Acts 8
Butler1-4. The first seven chapters trace the founding of the Christian Church, and its extension among the Jews. The eighth and ninth chapters sketch some marked details of its transition from the Jews to the Gentiles.
Stephen’s bold declaration that the Temple and its service were to be laid aside struck directly at the most deeply rooted prejudices and feelings of the people. Against the apostles, who said nothing about the Temple, but simply preached Christ as the Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures, the people had taken no decided part. They had little sympathy with the priestly party, by whom mainly the apostles had been prosecuted. But now, thoroughly roused by Stephen’s defense and not satisfied with his destruction, the people turn their persecuting rage against the body of believers in Jerusalem. Of this persecution Saul was the leader. And so sharp and fierce was the pursuit, that the Church fellowship was broken up, and its members compelled to disperse. In small detached companies they went into the whole region of Judea, and thence northward into Samaria; so fulfilling the terms of the Master’s commission. A few, doubtless, remained with the apostles in Jerusalem. B.
The martyrdom of Stephen forms an epoch in the early history of the Church, the date of which is the more interesting on account of its bearing upon Paul’s life. But the narrative in the Acts supplies us with no chronological data, from the day of Pentecost in A. D. 30 down to the famine under Claudius and the death of Herod Agrippa I. in A. D. 44. That Paul’s conversion followed at no long interval after Stephen’s martyrdom seems clear; and various indications concur to place it somewhere within the limits of Caligula’s four years’ reign. Coming to narrower limits, we shall see that the strongest arguments and the best modern opinions concur in fixing the conversion of Paul about A. D. 37. S.
5. THEN Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And 6 the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and 7 seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, 8 were healed. And there was great joy in that city. 9 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to 10 whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power 11 of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them 12 with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, 14 and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent 15 unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down prayed for them, that they 16 might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they 17 were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and 18 they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this 19 power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said 20 unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may 21 be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is 22 not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if 23 perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art 24 in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, 25 Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. 26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, 27 unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusa-
28 lem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran 30 thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what 31 thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he 32 desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his 33 shearer, so opened he not his mouth: in his humiliation his judgment was taken away: 34 and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or 35 of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and 36 preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: 37 and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I 38 believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: * and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, 40 that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea.
THE one theme of apostles and disciples all—of Peter, Stephen, Philip, Paul, and of the many here unnamed—was Jesus Crucified. This word of Isaiah about the Crucified and Hiscen One is preeminently that which moves the selfish dull heart. The preaching of law and morality either strikes against an antagonistic will or quiets the conscience by falling in with the self-righteousness of the heart. But to stir the soul to a needed sense of sin, and awaken the craving and the cry for peace and pardon, this can be effected by nothing save the sublime fact of a divine self-sacrifice for human guilt; nothing but the preaching and the telling of Jesus. B.—The treasurer had come from Ethiopia to Jerusalem with the burden of sin; he was going away with it, much as he came, when the Holy Spirit turned his eye to the Sin-bearer, the Lamb of God. He saw that the sin-bearing work was done; he accepted the divine testimony to that finished work; and in the acceptance of that testimony he found immediate joy. What he read was as blessed as it was true, and our joy comes from the same testimony to the same finished work. The passage of Scripture may be different; that matters not. There are a thousand passages, and a thousand testimonies, all bearing on the one cross, the one propitiation, the one Lamb of God, the one blood, the one sacrifice. Any one of these testimonies in the hand of the Holy Spirit can pour in gladness into the soul. Bonar.
5-8. Stephen’s death, introducing a general persecution of the disciples, formed the turning point of the gospel’s extension among the Gentiles. For they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Of the many, Luke, under inspiration, briefly refers to Philip, who had been a fellow-deacon with Stephen, and was also a Greek. Like the many who preached, this man was ordained to the higher ministry directly and only by the Holy Ghost. By the Spirit he is first led to a city of Samaria. We know not what city. But we may well infer that it was Sychar, where Christ had privately taught for two days with wonderful results. He performed no miracle, yet they acknowledged him to be indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Now we see further fruit in their hearty reception of Philip’s preaching, accredited as he was by many miracles. The simple recital of the effect wrought in his ministry is noteworthy: And there was great joy in that city.
9-11. The Previous Influence of Simon the Sorcerer in that City.—This man was one of a class who had existed from the earliest period in all the kingdoms of the East. With various names—soothsayers or sorcerers, magicians or conjurors—they pretended to possess supernatural power from the spirit world. In ignorant and credulous ages, when superstitions of every sort abounded, it was easy to delude by professed enchantments and by the assumption of a superior nature and force. Thus did the magicians in Egypt and the astrologers in Assyria and Persia. The Samaritans held this man in fear, “because for a long time he had astonished (not bewitched) them with sorceries.”
