Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: To be saved is quite simple: confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus. And I often will stress, but it’s got to come from your heart, not just through your mouth.

Guest (Male): Salvation requires an inward surrender, aligning the heart with God’s truth, says Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: How many people think they’re saved, but really are not? It’s easy to be saved because of God’s grace, but you could miss it if you have the wrong motives, wrong intentions, and your heart’s off. But you do have to have the sincere heart that says, “Lord, I’m a sinner, and I need you to save me from my sins.”

Guest (Male): Acts chapter 8 highlights both the spread of the gospel and the resistance it faced. Simon’s misguided desire for spiritual power revealed a false heart, while the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversion demonstrated genuinely true faith. Through these events, Pastor Brett Meador says we witness God advancing his gospel despite opposition. Let’s join him now in today’s word.

Brett Meador: The book of Acts is picking up where Jesus died on the cross, rose again, so then the church started. And in the beginning of the church, the thing that was so big is the Lord said, “I’m going to do a great work, a new thing, a new covenant, really.” And so here in Acts chapter 8, we see that story continue. So now John and Peter and everybody’s getting in on the action in Samaria.

Verse 15 says, “Peter and John, who then, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”

This passage causes problems for some because it says they believed and were baptized. And in most Christian circles, you go, “Okay, so they’re saved, these Samaritans, when they got baptized by Philip.” And yet they’re only baptized in Jesus Christ. And so some would say, “Well, isn’t that good enough?” And I would say, if you’re baptized in Jesus Christ, that’s good enough.

But why then would Peter and John come and say, “Okay, now we got more work to do. Everybody get around. Let’s lay hands on these new Christians and pray for the Holy Spirit to come on them”? Why were they doing that? See, and this is where some of our Baptist brothers, they would say, “Man, there’s no need for that because once they accepted Christ, they have the Holy Spirit.”

But the answer lies in something that I’ve taken great pains to try to communicate with you all. Does anybody remember, what is the answer to this apparent dilemma? Anybody? Do you remember the three relationships we have with the Holy Spirit? What’s the first one? With. Before you’re even saved, the Holy Spirit was with you. Genesis chapter 6, the Holy Spirit will not always strive with man. That’s something that happens before you were saved. The Holy Spirit’s tapping you on the shoulder, with you.

Jesus said then, the Holy Spirit is with you, but he shall be in you. That’s the second response to the Holy Spirit. Prepositions are important when it comes to the Holy Spirit. So before you were saved, he was with you. When you became a Christian, he’s in you. Question: Does anybody remember when the disciples had the Holy Spirit come in them?

John chapter 20. There, when the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews and Jesus appeared to them and he breathed on them and he said what? “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Okay, so what was going on there? Well, Jesus had now died on the cross, rose through the grave, and then he appears to them and says, “Guess what, guys? You can be saved now because the church has started. No longer is it Old Testament or New Testament, you’re saved by grace through faith. And so I’m going to now have you receive the Holy Ghost.” And that was the in. Jesus said to them, “Holy Spirit was with you and he shall be in you.” And that happened in John chapter 20.

Now, this is where again people have trouble because they don’t understand the third one that is talked in Jesus said there in Acts chapter 1, we read it earlier, “You receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” The Greek word is epi. So there’s a third relationship with the Holy Spirit. And then they waited around there in Acts chapter 2 until the Holy Spirit came upon them. And that’s when the tongues of fire, they spoke in tongues and Peter preached a sermon, and man, the Spirit was upon them.

Now, in the book of Acts, we’re going to see that sometimes the Holy Spirit would come upon the church by the laying on of hands. There would be this practice where they would ask for the Holy Spirit and remember what we always say: if you want to have the Holy Spirit come upon you, how do you get that to happen? You ask. It’s that simple. So these guys were believing in Jesus, “whosoever believeth in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” They believed in Jesus, they were baptized, and then John and Peter show up, “Hey, we got more work to do.”

And what do they do? They lay their hands on them. In fact, verse 15, they sent to them Peter and John, who, verse 15, “when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for as yet he was fallen upon none of them.” Notice the word “upon none of them.” “Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” So what did they do? Verse 17, they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And that I believe is the coming upon of the Holy Spirit.

