Page 47 - Acts Student Textbook

However, God used even this persecution as an opportunity for good. It caused Christians to leave
Jerusalem and spread the gospel around the world like God wanted. At first the Christians went into
Judea and Samaria, as Jesus had said they would. This began the second major step in Jesus’
prediction of how the gospel would spread.

How was Philip’s ministry in Samaria? (8:5-25)

The gospel enters Samaria (8:5-25). Philip preached Christ to the Samaritans. Christ should also be
the subject of our preaching. Understand, however, that this is not just preaching about who Jesus
was or what He did. Preaching Christ includes preaching what He taught and what He requires men
to do to please God (see verses 12, 35ff). This Philip was the evangelist (21:8) who had been one of
the seven men appointed in Jerusalem to minister to widows (6:1-6). It is not Philip the apostle, since
the apostles were not scattered from Jerusalem (v1) but were still in Jerusalem after Philip had
preached to the Samaritans (v14).

Philip’s ministry in Samaria was accompanied by great miracles (8:6-8)

As always, the main purpose of Bible miracles was to confirm that the message being presented was
truly from God. They were not for competition, as to who the “anointed man of God is” and who is
not, as some of the modern preachers claim.

Remember that Jews and Samaritans were enemies by tradition (John 4:9). Their social and religious
backgrounds alienated them to the point they had no dealings with one another. But Philip, like
Jesus, ignored this and preached to the Samaritans because they were lost souls and the gospel is for
all. When the Samaritans were converted, the barrier between them and Jewish Christians was
removed.

What counterfeit of miracles did the People of Samaria have? (8:9-11)

The people of the city of Samaria had been fooled by Simon the Sorcerer. This Bible example reveals
God’s attitude toward sorcery. Sorcery is another name for witchcraft or magic. It is part of the
occult, along with astrology, divination, necromancy, etc., involving an appeal to supernatural forces
other than the one true God of the Bible.

The people believed Philip’s message and were baptized (8:12). Simon also was among them, being
amazed at the miracles Philip did (8:13).

How did the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit, and Simone exposed? (8:14-25)

The next four verses will be crucial for the purposes of ironing out some perceived theological
misunderstandings. The text says, "when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received
the word of God, they sent them Peter and John who came and prayed for them that they might
receive the Holy Spirit"(8:14-15).

There are tremendous problems trying to build a theology of salvation from Acts for the following
reason: the order of events and the events themselves surrounding salvation differs from passage to
passage. The Holy Spirit in this passage refers to a confirmation, like Pentecost, showing that God
had accepted and saved these Samaritans. They could not have truly been saved in the first place
(i.e., receive is perfect middle indicative) without the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:9). The time
laps for receiving the Holy Spirit might have been for the purpose of the Apostalic witness which was
necessary for the unity of the Jerusalem church with that of the Samaritan believers.

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