Day 18—Acts 8:4-25 

 ⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. ⁶ When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷ With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

 ⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

    ¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

    ¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

    ²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

    ²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

    ²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

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The number of Jesus’ disciples had grown into the thousands in Jerusalem and the Jewish leaders were seriously threatened by their influence.  So, these Jewish leaders persecuted the apostles and the entire church of Jesus in Jerusalem and all of the disciples were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, except the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. 

Following the apostolic example of boldly proclaiming the truth of Jesus, the scattered disciples continued sharing the message everywhere they went.  How courageous these scattered disciples of Jesus must have been to take the message of Jesus into new towns and cities with the threat of persecution constantly lingering.  Can you imagine taking God’s message of salvation to a town who has never heard the message before?  What a thrill!  That is just what Philip did when he went into a city in Samaria.  He proclaimed Jesus the Messiah there, did miraculous signs, and many were healed. 

Simon was a sorcerer who wowed the people of Samaria with his magic.  He was the David Copperfield of his day I guess!  I don’t think Simon just shrugged off the name the people gave him: The Great Power of God.  He wasn’t the power of God at all!  They were completely wrong to believe in him!  It seems like they got that picture pretty quickly when Philip arrived to town.  Apparently, Philip’s message of the good news of God and “the name of Jesus” (supported by the miracles) was totally convincing and many believed and were baptized.  Even Simon believed and was baptized.

Interesting, these people heard the message, then believed, then were baptized.  The link between the message of God’s salvation and baptism is evident.  Baptism was part of the teaching of the good news.  But this is not a new teaching found in this story, as we have seen already that being “baptized in the name of Jesus” was the expected response for a new Jesus believer (Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:38-41). 

Simon believed and was baptized, but come to find out later in our text his heart was corrupt.  After he offered money to the apostles to gain the ability to lay hands on people to pass on the Holy Spirit, he was marked as one with wickedness in his heart.  The apostles even said, “Perhaps he (God) will forgive you for having such a thought in you heart.”  Perhaps?  I thought he was already saved and forgiven, cleansed by the blood of Jesus.  It seems to me there are two possibilities for this statement: 1) the apostles reneged on Simon’s baptism because they realized his heart wasn’t right when he made his commitment to Christ in baptism, or 2) Simon was forgiven of his sin when he was baptized in the name of Jesus but has lost his way already because his heart went bad.  I think it was the first possibility.  I think Simon’s heart wasn’t right—or at least hungered for power and therefore insincere—from the very start.  Sure he believed in Jesus and was baptized outwardly as a sign of his commitment, but inwardly his heart was not on the same place.  His heart was still struggling with what it meant to commit to Jesus in the first place.  He was torn in what to believe.  Hey, this Jesus teaching was all new to the guy, he was learning as he went.  He went from the honored “Great Power of God” to “you are nothing compared to Philip”!  I imagine he was pretty used to all that attention and wanted more.  I think we can understand his heart struggle.  But still, he struggled and the apostles were unsure about whether God would forgive him or not.  Yikes!  I wouldn’t want to be in Simon’s shoes.

Apparently many Jews in Samaria were baptized “in the name of Jesus” but had not received the Holy Spirit in power yet.  Why not?  I think it has to do with the Holy Spirit still limited to Jerusalem where Jesus sent Him.  It was only when the apostles prayed for the Holy Spirit to come down to Samaria that the Spirit did go down, and when Peter and John laid their hands on the disciples they received the Holy Spirit. 

This is interesting to me because these new converts went through the baptism ceremony and gave their lives to the name of Jesus but had not received the Holy Spirit.  We read in John 3:6 that “the Spirit gives birth to spirit”.  So if the Holy Spirit had not come to them yet, could they have been saved or reborn yet?  Could the Spirit have given rebirth to their spirits yet?  This may seem somewhat technical, but since we are discussing salvation, it seems like a good point to bring up.  So far the Spirit seems to come after baptism. 

• The Spirit descended on Jesus after he was baptized (Luke 3:21-22)
• Peter promised the Spirit would come to all who would repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38-41). 

We need some answers to the role of the Holy Spirit in God’s salvation offered to mankind.  If the “Spirit gives birth to spirit” then surely he is involved dramatically in the process, and I’m thinking it has to be a pretty important role if it is linked to rebirth.

One other note…

When the apostles prayed for the Holy Spirit to come into Samaria, I was reminded of another Scripture that I don’t think I have brought into this study so far, John 14:12-14:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Those are the words of Jesus given to his special twelve disciples; eleven of those twelve who were present to hear these words were among the apostles in the book of Acts.  Peter and John specifically were part of the original twelve and are present in our text today.  With these words Jesus made some promises to his twelve disciples and we see those promises coming to fruition in the book of Acts when the apostles do miracles and ask God for things in Jesus’ name.

(I hope I’m not confusing you with my tangents.  I’m just trying to work this stuff out.)