Philip’s Fruit – Acts 8:26-40

A text – Acts 8:26-40

8:26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)
8:27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship
8:28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
8:30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
8:31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
8:32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
8:33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
8:34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
8:35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
8:36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
8:38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
8:39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
8:40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

A reflection:

Jesus’s disciple Philip is visited by an angel of the Lord and directed to a wilderness road for some purpose not made clear at the start. But Philip obeys, and he eventually sees an Ethiopian eunuch traveling home by chariot from Jerusalem, where he has been worshiping. The man is reading aloud from Isaiah. Perhaps he bought a scroll at the temple. Perhaps he heard something in worship that mystified him, and he paid dearly to have a copy to read for himself. Philip RAN over to him and asked if he understood the passage. The eunuch had apparently just been thinking of how good it would be if someone could guide him through these words.

Philip was placed by the hand of God in the right place at the right time. The two men talked, Philip told Jesus’s story, and he showed how Isaiah had been foretelling the very same story. Philip’s proclamation of the good news of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection save from death all people on earth must have been just right (the Holy Spirit was right there with him), and the Ethiopian wanted to be baptized into the faith as soon as they found water near the road. He believed, he was baptized, they rejoiced, and the Spirit snatched Philip out of his sight. The Ethiopian went on his way delighted.

Philip was a good man and obeyed the angel’s and the Holy Spirit’s direction. He was connected to God, so God’s Word and desires flowed through him to the Ethiopian man. This story is a direct link to our Gospel text from Monday – Philip was a branch connected to the vine, and he bore fruit for the Ethiopian. Amazing what one can do when connected to Jesus and his call for us to bear fruit in the world! I wonder what God has in mind for me today.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for choosing us to live out the Gospel to others. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that you pour out upon us all. Help us to remember to pay attention to your call.    Amen.