Summary
On this week's podcast, Gregg Demey (Lead Pastor), Jeff Klein (Pastor of Outreach), and Rebekah Wilson (Discipleship Team) wade into Acts 8 which covers the expansion of the church geographically (scattered) and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
Today's Hosts
Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor
Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach
Rebekah Wilson, Discipleship Team
Note: Wade in the Word is a weekly podcast designed to take a deep dive into scripture for the weekend message. Join our pastors, staff, and occasional special guests as we reflect together.
Wade in the Word podcast is a production of Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, located in Elmhurst, IL. Wade in the Word is produced and audio-engineered by Kyle Olson, Technical Director. For more information about Elmhurst CRC or to find out about other tools and resources to grow you and your family in faith visit elmhurstcrc.org.
Summary
On this week's podcast, Gregg Demey (Lead Pastor), Jeff Klein (Pastor of Outreach), and Rebekah Wilson (Discipleship Team) wade into Acts 8 which covers the expansion of the church geographically (scattered) and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
Today's Hosts
Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor
Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach
Rebekah Wilson, Discipleship Team
Note: Wade in the Word is a weekly podcast designed to take a deep dive into scripture for the weekend message. Join our pastors, staff, and occasional special guests as we reflect together.
Wade in the Word podcast is a production of Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, located in Elmhurst, IL. Wade in the Word is produced and audio-engineered by Kyle Olson, Technical Director. For more information about Elmhurst CRC or to find out about other tools and resources to grow you and your family in faith visit elmhurstcrc.org.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
holy spirit, church, philip, people, jesus, god, jerusalem, spirit, saul, apostles, pray, spiritually, simon, word, absolutely, samaritans, acts, christians, paul, rebecca
Gregg DeMey Speaker 0:02
Hey friends, welcome to the Elmhurst CRC weighed in the word podcast. We're going to be diving deep into Acts chapter eight, one through 25. Today, so glad that you are along to listen to the Word of God with us. I am sitting here with Reverend Jeff Klein. Yep, our pastor of outreach. And we have an awesome special guest, Rebekah Wilson. Who's a nurse. Yes, say hi. Yeah. Hello.
Gregg DeMey Speaker 0:32
Who's a nurse downtown.
Gregg DeMey Speaker 0:35
Rebekah and, her husband Jonathan have been around here for several years at this point. They have eight kids under the age of
Gregg DeMey Speaker 0:42
eight kids, four kids under the age of 12.
Speaker 0:47
And I think they're probably somewhere in the building. Now are
Speaker 0:52
there at home? Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, no, I ran out a bribe. No wonder you look so calm. today. We're running around somewhere is going nuts.
Rebekah Wilson Speaker 1:01
It's an empty church building. The possibilities are endless.
Speaker 1:05
Rebekah is also a lively member of our discipleship team here at Elmhurst CRC and a teacher at Bible study fellowship sometimes known as BSF, absolutely substitute teaching leader. So occasionally give lectures help train our leaders
Jeff Klein Speaker 1:24
to and she's on the Alpha team and the missions team. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1:30
she's kind of a low-energy person. So we thought we'd invite her on this podcast to try to like, pump up.
Speaker 1:37
So
Speaker 1:40
I just love digging into the word and speaking about it, chatting about it. Tea, that'd be great. Yeah, thanks. So well, that's what we're, that's what we're all about. So
Speaker 1:53
today friends, we're going to break down x eight one through 25 kinds of into four different parts. So we'll read through the scripture together and then kind of see where the spirit in our conversation leads. So I'll kick us off with the beginning of Acts chapter eight. This is immediately following stiffens.
Speaker 2:15
martyrdom. the last line of Acts chapter seven is how a young man named Saul was kind of collecting the codes of those who are stoning Stephen. I mean, it's a gruesome scene, and was there nodding his approval. So on that day, on the day that Stephen died, a great persecution broke out against the whole church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. godly men buried Steven and mourn deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church, going from house to house he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Speaker 2:54
Alright, so Saul seems kind of like a nasty character and the way he gets introduced in the book of Acts.
Speaker 3:01
It's a little surprising to me because Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke, and the author of Acts, would have been a longtime companion of Paul's.
