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Texts -- Acts 8:13-40 (NET)

Context
8:13 Even Simon himself believed , and after he was baptized , he stayed close to Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring , he was amazed . 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God , they sent Peter and John to them . 8:15 These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit . 8:16 (For the Spirit had not yet come upon any of them , but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus .) 8:17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans , and they received the Holy Spirit . 8:18 Now Simon , when he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles ’ hands , offered them money , 8:19 saying , “Give me this power too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit .” 8:20 But Peter said to him , “May your silver perish with you , because you thought you could acquire God’s gift with money ! 8:21 You have no share or part in this matter because your heart is not right before God ! 8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours , and pray to the Lord that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart . 8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious and in bondage to sin .” 8:24 But Simon replied , “You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to me .” 8:25 So after Peter and John had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord , they started back to Jerusalem , proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages as they went.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
8:26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip , “Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza .” (This is a desert road .) 8:27 So he got up and went . There he met an Ethiopian eunuch , a court official of Candace , queen of the Ethiopians , who was in charge of all her treasury . He had come to Jerusalem to worship , 8:28 and was returning home , sitting in his chariot , reading the prophet Isaiah . 8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip , “Go over and join this chariot .” 8:30 So Philip ran up to it and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet . He asked him, “Do you understand what you’re reading ?” 8:31 The man replied , “How in the world can I , unless someone guides me ?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him . 8:32 Now the passage of scripture the man was reading was this : “He was led like a sheep to slaughter , and like a lamb before its shearer is silent , so he did not open his mouth . 8:33 In humiliation justice was taken from him . Who can describe his posterity ? For his life was taken away from the earth .” 8:34 Then the eunuch said to Philip , “Please tell me, who is the prophet saying this about – himself or someone else ?” 8:35 So Philip started speaking , and beginning with this scripture proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him . 8:36 Now as they were going along the road , they came to some water , and the eunuch said , “Look , there is water ! What is to stop me from being baptized ?” 8:37 [[EMPTY]] 8:38 So he ordered the chariot to stop , and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water , and Philip baptized him . 8:39 Now when they came up out of the water , the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away , and the eunuch did not see him any more , but went on his way rejoicing . 8:40 Philip , however, found himself at Azotus , and as he passed through the area, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea .

Pericope

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Hymns

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  • AnakDomba Allah [KJ.312a]
  • AnakDomba Allah [KJ.312b]
  • Mari, Tuturkan Kembali [KJ.145] ( Tell Me the Story of Jesus )
  • O Anakdomba Allah [KJ.311a]
  • O Anakdomba Allah [KJ.311b]
  • [Act 8:17] Behold Us, Lord, Before Thee Met
  • [Act 8:21] Is Thy Heart Right With God?

Questions

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Tongues; Wealthy People in the New Testament; Evangelistic Activities in Acts; Trinity Explained

