Bible Commentaries
Acts 8

Verses 1-3

XI

THE OFFICE OF DEACON, THE PHARISAIC PERSECUTION, STEPHEN AND SAUL TO THE FRONT, A NEW ISSUE, AND THE REJECTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE ANOINTED CHURCH BY JERUSALEM

Acts 6:1-8:3.

So far in the book of Acts we have considered two leading thoughts: (1) the coming of the Holy Spirit to occupy and to accredit the church; (2) the Sadducean persecution, waged on account of the issue made by the church and the Holy Spirit that Christ was risen from the dead. The topics of discussion in this chapter are very important. We have already noted that the protracting of the great revival commenced at Pentecost (which really lasted three and a half years), detained, in the Holy City, multitudes of the Jews of the dispersion for so long a time that great necessity arose, which was met by a burst of philanthropy never surpassed in the world’s history.

Our first topic is the creation of the office of deacon. The church was composed of Hebrews and Hellenists, or Grecians. The Hebrews were Palestinian Jews, speaking the mixed Hebrew tongue, called Aramaic, and were generally more rigid than the Hellenists in devotion to all the rites and traditions of the past.

The problem of fairly distributing the benevolent fund of the church to all the needy ones now confronted the church. There came up a complaint on the part of the Grecians, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. That was the problem. It would not do to have the church divided on a matter of that kind, and there had to be a solution of that problem. The solution was that the apostles ordered the church as a whole to select a body of men who should attend to this financial, or secular matter; and that they would then be ordained to the work by prayer and the laying on of hands. The church thereupon elected seven men, calling them from among the Grecians, the parties from whom the complaint came, and these seven men took charge of this matter and relieved the apostles from having to consider the temporalities when all their energies should be devoted to preaching the Word. That was the solution of the problem.

Let us connect and explain the following: Acts 2:45, where they had everything common, and out of that common fund provided for all the necessitous cases of the entire congregation; Acts 4:35, where Barnabas and others sold their possessions and put the proceeds of the sale into this common fund; Acts 6:1, where complaint arose about the fairness in the distribution of this fund; Acts 11:29 and Acts 12:25, where a contribution was made for the purpose of aiding the poor saints in Jerusalem; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, where Paul says, "As I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store . . . that no collections be made when I come," this fund to be sent to Judea to help the poor saints; 2 Corinthians 8-9, which is devoted to the same subject; and 1 Timothy 5:3-11, where Paul instructs Timothy, who was then at Ephesus, as to what kind of widows to receive on this beneficiary list.

My object in grouping these scriptures is to show more clearly than heretofore in what respect they had "all things common" – that it was with regard to the necessity. Those who had abundance either gave money, or sold their property and got money, and put it into a common fund, and that fund had to be distributed among all of the necessitous cases, according as each had need.

When you study this account all the way through the New Testament, you will see that it did not approximate in meaning what the Socialists now claim for it; that it did not mean that all of the property was to be common, but that all should participate according to the ability, to create a fund common to the necessity.

We have here the lesson in church polity, that though the apostles themselves were present, the election of officers must be by the church, being congregational in form and polity, and every member of the church, male and female, being entitled to an equal vote in matters that related to the congregation. We have already found the same thing in the election of the successor to Judas. Here again it is made perfectly plain that even the twelve men, inspired of God, did not assume to elect officers of the church. They directed the church to do the electing, and they participated in the ordination. This was the institution of the deacon’s office referred to in Philippians 1:1, where Paul writes to the bishops and deacons, and whose qualifications are set forth in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

The philosophic ground on which this institution rests is the division of labor. An Old Testament parallel is Jethro’s suggestion to Moses to appoint judges to judge the small matters, and let him (Moses) judge only of matters God-ward. In Christ’s time, Judas exercised the deacon’s office. That college of apostles was a church in embryo, and Judas, one of the twelve, carried the bag, with the result that he extracted from it its contents. "He was a thief," John says. We may well ask another question: Is there a failure when the preacher exercises the deacon function, and was that the reason for now putting this temporal matter into the bands of laymen?

A preacher can dip a brush In lampblack and swab out all the white in his reputation, if he goes wrong on the use of church funds.

I knew a preacher who wanted all the time to be deacon as well as pastor; he kept all the funds, and there was a great row at the final examination of his financial accounts.

The Methodists and the Romanists both hold that a deacon is an order of the clergy. It cannot be that it was intended to institute a new order in the ministry, for the reason assigned: "We cannot leave the word of God and serve tables; therefore, look ye out brethren from among you, suitable men, to attend to this, and we will give ourselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer." That makes it perfectly plain that they were not intending to create a new order of preachers, but secular officers to attend to the temporalities of the church.

I heard a sermon by a great Mississippi Baptist preacher, S. S. Lattimore, father of J. C. Lattimore, of Waco, and 0. S. Lattimore, of Fort Worth. The subject was, "We Cannot Leave the Word of God to Serve Tables," and the position he took was that the deacon is elected to serve tables: (1) The tables of the poor. (2) The table of the Lord’s Supper. (3) The table of the pastor. I thought it a very ingenious division of the table question.

If, then, it was not intended to create a new order in the ministry, what about the preaching of two of these deacons – Stephen and Philip? The explanation is that deacons sometimes become preachers. Two of these seven did. We see such things happen now, but they were not elected to the office of preacher in this case (Acts 6:1-6).

The present classifications in the ministry are: (1) pastors, meaning shepherds; bishops, meaning overseers of the work, which refers to the same office; pastors or bishops are those that have charge of the church; (2) evangelists, or kingdom preachers; (3) missionaries. A missionary may not necessarily be an evangelist. Those can hardly be called different orders in the ministry – that is, one is not higher than the other; it is not a graded thing, but it is a classification.

Some people are concerned to know whether a deacon should be a married man and a father. I will say that is better, but I would not consider it absolutely necessary. We certainly cannot infer it from the passage that is usually quoted: "Likewise their wives . . . grave." The word does not mean "wives," i.e., the wives of deacons, but it means "deaconesses." It is better that these men be men of rich religious character and experience, and possessing the confidence of the denomination, as they are going to handle public funds.

The result of the solution of this problem which confronted the church is found in Acts 6:7: "The word of God increased, and multitudes were converted." There are certain essential elements of the rite or ceremony of ordination indicated here: (1) election by the church; (2) prayer; (3) laying on of hands. Those three things belong to the rite, or the ceremony, or ordination.

These remarks have been preliminary. We now advance in the discussion. A new man came to the front at this time, and his character and work rendered him prominent, not only then, but in all ages since. That man was Stephen, and the character of his work was as follows. The record states (1) that he was full of the Holy Spirit; (2) that he was full of faith; (3) that he wrought miracles and wonders. When it says that he was full of faith, it means that he had a clearer and stronger faith than any other man then living on the earth. No one of the apostles had such clear recognition of the meaning of the kingdom of God and of the church and of the work of the church as this man Stephen. He is the colossal figure in the history of the early church. He presented a new matter to the people which it took the apostles a long time to see.

In Acts 6:9 we find a synagogue and some other terms of the verse that need explanation. This was a Jewish synagogue, not for resident Jews, but for Jews of the dispersion, who stayed for a long time in Jerusalem, and as they did not understand the Hebrew language, the ordinary Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem did not benefit them much, so it is called (1) the synagogue of the "Libertines" (Freedmen); (2) "Cyreneans and Alexandrians" – Jews from northern Africa, where they had been settled by one of the Ptolemies; (3) "Cilicia and Asia," the home of Saul; a great many Cilician Jews were in that synagogue. It is implied in their making an issue with Stephen that Stephen himself, being a Grecian, being one of the dispersed Jews, and better able to speak to that class than to the Hebrews, was pushing, particularly among these dispersed Jews, the grand thoughts concerning the kingdom of God that he bore in his own mind. He was very aggressive; he carried the war into the enemy’s territory. Saul of Tarsus was probably the rabbi of this synagogue. He was educated first at home, then he was graduated in their theological school, of which Gamaliel was president, and became a rabbi, and was of this particular synagogue.

The method of resistance to the gospel now adopted by this synagogue, which was entirely new, was to debate the question. There had been no debate heretofore. The Sadducees did not try to debate with them. This young man, Saul, was a trained thinker, speaker and logician, and he did not propose to let this thing go without "tackling" it in debate. So there was a challenge for debate. Stephen was making certain points, and he was making them among these Grecian people. Still young and ambitious, he had his fire; he believed confidently in his ability to beat any man in -the world. They put it up to him to debate the question. And this is the new method of resistance. The two opposing were the rabbi of this synagogue, and Stephen, who was pushing war over into that synagogue. I would like to have heard the discussion. I am sure it was a fight of the giants.

The issue now is not the resurrection of the dead, but on the whole of the old dispensation having served its purpose; it is vanishing and a new dispensation takes its place. Many of the things in the old dispensation were nailed to the cross of Christ. Their great Temple is now an empty house; its veil is rent in twain from top to bottom; a new temple has been anointed, according to the prophet Daniel, in Daniel 9 – the anointing of the most holy place – the Holy Spirit coming down and filling the house that Jesus built, leaving the other house vacant. Everything in connection with that system that is local and transitory has vanished away. In other words, Stephen was making right there in that debate just exactly the argument that is made in the letter to the Hebrews that in the new dispensation is a greater than Moses, a greater than the angels, a greater than Joshua, a greater than Aaron. That a greater sacrifice than the bullocks, sheep, and goats, offered on Jewish altars, had been offered. There is then the new temple, the new Sabbath also, everything new now; just what the letter to the Hebrews discusses. This is the issue that Stephen made that this Jesus is the one pointed out by Moses and by the prophets as the true Messiah. That is the forward step taken by Stephen.

