Acts 8 Discussion

What if the very crisis you fear is the spark your calling needs? We walk through Acts 8 with fresh eyes, tracing how persecution pushes the church beyond Jerusalem into Samaria and onto a desert road where one unlikely seeker meets the living Christ. Along the way, we wrestle with Simon’s attempt to buy spiritual power, Peter’s piercing diagnosis of a bitter heart, and the sobering difference between admiration and repentance. It’s a vivid portrait of how God refuses to be packaged or purchased and how grace confronts ambition with a call to change.

From there, the story slows down for a chariot-side Bible study. An Ethiopian official reads Isaiah 53, asks honest questions, and hears how the suffering servant points to Jesus. He believes, sees water, and is baptized on the spot. That moment is more than a private milestone; it signals the radical welcome of the new covenant, where an outsider barred from temple courts is embraced in the family of God. We also touch on the Spirit’s sudden transport of Philip to Azotus—not as spectacle for spectacle’s sake, but as a reminder that when God sends, He also supplies the way.

We get practical about the steps this chapter invites: don’t treat the gifts of God like merchandise, expect opposition to become opportunity, open the hard parts of Scripture and ask for help, and be the person who helps others see Jesus in the text. Share the gospel on your way, not just at your destination, and if you believe, get baptized without delay. If you’ve been feeling stuck or sidelined, this conversation offers both a push and a promise: God moves His people with purpose, welcomes the outsider with joy, and writes world-changing stories through one faithful yes at a time.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a quick review to help others find it. What part of Acts 8 challenged you most?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For Acts 8
• 0:27 Persecution And Scattering Begin
• 0:47 Philip In Samaria And Simon
• 2:36 Is Simon’s Faith Genuine
• 3:01 Peter’s Rebuke And Bitter Gall
• 4:59 Philip And The Ethiopian Eunuch
• 6:16 Reading Isaiah And Finding Jesus
• 8:16 Spirit Transport And Why It Happens
• 10:06 Persecution As Fulfillment Of Acts 1:8
• 12:07 Saul’s Ravaging And Future Suffering
• 13:20 Nature Of Man: Buying What’s Free
• 14:35 Nature Of God: Crisis With Purpose
• 16:01 Inclusion Of Outsiders And Eunuchs
• 18:02 Apostolic Foundation And Order
• 19:10 Applications: Don’t Buy Power
• 19:46 Promise: Opposition Fuels Mission
• 20:18 Be The Reader And The Guide
• 21:05 Share As You Go; Get Baptized
• 22:01 Closing And Next Steps

Transcript

Pastor Plek: 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter 8. We're going to outline it. We're going to find some observations, make some interpretations, finally land the plan with some application that you can use throughout your day to make sure that you're living for Jesus. Okay. Chapter 8, verses 1 through 4 talks about the persecution and then the scattering. Kind of the fulfillment of Acts 1.8 happens in Acts 8.1, if you will. So there you see the scattering to Samaria and Judea and even to the ends of the earth through the Ethiopian unit. Then you've got Philip's ministry in Samaria, verses 5 through 25, which culminates with Peter and John coming, and then Simon the sorcerer, wanting to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, and that doesn't go well for him. Then verses 26 through 40, you've got Philip and the Ethiopian making his way back to uh his own country, and he is taking the gospel with him on his way. All right, let's get into some observations here. Holando, what do you got uh from this text?

Pastor Holland: 1:19

We have a magician. I think that's uh very interesting. Yeah. He uh impressed people with his magic. He amazed them with his magic, he said.

Pastor Plek: 1:28

So um Is it illusions or was it magic?

Pastor Holland: 1:32

Yeah. What uh what does that mean? Magic. Yeah, there I think of like um the uh the word magician can mean like a wise man. Uh it can mean like Daniel is called a magician. Magi. Yeah, right. Yeah. Um and uh, but then you you think of also like Pharaoh's um magicians who imitate Moses's miracles. And so like there's a mixture of like a godly version of a magician, someone who's like a prophet or an interpreter of dreams or a wise person, um, and then like the more sinister version of someone who is like, you know, um working with demons to do kind of like false signs and wonders.

Pastor Plek: 2:10

Do you think he was working with demons, or he was this is where I'm like, he sounds like an illusionist? Or there's that, yeah.

