Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) // On mission with the risen Jesus

Acts chapter 8, verse 26 to 40. This is the story of Philip and

Acts 8:26–40

the Ethiopian. Now an Angel of the Lord said to

Philip, go South to the road, the desert Rd. that goes down

from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and on his way

he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of

all the treasured treasury of the Kandaki, which means Queen

of The Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem

to worship and on his way home was sitting in his chariot

reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man

reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you're

reading? Philip asked.

How can I? He said, unless someone explains

it to me. So he invited Philip to come up

and sit with him. This is the passage of scripture

the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the

slaughter, and as a lamb before it's Shearer is silent, so he

did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was

deprived of justice. Who can speak of his

descendants, for his life was taken from the earth.

The eunuch asked Philip, tell me please, who is the prophet

talking about? Himself or someone else?

Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told

him the good news about Jesus. As they travelled 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 baptised?

And he gave orders to stop the chariot.

Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and

Philip baptised him. 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. Philip, however, appeared at

Azotis and travelled about preaching the gospel in all the

towns until he reached Caesarea. This is a very special Sunday

for many of us. I always love our baptism

Sundays here at Ave. It means we all got to get a bit

earlier. The people who are building the

baptistry and the school are very generous to us.

They open up at 8:00 AM and then the whole question is getting 2

hoses in there. Not too hot, not too cold.

The expectation is the people getting baptized.

Mark and Duke at the end of the service will be lovely and warm.

The rest of us less so. So that's just an advance

warning. Probably take your coat with you

when you go outside at the end for the baptisms.

But it's a special Sunday. It's a special Sunday for Mark

and for Duke. We'll be hearing from them a

little bit later when they share their stories with us of how

they have come to put their faith in the Lord Jesus, or more

accurately, how Jesus has stepped into their lives, washed

them clean, and welcomed them into his family forever.

It's a day of great joy for Mark, for Duke, and for all of

us. And it's fitting then, as Kate

says, that we've reached a passage in this book of Acts

where someone gets baptized and experiences great joy as a

result. So the book of Acts is the

history of the early church recorded for us in the New

Testament, the history of the earliest followers of Jesus.

And we've been walking slowly through this book of Acts

together as a church over the last few months.

And this morning we reach Acts chapter 8 and looking at verses

Acts 8 · chapter mention

38 to 39 of that chapter, towards the end, we read these

words. Philip baptized him and he went

on his way rejoicing. This baptism was a day of great

joy for the Ethiopian man. And so we want to think in the

next few minutes, what do we learn about this man that Philip

baptizes? What do you learn about the

message Philip shares with this man that gives him so much joy?

And what do we learn about baptism and why it is we still

baptize people today? So first of all, then the story

so far in Acts, if you've not been with us.

So Acts begins soon after Jesus, the Son of God, has come into

the world, and Jesus has lived the life we could not live.

He's died the death we deserve to die, and he's risen again

from the dead, all to win eternal life for us so that we

can be reconciled to the God who made us.

And at the beginning of Acts, Jesus ascends into heaven.

He leaves the scene, and from there he sends his Holy Spirit

to come and live with his followers and empower them to

tell other people about Jesus in this world.

And the early Christians start out in the city of Jerusalem,

and many people put their faith in Jesus.

But at this point in Acts, Acts chapter 8, most of Jesus

Acts 8 · chapter mention

followers have been driven out of Jerusalem.

They're scattered across Judea and Samaria, the land around

Jerusalem. And one of these followers of

Jesus is a man called Philip, and he's the one we meet in this

passage. Later in Acts, Philip is

described as Philip the evangelist.

Philip is someone who breaks new ground for Jesus.

He reaches out to people who previously would have had

nothing to do with the gods of Israel.

So if you were here with us last week, earlier in Acts 8, Philip

travelled into Samaria and shared the good news of Jesus

with Samaritan people. And Samaritan people were hated

by Jewish people like Philip. But Philip had come to realize

something. And it's the truth that stands

at the hearts of our passage this morning.

Philip had come to realize that Jesus had suffered, died and

risen again so the people who used to be outsiders can be

washed clean by God and welcomed into his family.

That was Philip's message to this Ethiopian man.

And that's the message of this bit of axiate to all of us

today. Actually.

