By David Faust

Philip went to Samaria and preached the gospel. Crowds gathered, miracles occurred, “there was great joy in that city,” and many “were baptized, both men and women” (Acts 8:5-12).

What exciting times! However, Luke spends only a few verses telling about the city’s transformation, while he devotes nearly half of Acts 8 to the story of a single unnamed individual who came to faith in Christ.

Curious but Uninformed

The story of this one new Christian contains several interesting angles.

• He was an Ethiopian, from the upper Nile region in northeast Africa. The gospel crossed a major cultural barrier when Philip shared his faith with this traveler from a distant land.

• He was a person of influence—a cabinet member serving Ethiopia’s queen, responsible for supervising the national treasury.

• He was curious but uninformed about the Bible. The Ethiopian official had gone out of his way to honor the God of Israel, traveling all the way from Africa to worship in Jerusalem. On the way back home, he sat in a chariot reading the Hebrew Scriptures. It was a sign of rare privilege (and wealth) that the Ethiopian possessed a scroll of Isaiah, because in those days long before the printing press, most people couldn’t afford their own personal copies of God’s Word. The Ethiopian’s spiritual interest was sincere, but he struggled to understand the Scriptures.

• He had a receptive heart. Beginning with the passage the Ethiopian was reading, Philip “told him the good news about Jesus” (v. 35). The Ethiopian believed the gospel, requested to be baptized, emerged from the water a happy new Christian, and “went on his way rejoicing” (v. 39). This short story about a cross-cultural conversion on a desert road merited half a chapter in the book of Acts.

Another Story

Philip must have been surprised to find himself preaching in Samaria, a region most Jews avoided. Probably he was startled even more when God instructed him to leave the city where he was preaching and go to a desert road (8:26).

If you’re a gospel preacher seeing impressive results in the city, why trade such a productive location for an isolated place in the desert? But God’s call isn’t determined by human logic, nor can the effectiveness of a ministry be measured by numbers alone. If God calls you to assist one curious seeker on a desert road, that’s where you must go.

There’s no evidence that Philip and the Ethiopian ever saw each other again. Their stories intersected for a short time, but the Holy Spirit considered this brief intersection worthy of inclusion in the book of Acts. Who knows how God used the eunuch to reach more people with his good news?

Every person has a story. Whether they dwell in a crowded city or a remote desert—whether their cultural background is like our own or substantially different—every person’s story matters to God. When our individual stories intersect and we share the gospel of Christ, even with just one person, the consequences can be far-reaching.

David Faust serves as the Associate Minister at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Based on International Sunday School Lesson, © 2013, by the Lesson Committee. Scripture quotations are from the New International Version ©2011, unless otherwise indicated.

As you apply today’s Scripture study to everyday life, read Engage Your Faith by David Faust and the correlating Evaluation Questions.