Acts 8:4-40

Philip: From Deacon to Evangelist

After the murder of Stephen, the church scattered to the four winds due to heavy persecution. While we may see this as a negative thing, we must remember, God can always take the rubble we see around us and redeem and restore it to something amazing. In Acts 1:7-8 Jesus said, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus told his disciples that they would be witnesses throughout all the earth. The phrase “to the ends of” is the Greek word eschatos, which means to the last or to the utter extreme. They were suppose to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the utter extreme, to the last of the earth. At this point, they were still concentrated in Jerusalem. The stoning of Stephen, and the persecution that followed, forced the church to move out of Jerusalem and take the gospel into other parts of the world. This is when we are introduced to Philip. Philip, like Stephen, was chosen by the Apostles to be a deacon. Like Stephen, Philip took his position beyond serving and began to preach the gospel. He understood his call as a call to serve and proclaim. When the church scattered, he took his message to Samaria, thus continuing to expand the gospel’s reach as Jesus had commanded.

Philip is only mentioned a few times in Acts. We are introduced to him in Acts 6:5 as one of the seven deacons chosen to attend to certain practical affairs of the church in Jerusalem. If you remember, this was because of the murmurings of the Hellenists against the Hebrews in concern of their widows. We find him again here in Acts 8, and then once again in Acts 21:8-9. “When we (this probably means Luke was with Paul at this time) completed our voyage from Tyre, we reached Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them one day. The next day we left and came to Caesarea, where we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him. This man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.” Here Philip is been given the title of evangelist, or in Greek euaggelistés, which means bringer of good news. What a wonderful way to be described! We also find that he has settled just 50 miles from Samaria. This is the last we hear about Philip in the Bible. Anything else we know is tradition, which has him settling at Tralles in Anatolia, where he became the bishop of that church. But this is mere conjecture. In this next passage, we will explore Philip’s progression from deacon to evangelist.

Vs 4-8  So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the message of good news. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds paid attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.

Philip has been forced out of Jerusalem because of the persecution that followed the stoning of Stephen. Instead of running and hiding, he sees an opportunity to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. He can no longer function as the deacon he was first called to be, but finds a new calling – to bring the good news to the Samaritans. A little background about the Samaritans. About 750 years earlier, this part of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians. After all the wealthy and middle class citizens had been deported, those that were left ended up intermarrying with the Assyrians that moved into the area. Because of the intermarriage, they were looked on with disdain by the returning Jews. We find this prejudice still intact in Luke 9:51-54: “When the days were coming to a close for Him (Jesus) to be taken up, He determined to journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of Him, and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for Him. But they did not welcome Him, because He determined to journey to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus did not model this prejudice. He went out of his way, literally, to preach to the woman at the well in John 4, and we are all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Taking his cue from Jesus’ blueprint, and His commission in Acts 1, Philip makes his way to Samaria to preach the good news. What he find there is a crowd who “paid attention with one mind.” The Greek word for the phrase “with one mind” is homothumadon, which means with the same passion. They were all moving in the same direction. Their hearts were ready to receive the message Philip had for them. People were healed both physically and spiritually. God was moving in such a way that flooded the city with joy!

I had to stop and ponder this a moment. What if Philip had decided to hunker down and stay in Jerusalem hoping the persecution would run it’s course? What if he had run and hid thinking, since he couldn’t use the gifts he was appointed to, he couldn’t do anything else? What if he hadn’t been open to new opportunities? I do not think for a moment that he was the only hope for Samaria as God could just as easily called someone else. But if Philip had chosen not to go, he would have missed out on the joy. He would have missed out on God’s grace and mercy exhibited in the changed lives of the people of Samaria. He would have missed experiencing God in a unique and exciting way. He would have missed being used in a way that might have been out of his comfort zone. When we get stuck believing there is only one way to do something, or we are only gifted in certain ways, or we are not open to new circumstances and opportunities, we miss out on the blessings and joy God may have for us. Philip started out as a deacon and ended up an evangelist by allowing God to use him in any way He wanted to.