Speaker 3:12
Probably Paul was one of his, like, mentors and heroes, quite possibly his spiritual father in the faith, probably they were like great friends and collaborators and fellow adventurers. And when Luke goes to introduce, probably like his great good friend, Saul, who would become Paul, like the first things he says about him are like, what a horrible person. This guy was. Yeah, I just imagine, Paul probably recounting these
Speaker 3:42
situations, these events back to Luke and, and Luke filtering that through his mind at zealots. I'd say Saul was zealous he was cells for the law.
Speaker 3:55
Yeah, I mean, it's almost like, it's great to be passionate and zealous. But when you're zealous for the wrong thing, or you're overly zealous, it can lead to some really negative. Yeah, well, the most dangerous person is the person who believes they have 100% God authorization to do something when you don't. Right. Right. So Paul firmly believed, saw Paul, when he was acting on God's behalf, when he was doing these things, right. He was dragging people off saying this, these people are starting this faction, this whatever this Jesus faction has got to be snuffed out.
Speaker 4:32
blasphemers Yeah, slight spoiler alert. If you hang on for a couple of weeks, when we get into x chapter nine, this picture will radically change when the original come to Jesus moment happens to Saul on the road to Damascus, but
Speaker 4:49
kind of on a, on a deep level. Just these verses do I think suggest some painful and difficult questions. So so far, it's been very clear the Holy Spirit is setting that
Speaker 5:00
On fire,
Speaker 5:01
amazing things, signs, wonders, healings, bold proclamation of Jesus death and resurrection have been happening. And
Speaker 5:12
yet right along with all of that Holy Spirit activity comes this new wave or tsunami event of trouble and suffering and persecution. I mean, what Luke recounts in just a few short verses here, I mean, are innocent people going to prison, an innocent man being dragged out of Jerusalem by a mob and literally stoned to death. And the early church is, like, doesn't even have time to grieve Stephens death before, like, with the leadership, and probably quality leadership of saw all like organized persecution happens. So
Speaker 5:48
I don't know. I mean, the early Christians must have been asking, wondering, lamenting, like, like, What are you? What are you doing God? Like? Where are you God? This is supposed to be
Speaker 5:59
like one inspired Holy Spirit moment after another kind of like, up into the right like, what are we wrong here? Like, what's, what's going on? So what's the relationship between being full of the Holy Spirit, as these early Christians, so clearly, we're and
Speaker 6:17
I kind of suffering or persecution that now is, is washing up.
Speaker 6:23
I just have to think, especially the apostles walking around with Jesus for, you know, let's say, three years or so labor kind of used to this. I mean, people didn't really treat Jesus all that kindly, either. And so I don't know, after he left, and was resurrected, maybe they had thought, you know, the Holy Spirit has come on us, you know, smooth sailing, he wants the gospel to spread.
Speaker 6:49
But then they'd have to be quickly reminded of how things were when they were with Jesus. I don't know. I agree with that. And I think it's also very interesting to note that the persecution does not come from the Romans. It's coming from the not yet not only right now, but it's also coming from the most religious people, people that believe in the same God. And they're offended by this idea that Jesus rose from the dead. And so they're going to snuff this out. Right? That's kind of a
Speaker 7:20
that's a thing. But I agree with Rebecca, I think that these guys, I know, Jesus was always treated like this throughout his whole ministry, especially toward the end.
