Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Acts chapter 8:1-8:
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Acts chapter 8:1-8:
V1: Saul’s approval of Stephen’s “execution” is linked at once with a great persecution against the church, in which he is clearly involved ( v3 .) The immediate result is to scatter the believers out from Jerusalem, apart from the Apostles. Was the persecution then especially targeted against ” ordinary believers”, thinking this would stop their witness?
V2-3: ” Devout men” take Stephen’s body for burial, grieving for his death, but Saul continues to harass the church, forcing, it seems, entry into homes and throwing both men and women into prison.No wonder he would later write 1 Corinthians 15:9-10.
V4: But those ” ordinary believers”, now scattered abroad, take the gospel wherever they go, not so much formal preaching surely, but as it has been put, ” gossiping the gospel”. So God uses the very growth of persecution to begin the wider spread of the gospel, as in Ch 1 v8.
V5: Now we focus on Philip, like Stephen one of the “seven”, in ch 6 v5, and like him too a man of clear spiritual gifts. He goes to Samaria – almost ” forbidden territory” to pious Jews, remember ( John 4:9.) but led by the Spirit, he powerfully preaches Christ to the Samaritans.
V6-8: Many heed his preaching, especially as it is attended by signs – exorcism and healing – but it is the Word of God, not these signs, through which the Lord works in their hearts, and the joy spoken of in v8 is surely the joy of salvation by grace.