Acts 8:1-25: The Gospel in Samaria

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Intro

1)     This is a major transition in Acts.

A)   Recall 1:5: “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

B)    2:1-5:42 – Witness in Jerusalem

C)    6:1-7:60 – Hellenists and the Gospel

D)   8:1 – The persecution spread the Gospel to “the regions of Judea and Samaria…”

2)     Ben Witherington calls this the fringes of Judaism.

A)   8:12 – The Samaritans were baptized.

B)    8:38 – The Ethiopian Eunuch was baptized. Remember that eunuchs were unclean.

C)    9:18 – Saul, a persecutor of the church was baptized.

D)   10:47-48 – Cornelius and a house full of Gentiles were baptized.

E)    “There is a second important dimension to this section. Those who respond are not Jews but those on the edge of Judaism, namely, Samaritans and an Ethiopian.”[1]

3)     We have another gap in the text here (8:1 to 11:19).

4)     I’m afraid that we are so accepting of people and that the gospel has made its way into our thinking so much that we miss the wild leaps that are happening in these texts. In this lesson, we’ll talk about why it was such a big deal for the Samaritans to receive the Gospel.

The Gospel is for All!

1)     Who are the Samaritans?

A)   Samaria used to the be the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

B)    2 Kgs. 17:6, 22-34, 41 (722 BC)

1)     They kind of know God, and they kind of serve him, but they are not Jews.

2)     v. 35 – Did God make a covenant with these new people?

(a)   The ESV implies that he did.

(b)   The NASU/NKJV keeps the sentence going and says v. 35 is a historical record of God making a covenant with Israel.

3)     v. 41 – This is who is the land now, and this is what they do.

C)    Ezra 4:1-4 – More than 130 years later (589 BC), the new Samaritans claimed to worship God and wanted to participate in building the second temple. God’s people rejected them.

D)   Josephus, Antiquities – “So when Alexander had thus settled matters at Jerusalem, he led his army into the neighboring cities; and when all the inhabitants, to whom he came, received him with great kindness, the Samaritans, who had then Shechem for their metropolis (a city situate at Mount Gerizzim, and inhabited by apostates of the Jewish nation), seeing that Alexander had so greatly honored the Jews, determined to profess themselves Jews; (341) for such is the disposition of the Samaritans, as we have already elsewhere declared, that when the Jews are in adversity they deny that they are of kin to them, and then they confess the truth; but when they perceive that some good fortune hath befallen them, they immediately pretend to have communion with them, saying, that they belong to them, and derive their genealogy from the posterity of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh.”[2]

E)    200-175 BC – Ecclesiasticus 50:25-26 (nearly the end) – “Two nations my soul detests, and the third is not even a people: Those who live in Seir, and the Philistines, and the foolish people that live in Shechem.

F)    “The Samaritans were not popular among the Jews, as they were despised for being unfaithful and of mixed ancestry, and they were treated as defecting half-breeds.”[3]

1)     Extras from Bock (Jewish Tradition)

2)     To eat with a Samaritan was said to be like eating pork.

3)     Their daughters were seen as unclean.

4)     They were accused of aborting fetuses.

2)     Jesus in the New Testament (especially in the Gospel of Luke).

A)   The Samaritan woman at the well

1)     Jn. 4:4-9

2)     She is in an immoral marriage.

3)     Their worship was all messed up. Samaritans set up a rival temple at Mt. Gerizim.

4)     vv. 28-30 – She brought her people to Jesus.

5)     vv. 39-42 – Many believed.

B)    The parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:29-37).

1)     v. 31 – A priest passed by.

2)     v. 32 – A Levite passed by.

3)     vv. 33ff. – But a Samaritan is the good guy in the story.

C)    The one leper who turned back to say thank you to Jesus was s Samaritan (Lk. 17:11-19).

3)     Now, with all this in mind, read our text in Acts 8.

A)   vv. 1-8, 11 – Philip

B)    vv. 14-17, 25 – Peter and John

1)     Note: The last time John was here he wanted to call fire from heaven down on them (LK. 9:51-56).

4)     There are two things we need to do with this reality.

A)   Remember that the Gospel is for everyone!

1)     Lk. 14:16-24 – Jesus said to fill up his house.

2)     Don’t worry about the kind of people you fill it up with: the poor, and crippled and blind and lame…and all the people “out there.”

3)     Just fill it up.

B)    Remember that when we read this story…I am the Samaritan!

1)     I’m not “one of the good ones” who deserves a seat at the table asking about all “those people” out there.

2)     I’m one of “those people out there” who has been graciously invited to the feast by Jesus.

3)     We need to remember when we read stories like Acts 8 about how Jesus shook things up to let the gross people in, THAT WE ARE THE GROSS PEOPLE.

[1] Bock.

[2] Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 307.

[3] Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 324.