February 7. Acts 8:1-25
A blessed Lord’s Day to you, friend! Hope you have been able to worship somehow with your church today, whether online or in person. You’ve completed your first week of study—a week we devoted to looking at some of the scriptures that highlighted John’s life. Take a moment and ponder with me, tonight, via video … what have we learned about John in this first week? Tomorrow, we will invest time in reading from John’s Gospel. Today, let’s talk about one more incident in John’s life from the book of Acts.
The initial euphoria and excitement of the early church is now being tested by intense persecution. In fact, most of the new believers have scattered and have brought the gospel with them. I find it fascinating that the apostles remained. They obviously were not afraid to the point they wanted to run to some other place. I’m sure the Holy Spirit directed them to stay right where they were, directing and praying from afar the ever-spreading new church.
They did, however, leave Jerusalem for the occasional field trip! John was paired with his brother James, almost exclusively in our reading of his life during Jesus’ years on earth. In Acts, we find him paired with Peter – two powerful leaders in the new church. (I wonder where James was? What was he doing at this point?)
Of all the places for John to go, he went to Samaria with Peter to encourage and strengthen the new believers. Samaria. John hadn’t been very fond of Samaria or at least parts of it back in the day! Not only did he lay hands on new believers as they received the Holy Spirit, he and Peter ” …stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News” (Acts 8:25b) on their way back to Jerusalem. The Samaritans were despised by the Jewish folk of their day, but they were loved by these Jewish Christian fishermen, weren’t they? Transformation is a wonderful thing to see! May we all be transformed, more and more in to the likeness of Christ in our attitudes toward others!
My verse: Acts 8:25 “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.”
My response: What a change in John! Here, he’s going out paired with Peter, by “twos” just as Jesus had sent them out earlier, and actively sharing the good news of eternal life with many Samaritans!! I love how active John was. He didn’t just sit like royalty in Jerusalem proclaiming doctrine. Nope. He was a foot soldier like everyone else – willing to serve and no longer looking for status or high rank.
