The sermon, 'And There Was Great Joy in That City,' delivered by Scott Brown, explores Acts chapter 8, highlighting the persecution faced by the early church and its role in spreading the gospel. Despite Saul's efforts to ravage the church, believers like Philip continued preaching, leading to significant conversions in Samaria and beyond. The account of Simon the Sorcerer, who believed and was baptized, raises questions about the sincerity of faith and the dangers of attempting to buy spiritual gifts. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion underscores the power of scripture and personal guidance. The sermon emphasizes that persecution and suffering are paradoxically catalysts for joy and expansion within the church, illustrating the reverse nature of the kingdom of heaven. It calls believers to recognize the joy found in the gospel and warns against allowing worldly desires to overshadow this joy. Through the examples of Simon and the Ethiopian eunuch, the sermon conveys the transformative power of the gospel and the importance of patience and truth within the church community.

Acts chapter 8. And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women.

He would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word, and Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was much rejoicing in that city.

Now there was a certain man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. And they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, This man is what is called the great power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. And even Simon himself believed.

And after being baptized, he continued on with Philip. And as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen upon any of them, and they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." But Simon answered and said, "'Pray to the Lord for me yourself, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. And so, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem and were preaching the gospel to many villages, other Samaritans. But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert road. And he arose and went. And behold, there was an Ethiopian Eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

And the Spirit said to Philip, Go up and join this chariot. And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, Well, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this, He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.

In humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who shall relate his generations? For his life is removed from the earth." And the eunuch answered Philip and said, Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

And as they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, water! What prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. Recently my son David shot a deer on our property out this way and we couldn't find it, he couldn't find it, so he called me on his mobile phone to see if I could come help him track the drops of blood through the forest and often deer don't die right away so they scamper away and you have to follow their trail of blood if the blood is visible enough through the leaves of the forest. But Tracing the progress of the church is a little bit like tracing drops of blood through the forest. There's a trail of blood.

And if you follow the true church throughout history, you will be following a trail of blood. And Stephen was the second drop of blood that was shed in the progress of the early church. Of course, much blood had been shed before that of the Old Testament prophets and those who had come before. But the first shedding of blood was Christ on the cross, who was wounded for our transgressions, and then he set a pattern for all who would follow after him. He was faithful to his Father, and he was faithful in all of his sufferings and his sufferings for us meant the shedding of blood.

Now it's always been true and it always will be true that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and that persecution always leads to the spread of the gospel. But the blood of the martyrs also leads us to a very unexpected destination. It always leads to the joy of the church. It always leads to the expansion of the church. Suffering always promotes joy.

This is the reverse nature of the kingdom of heaven. What seems so bad, God uses for such good. And that's what we see here in Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter 8, the trail of blood leads us to the burial of Stephen and the profound impact that that had on the church. They raised up a loud lamentation for his suffering and his death, and it resulted in the joy of the people rising up to such a fever pitch that the church expanded dramatically as a result of it.

The effect of the gospel on this city is the effect of the gospel on every heart, every city, and every nation in which the gospel comes. There is great joy in that city. That is the effect of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why it's so important that in all of our doings that we are constantly filling our hearts up with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel saturated people are the best people in the world because they're filled with the joy that the gospel brings.

Well, Acts chapter 8 is hard to describe because it's so full of wondrous and surprising and shattering and shocking things. You know, You see the darkness of evil at work, but you also see the true effects of the kingdom of God. It's interesting that the forces of darkness are always trying to wrongly portray Christianity and believers and the true effects of Christianity. We're portrayed as harsh, hateful, dysfunctional, uptight, repressed people, but that's not at all what the Bible indicates, and it's not at all what I've seen all of my life. The first impact of the gospel on my life was undeniable to me and everyone around.

It was the broadening of my smile. That was the first thing that happened when I was saved. That's the first thing that happens when the gospel comes near to a person's life. And that's what happened in this city, not uptight or repressed at all, but set free and full of light. Now in chapter 8 there are all these shocking and very surprising events.

Chapter 8 opens up with Saul standing there consenting to the death of Stephen. He's in league with the devil and he begins dragging even women out of their houses, if you can imagine that. That's how chapter 8 begins. When you get to the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9, the worst enemy of the church finds the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes through a reversal.

