Outline
I. The Gospel Storms Samaria’s Ancient Rebel Stronghold
After persecution scatters the church, Philip carries Christ straight into the heart of a city built on idolatry, rebellion, and centuries of divine judgment—exactly where Jesus promised the gospel must go.
II. Philip Unleashes Christ and Floods the City with Miracles and Joy
He proclaims not himself but the crucified-and-risen Messiah; unclean spirits flee, the paralyzed walk, and a despised people who once felt hopeless explode with joy because the true power of God has finally arrived.
III. Simon the Sorcerer Tightens His Demonic Stranglehold
For years this master of witchcraft had astonished Samaria, promoted himself as “the great power of God,” and kept the entire city—from least to greatest—spellbound by fear and trickery.
IV. Philip’s Real Miracles Shatter Simon’s Illusion of Greatness
The people abandon the sorcerer’s smoke-and-mirrors show and believe Philip’s message of the kingdom and the name of Jesus; men and women are baptized, and the once-dominant deceiver suddenly loses his audience.
V. The Unthinkable Happens: Simon Himself Believes and Is Baptized
The man most enslaved to Satan’s arts makes a public profession of faith, follows Philip everywhere, and is visibly amazed by the genuine signs and wonders—proof that no one is beyond the reach of grace.
VI. The Gospel Refuses to Write Anyone Off as Hopeless
Even the vilest practitioners of darkness, the proudest self-promoters, and the most culturally despised outcasts can be seized by mercy; therefore we must never withhold the good news from those we are tempted to dismiss as unreachable.
Bottom line: The same unstoppable gospel that conquered a sorcerer in Samaria still storms the darkest hearts today—never assume anyone is too far gone.
Scripture Reading
Acts 8:5-13
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city, and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed, And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
Opening Prayer
Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing on this His Word. Gracious God in heaven, we do praise You and thank You for Your Word. Your Word is truth, and it is our only infallible rule for faith and life. And as we come to this passage this evening, we do pray that You would give us understanding and insight to see the truth that is here, to apply it to our hearts, that we might be good and faithful servants for Your praise and Your glory. We ask now for Your blessing upon Your Word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
The Gospel Storms Samaria’s Ancient Rebel Stronghold
Well, if you remember at the very beginning of the book of Acts, Luke gives us the account of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his ascension into heaven. It was kind of Luke’s version or his second version of the Great Commission. And in Acts 1, verse 8, Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit that this Holy Spirit would come and empower the disciples to be faithful witnesses.
He says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
And again, as we’ve seen before, that this verse gives us kind of a rough outline of the book of Acts as the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to the far reaches of the earth. And we noted last time that after the persecution which broke out against the church after the death of Stephen, that the shift was now being made to this second section, the gospel going to all Judea and Samaria. And one of the key significances to this is that the gospel is now spreading into non-Jewish areas.
And, of course, this is what we see happening in our passage this evening in verse 5, that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ to them.
Now Samaria was a city well to the north of Jerusalem, but it was at a lower elevation than Jerusalem. And so Luke’s accuracy here that Philip went down to the city of Samaria. He went down the mountains.
And Samaria had long been established as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. This happened under King Omri, who was the father of Ahab. In 1 Kings 16, we read this, and he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemar for two talents of silver. Then he built on the hill, and he called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemar, owner of the hill.
Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all who were before him. For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. and in his sin by which he made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with idols.
And so we see here right from the start that Samaria was established as a wicked city in rebellion against God. And we saw a little bit more of that in the passages that we read from Malachi chapter 1 and some of the great harlotry that was going on there that brought the Lord’s judgment upon Samaria and the Northern Kingdom.
Well, the Assyrians were God’s hand or God’s instruments that brought that judgment. They conquered the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC.
And, of course, as part of the Assyrians and later the Babylonians did something similar, whenever they conquered a people, they would transplant, they would move the people who lived there to some other region and then brought other people to that area and even encouraged these other foreigners who are now living in this land to take up the local practices as a way to try to keep them from rebelling.
