Read: Acts 8:1b-8
Although it often goes overlooked, Acts 8 contains the story of one of the most momentous occasions in the life of the young church. Following the stoning death of Stephen by the Sanhedrin, a horrible time of persecution broke out against God’s people. The early Christians were forces to scatter from the city of Jerusalem and find homes elsewhere. While this displacement was certainly an inconvenience, it had the benefit of spreading the Gospel message. As the early Christians scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, they told everyone they came into contact with about what Jesus had done for them.
Anyway, Acts 8:5 mentions that Philip (one of the early “deacons” of the church) ended up spreading the Gospel in Samaria. While it may not seem like all that big of a deal to us, this move to Samaria would have shocked the early church. You see, in that day Samaritans were a despised people. They were racially and religiously different from the Jews. In Jesus’ day, these differences had led to full-blown hostility between the two groups. Jews and Samaritans wanted nothing to do with one another. The prejudice and hatred between them was thick and the barrier seemed insurmountable.
And yet, Stephen took the Gospel message into Samaria. He reached out to a marginalized people group to share Christ with them. He allowed God’s Word to break down the barrier between himself and those who had previously looked at with hatred and disgust. Whereas others discriminated against the Samaritans, Philip discipled them, sharing the message of salvation with them. In so doing, Philip allowed the Gospel to destroy his own prejudices.
Philip’s work in Samaria tells me that the Gospel eliminates prejudice. It destroys racism. It breaks down barriers. That’s because the good news of Jesus Christ is, at its core, a message of reconciliation. First and foremost, the Gospel talks about how people can be reconciled to God. Though our sin broke our relationship with God, our Father made a way for us to come back to Him. Several passages speak to this truth:
II Corinthians 5:18-19: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Colossians 1:21-22: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation…”
Romans 5:10-11: “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled to God. We can have a relationship with Him even though our sin drove us away from His side. Fundamentally, the Gospel is a message of peace and restoration with God.
Yet, the Gospel’s power to reconcile doesn’t end there. God’s Word also brings people together as one. All racial, social and economic barriers crumble for those in Christ. Prejudice, racism and discrimination have no place in His Kingdom. Again, several New Testament passages tell us this:
Galatians 3:26-28: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew not Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
I Corinthians 12:12-13: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Ephesians 4:3-6: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
The greatest news about the Good News is that it is for everybody. There’s no people group left out. Regardless of who you are or where you came from, there’s a place for you in the Body of Christ. His church knows no barriers of race, ethnicity or age. There’s no high-class, middle-class or lower-class in the Kingdom. The Gospel is for everyone. As such, we have a duty to share it with anybody and everybody. It doesn’t matter who they are or what we think about them. All that matters is that they need the reconciliation only He can bring.
Questions to Consider:
What’s your Samaria? How can you share the Gospel with these people?
Read Acts 8:25. How did Peter and John respond to the Samaritans?