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Lesson 8 — Acts 8: Philip and the Spreading Word: Samaria, the Sorcerer, and the Ethiopian
BIG IDEA
Persecution scatters the church—and the scattered church plants the gospel. What looked like the end of the Jerusalem mission becomes the beginning of the Samaria mission. Philip the deacon becomes Philip the evangelist. He preaches in a city, exposes a sorcerer, and then is sent to a desert road to baptize an Ethiopian official. Heaven’s strategy is wider than Jerusalem. The Spirit drives the Word into places we never planned to go.
PART 1 — SCRIPTURE READING: ACTS 8:1–40
Open your Bible and read Acts 8 slowly, all the way through. The chapter has three movements: the scattering of the church and the persecution by Saul (verses 1–3), Philip’s mission in Samaria including the sorcerer Simon (verses 4–25), and Philip’s desert encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch (verses 26–40).
In Lesson Seven we saw Stephen martyred. Saul of Tarsus was holding the cloaks. The chapter that follows looks at first like the church’s defeat. The believers scatter from Jerusalem under persecution. But Luke shows us that scattering is the strategy. The seed cannot multiply until it is sown widely. The Spirit of Pentecost is also the Spirit of the diaspora.
KEY VERSE — ACTS 8:4
“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
PART 2 — WALKING THROUGH ACTS 8
A. The Scattering — Persecution as Mission Strategy
“On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.”
Notice this carefully. In Acts 1:8, Jesus had told the disciples that they would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” For seven chapters, the witness has been concentrated in Jerusalem. The disciples have been comfortable. Now persecution forces them out—into Judea and Samaria. Suddenly Acts 1:8 starts becoming reality.
This is one of the patterns we see throughout Christian history. When the church becomes too settled, the Spirit allows pressure that scatters us. What looks like trouble is, in heaven’s economy, often mission. We do not seek persecution. But when it comes, we do not despair either. The Spirit is sowing seed.
“Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” Saul is the human face of the persecution. Three chapters from now, Saul will become Paul. The same energy that drove him to destroy the church will be redirected to plant churches across the empire. Heaven knows what to do with zeal.
B. Philip in Samaria — A Deacon Becomes an Evangelist
“Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.”
Stop and feel the weight of this. Philip is one of the seven deacons appointed in Acts 6 to wait on tables. The same Spirit who filled him to serve widows now fills him to preach Christ in a Samaritan city. Office did not unlock his ministry; the Spirit did. Faithfulness in small ministry was the seedbed of larger ministry.
Samaria mattered. The Jews and Samaritans had centuries of hostility. They worshipped on different mountains. They despised one another’s claims. By going to Samaria, Philip was crossing a wall that ran deeper than geography—he was crossing a wall of cultural contempt. The Word of Jesus is bigger than every wall.
The crowds paid close attention. Evil spirits came out. Many paralyzed and lame people were healed. “So there was great joy in that city.” Joy follows where Christ is preached. Joy is one of the surest fruits of a real revival.
C. Simon the Sorcerer — Two Powers Meet
Before Philip arrived, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in Samaria. The whole city had given him their attention—“This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” Now Simon hears Philip’s message, sees the signs, and even believes. He is baptized.
But Simon’s heart had not changed underneath. He had simply traded one source of power for another. He was still in the marketplace of spiritual influence. He had not bowed; he had switched.
D. Peter and John Come Down — The Spirit Falls
“When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.”
This is significant. The Jerusalem leaders did not say, “We sent Philip; we will manage the new work from here.” They sent two of their senior leaders to come down and confirm what God had done. The Samaritan believers had been baptized in water but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Peter and John laid hands on them, and the Spirit came.
Different traditions read this passage differently. What is clear is this: God deliberately delayed the visible reception of the Spirit until the Jerusalem apostles could see it for themselves. Why? Because Samaria and Jerusalem had centuries of division. If the Samaritan believers had received the Spirit privately, the Jerusalem church might have suspected them. By having Peter and John witness it, God was sealing the unity of the new family across an old wall. The Spirit came in a way that would unite, not divide.
E. “You Cannot Buy the Gift of God”
Simon sees the apostles laying hands on people, and the Spirit coming. He offers them money: “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Peter’s rebuke is famous and cutting: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money\! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.”
