Acts 8:4-40: The Ministry of Phillip

The Conversion of Simon the Sorcerer

Another one of the “seven” after Stephen was Phillip, Phillip the disciple of Jesus. In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised that ministry in the Spirit would enable them to be witnesses “in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.” Through Phillip, the gospel hits Samaria. The conversion of Simon the Sorcerer is interesting. His conversion is not very pure, for he really follows because of the miracles he was seeing (a greater kind of magic in his eyes). When he sees the people receive the Holy Spirit, he’s even ready to pay for the ability to do that.

Maybe all of us come to Christ partly out of impure motives. Some do it for business reasons, others to please a family member, and still others just because they have the need to connect with other people. I have even had to face some of the less pure reasons I am in ministry. Some are pure, while others can be that I want to be approved by lots of people or I have a great need to be needed or I have special power or authority needs. These lesser motivations for following and serving Christ eventually get tested and we get reduced to the place where we follow Christ with no ulterior motives and where we share in ministry just because we are called to do it and are honored to do so.

The people in Samaria hear from Phillip the good news of Christ, but it is Peter and John who open them up to the dimension of the Holy Spirit. We will see this again in Acts 19 with Paul. My own experience is similar. I was taught to put faith in Christ, but I was not taught to open up to the dimension of the Holy Spirit. When I was 14 I accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. But it was two years later that I asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I did not “speak in tongues” as some of my Pentecostal brothers and sisters did, but my faith did open up in a new way. From then on, I was bolder to share my faith and my life in Christ became more than just what I could do in my own strength.

I believe that this is what John Wesley experienced when he said his “heart was strangely warmed.” Prior to that, he had a sincere faith and even did missionary work in Georgia, but it was the experience of Christ within through the power of the Spirit that set his heart ablaze and created the Methodist movement.

One of my commitments in ministry is to “despookify” the Holy Ghost. People have made the Holy Spirit super mysterious on the one hand and spooky and weird on the other. My experience is that most people who get the Holy Spirit and became weird were that way in the first place. You may be asking, “Can’t you receive Jesus in your heart and the filling of the Holy Spirit at the same time?” Yes, indeed and many do. In fact, in Acts 10:44-45, the Holy Spirit falls on the people before they put their trust in Christ. But if we are not aware of the Holy Spirit dimension of God in our lives, we will not be open to it. It is in the dimension of God the Holy Spirit that we experience the power to live the Christian life, to share of our gifts in partnership with God (Corinthians 12:1-11), and grow in character and love to become like Christ (the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23).

The Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch

Sometimes we are made to feel that we must force ourselves to share Christ. My experience is that people who are growing in Christ and led by the Spirit will share Christ naturally. We do need to help people know how to share their faith, but we don’t have to create artificial situations or strategies to make witnessing happen. Biblically, one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to prepare people’s hearts to receive the good news of Christ. We don’t really take Christ to people, we just share the Christ who is already there. Furthermore, most people don’t respond in faith the first time they hear the gospel. People who have researched this say that it takes an average of twelve people to make a witness before most people respond.

What Phillip finds is a seeking heart, a person who is ready. He shows his readiness by the questions he is asking. The eunuch wants to know about the words of Isaiah, a classic text in which Christians often see Jesus. With such an opening, it was easy to share Christ. So what do we do while we wait for these openings? We live as the hands, the feet, the encouraging words and the shoulder to lean on of Jesus. We genuinely care and share with people, whether or not they ever respond in faith with us. They may well respond with someone else. But we don’t offer care so they will convert. People will smell a hidden agenda a mile away. But if the people of God are the hands and feet of Christ and they are sensitive to the leading of God’s Spirit, then witness will not be difficult. In fact, it will be hard to keep quiet.

We live in a day when evangelism has become a dirty word, partly because it has been contrived (something we must do with certain expectations of response). Instead, let’s grow in our walk with Christ in the power of the Spirit and build authentic relationships with people. Then let’s watch and see what opportunities start to show up.