The Word Made Plain

Announcer: Welcome to The Word Made Plain playing with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 8, verses 1 through 8.

Tony Clark: We have already had everything Christian removed from public places. Prayer removed out of schools. Ten Commandments taken down off the walls of the courtrooms. Crosses taken down off of hills and mountains around this country. No nativity scenes in public places.

Now it's a, it's a holiday tree. Holiday tree. Now it's holiday shopping. No Christmas because of the Christ in Christmas. Now it's holiday, it's no more Christmas break. When I grew up, we looked forward to Christmas break. Now it's winter, winter break. Since when you need break in winter? I mean, you know, it'd be, it's nice.

But why are we taking a break in the wintertime? Oh, it's Christmas. But this is the country that we're living in. No more praying in the name of Jesus at city council meetings. I used to pray at city council's meetings until they sent me a letter one time and said, "Hey, we want you to come and do what you do, pray before do, you know, before the city council meeting, but you can't mention the name of Jesus. Don't pray in Jesus' name." And I said, "And that's the last time."

That I, who am I, who am I talking to? Somebody on the city council? With my eyes closed? Who am I talking to? Some, some cosmic God out there, some generic? Who am I praying to? You asking a pastor of a church to come and pray and not mention the name of Jesus? Are you kidding me? I said, "That, I said, no thanks."

Y'all going to pray, get your generic prayer from somebody else, but it won't be me. It won't be me at all. And so, now no more mentioning of Jesus by valedictorians at graduations. The list goes on and on.

Next is what we see happening in these verses, Christians being put to death for speaking the truth about Jesus Christ. Here's the question: Are you ready for this level of persecution?

Those of you playing games with God, you know who you are, and not serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ will, not might, will give in and not stand for Jesus Christ. Oh, hey, Pastor Tony, how you, how you know this? Because if you can't live for him now, you definitely ain't going to die for him later. You ain't living for him now. You know who you are. You fooling around, playing games with God. You won't stand. You won't stand when the rubber meets the road.

And so, here it is, we see in these verses. No one wanted to leave Jerusalem. You know why? It was the happening place. It was the center of spiritual activity. And for six years, no one wanted to leave.

They took the persecution by Saul to get the believers moving, to scatter to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I want you to notice where they scattered when persecution broke out. The Lord told them, "You shall, when the spirit of God comes upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." They stayed in Jerusalem. Persecution broke out, they went to Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

It was the persecution of Acts 8:1, which moved the church to obey the command of Acts 1:8. And what form of persecution will come your way to get you going or to get you to take your relationship with God seriously?

Will you be faced with a job transfer, new military assignment, a breakup of a relationship? Maybe you got turned down for a job or a promotion you wanted. What, what will it take to get you going in obedience to the Lord? A pink slip? Most of us want to stay where it's comfortable. But the Lord sees where we can be used most effectively. Now, let me tell you and I'm going to look at all of you with a straight face. I would have loved to have stayed in sunny California. Trust me when I say that.

But God wanted me and wanted to use me here in Virginia. Let's stop and look at what we consider as persecution here in the American church, what we call persecution: losing a job, losing a relationship, a job transfer. This is what we call, "Oh, suffering for the Lord. Persecution."

Where there are people around the world losing their lives. We're, we're talking about a a job transfer when there are people who have been chased away from their homelands permanently because of their stand for Jesus Christ. Maybe persecution is what, uh, what we need here in the American church to get us going for the Lord. Maybe this is what we need. It'll begin to weed out those true believers from those fooling around. It'll begin to weed it out. Maybe this is what we need.

Notice how the end of verse one says that everyone scattered except the apostles. Why didn't they flee like everyone else? I believe because they fled previously out of fear. You remember in, in Matthew 26 and verse, uh, 56, when they came to arrest Jesus to bring him to trial, it says that all the disciples forsook him and fled. So here it is six years later, they probably said, "We fled out of fear before. We're staying here in Jerusalem even if it cost us our lives."

