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The
Gospel Spread to Samaria
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Bible : Acts 8:12 (NIV)
But
when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God
and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
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The
first church that was built after Jesus went back to heaven was the Jerusalem
church.
The worshipers in that Jerusalem church all lived by following God`s
commands.
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In
the Jerusalem church, 7 men with good faith were assigned to be the deacons.
One of them was the deacon, Stephen, who we well know and there was also
Philip.
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Stephen
being filled with the Holy Spirit said, "Jesus Christ who was killed by
us was the true Messiah. We have made a huge mistake." When the Jews
heard this they tried to kill Stephen instead of repenting because they felt
guilty.
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They
brought the deacon called Stephen outside of the city.
Then they publicly executed him by falsely charging him of insulting God.
The gathered people began to stone him.
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Even
while Stephen was being stoned, he prayed to God loudly,
"God, they don't know how big of a sin they are making.
Forgive
them and I am going to the LORD now. Please take my soul."
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Godly
men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
Stephen was the first to be martyred in the early church.
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After
this incident the Jews started to persecute the Christians. And Saul who we
well know was the most earnest in persecuting Christians. Saul who did not
believe in Jesus at that time sent many Christians to prison.
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The
Christians who realized that they couldn't stay in Jerusalem started to
spread around to other countries.
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The
amazing thing was that the Christians who left Jerusalem because of the
persecution did not stop to spread the good news about Jesus. Even though
they encountered hardships they did not stop to spread the gospel.
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One
of the seven deacons, Philip also left Jerusalem and went to the city called
Samaria. Philip started to spread about Jesus there.
He
became the first person to spread the gospel to Samaria.
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As
Philip started to teach about Jesus, amazing things began to happen. When
Philip prayed for those who were possessed by evil spirits, the evil spirits
were driven out and those people became normal again.
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Not
only this, but those who used to be paralytics were also cured when Philip
prayed for them. And many crippled people were cured also.
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When
the news spread around about Philip, many people gathered to hear his words. They believed in Jesus and got baptized through Philip.
All around Samaria believers came to know of the joy of the Lord.
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The
news about Samaria brought the Apostle Peter and John to Samaria to help
Philip. Whenever those two apostles put their hands on a person the Holy
Spirit came to them.
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The
Christians like us had one thing that they should never stop even in
hardships. That is to spread the gospel around. We also should spread the gospel wherever we go and lead others to Jesus like
Philip.
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(You can change the conclusion of this sermon best suiting
to your listeners of this sermon. We want to make it clear that the provided
conclusion is only a sample conclusion provided by CTM.)
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