Get Rich Quick! — Acts 8:1–25 - video Dailymotion

Medical Lake Community Church

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Transcript

00:00You're probably familiar with John Newton, right? John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace.

00:05I mean, he was a slave trader, and of course, slave traders were not nice people, of course.

00:10And God miraculously saved him. So this guy understood grace. He understood. That's why

00:16he wrote the song Amazing Grace. Kenneth Osbrook talked about him. He said he was a minister.

00:22Newton was a minister and preached powerfully about Jesus. He also wrote, of course, that song

00:26Amazing Grace, at the age of 82, just before he died, he proclaimed, this is what Newton

00:32said, my memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that

00:39Christ is a great savior. What a, I mean, you're going out of this world and that those two

00:44things, in fact, on his tombstone is engraved this, once an infidel and libertine, a servant

00:50of slavers in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, present

00:56preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to

01:02destroy. On his tombstone. What a testimony to this man. He actually said during his life,

01:08I am not what I might be. I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not

01:15what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was. Amen? And I can say with a great

01:22apostle, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Here's a man who understood grace, God's favor

01:31that shines upon those who believe in him, God's grace. In fact, in the text today, we're

01:37going to see this idea of God's grace at work here in the text in Acts chapter 8. We'll see

01:43that the calling and gifts of God are by grace and to believe otherwise is to dishonor God.

01:50God. It's all about God's grace. God is a God of holiness and he's a God that can't stand

01:57sin in his presence and he's a God of wrath against sin. But on the cross, Jesus took that

02:02wrath upon himself for us on our behalf so that God's face can shine upon us. When once

02:10we were aliens and strangers, he has brought us back together and reconciled us to the Father

02:14and now the Father's face shines on us in his favor. That's grace. We sometimes don't

02:25think a lot about it or it kind of just passes by or something that we mentioned but we don't

02:30really grasp a hold of this idea of God's grace. The last time we were in Acts, not last

02:36week, we were in the park last week. The last time in Acts, we saw Stephen, his martyrdom,

02:40he was murdered. And then at the end of that, we concluded in the first half of verse number

02:45one. And we are going to pick back up again in this. And this is kind of transitioning into

02:51Philip and what happens in Samaria. But it's just a short little paragraph talking about

02:56what's taking place. So if you look with me in verse number 1b, so this is after the death

03:02of Stephen, the murder of Stephen, 1b of chapter 8. So open your Bible, turn on your biblical

03:07device. Here's God's word. We want to look at it together. And there arose on that day,

03:13in other words, the day of his murder, Stephen's murder, on that day a great persecution against

03:20the church in Jerusalem. So remember I told you things shifted at this point. They had

03:25the favor with the people, now it's shifted. A great persecution against the church in Jerusalem

03:30and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

03:36So probably they stayed back and took care of the church, the mother church in Jerusalem,

03:40perhaps. At least they're not scattered at this point. They do scatter later.

03:45Devout men buried Stephen, okay, we just heard about his death, and made great lamentation

03:50over him. So they honored this man. But Saul, again, we're introduced to this Saul in verse

03:57number 1a, Saul, which is later his name, Paul, plays a big role throughout all of the rest

04:02of Acts. And of course, he wrote many of the New Testament books. But Saul was ravaging

04:09the church and entering house after house. In other words, he would show up at the door

04:13of a person's house. The churches were meeting in houses in those days. There wasn't a building

04:18where everyone came together. There were multiple houses throughout the city that they met in.

04:22He would go from house after house after house and arrest people. He dragged off men and women

04:28and committed them to prison. So this is this man, Saul, that we're now introduced to at the very

04:33beginning. So if you think of it like this, the death of Stephen caused a persecution among the

04:40Christians, which caused them to be scattered out. They were hanging around Jerusalem, probably

04:46because, of course, that's where everything took place in Jerusalem. And that's where the Holy

04:49Spirit came at Pentecost. So they're kind of focusing on Jerusalem. But now God is bringing a

04:54persecution to scatter them out. And as they went out, they carried the gospel message with them.

