April 24, 2022 Sermon - Acts 8:26–40 The Aftermath of Easter - Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
Today we are going to have a look at an early convert to Christ, after the first Resurrection Sunday, one of the first who came to Jesus in faith. We had an amazing Easter Sunday last week. What a joyful time that was.
The joy of Jesus Christ’s resurrection - that monumental event that changed the course of history. And of course we were witnesses to 7 who followed Jesus in the waters of baptism in that same service. God is good.
We feel the impact, or we remember the impact of our own baptisms, that moment when we ourselves first made that very clear public profession of faith in Jesus.
And we remember how our own lives have been shaped and impacted so profoundly by the victory of Jesus over the cross, over sin, over death.
We remember our own faith beginnings. We remember, and that is a good thing.
After the Resurrection was Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples. We’re told that 3000 people gave their lives to Jesus that day.
Many more followed, as the church grew and grew. And then as the book of Acts unfolds we’re given a line of sight into the work of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, and we’re witness as we read, fairly up close, to the conversion of some individuals.
And today we are going to reflect on the experience of one of the early converts to Christ, one of the first disciples whose life was changed completely after encountering the gospel and after his own baptism.
There are things we can pick up from this passage that can be helpful to us.
Both in Philip the evangelist and in the Ethiopian Eunuch.
Listen to the Voice of the Spirit
Philip was one of the Apostles who had travelled with Jesus for the three years of Jesus' public ministry.
He had experienced the miracles, the teachings of Jesus, the ups and downs of those three years. He had just recently shared the experience of the very dark day of Good Friday.
Like the other disciples he had abandoned Jesus and had spent the rest of Good Friday and Saturday very confused and very depressed. Lost, broken up, directionless.
Then he had experienced the great reversal of the resurrection, he had been with the disciples as the news first came of the empty tomb, and then as Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection.
Like the other Disciples Philip had received the commission from Jesus, recorded in Matthew 28, to go into all the world, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit
Now we don’t know what Philip was doing right before this moment, but more than likely he was active and engaged in serving the Lord, sharing the gospel, doing the healings that the early Apostles did.
The resurrection of Jesus had completely altered the course of his life. And he was in the early stages of his own new life.
Then, apparently out of nowhere, 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.
So a messenger, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. Not much detail was given to Philip. He wasn’t told why. He was told where to go, and so of course where to be, at the right time.
The angel didn’t, you’ll notice, inquire of Philip if he had some free time. It wasn’t a conversation per se.
Philip was in full-obedience mode, something he had learned from Jesus who taught His people to be ready, to live with an anticipation of God moving, of God giving direction.
If Philip wasn’t ready, if his heart wasn’t yielded fully, a thing that he learned over his time with Jesus, he might have argued, he might have demanded more information before he left for that dessert place.
But we’re told that he simply got up - he rose, and went about 50 miles to the road from Jerusalem which led via Bethlehem and Hebron and joined the main road to Egypt just south of Gaza.
That the word “Gaza” means “treasure”. That was not lost on Luke, the author of the Book of Acts that we are looking at today. The Ethiopian who was in charge of the treasure of his government was to find real treasure on the road to Gaza! There’s all kinds of intricate details like that in the text of Holy Scripture. Takes some unpacking. Anyway, Philip arose and he went.
How cool is it to live listening to the voice of God's spirit, I've learned to be ready so that when God has an assignment for us we're prepared, we're in the right frame of mind. We are pumped, energized and ready to be obedient.
27 And he rose and went. And there was an nEthiopian, a oeunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, pwho was in charge of all her treasure. qHe had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Everyone Needs the Lord
It so happened that Philip’s assignment was to make a connection with the Ethiopian Eunuch.
A eunuch in this case was a castrated male who served in the royal court, considered to be safe to serve the women of a royal household.
In the Old Testament Ethiopia was known as Cush. This fellow was a big wig. A fellow with a lot of responsibility, he oversaw and was accountable for all of Ethiopian Queen Candace’s money.
“In those days the world was full of people who were weary of the many gods and the sketchy morals of the nations.
They came to Judaism and there found the one God and the clear moral standards which gave life boundaries and therefore meaning.
If they accepted Judaism and were circumcised they were called proselytes; if they did not go that length but continued to attend the Jewish synagogues and to read the Jewish scriptures they were called God-fearers.
This Ethiopian must have been one of these searchers who came to rest in Judaism either as a proselyte or a God-fearer”. William Barclay wrote that.
Everyone needs the Lord. People of high status, people of low status and everyone in between. We live in a world that promotes that kind of illusion.
