So There Was Much Joy - Petey Bingham

What happens when opposition tries to silence the Gospel? In Acts 8, persecution scattered believers—but instead of shrinking back, they got louder. Philip entered Samaria, a place most people avoided, and boldly proclaimed Jesus. What followed? Freedom, healing, deliverance, and great joy.

This message reminds us that God often uses uncomfortable seasons, unexpected places, and personal hardship to advance His mission. When Jesus brings order into chaos, joy follows.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I'm Tim Timmerlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat saved for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you. And see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hey, if you don't know me, my name is Petey, and I have the inc Oh, thank you. I love you. It's kind. Thanks for loving me. My name is Pete. I have the incredible opportunity to serve as one of our pastors here at Celebration Church. And um, hey, listen, if uh if you're online with Celebration Everywhere, welcome in. Can't wait to see you. Everything's looking good. And if today is your first time with us, welcome to Celebration. Sorry you're stuck with me, Bummer. Please come back. Anyway, um, um, as you know, obviously Pastor Tim and Pastor Jen are not here today. They are literally across the world evangelizing. So, no big deal. They're just out there doing their thing. So that's why I am here today. But listen, in all that, um, in all seriousness, I really do mean it when I tell you that um Pastor Tim and Pastor Jen mean so much to me and my family. Um, they have done so much for us, and uh, I think more than anything, um, I mean, they teach us so much about Jesus, not just with what they say, but with how they carry themselves. Um, I learn a lot about the character of Jesus just by doing life with them. And so I just couldn't be more grateful for those two. Um, their decision making may be a little questionable having me up here today, but outside of that, um I love them so much. And so if you would, man, just uh give them a big round of applause just for being the greatest. We love and we miss you. I know you're watching. Hey. Um, all right, so uh here's the plan. Now listen, I know that every time that I come up here, I tell you this story, but I just need to tell it because I think I'm gonna be telling this story for the next 20 years. Um, here's the deal. Like a year ago, Pastor Tim was like, hey, I'm thinking about doing the book of Acts for a few months on Sunday morning. And I said, a few months? He said, yeah, a few months. Yeah, we were in chapter seven for six months. You know what I'm saying? And so here we are. I'm pretty sure you could have a child today, and that child would be able to see us in this series. So, whatever. Anyway, um, so literally we are on chapter eight. There's like 24 chapters or something. I mean, what in the world? But here we are. So, what I'm gonna do is uh I am going to read you the passage that we're gonna cover today. Um, and then I'm gonna give you a ton of context, and we're just gonna go to school for a little bit, and we're gonna hang out, and then we'll go eat some lunch. Sound like a party? Love it. All right, so today uh we are in Acts chapter 8. Uh, we're going to be in verses four through eight. I'll be reading ESV. And I will say this go ahead and keep your Bibles out because once we get to the meat of this, um, we're gonna kind of walk through this step by step a little bit. So don't close your Bible. Um, if you don't have your Bible, you have your phone. If you don't have your phone, you have the Bible in the sky. So things are looking up. So um so yeah, let me read this to you. This is from Acts chapter 8, verses 4 through 8. Uh, you'll notice that a few of these verses Pastor Jen hit on last week, but in order for us to grasp the meaning of what we're headed into, it's gonna be important for us to kind of overlap a bit, so forgive me for that, but hopefully it'll still be fun. So here we go. Starting in verse 4 of Acts chapter 8, this is what it says. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip. Then they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Lord tonight, we just uh today we just give you all the praise and all the honor. Jesus, we're just grateful that you are a provider, you're our deliverer, you are high and mighty, your name is above all names, every knee will bow before that name. We're grateful that you are transcendent over the universe, and yet here with your people here today. We're grateful that your goodness is the standard. We're grateful that you are great beyond comprehension, and yet you're relatable. You make yourself known to us. And today, Holy Spirit, make yourself known to us. Show us that which you have for us specifically today, not just as a collective group of believers, but as parts of the body of Christ. And today, we just give you all the honor and all the praise. Lord, I pray more than anything that today I decrease and you increase, that these