He's saved by the mercy of God. So on the one hand you see the savagery against the church, and on the other hand you see the beautiful outcome of that savagery. Satan will never be able to stomp out the church. It never did work, it never will work. When we get discouraged about attacks or persecutions against the church, we should just remember everything that's written in Scripture.

Nothing can stomp out the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you see that here. Now what we observe in this passage are two men who believed through the ministry of Philip. You notice we've been looking at the ministry of Peter all along. And now in chapter 8, we have the ministry of Philip.

Then after this we'll see the ministry of the apostle Paul. So there are these personalities that move through the book of Acts to instruct us for the different ways that the gospel is expressed in different regions. But here we have two men who believe and are baptized. One is Simon the Sorcerer, most unlikely to succeed in the Christian world, and then we have the Ethiopian eunuch. Now this first man, Simon the Sorcerer, he comes into the church with a lot of baggage, capital B-A-G-G-A-G-E.

We're talking baggage, big time for this guy. He comes into the church and a lot of things happen and we'll read about that as we get into this. And then we also have this other man, the Ethiopian eunuch. He's wealthy, he's a man of position and influence. It has been delegated to him, the wealth of this great African nation of Ethiopia.

At this time, perhaps Ethiopia, most people believe, was a gigantic piece of geography, not like the little little Ethiopia that we see on the map today. Little. But this Ethiopian eunuch comes to Christ. Both of these men had been greatly affected by their culture and harmed. One had actually been castrated for the execution of his job and This other man had been involved in sorcery and every form of wickedness that the town of Samaria could present.

So you had these two men, very different social status, but they had the same problem. They were sinners. They had the same problem that you have. They have the same problem that you have, they have the same problem that I have, that we are bad, we are rotten to the core, we have been afflicted by a natural transmission of sin into the deepest parts of our souls, the only thing that can make us clean is the blood of Jesus Christ. All of us share in common with Simon the Sorcerer and the Ethiopian eunuch.

We are just like them in many ways. So we observe these two men, And then we also observe the fulfillment of the prophecy from Acts 1-8. We memorize this early on. The spread of the gospel was prophesied in Acts 1-8, and what we see here in chapter 8 is a vivid pictorial of this statement that we memorized in 1-8. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth." That is displayed in a beautiful way here.

Chapters 1 through 7 in Acts demonstrate the preaching of the gospel in Jerusalem. Chapter 8, the preaching of the gospel in Samaria. You get the flow of this here. You also see just by way of introduction, I'm sorry this is a very long introduction, We'll get into the text in just a second. But you also see this very beautiful partnership of brothers.

I love this part of the story. And we can't spend time on it. But on chapter eight, you see these two brothers linking arms in Sumeria. We have Stephen and Philip working together, And then you also have Peter and John come down. So the brothers are working here in this area.

You can imagine the fellowship of brothers, how good it is, how marvelous it is. And God brings brothers and sisters together for the work of the gospel. There's nothing like it. It's wonderful. You just think back, if you've been a Christian a long time, you'll think back about these brothers, these pillars in your life that you shared, maybe some of the toughest things in life, but perhaps some of the greatest things as well in terms of comfort and joy and fellowship and brotherhood.

Well you see this brotherhood of these men and I just mentioned that just to just have have us all pause for a moment just give thanks for the brothers and sisters that God has given us in the work of the gospel in the raising of our families, and the conducting of our business in the world. God is so kind to us to provide us his brothers and his sisters. Okay, let's jump into the text. Saul makes havoc at the church, verses one through three. He is consenting to the death of Stephen.

Their cloaks are at his feet. He loves this. He is on board with this execution that took place. Many died. There is a remarkable statement in an ancient copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs that goes like this.

Dorotheus, in his book named Synopsis, testifies that Nicanor, one of the seven deacons, do you remember when we went through the list of the deacons? Nicanor was one of the deacons. With 2, 000 others which believed in Christ, suffered also the same day when as Stephen did suffer. If this is true, 2, 000 people died on the same day that the coats were laid at Saul's feet. It was a massive persecution.

Notice the understatement in the book of Acts here. It just speaks that there is this, there is a great persecution arose against the church. That's all it says. It doesn't say that two thousand other people were died, were killed that day. It's amazing.

You know, Scripture gives us all that we need, but it doesn't give us every single thing that happened. And fortunately, God has given us all that we need in Scripture. And so it was an understated explanation of the persecution here in Acts chapter 8. You notice the brutality of Saul in this. He was giving rough treatment to both men and women.

