[Prayer]
Today’s message is from Acts 8:26-40. It’s about the salvation of one man, a certain unnamed Ethiopian government official.
We will read the entire passage first (it’s relatively short) and then talk about it. I will also be making reference to other passages as we go along. Remember as always, as we read, that we are reading the word of God which is God-breathed (given by inspiration in the King James) and is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15-17—and we’ll see how that worked with the Ethiopian official).
Also, as always, I exhort all you to read your Bibles every day. Keep on reading. Read the entire Bible and read it over and over and over again. You hide the word of God in your heart and the Holy Spirit uses it to guide you and teach you and correct you.
Now let’s read today’s passage—Acts 8:26-40:
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road— the desert road— that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. (Acts 8:26-40)
The first verse of the passage, verse 26, says that an angel of the Lord told Philip to go south to a certain road—the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. Philip, you remember, was one of the seven chosen to oversee the food distribution to the widows. He was chosen because he was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. That was the requirement for the office. He was also among those who were scattered from Jerusalem when the persecution broke out after Stephen was stoned to death. He went down to Samaria and hid out? No, he preached the gospel to the Samaritans (which, of course, was the last place any self-respecting Jew would have gone to preach the gospel). Philip preached the gospel and many Samaritans were saved.
Now, you know that Jesus had commanded the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15) And that he had told them that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But it took the persecution that followed the stoning of Stephan to get them out of their comfort zones. (I guess, to be fair, maybe Philip hadn’t heard that command because he hadn’t been a disciple at the time Jesus gave it.) In any case this time when the angel told Philip to go, he went—and he went without knowing exactly where or why or what to expect.
Now let’s look at verses 27 through 29:
27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” (Acts 8:27-29)
Now Philip, after he had obeyed, got further instructions: “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Riding in the chariot was the Ethiopian eunuch, the important government official. (Candace, by the way, according to what I’ve read, is not a name but a title that was given to the queens of Ethiopia much as Pharaoh was a title given to Egyptian kings. It’s interesting, as an aside, that lots of people name their daughters ‘Candace,’ but I’ve never heard of anyone naming his son ‘Pharaoh’.)
The Ethiopian eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home. He would have been a black man, not of Jewish descent. So he would have to have been a convert to Judaism. Also, he was not alone. In fact, being a high government official, a man of power and status, it’s very likely that he had a large entourage. And what he was traveling in was probably not one of those two-wheeled war chariots, but some sort of carriage. He was reading the book of Isaiah.
Now let’s look at verse 30:
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. (Acts 8:30)
How did Philip know what to ask? The Holy Spirit had told Philip to go up to the chariot, but didn’t (as far as we can tell) tell him what to do then. How do you think he knew to ask the Ethiopian eunuch if he understood what he was reading? I think that, although Philip was not told what to say or do except to stay near the chariot, the Holy Spirit still guided him. It was not just a whim or human wisdom.
If we have prayed and are obeying God, we can expect to be led by the Spirit. Do you think Philip prayed as he was going to the road where he met the Ethiopian eunuch? Or do you think he was so used to being led by the Spirit that he didn’t have to pray. You know what? Jesus prayed. I think Philip prayed, too. And here’s something else to think about. Suppose Philip had hesitated when he was told by the angel to go down to the road. The timing had to be just right for him to meet the Ethiopian eunuch. If he had hesitated, he might have missed the opportunity.
Now let’s look at verses 31 through 35. Philip had just asked the Ethiopian eunuch if he understood what he was reading:
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:31-35)
The Ethiopian eunuch just happened to be reading the perfect passage for Philip to use as a starting point to preach the gospel to him. Do you think it was a coincidence? Do you think there are any ‘coincidences’? If the Holy Spirit was prompting the Ethiopian eunuch to read this passage, why did he (the Holy Spirit) not explain the passage to him? The Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip, “How can I understand it unless someone explains it to me.
