20231126 Acts 8:26-40 Philip's Witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch
One of the questions the Book of Acts answers is, “Who is Jesus for?” Luke answers, “Let me show you!” Luke shows through the church's witness that Jesus is for all people. Acts 8:26-40 teaches this again. The three themes are the work of the Holy Spirit, the proclamation of the gospel, and the inclusion of all people.
This is strange. It is hard to conceptualize God speaking through an angel or the Spirit. There is a tension we need to hold.
Some people are too quick to say God told me to do this or that. Some say, "God told me to move to this city and then to get that job." It seems like they wanted to move to that city and wanted to get that job but are spiritualizing it. Some use God in romantic contexts saying, "God told me to marry you." If you like someone, tell them you like them. Do not make it sound like if they do not like you back, they are disobeying God. The Old Testament offers severe warnings for misusing God’s name. The third of the ten commandments reads, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exod 20:7). Deut 18:20 teaches that it is a capital offense to speak on God’s behalf if God did not indeed speak.
Other Christians have the opposite problem. We act like Deists. We act like God created the world and systems and is no longer involved in the day-to-day. God is working in our midst. God uses his people, his written word, and prayer to guide us in such a way that we can say “The Lord is teaching me!”
God teaches us to love, be patient, wise in hardships, and much more. It is okay for Christians to sound different from the rest of the world. Sometimes, events that occur are so extraordinary that we have to marvel at God’s sovereign providence.
This happened to Ian Thomas, a leader of a large Christian ministry. He was traveling on a plane. He was tired and hoping to sleep, when he heard someone say, “Psssst.” When he looked to see where the sound had come from, his eyes met those of a stranger. The man said, “I am reading in the Bible about Nicodemus in John 3, and I do not understand it. Do you know anything about the Bible?”
This is what happened to me. I grew up in a secular home. I went to high school in Australia and university in France. One day, I was on a bus in France and I saw a young woman from my high school in Australia. I did not know her too well, but when you share such a random thing in common, you have to go say hello. She was a Christian and later introduced me to her friends. One of those friends invited me to attend the church where I became a Christian. Now, I can look back and see the sovereign hand in the most seemingly random things.
For some, we are more comfortable when that kind of God-talk is kept in the Bible. Maybe we are scared to misuse God's name or do not want to sound strange. But since we worship the creator and ruler of the universe, we cannot domesticate God. When we talk about God, it cannot sound like we are talking about a regular acquaintance or an object in a museum!
In Acts 8:26, the angel of the Lord tells Philip to trust and obey into the unknown. He tells Philip to go "south" in Acts 8:26. This word, "south" could also mean, “at noon.” This would mean that he was to go to a deserted place in the middle of the day. Luke is highlighting that God is arranging a particular meeting. There is a random chariot, at noon, in a deserted place, and the Spirit tells Philip, “Go over and join this chariot” (Acts 8:29). This encounter is the Lord’s doing. The Spirit empowers, guides, and appoints.
Isaiah 53 is about a “suffering servant.” The eunuch wants to know who this is. He asks whether he is referring to the prophet Isaiah, or to another. In Isaiah 40 to 55, the servant refers at times to the nation of Israel who were to be God’s servants and witnesses to God’s message of salvation to the ends of the earth. Prophets were also called servants of the Lord. Isaiah 49:6 marks a shift in the identity of the servant. The servant goes from being the nation of Israel to being separate from the nation. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel;” It is an individual from the people of Israel. His mission is to save them.
Isaiah 53 describes how he does that by offering his own life on behalf of his people. Isaiah 53:4-6 are such amazing verses – and one of the clearest presentations of the gospel, “Isa 53:4 Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Philip begins with Isaiah 53 and tells the Ethiopian, the good news about Jesus. Philip must have included the need for repentance and baptism because when the Eunuch sees water, he wants to be baptized. The last thing we read about the eunuch is that he went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39). The text ends with Philip continuing to proclaim the gospel in all towns from Azotus to Caesarea (Acts 8:40).
The good news of Jesus is that he is the solution to all problems. He reverses the consequences of sin. Through his death as our substitute, he offers the forgiveness of sins for all who believe in him. He gives the hope of eternal life which is a confident expectation eternal bliss in the presence of God forever. Our hope is the conviction that all our wounds, whether psychological, physical, or relational, will be healed. The resurrection gives hope beyond the grave. The good news is also good news for now. God acts and God heals. Most importantly when God causes us to be born again, he gives us his peace and joy like we have never known before. The Ethiopian ends by rejoicing!
