Acts 8:25-40
Philip certainly seems to have a knack for connecting with different kinds of people, doesn’t he? Earlier in this chapter, he is the evangelist who reaches across the line separating Jews from Samaritans, an ethnic and theological line at that time a thousand years old. But Philip was not put off by such barriers – he insisted on preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Samaritans, and great joy came to Samaria as a result.
But this new encounter – well, Philip’s new acquaintance was as exotic as it got in the ancient world. In the first place, this man was from Ethiopia, a word that ancient writers used to refer to the whole area drained by the Nile south of Egypt. Today we would say he was from Sudan, but back then, that was as far south as anyone ever went, so a man from there was effectively from the end of the world.
Of course, the people who lived in Ethiopia were from a completely different ethnic group than the Jews were. And this particular Ethiopian was from a very exclusive socio-economic stratum of society, for he was an important official in the court of the Queen. In those days, the mother of the Ethiopian monarch tended to have a lot of power as well as influence, and since this man was in charge of her financial affairs, he was probably quite wealthy. At the very least, he could afford a carriage and, what is even more amazing, his own copy of the Book of Isaiah. In the days before the printing press, books had to be copied by hand, and so were very rare and expensive indeed.
Oh, and he probably had a completely different family structure than Philip did. Philip was probably already married, and would end up having four daughters, whom we meet in chapter 21 of the Book of Acts. But eunuchs were often rendered unable to have children as a precondition of their service in the palaces of the ancient near east. Why were they treated this way? Power in those days was transmitted through family lines, and so the only people that ancient monarchs could trust with their diplomatic and financial affairs were those who were themselves unable to found dynasties.
So, in the course of this one chapter, we see Philip preaching to black and white, to rich and poor, to the married and the single, to important people and to outcasts. All those distinctions that seem so important to us are thus shown to be irrelevant within the kingdom of God. In God’s eyes, there are simply two kinds of people – those who love and trust Jesus, and those who don’t. And God is gracious to send His messengers to the very ends of the earth to all sorts of people to proclaim to them the Good News and to welcome them into the Kingdom.
But if God wants the Good News to be heard by all kinds of people from all over the world, that doesn’t mean that God’s messengers always use the same means to spread the Good News. Think about it. In Samaria, we saw Philip preaching to large crowds. Here, he just talks to one man. In Samaria, Philip cast out unclean spirits and healed the paralyzed and the lame. We see no such miracles in this interview.
In fact, today’s passage proves that you don’t have to be a miracle worker, or even a public speaker in order to be an effective evangelist. You can tell people about Jesus through a one-on-one conversation at work, or in an airport, or while sitting around your kitchen table. You don’t have to gather a crowd – anyone can share the good news with a friend, or as in this case, even with an inquisitive acquaintance.
And oftentimes it’s precisely in more intimate settings, and especially within the context of an already-established friendship, that people really open up about their problems and their questions, their doubts and their fears. Sometimes they’d rather talk to a personal friend than to an expert. Sometimes they’d rather talk with you than with an elder or a preacher. After all, God didn’t send an apostle like Peter or John to talk to the Ethiopian. He sent Philip. And in the same way, God may be sending you to talk with one of your friends. God may present you with a special opportunity to share the gospel with someone, even perhaps this week.
But that’s hard, isn’t it? It just doesn’t seem polite to talk about religion, any more than it does to talk about politics, because people might disagree. Or we may feel awkward talking about our feelings toward Jesus. Or we may be ashamed of the coldness of our faith, or of some continuing sin in our lives and thus feel like we aren’t worthy to share the gospel. No, most people would rather leave all the talk about Jesus to the preachers, instead just trying to live a good, moral Christian life, presenting a silent witness before the world.
But sometimes a silent example just won’t do. Sometimes people have genuine questions about the things of the faith, just like this Ethiopian eunuch did. Real questions and real problems need real answers, and real answers often require words. Look at verse 35. It doesn’t say that Philip set a good example for the Ethiopian. It says Philip opened his mouth and spoke to the Ethiopian.
But what are we supposed to say? Perhaps we’ve grown up in the Church and so we don’t have a powerful testimony of a radical transformation in our lives, changing us from spectacular sinners into saints – you know, the sort of testimony you often hear at revival meetings. Well, just as we've seen so many times throughout the Book of Acts, it's not Philip's personal testimony that is discussed here. Look at verse 35 again. Philip didn’t talk about his experiences or even his personal opinions. He preached Jesus. He told the Ethiopian about Jesus.
But what if we haven’t been to seminary? What if we don’t teach Sunday School? How will we know if we are saying the right things? Well, perhaps it’s not expedient for a professional preacher to admit it, but most of the answers to most of the questions that most people have about Jesus don’t require a seminary degree. Most of the things that most people need to hear about Jesus you probably already know. And all that you need to know about Jesus is contained in one book, the Bible.