That certain people matter more than other people. In God’s kingdom, Jesus’ upside down kingdom, where God’s values are what matter - those who are of low status are of high status, those who are of high status are low status.
The leader is the servant of all. This is of course balances everyone out. If you’ve ever wondered where the idea of human equality comes from, it’s from the Bible, it’s from the gospel. Just sayin’.
Our Ethiopian gentleman was seated in his chariot - not a chariot of war but one of transportation - and he was seeking God. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. As a convert to Judaism of the one sort or the other, proselyte or God-fearer, he innately recognized the importance, the centrality of the Bible in seeking God; in coming to understand God’s heart, His will and His ways.
But like a lot of us, he needed a friend to help him sort through the Bible, this particularly challenging passage in Isaiah. And the revelation that was about to come to him through Philip was going to rock his world.
How cool is it that we are all the same in God’s eyes, and that we get to be brothers and sisters, no matter our background, race, ethnicity or any other such label.
We get to worship together, to serve together, to seek the Lord together, to study His Word together. To grow together.
This only ever happens, by the way, in the church. In the world all those distinctions that humans dream up are a reality, and the inequality and barriers to relationships such distinctions bring are everywhere. Thanks be to God for the body of Christ!
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, r“How can I, unless someone guides me?” And the invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Those Who Are Most Open To The Gospel Are Those Who Are Seeking God
The Holy Spirit leads Philip again. “Go over there and join the chariot”.
Again, Philip was ready. No matter what type of personality he had - warm and social and engaging, or a bit distant and shy - we don’t know obviously. I’m quite sure that didn’t matter.
Philip is listening, he is told what to do and he does it enthusiastically. He runs, you’ll notice, to the Eunuch and gets close enough to hear him reading out loud from Isaiah.
He starts up a conversation. “Hey, guy. Does that make sense to you, what you’re reading there? Do you understand it?”
And the fellow responds to Philip, a stranger to him as far as we know, with a great question. I love great questions.
Great questions are often the key to great answers. Great questions reveal a thirst for knowledge, great questions always come with humility - here’s something I don’t know.
I really don’t know, but man I really do want to know. And I don’t think I can sort this out on my own. I need help.
That reveals an openness to learning, to growing. It reveals a heart that God has prepared to receive the understanding that can come through asking, through inquiry.
I have had certain people ask me to explain the gospel, multiple times, and each time their response was: “Nope. That’s not right. That’s not for me”. So clearly, it’s not just in the asking.
A person may want clarification if they’ve forgotten certain details, or if their life situation has changed. But a person negative response to the gospel is an indication, obviously, that they are not open.
Despite God pursuing them, they are still resisting. We need to pray for those who resist the gospel. Somebody somewhere, sometime, prayed for me, and God broke through. Let’s keep praying, Church. Amen?
It’s also possible that people who ask repeatedly over time are testing you - testing if you’ve started to waffle or become confused about the gospel,
if your convictions have waned, gotten weaker, so that what you express regarding the gospel might become more palatable to them. Sadly that’s a thing.
No matter, it’s very true that God prepares each heart to hear the gospel and to understand the gospel and to embrace the truth of God’s Word. And God prepares each heart, that does respond, uniquely.
As an avowed atheist God got my attention in a way precisely designed for my situation and character and brain, and he broke through the resistance and the many barriers skillfully, using supernatural events.
He opened my heart to the reality of His existence before I had any notion of His existence, and eventually by using Christian people eager and ready to live the gospel in front of me, and then to share the gospel when I was ready.
I’m so glad there were Christians around me whose hearts were ready, as Philip’s was, to respond to the Spirit leading them to get to know me and share Christ with me!
Those who are seeking God, whether or not they are aware they are even doing that, are always most open to the gospel.
May we chose daily to walk close to God, to keep short accounts when we fail so we go to God in repentance on the regular.
May we work through our stuff - the issues that clutter our hearts and minds and can make us not in the right state of heart and mind to truly be available to God so He can use us.
As we do that, God will give us discernment, God will give us opportunity to bless others in many ways including most importantly the living out and sharing of the gospel of salvation.
“Do you understand what you are reading?”, Philip asked Eunuch. Open-hearted and prepared by the Holy Spirit, the Eunuch asks r“How can I, unless someone guides me?” And the invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: u“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?”
What a great question. He is moved by this passage. Perhaps he has read it many times before, scratching his head, wondering the same things, but having no answer given.
Yet his heart still pursued. His eyes still read the Word. His heart still yearned for an answer. The passage is incredibly moving. Who is this one who was despised and rejected, who is this man of suffering, so familiar with pain. Who is this person held in such low esteem?
Why, how did he Take up our pain and bear are suffering. Why was he punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted? It says he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.
