Living Among Them

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

LIVING AMONG THEM

Acts 8:1-8

8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

NIV

We just witnessed Stephan, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit ask God to forgive those who were in the act of killing him by throwing stones at him, which has to be a horrible way to die. Now we are introduced to this man Saul, who we know of course became Paul, one of the most traveled of all the Apostles, starting churches throughout the known world. But for now he is Saul and was not only giving his approval of the killing of Stephen, he went about trying his best to destroy the early church. We will have many opportunities to visit with Paul, and learn from his life, so for now let us also notice that even though some like Saul were trying their best to destroy the church they were not successful. Because of the men like Saul, believers scattered to other areas, escaping the persecution. They did not merely escape, but they continued to witness to others, to tell them about Jesus. One of those who scattered was a man named Phillip. We are introduced to him in much the same way we were introduced to Stephen. We are told several things about him such as he proclaimed Christ in a city in Samaria and he did miraculous signs such as casting out evil spirits, healing paralytics and cripples and bringing great joy to that city. The first thing we should note is that although most Jews simply would not have anything to do with a Samaritan, as they were pagan worshipping half breeds, having intermarried with gentiles, Phillip shared Jesus with them and healed their sick and lame. Could we be guilty of having the attitude toward people who have lifestyles which we consider offensive to God, as the Jews had toward the Samaritans, or do we have the attitude of Phillip? Do we have an attitude of being just a bit superior to those who are not believers, a bit more righteous, a bit more right in our thinking? It is a great thing that Phillip was not like that, for many Samaritans were saved from their pagan worship and came to accept Jesus, and many were healed of their aliments. Their lives got a whole lot better because of Phillip and that is the attitude we should have toward all those who do not know Jesus. Of course we have to understand that in order for all those signs and wonders, Phillip had to have been filled with faith and of the Holy Spirit as Stephan was. Our actions among those who live outside the church, outside the city of light and love, must be due to our being full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Human efforts are just that, humanity, humanitarianism at its finest. The pagans are capable of humanitarian works, in fact, many times they are better at it then we believers. If we are going to be effective in our sharing Jesus, sharing the good news of the gospel, we need to be full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and yes perhaps we even need some signs and wonders, healing those who are in need, in the name of Jesus. It seems Jesus healed people before they believed as it seems so did Phillip. Healing is not just reserved to the saved, but it can be to bring people to salvation. In either case we can learn from Phillip not to close ourselves off from those who live an offensive life against God, but to share the Gospel as we live among them.