Acts 8:26-40 English Standard Version (ESV)
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south[a] 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. 29 And 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?”[b] 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.
Miracles in the desert.
In our lives we all face times that are difficult or not easy – We find ourselves in situations that are very much desert situations. It is often in the hardest of times that God works the greatest miracles. I have watched that work out in practice during the last week.
The Christians of Soviet Russia were in such a position in 1917 a communist revolution swept to power and swept away the Christianised Tsarised society that had existed for centuries – it thrust them into the desert. But a strange thing happened
Instead of the mass exodus away from the Church that the Soviet government expected to result from the persecutions that were heaped on Christians, men and women continued to flock together to devote their lives to God. Historian Dmitry Pospielovsky concluded that by the 1980s, the percent¬age of believers had either very marginally declined or was in fact higher than during the years 1915-1917, when the tsar was still in power.29 The church in Russia had not survived as a relic but as a strong community of believers.
Stories such as this one about Alexandra Solzenhitzen illustrate what can happen in the wilderness that is so powerful for the Christian
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner in Russia.
he was on a program of hard labour and slow starvation.
One day he felt like giving up.
He felt his life could not make a difference.
He sat down on a bench knowing that when he was spotted by a guard he would be ordered back to work when he failed to respond the guard would bludgeon him to death. As he sat waiting, head down, he felt a presence. slowly he lifted his eyes. Next to him sat an old man with a wrinkled, utterly expressionless face. Hunched over, the old man drew a stick through the sand at Solzhenitsyn’s feet deliberately tracing out the sign of the cross.
As Solzhenitsyn stared at the rough outline his entire perspective shifted.
Yet in that moment, he knew that the hope of all mankind was represented by that simple cross - and through its power anything was possible.
Solzhenitisyn slowly got up , picked up his shovel and went back to work - not knowing that his writings on truth and freedom would one day enflame the whole world.
The cross was a miracle in the desert and the miracle in Russia’s desert, as far as I can understand it, is that Holy Russia as it was described brfore the revolution, became holier.
Today I would like to explore the reading from Acts chapter 8 to help us to understand the miracle God is trying to do with us in the desert situation.
Reading.
There was a road from Jerusalem which led via Bethlehem and Hebron and joined the main road to Egypt just south of Gaza.
It was this road through the wilderness that God led Philip to.
A lot happens in Acts chapter 8 – There is great persecution and Stephen having been murdered, is buried and then we read of incredible results in Philips ministry - Acts chapter 8 .Philip in Samaria
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Earlier, In Acts 6:3 we read that the early Church wanted seven men with special qualifications. Philip was elected by the prayerful voting of the Church, and his name appears second in the list (Acts 6:5).
Philip is enjoying the power of the spirit – they were dangerous times and exciting times Crowds were gathered around him – how easy it would be for Philip to bathe in his success and to build a ministry right where he was, then, the Holy spirit speaks into his life and says go to the desert –
Often God puts us in wilderness situations and we wonder why – Why is God doing this to me?
We find ourselves in the wilderness or find ourselves refusing to go there and missing out – The Russian people must have deeply resented the atheistic Spirit that seized their nation and caused such suffering and bought them to a red desert – but the end result was a robust Christianity that produced incredible growth in Russia –
Philip must have thought why would I go to a road in a desert?
But in the desert on the side of what was the ancient equivalent to a highway according to a commentator along came a rather flash carriage – owned by royalty - And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. This man was of great importance and power in Ethiopia – you would not expect to meet a man like that in the desert – Philip could not have –
There are two things to note here about the desert.
1. It was here that God spoke – An angel of God – none the less, told Philip to go and that is just a bi line in the reading but when you read of angels in Scripture they are pretty impressive creatures.
Now angels are warriors and when they turn up in person in the bible, when the do, peoples legs get a little jelly like and say strange things angels are warriors, messengers and protectors in the bible. At Jesus birth they are worshippers and even though a third of heavens angels fell with the devil that leaves the vast majority with God and they are very powerful and impressive. God underlined the importance of going into the wilderness to Philip through one of these angels – No wonder he was motivated to go. The second thing I would draw to your attention is Philip went!!!
verse 27 And he rose and went.
First point – God sometimes calls us into the desert and we need to obey.
There can’t be a miracle in the wilderness if we do not go.
. Philip was at God’s disposal.
Someone wrote:-
He was R.F.A. – Ready for Anything! Yes, and R.F.N. – Ready For Nothing, if that was the Lord’s will for him. Ready to preach to the crowd in Samaria (verse 5), or ready to seek the dark-skinned Eunuch in the desert (verse 30). Ready to be in the public eye, or ready to leave it.
When General Booth was asked the secret of his success in the Lord’s work he replied, “There came a day when God got all there was of William Booth.”(Internet.)
In the desert the most extraordinary things happen –
But for now Philip –in the desert he engages with power – prestige and the friends of royalty - It is the absolute last thing you would expect to encounter in the desert.
29 And 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.
Interestingly Philip didn’t expect to meet the Ethiopian necessarily – he just obeyed God – He might instead of thought he would meet robbers and poor outcast people and the Ethiopian couldn’t understand who the scriptures were talking about – He didn’t expect to read this and couldn’t understand it.
You never know when you are going to be in some desert or difficult situation – but Philip demonstrates that when you know God’s word thoroughly and you know God you are prepared for any situation that presents itself to you.
