WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.839 I'd never heard of Pui lentils until last week. 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:11.160 Sales of Pui lentils have absolutely rocketed through the skies. 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:15.980 And the reason, of course, is that Prince George in his new prep school, one day had 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:21.359 for lunch smoked mackerel and they aforesaid Pui lentils. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:29.160 Well, certainly when I was in school in Paisley, when we had smacked mackerel, smock mackerel, 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:35.560 we certainly didn't have Pui lentils, not even ordinary ones. 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:38.039 It's the so-called star effect, isn't it? 00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:45.719 How something fairly mundane and even ordinary becomes quite phenomenal in the national consciousness. 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:50.640 And of course, it's caused by the fact that some stardust has been sprinkled on it by 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:53.840 a royal or some celebrity. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:01:00.400 So here we see in Acts chapter A the whole story, and it's a kind of anti-stardust effect, 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:02.000 isn't it? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.480 Because we see here the gospel begins to expand and indeed explode. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:12.640 The story of the Acts of the Apostles is how the gospel went from Jerusalem right the way 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:21.000 to Rome, from a very closed, normalized Jewish world of Jerusalem, fairly conservative people, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:29.879 fairly traditional people, right through into the zany, Gentile, cosmopolitan world of Rome. 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:36.640 Here we have in Acts chapter A a kind of station on that journey, but it's the kind of anti-stardust 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:38.280 effect. 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:42.920 Because look at some of the words in verses one to three. 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:46.000 Execution, that's not a big word. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:52.519 When scattered, and then we have folk who were being ravaged, the church was ravaged, 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:57.560 and men and women were dragged off and committed into prison. 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:02.219 And so we get the picture there of how the church of Jesus Christ began. 00:02:02.219 --> 00:02:05.240 As I said, the kind of anti-stardust effect. 00:02:05.240 --> 00:02:08.360 It is out of persecution that the church grew. 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:11.560 It is out of weakness that the church grew. 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:19.000 It is out of people who were largely, in terms of this world's view, largely incompetent 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.159 and certainly very, very weak. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:27.680 And so the thing is that tonight that we are the heirs of these people. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:34.159 And I wonder do we recognize the connection between the zeal and enthusiasm of these early 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:41.000 believers who literally, as the Bible said, turned the world upside down and us? 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:48.120 But is it perhaps more the relationship between a kind of lion and a domesticated cat? 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:52.439 And really at the end of the day a lion is just a big cat. 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:58.759 But I wonder how we become domesticated in terms of our faith and where are we in this 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:03.599 evangelistic thrust that we see here in Acts chapter eight? 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:09.879 As we see ourselves as heirs of these people, to what extent do we look like them in this 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:13.840 city of Edinburgh where we are today? 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.680 I love going around cemeteries. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:23.280 Maybe it's a kind of the little bit of a Highland ancestry in me, but I get a lot of joy out 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:24.560 of walking through cemeteries. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.280 It's kind of Scottish thing we revel in misery. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:35.800 And one of the great cemeteries, of course, is Highgate in London where Karl Marx is buried. 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:40.800 And I've got this great quote about the Marx had. 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:46.240 He said, the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.400 The point, however, is to change it. 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.880 And I think that's a call for us tonight that all of us in this building, that we are called 00:03:55.880 --> 00:04:02.280 not just to theorize and philosophize about the world, but we are called to change the 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:03.280 world. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:08.360 And God has placed us here in this great city of Edinburgh for such a time as this. 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:14.960 And our purpose is to change the city, at least that part of the city for which we have 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:18.000 some degree of influence. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.199 And so you see here the plan here. 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:27.560 And the plan, indeed, the Acts of the Apostles, arguably, is a fulfilling of the contents 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:28.560 page. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:35.680 And the contents page is in Acts 1-8, or at least the statement of the whole book. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:40.240 It says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:47.639 my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Algedea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:51.959 So that's the kind of introduction to what Acts is all about. 