We have a wonderful Savior, a wonderful Lord, and that's the accent here with reference to the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. So read or look with me at 826. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert.
So he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you are reading?
And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
In his humiliation, his justice was taken away, and who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man?
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?
Then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuchs saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the written word of the living and true God.
And we pray now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit who gave us this word. We pray that you would guide our thoughts and minds and hearts now as we consider the conversion of this man. And may we with him rejoice over salvation that is free. salvation that is given by God Most High through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, forgive us for all sin and everything that darkens our understanding and our minds, and give us grace to receive with thankful hearts your word.
And we pray through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as I've indicated, this is a very significant passage of scripture. It's not just a record of what happened, but it's a fulfillment of what was promised in Isaiah 56. Now, as I said in Deuteronomy 23, eunuchs were forbidden for entering into the assembly of the Lord. But as we saw there in Isaiah 56, God, through the prophet, is telling that there is a day when they will be brought nigh.
And we know that day is identified in the Bible as the new covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when Christ comes, he brings salvation, not simply to the house of Israel, which is a small thing, but he comes to be a light unto the Gentiles as well. And those who were formerly excluded from the assembly of the Lord have been brought nigh now through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what's happening here in Acts 8.
So yes, appreciate the fact that a sinner comes to saving faith. Appreciate the fact that he's a Gentile. Appreciate the fact as well that he is a eunuch and at one time was forbidden from entering into the assembly of the Lord. But appreciate the fact that the God of the eunuch is the God in heaven right now. and that He is intreatable, and that He is merciful, and that He is kind and gracious.
And we have many a promise in Scripture that if we come to Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He will not cast us out. He will not reject us. He will not resist us. In other words, Christ came not to make salvation possible, but to affect it, to bring it to pass.
He is an able Savior. He is a competent Savior. He is a gracious Savior. And if you are not a believer in Christ this morning, please listen, please pay attention, and please, by grace, look unto Him in faith, and you will have everlasting life.
Contact with the Eunuch
So I wanna look first at the contact with the eunuch in verses 26 to 30. Second, the communication with the eunuch in verses 31 to 35. And then thirdly, the conversion of the eunuch in verses 36 to 40. I'll leave it to you parents to describe or define these terms at lunch with your little ones, but I suspect that you all know or at least are somewhat informed as to what is happening in the passage.
The Angel Directs Philip
But notice in terms of the contact, the angel directs Philip according to verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So after a time in Samaria, Philip had been teaching, he had been preaching, he's called an evangelist later in chapter 21. An evangelist is simply somebody who has the message of Jesus and tells others about it.
So he goes into Samaria, and this is accordance with the book of Acts. Jesus says to his church in Acts 1.8, that you will be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, and then Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's how the book of Acts transpires. We see the ministry in Jerusalem in Acts 2, and shortly thereafter, we see the ministry in Judea and Samaria, and then we see with the call of the Apostle Paul that uttermost parts of the earth hear the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So Philip goes to minister in Samaria, but then the angel directs him specifically to go to Gaza. Now I think that's significant because it demonstrates to us the mind of God. This wasn't haphazard, this wasn't random, this wasn't an afterthought, this wasn't just a lucky event. It's not the case that God is not about saving sinners.
God is about saving sinners. The whole Bible tells us that. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's a brand of theology out there that tries to tell people that there's going to be some saved, but it's a very little sum.
It's just a few. It's just a handful. But that doesn't jive with scripture. We get to the last book of the Bible, in the book of Revelation.
We see every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation. Not every single person, but a great multitude that no man can number. The fact that the angel directs Philip on this particular path or course shows divine initiative. It's God who comes after sinners.
It was God who came after Adam and Eve in the garden. It was God who separated Abram out of Ur, the Chaldeans, so that in Him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It was God the Father who sent the Son, so that the Son could come to seek and to save that which was lost. Everything in the Bible is calculated to demonstrate to you that God saves sinners, that this is His task, this is His prerogative, this is His business.
