Skip to content Unstoppable: God's Way for Unstoppable Expansion Nov 23 · 50 min ...more
Unstoppable: God's Way for Unstoppable Expansion
November 23, 2025 · 50 min
Can trials and persecution actually advance God's kingdom? Through the story of Philip's ministry in Samaria, Pastor Jeff reveals how God uses pressure and opposition to strengthen His people and expand His reach. When persecution scattered early believers from Jerusalem, it propelled the gospel into new territories—exactly as Jesus planned. Even more surprisingly, God chose to work through the despised Samaritans, challenging deep-seated prejudices. Are you facing unexpected trials while trying to follow God? This message offers hope and perspective on how God uses our challenges to accomplish His unstoppable purposes. Watch or listen now to discover how your trials might be part of God's greater plan. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church November 23, 2025 · 50 min · BRAVE Church
Can trials and persecution actually advance God's kingdom? Through the story of Philip's ministry in Samaria, Pastor Jeff reveals how God uses pressure and opposition to strengthen His people and expand His reach. When persecution scattered early believers from Jerusalem, it propelled the gospel into new territories—exactly as Jesus planned. Even more surprisingly, God chose to work through the despised Samaritans, challenging deep-seated prejudices. Are you facing unexpected trials while trying to follow God? This message offers hope and perspective on how God uses our challenges to accomplish His unstoppable purposes. Watch or listen now to discover how your trials might be part of God's greater plan. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Can trials and persecution actually advance God's kingdom? Through the story of Philip's ministry in Samaria, Pastor Jeff reveals how God uses pressure and opposition to strengthen His people and expand His reach. When persecution scattered early believers from Jerusalem, it propelled the gospel into new territories—exactly as Jesus planned. Even more surprisingly, God chose to work through the despised Samaritans, challenging deep-seated prejudices. Are you facing unexpected trials while trying to follow God? This message offers hope and perspective on how God uses our challenges to accomplish His unstoppable purposes. Watch or listen now to discover how your trials might be part of God's greater plan. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Well, morning, Brave Church. Would you help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us today? Great to be with you all. Let me wish you in advance a very, very happy Thanksgiving. Hope it's a great0:12 week for you as you get together with friends and family and others, that the Lord would go before you and be a part of those festivities. Would we continue our worship today? Would you help me by praying, and let's seek0:21 the Lord together as we get ready to hear his word. Our great father who's in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. Lord, what a privilege it is together with your people, your saints in your house, Lord,0:31 to give you the praise, the glory, and the honor that you and you alone deserve in our lives. God, pray that you would be pleased with the way that we celebrate you this day, that, Lord, all our praise would go0:43 to you. And Lord, we're so encouraged this morning that we get to hear you, because Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who's speaking. So our0:54 prayer this morning, is speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith put1:05 into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loud this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. Have you ever had an experience in your life as a believer where you've been doing everything1:17 the Lord wants you to do and everything falls apart? If you haven't, you will. I mean, it's those circumstances when those things happen that make it really, really difficult for us. We we can understand sometimes when
1:29 we make bad choices that there's consequences to those choices, but we have a hard time understanding that when we're doing what the Lord asks us to do, when we're faithfully attending church, when we're worshiping him,
1:41 when we're giving of our time, our gifts and our talents, when we're kind to 1 another, we're forgiving 1 another, we're doing the very things that God wants us to do, or we're even sharing the gospel and life gets
1:51 difficult or things fall apart or family gets challenging or marriage becomes hard or kids have a situation or health is challenged or something's going on, we wonder what's going on, God? I mean, I'm
2:03 doing what you want me to do. I'm being obedient to what you've shown me, and this is really, really hard. And if you haven't had that experience as a believer, you will. It's really a promise from his word that anyone
2:15 who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, that God uses trials in our life to grow who we are. They're they're part and parcel to what's going on. Now, when we make bad
2:26 choices, sometimes we get upset, but bad choices, there's consequences to bad choices. Right? I mean, if you go speeding 105 down I 25 and you get pulled over, you're not saying, well, I'm going through a trial right
2:37 now. I got a speeding ticket. No. You're getting a consequence right now. Right? Or if you go do something silly like you drink too much and you there's consequences to that type of action. I'm talking about trials. I'm
2:49 talking about when you're doing what the Lord wants you to do. You're you're being obedient to what the Lord wants you to be and now you're doing it correctly and then you're asking yourself, how can this be? Why do I
3:00 have to deal with this right now? Why is this what's going on? How come my circumstances don't look a lot different than this? Because I'm following you. I said I would honor you. I said I would love you. So why is this