12, 13. Effect of Philip’s Preaching upon the Samaritans and upon Simon.—Mark what it was that Philip preached, and how he was accredited as from God. He preached the kingdom of God as opened by Christ: Christ, of whom they knew in their Scriptures, with whose teaching and recent death they were familiar. Against this the Samaritans opposed no prejudice of false Pharisaic teaching. To them, too, the miracles of Philip were proven to be real by their blessed effects in healing and restoring. Therefore they believed him, and received his teaching; while by Simon’s wonders of jugglery, subserving no useful purpose, they had only been amazed. So God contrasted the real with the counterfeit miracle, and the real prevailed, as it had aforetime with Moses before Pharaoh. The people believed, and were baptized in testimony of their belief. And their belief, as subsequently proven, was genuine.
But Simon believed also, and was baptized. He believed—what? Just that which his unenlightened mind understood of the statements of Philip. He believed in the bare fact of marvels pertaining to Christ’s nature, life, and resurrection, because he saw absolute miracles: effects clearly supernatural, utterly overmatching his poor deceits. But of the spiritual aspects and truths lying beneath the outward statements and facts he had no discernment, and of course could exercise no faith. He believed in the miracles, and in the necessary inferences of fact suggested by the miracles, but no more. As the people had wondered at him, so, Luke says, he wondered (the same word translated “bewitched” before), as he closely watched Philip, and “the miracles and signs done.” Only, like “the devils,” he “believed and trembled.” Yet, without an idea of spiritual saving faith, he went through the form of profession; he dared to attach himself to Christ’s visible body.
14-17. The Mission of Peter and John to Samaria.**—The apostles as a body still directed and controlled the great religious movement. So had Christ ordained. As a body, without a primate, they sent Peter and John to Samaria so soon as they heard the results of Philip’s preaching. John once would have called down destroying fire upon the Samaritans. Now he gladly seeks to bring upon them the blessed baptism of fire from the Holy Ghost. Together these fervid brother-apostles plead for this special power, and their prayer is answered. B.
It is not surprising that the college of apostles, when they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, should send a deputation to the place where the good work had begun; not because Philip was only a deacon, for he was more; or because they were jealous or suspicious of him; or because they doubted the sincerity or depth of the Samaritan conversions; or to show that the apostles, though this work began without them, still retained their old position; but because they were the constituted organizers of the Church, and as such not only authorized but bound to enter every open door, whoever might have opened it. J. A. A.
They received the Holy Ghost.—The meaning seems to be clear. They, like all true converts, had received his ordinary gifts bestowed in regeneration. Now they receive the peculiar, extraordinary gifts of Pentecost, of special illumination and knowledge of truth. These gifts were needed in that crisis by many in various regions. And they were imparted here in connection with a special formality, the imposition of hands by these divinely guided apostles.
18,19. Simon’s Sacrilegious Proffer and Request.**—Evidently Simon was not of the number who received the Holy Ghost, or he would not have made this request. He saw in others the effect of this special divine gift, and so was led to ask. He did not offer himself, as others had done, to receive the gift, but he offered money to buy it. And this offer, together with his proposed use of the power, plainly show what his spirit and purpose were. He wished to be the “great one” that he had before proclaimed himself. He would use this surpassing power as he had used his own trivial sorceries, for his selfish ambition, enrichment, and gratification. A fearful condition of heart indeed, that dared cherish and express such a sacrilegious purpose in the face of these servitors of the Most High God, nay, more, in presence of stupendous tokens of the manifest God himself.
20-23. Peter’s Sharp Rebuke and Exposure of Simon’s Impiety, and his Faithful Counsel.**—The apostle did not need a special gift to discern this man’s spirit, for the attempt to influence them by money considerations showed plainly that he was controlled by selfish motives. Peter’s rebuke was an outburst of holy indignation, not an utterance of divine judgment, as in the case of Ananias. The difference in the cases and circumstances accounts for his different dealing. Calvin interprets verse 20, “Thou art worthy to perish with thy money, when thou dost blaspheme the Spirit of God.” The apostle tells him that his profession of Christ and his baptism were worthless, because his heart was not right in God’s sight. He is still what he had been before, with the poison of sin embittering his nature and its servitude binding his life. Therefore he counsels repentance of this wickedness and prayer for forgiveness. As Peter had condemned the thought of Simon’s heart, not the act it prompted, so now this is the point of the prayer he urges: “Pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.”
24. Simon’s Reply, showing only an Ignorant and Untouched Heart.**—No proper sense of sin was awakened by the apostle’s warning. He was temporarily alarmed, but only on account of threatened punishment. Instead of praying as a consciously sinful penitent man for his own forgiveness, as Peter had bidden him, he selfishly begged the aposties to pray that the consequences of his sin might be remitted. Ignorant of the very rudiments of divine teaching, he dreams of forgiveness without either faith, repentance, or prayer of his own. And so he disappears from the history, without hint of after change in his stolid heart.
