The church lamented his death, and probably wondered who could take his place. They did not need to wonder, because when the Lord takes a saint home, He always raises up someone to take up where that saint left off.
When we got to chapter 8, by the time we got to the fifth verse, we found that God had done just that!
Due to the intensity of the persecution after the death of Stephen, most of the Christians fled Jerusalem to try to keep from being killed.
Verses 5-8, say, "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.”
In the midst of this great revival, God did a strange thing. He uprooted Philip, and sent him to a desert.
Let me share with you what we can learn from this portion of God's Word.
I. THE SPEECH
We read in verse 26, "And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert."
Many times, it would seem that God asks us to do things, that seem to be mistakes to our finite minds. I am sure Philip thought that perhaps, what the angel of the Lord was asking him to do was a mistake.
He was being used of God in Samaria to bring about a great revival.
• People were being saved by the scores.
• Some were delivered from demon possession.
• And God even healed some who were lame.
It was so great the Bible says the town was filled with the joy of the Lord.
It would seem that, in the midst of a move of God like that, it would be a mistake, to just pull up stakes and leave.
But this is exactly what God asked Philip to do - leave and go, "... unto Gaza, which is desert.”
Yes, the Lord asked Philip to do something that seemed to be a big mistake.
He sent an angel to instruct him to go to a desert! No record is made of Philip protesting. It says, "And he arose and went..,"
Illus: There is a sign in one place of business that says, “You do not have to always agree with the boss, but you do have to remember - He is the boss!"
The same thing goes for us. We do not always agree with God, but we do have to always remember, “He is God, and He has never made a mistake!"
We looked at the SPEECH, now look at…
II. THE SINNER
Verses 27-28 “And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet."
The story of the Ethiopian has many nuggets of truth for us to draw from, but if you do not get anything else from this true story, get this: God loves souls so much, that if there was only one lost soul in this universe, He still would have sent His beloved Son to die for that soul.
In Samaria, people were being saved by the scores. Other apostles heard about this revival and came to assist Philip.
When sufficient help was present to take care of Samaria, God took Philip out of that tremendous revival, and sent him to a lonely desert to reach one lost Ethiopian.
III. THE SPIRIT
Verse 29 “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. "
Some Christians are not aware that the Holy Spirit can speak to us.
The reason they are not aware of this, is because their lives are filled with other things.
Illus: Two people can be having a nice meal and conversation in a quiet restaurant. They hear each other fine. But if someone comes in, and decides he does not like things so quiet, he can go to the "noise machine" and all of a sudden he can create so much horrible noise, that it fills the building. Now the two people can no longer talk, because now they cannot hear each other.
This happens in the spiritual realm, if we let it. This is why so many professing Christians have never heard the Spirit of God talking to them. Their lives are filled with the noise of this world, and if He did try to speak, they could not hear Him!
WHEN WE ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, WE CANNOT GO WRONG!
Illus: Not long ago, a program was aired on television that was an interview about the trouble Oral Roberts was facing with his hospital. Mr. Roberts said that years ago, God was leading him to build that hospital, even though the local authorities told him there was no demand for another hospital in that area. He ignored their advice. At that time, in that big hospital, there were less than two hundred patients on any given day. The journalist who was interviewing Mr. Roberts, asked a question something like this, "Did God make a mistake in telling you to build this hospital, or do you think perhaps He never told you to build it in the first place?"
Mr. Roberts had to lower his head. He said something like this, "God does not make mistakes, I guess perhaps I did.”
Illus: The story is told of a man who brought a brand new pair of shoes to D. L. Moody, and said, "God told me to buy you this pair of shoes. By the way, what size do you wear?" Mr. Moody said, “If God told you to buy those shoes for me, they will fit. God knows exactly what size I wear!
The Spirit of God told Philip to go to the Ethiopian. When Philip did what God told him to do, he could not go wrong!
IV. THE SPEED
Verses 30-34 “And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?”
Philip arrived, and saw the man the Holy Spirit had sent him to.