Speaker 7:28
So already, in the book of Acts, we've heard Peter and john being encouraged that they were counted worthy of suffering for the name. So for sure, that element already exists. And certainly, I mean, we should remember that Paul was trained as a Pharisee, in the School of Emilio. So just the most intellectual kind of like an overachieving zealous strand of Judaism that there was, so that's where Saul is coming from at this point. And already, I mean, in the gospels, early in the book of Acts, there's such a strong undercurrent of jealousy, religious jealousy. Absolutely. Yeah, it's weird that the again, most religious people seem to be super offended by the Holy Spirit happenings. And by the supernatural signs, the healings, the demonic deliverances, that go on there the most offended by this is because who knows they're jealous that they didn't do it, or is it? Because, you know, yeah, who knows? They're just somehow really offended by this idea that there's somebody else doing these miraculous things around them, and they're not involved. They're not at the center of it. Yeah, I think they had the most to lose because up until then, they had been the ones of authority and high respect and power. And then all of a sudden, these fishermen show up, who had been walking around with this poor walking profit and
Speaker 8:57
getting a lot of attention. And yeah, I think a lot of jealousy and bitterness tell you that you can easily happen. I was this thing, this reading this, you know, if What if Jesus or some Jesus movement showed up in the backwoods of wherever, and miracles started happening, how us church leaders in these established churches respond, I'd be dubious Jeff, I'm just saying I think there definitely be a bunch of church leaders be going well, that can't be real. That's not happening in our under our watch. And I don't know, I think I think we criticize these folks quite heavily. But I think we easily could fall in the same trap. And I think we do. I've seen lots of fears equal attitudes in churches over the years. Sure. You know, just one small reason example.
Speaker 9:46
The music and worship has come out of a church in Northern California called Bethel.
Speaker 9:53
I have detected amongst Christian musical friends a pretty high level of suspicion of
Speaker 10:00
The church might be heretical. Like, here are some things that they've prayed for. And that just seems not wrong. I mean, I know of churches that are like, yeah, we will not sing a song that was written by a songwriter from Bethel Church.
Speaker 10:17
Yeah. Which is, right, because it's like they have a fruitful ministry. It's making an impact, and they're at least is that strand amongst now I know. And some, some people would say that their birthing songs are just like Hillsong birthing songs that are like new Holy Spirit anthems for the church. Yeah. So it doesn't mean that everything they do is perfect, right. It doesn't mean it's right. But to deny that there's not like something spiritually fruitful and like fresh energy and Holy Spirit. something going on there. Wow. Yeah, the enemy doesn't even have to try then. If it's so divisive, right, right. Yeah, I was trying to think if I ever went zealously against anything like this, I remember when I was a kid. My youth group was getting involved with actually, his name is Ben Essen Berg. And I think he came maybe out of this church, Elmer CRC, maybe not. And he started this fountain of life. Yeah, I found a live church and I was going with my youth group, and I'm or my grandma telling my mom, well, that's, that's dangerous. He is stopping from going that is you cut that off. And I remember my mom having this whole discussion with me like, This is bad. Like this is you know, and I was like, it doesn't seem bad. But be curious if you had a time machine did did your grandmother mean it was spiritually dangerous, like leading you away from Christ? Or did she mean it was, like culturally dangerous? Because on the latter point, that's true. Because it was doing something that was pushing outside the borders of what her religious-cultural experience was exactly right. So yeah, it was just interesting. But I think that's, that's a pretty common reaction. So I do know this. Whenever there's new spiritual life, there is resistance, man, yep. And whether it comes from the spiritual realms, or whether it's like self-inflicted from other, you know, Christians in our day and age, or 2000 years ago, like there's a lot of continuity between the early Christians and Judaism, the whole thing is coming out of Judaism. So sometimes it comes very close to home. Sometimes it comes from the outside.
Speaker 12:18
Just thinking like, in this new show, the chosen, there's one of the great songs is called trouble. So just like you get this awesome sense of Jesus, like creating trouble around or like poking, like, as a spiritual provocateur. So waters, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 12:41
So if ever there is no trouble, or I mean, it's like the Bible says, like, if everybody likes you and only says good things about you, like probably you're a false prophet,
Speaker 12:51
or a people pleaser, exactly. Yeah. Well, those would be one of the same. Yeah, exactly. You're part of a church where there's no, no one coming against you. And what you're doing, I think, probably you're just asleep. Yeah, as the enemy has doesn't have to come after a church. It's just asleep, right after church that's actually trying to be on the mission of God.
Speaker 13:11
Okay, well, speaking of spiritual provocation, what happens next in Acts, chapter eight, for sure, would have been provocative 2000 years ago.
Speaker 13:21
So we're going to continue with verse four through verse eight churches about to overflow from the mothership of Jerusalem. So though, sorry, Klein wants to leave on the board, sir.