Certainly He created the world, certainly He upholds the world, but He's also the Redeemer of His people out of the world. So again, look to this blessed Christ. He is most gracious, most merciful, most kind. Now
Identity of the Ethiopian
notice we see the introduction of this Ethiopian in verses 27 and 28. His identity. Verse 27, He arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia. Again, that there is an African being included in the covenant promises of God, tie up for us some biblical prophecy.
But as I said earlier, the emphasis in the passage is not on his Ethiopian-ness, it's on the fact that he's a eunuch. He had been forbidden from the assembly of the Lord. The fact that he's reading the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53 doesn't seem difficult to understand that he also read chapter 56. He knew the prohibition against going into the assembly of the Lord.
He also knew there was a time coming when he could go into the assembly of the Lord. So he's reading the prophet Isaiah in some way about himself. He's curious. He's interested.
This is something that he wants to know about. And I think that's good. There is a brand of sinner out there that cares not about anything connected to God and Christ. That's a dangerous spot to be.
This man at least had an interest. This man put himself under the means of the word. This man had questions. This man admitted that he didn't know everything.
This man wanted answers from God's holy word. And that is a good sign. That is a blessed indicator of where he's at. And then notice it tells us something about his religion.
It says, he rose, went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, verse 27, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship. There is this class of people that worship in Jerusalem. They were Gentiles. They were outsiders.
They were not Jews that had the covenant promises of God in the Old Testament, but they were interested in the God of the Old Testament. They were interested in Yahweh of Israel. Cornelius in chapter 10 was a Gentile. He was a God-fearer.
He's described that way. So these people could come to the temple, but they could go so far and thus no further. They were prohibited from entering in to the assembly of the Lord. So this man had a religious curiosity.
This man had a desire to learn. This man had a desire to understand. And in God's good providence, look what happens. God sends him an evangelist.
God sends him a Philip. God sends him a man who's able to explain to him the word of the living and true God. So notice,
The Spirit Commands Philip
the spirit commands Philip. So verse 28, it says, and sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. not to rob him, not to take all that money that he was over as Eunice's guy that was over the treasury, but overtake the chariot so you can explain the gospel, so that this man can come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, you have to appreciate the initiative of God.
You have to appreciate the non-haphazardness of this. It's not luck. It's not just the way things sort of fell out. But God is directing the specific salvation of this particular individual man.
A man that was, no doubt, very, you know, had a lot of renown and notoriety in his home country. But in the grand scheme of things, he's not that important. And yet, for God, he sends Philip to this man.
Communication with the Eunuch
And that brings us to the communication with the eunuch in verses 31 to 35.
The Evangelist's Question
Notice the evangelist's question. Verse 30, it says, Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you are reading? It's a good question, brethren. As evangelists or as persons that want to tell people the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can't assume that everybody already knows it.
We can't assume that in what appears to be a post, and I'll put in quotes, Christian nation, that everybody has an inkling as to what the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord is. In fact, the opposite end, the enemies of Christ, are doing everything in their power to try to exclude and remove that message from the public square. So we can't just automatically assume, oh, you were born in Canada, you were born in America, you must have went to Sunday school. You must have some familiarity with the Bible.
You must know something about the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not sure those are good musts. I'm not sure that we're not dealing with heathen. Everywhere, or every bit as lost as this Ethiopian unit.
Every bit as lost as this man who had no idea that Isaiah the prophet in chapter 53 is talking about Jesus Christ. Again, we assume that because we know it in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your next door neighbor might not know that the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 is Jesus Christ who came to live, to die, and to be raised again the third day. And so Philip's question is most appropriate.
Do you understand what you're reading? Do you get what it is that God is putting down essentially? Now
The Eunuch's Humble Response
notice the Ethiopian's response. He doesn't get offended. He's not triggered. He's not upset.
