Saturday

Good out of Evil - 31 Days in Acts





Yet again a new chapter  Acts ch 8 and the introduction of another believer who also had those 3 Characteristics of Service and was also very willing to speak out for Jesus just as Stephen was in yesterday's chapter.


verses 1-3
Here our attention is brought to Saul who is very active in persecuting the believers but he is not the focus of today's blog post.
Due to Saul and others this persecution led to many believers leaving Jerusalem and going elsewhere.

This meant that along with these believers would be The Holy Spirit, wisdom and good character worth respect.  If people respect you they are more willing to listen to what you have to say and also to trust your words.


verses 4-8
The believers, who were now scattered to many different places, were preaching God’s Word wherever they were.

Philip is mentioned here again; he had been one of the seven chosen in Acts ch. 6 with the 3 characteristics of being filled with the Spirit, of good reputation and wise.
He is the person we are looking at today and he is now in Samaria preaching about Jesus and doing miracles and the result was a city full of joy.

Do we know of any cities today about which we could ever imagine people saying they were full of joy?
People living in a city will have a different opinion of that city compared to visitors and I often remember when we lived just outside Brussels I would hear or read about tourists saying it was a dirty city.  I however didn't see it quite like that.
Different people will see things in different ways as we have already seen in a previous post here where there was 1 event but 2 viewpoints but to have a city described as full of joy must have meant that many people felt that way.

Philip and the Holy Spirit were responsible for the joy in that place.


What an impact on that city because the people heeded what Philip spoke to them.


Do we make an impact where we are?

Sometimes we will know believers have made an impact when we see joy-filled people but other times we will know believers have made an impact when we see opposition to them and attacks on them as has been seen in the last few chapters.





Let's go further in this chapter to see more of the impact Philip had.

verses 26-39
Philip doesn't just stay in one place.
Now we have the meeting with the man from Ethiopia.
Philip is led to meet the man at the exact right time and Philip does not waste any time when he gets there, no Philip gets straight to the point.
Does he know his time is limited?
Is he following the guidance of the Holy spirit?
Perhaps both but I certainly believe the second is true.
There is an urgency for him to know that this person understands what he is reading.
It's not just enough to read the Bible we all must understand the gospel from it.

The Ethiopian is a learned man but yet he is ready to accept that he can't understand without some help and this is why Philip was brought to this place.

What's the result then of Philip being in this particular place?
A man understands the Word of God, believes in the Gospel and gets Baptised.
Again the Gospel and the Holy Spirit have opened a man's eyes because a believer was willing to go and to talk and help him understand.

The Ethiopian was not going to remain there but was going back to his homeland and the understanding he now had was going to go with him.

 "he went on his way rejoicing."  

Yes those were the words written in verse 39 and rejoicing means he was full of joy just like the people in that city in Samaria.


What an impact there could be on another city and country because the Ethiopian heeded 
what Philip spoke to him.


verses 40
Philip's work was not done now because he was then taken off by the Holy Spirit to several other places where I am sure he acted and spoke in similar ways to this.


The Gospel and The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of people.



From the persecution of the believers at the start of this chapter to the rejoicing at the end of it we can see Good out of evil.




I'm trying to read and write about the Book of Acts for 31 Days so please come back and join me for some notes & some thoughts each day. 

As the month goes on each Day's Link will be added in