WWUTT 2602 Philip Preaches to the Etheopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-35)

Philip shared the gospel with an Ethiopian eunuch. The Lord put Philip in that place to be able to share the gospel with him. And who knows, the Lord may position you in a place to share the gospel with somebody else when we understand the text.

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Hey once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In Acts chapter 8, we've been reading about Philip, looking this week at that narrative where Philip ministers to an Ethiopian eunuch and baptizes him. Let me pick up again in verse 26, I'll read through verse 35.

Philip's Commission and the Ethiopian Official

Hear the word of the Lord. But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. So he rose up and went. And behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.

And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot. And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, Well, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this. As a sheep is led to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.

In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will recount his generation for his life is removed from the earth? And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this of himself or of someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. And then from here, of course, is the famous account of the eunuch being baptized, which we will get to tomorrow.

As we look at this section today, let me divide it up into three parts here. We'll start by looking at some geography and verses 26 and 27 and then the scripture itself that the eunuch is reading and Philip explains to him.

That'll be verses 28 to 33. And then what else would Philip have explained to him according to what we have in verses 34 and 35. So let's come back up, do a little bit of geography in verses 26 and 27.

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now first of all, before explaining this and who the eunuch is and that sort of a thing, this story parallels Elijah.

And you may have picked that up, especially because later on after Philip baptizes the eunuch, he's taken away. The spirit just takes him up, relocates him to another place, which is a Zotus according to verse 40.

So in second Kings chapter one, the Lord tells Elijah to go to a certain place. And so in this narrative, at the very start, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, rise up and go south. Now here it's an angel of the Lord.

In second Kings one three, it says the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah. And the understanding is you've probably heard this argument before, but when you have the definite article use like that in the old Testament accounts of the angel of the Lord, we're probably talking about a pre-incarnate Christ.

So it could be who would become Jesus Christ in his incarnation, the son of God speaking to Elijah there in second Kings one here, it would not have been, it would not have been Jesus. It would have been an angel because the definite article is not used here.

So it's just an angel that is speaking to Philip, but it still has that parallel with second Kings one, the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah and angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. So I just have to wonder if Luke, who is the author of acts is crafting the narrative to parallel Elijah.

It's not that Luke is making up these details, but he's looking at that account say in second Kings chapter one, and he's going, I'm going to, I'm going to craft this narrative to look like the narrative that we see in second Kings, not that he's making up details, but just that the two accounts would parallel one another because Luke is already looking at this and going, well, this sounds like what happened with Elijah.

So he's going to make the narrative sound like what happened with Elijah in second Kings one. So then going on, the angel of the Lord says to Philip and angel of the Lord, sorry, says to him, rise up and go South to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Now remember that the other apostles, Peter and John left Samaria and they went back to Jerusalem. So Philip is being told to go beyond Jerusalem. When you get to Jerusalem, keep going South to the road that heads to Gaza.

And it mentions that this is a desert road, probably to say, this is not a road that was frequented by a lot of people. If Philip was going to decide to himself, where else should I go to share the gospel?

This is probably not the route he's going to pick. He's going to go where there are more towns, more people, just like what the apostles were doing, sharing with all the towns that were in Samaria. So Philip is going to be thinking, well, let me keep going.

Maybe he would head to the East, but instead he's going to the Southwest along this desert highway so that this encounter can happen. This is all according to the will of God, that this Ethiopian eunuch who is reading the scriptures would have it explained to him that he may hear the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ and so be saved.

And as I mentioned to you yesterday, all of this in fulfillment of what Jesus said to his disciples in Acts 1 .8, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, which we've had Samaria in this chapter and to the ends of the earth.

The eunuch is from the ends of the earth. Not that Philip has gone to the ends of the earth. He's still in Judea, but he is ministering to a man who is clearly Gentile. So more than just Jews now are receiving the gospel and being saved.

So going on from there, verse 27, he rose up and went and behold, there was an Ethiopian.

Eunuch.

Now a little bit about Ethiopia, or at least what Ethiopia would have been at this particular.

Time.

In the Roman empire, it includes all of the land that was around the Mediterranean Sea. And that's also North Africa and Egypt, of course. Further south from Egypt is what would have been considered to be Ethiopia.

Now if you look at Ethiopia on a map, it has distinct borders. It's a specific land. It's probably smaller today than it was back then. Ethiopia would have been considered to be just any of that land on the eastern side of the African continent that was south of what was occupied by Egypt.