Well, how dare you ever question my intelligence? How dare you ever suggest that I might not know something? There's that defensive spirit that obtains in our own generation that's pretty nasty and notorious and really doesn't bode well in terms of evangelism. We have to be prepared, brethren, for people that aren't gonna be this humble and this open and this honest.
We're gonna have to be prepared with people that are very vicious, very unkind, and very godless in terms of their response to the truth as it is in Jesus. But for this particular man, he's got that humility about him. He's got that humble honesty. Notice in verse 31.
How can I, unless someone guides me? That's, I think, the first path to fixing things is to perhaps admit that you don't know what you're doing. Right? I mean, that's a principle that I think is true in a whole lot of ways.
You can't know you should eat better because you have a rare disease if you don't first know that you have the disease. This particular fellow wants to know what to do in terms of his relationship with God Most High. And he understands that he's not all-knowing. He's not all-wise.
He's not infallible. He's not omnipotent. He doesn't have all the answers. That arrogant attitude, often exemplified by young people, I'm not here to pick on young people, is as well exemplified in old people.
It's exemplified in all the sons of Adam. Oh, you can't tell me, you're not the boss of me, I know best. That's not what this man does. This man is humble, this man is honest, and he says very clearly, how can I unless someone guides me?
And then notice he has this desire to know. He doesn't just say, well, I don't know, just, you know, be on your way. I'm going to just leave now. No, that's not what he does.
Verse 31, he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. It's a good sign of a soul that wants to know the power of God's salvation. The fact that you're in church today is a good sign. The fact that hopefully you're paying attention is a good sign.
The fact that God and His mercy and providence brought us all together here this morning is a good sign. Now
The Perfect Text: Isaiah 53
notice as well, he happens to be reading, and I say happen with quotes, he happens to be reading a perfect text. A perfect text. I'm sure you've noticed as, you know, not a professional evangelist or, you know, a biblically recognized and qualified evangelist and identified by the church, but you all like to speak to people about Jesus. How many times have you asked somebody, you know, about their soul and they've said, what must I do to be saved?
Probably not many, but you find that in the Bible, right? And in this instance, how many times have you happened upon a sinner that happened to be reading Isaiah 53? Wow, that was fortunate. That was lucky.
No, again, God is not haphazard. This is not luck. He's reading a perfect text. Notice in the section, verse 32, the place in the scripture which he read was this.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth." John Gill says this prophet, Isaiah, is a very evangelical one, and very delightful and profitable to read. Many things are prophesied by him concerning the Messiah, and particularly in the chapters in which the eunuch was reading. If he had a copy of the prophet Isaiah, he certainly had Isaiah 13. He had Isaiah 19.
So he would have read there about the fall of Babylon. He would have read there about, you know, God's judgment against the enemy invaders of Judah. He would have read all that stuff. But again, he happens to be reading Isaiah 53.
Now notice the question that the eunuch has here. Basically, who's the prophet talking about? He's saying, I want to meet this one. I want to know this one.
I want to be familiar with this one. I want to be, you know, somewhat introduced to this particular one. Again, as Christians brought up in the church, we've never doubted, we've never suspected that Isaiah 53 was about anybody other than Jesus. But brethren, that was not in this context the common notion or the prevailing option.
In fact, there were Israelites that thought that the servant of Yahweh in Isaiah 53 was Israel herself, was the nation, the corporate entity. The fact that this man's asking, was he talking about himself? Was Isaiah being autobiographical in 53? Or is he talking about some other man?
He's got a legitimate question about a legitimate text, and a text that's calculated in such a way that Philip is able to preach Jesus from that text.
Philip Preaches Jesus
So after the question in verse 34, so the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? Notice the evangelist's answer. Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture preached Jesus to him.
F.F. Bruce says, at a time when not one line of any New Testament document had been written, what scripture could any evangelist have used more fittingly as a starting point for presenting the story of Jesus to one who did not know him? Again, it's a perfect text. The eunuch wants to know who the text is about.
