Your Faith Diet (Part 1)

0:01 I would like to invite Rabbi Ari, everyone be seated. Yeah. You don't wanna stand during the sermon. I got to, you know, at home I stand all the time. It's, uh, whether my kids eat or not. It's been a minute. You remember how to do this? Oh, thank you so much for my friend, my brother. Thank you for his diligent study of your word as he seeks and everything that he does. Thank you for bringing him and his family back safely. Lord, I ask that during this word that he's bringing and all of our hearts would be free of distraction, Lord,

0:48 that, that your spirit would come and give us depth. Remove all the thorns and the stones that our heart would be good soil today to receive your word. And bless my brother that he may give a faithful account of who you are. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Casey. Before I get into the message, I just want to do what I do. Every, every week is remind us that there are still more than a hundred hostages being held, um, alive and dead. Uh, and by dead, I mean bodies are just being held hostage.

1:36 There are more than a hundred still remaining, uh, in this war of aggression against Israel. Why do I define it as a war of aggression against Israel? Because Israel was in a ceasefire with Hamas on October 6th. And Hamas deliberately broke the ceasefire and invaded by land, by sea, and by air the land of Israel. Now, whether you take Hamas to be a terrorist organization, which it is defined as, or you take it to be the political ruling party of the nation of Gaza, if you want to use

2:21 that language, both of them are considered to be an act of aggression, an open warfare declaration against the state of Israel. And in an, in an opportunity like that, Israel is permitted to do whatever it can in its own defense. As such, we are now going on nearing 10 months, or like around nine and a half months. Why do I say that? Because that's the amount of time it has taken for the sister of one of the hostages who had a baby when they were taken to now give birth and have her own baby. You see, one of the hostages that's still being held is a baby, a year old

3:10 and now has a brand new cousin, which they've never seen because they've been in captivity for three quarters of their lives. To me, it's something on unthinkable ream. I I, I don't even know, like, it, it's difficult for me to imagine how someone could come up with a plot like this. Um, but then I think what does the enemy of our souls want? He wants something like this. He wants to separate to isolate us,

3:56 in particular the Jewish people, and he wants to destroy us. It has happened again and again and again for 4,000 years. When I, I remember when this, it must've been a week or two after October 7th, and, uh, one of the Jewish people I follow on social media got up and said, listen, we have enough holidays already. Please stop. We don't need another one. Where they came, they attacked, they invaded, they did whatever. And, and, and then God won. And now we have another holiday. I, I agree. We, we have too many holidays as it is.

4:45 That being said, God will remain faithful to his promises and his covenants, God will not forget the a hundred plus who are alone in captivity being persecuted. By the way, I don't know if you saw this, but, uh, I think this is now about a month old news, but one of those hostages that was rescued, uh, by the IDF about a month ago was being held in a civilian's house. Not just a civilian, but a reporter

5:34 who was reporting news and giving it to the world about Israel's aggression against Gaza, about all of the deaths and everything that's going on in Gaza, while not disclosing that they had a hostage in their house. To me, it, it, it's, it's asinine. I I don't know how else to, to describe it, to, to think that there are people like this, but I, I'm, I'm telling you all of this because the war is both a war of,

6:20 of bullets and, and whatever else is accompanied in war. But it's not just that, it's now become a war of words and the war of words, the, the tide. Well, the tide shifted eight months ago, uh, if you didn't notice, but, but certainly it seems the world opinion for the last eight months has been something toward a ceasefire at all costs, which I, I think I read last night that there's something in the works. I don't know if it's in the works or not, but that's what I read. I'm telling you, if the hostages aren't released, there shouldn't even be a discussion.

7:08 Like that's the preliminary, that's the preliminary step. Like that's not even a step in negotiation that has to happen for there even to be a negotiation, in my opinion. You can't disregard the sacredness of human life and then hold it against the people you're battling against, especially when they hold human life above all else. The reality is, if there's a, what's the number? I think there's, like, they think about 50 or 60 of the hostages remaining are, are still alive.

7:53 I think that's the number that, that they're projecting. This is my own opinion, my own insight. I would be willing to bet that if some politician in Israel drew it up on a board, that they would be willing to sacrifice the lives of four soldiers for every living hostage. You think about that, that's 200 people dead. If they got all the all 50 back, that's how much they value the lives of those who are taken as, as far as I can see. The other side just values death. Uh, it's a, it's a shame.

8:41 So let me, uh, get off my box for a moment and get into the message. We are continuing our series in the book of acts. We're continuing. Uh, and in fact, what I was, when I broke up the division of, of the passage, I decided that this week I was going to be brave and attempt to tackle 15 verses. And then I thought my first message back, I probably shouldn't attempt to attack 15 verses and keep us here for two hours.

9:27 So I've broken it down into two parts, and we're gonna do part one today and part two next week. But I'm telling you that because it's actually one story, and in fact, really the one story started really two weeks ago, uh, at the beginning of chapter eight of the Book of Acts. But before we get into chapter eight, I want to remind us, we've been in the Book of Acts for a long time. Does anybody know how long? Right? I think we started, I think we started the High Holy Days last year. So that's about, about amount of time to give birth to a baby. Been about been about 10 months, 10 and a half months or so.