Even Egypt at this time was not the borders that we see on a map today. It's pretty easy to identify Egypt. You pull up a map of the continent of Africa, and it's just that northeast-most country right there.

You can point to it and say that's Egypt. Well, it was probably a larger territory at this particular time, extended to the southeast, and then anything further south than that was probably considered by many to be Ethiopia.

And that would have been thought of as like the ends of the earth. It was the ends of the known civilization, especially to people who were in the Roman empire at that time. Not that there wasn't anybody living outside those bounds, but that's the way most people thought of anyone who would come from Ethiopia.

And this eunuch is a court official from the queen of the Ethiopians who was Candace. Now, Candace may not have been her name. All of the queens of Ethiopia were called Candace. So that's just a typical name that the queen would have.

And it could also be that this Ethiopian was not a eunuch in the sense that his ability to procreate had been taken away from him. If you have a eunuch, he's been castrated. That's the general understanding of what a eunuch was.

And as somebody who was a court official, if he had been made a eunuch, it was probably so he would not be tied to a wife and children or have family, but that his entire life would be in service and devotion to this queen.

So it's either a generic term, eunuch, just talking about a person who was a court official, or it very well may have been that he actually was a eunuch. And it's interesting then that he would be reading from Isaiah because in Isaiah 56, now what he's reading when we get to this passage, that's Isaiah 53.

But in chapter 56, it is said, this is verses three through five, let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say, Yahweh will surely separate me from his people. Nor let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree.

For thus says Yahweh to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant to them. I will give my house and within my walls, a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters.

I will give them an everlasting name, which will not be cut off. That would have been great news to a eunuch to hear that I get to fellowship with God, that my condition of being made a eunuch, my being castrated doesn't keep me from worship.

Because remember the laws of the tabernacle and later on for the temple, as it says the eunuch had been in Jerusalem, uh, worshiping the laws would, would prevent somebody who had been castrated from worshiping in the temple because someone whose testicles had been crushed, according to the law was not permitted to worship in the temple.

And so here he's reading the good news that this does not keep me from the fellowship of God. He will join me in, uh, into his house and within his walls. And I will have a name that is better than that of sons and daughters.

So that surely would have been great news to this eunuch as he is reading from the prophet Isaiah. But of course, the section that we're going to be looking at here in a moment that he was reading from was Isaiah 53.

So there's our bit of geography lesson there, who this man was. He would have been an African, very dark skin African. He is on this road because he's heading back to Ethiopia. This road extends to the Southwest, but on his way to Gaza, he would have gone beyond Gaza into Egypt and then South from Egypt into Ethiopia.

So that's where he's headed. So then you have a Philip being told to go over and talk to this eunuch. So verse 28, he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And then the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot.

This is the Holy spirit speaking to Philip. And as we would understand it audibly, there's nothing in the text that indicates to us. It was some, you know, thought in his head that I should go and talk to the eunuch.

And they attributed that thought to the Holy spirit. No, this was the spirit saying to Philip to go and talk to the man. So verse 30, Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said to him, do you understand what you are reading?

And boy, what a great icebreaker when it comes to evangelism. If you have an opportunity to evangelize like this, this is an easy way to do it. If somebody's reading their Bible, like you see somebody reading something, it could be, it could even be another book.

It could be a book that is a Christian book could be a book that you just have some familiarity with, but it becomes a point from which to launch off of into sharing the gospel with this person. So Philip is seeing him reading the scriptures.

You might see somebody else reading the scriptures and you could go sit down with him and say, do you know what you're reading or ask them what they're reading and share with me what the spirit has been saying to you today from the scriptures, something to that effect.

That's a great way to start in on a conversation with somebody and share the gospel. And that's exactly what Philip does here. So he says, do you understand what you are reading? And the eunuch says, well, how could I, unless someone guides me.

So this indicates here, the eunuch himself doesn't have the spirit or is, or even if he does, is still in the flesh and is unable to, from his flesh, understand what is being said in these scriptures.

So as Philip ministers to him, it's the spirit that is going to open the eunuch's heart, his spiritual heart to understand what is being said and believe that it is about Jesus. And so put his faith in Jesus.

So the spirit is with him, but is not yet open him to understanding what it is that he is reading. So verse 32, he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And the passage of scripture, which he was reading was this, as a sheep is led to slaughter and as a lamb before his shearer is silent.