I want to meet this man. I want to know this man. I want to be introduced to this man. And so that's what Philip does beginning from this text.
He preaches Jesus to him. Now when you read the prophet Isaiah, there are what we call servant songs of the Lord. There's one in chapter 42, there's one in chapter 49, there's one in chapter 50, and then there's one in 52-53. And 53 of the four is probably the most familiar, the most, dare I say, popular.
But these servant songs are Old Testament prophecies concerning the servant of the Lord. We call him also Messiah. We call him the New Testament equivalent of Messiah, Christ. We know him by the name Jesus.
So Isaiah, about 700 years prior to the coming of Jesus, was writing about Jesus. Under the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit, he is portraying facets of the Savior's life and the Savior's ministry. And in Isaiah 53, the emphasis is upon the Savior's life, to be sure, but it's also upon His death. By His stripes, we are healed.
So when Philip takes this text and starts preaching Jesus to him, if we consider Isaiah 53, it deals with the humiliation of the servant, in verses 1 to 3. It deals with the suffering of the servant, in verses 4 to 6. Then it goes on to the death of the servant in verses 7 to 9, and then finally the triumph of the servant in verses 10 to 12. Again, best possible text that Philip could have been given to preach Jesus to this eunuch with.
Now when you read through Isaiah 53, you'll see the emphasis. If you ask the question, why does the servant die? Why does he do what he does? Why is it that this one sent from God goes through this kind of suffering?
That's the famous passage where in chapter 53 at verse 3, he's what? He's a man of sorrows and he's acquainted with grief. talks about his wounds, his stripes. By his stripes we are healed. What does that mean?
It means that his back would be opened with a Roman whip. And when it speaks of his death, again, we might ask the question, why did he go through this? Why does he do that? Why does he live in obedience to the law?
Why does he die as a common criminal, though he's not? Why does he do that? Well, at the end of Isaiah 53, it tells us why he does that. He doesn't do it because of his sins.
He does it because of our sins. And this is what the prophet says in verses 11 and 12. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
In other words, he does what he does, not because of his sin, but he does what he does because of our sin. It says, therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. So perhaps now you can understand why the Ethiopian eunuch who wasn't brought up in a Christian Sunday school, who hadn't been taught from his youth that the servant of the Lord, there's Jesus, is asking the question, is the prophet writing about himself or is he writing about some other man?
So Philip preaches Jesus to this man and basically says he wasn't writing about himself, he was writing about Jesus, this one who comes to bring forgiveness. This one who comes to bring righteousness. This one who comes to bring the salvation of God. See, it wasn't a political movement that brought the Lord into this world.
That's what the Jews in the first century, by and large, were looking for. They wanted to take him by force and make him a king because he fed them food. Well, in that context, he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. He goes on to tell them, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
He continues drilling down in these themes of God's absolute sovereignty, such that the people that were following, because they wanted the bread, finally said, we don't want to follow you anymore. These are hard sayings. We just want bread. We just want a king to subjugate the Romans.
We just want prestige. We just want geopolitical power. That's all we're after. We're not gonna follow you.
See, they missed the boat. They missed the whole scheme. You will call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. And when you look at the book of Acts, that's conspicuous.
Go back to chapter two. Acts chapter two, Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. And notice what he says in verse 38. People there are cut to the heart because they know they're guilty of the crime of murder.
They murdered the Lord of glory whom God had sent to save them. And so they cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Verse 38, Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, notice, for the remission of sins. Look at chapter three and verse 19.
Chapter three and verse 19, repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Notice over in chapter 3 at verse 26, to you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. See, it was always about sin. It was always about rebellion.
It was always about transgression. If you ask the question, why did Jesus come into this world? It was to save his people from their Paul says that in 1 Timothy 1. This is a faithful saying.
It's worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world, sinners, to save. That's the overarching concern in the book of Acts. Notice in Acts 4.12, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be, what? Saved.