3:11 so hard? And if you ever asked that question before, I believe the Lord has an answer for you today. I believe he wants you to hear from his word what happens when it looks like life's unraveling when God what he's
3:22 really doing in your life is unfolding things for you. To do that today, we're gonna be in acts chapter 8. We're gonna be in acts chapter 8, the first 24 verses. And as you're turning there in your Bible, just remember
3:32 where we left off. We left off with Stephen being martyred. We left off with Stephen, who was 1 of the first 7 that was selected, you remember, to help with the food distribution problem. He was a man filled with the
3:42 spirit, but moreover, he wasn't just a guy in the church that was serving food, he was a man filled with the spirit and he had the opportunity to preach. And what he did, and we went almost over 70 verses or so last
3:53 week, he he gave a whole history of Israel, he gave a whole history of how they had been unfaithful, and then he's told them, and now the Messiah's come and you killed him, but he's resurrected. And they couldn't handle
4:05 it anymore and they dragged him out of the city and stoned him. And you remember what he was saying? I see the Lord. Lord, do not hold this sin against him. Lord, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And with that, he
4:17 died. And that's where our story left. And this is what's going on. This is where it picks up in chapter 8. Hear the word of the Lord. He says, Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day, a
4:28 great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him, but
4:40 Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison. So as this is taking place, if you were in the first
4:52 century as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would have been experiencing some pretty great blessing from the time of Pentecost onward. Because as you remember, Jesus told them to wait in the city as he ascended
5:03 into heaven until the holy spirit was dispensed. The Holy Spirit came, they began speaking in all other languages, everybody heard them in their own tongue, and that very day, 3000 people got saved and baptized. Then not
5:14 long after that, as they're continuing to preach, a couple more thousand get saved and are part of the church. And then after that, multitudes of people are being saved. It's all going super well except remember Ananias
5:26 and Sapphira, they lied to the Lord, they died, they dealt with that, and then they kept moving and everything's multiplying and it's good until this. Stephen becomes the first martyr in the church. Stephen stands up for
5:37 his faith, tells him the truth about who Jesus is, that they're gonna stand judgment before him someday. They couldn't handle it and so they stoned him. Now keep in mind this, he didn't just die. He
5:49 he didn't die by lethal injection. He didn't die by hanging. He didn't die by firing squad. He died by stoning. It was a brutal, brutal death. They would throw you over a cliff. They would try to throw rocks on you and
6:00 then pelt you until you died. I mean, it was a gruesome way. Have you ever seen anybody get in a fight and blood is coming out? I mean, this would be as gruesome as it gets in seeing somebody die. And notice what the
6:12 text says. Here's what the text says. Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. Now check this out. Here's what it means. The guy that's gonna become the apostle
6:23 Paul was a young man. Everybody was laying their cloaks at his feet so that they could wind up and throw. He's watching this man be brutally killed, not just die, but suffer and
6:35 die, being brutally killed with pieces of his face coming off and all this stuff. And what was his thought? This is great. That's what should happen to people that believe like this. That's what should happen to
6:47 people that love like this. That's what should happen to people that look like this. And it gets even worse because it says, and on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem and they were all
6:58 scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So take note of this. We're gonna come back to it. But everybody was scattered. Persecution came, so everybody scattered. And where did they
7:08 scatter? Well, they scattered to Judea, which is the surrounding area of Jerusalem and to Samaria. Now pause for a second and remember. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, what did Jesus tell them? He said, you'll be my witnesses
7:20 in all Jerusalem and where? And Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Where's the gospel now gonna go? The gospel is now gonna go to Judea, the surrounding area of Jerusalem
7:32 and to Samaria. Why? It's not because they wanna go there. It's because persecution comes and they're forced to do that. They're forced to go to a place that they don't wanna go. And this is point
7:44 number 1 that I wanna tell you, and when it comes to God's unstoppable expansion, what does God use? God uses pressure to strengthen and advance His purposes. God uses
7:55 pressure to strengthen and advance his purposes. You say what's pressure? Trials, challenges, difficulties, things that come into your life that you would never choose for yourself. That's what God
8:07 uses. And God is not just doing those to you, God is doing those for you. All of us would say, I wanna be strengthened. I wanna advance his gospel. That's what I want. Then God chooses
8:19 trials. God chooses pressure. God chooses circumstances that you would never ever choose so that he can get done what he wants to get done, and that's what's going on here. So the apostles stay in Jerusalem, but
8:30 everybody except the apostles gets scattered out to Judea and Samaria. And it says this, some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. Can I just say this?
