• Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. (6) And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. (8) And there was great joy in that city. (14) Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, (15)who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. (16) For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (17) Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke, historian and companion to the apostle Paul on many of his travels. In the early days of the Church the apostles remained in Jerusalem and the number of disciples to Christ was multiplying so that the 12 (again) told the disciples that their time was more desirably spent teaching the word of God than serving tables – so they chose 7 men to serve as evangelists and assist in ministry. One of these men was Phillip of our story today.

At a certain point the Jewish leaders decided to persecute the early Christians and their miserable efforts ended up with the execution of Stephen, one of the evangelists. The resulting persecution stepped up against the Christians at Jerusalem caused at least Philip to leave that city and go to Samaria to preach the word of God. This city had for hundreds of years been a mix of Jews and Gentiles and the Samaritans had been shunned by the Jews. Now Philip preached Christ there and as our verses tell us, many heeded the gospel. Philip also worked miracles. Men and women who apparently believed in Christ were baptized In Christ’s name.

We are told that the Samaritans heeded the word of God and were baptized. But we are also told that the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them. So the apostles at Jerusalem sent Peter and John to help Philip and when The apostles laid their hands on them they “received the Holy Spirit.” The doctrine of the church is that at the moment of faith man/woman are transformed and at that instant the Holy Spirit becomes indwelling. But the story of this baptism of the Samaritans is an anomaly occurring only here in all the New Testament and I could not find agreement explaining this in my resource work.
Baptism does not save anyone; people are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus apart from any external works. Salvation is not a matter of human decision but of God changing a person’s heart.