Missions Paul

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.

Who is great?

Acts 8:9
“Now for some time a man named Simon had practised sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,”

This man boasted he was someone great.
Many claim to be great but few are.

Last night I was attending the induction of Chris Cartwright as General Superintendent of Elim. I was watching as he and his wife were being prayed for.
What was impressed upon me was the fact that though Chris was coming into a great job and it would take a great man to do that job, Chris himself was acknowledging to us there was only one who is great, Jesus Christ. And it was Christ who was worshipped and adored.

Man can do amazing things, man can perform and amaze the crowds. People can be fooled and convinced.
But greatness belongs to Jesus. With man greatness is just a claim.

Great joy

Acts 8:8
“So there was great joy in that city.”

Where did great joy come from?
How do you quantify great?
A city can be known as dark and dangerous, but it can be known for its joy also.
Are you a giver of great joy?
Do you release joy where you go?
Are people changed because they have been with you?
Are they better for knowing you?
So …. Because of the activity of Philip.
So …. Because of you.
There was great joy.

Noise
Acts 8:7
“With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.”

Negative things were coming out of people and people were leaving negative things behind.
There was plenty noise! The enemy will not gladly leave us. He will shriek, he will scream, but he will leave. And though it doesn’t say in this verse, the paralytics and the cripples bring healed were most probably making lots of noise too!
For those who like church to be quiet, this was a bad day!
But noise doesn’t automatically mean success.
I have seen a lot of noise from the stages of churches. Shouting certain words in order to see certain actions. I have seen shrieking preachers screaming their mantras.
We don’t need more noise from the stage and pulpits, but we would welcome more noise from the crowd.
So may God move by His Spirit in such a way that the crowd shrieks as the negative is turned around into a positive.

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Hearing and seeing
Acts 8:6
“When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.”

Hearing and seeing equated to the crowd paying attention.
Maybe the reason why the crowds are perhaps today not paying attention is because they are hearing but cannot see any demonstration of God. Or perhaps they are seeing but there is no message, no one is speaking to them.
We do need both. Our words need to be backed up with actions.