words are yours and they're not mine. Holy Spirit, do what only you can do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, so y'all ready for this? All right, so kind of to make a lot of this make sense, we're gonna have to backtrack just a little bit. So just humor me for a while. I'll do my best to talk slow. I'm not gonna talk slow. I tried last service, it didn't work. Everybody yelled at me. All right, here we go. So, the book of Acts is written by Luke. Luke, of course, is a companion of Paul. We actually just talked about Paul for the last few weeks, except his name wasn't Paul, it was Saul. Saul is just his Jewish name, Paul is his Roman name, same guy, just two different perspectives of his life. Okay, so Paul becomes, of course, one of the greatest apostles in the early church. We'll talk about that in a few weeks. Well, we'll talk about that in like three years. But anyway, um, but Paul becomes one of the greatest apostles of the early church, right? Most of the New Testament comes from Paul, okay? One of Paul's companions, Luke. Luke writes not only the gospel account, the book of Luke, right, that tells the story of Jesus, um of his life, death, burial, and resurrection. Uh, but then we go into the book of Acts, where he recounts some of that stuff and we see the ascension. And then we see the launch of the early church and everything that happens therein. It's a beautiful story. And what you'll notice about Luke's writing is that throughout the narrative, what he is always doing in both the book of Luke and the book of Acts is that he is always giving you context for Jewish customs. Okay? So every single time that they talk about a festival or a ritual or some sort of daily practice that they had or some sort of spiritual discipline that they had in their lives, what Luke will always do is he will stop and he will explain what he means by that thing. Okay? The reason he does that is because his audience goes beyond just traditionally Jew people. Right? He wants everybody who reads this letter to understand it. In fact, the letter itself uh is written to Theophilus, if you remember this from a long time ago when we started, right? Theophilus, a lot of debate among scholars, is he a real person or is he just representative of the church as a whole? Either way, it doesn't change the meaning of the fact that this was written for us. And therefore, it's something that even if you're not Jewish and don't have the direct experience of some of these things, you can read the book of Luke and read the book of Acts, whether you're in 2026 or you're in the first century, and at least get some sort of a semblance of what he's talking about when he talks about some of these Jewish rituals. Everybody tracking with me? Okay, so what that tells us is that that means that the book of Luke is not only written for people of Jewish origin, but also written for people outside of Jewish origin. With me? Okay, then when you go into Acts chapter 1, verse 8, um, you kind of have what's traditionally taught as like a retelling of the Great Commission, right? Where Jesus says that we'll be witnesses in all of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Right? And why Paul, or why Luke writes it that way, is not only are we kind of getting another sense of the Great Commission, but it also serves as a table of contents for the book of Acts as a whole. So if you notice, where did we just come from? Jerusalem. And now, where did I tell you that we are today? Samaria. So we're going from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and then ultimately with Paul to the ends of the earth. So Acts 1.8 serves as this table of contents, as it were, for us to be able to understand the book as a whole a little bit more clearer and what the Lord is up to in the expansion of the church in the first century. Everybody with me? Okay, sweet. So along the way, what happens with anything, of course, is there is going to be some um, there's gonna be some interesting power dynamics that happen along the way, okay? So what happens in the early church is there there becomes this division amongst groups, especially amongst the Jewish people, okay? Because in the first century, what we get is this kind of division of different types of Jewish people. The first of those Jewish people are what we call Hebrew Jews. Those are your traditional Jews. You most of them are in Jerusalem, they have a strict, you know, uh, ritualistic practice that they stick to, um, they do all the traditions that they're supposed to do, and they grow up with you know um rabbis and they're going to the temple and they're doing their daily practices and all that. So those are Hebrew Jews, okay? The other group are Hellenistic Jews. Hellenistic Jews are people that are outside of Jerusalem, still Jewish, but because they're not kind of hometown, what happens is they still adhere themselves to the Jewish customs and traditions and the things that they did, but they're heavily influenced by Hellenistic culture. What is Hellenistic culture? Hellenism