Philip and the African

Day 163: Acts 8:14-40

“And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” - ‭‭Acts‬ ‭8:38‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Everyone seems to love an origin story. How did this all begin? What was the catalyst to see this all take place?

By 2050, many experts believe that Africa will be the dominant continent for Christianity. In 1900, there were an estimated 6 million Christians in Ethiopia alone. By 2050, at the current Christian growth rate, there will be 100 million Ethiopian followers of Jesus. In the entire continent of Africa today, there are an estimated 685 million Christians.

This started with one Hellenistic Jew sharing the gospel with (and baptizing) one African.

In the first century, the common belief about Ethiopia was that it epitomized the ends of the earth. So, this work that Philip was doing was to fulfill what Jesus had commanded the early disciples to do in Acts 1:8.

Do you think you could do something like this? Do you have the confidence or the courage to share Jesus with someone the Holy Spirit keeps leading you towards?

21% of the United States today identifies as “none” when it comes to religious affiliation. We need you to go to them and to many others who have yet to say “yes” to Jesus. The challenge is to go find your chariot and ask God to give you the nerve to say something when it is time.

SIDE NOTE:
Did you miss verse 37? Yeah, me too. The NT is made up of over 5800 Ancient Greek manuscripts. Some are earlier than others. None of the earliest manuscripts include verse 37, but as they copied Luke’s masterpiece, many included it in the later copies. Almost as if to say, “Look, before we baptize anyone, affirmation of belief in Jesus is paramount. We know Philip would have said this.”