Think of a country or city divided. North or South Korea, for example. I remember the great cheering when the North Korean and South Korean Olympic teams marched together in an opening ceremony. Or East Berlin and West Berlin. We all cheered when the Berlin wall came down in the late 1980s. Now Berlin would be one city. Consider Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the South. Those my age and older remember the civil war between republicans and unionists. The IRA were the terrorists long before September 11. And we are glad that Ireland is enjoying a time of peace.
There is something wrong when a city or nation is divided.
When the events we read in Acts chapter 8 took place, the Jews and Samaritans were long time enemies. The Samaritans were the half caste apostate descendants of the Northern tribes. 2 Kings 17 tells us that the 10 Northern tribes of Israel were invaded in 722 BC. They intermarried with the nations. Many had mingled faith in Yahweh with idolatry of the nations who were settled amongst them. And all that was left of God’s people was a remnant, the survivors of the tribe of Judah and those others loyal to the line of David. And they became known as ‘Samaritans’, after their capital city, ‘Samaria’.
But still God promised that one day Israel would be reunited under one King, a Son of David (Ezekiel 37:15-28). And so after the 10 Northern tribes were destroyed, Yahweh told the prophet Ezekiel to take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah' and on another, ‘Ephraim’s stick, belonging to Joseph ’ (Ezekiel 37:16). Ezekiel was to join the two sticks together in his hand.
And what did this symbolic action represent? God was going to take the stick of Joseph and Ephraim – in other words, the Northern Kingdom, or the Samaritans -- and join it to Judah’s stick – the Southern Kingdom, or the Jews. In other words, a reunited kingdom of Israel.
Yahweh promised to gather the Israelites from the nations and bring them back into their own land as one nation with one king over all of them. They would never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. And King David would rule over them as shepherd[1].
Well, at the time of Jesus, this hadn’t happened. Even worse, the Samaritans had set up their own mountain shrine in opposition to Mount Zion. Samaritans and Jews had rival temples and rival mountains. And Jews and Samaritans didn't associate with each other.
In the story of Acts, Stephen has just become the first Christian martyr. And the church is scattered from Jerusalem. And some go North, toward Samaria.
Stephen's death starts a feeding frenzy. Not satisfied with Stephen's blood, the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem lust for more. So Luke writes, chapter 8 verse 1:
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. (NIV)
Stephen's death was not an isolated one-off. Paul says as much later on[2]. Stephen was the first martyr. But he won't be the last. Between Stephen the Deacon, and James the Apostle, much righteous blood was spilt in Jerusalem.
Tertullian is often quoted to have said 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'. That is often true. No matter what happens, the church in China seems to grow.
But sometimes the blood of the martyrs is the irradication of the church in that place. The church at that place goes to be with the Lord, or flees. And there is no more church in that place, or a maybe a small, perhaps beleaguered church. For example, the Huegenots in France[3].
But in the end, it is only a temporary set back. The ‘decapitation strike’ in Jerusalem was not successful. They killed one deacon, but not all seven. Acts Chapter 7 tells the story of the deacon that died. Chapter 8 follows a deacon that lived. Chapter 8 verses 4 to 8:
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. (NIV)
The Jews of Jerusalem rejected Jesus. They scattered Jesus' disciples. And that meant joy for the Samaritans. As Paul says, the Jewish rejection of the gospel means the reconciliation of the world to God (Romans 11:15).
Notice, it is not the Apostles who are leading the charge. The Apostles remain in Jerusalem, verse 1. But rank and file Christians are scattered. The mission of the Christian dispersion is a grass roots mission, from the bottom to the top. At the bottom, every Christian spreads the word. At the top, the risen Jesus Christ is orchestrating everything. Because the Book of Acts is not just the Acts of the Apostles. The book of Acts tell us about the Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If driven out by persecution, we will take the word to wherever we end up. If given peacetime, we will make the most of it by preaching the gospel. But driven by persecution, or given peacetime, the good news of Jesus will still go out.
The deacon Phillip was appointed to make sure the Greek speaking widows got fed. He is also known as Phillip the evangelist. The table servant is not neglecting the word of God. Nor is there tension here between feeding people and telling them gospel. Because we are called to love people in both ways. We’ve got both kinds of food. The Spiritual and the Physical. And we will share it with whoever we need to.