8:42 We as a culture are horrible at grieving. We don't grieve very well. As a culture, we're 1 of the few cultures in the world that dress up the dead. We embalm them. We wait weeks. Sometimes they look
8:53 better in the casket than they did when they were even alive. Right? We we do that because we wanna we wanna show honor. In most cultures, when you die, you go on the ground that very day. And then we think falsely that
9:04 when we go to a funeral or a memorial service that we can cry or cure up for about 30 minutes and then all our grief is done. And anybody that knows anything about grief knows it doesn't work that way. Right?
9:16 I tell people all the time when you go in a funeral, cry, wail, like lament, and then continue to do it, and then you'll find that you're gonna hear a song or you're gonna have a smell or you're gonna have a circumstance
9:27 3 months from now and 6 months from now and a year from now, it's gonna trigger everything and you're gonna cry again. What were these godly men doing? They were making loud lamentation over Stephen's death. What was
9:39 what do mean? He meant the world to him and they weren't afraid to cry. They weren't saying, well, real men don't cry. They were bawling their eyes out because their brother in Christ and their good friend, even though
9:49 he was in the presence of the Lord, they're grieving him. And yes, to be apart from the body is to be with Christ. If you know somebody who's born again that dies, yes, they're in the presence of the Lord and yes,
9:58 they're fine and praise God and all that. But if you love them, you're still gonna miss them. If you love them, you're still gonna grieve, and that's what was going on here. So God is using this pressure. He's using the
10:08 martyrdom of Stephen to reveal the heart of Saul and what he's really thinking. He's also using it to scatter everybody except the apostles who are staying there. And notice what this does to Saul. Verse 3, but Saul
10:20 began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison. You know what he was saying? What happened to Stephen needs to happen to anybody that names the name of
10:29 Christ. Right? I'll drag them out of their house. I will get them out of their house. We are gonna cleanse the world of Christendom. We're gonna cleanse the world of those who proclaim Jesus. We're gonna cleanse them.
10:39 We'll go into their house and drag them out. So to be a Christian costs you. There's coming a day, friends, to be a Christian is gonna cost you more than it does right now. It won't be something you can just sit in a
10:50 church on Sunday and say, yeah, I'm going to church. I'm a Christian. It's gonna cost you if you're gonna align yourself with the king. And this is what was going on. You see the scattering. Those who love the Lord, the
10:59 apostles stayed in Jerusalem, everybody else scattered to Judea and Samaria, and then what do you see? You see Saul's heart, and if this is all we knew about him, here's what we would say. What a villainous murderer.
11:11 What a horrible man. Here's somebody that's beyond the reach of God. Here's somebody God couldn't do anything with whatsoever. We're gonna find out in about a chapter God can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants
11:22 whenever he wants however he wants. Amen? That's what we're gonna see. But don't be afraid of trials because trials is what God uses to get his will done. Notice what it says in verse 4. Therefore, those who
11:34 had been scattered went about preaching the word. Well, who had been scattered? We already said everybody was scattered except who? The apostles. So the apostles weren't scattered, but who was scattered? Everybody who
11:44 wasn't an apostle was scattered. So their faithfulness required them hearing the Lord and staying in Jerusalem, the 12, but the rest of them where? They scattered. And what were they doing when they scattered? They went
11:56 about preaching the word. That means this. They went about proclaiming Christ. That means you don't have to be a pastor, a leader, an apostle to share the gospel with people. What was everybody doing that
12:08 was a part of the church? They were telling everybody else about Jesus. They weren't shutting their mouths. They were saying, this is how I live. This is why I live. This is why I make the decisions I make as a single.