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • This section continues the events begun in verses 1-7.Jacob's eyes were failing in his old age (v. 10) so he did not recognize Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 27:1). He may not have seen them for several years previously and may ha...
  • 22:1-20 Moab had not attacked Israel as the people of God had moved north along Moab's eastern border. In fact the Moabites sold the Israelites bread and water (Deut. 2:29). The Moabites probably counted on Sihon, who had for...
  • This oracle deals with Syria (or Aram, Damascus was its capital) and the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Ephraim being its leading tribe), which had formed an alliance to Judah's north in 735-732 B.C. Even though the oracle is ad...
  • This section develops the ideas that preceded by unfolding the characteristics of Yahweh that His people needed to appreciate in view of the shocking news that their new Moses would be Cyrus. It opens with an emphasis on God ...
  • Isaiah continued the sheep metaphor but applied it to the Servant to contrast sinful people and their innocent substitute. Here it is not the sheep's tendency to get lost but its nondefensive nature that is the characteristic...
  • This pericope contains one of Jeremiah's "confessions,"a self-revelation of the prophet's own struggles to cope with God's actions (cf. 10:23-24; 15:10-12, 15-21; 17:9-11, 14-18; 18:18-23; and 20:7-18).219The heart of this on...
  • Instructions (statutes) designed to maintain holiness in the new temple follow. The Lord specified how His people were to construct the new altar to accommodate sacrifices (43:13-17) and how they were to dedicate it (43:18-27...
  • The story now reaches its climax. God revealed to Jonah how out of harmony with His own heart the prophet, though obedient, was. He contrasted Jonah's attitude with His own.Compassion (Heb. hus, concern [NIV], be sorry for [N...
  • The "multitudes"or "crowds"consisted of the people Matthew just mentioned in 4:23-25. They comprised a larger group than the "disciples."The disciples were not just the Twelve but many others who followed Jesus and sought to ...
  • Jesus explained further how the 12 Apostles were to conduct themselves on their mission.10:9-10 They were not to take enough money with them to sustain them while they ministered. "Acquire"(NASB, Gr. ktesesthe) can mean "take...
  • 16:18 "I say to you"(cf. 5:18, 20, 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44; 8:10) may imply that Jesus would continue the revelation the Father had begun. However the phrase occurs elsewhere where that contrast is not in view. Undoubtedly it ...
  • Matthew evidently included this instruction because the marriage relationships of His disciples were important factors in their effective ministries. Jesus clarified God's will for His disciples that was different from the co...
  • Whereas the chief priests used bribe money to commission the soldiers to spread lies, the resurrected Jesus used the promise of His power and presence to commission His disciples to spread the gospel.1091This is the final add...
  • Luke recorded more details of these preparations than the other synoptic evangelists. Against the backdrop of a plot to arrest Him, Jesus comes across as the one who is in control and is quietly directing the events leading t...
  • Luke's account of the events following Jesus' resurrection stresses the reality of that event and the reactions of the witnesses to it. All these people felt depressed because of Jesus' death, but when they learned of His res...
  • This is another of Luke's exquisite and unique stories. Various students of it have noted its similarity to the stories of the feeding of the 5,000 (9:10-17), the appearance in Jerusalem (vv. 36-49), and the Ethiopian eunuch ...
  • 12:20 The New Testament writers frequently referred to any Gentiles who came from the Greek-speaking world as Greeks (cf. 7:35; et al.). We do not know where the Gentiles in this incident came from. They could have lived in o...
  • 17:11b The title "Holy Father"appears only here in the fourth Gospel and is a reminder of both aspects of God's nature. It balances ideas of ultimate purity with intimate paternity and so prepares for what lies ahead, namely ...
  • Longenecker identified five phenomena about the structure of Acts that the reader needs to recognize to appreciate what Luke sought to communicate."1. It begins, like the [Third] Gospel, with an introductory section of distin...
  • I. The witness in Jerusalem 1:1-6:7A. The founding of the church 1:1-2:461. The resumptive preface to the book 1:1-52. The command to witness 1:6-83. The ascension of Jesus 1:9-114. Jesus' appointment of a twelfth apostle 1:1...
  • The key to the apostles' successful fulfillment of Jesus' commission was their baptism with and consequent indwelling by the Holy Spirit. Without this divine enablement they would only have been able to follow Jesus' example,...
