Scripture: Acts 8:1b-4, 26-40
I want to make three points in today’s sermon: Number One: God transforms trouble into opportunity. Number Two: The Holy Spirit still speaks and guides believers. Number Three: Don’t settle for “Christian mediocrity.”
I’ll never forget the time that a couple in a previous church came to the parsonage one evening to tell us they were leaving the church. Why? Because there was too much fighting in the church. The husband told me, “We just want to go to a church that treats one another like a family… where everybody gets along.” [eye roll]
Because everybody always gets along in a family…?
Then he said, “I want to go to a church like the one in Acts chapters 2 and 4.”
To which I said, “I do too, brother. Unfortunately, the church described in Acts 2 and 4 is also the church described in Acts 6—a church threatening to split apart because of conflict. One group accused another of treating their widows unfairly in the daily distribution of food. And dealing with this dispute distracted the apostles from their main task, which according to Acts 6:4 was ‘prayer and the ministry of the word.’”
So the apostles appointed seven administrators—the church’s first deacons—to oversee the food distribution. One of them was Philip, the evangelist in today’s scripture. He’s not the Philip who was one of the Twelve, although that Philip was also an evangelist.
What’s important is the qualifications these seven men possessed: They were full of faith, full of the Spirit, and wise.
Remember I said last week that although every believer possesses the Holy Spirit, the extent to which we experience the Spirit’s power depends in part on our faithfulness. These seven men were faithful and full of the Spirit.
And we see this in Philip in Acts chapter 8.
But first we need to ask: Why isn’t Philip still in Jerusalem serving as a deacon?
The answer is found in verses 1 through 4: Saul of Tarsus, acting under the authority of Jerusalem’s religious leaders, launched a “great persecution against the church.” Luke says Saul was “ravaging the church,” dragging off men and women and committing them to prison.
So the church scattered—including Philip.
But as they scattered, verse 4 says, they “went about preaching the word”—the gospel. Philip first preached in Samaria. Remember Samaria? Although the Samaritans were distant relatives of the Jews, there had been centuries of hostility between the two groups.
Philip didn’t care. He preached the gospel to former enemies, and many came to Christ.
And now, in today’s scripture, Philip becomes instrumental in the conversion of the first Gentile believer in Acts—a black man from Ethiopia.
Talk about irony.
Saul intended to stamp out the Christian movement like extinguishing a fire. Instead, he scattered sparks all over the region—and those sparks started fires of their own.
And of course we still see this happen today, over and over…
One of my Christian heroes—at least among Christians I’ve known personally—is a man named Tracy Fleming. He owned the Chick-fil-A in Lovejoy, Georgia, not far from a church I pastored for many years. I used to go there every week to write sermons, and over time I got to know Tracy well enough to invite him to speak at our church a couple of times.
For many years, Tracy made trips to China at his own expense to train and encourage Christians in underground churches. It was risky—even life-threatening—because he knew he and other Christians there were under surveillance by the Chinese government.
My point is, Tracy knew there was always a chance he might not come home. But he went anyway because he loved Jesus that much.
Tracy once told me about a conversation with a Chinese pastor who described the intense persecution many believers there were facing. Tracy responded, “I’ll be praying that the Lord will put an end to the persecution and suffering of you and your fellow Christians.”
And the pastor looked at Tracy with surprise—even indignation—and said, “What makes you think God wants to put an end to our persecution? God is using our suffering to do powerful things for his kingdom in China.”
Tracy said he was thoroughly humbled.
But that pastor had it exactly right…
Who’s really in charge here? The Chinese government? Some hostile power somewhere?
No… Almighty God is in charge.
And over and over in scripture, God promises to transform suffering and evil and use them for his purposes, his glory, and our good.
Remember Joseph speaking to the brothers who sold him into slavery: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”[1]
Or Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Or Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
No one and nothing can ultimately stand against God’s children because God has the power to transform even what the world and the devil mean for evil into something good.
That’s what’s happening to Philip in today’s scripture…
Remember: Philip isn’t even supposed to be here, having this conversation with the Ethiopian official. He’s supposed to be back home in Jerusalem serving as a deacon.
