Christianity 101 The Last Class

21 “Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. 22 On judgment day many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.* ’
· He is calling for a relationship here because He's saying be gone I'm going to say to them I never knew you.
· If you read in Amos & different places, that word "knew" is sometimes used for a husband knowing his wife, it's used of intimacy, what Jesus is saying is He is asking for a genuine relationship.
· This is not about religion, this is about relationship. And He's gonna say there are many who did many works in My name, they build hospitals, orphanages, they went out & did things, maybe they even had the facts straight.
· Maybe they have their creeds in the proper place, maybe they have their liturgy right in the church. But what Jesus is saying is there was never a relationship.
· There was never a new birth. There was never the entering of the narrow gate by brokenness & repentance & asking forgiveness of sin.
· Think of how God describes Himself as the Father & us as His children. For myself as a dad, I don't want my children just to see pics of me. I want to get on the floor & wrestle w/ them & be w/ them, they're my kids, wanna look in their faces, talk to them, walk w/ them. It was knowing Him & meeting Him & walking w/ Him & being forgiven by Him that changed my life.
· And He's saying many are gonna come & say didn't we do these works in Your name, many will say didn't we do miracles in Your name, didn't we do signs & wonders? Didn't we cast out devils, that's important because what it's saying is, just because you see a miraculour ministry, that does not endorse what you're seeing as an act of God.
· Now what does this mean & how does it apply to us? Let's turn to Acts 8 & see one who fell into this category.
· Chapter eight, Jesus of course @ this time had already died, resurrected from the dead, & ascended up into heaven. The book of Acts deals w/ the story of those first believers, the early chuch.
· At this time there was a man named Saul in ;1-3 who's going around persecuting Christians. He was a man devoted to God, He was a pharisee, a scholar, into Judaism radically who thought Christians were dangerous, a sect/cult. He thought he was doing God a favor as he was going house to house where Christians lived & he would drag them out & beat them & inprison them.
· Saul brought havoc upon the believers. H would soon become converted on the road to Damascus...But this is before that conversion experience. Saul is going around persecuting the church & the church is fleeing that persecution.
· 4 But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus. 5 Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah.
· One of those who went=;5 was Phillip & he went to Samaria. This must have confounded the Samaritans. They were confounded in that Phillip would come to them. They were half Jew & half Assyrian. Samaria was located between Jerusalem in the south & Galilee in the north. And the Jews avoided going thru no matter how great the delay might be. But Jesus went there. Years earlier in John four. And now we see Phil going there who's also a Jew, a Christian, it must have blown their minds as they saw Phil coming to Samaria.
· 6 Crowds listened intently to what he had to say because of the miracles he did.
· Not only confounded that he came to them, but they were also convicted by what he said to them. He preached Christ & it stirred something within them & he freed those who were also possessed w/ demons.
· 7 Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
· They were convinced by what they saw, confounded that he came, convicted by what he said, convinced by what they saw; the lame were healed, the oppressed were delivered...Whole city filled w/ joy.
· 12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.
· Confounded that he came, convicted by what he said, convinced by what they saw, but they were converted by the message that he brought. When they heard the preaching of the kingdom of God & the name of JC, that's when they were converted. Miracles, deliverances of demons, good deeds/good works, don't convert people. What does is the message of the kingdom of God, in the name of JC.
· We live in a time where people are increasingly fascinated by signs & wonders & miracles. What converts a person is the sharing of God's word. J the Baptist was called the greatest of all the OT prophets, & in John 10, we see why John was called the greatest.
· 41 And many followed him. “John didn’t do miracles,” they remarked to one another, “but all his predictions about this man have come true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
· That encourages me. Because I might not be able to confound people w/ my works or convince people w/ signs, wonders, & miracles. But I can see the conversion of people as I share the simple gospel. Jesus loves you & died for you & wants to live inside of you. And John was the greatest of all prophets; greater than Elijah who called down fire, greater than Moses who parted the Red Sea, John was the greatest though he did no mighty miracle. All things that he spoke of that man, JC were true. And every one of us can do that.
· You might not be able to call down fire, raise the dead, to heal the leper but, you can speak about Jesus. And that's where conversion takes place. They were converted when they heard the preaching of the kingdom in the name of Jesus, they were baptized, an outward sign of an inward acceptance but, there was one among them most interesting.
· 9 A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, claiming to be someone great. 10 The Samaritan people, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One-the Power of God.” 11 He was very influential because of the magic he performed.
· Many traditions revolve around Simon the sorcerer. It is alleged: (a) that he was the founder of the Gnostic heresies, (b) that he went to Rome and perverted Christian doctrine there, and (c) that he became involved in a miracle contest with Peter and lost. At any rate, this Simon of Samaria did practice sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. Because of his “sorcery,” the ability to exercise control over nature and/or people by means of demonic power, people called him the Great Power. They may or may not have thought of him as possessing deity. At any rate Simon boasted that he was someone great, and the people of Samaria believed him. Furthermore, he accepted their adulation.
· Simon’s magic means his sorcery, his demonic powers (the Gr. words for “practiced sorcery” and “magic” are related).


