Acts 8 - Immediate obedience

Severe persecution breaks out, the majority of the followers of this new church were scattered all over the region, and God’s kingdom keeps expanding, in fact it expands even faster. Saul, who doesn’t get converted until next chapter, is ravaging the church and is doing what he knows best to do to break up this group. This is a perfect display of the sovereignty of God in the midst of what seems to be a terrible situation. The believers are being persecuted and are split up, and for any man-made movement or religion it would certainly be the final death-blow that would stop any momentum that was being gained. But, since this is far greater than any man or men could come up with, this event actually served to spread the message of grace and expand the church even quicker. How many times have I gone through things that seem, to man, to be terrible situations with no positives to pull out of them, but to God, they are all part of His plan? What situations have I faced that would seemingly stall or stop or eliminate my faith but have only served to strengthen it? I can only sit and humbly give thanks to God for what I’ve gone through and what I’ve experienced, knowing that God had a plan and a purpose for each event that took place. At the time, in the midst of the pain and the hurt and the confusion, it didn’t make sense, but now it does. No matter if we go through really good times or really mediocre times or really horrible times, God can and does use all of those times to draw us to Him and to accomplish His purposes. The church was being persecuted, but God’s message was being proclaimed, and that’s what counts.

So Philip is preaching the gospel message all over Samaria and he meets a guy named Simon. This guy named Simon is pretty intriguing as he has been practicing sorcery and amazing people for a long time. He even was referred to as the “Great Power of God”. Without a doubt Simon enjoyed the attention and the power and the status, and that desire for recognition comes back to bite him a few verses later. What also intrigues me about this story is how while it sounds weird for a bunch of people to be drawn to a guy practicing sorcery, isn’t that very similar to what people are like today? Other than all the witchcraft and weird tricks, aren’t people today drawn to those that have power and status? Don’t people flock to those that are giving away things and helping people in need? All these people are following Simon because he is performing a bunch of tricks then Philip comes in and preaches the message of Jesus and is healing people and people turn towards him and what he can offer. Isn’t that typical that we seem to be attracted to the newest, next thing? I wonder how many of these people that believed and were baptized were like Simon, who as we’ll see in a few verses doesn’t necessarily have the right attitude or heart. I wonder how many people I know today, that have been drawn to the friendships they’ve found in church, they’ve been helped and provided for by Christians they’ve gotten to know, I wonder how many of them will move on to the next, newest thing when it comes along. Simon in Acts chapter 8, and people all around us now, are often not drawn to the Savior, to the King, they are drawn to what the King can give to them. In my own life, I am constantly asking this question, am I after Jesus or just His stuff. Do I want to spend eternity with God in Heaven or am I just trying to be with Him so I avoid hell. Do I love God because He is God and not because of what He does for me and what He gives me? That’s a tough question to answer, and is one I can’t always answer about everything in the way I would like to. Simon wanted the power to control, to take and to give the Holy Spirit, he wasn’t looking for the Holy Spirit for himself. I want to strive for the Spirit to control me, not the other way around.

Father I love you for who you are, because you are the holder of the universe and the giver of life. God I give you praise because you are worthy of it, not because of anything you have done or haven’t done, but simply because you are God, and that is enough. Help me to never forget that truth. Help me to always want you, and to allow you to be enough, not what you can give to me. It’s tough.

The last thing that sticks out to me about this passage of Philip preaching to the people, then Peter and John coming down as well, is the receiving of the Holy Spirit. I think it’s interesting that the Holy Spirit did not come to the Samaritans when they were baptized, as “they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Again, this is not the time or place to go into a detailed discussion about baptism, but I think it’s important to note that the Holy Spirit isn’t restricted to only and always behaving in a certain way. As I discussed in Acts chapter 2, we as men must not get arrogant in our interpretation of scriptures and begin to put limits on God and the Spirit, saying that He only comes at a certain time and must act in a certain way. We’ve already seen in just the first few chapters of Acts that the Spirit acts however the Spirit wants to act, He cannot be controlled and He cannot be confined.

Philip gets told by an angel to move on and head down a road, and he runs into the traveling party of the Ethiopian Eunuch. First of all, I believe Philip’s relationship with God through the Holy Spirit was close and tight and they walked together constantly, and he displays that by his immediate obedience when he is told, by God, through the angel, to get up and go down a road. My prayer is that my walk with God through the Holy Spirit can grow to a point where I no longer question or doubt or even ask any questions, but that when I receive a command from God I hop up and head down the road He asks me to walk. Philip comes running up to the chariot, again at the instruction of the Spirit, and he hears the Eunuch reading aloud a passage from Isaiah. I think it’s incredible that the Eunuch was reading the Scripture aloud because, at least for me, Scripture seems to have more depth and more meaning and even become more real when it is read aloud. So, I am going to and would encourage you as well, to read the passage aloud:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so He does not open His mouth. In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who will describe His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. “

Doesn’t that sound different than just reading it in your mind? Doesn’t it add some gravity to the fact that Jesus was humiliated, and yet He was silent? Doesn’t it put a little more weight on the fact that He was slaughtered, like a sheep, for me and for you?

Think about this Eunuch, who was on his way home from Jerusalem, from worshiping and having likely made a sacrifice or sacrifices in the temple, and he reads, aloud, a passage about someone being like a lamb led to slaughter. He would have been able to connect this passage to the real act of sacrifice far better than I can, and the fact that a man got the same treatment as a sheep would have been alarming to him, it would have been startling. It stuck out to him enough that he asked Philip, well who is this guy talking about? And, from there, Philip went on to share the message of the grace that God offers through the sacrifice of that lamb, Jesus.  The Eunuch heard the story and responded by placing his faith and trust in Jesus as his Savior. It’s an incredible story, both from the perspective of Philip and also from the Eunuch. Philip was told where to go and what to do and he responded with immediate obedience. He didn’t wait, he didn’t ask questions, he just went and he did. And, as we clearly see, God was able to work in and through him to accomplish his purposes. What if Philip didn’t hop to and head down the road right away? What if Philip said well I have some things to get finished up real quick or some business to take care of? Would he have caught up with the Eunuch? Would he have been whisked away by the Spirit to go elsewhere? We don’t know, but I can’t help to think that the results would have been different. I can’t help but to think that he would have missed out on the task and the corresponding blessing that he received by doing what God wanted him to do, immediately. So, how often do I respond in immediate obedience? How many times do I put God off and do things later, or put Him off and never get around to it? How much of His work and His blessing have I missed out on because of delayed obedience, or even altogether disobedience?

Lord I want in my heart to obey you and follow you immediately, like Philip did. I want to participate in your work and to do the things of the Kingdom that you ask me to do, but far too often my selfishness gets in the way. It’s easy in my devotion time with you to pledge my faithfulness and my obedience and my desire to immediately respond to you, but it’s so much tougher in the moment. Lord help my “devotion time” transform from a few minutes or hours a day into an all day, constant communion with you. If I would quit compartmentalizing you into a small part of my day and make you the focus of all of it, I would have no other choice but to respond yes, right now, let’s go. Help!