Pray for me...

“Pray for me to the Lord...”

(Acts 8:18-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 30, 2011)

18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands,

God intended that some of the Holy Spirit blessings that He had for the Samaritans would come through the laying on of Jewish apostolic hands. This was His chosen way of convincing the hearts of both Jews and Samaritans that they were now one in Jesus Christ.

Not only that, but more generally, God would give heavenly blessings that could only come from the ascended Christ through the hands of His church.

God was reassuring Jews, Samaritans, and all of us, that the ascended Jesus is real. If the ascended Jesus is real and He gives gifts through the church, then heaven is real, and the church should believe in this glorious Christ and believe in heaven.

We should not only believe in Christ and heaven, we should proclaim Christ and heaven. We should not only speak of these things, we should expect to walk in them by God's grace.

… he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

The results of the laying on of hands in Acts 8 were undeniable. Simon, the former sorcerer, who had received the Word that Philip preached and was baptized knew that what took place in Samaria as a result of the apostolic laying on of hands was real.

Simon had believed in Christ, but not every habit of his heart was instantly changed. We might wish that all of our thoughts were instantly made perfect in holiness as a result of our first motions of faith, but this is not accurate. We have bad habits of the heart that will need to be reshaped by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

In the case of Simon, he had some habits that came from his worldview as a Samaritan super-sorcerer. He understood that there was power in unseen realms, and he knew it when he saw it. He offered the apostles money, not as an insult, but as a complement. That was the appropriate Samaritan sorcery thing to do. Pay the great Jesus magicians, and they will give you the power to give Holy Spirit gifts to others. This was the Samaritan sorcerer mind, and the mind of Balak as he approached Balaam, but it was not the mind of Christ.

20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

The apostle Peter plainly corrected Simon's wrong thinking. The way to usefulness in the kingdom of Christ would not come from purchasing spiritual powers. This was one of the thousands of ways that Samaritan sorcery differed from Christianity. Simon had to learn that, and this was the way that the necessary learning took place.

Simon's heart was not right before God. His specialty was the magic of sorcery. That specialty was frankly not very useful in a kingdom where every gift comes only through heavenly authorized channels. Sorcery is the attempt to obtain power and blessing through forbidden channels. Sometimes it works, but it is always wrong, and it is always dangerous.

Simon needed to realize that this skill he had was not going to be useful in the kingdom. Is there some skill that you have learned in a former way of looking at life that you are trying to use for the kingdom of Christ? Is it something that the Word of God prohibits, like sorcery? Don't try to make it holy. That won't work. Lay it down and walk away from it. Stealing is not a spiritual gift. Neither is negativity, unbelief, greed, lust, or the insistence on talking rather than listening.

Peter gave Simon the right instruction. The sorcerer needed to find a new line of work. He needed to repent, to change the bad intent of his heart that led him to want to buy heavenly gifts that Christ alone gives from His place as our ascended King.

Call wickedness what it is. Wickedness. See it. Identify the old habit of the heart. Own it as “yours.” Then lay it down on the ground, never to pick it up again, and walk away from it.

Pray to the Lord, because you may have to fight this beast for awhile. Pray to the Lord, because He can keep on delivering you from every kind of bondage.

You need forgiveness. But you need something else. You need what Paul earnestly prays for when He calls out to God for the church in Ephesus, a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. You need the eyes of your hearts enlightened. Without that blessing, you will not understand true Christian hope in the Son of God, you will not understand your destiny in the love of the Father, and you will not be aware of the way that resurrection power from God is available for you today from the Spirit of the living God.

Without that help from Jesus Christ, you will be stuck in your old patterns of thinking, just as Simon was stuck in a sorcerer's mindset. What mindset did you grow up with? What mindset have you invited into your life along the way of pursuing your desires? Are you stuck in that old habit of the heart? Pray that you might be both forgiven and released.

24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

Simon did one more thing. He asked Peter to pray for his release. This was an acceptance of Peter's assessment of Simon's bad situation, and a plea for the help of Jesus through the church.

This is the way that the body of Christ still works today. We hear the Word. We see Christ in all His heavenly glory, with all His cross-won forgiveness and deliverance for us. We repent of our old habits of the heart. We ask for forgiveness. And we ask for others to pray for our release from the hold of what is old and dead.

