June 16, 2020

Today’s reading Acts 8:26-40

Day 3 Willing to Leave

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 devils. 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 other plans. God didn’t want Philip 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 had traveled from Africa to worship in Jerusalem. On his trip home he was trying to read God’s word, but he didn’t understand what he was reading. Philip finds the Eunuch on the road, in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. 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. One of the first questions he asked after accepting 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. 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 probably, but God taught Philip that even one person is important to Him. It took great courage for Philip to go to Samaria, but it took great faith for him to leave. By anyone’s standards, Philip was successful in Samaria, he accomplished a lot in just a few weeks, but Philip was not interested in personal success, Philip was only interested in being obedient to God. Here’s the cool part, tradition says that the eunuch carried the gospel back home to Ethiopia and founded a church there. Of course we don’t know this for sure but it’s possible that this was the first time the gospel traveled to Africa, if that is the case, because Philip was willing to leave a village, the Good News of Jesus traveled to a new continent!

Frank Newsome