Acts 8:14,26: “Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them . . . Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert.”

April 5th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

These 2 verses fit together because they tell the story of a man who let God lead his life wherever and whenever God spoke. Philip was a deacon who had obediently taken the gospel to the Samaritans; it would seem, because no one else would go. We remember that “Jews [had] no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9). We can at least conclude that Philip was the first to be obedient to the great commission to “Go into all the world,” which included the cities of Samaria (Mark 16:15). As the Holy Spirit blessed his work, many of these racially mixed Samaritans came to faith.

You might say that Philip had a good thing going there, a thriving ministry. In modern church business thinking, he needed to plant a church and perhaps begin the ”Philip the Evangelistic and Healing Ministries World Outreach Center of the Greater Samaritan Territories.” After all, the crowds were coming and he was the guy God was using. He had the franchise, right? Nope. He had the heart. God is looking for men and women to change the world who don’t want the credit to go to anyone but God. It is astounding the things that have been accomplished through a group of believers who had that mindset.

When Peter and John came up from Jerusalem to Samaria, because they heard of the move of God going on there, even more spiritual fruit came. What about Philip? God tested his character and asked him to go toward the Philistine cities. He didn’t even tell Philip why, just that he was to go. Did Philip do a repeat of Jonah’s life? No, he did just the opposite. Philip could have waited for God to explain why he was to leave Samaria, after all he was in the middle of a great revival, but instead he simply obeyed God and went south toward the desert. As he went, he found an Ethiopian eunuch riding in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah. Philip joined him in the chariot and explained the gospel to him. As they passed a body of water, the Ethiopian asked to be baptized because he believed “that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” To this day, the Ethiopian Coptic church claims that this Ethiopian eunuch that Philip led to the Lord, took the gospel back to his nation. They claim that virtually the entire population came to Christ as a result of Philip’s obedience.

“LORD, give us an obedient heart that responds quickly to Your Spirit’s call today.”