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Pastor Mike will be speaking on Advancing the Purposes of God Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 8:1-8.
In all that we’ve experienced as a nation and even the world, the question is how should Christians respond? Christians should respond with the gospel, just like we should respond with the gospel in every situation and every circumstance.
Why is that so difficult? Welcome to Hope Worth Having. This is Pastor Mike Sanders, and I serve as the senior pastor of the Open Door Church. Thank you for tuning in to this radio program, and we hope that you are encouraged and inspired to be more faithful and obedient to God.
We want to encourage you to join us in the book of Acts. We’re going to be in Acts chapter 8, verses 1 through 8, and we’re talking about advancing the purposes of God. We’re back at it today, beginning in chapter 8, so I want you to join me.
Grab your Bible, pencil, paper, and let’s study together. If you have your Bibles this morning, join me in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 8, verses 1 through 8 is our text this morning. While you’re turning there, let me share with you an article that I recently read in a magazine entitled, Preaching Today.
In this article, we are introduced to a pastor whose name is Thomas Toole, and he writes, My friend, Dr. Tad Stewart, took a church in Tehran, Iran. He and his family were there during the revolution, the revolt, and the riots.
The government under the atola closed the small struggling Presbyterian church. There were very few members, but the government came in and burned all the Bibles, all the Sunday school curriculum, and then they took a big padlock.
They locked the door of the church. They wiped their hands and said… said, aha, we have closed Christianity in Iran. Tad Stewart and his wife opened their small house on Sunday morning for people to come for worship.
Nobody dared to say where they were going, and they came early in the morning while it was still dark. But church attendance grew until it doubled and then it tripled. People smuggled in Bibles as if they were pure gold.
Tad said that when he opened the Bible and he read it, you could have heard a pin drop. Suddenly electricity and faith broke out in that church, and soon that church was making an impact all over the city of Tehran, all over the nation of Iran.
and even over that particular part of the Middle East. When we read or hear this story, I’m sure that we must conclude that our God, no matter what persecution is out there, what obstacles are out there, and what tribulation is among God’s people, that He is always advancing His purposes.
That’s what I want to share with you this morning, is that advancing the purposes of God. When we come to our text in Luke chapter eight, verses one through eight, Luke, who is the human author under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, shows us how the church in Jerusalem was persecuted.
But he goes on to teach us how believers were forced to scatter throughout the whole world. He shows us how the expansion of Christianity took place. It’s easy for us to always read the Bible with our American glasses or our current context of how we’re living.
At this point, the church has basically been isolated to Jerusalem. There has not been a lot of evangelism outside of Jerusalem, but yet in Acts 1 .8, Jesus had told His disciples that they had this responsibility, that they were to go to Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
This had not really fleshed out yet in the life of the church. This local congregation of believers, we’ve watched them deal with growth and we’ve seen God move in mighty ways and we’ve seen how they’ve had to organize and create programming or ministries to help deal with some of the negligence.
But now we come to chapter eight, having been introduced in chapter six and seven. to a great man of God named Stephen, that we come to chapter eight and we begin to see how God uses persecution. That’s what I want you to understand, is that even when we are persecuted, even when we might face opposition or pushback in our communities, our cultures, our families, that God is always advancing his purpose.
He is always achieving his perfect will. So I want you to see here in verse one of chapter eight that the Bible says now Saul was consenting to his death, meaning the death of Stephen, that at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial.
They made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heated the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
And there was great joy in that city. What we must recognize as we understand the context of God always advancing his purposes is that, number one, persecution leads to missionary work. Did you see that back in verse one?
The Bible teaches us there in the latter part of the verse that they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. What is it that caused this great scattering? It was a persecution.
God used a persecution as a means to scatter the church all across the known world. We’re introduced to Saul. Many of you who study the Bible regularly, you know that Saul would later become Paul who was a great apostle of the church and he would write a majority of the New Testament that you and I so much enjoy today as we study the scriptures.