Imagine dragging the weaker gender out of their households and casting them into prison. It's unthinkable to consider the depth of depravity that Saul was involved in here and the passion. I mean, he was definitely very committed to the destruction of the gospel. And at the same time though, even though we have the greatest enemy of the church, that does not mean anything to God. God has in His mercy the ability to halt the rebellious heart of any person.

God can open, and only God can open anyone's heart. You know, there may be, I don't know everyone here this morning, But one thing I do know is that only God can open your heart if it's closed to Him. No great argument, no scientific evidence will do it, no great preaching will do it. The only thing will do it is if the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking into your heart and He says to you, I love you and would you repent today and come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And Only God can make the ears hear that voice.

So if you're hearing that voice today, just know who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's drawing you. You can't deny it. He's taking you into His kingdom.

You will not be able to hold back because he is sovereign in salvation. Now, this persecution brought the expansion of the church. And we see here the principle, the great principle, that what often look like setbacks are not setbacks at all. That's just a principle of life. It's a principle of the early church.

It's a principle of my life. It's a principle of your life. You may be in the middle of a setback that looks so devastating. You may have a fear hanging over your head that it's hard for you to even imagine. But this is true.

God is the God of using every setback for His own glory. And He will even allow His dear sons to be stoned, as Stephen was, in order to accomplish something far more wonderful for far more many people than any of us could ever conceive. So they were scattered, There was a burial and a lamentation for Stephen and they were thankful for him. It's interesting, I was reading one of the commentators and he made a really interesting observation. He said, you would think that the report would be, oh, that stupid Stephen, why did he call them stiff neck?

Now we're getting run out of town. They killed 2, 000 of us. If he had just kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened. No, that's not all. They were so thankful for him.

They raised the lamentation for him. They loved him and they loved the message. And they weren't saying, oh, I wish Stephen hadn't said what he had said because they believed in a sovereign God. The second thing we run into in the text is the church is scattered and the gospel is spread to Samaria. Now, we could talk a long time about Samaria, but we won't really.

But The Samaritans were rejected by the Jews. They accepted only the Pentateuch. They rejected the prophets and the rest of the Old Testament. And there were a number of other theological problems that they had. And the Lord Jesus went there.

And remember the woman at the well? He began the ministry there. And there was a spreading of the gospel when the Lord Jesus Christ was there. And now, Philip is here preaching the gospel again. And there's more fruit that is born as a result of it.

But there's so many things to mention. I just think one thing is that the encouraging principle that persecution is one of the greatest forces in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. God uses difficulty to spread the Word. And we should pray for the persecuted church, we should languish and help them in prayer as much as we can, but we need to also understand That it's through the persecutions of the church that the gospel is spread. And we should see it rightly.

We should not think just about our own perspective about persecution. We should think about persecution Christianly. And we see this displayed here. Well, let's look at a number of things. Let's look at their message that they took with them in preaching the gospel of Samaria.

There are four elements that we see. They preached the word, that's number one. What is our message? Well, We don't have to invent it. We don't have to come up with some creative little angle.

We preach the Word. Number two, they preached Christ. Think of the tools that we use for sharing the gospel today, what are the best tools? The best tools are the whole Word of God and then Christ. Read the gospel, read the gospel of John, read the gospel of Matthew to that unsaved person who has questions.

Just read the whole gospel to them. Why not? Well, they were preaching Christ, they were also preaching the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a catchphrase, rich with meaning. The kingdom of God has to do with the rulership of God.

The whole range of it. The blessings of the kingdom. The beauty, the joy of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is in joy in the Holy Spirit. Well, it's a lot more than that, too.

It is also a rulership and an authority. The kingdom of heaven is that people would place themselves under the rulership and the authority of God. They would quit being their own authority, realize how bankrupt their own authority is and how foolish it is to trust in yourself, but to come under God's authority. That's the kingdom of God. They were preaching the kingdom of God, and They were also preaching the name, the NAME, the name of Jesus Christ.

The name of Jesus Christ is the communication of the essence of His nature and His character, His glory, His beauty. That's the name of Jesus. Well, of course, they had a broad message. They didn't bring the four spiritual laws. They didn't bring a little booklet.

