The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)

Daniel L. Arter

The Acts of the Apostles • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Acts 8:26–40

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Transcript

Welcome & Announcements

Free Movie Night on January 27th, 2023, at 7pm. We’ll be showing Amazing Grace (2006), which is a historical retelling of the life of William Wilberforce, who sought to end the British slave trade in the late 1700s. Admittance, popcorn, snacks, and drinks will be provided free of charge.

Child Dedication of Ember Lynnae Dickson on February 5th, 2023 during Sunday AM Worship.

“SOUP”erbowl Watch Party on February 12, 2023. We’re encouraging everyone to bring a homemade soup, we’ll vote on the best soup, and the winner wins a $50 gift card to Brown Dog Catering in Philipsburg. Kickoff is at 6:30pm.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 69:30-36)

Our Call to Worship finishes off Psalm 69 with a call of praise and a recognition of God’s ability to save Zion. Please stand and read with me Psalm 69:30-36—I’ll read the even-numbered verses; please join me in reading the odd-numbered verses.

Psalm 69:30–36 ESV

30 I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. 32 When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. 33 For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. 35 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; 36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

Congregational Singing

A Mighty Fortress is our God (53)

All Creatures of our God and King (11)

Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery (184)

Scripture Reading (Gen 14)

Our Scripture Reading is Genesis 14, which continues in the historical account of Abram and Lot. Now, because of some of the crazy names in the text, I’ve chosen to read the passage for us to the best of my ability, but don’t be surprised when I mess up some of the names as well.

Genesis 14 ESV

1 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar. 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. 11 So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way. 13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people. 17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 8:26-40)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Acts 8:26-40.

We’ve been working through the book of Acts over the past several months and I’m hoping that you’re catching onto what exactly has been happening throughout the book as the apostles and disciples preach the Gospel and proclaim the Word of God throughout Jerusalem and abroad. I hope you’ve picked up on how the church grows (even in this day), which is through the Holy Spirit working in and through the proclamation of the Gospel—or in other words, the church grows when the Gospel is proclaimed and the truth is taught. In the case of the book of Acts, we see tremendous growth in the amount of people who believe despite tremendous persecution from Saul and those who seek to squash the church.

Last week, we started following a few events that happened in the life of Philip as he traveled around Jerusalem—last week in the city of Samaria, which was to the north of Jerusalem; this week, he’s headed to a place called Gaza, which is in the desert and he’s going because an angel of the Lord told him to do this, which we’ll talk about at length today.

Philip goes into the desert to meet a man reading Scripture to proclaim the Gospel to him, we have a lot that we can learn from this.

Let’s read Acts 8:26-40 together.

Acts 8:26–40 ESV

26 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. 27 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 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 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. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 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?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 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. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Philip Meets the Ethiopian Eunuch (26-33), which will show us every thing that leads up to Philip going to meet this person and it will show us what led up to the conversation that Philip has with the Ethiopian. (2) The Ethiopian Eunuch Believes (34-40), the text then continues by showing us the Eunuch’s response to the Gospel. What we’ll see and learn from this text is Philip’s willingness to serve the Lord results in him proclaiming the Gospel to a person who needed the truth; and because of Philip’s proclamation of the Gospel, the Ethiopian Eunuch believed and was saved.

Prayer for Illumination

Philip Meets the Ethiopian Eunuch (26-33)

Our text starts with Philip being spoken to by an angel of the Lord and this angel tells him where to go. Now, I do want to take a moment just to talk about one issue before jumping into details.

Philip hears from an angel of the Lord in v. 26 and in v. 29, we see the Spirit speaking to him and some might read a passage and think that this is a normal, every day event that we ought to expect to happen even today—as in, we should expect that the angel of the Lord is going to appear and tell us to go somewhere or that the Holy Spirit is going to audibly speak to us and tell us precisely what to do.

Some today, would point out to the various times throughout Scripture when God would speak to someone audibly, but let me simply remind you that those instances of God’s audible speaking was the exception and not the rule—it was a rarity for people to audibly hear God speak and it is even rarer for people in the Bible to see an angel.

The reason most people today want to hear God speak in this way is because they want something concrete—as in, they want to hear God telling them exactly what to do, but that isn’t really how God works today.

God certainly does speak, but He’s not speaking in a way that we can receive new revelation, which is precisely what is claimed when someone says they heard audibly from God.

God speaks today primarily through His Word—passages like 2 Tim 3:16-17, 2 Pet 1:3, Isa 55:11 all teach us this. I mean, consider Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17:17 Jesus prays “17 “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” — meaning teach them, speak to them, lead them, and grow them through your Word.