The result of the debate is given in Acts 6:10: "And they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spake." They could not resist the power of his eloquence, and Saul went down in the fight. A deaf man was once asked why he attended a big debate, since he could not hear. He said he could always tell which side got whipped. "Why?" he was asked. "Because the one that gets whipped gets mad." So Saul, failing in this new method of resistance by discussion, revived an old one, an account of which we find in Acts 6:11-14. They took up that old "rusty sword of persecution" that the Sadducees had tried. They took this thing into the courts, and brought the power of the council to bear on it, and decided this matter dogmatically.

When they arrested Stephen and tried him before the Sanhedrin there were three charges, and that shows what he had been preaching:

(1) Their witnesses testified that this man Stephen had spoken blasphemous words about their Temple. I have no doubt that Stephen said it was an empty house that had served its day – that it was only waiting a short time until it would be blotted out from the earth, and one stone would not be left upon another – that it was never to be erected again, never to have the altar of sacrifices again. That is the first charge, and we see how plausible they made it.

(2) That he spoke against the law. I have no doubt that they made plausible proof on that, and yet it was false. He did not speak against the law, but just as Christ said: "I have not come to destroy, but to fulfil it" – that the law in all of its types and shadows and ritual had been completed, filled full, and there was no more use for it; that there was a new law, calling for a different Sacrifice, calling for a different Priest.

(3) That he preached that so far as the customs taught by Moses were typical and ritualistic, and pertaining to a past dispensation, they would be changed. I have no’ doubt that he stood there and preached that the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles was broken down and ground to powder. And he had more faith in that than any other man of his time. His appearance and bearing before the Sanhedrin were marvelous. He did not look like a guilty man; he did not look scared. When they looked steadfastly at him they saw a face illumined – a face like the face of an angel. The Lord God was the light of his countenance. The light and glory of God was in his eye. He stood there as a king among men. He did not come in like a whipped cur, begging pardon for existence or appealing for pity.

Let us analyze his defense, and especially make clear his charge against them. The defense corresponds to the charge in its three parts – Acts 6:13-14. It shows that the Jews misunderstood their own scriptures, which distinctly showed the transitory nature of the old dispensation. He submits his proof: (a) That Moses foretold the coming of a Prophet like unto himself, whose teaching should be final, (b) The prophets foretold the same thing, (c) The tabernacle of Moses was temporary, and succeeded by the Temple, (d) That God had left the old Temple, since he dwelleth in a temple not made with hands. Stephen was preaching a temple not made with hands – the church – every stone in this new temple being a living stone, or a converted man or woman, (e) That all through the probations of their history they had rejected the definitely appointed leaders. They had rejected Moses; they had rejected God; they had rejected the prophets; they had rejected the Lord himself, when he came in fulfilment of the prophecy of Moses; and now, to cap the climax, they were rejecting the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent from heaven; they were resisting the anointed church which that Spirit accredited. The effect of the defense and the charge on that Sanhedrin was terrific: "They gnashed on him with their teeth." They were "cut to the heart." The word of God was a sword in the hands of Stephen. It was living and powerful, and dividing the joints, reaching the marrow and laying bare the soul itself in its nakedness. His face was shining. One of the great painters, Rembrandt, obtained his special style by putting a halo around the face. The photographers adopt that style now, in which the face is flooded with light, and this is exhibited in the picture. We read that the face of Stephen was illumined, and looking up, far above earthly courts, he sees the heavens opened, and the heavenly court. He sees the supreme court of the universe, the glory of God, and Jesus, who is represented as seated on the right hand of God. He has leaped up to his feet. Stephen said, "I see Jesus, standing at the right hand of the majesty on high."

That vision was according to a prophecy of our Lord. When Christ had been put on oath, about three and a half years before this time, by this same Sanhedrin, having the same officers, he said (testifying under oath that he was the Messiah), "Hereafter ye shall see me at the right hand of God." They counted that blasphemy when Christ said it. Now Stephen, remembering the words of the Lord says, "I see him. He said he would appear at the right hand of God. I see him there." His appearance was his demonstration that he was the Messiah. According to what promise of the Lord? Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself." When the time of a Christian’s death approaches, there is a coming of the Lord. Jesus meets him at the depot of death, and receives him into the everlasting tabernacles. Stephen, the brittle thread of his life about to be snapped in twain, and his soul to be evicted by violence from his crumbling body, says, "I see him; he is standing; he said he would come, and he has come." What was the reason of the effect on that council? It is that this vision which this man evidently saw was a plea established upon what Christ had said, and, therefore, they were affected instead of this man being affected, and though affected, yet not in love with the truth brought to light. They hated it. The greater its light the more they squirmed; the greater the light, the more they writhed in it. Just like a worm exposed to the light, they could not stand the effect of the light. So they brought in a verdict on the charge of blasphemy, and he was executed as indicated by the penalty, which was stoning. Saul was a member of the Sanhedrin and voted in rendering this verdict, the proof of which is found in Acts 8:1; Acts 26:10: "Saul was consenting unto his death . . . when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them." But Stephen made a twofold prayer, which sustains a relation to the words and deeds of our Lord. His first prayer was, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," looking into the face of Jesus, just as we look into any man’s face. Jesus was there, and as the tenement of clay was about to crumble, and the soul was about to be evicted, Stephen said, "Lord, receive my spirit." What word of Christ does he recollect? "It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The other part of his prayer was, "Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge," praying for his murderers.. Jesus made intercession for the transgressors: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." So Stephen was talking to the Lord, that he lay not this sin to their charge. Augustine said of this prayer in one of his great homilies:

Si Stephanus non sic orasset, Eccleaia Paulum non haberet.

If Stephen had not so prayed, The Church had not had Paul.

I sometimes think of that prayer and that fiery disputant who was mad because he had been defeated in the debate, and who is now a persecutor, a witness and judge, and of Stephen, looking in the face of the Saviour, and saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to Saul’s charge," and then I track that prayer until I see it answered.

There is special significance in the fact that the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of Saul. He was the chief persecutor, and as the law required that the witnesses should lay aside their outer cloaks, and cast the first stone, so when they disrobed themselves of their outer cloak in order to stone Stephen, they brought their clothes and put them at the feet of this young man named Saul, showing that everything was being done under his direction and leadership.

The persecution now commenced is unlike the Sadducean persecution. It is the most sweeping transaction that the Jews ever conducted in their history. It includes that most abominable of all exercises inaugurated – inquisitorial visitation into the private home, and the dragging of men and women violently before the courts, and then when they were put to death, Saul gave his vote against them. It reached every man, every woman, and every child in the church, except the apostles, and expatriated those whom it did not select. The fire was so hot that they fled in every direction.

A distinct prophetic period here ends according to Daniel, who said that when the Messiah comes, he will confirm the covenant with many for one week; that in the middle of the week he should be cut off – that is, he would confirm it for one week of three-and-a-half years during his public ministry, and then he would confirm it three-and-a-half years after his death. This persecution of Saul is the end of the second three and-a-half years. Hereafter the salvation of the Jews is an exception; hence there will be no ingathering of the Jews until they shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." It means that the God of salvation is now shut out from their faces. But this persecution affects the church in a broader understanding of its commission. Its members see now, as I will show in a subsequent discussion, that Samaria must have the Word of God; that the Gentiles must also have it, as was seen in the forward step of this fiery Stephen, such as they had never had before, and that no apostle had up to that time. This gives Stephen a prominent place in the transition. He is a keystone figure in the transaction. He is the colossal leader that gets the church out of its rut of preaching to Jews only, and puts the wheels of the carriage of salvation on a graded road and track that will lead to every nation, tribe, tongue, and kindred in the world. Likewise Saul sustained a vital relation to this great transition. He was the man who by that debate and that persecution, just as effectually, though unconsciously, helped to spread the gospel to the whole world, as he did later when he preached it himself. Thus again the wrath of man was made to praise God.

But what of the execution of Stephen on the verdict of a Jewish court, on a Jewish charge, with a Jewish penalty, as compared with what the same Sanhedrin had said three years before to Pilate (John 18:31) of the unlawfulness of their putting a man to death? Pilate said, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law," and they said, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." Here they were putting a man to death, and they were trying him according to their law, and Paul says, "We tried and put to death." Here is the explanation: This was the year A.D. 37, in which Tiberius, the Emperor, died, and the new emperor had not come in, and as procurators were appointees of emperors, there were no procurators. At this juncture there was no procurator in Palestine, no Pontius Pilate, and, therefore, they took matters into their own hands at the risk of a subsequent explanation of it when the emperor should come to it. Just here the Pharisee persecution ended by the conversion of Saul, and then the church had rest (Acts 9:31).

