Acts 8:1-25
In 1953, Sheldon Harnick wrote a song titled The Merry Minuet for a Broadway show . A group called The Kingston Trio sang this in the 1950s which I want to play for you now. (For those of you reading this sermon, imagine a carefree whistler after each line.)
The Merry Minuet by Sheldon Harnick
Intro:
There are days in my life when everything is dreary
I grow pessimistic, sad and world weary.
But when I’m tearful and fearfully upset
I always sing this merry little minuet:
They’re rioting in Africa
They’re starving in Spain
There’s hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don’t like anybody very much
But we can be grateful
And thankful and proud
That man’s been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud
And we know for certain
That some happy day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away
They’re rioting in Africa
There’s strife in Iran
What nature doesn’t do to us
Will be done by our fellow man.
I introduce this sermon with this song because it makes the point that there are historical, national prejudices that have existed for a long time. In the 55 years since this song was written, not much has changed.
This was especially the case with the Jews and the Samaritans.
To say that the French hate the Germans and the Germans hate the Poles is true to some extent but it does not compare to the profound prejudice that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. By the time of this account in Acts 8, the prejudice had lasted a thousand years. One thousand years, 1008 to 2008, that is a long, long time.
It began with the breakup of Solomon’s kingdom into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Ten tribes formed Israel and only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed Judah.
When the kingdom split, Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom, Israel, decided he had to provide an alternative to the temple in Jerusalem which was in the southern kingdom of Judah, so he created two golden calves and announced that these were the gods that had rescued them from Egypt. This blatant idolatry did not set Israel off on a good start.
Israel made Samaria their capital and for the next two hundred years, the kings of Israel and Judah, the northern and southern kingdoms, made alliances and broke them, made peace and then fought against each other.
Finally in 722 BC, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians. Thousands of Jews from the northern kingdom of Israel were deported and the country was repopulated with foreigners. The foreigners intermarried with the Jews who remained, which from the view of the Jews of Judah, made the Jews in Israel ritually unclean. They were put into the class of lepers.
In the sixth century when the Jews of the southern kingdom of Judah returned from their exile in Babylon to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem, they refused the help of the Samaritans and then later the Samaritans actively worked against their efforts to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem.
In the fourth century BC the Samaritans built their own, rival temple on Mount Gerizim and rejected all the Old Testament Scripture except for the Pentateuch. This did not go over well with the Jews of Judah. Remember that the Pharisees stoned Stephen because he taught that Jesus had superceded the Temple and the Law of Moses. The Law and the Prophets were held by the Pharisees in highest esteem and the Samaritans rejected both the Temple and the Prophets.
There was so much history that separated the Jews and the Samaritans. In John 4:9 when John recorded the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and the woman asked Jesus:
You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?
John felt it necessary to insert an explanation for his readers
For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to minister in his name, he told them: (Matthew 10:5)
Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
In Luke 10, when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, he needed an example of someone who was among the most despised by the religious establishment to be the one who helped the person in need. So Jesus chose a Samaritan for his parable to say that even a Samaritan is the true neighbor when he helps someone in need.
In Luke 17 when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank Jesus, what is astounding is that this healed man was a Samaritan. Imagine that?
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
This animosity went both ways. When Jesus was traveling with his disciples, heading to Jerusalem, he sent messengers ahead to one of the Samaritan villages to make preparations. Because he was heading toward Jerusalem, the villagers refused to help him. (Luke 9) Hospitality, which was a cultural value, was refused because of their prejudice against the Jews.
There was historical prejudice but it was also a matter of religious purity.
Remember that Matthew, the writer of the gospel, was a tax collector and considered unclean because of his frequent contact with Gentiles. He was a religious outcast because of his association with non-Jews.
The Samaritans not only had contact with Gentiles, they intermarried with them. They were unclean. They did not honor the Temple in Jerusalem and had built their own counterfeit temple; they had rejected all but the Pentateuch in the Scriptures and even in the Pentateuch they changed some of the geographical details to make their territory more prominent in the history of Moses.
