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Acts 8:26-40 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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All right. This morning's Bible study text is Acts chapter 8, verses 26 through 40.
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So please join us there as we turn our attention to the study of God's word.
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This morning I'm going to do something that I rarely do.
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And I'm just going to add some commentary to the text as I'm reading it.
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I think that'll help us as we work on the main point of the text,
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just to fill in some of the details about the particular narrative.
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So I try to do that in a way that's not distracting from the reading of the text.
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But Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 26.
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Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip,
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Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
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This is a desert place.
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Gaza was a ruined city of Babylon.
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The road was the road that ran from Jerusalem to Egypt.
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So it had a further destination.
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And this would have seemed like an especially strange command,
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as this was the least traveled of the roads that left from Jerusalem.
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It was a desolate road and not very many people traveled it.
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The verse 27.
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And he rose and went.
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And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace,
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queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.
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Now Ethiopia was a large kingdom, much larger than modern Ethiopia.
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And it was just south of Egypt.
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So a significant nation that he's traveling to.
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And Candace here should not be understood to be a proper name,
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but rather a title like Caesar or Pharaoh.
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And Luke is simply explaining who this person is, the official of Candace.
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And he's clarifying the queen is what he's trying to help us to understand.
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So what we need to know is that this was a powerful position.
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And the Ethiopian eunuch also served in a very powerful position.
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We'll reread on.
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He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot.
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And he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
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And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot.
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So Philip ran to him and heard him reading.
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And it was customary to read aloud.
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We do much less of that in our day, but it was customary in this day.
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And he was reading Isaiah the prophet and asked,
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Do you understand what you are reading?
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And he said, How can I unless someone guides me?
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And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
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Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this.
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Like a sheep he was led to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shear is silent,
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so he opens not his mouth.
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In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
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Who can describe his generation?
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For his life is taken away from the earth.
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And that is Isaiah chapter 53, verses 7 and 8.
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Verse 34.
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And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask, does the prophet say this?
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About himself or about someone else?
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Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with the scripture,
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he told him the good news about Jesus.
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And as they were going along the road, they came to some water,
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and the eunuch said, See, here is water.
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What prevents me from being baptized?
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And he commanded the chariot to stop,
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and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch,
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and he baptized him.
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When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away,
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and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
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But Philip found himself at Azotus,
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and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns
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until he came to Caesarea.
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And Philip either made his home in Caesarea at this point,
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or it was already his home.
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And you can see in Acts chapter 21 and verse 8 that they go to the home of Philip.
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Now, the structure for our study this morning will be as follows.
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Number one, the means of God's saving grace.
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Number two, the recipient of God's saving grace.
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And number three, the signs, or you could think evidences, of God's saving grace.
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So means, recipient, and signs of God's saving grace.
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This morning, we have the privilege of observing the ethnic diversity of God's saving grace.
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Early in the heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ,
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this ministry that he is carrying out by the power of the Spirit,
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the gospel takes hold of a man traveling home to Africa.
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What a wonderful thing.
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The gospel goes to Africa very early in the life of the church.
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And he is not just any man, but a man of position and of influence.
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And we don't have time for it this morning,
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but there is a really rich church history of the early Christian church in Ethiopia.
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And so, history tells us that this man returned to Ethiopia and started a church there.
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God has always had a gracious purpose for all of mankind,
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as all of mankind is created imago Dei, or in the image of God.
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He has never intended to only have a saving relationship with ethnic Israel.
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We can begin to understand this reality in Genesis, beginning with Abrahamic covenant.
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Genesis chapter 12, I'll read verses 1 through 3.
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How did God intend to bless all the families of the earth in Abraham?
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So, allow me to present to you a sweeping summary of Acts up to this point.
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In chapter 1, Jesus is ascended and he leaves a command with the disciples to wait in Jerusalem
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until they receive the Holy Spirit.
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Chapter 2, 10 days later on the day of Pentecost, they receive the Spirit.
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They preach in various known languages.
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So, they're preaching to people who, as their primary language, do not speak Hebrew.
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Peter preaches, many are saved.
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The fellowship of the church and favor with all people is expressed.
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Chapter 3, God orchestrates another stage for Peter through the healing of a lame beggar.
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Peter preaches and more people believe in Jesus.