Acts 7:2-3; Acts 7:22; Acts 7:25; Acts 7:53 shed much light on the Old Testament. Acts 7:2-3 says, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." The Revised Version of Genesis indicates that God’s call to Abraham took place after he got into the promised land. Stephen here says that that call came before he got to Haran. The King James Version rightly translates Genesis 12:1 and the Revised Version "slips up" on it. The Authorized Version says, "God had said to Abraham." Acts 7:22 says, "And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works." That throws light on the education of Moses, and also on the public official deeds of Moses. Acts 7:25 says, "And he [Moses] supposed that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giving them deliverance." That throws light on the interference of Moses in Egypt, and shows that God had told him that he was to deliver Israel. He had a revelation which we do not learn from Exodus. He supposed his people understood that they were to be delivered by him. Acts 7:53 says, "Ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not." That is light on the Sinaitic covenant – that it came through the ministry of angels, later reaffirmed in the New Testament, accepted by Jews, and especially claimed by Josephus. Just here is needed an explanation of Acts 7:16, which says, "And they were laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for the price in silver of the sons of Hamor in Shechem." The only explanation of that is that there is an error in the text of the copyist. Abraham did not buy that land. If we go back far enough we will see that it was Jacob’s and not Abraham’s; and that Jacob claimed that he got it by bow and spear. His sons, Levi and Simeon, got it by as rascally a trick as was ever perpetrated.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the leading topics so far discussed in Acts?

2. What are the themes of this chapter?

3. What is the distinction between Grecians and Hebrews in Acts 6:1?

4. What problem now confronted the church, and what its solution?

5. Connect and explain the following scriptures: Acts 2:45; Acts 4:35; Acts 6:1; Acts 11:29; Acts 12:25; 1 Corinthians 16:1-14; 1Cor. 8-9; and 1 Timothy 5:3-11.

6. What lesson of church polity here taught?

7. Was this the institution of the deacon’s office referred to in Philippians 1:1, and whose qualifications are set forth in 1 Timothy 3:8-13? What the proof?

8. On what philosophic ground does this institution rest, what Old Testament parallel, who in Christ’s lifetime exercised the deacon’s office, and what the result?

9. Was the deaconship, now established, an order in the ministry as taught by some denominations? If not, how explain the preaching of Stephen and Philip, who were deacons?

10. What are the present classifications in the ministry? Give examples.

11. Must a deacon be a married man and a father?

12. What was the result of the solution of this problem, which confronted the church?

13. What are the essential elements of the rite of ordination?

14. What new man now comes to the front, and what character of his work rendered him prominent, not only then, but in all ages since?

15. Explain the synagogue of Acts 6:9 and the other terms of the verse, and what is implied in their making an issue with Stephen?

16. Who was probably the rabbi of this synagogue?

17. What entirely new method of resistance to the gospel now adopted by this synagogue, and who were the opposing leaders?

18. What is the issue this time as contrasted with the Sadducean issue, and what great forward step had been taken by Stephen which created this issue?

19. What is the result of the debate?

20. Failing in this new method of resistance by discussion, what old one did they revive?

21. What charges did they bring against Stephen, and what the plausibleness of each?

22. What his appearance and bearing before the Sanhedrin?

23. Analyze his defense; especially make clear his charge against them.

24. What is the effect of the defense and the charge, on the council?

25. What is the vision of Stephen, what its relation to a prophecy of our Lord, also to a promise of our Lord, and what the reason of its effect on the council?

26. Did they render a verdict, and on what charge was he executed, as indicated by the penalty?

27. Was Saul a member of the Sanhedrin, did he vote in casting this verdict, and what the proof?

28. What was Stephen’s twofold prayer, and what its relation to the words and deeds of our Lord?

29. What said Augustine of this prayer in one of his great homilies?

30. What is the significance of the witnesses laying their clothes at the feet of Saul?

31. What is the sweeping persecution that followed, what its signification, what its character, what its extent, and what its result?

32. What distinct prophetic period ends here, and what its meaning to the Jewish nation?

33. How did this persecution affect the church with reference to the commission?

34. What may be said of Stephen’s relation to this great transition?

35. What was Paul’s relation to it?

36. Compare the execution of Stephen on the verdict of a Jewish court, on a Jewish charge, with a Jewish penalty, with what the same Sanhedrin had said three years before to Pilate, and explain.

37. How did the Pharisee persecution end?

38. What light on the Old Testament from Acts 7:2-3?

39. What light is also from Acts 7:22?

40. What is from Acts 7:25?

41. What is from Acts 7:53?

42. Harmonize Acts 7:14 with Genesis 46:26 f; Exodus 1:5; Deuteronomy 10:22.

43. Explain Acts 7:16.

44. Explain the word "church" in Acts 7:38.

Verses 1-4

XVI

SAUL, THE PERSECUTOR

Acts 7:57-60; Acts 8:1-4; Acts 22:4-5; Acts 22:19-20; Acts 26:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; Galatians 1:22-24.

In a preceding chapter on Stephen we have necessarily considered somewhat a part of the matter of this chapter, and now we will restate only enough to give a connected account of Saul. In our last discussion we found Saul and other members of his family residents in Jerusalem, Saul an accomplished scholar, a rabbi, trained in the lore of the Jewish Bible and of their traditions, a member of the Sanhedrin, an extreme Pharisee, flaming with zeal, and aggressive in his religion, an intense patriot, about thirty-six years old, probably a widower, stirred up and incensed on account of the progress of the new religion of Jesus.

In considering this distinguished Jew in the role of a persecutor, we must find, first of all, the occasion of this marvelous and murderous outbreak of hatred on his part at this particular juncture, and the strange direction of its hostility. On three all-sufficient grounds we understand why Saul did not actively participate in the recent Sadducean persecution. First, the issue of that persecution was the resurrection, and on this point a Pharisee could not join a Sadducean materialist. Second, the motive of that persecution was to prevent the break with Rome, and Saul as a Pharisee wanted a break with Rome. Third, the direction of that persecution was mainly against the apostles and Palestinian Christians, who, so far, had made no break with the Temple and its services and ritual, or the customs of Moses. To outsiders they appeared as a sect of the Jews, agreeing, indeed, with the Pharisees on many points, and while they were hateful in their superstition as to the person of the Messiah, they were understood to preach a Messiah for Jews only and not for Gentiles. That is why Saul did not join the Sadducean persecution – because of the issue of it, because of the motive of it, and because of the direction of it.

1. Five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor: First, the coming to the front of Stephen, the Hellenist, whose preaching evidently looked to a Messiah for the world, and not only looked to a break with Jerusalem and the Temple, but the abrogation of the entire Old Covenant, or at least its supercession by a New Covenant on broad, worldwide lines that made no distinction between a Jew and a Greek. That is the first cause of the persecuting spirit of Saul.

2. Stephen’s Messiah was a God-man and a sufferer, expiating sin, and bringing in an imputed righteousness through faith in him wrought by the regenerating Spirit, instead of a Jewish hero, seated on David’s earthly throne, triumphant over Rome, and bringing all nations into subjection to the royal law. This is the difference between the two Messiahs. So that kind of a Messiah would be intensely objectionable to Saul.

3. Stephen’s preaching was making fearful inroads among the flock of Saul’s Cilicean synagogue, and sweeping like a fire among the Israelites of the dispersion, who were already far from the Palestinian Hebrews.

4. Some of Saul’s own family were converted to the new religion, two of them are mentioned in the letter to the Romans as being in Christ before him, and his own sister, judging from Acts 23, was already a Christian.

5. Saul’s humiliating defeat in the great debate with Stephen.

These are the five causes that pushed the man out who had been passive in the other persecution, now to become active in this persecution. They account for the vehement flame of Saul’s hate, and the direction of that hate, not toward the apostles, who had not broken with the Holy City, its Temple, its sacrifice, nor the customs of Moses, but against Stephen and those accepting his broader view. We cannot otherwise account for the fact that Saul took no steps in his persecution against the apostles, while he did pursue the scattered Christians of the dispersion unto strange cities.

We may imagine Saul fanning the flame of his hate by his thoughts in these particulars:

1. "To call this Jesus ’God’ is blasphemy.

2. "To call this convicted and executed felon ’Messiah,’ violates the Old Testament teaching of David’s royal son triumphing over all of his enemies.

3. "That I, a freeborn child of Abraham, never in bondage, must be re-born, must give up my own perfect and blameless righteousness of the law to accept the righteousness of another, is outrageous.

4. "That I must see Jerusalem perish, the Temple destroyed, the law of the Mosaic covenant abrogated, and enter into this new kingdom on the same humiliating terms as an uncircumcised Gentile, is incredible and revolting.

5. "That this Hellenist, Stephen, should invade my own flock and pervert members of my own family, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen [Romans 16:7], and my own sister [Acts 23:16], and shake the faith of my other kinsmen, Jason and Sosipater [Romans 16:21], is insulting to the last degree.

6. "That I, the proud rabbi, a member of the supreme court of my people, the accomplished and trained logician, should be overwhelmed in debate by this unscholarly Stephen, and that, too, in my own chosen field the interpretation of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, is crucifixion of my pride and an intolerable public shame. Let Stephen perish!

7. "But more humiliating than all, I find myself whipped inside. This Stephen is driving me with goads as if I were an unruly ox. His words and shining face and the Jesus he makes me see, plant convicting pricks in my heart and conscience against which I kick in vain; I am like a troubled sea casting up mire and filth. To go back on the convictions of my life is abject surrender. To follow, then, a logical conclusion, is to part from the counsel of my great teacher, Gamaliel, and to take up the sword of the Sadducee and make myself the servant of the high priest. Since I will not go back, and cannot stand still, I must go forward in that way that leads to prison, blood, and death, regardless of age or sex. Perhaps I may find peace. The issue is now personal and vital; Stephen or Saul must die. To stop at Stephen is to stop at the beginning of the way. I must go on till the very name of this Jesus is blotted from the earth."