Jesus suffered, died, and rose again.

So the people who used to be outsiders can be washed clean

and welcomed into his people. That's what baptism points us

to, being washed clean and welcomed by the living God.

So first of all, who is this man that Philip encounters and

shares the message of Jesus with in this passage?

Well, first verse 27, we learn that he is an Ethiopian eunuch.

So that's verses 27 to 20. Let me read that for us.

So Philip started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian

eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of

the kandaki, which means Queen of The Ethiopians.

This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home

was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the

prophet. So we learn about this man here.

Well, first of all, we learn that he is an important man.

We're not told his name, but we're told he's an important

official in charge of the treasury of the Queen, or maybe

the Queen Mother of The Ethiopians.

This man, he is a respected official and he is a wealthy

man. How do we know that?

We know that because he's travelling by Chariots.

You'll notice Philip is kind of running to keep up, but if you

had money, you could then take a load off and be travelling by

chariot. He also had the resources to buy

expensive scrolls. He's reading a scroll of the

prophet Isaiah. There were no cheap paperbacks

back then. This was an expensive thing he

owns. It shows again how wealthy he is

on the surface. He's got a lot going for him.

And we learn also that he is a eunuch.

And like many government officials in the ancient world,

he had been castrated probably at an early age to serve at the

highest level of government. Now, for children and young

people here today, if you want to know what castrated means,

ask your parents or responsible adults, because I don't want to

go into it. But basically for us, it sounds

a very strange thing to do. It's a very alien thing to do is

I just don't have the idea of it.

But but back then in the ancient world, if you were a eunuch, you

could serve the royal family without being considered a

threat. So you could, you were no longer

a threat to the women in the royal household and you were no

longer a potential rival to the king.

So to be a eunuch in the ancient world was actually a real help

socially to a lot of people. But in almost every other way,

for a Jewish man like Philip, and for this Ethiopian who has

just travelled to Jerusalem, he is an outsider.

First of all, he's a foreigner. He's from Ethiopia in Africa,

which is the very edge of the known world at that time.

He's what the Bible calls a Gentile, someone who is not born

Jewish and so seem to be excluded from the people of God

and the promises of God. And we've just thought he's a

castrated man and as a result, he was excluded from worshipping

God in the temple in Jerusalem alongside other people with

various physical defects and imperfections.

So Deuteronomy 23 verse one makes that clear.

No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter

the assembly of the Lords. So verse 27, even though this

man has gone to Jerusalem to worship, he wouldn't have been

allowed into the temple in Jerusalem when he got here.

This was a man who, for all his wealth and high social standing,

was familiar with being rejected, being excluded from

the people of God. And what made that more painful

for him is he's clearly a seeker.

He's someone who wants to know God.

Why did he travelled all the way to Jerusalem from Africa?

We are told to worship God. He was a man looking for

answers, a man looking for the living God.

For all his wealth and social standing, he wasn't satisfied

with what this world had to offer him.

He travelled to Jerusalem to worship God.

He wanted to know who God is and what it means to follow him.

So here he is, an axe sitting in his chariot, reading from the

Jewish scriptures, the book of Isaiah.

He is looking for God. He's looking for answers.

And I wonder, as we pause for a minute, is that a good

description of anyone sitting here this morning?

Are the people sitting here here looking for something more out

of life? You aren't satisfied with the

answers we get from the world around as you go.

Well, maybe there is a God. If so, what?

What is he, she it like? What does it mean to know this

God? If we're seeking after God, this

is the right place to be this morning.

And also you, you need to see something that the Ethiopian

eunuch discovered here in this passage.

See, even as this man was looking for God, he discovers an

amazing truth. God has come looking for him.

This man thinks what I'm I'm looking for God, I'm looking for

answers. But actually, he discovers in

the course of his conversation with Philip, God is the one

who's made the first move. God comes looking for us through

His Son Jesus and through Jesus followers in this world,

empowered by the Holy Spirit. See if you look at the opening

bits of this encounter in Acts 8 that the writer of Acts, a man

called Luke, goes to great lengths to show the Lord is

clearly leading Philip here. It's not Philip's idea to go to

this desert Rd. He's really enjoying life in

Samaria. He's having great success there.

