When we left Philip last week he was leading a large and successful movement in Samaria. Our text does not give any numbers, but it is likely that thousands were becoming Christians. His success was so great the Church sent Peter and John to help out. When we start this week we see him and the others out of the city preaching to the suburbs. It is in this atmosphere of success that God calls Philip away.

Last week we looked at Saul and his zeal to serve God by crushing His church. Through his example we learned that there are some absolute truths and one of those is that the path to heaven can only be through Jesus. This week we will shift our focus to Philip, and his efforts to evangelize an unreached people group.

Before we move in to this week section, it would be good to ask ourselves a question and that is “What is the purpose of the church?” Is the purpose of the church to grow big buildings and big budgets? Obviously it is not, but if we ask that a different way the answer might not be so obvious. Is the purpose of the church to help the needy? Is the purpose of the church to be a political action committee? Is the purpose of the church to grow disciples?

In this second half of his sermon, Peter returns to his hard line that everyone most repent and convert to Christianity (although it would not be known by that name for some time yet) if they want to avoid the judgment to come. Since Peter is addressing an audience of Jewish believers he uses the common ground of the Old Testament Scriptures to connect Jesus to prophecy and show that he is the one that has been promised by their own Holy Books to come and bring them salvation. For them belief in God was a given, they just had to learn that Jesus was God.

Last week we looked at the beginning of the very first Christian Church service. This week we will dive in to the very first Christian sermon that we have recorded. The Holy Spirit has come, and we are now reading about the birth of the Church and its first evangelists…