Chapter 8

Verse 1 – “And Saul was consenting unto his death.” Saul is a member of the Sanhedrin. Eventually he will be the twelfth apostle, the one who will take the place of Judas Iscariot. There are three factors in the background of Saul of Tarsus. In Philippians 3:4-9 we discover that he had a greatness of background. In 1 Timothy 1:12-16 we discover that Saul is the worst man who ever lived as an unbeliever. As an unbeliever he was religious and self-righteous, and he performed many horrible deeds in the name of religion. The worst people in the world right now are religious people. Next to that the worst people are self-righteous people. Self-righteousness plus religion is the great enemy of God, and this is Satan’s great trump. The first evil of Saul of Tarsus which we see in this passage is the fact that he was glad that Stephen was dying. The phrase “was consenting” in the Greek is a periphrastic and it means that this was his definite attitude and continued to be his attitude for some time. Until the day that he was born again he was delighted that Stephen had been killed. There is another reason for this: apparently Stephen was the one man who was able to argue down Saul of Tarsus.

“And at that time there was a great persecution.” The phrase “at that time” is important here. After the death of Stephen great persecution came on the church in Jerusalem, but the phrase also has another significance, it refers to the fact that as long as a member of the human race is alive there is hope for his salvation. Sometimes the people who give the greatest resistance to the gospel at first, once they accept Christ as saviour, they have a great change because of their appreciation of Bible doctrine. This is exactly what happened to Saul of Tarsus. Stephen was actually the first great theologian of the Church. We know this from the message he gave in Acts chapter seven. Now Stephen is dead and Saul is consenting to his death, and it is Saul who will take the place of Stephen as the theologian of the Church. It is also Saul who will take the place of Judas Iscariot as the twelfth apostle. How can you take the worst sinner who ever live and make him the greatest of the apostles? It is done by grace; it is done by doctrine. Doctrine is the great converter; it is doctrine that changes things.

The great persecution is led by Saul of Tarsus. This persecution went where the church was at that time, in Jerusalem. From there “they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” This scattering made it possible for other churches to be formed. Here is a case of Romans 8:28.

Verse 2 – the funeral of Stephen. “And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.” The word “devout” in the Greek is used in many ways. Here it is used for those who actually received something that is good. It is the word e)ulabhj [e)u = something good; labhj = from the verb to receive]. So devout men are those who receive something good, and the good thing that they have received is doctrine. The words “to his burial” are not found in the original. The word “lamentation” here means that they missed him, that they expressed their grief and their sorrow at his departure.

Verse 3 – the persecution of the church. “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.” The words “made havoc” mean that Saul devastated and destroyed the church; “entering into every house” – he found out those who were members of the body of Christ and entered into their homes.

“and haling men and women, committed them to prison” – the word “haling” is an old English word. The Greek word here means he dragged them out of their homes. It means to drag forcibly. The persecution was terrible and many of them died. Saul is a very self-righteous and religious man, and he is doing this in the name of religion. “Committed to prison” – kept on putting them in prison.

Verse 4 – the result of this persecution. “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.” At this point Acts 1:8 receives its first fulfilment.

In the eighth chapter we have the Samaritan Pentecost. Up until this chapter it appeared that the church would be a Jewish monopoly, but this is one of several chapters which indicate that Jews and Gentiles are all in the same body. The Samaritan Pentecost is important for two reasons as a test case. First because the Jews hated the Samaritans and they had an antagonism which had been going for several hundred years. It would be very interesting to see if born again Jews would evangelise those who were despised. Secondly, there was the fact that the Samaritans were a very strange race: half Jew and half Gentile. They were those people who were captured by the Assyrians many years before, the people of the plateaus and mountains on the other side of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Primarily they were Elimites, though they included some people of Persian blood, some of Median blood, and a few people perhaps of Assyrian blood. They had been brought into the land and had settled under the policy of the Assyrian empire to transport people whom they had conquered. At the same time, in 721 BC, when the Jews of the northern kingdom were finally conquered by the Assyrians, they were taken out of Palestine and moved into some of the areas across the Tigris-Euphrates valley. But as the Samaritans moved into the land they began to mix with the Jews when the Jews came back, first of all under Zerrubabel and later on under Artaxerxes. As the Jews came back some of them intermarried with the people who had been transported there years before. The result was the Samaritan who was a half-Jew and a half-Gentile. The test case found in this passage. Are those who are Gentile in part and Jew in part just as much in the body of Christ as those who are Jews when they are born again? So we have the Samaritan Pentecost to show that those who are half-Jew and half-Gentile are just as much in the body of Christ as the Jew. Therefore there are some strange things which will go on in Samaria in order to prove this test case.

