Good morning. We are going to look at a very exceptional encounter today, in Acts 8.
• Philip was led to share the Gospel with a man from Ethiopia in a divine appointment.
• That’s THE WONDER OF GOD’S LEADING.
Have you ever experienced a blackout? You are walking about in your house at night and then suddenly the lights went out, and you are left in the dark.
• For a moment panic sets in but after pausing for a while, your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness. You see the faintest light that comes through, maybe from your digital clock or the moonlight that comes through the windows.
• You are thankful for them because they help you size up your surroundings and see enough to take the next step.
• God provides guiding light in the midst of our darkness. He enlightens and shows us the way. This is what we are going to see today.
Let’s us pray before we go into God’s Word.
Dear Lord, we come once again before you with open hearts and ears, to hear from Your Word. Enlighten us and show us your ways. Grant us the faith to trust and depend on you fully. Help us come to you for wisdom, strength, provision and protection.
For those of us who needs to face tough choices and hard situations, grant us the wisdom and courage to choose what is true, right and good in Your eyes. We look up to you, Lord, our Shepherd, to lead and guide us.
Feed us with your Word again this morning, this we pray in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
Let’s read 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." 27 So 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, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The 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. 32 The 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?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36As they travelled 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 travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
What stands out in this story is the impossibility of this encounter taking place without the leading of God. It is definitely not something that man can plan for.
• Yet at the same time, we know that without the obedience of Philip, this Ethiopian man would not have known Christ. Philip was led by God.
• We see the wonder of God’s leading and we also see the beauty of man’s obedience in the fulfilment of God’s purposes.
Before we go into the details of what happened, let us see the big picture and appreciate how the Lord orchestrated the reach of the Gospel to the lost, to the ends of the earth.
• We see how God breaks down barriers, set up divine encounters and directs us when it matters most.
GOD BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS
Luke the author laid out for us in Acts the spread of the Gospel, with one unlikely outcome after another, and each with increasing difficulty.
• It all started in Jerusalem, with an audience that’s predominantly Jewish, of the same race, culture and traditions.
• In Acts 8 the Gospel moved on to Samaria and a new audience, the Samaritans, which has a long history of enmity with the Jews; they were considered ‘half-breeds’, half-Jews/half-Gentiles and had a different Temple and worship.
• And now in this passage we have the next candidate for the Gospel - a foreigner from the distant land of Ethiopia, someone from a different race, culture and nationality.
• This would mean that he was likely excluded from the temple worship in Jerusalem (Deut 23:1-3; Lev 21:18-20) because the Law forbids the “blemished” from entering.
• The outer Court of the Gentiles would be as close as he could get to. This man was a complete outsider.
Luke tells us next in Acts 9 the salvation of the most unlikely candidate – Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church, who has been actively hunting down believers.
• Even the church in Jerusalem had a hard time trying to accept him (9:26). They just couldn’t believe that he was converted.
• And finally Luke tells us of the conversion of the Gentiles en masse in Acts 10 - Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, and his entire household.
• That would be the most radical conversion, of a people group that’s completely different in every way.
That explains the unique manifestations of God’s approval, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Samaritan believers in in Samaria (Acts 8), and again upon the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house (Acts 10).
• These outward signs authenticates their salvation. God authenticates His acceptance of these new believers in the faith.
• Peter said, "So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:17)
• The Lord taught him in a vision, don’t call anything impure that God has made clean (cf. 10:15).
From the half-breed Samaritans, to the foreigner, Ethiopian eunuch, to Saul the persecutor, and the uncircumcised Gentiles.
• With every increasingly difficult encounter as the Gospel moves beyond Jerusalem, Luke helps us see the hand of God in each one.
• God breaks down the barriers. The love of God transcends all boundaries, be it geographical, cultural or racial.
• One day, as Apostle John shared in Revelation, a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne in worship of Jesus, the Lamb of God. (cf. Rev 7:9)
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Now let come back to Acts 8 and see this extraordinary encounter.
• We have here one man who stands little chance of knowing Christ. An outsider with an outside chance.
• Yet he was God-fearing. Although without a full knowledge of God, he made that long 800km journey from Ethiopia to Jerusalem wanting to worship Him. [not the modern-day Ethiopia but Kush (Nubia), South of Egypt.
• We could tell the longing in his heart; he bought a copy of the Scriptures to read.
• He might not know God but God knows him; the one who seek Him with all his heart will find Him.
GOD SETS UP DIVINE APPOINTMENTS (we see that again in Acts 9 and Acts 10).
• 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
• Why Philip? He knows Christ. He is a Grecian Jew, he speaks Greek. He has the answer that this man needs. He knows the Scripture, he knows Isaiah 53.
• He was “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks [him] to give the reason for the hope that [he has].” (cf. 1 Pet 3:15)
“So he started out” (8:27) immediately. This is critical, especially when you need to meet someone on the move without prior arrangement.
