The Unlikely Conversion Of An Ethiopian Tourist - [Acts 8:26-40]

Acts 8 and the Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch

Please take a Bible and open it to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 as we Continue working our way through this book written by dr. Luke. You know, I I view my time in the pulpit often as I don't know.

Confessional I.

Have stumbled onto this YouTube channel here lately. It's okay, it's called Mormon stories. And you know and so we go not that again. No. It's about people who have left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church.

And I thought oh this will be interesting. This will be encouraging to me in particular because I'll watch people You know step out of this cult of Mormonism and into Christianity. What a disappointment.

I I've I've heard like and by the way, I think Mormonism is absolutely if you're a woman here today The worst religion ever invented and you know with regard to women. Because I I just can't figure it out woman after woman.

Just talking about how their wedding day Was just awful. Why. Because it was in a Mormon temple. And they go through all these rituals and they don't get to where you know, like one lady said. She said I had to change out of my wedding dress.

Because what they did was they picked out a piece of computer paper and they held it up against my dress and they said That's not wide enough. And so she had to go put on it and I'm just imagine buying a wedding dress and nope.

That's not good enough. Got to go where you know, where's something else? But people talking about how you know the the burden of all the laws and regulations of the Mormon Church and.

I.

It's it's sad to listen to their stories, you know, some people saying, you know, I I ran afoul of the church authorities. Why? Because I had more than two piercings. Because I drank coffee because you know and all these little regulations and rules.

But every case I've listened to so far has been like this. I left behind those rules and I adopted my own.

I.

Decide what's right in my own eyes. They wouldn't say that exactly but that's the essence of it. So they don't become believers. They just they're deconstructing their Mormon faith essentially and I want more for them.

Leaving Mormonism didn't save me, right? The Holy Spirit convicted me of sin and showing me Christ through the scriptures. That's what saved me and that's exactly what we're going to see today. Somebody leaving a system of works of Self-righteousness a false system and taking refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm going to begin reading our text today acts chapter 8 verse 27. 26. Now in the angel of the Lord said to Philip rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza this is a desert place and he arose and went and There was an Ethiopian a eunuch a court official of Candace queen of the Ethiopians.

Who was in charge of all her treasure? He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And The Spirit said to Philip Go over and join this chariot.

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked. Do you understand what you were reading and he said How can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation.

For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip About whom I ask you does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture He told him the good news about Jesus and as they were going along the road they came to some water and the eunuch said.

See.

Here is water what prevents me from being baptized. And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. And When they came up Out of the water the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip found himself at Azotus. And As he passed through He preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea now the last time. We were in Acts some time ago Philip the Evangelist one of the seven prototypes of deacons One of the men set aside by the church in Jerusalem and approved of by the Apostles went to Samaria and By the power of the Holy Spirit he was enabled To perform.

We read in Acts 8 verse 13. Signs and great miracles. Such that many were believing his message the gospel of Jesus Christ. His sermons became such a draw throughout that area that he actually eclipsed kind of the big star of the day Simon the magician Simon the great Simon the Performer as it were Simon Magus the King James calls him.

Many were captivated.

By.

Philip including Simon who started following Philip around. Many came to know Christ that way and when the apostles finally came and they heard what was going on up there in Samaria and they went to check out the reports and when they go up there the Samaritans received the gift of the Holy Spirit and Simon Magus saw this and he wanted that power said I Need to have that.

I need to add that to basically to my bag of tricks. He saw the Holy Spirit is nothing more than an incantation a new spell some kind of new potion. And he wanted to buy it. So the Apostles, you know, basically here how much silver is it going to cost me?

Remember what Peter said? May your silver perish with you. You know, thanks for the offering. No. He rebukes him in such a way as to make it plain that Simon himself was not saved. And then at the end of that text the Apostles and Philip were returned to Jerusalem.