Verse 5 – “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria.” He journeyed to Samaria, and it isn’t necessarily down, it is up. He went to Samaria to preach the gospel because he was driven out of Jerusalem with others; “and preached [kept on preaching] Christ” – imperfect linear aktionsart to indicate that he went throughout the city and he preached at every opportunity he had. The imperfect tense indicates that he was faithful in communicating the gospel throughout the city of Samaria.

Verse 6 – “And the people with one accord gave heed [kept on giving heed]” – imperfect tense to go with the preaching. Everywhere Philip went communicating the gospel, people responded to it; “unto those thing which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did” – remember that Philip is in a Greek city, and in order for Philip to get any kind of a crowd it is necessary for him to present a credit card. He performed a few miracles because in this way attention was focussed on the doctrine. Philip performed miracles for one purpose: to focus attention on the gospel, so that people could believe in Jesus Christ and have eternal life. The miracles are always mentioned in this connection.

Verse 7 – an illustration of the pattern. “For the unclean spirits” – a Greek city was always filled with demons because the Greeks had a system of religion that brought about demon possession. Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:20-21. The devil’s communion table is idolatry and the Greeks always had a system of temples and idolatry, and there was always a great amount of demonism connected with Greek life.

“crying with a loud voice” – demons have voices. As a matter of fact there are ventriloquist demons who, when they possess a person, cause an unbeliever to speak in other languages; “came out of many.” The next phrase, “that were possessed with them,” is not found in the original.

“and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed” – this is a result of the removal of the demons. Demons have the ability to cause certain types of diseases, and the removal of the demon means that the disease is removed.

Verse 8 – “And there was great joy in the city.” Joy is a mental attitude happiness, a happiness which cannot be destroyed by the things of this life. Joy is not emotion, it is mental stimulation, mental happiness. All people do not have joy when they are saved. Whether a person has joy or not depends on a lot of conditions. We can almost reproduce the conditions here at Samaria. First of all it is a Greek culture. It is an all-Greek city, although the people are half-Jew and half-Gentile. They are the victims of demon activity. When a demon possesses someone the individual becomes very miserable and the misery can take several forms. It can be mental misery—Mark 5, or it can take a physiological form. In this particular case the demon is removed, volition goes into operation, they go on positive signals and express it by faith in Christ; and as a result of faith in Christ they have joy. In this city many of the people were suffering from all kinds of illnesses cause by demon possession. Now, as a result of faith in Christ, not only are they saved but they have good physical health.

Verse 9 – Simon the sorcerer. He is not a magician, he is a person apparently under the power of Satan who is performing fantastic miracles on his own. He is also one of the famous people in the incipient gnosticism system.

“who before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one.” “Used sorcery” means that he practised miracles. Apparently he was demon possessed. He was actually the devil’s evangelist. The devil has preachers – 2 Corinthians 13.

Verse 10 – “To whom they [the citizens of Samaria] all gave heed, from the least to the greatest.” In other words, he was the greatest teacher of Greek philosophy, the greatest Gnostic in Samaria. Notice the contrast to verse 6 where the citizens all went from Simon to Philip. “They all gave heed” – this is in the past, imperfect linear aktionsart in the past to indicate that in the past they had all given heed.

