e18
Samaria
Acts 8:5-25
8.4 ¶ Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
Philip, one of the six remaining deacons from the Jerusalem church, led by the Holy Spirit, goes to Samaria. Samaria is referred to as a city, but Samaria was also known as a region (or province).
The original reason for choosing the seven men was for them to oversee the feeding of the church people. These meals were not just occasional or even regular pot-luck dinners. These meals were prepared daily.
The church met daily. Multi-thousands of new converts to Christianity in the city of Jerusalem lived together … apart. That is, there not being any building large enough to house many thousands of people, they used any and all facilities within their grasp. This would translate to there being hundreds of house churches in the city.
But now that has changed. Stephen has given his life for Jesus. Saul, a by-stander granting authority for those who were ‘executing’ Stephen, has decided to take this further. He has decided to eliminate Christianity altogether.
Motivated by an extreme hatred for these ‘heretics’, he organizes a massive campaign to apprehend, torture and if possible, have them put to death.
This resulted in the many house churches in the city of Jerusalem suddenly having to change locations and meet secretly. The daily meals, the opportunities to meet in public groups have ceased. Everyone, Luke says, fled. Only the apostles remained. The original job description for the deacons, at that point, would no longer exist.
Now we know the context for Philip’s decision to travel to Samaria. The fleeing Christians were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, The apostles, the deacons, and anyone else who had a pretty solid Christian base, would be greatly concerned for the scattered church. It makes sense that Philip is scouting throughout the Samaria region, helping to secure and establish some of the Christians who fled there.
We pick up the story with Philip preaching Christ … openly. Persecution is not an issue here. Saul, and his Jewish supporters wanted nothing to do with Samaritans, so for the time being, Samaria would be a safe place for the fleeing Christians.
Why did the Jews dislike Samaritans? Many years earlier, Israelites were taken captive by the Assyrians. But the Assyrians left a number of stragglers behind. These Jews, in order to survive, intermarried with gentiles. The Jews had very strict laws concerning any interactions with gentiles. They considered gentiles to be ‘unclean’. They extended that same attitude to those who were half Jew, half gentile.
I want to mention the last words of Jesus regarding the expanding mission of the church. He said to his church, 8 “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The expanding ministry had a tremendous start in Jerusalem. And we are now reading in chapter 8 that the ministry has just been extended to Judea and Samaria. Later we will see the last part, to ‘the end of the earth’ transition as well.
So let’s travel in our minds to Samaria and see what Philip is doing there.
Philip is ‘preaching Christ’ to the people and 6 the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
This sounds like a huge open air revival meeting. The results are wonderful. The Samaritan people are hearing the gospel message from a Jew. That would be unusual for them.
You may recall that a Samaritan woman is mentioned in John’s gospel, chapter four. Jesus was in the process of traveling north from Judea up to Galilee. He made a point, instead of skirting around Samaria to the east as any ‘normal’ Jew would have done, He went straight through Samaria. He encounters a woman who had come to get water from Jacob’s well, and He strikes up a conversation with her. To ‘fast forward’ to the end of the story, the woman becomes a believer in Jesus, runs into the city spreading the news that the Messiah has come. Many from the city go to meet Jesus and shortly they all become believers.
This occasion of Jesus’ meeting with the woman at the well would have taken place not more than three years earlier than Philip’s visit to Samaria. So as he preached to them, his message builds on what they received from Jesus.
Jesus had told them that He indeed was the Messiah. Now Philip adds to the story … the Messiah died and rose again. As he preached, they gladly received everything he had to say.
Philip obviously cared for them, … a lot.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
Philip cared enough for them to do more than just preach to them. God had entrusted him with the ability to heal. His love for them was what motivated him to use that gift to show to them the love of God, and the truth that Jesus is God, our Saviour.
Next we read, 8 And there was great joy in that city.
The city, however, had a bit of history. Luke says, 9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.”
11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
It seems obvious that this man charged for his services. When he notices that his ‘audiences’ have left him, he follows to find out for himself what the new attraction is.
He saw and he heard, 13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
Simon, ‘The Sorcerer’, is now a Christian. And, by the sound of it, is sticking pretty close to Philip. He, better than anyone, knew the basis of his magic tricks, and now he is witnessing genuine miracles.
As this ‘revival’ grew, the news spread as far as the Jerusalem ‘homebase’.