But at the outset, he was a loyal Pharisee. He was a devout Jew and a strong opponent of Christianity. He battled again. against the church. Again, we see this manifested in verse three. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Paul was not sad to see Stephen stoned to death. He was not upset. He consented to it. He was happy. The idea is that he approved it. He was part of the leadership that said yes, this is what needs to happen.
Having heard Stephen, this great man of God, who stood up, spoke up, and he defended the faith, and he lifted up the savior, Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul stood against Stephen and consented to his death.
Saul, who was this devout Pharisee, was opposing the church, and he was unrelenting. His personality that God would use later to become such a strong determined leader in planting churches in some of the most difficult circumstances was also used by the devil to try to destroy the church.
He was unrelenting in his commitment to do everything he could to destroy the church. He would later say in Acts 22 verse 4 that he said, I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prison both men and women.
He was a defender of Judaism. He despised the thought that Christ was somehow a Messiah, that Jesus was somehow a Savior. This upset Saul and so he did everything and he did it all thinking that he was doing the will of God.
He would say in Acts chapter 26 in his testimony that many of the saints did I shut up in prison. When they were put to death I gave my voice against them and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
It’s amazing to see all this unfold but what is also amazing is to see in the midst of this what verse 4 says, therefore as a result of this persecution, as a result Saul’s determination to destroy Christianity and to defame the name of Jesus, the Bible says those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
It’s not just that they scattered that is so amazing but that they refused to be quiet. They left Jerusalem, they were scattered throughout different communities and cities and locations and the Bible teaches us that everywhere they went, they were preaching the Word.
They were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were telling others about Christ. You and I are thinking about advancing the purposes of God. We look at our own life and we see tribulation. We see oppositions and struggles that happen in our life and we so often interpret them and try to understand them in such a way that it’s only about us.
But have you ever considered that God may be allowing certain things in your life to bring you out of your comfort zone so that His kingdom could advance, His purposes could be accomplished, and that you might come across new people and new individuals that are searching for Christ and to be able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Saul, who would later become Paul, the Apostle, said in Romans 5, verse 3, that we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation works patience. It’s not that he’s talking about that somehow when we go through a trial in our life, or that we face opposition in our life, that we learn to tolerate better, or we learn to be more patient with others better.
That’s not the point that the Apostle is making, because the word patience is the idea of endurance. Here’s what he’s saying, that when we go through tribulation, God fortifies us. God strengthens us that while we’re under the pressures of life, that we are able to endure for the cause of Christ, it’s the idea of moving forward.
Not that we are just stopped in our tracks and that we are retreating and giving up and running from our problems, or our tribulations, or our trials, but rather that we are working. We are allowing God to work in us on endurance that keeps us moving forward.
That’s what I love about the early church. Our goal is not to try to be like anybody else, but it is to look at the scriptures and strive to emulate those principles that emerge out of the early church, that we might be able to model that in our hearts.
Why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow problems? Why doesn’t God just allow what happened to Peter? Peter stood up and 3 ,000 people came to Christ. Many trusted him, many baptized. Why doesn’t God just always allow that?
We study the scriptures and here we come to Stephen in contrast to the ministry of Peter, where throngs are receiving Christ. Stephen preached the gospel and they stoned him to death. There didn’t seem to be much triumph.
Why would God allow such a valiant man? to die. Why wouldn’t God keep him in the army on the earth and why wouldn’t God say I need this Stephen so that the gospel can go far and wide because God has a plan and a purpose.
His wisdom supersedes our wisdom and though we may not understand our sufferings and we may not always like our struggles we must hold on to this truth that the Apostle has taught us in Romans 5 3 knowing that tribulation works endurance.
It works that determination within our heart that God is shaping us to be stronger, deeper, and more determined through our trials. That’s what happened to the believers. That’s why when they were scattered they didn’t just give up but they went everywhere preaching the word because God uses believers.
and he uses the lips of believers to tell his message. Did you see what the Bible said? It said the apostles stayed back. They stayed at home base to keep the Jerusalem church focus, but God wanted the other people to leave and he scattered them.
And it wasn’t that the leaders of the church were scattered, but it was the people that were scattered. And God is always working and he is working in your heart and many times he scatters us to different locations, different places so that we might tell his message.