They brought a vast testimony of rich Information about God and His nature and His Son whom He sent and the blood of Christ and Everything that is encompassed in the name of Jesus Christ. They they use the name of Jesus You know, we're living in a culture where the name of Jesus The authorities are you know at large or attempting to destroy the use of the name of Jesus, taking it off of buildings, taking it out of schools to exercise the culture of the name of Jesus. You use the name of Jesus Christ and you know, hairs raise and you know, eyebrows are raised and you know, there's anger that comes when you use the name of Jesus Christ. Well, their message was, as is stated here, it's very simple and very clear what their message was. And then the response was variable.

There are a number of things. First, the people heeded the message. They listened and they responded. Another revival is happening now. In Jerusalem, there were 3, 000 one day, and then it came to 5, 000, probably 20, 000 believers in Jerusalem.

Now it's happening again in Samaria. And miracles are taking place. Unclean spirits are coming out. The lame are healed. Just to bracket this idea for a minute, Evil spirits are coming out of people.

Think of the relief in the hearts of individuals from being delivered from the bondage of Satan's grip on their lives. It was joy for them. When the demons leave, the joy shows up. That's what was happening here. And it's very important to get rid of the devil because he is so destructive.

He's so bad. He's so discouraging. He's so unhelpful to everything. But unclean spirits were coming out, and there was great joy in that city. This is my favorite verse in all of chapter 8, and it seems to draw together all the different themes that you see here in this chapter.

It's the gospel, the essence of the gospel is the joy of the Lord. And in that city there was great joy. Would it not be a blessing if God would use us for the joy of our city? How can you contribute the most to the joy of your city? It's by having the gospel filling your heart and sharing it.

If you want to bring joy to your town, that's how you bring it. Now you'll also bring some conflict, but ultimately the joy will way over-arch any of the conflict. So the blessings of Samaria are beginning to flow here, And there's much joy in the city. Now, for a moment, I'd just like for us to think about life here in America. We're surrounded with every material comfort known to man.

And yet, even in the churches, there's unhappiness. There's dissatisfaction. There's grumbling. There's groaning at the hardness of life, you know, at how just how hard life is. And we, in many ways, though we have the gospel in our hearts, we so easily forget the wealth that is upon us.

And we should be the happiest people on the earth. We are the salt of the earth. We should be the happiest people in town, but sometimes we're not because of our disobedience, Because we're not satisfied with what God has given us. We want something more. We don't like that car that He has given us.

We don't like that house that He has given us. We don't like that whatever that He has given us. And so life is hard. Life is stressful. We're stressed out.

And often our being stressed out is nothing more than dissatisfaction with the gifts that God has given, the things that he has chosen to present to us. And though we should be the happiest people in town, sometimes we are not. And We carry burdens that we should not be carrying. And we carry the burdens because there's some unfulfilled desire that is upon us, or there's some loss. When my spirits drop, it's because of some loss, something I wish I had, something that a relationship turned in a way that I did not want it to turn or something like that, a loss.

And then my spirits fade as a result of it. But in contrast here, you see that the most afflicted are the happiest. That's what we see here. And they weren't so much focused on not enough car, or not enough house, or not enough cash, or not enough Christmas, or not enough friends, or not enough love, or not enough compassion by my wife or by my children or not enough this or that. I'll never forget a man hearing a man say, if you have to move more than 18 inches to be happy, you'll never be happy.

And these people in Acts chapter 8 could have been filled with despair, but they were not filled with despair. You know, I had a really interesting read about three or four weeks ago. I was reading a book on the Mather family and was particularly commenting on why the Puritans were so happy. The Puritans have a bad, they've been wrongfully given a bad name. You think of Puritans with long faces and all that.

Absolutely, that was not it at all. Why were the Puritans so happy? Because the Puritans, they weren't saying, who am I? Because they knew who they were. They'd been created by God.

They never cried and said, why is this happening to me? Because they knew that God was sovereign, that God was in control of the universe. And they didn't cry out, why didn't God give me this? Because they realized that God was the giver of all gifts and that He was sovereign in all of it. And that's why they were fulfillments of Psalm 67, let the nations be glad.

They were a fulfillment of what the angels said when the Lord Jesus Christ was coming, bringing glad tidings of great joy to all the people. We read that a couple of nights ago in Luke 2 verse 10. Glad tidings of great joy. Well, how do we sum this up? God improves his church through sufferings what are what are your sufferings today and how will it improve you this This should be a prayer of your heart.