10:14 I want to refresh our minds, uh, about the beginning of Acts because it becomes, uh, quite noticeable here in chapter eight. So if you'll recall in the beginning of the Book of Acts, acts chapter one, verse eight, I said, set the trajectory for the whole Book of Acts. It outlines what Luke is going to do for all of the chapters in the Book of Acts. So Acts chapter one, verse eight says this, but you'll receive power when the URA has come upon you. And here, this is what sets the trajectory, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem through all Judah Samaria and to the end of the earth. So you see the progression, it,

11:00 it starts in the central place, grows a little bit, a little bit more, and then it goes all the way to the, to the end of the earth. This season of persecution has pushed them out into another sphere of influence within their witness. In other words, they're now into Samaria. Their progression of influence has gone from Jerusalem to Judah and now Samaria. And we will see as the Book of Acts continues to the end of the earth. Now let me, let me stop for a moment and give you multiple disclaimers. First of all, this week is gonna be full of disclaimers

11:47 or notes as, uh, redefinitions, if you will, about the Book of Acts. Why? Because it's in my opinion that the Book of Acts has been taught wrong for centuries. I mean, that's my opinion. But, but what we're, what I'm attempting to help us understand is there's a, a better definition by which we can understand what's happening in the Book of Acts. So some commentators use this progression of influence, Jerusalem, Judah Samaria, to the end of the earth, use this progression of influence as an indicator that the Lord is shifting his focus from Israel to the nations.

12:34 Now, it seems relatively harmless, uh, upon first hearing, but as you begin to, uh, dig into that, what happens is, is you begin to understand what they mean is then the Lord no longer cares about Israel, but now has transferred his concern and his love to the people of the nations. Now, again, I want you to understand this. Lemme stop for a moment. Lemme give this example. I love my wife, right? You all probably know that. Can I tell you something else? I love my children. Do you think my love of my children

13:19 decreases my love of my wife? Or do you think what it does is it expands the volume of love that I have within me to be loved by the Lord and be of the nations is, is is great. It doesn't have to come at the expense of the love of God toward Israel. Unfortunately, many people who've taught this as a zero sum, it's either love of the nations or love of Israel. You can't have both. The reality is, is God's love is bigger than that. Whoever limits God to that has a very small understanding of God, so that it's often thought God no longer cares about Israel, but his transferred is concern to the people of the nations.

14:06 In fact, it's utilized or it's shown by Israel was his choice in the Old Testament. And the church and the nations are his choice in the New Testament. Why? Because when something's new, it's always better than the old. That's what our minds do. Our minds make that shift. The the new is always better. Who wants a 1990 car when you can have a 2025? I mean, there's, we could talk about a 1967 and the, the, the argument might be different, but, but when you get into nineties cars, we, it's good we left them in the nineties.

14:54 Something. Nobody wants that 25-year-old car when they can have the new one. That's the way we think. It's not the way God thinks. And in reality, it's not even the way the testaments are described or the covenants are described. It's the way we call them, and we've been trained to call them the position that the old is bad or the old is done, and the new is what we're living in is not just a misunderstanding, but it's a misinterpretation of scripture. The Book of Acts does not record the birth and the growth of the church.

15:41 I'm sorry if I just popped your bubble. I can't tell you how often I hear that the book of Acts is given to us so we can understand the birth and the growth of the church or the body of Messiah. That's not my opinion. And in fact, let me go a little stronger. Acts two is not the birth of the church. I mean, now I'm like stomping on everybody's theology. I was, I was in a panel one day at a Christian seminary. I'm not gonna name the seminary, and I was in the panel

16:26 and there were, I don't know if a professor or two pastors and myself, something like that. And the panel was on Acts and I was like, this is fantastic. This is about a year ago. I was like, this is fantastic. I'm about to go into Book of Acts. I'm like, excited. And the the guy who's the moderator of the panel, he gets up and he says, you know, we're here to talk about the birth of the church and the growth of the church starting in Acts chapter two. And he goes to the first guy and he gets his opinions, and he comes to, to me, and, uh, and he says, Ari, would you in your, in your context, you know, I was there as a representative of em. He goes, in your context, what is, what is Acts chapter two, the birth of the church really mean?

17:12 And, and look in your context. I said, well, I said, if you'll forgive me for a moment, I said, I don't mean to like just lay all of your theology to the side. I said, but in our context, acts chapter two is not the birth of the church because they're all Jews. It's the continuation in the rejuvenation of the synagogue, The Book of Acts. I'm telling you that because here it is. The Book of Acts follows the growth of the remnant of Israel

17:58 that is faithful to the God of Israel. That's what the Book of Acts follows. And then at different places, and, and, and we're, we're at one of those junctions. That's why I'm giving this whole history at different junctions. In the Book of Acts, there's growth beyond the House of Israel. And so we have to talk about why things are changing. There is a point. And that point, really, the initial point is today or this story that we're gonna get into in a little bit, and then it, it grows a little bit more in Acts chapter 10.

18:43 And then by Acts 15, we have an issue that we had to deal with. You see, when there's, when there's one or two or a family, it's not an issue. But when there become hundreds, now we have an issue that we have to deal with as a congregation or as a community. That issue is the introduction of the remnant of the nations. Up until this point, all we have is the remnant of Israel all the way through Acts chapter seven, which we just finished about three or four weeks ago, something like that. It's all the remnant of Israel. In fact, if you look at Stephen's speech in Acts chapter seven, all of it has to do with being Israel and being the remnant that follows God

19:31 down to the detail. It never has to deal with what do you do as the nations coming in to follow the God of Israel? How do you live your life? Now, all of a sudden here in Acts chapter eight, we have the introduction of the first from outside the House of Israel. And it's interesting because what we have is the introduction of the Samaritans. Now in the flesh, the Samaritans are the enemies, if you will, of Israel, uh, at least politically, um, and even religiously at that point. But what is also true is that it seems that, how, how can I say this without being, um,