Secondly the miracle happens because Philip opened his mouth – there is no point having all the bible knowledge in the world unless you open your mouth.– Notice Philip waits until the right moment when he is up in the carriage and engaging with the Ethiopian before he opens his mouth. He bides his time.
His speaking is a matter of great faith at the right time.
Thirdly: In the desert Philip follows through and completes the task – He baptises the Ethiopian Eunuch 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?”[b] 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. The Eunuch is baptised – and we can imagine him spreading this good news from this thoroughly converted man into Ethiopia Ethiopia (the upper Nile region) saw vibrant church growth in the early centuries after Christ, and local history links this growth to Philip. One man met on a road with the ability to change a nation – tradition has it that that is just what happened. What ever the results one man in very high position and great influence was radically saved.
When God takes you to the desert follow through and fulfil his purposes.
The following story by John Piper I think sums this up beautifully:-
In 1985 Clarence Duncan arrived in Africa as missionary to the solidly Muslim people called the Yao who live mainly in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi. When he settled in his village, he called for a meeting with the elders. After the pleasantries the chief asked him his name. Clarence replied, "Mr. Clarence."
The council looked at each other for a moment and then the chief asked, "Why are you here?"
Again Clarence simply said, "I want to tell your people about Isa Al Mahsi (Jesus the Messiah)."
A couple months later, when the chief decided he could trust Clarence, he said, "Do you know why we allowed you to stay?"
Clarence said, "I never thought about it."
"Twenty-one years ago a very old Yao man came to our village and called for a meeting as you did. When we asked him his name, this Yao man said, 'Mr. Clarence'—which isn't an African name at all! When we asked him why he came, he said, 'I want to tell your people about Isa Al Mahsi.' These were your very words. Twenty-one years ago Mr. Clarence led four of our villagers to follow Jesus. So we ran them out of the village. And we killed Mr. Clarence. The reason we allowed you to stay was we were afraid."
That was 1985. Two years ago on a January morning 24 Muslim elders approached Clarence Duncan's house. After a meal the leader sat in the middle of the room and said that they had come to ask questions about Christianity. Clarence said fine but that he would only answer them by reading from the Bible so they would know he did not invent the answers. So he gave each of them a Bible in the trade language. The first question was, "Why do you Christians say that there are three gods?"
Clarence said the answer was found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and gave them the page: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one!" And he mentioned that Isa (Jesus) said this very thing in Mark 12:29.
The questioning went on till five in the afternoon. When all had left, the leader, Sheik Abu Bakr, stayed and asked if he could see Clarence in a week.
When they met Abu asked if Clarence knew why they came to see him last week. Clarence said he assumed it was to ask questions. But Abu said, "No, it was because the Christian church is growing so fast we knew we had to kill you. We had consulted for three days and prepared our magic. You were to be struck dumb when we asked questions, then fall on the ground paralyzed and then die. But when you kept talking, and even stood up and moved around, we knew you had a stronger Spirit and gave up."
Then Abu said, "I want to become a Christian." And he told an amazing story.
"When I was a teenager, in our village we were not Muslim people and we were not Christian. We were Achewa people with our own religion. Behind our village was a hill where I would often go to pray.
"One day I was on that hill praying. Suddenly all around me was a blinding light. Out of this light I saw a big hand coming toward me holding an open book. I looked at the book and saw writing on the page. A Voice told me to read. I protested that I could not read, never having been to school. The Voice again told me to read. So I did. And suddenly the book and the hand disappeared.
"I ran back to my village and all the people were looking for me, thinking I had died on that hill! They asked about a fire they had seen up there. When I told them the story, they laughed at me saying, You can't read!
"Someone got a book and I began to read! Then people came from all around to find out more about what happened and asked questions. The Muslim authorities found out about me and I was trained in the ways of Islam. Soon all or our village became Muslim. For 15 years I was the greatest debater against the Christians."
He paused and then said, "You remember when I asked you the first question about why Christians believe in three gods? Your answer was Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4."
"That's right," Clarence said.
Sheik Abu Bakr looked Clarence Duncan in the eye and said, "That was the same passage that this Voice on the mountain showed me. At that moment I knew that the God you were talking about was the True God!"
"Then why did you keep asking me all those questions the whole day?"
"Because," he smiled, "I wanted all these Muslim leaders to know what the Christians believe and I wanted them to hear it from you. The whole day I pretended unbelief so that I could ask more questions. Now I want to become a Christian."
In the midst of a life of steady, persevering faithfulness, God has yet more wonders to show us in the work of evangelism and world missions than we can imagine. Let's pray for eyes to see and ears to hear when he calls us to a divine appointment like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch had on the road to Gaza.
John Piper (@JohnPiper)
Philip by the power of the Holy Spirit finds himself whisked away to Azotus and finally comes to Caesarea where he settles –Philip settled here for some time, probably for life, for we find him long after this residing here with his four unmarried daughters, who were prophetesses, and entertaining Paul and his company many days at his house, when on their way to Jerusalem. See Acts 21:8-9. It is likely, therefore, that his itinerant mission ended here.
When God wants to do a miracle in the deserts in our lives it seems there are three things we need to be alert to:- FThe voice of God sometimes calls us into the desert and we need to obey.
The need to open your mouth and do what God calls you to do.
Finally follows through and complete your part of the task
