So, beginning in Acts 8 and verse
26 through verse 35 for our reading, And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goes from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. And behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all of her
treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, and was returning,
sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the
Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Now watch this,
Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can
I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that
he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation,
for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Whom speak of the prophet? Himself,
some other man. And Philip began there and preached
unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, for the sake of time, we
have read only a part of the much larger context, but in order
that we might get our contextual bearings for the better understanding
of the passage and how it relates unto our text. As Luke, who is
the author of the book of Acts, is tracing out the history of
the spread of the gospel of Christ and of Christianity, which had
its first planting, as you know, in the city of Jerusalem, and
there among the Jew was the things of God first proclaimed. But
Acts chapter 8 is important because it takes us into a new era. It takes us into the next step
in the commission of our Lord to His apostles and disciples
as set out in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, and given just prior
to the ascension of our Lord back into heaven and the right
hand of God. They were to be witnesses of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning, they were to bear witness
or to give testimony concerning Him. They were to give a witness
of the Lord's Christ. And some say that old manuscripts
have it this way. You shall be my witnesses. As He had said in chapter 1,
and verse 8, and that to proclaim the name of the Lord's Christ,
even giving their own eyewitness accounts of what they had heard
from the lips of our Lord and what they had seen. Now, this
was to begin in Jerusalem and in the area of Judea. In other words, according to
Paul in Romans chapter 1 to the Jew first, And then in Samaria,
that is to the Samaritan, people like the woman at the well in
John's Gospel and chapter 4, who providentially came across
the Lord at Jacob's well and believed and was converted. Now, we can note here that the
witness is given in three parts. He shall be witnesses unto me. First of all, in the area of
Jerusalem and Judea. And as you read through the book
of Acts, you have the record of this in the first seven chapters
of this history of the spread of Christianity. Secondly, we
read that it was to be unto Samaria, and still in the area of Judea. And you have a record of this.
and verse 1 down through chapter 11 and verse 18. And this area of labor and of
ministry is there recorded. And then thirdly, unto the uttermost
parts of the world, unto the end of the earth, unto the regions
that are beyond. In other words, unto the Gentiles
scattered here and there. And then This aspect or era is
covered from here unto the end of the book of Acts and the ministry
of the Apostle Paul among the Gentiles as their Apostle called
and commissioned of Christ. Now, it is here in chapter 8,
however, that we read of the gospel going freely into Samaria. And the prominent person here,
the instrument of the Lord, is the disciple Philip. And let's
make a couple of points concerning this matter ere we move along. And that is, number one, that
the gospel was first unto the Jew, and it came to them. But it did not go from them directly
next unto the Gentile, but to what James Alexander called in
his commentary in the book of Acts, quote, a sort of neutral
ground or frontier between the Jew and the Gentile, the Samaritans
being sort of a half-breed and scorned by the Jew." Then secondly,
the second point, the manner by which the testimony and the
gospel of Christ did come among the Samaritan. What caused this
to come to pass? What was it that occasioned the
preaching of the gospel unto the Gentiles? Well, it was not
first and foremost from missionary fervor, but because they were
driven by the fierce persecution of the church that was in Jerusalem. And that persecution, oddly enough,
was spearheaded by Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul. It was he who consented unto
the death or the killing of the disciple Stephen. And this led
to the dispersion. This led to the scattering of
them out of Jerusalem, and with it, the scattering of the gospel. I'm going to drop back to chapter
8 and read verse 1. And Saul was consenting under
his dad, that is, Stephen. And at that time, there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostle. Now, look at verse 3. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into every house and
hailing men and women, committing them unto prison." And then one
more, chapter 9, verse 1, "...and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." Now by his own
admission, in Galatians 1 and verse 13, And in 1 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 13, he was a persecutor of the church, and that beyond