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Chapters 4 and 5, persecution begins.
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First, the arrest of Peter and John.
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Then, later, the arrest of all of the apostles.
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In chapter 6, we see deacons selected, one of whom is Stephen.
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And then, also in chapter 6, we see Stephen arrested.
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Chapter 7 records Stephen's speech.
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This wonderful, beautiful speech in front of the religious elite of the day.
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And then, at the end of chapter 7, his martyrdom.
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And this is a hinging moment in Luke's narrative of the early church.
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So, chapter 8, we see there's a broader scope.
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It's broadened for the persecution.
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At the beginning of chapter 8, the gospel goes to the Samaritans.
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As the church is scattered, we see the gospel go to the Samaritans.
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So, we are observing the fulfillment in part of Jesus' words in Acts 1, verse 8, where he said,
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You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
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and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
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So, already, we see the gospel going to Samaria, to the Samaritans.
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And then, just a few verses later, we come to our text and see the beginning of the fulfillment of Jesus' witness being witnessed to the ends of the earth.
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And I just think it's astounding that God brought to Jerusalem an Ethiopian man,
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and catches him on his way out of town, that the gospel could go by this man to the continent of Africa.
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So, just a few verses later, we begin to see that, and we still live in that time, right,
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where the gospel's going to the very ends of the earth.
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And, beloved, we ought to marvel at our great God for his saving work amongst all peoples.
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If you are not ethnically Jewish, which I believe accounts for everyone in my hearing.
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I could be wrong, but I think that's all of us.
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None of us are ethnically Jewish that I know of, right?
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Then we ought to be especially grateful this morning.
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These stories ought to just touch our hearts, that the gospel has come to us.
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And we ought to be spurred on for a continual love for all peoples,
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because our God loves diversity in his kingdom.
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There is not a people outside of his saving grace.
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So, let's look first, number one, at the means of God's saving grace.
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So, how is it that God works his purpose in the world to bring about the salvation of his people from all peoples?
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He uses means, and we can see all of those at play in this text.
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So, first, the spirit.
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We can see in this text God's divine orchestration in the saving of the Ethiopian eunuch, right?
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The Lord intends to save this man, and he is going to work means to see this come to pass.
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We see in verse 28 that Philip is sent by the spirit to an odd place, right?
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He's sent out to a road, a desolate road.
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It's called a desert place to catch this man as he goes passing by, right?
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Just astoundingly unlikely of a place to go.
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God has Philip catch up to the strategic individual as he is headed home.
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And I kind of picture him running up.
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Hey, what is it that you're reading?
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Do you understand that?
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And he invites them on board, and they travel together, and he shares the gospel.
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God is the grand orchestrator of the saving work, and he does this work in part, one of the means, by the spirit, right?
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He works direction, guidance, and, of course, the power to believe in people by his spirit.
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So, our part in seeing God's saving grace come to pass is not to plot and plan but to obey.
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And so, we see, secondly, as a means of God's saving grace, a servant.
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God employs the obedience of his servants in the salvation of his people, right?
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He does this because he loves us.
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He invites us into his saving work for our joy and experience in him.
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I love Luke's record of Philip's obedience, the very beginning of verse 27, right?
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Again, think of it as an audacious thing for this angel to ask him to go do.
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It's a strange request.
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And Luke records the beginning of verse 27, and he rose and went.
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I want to be obedient like that.
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Luke doesn't record that he asks any questions.
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He doesn't go, why in the world would you have me go there?
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He rose and he went.
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I want the record of my life to record.
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God asked Nathan to do such and such, and he did it.
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No caveats, no passing of time, just and he did it.
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He rose and he went.
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We witness this immediate obedience again in verse 30, when Philip is told by the Spirit to go over and join this chariot.
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So Philip ran to him.
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That's what Luke tells us at the beginning of verse 30, and then has this response to a hearing of him reading the book of Isaiah.
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So Philip ran to him, right?
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Note that Philip doesn't waste a breath, but he gets right to the point, right?
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He's reading from Isaiah, and Philip asks him, do you understand what you are reading?
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Again, I picture it.
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There's a little bit of imagination here, but that he's yelling that out as this chariot goes rumbling by.
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He gets straight to the point.
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He sees opportunity to engage in the things of God with this man who is reading the Scripture, and he snatches it.
