Journey With Christ Part Two

The Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-9)
Gaza Road (Acts 8:26-39)
Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-35)
It is time to continue on our journey with Christ. Our last trip was on the Emmaus Road, this time we are going to travel towards Gaza where we will witness an encounter between Phillip the disciple of Christ, and an Ethiopian eunuch. We will be joined by an angel of the Lord, witness the working of the Holy Spirit, and see God’s perfect timing of this encounter on the Gaza road. I pray you haven’t worn out that walking stick, lace up the boots again, enjoy the sounds along the trial and keep the dog quiet as we see what we can take away from the conversation.

26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[a]eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."[b] 34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"[c] 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

The apostles had been in Samaria settling churches and appointing leaders and ministers to them. Upon completion of their work there they returned to Jerusalem except for Philip who decided to stay to break new ground in the country. Having made himself available for service, and we can assume had been in prayer, was ready for guidance.
We read in verse 26 that an angel, sent from God, came to Philip and offered the guidance he had been seeking. The angel probably spoke to him in a dream or vision, and said, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” The angel was very specific on the road to use but not the purpose of the journey. When we make ourselves available for service to God we should expect to hear from Him. Also Dr. Luke included the statement at the end of this verse, this is desert, or a deserted place. Too many times we say here I am Lord, send me, and when we receive direction from the Lord it doesn’t make any sense to us. This road Philip was asked to take led to nowhere. If we had been with Philip we might have tried to stop him from making this journey. “Phil, come on man! I know you have a heart for God, but are you sure you heard Him right? That road leads to the desert, what possible work can you do there?” I know myself that there are a lot of times I haven’t understood God’s direction, and it took a lot of faith to follow His leading not knowing the outcome. We want everything spelled out for us before we make the commitment to serve God. God doesn’t work that way. He wants to use us, and He wants to test our faithfulness at the same time. As someone who sometimes rushes in where even angels fear to tread, I can understand this better than someone who wants everything spelled out for them. They want to know the weather report, okay I do that. Are there any obstacles along the path, guilty again. Gee I guess my faith isn’t as strong as I confess. It really isn’t blind faith that we move forward in, as the world would say, but it is with faith knowing that we are in direction of the Lord, and He is with us. So Philip got up, not knowing the destination, nor whom he would meet, and started into the wilderness.
In verse 27 we meet another man, a man from Ethiopia returning home after spending some time in Jerusalem worshiping. He was a proselyte to the Jewish religion having renounced idolatry, and worshipped the God of Israel. The bible also says that he was a eunuch. When we think of a eunuch we think of a man who was castrated and put in charge of a harem. Those castrated were also put in service to perform other social functions such as domestic servants, treble singers, religious specialists, military commanders, or government officials as we see here. He had proven himself in service and Queen Candice of Ethiopia had promoted him over and again till he now was in charge of her whole treasury. He carried great respect in his own country, and had heard of the God of Israel and had come to worship him in his own country and make trips to Jerusalem to worship at the temple there.
So we find this man seated in his chariot reading from the scroll of Isaiah, which he purchased at a great price I am sure. You couldn’t walk into Borders book store and pick up a copy of the scrolls each was hand copied and came at a great price. It was not the fact that he was reading from the scroll that should amaze us but the text that he was pondering over that should spark our curiosity. As we read along with the eunuch from the book of Isaiah chapter 53, and verses 7, 8, we will be in awe of God’s timing. Let me explain. It is here that we meet another character in our story in the person of the Holy Spirit. It is here that Philip comes near the chariot and sees the reason that he was called to travel this road, the Spirit says to Philip overtake this chariot. The chariot was moving , but couldn’t have been at a very fast pace considering that the eunuch was reading on a road that was not paved, so Philip broke into a trot and caught up with the chariot and seeing the man reading asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” It was at this moment that God was about to introduce the eunuch to Jesus. He had his servant in the area, impressed upon him to go out and witness, and now brought him to the man at the exact time he was pondering over the scroll. God could have brought Philip south from Samaria to Jerusalem and brought the two together there, but the timing would not have been right. There are many times we are looking over movements of God in our lives and we are in awe at just how perfectly God brought things together. It is the same here. God had Philip leave Samaria at the precise time to meet a man on a desert road reading about Jesus who he was about to meet. Let’s listen in and see we can overhear their conversation.
Philip urged on by the Holy Spirit breaks into a run and comes near the chariot. Once he is within hearing distance he can hear the man reading from the book of Isaiah. Philip says to the man, “Do you understand what you are reading?” This is where pride would keep most of us from going any father with this conversation. First the Ethiopian could have turned to see this commonly dressed man sweating running up to his chariot. Our first thoughts would have been, here comes another beggar, or this man is going to rob me. We tend to think the worst of people without giving them a chance we turn our heads from them, ignore them, or turn and walk away. Or when we hear someone ask us, ‘Do you know what you are doing?’ we tend to get defensive and not care to hear what others have to say. The Holy Spirit was not only working in Philip but also in the Ethiopian, for the man did none of the things we might do, but invited this sweating, commonly dressed disciple, into his chariot to teach him. He said, “How can I unless someone guides me?”
The man was ready to meet the savior. God had softened his heart, opened his mind, and brought someone into his life willing to be led, that had the knowledge of life and death. The man pointed to the scripture he was reading and asked Philip, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” Read along and see if we know? "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." Having witness the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Philip knew exactly who the prophet was speaking of, but the scripture didn’t say that Philip spoke from his experience. It says that Philip opened his mouth and preached Jesus to him. We must be careful that while our experiences enhance our relationship with Christ, nothing replaces the knowledge of the word of God.
We must be in the word reading and studying in order that we, as scripture teaches, can hide the word in our hearts. By hiding the word in our hearts we are not keeping it just for ourselves thinking that our relationship with the Father and the Word are just for us, but treating the word with respect and increasing in knowledge so that when God chooses to work through us we will have the truth within us. As a preacher I have been taught that the Holy Spirit brings the word to our minds that we might speak truth to others. Have you every witnessed and have been amazed by the words that have come out of your Mouth? That is what was happening here.
As we have followed these men down the road we have heard the scripture read, we have seen the Holy Spirit at work, we have witnessed the perfect timing of God. We have witnessed a man come to Christ, and be baptized as an expression of his new found faith. What do we take away from this experience? I leave that up to you. As you lace up your shoes for the trip home think over what you have seen, ponder it in your heart. Pray that God would lead you where He wants you to go. Hide the word in your heart, so that you will be ready for service. Finally don’t be afraid to venture down a road that doesn’t make any sense now and then. You may be amazed by the encounter along the way. So put your walking stick back in the corner, feed and tell the dog how good they were, put your hiking boots back in the closet where you can find them as we next journey with Christ.