Acts 8:26-40

All right, we are continuing our study of Acts chapter 8 here on the listeners commentary and in this session We're going to be looking at Acts 8 26 through 40 and in this scene we continue to focus on the ministry of Philip in the previous snapshot the first half of chapter 8 We saw how through Philip God brought the gospel to the Samaritans. It's the first time that non Jews Received the gospel and are welcomed into the family Well from there God directs Philip to another opportunity to share the gospel and once again It's an opportunity that shows the church beginning to move outward and to welcome others in At the end of the last scene Peter and John are heading back to Jerusalem and as they go They're preaching the gospel in the villages of Samaria But God has a different assignment for Philip and that begins like this in verse 26 now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza This is a desert road God directs Philip through an angel to a particular place He wants him to go the place he wants him to go is the southern road the road that heads south and descends down from Jerusalem to Gaza Gaza is Southwest of Jerusalem the old city had been part of the Philistine Empire during the Old Testament and It's a fairly well-known place on the coast of southern Israel And so Philip is directed to Gaza or at least to the road on the way to Gaza Where God has some appointment form here's what happens verse 27 So he got ready and he went and there was an Ethiopian unit a court official of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure and he had come to Jerusalem to worship and he was Returning and sitting in his chariot and he was reading Isaiah the prophet so here is someone a man heading back home After having been in Jerusalem to worship and his home is Ethiopia Let's just talk a little bit about who this man is Ethiopia let's start there. Where is the Ethiopia? Well what we're talking about by this particular word in their time and place is The whole region south of Egypt. It's sometimes called Ethiopia sometimes in the Bible You can see it described as Kush That's the region we're talking about so this man has come from there to fairly lengthy journey All the way from there up to Jerusalem and he's come to worship What else do we know about this man? Well, he's described as a unique and There are two possibilities sometimes the word unique was used for Just kind of a general description for a court official sometimes referred to an actual unique My suspicion is that in this case, it's an actual unit He would be pretty redundant to say he's a unique a court official But if the word unit was being used for a court official so that would be pretty redundant if that was the case And so my suspicion is he's actually a unique and that actually plays into I think what Luke's point is in the story Not only that he's described as a court official so he's a high ranking official of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians we need to clarify that as well Candace is not a name. It's a dynastic title for the Queens of Ethiopia And so we don't know exactly what her name is. It's possible That she is the Queen Now a dimock who rule the area Really in the first half of the first century and so it's possible We're actually talking about this particular queen, but at any rate this unique is an official in her court He's actually her treasurer. So he's overall of her wealth and so this is a fairly high ranking official Who has come to Jerusalem to worship now? This raises the question is this unique this official is he a Jew or a Gentile and Again, we're not a hundred percent certain Because the text here is an explicit but in the overall flow of the book of Acts Luke makes a pretty big deal of Cornelius being the very first Gentile to come to faith in Jesus in Acts chapters 10 and 11 And since Luke makes such a big deal out of that it would be highly unlikely that this guy Is a Gentile and so more than likely he's a Jew How could a Jew have such a high ranking position? Well, it wasn't actually that uncommon Jews were known for their moral uprightness and There had been a large Jewish community in Egypt and this region for several centuries and so there's been plenty of opportunity for a Jew to receive this high ranking position not only that he's reading a copy of Isaiah Which would be easier for a Jew to have possession of than a Gentile and he's come to Jerusalem to worship So bare minimum even if he is a Gentile He's at least a God fear but my suspicion is we're dealing with a Jew and a Jew who who has come to Jerusalem to worship So let's put it all together. We've got a high ranking official who's a unique But he's also a Jew who has come to Jerusalem to worship and Philip has been directed to the road where he's traveling so that he could he could need him and so God is arranging a divine appointment And verse 29 says this it says this then the spirit said to Philip go up and join this chariot now Let's clarify the word chariot we hear that and immediately we picture probably like a military chariot right It's got a guy standing in holding the range with a horse out in front and this word occasionally referred to that But more often it referred to an Oxtron cart or like a travel carriage That's what we need to picture here here. You have a high ranking official He's