25. The Home Journey of the Apostles a Missionary Circuit through Samaria.—By the way of many villages of the Samaritans, in each of which they tarried to preach the gospel, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem.
26-37. The spurious conversion of Simon is here contrasted with a true one, in connection with the same ministry. That was an enforced alarming belief in the mere miracle-working power of the Christ who was preached. This is a glad belief of the heart in Christ’s personal love and full redemption. Another contrast we see in the sphere of Philip’s ministry here. Multitudes heard, heeded, and believed, when he “preached Christ” in that city of Samaria. One man believed, when “he preached Jesus” in an untraveled highway. Yet he went willingly from the large “field” to the small; toiled far more, and preached as fervently to one man as to the multitude. Philip was obviously an excellent example to all who in Christ’s name say, “Come.” Another useful thought, of wide application in our New Testament study, is that both these instances of Philip’s preaching, with its diverse effects, are given simply as sufficient illustrations of his whole ministry, and of the ministry of all who “went everywhere preaching the Word.” They are designed to show how the gospel was carried abroad, and made effectual in winning individuals and communities. And herein lies the peculiar purpose and value of the Acts. All after individual experience and church history is shadowed forth or plainly exemplified in this book.
26. Philip’s New and Special Commission.—He had finished his designed work in the Samaritan city. He is now called of God elsewhere. By the ordinary intimations of Providence the Spirit had guided him to Samaria. By an extraordinary message through an angelic messenger the same Spirit now sends him on a peculiar errand. The direction is simple in terms: Go to a certain road! Yet it is vague, for it indicates no point or place in the road. The road is one of many from Jerusalem to Gaza. It is a desert road, passing through a region without cities or villages. No point upon this road, no time, and no duty, are indicated. To realize how indefinite the direction yet how surely divine the appointment, remember that this road was sixty miles in length, and a considerable portion of it was “desert.” But Philip at once obeyed. Like a commander who sails for a given point, with sealed orders to be opened there, he reached the place, and found his further procedure definitely marked. And, throughout, he was obedient to the heavenly vision.
27-29. His Meeting with the Ethiopian Chamberlain, and the Further Direction he received.—Himself on foot, he is overtaken by a chariot and its attendants. In the chariot sits a stranger, a high court officer of the reigning Queen of Ethiopia. He is returning southward from Jerusalem, where, as a Gentile proselyte of the Jewish religion, he had gone to worship. Now he is reading aloud, as he journeys, from a scroll containing the prophecies of Isaiah. This simple fact, showing his interest in the truth and earnest desire to understand and receive it, is evidence of some special influence of the Holy Spirit in preparing him to accept Philip’s teaching. Thus we see the Spirit operating on both sides, sending the teacher, and making ready the heart to be taught and convinced. Nay, more, he leads this interested man’s thought to the central theme of the Old Testament Gospel. And it is always thus. The Spirit of God prepares the agents and means and the heart itself in every case of true conversion. Now by an inward voice the Spirit bids Philip run after and overtake the chariot, which had passed on. Other subsequent divine directions to Philip appear in the part he took in the conference that followed.
30, 31. The Question of Philip and its Answer.—"Understandest Thou?"—A question of vital moment—now as then! “Ye know not the Scriptures,” was Christ’s bold declaration to the cultured Sadducees. And the question repeats itself, the charge lies against multitudes to-day who profess to read them. Frankly and humbly this Ethiopian, nobler in this frank humility than in his high position, acknowledges his ignorance. He asks the poor foot-traveler to sit beside him in his chariot, and to be his guide to the “understanding” of the Scripture. As frankly and as humbly Philip assents, and takes the equal place assigned him.
32-35. The Question of the Ethiopian and Philip’s Answer.—He was reading the 53d chapter of Isaiah; the signal prophecy of Christ’s vicarious sufferings, many times distinctly referred to. Seven centuries had passed since it had been recorded for the Jewish people. But it had never been apprehended, much less accepted, by the Jews; for it disclosed a suffering Messiah, and they looked only for a world-conquering and long-reigning king. Reading about this patiently suffering Servant of God, his heart is moved. He has heard no Jewish interpretation, and yet wishes to know to whom this sad story refers. A tradition of the Jews described the persecution of Isaiah, and his death by being sawn asunder. Is it then himself to whom the prophet refers, or some other man?
silent wonder? But the key to it all lies in the prayer-chamber at Damascus, whence he issued as one awakened to new life. When a sinner prays in this manner, a future song of praise is made certain. Happy is he who has learned to pray in such a manner that even in heaven it may be termed prayer, and who can declare, “To me is mercy shown!” Van O.