Acts chapter 8, verse 26 to 40. This is the story of Philip and
the Ethiopian. Now an Angel of the Lord said to
Philip, go South to the road, the desert Rd. that goes down
from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and on his way
he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of
all the treasured treasury of the Kandaki, which means Queen
of The Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem
to worship and on his way home was sitting in his chariot
reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man
reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you're
reading? Philip asked.
How can I? He said, unless someone explains
it to me. So he invited Philip to come up
and sit with him. This is the passage of scripture
the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the
slaughter, and as a lamb before it's Shearer is silent, so he
did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was
deprived of justice. Who can speak of his
descendants, for his life was taken from the earth.
The eunuch asked Philip, tell me please, who is the prophet
talking about? Himself or someone else?
Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told
him the good news about Jesus. As they travelled along the
road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, here
is water, what can stand in the way of my being baptised?
And he gave orders to stop the chariot.
Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and
Philip baptised him. When they came up out of the
water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and
the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way
rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at
Azotis and travelled about preaching the gospel in all the
towns until he reached Caesarea. This is a very special Sunday
for many of us. I always love our baptism
Sundays here at Ave. It means we all got to get a bit
earlier. The people who are building the
baptistry and the school are very generous to us.
They open up at 8:00 AM and then the whole question is getting 2
hoses in there. Not too hot, not too cold.
The expectation is the people getting baptized.
Mark and Duke at the end of the service will be lovely and warm.
The rest of us less so. So that's just an advance
warning. Probably take your coat with you
when you go outside at the end for the baptisms.
But it's a special Sunday. It's a special Sunday for Mark
and for Duke. We'll be hearing from them a
little bit later when they share their stories with us of how
they have come to put their faith in the Lord Jesus, or more
accurately, how Jesus has stepped into their lives, washed
them clean, and welcomed them into his family forever.
It's a day of great joy for Mark, for Duke, and for all of
us. And it's fitting then, as Kate
says, that we've reached a passage in this book of Acts
where someone gets baptized and experiences great joy as a
result. So the book of Acts is the
history of the early church recorded for us in the New
Testament, the history of the earliest followers of Jesus.
And we've been walking slowly through this book of Acts
together as a church over the last few months.
And this morning we reach Acts chapter 8 and looking at verses
38 to 39 of that chapter, towards the end, we read these
words. Philip baptized him and he went
on his way rejoicing. This baptism was a day of great
joy for the Ethiopian man. And so we want to think in the
next few minutes, what do we learn about this man that Philip
baptizes? What do you learn about the
message Philip shares with this man that gives him so much joy?
And what do we learn about baptism and why it is we still
baptize people today? So first of all, then the story
so far in Acts, if you've not been with us.
So Acts begins soon after Jesus, the Son of God, has come into
the world, and Jesus has lived the life we could not live.
He's died the death we deserve to die, and he's risen again
from the dead, all to win eternal life for us so that we
can be reconciled to the God who made us.
And at the beginning of Acts, Jesus ascends into heaven.
He leaves the scene, and from there he sends his Holy Spirit
to come and live with his followers and empower them to
tell other people about Jesus in this world.
And the early Christians start out in the city of Jerusalem,
and many people put their faith in Jesus.
But at this point in Acts, Acts chapter 8, most of Jesus
followers have been driven out of Jerusalem.
They're scattered across Judea and Samaria, the land around
Jerusalem. And one of these followers of
Jesus is a man called Philip, and he's the one we meet in this
passage. Later in Acts, Philip is
described as Philip the evangelist.
Philip is someone who breaks new ground for Jesus.
He reaches out to people who previously would have had
nothing to do with the gods of Israel.
So if you were here with us last week, earlier in Acts 8, Philip
travelled into Samaria and shared the good news of Jesus
with Samaritan people. And Samaritan people were hated
by Jewish people like Philip. But Philip had come to realize
something. And it's the truth that stands
at the hearts of our passage this morning.
Philip had come to realize that Jesus had suffered, died and
risen again so the people who used to be outsiders can be
washed clean by God and welcomed into his family.
That was Philip's message to this Ethiopian man.
And that's the message of this bit of axiate to all of us
today. Actually.
Jesus suffered, died, and rose again.
