Chapter 8

Starts with this verse:

1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. [Act 8:1 ESV]

A brilliant segue.

There is a little more information about Paul's actions, dragging people off, ravaging the church.  The tolerance of the elite towards them didn't last very long.  Stephen's stoning was like a trigger that fired the blast of persecution against the church.  I wonder if that is a pattern down through history when persecution breaks out?  Is it always an "explosion" triggered by an event, or is it like a vise, slowly tightening, making open worship gradually more difficult?

2021-2,  Ask the church in Afghanistan today how it works  Biden pulled out the troops, the Taliban descended on them, and started house to house searches, dragging Christians out and executing them in the streets.  They are checking cell phones.  If they find Bibles instead of Qurans, they kill you in the street.  Persecution seems sudden and explosive.  We may think we will have time to prepare for it if it comes here, or maybe even that we can dodge it if it comes our way.  History says no.  Afghanistan says no.  The Uighurs say no, and the Christians in Pakistan say no.  Persecution bangs on your door in the middle of the night, when you are NOT ready.  That is how it works. 

Possible FB post.  Prepare for sudden persecution.

Philip, the first given the title "Evangelist".  NOT an apostle.  Philip went to Samaria to preach.  These were not considered Jews by those in Judah.  They were a diluted race, part Jewish, and part Gentiles relocated into the region by the Assyrians.  Philip did "signs", though he may well have never even seen Jesus, much less was he an apostle.  The Holy Spirit at that time empowered many with supernatural signs.  Many. 

2023 - 4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ... 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. [Act 8:4, 6-7 ESV].  These verses show that Philip was performing miracles on par with what we saw Peter and John do in Acts 4.  Further, we see that there are still demons around, though Jesus has returned to heaven and is now reigning as King of the spiritual realm on earth.  But it seems these demons have very little resistance to expulsion by those who have received the Spirit.  Maybe this is the answer...maybe at this stage almost all the remaining demons - which would have been concentrated in the Middle East to oppose Christ's work there - are now expelled by those who have received the Spirit.  It could be that pretty much ANY saved person could evict a demon at this time.  And so most of them were sent to the abyss.  But a few, from other areas, from remote areas, from the Americas for example, escaped this time, and that is why here and there, we still hear of demons today.  And that "special dispensation" of the Holy Spirit with power, has now gone out, and only a few can still cast out demons.

The Jerusalem church hears of this "awakening" in Samaria and they send Peter and John to see about it.  These verses:

15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. [Act 8:15-16 ESV]

What is this???  They believed, and then they were baptized, but still no Holy Spirit?  I had always used the Cornelius thing, where the Holy Spirit fell on them before they were baptized as a proof text that baptism is not necessary to salvation.  But surely belief AND baptism leads to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  We are going to have to "invent" a distinction here between the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the conveyance of power by the Holy Spirit.  And here is the MSB note about it:

"This verse does not support the false notion that Christians receive the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation.  This was a transitional period in which confirmation by the apostles was necessary to verify the inclusion of a new group of people into the church.  Because of the animosity that existed between Jews and Samaritans, it was essential for the Samaritans to receive the Spirit, in the presence of the leaders of the Jerusalem church, for the purpose of maintaining a unified church.  The delay also revealed the Samaritans' need to come under apostolic authority.  The same transitional event occurred when the Gentiles were added to the church (10:44-46, Cornelius).

So MSB says this event, and the event with Cornelius and the Gentiles, is an exception, not the rule.  MSB says we shouldn't be building doctrine on this, even though it happened twice.  I am not so sure that's right...

A man named Simon, a magician who had previously amazed the people Philip preached to, impressed them, and was considered a man with the "power of God" because of the things he was able to do.  We don't know where Simon was getting this power.  Upon hearing Philip's preaching though, Simon believes - it says he believes, I wonder if there is a further connotation based on verb tense - and got baptized and "continued" with Philip. 

2025 - Believe and baptize are both aorist.  Continues is a present participle.  So...the aorist disconnects believing and baptism from time.  Past, present, future...none of them are implied.  We just know that he believed, and the narration tells us that it had already happened.  It was in the past to Luke, that we know. 

2023 - I guess we ought to ask what exactly Simon believed.  Perhaps he believed that Philip was doing more spectacular miracles than he himself could do, and so Simon believed Philip was tapped into a more powerful source.  Perhaps Simon's magic was all tricks and slight of hand and such as that, but he was expert enough to realize that Philip's magic was the real deal - so he believed this was real magic.  We can take either of those viewpoints and so explain what happens next, with Simon wanting to be a conduit for this power.  How much would someone pay you if you could give them the power to heal their child from cancer?  Simon knew where the real money was.  And if his belief was merely that Philip's miracles were real, perhaps he only hung around to find out "how" these miracles were done, merely to advance his own skills.

