When Jesus uttered the last words to His disciples just before His
ascension, they probably did not understand the significance of the content
nor the means of His statement. He said to them, "But ye shall receive
power, after 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" (Acts of the Apostles 1:8). They were told
that they were to be witnesses and that they were to go into all of Judaea,
into Samaria, and into all the world. They probably knew not the substance
of the power they were to experience nor how they were going to find
themselves in all parts of the world.
The early historian, Luke, recorded the process of their journey out of
Jerusalem and Judaea into Samaria. He wrote, "And at that time there
was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they
were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria,
except the apostles" (Acts of the Apostles 8:1). God not only told His
people what would happen to them He, also, was the power and the source that
made it happen. They went out of Jerusalem fleeing the persecution. They
came into Samaria witnessing.
Stephan, the first martyr, had been laid to rest. The pleased young man who
witnessed and who probably was instrumental in his death now turned his
attention to other followers of Jesus. He broke into their homes and
literally began dragging the believers off to prison. The reign of terror by
the young zealot Saul caused the followers of Jesus to flee into Samaria.
The attempt to end the influence of the believers by the persecution,
however, did just the opposite. As the disciples were scattered throughout
Judaea and Samaria, they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their lives
had been dramatically changed by the events that had occurred on the past
Feast of Pentecost. They could do nothing else but share everywhere they
went the joy of knowing and experiencing the return of Jesus Christ into
their lives.
One of those believers, Philip, went into the city of Samaria and preached
Christ unto the them (Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8). The people "hearing
and seeing the miracles which he did" readily accepted the word that
was coming forth from the evangelist. Great joy spread throughout the city
as the "unclean spirits . . . came out of many and many taken with
palsies, and that were lame, were healed."
The same Jesus who had healed many before His death was healing many once
again. Jesus had been raised, ascended, and returned in the power of the
Holy Spirit that dwelled within the those early believers. Everywhere they
went, they preached the kingdom of God was at hand. They witnessed the work
of the King as He manifested Himself among the people.
People’s lives were being changed. The entire city of Samaria was soon
experiencing the effects of the gospel. Attention began to be focused upon
Philip and the apparent power of his message.
One of the converts of Philip, who was in awe of the miracles and signs, was
a man named Simon. He was a person of no little reputation in the city.
Many, both small and great, regarded him as a powerful man of God. He held a
wide sphere of influence over the people.
Using techniques that has always captured the minds of the unsuspecting, he
had build an impressive group of followers. Bewitching them with a
charismatic personality, he had convinced the people that he possessed the
power to change their lives. Persuaded in their mind, by his craftiness,
their minds then would actually believe and perform what had been suggested.
Something powerful was being experienced, but they knew not that it was a
product of their own emotions.
When many of Simon’s followers "believed Philip preaching the things
concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ (Acts of the
Apostles 8:12), however, they left Simon and were baptized as followers of
Christ. Their sphere of influence had shifted. They had been won over by the
preaching of Philip.
Simon himself also became a believer (Acts of the Apostles 8:13). He, too,
was baptized. Becoming an ardent follower of Philip, he was continually
amazed by the miracles and signs. He, too, had found a new approach to life.
It was not long until the church in Jerusalem heard of the preaching of
Philip in Samaria. They quickly sent Peter and John. Upon arriving in
Samaria, they realized something was lacking in the believers in Samaria.
Peter and John saw the need to preach a more complete message of the kingdom
of God. Jesus Christ must not just become the object of the believer's
life He must become the very breath of their life.
The receiving of Philip’s preaching in Samaria illustrated the difficulty
of many in the early church (many in the church of every generation as well)
to comprehend the message of the kingdom of God. When Jesus first began to
preach, He said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Much like
a single coin with two sides, the wholeness of the kingdom of God contains
two elements.
The completeness of experiencing the rule of God in one’s life requires,
in the words of Jesus, repentance and believing the gospel.
Evidently, the new believers in Samaria were not hearing the totality of the
message of the kingdom of God. Their hearing of the preaching of Philip did
produced a repentance. They recognized the error of following Simon and were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They now switched their
allegiance to Jesus.
Their allegiance had shifted. However, the completeness of experiencing the
kingdom of God requires more than just changing the object of one’s
devotion, one’s piety, or one’s worship. It requires more than the
effort of man, even when his effort is turned towards God. The essence of
true believing is the death of man’s effort altogether. It is the life of
Jesus coming forth out of a man who is at rest (no effort) in Christ.
Even though man might decide to give his allegiance to God, even to attempt
to let God rule his life, the kingdom of God requires more. It is believing
that Jesus actually becomes the life of the believer. In Samaria, where the
believers had turned from Simon to Jesus, Jesus had become the object of
their allegiance (as indicated by Peter’s and John’s statements when
they arrived in Samaria). Jesus needed to become, however, not the object
but the essence, the breath, of their lives. They needed to receive the Holy
Spirit, needed for Christ to take complete control, to rule, their lives.
They must come out from under their rule, even the control to attempt to let
God rule them by their own submission, and come under the total rule of
Jesus. Encountering the kingdom of God is to experience the death of
"the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil" and the
return to "the tree of life" (Genesis 3). It is the return to
innocence, the coming forth of the Holy Spirit to control the mind of the
believer. It is Jesus Christ coming again to reestablish the kingdom of God
over the rule of man, even when man’s rule is occurring only in his mind.