measure. He calls himself unworthy of
the grace of God because he had been a persecutor of the church. And one of those who was driven
out by the persecution spearheaded by Saul was a disciple of the
Lord by the name of Philip, who in Acts chapter 8 and verse 5
went into the city of Samaria. Now, he went there under persecution,
but he did not go there to go underground or go into hiding. But while he was there, he began
to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He also did
miracles among them, and he exercised many unclean spirits. and various ailments were healed
by and through the instrumentality of Philip. And Simon, Peter that
is, and John then heard of that and they came down from Jerusalem
and they laid their hands upon them and God gave them the Holy
Spirit. the Samaritan. And then, in verse
25, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching Christ in
the villages as they went along the way. Thus, it is Philem that
was an instrument of the Lord in bringing the message of Christ
to Samaria. And God used him as an instrument
and blessed his preaching of the gospel of our blessed Savior
to the conversion of a number of people in Samaria who heard
the gospel and believed. And then in our text today, in
the part we're studying, he received a call to go on the road to Gaza,
in verse 26, as we read, and was obedient. And as he went,
timely providence of God caused him to come in contact with a
man that was upon a journey. And he had a one-on-one encounter
with this interesting individual and this unusual person. So,
let's look at the two men in this unfolding drama in Acts
8 that we read about this morning. The two characters and their
reaction or their interaction one with the other which had
a happy ending as we also read and know. Now the two men are,
number one, the disciple of the Lord, Philip. Philip was a Jew. In fact, he was one of the seven
chosen in Acts chapter 6 to serve the widows in the daily ministration. It was not right, the apostles
said, that they leave the Word of God and begin to serve tables. That they labor in the Word of
God was their calling, so they chose out seven men who would
take care of those more secular chores. Now, let's note, these
men were to be, in Acts chapter 6, men of honest report, full
of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. They were chosen and they did
their work. Now, two of these played a very
prominent part in the advancement of Christianity and the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. And they are Stephen in Acts
chapter 6 verse 8 through chapter 7 and verse 16. And Philip is the other one here
in Acts chapter 8. In fact, Philip had two experiences
in and among the Samaritan. Now, the other man, the second
man, an unnamed man of Ethiopia, or as important as is this event,
yet his name is never given. But we are told that he was a
man of great authority under the queen of Ethiopia. In fact, he had the charge of
all of her treasury. And notice that Scripture here
calls him a eunuch. And that can mean one who had
been emasculated often served among the king's harem in order
that he could not defile the king's wife. But you remember
what the Lord said about eunuchs in Matthew 19, verse 12, as He
describes three kinds of eunuchs there are that are among men. Some are born that way, or were
that gift, he said, some are made so by and of men, and others
have made themselves so voluntarily for the kingdom of God. Now, note this person, this man,
is referred to in Acts 8, 27 through 39 simply as the unit. Not again by his nation or his
gender or his position, but he is referred to as the unit. Now it is possible, as John Gill
noted, very possible that this individual was a black man. And as Gill wrote, Ethiopians
signify one of a black descendant, a descendant likely of Noah's
son, Ham. And when you look in Jeremiah,
13 and verse 23, the question is raised, can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Calvin wrote on this passage,
blackness is inherent in the skins of the Ethiopian as is
well known. Now Jeremiah uses that question
for a comparison when you go there and read the whole verse. But be that as it may, as we
mentioned, he was a government official. He was a man a lord
of the Candace. He might be called today the
finance minister of a nation. And as we read, he had charge
of the treasury of the Candace of Ethiopia. Now Candace was
not a personal name but the name of the ruler like the Pharaoh
in the land of Egypt. However, the most important thing
said about this individual in verse 27 is the last part, that
he had come to Jerusalem for to worship. And verse 28, he
was returning, that is, He was returning again to his native
country of Ethiopia. And the commenters say that in
the Greek the tense is like this. It expresses purpose. It expresses the purpose of his
trip. That his sole reason for making
the journey at such a distance was that he might worship there
in Jerusalem. his trip was spiritual, it was
not political. He was not on a diplomatic mission
in the name of the Candids. He was not come as an ambassador
in the name of the Queen. He was not a tourist or a sightseer
on vacation, nor was he a spy, having come to spy out the land. He did not seek or bring foreign
