Peter and John: Receiving the Spirit in Samaria
Acts 8:14 NASB “Now when the
apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria
had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John.” There is an
important word there, receive—lambano
[lambanw],
word that Luke uses in relation to the Holy Spirit as well as accepting the
truth of the Scripture. It is a word that is a synonym for belief; it is accepting
something as true. They have heard that the Samaritans had received or accepted
the Word of God. It might be even more clear to say
the message of God because they are talking about the gospel message that
Philip had proclaimed. So they sent Peter and John. Why? All that had happened
was that they had trusted in Christ as the Messiah and now the apostles are
going to send Peter and John there.
Acts 8:15 NASB “who came down and
prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.” So what has happened?
First they believed, then Peter and John comes, and
then they received the Holy Spirit. They did not receive the Holy Spirit, the
ministries of the Holy Spirit for the church age believer, at the instant of
faith. Today we do. Others did at that time. If you were Jewish and trusted in
Christ you immediately received the Holy Spirit, but these are not Jews, they
are a separate ethnic group not really viewed as Gentiles but not really Jews
either. And especially because of the ethnic hostility that existed between the
Jews and the Samaritans it was important for God to demonstrate that they were
of equal stature and equal position in the body of Christ with the Jewish
Christians.
Then there is a parenthetical explanation.
Acts 8:16
NASB “For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply
been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” This shows that this ethnic group
has been baptised and it was not by the Holy Spirit because they hadn’t
received Him. The only baptism to which this could refer would be believer’s
baptism or water baptism which is by immersion. So what has happened is that
Philip has proclaimed the gospel, they have believed the gospel, they have been
baptised in terms of immersion as believer’s baptism, then Peter and John come
and pay hands on them, and [17] “Then they {began} laying their hands on them,
and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.”
It is important to understand how this
fits within the structure of the book of Acts because there are actually four “Pentecosts” in Acts. There is one related to the Jewish
people in Acts 2, one related to the Samaritans in Acts8, one related to the
Gentiles in Acts 10, and one related to Jewish believers in the diaspora in Acts chapter 19. One of the reasons we want to
see this is because within the modern Pentecostal-Charismatic movement the claim
is made that the gift of tongues experience is what happens when you get the
Holy Spirit. So there are two different t works of grace: one is related to
salvation or justification when you believe in Jesus, and then a second work of
grace sometime after you are justified and that is when you get the rest of the
package—receiving the Holy Spirit. And they believe the necessary sign for
receiving the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. Charismatic and Pentecostal
are not synonyms. A Pentecostal gets the Holy Spirit, signified by speaking in
tongues, but he separates into another denomination—Assembly of God, United Pentecostal Church in America.
Charismatics stayed in their denominations, so there
were Baptist charismatics, Catholic charismatics, Presbyterian charismatics,
etc. They stayed in their denominations but they still held to the fact that
speaking in tongues was the necessary sign of receiving the Holy Spirit, which
was a second work of grace. The claim was that there was a set pattern: you get
saved, there was an initial work of grace, and then when you dedicate your life
or some other spiritual experience you then received the second blessing,
second work of grace, you received the Holy Spirit and you necessarily speak in
tongues. That was their pattern and they would go to Acts.
But the point is,
that is not the pattern in Acts. In Acts 2 it starts off with only the twelve
in 2:1 who are already believers. There is a noise
like a tornado coming through in 2:2, and then there is this visible
manifestation like flames of fire over each one of the eleven disciples. Then
we are told that at that point they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and then
they speak with these other languages they have not learned. There is no laying on of hands, no mention of water baptism until Acts
2:38 when Peter says, Repent and believe and let each one be baptised in the
name of the Lord Jesus. So Acts 2:38 is the first mention of baptism. It
has to be water baptism, not Spirit baptism. The Spirit baptism is what happened
when the Spirit came; the water baptism is what is depicting through a physical
ritual the spiritual truth of spiritual baptism.
Then we have the order of events in Samaria. First
of all the Samaritans believed, then we are told they were baptised by water. There
is still no mention of the Holy Spirit. They had not even received the Holy
Spirit we are told, in fact. Then Peter and John come from Jerusalem a few days
later, prayed for them and laid hands on them (no laying on of hands in Acts
2), and then they received the Holy Spirit, vv. 15-17. But there is no speaking in tongues; it is not mentioned. Some people
say that because it happened in other places it had to have happened there. But
if it is not mentioned we can’t say that it did happen. In the other three
places the Holy Spirit specifically informed us that it happened and we ought
to assume that it didn’t happen in Samaria. And
there is a reason for that—if we understand the purpose for tongues.
In Acts 10 Peter has been commissioned and
authorised by God to now take the gospel to the unclean Gentiles, to the house
of Cornelius. Peter goes up there and starts to proclaim the gospel and explain
who Jesus was, and they believed while they were sitting there listening. And
the Scripture says that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them, and that
expression is used describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians
12:13. So Peter proclaims the gospel, they believe while they are hearting, the
Holy Spirit fell upon them, and then they spoke in tongues and praised God.
Praising God is a generic term, it doesn’t mean they
said, “Praise God.” That is a superficial concept. If we go to the praise
psalms—most of the psalms after Psalm 100 are praise psalms—they describe what
God has done. That is how we praise God. We describe the works of God and what
He has done; we don’t just say, “Praise God.” There are many Christians who go
through this sort of infantile kind of language thing, and we just need to
realise that is a characteristic of babyhood. Those who have had a child know
that that child is going to talk like a baby, and they are going to just repeat
things that they hear other people say. So notice the order here. They are
baptised by water after they speak in tongues. In Samaria they
didn’t speak in tongues and they were baptised with water first and there is no
laying on of hands.