So the people who used to be outsiders can be washed clean
and welcomed into his people. That's what baptism points us
to, being washed clean and welcomed by the living God.
So first of all, who is this man that Philip encounters and
shares the message of Jesus with in this passage?
Well, first verse 27, we learn that he is an Ethiopian eunuch.
So that's verses 27 to 20. Let me read that for us.
So Philip started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian
eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of
the kandaki, which means Queen of The Ethiopians.
This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home
was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the
prophet. So we learn about this man here.
Well, first of all, we learn that he is an important man.
We're not told his name, but we're told he's an important
official in charge of the treasury of the Queen, or maybe
the Queen Mother of The Ethiopians.
This man, he is a respected official and he is a wealthy
man. How do we know that?
We know that because he's travelling by Chariots.
You'll notice Philip is kind of running to keep up, but if you
had money, you could then take a load off and be travelling by
chariot. He also had the resources to buy
expensive scrolls. He's reading a scroll of the
prophet Isaiah. There were no cheap paperbacks
back then. This was an expensive thing he
owns. It shows again how wealthy he is
on the surface. He's got a lot going for him.
And we learn also that he is a eunuch.
And like many government officials in the ancient world,
he had been castrated probably at an early age to serve at the
highest level of government. Now, for children and young
people here today, if you want to know what castrated means,
ask your parents or responsible adults, because I don't want to
go into it. But basically for us, it sounds
a very strange thing to do. It's a very alien thing to do is
I just don't have the idea of it.
But but back then in the ancient world, if you were a eunuch, you
could serve the royal family without being considered a
threat. So you could, you were no longer
a threat to the women in the royal household and you were no
longer a potential rival to the king.
So to be a eunuch in the ancient world was actually a real help
socially to a lot of people. But in almost every other way,
for a Jewish man like Philip, and for this Ethiopian who has
just travelled to Jerusalem, he is an outsider.
First of all, he's a foreigner. He's from Ethiopia in Africa,
which is the very edge of the known world at that time.
He's what the Bible calls a Gentile, someone who is not born
Jewish and so seem to be excluded from the people of God
and the promises of God. And we've just thought he's a
castrated man and as a result, he was excluded from worshipping
God in the temple in Jerusalem alongside other people with
various physical defects and imperfections.
So Deuteronomy 23 verse one makes that clear.
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter
the assembly of the Lords. So verse 27, even though this
man has gone to Jerusalem to worship, he wouldn't have been
allowed into the temple in Jerusalem when he got here.
This was a man who, for all his wealth and high social standing,
was familiar with being rejected, being excluded from
the people of God. And what made that more painful
for him is he's clearly a seeker.
He's someone who wants to know God.
Why did he travelled all the way to Jerusalem from Africa?
We are told to worship God. He was a man looking for
answers, a man looking for the living God.
For all his wealth and social standing, he wasn't satisfied
with what this world had to offer him.
He travelled to Jerusalem to worship God.
He wanted to know who God is and what it means to follow him.
So here he is, an axe sitting in his chariot, reading from the
Jewish scriptures, the book of Isaiah.
He is looking for God. He's looking for answers.
And I wonder, as we pause for a minute, is that a good
description of anyone sitting here this morning?
Are the people sitting here here looking for something more out
of life? You aren't satisfied with the
answers we get from the world around as you go.
Well, maybe there is a God. If so, what?
What is he, she it like? What does it mean to know this
God? If we're seeking after God, this
is the right place to be this morning.
And also you, you need to see something that the Ethiopian
eunuch discovered here in this passage.
See, even as this man was looking for God, he discovers an
amazing truth. God has come looking for him.
This man thinks what I'm I'm looking for God, I'm looking for
answers. But actually, he discovers in
the course of his conversation with Philip, God is the one
who's made the first move. God comes looking for us through
His Son Jesus and through Jesus followers in this world,
empowered by the Holy Spirit. See if you look at the opening
bits of this encounter in Acts 8 that the writer of Acts, a man
called Luke, goes to great lengths to show the Lord is
clearly leading Philip here. It's not Philip's idea to go to
this desert Rd. He's really enjoying life in
Samaria. He's having great success there.
