08 March 2026 - Peter van Breda - Persecution and the Growth of the Church in Samaria

Persecution meant to quell the Christian movement, but in fact, it had the opposite effect as the Christians were scattered with Philip being among them. I remember years ago when I was in China, and there was at some stage with a president by the name of Hu Jintao. There was some freedom about with the gospel, and people were able to to minister more freely than now. And I remember speaking to some of the very special underground church leaders, and they said to me, they said, you know, at some level, we pray for persecution again because that's when the church grew. When there was persecution, the church grew to over a 100,000,000 people. And now that it was open at that time, the church seemed to be following more western ideology and more western they became more westernized than following Christ. And so they, at some level, said, I wish the persecution would come back so that the church may grow like it did then. [01:08:17] (67 seconds)  #GrowthThroughPersecution

The significance of the apostles not being among those who were scattered showed that this was a layperson movement. It was not the leaders who were sharing the gospel. In fact, that's been God's mandate and God's plan all along. That the the authority of the word of God is not just confined to those who maybe stand behind a pulpit, But the authority of the word of God, because each one of us have been filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the commitment and we have the mandate to go out and speak about Jesus Christ to all. These were regular common men and women who were spreading the gospel. [01:02:47] (46 seconds)  #EverydayEvangelists

Simon makes the profession of faith and gets water baptized, but it's pretty clear that Peter and John don't think he's converted because he comes to them after that. And he and he says, well, I want what you've got and I'm gonna give you some money. And this is what Peter says to him. May your money be destroyed with you. You can see that you are full of bitterness and captive to son to to sin. Would you really say that to somebody who's truly accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and savior? I don't think so. [01:24:47] (37 seconds)  #NotForSaleFaith

So what we need to understand is that faith is complex. Some people make verbal ascent and might even receive water baptism, but later they apostatize. They fall away from it. Now, I'm not here to judge them and neither should you be. But you know, that is heaven's duty. That's heaven's task. That one day when they get to heaven, then we'll know if they were truly water baptized. God is the ultimate judge of all, and we cannot sit in judgment over anyone. [01:25:24] (33 seconds)  #LeaveJudgmentToGod

And so Paul works very hard in Romans chapter 14 and other places to keep unity between the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And he's the answer to all divisions in the world, folks. Jesus Christ is the answer to all divisions, whether it is racism, black and white issues in our country, whatever the issues that divide us, Jesus Christ is and can only be the answer for all of that. All of those things are solved genuinely by the gospel of Jesus Christ. [01:28:46] (35 seconds)  #GospelUnitesAll

Miracles of Jesus, as I said, had a a temporal function, but at the same time, they served eternity by proving that Jesus was God in the flesh. The miracle the miracles that were done were healings, the lame walking and the demons were cast out as we see in verse seven. Healing showed the compassion of God and definitely proved temporal relief for the suffering people. And then they also got to hear the gospel message. It's almost if the healing and deliverance was like a dinner bell. [01:13:41] (35 seconds)  #MiraclesAnnounceTruth

And, of course, we told him about Jesus Christ. We told him that Christ came to save him and deliver him, but he wouldn't give up his demonic powers for the greater gospel. So but we need to realize that demons are everywhere. You know, some of us have this concept, oh, the demons are in Africa or the demons are in in Asia, in some of those countries in Asia, but not here. Folks, just look around. Open your eyes. [01:19:48] (32 seconds)  #SeeTheSpiritualBattle

So there was a great there was this division, a great deal of and also a great deal of animosity and hostility. However, Jesus speaking to the woman alone at the world demonstrated the the ultimate example of the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus himself ministered to the Samaritan woman and to the Samaritan visit village leading them to Christ. He laid the groundwork. [01:11:49] (28 seconds)  #LoveYourNeighbor