Speaker 13:35
Those who had been scattered, preached the word wherever they went, Philip went down to a city in some area and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said, For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many and many were, who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
Speaker 14:00
Alright, so it turns out that the Holy Spirit is not confined to any particular geographic location, even though the apostles and the early Christians probably would have looked at Jerusalem as
Speaker 14:12
Grand Central Station, spiritually speaking.
Speaker 14:17
Right. So one of the things that come through very clearly in the sermon or the message, the testimony that Stephen gave to the Sanhedrin, is that the temple is no longer the center of religious faith. Yeah. So like, he lays the theological foundation that Nope, the good news in the presence of God and the power of God is it's heading out from here. It has right did outside of it, and it can, can, can continue to act outside of the temple. Yeah. And now, I mean, the circumstances that the early Christians are facing, are driving them to this, whether they're longing for it or whether they're being forced into it.
Speaker 14:58
The Spirit of God clearly is doing some shape.
Speaker 15:00
For the early church to really embrace obedience to Jesus commands, so x chapter one, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so far, we've only had Jerusalem and Judea. But nowhere with Philip, one of the seven deacons
Speaker 15:20
crossing the border into Syria, taking it on the road. Yeah. Don't you wonder if it took some persecution to get them out of their comfort zone out of their little Jerusalem church? And go, I mean, it's great. It's interesting, all except the apostles are scattered. So the apostles still hunker down and maybe back in the upper room with the door locked, they're hanging outgoing, I don't know, this is getting crazy. Meanwhile, the deacons who are supposed to be waiting on tables and feeding the widows, head out and had an end up in some area I love and it's very clear that the ministry of the deacons is not just organizing food behind the scenes. Exactly. We got Stephen preaching the last chapter. Now here's Philip in some area preaching his head off. So what does Samarium mean
Speaker 16:09
to the early Christians of the book of Acts? What did some Sarmarium mean to the apostles?
Speaker 16:18
They were half breeds. So the Samaritans were considered to be people that had compromised themselves already against the law. When they have carried off the northern kingdom in exile. They went to Syria and they intermarried and they did all this crazy stuff. And from a Jewish perspective, intermarried compromise all of their you know, kind of separate cystic what made them unique, uniquely Jewish, and now would come back and now they were these Samaritans this mixed breed of people that had their theology all messed up. We saw that with the woman at the well Jesus. And they had their inner bread, so their purebred Jewish genetics was all messed up. It was it was just a mess. So the Jewish people did not like them. So we got sort of racial issues, we got cultural issues, we got theological issues, and all of this dates back as you said, like 500 years, the Northern 10 tribes went into exile first with the Assyrians. Now here we are 500 years later. So this isn't just like, a brand new like, Hey, we disagree about few things like this is like generations and generations and generations of battle blood. Yeah, Hatfields versus McCoys.
Speaker 17:30
Do Americans don't even know what that means anymore?
Speaker 17:34
airfields and McCoys say yes, I'm so old. I'm sorry. Republicans versus Democrats.
Speaker 17:41
Yeah, you should say Darth Vader versus Luke Skywalker or Ray versus what's his name? what's the guy the newest guy the villain. He got a camera. Right Side Story. Know what? star in Star Wars? Its ray is the hero. Oh, and I can't really tell you guys name Kylo Ren, there is Kylo Ren. Yeah, I can picture him. I just remember the name Adam Driver fans out there. Yeah, I think the fact that they weren't welcome to come and worship at the temple. It went both ways. The Samaritans were angry and upset that the Jews had basically ousted them from a faith that they still thought they were
Speaker 18:30
pure tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. And
Speaker 18:34
yeah, it's interesting, though, that when you make God in a certain place, so like Mount Gerizim seems to be this place where they would go to worship. So it was the that was their spot, their Jerusalem. And they created that probably made a building there. Yeah, they had a building there, right. So they had a go there to this place where God was going to meet them, just like the Jews had, and go to Jerusalem to meet God in the temple. So when this temple transition occurs, and the Holy Spirit now moves into the temple of people, and people carry that wherever they go, that takes all those places and makes them
Speaker 19:10
less relevant. Because now it's like, I don't have to go to one place. I can worship God anywhere. He's with me all the time. He lives. He lives in me. Right, which is a crazy concept, probably that these folks that had never even occurred to them yet. Yeah. Yeah, to some degree, even though we're 2000 years later, and probably have our theology right about this at the presence of God is not confined to any building or geographical location.
