord and Savior, they received the righteousness that comes on the basis of faith. The righteousness of Christ. By believing, their sins were transferred to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness was transferred to them.

Now Peter and his delegation cannot see such a transaction. So God arranged a demonstration to show him and his church members that these people had been saved in the same way as they had. And God does that by the same baptism of the Spirit that came at Pentecost and in Samaria, testifying through the Spirit that they were now in the body of Christ, the church.

And not only was there validation by the Holy Spirit, there was validation by the obedience of the new believers. Peter orders them to be baptized, as a testimony to the world of their faith in Jesus Christ. Notice these Gentiles are not saved by baptism, but having already received the Spirit of God they are baptized in water in obedience as evidence of their salvation. Salvation results in obedience from the heart. From this point on, there will not be a visible manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that accompanies salvation except for one more time when a remote band of John’s disciples in Ephesus are brought into the church. But the baptism of the Spirit was specifically to show that God has accepted all races and all nationalities into the kingdom of God, the church. But from now on the order will be to hear the word, believe in Christ as Lord, and then be baptized and join with other believers in the local church to serve and worship God in obedience.

So in closing, don’t lose sight of the big picture presented here in this chapter. God is not a respecter of persons. God looks at the heart, not at race or outward appearance or skin color or nationality. And the good news of the gospel is that by faith in Jesus Christ, salvation is made available to all men everywhere who will confess Jesus as Lord, believing in what He did for us on the cross, that we might receive forgiveness of sins. I hope that you have the same attitude as the congregation in Cornelius’s house. I hope that today you will immediately call upon the Lord in faith and repentance that you might be saved.

And for those of you that have already been saved, I pray that you will be prompted through this account to be obedient to what God has asked of us. To not only fear God and obey righteousness, but to be baptized as a testimony to the world, and then to be His witnesses throughout the world, taking the good news of the gospel to every living person, recognizing that we are chosen by God to be His representatives to a lost and dying world who need to hear the good news.

Just the other day I saw an advertisement which was marketed to women (and I think that women today have become very susceptible to this marketing ploy in particular) and this ad was declaring that yes, women, you can have it all. I’m not sure what they were selling, but I understood the message they were conveying very well. When I saw that ad I couldn’t help but think that Christians are especially vulnerable to this type of thinking as well. The idea that somehow being a Christian will bring about both spiritual and physical blessing in my life, and so I can have the best of both worlds. I can have the best of heaven, and the best of this world. Even as a pastor, I find myself falling victim to this type of expectation.

But I am here to tell you today that while there is definitely a physical as well as spiritual blessing that comes from being born again, at the same time there is a real cost to being a disciple of Christ.   Paul said in Phil.3:7, that “whatever things were gain to me, I have counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.”

He goes on to say in the next verse; “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Now of course Paul was the same as Saul who we looked last week as we studied his conversion on the road to Damascus. His conversion meant that he left all that he was as a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, his position of authority in Judaism and his station in Jewish society. Once he realized who it was he was persecuting, none other than the Messiah, the Son of God, he gladly left it all to serve Christ.

The church that Saul had been persecuting had counted the cost of being disciples as well. The whole reason that they ended up in Damascus and Lydda and Joppa and such places was because Saul had hunted them like animals. Many of them had left their jobs, their homes, and their families and fled to these cities to escape the persecution which had started in Jerusalem, and then continued to follow them to other regions. It’s important to realize that the early church counted the cost of following Christ and many paid dearly for that decision.

But an unusual thing happened as a result of Saul being converted. Suddenly, the major enemy of the church had been converted to it’s greatest ally. Saul had been the authority of the Sanhedrin who had been hunting these early converts. So when he became a Christian, there suddenly was a peace that enveloped the church from a lack of organized persecution.

And there is another thing which is helpful to realize. The emperor of Rome at that time was a horrible ruler by the name of Caligula. Right about the same time that Saul was converted, Caligula decided that he would put his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. After all, the Romans believed that the emperor was to be worshipped as deity. And so he decided to set up his statue in the Jewish temple which would have effectively desecrated the temple. To make sure this happened, he sent an army to Jerusalem with orders to kill or enslave anyone that opposed his orders.

Ultimately, Caligula did not achieve his goal of erecting his statue in the temple. Josephus records that Herod was able to dissuade Caligula from going through with that plan. But not without throwing all of Judaism into an uproar. If his plan had gone through he whole system of Judaism would have been desecrated, and consequently the power base of the Sanhedrin and the priesthood would have been overthrown. And so there was quite some time there when the Jewish religious leaders were too busy with Rome to worry about the Christians. So there ensued a period of peace in which the church now found itself after much persecution.

