Acts 08 Round Two: Persecution Fertilizes The Gospel

When pressure hits, does faith shrink or spread? Acts 8 shows how persecution in Jerusalem became the spark for a wider move of God, sending ordinary believers into Judea and Samaria with courage, clarity, and power. We walk through Stephen’s aftermath, Saul’s crackdown, and the surprising ways the gospel took root where no one expected it.

We zero in on Philip, a deacon turned evangelist, whose preaching in Samaria is marked by deliverance, healing, and tangible joy. Crowds who once followed magic finally hear the truth about Jesus and the kingdom of God. The clash with Simon the sorcerer exposes a timeless temptation: treating the Holy Spirit’s gifts like currency. Peter’s response calls for repentance, purity of motive, and a return to grace over status. Along the way, we address a common question about the Holy Spirit—received at conversion or in a later experience—and focus on what matters most: continual growth, unity, and a life that bears fruit.

Then the scene shifts to a desert road where obedience becomes personal and precise. Philip follows a prompt, meets an Ethiopian official reading Isaiah 53, and starts from that very passage to reveal Jesus. The official believes, asks to be baptized immediately, and carries the good news home with joy. In a startling twist, Philip is transported miles away to keep preaching, a reminder that God directs both our steps and our leaps. Through it all, the thread holds: adversity can be an accelerant, Scripture opens doors, and the Spirit empowers ordinary people to do extraordinary work.