But no, it's an Angel of the Lord, verse 26 who told Philip
to go South to the desert Rd., the road from Jerusalem to Gaza,
the main route into Africa. And verse 29 it's the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit who tells Philip to go up to The Ethiopians
chariot and stay near it. It is the Lord, the living God
who wants Philip to meet and speak to this Ethiopian man.
The reason this meeting happens at all is because God made it
happen. God has come looking for this
Ethiopian. It's a mind blowing truth for
him to grasp, for any of us to grasp again, for Duke and for
Mark. Actually in many ways this is
the day for your story, for us to hear your story of coming to
faith. But actually the reason that
you're here today is because God came looking for you, because
Jesus came looking for you, because the Holy Spirit is at
work in your life. And maybe if you're a Christian
sitting here today, you can reflect on the same truth.
Think back over the events that led you to trust in Jesus, the
people you met who pointed you to Jesus, the little
coincidences at key moments in your life that led you to Jesus.
It probably felt at the time that you were the 1 seeking
after God, but in reality, God is the one who was looking for
you. He's the one who made the first
move, and He's the one who's brought Mark and Duke to the
point of getting baptized today. So back to Acts chapter 8.
Once the Lord had LED Philip to the Ethiopian man, what happened
next? We're going to pick up the story
in the middle of verse 27. So Luke writes this man had gone
to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home was sitting in his
chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man
reading Isaiah the prophet. Back then in the ancient world,
you wouldn't read quietly to yourself.
You would read aloud so Philip can hear what he's reading.
Do you understand what you're reading?
Philip asked. How can I, the Ethiopian said,
unless someone explains it to me.
So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
It's a really interesting little exchange here.
So again, we're we're reminded again of the great wealth of
this Ethiopian. He's in his chariot.
He's got this massive scroll he's reading from.
We're also reminded of a spiritual hunger.
He is hungering after something more.
So when Philip runs up to the charity, here's what the man's
reading. He says, well, do you understand
what you're reading? And Ethioman's response actually
tells us a lot about him. He says, how can I, unless
someone explains it to me? And he invites Philip on to the
chariot. I want to see this is a sign of
real humility on the part of the Ethiopian.
He is humble enough and honest enough to say actually, no,
Phil, I don't understand this. And I want to understand it
again, for many of us actually maybe do have questions about
God, life, the universe, everything.
But we're a bit embarrassed to open up about that.
We want to look like we have the answers.
And this Ethiopian, he was a wealthy man, a a high-ranking
official would be really easy for him to go.
Well, I'm in the charity you're running.
Why would I listen to you Philip?
But no, he's got the humility to say I can, I understand unless
someone explains it to me. He wants answers and he's humble
enough to ask for them and to listen to the answers he hears.
And what is Philips message to this man?
Which a couple of things stand out.
I think first part of it is this.
Jesus is the key to knowing God. That's what Philip's saying to
this guy. Jesus is the key to knowing God.
So The Ethiopians reading from a passage in the Old Testament
written by the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53, we'll look at
the content of that passage in a moment, but for now, all we need
to see is the Ethiopian. He is baffled by it.
Verse 34 he says, tell me please, who is the prophet
talking about, himself or someone else?
And again, I love this about the Ethiopian.
He is so honest. Like many of us, he finds the
Bible to be a confusing book. At first he's not sure what the
passage means. He's not sure who Isaiah is
talking about. So Philip agrees to help him
understand what he's reading. Verse 35 Then Philip began with
that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about
Jesus. According to Philip here the key
to understanding the book of Isaiah is understanding Jesus.
Jesus is the key to unlock the meaning of the Old Testament.
To understand the meaning of Isaiah 53, Philip has to point
this man to Jesus because Philip knows Jesus is the key to any of
us knowing God. And Philip would have learnt
that from the apostles who have been taught it by Jesus himself.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, he spent 40 days with his
disciples, opening up the message of the Old Testament
with them. And he said this to them.
Everything must be fulfilled. That is written about me in the
Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.
Then Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the
Scriptures. Jesus has all the Old Testament,
Law of Moses, prophets, Psalms, the whole bit.