And so non-Jews then were inhabiting these areas. And over time, they intermingled with some of the Jews who did remain. And so by the time you get to the New Testament, you had this group of people who were referred to as Samaritans.
And the Samaritans were considered by the Jews as a defiled people. They were considered to be defiled because they weren’t purely Jewish, and neither was their worship, even though that they were encouraged to adopt these ways of the people who had lived there formerly.
And so for this reason, and we mentioned this this morning, that Jews on their pilgrimages back and forth to Jerusalem, if they lived in the north, they would avoid going through Samaria, and they would take the extra time to go around it. lest they become defiled.
And as we again mentioned this morning that Jesus refused to abide by this stereotype and he actually went into Samaria there meeting the woman at Jacob’s well and transformed her life.
And again, if we recall that account in John chapter 4, the testimony of this woman Then as she went back to the city, her testimony brought many other Samaritans to hear and believe in Jesus. And so what we’re reading here in Acts, then, is not necessarily the first time that the gospel reached Samaria, but it is the first time after the gospel had been fully accomplished and secured by Jesus’ death and resurrection. And as we’ll see later, it also will be the first time that the Holy Spirit will come upon those who profess faith in Christ.
Philip Unleashes Christ and Floods the City with Miracles and Joy
And so Luke tells us that Philip was the one who went to Samaria and proclaimed the good news of the gospel. And then we ask the question, well, who is Philip? Well, it’s not the Philip that we talked about this morning in John chapter 1, who was one of the 12 called by Jesus, because we remember that after the persecution broke out against the church when Stephen was martyred, that a lot of people fled, but the apostles, all the apostles stayed there in Jerusalem.
So Philip would have been one of those apostles who stayed in Jerusalem. And so this Philip that we read about here in Acts chapter 8 is very likely then the Philip that we also read about in Acts chapter 6. who was appointed by the church as a deacon to serve the widows who were in need. And like Stephen, that we looked at before, Philip made use of the gifts that God had given him to spread the word.
Now, we don’t know if Philip would have gone to Samaria if there was no persecution, but as we’ll see, the Spirit of the Lord will take Philip to many different places in very unusual ways. Hence he’s often referred to in church tradition as Philip the Evangelist, as he goes around and sharing the gospel.
So when Philip arrives in Samaria, the people there responded very well to his message.
His message was simple and straightforward. He began proclaiming Christ to them. Now to proclaim Christ isn’t only to declare that Jesus was the Son of God and the long-awaited Messiah, but it also involves declaring what Christ came to do. that he came in the flesh to identify with sinners, and that he also then suffered and died on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and that he gained the final victory over death when he rose again from the dead three days later.
And so this is the summation of the gospel, declaring not only the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also his work, what he came to accomplish. And it’s upon both of these components that our faith and our salvation rest. And this is what Philip was declaring to the Samaritans, and the Lord abundantly blessed his preaching.
We see here that the people didn’t just receive and believe what he said, but they did so with great excitement, great joy. And again, here we’re reminded of the fact that the Samaritan woman that Jesus met with at the well in John 4. Remember how she ran into the city and shared with the others all that Jesus had said, and they joyfully believed her. They believed her testimony and what she said about Jesus. And then when they actually met Jesus for themselves, Their joy was made more full, as they confirmed in John 4, verse 42.
Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Now think about what this tells us about the people of Samaria. They were desperately hungry for good news.
Even though they sought to adopt the worship in the ways of the Jews, the Jews despised them and cast them off, leaving them with a sense of hopelessness. Now it’s true. That their syncretism, that is, their mixing the worship of God, the true worship of God, with the worship of pagans and idols, that their syncretism wasn’t pleasing to the Lord.
Because, and especially because they didn’t worship in Jerusalem, where God had appointed his people to go to worship him. But they rather than worship in the mountains of Samaria. And Jesus himself, in fact, told the Samaritan woman very plainly that she and her people were in error. Jesus says, you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.
And yet Jesus didn’t leave this woman without hope. As he continues, verse 23, but the hour is coming and now is. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. And now that the gospel has been fully accomplished, this hour had now come in its fullness, and these outcast Samaritans receive the good news of the gospel gladly.