Now that is the context which we come to in our text today. And we are going to be looking particularly at vs. 31 which describes what the church did during this time of peace. The remainder of the chapter which we read is really just illustrations of what is described in vs.31. But to start with, I want to spend some time looking at this very important text in vs. 31, and to help us understand it better, I am going to read it again, but this time using the NKJV which I think employs some better word choices.

“Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” This verse is really a key verse in all of Acts that we have studied thus far. It is like a vantage point on a mountain path where you are able to stop and rest for a while and survey the vista that falls away behind you. And as such, it sets forth some important doctrine in regards to the church that we need to look closely at if we are going to replicate the pattern of the first church of the apostles. It really gives us a simple outline for success in the church, not according to what society might deem success, but according to the Lord’s template for success as evidenced by the first church.

Someone was asking me the other day if I had other pastors that I could talk to and fellowship with. And I told him that though I really desired such fellowship, I rarely am able to enjoy it, because I do not share many of the accoutrements of what is considered to constitute church today. I don’t have a permanent building. I don’t have any paid staff. And there are several other things that seem to be lacking from what is considered “church” that seem to set me apart from other pastors which serve to inhibit developing that kind of fellowship.

But I find myself encouraged in our study of Acts as we look at the churches that are pictured there, because I feel that our church more closely resembles their pattern than what is commonly considered church today. These early churches met outside, or in homes. They had little external signs of organization, and yet according to scripture, they were successful, vital, living temples of God that operated in the power of the Spirit. And so I find comfort in that association.

So we’re going to see in this verse an outline of God’s plan for a successful church. First of all, notice that the verse starts out by saying that they enjoyed peace. I’ve already explained how that happened on a physical level, by the conversion of Saul and the aggression of Rome against the temple. When Saul is taken off the scene there is no one hunting the church anymore. They are able to meet openly in relative peace. And since the Jews are busy defending their own religion against the Romans, the church is able to continue to enjoy that peace for some time.

But there is another type of peace that needs to be understood that is more important than any sort of physical rest or the cessation of hostilities. And that is the peace that can be had with God. Without knowing Christ, you cannot have peace with God. Last week I talked about Saul being an enemy of the church, and by extension an enemy of God, and how we all as well are considered enemies of God in our natural condition. But conversion means that we are made friends of God. Just like Saul was an enemy of God until he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and then he became a friend of the church and a son of God, so we that were once considered enemies now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What that is talking about is that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. He took on Himself the penalty that was due us, and died in our place, that we might be made righteous through His blood. We are justified by faith in what Christ did for us on the cross. This is what conversion means. This is what it means to be born again. To call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of your sins, and by faith in Him, as the Son of God, receiving the adoption as sons of God as a free gift.

When this happens in your life you automatically are born into the church. You don’t have to be baptized or circumcised or be voted in or anything but be born again and you become part of Christ’s body. Baptism does follow salvation, but each in it’s order. We are justified by faith alone and are made part of Christ’s church by birth.

So as a result of salvation there is a peace that passes all understanding. There is peace with God that is better than world peace. There is a peace with God that is better than the absence of wars. In fact, as a Christian, even in persecution, even in wartime, we can be at peace because we know that we belong to God, and God has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, and has promised us resurrection from the dead into eternal life with Him.

But oftentimes physical peace can be a mixed blessing. Times of peace tend to be dangerous to the church. It is easy at those times to be lulled into a sense of complacency. We have to guard against abusing whatever peace God gives by idleness or serving ourselves, but use that time wisely to do the work of the kingdom. I’m afraid that the relative time of peace that the church has enjoyed in America has only served to make it indolent and lazy, so that we are glutted on the fatness of the church to our ruin, rather than using that time to be employed in service to it.

But not so in the first churches. They were industrious in this time of peace, so that it became a productive time for the church, rather than a time where they thought they might relax now that hostilities were ended. You know, I have nothing against vacations or taking time for a sabbatical. It can be very beneficial. However, I am dismayed to see Christians often only become zealous for the things of God when they are in a crisis. And then as soon as the heat lets up, they start to drift away. They use that time of peace to serve themselves and basically reward themselves, often at the expense of the church or the things of God. Consequently, a lot of Christians live in a see saw state, going from crisis to crisis, interspersed with periods of self indulgence and never grow into maturity and bear fruit.

So the first characteristic of these successful churches was that they used this time of peace for the good of the kingdom. They showed their love for God and their gratitude for His providence by responding in this time of peace with greater industriousness for the things of God.

The second characteristic is described in the next phrase; being edified. Edified is a Bible word. And some think that we should avoid Bible words. I don’t subscribe to that view, obviously. If God said it, I think we should learn what it means and use it. But simply put, edified means to build up. The church was built up. It was strengthened, it matured. It grew up, if you will. Man, if there was ever a day when the church needs to grow up, it is this day and age.

