Verses 1-40
Chapter 8
8:1 As they listened
to this their very hearts were torn with vexation and they gnashed their
teeth at him. But he was full of the Holy Spirit and he gazed
steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at
God's right hand. So he said, "Look now, I see the heavens opened and
the Son of Man standing at God's right hand." They shouted with a great
shout and held their ears and launched themselves at him in a body. They
flung him outside the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses
placed their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul. So they
stoned Stephen as he called upon God and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." Kneeling down he cried with a loud voice, "Lord, set not this
sin to their charge." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And
Saul fully agreed with his death.
A speech like this could only have one end; Stephen had courted
death and death came. But Stephen did not see the faces distorted with
rage. His gaze had gone beyond time and he saw Jesus standing at the
right hand of God. When he said this it seemed to them only the greatest
of blasphemies; and the penalty for blasphemy was stoning to death (Deuteronomy 13:6
ff.). It is to be noted that this was no judicial trial. It was a
lynching, because the Sanhedrin had no right to put anyone to death.
The method of stoning was as follows. The criminal was taken to a
height and thrown down. The witnesses had to do the actual throwing
down. If the fall killed the man good and well; if not, great boulders
were hurled down upon him until he died.
There are in this scene certain notable things about Stephen.
(i) We see the secret of his courage. Beyond all that men could do to
him he saw awaiting him the welcome of his Lord. (ii) We see Stephen
following his Lord's example. As Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of his
executioners (Luke 23:34)
so did Stephen. When George Wishart was to be executed, the executioner
hesitated. Wishart came to him and kissed him. "Lo," he said, "here is a
token that I forgive thee." The man who follows Christ the whole way
will find strength to do things which it seems humanly impossible to do.
(iii) The dreadful turmoil finished in a strange peace. To Stephen came
the peace which comes to the man who has done the right thing even if
the right thing kills him.
The first half of the first verse of chapter 8 goes with this
section. Saul has entered on the scene. The man who was to become the
apostle to the Gentiles thoroughly agreed with the execution of Stephen.
But as Augustine said, "The Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen."
However hard he tried Saul could never forget the way in which Stephen
had died. The blood of the martyrs even thus early had begun to be the
seed of the Church.
Acts 8:1-40 is an important chapter in the history of the Church. The Church began by being a purely Jewish institution. Acts 6:1-15
shows the first murmurings of the great debate about the acceptance of
the Gentiles. Stephen had had a mind far above national delimitations. Acts 8:1-40 shows the Church reaching out. Persecution scattered the Church abroad and where they went they took their gospel. Into Acts 8:1-40
comes Philip who, like Stephen, was one of the Seven and who is to be
distinguished from the Philip who was one of the Twelve. First, Philip
preached to the Samaritans. The Samaritans formed a natural bridge
between Jew and Gentile for they were half Jew and half Gentile in their
racial descent. Then comes the incident of the Ethiopian eunuch in
which the gospel takes a step out to a still wider circle. As yet the
Church had no conception of a world mission; but when we read this
chapter in the light of what was soon to happen, we see her
unconsciously but irresistibly being moved towards her destiny.
8:1-4 At that time a
great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. They were
all scattered abroad throughout the districts of Judaea and Samaria,
except the apostles. Pious men carried Stephen away to bury him, and
they mourned greatly over him. As for Saul, he ravaged the church. He
went into house after house and dragged out both men and women and put
them under arrest.
The death of Stephen was the signal for an outbreak of
persecution which compelled the Christians to scatter and to seek safety
in the remoter districts of the country. There are two specially
interesting points in this short section.
(i) The apostles stood fast. Others might flee but they braved
whatever perils might come; and this for two reasons. (a) They were men
of courage. Conrad tells that, when he was a young sailor learning to
steer a sailing-ship, a gale blew up. The older man who was teaching him
gave him but one piece of advice. "Keep her facing it," he said.
"Always keep her facing it." The apostles were determined to face
whatever dangers threatened. (b) They were good men. Christians they
might be, but there was something about them that won the respect of
all. It is told that once a slanderous accusation was leveled against
Plato. His answer was, "I will live in such a way that all men will know
that it is a lie." The beauty and the power of the lies of the apostles
were so impressive that even in a day of persecution men hesitated to
lay their hands upon them.
(ii) Saul, as the King James Version says, "made havoc" of the
church. The word used in the Greek denotes a brutal cruelty. It is used
of a wild boar ravaging a vineyard and of a wild animal savaging a body.
