Don’t ever forget that Christian faith is supernatural.

Steve Brown:
Don’t ever forget that the Christian faith is supernatural. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew executive producer for the program and our host is author and seminary professor, Steve Brown. The church has suffered under do more, try harder religion for too long. And Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, open it to the eighth chapter of Acts verses 4 through 25. Now, let me take just a moment here to introduce you to Philip. And we’re going to be looking at him the rest of this week and into next week. As you know, if you’ve read much in the Bible, there are two Philips. There is Philip the apostle, and then there’s Philip the evangelist. Of the first Philip, we know very little, but in the second Philip we know even less. And we’re going to look at him and I’m going to introduce you to him. There are only three chapters in the entire Bible, which speak of Philip the evangelist. And all of those chapters are found in the book of Acts. First, we encounter him in Acts 6 in Jerusalem as he’s chosen to be one of the first deacons. And you might know that he’s mentioned right after Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church. And so, he’s pretty important. He’s probably the vice-president of the first board of deacons. And then secondly, is what we’re going to be looking at this week and next week, when we look at Philip. And then there is another incident later on in Acts when we get to it. And we’re gonna see, and it’s the 21st chapter of Acts, so it’s going to be a while. 20 years later we see Philip living in Cesarea in the Mediterranean where he was a host to Paul who stopped at the home of Philip on his last journey to Jerusalem. And we’ll read in the 21st chapter of Acts that Philip had four daughters and all of them prophesied. In other words, they were maybe preachers speaking for God. And so we have a short biography of Philip and that’s it. That’s all we’re going to find, but we’re going to look at the second place in Acts where Philip is mentioned in this text, and I’m going to start at the fourth verse of the eighth chapter of Acts, where Luke writes.

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to a city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in the city. But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Samaria, saying that he himself was something great. They all gave heed to him, from the least of the greatest saying, “This man has that power of God, which is called Great.” And they gave heed to him because for a long time he had amazed them with is magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. And when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me also the power, that anyone on whom I lay my hands shall receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of the wickedness of yours, and pray that the Lord, if possible, will fix the intent of your heart and you be forgiven. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

And so, when you read those words that I just read to you, it hits you upside of the head. Something’s going on here that I’m not familiar with. What’s this about magic that Simon was doing? Was it just the tricks of a magician or was something supernatural going on? And when they laid hands on them, something changed and people changed and lives changed. And when Philip performed signs, crippled threw their crutches into the sky. And you could hear the clank of blind men’s beggars cups hitting the rocks by the side of the road, something’s going on here. And it’s supernatural. And as Christians, we should never forget that what we believe is not natural. It’s supernatural. You think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday. And sometimes on Wednesdays, when I have time, I answer a question or two. Pete, of course will be in on Friday and we’ll spend the entire broadcast answering questions. Oh. And by the way, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Just want you to know I’m thankful for you and consider it a high and holy honor, that you would spend time with me on this broadcast each weekday. Thank you for that. And I’m thankful for a lot of stuff, and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. By the way, we love your questions. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and ask a question, record it, and we sometimes put that on the air. You can send your question to

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Or you can e-mail your question to [email protected]. And if you can help us financially, those are the touch places where you could do that. And we understand that some of you can’t and we get that. Or you don’t feel called to do that, but if you do be faithful and that will make you a champion for so many people who aren’t able to help us financially. You can charge it on your credit card or include it in your envelope. We are a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada, both organizations affirm that I’m handsome and wise. No, they don’t, but they both look over our books to make sure that we’re ethical, but we were ethical before they were formed. I just want you to know, so help us, if you can, if you can’t, we understand. This is an e-mail and you’d be surprised how often we get this question. How can I get excited again about my faith? How can I get closer to God? What do I do? Got a simple answer. Nothing, there isn’t a thing in the world you can do about it. If you think you can manipulate God by being more religious, reading more Bible and praying longer periods. You’re crazy. And gotten, but God likes you anyway, but he will disabuse you of that. People are always saying, how can we have a revival? What do we do to have a revival in America? Well, there are things that are good, like repenting and crying out for mercy, but that’s not what causes revival, what causes revival is when God decides to cause revival. Listen to me, as Christians, especially mature Christians, we go through periods of dryness and periods when we’re not so dry. When we go through periods, when Jesus is real. And other times when he seems to have gone away on vacation to Bermuda. So, as is often said, never doubt in the dark, what you were taught in the light. And I have a friend who says, never doubt in the light, what you were taught in the dark. There are periods. And, so I would suggest that the cry of your heart is legitimate and real and authentic. And it’s a really good question. It’s a question that we all ask on occasion. When we go through the dark night of the soul. And we’re no longer excited about the faith. So, tell Jesus, say I don’t, you don’t seem very real to me nowadays. I remember when you found me and everything was real and exciting, but the fire isn’t burning as well as it did in the beginning. And do change me, please let me see you the way I saw you at the beginning. Pour your Spirit into me. And Jesus will say to you, I will, but not yet. Go out and have an ice cream. Or go, you know, a lot of times, God isn’t real to us because we are so focused on him not being real to us. We’re trying so hard to make him real to us that it’s not going to happen. So, tell him. Cry out to him. He likes you. And just say, would you do something about this? And he will, but maybe not right yet. Trust me on this. I’m old. Been there. And, I’ve done that. We’ve got to go. Key life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.