But no, it's an Angel of the Lord, verse 26 who told Philip

to go South to the desert Rd., the road from Jerusalem to Gaza,

the main route into Africa. And verse 29 it's the Spirit,

the Holy Spirit who tells Philip to go up to The Ethiopians

chariot and stay near it. It is the Lord, the living God

who wants Philip to meet and speak to this Ethiopian man.

The reason this meeting happens at all is because God made it

happen. God has come looking for this

Ethiopian. It's a mind blowing truth for

him to grasp, for any of us to grasp again, for Duke and for

Mark. Actually in many ways this is

the day for your story, for us to hear your story of coming to

faith. But actually the reason that

you're here today is because God came looking for you, because

Jesus came looking for you, because the Holy Spirit is at

work in your life. And maybe if you're a Christian

sitting here today, you can reflect on the same truth.

Think back over the events that led you to trust in Jesus, the

people you met who pointed you to Jesus, the little

coincidences at key moments in your life that led you to Jesus.

It probably felt at the time that you were the 1 seeking

after God, but in reality, God is the one who was looking for

you. He's the one who made the first

move, and He's the one who's brought Mark and Duke to the

point of getting baptized today. So back to Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Once the Lord had LED Philip to the Ethiopian man, what happened

next? We're going to pick up the story

in the middle of verse 27. So Luke writes this man had gone

to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home was sitting in his

chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man

reading Isaiah the prophet. Back then in the ancient world,

you wouldn't read quietly to yourself.

You would read aloud so Philip can hear what he's reading.

Do you understand what you're reading?

Philip asked. How can I, the Ethiopian said,

unless someone explains it to me.

So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

It's a really interesting little exchange here.

So again, we're we're reminded again of the great wealth of

this Ethiopian. He's in his chariot.

He's got this massive scroll he's reading from.

We're also reminded of a spiritual hunger.

He is hungering after something more.

So when Philip runs up to the charity, here's what the man's

reading. He says, well, do you understand

what you're reading? And Ethioman's response actually

tells us a lot about him. He says, how can I, unless

someone explains it to me? And he invites Philip on to the

chariot. I want to see this is a sign of

real humility on the part of the Ethiopian.

He is humble enough and honest enough to say actually, no,

Phil, I don't understand this. And I want to understand it

again, for many of us actually maybe do have questions about

God, life, the universe, everything.

But we're a bit embarrassed to open up about that.

We want to look like we have the answers.

And this Ethiopian, he was a wealthy man, a a high-ranking

official would be really easy for him to go.

Well, I'm in the charity you're running.

Why would I listen to you Philip?

But no, he's got the humility to say I can, I understand unless

someone explains it to me. He wants answers and he's humble

enough to ask for them and to listen to the answers he hears.

And what is Philips message to this man?

Which a couple of things stand out.

I think first part of it is this.

Jesus is the key to knowing God. That's what Philip's saying to

this guy. Jesus is the key to knowing God.

So The Ethiopians reading from a passage in the Old Testament

written by the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53, we'll look at

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

the content of that passage in a moment, but for now, all we need

to see is the Ethiopian. He is baffled by it.

Verse 34 he says, tell me please, who is the prophet

talking about, himself or someone else?

And again, I love this about the Ethiopian.

He is so honest. Like many of us, he finds the

Bible to be a confusing book. At first he's not sure what the

passage means. He's not sure who Isaiah is

talking about. So Philip agrees to help him

understand what he's reading. Verse 35 Then Philip began with

that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about

Jesus. According to Philip here the key

to understanding the book of Isaiah is understanding Jesus.

Jesus is the key to unlock the meaning of the Old Testament.

To understand the meaning of Isaiah 53, Philip has to point

this man to Jesus because Philip knows Jesus is the key to any of

us knowing God. And Philip would have learnt

that from the apostles who have been taught it by Jesus himself.

After Jesus had risen from the dead, he spent 40 days with his

disciples, opening up the message of the Old Testament

with them. And he said this to them.

Everything must be fulfilled. That is written about me in the

Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.

Then Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the

Scriptures. Jesus has all the Old Testament,

Law of Moses, prophets, Psalms, the whole bit.