Got Questions in their response to the question “Does God still speak to us today?” states, “God can also “speak” to us through events—i.e., He can guide us through arranging our circumstances. And God helps us to discern right from wrong through our consciences (1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Peter 3:16). God is in the process of conforming our minds to think His thoughts (Romans 12:2). God allows events to occur in our lives to direct us, change us, and help us to grow spiritually (James 1:2–5; Hebrews 12:5–11). First Peter 1:6–7 reminds us, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

They then end their response with this, “God may sometimes speak audibly to people. It is highly doubtful, though, that this occurs as often as some people claim it does. Again, even in the Bible, God speaking audibly is the exception, not the ordinary. If anyone claims that God has spoken to him or her, always compare what is said with what the Bible says. If God were to speak today, His words would be in full agreement with what He has said in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16–17). God does not contradict Himself.” (Got Questions, “Does God still speak to us today?,” https://www.gotquestions.org/God-still-speak.html)

Philip seeing an angel or hearing directly from the Spirit is not a normal event and I would postulate that the primary reason for it to happen was because Philip couldn’t hear from God through God’s Word, most people didn’t have God’s Word at all during this time period; thus, God would speak to them in other ways.

Today, if you want to hear from God, read His Word

Anyways, let’s get back on task. Our text starts with an angel of the Lord telling Philip to “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” and Luke tells us that this is a desert area.

This tells us a few details concerning the location of where this event happened.

Last week, we read about Philip being north of Jerusalem in a city named Samaria; this week, he’s in between Jerusalem and Gaza, which is to the south.

We’re told that this is a desert area, which might sound inconsequential, but it does inform us that it is isn’t an area that you would normally expect to see someone.

And this fact tells us that Philip probably wasn’t expecting to meet anyone there either, he was simply obeying what the angel of the Lord had told him—note that the angel didn’t bother to tell Philip that he was going to meet someone there, the angel only told him to go. So, he did.

Philip gets up and he goes to this area in between Jerusalem and Gaza, which was located in the desert and v. 27 tells us he happened upon a person traveling from Jerusalem back to Ethiopia, which is in northern Africa (Ancient Ethiopia is in a slightly different place than modern Ethiopia—we now call the area known as Ancient Ethiopia Sudan)

This person is described in three ways. The Bible says that he was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, and a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.

Again, Ethiopia is an area in northern Africa, which tells us that Christianity is starting to spread even beyond the boarders of Israel. This also tells us that he was probably a Jewish proselyte, he was probably a Gentile who converted to Judaism.

He was a eunuch, which means he was castrated—this was a common practice in the Ancient Near East and into Asia by kings (and in this case queens) who wanted to be sure there was no promiscuity amongst their staff (it also prevented them from wanting to overthrow the current queen or king because they wouldn’t be able to set up their own dynastic government).

And he was a court official for the queen. Beyond this, we’re not given much information concerning who he is, we’re not even given his name.

This person went to worship the Lord in Jerusalem and on his journey home decided to read the book of Isaiah, which let’s be honest, is really heavy reading.

And it’s at this time in v. 29, when 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?’”

Let me just point out the absurdity of the whole situation—Philip is literally in the desert and he’s literally in the desert because an angel told him to go to the desert.

He happened upon an Ethiopian eunuch who just happened to be traveling through the same area after worshiping Yahweh at the temple.

And this eunuch just happens to be reading Isaiah, which let me paint you a picture—they didn’t have cell phones, so he wasn’t reading Isaiah on his mobile device and at this time, they still didn’t have codexes, which we know as books—this guy is traveling in the desert with a handwritten scroll of Isaiah.

It’s either completely absurd or it’s completely providential—either it’s all one huge coincidence or it’s exactly how it was meant to be because God orchestrated the whole event.

Philip asks this man that he just met in the desert on the road if he understands the scroll that he’s reading.

And this man responds bluntly and honestly, “‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invites Philip to come up and sit with him.”

Look at how the door for evangelism was opened. Philip barely even had to try (I mean, if you don’t look at the fact that he had to travel to the middle of the desert because an angel told him and he had to actually speak up when he met this person).

Or in other words, the only thing Philip had to do here was obey and speak—God providentially orchestrated everything else.

It really gives us a good understanding of God’s role in evangelism. We tend to think of evangelism as something that we alone do, but what we see with Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch is that God’s role is much greater than our role in evangelism—He was already working in the Eunuch’s heart, He was leading Philip to the proper location, and He gives Philip the words to speak. God opened the door for evangelism, Philip didn’t pry it open. Philip simply obeyed.

