Phillip and the Eunuch

Acts 8:26-35

Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.” So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join up with that chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. This was the scripture passage he was reading: 

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In (his) humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth.” 

Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, “I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him. As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?” Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.

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When Phillip woke up that morning, he had no idea where the day would lead him. The scripture does not share any details with us. Was Phillip brushing his teeth, stirring his tea or, perhaps, making a grocery list. All we know is the angel of the Lord spoke to him and gave him some very specific instructions. My first thought was, “How nice. Phillip gets a nice action plan to follow but the rest of us must play 20 questions about we are supposed to do, and we never really know if we hit on the right answer or not. We, most certainly, find out if we made the wrong choice.

On the other hand, if the angel were to speak to me and give me instructions to head out to Montana City and drive up McClellan Creek Road, I might be just a little bit on the balky side. “Say what? Go where? In this snow storm? Really? Ok, I will leave first thing in the morning. What do you mean, “leave now?” I know there is good measure of Jonah luring beneath the surface in me and I suspect I am not alone.

What is the message that is important for us to learn as leaders of the local Journey movement? We never know when we will have the opportunity to bear witness to the gospel. There are some many challenges we encounter every day. Some of them may be up close and sudden like Phillip and the Eunuch or they may be happening in other parts of the country and they seem intensely personal to us based upon our framework and outlook. 

The answer to the question from Isaiah about who will tell his posterior is very simple. It is us. It is, indeed, us.