We’re going to look more fully at Ephesians 4 in a moment, but for now look at vs.14. “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

Edification then comes as a result of learning sound doctrine so that we are not deceived by every false doctrine, but grow up into maturity in Christ.   Now how is that maturity as a result of sound doctrine accomplished in a practical way? Back up in Eph. 4 to vs. 11 and we see how Christ has gifted his church with pastors/teachers who will teach the church, equipping them for service. Eph. 4:11-13 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up/edification of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

The gifts Christ has given to edify the church are first of all a firm foundation in the apostle’s doctrine. This is nothing less than the scriptures of the New Testament. The apostles were given the words of Christ and wrote them down through the agency of the Holy Spirit for our edification. You cannot be built up in your faith without a firm foundation of the Word of God. Our faith is not founded upon experiences or feelings, but on the promises written in Christ’s blood.

And then Christ gave to the church pastors/teachers, that’s really one office, not two, who teach the word to the church in order to equip them to do what? The work of service, for the edification of the body of Christ. Folks, one of the faults with the modern church today is the attitude of consumerism that pervades it’s congregations. The attitude that somehow there is this great divide between the clergy and the congregation. And so the congregation just shows up, gets a spoonful of something resembling baby food stuck in their upturned mouths and then off they go back to the world for another 6 ½ days. But that is not the way God designed the church. Peter says in 1Pet. 2:5 that God deigned the church to be constituted by members who are “living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” The work of ministry is to be performed by the saints in the church.

So edification then results in mature Christians who are equipped through sound doctrine and teaching so that they might be the instruments by which God builds the church, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. They are the church, not just going to church.

And how is this done, practically speaking? Well, as you are taught the word of God, you then walk the word of God. To walk means to live it out. And that is the next point of our text; “walking in the fear of the Lord.” I’ve mentioned the fear of the Lord in a lot of sermons lately. But what I want to make sure is not missed is the word “walking.” It means to live out in day to day life what you have been taught. I believe this is the greatest disconnect between the church and the watching world today. The church is far too often rightly accused by the world of being hypocrites. We claim the power of God to deliver, and yet we live as if we are still in captivity to sin. We claim that Jesus is able to save, and yet we seem powerless to be able to live godly lives. The fact is, I cannot believe that many people who profess to be Christians are indeed born again. They obviously have not died to the old man, to be raised to new life. That is how the scripture defines being born again. But some seem to have not died to anything. But like the example I made at the beginning, they think that Christianity is a means of great gain, that they can gain the world and gain heaven as well. But that is not the doctrine of Christ who said, “take up your cross and follow Me.” We must die to sin, if we are to live with Christ. We must repent of our sin and call upon God to remake us, to give us a new heart, and new desires. When that happens, old things will then pass away, and all things become new.

We must walk in the fear of the Lord. If I am a child of God and walk contrary to His commands, then I must expect that He will chasten me. Heb 12:6-8 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” But we aren’t supposed to remain children, remember? We are to grow up into maturity, after the example of Christ. So then what do we do? We do like Christ, we do all things to please the Father. We do His will. We don’t do anything that He would be displeased with.   As mature Christians, our fear of the Lord is not of being punished, but of disappointing Him, or displeasing Him, or bringing shame upon His name. And that becomes our motivation.

When I was a child I feared the paddle of my dad when I did wrong. But when I became older I feared the shame that I might bring upon him. So it is with God, I love Him, and I know He loves me, and yet I reverence Him so much that I dare do nothing to displease Him or bring shame upon His name.

I’m afraid the church today in many circles cares nothing about pleasing the Lord. The consumer mentality is all about the Lord pleasing me, and pleasing myself. I’m not suggesting that we all go join a monastery and wear long robes and take vows of silence. On the contrary, I am suggesting that we all walk in this world circumspectly, reverently, living holy lives that will be a testimony to the watching world and not bring shame upon the cause of Christ.

And we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. That brings us to the next phrase in our text, “and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.” Walking in or by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Comfort may give the wrong idea, it is not speaking of cushions, but the prodding or encouragement of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit urges us on. Comfort is translated from the Greek word paraklēsis, which means to come alongside. As we are taught the word and apply the word in the fear of the Lord, then the Holy Spirit comes alongside of us to help us, to encourage us, convict us, prod us, as He sees fit.

