Are your old friends still serving the Lord? God has blessed me with great co-laborers through the years. Some go all the way back to my middle school years. They are still serving the Lord. My friend Mike and I led a young man named Lance to the Lord. Our pastor baptized him. Lance found me through social media. He and his wife serve the Lord in another state. The seed of the gospel took root. Some day on a Sabbatical I may take a tour to go and see long-time Christian friends. They live all over the country now. Chris is in Idaho. Rob who ran a marathon with me lives near Sacramento, California. Mark is in Montana. Wayne is in Louisiana. David is in North Carolina, along with some of my favorite young preachers.
Luke kept notes and told of old friends in a journal we call the book of Acts. From Tyre to Ptolemais, Paul and his companions went, stopping in Antioch where they found Philip, the evangelist. Remember him? He was one of the seven proto-deacons who helped solve the food distribution dilemma in Jerusalem. God took him to Samaria to lead a great evangelistic crusade, leading many to Christ. Then he jumped up in a chariot and led the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ. As they came out of the baptismal waters, God whisked Philip away to Caesarea. Years later, he was still there when Paul and Luke arrived.
What do we learn about Philip? He was an evangelist. As he told the good news in Samaria and on the road to Gaza, he was still sharing the good news that we are worse off than we thought, and more loved than we ever imagined. We are all called to evangelize, but Philip had a special gift. He opened his home to Paul who had caused the persecution which forced him to leave Jerusalem and go to Samaria. Now he welcomed the apostle into his home. Philip, Paul, and Luke. Don’t you wish you could have heard the conversation? God had blessed Philip with four daughters who were yet unmarried. These daughters prophesied. They heard God’s voice and spoke his truth. Just like the women who were there at Pentecost. God’s Spirit still falls on our sons and our daughters and they do his work.
What do old Christian friends do? We continue to tell the good news to others. We raise our children to love Jesus and to use their spiritual gifts. And we forgive, opening our hearts and homes to all the people God has redeemed. If one of our old friends found us today, what would they see in us? Let them find us following Jesus, all the way through the finish line.
