Read
Take a few moments to read Acts 8:26-40.
REFLECT
Philip had just helped to lead thousands of people to Christ. God had given him the ability to do miracles, heal the sick, and to cast out evil spirits. There was no doubt that thousands more would come to know Jesus and have their sins forgiven if Philip would stay preaching and doing miracles in Samaria. The only problem was that God had another plan. God did not want Philip to be preaching to thousands of people, He wanted him to be talking with just one man. So Philip left the huge crowds, and set off to meet him. The man was an Ethiopian eunuch. He was a high-ranking official in service to the queen of Ethiopia. He was obviously curious about having a relationship with God. He had traveled a very long way from East Africa to worship in Jerusalem. On his trip home he was trying to read God’s word, but he did not understand what he was reading. In what must have been one of the most startling moments of the Ethiopian’s life, he looked out the window, and Philip was running next to his chariot, in the middle of the desert. Chariots move pretty quickly, so Philip must have been using some of his new abilities to do miracles in order to be able to run that fast and have a conversation with the man inside. When the eunuch realized that Philip would be able to help him understand what he was reading, he invited him into the chariot, and Philip led the man to Christ. I am sure that he had a lot of questions for Philip, but the first one he asked after ac-cepting Christ was “when can I get baptized?” He was in a hurry to publicly declare what he believed. They found some water, and stopped the chariot. Peter and the Ethiopian eunuch went down into the water, and after Philip baptized him, he disappeared in front of him.
God had Philip leave all of those people, so that he could lead one man to Christ. Philip could have continued preaching in Samaria for years and years, but God was showing Philip and the church, that everyone is important to Him. It took real courage for Philip to go to Samaria, but it took even more courage for him to leave. By anyone’s standards, Philip was a success in Samaria. He had accomplished more in a few weeks than all of the prophets did in hundreds of years, but Philip was not interested in other people’s standards of success. Philip was comfortable in Samaria; he knew the people and they knew him. But Philip was not interested in his own comfort. Philip was only interested in being obedient to God.
Here’s the crazy thing, history and tradition teach us that the Eunuch’s name was Simeon, and that when he arrived back home in Ethiopia he began to preach, and teach everyone he came in contact with about Jesus. There are still churches in Ethiopia that claim that they can trace their history back all the way to him! This is hard to verify, but we do know for certain that the Gospel of Jesus traveled into Africa for the first time because Philip was willing to leave Samaria. Because Philip was willing to leave a village, the Good News of Jesus traveled to a new continent!
Reflection Questions:
Why would God have someone leave such a successful ministry to witness to just one person?
Do you know anyone who would be willing to leave comfort and success in order to minister to someone?
What would it look like to leave the crowd and pursue one person in your world?