simply just means Greek culture, right? So I know that we're in Rome in the first century, but the predecessors to Rome are the Greeks, right? The Macedonians that came from Alexander the Great. And what they brought, that culture they brought in Greece, kind of pushes its way into Rome. And so that Hellenistic practice, it was very much built on philosophy and uh sensualization and all sorts of things that were kind of built into Hellenism. So what happens now is you have a group of Jews who are outside of kind of their hometown, still practicing Jews, but very influenced by Hellenistic culture. In fact, some of them even spoke Greek. So, because of that, now there became this infighting between these two groups of people, right? And these two groups of people, um uh, you know, they basically kind of pointed fingers at each other, you know, pretty, pretty religiously, so to speak. So eventually what happens is, of course, people within even Jerusalem begin to get uh saved. They begin to give their life to Jesus, okay? So what happens in the early church is ultimately um there becomes a little bit of a tension that rises up because one of the practices of the temple back in the day is um, you know, of course, they cared for the widow and the orphan. Okay? Widows in particular, it was in it was important for them to be taken care of because once you were a widow in the first century, you basically were highly vulnerable, highly marginalized, um, you didn't get much, right? And so they, you know, there's no one there to take care of you. So what the temple did is the temple made sure that they took care of their fellow widow. But here's what happened is ultimately there came a time in which the Hebrew Jew in the temple would take care of the Hebrew Jew widow, but wouldn't give an offering or something to eat to the Hellenistic Jew widow. And so obviously, if you're somebody who has given your life to Jesus and you're taking care of the widow and the orphan, and you're taking care of them, but there's a group that you're not giving that to, all of a sudden now it feels as though there's different dignity here. So the early church is like, well, that ain't gonna work, right? So here's what they do. What they do is they put together a group of seven dudes, okay? And these seven dudes, just so happens, are also Hellenistic Jews. And their job in Jerusalem was to make sure that the temple practices kept in line with giving humans dignity, right? And therefore, the Hellenistic Jew widow could get her offering. Does everybody track with me on this? Okay, sweet. All right. Two of those seven men that were put into leadership for that very thing. First one, his name is Stephen. Stephen ends up preaching a message and uh ends up getting stoned for it. Doesn't go so well for Stephen, theoretically. Second of those is a guy named Philip. So, what I'm trying to tell you is this this is not Philip the apostle. I mean, this is not Philip an original disciple. This is Philip, a Hellenistic Jew who was put into leadership by the early church who was friends with Stephen. This will be important soon, okay? So, this Philip, that is the character that we are uh dealing with in the context to which he is operating in at that time. Everybody with me on this? Okay, sweet. Okay. So with that, now we're gonna start our way down the scripture. Okay? And as we go, just follow with me, and uh, we're gonna pull out some important key points along the way as we do this thing. Cool? Perfect. All right, so Acts chapter 8, starting in verse 4, here's what it says. Now, all right. At Celebration Church, we do good hermeneutics. So hear me. Okay? Whenever you see the word now, but therefore, and and it's the first of the passages that you have in front of you, it's crazy important, crazy important that you read what comes before it. Okay, because what this is, what Luke is assuming is that because of what comes before this, now you'll understand this. That's why I spent 10 minutes of the opening of this sermon to tell you that that is the context from which we are coming from. All right, it's important for us to know that because now we'll be able to see what what why this story makes sense. Does that make sense? Okay. Good hermeneutics. Praise God. All right. Now, those who were scattered. All right. So those who were scattered, what's happening here? If you go back to Jerusalem, here's what happens. In Jerusalem, as we all know, this is the very thing that got Jesus crucified, was um, there was a group of people in Jerusalem with that of kind of these religious elite leaders that uh that were very corrupt, right? Had a lot of power and didn't want to give that power up. And so you know, these people were um uh the you know, they they they they were in, you know, they're in cahoots with Rome to a certain extent. They really enjoyed the kind of influence that they had, um, and so they were unwilling to give any of that up, right? So what it becomes is ultimately, no matter what the cost, losing that power was not worth it to them. Okay, so