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October 15 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
3 Plays1 minute ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today's we will reading the Book of Acts Chapter 8.
In today's reading we will read about times becoming difficult for Jesus' new followers, especially by Saul (who would later be called Paul.) As a result of this difficulty the followers began spreading out to other areas and proclaiming the Good News about the Word, Jesus! We will also see that when Philip went to Samaria to proclaim the Word the people there received the news joyfully, accepting Jesus and being baptized, but did not receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John came and laid their hands on the people. Then they received God's Holy Spirit. Spoiler alert: It has to do with UNITY among God's people!
God revealed this answer to me from Got Questions.org.: https://www.gotquestions.org/Acts-8-receive-Holy-Spirit.html
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about WHY God did not send His Holy Spirit upon the Samaritans until Peter and John arrived. The past differences between Samaria and the Jewish church would be overcome by the unity of God's Holy Spirit. In the same way, TODAY'S CHURCHES, with all of our different sects (Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, etc.) we need to remember that WE ARE ONE IN GOD'S SPIRIT and need to "be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:3)
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
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Transcript
Introduction and Daily Reading Overview
00:00:03
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to October 15th's daily reading from the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley. My name is Robin. I'm within the Family Way Coaching and I will be your reader.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm so glad that you are here with me. Thank you for joining. Thank you for sharing. and Thank you for rejoicing in the word. And thank you for spreading the word about reading God's word. If you are following along on your bookmarking commitment calendar, and go ahead and get that out.
00:00:33
Speaker
Get your sticker or your crayon or your pen, whatever you're using to mark off your days, because we're about to read the Bible today.
00:00:43
Speaker
Today's
Acts 8: Challenges and God's Work
00:00:44
Speaker
reading is going to be covering the book of Acts chapter 8. We are going to be seeing God working through situations. It can be difficult to see but the good that can come in things that seem really bad that are happening.
00:00:59
Speaker
But our God is so wise and he knows how to work everything together. So even though things look like they are going poorly or that they are disastrous or that they're awful circumstances, even in today's situation, we can have we have lots of things that go on that we're very unhappy about.
00:01:18
Speaker
But we need to remember to have faith that our God is always at work. He uses the situations that may seem bad to us to further his kingdom and to do his work.
00:01:32
Speaker
And we just need to remember that and have faith. And it is so hard to see that when we're right in the midst of it. But as we have twenty twenty hindsight, we can look back.
00:01:43
Speaker
And so with using that 2020 hindsight, we also need to move that sight forward to give us 2020 foresight, to have faith and know that whatever bad is happening, God is still there and he is using the situations to move things into the positions that he needs them to be in order to accomplish his work.
00:02:06
Speaker
And we're going to be seeing that today in our reading. We have
Saul to Paul: Transformation and Redemption
00:02:11
Speaker
also been seeing a little bit of Saul, who is also known as Paul. We saw him, ah let's see, yesterday when we saw that Saul was...
00:02:28
Speaker
And Saul says there was a young man watching while Stephen was being killed. And his name was Saul. And he said that killing Stephen was the right thing to do.
00:02:38
Speaker
We're going to be picking up with a little bit more about this Saul today. And he is being introduced to us because he's going to be the Apostle Paul or not the Apostle, the... ah He did not become an apostle, but he was a person that was going to be used by God.
00:02:56
Speaker
And so even though he was sinning and doing ah things that he thought were of a service to God, God is going to use him for good. And if we've read the the New Testament, we may already be familiar with that.
00:03:09
Speaker
But I want us to look at it in that light, to look at the terrible things that he is doing, because we can think that we are not redeemable, that the things that we have done are going to prevent us from being useful in God's kingdom.
00:03:24
Speaker
And that is absolutely not so. Absolutely not so. Our adversary would love for more than anything for us to be discouraged and to think that we are, one, not able to be forgiven for our sins that we have committed because they are so bad. And Jesus tells us that is not true.
00:03:45
Speaker
And two, that we are no longer useful in the kingdom of God because we have forfeited that right by the horrible things that we have done. And we will see later that Paul will be kind of saying that same thing, that how can he be trusted when he has committed such atrocities.
00:04:03
Speaker
But we are going to see today that God is using these atrocities to do his good works. He's putting things into position in order to further his kingdom.
00:04:17
Speaker
That's amazing, isn't it, that God uses terrible things to move people into positions so that his kingdom can be furthered.
Persecution and Prophecy: Spreading the Word
00:04:26
Speaker
God is amazing. He can do anything. There is nothing impossible for our God.