  • Luke introduced the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry with His baptism with the Spirit (Luke 3:21-22). He paralleled this with the beginning of Jesus' heavenly ministry with the Spirit baptism of His disciples (Acts 2:1-4)...
  • 2:37 The Holy Spirit used Peter's sermon to bring conviction, as Jesus had predicted (John 16:8-11). He convicted Peter's hearers of the truth of what he said and of their guilt in rejecting Jesus. Their question arose from t...
  • 3:17-18 If Peter's charges against his hearers were harsh (vv. 13-15), his concession that they acted out of ignorance was tender. Peter undoubtedly hoped that his gentle approach would win a reversal of his hearers' attitude...
  • The scene shifts back to life within the church (cf. 4:32-5:11). Luke wrote this pericope to explain some administrative changes that the growth of the church made necessary. He also wanted to introduce the Hellenistic Jews w...
  • Luke next featured other important events in the expansion of the church and the ministry of another important witness. Philip took the gospel into Samaria and then indirectly to Ethiopia, one of the more remote parts of the ...
  • The first part of Philip's important witness took place in Samaria. Luke recorded the cause of Philip's ministry there (vv. 1b-3), its nature (vv. 4-8), and its effects (vv. 9-24)....
  • 8:4 Whereas persecution resulted in the death of some believers it also dispersed the disciples over a wider area. Luke described what they did as scattered believers as "preaching the word"(Gr. euaggelizomenoi ton logon, lit...
  • 8:9-11 Another person who was doing miracles in Samaria, but by satanic power, was Simon whom people have sometimes called Simon Magus. Magus is the transliteration of the Greek word magosmeaning magician or sorcerer. The mag...
  • 8:14-17 The 12 apostles were, of course, the divinely appointed leaders of the Christians (ch. 1). It was natural and proper, therefore, that they should send representative apostles to investigate the Samaritans' response to...
  • Luke recorded this incident to show the method and direction of the church's expansion to God-fearing Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism at this time. This man had visited Jerusalem to worship, was studying the Old Testam...
  • "No conversion has been more significant in the history of the Church . . ."389"In this passage we have the most famous conversion story in all history."390"The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch was in a chariot; the convers...
  • 9:10-12 Evidently Ananias was not a refugee from Jerusalem (22:12) but a resident of Damascus. He, too, received a vision of the Lord Jesus (v. 17) to whom he submitted willingly (cf. 1 Sam. 3:4, 10). Jesus gave Ananias speci...
  • Luke concluded each of his narratives of the Samaritans' conversion (8:4-25), Saul's conversion (9:1-31), and Cornelius' conversion (10:1-11:18) with references to the mother church in Jerusalem. He evidently wanted to stress...
  • Notice that "church"is in the singular here. This is probably a reference to the Christians throughout Palestine--in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria--not just in one local congregation but in the body of Christ. Saul's departure ...
  • Peter continued his itinerant ministry around Palestine (cf. 8:25).9:32 Lydda (modern Lod, the site of Israel's international airport) lay on the Mediterranean coastal plain about 10 miles from the sea. It was about 25 miles ...
  • 10:1 Caesarea stood on the Mediterranean coast about 30 miles north of Joppa. Formerly its name was Strato's Tower, but Herod the Great renamed it in honor of Augustus Caesar, his patron and the adopted heir of Julius Caesar....
  • Peter's sermon on this occasion is the first sermon in Acts addressed to a Gentile audience (cf. 14:15-17; 17:22-31). It is quite similar to the ones Peter preached in 2:14-40 and 3:11-26 except that this one has more informa...
  • 10:44 Peter did not need to call for his hearers to repent on this occasion. As soon as he gave them enough information to trust Jesus Christ, they did so. Immediately the Holy Spirit fell on them filling them (v. 47; 11:15; ...
  • Peter's actions in Caesarea drew criticism from conservative Jews. Luke wrote this pericope to enable his readers to understand and appreciate more fully God's acceptance of Gentiles into the church as Gentiles. An additional...
  • 11:19 Luke's reference back to the persecution resulting from Stephen's martyrdom (7:60) is significant. It suggests that he was now beginning to record another mission of the Christians that ran parallel logically and chrono...
  • 11:27 Prophets were still active in the church apparently until the completion of the New Testament canon. A prophet was a person to whom God had given ability to speak for Him (forth-telling, cf. 1 Cor. 14:1-5), which in som...
  • "Peter's rescue from prison is an unusually vivid episode in Acts even when simply taken as a story about Peter. Because it is not connected with events in the chapters immediately before and after it, however, it may seem ra...