Philip sits down to help the Eunuch understand Isaiah (and again, consider the providence of this matter), this is what the Eunuch was reading (we see it in v. 32), “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.’”

Out of all the passages that the Ethiopian Eunuch could’ve been reading in Isaiah, he’s reading a passage that we regularly point to as a description of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Again, it sounds absurd until you consider God’s providence throughout the situation—God providentially orchestrated all these events.

Let’s look at vv. 34-40 again.

The Ethiopian Eunuch Believes (34-40)

Acts 8:34–40 ESV

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 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?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 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. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

As we continue into this section of the passage, we see the eunuch pose a question to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

As a side note, let me just point out one realization that we can make about this eunuch posing this question.

There is a false assumption that most people aren’t curious about the things of God—that they don’t want to know about the Bible or they don’t want to know about God.

But the eunuch’s question to Philip shows us that when given the opportunity to ask questions, even in the middle of a desert while traveling, people will ask.

Why do you think that is? Because everyone has some inkling or some knowledge that there is an eternity and that there is a Creator; so every person is somewhat curious about eternity

We see in Ps 19, the understanding that all creation proclaims the glories of God—just looking at the universe around us wells up a realization of a Creator.

If we think from a philosophical perspective, Romans 2:14-16 tells us that even moral standards are knowable to all people. “14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law naturally do the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,” There’s an impression of what’s right and wrong written on every person’s heart.

Augustine wrote in his Confessions that God has made us for Him and our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in Him. (Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 1:1)

Everyone has questions about eternity, God, heaven and hell; it’s just a matter of if they’re given the opportunity to ask and explore those questions.

The eunuch asks about this passage of Scripture in Isaiah, particularly concerning who this passage is about. And by asking about the object of this passage, the door for evangelism is open—not by Philip pushing and prying, but through the Holy Spirit already working in the eunuch. In v. 35, we read that “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

Remember how I said that God gave Philip the words to speak? This is where that idea comes into play.

Often, when we find ourselves in situations where we can proclaim the Gospel or tell someone the truth from God’s Word, we panic—we think, “what should I say? What if I mess up? What if I don’t say something correctly?”

And it’s right to be concerned with what you’re going to say, but that concern shouldn’t stop you from proclaiming the Gospel and teaching the truth.

When Philip is given the opportunity to explain the good news, the Gospel about Jesus, he does. How does he do it?

Look again at v. 35, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

Philip proclaimed the Gospel by utilizing Scripture, the Holy Spirit gave him the words to speak

Often, when we find ourselves in situations where we can proclaim the Gospel or tell someone the truth, we anxiously work ourselves up to the point that we reveal our reliance on our own ability rather than in God.

Note what I just said, we reveal our reliance on our own ability rather than in God.

We find ourselves anxiously working ourselves up because we choose to try and proclaim the Gospel by our own ability rather than relying on God and the Scriptures that He has already given us.

The reality is, that when you proclaim the Gospel and teach the truth, you aren’t supposed to be reinventing the wheel.

You don’t need to make the message hip or exciting. You don’t need to bend over backwards in a ill-fated attempt to make the message relevant, the message is already relevant—you just need to proclaim the Gospel and teach the truth according to the Words that God has already given.

Stop relying on your ability or inability to win people over with eloquent speech or with pompous words, in fact, the Bible tells us that most of us who are utilized greatly by God aren’t really that great—we’re ordinary people.

1 Cor 1:26-31 “26 For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, 29 so that no flesh may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.””

What does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians? He’s making the argument that the Gospel of Jesus doesn’t affect others based on our ability to preach, teach, proclaim, and witness to others—it’s purely based on God, the Holy Spirit’s work within people, and Jesus’ ability to save.

And what we learn in this account of the Ethiopian eunuch is that the simple proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all that is needed for someone to repent, believe, and follow Jesus.

Philip didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, he didn’t need to make the message appealing in a negative sense, and he didn’t need to be eloquent in what he spoke.

He simply told the truth according to Scripture, he did it accurately, and he did it faithfully—and God utilized the biblically accurate, faithful proclamation of His Word to save the Ethiopian eunuch, we see this in vv. 36 and 38.

V. 36 starts with, “”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.”

Note again, that pattern so familiar in the book of Acts—people hear the truth, they believe the truth, repent of their sins, and then are baptized because they believe.

The eunuch hears the Word of God, the Gospel properly explained and taught by Philip, which compel him to repent, believe, and be baptized.