14 ¶ Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, … Why? The apostles felt the need to ‘check out’ the gospel going to the ‘half-jews’. They want to see if this is God’s doing … and, just what is it that God is doing? Peter and John are chosen to go take a closer look.
15 … when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Peter and John apparently have their hearts opened to what they have just witnessed. Their joy is only interrupted by something that seems to be missing. What they are used to seeing is some kind of evidence that a person has received the gift of the Spirit.
When a person today receives Christ there are various evidences. The most important is that of a changed heart and outlook. We also believe that it is at that moment that a person receives gifts from the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, that particular, specific gifts are gifts of the Spirit. He says, 9 The same Spirit gives to another man faith, to another the ability to heal,
10 to another the use of spiritual power. The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the word of God, to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, to another speech in different tongues and to yet another the power to interpret the tongues.
11 Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, who distributes to each individual man, as he wills. I Corinthians 12:9-11 Philips Translation
It seems that Peter and John were not seeing any of these gifts, so they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Luke explains, 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Philip, according to what we are reading here, baptized them in the name of Jesus only. We don't know why.
Had he baptized them in the name of the Father, in the Name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit, surely someone would have asked ‘Who is the Holy Spirit?’
The event that took place on the day of Pentecost, the giving of the Spirit, happened in three phases. The first phase was that the Holy Spirit came upon Jewish believers only. Now in accordance with Jesus commanded expansion of the church, phase two takes place. We are reading about a Samaritan Pentecost.
17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Something obvious must have happened immediately.
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
What was that about? Simon is a believer, a baptized believer that has been staying very close to Philip. He has received the truth that Jesus is ‘God, come in the flesh’, crucified for our sins, and raised to new life and ascended to heaven, and soon to return. He believed all of that. He has seen people healed and freed from the power of Satan.
But now he has just seen evidence of the gifts of the Spirit, not only in Philip, but in these believers also.
We do not know if Peter and John laid hands on the believers who happened to be present … and then the Holy Spirit fell on all the new believers, even on those who may not have been present at the time or … did these two go from person to person, laying hands on every single one of them, possibly a thousand or so, and imparting the Holy Spirit to them, one at a time?
What Simon does next indicates something about his heart. He may not have been a true believer in Jesus. I think he was, but I am not his judge. We need to remember that Simon, as well as each one of us, when we receive the new nature from heaven, our old nature is not removed. We become born again, but we are really babies that have a lot of growing to do. Simon was no different. His old way of life, the things that he treasured, were still there under the surface.
But we now hear him, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Are we ever shocked by what comes out of the mouth of another so-called believer? What can come out of a believer's mouth … and we still consider them to be saved, born again?
Peter was shocked. Listen to this, 20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!
21 “You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
23 “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
This is quite an observation on Peter’s part. We must remember also that Peter has the indwelling power of the Spirit in him. With just these few words out of Simon’s mouth, Peter has come out with these strong words for him.
As a side note we remember that Peter himself was no stranger to harsh words. Look again at what Peter heard from the mouth of Jesus. But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Matthew 16:23
Peter seems to be concluding that this man was, indeed, still unsaved. He said, ”You have neither part nor portion in this matter,
That sounds pretty bad right there. It sounds to me like he is saying, “You are not saved”. We must be very careful in saying that to anyone. God revealed this to Peter and He may reveal something like this to you as well. And in that case we can speak it without hesitating. But until then, Jesus gives us advice that we can all take. He said, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Mt 7:20
Usually ‘fruit inspection’ happens over a brief or longer period of time. But one way or another we will soon know if we have learned enough about them to tell them they are not saved and they must truly repent if they expect to see heaven someday.
Peter tells Simon, 23 “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
That could only have been revealed to Peter in one way - through a clear and definite word from the Holy Spirit.
What is Simon’s response? Repentance. 24 Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.”
Peter and John return to Jerusalem. They have learned something very valuable. The gospel, salvation, and the receiving into the body of Christ … as equals, is available to the half-Jews also.
The trip to Samaria turned out to be a wonderful blessing and a very revealing experience. They conclude their visit … 25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
So to recap just a little, what has just taken place in the city of Samaria is actually stage two of the Day of Pentecost. The empowering of the church to go into all the world with the ability to break through all of the many barriers was a miracle. But it did not happen all at once. It happened in three stages.
