Full Transcript

We are now on chapter 8. As Christianity begins expanding, another early Christian named Philip spearheads taking the gospel to people outside of Jerusalem and Judea. So, welcome to Share the Word. Let’s get started. Acts chapter 8: A Divine Appointment. As I was preparing this lesson some time ago for Acts chapter 8, a terrible news story broke in the U.S.

A video was released of a man being brutally beaten by a group of at least six other guys. It happened in Memphis, Tennessee, to a man named Tyree Nichols after a simple traffic stop. The mob beat him with their fists and with sticks and kicked him repeatedly while he was down on the ground, often in the head, and was all caught on video. Mr. Nichols, after too much delay, was transported to a hospital where he died as a result of those extensive head and internal injuries. What made that story unusually inflammatory and really disheartening is that the mob the whole country watched on a 23-minute video committing that violence against Mr.

Nichols were all uniformed police officers. That was shocking and inexcusable. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I thought as I watched the coverage of that, that’s just like what happened to the early Christian martyr Stephen, who we learned about in Acts chapter 7. I’m sure that what happened to Stephen was just as shocking to the Christian community in Jerusalem as what happened to Mr. Nichols was to so many Americans who watched that video. Because both happened at the hands of a mob made up of authority figures, not people you’d expect to go crazy like that.

As Acts chapter 8 opens, Luke says that from the day Stephen’s stoning happened and organized repression and persecution of the early church in Jerusalem began. And the ringleader? That was Saul of Tarsus, that young fanatical Pharisee we met in chapter 7. It seems that Saul, someone from the Jewish dispersion whose family had sent him to Jerusalem years earlier to study under Rabban Gamaliel, now has been brought back to Jerusalem exactly for this role. He was hired to be an enforcer, as the Sanhedrin decided to crack down on growing Christianity. Again, Luke got this information firsthand, I’m sure.

He describes Saul’s actions here as ravaging the church, entering into people’s homes, dragging off men and women and putting them in prison. The word translated ravaging in my translation here is a strong word used to describe a wild animal tearing apart its prey. When Luke wrote, Saul was ravaging the church, remember that doesn’t mean a building. That’s not how the word church was ever used in the New Testament. No, Saul’s intention was to terrorize people, to terrorize the early Christians and so destroy this new Christian cult in its infancy. He was breaking up their meetings.

He was breaking into their homes. He was dragging these followers of Jesus to prison. At this point, he believed Christianity was a danger threatening Judaism. In his view, he was defending his faith. And the faith of his fathers against a heretical movement. But Saul’s violence against the early Christians unintentionally served to further a purpose of God.

Hadn’t Jesus commissioned his followers, Go into all the world and share the gospel? Yet now, or several months after the birth of the church, and not only were Jesus’ original followers all still in Jerusalem, but many more of the dispersion who had become Christians recently, rather than taking their faith back to the places they were from, had stayed on in Jerusalem. They had all joined the existing Christian community there and settled in because they didn’t want to leave, possibly miss out on what God was doing next. But then this violent persecution broke out, and that caused the early Christians to scatter. To get out of Saul’s way, many of them fled Judea. To the countryside, some of them fled to the north, it says here, to the Samaritans area and beyond.

In so doing, they took with them the story of Jesus, the gospel message. Luke says they who were scattered shared the good news about Jesus wherever they went. As one example of that, he turns his focus now in this chapter to another of those seven servants of the church, a man named Philip, who fled Jerusalem north into the district of the Samaritans. I think it’d be accurate to see Philip as one of the first Christian missionaries. He carried the gospel to a pretty foreign place, although it was right in the middle of Israel. Remember, Samaria was a place that was always shunned by the Jews.

They looked down on that mixed race of people who lived there and considered them unclean. There was serious racial and cultural animosity that existed between those societies for centuries. You may remember, near the outset of our podcast series in John chapter 4, we discussed how during Jesus’ public ministry, he purposely went into the district of the Samaritans too. He met a woman there by an ancient well. Ring a bell? They had a fascinating conversation which led him and the disciples staying on and teaching in her village called Sychar for two days.

