Legacies of 2 Philips

Someone called yesterday, a preacher friend, and I I said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the son of man, the days of the coming son of man." I said, I just didn't realize it was going to come with the rain, the incessant rain. Thank God for the sunshine today, at least for a brief while. And thank God for all of you who are in the house of God and all of those who might be joining online. We appreciate your faithfulness to the house of the Lord. As brother Spa mentioned last week, we are embarking upon a series about some of the more obscure characters in the book of Acts. And uh my assignment uh was Phillip. And it turned into two Phillips instead of one Phillip because in the book of Acts there are two actually two men named Phillip who are mentioned there from Acts chapter 1 and verse 13.

And the lesson titled this morning is a legacy of two Phillips. The legacies of two Phillips. Acts 1:13 says, "And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philillip, and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew and James the son of Alphus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James." And then that's the first Phillip. That's Philip the apostle that's mentioned in the book of acts. The second one is in acts chapter 6 and verse three. Wherefore brethren look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And Philillip and Procarus and Niconor and Timon and Parmminus and Nicholas, a procelite of Antioch. So Philillip, there are actually two Phillips mentioned in the book of Acts. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on on the apostle Phillip, but on rather the evangelist Phillip. The name Philillip it's it's unique uh among the Greek names it is it means a horse lover. So I don't know if they name these kids because uh it was predictive of what they might be or uh what what the deal was but anyway Philip means a horse lover fle hippos uh uh lover of horses. So uh we're going to pull some highlights from the two of them since they are not the same person. Philip the apostle and Philip the evangelist are two different people.

So lessons from Philip one the apostle. The the call to disciplehip was given in John the 1st chapter verses 43 through 46. This Philip was a Galilean of betada. his claim to fame among the apostles was he was kind of the analytical pragmatist, the the practical guy. He was he was the one that looked at situations and and uh he he began to analyze them. Uh one time the 5000 the feeding of the 5000 occasion Jesus asked Philillip whence shall we buy bread that these may eat and Jesus was asking because they were in a wilderness area. Jesus was asking is there is there a Jewish deli around here somewhere that we can buy lunch for these people and uh there was none. There was no there was no corner confectionary or delicatessan that they could go to and buy the food. And and Philillip Philillip steps up and answered him and said 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little. Now you have to understand that 200 penny worth of bread. Philip being the the the realist that he was, he said, "This is it's going to take like seven months salary, 200 penny worth of bread. For one man, that is about seven months salary to feed just the 5,000 that each one of them may take a little." But Jesus, of course, knew what he was going to do. He it says in the Bible that that he he spoke this question to test him because he already knew what he was going to do. And and so uh you know the end of that story. In another conversation as Jesus responded to another questioning by by Thomas uh about about knowing the way Thomas said show us the way. and and uh we because we don't know the way that you're going. And and and and Jesus said unto him in John 14 6 and 7, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now, there's some profound statements that Jesus makes right here. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. If you had known me, you should have known my father also, and from henceforth you know him and have seen him. Now, in the nuances of the Greek language, Jesus told him, you are staring right at him. It wasn't just you have seen him. You've got a glam glimpse of him, but you are staring right at him. You ask me who the father is, you're staring right at him. Amen. And so in in John 14:8, Philillip on the heels of that says, "Lord, show us the father." After Jesus just said, you're staring right at him. Apparently, it went right over his head and he says, "Show us the father." And this question when Jesus answered it revealed one of the most foundational and important theological truths that Jesus ever spoke. When he said, "I and my father are one." I and my father are one. I want you to notice this morning that he didn't use the language that implied my father and I are the same. That wouldn't have been true. What Jesus spoke here was a truth that that was unshakable. He he didn't say we're the same. He said we are one. It wouldn't hold the same truth if he had said that because flesh is not God. This is a biblical principle. They were looking at the man and he he said we are one but flesh and spirit are not the same. My father is spirit and you're looking at the man. Now Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God. Because God is a spirit. It means that spirit never converts to flesh. Let me let me I'm not going to take a lot of time on this. But when we say God became a man, it means he came to be a man. He did. There was no conversion at any point in time of flesh or spirit to flesh. Spirit did not become flesh. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he spoke this ultimate truth. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and never the twain shall meet. Okay? They will not one will not become the other in the sense of conversion. But Jesus was saying you're looking at him right now. The only one that you're ever going to see in this flesh is standing before you right now. Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews in the first chapter opens this way. God who at sunundry times and diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his dear son who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person that means that Jesus was characterizing God he is the character of who he is no man can see God it's just an impossibility because God is an eternal spirit, an infinite eternal spirit and we cannot look on God at least being in the flesh. So when when Jesus answered the question for Philillip, he said, "I and my father are one." You're looking at him right here. You're staring at him. as much of him that you're ever going to see in the flesh. I am he. Amen. So that is a legacy, one of the legacies that Philip uh the apostle leaves for us. He was a facilitator. He was a man who pointed others to Jesus Christ. He and this after all is the reason why Jesus chose these men to make disciples after he made them disciples. They were to find others and make them disciples. There were certain Greeks who came to Jesus and they said we would see Jesus and Philip finds Andrew and they take these men to Jesus. So he was Philip the apostle was a facilitator. He was someone who pointed men to Jesus Christ. And and we don't know a whole lot beyond that point about Philillip the apostle.

