April 1, 2015 (Wednesday)
Tonight we plan to study the Book of Acts in prayer meeting. We are at Acts 8 in our journey through the book. We just saw how the church selected 7 wonderful men to help out the apostles as they led a growing church. We saw how one of those men, Stephen, gave a strong witness to the Sanhedrin and how the priests led in stoning him to death. Tonight we look at a second man from the group of seven: Philip.
Stephen’s martyrdom started a terrible persecution of believers, who were then scattered to other places. The apostles, however, remained in Jerusalem. 
Philip went to a Samaritan city, preached the gospel and healed people, with the result that many professed faith in Jesus as the Christ and were baptized. One of those was a man named Simon, who was a very popular wizard. Simon was greatly impressed by the healing ministry of Philip.
Some of the apostles from Jerusalem arrived and prayed for the converts. The people then received the Holy Spirit. Simon was amazed. “Show me how you do that!” he cried. “Here’s money. Sell me your secret!” Peter replied, “Ask the Master to forgive you for trying to use God to make money.” “Oh!” said Simon, “pray for me!”
The apostles then returned to Jerusalem, continuing to witness and spread the Message of God’s salvation, preaching in every Samaritan town on the way.
Jesus had foretold that his followers would become his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and throughout the world. It had begun.