Week 43 Acts 8
The big story in the second chapter is about the Holy Spirit coming to the believers so that they could speak other languages. It’s pretty interesting & perplexing. I think about it again when Philip went to Samaria. He told people about Jesus and some of them believed.
When this news got out Peter & John travelled to Samaria to see what was going on: as soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.
So it looks like two things happened:
a) some Samaritans had believed and been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
b) P&J prayed – sometime later – for those people to get the Holy Spirit.
The writer of Acts says that P&J prayed for them and put their hands on the people’s heads…but he doesn’t say that the people then spoke in different languages.
But did they? Something visible must have happened because Simon the Magician was watching and he offered to pay P&J to acquire the skill. If nothing visible had occurred it’s hard to imagine Simon wanting to trade for an imperceptible ability.
So I’m left wondering: what exactly happened that Simon saw…and wanted the power to give?
Note: quote from Acts 8:15-17 (NLT)