Then Saul caused all this trouble… and suddenly Philip’s plans changed completely.
But Saul’s persecution and Philip’s disruption didn’t work against God’s purposes. God used this enemy named Saul—and these painful circumstances—to accomplish great good.
As I said earlier, it’s ironic: Saul tried to crush the early church, but he ended up spreading it.
And there’s even more irony.
This man in verse 3 who was “ravaging the church” later became the apostle Paul—the missionary God appointed to bring the gospel to the Gentile world.
In a sense, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles began long before he encountered the risen Christ on the Damascus road. It began when he persecuted Christians in Jerusalem, causing believers like Philip to help convert and baptize this Ethiopian official—a Gentile—who carried the gospel back home with him. Church historians say it’s no coincidence that the Ethiopian church traces its roots all the way back to the earliest days of Christianity—to this moment right here in Acts chapter 8.
All of which means: trouble, setbacks, disruptions, persecution, and changed plans do not have the power to stop God’s purposes. God continually transforms them and uses them for good.
The devil means harm against us—but God means it for good.
Think about our own situation as Methodists. Widespread and unchecked clergy disobedience followed by disaffiliation disrupted many plans a few years ago. The devil meant harm against the United Methodist Church. But God meant it for good.
Now think about our own situation as Methodists at Five Forks Church. Beginning in September, we’ll face another disruption as we prepare to gather and worship for a season in a place that is not our permanent church home.
And during that transition, the devil will not take a vacation and leave Five Forks Methodist alone. He will try to harm us through this transition.
So… Let’s be prepared… Let’s put on the “whole armor of God.” Remember: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, agains the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”[2]
Let’s be prepared for spiritual warfare… but not afraid… God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control.[3] Let us instead be confident.
Trouble is part of the deal when it comes to being a Christian… It’s part of the deal when it comes to being a church… But… just know in advance: what Satan intends for evil, God transforms for good.
And that’s Point Number One… God transforms trouble into opportunity…
Number Two… The Holy Spirit still speaks and guides believers…
Notice that in verse 26 Philip first encounters an angel, who tells him to leave Samaria and go south to this desert highway in the middle of nowhere. But the angel doesn’t tell Philip why. Only after he arrives does he receive further instructions. Verse 29: “And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’”
“And the Spirit said…”
The full title of this book is The Acts of the Apostles. But it could just as easily be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” because the book is all about the Spirit working through these early Christians. And throughout Acts, the Spirit is constantly “speaking.”
For example, in Acts 10 Peter visits the home of Cornelius, the second Gentile convert. Luke writes, “The Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation…’”[4] So the Spirit opened the door to the further Gentile ministry.
When Paul and Barnabas were set apart by the church at Antioch to become missionaries, Luke writes, “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul…’”[5] So the Spirit launched the first missionary journey.
Later, in Acts 16, Paul and Silas are deciding where to travel next, and Luke says they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit” to enter one region, while “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” to enter another.[6] So the Spirit both opened and closed doors for them.
Later still, when Paul tearfully says farewell to the Ephesian elders, he tells them he is compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, even though the Spirit continually warns him that suffering and imprisonment await him.[7] So the Spirit prepares Paul for future obedience and future ministry.
And in Acts 21, the prophet Agabus introduces his warning to Paul by saying, “Thus says the Holy Spirit…”[8]
My point is that again and again in Acts we see the Holy Spirit speaking to and guiding believers—guiding them in mission, witnessing, evangelism, and everyday obedience.
And he continues to do so today…
Jay Pharoah, the comedian best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, was recently on the Tamron Hall Show on ABC talking about how he finally decided to read the Bible all the way through.
Like many people, he was using a Bible app on his phone. But he said, “It didn’t feel right… Every time you open your Bible app, you’ve got Instagram, Facebook, all these distractions.” So he said, “The word of God shouldn’t be limited to an app. I’m gonna get myself a hard Bible like I had when I was a kid.”