going to have a driver There's probably going to be some sort of entourage with him because that would be normal for someone of his status And Philip is directed to go up and join his carriage or his cart So verse 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet because people in the ancient world tended to always read out loud Reading silently is it more of a modern phenomenon? So Philip hears him reading Isaiah the prophet and so he said to him Do you understand what you're reading? And he said well how could I unless someone guides me and he invited Philip To come up and sit with him and so he's reading Isaiah the prophet He's struggling to understand what he's reading and he wants someone to help him out It seems like perhaps Philip could be a good guide So he invites Philip to join him in his carriage and here's the passage of scripture He was reading verse 32 now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this He was led like a sheep to slaughter and like a lamb that is silent before it's sheer So he did not open his mouth and he mediation his justice was taken away Who will describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth? And so he's reading a passage from Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 is the most direct clear description of the work of the suffering servant in Isaiah it is the most descriptive passage about the work of the Messiah Jesus death and all that it's about a righteous suffer who suffers in other people's Stead and whose suffering brings healing to the nation of Israel It's a very you should go back and read it if you're not familiar with it It's a very important Old Testament text about what Jesus's work and ministry achieved It's actually used in a number of places in the New Testament to kind of help understand what Jesus death meant so this Unic is reading a passage that is clearly and directly about the atoning work of Jesus the Messiah And so God has arranged this divine appointment for Philip So Philip joins him in his carriage and The Unic has a question for Philip the Unic said to Philip Please tell me of whom does the prophet say this of himself or someone else? He's like what does this refer to that's what he's getting he can make sense of the words But is the prophet saying this about himself? She's saying about it someone else in other words the Unic has the same question that a lot of Jews of Philips day had like Is Isaiah talking about himself here? Is Isaiah talking about the nation of Israel here because there's places where the suffering servant sounds like Israel But then there's places where it sounds like an individual Who is he talking about and that's the Unic's question and so Verse 35 Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him and so Philip walks him through this text and Helps him see how it refers to the Messiah and then how Jesus embodies this very text and fulfills this text fully and completely and he Preaches Jesus to him And somewhere in his preaching of Jesus to him he must have mentioned baptism Because look what happens next verse 36 As they went along the road they came to some water and the Unic said look water what prevents me from being baptized and so somehow in his preaching of Jesus Philip must have explained to him the appropriate way to respond to the Messiah is by putting your faith in him and then being baptized into his very own death, burial and resurrection, embodying what he went through for you, you embody it in baptism and Philip must have said that. And this is instructive to us. It reminds us that baptism isn't like peripheral to sharing the gospel or an optional extra to sharing the gospel. It's just part of it. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all I commanded you." And so when you make disciples, you mention you need to respond to the message about Jesus by getting baptized. Well, that's what Philip has done. And so the unique has responded. He's ready to get baptized and he wants to do it immediately. So he sees water and he says, "What prevents me from being baptized?" Now, before we look at the unique baptism, let's just make a note about verse 37. Depending on your translation, verse 37 might show up in brackets. It might show up in a footnote. And the reason for that is because most of the earliest and best manuscripts don't have verse 37 in it. Seems like it was a scribal addition added later in the margin that eventually ended up in the body of the text. And so modern translations mark that out for us by putting it in brackets or putting it in the footnote. The science that deals with this sort of stuff is called textual criticism and it helps us try to sort out what seems to be original to the text and where are there some of these editorial additions such as verse 37. And these kind of additions shouldn't concern us too much. They only affect a very, very, very small percentage of the text. And these kind of additions don't change anything of significance when it comes to the truth about Jesus, the gospel, or anything like that. So they occasionally show up and verse 37 seems to be one of the more obvious ones where pretty much all translators and all scholars agree. Yeah, this seems like this wasn't part of the original text. And that's why a lot of translations don't even have it. And so if you're reading a translation that goes straight from verse 36 to verse 38, it's probably down in the footnote. So verse 38 says, "And he ordered the chariot, the carriage, to stop." And that means he has a driver, right? So the unit orders his carers to stop, tells the driver to stop the carriage. And they both went down into the water, Philip, as well as the unit. And he baptized them. And so Philip baptizes the unit into Christ down in the water to baptize us to immerse someone into water. That's the basic meaning of the word baptize. The Greek word is baptized. So that means to dip or to immerse. That's why they go down into the water. And they're standing in the water. He immerses him in the water, brings him up out of the water. