WATCHING GOD AT WORK

WATCHING GOD AT WORK

Deuteronomy 18:9-22; Acts 8:9-25

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

October 9, 2005

This is the season of avid spectators, carefully observing what their favorite sports teams can do. For example, “Red Sox Nation” had awaited yet another World Series, hoping to see two baseball championships in a row. Alas, this has not come to pass!

Fans of the Patriots are somewhat concerned, but not overly or unduly concerned, as they have watched the Patriots stall before in the beginning of the season, only to come out in the end on top of the National Football League.

As Christians, however, there should be no special seasons when we are more attentive than at other times, as to what God is doing in our lives, our church, our nation and in the world. We ought to always be watching God at work in the world, for the reason that God never ceases to be active. God is always operative in the world, fulfilling His plans and purposes. He is continuously seeking His work of redemption in Jesus Christ to be fulfilled in a sinful, broken and needy world.

As we consider the passage now before us, we find some guidance and direction for watching God at work in the world today. When you and I consider such guidance and attentively watch God at work, we will not be surprised by: God’s opposition to magic, sorcery and the occult; God’s grace at work in all groups of people; and God’s acts of miracles, signs and wonders. In the time left to us, we will look more closely at all three of these.

WHEN WE WATCH GOD AT WORK,

WE WILL NOT BE SURPRISED

BY GOD’S OPPOSITION

TO MAGIC, SORCERY AND THE OCCULT.

When we look at the opening chapters of Acts, we find that Satan brought opposition to the Church in various forms and ways. These include the intentional deception by Ananias and Sapphira, the arrests and imprisonments of the apostles, the martyrdom of Stephen, and the outbreak of persecution upon the Church.

As we turn to Samaria, we find that he was using a different mode to impede the growth of the infant Church. In this particular case, the Enemy was using an individual named Simon, skilled in the practice of magic and sorcery. He was not a master of illusion, using sleight of hand in the performance of some special and unique tricks to impress everyone. No, this was far more serious. Simon was following the devil’s lead.

The Bible is very clear as to how God feels about sorcery and witchcraft. In Deuteronomy 18:9-14, God makes it quite clear that we are to avoid sorcery, omens, witchcraft, the casting of spells, the use of mediums and the consulting of the dead.

In addition, among the many acts of the sinful nature Paul lists for us in Galatians is that of witchcraft or sorcery. [i] We are also told in the Book of Revelation that those who practice magic arts will be excluded from “the new Jerusalem.” They will be cast into “the fiery lake of burning sulfur,” which is either a literal or symbolic way of describing eternal punishment. [ii] So, the Bible’s witness appears to be unanimous in declaring God’s opposition to such practices.

Professor Simon Kistemaker of Reformed Theological Seminary notes both the attraction and the danger of occult practices that we find in our own day:

Today occult practices that range from palm reading to the horoscope, fortune telling, spiritism, and magic are common. Of course, these practices go back to the beginning of human history, but in recent years the general public has accepted them as part of life. People who dabble in the occult desire information that is not available to them through normal channels; they want to communicate with supernatural or demonic powers; and they strive to acquire such power so that other people can be their servants. They believe the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve in Paradise: ‘You will be like God’ (Gen. 3:5). Thus, in their quest to acquire knowledge supernaturally, they are slaves of Satan and repudiate the claims of Christ. [iii]

In the way of an illustration, Kay Arthur tells the story of a young pastor who tried to convince the members of his congregation that horoscopes and fortune telling were benign. He even challenged them, saying: “I’ll prove it to you – I’ll have someone chart out my course according to my horoscope and tell my fortune. You’ll see then.”

What this young pastor failed to remember was the biblical admonition that we do not wrestle or fight with flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” [iv]

As the fortune teller told this young pastor his future, he didn’t believe what he was being told was true. But he felt a dark cloud and a sense of oppression soon come over him as some of the events foretold began happening. In the process of time, he became a wreck.

Bewildered and confused, he eventually sought counsel from an older pastor who opened the Word to him, which included some of the passages we’ve mentioned this morning. The young pastor had given the Enemy and the spiritual forces of evil far too much opportunity and influence in his life. But as this pastor wept and confessed his sin, his freedom in Christ returned. As Kay Arthur puts it, “The oppression lifted as the enemy fled.” [v]

Do not be surprised by God’s opposition to magic, sorcery or the occult. Oppression and bondage is never God’s desire for us; His desire is instead freedom in Jesus Christ. The Enemy uses deception to place us in forms of bondage, but it is instead God’s desire and purpose that we experience freedom in Jesus Christ, so that we will truly be free.

WATCHING GOD AT WORK,

WE SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED

BY GOD’S GRACE AT WORK IN ALL GROUPS OF PEOPLE.

You may recall that the Samaritans were despised by the Jewish people. But here was Philip, preaching the Gospel to them, and many of the Samaritans had come to believe in Jesus.

Though all Christians receive the Holy Spirit at conversion, God provided a very special lesson for Peter and John. It would be through the laying on of their hands that the Holy Spirit would come in fullness upon the Samaritan believers. Here, God was giving Peter and John visible proof of His amazing grace and awesome power. God was giving them an unforgettable object lesson, in revealing a grace that reaches out to all the world. He was making it ever so clear that the Samaritan believers had equal standing with the Jewish believers, for it is all of God’s grace that any are saved.

It is difficult for many of us to consider just how high the walls of exclusion were in those days. But Peter did have difficulty in accepting Gentile or mixed-blood believers. At one time, John had even been worse in his attitude toward the Samaritans. On one occasion, a Samaritan village had proved to be inhospitable to Jesus and His disciples. That’s when John and his brother James wanted fire to come down from heaven and consume every last resident! [vi]

And yet, following this event of amazing grace, we are told: “When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the Gospel in many Samaritan villages.” Their minds were changing because of God’s radical grace and mercy!

Perhaps we ought to admit that there are occasions in our own lives when we may consider certain people or people groups to be unreachable – to be beyond the possibility of conversion or change. But as far as the Lord is concerned, illustrated by this event, there is no human heart that He cannot conquer with His all-encompassing grace and mercy.

Some years ago, there was a heretical bishop in the Episcopal Church named Bishop James Pike. He denied major doctrines of the Christian faith like the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, and then he even became personally involved in the occult. One of his sons committed suicide and Pike tried to contact him through a Philadelphia medium named Arthur Ford. Pike went on to Israel to research a book on the historical Jesus, no doubt to disprove if possible the truths of the Bible. But Pike got lost in the desert and he died.

Looking at what Pike left behind, nothing looked very promising at all, including Pike’s other son who was named Christopher. He was a mess in 1967, deep in the drug culture at the University of California at Berkeley, and in many other “dead ends” as well. It appeared he was headed in the same direction his brother had been on.

But while he was there, Christopher heard a converted hippie giving his testimony for Jesus Christ on the steps just outside of Sproul Hall. Christopher found himself wondering if Christianity could actually be true. He went into isolation and read the New Testament, never having read it before. There he found the truths his father had rejected, and Jesus, who would become His Savior and Lord.

There was a time when many had given up on Christopher Pike. But that was a mistake, for God hadn’t given up on him, as nothing is impossible with God. We should never be surprised at who God is able to call into His loving and merciful embrace.

III

WATCHING GOD AT WORK,

WE SHOULD NOT BE TOO SURPRISED

BY GOD’S MIRACLES, SIGNS AND WONDERS.

When Philip ministered to those in Samaria, we are told that there were also “miraculous signs he did.” Great works of God were being manifested through the ministry of Philip, which impressed Simon greatly. Now, scholars are divided over whether Simon was a genuine believer, or if his confession of faith was merely superficial. Nevertheless, we are told that “Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.” Whether or not Simon was a true believer, he was nevertheless an astute observer in what God was doing through His servant Philip.

Today, there are some who expect at least one sign or miraculous wonder a day. No day should be complete without one! To the other extreme, there are others who believe that signs and miracles no longer occur today as they did in the days of the Bible.

Quite honestly, I’m not comfortable with either one of these positions. On the one hand, God is not here to amuse us everyday with signs and wonders. The concept of a miracle a day trivializes God and it trivializes His mighty works.

On the other hand, to disbelieve entirely in signs and wonders is to attempt to limit and restrict God’s work in the world. I have yet to find anywhere in Scripture any firm reference that indicates God’s miraculous work finished or ceased with the apostles. Perhaps we in the Western world see too little of God’s mighty works and wonders because we no longer expect them, or if we do, we fail to attentively look for them.

Os Guinness is an articulate spokesman for the Christian faith. He has written several books and has preached and taught all over the world. In one of his books, he describes an event of God’s mighty work.

Speaking once at Essex University, I saw sitting in the front row a strange-looking girl with an odd expression on her face. Remembering an incident the previous night when a radical had tried to disrupt the lecture, I spoke on but also prayed silently that she would create no trouble.

She remained quiet the whole evening but came up as soon as it was finished with a very troubled look and asked me what spell I had cast to keep her quiet. She told me she was part of a spiritist circle in the South of England and that the spirits had ordered her to travel to Essex, where she had never been before, to disrupt a series of lectures beginning that week.

The curious sequel to this was that when I arrived back in Switzerland someone else in the community, far from a fanciful visionary, asked me what had happened in the Essex lectures. Praying for them one morning, she had seen a vision, as real as waking reality, of the lecture hall and the strange girl about to disrupt the meeting. Having prayed for her, she was convinced that nothing had happened, but she wondered if it was just her imagination.[vii]

Well, of course, this was not “just her imagination.” It was the matter of a Christian praying in the power of the Holy Spirit, and God moving in a mighty way so as to render the work of the Adversary inoperable.

God is not finished doing His mighty works in the world, dear friends. We need only be observant with the eyes of faith, and with an expectant faith at that!

In this sermon, you may have had some preconceived notions that have been challenged. When we truly listen to the Word of God and let it truly shape our thinking, a transformation is always at hand, and a good kind of transformation at that!

Look, listen and observe, dear friends. Be a people, ever and always, “Watching God at Work”!