1Saul was there when they killed Stephen and he said it was right.
Saul arrests some of the believers
On that day the Jewish_leaders started to arrest the believers in Jerusalem. All the believers ran away and fled to places in Judea and Samaria. But the apostles did not go away. They stayed in Jerusalem. 2There were men who loved the Lord and served Him. They buried Stephen. They cried and mourned because Stephen was dead. 3Saul wanted to stop people believing in Jesus. He wanted to destroy the church. He went into the houses of people and arrested the believers and he put them in jail.
The believers and apostles preach the Good_News in Samaria
4The believers ran away and fled to other places and in every place they went to, they told people the Good_News. 5Philip went to a town in Samaria and he told the people about Christ. 6When the people heard what he said, and when they saw the miracles that he did, a lot of people came and they listened carefully to him. 7There were many people who had evil_spirits in them and the evil_spirits went out of them. The spirits shouted when they went out of the people. There were also many cripple people who could not move their arms or legs and Philip healed them. 8The people of that town were very happy because of what was happening.
Simon the magician
9There was a man in the city whose name was Simon. For a long time he had used magic to do many things which amazed the people of Samaria. Simon said that he was a very important person. 10All the people and the children said that he was important. They said he was the power of God and they named him ‘The Great Power of God’.
11The people said Simon was important because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. 12But when Philip came, he told them the Good_News about God who is King and the message of Jesus Christ. They believed what Philip said and all of them were baptised, men and women. 13Simon himself also believed and he was baptised. He stayed near Philip because he was amazed when he saw the signs and miracles that Philip did. 14They told the apostles in Jerusalem that people in Samaria had accepted the message of God and they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15Peter and John went into Samaria and they prayed that God would give the Holy_Spirit to the believers. 16They asked this because the Holy_Spirit had not come into those believers yet. They were baptised only in the name of Jesus. 17Peter and John put their hands on the believers and the Holy_Spirit came into them. 18Simon saw that the Holy_Spirit came into the believers when the apostles put their hands on them, and he wanted to give the apostles money. 19He said: ‘Give me also this power so that I can put my hands on someone and let him have the Holy_Spirit.’
20But Peter said to him: ‘Go to hell, you and your money. You think that you can buy this gift of God with money, but you can not. 21God can not use you in his work, because your heart is not right before Him. 22Tell the Lord that you are sorry about these bad things that you think and ask Him to forgive you. 23I can see that you are jealous and you can not stop doing things that are wrong.’
24Then Simon said: ‘Please pray to the Lord so that what you said will not happen to me.’
25The apostles continued to preach and to tell people the message of the Lord. After that they went back to Jerusalem. On their way to Jerusalem they told the Good_News to people in many towns in Samaria.
Philip and the man from the land of Ethiopia
26An angel of the Lord said to Philip: ‘You must prepare and go south to the road from Jerusalem to the town of Gaza. Not many people go along that road.’
27Philip did what the angel said. He went and on that road he saw a man from the land of Ethiopia. He was a very important_official of the queen of Ethiopia and he had been emasculated. He was the manager of the treasury of the queen. The official came to Jerusalem to worship God. 28Now he was on his way home. He was sitting on his wagon and reading the book of the prophet Isaiah. 29The Holy_Spirit told Philip to go closer to the wagon.
30When Philip came near the wagon, he heard the man reading the book of the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked him: ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
31The man said: ‘I do not understand. Someone must explain this to me.’
Then he told Philip to get onto the wagon and to sit next to him. 32He was reading these words in the Old_Testament:
‘He was like a lamb when someone
wants to kill it.
He did not say a word.
He was like a sheep when someone
wants to shear his wool.
He did not open his mouth.
33The people mocked him,
and they humiliated him,
but when he wanted to tell them
that he had not done anything wrong,
they did not listen to him.
He can not have children
because his life on earth has ended.’
34The official asked Philip: ‘Please tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or about someone else?’
35Then Philip started to tell the man about the Good_News of Jesus and he explained it to him. He started at this part of the Old_Testament. 36-37As they were going along the road, they came to water. The official said: ‘Look, there is water. Can you baptise me, or is there something that is stopping you?’
38The official stopped the wagon. He and Philip went down into the water and Philip baptised him. 39When they came out of the water, the Spirit_of_the_Lord took Philip away and the official did not see him again, but he was very happy as he went on his way home. 40Later Philip was in the town of Azotus. He preached the Good_News in all the towns until he came to the city of Caesarea.