• It’s difficult to hit a moving target but the Lord’s call and Philip’s response were both timely.
Philip responded in faith, not knowing WHY because the angel did not explain. Philip trusts that God has His reasons.
• When he reached the road, he saw the chariot. 8:29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
• 8:30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
• 8:31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
God guided Philip to this man. God directed him at each step of the way.
• The timing was precise. Philip left promptly. He reached in time to see the chariot. He ran by it in time to overhear the reading of Isaiah, and Isaiah 53 at that!
• Philip latched on to the written Word and presented Christ to this man.
What a revelation this was to this man. He understood. He believed. And he was baptised.
• This was another difficult feat – finding some water in the desert place – for him to be baptised. Only God could have arranged it.
It’s interesting to see the two baptisms in this chapter.
• We have an ‘outsider’ who has the right heart, got to know Christ, believed and was baptised.
• Earlier we have the ex-sorcerer Simon who was baptised but not really knowing Christ, and having a heart that is “not right before God”, Peter said. (8:21)
• Baptism doesn’t mean anything if we do not know Christ. Peter said to the man, “Repent and ask for forgiveness.” (cf. 8:22) Baptism does not make us Christians.
• Do you really know Jesus Christ? That’s the big question.
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GOD DIRECTS WHEN IT MATTERS MOST
God speaks through an angel, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit and through His written Word – to direct Philip to this man and guide him to faith in Jesus Christ.
• God guides Philip progressively. God tells him enough for him to act. God did not reveal everything or explain anything.
• That’s what most of us do not like. We want to know the whole plan.
• If He says “go south to the road”, we want to know, “Why?”
• If He says “run to the chariot and stay near it”, we ask “What for? Who is there?”
God speaks when Philip needs to know. Philip trusts God. That’s faith.
• We obey what God has revealed us. We do what He says and trust that God will show us the next step when we NEED to know.
When you get to the place God wants us to be, we will understand, just like Philip.
• He heard the man reading Isaiah 53 which was the reference to the Messiah and which Jesus had fulfilled in His death on the cross.
• Naturally Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (8:30)
• The man said no and the rest just flowed from there. The man was reading Isaiah 53:7-8. Philip used “that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” (8:35)
On hindsight, Philip would have understood why the Lord directed him to this place.
• God wants to save this man. This one man’s conversion alone is worth the trip.
• But the icing on the cake is that history tells us, very likely, this Ethiopian eunuch has become a missionary among his people.
• [Irenaeus, church father in 2nd Century, wrote in his book Against Heresies about him. The first missionaries to Ethiopia also saw a church that was founded by a court official.]
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Luke places this encounter here in Acts 8 - as the Gospel moves to Samaria and beyond - is his way of telling us that the Gospel cannot be stopped, whatever the impossibilities – be it the Samaritans, an outsider, an enemy or the Gentiles.
• It has the power to change lives – all lives, that is, whatever the culture, race or nationality. No geographical, culture, racial or social barriers can be a hindrance to the Gospel.
• The message of Jesus transcends all. God’s love knows no boundaries.
• There’s a children Sunday School song that we used to sing:
Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world.
Red, brown, yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
• BTW "Ethiopian" used here is a Greek term for black-skinned people, often applied to the people from Kush.
• And we are still learning this today as adults, that all lives matter, whatever the skin colours. And God is capable of reaching out to them all.
CONCLUSION
We trust in God’s leading. When He guides, we listen. When He directs, we obey.
This was no coincidence. Philip was the man led by God to be in the right place, at the right time, to do the right thing for God.
• Ultimately, what made Philip’s witness successful wasn’t his technique in evangelism, but his obedience to God.
• If we know Jesus, if we know the meaning of Isaiah 53, if we have tasted God’s saving grace, then we too can be the person that God can use.
• If God is sovereign and He guides, then we can become the right person led by God, to the right place, at the right time, to do the right thing for Christ, and bless someone’s life.
Dear friends, if you are listening in today and still do not know God, then understand this, God is looking for you.
• He has come in Jesus Christ. He has come to seek and save the lost
• You have to put your trust in Jesus. He died to save you from the judgment of sin.
• Repent and ask God to forgive you. Believe in Jesus and you can be at peace with God today.
God is our first seeker. Before any of us ever seek God, He has come for us.
• He has orchestrated events in our lives so that we can be found and be saved.
• So stop wandering and wondering, return to God today. Pray and God will guide you.
PRAY:
Dear Lord, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 25:4-5 "Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long." Yes Lord, in you we have the answers we need.
Lord, help us to trust you with our decisions and our future. Let us lean on you with all our heart and not on our own imperfect understanding. In all our choices, let us acknowledge you. You will direct our paths and lead us to your best outcomes for us. We will listen to you.
Help us live in a way that will brings honour to your Name.
May the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, now and forevermore, AMEN.
