God's Plan of Salvation

PLAN OF SALVATION – 3 (Acts 8)

There are no detailed cases of conversion after Acts 2 until Acts 8.

Acts 3 and 4 detail the beginning of the persecution of the first Christians. Acts 5 presents one of the first problems in the Church, where a man and his wife attempted to use the church for their own purposes and were struck dead for it. Additional persecution is detailed in the rest of 5, and then another problem in the church (a racial one) was resolved in Acts 6. Very interesting reading.

Notice the introduction of Philip and Stephen in Acts 6, and the fact that the apostles laid their hands on them (6:5-6). The persecution and death of Stephen follow, with chapter 7 demonstrating that the first century Christians believed the Old Testament in detail.

Paul is introduced in 7:58 & 8:1, after which we see a scattering of the early Christians. This is very interesting. For, it would seem that when the Christians were scattered they would become dysfunctional without the sanction and organization of the apostles. Instead we see that it was the truth and the truth alone that made Christians. Note:

· In Acts 8:1 it says that the apostles were not scattered; but

· In Acts 8:4 it says that those who were scattered went forth preaching the word.

· Conclusion: all Christians need is the word of God in order to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-19).

There is an interesting account of the conversion of the first Samaritans. These were a half-breed race, and often despised by the Jews even more than the gentiles were. We are seeing in the book of Acts how each conversion involves different types of people, beginning with the Jews, and now diversifying once the disciples are scattered.

The account of the conversion of the Samaritans has many interesting aspects. We encourage you to study it, but for now, we will just note the following:

Acts 8:12-13: “But when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. And Simon also himself believed: and being baptized, he continued with Philip; and beholding signs and great miracles wrought, he was amazed.

It is also interesting that in Acts 8:14 we read that the apostles had to be informed of this event, but they definitely supported it and sent Peter and John down to lay hands on some of the new Samaritan converts to impart to them the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This leads to the next example in Acts 8:26-39, which is the most detailed in the NT. We will highlight certain aspects of it:

Acts 8:26: “An the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 8:27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 8:28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet.” This is particularly interesting because of this man's race and color (which seemed to be less a problem than race at this time). He was a proselyte Jew, and was obviously trying to learn more about the truth.
Acts 8:29-31: “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join yourself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to [him], and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up
and sit with him.” Clearly this man was trying to learn the truth. He was seeking after God. He was not just hearing, he was listening. The passage that he was reading was Isaiah 53:7-8.
Acts 8:32-33 “The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” You might want to review all of Isaiah 53 at some point. It is a prophecy that there can be no other application to than that of Jesus Christ. It is clear that Isaiah had detailed knowledge of the purpose and events of the death of Christ that could be obtained no other way than by the direct inspiration of God.
Acts 8:34-35: “And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaks the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” Philip added the actual details of the death, burial and resurrection to what the eunuch already knew from the Old Testament at this point. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the words by which all men are saved.
Acts 8:36-39: “And as they went on [their] way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” This clearly demonstrates:
- Preaching Jesus includes preaching the necessity for baptism;
- The eunuch saw the necessity to be baptized as soon as possible;
- Philip wanted to make sure that the eunuch believed, since the only subjects of baptism that we see in the New Testament are believers;
- The eunuch confessed his belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God;
- The baptism that is commanded as part of being born again (John 3:5) is water baptism;
- Water baptism was accomplished by immersion, which is exactly what the Greek work transliterated “baptism” means;
- The eunuch was clearly saved and thus added to Christ (Rom. 6:3) at this point, since he went on his way rejoicing.

We can see that this fulfills the complete pattern that Jesus gave in terms of conditions:

He heard (8:35)
He believed (8:37)
He repented (implied from his desire to be baptized)
He confessed (8:38)
He was baptized (8:38), and this freed him from his sins as evidenced by his going on his way rejoicing.

Note once again that each example of conversion demonstrates something a little different; the sum total providing everything that God wants us to know on the subject. The unique things about this include the man's race and his knowledge of the scriptures. Thus, there is almost an absence of any miraculous proof. The only thing that was miraculous was the strangeness of Philip appearing just at the right time. This was miraculous since the scriptures indicate that the Spirit was acting directly on Philip at this point.

In Lesson 4 we will take up the next detailed case of conversion, that of Paul, which also occurs in Acts 9. Please e-mail us if you have any questions: dbrown@cs.ua.edu