Vs 9-25 A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and astounded the Samaritan, while claiming to be somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God!” They were attentive to him because he had astounded them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he went around constantly with Philip and was astounded as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed. When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God’s message, they sent Peter and John to them. After they went down there, they prayed for them, so the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter told him, “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought the gift of God could be obtained with money! You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” “Please pray to the Lord for me,” Simon replied, “so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” Then, after they had testified and spoken the message of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, evangelizing many villages of the Samaritans.

This side story is fascinating to me. We are introduced to a man named Simon who is a sorcerer, and pretty good one at that. He certainly had the attention of everyone in Samaria. Scripture says he claimed “to be somebody great”. People noticed him and thought him to have the power of God. They were blinded by the things he did. But, when Philip came along and showed them God’s real power, their eyes were opened. They turned away from Simon’s distorted “truth” to the genuine truth Philip was speaking of. In fact, Philip’s words were so powerful, even Simon was convinced it was the truth. He was astounded by the things Philip did and said. He followed him everywhere. At this point in the story, we see no reason to believe Simon’s conversion wasn’t anything but sincere. Soon though, his faith was about to be tested.

This passage gives us an example of two journeys. First, there is Philip, who is starting his journey from being a deacon to becoming an evangelist. He is ready to carry the good news to all those who seek and are willing to hear. We will focus on his continued journey in a moment. Then, there is Simon, who starts out as a sorcerer. He has power and the attention of the people in Samaria. He comes into contact with the message Philip has brought, believes and is baptized. This message is powerful and he begins to follow Philip everywhere. Luke tells us that Simon was “astounded as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.” This is a very telling statement and hints that, just maybe, Simon is still attracted to all things powerful. He believed in the good news, but he still hangs on to a desire for power and attention. This manifests itself when Peter and John come and Simon sees what happens when the Holy Spirit comes down. He wants the power. Not the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, but the power to control and dispense the Holy Spirit. Those old tendencies have not left him and he stands at a crossroads. Which path will he take? The path that will destroy his relationship with God, or the path of true repentance? Simon thought money could buy him some blessings. He thought he could deal in the same old thing, just with a new message and power. As a side note, this is why the act of buying or selling religious positions, offices or influence and status is called Simony. Simony was one of the things Martin Luther tackled in his 95 Theses. Simon wanted to buy spiritual power for personal gain but Peter rebukes him and gives him a warning: get your heart right or else.

I believe this is a crossroads we all stand at, at some time or other. Simon is our example. He could no longer think the same way or live his life with the same goals. Believing in Jesus as Savior isn’t just changing your direction. It is about changing your heart. One thing I learned through a study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is, it’s the heart that matters. What is in your heart – the very core of yourself? The outer man of Simon showed a lot of change, but his heart remained the same. He still wanted the same things at the core of himself – power, attention, perhaps even money. These are things that stood in the way of his relationship with God. Ask yourself the same question – what stands in the way of my relationship with God? When I get to the crossroads, what things at the core of my being prevent me from continuing on the journey toward God? In Luke 9:23-27, Jesus says this: Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it. What is a man benefited if he gains the whole world, yet loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and that of the Father and the holy angels. I tell you the truth: There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” We can’t hold on to ourselves if we want to follow Jesus.

Vs 26-40 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: 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. The eunuch replied to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or another person?” So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture. As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Now let’s take a further look at Philip’s journey to becoming an evangelist. He is also at a crossroads and must make a decision. We find him in Samaria where he has a very successful and fruitful ministry. Everything is going great. People are responding to his message and growing in their faith. The Holy Spirit has come down and renewal and revival is happening. It’s at this time that God calls Philip to leave and go down a desert road. There is no explanation given and he has no idea who or what he is going to encounter on this road. So what to do? He has a choice to stay and continue in his known success or to go down a desert road to the unknown. Philip makes the choice to follow in obedience and begins to walk down the desert road. This is a significant moment in Philip’s life, one that moved him from being a deacon to an evangelist. As we look throughout Scripture, we find many examples of people at this same crossroads. God asks them to move from a place of comfort and success to the unknown – down a desert road. What if they hadn’t obeyed God? Abraham would have stayed put, Moses would have passed by the bush and Esther would have ignored her uncle. Daniel would not have prayed and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have kneeled. None of the prophets would have prophesied and Stephen would not have preached. In our more current world, Corrie Ten Boon and her family would have ignored the plight of the Jews, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have stayed in America, and many underground churches wouldn’t have met. All of these people chose the “desert road” over comfort and success. Because of their choices, God’s plan was put in motion through them and they were able to see God’s amazing work being done. Yes, it came with loss and hardship, and even death for some. But they received the blessings of those who were obedient.