We have comfort in the Holy Spirit because we know that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do whatever God tells us to do. That is the way we are able to walk in the fear of the Lord. We can walk according to God’s commands because He has given us the Helper, to strengthen us, to empower us, and equip us with the gifts of the Spirit. That is our comfort, our encouragement, that whatever God has called us to do, He will empower us to do if we but yield to Him to walk in the power of the Spirit.   It’s not talking about some mystical euphoric or ecstatic feeling that may come and go, but it’s talking about the steady help of the Holy Spirit as we yield to His urging, to do whatever it is that God desires us to do.

Now when we are at peace with God, employing ourselves in that peace to be about the things of God, when we are edified by the teaching of the word of God, when we are walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, then the church will be multiplied. The last point of our text; multiplied. This is the pattern for church growth. It is not necessarily in some program, or some church ministry, but it is one person at a time becoming built up, and living out what they believe through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that testimony multiplying to bring about the conversion of another person. I’ve said it many times before in various ways, but the testimony of a transformed life is the greatest witness of the gospel of all.

We are testaments to His grace. This is the answer to the rhetorical question I asked last week, which was why does God choose frail and failing men to be His ministers? Why not let angels write upon the sky in flaming letters the merits of His gospel? And the answer is that angels have never been redeemed. We have known the depths of depravity, having been enslaved to sin, and now we have been supernaturally exalted to become sons of God by the graciousness of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ. That transformation is what makes us much better witnesses of His grace than angels could ever be. If God can save a wretch like me and make me a minister of His kingdom, then there is hope for anyone.

Now then in closing I will just mention the two miracles that the author Luke includes in this passage by way of illustration of this power of a transformed life. In the first example, a man laid paralyzed for eight years in his bed. And the Apostle Peter comes by him and calls out to him, “’Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.’ Immediately he got up.   And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”

This miracle simply illustrates what we have been discussing. The power of God to make a man that could not walk, walk once again, became the testimony of a transformed life that turned everyone who lived in the towns of Lydda and Sharon to the Lord. Don’t get so enamored at the thought of a miracle that you miss the greater miracle represented here. God is able to make Christians to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, so that He might cause many people to come to the Lord. That is the power of a transformed life. The miracle of my salvation and your salvation is to make us walk in newness of life, and those who see that transformation as old things pass away and all things become new are encouraged to come to Christ themselves.

And the second miracle illustrates pretty much the same thing. Peter is called to the house of a believing woman that had died. And Peter goes there, perhaps not knowing how God might use him, but being willing to be used, he was available. Such an important principle by the way. That we might just be available and show up when we are called. Don’t let the devil convince you that you have nothing to offer to the service of the church. If God can use 2 fishes to feed 5000 then He can use you in His service if you will just make yourself available.

So after Peter arrived, he put everyone out of the room, and prayed, and said, “Tabitha arise.” And she arose and Peter presented her alive. Once again a mighty miracle authenticating the doctrine of the apostles. But I think the point that Luke is making again is the power of God to transform a life. To take what is dead and make it alive. That is what happens in conversion, is it not? We who were dead in our trespasses and sins have been made alive unto Christ. And what is the result of this conversion? The testimony of this woman’s new life caused many to believe in the Lord.

You may say, well do we have the power to raise the dead or heal people? No, and neither did Peter. God has the power to heal and raise the dead. But we need to realize that Peter was not sent to every home in Israel where someone died. God used this miracle to illustrate the power of God to save. Which is the greater miracle? To raise a person to life again only to have them die once more in a few years time, or to raise a person to life again so that they may never die? I would say the greater miracle is the miracle of salvation. And that miracle is available for you today if you have never received it. Simply call out to God in repentance and faith in Christ that you might be born again. Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And then Christian, if you have experienced that miracle of salvation, you’ve been transformed from death to life, then you need to walk in the fear of the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit that you might multiply that salvation to others. You do that by submitting yourself to the preaching of the word by a Bible teaching pastor, and be edified, built up in maturity, doing the your work of service as a part of the local body, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in so doing make disciples. Multiply yourself over and over again, by the testimony of the supernatural transformation of your life.

Acts is an account of the birth of the church. God called out a people who would be the body of Christ by great power and signs and wonders. In Acts we see something of a New Testament parallel to the Israelites coming out of Egypt by great signs and wonders of Moses. And in yet another parallel, we also see that the devil attacks the congregation of the Lord in various ways, through persecution, and through corruption from within.

So as the church is growing mightily, there is also strategic attacks on the church from without and within. We saw that played out with Ananias and Sapphira back in chapter 5, as they lied to the Holy Spirit. Their sin was a deadly leaven that threatened to corrupt the church from within that had to be dealt with severely in order to preserve the sanctity of the congregation.