For where did Philip begin his own explanation about the life and ministry of Jesus? He didn’t start with the mind-blowing doctrine of the incarnation or the Holy Trinity. He didn’t even start by telling about Jesus’ miracles of healing or His teachings that seemed so radical. No, he started with the passage the Ethiopian eunuch was reading, a passage from the book of Isaiah, a passage which is perhaps the best explanation that can be found in either the Old or the New Testaments of why Jesus came to live among us and die for us.
What did Isaiah predict that Jesus would do? That He would suffer many great sorrows, not least because His people would turn away from Him and reject Him. Isaiah said that even though His people didn’t want Him to, Jesus would nevertheless take our transgressions, our iniquities, our sins upon Himself. He would be chastised, beaten with a whip that would leave stripes, bloody marks on His body, suffering the punishment we deserve. He would even die for us – His life would be taken from the earth.
In all of this, Jesus would be like a sheep led to the slaughter, silent in the face of His sufferings. Even though He was treated so unfairly, even though He would be crucified just for telling the truth about Himself, He did not respond to the taunts and the threats of His enemies. Instead, He made intercession for the transgressors, praying for the sinners who nailed Him to the cross, praying for people like you and me whose sin required Him to die.
But it was precisely by taking our punishment, by dying in our place, that Jesus would make us spiritually clean so that we might enter the presence of God. Isaiah said that His chastisement made us whole. Isaiah said that by His stripes we are healed. It’s all right there in Isaiah chapter 53, all written down almost 700 years before Jesus was even born.
But if the Old Testament is critical to our understanding the Person and Work of Jesus, at the same time it can't be understood apart from Jesus. That's why the eunuch was puzzled as he left Jerusalem, the place where all those religious leaders presided over the Temple. It was very easy for those leaders to crucify Jesus. It was very easy for them to persecute the Church for testifying to the resurrection of Jesus. But because the religious leaders of the day denied that Jesus was the Messiah, they couldn't really explain passages like Isaiah 53. They couldn’t do what Philip could do and what you and I can do – to show not only how the Scriptures point to Jesus, but how Jesus makes sense out of all of the Scriptures.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is great value in studying the Scriptures, in learning how they all point to Jesus, in learning how in His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus fulfills their meaning. It makes a world of difference when you read about all those sacrifices in Leviticus if you understand that Jesus is the Lamb of God who, by His death, takes away the sin of the world. The Table of Showbread and the Golden Lampstand in the Tabernacle take on new meaning when we understand that Jesus is the Bread of Heaven and the Light of the World. And you can study the Bible all of your life and never stop finding new connections between the Old and New Testaments, new revelations of Christ on every page.
But just because you don’t know it all doesn’t mean you can’t share what you know. And since the truths that are the most profound are often the simplest, most Christians know quite enough to introduce other people to Jesus.
Just look, after all, at the profession of faith that the eunuch makes in verse 37: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” It’s such a brief statement, and yet so laden with meaning. In one short sentence, the eunuch is declaring his faith that Jesus of Nazareth, a real man who really lived and really died, is the Messiah, the Anointed One God had promised would save His people from their sins. At the same time, the eunuch is declaring the divinity of Jesus, saying that Jesus is the Son of God. And the eunuch even declares his belief in the resurrection of Jesus, for if he simply believed that Jesus had died, he would have said, “I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.” Instead, he says that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is still living after His death, still reigning in power and glory.
Do you know that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? Do you know the things the Apostles’ Creed says about Him? Then you know enough to tell others about Him. And if you need to know more, you have your elders and your Sunday School teachers and your pastor to help you out. Best of all, we all have the same basic resource Philip had: we have the Scriptures, the written Word of God to tell us everything we need to know about the Living Word of God.
But do we want to tell the story? Do we want to reach out across some of those barriers that separate us from different kinds of people? Are we willing to step outside of our conversational comfort zones? Are we ready to accept the opportunities the Lord will place in our path? Are we willing to submit ourselves to the will of Christ, whose earnest desire is that the Good News go forth into all the world?
Philip was ready. When the angel of the Lord directs Philip to go toward Gaza, he doesn’t complain about having to walk out into the desert. He doesn’t even ask why. He just goes. He does what God tells him to do. And when the Spirit tells Philip to go talk to that very strange man in the chariot, Philip doesn’t object. He doesn’t point out all the demographic or linguistic or economic or historical reasons why the man won’t listen to him. He doesn’t pull back out of fear or distrust. He just goes and does what God tells him to do. And as a result, an eternal soul was saved, and this very strange man from Ethiopia carried the Good News of Jesus Christ all the way to what people thought at that time was the end of the world.
Will you take up the Great Commission? Will you call others to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God? Will you tell the story of the Lamb of God Who died to save sinners?