Let’s take a look at this longer story, again, it is about baptism, but what do you see as the story of faith?

Acts 8:26-39- 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch
went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

What do you see about faith within this passage?

Notice how Philip was listening for God? Angel of the Lord said to Philip, go. Faith is having the courage to pay attention, listen, and follow what God is saying. I hear you, “but Aaron, that sounds hard, how do I know it is God’s voice and not indigestion from the pizza or it’s my own thoughts in my head?”

Part of hearing God is knowing what he sounds like and how do we know what God sounds like? What does his word tell us? Does what we hear line up with what God says in scripture? Does it line up with something Jesus would do? Do I want to stay self-protected, if so, that should be an indicator that I’m not listening to God, but I’m listening to my flesh/self. Having faith is learning the voice of God/Holy Spirit and then following what we hear.

The other part of faith that we see within this passage is the willingness to speak up. Notice because Philip listened to the angel of God, God put him in a position to be of assistance to the Ethiopian, then share the hope of Jesus.

Now some of you are going to be resistant to this because you think you need to have the answers for whatever comes your way and what if you don’t know the answer you need? Well… If Jesus’ promise in Matthew 28 is that he will never leave us or forsake us, do you think he would leave you, on your own to answer something that he invited you into? No, that is the deepening of trust, “God, you invited me into this situation/conversation, what do you want me to say? How do you want to tend to this person or this person’s question?”
Today, what does it look like to listen for God’s voice, hear it, follow it, and then invite God into responding to what you are hearing?