At ‘Stage One’, the believers were all ethnic Jews who had trusted in Jesus as their Saviour. So we could call them Christian Jews. They received a ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit that day. This was not their salvation. This was not the time that they were baptized into the body of Christ. This was a special empowering of the Holy Spirit. Very likely we could state that this was the occasion that the Holy Spirit came to ‘indwell’ them.
With that in mind, we cannot help but notice that as Philip preached and people responded to the gospel and were baptized, that they would not have received the indwelling Spirit residing in their hearts. They were ‘saved’, ‘born again’, ‘regenerated’, ‘converted’ and perhaps many other terms that we could add here, but they were not indwelt.
If Philip noticed something ‘missing’ in the conversion experience of the Samaritans, he did not say one word about it. All we read is that there was great joy in the city and then we read that the apostles in Jerusalem get news of the Samaritan revival, and decide to send Peter and John to check it out.
When they get there, they ask questions. They discover that no one had even heard of the Holy Spirit. They lay hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit; His power, His gifts, His indwelling presence.
But before we try to develop a doctrine or teaching that includes the ‘laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit, I ask you to wait until we talk about phase Three of the day of Pentecost. This will be the coming of the Holy Spirit to Christian gentiles … non-Jews.
In the case of the Holy Spirit coming to Samaritans, we are witnessing an event that went against Jewish kosher laws. A good Jew would never touch a gentile. To do so would render him ceremonially unclean.
But to physically touch a Samaritan should not have been such a terrible thing for them to do. In spite of the fact that it may have been ok to touch a Samaritan, they still stayed away from it if possible.
The disciples were quite shocked to see Jesus sitting down and talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. But perhaps they remembered that and that encouraged them to be bold enough to lay hands on these Samaritan Christians. Laying hands on a gentile? Well that would take a miracle to get a Jew to touch a Gentile. And we will read about that later.
Untouchables. What about you and me? Where do we draw the line with who we would touch and those we want nothing to do with. That is something we can only answer in our own hearts as we remember who we were before Jesus pulled us up and out of the miry quick-sand of sin. I pray the grace of God will feel big enough in our lives that we will lovingly minister to all of the ‘Samaritans’ in our own lives.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
Philip, one of the six remaining deacons from the Jerusalem church, led by the Holy Spirit, goes to Samaria. Samaria is referred to as a city, but Samaria was also known as a region (or province).
The original reason for choosing the seven men was for them to oversee the feeding of the church people. These meals were not just occasional or even regular pot-luck dinners. These meals were prepared daily.
The church met daily. Multi-thousands of new converts to Christianity in the city of Jerusalem lived together … apart. That is, there not being any building large enough to house many thousands of people, they used any and all facilities within their grasp. This would translate to there being hundreds of house churches in the city.
But now that has changed. Stephen has given his life for Jesus. Saul, a by-stander granting authority for those who were ‘executing’ Stephen, has decided to take this further. He has decided to eliminate Christianity altogether.
Motivated by an extreme hatred for these ‘heretics’, he organizes a massive campaign to apprehend, torture and if possible, have them put to death.
This resulted in the many house churches in the city of Jerusalem suddenly having to change locations and meet secretly. The daily meals, the opportunities to meet in public groups have ceased. Everyone, Luke says, fled. Only the apostles remained. The original job description for the deacons, at that point, would no longer exist.
Now we know the context for Philip’s decision to travel to Samaria. The fleeing Christians were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, The apostles, the deacons, and anyone else who had a pretty solid Christian base, would be greatly concerned for the scattered church. It makes sense that Philip is scouting throughout the Samaria region, helping to secure and establish some of the Christians who fled there.
We pick up the story with Philip preaching Christ … openly. Persecution is not an issue here. Saul, and his Jewish supporters wanted nothing to do with Samaritans, so for the time being, Samaria would be a safe place for the fleeing Christians.
Why did the Jews dislike Samaritans? Many years earlier, Israelites were taken captive by the Assyrians. But the Assyrians left a number of stragglers behind. These Jews, in order to survive, intermarried with gentiles. The Jews had very strict laws concerning any interactions with gentiles. They considered gentiles to be ‘unclean’. They extended that same attitude to those who were half Jew, half gentile.