Pastor Holland: 2:16

Yeah, because I just think of the another category is actually like um what we would call today, like um, you know, uh uh like you know, doctors and scientists, um, the people who you know create and use medicine to heal and stuff like that.

Pastor Plek: 2:30

So yeah, yeah, yeah. It it's kind of odd. So I I was just like, what is that? But we know he turns nefarious when he believes that Jesus is the Christ. At some point he has, do you think he has saving faith, or what kind of faith is that?

Pastor Holland: 2:44

Yeah, I don't know, because it's um you know, his first when he hears about um you know the the powers and stuff, you know, he tries to buy it by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? And so there's something going on there. We're not just straight up told the condition of his soul, but something's wrong.

Pastor Plek: 3:01

Well, I here's the part that I thought was super interesting. Uh in verse, he goes, I see uh okay, you have neither part in this lot, repent therefore for I see you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. So here Peter has this prophetic ability to see into his heart and go, You are in, you are in the gall of bitterness. And and what does that even mean? If you how do you how can you be in the gall of bitterness? I know is that too specific of a question? I I feel like that's kind of a wild deal.

Pastor Holland: 3:43

Gall, there's a little note on my uh Bible here. Gaul is a bitter fluid secreted by the liver, so you know, bile. Yeah, so bile. So it's like the you're you're in a nasty place.

Pastor Plek: 3:56

Yeah.

Pastor Holland: 3:57

Um and the bond of iniquity, and so he's uh yeah, you know, in his So he was he saved?

Pastor Plek: 4:06

Because it's what he believes. Clearly, he believes there's a power, clearly he sees it, he believes.

Pastor Holland: 4:12

But you think of also like James in the book of James where it says, even the demons believe and shudder. And so what kind of belief you don't know. What's interesting is that like whether he truly believes and is then just caught in some sin, or he had more of like a demonic faith, like James, he believed in a way that wasn't saving faith, just more of acknowledging the existence of some power. Either way, like the the exhortation to him is repent, right?

Pastor Plek: 4:38

And I think I don't know the condition of your healthy way. Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. So I think there is a hey, I believe you're in charge here. I am submitted to that. So that's where I kind of go with uh Simon the magician had some saving faith.

Pastor Holland: 4:56

Yeah, yeah.

Pastor Plek: 4:57

Okay, uh, what else you got here?

Pastor Holland: 4:59

Um Philip teleports, right? Yes. Um, verse 39. Uh, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. Philip found himself at uh Azotus, and so he find the spirit carries him away and he finds himself somewhere else. So we got magic and now we have teleportation. What a chapter. Yeah, what what what do you think is that does the spirit like lift him up in the sky and carry him like he's flying?

Pastor Plek: 5:34

Or like you remember with uh Eli Elijah in uh first Kings 20-ish or was it 19, some somewhere where he has you know he sp runs ahead by super speed to beat uh uh what's his name? Uh the bad king, Ahab, in his chariot. So he's got a chariot and he zips across. Yeah. Um yeah, so I see it as the distance was like he was near Gaza, so like down south. Uh-huh. And then Azatos, I I think is um about 30 miles um away from that area. So he teleports a good solid 30 miles.

Pastor Holland: 6:16

Pretty impressive. Now, why though? That's like I'm just like, why would you know? Was he was there no water there? He didn't have, you know, he didn't have a chariot like the eunuch did, or I don't it just seems so strange.

Pastor Plek: 6:27

Like, why the like speed necessary? Like, hey, yeah.

Pastor Holland: 6:30

Or maybe it was like, you know, maybe it was like it's just God being like, you want to see something cool?

Pastor Plek: 6:35

Yeah, it could have been, it could have been. And also, I just think like the idea is if you're willing to go to the ends of the earth, God will provide the transportation. Okay. So I think the problem from Acts 1.8 to Acts 8.1, you don't see the church move. Yeah, it does not leave Jerusalem until Saul comes around, wrecking shop on the church. And so I see um Proverbs, sorry, Proverbs, I see Acts 8.1 as a fulfillment of Acts 1.8, at least the beginning, and it took a little persecution to make that happen.

Pastor Holland: 7:13

Yeah.