But they preached the gospel to many Samaritan villages along the way. This is God extending the power of the gospel to Samaria, which was a Place that was not well thought of because the people were not well thought of they were sort of Half Jewish half Gentile and they had their religion was a mix also so the fact that the gospel goes there says something to the Jews in Jerusalem about the power of the gospel and This is even as we read earlier today, this is full in fulfillment of the words of Jesus when he said in Acts 1 8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria.

The Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism

Today we're going to see that extended even further this morning. I Have five points that help highlight this section highlighting the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. Who is going to convert this Ethiopian eunuch.

The Holy Spirit who is truly God. I have five designation points. Not design points but designation points to encourage us to think rightly about the Holy Spirit and a vision. Evangelism. There are lessons here for us concerning evangelism.

What's interesting here is in every previous evangelism situation in Acts It's been mass evangelism preach a sermon and wait to watch the Holy Spirit give the results. Give them the gospel and trust the Holy Spirit.

This is the first time we see kind of one-on-one Evangelism and a one-on-one conversion there were going to be three of them in a row. But Philip.

Versus versus.

The Ethiopian eunuch yes, that's the match today. Philip versus. Our first designated point is the designated place. The designated place. Look at verse 26 again. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip rise and go toward the south.

To the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. Now even as I read that and as I studied it, I thought you know what? I think this is what most believers are waiting for an angel of the Lord to appear to us and tell us to go do some evangelism.

If God would just tell me where to go and who to talk to then I would evangelize. I mean, that's like evangelism myths. Don't do that. Because you'll never evangelize. But we see that an angel of the Lord maybe the first thing that you think about is.

You know the Old Testament. We often read of the angel of the Lord.

The angel of the Lord is.

Pre-incarnate Christ. But now we're in the New Testament and you notice there it doesn't say the angel of the Lord. It says an angel of the Lord. This is not Jesus. Some commentators say it's the Holy Spirit which is reasonable given the context which we'll talk about but we Aren't told that an angel appeared to Philip, right?

He doesn't see an angel. Just that he spoke to Philip. Now it would make sense for many reasons for this perhaps to be the Holy Spirit. One is we know that Philip was a man who was chosen because he was filled with the Spirit.

But the essence of this command where it says Rise and go, you know again, this is like Old Testament language Rise Son of Man, you know. Usually they would get a vision in the Old Testament the prophets would while they were lying down or sleeping or you know.

Something like that. Well, this is kind of I mean, I almost want it to be translated differently because the idea is prepare yourself pack a bag and.

Go.

Throw your stuff in a duffel bag and get on the road. That's the idea. Now there were two roads that Philip might choose to go to from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the proverbial road less traveled. This is the one that most people would not choose and in part.

You know, you see it there at the end of the verse. This is a desert place. Most people don't want to go through the desert. So this is like the Undesirable road. Let's let's put it that way. So if you're thinking Okay, I want to go do some evangelism.

Are you gonna go where there are a lot of people? Or where you know, there aren't going to be very many. If I'm Philip and I'm thinking I lied. Here's what I'd be thinking Lord. I have a better idea. How about I go to the other road because there are going to be more people there.

That's not what happens. Our second designated point the designated prospect the designated prospect verse 27 and he Philip rose and went. Doesn't object doesn't say anything just puts his stuff in his bag and goes.

He knows where he's going. It's a desert place. He knows that. And he prepares appropriately and goes. And then the text says and there was an Ethiopian.

I mean, I think we could safely say.

That when Philip goes into this area It's not like there's a row of people there and he has to pick out the Ethiopian. There's one person there. There was an Ethiopian a eunuch a court official of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot. Luke gives us a lot of information about Who Philip sees? So let's take a few minutes to get to know him a bit. He's Ethiopian now you think well, okay.

I know where that is sort of. But it's borders because I was looking at some maps yesterday its borders have moved. Many borders change over time and this is no exception. This is just it's it's in modern Sudan.

It's just a little bit south of or it's directly south of Egypt. And I thought this part was interesting. Said it's beyond Roman jurisdiction. In other words, the Roman Empire didn't go down this far.