It is against this background that we need to view the events of Acts 8.
When the Greek-speaking followers of Jesus fled from Jerusalem into Samaria and reports filtered back to the apostles that Samaritans had responded to the gospel and believed in Jesus, this created a lot of uneasiness and discussion.
Remember that a core understanding for Jews was that they were God’s chosen people. Among all the people of the world, God chose the Jews to be his people. The Jews were God’s people and Yahweh was their god. It was a closed relationship. No one else was welcome. Yahweh was the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was not the god of the Philistines or the Assyrians or the Babylonians or anyone else.
This was not simply their own idea, it was not something they made up. They learned this directly from God in what he revealed to them.
In an effort to teach the Jews to worship a holy God, when God gave the law to Moses, he included laws that mandated they be separate from the world. There were strict teachings about intermarriage. The prophets of God periodically condemned Israel for its practice of intermarriage. Jews were the chosen people of God and the teaching of Moses reinforced this understanding that they were to be a people separate and apart.
How then could the good news of Jesus apply to those who were not Jewish? How could the good news of Jesus apply to those who had made themselves unclean by their intermarriage with Gentiles and who rejected the very prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus as the Messiah?
The apostles received the report from Philip and wondered what it meant. They knew Philip and trusted him. If he said that the Samaritans had believed and were baptized, it must be true. But what did this mean? How could this be happening?
So Peter and John were sent to investigate.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
This passage is a centerpiece for Pentecostal theology that says that in addition to believing in Jesus there is a second experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Samaritans believed and were baptized and then when Peter and John came they received the Holy Spirit.
This stands in contrast to Paul’s teaching in Romans 8:9 that says one cannot be a Christian without being filled with the Spirit.
if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
And in opposition to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 1:13
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
But as soon as I say this, those with a Pentecostal background will speak up to present a different understanding of these verses.
I will come back to this difference in the way we approach these scriptures. For now I want to focus on a different aspect.
In Peter Wagner’s commentary on Acts, he makes the point that Pentecost was a three-fold experience. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Hebrew and Greek Jews in Jerusalem. The second stage in the Pentecost experience was here in Acts 8 when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Samaritans, half-Jews. The third stage in the Pentecost experience came in Acts 10 when Peter received a vision from God that what had been unclean was now clean and then visited Cornelius, a Gentile, not even part Jewish. Cornelius and his household believed and were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Notice that in each of these three stages of Pentecost, Peter was at the center. When Peter made his great confession of Christ, (Matthew 16)
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus replied
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
So it is significant that Peter was at the head of the events on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Jerusalem. Peter, along with John, laid hands on the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit and then at the house of Cornelius, Peter was speaking when the Holy Spirit was first poured out on Gentiles.
It is after this three-stage Pentecost experience that the church in Antioch sent Saul and Barnabas off on a missionary journey that brought the gospel to the Gentile world. But Peter, as Jesus’ representative, was at the heart of the initial outpouring of the Spirit on Gentiles.
When Jesus came, he came not just for one nationality, one race, one religious group, one part of the world. He came first to the Jews and he was explicit that this was the case. The disciples were told to minister in his name to the lost of Israel, not to the Gentiles and not to the Samaritans.
But even in his ministry there were hints that he had come for more than just the Jews. He healed the servant of the centurion and praised the centurion’s faith. He took time to speak and care for the Samaritan woman at the well.
After his ascension he sent the Holy Spirit to lead the disciples and they were led, beyond their prejudices, to bring the gospel to the Samaritans and then to the Gentiles.
We have to work to try to understand how profoundly difficult this was for the Jewish followers of Jesus to accept. But as the persecution of the believers led to the evangelizing of Judea and Samaria and eventually to the whole Gentile Mediterranean world, the gospel broke out of its Jewish roots and has spread over the years to the entire world.
This is good news for us, most of whom are not descended from Jewish parents. This is good news for the world.