Pastor Plek: 7:14

So disobedience, and uh is it disobedience? I don't maybe. I mean, because they were sort of enjoying building the church. You hear a lot about the church being built, but maybe they should have been like, as soon as they got the Holy Spirit been like, all right, we got the we got the marching orders already. It's time to go to the ends of the world, and instead they wait, and or or you know, why was the Ethiopian eunuch in uh Israel? I think it was probably for Pentecost. That was one of the three annual pilgrimages. So they they've just gotten the Holy Spirit, and Saul's out there, wreck and shop, you know, he, you know, and within the week or so, I don't like this the part I just don't know the time factor here of how much time it took. And um, so maybe there was no disobedience. Yeah, it was just simply God was like, okay, I'm gonna make something happening.

Pastor Holland: 8:05

Yeah, that's cool. Uh, I also just love I love uh that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading the scripture on a chariot. Right. And uh like that's hard. It's hard to read, you know. You can is it's hard to read um, you know, in a car. Chariot, though, you're just like bouncing, you know, and but he's like reading and he's like, I do not know what this means.

Pastor Plek: 8:28

Okay, I'm gonna go. It might not have been that hard because I don't think they were going 30 miles an hour. I think they're going like five. Okay. You know, I'm not gonna give him too much credit here. I'm gonna give him credit for having a scripture ready with a scroll. Yeah. I'll give him credit for that, but I'm not gonna say he's gonna be car sick.

Pastor Holland: 8:43

Just to throw it down. Okay, not car sick, but I'm just saying like it's harder than just sitting still at a table. Fair enough. And he's devoted, he's reading, he's trying to understand, and it happens to be this, you know, the Isaiah 53 scroll, right? Yeah. And um uh and then Phillips gives the interpretation of it and shows how it points to Jesus. And so another example of how all of scripture points to Christ as, you know, um its fulfillment. And um it like the Jewish, many you know, Jewish people saw Isaiah 53 not as Christ, but as like Israel as a nation or as a people.

Pastor Plek: 9:19

And I love he's asking the question. Yeah, it's not obvious to him as a reader who this oh, clearly that's Israel. No, everybody struggled with that because it talks about a personal ser like a servant suffering, and there's like lashes and he's crushed and pierced. And then so for him for the Ethiopian eunuch to be confused was understandable. And this goes back to Philip. This is Philip the Deacon, or is this Philip the Apostle?

Pastor Holland: 9:47

Uh Philip the Deacon, I believe. Um yeah. Philip the Deacon.

Pastor Plek: 9:57

Because if you are you you're not sure? I well Philip the Deacon was in charge of setting up tables, right? From what was that the previous Acts 6, but like the ministry of the word was the apostles. So that's where I'm like, you know, it that makes sense for him to, he's the one that got the the charge to go Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth.

Pastor Holland: 10:20

Yeah, but remember, remember Stephen, um Stephen, you know, the first martyr. Yep. Um, it says that uh He was a deacon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it it's described him as a man full of faith, full of the Holy Spirit. Um, and and we saw that like he was a faithful evangelist as well. Like he was proclaiming the gospel. True.

Pastor Plek: 10:41

So all right. I'm I'm not against it, but it's just like I don't ever see Philip the Apostle doing anything, so I want to give him some credit somewhere. Yeah, fair enough. Okay, yeah. Um here here's why I think uh I don't also don't see Thomas, the uh the apostle Thomas doing anything either. So maybe they're just they get like you know, their works were I don't know, deleted or something, or just not recorded because for whatever reason.

Pastor Holland: 11:05

Yeah, okay, fair enough, fair enough. Um my study Bible notes here uh say that Phil and Philip was uh uh refers to him as the the deacon, yeah, not the apostle.

Pastor Plek: 11:21

I mean, I just feel like it would be hard to be Philip the Apostle, and the only guy that gets your namesake in the Bible is not you when you were clearly way more important. So anyway, all right, that's fine. Um yeah, there is a minority view out there that it is uh Philip the Apostle, and I might be one of those minority people. Okay. Okay, uh, all right, so let's get back to Saul. I love the fact that he's ravaging the church. And I was thinking as I was reading it, you love that? I I do, because it later on his whole mission in life is to be imprisoned. Yeah.

Pastor Holland: 11:58

So what you sow, you reap, my friend. Yeah, that's right. And when he gets converted, we'll see in a few chapters, you know. Um, uh, or his testimony in a few chapters. Um, Jesus says, I'm gonna show you how much you'll suffer for my name. Right. And so, yeah, there's a sense that he, you know, he does these terrible things to the church, and now he's forgiven and saved by the grace of God, but also there is a reaping and consequences, and that he's got a very difficult ministry.

