Acts 8:26–40

Family Bible Study
Professor of Religion, Chair of Department of Religion, Samford University

Philip: Faith Leads to Witnessing
Acts 8:26–40
In this passage of Scripture, we discover the mandate, message and motivation of Christ’s mission to make disciples and baptize them into the life of the church.

Follow the Spirit (26–29)
The first reference to Philip in Acts 6 speaks of him as a man of “good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” He was one of the first deacons who were set aside to serve the church in the name of Christ. He was a disciple open to whatever opportunities of service opened up. Whether it was ensuring that the poor and hungry were fed or that one of the first Africans was won to Christ as a believer, Philip’s life was open to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s ministry was demonstrated in both word and deed. Our Lord expressed a concern and a compassion for the needs of human beings as loved by God physically, emotionally and spiritually. As Christians, we are called by Christ to have hearts set on fire by the spiritual needs of those who are lost, without Christ, with no hope. We are called to participate in Christ’s messianic mission of announcing the kingdom of God and in seeking to care for those who need the healing and restoring love of God most deeply.

Tell Others about Jesus (30–35)
The death of Stephen — as the first Christian martyr — led, in the providence of God, to a time of expansion in the mission of the church. Philip was part of that movement of God’s Spirit, moving beyond Jerusalem and Judea into Samaria, where he went and “proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip.”

Philip grasped opportunities to speak. He spoke both to crowds in Samaria and he was willing to travel to meet one man who needed to hear the message of salvation. The task of evangelism is simply the work of telling people the good news about Jesus Christ and demonstrating in word and deed His love and concern for the needs of His creation.

The particular focus of Philip’s message concerning the good news of Jesus was on the death of Christ. Using the words of Isaiah 53 that the early church believed was a messianic prophecy concerning Jesus, Philip spoke of how the death of Jesus was God’s provision for the needs of sinners.

No church will ever be a growing church or will turn the world upside down unless it possesses a vigorous grass-roots concern for personal outreach to a non-Christian culture just where it is. Are we people who have a similar passion and who take delight in “telling the good news about Jesus?” Let’s be honest — if we don’t do it, who else will? We fool ourselves in thinking that the church will just grow automatically — God’s hand of blessing comes in a sovereign way, but it comes upon churches who go out and tell others about Christ.

Help New Believers Profess Their Faith (36–40)
We sometimes use the expression “by hook or by crook” to indicate the desire to attain certain ends by any means possible — it conjures up ideas of deceit. Yet, originally, it was used of the two edges of the church’s ministry — “by hook” referring to the work of evangelism as those who are fishers of men and “by crook,” which spoke of the care and nurture of the flock of Christ by those who were shepherds of the sheep. We forget that twin ministry of the church at our peril. We are called to ministry “by hook and by crook.”

Philip was concerned about the care of young Christians, and one way in which he demonstrated this to the newly converted Ethiopian was to ensure that he followed the command of Christ to be baptized. So we read that following his profession of faith, “they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.”

As churches, we desperately need men and women like Philip who are “full of the Holy Spirit and faith” who genuinely love people and are themselves devoted to Christ and rejoice to encourage others to continue in the pathway and pilgrimage of discipleship.