In this message we examine the mission of Philip the evangelist to the Samaritans, who were at mutual animosity with the Jews for over 700 years. As the Samaritans receive the gospel, we see how our God is a missionary God, going out to save all of the nations of the world, not only the Jews.

Teaching Notes:

The Samaritans Receive The Gospel

Acts 8:5-25

Our God is a missionary God. He loves the world, and has a plan to save a people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation on the face of the planet. Thus, God could not be content with evangelism that was limited to Jerusalem. In love He allowed a great persecution, no doubt instigated by Satan, but used that persecution for good. As a result of the persecution, God’s people flee Jerusalem, but wherever they go they preach the word.

There is no word more calculated to produce dread and fear in the heart of a Christian than the word evangelism. When it comes to evangelism we need a lot of help. Thankfully, we are going to get some help from a man who did evangelism really well. In fact, the word “evangelist” occurs only 3 times in the entire Bible. It occurs in 2Tim.4:5 where Paul tells Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist.” It occurs in Eph.4:11 where we are told that Christ “gave the evangelists to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” And the only other time it occurs is in Acts 21:8 where it speaks of “Philip the evangelist.” Isn’t it interesting that it says “the”, not “an”. Philip was looked on in the early church as the evangelist.

Now, what is an evangelist. Very simply, it is one who proclaims the evangel. The “evangel” is just another word for “gospel.”  So, really, an evangelist is a “gospeler” or a “good newser.”  Well, Philip was an evangelist par excellence. There is much we can learn from him.

We are first introduced to Philip in Acts 6 where he is chosen as one of the 7 to make sure the Hellenistic widows are receiving their daily serving of food. Luke gives the names of 7 men, of which the first two are Stephen and Philip. First Luke tells the story of Stephen, which we have studied already, and then he gives the story of Philip.

Now, let’s back up a bit and get the big picture. Acts 8 is the story of Philip’s evangelistic ministry. However, Luke divides Philip’s story into 2 parts.  Part 1 is Philip’s Ministry to the Samaritans (8:5-25). Part 2 is Philip’s Ministry to the Ethiopian Eunuch (8:26-40).  Part 1 deals with Philip’s public evangelism; while Part 2 deals with personal evangelism. In Part 1 we see an example of a false convert, while in Part 2 we see an example of a true convert.  We are going to study Part 1 today, and then in 2 weeks time, we will study Part 2.

Now, in exploring Philip’s evangelistic ministry to the Samaritans, notice that Luke clusters the narrative around 3 groups of people:  Philip, Peter and John, and Simon.  There is much God wants to teach us from all 3 groups!

1.   Philip:  Acts 8:5-8, 12

The Audience:  Philip was driven out of Jerusalem by the great persecution, and he just happened to go to the region of Samaria! There had been a 750 year feud between Jews and Samaritans. Remember that the Samaritan woman was shocked that Jesus spoke to her, because Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Who were the Samaritans and where did they come from? In 722 B.C. The Assyrian army conquered the Northern 10 tribes of Israel, along with the capital city of Samaria, and carried thousands of them off in chains to Assyria. Other Assyrian men moved into the area which was now under the control of the Assyrian empire, and intermarried with the remaining Jewish women. The result was a half-breed race (half Jew, half Assyrian). The Jews in Judah and Jerusalem looked down on the Samaritans, and went out of their way to avoid any contact with them. Later when the Jews returned to their land, they refused the help of the Samaritans in the rebuilding of their temple. In the 4^th century B.C. the Samaritans built their own rival temple on Mt. Gerazim, and repudiated all OT Scripture except the first 5 books. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, there had already been hundreds of years of bitter conflict between these 2 groups.

The fact that Philip went to them, and preached the gospel to them was incredible! He was doing the unthinkable. It appears that Jesus’ heart of compassion for all the lost multitudes of the world was seeping into Philip’s heart. This would have been about 7 years after Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. Jn.4:39 says “many Samaritans believed in Him.” I wonder if they were in this crowd, hearing Philip preach.  Here is the very first person who ever preached to someone who was not a full-blooded Jew. History is being made in Philip’s preaching! What about you? Do you have big heart for the lost? Are you willing to cross cultural lines and taboos in order to bring them the gospel? Are you willing to go to people who are very different from you – Muslims, Hindus, gays, transvestites, gangers, etc.?

