WHAT OF THE CHURCH AT SAMARIA?
The Church of Samaria
Sunday Evening Service, January 5, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
My question: " Lord what is the condition of the Church of Samaria" (West Bank)?
Acts 1:8: “… you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
This is the great commission given to the Apostles of the Lord’s legacy of love at His ascension into the cloud. However, this was in response to a question they asked him: Acts 1:6: “When they had come together, they asked him saying, Lord will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.
But you shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem; and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’”
Last Sunday I preached the gospel from John 4 of Jesus’ noontime meeting with the Samaritan woman. From that meeting came forth the Church of Samaria. The woman went into the city and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the men of the city. Jo. 4:39 “Many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him…they knew that He was the Christ, the Savior of the world".
When the early church in Jerusalem was under a great persecution, as described in Acts 8:1-25, “…they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles… (Vs.4)…they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did….(Vs. 14) “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Holy Ghost, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. (For as yet the Holy Ghost had not fallen upon them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Peter and John laid hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost…( Vs. 25) When they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.”
Fact: Jesus Christ himself visited Samaria, now the West Bank. A Christian church was established in Samaria through the Woman of Samaria. At least four of the Apostles went to Samaria (Phillip, John, Peter, Paul, and Barnabus). The people in one accord believed. They were baptized in the name of Jesus and received the Holy Ghost.
Prior to this Luke describes another encounter of Jesus with Samaria:
Luke 17:11: “It came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee”. This was the occasion of the healing of the ten lepers. Jesus healed all ten of them, but only one when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at this feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. Jesus said, “Were ten cleansed? But where are the nine? They are not found that returned to give glory to God, except this stranger.”
The Samaritan and the Jew were and are rival races. The Samaritans framed a strange worship which was a hybrid between Judaism and Paganism. “They feared the Lord and served their own gods.” The only portion of the Old Testament which was retained by the Samaritans was the five books of Moses. Their priests rejected all the other prophetic writings and Jewish traditions.
On January 1, 2012, the population in the West Bank of Samarian Jews was recorded as 751. (Wikipedia)
Even Jesus rejected and condemned the half-heathen creed of the Samaritans. John 4:22: “Woman…you do not know what you worship. We know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.”
Yet while there were grievous errors in their creeds, he tells us another parable of a Samaritan man, who has a noble heart and is nobler in life; who put the orthodox Jews to shame. Such is Jesus’ moral in the great parable of the Good Samaritan. “A certain man, who went down from Jerusalem, had fallen prey to Jewish bandits, lying bleeding amid the rough stones. The priest and the Levite strut past without a thought of compassion; while a certain Samaritan, a chance traveler, far from his own home and all the comforts of home, dismounted his horse, bound up the sufferer’s wounds, poured into him the oil and wine he had brought for his own use. He set him on his own beast, brought him to the wayside inn, and shared the very contents of his scanty purse.
Even the apostles were slow to let go of their old prejudices and extend the grace and love of Christ to all nations. It required a special miracle to enable Peter to rise above the restraints of the Jewish traditions. Oblivious to all the past sins of Israel and Samaria, the Lord left His legacy of love to all the nations of the earth. “not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing”; trusting not in our heritage; the pride of creed, tradition or denomination…”He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
So my question to the Lord when I was quickened to pursue this study was, “Lord what is the present condition of the Christian Church today in the West Bank?”
I researched the Christian Churches in the West Bank. I found five in the year 2014:
(Wikipedia)
- Burquin Church of the Ten Lepers – Orthodox Christian
- Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
- Jacob’s Well – Greek Orthodox, Nablus
- Church of the Transfiguration – Eastern Orthodox Church, Ramallah
- Tomb of Lazarus, – Roman Catholic, Bethany
According to Wikipedia, Only 8% of the population of the West Bank is Christian. The Palestinian Christian population decreased from 1948-1967. Most fled or were expelled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. A small number of Christians left during the Jordanian occupation of the West Bank. Since 1967, the Palestinian Christian population has increased. There are nearly one million Palestine Christians in the world. Some live in the adjoining Middle Eastern Countries, Europe, South and North America.
The news in the West Bank January 4, 2014 is that Secretary of State Kerry continues Mideast shuttle diplomacy. After several days and many hours of meetings with Abbas and Netanyahu, Kerry states the disputes are unsolved after 20-rounds of negotiations. Kerry’s agenda is to nudge the two leaders closer to a peace pact that would establish a Palestinian state along side Israel.
Today, January 5, 2014, Kerry shuttled to Amman, Jordan to meet with King Abdullah, II and his Foreign Minister concerning the negotiations with the West Bank and Israel. From there, he shuttles to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, and then back to Jerusalem by next Sunday. Next week, he is scheduled to meet with members of the Arab League concerning a peace agreement.
Man is again interfering with what God has established as sovereign. It is God who has set the times and seasons for His Kingdom! It is man’s folly and the folly of government leaders to presume to meddle into the affairs of nations of which authority and time is sovereignly in the power of God, the Father!
“Will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? Jesus’ answer has not changed, “”It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.”
The Kingdom of Israel which the Apostles are speaking of is the promise to Abraham: Gen. 13:14: “For all the land which you see, to thee will I give it, and to your seed for ever.”
The area has been an arena of conflict between militant rivals of the nations from the seed of Abraham and every powerful army and world leader in the history of the world. However, the covenant blessing was given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and ultimately to Jesus Christ.
Gal. 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not,a nd to seeds as of many; but as of the one, and to you seed, which is Christ."
The Pope announced this week that he will be making a trip to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in May 2014. He stated it is to follow-up on the peace mission of John Kerry. This will only be the third Pope to visit Israel. In December 2013, John Kerry proposed to turn over the Holy Sites of Israel to the Catholic Church and to the Muslims. Of course, the nation of Israel has not accepted this proposal.
The Samaritan woman put a question to Jesus about the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim. In 332 BC, Sanballat, governor of Samaria under the Persians, and who opposed Israel under Nehemiah (4:7-13:28), went over to the side of Alexander the Great who gave him permission to build a temple on Mt. Gerizim like the one in Jerusalem. He built it for his son-in-law, Manasseh, and made him High Priest. The Samaritans established rival worship to Jerusalem and accepted the Pentateuch as their Bible. The great controversy between Jews and Samaritans was whether to worship on Gerizim or Moriah.
John 4:20: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus said to the Samaritan, “Woman believe me the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, not yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what; we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews. The hour comes and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Today neither the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim nor the Jewish temple in Jerusalem is standing.
This is the answer to my question, “Lord what of the church of Samaria?”
Romans 4:9b “Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness…Abraham was justified by faith… (Vs 13) “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed even God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be…”
The battle rages on between the grand sons of Abraham. The Ishmael nations and the nation of Israel fight for the promise: “Gen. 17:7: “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you.”
Do not be deceived, the battle is over the Christ, whose generations from Abraham to Jesus are carefully recorded in Matthew and Luke.
Isa. 54:3: “For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.”
Genesis 22:18: “In your seed (Abraham) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.”
Did the Lord give me the question to enquire of Him? I think so. None of the above teaching is a revelation to Christians. However, on a certain week of the New Year of 2014 when governments are again revving up all of their power of might and intimidation to affect the times and seasons of Jesus’ sovereignty as “the Seed” and the sovereignty of the Word of God is again being challenged.
I declare to the kings of nations and rulers of the kingdoms of the earth: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power." "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He (God) said, not and to seeds as of many; but as of one, and to your seed which is Christ."
The seed of Jesus Christ in the people of Samaria will live on whether they live in the land of the West Bank or the nations of the earth.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.