God starts to change our hearts. He heals our relational wounds in Christ. He gives us a new family in the church. We have brothers and sisters to encourage and teach us. We grow in intimacy with God through prayer, the word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper! This is the good news of Jesus that we share.
A second application, is that we repent and are baptized. All Christians must repent. In an ongoing manner, we must confess our sins and be reminded that Jesus covers all our sins. God is serious about sin. The death of Jesus shows us how serious our sin is. Repentance is turning away from behavior that goes against God’s will. Baptism is the symbol of being filled with the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and new life in Christ for all those who believe. If you have not been baptized and are a Christian, you need to be baptized.
Third, we rejoice. In this account, there were no extraordinary signs or wonders, and no speaking in tongues. The outward manifestation of the Holy Spirit in this text is joy! The good news is the best news. Believing it leads to joy. This is not in conflict with the sufferings of the Christian life. Christians can know deep emotional, relational, and physical wounds that last a lifetime. At the same time, we also know joy. It is the joy of knowing God intimately. It is the joy of being a child of Almighty God. It is the joy of knowing our sins are forgiven. It is the joy of our security that nothing will separate us from God. This affects us to the most inner parts of our being that there is a joy about us that no one can take away!
First, we learn he is Ethiopian. In the Bible, Ethiopia is also known as the land of Cush (Gn. 2:13; Ez. 29:10). This is not modern Ethiopia. It was a kingdom that is part of what is now Sudan. It could be appropriate to mention that he is dark-skinned. So, he did not look like your average worshipper of the God of Israel.
Second, he is a eunuch. Being a eunuch puts this individual in a similar category as the lame beggar who sat at the gate of the temple (Acts 3:2). According to Deut 23:1, if a man has been altered physically, he cannot enter the temple of the Lord.
Third, he is a Court Official of the Queen, in charge of her treasure. He was likely a wealthy man. His role was equivalent to the minister of finance. He could afford to go on a long trip. Lastly, he owns a scroll of Isaiah. Scrolls were handwritten and expensive.
Fourth, he came to worship in Jerusalem. This means that he was a God-fearer. There are three categories of people who relate to Judaism. There were Jews, proselytes, and God-fearers. Proselytes were converts to Judaism. God-fearers believed in the God of Israel but did not undergo circumcision. This meant that they did not participate fully in the communal worship rituals. As a eunuch, he was a God-fearer. He is very dedicated to God. The journey from Sudan to Jerusalem would take 100 hours by car today. He did all that journey, not even to enter the temple for worship but to sit outside.
A first application is that God is for all kinds of People. The Old Testament anticipated a day when Ethiopians would be included. In Isaiah 11:11, Cush is one of the lands from which the Lord will “reclaim the remnant that is left of his people.”
In Acts, Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit. Then it is Jews and converts to Judaism from different nations (Acts 2:5-13). Then it is a lame man who becomes a full member of the New Covenant people. The next converts were Greek-speaking Jews who received positions of leadership, priests (Acts 6:7), and Samaritans. Now, an upper-class, dark-skinned, person of influence comes to faith.
The Isaiah 53 reading is interesting. What is particularly exciting about the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah 53 is that if he continues reading, he would get to Isaiah 56. This is Isa 56:3ff “… let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ 4 For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’” Because he was a eunuch, Deut 23:1 prevented this Ethiopian from becoming a full proselyte. Acts 8 shows once more the inclusion of all people, all kinds of people, all groups of people in Christ.
A second application is about having children and infertility. Children are wonderful, they are a gift from the Lord, and eunuchs are not inferior because they cannot have children. Those who struggle with infertility are not less than. In Christ, we all have a name better than sons and daughters. Physically, though some names will be cut off, Isa 56 teaches that Christians receive an everlasting name that shall not be cut off! Having children for the purpose of having a legacy is not thinking spiritually but materially! If you have eternal life, you have an everlasting name!
First, we look at the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts 8:26, 29, 39.
God is the main character of Acts. In Acts 8:26, an angel of the Lord instructs Philip to go from Jerusalem to Gaza, in a desert place. In Acts 8:29, the Spirit gives Philip further instruction, “Go over and join this chariot.” The account ends in Acts 8:39, with the Spirit of the Lord carrying Philip away.This is strange. It is hard to conceptualize God speaking through an angel or the Spirit. There is a tension we need to hold.
