BULLETIN ARTICLE – 6 May 2018
God loves the world and he has a plan to save the people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9). During the first century AD, there was a great persecution in the early church in Jerusalem against the believers of the Way and they were scattered to Judea and Samaria. They brought the gospel of the resurrected Jesus with them. They “preached the word wherever they went” to those whom they came into contact.
During Jesus’ ministry as recorded in John 4:4-5 Jesus went out of his way to reach the Samaritans. “Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.” Normally, the Jews would avoid going through Samaria “for Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (John 4:9). As a result of the encounter that Jesus had with the woman at the well, she and her fellow villagers came to salvation in Jesus – “because of his words many more became believers” (John 4:41).
In 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered Israel and brought some of the Jewish people into captivity. There were some Assyrians who moved into conquered Israel and inter-married with the resident Jewish women. The result was a mixed race of Jewish-Assyrian descendants mainly in Samaria – the Samaritans. The Jews in Judah and Jerusalem looked down on the Samaritans and avoided coming into contact with them. Later, when the Jews returned from exile from Babylon, they refused the help of the Samaritans in rebuilding the Jerusalem sites. In the fourth century BC, the Samaritans built their own temple in Mount Gerazim. At the time of Jesus, the two groups had evolved into bitter conflict “for Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (John 4:9).
Before Jesus’ ascension into heaven, his command to the disciples was to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8b). At this scattering stage of the early church, Philip remembered Jesus’ command and went to reach out to the city in Samaria. He was prepared to cross cultural lines and traditions in order to obey Jesus’ commands. He was called the evangelist in Acts 21:8. He proclaimed the Messiah Jesus and preached the word about the love of God. God placed the church in the world to be salt and light. The church is not isolated from the secular world and need to reach out and penetrate it with God’s gospel message of salvation in Jesus and calling people “out of darkness into His marvellous light.” We need to follow Philip’s example in his devotion to God and earnest desire to preach the word of the gospel of Jesus to the world. We must have a heart for the lost. We must be willing to go to people who are very different from us – even to befriend those from different backgrounds and religions. The gospel of Jesus needs to be shared and we must always preach the word.
