Acts 8

Apparently the church is then persecuted and scattered. At this time, the story focuses in on Philip who I think was among the seven men selected to deal with the food distribution issues. Philip begins performing all sorts of healings and miracles. We are also introduced to a man named Simon who is a sorcerer. He amazes many people with his magic, but when Philip comes along, people begin to believe in Jesus and follow him because of Philip's telling them about Jesus. Even Simon believes and is baptized. One weird thing that happens is that the believers for some reason do not receive the Holy Spirit upon belief, so Peter and John and sent. Peter and John lay their hands on the people and they receive the Holy Spirit. When Simon sees this, he is amazed by this power and wants to pay for that power. Now this isn't a little thing that they can deal with later. Peter immediately deals with it and basically says that what Simon wants to do is wrong. So Simon asks for them to pray for him and we don't really hear what happens next. We don't really hear about this Simon anymore so we don't know whether he was saved and received the Holy Spirit or not. It's possible that God put him to death at that moment as he did to Ananias and Sapphira.

Next, Philip is called by God to head south on a rod going down from Jerusalem to Gaza. On his way, he sees an Ethiopian eunuch who is seated in a chariot. Philip is told by the Spirit to go near and he hears the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isiah. Philip asks if he understands what he is reading and the Ethiopian eunuch is confused. Then, Philip explains to him from the scriptures the good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian eunuch is baptized and then Philip is teleported to Azotus where he continued to preach the gospel.

One interesting thing about this passage is that some translations say "Then Philip opened his mouth..." in verse 35. Philip wasn't talking but listening to the Ethiopian eunuch as he showed Philip what he was reading and explained some of his concerns. I thought that was pretty cool because we get an interesting example of Philip spreading the gospel to another showing the importance of being quick to listen.