Foreword: Full disclosure, I am a Southern Baptist and present this message from that perspective. Water baptism is part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28, Mark 16, e.g.) and is mentioned in connection with belief and with becoming a disciple. It is readily admitted there are others who hold different interpretations and I seek no quarrel with anyone. Our purpose is to make disciples, not enemies, and to share God’s love with as many people as we can as our Lord gives opportunity. Also, Sermon Central has my outline of this passage as "An Outline of Acts 8:26-40, but I have not used that outline here.
This message has the second part of Acts 8 as the text. Here Luke records the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Let’s take a look at what happened!
Text: Acts 8:26-40, KJV: 26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
1 The preacher
How many of us ever came to faith in Christ without a preacher? By “preacher”, I don’t always mean a member of the clergy or a church employee. A preacher can be a parent, family member, friend, or just about anyone who shares the message of Jesus with anyone else!
Now, this isn’t to take away from how important it is to have a preacher. Paul would write, later, to the Romans asking “how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:16)” and he would know about that—just look in the Book of Acts alone to see how often he preached!
Before Paul had even become a believer, though, there was any number of preachers, not just the apostles but others too. Philip, the preacher in this story, was one of these preachers. He is most likely not the Apostle Philip (we don’t know anything about him except where he’s mentioned in the New Testament) but one of the original seven men called “deacons” by some (see Acts 6). He went “down (geographically, Jerusalem was at a higher elevation than most of the area in that part of Israel)” to “the (unnamed) city of Samaria” and preached Jesus to them (see Acts 8:5-25)
Philip stayed in this particular city for a period of time and not only preached, but performed miracles. He was there when Peter and John had come from Jerusalem (8:14-15) and I think he would have stayed there for a while, preaching the Gospel and doing things to show God’s love. In fact, we could say that at least some cultural-ethnic healing was taking place: the Samaritans had no dealings with Jews—and that was true for the other way around, too (John 4:9). Now they’re believers, Jews and Samaritans alike. Note that there was no hostile reaction when Peter and John came back: they had been with Jesus in John 4, going into the city to buy food (think of that, they were probably so hungry they’d buy food from their enemies!). John, by the way, along with his brother James, had asked Jesus to bring down fire from Heaven because a Samaritan village refused to allow Jesus to “make ready for Him (Luke 9:52-56)”.
What a difference Jesus makes!
And Jesus was about to use Philip to make a difference in another person’s life, too.
2 The listener
Philip must have been happy to see the Gospel being believed, people receiving Christ as Savior, and being baptized. The Holy Spirit had another plan for him, though, and to his credit Philip obeyed the Holy Spirit’s commands.
Oddly enough, the Spirit’s first command may not have made much sense, humanly speaking, to Philip. Here he was, in a city, and not too far from Jerusalem, but the Spirit tells him “Go to the road leading to Gaza”. Luke adds a comment with a couple of interpretations: he said, “(w)hich is desert” and this could mean Gaza was deserted, or, it could mean Philip was heading for desert-type territory. At any rate, Philip was many miles and several days from where the Spirit wanted him to be (almost a week, according to some of the commentators).
But arrive he did, and probably just in time to see someone, or more likely a group of people coming his way! Luke records that “a man of Ethiopia” who was a man of great authority serving under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He also was in charge of her treasure which likely proved he was a man of good character and good conduct. Someone like him would probably not be traveling alone, especially as far away from Ethiopia as he was at the time.
The reason this man was away from Ethiopia may seem surprising and, to be honest, I’ve wondered about this too. How could a man from as far away as Ethiopia (south of Egypt at the time) even know about the Jewish faith, and decide to visit Jerusalem? Then, I remembered that in Queen Esther’s day, the Medo-Persian empire reached from—wait for it—“India to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1)!” Even more of an “ah, this may be something!”—in Esther’s days, “many people of the land became Jews”! So, it’s possible (okay, maybe it’s a stretch) that some of the Ethiopians became Jews, too. Then again, some Jews may have been genuine Hebrews who settled, willingly or otherwise, in Ethiopia. We may never know how the Jewish faith arrived there, but we do know that some, at least, were observant and arrived in Jerusalem for one of the mandated appearances as mentioned in the Law.
Now this official was coming back to Ethiopia but he wasn’t coming back empty handed. It’s anybody’s guess how much he had taken as regards to clothing, food, and so on (remember, there were no supermarkets on the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem!) but in addition to the supplies, he had purchased a book (scroll, actually).
That book was a copy of Isaiah! Remember that “book” in the KJV usually means “scroll”; the “codex” or leaf-and leaf form of “book” was rare if even in existence then. Scrolls, by the way, look very difficult to “manage” by rolling the parchment, papyrus, or whatever was used to record the messages, from one stick to the other. Sometimes I’ve wondered how much time it took a person to find a given passage in a scroll, such as when Jesus “opened the book” of Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:16-20).
Oh, and speaking of these books or scrolls, we need to remember that there were no printing presses or any other kind of printing except pen-in-hand-to paper. To get an idea, just take any chapter of Isaiah and write it, one letter at a time, and verify you didn’t make any mistakes. No, I can’t do it either, but even so, that should make us appreciate the scribes and others who did such painstaking work to give us accurate copies of the Scriptures.