Pastor Plek: 12:28

Glorious, but very glorious, difficult. Yeah, yeah. And one that he was suited for. And maybe it makes it way easier to go to prison when you've been sending people to prison your whole life. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Okay. All right, let's take a look at what are some um uh truths about the nature of man we're seeing here.

Pastor Holland: 12:50

Uh, we want to buy um, you know, what God gives for free. The Simon the Magician, and you know, he's like, I see this power, let me try to buy it. Like, there's a tendency in us that thinks we can buy, we can earn that which God wants to give us freely.

Pastor Plek: 13:07

Nice. Uh, how about um we want to persecute that which we don't understand? Yeah. Uh, Saul ravaged the church uh because he clearly didn't understand the gospel. Um and how about this? Man is spiritually blind and dependent on uh supernatural help to understand the old testament with seeing it with the lens of Christ.

Pastor Holland: 13:33

Yeah, and supernatural help through natural means, even though it's like it was, you know, it was uh Philip who helped him. Right. And it was God who opened his eyes to see and believe.

Pastor Plek: 13:43

I like that. So, so I think God always uses a human means uh to reach people for the most part, at least there's a human component to it. Like even people who get saved in dreams or whatever, they usually have to meet a human being to have them share the gospel with them or interpret it for them. Okay. Um what about anything else on the nature of man? Hmm.

Pastor Holland: 14:09

No, seeing more stuff more standing out on the character of God.

Pastor Plek: 14:13

Okay, hit it. Hit it with the character of God.

Pastor Holland: 14:15

Um I'm trying to for the nature of man, I'm trying to think of the you know you brought up the scattering and the you know, we it doesn't really say that they were you brought up earlier like being disobedient, obedient. Um, but sometimes maybe, maybe it takes like a crisis to shake us up out of, you know, to do what God's called us to do. Whether it was disobedient or not, clearly a crisis is what kind of kicks off the spread of the church here.

Pastor Plek: 14:40

Was it really sinful that they they took time to figure out how to care for widows and orphans? Yeah, that's a good thing. Like good thing. And but they were like, hey, and I think from was that Acts 6, yeah, they had to go back and say, we've got to focus on the ministry of the word, which is from supposed to go from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth. And they got caught up in doing great church things, but they needed the the church to function so that they could focus on uh being intentional with the ministry of the word.

Pastor Holland: 15:08

That that one kind of transitions to character of God for me, of saying that there are times that God ordains a crisis moment to um, you know, kick something off in the church to change our hearts, change our minds, move us out of our comfort zones, like God often uses a calamity or a crisis to do that.

Pastor Plek: 15:26

It's good. I love uh obviously God is gracious and inclusive, reaching the outsider. The the Ethiopian eunuch, one eunuchs weren't allowed in the temple, right? Like if you weren't if you had crushed testicles or something going on downstairs, you are not allowed to worship. And now that guy gets to, you know, and it speaks about him, I think. In what is it, Jeremiah 11, um, or you know, like from the the past, from like there you'll no longer be a dry tree, and you'll anyway, all that.

Pastor Holland: 15:57

There's oh yeah, and then in uh Isaiah.

Pastor Plek: 16:00

Isaiah, yeah, okay. Isaiah, and maybe that's why he loves Isaiah. Isaiah 56. Okay, yeah, Isaiah, thank you. Isaiah 56, you're no longer a dry tree, and that what a powerful thing. The one person, Jesus, in Isaiah 53, which then uh gives you the ability to no longer be the dry tree.

Pastor Holland: 16:16

I wonder if he had, you know, the the scroll that he was reading, um, you know, started earlier and he was trying to find Isaiah 56, you know, trying to find the eunuch passage in the and he starts with 53 and learns about Jesus. Wow, that's cool.

Pastor Plek: 16:32

Yeah, so I I love how he's first a Gentile, second, he's a eunuch, third, he's a he's a worshiper of of God, and he's reading like one, he has access, so he's sort of rich. He has access to a scroll. Um, and God chooses him. I I I love that. That to me is powerful. That is. Um, how about God wants genuine repentance? He doesn't want uh repentance for a show, repentance for that can be bought. He wants genuine heart change, and he's willing, and God is willing to use his people to confront you when you are out of line with your heart not being right.