That is given as imagined, but you must bring in psychology in order that you may understand the working of this man’s mind to account for the flaming spirit and the desperate lengths of the persecution which he introduces.

Seven things show the spirit of this persecution, as expressed in the New Testament:

1. In Acts 8:3 (Authorized Version), the phrase, "making havoc" is used. That is the only time in the New Testament that the word "havoc" is found. It is found in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. But it is a word which expresses the fury of a wild boar making havoc – a wild boar in a garden: rooting, gnashing, and trampling. That phrase, "making havoc," gives us an idea of the spirit that Saul had, which is the spirit of a wild boar.

2. In Acts 9:1, it is said of Saul, "Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter." How tersely expressed that is! The expiration of his breath is a threat, and death. Victor Hugo, in one place, said about a man, "Whenever he respires he conspires,” and that is the nearest approach in literature to this vivid description of the state of a man’s mind – that the very breath he breathed was threatenings and slaughter.

3. The next word is found in Acts 26:11. He says, "being exceedingly mad against them." That is the superlative degree. He was not merely angry at the Christians, but it was an anger that amounted to madness; he was not merely mad but "exceedingly mad." So that gives you the picture of that wild boar.

4. "He haled men and women." "Haled" is an old Anglo Saxon word. We don’t use it now, but it means "to drag by violence." He didn’t go and courteously arrest a man; he just went and grabbed men and women and dragged them through the streets. Imagine a gray-haired mother, a chaste wife, a timid maiden, grabbed and dragged through the streets, with a crowd around mocking, and you get at the spirit of this persecution.

5. The next word is "devastate." Paul used this word twice, and Ananias used it once (Acts 9:21). That word is the term that is applied to an army sweeping a country with fire and sword. We say that Sherman devastated Georgia. He swept a scope of country seventy-five miles wide – from Atlanta to the sea, leaving only the chimney stacks – not a house, not a fence – with fire and sword. And that word is here employed to describe Saul’s persecution.

6. Twice in Galatians he uses this word in describing it: "I persecuted them beyond measure," that is, if you want to find some kind of a word that would describe his persecution, in its spirit, you couldn’t find it; you couldn’t find a word that would mean "beyond measure."

7. The last phrase is in Acts 22:4, "unto death." That was objective in spirit, whether men or women. These seven expressions, and they are just as remarkable, and more so, in the Greek, as they are in English, give the spirit of this persecution.

The following things show the extent of this persecution:

1. Domiciliary visits. He didn’t wait to find a man on the streets acting in opposition to any law. He goes to the houses after them, and in every place of the world. The most startling exercise of tyranny is an inquisition into a man’s home. The law of the United States regards a man’s home as his castle, and only under the most extreme circumstances does the law allow its officers to enter a man’s home. If you were perfectly sure that a Negro had burglarized your smokehouse, and you had tracked him to his house, you couldn’t go in there, you couldn’t take an officer of the law in there, unless you went before a magistrate and recorded a solemn oath that you believed that he was the one that did burglarize your place, and that what he stole would be found if you looked for it in his house.

2. In the second place, "scourges." He says many times I have scourged them, both men and women, forty stripes save one; thirty-nine hard lashes he put on the shoulders of men and women. Under the Roman law it was punishable with death to scourge a Roman citizen. Convicts, or people in the penitentiary, can be whipped. Roman lictors carried a bundle of rods with which they chastised outsiders, but on home people they were never used. Cicero makes his great oration against Veres burn like fire when it is shown that Veres scourged Roman citizens. Seldom now do we ever hear of a case where a man is dragged out of his house and publicly whipped by officers of the law, just on account of his religion.

3. The next thing was imprisonment. He says, "Oftentimes I had them put in prison." A thunderbolt couldn’t be more sudden than his approach to a house. Thundering at the door, day or night, gathering one of the inmates up, taking him from the home and taking him to jail. What would you think of somebody coming to your house when you were away in the night, and dragging your wife and putting her in jail, just because she was worshiping God according to the dictates of her conscience? We live in a good country over here. We have never been where these violent persecutions were carried on.

4. He says that when they were put to death he gave his voice against them. He arrested them and scourged them, and then in the Sanhedrin he voted against them.

5. In the next place he compelled them to blaspheme. The Greek doesn’t mean that he succeeded in making them blaspheme, but that he was trying to make them blaspheme. For instance, he would have a woman up, and there was the officer ready to give her thirty-nine lashes in open daylight: "You will get this lashing unless you blaspheme the name of Jesus," Paul would say. Pliny, in writing about the Christians in the country over which he presided when he was ordered to persecute the Christians, says, "I never went beyond this: I never put any of them to death if when brought before me he would sprinkle a little incense before a Roman god. If he would Just do that I wouldn’t put him to death."

6. Expatriation, ex, from, patria terra, "one’s fatherland" – exiled from one’s country. It was an awful thing on those people at a minute’s notice either to recant or else just as they were, without a minute’s preparation, to go off into exile, father, mother, and children. The record says, "They were all scattered abroad except the apostles."

7. Following them into exile into strange countries, and cities, getting a commission to go after them and arrest them, even though they had gotten as far from Jerusalem as Damascus.

8. The last thing in connection with the extent of this persecution is to see, first, the size or number of the church. Let us commence with 120 (that is, before Pentecost), add 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, add multitudes daily, add at another time 5,000 men and women, add twice more, multitudes, multitudes, then we may safely reach the conclusion that there were 100,000 Jewish communicants in that first church at Jerusalem. That represents a great many homes. This man Paul goes into every house, he breaks up every family. They are whipped; they are imprisoned; they are put to death or they are expatriated; and over every road that went out from Jerusalem they were fleeing, the fire of persecution burning behind them. The magnitude of the persecution has never been fully estimated.

There are eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters that show his own impressions of this sin. One of them you will find in the address that he delivered on the stairway in Jerusalem when he himself was a prisoner (Acts 22); another one is found in his speech at Caesarea before King Agrippa (Acts 26). You will find two references in Galatians 1 of the letter to the Galatians (1:13, 23) ; there is one in 1 Corinthians 15:15; another in Philippians 3; still another, and a most touching one, when he was quite an old man (1 Timothy). We may judge of the spirit and the extent of a thing by the impression that it leaves on the mind of the participator.

Everything that he inflicted on others, he subsequently suffered. He had them to be punished with forty stripes save one; five times he submitted to the same punishment. He had them put in prison; "oftentimes" he was imprisoned. He had them expatriated; so was he. He had them pursued in the land of expatriation; so was he. He had them stoned; so was he. He attempted to make them blaspheme; so they tried to make him blaspheme under Nero, or die, and he accepted death. He had them put to death; so was he. Early in his life, before a great part of his sufferings had yet commenced, we find his catalogue of the things that he suffered in one of the letters to the Corinthians, and just how many particular things that he had suffered up to that time.

Two considerations would naturally emphasize his unceasing sorrow for this sin:

1. His persecution marked the end of Jewish probation, the closing up of the last half of Daniel’s week, in which the Messiah would confirm the covenant with many. From this time on until now, only an occasional Jew has been converted. Paul did it; he led his people to reject the church of God and the Holy Spirit of God, the church which was baptized in the Spirit, and attested by the Spirit. He, Saul, is the one that pushed his people off the ground of probation and into a state of spiritual blindness – judicial blindness – from which they have not yet recovered.

2. The second thought that emphasized this impression was that he thereby barred himself, when he became a Christian, from doing much preaching to this people. In Romans 9 he says, "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh." "I bear them witness," he says in the next chapter, "that they have a zeal for God," and in Acts 22 he says that when he was in the Temple wanting to preach to Jews, wanting to be a home missionary, God appeared to him, and said, "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me." That was one of the most grievous things of his life, and we find it, I think (some may differ from me on this), manifested in the last letter of his first Roman imprisonment – the letter to the Hebrews. He wouldn’t put his name to it. He didn’t want to prejudice its effect, and yet he did want to speak to his people.

Let us compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands, and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In a few words, it is this: There were two great bodies of Christian people, so-called, in France – the Romanists and the Huguenots. Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot. He became king of France, outwardly abjuring his Huguenot principles, but on the condition that liberty of conscience should be allowed to the people. His grandson, Louis XIV, revoked that great edict of toleration, and by its revocation, in one moment, commanded hundreds of thousands of his people to adopt the king’s religion. If they didn’t, troops or soldiers were placed in their homes with the privilege of maltreating them, and destroying their property, without being held responsible for any kind of brutal impiety that they would commit. Their young children were taken away from the mothers and put in the convents to be reared in the Romanist faith; the men had their goods confiscated, and in hundreds of thousands of instances were put to death. They were required to recant or leave France at once. Before they got to the coast an army came to bring them back, and when some of them did escape, my mother’s ancestors, the Huguenots, when that edict was revoked, came to South Carolina. Some of them went to Canada, some to other countries where there was extradition. The Romanists pursued them, and when they were able to capture them, brought them back to France to suffer under the law. Some of those that reached Canada left the settlements and went to live among the Indian tribes. There they were pursued.