20:23 uh, how shall I say this? They, they weren't totally separate from the House of Israel. They were, they were a mixed group. Uh, I don't mean this in a derogatory manner, though. I know the term has been u used that way, but they were half breeds. Um, as we understand it, they had Jewish ancestry and they have ancestry from the nations. And so, because as such, they weren't accepted in the House of Israel, and they had to create their own religion where they followed the God of Israel, but they worshiped him on a different mountain. So this is the growth into the nations,

21:09 but it's really kind of not even getting outta the house of Israel yet. It is a little bit, and certainly it's in a flesh. It's to the enemies, but it's not the enemies like it is to the Romans or the Greeks. If you, under, if you like, if you can grasp that jump this, we're, we're, we're marking the point here of the shift between the remnant of Israel to the remnant of the nations, and how does it all work together in the book of Acts. So what I also want to point out is every time the good news goes forth or there's growth, uh,

21:55 how there's growth or movement into what I would call the next sphere. So we talked about Jerusalem, Judah, Samaria, and then the end of the earth. Every time there's movement into the next sphere, there's persecution of the remnant. In fact, if I can say it this way, the persecution is often what makes the movement of the good news go to the next sphere. But there's also something else that happens every time the good news goes to the next sphere. So it goes to from Jerusalem to Judah, and it goes from Jerusalem to Samaria, and then it goes from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

22:43 Every time it does that, there is a return to Jerusalem. Every time the persecution makes the good news go out, and then it returns to Jerusalem, it goes out and it returns to Jerusalem. It's like a rubber band. It goes out and it returns to Jerusalem. So we're gonna see this week it go out and talk to the re to, to the Samaritans, and next week we'll see the return to Jerusalem in the same story. It's very interesting. Now, the other thing I want, so that's, that's all from Acts chapter one, verse eight. Now, I want us to, to refresh our memories, acts chapter six, verse five. Luke introduces Steven and Philip into the story.

23:29 Up until this point, there have been 12 main characters, and they've been doing the, the heavy lifting of, of the body of Messiah. Now, in Acts chapter six, verse five, there are seven more introduced, and those seven play a part. And what we see is immediately in Acts chapter seven, we see, well, six and seven, really we see the, the, the use of Stephen. And now here in Acts chapter eight, we see the use of Philip. So it's, it's the Lord showing that he's faithful, not just to the 12 who walked with Yeshua, but now he's also faithful to these seven who are walking with the 12 who walked with Yeshua. You see what I'm saying? It, it may not be

24:14 that Philip walked hand in hand for three and a half years with Yeshua, but it is that he was a part of the community and he walked with the emissaries with the 12 for a season. And now the Lord is being faithful to him as he has been to the 12. That should encourage us. And how do we know that this is exactly what is being talked about? Because Luke introduces what Philip is doing, and he says the same signs, miracles, healing of the sick, driving out of demons, those same things happened with Philip, as happened with Steven, and as happened with the 12 and has happened with Peter. Now, nobody can dispute Peter and his relationship, his closeness with Yeshua.

25:03 And so if the Lord was faithful to produce those things with Peter, and with the 12 and with the seven, and now in that seven with Philip, how much more so will the Lord continue to be faithful with those of us who continue to walk and follow him? This is the big picture backdrop of what is happening in Acts leading into this episode, uh, which we will be. We will start this week and we'll finish next week. Now, I know I'm giving a whole lot of groundwork, but before we get into the episode, we're gonna cover one more section. And that's what we covered a couple weeks ago with Rabbi Sean, which is the first few verses of Acts chapter one, acts of Acts chapter eight, the first few one,

25:50 and following, sorry, excuse me. In this section, in the first eight verses of, of Acts chapter eight, it presents Saul and his desire to persecute the Jewish followers of Yeshua. Now, I know I told you that I would make a lot of notes or aside statements. I'm gonna make one right now, Saul versus Paul, let me just clarify so that there's no misunderstanding. Um, first of all, before I clarify, oh, no, no, this is, this is part of my clarification. Saul is not the name of the unredeemed, persecutor of the church.

26:38 And Paul is not the name for the redeemed follower of Jesus who had his life changed and left the old man Saul behind and is now going by a new name. That's not what happens. Just in case you've ever been taught that Saul is simply his Hebrew name or Shaul as it, as it as it is in Hebrew, but it's translated Saul like King Saul. By the way, they were from the same tribe. It's likely that Saul or Paul was named after King Saul, not because King Saul was such a bad king, but because he was the first king of Israel.

27:28 His Hebrew name, Shaul, that's his Hebrew name, and his Greek name is Paulis. The name utilized depends on the audience. It's not that uncommon from today. There are Jewish people today who have English names. Um, like for instance, my son Max, I can't use myself because my English name is also my Hebrew name Ari. But like my son Max, max is not a Hebrew word, by the way, max is an English name, and that's what he goes by. I'm not telling you his Hebrew name, you'll find that at his bar mitzvah, but he has a Hebrew name

28:16 as well, which is different. My dad has the same thing. Marty and Mordecai, you'll find this, this is super common with Jews in the diaspora, Jews in Israel. Well, you know, you speak Hebrew, so you have a Hebrew name. It is just kinda the way it is. So here we are in chapter eight, the followers of Yeshua. This is what it says. They're scattered abroad from Jerusalem. Why are they scattered? Because they're being persecuted. By who? By Saul, by the way, just as a reminder, Saul does not equal bad, and Paul does not equal good likely.