Speaker 19:35
Like our languages keep falling back into this. So going to church, yeah. by which we mean the building, right. And the New Testament word for the church is not it's ecclesia which is a community-connected social word. It's not a geographical word. It's not a building the ecclesia is like the gathered people of God in the presence of God. It's portable, wherever the church goes.
Speaker 20:01
Right, yeah. But in English, we just have this word church, which we kind of do. I don't know, it has many functions, one of which is a geographical location. And because we're such, I think visual and concrete thinkers about most things, like our imagination, tend to think that the church is, you know, back to this geographical place where
Speaker 20:23
I wish we had a second word, which was like church on the move. or right, like the going church.
Speaker 20:32
Yeah, I would say big c church when I mean, people. Yeah. As opposed to small teacher, teachers. Okay, jump in other places, though. Yeah, go cuz I love that when these guys get scattered. So, you think about us, you know, like when something interrupts our work, say something. COVID obviously, was the most recent interruption to our work at church, what we're doing our momentum. You know, we immediately think oh, my goodness, what's God doing? What's, you know, oh, my God, this is terrible. We got to get back to normal. These guys. They seem to have this attitude of like, Okay, so this is an interruption, what's God up to He must be up to something. So Philip doesn't go to Sumerian hunker down and go, Oh, I better just, you know, crawl in a hole somewhere and keep myself safe until this all passes. He preaches the word wherever he goes. I love that. So he's scattered. wherever he goes, he just enters into what God's doing. So he thinks, oh, God must be up to something. I'm in summary, I'm just gonna go do this.
Speaker 21:34
It's like, it's almost as if their commitment to mission was far stronger than whatever their current lived experience was exactly. They were totally, like, ready to pivot all the time. Just pivot and go. And you when you think about Jesus, you know, he treated the same interruptions, you know, when he's traveling places. You know, you think about the stories in Luke, where he's traveling, there's here's a funeral. And he stops, raises the kid from the dead. You know, somebody else interrupts so many he treats. Each of these is like divine moments, like, Oh, my God, maybe God's up to something, or he's gonna be tuned in Nick, I was up to something. These guys have that same to numbness. You know, they're scattered. So if you think about, we're scattered from this place every week. Do we all move with that same tune in is like, Hmm, I wonder what God's up to and my job or at the gym, or at my kids soccer game sidelines, or wherever I find myself during the week has got up to something. You know, and I think maybe we miss a lot of stuff he's probably trying to get us to notice that's, that's right thing. I think I miss it on a regular basis.
Speaker 22:36
You know, absolutely. I think God is moving in these places. It's not a matter of if he's moving, he is moving. But are we able to notice and stop and do something about it when we see him moving? Yeah, slow down.
Speaker 22:53
So I've been trying to sort of distill this energy into words. Don't think I have this yet. But my working version of this is here to witness sent to heal. So that Wherever I am, like, I was out at a golf course at 615 this morning. And just, if there's an opportunity for me to share a word, like Wherever I am, I'm here. And part of my job Wherever I am, is like to bear witness to the hope that's inside me to point to Jesus Yeah, and if I'm whatever circumstances change, I'm for somewhere, then God is sending me out to, in some somehow be a healing presence or reconciling presence.
Speaker 23:40
Again, I'm not sure these are the best words, ways of summarizing the mission yet but like, that's what Philip is doing. Like so he's in Sumeria. I'm here to witness the first thing he does he sees like the good news of the gospel is coming out of his mouth but he's also sent to heal so there's he's probably organizing food still, when who knows. But he's also working.