But Satan is a clever and deadly adversary. He like any good general, marshals his forces to attack on several fronts simultaneously. So almost immediately after Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with, Peter and John are arrested and beaten and imprisoned. But that too fails to hinder the proclamation of the gospel. In fact it only serves to embolden and empower the apostles to do more. So Satan enlists his forces from the religious realm to arrest Stephen, one of the seven young men who had been recently appointed as one of the leaders in the church. And as we saw last week, rather than that shutting him up, Stephen took that to be an opportunity to preach the gospel to the high priests and ruling council, convicting them by many Biblical proofs that their belief in God had in fact not saved them, but that they were enemies of God, outside of the kingdom. And what he preached enraged them so much that they rushed on him with one accord and threw him off a cliff and cast stones on him, making Stephen the first martyr.

Now in chapter 8 we see that this young man named Saul mentioned in the previous account who watched over the affair and held their coats while they stoned Stephen was now persecuting the church with a renewed intensity. But rather than persecution shutting down the church, it only served to strengthen it. Tertullian is credited with the saying that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And we see that seed now being scattered throughout Asia as a result of persecution. Satan thought that he had silenced a preacher of the gospel, and yet he inadvertently helped to spread the gospel from Jerusalem, to Judea, then Samaria, and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the earth. Acts 8:4 “Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”

Last week we looked at the last sermon of Stephen, which illustrated several principles which revealed that the religious leaders of the Jews were not true believers. And those principles were instructive for us as well, as we compared our salvation with the template that Stephen was proclaiming to be the gospel. These religious leaders had a form of religion, they claimed to be worshipping the One True God, they kept the Old Testament scriptures, they were extremely zealous for certain religious rituals and ceremonies, and yet they were not saved. And so I pointed out how we too must carefully examine our faith in order to see if we truly are of the faith, according to the examples given by Stephen in his last message.

And in a similar way, today we will look at the message of Philip, another of the original seven, who has gone out from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution, and he is now called the evangelist. He is preaching the gospel of Christ to the Samaritans and many signs and wonders were happening by his hand, and many people were being saved. But at the same time Satan is attempting to duplicate and deceive through a false prophet named Simon that is also doing signs and wonders, and when he cannot compete with the ministry of Philip, he professes to believe and is baptized. So we are going to examine today in light of this passage the contrast between the true faith and message of Philip and false faith and false message of Simon. I have titled this message, false faith, false follower, and false prophet.

So in this passage the Holy Spirit deliberately contrasts authentic Christianity with that of a false and counterfeit faith. Simon the Magician, or Simon Magus as he is sometimes called, appears in this passage as yet another means of the devil’s attack against the church, this time from within. Remember that Jesus had said in the parable of the tares and the wheat that though He was sowing good seed in the field of the world, an enemy would come at night and sow bad seed in the midst of the wheat, and that they would grow up together. The wheat and tares would initially be indistinguishable. And that is what we see here with Simon becoming identified with the church.

So let’s look at some of these characteristics of false faith, or false Christianity. And by the way this is not just ancient history. We must not be so foolish as to think we are past all of this sort of thing today in the church. No, the devil is continuing similar attacks on the church and even more so today. In fact as time marches on towards the end of the age, Jesus told us in Matt. 24:24 that it will increase. He said, “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Deception will grow worse and worse. Satan just keeps repackaging the same old deceptions in new false prophets, and people are deceived and keep on being deceived, often to their damnation.

So to start with, the first characterization of Simon’s false faith was self exaltation. Contrast that to the ministry of Philip; Philip it is said in vs. 5, proclaimed Christ. He preached the gospel of Christ and God validated that preaching with signs and wonders which served to glorify God. But Simon, as a false prophet, glorifies himself. Vs. 8 says that he was claiming to be something great. And his magic arts enabled him to convince the people of Samaria that he was something great. They called him the Great Power of God.

There is actually some very fascinating history written about this man in several contemporaneous non-biblical writings.   But what the text tells us, and from what history tells us, this man practiced a form of magic, professing secret knowledge, whereby he was able to astonish the local people. The word magician is from the root word magi. You remember the three wise men who visited Jesus’ birth? These men were known as magi from the East. They were learned in astronomy and the sciences and some practiced the secret arts as well, such as astrology and the occult. Obviously, Simon is one that has that sort of knowledge which is called sorcery.

Now the text indicates that he did certain feats of magic or sorcery in order to exalt himself. To bring attention to himself and probably make himself money in the process. That is always a characteristic of false prophets, by the way. They are self aggrandizing people who set themselves up in such a way as to bring attention to themselves. They claim to have great power from God. And I want to be very clear; beware of people that focus on signs and wonders as testimony to their Christianity or their spirituality.

