A Meeting God Orchestrated

Acts 8:26-39

26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ 31 He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.’

34 The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 

Philip had a busy and effective ministry in Samaria, but God through the angel says, “Go out to the wilderness road that few people travel on.” Philip did what he was asked, even though he had no idea why he was there. God had sent him to talk to just one person – an Ethiopian – a non-Jew – an outsider. It seems a silly thing to do – did Philip not have more important things to do than go on this wild goose chase?

The Ethiopian was open to God and God’s leading. He had been to Jerusalem to go to the temple, although he could only be in the outer courtyard. He had a copy of the Isaiah, it would have been a scroll and quite expensive to purchase, but the Ethiopian invested the money to own it. He was open to listening to Philip talk about spiritual things, to explain the passage. A passage where Isaiah looks ahead to Jesus’ death on the cross. Philip never gets a chance to ask – do you want to give your life to Jesus? Do you want to be baptized? The Ethiopian goes there, saying “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” What does baptism mean? A non-Jew, an outsider, someone who was “other” – is asking to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

We often think that people are not interested in talking about God, in fact many times they are very interested. We often think that if we talk about spiritual things people will shut us down, in fact many times they are hoping someone will be willing to talk about Jesus with them. We need to have the courage that Philip did and trust that God is leading.    

A history comment: With the Ethiopian becoming a follower of Jesus, it means that the gospel, the good news, the church got to Africa before it got to Europe. Christianity got to Africa many centuries before it got to North America.

PRAYER:

Lord God, you bring us into contact with people who are hungry to talk about You and what You are doing in the world. Give us the courage to speak, trusting your leading in our lives. Help us to not miss out on the chance to join You in what You are doing in the lives of people around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.