00:04:32
Speaker
Now, today are picking up in chapter 15 chapter 8. Today 15th. today is the fifteenth
00:04:41
Speaker
And it says that after Stephen was buried, says some of Jesus's followers put Stephen's body in a grave and they were very sad about what had happened. We finished that yesterday. And now this was the beginning of hard times for Jesus's followers.
00:04:57
Speaker
People turned against them and hurt them in many ways. And that's why many of Jesus's followers left the city. They went here and there to live and only the apostles stayed.
00:05:10
Speaker
Now Saul tried to get rid of Jesus' followers. He went from one house to another, and he pulled men and women from their houses, and he put them in jail.
00:05:22
Speaker
But Jesus' followers who left the city taught about Jesus, proclaiming the word. Philip went to a city in Samaria, and he told the people there about Jesus.
00:05:35
Speaker
He did wonders. Big crowds of people listened carefully to him. in Samaria.
00:05:44
Speaker
Bad spirits would yell and come out of people, and people who could not move or walk were made well. The people there were very glad.
00:05:57
Speaker
Now a man named Simon lived there and Simon had done magic for a long time. The people and watched him with wonder and Simon bragged that he was someone great and everybody listened to him.
00:06:13
Speaker
People said, Simon has the power of the gods and he is called Great Power. And they followed him because they liked to watch his magic. But now people believed the good news that Philip had told them.
00:06:28
Speaker
And they believed in God's kingdom. And they believed in Jesus. And then they became baptized. And even Simon believed.
00:06:39
Speaker
And he was baptized too. He followed Philip wherever he went. And Simon was very surprised by the wonders he saw. Now, the apostles in Jerusalem soum heard what was happening, so they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
00:06:56
Speaker
And when Peter and John got there, they prayed for the people. And they prayed for the people to get the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them.
00:07:08
Speaker
They had only
Simon the Magician: Power and Rebuke
00:07:09
Speaker
been baptized in Jesus's name. We're going to talk about that. So Peter and John put their hands on people and then the Holy Spirit came to the people.
00:07:22
Speaker
Now Simon watched and he talked to Peter and John about it. He wanted to pay them so he could do what they did. Give me this power, he said.
00:07:33
Speaker
I want to put my hair hands on people and then I want them to get the Holy Spirit. Peter said, you should die and take your money with you, said Peter.
00:07:43
Speaker
You think you can buy God's gift with money. You're not part of what we do. the way God sees it, your heart doesn't want to do what is right. Be sorry for your sins, said Peter.
00:07:56
Speaker
Change, pray to God, and maybe he will forgive you for even thinking you could buy his gift. I can tell your heart is full of anger and sin has control over you.
00:08:10
Speaker
Pray to God for me, said Simon, and and then nothing you talked about will happen to me. ah Peter and John taught about God's word. Then they went back to Jerusalem.
00:08:22
Speaker
They stopped in many towns in Samaria on the way, and they taught the good news to many people there.
00:08:32
Speaker
Now one of God's angels came to Philip and
00:08:37
Speaker
Go to the road south of here, he said. It's the desert road. Remember, Philip is the one who had gone to Samaria. Now, Philip found the road and he started traveling down it.
00:08:48
Speaker
And on his way, he met a man from Ethiopia. This man was an important leader because he was in charge of Queen Candace's riches.
00:08:59
Speaker
And he had been to Jerusalem to worship. And now he was on his way home in his chariot. As he rode, he read the book Isaiah wrote.
00:09:11
Speaker
You remember the book of Isaiah was largely written about Jesus. So the spirit said to Philip, go up to that chariot, stay close to it.
00:09:22
Speaker
So Philip ran up to the chariot and he heard the man reading the book that Isaiah wrote. Do you understand what you are reading? Asked Philip. How can I understand?
00:09:35
Speaker
asked the man. I don't have anyone to tell me what it means. units And then he asked Philip to sit with him in the chariot. The man was reading this part of Isaiah.
00:09:48
Speaker
It was Isaiah 53. We read Isaiah 53 when we were seeing Jesus at the cross.
00:09:58
Speaker
Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8 says, He was taken like a sheep to be killed. A sheep is quiet while the farmer cuts off its wool, and he was quiet too.
00:10:11
Speaker
They treated him like nothing, and what they did to him was not fair. Tell me something, said the man from Ethiopia. Who is Isaiah talking about?
00:10:22
Speaker
Is he talking about himself, or is he talking about somebody else? Then Philip answered him, and he began by talking about the book that Isaiah wrote.
00:10:34
Speaker
And then Philip told about the part that the man was reading. And he told the man about Jesus's good news. As they traveled, they came to some water.
00:10:46
Speaker
Look, said the man, here is some water. I see no reason why I cannot be baptized. So he told the driver to stop the chariot.