If you're flagging in the midst of whatever suffering, you might be in the midst of. But how is God improving you through it? Okay, then we come to Simon the Sorcerer who believes and is baptized. Now this is an interpretive problem here that we come to. What really happened to Simon the Sorcerer?

It's possible that Simon the Sorcerer was just like Ananias and Sapphira, phony. You know, Ananias and Sapphira were fake. They were pretending. They spoke all the right language. They appeared to be dedicated participants to the church.

They were giving their money, lots of their money. But even so, they were phony. It's possible that Simon the Sorcerer was a fabricator of faith. And it's also possible that he was a true believer who, though so damaged by the world, was in a process of sanctification and God was healing him and he was using the stern words of the apostle to help him to get rid of this terrible life that he'd been living all of his life. Well, I'm not sure.

I can make a case that he was a true believer and I can make a case that he was, like one of my friends around here says, a false pretender. And so what do we know about Simon? First of all, we know about his former life. And his name describes his character, Simon Magnus. He called himself the great power.

You know, the Latin word for great is magnus. And so Simon was just obsessed with greatness. Simon the Magnificent, you know, and he proclaimed his name everywhere. You know, one of the interesting challenges that we had when we were meeting at the school over at Jones Dairy is that they had all these banners up and there would always be these crazy banners above your head, whoever was at the platform trying to preach the word. And for one period of time, for like a couple of few months, there was this gigantic banner right over the head of whoever was preaching that said, magical me.

It was just really difficult. You know, you look back there, oh no, it's still there. Well, that was Simon Magnus. He would have had magical me right over his head as he was doing whatever he was doing. And, you know, how do you cope with that?

Well, I don't know. It might be just as bad now that we have here. But now this is the way Simon promoted himself, magical me, Simon the Magnificent. And this is the way the people in Samaria perceived him. He did it.

He pulled it off. He had a following. He was having a great time. And he was very successful. Second thing we know about him is that The state of his life was really in shambles.

He was driven by a desire for magic and whatever he could, to promote truly occultic practices. This was really very, very bad. He was still moving in it as far as we can tell. Thirdly we know from tradition what came but what became of him. What became of him does not come from Scripture.

Acts 8 gives us the last time he's mentioned in Scripture. We don't know anything more about this guy beyond Acts 8. So Scripture doesn't say. The early church fathers say that Simon Magnus just became more of a heretic, but that's a historical record. We don't really know exactly.

We do run into Simon the Tanner later on, but not Simon the sorcerer. But anyway, he had an occultic fixation. He was impressive. He was boastful. And he astonished all the people and he claimed to be something great.

Well, three things happened to Simon. He believed, he was baptized, and he followed Philip. Now this makes it even more confusing. Many say it was a belief not unto salvation, it wasn't true belief, that he was baptized and he should never have been baptized. But, and it happens, you know, we often baptize people that never truly came to faith.

There are lots of people out there, unfortunately, who make a profession of faith. We baptize them and they weren't true believers. It happens all the time. It's a tragedy. We should always work very hard to avoid that, but we also need to be trustful in the profession of faith and that there is at least adequate fruit of salvation.

You know, was he baptized too early? Was it right for Philip to baptize him? You know, I'll give you my take on this. We just can't know people's hearts. If you confess with your mouth and you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God You've repented of your sins and you can see the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.

They should be baptized They should be baptized as soon after their conversion as possible But he was following Philip. He was, the text makes it plain that he appreciated what was going on. He was actually amazed by it. You can take that in two different ways. He may have just been amazed because he loved amazement, you know.

But it could be that he was just, it's just so hard to unlearn bad habits in life. It's harder to learn what is good than it is to acquire bad habits like this. Now when Peter confronts him, he uses extremely strong language, and there are many who have said his language that Peter uses gives us a tip off that he was not truly saved. You know, honestly, I don't know. I'm not sure if he was saved or not.

My personal belief is Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Okay? Hey, it is interesting. Are you familiar with the term simony? Have you heard the term simony?

Well, that term comes from this man right here. This is the legacy of Simon the Sorcerer. Simoni is the crime of attempting to buy or sell ecclesiastical performance. It's the idea that God's blessing can be bought through the giving of money to the church in the Middle Ages. It expressed itself in buying papal favors, buying indulgences, buying salvation.