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He takes every advantage of it.
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Notice further that when Philip is taken away from the eunuch, he continues in obedience.
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Verse 40 records, but Philip found himself at Azotus.
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I think he's transported, right, magically by the Spirit.
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And as he passed through, what's he doing?
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He preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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And I don't think that Luke means he stopped preaching the gospel in Caesarea.
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I think he means his traveling preaching ceased when he stopped in that particular place.
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I want to be used of God like Philip is used of God in his saving work, and I hope that you do too.
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So we see a servant, and now in our day, servants as means of God's saving grace.
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The third mean of God's saving grace, the Scripture.
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We see that the eunuch is reading the Scripture, and it is the Scripture that Philip employs in sharing the gospel with his man.
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So verse 35, Luke records, then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture, that text in Isaiah, he told him the good news about Jesus.
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The eunuch asks him the question, to whom does this text speak of?
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Who is he talking about?
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And Philip uses it as a wonderful opportunity to say it's talking about the Christ.
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Paul says in Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
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In your gospel proclamation, you have the upper hand because God employs his word as a means of saving grace.
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And, beloved, I think we are too often shy with God's word.
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We don't believe that it's powerful to work the way we ought to believe that it's powerful to work, right?
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A story like this ought to encourage us to go, yes, God's word works, and we just have to proclaim it.
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We are just messengers.
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I think this should encourage us on Paul writes Romans 1.16,
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So we see these means of God's saving grace at work.
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The spirit, a servant in the Scripture.
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Second, let's observe the recipient of God's saving grace.
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So the last part of verse 27, again, there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
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who was in charge of all her treasure.
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He had come to Jerusalem to worship.
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And the eunuch said, verse 34, to Philip,
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About whom I ask, does the prophet say this?
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About himself or about someone else?
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I thought it was fitting, this text for this week,
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and I'm really grateful that our reading plan covered over it.
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As we find ourselves in the midst of great ethnic fracture in our country,
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I believe it's really good for us to consider God's loving kindness to all peoples
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and to remember that the gospel shatters all divides, real or imagined.
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It tears down dividing walls of ethnicity, culture, gender, and skin color.
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It has accomplished this, and I think that's a thing that we miss.
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Like, it's going to accomplish it.
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No, it has accomplished this work.
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And we just have to pick up the reality of what is as we work within the diversity of the church.
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What a time this is to see the gospel at work.
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Beloved, we need to be so much more than salt and light on social media.
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Make your posts.
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That's fine.
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But that is not enough.
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You're not really letting your voice be heard by blacking out your screen.
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It's something, but it is not enough.
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We need to see that God has made the church for a time such as this
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to be voices of clarity and voices of reconciliation.
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And first and foremost, reconciliation with our God.
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We want to be concerned about gospel implications, but we have to be firstly concerned with the gospel itself.
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We want to be such clarion voices in a time such as this.
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I'm not sure we can do that on social media.
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You may pick that up in my tone as I make comments about it.
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I don't know that it's the place to make that happen, but rather the place is loving relationship with others.
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There are people desperately seeking for some truth to hang on to right now.
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The world is so topsy-turvy and upside down.
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Will we be people standing by a desert roadside to speak to them words of life?
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Will we be people who are going to run alongside somebody on a journey and say to them,
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do you understand and then to help them to understand?
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I hope so.
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I believe that's true of people in our church.
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Notice that the Ethiopian was a seeker, and he's an overt seeker.
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I mean, we can see these signs.
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He's very concerned about the things of God.
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And so this should be an encouragement to us,
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but also we find a lot of people in our day that are not overt seekers.
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And I just want to say that people are seeking for God whether or not they know they're seeking for God.
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So we see him.
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The evidence is that he's reading the scripture.
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He's got a scroll of Isaiah with him that he's reading from,
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and he has made a thousand-plus-mile journey.
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It would have taken more than a week to travel from Ethiopia to Jerusalem,
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the text tells us, in order to worship.
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And we also notice of him that he was a eunuch,
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which means that his male genitalia were removed due to an accident or intentionally.
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Did you notice that Luke repeatedly calls the Ethiopian the eunuch?
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Why not call him the Ethiopian?
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That seems like a significant identifier in the text.
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But rather, he calls him again and again and again the eunuch.