04:59How ironic. Often the rage of the opponents to the gospel serve as an advancement of the gospel.

05:07Think about that. They're trying to shut the gospel down by persecuting the Christians. And what is it

05:11doing? It's actually furthering the gospel message. So we're not going to look at any kind of opposition,

05:17any kind of persecution. We don't look at it and say, oh, I'm being hindered from preaching the

05:21gospel. The opposition is too strong. I guess I'm just going to have to back off. No. God uses

05:27opposition and persecution to further his sovereign plan in the world. We say, oh, it's woe is me. I'm

05:34being persecuted. All the opponents are too strong. No. God is using that to further his gospel message.

05:39They think they can shut down the gospel. God's word will not be hindered. It goes.

05:45God is sovereignly in control. In the face of opposition, God's word is growing amazingly.

05:56It seems like in the text that the primary recipients of the persecution were the Hellenist Jews.

06:02Remember we talked about them, those Greek-speaking Jews? They were pushed out first of all because

06:07they're kind of, you know, they weren't like real Jews in the Jews' eyes. So they kind of pushed them out

06:11as quickly as possible. And the persecution seems to be geared toward them. So they're scattered. And

06:17the word scattered is an interesting word. It refers literally to the sowing of seed. So you can picture

06:22a sower out there in his field that he's gotten ready and he's throwing out his seed like this and

06:27scattering it around, hoping that a great harvest will come from the scattering. And metaphorically,

06:32of course, to the scattering of people. So you can kind of visual it like this if you kind of get a picture

06:37in your mind. Think of God taking his people and going, I need you over here. And I need you over

06:44there. And I need you over there. And I need you to carry the seed over there. And he's scattering his

06:49people like a sower would scatter the seed, bringing in a great harvest. And those seeds that he's

06:55gathered were seed bearers themselves. And they brought into the family other seed bearers who would

07:01take the seed out to other regions. John Paul Hill wrote, they were scattered like one scattered seed,

07:08but scattered seeds grow. And the irony is that the persecution and scattering of the Christians

07:14only led to their further increase. God's sovereign plan cannot be stopped.

07:19So they took Stephen, these devout men, and they buried him. And they made lamentations over here.

07:27They honored his death, which was really not good in a Jewish culture. You don't honor criminals.

07:35When criminals die, you get them in the tomb as quickly as possible. And you just seal them up and

07:39you go away. You don't honor criminals. It's not allowed to honor criminals in that day. And it took

07:45real courage for these men to bury Stephen because Jewish law forbids funerals for condemned criminals.

07:53Kind of like the Lord Jesus Christ. They condemned him on the cross. And we have Joseph of Arimathea

07:58and Nicodemus then burying Jesus. It took great courage to do that. Here's this man, Saul, that we're

08:05now introduced to who is ravaging the church. That word ravage is an interesting word. It was used in the

08:11in the Old Testament, Greek translation of the Old Testament, Septuagint. It was used as wild

08:17bees tearing the flesh. It gives you a picture of the violence that was in Paul's heart. What he was

08:23trying to do to the Christians. He was like ripping the flesh off the Christians. He hated them so much.

08:31In fact, it's used in Psalm 80, this word ravage. The boar from the forest ravages it. And all that move in

08:38the field, feed on it. And he goes house to house, tearing in a sense, the flesh of the people,

08:44gathering them up, committing them to prison. Later on, seeing that they died even for their faith.

08:52Saul, he was violently trying to eliminate God's church. Listen to the biblical record,

08:57his own words of what he was doing. Acts chapter 22. Paul speaking, I persecuted this way to the death.

09:04In other words, I killed people. Binding and delivering to prison, both men and women,

09:10as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them,

09:14I received letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there

09:19and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. I hate the church, Paul, Saul says. I hate the church.