when a group of people come through and they start proclaiming that not only is there a messiah, but this messiah is greater than Caesar, now the religious leaders are saying, okay, now you're coming at us with a messiah, and you're gonna get us in trouble because you're saying that there's a king that is greater than Caesar. Y'all are gonna get us in trouble, and when we get in trouble, you know what happens? We lose power. And when we lose power, we lose control. And when we lose control, now I feel like I no longer serve a purpose. But hear me, right? And this is the lesson the religious leaders refuse to learn. They refuse to learn that when you let go of power defined by the things outside of biblical truth, all of a sudden you don't control it, it controls you. And the religious leaders were being controlled by this power in such a way that Rome had them in their hand because they took care of Jesus themselves. Even so, they sent him off to Pontius Pilate, but even Pontius Pilate was like, I don't want anything to do with this, you know? Because their control controlled them, and they refused to let go of it. However, you have this group of people in the first century that have given their life to Jesus. They've not only seen the heard the message, but they've seen what this man can do. They have come to find that this is God in the flesh, and he has ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in the throne. Yeah, I'm giving my life to that one. And these people were okay with losing whatever power they had because they realized the true power is in Jesus, even if it means they'd have to leave their home. So because these religious leaders were being the way that they were, and the people of the early church were being the way that they were, scattering happens after that. Right? We call it the diaspora. So they leave. So the Jewish people have to leave their hometown and they go out, and now they are scattered. So now instead of being isolated to one place, they are now scattered around. But look what it says. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word. So here's what I want you to notice about this. What you gotta notice is these are people who have been oppressed and persecuted because of the message of Jesus that they have given their lives to. Right? And here's what they didn't do. What they didn't do was leave afraid and never talk about it again. What they did is they said, okay, well, if you're not gonna listen, power hunger religious elite, here's what I'll do. I'll go to the next city over and let's see what they have to say about it. In other words, what happens is they got louder. Oftentimes, we think that opposition to the gospel can put a wall between us and someone else. Come to find out, opposition is the very highway upon which mission works often. It turns out that the gospel can work its way beyond those barriers, and opposition is no longer something that upholds the gospel, but instead thrusts it forward. Because when you really see the message of Jesus, when you really begin to grasp what it means to be human, not to be power-hungry for the things of the world, but to give your life to power itself in Jesus. Then you realize all of a sudden, oh, that's a message I will be loud for no matter where I am. And that's what these people who have been scattered from their hometown have now gone into other places and are not afraid to be loud about it. Okay. Verse 5. Philip, we know who he is, praise God. Philip went down to the city of Samaria. Alright, Pastor Jin gave you a little bit of this last time, but um, you know, we'll just do this really fast. Samaria is it's it's complicated, right? It's complicated. So um, if you go back to like Old Testament people of God, Israel, right? Israel, of course, was made of twelve tribes. Okay? And these twelve tribes, under David's kingship, were one big united monarchy. One big happy family. Well, theoretically. Anyway, one big happy family, all 12 tribes together, united monarchy under David. Okay? But then David's kids come along and things go south. We don't have time for that today, but it's a wild story if you get bored and want to read it. Anyway, you should. So, um, what ends up happening is that the united monarchy of Israel splits. Okay? The two splits are you have two tribes go together. The tribe of Judah, where we get Jesus from, is also the uh you know tribe from which David came from. And uh Benjamin is with Judah. The other ten tribes stick together. So we have ten tribes and two tribes. Now here's the problem. The problem is that now we have two divisions of God's people, but only one temple. So what do you do? Right? Ultimately, how this plays out is that the southern kingdom, what we call the southern kingdom, is Judah and Benjamin, they keep Jerusalem. So they get the temple. To the north, right, these other ten tribes, they're like, well, we don't have the temple anymore, so what do we do? So here's what they did. You ready for this? They made two. Uh, one in the city of Bethel and the other