12:17 This is why I make the decisions I make as a family. This is why I make the decisions I make as a dad, this is why I make the decisions I make as a mom, this is why I make the decisions I make with my finances, this is
12:26 why I make the decisions I make with my health, why? Because I followed Jesus Christ and he's the Lord of the universe. That's what they were doing everywhere they went. You don't have to have a degree or some sort of
12:37 ordination papers or have some role in a church to do this. If you're born again of the spirit of God and the spirit of God dwells in you, it'd be hard not to talk about who Jesus is in your daily life. If he's going to
12:48 come out because he's the center and the centerpiece of everything you are. So they're going about preaching the word. Well, where are they preaching? Well, they're preaching in Judea and Samaria. You know what this
12:57 tells me? What Jesus says is always true. He said, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria. Well, they weren't going to Judea and Samaria, so God sent Stephen to
13:09 preach, persecution breaks out, guess where they're going? To Judea and Samaria, just the same way Jesus said they were gonna go. It's all part of his sovereign plan. Here's what I want you to think about. When you're
13:19 walking with the Lord and you're doing what God wants and trials come your way, and you'd say, I would have never picked this. I mean, this caused me to move jobs. This caused me to change schools. This caused me to
13:28 hunker down and do things that it's all part of his plan. He he he's getting his work done and you may not see what he's doing and oftentimes you won't, but I can assure you from the word of God that if you remain
13:39 faithful to Jesus, he's gonna get his work done through you. He always uses trials in your life to do that. I mean, ladies, when you get married, you get engaged, what do you want? Most of you don't want an
13:51 emerald or a pearl. You want a diamond. In order for a diamond to form, there has to be massive, incredible amounts of pressure and heat for it to become as beautiful
14:02 as it is. In the same way, that's how God uses us to do the same thing. I mean, about some of these verses in the Bible that we hear, but it's not when we're it's only when we're going through a trial that we
14:14 understand them. And I'll just tell you this. If you're a born again believer in Christ, here's where you are right now. You're either in the middle of a trial, you're in something that you're being obedient to Christ
14:24 and you're going through a really, really hard time, or you're coming out of a trial and you're thanking God that he brought you through it, or guess what? For those of you who sitting here like, thank God, that's not
14:33 me, you're getting ready to go into 1. Right? So you're you're either getting ready to come into 1, you're either going through 1 or you're coming out of 1 and there's space in between sometimes. I mean, sometimes like,
14:43 oh, it's okay. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but there's always those things that emerge. Right? I mean, there's never a time like for 5 years like, man, it's just been like 5 years of bliss. Everything's gone my
14:54 way and everything. I mean, I have way more money than I could have, way more friends than I could have, my health is perfect, my marriage is perfect, my kids are perfect, and, you know, I like I joke all the time that's
15:02 fine for like the 5 seconds that that happens in your life and then things happen again. And God uses those things, and here's what the Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 2, the half brother of Jesus says it this way,
15:14 consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. In other words, when you go through challenges, difficulties, all those things that you wouldn't have chose for yourself because you're following
15:25 Jesus, here's what he tells. Pause, make a careful assessment and say, this is so great. I'm rejoicing in this because God loves me enough to do this. Why? Here's why.