  • Luke recorded these verses to set the stage for the account of Barnabas and Saul's first missionary journey that follows."The world ministry which thus began was destined to change the history of Europe and the world."51512:2...
  • Luke recorded the events of Paul's first missionary journey to document the extension of the church into new territory and to illustrate the principles and methods by which the church grew. He also did so to show God's supern...
  • 14:1-2 Iconium was a Greek city-state in the geographic region of Phrygia.". . . while Rome chose Antioch of Pisidia and Lystra as bastions of its authority in the area, Iconium remained largely Greek in temper and somewhat r...
  • 14:21b-22 The missionaries confined their labors to the Galatian province on this trip. They did not move farther east into the kingdom of Antiochus or the province Cilicia that Paul may have evangelized previously during his...
  • 15:1 The men from Judea who came down to Antioch appear to have been Jewish Christians who took the former view of Christianity described above. They believed a person could not become a Christian without first becoming a Jew...
  • Luke devoted more space to Paul's evangelizing in Philippi than he did to the apostle's activities in any other city on the second and third journeys even though Paul was there only briefly. It was the first European city in ...
  • Luke probably recorded Paul's address (vv. 22-31) as a sample of his preaching to intellectual pagans (cf. 13:16-41; 14:15-18; 20:18-35).712In this speech Paul began with God as Creator and brought his hearers to God as Judge...
  • The purpose of this pericope (18:24-28) seems primarily to be to bring us up to date on what had transpired in Ephesus since Paul left that city.755Luke also introduced his readers to another important servant of the Lord to ...
  • This is the first of two incidents taken from Paul's ministry in Ephesus that bracket Luke's description of his general ministry there.19:1-2 Two roads led into Ephesus from the east, and Paul travelled the northern, more dir...
  • 19:8 Paul followed his standard procedure of preaching to the Jews in the synagogue at Ephesus as long as possible. Here the Jews were more tolerant than they had been in some other towns that Paul had evangelized, and he was...
  • The following incident throws more light on the spiritual darkness that enveloped Ephesus as well as the power of Jesus Christ and the gospel.19:13 "But"introduces a contrast to the good miracles that "God was performing . . ...
  • 21:7 Ptolemais (Acco of the Old Testament and modern Acre located on the north side of the bay of Haifa) lay 20 miles south of Tyre. It was the southernmost Phoenician port. There Paul also met with the local Christians as st...
  • The surface manifestation of this serious problem was the party spirit that had developed. Members of the church were appreciating their favorite leaders too much and not appreciating the others enough. This was really a mani...
  • Paul began by reaffirming their commonly held belief: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. In this section the apostle stressed the objective reality of both Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.15:1 The Corinthians and al...
  • Paul had cited his freedom to minister without the Corinthians' financial support and his sufferings in ministry as grounds for boasting. He next mentioned the special visions and revelations that God had granted him. He refe...
  • Having described the basis of Christian unity Paul next explained the means by which we can preserve it, namely with the gifts that the Spirit gives.4:7 Whereas each believer has received grace (unmerited favor and divine ena...
  • Having just encouraged his readers with a reminder of God's help for the faithful (1:14) the writer next urged his readers to be faithful. He did so to warn them of the possibility of retrogressing spiritually and consequentl...
  • The writer proceeded to explain what the community of Christians that he addressed should do to rectify its dangerous condition.6:1 Since they needed stretching mentally they should with the writer "press on to maturity."That...
  • Peter continued the exposition of Leviticus 19 that he began in verse 16.48"Peter's point is that if he and his readers have a special relationship to God by virtue of their calling and their new birth, then it is all the mor...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apo...
  • Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.'--Acts 8:21.THE era of the birth of Christianity was one of fermenting opinion and decaying faith. Then, as now, men's minds were ...
  • And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the mouth unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 27. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch ...
  • But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all cities, till he came to Caesarea.'--Acts 8:40.THE little that is known about Philip, the deacon and evangelist, may very soon be told. His name suggests, ...
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