Acts 8:1,2
Pursuant to the time-honored custom of the Jews, to mourn over the dead seven days, _“devout men buried Stephen and made great mourning over him.”_... [ Continue Reading ]
Pursuant to the time-honored custom of the Jews, to mourn over the dead seven days, _“devout men buried Stephen and made great mourning over him.”_... [ Continue Reading ]
PERSECUTIONS 3. Saul of Tarsus, flooded with native talents, literary culture, ecclesiastical prominence and unparalleled aspirations to reach the very acme of his transcendent and ambitious aspiration, arriving from the north too late to see any of the miracles wrought by Jesus during His ministry,... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Therefore indeed being dispersed abroad, they went everywhere preaching the word.”_ Oh, how the devil overshot himself in the Sauline persecutions. It was high time that Jerusalem nest was broken up and the saints dispersed to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. Nothing could so effectuall... [ Continue Reading ]
EVANGELIZATION OF SAMARIA 5-25. Philip, a bright, uncultured layman, sanctified in the Pentecostal revival, _“filled with the Spirit and wisdom,”_ rendering him eligible to the office of deacon, was too enthusiastic to content himself _“serving tables.”_ Led by the Spirit, a fugitive from the perse... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Many of those having unclean spirits, roaring with a great voice went out of them.” “Crying”_ in E. V. is the Greek _boaoo_, by whose pronunciation you see that it means to roar like the lowing of an ox. Hence we see that those great, stalwart heathen men, under the mighty conviction of the Holy G... [ Continue Reading ]
APOSTOLICAL PRECEDENT 14-16. _“And the apostles in Jerusalem hearing that Samaria had received the word of God, sent to them Peter and John, who having come down, prayed that they may receive the Holy Ghost.”_ For He had not fallen upon any one of them, but they had only been baptized in the name o... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Then they laid hands on them, and they continued to receive the Holy Ghost.”_ Why the church has utterly ignored this positive, clear and unequivocal Apostolical precedent, confirmatory of the second work of grace in the plan of salvation, is to all ages an enigma indissoluble, recognized by none... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Repent therefore from this sin of thine, and pray the Lord if perchance the thought of thine heart shall be forgiven thee.”_ This verse confirms the conclusion that Simon backslid by yielding to that old predominant phase of inbred sin, _i. e_., the love of money, which had played so conspicuous a... [ Continue Reading ]
_“For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.”_ This verse shows clearly that Simon had never been saved from inbred sin abiding in his heart after regeneration, and even amid those wonderful revival scenes getting the upper hand and again slaying him by his old... [ Continue Reading ]
From this verse we see that the Holy Spirit had not utterly forsaken Simon; but that he becomes penitent under the straight and terrible warning of Peter, so that he actually calls on him to pray for him that he might be reclaimed. Here the curtain falls, hiding forever the continued vision of an op... [ Continue Reading ]
After the arrival of the apostles, Philip accompanied them; meanwhile they prosecuted extensive tours in Samaria, everywhere preaching the gospel, seeing multitudes of those heathen converted, and unhesitatingly preaching to them the second work of grace, _i. e_., entire sanctification in the recept... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CONVERSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH 26-40. After the apostles have completed their Samaritan tour and returned to Jerusalem, leaving Philip surrounded by hosts of his converts pressing the battle, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in visible form, and with audible voice sending him away on a s... [ Continue Reading ]
_“In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.”_ It is a significant fact that our Savior was killed by a cruel mob, stirred up and led by the preachers who stood at the head of the popular church, claiming, and doubtless believing, that they were God's true ministers. Pilate, the Roman governor,... [ Continue Reading ]
_“...they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him._ “...they both went down to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_“And when they came up out of the water...”_ That translation sounds favorable to immersion. I now give you another, which is equally correct: _“And when they came up from the water...”_ I verily trow the blessed Holy Spirit gave us this passage in that ambiguous verbiage, lest some one might be st... [ Continue Reading ]
After the manner of the old prophets the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip from the presence of his happy Ethiopian convert, dropping him down at Azotus, which is another name for the old city of Ashdod, a Philistine capital. It seems that Philip never returned to honor the office of deacon in t... [ Continue Reading ]