15:37 Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and the endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. So why are you rejoicing? Because God uses trials to perfect
15:48 you. And when you're going through a trial and you're saying this, I would have never chose this, I hate this, you don't have to feel good about it, but you rejoice in the trial knowing God, you love me enough to grow me
15:59 and perfect me because someday you're gonna present me faultless before the father. So, thank you that I'm going through this even though I absolutely hate going through this. I'm not enjoying going through this, but
16:11 I thank you while I'm going through it that you're doing this for my own good and I praise you and I'm not gonna stop praising you. And even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I know that you are
16:20 with me. Amen? Or how about in Romans 8 28? It's a verse sometimes we quote too much and it's a verse sometimes we don't quote enough. I mean, think about this. Sometimes we use it as a patch when
16:32 somebody's going through a really hard time, but if you really meditate on this, when you're going through a trial, you'll see the beauty of it. He says, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good
16:43 to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Here's what you can be assured of. If you're walking with the Lord, everything that's going on your life, God is working together for good. Good
16:55 for you and good for him. He's working it all together. For who? For a group of people that have 2 things. 1, they love God and they're called according to his purpose. In other words, I love God and I'm being obedient
17:06 to God. I love God, I wanna walk God's way. When I love God and I wanna walk God's way and trials hit, but I'm still loving God and walking his way. He's working all that out for my good. It's not a general statement for
17:17 the non believer, hey, do whatever you want and it's gonna be good. That's not what he's saying. He's saying for those who love God, who are obedient to God and those who are walking according to his purpose, it's all
17:25 gonna work out. He's doing it for His good. Or how about the Apostle Paul who owned this? This this man, this Saul of Tarshish, this this guy that was part of this synagogue who was so deeply rooted in his
17:36 religion that he had a hatred towards Christians, he's gonna get saved. He's gonna write 2 thirds of the New Testament, and when he was writing to the Philippians while he was under arrest, here's what he wrote to
17:48 them. He goes, now I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole
17:58 praetorian guard and to everyone else. And that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Here's what Paul was saying. Even though
18:07 I'm arrested, it sounds like it's really bad and it's not fun, and I'll tell you it's not fun, but I wanna tell you something. It's actually been working out for the good because here's the truth. It's become known
18:15 throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else that my chains are for Christ. It's also caused all the born again brothers here in this prison with me, when they see me standing for the word of God, they're
18:26 now standing with courage for the word of God because courage begets courage. So don't worry about me. I'm just in a different location doing exactly what I'd do if I was at your church this weekend. I'm preaching the
18:36 gospel, right? That's how he understood that. And no matter where you go, can I just tell you this? No matter where you are, the gospel still has power. For some of you,
18:48 you're about 4 days away from seeing some people you don't wanna see. The gospel has power in those situations. Right? I mean, pray about that, you trust the Lord.
18:59 Right? Because here's what's happened. When when pressure gets mounted, it always opens up new opportunities. When pressure gets hard, it always opens up new opportunities. Sometimes that new opportunity is remaining
19:10 where you are. Sometimes that opportunity is going to new places. For those of
19:14 you that follow football, you'll
19:15 know what a a blitz is. A blitz is when they they send more rushers than there are people that can block for them. But when you send more rushers, it always opens up a cavity for where somebody is not. And if you can
19:25 recognize the blitz is coming, it opens up new areas to go. Oftentimes, biggest plays that happen in football are because a blitz came and they were pressured and they were overwhelmed, but it opened up a new possibility
19:36 in your life. When things get difficult and pressure mounts, it can be that God's opening up new opportunities and new ways and places you would have never ever looked before or walked or gone if the pressure hadn't
19:48 amounted. And that's why
19:49 for those of us who
19:50 are born again, who have gone through trials for seasons and periods of times, we look back on our life and we recognize where we stand today. It's not the good times that have gotten us there. It's the difficulties
20:02 and pressures and the trials that we've stood firm with the Lord that have built the character that we are now. Amen. And while we all wanna be strengthened and we all wanna advance God's kingdom, none of us are praying,
20:12 God send more trials. I I just want more. I mean, I wanna be so overwhelmed this week, can't even think. We don't pray that way nor should you. But when a trial comes, consider it joy
20:24 because God is doing something special for you even though it's not fun. And a trial means this, I would have never ever in 1000000 years chosen this for myself. How come nobody else has to go
20:36 through this? That's a trial and it's for you and it's for your good and it's for the good around you. What does God use? God uses pressure to strengthen and advance his purposes, but notice what God also
20:47 does. God also who does he choose? Who does God choose? Like, what's He gonna do as He takes this gospel to Judea and Samaria, who does He choose? God chooses people in places you often
20:59 avoid. God chooses people in places you often avoid. Notice this in verse 5, they had been scattered there preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of
21:10 Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Okay? If there was a bull's eye in the first century of a do not go map, Samaria would be the place.
21:23 Nobody wanted to go. Jews hated Samaritans. I mean, you remember, wasn't it James and John that were sitting with Jesus and they asked if they should call down fire on him? I mean, they didn't like this this group of
21:34 people. They couldn't stand the Samaritans. They they didn't want anything to do with the Samaritans. There's no way they would have ever gone to Samaria. As a matter of fact, when is when when people from Israel
21:43 traveled to the north, they avoided Samaria. They went all the way around it. It would be like for us living here in Colorado for for some reason, we hated people in Wyoming, which I don't know why we would, but if we
21:53 did, and in order to get to Montana, we go all the way around. We'd go through Idaho or we go through South Dakota and Nebraska. We we go around it because we want to avoid them. That's how the Jews treated Samaria.