But as Luke continues here, In Acts 8, we see that it wasn’t just the message Philip was proclaiming that stirred up excitement. He also performed many great miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 6, And the multitudes, with one accord, heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed. And many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city.
I bet there was great joy seeing some of these wonderful miracles.
And again, as we noted before, miracles in the New Testament were a way to confirm the truth of what the apostles were teaching or preaching. And so they would give the message and there was miracles and say, hey, there’s power behind what this this person is preaching behind this message. And of course, Philip’s ministry here is very much reflecting, as the apostles did, it’s very much reflecting the ministry of Jesus. Healing the lame and paralyzed, casting out demons.
And so we see here that the gospel is advancing over darkness and the effects of the fall. And that many of the people there both saw the miracles and they also heard the message that Philip was proclaiming. And the result was that many of them then believed.
Now it is possible, as it was with the ministry of Jesus and as it was with the ministry of the apostles, as we saw earlier in the book of Acts, that some were just drawn by the miracles and were just there to see the show. And again, this is always a possibility. Even today in the church, we know that some just want to be entertained or they go to church for the social time. But whether people’s interest was sincere or just curious, one thing was very obvious. The city was rejoicing for all the wonderful things that were taking place.
Simon the Sorcerer Tightens His Demonic Stranglehold
Well, Luke now zeroes in on one of these Samaritans, a man who we might think would be the very last person who would go and listen to Philip, and certainly one who would never come to faith in Christ. This man was Simon, and he was a magician, or more accurately, a sorcerer. He was a practicer of witchcraft.
Now we know that such magical arts were forbidden in Israel as part of the law in Deuteronomy 18.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, The Lord your God drives them out from before you.
Although it was forbidden in Israel, it was certainly quite common in other nations, in particular in Egypt and then later also in Babylon. And so we don’t know where Simon comes from and maybe he had picked up some of these things from somewhere else or maybe he was a Jew or one of these mixed breed half Jew who just compromised and pursued what God had clearly forbidden.
Well, because the people were very highly susceptible to superstition, these magicians often wielded a lot of power and influence. Not because they could actually perform miracles, but because with their trickery, they could instill fear in people and use it to their advantage. It’s much like the medicine man or the witch doctor that are found in some cultures. The people who don’t know any better would see the magic and the power of these sorcerers and that they’re afraid to cross that witch doctor or that medicine man for fear that they might fall under one of his spells.
And so Simon was such a magician. He was highly revered and very likely greatly feared by the people.
In verse nine, but there was a certain man named Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time.
So they had been under his spell, so to speak, for a long time.
Now, I want you to notice here that it was Simon himself who was claiming that he was someone great. He was promoting himself. And because of his magic, the people thought that he was, not that he just had the great power of God, but that he was the great power of God. And so again, for the longest time, Simon was the only show in town, so to speak. And he had everyone’s attention, which likely meant he also had much of their money as well.
Philip’s Miracles Expose and Eclipse Simon’s Tricks
But then in comes Philip. And Philip is proclaiming not himself, But he’s proclaiming Jesus Christ to be the great power of God. And he comes, Philip comes, backing his claim up, not with sleight of hand tricks, not with smoke and mirrors, but with irrefutable miracles of exorcisms, making the lame walk and bringing feeling and movement to those who had been paralyzed.
It’s safe to say that Simon had never done anything like what Philip was here doing. And again, Philip was doing it all in the name of Jesus, not as a way to promote himself. And so there’s a stark difference between Simon and Philip.
But there was another problem, at least for Simon. And that is because of Philip’s message and the miracles he performed, suddenly Simon was no longer the focus of everyone’s attention, and everyone was drawn away from him to go and to hear Philip.
When they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. The people of Samaria were believing the gospel, and they were being baptized, uniting themselves to the body of believers.
The Sorcerer Surrenders: Simon Believes and Is Baptized
And then the unimaginable happens. Then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Simon also believed and was baptized.
