Acts 8:26-40 – Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Acts 8:26

1. Philip was one of the seven deacons chosen in Acts 6:1-7.
2. It may seem strange that an angel of the Lord asks Philip to leave a very successful and fruitful missionary activity (Acts 8:4-13) to go out into a desolate wilderness.
   1. God always looks beyond us and always has a long-term plan. We need to trust that God knows what he is doing when he commands us to do things that may seem foolish from a purely human perspective.
      1. Humanly speaking, Philip should have stayed in Samaria and taken care of his successful missionary work, but God had other plans.
      2. In the same way, we Christians today need to learn to follow God’s will when he calls us into something new. Perhaps he is asking us to leave a fruitful work to enter a desert where nothing seems likely to grow. Perhaps this seems humanly foolish, but if we are sure that it is God who is speaking, then we should obey, for God knows what he is doing.
   1. Sometimes we complicate the Christian life so much that we stop doing what God tells us to do.
3. God has saved large crowds by the thousands before in Acts (Acts 2:41, Acts 4:4), but now he directs Philip to save a single individual.
   1. There are few places where you can feel as alone as in a large congregation. But in this text we see that God cares very much about you as an individual. Although God also works with large contexts, he works just as much with individuals.
   2. If you were the pastor of a large church and God suddenly called you to move to a far away country to disciple just one person, would you move?

Acts 8:27-28

1. Then “Ethiopia” is not quite the same as today’s Ethiopia, but was a country also known as “Nubia” and lay between southern Egypt and Khartoum in Sudan.
2. “Kandace” was a title for the Ethiopian queen much as “Pharaoh” was a title for the Egyptian king.
3. The Ethiopian courtier was probably a cross between a “stranger who feared God” and a “Jewish proselyte”. He had visited Jerusalem and was now sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the Bible.
   1. It was when the courtier read the word of God that the way to God was opened to him.
4. The Ethiopian courtier was a successful man with great responsibility over the treasury of the Ethiopian queen.
   1. Even though the courtier was worthily successful, he still sought the answers to life’s questions. Money and success can never fill the need for God that all people need.
5. The Ethiopian courtier was a eunuch, i.e. castrated. It was not uncommon for kings in biblical times to prefer servants who were eunuchs because they were more loyal to the king since they had no family. However, the title eunuch was sometimes applied even to court servants who were not castrated.
   1. Similarly, in some cases it may be easier to serve God if one is unmarried, because then one can devote all one’s time and energy to serving God (1 Corinthians 7:25-40).
   2. Actually, eunuchs were forbidden to enter the “congregation of the Lord” (Deut 23:1), but according to Isaiah, eunuchs in the Messianic era will enjoy great blessings (Isa 56:3-5).

Acts 8:29

1. In verse 26 it was an angel speaking to Philip and now it is the Spirit of God in verse 29. God can speak to us believers in many different ways:
   1. God speaks through the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16).
   2. God speaks through Christ (Heb 1:1-2).
   3. God speaks through nature and creation (Rom 1:20).
   4. God speaks through other believers (1 Corinthians 14:29).
   5. God speaks through his Spirit (John 14:26).
   6. God speaks through angels (Luke 1:26).
   7. God speaks in dreams (1 Kings 3:5).
2. Again, Philip is very responsive and obedient. He listens to the Spirit of God and does exactly as he says.
   1. Listening to the Spirit of God is not always easy and requires a certain amount of training. The biggest obstacle to hearing the Spirit of God is not listening. But once you start listening, it can be difficult to distinguish between your own thoughts and the voice of God. This requires training, practice and the help of Christians who are further along than you in this area. The best place to learn to listen to the Spirit of God is in the midst of the church, for example in a small prayer group. This gives you the opportunity to decide together whether the message you hear from God is consistent with the Bible and whether it is addressed to a particular person or is a message from God to yourself.

