Even though this is a long passage of scripture, I think it is another brilliant illustration on what I discussed in yesterday's post. We were made to live with an active faith though the power of the Holy Spirit. In this story, Philip does just that. We are the ones who are responsible for the world knowing Jesus. Who is going to take the good news of Jesus to the world if we don't? Oftentimes we think that it's someone else's job. Can't we just sit here with our little church group and never expand? Well, that's not what Jesus has called us to do.
How will anyone understand if we don't teach them? Just like the eunuch who Philip ministered to. If we leave people to their own devices, what they think about Christianity is usually wrong. With so many news stories like the Westboro Baptist Church publicized so highly we cannot expect people to know what the real thing looks like. Satan often uses things like that to keep people as far away from Jesus as possible.
Are you out there in the world making a difference for Jesus? Are you being an example of Jesus character and explaining what it really means to be a Christian? It is our responsibility to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. He lives in us and works through us to accomplish His purposes. All we have to do is say "yes!"
Acts 8:26-40 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Are you out there in the world making a difference for Jesus? Are you being an example of Jesus character and explaining what it really means to be a Christian? It is our responsibility to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. He lives in us and works through us to accomplish His purposes. All we have to do is say "yes!"
Acts 8:26-40 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. (ESV)
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