Saturday, June 4, 2016
Acts 8:26 ... to the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
THEN PHILIP BEGAN ...
Well, of course he began, having opened his mouth! It seems such an ordinary way to say that the time for speaking had come. This ordinary expression does, however, draws our attention to the fact that Philip began a wonderful work in a very ordinary way. How often in our lives hasn't it been through little things, ordinary things, daily things, things we may have considered unimportant, that God has blessed us?
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture ...
That the Ethiopian was blessed through Philip is clear. Even after Philip left, the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing. He knew Jesus! But how did he come to know Him? Did Philip regale him with accounts of how he felt about Jesus, or even what he thought about Jesus? No, he began with what the Word of God said about Jesus! The Ethiopian was reading about suffering, and humiliation, and death. And that is where Philip began.
Since we too want to share Christ with others, we will want to notice this: Philip did not come with messages of what Jesus could do in the Ethiopian's life, or even what Jesus had done in Philip's life. He began with the Scripture that described what Jesus did in His own life! His doing, His dying, His rising as our representative before the throne of God, this is what brought many of us such joy from our mother's knee: Jesus lived and died for me!
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. In just such a quiet and powerful way, may God make us all a blessing to someone.