God works through his Spirit and through angels (as he did in sending Philip) and he also works through men. (He works through people. Women are not left out!) It’s God’s purpose to work through people—to use people to help other people. (And, as we’ve been teaching here for quite a while, that’s a central purpose for the church. God has arranged things so that none of us are independent of each other any more than we are independent of Christ. God has arranged things so that we need each other. He is teaching us to love each other and to love those who are still lost and without Jesus.) The passage the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was, of course, about Jesus dying for all of our sins (and that included the Ethiopian eunuch’s sins).
Now let’s look at verses 36 through 39. I’ll read them:
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:36-39)
The eunuch accepted Christ and was saved. The first thing he wanted to do was to be baptized. I think I’ve said this before. There are some that believe that baptism is a necessary part of salvation. But we are clearly taught in Scripture that we are not saved by works—by performing the proper rituals—but by faith in Jesus Christ and in his death for our sin and resurrection. Nevertheless, the apostles told people to be baptized and that’s the first thing they wanted to do. It’s a proclamation that you are saved!
It says that as soon as Philip was baptized, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took him away. When I’ve read this before, I’ve wondered whether that meant the Spirit told Philip to get out of there quickly or that he just disappeared—or what? I was talking to Tom about it and decided to check it out. The word is translated suddenly took away and means just that. It means to snatch up or seize. It’s used a number of places in the New Testament. It’s what the devil did to the seed of the gospel that was sown along the path in the parable of the sewer. It’s what thieves do to your possessions when they rob you. It’s what they tried to do to Jesus when they wanted to make him king by force in John chapter 10. It’s what happened to Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12. And it’s also what will happen to us if we are still alive when Jesus returns. We will be caught up with those who have risen from the dead. We will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thess. 4:17) In the Latin Bible, it’s the word from which our English word rapture comes. So, something supernatural definitely happened to Philip as soon as his work was done. And, it says, the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Now I’m going to talk some more about what happened here—maybe behind the scenes, so to speak. Of course, this will be speculation, because it doesn’t really say. But still I believe that God intends for us to think about things that might have happened that aren’t reported. It’s instructive.
Well, personally, I have to say that I’m somewhat cynical about people’s accepting Christ and then going on their way, even if they are rejoicing. They seem to fall away a lot of the time. Also, personally, I lean toward the doctrine of eternal security—that once you are saved, the Lord will make sure you don’t fall away (although, as we know, not all of us think that way). If you take that view point, the ‘eternal security’ point of view, one of the consequences is that if someone appears to have accepted Christ and then obviously falls away, you have to conclude that he was never saved in the first place.
Anyway, we are generally taught to go out and get as many people as possible to say the “sinner’s prayer” and then let them go on their way. But, you know, Jesus didn’t say, “Go into all the nations and get them to say the sinners prayer.” He said, “Make disciples of all nations baptizing them in (or into, actually) the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you...” (Matt. 28:19, 20)
A long time ago I remember hearing someone talk about “leading people to Christ”. He gave the example of a salesman who had led hundreds—maybe thousands—of people to Christ. In his job he met many people every day. He would frequently give his testimony, ask them if they were Christians and, if they were willing, lead them in the sinner’s prayer. When I heard that, I thought, “I don’t think so.” Most of them will fall away. You know what? I still don’t think so.
And when I read about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, the same doubts come into my mind. You can’t just send someone away. You have to spend time with them and make “disciples”. But (it says in today’s passage), as soon as they came up out of the water, Philip was snatched away and the Ethiopian eunuch went on his way rejoicing. And, you know what else? The Coptic Christian Church, which is probably the oldest continually-existing Christian church in the world (it is estimated to have around ten million members, maybe more, scattered around the Middle East and northern Africa) has as part of its doctrine that it was founded by the Ethiopian eunuch. What really happened with the Ethiopian eunuch?
Well, we can assume that, although he was not of Jewish descent, he practiced the Jewish religion. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way back. He would have known the Law of Moses and he would have known he was not keeping it!
