A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK
By: Frank G. Tunstall, D.Min.
Holy Spirit guidance in Philip’s ministry (Acts 8:26-40).
1. The setting. Philip was obedient first to an angel and then to the Holy Spirit.
An angel appeared to Philip and gave him specific instructions: leave the revival in Samaria and “go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26).
The angel did not tell Philip why or what to expect. Philip obeyed.
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The Holy Spirit guides and empowers Jesus’ followers.
The Ethiopian had made the 2000-mile trip most probably to worship in Jerusalem. In this story he was in his chariot, beginning the long trip back home. He and Philip arrived at the same time at the desert road that left Jerusalem and went south to Gaza.
Philip’s story has always fascinated me. Samaria is about 30 miles from Jerusalem. I have asked myself many times about the probability of Philip walking some thirty miles, a three-day walk at best, and then connecting perfectly with the Ethiopian in his chariot who was beginning his long trip home. Philip and the Ethiopian had never met and neither of them had any idea what was ahead. To the natural mind, it was a search for a needle in a haystack.
Ponder the timing required to make that happen and you will have a fresh new insight into how the Holy Spirit gives instructions, empowers, and perfectly controls timing. Just amazing.
No “haystack” exists that the Holy Spirit cannot find the “needle!”
THINK ABOUT IT. Would you, dear reader, get in your car and drive three days south, not knowing why you were doing it? All you know is what the angel said.
“On his way [Philip] met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:26-28). He obviously was a person of some wealth because he traveled in a chariot and could afford to own a copy of the scroll of Isaiah. He was probably a Jew because he could read the Hebrew scroll. This Ethiopian was sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah the prophet when the needle was found in the haystack. Yes, with the Holy Spirit, any “needle” can be found in any “haystack!”
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Philip was quick to obey the Holy Spirit.
After Philip and the Ethiopian were in the same place, the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip, this time giving him specific instructions, “Go to that chariot and stay near it” (Acts 8:29).
Philip obeyed in a run, and “heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.” Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30).
“How can I,” the man answered, “unless someone explains it to me?” (Acts 8:31). The man invited Philip to climb into his chariot to sit with him.
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Philip became an evangelist and teacher in the desert with an audience of one person.
Sometimes an individual’s greatest accomplishment in life can be to reach one person for Jesus Christ. For example, Mordecai Ham a Baptist evangelist (1878-1959) led Billy Graham to Christ.
In Philip’s case it all happened in the desert, a very unlikely place. The eunuch was reading this passage:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth” (Acts 8:32-33; Isaiah 53:7-8 KJV).
Philip witnessed to the Ethiopian the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He no doubt showed the Ethiopian step by step how Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth, Israel’s rejected Messiah.
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Philip had a baptismal service for one person.
The eunuch received the Gospel and Philip baptized him when they came to a site that had likely been one of Solomon’s pools. Philip’s experience is another example that shows how the New Testament was embedded in the Old Testament. Then, when viewed through the lens of the cross of Jesus, the prophecies step into the bright sunlight of revelation in the New Covenant.
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The Gospel Goes International.
This story embraces an amazing God-moment for the eunuch and for Philip. It shows Philip receiving specific instructions from an angel. It also shows the Holy Spirit talking to Philip giving him clear instructions, and it presents Philip as a willing and obedient vessel. The result was the Gospel spread to Ethiopia.
“When they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea” (Acts 8:39-40).
Dr. Luke does not explain what is meant by “the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away” so that “the eunuch did not see him again,” but without question it had to be miraculous.
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The gospel must be preached in out of the way locations too.
This includes even in desert places of blistering heat and searing sand. Moses lived 40 years in Midian, in the Arabian desert (Exodus 2:15). John the Baptist preached in the desert of Judea (Matthew 3:1). After John baptized Jesus, the Lord spent forty days in the wilderness, in a long fight with the devil that Jesus won (Luke 4:2). Saul of Tarsus lived in the desert of Arabia for three years (Galatians 1:17).
If the Holy Spirit is leading you to go to the desert, dear reader, take with you the Spirit’s river of refreshing living water that is in you, and let the Holy Spirit guide you in pouring it out. Yes, the hearts of people in their despondency, even despair, often feel like they are living in the desert. But the grace of God can turn the desert into a garden of roses (Isaiah 35:1).
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The Holy Spirit is in the business, dear reader, of making your desert place an oasis too!