Christ has good gifts for you. He has paid for them in full with His blood. This age of blessing was part of the eternal plan of the Father, recorded for us in the Hebrew prophets. See Jeremiah 31:31-34.

You don't have to stay stuck in some old way of thinking and living. You have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Now there is a good way to seek growth in the life that Christ won for you.

1. What was Simon's request in the beginning of this passage?

2. What was Peter's response?

3. What was Peter's directive to Simon?

4. What was Simon's request at the end of this passage?

OT Passage: Jeremiah 31:31-34

Trusting God for More Blessing

“The Word, Christian Baptism, and the Holy Spirit”

(Acts 8:14-17, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 23, 2011)

14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,

The Word of God is powerful. One of the most important facts about the Bible is that is it not only the word of the human authors of the sixty-six individual books of the Old and New Testaments. It comes as a blessing to you from the God who created the heavens and the earth.

Many passages demand divine authorship, since authors are revealing hidden good news that simply could not be known in their days. Yet it is only by the Holy Spirit that the divine authorship of the Scriptures becomes a certainty to your heart.

When God brought Philip to Samaria and led him to speak about the kingdom and the King, the Samaritans received the Word of God. God has promised to us through the words of the prophet Isaiah that His Word would not just be an empty nothing. It will bring fruit. See Isaiah 55, especially 10-11.

God's Word accomplishes His purposes, and He is good. It was His purpose to extend His kingdom to the Samaritans. He did that through Philip preaching, but even more than that, He did that through the Samaritans receiving the Word.

Jesus criticized some of the Pharisees of His day because they made the Word of God “void.” In their case, they did this by preferring their traditions above the Scriptures. Others make the Word void in different ways. But God can show forth His power here this morning by enabling you to receive what He says.

The most powerful preacher here today is the voice of God coming out of your mouth in an “Amen,” going into your ear, and taking root in your soul. The Samaritans received the Word of God in the preaching of Jesus Christ as Lord of the Kingdom of God. But you are here today. What do you say? Do you receive the Word of Jesus and the Kingdom as the Word of God?

… they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

When the Samaritans received the Word, they were baptized into Messianic Judaism. Wow! They were taught to do that, no doubt, by Philip. He had received the command of Jesus that came to him through the testimony of the apostles who heard that instruction directly from the mouth of their risen Savior. Making disciples in Samaria included going there with the Word, baptizing those who believed, and teaching them to do what Christ commanded.

Water baptism was an important part of our Lord's commission to the church. It was a New Covenant sign with roots in the Old Covenant Scriptures. This simple ritual of spiritual washing and spiritual belonging not only put the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on people; it also brought people into the name of Jesus Christ as part of a new community of faith that included not only males, but also females; and now, not only Jews, but also Samaritans.

But there was something missing in the introductory experience of the Samaritan believers. They had received the Word. That was very good. They had responded to the instruction that ultimately came from Christ by being marked with waters that symbolized not only the cleansing of the blood of Christ, but also the freshness of the Holy Spirit from heaven.

17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

So the Apostles sent two of their number, Peter and John, to Samaria. Consider Luke 9:54 by way of contrast. The Samaritans had received the Word, and many had been baptized into the Name, but they had not received the Holy Spirit in power in the way that He had made Himself known in Jerusalem, and would later reveal Himself among the Gentiles.

Peter and John came to Samaria and laid their hands upon the new Christian converts. What were they doing?

Just as water baptism has a rich Old Testament context, the laying on of hands was something that the New Testament church was prepared for through the Old Testament and through the ministry of Jesus. The laying on of hands was for setting apart a person by power from heaven for the task of serving the Lord, and more generally for blessing people from on high.

God uses weak people as agents of blessing to other weak people. Amazing.

The Old Testament priests pronounced blessings upon Israel according to the Lord's instruction. See Numbers 6:22-27. The Lord spoke words of blessing and healing upon the weak, and He used His hands to bless, even letting the little ones to be brought to Him. See Matthew 19:13-15. The apostles understood that they had a continued role of blessing. See 2 Corinthians 13:14.

The apostles did what they could do as representatives of the One who has become the source of great blessing upon the church. They laid hands on people. They prayed for them. They asked God to send His Holy Spirit in fuller measure. There is no good reason that I am aware of as to why the church should cease this powerful and compassionate practice. We are to be agents of the blessing of God wherever we go . We speak blessing. We touch those who are seeking help, healing, and provision from God. We pray for one another. And God blesses.

