Partakers Christian Podcasts

The Spirit Explodes Part 8 of 22 - Spirit and Word (Acts 8:4-40) by Roger Kirby This chapter gives examples of outreach to the outer fringes of Judaism before the start of the main effort towards the truly pagan Gentiles with the conversion and commissioning of Paul. To the north the Samaritans practiced a variant form of Judaism, using only the first five books of the OT, and so were regarded as heretics by the strict Judaists. To the south Ethiopia was a major kingdom in modern Sudan, the nearest black peoples, and the only ones they would know about. Hence it was the “end of the world” to them. So these two episodes are carefully chosen to demonstrate the spread of the good news to “Samaria and the ends of the earth”, as it was put in chapter 1 and at the same time to explain two important aspects of what that news was (and is!) In this episode we ask questions such as: Question 1: What was the difference between Simon’s magic and what Philip did? (Modern magic where the speed of the hand deceives the