We're lost because we're sinners. We're liable to the judgment of God because we're sinners and there's salvation to be had in Jesus. Turn over to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10, Peter preaches to the household of Cornelius, again, a Gentile who's come to taste that the Lord is good.
He's come to Israel's God through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter crowns his sermon with the primary purpose for which the son of man came. Verse 43. to him, all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. Notice in chapter 13, Paul has been converted.
In chapter 9, he becomes the apostle to the Gentiles. But when he goes to various cities in the Roman Empire, he goes first to the synagogues. Because in the synagogues, he gets to preach to the Jews, but he also gets to preach to the God-fearing Gentiles who come in because they're interested. So he's in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch in Acts chapter 13.
Notice how he brings his sermon to a conclusion in verse 36. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Hopefully you see the significance of the Ethiopian eunuch. He didn't just have two strikes against him. He was an Ethiopian and he was a eunuch. The biggest strike was that he was a sinner.
That was his issue. That was his problem. That was the insurmountable obstacle betwixt him and God. It was the sin thing.
Just like for everybody in here, it was the sin thing. Just like it was even for Jonathan. Young men are sinful men. Children are sinful children.
The only remedy is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why Philip from Isaiah 53 preaches Jesus to him. We could go on in the book of Acts to see this accent on the place of the forgiveness of sins, but hopefully you get the point. This man had three strikes against him, and God, in his mercy, sent Philip to him.
God, in his mercy, placed the prophet Isaiah in his lap. God, in his mercy, evoked from that man the question, who's he talking about? I want to meet this man. I want to know this man.
I want to be introduced to this man. So Philip does that. Now notice what happens. Notice what takes place.
Conversion of the Eunuch
And that brings us finally to the conversion of the eunuch in verses 36 to 40. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Brethren, I think built in is an assumption that Philip not only preached Jesus from Isaiah 53, but he also preached the necessity of faith in Jesus.
It's not just that Isaiah wrote about Jesus, but you, Ethiopian eunuch, you need to look to Jesus. You need to believe in Jesus. You need to stop trusting in yourself. You need to stop trusting in your merit.
You need to stop trusting in your religiosity. Sure, you're interested with Israel's God. But interest with Israel's God will land you in hell, just like not interest in Israel's God. You need, by grace, eunuch, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there's something that we as God's people do. It's called baptism. Baptism doesn't save you. It doesn't sort of seal the deal.
It doesn't make you all the way saved, but it's an outward sign of what God has done in terms of changing your heart. The Apostle Paul will speak of it in Romans chapter six, and he uses the imagery of baptism to show them their place in God through the gospel or in Christ through the gospel of Jesus. You died and were buried and were raised up again. Therefore, no longer present your members as instruments of unrighteousness.
You've been conquered, you've been saved, you've been blessed. So when our young brother goes into the water today, there's nothing magical about it. It's not that it actually washes away his sin. That comes as a result of faith in Christ.
It's the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, that cleanses us from all sin. So the baptism is an external sign, an external witness, an external testimony or demonstration of what God has done to the man inwardly. And so we have to assume that the Ethiopian eunuch had heard that. I mean, I don't think it's intuitive.
It's not the law of nature that teaches you you need to be baptized. It's a sacrament of the new covenant. It comes by revelation. Christ is the covenant head.
Christ defines and describes who it is that gets baptized. So the man must have asked, or rather, Philip must have offered him that information. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. After you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you get baptized, you find a church, and you get taught. because that's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, go make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
It's a beautiful arrangement. You get saved by grace through faith in Jesus, you get baptized consequent to that, and then you get taught the scriptures, and hopefully you're stable, you're tethered, and you'll make it to heaven because of God's faithfulness. So the eunuch asks the question, and it's a good question. He says, what hinders me from being baptized?
The Condition of Faith
Now notice that Philip specifies a condition. He doesn't say, well, you know, anybody and everybody can get baptized. I mean, it's just for whoever. No, there is a condition here.
