Acts chapter 8

vs 21

Peter out and out accuses Simon of wanting this ability for sinister purposes.

vs 22

Peter doesn't just leave him there, though. He does give him a solution to his problem. Simon was baptised, remember! He's a believer as far as we know. So Peter recommends that he repents and prays to God. Which sounds like sound advice to anyone who has a sinful attitude.

vs 23

This verse, if any, is the one which you could point to if you were trying to make an argument for Simon not being saved. "If Simon is a believer, how is he still captive to sin?" you might ask.

All I can say to that is 'be realistic'. All people, Christians included, are captive to sin, and thanks be to Christ our Lord who delivers us. And yes, he does that to a degree in our physical lives here and now. But he doesn't surgically remove sin from our lives.

vs 24

Keep in mind that all Peter cursed Simon with was the loss of his money. Unless all the other accusations Peter made were in a cursing type language. If you contrast Simon's attitude (Oh please I don't want to lose my dosh!) to most of the other early Christian's attitude (lets pool our money and posessions aren't really so important), you can see a disparity.

The question that is always raised is, does Simon ask Peter to pray for him because he doesn't believe God will listen to him personally? Or does he ask Peter to pray as well for him, in a sort of intercessory way?

vs 25

Peter and John have seen what they needed to see - the Samaritans being accepted by God through the Holy Spirit - and so they return to Jerusalem, but decide they'll share the love by spreading Christ all the way home. Good for them. I guess that's one of the benefits of walking everywhere - you see a lot more people.

vs 26

Did God's voice just speak to Philip? Or did Philip just end up going to that road on a hunch, or on his morning walk? Doesn't say.

vs 27

So many people think that the 'to the ends of the earth' ministry started with Paul, or perhaps Peter. But here it is, starting with Philip. He stumbles across this important Ethiopian guy. Why did he go to Jerusalem to worship? If he thought he was going to see Solomon's temple, he's only about 1000 years out of date. However, Herod's (the Tetrarch) temple was also supposed to be pretty special.

vs 28

Don't discount how important this is. You couldn't just pick up a paperback of Isaiah on a street corner. He would have to have outlayed a fairly significant sum to get it. We've got to also assume that it was in Greek, because as if he'd be able to read Hebrew.

vs 29

Ok, now it's not as if you just walked up to chariots and said "Yo." Well, I don't know, perhaps you did. But I'm guessing not. So you've got to assume that God in some more direct way led Philip to do that.

vs 30

Thankfully the guy was reading it out - otherwise Philip would have had to start his conversation with "Excuse me? Can you help me with something? Mind if I sit down? My name is Stu, and I work with mainstream churches - Jerusalem, Samaria - nothing weird, so you can just relax..."

I really do pity the poor Ethiopian guy though. I mean, Isaiah is not easy to understand at the best of times. But just picking it up out of the blue and reading it, without any idea of historical context... well, that would be like how most Christians read it I guess.