Pastor Holland: 17:14

Amen. Yeah. There there's also this aspect here of like um, you know, people who hadn't had the Holy Spirit fall on them yet. And, you know, the it seems that there's this pattern in Acts where as the gospel reaches new territories, God wants the apostles to kind of like unlock that territory, right? So these people had heard the gospel, but the Holy Spirit didn't come down until the apostles were there.

Pastor Plek: 17:42

Um, and it That's why Philip to me, I like him as an apostle because he's sending this Ethiopian eunuch back to Ethiopia without any further apostolic deal. Maybe, maybe, maybe. That's why listen, that's where I'm going.

Pastor Holland: 17:59

Okay. I might be minority view here. Hey, fair enough. I I see where you're coming from. But I I like what that shows about God is that like he has, you know, order and um he he does things in a particular way to demonstrate, you know, he's he's really like showing, hey, the apostles here are the foundation of the church. For a church to be built up somewhere, the apostles need to go first and lay the foundation. And their teaching and their example is gonna be the basis. I love that. So that's cool.

Pastor Plek: 18:26

Um, okay. What about uh are you ready for to get in some uh application? Yeah, sure. All right, uh, how about sin to uh avoid? Uh don't try to buy power. Yeah. Uh buying power, like paying someone uh for their special prayers, or so you could have the power of their special prayers is kind of weird.

Pastor Holland: 18:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't uh don't mistake the works of God um for yeah, for something that can be bought. Um, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of salvation. These are not things that money can buy. This is the free grace, um, the mercy of God that He gives.

Pastor Plek: 19:06

How about uh promise to claim uh God can turn opposition into opportunity for gospel advancement? So with the scattering to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaritan, and Z earth. So I know that whenever you hit frustrating things, it might be that's the very thing that causes you uh or causes God's will to be done.

Pastor Holland: 19:27

Yeah. Okay, I think this is kind of a cool example to follow, but the Ethiopian eunuch was reading a scripture he didn't understand. Nice, like an example to follow of like, don't skip the parts of the Bible that you don't understand. You know, read them and try to understand. And it it may God may send someone to you, you know, um, who can help you to understand it. And, you know, that's especially, you know, when you think about a church community, God has sent people to you to help you. So read the parts of the Bible, read, read the prophets, read the History books, read the genealogies.

Pastor Plek: 20:02

Nice. How about example to follow? Uh Philip going where the spirit says go. Yeah. To the desert. Yeah. Like to reach one guy.

Pastor Holland: 20:12

One guy.

Pastor Plek: 20:13

Like, like, because wouldn't it? So uh I a couple months ago I went to uh do laundromat ministry where we share the gospel in the laundromat. I led one guy to Christ, and I haven't really been back since. But maybe that there it seemed like in the moment I was like, yeah, we only led one to Christ, but who knows what that guy is doing. Yeah, and you led that guy to Christ, it changed his life forever. Yeah, yeah. Amen.

Pastor Holland: 20:37

That's awesome. Um, what else? What else you got in Apples? Uh so on the flip side of you know, read scriptures that you don't understand, study the Bible even if it doesn't make sense. Um on the flip side of that, you know, be Philip in that role as well. If you're someone who does have a great understanding of the scripture, help others to understand, teach other people and show people how the scriptures point to Jesus. Is this the first Bible study that you see?

Pastor Plek: 21:05

I mean, I know they devote in Acts two, they're devoted to the apostles' teaching. However, this is the only time I really see I they open up the scriptures, he points to scripture and goes, What do you think? Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's like discovery Bible study at its very core. Yeah. What does this mean? Yeah, there, I mean, there is a teacher there ready to teach. That is true. That is true. Yeah. But he's like, like you said, he was reading it not knowing how to interpret it. Yeah, I love that. Okay. Um, any last things on application?

Pastor Holland: 21:38

As he passed the last verse, as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So even as he was on his way somewhere, he was preaching the gospel. I think of like, you know, times when I've been on a mission trip and you know, I it was like I led someone to Christ on the plane. You know, I was on my way. I wasn't even at the place yet. But, you know, just think about on your way who God might bring into your path to share Christ with. Okay, how about this?

Pastor Plek: 22:03

Be baptized. Yeah. Uh when you believe, go and get baptized. Amen. Uh I love that part. That here's here's a guy. He's like, what prevents me from being baptized? Go do it. Go get baptized. And uh, I just appreciate that part of the story. Be identified with God's people. Yeah, that's good. All right. Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.