aid as the reason of his journey, and he did not come to have an
audience with the king of the Roman Empire. But again, as Robertson
and Linsky and others explain from the Greek, Luke, the author
here of Acts, uses the future active participle in the Greek
expressing the purpose of the man. He had been up to Jerusalem
to worship, possibly at the time of one of the Jewish festivals
or one of their important feast days. be it Passover, whether
it might have been Pentecost, the Feast of the Tabernacle,
we're not told. And it suffices us to read simply,
He had been to Jerusalem for to worship. Now for a comparison,
to get a better handle and a grip on that, compare John chapter
12 and verse 20. And there we read, And there
were certain Greeks among them that came up to Jerusalem at
the feast. Certain Gentiles came, no doubt
proselytes, to celebrate the feast. These would be called
in the Scripture proselytes. Now, we read a very interesting
part of Solomon's great and lengthy prayer at the dedication of the
temple. You'll find it in I Kings chapter
8 and verse 41 through verse 43. this interesting part of Solomon's
prayer. There he prays, quote, concerning
a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but comes out
of a far country for thy name's sake, unquote. And Solomon prays
that God might hear and answer such that God's name might be
known abroad. Isn't that interesting and providential? Thus the eunuch was likely a
proselyte, a Gentile who had crossed over to worship the God
of the Jews. And he had, in conjunction with
that belief, made a pilgrim to the holy city and the temple
there to worship, there to see that temple and to pray. and perhaps to offer sacrifice. Thus, this man was what some
call a God-fearing Gentile. We need not be persuaded to turn
from these vanities, as is stated in Acts 4.15. He was not at that
time either a believer in or a worshiper any longer of the
heathen deity. You can compare him, I guess,
to the case of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, verse 1 and 2. A Gentile, one that feared God
with all of his house, prayed to God always, and gave much
alms unto the people. And yet these proselytes, like
the Jew, knew only the law and only the prophet and only the
psalm. And again, consider one in Acts
chapter 18, by the name of Apollos, in verse 25, though he was eloquent
of speech, a great and a gifted speaker. He was mighty in the
Scripture. He was instructed in the way
of the Lord and fervent in the Spirit. But listen, knowing only
the baptism of John. Acts 19, verses 1 through 3. Now, as concerning the proselyte,
some of the better known out of the Old Testament would be
Rahab and Ruth and Naaman the captain and Cornelius. But let's go back to the man
in Acts chapter 8. There is something else here
that is interesting and that is important. about this particular
man. Not only had he been up to Jerusalem
for to worship, but as he rode home, he was reading from the
Scripture. I tell you, that's kind of unusual. In fact, he was reading from
the scroll of Isaiah the prophet. And the place where he was reading
is marked off in our Bibles as chapter 53 of the prophet Isaiah. Maybe the greatest prophecy of
Christ in the Old Testament and on record. And notice something
else. Not only had he been to worship,
not only was he reading, but he was reading out loud. In verse 30, Philip heard him
read the prophet Isaiah as he drew near. To the very vehicle
he drew. and the man was riding in it,
and perhaps the same used in his official capacity had brought
him to Jerusalem. He was both reading and reading
out loud, and this shows that his interest was kindled in his
heart. one whose heart, I dare say,
the Lord is preparing as to be good ground, and who was disposed
to read from the Holy Scripture. It's interesting. He brought
along with him on his journey the scroll of Isaiah. And as his chariot bumped along
on the road, He read from the great prophet Isaiah out loud. Philip, now at the side of the
chariot, having heard the man read out loud, initiates the
conversation with the man by asking him a question. Are you understanding what you
are reading? Now that's a great way to open
the conversation, ready-made conversation opener. Are you
understanding what you are reading? And I think Gil is right. As
he said, he asked not about the language that he was reading,
but about the sense of the words. Are you understanding the meaning
of what you are reading? Not the word themselves, but
the meaning of the word as seen, I think, by the question of the
eunuch in verse 34. We need not assume that the man
was an unlearned man with little or no education, as seen by his
position and place of authority, the degree of his intelligence
was not the factor in his failing to grasp the meaning of the prophet
Isaiah. Nor, on the other hand, must
we assume that he had never heard or never read the passage before
and had just then discovered it for the first time, though
it might be a possibility we grant. Sometimes that's our experience. We had never read it before,
we didn't remember, or we had read it over and over and had
not caught the meaning of it. And then we might consider that
the unit, being a government official, a man of great authority,
