Missions Paul

Acts 8:18

“When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money”

Spectators are everywhere but some are wanting to be on the pitch.
Whatever Simon saw it moved him to offer money and we will find out that the money had strings attached to it!
Simon saw a demonstration that eclipsed all his deception he had performed on the people.
There are spectators who want to receive but there are those who want to give not because of compassion but of power.
Temptation is not only outside of the church, it exists from within. Simon wasn’t stirred with a desire to receive what the Spirit was doing. No he had other desires. Desires of power. He wanted to be in the pitch. He saw and wanted what he saw.

Acts 8:17

“Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

So this was the practice common in the early Church presumably with prayer, the laying in of hands to receive the Holy Spirit.
It still happens today in many churches, for prayer of various kinds and of course for the Holy Spirit.
Some don’t like to lay hands so they hold them slightly above the person in a hovering action!
Others don’t believe at all and keep their hands in their pockets just in case!
Jesus told us to lay hands on people who are sick. Paul laid hands on people, so we know this is Biblical.
Here’s what I think:
1. We don’t have powerful hands.
2. Answers whether they are healing, guidance, or the Holy Spirit do not come out of our hands.
3. Hands are comforting and encouraging, to receiving the touch of someone shows concern and compassion and it is relaxing.
4. If you use anointing oil then presumably you would apply with your hands but again the power is not in the oil.
5. If you are not going to pray then you could be laying hands on a person for hours and nothing happen!
6. Laying hands is a help to both the one praying and the one receiving for it keeps the focus on where you are wanting God to touch and move.
7. There is no transference only that of love from the one praying to the one receiving but those who look onward can often admire only the outward.

Acts 8:16
“because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus.”

How did they know?
How did they know the Holy Spirit had not come upon any of them?
Whatever the criteria or the signs showing it is clear they knew that the Holy Spirit comes upon a person.
Throughout my life I have been so convinced that the sign for the Spirit coming was the gift of tongues or certainly something like that. At the same time overlooking certain qualities that the Spirit also brings that seemed somewhat lacking in the tongue-speaker.
Things like:
Prayer and Understanding the Bible with a desire for both.
Love for others.
Power to witness.
Fruit of the Spirit.
At times I’ve even thought I’d rather not pastor a tongue-speaker if they are not going to be a reader of the Bible, not loving, not a viable witness and not show any signs of fruit. What good is tongue-speaking without those things?
I have become convinced that when the Spirit comes upon us as He does many times throughout our lives (thankfully) that all those things are the evidence, all those things still in our imperfect lives. We know and everyone knows something has happened again. But it is not something gentle. It is dramatic, overpowering, visible and audible.
Baptism into the name of Jesus is a sign of repentance, of life-change and holding to new beliefs. It is what we do, what we sign up for, it is who we decide to follow.
The Spirit coming upon us is that. It is God coming on us, breathing through us, living in us, empowering our lives.
This involves more than the gift of tongues. The world sees.
Come Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:15
“When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,”

The next few verses are used to debate the subject of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a secondary experience to conversion.
Some hold to the fact that the Samaritans were not believers, they were only believers in Philip and Peter and John were coming to bring them into a true conversion experience, that of the Holy Spirit.
The problem with that is it shows Philip wasn’t doing such a good job if Samaria were only believing him and not Jesus! Actually the next verse shows that they had been baptised into the name of Jesus. Further, these people were being delivered and set free from many demons in the name of Jesus which would indicate salvation abounded.
So is this a model of practice? Conversion first and then receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit? That’s certainly what happened to me and that is what I have taught as a Pastor through my church ministry years. But today I’m not so sure about most things!
I don’t think we can keep a formula in how God works.i think He breaks all formulas and as soon as we think we know how God works He does the opposite just to shake us up again!
This is what I think about this verse:
Peter and John had many experiences of the Holy Spirit coming upon them and the Jerusalem church, of course especially the day of Pentecost.
Peter and John identify (probably through asking them) that the Samaritans have not had similar experiences of the Holy Spirit, involving the gifts and the passion for the gospel into the world.
So they pray that the Samaritans receive what they have.
Peter and John have something that they want others to have.
That last point is the challenge for each of us. Apart from your belief, do you have something that others need to receive? What is it? How do they know if they have received what you have?

