43 Acts 8:5-8 PHILIP PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN SAMARIA Introduction: In our previous text Saul of Tarsus became stirred up by the stoning of Stephen, in which he had taken part, and he launched an attack against the church at Jerusalem. He scattered the large membership of this church throughout all Judea and Samaria. Some of them fled even into the Gentile nation of Syria and, perhaps some into other Gentile nations. I. The failure of the Jerusalem church to spread the gospel Perhaps you are aware that before Jesus returned back to heaven He had left instructs for the Jerusalem church to carry the gospel to regions beyond the city of Jerusalem. In the Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.” In this commission Jesus instructed the church at Jerusalem not only to carry the gospel to all the world, but to baptize those who believe the gospel and to teach them to function as a New Testament church in their own locality and to help spread the gospel throughout the world. In Acts chapter one just before Jesus ascended back to heaven He instructed the church not to launch into the world-wide mission program until they had first been endued with power from on high by the Holy Spirit. Note Acts 1:4 in which He said, “And, being assembled together with [them], commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, [saith he], ye have heard of me.” However, He specifically instructed them that after they had received the special power from on high, they were to launch out into all Judea, into all of Samaria and into all the world and carry the gospel message and establish churches. Note this instruction in Acts 1:8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Thus we note that the church at Jerusalem had failed to even attempt to carry out the Great Commission as Jesus had instructed them to do. They were doing a great job of preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, but they were not going beyond Jerusalem and the immediate area around Jerusalem. . It was under this situation that the Lord allowed Saul of Tarsus to launch his severe campaign of persecution against that church and to scatter its members throughout all Judea, all Samaria and into at least one foreign nation. I must point out that persecution from the enemy did not come altogether as a result of their neglect of the church to do the work which Jesus had assigned. The root cause of persecution was is not neglect on the part of Christians. The root cause of the persecution was the bitterness which the world holds toward Christ. Jesus had said, “If they persecute me, they will persecute you.” But it does appear that God allowed the persecution to reach such great severity simply because of their neglect in carrying the gospel to others. But the Lord had His way of getting this church to do what He had told them to do. So when Saul launched his tirade against them they had little choice but to go out from Jerusalem. If they tried to remain in Jerusalem they would have been arrested, tried and perhaps stoned to death as Stephen had been stoned. Luke tells us back in verse 4 that when they did go out they preached the gospel message everywhere they went. II. Philip preaching the gospel in Samaria In our text today Philip is cited as an example of what all of the scattered Christians were doing in all the places where they went. Philip was not the only one to go into Samaria. Rather he is only one of those who went there, but Luke chose to single him out and to tell about the great work that he did there for the Lord. V. 5, “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” I think it would be wise for us to take note of just which Philip this verse is speaking about. Perhaps you will recall that one of the twelve apostles was named Philip. You will find his name listed with the other apostles in Luke chapter 6. Then in Acts chapter 6 you will find a different man named Philip whose name is listed among the seven deacons who were ordained. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the Philip spoken of in this text is the apostle because it is said that he preached. But that conclusion would be wrong. We are told back in verse 1 of this chapter that the apostles did not leave Jerusalem during this persecution. Some of them left later, but none of the apostles left Jerusalem during this particular persecution by Saul of Tarsus. Therefore, it must have been the deacon Philip who is spoken of here. This conclusion is further supported over in chapter 21:8 where he is called “the evangelist.” So, like Stephen, who was first ordained as a deacon and who then began to preach the gospel, Philip also was first ordained as a deacon and then he began to preach the gospel. It might also be wise for us to note the expression “the city of Samaria” which we find in this verse. In the older manuscripts the definite article “the” is not found. This leads many to believe that this verse was not intended to identify any particular city, but rather just to identify the city where Philip was as being located in the region of Samaria. Samaria was the land which the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had occupied prior to their fall to the nation of Assyria. After the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians the able bodied Israelites were carried away to serve as slaves in Assyria. In order to get taxes from this land which he had conquered the king