13 Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the great miracles and signs Philip performed.
14 When the apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. 15 As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit. 16 The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people’s heads, he offered money to buy this power. 19 “Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”
20 But Peter replied, “May your money perish with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought! 21 You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Turn from your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, 23 for I can see that you are full of bitterness and held captive by sin.”
24 “Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things won’t happen to me!”


· Simon prophesed that he believed in the Lord, was baptized & yet we see him ending tragically: evidently Peter was given a supernatural word of knowledge regarding Simon. He ends without us knowing exactly what happened but, this is what we do know: The allusion to bitterness (lit., “gall of bitterness,” cholēn pikrias) seems to refer to Deuteronomy 29:18, which speaks of idolatry and bitter apostasy (cf. Heb. 12:15)
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Discuss the Differences Between the Eunuch & the Sorcerer


24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”


So there needs to be hearing & doing, okay two builders, we're all builders. Even without JC you may be building a career, studying @ the university, learning a trade, building a business, you're a builder. You're building towards retirement or going to the gym=building muscle, chasing a person of the opposite sex, all of us are building. The wise person is the person who hears the sayings of Jesus & then does them. The foolish person is the one who hears the sayings of Jesus, & then doesn't do them.

No doubt there are many that listen and walk out & continue to live in sin. Or they continue to ignore, they like the vibe of church, it's a different thing but, it does not impact their life or their heart. Jesus is now telling....Now this is simply it, are you building on the narrow way? When you listen to teachers or prophets, men who claim to be prophets, are they dircting you to the narrow way? Is it towards healing or prosperity or some other thing? There is a narrow way that leads to eternal life, it is the rock/JC. Jesus Christ & Him crucified. Paul said I have determined to know nothing among you, except Christ crucified.

And are we hearing His words & building our house upon the rock? You see He doesn't say if the wind blows & the rain falls, He says when. As God's children, He loves us, He has given His Son for us. But in this world, if it aint rained on you yet, it will. The winds of life will blow over us & the storms will come. It may just be the storm of age, as certain organs start to go & the eyes start to go. And the hair starts to go, you know the ultimate storm is death. The ultimate thing that blows over us is the end of life.

And for those that have been to Israel, it's very interesting to see the wilderness of Judea & how dry it is & how barren it is & they would build their homes there, these little adobe or stone buildings or mud-brick buildings sometimes, & they would build them but, it wasn't till the rainy season came & the "waddies" these waddies would fill w/ water & begin to flood down, that they would know whether they had really built upon rock, unless they had dug down first or if they had built on sand. And when the water would come & beat upon the house, if it was on the rock it would stand, if it was on the sand & the mud, it would get undermined & it would collapse. And you know by observation, both houses look the same.

And you know people that don't know Christ, that's what's important to them. The house, there's no foundation but above ground, it looks the same. And some people, that are all they care about, what other people think. "My house looks like the Christian’s house, my life looks like the Christian's life, in fact I make more money than the Christian does. I can have any girl I want. And I enjoy life more than the Christian does.” And all of that is fine, until the wind blows. And until the storms come. And the person who's a non-Christian if their child dies, you see a vast difference between them & the Christian whose child they know, has departed from this world & is waiting for a reunion, because that is rock solid.