Let’s go back to the key players here. Philip, the preacher, received directions from the Holy Spirit to head to Gaza. The listener, the Ethiopian official, is heading back home, and has a copy of Isaiah with him in the chariot. He’s reading this portion of the Word of God (and there IS a lot in that book!) but. . . . something just isn’t right. And he knows it.
Now Philip hears the second command from the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen once he obeys this command!
3 The sermon
We’re never told how much time went by between the time when Philip saw the chariot (I’m pretty sure there was more than one) and when the Holy Spirit gave him this second command: “Go and join yourself to this chariot.” Luke says Philip “ran”, which to me implies the chariot was moving at faster than a walk speed—he may have had to run for dear life to catch up with the chariot!
And Philip was probably surprised to see a chariot, out here in the desert, with a high-ranking official in it, reading the scroll of Isaiah. This official was reading out loud, loud enough for Philip to hear him saying these words aloud. As it happened (don’t you love these “God-things”?), this man was reading Isaiah 53, one of the clearest prophecies of the Suffering Messiah. Philip realized what the man was reading and asked him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”
Some may think this was almost rude, to ask a question like this, but not really. We have no way of knowing this but maybe there was something in the official’s voice, a hesitation or uncertainty, that showed he really didn’t understand the passage. It may also be that he, like others, couldn’t fully appreciate the concept of a Suffering Messiah instead of the Sovereign Messiah. After all, there were crowds who cheered for “The King of the Jews” but not many were there to see the King rejected and crucified. That problem still exists today for some folks.
At any rate, the official didn’t seem to think it was rude and invited Philip into the chariot. The official replied to Philip’s question by saying, “How _could_ I know unless someone guides me?” That question, too, is still valid today: how many people try to figure out any given passage of Scripture, or take a verse or verses out of context, and think they’ve settled the issue. To say the least, some commentators, since early in Church history, have arrived at some very unusual interpretations of God’s Word. This official wanted to know, and knew he wouldn’t know, until someone could guide him. Philip was right there, at the right time, with the right message!
What, then, did Philip do? He preached about Jesus, how He had been the subject of Isaiah 53, and had fulfilled that prophecy! Jesus had done the same thing before, showing from the Old Testament (“Moses and all the Prophets”, Luke 24:27) everything concerning Him.
After Philip explained and preached Jesus to the official, something happened. The official believed the Gospel! Luke does not give any details, but surely something took place in that man’s heart. The proof: he wanted to be baptized!
4 The results
The first result was that the official believed the Gospel! Note the two proofs of this: first, he wanted to be baptized (and he is one of the few who specifically asked for this in the New Testament). Second, and more important, when Philip said “If you believe with all your heart, you may (be baptized)”, the man gave a clear confession of faith: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” This again is something rarely mentioned in the New Testament, but it is here, as a pattern or statement of faith. This man had heard the Gospel, believed it, and wanted to show his sincerity by receiving baptism.
Now, it’s important to remember that this verse has been misused by any number of people. One radio preacher wrote in his testimony that because he was such a wild child, his father was about to send him to reform school (this, in the 1920’s and 30’s, in the South). Not yet a Christian, by his own admission, he decided to “join the church” and did so during revival meetings. He told the preacher he wanted to be baptized and join the church and related how the pastor asked him if he believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Of course, he said yes, but he stated in so many words that it was only a mental agreement and after being baptized, the only change he made was wet clothing for dry (See Oliver Greene’s testimony, “From Disgrace to Grace”, available at “The Gospel Hour, Inc.’s” website, https://thegospelhour.org/)
But, as mentioned, this official was already a believer and wanted to be baptized as quickly as possible. Of course, traveling through the desert, water was scarce but eventually, they found water. The official exclaimed, “Look! Here’s water! What’s stopping me from being baptized? (paraphrased)” Philip agreed to baptize him right then and there, They “went down into the water”, meaning it was deep enough to cover the official; then they “came up out of the water” which might mean they not only walked out of the pool, pond, lake, or whatever it was; it may also mean they walked up to the road from the low spot where the water was found, The important thing is that this man wanted to be baptized after he had believed.
Talk about great results! Philip was “caught away” by the Holy Spirit and found himself at Azotus (Old Testament Ashdod, a former Philistine city) while the official went on his way back to his home. Philip may have wondered why the Holy Spirit directed him to one specific person, but there was a reason: the official carried not only the Isaiah scroll back home but also the Message of Jesus! Philip had only won this one soul on this journey, but the official, according to church history, founded the Church in Ethiopia.
Now, what does all of this have to do with baptism? First, this shows baptism came after genuine belief. Philip preached, and the official believed. Second, either Philip or this official must have heard about baptism somewhere previously—there is no record Philip said anything to him—but the official knew baptism was the next step. Finally, he wanted to be baptized, and that proved his sincerity in his belief. It wasn’t just head knowledge, as some say, it was heart belief.
One final word: think of baptism as showing which team you support. Suppose you have a favorite team, whether baseball, football, cricket, rugby, whatever. Everyone will know who you support when they see what shirts, jerseys, or kit (a nod to some British or Commonwealth acquaintances) you’re wearing. Baptism, at the least, shows you’re on “Team Jesus”—and there’s no team any better!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