in the city of Dan. And in both of these places, guess what they put there? A golden calf. Yeah, doesn't, I mean, spoiler alert, doesn't work. Anyway, so it doesn't go so well. They make these golden calves, things get honestly, things get worse. Eventually, um Jezebel and Ahab come along, things get Baal, oh, this is a whole deal. Anyway, so eventually what happens is those things fall apart, and eventually the north moves kind of their capital city, so to speak, to a new city. This new city's name is Samaria. And outside of Samaria, you have this mountain called uh Mount Gerizim. On Mount Gerizim, they set up a temple that looks a lot more, like practice-wise, a lot more like the temple in Jerusalem. So they're doing their best to get back on track. However, by this point, things have gone south, and here's why. The north eventually gets captured by a horrific conquering empire of Assyria. Literally, probably some of the worst people to ever walk the planet. That's a message for another day, but either way, it's horrible. Okay, so the Assyrians take over the north, and one of the goals of the Assyrians is to make everyone on earth of Assyrian descent. So I don't feel like I need to explain that one on a Sunday morning, right? You tracking with me on that? Okay. So, with that, everybody in the south, everyone in the south now looks to the north as though they have been completely corrupted. Right? They have now, literally, the derogatory term that they used back then, they called them half-breeds. Oof, brutal. And so uh they didn't like them. So this is why, was it John chapter 4? Or uh well, it happens a few times, but either way, like Jesus is walking and and he doesn't skip over Samaria, and the disciples are like, Why are you going there? You you shouldn't go there. And he's like, I'm going there, right? He found like a woman at the well and all this stuff, you know what I mean? Right? Because that it was controversial. Like Jews did not associate with the Samaritans because they were half-breeds. Right? To them, they were that that was like, no, dude, they have been outcast from the family. We don't talk to them. That's the, you know, we don't we don't deal with that, right? So Samaria was kind of off limits, okay? But here we have, right, the moment that things in Jerusalem go a little south because there's persecution that's happening to God's people there, Philip leaves. And where does Philip go? He goes to the territory that everyone in Jerusalem doesn't want to go to. He goes to the one city where everyone in Jerusalem hates them. And he goes there. Okay, and look what happens. It said, he went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. So he goes to Samaria and proclaims to them the Christ. Now, we'll get deeper here in a second, but here's what I want you to remember. What is the first thing that Philip does when he gets there? Proclaims Jesus. Right? He shares the good news, he proclaims the gospel. Okay? So everything that Philip is going to do in the city is built on the foundation of the gospel itself. Okay? That's important. And here's what it says. And the crowds, with one accord, paid attention to what was being said by Philip. Okay, a lot to unpack here. First of all, the crowds. Remember, where are we? We're in Samaria. So this is a new group of people. Right? We have pushed beyond borders here. This is a brand new group of people that are being taught the gospel, that are now being grabbed by the face and turned towards Jesus. This is a whole new crowd. Okay? And with one accord, they paid attention to him. Now here's the deal. If you think back to even Acts chapter 2 in Pentecost, right? When they were in the upper room, what did it say that they had when the Holy Spirit came? Unity, one accord. They were all in one accord. It's amazing what happens when people become unified in one accord under the name of Jesus. Even a foreign city like Samaria all of a sudden begins to see something they didn't see before. Right? They knew something was different, and all of a sudden they hear this message. And also notice this how interesting is it that the heart of a Samaritan was more fertile soil for the gospel than the religious leaders in Jerusalem. The religious leaders in Jerusalem who would tell you there in one accord miss the Messiah that's right in front of them. But then you go into enemy territory in Samaria and with one accord they give their lives to Jesus? All of a sudden it makes you ask, who is the enemy? The crowds, with one accord, paid attention. Now listen to this, to what was being said by Philip. Here's what that doesn't say. It doesn't say that they were all enthralled by Philip. It doesn't say that they all thought Philip was the coolest dude they've ever met. It doesn't say that, oh man, Philip had the coolest clothes or whatever, right? Because here's the thing, here's what Philip knew. Philip knew it's not about him. Philip knew that the message of Jesus, he cannot take priority over that message. Philip knew that he is no celebrity just going into