Philip is one of the first businessmen who were commissioned to preach the gospel. He was in the city of Samaria preaching, seeing many miracles that took place, and attracted crowds. Despite his success there, and God’s moving in the city, an angel spoke to him and told him to leave Samaria and go to a desert road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza. In obedience he left, though he may have questioned why he’s called to leave in the midst of success, and met an Ethiopian eunuch who wanted to have the Scriptures explained to him. Philip did explain to him, and led him to the Lord, baptizing him in a nearby lake. Moments later, he was transported many miles to Azotus, and he preached Christ along the way to Caesara.

What are the learning points from this seemingly innocuous passage?

1. Look for Chances to Be a Blessing

Philip’s destination is in fact Caesara, but along the way, he was preaching Christ to anyone he meets. Now, there are many times when we hear people saying that they cannot participate in some event of outreach, service, or activity, because it takes their time away from their work at hand, or their studies. God has indeed called us to be good stewards of our time and resources. It is just as important to learn to say yes or no, and we must be faithful to our employers, parents, teachers, and etc, if we do not have the freedom to take time away. However, sometimes our work or studies end up justifying our lack of obedience in the disguise of stewardship.

However, we need to understand an important point. If our ministry and preaching of the gospel is limited to only special days and special events, if anything seemingly important crops up, we may just shelve it or miss it in order of priority. However, what God has commissioned us to do in sharing the gospel should not be limited as such. We need to learn to minister along the way, just as Philip did.

Many times, opportunities are there in our daily life, if we were looking out for it. Hence, praying for favour and open doors at the start of every day is important, and it tunes us to look out for such chances. A simple look at Jesus’ life will give us similar learning points. Jesus, as we can easily read from the Gospels, performed many miracles for the people. However, very rarely did He actively seek out someone to heal, except Lazarus perhaps; Jesus usually was traveling to a particular destination, and along the way there, He met people with various needs, and they may not even be seeking Him for help sometimes, and He blesses, heals, delivers, cleanses, and so on.

2. Labour for God's Cause Brings Blessing

Often, we may think that if we give our time outside of work or studies, our work or studies may be affected. Hence, in the light of our wrong priorities, we tend to give up things related to the church or ministry.
However, we need to recognize that when we work for God’s purposes, His blessings will come to us. God had redeemed the time for Philip by supernaturally transporting him to the next place he was to be. Although we may not expect God to do such things, but we can expect God to multiply our time. He can redeem our time in simple ways – by making us more efficient, for instance. If the Lord uses us, needing us to give outside of our normal work or study life, He will make up that time somehow. God can provide financially to working people who may suffer a loss of income. He can provide wisdom to students who lost time to study. God is sovereign and above our petty priorities.

Another form of blessing is the divinely blessed rest that comes from God. In the verse above, God tells us that if we labour, our sleep is sweet, which itself is a blessing from God, whereas even if we strive and obtain riches, it may deprive us of rest. How many times have we strived and worked for something secular, be it work or studies, and find that we can’t sleep at night? Rest is not a given, and is in itself, a blessing. Jesus also laboured. If we look at the Gospels, we will notice that sometimes Jesus accomplishes a thousand things in a day seemingly, and when He is done, He will rest, whether in sleep or in prayer.

We need to be mindful of our priorities, and at the same time, be aware that any opportunity may present itself, and we need to have an ‘along the way’ mentality, such that we will be alert to bless or share the gospel when we have the chance. We also need to change our paradigm and understand that when we labour for God, He will restore to us our apparent ‘losses’. God can give provision, and He can redeem the time in many ways. The best blessing would be the peaceful and restorative rest that comes from God when we labour for His sake.

Further Reflections