Speaker 24:02
Side signs and wonders and evil spirits are getting sent out people are getting put back together again and mended. This guy's a deacon, is all lowly Deacon. He's having an apostle. He's not even supposed to be doing this stuff. But he's supposed to just be passing out food. What's he doing? He's getting out of his like, covers, they get out of his zone here. To stay in the zone, Rebecca, he's just filled with the Holy Spirit. He's overflowing with the Holy Spirit and with joy and peace and I think he can't help himself but to use that for where God has him. z i love that even because I think even that's a thing that happens in the church like, oh, there's Greg and Jeff. They're like, I don't know. Sarah, Pastor, another level, super pastors, and they can just do all things and I'm just a little lonely me and I, what am I going to do? I mean, yesterday, you know, this is where discipleship comes in. But yesterday, I was watching my wife, you know, I was Monday. I was home, you know, kind of a day vacation.
Speaker 25:00
I was mowing the lawn it was she was running a business and I hear on the phone all sound like she's not talking to flowers right now. So I asked her, I said, What was that all about? And I hear praying. I'm like, what's what was going on? Well, you know, Allie were my workers. You know, she just struggling just call us. I'm not calling my flowers. I'm calling about my parents. And can I talk and so Pam listens middle of the day, total interruption, and now you're praying with Allie over the phone. That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. So it means to be the church, right? It doesn't. And Pam just knew what to do. She just stepped into that. She didn't like freak out and go, Oh, I'm not qualified to call the pastor. And you don't want to get Jeff Yeah, exactly. Jeff Hill, pray, whether he'll listen to her. No, he just, she just stepped in and said, This is what Gods This is God's put in front of me to do this, to interrupt my day and do this. And so that's what we got to figure out that, you'll get that as you're listening to this right now, friends, like Pope, you have the desire to want to be that kind of person. Because our vision for the church is, man, if we have eaten 200 people are willing to do that and respond to change the world, it will flip the western suburbs over, upside down. And there will be an outbreak of this kind of Holy Spirit things. So if for today, your senses like I didn't want to be that kind of person that would be
Speaker 26:11
open enough, bold enough to like pray on the phone, pray with somebody in a jewel respond, like calling the presence of God into a situation. Like, I think that's I'm the Holy Spirit's agenda for you and want to put out as I'm looking around the circle of the three of us like, yep, yep, that's what the church needs. Absolutely. If everybody was mobilized, if every church member thought of themselves, think of Philip and wherever they were scattered during the week, we could change the world.
Speaker 26:39
If everyone just thought about, I'm gonna, I'm going to be aware of what the Holy Spirit's doing around me and step into it when he asked me to, that would be amazing. Either that or 10%. Better sermons are one of those
Speaker 26:51
better sermons and certainly help to inspire the group more I can appreciate those sometimes when you look at folks, such as your, our lovely pastors who have been to seminary and you think, Well, I haven't done that I don't have the training. I'm not equipped
Speaker 27:06
just to realize and stop that the Holy Spirit that in dwelt Philip and Peter, and Paul lives inside you and me. And we live in a country where we can openly study our Bibles and come to church and we have all the equipping that we need. He just asked for your heart and to be available and just to put yourself out there was a trained dude, but Philip and Peter, Peter was a fisherman. He was a totally blue-collar worker. Yeah, right. Phil, it might have been a garbage man. I don't know. I don't know what he did before he was a deacon.
Speaker 27:38
Perhaps it's stating the obvious, but none of them had the New Testament either. Yeah, let's not forget that didn't exist. They were in the process of living it. Yeah. So we also have this amazing resource of the second part of God's Word to lean on, hence this podcast.
Speaker 27:57
So what could go wrong with people who are on a mission who are fully mobilized? Well, let's continue reading Acts chapter eight,
Speaker 28:07
eight, verses nine. Now for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Sumeria he boasted that he was someone great, and all the people both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, this man is rightly called the power of God. They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized, and he followed Philip everywhere astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
Speaker 28:48
So when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that some Mariya had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John, to Samarium. And when they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the Apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, Give me also this ability so that everyone who might lay my hands, they receive the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 29:27
Alright.
Speaker 29:29
So a couple of things here.
Speaker 29:34
Surprisingly, I think, for the early Christians, Holy Spirit outbreak happens at scenario people are believing men and women, even the sky who's a, I don't know sorcerer, demon, oil salesmen even possessed dude.
Speaker 29:50
So one of the surprising things to me is that they're, they have genuine faith, but they haven't received the Holy Spirit yet.