An indication that the preaching of Philip was only reaching the mind of the
Samaritans, at least in the case of Simon, is recorded by Luke in the
dialogue between the apostles and Simon. After Peter and John had "laid
. . . their hands on them, and [the Samaritans] received the Holy
Ghost" (Acts of the Apostles 8:17), Simon offered to buy from them this
power. He desired to be able to lay his hands upon people and get the same
results. Since the people, "from the least to the greatest," had
previously said that Simon was "the great power of God," he now
thought that this new ability would really establish him as the man and the
power of God.
Peter’s response to him, however, was a sharp accusation that his money
would perish with him. Peter added, "thou hast neither part nor lot in
this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God" (Acts of
the Apostles 8:21). Because Simon had attempted to obtain the gift of God by
buying it, Peter declared that his heart was full of poison and still in the
bondage of immorality. It was so because Simon himself was still at the
heart of his own life.
Simon may have had a change of his mind in receiving what Philip preached,
but his heart had not changed. He perhaps, seeing the results of Philip’s
preaching, had come to the conclusion that Philip’s way, as he interpreted
it, was a better way than what he had previously used to control the people.
Now, if he just had this power demonstrated in Peter and John, he could
solidify his position among the people as "the great power of
God."
Seeking prestige and power among the people, he eventually found only
rejection and humiliation. Peter demanded that he repent of his wickedness
and pray that the evil thoughts of his hearts would be forgiven. After being
told that he was "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity," Simon fearfully ask Peter to pray for his deliverance.
Although history has not recorded the final outcome of Simon, the telling of
his story indicates the all too often occurrence of most people’s first
reaction to the gospel. In desperation, people will turn to God for help.
Unless Jesus is allowed to break through continually into their lives,
however, God becomes just another means by which man attempts to remain in
control of his life. Many will see the gospel as a better way originally.
Unfortunately, it soon becomes just another way. The object of man’s
devotion has changed but his heart has not.
The story of the complete humiliation of man in order for him to enter the
kingdom of God and to live completely within its realm continued in the
preaching of Philip. After Peter and John had departed back to Jerusalem, an
"angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go . . ."
(Acts of the Apostles 8:26). Leaving Samaria, he soon found himself in
conversation with another traveler. The record of the dialogue that
transpired between Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch returning from his worship
in Jerusalem finalizes the essence of man experiencing and living in the
completeness of the kingdom of God.
After Philip had been told by the Spirit of God to join himself with the
Ethiopian, he found the man reading a passage of Scripture from the prophet
Isaiah. Philip’s query, "Understandest thou what thou readest"
brought an honest answer of confusion from the Ethiopian. After revealing
what he had been reading, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and
like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his
humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his
generation? for his life is taken from the earth" (Acts of the Apostles
8:32,33), the Ethiopian admitted he did not understand what it meant.
Seizing the opportunity, Philip preached unto him Jesus.
Under the providential guidance of God, the only record of the preaching of
Philip (at Samaria and to the Ethiopian) reveals once again the essence of
living in the kingdom of God. At Samaria, the believers were struggling to
be moved totally out of their control into the fullness of the kingdom of
God, the total rule of God. The Ethiopian was struggling to understand the
passage of Scripture that proclaims kingdom living.
Although the Ethiopian did not know if the prophet Isaiah was referring to
himself or to someone else in the passage of Scripture he was reading,
Philip knew immediately. Philip understood that it was a reference to Jesus
and to all believers who are in Jesus. The judgement, the
condemnation or damnation, against man is only taken away by his humiliation
(to depress in rank or feeling). It is only when man is brought to the end
of himself completely will he experience the glory of the kingdom of God.
His earthly life must be removed in order for the heavenly life to be
experienced.
When Peter and John was praying for the believers at Samaria to receive the
Holy Spirit, they were praying that Jesus might become not the object of
their lives but the very essence of their breath. The object of their
devotion, their piety, and their worship had changed. However, kingdom
living requires more. It is only in the innocence of man’s mind (the
complete absence of the belief that man can control his destiny by his
thinking) that God can produce in the heart of man His kingdom.
Philip came to Samaria preaching "the things concerning the kingdom of
God." He left the Ethiopian proclaiming that Jesus, in his humiliation,
was the only answer to man’s misunderstanding. Believing that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God (Acts of the Apostles 8:37) is to believe that He is the
essence of life. Through Jesus, all men can come to understand that their
lives are directed by God himself.
The recorded life of Philip, for example, proclaims the reality of
experiencing the kingdom of God. Philip went to Samaria not because of a
decision he made. He went because the persecution of Saul drove him there.
He left Samaria not because he though it was time to go. He left because the
Angel of the Lord told him to arise and go. He found the Ethiopian eunuch
not because he sought him out. The paths of the two travelers were brought
together by God. Philip did not set out to converse with the Ethiopian
because he desired it. He went because the Spirit said, "Go near, and
join thyself to this chariot." After the Ethiopian confessed his belief
in Jesus and was baptized, Philip did not decide it was time to continue his
journey. He was "caught away" by the Spirit of the Lord (Acts of
the Apostles 8:39).
It was the life of Philip, more than his message, that proclaimed the
reality of living in the kingdom of God. Preaching in Samaria and to the
Ethiopian, Philip continually experienced the manifestation of Jesus in his
life. He simply went on his way rejoicing (Acts of the Apostles 8:39) and
everyone God brought across his path was touched by the kingdom of God.
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