used to leading others and giving instruction unto others, might
well have taken an offense at the intrusion of the stranger
Philip. Trotting along now by the side
of his chariot, the man might have said to him, Who are you
anyway? What business is it of yours? Why are you prying into such
a personal matter? For we know, do we not, we know
the pride and we know the arrogance of the high and the rich and
of the mighty, how they look down upon the commoners and upon
the peasant." Remember, if you will, the reaction of the Pharisee
to the witness of the man born blind. John chapter 9, our Lord
gave that man sight. And when they asked him, who
do you think this man is? He said, well, I think he's a
prophet. Did you ever hear one open the
eyes of the blind? And in John 9, verse 34, you,
they said to that man, you were all together, you were holy,
you were fully born in sin, and would you teach us the masters
of Israel? And they took a great offense
at that. This is often the case with the
high and the mighty. But brother and sister, the meeting
of Philip and the eunuch was ordained in heaven and was affected
by the divine providence of God. As seen in the fact, Philip was
directed by the Spirit to go and to join himself, and the
man was sitting there with Isaiah open and reading. Now, I want
to use a term, see if you agree, that this man was ripe for conversion. and for introduction into Christianity
and the gospel way of worship. For when Philip asked the man,
Are you understanding what you are reading? The man replies
unto Philip, How can I, unless some one guide me? Are you understanding
the meaning of what you are reading? How can I except some man guide
me? And in verse 31, he besought
Philip to get in into the chariot with him, and of course Philip
did. And in verse 32 and verse 33,
the place where the eunuch was reading was from Isaiah chapter
53 and verse 7 and verse 8. And the thing that puzzled the
eunuch is set forth in verse 34 and the last part, whether
the prophet Isaiah was speaking these things in regard to himself
or, quote, some other man, unquote. Note, some of the parts of the
scripture are hard to misunderstand and miss the meaning. such as
the law that is clear, thou shalt not. On the other hand, some
of the prophecy, some of the parables are what Calvin called
the more obscure verses, unquote, For example, how often do we
read that the apostles asked the Lord to open to them the
meaning of one of His parables? Or they did not understand something
that our Lord had said until He explained it and opened it
unto them. And second, what of the man Nicodemus
in John chapter 3, a ruler of Israel and yet ignorant of regeneration
and the new birth? Though it was mentioned clearly
in the Old Testament Scripture, I will give them a new heart,
I will take out of them the old and the stony heart. Now consider
the eunuch. As we said a while back, this
man seems ripe for a conversion. In that, he had gone to worship,
not a heathen deity, but the Jewish God in Jerusalem. Returning was reading, perhaps
from the most famous prophecy of Christ ever made. He did not
rebuff Philip. When He came there, He did not
send him away. He did not, like another man
in the Scripture, say, Go thy way, and when I have a more convenient
season, I will call for you, like Philip in Acts chapter 24
and 25. Nor was He like some who hear
a bit and then go away, because they do not like what they hear. But the man, to his credit, displayed
a modest and humble spirit, as we trace him out here in the
scripture, a teachable spirit, and he even invites the teacher
Philip aboard upon his chariot. He admits He does not understand
what it is that he is reading, and he acknowledges very freely
that he needs a guide to open unto him the meaning of this
passage of the Scripture. For he's not sure if the prophet
says these things of himself or of some other. Pardon the
short digression, but consider the passage in Psalm 16 and verse
8 through 10. It goes something like this,
My flesh also shall rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. Now, one might ask themselves
in reading that, of whom does David speak this? of himself,
in behalf of other saints, or of some other? What was the interpretation
of the Jewish teachers on this Scripture? Some things here a
child of God might claim. Yea, I will rest in hope, that
is, in the grave and in death. And yet, Peter in Acts 2 and
Paul in Acts 13 declares that this prophecy in Psalm 16, 8
through 10, belongs unto Messiah and proves it by the part, he
saw no corruption. For David died and saw corruption,
but Christ did not. Now, the eunuch was reading from
Isaiah, as we see here in verse 30, a very large volume. And yet, in verse 32 and 33,
the place and the passage is given. And let's look at it again,
if we might, in verse 32 and verse 33. The place of the scripture where
he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter like
a lamb before his shearer so opened he not his mouth. In his
humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare
his generation or his life was taken from the earth. Again, that's verse 7 and 8 of
Isaiah 53. And it tells there of the Lord
meekly submitting himself unto death at the hands of an evil
and an adulterous generation. treating him very unjustly and
