Common Ground

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

COMMON GROUND

Acts 8:14-17

14 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.

NIV

If anyone wants to make a case for being saved and being filled with the Spirit as two distinct experiences this would be a good example of that situation. Although those in Samaria had accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, they were not filled with the Spirit, or baptized with that Spirit. We certainly saw this with the disciples who were waiting for the Spirit. They were surely believers, being saved from perishing, but they had not yet been baptized with the Spirit. Here again we see that after being baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, that is being saved, they needed to experience the baptism of the Spirit. So Peter and John were sent to check out the news about those in Samaria becoming believers in Jesus Christ. Again this is a group of people who the Jews would have nothing to do with, but Phillip had escaped to Samaria because of the outbreak of persecution of believers. He had shared the Good News and now Peter and John were there and they prayed for them, as well as laying hands on them, to receive the Holy Spirit, which is exactly what happened. It is apparent God is a respecter of no person, or God does not show favoritism, he pours his Spirit upon all who seek it, even Samaritans. We, of course already know about this experience as we too have been saved and at some point filled with the Spirit as well. Someone may not have laid hands on us, but nevertheless we prayed and God poured his Spirit out upon us. The same that was happening in Samaria is what has been and still is happening all over the world. God is still about the business of saving his people, with the Word and filling his people with his Spirit. There are several lessons we can take from this event, but it would seem best to see once again the barriers of humanity are broken down by the belief in Jesus Christ. It would seem all the differences within the human realm become extinct when Christ became the center of their life. We have already seen that all the believers had everything in common, and now we are seeing this acceptance of the Samaritans into the family of believers. Do we separate ourselves into little groups within the body of Christ? Do we tend to accept some in and not others? Are we a little standoffish of some, while embracing others? Do we even get a little tense with others from differing denominations? Do we think we have the real truth, or do they think they have the real truth and so we are not truly united in the Spirit as we should be, like those Jews and Samaritans became. It would seem belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and being baptized in Spirit is a universal experience available to all people. We seem to have divided ourselves into all sorts of various groups, based on all sorts of differences. Perhaps we should spend more time focused on that common ground of being saved and being filled with the Spirit.