Mother and Child – Acts 8:4-8, 14-17

How many churches did the Lord Jesus directly start? (One).

How many churches did the Holy Spirit directly start? (None).

How many churches did God the Father start? (None).

So how many churches did God start? (One).

To how many churches did the Lord give His authority to evangelize, teach, administer the ordinances, and to operate as one of His churches? (One, directly).

Where was that church which Jesus started and authorized? (Jerusalem).

Does that mean that there are no God-authorized churches in the world today?

So somehow God’s authority was passed on.

How does the ecclesiastical authority of God spread?

It spreads in much the same way that life spreads:

One cell divides and with it goes life, so that there is life now in two cells.

And then both those cells divide again.

And when they both divided, life is found in four cells.

This occurs over and over until there may be millions of cells all with the same authority to live that was originally found only in that first cell.

Listen to my next few statements and judge how scriptural that you think that they are:

Church A ordains a man to become a missionary, and he travels to city B.

In city B, the gospel is preached and God sovereignly saves quite a few people through that ministry.

Eventually the Lord indicates to that missionary that it’s time to move on to a new city.

There are plenty of Christians now in that mission, and its obvious that they need a pastor.

So together, the mission and the missionary ask Church A, for its permission and authority to organize into an autonomous church and to ordain their own pastor or pastors.

Church A discusses the matter and votes to authorize the organization of Church B in city B.

So men from Church A travel to B and investigate the salvation and doctrine being preached there.

And they acknowledge that there are capable men to lead that new church.

So on a special night they organize that new church and ordain a man to pastor.

And in doing this they pass the authority which the Lord gave to them, on to this new church.

Over time it is hoped that church B, will do the same, and a church C will eventually come into existence.

How scriptural is what I just described?

How practical is what I just described?

How possible is what I just described?

How historical is what I just described?

Here are some more questions:

What did the first pastors of the church in Samaria lack which I possess? (The completed Word of God).

What did those men therefore need, which I do not need? (Miraculous power).

I think that what we are seeing in these verses is the organization of the second Baptist church,

And we are also witnessing the ordination of men to pastor it.

And then, in addition to the setting apart and ordination of these pastors, we also see the Apostles being used to give them power to work miracles and otherwise to prove their authority and ministry.

Let’s go back through these verses and see if these things ain’t so.

People in Samaria were being saved by the grace of God.

Verse 6 – “And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake.”

In itself this verse doesn’t prove that these people were saved.

Respect for the gospel or the Bible doesn’t mean faith in Christ or true reverence for God.

But where there is no heed to the Gospel there can be no faith in Christ or salvation from sin.

I believe that there were multitudes of people in Samaria coming to the Lord.

Part of my reason for saying that is that many were being baptized.

I don’t believe that Philip would have been baptizing people who were not displaying fruit of repentance.

They were making professions of faith in Christ, claiming to be new creatures in Him and beginning to live new lives.

And what’s more they were enduring the stigma which is attached to baptism.

By their baptism these people were breaking old bonds, and in some cases, jeoparding their lives.

Yes, these people were being saved.

Look at verse 13: “Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.”

I know that this doesn’t prove anything:

But the word “continued” is the same word used in the same exact tense as we find it in Acts 2:42

“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Simon, like many others, appears to have been saved by the grace of God.

And it appears to me that the sponsoring church, the Jerusalem church, heard about these saved souls and rejoiced in the goodness of God.

Perhaps their joy wasn’t as exuberant as the “great joy” of Samaria, but they rejoiced.

Perhaps their joy wasn’t as great as the “joy in the presence of the angels of God,” but they did rejoice.

Now, let’s think about some of the things that take place when people are saved.

And while we do this, examine your own heart to see if you are in the faith.

First, the Word of God is heard by both ear and heart.

And the Holy Spirit convinces that person of “sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

In fact it is expedient and essential for the Spirit to do this work in people’s lost hearts.

If they are saved, at some point those souls dead in Christ are regenerated or born again.

The Lord Jesus expressed it this way:

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Regeneration is a ministry which takes place by the Holy Spirit in every soul that the Lord saves.

And as that human spirit is quickened, or made alive, the Spirit of God also comes in and begins to dwell in that person – body, soul and spirit.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” – Romans 8:9.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” – I Cor. 3:16.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” – I Corinthians 6:19.

And in addition to this indwelling, the Holy Spirit also seals everyone of these believers.

“In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:7-14.

So, assuming that the people of Samaria were really saved by the grace of God, had any of them received the Holy Spirit?

Every single one of those people were born again by the Spirit of God and indwelt by Him.

There is no way to be a child of God apart from the work and presence of the Holy Spirit.

I wonder HOW MANY of the people of Samaria we being saved and added to the church daily?

There were enough saints in Samaria to warrant the organization of a church in that city.

The first and only church that God ever established sent Deacon-Missionary Philip to evangelize Samaria.

And then they sent the Apostles Peter and John to scrutinize that work.

I wish that I knew why Peter and John seemed to be in the spot-light most of the time.

