Acts 8:26-40 | Helping People SeeSample

We’re following the storyline of an early disciple named Philip. We first met him in Acts 6 when the apostles laid their hands on him (along with six other men), commissioning him to help lead the church. What we see is that he starts doing what the apostles had been doing, just as the apostles had been doing what Jesus did.

Fast-forward to Acts 8. Persecution comes crashing down on the Christian movement in Jerusalem. The disciples are scattered, and Philip finds himself in Samaria, preaching Christ and his kingdom. These Samaritans come to see the truth and power in Christ, put their faith in Christ, and are baptized. Even a Samaritan sorcerer! Jesus’s promise in Acts 1:8 that his disciples would be witnesses not only in Jerusalem and Judea but in Samaria, too, is playing out before our eyes.

This is where this week’s plan picks up. God speaks.

According to Acts 8:26, an angel tells Philip to leave Samaria and go south toward Gaza. (If you look on a map, this is an about-face. Samaria is north of Jerusalem. Now God tells him to turn around and go south of Jerusalem, bypassing it in the process.) As a reader, we can almost see with anticipation how the same message of King Jesus brought to the Samaritans will now spread down towards Egypt and into Africa, too.

The road from Egypt to Jerusalem passed through Gaza, a gateway city that far earlier had been a Philistine stronghold – that ancient enemy of Israel. Here, Philip encounters an Ethiopian government official returning back to his country after worshiping in Jerusalem. And again, God speaks: “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Now, the whole story reads straightforwardly, but if you stop to consider it, things are a bit perplexing. Philip is successfully bringing the good news of Jesus to the Samaritans. But now he’s told to turn around and go the other way. No reason. No explanation. Like Abraham in Genesis 12, just go. Then, on the way, he sees an important official from another country leaving Jerusalem. Again, Philip is told to stay near him. Of all the traffic on this road, why this person? Why this chariot?

The point is that, as readers, we can’t see any of the reasons why Philip should do this. And arguably, Philip couldn’t see any of the reasons either. The only reason is that God tells him. Did Philip question why God would stop his preaching of the gospel message to the Samaritans to go to another place? Or why he should stand by some seemingly random chariot? Who knows, but God gave Philip direction, and he obeyed.

We won’t always see the reasons why God asks us to do something. We won’t always see why God allows certain things to happen. We won’t always see why God positions us in a certain time and place. But what he invites us to do is trust that he sees. Taking God at his word and trusting that he sees is called faith. Philip is going to help someone come to see the truth about God. It starts with seeing himself that when God directs us, God knows what he’s up to.