“Do you Understand What you are Reading?”

 

 

 

It was the middle of the day and not a cloud in sight.  I looked up into the blue sky and could not see any stars.  I turned this way and that, but nary a star could I see.  You might perceive the reason; it was because it took the darkness of night to reveal the brightness of the light.

Wednesday was approaching and I would be sharing at our Prayer meeting.  God was giving me an illustration to open the meeting with as we considered Phillip and the Eunuch Acts 8:28-40. 

An angel appeared to Phillip giving him directions to go down from Jerusalem into the desert.  (No other instructions were given - - just GO.) 

So in obedience Phillip arose and went.  And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a Eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship was returning.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 

The man said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was from Isaiah 53:  “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”

So the Eunuch asked Philip “Is the prophet speaking of himself or of some other man?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.

The man was reading the Scriptures, but there was no understanding.  The sky was blue but there were no stars.

As Phillip preached, the darkness in the man’s heart revealed the light of the Christ.
The Eunuch requested to be baptized in some water near by.  Phillip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 

So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. 

(It is understood that the eunuch became a missionary to his land.)  Those who receive a genuine encounter with Jesus become evangelists.

 

Many of our citizens have some knowledge of Jesus but no understanding of who Jesus is.  They have heard about Christ, but they do not know Him. 

 

God desires to use the darkness to reveal the light and His miracle of the plan of Salvation.  Let us pray for dark hearts to understand and receive the truth of what they only have a fleeting glimpse. 

 

We are praying over our city, and will be putting our prayers into action by sharing Jesus. 

 

Each of us must understand who Jesus IS and what He has accomplished, so we are able to tell some one else about Christ our Savior.