Speaker 30:00
So is that a thing that still happens? That you can have faith but not be full of the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 30:10
What's going on here? Oh, boy, now No, this is a this is
Speaker 30:14
a hornet's nest of practical theology salutely. This is where it's above my paygrade.
Speaker 30:21
I would say
Speaker 30:23
, there's a lot of these passages in the book of Acts. This is one of the first ones we encounter. Later on, we'll encounter others. And it seems like the Holy Spirit
Speaker 30:35
comes later to some folks or they capture this feeling of the Holy Spirit later. Again, the Pentecostal church would say, of course, you know, you haven't really received the Holy Spirit till someone prays over you, with their hands, letting us receive the Holy Spirit. The Reformed Church would say, Oh, no, when you get Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit. I think probably both are true. I also think we leak.
Speaker 30:59
So it's when Paul says, Be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a present-tense Greek verb that means continually be filled with the Spirit. So that means every day I've got to be asking the Lord to fill me with the spirit every day because I leak quickly other spirits enter my bones and my brain in my soul, right? So. So yes, I think both are true. You do have the Holy Spirit when you receive Jesus, but there's a filling, there's a power, there's asking the Holy Spirit surrendering to the Holy Spirit and saying, I want more of you Spirit of God, to overflow my life. That I think definitely could be certainly good for our church. Yeah, well say, bro. Yeah.
Speaker 31:45
Yeah. So clearly, when we come to faith, the Scriptures teach that it's the Spirit of Jesus. It's the Holy Spirit that takes up residence in us. Right. But there's also this feeling and refilling of the spirit that's
Speaker 32:00
desirable, essential for us. I mean, we have no I have no problem, thinking of like, I get thirsty multiple times a day. Right? So
Speaker 32:09
yeah, hydrate, I get some water. And one of the ways that Jesus describes I think this part of the spiritual life is that he's living water, and we get spiritually depleted day after day, I mean, several times during portions of the day, right? And what do we need at that point? Well, we need to go back to the well, and another way of saying that is like a fresh wave of the spirit to, like, bring us to fullness and then even beyond that. I mean, there's times or spiritually speaking, as a Christian, I mean, sometimes whatever, as a pastor, I feel like
Speaker 32:46
being a servant, is almost so easy, because it's like, out of the overflow, like, I'm so full of something that's beyond myself, that it's just like, coming out of my brain coming out of my mouth. It doesn't happen all the time. But it's totally the Holy Spirit and not me. And that's, like, that's the way I want to be serving there. It's in private or in public moments for the sermons or just like in there and they just got to get out. And they just like, there's just stuff in there like, Oh, my God, this is the Lord speak. And he's got I just gotta go bridges somewhere. It could be Taco Bell, though.
Speaker 33:25
Oh, dear.
Speaker 33:28
Yeah, I definitely think that there's a difference between being in dwelt by the Holy Spirit, which can never be revoked, or lost at the moment of salvation. But then, yes, this continually surrendering yourself laying down your cross, to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 33:46
It was interesting, I read in one commentary, though, that they were talking about and I'll be interested in what your take on this was that there was something significant about this
Speaker 33:57
initial time in Sumeria, of
Speaker 34:00
Peter and John laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit. And it was kind of almost like a unifying of these different people, groups, culture groups, ethnic groups,
Speaker 34:12
to show that the gospel was now for everyone. When Jesus had first sent out his disciples, He said, basically go everywhere, just to the Jews, but now the gospel was getting out to sumaira to the ends of the earth. It was for all Yeah, I got to think that just a few years ago, the apostles probably wouldn't have wanted to touch a Samaritan. I mean, they Jesus.
