Happy To Help

Scripture: Acts 8:14-17, 25

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. 15 As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. 16 The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit. 25 After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News. (Acts 8:14-17, 25 NLT)

This is such a sweet story! Knowing about the dislike the Jews had for the Samaritans and thinking ahead to some of the Jewish legalism issues that would soon come up with Gentile believers, this is such a good response from the Jerusalem church and its leaders! News got back to Jerusalem about the acceptance of the Gospel in Samaria, about Philip’s powerful, miraculous healings and about the demons fleeing, screaming, as Philip cast them out. And they heard that Philip was baptizing the new believers as fast as he could dunk them in the water!

The Jerusalem church sent Peter and John to help Philip! When they arrived, they saw many new believers who had heard the Gospel Message, believed, and been baptized. But they also saw that these new believers hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit, so they prayed for all the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit and began to lay hands on them and they all received the Holy Spirit, just as the disciples had on Pentecost. And there was also an encounter with Simon the (Ex) Sorcerer that we’ll talk about tomorrow. Amazing!

Philip was full of the Spirit and power. He preached the Gospel so effectively that an entire city was converting to faith in Jesus the Messiah and being baptized. He was doing miracles of healing and deliverance. All good! But the people he was evangelizing weren’t receiving the Holy Spirit empowerment themselves. So when Peter and John arrived, they prayed for them and laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

I’ve thought about this a lot. I don’t know why it happened that way, but here’s what I think. I believe this is an early example of what Paul would later write about in 1 Corinthians 12-14: The church is a many-membered body with a variety of gifts. No one has it all together. But all together we have it. What do you think?

Prayer:

Father, I’m so glad the believers in Jerusalem were Happy to Help! And I’m glad Peter and John’s insight and gifts got the new believers “Filled with the Spirit.” I want to be Happy to Help (like Peter and John) and willing to be helped (like Philip)! Amen!