I’ve done the very same thing – not knowingly, but unknowingly. Philip baptized a man who wasn’t a believer. It’s sad that we can’t discern, but in another sense I’m glad Philip didn’t know any more than I’m able to know. And Philip was actually convinced that Simon was for real. And in that time in Samaria he had confronted this man Simon, and so we meet that confrontation. And in the course of his ministry he had brought about a great revival under the energy of the Holy Spirit in Samaria. He was a prophet he was also an evangelist. And he was one of those chosen by the early church to be leaders, in chapter 6.
Now, Philip was one of the Christians that was scattered and one of them who was preaching. But keep in mind that the point of the chapter in a broad sense is to show us that there will always be both at the preaching of the gospel.
And then later on Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch who works under the authority of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, and who illustrates to us the faith that does save. Philip, then, begins by confronting Simon, who is the first tare that we know of sown by Satan in the church – the first false believer so named. But we know enough about Satan to know that he always sows the tares among the wheat. There are people who are true, and there are people who are false. And this is to be understood at the very beginning of the ministry of the church, that there will be both in this church, Grace Community Church, right here. Beginning in verse 26, the Ethiopian eunuch becomes an illustration of faith that does save.Īnd so we see Philip then, the main character, as he confronts both Simon and the Ethiopian – one illustrating the faith that doesn’t save the other the faith that does. Simon becomes an illustration of faith that does not save. For in chapter 8 you have the fact of the two types illustrated. This, then, becomes the key to chapter 8. Both of those are always there whenever you have the preaching of the gospel: true believers, and believers who make a mental assent but whose faith does not save. There are the wheat and the tares the faithful, the phony the rocky ground, the good soil the abiding branches, the branches that are cut off those who believed to the saving of the soul, and those who draw back unto perdition. There is truth faith and there is phony faith. Now, we saw also last time that wherever the message is preached there are always two results. The church reached Jerusalem, and God knew it was time to move out, and so God used persecution as the method, for the church being persecuted fled in scattering itself about it wound up in Judea and Samaria and there bore the message of Jesus Christ to those people. It really began with the catalyst of the martyrdom of Stephen who was killed for the sermon which he preached in chapter 7, incensing the leaders.Īnd so the church was born. And the Bible says in Acts 8:3 that, “.he made havock of the church, entering into houses and dragging people out and committing them to prison, both men and women.” And so the persecution was wholesale and widespread. And so persecution resulted in preaching.Īnd we saw last time how the persecution was really ramrodded by a man named Saul, who later became the apostle Paul. The persecution resulted in the scattering of believers and wherever they went they bore the gospel. As the church filled Jerusalem with its doctrine it aroused the hatred of the Jewish leaders who in turn persecuted the church. And it is moving out in response to persecution. It filled Jerusalem with its doctrine and now it begins to move out. The church was born, as we’ve seen in our study of Acts over the past few months, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The church bursts forth out of its solitary Jewishness and its identity with Jerusalem to reach the world.Īnd we see that in chapter 8.
Last week we began our study of the eighth chapter, which is a very important chapter in the book of Acts because it records for us the first great missionary move of the new church.
Turn in your bible to the eighth chapter of Acts, and we’re going to consider these verses this morning that deal with Simon the Sorcerer who illustrates faith that does not save – faith that does not save. Not only do we sense that from the song but even from our scripture lesson this morning when we see a man who looks so good on the outside, but when the truth was known the inside was not right with Thee.įather, may nobody in this place leave today who is not right with Thee in their hearts. Father, we thank You that it is true that man looketh on the outward appearance, and God looks on the heart.
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