Do you know that the devil is able to authenticate his false prophets by signs and wonders as well? There is more hocus pocus going on in the church today than ever before and it’s because our people lack discernment. They aren’t taught what the word of God says. They are taught that we need to experience God. And so whatever experience that comes along in the context of the church they then attribute to God. Today in the church there is everything from people falling down acting like they are drunk, to entire congregations laughing uncontrollably, to gold dust falling from the ceiling and angel feathers floating from the rafters. And all of it is attributed to God. However, it’s nothing short of demonic. It’s blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. God is not the author of confusion. Beware of signs and wonders that are purported to be done today, which are in effect only serving to enable false teachers to deceive gullible and superstitious people who are ignorant of what the scriptures actually teach.

Furthermore, its says in vs. 10 that the people both small and great from all quarters were giving him attention. False prophets are always popular. They attract great crowds even today. Ancient writers such as Justin Martyr, Jerome and Irenaeus give a sordid history of this man Simon and the way he eventually became a great enemy of the truth. He is credited with being one of the forbearers of the great heresy known as Gnosticism which arose in the first century to deceive many people. Simon went on to be one of that heresy’s foremost prophets. He taught that he was the manifestation of God, that divine knowledge resided in him.

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. It is a blend of different religious philosophies that believed in a higher knowledge, a spiritual plane that it was possible to reach that was separate from the body, from matter. They believed that it was possible to exist on a spiritual plane in some measure of godliness, but which was unaffected by the physical. So you could live in immorality or any such sin and yet be unaffected by it spiritually. It bred a false doctrine called antinomianism which is what James and Jude and John were warning against in their epistles, this false knowledge that puffs up. Jude 1:4 “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

But again, I would warn you, that Satan has repackaged much of that philosophy today and sold it to the church once again. There are false prophets who are known for their signs and wonders that are immensely popular in so called Christianity today, that are preaching a form of antinomianism which has it’s roots in Gnosticism. False prophets today like the televangelist Joseph Prince teach that you can be holy spiritually in God’s eyes, but be something else in the physical realm. They teach that you can be a child of God, and yet live in sin and not have any conviction of your sin. They teach that in fact it is impossible for a believer to sin, and you never need to repent of your sins. It’s first century Gnosticism repackaged for the weak, immature and often immoral church of today.

But not only is this Simon Magus an example of a false prophet, he is emblematic of those that are of a false faith. Their faith, as it were, is founded on serving their pride. They are all about self aggrandizement. They practice their religion to be seen of men, to draw accolades to their piety. They are interested in signs and wonders because it pleases their vanity to be seen to have some great spiritual power. They are interested in some higher degree of knowledge that relieves them from the conviction of something so petty as sin. They want to profit from religion, both economically as well as in their social standing. And yet their actions reveal that they are prideful. They have never humbled themselves in the sight of God. They never repented of their sins.

And that leads us to the next characteristic of Simon as an example of false faith, and that is he had a incorrect understanding of salvation. Vs. 12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.”

At first glance, it sounds pretty positive, doesn’t it? Sounds like this false prophet, this great celebrity of Samaria actually became a Christian. After all, it says he believed. Isn’t that the requirement for salvation? Isn’t that what is being taught today? Just believe in God and he will accept you just the way you are. But the Bible says that the devils believe and tremble and yet they are not saved. Why not? Well, first of all because salvation is not offered to angels, but only to men. But even if they could be saved salvation would require repentance. And they have believed but not repented. That’s why Jesus went about preaching first and foremost, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repentance is the polar opposite of pride, do you understand that? Repentance is confession that you are a sinner, and that the Bible says that the penalty for sin is eternal death. You confess that you are a sinner and you admit that you are guilty and worthy of the punishment. But there is nothing said of Simon repenting. In fact as you read on, you will see that he had not repented, and when Peter told him to repent, he excused himself.

What Simon did was find himself attracted to the church by the signs and wonders. He liked the display of power. He imagined how that kind of power might benefit him. He might have even had a certain mindset that if you can’t beat them, then join them. He had been duping the people with his magic arts, he had been enjoying this fame and prosperity that came with it, and suddenly along comes Philip with true knowledge, with divine power to truly heal, and so his act is completely eclipsed. So he joins this movement, or appears to, in order to learn and acquire this knowledge to add to his own bag of tricks.

By the way, I don’t doubt but that Satan has certain practitioners that can perform some signs and wonders. But I think that for the most part it is a deception. I have studied a little bit about some well known pseudo evangelists, and I have noticed a pattern in some of being trained in and practicing hypnotism. I think a lot of the fake faith healers set up their shows ahead of time with willing accomplices or they weed out the truly handicapped in favor of those with some sort of psychosomatic disorder. And so these people are selected who might be very easily persuaded by means of hypnosis or some other trick. But it’s not long thereafter until they find they are no longer healed.

