Acts 8:26–40 - Preaching in the Middle of Nowhere
Ordinarily, the Spirit works through ordinary people (like you!) in ordinary ways.
Acts 8:26–40 (NASB95)
26 ...An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.”
30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:
“He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth.
33 In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.”
34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?”
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.
36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
{37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”}a 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
a Some of the earliest Greek manuscripts do not include verse 37
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 65
Q. It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his blessings: where then does that faith come from?
A. The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts
by the preaching of the holy gospel,
and confirms it
through our use of the holy sacraments.
Summary
"Go where?!?"
That must have been the first thing Philip thought to himself when an angel of the Lord told him to go to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. Luke even confirms the audacity of this request, parenthetically informing us that this is a desert road. It was a harsh environment in the middle of nowhere. It certainly wasn't the place for a leisurely stroll.
But Philip, like so many heroes of the Bible before him, immediately responds to the Lord's instruction, so he got up and went. And it doesn't take long before he discovers the Spirit's purpose in sending him on this field trip, for there, right in the exact same forlorn place at the exact same time, there 'just happened' to be a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians - an African empire so powerful and wealthy that Rome couldn't conquer them.
And this wasn't some middle management bureaucrat. He was in charge of all Candace's treasure. Interestingly, he was Jewish proselyte, for he had come up to Jerusalem to worship. The Spirit had been at work in this man for quite some time, slowly moving him from paganism to Biblical truth.
Certainly the Holy Spirit didn't need Philip's or anybody else's help to bring the Ethiopian's conversion to completion, as we'll see when we read about Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus tomorrow. But ordinarily, the Spirit works through ordinary people in ordinary ways, as is demonstrated here today. The Spirit only gave Philip two prompts: go to the desert road, and go up and join the chariot.
The rest He left up to Philip.
Dig Deeper
The eunuch asks Philip one of the Bible's most profound questions as he 'just happened' to be reading from Isaiah 53 - How can I understand what I'm reading unless someone guides me?
Theology books explain a doctrine called the perpiscuity of Scripture, which means that even though there are aspects of the Bible that are really hard to make sense of, the overall message of Scripture can be understood by even the simplest of minds. But even so, ordinarily the Bible is used best when it's proclaimed and explained. This is why Reformed churches emphasize preaching as the ordinary means of grace by which the Spirit conveys salvation.
But not all preaching comes from behind a pulpit. Sometimes it comes from a preacher jogging alongside a chariot in the middle of the desert. The Ethiopian official invited Philip to join him, for he wanted to know who it was that was led as a sheep to slaughter, silent as a lamb before its shearers. Was this Isaiah himself, or someone else?
So right then and there, Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.
Would you be ready to do that today - that is, to succinctly explain how all of the Bible points to Jesus to a friend, coworker, or anybody else that you 'just happen' to come alongside today? Certainly you can count on the Spirit's equipping (which He's promised), but the best way to prepare yourself is to, just like Philip, know what the Bible says and what it means as best as you can.
Practice, practice, practice.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who leads and guides us through His Spirit;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you'll be ready to preach Jesus from Scripture to all whom the Spirit leads you to;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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