another city and preaching the gospel. Philip knew that when you lead with the when you lead with the good news, that's all you need. Right? And so hear me, hear me when I say this. Be careful not to put yourself in front of the message. Because when you put the yourself in front of the message, you have to sustain that message. And it ain't gonna work. But what Philip recognizes is that this is a moment that he's been uniquely called to. It's a moment he, I mean, he's in leadership, he's doing all these things, he's been persecuted and kicked out. And here he goes and he lands in the city and he doesn't put himself on the forefront. He only talks about Jesus. But what you'll find is this what you'll find is that the lie that is sold to us is that you become more human the more successful you become, the more well-known you become. When in reality, the whole story of the Bible has always been that man, when you put your hands or put your life in the hands of Jesus, that's what it means to be human. When you operate in the uniqueness and the gifting and the situations that the Lord has put you in, that's when you become who you're supposed to be. This is why comparison is such a trap. You know what I'm saying? Because the moment, like hear me, the moment that you step in to trying to be someone else is the moment you have robbed the world of a unique part of the body that it needs. So don't do it. So what Philip does, a good way to test it, what Philip does is he says, it's not about me, it's about the message. So much so that in a foreign land, they recognized it. In a foreign land, they listened to what he said, and it wasn't him, but instead it was Jesus. And now Philip steps into this full authority. Here's what happens. Uh pay attention to what we said by Philip. Now it says, uh, this is uh second half of what, verse six. When they heard him and saw the signs. Come on, hear and taste and see, baby. Let's go, right? When they heard him and saw the signs that he did. Okay, so here's what I want you to notice. This is why I told you this. The first thing that Philip did was proclaim the gospel, and then the signs accompanied it. Okay, be careful not to make the signs the Savior. What I mean by that is another good test to know that you're not putting yourself in front of the gospel, is to say, am I going to do this thing to prove Jesus really just to put myself out there for somebody? Is this gonna gain more Instagram followers? Is it gonna, whatever that may be, right? That's not the point. The point is, is that Jesus is the Savior. And the proof of who he is is in the signs that are accompanied with him. Right? And that's what it looks like to really step into that calling. Okay? So uh they heard him and saw the signs that he did. And here we go, verse 7. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them. Alright, so um, let's let's take this back to Genesis 1, as we always do. Okay. Genesis 1, what you first have is you have this primordial soup of a sea, right? And hovering over those waters, what do you have? The Spirit of God, right? That primordial sea that sits there, that in ancient text is representative of pure and utter chaos. Okay? And what is surprising about Genesis chapter 1 to people of its own context is to know that, oh, it turns out that the story of creation is not a battle against that chaotic sea, but instead, God had full authority and control over that sea from the very beginning. So as his spirit hovers above it, all he's got to do is speak. And the moment that he speaks, what happens? The chaos goes to order. And so, when the Lord's at work in creation, what he does is he gives rise from what was once chaos to now being perfect, divine, God-oriented order. Praise the Lord, hallelujah. Right? But in that, what happens is you have that own deceptive serpent, and that serpent just slithers his way into the garden, and he has this conversation with Adam and Eve, and before you know it, what happens? Humanity has turned their back on the Lord. In other words, what was once perfect order has now been introduced back into chaos again. So now, by exiting the wilderness, or sorry, by exiting Eden and going into the wilderness, now we are in what we call a state of decreation. What that means is that things are moving their way back towards chaos, seemingly, right? This is why things like cancer exist. This is why things, this is why our bodies die. This is why, um, this is why we, you know, every day is not perfect. This is why those things happen because everything is in a state of decreation out in the wilderness outside of Eden. But God's still there. But Jesus put on skin and went into the wilderness himself. But we're not having to do this by ourselves. Okay? And so what can happen is, is when you give your life to Jesus, now you become an agent of order. What that means is when you are playing the unique role of the part of the body that you are called to play, now you have the opportunity to bring order to what is becoming chaos. But because you have the authority of