Simon’s sin was not just greed. It was the desire to commodify the Spirit. He wanted to add the Spirit to his existing portfolio of spiritual influence. He wanted to be a wholesaler in the kingdom of God. The Spirit cannot be bought; He cannot be branded; He cannot be marketed. He is a gift from the Father, given through the Son, to those who repent and believe.
Simony, the sin of trying to buy spiritual influence with money, takes its name from this man. Every generation faces it in new forms. The Spirit is not for sale.
F. The Desert Road — A Strange New Assignment
“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’”
Philip is in the middle of a city-wide revival. Crowds. Healings. Joy. And the Lord sends him to a desert road. From a stadium to a sidewalk. From thousands to one. Spirit-led ministry follows the Spirit’s actual leading—even when it does not look like a promotion.
This pattern matters. We measure success by larger crowds. The Spirit measures it by ripening hearts. Sometimes the next assignment is smaller in scale and more strategic in eternity. Be willing to be moved from your stadium to your desert road.
G. The Ethiopian Eunuch — Reading Without a Guide
“So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means ‘queen of the Ethiopians’). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.”
Several things to notice. He is from Africa—the upper Nile region, ancient Cush. He is a treasury official—educated, prominent. He is a eunuch—a man who under Deuteronomy 23:1 would have been formally excluded from the assembly of Israel. He had been to Jerusalem to worship, but as a eunuch and a Gentile, he could only have stood at the outer edges. He had a copy of Isaiah—which would have been very expensive—and he was reading aloud.
This man wanted God. He had travelled hundreds of miles to seek Him. He was reading Scripture in a chariot in the desert. And he was hungry for understanding. Heaven sees the hungry heart.
H. Isaiah 53 — The Door Opens
The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”
This is a sentence every preacher and every disciple should remember. People hunger for the Word. But they often need a guide. The Bible is not always self-explanatory. Spirit-led teaching is one of the gifts the church gives to the world.
The passage was Isaiah 53: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” Philip began with that very passage and told him the good news about Jesus. The whole gospel was contained in Isaiah 53. The lamb led to slaughter is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. The pierced One in Isaiah 53 is the One whose pierced hands the eunuch must now reach toward.
I. “What Can Stand in the Way of My Being Baptized?”
As they travelled along the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”
Hear that question carefully. As a eunuch, he had spent his life standing on the outside. He had been excluded from the assembly. He had stood at the edge of the temple courts. “What can stand in the way?” is the question of a man who has spent decades being told, “You cannot come in.”
Philip’s answer—and the church’s answer ever since—is: nothing. Christ has torn down the wall. Isaiah 56:3–5 had already promised that eunuchs who held to God’s covenant would be given an everlasting name. The eunuch had probably read those words on the very same scroll. Now he was living them. He was baptized in the desert, the first African convert recorded in Acts, and went on his way rejoicing.
J. Philip Vanishes — The Spirit Carries Him On
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again. “Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”
Philip’s last appearance in Acts is years later, in Caesarea, where Paul stays with him on his journey to Jerusalem (Acts 21:8). Luke calls him “Philip the evangelist, one of the seven.” He never lost the title “one of the seven.” He moved into a new ministry without forgetting where he started.
PART 3 — KNOW THE WORD: TEACHING FOCUS
1. The Old Testament Was the New Testament’s First Bible
Philip preached the gospel from Isaiah 53. The earliest Christian sermons were Old Testament expositions about Jesus. We must recover this. The Old Testament is not just background. It is the testimony to which Christ Himself appealed. Read Isaiah, Psalms, Genesis, Deuteronomy with the question: where is Christ here?
2. Personal Bible Study Without a Guide Has Limits
“How can I, unless someone guides me?” the eunuch said. The Bible is for every believer—but the body of Christ is also a teaching body. We learn together. We need pastors, teachers, mature saints, and weekly Bible classes precisely so that hungry hearts are not left to read in isolation. The School of Service exists for the same reason Philip ran up to the chariot.
3. The Gospel Tears Down the Wall of Exclusion
The eunuch had been excluded from the assembly under Deuteronomy 23:1. In Christ, that exclusion is over. Isaiah 56 promised it; Acts 8 fulfills it. Wherever you encounter someone who has been told for years that they cannot come in—because of their past, their failures, their disability, their family of origin—the gospel says: in Christ, all walls fall. “What can stand in the way?” Nothing. Bring them in.