Phillip is the ground-breaker. He preaches Christ in Samaria. He does so with signs and wonders. In this he is indistinguishable from the Apostles or even Jesus himself. For Phillip’s mission is the Risen Jesus Christ's mission. And Jesus will use who he wants to prove himself to who he wants.
Jesus in his earthly ministry did minister a little bit to the Samaritans. But it is Phillip the Evangelist who does greater things and reaps the greater harvest.
This time this Samaritan city didn't reject Jesus, as the Samaritans did when Jesus himself headed up to Jerusalem to die. They accepted the crucified and risen Lord. And they did so with joy.
Now, unfortunately not everyone in that Samaritan village received the word with a 'good and noble heart'. And time would tell who had other motives in receiving the word.
One such man was Simon the Sorcerer, otherwise known as Simon Magus, or Simon the Magician. Simon had previously practiced sorcery. Now, that would be OK, if he had repented. The Ephesian church had some who had practised witchcraft among them, and they repented and burnt their scrolls, as we shall see, God willing.
Simon also believed and had been baptised, and followed Phillip everywhere (Acts 8:13). So far so good. It looks like he has repented. But not everything is right with Simon. For he offers Peter money to be enabled to dispense the Holy Spirit at will. He wants the power of distribution.
And all of a sudden, someone who looks genuine is shown for what he is. Peter says of him: Your heart is not right before God, verse 21. You are full of bitterness and captive to sin, verse 23.
Perhaps Simon's interest in Christianity was always cynical and self-serving. Amazed at first, he sees a new way to great power. If you can't beat them, join them. And so Simon entered the visible church. But perhaps the thing he believed was it was the way to real power. Perhaps Simon Magus saw Christianity as a way to becoming a better magician, a more powerful sorcerer, and a way to win the people of Samaria back to his influence. And Simon probably wanted to get back the great name he built for himself, the Divine Power known as 'the Great Power'.
Sadly for Simon, posterity didn’t give him back the name the Samaritans gave him, ‘the Great Power’. His name now is used to describe the sin he engaged in, the sin of buying spiritual privilege. The sin of 'Simony' takes it's name from Simon the one who wanted to buy the ability to give the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And God has already given the one name by which we must be saved. And it is not Simon Magus. It is Jesus of Nazareth, the risen Christ, who we receive as Lord and Christ. That is the one name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Simon's heart was not right with God. So Peter was sharp with him. May your money perish with you, verse 20. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord, verse 22. Perhaps the Lord will forgive you for having such a thought.
Simon is certainly given a chance that Ananias and Sapphira didn't get. And Simon does ask Peter to pray for him. It looks like Simon might repent. And I wish I could tell you that the story of Simon Magus had a happy ending.
But Luke doesn't tell us how Simon turned out. But sadly later church history is not encouraging. Later church writers[4] speak of Simon Magus, a Samaritan magician who Simon Peter rebuked in Samaria, and after being exposed he fled to Rome to continue his business of sorcery. In Rome this Simon Magus was deemed a god, a statue was made to him, and he was worshipped there, along with his consort Helen. If that is the same Simon the Sorcerer from Samaria, he didn't repent, and his last state became much worse than his first.
Friends, Simon is a warning. We don't want to turn out like him.
How can we avoid turning out like him? We mustn't think like him. Money is not the way to power. The gift of God cannot be bought with money.
Nor should we want a name for ourselves. We should be satisfied bearing the wonderful saving name of Jesus Christ, the one name under heaven given to humans by which we must be saved.
Nor should we fall into bitterness and jealousy of others, as Simon did. Let us be happy with just being Christian, and having our home in heaven. And, if later church history is correct, we should heed the warnings Peter gave Simon. We should not give a seemingly good answer to the one who speaks harshly to us for our good. When rebuked, we shouldn’t give up and thenreturn to our pre-Christian sins. We should pray, seek forgiveness, and be happy to be whatever our Lord Jesus wants us to be in his kingdom. And isn't it better to be the least in the Kingdom of heaven than the King of the whole earth. Wouldn't we be happy being a street sweeper or foot washer in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, then to be a Nebuchadnezzar or Julius Caesar over all the Kingdoms of the world? Yes.