I love that phrase: “a hard Bible.”
He said the Bible he had as a child was blue and had his name inscribed on it, and he wanted another one like it.
Not long afterward, he was performing stand-up comedy in Columbus, Ohio. And he said, “A pastor drove all the way from Tennessee. He couldn’t even get into the sold-out show. But afterward he came up to me and said, ‘God told me to give you this.’”
It was a blue Bible with Jay Pharoah’s name inscribed on it.
Tamron Hall and the audience audibly gasped.
But then Pharoah said, “Here’s the kicker. I can’t make this up. The Bible was bookmarked at the exact place where I had stopped reading in my Bible app.”
And he said, “The Lord is real… I am right where God wants me to be.”[9]
This is a verifiable story because that pastor is named Dylan Novak, an evangelist and youth pastor I’ve followed for several years online.
But notice Dylan Novak’s words: “God told me to give you this.”
How do you think God spoke to him?
The same way he often speaks to believers today—not often with an audible voice, but through thoughts impressed upon our minds… through a strong conviction… through an overwhelming intuition that we’re supposed to do something.
Now, of course, we test these thoughts and intuitions against scripture. If what we think the Spirit is saying contradicts God’s word, then scripture wins every time. And we seek wisdom and guidance from mature Christians, trusted friends, and pastors. We pray for discernment.
As scripture shows, God might be trying to tell us something, and we misunderstand what it is at first.
But… with that caution in place… we should still expect the Holy Spirit to speak to us like this…
In his commentary on this passage, New Testament scholar Tom Wright describes a similar experience.
One Sunday afternoon while visiting Cambridge, England, he had a persistent thought he couldn’t shake: “Go to this particular evening service at this particular church.” It wasn’t even the church he would normally attend while in Cambridge. But he went anyway, thinking perhaps the Spirit was leading him.
When he arrived, he was surprised to see an old friend and colleague from Texas. He sat beside him, and during the service the friend opened his pocket diary and pointed to that day’s date. Written in large letters were the words: “CALL TOM WRIGHT.”
His friend had been planning to contact him about participating in an upcoming conference—one that ended up being very important and fruitful for many people.[10]
I’ve had experiences like that too—including leaving behind a relatively prosperous career in engineering to enter pastoral ministry.
Back in the old United Methodist Church, the ordination process took years. A great deal of that process involved discerning whether God was truly calling us into ministry—whether we had correctly heard the Spirit speak to us… whether the Holy Spirit was really leading us to do this seemingly crazy thing.
And by the way, they even tested you to make sure you’re not crazy.
Don’t worry… I passed.
My point is that in all three cases—with Dylan Novak, Tom Wright, and myself—we experienced what we believed was the Spirit leading us to do something… Indeed, the Spirit speaking to us.
We experienced the same kind of guidance Philip experiences in today’s scripture.
And why shouldn’t this be the case? After all, we were not given less of the Holy Spirit than these Christians in Acts. We have not received less power to be Christ’s witnesses wherever he sends us. God has no less a purpose for our lives than he had for theirs. We are not less valued by God than these Christians in Acts. We are not less essential to God’s mission in the world than they were.
And to be sure, our Lord Jesus is no less the Lord of our lives than he was of Peter, Stephen, Paul, Silas, Barnabas, Rhoda, Tabitha, Lydia, Priscilla, and Aquila.
And Christ our Good Shepherd is no less interested today in leaving the ninety-nine sheep to go find the one lost sheep than he was when the Spirit led Philip to this quiet desert highway and said, “Go find that one person over there who’s ready to hear the gospel and be saved!”
The Holy Spirit is speaking to us today… if only we’ll listen.
And that’s Point Number Two…
Number Three: Don’t settle for Christian mediocrity…
So… the Spirit still speaks to us today… And yet… we may so often hear another, louder voice…
Not the voice of the Spirit; rather, it’s the voice of what the apostle Paul calls “the god of this world,” the devil.[11] We don’t recognize this voice as the voice of the devil. But that voice often sounds something like this: “It says: “Compromise a little. Take an easier path. Be a Christian, of course, but don’t do anything crazy.”
