Introduction to Acts 8-12 - To Judea and Samaria

Outline

Scattered from Jerusalem

In Jerusalem

To Samaria

The new congregation of Israel

The new heavens and earth

Scattered from Jerusalem

Acts 8:1–3 (LSB)

Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he was delivering them into prison.

With the death of Stephen, the first martyr, there is a shift in the narrative. We were focused on Jerusalem, particularly the temple, but now the Gospel witness will be spreading outward in the reunification of the kingdom of Israel. Consider 1 Kings 16:23-24. After the division of the Northern and Southern tribes of Israel, Omri, a wicked king in Israel, established the hill of Samaria as the capital of Israel.

1 Kings 16:23–24 (LSB)

In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel and reigned twelve years; he reigned six years at Tirzah. And he bought the hill Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and named the city which he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

So, we have the capital of Judah, Jerusalem, and the capital of Israel, Samaria.

In the course of time, the Samaritans had intermingled in marriage with some of the foreign population that had been imported from Assyria during the fall of Israel in 722 BC (during the reign of the last king of Israel, Hoshea). The resultant community became associated with corruption and compromise during the 700 years leading to the birth of Christ. Yet, unlike the old temple, this outcast, corrupt, community, also has access to fellowship with God in the new temple.

There is foreshadowing of this, I think, with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Jesus freely offers her to drink of the waters of life. And in this section into which we are entering, the water of life, flowing from the completed new temple, travels “down” from Jerusalem, into the North.

In Jerusalem

To highlight the change in the narrative from Jerusalem to Samaria and the surrounding regions, let’s survey where we have been before looking forward. The emphasis in the first 7 chapters is on Jerusalem, and this is in accord with the Great Commission, which we have already seen numerous times.

Acts 1:12 - The Apostles return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

Acts 2:14 - Peter’s sermon is addressed to “all you who live in Jerusalem.”

Acts 4:5 - The leaders of the Jews are gathered in Jerusalem against the Lord and against His Anointed One (Acts 4:27)

Acts 4:16 - The leaders of the Jews recognize that “all who live in Jerusalem” have noticed the healing of the lame man.

Acts 5:16 - Even the cities in the region of Judea are coming into Jerusalem to be healed (granted Sabbath rest, delivered).

Acts 5:28 - The Jewish leaders see that the Apostles “have filled Jersualem” with their teaching.

Acts 6:7 - The result of all this, “...the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem...”

The Stephen narrative, in looking back to Christ, is the climax of this account and ends with his death, as it did for Christ. And the effects of his death and the persecutions of the old temple leaders propels the spreading of the Gospel to the surrounding regions of Jerusalem, and North, to Samaria.

To Samaria

Acts 8:1 - God sends His witnesses, raised up by the church (Philip by means of the death of Stephen), to the regions surrounding Jerusalem, particularly, Samaria.

Acts 8:5 - Philip goes to Samaria and preaches the Gospel.

The Samaritan Pentecost (Acts 8:17)

Conversion of the Ethiopian (Acts 8:27)

Conversion of the Apostle to the Gentiles (Saul) (Acts 9).

Acts 9:31 - And here, the churches in Judea and Samaria are “having peace, being built up…in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it continued to multiply.” At this point, the Kingdom of Israel has been reunited in Christ. And now, reunited Israel (Jerusalem and Samaria) will reach the whole world.

The Gentiles have their Pentecost in Acts 10.

Acts 11:19 - Those scattered because of the persecutions mentioned in Acts 8, do not stop in Samaria, but they go even farther north to Antioch.

Antioch becomes an important Christian center, particularly to the Gentiles. Patrick Schreiner calls Antioch, “The “outcast” cathedral...” He goes on to suggest that Antioch is almost a mother church for the Gentiles and it is works in accord with Jerusalem. [Acts, ed. E. Ray Clendenen and Brandon D. Smith, Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2021), 345.]

Jerusalem and Samaria have been reunited, and now the message is going out into the world. Through the reunion of Jerusalem and Samaria, an individual Gentile, the Ethiopian, is converted. Then Peter sees the conversion of a Gentile household (Cornelius). Then we see the conversion of an entire Gentile city (Antioch). And not just any city, the third largest city in the Roman Empire.

Acts 12:25 - This section to Samaria ends with Paul and Barnabas returning to Jerusalem.

