New Testament · New Testament
Philip the Evangelist
“Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”Acts 8:35
Biography
Philip the Evangelist (distinct from Philip the Apostle) was one of the seven deacons appointed in Jerusalem. When persecution scattered the church after Stephen's death, Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ there with great success. He also led an Ethiopian court official to faith through the reading of Isaiah 53 — making him one of the first evangelists to cross ethnic and geographic boundaries. After baptizing the Ethiopian, Philip was supernaturally transported to Azotus. He eventually settled in Caesarea and had four daughters who prophesied.
Spiritual Lesson
Philip shows that Spirit-led evangelism crosses every human boundary — ethnic, national, and social. He went to despised Samaria and then to a foreign court official, led in both cases by divine prompting. His encounter with the Ethiopian on the road to Gaza shows the sovereign hand of God arranging circumstances — a scroll being read at just the right moment, a person running alongside a chariot — so that the gospel crosses a continent. Every barrier the early church feared crossing, Philip crossed first.