29:03 As I'm going through this, I'll just use Paul from now on, but I, I will give this disclaimer at least two more times. The followers of Yeshua are scattered abroad from Jerusalem ex, and Philip is named, and it says he ends up in Samaria and he's there presenting the good news to the people of Samaria. It, it does strike me. Uh, the passage also says, by the way, that the emissaries never left Jerusalem, the 12 they stayed in Jerusalem, and that will come into play in, in, in next week's message. But it's, it's interesting that Philip gets scattered abroad

29:52 and he ends up in enemy territory. Like this is, it's really not where you want to end up as a Jewish person, uh, probably even today in that land, in, in that land area. So here we are, we, I'm gonna read the whole passage and then, then we will, uh, break the passage down. It's a good sign. I only took 20 minutes for my introduction. Okay, acts chapter eight. Now, a man named Simon had been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people

30:37 of Samaria saying he was someone great, they were all paying special attention to him saying, this man is the power of God. That is called great. And they kept paying attention to him because for a long time he had astonished them with his magical arts. But when they believed Philip proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of the Messiah, Yeshua, both men and women were immersed. Even Simon himself believed. And after being immersed, he continued with Philip. And when he saw signs and great miracles happening, he was continually amazed. And that's where we're gonna stop today. But I'm gonna read the rest of the passage so you can have it in your, in your mind. Now, when the emissaries in Jerusalem heard

31:23 that Samaria had accepted the message of God, they sent Peter and John to them, they came down. By the way, just another note, they came down. Why do they come down to Samaria? They're going north. That would be in our recollect in, in our understanding, going up. You don't go from Austin down to Dallas, you go up from Austin to Dallas. But it's because in the Jewish world, you always come down from Jerusalem and you always go up to Jerusalem. There's no exceptions. So here Luke is presenting at least his knowledge of, of Jewish geography.

32:09 They came down and prayed for them to receive the Ruakaka Kodesh, for he had not yet come upon them. They had only been immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Ruakaka kodesh. Now, when Simon saw that through the, uh, that the kodesh was given through the laying on of hands by the emissaries, he offered them money saying, give this power to me too, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the kodesh. And Peter said to him, may your silver go to ruin and you with it because you thought you could buy God's gift with money. You have no part or share in this matter because your heart is not right before God.

32:57 Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be pardoned. Where I see in you the poison of bitterness and the bondage of unrighteousness, Peter is like, those are strong words. We'll talk about that next week. Simon replied, pray for me so that none of what you have said may come upon me. So when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem. You see this, they go back to Jerusalem. The good news goes back to Jerusalem. Uh, they returned to Jerusalem proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages.

33:42 That's the breadth of the story. We're gonna talk about just a few, the few first verses, and, and we're gonna start with this now, a man named Simon had been practicing magic in the city, in astonishing the people of Samaria saying he was someone great. So here we have an encounter with magic. This is the first, by the way, of several instances in the Book of Acts where someone sharing the good news of the kingdom of God comes into conflict with a person practicing magic who is practicing magic here, a man named Simon. Now, I want you to note, I you, you may have just glossed through it like I did the first time.

34:29 His name is Simon, and then later Peter's mentioned. But what's Peter's full name? Simon Peter Peter's. First name is Simon, by the way. That's, uh, another, another, uh, dual name that we're gi that we're given his, his Simon is dropped. Now, to me, it seems that, that Luke is setting up a, um, a contrast between Simon and Peter, and he wants it to be fully contrasted so that you know, one is not equal to the other. Simon was a fairly common name during this time period. Uh, I think it was there, there were about seven

35:16 to 10 names that were prominent, uh, during, um, the first century Judaism. And Simon was one of those. Why? Because he's named after one of the patriarchs, Simeon, that's where the name Simon comes from, Shimon. Uh, and so there's also, we, how do I know this, that it's common? Well, we have Simon, we have Simon Peter, there's another Simon in between. Does anybody know Simon, the Sian who carries the cross beam for Yeshua? There's, there's another Simon. Simon is is a common name. So here we have a contrast between Simon, the Samaritan

36:02 and Peter the Apostle. And what is at work here is magic versus the miracles and signs of the kingdom of God. In this context, magic has produced the result that the people were astonished. It seems possible that it was done in contrast or in comparison to the miracles and signs that Philip was doing. Philip are connected to what he's saying. It says that he's speaking the good news and doing signs and miracles and wonders for the kingdom of God.

36:49 What are what's going on in this? There's unclean spirits coming out of people. These people who had been plagued by unclean spirits are now free. And, and when is, you can say that it happened, and, and maybe not everybody notices, but when the unclean spirit shrieks when it comes out, it draws attention. So here we have these, these unclean spirits. They shriek in a loud voice when they come out. So it's obvious to everyone what's happening. There's people who were paralyzed being healed, people who were crippled are now healed. And if it's in contrast, if the magic, uh, that Simon does is held in contrast to what Philip performs,

37:35 uh, let me rephrase to what the Holy Spirit does through Philip, it seems remarkably similar to what happens in Egypt between Pharaohs men and Moses and Aaron. You see, the magicians of Egypt were able to replicate the plagues while at least the first several plagues, up until a point I think of frogs was the last one that they did. They replicated the plagues. I mean, I don't know why you would want to replicate a plague, but they do to demonstrate their power in magic or in the gods of Pharaoh, if you will.