I want to mention the last words of Jesus regarding the expanding mission of the church. He said to his church, 8 “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The expanding ministry had a tremendous start in Jerusalem. And we are now reading in chapter 8 that the ministry has just been extended to Judea and Samaria. Later we will see the last part, to ‘the end of the earth’ transition as well.
So let’s travel in our minds to Samaria and see what Philip is doing there.
Philip is ‘preaching Christ’ to the people and 6 the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
This sounds like a huge open air revival meeting. The results are wonderful. The Samaritan people are hearing the gospel message from a Jew. That would be unusual for them.
You may recall that a Samaritan woman is mentioned in John’s gospel, chapter four. Jesus was in the process of traveling north from Judea up to Galilee. He made a point, instead of skirting around Samaria to the east as any ‘normal’ Jew would have done, He went straight through Samaria. He encounters a woman who had come to get water from Jacob’s well, and He strikes up a conversation with her. To ‘fast forward’ to the end of the story, the woman becomes a believer in Jesus, runs into the city spreading the news that the Messiah has come. Many from the city go to meet Jesus and shortly they all become believers.
This occasion of Jesus’ meeting with the woman at the well would have taken place not more than three years earlier than Philip’s visit to Samaria. So as he preached to them, his message builds on what they received from Jesus.
Jesus had told them that He indeed was the Messiah. Now Philip adds to the story … the Messiah died and rose again. As he preached, they gladly received everything he had to say.
Philip obviously cared for them, … a lot.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
Philip cared enough for them to do more than just preach to them. God had entrusted him with the ability to heal. His love for them was what motivated him to use that gift to show to them the love of God, and the truth that Jesus is God, our Saviour.
Next we read, 8 And there was great joy in that city.
The city, however, had a bit of history. Luke says, 9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.”
11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
It seems obvious that this man charged for his services. When he notices that his ‘audiences’ have left him, he follows to find out for himself what the new attraction is.
He saw and he heard, 13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
Simon, ‘The Sorcerer’, is now a Christian. And, by the sound of it, is sticking pretty close to Philip. He, better than anyone, knew the basis of his magic tricks, and now he is witnessing genuine miracles.
As this ‘revival’ grew, the news spread as far as the Jerusalem ‘homebase’.
14 ¶ Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, … Why? The apostles felt the need to ‘check out’ the gospel going to the ‘half-jews’. They want to see if this is God’s doing … and, just what is it that God is doing? Peter and John are chosen to go take a closer look.
15 … when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Peter and John apparently have their hearts opened to what they have just witnessed. Their joy is only interrupted by something that seems to be missing. What they are used to seeing is some kind of evidence that a person has received the gift of the Spirit.
When a person today receives Christ there are various evidences. The most important is that of a changed heart and outlook. We also believe that it is at that moment that a person receives gifts from the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, that particular, specific gifts are gifts of the Spirit. He says, 9 The same Spirit gives to another man faith, to another the ability to heal,
10 to another the use of spiritual power. The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the word of God, to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, to another speech in different tongues and to yet another the power to interpret the tongues.
11 Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, who distributes to each individual man, as he wills. I Corinthians 12:9-11 Philips Translation
It seems that Peter and John were not seeing any of these gifts, so they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Luke explains, 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Philip, according to what we are reading here, baptized them in the name of Jesus only. We don't know why.
Had he baptized them in the name of the Father, in the Name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit, surely someone would have asked ‘Who is the Holy Spirit?’
The event that took place on the day of Pentecost, the giving of the Spirit, happened in three phases. The first phase was that the Holy Spirit came upon Jewish believers only. Now in accordance with Jesus commanded expansion of the church, phase two takes place. We are reading about a Samaritan Pentecost.
17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Something obvious must have happened immediately.
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
What was that about? Simon is a believer, a baptized believer that has been staying very close to Philip. He has received the truth that Jesus is ‘God, come in the flesh’, crucified for our sins, and raised to new life and ascended to heaven, and soon to return. He believed all of that. He has seen people healed and freed from the power of Satan.
But now he has just seen evidence of the gifts of the Spirit, not only in Philip, but in these believers also.
We do not know if Peter and John laid hands on the believers who happened to be present … and then the Holy Spirit fell on all the new believers, even on those who may not have been present at the time or … did these two go from person to person, laying hands on every single one of them, possibly a thousand or so, and imparting the Holy Spirit to them, one at a time?
