Acts 8:26-39 And the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza… Note here — I. THE PRACTICAL CARE OF GOD FOR THE INDIVIDUAL SOULS OF MEN. 1. The object of all this whole transaction was one single conversion. Not only will God have all men to be saved, but He will have each man separately to be saved — showing the universality and the minuteness of His love and care. 2. Through such single agencies God's chief and most abiding work is ever wrought in our world. Each soul that is really brought thus to God becomes in its turn a little centre of light and life. We must never count any time wasted that is spent upon one human being. And let no man count his own soul's culture a thing of trifling moment. He, too, may be the evangelist, if not of a nation, yet of a family or of some one precious soul. II. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALWAYS READY FOR DUTY. 1. Philip had to take a long journey in quest of one convert, and without knowing that he was to make one convert. Oh, what excuses should we have made! How should we have urged the disproportion between the means and the end; She distance, the difficulty, the improbability, the waste of strength and time; till we should have persuaded ourselves that we never were called to it. 2. God does not now speak to us by an angel, yet there is often something within which says, There is such or such a person whom you might benefit. And these inward promptings are easily resisted; but they are the tests of our Christianity. They say to us, Here is something which you might do for your Saviour. Perhaps it may fail; but there is a chance also of its succeeding. If you feel your debt to Him as you ought you will go and do it. If a man always find an excuse for putting it aside and is glad when something makes it impossible, he has upon him the mark of the unprofitable servant, who was satisfied to dig in the earth and hide his Lord's money. 3. On the other hand, how frequently is an effort of this kind consciously rewarded! You have roused yourself to leave your warm fireside; you have walked through rain or snow to the poor man's cottage, and you regarded it all as a penance; how often have you found that the visit was singularly seasonable; and it was your happiness to be an evident instrument in God's hand for the refreshment or restoration of a soul. III. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALWAYS IN PURSUIT OF GOOD. 1. The Ethiopian was studying God's Word: eager to hail a new teacher. To him that hath shall be given. This man had an Old Testament. Many of us would have said — for we say it now — I can make nothing of it; it only puzzles me; but the Ethiopian, like Simeon, like Nathanael, like older saints still, desired to look into the mysteries of the ancient Scriptures. And therefore they saw what to others was mere confusion. There is a growth in knowledge proportionate to a growth in grace. 2. Many of us err grievously in this respect. We have no patience in the things of God. We take it for granted that in God's truth a thing must either be self-evident or unimportant. In this one, this greatest science of all, we consider study superfluous. IV. THE IMPORTANCE, BOTH FOR STRENGTH AND FOR COMFORT, OF HOLDING A SIMPLE GOSPEL. Many of us pass through life without one single experience of the effect of the gospel upon this stranger. We are so mistaught, or else so slow to learn; we are so afraid of presumption, and so fond of adding something to the work and word of God, that we never reach anything that can call itself the glad tidings of Jesus, or send us forth on our way rejoicing. What Philip preached, what the Ethiopian received, was something which needed but one conversation for its statement, and but one hour for its reception. Out of this gospel flows all peace and all strength. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. |
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