Have you received the Word of God?

Have you been baptized into the Name of Jesus?

Have you received the Holy Spirit?

I read an account this week from African Bible College in Liberia about a recent stadium event where people were invited to come forward for blessing and commitment. The response was so unusual that it surprised one man who has been leading evangelistic events in Africa and the United States for half a century. It was not merely that thousands of people came forward for blessing. Thousand RAN forward to receive blessing from God.

Psalm 110 says “a willing people in Thy day of power shall come to Thee.” There was a great day of power in Samaria in the first century, and there was a great day of divine power in Liberia just the other day. For two thousand years God has been using the words and hands of people in order to give gifts to his church. These blessings come to us solely based on the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. But God uses His church to give His best gifts to others.

Be blessed and serve. Be a source of blessing to others, here, and even to the ends of the earth!

1. What does it mean to receive the Word of God?

2. Why did the apostles send Peter and John to Samaria?

3. What does it mean to receive the Holy Spirit?

4. What is the significance of being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus?

OT Passage: Numbers 27:12-23, Deuteronomy 34:9-12

That Word Above All Earthly Powers

“The Astounding Power of God”

(Acts 8:9-13, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 16, 2011)

9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

The miracle of creation, the miracle of God become man, the miracle of being born again... these are impressive displays of the power of God. These are miracles that are past history or present facts.

Every time I go to meet with co-laborers in Christ I am confronted by the fact of men like Herb Shipman or Doug Domin. I have seen in my own life and in the lives of many of you a change that cannot be denied.

Sometimes spiritual life has been a present reality for a person for as long as he can remember. That is the case for Nathan Snyder. We thank God for that kind of life.

For others, life in Christ has come not just in one step, but in several motions of growth in grace in a person's life, like the spiritual equivalent of the two-stage healing of a blind man in Mark 8. When Jesus first healed this man, he said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” That was great progress, but the second touch completed the work.

Some people come to believe, and the changes in their life seem so small, so that we wonder if they have been born again at all. The Lord knows. The second or third touch of the savior may come many years later, even when they are very close to their home-going.

We need all types. All of it is worthy of celebration.

There was a man named Peter. There was a man named Stephen. There was a woman named Lydia. And in Acts 8, there was an intriguing and troubling man named Simon. What a story!

This man was into spiritual power before his spirit was even alive in Christ. He was in the grip of the wrong side. He practiced magic... probably more than slight of hand, more than illusion. When we are told that Satan has appeared as an angel of light, when a serpent can talk, when spiritual powers can cause someone to say or do things beyond natural explanation, someone real and evil is at work. It should not surprise us that the Egyptian occultists actually did substantial tricks, and that the magician who was called Simon could amaze the people of Samaria.

How do you tell the true from the false? Notice this about Simon: he was going around everywhere saying that he was somebody great. The true miracle from heaven exalts God. The false worker of signs wants to be known as “Great,” and longs to amaze people with his sorcery.

12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Philip, who was one of the Seven listed in Acts 6, had a different Spirit in him. He preached good news about the kingdom of God and about the name of Jesus Christ.

This was worlds away from Simon's message. Simon, and others like him, make themselves the message. They want to say, without any necessary reference to the Lord God Almighty, “Mine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” The true servant of the Most High God teaches us to pray, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” The voice of the power of divine love is the voice of God in Jesus Christ, not the voice of a magician who has found a dangerous back door into spiritual realms in order to achieve his own plans.

The kingdom of God is very good news. It is the answer to one of our deep longings. Any honest observer must admit that something has gone very wrong on this planet. We do find much truth, and beauty and order here, but we also see hate, disease, and death. Is there any way out of our present sadness and darkness?

The resounding message of the true servant of the Lord is, “Yes!” God is establishing His kingdom. He is overturning all that is evil. At the very center of that kingdom is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His is the Name above every name. Philip was preaching the kingdom of God and He was preaching the good news of the name of Jesus Christ.

Does it surprise you that people in Samaria believed Philip? They did believe, and they were baptized, both men and women. Those baptisms meant something very significant.

13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

Even Simon himself, the great magician, believed. He was baptized, and he stayed with Philip. He had some later problems that we'll consider more another time, but we have good reason to believe that this man actually expressed true faith in Jesus Christ.

