Acts Of The Apostles (12 Of 39)

The church lamented his death, and probably wondered who could take his place. They did not need to wonder, because when the Lord takes a saint home, He always raises up someone to take up where that saint left off.

When we got to chapter 8, by the time we got to the fifth verse, we found that God had done just that!

Due to the intensity of the persecution after the death of Stephen, most of the Christians fled Jerusalem to try to keep from being killed.

Verses 5-8, say, "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.”

In the midst of this great revival, God did a strange thing. He uprooted Philip, and sent him to a desert.

Let me share with you what we can learn from this portion of God's Word.

I. THE SPEECH

We read in verse 26, "And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert."

Many times, it would seem that God asks us to do things, that seem to be mistakes to our finite minds. I am sure Philip thought that perhaps, what the angel of the Lord was asking him to do was a mistake.

He was being used of God in Samaria to bring about a great revival.

• People were being saved by the scores.

• Some were delivered from demon possession.

• And God even healed some who were lame.

It was so great the Bible says the town was filled with the joy of the Lord.

It would seem that, in the midst of a move of God like that, it would be a mistake, to just pull up stakes and leave.

But this is exactly what God asked Philip to do - leave and go, "... unto Gaza, which is desert.”

Yes, the Lord asked Philip to do something that seemed to be a big mistake.

He sent an angel to instruct him to go to a desert! No record is made of Philip protesting. It says, "And he arose and went..,"

Illus: There is a sign in one place of business that says, “You do not have to always agree with the boss, but you do have to remember - He is the boss!"

The same thing goes for us. We do not always agree with God, but we do have to always remember, “He is God, and He has never made a mistake!"

We looked at the SPEECH, now look at…

II. THE SINNER

Verses 27-28 “And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet."

The story of the Ethiopian has many nuggets of truth for us to draw from, but if you do not get anything else from this true story, get this: God loves souls so much, that if there was only one lost soul in this universe, He still would have sent His beloved Son to die for that soul.

In Samaria, people were being saved by the scores. Other apostles heard about this revival and came to assist Philip.

When sufficient help was present to take care of Samaria, God took Philip out of that tremendous revival, and sent him to a lonely desert to reach one lost Ethiopian.

III. THE SPIRIT

Verse 29 “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. "

Some Christians are not aware that the Holy Spirit can speak to us.

The reason they are not aware of this, is because their lives are filled with other things.

Illus: Two people can be having a nice meal and conversation in a quiet restaurant. They hear each other fine. But if someone comes in, and decides he does not like things so quiet, he can go to the "noise machine" and all of a sudden he can create so much horrible noise, that it fills the building. Now the two people can no longer talk, because now they cannot hear each other.

This happens in the spiritual realm, if we let it. This is why so many professing Christians have never heard the Spirit of God talking to them. Their lives are filled with the noise of this world, and if He did try to speak, they could not hear Him!