By Not Known
Philip was elected to help serve food from the church kitchen (Acts 6: 1- 6). In our terms, that makes him a deacon. He sets us an important example in seizing the day for God (Acts 8: 26- 40)
One day Philip found himself on the road south west from Jerusalem to Gaza. ON the way he met an African civil servant riding in a chariot.
The civil servant was reading Isaiah 53 but could not understand it. Philp followed the opportunity given by God’s spirit
saw with the man, explained God’s word to him, lead him to faith and then baptised him.
We can imagine the fuss that some might have made. After all, it was the apostles who had the ministry of the word
(Acts 6:4) and, as for a deacon doing an unauthorised baptism…!
Let’s look at Philip’s example and see the features that we can copy:
- Avalability: Philip was ready to go where the Spirit led him and do what the Spirit prompted. Are we?
- Knowing the Bible: Philip knew his Bible well enought to be able to teach it to someone else. Do we?
- Jesus-centered: Philip zeroed in on the core issue of how the passage spoke about Jesus. Do we?
- Gospel-minded: Philip did’s chat about trivialities or religion in general – he led the man to faith in Jesus. Do we?
- Crossing barriers: It was a big step for a Jew to spend time with a Gentle eunuch for it would make him ‘unclean’.
Much gospel work and all missions involves us crossing barriers like this. Are we ready for this? - Adaptability: Philip keep his eye on the important goal and was otherwise flexible. Are we?
Most of us have daily contact with non-Christians where we live, work, commute and play. But we often fritter
these opportunities away. Perhaps we would need fewer special evangelistic events if we all made more of these dialy
opportunities. Let’s follow Philp and seize the day for God