Jesus opened wide the doors of his church and invited all to come in. There is no nationality that is unwelcome in the church. There is no race that is unwelcome in the church. There is no religious culture that is unwelcome in the church.
We do not have the right to exclude anyone, except for reasons of church discipline, from the church.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a unifying act. It brought together Jews and Samaritans. It made two groups who had been at odds with each other for a thousand years and made them brothers and sisters. It brought together Jews and Gentiles into the same family. The Holy Spirit turns enemies into brothers and sisters who will sacrifice for one another, who will die for each other.
I have read testimonies of black militants and white racists in the US coming to faith and developing deep bonds of love for each other. There is no prejudiced or hostile relationship that is more powerful than the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that transforms us into brothers and sisters in Christ and part of one family.
But unity is, unfortunately, not a trademark of the church of Jesus.
A thousand years ago the church split into the Eastern and Western church, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Five hundred years ago in the Reformation, Martin Luther led the split from the Catholic church and the Protestant church was born. The name Protestant comes from the word protest and they were called Protestants because they dissented. It is a good name because they have kept on dissenting over the last five hundred years. They might as well have called themselves Splitters because of the frequency of the church splits that have taken place. Not counting groups of just a few hundred, there are today 23,000 different Christian denominations.
Churches have split because of doctrinal issues, views of baptism and communion, women’s role in the church, styles of worship and on and on. Churches have split because of moral failures in leadership and because of a lust for power. There are profound reasons for church splits and there are ridiculous reasons why churches separate. Should the offering be taken up before or after the sermon? Let’s split the church. Is it proper to have flowers in the sanctuary or not? Is it acceptable to check email on the Sabbath? Let’s split the church.
The unity of the church is supposed to be a trademark of the church and evidence for the fact that God loves us and that he sent Jesus for us. The disunity of the church works against God’s purposes to draw men and women to himself. What a tragedy!
How can we work for the unity of the church? Let’s take a look at Peter and learn from his example.
Peter was a Jew. His world view was a Jewish world view. When Jesus had a dinner banquet at the house of Matthew, the tax collector, Peter may have been one of the disciples on the sideline talking with the Pharisees because he was also a bit disturbed by Jesus mingling so easily with these ritually and morally unclean people. It was one thing to follow Jesus and another to adapt to his departure from traditional Jewish religious practice.
I referred earlier to the Samaritan village that refused hospitality to Jesus and his followers when they were traveling to Jerusalem. John and his brother James, with all their zealousness and prejudice, asked Jesus (Luke 9:54)
Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?
Revealed in this suggestion was the thrill of power the disciples had felt when they were sent out by Jesus to preach, heal and cast out demons. John and James were enthusiastic about the power they had experienced. But their cultural distaste for the Samaritans is also revealed by their suggestion.
As a Jew, Peter had a built-in, cultural prejudice against the Samaritans but when he went to Samaria and talked with the Samaritans who had responded to Philip’s preaching, Peter was willing to put aside his prejudices, he was willing to put aside his preconceived ideas – and if we stop to think about it, this was no small achievement.
When Peter and John talked about this, they undoubtedly remembered Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and the many Samaritans who believed in Jesus at that time.
So Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritan believers and they received the Holy Spirit.
When Peter saw that they received from the Holy Spirit the gifts of the Spirit, probably speaking in tongues but also healing and others of the gifts, it confirmed for him that the Gospel of Jesus was meant for more than just the Jews.
We may not think this was a big step, but it was a huge step for Peter to make. By laying on hands and praying for the Samaritans, he overcame a thousand years of hostility and prejudice. He came to people with whom Jews did not associate and embraced them, welcoming them into his family.
Soon after this he made an even larger step when he went to the house of Cornelius and while he was speaking to Cornelius and his household, they received the filling of the Holy Spirit and now even Gentiles were to be included in the family of Jesus.
Peter was not stuck in his prejudices and preconceived ideas of how things were but was willing to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as God took him out of his cultural perspectives and into the growing kingdom of God.