In Acts 19 we have the situation when Paul
was in Ephesus.
These disciples or students of John the Baptist come to Paul and they have only
heard of the baptism of John the Baptist. And tyey
were baptised with the baptism of John the Baptist (a water baptism which was
by immersion) and they had already believed. They had believed an Old Testament
gospel but they hadn’t heard a thing about Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Paul
explains that Jesus is the Messiah, explains about the Holy Spirit, and than
says they need to be baptised. He doesn’t wait for them to go through a
ten-week orientation class because they already have a good theological
understanding of the Scripture. They just needed to get the last couple of
pieces in place in terms of who Jesus was and the Holy Spirit, and so they are
baptised by water in the name of Jesus in Acts 19:5. Then Paul laid hands on
them and the Holy Spirit came, they spoke in tongues (languages) and were
prophesying.
The question we need to ask: what is going
on here with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the speaking in tongues, and why
does it happen to the Jews, the Gentiles and these Old Testament saints, but it
didn’t happen with the Samaritans? There is an answer to that but we have to
understand the purpose for speaking in tongues.
Acts 2:38 NASB “Peter {said} to
them, “Repent [change your mind] …” This goes back to Deuteronomy 30. Israel
was promised the kingdom and the blessings that would come with the new
covenant, which was related to the giving of the “new” Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that this would happen when Israel
turned. This was a challenge to the Jewish people to turn and accept God and
reject their idolatry. “ … and each of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for “receive” there is lambano [lambanw]
and it is the word that is just a generic term for receiving the Holy Spirit. And
it refers to the whole package of all of the Holy Spirit’s ministries in the
church age: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, baptism by the Holy Spirit,
filling by the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, etc. All of these are part of just
receiving the Holy Spirit. He tells them to be baptised.
We are told then in verse 41 of that
chapter that three thousand were saved. That is a lot of people, and they weren’t
spending any time waiting to baptise them. In Acts 10, the Cornelius episode, Peter
says immediately after they believe, “Can anyone forbid water to them?” And
they immediately get baptised. We will see at the end of Acts chapter eight
that Philip goes down and clarifies the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, and as
soon as the Ethiopian believes he is immediately baptised by water baptism. So
where did people get baptised on the day of Pentecost? We are told that they
were outside the temple, on the temple steps, and they had ritual baths that
the Jews used before they went into the temple. There were more than 30 of
them.
The purpose of tongues.
Paul clarifies this in 1 Corinthians 14:20, 21. What is important about
speaking in languages? It wasn’t what was said. Paul doesn’t say here that they
were given the gift of languages so they could explain the gospel to people who
speak a foreign language. There is no evidence of that anywhere in Scripture.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says not to do this when an unbeliever is
present because he is going to think you’re nuts, you’re drunk, whatever. It’s purpose wasn’t for evangelism.
1 Corinthians 14:20 NASB “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking;
yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”
In other words, don’t be immature in your understanding. Know what the Word of
God says, and on the other hand in terms of malice and mental attitude sins,
being an infant shouldn’t characterise your life at all. In understanding be
mature. [21] “In the Law it is written, ‘BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS
OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO
ME,’ says the Lord.” God is speaking to the Jews. The context of
that quote comes from Deuteronomy 28:49, 50 which is part of the discipline God
said He will bring upon Israel
if they reject Him. Part of that discipline is that they are going to hear the
Word of God and it is not going to be in Hebrew. When God called out Abraham He
was saying, ‘From now on I am dealing with the people in the world via Abraham
and the Jewish people,’ and all of the Scripture was given in Hebrew with a few
portions in Aramaic. And what God is saying here is that if they continue to
reject Him He was going to bring foreign powers who
would conquer them and they would hear Gentile languages where they shouldn’t
hear Gentile languages in the temple mount, proclaiming the truth of God. They
should be hearing it from their own prophets but they have rejected that and
now they are going to hear it from a conquering nation.
In Isaiah 28:11, 12 Isaiah reiterates the
same prophecy. The Assyrian threat is on the horizon and Isaiah is also
predicting the future destruction of Judea
by the Babylonians. Is 28:11 NASB “Indeed, He will speak to this
people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, [12]
He who said to them, ‘Here is rest, give rest to the weary,’ And, ‘Here is
repose,’ but they would not listen.” That terminology is an offer
of the kingdom. What Isaiah is predicting here is that God would bring the
offer of the kingdom and they would not hear it, and as a result of that they
are going to hear the Scripture taught in Gentile languages. This means the
special position of the Jews will be taken away. Deuteronomy 28:49, 50 NASB
“The LORD
will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the
eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand,
a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.” So there is this prediction from the
Law. That is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 14:21.
Tongues, the hearing of Scripture not in
Hebrew (in a Gentile language), was sign of judgment. It didn’t matter what was
said, it was that Scripture was taught as a sign of judgment to Israel.
They hear it on the temple mount on the day of Pentecost. Judgment is coming. The
Gentiles are speaking in other Gentile languages. That is the same issue in
Acts 10. John the Baptist’s disciples are also speaking in languages (Acts 19)
and this is going to reverberate through the Jewish communities in Asia Minor. Why not the
Samaritans? Because the Samaritans are a sort of bastard ethnic spin-off from
the Jews, they are neither Jew nor Gentile. The announcement of significance is
what happened on the day of Pentecost, it is what happens among the Jews and
what happens among the Gentiles; but the Samaritans are in a kind of ethnic
no-man’s-land and so there is no need for them to hear a message related to
judgment. So they don’t speak in tongues, it doesn’t fit the purpose that God
had for speaking in tongues.
All of this leads to an understanding of
the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit which we
will deal with next.