Building
the right foundation part 15
Acts 8:26-40
Now
an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go towards the south
to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a
desert place.
And he rose 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 are 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 the 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.”
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 baptised?”
(And
Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And
he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”)
And he commanded the chariot to stop, and
they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he
baptised 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.
English
Standard Version Anglicised
****************
Before
we consider the passage together it is important for us to consider
the highlighted words contained in our reading. They are in brackets
because they are not to be found within most of the modern
translations of the bible but are included in versions such as the
Authorised and New King James. This has caused many to be disturbed
by modern translators and scholars who have decided to put it in the
footnotes. It is the short discourse of Philip telling the Ethiopian
that he can be baptised if he believes with all of his heart and the
Ethiopian confirming his faith that Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
New
testament scholars believe this to be part of an early baptismal
liturgy which was later added to the text by a scribe who believed
that Philip after baptising Simon the magician falsely would have
been keen to make sure that the Ethiopian was not baptised wrongly.
That is a strong possibility but is somewhat unprovable and it is
certainly true to say that the statement is not found in the earliest
and most reliable manuscripts from which our bible is translated. It
is therefore right to treat it with caution and therefore sensible to
highlight the problem. That having been said the man's declaration is
a fair one without which he should not have been baptised.
****************
Back
to the passage: Luke has recorded Philip's next evangelistic
adventure for our encouragement. As we have previously said, the
gospel is moving ever outwards and towards the Gentile world just as
Jesus had commanded that it must.
To
move on from his ministry in Samaria Philip has:
A
heavenly encounter:
It
is by a visit from a Messenger (Angel) of the Lord who is none other
than the Holy Spirit. In verse 26 He is referred to as an angel of
the Lord speaking and directing Philip. By the time we come to verse
29 it is the Spirit who is speaking and directing and in verse 39 it
is the Spirit of the Lord who carried Philip away.
This
encounter is purely of the Lord whose purpose in coming to Philip is
the conversion of one very important man.
As
far as Philip was concerned he had been preaching the gospel to the
Samaritans and proving that Jesus is their long awaited Messiah
resulting in many being converted. Now all of a sudden his ministry
is to take a sudden change of direction. God spoke to him and told
him to go to the Jerusalem to Gaza road which is desert.
Philip
immediately obeyed and went!
I
wonder if we are as willing to go to where God by His Spirit calls
us. Our God is never changing, He is always the same and he always
works with His people in just the same way. Therefore the God who
called Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees; who called Moses out of
the wilderness to Egypt and who called the prophets to stand and
speak to the nation for Him is the same God who directed Philip on
that day to go with a message to a man in the desert.
God
is still calling and sending His people to a lost world.
Sometimes
God's call is simply by circumstance of life as it had previously
been for Philip in Samaria and at other times it is directly by His
word as it was on this occasion. Sometimes His call is to a whole
town as Philip in Samaria but on other occasions it is for the
benefit of just one man. Whatever God's purpose is He is still
sending us His people out into the world with the glorious gospel of
salvation.
It
is safe to say that the majority of us here today are where we are by
God's directing through circumstance, of course some may be here
because they have been clearly directed by God's Spirit. The truth is
that we are all here and we have a purpose, it is not simply to enjoy
life. Enjoying life is a part of our purpose but as we enjoy the
privilege of belonging to Jesus and His church then we also have a
responsibility to introduce all that we can to the Saviour.
Are
we like Philip willing to go wherever God leads us and to take that
opportunity to direct others to Jesus?
When
Philip went he met:
A
man in need:
Luke
goes to great pains to tell us many things about this man. Firstly he
was an Ethiopian which means that he came from Africa. He also tells
us that he was a eunuch which simply means that he had been castrated
in order to make him loyal to his employers. We are told also that he
was a court official to the queen of Ethiopia. Candace was probably
not a name of the particular person but was an official title given
to the queen mother who office was to represent the king on various
occasions and functions. Luke tells us that this man was basically
the accountant in charge of all of her financial dealings.
This
man could not be more different from the Samaritans amongst whom
Philip had previously been evangelising.
There
are more significant differences also, the Samaritans were an
apostate nation who had no care for Judaism but this man was
returning from worshipping in Jerusalem which means that he was
either Jewish by birth or a convert to Judaism. He was not only
returning from worshipping in the temple but he was also reading the
prophet Isaiah which was something else that the Samaritans would
never do, they had long before rejected the word of the prophets.
In
every way this man had been prepared for this very encounter, he was
reading Isaiah 53 and could not understand who it spoke of, he was
confused as to whether it was concerning Isaiah or somebody else.
What
a wonderful opportunity that Philip had!