And Philip highlights that. Verse 37. Now your Bible might put this in the margin. Take it out of the margin and put it back in verse 37.
There is very early testimony to verse 37 in the manuscript tradition. That it's been relegated to the margin in the newer Bibles is not bueno. Okay? Verse 37 is given by inspiration of God, and it sets forth the truth as it is in Jesus.
So notice in verse, if that confused you, fine. Don't pay. You can let that one go. That's an obstacle or speed bump.
You just bump and then go. But if you kind of are in tune with that, please understand that it's to be in verse 37, not in the margin. But for everybody else, let's keep going here. Let's go to the next obstacle.
Look at what he says. If you believe with all your heart, you may. That's Christian baptism, brethren. Why is Jonathan going into there today?
Because he's such a great kid. He is a great kid. We all love him. We want the best for him, but it's not his performance that's gonna land him in heaven.
It's not his obedience to the law that lands him into heaven. It's Christ's performance. It's Christ's obedience. It's Christ's merit.
It's Christ's righteousness. Well, how do we receive that? Through faith. One of the biggest things that occurred in the history of the world was called the Protestant Reformation.
And do you know what was the main emphasis? One of the main focuses of that Protestant Reformation was the doctrine of justification by faith alone. You're not saved by some faith and some works. You're not saved by any sort of a percentage.
Well, I got 80%, you know, my own, I'll take a bit of Jesus. No, it's all of Jesus or it's nothing. And the Protestant Reformation highlighted that beautiful, blessed, wonderful truth. They didn't develop it.
They didn't invent it. They didn't make it up. They saw it in the scripture. You're going to say, well, yeah, of course, Paul teaches that.
Romans chapter 9, Romans 3 and 4, Galatians, the whole book of Galatians is calculated to bring to naught this idea that it's faith plus words. But go back further. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. It's always been God's way.
We're sinners. We violate the law. We're not perfect. And that's what God demands.
Exact, entire, perpetual obedience to his law. We don't render that. But the beauty is, is that Christ did. And the way that sinners appropriate that, the way that sinners receive that is by grace through faith.
That's why Philip says, if you believe in your heart, then you can be baptized. So then notice what the Ethiopian eunuch does in this place. Verse 37b, he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Isn't that wonderful?
We're sinners. Imagine if the gospel was, stop sinning and get better. Wow, that's not good news. I tried that yesterday and it didn't end too well.
I try that every morning and I just, you know, I make it to the coffee maker and, you know, I'm done. Believe on him and you will be saved. If you haven't thought through the implications of the gospel, please come with me and think through them. You're guilty, you're vile, you're helpless, you deserve the wrath and fury and judgment of God.
The Bible is clear there. Hell shouldn't surprise anybody. Hell shouldn't be a shock to anybody. Hell is the natural and inevitable result of sinners defying, rebelling, and transgressing against their God.
Hell is justice. Heaven is grace, it's mercy, it's loving kindness. If you believe in your heart, then you may. What's he say?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Isn't that John's point in writing the gospel of John? John 20, 30, 31, many other things Jesus did. There's a lot of stuff that Jesus did, many other signs, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that believing in his name, you may have everlasting life.
Good news, not good advice, good news. Christ has come to do what we could never do. Obey God, die in our place, and be raised again the third day. The way that sinners come into saving contact with God is through faith in the Son of God.
So the eunuch does, the eunuch confesses and now notice what happens.
Baptism and Rejoicing
There is this response in verses 38 to 40. So he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. Beautiful. Simple, isn't it?
Well, there's a new members class at our church, and it's a six-month session, and we're going to give you a test at the end, and if you pass that test, then you can be baptized. Now, if you believe with all your heart, you may. If you read through the book of Acts, you'll notice the absence of altar calls. You'll notice the absence of decision-making.