There is an evangelist name Ray Comfort who is from New Zeeland and who is, according to his Wikipedia article, interestingly enough, of Jewish descent. I heard a tape of one of his lectures around 15 years ago. He said that he would preach a gospel message and give an altar call and people would come forward and he would lead them in the sinner’s prayer and then—most of them would fall away. He concluded that they really weren’t accepting Christ. He would give them the third degree to try to make sure they really believed. (He imitated a Nazi interrogator with German accent and said that that’s what he felt like.) But it all seemed to be of no avail. Finally he concluded that the problem was that these people really didn’t understand that they were sinners and headed for hell. Although they had heard the gospel and confessed with their mouths that they were sinners, they really didn’t believe it and were just hoping for a better life (“God has a plan for your life, etc.”).
More recently I’ve seen videos of Ray Comfort and another gentleman (who I believe was a main character in the “Left Behind” movies) interview people on the street. When they ask people if they think they are sinners, they usually say something like, “I don’t know. I try to be good.” But finally, when they are challenged by questions about the Ten Commandments (“Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever used God’s name in vain?), they finally smile and admit that they are sinners. Did you get that? They admit they are sinners and they smile! That’s the problem! They smile! (How much we smile at sin. Half the jokes that we laugh at are about sin.)
The Ethiopian eunuch knew the Law and knew that he was not keeping it. No one has ever kept the law perfectly, or really even come close, for that matter—no one except Jesus, that is. That’s the reason Jesus was the “Lamb of God without spot or blemish”. That’s the reason Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sin. The Ethiopian eunuch knew that he was lost and without hope. He knew that he needed a Savior.
The Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the Book of Isaiah at the time Philip met him. He had presumably (again, speculation) had been reading for a while and had read what led up to the verses he was reading when Philip met him. (There weren’t chapters and verses, as far as we know, at that time. He would have been reading from a scroll.) The text that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was from Isaiah chapter 53. I’m going to read some excerpt from chapters 51 and 52 that preceded what he was reading when Philip came up to him. This first one is from Isaiah 51:17-20. It’s a rebuke. Listen:
17 Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
18 Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand.
19 These double calamities have come upon you— who can comfort you?—ruin and destruction, famine and sword— who can console you?
20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God. (Isaiah 51:17-20)
I think that in the eyes of the Ethiopian eunuch, this would not just have been about Israel’s history, but also about the present time of Israel and about the Ethiopian Eunuch, himself and those around him who had embraced the Jewish religion. Remember, the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to convict the world of guilt with regard to sin, judgment and righteousness (John 16:7, 8) and the Holy Spirit was definitely at work here. Reading something like this could certainly make you despair!
Now listen to this. It’s from Isaiah 52:1-3. It’s a few verse down from what I just read. This is a promise:
1 Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.
2 Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.
3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” (Isaiah 52:1-3)
You notice that there’s a promise of redemption without money—without money you will be redeemed. (I know this is written about a city, Jerusalem, but the Ethiopian eunuch, who we are supposing was reading this would have been longing for redemption himself along with the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. Remember, the Holy Spirit is at work here.
Now let’s look at Isaiah 52:7-10, a few verses later:
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:7-10)
This is about the joy of salvation. “All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God!” Where and when would it come? How would it come? The Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the very passage that answered these questions when Philip met him. But he didn’t understand who Isaiah was talking about, so how could he have understood that this was about God’s way of salvation—that this was about the very thing he was longing for!
I’m going to read the entire passage about the “suffering and glory of the servant” to use the NIV heading for the passage. It’s about Jesus. It was written several hundred years before Jesus came to earth as a baby to be “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. I’m not going to say much about it, but notice as I read it, how Jesus was disfigured. Notice that he would “sprinkle many nations”. (The sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial animals was for the atonement of the sins of Israel in the Law of Moses. This ritual was pointing to the real sacrifice, Jesus. Notice also “many nations”. The Ethiopian eunuch belonged to one of those “many nations”.
Notice that Jesus took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows (and he still does, by the way). Notice that he was punished for our transgressions and iniquities. He took the punishment for our sins and we are declared inocent. Notice that we have all sinned—“we all like sheep have gone astray”. Notice finally that Jesus rose from the dead. Now, listen as I read Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12:
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
The Ethiopian eunuch went away rejoicing.