This is what the Reformation is all about. This is why we're here, OK? Because of the simony. It was just a terrible blight in the church that anybody thought that money could buy them anything from God. Today, the same idea probably emerges in the health and wealth gospel that God wants everybody to be rich, and the more you give to the church, the richer you'll get, so give it on now.

It might be able to express itself in the subtle way that we think that we can obtain God's blessings and accomplish his purposes by raising money, that God's work is dependent on how much money we can raise. Sometimes men stand up and they plead and pretend that money is the root, is the source of the work of God. I just don't know how you can substantiate that from Scripture. Yes, God does call for us to bring money into the church and it to be distributed and be used for the advancement of the kingdom. That's absolutely true.

We should be giving generously and all that kind of stuff, but we do not buy God's favors by what we give. We express the favors that God has given to us through our giving, and it does leave us. And sometimes it comes back and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes our giving will make us penniless. What a blessing.

And that's the, you know, So this is where simony comes from. So okay, if Simon was a believer, let's just say he was a believer, okay? I'm going to give you applications on, you know, I'm going to apply this two ways. You can take any way you want. We're going to apply it both ways.

If he was a believer, then we can see the progress, the encouraging progress of a man who is so desperately entrapped and the faithfulness of the apostle to speak the truth in love. And I mean hard words. An example of how a brother can help another one, on the one hand, call him the devil and put his arm around him. That's what, if He was a believer, that's what Peter did. And that there is a way of salvation for all sinners, even the occultic sinners, even those who just really care about nothing more but magical me, you know when someone is saved everything doesn't fall away it takes it takes an entire lifetime of sanctification and we're saved and so much of our baggage stays with us.

And so if he was a believer, then here's what I would just like to say. Let's on the one hand, let's speak the truth and love to one another, but let's have patience with one another. We acquire habits, thoughts, ways of thinking. Can we ever get rid of them? Sometimes I wonder if I can ever get rid of some of the foolish thoughts and ways of living and idolatries in my life.

And They emerge. I see them. I see them daily. And I'm grateful for the patience of my wife with me in these things, but we should be patient with one another in the midst of our sanctification. So if he was a believer, take that.

Now if he was not a believer, let's just say he was not a believer, then we can learn some lessons of what it looks like when the devil walks into your church using a bunch of God words. Pompous people really driven by the devil. Sometimes that happens. The devil walks into your church using Christian language but a totally worldly lifestyle and a complete worldly, you know, kind of an orientation. And it shows us how there are professions of faith which are phony and baptisms that are phony.

Some of you maybe have been baptized and you're phony. Are you one of those? You might know it. I hope you know it. If you were baptized and it was fake, you just did it.

Maybe as a child, your parents wanted you to do it. And it wasn't a true, it wasn't a baptism by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was just something you did to get on with life. It shows us how the wheat and the tares grow together in the church and that there will be unbelievers in the church. It's just the reality of life.

So that we can draw principles for how the apostles dealt with the worldliness that could have destroyed the church. And here we see them carefully and powerfully and quickly rebuking the evil that was there. They took action. They would not let it run wild, but they confronted it in very, very clear terms. So those are some of the applications.

If he was saved, take those. If he wasn't, take them all. And God knows you may see Simon the sorcerer in heaven. You may not. I don't know.

Then we see this beautiful story of the Ethiopian eunuch who is converted and baptized. One of my favorite stories in the book of Acts, this is so delightful. There's so many compelling, beautiful parts of the story that I've always loved. Here is, there are two characters here in the story. There's Philip and there's the Ethiopian.

And, you know, let's talk about Philip for a minute. Philip is in the midst of this huge revival. And there's a lot going on. I mean, Simon Magnus is there. There's a lot to do when you have people like Simon in the mix.

There's a lot to watch out for. But here is Philip, and God calls him out of this incredible outpouring of the Spirit of God. Philip is available. Philip is not just driven by the next hot thing going on. There is an individual that God wants to deal with and speak to.

One person in a chariot and he leaves along, he makes quite a journey and he's willing to lay it aside for God's purposes. You also see God's economy in this. God cared about this one man. God's economy is not always about the multitudes. You see this even in the ministry of Jesus, how he would focus on small groups or individuals.

And here God's loving kindness is toward this one man. Now, how did God do this? Well, he did it pretty clearly. He sends an angel. I think there was something strong that needed to get Philip on the road here and so God sends what he needed to get him out of town.