Speaker 34:37
Exactly. Walking around, like, nope, we're shortcutting through some area, and we're gonna hang out with some Samaritans. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So there is something, I think, profound in terms of both real reality and symbolism of praying and laying your hands on someone. I mean, you're literally connected, right like in the spirit, but you're also physically connected and
Speaker 35:00
I mean, one of the sad things to me about COVID is, I mean, we've hardly seen each other's faces for a long period of time. Not prayed intimately with people or put hands on shoulders or on somebody's head like in this with the same kind of frequency. So our elders are totally committed to this here and part of our being together spiritually and coming back to life. I mean, our elders want to pray and lay hands on and pray for healing, restoration. Forgiveness mending for everyone we can. Absolutely. So we frequently say like, this is not a sign of your weakness. But like, we all just need this. Like what person is over-connected right now? What person is a mother of toddlers? Yeah, she's definitely over-connected to adults. Okay, there you go. Yeah, I don't know where the fear of the Holy Spirit came. Like, I don't know when that started the church missionaries. If I follow and surrender to the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna have to go be a missionary in China. Yeah, I mean, there's something weird about that, that it's like, you know if you think about it, Jesus went back to heaven. And he sent another counselor. The word another in Greek literally, is if you had a water bottle, like the one I have in front of me here, no one can see it. It's a Kirkland water bottle with a few dents. I gave you another water bottle, I could give you a, you know, designing water bottle would matter. It's another one. But but the word another that Jesus uses is actually either water bottle like this is Kirkland. All this has to be exactly the same as this water bottle. So he says, I'll send you another counselor, who's basically Sam exactly the same as me. So if you want Jesus, you should want as much of the Holy Spirit as possible. But for some reason, the Holy Spirit's gotten this bad rap over the years of its going to do weird things or create weird stuff. Or maybe we've seen the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, misused or in certain settings, and makes us uncomfortable, because it's like, wait, that's, that's how we normally do things. I don't know. It's It's interesting how we have this really weird. Well, Rebecca's point, though, the Spirit does frequently whisper to us and nudge us beyond our comfort. Right, just over the border. Literally. They are over the border from Judea into some area. Yeah. Right. So, you know, it's probably wrongheaded to thank all the Holy Spirit's gonna make me do something or go to some horrible place that I would hate going and right. So that's a bad thought or a perverse thought. Yeah. But it's realistic to think like, no, if I desire the Holy Spirit, I am opening myself to an endless series of things that are going to push me, challenge me, stretch me. So yeah, if you want status quo and boring life, like don't desire the Holy Spirit, right?
Speaker 37:41
If you want don't expect growth either. Exactly. Sure, exactly. But if you want your mind to grow, if you want your heart to grow, if you want your relationships to grow, if you want the church to grow, then please does like desire more of the Holy Spirit. And wouldn't you say to sorry, that the more that you put yourself out there and get uncomfortable, the easier it is to be uncomfortable? I used to it. repetitions, right? Yeah, absolutely. You can have muscle memory for being uncomfortable. Yeah. Now becomes less actually uncomfortable. Absolutely. Because now you're like, Oh, this, I've been here before. I've done this before. So it's cool. Yeah, it might cause heart palpitations the first few times, but then you find that, Oh, I'm not gonna die from this. And actually, God is using me and it's pretty cool. So yeah, yeah. Well, slight spoiler alert. But later in Acts, chapter eight, the Holy Spirit will whisper some things to this very guy, Philip. And if I was Philip, I probably would have been like, that doesn't seem to make much sense.
Speaker 38:39
But amazing things happen as a result of the Holy Spirit's whisper and Philips's obedience. So we will talk a little bit more about this on the next podcast as well. So how about this guy, Simon, Simon, the sorcerer, as he's sometimes known, we even have this
Speaker 38:58
word and English Simon II, which is to sort of exchange religious privilege or favor for money, which gets its name from this unfortunate character. They just want to recognize he doesn't get everything wrong. Like at the beginning, yes. He said, Yes. Let's say it's a word about that. What does he get? Right? Well,
Speaker 39:18
I don't know there's a lot of different opinions about Simon. And it depends on how much you read into the text and how many assumptions that you make. One commentary, in particular, was pretty hard on him. But I think the fact that he realizes that Philip has the power that Philip has and that
Speaker 39:38
the healing is different than what he's been exhibiting. And so the this wanting to follow Philip and his, his spiritual curiosity. I think
Speaker 39:51
he has right. Obviously, bartering money for that power. I would disagree with
Speaker 39:58
I wouldn't try that. I
Speaker 40:00
tactic.