Readings
- Acts 8:4-40
- Isaiah 53
- Acts 9:32-43
Prayer
Pray… that you would be able to share the gospel confidently.
Day 328 – Peter – Ethiopian eunuch
Discussing Isaiah 53, a 700-year old prophecy about Jesus
- The attention shifts to Philip today, hearing about he shared the gospel with people. Some time will have passed by now – maybe many years – since Jesus ascended into heaven, and the job of sharing the good news about Jesus continued day by day. It was now spreading outside of Jerusalem and far into the wider country (and indeed, beyond).
- Where did Philip go first? Was the message of the gospel accepted there? What do you remember about Samaria?
- The story of Simon the Magician (or Sorcerer) is interesting. Here was a man who practised ungodly practices. Are you surprised the gospel convicted him in Acts 8:13?
- What, however, did Simon want? What did he offer Peter? What was Peter’s angry response?
- We don’t know if Simon truly believed, or if he was truly repentant in verse 25. That’s not for us to guess. What does it challenge us to think about though?
- Philip met an Ethiopian eunuch. A eunuch is someone who has been castrated early in life. He would probably have been a man who deeply thought about, and possibly honoured, God, but wasn’t a Jew himself. What verses did Philip overhear the eunuch read?
- The verses were some of the clearest in the Old Testament about Jesus, taken from the familiar words of Isaiah 53. Philip used this opportunity to “tell him the good news about Jesus”. As a non-Jew, how exciting do you think the news about Jesus would have been for this man?
- The Holy Spirit is at work in these passages. The word the eunuch was reading led to the opportunity for Philip. They just so happened to be passing by some water too; a very rare thing in that desert region. You won’t have been able to miss the Spirit taking Philip away at the end, either!
- Did you enjoy reading Isaiah 53 again? As you consider the words in it, think about how you would use these verses to share the news of Jesus to someone today. If you wouldn’t use this passage, which passage might you chose?
Philip took an opportunity to share the gospel in a way that the Ethiopian eunuch would have been able to understand. We can see how the gospel message is something that is available to all: here we see a man from a far off country, who wasn’t a Jew, and was a eunuch too. We’ll build on that more tomorrow.
Philip was ready to answer his questions. You’ll have had questions from your friends about what you believe in. How ready – and able – are you to answer those questions?
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