You see a vast difference between the non-Christian who gets cancer & their life begins to disintegrate & they end up bitter, angry, or eating brown rice. And the Christian who gets cancer & turns to the Lord & certainly goes thru all the struggles but their comes a point where there's a relinquishing," okay God, You're in control. Worst-case scenario is my physical body dies & my soul & spirit come right into Your presence & I look into Your face. " That is rock solid.

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 for he taught with real authority-quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

They were astonished or troubled at His teaching. Because He did not speak like the Pharisees & Sadducees but He taught as one having authority. Because the Ph's & S's always quoted somebody else. Jesus said this is the way it is. If someone we know doesn't know Christ, pray that His words would cause him or her to be agitated/troubled because that's what it says. It says they were troubled when they were listening because they understood in their hearts, there was authority that what was being said was true. And if you're troubled today/tonight because you don't know Christ & you're not sure where your going to spend eternity, that's good because that means you know in your heart that what we're talking about is true. What I want you to do is pray to receive Him today. If you're feeling that in your heart, these crowds were troubled, they sensed that what they heard was true. And maybe you're one whose seen the false teachers on TV & you've seen the false prophets & you said to yourself," if this is Christianity I don't want it". Well Jesus said the same thing, He doesn't want it either. He's going to say be gone, I never knew you.

He's more repulsed by what's being done in His name than you are! If you're a non-believer & you've seen some of these shenanigans, & you look @ that & think, how can people believe that? I think the same thing, how can people believe that? It is wrong. And it is a farce. It is nonsense. But there wouldn't be a counterfeit unless there was the genuine. And Satan wouldn't bother to set up the false prophet as the pseudo prophet, the counterfeit. He wouldn't produce a counterfeit unless there was something genuine, worth counterfeiting, that he was trying to steal people away from.

And that is this: that God's only Son died on the cross for your sins & shed His own blood, that you can be washed & cleansed. He has taken your place in death & punishment, that you can take His place in life & forgiveness. That is the genuine thing. In this church building, we cannot guarantee that you'll always be healthy like so many of these health & wealth ministries do. We can't guarantee you that you'll always prosper, we can't do that. And we pray that you're healthy & that you prosper, that's wonderful & it's a blessing from God.

This is the guarantee we can give you & listen to it it's a guarantee: if you ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins & to be your Lord & Savior, we can guarantee you, you will be forgiven & spend eternity in heaven. That is the guarantee we have. That is building your house, your life on a rock or you can listen to the things that are said & ignore them & discover in your own strength when the winds & storms of life blow, that beneath you, all you thought was worthwhile was only sand & washes away. That's your choice. For us as God's children, be wise, always take heed, look out for those phonies, you don't have to be afraid of being fruit inspectors. And have those guys are fruits, believe me. Fruits & nuts. You don't want to be judgmental without a cause. You should be discerning, you don't want to judge somebody in a different way than you expect to be judged when it comes your turn, so error on the side of mercy, not judgment.
You don't want to spend your life looking @ your brother or your sister's eye & it really bugs me when Christians are so hot on pursuing another Christian to demonstrate their flaws to the world. What will we do, have a party if their brother or sister is wrong? Like the world does, when they mock the church when they discover our flaws? Can't we do our laundry in-house, & deal w/ it in a biblical fashion? Don't spend your life judging other Christians, pray for them, and take the beam out of your eye. Pigs & dogs=another story. We need wisdom, we need discernment so we ask, we seek, we knock, and we go after God. We ask Him & He gives good gifts to us because we're His children. We're evil, we know how to take care of our kids, and He will give better things to us. And however we want to be treated, to sum it all up, that's the way we should treat others. Now, there's a narrow way & there's a broad way related to all this. And on that broad path there are many false teachers, false prophets & they imitate what is genuine or they imitate paths to God.

There's but one, that's Jesus Christ. And the easy way to tell them is they're after your money, you can see all the shenanigans, you know in your heart it's wrong. And you look @ the fruit of their ministry, it doesn't produce anything lasting. The fruit of the ministry of reconciliation of the cross of Christ produces a house that even when the ultimate storm of death comes, the house is not shaken, it stands.