None of us have it all figured out. When I was taking church history in seminary, I sat there taking notes about how Augustine was wrong at this point and Luther wrong at that point. We studied the great spiritual leaders of the church and each was mistaken at some point in what they believed.
I remember sitting there and thinking that these men were far more intelligent than I was and could it really be possible that I was the first one in all of church history to have it all put together the way it should be?
I am sure that as much as I believe I am right about Christian issues, at least some of what I believe is not correct. Each one of you is also wrong about some part of what you believe.
We need to hold tightly to the core of our faith. God created the world. Because of our sin we are distant from God but because God loves us, he sent Jesus to redeem us. Jesus died on the cross, taking the penalty for our sins, so we could be set free from the penalty of spiritual death. Jesus rose from the dead, giving us hope that after we die our physical death, we too will rise to live with him for eternity. Jesus came to save us and he will come again to judge the world.
This is the core of what we believe. When someone denies the deity of Jesus, we can separate. We can separate when the core of our faith is disputed. But we have to be very careful that we do not define the core of our belief too broadly.
Will Jesus return before the rapture or after the rapture? Will the rapture occur before the tribulation or during the tribulation? Does the communion bread and wine become the actual blood and body of Jesus when we take it or is it merely symbolic? Is baptism effective if we are sprinkled with water or do we have to be immersed? Can infants be baptized or can only adults be baptized? Did God create the world some six thousand years ago and create each species as a special act of creation or was the world created thirteen billion years ago with evolution as God’s means of creation?
Jesus opened up the doors of the church as wide as possible and it is not wise or profitable for us to restrict the opening with our peripheral beliefs. We can have Christian fellowship without coming to agreement on these peripheral issues.
What this means is that when we too broadly define the core of what we believe, we work against Jesus and the Holy Spirit. When we restrict the sacrament of communion to only those who agree with us about how we view it, we are working against Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
It is not that doctrine is unimportant. I keep Paul’s advice to Timothy above my desk and look at it frequently.(I Timothy 4:16)
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Doctrine is important, but it is critical that we hold on to the core of our faith tightly and the peripheral believes more loosely.
Hold what you believe about these peripheral things loosely, with a measure of humility. You may be wrong in what you believe. You are probably wrong in some part of what you believe. In fact I am sure you are wrong about some part of what you believe just as I am sure that I am also wrong in part of what I believe.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is meant to be a unifying experience. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a direct assault against the devil. In a reverse image, the devil was comfortably sailing along in his boat when God blew a hole in the boat so the water of the sea could pour into the boat. The devil has worked ever since to try to block that hole, to keep the sea of humanity from pouring in.
When we separate and divide and create tensions that prevent us from fellowshipping together, we cooperate with the devil in closing the wide open door God created at Pentecost and work against the Holy Spirit.
To say that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are listed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians no longer operate is to shut out brothers and sisters who bless the church through the use of those gifts. To say that it is wrong even to have the gift of tongues as a private prayer language alienates those who find this gift a spiritual blessing.
To say that we need to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second experience with God is to create a spiritual hierarchy that makes those who do not experience God in this way feel spiritually inferior.
Whatever you believe about this issue, there is a good chance you are wrong so why make this a point of division? Why make the gift of the Holy Spirit a point of division when he is meant to be a point of unity?
We all need to be filled and repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit. Let’s unite around that truth.
It is not necessary that we agree on all our peripheral beliefs, but we do not need to advertise them. We do not need to bring them into the core of our beliefs so that they separate us from others.
One of the reasons I so much enjoy being part of an international congregation is that we have such rich geographical, racial and denominational diversity. Our spirituality is blessed by this diversity.
The body of Christ is far more diverse than most of us can imagine. Members in the body of Christ are Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal. Not all Catholics are in the body of Christ. Not all Evangelicals or Pentecostals are in the body of Christ but we come from many denominational traditions.
My plea is that we open ourselves to a search for truth that will move us past our prejudices and preconceived ideas. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth and the growth of the kingdom of God.