“saying, This man is the great power of God” – that is, he is a super emanation, the greatest person in the area. This was the Gnostic system, the prevalent Greek philosophy at the time. It is very difficult for a great and popular unbeliever, a person who has had all the people in the city praising him, a person who has been living for perhaps years and years on approbation and power lust, to become a good believer.

Verse 11 – “And to him they had regard” is an imperfect tense which means they kept on putting him on top, regarding him as the greatest person in the city, and this stimulated the approbation lust of Simon.

“because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries” – the word “bewitched” means to be amazed. He amazed them for a long period of time.

Verse 12 – the impact of the gospel. It was inevitable that Philip would come into contact with Simon. “But when they [the people in the city of Samaria] believed Philip preaching.” The word “preaching” indicates the announcing or the communication of good news, and the good news is the fact that Christ died for the sins of the world, that He became our substitute and took our place. Philip had a ministry and an impact on the city of Samaria because he stuck with the good news. He didn’t make an issue out of sin.

“the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ” – the general reference of his content of communication. The word “name” in the Greek refers to the person. So he emphasised the person of Christ, he emphasised the kingdom of God which is the kingdom of regenerate, and as a result of his preaching and their response, “they were baptized, both men and women.” “They were baptized” is an imperfect tense, it means that this was a repetitious activity. He kept on baptizing people, repeating the ritual of baptism many times. The passive voice indicates that the converts received this baptism. This was water baptism only. In this water baptism we have a reversal of what we have today. These people had believed in Christ and were saved. The person was put into the water and this is identification with Christ in His death. When Christ died on the cross our sins were poured out on Him but our human good was rejected. So going into the water is a picture of rejection: identification with Christ in His death and therefore the rejection of human good. Coming out of the water is identification with the air, and this is a picture of identification with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Therefore this is the basis of now performing divine good—divine good being the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life. So the whole purpose of water baptism is down with human good and up with divine good or identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, or retroactive positional truth and current positional truth applied to phase two. In this case we have the baptism before the baptism of the Spirit. This is the exceptional area. The baptism of the Spirit had not occurred yet because these people are Samaritans.

Verse 13 – Simon responds to the gospel. “Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip [he shadowed Philip, hung around him all the time].” He was impressed by the power which Philip demonstrated, which was divine power. Human power is always impressed with divine power, and that is the story of Simon the sorcerer.

“and wondered” – kept on being amazed, imperfect tense: he kept on being astounded; “beholding the miracles and signs which were done.”

Verse 14 – the coming of Peter and John. Peter, the leader among the apostles; John, the best informed of the apostles.

Verses 15-17, the Samaritan Pentecost.

Verse 15 – “Who, when they were come down, prayed for [concerning] them.” They came down for the purpose of investigation. It was almost unbelievable that something could have happened in Samaria.

“that they might receive the Holy Spirit” – this is a major doctrinal breakthrough. Peter and John pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit; that the Samaritans might have exactly what the Jews have. Peter and John were totally relaxed about the Samaritans despite the Jewish prejudice, and the thing that relaxes is Bible doctrine. They have enough Bible doctrine to be relaxed around people. If believers are going to have impact for Christ they must be totally relaxed in any situation. This relaxation removes prejudice, and any mental attitude sins which are involved in prejudice, and will give a completely relaxed attitude in any situation that has to be faced. The significance of Peter and John’s prayer is that they have no prejudice. The words “that they might receive” is a subjunctive mood, indicating that it was potential as far as Peter and John were concerned. Peter and John did not realise the full impact of the Church Age. The Samaritans are born again but they are in the pattern of the Old Testament saints up to this point.

