This sermon was preached at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, GA by Rev. Paul Mims last Sunday October 14th.

Acts 8

We must have a “breakthrough” before we can have a “breakout.” An example of this is the breaking of the sound barrier. The book, THE RIGHT STUFF records it for us.“Chuck Yeager was the first man to ever break the sound barrier in an aircraft. Planes like the British Meteor jets that approached the speed of sound (760MPH at sea level, 660 MPH at 40,000 feet) had encountered severe buffeting of the controls. At that time, no one knew for sure whether an airplane could exceed “Mach 1”, the speed of sound. The U.S. Army was determined to find out first.

The Army had developed a small, bullet-shaped aircraft, the Bell X-1, to challenge the sound barrier. A civilian pilot, Slick Goodlin, had taken the Bell X-1 to .7 Mach, when Yeager started to fly it. He pushed the small plane up to .8, .85, and then to .9 Mach, but backed off when the plane began to shake uncontrollably. The date of Oct. 14, 1947 was set for the attempt to do Mach 1.

As he approached Mach 1, that plane began to shake and rattle and be buffeted from side to side, so much so that he was not sure that he would not explode in mid-air.

But on this day Chuck said, “I refuse to turn back now! If I die, I die trying but I am not going to back down! I’ve been close before, but no matter what happens today, I am going for it!”

And with that he shoved the controls forward and headed for the sonic wall!

The X-1 went through “the sonic wall” without so much as a bump. As the speed topped out at Mach 1.05, Yeager had the sensation of shooting straight through the top of the sky. The sky turned a deep purple and all at once the stars and the moon came out – the sun shone at the same time. … He was simply looking out into space. …” He not only had broken through – he had broken out into a new freedom in flight.

There was a man chosen by the early church, a deacon named Philip, who broke through some barriers and made the gospel of Jesus the Christ sound so attractive that it was forever a breakout in those areas.

I. THE BREAKTHROUGH OF RELIGIOUS HATRED. (vv.4-8).

In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John is a beautiful story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in a town called Sychar. If you remember the geography of the Holy Land there is Judea, then Samaria, then Galilee. To get to Galilee the Jews would not go through Samaria because they despised the impure half-Jew Samaritans. They would go all the way down to the Jordon River and follow it to Galilee bypassing Samaria. But John records that Jesus “had to go through Samaria.” Why? It was to show his disciples that his Gospel was for all people. At the well Jesus asked this immoral woman for a drink. She 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.)” (v.9).

It is now a new time in the plan of God for the redemption of the world. The church had been commissioned by Jesus just before his ascension back to heaven in Acts 1:8 to “…be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” With a passion burning in his heart, this deacon named, Philip, said, “I will go to that despised area and tell the people about Jesus.” Just like his fellow deacon, Stephen, who paid the supreme price with his life, he was determined to break through to the people as Jesus had directed. The Lord anointed him with the ability to do miraculous things in spiritual and physical healings. This produced “great joy” in that place. This was because they heard with gladness the good news of salvation through Jesus. Dr. Luke records, “With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.”

Out across the world today, thousands of missionaries are doing the same thing. They are having breakthroughs with unreached people groups where there has never been a gospel witness.
MICHAEL CARD tells the story of a man named, Joseph, who came to Christ out of a Muslim background. “One day, walking a hot, dirty, African road, he met someone who shared Christ with him. Then and there he accepted Jesus as his Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit overwhelmed him with such joy, that the first thing he wanted to do was go back and tell his own village. He went from door to door telling of the cross and the forgiveness for sin. He expected their faces to light up when they discovered this wonderful truth. To his amazement they became violent: the men seized him and held him to the ground while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire. They dragged him to the bush and left him to die alone. He revived and made it to a water hole where he spent days recovering. He was confused and finally decided that he must have left something out or not told the story correctly. After rehearsing the message he returned. Joseph stood in the circle of huts and began to proclaim Jesus. Again grabbed by men and beaten by women, they reopened the wounds that had just begun to heal. He was dragged again to the bush and left to die. To have survived the first time was remarkable, but to survive this beating was a miracle. Days later he awoke and determined to go back. This time he was attacked before he even opened his mouth. Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was that the women who were beating him had begun to weep. This time he awoke in his own bed, the ones who had beaten him were now trying to save his life. The entire village came to know Jesus Christ.”

II. THE BREAKTHROUGH OF RELIGIOUS PERVERSION. (vv.9-25).

One of the men who heard Philip speak was named, Simon. He was a sorcerer and was so possessed by evil that Satan did amazing things through him. Simon, along with many others, believed the gospel and was baptized. “He followed Philip everywhere and was amazed at the great signs and miracles that he saw.” (v.13).

