Persecution of the Church
8
📚✭And Saul consented to his death. And at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, and except for the apostles, they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2 📚And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. 3 📚As for Saul, he raised havoc in the church. Going into every house✭ and dragging off men and women, he committed them to prison. Philip in Samaria
4 📚✭Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. 5 📚✭Then Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and preached Christ to them. 6 📚✭And the people with one mind gave attention to the things Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7 📚✭For unclean spirits, crying with loud voices, came out of many that had been possessed by them, and many were healed who had been paralyzed and lame. 8 📚And there was great joy in that city.
9 📚✭But there was a certain man named Simon who had been practicing sorcery in that city, amazing the people of Samaria, and claiming that he was someone great. 10 📚They all, from the least to the greatest, gave him their attention, saying, “This man is the great power of God”. 11 📚And they held him in high regard, because for a long time he had amazed them with magic arts. 12 📚✭But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 📚✭Then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip, and was astonished, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
Peter and John in Samaria
14 📚✭Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 📚✭who, when they arrived, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16 📚(for as yet he had not come down on any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 📚Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 📚✭And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19 📚saying, “Give me also this power, so that everyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit”.
20 📚✭But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21 📚You have neither part nor share in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 📚Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to God. Perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 📚For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness, and the bondage of sin”.
24 📚✭Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me”.
25 📚✭And when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 📚And the angel✭ of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go southward to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is in the desert”. 27 📚✭And he arose and went, and there saw a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 📚✭and was returning, sitting in his chariot and reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 📚✭Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and meet this chariot”.
30 📚And Philip ran there to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 📚✭And he said, “How can I, unless some man guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 📚✭The place in the Scripture which he read was this:
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
and like a lamb silent before his shearer,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 📚In his humiliation his justice was taken away.
And who will declare his generation?
For his life was taken from the earth.
34 📚✭And the eunuch responded to Philip, and said, “I ask you, of whom is the prophet speaking this?” “Of himself, or of some other man?” 35 📚Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at the same Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
36 📚✭And as they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 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”. 38 📚And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 📚✭And when they had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so the eunuch did not see him again. And he went on his way rejoicing. 40 📚But Philip appeared at Azotus, and passing through that area he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.