2025 - I do not believe the above paragraph from 2023 is actually the case.  There doesn't seem to be anything in the text to imply that Simon's belief had the wrong object or was in some other way not a "saving" belief.  Not that I can see.  So what we have is genuine salvation and discipleship overwhelmed almost immediately with...what do we call it?  Simon wanted to be like the Apostles.  Remember, they were laying on hands and at this time, that resulted in the coming of the Holy Spirit to those who were saved, but had yet to receive the Spirit.  Simon wanted to be able to "grant" that Spirit by laying his own hands on people.  Before believed, he received money from people by doing magic.  We don't don't if it was real or not, but I think we should assume that it was.  He had power, from demons or from Satan, that deceived people into believing he was from God.  That is what was wrong with what he was doing previously.  The demon granting him power previously had no problem with Simon enriching himself off that power.  That demon had no moral or ethical restrictions on how the power could be used.  If Simon could say, heal a sickness, he could extort money from a mother if she wanted him to heal her child.  He was saved out of that.  But then he saw Peter and John able to not only do as Philip had been doing, but also able to grant the power to do miracles to others, he knew he was seeing something new.  He was a new Christian.  The baptism in the Spirit was new.  He misapprehended what was going on.  He missed that the Spirit could not be used by anyone for their own private purposes.  He wanted to use this new "Spirit" to support himself financially, as he had done in the past with his magic, and that was the problem.  He was putting himself in charge of God.  He wanted to make the decisions.  Verse 21 is the key to this:  21 "You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. [Act 8:21 NASB95].  In the first part of that, we see Peter tell Simon that what he wants - financial gain - has not got one thing to do with how the Holy Spirit operates.  It is all about God and the Holy Spirit and not at all about Simon.  He cannot grant the Spirit, nor can he deny it until the right price is paid.  He misunderstood.  His heart wasn't right.  Verse 23 tells us that Simon still needed to straighten himself out.  He had come from a terribly irreverent background.  He had likely consorted with and been favored by a demon or demons.  There was much to overcome, much to relearn, and Peter tells him directly that he needs to work on this.  Peter does not tell him he isn't even saved.  Peter is clear that this is a sin from which he must still repent.  And Simon's answer tells us that he IS a believer, because he sincerely wants to repent.

2023 - Looking at vs 16...I see that this verse could be used as the foundation of a doctrine that says you get saved, and you get baptized, but you are not yet done.  You also ought to seek this third part, this "falling of the Holy Spirit" on you.  But why then does that doctrine not include the laying on of hands by those who already have this Spirit of power?  Like MacArthur above, and really along the lines of how I have always heard this explained, this miracle performing, tongue speaking, Bible explaining, prophetic power that came with the Holy Spirit in those days was something confined to the early church, there to confirm that what the apostles and their disciples were teaching was also from God.  Once that was established, the "power" part faded away, and the gap left when the power was no longer there is today filled by faith.  We just have to believe these things happened, because we have not seen them.  We either believe that, or we must believe that something is horrendously wrong with today's Christianity and that no one at all is being saved, or that no one at all is able to convey the Holy Spirit to others.  I certainly do not want to go there!  But let's also not forget Joel.  This "power" is going to come back to proclaim the second coming of Christ, even as it announced his first appearance.  But I suspect that by the time that begins the church will be long gone, and the signs will be for the unbelievers of the end times.  I also suspect that like most in Jesus' own time and in the first century church, the meaning of the miracles will be rejected. 

2023 - Why is it that none of the early church fathers wrote about seeing miracles performed?  I mean, we have an account that I have read that says someone - in the first century - knew someone who had personally known the Apostle John.  The one who knew John had personally informed this second guy that John lived in Ephesus at the end, and was over the church there.  Did he also say that John was still healing people or casting out demons?  Wouldn't that have still been a huge deal if that was going on at the church in Ephesus?  Wouldn't people have been traveling there for relief from their ailments, even that late in the first century?  And since, so far as I know, there are no such records, had the power of the Holy Spirit left even the apostle whom Jesus loved?  I think it is an interesting question, with many many long term implications....