I know so many of us, we see that ministry is in the context of maybe somebody who is in the staff or somebody who is leading the church or somebody who has a role in the church, but ministry is every day for us as believers.
You don’t have to have a title. You don’t need a position. You don’t need any of that. All you need to do is that wherever God has planted you that you tell others about Christ, that you strive to win others to Christ, that even if you find yourself like the apostle did later in house arrest, in chains, where you are limited in your freedom, that if you cannot go out and tell others that everyone that comes into your path,
like those guards, those palace guards that came in and out to watch over the apostle, he kept telling them about Christ. He kept teaching Christ, answering their questions about the Messiah. And I’m telling you that we would learn later that some of them would come to Christ and some of them would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? Because the apostle didn’t pout. I’m having a tough time. I’m going through some opposition and resistance. There’s a little pushback in my life. And so I’m just gonna quit telling people about Jesus.
That’s not what the early believers did. Everywhere they went, persecution leads to missionary work in your life. I want you to remember the words of our Savior. Jesus said, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say, all men are of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. There’s a lot here wrapped up in these set of verses, but let me just say this.
Don’t get the Elijah syndrome. I’m the only one left, God. I’m the only one trying to stand up for you, God. I’m the only one that’s out here making a difference for you, God. Everybody else has left me.
Everybody else has abandoned me. And God had to remind him, hey, I got 20 ,000 prophets over here. And Elijah, you need to… come out of this self -pity stupor that you’re in and you need to focus on what God’s purposes are.
That even in persecution, God has a plan. You can identify with other prophets. You can identify with other believers. You can identify, we’re not the only ones, church, that are suffering and struggling.
Some of you are upset at the government. You’re upset at maybe this or that. And I want you to know, friends, that there isn’t anything in this world, there isn’t any government that’s going to stop the advancement of God’s purposes and His kingdom on this earth.
You say, well, if I hand out a tract, they might throw me into prison. They might cancel me, whatever they might do. Let it be, because they also did that to the prophets and that you’re not alone. But rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward.
God honors and He rewards believers who are courageous and strong and willing to stand up. We’re not called to be obnoxious. We’re not called to be hateful. We’re not called to be rude. We’re not even called to be political or we’re not called to defy the government.
What we are called to do is to advance the purposes of God, even if the circumstances are not ideal. We’re to be finding ways that we can spread the message of Jesus Christ and what we’ve recently seen in all that we’ve experienced as a nation and even the world.
The question is, how should Christians respond? Christians should respond with the gospel, just like we should respond with the gospel in every situation and every circumstance. Why is that so difficult?
Why is it so hard for Christians to process that? because we like to make everything about us rather than God and his kingdom. Rather than saying, Lord, what are you teaching me? Lord, what are you calling me to?
Lord, what are you asking me to change? Are you asking me to leave this comfort zone and to jump into something that gets me out there communicating and sharing Christ with others? All Christians are to share their faith.
We’re to share with every person in every way that we can with the gifts and the abilities. You don’t have to do it like Mike Sanders and you don’t have to do it like so -and -so person, but you just do how God gifted you, how he equipped you.
You have skill sets, you have a giftedness, you have abilities, and God wants you to use every gift and ability and talent that you might advance his purpose even in trial, even in… persecution. Jesus told us in Mark 16, 15, that we’re to go into the world.
We are to preach the gospel to every creature, every person. We are to be passionate about this. Someone asked me the other day, they said, what is your philosophy on missions? I have to be honest with you, I don’t have a great dissertation or I don’t have a long set of paperwork that explains my philosophy.
Here’s my philosophy, get the gospel to every person on the planet. That’s it. I know that’s not deep and I know it’s not profound, but I just feel like that’s what Jesus wants us to do and that’s our philosophy and some are going to do it one way, others are going to do it another way, but I’m all in.
I just want to make sure that every person on the planet hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second thing that I want you to realize this morning is that persecution leads to God’s power being demonstrated, not just in our life, but before others who are watching to see the power of the gospel, to see the difference of the gospel.
