Sunday April 12, 2020
The Great Grace Chariot Race
It has been said that God’s will will never take you to where His grace will not sustain you. That is absolutely true. In fact, His grace is completely sufficient for every moment of our lives. I guess the burning question is, “Will I trust in that grace?” Well, we are about to meet a man who did just that…his name is Philip.
Now Philip was a lesser known member of the original twelve disciples. Born in Bethsaida, he had most likely traveled with Peter and his brother Andrew to Bethany to hear John the Baptist preach the message of repentance. Oh, but it became more than just a boy’s night on the town. It was here that Jesus called Phillip to be one of His disciples.
He traveled with Jesus, learning lesson after lesson, usually through one of the other 11 disciples. But on one occasion Phillip was to learn a personal lesson. At the feeding of the 5,000, (at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry) Phillip was asked a question by Jesus: “Where do we buy bread so that so many may eat?” (Jn.6:5). This was a test and here was his answer:
Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (Jn.6:7)
Seems like he wasn’t sure about God’s perfect sufficiency…but he was learning. By the time we get to the end to Jesus’s earthly ministry he had apparently learned a lot! It was during the Last Supper that that Phillip made this request, “Lord, show us the Father, for it is enough for us.” (Jn.14:8) Phillip learned a thing or two about God’s sufficiency!
After the death of Jesus, Phillip began a very powerful preaching journey that would take him to a most unusual audience…an audience of one…an Ethiopian eunuch. Now Phillip had been preaching and had been a part of a great revival in Samaria. For him to leave a city where he had seen many converts and miracles to a faraway desert road must have been a staggering change!
Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. (Acts 8:26-28)
This Ethiopian held a leadership position in the court of Candace. He was apparently a Jewish convert but was not allowed in the full Jewish community. He had been in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. His love of Jehovah must have been great for him to ask for time off to go to the feast! As he was returning home he was “sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah.”
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, join and overtake this chariot.” (Acts 8:29)
The word join literally means, “to be glued to.” Phillip was to stick to this eunuch until he was released by God. Just an aside…I wonder how many of us truly stick to someone God has put in our path. I suspect we pull ourselves away for various selfish reasons. Ok, back to the story. (See WORD WISDOM for a deeper study of join)
A couple of things must have gone through Phillip’s mind:
- This man was a stranger
- He was a man of rank and position
- He was engaged in deep thought and reading
- And the chariot was probably moving
But notice Phillip’s response…he ran.
So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30)
There was no hesitation in obeying the voice and command of the Holy Spirit. Whatever his reluctances, his questioning, and his possible fear, he humbled himself in obedience. When he reached the chariot he heard the Ethiopian reading out loud. He asked a simple question and received a very humble response.
And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.” (Acts 8:31-33)
What beautiful verses to be reading! Phillip began to preach Jesus! He had been with the Truth…who better to preach the truth than someone who had been with Him?! He led the Ethiopian to Jesus. So powerful was this salvation experience, that the eunuch wanted to be baptized then and there!
Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:36-40)
Wait! Water in the desert? Remember where they were…on a desert road. Only God! Well as quickly as the Spirit led Phillip here, He led him to another place…only after his purpose had been fulfilled. Phillip went on to preach throughout more and more cities.
So where was grace in all of this? It was everywhere!!! The Ethiopian eunuch was on the right road, reading the right scripture, with the right messenger providing the right message, with the right equipping for the right time!
If God would do all of this for the salvation of just one longing heart, how much more will He do for you concerning the longing in your heart? God will always provide grace for your chariot race! Phillip learned this lesson on the sufficiency of God’s amazing grace…so should we! Amen, and amen!