09:25Acts 22, later on. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another,

09:30I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. In Acts 26. And I punished them often in all the

09:37synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme. And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them

09:43even to foreign cities. He hated the church. Galatians 1. For you have heard of my former life in

09:51Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. This is the Saul that we're

09:57now introduced to right here in the text, which plays a role, obviously, we know later on in the

10:01book of Acts. Now comes on the scene, one we've already met one time before. When the ones were

10:10selected to distribute the food to the Hellenist widows who were not getting their daily distribution,

10:16Philip was one of them that was chosen to do that. He was one of the list. So this Philip now we're

10:21introduced to in this next section of the scripture. Look at verse 4 down to verse 13.

10:27Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Now again, God is the sower. He's scattering

10:33his people out to where he wants them to go. And Philip, it says, went down towards Samaria.

10:41Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord

10:47paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

10:53For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them. And many who were

10:58paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. I can imagine people that were oppressed

11:05and possessed by demons being cast out, people getting healed. I'm sure there was great joy in the city.

11:10Makes good sense. Verse 9. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the

11:17city and amazed the people of Samaria saying that he himself was somebody great. Hey, look at me. I'm

11:23great. They all paid attention. Well, not only did he say that, they thought the same thing about him.

11:28They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God

11:33that is called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with

11:39his magic, a cult. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and

11:45the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after

11:51being baptized, he continued with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed at

11:59what was taking place. So now Philip goes to Samaria. If you remember any kind of the dealings in the

12:06gospels, Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. They did not like the Samaritans.

12:11And you're kind of saying, well, why? I mean, they're part of that general region of Israel. Why would they

12:17not like the Samaritans? Well, the Jews viewed the Samaritans as not a Jew and not a Gentile. So they didn't

12:25even put them in one of those two classes. They were that despised. So the Jews viewed them. In 722 BC, the

12:33Assyrian king came down and took the northern Israel captive, the northern kingdom captive. He just didn't take the

12:38people away. He did that a little bit, but he resettled it with people from his own, with other

12:44religious beliefs, settled them back down in that area. And there, what's known came out of that are

12:49the Samaritans. In fact, we read about it in 2 Kings chapter 17. And the king of Assyria brought people

12:56from Babylon, Kutah, Ava, Hamath, and Seraphim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the

13:03people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. So that's the

13:09Samaritans. That's why the Jews don't like them. They didn't believe in the rest of the Old Testament.

13:13They held to the five books of Moses, and that's it. The Pentateuch, nothing else, nothing more.

13:18And not only were the Samaritans half-breeds, they were also known as heretics. They didn't have the

13:24truth. They didn't know what was going on. The whole Old Testament, other than the first five books of

13:29Moses, they rejected. They didn't have the prophets. They had none of that information.

13:34So the question is, why would anyone go preach to the Samaritans? Half-breed heretics? Why would you

13:41go? Why would you take the gospel to those people? Because God told them to. That's why. Because God

13:49told them to. God scattered, and Philip went. There is no people group in this world to whom we would

13:58ever say, you do not deserve salvation. We won't tell you about Jesus. Sorry. No. Why do we go to

14:09people groups? Why do we go to people that are unlike us? Why do we go to people that make us

14:13maybe feel uncomfortable? Why do we do it? Because God asked us to do it. There's no people group that

14:21we would say, oh, you don't deserve salvation. We're not going to you. Earlier, the apostle John

14:29himself, not liking the Samaritans, he wanted to call fire down on the Samaritans from heaven.

14:34Luke chapter 9. John the disciple said this. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said,

14:41Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Oh, these Samaritans,

14:45let's just take them out. She says, no, you don't understand what kind of spirit we're about here.

14:50Even Jesus himself ministered in Samaria. Remember John 4, the woman at the well? Remember that story?

14:55John 4, 9. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me,

15:02a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. That's the view that the Jewish

15:08people had toward the Samaritans. Yet Philip, being obedient to God, goes to them and preaches the

15:12gospel. And many people get saved. And during the earthly life of Jesus, when he sent his disciples

15:19out, his apostles out, he actually told them, don't go to Samaria. Matthew chapter 10. These 12 Jesus

15:26sent out, instructed them, go nowhere among the Gentiles, enter no town of the Samaritans. Well,

15:31now after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, we will preach the gospel to all creation,

15:35to everyone. So now go, go to the Samaritans, go to them. They didn't know who the Messiah was,

15:42so he preaches the Christ, the true Messiah. He preaches the Messiah to them. And now Philip,

15:48like Stephen, is accredited with signs. The second person other than the apostles to perform signs.