The contrast between the man who was savaging the church in this
chapter and the man who surrendered to Christ in the next is intensely
dramatic.
8:5-13 Those who were
scattered abroad went throughout the country telling the message of the
good news. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ
to them. The crowds listened attentively to what Philip had to say, as
they heard his story and saw the signs which he performed. Many of them
had unclean spirits, and the spirits, shouting loudly, came out of them;
and many who were paralysed and lame were cured; and there was much
rejoicing in that city.
A man called Simon was
in the habit of practising magic in the city and of bewildering the
people of Samaria. He alleged that he was someone great. Everyone, small
and great alike, was greatly impressed by him, for they said, "This man
is the power of God called Great." They were impressed by him because
they had been bewildered by his magical deeds for some considerable
time. Both men and women were baptized when they believed Philip, as he
told them the good news of the kingdom of God and of the name of Jesus
Christ. Even Simon himself believed, and, after he had been baptized, he
was constantly in Philip's company; and he was amazed when he saw the
signs and great deeds of power which were happening.
When the Christians were scattered abroad, Philip, who had
emerged into prominence as one of the Seven, arrived in Samaria; and
there he preached. This incident of the work in Samaria is an
astonishing thing because it was proverbial that the Jews had no
dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9).
The quarrel between the Jews and the Samaritans was centuries
old. Back in the eighth century B.C. the Assyrians conquered the
Northern Kingdom whose capital was Samaria. As conquerors did in those
days, they transported the greater part of the population and settled
strangers in the land. In the sixth century the Babylonians conquered
the Southern Kingdom with its capital at Jerusalem and its inhabitants
were carried away to Babylon; but they completely refused to lose their
identity and remained stubbornly Jews. In the fifth century B.C. they
were allowed to return and to rebuild their shattered city under Ezra
and Nehemiah. In the meantime, those of the Northern Kingdom who had
been left in Palestine had intermarried with the stranger races who had
been brought in. When the people of the Southern Kingdom returned and
set to build their city, these people round Samaria offered their help.
It was contemptuously refused because they were no longer pure Jews.
From that day onwards there was an unhealed breach and a bitter hatred
between Jews and Samaritans.
The fact that Philip preached there and that the message of
Jesus was given to these people shows the Church all unconsciously
taking one of the most important steps in history and discovering that
Christ is for all the world. We know very little about Philip but he was
one of the architects of the Christian Church.
We must note what Christianity brought to these people. (i) It
brought the story of Jesus, the message of the love of God in Jesus
Christ. (ii) It brought healing. Christianity has never been a thing of
words only. (iii) It brought, as a natural consequence, a joy that the
Samaritans had never known before. It is a counterfeit Christianity
which brings an atmosphere of gloom; the real thing radiates joy.
8:14-25 When the
apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,
they despatched Peter and John to them. They came down and prayed for
them, so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet the Holy
Spirit had fallen on no one. It was in the name of the Lord Jesus that
they had been baptized. Then they laid their hands on them and they
received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given
through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he brought money to them
and said, "Give me too this power so that he on whom I lay my hands may
receive the Holy Spirit." Peter said to him, "May your silver perish
with you because you thought to obtain the gift of God for money; you
have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right
before God. Repent of this wickedness of yours and pray God if it may be
that the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that
you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of wickedness." Simon
answered, "Do you pray to the Lord for me, so that none of the things
you spoke of may come upon me."
So after they had
borne their witness and spoken the word of God, they returned to
Jerusalem, telling the good news to many villages of the Samaritans on
the way.
Simon was by no means an unusual type in the ancient world.
There were many astrologers and soothsayers and magicians, and in a
credulous age they had a great influence and made a comfortable living.
There is little to be surprised at in that when even the twentieth
century has not risen above fortune-telling and astrology, as almost any
popular newspaper or magazine can witness. It is not to be thought that
Simon and his fellow-practitioners were all conscious frauds. Many of
them had deluded themselves before they deluded others and believed in
their own powers.
To understand what Simon was getting at we have to understand
something of the atmosphere and practice of the early Church. The coming
of the Spirit upon a man was connected with certain visible phenomena,
in particular with the gift of speaking with tongues (compare Acts 10:44-46).