Jesus, you can now bring order back. However, the opposite is true too. What impure spirits do, hear me, y'all, this is very real. Okay? Satan, devil, fallen angels, demons, impure spirits, you name it, right? Very real. Right? Paul says the uh fight is not against flesh and blood, the powers, principalities, and rulers of the air. Right? Okay, it's very real. And what are those? Here's what those are they are agents of chaos. Their job, what they desire to do, is to take God's created order and send it towards chaos, send it back into an original state of sin, and so that the Lord's plan does not prevail. Lame. Anyway. So what an impure spirit does, and think of it like this. Do you remember when Jesus is talking about Satan, the devil in particular, right? He's talking about the devil, and he calls him the father of lies. Right? That that like uh that slander, literally the you know, means the slanderer, but uh, you know, that like his native tongue is to lie. Okay, more it's it's actually a little bit more nuanced than that. When we think lie, we think like, oh, Pete's wearing a white shirt today. What? That's a lie. Is this a black shirt? You know what I'm saying? Really, what the enemy does is he takes half-truths and uses them against you. Like, classic example is when Jesus gets baptized, he goes into the wilderness. Who's out there waiting for him? Satan. And what does he use to try and coerce Jesus? Scripture. But I'll tell you this: Jesus is like, no, you know why? Because Jesus does good hermeneutics. And Jesus is like, that ain't what that means, bro. And gets him. But my point is, if you don't have the wherewithal to know when the enemy is telling you a half-truth, then it becomes what's right. And when it's not right, it's now impure. And when it's impure, it is now leading you towards chaos. But when Jesus infiltrates a city through the humble message of a man named Philip, what happens is a place that was once dictated by agents of chaos now flee. It literally says they did it loud because they're a bunch of sissy pants. Sissy pants. My kids are here. Look at them. They're so good. Oh, yeah. That's Quinn. It makes sense. They're the coolest. They hate me. All right, anyway. Um, it's fine. It's cool. So, impure spirits are being driven out. Why? Because this is Jesus doing cosmic work that none of us in this room can do without the authority of Jesus. And now you proclaim the gospel, and order goes into a room. People find out what it means to be human. People find out what it means to find uh what it is that God actually has for you. Not the love. Okay, all right. Anyway, and then many who were paralyzed or lame were healed too. Praise God. Okay, why? Because in decreation, decreation is in your thoughts, decreation is in your mental capacity, decreation is ethereal, but it's also physical. That's what that's what that's what paralyzations and being lame and uh cancer and and you know your body degrading, all of that is a product of decreation. But when Jesus infiltrates a stream, what happens? Man, things turn toward order. The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters, the Spirit of God is hovering over the chaos and says, no, and just his voice is enough to say no. Order. That's what we need here. Order. Why? Because here's the thing. Remember, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And so when Jesus comes in and proclaims what is true, perfect order then follows. And this is where it lands. Verse 8. So, there is much joy in that city. So, when you bring order in the name of Jesus to the proclamation of the gospel, what comes with it is joy. Now hear me. Hear me. Okay, let's take Philip. Alright? Philip is one of the one of the seven members of the group of leadership to you know protect the early uh church practices, right? Who's the other one? Stephen. He just watched his friend be brutally murdered for the sermon that he preached, that Philip went and preached to another city. He watched his friend be brutally murdered. In fact, he watched his the widows of his own kind be denied the uh daily meal in the temple. Philip was scattered, he had to leave. Here's what I'm trying to say. Philip was suffering. Philip was persecuted, and yet still found joy. Because joy and happiness, we all know this, they're not the same thing. What is joy? How about this? And then for the context of this message, you know what joy is? Joy is what happens when chaos loses its grip on your life. Right? Joy is the ability to recognize in Jesus' name, even if it's crap right now, it will be okay. Because Jesus is at the wheel. And ultimately, and the end times of all things, man, what a beautiful reality this is gonna be. It's a restoration of Eden. And in the meantime, we keep our heads up and we see horrific things and we're persecuted, but Jesus is still on the throne, and his order is still available, it's still there. So, what does this teach us? It teaches us, number one, that the gospel advances through opposition.

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Right?