It points forward to me. It's fulfilled in my life, death
and resurrection. Jesus says if you want to know
what God is like, if you want to know what God means in the Old
Testament, you look at me elsewhere in the Gospels.
In John verse 14, he says to his disciples, anyone who has seen
me has seen the Father. If we want to know what God is
like, we look at Jesus or John 18 saying no one's ever seen
God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and in the
closest relationship with the Father has made him known.
Jesus makes the invisible God visible.
Jesus shows us what God is like. Jesus shows us everything that
God has done for us. If we're sitting here with
questions about is there a God? If so, what is he like?
Philip and the other parts would say, well, look at Jesus.
When you look at Jesus, you're looking at the living God.
So Philip tells this man, Isaiah 53, it's all about Jesus.
And more than that, Isaiah 53, it's one of the clearest
pictures anywhere in the Bible of the full extent of God's love
for us in Jesus. Because this bit of Isaiah
reminds us, teaches us that Jesus suffered and died so we
can be washed clean and welcomed in to God's people.
That's the message of Isaiah 53 for the Ethiopian man, and it's
the message of Isaiah 53 for all of us here this morning.
Let me read that for us again. It's in verse 32 to 33.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading.
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb before its Shearer is silent, so he did not open
his mouth. In his humiliation, he was
deprived of justice. Who can speak of his
descendants? For his life was taken from the
earth. What does this bit of Isaiah
tell us about Jesus? It tells us that Jesus is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
That's what Philip wants to see. Ethiopian to see.
Jesus was silent before his accusers, the Jewish religious
leaders and then the Roman governor Pilot.
He was deprived of justice. He was innocent of the charges.
He was convicted of. His life was brutally taken away
at the cross. He experienced hatred and
rejection from the people around him.
And I wonder if somebody that last bit that really connected
with this Ethiopian, remember this Ethiopian eunuch is used to
being rejected, excluded, looked down on even.
And here he reads about Jesus, the one Isaiah is pointing
forward to, Rejected, excluded, humiliated.
It's the suffering and humiliation of Jesus that really
connects with this Ethiopian man.
But but as he hears this, he must be asking the question,
well, why? Why did Jesus have to suffer and
die? Why did Jesus have to be
rejected like this? And Philip almost certainly
would have taken him a little bit earlier in Isaiah 53.
These words in verses 4 to 6. Surely He took up our pain and
bore our suffering. Yet we considered Him punished
by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was on Him and by His
wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. Each of us has turned to our own
way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
That is the heart of the good news about Jesus that Philip
shares with the Ethiopian man. Jesus suffered and died on the
cross to wash us clean and welcome us into God's family.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray.
None of us has loved God the way we should.
None of us have loved the people around us the way we should.
All of us naturally just care about ourselves.
We're we're turned in on ourselves.
But he took up our pain and he bore our suffering.
Jesus didn't just stand back or abandoned us to sin and death.
No, He entered our world of sin and death.
He became one of us, and he suffered and died to save us
from sin and death. He was pierced for our
transgressions. We're the ones who deserve to be
punished by God for the things we've done, the way we refuse to
love God or love people. But on the cross, Jesus took
that punishment on himself, and by his wounds we are healed.
It's because Jesus went through that rejection, that
humiliation, that suffering, that death, that we can be
healed, we can be washed clean. It's the very wounds Jesus
received on the cross are the signs of our forgiveness and his
love for us. And how can any of us benefit
from what Jesus has done? Well, very simply, we just stop
trying to save ourselves and we come to Jesus.
We ask him to wash us clean of our sins.
We put our faith in all he's done for us and we receive the
new life with God. He died and rose again to win
for us. I want to see.
That's exactly what the Ethiopian eunuch does as they
travel along the road. Verse 36, They came to some
water and the eunuch said, look, here is water.
What can stand in the way of my being baptized?
And I want to say, actually, I think that question might still
come from a slightly anxious and fearful place.
For this eunuch can remember, he is used to being rejected by
religious people. He's used to barriers being put
in his way, preventing him from approaching God.
Maybe he thinks maybe Philip's just got, he's holding something
back. He's about to bring out the big
reason why baptism doesn't apply to him.