He experienced an ecstasy which manifested itself in this strange
phenomenon of uttering meaningless sounds. In Jewish practice the laying
on of hands was very common. With it there was held to be a
transference of certain qualities from one person to another. It is not
to be thought that this represents an entirely materialistic view of the
transference of the Spirit, the dominating factor was the character of
the man who laid on the hands. The apostles were men held in such
respect and even veneration that simply to feel the touch of their hands
was a deeply spiritual experience. If a personal reminiscence may be
allowed, I myself remember being taken to see a man who had been one of
the Church's great scholars and saints. I was very young and he was very
old. I was left with him for a moment or two and in that time he laid
his hands upon my head and blessed me. And to this day, more than fifty
years afterwards, I can still feel the thrill of that moment. In the
early Church the laying on of hands was like that.
Simon was impressed with the visible effects of the laying on of
hands and he tried to buy the ability to do what the apostles could do.
Simon has left his name on the language for simony still means the
unworthy buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices. Simon had two
faults.
(i) He was not interested in bringing the Holy Spirit to others
so much as in the power and prestige it would bring to himself. This
exaltation of self is ever the danger of the preacher and the teacher.
It is true that they must kindle at the sight of men; but it is also
true as Denney said--that we cannot at one and the same time show that
we are clever and that Christ is wonderful.
(ii) Simon forgot that certain gifts are dependent on character;
money cannot buy them. Again, the preacher and the teacher must take
warning. "Preaching is truth through personality." To bring the Spirit
to others a man must be not a man of wealth but one who himself
possesses the Spirit.
8:26-40 The angel of
the Lord spoke to Philip and said, "Rise and go to the south by the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza; that is Gaza in the desert." So
he arose and went. Now, look you, an Ethiopian eunuch, an influential
official of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of
all her treasury and who had gone to worship in Jerusalem, was on his
way home. As he sat in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join yourself to this chariot." So
Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, "Do you
understand what you are reading?" He said, "How could I do that unless
someone were to guide me?" He invited Philip to get up and to sit with
him. The passage of scripture which he was reading was this--He was led
as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb,
so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he received no justice.
Who will recount his lineage because his life is taken from the earth?
The eunuch said to Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet speaking
about? Is it about himself? Or about someone else?" Philip opened his
mouth, and, taking his start from this passage of scripture, told him
the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road they came
to some water, "Look," said the eunuch, "here is water. What is to stop
me being baptized?" And he ordered the chariot to stand still. So both
Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
When they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip
away and the eunuch no longer saw him, but he travelled along his road
rejoicing. Philip was found at Azotus. He went through all the cities
and preached the good news to them until he came to Caesarea.
There was a road from Jerusalem which led via Bethlehem and
Hebron and joined the main road to Egypt just south of Gaza. There were
two Gazas. Gaza had been destroyed in war in 93 B.C. and a new Gaza had
been built to the south in 57 B.C. The first was called Old or Desert
Gaza to distinguish it from the other. This road which led by Gaza would
be one where the traffic of half the world went by. Along in his
chariot came the Ethiopian eunuch. He was the chancellor of the
exchequer of Candace. Candace is not so much a proper name as a title,
the title which all the queens of Ethiopia bore. This eunuch had been to
Jerusalem to worship. In those days the world was full of people who
were weary of the many gods and the loose morals of the nations. They
came to Judaism and there found the one God and the austere moral
standards which gave life meaning. If they accepted Judaism and were
circumcised they were called proselytes; if they did not go that length
but continued to attend the Jewish synagogues and to read the Jewish
scriptures they were called God-fearers. This Ethiopian must have been
one of these searchers who came to rest in Judaism either as a proselyte
or a God-fearer. He was reading Isaiah 53:1-12 ; and beginning from it Philip showed him who Jesus was.
When he became a believer he was baptized. It was by baptism and
circumcision that the Gentile entered the Jewish faith. In New
Testament times baptism was largely adult baptism. It was not that there
was anything against infant baptism, but in those early days men and
women were coming in from other faiths and the Christian family had not
had time to develop. To the early Christians baptism was, whenever
possible, by immersion and in running water. It symbolized three things.
(i) It symbolized cleansing. As a man's body was cleansed by the water,
so his soul was bathed in the grace of Christ. (ii) It marked a clean
break. We are told how one missionary when he baptized his converts made
them enter the river by one bank and sent them out on the other, as if
at the moment of baptism a line was drawn in their lives which sent them
out to a new world. (iii) Baptism was a real union with Christ. As the
waters closed over a man's head he seemed to die with Christ and as he
emerged he rose with Christ (compare Romans 6:1-4).
Tradition has it that this eunuch went home and evangelized
Ethiopia. We can at least be sure that he who went on his way rejoicing
would not be able to keep his newfound joy to himself.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)