You'll notice the absence of, you know, bow your heads and close your eyes, and if you want to be saved, just sort of raise up your hand. What do the apostles do? They preach the life, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then they tell sinners to believe. Those sinners who believe then come forward, not in some altar call, but to get baptized. to go into the water, to get dunked, to signify that death, burial, and resurrection, and then to come up out again.
And that is precisely what happens with this Ethiopian eunuch. But that is not all, and you mustn't believe for a moment that I'm almost done. Actually, I am almost done, but notice what we see. Now, when they came up out of the water, verse 39, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more.
Why is that? Because Philip had other work to do. This wasn't the last sinner on earth. There's other sinners, Philip.
You're an evangelist. You're going to go meet others. You're going to teach others. He's going to end up and live in Caesarea.
We see that in chapter 21, verse 8. That's where he settles. But up until that time, he's a preacher. He's an evangelist.
He's a teacher of the faith. He's got to go about this task. But then notice what happens with the eunuch. So verse 39, now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so that the eunuchs saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
See, there's this motif that has been plugged in to an interpretation of the famous catechism, the Heidelberg catechism. There's three sections. There's guilt, there's grace, and there's gratitude. Guilt basically tells you how miserable you are.
How do I know my sin and misery? Well, the law of God tells me. When God tells me to love him and to love my neighbor as myself, I see my sin because I don't love God as I ought and I don't love my neighbor as I ought. That's guilt.
That's misery. That's sin. That's shame. That's depravity.
But the confession of catechism rather goes on to grace. You're a guilty, vile sinner. But God, in his kindness, sent his Son. For guess what?
Guilty, vile sinners. Isn't that a wonderful arrangement? And by grace, when you believe, you're forgiven. Catechism doesn't stop.
What issues forth? gratitude, thankfulness, rejoicing. This man who had three strikes against him, he was a eunuch, he was an Ethiopian, but most of all, he was a sinner, has been saved by wonderful grace. His sins are forgiven. He's got a righteousness now. wherein he can walk in or enter into the presence of God Almighty.
Of course, there's joy. Of course, there's happiness. Of course, there's thankfulness. Think of this eunuch when we sing the next hymn.
Shouldn't we sing, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see with a degree of joy, with a bit of happiness, perhaps a little smile, brethren, that's indicative of the people of God. They're happy. Yes, they have issues.
Yes, they have challenges. Yes, they have trials, but they can be of good cheer because Jesus Christ has overcome the world. The man was saved. and saved men rejoice, saved men delight, saved men praise Almighty God the Lord. So Philip was found at Azotus passing through.
He preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. That concludes our study in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch.
Application
Just a couple of thoughts and then we close. First, the progress of the kingdom. It's great to focus in on and zone in on one particular man, but there's something bigger and better going on in the book of Acts. I've already mentioned it, Acts 1.8.
You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. This was an Ethiopian. This was a man from another place. This was a man that was outside the commonwealth of Israel.
So what do we learn in the book of Acts? It's every tribe, it's every tongue, it's every people, it's every nation. Those who were previously excluded because of ethnicity, those previously excluded because of, you know, deformity, those previously excluded are brought nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. We see a massive campaign in the book of Acts launched by God through 12 men to turn the world upside down.
Their methodology was simple. They prayed and they preached. That's what they did. They didn't have a big social media campaign.
They didn't give out, you know, free stuff at all their meetings. They'd go to cities, they'd find the sinners, they would tell them they're sinners and they need to come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. We see God's blessing upon that simple means. As well, we see the realization of the covenant promises of God.
Isaiah 56 is answered specifically in Acts 8. You know, you'll hear that sometimes. Well, you know, there's all these things that the Bible says that haven't come true. Typically spoken by the scholars of our day who really know their Bibles, not even a little bit.
Brethren, God's Word is sure. He's faithful. He's true. He cannot lie, according to Titus 1.
It's a divine cannot. He cannot do something. He cannot lie. If he promises the inclusion of eunuchs into the covenant promises of God, you'll see eunuchs in the covenant promises of God.
