Philip's Obedience| Acts 8:26-40

HI GUYS! Sorry I didn't post last week...it was quite a lazy one for me, haha. I hope everyone's having a great day and a great summer!

Speaking of summer, is almost over, isn't it? Sorry to bust your bubble, but it's almost August! And a lot of you start really early because of early college and stuff along those lines...and that means you'll be seeing more people more often! Guess what that means?

You'll have more opportunities to talk about Jesus at school.

Scary, right? If you just got the sweats thinking about trying to witness, that's okay, we all get them. I get nervous every time I have the opportunity, too.

At my church, we've being doing a sermon series on the book Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out by Alvin L. Reid. It's an amazing book thus far, and I really have enjoyed reading it. I TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT if you want some guidance with witnessing. There's a passage in Acts 8 that Pastor Reid uses in chapter five of the book that just blew me away, and I thought we'd look at it over the next few days, because it gives us a clear-cut example of sharing Christ with those we know.

Because this is a really long passage to paste in here, click here to go read Acts 8:26-40.

So, in this passage, the Holy Spirit works through an average Joe named Philip to lead an Ethiopian eunuch to Jesus. This passage just spoke to me, and I thought it was so cool to see an example of putting what Jesus calls us to do in Matthew 28:18-20. There's a few things I want to point out from how Philip acted and how it relates to us over the next few posts.

In this passage we see the Holy Spirit tell Philip to get up and go, which he does. While doing this, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch (basically he's a servant/assistant to the Queen) who is reading some scripture from the book of Isaiah. The Spirit tells Philip again to go to the chariot where the man is reading. When he does, Philip asks the man if he understands what he's reading from Isaiah. The eunuch replies that he needs someone to help him understand the scripture, so he invites Philip to come sit with him. He asks Philip a question, and Philip answers it, by telling him the gospel story starting from that place in Isaiah. They continued to travel, and the man accepts Christ and is baptized. Then--and the nerd in me thinks this is pretty cool--the Spirit practically teleports Philip to another place, while the Ethiopian rejoices in his newfound salvation.

Multiple times in this passage, the Holy Spirit tells Philip to do something. In verses 26 and 29, Philip is commanded to go by the Spirit. You know that little nagging in your gut and the voice in your mind whispering to you? Yeah, that's the Spirit in those who are Christians. Sometimes we don't like obeying that voice, right? It typically puts us out of our comfort zone. I mean, look at Philip! The Spirit told him to drop everything and travel. I don't know about you, but I need a good three months notice before I go on a trip. And then the Spirit tells him to go talk to a man he's never met before about Jesus! That's a scary thought, too. But what amazes me is that Philip obeys, with no hesitation or excuses. He didn't pull the: "But, God, I just don't feel like it!" or "Uh, I dunno, surely you've got somebody more able to do it."

No. Philip went and Philip did as he was commanded. Not only did he do it, but he did eagerly! That's what I love about this. Here's verses 29 & 30:

29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”

30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

Look at how Philip approaches the chariot. He runs. He didn't walk up all scared or take as long as he possibly could. Nah, he runs to it.

Ask God to give you the obedience and eagerness Philip had in everything he asks you to do. Pray for courage and strength whenever you feel the nudging to go talk to the lonely kid or stand up for Jesus. Make it a goal to act like Philip in his witness!

That's all I got for you guys today! Thanks so much for reading! See ya' soon!

We'll continue talking about Philip and the Ethiopian next time!

--Elizabeth:)