This is a New Jerusalem with a new temple and new temple leadership. And notice in Acts 8:1, “Except the Apostles...” I do not take this as disobedience. I take it as God’s continuing witness against the old Jerusalem. The new temple is not made by human hands and is not in Jerusalem proper, it is everywhere God’s Spirit falls, and the entire world has access to it.

But it is not only the salvation of the world, it is also the unity of the world. More on this later.

Date is 44 AD - with the death of Herod.

The New Congregation of Israel

Just as there is a new Jerusalem, a new temple, and new temple leadership, there is also a new “congregation.”

The word “church” throughout the book of Acts is a translation of the Greek word, ἐκκλησία. We see this word first applied to the New Covenant community in Acts 5:11 after the Ananias and Sapphira incident. We see it again in Acts 7:38 where Stephen is talking about the “church,” or “congregation,” in the wilderness. But then, it kind of explodes in usage from there:

Acts 8:1-3 - Saul begins persecuting the congregation in Jerusalem.

Acts 9:31 - The congregation throughout Judea and Samaria is “...having peace, being built up.”

Acts 11:26 - A congregation is born in Antioch

Acts 12:1 - Herod oppresses the congregation in Jerusalem.

This congregation, or church, is not bound by a particular ethnicity nor geographical region. The church is found wherever baptized believers are gathered. It occurred first in Jerusalem, then in Samaria, then in Antioch. And just as the Children of Israel are called the “congregation in the wilderness,” so these believers have become the new congregation, the new Israel. This new Israel is:

Ruled by Christ (as the old Israel was to be ruled by God).

Has the presence of God among them in the Spirit (as the old Israel had the tabernacle in its midst).

But this community is expanded to Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles (foreshadowed in the old Israel through Rahab, Ruth, and Naamah).

So, there is a new congregation of Israel.

Galatians 3:7–9 (LSB)

“...so know that those who are of faith, those are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

The New Heavens and Earth

Just as there is a new congregation of Israel, a new Jerusalem, a new temple, and new temple leadership, there is also a new heaven and earth.

Zechariah 14:6–10 (LSB)

And it will be in that day, that there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. And it will be a unique day which is known to Yahweh, neither day nor night, but it will be that at evening time there will be light. [The heavens are renewed]

And it will be in that day, that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. [The seas are renewed]

And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His name one. All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and inhabit its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. [The earth is renewed]

This trifecta of heaven, sea, and earth is found throughout the Scriptures.

When the Scriptures refer to heaven, earth, and sea, they are referring to the entire cosmos, such as in creation:

Light/darkness (day 1) - Heaven

Waters above/below (day 2) - Sky/sea

Waters/land (day 3) - Sea/land

Sun, moon, stars (day 4)

Birds and fish (day 5)

Land animals and man (day 6)

Similarly, when God delivered Israel out of Egypt, he brought destruction on Egypt’s entire cosmos:

Water/sea (Nile to blood, flies by the water, and hail).

Earth (Frogs, pestilence, and locust).

Sky (Gnats, boils [Moses throws dust into the air], and darkness).

God is plundering the house of Egypt, he is destroying their world (cosmos).

And there are other iterations of this three-storied completeness in Scripture, such as Garden, land, and whole earth:

The Fall of Adam in the Garden - The Garden is the sanctuary, where God meets with His people. Where Adam had fellowship with God.

The pollution of the Land by Cain - The land is where we live, this is our every-day life that is an outworking of our fellowship with God.

The whole world full of wickedness due to intermarriage - This is the end result of Adam’s federal failure in the Garden. The entire earth falls into evil. I would say that this is a nation.

(Garden = sanctuary, land = every-day life, earth = entire community).

There is a similar progress to the working of the Spirit by means of the church:

26 years after the death of Herod, the old Jerusalem and the old temple would be destroyed. This marks the end of the physical Jerusalem as the center because the New Jerusalem had come. Just as God destroyed the old world with a flood and started again with the new Adam, Noah.

Then, 242 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Roman empire, representing the entire world, would be conquered with the Gospel. God is reconquering His house.

This progression is apparent throughout the book of Acts, a reversal of the Fall:

First, there is conflict in the temple - The Garden sanctuary. Just as Adam had failed, the Jews had failed. But, God in His grace, poured out His Spirit at Pentecost to establish a new Garden: the Church.

This new Temple spreads out from Jerusalem to the surrounding land of Samaria - The waters of life flow from this new garden to water the arid land and bring life (we see this in the healing miracles).