22:05 That's why when Jesus is with the Samaritan woman, it's such a big deal. That's why Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan. Why? Because they hated Samaritans. They were
22:16 prejudiced against Samaritans. Jesus said, here's where my gospel is going. It's gonna start in Jerusalem. It's gonna go to Judea and surrounding areas. Then I'm taking it right where you don't want it to go. Because I'm
22:25 gonna do some work in people that you would avoid, and I'm gonna do some work in people you would never wanna be around. And I'm gonna do some things in people you think are unsavable. That's what God does, amen? And
22:36 what he's trying to reveal is our own prejudices. Because when we hear Samaria, we don't think Samaria. We we think, yeah, the Samaritan, the good Samaritan. I mean, think about your own prejudice. Who
22:48 who are the groups of people that you avoid, that you won't go near, that you would think in your heart 1 day they'll know. 1 day they'll know that Jesus is Lord and I can't stand that group and they're gonna find What's
22:59 that group for you? Is it the LGTBQIA alphabet mafia group? Is it democrats? Is it republicans? Is
23:11 it politicians? Right? I mean, is it? Is it people by their color or skin? Like, where's your prejudice? Are they white people? Are they black people? Are they Asian people? Are they Hispanic people? Like, where's your
23:23 prejudice? Is it socioeconomic where people that live over there in that area versus people that live over here? Is it rich people? Is it poor people? Is it bald people? I mean, what's your
23:34 prejudice? Because if you don't let the Lord uproot them, you can't be the fullness of what God wants you to be. And for many of us, we avoid people that God wants us to share with because we care more about our
23:46 reputation than we do about the lost. We do. We're afraid that if we associate with that group of people, people will think, well, I'm kinda like them, even though we're not. And by associating with them, don't mean you
23:58 adopt their behaviors or you affirm what's wrong or you act in unrighteously or wickedness. You shouldn't. Your main friends should be believers and all that. But sometimes we as Christians, the longer that we're
24:08 Christians, we don't even go anywhere near people like that. That's not what Jesus did. What was Jesus called? He was called a friend of sinners because who else could he be a friend with? That's who he hung out with all
24:18 the time. He didn't wanna associate with people that weren't like him, he would have never left heaven and come to earth because the only people he could hang out with were sinners, and people pejoratively dubbed him a
24:27 friend of tax collectors and sinners. I mean, in the great story in Luke chapter 15 of the prodigal sons and the lost coin and the lost sheep, How does that story start out? That Jesus was hanging out with what?
24:37 Pharisees, tax collectors, and who? Sinners. Like, that's who he hung out with. We as Christians sometimes, the longer that we're Christians, we're like, well, I'm too good for that, And if they saw their pastor hanging
24:49 out with people like that, they would think their pastor's like, no, no, no. You're not like that. You associate and hang out with believers, but it doesn't keep you from loving people that are unlike Christ. We're
24:59 called to take the gospel everywhere, and if we don't take the gospel everywhere, then how's the gospel gonna get out? How how are we gonna share? How is it gonna be expanded? So he goes down to Samaria proclaiming
25:09 Christ to them, and the crowds with 1 accord were giving attention to what he's what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he performed. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were
25:19 coming out of them shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So what's Philip sharing? He's sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's telling people the same gospel that they've
25:31 told him to shut up, that there's a God in heaven. He loves you so much. God the God the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Jesus Christ became incarnate flesh. He's the God man. He came. He fulfilled the
25:41 law. He died on the cross for your sins. Your biggest problem is your sins. Jesus died in your place for your sins. He rose from the dead and by repentance and faith, you can have life in his name. And they were hearing
25:50 him say that, but they're also seeing God perform some miraculous things too. People were being healed. People were being cleansed of the demonic. They were being set free spiritually. They were being set free
26:01 physically. I want you to keep in mind something. Who was he using to do that? God was doing all the work, but he was using Philip. Was Philip an apostle? No. You'll hear sometimes people say only the apostles
