This post, along with the following posts is on Acts 8:26-40, which is the familiar story of Philip and the Ethiopian. (I had wanted to fit it all into one post, but I think it would just be extremely long and unfocused, so this post is just going to be on verses 26 and 27.)
Acts 8:26-27 - "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert place. And he rose and went."
I. "Rise and go"
The first thing that caught my eye was the word "rise". Why did the angel say that? Was Philip sleeping or something? I doubt it. Was he just lying down? We have no indication of that. We know from earlier in the chapter that Philip isn't just lounging around doing nothing while all the other disciples are hard at work, so it probably isn't the angel telling him to get off his tush and go do something. I don't know any Greek, so I don't really know what the significance or "rise" is, but we it isn't a completely unfamiliar phrase. We see in Jonah that God tells him "Arise, and go" and we actually see this phrase is used quite often in the Bible.
However, I have kind of a hunch about this whole "rise" thing. I've sort of noticed it used a LOT in my reading of Acts, and while it may just be a commonly used word, I think that Luke uses it intentionally. You Bible teachers out there (Pastor Bob) can correct me on this later, but my guess is that all of this business with rising has to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After all, the book of Acts is a record of the amazing things that happen in the church because of the resurrection of Christ . We can just take a look at Luke's emphasis on "rising" in the book of Acts so far.
Jesus rose up to heaven.
Acts 1:9 - "And when [Jesus]had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
Peter rose up to tell of God raising Jesus from the dead.
Acts 1:15 - "In those days Peter stood up among the brothers" and then gave a sweet speech about Jesus.
Acts 2:23 - "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:32 - "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses."
A lame man rises up to walk, and the disciples speak of Jesus raised up to explain the miracle.
Acts 3:6 - "But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
Acts 3:15 - "and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses."
The holiness and power of God is revealed.
Acts 5:5-6 - "When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. And young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him."
If Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is doomed to fail.
Acts 5:17 - "But the high priest rose up, filled with jealousy."
Acts 5:36-39 - "...Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody...He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up..He too perished and all who followed him were scattered...if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"
Stephen sees Jesus rising from his seat at the right hand of God to receive him
Acts 7:55 - "But [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Ananias rose to pray over Saul, who then rose and was baptized.
Acts 9:11 - "Rise and go to the street called Straight..."
Acts 9:17 - "And immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
Peter was commanded to rise and eat what he had thought unclean.
Acts 10:13-14 - "And there came a voice to him: 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.'"
As I mentioned before, God's command to rise up and do stuff isn't rare in the Bible, but in the book of Acts, everything is different, because Jesus has risen from the dead! We can only "rise and go" because Jesus first did it! Jesus rose from his seat in heaven and came down into the world. He rose from the dead, then ascended back into heaven. The power of the resurrection is the power by which all the disciples did their miracles and this is the power by which we do anything that pleases God. This is the power by which we rise from the dead - the power by which we are saved. This is the power by which Jesus takes the hand of our heart and says "Child, arise", like he did for the little girl in Luke 8. This resurrection power is also the power by which we go, the power through which we can spread the gospel! As one of my favorite worship songs says, "The same power that conquered the grave lives in me!"
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
II. This is a desert place.
It's very interesting that Luke decided to add this detail here. I think that Luke is indicating that the place where the angel told him to go wasn't an attractive place. It wasn't somewhere you would visit on vacation. There's also no guarantee that there would be people there to minister to! In essence, the angel told Philip to go to a remote location with no people, no food or water, but a lot of heat and discomfort. We know that Philip had already been doing some great ministry, but God called him somewhere that just didn't seem like it had much ministry potential! Sometimes God calls us to uncomfortable or seemingly strange places that causes us to doubt God's wisdom. "God, are you really calling me here? I think you may be misappropriating your resources, God. In case you didn't notice, I can cast out demons and all that cool stuff, and people really seem to like me, so I think it would be most wise if you put me somewhere with a lot of people and somewhere that is a little more comfortable." We lack the faith and the trust in God to go and minister in places that seem spiritually desolate. We have unspoken, subconscious barriers that we set up, marking the boundaries to our possible obedience to God. We allow our fleshly desires to limit how we serve God.
III. And he rose and went.
If only this was our attitude to the commands of God! If only we rise and go to do all that he commands us to do, even if it seems hard and even if we don't really want to! It's interesting that in chapters 8, 9, and 10, God commands three different people to rise and go, and Philip is the only one who did so immediately. Ananias initially didn't want to minister to Saul, and Peter didn't want to eat the unclean food, but Philip immediately rose and went, despite having to probably walk to the desert without a real knowledge of why God wanted him there.
As a kid, my mom always got frustrated at me for not doing what she told me the first time she told it to me. If she told me to do something like set the table or clean my room, I would always tell her "later, later, later" until she would finally just explode and yell at me after asking me nicely so many times. The moral of the story is (as is always the moral of any story of mine): Don't be like Caleb. "Obey the first time," as my mother used to say (or yell).
So let's obey God when he calls. Let's obey his call to rise out of our sin and out of our shame. Let's obey his call to rise out of self-absorption and our self-centeredness. And let's obey God's command to go - his command to go into all nations and make disciples. Let's obey God's command to go and care for the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. Let's obey when God calls us to go places, whether geographically or figuratively, that are undesirable, unappealing, and uncomfortable. Let's obey God when He calls us to go, even if not every last detail of his plan has been revealed to us.
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
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