15:54First it was the apostles, then it was Stephen, and now it's Philip, the second person that other

15:59than the apostles are doing signs and wonders. And the people of Samaria, they go, this is great,

16:04this is amazing. God is at work here. I need to pay attention to what the words of this person

16:09is saying. God is doing stuff here. Simon, the magician, his magic wasn't used to help the people

16:17of Samaria. His magic was used to enrich himself. That's all that he thought about.

16:25He only wanted to get something out of it. Now, the text says that Simon believed.

16:31That's what the text says. Simon believed. But the text does not say what Simon believed.

16:39It says he believed, and he was baptized. But it doesn't say what he believed.

16:46Actually, the demons believe and shudder. They're not saved. James 2.19, you believe that God is one,

16:52you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder, and they're not saved. It doesn't tell us what he

16:58believed, and he believed something. It seems like his faith, his belief was not in the word of God

17:04necessarily, but in the miracles that he saw. Why? Because he saw an advantage to himself in that.

17:09What can I get out of this? He was baptized. There's no evidence truly that what he believed in,

17:16we're not quite sure, but he does get baptized. We see that. And he wanted to spend time with Philip,

17:22and we think, oh, he wants to learn from him. Maybe, but he was, notice the emphasis said,

17:25because Philip was doing signs and wonders. That's why he was hanging around. Hey, how can I do that

17:30too? How can I take advantage of that? How can I use that for my own means?

17:36So the church in Jerusalem, here's what's going on in Samaria. So they send Peter and John to go

17:42check it out, to see what's happening, see what God's doing in Samaria. I think it's interesting is

17:46they sent Peter. It doesn't mean that Peter was in charge of the church in Jerusalem. He seems like he was

17:53one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem because the church sent him. Look at verses 14 on

17:59down to verse 25. Now, when the apostles of Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the

18:05word of God, somehow that probably messenger came back and said, hey, people are getting saved in

18:10Samaria. They sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive

18:16the Holy Spirit for he had yet not yet fallen on any of them. So they got saved and baptized,

18:23but they have not been, the Holy Spirit has not come upon them at this point, but they had only

18:27been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received

18:32the Holy Spirit. Now, when Simon saw that the spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles'

18:38hands, he offered them money. Hey, I want to do that too. Here's some money. Saying, give me this

18:44power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him,

18:51may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

18:58You have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is not right before God. Repent,

19:04therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart

19:10may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

19:17And Simon answered, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

19:24So now when they were finished with everything they did in Samaria, the apostles returned to Jerusalem,

19:29verse 25. Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem,

19:34and look what they did. They're not avoiding the Samaritans, preaching the gospel to many villages

19:40of the Samaritans. They're doing what God had asked them to do. It is not the normal pattern of

19:46acts for people to believe and not automatically receive the Holy Spirit. That's not normal.

19:51Day of Pentecost, we see that. They kept spirit came. We see also the spirit coming upon them. It's

19:55not a normal practice. It doesn't happen like this throughout the book of Acts, just here.

20:00And the time separation from conversion to receiving the Holy Spirit by the laying on of

20:06hands of the apostles only occurs one time in the book of Acts, and it's right here. In other words,

20:10it doesn't continue on. We don't see this pattern again anywhere else. In fact, the laying on of

20:15hands to receive the Holy Spirit does not occur again at all in the book of Acts. So it's a one-time

20:19event that happened, and there was a reason why they did it in this order. Today, we know that every

20:25believer is baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit the instant they believe. The

20:29moment that you believe, the nanosecond that you put your faith in Christ, you're placed into the

20:33body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit indwells you. And God is showing his divine approval of this

20:39missionary activity by giving his Spirit, pouring it out on them. And the reason why probably the

20:44apostles came is that the apostles came to see what is God doing here and to say, yes, this is God's

20:51work. God has accepted the Samaritans. We're going to accept the Samaritans. So we see a sign of

20:58unity, no longer division between Jew and Samaritan, but now unity in the body of Christ. Probably why

21:04they came down to do it like this, in this order. So Peter and John showed their solidarity by praying

21:11that they received the Holy Spirit, and God answered their prayer. They received the Holy Spirit.