38:25 And that is held in contrast or in opposition to what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does. The one true God, the Creator God who created everything. Those two things are held in tension, in fact, one against the other as if who's gonna win this battle. There are other recordings concerning a, uh, a master of magic arts. This is extra biblical. It's outside of the New Testament, a master of magic arts

39:12 who is in Samaria during this time period. And these later writings interpreted this as the ability. Now I'm giving you the definition of what they gave to what that person did, gave the definition that magic was the ability to perform such signs and prodigies as passing through rocks and fire and transforming persons and animals into other forms. This is how they defined magic, uh, that that would, that was Clement. So it was within about a hundred years, 150 years of the time, the Diday, which is a, a, a, a document that outlines how first century, second century followers of Yeshua were to live their lives,

39:59 um, puts prohibition of magic, of the use of magic on par with do not use filters. I don't mean the filter that you use when you do your Instagram photo. Okay, come on y'all. You gotta at least give me a chuckle. Thank you, Amanda. That's not the, I had to look this word up. I'm not gonna lie. I had to, I had to look this word up because I've never heard this word, but a filter was a drink supposed to arouse love and desire for a particular person within someone. So don't use magic, don't use filters and, and on par with, don't procure an abortion or commit infanticide.

40:46 So all of these people are paying attention to Simon, the magician, Simon, who performs magic. I I do wanna say, I, I, I can't find it in my notes. Maybe it shows up later. It seems to me I know all of you're looking for a definition of what magic is. I'm not gonna give you a real one, um, other than I just gave you what Clement said. Um, but it seems to me magic is a person's manipulation of, um, something, whether it's data, whether it's what you see for the purpose of bringing glory to something other than God.

41:35 Uh, I, I know that's a very loose definition of magic. And, and I know when we get into the magical world, everybody has really strong feelings in, in lots of different directions, in my opinion, if it draws you away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob probably steer clear. I, I know that's a like, super broad definition, but that's about as good as I can give you. Let, let me, let me go back here. Okay? So they're paying attention. See, Simon the magician is performing these signs and wonders why they were paying special attention to him

42:23 saying, this man is the power of God. That is called great. Now, I don't know about you, but it, in my estimation, I can say every man, but I really mean every person loves to be praised. And he's doing these things to get praise for himself, in fact, to the point that he's exalting himself and allowing them to call him the power of God. Now, you may not think that is a, um,

43:10 an offense, but Isaiah chapter nine verse, it's either five or six talks about the different names by which, um, the Lord would be known and, you know, mighty counts wonderful counselor. You know, all the, all, all, all the descriptors that we, we get, does anybody know what one of those is? Mighty God or the power of God is a description of both the Messiah and the spirit of God, the Shana, the, the, the, the miraculous power of God. These are descriptions of God in, in Judaism.

43:57 These are, these are poignant words that are used for one, one modifier. And that's it. You know, it's, I think I, I shared this maybe four or five, six years ago, I stopped using the word awesome. We, we use the word awesome all the time, man, that was awesome. Does a great job. When you think about, awesome, lemme rephrase. When I think about awesome, I think about sitting under the expanse of the stars and seeing the traces of our galaxy

44:44 in the heavens and seeing how vast everything is and how small and inconsequential I am. And I think to myself, that is awesome. And that descriptor in my mind is a, is a descriptor that's pointing to God himself, because it's awe inspiring in our awe should be directed to the Lord. Again, if you use the word awesome, I'm not condemning you. I'm just telling you what I, what I stopped doing. And, and, and it's because I realized words have power when we use them.

45:33 And at this point, he's allowing them to call him the mighty one of God. Or perhaps you, we sing a song where we talk, where we sing about the mighty one of Israel. This is God's ordained Messiah. He's allowing these descriptors that are used only for God to be used for him. Every other, every other place that we read about these, these types of things in the Bible, everybody else kinda stands back because they know like either the earth is gonna open up, lightning's gonna come down, something's gonna happen. Here he is, he's allowing this, he's claiming to be someone great. He's claiming to be the power that is associated

46:20 with God's spirit. And even in this, in the Samaritan, um, tradition, there is a, a, a term called the great power, and it's a divine designation. So it's not just in the Jewish world, it's in the Samaritan tradition also. And he's allowing all of this, maybe he's even claiming to be, we don't know that, but the pe people are continuing to pay attention to him because he continues to produce signs, magic wonders. He likes the attention that comes with it.

47:06 My caution to you is if, if you have that type of personality where you like the attention, the moment somebody says something, you say, well, that's not me. That that's a hundred percent the Lord. I'm glad the Lord ministered to you through whatever you just talked about. I, I, I'm glad that the Lord can use me, but that's not me. That's God. Because the Lord uses all of us, whether in our giftings or not in our giftings. And sometimes people can't tell the difference between your gifting and the Lord. And that's a good thing, actually. But just remember, give credit to whom credit is due.

47:53 The magical arts magnify the person, at least in this scenario, not the Lord. So we move on to verse 12. But when they believed, Philip proclaiming the good news. So now we, we have a shift in the narrative. Up until this point, they've been believing Simon, who's performing these signs and wonders and magic arts. And, but when they believe Philip proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Messiah, Yeshua, both men and women were immersed. So here we have the battle between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. And it begins to shift. The narrative shifts toward the kingdom of heaven, at least in, in this text here.

48:40 And as the people begin to believe what Philip was teaching, their amazement of Simon and his tricks shifted to their belief, uh, to their belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as presented by Philip, Philip is teaching about the kingdom of God and the Messiah, Yeshua. And there's signs and wonders that accompany it. And, and Philip doesn't use it to magnify himself. He magnifies the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the person or the name of Yeshua, the Messiah. I want you to notice that he both are included here. Philip is not magnifying himself.