The Message:  8:5 – “the Christ”. 8:12 – “good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.”  Philip’s message had to do with “the Christ”. God had sent His Messiah, His deliverer, His Savior in the Person of Jesus Christ, and now it was possible for all men to enter God’s Kingdom through the name of Jesus Christ. 

Notice what Philip did not preach.  He didn’t preach obedience to the Law as the way of salvation. He didn’t preach the incredible growth of the church, the miracles of the apostles, the miraculous release of the apostles from prison by the angel, or the martyrdom of Stephen. Philip kept to 1 single theme: Christ! Oh, what a great example we have here. When we have an opportunity of witnessing to others we can so easily get sidetracked into making a hundred different things our focus: moralism, the church, abortion, homosexuality, etc. Make sure that whenever you speak the gospel your theme is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

The Signs:  8:6-7. Notice that they heard and saw. What did they see? Signs. What kind of signs? Demon-possessed persons were set free, and lame men were healed. Philip was demonstrating Jesus’ power over demons and sickness. Did you notice what effect this had on the Samaritans? They paid attention to what Philip said. Miracles can’t convert anyone, but they can get people’s attention long enough to listen to the saving message of the gospel. We ought not despise miracles of healing and demonic deliverance. Mk.16:20 says, “They went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”  Is there anything supernatural about your life that arrests the attention of the people you are trying to reach? 

The Effects: 

Joy: 8:8. The expression “there was much joy in that city” reminds me of the time when World War II had come to an end, and the American soldiers were returning home. There were great parties, dancing, feasting, and rejoicing all over the U.S.  In New York Times Square over 2 million people celebrated with dancing and rejoicing for over 24 hours! There was so much ticker tape let loose from the high rise buildings that it was 5 inches deep on the ground!  Well, there was also “much joy” in this city as well. It was joy of a different kind. Instead of joy because of a victory over an earthly enemy, this was joy because of a victory over the enemies of sin, Satan, death and hell. The Samaritans’ sins were forgiven; they were reconciled to God, they were saved and given eternal life! What could possibly be more joy-producing than that? How long has it been since you have experienced great joy?

Baptism: 8:12. How did Philip exhort his hearers to respond after he had preached Christ to them? Did he urge them to say the sinner’s prayer? Did he ask them to raise their hands and come forward? No! These things are human evangelistic inventions. You won’t find them in Scripture. No, in the book of Acts, when someone believed the gospel he was immediately baptized. It would be so much better to simply preach the gospel and then call those who have believed to be immediately baptized. Some churches I’m aware of have completely eliminated the “altar call” and instead have baptisms immediately after their services. I love that idea! 

2.  Peter and John:  Acts 8:14-17, 25

The Commissioning of the Apostles:  8:14. Notice who sent who? Peter and John did not just decide to come to Samaria. They were sent by the other apostles. This tells us something about how the apostles functioned. They did not see themselves as independent guys doing whatever they thought they should do. Even though Peter was the spokesman for the 12, he did not have authority over the rest of the apostles. In fact, here he is taking direction from the other 10 apostles. They sent Peter and John. We see that the apostles worked together as a team. There was mutual submission and humility among all of them. What was important was not each individual’s desire, but the Lord’s will. This is the same way that Elders in a local church are to operate. They should function together as a team seeking the Lord’s will together in a spirit of humility and submission. The idea of a church being ruled by 1 man is not found in Scriptures. Well, it is found in 3Jn.9, but there it is a negative example! “Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.” 

The Falling of the Holy Spirit:  8:14-17. Something very odd has taken place in Samaria. The Samaritans have been saved, but have not received the Holy Spirit. How do we know they were saved?

      8:14 – they received the word of God. In the other instances in Acts where Luke uses that expression, people were being genuinely saved (Acts 2:41; 11:1).

      8:12 – they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

      8:12 – they were baptized. Evidently Philip believed they had been saved or he would not have baptized them. 

So, the obvious question is, “Why has God saved them, but not given them the Holy Spirit?” Also, “why couldn’t Philip pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit?” We know that Peter believed that anyone who repented and was baptized would receive the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38). We also know that Paul taught that if a person does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (Rom.8:9).  So, why are things so different in this case? 

Apparently, God sovereignly withheld any manifestations of the Samaritans receiving the power of the Holy Spirit in order to prevent a schism in the early church. This is the first time the gospel has moved beyond the bounds of Judaism. God made sure that there would be no question that the Samaritans had received the same empowering of the Spirit as the Jews had received at Pentecost. In order to do this, God made sure there were apostles present, who, as official representatives of the church in Jerusalem could verify that this empowering had taken place. They could also verify that the Samaritans were full members of the one true church. If God had not done it this way, there may have been a separate Christian church established – one for Jews and another for Samaritans, each remaining completely separate from one another. But by having the apostles present, this would prove to all non-Jews that should they believe in Christ they have the same full membership status as Jews had. 