See? Even those who come from other ethnicities, who are court officials, who have very unique circumstances are able to come to Jesus through the faithful and accurate preaching and teaching of the Gospel.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just preach and teach the truth according to God’s Word.

The last two verses of this text then shows us something very unusual, “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.”

There’s a miraculous event that occurs in the last two verses and the reality is that it opens up a ton of questions and the Bible never really answers any of them.

For instance, we see that Philip is somehow carried away by the Holy Spirit—we don’t know what exactly that means or how it happened. The passage doesn’t say if he literally flew away or if he somehow teleported from one location to the other, the Bible isn’t clear on this.

We also don’t really know anything else about this eunuch—we don’t really know what his initial response is. He literally sees Philip taken away spontaneously and we don’t know if there was a sense of panic or if he just sort of shrugged it off with no real thought about it.

But we do know that when the eunuch continued on his journey home, he was rejoicing. Rejoicing in what exactly? He was rejoicing in his new-found faith in Jesus Christ.

The eunuch goes on and what he does beyond this, we don’t know, but we do know Philip found himself in Azotus, which again, was miraculous. He was in the desert on his way to Gaza, Azotus is near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Which I’m sure completely shocked and surprised Philip, but instead of reacting in fear and shock, he continues to preach the Gospel as he travels from Azotus to Caesarea, which is quite a distance walking along the Mediterranean Sea coast.

Now, before we talk application, if you’ve been paying close attention, you may have noticed something. You may have noticed that v. 37 is skipped in most modern translations of the Bible and you might be wondering why.

I’m not sure how many of you were here the last time we had an in-depth conversation about why the modern translations don’t always have every verse given in the King James Version and we don’t have a ton of time to discuss it today, so if you have further questions, please feel free to chat with me about it at a later date.

When it comes to the Bible, we don’t have any of the original documents, we don’t have what’s called the autographs—instead, what we have are thousands of manuscripts that were copies of the original documents.

Sometimes this fact surprises people and causes them to worry, but let me assure you that there’s no reason to worry about this because we’re confident that what we do have is all that was intended to be in Scripture and we’re certain that what we do have is certainly Scripture.

And you might wonder, how exactly do we know this? We know this through the process of what’s called textual criticism (don’t let that word criticism confuse you, textual criticism is a good thing and its actually something that happens to all ancient texts).

What a textual critic does is he analyzes all the different manuscripts that we have to determine what was actually an original part of Scripture and to remove anything that they’re certain wasn’t actually in the original documents.

There’s two primary families of manuscripts that are utilized in biblical translation—one is called the Textus Receptus and the other is called the Critical Text. Older translations were primarily based on the Textus Receptus and the Latin Vulgate, whereas most modern translations utilize the Critical Text and they’ve chosen to use the critical text because they’ve realized that the Textus Receptus had additions in it that weren’t original and the Latin Vulgate through the Roman Catholic Church’s heavy influence continued to reflect those unbiblical additions.

All this to say, there are a few occasions in which the ESV chooses not to include the verses that weren’t original to the text despite the KJV including it—this is one of those verses.

They continue to match the verse numbering for ease of use—meaning, the KJV has claimed this to be a part of the Bible for so long that the ESV kept the verse numbering to not confuse people, but most scholars today agree that v. 37 isn’t original to the text—thus, the ESV skips it.

Now, that might scare you, but let me encourage you not to let it scare you. In the over 5,800 copies of the New Testament that we have, there are very few passages that have these sorts of issues in them.

In none of these situations do the textual variants cause any sort of doctrinal problem whatsoever—meaning, having v. 37 or leaving it out doesn’t affect any sort of teaching.

And I can prove it just by reading the verse in question for you. Acts 8:37 says, “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Nothing from v. 37 changes any doctrine or changes anything that we believe—it just so happens that it wasn’t original to the text.

(And if you have questions concerning textual criticism and what all this means, please talk with me after the service.

In the remaining few minutes, I want to spend some time looking at specific application. To do this, we’re going to retain the divisions that we utilized through the exegesis portion of the sermon.

Application

Philip Meets the Ethiopian Eunuch (26-33)—in the first eight verses, we read about God through an angel directing Philip to go to the desert and speak to an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah on his trip back to Ethiopia. I pointed out that this all might seem coincidental—Philip going to the desert, the Ethiopian eunuch who just happened to be in the desert reading Scripture until you consider that God sent Philip to the desert and told him to go speak to this person. When you consider this and remind yourself of God’s sovereignty and providence, you must make the realization that when it comes to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus, God orchestrates everything. Now you might hear that and think, well then, what’s my role in the process of evangelism? And that’s where our application kicks in.