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:11 NIV)
Now you will notice that the coming of the Holy Spirit and baptism are separated. And that is important. Because the Holy Spirit is not tied to water baptism, it's symbol and sacrament[5].
But that raises a question, 'why does the manifestation of the Spirit only occur here with the laying on of the Apostle's hands'? ‘Why didn't the Spirit come when they first believed?’ ‘Or why not at the preaching of Phillip? ‘Or why not at their water baptism?’ We see a diversity of occurrence in the Book of Acts.
In Acts 2, the receipt of the Spirit is promised to those who repent and are baptised in Christ's name for forgiveness (verse 38).
In Acts 8, the coming of the Spirit occurs not when they hear they repent and believe the gospel at the preaching of Phillip, or are even water baptised into Jesus' name, but when the Apostles come and lay hands (verses 15-18). A similar thing occurs in Acts 19. The Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus when Paul places his hands upon them. And again, the coming of the Spirit is manifested in speaking in tongues and prophesying (Acts 19:4-6).
But in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit comes upon the Gentile God-fearers as they hear the gospel (verses 44-46). Peter knows that the Holy Spirit has come upon them because they spoke in other languages and praised God, just as the 120 did at the beginning, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 10:46; 11:15-17).
So there are a number of different orders in Acts. Sometimes people hear the gospel, and as they hear, the receive the Spirit, as is the case with Cornelius. He is permitted water baptism because he has already been Spirit-baptised. Sometimes, they hear and receive, but only receive the Spirit when Apostolic hands are laid on them, as is the case with the Samaritans and the Ephesian disciples of John. And sometimes, the promise of the Spirit is said to be consequent only on repentance and baptism, as at the day of Pentecost.
That should remind us that what Luke is doing is describing, not prescribing. He is faithfully giving us God's interpretation of ground breaking events that aren’t necessarily the way that the work continues.
For myself, I think the manifestation of the Spirit occurred only with the laying on of the Apostle's hands because the gospel was breaking new ground. The gospel breaking into Samaria through Phillip was not some side-show to the main game in Jerusalem. No, the main game had now moved. The main game was now Samaria.
The Samaritan mission was no poor cousin to the Jerusalem preaching. No, the Samaritan mission got the best. First, no less than Phillip the Evangelist, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, whose family life was exemplary, whose 4 virgin daughters believed and prophesied. And then Peter and John themselves, first among equals among the Apostles, Pillars, to confirm with their physical presence the centrality of Phillip’s ministry.
And Peter and John not only gave but received. They not only taught but learnt. What did they learn?
They learnt in no uncertain terms that God was behind the gospel reaching new territory, the despised Samaritans. John, who once wanted to call fire down on the Samaritans, now preaches the gospel to them. God was showing Peter and John what Phillip already knew. That God had accepted the Samaritans, whose hearts he had purified by faith in the risen Jesus Christ. (Acts 15:8-9 NIV)
The gospel had crossed another boundary in it's all conquering and victorious journey to the ends of the earth. And Peter and John were there to witness it.
Some people think this passage is 'the first confirmation'. The bishop from St Andrew's house comes out to the country parish to confirm their teenagers. Likewise, the Apostle's in Jerusalem came out to the sticks to lend a bit of legitimacy to the ministry there.
But I think it is a double confirmation. Yes, Peter and John confirm the work of Phillip. But Peter and John are also confirmed. Peter and John are confirming the Samaritans, but the Samaritans are also confirming Peter and John. The Samaritans are confirming Peter and John's future mission. A new front for the gospel has been opened up. And it is not in Jerusalem, but now Samaria.
The Risen Jesus, the great harvester, now works a field heretofore unfruitful. Peter and John got to be a part of it. And so Jesus' words in Acts 1:8 were confirmed through the Samaritans:
'And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth'.
So the outward march of gospel has begun. And here are the Apostle's, trying to catch up with the gospel as it rushes on.