Therefore, I don’t’ believe this situation in Acts gives validity to the 2-stage initiation practice of charismatics today. Charismatics take this passage as a proof text for their practice of laying hands on people who have been saved in order to receive the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” The problem with that is we aren’t told the Samaritans are receiving the “baptism”, they are just receiving the Spirit – period (8:14-17). I believe that this situation must be judged as an unusual event in church history during the time of the advance of the gospel from Jerusalem to the end of the earth – not a normative situation for all believers for all time. 

The Teaching and Preaching of the Apostles:  8:25. They “testified and spoke the word of the Lord” to those new converts in Samaria. They worked with Philip. Philip preached the gospel and baptized; the apostles taught the new believers to observe everything Jesus had commanded. Then on their way back to Jerusalem, they preached to many Samaritan villages. The dam had sprung a leak! The gospel is finally penetrating into non-Jewish communities, and the apostles are finally obeying Christ’s command (1:8). 
3.  Simon:  Acts 8:9-13; 18-24

His Past:  8:9-11. Often he is referred to as Simon Magus. The word “magus” is the Latin word for great. So, we could call him Simon the Great. That’s actually what he called himself. Notice that he “amazed” the people of Samaria, from the least to the greatest. He apparently received supernatural powers from Satan. He had a great following of amazed devotees who paid attention to him. Then as now, people were searching for answers to life’s questions, but they were searching in the wrong places. Today people search for answers in cults, astrology, and New Age. But people will find false answers and false hopes there! 

His Profession:  Now, here comes Philip into Samaria, and he does even greater miracles than Simon. Simon is used to amazing others; now even he is amazed by Philip’s miracles. Simon makes a profession of faith, like the rest of the Samaritans and is baptized. But there is something very wrong with Simon’s faith. Simon was enthralled with the miracles, but not with Jesus. Simon was never converted. He was a dry sorcerer before baptism and a wet sorcerer after baptism.  Philip must have believed Simon was saved. Just goes to show you that it’s possible to fool the preacher. Jesus taught there would always be tares among the wheat. On the day of Judgment, Jesus will separate the true believers from false converts. How do we know Philip wasn’t saved?

      8:20 “may your silver perish with you”. This is a pretty mild translation. Literally Peter was saying “to Hell with you and your money.” Peter was shocked and greatly disturbed.

      8:21 “you have neither part nor lot in this matter; your heart is not right before God”

      8:23 “you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

It seems obvious that at least Peter didn’t believe the man was saved.

His Motivation:  8:18-19. Simon is interested in Power, so that he can maintain his position as the Great Power of God and amaze all the people to hold their attention. Incidentally, this tells us that something very supernatural happened when Peter and John laid their hands on the Samaritans, although we are not told what it was. Simon wanted to use God for his own personal gain. He wasn’t interested in surrendering to Jesus, serving Jesus, following Jesus, and worshipping Jesus. He wanted to use Him. Simon’s faith was a fake. 

His Call To Repentance:  8:22-24.  Peter said “you are poisoned by bitterness and in bondage to iniquity.” You are still lost. You need to repent and pray that God might truly forgive you. But Simon’s response is not encouraging. He won’t take any personal action, but asks Peter to pray for him instead. He’s not so interested in getting right with God, as he is in escaping the consequences of his sin. He doesn’t seem to have any sense of his guilt before God. 

In Simon we have a solemn account of someone who saw divine miracles, heard the True Gospel, believed it intellectually, was baptized, and was still lost! He’s a warning to all churchgoers. He shows us how close someone can get to Jesus, and still die outside of Him. Many today think of the Holy Spirit as a power that they need more of. If we have IT, we can use IT to overcome our problems. The problem is that the Holy Spirit is not an IT; He is a person. He won’t allow Himself to be manipulated or used. Where are you at? Why have you come to Christ? Is it to use Him to get what you want? Or is it to surrender to Him to get what He wants? It’s still not too late to repent! The mark of a false convert is that He wants his own glory, like Simon, rather than God’s. He want his own will, rather than God’s. Has God changed your heart to desire above all His glory and His will? That’s the mark of a true convert!

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