Acts 8 1 -25 Persecutions Are Coming

Chapter 8

Persecutions Are Coming
The same day Stephen is killed, the baddies start persecuting other Christians, too.
Everyone, except the main apostles, makes a run for it to avoid meeting the same rock-hurling fate as Stephen.
Saul is one of the ringleaders of all this. He's having people arrested left and right all on account of them being followers of Jesus.
Whoa. Saul is a real jerk.
Adventures In Samaria
Philip (one of the newly appointed seven) makes his way over to Samaria. There he starts preaching the good word about Jesus, healing people, and exorcising demons and all kinds of evil spirits. Philip has got the goods.
Everyone in the area is pretty impressed.
He runs into a guy in Samaria named Simon. Simon is kind of a big deal in Samaria. He goes around town doing all kinds of magic.
Just think of him as a first-century Criss Angel.
Even Simon is impressed by the wonders Philip is able to produce, so he decides to be baptized and start following Jesus too. Cool, right?
Kind of. The apostles hear about the headway Philip is making in Samaria, so they send in the big guns, Peter and John to help out.
Peter and John pray for the Samarians who converted to receive the Holy Spirit. They put their hands on them and—poof—they have the Spirit. Hallelujah!
Simon is pretty darn impressed by this, too. He comes up Peter and offers to pay him if he can give him a share of that sweet Holy Spirit summoning power. Will $50 be enough?
Um, no! Peter tells him that you can't buy yourself into God's good graces! Simon better start praying for forgiveness now, because dude has got some wicked thoughts in his head.
Simon seems pretty frightened and he asks the apostles to pray for him. We're hoping they did… for Simon's sake.
After they stay in Samaria for a while spreading the good news, Peter and John head back to Jerusalem. Ciao, Samaria!