26 "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all of the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in he's chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.'
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. 'Do you understand what you are reading?' Phillip asked.
31 'How can I,' he said, 'unless someone explains it to me?' So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
'He was lead like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.'
[Isaiah 53:7-8]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, 'Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?' 35 Then Philip began with that passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, 'Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?' 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him."
Acts 8:26-36
This is such a fabulous passage. There are a few things that we are going to look at today. First, the obedience of Philip. Next, Philip's willingness to take action. Finally, the eunuch's mindset.Before we dive into the scripture we must understand a couple of things. First, when you read the Bible, you are listening to God. God shares a story with us in 1 Kings 19:11-12 about how he speaks to us. "The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." It is in a gentle whisper. This is consistent even when reading the living Word.
Secondly, we must have a full understanding that we always have a choice. No matter what circumstance we are in, we always have a choice. This applies spiritually as well. Deuteronomy 30:19 declares "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" God will never push himself on you. He will never force you to make one decision or another.
Look at verse 26. "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' The angel gave Philip a specific route to take, the desert road. Philip could have rebuked and said that road was called the desert road for a reason. What good would he be to God if he traveled where there were no people? There were a million reasons why he could have chose to go a different route, a more traveled route. Nevertheless, he started out.
Do you know what? The very next words after Philip obeyed are "and on his way he met". This isn't the only time Philip had to decide wether or not he was going to obey God. At this point he met up with a very important person, then God went a step further. He told Philip to "Go to that chariot and stay near it." There are two verbs in this command, go and stay. Philip obeyed both.
When we obey God, good things always come our way. Leviticus 26:3-4 "If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit." You do not have to be a farmer to understand this analogy.
The next thing that we need to look at is what Philip does after his obedience to the Spirit. 'Do you understand what you are reading?' Phillip asked. He heard the man reading scripture then he took it upon himself to ask the man a question. Scripture does not tell us that the Spirit told Philip to do anything further then go and stay near the chariot. Philip stepped up and stepped out to ask a question. My Pastor has always told me that God will not do for me what I can do myself. For each of that looks different. We must look at it through the eyes of parenthood. Let's say that you have a 2 year old who is incapable of getting something to drink on their own. When he is thirsty he must ask you for help. But when he is 13 years old he is fully capable of getting something to drink by himself. He no longer has to ask you.
It is the same for us as Christians. It is my observation that we go through this stage as Christians where we have to learn to get our own drink. We have been used to asking our Heavenly Father for everything and receiving what we ask for. Then as we start to grow, we can reach the shelf by ourself, we can carry the cup of water without spilling it, we can take a drink on our own, but we are unsure if it is okay. It is! We can never do life on our own, but we must learn and grow in everything. For everything we learn to do on our own there are 2 more things we learn that we need God to help us with. There will be new mountains and new races. But the things that we can do, we must. You can pray, so pray for someone when they share a need with you. You can serve, so serve a need. You can listen, so listen to those who need an ear. You can share what Jesus has done in your life, so share.
We will find that when we step up and step out, God blesses that. The result of Philip stepping up and stepping out was the salvation of this man which results in life change.
The story doesn't end there. Verse 36 shows us the eunuch's response, "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" Why shouldn't I?! There are so many things that we face and have no response when really our response should be, Why shouldn't I?! Why shouldn't I step out and take the job? Why shouldn't I step out in faith and trust God for this? Why shouldn't I?! American Christianity can be very watered down. The majority of the time I live a very watered down life. We must awaken to the fact that God has a greater purpose for us then going through the motions of life. He needs us to step out and write that book, sing that song, record that album, serve in that ministry, love that person, feed those people, go to that town, and many other things.
Today, reflect on where you are in this story. Do you need to be more obedient to God without the back talk? Do you need to step up in your relationship with Christ and start doing for you what you can do on your own? Do you need to be asking yourself the question, Why shouldn't I?! Then, do something about it!
~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford
Brenna Stanford