26:13 perform signs and wonders. No, Stephen wasn't an apostle, he did. Philip wasn't an apostle, he did. It tells me this, God can use whoever he wants in anywhere and anytime to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants,
26:25 right? And this is what was going on. So now Samaria is seeing the fullness of everything Jesus did in Israel. They're seeing in their hometowns in Samaria. That's what's going on. God
26:37 takes the gospel where we don't think it needs to where it doesn't need to go. And notice what it says, so there was much rejoicing in that city. Can I just tell you this? The gospel works anywhere. There's
26:49 no group of people where the gospel doesn't work. The gospel is true no matter where you go, no matter who you're talking to, no matter whether people are steeped in Islam, whether people are steeped in Hinduism, whether
26:59 people are steeped in spirituality, whatever they call themselves, the gospel works. The gospel knows no bounds. It continues to expand. Now notice this, now there was a man named Simon who formerly practiced
27:11 magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria claiming to be someone great. And they all from smallest to the greatest were giving attention to him saying, this man is what is called the great power of God. And
27:22 they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished him with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of
27:34 God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. So he's given us a little history that in this city, in Samaria, there was a man named Simon. Some of your bibles will call him Simon the
27:46 magician, some the will call him Simon the the sorcerer. Simon was channeling demons. That's what Simon was doing. Anytime that you see somebody that has this quote unquote supernatural power to talk
27:58 to the dead, they're just channeling demons. You you can see people on TV talk like this. They'll say something like, oh, yeah, I wanna talk to you, you know, I I see this Atlanta Braves baseball cap and the guy will be
28:09 like, that's my dad. He was an Atlanta Braves fan. Here's what he wants to tell you. That's demon channeling. That's all that is. And people were seeing Simon do this kind of stuff and saying, he's the great power of
28:19 God. He's a great man. Look at all the power that he has. Be very very very very very very very very leery of people that have power that are not aligned with the word of God.
28:31 Just just be leery of all that. There's there's no secret knowledge. God reveals everything that he wants you to know. When someone claims I know something that for 2000 years in church history and the bible's never
28:42 revealed, they're a charlatan and they're false 100 percent of the time. Right? You preach the word. You share the word. The word of God is eternal. There's no secrets out there for you
28:53 to hang on to. Amen. That's a heresy. And this is what was going on. So like with Simon, he was telling them he had special powers. He was telling them he had a special relationship with the divine. He was telling them
29:04 what they needed to do. Right? But when people started hearing the gospel and were getting saved and being baptized, things begin to change for them. So notice what happens in verse 14
29:16 or verse 13 rather. It says, even Simon himself believed. Now I'm gonna put believes in quotation marks because I'm gonna show you this in a bit. He believed and after being baptized, so he quote unquote believed. He
29:27 made a profession of faith. He was baptized in water. He continued on with Philip. And notice what it says. Just notice what's intriguing to this man, Simon. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not what's intriguing
29:38 to him. It's not that his sin has been forgiven. It's not that he's submitted to the Lordship of Christ. Notice what he's seeing. And as he observed the signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly
29:50 amazed. What was he amazed by? He wasn't amazed by the glory of God. He wasn't amazed that Jesus Christ saved him from his sin. He wasn't amazed of the glories that are to come. He was seeing Philip do some
30:02 things, and he was amazed at what Philip could do. That's what was intriguing to him. It says, now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and
30:13 John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen on any of them, they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands
30:24 on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. We need to pause here and talk about this. Because there's a lot of people that will teach this text and they'll say things like this. That's why there's a second baptism.
