The Gospel in Foreign Lands

5/13/25 Bible Thought (Acts 8)

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Up until this point in Acts, we see the church growing incredibly, day by day, in Jerusalem. However, the hope of the gospel wasn’t to be reserved for Jews in Jerusalem only! In Acts 8, persecution scatters the church into other lands (see Acts 8:2).

First, we see Philip taking the gospel to Samaria.

Now, it’s important to remember that the relationship between Jews and Samaritans wasn’t good, to say the least (see Jn. 4:9). But now, they received the good news (Acts 8:12) and later via the apostles they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

The giving of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans was a undeniable sign to the Jewish apostles that God had accepted them, as the Holy Spirit is the down-payment of the believers’ heavenly inheritance (Eph. 1:14). The average Jew might not have accepted them, but the Almighty had through Christ.

Philip is then given a divine appointment with an Ethiopian eunuch who believes and is baptized. We see God is providentially at work, bringing the right messengers to the right recipients in order to save souls.

All of this fulfills what the Lord Jesus had already said:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The gospel is good news for all people! Rich, poor, slave, free, Jew, Gentile, or Samaritan—all who put their trust in Jesus Christ can be saved!

The promise wasn’t reserved for Judeans or Galileans. As such, the gospel must be taken into other lands. In Christ, the promise that God had made to Abraham of blessing to the nations is fulfilled (see Gal. 4:7-9).

Likewise, in Revelation, John has a vision of all peoples gathered around the throne:

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7:9-10).

What we see in Acts is so amazing. Rather than God gathering every nation to Jerusalem like animals on Noah’s ark, instead, persecution is the tool that drives the believers out of Jerusalem. It was persecution that took the gospel throughout the world.

The forces that tried to stamp out the church actually had the effect of throwing water on an oil fire. That which was intended to put the fire out actually did the opposite and caused the fire to spread! The early church father, Tertullian, is later said to have remarked, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

From the blood of Stephen to the persecution of Acts 8, the church only grew stronger the more that Christians were afflicted.

Let us rejoice today that Jesus is building His church and that every effort to destroy it throughout history has only had the opposite result. Even underground, the church can grow and will grow, for ultimately the church’s survival doesn’t rest on the permission of the state, or man’s clever ideas but on the promise of Jesus and the faithfulness of our God.

He will build His church and nothing will stop Him.