Verse 16 – the result of the prayer. “(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Here it is clearly explained that the water baptism came first, before the baptism of the Spirit, because this is to create an issue. The fact that the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them indicates that they were first of all Old Testament saints in the same pattern as the disciples of John in Acts 19. In Acts chapters 8 and 19 we have a parallel phenomenon. In Acts 8 we have disciples (in the Old Testament sense) of Philip—they are born again but are minus the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19 we have the disciples of John the Baptist, and they are minus the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In both cases they came into contact with apostles and they became New Testament saints. This was only done in the first century where there were Old Testament saints in various pockets, and Acts 19 tells us that if Old Testament saints lived long enough they were brought into the Church, the body of Christ. Here in chapter 8 we have the principle that Gentiles are just as much in the body of Christ as Jews, therefore there is a separate Pentecost, the Samaritan Pentecost, to demonstrate this.

Verse 17 – when the identification took place the “Pentecost” occurred. “Then laid they their hands on them” is an imperfect tensed which means they were lined up. Apparently there were thousands of converts and Peter and John laid their hands on each one of them, and as they did the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place, the same as occurred on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem.

Verse 18 – “And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money.” He doesn’t offer money to get the Holy Spirit, he offers money to have the power to give the Holy Spirit. Simon’s attack is the attack of religion on Christianity. He wants to make it a money-making proposition. He wants a franchise and to get back right where he was before, the number one man in Samaria. He is attacked by approbation lust, power lust and materialism lust. Therefore he offers money for the franchise in the local area. Money cannot purchase salvation or any spiritual blessing.

Verse 19 – “Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I pay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.” He didn’t say this one, he said it many times—present linear aktionsart. He wanted the same ability and power that Peter and John had. He would actually sell the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit’s ministry cannot be sold to anyone. Therefore Peter rebukes him in verses 20-23.

Verse 20 – “But Peter said unto him, Your money perish with you.” This not exactly what he said. He said, “Your money will be your destruction.” The word “perish” is in the optative mood which expresses a future wish, and a future warning in this case. It is a future warning that if Simon continues he will be dead very shortly—the sin unto death.

“because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with [through] money” – the gift of God is the gift of the baptism of the Spirit, and spiritual gifts that go with it, and Simon thought that it could be purchased through money.

Verse 21 – “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.” In other words, You will never be an apostle. No one can have any position of leadership in the body of Christ and entertain approbation lust or power lust, or even materialism lust. The words “this matter” refers to the giving out of the baptism of the Spirit through the laying on of hands.

“for thy heart is not right in the sight of God” – the heart is the thinking part of the soul. It is his thinking which ruins him, and lust expresses itself in thought patterns, in motivation.

Verse 22 – “Repent” means to change your mind; “therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God” – he has to realise that what he is doing is sinfulness. Apparently Simon hadn’t given it a thought that this was sin, and therefore the word “repent” before “pray.” To pray here would be to confess his sin, but he can’t even confess it unless he changes his mind and recognises the sin. The wickedness here is the mental attitude sin.

Then a first class condition: “If perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.” The 1^st class condition indicates that it will be forgiven, and the basis will be 1 John 1:9, the confession of sin.

Verse 23 – “For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the slavery to iniquity.” Bitterness is the mental attitude of frustration. Here is a great unbeliever who is now not a great believer, and so far he hadn’t seen any way to become a great believer until he saw the distribution of the Holy Spirit. And he wants this, he wants to become great as a believer. But like so many believers who want to becomes great he always picks a short-cut that by-passes doctrine. He goes back to human viewpoint—“I can buy it.” Therefore he is a very miserable person, a slave to his iniquity. His iniquity is a mental attitude type. Mental attitude sins always make the individual involved miserable.

Verse 24 – Simon’s change of attitude, but he doesn’t follow instructions. As far as we know Simon never becomes a great believer. He fails to rebound, he fails to get into fellowship, and he simply asks the apostles to pray for him. He fails to realise that every person must live his own Christian life. Simon had to pray for himself. The person who will not rebound for himself will never make it in the Christian life.

Verse 25 – “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.” The testifying has to do with the ministry of the apostles, especially Peter and John. It was necessary for them to be present to make it possible for these people to be brought into the body of Christ. Peter and John were present at Pentecost; now they are present once again at Samaria, and by laying on of hands they demonstrate that what they had on the day of Pentecost was given also to these who were half Jew and half Gentile. On their return they evangelised in the villages of Samaria to show that the usual lines of demarcation in the human race do not count when it comes to the gospel. The gospel is for everyone.