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That even in the midst of persecution and suffering, the gospel still goes forward. Listen to me, you may be in the worst time of your life right now. And you may be like, Lord, why is it so bad? Why am I suffering so much? Why am I being persecuted? Whatever that be. What if it's the very platform upon which the gospel is going to be preached? What if it's the very thing that gives you the context that you need to actually go and reshape an entire city in the name of Jesus? You never know. Number two, the gospel goes to unexpected places. Yo, at Celebration Church, we are doing some massive amount of missions around here. You know why? Because there's not a place on earth that doesn't have the dignity to not receive the message. Every people group on the planet need to hear this because without it, impure spirits and deformities come. Chaos ensues. But with the message of Jesus, everything changes. Everything goes as it ought to be. Number three, the gospel confronts darkness, right? Pushes back that veil, says, not today. Because those things convince you that they have power. But that power of darkness is only as much as you give it. And once you realize the truth that is in Jesus and the power in his name, not only will you be able to get rid of it, but you'll be able to see it in the flesh. Number four. And then the gospel pronounces joy. It pushes you to a place where now there's joy produced in your life that goes beyond measure. So I'm gonna have Apostle John and I'll turn over to celebration everywhere here in a second, but here's what I want to kind of do here to land this plane is um is this, you know, all of us are made to worship. Right? We're all made to worship. Um, but here's the thing: that's a that's a that's a good thing and that's a bad thing. Here's why. All of us are made to worship. The question is, what you worship in? Because what you worship is going to dictate where your joy is produced from. Okay, here's what I mean. What I mean is, if you worship money, then money is gonna be the thing that produces the joy in your life or the lack thereof. If you worship a relationship, if you worship that boy or that girl, that's gonna be the thing that produces the joy in your life. If you worship your career, if you worship your Instagram account, whatever it may be, right? What that is going to be what dictates the joy of your life. But hear me. When your eyes are on Jesus, okay? When your eyes are on the Messiah, and he is the one who dictates your joy, then there's never a time it's not there. Money ebbs and flows, careers ebb and flow, relationships ebb and flow, but Jesus never will. He is the truth, the way, the truth, the life, and it will not change. Because true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. So, really, what this message is about, believe it or not, what Philip's message is and what I'm trying to convey to you today, is one of repentance. The reason is, uh, here's what repentance is. Repentance is simple. Repentance, it's very beautiful. It's turning away from something and towards something else. Okay? So, in other words, if I have made the decision that money dictates joy in my life, I have set my eyes on that as my standard. So, in an act of repentance, I need to be like, I'm gonna stop looking at this, and I'm going, in an act of repentance, look towards Jesus and let him be the one who dictates not only where my joy comes from, but also the decisions that I make and the way I carry myself and the type of people I talk to, and the kinds of things I say, and all of that stuff, right? So that's where you have to keep your eyes. So um, with every eye closed here, here's what I want you to do. Just um begin maybe to think about some of those things where maybe your eyes may be set. Is it set on money? Is it set on fame? Is it set on fortune? Is it set on relationships? Is it set on your career? Whatever that may be, all of those things could be okay, but the priority has to be that your eyes are on Jesus. And so maybe the Holy Spirit, just pray that prayer, pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal that to you. What are those things? Like, where are your eyes at the moment? And then we'll just pray that Jesus would turn your eyes. In an act of repentance, you would say, Jesus, I'm gonna stop looking at this and I'm gonna start looking at you. Lord Jesus, we just thank you today. God, we're grateful that you're here in the room. We're thankful that you are um that you are the king, that you are the Messiah, that you are the way, the truth, the life, that you are the producer of joy, that you are creator, that you are provider. And Lord today, I just pray that you search our hearts, God. With pure hands and clean hearts, God, that you would just reveal that which to us. Now, where are our eyes at the moment? What are they set on? And I pray that you would give us the courage in an act of repentance to take our eyes off of those things and set them on you, Jesus. You are the standard of what is good, you are the standard of what is right, you are the standard of what it means to be human. You are the standard of what you're doing in the earth through your body. Jesus, give us the courage and the boldness today to make that turn. Holy Spirit, I pray that over the next few days, weeks, months, you just reveal more and more of those things to us to show us how it is, how it ought to be as we live our life from day to day. And Lord, I just pray that you would give us the boldness of Philip to go not only to places that are comfortable, but to places that are uncomfortable on mission and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thanks, Sean.