This devilish voice tempts us even though most of us have spent our lives hearing Jesus say difficult things like: “Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. Follow me.” Even though Jesus warns us that gaining the whole world means nothing if we lose our souls in the process. Even though he tells us not to be ashamed of him or his words. Even though he calls us to lose our lives for his sake so that we might truly find them.
We’re tempted by that devilish voice when it tells us: “Now, I’m not saying those words of Jesus aren’t true. But you’ve got to live in the real world. You need to compartmentalize your faith. You need to ‘stand on business.’ After all, you’ve got bills to pay. Mortgages. Gas to put in the tank. Children to feed, to clothe, to educate. And you want to leave them a nice nest egg when you’re gone. Life is hard. It’s dog-eat-dog.
“So yes, Jesus means what he says about costly discipleship… but you’ve got to be practical. Jesus understands. And besides, he’ll forgive you for falling short. You’re already saved. Just bide your time until heaven… or the Second Coming.”
That’s what the devil’s voice sounds like.
And before long, if you listen to that voice, you’ll settle into a life of quiet, sub-Christian conformity. And I say conformity because you’ll be surrounded by plenty of respectable Christian people doing the exact same thing—people with a little bit of Jesus tucked safely into one corner of life while they pursue every worldly treasure imaginable… full-throttle.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with worldly blessings. But the devil wants us to forget that every good thing we possess has been given by God for his glory, his kingdom, and his purposes.
And besides… all these treasures are passing away anyway. Use them while you can… for eternal purposes… for kingdom purposes.
Missionary Jim Elliot was right when he said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
But of course our enemy disagrees. And if you heed his voice, you will settle for a life of Christian mediocrity.
So my appeal to you this morning is simple: Don’t settle.
Because having all of Jesus—all the treasure available in him and through him—is better than anything this world offers. As Paul says in Philippians 3:8: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”
Jesus is not a consolation prize for people whose hopes and dreams didn’t happen to work out. He is even better than our hopes and dreams. He is everything. Compared to knowing Christ, Paul says, every possible treasure in the world is garbage.
And from personal experience, I know that’s true. Dying to self, along with doing all those other difficult things Jesus says to do, isn’t some arbitrary rule the Lord gives us to keep us from enjoying life; he told us to do these difficult things because this is the only way to life.
So don’t settle for Christian mediocrity… because you’d be settling for less than what Jesus wants to give you.
Besides… the stakes are too high, our mission too urgent. If we listen to the Spirit, he will tell us where to go, whom to speak to, and what to say… in order to fulfill this mission.
In his commentary on this scripture, Warren Wiersbe shares the following story:
In 1857, Hudson Taylor led a man named Mr. Nyi to Christ in Ningpo, China. The man was overjoyed and eager to share his faith.
One day Mr. Nyi asked Taylor, “How long have you had the gospel in England?”
Taylor answered that England had known the gospel for many centuries.
Mr. Nyi replied, “My father died seeking the truth. Why didn’t you come sooner?”
Taylor had no answer.
How long have you known the gospel?[12]
And how often have you shared it personally?
The same Spirit who sent Philip still sends believers today.
So let’s listen carefully… and go wherever Christ leads.
[1] Genesis 50:20 ESV
[2] Ephesians 6:12 ESV
[3] 2 Timothy 1:7 ESV
[4] Acts 10:19-20 ESV
[5] Acts 13:2 ESV
[6] Acts 16:6-7 ESV
[7] Acts 20:22-23 ESV
[8] Acts 21:11 ESV
[9] Dale Chamberlain, “Comedian Jay Pharoah Is ‘Right Where God Wants Me To Be’ After Receiving Bible From ‘Celebrity Evangelist’ Dylan Novak,” churchleaders.com, May 8, 2026. Accessed 28 May 2026.
[10] N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part 1 (Louisville: WJK, 2008), 131-133.
[11] 2 Corinthians 4:4
[12] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament, vol. 1 (Colorado Springs: Cook, 1989), 438.