Declare or disciple

Acts 8:14
“When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.”

Some missionaries are sent to those who haven’t heard before. Are you a Philip?
Some are sent to those who have heard and recently accepted.
Are you a Peter and John?
Declaring and discipling missionaries are both needed in our world. They are both sent.
Samaria was a surprise for those in Jerusalem.
Can you imagine a place or a person/people least likely to become followers of Jesus?
Will you be a Philip to them or a Peter and John?
Declare or disciple. You are sent to do either.

Follow

Acts 8:13
“Simon himself believed and was baptised. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.”
A believer.
Baptised.
A follower.
But something was wrong and it’s hard to see what it was from this verse but it is in this phrase ….
“astonished by the great signs and miracles”.
Astonished not because of Jesus, but of what he saw Philip do.
The supernatural can be the cause of us taking our eyes off Jesus because we love His hand but cannot commit to His face.
Why did Simon become a baptised believer and follower? It surely was the miracles he saw.
Simon who made many astonished with his magic is now astonished by greater works that he is not involved with.
Some follow the miracles and others follow the miracle worker.

Preach

Acts 8:12
“But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women.”

Are you believable?
When you speak the good news, the gospel, do people believe you?
When you tell them of the presence and the rule of God in your life, are people convinced?
When you share of who Jesus is and the power of His name and what He has done for you, do they believe?
Maybe people don’t believe because maybe no one is telling them. Have you stopped? Are you relying on your lifestyle now or your church events to invite them to so that others can tell them.
We are all preachers of the good news. Some preach to only Christians and some preach the not-so-good news and some don’t preach at all.
Let us believe again today that preaching produces believers.
Go on tell someone today.

Prophetic word from Alan Scott on Tuesday May 17th. Alan is the founding and leading pastor of the Causeway Coast Vineyard Church

ELIM you have excelled as a movement in mission and God is going to even increase in a larger missionary capacity in the days ahead and God is going to give you nations where you have not yet planted or sown. You are going to begin to capitalise even more missionaries and the days are coming when you are going to send more missionaries in the days ahead than you have sent in the days behind you. You are going to be again a catalytic mission-sending-into the nations movement and the Lord has given that upon you but at the same time as that begins to accelerate among you the Father is also going to birth compassion at the core of local churches because the ground roots of your movement is among the poor, among the broken in the cities that people forgot. This is the soil for which your movement flourished and God is beginning already, it’s already breaking out among you but the Father is birthing compassion in many of your churches in a fresh way in a new way and these two are going to I believe I submit to you flower together in your movement. Mission for things abroad and compassion at home where the Fathers love is revealed in the way that it is other centred and a whole new dimension. I believe where you find favour in mission you are going to begin to see fullness in compassion.

A long time

Acts 8:11
“They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.”

People can be in error for a long time.
They can follow a false prophet for a long time.
They can be fooled for, yes, a long time.
So long as the wonders are before them they will follow blindly.
People want to be entertained.
They want to be mesmerised and amazed.
They follow what they see.
This can go on for a long time.
People can be locked in to a position for a long time.
They can struggle to be free because they don’t know how to question.
They are accepting of what looks unchallengeable.
It can last a long time.
They are under a spell.
Trapped, contained and held back for a long time.
But just because it’s a long time it doesn’t mean they’re unmovable!

Great idols

Acts 8:10
“and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.”

The Great Power. Well it is some title. One which he gladly welcomed. He certainly didn’t object and he performed to fool them into continuing their worship.
People long for power and if they don’t they long to follow people with it.
I travel overseas a lot as you may know and I see this dark side of Christianity all too often. Billboards line the roads with Christian preachers, but not just preachers. These are great preachers. Great men. Great prophets. Great Great Great.
We don’t have advertisements like that. But we do have our heroes, our great heroes. We make them stars in our eyes, they become our heroes and we may even use them to bring us closer to God. All these are idols. We still build idols. They are great idols.