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:57.639 It's like a stone falling in the middle of a pond and the ripples go right out to the 00:04:57.639 --> 00:04:58.639 very edge. 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:05.479 And here we are 2,000 years on at the edge of that ripple effect here in the city of 00:05:05.479 --> 00:05:06.479 Edinburgh. 00:05:06.479 --> 00:05:09.479 And of course the Gospel is a great thing. 00:05:09.479 --> 00:05:14.959 And what we see here is the beginning of the urbanization of the church. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:21.079 The Acts of the Apostles, of course, shows how the Gospel goes to the big cities. 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:26.360 It goes to Jerusalem, and now we have this city of Samaria. 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:31.040 The kind of urban-centric world that is developing. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:34.879 Now there's lots of places out there that are important. 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:40.680 It's not just cities that are important, but in the plan of God we see that cities have 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:45.840 got a very unique part in God's great plan for us. 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:50.720 And so the idea tonight is, again, by way of introduction, that we have all been called 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:56.880 to the city of Edinburgh, not just to think about it and not just to admire it, but in 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:01.720 a God-given way we have been called to change it. 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:07.720 However, we've got to ask ourselves to what extent is evangelism passionate? 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:13.880 And I've got to ask myself, not just because Derek asked me to speak on mission tonight, 00:06:13.880 --> 00:06:19.040 not just because I'm the kind of mission director of the denomination, but in practical 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:24.520 terms have we almost become almost practical universalists? 00:06:24.520 --> 00:06:29.360 In other words, this kind of tacit understanding that at the end of the day everybody's going 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:36.000 to be saved and there is no evangelistic impulse to go out and tell people of Jesus. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:44.600 And in fact, there is a rather subtle subtext that says that evangelism is actually arrogant. 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:49.320 Who are we to tell people what to do? 00:06:49.320 --> 00:06:55.800 This morning I was going to church and I happened to listen, I think, to the religious program 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:57.360 on Radio Scotland. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:03.640 And I was interviewing Mahatma Gandhi's grandson. 00:07:03.640 --> 00:07:10.879 And he was talking there about the arrogance of us actually asking anyone to worship anyone. 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:14.560 But isn't that the heart of our faith? 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:21.719 And I wonder perhaps subtly, do we, we bought into that idea that evangelism is arrogance? 00:07:21.719 --> 00:07:28.719 And so we can proclaim the role of the family, we can proclaim the position of the poor, but 00:07:28.719 --> 00:07:34.360 that all these things are legitimate and indeed all these things are incredibly important and 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:35.839 arise out of the gospel. 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.039 In fact, we'll see later that social justice is part of this passage. 00:07:41.039 --> 00:07:45.839 But the core of the gospel is we preach Christ crucified. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.399 There is a people there who need to hear about Jesus. 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:56.679 And unless they hear about Jesus, they will all likewise, as the A.V. says, they will 00:07:56.679 --> 00:07:58.879 likewise perish. 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:08.040 And so we see here a couple of unlikely evangelists, we have this man, Philip and Stephen. 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:11.000 They weren't natural administrators. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.439 They were natural evangelists, sorry. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:15.920 They were administrators. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:20.839 They were guys who were more at home with, you know, Excel files and working through 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:22.199 processes. 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:24.439 They were men of the office. 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:29.560 And yet we find that God called them to be men of evangelistic zeal. 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:33.600 And as we'll see, evangelistic effectiveness. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:37.840 Again just another little word by way of introduction before we move on. 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:39.399 Notice the wider context. 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:46.919 Verse one is there arose on that day a great persecution against the church. 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:52.519 But we all know that persecution is futile with the church. 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:56.480 It's like, remember these dandelions? 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:02.000 You know, when you were young, these dandelions, I don't know if you ever played this game. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:08.039 You held up, who loves me, who loves me not, or she loves me, she loves me not. 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:13.120 And depending on who the girl was, depending on the power of the breath that was expelled, 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:16.120 but the spores went all over the place. 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.360 And that's what persecution is like with the church. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:23.320 It's like a dandelion being blown and the spores go all over the place. 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:26.560 And the effect of the gospel spreads. 00:09:26.560 --> 00:09:34.120 Someone who was converted in the African revival in the 1950s said this, during what was called 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:38.159 the Mama Crisis in Kenya, where Derek is just now. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:43.639 When they come for you at night and threaten to tie a sack over your head and rob you in 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:44.639 the river. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:51.840 Then you know whether Jesus Christ means everything to you or whether he means nothing 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.840 at all. 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:55.759 I wonder what about us tonight? 00:09:55.759 --> 00:10:01.159 Has our faith become perhaps a little bit more like a gym membership? 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:07.439 Being something that we do socially or something that gives us some social kudos or is it everything, 00:10:07.439 --> 00:10:13.720 is our faith, is our belief in Jesus Christ, our absolute everything? 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:18.600 Because we are the heirs of people for whom Jesus was everything. 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:21.480 Let's look at the passage this evening. 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:26.920 And as we look at the passage, I think we will notice very clearly, hopefully very clearly, 00:10:26.920 --> 00:10:28.560 four things. 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:32.440 The first thing we notice here is courage. 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:37.960 Notice here, verse 5, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:39.680 the Christ. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:46.399 You notice here courage then because he went down to the city of Samaria. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:53.359 Well these words give very little away, but let's remember what the background was. 00:10:53.359 --> 00:11:00.159 There was, shall we say, hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:04.120 Everyone's heard the sermons on the parable of the good Samaritan. 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:08.000 Everyone's heard John chapter 4, the woman of Samaria. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:13.919 We all know that there's something going on here between the Jews and the Samaritans. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:18.519 But a thousand years previously, the very poorest of the Jewish people had married into 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:24.720 the Canaanite people and they'd come up with this kind of weird religion. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:32.120 They lived in this area where there was a kind of syncretistic, messy, weird folk religion. 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.720 It was a perversion of Judaism. 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:41.440 But if there's one thing the Jews didn't like, was anybody messing with their traditional 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:42.440 religion. 00:11:42.440 --> 00:11:45.680 And so they hated the Samaritans. 00:11:45.680 --> 00:11:52.040 They were regarded as racially inferior and they were certainly regarded as heretics. 00:11:52.040 --> 00:11:57.240 Indeed in one occasion there was a Jewish raid into Samaria to pull down the temple. 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:02.320 Such was the hatred towards these Samarian people. 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:09.120 And we find here that the question is, do Jews have anything to do with Samaritans? 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:15.480 And the answer, the kind of answer, the expected answer was, of course not. 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:20.800 And so this was difficult for anyone who was Jewish, for anyone who was Christian to go 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:22.240 into this area. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:27.600 That's why I'm saying that courage was necessary. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:35.639 They were people who had to be willing to set aside all racial and cultural prejudice 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.120 for something that is far bigger. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:44.360 They were people who had to realize that at the end of the day all the old historic racial 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:46.920 barriers had to go. 00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:52.720 They were people who had to really intentionally work against their own prejudice to get the 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:55.720 gospel out. 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:59.920 I wonder, I don't know, what prejudices do we have? 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:05.160 I think it's probably true that those of you who are younger, millennials, have maybe a 00:13:05.160 --> 00:13:10.879 lot less prejudice than those of us who are baby boomers. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:14.240 As baby boomers, we're full of prejudice. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:15.240 It's ridiculous. 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:21.200 We've got all these stereotypes we think folk from Aberdeen are all mean. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:24.920 We think that self-takes the worst football team in the entire world. 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:26.959 We're prejudiced about all these things. 00:13:26.959 --> 00:13:31.439 You young folk are, I think, hopefully less prejudiced. 00:13:31.439 --> 00:13:38.959 And yet, all of us have these little barriers, things that we don't like to do, things that 00:13:38.959 --> 00:13:42.360 we think are really, really horrible. 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.559 And we make judgments all the time. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:47.959 I've just been in a course last week. 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:56.240 One of the things the course taught was observation, observing phenomena. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.440 And it spoke about the need to bracket things. 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:03.960 So in other words, that you observe something. 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:08.200 And in your mind, you simply record what you see. 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:17.080 So if I see one of you looking at your phone, I clog that, I observe it. 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:20.639 But I don't make any judgment. 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:24.280 You could be on Facebook. 00:14:24.280 --> 00:14:27.840 You could be texting someone. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:33.560 You could be following the passage on the Bible on your phone. 00:14:33.560 --> 00:14:35.879 You could be doing any number of things. 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:39.160 But what we've got to do is we've got to avoid prejudice. 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:44.560 We've got to avoid judging you for that action because we don't know what's behind it. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:47.279 And so that's known as bracketing. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:52.959 And here we see, in a sense, Philip is bracketing. 00:14:52.959 --> 00:14:58.039 He's got all this inbuilt prejudice towards the Samaritan, and he's put it in a bracket, 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:00.039 and he's saying that doesn't matter. 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:02.759 What is important is the gospel. 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:04.479 It doesn't matter what our class is. 00:15:04.479 --> 00:15:08.399 It doesn't matter what our religious experiences. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:11.279 Doesn't matter what our sexual orientation is. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:14.439 Does not matter what our political outlook is. 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:20.520 Everybody is to hear the gospel, and we have to embrace everybody in terms of telling them 00:15:20.520 --> 00:15:27.600 about Jesus, whether we either approve or disapprove or even like their lifestyle. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:31.960 And that demands courage. 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:36.400 So we see here that he goes into this Samarian situation. 00:15:36.400 --> 00:15:42.960 Now this was really difficult because his friend Stephen had been stoned by a group 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:50.280 of folk who didn't like that particular message, and this was a critical transition point. 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:56.200 Because this was the very first time in Acts where a significant non-Jewish people group 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:59.680 were engaged with the gospel. 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:06.360 And so just because one person was willing to break the trend, so the gospel began to 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:07.480 spread. 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:10.080 And so we have this courage. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:16.520 But it's interesting who exercised the courage because the Bible says, look at verse 4, now 00:16:16.520 --> 00:16:20.840 those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:24.080 That's really, really important. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:28.639 Michael Green's got this little book, Evangelism, in the first century. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:34.480 I think Michael Green is one of, even today is one of the most stimulating writers on 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:35.920 Evangelism. 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:42.599 He says here, the little man has always been the prime agent in mission. 00:16:42.599 --> 00:16:47.479 It was those who were scattered that went about preaching the word. 00:16:47.479 --> 00:16:53.719 This is significant because what we have here is a gospel movement. 00:16:53.719 --> 00:17:00.639 It is not just the idea that you go and bring someone to hear the great preacher. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:06.440 The idea is not simply that you come and you take people into the church and you expose 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:10.920 them to someone who is articulate and able to proclaim the gospel. 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:13.839 That is not the model here. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:19.119 And this is the difference between kind of one action and a gospel movement. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:20.119 And that's what we have here. 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:27.799 A movement is something which affects a group of people, not just one individual. 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:35.159 A movement is something which is infectious as people together speak and scatter the gospel 00:17:35.159 --> 00:17:36.159 themselves. 00:17:36.159 --> 00:17:41.639 And there are no, no go areas. 00:17:41.639 --> 00:17:47.279 There is no people group who are beyond hearing the gospel. 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:53.000 The fact of the Jewish folk, of course, the Samaritans there to hear the gospel. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.919 What about our own day and age? 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.200 What are the no go areas? 00:17:58.200 --> 00:18:01.200 I don't know, the new atheists? 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:05.320 Maybe some of us know folk like that. 00:18:05.320 --> 00:18:07.320 What are they? 00:18:07.320 --> 00:18:10.240 Listen, have courage. 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:16.480 Just tell them, oh my Jesus, there is a power in simply telling the gospel. 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:22.320 And the thing is that the people out there are more open than you can imagine. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.039 People out there, many folk are interested in spirituality and they are interested in 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:28.039 authenticity. 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:33.439 And the churches that are growing, the churches that are lively in Scotland and throughout 00:18:33.439 --> 00:18:40.439 the world are churches that are courageous and have something interesting to say about 00:18:40.439 --> 00:18:43.720 the gospel and about Jesus. 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:47.159 So that's the first thing we notice here is courage. 00:18:47.159 --> 00:18:49.200 There's a second thing we notice here. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:50.879 And I'm calling that effectiveness. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:58.960 Because it's said there that the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:00.880 said by Philip. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.160 So they were interested. 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:04.600 There was engagement. 00:19:04.600 --> 00:19:06.440 There was a response. 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:10.880 And so what they did was very, very effective. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:14.480 In verse six, they paid close attention to what they said. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:22.200 In verse seven, many were healed, in verse 12, men and women were baptized. 00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:27.160 Now it's interesting that there is a theme going through chapter eight. 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:30.039 And the effectiveness is tied to this theme. 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:36.720 Because what we have here is, again and again, we find that they are connected to the word. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.279 Look at verse four. 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:41.000 It mentions there the word. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:45.480 Look again at verse 14, it mentions the word. 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:49.880 Look at verse 25, it says the word. 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:51.839 So that's the kind of theme. 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:59.000 That's the evangelistic thread that's going through this particular chapter. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:08.640 And the thing there is that it says to them that they proclaimed to them the Christ. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:13.759 There is power in proclamation of the Christ. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:19.880 I was in a church a few months ago and it was a very interesting situation. 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:27.560 At the end of it, I thought, there was something unusual about this particular service. 00:20:27.560 --> 00:20:31.240 It wasn't a Presbyterian reformed evangelical church. 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:35.520 But at the end, I just thought, what was unusual about this situation? 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:41.839 And then it's struggling that the unusual thing was that Christ was not mentioned, I 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:48.639 think, apart from at the end of the pastoral prayer, the guy said the Christ's name and 00:20:48.639 --> 00:20:50.440 at the end of benediction. 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:54.639 Twice in the service, Christ's name was mentioned. 00:20:54.639 --> 00:20:59.400 I looked outside and I noticed it on the notice board that said that the services were taking 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:01.440 place on the Sabbath. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.200 So I thought, this is really interesting. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.039 The notice board says the services are on the Sabbath. 00:21:06.039 --> 00:21:08.759 The sermon has no reference to Jesus Christ. 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:10.880 Am I in a synagogue? 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.759 Is this Saturday? 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:18.840 And that's, I think, what many folk walking along the street would say. 00:21:18.840 --> 00:21:25.120 And it seemed to me to be heavy and it seemed to be very kind of moralistic. 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:26.840 Do this, do this, do this. 00:21:26.840 --> 00:21:32.120 And I was absolutely exhausted at the end of the service. 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:35.919 You would not find that here with Philip in Acts 8. 00:21:35.919 --> 00:21:40.959 And the folk who were scattered, they proclaimed the Christ. 00:21:40.959 --> 00:21:45.519 And they proclaimed to them, the whole word Christ indeed is tied up with Christ as the 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:47.839 Messiah. 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:53.199 Because the Samaritans had a very peculiar view of the Messiah. 00:21:53.199 --> 00:21:55.679 They kind of believed in a halfway Messiah. 00:21:55.679 --> 00:21:59.879 They thought that Moses was a kind of Messiah figure. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.640 A liberator, a political animal, certainly. 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:10.400 But not a Messiah according to the House of David, a kind of Bible type Messiah. 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:16.640 And so we find here that this is our trump card, if you pardon the expression. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:19.840 I don't think that's a great phrase to use these days. 00:22:19.840 --> 00:22:26.080 But this is the thing that really makes the gospel advance. 00:22:26.080 --> 00:22:29.720 Is that we preach Christ. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.720 The Lord Jesus Christ, the most remarkable person who ever lived. 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:39.960 The man whose life is spunningly beautiful and someone who is above reproach. 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:44.240 And when we preach Christ, we can't go wrong. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:49.920 I think it was Michael Green who says, wherever they went, Christians were opposed as anti-social, 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:52.680 atheistic, and depraved. 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:56.559 Their message proclaimed a crucified criminal. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:01.240 And nothing could have been less calculated to win them converts. 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:07.759 Green says, worse still, this worship of a crucified Messiah was distinctively blasphemous. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:12.839 The Old Testament made it perfectly clear that anyone hanging on a stake was resting 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:15.960 under the curse of God. 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:23.879 And yet it's counter-cultural, counter-intuitive that Jesus is fascinating, that Jesus is compelling, 00:23:23.880 --> 00:23:30.440 that Jesus is someone who is worthy of certainly attention and from our perspective honor. 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:32.360 How can a preacher be boring? 00:23:32.360 --> 00:23:40.480 A boring preacher ought to be put in jail because their subject matter is so interesting 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:43.520 and fascinating. 00:23:43.520 --> 00:23:50.560 And so when you get into a discussion with someone, Acts 8 says that what is a really 00:23:50.559 --> 00:24:00.200 good theme is to speak of Jesus, not to just go straight into some kind of culture war, 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.599 moralistic battle, but to speak of Jesus. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.159 Because Fogg will say all the time, yeah, the church is full of hypocrites. 00:24:07.159 --> 00:24:10.759 And we can just put our hands up and say, absolutely, why not join us? 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:15.519 It's a little bit self-righteous sometimes to say, oh, the church is full of hypocrites. 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:17.559 There's not an ounce of hypocrisy in me. 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:19.559 Therefore, I'm not going to join the church. 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:24.960 The church is full of sinners and there will be faults with churches. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:27.240 I don't know most of you. 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:32.000 Some of you have perhaps come in here bruised and battered and you have received bruises 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:36.599 and a battering from the church. 00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:42.519 There's all sorts of abuse out there and many folks suffer from religious abuse and that's 00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:45.879 a thing. 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:51.600 And when we come to Jesus, there's that lovely verse in the Bible that says, a bruised reed, 00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:59.880 he will not break, and a smoldering candle, he will not finally snub out. 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:11.320 He says, come to me, oh, you are weary and they're heavy laden and I will give you rest. 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:21.119 Take my yoke upon you for my burden is light. 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:23.759 The Gospel is about Jesus. 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:25.759 He is the Messiah. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:30.319 He is the one who has come to lead us. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:34.960 And folk are constantly looking for a Messiah. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:40.240 We see that in the political life when the whole Obama thing was kicking off in the US. 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:44.319 People were also using the language of Messiahship. 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:52.160 When the new guy came on his Republican throne, they used the same language. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:55.359 This is someone who's going to make America great again. 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:57.480 Someone who's going to turn the cog back. 00:25:57.480 --> 00:25:59.759 We have it here in our own political system. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:03.880 We're looking for a redeemer. 00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:08.200 They proclaim Jesus as Messiah. 00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:10.440 Now this is a movement. 00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:12.640 This is a movement. 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:14.960 What I mean by that is that they did lots of things. 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:18.279 They proclaimed the word. 00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:24.519 And in verse seven and eight, I guess you could say, they engaged in justice ministry. 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:29.400 You see the word and social justice went together in verse seven and eight. 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:31.440 You've got to do this. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:34.880 Because especially in a background that's antagonistic. 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:38.440 What you see here is a movement. 00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:41.120 What do we mean by a movement? 00:26:41.120 --> 00:26:44.560 Well, a movement involves many people. 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:48.840 And a movement involves many techniques. 00:26:48.840 --> 00:26:56.880 If the only instrument you have is a hammer, then everything you touch looks like a nail. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:04.160 And too many churches use simply one hammer to hit the various nails. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:08.759 In the gospel, in a gospel movement, you've got lots of things. 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:13.480 You've got folk like Philip proclaiming the gospel. 00:27:13.480 --> 00:27:17.560 You've got the trained apostles back in Jerusalem giving the backup. 00:27:17.560 --> 00:27:20.840 You've got the ordinary people gossiping the gospel. 00:27:20.840 --> 00:27:25.960 You get them proclaiming the word of God in terms of preaching like we're doing tonight. 00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:28.440 You get ordinary folks speaking to their neighbors. 00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:31.960 You get folk in the Archaeopagus in the places of public debate. 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:34.080 You get folk in the public square. 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:37.879 You've got all sorts of things. 00:27:37.879 --> 00:27:40.039 That's what a gospel movement is about. 00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:44.000 That there are many ways out there to proclaim the word. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:49.039 And probably the least effective are just simple programs. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:53.679 I passed an institution recently. 00:27:53.679 --> 00:27:58.199 And I know that the institution is a kind of failing. 00:27:58.199 --> 00:27:59.839 It's not going anywhere. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:00.839 There's no sense of direction. 00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:03.159 There's no strategy. 00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:05.160 It's lost its vision. 00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:11.600 And they've just put up a poster outside, organizing a Christianity-explored course. 00:28:11.600 --> 00:28:14.440 That's great, of course. 00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:20.560 But you feel, is that just another program to see if we can keep the thing going for 00:28:20.560 --> 00:28:22.560 a few more months? 00:28:22.560 --> 00:28:27.680 No, a gospel movement is not just about programs. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:34.360 It's about people who are passionate about Jesus and who are telling others. 00:28:34.360 --> 00:28:36.880 And that's the thing that struck me recently. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:41.960 In my day job, I go around talking to churches, how to be effective strategically. 00:28:41.960 --> 00:28:44.880 I talk to churches about how to engage with culture. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:47.080 And we're seeing a degree of change. 00:28:47.080 --> 00:28:52.279 We're seeing a degree of movement as many of our churches are becoming more cultural, 00:28:52.279 --> 00:28:55.279 savvy, and aware. 00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:05.359 But a huge gap is in getting our people to just tell their story of how they came to 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:10.039 Christ, that people will be witnesses. 00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:11.039 So we've seen courage. 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:12.039 We've seen effectiveness. 00:29:12.039 --> 00:29:17.200 Thirdly, let us notice here the word I've used is conflict. 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.720 Notice verse 9, but there was a man named Simon. 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:21.960 You see, all things are going well. 00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:22.960 They've scattered. 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:24.639 They've proclaimed the gospel. 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:26.600 The crowds paid attention. 00:29:26.600 --> 00:29:31.080 Verse 6, verse 7, unclean spirits are crying out. 00:29:31.080 --> 00:29:32.400 There's healing. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:36.800 In verse 7, verse 8, there is much joy in that city. 00:29:36.800 --> 00:29:42.280 But verse 9, there was a man named Simon. 00:29:42.280 --> 00:29:46.680 There's always a guy named Simon or a girl named Simon. 00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:52.000 There's always hassle when you proclaim the gospel. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.560 Always, always, always. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:58.440 So this guy, Simon, he is a sorcerer. 00:29:58.440 --> 00:30:04.519 He is a little bit of a self-styled celebrity. 00:30:04.519 --> 00:30:11.559 Verse 9, it says there, he amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was someone 00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:14.039 great. 00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:15.039 He was influential. 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:21.079 Verse 11, they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed him with his 00:30:21.079 --> 00:30:22.079 magic. 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:25.000 That's very contemporary, isn't it? 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:26.960 Someone who says that they're great. 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:33.000 Someone who amazes people with their magic, with their charisma, with their personality. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:35.919 They followed him because he was amazing. 00:30:35.919 --> 00:30:42.319 And he kind of bought into this Christian thing because he thought that he could make some 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:43.319 money. 00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:45.359 And he was affected by the gospel. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:49.279 Verse 13, it looks like language, even Simon himself believed. 00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:54.200 He kind of intellectually thought, oh, there is something in here. 00:30:54.200 --> 00:31:00.279 And then we've got this stunning offer in verse 18 when he says, give me this power, 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:07.960 let me pay this money so that I too may lay hands on someone. 00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:18.039 Evangelism is exciting and paradigm breaking, but it can also lead to conflict. 00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:21.000 It goes with the territory. 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:23.960 But a couple of things here. 00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:29.639 Let's recognize that when we witness there may be a negative effect. 00:31:29.639 --> 00:31:34.799 And so it's perfectly understandable that those who are emotionally intelligent, you 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:40.879 don't like to elicit a negative effect, but it's going to come. 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:50.840 And can I just say that if there is a negative effect, always let it be because of the gospel, 00:31:50.840 --> 00:31:53.880 not because of our abrasive personality. 00:31:53.880 --> 00:32:00.880 And so I'm just saying here that there is always conflict when there is evangelism. 00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:06.920 And evangelism is messy and it is complex. 00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:07.920 So we've seen your courage. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:08.920 We've seen effectiveness. 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:11.080 We've seen conflicts. 00:32:11.080 --> 00:32:18.360 But then fourthly and finally, the last word I'm using here is authenticity. 00:32:18.360 --> 00:32:22.720 Maybe those of you who are theologically astute and maybe not have noticed something in chapter 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:28.480 eight is quite interesting because we believe that when someone becomes a Christian at that 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.720 point, they're filled with the spirit. 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:33.720 There's not a kind of two-stage process. 00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:38.200 You become a Christian and then you have a later baptism of the spirit. 00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:40.440 That's what the Bible clearly teaches. 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:47.960 However, what you have here is something unusual, don't you, because there is some discussion 00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:54.640 amongst the people back there in Jerusalem, whether the Samaritans had actually received 00:32:54.640 --> 00:32:55.640 the spirit. 00:32:55.640 --> 00:32:59.799 They accepted the word of God and they were baptized, but did not yet receive the Holy 00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:00.799 Spirit. 00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:01.799 And this was unprecedented. 