Verse 26 – Philip’s unusual guidance. “And the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying.” This is the type of guidance you can’t miss and it is quite obvious that it is God’s will for Philip to place the place of the great revival and to go down into the desert. “Arise, and go toward the south.” The word “saying” is present linear aktionsart, which indicates he had to repeat this quite a few times before Philip caught on. It is very hard to think in terms of leaving a place where there has been a wonderful ministry and go to a place where there are not even people. Philip’s ministry has to do with people, he is an evangelist.

“unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” So he is commanded to go down to the Negev which lies between Egypt and Palestine. Notice that he was not to go with the apostles. There are several reasons why Philip gets a change of tenure. First of all, God has an important job for Philip and through the conversion of one African that he will meet in the desert the gospel will go to a great country in Africa at that time. As a result that country within a hundred years will become a centre of Christianity. Secondly, apparently to leave Philip there where he was any longer would possibly be to ruin his ministry with too much success. He was not oriented enough to grace. Every member of the human race has a breaking point when it comes to pressure, but every member of the human race also has a breaking point when it comes to success. Philip’s success meant that it was going to be very difficult for him to remain in Samaria and serve the Lord. He is removed from the scene of a revival and he is going to be used to contact one person, and this will be the basis of an even greater revival than the one in Samaria for this is one of the first entrees into the great continent of Africa.

Verse 27 – “and, behold, a man from Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship.” Here was the treasurer of Ethiopia, the number three man in the empire which existed at that time in Africa. The word “eunuch” does not mean that he had been emasculated, it means that he was dedicated to his office. “Candace” does not mean the name of a person, it is a title for a queen. This man is said to be going back from Jerusalem, the place where the feasts were being held, and it would indicate that he had become interested in Judaism.

Verse 28 – he was returning to his own land and he is reading Isaiah. This is no accident because this is where Philip will begin to explain to him the gospel.

Verse 29-30, the contact.

Verse 29 – “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, God near, and join thyself to the chariot.” In other words, hitchhike.

Verse 30 – “and heard him read the prophet Isaiah.” This indicates that this black man can understand Hebrew; “Understandest thou what thou readest?” Actually this is not what he said. The Greek word for “understand” means “Do you understand these things because you’ve studied them?” In other words, “Have you studied this?” Philip was going to use this as a basis for getting some information and getting a good contact.

Verse 31 – “How can I, except some man should guide me?” “How can I” introduces a mixed conditional clause in the reverse order. It is no accident that we have it. In a conditional clause the “if” clause is the protasis and the rest of it is the apodosis. It is normal to always begin with the protasis and then end up with the apodosis. But the Ethiopian starts out with an apodosis of a fourth class condition, so we have a very unusual situation. “How can I?” The fourth class condition means “I wish I could but I cannot.” He wishes he knew what he was reading. Then he goes to a protasis which belongs to a first class condition—“except some man should guide me.” Why does he reverse the order? No person in this life can understand Bible doctrine unless he gets it from someone who knows Bible doctrine. In other words, you cannot sit down and understand the Bible by reading it, and God has taken up the slack by giving a gift to some men called “pastor-teacher.” Every believer after salvation starts out as a baby, and babies have to be taught, and there is no believer in the world who can get it on his own without someone starting him right. Philip had enough Bible doctrine to give this man a basic training course in a short time. “Should guide” is a future active indicative, which indicates that up to this point no one has been able to explain the passage he is reading. The word “guide” doesn’t mean to guide in the sense that someone shows you the way, it means to guide in the sense of understanding and teaching. It means to communicate. Philip communicated doctrine. The fourth class condition indicates a wish that has not been fulfilled; the first class condition realises a reality situation. There are people who can help him but he can’t do it on his own.

