Acts 8:4-8--Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria

Acts 8:4-8
English Standard Version
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Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 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. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

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As we've been talking about for the past couple journal articles, the persecution that the Church in Jerusalem is facing is all part of God's greater plan to get the disciples to take the gospel to all the nations.  Remember they were only commanded to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them (at Pentecost).  Jesus never commanded them to camp out there permanently, but that is where they felt comfortable, so God is going to have to make the uncomfortable through the use of persecution to get them to go out to all the known world.

We're going to start with "Judea and Samaria."  While Jesus did minister in these places during His ministry on earth, most of HIs time seemed to be focused on Galilee and the areas on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Most of the time He spent in Judea was right before His crucifixion and when there were holidays that He travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate.  We also know that He went through Samaria a couple times, but it will be Philip, the second in the list of the Deacons that we will see being an evangelist and taking the gospel to these least-reached people groups.  This is one of the reasons people call him Philip the Evangelist to differentiate him from Philip the Apostle.

I think it's fair to say that Philip was the "advance team" going ahead of the apostles to Samaria to get the work started and to prepare the way, as we will see Peter and John go to Samaria in 8:15-17 to confirm that the Samaritans had indeed received the Holy Spirit.  We see evidence of that here though as they are hearing what Philip is teaching them and that teaching is accompanied by signs (there's that word again that we've focused on much in the book of Acts as this was the way that God chose to validate His gospel message).  We also see that there the gospel message is connected with all the other things that we would expect it to be connected with from the ministry of Jesus and the prophecies of the Old Testament--the casting out of unclean spirits, and healing those who were paralyzed and lame.

The passage closes by saying that there was so much joy in the city.  Of course this is connected to the healings and the casting out of the unclean spirits, but they are also overjoyed that God has send Jewish men to bring the gospel to them.  The Jews and the Samaritans have been enemies and it was strange for any Jew to set foot in Samaria.  They worshiped what they did not know as Jesus said in John 4, because all they had was the first five books of the Old Testament, so they knew very little about the promises of the Messiah.  They were looking forward to the Prophet from the book of Deuteronomy, but they did not know to look for the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world.  Now they know that God loves them and wants them to be reconciled not just to Him, but to their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.

That doesn't mean that the Sanhedrin, chief priests and teachers of the Law will ever allow them to enter the Temple to worship with them, but the words of Jesus to the woman at the well are now coming true in John 4:21-24:

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”