One of the saddest tales I have heard on this subject came from the well known Christian speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident when she was a young woman. And in the early years of her illness, one day in desperation she went to a famous faith healer’s service in hopes of being healed. And she relates how that she and other quadripalegics and people who had serious problems were escorted to a special wing and then left there while others with non visible maladies were healed. She relates the horrible feeling of abandonment at the end of the service as they were wheeled out of the back door still in their wheelchairs. Such false prophets are an abomination to God and will one day face God’s judgment for their false faith message.

But back to Simon, he supposedly believed, and he was baptized. According to at least a couple of different denominations out there, that should have sealed the deal. He was baptized. To some denominations, becoming a Christian is like making instant oatmeal. Just add water and you’re good. So he joined the church. He made a profession of faith, he was baptized, he effectively joined the movement. He began following Philip around. Folks, please understand that Satan loves nothing more than to join the church. Jesus taught another parable about the church, in which He said that the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed that was planted in a garden and it grew into a great big tree, so big that the birds of the air came and nested in it’s branches. This parable was taught immediately after the parable of the tares and the wheat. The picture He is giving is that the church will grow bigger than normal, first of all. The church will grow and spread far beyond it’s normal growth into a great tree, instead of a normal bush. And it’s branches extend out so far that the birds of the air come and nest in it’s branches. Jesus said in the parable of the soils that the birds of the air are the devil and his angels. So Jesus is saying that the devil and his angels are nesting in the branches of the church. That is a reality that is true today more than ever before as we see every sort of abomination welcomed and embraced by many modern churches today.

The number one way the church has been rendered weak and ineffective, more than any other, is by unregenerate people coming in and taking on the outer garments of Christianity, calling themselves Christians, but remaining still unchanged in heart and life. That has ruined more churches than any external attack possibly could.

You know, all of the church growth strategy books have got it wrong. The church doesn’t need to attract more unsaved people. The church doesn’t need more pew sitters in the congregation. It doesn’t need more spectators. The church needs holy and sanctified workers for the harvest. Matt. 9:37-38 “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” The church is the body of Christ, not a collection of the unregenerate seeking validation while still in their sins.

Simon is missing one major ingredient in his salvation. And that is he is unrepentant. He may have professed to believe in God, but nothing had changed. Listen, repentance is a change of direction. It is coming to the end of yourself. It is mourning over your sin. It is realizing that you are depraved and without hope and you need God to transform you. Simon just added the outward garments of Christianity to his carnal nature and nothing had actually changed.

Next, Simon misunderstood the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is still a major problem in the church today, isn’t it? A complete misunderstanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit and His function in the church. But let’s look first at some background. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria was receiving the gospel and people were becoming saved, they sent Peter and John there.

Now the important distinction here is that these were Samaritans. They had traditionally been excluded from Israel as half breeds, half Jew and half Gentile. And so what is being described here is a manifestation of the Spirit upon the Samaritans, to indicate and affirm that they were also now part of the body of Christ. God’s plan was not to have a church in Samaria which had different customs and beliefs than the church in Jerusalem. But as the scripture says there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And so that is why it is important that the apostles come from Jerusalem and lay hands upon them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, to show by the signs that followed that they were all of one body.

But it’s important to understand what is happening; no one can be saved without the agency of the Holy Spirit. They had been saved. They had the power of the Holy Spirit manifested to them when they were delivered from illnesses through the ministry of Philip. And they had the joy of their salvation in vs. 8 which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. The thing that was missing was that they needed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to bring them into communion with the church, to make them part of the body of Christ, to show that they were in no way inferior to the church at Jerusalem.

That is the significance of the laying on of hands. We lay hands or even shake hands to show solidarity with other people. So the fathers of the church in Jerusalem came to join hands with the Christians in Samaria in order to show full fellowship with them. And there were undoubtedly certain signs accompanying the baptism of the Holy Spirit similar to what had happened at Pentecost to authenticate by the Spirit what the apostles were affirming, that they were a part of the church. It’s interesting, because in each of the 4 occasions in Acts when this happens, it happens under slightly different circumstances. This is the only time that the laying on of hands occurs with the baptism of the Spirit. And I believe that is because it signifies the right hand of fellowship that is extended from Jerusalem to these Samaritans who had long been estranged from Israel.

So there is the same manifestation of gifts in Samaria that there had been at Pentecost. There would be the same manifestation of signs at the household of the Gentile Cornelius which Peter goes to preach to at the bequest of the Spirit. And all because God is indicating that there is no more Jew nor Gentile nor Samaritan in the church; we are all made one in Christ by the self same Spirit.