of Assyria brought some Gentile people into the land. These Gentiles then intermarried with the few Israelite people left in the land and produced a half-breed people who were part Jew and part Gentile. The Jewish people who lived in Jerusalem and Judea hated the half-breed Samaritans and had little to do with them. Even Philip and the other Christian Jews who were now forced to flee to Samaria had formally had little to do with the Samaritans. But it was now to their advantage to live among them. Since Saul of Tarsus and the other Jews back in Judea would not likely follow them into Samaria to persecute them So Samaria was a safe place of refuge for them. The later part of verse five says that Philip preached Christ unto them. Very likely Philip would have been very hesitant to travel to this land and to preach Christ to these people. But now that he must be here, he was glad to tell them about Christ. That is, he preached that Jesus is the Christ. Perhaps you will remember reading and studying about Jesus going through Samaria and stopping at a well near the Samaritan city of Sychar. A woman came to that well and Jesus witnessed to her. In that conversation that woman showed that she knew about the Old Testament promise that God would send His Christ to the world. Most all Samaritans knew that God had promised to send the Christ to the world. Philip preached to them explaining to them that Jesus, the great miracle worker that they had heard so much about is the Christ whom God had promised. He informed them that Jesus, the Christ, had died for them. He informed them that Jesus, the Christ of God, had risen from the grave. He informed them that they could be saved and go to heaven by repenting of their sin and trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation. III. The response of the people to Philip’s preaching V. 6, “And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake...” What a contrast we see here to the response that Stephen had received to the gospel message which he had preached to the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin Council. Those Jews had gnashed on Stephen with their teeth, they angrily cried out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears so that they could not hear any more of his words and they rushed upon him with one accord. But the Samaritans had exactly the opposite kind of response to Philip. Instead of rushing upon him with one accord to attack him they gave heed unto his message with one accord. They were all anxious to hear what Philip had to say about Jesus being the Christ. Furthermore, they believed what he was saying. They believed his testimony that Jesus was the Son of God. They believed that Jesus is the Christ of God. They believed that the reason Jesus died on the cross was to fulfill Old Testament prophecy and to provide salvation for their souls. They believed that Jesus arose from the grave. They believed that a lost sinner could repent of his sins and call upon Jesus for salvation and be saved. They not only believed the truth of Philip’s message, but the great many of them trusted Jesus and got saved. It was with one accord that they responded in faith to the gospel message and got saved. (V. 6), “...hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” In this part of the verse please note two things. Note first that they heard the words which Philip preached to them. Romans 10: 17 says, “So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” People need first to hear the word of God. They deed to know that God says about how to get saved. Then after hearing what God says about how to get saved, they ought to believe what God says. If they will hear the word of God and believe the word of God they will trust in Jesus and get saved and go to heaven. If they will not hear the word of God --- if they will not believe the word of God, then they will not get saved and they will not go to heaven. Note also that they saw the miracles which Philip did. Philip was used of God to perform many miracles and the people saw the miracles that he did. The miracles did not save anybody, but they helped to convince the people that the things which Philip was saying were true. In Mark 16:20 we read, “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” That is, the Lord confirmed their word by the miracles which they performed. Philip preached the word of God and God confirmed his word by enabling Philip; to perform miracles. God gave His word to directly to Philip and to those other early Christians. The Bible was not yet completed at that time. They did not have New Testament Scriptures which they could read or quote and say to the people, “Here in the Bible is what God has to say about the matter.” But they had the word of God given to them directly by the Holy Spirit of God and they were enabled by the Holy Spirit of God to perform miracles and the miracles which they spoke confirmed that what they said was from God. Today we, as Christians do not need to perform miracles to show people that what we say is from God. We can open God’s book, the Bible and read the word of God to the people. The words of God which are written in the Bible have already been confirmed by the miracles which those early Christians wrote. When I read and teach and preach the Bible today people ought to believe it --- not because I say it, but because it is the word of God. People are under no obligation to believe me just because I