What does that mean? Why would the Holy Spirit do that? Well, because that’s what’s going to make the Samaritans powerfully do something really cool. Speak in tongues? No, not necessarily. Why would the Holy Spirit come on them? So that they could preach the gospel in Judea, Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Remember, that’s what we read, that’s why the Holy Spirit comes upon. The main reason the Holy Spirit comes upon his church is so that the gospel will be preached. And that’s what’s going to happen. This is how the spread of the gospel.

Well, verse 18, it says, “When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given them, he offered them money.” “Hey, can I have that trick? That’s a great trick.” So the interesting implication that after they laid hands there may have been some demonstration of the Holy Spirit. And what we call those in biblical terms are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Well, what are they? They’re just evidence that the Holy Spirit has come upon someone. And if you want a reference to what the manifestations are, it’s 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through the beginning half of that chapter.

So their manifestations of the Holy Spirit are supernatural, yes, but supernaturally natural. And Simon doesn’t ask for it, he offers money for the trick. Do you start to see evidence that Simon’s a little amiss here? When you start asking, “Can I have money for that trick?” You should notice there’s a problem with Simon. It’s going to get worse.

Verse 19: “So he offered them money, verse 19, saying, ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.’” Simon wants the power so he can do it just like them. Do you see a problem? He’s wanting to do it for the same reason I think that we saw earlier in the chapter. He wanted to be esteemed as Mr. Powerful in the community. And he was losing some of that with Stephen and now Peter and John. Now he’s not the big man on campus doing the magic tricks. And you can almost sense that I want to be doing that stuff too. So he wants power so that it seems that he can have the glory, not so that God can receive the glory.

Verse 20: “But Peter said unto him, ‘Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.’” Now, by the way, this is Peter. And you say, “Brett, are you sure? Maybe he’s just a naughty little Christian. Maybe he’s just being a little bit bad actor.” Maybe. But when Peter says, “your money perish with thee,” does that sound like a very godly thing to say to a guy that’s your bro in Christ? Or is this a guy who’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing? See, Peter’s calling him out right now by saying, “your money perish with thee.” In other words, you’re headed for perishing, which is not a Christian thing.

You think the gift of God may be purchased with money. Verse 21: “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.” Another scary word. That sounding to me like Simon’s not a believer even though it says he was a believer. This is where we have to define belief. “For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”

Okay, so Peter comes on really strong there. Would you agree? Man, he hammers Simon. And you almost feel sorry for him, but the problem is because Peter hammers him I have to think, “Wow, Peter being filled with the Holy Ghost here is discerning something that’s quite sinister that’s going on.” And it’s not a Christian, it’s a guy who’s playing Christian and his heart is all off.

So verse 24: “Then answered Simon, and said, ‘Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me.’” And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. So you say, “Well, Brett, this is kind of a tough one, and you almost feel sorry for Simon in some sense.” But I think you have to take the context in what Peter said.

Instead of actually humbling his heart, which Peter told him to do before God, Simon asked Peter to pray that he would be spared the consequences of his sin. Have you ever seen a person who actually is more concerned about just the consequences of their sin rather than to believe in the loving work of Christ? This is where a heart issue can be that brutal problem that keeps you from heaven.

Have you ever heard some preacher say sometimes that someone misses heaven by 18 inches, where it has not gone from their head to their heart? Do you remember what the Bible says about salvation? Romans 10:9 and 10, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

So it’s an issue of the heart, and Peter calls out Simon the sorcerer and says, “Your heart’s off, buddy, and you’re doing this for the wrong reason.” And only really the Lord knows his heart, but Peter’s calling it out. Peter’s identifying the problem with his heart. Simon wanted to be with the Christians for all the wrong reasons. It made him look good. It kept his being hip with the cool kids, which he was a sorcerer before. Now he wants to be in on these miracles these apostles are doing. He wants a piece of the popularity, if you would. He maybe even wants power for himself. And this is where you kind of have to wonder, man, if he had every look of salvation, but it seems to me like he wasn’t saved.

Could this be what the Bible talks about? Because it’s such a funny thing. To be saved is quite simple: confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus. And I often will stress, but it’s got to come from your heart, not just through your mouth. Because that heart part, if that’s missing and you’re just going through some motion, don’t pretend you think you’re being saved. And salvation is easy because Jesus did all the work, but if your heart is wrong on the whole thing, it’s dangerous.