So some people in this area already had previous exposure to Jesus. But until Philip arrived, they likely had no knowledge of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins and his amazing resurrection. Clearly, Philip took the Great Commission seriously and literally. Jesus said the gospel needed to be preached, which just means proclaimed, in Jerusalem and then Judea and Samaria, and then beyond to the rest of the world. The gospel of Christ was for everyone, everywhere, even Samaritans. Since the Samaritans’ religion, like Judaism, looked for a Messiah, Philip had a good jumping-off point to share the gospel there.

In verses 6 to 8, Luke says that Philip’s ministry among the Samaritans was marked with the same kind of authenticating signs, miraculous signs, that the apostles displayed in Jerusalem, and people were being healed, demons were being exorcised, and in this way, God was clearly demonstrating that his hand was on Philip, and as a result, the gospel got great reception there. But prior to Philip’s arrival, Luke tells us a man by the name of Simon held a lot of spiritual influence over the people in Samaria. It was likely demonic influence. Luke says that he deceived people with the magic arts, but many of the Samaritan people superstitiously saw him as an oracle of God, and he gained influence and likely wealth too. But it was all based on trickery. When Philip arrived in Samaria, God started doing authentic miracles through him.

Simon was amazed and wanted to understand how that worked. He wanted to gain for himself this power. He followed Philip around, and he joined in with the others who were responding to the gospel message and were being baptized as followers of Jesus. Back in Jerusalem, the apostles heard that Samaritans were receiving the gospel and that God was obviously at work there. Peter and John were sent to see for themselves what was happening. Luke notes in verses 15 to 17 that the apostles recognized the people there were truly coming to faith in Christ, and so they laid hands on them and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

Notice the phrase in verse 16 where it says, To this point, they had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit, only had been baptized into the name of Jesus. That phrase, into the name of, was common actually in commercial lingo for when someone transferred property into the name of someone to someone else. It meant a transfer of ownership had taken place. So the early Christians saw baptism correctly as a public declaration that they now belonged to Jesus, that they had been transferred from one domain to another domain, from the domain of darkness to the domain of light. Luke doesn’t say how, but in some way it was clear that when Peter and John laid hands on the new believers in Samaria, they received the Holy Spirit too, just as the apostles had on the day of Pentecost. Probably there were accompanying signs.

Some way it was made clear to the apostles. I’ve already made the point, I think, that normally, going past this apostolic age, past the foundational years, believers receive the Holy Spirit and His indwelling when we believe. But at this early point, at least in this case, the Holy Spirit indwelling people didn’t happen until the apostles Peter and John arrived. Why do you think that was? I think in this situation, in a couple later we’ll see in Acts, it was clearly to demonstrate to the apostles that Christianity was really for all people, not just for Jews, but for Jewish proselytes, for Samaritans, and to Gentiles. Now that might seem obvious to us in retrospect, but it was not at all obvious at this early stage of Christianity’s development.

Deep divisions existed between ethnic and racial groups, walls that God intended Christianity to tear down. That leading apostles like John and Peter personally witnessed the Holy Spirit coming on these Samaritans just as He had come on them on the day of Pentecost, these Samaritan people whom the Jews had always looked down on, this was very important for the apostles to experience. It was authenticating proof that the Samaritans’ faith was real, and more than that, that God fully intended to include them as equals in this new thing He was building, we call the church. Time for you to expand your vocabulary. Have you ever heard the word simony? That word, simony, actually originates from this account in Acts chapter 8.

It came to mean the buying or selling of spiritual or ecclesiastical power. This magician, or more likely medium, Simon Magus, as he’s come to be known, realized he was losing influence over people after seeing Peter and John laying hands on believers and imparting the Holy Spirit to them. Verse 19 and 20 say, Simon offered the apostles money, saying, Give me this power also so that anyone I lay my hands on could receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. Literally, Peter told him, You and your money can go to H-E double hockey sticks. He let Simon Magus know in no uncertain terms that’s not how things work, and warned him to repent.