Some people are too quick to say God told me to do this or that. Some say, "God told me to move to this city and then to get that job." It seems like they wanted to move to that city and wanted to get that job but are spiritualizing it. Some use God in romantic contexts saying, "God told me to marry you." If you like someone, tell them you like them. Do not make it sound like if they do not like you back, they are disobeying God. The Old Testament offers severe warnings for misusing God’s name. The third of the ten commandments reads, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exod 20:7). Deut 18:20 teaches that it is a capital offense to speak on God’s behalf if God did not indeed speak.
Other Christians have the opposite problem. We act like Deists. We act like God created the world and systems and is no longer involved in the day-to-day. God is working in our midst. God uses his people, his written word, and prayer to guide us in such a way that we can say “The Lord is teaching me!”
God teaches us to love, be patient, wise in hardships, and much more. It is okay for Christians to sound different from the rest of the world. Sometimes, events that occur are so extraordinary that we have to marvel at God’s sovereign providence.
This happened to Ian Thomas, a leader of a large Christian ministry. He was traveling on a plane. He was tired and hoping to sleep, when he heard someone say, “Psssst.” When he looked to see where the sound had come from, his eyes met those of a stranger. The man said, “I am reading in the Bible about Nicodemus in John 3, and I do not understand it. Do you know anything about the Bible?”
This is what happened to me. I grew up in a secular home. I went to high school in Australia and university in France. One day, I was on a bus in France and I saw a young woman from my high school in Australia. I did not know her too well, but when you share such a random thing in common, you have to go say hello. She was a Christian and later introduced me to her friends. One of those friends invited me to attend the church where I became a Christian. Now, I can look back and see the sovereign hand in the most seemingly random things.
For some, we are more comfortable when that kind of God-talk is kept in the Bible. Maybe we are scared to misuse God's name or do not want to sound strange. But since we worship the creator and ruler of the universe, we cannot domesticate God. When we talk about God, it cannot sound like we are talking about a regular acquaintance or an object in a museum!
In Acts 8:26, the angel of the Lord tells Philip to trust and obey into the unknown. He tells Philip to go "south" in Acts 8:26. This word, "south" could also mean, “at noon.” This would mean that he was to go to a deserted place in the middle of the day. Luke is highlighting that God is arranging a particular meeting. There is a random chariot, at noon, in a deserted place, and the Spirit tells Philip, “Go over and join this chariot” (Acts 8:29). This encounter is the Lord’s doing. The Spirit empowers, guides, and appoints.
Second, Philip shares the good news about Jesus in Acts 8:30-40.
In Acts 8:30, Philip obeys. He walks to the chariot. He hears a man reading the Prophet Isaiah out loud. Philip asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He answers, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” God superintends all things. The Ethiopian man happened to be reading Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 happens to be the clearest description of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement for the forgiveness of sins. According to Acts 8:32, the text he was reading was Isa 53:7-8, “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.”Isaiah 53 is about a “suffering servant.” The eunuch wants to know who this is. He asks whether he is referring to the prophet Isaiah, or to another. In Isaiah 40 to 55, the servant refers at times to the nation of Israel who were to be God’s servants and witnesses to God’s message of salvation to the ends of the earth. Prophets were also called servants of the Lord. Isaiah 49:6 marks a shift in the identity of the servant. The servant goes from being the nation of Israel to being separate from the nation. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel;” It is an individual from the people of Israel. His mission is to save them.
Isaiah 53 describes how he does that by offering his own life on behalf of his people. Isaiah 53:4-6 are such amazing verses – and one of the clearest presentations of the gospel, “Isa 53:4 Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Philip begins with Isaiah 53 and tells the Ethiopian, the good news about Jesus. Philip must have included the need for repentance and baptism because when the Eunuch sees water, he wants to be baptized. The last thing we read about the eunuch is that he went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39). The text ends with Philip continuing to proclaim the gospel in all towns from Azotus to Caesarea (Acts 8:40).
Three applications from this point are: (1) share the good news, (2) repent and be baptized, and (3) rejoice!
First, we share the good news. The good news about Jesus is sometimes referred to as the gospel or the gospel of the kingdom. It is good news about our sin problem. We experience the consequences of sin or evil in all spheres of life. God created a world in which there was harmony. There was harmony between humans and God, Humans and each other, humans and nature, and humans and themselves. Sin comes and affects all these areas from toxic emotions, toxic relationships, the distance between mankind and God, diseases, despair, and death. The good news about Jesus is that in him, God is making all things new. In Jesus’ ministry, he casts out demons. He healed diseases. He made the impure, pure. He announced the forgiveness of sins to the Jewish people and outcasts.The good news of Jesus is that he is the solution to all problems. He reverses the consequences of sin. Through his death as our substitute, he offers the forgiveness of sins for all who believe in him. He gives the hope of eternal life which is a confident expectation eternal bliss in the presence of God forever. Our hope is the conviction that all our wounds, whether psychological, physical, or relational, will be healed. The resurrection gives hope beyond the grave. The good news is also good news for now. God acts and God heals. Most importantly when God causes us to be born again, he gives us his peace and joy like we have never known before. The Ethiopian ends by rejoicing!
