How important is one individual person? Other than to their immediate family and perhaps a few close friends, someone might not seem like much. Certainly not to any politician or celebrity. They don’t matter to the business world. So often to just about everyone we are just one small face in the crowd that isn’t important. With the multiple billions of people on earth, do we really matter? We might even wonder if we matter all that much to God. In our Scripture today from the Book of Acts we will see just how important one person was to God. Let’s take a look.
As our Scripture passage opens the Apostle Philip was in the middle of conducting a revival in Samaria. He was preaching, witnessing, and ministering in that location with results (Acts 8:4-8). Right in the middle of that successful work, the Lord instructed Philip to leave and go head south down the road leaving Jerusalem (vs. 26). That might not seem to make much sense to Philip. The revival was going strong, and then right in the middle of that, to get up and leave? But God had other plans for him right then. Others could continue that ministry. God needed Philip for something else, and he obeyed the Holy Spirit’s leading. Philip didn’t waste time arguing or debating with God. He got up and went. If he had wasted time arguing with God’s instructions, dragging his heels, or waiting just a few days to participate in the ongoing revival some more, Philip would have missed the divine encounter that he was to have with just one man, one person who was important to God.
Philip headed down the road that led south out of Jerusalem, and after a while he was met with a man being driven in a chariot. This was not the war-type chariot, but more of a vehicle with one driver and room for one or two passengers. In this chariot was a man, a eunuch from the courts of Queen Candace of Ethiopia, who held a position of authority as treasurer, like the Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury. This man had a heart that was seeking God (vs. 27-28). He had come to Jerusalem to worship God, and now on his way back home he was reading out loud from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 53.
The Holy Spirit instructed Philip to come up to the chariot, and he followed His leading and began a discussion from where the man was (vs. 30-35). The eunuch had questions about Isaiah, and Philip explained how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecies. He started where the eunuch’s concerns were focused, and he brought the Gospel to bear on those concerns. The eunuch had a heart that was hungry for God, and the Holy Spirit used the words of an obedient Philip to bring him to faith in the Lord Jesus. Some people think that the Old Testament is not relevant today, but Philip led a man to faith in Jesus Christ by using the Old Testament. Jesus is found in the pages of both the Old and New Testaments. God’s entire Word is applicable to all people in all ages.
After accepting Jesus as his Savior, the eunuch desired to be baptized, and without any hesitation, without any argument in his mind that this man was a Gentile, Philip immediately agreed that he should be baptized (vs. 36-38). Baptism does not save anyone, but it is a sign of identification with Jesus Christ, and with the Christian community. In baptism we identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and begin a new way of living in His Name (Romans 6:3-6).
This Ethiopian eunuch was quite possibly the first Gentile to officially be baptized. Some other Gentiles had believed in Jesus, and were recipients of His miracles, but this fellow was the first recorded Gentile convert to believe and be baptized in the early church. This would not have happened if Philip hadn’t obeyed the Holy Spirit’s leading. Philip was available. He was led by the Spirit, and he was obedient. After he arrived by this man’s chariot, he waited for a proper opening to begin witnessing. Philip was tactful and then specific, and then he followed up with baptism. The Bible never espouses just being a “silent witness”, where one just lives a “good Christian life” and assumes that others will ask them about Jesus if they are interested. Instead, the Bible says “faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17). Those who want to use the “silent witness” are either timid, lazy, or out and out disobedient to God. Because Philip didn’t choose to just be a silent witness, but was obedient to God, Ethiopia was opened up to the Gospel. There has been a Christian community there ever since.
As we see in our Scripture today, God cares about individuals, about even one single person. He loved and cared about the Ethiopian eunuch so much that He sent Philip so far out of his way to lead him to Jesus. He was just one man, not a whole big city. God will always go to any length to save just one person. Are you that one person that He is seeking to save today? If so, turn to Jesus. Or are you someone that the Lord can use to reach that one person today? Be available and obedient.
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