When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.” vs. 39
Acts 8:36-40
Jesus had twelve disciples but Luke doesn’t say much about the majority of them in his Acts of the Apostles. The Acts stories are mostly about Peter, John and Paul–and Paul wasn’t even one of the Twelve. But the story Luke tells about Philip is a gem. Out of the blue Philip connects with an Ethiopian Jew who was an official in the court of Queen Candace, and their brief conversation along the way culminates with the eunuch’s baptism. At that point in the story Philip disappears and the Ethiopian goes merrily on his way back to the court of the queen. Nothing more is said–but we do know that not too long after this there was a thriving colony of Christians in Ethiopia. We can presume the eunuch had something to do with this. That same sort of thing was happening all around the Middle East–Paul wasn’t the only apostolic missionary. The stories didn’t get written down, but we know preachers were on the road, and we know they penetrated far beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire and baptizing was done even as far away as Mongolia and India. There was an unparalleled appeal to the good news of Jesus, and it spread quickly wherever it was proclaimed. And it continues to spread today!
Thought for the Day: Why is the pace of evangelism slowing in North America?
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