And it's approximately 1 ,000 miles from the shores Of the Mediterranean Sea. So from the Jewish mindset, this is like the end of the world. I mean, this is pretty much as far as anybody can even imagine if you met an Ethiopian, that would be a rarity.

Ethiopia wasn't a place that you would go to but it might be somebody you might meet somebody from Ethiopia, but this is distant. Also notice that he is designated as a eunuch meaning a neutered male.

Why would they do that a variety of reasons. I I think the most Profound one is That this way if this guy was going to betray you, you know, try to take the kingdom over and set up his own kingdom. Well, guess what?

What's the most important thing if you're gonna set up a kingdom? Heirs Gotta set up a dynasty. Well, he's not gonna have any so he he could be trusted more highly than other men could. He was essentially the secretary of the Treasury for Candace.

Now that term, you know, we read that and we think oh the Queen's name was Candace. Well, no, that's either the Queen. Or the Queen Mother. It's a it's a title. It's like Pharaoh or King. Not, you know Her name but our text tells us he had traveled to Jerusalem.

To worship.

Traveled to Jerusalem to worship gone up to the temple To worship and now he's on his way back. Now when he went to the temple there would be restrictions on him. Because he's a eunuch because he's not ethnically Jewish and We have no reason to think there's nothing in the text that would tell us that he's a full-blown proselyte.

Now I did read there were apparently some Jews who had settled down in Ethiopia and held meetings down there and apparently that's how some Ethiopians came to be. I Guess Acolytes Jewish Acolytes. They would they had some affinity for the Jewish religion.

And it seems likely as we read through this just think about this that this man Sorry to use this word was a seeker. You say why are you sorry to use that word because nobody seeks after God? We know that from Romans 3, but there was some sense that he was looking for spiritual fulfillment.

And.

He went to the temple and Came back down. And he's on his way back to Ethiopia when Philip comes up on him. Now when we read the term chariot I don't know about you, but I've watched too many Hollywood movies.

I'm thinking like Ben Hur right? He's got a team of horses. Yeah, he's got blades on the side of his chariot all that kind of stuff. Probably not. In fact one man said, you know, it's probably like a wagon dragged around by a donkey and I'm like.

That's a little bit of a letdown. But here's the main point. The main point is that this thing would not have been blazing along. You know, he's not driving a Ferrari. He's not doing 120 back to Ethiopia.

He's at cruising at a slow speed and we'll get into why we know that here in about two seconds. Well, I'll just kind of preview for you just imagine this. Have you ever? Tried reading while you're driving.

I Hope you're gonna say no because you should not be doing that. I've seen people do that. Believe me reading the newspaper while they're driving. But even while you're in the passenger seat if you're reading what happens.

And that's in modern cars on modern roads allegedly. How about you're in some. You know bucket of bolts and wood and you're out there in the middle of nowhere with a you know a desert road just bump bump bump bump and.

You want to read?

How fast are you gonna be going? Not very fast.

Because of his position everything else by the way, he would have a driver. So now you could picture maybe more like an uncovered stagecoach or maybe some kind of covered. You know, but that'd be closer to reality.

But keeping in mind the quality of roads there, which were probably Massachusetts quality. And the fact that his vehicle would have no shock absorbers and he's trying to read You could bet he's not going too fast.

Most commentators think it was probably somewhere around Walking speed or a little bit faster. He's on this lightly traveled road. Now you you just think okay, what does that have to do with anything?

Well, if you're the Ethiopian and you want to read You're going to take the road less traveled because You don't want some New Englander coming up on you and honking his horn and trying to go past you and all that stuff, right?

So.

Not that I would ever do that. So so that's kind of the picture that's who we're dealing with here and when Philip hears These words these familiar words. He's listening to this man reading in what language in Greek.

Philip speaks Greek and this man is reading the Septuagint Translation of the Old Testament or the Greek Version of the Old Testament so. Isn't Philip lucky that this guy speaks the same language he does.