21:15Notice nowhere does Luke tell us that Simon received the Holy Spirit. It's just not listed. He may. It's

21:24not listed. It's not there. And the description, the description of Simon in verse 23 does not seem

21:31to point to a person who is saved. I mean, it just seems like, I don't know if I would use that

21:35description of a person that is saved. I'm not sure. But Simon said, you know what? If I had that

21:45power, I could be rich beyond my wildest dreams. I mean, everybody would flock to me. First, not just

21:53Samaria, but all over this region, people will flock to me. I can get rich off of this. So let me,

21:59let me, let me buy this from you. We are told writing for a penny, a word is ridiculous. If a man

22:08really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion, says L. Ron

22:14Hubbard, founder of Scientology. Peter says, no one can buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why? It's a gift.

22:25You can't purchase a gift. A gift is given, given by God's grace. You can't purchase the Holy Spirit.

22:34He's viewing this whole thing through magical eyes, through the eyes of the occult. And Christianity

22:39has nothing to do with magic and nothing to do with the occult. He's viewing it from that point of

22:44view. He had a what's in it for me attitude, demonstrated he had really no part in what was

22:51going on in this whole Christian endeavor. In fact, Peter says, you have no part in this, which means no

22:55portion or something in common with the believers. He also says, you have no lot. That means an

23:00inheritance. You have no inheritance or lot among the Christians. That's not who you are.

23:06Warren Wiersbe, who doesn't think that Simon got saved, says this, this episode only shows how close

23:11a person can come to salvation and still not be converted. Simon heard the gospel, saw the miracles,

23:18gave a profession of faith in Christ and was baptized. And yet he was never born again.

23:24I don't want that to happen to you today. Maybe you've been coming to medical aid community

23:30church for a long time and you've come and you've heard the preaching, you've heard the gospel

23:33message. You may have even been baptized somewhere else and you think, yeah, I'm saved. I'm good

23:39to go. Yet inside you, you know that something is not right. And so what you do, you try harder,

23:50try to be a better person. You try to earn God's favor. You try to merit his grace.

23:58I hope that's not you today. I hope you're not thinking that just because I do a lot of good

24:05things that God's going to take the scale and he's going to weigh it. And if I have more good

24:08things than bad, I'm in. That's a misunderstanding of God's grace. Peter says, you're on the gall of

24:17bitterness, a gall of bitterness. What is that? That's gall. We know what gall is, but gall of

24:22bitterness. It's an old Testament word and it's an old Testament idea. It speaks of idolatry and

24:26apostasy. The gall of bitterness. So it actually comes out of Deuteronomy chapter 29. Beware lest

24:34there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from

24:40the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Idolatry. Beware lest there

24:46be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. That's the idea right there of idolatry

24:53and apostasy. That's how Peter describes this man. You don't understand God's grace. His

24:58heart was not in the right state. It wasn't his mind and will. It was not in the right

25:02place that it needed to be. So Peter looks at him and says, you need to repent. Peter

25:07offers him a chance to repent, to change the way that he's thinking, to begin looking at it

25:12differently. Maybe even to be born again, if that's the case, he's not been born again.

