Reading
Acts 8:4-40
Drawing Near
As the church grew, the believers had to depend on God's Spirit more than ever for direction and wisdom. Think of a time when you knew with certainty that God was leading you to do something. How did you know? What happened?
The Context
Acts 1:8 is one of the most significant verses in the entire book. It not only serves as a blueprint for God's global plan but also functions as a kind of outline for Luke's inspired record. Chapters 1-7 detail the action of Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem. Beginning with the persecution led by Saul in chapter 8, the gospel began to spread as Christ had commanded.
Luke recorded Philip's trip into Samaria and his ministry there in order to reveal the marvelous truth that Jesus, the promised Jewish Messiah, was also the King and Savior of the Gentiles. The message of Christ was and is a worldwide gospel. All nations and languages would be invited and included in the kingdom of God (see Isaiah 56:3; Daniel 7:14). Philip was sovereignly instructed to suddenly leave a booming ministry in Samaria to go south into the desert. There he met a prominent official from the court of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, reading (but not understanding) the prophet Isaiah. The succeeding story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch provides a wonderful picture of God's global love and His surprising plan to get the good news of Christ to those who have never heard. Even though there is opposition, the underlying truth of this section of Acts is clear: Nothing can stop God's powerful and eternal plan to fill heaven with worshippers from "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," (Revelation 7:9).
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