Is it that the other Apostles are sitting on their hands? I would never suggest such a thing.

For some reason the Holy Spirit chose to tell us more about these two than any of the others.

The others were undoubtedly just as faithfully serving the Lord, but we are not told much about them.

What I do know is that Peter was not the Pope of either Rome or Jerusalem.

He did not appoint himself and John to go down-up to Samaria.

“Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.”

There is no reason to think that this wasn’t done with the full authority and approval of the entire church.

So Peter and John went down-up to Samaria to examine and assist that mission.

What about this prayer to receive the Holy Spirit?

“Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:

Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:

(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”

I said Sunday that there are a great many Bible doctrines which cannot be questioned or waylaid.

There are dozens of doctrines which underlie other doctrines and sometimes all the other doctrines.

The Holiness of God, for example, is foundational to every other doctrine in the Word of God.

Another is the sinfulness and depravity of man.

Although this may not directly relate to every doctrine, it does relate to every Soteriological doctrine:

It is impossible to be saved apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

I just gave you several ways in which the Holy Spirit is essential to people’s regeneration.

And every child of God is indwelt and sealed by the Spirit.

Since these members of the mission in Samaria were undoubtedly already born again,

This prayer for them to receive the spirit had nothing to do with salvation.

Never do we read in the Bible about Apostles touching people in order for them to be saved.

Never do we read that ministers of the gospel have to lay hands on people before they can be indwelt by the Spirit.

This must be talking about something other than regeneration or the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

Okay, upon how many of the people of that church did Peter and John lay hands?

We are not told.

It was more than one and less than everyone.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”

But the “them” didn’t include the member whose name was Simon.

Did they lay hands upon the women in the church? It is unlikely, but no one can definitely say so.

What criteria do you suppose that these apostles use to determined who to touch and who to by-pass?

The easy answer is to say that they laid hands on those whom the Lord told them to lay hands on.

And what happened when they laid hands on these people?

These verses don’t tell us, but since it has nothing to do with salvation and the indwelling Holy Spirit, I think that it’s easy to surmise that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were given to these people.

Notice the parenthesis in verse 16:

(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

The word “fallen” probably signifies the immediacy and spectacular arrival of these Holy Spirit gifts.

And the reference to “baptism” just points out that these gifts were not directly connected to the ordinance which all the members enjoyed.

Nor does this mean that they weren’t baptized in “the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”

There have been fist-fights over baptism in Jesus’ name only and baptism in all three names.

But Luke is not addressing this issue here: in fact, there is no issue here.

This is just saying that the power of the Holy Spirit is not directly related to water baptism.

By the way, I noticed that just about every commentary said that the power of the Holy Spirit was demonstrated in speaking in tongues.

Why do you suppose that I serious doubt that idea?

Because “tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not” – I Cor. 14:22.

Samaria was not a cosmopolitan community where there were lots of foreigners who would benefit by the use of the gift of tongues.

God doesn’t usually dispense superfluous gifts.

Let’s go back to the question: how did the Apostles determine on whom to lay their hands.

Well, what exactly was this laying on of hands?

Go back to Acts 6:5 – “And the saying pleased the whole multitude:

And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,

And Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.”

What was it when the Apostles put their hands on these five deacons?

This was an ordination; a setting apart of these men to their special ministry.

It was a symbolical act which said that the Apostles as lead by God, approved of these men as deacons.

Turn to Acts 13 – “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers;

As Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”

What we see here is just the same as the ordination of the deacons,

Except that Saul and Barnabas were not being ordained as deacons,

And it was not Apostles who laid hands on these two missionaries.

In this case it was the leadership of the God-ordained church in Antioch.

Later Paul refers to Timothy’s ordination in I Timothy 4:14 –

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

We don’t know anything about that ordination, but I have no doubt about it’s authority.

What I believe we are witnessing here in Acts 8 is:

The ordination of the men chosen by God and His church to pastor this new congregation.

The only thing which made this different than a scriptural ordination today, is that in addition to their setting apart, was the added blessing of the extraordinary powers of the Holy Spirit.

They needed that special gift because they didn’t have the completed Word of God to give authority to their message of Christ.

Since WE have that Word, the use of miraculous gifts, is not as urgent today.

So to summarize:

These verses are showing to us the birth an infant church – the second church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Christ Jesus started only one church, and gave it authority to do all His bidding.

Any other church which spontaneously started during Jesus’ ministry or during the days of the Apostles would have been spurious.

But when, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, that church ordained and sent out missionaries, and they gathered a group of Christians around them,

Then the only church ever established by God, passed to them God’s authority to serve the Lord as another one of His churches.

Authority to do the work of God is passed from church to church, and has done so throughout history.

And any church or denomination which began spontaneously since the ministry of Christ and His Apostles does not have authority to call itself a “Church of Christ.”

Any church with a human founder other than Christ, is not a church of Christ.

Any church which started by coming out of an apostate church or a church without God’s authority is not a church of Christ.

And any such church doesn’t even have authority to pretend to do the work of the Lord.

This church in Samaria was properly constituted and authorized to serve the Lord.