When I was young, my parents left a very successful church in Texas to move to Idaho as missionaries. This decision took them way out of their comfort zone. They had family, friends, a nice house, a wonderful successful church, and were financial comfortable in Texas. But God called them to go down a desert road of sorts, and they did. Because of their decision, we moved over 1000 miles away to the unknown where we had no family and no church home. We all had to deal with a very different culture and they took a huge financial hit on top of everything else. Many would have said they shouldn’t have moved. Financially it certainly didn’t make any sense and some called it foolish. But, as believers, we don’t look at decisions based on the world’s point of view. We look at things from a Biblical perspective. This is why Daniel could kneel and pray even with the threat of lions in his wake. It is the reason Stephen didn’t have to back down, even as the stones came his way. It’s the reason Corrie Ten Boon spent time in a concentration camp and Dietrich Bonhoeffer came back to Germany even though he knew death could be on the horizon. And it’s the reason my parents gave up “success” to minister in a very lost and lonely place. What was foolish to the world is wise when God leads. The eternal blessings my parents have witnessed over the years have been amazing. They have seen people come to know the Lord, churches have been built and strengthened, lives have been changed, and people are walking in a deeper relationship with God. As I write this, my father, who will be 90 soon, still teaches his Bible Study class on Sundays and preaches on occasion. They were open to whatever God had for them and followed Him wherever He led. Because of that, they were able to experience the amazing blessings and miracles of God working through them.

This is what happened to Philip. He left the successful ministry in Samaria and went down the desert road to see what God had for him there. Who does he meet? “An Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury.” A little background here. Ethiopia was were the Queen of Sheba (of Solomon fame) came from. She saw the splendor of Solomon’s kingdom and professed faith in the God of Israel. “She (the Queen of Sheba) said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true. But I didn’t believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half. Your wisdom and prosperity far exceed the report I heard. How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom. May Yahweh your God be praised! He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel, because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.” 1 Kings 10:6-9. Because of what she witnessed, she praised God. Over the centuries, her testimony of God continued and now we have a high official who has just returned from Jerusalem. He has gone to worship and is returning home with God’s word. There is one problem, he doesn’t understand what he is reading. He is hungry to know, but does not have the capacity to understand. This is where Philip comes in. God has set up a divine appointment and Philip answers the call. He obeys God by approaching the chariot and continues in his obedience by engaging the Ethiopian in conversation. What is even more amazing is the passage the Ethiopian was reading – further proof that this was indeed a God ordained moment – Isaiah 53. Philip understood this and was able to witness a man come to faith. Not only that, this man returned to Ethiopia ready to share his new found faith. Fast forward to today, and we find that the Coptic Believers trace their spiritual heritage back to this Ethiopian man. This is what can happen when we are obedient. It can lead to a glorious future for those God puts in our path.

Philip began as a servant of the Lord and ended up an evangelist declaring the gospel to all those he came in contact with. He was willing to go wherever God called him, even on a secluded desert road. What he found was a man ready, with the perfect Scripture in hand, to hear and believe. We must understand, if God calls us to something, He will always prepare the way. We just have to be looking for those open doors God has for us.

One more story from my past. I was very good friends with a woman when I lived in London. She took the bus to work daily and began to pray that God would put her on the right bus. Each day she would wait to hear from God, sometimes letting several buses go by. Each day, she encountered someone who needed to either hear the gospel or needed a word of encouragement. She was open and ready to hear the voice of God and willing to let go of her “schedule” to get on God’s schedule. Are we ready like that? Do we let go of our own scheduled and comfortable life to allow God to “put us on the right bus” so to speak? I hope that I am. I pray that when I do come to the crossroads I will go in the right direction. We must always be ready to go down those desert roads when called to do so. 1 Peter 3:13-17 reminds us, ”And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”