So he does not open his mouth in humiliation. His judgment was taken away. Who will recount his generation for his life is removed from the earth. Now, like I mentioned, this is coming from Isaiah chapter 53, and we know because we've done this study before that Isaiah 53 is about Jesus.

The great and late preacher, John MacArthur, he wrote a book entitled The Gospel According to God. And that book was about Isaiah 53. This is the clearest presentation of the gospel that we have in the Old Testament, where it is talking about Jesus who will be crucified for us.

And by his wounds, we are healed. One of the great portions of this chapter, and it's also from this chapter that we come to understand the doctrine that is called penal substitutionary atonement. Christ who died for us.

He was the substitute for us. The wrath of God was poured out on him for us. All of that is laid out here in Isaiah 53. And it's very clearly about that. It's so clearly about that, that whenever I've encountered somebody that opposes the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, which is becoming more and more common, incidentally, whenever I encounter somebody who opposes that doctrine, I will point them to Isaiah 53.

And an argument will sometimes be made by them that this passage in Isaiah 53 is never clearly tied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Not that they will deny that it's about Jesus, but just the aspects of it in Isaiah 53 that talk about him being our substitute, taking the punishment that we deserve upon himself, which the passage is clearly talking about.

They will say that there's no clear connection between that and Jesus, which is just denying the obvious. So they're just denying what the passage clearly says. I just don't, for the life of me, understand why there are those that hate the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.

It's clearly laid out here in Isaiah 53. And they will even acknowledge that, yeah, there is something in there in Isaiah about.

That.

But then those parts of Isaiah 53 don't get carried over into the New Testament, pointing out clearly to us that Jesus was our substitute. Well, Peter does it. Peter does quote from Isaiah 53 and talks about how it is Jesus who has died as our substitute for us.

But anyway, argument for another time. The clearest passage that talks about Jesus dying for us and taking our sin for us and God placing our punishment on him for us is verse six. All of us like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way. But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. All of our sin placed on Christ and he was crushed on our behalf. And here we go in verses seven and eight.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before his shearers. So he did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment.

He was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living that for the transgression of my people, striking was due to him. Later on in verse 10, it says, but Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

If you would place his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his seed. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed at his hand. That's exactly the section that the eunuch is reading there.

And then asks Philip of whom does the prophet say this of himself or of someone else? And then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.

So Philip would have expounded upon what else is being talked there, talked about there in Isaiah 53, since the eunuch is reading an Isaiah scroll. And this also demonstrates the wealth that the eunuch had because people didn't just have scrolls.

This guy had enough money that he was able to pay for a scroll. I mean, parchment wasn't cheap either. You had to have some money to buy some parchment. So he was able to purchase a scroll and have it copied for him that he could have the prophet Isaiah and read it while he was riding along in his chariot.

Really demonstrates the heart of this man seeking after God. He went to Jerusalem and was worshiping there. He is reading the word of God on his return back to Ethiopia. The Lord is truly with this man and blessing him to send him somebody who can explain to him what it is that he is reading and point him to who it's about, Jesus Christ.

And Philip is able to show how Jesus who had been crucified just, you know, a matter of how long before this, months, a year or two, however long it had been now up to this point that Jesus had been crucified there in Jerusalem.

Philip is able to tell him all of the things that have happened in recent days are a fulfillment of what you've been reading here in Isaiah 53. You know who this is about? I'll tell you who this is about.

This is about Jesus Christ. And so starting from this scripture, Philip explained to him who Jesus is, told him the good news, shared with him the gospel. He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus to this eunuch.

And as we would come to know, the eunuch would believe in him and desire to be baptized into Christ. And that's the portion of this narrative that we will be looking at tomorrow. My friends, we all have an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody else as well.

And we need to have a familiarity with the scripture because that will certainly equip us to share with others what the gospel is. So study the scriptures, be familiar with those things and look for opportunities that you could share the gospel of Christ with somebody else.

Who knows that the Lord may put you in the path of someone else who is looking, but doesn't know what they're looking for. And you can share with them the hope of the gospel of Christ who died for us, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God.

Whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here. And as we have read these things and they have been upon our hearts, may we desire to know Christ more through your word as it has been given to us and share Christ with somebody else so that they too may come to know the Savior and be saved.

Give us wisdom in knowing what to say to people. Give us courage that we would have boldness to share the gospel with somebody else because it's only in the hearing of the gospel and by faith in Jesus Christ that a person comes to salvation and is made right with God forever.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.