But if that's the case, if the eunuch is still fearful that
Philip might tell him there is still a barrier in the way,
well, Philip has really good news for this man, his thanks to
Jesus, his saving life, death and resurrection.
There is nothing standing in the way of the Ethiopian unit
getting baptized, nothing standing in the way of him
putting his faith in Jesus and being welcomed, washed clean by
the living God. Jesus removed every barrier
standing between US and God. That's what Isaiah 53 tells us.
As a demonstration of that, Philip baptizes the Ethiopian.
So what is baptism in this passage?
It is a picture of our new life with Jesus.
If you look at verse 38, we, we're told that Philip the
Ethiopian eunuch went down into the water, Philip baptized and
then verse 39, they came up out of the water, going down into
the water. In a few moments Mark and Juke
will be doing this. They'll be out in the in the
baptistry, in the playground and we will put them under the
water. And that is a sign of them dying
with Jesus. Their old way of life, of
ignoring Jesus, living for themselves, not trusting him.
That is over. That person is no longer here.
And then after a very short time, we bring them up out of
the water, and that's a picture of their new life with Jesus,
with Jesus as Lord, as loved man, loved by the Son of God and
part of his people forever. Baton is a picture of our new
life with Jesus. It's a reminder that we're
washed clean by Jesus no matter what we've done, no matter what
our background, our past, our present struggles, no matter
what other people might think about us.
Jesus died on the cross to wash us clean from our sin, and as a
result, we are welcomed into God's family forever because
Jesus was rejected. Because Jesus was punished, we
will not be rejected or punished if we put our faith in Him.
He is now defeated, sin and death and the devil, and we're
now welcomed into God's family, the church, forever.
If we put our faith in Jesus. Nothing stands in our way
anymore. And just as we bear to leave
Acts 8, I hope we can see now why baptism is such a precious
gift from Jesus again. In a little while, Mark and Duke
are going to get baptized in that playground, just like the
Ethiopian eunuch here, just like Christians throughout history
who follow Jesus and obeyed his command.
And when we gather around that baptistry pool, we get to see
Jesus love for Duke and for Mark.
We get to celebrate all that Jesus has done for them.
And that's a precious gift from Jesus to remind us that he still
saves people today. He still comes looking for
people today. He still washes us clean and
welcomes us today. So if you're sitting here this
morning and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, you would
say, I, I, I don't know really much about what Christians
believe. It is wonderful you're here
today. I just, let me just invite you,
as you've heard me explain a bit of what this baptism means.
And I'd say it as you're about to hear Mark and Duke tell their
stories of coming to faith in Jesus as you stand in the
playground a little bit and see them go under the water and come
up out of the water. Just I'd invite you to think to
yourself, what do I make of this Jesus?
What I make of the stories I'm hearing about him?
What would it mean for me to know this Jesus to be washed
clean and welcomed because of all that Jesus has done for me?
And if you're sitting here today and you're already a follower of
Jesus, and this morning you can rejoice in the new life Jesus
gives to Mark and Duke and to everyone and anyone who puts
their faith in him. You can rejoice that just as you
see them go under the water and come out again, same reality has
happened in your life. You're washed clean.
You're welcomed by Jesus into God's family forever.
This is a good day. It is a joyful day for Mark and
for Duke and for all of us because Jesus came into this
world, suffered, died, and rose again to wash us clean and
welcome us into God's family forever.
Let me pray for us as we prepare to move on.
Let me pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
this picture of baptism. Thank you, Lord, this morning we
have the privilege of witnessing Mark and Duke get baptized.
We thank you, Lord, that you know that we work so much better
with pictures. We need to understand more of
what it is you've done for us in Jesus.
And Lord, we thank you that baptism shows us that this new
beginning, this new life with Jesus, washed, clean, welcomed.
I pray for each one of us that as we leave this place, in a
little while, we would have met with you.
We would be hungry to know more of you, whether we are a
follower of Jesus, whether we're not there yet, Lord, just like
this Ethiopian eunuch discovered.
Would we be amazed that you're the God who comes looking for
us? You're the God who bears the
whole cost for washing us clean and welcoming us home.
Thank you Lord God, for the love and grace you've shown each one
of us. We pray we'd understand more of
it as a result of having met together today.
In Jesus name we ask it Amen.