30:34 There's a baptism of the Holy Spirit because you see people believed in Jesus, but they didn't have the Holy Spirit. That's why you have to pray for the Holy Spirit or you need a pastor to lay hands on you to get the
30:42 Holy Spirit because that's what was going on here. Now, what we're seeing here is something totally different. What we're seeing here is the unfolding of the history of the church. We're seeing the unfolding of the
30:52 gospel. We're seeing Jesus's prophetic words be completely realized. He said, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and where? Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So what's happening now? The gospel's
31:04 going out to Judea and now it's in Samaria. So what are they gonna do? They're gonna call in Peter and John. Do you know why? Because if they went back and said, all Samaritans, they're hearing the gospel
31:16 and many people are responding. These people in Jerusalem be like, Samaritans aren't gonna respond to Jesus. They're Gentiles. They're they're not gonna believe that word. It's not even for them. And so what
31:27 you're seeing here as the church is unfolding, you're seeing how God is now bringing Jews and Gentiles together in 1 family called the church. That's what he's doing. Now, keep in mind, we'll talk about this later. God
31:39 still has a plan for ethnic Israel. He does. The Bible makes clear he'll never take away his promises and all that, but what we have in present time history in the church is that in order for people to be saved, they
31:50 must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. They must repent and believe the gospel to be saved, and when they do, whether they're Jew or Gentile, they come into the household of God to worship the 1 true God, the
32:01 Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? So what you see here is you see the Lord pausing long enough for them to see that he's bringing Gentiles into the fold, that the gospel's for the
32:12 world. It also intentionally is showing the expansion that Jesus' words were entirely true. And third, it's giving apostolic validation and verification for what was going on. I mean,
32:24 Peter and John come and they're gonna see these people are truly believers. These people are definitely believers. And they lay hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit. It wasn't because they needed to come for
32:34 them to receive the Holy Spirit. It was a way of God saying, see, I told you we're gonna be my witnesses here. Now you're my witnesses here. These people are definitely born again, and they're receiving the full measure
32:44 of the spirit. And I wanted you as my disciples to see it with your own 2 eyes. That's what was going on here. You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible makes clear that for us as believers today, that the moment
32:54 that we believe, first Corinthians 12 13 says, for we were all baptized by 1 spirit into the body of Christ. At the moment of conversion, you're baptized by the spirit into the body of Christ, into the family of God.
33:06 Ephesians 4 says, there is 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism. Right? There's 1 baptism. There there's only 1 baptism. There's not 2 different baptisms. And the bible also says in Romans 8 and verse 9 that if you
33:18 do not have the spirit of Christ, you are not of Christ. So today in our dispensation, when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved, you're immediately baptized into the family of God, You're immediately
33:28 regenerated by his spirit. You're immediately marked by his holy spirit for all eternity. All your sins, past, present, and future are done. It's a done deal. And here's why I tell you that because there's a lot of
33:38 Christians that are looking for this second baptismal experience. Now let me tell you what I call that. What is what's biblical? It's called the filling of the spirit. Ephesians 5 says, do not be drunk on wine, leads to
33:50 debauchery or wastefulness or dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. In other words, don't be controlled by a substance that's not Christ, but be controlled by Christ. Be controlled by his spirit. If you walk in
34:01 more and more obedience and if you walk more and more in control of the spirit, you may experience things. I believe everything the Bible talks about is still available to believers today. I think I believe in tongues. I
34:13 believe in gifts. I believe miraculous things. But what I don't believe is that it's out there for you, but until you get this second baptism, well, how do I get it? You gotta just like really, really get fired up and
34:23 then it'll happen to you. That's the goofiest thing I've ever seen. If you're saved, you already have the fullness of the spirit in you and what God wants you to do is submit to that, to his spirit so that the fullness
34:35 of his spirit can be made in your life. That's it. This is not teaching a second baptism. This is showing how the gospel has been spreading throughout the places Jesus said that it was going to go. And here's the
34:47 thing. I mean, you just have to hear this. The longer you walk with Christ, you have to keep your heart tender, And you have to realize that God created everybody in his image and the
34:58 gospel is for everybody. Do not let your opinions trump somebody's opportunity to hear the gospel. Everybody needs to hear the gospel. The farthest ones from Christ need to hear the gospel.
35:10 Don't be right. Don't win a battle and lose the war. Well, that group of people over there, they're wrong. Yeah. They're totally wrong. That's why they need the gospel. And we love stories like that. When somebody who
35:20 was a former lesbian or former homosexual and they trust Christ and they come forward and they're like, I was just dead and blind and I didn't know, and God's totally redeemed me and this is who I am now, or some greedy
35:31 CEO. I was that way. I was all into me and now I'm just generous with my my life or somebody who's was immoral in what they did, and now they don't. I mean, we love those stories. Well, where do those stories come from?
35:41 Because somebody shared the gospel with people that were far from God. That's who the gospel's for. Right? We share it with everybody and that's what they're doing. We have a hard time with that. I mean, you'll think
35:53 back, I remember the greatest revival in Old Testament history, could be Jonah going to Nineveh. God called him to go to Nineveh. He's gonna give him the greatest revival. He's gonna give him the greatest platform forShow more
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