doing unjust things unto him. John Brown called it, quote,
a violent and an untimely death by the wickedness of his contemporaries,
unquote. McGill agreed. Yet not apart
from the Father's will or from the Father's eternal purpose
and decree. Our own Lord laying down His
life. No man, He said, takes it from
me. I lay my life down. Now look at verse 35. Then Philip
opened his mouth. and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus." Now, first and foremost, this
confirms to us that the prophecy of Isaiah 53 is of and about
Messiah. Now the Jewish scholars once
applied this to Messiah, but then changed their interpretation
when the nation rejected him and put him under death. But
the text says Philip began there and preached unto him Jesus. This was by the providence of
God that the eunuch had lighted upon this passage of the Scripture. Or as Calvin wrote about this,
quote, it gave Philip a theme or basic principle from which
the whole substance of Christianity could be suitably drawn forth,
unquote. Did you get that? I want to read
it again. It gave Philip a theme or basic
principle from which the whole substance of Christianity could
be suitably drawn forward and certainly that is true. And he
preached unto him Jesus. Notice the two words, he began
might imply that Philip took this as his starting place, beginning
here, and then brought in other passages of Scripture that also
testify of Jesus, as in John 5. And verse 39, Jesus said,
the Scripture testifies of Me. Paul did this in Acts 17, verses
1-3, and chapter 18. and verse 28 where it is written,
quote, For he, that is, Apollos, did mightily convince the Jew
publicly, showing from the Scripture, that Jesus was Christ, unquote. Only Jesus matched the Messianic
Scripture. We've got to get that in our
mind. Jesus, only Jesus, and no one but Jesus matched the
Messianic Scripture. No other man had these things
fulfilled in him, not till that day and not until our day. Thus, none other than He could
be the Messiah. None other can be the true Messiah
of God, for in Him the Scripture was fulfilled again and again. Philip could give no other answer. The prophet wrote of Messiah. He preached unto him of Jesus. This is the one whose life was
taken away in a violent and in a cruel manner. This is the one,
according to Isaiah, who made or gave his soul as an offering
for sin, as we read there in the last three verses. This is
the one that it pleased Jehovah to bruise, as we also read in
the end of Isaiah. This is the one who justified
many because he bore their iniquity. and exactly as it was written
in the prophet. Consider how many times we read
concerning something done or said by the Lord, how many times
the New Testament tells us that it fulfilled the Scripture. This was done in order that the
Scripture might be fulfilled. And the significance of the words
of the man, How can I understand unless someone should guide me? How many there are who hear and
do not understand? After all, how could they? Their ears are dull of hearing. They hear and they do not understand. They see and they do not perceive,
as Isaiah said. Matthew 13, 14, Mark 4, 12, and
Acts 28, 26. They hear and they do not understand. They see and they do not perceive. But who is there who can understand
unless the Lord is pleased to give them seeing eyes and hearing
ears? unless he opened their heart
as he did Lydia. We read something interesting
way back in Nehemiah 8. They had come out of captivity
again into the land of Jerusalem. And one thing that was done is
that the Levites, quote, read in the book of the law of God
distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand
the reading. If you back up to verse 7 of
that chapter, cause the people to understand the law. They exposited the law in their
hearing and gave them the sense and gave them the meaning. And
they read in the book distinctly and gave the sense and caused
them to understand the reading. Happily, the unit believed by
grace, and we read on, submitted himself unto baptism. We believe by immersion, by the
way. And the Lord had opened his understanding. His heart was like that good
ground in the parable of the seed and the soil that had been
prepared by God to receive the seed of the Word of God. He saw Christ as Philip taught. He saw Christ in the scripture
that he had read and happily went on his way as a believer,
more than a proselyte, yea, a Christian man back to his country, his
nation, his vocation and people. Now, I simply close by calling
us to marvel how great is, or was, the way of God by His providence
to order our steps in the way that He did, so that we came
in contact with the truth of the Word of God and the Gospel,
and that the Lord opened our understanding that we who formerly
could not understand saw Christ, saw him clearly, and we were
drawn unto him by the spirit of grace. How great was the providence
of God in our conversion. when he brought us to that time,
that crossroad in our life, when we heard of Christ and God, enabled
us to believe the word of God and the gospel of our Savior. And it occurred here with this
man, and what a wonderful blessing it is and it was. The gospel came, not in word
only, but also in power, as Paul said to the Thessalonians.