But Acts in chapter 6 introduces us to a second Phillip who is ultimately known as Philillip the evangelist. And there are details that distinguish Philillip the evangelist from the apostle Phillip. He was uh in this dispute about daily f food food distribution. We uh we've mentioned it several times over over uh a period of time that we want to be like the early church at least in some respects. But we are more like the early church than we even realize sometimes. They were just human beings. They were not perfect. They didn't have everything together, as they say. They didn't have all their ducks in a row. Sometimes we don't even know where all of our ducks are to get our ducks in a row. And and and that's okay because the early church, the primitive church was not a church of perfection. It was a church of human beings. And so this dispute arose about uh from the helanized Jews, the Greek speakaking Jews about their widows not receiving their daily portion of food. And and so the apostles did this. They were great at delegating. They said, "We have to pray. We have to preach the word. You can't do that. We are called to do that." Pastor Brad, his charge is to preach the word, spend time in prayer, and do the things that only the pastor can do. The rest of us are to do the things that are delegated to us as far as ministry is concerned. And so, and so this is what they did. They said, "Choose out seven men among you." And and Philillip was one of those seven men that was chosen of all things. This is where the word deacon comes from. It means a servant. He was going to be a server. I'm going to wait on tables. He was going to minister to these widows along with six other men. Stephen being among them. And and this was his call. It's not the most glamorous job in the world to be a servant, but he willingly did this. It was one of his characteristic traits. All seven of these men that were mentioned in Acts chapter 6 had Greek names. If you notice that they all had Greek names. So they were chosen for this particular reason. Uh one one was a a procelite but the others were henistic Jews. A and they had been they they spoke the Greek language. They knew the Greek culture and and so there was a wisdom in how these men were chosen to do the particular job that they were about to do because they had a connection. There's our there's one of our words again. They had a connection with the Greek community. And there are two notable items about the selection of these men. The first requisite was that they must be full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Listen, people want to serve in the church. If you want to do anything for God, you can't do spiritual things in the flesh. You have to be filled with the Holy Ghost. You must be born again to do to enter into this kingdom and to do spiritual things. But not only were they full of the Holy Ghost, they were full of wisdom. Now, they were both spiritually sensitive and they were spiritually sensible. I've met people, and probably you have too, who could be one or the other, but not both. Spiritually sensitive, but not spiritually sensible. Right? They could be spiritually pragmatic and and not really sensitive to the spirit of God. They everything is logic and and purpose. But these men were full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom. The second uh item was it was to free those who had been called to pastoral ministry to do to focus on the word and on prayer. That is if you are called to the ministry those two things are the priority. They are the most important thing that you can do. The charge to every pastor is feed the flock of God. Feed the flock. Now, most of us in in leoty terms at least, we aren't capable of feeding the flock of God. That's a special call to ministry. So, we must free up the hands of those who have been called to do this work. to do that work. The only work or the work that only they could do.