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He repeats this word in verse 27, 34, 36, 38, and 39.
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Why?
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Why do you suppose that he did that?
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This is another one of those places.
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If we were more familiar with our Bibles,
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this story would leap, or this detail of the story would leap off of the page to us.
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It would be so significant in our thinking that this man was a eunuch.
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Luke, Philip, and this eunuch would have been familiar with the Old Testament law concerning eunuchs.
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Deuteronomy 23 in verse 1 says,
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No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
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So he's a seeker who would have believed himself outside the graces of God.
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He would have seen himself as an outsider.
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Yet all the same, he's reading the scripture.
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He's traveling to Jerusalem in order to worship.
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But he would have seen himself outside the assembly of God's people.
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However, he's reading significantly from Isaiah chapter 53.
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Luke records him reading Isaiah 53 verse 7 and 8, but the context here matters greatly.
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If you're looking in your Bibles at Isaiah chapter 53, your subtitle will say something like salvation for the nations.
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Let me read to you a little bit more of Isaiah chapter 53.
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This is 56, excuse me.
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Man, Isaiah 56.
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Boy, I confused that.
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Isaiah 56.
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My apologies.
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Isaiah 56 verses 3 through 5.
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Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
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The Lord will surely separate me from his people.
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And let not the eunuch say,
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Behold, I am a dry tree.
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For thus says the Lord,
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To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
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Who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
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I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters.
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I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
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And the text in Isaiah goes on to talk about the Christ and how it is that this will be accomplished.
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And so this is why Luke continues to say the eunuch, the eunuch, the eunuch, the eunuch,
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one who saw himself outside of God's covenant people,
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reading a text that seemed to say there's a way,
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There's a way for me to be inside of God's covenant people, to be restored to him.
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Who is this prophet talking about?
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Is it about himself or someone else?
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Philip was able to say it's Jesus, the Christ, that he's talking about.
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So Luke is working to draw our attention to God's saving grace,
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His saving of a man who thought that he could not be saved, but was saved all the same.
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It's astounding little detail found in this text.
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So that's the recipient of God's saving grace.
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So the means of God's saving grace, the recipient of God's saving grace.
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This man who thought he could not be saved, but was saved all the same.
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Thirdly, we can observe some signs of God's saving grace.
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So then what is the response to God saving this man?
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First, there is a response to the gospel.
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We read in verse 36,
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And the eunuch said,
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See, here is water.
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What prevents me from being baptized?
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Now, if you were awake enough to be astute this morning,
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you may have noticed an oddity in our text
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that verse 37 is omitted from the main text in your Bible.
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Or at least it should be, I would argue.
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There is no verse 37.
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It jumps from 36 to 38.
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And you may have further employed your astuteness
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by consulting your footnotes.
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I hope, again, that this exists in the copy that you're looking at this morning.
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to see a verse 37 in your footnotes that say,
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And Philip said,
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If you believe with all your heart, you may.
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And he answered and said,
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I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
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So this is the kind of response we would expect to see to a gospel proclamation.
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So why the omission?
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Why is it left out there in your copy of God's Word?
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This is done because the earliest and most reliable transcripts
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do not include verse 37.
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There are some later transcripts that add that detail.
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And it could be that somewhere in history,
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someone added that detail because they thought there was a disconnect
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between gospel proclamation and then the eunuch asking to be baptized.
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We need to fill in a little detail.
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It's most likely that something like this.
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was said.
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Or maybe somebody did know for a fact that this was the conversation that took place.
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Philip may have reported it.
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However, the earliest and most reliable transcripts do not include verse 37.
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So a brief aside at this point,
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it ought not shake your confidence in God's Word
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that there's an occasional inconsistency in those early transcripts.
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They are very, very few.
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And when they do exist,
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the translators of good translations make careful note of them.
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I'm using an ESV.
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I think most of you are.
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But this is a really great spot where the translators,
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all of the people who do the difficult work have said,
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look,
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we can't be sure verse 37 belongs in the text.
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So we're going to exclude it and we're going to put it as a note at the bottom.
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So I hope us have greater confidence that all the things they do include
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are very consistent in those early manuscripts.
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So I hope that it then elevates that your confidence that the text you have in your hand
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this morning is in fact God's Word.