Acts 8:30-31

1. In Bible times, reading aloud was common, and when Philip hears the courtier reading from the prophet Isaiah, he understands that God has sent him for this particular meeting.
   1. Sometimes, in our zeal, we can preach and witness to all sorts of people who come our way without seeing any results. But when God has prepared and opened up an opportunity for us to witness, all it takes is one little conversation and that person is ready to give their life to Jesus.
      1. For those who are passionate about evangelism, it is important not only to evangelize but also to ask God for open doors to people whom God has prepared.
2. Although it was obviously good that the courtier read the Bible, it did not help much because he did not understand the meaning of the text. The Bible is not always easy to understand and sometimes it is not enough to just tell people to read the Bible, you also need to be on hand to help explain what the texts mean.
   1. Similarly, it can sometimes be difficult to understand a sermon. Even if you try to listen, it is difficult to understand because the words and the way of preaching are unfamiliar and difficult to understand. As a preacher, it is important to speak so that the listeners you have understand what you are saying, otherwise preaching is pointless.
   2. As a Christian, you should not be afraid to ask for help in understanding the Bible. No one has a complete understanding of all the texts in the whole Bible, but it is together and with the help of each other that we can best understand the Bible.

Acts 8:32-33

1. God had not only guided Philip to the Ethiopian courtier, he had also guided the courtier to read Isaiah 53, which speaks of the Messiah sacrificing himself for our sins.
   1. It’s almost hard to find a more timely text from the Old Testament on which to base a conversation about Jesus and the cross!

Acts 8:34

1. The centurion, like the twelve-year-old Jesus (Luke 2:46), had certainly talked to the teachers at the temple in Jerusalem and asked them who this text was really about. The teachers of the law had three different interpretations of this text:
   1. The suffering servant was the nation of Israel.
   2. The suffering servant was Isaiah himself.
   3. The suffering servant was the Messiah.

Acts 8:35

1. An old well-known expression is Christ is the star and the core of Scripture, i.e. the whole Bible is about and points to Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27). Philip started from Isaiah 53:7-8, the text that the courtier read, and then explained more about who Jesus is.

Acts 8:36-38

1. Before meeting Philip, the centurion was interested in God and wanted to understand more, but it is only after he hears about Jesus that he is ready to be baptised.
   1. It doesn’t matter how many religious traditions you know or how much you read the Bible or how talented and successful you are, the only thing that matters to be saved is to hear about Jesus and give your life to him.
2. We don’t know much about what Philip told the eunuch, but certainly he should have told him about baptism and its importance for the Christian faith.
3. Verse 37 is missing in most of the older manuscripts and has therefore been removed from the Swedish People’s Bible and Bible 2000, but reads as follows freely translated from the KJV: “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
   1. Although verse 37 does not belong to the original version of Acts but is a later addition, the message of the verse is important, i.e. that in order to be baptized it is important to truly believe in Jesus with all one’s heart and confess one’s faith (John 9:35-38, Matthew 14:33).
   2. There is a difference between believing in Jesus with your brain and with your heart. Even the devil knows who Jesus is, but he does not believe in Jesus with his heart (Matt 4:1-11, Jas 2:19, Matt 22:34-37).

Acts 8:39-40

1. Philip and the eunuch “went down” into the water and “came up” out of the water. As far as possible, it is important that the whole body is immersed in the water when one is baptized because it symbolically shows the total surrender to Jesus.
   1. Baptism is sometimes likened to a funeral, i.e. burying one’s old life and rising together with Jesus to a new life. It is important not to leave behind a little bit of the old life, but to give oneself completely to God (Col 2:12-13).
   1. One of the earliest Christian writings, Didache, writes this about baptism (chapter 7):
      1. “Concerning baptism, baptize in this way: having first recited all these things, baptize in running water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But if you have no running water, baptize in other water, and if you cannot baptize in cold water, baptize in hot water. And if you have neither, pour water on your head three times, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
         1. By “running water” is probably meant a river or similar. If there is no possibility to baptize in a river, e.g. because you happen to be in a desert or in prison, then you can baptize by pouring water on your head. The point is that, as far as possible, one should baptize by immersion, but if that is not possible, one must find other ways. The important thing is that you are baptised, not exactly how it is done.
2. The Holy Spirit “snatched away” Philip, i.e. suddenly and supernaturally moved him to another place.
   1. Although this sounds very strange to the average Christian, it did occur in the Bible.
      1. The disciples’ boat suddenly arrived where they were going (John 6:21).
      2. Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of the disciples even though they had locked the door (John 20:19).
      3. All believers who are alive when Jesus returns will be “caught up among the clouds” (1 Thess 4:16-17).