Working on a faith-based project didn’t initially sound appealing to Yoshi Barrigas — the actor portraying the disciple Philip in “The Chosen” — but a chance, perhaps divine, encounter with pop star Justin Bieber helped change his perspective.

Sitting in a black, folding director’s chair in Midlothian, Texas, Barrigas recalled his “serendipitous” meeting with Bieber as the two men were, unbeknownst to one another, hiking along the same mountainside in Los Angeles.

“Well, do you want the long story or the short story?” Barrigas cheekily replied after CBN’s Faithwire asked how he landed his role in “The Chosen,” the crowdfunded series launched in December 2017 by director Dallas Jenkins, the son of “Left Behind” novelist Jerry B. Jenkins.

The relaxed actor meandered through his memories, reflecting on the unexpected experiences that ultimately led him to where he is now. He also discussed the season-three debut of “The Chosen” as he and his fellow cast mates wrapped filming at Camp Hoblitzelle, a sprawling midwestern space owned by The Salvation Army.

Barrigas’ days are now spent on a first-century set, an impressive plot of land spanning nearly two football fields side-by-side. In a dizzying seven months, the space that was once a cowboy’s playground was transformed into a dazzling depiction of the biblical age.

But Barrigas’ presence there might not have happened without Bieber. It all unfolded on a hike in Los Angeles, where Barrigas had found a spot to read. As he pored over the book in his hands, he heard clamoring nearby, a group of girls “chirping” with excitement, he said.

Unable to see through the trees what was transpiring, the actor turned his focus back to his book. That is, until he heard a voice across the way: “Hey, what’re you reading over there?” Barrigas continued, “I looked over, and it was Justin Bieber. I told him what I was reading, and we started conversing from afar.”

Moments later, the “Never Say Never” singer sat down with Barrigas, and the two men then talked through life’s ups and downs and the struggles they were each in the midst of processing.

“He interrupted me at one point and said, ‘You know, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I really feel in my bones that I’m meant to introduce you to my church, so would you come?'” the actor remembered. “At the time, I had no real interest in any kind of church, but, as I said to him, ‘I’m not gonna say no to you, man. You’re Justin Bieber. So let’s go.'”

“He was really cool about it,” Barrigas continued. “He was like, ‘If you like it, we’ll stay, and if you don’t, we can go grab a beer.’ So I was like, ‘Alright, cool. No pressure. Let’s go.'”

Barrigas spent the next six months, he said, attending church with the 28-year-old pop star, a professing Christian in his own right. Over that half-year period, the actor said he was exposed to the Gospels for the first time, sitting in on sermons from a church that “wasn’t trying to pull me in” or “convert me.”

“They were just teaching the parables of the New Testament,” he said. After that seemingly inexplicable encounter, Barrigas was presented with an opportunity: The chance to audition for the role of one of Jesus’ disciples in “The Chosen.”

“I felt very prepared for it, and it felt like something I really wanted and [was] really motivated to get,” the actor said. “And here we are.”