Then the Spirit told Philip to go to him. The Bible says, " And Philip ran thither to him,”
Illus: Recently, one fellow said, "I do not work in cold weather, nor when it rains." That means that the only time he is willing to work, is when it is warm and sunny. He gave the impression that he probably did not work in the sunshine either!
We all have heard people say,
• "I wish I had more time. I would love to do some things for the Lord, if I had the time."
•“I wish I had more money. I would love to give more to the Lord, if I had it to give."
But, did you know that everyone of you here is doing as much as you want do, and giving as much as you want to give? If God gave the people who say these things eight days a week, and a hundred dollars more a week on their incomes, they still would not have time or money for the Lord.
Why? Lack of time and money is not their problem.
Their problem is that they have not put God first in their lives. That is why they have neither time, nor money to give God.
Philip was not that way. When God spoke to Philip, he immediately left Samaria to go where God instructed.
When God spoke again, the Bible says, "And Philip ran thither to him..."
Philip was not looking for an excuse, he was looking for an opportunity!
V. THE SALVATION
Verse 35 “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."
Remember when Philip went to Samaria, before the revival broke out? Verse 5, “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.”
Now we find Philip in the desert, with ONE Ethiopian, and he is still preaching Christ.
Look at verse 35, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."
In Samaria, people were saved when Philip, “…PREACHED CHRIST UNTO THEM.”
The Ethiopian got saved, when Philip, "... PREACHED UNTO HIM JESUS. "
There are churches all over this nation, that do not have anyone get saved for months, and some, even for years. There is a reason for that!
Others see souls saved frequently. Jesus said, in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Illus: The mission of the church, is as the bird dog to the hunter. He directs him to his prey. We are to direct hungry men to The Bread of Life - Jesus.
Sad to say, many men in pulpits in America seldom even mention the Lord Jesus Christ.
Often, one can listen to well-known television evangelists, preaching sermons to their Sunday morning crowds for 45 minutes at a time, without even mentioning the name of Jesus.
Any God-fearing Christian, should be very angry when a man who claims to be a preacher, gets up in front of thousands in his church, and no telling how many across this nation, and tells them that all they need to do, is practice positive thinking!
How sad it is, that men can preach a humanistic gospel, and get away with it, because professing Christians are so ignorant of the Word of God, they do not know the difference.
Illus: One man related to another, that he could not remember the last time someone got saved in the church he belonged to; it had been years.
Something is seriously wrong in churches like that. You can almost be assured, that Jesus is not being lifted up in song, and in the preaching.
Philip preached JESUS wherever he went, and people got saved wherever he went.
VI. THE SYMBOL
Verses 36-39a "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more:…"
Members of the early church PREACHED CHRIST wherever they went, and once they led a person to Christ, they taught they should be baptized.
Evidently in the conversation, as Philip led this Ethiopian to the Lord, he told him that the first thing a new convert should do is be baptized, because as soon as Philip had preached Jesus to him, he asked why he could not be baptized. Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
That Ethiopian assured Philip, that he believed with all his heart that Jesus was God's Son.
Then, "...they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch: and he baptized him. "
Notice the eagerness of this new convert, to obey the Lord. We all have seen people, who professed to accept the Lord Jesus many years ago, who have never gotten around to obeying the first commandment the Lord requires of a new convert. Shame on those professing Christians, and shame on the church that does not stress the importance of water baptism.
When you see a church where the water in the baptistery is stagnant from lack of believers passing through it, you see a church that is stagnant spiritually.
VII. THE SATISFACTION
Verses 39b - 40 “and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.”
Notice the sequence of events. God called Philip out of a tremendous revival in Samaria, to go to a desert. In that desert, God led Philip to the Ethiopian. He witnessed to the Ethiopian, and the man gave his heart to the Lord, and was baptized in a roadside creek. The Bible makes a point of showing us, that as the eunuch left Philip, "…he went on his way rejoicing."
Conclusion:
All over this world, people are trying to find peace and joy, but they are looking in all the wrong places.
When a person finds the Lord Jesus, he can go "...on his way rejoicing.”
I. THE SPEECH
II. THE SINNER
III. THE SPIRIT
IV. THE SPEED
V. THE SALVATION
VI. THE SYMBOL
VII. THE SATISFACTION