That’s where you get the scriptures like this, where reminded of what Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 says, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You might say, “Well, Brett, I didn’t think I had to work out my salvation. He did it for me. He did all the work.” Yes. But the fear and trembling part has to do with this idea of your heart not being right and you’re not really repentant of sin. You’re more worried about the consequences of sin or motives are off. You got to check your heart is the idea.

Could it be why Jesus made some of these scary statements like there in Matthew 7:21 through 23? “Not everyone that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?’ Then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’”

I wonder if Simon the sorcerer would be numbered in this group right here. Matthew 7:13 through 14, Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait (or narrow) is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” So you got to make sure your heart is right before God in being repentant of your sin and believing that Jesus died on the cross.

It is simple, and you don’t have to be good enough or smart enough, but you do have to have the sincere heart that says, “Lord, I’m a sinner, and I need you to save me from my sins.” See, Simon didn’t have any part of that. He was into the tricks and he wanted to be a Christian for his reputation, networking. Man, I’ve noticed there’s some successful business people, maybe I should hobnob with some of those people and I’ll be there on Sunday morning. And again, Philip baptized Simon, but only God really knew Simon’s heart until I think Peter revealed the wickedness of his heart.

So it reminds Ezekiel talked about how we need a new heart. Jeremiah said our heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. Who can know it? I wonder, just the scary question, how many people think they’re saved, but really are not? Have you ever thought about that? Again, it’s easy to be saved because of God’s grace, but you could miss it if you have the wrong motives, wrong intentions, and your heart’s off.

So now we’re going to leave Simon right here in the Bible. But whatever happened to Simon? Did Peter pray for him? Peter doesn’t even answer, “Well, Peter, pray for me.” Do you remember that Peter didn’t say, “I’ll pray for you”? He said, “You pray, Simon.” So did Simon pray for repentance and come to a real salvation? Historically, we don’t know for sure. Simon does appear quite a bit, actually, in extra-biblical literature, shockingly enough. But after this event, the Bible never refers to Simon the sorcerer, but it would appear that Simon might have been, there is a story in church history where he may have repented and became a member of the local church in Samaria.

But back to our list. So we got Saul the zealous persecutor, Philip the faithful evangelist, Simon the clever deceiver, and then number four we have the Ethiopian, a concerned seeker. Verse 26: “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, ‘Arise, and go toward the south way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.’ And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah the prophet.”

We looked at this so I’m not going to go over all this again, but there’s a few little things I’d like to just touch on. A little information on the Ethiopian. I talked about Candace. That’s not a lady’s name, that’s a title of Ethiopian queens for many centuries down in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was much larger in the first century than it is today and it includes what is mostly Sudan today is where these people were from.

But this idea of a eunuch, if you’re interested what a eunuch is, well, the word eunuch meant that men were castrated to be servants for someone. Yep, that's a eunuch. But here's the thing. That was even in more ancient times than this. The way that all came about is if a king had a harem, he would put someone in charge of his harem, and so he would make all the people in charge of his harem eunuchs biologically.

But later, the word eunuch came to mean not biologically made a eunuch as much as it was the title of someone who would be put in charge of something for a king or queen. And it may or may not have been biologically enforced upon that. Especially in the Ethiopian sense here. So this guy was probably just a trusted advisor for the queen, very important, was in charge of her money and served under Candace.

Now, what is an Ethiopian doing in Jerusalem and why is he reading the Bible, the Old Testament Bible? Well, there’s a group you should know called Beta Israel. Even to this day they like to be called Beta Israel. Falashas is another name for them, but that's more of a derogatory term, I guess, now for these Ethiopian Jews, practicing Jews. And it goes all the way back to 1 Kings chapter 10 when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon.

And there's all kinds of tradition that goes down. You might wonder, who are these Coptic Christians in Africa? And who are these Jews that are in Africa to this day? And why are there so many African Jews in Israel? And where did these Ethiopian Jews come from? Because they're considered Jews. And you go to Israel and like, "Who's that guy?" And, "Oh, he's a Jew." And like, "But he looks African." Yep, he’s an Ethiopian Jew, goes back for centuries to this time period. But there's more than 30,000 Beta Israel in Ethiopia and in Saudi Arabia to this day. So this is still a big people group. These Ethiopian Jews are still practicing this.

