Witnessing in Blood and Spirit

Week Four - Day 3

Today's Reading -- Acts 7:1 to Acts 8:40

If you ever want to refer someone to a concise recap of the Old Testament, have them read the 7th chapter of Acts.  It is the speech that the deacon Stephen delivers to the religious council in Jerusalem after he has been dragged there on trumped up charges of blasphemy against Moses and God.  Big mistake, for Stephen gives them an earful of their own history, ending with his charge against the religious leaders that they themselves oppose God's Holy Spirit and are no better than their ancestors who had persecuted and killed the prophets. Their reaction?  Kill the messenger.  Stephen is dragged outside the city walls of Jerusalem and stoned to death, becoming the first believer to die for his faith.  While all followers of Christ are baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, it is said that martyrs are baptized in their own blood, the offering of their lives.

With the death of Stephen the persecution of the Jesus community in Jerusalem heats up, as a young man named Saul takes charge of rounding up the believers.  Although the apostles remain for the time being, many of the followers are scattered throughout the region.  What Saul and the others did not foresee is that these followers took their faith with them and continued to proclaim Jesus to anyone they encountered.  A disciple named Philip began to bring the Word of Christ to the residents of Samaria, a people who followed the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures) but had been previously shunned by the Jews as not right-thinking believers.  So many Samaritans accepted Jesus that when the apostles caught word of it they sent Peter and John out from Jerusalem to investigate.  Although Philip had done the work of converting the Samaritans, the apostles passed on the gift of the Holy Spirit and brought them into the fold.

The gospel was to take yet another step away from Jerusalem as Philip ran into an Ethiopian court official, a true outsider to the nation of Israel, and helped to guide him in his reading of Isaiah to see the good news about Jesus.  With no apostles in sight, Philip baptized the Ethiopian, and it can be certain that when the Holy Spirit snatched Philip away (8:39) it also entered into the life of that foreigner who now "went on his way rejoicing."  We are not told, but it's hard to imagine that this court official failed to witness to his new faith when he returned home.  The Word is on the move, and it appears no one will be considered unworthy to receive its saving power.