On The Move

Chapter 8

v.1 - this is known as the "diaspora" (or spreading) of the Church. This is the same word used when spreading seed for an eventual harvest. As the verse says, this spreading came as the result of persecution. We would look at this situation and say, "poor early Christians...those unbelieving Jews should get off their backs...why is God allowing this to happen?...He should stop that and make things easy for them...after all, they're trying to get the Church off the ground and running." We see in verse 1 that this is actually a fulfillment of what God wanted from Chapter 1 - "Judea and Samaria." Later in this chapter, we'll see "uttermost parts of the earth" when Philip introduces an Ethiopian to Christ. All this to say - the church in China and Kenya is growing rapidly. The Church in Europe and America is not fairing as well. I certainly don't want to endure persecution, but there's some connection here. Maybe God knows we need a push and without it, we'll sit around loving our comfort instead of loving Him with our whole heart.

v.5 - this verse says Philip went to Samaria to preach Christ. Samaria?!! No, no, no. Jews don't interact with Samaritans - they hate them. Why would he do such a thing? Maybe because He had seen Jesus model that the Gospel is for everyone (crossing cultural, racial, socio-economic lines). Again, I wonder if Philip would've done this had things been going easily back in Jerusalem - or did the persecution push him towards this?

v.6 - When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. Notice the purpose behind giving the Apostles miraculous powers - so people would listen to a message about Jesus. Acts can be a confusing book. Almost all of the theology of churches that focus on signs and miracles build that theology almost entirely from Acts. The question we should ask is, "Is this passage/chapter/Scripture descriptive or prescriptive?" In other words, is Luke just recording how it went down back in the day or is the Holy Spirit tring to tell us through Luke how it ought to be today? I believe these passages are descriptive. I believe God allowed the Big 12 (the Apostles) miraculous powers to help get the church "out of the blocks." You see this reasoning in this verse - "they all paid close attention to what he said." It doesn't say, "they all paid close attention to what he had up his sleeve" nor "they all paid close attention to how he waved his hands." The focus was not on Philip, but on what he said. What did he say? I have a pretty good guess because of what happens later in the chapter between he and an Ethiopian guy. Doing miraculous signs to get attention on you is not what God had in mind and we see that in the next passage about Simon the Sorcerer.

vv.14-17 - SUPER CONFUSING. This is what is known as a "problematic passage." It doesn't mean it's wrong - it means it's hard for us to understand. I don't understand how electricity works, but my lack of understanding doesn't affect the fact that when I flip that switch, a light comes on. Here's my two cents: this was NOT the normal way things work. In other words, I don't think this passage is prescriptive (i.e. how it should work all the time). I think it's descriptive - it's describing what happened back then at that specific time. Now the next question: why? why have the trusting of Christ and the sending of the Spirit separated? I think the answer lies in noticing who was there. We can note that Peter and John (the early Church leaders in Jerusalem and the guys whose words/thoughts would be trusted by everyone else) were there to see what was going on (v.14). Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans weren't exactly best buds. It would be very hard for the church in Jerusalem to believe that the Samaritans had become Christ-followers (much less unite with them for the cause of Christ). However, if Peter and John come back and tell the Jerusalem church that they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears that the Samaritans also had the Holy Spirit, that would go a LONG way toward creating unity in the early, fast-spreading Church - and we know God wants unity in the church. There's about a zillion more thoughts and ideas here, but we'll move on.

vv.18-24 - Peter jacks up Simon the Sorcerer for trying to buy the ability to lay hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit. A few things to note here: (A) Simon's request sounds like he's on board with the spread of Christianity. Almost all cults and religious con-men sound good - watch out for that! (B) Simon must not have heard about what Peter did to Ananias and Saphira. He's lucky he didn't get the smack down for this. (C) Peter tells Simon to watch out for trying to do big stuff for God when his heart is not right with God - ouch - that's a shot to the gut for many of us. We'd all like to see God do something big and wonderful and maybe even use us for that purpose. Apparently, however, God is more concerned with the condition of our heart than the contribution we make to the cause. It does make me wonder, however, when you see a church leader that is being used by God for great things and later come to find out he was deeply involved in a sin while the whole thing was going on. How does that work?

v.26 - How obedient are we really? God sends an angel to tell Philip "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." There is nothing here that says God told him what he would find there. This is like God saying to us today, "get in your car and drive down to Mockingbird and Central." Would we do that? I cannot imagine that I would - I would have to know why. Philip just does it. Where is he going to eat? Is he going to be gone for a few days? Where will he stay? What should he be looking for? That's one obedient dude.

v.27 - "on his way" - the verse says that Philip met the Ethiopian "on his way." This reminds me of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) which says it in a similar way: as you are going... Philip got be to a part of this miracle because he was obedient. I hear stories like this and wonder why they rarely happen to me. I then realize that I'm not obedient to the still, small voice of the Spirit that prompts me all day long.

On a side note, why is it important that we know the guy from Ethiopia is a Eunuch? He's probably embarassed that he's known as the Ethiopian Eunuch. He was, apparently, a high ranking official in the government, but all we can remember about the guy is...

v.35 - being well-versed. This verse says Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Could we start anywhere in the Bible and direct someone back to Jesus? This is yet another reason we must be in the Word. Some days we'll read the Bible and say to ourselves, "well, I didn't get anything out of that" or "I already know this story." Is it possible we are reading that passage today for someone else at a later date?

v.39 - Star-Trek - all of the sudden Philip is transported outta there. The Ethopian probably left this part of the story out when he returned home - sounds too crazy for the listener who wasn't there to see it.