Not only did he listen to the word that Philip preached, but he also, along with many others in Samaria, saw the signs and great miracles that went with the message. Signs and miracles were part of the full testimony of our Lord during His own ministry on earth. He healed that blind man in two stages. We can guess about the meaning of that particular event, but it has become a part of the rich tapestry of so many heavenly signs that invaded this earth in the coming of the Messiah, culminating in His own resurrection.

These signs and miracles also accompanied at least some of the preaching of the church as it was recorded in Acts. How real were the miracles? Well, they impressed Simon. Together with the message that was proclaimed, they changed his belief system, and they changed his daily life. Maybe it did not happen all at once, maybe it was not perfect, but it was noticeable and undeniable. And there was a new Simon story, a story that gave glory to God.

Your life in Christ is a sign and a wonder in your own generation. It has come to you from heaven, from heaven's God, from the Creator, from the Messiah who died for you. You have been granted life. I know that any person can focus on himself too much, but isn't it also possible that a person can ignore or hide what God has actually done in his life?

Let's rejoice in the Lord's great mercy to you and to yours. Each story is deliberate, rather than random. It is purposeful, rather than meaningless. It is powerfully glorifying to God, rather than rightly dismissed. Simon was a sorcerer who used to glorify himself. Then He heard a new Word, a Word full of the power of good news.

1. How had Simon amazed the people of Samaria?

2. What was Philip's message?

3. What is the significance of baptism in this passage?

4. What is the significance of signs and great miracles in this account?

OT Passage: Psalm 29

Hope for Weary People that May Have Seen too Much Change

“Spy Out the Land”

(Numbers 13, Preaching at Portsmouth, NH: Visiting Pastor Stephen Magee, October 9, 2011)

(Numbers 13 ESV)

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

The promise of the Lord was clear. He was giving a land to the descendants of Jacob. The time had come for them to see that land. God commanded Moses to send representatives from the tribes of Israel into the land so that they could report back to the rest of the people.

Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

The assignment He gave was specific. They were not sent out as military strategists who were supposed to assess the feasibility of Israel dispossessing the Canaanites from the land. They were simply to report what they saw. Were the people strong or weak? Were they few or many? Was the land good or bad? These were the sort of questions they were to answer. They were also told to be of good courage and to bring some of the fruit of the land for the people to see.

So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

After forty days these appointed representatives reported their findings to the people and showed them the fruit of the land. All the men had seen the same land, yet only two of them saw that land with the eyes of faith, Caleb and Joshua. They knew that the land was Israel's, given to them by God. The others urged fear and faithlessness and even spread a false report about the land to the people, saying that it was a land that devoured its inhabitants. They claimed that “all the people” were of great height. When they looked back to themselves all they could imagine was certain defeat.

“We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Generations later, long after Israel had first taken the land, a true giant of the Philistines, Goliath, would defy the people of the living God. Young David was able to see this brute with the eyes of faith. Others murmured the chilling assessment of sure defeat. David knew the power of the God of Israel working through His appointed servant.

Centuries after David, a descendant of this chosen king would stand up to powerful adversaries and proclaim a word of perfect faith. He was able to see more than the formidable opposition that gathered against Him. He insisted that in His father's house were many rooms, and that in His death, resurrection, and ascension, He was going to prepare a place for them. He knew that He came from the ultimate promised land, and that after men had rejected, dishonored, and killed Him, that they would not be able to prevent Him returning to the place from which He had come.

This Jesus, through His own blood and righteousness, has accomplished a stunning conquest over sin and death. He has led the way into heaven, a land of glory. His report to us is good. His instruction is to see the gift of God with the eyes of faith, and to take the land by the strength that God supplies. In His power we go forth to certain victory. We will not succumb to evil and fear. We will take the land that God has promised.

Some questions for us to consider as the New Testament church:

1. Have we sufficiently considered the big promise of God to us in Jesus Christ our Lord, and have we heard Jesus' immediate instructions to us for this day? Big picture and small picture...

2. Have we been strengthened in today's task by the facts about Jesus?

Was Caleb brash, or was he right? In Christ, we are well able to take the land.

Final thought: Apart from Jesus, you can do nothing (John 15:5), but you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13). A good word to share with Portsmouth...

Joy for a Despised City

“A Proclamation that Brings Much Joy to a City”

(Acts 8:5-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 2, 2011)

5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

In Acts 21, we read about a second preaching deacon beyond the martyr Stephen. Luke writes, “On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.” This is the same Philip that we read about in Acts 8 after the murder of Stephen.