And this truly is an amazing thing and something worthy of celebration. One who was given over to the power of the devil, involved in sorcery and witchcraft, not to mention idolatry, greed, and even great deceit. This one believed in Jesus.
Now we know what’s coming next, or maybe we don’t know, but if you’ve read through Acts, you know what’s coming.
But it’s important to emphasize here that Simon did believe, at least he professed belief, and he was baptized. And we can’t do anything but take that at face value, at least at this point. Now, we might wonder whether Simon thought, well, I can’t beat him, so I might as well join him. We don’t know. That may have been his mentality.
We simply know that he made a profession of faith in Christ. and was baptized and became a part of the visible church. But we do see a possible danger that lies ahead for Simon. He was constantly amazed with the signs and the miracles that Philip performed and he followed Philip all around. Now, is this a matter of, hey, we’re in similar kind of work and this really interests me? Or was he, Simon, simply overwhelmed at the truth and the reality that Phil proclaimed in word and deed as opposed to the usual tricks of deceit he usually performed?
Again, we don’t know for certain. But Luke gives us here a hint that perhaps Simon was just a little too much enamored as he followed Philip everywhere, leaving us a sense of foreboding. And we’ll just have to hang on to that as a cliffhanger until next time, well, a couple weeks from now.
Grace Overpowers Even the Hopelessly Enslaved
But the important point for us to remember now as we think about this passage is that the gospel has reached Samaria. The gospel has reached a city with a long history of sin and idolatry and rebellion against God. It has reached a city of Gentiles. And it has come to the most unlikely of persons that at least at face value has come to faith in Jesus Christ. And indeed, if we were fellow believers at this time, it certainly would be a time of great rejoicing and celebration. Awed by the amazing work of the gospel of grace and its power to transform lives in this once wicked city, they gladly receive the gospel and hear this sorcerer had professed faith in Jesus Christ.
But let this also be a great reminder to us that even those we think might be out of reach of the gospel, are truly never out of reach. Indeed, sometimes we meet people or we hear of those who are so steeped in sin and unbelief that we may think that they’re truly hopeless, that they are beyond saving.
But let us never refuse to offer them the gospel. Now when we do, they may reject it and that becomes on them. But if we would share the gospel with them, we will have been counted faithful. That is our duty. We ought not to refuse the gospel to anyone, even if we think they’re beyond saving.
But it’s also very possible, and this is why we should share the gospel with them, because it’s very possible that in the abounding grace and mercy of God, At mercy and grace that we can’t even begin to comprehend and imagine. That it just might be God’s will and purpose.
At that end you’ll be saved. Even the most vile of sinners. We learn here that those held tightly in the darkness of sin and those held firmly in the grip of Satan can indeed be released by the amazing grace of God. Whether it’s one who practices witchcraft or one like Saul who was guilty of murdering Stephen and many others, the gospel can overcome even the greatest of sinners.
And for this end, we ought to diligently pray. We ought to pray and we ought to rejoice and give thanks when we see that prayer answered to the glory of God alone.
Closing Prayer
O gracious God in heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks for your word and for this encouragement, for this challenge to see the gospel going to a land which was known for sin and idolatry and wickedness. And yet the gospel was gladly received.
And even this one who was enslaved to Satan has professed faith in Jesus Christ. And Father, we have seen similar transformations. We can look back over the centuries of church history and we can see those who were vile and wicked people changed and transformed when they’ve come face to face with the gospel of truth. We may even think of our own sin in our own lives. We each and every one know the wretch that we were.
And yet you saved us, you’ve had mercy upon us, you delivered us. And we rejoice and give thanks that we have hope and that we have assurance and that we have that glorious certain hope of eternal life in your wonderful presence. And so Father, we just pray that you would help us to be mindful of these things. Again, that you would challenge us to be bold with the gospel. As we go forth from here, that we’ll be faithful to be witnesses in this community, wherever you would have us to go throughout the world, and that you would continue to build up and encourage your people in the midst of this dark and dying world, that we would be that beacon of light and hope all to the praise of your glorious name. Father, we pray for these things. We ask for your blessing upon us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.