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord somehow snatched Philip away. And the unit saw him no longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. And this is consistent in the book of Acts that one of the marks of conversion is rejoicing. And so the unit goes on his way rejoicing because he now knows who the Messiah is. He now knows what Isaiah 53 is referring to. And he understands that. And so he goes on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at a Zotus. And as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Cesarea. Both Azootus and Cesarea are coastal towns. And in fact, we'll bump into Philip again at the end of the book of Acts. Still operating and ministering in the region of Cesarea. Now this is a pretty fun and fascinating little story, but what's the point? Well, in order to understand the point of this story, we have to understand the significance of what it meant to be a unit and who this guy was. He's come to Jerusalem to worship. So he has some faith in God. We said at the outset that it seems most likely he's a Jew. And he's a Jew who's probably a legitimate, real unit. It's a unit. Well, a unit is somebody who has been castrated. Here's why that's important. It's because according to the Old Testament law, a unit, somebody who's been castrated, cannot be a full participant in temple worship. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 1 says, "No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off may enter the assembly of the Lord." And so as a unique, he would be an outsider. He would be a second-class citizen. He couldn't go in and participate in sacrifice and all the fullness of worship. He would be somebody on the fringes and marginalized and outside of it all. And what's fascinating about that is in the very near context to Isaiah 53, describing the results of the work of the servant that's pictured in Isaiah 53. In other words, the work of the Messiah. So Philip began preaching Jesus from Isaiah 53. Did he roll the scroll to Isaiah 56? Because in Isaiah 56, this is what it says. Once Messiah's work is common, once the servant's work has been done, here's what's going to happen. Verse 3, Isaiah 56, "Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will certainly separate me from his people. Or let the unixay be hold. I'm just a dry tree. For this is what the Lord says to the unix who keep my Sabbath and who choose what pleases me and who holds firmly to my covenant to them. I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which will not be eliminated." And so in the time period of the Messiah when the servant's work has been completed, the saints are going to be welcomed in and they're going to be given an eternal everlasting name. What a hope and a promise for this particular unit on this road that Philip is connected with in this moment. And so it seems that what we have here in this second scene in Acts chapter 8 is another example of the gospel moving into new territories, the gospel welcoming outsiders in. In the first half of chapter 8 it was the gospel going cross cultural to Samaritans, but here it's to somebody who is not fully able to engage and fully able to participate in worship. But somebody who had been promised according to the prophets that that that banishment would be removed in the days of the Messiah. And now he too is welcomed in. And so I think the big message of this story in Acts 8, 26 through 40 is that God wants outsiders in. Then in the case of the unit God arranged all this, he's the one that directed Philip to the road. He knew this man was seeking the truth that he was reading scripture and he was trying to figure out what this is all about. And God arranged it all so that an outsider could hear the gospel and respond to it and be baptized into Christ because God wants outsiders in. I love the way Ben Witherington and his commentary on Acts says it. He says that the gospel is for everybody for the last, the least and the lost to the first, the most and the found. And in a very real sense, this unique kind of represents both of those groups. On one hand, he's a high ranking official. He's got status and rank. So he's a first, most and found. But on another hand, he can't engage fully in the worship of God because of his status as a unique. He's sort of marginalized and he's on the outside, he's a last or a least or an outsider in some regard. And so the church is not really supposed to be for only one or the other groups it's supposed to be for both and the unique really embodies that. And so in this episode, what Luke shows us through recording this snapshot for us is how God wants outsiders to be a part of his family.