PART 4 — TRUST THE SPIRIT: TEACHING FOCUS
1. The Spirit Uses Persecution as Mission
The scattering looked like the church’s defeat. The Spirit turned it into the church’s expansion. When pressure scatters us, do not assume the Spirit has lost control. He is sowing seed. Trust the strategy you cannot see.
2. The Spirit Sends to Cities and to Single People
Philip was sent first to a Samaritan city, then to one Ethiopian on a desert road. The Spirit’s assignments include both. Do not despise either. The eunuch was the equivalent of a senior treasury official—his conversion seeded the church in northeast Africa for centuries. One soul saved on a desert road can plant a continent.
3. The Spirit Is Specific
“Go south on this road.” “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” The Spirit’s directions to Philip are concrete. Cultivate sensitivity to the specific. Most days you will not hear an audible voice. But you will sometimes feel a nudge—speak to that person, write that note, take that detour. Practice obedience to the small nudges. They are how the Spirit walks you into your assignments.
Word and Spirit in Acts 8 — Side by Side
Know the Word | Trust the Spirit
Philip preaches the Messiah from Hebrew Scripture in Samaria (Acts 8:5). | The Spirit confirms the preaching with healings and exorcisms; great joy follows (Acts 8:6–8).
Peter rebukes Simon from biblical principles of repentance and the heart (Acts 8:21–23). | The Holy Spirit is recognized as God’s gift, not a transferable commodity (Acts 8:20).
Philip preaches Christ from Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:32–35). | The Spirit directs Philip to the chariot and supplies the moment (Acts 8:29).
The eunuch’s baptism fulfills Isaiah 56:3–5 — the foreigner-eunuch is welcomed (Acts 8:36–38). | The Spirit carries Philip to Azotus and onward to Caesarea (Acts 8:39–40).
PART 5 — FORMING CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER
Acts 8 forms Christ in us in three ways:
- Christ is formed in us when we keep preaching Him wherever we are scattered. If life moves you to a new city, a new job, a new country—that is also assignment. The scattered believer plants the gospel.
- Christ is formed in us when we will not buy or sell what God gives. Simon tried to commodify the Spirit. The Spirit does not enter the marketplace. We receive Him as gift; we give Him as gift.
- Christ is formed in us when we run to one hungry heart. Heaven cares about whole continents and single sidewalks. Be willing to leave the stadium for the chariot.
PART 6 — DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Come prepared to answer. Come prepared to listen.
- Where in your life or in our church might the Spirit be using pressure to scatter and sow? How do you read the difficulty differently if you see it that way?
- Have you ever, like Simon, wanted spiritual influence for the wrong reasons? What does true repentance from that look like?
- Who in your life is reading or seeking but doesn’t yet have a guide? Could the Spirit be sending you to their ‘chariot’?
- Where are you tempted to despise small assignments because you prefer larger crowds?
- Who in your circle has been told ‘you cannot come in’—by family, religion, or culture—and how does the gospel answer them?
PART 7 — WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT
Before next class, take time with the following:
- Read Acts 9 in preparation for Lesson Nine.
- Memorize Acts 8:4 or Acts 8:35.
- Read Isaiah 53 alongside Acts 8 and write down five places where Christ is foreshadowed.
- Identify one person in your life who is reading, asking, or hungry. Reach out, listen, and ask if you can guide them through one Bible passage.
- Practice obedience to one small nudge from the Spirit this week—a phone call, a visit, a note.
CLOSING PRAYER
A PRAYER TO PRAY OUT LOUD THIS WEEK
Holy Spirit, You scattered the early church and turned the scattering into mission. Wherever You scatter me—a new city, a new role, a new season—make me a sower of the Word. Let no place be wasted on me.
Guard me from the spirit of Simon. I do not want to commodify Your gifts. I receive You as gift, and I will give You as gift. Wash my motives. Make my ministry pure.
Send me to my chariot. Open my ears to hear Your specific direction. Make me willing to leave a stadium for a sidewalk if You ask me to. And teach me to tear down every wall that says ‘you cannot come in,’ because in Christ there is no other Name and no excluded soul. In the Name of Jesus, the Lamb of Isaiah 53, amen.
NEXT LESSON
Lesson Nine — Acts 9
The Light on the Damascus Road: Saul Becomes Paul and Ananias Lays Hands