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Okay.
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In the side.
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So verse 37 is omitted,
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but he must have made some profession of faith, right?
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We know of the doctrine of baptism that it is not salvific, right?
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We come to faith in Christ by grace alone.
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Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10,
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Paul says,
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Paul there mentions nothing about baptism being salvific, right?
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It's a sign we'll talk a bit more about in just a moment, right?
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So there must have been some profession of faith.
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He must have believed otherwise Philip would not have baptized him.
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So we see as a sign of God's saving grace, number one,
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a response to the gospel, right?
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Secondly, we see obedience to the gospel, right?
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A life that is found in Christ, right?
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Will be a life that not perfectly, right?
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But in ever increasing degrees is obedient, right?
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This is the doctrine of sanctification.
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We have been set apart for obedience to Christ for his glory,
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and we grow in this obedience across time.
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So right here, right?
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Immediately the eunuch says, right?
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What prevents me from being baptized, right?
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They see water and he says,
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Hey, I should be obedient in baptism, right?
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Verse 38 says,
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And he commanded the chariot to stop,
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and they both went down into the water,
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Philip and the eunuch,
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and he baptized him.
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And they came up out of the water.
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Philip is transported away.
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So we see first obedience on Philip's part.
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Matthew chapter 28,
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Jesus gives the great commission,
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verse 18 and following,
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All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
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This is what Philip is doing in this moment,
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making a disciple of the Ethiopian eunuch,
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baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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So Philip is obedient as a follower of Christ
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to make disciples and to baptize them.
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We also see this obedience on the eunuch's part as well.
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Matthew records of Jesus chapter 3,
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verse 13 through 15,
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Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John
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to be baptized by him.
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John would have prevented him saying,
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I need to be baptized by you,
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and do you come to me?
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But Jesus answered him,
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Let it be so now.
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For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
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Then he consented.
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So Jesus himself modeled this for us,
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that we are to be baptized.
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And I suggest to you,
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it doesn't have to be a major point of contention,
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but that they were also obedient to the method.
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I suggest to you that the Ethiopian was baptized by immersion.
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They would have been traveling for quite some time across a desert,
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and they would have had water with them, right?
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So he doesn't say,
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Look, I have here water in the chariot.
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What prevents me from being baptized?
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He says,
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Second sign of God's saving grace,
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we saw the response to the gospel,
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obedience to the gospel,
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and then thirdly,
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rejoicing in the gospel.
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Verse 39, the last part says,
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And the eunuch saw him no more,
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Philip saw him no more,
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and he went on his way rejoicing.
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Baptism was the outer symbol,
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picture of an inner reality.
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This man's life had been changed fundamentally.
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This encounter on this road
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had absolutely transformed him.
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He and this encounter on the road
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had gone from being an enemy of God
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to being called his friend.
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He had been an orphan,
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but now he was called son.
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The guilt of his sin had been washed away.
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What wonderful reasons for great rejoicing.
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Many of you know that I battle
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with a fight for joy in my own life.
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And anytime I take my mind
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to the gospel of Jesus Christ,
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remember who I was apart from him
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and what he has done for me,
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this becomes the impetus
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to continue fighting, right?
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The very reason that I should be able
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to take hold of joy.
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I think at times like this, right,
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the trouble that we experience in this world
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we should all the more
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be meditating on the good news
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of Jesus Christ for us.
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If it weren't but for the grace of God,
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where would I be today?
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What would I be doing right now?
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What kind of signs would I be holding up?
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I don't know where I would be.
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Would I be alive at this moment?
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God has been so incredibly gracious to me
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and he's been so incredibly gracious to you.
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And I just think we should never,
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ever forget this.
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Romans chapter six,
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beginning in verse three,
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Paul says,
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do you not know that all of us
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who've been baptized into Christ Jesus
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were baptized into his death?
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We were buried therefore with him
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by baptism into death
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in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead
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by the glory of the father,
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we too might walk in newness of life.
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And so you are experiencing that newness of life
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this morning,
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recognizing the reality that is yours in Christ.
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And so in this little story in Acts chapter eight,
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we can observe,
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and I hope revel in and appreciate
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the means of God's saving grace,
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the recipient here,
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the eunuch as well as ourselves
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of God's saving grace
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and the signs of God's saving grace.