00:10:55
Speaker
Philip and the man went down into the water, and Philip dipped him in the water. They came up out of the water, and then God's Spirit took Philip away, and the man did not see Philip again.
00:11:10
Speaker
But the man was happy. He went on his way. Philip then showed up in the city of Azotus, and he began to travel through many towns.
00:11:21
Speaker
And in every town, he told people about Jesus.
00:11:27
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today.
00:11:32
Speaker
So it started off unfortunate. It said that this was the beginning of trouble for the people who were following Jesus. And so they moved.
00:11:43
Speaker
They spread out. God had said that his word would be taken to all parts of the world. But if everybody just stayed there, it wasn't going to travel very fast, was it?
00:11:56
Speaker
They needed God's word to travel. And so Jesus had told them that there would come a time, as we read yesterday, that anybody who was killing them would believe that they were actually doing a service to to Jesus and God.
00:12:11
Speaker
Well, just to God, because they wouldn't be believing in Jesus. And God is using that to spread the word about his word. Isn't that amazing?
00:12:22
Speaker
I love how God uses everything for good. We see
Unity in the Early Church
00:12:27
Speaker
now that Philip, who was a deacon in the church, had gone to Samaria.
00:12:33
Speaker
And that was one of the things that had been mentioned in the beginning of Acts is that he had ah Jesus had told them that they would needed to go to Samaria. Samaria, if you remember, was the northern part of what used to be Israel.
00:12:49
Speaker
And they were they had strayed very far. If you have been with me for this reading for most of the year and in the Old Covenant, then you would remember that the kings had who had separated, God had first of all separated the kingdom ah because of Solomon.
00:13:07
Speaker
And the people were integrating the Canaanite, in fact, every God, every God that people could imagine. And they were worshiping anything and everything.
00:13:20
Speaker
They were not remaining monotheistic and worshiping the one true God. They were just worshiping every God. And so the people of Samaria, because they did not have the temple,
00:13:32
Speaker
The king, when he separated, he now set up his own stations and he was setting up worship spots. And this was further leading the people astray. Now, Jesus had gone to Samaria and he had told them that the time was coming for when they would um be neither worshiping in the temple because they needed to be worshiped in God with spirit.
00:13:55
Speaker
And he needed to be worshiped in spirit and in truth. And that from him, living waters flow. So in Acts 8.12, we read of the Samaritans who believed the gospel, the good news, but they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, although they had been baptized and and confessed to believing in Jesus.
00:14:18
Speaker
Now we know that the Holy Spirit comes to us once we believe. So why had it not come to them? reason for this is because it was important that the That Peter had been given the keys to the kingdom and that the church was going to be started ah it based with.
00:14:45
Speaker
Let's see. Jesus had been given the keys to the kingdom and Peter was present and was the main spokesman at Pentecost when the spirit was given to the Jews.
00:14:56
Speaker
And then Peter was present in Samaria when the spirit was given to the Samaritans. And in chapter 10, we will read that Peter will be present in Cornelius's house when the spirit is given to also the Gentiles.
00:15:09
Speaker
So we have this three. And so Peter needed to be present because the the church was to be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
00:15:20
Speaker
And we will read that in Ephesians 2 verse 20. And so Philip, the evangelist, had been a deacon in the Jerusalem church, but he was not one of the twelve apostles. So Peter and John needed to be in Samaria for the quote, official start of the Samaritan church, just as they had been in Jerusalem for the start of the Jewish church.
00:15:42
Speaker
Now, the presence of Peter and John kept the early church unified. How often have we spoken about the importance of unification? These were not to be separate churches.
00:15:55
Speaker
We are not to think of ourselves as being separate. If the church in Samaria had begun on its own with no connection to the Jewish church, then the church in Jerusalem would not have accepted it So the Samaritans were known hysteria historically as corruptors of Judaism.
00:16:13
Speaker
So God made sure that both Peter and John, who were apostles and Jews from Jerusalem, were present to witness the gift of the spirit being given to the Samaritans.
00:16:25
Speaker
And that way, God's message to them would be that the church in samaritan Samaria was not a heretical startup. It was not heresy. The Samaritans were part of the same church that had been started in Jerusalem, and they were also filled with the same spirit.
00:16:44
Speaker
So Peter and John were eyewitnesses to this, and so their testimony is clear. What happened in Samaria was not a separate religious movement. And in this way, God prevented the early church from immediately dividing into different sects.
00:17:02
Speaker
What have we done today? We have divided into different sects. S-E-C-T-S, not S-E-X. We have divided into different churches.
00:17:14
Speaker
I'm Baptist, I'm Lutheran, I'm Jehovah's Witness, I am ah Presbyterian, I am Catholic, I am Protestant, I am non-denominational, I am New Reform, I am Eastern Orthodox, I am this, I am this, I am this.
00:17:31
Speaker
We have divided into sects different churches. Divisions of the church. And what this does is this actually causes division among us. this
Modern Divisions vs Early Church Unity
00:17:42
Speaker
These divisions arose because of differing opinions and the interpretations of the scripture.
00:17:47
Speaker
But we are more focused on the things that divide versus being unified. We are meant to be of one. We are one with each other.
00:17:59
Speaker
Because we are one with Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit, we are also connected with that same spirit as we see here. So the Lord took great pains to ensure the unity of the early church.
00:18:13
Speaker
And Jesus had commanded the gospel to be preached in Samaria, which we read in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Now Philip the evangelist obeyed that command and God blessed it, his obedience.
00:18:26
Speaker
So whatever animosity existed between the Jews and the Samaritans was overcome by the unity of the Spirit. We need to remember this lesson that we are reading today.
00:18:41
Speaker
And this is our big daily application. The church today should continue to make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.
Trusting in God's Plan
00:18:52
Speaker
And this is what is written in Ephesians 4 verse 3. We should be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And we see that that's what God is teaching us by withholding his spirit until the apostles Peter and John could go and lay hands on um the people there so that they would receive it.
00:19:16
Speaker
Isn't that amazing? It seemed like it was a bad thing, but God worked his good. He has purpose in everything. God told us way back when they when he was exiling the people, he says, I know the plans I have for you.
00:19:33
Speaker
Plans not to harm you, but to give you a hope and a future. We have to trust in those plans. And also we need to remember to be unified with one another.
00:19:45
Speaker
This is not just a position of prayer. This is a symbol of our unity. We are one. we are one in spirit. We are one in body. So let us be one and take care of one another, look out for one another.
00:19:59
Speaker
Our adversary wants nothing more than for us to be divided against one another. And Jesus taught that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Now we know that we are on the winning team.
00:20:12
Speaker
We know that Jesus has overcome the world. But we need to be one and overcome that world with him. We are the kingdom. We are one.
00:20:24
Speaker
So let us act like it. It's not enough to just say it and believe it. We need to act like it. So if you find that there are people that you know or work with or come into contact with that, you know, who who doesn't come into contact with other people,
00:20:41
Speaker
And if you find that for some reason they just irritate you and you don't know why, odds are that's the adversary. He knows that we are meant to be unified and he will find any little reason to cause division.
00:20:55
Speaker
But we need to remember to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and to not allow differences to keep us separated from one another in the body of God and in the Holy Spirit.
00:21:12
Speaker
So I hope that you feel very encouraged to bring out to bring a spirit of reconciliation, and spirit of peace to your day and to other believers, no matter what sect they belong to, and that you feel that God has lit your light today.
00:21:32
Speaker
Let's click that light button and help to share this message so that other people too can hear the message about being one with one another and remaining unified together in peace.
00:21:45
Speaker
And let's help spread the word about reading God's word. We can do that by sharing. This ah series is available wherever people want to watch or listen.
00:21:57
Speaker
And if you help it along by sharing it on some form of social media, I'm not sure if YouTube has the ability itself to do that, but I know that if you head over to my site where I have the event embedded in into the category of, ah for instance, today is October 15th, so it would be under October.
00:22:16
Speaker
And then whether you choose the audio or the video version, you can click share and it has individual buttons for things like content. Instagram and Facebook and like that for the other social medias. I confess I really don't do a lot of the social media.
00:22:31
Speaker
I do post this on TikTok and I don't see that there are a lot of people following or watching on TikTok, which is um neither here nor there, but you do have the option is what I am saying to even share it on TikTok.
00:22:46
Speaker
And then, um like I said, Facebook and like that. Our
Sharing the Message: Following Early Christians
00:22:49
Speaker
goal is that we want other people to see this message and to hear about God's word. It is so important to spread the word.
00:22:57
Speaker
That is what they were doing. They were spreading and proclaiming the word. And Jesus is the word. In the beginning, there was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
00:23:09
Speaker
And nothing that was created was created without him. Isn't that amazing? Well, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day, whatever day you get around to listening or watching today's October 15th reading out of our Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:23:24
Speaker
And I
Conclusion and Blessing
00:23:25
Speaker
hope that you will join me again tomorrow for tomorrow's daily reading. And wherever you listen or follow or subscribe, there I will be ready for you to hit that play button. Until then, have a very blessed day.
00:23:37
Speaker
Thank you for listening or watching.