Nothing about salvation and nothing about spiritual power in general, nothing about spiritual position should ever be connected to money. These things cannot be bought or sold. Simon Magus may be the father of some of the televangelists I see nowadays whose followers are told that they can gain spiritual power or God’s favor by sending money to these guys, con artists who get rich convincing people they are special oracles of God, just like Simon Magus did 2,000 years ago. I think Peter would agree there’s a special place in hell for such spiritual frauds. You know, there are a number of legends about this character, Simon Magus, and what became of him after all of this. As far as Luke’s account goes here in Acts, there’s no more told about him.

But as for Philip, he continued evangelizing in Samaria until he got a message from God, a very specific instruction. And it was to travel south down a road that went from Judea toward Egypt. Actually, it would travel through Gaza, which is where all the trouble is happening currently in the Middle East. Philip went, and while he was traveling down that road, I’m sure wondering why God sent him there, he was passed by an official-looking carriage, which, as it turns out, was returning to Ethiopia from Jerusalem. Passenger in the carriage was a treasury official in the court of Ethiopia’s queen. The man was apparently a convert to Judaism because he had recently been to the temple in Jerusalem for worship and now was returning home.

The Holy Spirit prompted Philip to engage this man, and so he ran upside along his carriage, and when he did, he heard the man reading out loud from a scroll. The scroll was from the prophet Isaiah, something he probably just purchased from a scribe at the temple in Jerusalem. He was apparently reading aloud, slowly and distinctly, because it was not in his native language. I can imagine Philip hearing this man struggling to read the text and understand what it meant. So, as he was trotting alongside the carriage, he said, Hey, sir, do you understand what you’re reading? You know, when you come across someone who’s reading the Bible or a Christian book, that’s a pretty clear indicator they are seeking for God.

They are looking for spiritual answers. This Ethiopian, by the way, his name is not Enoch. The term here is eunuch. I say that because I once heard someone preach an entire sermon from this text, calling the man by the name Enoch. He was a eunuch, and while this might seem strange to us, emasculation would be common at that time for a man who worked closely in the court of a female, as we’re told this man did. Anyway, providentially, he was reading in Isaiah from the passage about the suffering Messiah and its purpose.

What a coincidence. The Ethiopian official, glad for any help at understanding, said, Sure, and invited Philip to jump into his carriage and listen intently as Philip explained just what that prophetic text meant. The passage says, in part, All we like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way; but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all of us. Philip shared how all this had been in fact fulfilled in Jesus, who he’d accepted as the Messiah, and this man’s heart was very receptive to the gospel message. Obviously, Philip meeting that man that day was a divine appointment. Nothing about this was coincidental.

I’m sure this conversation went on for some time, and Philip clearly presented the gospel to him, told him how Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins, and how God offers us salvation and forgiveness through faith in Him. He no doubt also told him how thousands of people had recently accepted Jesus as Messiah in Jerusalem and had been publicly baptized to testify to that. I say that because presently Luke says they came across a body of water, and the Ethiopian official said, Is there anything that would prevent me from being baptized? Philip could tell he believed the gospel, and so they stopped the carriage. Both of them went down into that body of water, and Philip baptized him. When the man emerged from the water, he turned around and Philip was gone, like poof, gone.

If he needed one, that was certainly a sign that God had sent this man just for him, to share with him the truth of the gospel. Although Luke tells us nothing more about this Ethiopian man, Irenaeus, an early church father from North Africa, wrote that he became an important Christian missionary to his own people. That’s not surprising. Why else would God have had this special meeting with Philip arranged for him, a divine appointment? As for Philip, God led him a different way to continue his work sharing the good news, further north this time, up the coast of Israel. Luke is showing us here how the gospel was starting to radiate out from Jerusalem.