49:26 And when the men and women believe the good news about the kingdom of God and the Messiah, Yeshua, or the name of the, of, of the Messiah, Yeshua, what they do, they were immersed. So you see, there's actually something different with Simon. They just sat in amazement and they were entertained. Kinda reminds me of, of a movie where the, the main character gets up and he says, are you not entertained? You see, with Simon and the magic, the audience are consumers, but with Philip and the kingdom of God, the audience are participants.

50:13 Do you see the difference between consumption? I'm using, I'm using this language on purpose because we live in America today. In America, uh, I, I mean this in the least judgmental way possible. We are all consumers. In fact, don't, don't think I'm judging you or judging myself because I like, I've helped tailor the way the service operates, even the way we do this. You're sitting there consuming what I'm giving you. You're becoming cons, consumer. It's why at the end of service, I encourage you. Don't just walk out of here, let the Lord minister to you. And when you walk out, go

50:58 and do like, let the Lord's name be magnified in the earth outside of the walls of em. Now, we want to magnified in the walls also, but like, we'll talk about what to do, and then you go out and you do it. We don't talk about what to do, and then we leave. Well, this, we shouldn't do this and leave. Sit on it for a week and return and go, Hey, that was good message last week. Or, that was good worship last week. I didn't do anything about it all week long, but I just wanna let you know it was good last week. No, it's supposed to produce movement in you so that when you leave people around, you notice something different

51:52 And maybe you don't know how to do things. That's why we give you pointers. Hey, go try this. Try doing this. Give it a shot. The worst that's gonna happen is you're gonna fall in your rear and people are gonna laugh. That's the worst that's gonna happen. And then you just think, I entertained people. I got a good laugh. Okay, let me get back to where I was. Uh, let's see. Hmm, I got it quite off of my notes here. Oh yeah, here, we magnifying the Lord. They were immersed.

52:38 Oh yeah, they were immersed. Here we go. This is where I was, there are consumers with Simon and with Philip. There's an action. They go and they get immersed because they realize what's happening. Immersion is now, at least in this text, a sign that they're set apart from the group that's watching Simon and being entertained because that group is just sitting there being entertained. This group has witnessed what the lord's done, and they're doing something about it. You know, it's, it's remarkable. When you go and read Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, the woman of foolishness and the woman of wisdom are portrayed side by side. Often the verbiage

53:26 is near identical as to And do you know she prepared a meal? She did this, she did that. That was both women, by the way. You find out later by what you do, which one is which? This same is true here. These signs and miracles. They may imitate the signs and miracles may be the same. We don't know, at least in the case of Moses and Aaron and the, and Pharaoh's magicians, they were the same. We don't know that they are here, but they could be. And if they're the same, what sets them apart? The people go when they get immersed. And that's what distinguishes them from the followers of Simon,

54:17 the Jewish audience at this time, from what I understand, through, uh, Craig Keener would've been astonished to hear that the Samaritans were immersed. Why would they have been astonished? Because this would've signaled conversion. And there was, there was such deep enmity between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. It would've been equivalent for this to the Samaritans as becoming traitors to their own people. Wow, it sounds remarkable. Remarkably similar to today, traitors to your own people, the cost of following Yeshua. Verse 13, we continue on. Even Simon himself believed, and

55:03 after being immersed, he continued with Philip. And when he saw signs and great miracles happening, he was continually amazed. Simon saw the signs and believed, you know, whether or not he was creating things out of thin air or he was a master of illusion. He recognized that what Philip had was the real deal. That there was something greater with Philip than what he was doing himself. And he took the next step. Simon saw the signs and believed, and then was immersed.

55:49 Now, I want you to think about this as just as a reminder of what I just said by, by keener him getting immersed now makes him a traitor to his own people. He was os he would be ostracized from the rest of the Samaritan community who'd be considered a trait, a traitor. This is remarkably similar to what is experienced today by Jewish people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. We accept the concept of this one man, Jesus being the promised Messiah of Israel. And we are cut off from the rest of our people as a reward. We are told that we cannot believe that he is the promised Messiah.

56:35 And we are told that if we do, we cannot remain a part of the people. However, we witness numerous other times. And, and, and I don't just mean count on one hand or two hand, like numerous other times where Jewish people accept someone else as the promised Messiah of Israel and are allowed to remain within the fold of Israel. Do you understand what I'm saying? We accept Jesus. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm shifting language on purpose. We accept Jesus as the Messiah, the promised one of Israel. We are told we can't do that.

57:22 We have to be out of the people of Israel. Others accept numerous different people as a messiah, even after they've been proven to be a false messiah. They're not removed from the people of Israel. They're allowed to remain a part of the tribe. It it's, my question here is, why is Yeshua different? Because he is, he is different. I did, he is on purpose by the way. He is. He was. And he will always be. He is different. He is the promised one. That's what makes him different.

58:12 It what make is, what makes the consequences of following Yeshua different than the consequences of following anyone else. So here we are, Simon. He's he, after being immersed, he follows Philip. Now I'm gonna say this seems like an attempt at some sort of discipleship. Simon wants to understand, to know and understand more about following Yeshua. Who, who can he learn from? He's going to grab Philip because that's the one who's explaining who Yeshua is and who the good news of the Messiah is. He's gonna grab onto Philip and follow him. It's what our, all of our reactions should be. Let me, let me learn more from whoever taught me

58:59 or from someone. You shouldn't take just anyone. Uh, that's another, that's another message. But Simon sees what's going on. He, he wants to follow Yeshua deeper. So he grabs Philip and he becomes a, he follows Philip to learn what to do. He, and it says, the verse says, he saw signs and great miracles happen. And he continued to be amazed. My question for us, do you remember what it was like the first time you ever saw God moving in signs, wonders, or even answering prayers?

