Acts 8:25-40
When we left Philip last week he was leading a large and successful movement in Samaria. Our text does not give any numbers, but it is likely that thousands were becoming Christians. His success was so great the Church sent Peter and John to help out. When we start this week we see him and the others out of the city preaching to the suburbs. It is in this atmosphere of success that God calls Philip away.
“Get up and go” an angel tells Philip. Philip was in the middle of a greatly successful mission. He must have felt at least some pride and joy in the accomplishments they were having. He could have easily been riding on an emotional high, and that would be about when God sent His messenger to tell Philip to leave all that success, and head in to the desert. This must have seen odd to Philip, but we do not read of any hesitation or questioning, Philip just goes.
In Genesis 12:1 God told Abram to “get up an go”, with out any explanation of where he was to go, and Abram went. In Joshua 1:2 he tells his people again to go, with out any explanation of how they were to accomplish the feat of taking the promise land. Through out the scripture we see God telling his people to go, and normally with out all the details we would like. Such was the case here for Philip. There was no good reason to get up and head to the desert, and any revival planner today would have told him he was nuts for leaving and not finishing his work in Samaria. Philip was with friends and brothers, safe and likely extremely happy. In human terms he had every reason to complain, hesitate, question or delay, but our text records none of that. Instead we read that he “got up and went”. (Acts 8:27) This is of course the only proper response to a clear direct request from God, but how many of us would have jumped like he did?
Philip meets up with an Ethiopian court official. The text calls him a eunuch, and mentions that he was in the area because he went to Jerusalem to worship. These are very important facts that help us see the kind of man he was. Being treasurer to the Queen of Egypt meant he was very powerful, and that implies very wealthy. Being a eunuch meant he could not become a Jew, he could only stay in the outer court and watch from afar. Our text in Acts 8:28 says he was reading from what our modern text has labeled Isaiah 53:7-8. That scroll would have been very expensive and hard for a non-Jew to obtain. This tells us that despite being rejected by the Jews he still went out of his way, way out of his way, to learn about God.
His heart was definitely seeking. We can assume that while in Jerusalem he would have heard about Jesus as Jesus was being preached in the Temple, and he would have been in the Temple while in Jerusalem. Furthermore the text he was reading from, Isaiah 53 is one of the greatest prophetic texts about Jesus that we have from the Old Testament.
When Philip approached the Eunuch’s caravan he could have easily been intimidated by the wealth and power. At the very least there would have been multiple servants and guards traveling with this Eunuch. The Eunuch would have obviously been a person of power, and he was already reading from the “Bible” of their time. So Philip could have easily thought, he is to important and busy for me to talk to, I should just go on my way, but instead Philip follows the leading of the Spirit and approaches this man directly.
Philip immediately questions the Eunuch about what he was reading, and the Eunuch’s question in response is telling of the time they lived in. Today we have passages of text that many scholars debate the meaning of. Probably the most well-known debates center around the end times prophecies, especially the doctrine of the rapture. We have the full spectrum of possible arguments represented by various scholars and theologians. Each party claims they are the only right answer, and everyone else needs to fall in line with them. This passage in Isaiah that the Eunuch was reading falls in that same type of camp. At the time there was much debate over the meaning of it. Some though the prophet was speaking of the nation, some thought he was speaking of himself and others thought he was speaking of the Messiah. Looking back with hindsight now that the prophecy has been fulfilled, we know he was speaking about Messiah, but the Eunuch did not have that advantage.
Philip then starts right where the Eunuch was and begins to teach him about Jesus. We do not know the content of the teaching, but we can assume he related Isaiah 53 to him, and then moved on to other prophecies concerning Jesus. He must have also covered baptism because the next thing we read is the Eunuch asking is to be baptized.
Now I am not going to get into the debate on whether or not immersion is the only proper means of baptism, but this section of scripture is typically used in that debate to prove immersion. What is more important here is the order of events. This is the same pattern that we see today in the typical salvation story.
First we have a heart that has been prepared. Today we talk about “planting seeds”, but the concept is the same. At some point in the past this Eunuch was introduce to Judaism, and then over time he must have had many other exposures. At some point he began seeking out more information on his own, and then Philip arrives. Philip preaches to him one time, and he converts to Christianity. While I would not shorten God’s arm and say that this is the only way to accomplish a conversion, I will say it is by far the most typical way. Philip in this case was granted the privilege of being the last person in a long chain of events that God used to save this person’s soul.
So what does this teach us today? Well there are two lessons that I am focusing on here. The first is the immediate and unquestioning response of Philip. God wanted to get Philip to the Eunuch so that the Eunuch could be saved. Had Philip delayed it is possible that the caravan would have traveled to far for Philip to catch. Philip has no way to know this, but history tells us that this Eunuch goes on to begin converting Egypt to Christianity. Had Philip not followed God’s request that would not have happened. We will often never know the impact of doing or not doing what God tells us to do, but we can be assured that we are expected to trust and obey. God has a great plan that he is working out, and each of us, has a part to play. Is God giving you a clear direction that you are not following right now?
The second lesson is one of soil preparation. I often get frustrated when big name evangelists come into an area, and brag about trillions upon trillions saved at their conferences. Or when preachers ask the so called most embarrassing question, “how many people have you lead to Jesus this week?” That puts the emphasis on one person’s actions, and that is in the wrong place. Before a person can turn to Jesus for salvation, they must understand that they are lost. Many times over the Eunuch in our text must have heard the scriptures, and being in the temple he would have heard about Jesus many times. It is possible, possibly even likely, that some people had directly witnessed to him before Philip came along. Philip had the privilege of being the last link in that chain, but that does not mean the rest failed, for with out them, the conversion was unlikely to happen. Is there some one whom you know that seems so far from Jesus that they people assume they cannot be reached? Perhaps your part is to begin the process of preparing the soil of their heart. The question is, are you doing that or are you doing the opposite?
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