It says the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and we are healed by his wounds.
What is this? The Eunuch wonders out loud. Is the writer talking about himself? That would be strange. How could you be ready about himself when it says that the suffering servant dies?
Who is this who the prophet Isaiah speaks of who bears the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors? Who is this?
Who is this great one? Who is this one willing to give his life, to pour out his life and death, to be numbered with the transgressors? Who is this perfect one?
And Philip is ready. He knows the Scriptures. He has reflected on them deeply.
Not only does he know the Scriptures, but he knows the one of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks, prophetically, 700+ years before anything was to happen. And this just happened.
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and wbeginning with this Scripture xhe told him the good news about Jesus.
So Philip has the joy of sharing the gospel with this person who God has prepared to hear and respond to the gospel.
It's hard to imagine Philips' joy at being able to speak about Jesus, who he had known so well, Who he could personally testify about.
Once we get over any nervousness we might have about sharing the gospel, it's my experience and observation that among the many joys in life, there are a few as truly satisfying and that run as deep as being able to share the truth of the gospel with people, being able to lead them to face in Jesus Christ, and to be part of both that process of conversion, and to be part of discipling that individual as a follower of Jesus
So clearly, not only had Philip shared about Jesus, but this Eunuch Had believed the gospel, trusted that Jesus Christ died for his sins, and had received him as his Lord and Saviour. So, not being one to put things off,
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
You might notice that verse 37 seems to be missing here. Just a note, the text of first 37 is this: Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
If you're familiar with the king James version of the Bible, you might wonder why this is missing.
To keep it simple and short, verse 37, while it is wonderful and lovely and completely in line with the rest of scripture, it does not appear in the earliest manuscripts from which we get the English translation of the Bible.
When the King James Bible was translated, the translators did their best with the ancient manuscripts of Scripture that they had available to them.
Since then, a great many more manuscripts have been discovered, dated quite a bit earlier than the ones that the King James translators had available to them.
Bible translation is taken extremely seriously, so in the interest of the highest level of accuracy, verse 37 is not included in most modern translations, or if it is, it is included in the footnotes, with some form of explanation. Again, its absence doesn’t change the meaning of the text.
So the fellow is baptized, and he like our baptismal candidates last week, they're made a clear and public statement identifying himself with Jesus, with the Church of Jesus Christ, as a child of the most high king of the universe. And the passage finishes with this:
39 When 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. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Tradition has it that this eunuch went home and evangelized Ethiopia.
We can at least be sure that he who went on his way rejoicing would not be able to keep his newfound joy to himself.
I find this to be quite a wonderful story, quite a wonderful narrative account of the work of the early church.
For us, just to recap, among other things that God may bring to your attention and the reading of this passage, we can understand that:
Each of us needs to learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit of God. We learn that within the body of Christ, in the body of Christ, the part of it that matters the most to us, which must be at our local church. Here, at Church at the Mission, May we each encourage one another to develop our capacity to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and to find the courage to obey that voice.
Everyone needs the Lord. All of the people that you know, everyone in your family, all of your friends, all of your acquaintances, anyone you have ever seen or even heard about: everyone needs the Lord. We need Jesus because Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross for our sins, he made a way for us to be in fellowship with God.
He made this way for us to be saved. He is the way, the truth and the life. Everyone needs the Lord in order to be in right relationship with God.
Everyone needs the Lord in order to live the abundant life that we are intended to live. Everyone needs the Lord in order to, when you're finished I will say if you're on this earth, be in the presence of God forever.
Those Who Are Most Open To The Gospel Are Those Who Are Seeking God
It is important to love all people at all times. It is critical that we treat everyone with dignity and respect, because they are, after all, made in the image of God.
It is important that we do good things, and that we live our lives in a way that brings honour and glory to God.
It is God, though, who prepares the hearts of people to be able to respond to the gospel. It is God who creates that openness in the minds and spirits of individuals, to respond to the gospel.
It is God who places that seed of faith in people's hearts, so when they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, they respond in faith.
It is true that scripture says that no one seeks the Lord. It is also true that scripture says Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.
May we learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit of God, may we learn to be ready, so that when God has an assignment for us, we are ready, in the right frame of mind, and actually pumped, energised, to be obedient.
May we join our hearts with others in order to seek the Lord together, to grow in understanding God’s word together. May God stir our hearts with a passion for those who do not know the Lord, so that we will pray fervently, so that we will love fervently, and so that we will be ready to give an account of the hope that we have with us.
And may we continue to seek God, Who by his grace has revealed Jesus Christ to us, and who by his grace wants to use us to bring others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.