When Alva came into the Netherlands (Belgium and Holland), the lowlands, under Philip, the King of Spain, the inquisition was set up and he entered the homes; he made domiciliary visits; he compelled them to blaspheme; he put to death the best, the most gifted, those holding the highest social and moral positions in the land, to the astonishment of the world. With one stroke of his pen he not only swept away all of their property, but anyone that would speak a kind word to them, or would keep them all night in the house, such a person was put to death. All over that country there was the smoke going up of their burning, and the bloodiest picture in the annals of the world was what took place when Alva’s soldiers captured a city. I would be ashamed before a mixed audience to tell what followed. The devastation was fearful.

This persecution illustrates the proverb, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Whenever Saul put one to death, a dozen came up to take the place of that one. Indeed, he himself caught on his own shoulders the mantle of Stephen before it hit the ground, as God put the mantle of Elijah on Elisha, and as God made John the Baptist the successor in spirit to Elijah. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

The effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and on missions, was superb. Those Jewish Christians in Jerusalem – those terrapins – would never have crawled away from there, if Saul hadn’t put fire on their backs, but when the fire began to burn and they began to run, as they ran, they preached everywhere. It was like going up to a fire and trying to put it out by kicking the chunks. Whenever a chunk is kicked it starts a new fire. When that persecution came, then Philip, driven out, preached to the Samaritans. Then men of Cyrene, pushed out, preached to Greeks in Antioch, and they opened up a fine mission field. Peter himself, at last, was led to see that an uncircumcised Gentile like Cornelius could be received into the kingdom of God. So it had a great deal to do with foreign missions.

The effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front was marvelous. They never did come to the front in the history of the world as they did in this persecution. The apostles were left behind. The preachers right in the midst of the big meeting in which 100,000 people had been converted, were left standing there, surrounded by empty pews, with no congregation. The congregation is now doing the preaching. A layman becomes an evangelist. These people carry the word of God to the shores of the Mediterranean, into Asia Minor, to Rome, to Ephesus, to Antioch, to Tarsus, to the ends of the earth, and laymen do an overwhelming part of this work.

It is well, perhaps, in this connection to explain how Saul, in this persecution, could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority. In the case of Christ we know that it was necessary for the Jews to obtain Roman authority in order to put to death, but just as this time Pontius Pilate was recalled, the Roman Procurator was withdrawn, and a very large part of the Roman military force and the successor of Pilate had not arrived, so the Jews were left pretty much to themselves until that new procurator with new legions came to the country.

QUESTIONS

1. What of Saul already considered in a preceding chapter?

2. Why did not Saul participate actively in the Sadducean persecution?

3. What five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor?

4. How may we imagine Saul fanning the flame of his bate by his thoughts?

5. What seven things show the spirit of this persecution as expressed in the New Testament?

6. What things show the extent of this persecution?

7. What eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters which show his own impressions of this sin?

8. What were his own sufferings, in every particular? Were they such as he inflicted?

9. What two considerations would naturally emphasize the unceasing sorrow for this sin?

10. Compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

11. How does this persecution illustrate the proverb, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church"?

12. What was the effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and missions?

13. What was the effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front?

14. How do you explain that, in this persecution, Saul could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority?

Verses 4-40

XII

PHILIP TO THE FRONT

Acts 8:4-40; Acts 21:8-9.

You will find in the four lists of the twelve apostles the name of Philip (see Matthew 10:2; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14 f; Acts 1:13 f). Was the Philip we are to discuss here, Philip, the deacon of Acts 6:5, or was he Philip, the apostle, and what the proof? My answer is: (1) In Acts 8:1 it is declared that in the persecution conducted by Saul of Tarsus, all of the congregation was scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles, and these latter were not scattered; (2) Acts 8:14 locates the apostles still at Jerusalem when they heard of Philip’s work in Samaria; (3) Acts 8:40 carries this Philip to Caesarea; (4) Acts 21:8-9 shows that many years later he was still living at Caesarea where he entertained Paul, and expressly declares that he was one of the seven deacons. I submit this circumstantial proof of identity because Romanist traditions confound him with Philip the apostle, just as they confound James (Acts 15:13) and Jude (Judges 1:1), half-brothers of our Lord, with the apostles – James, the son of Alpheus (Luke 6:15), and Judas, the brother of James (Luke 6:16). The scriptures concerning this Philip are Acts 6:5; Acts 8:4-13; Acts 8:26-40; Acts 21:8-9, which show that he was a Hellenistic Jew, and that he is said to have had four daughters who prophesied.

It is well just here to locate on a map the Azotus of Acts 8:40 and trace a line to Caesarea. Gaza is near to Azotus, the most southern of the Palestinian cities on the Mediterranean coast, and going up that coast to Caesarea, straight up the coast line, you have the line of Philip’s travels, and the cities in which he preached. On this same line are Lydda (Acts 9:32) and Joppa (Acts 9:36). This shows that Philip’s work probably led to Christ the disciples whom Peter found at these two cities.

In Acts 10:37 Peter declares that Cornelius, the centurion at Caesarea, already knew the word published about our Lord. It is quite probable that through Philip’s preaching at Caesarea he had obtained some of the knowledge which prepared him to receive Peter, as he is the only preacher that we know of at that time preaching in Caesarea.

Now, trace a line on the map from Tyre through Ptolemais to Caesarea. Tyre is in Phoenicia, the northern part of the Mediterranean coast of Judea. Going from Tyre south of Caesarea, an intervening seaport between Tyre and Caesarea is Ptolemais. It is probable that the congregations at Tyre and Ptolemais found by Paul (Acts 21:3-8) were established by Philip. If we connect Acts 2:17-18 (Joel’s prophecy), that on the handmaidens should the Spirit of God be poured out, with Acts 21:9, "Philip had four daughters who prophesied," and Mark 16:17-18, and connect, "These signs shall follow them that believe," with Acts 2:43, which tells us that the apostles gave many signs and wonders, with Acts 8:7, where Philip works miracles, it is evident that both Philip and his daughters had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

With these facts and probabilities before us, let us give a summary" of the scriptural history of the life and labors of Philip. He was a Hellenistic Jew, attending the Passover at which our Lord was crucified; was in the great audience addressed by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:5-11); was converted, with his daughters, and all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and were well-known factors in all the marvelous history of that series of great meetings, lasting for three-and a-half years, recorded in Acts 2:5-8:4. Being well known to all the multitude of the disciples, he was by them elected to the office of deacon, and was second of the seven. But when the persecution of Saul ended the great series of meetings, dispersed the congregation, and thereby left no deacon’s work to do, he became an evangelist, and boldly carried the gospel to the Samaritans, as our Lord himself had done (John 4), and under Spirit-guidance went into the desert near Gaza, and led the Ethiopian treasurer, a Jewish proselyte, to Christ, through which convert, according to history and tradition, Ethiopia was evangelized. Then, under the same Spirit-guidance, he carried the gospel to the whole Mediterranean coast of Judea, from Azotus to Tyre, establishing congregations at Saroaria; Peter following him at Lydda, Sharon, Joppa, and Azotus, Lydda, Sharon, Joppa, Caesarea, Ptolemais, and Tyre, thus influencing the tides of commerce and merchants that through these great seaports reached all the western world.

The remarkable things in these labors are: (1) He commenced at the important city of Samaria, on the great northern thoroughfare from Jerusalem to Galilee, Damascus, and the Euphrates. (2) Then near Gaza on the great thoroughfare from Jerusalem to Africa. (3) Then the coast line of the Mediterranean, whose seaports were the starting points of the sea thoroughfares over which travel and commerce reached northern Africa, Asia Minor, and all Europe. (4) With headquarters at Caesarea, the Roman capital of the East, he was in touch with all the thought, official power, and intercommunication of imperial Rome, the mistress of the world. (5) The selection of these strategical positions was not accidental, but Spirit-guided in every instance; so we see from the record that he was to be the forerunner of the Jerusalem apostles and of Paul, Peter, and John following him to the city of Caesarea; Paul following him at Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea. (6) He was the first, after our Lord himself, to openly carry the gospel to the Samaritans, thus breaking down the wall of partition that had stood between Jews and Samaritans since Assyria conquered and led away into captivity the ten tribes, and repeopled the city of Samaria with aliens, and put over the country captive priests that established a rival worship to Jerusalem (2 Kings 17:23-24), which later, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, and persisted in hostility and alien worship until the days of our Lord (John 4:9-26). The hostility that had stood that long, all through these centuries of strife, was now broken down by the preaching of Philip in that city of Samaria.

His position in the spread of the kingdom is between Stephen and Paul in understanding that in Christ there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, bondmen, nor freemen, "but Christ is all in all"; he stands between Stephen and Paul in following worldwide lines of evangelization. Just here we are interested to know what were the themes of Philip’s preaching in Samaria.

The record says that he preached Christ unto them (Acts 8:5); and he preached unto them concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Christ. These themes indicate that Jesus died to save Samaritans, and that the kingdom of heaven was intended to include Samaritans. The record also says that demons were cast out, and malignant diseases cured as signs of this man’s preaching. Then followed a most remarkable result. When those of the city of Samaria understood that Christ had died for them, and that they were included in the scope of the kingdom of heaven, and this was attested by such remarkable signs, then they all were of one accord, giving attention to the preaching of Philip, "And there was much joy in the city" (Acts 8:8).