We later learned that this Philip the evangelist lived in Cesaria Maritima, not Cesaria Philippi. And he had four daughters who were uh gifted with prophetic giftings. In Acts chap 21 8 and 9, the next day they that we that were of Paul's company departed and came unto Cesaria. And we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist. That's that Philillip that was back in chapter 6 that was chosen to be a servant which was one of the seven and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters virgins which did prophesy. He was the first to be specifically identified as the evangelist. He settled in a largely henistic community on the coast of the Mediterranean, Cesaria Maritima. That's where Pilate and Herod both had homes in in that area. And this man had four daughters who had prophetic giftings. But his real legacy was built on this. From Acts 8:E 5, it says this. Then Philillip went down into the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. This is probably the greatest legacy that this Philip the Evangelist left.

And in order to understand the events that are about to unfold in Acts chapter 8 beginning with verse 5, you have to go back to John chapter 4 where Jesus went down to Samaria and he met a woman at the well of Samaria. You can't understand what happened in Acts chapter 8 unless you understand the origins of that when Jesus himself he must needs go to Samaria. It was you know the the the bitterness and the the hatred the animosity between the Samaritans who were pseudo Jews according to the Jewish purebreds and the Jews themselves. But Jesus said, "I I gotta go down to Samaria. I'm going to plow some ground down there for some seeds to be planted that will take place maybe five, six years in the future." And and he went down to Samaria and he began to talk to this woman at the well. Now that whole story, that whole scenario, sometimes I get a charge out of this because how many of us this this woman Jesus talks to her at the well, Sister Drury, he he pulls up at the well and he starts talking to this woman and uh he gets her attention by saying, you know, he tells her a lot of things about her life, her messed up life. And she goes back to the town and she says, "I want you all to experience this." Come and meet a man that'll tell you everything about yourself. That's not such a good evangelistic ploy right there. How many of us want to meet a man that can just open up and tell us all about ourselves? Not me. Sorry, I'm not going on that trick. But anyway, that's the way the story unfolded. But the whole city went out to meet Jesus. A and so understanding that Acts chapter 8 was merely something that Jesus had started back in John chapter 4.

And so uh he Jesus planted the seeds for evangelizing Samaria. And and during this time in the book of Acts, a persecution arose. Now again, the irony of some of this just just is amazing because there was a young man. Persecution began to increase from both the Pharisees and the Sadducees and and Christians were falling under this persecution and it was led by a man named Saul of Tarsus. Right? Saul of Tarsus. He's bringing persecution to the church. And the church on the heels of this this persecution, this the these Christians began to scatter because they were getting killed. They were getting put in prison. And isn't it ironic that the man who was largely responsible for scattering the Christians in the first place before his conversion is largely responsible for the message of uniting Christians after his conversion. The same man who was responsible for the dispersion now preaches a message of unity. Same man. I'm telling you, God's purpose sometimes is a convoluted and twisting trail to get his purpose done. But he does it. And so why was this dispersing of the church necessary? Why did God bring this persecution or allow this persecution to disperse the church? Hebrews chapter 6 vers uh verse 18 regards God's promise and his purpose. It says this that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay a hold upon the hope set before us. There's two things that God cannot lie about. Two things, his promise and his purpose. If he said it, he'll do it. And if he determines it will be done, it will be done. It will happen just the way he said it would. And so and so the reason for this dispersion is because the Christians were integral to and yet they had not fulfilled the promise of God that he gave in Acts chapter 1 and verse eight. He said to them, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." Watch. And ye shall be witnesses unto me. Let me stop. Slow down a minute. Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. You're going to receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That's a promise. Would everybody agree to that? The second one is as much a promise. It's a continuation of that thought. And ye shall, everybody say, you shall. You shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. That is as much a promise of God as the one that says you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And God when he makes a promise, he cannot lie. He will not have us as human beings make him a liar. The church had settled. They were not going anywhere. They were settled in Judea in Jerusalem and they were not moving the gospel the way that Jesus promised that they would move the gospel when the power of the Holy Ghost came upon them. And so God has a way of inspiring us as it were. He has a way of moving us because if they did not fulfill this promise, it would make God a liar. He already said you shall. You shall.

