Bible reading: Genesis 35-36; Matthew 23:21-39
“And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him”. – Acts 8:31
This excerpt is from the Ethiopia eunuch that was returning from Jerusalem and was reading from the prophet Isaiah, But did not understand. He didn’t know who these verses were about or to what events they were referring. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” This man needed someone to meet him where he was. And that’s what Philip did. Starting with that very passage of Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
He was able to take that passage about the messiah and point the man to his sins and need for God to rescue him. He was able to tell how Jesus perfectly filled that role of salvation for him, how He died and rose from the dead to conquer his sins and bring him to eternal life. That singular passage and question about it was the gateway for Philip to expand on everything that God had promised and done for man. Through Philip, God met this Ethiopian Eunuch where he was and brought him to where he needed to be (saved).
God does the same for you and me, He meets us where we are, in our sinful state, convict us, forgave us and brought us to Himself just as Apostle Paul narrated in 1 Timothy 1:15-16, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”
In our communities today, how many people are out there like the Ethiopian who spoke with Philip? How many people need to have God’s word for them explained? How many people need God to meet them where they are and to explain these simple-yet-deep truths of God’s justice and his mercies towards them? These are the ways God meets people where they are.
God may not tell us to go hang out by a parked vehicle and eavesdrop waiting for an opportunity to speak to an individual or people. But He sends people into our lives with spiritual needs that must be met. He sends people in our families, in our jobs, in our neighborhoods who need to have someone explain to them what God has done. He often meets people where they are through you and me. We have to share God’s truths with those around us. And in that way God reveals to them the reality of the law which man has fall short of and the prevailing good news of Jesus’ forgiveness that brings salvation.
Prayer: Father, thank You for the grace of knowing you and sharing your truth with others.
Pastor Alfred Samuel