A Study in the Book of Acts

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A Study in the Book of Acts
Part 12 - The Mission Goes Forth
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• Our lives

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Stephen

• known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts
  63)
• a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts
  65)
• a man full of God's grace and power (Acts 68)
• did great wonders and miraculous signs among the
  people. (Acts 68)

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• 1. Life can be very challenging
• even when you are in the
• center of Gods will.

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• Acts 62 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned
  deeply for him.

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• Acts 82 On that day a great persecution broke
  out against the church at Jerusalem

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Expect Trouble

• John 1633 In this world you will have trouble
  (tribulation). But take heart! I have overcome
  the world.

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Expect Trouble

• Matthew 510-12 Blessed are those who are
  persecuted because of righteous-ness, for theirs
  is the kingdom of heaven. 11"Blessed are you
  when people insult you, persecute you and falsely
  say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
  12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your
  reward in heaven, for in the same way they
  persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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Expect Trouble

• John 162-4 They will put you out of the
  synagogue in fact, a time is coming when anyone
  who kills you will think he is offering a service
  to God. 3 They will do such things because they
  have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told
  you this, so that when the time comes you will
  remember that I warned you.

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When Stephen was being Stoned, Saul was there

• 757,58 At this they covered their ears and,
  yelling at the top of their voices, they all
  rushed at him, 58 dragged Stephen out of the city
  and began to stone him.
• Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at
  the feet of a young man named Saul.

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When Stephen died, Saul was pleased

•  81 And Saul was there, giving approval to his
  death.

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When the Mob turned ugly, they had a Ringleader

• 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going
  from house to house, he dragged off men and women
  and put them in prison.

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• Acts 224,5 I persecuted the followers of this
  Way to their death, arresting both men and women
  and throwing them into prison, 5 as also the high
  priest and all the Council can testify. I even
  obtained letters from them to their brothers in
  Damascus, and went there to bring these people as
  prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

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2. God is a work even in the bad things!
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The Church Scattered

• 2 and all except the apostles were scattered
  throughout Judea and Samaria.

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The Fulfillment of Jesus Commission

• Acts 18 But you will receive power when the
  Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my
  witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
  Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

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Tertullian (164-200AD)

• Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to
  dust. The more you mow us down, the more we grow,
  for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
  church. Every single drop of our blood springs
  up, in some thirty, in some sixty and in some and
  hundred-fold.

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Philip in Samaria

•  4 Those who had been scattered preached the word
  wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city
  in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.

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John 4

• 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came
  to a town in Samaria called Sychar
• 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water,
  Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8
  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy
  food.)

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• 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew
  and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me
  for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with
  Samaritans.)

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• 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of
  God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you
  would have asked him and he would have given you
  living water."

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• 19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are
  a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this
  mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where
  we must worship is in Jerusalem."

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• 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is
  coming when you will worship the Father neither
  on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You
  Samaritans worship what you do not know we
  worship what we do know, for salvation is from
  the Jews.

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• 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the
  true worshippers will worship the Father in
  spirit and truth, for they are the kind of
  worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit,
  and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in
  truth."

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The Good Samaritan
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The Ten Lepers
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• 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the
  miraculous signs he did, they all paid close
  attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil
  spirits came out of many, and many paraly-tics
  and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great
  joy in that city.

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• Life can be very challenging even when you are in
  the center of Gods will.
• 2. God is a work even in the bad things

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• Youre not home yet!

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1 Peter 16-7

• In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a
  little while you may have had to suffer grief in
  all kinds of trials. These have come so that your
  faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes
  even though refined by fire--may be proved
  genuine and may result in praise, glory, and
  honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

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If I could live my life from here to eternity, I
would