We come down to verse 5 of Acts chapter 8 and we are now honing in, having made a thesis statement, if you will, of verse 4. The result of this persecution led to the people scattering everywhere, preaching the word.
We’re now diving into an example and here is the example. Verse 5, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them, and the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and the lame were healed. What I want you to see is the power of God being demonstrated. Does God somehow quit working because there’s persecution?
Does God say, well, you know what, they got me this time. I can’t overcome that. Absolutely not. I want you to know that God is always at work and that even if there is a persecution, even if there is a virus, even if there is oppression from the government, even if there is disunity in the family, even if your own workplace does not want you to be a person who is shining the light of Jesus Christ,
that God is always at work in your heart. He is always at work around you and he is working through you that his power may be demonstrated to the world and to every watching eye that they may see that God is real.
I want you to understand something here. We back up into verse 6. We’re told in verse 4 that they were preaching the Word. We’re told that Philip, he did the same thing. He went to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ to them.
But not only does he preach, and the Bible says in verse 6, that they heard Philip. They they heeded or they listened to what he had to say. But they saw. They heard. They saw. That’s the key to your evangelism, is that you are not only communicating the gospel, but you are living the gospel.
That you are not only communicating the power of God and what he can do and what his Word promises us, but that you are living the power of God every day in your life. That you are demonstrating before your family, before those that you work with, and those in your community, that you are demonstrating this great power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God allows persecution to motivate his church to a powerful demonstration of God in their life. Let me help you connect the dots here. The Apostle in 2 Corinthians, he taught the believers that our God is a God of comfort.
He would go on to talk about his affliction, and that in the midst of this affliction, he said that the reason God allowed this affliction in my life is that unbelievers would believe and believers would be encouraged.
How is it that believers would believe, and how is it that believers would be encouraged? Well, they’d already heard the message, but they would see the message. lived out in the life of the apostle.
That is what really brings home the life of the gospel to every heart is that when you and I live the power of God is that when we proclaim this message that we trust God, we believe God’s in control, we believe he’s sovereign, that he’s in charge of all things, but then if our life demonstrates something different than that, people say, see, they don’t walk the talk.
Why should I believe what they don’t even live? But when people see that even in your hurts, even in your struggles, even against opposition and persecution that you are still claiming and holding on and living out the promises and the power of God in your life, this is transformational in the life of others.
That’s why Philip is such a powerful example here is that he was living out the gospel. God was validating the gospel message through the life of Philip for Philip not only preached a message but he demonstrated the message and we see that in verse seven as unclean spirits came out of people that were possessed with the demons and that the paralyzed and the lame were healed as they were seeing that this message and this messenger truly was from God and that God was showing the gospel message of what he can do in the life of a person if God can heal the lame and if God can call out demons if he has authority over disease and he has authority over demons and we know that he has authority over death how much more could he save my soul how much more could he transform my life how much more could he help me walk away from the addictions of this world how much more could he turn my heart away from the flesh and desires of the world to a heart that loves God pursues God and is passionate for the Lord Jesus Christ that’s the power of the gospel and that’s the power you and I must live every day you say I want to I want to influence my kids for God I want to impact my children and grandchildren to live for Christ let me tell you how you do that every day you let the power of the gospel be manifested in your life doesn’t have to always be as demonstrative as casting out demons and I’m sure there are times you wonder if there aren’t demons in your children hey man but I’m talking about being faithful being available to God being in a person of prayer being committed to the gospel that when you find yourself where You have to make a choice that you don’t compromise,
but you choose truth, that you live a godly life before your family. [“A Godly Life”] Is there anything more important than advancing the purposes of God? I don’t think so. And that’s our calling, and I hope that this message has inspired you to make the commitment in your heart to advance the purposes of God.
We wanna remind you that yes, Hope Worth Having is on Facebook, and you can go to Facebook, type in Hope Worth Having. You can like our page. It’s a great opportunity to keep up with our ministry and how God is working and ways that you can be involved.
So I hope that you will join us on Facebook as well as other platforms. and take advantage of those opportunities. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.