Verse 32 – a quotation from Isaiah 53:7-8. Jesus Christ is depicted as the Lamb through the Levitical sacrifices, and here is Jesus Christ being led as a sheep to the slaughter, i.e. the cross where He died for our sins.

Verse 33 – “In his humiliation.” The humiliation was Christ, sinless and perfect in His humanity as well as His deity, coming into contact with our sins.

“his judgment was lifted up [or, carried],” literally, not “taken away.” He carried judgment for the entire world.

“who declare his generation” – the Hebrew says, “who shall protest in his generation.” But the Greek even goes further, and the word “declare” is a compound word dihgeomai [dia = through; e(geomai = to think through or lead the way through], and the derived meaning of this word: to think through on the matter so that you understand the matter. In other words, “Who in Christ’s generation will think through and understand?”

“his life is taken from the earth” – literally, “his life is lifted up [or, carried up] by death.” The word “lifted up” is the same as we have already seen, and it means to be carried. His life is carried by death. The life of Christ on the cross was carried by death. The sins of the world are poured out upon Him, the wages of sin is death; and so as the wages of sin is poured out upon Him, in His life He carries our death.” Our sins are poured out upon Him, the penalty of those sins is death, and so Christ carries our death when He hangs upon the cross. The word “taken” is the Greek word a)irw means to be carrying something, to lift up something and then carry it. Christ lifted up our sins and carried them and His life, then, carried our death.

Verses 34-35, the basis of witnessing.

Verse 34 – here is a man whose positive volition is so strong he is ready, but he doesn’t have anyone to explain. He needs information. In witnessing for Christ this is exactly what people need.

Verse 35 – the issue of the gospel. “Then Philip opened his mouth.” To communicate he had to speak! Philip opened his mouth to communicate the gospel.

“and preached unto him Jesus” – Jesus Christ is revealed in the Old Testament. So at this point he received his information.

Verse 36 – “And as they went on their way they, came to water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me from being baptized?”

Verse 37 is not found in the original language. There is no verse 37. Philip had already led this man to the Lord and he knows he is saved, and by now he has received the first five or six increments of basic doctrine. Whoever put this verse in has added to the Word of God.

Verse 38 – Philip baptized him because he understood the pertinent doctrine. Ritual without reality is meaningless.

Verse 39 – “And when they were come out of the water.” Once the baptism has occurred they separate: “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip” – this Ethiopian was so ready for doctrine that on the very day that he was saved he learned enough doctrine to make himself spiritually self-sustaining as he goes back to his own land as the only convert in Ethiopia.

“that” introduces a result clause; “the eunuch saw him no more” – but Philip gave him enough information in that time to sustain him. The result of this eunuch’s conversion was a tremendous evangelistic push in Ethiopia, so that Ethiopia developed a brand of Christianity that held out against the Moslems when all other types of Christianity collapsed some 600 years later. Everything else in North Africa collapsed. This tells us that Ethiopian Christianity was founded on doctrine. It stressed two things: a) communicate doctrine in evangelism; b) take the new believer and give him basic doctrine.

“but [not and] he went on his way rejoicing” – the conjunction brings out the fact that he was not dependent upon Philip for his happiness, he was dependent upon the doctrine he had learned. The joy comes from the Bible doctrine. Joy is inner happiness and it depends on doctrine. This is present active participle, he kept on rejoicing.

Verse 40 – “But Philip was found at Azotus.” Azotus is a Greek name for a Philistine town. When Alexander the Great conquered Ashdod, 30 miles north of Gaza, he changed the name to Azotus. This was an area where there were still Greeks living.

“and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea” – this means he went on up the coast. Caesarea is where there were Romans. It was a Roman headquarters. So he went from the Greeks to the Romans—Gentiles. He is evangelising Gentiles. He has learned the lesson of the Samaritan Pentecost: the breakthrough that Gentiles are just as much in the body of Christ as born-again Jews. Azotus tells us that Philip understood positional truth.