Church History: Another part of their mission was to advanced and improve those of them who were sincere. The Holy Spirit had not as yet fallen upon them. They had not received the extraordinary powers which were conveyed by the descent of the Spirit upon the day of Pentecost. There were none of them endued with the gift of tongues, which seems then to have been the most usual immediate effect of the pouring out of the Spirit. (Acts 10:45-46). This was both an eminent sign to those that believed not, and of excellent service to those that did. This, and other such gifts, they had not received. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and so engaged in him and interested in him, which was necessary to salvation, and in this they had joy and satisfaction (Ac 8:8), though they could not speak with tongues. Those that are indeed given up to Christ, and have experienced the sanctifying influences and operations of the Spirit of grace, have great reason to be thankful, and no reason to complain, though they do not have those gifts that are for ornament, and would make them bright. But it is intended that they should go on to the perfection of the present dispensation, for the greater honor of the gospel.
While there, they discovered and discarded a hypocrite among them, and this was Simon Magus. The wicked proposal that Simon made, by which his hypocrisy was discovered (Acts 8:18-19): When he saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given (which should have confirmed his faith in the doctrine of Christ, and increased his veneration for the apostles), it gave him a notion of Christianity as no other than an exalted piece of sorcery, in which he thought himself capable of being equal to the apostles, and therefore offered them money, saying, Give me also this power. He did not want them to lay their hands on him, that he might receive the Holy Spirit himself (for he did not foresee that any benefit in that), but that they would convey to him a power to bestow the gift upon others. He was ambitious to have the honor of an apostle, but not at all the spirit and disposition of a Christian. He was more interested in bringing honor to himself than to do good for others.
The apostles returned to Jerusalem, when they had finished their business. In the city of Samaria, they were preachers: They testified the word of the Lord, solemnly attested the truth of the gospel, and confirmed what the other ministers preached. They did not pretend to bring them anything new, though they were apostles, but bore their testimony to the word of the Lord as they had received it. In their road home they were itinerant preachers; as they passed through many villages of the Samaritans they preached the gospel. Though the congregations there were not so considerable as those in the cities, either for number or figure, yet their souls were as precious, and the apostles did not think it below them to preach the gospel to them. God has a regard to the inhabitants of his villages in Israel (Judges 5:11), and so should we.
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