Acts 8

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south [4] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” [5] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Part of the thing that i had to to for school is to make a 5 mins devotion on 1 chapter of acts - and the chapter i chose was Acts 8. During the past 6 weeks - i've been pondering what acts 8 truly meant. 

When i first read it, i remember it so well that i cried when i read this part of acts 8. I cried because at that time i was so frustrated of my evangelism "calling". I was so frustrated because i was so bad at it... and it seemed to me like nothing i do or say will work! I can never be able to be used by God to evangelise - i could never be able to do Jesus' last commission.

For most of us, we don't have the luxury of the Spirit taking us (literally) from one place to anotther. For All of us, however, we certainly do have the Spirit dwelling within us. So whe I was reading this, I was thinking, how amazing Philip was and how sensitive and obedient he was to the Spirit. 

Honestly, I know that i could never be like Philip. Everyday i sit in the bus and train, I can see desperate and empty people sitting in front of me, waiting for someone to share with them the good news. I know and i can see it, but i can't do it. It's so hard for me just to start a conversation with them let alone share the gospel.

When i read this passage, I was challanged. I asked myself "Am I willing enough to share the gospel?", "Am I sensitive enough to the Spirit?", "Am i willing to be used by God outside of church activities?"

And the obvious answer is NO. We can never be any more useful to building the kingdom of God without God's own help. Even if we can, it is not because of the "me" doing it but God doing it through the Holy Spirit in us. Without the help of the Spirit, how can we possibly love the Spirit? 

Can those who are lowly ever possibly reach the holy?

Without a lot of prayers and reading and meditaing the Scripture, we can never be great in the sight of the most Holy God. And if ever we think we are great like Philip - then we should start asking ourselves of our motivation and start repenting of our pride. 

What i've learned from this story is not the greatness of Philip, but the greatness of the Spirit and the gospel, who had given Philip the power and strength to be used in such a way.