Philip: Consistency - Acts 8

The job of winning souls for Christ can be compared to the job of a master gardener. Without consistency there will be no success. My father had the time and patience to grow a beautiful and productive garden first because he knew that it was necessary for our family to have the food we needed to exist; and second because he had learned from experience that each step in the plan was just as important as the one before or after.

The ground had to be tilled in order to remove the impaction and clods and to bring the moisture to the surface that would permit the seed to germinate consistently. The outcome will always depend upon the quality of seed that are planted. He would save seed from his best vines and stalks to be used the following year or maybe two years and then he would buy new seed that had been improved and had been grown in another location. Garden seed are somewhat like cattle in that inbreeding will destroy quality.

Proper minerals to enhance quick and steady growth had to be added at the appropriate time. [In our day this usually meant the spreading of manure from the barn or chicken litter.] The moisture had to be maintained either by natural rain fall or by irrigation. [In our day this usually meant the hauling of water in barrels from Raft Creek.] Weeds, grass, and insects were the tormentors and they never ceased to appear; especially when the fertilizer and water was applied to the soil. So there was a continuous need to cultivate, hoe and poison over and over as needed to prevent impaction and to remove the tormentors. There was a time schedule involved and to miss one of the processes would always diminish the needed results.

Witnessing to lost people is somewhat like growing a garden and far too many of us are not consistent about it, if the gardener never plants the seed, he will only harvest from the tares. If we never approach the lost with the message of Christ we cannot expect to harvest a soul. There are many processes, ways or opportunities that appear each day that we must take advantage of and consistently use as our means of starting our soul winning program. Samuel Gordon once said, “The way from God to a human heart is through a human heart.”

The most important preparation of the groundwork is that we live the life of example before our neighbors, friends and especially the unsaved that watch our every move. We must be consistent in living for Christ each day. Most of us are not consistent about taking advantage of every opportunity we have to witness. Why? I think it is our habit of following the crowd…doing as others do. We just don’t think about sharing the gospel while at work or play, at the grocery store or barbershop, at the gym or on the golf course, and especially to strangers that we may meet on a plane, bus, or in a motel lobby. The most important question we may ever ask a stranger is—“do you know Jesus Christ?” Oh yes, we may receive a caddy answer, or be completely ignored; but remember this—the blood of that person will not be on our hands. Do we have examples of how? Yes. “ Stephen and Phillip.”

Luke started in Acts to give us a narrative of the young church. Last Sunday he interrupted the story to tell us about Stephen, the first deacon and one of the greatest preachers. Today he has interrupted again to tell us about Phillip, the second deacon, and one of the greatest evangelist. Whether it is preaching, evangelism, or just witnessing, the key to Godly approved ministry is always going to be the combination of consistency & dedication. Leading the lost to Christ requires that we be ready when the opportunity arises, that we be able to recognize the opportunity, and be ready and fearless, always able to know and use God’s word and claim the power of the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to clear up a point that could become disputable. Above I stated that Stephen was the second of the deacons chosen to serve. In Matt. 10, Mark 3, Luke 6 and Acts 1 you will find that Philip is listed as one of the twelve apostles. The question is, could this Philip, the apostle be the same as the Philip here in Acts 8? I don’t think so, because in Acts 8:1 we are told that the persecution caused everyone [except the apostles] to leave their homes and run for their lives. This Philip was one that left Jerusalem and went to the city of Samaria where he proclaimed Christ; therefore he was not Philip the disciple, but the deacon. Also, in 8:14, it states that the apostles at Jerusalem heard about Philips success in Samaria they sent Peter and John there to support the new Christians.

When the white men discovered America, they found a great number of different tribes of Indians who all already had their gods. They had great faith and worshipped sincerely but in error because they had never been introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Philip reached Samaria he found that a great number of these people had already chosen the man they would follow because of the magic things he was able to do. His name was Simon, a magician or sorcerer who dominated the thinking of the Samaritans and had many thinking that he had the power of God working for him. In this example we see that people have always been willing to trust the demonstration of evil power simply because it is convincing and they do not have the answer as to why it works.

Here is another example, and a perfect explanation as to why God gave these early disciples, and preachers [who had all been in the presence of Christ] the ability to perform miracles. Without this ability, Philip would have been in trouble trying to get the people to believe him instead of Simon. Philip used the power of the Holy Spirit to perform greater miracles and the people believed him, accepted Christ and were baptized.

When Simon saw that he couldn’t beat him he joined him—but it was only through pretence and without repentance and belief. The way we know this is that when Peter, James, and John came to Samaria to support Philip they continued to perform great miracles and Simon approached them with the idea of buying from them this new power that made these things possible. It is easy to deduce from his intentions that he was only interested in building himself up so he could compete with the work of the Holy Spirit. The bible is so very clear on this point—the Holy Spirit, fellowship with Jesus Christ, nor the plan of salvation can be bought; it is received by grace [free] through faith [personal and individually] and no other way.

It may be of interest here to note the similarity between two similar stories one in the OT and this one in the NT. There was an occasion when Joseph was called before Pharaoh, in Egypt and put to test. Moses cast his staff on the floor of the King’s temple and it became a snake. This did not amuse the Pharaoh one bit, he simply demanded his magicians to do likewise. They were able to match the incident and produced snakes that immediately crawled about on the floor. So nothing was decided. No one had the advantage. Until—Moses’ snake ate the snakes that the magicians had produced. Minds changed, and even the Pharaoh was made to believe that Moses had a greater power though unseen.

This is exactly what happened here in Samaria, Simon had his snakes working for him until Philip and the disciples showed up with miracles that were far superior to those performed by Simon. Some ask, why do these kinds of miracles not appear today? To me, the answer is very simple; we have the Inspired Word of God that tells us that God has these great powers. It tells us that God used miracles to prove himself in olden times and we now know that they existed and that it is not necessary for us to have them demonstrated to us in order for us to have the faith to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we have his word, we know and do not need demonstrations, only faith.

Evangelists today are unhappy when the stadium is not full, and when the offering does not meet their expectation. I wonder how many would go if their instructions was as the one given to Philip by the angel that simply told him to hit the desert road south of Samaria that goes down to Gaza? Philip did not hesitate, question the size of congregation that would await him or ask what his pay would be. The incident tells us that he could preach to the multitudes in the big city or to one lonely eunuch; all he needed was a soul searching for his master.

There is a miracle here that could well happen today to any of us. Phillip. a stranger, was invited to ride along in this royal chariot. A sinner may ask you to ride with them to Little Rock tomorrow. The rest of the opportunity must be created by you. Phillip climbed into the chariot and found the man trying to read and understand the passage in Isaiah where he prophesied about the coming Messiah and how his own people would take his life rather than follow him. He did not understand it but he wanted to and he was ready for someone to explain it to him.

He not only accepted the Lord but demanded that Philip baptize him in water that was found along the road, a pond or river. Now the eunuch had not read and studied the bible as we have so there was a need to make this incident in his life one that he would never forget. The Holy Spirit reached down and lifted Philip out into space and this had to make an impression on the eunuch.

If you go to Little Rock with your friend and on the way home you are able to win him to Christ, do not expect to be lifted out of his car and vanish into space…it will not happen. But, what you must do is convince him that the word of God is true and is for his guidance. Tell him that he will find everything necessary to strengthen his faith and help him to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There will be no more signs to guide you, just read and believe God’s Word which is the road map of the way.