25:16So he says, you need to repent and you need to repent now. Don't wait for later. Repent

25:23now. Pastor Johnny Dean was in writing in the scariest sound in the world. He said the late

25:29Lewis Grizzard, a humorist and author of many columns. I don't know who he is. Maybe some

25:34of you may know. A humorist and author of many columns and books was visited by his minister

25:39in the hospital. Grizzard was scheduled to have open heart surgery the next morning. He confessed

25:44to his minister that he had not exactly been a paragon of virtue and asked if there was

25:50still time to repent. The minister looked at his watch and replied, yes, but I'd hurry

25:56if I was you. I'd hurry if I was you. I would not wait another day to repent and believe in

26:06the Lord Jesus Christ. I would hurry if I was you. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We don't

26:11know what tomorrow is going to bring. I would hurry if I was you. Repent and believe the

26:18gospel today. Today is the day of salvation. So Peter told Simon to repent and what does

26:23Simon do? Oh, please pray for me. He doesn't even repent. He's asking Peter to pray for him.

26:27He's not even praying himself. And it doesn't, the text doesn't even indicate that he ever repented

26:33of his greed. What a remarkable thing as the apostles leave the city of Samaria and preach

26:40to the other villages in Samaria. What a remarkable thing. The Jewish apostles proclaim the gospel

26:45to the Samaritans. What a remarkable thing. And verse 25 now functions as a transition, preparing

26:54us to see Philip again next week in the Ethiopian eunuch saga. So come next week, you'll find out

27:01Philip is continuing to minister on with the Ethiopian eunuch. So some of you were thinking

27:08as we're talking along and maybe you're with Warren Wiersbe and think that he's not saved. And some of

27:13you say, well, the text says he believed and was baptized. He probably was saved. And so was Simon

27:17saved? It's a valid question. So let's play from both sides. Okay. If he was saved, he did not

27:27understand the grace of God. The gifts of God are given by grace. They are not earned and not

27:38merited. They're given by God's grace, the gifts are. So if he was saved, he did not understand the

27:44grace of God. God's gifts, believers, God gifts believers with, with these gifts. Actually in the

27:52Bible, they're called grace gifts. We do not choose what these gifts are. He, the Holy Spirit determines

27:57what each church needs and how that body needs to grow up in the faith. And he gifts churches as

28:03needed. We're the recipients of these grace gifts. And we use these grace gifts to honor God and to

28:10grow the body of Christ. But he chooses what he gives to people. First Corinthians

28:16chapter 12, the spirit chooses. All these are empowered by the one and same spirit who

28:21apportions to each one individually as he wills. So if he was saved, he just, he didn't

28:28understand the grace of God. Now, what if he was lost? He's not saved. If Simon was lost, he

28:34did not understand the grace of God. He thought he could earn salvation, buy it, merit it, have

28:45God's favor shine on him for what he did. The call today to sinners is to repent and believe

28:55the gospel message. There is nothing you can do to save yourself for the calling and salvation

29:00of God are purely by his grace. Grace. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. You've heard it before. For by grace,

29:10that's God's favor. God is a God of holiness. And sinful creatures cannot come into the presence

29:16of God's holiness for the wrath of God abides on those sinful creatures because of their sin. Guess

29:22what? The good news is Jesus on the cross took God's wrath for us so that God's favor could shine

29:30on us. Not his wrath, but his favor to shine upon us. So was Simon saved? Only God knows for sure.

29:41Only God knows for sure. Either way, though, the message is the same when you think about it.

29:47The message is the same. It's all about the grace of God. God's grace lifts and restores the fallen

29:56person, causing them to be born again to a living hope. And God's grace dispenses gifts, grace gifts for

30:03the growth of the body of Christ. The grace of God is matchless and measureless and marvelous,

30:11bestowing favor on a person, us sinful creatures, because of who God is and not because of who we are.

30:20Father, let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you. Lord, you know whether Simon is saved or not. I don't

30:27know. But either way, it's the same. He didn't understand your grace. Help us to understand what

30:34this means that you, the holy God, shines his favor upon us now. We call it grace. We didn't earn it. We

30:42didn't deserve it. You give it because of who you are and what you've done in your son on the cross.

30:46So we thank you for your grace. And may we understand more and more day by day, this grace that has been

30:53bestowed upon us for it truly is all about grace. And it really is amazing grace. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Get Rich Quick! — Acts 8:1–25

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