What Simon does next indicates something about his heart. He may not have been a true believer in Jesus. I think he was, but I am not his judge. We need to remember that Simon, as well as each one of us, when we receive the new nature from heaven, our old nature is not removed. We become born again, but we are really babies that have a lot of growing to do. Simon was no different. His old way of life, the things that he treasured, were still there under the surface.
But we now hear him, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Are we ever shocked by what comes out of the mouth of another so-called believer? What can come out of a believer's mouth … and we still consider them to be saved, born again?
Peter was shocked. Listen to this, 20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!
21 “You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
23 “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
This is quite an observation on Peter’s part. We must remember also that Peter has the indwelling power of the Spirit in him. With just these few words out of Simon’s mouth, Peter has come out with these strong words for him.
As a side note we remember that Peter himself was no stranger to harsh words. Look again at what Peter heard from the mouth of Jesus. But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Matthew 16:23
Peter seems to be concluding that this man was, indeed, still unsaved. He said, ”You have neither part nor portion in this matter,
That sounds pretty bad right there. It sounds to me like he is saying, “You are not saved”. We must be very careful in saying that to anyone. God revealed this to Peter and He may reveal something like this to you as well. And in that case we can speak it without hesitating. But until then, Jesus gives us advice that we can all take. He said, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Mt 7:20
Usually ‘fruit inspection’ happens over a brief or longer period of time. But one way or another we will soon know if we have learned enough about them to tell them they are not saved and they must truly repent if they expect to see heaven someday.
Peter tells Simon, 23 “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
That could only have been revealed to Peter in one way - through a clear and definite word from the Holy Spirit.
What is Simon’s response? Repentance. 24 Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.”
Peter and John return to Jerusalem. They have learned something very valuable. The gospel, salvation, and the receiving into the body of Christ … as equals, is available to the half-Jews also.
The trip to Samaria turned out to be a wonderful blessing and a very revealing experience. They conclude their visit … 25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
So to recap just a little, what has just taken place in the city of Samaria is actually stage two of the Day of Pentecost. The empowering of the church to go into all the world with the ability to break through all of the many barriers was a miracle. But it did not happen all at once. It happened in three stages.
At ‘Stage One’, the believers were all ethnic Jews who had trusted in Jesus as their Saviour. So we could call them Christian Jews. They received a ‘baptism’ of the Holy Spirit that day. This was not their salvation. This was not the time that they were baptized into the body of Christ. This was a special empowering of the Holy Spirit. Very likely we could state that this was the occasion that the Holy Spirit came to ‘indwell’ them.
With that in mind, we cannot help but notice that as Philip preached and people responded to the gospel and were baptized, that they would not have received the indwelling Spirit residing in their hearts. They were ‘saved’, ‘born again’, ‘regenerated’, ‘converted’ and perhaps many other terms that we could add here, but they were not indwelt.
If Philip noticed something ‘missing’ in the conversion experience of the Samaritans, he did not say one word about it. All we read is that there was great joy in the city and then we read that the apostles in Jerusalem get news of the Samaritan revival, and decide to send Peter and John to check it out.
When they get there, they ask questions. They discover that no one had even heard of the Holy Spirit. They lay hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit; His power, His gifts, His indwelling presence.
But before we try to develop a doctrine or teaching that includes the ‘laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit, I ask you to wait until we talk about phase Three of the day of Pentecost. This will be the coming of the Holy Spirit to Christian gentiles … non-Jews.
In the case of the Holy Spirit coming to Samaritans, we are witnessing an event that went against Jewish kosher laws. A good Jew would never touch a gentile. To do so would render him ceremonially unclean.
But to physically touch a Samaritan should not have been such a terrible thing for them to do. In spite of the fact that it may have been ok to touch a Samaritan, they still stayed away from it if possible.
The disciples were quite shocked to see Jesus sitting down and talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. But perhaps they remembered that and that encouraged them to be bold enough to lay hands on these Samaritan Christians. Laying hands on a gentile? Well that would take a miracle to get a Jew to touch a Gentile. And we will read about that later.
Untouchables. What about you and me? Where do we draw the line with who we would touch and those we want nothing to do with. That is something we can only answer in our own hearts as we remember who we were before Jesus pulled us up and out of the miry quick-sand of sin. I pray the grace of God will feel big enough in our lives that we will lovingly minister to all of the ‘Samaritans’ in our own lives.