Faithful to Go and Testify of Christ

Acts 8:26-40

Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian

26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert. 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."

30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

31 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.

33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth."

34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"

37 Then 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."

38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

Philip was given the heavenly command moving him to go straightaway to meet an Ethiopian man traveling on the road from Gaza returning to his land from worshipping as a Jew in Jerusalem.  Philip went without question to do as the Lord led him to go there where he met the royal treasurer of the Ethiopian kingdom under the queen’s command.  He ran to the man riding his chariot after being told to catch up to it, where he overheard heard the man reading from Isaiah 53:7-8 and asked the Ethiopian what he was reading.  We find the need here to go where we are being led to by the Lord for such divine appointments like this which we also do not understand the why of going to a certain place at a certain time arranged by God’s divine timetable.  How often we first question when we are being urged by the act of God’s Spirit to go right away somewhere and instead begin finding excuses or reasons why we should not just go as we are being moved and told to do (Isaiah 30:21) in this heavenly guidance.  We then miss opportunities like Philip had to join in sitting down with someone in their chariot to hear them read scripture about Jesus Christ and asking what it means because they cannot understand without the mind of Christ in them (1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 12, 14, 16) to decipher and reveal prophetic passages like this which explain His coming to sacrifice Himself as the Lamb of God to take away sin by His atoning propitiation.  Like in Luke 24:27, we see the approach of Philip to take the questioning heart through more scripture that explains who Christ is and what He has done for their salvation.  If God is truly opening their blind eyes to the truth with us as their guides, then we can see the fruit of that obedience to go and tell in the ringing of truth’s bell of the gospel as they hear the call with opened ears and repent from sin to receive and follow Him.  We can be witnesses to the words of this life if we are willing to go and meet those the Lord’s Spirit is calling to hear the gospel told and explained with our willing feet (Romans 10:14-15) going to catch up with the passing chariots of bypassers trying to worship God but not knowing who or how (John 3:21) to come to meet God and know Him as they are known by Him (Galatians 4:9) and drawn (John 6:44) to Christ through our testimony given audibly and personally to them.  Then they can have the eyes of their hearts opened to see and hear the truth to be reborn and given the scriptures written on their hearts to follow and worship God in spirit and truth.  May we then be faithful Philips to meet them wherever we are sent to intersect their path to Him along life’s narrow way.  Are we faithful to go where we are led to testify of Jesus Christ?