say a certain thing, but when God says it they ought to believe it. The kind of miracles which Philip was doing by the power of God are described in the next verse. V. 7, “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, were healed.” Philip was able to cast demon spirits out of those who were possessed and afflicted by the demons. The people, of course, could not see the demons, but they could see the effects that the demons had upon the people whom they afflicted. When the people could hear the demon crying out in objection to being cast out and then when they could see the affliction caused by the demons immediately disappear, the people would know that the power of God was at work and Philip was a man of God. They would know that he was speaking the truth of God. Not all physical affliction, however, is caused by demon possession. Much of it is caused by physical causes. But when the people could see a palsied person , who shook uncontrollably, suddenly stop shaking at the touch of Philip or at the word spoken by Philip, then they would know that Philip was a man of God and that he spoke the truth from God. When they would see the lame suddenly get up and walk at the tough and the word of Philip, they would know that Philip was a man of God and that he spoke the truth of God. These were sick and afflicted people whom they knew to be really sick and afflicted. There was no pretense. There was not quackery. There was no faking it. These people were people whom they knew and whom they knew to be afflicted until Philip spoke and then they were healed. These were indeed miracles from God. I might point out to you that the Jewish leaders back in Jerusalem had seen the same kind of miracles that the Samaritans did. They had seen Jesus perform such miracles. They had seen the apostles perform such miracles. They had seen Stephen perform such miracles. Yet they did not respond with faith like the Samaritans did. The difference was in their hearts. We often see this today. Two unsaved people can sit in the same congregation and hear the same sermon, but one will believe and be saved while one will go away unbelieving. IV. Great joy in the city V. 8, “And there was great joy in that city.” Joy spread throughout the entire city in which Philip was preaching. Revival broke out throughout the whole city. I can think of several reasons for this joy. For one thing the sick and afflicted would rejoice that they were healed. I cannot imagine anyone being grieved because he had been healed. Rather each one would be overjoyed. For another thing, the family and friends of those who had been healed would also rejoice. They, too, would be overjoyed that their friend or relative was now healed. It was indeed a miracle and they were very happy for their loved one or friend. But the greatest reason for this joy is that many of them had gotten saved. In fact, the great majority of the people in the city had gotten saved. What a time of rejoicing this must have been. There is no greater joy in this world that to know that your eternal destiny is all settled because Jesus has saved your soul. There is the great joy of knowing that you are going to heaven. There is the great joy of knowing that you will stay out of the fires of hell. What a joy this is! Also they would rejoice at seeing such a great display of the presence and power of God. They could not see God, but they could see the evidence of the power of God in the performance of the great miracles. It is one thing to hear about the great power of God. It is another thing to see with your own eyes the magnificence of His power. This was a happy, happy occasion. Listen, it is possible that we can experience that same great joy in our services here today. If some lost sinner who is headed for eternal torment will repent of his sins and place his faith in Jesus Christ and be saved this morning, there will be great joy in this service. There will be great joy in the heart of that person who gets saved. What a relief he will experience! What a heavy load will be lifted from his heart! What a joyous experience it will be to have the fear of eternal torment taken away. What a joy it is to know that you are on the road to heaven! No matter how many years you have been saved, it is still a great joy to know that you are saved. Furthermore, if someone will get saved here this morning, there will be a special joy in the hearts of all of the Christians who are present. Even Christians who will hear about it later will rejoice to hear the news. The Bible teaches that there will also be great joy in heaven over one sinner who gets saved. So if somebody here will get saved this morning God, Himself, will rejoice and be glad. Jesus, who loved that person and who died on the cross that he might be saved, will be glad. Jesus will rejoice. The angels of God in heaven will rejoice. They, too, will be happy about it. Conclusion: Now who will come this morning and trust Jesus Christ and be saved? If one of those Samaritans were here in this service, let me assure you that he would come and get right with God. Will you? Why not take advantage of this opportunity and come now and place your faith in Jesus and be saved. What Christian needs to rededicate yourself to the task of telling others about Jesus? Will you make that commitment to God right now? Will you commit yourself to the great task of witnessing to the unsaved and telling them about Jesus Christ who has saved your soul?