If this journey stirred your faith, subscribe for more chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, share the episode with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Your support helps the message go further—where did Acts 8 challenge you most?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Core Theme
• 1:33 Acts Overview And Stephen’s Martyrdom
• 3:26 Persecution Scatters The Church
• 4:28 Philip In Samaria And Signs
• 6:03 Simon The Sorcerer Confronted
• 8:18 Debate On Receiving The Holy Spirit
• 10:19 Philip And The Ethiopian Eunuch
• 12:40 Baptism And Philip’s Transport
• 14:18 Takeaways On Persecution And Purpose
• 15:24 Prayer And Closing Charge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 8. And I think a good title for today would be Persecution Fertilizes the Gospel. Persecution fertilizes the gospel. One of the true ways to tell if something is for real or not is how does it respond to adversity? It was Mike Tyson that famously said, everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. And that is truly the situation for a lot of times, right? What do you do when you face persecution? Well, it turns out persecution is well on its way to the early church, but man, God's got a lot in store. And so we're going to get into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure that you are like, sharing, and subscribing to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're commenting below on what God is doing in your life. Listen to the podcast, you're my favorites. And I would love you to leave us a five-star review and let us know how the podcast is impacting your life. It really is encouraging to know that the more we dig, the more we find. And I would love you to go to our Facebook group at Bible Breakdown Discussion and let us know questions, answers, whatever's going on in your life and how we can grow together. Because once again, the more we dig, the more we find. And that's the case in this chapter. As we've been talking about, the overall idea of the gospel, or not, excuse me, the gospel, but the book of Acts is that if you were, if you were nominated by your class to be the most likely to succeed, if everything seems to work out for you and just everything's always good in your life, I've got good news for you. God can still use you. And that's great. But God often uses the least likely to succeed, the people that you wouldn't expect. God is in the process of using ordinary fishermen, farmers, what the world would consider nobody's to shake the world. And if God can use fishermen and used up Pharisees to shake the world, what can he do in your life if you would just give yourself fully to him? And that's what we're seeing. The gospel says Jesus came, died on the cross, rose again, and as he was going back to heaven, he said, Don't worry, I'm sending the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, and He is going to be with you, and He's going to give you power to spread the gospel. And that's what happens in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit comes and he begins to empower the church to do the work of ministry. But as we started to see, the opposition starts to grow, and the opposition starts to grow, and things start to happen until last chapter we see the culmination of all that opposition. We have the first martyr for the faith, Stephen, who is stoned to death because he tells these people, You crucify Jesus. He rose again and it's your fault. And they stone him. Well, when the men put their coats down so they could, you know, swing better to stone Stephen, they laid their coats down at a young Pharisee by the name of Saul, and he watched their coats while they went and did this horrible work. Well, Saul at this point begins to feel like it is his personal mission to stop these people that are called the followers of the way. Before we were called Christians, we were called the followers of the way because Jesus said he was the or is the way, truth, and life, right? And so he's just decided he's gonna end it all. So heavy persecution starts to cover all the church. But what's amazing is persecution doesn't end the church, it fertilizes the church, it causes the church to grow. And I don't know this, but I wonder if one of the reasons why persecution came in this situation was because Jesus said, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, then in Judea, which will be the surrounding countryside, then to the uttermost parts of the world. Well, at this point, they're all staying in Jerusalem. So I wonder if almost like God kind of said, Hey, look, I need you to separate, and if the only way you're gonna do is for that, then so be it, because this has got to, I don't I don't know if that's the case, but it definitely is what ended up happening. Because of the persecution, they start to spread out and do exactly what Jesus called them to do. So let's read this, and as we read, the more we're gonna find. So if you have your Bibles open to Acts chapter 8, the New Living Translation, let's read together. Verse 1 says this Saul was one of the witnesses that agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. So he's not a good guy at this time. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, which by the way is what Jesus told them to do. Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning. Verse 3. But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women, throwing them into prison. So what Saul is doing is he is going everywhere he can and just arresting and grabbing Christians and throwing them into jail. Like he becomes the central focus of opposition against the young church. Verse 4 But the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus everywhere they went. Philip, for example, he was one of the seven deacons, by the way, went to the city of Samaria and told the people about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims, and many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. There was great joy in that city. A man named Simon, who had been a sorcerer for many years, amazing people, the people of Samaria, and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from least to greatest often spoke of as the great one and the power of God. They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic. But now the people believed Philip's message of the good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip everywhere he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles that Philip performed. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard about the people in Samaria and that they had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. Then, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on the people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let them ha let me have this power too, he exclaimed, so that I may lay hands on people and that they may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, May your money be destroyed with you for thinking that God's gift can be bought. You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you of your evil thoughts. For I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin. Oh, pray for pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed, that these terrible things you said won't happen to me. And after testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem and they stopped and they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the good news. Now this is amazing because up until then Jewish people and Samaritans had nothing to do with each other. And so already you can see that the gospel is beginning to spread not just in Jerusalem, but in all the other areas as well. As well. And the interesting thing here is the Bible said that they had believed on the name of Jesus, but they had not yet experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their life. And one of the things we have to be careful with is there is this big controversy in the church that says either when you receive Jesus, when you accept Jesus, you receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit at that moment, and that's all the Holy Spirit you're ever going to need, but we grow into a continual awareness of who he is. But then there's other people that say that no, when you receive salvation, you receive salvation, but then somewhere down the line, you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There's this great debate in the church world as to which one of those is the case. And on one side, you can look at this and you can see where it seems like they have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but yet they had not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, in other places you can see that as soon as the people believed, they immediately began to experience the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit. And so the answer to the great riddle of which is it is yes. The answer is you receive the Holy Spirit. Now, and I don't think it's really that important that we split hairs over when this is, because in either case, whether you receive all of God you're ever going to get at the moment of salvation or a secondary work after salvation, the either, either way you do it, the bottom line is you receive more of God as you go along. So the end result is the same. As a matter of fact, if you think that there is a secondary experience of the Holy Spirit, you may end up having this have and have nots in the in the church world because you have some people who will say, Well, I have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and others don't. So it's almost like you're a junior member of the body of Christ, which is not true. And so I think we need to be careful to make sure that we major on the majors and not major on the minors and say, no matter whether you receive all of God at the beginning, or if you you receive more of God later, there should always be a continual walk and a continual growth in the power of God. Let's continue on. Verse 26. Philip, man, he's he's getting it done, right? He's the one who went to Samaria, and then it says in verse 26, as for Philip, the angel of the Lord, an angel of the Lord said to him, Go south, down to the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and he met there a treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch that had great authority under Kandaki, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and now as he was returning, he was seated in his carriage and he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, Go over and walk alongside the carriage. So Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, Do you understand what you are reading? The man replied, How can I unless someone instructs me? And then he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of scripture he had been reading was, He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants for his life had been taken from the earth? So actually, what is happening here is this very important person, someone who has been hot pretty high up in the royal hierarchy of the Queen of Ethiopia, he has come to Jerusalem to worship, and it just so happens. This is amazing how God does this. That he's reading Isaiah 53, which is one of the most important prophecies about Jesus, because it just depicts so clearly Jesus' death on the cross. But since he didn't know about Jesus yet, he hears this and it's a mystery. So watch what happens. Verse 34. The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else? So beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. As they rode along, they came on upon some water, and the eunuch said, Look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized? So he ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down to the water, and Philip baptized him. Now listen to this. This is crazy. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch never saw him again, but went on his way, rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip was found himself farther north at a town called Azotas, and he preached the good news there in every town along the way where he came to Caesarea. Now you're gonna have to look up and find this out for yourself, but as best as my memory serves, that's like 20-something miles away. Can you imagine that you get so excited about the Lord in his baptism Sunday at your church and someone's getting baptized and then come up out of the water and you get so excited you just show up 20 miles away? Can you imagine Philip is like, well, this wasn't on my plan for today. I was gonna go to the grocery store, but I well guess I guess now I'm here 20 miles away. And it's amazing what happened. And what's even more amazing is that persecution has happening to the church. But instead of it shutting down the gospel, it's causing the gospel to spread. And what does that mean to us? Well, first of all, let's look at what happened to Philip with this Ethiopian. If he did not know God's word for himself, when this Ethiopian needed to know the gospel, Philip wouldn't have known. So it automatically speaks to us that we need to know God's word so that when God opens doors of opportunity, we're ready to walk through. The second thing we know is that not all persecution, not all bad things end with bad things. The persecution that came didn't end with destruction, it ended with furthering the gospel. And it's hard to do. It's easy to say when persecution happens, we just celebrate, but we don't do that. It's hard. It's difficult. It's difficult when people don't want to talk to you anymore because of your walk with God or because your stance on true matters and different things, it's hard. But to realize that even bad things, God can use to do something amazing. And maybe that's some encouragement for you today. Maybe you're going through a season when because of you speaking up for truth or trusting God in some different ways, people have started to separate from you. People don't want to be associated with you. It's not politically correct sometimes to stand on the word of God in truth. Well, here's the thing even when we go through bad days, God has amazing ways of turning all things for our good. So don't stop because you never know. You may come across somebody who needs to know the gospel. And if it hadn't have been for that bad day that got you to that place, you wouldn't be able to be the instrument that God uses to bring salvation. Think about that for a moment. If it hadn't have been for persecution, Philip wouldn't have been in that place to reach out to this Ethiopian. Man, it's so exciting to realize that even the bad things God can use in great ways. If we just never stop following him. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much that you're for us and not against us. I thank you, God, that your word is unsearchable. Lord, that it we can never get to the bottom, we never get to the end of your goodness, but it is our joy and our pleasure to seek you out. And I pray that as we do that, God, we will continue to grow in your presence and that you will use us to make a difference in this generation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget, God said, Jesus said in Acts chapter 1, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer is that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will be his witness in your world today. I will see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 9.