59:48 That's the same feeling of amazement that Simon had. I want you just go ahead and think back to when, whenever that was. That could be yesterday. Uh, it could be 20 years ago. That's the same feeling of amazement that Simon had. It's what captivated him and, and continued to draw him, to follow Philip to learn more. It's the same thing that captivated and amazed the generation that the Lord brought out from Egypt. Think about that. They saw signs and wonders and they followed Moses out of Egypt.

1:00:44 The generation that was redeemed from slavery in Egypt demonstrated, unfortunately, we're still continuing to read about it in today's to portion demonstrated how difficult it is to live on a steady diet of signs and miracles from the Lord. You, you may, you may think to yourself, I think I just misunderstood what rabbi already said. No, you didn't. It is difficult to live on a steady diet of signs and wonders. The people of Israel are our example.

1:01:30 They saw greater signs and wonders I think than any of us have ever seen. They saw the sea split open. They saw the Lord distinguish between the firstborn of Egypt and the firstborn of those who had the blood on their doors. They saw the Lord distinguish where darkness would be and where darkness would not be. They saw all sorts of signs and wonders. And for the life of me, I can't understand why they did, weren't faithful to following the Lord. Why? Because they necessitated a diet of signs and wonders.

1:02:18 Now let me, I'm, I'm going to, I'm gonna make a comparison and you can agree with me or not. Oh no, I'll make that comparison in a minute. In a minute. That generation saw all the signs and wonders and then they turned, they took two steps and they forgot, and they began to grumble and complain again, I'm not judging Israel. I didn't witness any of those signs and wonders. The Lord didn't do 10 plagues for me, which now with my point, I'm gonna say I'm grateful for, but the Lord didn't do it for me. I, I've seen certain signs and wonders, but not every other day or every week

1:03:07 or of the magnitude that we see. You see, signs and wonders are supposed to serve as, as, I don't know, perhaps mile markers of encouragement to continue walking in the faith, not your everyday diet. If you wanna sign and wonder for your everyday diet, let me tell you one that the Lord gives you, you wake up alive. That's your sign and wonder for today. I don't know if you've thought about that, that sign and wonder the Lord gives us daily. And I at least I forget to thank him

1:03:55 more often than not. Sometimes I get so caught up, what do I gotta do today? I jump out of bed and I forget, Lord, thank you for waking me up. Or perhaps you're one of the people who set your alarm and you're like, Lord, don't let my alarm go off. I'm not gonna thank you that it goes off. And yet, Lord, thank you that we can get up, that we can move around. I don't mean to be crass, but in Judaism, there's Lord, thank you that my openings open and close in the morning.

1:04:41 Like, imagine if they didn't work as the way they were supposed to. Lord, thank you for the health that you've given me, Lord, thank you. Whatever it is that I'm struggling with today, because at least I'm struggling and I'm still here and I can still magnify your name. Simon becomes enthralled with the signs and the miracles that he sees through Philip. And next week we'll see what, how he addresses them. But before that, that I, I just wanna leave you with three things. Number one, how do you interact with the Lord? That's my, that's my first question for you.

1:05:27 Are your interactions simply an attempt to manipulate the Lord for a desirable outcome for you? And I mean that as judgmental as it comes out, or are you truly dependent upon the Lord and willing to submit yourself for whatever outcome brings him the most glory? You see, I just, oh man, I don't know if I want to, we pray, I, I I, I'm not saying we shouldn't, but we pray for health for one another all the time. But I, I can't remember, I just heard this example.

1:06:16 I can't remember who it was. I was listening to someone and they said they went down and they prayed for this person to be healed so that they could be the person was in a wheelchair or something, I can't remember. And, um, yeah, they, they were a, a paraplegic. Is that where you, like, you can't do any, like you, you move your mouth and you can like type a sentence, quadriplegic, they were this person, well, whatever, it's, they, the only way they could communicate was they would, they would like wiggle their head and type out a sentence. And this person is a pastor went down and prayed for the lord's for the Lord to heal this person so that he could be glorified,

1:07:04 which I think all of us would agree is would glorify the Lord. I'm not saying that it doesn't, whoever this was, I cannot remember where I just heard this story. The person went after, went back into, you know, the green room or somewhere and just collapsed. And they, what they heard the Lord say is, how do you know what's gonna bring me more glory? Because she proceeded to give her testimony by tapping out sentences that glorified the Lord. And more people came through to faith in God by hearing her testimony doing

1:07:49 that than probably would've come by witnessing her healing. Again, I'm not telling you that the Lord wants you to stay in that state, but I'm telling you, only God knows what's gonna bring him the most glory. So we have to be very careful when we pray, because we want the glory to be to God, not to us, not to Simon, not to Philip, not to Ari, not to any of your names like that. We don't want that glory. We want our God to be magnified. So My first question is, how do you interact with the Lord? My second question, what is the cost that you have experienced by coming to faith in Yeshua?

1:08:38 Have you lost family, friends, your tribe? The cost of following Yeshua can be high, but obtaining the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is worth everything. Fine. Don't, don't, don't clap so soon. I got one final point. My final question is, what is your faith diet? Is your faith diet based on fast food or microwavable food? You know where you present the request, I want this to eat and I just drive through the line and get it, or I pop it in the microwave and it's ready in 60 seconds.

1:09:24 Is that your faith diet? I'm gonna come to the Lord when I need something and say, God, I need this. And do I expect it instantly? Because that's the generation that we are. Everything that we want can be on our doorstep in two hours because of Bezos, not because of God, sorry, just playing. Do we expect instant gratification or answering from God? Now, I can't answer that question for you. Only you can answer that question for you.

