ACTS 8

 

Acts 7:51-60 is a huge turning point in Acts, and comes about one year after Jesus was crucified. (Luke 13:6-8,9) Speaking through Stephen, (Mark 13:11; Acts 7:55) God the Holy Ghost summarizes Israel’s rebellion; against the Holy Ghost (vs. 51), the Son (vs. 52) and the Father (vs. 53). This is the last time God addresses the leaders of the nation. Now the kingdom goes to “a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Mat 21:42-45), which is Jesus’ disciples, according to Luke 12:22,32. Next in prophecy is God’s wrath on the nation and Christ’s return. (Luke 21:20-28)

 

Israel’s leaders respond by stoning Stephen and declaring war on God’s people. (Acts 8:1-4; Mat 10:16-23)

 

Events in the next three chapters probably all happen at about the same time. Philip is the main character in chapter 8. He is mentioned in Acts 6:5 and 21:8. Jerusalem has rejected God and run His people out of town, so Philip is in the city of Samaria, the capital of the land once occupied by the ten northern tribes of Israel. They rebelled against Solomon’s son back in I Kings 12 and set up their own king and religion. Lots of competition and animosity resulted between Jerusalem and Samaria. (John 4:9,20)

 

Notice the difference in the way Samaria and Jerusalem received the word of God! All in Samaria “gave heed” to Philip. (vs. 6)

Why do you think the believers in Samaria did not receive the Holy Ghost until the apostles came to them from Jerusalem? In the kingdom program, the law of God goes out to the world from Jerusalem. See Isaiah 2:1-3. As Jesus told the Samaritan in John 4:22 “Salvation is of the Jews”. Samaria’s copy-cat religion was never accepted by God, and the Samaritans who believed Philip had to give up their religion and recognize Jerusalem as God’s city.

 

Notice the order of places in which the apostles were to preach in Acts 1:8; Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. Matthew 10:23 says that before they finished Samaria, Christ would come back in judgment. How close they were! Do you know what God did instead of judgment? That starts in Chapter 9.……

 

Why do you think Simon the sorcerer was in such trouble? Remember Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5? Simon is a type of Samaria’s false religion. He had everybody fooled until Philip showed up. But even after he believed, God was not going to use any part of that false religion in His program.

 

Next God sends Philip south of Jerusalem to meet the Ethiopian. The nations were supposed to be able to come to Jerusalem to worship and learn about God. (Is 2:1-3&60:1-3&61:6; Mat 5:14) But this Ethiopian Gentile is going home without answers, showing Jerusalem’s failure to be God’s light to the world. (Rom 2:17-24)

 

The Ethiopian’s statement in verse 37 shows concisely what they needed to believe about Jesus at that time. (Mat 16:16; John 20:31; I John 5:1) Notice he is not trusting in Christ’s death to pay for his sin, as we do today. If you have a modern translation, see if you can find this verse in it.

 

The Ethiopian was a smart man, but he had no way of knowing that Isaiah 53, where he was reading, was about the Messiah. This is a good example of how the crucifixion was prophesied, but not explained in the Old Testament. No one knew that Christ would come to pay for their sin, not even the disciples. (Mark 8:31,32&9:31,32) Prophecies like Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22 were not understood until after Jesus’ resurrection, when He opened their understanding of the scriptures. (Luke 24:45) Now, the meaning of these prophesies is explained in detail by Paul, especially in Romans 1-5.

 

So…. When reading Acts, always remember that they did not have the same information available to them that we have today. We have the completed, perfect word of God now, including Paul‘s revelation, (Col 1:25-28; Rom 16:25,26) which totally equips us to walk worthy (II Tim 3:16,17; Col 1:9-11) when we study it rightly divided, (II Tim 2:15) and believe it. (I Thes 2:13)