God sent an angel and I just think this should be very encouraging. You know if God wants to get you somewhere he'll get there. He'll send an angel or he'll send the Holy Spirit as he did here. Don't worry about it. God will help you.

He'll get you where you need to go. And if you need an angel, he'll send an angel. So God is leading Philip, maybe contrary to his own inclinations. Then we turn to the Ethiopian, and there are a number of things about the Ethiopian. He was a God-fearer.

He was most likely from the same jurisdiction that the Queen of Sheba came from, you know, a large area of tremendous wealth, and He was a God-fearer who did not become a Jew by circumcision. He became a Jew out of his heartfelt reverence toward God. And he apparently revered the traditions of Israel. He believed in the true God. He went to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now on his way back.

He was welcome in the synagogue. He was welcome to discuss issues with the rabbis there in Jerusalem, and that's what he had been doing. And he was hungry for God. Now when he went to Jerusalem, you know, what did he find? Here's what I think he found.

I think he saw through the fakery and the pretentiousness of what had become Judaism. My bet is he smelled something that wasn't very good. He smelled the rottenness of Judaism and he, like Christ, probably understood what was really going on there. But what he did find is he found the Scriptures. He found the prophet Isaiah.

And this would lead to his salvation. Even though when he was in Jerusalem he was with people who were white washed sepulchers. They cleaned the outside of the cup and not the inside. Do you think he saw through that? Hey, I think people see, I think almost anybody can see through phoniness, and I bet you he saw right through it.

But what he did, but what he came away with was holy scripture. You know, often we get so distracted by the imperfect people around us, that we lose sight of the Word and the true God. We get our focus on the wrong thing, we get our focus on people and we get too disappointed. But we do have God, We do have the law, the prophets, we do have the poetry, we do have the history, we do have the Gospels, we do have the epistles, you know, we have everything we need, really, to know God. And fortunately this man had holy scripture and the scripture would lead to his conversion and his baptism there on the road.

He was a man of great authority and he was in charge of the treasury. He was returning from worship in Jerusalem and he was reading. Ah, yeah, he was reading. And he was reading something that would be the tool of God in his life, of his salvation. He was reading Isaiah 53.

You see that in verse 28. He was reading Isaiah out loud. This is how they read in those days. Now, when we read silently, do you ever think about why we read silently today? Is it libraries?

Is it because of libraries that we read silently? You have to be quiet as a mouse in a library? Or is it because we all went to these schools with 50 people in the classroom and everybody couldn't read aloud, you had to read silently all the time? So we all read silently now. But he was reading out loud as they did in the ancient world.

You know, there are a few people I've run into that read out loud when they read. And my guess is that it increases comprehension. I don't know, I haven't done it. I've started it, but I always trail back off into silence just automatically for some reason. So he's reading Isaiah 53, and it's a beautiful chapter of Scripture.

This was one of those chapters that was also instrumental in the warming of my heart toward God back when I was in my teens. I remember reading Isaiah 53 when I was about 15 years old or something like that. I loved it. I was amazed by it. It grabbed my heart.

Well, it did him too, but he didn't quite understand what it was all about. He had questions about it. But here there are a couple, I'm just going to point out two really, really important things that are in Isaiah 53. First of all, verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Now, what he quotes to Philip is verse 7.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to slaughter, and as a sheep before it sheers, as silent." Well, that word all in verse 6 is really important. It is an explanation of the nature of man. We are all sinners. All are sinners.

All are sinners and have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way. That's the rebellion. That's the most despicable thing that can happen on the earth is when a man or a woman rebels against God, raises up their own thoughts and ideas about life and love and relationships and everything, nature, and raising those things above God. That is the great rebellion.

So Isaiah 53 tells the Ethiopian eunuch exactly what's wrong with him. He's a sinner, he's gone astray. And then it also tells of the substitutionary death, which is the answer to our sinfulness. For he shall bear their iniquities. He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many." Verse 12.

And made intercession for the transgressors. Here's the love of Jesus. The one who gives his life, pours out his blood, takes the penalty for the sin, and then becomes an intercessor for the sinner, an advocate for the sinner. That's the gospel, that you and I are sinners, that we have rebelled against God, We've turned to our own way, but the Lord laid the penalty that we deserve upon Him. The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, for he shall bear their iniquities." This is the love of Jesus.

He would bear your iniquities. And then Philip asks him, what are you reading? It's a great question. Do you understand what you're reading? And he says, how can I unless someone guides me?

