A Devotional Thought From The Acts Of The Apostles

And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.     Acts 8:39

     The story is strange enough. An Ethiopian man in a chariot in the desert, who is reading a passage from Jewish religious scriptures, runs across a bystander on the side of the road who virtually appeared out of nowhere. As his chariot rolls by he is reading aloud and the stranger by the road calls out (in our modern vernacular) “Do you get it?” “How can I? I don’t have a teacher.” Implying that understanding biblical prophets is very hard without any biblical background.

     So Philip climbs up into the chariot and takes the opportunity to answer the man’s question; “Is the writer speaking of himself or of some other man?” Philip knows Isaiah is writing of Jesus. So he explains it to the traveler, who believes right there and then in Jesus and receives Him into his heart. To give the new believer the opportunity to confess this newfound faith, Philip baptizes him by immersion in a desert oasis.

     When they come up out of the water the Holy Spirit of God works a miracle, and Philip disappears, and the new Christian never sees him again. You would think that this might make him nervous. Did all this really happen? Does it really matter? Did I do something wrong and the preacher gave up on me? Will my friends believe this story? But instead he went on his way rejoicing. His salvation in Christ was real! Even though Philip’s disappearance was unexpected, and probably a little disconcerting, the Ethiopian just continued to rejoice in his salvation, and went home a new creation, a new Ethiopian, a new government official, and a new person, with a new life in Christ. His baptism and ours is a symbol of resurrection in Christ, and no matter what happens in our lives we can go on rejoicing.