You’re reading ACTS: LESSONS IN FAITH, by Eric Elder, featuring thirty inspiring devotionals based on the lives of the very first followers of Christ. Also available in paperback and eBook formats in our bookstore for a donation of any size!

Scripture Reading: Acts 8

If God has given you a special gift to help people understand the Bible, I’d like to encourage you today to use that gift.  You may not even realize it’s a gift.  You may think that reading and understanding the Bible just comes naturally to you.  But I’d like to show you what a gift it really is.

In Acts chapter 8, an angel of the Lord told Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, to go to the road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza.  Along the way, Philip encountered a man from Ethiopia who was sitting in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah.

The Ethiopian was an important official in charge of the treasury for Candace, the Queen of Ethiopia.  He had been to Jerusalem to worship and was now on his way back home.  The Spirit told Philip to go near the man’s chariot, and when he did, he heard the man reading from Isaiah the prophet.  Philip asked:  “Do you understand what you are reading?”  To which the Ethiopian replied:

“How can I, unless someone explains it to me?”  (Acts 8:31) 

So the Ethiopian invited Philip to come up and sit with him.  Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told the man the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled together along the road, the Ethiopian understood so well that he said, “Look here is water.  Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”  So the Ethiopian stopped the chariot, was baptized, and went on his way rejoicing!

God had given Philip special insight into the Scriptures.  He had exposed him to the teachings and the life of Jesus in a way that Philip was able to help someone else understand why Jesus had to come and die.

The Ethiopian was smart (he was in charge of the Queen’s treasury).  He loved God (he was just returning from a lengthy trip to worship in Jerusalem).  And he was eager to learn spiritual truths (he was reading the book of Isaiah).  But he still needed someone to explain the Scriptures to him.  So God sent Philip to do just that.

Faith explains.  When God gives you the faith to believe and to understand what He’s done through Christ, He wants you to share what you’ve learned with others.

I remember flying to California one time, hoping to share with someone I knew there about what Christ had done for me.  But even though I tried to bring up the topic throughout the weekend, God never opened the door for me to walk through and share.  As I flew home, my plane made a stop in another city before I reached home.  A man  boarded the plane, sat down next to me, and proceeded to open up a brand new Bible to the first page of the New Testament.

I glanced up to see his face and couldn’t believe it!  It was a friend of mine from college who had been involved in some of the same things that Christ had eventually delivered me from!  He was just as shocked to see me as I was to see him.  When I asked about the Bible, he said his mother was worried about him so had bought this Bible for him.  He thought he’d give it a try and had sat down to open it for the very first time.  I knew what God wanted me to do.

We spent the rest of the flight talking about his life and talking about the Scriptures.  I started with the passage where he had opened his Bible and I explained how Christ had delivered me from the very things with which my friend still struggled.

Although I don’t know what happened to him after we left the plane, I do know that God answered my prayers to be able to share what was on my heart.  And He answered my friend’s prayers (or at least his mothers!) that someone would help him to understand what he was reading.

If God has given you the ability to understand the Scriptures, know that it’s a gift, and know that God wants you to use that gift to explain those Scriptures to those around you.

Prayer: Father, help me make the most of every opportunity You give me to explain to others what You’ve revealed to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.