The Northern Kingdom is now being welcomed back into God’s family, through faith in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan is invited into relationship with God on the same footing as the Jew. And God was symbolically reuniting the Northern and Southern kingdoms, this time under the new Davidic King, the Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus promised the Samaritan woman in John 4:
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. … 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. ” (John 4:21, 24 NIV)
And with the proclamation of the Messiah Jesus in Samaria, that time has come. Mount Zion in Jerusalem no longer matters. Mount Gerizim in Samaria never mattered. Because now the risen Jesus Christ is the true temple, the place we meet God. Jesus Christ is the true King and one shepherd, the Messiah over all God’s people. And both Jew and Samaritan now approach God the Father the same way. Through Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
[1] Ezekiel 37:24 to 26: ‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.
[2] Acts 22:4 NIV: I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison; Acts 26:10 NIV: On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
[3] So the Huegenots of France. In 1562, There were about 2 million French Calvinist's, or Protestants, or Huegenots, out of a total population of 18 million. But massacres by the Roman Catholic majority reduced their number. On one day, 30,000 were killed. And why is it that Australians like Libby Leach are now trying to restart the reformation? Because the Huegenots were massacred and fled.
Compare that to England. While gospel preachers at certain key points were persecuted, such as under Henry the 8th and the so called "bloody" Mary, at certain key times gospel preaching was protected, such as under Edward the 6th and Elizabeth the 1st. Sometimes the blood of the martyrs means that a country is judged by not having the gospel. And sometimes the blood of the martyrs meant that, when there were times of peace after the bloodshed, those who survived saw how much those who were martyred valued the gospel.
We are Anglican Christians. It is much more important to be a Christian than to be an Anglican. It's much more important to have Jesus as Lord and Saviour. But we are Anglicans. Let me remind you of some Anglican pin up boys. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Hooper, Latimer and Ridley. Anglican Presbyters Rowland Taylor and John Bradford. These men were burnt alive during the reign of Mary the First in her attempt to bring England back to Roman Catholicism.
If you want to get a bit of steel in your spine, it's good to read Ryle's Five English Reformers, for example. They weren't perfect. But the bible and heaven and justification by faith and the doctrines of grace and the way we do church were important enough for them to give up there loves for. And those who survived them had passed on to them a heritage for which men and women shed their blood. That's you and me.
[4] Justin Martyr, First Apology, Ch 26 in A R Roberts & J Donaldson, Ante Nicene Fathers 1:171; Eusebius Bk 2 Chs 13-14: Paul L Maier, The Church History, 71-72.
[5] You will also notice that the Samaritan's faith and the receipt of the Holy Spirit is separated. The Spirit comes upon them not when they hear the gospel and believe, but when the Apostle's lay hands on them.
Someone might say, 'see, the Holy Spirit is not necessary for faith'. Faith is a purely human action not requiring regeneration or being born again. They had faith before the Spirit came upon them.
Now, other passages tell us that God does go before and open a person's heart so that they can accept the gospel. Lydia is the key example. And that God grants repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. Sometimes, God's work is said to be to open the person's heart to respond to Paul's message, as is the case of Lydia (Acts 16:14-15), and she subsequently is water baptised, or that all who were appointed to eternal life believed, as is the case in South Galatia (Acts 13:48) and there is no mention of the Holy Spirit at all.
So what does Luke mean? Well, the coming of the Holy Spirit as Luke describes it is a manifest and obvious work. The Spirit enables speaking in other languages and prophecy. The Spirit comes in power to prophecy, give miraculous languages, and signs and wonders. That is, it is a coming with patent manifestations. But that doesn't mean that the Spirit has not been involved up until that time. Just as the Spirit was involved in the Old Testament, and the gospels, so also the spirit has been quietly, secretly working by circumcising the heart, or regenerating. It is secret because the Spirit sovereignly moves where he will. Just as one hears the wind but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going, so it is with everybody born by the Spirit. He secretly renovates and rejuvenates and makes alive and born again. That is God's work, and that's why we pray.
Man's job is to believe the gospel. But after we have believed, we acknowledge that God has given us everything. We work out our salvation, because God works in us, to will and to act according to his good pleasure.