Bible Studies
Focus On Communicating the Word (Acts 8:4-25)
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. In Acts 2, at the beginning of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, about three thousand were baptized. 2. The message of His crucifixion and resurrection and the realization that He was the promised Messiah jolted Jerusalem. 3. Every day there were people being added to the number of believers. Acts 4 says, “The number of men came to be about five thousand.” 4. Miracles were taking place. They were threatened by the religionists of the day. They were imprisoned. Some were murdered. Still they kept preaching and teaching, “Jesus is the Son of God.” 5. Luke says, “And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number” (Acts 4:14). “The word of God kept on spreading and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem” (Acts 6:7). 6. Following the stoning of Stephen, they scattered. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. 7. When we read these accounts we thrill at their excitement, the miracles, and the conversions! We may even wonder if the Lord is among us or not since we are not experiencing the same thing that they experienced. I assure you that He is, but since things are not happening at the same level, it is easy for us to become distracted and loose focus on our mission of communicating the word. 8. There are some things in Acts 8:4ff that serve as reminders that we maintain our focus on communicating that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. 9. Reading Acts 8:4-8.Discussion:
I. The scattered went about preaching the word (4-8).A. They were not quelled by threats and persecution.
B. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed Christ to them.
1. This was an unusual turn of events for everyone knows that “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (Jn. 4:9).
2. The Samaritans were a mixed race group.
a. When Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. the Assyrians took some into exile to Assyria.
b. They resettled the land with people from Babylon and other places (2 Kings 17:24ff).
c. They were idolaters. The king of Assyria sent one of the Israelite priests back to teach them the ways of the Lord, but they still made gods of their own and put them in the houses of worship that they had made, thus they feared God and served their own gods as well.
3. Philip had made a trans-cultural move.
a. But Jesus had too when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn. 4).
b. I do not know if Philip found any of those who had believed under Jesus teaching or not, but Philip’s teaching certainly had an impact.
c. What he did was consistent with what he was authorized to do by the Lord for he had said after His resurrection that they “would be His witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
C. Our focus on communicating the word needs a trans-cultural element. That is, while preaching Christ to those like us we need not so limit Christ, but move beyond ourselves.
1. We have done that with our work in Colombia, SA.
2. In such efforts we cannot allow our prejudices, our differences in culture, language socio-economic circumstances, etc. to become fences that prohibit our efforts to communicate.
3. The same is true in our own community. We must give ourselves to penetrating every culture with the message of Christ.
4. I can hardly imagine the challenges facing the churches in Alabama in the 60’s in the racial tensions of that era, but we cannot limit the gospel of Christ. It is to be available to all cultures: rich, poor, black, white, male, female, English speaking, non-English speaking, even to those who practice magic (Acts 8:9ff).
II. When they heard, they sent . . . (Acts 8:14-17).A. Philip had initiated this move, but the apostles in Jerusalem supported it.
B. They sent Peter and John to Samaria.
1. They realized the infant situation in Samaria.
2. Men and women had been baptized, but still, how unstable they must have been.
3. Peter and John prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
a. Often look at this from the standpoint of their receiving ability to perform miracles. Sometimes I think we are like Simon distracted by miracles.
b. But miracles were designed to validate and confirm that the message was from God (Mk. 16:20). They were not an end in themselves.
c. These new Christians needed stabilizing. This could only occur as they were taught the things of God (Eph. 4:11ff; 1 Cor. 12:7, 14:3).
d. Receiving the Holy Spirit was not about miracles, but about receiving the communication necessary to spiritual development.
C. We learn from this example that there is more to communicating the word than just baptizing people.
1. Sometimes we are focused on baptisms.
2. We will do well to focus on making disciples baptizing and teaching them (Matt. 28:19-20). This is what Jesus taught in the great commission.
3. This is what the apostles and the early church did (Acts 2:42; 13:1).
4. This is the objective of the Epistles whether written to churches or individuals.
D. We need to be concerned about our own training and we need to be concerned about others and their training too.
1. We need to be supportive to those like Peter and John who go other places preaching and teaching to strengthen disciples.
2. Derek and Suzanne are today at Estesburg.
3. Heath regularly preaches in Georgetown.
4. And financially we continue to help Royce Chandler in Florida and Jaime Restrepo in Colombia. And I know individuals among you that help others in Colombia.
5. And these identifications do not mean to overlook the Bible class teachers, those who conduct home studies and others who are the very foundation of our local work.
III. They preached to many villages of the Samaritans (25).A. They understood that the work was on-going. They did not look back but forward.
B. From one place to the next their focus did not change.
1. When they returned to Jerusalem they continued the work. Peter is found later found traveling through Judea, Galilee and Samaria, Lydda, Sharon, Joppa, Caesarea and back to Jerusalem.
2. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip sending him to the Ethopian, Azotus, Caesarea.
3. Thus the work continued.
C. Let us recognize that the work continues. Let us do our part to move it forward.
1. It is easy for us to become absorbed in the affairs of life—work, family, even our own recreation and loose our focus on the work of God to communicate His message to the lost.
2. It is appropriate for us to give attention to other areas of our life, but let’s remember what is of first importance “that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day.”
Conclusion:
1. Let us be about our Father’s business. 2. Let our focus be on communicating the word, making disciples of all the nations teaching them to observe all those things taught by the Lord. 3. Let us give in recognition that this is the work that we are giving to. 4. Let us teach and support teachers, with honor, love and respect because of the greatness of the work that they are doing.