And so Philillip goes down after this dispersion after the Jews are literally moved out of Jerusalem. Philip is the one who goes down to Samaria in Acts the 8th chapter to a people who had been spellbound by a man by the name of Simon who was known to be a magician or a sorcerer. They were astounded by his magic. Have you ever seen a magician? Saw David Copperfield one time. Amazing. And you just got to keep reminding yourself, it's not real. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. It's just an illusion. These people were spellbound by by this man, Simon the sorcerer, because he could produce slight of hand and he could he could perform magic tricks for them. And they were spellbound by him. But let me tell you something more powerful than the slide of men's hands. something that is more powerful than the elucory concepts that men present to other people and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The reality of the gospel and this is what this is what Philip brought to the people of Samaria. The message of Christ, it was both then and it is now more than sufficient to break the chains of any hold that might have uh that that men might have on men to reveal the truth and to expose the lie. How many of you know that there really is a ring of truth to the gospel of Jesus Christ? They it has been attacked. It's been criticized. It's been dragged down. Men have uh critiqued this from the time that it happened. It's not real. It it it it doesn't really happen. There was uh no such occurrences and events that are recorded in history. But to those who are saved, the power of the cross is the power of salvation. And there is a ring of truth to it. If you will heed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, the burial, and the resurrection, there is something about it that rings so true that impelled men to go to their graves believing this message that we so hold so dear to us.

This was the message that Philip brought to the people of Samaria to reveal the truth and expose the lie. Romans chapter 10 says this. So then faith cometh by hearing but hearing comes by the word of God. This is what Philillip brought to them. They were dead as we were in trespasses and sins. Dead people just don't hear. They don't hear anything. So, how could they have faith? I'll tell you how. Because the gospel, the word of God, brings hearing. It awakens as it were the dead who were in sins and trespasses. They are awakened by the word of the gospel. And their eyes were opened and they witnessed the miraculous powers of God. One person with the gospel and the servant's heart was able to ignite a revival. It can happen. We want revival. Do we want revival? It starts not with a church. It starts with an individual, somebody with a heart for the gospel. Jesus in his dissertations talked about the certainty of tribulation. You can read about it in Matthew 24, in Luke, and in the Gospels. He talked about tribulation. And he put it this way. Such as the world has not seen. In the book of Revelation, it's full of calamities. Such has not been since the beginning of the world. That's what it says. All of these things were spoken about as certainties. Why did Jesus never speak about the certainty of end time revival such as the world has never seen? We talk about it, but Jesus never spoke about it because the things that he spoke of were in his purpose and they would happen. They are going to happen. In my mind, revival is not a certainty. It is contingent and dependent upon the response of the church. Do you want it bad enough to go after it? Do you want it enough to seek it? Is there somebody who like Philillip is willing to go down to Samaria and say, "I'm going to take this gospel as Jesus promised. I'm going to take this gospel to a people who have never heard." That is our charge. Not just as a church, but as individuals to take the gospel to those who may never have heard such a thing in their lives. If we want end time revival, God is perfectly willing. But he's waiting for an individual. He's waiting for a group. He's waiting for a church to get as hungry for that kind of revival as he is to pour it out upon people. It is not a certainty. It's not an inevitability. It is something that we can have. So why not have a revival in the end time like we have never seen in the history of the church? We can have it if we wanted.

The Samaritans believed and they were baptized and they had great joy. They had all of that, but they weren't sealed unto salvation. Some erroneously believe that you receive the spirit at baptism. Now, how much time I got? Little. Just because somebody comes up out of the water does not mean it doesn't fulfill the scripture that says to arise to walk in newness of life. Baptism doesn't do that. Baptism is burial, not resurrection. Baptism is burial, not resurrection. If anybody stops with baptism, you stop short. You're buried. Hello. Went silent. Are we apostolics in here today? This is the message. your sins are washed away. You're a dead man at that point. Arising to walk in newness of life was what Philip understood when he preached this message. They had believed, they were baptized, but as yet the spirit had fallen upon none of them. So he calls for the apostles to come down and lay hands on them and they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost just like they did on the day of Pentecost. Hallelujah. Some people stop and they believe that you receive the spirit of baptism uh the the spirit baptism at baptism. But that's not the case. Otherwise, Philip wouldn't have called for the apostles to come down and lay hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.