What a break and again, you know when when uh Holy spirit says join the chariot. I mean, what do we want to think? We want to think you know, it's like some 30 mile an hour thing and you know, he's got to know.

He could just kind of run over there I mean There's probably some distance and he has to speed up a little bit because the text does say run but he's able to catch it so we come to Verse 30 and what i've called here the earnest question.

We're still on Excuse me the designated preacher. And we have an earnest question from this Ethiopian so philip Verse 30 ran to him and heard him reading isaiah the prophet. And asked What are you reading so the question comes from philip or do you understand what you're reading.

Philip obeys the holy spirit goes and runs and catches him. Now he knows that this man is powerful, I don't know how he identifies everything about him but I suspect there would be some kind of warning because you know the Queen of Ethiopia would be nobody to trifle with and this is kind of you know her one of her main people here, so you don't want to mess with him.

And he sees him and recognizes that. And he's likely walking right next to the chariot and he asked this question. And I thought you know if you see somebody carrying a bible around in public. Would it be a good thing to do if you could to kind of say, um, excuse me.

Where do you go to church. Or you know What are you reading in this in scripture when you read it or do you read it at all? You know, I wouldn't say if you ever read that thing.

Um.

But you know to engage with them, right? Philip has an advantage because he can hear the man reading so he opens up his conversation with him in a very Evangelistic manner with a sincere question. It's a good move.

Now the unit could have responded in many ways if you think about it none of your business. Of course, I know what i'm doing. You know, what do you think? I am an idiot? Get lost. Who are you to ask me such a question and these days quite honestly.

That's what you should be. Be prepared for right somebody to say well, of course, I know what i'm doing. But he gets really An answer that's just so humble. I call it the eager reply and he the ethiopian eunuch says.

How can I in other words, how can I know when i'm reading? Unless someone guides me. And he invited philip to come up and sit with him not arrogant. Not full of himself not assuming he knows. Have you ever heard the?

The saying. You know don't answer a question with A question, but that's exactly what he did here and it was fine. Do you know what you're. You know, do you understand what you're reading? How can I unless somebody helps me?

That's a question unless somebody guides me. The ethiopian is very very humble. We want to say we understand it. But we know this. The bible isn't like any other book. I mean people will tell you unbelievers will tell you all the time.

Of course, I understand the bible. Okay. Ask him three or four questions. Like, you know, was there ever a time when jesus did not exist?

Or.

How old's the earth?

You're gonna get some pretty cracker answers. But people who know scripture people who studied it will tell you that there's a consistent coherent theme that runs throughout it. This theme is not easily discovered by merely reading one little section.

You've got to know it. Takes years of study or good teaching. And philip Had both. Now is it wrong or is it bad. To ask for help and understanding scripture from somebody you believe might know more than you.

Of course not but I mean this whole little passage, I hate to draw too many lessons out of a narrative, but it It does kind of go against this whole all I need. Is the bible the holy spirit and me. Sometimes we need somebody to explain things to us and that's fine.

Isaiah 53 and the Good News About Jesus

Our third designated point or our fourth designated point. Is the designated prophecy the designated prophecy? And I would have called it scripture except you know a it is a prophecy and b I've been using p's throughout so that wouldn't work.

Um verses 32 and 33 now the passage of scripture. That he was reading was this. Like a sheep that was led to the slaughter. And like a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe this generation for his life is taken away from the earth. I mean does the old testament speak of jesus?

Yes.

Emphatically. Yes, this is it, right? It does. And as we've mentioned before that's all the apostles and their disciples like philip had for years. Even after the new testament books were written they took time to copy and then Distribute.

They were very expensive. It wasn't like today where you could just hit print and get multiple copies. This passage is isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8. The septuagint the greek translation varies a bit from the hebrew text, but the gist is the same.

Scholar simon kistemacher summarizes the servant song in isaiah this way and by the way. Uh, this is from isaiah 53, but today when scott read elder scott read isaiah 42. That's another one of the servant songs.