2023 - Did the Spirit with power have to wait to see whether the apostles would "bind on earth and so bind in heaven, or loose on earth as it would be loosed in heaven"?  Remember, the Samaritans were not considered to be Jews, and God had not yet sent his sign signifying that Gentiles - Cornelius et al - were included in the gospel.  Therefore, we might say it was sort of "up to the apostles" at this point to confirm the work of Philip...well no...the miracles was doing would have confirmed.  Ahh!  That is what Peter and John went to see, and once they saw Philips work confirmed by miracles, they assented to the coming of the Holy Spirit with power to these "heathen" Samaritans.  I think this makes sense.  And then the deal was that well yeah, ok, I can see the Samaritans being included because, dilute as their ancestry might be, they pretty much all have at least SOME Jewish blood in them.  But the Gentiles did not, and so Peter's vision of unclean food, and the trip to see Cornelius is God Himself opening the door of salvation to ALL men everywhere, not just to those with a couple molecules - at a minimum - of Jewish blood.

Simon tries to buy the ability to "convey" the Holy Spirit, after seeing the things people do after receiving it.  Two thoughts.  First, this passage is not about doctrine, it is about Simon and his erroneous understanding of the Spirit.  Hmmm...Second, Simon obviously sees that these saved and baptized believers can achieve another level if they receive this power.  He wants to be able to convey the power, not to receive it himself...

I think there are many lessons in what we are told here about Simon in vs 18-25.  But MSB barely mentions it, except to say that Simon did not repent of his sin, but only wanted to escape the consequences of it. 

The Ethiopian eunuch.  Philip snatched away.  Preaches from Azotus to Caesarea.

2025 - I wondered if Candace was a secularly verified historical person:

Found this from Gemini AI on the Queen mentioned in vs. 27:

Candace, often referred to as Queen Candace of Ethiopia, was a title held by powerful female rulers of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Nubia, south of Egypt, not modern-day Ethiopia. The biblical Candace, mentioned in the Book of Acts, is believed to be a specific queen named Amanitere, who reigned from around 25 to 41 AD. She is known for her military prowess and for successfully defending her kingdom against the Roman Empire. 

So Candace is a title, not a proper name.  AND, here is a region, a nation, where women were the head of government.  It would be a good study to see how long that lasted and how that nation did with women in charge instead of men.

2023 - Here is an interesting thought...note that we have this very specific notation:  26 ..." This is a desert place. [Act 8:26b ESV].  This tidbit of information gets a whole sentence.  It is important.  It is possibly there because of this later verse:  36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" [Act 8:36 ESV].  Isn't it interesting that the ESV puts an exclamation point here after water?  And I think that is the point of the sentence back in vs 26.  There shouldn't have been water here.  That water was there to make sure this Ethiopian, who was going to go home and preach the gospel, had fully followed the procedure required.  If baptism is not that big a deal, why would God put a pool deep enough for a full immersion baptism way out there in a desert place on that particular day?  Baptism goes with it.  I still don't think it is required for salvation, but it is hugely important, and it ought not wait!

2025 - So "Look!" is a "particle, disjunctive particle".  BLB defines it this way:  Expressing a choice between two mutually exclusive possibilities.  E.g. or, rather than.  This doesn't exactly fit the present verse.  I know there is no punctuation in Biblical Greek...but perhaps this pdp form of a word is also commonly used to express surprise, and so an exclamation point really is justified.  I asked ChatGPT and this is the response:  Yes — in Biblical (Koine) Greek, certain particles (including disjunctive particles) can indeed be used to express surprise, incredulity, or emphasis, depending on context.  So I am right.  There should not have been water here, but there was!  For a reason.  To tell us that baptism is a bigger deal by far than we Baptists often make of it.

2025 - This is also interesting:

27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, [Act 8:21, 27 NASB95].  The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship.  He believed in God, the God of Israel, at this very early time in the first century.  The Jews had already been to Kush and evangelized there, and this very high ranking official had converted to Judaism.  And now, he is converted from Judaism to Christianity.  After this session with Phillip, this man believes not only in God, but in Christa as Messiah.  So you have the Christian church in Kush a very very long time before the crusaders and their ilk began to evangelize.  Africa was not "invaded" by missionaries in say the 800's.  They had already been Christians for centuries by that time.

2024 - This verse:

4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. [Job 4:4-5 ESV].  Hmm...I am reading the NASB95 this year.  Here is how it is translated there:

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. [Act 8:39 NASB95].  The word translated "snatched" here in the NASB is the Greek work "harpazo".  This is the word that is translated "caught up" here:

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [1Th 4:17 ESV]

...and here:

5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, [Rev 12:5 ESV].

Phillip was "transported", snatched, "raptured"! from the baptism in the desert to a city called Azotus.  This was several miles away and on the coast.  It is interesting that it says Phillip "found himself at Azotus", as if he sort of woke up there as if from sleep.  Maybe this rapture thing happens without our being aware of time passing.  Maybe we too will just sort of "wake up" with Christ in the air, or already in heaven, and have not memory of the process by which we got there?