So I just wanted you to know this is still alive and well, this Ethiopian guy and Philip. That story resonates even throughout history. But he's reading from Isaiah 53. Question: What translation is he probably reading? There's some interesting speculation on that because this Ethiopian guy, is he reading a Hebrew scroll? Most people don't believe he was. Most believe he was probably reading what we would call the Septuagint scrolls. That is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. Which is kind of cool because he's reading a translation.

And once in a while you'll meet a Christian college professor saying, “Well, unless you're reading the Greek or the Hebrew, you're not really reading the Bible.” And if they know Hebrew and Greek, la-di-da, good for them. They've spent their whole life learning two languages. Good for them. It is a helpful thing, I suppose, if you do that. I'm impressed by people that do that. But if you're trying to tell people you might as well throw your other Bible out because you don't know Hebrew or Greek, that's a huge disservice to the translations of the Bible.

And this is a count where it’s called the Bible, the Scriptures, and it’s a translation of the Scriptures and it’s verified right here. Jesus quoted from the Septuagint in his words when he's quoting the Old Testament. So the Bible does affirm translations of the Holy Scriptures. That's important because some people say, “Unless you're reading Hebrew or Greek, you can't even really know what the Bible really says.” Those people are wacko.

So verse 29, it says, “The Spirit said unto Philip, ‘Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.’ Philip ran thither to him, heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Understandest thou what thou readest?’ And he said, ‘How can I, except some man guide me?’ And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which he read was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: in his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.’”

And the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man?” Then Philip opened his mouth and began to preach the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. A good evangelist will preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. "Well, as they went on their way, verse 36, they came to a certain water: and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?’ And Philip said, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’”

Now, verse 37 is not in some of your translations because it depends on which ancient texts are being used. Was it the Masoretic text or the Textus Receptus? If you're reading an NIV or a King James or an ESV. And a lot of your Bibles have a note there that says, “Well, verse 37,” because some of your Bibles go from verse 36 to verse 38 and it skips. And you're like, “Man, it took out a verse of the Bible!” And you shouldn't be too troubled by that, and I'll tell you why.

That happens actually a bunch of times in the Bible. I've pointed it out every time we come to these verses, there's a bunch of places where some of your translations won't have the same verse. And don't be freaked out. It just depends on how old, I mean, I'm giving you a real basic level because I'm not a scholar on this stuff. But basically, some translations use the oldest manuscripts they could find and said they're more reliable because they're old.

Other translators said, “No, we're going to use the manuscripts of old that are more numerous.” They may not be as old, but we have so many thousands of those manuscripts we're going to use that because of its quantity. And so there you have the King James or you have the NIV or the ESV. Depends on which manuscripts they're from. Now you say, “That troubles me deeply.” It shouldn't. And here's why. The things that are missing or swapped or different, the few things that are in your Bible, only a handful, nothing changes in our doctrine.

By the way, if you want to be baptized, should you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Yes. So even if you're saying verse 37 doesn't belong in here, you actually know it does say that in other places of the Bible. So it's not a heresy. If it said in this verse, "if you believe in Jesus Christ and wear metal triangles on your head, funneling your third eye of understanding into your navel," you could say, “Well, that doesn't fit with the rest of Scripture, so no wonder they ripped that verse out.” No, no verse like that that controverts the theology of the Bible. So you can relax when it comes to all the major good translations of the Bible. Very important.

Well, verse 38: “And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” And then we'll pick it up with Saul again, who was threatening the slaughter against the disciples and going on his way to Damascus. And we're going to see a bunch of really cool stuff. Paul the Apostle is going to be saved.

Lord, we're so thankful for your word. It's living, it's powerful. And Lord, we just want your word to just penetrate our hearts to help us to think rightly. Lord, I do pray that we be a church that’s believing with all of our heart that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. That we would just receive the grace of salvation. Help us not to seek selfish gain or notoriety or do Christianity for really bad reasons.

Lord, help us to be real. And Lord, I pray that if anybody has not really done that, to truly repent of their sin and just gone through Christian motions, would you just convict their heart? And may they know that they can truly repent and with all their heart confess their faith. Lord, as we go our way, we pray that we would see good fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador at the close of our program here on Today’s Word. And that’s all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will describe the dramatic account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Today’s Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.

Brett’s been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. We invite you to listen each day for more. If you missed any portion of our study, you’ll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations". Well, once again, here’s Pastor Brett Meador ending today’s message with a closing word of prayer.