Look what it says there in verses two and three. It says that devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. And as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Now, in these verses, we see in verse two that devout men carried Stephen, who was stoned in chapter seven, to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Then we are reintroduced to Saul again in verse three. It says that he made havoc of the church. I put emphasis on havoc for a reason because that Greek word is an amazing Greek word. It only appears here in the entire New Testament. And it means to destroy, to ruin, or to damage. In extra-biblical writings, it was used to describe the destruction of a city and the mangling by a wild beast.

The root of this word describes the results of wounding a, a wild boar. See, when a boar is wounded, it goes on a rampage and loses all sense of sanity, which is exactly what happened to Saul. And here is Saul just consenting to the death of Stephen, now like a wild boar, begins to go from house to house, dragging believers out, putting them in prison.

Another definition of this Greek word for havoc means that Saul was tearing the church apart, an act that would haunt him the rest of his life. In 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 9, he says, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle." And Ephesians 3:8, he says, "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints." And finally in 1 Timothy 1:15, he calls himself the chief of sinners.

Now, what happened next? Look what it says there in verse four. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. So those who were scattered in verse one because of the persecution against the church went everywhere preaching the word, which is what the Lord told them to do from the start.

Does the Lord have to use persecution to get us going to preach the Gospel? He told us in Mark 16 and verse 15, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." He told us in Matthew 28 and verse 19, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

When are we going to obey this, though? Maybe persecution is the only way to get us believers today to obey his command and take this glorious Gospel to a hurting world. There are many people who said, "Well, you know, for those of you been around church for a little while, you use the spiritual jargon. Well, I'm waiting to be led by the Lord." He told you 2,000 years ago to go.

How, how much waiting you have to do? It's been, it's been 2,000 years. He told you to go. To take this Gospel that Jesus Christ came and died and rose again on the third day. That he came to pay the price for your sin and mine on Calvary's cross. That no longer do you have to carry the weight and the guilt of your sin. That you can be set free through a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the message we need to be taken because there's a world out there guilty. There's a world out there carrying the weight of their sin, trying to lay on somebody's couch to get rid of their guilt and sin. Only Jesus can set them free from their sin. Only Jesus. You can lay on somebody's couch and talk to them till you're blue in the face. It won't remove your guilt.

Only through repentance of your sin, not trying to shift it on somebody else. Taking responsibility for your sin and repent of that. And Jesus will take the weight of your sin off you. And as you begin to walk with him in a relationship with him, you don't have to carry it any longer. The guilt, you know, the guilt that you cry yourself to sleep every night because of how you feel about what you're doing. Jesus wants to take that away. He wants to forgive you and set you free. That's the message.

We need to take to a hurting and dying world. They're hurting because they've been, they've been beat up by life, drowning in their sin. And they're like, "What, what am I to do with it but carry it?" No, you don't have, there's somebody who carried it. Can forgive you of all of your sins, past, present, and future. You said, "Well, how is that?" How many of your sins were yet future when Jesus died on the cross? All of them. All of them. All of them.

Look what it says there in verse five. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Now, as Philip was persecuted, he went down to the city of Samaria. Now, what is interesting to note is that Stephen was stoned to death in chapter seven, and persecution breaks out in verse one of this chapter, and now Philip flees to Samaria.

It will seem like the persecution was mainly against the Hellenistic Jews or the Jews with a Greek background. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, and so was Philip. It would seem that the persecution was against the Hellenistic Jews that the Orthodox Jews hated. We're going to see why. Look at verses six through eight. 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 lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city.

So Philip traveled to Samaria, which was 40 miles north of Jerusalem. Now, the Samaritans were a mixed race of people. When the Assyrians took the 10 northern tribes into captivity in 721, 722 BC, the Assyrians mingled with the Jews and produced the Samaritans.

