Acts 8:16-27

¹⁶The Holy Spirit hadn't come to any of these converts yet—they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷The apostles placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands on people, he offered them money.

¹⁹“Give me this power, too,” he asked them, “so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰“May your money be destroyed together with you for thinking God's gift is something that can be bought!” Peter replied.

²¹“You're not part of any of this. None of this work belongs to you, because in God's eyes your attitude is totally wrong.

²²Repent of your evil ways! Pray to the Lord and ask forgiveness for thinking like this.

²³I can see that you are full of bitter envy, and chained down by your sin.”

²⁴“Please pray for me, that nothing you've said may happen to me!” Simon replied.

²⁵After they had given their testimony and shared the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, sharing the good news in many Samaritan villages along the way.

²⁶An angel of the Lord told Philip, “Get ready and go south to the desert road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

²⁷So Philip set out, and met an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who had a high position in the service of the Kandake, Queen of Ethiopia. He was her chief treasurer. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship there, and