Strip HTML tags on custom code from the_content

Following Mark Kaplun advice, I fixed my problem. Just wish there was a way to like a comment.

<?php
                    $paragraphAfter = 1; // shows image after paragraph 1
                    $paragraphsShow = 1; // shows first two paragraphs
                    $content = apply_filters('the_content', get_the_content());
                    $content = explode('</p>', $content);
                    $max = (count($content) < $paragraphsShow) ? count($content) : $paragraphsShow;
                    for ($i = 0; $i < $max; $i++) {
                        echo **strip_tags($content[$i])** . '</p>';
                    if ($i == ($paragraphAfter-1)) {
                } } ?>