1:10:09 Do you desire? My kids have developed a, a desire for collectible things and one of the things that they have developed this collection desire for are, uh, they're from when I was a kid also, but penny smashers, you know, you drop in 50 cents in a, in a penny and you crank the wheel and out comes a stretched out penny with different images from wherever you are. Anybody remember penny smashers? Is that how we treat our faith? We stick 50 cents in and crank the wheel. I'm saying that because our faith diet is as important

1:10:56 as our regular diet. We live in a country of obesity, of consumerism. And, and I'm gonna say that's probably true in the physical and in the spiritual. Unfortunately, it's now bearing witness in the body of Messiah. We want instant. But I'm gonna tell you, God really doesn't do instant. You know, God called Abraham when he was around 75 years old. Now I'm not telling you,

1:11:42 you can't hear from the Lord every day of your life, but Abraham heard from God that that's noted a grand total of about seven times over a period of a hundred years. That's on average once every, was that 15, 16, 17 years, something like that. It means that when the Lord tells us to do stuff, we do it and we continue to do it. And at some point he might tell us something different or he might not. He's watching us to see what we do with what he tells us. When we do that, we're putting in the time

1:12:27 to build a relationship with the Lord, to work through difficult times and to let him show up in the moments when he can be glorified through us and made known to others through us and our actions. But you know, what's really difficult is when someone extremely gifted and talented and who we think glorifies God and we, we follow them and then we realize that they don't or they didn't, or that they're human just like us. Unfortunately, that breaks some people's faith.

1:13:15 Why? Because their faith was more in that person than it was in the Lord. Now that's, that's, I don't think that's the responsibility of the, of the person. Sometimes maybe it is. That's the responsibility of us. Who and whom do we place our trust and whom do we place our faith? Don't you ever come mm-Hmm? Don't you ever come to me and tell me that you place your trust in me? 'cause I am just as fallible as any one of you.

1:14:01 I do my best to prepare each week. Doesn't mean that I'm any different than you or have any different struggles than you. Your trust should never be in me. In fact, you should double check everything I ever say. Like I'm telling you, double check it. Google it, rabbi Google knows some things. Remember not everything but some things. But sometimes when we live in a society that lives on a, on a, on a, um, what did I call it?

1:14:49 Uh, a fast food, microwave faith diet. When we live in that society, can I tell you what doesn't happen when we're not forced to persevere and sit and wait? What does Peter say? Perseverance does. Perseverance produces character. If we're not forced to sit and wait and struggle through difficult times, then our character begins to lack. And when our character lacks, we may be able to make a show of it for a while, but at some point, your lack in

1:15:35 character will begin to show. This is why it's so important that the more gifted and talented you are, the more you sit in times of difficulty and perseverance because that will produce character in you. And when you have character and integrity, then you'll allow the Lord to be magnified in everything that you do. I'm not saying you can't when you don't have character, I'm just saying it's better. It's a better result when you do have character. So what is your faith diet? That's what I wanna leave you with.

1:16:21 I want you to think about how many times you wish the Lord would remove whatever trouble it is in your life because Paul says the same thing. You know Paul, Saul Shaul says the same thing. Lord, I wish you could take this thorn outta my side. And yet I wonder if God says Yeah, but I just want you to notice how much glory that Thorn is bringing me because you are struggling harder, which makes you work harder, which produces a better result in you, which then magnifies my name even more than if I were to just pull it out and give you the easy way out.

1:17:13 You see, man, I've been going a long time. Uh, I, I'm gonna finish up with this. You can't summit a mountain when you're used to walking around your living room, walking around. Your living room doesn't produce the strength in your body to summit a mountain. But when you walk, well, I'm, you just start by walking around the neighborhood. That was a good start. Get out of, get out of your house,

1:17:59 walk around the neighborhood. All of a sudden your body begins to get a little bit of strength. Then you're like, oh, maybe I should go do some dirt trails, you know, with a little up and down. Because we live in Texas, we just do a little up and down, and then you, you try to do it faster and tro and you get, you get stronger every time you do it. And then one day you're like, alright, I'm ready to go. Try a little bit more. Let's go down to the hill country. I'm like, y'all, I just drove around the United States and I realized how flat Texas is. I mean, I love Texas, don't get me wrong, but oh my goodness, there are some mountains out there.

1:18:47 And not that I didn't know it, but I just, you, you learn a lot when you drive. But every time you do something a little bit more difficult, it produces a stronger muscle. And every time you have a stronger muscle, it gives you the capability to go a little bit higher up the mountain. So if you want to experience what it is to summit a mountain, you have to be able, it's gonna sound, you have to be able to stomach walking outside of your house. I mean, you know, not stomach, other things. Sometimes you gotta really, you know, okay, I, I'm done. Like, I'm, I'm toast.

1:19:41 All of that to say this week, if you're gonna walk away with one thing, this is what I want you to walk away with. What is my faith diet And analyze it. Count your time, count your money. Listen, counting is important. Like analyze it, get into the details. Why do I say that? Yeshua gives so many parables and like 70% of them are on counting your money. What do you do with your money? Because often your money, I shouldn't say often, Yeshua says, your money reflects where your heart is.

1:20:30 He doesn't say where your heart is there, you're gonna put your money. No, no. He says, where your treasure is there, your heart will also be. So you can just count your money this week and you're gonna find out where your heart is. Okay? I I gotta get it off of here. I mean weak. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

1:21:42 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalum.