It seems to me that we live in a day of superlatives.
At least this is what we have been taught, and this is the way that we think.
If the Olympic athlete doesn’t win the gold, then all his labors are wasted.
If the car sale or the garage sale isn’t “huge”, then it’s not really a sale at all.
If an important book doesn’t sell a million copies in three months, then it is pulled from the shelves.
If my bank account isn’t in the 7 figures, then I can’t really be rich.
And in some ways, we have gotten to the point that we get hardened or blinded to what is only “good.”
I got a telephone call the other day by a woman conducting a survey in response to some business that I had done with her company, so I agreed to answer her questions.
And even though I was pleased with the service that I had received, I kept on answering with,
Nearly all my answers were 9, and I heard her chuckle just a little bit.
Let me show you what I mean about getting hardened and blinded.
Did anyone’s heart say, “I sure hope that the pastor spends time on this subject.”
We’re a hardened people – hardened.
I trust that you’ll believe me when I tell that it is less than a dozen times in the entire Bible.
Furthermore, they involved events that were basically spiritual in nature.
In the New Testament there was great joy at the birth, and then at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Twice we read of great joy as sinful societies received the gospel.
And once Paul spoke of his great joy in the love of Philemon.
This means that when we find these words, we should be struck with their import and power.
It is a very rare day indeed when any people are filled with mega-joy – great rejoicing.
And in a world where there are so many unhappy people, this ought to be a subject of great interest to us.
This verse contains big news:
This a 2 inch banner headline before the words “banner headline” were usurped by the internet.
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 9.
Let’s think about the causes of this mega – joy.
Just like nearly everybody and everything there are a few good points off-setting the rotten ones.
Samaria was the area between Judah and the Jewish-occupied Galilee.
And we see that when the Galileans traveled to the temple for their yearly feasts, they almost always, crossed to the eastern side of the Jordan river until they came to Jericho where they again crossed and climbed up to Jerusalem.
Despite the fact that route added many miles to the journey, not even the Galileans wanted anything to do with the Samaritans.
And when the Lord Jesus “must needs” go through Samaria” those who knew were aghast.
The people who lived in Samaria had been forced to immigrate there by the Assyrians.
They had come from various places throughout the Assyrian Empire, hundreds of years before.
But since that time they had intermarried among themselves and with the poor of Israel, who had been left behind by the Assyrians because they were unworthy of use anywhere else.
We be the worshipers of the one True and Living God, and we have no idea who you people worship.”
Even though she was filled with ignorance about the man.
But more importantly than that, all we have to do is look at what this chapter says about these people to see why the Jews shunned and scorned them.
For example, there was a man named “Simon,” a practitioner in sorcery – “mageuo” ( mag-yoo’-o ).
He is generally called Simon Magus, the magician, the sorcerer.
He was a Samaritan Rasputin, whom everybody in the city respected but feared;
And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.”
How much do you know about the Voodoo religion?
Voodoo teaches that there is a supreme God who rules over a large pantheon of local deities, deified ancestors and saints.
It is believed by these people that the dead souls and saints communicate with believers through dreams, trances and ritual possessions.
But of course, what these people call saints are actually demons.
The poorest, most backward, wicked, destitute country in the Western Hemisphere – Haiti.
To what extent can we say that Haiti’s condition is due to its Samaritan-related religion?
How many of them are places where Bible Christianity is one of the leading religions?
What is the primary religion amongst the Third-World nations?
The reason is that the United States is rapidly accepting this same kind of polluted, hybridized, Satanically-inspired religion.
When homosexual and pedophile priests are accepted or tolerated, our nation is headed to Hell.
When Christian leaders try to say that there is no essential difference between Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, it means that they have lost their spiritual perception.
When Astrology becomes an acceptable criteria for making life-choices, we are in trouble.
When Wiccan priests become accepted as military chaplains, it’s proof that we’re sliding into Hell.
When repentance is no longer a major part of the prophet’s message, we have been Samaritanized.
Christian pastors must point out and preach against the Samaritanization of Christianity.
There was great joy in Samaria when Philip came to Samaria, because “he preached Christ unto them.”
As I read these words, my mind thinks back to the ministry of Jonah in Nineveh.
I see the power of Jehovah, transforming God’s prophet prior to his arrival.
I hear God’s man preaching repentance, just as the Lord Jesus preached repentance.
And I see the power of the Holy Spirt miraculously and sovereignly overthrowing the wicked hearts of the people of those cities.
“Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”
The blood which Christ Jesus shed on the cross flowed bright red.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever [from any corner of that world, that whosoever] believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
These verses are saying that there will one day be Africans, Chinese, Koreans, Philistines and even a few Americans dwelling in Heaven, saved by the sovereign grace of God.
And those Samaritans shook the gates of heaven with their exuberant joy at that news.
Like that nation and that city, Post Falls should be ecstatic with joy, because Christ is preached here.
But as I have said, we are hardened.
We are a gospel-hardened people, and this joy has been sucked out of us.
We should rejoice with exceeding joy, at just the privilege to attend a gospel-preaching church.
You young people have no idea what a privilege you have to be here rather than in Bangkok, Beijing, or even Paris.
Samaria was swept with joy at the preaching of Christ.
“For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.”
It would be just as wonderful to walk into Kootenai Medical Center and to tell all the sick there to pick up their beds and go home.
There is a lady who lives not far from me, who is confined to a wheel-chair, whom I would love to see rise up and walk.
I’d rejoice with exceeding joy to walk into my wife’s classroom, heal all those sick kids and tell the ladies there that they were all unemployed.
And it would have been wonderful to have walked into the mortuary and tell Olan Smith to wake up and get back to church.
The purpose of those miracles were to highlight the fact that Jesus is the Christ and Philip was preaching Christ.
But you’ll search John 4 in vain to find Jesus working miracles among THEM.
Yet now the ambassador of Christ was there, and those miracles clearly identified him to his Lord.
Here is a tough question which deserves some serious thought before giving an answer:
What would be a greater blessing to our society: empty hospitals or empty prisons?
What is better: quiet funeral homes or quiet bars and taverns?
And what would be a greater blessing to America: empty churches or empty hospitals?
The answer would depend on which churches you were talking about.
The reason that it was necessary for unclean spirits to be cast out, was due to people like Simon Magus.
The reason that there was great joy in Samaria was because that place was being transformed by the grace and power of God.
Whether or not Simon Magus was truly converted, many other people were.
Drug addicts were becoming lucid and productive.
Negligent dads were becoming the good parents and the providers that they were meant to be.
All because men and women, boys and girls were becoming new creatures in Christ.
Samaria was becoming a better place to live because the populace were being saved from sin.
And although there was a church being gathered there, it wasn’t the presence of a church, it was the presence of the power of Christ that made the difference.
Perhaps I should say something about verse 12:
“When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
Baptism is another of those things which has lost its punch, power and purpose.
That baptism was supposed to indicate that a death had occurred.
These people were dead to their old lives and their old sins.
There is no line in life more dramatic and distinct than death, and baptism is such a line.
These people were saying that they were alive in Christ and ready to start living – really living.
Baptism doesn’t save, any more than funerals kill.
These baptisms were declarations that a spiritual death had occurred,
But it was a death which was followed by a new and blessed life.
As He and His disciples approached the city a funeral procession met them.
A poor widow had lost her only son, and she was probably either in shock or uncontrollable grief.
But that grief was changed to unbridled joy when the dead was restored to live.
And likewise, there was great joy in Samaria because Christ Jesus was visiting and restoring the spiritually dead to life.
Wednesday I gave a brief outline of some of things that he was preaching.
You can be sure that he was using the Old Testament scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ.
And you can be sure that he was using those same scriptures to prove that Christ must first die before He reigns.
It was necessary that all the Old Testament sacrifices be fulfilled and completed in the Lamb of God.
But verse 12 adds something else to the Philip’s sermon outline.
“But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
Notice that Philip was preaching the Kingdom of God in the Name of Jesus Christ, just as the Apostles had been doing among the Jews for the last 3 or 4 years.
And what exactly was that message?
Philip was preaching the rule of Heaven, the rule of Jehovah, through the person of the Lord Jesus.
He was preaching about the overthrow of wickedness and the establishment of righteousness upon the earth.
And he was preaching about the ultimate return of the Saviour to establish His Messianic Kingdom.
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Oh, Samaritans, there is great reason to rejoice.
We not only have the opportunity to enjoy the forgiveness of sins today, but soon we shall begin to enjoy aspects of that salvation that our imaginations haven’t yet begun to envision.
There is a joy of HOPE which no earthbound soul can begin to experience.
Rejoice, there is salvation from sin.
Rejoice, there is peace with God.
Rejoice, the Saviour is coming back for us.
Surely, “all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
The question is: Do YOU love God?
Are you one of the Lord’s called?
Do you love the Lord enough to repent of your sins?
Do you love the Lord enough to be baptized as an illustration of your new life in Christ?
Is your faith in the King of the Kingdom and the Lamb of God?