But Simon seeing this is moved to approach Peter and ask him if he could buy that ability. There is a word in the English language which is simony. It is the buying or selling of religious offices or powers. This man’s name is the origin of this word. He is attempting to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to buy it so that he could profit by it. And while I don’t think many people today are so bold as to try to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, I do believe that many in the church today are trying to profit by the Spirit. They attempt to use a false power that is attributed to the Holy Spirit for ungodly gain. I once personally knew a man that was duped into thinking that Benny Hinn was a great power of God, and he regularly would go fly somewhere to one of his crusades and pay him $10,000 for a private meeting so that he could receive his blessing. He ended up going bankrupt. False prophets like Benny Hinn seek to profit from the Holy Spirit.

Simon thought that he too could profit from being able to administer the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so Peter’s response illustrates the last characteristic of Simon’s false faith, which is that he lacked true repentance. Simon revealed that he had held onto his sin. He professed to believe, he participated in the ritual of baptism, but he had never truly repented. And that lack of repentance became evident when he tried to buy the Holy Spirit.

Philip may have been a somewhat naïve young preacher, a beginning evangelist that God was using, but Peter had the gift of discernment as we saw evidenced in the passage about Ananias and Sapphira. So Peter says to Simon in vs. 20, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” The literal translation of Peter’s rebuke is “may your silver go to hell with you!” Peter sees immediately that this man is still in the bondage of sin. He never repented. His heart is alienated from God. He describes Simon as bitter, that would indicate he was jealous of Philip.

Listen, the Gnostics, the antinomians, think that as believers you never need to repent, because you never sin. But I would remind you of Psalm 51, a Psalm of David when he sinned against God, he said, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight,so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” Was David saved when he sinned with Bathsheba? Yes, he most certainly was. Was he saved the same way we are? Yes, he certainly was, he was saved by faith, through grace, just as we are. He looked forward to Christ, we look backwards to Christ, but we are both saved the same way. And yet David by divine inspiration calls his sin, sin. He said against God he had sinned, and his sin was ever before God.

So what was David’s solution? Repentance. He confessed his sin as sin, as an affront to God. And then he asked to be changed. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Listen, David was saved and he still sinned against God, he still needed forgiveness, he needed repentance that he might have fellowship with God.   This idea that you can live in sin and be ok, that you can come as you are and stay as you are, is not the gospel. It is not the gospel that Peter is preaching. He turns to Simon and says, “you are still in the bonds of iniquity.” You were never released from your sins because you never repented of yours sins.

I am convinced that the church today is full of people who profess to believe, who have been baptized or been catechized or been through some experience or ritual and they believe they are part of the church, but in fact they have no part at all in the body of Christ. They are still in the bondage of iniquity. That is the only explanation for why the divorce rate is as high in the church as it is in the world. That is the only explanation why our church members are living in immorality. That is the only reason why our people are living fleshly, carnal lives, chasing riches and material things of the world. They have a false faith. They are still in the bondage of sin.

Unfortunately, Simon has no interest in repenting as Peter tells him to do. Instead he says, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” He wants to escape the judgment of sin, but he is not willing to forsake the presence of sin. There’s no confession; there’s no self analysis; there’s no acknowledging of sin. There’s no trust in the Lord; there’s no asking for forgiveness; there’s no repentance, nothing, but possibly even a scornful comment, “Why don’t you pray for me yourselves, so that what you’ve said doesn’t happen to me.”

Simon is never mentioned in scripture again. But history tells us that his unrepentant heart led him further and further away from the truth and into abject heresy. According to some sources, he became a constant adversary of Peter, going before him into various cities refuting the gospel that Peter was preaching. His doctrine became more and more heretical, even to the point of denying that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, denying the divinity of Christ, meanwhile making himself out to be god. According to Justin Martyr, there was a statue erected in Rome that bore the inscription testifying that he was a god. He became the father of Gnosticism, which is the grandfather of all heresies.

Listen, there is a great danger in refusing to repent of sin. At the very most you cannot be saved without repentance, without humbling yourself and being willing to forsake your sin. And at the very least, if you are by some miracle a Christian, you break fellowship with God and you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and you trample underfoot the blood of Jesus by refusing to confess and repent of your sin. Either way your unrepentant heart will lead you further and further away from God just as surely as leaven eventually corrupts all of the dough.

I don’t know whether you folks listening to me today are wheat or tares. I don’t know whether or not you are of the faith, or of a false faith. I don’t have the level of discernment that Peter had. But I do know that Jesus said that by their fruit you shall know them. What is in the heart, eventually comes out of the mouth. Simon should be a warning against a false faith, false followers, and false prophets. 2Cor. 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?” Be sure you are not of a false faith, a faith without repentance. Believing without repentance can never produce saving faith. But as David said, “a broken and contrite heart O God you will not despise.” Let us pray.