For a long time there had been a man in Samaria named Simon, a magician, or sorcerer, who dominated Samaria, and who claimed to have the great power of God. He had bewitched these people by his sorcery, so that they held him in regard as the messenger of God in their city. No doubt the bewitching by sorcery included all of these magical arts and tricks of legerdemain, and even pseudomiracles, in order to attest him, so that the city of Samaria, when Philip reached it, was thus full of malignant forms of diseases. It was demon-possessed, diseased and deluded by sorcery.

In this connection we notice that Acts 8:12 says that those who had been subject to Simon, when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, were baptized, both men and women. You learn from that, that faith must precede baptism, and, therefore, subjects of baptism must be people able to repent and believe and hence they are here said to be men and women. From Acts 8:13 we learn that a mere demagogue, when the crowd won’t follow him, will follow the crowd. When Simon’s flock all left him, he jumped over the fence.

There are some exceedingly fine lessons concerning Simon Magus that will come out in the next chapter; so I gather just this one here. Later we will take up this theme: "The apostles following Philip." Then we will consider Simon Magus in connection with Peter. The only lesson to which I call attention here is that when the true miracles of God come in touch with pseudomiracles, they show up the pseudomiracles. Simon saw that Philip had a power which he did not possess, and that when the crowd left him he followed the crowd, and was filled with wonder at these signs of Philip – they were so different from his, so manifestly genuine, so much more to the point, while his were so manifestly demerited in their intent – just as when Paul came to a certain island there was a sorcerer, Elymas, who dominated the island and influenced the government, but he was rebuked and smitten with blindness by Paul, and sorcery gave way before the power of the gospel. Just as in the city of Ephesus, the people who had been deluded by books of magic, when the true gospel of Jesus Christ came in conflict with it, the magic was abandoned and their books piled on the street, though very costly, and made into a bonfire, whose sparks ascended to the skies, announcing the triumph of the word of God over the delusions of Satan.

PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH – ACTS 8

The great moral lessons of this section are the following:

(1) God sometimes calls men from preaching to crowds in a city to preaching to one man in a lonely place. Just so we trace Philip. There, in that big meeting in Samaria, he receives a call to pass Jerusalem by, going down into the desert a strange direction of God. When he gets there his audience is just one man.

(2) Men sometimes get less from a heterodox and hypocritical Jerusalem than from a wayfarer in a desert place. This treasurer of the queen of Ethiopia was a proselyte, not a Jew, but a proselyte to the Jews. He had been attending the great feasts in Jerusalem, and was now returning. He found no light in Jerusalem. He had made a long trip, and out there on his way back he meets a solitary man in the desert and gets light and life and salvation from him.

(3) The third moral lesson is that the conversion of one man may revolutionize a nation. There are more results abiding today from this desert meeting of two men than from the great meeting in the city of Samaria. History tells us that this man, after his conversion, being so influential, became a preacher of the gospel in his own country, Ethiopia, which answers to Abyssinia of the present day; that the whole country was brought to Christ through this man, and in Abyssinia today there is more religion than there is in Samaria where this big meeting was, and it is a purer religion. So God understood what he was doing.

Once a pastor preached a sermon somewhat on that line on Sunday, and a man in the audience was greatly distressed at heart, and it seemed that it would be a great difficulty to get him to move away from a great position of usefulness to loneliness. He came back from hearing the sermon saying, "Maybe God wants me to lead somebody to Christ like that Ethiopian eunuch," and he may revolutionize a nation.

(4) There is much profit in an inquirer’s study of God’s Word. This was a very sincere man. He did not go to Jerusalem except for religious purpose; and driving along, back home in his chariot he was reading God’s Word. What great good comes to a man from a study of God’s Word!

(5) Where one wants to understand, and is in desperate earnestness about it, an interpreter will be found. You may rest assured that in your study of God’s Word, when you come to matters that you cannot explain, if you really want to understand them – if you are desperately in earnest about them – God is sure to bring you somebody that can explain every case of perplexity.

(6) The docile spirit will receive instruction from any competent source. This man had the teachable spirit. Here he is accosted by a stranger: "Understandest thou what thou readest?" And he said, "How can I, except some one shall guide me?" "And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him," whereupon this traveler climbed up into his chariot to expound that passage of God’s Word.

(7) The next moral lesson is that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. He was reading a prophecy, and the place where he read was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: His generation who shall declare? For his life is taken from the earth.

(8) The next lesson is that from any text in the Bible the shortest road leads to Jesus Christ. Philip took that very scripture which was puzzling this man, and showed him that the shortest road from that scripture would bring him to the very same Jesus Christ that he was reading about in that scripture. He is the lamb, the sheep, which openeth not his mouth. This was Jesus, as thus fixed by the Spirit of interpretation, and shows the deep significance of that famous fifty third chapter of Isaiah.

(9) When one is converted he seeks to obey. The eunuch says, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" In other words, he says, "You preached Christ to me; I have taken him. Why not let me obey Christ right now? Why wait till I get back home?"

Here the question arises, Why could not the Jews at Jerusalem expound Isaiah 53?

This eunuch was up there, where were priests, rabbis, and all the Jewish people of Judea. Why could not they tell him what the prophet meant? The answer is that the Jews believed only those prophecies to be messianic that spake of the conquests of the Messiah, and as making the Jews the nation of the world. They refused to attribute to him the humiliating passages – those that told of his suffering and of his death. Some Jews even said that there had to be two Messiahs – one the great leading Messiah that was to be the great king of the dews, this conqueror of the world – and the other a Messiah of suffering.

This passage has a bearing on the act, subject, and administrator of baptism. The passage says that they got down from the chariot and that they both went down into the water, and that Philip baptized him, and that they came up out of the water. That certainly has a very decisive bearing on the "act" of baptism, as to what it is. In the preceding verse, when the eunuch said, "What binders me from being baptized?" Philip replied, "If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest." That means that it is not lawful unless one believes with all his heart. But it is very doubtful indeed whether verse 37 is a part of the text; it is certainly not in the oldest manuscripts. It was doubtless first written on the margin by some copyist and afterward got into the text.

Alexander Carson said that it was impossible for man or Satan to keep this witness from saying that immersion is baptism. Then he said that a fool once followed a wagon all the way from Glasgow to Edinburg to see if the hind wheel would ever catch up with the fore wheel. "That fool," he said, "had an errand in all that long journey, though a fool’s errand, but whoever will take both the baptizer and the baptized down into the water for the purpose of sprinkling him has not even a fool’s errand."

Old Dr. Fisher, with whom I had a debate in Waco, and also at Davilla in Milam County, in commenting on this passage, said, "If Philip preached an immersion sermon he had a sprinkling text," and quoted from Isaiah 53: "He shall sprinkle many nations." I replied by saying that the word "sprinkle" in that scripture, meant astonish, or startle, and proved it by the scholarship of the world, and that the word in Greek was thaumazo: "So shall he astonish many nations," and that it was evident by the very word astonish, which also is implied from the context: "Like as many were astonished at thee [his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men], so shall he startle [or astonish] many nations." That was my reply to him.

It may here be asked, Was the baptism of the eunuch authoritative as to the administrator? If so, why cannot a deacon baptize now? This deacon, Philip, was the evangelist at this time, and not a deacon. He had become a preacher. I have known deacons to become preachers, and I have known, in some cases, a good deacon to be spoiled to make a mighty poor preacher, but it was not so in this case.

Philip went ahead and prepared the way under God, for the apostles. We have already seen that after he baptized the eunuch he was found at Azotus, and then it is said that he preached in all the cities up the coast to Caesarea, among which were Lydda and Joppa, which Peter afterward visited and found a congregation already there, just as he had followed Philip into Samaria. He never thought to go to Samaria himself to preach, but when he heard that Philip had reached there, he and John went over to look into it. So he followed Philip to Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea; and we see from Acts 21 that Paul, returning from a foreign missionary tour, stops at Tyre, finding a congregation, and at Ptolemais, also finding a congregation, and at Caesarea, where he found another congregation. Paul also stopped at the house of Philip, the evangelist. It is astonishing how that after the persecution of Saul of Tarsus, the pressure generally took hold of the people. They went everywhere preaching the word. They carried the gospel to Samaria, to Lydda, Joppa, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Tyre, Phoenicia) and Antioch. They are the ones that changed the tone of the preaching from Jews only, to Gentiles as well, and the apostles could hardly keep up following. They were getting there after these men had broadened the lines, lengthened the cords, and strengthened the stakes.

In Acts 8:26-29 it is said that the angel and the Spirit spoke to Philip, and, in Acts 8:39, the Spirit caught away Philip. Now, how did the angel and the Spirit thus deal with Philip? Doubtless the angel of the Lord spake to Philip in a vision; doubtless the Spirit of the Lord spake to Philip by an inside impression, and doubtless the Spirit of God moved on Philip powerfully to go to a new place.