So verse six says that the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. The Holy Spirit had, had already prepared the hearts of the Samaritans to respond to Philip's message. Could it be? Could it be? Or could it have been done as a result of the Samaritan woman that Jesus ministered to in John chapter four? You remember Jesus ministered to the woman, told her everything that was in her heart, and it said that she went into the city and gathered all the men. She had a way with the men. Gathered all the men and said, "Come see a man who told me everything I did." And they said, "Everything? We got to come see him." "Did, did he mention me?" And they came. And it, it said that they all came. Could their hearts have been prepared because of this Samaritan woman?

Could have been. The same thing is needed in our lives. The Holy Spirit must prepare the hearts of the Samaritans on your job, in your neighborhood, and in your families. This is done by prayer. Begin to pray for the Samaritans in your life and see how easy it is to talk to them about the Gospel because the Holy Spirit has already gone before you like we see in these in these verses.

This is another reason why we started praying on Saturday nights. I look at you all of you here today. We prayed for you last night. We prayed that God would open up your heart so you can be receptive to the word of God coming forth today. Oh, many of you, you know, you, you would have come in here like this. "Okay, what do you got to say? Okay, hurry up. Okay, I'm done. All right, I'm." But now there's an openness because we prayed for you last night. It was just a few of us, but we prayed. I said, "I don't care if it's just me here."

"I'm going to pray for you on Saturday night so your heart will be right." And for those of you who went out partying last night, we prayed for you too. We prayed that you had a miserable time. That your time stunk last night. "Was that you praying for me?" Yeah. Pray that you, it stunk, it was terrible. We prayed for you. Prayed for you. That your heart would be receptive to the word of God and the things of God. The miracle spoken of at the end of verse six is told to us in verse seven, which were those with unclean spirits possessed with demons and those paralyzed and lame were healed.

We are seeing these kinds of miracles happening in our church in a spiritual sense. Those with unclean spirits of pornography, and sex slaves, and prostitution are being delivered. Whenever you see the word unclean throughout the New Testament, it's always connected to unclean in a sexual sense.

And there are people that, that are, they're being delivered from this kind of stuff. Jesus setting people free from demonic oppression, and those paralyzed by fear and and their past set free, and those lame and crippled by life's crippling events are now walking with God. This is how many of you came to our church.

And when you repented of your sin and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and started sitting under the systematic verse by verse teaching of the word of God, the Lord delivered you and healed you. And now look at you, walking with God. You were a mess when you came in here. Oh, I can, I can remind you of how you came in here. Many of you, you know, I know. You were a wreck. And I look at you now, and I, every time I see you, I smile because I know how you came in here limping. Limping along. And the Lord got a hold of your life, and you sat under the teaching of the word of God, and you learned how to walk with God.

I told you many people are not walking with God because they never been taught how. They just been taught how to do a little dance in church and do a little jig and sing a little song and get screamed at and yelled at, and then go out the door and say, "That was good. What he talk about? I don't know, but it was good." And and and you go out and go right back into your mess. You don't know how to walk with God. It says you get taught the word of God. Teaching is the greatest need of the church today. We've been preached to death. We need to be taught how to walk with God. What does God's word say?

This is what's needed. Some of you, we talk about verse by verse teaching through the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, you're like, "Huh? What, what's that?" I, I'm used to going to a church where we hop over here and then over there, and and he read a verse, but he never come back to that verse. But and he come. Oh. Oh. You guys were a mess. And then God just began to just heal you of all kind of mess of your past and taught you how to walk with him. And now I see you, there's a glow about you as you're walking with the Lord. Some of you still got some God still got some work to do. I, I look at you your face, boy. God still got, you know, you still got some work to do.

But it's a, it's amazing though. Verse 8 says, "As a result of these miraculous things happening and the preaching of the Gospel," it said that great joy was in the city. Great joy. So this meant that it wasn't a few people experiencing these things. The whole city was affected by the preaching of the Gospel.