Which focuses on the lord jesus? But here's how kistemacher summarizes isaiah 53. Talking about this suffering servant the servant suffers on behalf of others. The servant is despised and rejected by men.

The servant dies for the sins of the world. The servant is buried with the wicked. The servant declares many people righteous. Could you you individually? Preach the gospel with such truths. I think the answer is yes has to be yes.

You can go straight to the gospel with isaiah 53, how could jesus Suffer for others. Even dying for their sins. How could he do that? I can't do that. I can't suffer from the sins of others. How could he do that?

Because.

He's god He can die for the sins of others his death has limitless value.

I say but.

God can't die. God is eternal. There's no beginning and no end. Yes, so he had to be born of a virgin isaiah 7 14. So you can just stay in the old testament. So that he is also truly man truly god and truly man.

Only because he's born of a virgin. He doesn't have the sin nature that we inherit from adam. Now what about the resurrection. Can't preach the gospel about the resurrection. Well, let me just read isaiah 53 verse 10 the first part of it.

Yet it was the will of the lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt. When he dies for sin.

Listen.

He shall see his offspring. How can he see his offspring. Because he's been raised from the dead. How does this servant declare many righteous? Does he see his offspring after his death. Because again, he's raised from the dead.

He's resurrected. The grave could not hold him the psalmist says in psalm 16 verse 10.

His.

He could not his body could not undergo corruption so he's raised on the third day again, old testament old testament old testament. We know that jesus was unjustly tried. He was unjustly convicted. He was beaten tortured and executed.

Even though he did no wrong. But as isaiah says He didn't defend himself. Peter says the same thing later. And again, we come to an earnest question in our text verse 34. Only this time it is from the eunuch and the eunuch said to philip about whom.

Keeping in mind what he's reading Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8 about whom I ask you does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else? Now he's just read two verses from isaiah 53 and he wants to know Who isaiah is writing about is it himself?

In other words isaiah or is it is he pointing to somebody else? I'm, not going to read all of isaiah 53. But as I said, this can't be about a mere mortal and if we think about the ethiopian spiritual condition.

If he went to the temple and I think he did on some form of spiritual pilgrimage in other words to make himself Feel more spiritual more right with god to get closer to god. It doesn't really seem like he got there.

Because if he was elated at visiting the temple it doesn't show up. In fact, he's driving rather slowly riding rather slowly back to ethiopia and reading scripture could be.

Speculation.

That he asked people their questions. Maybe he didn't get the answers. He certainly if he was evangelized in Jerusalem we have no record of it. But this man is certainly not going back to ethiopia in some sort of spiritual triumph.

He's not You know praising the lord all the way back down to ethiopia. He's unsure what to believe and so he asked that question. Who's this all about? Who's isaiah writing about? And then we have the eager answer in verse 35.

Then philip opened his mouth. And beginning with this scripture He told him the good news about jesus. You know isaiah 53 Still bothers the conscience of jews. I remember being in seminary and hearing That there are copies of the old testament That have isaiah 53 removed.

And I thought you know just an academic exercise I go. Well, that's interesting. You know just kind of like whatever. Didn't really mean anything to me. Then I was working in the jail. Doing my real job.

And we were on lockdown which means somebody was fighting somewhere or there was something bad going on and no inmates are moving around but there were always exceptions to that because If there were no inmates moving around that meant no work got done because you know, what could deputies do?

So.

Here comes this trustee Walking up to me. He says senior cooley. That's my title. He says senior Says, uh, can I give this old testament? To another jew who lives in that dorm. And I said well First I gotta ask you a question.

I said does that have isaiah 53 in it? And he said absolutely sure it does. And I said well, let's look. So he hands it to me and I flip and It goes from isaiah 52 to isaiah 54 and he says How'd you know that.

And I said, you know random factoid just kind of stuck in my head. He goes well, why isn't it there? I said because it talks about jesus. And there's no other earthly explanation for it.