It points forward to me. It's fulfilled in my life, death

and resurrection. Jesus says if you want to know

what God is like, if you want to know what God means in the Old

Testament, you look at me elsewhere in the Gospels.

In John verse 14, he says to his disciples, anyone who has seen

me has seen the Father. If we want to know what God is

like, we look at Jesus or John 18 saying no one's ever seen

God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and in the

closest relationship with the Father has made him known.

Jesus makes the invisible God visible.

Jesus shows us what God is like. Jesus shows us everything that

God has done for us. If we're sitting here with

questions about is there a God? If so, what is he like?

Philip and the other parts would say, well, look at Jesus.

When you look at Jesus, you're looking at the living God.

So Philip tells this man, Isaiah 53, it's all about Jesus.

And more than that, Isaiah 53, it's one of the clearest

pictures anywhere in the Bible of the full extent of God's love

for us in Jesus. Because this bit of Isaiah

reminds us, teaches us that Jesus suffered and died so we

can be washed clean and welcomed in to God's people.

That's the message of Isaiah 53 for the Ethiopian man, and it's

the message of Isaiah 53 for all of us here this morning.

Let me read that for us again. It's in verse 32 to 33.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.

And as a lamb before its Shearer is silent, so he did not open

his mouth. In his humiliation, he was

deprived of justice. Who can speak of his

descendants? For his life was taken from the

earth. What does this bit of Isaiah

tell us about Jesus? It tells us that Jesus is the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's what Philip wants to see. Ethiopian to see.

Jesus was silent before his accusers, the Jewish religious

leaders and then the Roman governor Pilot.

He was deprived of justice. He was innocent of the charges.

He was convicted of. His life was brutally taken away

at the cross. He experienced hatred and

rejection from the people around him.

And I wonder if somebody that last bit that really connected

with this Ethiopian, remember this Ethiopian eunuch is used to

being rejected, excluded, looked down on even.

And here he reads about Jesus, the one Isaiah is pointing

forward to, Rejected, excluded, humiliated.

It's the suffering and humiliation of Jesus that really

connects with this Ethiopian man.

But but as he hears this, he must be asking the question,

well, why? Why did Jesus have to suffer and

die? Why did Jesus have to be

rejected like this? And Philip almost certainly

would have taken him a little bit earlier in Isaiah 53.

These words in verses 4 to 6. Surely He took up our pain and

bore our suffering. Yet we considered Him punished

by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on Him and by His

wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone

astray. Each of us has turned to our own

way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

That is the heart of the good news about Jesus that Philip

shares with the Ethiopian man. Jesus suffered and died on the

cross to wash us clean and welcome us into God's family.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

None of us has loved God the way we should.

None of us have loved the people around us the way we should.

All of us naturally just care about ourselves.

We're we're turned in on ourselves.

But he took up our pain and he bore our suffering.

Jesus didn't just stand back or abandoned us to sin and death.

No, He entered our world of sin and death.

He became one of us, and he suffered and died to save us

from sin and death. He was pierced for our

transgressions. We're the ones who deserve to be

punished by God for the things we've done, the way we refuse to

love God or love people. But on the cross, Jesus took

that punishment on himself, and by his wounds we are healed.

It's because Jesus went through that rejection, that

humiliation, that suffering, that death, that we can be

healed, we can be washed clean. It's the very wounds Jesus

received on the cross are the signs of our forgiveness and his

love for us. And how can any of us benefit

from what Jesus has done? Well, very simply, we just stop

trying to save ourselves and we come to Jesus.

We ask him to wash us clean of our sins.

We put our faith in all he's done for us and we receive the

new life with God. He died and rose again to win

for us. I want to see.

That's exactly what the Ethiopian eunuch does as they

travel along the road. Verse 36, They came to some

water and the eunuch said, look, here is water.

What can stand in the way of my being baptized?

And I want to say, actually, I think that question might still

come from a slightly anxious and fearful place.

For this eunuch can remember, he is used to being rejected by

religious people. He's used to barriers being put

in his way, preventing him from approaching God.

Maybe he thinks maybe Philip's just got, he's holding something

back. He's about to bring out the big

reason why baptism doesn't apply to him.