This just gives us a window into the importance of having another person there. The Word of God is capable of leading to someone to salvation without any help. That's true. I've seen it happen a number of times. But it is important too that there's a person there to explain it.

And that's where we come in. This is our duty, to explain it, to say, do you know what that means? And then to explain what it means, because you've read the whole thing a few times, hopefully. And so it just brings us to the importance of taking time for explanation. We don't just live the gospel.

We've got to talk about it, okay? Whoever said, you know, live the gospel and if necessary use words, forget that. That's insane. That is not biblical. Live the gospel and speak it while you're living it.

That's what the Bible would tell us to do. Not that we shouldn't live it. And then we see his water baptism, and I just want to point out that he proceeded quickly. He proceeded quickly to his salvation and his baptism. We ought to move right away and not delay.

Today is the day of salvation. If God is speaking to anyone, Then today is the day. Move today. Don't wait till tomorrow. God has given you strength to believe the gospel, then move today and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner.

I'm a sinner. Thank you for forgiving. Thank you for bearing my sins. I desire your intercession for my life. And then there was a confession of faith, a beautiful confession.

If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. How do you become a Christian? You have this in your heart. You believe in your heart, first of all, and then you confess with your mouth and you say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And, you know, all of that is wrapped up in the gospel of repentance and acknowledgement of sin. Okay, the last thing we hear of the Ethiopian eunuch is what? Joy. He goes his way. He's happy.

The first effect of the gospel on this man's life was probably the broadening of his smile and he went away rejoicing. Not heavy at all. Applications. Let me give you three applications here. As we Consider Simon the Magician and the Ethiopian eunuch.

Think about the ways of the world, how they have infested our lifestyles and how Christ is redeeming us through his patience. Let's extend much patience toward one another in the midst of it. You know what? We don't know how to raise our children perfectly, we don't know how to use our tongues perfectly, we don't know how to do anything perfectly. And all of us have been afflicted, affected, and infected in different ways.

We all have the same infected nature, but that infection has been flourished and magnified in different ways in all of us. We all have different problems. It goes back to the same root problem. The mercy of God in the church is so important that we're not too put off by people who are at a certain place in their healing process. People who don't maybe live exactly like we think they should or maybe that they should, or keep their hair or their skin or raise their children or whatever, by whatever perfect standard there is.

We should have the patience of Jesus in the church and we should also maintain the truth of Jesus in the church. Remember last week and the week before we've been talking about this brilliant mix that you see in the early church. They're full of grace and truth. We need both. Second, keep on remembering the true effect of the gospel on a person's life.

This should just, this should so motivate us to preach the gospel. The truth, you know, even though, even though there are uncomfortable moments and maybe even anger or hatred that might come up to us, do it for the joy. Do it for the happiness of that person. You held the message for the happiness of that person, the eternal happiness of that person. Not the happiness that some do-dad would give you, but the eternal happiness.

Now here's maybe just a question for all of us who might have lost the joy of our salvation or have allowed some loss or deprivation or fear to steal our joy. It would be wrong for us, it would be sinful for us, to have long faces. And I say that as a man who from time to time will have a long face for some loss. But it's nothing but sin. It is darkness.

It's a rejection of the gospel. That's all it is. Get with it. Every once in a while, my friends have to say, get off it, Brown. Come on back.

Jason Doan particularly, Deborah Brown particularly, and others that you are well aware of. But God would have us go out with joy in the same way that the Ethiopian eunuch went out. Of all seasons of the calendar in our culture, this should be definitely the greatest season of joy. It should remind us of true joy. I was listening, I was reading the words to the song that my daughter was playing a couple of months ago.

It was in her song book, her piano book. God rest ye merry gentlemen. I love those words. I've been thinking a lot about those words. It goes like this.

God rest ye merry gentlemen. Let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day. Now you may want to debate what day he was born on but let's not. To save us all from Satan's power when we had gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. O tidings of comfort and joy. You know, the trail of blood always leads us to the unexpected place, to the joy of the Lord. And It is only found in Him and in His wonderful kingdom.

Nothing else will do. Would you pray with me? Oh, Lord, Your glorious kingdom, The work that you've accomplished is marvelous to us. Let it be said of us that we would be married gentlemen and gentlewomen. Amen.

Men and gentle women. Amen.