Acts 8:14-17
"Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as of yet, He had fallen upon one of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit."
I must admit this is one of the Bible's more difficult passages, since it suggests that new Samaritan believers did not receive the Holy Spirit. This seems to with other scriptures telling us it is only by the baptism of the Spirit that one receives the new birth.
It is also troubling that Peter and John seemed to have the ability to call down the Spirit in some miraculous way, while Philip must not have had this ability. Why would God use Philip to preach the gospel, but not grant the Spirit under his ministry? Why did Peter and John need to come?
Scholars try to explain these difficulties by explaining that God purposely delayed the coming of the Spirit as a sign to the apostles. By delaying the Spirit until Peter and John arrived, the apostles could see for themselves that God blessed both peoples with the new birth.
But couldn't Philip have testifies as to the coming of the Spirit? And how could these people have been believers without the Spirit to rebirth their souls? What would have happened if Peter and John had been delayed in coming? Would these new believers be without the presence of Christ for some time? I'm afraid these are questions without an easy answer.
However, I'm inclined to believe that while the Spirit had not fallen upon these new believers in a visible way, the Spirit must have been present from their new birth. The experience of the Church is that the Spirit only falls on a few in any visible way at all, for the new birth is of the spirit and not the flesh.
So where does that leave us today? First, be warned against making a determination as to one's salvation based on the lack of or presence of a visible manifestation of the Spirit. Regardless of what is preached, speaking in tongues is not a proof text for salvation or a fuller presence of the Spirit. Even in this text, the visible manifestation of the Spirit was probably tongues of fire and the mighty rushing wind which the disciples experienced in Acts 2.
Second, we need to accept the reality that not all of God's ways will be fully understood by our attempts to wrap him up in doctrinal summaries. After all, if we could contain God in our treatises of faith, would he really be God at all? Don't let your faith waiver by not being able to figure out every scripture. When the Spirit wants us to understand, he will explain it to us.
Third, we need to stop and give thanks that God chose to bring the message of Christ outside of the bounds of the church of that day. As believers were scattered around the world, the Spirit took their testimony of faith and drew new converts to Christ. Ultimately, even I heard the gospel message by the faithful testimony of another.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I thank you for the mysterious working of the Holy Spirit. I'm especially thankful that you chose to draw me to yourself, even while I was yet a sinner. Amen.
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