Reading: Acts 8:26-40 

Acts 8: 29-31 - 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.


Image from pixabay


In the book of Acts, God is working in mighty ways through the believers to spread the message of Jesus' resurrection and many people are being converted. In this story of the Ethiopian eunuch, it is clear that God is not restricting salvation to the Jews but is wanting everyone to be saved. What a wonderful thing. I don't know about you, but I do not have Jewish lineage and am so thankful that salvation is open to everyone. The person being reached today is someone of importance, he is the minister in charge of all the finances of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Someone people would listen to, you would imagine. God is wanting to spread the good news through him to many. While we will never know, I would love to hear his story about what happened once he got home. 

A few things strike me in today's passage. First the Spirit tells Phillip where to go and who he would meet. Phillip is open to hearing from the Spirit and immediately obeys. In The Message version it says Phillip was running up alongside the chariot. He must have been as he heard the Ethiopian reading from the book of Isaiah. There is no questions or doubts from Phillip, he just obeys the leading of the Spirit. That is how opportunities to share the gospel are coming to him, through obedience to the Spirit. Can you imagine if we were this open to the Spirit's leading today rather than allowing fear or misguided thoughts of our inadequacy to stop us. Yes we are inadequate but it is God who is at work here, and He certainly is not inadequate. We just need to obey and let God work through us. 

Phillip is also bold in questioning the Ethiopian, asking him if he understands what he is reading. Here is Phillip, a man not revered in society. Before becoming a disciple of Jesus, he was a follower of John the Baptist. Before that I am unsure, but he is poor, not seen as anyone important in society but here he is boldly challenging this important person as to whether he understands what he is reading. And his boldness is rewarded with the man asking Phillip to explain it to him, giving him the green light to tell him all about Jesus. Can you imagine if the followers of Jesus were this bold today? What doors would open for us? 

The next thing I love is the Ethiopian's response. He believes, and then as soon as he sees some water he asks to be baptised. This is not a meek request, the bible says he orders his chariots to stop. Again this reiterates his authority but also shows here that is aligning himself with Jesus and being baptised to prove it. There was no waiting, there was no let me look at the repercussions of this, when is the best time to do this etc. He did it straight way. He sees water while they're talking and says I want to be baptised. What if we were so bold and so eager to identify with Jesus? This would be a great witness to the world. 

I live in a coastal town and a lot of the local churches do baptisms in a public place. My church does it by the lighthouse. I think this is a great witness to others as they see people gather for these baptisms. If you are a follower of Jesus and not yet baptised, my questions to you is why not? The Bible says believe and be baptised. 

Often when we think of the disciples Peter comes to mind or John because of revelations, with the Chosen many think of Matthew due to the wonderful portrayal of him, but Phillip is not one that is at the top of our list. But today's reading shows what an example Phillip was, quick to follow, bold to preach and ready to respond to people believing. Let's pray that we can be like Phillip. 


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