Then eventually, the Roman empire is conquered. But in the book of Acts, it begins with the congregation established in Antioch and ends with Paul in Rome. It ultimately ends in the 4th century when Rome becomes a Christian empire - A mere 250 years later, the known world (the whole earth) has been converted to Christianity.

And we can see this concept even in the Great Commission:

To Jerusalem - Sanctuary

Judea & Samaria - Land

The uttermost parts of the earth - Whole earth

So, that gives us an idea of what is happening in chapters 8-12 of Acts. It will be exciting to get into the details over the next weeks and months.

Tending and keeping the garden

Genesis 2:15 LSB

Then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Keeping and cultivating the garden is for us keeping and cultivating the worship of Yahweh in spirit and truth. It is ensuring that we love Him with our heart, soul, and strength. It is reminding ourselves, through covenant renewal, of the Gospel of Grace, our communion with God, and our responsibility to go and make disciples. That is keeping and tending the garden.

How we keep the garden determines the outcome of the land, and ultimately the world. We need to protect it, guard it, take ownership of it; we need to keep it.

How well we cultivate it, make it fresh, break up the fallowness or hardness, in order to make it more fertile, will determine our fruit in the land.

The garden is the center of our existence, it is the tabernacle in the midst of Israel, it is God dwelling with us. And God’s presence is in His church.

Are you cultivating and keeping the Garden?

Are you setting your affections on things above? Meaning, are you valuing heavenly things or carnal things? Can you pray to the Father, “Thy will be done?”

What are you doing to cultivate your devotion to God?

Singing? Gathering with God’s people? Reading?

What are you doing with your family to cultivate their devotion to God?

Family worship? Hospitality? God-honoring art and entertainment?

Cultivation takes work, effort, sweat, and pain. It takes time and energy. Does the rhythm of your life cultivate the garden? Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength?

God has given us gifts to help us with cultivation: the means of grace. The Word, sacraments, and prayer. These things help us cultivate the garden.

Are you keeping the garden?

How do you treat the Sabbath? It is one of the 10 commandments. It was given by God for the keeping of the Garden. Are you observing it faithfully?

How do you treat the assembly? God is present among His people. When the people are gathered for the renewal of the covenant as the Church, God is in her midst. Is meeting with God considered something optional or is it essential?

How do you treat prayer? God, our Father, hears us when we pray to Him for things according to His will. When we pray, we remind ourselves of our dependence upon God and the need to align ourselves with God’s will, not our own.

How are we cultivating and keeping the garden?

What we see happen in Acts 8-12 is an incredible unification of peoples who are utterly different. This is possible through the Gospel and it is what happens when the Garden, or the sanctuary is established: there is an outward working of the Gospel.

This has been our aim in the establishment of Covenant Reformed Church: This is our garden sanctuary where we meet with God to renew the Covenant. This is our Jerusalem. This is what empowers us to go out into the land and make disciples, into Judea and Samaria. And we pray and work to see Antioch established and Rome fall.

Let’s pray.

The Lord’s Supper

Ephesians 2:11–22 (LSB)

Therefore, remember that formerly you—the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in Himself put to death the enmity. And He came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

We have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace. And now, in Christ we are one body, one holy sanctuary in the Lord, a dwelling of God in the Spirit. At this table, we are celebrating this act of Jesus in making peace between us and God by means of his flesh and blood. He brought us into fellowship with God as His ἐκκλησία (congregation). We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Himself is the foundation stone.

At this supper, our ethnicity or sex, even our nationality, does not matter. We are no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens in God’s household. Paul is not saying that these things never matter or that the Supper removes them altogether. No. he is saying that this communion, exemplified in this Supper, is greater than anything earthly. We have communion with the saints of God. Period. We may still have disagreements between men and women, or American and Russian, or any earthly example you can think of, but we ought to have those disagreements as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Revelation 22:14 LSB

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the authority to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

This communion in the sanctuary of God is the tree of life, and entrance is granted through the straight gait to all who are invited. And there is only one way in, and His name is Jesus Christ. We have heeded God’s call, come together to confess our sinfulness, we have been cleansed by the Gospel, taught God’s Word and Law, and now, in the city, we can partake with joy of the tree of life.

So now, I will pray and give thanks for the bread (the tree) and the wine (the fruit) so that we may partake together.

Let’s pray.