00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:10.200 I'm not going into the pros and cons of that tonight, we don't have much time left. 00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:15.079 But what I find quite interesting here is that they went back to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem 00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:19.319 guys came up to see what was going on. 00:33:19.319 --> 00:33:29.919 And they went up and they saw what was happening in Samaria. 00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:33.200 Just very briefly, why was this? 00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:39.759 The church of Jerusalem was very well established and that's where the apostles were. 00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:41.600 So it was the real deal. 00:33:41.600 --> 00:33:44.400 It was like the mother church. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.039 So Jerusalem was about like St. Columbus. 00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:53.759 The old wise apostles were on the staff there. 00:33:53.759 --> 00:34:01.160 So it was kind of like Derrick and Cory, you know, the old wise Gandalf figures. 00:34:01.160 --> 00:34:08.039 And then there's a movement of God up in Cornerstone or Esk Valley. 00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:18.000 And it's been achieved under folk who are a little bit edgy and stuff happens. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:25.440 And so the guys from Jerusalem go to see what is happening. 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:29.599 Now I think and at that point the Holy Spirit comes. 00:34:29.599 --> 00:34:33.000 Now there's a lot of things happening here. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:38.840 One of course is that the racial divide is so huge. 00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:42.519 I can't tell you how big a deal this is. 00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:47.920 But they needed to make sure or the Holy Spirit was there visibly bringing folk together 00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:53.119 because only the Holy Spirit could reconcile Jew and Samaritan. 00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:56.759 So they went down number one to see that it was a real deal. 00:34:56.759 --> 00:35:01.079 They went down to ensure that it was a real deal to help them. 00:35:01.079 --> 00:35:06.559 But here we see that the established church of Jerusalem can privy us and affirms the 00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:09.880 new church plant at Samaria. 00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:14.599 Because they needed to make sure it had apostolic authority. 00:35:14.599 --> 00:35:19.640 I'm just going to make one point here. 00:35:19.640 --> 00:35:23.280 Something's got to be real if it's church. 00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:26.119 And so they've got to establish authenticity. 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:28.920 That was the connection to the apostles. 00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:31.760 This is what we call apostolic succession. 00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:35.800 Not that you just lay hands on someone in a kind of magical way. 00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:42.640 But the church that we have today is recognizably a Christian church. 00:35:42.640 --> 00:35:44.680 Church can be a little bit like Chinese whispers. 00:35:44.680 --> 00:35:49.800 You know, you say one sentence and you go around the room and by the end of the room 00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:52.640 you've got completely different sentences. 00:35:52.640 --> 00:36:00.160 That's why it is so important that church has to conform to the franchise agreement 00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:05.960 made up by the apostolic doctrine that we find in the New Testament. 00:36:05.960 --> 00:36:09.519 So there's a degree of quality control here. 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:12.279 That's why there is authenticity. 00:36:12.279 --> 00:36:16.960 The line of apostolic succession is not priestly but doctrinal. 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:19.079 Times gone you've been very, very patient. 00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:21.000 Let's conclude. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:26.879 So we have been called, all of us are being called in this act's eight way to scatter 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.800 abroad and to spread the gospel. 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:39.519 In my wanderings through Highgate Cemetery I noticed another grave and it was a grave 00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:43.360 of the scientist Michael Faraday. 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:51.320 And he said this, speculations, I have none. 00:36:51.320 --> 00:36:54.160 I am resting on certainties. 00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:59.000 I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have 00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:05.000 committed unto him against that day. 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:14.279 Buried very close to one another the revolutionary marks on the scientist Faraday who is resting 00:37:14.279 --> 00:37:17.719 on certainties. 00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:24.319 There are many things that we are uncertain of, many things that we are not sure of. 00:37:24.319 --> 00:37:30.079 But one thing that we are sure of is that Jesus Christ is today as he has always been 00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:42.159 the power of God unto salvation and that he is life changing, paradigm breaking, sin 00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:43.159 forgiving. 00:37:43.159 --> 00:37:52.599 And this is what our world, this is what our cities need more than anything. 00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:56.119 The wonderful thing is that we have been given this privilege. 00:37:56.119 --> 00:38:02.399 We are not one of the big people who commands audiences of thousands in the convention. 00:38:02.399 --> 00:38:07.960 We are one of the little people that spread a big message. 00:38:07.960 --> 00:38:16.039 May we all see blessing in this spreading by the little people of the big message. 00:38:16.039 --> 00:38:17.240 Let's pray. 00:38:17.240 --> 00:38:21.280 Father, we thank you for who you are. 00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:25.119 We bless you for the power of the gospel. 00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:30.800 May we engage in mission and evangelism in the power of the Spirit. 00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:34.720 And may there be signs falling. 00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:39.239 Help us to give you all the glory and to enjoy you always. 00:38:39.239 --> 00:39:05.239 Amen.