Acts 8:1-8 On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
The above focus reveals the beginning of the fulfillment of Jesus' prescience, knowing his disciples would go throughout the world preaching the Good News. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 15:15-16) What Jesus knew beforehand was then becoming a reality because of persecution. Jesus knew his disciples would be mistreated and all of his followers would experience great trouble at the hands of the Gentiles and Jews. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. (Luke 21:12-13) Chief in this attempt to put away apostasy from Judaism was Saul. Saul was a young rabbi, who had watched the unjustifiable stoning of Stephen, for Stephen had been accused by liars of speaking against God and Moses. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” (Acts 6:11) Saul probably thought the stoning of this supposed blasphemer was justified. Believing Stephen’s ministry a real danger to Judaism, he felt justified to hunt down the apostates, the blasphemers, and either force them to recant their belief in Jesus being the Messiah or kill them. Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Jesus in confronting the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, told the religious leaders that their father was the devil. He assessed that they were the devil’s children because they had murder in their hearts. Jesus knew they had murderous thoughts, breaking the commandment: thou shall not murder. They wanted to murder an innocent man: Jesus. Now we see Saul with the same spirit, a follower of evil, desiring to kill innocent men and women, believing he was doing God’s work by killing followers of Jesus. Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2) The results of Stephen’s stoning by the religious elite helped spread the message of the Good News throughout the land. It was like a rock thrown into a pond, waves of fleeing believers broke into other communities quickly with the words of the NEW WAY on their lips. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. The pond in Jerusalem was no longer safe for the believers; they fled for their lives into other communities, preaching The Way everywhere they went. We see Philip, a deacon in the church as was Stephen, going to a city in Samaria. Samaria, a place of apostasy for generations, would hear the Good News about Jesus being the Messiah from Philip's lips. Jesus previously had made inroads in this land of apostasy through his interaction with a woman at a well who had had many husbands and now was living with a man who was not her husband. She lived in the town of Sychar. Jesus impressed this woman so much with his words about her life, knowing she had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband, that she went back to the city and convinced the people to invite Jesus to stay in their town for a few days. Jesus stayed with them for two days, persuading many of them that He was the Messiah promised by God. Now we see Philip in Samaria reaping what Jesus sowed. During Jesus’ time in Samaria, Jesus told his disciples: “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:34-38) Philip is now reaping what Jesus sowed in Samaria. Jesus had stayed two days in Sychar sowing seed.
Persecution is the driving force that scattered the church in every direction. Before this time, the church was rather secure in Jerusalem. Jesus had told the believers to stay in Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit was given. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5) Being near the Temple, a place where God dwells, and in the holy city of Jerusalem was probably a very comfortable place to know God’s will. The disciples went to the Temple every day to teach The Way. The disciples were hassled and mistreated by the Sanhedrin, but they were fixed on staying in Jerusalem. Even after the stoning of Stephen, all except the apostles were scattered. But God had other plans now for the church. He had infilled the church with his Spirit, and now the church was to go out into every land and share the Good News that salvation has come to the world in the form of Jesus Christ the man from Galilee. As evident in Samaria, the power of God was in Philip’s ministry. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. Without the power of God, the church was to stay in Jerusalem. They were sent to the world not just to proclaim another idea about a god or another way to live. They were to proclaim the God who exists forever, who created all things and who is intimately involved with people, so much so that He would deliver them from demons, heal their bodies and give them abundant eternal life because of his love for them. Therefore they needed the dynamo of God: the Holy Spirit in their lives. Without the Spirit in their lives, the words they spoke would be considered to be just another philosophy or idea of how to live. As with the philosophers of Athens, people have many thoughts about God, but without the reality of God in their lives. What they really needed was empirical evidence of God in the affairs of men and women. Philip’s ministry was backed up by miracles and wonders. He was not just preaching some other wisdom or knowledge of man. Man's wisdom and knowledge, his answers to life, are but foolishness to the eternal God. He alone can change the lives of a finite person to an eternal one in his household. He alone makes new creatures. He can change lives permanently if they put their trust by faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, for He alone is the Word of God. Philip and the believers in Jerusalem had to be filled with the Holy Spirit before they ventured out into the world to testify of Jesus being the Messiah sent from God. Their message had to go beyond mere teaching of another idea about God or life. As Peter proclaimed to the crowd on Pentecost, these are the last days. And in the LAST DAYS it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18) God through his church was coming to the world in power, manifested in the works of the Holy Spirit. Philip, full of the Holy Spirit, was proclaiming the Good News of Jesus the Messiah to the people in Samaria. He was cloaked in the words of God through the gifting of the Holy Spirit.
When the Good News arrives in men and women’s hearts, there is joy. We see where Philip is teaching about THE WAY, there is great joy in that city. They are seeing and experiencing the power of God manifested in their lives. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid CLOSE ATTENTION to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. Something new was happening in their lives and in their community. The mundaneness of life was changed; the routines of life were being affected by the Good News. Philip was ministering about a God who has come down to change their lives permanently. He was talking about a born again experience that leads to eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18) Philip focuses on the work of God who is full of grace and mercy towards all people. No longer will people have to depend on their works to know God, to please a holy God, but they will place their trust in God’s work that comes in the form of Jesus Christ. Philip is announcing this truth of eternal life through Christ Jesus with supernatural signs and wonders. The Holy Spirit through his mighty works is imprinting on the people the reality of the salvation message. God is coming to them in a mighty way to change their lives from a hopeless existence to an intimate relationship with him. Everything they are hearing is based on faith in the words of the God of Israel. Long ago a man called Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was considered right with God because of his faith in God’s words, and not in his own reality. He placed his faith in God’s words and not what he saw or previously experienced. His wife Sarah was old and beyond child bearing age, but God told him he would have a son out of Sarah’s womb; he believed God’s words and not his understanding of life. Because of his faith in God’s words and not his own understanding of life, God called him righteous, placing him in right standing with him. Now Philip is expounding to the Samaritans that God’s grace and mercy have come to the world in the form of Jesus Christ. Anyone who believes in Jesus, the exact replica of God’s mercy and grace, he or she will be considered right with God and will receive eternal life with God as a child in his household. This understanding of God’s plan of redemption, reveals that his grace and mercy bring joy to ALL people. At Jesus’ birth, the angels told the shepherds in the field, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause GREAT JOY for all the people. (Luke 2:10) God’s work in the form of Jesus Christ has come down to earth. Faith in Jesus’ work is the same as Abraham’s faith in God’s word. Jesus is the Word of God. Therefore, faith in God’s word brings eternal life to all men and women who put their trust IN GOD'S WORK: JESUS. People are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.” (Romans 4:5-8) Yes the Samaritans were happy; they were experiencing great joy for God had come to them in grace and mercy THROUGH Jesus Christ THE MESSIAH FOR ALL MEN AND WOMEN. Because of their faith in Jesus, their lives had been changed permanently, forever and ever. Amen. May we rejoice with great joy for the gift of God’s mercy and grace today.
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