1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ [ there.
6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.
7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.
8 So there was great joy in that city·
25 When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
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 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 his 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?" Philip 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 led 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." [ ]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?"
35 Then Philip began with that very 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.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Intro. (i) Illust - take packet of flower seeds, admire picture, look inside for flowers - then speak of need to sow seeds. Analogy of Word of God, Gospel cf 1 Peter 1:23 ÎYou have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.â
ii. Quote: Tertullian (164-200AD): ÎKill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. The more you mow us down, the more we grow, for the seed of the church is the blood of the Christians. Every single drop of our blood springs up, in some thirty, in some sixty and in some and hundred-fold.â
i. Stephen was the first martyr whose death triggered off the dispersion of the believers in Jerusalem and to Philipâs becoming the first missionary in his stay in Samaria.
ii. Scattering of believers cf v8 like opening packet and scattering seed on earth NB word used contains this meaning and gives us Îdiasporaâ, a technical word for groupings of peoples in exile. Without persecution, Îpacketâ would have remained unopened, because enough Îflowersâ already in Jerusalem garden, i.e. Church numbered several thousand people by this time, so no motivation to go out and plant seeds in the desert of the rest of Judaea and especially not in Samaria - despised religious half-breeds.
"They, remembering our Masterâs rule (when they persecute you in one city, flee to another), dispersed themselves by agreement throughout the regions of Judea and of Samaria; not so much for fear of sufferings (for Judea and Samaria were not so far off from Jerusalem but that, if they made a public appearance there, as they determined to do, their persecutorsâ power would soon reach them there), but because they looked upon this as an intimation of Providence to them to scatter. Their work was pretty well done in Jerusalem, and now it was time to think of the necessities of other places; for their Master had told them that they must be his witnesses in Jerusalem first, and then in all Judea and in Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth (ch. 1:8), and this method they observe. Through persecution may not drive us off from our work, yet it may send us, as a hint of Providence, to work elsewhere."(Matthew Henry)
Letâs look at Philip for a few minutes, see what made him so useful in Godâs service.
1. Humility
So Philip although originally chosen - like Stephen to Îserve at tablesâ proved himself a true minister of Word for humility is a prime requisite for anybody who wants to be used of God. NB Remember humble servanthood is to characterise Godâs ministers = diakonos = servant. Pride and conceit among main temptations of anyone in public Christian service. So this basic quality made Philip Godâs man to do what apostles, could not and probably, at this point, would not have done. He was a real pioneer in preaching the Gospel to the Samaritans and then to the Ethiopian official i.e. a non-Jew. Both Stephen and Philip models for the leaders i.e. apostles.
Apply to our church
2. Holy Boldness
Questions without answers: Who taught Philip how to preach? When did he start? (no mention of this gift while in Jerusalem). Could it be that the Lord was teaching the early church, the apostles and those like Philip, not to depend on apostles so much and to exercise their own spiritual gifts?
Dev + applic. Gifts are often discovered in exercising them. Make sense?
cf French saying: ÎLâappZ
3. Complete availability
Remember Philip engaged in very successful campaign and church planting ministry in Samaria then suddenly told to go to some lonely desert place 100km (60 miles away)
This implies:
a. Sensitivity to Spiritâs voice to inner promptings - NB This procedure NOT normative, but Philip had to be pulled out of going concern to do something revolutionary - evangelise someone not connected in any way to Godâs covenant people.
Illust. re inner promptings etc DA and Grandmother saw her for last time prompted to speak to her about her salvation.
b. Faith - that this was really Godâs voice - need to trust
c. Submission i.e. obedience to word of Lord- Imagine possible objections etc Quote Ray Stedman ÎThe Divine Windâ p2. " The wonderful thing to me is the beautiful way in which Philip obeyed this command of the angel. He did not say, "Well, I'll have to pray about this." He did not say to himself, "Well, I wonder if this is a call to a larger field of service," (which is another way of saying a church with a larger salary). He just went, that is all. He left the awakening that was going on at Samaria, with its demands for training and teaching. He arose and went down to a desert road."
Spirit of Sacrifice
Philip prepared to pay price of obedience in inconvenience, hardship i.e. long hot journey on dusty road and although he had the message from an angel the angle did not transport him there (ref to ÎstretchâMercedes taxis in Israel today) - he had to walk (or take a donkey)!
Dev + applic. To be used of God in evangelism must be prepared for some inconvenience cf phone calls during meals late at night even in middle of night - make tiring sometimes fruitless journeys etc.
e. Courage to overcome fears and prejudice
i. racial barrier
ii. social barrier - rich important etc Quote R.Clements p118:
"he (the Ethiopian) was a government minister, a very important civil servant, Philip by comparison a nobody. Imagine some minister driving thru Geneva in embassy Rolls, stops at lights, you feel called to speak to him thru open window!! Would you do it? Have to be VERY convinced.
iii. religious barrier - i.e. eunuch very distasteful to Jews from time immemorial.
All these Philip overcomes because
f. He is alert to the opportunity
Quote R.Clements p118/119:
"It is tempting to speculate about why this Ethiopian had purchased this particular volume from the religious bookshop in Jerusalem before he set off home. I have a theory about that based upon a rather lovely verse in Isaiah 56 which I am sure was in this scroll. It reads: ÎLet not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree.".. .To the eunuchs who.. .hold fast to my covenant÷to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughtersâ (Is 56:3÷5). That is a promise that in the messianic age the old ban that excluded eunuchs from the people of God would be revoked. li must have meant a lot to this fellow. He admired the Jewish religion and wanted to be part of it. But as things stood, he was excluded. Godâs hand of providence was at work, however, because he could not purchase 56 without also purchasing Isaiah 5 And while reading his new volume, he had been interested in that earlier passage: ÎHe was led like sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before if shearer is silent so he did not open his mouth In humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earthâ (Acts 8:32÷33)."
Then follows Philipâs question and succeeding dialogue with invitation to join official in his chariot. Then Philip, in order to make best use of this wonderful opportunity had to be able to direct the man to the truth.
g. He was biblical
NB Acts 8:35 ÎPhilip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesusâ litt. = Îevangelised Jesus to himâ
We do well to heed words of R.Clements p120: -
"There are some folk, who try to evangelise without a Bible, who offer spiritual counsel without biblical authority and spiritual experience without biblical foundation. That is not real evangelism for the evangel is the gospel and it is only the Bible which can unfold the gospel to us and to our hearers with any reliability."
Conclusion: Baptism & eventually foundation of one of oldest churches in Christendom. Just one man on a lonely road, a foreigner, an outcast ritually speaking, yet the faithfulness of Philip led to great things he could never have dreamt of when he first obeyed the impulse of the Spirit. Then man left alone as Philip whisked off by the Spirit for further ministry elsewhere.
Application to us in days and weeks ahead - on vacation even.
Illus. DA on beach mission on Belgian coast - interrupted a group of men in middle of game of pZ