More appropriate for most of us, when he promises the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant promises of God, he makes good on that so that every tribe, tongue, people, and nation find their blessing in Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. And then finally, with reference to the practice of Christian baptism, I just want to sort of focus in on Jonathan. Jonathan, in our confession of faith, I think it gives a very good description of what baptism is. This is helpful, not just for Jonathan, but if anybody else wants to sort of listen in, you may.
It says, baptism is an ordinance or a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized. I think they use that phrase in light of the Ethiopian unit. Notice that Philip doesn't say, well, we've got to get you back to Jerusalem. They've got a really nice baptistry there.
They've got, you know, pews. They've got everything. We'll have coffee after. It'll be nice.
We're free to do that, obviously, but it's to the party baptized. See, in the Lord's Supper, there's a corporate dimension. For as often as you, the church, eat this bread and drink this cup, you, the church, proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. But in terms of baptism, it's a sacrament or ordinance for the party baptized.
Now notice it goes on to say, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection. Again, that Roman six imagery, you're died, you've been buried, you've been raised again with him. And then it says of his being engrafted into him, sort of old fashioned speak for union with Christ. We have this blessed, vital, living union with our Lord Jesus.
It also signifies remission of sins. Again, the water doesn't wash him from his sins, but the water signifies or represents what the blood of Jesus does with reference to his sins. And then it goes on to say this, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. So in other words, you are entering the waters of baptism and publicly identifying with the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It's a blessed thing. You're also telling publicly, I've been forgiven. You're telling publicly, I'm in vital living union with our Lord Jesus. But you're also telling the public, which is the church that you're coming into, that I am committed to walking in newness of life.
I'm going to live in such a way as to try and honor my Lord to try to be a blessed benefit to the life of the church. And as the church, we need to respond in kind, pray for him, encourage him, and love him. And that's what we are supposed to do with all of the people of God. And then as Jonathan is a younger man, we love to see the young people in our families being converted and identifying in this public way.
We don't take that for granted. I don't think there's a formula. But it is true and it is wonderful that God does work in and through families in a lot of cases and in a lot of times. And Spurgeon, you all know he's kind of the patron saint of the Reformed Baptists or one of them.
I always like to read what he said concerning his baptism because I think it's a good sort of model for us to all imbibe and to think about in terms of our own baptism. He speaks of it this way, he says, May 3rd, in the afternoon, I was privileged to follow my Lord and to be buried with him in baptism, blessed pool, sweet emblem of my death to all the world. May I henceforward live alone for Jesus, accept my body and soul as a poor sacrifice, Tie me unto Thee. In Thy strength I now devote myself to Thy service forever.
Never may I shrink from owning Thy name. Witness, ye men and angels, now if I forsake the Lord. I vow to glory alone in Jesus and His cross, and to spend my life in the extension of His cause in whatsoever way He pleases. I desire to be sincere in this solemn profession, having but one object in view, and that to glorify God.
Blessing upon thy name that thou hast supported me through the day. It is thy strength alone that could do this. Thou hast, thou wilt. Thou hast enabled me to profess thee.
Help me now to honor thee and carry out my profession and live the life of Christ on earth. If you get just a glimpse of that today, praise God. Praise God Almighty, and pray, brethren, for the young people and the children in our church. God the Lord, in his kindness, has given them to us.
God the Lord, through his apostle Paul, has commanded us to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord, to teach them the truth as it is in Jesus, and to point them the way that Philip pointed the eunuch to Christ, to do that with our wonderful gifts from God. Well, let us pray, and then our brother and I will change and get into the water.
Closing Prayer
Our gracious God and Holy Father, we thank you for this account of the salvation of this man. And Father, we know that you are still in the business of saving sinners, and we praise you for your grace and for your mercy. And we pray that you would be pleased to bless the word today. May it run forth swiftly, may it go forth conquering and to conquer.
And may you be pleased to continue to build the church, Lord Jesus Christ, and assure your people of that wonderful promise that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.