QUESTIONS

1. Was the Philip of this section the Philip of Acts 6:5, the deacon, or the apostle Philip? What the proof?

2. Why submit this circumstantial proof of identity?

3. Group in order the scriptures concerning Philip.

4. From these scriptures was he probably a Hebrew Jew or a Hellenist Jew?

5. What do we know of his family?

6. Locate on the map the Azotus of Acts 8:40, and trace a line to Caesarea.

7. Are Lydda (Acts 9:32) and Joppa (Acts 9:36) on this line?

8. Then whose work probably led to Christ the disciples whom Peter found at these two cities?

9. In Acts 10:37 Peter declares that Cornelius, the centurion at Caesarea, already knew the word published about our Lord. Is it probable that through Philip’s preaching at Caesarea he had obtained some of the knowledge which prepared him to receive Peter?

10. Trace a line on map from Tyre through Ptolemais to Caesarea.

11. Connect Acts 2:17-18, Joel’s prophecy that on the handmaidens shall the Spirit of God be poured out, with Acts 21:9, "Philip had four daughters who prophesied," and Mark 16:17-18, and connect "These signs shall follow them that believe" with Acts 2:43, which tells that the apostles did many signs and wonders, with Acts 8:7 where Philip works miracles, and then state the relation of Philip and his family to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

12. With these facts and probabilities before us, what is a summary of the scriptural history of the life and labors of Philip?

13. What the remarkable things in these labors?

14. What then is his position in the spread of the kingdom?

15. What were the themes of Philip’s preaching in Samaria?

16. What do these themes indicate?

17. How was this preaching attested?

18. What was the remarkable result?

19. Who at this time dominated Samaria, and how, and what is meant by sorcery?

20. What lesson do we gather from Acts 8:12 on the relation between faith and baptism, and consequently on the subjects of baptism?

21. What lesson do we gather from Acts 8:13 which says, that when the crowd left him, Simon also believed and was baptized, and followed Philip, wondering at the miracles that he wrought?

22. What are the great moral lessons of this section?

23. Why could not the Jews at Jerusalem expound Isaiah 53?

24. What is bearing of this passage on the act & subject of baptism?

25. What said Alexander Carson of this passage?

26. What about that verse Acts 8:37: "If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest?"

27. What said a Methodist preacher about this?

28. Was the baptism of the eunuch authoritative as to the administrator? If so, why cannot a deacon baptize now?

29. Show how Philip went ahead and prepared the way under God for the apostles?

30. Explain how the angel and the Spirit spoke to Philip (Acts 8:26; Acts 8:29), and how the Spirit caught away Philip (Acts 8:39).

Verses 14-26

XIII

THE GENERAL SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE APOSTLES OVER THE WORK OUTSIDE OF JERUSALEM, THE SAMARITANS WELCOMED INTO THE KINGDOM, ETC.

Acts 8:14-26; Acts 9:26-12:25 with Galatians 1:18-20.

The scope of this section extends from Acts 8:14 to the end of Acts 12, omitting the Philip section, which we have discussed; also omitting the Paul section, which will be discussed later. The time covered by it lies between the dates A.D. 34-44; so I am discussing about ten years of history in this chapter. The great themes of the section are: (1) The general superintendence of the apostles over the work outside of Jerusalem, Peter leading. (2) The Samaritans formally welcomed into the kingdom, and receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the case of Simon, the sorcerer. (3) Superintendence of the apostles continued, Peter following up the work of Philip on the Mediterranean coast. (4) Peter leading, the door of the kingdom opened to the Gentiles at Caesarea, and their baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). (5) Should Jewish Christians eat and socially dwell with uncircumcised Christians? (Acts 11:1-18). (6) The first blended church – Jew and Gentile – and the name, "Christian." (7) The Herodian persecution (Acts 12).

The passages showing apostolic superintendence of the kingdom of God outside Jerusalem are: (1) Acts 8:14. "When the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John"; (2) Acts 9:32: "And . . . as Peter went throughout all parts, he came down also to the saints that dwelt at Lydda," and then follows this Mediterranean coast business, where he goes over Philip’s ground; (3) Acts 11:22 shows that at this time the church, not the apostles, when it heard that the Grecians had received the kingdom at Antioch, sent unto them Barnabas. These passages indicate general apostolic superintendence. Any apostle, by himself, or apostles by themselves, or by point act, might authoritatively supervise any work in any part of the kingdom of God, but they had no successors.

Great advance is indicated by the reception of Samaritans into the kingdom of God. You have only to go back into history to see the fact of the hostility of the Jew against the Samaritan. When the ten tribes revolted, and Samaria was made their capital and leader, the ten tribes were conquered by the king of Assyria and led into captivity, and the cities of Samaria were repeopled by an alien element, brought from beyond the Euphrates. This element intermarried with the resident poor of the Jews that were left of the ten tribes, and the king of Assyria sent back a captive priest to establish a religious headquarters for them. So they built a temple in Samaria on Mount Gerizirn, and claimed to be the true successor to Moses. They retained the Pentateuch in a corrupt form, and still have it. They said, "It is in this mountain and not in Jerusalem that you should go to worship." Therefore, if the Jew was moving south, which indicated he was going to Jerusalem to worship, they would not receive him into their houses. They even refused to receive Christ when he came that way) but they would welcome him if he came from Jerusalem. This hostility became so bitter in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah that the Samaritans endeavored to frustrate the rebuilding of Jerusalem. In John 4 we read that the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Therefore, if the Samaritans, through the bold preaching of Philip, received the word of God, and if such apostles as Peter and John go there and confirm and ratify that work, a moving of the fence is indicated.

The record says, "And Simon also himself believed; and being baptized, he continued with Philip." Those who believe in apostasy, like our Campbellites and Methodist brethren, insist that he was converted, just like everybody else, and was baptized, and fell from grace. The argument on the other side is this: There is a belief which is not faith. It is an intellectual acceptance of the proposition, but not a heart reception of it; and as a proof that this man was not at heart a Christian, Peter says to him, "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee." Simon believed, as a great many other people believe and are received into the church. Ostensibly they are all right; preachers cannot read their hearts. Profession of faith is made; it may be a credible profession, too, but after circumstances will develop that there was no true reception of, and reliance on, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I hold that Simon Magus was not a Christian. It is not probable that he repented afterward and was saved. He was guilty of the sin against the Holy Spirit. He offered to purchase the power, that on whomsoever he laid his hands, they might receive the Holy Spirit, and he would have the power of working miracles. He tried to buy the power of the kingdom of God, and it was a sin against the Holy Spirit. Peter seems to feel it is a case like that of which John speaks: "There is a sin unto death; I do not say you should pray for it." It is an eternal sin, for which there is no forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come. He seems to have that impression on his mind when he says, "If perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee." The legal offense in medieval and modern times called "simony" is derived from this name. A man is guilty of simony when he obtains by bribery an ecclesiastical office or gift.

There are later ecclesiastical traditions concerning Simon and Peter and they are legion. Beginning even from the time of Justin Martyr, and going on for several centuries, there are legends, and the books are full of them, to this effect: (1) That Simon Magus, from the time of this meeting with Peter, hated him and determined to devote his life to blocking the gospel of God. (2) That he followed Peter to Rome, and there he claimed himself to be the Christ, and that he had the oracles of God, and Justin Martyr says that a statue was inscribed there with that legend, and that he obtained, according to this tradition, great power with the apostles. The tradition further alleges that he was the founder of that gnosticism which Paul had to combat in the Lycus Valley, and of which so much is said in my sermon before the Southern Baptist Convention in Hot Springs. Now when we receive these traditions, let us always do so with a great deal of salt. Some of the most powerful forgeries ever perpetrated in ecclesiastical history are connected with these traditions of Simon.

The Holy Spirit states that Peter went to Lydda, and there he found a certain one named Aeneas, who kept his bed eight years, and healed him; and the miracle was so astonishing that all the section of Lydda and Sharon, seeing him, turned to the Lord. While he was there at Lydda the brethren at Joppa, who had already been led to Christ through Philip, sent for him on account of the death of a most estimable woman Dorcas a woman of great charity. And when Peter got there the weeping friends exhibited the garments she had made for the poor. Peter raised her to life, and that miracle further spread the power of the gospel. From the transactions at Joppa the modern "Dorcas" societies get their name.

The case of Peter and Cornelius has many great texts and lessons: (1) Cornelius, the man, was captain of a hundred in a Roman band, part of the real bodyguard of the emperor. (2) He was a religious man, doubtless what the Jews called "a proselyte of the gate," not circumcised, but a man who prayed to God always, and gave much alms to the people. This man, a poor Gentile of the uncircumcision, had a vision from God, telling him that his prayers and alms had come up before God as a memorial. They had not yet reached their consummation. He was not a saved man yet, but they were gone up as a memorial. That showed that he was near the kingdom of God, and also showed his attitude toward the kingdom. To whom the angel said, "Send men to Joppa, and fetch one Simon, who is surnamed Peter; he lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside, . . . who shall speak unto thee words whereby thou shalt be saved." In other words, "You are not saved, but you are in a condition now to be saved, and this man will tell you how to be saved." This is Cornelius and his vision.

