Acts 8 — The Word Goes Out

Today’s Passage: Acts 8

This chapter is the first great stride of the promise in Acts 1:8, the gospel moving out beyond Jerusalem for the first time. Saul is tearing at the church, and the believers who flee the city carry the word with them and preach it wherever they land. Philip goes down to Samaria and proclaims Christ there, and a man named Simon, who had made his living by sorcery, tries to buy the Spirit’s gift for money and is sharply rebuked. Then Philip is sent south along a desert road to meet an Ethiopian official who is reading Isaiah 53 in his chariot, and Philip opens that Scripture to him, tells him about Jesus, and baptizes him. Read it as one journey rather than three separate sermons, for Samaria, Simon, and the desert road are all one climb up the same mountain. Through it all, the word of God is going out, and nothing can hold it back.

As you read, hold this: Those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Acts 8:1–3 (BSB)

¹ And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. ² God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. ³ But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. First Saul stands by and approves, and then he sets about destroying the church himself, going from house to house and dragging off both men and women to prison. Luke will soon show us this very man stopped in his tracks and made new, but not yet; for now he is only a wrecker of homes. There is nothing tidy or strategic in this scattering (διασπείρω) diaspeirō, pronounced dee-ah-SPEI-roh. Strong's G1289, to scatter abroad, disperse. The word stands behind our own English word diaspora. It is a farmer’s word as much as a fugitive’s, for the same motion that scatters people across the land scatters seed across a field. What looked like sheer defeat turns out to be sowing. Luke is not making light of anyone’s pain here; he is showing us that the risen Lord takes even forced exile and turns it into mission, so that those who were scattered went out preaching the word wherever they went (8:4). The seed is the word, and the field only widens under the pressure meant to destroy it. . It is people fleeing for their lives. And yet, even so, the map of Acts 1:8 is being walked out step by step, and we learn early in this book that grief and mission can travel the same road together.

Acts 8:4–8 (BSB)

⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. ⁶ The crowds all paid close attention to Philip’s message and to the signs they saw him perform. ⁷ With loud shrieks, unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, and many of the paralyzed and lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city. Notice who does the preaching. It is the ordinary, scattered believers, spreading the word wherever the road carries them. Philip, one of the seven chosen to serve tables back in chapter 6 (6:5), goes down and proclaims the Christ in Samaria, and signs accompany this founding advance of the gospel. The result is not terror but a great and spreading joy. When Christ Himself is truly preached into a place of old hatred, joy is the fruit that grows, and it is God who gives that increase.

Acts 8:9–13 (BSB)

⁹ Prior to that time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and astounded the people of Samaria. He claimed to be someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, from the least to the greatest, heeded his words and said, “This man is the divine power called the Great Power.” ¹¹ They paid close attention to him because he had astounded them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed and was baptized. He followed Philip closely and was astounded by the great signs and miracles he observed. Samaria had its own famous man, Simon, who had dazzled the whole city with his sorcery until people spoke of him as the Great Power of God. Philip does not try to outdo him with better wonders. He simply preaches the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus, and the crowds believe and are baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believes, is baptized, and follows Philip everywhere, plainly captivated by the signs he sees. Luke lets the question hang in the air without hurrying to settle it. Something genuinely real is happening in that city, and yet something unfinished, we will find, may still be alive in Simon’s heart.

Acts 8:14–17 (BSB)

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵ On their arrival, they prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Jerusalem does not leave Samaria to itself. The apostles send Peter and John down to them, and there is something worth pausing over here: this same John had once wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village that would not receive Jesus (Luke 9:54), and now he kneels and prays that the Spirit would fall upon Samaritans instead. God has held back that visible gift until apostolic hands could join this new work to the mother church, so that all might see it is one gospel and one people. The very Spirit who came down at Pentecost now claims Samaria too, and how good it is that the walls a man would guard with fire are the walls God delights to tear down.

Acts 8:18–24 (BSB)

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. ¹⁹ “Give me this power as well,” he said, “so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter replied, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for the intent of your heart. ²³ For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and captive to iniquity.” ²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” Simon wants this power the way a merchant wants stock for his shelves, something to own and to sell. Peter’s answer is severe, and it is severe because the sin is severe: to treat the free gift of God as though it were merchandise. The trouble is not Simon’s technique but his heart, which is not right before God, poisoned by bitterness and held captive by sin. And yet even here Peter does not slam the door. He commands Simon to repent and to pray, holding out the hope that the Lord may forgive him, for grace is not closed to him. Still, when Simon answers, he asks only that the threatened consequences would pass him by, which is a clearer thing than any sign of a broken and turning heart. Luke leaves Simon’s final state unwritten, and so the warning is left standing for every reader to hear.

Acts 8:25 (BSB)

²⁵ And after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages. The apostles who once would have kept clear of Samaria now make their way home preaching the good news through one Samaritan village after another. The old dividing wall is cracking, and it is the Lord Himself who is bringing it down.

Acts 8:26–29 (BSB)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his return was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.” From a city full of revival Philip is now sent out to an empty desert road. First an angel gives the command to go, and then the Spirit gives the quiet nudge to draw near the chariot. Philip sets out without being told the whole plan, trusting the God who sends him, and that God has already gone ahead and prepared a hungry reader: a man of high rank with the scroll of Isaiah open on his lap. Here we learn that the same Lord who saves a whole crowd in Samaria also arranges a single meeting on a lonely road, for no one is too far off the path to be found by Him.

Acts 8:30–35 (BSB)

³⁰ So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. ³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth. ³³ In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.” ³⁴ “Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Watch how Philip goes about it. He runs to the chariot, he listens to what the man is reading, and he asks a humble question rather than launching into a lecture. The official, for his part, knows he needs a guide and gladly invites Philip up beside him. The passage before them is Isaiah 53, and the eunuch asks exactly the right question: of whom is the prophet speaking? Philip begins from that very Scripture and tells him the good news about Jesus. Christ is not being pasted onto the page from the outside; He is the One the page was pointing to all along, and this is how the whole of Scripture reads once its true subject is known.

Acts 8:36–40 (BSB)

³⁶ As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?” ³⁸ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled through that region, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Faith no sooner believes than it seeks the water, and the eunuch asks what should prevent him from being baptized. The answer is that nothing does. Not his foreign birth, not his standing at a queen’s court, nothing at all stands between this believing man and the sign of his new life. So the two of them go down into the water together and come up together, and then the Spirit of the Lord carries Philip away. The official does not cling to the man who brought him the message; he simply goes on his way rejoicing, which is faith resting on Christ and not on the messenger. Philip, meanwhile, keeps preaching up the coast until he reaches Caesarea, the very city where another household will soon hear the gospel (Acts 10). The road to the ends of the earth is already open, and God is walking His people down it.