God starts to change our hearts. He heals our relational wounds in Christ. He gives us a new family in the church. We have brothers and sisters to encourage and teach us. We grow in intimacy with God through prayer, the word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper! This is the good news of Jesus that we share.
A second application, is that we repent and are baptized. All Christians must repent. In an ongoing manner, we must confess our sins and be reminded that Jesus covers all our sins. God is serious about sin. The death of Jesus shows us how serious our sin is. Repentance is turning away from behavior that goes against God’s will. Baptism is the symbol of being filled with the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and new life in Christ for all those who believe. If you have not been baptized and are a Christian, you need to be baptized.
Third, we rejoice. In this account, there were no extraordinary signs or wonders, and no speaking in tongues. The outward manifestation of the Holy Spirit in this text is joy! The good news is the best news. Believing it leads to joy. This is not in conflict with the sufferings of the Christian life. Christians can know deep emotional, relational, and physical wounds that last a lifetime. At the same time, we also know joy. It is the joy of knowing God intimately. It is the joy of being a child of Almighty God. It is the joy of knowing our sins are forgiven. It is the joy of our security that nothing will separate us from God. This affects us to the most inner parts of our being that there is a joy about us that no one can take away!
Third, we see the inclusion of all people in Acts 8:27.
Acts 8:27 tells us the individual is Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, and that he came to worship in Jerusalem.First, we learn he is Ethiopian. In the Bible, Ethiopia is also known as the land of Cush (Gn. 2:13; Ez. 29:10). This is not modern Ethiopia. It was a kingdom that is part of what is now Sudan. It could be appropriate to mention that he is dark-skinned. So, he did not look like your average worshipper of the God of Israel.
Second, he is a eunuch. Being a eunuch puts this individual in a similar category as the lame beggar who sat at the gate of the temple (Acts 3:2). According to Deut 23:1, if a man has been altered physically, he cannot enter the temple of the Lord.
Third, he is a Court Official of the Queen, in charge of her treasure. He was likely a wealthy man. His role was equivalent to the minister of finance. He could afford to go on a long trip. Lastly, he owns a scroll of Isaiah. Scrolls were handwritten and expensive.
Fourth, he came to worship in Jerusalem. This means that he was a God-fearer. There are three categories of people who relate to Judaism. There were Jews, proselytes, and God-fearers. Proselytes were converts to Judaism. God-fearers believed in the God of Israel but did not undergo circumcision. This meant that they did not participate fully in the communal worship rituals. As a eunuch, he was a God-fearer. He is very dedicated to God. The journey from Sudan to Jerusalem would take 100 hours by car today. He did all that journey, not even to enter the temple for worship but to sit outside.
A first application is that God is for all kinds of People. The Old Testament anticipated a day when Ethiopians would be included. In Isaiah 11:11, Cush is one of the lands from which the Lord will “reclaim the remnant that is left of his people.”
In Acts, Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit. Then it is Jews and converts to Judaism from different nations (Acts 2:5-13). Then it is a lame man who becomes a full member of the New Covenant people. The next converts were Greek-speaking Jews who received positions of leadership, priests (Acts 6:7), and Samaritans. Now, an upper-class, dark-skinned, person of influence comes to faith.
The Isaiah 53 reading is interesting. What is particularly exciting about the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah 53 is that if he continues reading, he would get to Isaiah 56. This is Isa 56:3ff “… let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ 4 For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’” Because he was a eunuch, Deut 23:1 prevented this Ethiopian from becoming a full proselyte. Acts 8 shows once more the inclusion of all people, all kinds of people, all groups of people in Christ.
A second application is about having children and infertility. Children are wonderful, they are a gift from the Lord, and eunuchs are not inferior because they cannot have children. Those who struggle with infertility are not less than. In Christ, we all have a name better than sons and daughters. Physically, though some names will be cut off, Isa 56 teaches that Christians receive an everlasting name that shall not be cut off! Having children for the purpose of having a legacy is not thinking spiritually but materially! If you have eternal life, you have an everlasting name!
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