News reached Jerusalem that Samaria had accepted the word of God and they sent Peter and John to verify the faith of the Samaritans. They found that one thing was needed. Because of the cultural and theological mix they needed a fuller understanding of the true gospel. Peter and John prayed for them to see the Gospel of Christ as clearly as the believers in Jerusalem. What resulted was that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Samaritan believers just as he had been on the Jewish believers making them one in the Spirit.

Simon, in his theological confusion, saw this and wanted the ability to pray like Peter and John and have the Holy Spirit come into the lives of people. “When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’”

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right with God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said my happen to me.”

With a perverted belief about the Gospel a person cannot serve the Lord. You cannot buy such a gift. It has to be wrought in you in truth. You cannot serve with bitterness. You cannot honor the Lord when you are a captive to sin. What Simon wanted he could not get with a shallow belief system even though he proclaimed that he was a baptized believer. He was a professor of faith, but not a possessor of a personal faith in Jesus. Peter said, in effect, “I perceive that you have never been saved.” So the Gospel broke through his claims to be a holy man and he was exposed for who he was. We have a term for a person like Simon who tries to buy the faith. It is called “simony.” He was not interested in what the Holy Spirit could do for others. He was interested in the power the Spirit would bring to him in terms of prestige. There is a danger in religious life for workers to want to exalt self and that is why some fail at this holy task.

III. THE BREAKTHROUGH OF A RELIGIOUS SEARCH. (vv.26-40).

After completing his preaching mission in Samaria, “…an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” There came along that road, presently, a hungry hearted man who was an official in the government of Ethiopia. He thought that if he could just get to Jerusalem and worship there he could find peace and meaning for his life. But it didn’t happen. He was now on his way home. As he rode along in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah chapter 53 where it says, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

The Ethiopian in charge of the treasury of Queen Candace said, “I do not understand this. Can you explain it to me?” Philip began at that very scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. He opened his heart to the truth he heard and was gloriously saved. As they rode along together, they came to a place where there was water. “I want to be baptized,” he said. They stopped and got off the chariot. “Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.” (v.38). I have noticed across the years that a true believer wants to be biblically baptized. People have said to me, “Pastor, I was baptized as an infant at the direction of my parents. Now that I have chosen for myself to commit my life to Christ, I want to have believer’s baptism.” There was an incompleteness in their hearts about their obedience to our Lord. When this was done, they, like the Ethiopian, “went on their way rejoicing.”

Just think how God used Philip. He reached a hated and despised people and caused them to be accepted in the beloved. He personally witnessed to the first Gentile convert and sent him back to his pagan country of Ethiopia. And there was a Christian in Africa.

These were breakthroughs and breakouts of the Gospel.

Do you need a breakthrough in some area of your life so that the gospel can breakout more fully in your experience? Do you face a barrier to your faith that you have not been able to overcome? Is there some life situation that is keeping you from victory? Is there some theological matter that you don’t know how to understand that would free your spirit to a greater devotion to our Lord? Is there some relationship that keeps you from service? Is there some attitude that makes your witness ineffective? A breakthrough in any of these areas can allow the power of the gospel to breakout in all areas of your life.
This story is reported in an article by Fred Markert in Pray Magazine. Fred is the International Director of Strategic Frontiers, a group that focuses on witnessing for Christ among mostly Muslim nations where it is not always easy for Christians to go.

Fred is living in Afghanistan, & he relates this story about a Muslim woman, a university professor, attending an English class taught by Strategic Frontiers volunteers. Listen as she later tells her story to one of them:

“I started to go to sleep & suddenly my bedroom filled with light. At the foot of my bed stood Jesus, & I knew He had come to kill me!”

You see, the day before, she had stormed out of the English class after the teacher had begun to answer questions & to speak about Jesus to his students. As she stormed out she cursed the teacher.

“I cursed you all the way home,” she told him. “I went home & I lay in bed & I was praying, ‘Allah, I want you to kill those people because they are not English teachers – they are missionaries & I want them out of my country! Kill them!’”

It was then that she saw the vision of Jesus standing at the foot of her bed. “I knew He had come to kill me because I was asking Allah to kill His workers. So I got out of bed on my hands & knees. I was trembling & I crawled to the feet of Jesus, waiting for Him to slay me.”

“As I was trembling at His feet, I started to feel warm all over. I started to feel love wash over my body – love & mercy. I looked up at Him,” she said. “Jesus was so beautiful, I had to give Him my heart.”
SOURCE: Pray Magazine, Sept-Oct, 2002, pg 17.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!