Philip was commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples, just like you have been commissioned to go and make disciples.

In the case of Philip, he was sent by God from Jerusalem to a desert road to speak to a random person, but remember when he’s initially told to go to the desert, he isn’t told why.

He’s just told to go, then when he sees the person, he’s told to go talk with this person.

Now, I think, if you’re being honest, you hear about this situation in the Bible and you make the realization that the angel of the Lord sent by God was sent by God not by accident but on purpose—because God knew that the Ethiopian Eunuch would be traveling through the desert on his way home.

Meaning, despite the fact that Philip literally didn’t know why he was going—he just knew that God had sent him to the desert, he still went, he still obeyed.

And despite the fact that Philip literally didn’t know anything about this person in the middle of the desert—whether he was a good person or not, when God told him to go to him, he did; and when he was told to speak to him, he did.

This speaks at great lengths about two things concerning Philip: (1) he trusts God and (2) he obeys God.

It’s clear that he trusts God because in the Bible, he’s given multiple commands to go do things that quite frankly, sound a bit unusual; and yet, he doesn’t question any of this, he just goes and does it.

In fact, when we get to the end of the passage, he miraculous winds up in a different city and he just goes back to preaching the Gospel—no questions asked.

Only someone who really trusts God would be able to go through all these different situations and be content and not really question what’s going on—why do you think he’s like this?

Can I offer a suggestion? He trusts God like this because he knows God. In this passage, we see his knowledge of Scripture as he shows the Ethiopian eunuch about Jesus throughout the Scriptures.

This tells us he knows his Bible well enough to know that author of the book—and he knows that the author of the book is worth trusting in, so he does.

Now ask yourself, do you trust God like Philip trusted God?

It’s also clear that he is obedient to this God that he trusts. This is seen in the simple fact that he actually does what God tells him to do without hesitating.

Why do you think he’s like this? Let me offer a suggestion. Philip does this because he trusts God and he knows that obedience to God is far better than really anything else.

He simply obeys God.

Now let me ask a question—we know that Jesus has given us a commission to go and make disciples—have you been making disciples?

We know that Jesus has commanded us to live in such a way that we exhibit the fruits of the Spirit—have you been living this way?

We know that Jesus has told us to love Him and love one another—have you been doing this?

And as you’re thinking through these questions, let me pile one more on top—how many times has your disobedience to follow God been a result of you simply not trusting Him?

This first section of the passage really teaches us the importance of simply trusting God and obeying Him—even if we don’t know why He’s told us to do something, even if we don’t have all the answers, and even if we’re uncertain of the outcome.

You need to trust Him and obey Him—and that starts by simply doing what He has commanded you to do.

The Ethiopian Eunuch Believes (34-40)—in the last seven verses we see the result of Philip’s trust and obedience in that the Ethiopian eunuch repents, believes, and follows Jesus. The reality is that when we look at the entire passage, Philip really didn’t do much—he simply trusted God and obeyed Jesus. It is God who providentially arranged the entire situation to place Philip where he needed to be to speak the truth to the Ethiopian eunuch. Our application really lies in what Philip did during his obedience to God that we need to emulate—and it’s really found in v. 35, that beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

You have been given a Great Commission to go and make disciples.

And I realize that that seems like a daunting task with a lot of different things to do and you might not know where to start—so, let me encourage you to do what Philip did.

He made a disciple out of the Ethiopian Eunuch—how did he do it?

He obeyed God when God told him to go to the desert. He obeyed God when God told him to join this convoy and talk with this man.

And when he finally talked to this man, he found out that this man was already interested in God.

All Philip had to do was utilize the Words that God had already spoken to walk this person through the Gospel and then God led the eunuch to repentance and believe in Him.

Friends, how do you make disciples?

You start by obeying God when Jesus said go he means go—don’t wait for them to come to you, you need to go to them.

You need to talk with those who are already around you and you need to simply tell them what the Word of God says—tell it to them faithfully and tell it to them accurately.

Don’t try to make it hip, don’t try to make it cool—just tell them what God has already said and leave the results up to him.

You need to obey the Great Commission.

What we learn from Philip as he meets the Ethiopian Eunuch and tells him about Jesus is actually rather simple. God is the great orchestrator of your life—thus, you need to simply trust Him and obey Him particularly when it comes to the Great Commission.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

O Great God (35)

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