As
we said a little earlier Philip was led by God's Holy Spirit out into
the desert for the purpose of speaking with this very important man.
God's purposes are not only for the poor and marginalised as were the
Samaritans, He is concerned for the salvation of people from every
walk of life and from every nation in the world. There are none that
are excluded from His saving grace. There are no untouchables in
gospel work, we are simply called to go where God sends. Before going
to my previous church in the wealthy part of South Wales I had to be
reminded that the gospel is for the wealthier of society just as much
as it is for the poorer people in the mining valleys.
We
must never be selective with the gospel but must be like Philip and
be willing to speak of the Lord Jesus to whoever we are in contact
with. As the church here in Callington we must be about a gospel
witness. We must take the opportunities that God gives today. Philip
moved on from Samaria and spoke of Jesus freely in the new
circumstances that he found himself in. As Christians we are often
guilty of having our heads pointing in the wrong direction. We seem
to think that just because we evangelised in one particular way in
the past then we must always do the same things.
That
could not be farther from the truth.
We
are what we are today and we are here in Cornwall in this particular
day with all of it's complexities therefore we must reach out to the
people in a way that is relevant for today. We are not about setting
up groups simply because they were once successful but will be led by
the Lord to reach out as He by His Spirit directs. That is why we
must pray for His guidance, starting with the leaders but eventually
as the whole church. We will start nothing until we are convinced
that it is of God and that we therefore have the personnel for the
task. We need to pray that God will equip us as His people for the
gospel work that He has for us.
The
gospel effect:
Philip
asked the man a simple question: “do you understand the
scriptures?” The man's answer was
“who
can understand unless somebody guides them?”
As
Christians we so quickly forget this very truth, the bible is there
for all to read but we know the words of eternal life, we are to be
interpreters of the bible to those who cannot understand it for
themselves. Therefore we must know what the bible is all about and
how it works, which is why we have our “Reading the bible for all
of its worth” studies. The man was reading Isaiah 53 which speaks
of the Suffering Servant who we know is Jesus but he did not and so
Philip began with that passage and declared the gospel of Jesus.
Are
you able to speak of Jesus from the scriptures? All of scripture
speaks of Jesus; would you be able to help somebody who was reading a
portion of scripture to find Jesus as Philip did? The man heard the
good news of Jesus which simply means that Philip was able to tell
the man that the Promised One of God would fulfil all that Isaiah 53
speaks of. It is He that takes all of our iniquity, it was Him who
was crushed for our transgressions. It is by His wounds that we are
healed from the sickness that is sin. It is Him that brings eternal
peace to the sinful soul because it was He who would suffer and die
in order that we might have forgiveness of sin and the promise of
life eternal.
As
Philip was explaining all of this the man's heart was being dealt
with by the Spirit of God, he was believing all that he was hearing
and was trusting in Jesus as his own personal Saviour. This is a very
different response to the gospel that Simon the magician had
displayed. This wealthy Ethiopian man simply believed and then wanted
to prove that all of this was true for him and so when he saw water
he asked Philip:
“what
prevents me from being baptised?”
Philip's
unrecorded answer is “nothing now prevents you from being baptised”
and so they stopped the chariot and Philip went into the water and
baptised the man.
Many
at this point try to prove the point of total immersion because it
says that they went down into the water. Total immersion cannot be
proven from that comment because it would logically mean that both
the man and Philip were totally immersed as they went down, be
careful of fanciful interpretations. That is not the point of the
passage.
Luke
is once again simply recording what happened, we can logically draw
the conclusion from this episode that it is important for a new
convert to be baptised in obedience to the word of God. The Gospel
message preached by the apostles was to repent, believe and be
baptised.
The
Ethiopian eunuch obeyed the word of the Lord and was faithful in his
witness as he was baptised.
There
are many Christians today that do not see baptism as important.
If
you are one of those who are not baptised then I would ask you to
think again. It is true that baptism is not necessary for salvation
but it is vital to prove obedience to Christ!
Are
you baptised, we would be very pleased to talk to you about it. If
you are truly born again I would ask you:
“What
is it that prevents you from being baptised?”
This
baptistery can soon be filled with water for you to be baptised in
obedience to the Lord Jesus' command. Why not obey the command of
your Master and follow Him through the waters of baptism?
As
far as Philip was concerned his was job done. The man took the gospel
with him to Ethiopia and Philip was transported by the Holy Spirit on
his next missionary adventure of spreading the gospel from Azotus to
Caesarea. The work of grace in the man's heart was all of God's grace
and he was safe and sound in God's care, he went on his way singing
praise along with countless angels in heaven.
Let
us also move on in our gospel witness both as individuals but also as
the church.
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