The Unknown Evangelist!

Philip and the Ethiopian

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[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “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  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 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its 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.”[b]

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. What can stand in the way of my being 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.

Chapter 8 of Acts is all about Philip, who was just named one of 7 deacons in the early church.  But obviously he did a lot more than just feed the Greek widows.  We call him "Philip the Evangelist", not to be confused with "Philip the Apostle", who was from the same town of Bethsaida as Peter and Andrew were.  We see in this chapter Philip doing many signs and wonders, healing the lame and delivering those possessed by demons.  He first goes down to Samaria and proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, and many come to faith including Simon the Sorcerer.  Peter and John come down to Samaria to see the word of God spreading and they lay hands on Simon and he receives the Holy Spirit

Then, an angel of the Lord tells Philip to go down to Ethiopia, where he meets an Ethiopian eunuch.   The eunuch is reading scripture from Isaiah, but he does not understand what the passage means.  So Philip starts with this verse and tells him about Jesus being the Messiah. The eunuch becomes a believer and is baptized.  There are several things to note about this passage. 

1. Philip was scattered as a result of the persecution in the early church, but this led him to Samaria and then on to meet the Ethiopian eunuch.  The word for "scattered" in this passage means "dispersed" as seed is disbursed and planted in a field.  The more seed that is scattered helps it to take root in different places.  Seed does no good in a bag but needs to be broadcast into the field to have any hope of a great harvest.  Though Saul and the other Jews are persecuting the new Christians and meant to harm them, God used the persecution to grow the church.  It reminds me of the verse in Romans where ironically it is Paul who says, "Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more."  We will see throughout the book of Acts that no matter what happens to the disciples, God uses it as a platform to preach the gospel.  

2. Philip starts with the passage the eunuch was reading and then leads him to Jesus. In this case it was a passage about an innocent sheep being led to slaughter.  We now know this to be Jesus, who did not open his mouth when he was about to be crucified.  All of the Scriptures lead to Jesus.  The Old Testament preaches about the coming Jesus, the Gospels preach about the here and now Jesus, the New Testament preaches about the resurrected Jesus, and the book of Revelation preaches Jesus' return.  Therefore, we always usea  Christo-centric interpretation of the bible.  Jesus is the middle of all of it. 

3. The gospel was spreading to the whole world. The Ethopian eunuch was either a converted Jew or a God-fearer, but the bottom line is we know he was seeking God, as he was reading the Old Testament coming home from Jerusalem.  When he becomes a believer he most assuredly went back to his hometown and preached about his encounter with Philip and how he came to  believe in Jesus. This is how the gospel spread one person to another and into the whole known world. 

So what can we learn from this?  Even though Philip was picked to be a deacon, he was also an evangelist.  No matter where you serve in your church, you can be an evangelist for Christ by preaching about Jesus wherever you are.  Philip was available to be used by God whenever he was led by the Spirit.  Second, good things always happen when we are reading the bible.  When we become literate in the bible and how the bible story all fits together with Christ as the focus, we can help others to learn the true purpose of the bible.  The overarching purpose of the bible is to lead others to salvation through Christ alone. Finally, whenever you are going through a hard time or being persecuted for your faith, God can use it for good.  Your experience might send you somewhere where someone is open to the gospel and waiting for you to proclaim Jesus to them. This might lead to a big breakthrough for the gospel with this person's family and friends.  God only calls us to be faithful with what we have been given.  This is how Philip lived out his faith and God used him to many amazing works and deeds and he led many to Jesus. God help us to be more like Philip!