After Pentecost: The Disciples DeployedSample

Divine Appointment 

Flung further away from Jerusalem than he’d probably planned to go, Phillip continued to advance truth even after Stephen’s death. The Samaritans, having been prepared by the Holy Spirit to listen “with one mind,” responded to the Gospel message, evidence that God was with Phillip, ahead of Phillip, and working things together for His own glory just as He’d done for Jesus. 

Wherever Jesus traveled during His earthly ministry, He found souls ready to receive Him and His message. The only people he really ever argued with were those who were set against seeing and hearing the truth. Those who believed the Gospel did so easily because the Holy Spirit had prepared their hearts. They were already aware of their need for something more than they had, and most were willing to do whatever it took to get what was missing in their lives. All Jesus had to do was obey the Holy Spirit is leading and rely on His power. 

As an apostle, Phillip had witnessed this. Later, when he found himself way outside his comfort zone, he simply imitated Jesus. 

Just as Jesus, Peter, and Stephen had before him, Phillip tailored his Gospel message to fit his audience. In his divine appointment with a eunuch from Ethiopia, Phillip met the eunuch at his level of understanding and built on it. Once the eunuch understood the Gospel fully, Phillip extended an invitation, helped him put his faith in Jesus, and baptized him. When God whisked him away to his next assignment, Phillip did not look back or question God’s wisdom, but let God slip him on like a glove and focused on the task at hand.

The eunuch that Phillip helped was a servant of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. By leading the eunuch to Jesus, Phillip paved the way for the truth of the Gospel to advance to “the ends of the earth,” the last stage of Jesus’ prophecy, maybe not the way Phillip would have predicted, but it punched a hole in a cultural barrier, nonetheless, and let the light of Jesus Christ shine through. 

How about you? Do you trust God’s ability to work through your circumstances?  Do you accept the assignments God gives you without complaint or argument? Are you ready and willing to engage those with different cultural backgrounds when God puts you in their path?