Acts 8:1 shows how Acts 1:8 is beginning to happen. Jesus said that His followers would be His witnesses in Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. Chapter 8 is where the gospel spreads to Judea and Samaria (this is the geographical area around and north of Jerusalem). The reason the gospel spread was because followers of Jesus were being persecuted for their faith so they fled the city but as they went they kept preaching Christ.

 A curious thing happens in Acts 8:14-17: "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit."

Some questions immediately rise: why did the Spirit not fall on the new believers in Samaria and why did the apostles have to pray for that to happen?

First of all, we have to remember that when God moved among His people in the Old Testament He provided signs as validation that what had happened truly came from His hand...especially when He did something new among His people. In Acts 2, God provided signs for the Jewish believers that they now had the Holy Spirit within them. So the Jewish believers fully accepted this was from God.

Now, in Acts 8, the gospel goes to Samaria, where Samaritans were considered "half Jews" by those who lived in Judea. Many Samaritans received Christ but by God's design, He chose to not immediately fill them with the Spirit so that the Apostles, the leaders of the church, could witness for themselves that the gospel and the Holy Spirit was not just for Jewish believers but for the Samaritans as well. This was a huge confirmation for the Samaritans and the Jews that showed them all that in Christ there was no difference between them any more.

We will see this pattern one more time in the book of Acts: when the gospel advances to Gentiles and again, it's God's evidence to the Jewish believers and the Apostles that the gospel and the Holy Spirit is for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

David Hinkle
FBC Small Groups & Equipping Pastor