That second blessing
usually means that, beside your faith and being born again, you still need something else, namely the fulfillment of the Spirit, baptism with the Spirit.
Some theologians and Christians argue, also on the ground of what happened in Samaria—in multiple variations—that the Spirit works in two phases:
You are only a real Christian when you have received baptism with the Spirit.
Your baptism with water is beautiful, but not good enough. It is all about being fulfilled with the Spirit, which is identifiable by special signs, such as, for example speaking in tongues.
In this two-phased structure
you have first-class Christians
with the Spirit and secondary Christians
without the Spirit, just like here in Samaria before the apostles arrived. It becomes a new law to let yourselves be filled with the Spirit in seeking after special gifts such as speaking in tongues.
This artificial differentiation of two phases cannot be based on what took place in Samaria. This unique event is not a model or framework for later, in the sense that it will always or should always happen this way. In his historic book, Luke is descriptive and not prescriptive. It is not about a sequence of salvation (an order of how the Spirit works), but it is about a specific salvation-historical moment: the Spirit blows from Jerusalem to Samaria! The Spirit can obviously come to us while he is already with us and works in us. The how of this remains an unexplainable secret, a mystery: the Spirit goes his own sovereign way, just as the wind (John 3:8). Never to be caught, in whatever scheme.
The Samaritans were already partakers of the work and the workings of the Spirit, but now they visibly receive the Spirit as living person. Not just the gifts of the Spirit, but the Spirit himself as a gift—as person with all his gifts and powers (though we cannot separate the person and gifts of the Spirit from each other).
And so, Jesus had promised the Spirit, who would come after he was glorified by the Father (compare John 7:39). Jesus had promised his apostles his Spirit from heaven, to lead them in the truth and to teach the believers to make Christ great and to spread the gospel message. It is the Spirit who incorporates them in Christ and his church, his kingdom.
Whether or not there were the same signs of the Spirit as in Acts 2:1–47, the Spirit visibly marks that the church in Samaria truly is a church of the Spirit, just like the church in Jerusalem. The Spirit possibly waited somewhat with dispensing the special gifts and powers, because of the enormous influence of Simon the Magician. The believers must not get the impression that there now are new magical powers, as if one can transfer easily from the one magician to the next. The Spirit is not a power, but a person who comes when he wants to. It becomes clear here that the church does not receive these gifts as a magical automatism. We do not control the Spirit, but the Spirit drives us.
The Spirit already worked in the young Christians of Samaria. For no one can say Jesus is Lord
than by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). But they had not yet experienced the outpouring of the Spirit, as took place in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1–47).
The Spirit had not yet “fallen on them” makes one think of a special influence of the Spirit. The disciples in Jerusalem had to wait for the Spirit on Pentecost. In that sense, the first Christians in Samaria were also waiting for the Spirit. The Spirit was already working in them, but now even more and more beautiful. He comes to live in them! He settles in their hearts, fills them with his gifts, and shows publicly: here in Samaria, I open my dwelling! A new branch of the same tree, the kingdom of God; public and visible! At this border crossing it marks a special moment. The Spirit descends on them and fills them all. (As mentioned, perhaps also by speaking in tongues, but we do not know, as Luke is silent about that aspect). A follow-up on what happened at Pentecost in Jerusalem: not a repeat, but an expansion of it. A new phase in the kingdom of God.
That is the great power of the gospel that connects completely different people and makes them live together in a community, even though the word church
is not mentioned here.
The Spirit works in slow motion
here and on this special moment he distinguishes in his work between first faith and baptism, and only later gifts, powers, and fruit. Probably in connection with the special situation in Samaria around the influence of Simon, the ex-magician. But most of all, the Spirit marks a new congregation of Christ with this event, through the one Spirit connected to the mother church in Jerusalem: the miracle of the unity of believers from the Jews with believers from the Samaritans!
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,