We now take the other man, Peter, as the third messenger to Cornelius. On the way, according to a Jewish custom, Peter, preaching to the cities, at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, goes up to the housetop to pray – one of the regular praying places. He prayed; he became hungry, and suddenly he saw a vision. He saw a great ark, as though it were a sheet with its four corners drawn together, making something in the shape of the ark, slowly let down from the heavens. Peter peeped over into it and saw everything that was in Noah’s ark – every kind of bird, beast, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus – lions, tigers, leopards, jackals, hyenas, and every bird from the condor and eagle to a humming bird, and every snake that crawled – the horse, the rabbit, the dove, the pigeon – all mixed up together in that ark. Certainly a sight such as Peter never saw before, nor even the Roman emperors, when they gathered at their magnificent feasts the trophies of the chase from the hunting fields of the world. They never saw the multitude and the magnitude of animals that Peter saw in that ark. The lion and the lamb, and the leopard and the goat were all there together. So Cornelius said, "If it is good for me, it is good for my wife, and for my servant, and I have gathered all my household to see if you can tell us words whereby we can be saved. I would like for these people to hear, that they may be saved also."

Peter makes a confession: "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." It was high time that he was learning that. But in every nation wherever the heart hungers after union with God, after reconciliation with God, whether civilized or barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, longing for redemption, and as Paul says, "is seeking after God," God is ready to save. "I see that now, but I never saw it before," says Peter. So Peter was convinced, and preached Christ – Christ for the Gentiles. Finally, as he threw the doors to the Gentiles wide open, he said, "To him bear all the prophets witness, that through his name every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." That is a fine text. We strike the same thought in Revelation: "Whosoever will, let him come." As Peter said it, the heart of Cornelius laid hold of Christ. I will prove that presently. He then and there repented toward God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the very words of it. He then and there received the remission of sins, and following that, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The whole crowd of them was saved in a body, and they began to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

When Peter narrated these facts to the questioning Jews, they heard it all and said, "Then hath God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life." And recounting the facts in the great meeting, Peter described it thus: "God gave unto them the like gift as he did also unto us." So they repented, had faith and were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The question came up before: "This is a Gentile crowd; yet, in view of these facts can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized?" In other words, "Who is going to oppose the baptism of these people with these facts before them?" And he commanded them to be baptized. That, then, is the case of Peter and Cornelius. "Whosoever" was the wide gate for the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Here we see the gate for the Gentiles opened.

Acts 11 says that Peter got into trouble, for some of the brethren rose up and said, "We hear that you went unto the Gentiles – uncircumcised men – and did eat with them and drink. We know that Gentiles ought to be Christians in order to be saved, but Jesus is the king of the Jews, and you eat with Gentiles, i.e., uncircumcised people who violate the law of Moses." Peter stated the case over again, and it was decided he had done right, but it did not stay decided, not even for Peter, not even after that great decision stated in Acts 15, where came up the whole question. There was Peter, in the presence of all the apostles, also Titus, Paul and Barnabas, and after that gathering he went to Antioch and ate with the Gentiles, as he had done with Cornelius, until certain of them came from James; then Peter drew out, and even Barnabas was overcome by their doctrine. So Paul leaped up, shook his finger in Peter’s face, saying, "Thou art tearing down what thou didst once build up." (See Acts 10:4-29; Acts 10:34; Acts 10:43.)

Certain circumstances led to the planting of the gospel in the capital of Syria, the great city of Antioch. A crowd of brethren were going ahead of the apostles all along here. The apostles were not scattered. They first preached to the Jews only, but in chapter II it says that some of them, when they got to Antioch, preached to the Gentiles, just as Philip had done to the Samaritans, and the Gentiles here accepted and were baptized, and there, for the first time, was a blended church of Jew and Gentile, the middle wall of partition broken down, ground to powder and pulverized to dust, and God’s prophets blew even the very dust away, and made thus of twain one new man in Christ Jesus, in whom is neither Greek nor Jew, nor Scythian, barbarian, bond nor free, indicating thus how it started there.

Here we find the origin of the name, "Christian." The word occurs three times in the New Testament. In Acts 11 it is said, "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." At Jerusalem they were called Jews; they were called Gentiles at Rome; but here they were called "Christians." The outsiders gave them a name in Antioch, the city which belonged to Antiochus Epiphanes – that Greek city, one of the four dependencies of the kingdom of Alexander the Great. Seeing this blending of different nationalities they said, "They are Christians, whether Jew or Greek." In Acts 26:28 Paul, speaking before Agrippa, the latter said, "With a little trouble you would persuade me to be a Christian," and Paul replied, "I would that not only almost but altogether you were just as I am, except these bonds." Then in 1Peter 4, Peter says, "If you suffer for your own sins, bear it; you deserve that, but if you suffer as a Christian, – if affliction is put on you simply because you are a Christian, not because you have done wrong, rejoice and glorify God in it."

Campbellites of the present day quote a prophecy to the effect that this name was divinely given, God intending it to be the name of his people, and therefore, instead of calling themselves Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc., they took the God-given name, "Christian," and want us to so call them. They say that theirs is the "Christian church" and ours is only the Baptist church. That is their contention. But when Barton Stone and others raised the point, Alexander Campbell said in his book, "This name was not God-given; but given by the heathen as an expression of their conception of that blended church; the name ’disciple’ is God given. Let no man among us be guilty of trying to force upon us the peculiar name of Christian." They squirm when Alexander Campbell is quoted on their name. Calling yourself a name, does not make you what that name signifies. Better wait till others bestow that name, and not usurp it. If God calls you a Christian, all right; if your neighbors give you the apostolic character, all right, but just because you say, "I am a Christian; mine is the Christian church," that does not make it so, and it is supreme folly to force a man who does not believe that they have the gospel, to continually call them Christians.

Let us compare the Revised Version text of Acts 9:31 with the common version, and harmonize this use of the word "church" with the Baptist view. The American Version reads, "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified." The Revised Version says, "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified." Baptists say you cannot use the word "church" in a provincial sense. Does not this Revised Version rendering "knock the bottom out" of this position? I say no. Why? Because at that time there was only one church. "Then had the church rest." Its members were scattered all over Judea, but later, when those scattered crowds were brought together into separate organizations, Paul says, "The churches of Judea," and Dr. Broadus endorses my position.

In Acts 12 we have the case of Herod against the church. Herod the Great was the one who sought to destroy Jesus when a baby; the record tells of his death. This is the Herod here that had Christ brought before him and crowned with thorns, and mocked him. When we come to Acts 26 we find Herod Agrippa, still a different one. You have seen the Sadducean persecution and the Pharisee persecution. You now come to the Herodian persecution – not the ecclesiastical but the governmental. The Roman appointee-power persecutes and kills James, the brother of John, and imprisons Peter, intending to put him to death. And the church got together at the house of John Mark’s mother, and prayed, "O God, spare Peter! Spare Peter!" They prayed, Herod slept, and an angel swooped down and opened the prison doors and released Peter, setting him down before the prayer meeting crowd. Peter answered their prayer by knocking at the door, at which answer they were startled, saying, "This surely must be a spirit"; the answer came quickly; when they knocked, it was opened. Then the record says that Herod made out he was God; that God struck him and the worms ate him, and the word of God waxed mighty and prevailed. It has been that way ever since. He who tries to crush the gospel and its teachings will be eaten of worms. Voltaire, Ingersoll, and finally all the higher critics, have preached the gospel’s funeral, yet it is today the livest thing on God’s earth, and the worms will eat the man who opposes it.

The word "Easter" occurs in the American Version of Acts 12:4: "Intending to bring him forth to the people after Easter." The Revised Version says, "Intending after the Passover to bring him forth." So the common version says that Herod intended after Easter to bring him forth. Pious Episcopalians and Romanists use this verse of the American Version to confirm their custom of celebrating Easter, but the Greek plainly shows that "Passover" is precisely the word.

The events and factors in the great transition from a Jewish conception of the kingdom and the church, to a conception of the kingdom and church of all people, are as follows: (1) Stephen’s enlarged gospel; (2) Philip’s broader practice; (3) the conversion and commission of Saul of Tarsus; (4) the opening of the door of the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles (Cornelius and others) at Caesarea; (5) the blending of all together in one great church at Antioch. Thus the whole matter was accomplished.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the time and scope of this section, and what its several themes?

2. Cite the passages showing apostolic superintendence of the kingdom of God outside Jerusalem.

3. What great advance is indicated by the reception of Samaritans into the kingdom of God?

4. Was Simon Magus a Christian, & what the argument pro & con?

5. Is it probable that he repented afterward and was saved? If not, of what sin was he guilty?

6. What legal offense in medieval and modern times was derived from this name?

7. What the later ecclesiastical traditions concerning Simon & Peter?

8. Summarize the work of Peter in following up Philip at Lydda and Joppa.

9. What modern organizations get their name from the transactions at Joppa?

10. Summarize the case of Peter and Cornelius, telling its great texts and their lessons.

11. What is the issue in the Jerusalem church over this case, how decided, and did it remain decided for Peter?

12. Recount the circumstances of planting the gospel in the capital of Syria, the great city of Antioch.

13. What was the origin, and what the New Testament usage of the name "Christian?"

14. What is the Campbellite contention concerning the name, and your view of it?

15. Compare the Revised Version text of Acts 9:31 with the common version, and harmonize this use of the word "church" with the Baptist view.

16. State the case of Herod against the church in Acts 12, and its issue, and distinguish this Herod from the others in the New Testament.

17. Explain the use of the word "Easter" in the American Version Acts 12:4: "Intending to bring him forth to the people after Easter."

18. State, in order, the events and factors in the great transition from a Jewish conception of the kingdom and the church, to a conception of the kingdom and church of ail peoples.