So.

Months pass. I'm working in a different building working overtime again.

And.

Some guy comes up to me and he says you remember me senior cooley. I said Not at all. I mean, come on. I see hundreds. Unless I interact with you on a daily basis, you know, because I was seeing hundreds if not thousands of inmates.

You know a week or whatever. And he says well i'm the guy who wanted to give the you know, and you said and he goes. Since then i've been going to A christian bible study and he goes god saved me and I was like.

Random factoid, but look at what philip does.

He started with the very verse. The question comes in what about this verse. What about these verses. Who's isaiah talking about. He starts right there right at the point of what this person wants to know.

And he gives him the gospel tells him the good news about jesus. And I think there's a principle there too if you're asked a legitimate question.

You know, you're asking a legitimate question.

Not something dopey like where does god come from? But who's isaiah writing about. Start right there. And don't stop until you preach the entirety of the gospel. I mean, I I think and i'm talking about this in sunday school, too.

We often treat the gospel like. It's a precious commodity. Like it's limited like somehow if we break the glass, we're not going to be able to squeeze it all back in. It's only used in case of an emergency.

What does the bible say. The bible says the gospel is the power of god unto salvation. The gospel and the gospel alone reveals the true status of the hearer. It convicts people of sin. It saves sinners.

And by the way. What does it do for believers? It encourages you. And it emboldens you. We ought not to fear preaching the gospel. I mean god's not running short on grace. Okay, so we've seen the designated place the designated prospect the designated preacher and the designated prophecy and finally.

Baptism and Rejoicing on the Road to Ethiopia

The designated pool. The designated pool. Look at verse 36 and as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said see here's water. What prevents me from being baptized. Now first I have to address the mysterious Missing verse which is verse 37.

Um.

Because i'm looking at my text here in my bible and it goes. I don't know about yours, but it just goes 36. 38. And you know what was really fun is on my computer it goes, you know. It has the text from 36.

And then it actually puts the superscript there for 37. And then it goes on to 38 and i'm just like so would you put the 37 there for you know? Just like just in case you wouldn't know 37 in the new american standard.

Says this and philip said if you believe with all your heart good because he says. And as they were going along You know what prevents me from being baptized? And philip said if you believe with all your heart you may.

And he answered and said I believe that jesus christ is the son of god.

Now.

You think what's wrong with that verse? Nothing, really. There's a problem though. It doesn't appear in a greek text until about a thousand years later. There's the problem it's not in the original text.

I think if I recall correctly it shows up in a latin text in about the fourth century or something like that. But it's not in the original text, which is why i'm not going going to preach it. Now we don't know every word That philip spoke.

I mean, for example Luke gives us a summary statement, right? He begins in that verse and then he told him the good news about jesus. So it's reasonable to conclude that after philip gets through preaching the gospel.

Either the ethiopian says I believe. What must I now do? Well be baptized.

Or.

You know philip could have said You need to repent and believe and be baptized. But in any case somehow they got around to baptism. So they're cruising down the road. The eunuch sees the water and says, you know, there's water what prevents me from being baptized.

I think it's interesting what he doesn't say. He doesn't say you know what? I've got a little water in my wineskin. Why don't we do a little sprinkle?

Sorry, sorry.

Look at verse 38. We the sign and the seal of the new covenant. Verse 38. And he commanded. The ethiopian did the chariot to stop. In other words. I see that water stop. And they both went down into the water.

Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. Philip baptized the eunuch. Now it just just briefly I just want to say a couple things about baptism. In many churches today i've watched this on video. It drives me crazy.

Baptism is just treated like an absolute Frivolity just like an extra thing. It's like dessert or whatever. You know who's doing the baptizing? Well, it could be your mom. Uh could be your brother. Whomever, you know.

Could be your aunt and your mom or whoever let's just every you know. And we can have 20 baptisms at the same time. No church testimony, no microphone.

Nothing.