What can we say about this Philip? Like Stephen, he was recognized by his peers and by the apostles as a man “of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” He was one of the ones that was scattered by the persecution that came after the death of Stephen. That group went about preaching the word wherever they went. We see from this chapter that he was a man through whom God worked miracles. He was a man who would be used by God in very surprising ways.

One other important fact: his proclamation was about the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. It was especially clear from his interaction with an Ethiopian official later in this chapter that Philip used the Old Testament Scriptures to present the good news about Jesus.

After this chapter, the only other reference to Philip in the Bible is the text mentioned above from Acts 21. That passages goes on to say that he had four daughters who were prophetesses.

Here in Acts 8, Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. Samaria was a northern city in Israel which had for many centuries been a place of mixed-up religion. Jesus, in his wonderful interaction with a Samaritan woman in John 4, extended great mercy to this woman and to many of her neighbors, but He did not deny that salvation came from the Jews and not from the Samaritans.

The Samaritans held to the first five books of the Bible, but not to the rest of the Old Testament. To the Torah they added many religious practices coming from other lands since the Assyrians had sent people from many nations to settle in this northern area of Israel. Samaritans were not respected by Jews. Yet Christ had indicated before His ascension that the message of salvation would not be limited to Judea. Samaria would hear the good news.

6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

The preaching deacon Philip was not a pastor. We need not think that only pastors are used by God to preach. Someone may not have the calling of pastor but still be used by God to preach. They can be licensed by the church to preach even today in our denomination. Philip was one such man whom the Lord used to bring His message to a despised people.

Like Jonah going to Nineveh, Philip had amazing success in Samaria. Our Lord was not from Samaria, but when His enemies wanted to insult Him, they said to him in John 8:48, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” God is often pleased to lift up despised people groups with the message of His despised and rejected Son. The Samaritans heard Philip's message about Jesus, and they received it.

Philip did more than preach. The people heard what Philip had to say, but they also saw the signs that he did. Specifically, Philip demonstrated heaven's authority over demonic realms by casting demons out of people who were oppressed by these spirits, and he healed the lame and the paralyzed. These powerful signs accompanied his message.

Jesus performed signs like these as well. They were signals that a new power for life had come into a world badly tainted by death.

The ultimate sign of heaven has come to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Eventually a trumpet will sound, Christ shall return, and the full life of resurrection will overwhelm every vestige of decay in our existing world. Christ's individual resurrection from the dead was a firstfruits of this larger future resurrection.

Even before Christ's great sign of his own empty tomb, Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah from the Old Testament by lesser signs of healing and deliverance from demonic bondage. At the very beginning of His ministry, He announced in His own despised hometown of Nazareth that the words of Isaiah 61 were being fulfilled. He would “proclaim good news to the poor, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

It was shocking to see the power of evil and death turned back by the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. It was even more shocking to see the very same signs performed by a deacon and evangelist as he was led by God to a people that the Jews despised.

8 So there was much joy in that city.

Verse 8 tells us simply and plainly that Samaria was changed by Philip's ministry. In a way that could only be explained by the power of heaven working through people, it became evident to everyone that a new era had begun. “There was much joy in that city.”

The city of God was being made known among the despised cities of men. This is what we ought to expect to hear about as a result of the Tanzies and others going to Madrid. This is what we should expect as a result of our lives here in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

I know that I was once skeptical about that kind of talk. As someone who was mugged twice in the Bronx during my high school years, I was not expecting that Redeemer Presbyterian Church was really going to transform New York City as they set out to do. That church has been in Manhattan only a little longer than we have been in Exeter. But it is actually happening... See Chuck Colson's recent column on New York entitled “Good News in Gotham.”

God can change a city through one deacon who preaches, and through despised people who hear and believe. The gospel of a despised god-man dying for the helpless still has power. The preaching and living out of Christ can still bring much joy to a city.

One day the city of God will fully descend upon the city of man. All that God's people have sung about a heavenly Zion will be right there in front of our eyes. Now we labor in works that look weak like the cross. But God raises the dead.

1. Who is Philip and what do we know about him?

2. What was the biblical history of Samaria?

3. What took place in Samaria according to these verses?

4. Can the gospel still bring much joy to a city?

OT Passage: Psalm 48