Manifestation Of The Holy Spirit / Part 3

Series – May 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Manifestation Or Marks Of The Holy Spirit Versus Imitation In The Church – Part 3

Stephen’s Ministry In Grace, Opposed By The Religious Leaders
Saul, a Hellenistic Jew, had become well known among the Jewish leadership (Gal. 1:13-14) and probably was one of Stephen’s opponents

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in the Grecian synagogues (Acts 6:9, 7:58, 8:1). The resistance continued despite God’s approval of Stephen, displayed through the signs and powers He worked by him (6:8,10). Like Jeremiah’s generation who tried to silence the prophet in vain (Jer. 1:19), Stephen’s adversaries were not able to refute him. Their failure led them to accuse Stephen falsely (Acts 6:11-14) and bring him before the highest religious authorities (v.15, 7:1). The high priest was president of the Sanhedrin, the same Jewish council that had condemned the Lord Jesus. Prior to this, they had rejected the testimony of Peter and John (4:15,18), then of Peter and the other apostles (5:27,40). Paul would experience the same kind of rejection later (22:22–23:11).

Now it was Stephen who stood before the Jewish leadership as God’s prophet. Rather than to defend himself or his ministry, in the power of the Holy Spirit he addressed the leaders’ consciences (Acts 7) in a last effort to bring them to repentance (see Mt. 23:34). The Lord Jesus, earlier rejected by His people on earth, here used Stephen as His instrument to address them from heaven. In his discourse, Stephen displayed Christ’s heavenly glories against the dark background of rejection. His face2 reflected the glories of the heavenly but rejected Messiah.

Despite the leaders’ hardening, Messiah’s wonderful grace was shown to the nation, as He addressed them one more time to win their hearts. They had rejected Him on earth and were rejecting Him again as He spoke to them from heaven through His messenger, full of the Holy Spirit, faith, grace and power (Acts 6:5,8). This longest message recorded in Acts parallels the pleadings of the prodigal son’s father who, full of compassion, reached out to his oldest son (Lk. 15:28-32).

Further Testimony Plus Opposition
To carry out His plan (Acts 1:8) a step further, the Lord used one of the seven deacons who had worked with Stephen. Philip3 went to Samaria to sow the seed of the Word and evangelize the Samaritans. The power of the rejected King – called “a Samaritan” by His opponents (Jn. 8:48 NKJV) – worked in and through this new ambassador as he proclaimed4 the amazing message of the One in whom God had found His delight (Acts 8:5-13). The persecution that had begun in Jerusalem and Judea led to an extension of the new testimony of Christ in Samaria. God’s ways are wonderful!

“With one accord,”5 the Samaritans paid attention to God’s herald and accepted him, “hearing and seeing the miracles which he did” (v.6). In Scripture, the hearing of faith always comes first (Rom. 10:8-17). The seeing of miracles is linked with the fact that the Lord in heaven authenticated Philip’s message by the powers he worked before the Word of God was completed in writing. The miracles rendered testimony to the Lord of Glory, as “unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed” (Acts 8:7).

The Lord working from heaven was the great Healer, setting people free and making them His instruments. He was the great Evangelist who worked through His prepared vessel, Philip the evangelist. Great joy was the result of these actions. In Jesus’ earthly ministry the healing of a paralytic was of special significance, as it demonstrated “the powers of the age to come” at work (Heb. 6:5; see Isa. 35:3-6). Earlier they had rejected the Lord’s words and works on earth. Now He gave them another opportunity to believe as He acted among them with great power through His Word, confirming the new testimony through miracles (Acts 8:4-7).

We find a clear pattern in Acts through the healing of three lame men, separately on different occasions. In this we see a threefold witness: God confirming His new testimony. The first was to the Jews at Jerusalem by Peter (Acts 3–4), then to the Samaritans by Philip (8:5,13), and later to the Gentiles through Paul’s ministry (14:8-10).

The Believers Are Protected By Christ Against The Counterfeiter
Acts describes the actions of the glorified Lord Jesus in His disciples and with them, through His Spirit. However, where God is at work, the enemy is sure to follow, not only in Jerusalem (Acts 4–7) but also in regions beyond, wherever the new seed was being dispersed (see Mt. 13:3-8). Acts 8 reports the scattering of the seed through Philip the evangelist and the enemy’s efforts to mix this seed with a counterfeit,6 as in the parable about the tares (Mt. 13:24-30). At this stage these efforts were publicly denounced (Acts 8:18-23), but the attacks were really aimed at Christ in heaven, as was the case with Saul of Tarsus (9:4). This pharisee persecuted the Church while – unknown to him – he pursued Christ, who personally intervened.

