No one is beyond God’s reach, unless he chooses to walk away from Him.
• We are going to see today the extent to which the Holy Spirit works in order to reach someone and save him.
• You can never tell what the Spirit of God can do, because He can surprise you and save the most unlikely candidate in the remotest place.
We are going to look at one of the most unlikely candidate for conversion in the Book of Acts.
• He found Christ at an unlikely place, and not through any human planning but by the supernatural leading of Spirit himself.
• Yes, we must do our part. Philip has to make himself available to the prompting of God’s Spirit. But it is not all of man’s efforts.
• Without the Spirit, we cannot. Without us, God won’t. That’s why the Lord has not commissioned angels to do it, but people like you and me.
This whole enterprise is a joint-venture, between the Spirit and the evangelist.
• The highlight of this encounter is that this man did not get to know Christ through an evangelistic meeting, not through anything that is organised and planned by men.
• This same Spirit is working today, in the lives of many who are seeking Him. It’s not the efforts of man; there is nothing we can boast about.
• This also tells us no one is beyond redemption. If he seeks God, he can be saved.
This man was from Ethiopia in Africa had come all the way up to Jerusalem (800km) to worship God (v. 27). [Below Egypt is Sudan, and then Ethiopia]
• So out of all the tens of thousands of Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans that need Christ, the Lord sets His eyes on this man and sends an angel to Philip, the deacon-evangelist, and says in verse 26, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
• Is there anyone you feel quite unlikely to know Christ? Let God surprise you.
• And it can take place in a way beyond our comprehension, through circumstances we cannot humanly plan for.
This man was a seeker. He wanted to worship God. He took a long journey to Jerusalem. He was reading the book of Isaiah.
• And the Lord met him. The Lord kind-of met him half-way, even before he reached Jerusalem.
THE PERFECT TIMING OF SPIRIT
• Philip goes, like Abraham probably, not knowing all that God has in mind.
• When he gets to the road, the Spirit tells him the next step to take. This supernatural guidance comes one step at a time.
• In verse 29 the Spirit says, "Go up and join this chariot." That’s all he says. Not what for. Nor who is in the chariot. Just go to the chariot.
That’s faith. We don’t like that. We want to know everything before we do something.
• But God does not work that way. Abraham moved out without knowing where. Moses out the people out and the next thing was the Red Sea.
• God wants to see faith. Faith in Him, faith in what He said.
The timing of the Spirit proves perfect.
• At that very moment Philip, no doubt wondering what he would do or say when he got to the chariot, hears the Ethiopian reading out loud the book of Isaiah (probably in the Greek version).
• Not only was Philip at the right place at the right time, but the man was reading the ‘right’ passage. The most appropriate passage – Isaiah 53:7-8, about the Messiah, about Jesus the Lamb who was sacrificed on our behalf.
Now Philip knows what the Lord has been doing.
• He has directing him to this desolate place where there is this one lone chariot and man from Ethiopia that he needs to meet.
• Why? Because the Lord is merciful. He wants to show mercy to man who is seeking Him.
• You seek Him, you will find Him. God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Heb 11:6).
The Lord orchestrated the salvation of this one man, and probably the evangelization of Ethiopia.
• We can’t know for sure, but a church father Irenaeus wrote in the 2nd Century that this Ethiopian man became a missionary among his people (‘Against Heresies’ iii.12.8; cf. Psalm 68:31).
• Philip proclaimed the good news of Jesus to him (v.35). The Ethiopian believed, was baptized (v.38) along the road, and went on his way rejoicing (v. 39).
• When he has done what he was called to do, God took Philip away to Azotus by the Spirit in a supernatural way.
It’s amazing. This incident tells us God works in more ways than one.
• In fact, God can works in ways that is beyond our comprehension. We cannot always tell how God works.
• We can preach the Gospel in proper places, like the Temple courts and synagogues as the disciples were doing.
• But at times the Spirit of God prompts us to do something out-of-the-ordinary.
• Learn to listen, and response to His voice. The most evangelistic moment may not be within the four-walls of the church. It could well a conversation you have on a bus journey, along the road.
John Piper says he counted at least 18 instances of this extraordinary guidance in the book of Acts.
• So beside human efforts in evangelistic planning and strategies, we pray and trust God to work even beyond the usual and ordinary means.
• Pray and expect God to work wonders, even through surprising ways, in reaching our lost relatives and friends.
Let me close with a true story.
In the early 1990s Clarence Duncan arrived in Africa as missionary to the solidly Muslim people called the Yao who live mainly in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi.
One January morning 24 Muslim elders approached Clarence Duncan’s house. After a meal the leader sat in the middle of the room and said that they had come to ask questions about Christianity. Clarence said fine but that he would only answer them by reading from the Bible so they would know he did not invent the answers. So he gave each of them a Bible in the trade language. The first question was, "Why do you Christians say that there is one true God?"
Clarence said the answer was found in Deut 6:4 and gave them the page: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one!" And he mentioned that Isa (Jesus) said this very thing in Mark 12:29.
The questioning went on till five in the afternoon. When all had left, the leader, Sheik Abu Bakr, stayed and asked if he could see Clarence in a week.
When they met Abu asked if Clarence knew why they came to see him last week. Clarence said he assumed it was to ask questions. But Abu said, "No, it was because the Christian church is growing so fast we knew we had to kill you. We had consulted for three days and prepared our magic. You were to be struck dumb when we asked questions, then fall on the ground paralyzed and then die. But when you kept talking, and even stood up and moved around, we knew you had a stronger Spirit and gave up."
Then Abu said, "I want to become a Christian." And he told an amazing story.
"When I was a teenager, in our village we were not Muslim people and we were not Christian. We were Achewa people with our own religion. Behind our village was a hill where I would often go to pray.
"One day I was on that hill praying. Suddenly all around me was a blinding light. Out of this light I saw a big hand coming toward me holding an open book. I looked at the book and saw writing on the page. A Voice told me to read. I protested that I could not read, never having been to school. The Voice again told me to read. So I did. And suddenly the book and the hand disappeared.
"I ran back to my village and all the people were looking for me, thinking I had died on that hill! They asked about a fire they had seen up there. When I told them the story, they laughed at me saying, You can’t read!
"Someone got a book and I began to read! Then people came from all around to find out more about what happened and asked questions. The Muslim authorities found out about me and I was trained in the ways of Islam. Soon all or our village became Muslim. For 15 years I was the greatest debater against the Christians."
He paused and then said, "You remember when I asked you the first question about why Christians believe in three gods? Your answer was Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4."
"That’s right," Clarence said.
Sheik Abu Bakr looked Clarence Duncan in the eye and said, "That was the same passage that this Voice on the mountain showed me. At that moment I knew that the God you were talking about was the True God!"
"Then why did you keep asking me all those questions the whole day?"
"Because," he smiled, "I wanted all these Muslim leaders to know what the Christians believe and I wanted them to hear it from you. The whole day I pretended unbelief so that I could ask more questions. Now I want to become a Christian."
God has yet more wonders to show us in the work of evangelism than we can imagine.
• Let’s pray for eyes to see and ears to hear when he calls us to a divine appointment like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch had on the road to Gaza.
• I believe He has been doing that, but often we don’t expect much from our encounters or conversations. Believe in the work of the Holy Spirit.
Philip did a good job. As one of the chosen deacons, just like Stephen, he must be a man “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3)
• And both of them know the Scriptures remarkable well, able to preach and explain the Word with clarity.
• They were not fly-by-night preachers. They know and understand the Word of God.
• Learn from them. Seek to grow in the understanding of God’s Word. His Word changes lives.