It reminds me of what happened in Acts 13. It says that in Acts 13 that when the apostles came there and preached the word, it says the entire city came out the next week and begged that they would preach the word to them again. The preaching and teaching of the word of God produces a hunger for more. And this is why many of you are growing the way you're growing because that word of God systematically taught to you, you're like, "I got to hear some more of this." And you came back, and then you said, "I got to hear some more of this." And then God began to heal. This is why for us, our church, we don't have a large counseling load at our church. You know why? Because Jesus is counseling his people through the teaching of the word of God. The Bible said that he shall be called wonderful counselor. And oh, what a wonderful counselor he is. And he is does healing you of all kinds of mess. And so we don't have to deal with all your mess, the webs you weave and all the stuff you've done with your life. We we are clueless how to help you. But God knows how.

He knows how. And as you sit under this word, this word is healing you of all kind of mess. I'm going to tell you, save your money. Put your money, put your money in the Don't Stop Reaching campaign. You don't have to lay on somebody's couch. Just lay and let Jesus and his word just heal you of all kind of mess that you're experiencing. He's a wonderful, wonderful counselor. It also said that the city was filled with joy. Are you experiencing this joy?

Do you have this joy? I'm not talking about happiness. Happiness is based upon outward circumstances. Joy is a quality of the Spirit. You can, the world can be crashing down, and you can still have joy. Do you experience this joy? Do you lack it? If you lack it, you can experience it today through a relationship with Jesus Christ. That no matter what happens in your life, you can still have this joy. He wants you to experience his joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. He wants you to experience that in your life through repenting and coming and accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. He will fill your life with great joy. It can be yours today. If you come, he can just heal you of all kind of mess that's going on in your life. Let me conclude with this.

We talked about this coming. Are you ready for the persecution that is coming to the United States? I never thought I'd be alive to see, see this. My poor little grandchildren will never know that our country once tried to have a Christian heritage. I say once tried because you can't have American slavery like you had in our country and call us a Christian nation. So we once tried to have some Christian principles in our nation. And my poor little grandchildren will never know that. Our history books used to be that thick with all kind of things of how God shed his grace on thee. We wanted everybody to know when you get our money in God, we're trusting. And now, my poor grandchildren will never know that. Never know anything about that.

But the thing is, this is where we come in and we teach them. This is why we have the dynamic children's ministry we have because we're going to teach them. We're going to teach them about the Lord. We're going to teach them through the scriptures, through the Bible on their level. We're going to teach them the word of God. But as the persecution comes, will you stand or fall? You're only able to stand by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Are you going to come and experience that today? Or are you going to still try through your churchianity to get through life? You can see your churchianity isn't changing your life. It's just something you do at the end of the week whenever it's convenient. No, we're talking about a daily relationship with the Lord. That is the only way you'll be able to stand. Will you fall, or will you stand? Only time will tell. My heart's desire is that you stand for him now. You stand for him now, you'll be able to die for him later. Only through a relationship with him. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this time in your word. We pray, God, that your Holy Spirit will teach us, lead us, and guide us into all truth. Lord, I pray that your Spirit will draw your people to you today. Lord, you know we've already prayed. We prayed, Lord. We sought you. And so, God, we pray now that you would do your part by your Spirit and draw your people to you today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Announcer: If The Word Made Plain has been a source of inspiration and encouragement to you, why not consider becoming a Word Made Plain giving partner to keep this listener-supported program on the air? As a giving partner, you join forces with Calvary Chapel Newport News's Kingdom Vision of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can make your tax-deductible gift online at calvarynn.org or send your gift of any amount to 15531 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, Virginia, 23608. And receive a gift from Calvary Chapel Newport News as our thank you. In addition to your financial support, we ask that you pray for The Word Made Plain broadcast that it touches hearts and generates change in the lives of people around the world. We pray you've been blessed by God's word today and hope you'll tune in next time to hear The Word Made Plain.