Now, listen to me. This isn't to meant to minimize the experience that led them to baptism that it was absolutely necessary, but it's to illustrate the absolute necessity of receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost because you're still buried if you stop at baptism. When you receive the baptism of the spirit though, woo, it's like that baby that takes his first breath in a new environment. He's come out of the womb and you come out of the tomb and you breathe this breath of life of the spirit of God. That's what the Holy Ghost does. Don't stop with baptism as an end. There's an arising to walk in newness of life. Romans 8:9, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, listen, this is not Cardon speaking. This is the word of God. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8:11. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, I get excited about this. If the spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Romans 8:14, for as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You can't be led by the spirit if you don't have the spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one. Everybody say one. We got this, folks. Apostolics got this message. The oneness of God and the oneness of the spirit. We got it. We don't need to be taking lessons from charismatics. We don't need to be taking lessons from Assemblies of God. We don't need to be taking lessons from Elevation Church. We don't need that stuff. If anybody should be leaders in spirituality, it should be the apostolic who actually believe in the necessity and the possibility that you can have the spirit of God dwelling in you. Now, the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Once again, this is God's promise in which he cannot lie. You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Peter preached the message and said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you might no shall." That's a promise from the word of God. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. God cannot lie. So if you do those things, you will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

The response of Simon the sorcerer is characteristic of someone who wanted the blessing of the power but had no sense of the need for salvation. There's a lot of gospels out there that are preaching you can have all of this, you can enjoy all the blessings of life, but you don't have to follow God. That is not the truth. It's an absolute lie. You're being sorcererized as it were. Commercialization of the product. No real repentance. Just pray. He said, "Pray that nothing bad happens to me." All right. Sorry. My my question was wrong, but just pray that nothing bad happens to me. And so, Philillip goes down to Samaria, has a great revival down there. Not only were they filled with joy, but they were also filled with the Holy Ghost.

And and so God in his purpose, I'll never understand some of this stuff. God in his purpose, there's a working of evangelist and there's a work of a pastor. Philip was an evangelist. God knew that. That was part of his purpose. And so he takes him from a red hat red-hot revival in Samaria and sends him into a wilderness to a home missions church. Takes me from a mega church where all the Samaritans are getting saved and puts me in a home missions church with 12 people. No, really, it was only one person. One old guy from northern Africa, the Ethiopian unic. He takes him from a from a red-hot revival down to witness to one guy riding in a chariot. And and so this Ethiopian unic, he was possibly of Jewish descent. If not, he was absolutely a procelite or a convert to Judaism. He was placed in a place of high esteem. The Bible calls her Candace. In in the Greek, it's Kandake. It it's simply a title for the queens of Kush. Uh she was a queen of Ethiopia, a ruler of that of that country. And and so uh she she put such confidence in this this man that she put him over all of her treasures. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. Verse 27 of chapter 8. There were large Jewish communities in Africa even before Jesus time. Stay with me. I know I'm getting historical here. I'm going to have to quit. But anyway, it's it points out some things. Let me let me just This Ethiopian unit was considered damaged goods. And you can read this in Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse one about about what happens to men who have been emasculated. And uh they were outsiders. You couldn't come into the congregation of the people of God. This man was an outsider.

And he began to read from Isaiah chapter 53 about another outsider who was despised and rejected of men. and something gripped his heart. But let me let me just throw this in in a few short words later. Isaiah 56:es 4 and five. Neither let the Unix say, "Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the Unix that keep my Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters. This man was reading from Isaiah and he said I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Let's stand. I got to quit.

This narrative of Philillip going down to the unic emphasized the inclusiveness of the gospel. Whosoever will, every emperor, every king, every dictator, every desperate that has ever lived has tried to mold society after themselves and they call people out. They exclude those who are not like them. But Jesus says, "Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the life waters of life freely." Aren't you glad to be a part of that kingdom rather than that kingdom? The kingdom that says, "I don't care what color you are, red, white, black, green." It doesn't matter who you are, what social status you're of. Jesus cares about that one individual that is a heart that is sensitive and seeking. You're not an outsider when you come to him. You're not somebody who is excluded when you come to Jesus. He embraces you with open arms. He loves the one. And he illustrated that with Philip talking and preaching to an Ethiopian unic. God bless you for your attentive uh attentiveness this morning. Uh let's take a break before our main service begins. God bless you again for your faithfulness.