You know what this piece of the story reminds me of is that God is still setting up divine appointments. If you’re not a Christian yet, whoever told you about Share the Word was about the same important business as Philip was. You chatting with that person and them suggesting to you that you listen to this podcast might have been a divine appointment. Really, what if God was actually using that person to reach out to you so that you could hear and understand His Word? That’s worth giving some thought to, isn’t it? But if you’re a Christian already, Philip’s example should challenge us to be alert to the times God brings people across our path who are spiritually hungry or someone who is curious and looking for answers.

Those are divine appointments that we shouldn’t miss. As Philip did, we should be ready to share what we know of the gospel, tell how it changed our lives, and invite people we engage with to accept Jesus as their Savior too. We should be sensitive to these divine appointments. That’s one big lesson here in Acts chapter 8. Here’s a cool example. A fellow in my local church named Andy had a big heart for others.

One day he picked up a hitchhiker who appeared to be down on his luck. The reason Andy had a heart for people like this is because he himself had been rescued by Christ from addiction and just a bottomed-out life some years before. When he came across this fellow, he was holding a sign that said, Will work for food. And it just so happened that Andy owned a business where he employed day laborers. The fellow looked very thin. He was unkempt, was straggly beard, and he wore a bandana with a skull motif on it around his head.

I don’t necessarily recommend picking up random hitchhikers, but for some reason Andy saw something of his former self in that man and felt he should stop. As it turned out, the man was homeless, without work, really didn’t have any place to go that day. After talking for a bit, Andy graciously offered to let him stay in one of their family properties and gave him a job so that he could start saving up some money. He also told the man, Hey, we’re Christians and we go to church every Sunday. I think you’d like our church and you’re welcome to join us. But the man said, No, no, no, no, no.

Church is not for me. He was sure he wouldn’t fit in. God and me have a deal, he said. I don’t go to his house and he doesn’t come to mine. But he stayed on for some weeks and worked every day with Andy in his business. Then one Sunday, as Andy and his family were leaving for church, this fellow was waiting for them.

He decided he’d go out just of curiosity. Why he had a change of heart and decided to come that day, I’m not sure. Maybe it was Andy’s treating him with respect and kindness that created a curiosity. He looked his usual way when he got in the car, kind of disheveled, a little unshaven, you know, dressed in some pretty worn-out clothes, with that ever-present bandana wrapped around his head. Now here’s the God thing part. Unbeknownst to Andy, at that same time there was a lady in our church who was undergoing chemotherapy and had lost all of her hair from the treatments.

She’d started wearing a bandana to cover her head. A bunch of people in her small group from church had decided this particular Sunday they’d all wear bandanas so they would show solidarity with her, and they invited other people in church to do the same thing. So you can imagine maybe as this drifter rolls into the church parking lot with Andy that morning, feeling uneasy about what to expect, he sees all these people going into church with bandanas on their heads. He must have wondered, What in the world is going on? Once inside, he saw the worship team all looking the same way, and even the pastor, when he got up to speak, had a bandana on his head. I can only imagine what must have been going on in his head, in his heart.

That morning, he heard the gospel message clearly presented and realized Christ loved him right where he was. He realized God was pursuing a relationship with him and had brought Andy across his path and created this whole situation that morning. In fact, to put him in a place where he would hear and receive the gospel. That’s what I mean by a divine appointment. God is still setting them up because He’s still at work in and around our lives. We need to be alert and tuned in to what He’s doing.

I can’t help but think, what if Andy had not stopped for this hitchhiker when the Holy Spirit prompted him to? What if the sick lady’s friends had not cared enough to organize that bandana Sunday to encourage her? What if the pastor was too rigid to go along with that off-the-wall idea? We don’t know. But because of all these Christians recognizing and responding to promptings from the Holy Spirit, one man that morning found Christ, responded to the call of the gospel, and was born into God’s eternal family. Thanks again, Paul.

You know, looking back over my life, I can recall so many divine appointments. Can you? Help us share the Word. Send a link. Mention the podcast to a friend. Challenge others to listen.

There’s so many ways to do it. Remember, this is a Great Commission project, and we know that the best way to learn your way through the New Testament is one chapter at a time. Check out our archives at sharetheword.org. Everything that we put out is free to use and download. And from all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.