At other times Christ uses His servants to unmask Satan’s agents of deception. The Samaritans were masters of deception and had written a counterfeit Pentateuch7 and built a temple, thus imitating Moses and Solomon. It was, therefore, of vital importance that the Church in Samaria would be preserved from such influences. No counterfeits could be allowed in God’s new testimony; the false professing believer Simon had to be unmasked (8:20-23).

Instead of forming an independent Church, the new believers in Samaria learned of and were preserved in a new unity with the believers in Jerusalem, Judea and elsewhere. For this purpose the Lord in the glory through His Spirit led Peter and John to go from Jerusalem to Samaria. Earlier, during Christ’s earthly ministry, John and his brother James had not grasped the extent of God’s grace and asked Him to allow them to call fire to come down from heaven to consume a Samaritan village that had refused to receive Him (Lk. 9:51-55). Now in Acts, John was ready to be used by the Master, willing to follow His example and show grace to the Samaritans.8 Peter had received the promise of the keys of the kingdom (Mt. 16:19) that, with God-given authority, he might open its door on behalf of the Lord or close it. Trained and led by the Master, Peter used those keys on this special occasion to receive the believing Samaritans. Soon he used them to close the door on a counterfeiter.

God’s Righteousness Or The Enemy’s Counterfeits
As mentioned, Simon of Acts 8:9-24 was not a born-again believer, even though he had “believed,” because of the miracles Philip performed, and was baptized. Simon believed in the way many people in Jerusalem had “believed” at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry: because of the signs (Jn. 2:23-25) but without repentance. There was no genuine faith with Simon; faith, however, is required for a relationship with God (20:31; Eph. 2:8-10). Therefore, Simon did not receive the Holy Spirit, unlike the others because they had truly believed while accepting God’s Word (Acts 8:14-17). Simon sought his own glory as he had before Philip came. Peter told Simon to repent (v.22); otherwise he would perish despite his confession (v.20).

A Few Notes Of Clarification
Today believers receive the Holy Spirit the moment they are saved by faith (Eph. 1:13-14), rather than through the laying on of hands. As to Simon’s suggestion to offer money (Acts 8:18), this represents the third case in Acts when money was the cause of trouble, after Ananias and Sapphira’s deception (Acts 5) and the complaints of the widows (Acts 6). Luke’s writings teach that believers are to be good stewards, using money for the Master’s interests (Lk. 16:1-13, 19:13-26; Acts 4:34-35). Lydia’s opening her house for the believers is an example of good stewardship (16:15), also important for us today (consider 1 Tim. 6:6-10,17-19).

Peter described Simon’s condition as of someone who is lost (Acts 8:23) Acts has the word “iniquity” only here and with Judas (1:18). The Holy Spirit knows the hearts, and He led Peter to tell Simon that his heart was “not right in the sight of God” (8:21). Simon was acting in obvious disagreement with “the straight ways of the Lord” (13:10) and what is right. His condition contradicted God’s thoughts for the Church, as seen in the vessel Peter saw taken up straight to heaven (10:16).

Through Peter’s intervention, the Lord in the glory foiled the enemy’s efforts to corrupt, for He did not allow any counterfeit signs or a Church independent from the apostles or in rivalry to the Jews. Submission to our glorified Lord, as well as true love to Him and to His people, has often sadly lacked in Church history, even today (2 Tim. 3; 2 Pet. 2; 1 Jn. 2:18, 4:1-3; Rev. 2–3).

ENDNOTES
1. Saul may have been in the Cilician synagogue in the City of David, possibly, a member of the Sanhedrin (see Acts 26:10).
2. Stephen’s enemies did not understand the real source of his shining face. The Pharisees among them compared it with the face of an angel, but the Sadducees did not because they did not believe in angels. However, Stephen was the living proof of Christ’s transforming impact on believers who represent Him on earth, in the very scene of His rejection (see 2 Cor. 3:18). Later, such a transformation was displayed in Saul’s changed life and ministry.
3. Philip the evangelist is mentioned 15 times in Acts (6:5, 8:5-6,12-13,26,29-31,34-35,38-40, 21:8).
4. The verb “to proclaim” (kerusso) occurs eight times in Acts (8:5, 9:20, 10:37,42, 15:21, 19:13, 20:25, 28:31).
5. This term occurs ten times in Acts (1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 7:57, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25, 18:12, 19:29) and once more in Romans (15:6).
6. Paul referred to Satan’s efforts to corrupt, using the phrase “the mystery of lawlessness” (2 Th. 2:7). Today the enemy’s tactics are seen in the so-called New Age Movement, which will culminate to full apostasy after the rapture of the Church.
7. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
8. See John 4:4-42 and Luke 17:11-19. In Luke 10:25-37, the so-called “good Samaritan” typifies Christ and His care in grace, though rejected by His own people (see Jn. 8:48). Unaware of their hopeless condition, they were like the man fallen among robbers.

By Alfred Bouter

Look for a part 4 of this Series next month!