5-6 Philip Goes To Samaria
Go ye means go me. Many in the first century took that thought to heart. One of those was a man named Philip. In Acts 6, a man named Philip was appointed as a servant of the Jerusalem church to help with distributing needed items to the Grecian widows. Later, because of the persecution which scattered the Christians from Jerusalem, Philip went to the city of Samaria in the country of Samaria and preached Christ to them. I believe there are some nteresting things for us to learn from the account in Acts 8:
- He took the commission to “go” seriously. None in this early church were preachers by trade.They were men from various professions and stations in life who became Christians. Like the apostles in Acts 4:19-20, they could not help but speak the gospel. May our love and zeal for God give us the same need to teach.
- Philip used the gifts and abilities that he had. He was given miraculous ability by God to perform miracles. But, the gift that he had that was most valuable is one that we all have. He had the gift of speech/communication. That was the gift he used that had the most impact. Brothers and sisters, that is also a gift that we can use. Let’s do it.
- Philip, a Christian, went to preach to a group which he would have avoided as a Jew. As the woman at the well said, “the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” We are Christians also. Let us take the gospel everywhere, no matter the race, color, wealth, education, etc.
- The Samaritans believed this Jew because of the miracles which he did (v. 6), buy also because they heard (v. 6). People will listen to us, not because of the miracles we do, but because of our good works (Matt. 5:16), because of our character (Tit. 2:8-10), because we refrain from former sins (1 Peter 4:3).