I’ve talked about accepting Christ (or maybe going through the motions of “the sinner’s prayer” and not really having salvation. I want to say some more about salvation. We know that God’s salvation has to do with faith. When they asked Jesus what they had to do to do the works God requires—the works he requires for eternal life, he told them, “The work God requires is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29) That means that to have eternal life, we must trust Jesus.
The apostle Paul, however, gave what sounds like a formula. (I don’t really think God gives formulas for anything, but he does make promises—“If you do this, I will do that.”) I’m going to read what Paul—really, the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul—says. This is from Romans 10:8-15. Paul is talking about the word of God:
8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile— the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-13)
The “formula” is that “if you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I think that confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord certainly means more than saying the words “Jesus is Lord”. Most people would certainly agree with that. Most people believe that when you say that Jesus is Lord, you are saying that he has authority over you. He certainly does and we need to submit to his authority! But I (and at least some others) believe that it goes much farther than that. The word lord in the Bible can mean a number of different things. It’s used all over the place. It frequently does refer to someone who has authority. But it’s also used as a term of respect. In the NIV it’s frequently translated as sir in this case. (Did you know that?) But here’s what I believe. I believe that when you say, “Jesus is Lord, you are acknowledging that he is God! Here’s why (and I’ve talked about these things before, but I’m going to repeat them again. I think it’s worthwhile. And my wife will also say that I’m being too scholarly, so please indulge me.):
I said that the word lord can mean a number of different things. One of the ways it’s used is as a substitute for the name of God, Jehovah. (And I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness, by the way, but Jehovah is the most common way that God’s name is rendered in English, so that’s the way I’m rendering it.)
In the Old Testament, most Bible translations render God’s name, Jehovah, as the Lord—all caps, as opposed to capital L followed by lower case o r d. The name Jehovah is derived from the Hebrew for “I AM”. Do you remember what God said to Moses when he asked God what he should tell the Israelites his name was? He said, “Tell them that I AM has sent you.”
We know that Jesus was there with the Israelites in the desert when they left Egypt. He was there in the Old Testament. The apostle Paul says so in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
The name Jehovah—the name of God—refers both to Jesus and to God the Father. Do you remember that they were ready to stone Jesus when he told them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They knew that in saying this he was saying that he was God—and they wanted to stone him! (John 8:58)
The apostle Paul also said this: “No one can say, “Jesus is Lord (and I believe again, Jehovah), except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:3) According to this, no one can really acknowledge that Jesus is God without the power of the Holy Spirit. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. These are things that come through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to say, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Do you remember that, in the Bible, the name of a person represents who he is. When you call on the name of the Lord you are calling on Jesus, who is God, to save you. No, it’s not really a formula.
Paul goes on to say in Romans 10:14 and 15:
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14, 15)
How important is the word of God? Remember the passage from Isaiah: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Paul quoted part of it here: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” The word of God is vitally important!
One time I heard someone talking about a church where people would come in and there would be some supposed manifestation of the Spirit—maybe speaking in tongues, I don’t know—but it was claimed that the people who had come in had been saved, filled with the Holy Spirit and had not even heard the gospel preached. I’m skeptical. Maybe they had heard the gospel somewhere else. And as we know, the Lord doesn’t necessarily follow rules in these things. But, nevertheless, we have to preach the gospel. How can they believe in the one they have not heard?
There’s one more verse in today’s passage, verse 40. This is after Philip was snatched away from the Ethiopian eunuch. It says, “Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.” Philip was still being led by the Spirit and still preaching the gospel. (By the way, Azotus where Philip appeared, was Ashdod in the Old Testament in the times of the Judges. We’ll be hearing about some problems they had there on Wednesday at the Bible study, so come.)
Some questions: In today’s passage, Philip obeyed the Holy Spirit. Do you think it was hard for him to do? Or do you think he did it with enthusiasm looking forward to seeing what God would do? Is it hard for you to do? Do you look forward to what God will do when you obey him? What do you think about the fact that Stephen was stoned when he obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit?
Jesus is our Lord and Savior and he is the Lord God Jehovah. Praise the Lord. Amen.
Next week, the Lord willing, we will hear about Saul’s conversion (but why don’t you read about it in advance).
[Prayer]