Acts 8.26-40 A Not So Unique Unique Meeting
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter eight, page 916 in the pew Bibles. This morning we are going to briefly examine and encounter between Philip the Evangelist and an Ethiopian eunuch. And as good pragmatical historians we are going to examine the account and see what lessons we can glean from the example given by these two men.
So let’s read our text and then we’ll pray.
26 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. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Let’s pray.
So first let’s examine these two characters in our story.
What do we know about Philip? He was one of the Seven, one of the prototypical Deacons appointed to assist the Apostles by distributing food to the widows and the poor of the church in Jerusalem. But now, after the stoning of Stephen, another one of the Seven, and the persecution that arose on that day, Philip went down to Samaria and preached the gospel there. We’ve looked at that over the last few weeks.
Later in the book of Acts we will see Philip mentioned again as a host to the Apostles in Caesarea where he is called Philip the Evangelist. That’s Acts 21:8 if you’re curious.
But here in this account Philip is in Samaria when he is told that it’s time to go.
26 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. 27 And he rose and went.
Now this seems a little odd. Philip is in Samaria preaching the gospel and finding great success. People are paying attention to what he was saying about Jesus, demons are being cast out, people are getting healed, and there was much joy in the city as a result of his work there.
And then the Lord says, “Hey Phil, it’s time to go. Head down towards Gaza on the road from Jerusalem that goes through the desert.”
Now there were at least three roads that went from Jerusalem to Gaza and two of them had villages along the way where Philip could preach the gospel but instead the Lord sends him one the one with no villages at all between Jerusalem and Gaza. Do you think that made sense to him? Probably not, but he obeyed anyway.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Lord would just send us an angel to tell us what was going on from time to time?
You probably won’t admit it because you can feel what’s coming… John Calvin wrote,
“If any man object, that angels come not down daily from heaven to reveal unto us what we ought to do, the answer is ready, that we are sufficiently taught in the Word of God what we ought to do, and that they are never destitute of counsel who ask it of him, and submit themselves to the government of the Spirit.”
If you want to hear God speak to you, read His Word. If you want Him to speak audibly, read it out loud!
But instead of relegating Philip to a mere object lesson and settle on, “when God says move, you should move,” we have to consider what happened when Philip went.
God says, “Go,” and he goes. And who does he find when he gets there? The Ethiopian Eunuch.
“Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Now it may not seem like it at first but there is some stuff going on here that is pretty important.
What do we know about this guy? He’s from Ethiopia, he’s a eunuch, he’s the Queen’s treasurer, he had been in Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was reading Isaiah.
None of this is inconsequential. Ethiopia in New Testament times was actually the area of Nubia between southern Egypt and Sudan. The Old Testament calls this area Cush.
He was a eunuch, which means that his male genitalia had been removed, most likely so that he could serve in the official court of the Queen of the Ethiopians. This is an awkward but important fact about this guy that will make more sense in a minute.
I did learn this week that the Queen of Ethiopia’s name was not Candace, Candace was the title given to the Queen Mother like Caesar in Rome or Pharaoh in Egypt. That fact is actually inconsequential.
What’s most important about this guy was that he had been in Jerusalem to worship.
Ethiopia was not a country of the Jews, they were pagans. But this guy had made the over 200 mile journey to Jerusalem to worship the One True Living God, the God of the Jews. This Ethiopian was what is called a proselyte, a Gentile that had converted to Judaism.
He was a convert to Judaism and earnestly sought the Lord, but it wasn’t until he was on his way home that he found Him.
But the fact that he was a eunuch meant, according to Deuteronomy 23:1, that he couldn’t be fully admitted to the assembly of the Lord, so he was what was called, a “proselyte of the gate.” One who could stand at the gate of the Temple and look but couldn’t go all the way in.
But here we see that God was in the process of taking down the dividing walls of hostility that existed between Jews and Gentiles and all those in between, and He was doing it through the gospel.
God, in His providence, introduced our two friends on that desert road.
29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
The Ethiopian fellow was reading Isaiah 53:7-8, from a portion of Scripture concerning the Suffering Servant, a prophecy of Messiah Jesus written hundreds of years before He was born.
Just lucky, right? Philip just happened to find this random guy, who just happened to be a proselyte from Africa, who just happened to be reading a passage from the Old Testament that just happened to be about Jesus. What dumb luck!
We can laugh but it’s not just about God’s providence either, it’s about the faithfulness of His servants to be used by Him in those providential circumstances.
Philip labored in faith and obeyed in hope. It didn’t need to make sense where the Lord was sending him, he just went.
The Ethiopian guy was earnest, and humble enough to admit he didn’t understand what he was reading, but he was at least trying.
JP Lange wrote, “The Word is, indeed, a true sanctuary. And even when the reader does not clearly and accurately understand the whole, or when the Word of God appears to him to be an enigma, or to propose a thousand enigmas to him, his devout and earnest study of it, is, nevertheless, a most blessed employment, which conducts him nearer and nearer to the Light.”
This guy read what he had even though he didn’t understand it, there’s a lesson there for us.
In fact, the examples of these two men boil down into three questions for us each to consider about ourselves.
Do you read what you have? Friends, on the world’s stage, we own an embarrassingly large number of Bibles. Do we read what we have?
Do you understand what you read? Do you know what resources are available to you to help you figure out the stuff in the Bible that doesn’t make sense to you? You can start with me, I love talking about the Bible, the elders are here to help, there are some great authors and teachers and Bible studies that we would love to recommend to you but we can’t help you if you aren’t willing to say something. Matthew Henry wrote, “Those that would learn must see their need to be taught.”
Do you read what you have? Do you understand what you read? And lastly, do you do what you understand?
Philip obeyed the voice of the Lord, he did what he understood, and walked down the desert road to share the gospel with one guy. One guy! And as a result, the gospel went to the proselytes and down into Africa!
This is so much more than just a cool story!
Because Philip new the Old Testament he could explain the gospel to this guy beginning with that text in Isaiah before any of the New Testament was even written.
The Scholars say, “Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.” The Old Testament in the New is made clear.
Philip knew his Bible, he trusted the Lord, and he obeyed. The Ethiopian sought the Lord in His Word, and with the Holy Spirit’s help he found him, believed in Jesus, and was baptized on the spot.
The same can and will happen even today if we would follow their examples.
Amen.