But if that's the case, if the eunuch is still fearful that

Philip might tell him there is still a barrier in the way,

well, Philip has really good news for this man, his thanks to

Jesus, his saving life, death and resurrection.

There is nothing standing in the way of the Ethiopian unit

getting baptized, nothing standing in the way of him

putting his faith in Jesus and being welcomed, washed clean by

the living God. Jesus removed every barrier

standing between US and God. That's what Isaiah 53 tells us.

As a demonstration of that, Philip baptizes the Ethiopian.

So what is baptism in this passage?

It is a picture of our new life with Jesus.

If you look at verse 38, we, we're told that Philip the

Ethiopian eunuch went down into the water, Philip baptized and

then verse 39, they came up out of the water, going down into

the water. In a few moments Mark and Juke

will be doing this. They'll be out in the in the

baptistry, in the playground and we will put them under the

water. And that is a sign of them dying

with Jesus. Their old way of life, of

ignoring Jesus, living for themselves, not trusting him.

That is over. That person is no longer here.

And then after a very short time, we bring them up out of

the water, and that's a picture of their new life with Jesus,

with Jesus as Lord, as loved man, loved by the Son of God and

part of his people forever. Baton is a picture of our new

life with Jesus. It's a reminder that we're

washed clean by Jesus no matter what we've done, no matter what

our background, our past, our present struggles, no matter

what other people might think about us.

Jesus died on the cross to wash us clean from our sin, and as a

result, we are welcomed into God's family forever because

Jesus was rejected. Because Jesus was punished, we

will not be rejected or punished if we put our faith in Him.

He is now defeated, sin and death and the devil, and we're

now welcomed into God's family, the church, forever.

If we put our faith in Jesus. Nothing stands in our way

anymore. And just as we bear to leave

Acts 8, I hope we can see now why baptism is such a precious

gift from Jesus again. In a little while, Mark and Duke

are going to get baptized in that playground, just like the

Ethiopian eunuch here, just like Christians throughout history

who follow Jesus and obeyed his command.

And when we gather around that baptistry pool, we get to see

Jesus love for Duke and for Mark.

We get to celebrate all that Jesus has done for them.

And that's a precious gift from Jesus to remind us that he still

saves people today. He still comes looking for

people today. He still washes us clean and

welcomes us today. So if you're sitting here this

morning and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, you would

say, I, I, I don't know really much about what Christians

believe. It is wonderful you're here

today. I just, let me just invite you,

as you've heard me explain a bit of what this baptism means.

And I'd say it as you're about to hear Mark and Duke tell their

stories of coming to faith in Jesus as you stand in the

playground a little bit and see them go under the water and come

up out of the water. Just I'd invite you to think to

yourself, what do I make of this Jesus?

What I make of the stories I'm hearing about him?

What would it mean for me to know this Jesus to be washed

clean and welcomed because of all that Jesus has done for me?

And if you're sitting here today and you're already a follower of

Jesus, and this morning you can rejoice in the new life Jesus

gives to Mark and Duke and to everyone and anyone who puts

their faith in him. You can rejoice that just as you

see them go under the water and come out again, same reality has

happened in your life. You're washed clean.

You're welcomed by Jesus into God's family forever.

This is a good day. It is a joyful day for Mark and

for Duke and for all of us because Jesus came into this

world, suffered, died, and rose again to wash us clean and

welcome us into God's family forever.

Let me pray for us as we prepare to move on.

Let me pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for

this picture of baptism. Thank you, Lord, this morning we

have the privilege of witnessing Mark and Duke get baptized.

We thank you, Lord, that you know that we work so much better

with pictures. We need to understand more of

what it is you've done for us in Jesus.

And Lord, we thank you that baptism shows us that this new

beginning, this new life with Jesus, washed, clean, welcomed.

I pray for each one of us that as we leave this place, in a

little while, we would have met with you.

We would be hungry to know more of you, whether we are a

follower of Jesus, whether we're not there yet, Lord, just like

this Ethiopian eunuch discovered.

Would we be amazed that you're the God who comes looking for

us? You're the God who bears the

whole cost for washing us clean and welcoming us home.

Thank you Lord God, for the love and grace you've shown each one

of us. We pray we'd understand more of

it as a result of having met together today.

In Jesus name we ask it Amen.