The Ethiopian Eunuch
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The subject of our sermon today, is "The Ethiopian Eunuch." There is a wonderful vision of God given in the 68th Psalm. After the Prophet has ascribed, in the opening verses, the glories of God as He arises to scatter His enemies; and after the ascension of Christ is so graphically described in Acts 8:18; and, after the restoration of Israel is set forth in Acts 8:22; then, the Prophet, in Acts 8:31, says, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God."
The words quoted above doubtless have a far-flung fulfilment, a fulfilment which will follow soon upon Christ's Return; they, however, have an application that is most striking, in connection with the very scene which confronts us in our study for today.
I. A SEARCH FOR THE TRUE GOD (Acts 8:27)
We have no certain knowledge as to what first led the Ethiopian to turn his feet toward Jerusalem, "for to worship." In the Divine Record of the varied crowds that had thronged Jerusalem at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came as a rushing wind, and the people of many lands heard the Apostles speak in their own tongues, wherein they were born, we have no mention of the Ethiopians. We have Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, of Cappadocia, and Pontus; of Phrygia and Pamphylia, of Cretes and of Arabians, but we have no Ethiopians, Somehow, however, the story of Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, with the aftermath of the descent of the Spirit must have reached unto Ethiopia. At least one soul was moved to seek the Lord; and, laying aside the burdens of his treasuryship under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, he had come to Jerusalem to worship the great God, and His Christ, of whom he doubtless had but a vague comprehension.
He arrived in Jerusalem with a heart hungering for God. We must, however, remember that the saints in Jerusalem were, at that time, scattered everywhere through the persecution that had arisen. What the few remaining saints were doing, we know not. Perhaps they met secretly, with closed doors, for fear of the Jews. Perhaps the eunuch did not know how to find them. If he went anywhere to worship, he must have gone to the synagogues of the Jews.
Be that as it may, the eunuch had been to Jerusalem for to worship, and was returning to his home and country, unsatisfied. He sat in his chariot reading a copy of the roll of Isaiah the Prophet. He read, but knew not the meaning of what he read.
II. THE TRUE GOD SENDING SUCCOR TO THE SEEKING SINNER (Acts 8:29)
We stand wondering as we get this marvelous look into the heart of God. We remember how the Lord Jesus stood still as He passed out of Jericho and toward Jerusalem and crucifixion stood still to hear the call of a poor, blind beggar who sued for mercy. We remember how a woman who had had five husbands, but was at the time living with a man who was not her husband, caused the Lord to say I "must needs go through Samaria"; and how, at the well at Sychar the Saviour sat and talked with her who was a sinner.
Yet, withal, we wonder with amazement as we approach this scene a black man, from a faraway land appealed to the heart of God. A black man, representative of a black race, caused God to commission an angel to hasten to an evangelist with an order to press forward toward Ethiopia with a message of life.
How good is God! How great in compassion! How wonderful in love! It is still true that a seeking sinner will be met by a seeking Saviour. Heaven has no deaf ear to those who seek after God. "Then shall ye * * find Me," saith the Lord, "when ye shall search for Me with all your heart."
"None are excluded thence, but those
Who do themselves exclude;
Welcome, the learned and polite,
The ignorant and rude."
III. THE COMMAND "ARISE, AND GO" (Acts 8:26)
It was to Philip that the angel spoke, saying, "Arise, and go." The Lord did not send an idle saint; He sent one who was busy preaching and publishing the glad tidings. Not every believer is prepared to publish Christ. Not every Christian knows how to lead a seeking sinner to the Lord.
It may seem to us unwise for God to have taken an evangelist away from a successful campaign and hasten him down a road which is desert. Yet, this is just what God did. There was no explanation offered Philip there was only a plain and positive command, "Arise!" "Go!"
"Ours is not to reason why;
Ours is but to do, or die."
How refreshing is Philip's response. Hear the Word of God: "And he arose and went." There was nothing by way of arguing, nothing by way of complaint. Philip went.
When Dewey left America with his fleet, he left not knowing where he went. When he was one hundred miles at sea, he did as he was ordered, he opened his sealed envelope, and read the command of his Government, "Go to Manilla Bay and sink the Spanish Armada." Dewey went, and a few weeks later he wired home; "The Spanish Armada is in the bottom of the sea."
When God spoke to Paul, Paul was "not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision."
I have seen hands outstretched from a people in need,
Pleading, "Come now, and tell us the Way";
Song of Solomon 1:1-17 answer the word, "If Thou speakest the word,
I am ready Thy will to obey."
To the work of the Lord, I will go, I will go;
Anywhere, ev'ry where. He doth say;
I will go to the lost of the faraway land,
Or, at home, I will labor today.
We remember how a mighty man of God, Dr. R. C. Burleson, once told us of how the Lord had impressed him to speak to the young man who delivered oil on the university grounds. For a whole year he let opportunity after opportunity slip by, disobedient to the Heavenly call; then, one day, on the train to Chicago, there was an awful wreck. Dr. Burleson rushed from his pullman car toward the overturned cars ahead, and there pinned under one of the cars, the first man he saw was the young man who had so often delivered the oil. He dropped to his knees and placing his mouth close to the ear of the young man he cried, "Trust in Jesus, He will save you." The youth gave him a sad, strange look, gasped a few last breaths, and was dead.
If the Spirit speaks, saying "Go," let us arise and go.
IV. STANDING IN NEED OF HELP (Acts 8:30-31)
As Philip went his way along the desert road, "Behold, a man of Ethiopia," was riding in his chariot. The Spirit said, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot." Philip began to see the objective of God's strange command, "Arise, and go." He drew near, and heard the eunuch reading the Prophet Isaiah. Philip said, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" The eunuch replied, "How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him."
Philip asked, "Understandest thou?" How the answer of the eunuch should ring in our ears, "How can I, except some man should guide me?"
We have before us a double need. The need of a sinner, struggling for light: the need of a God of mercy wanting to answer the struggle of the sinner. Both the Almighty God, and the sinner demanded the ministry of a saint.
Of old, Christ took the loaves and fishes, blessed them, and gave them to the disciples; and the disciples gave them to the multitudes. The disciples stood between the Lord and the hungry crowd.
We too, are go-betweens. God might preach by the lips of angels, but He does not. The Lord has said, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me." We are ambassabors of God, as though God, by us, did beseech men to be reconciled to God. How can they believe in those of whom they have not heard? How can they hear without a preacher? How can they preach except they be sent?
Perhaps to the land that is distant,
God leads you on;
Where souls grope in heathenish darkness,
All the day long.
Go, then, nothing doubting, but follow
Where e'er He leads,
He'll go in the way, on, before you,
Meeting your needs.
There are many Macedonian cries: "Come over * * and help us." We may say, "Let them go, and buy victuals for themselves"; however, Christ says, "Give ye them to eat." The unsaved cannot grope their way to Christ, they need the gospel message; and we must give it unto them.
V. A GREAT QUESTION (Acts 8:32-34)
The place which the eunuch read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb 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."
How meaningless were these stirring words to the man who knew not the One of whom the Prophet spoke. The eunuch had already read how that One bore our iniquities and carried our sorrows. How that One was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. He was reading as Philip joined him, of the details of His death the death of the Substitute, of the slaughter of the sacrificial Lamb.
The eunuch wanted to know the Sin-bearer, so that he might make known his own need. He was a sinner and he groaned under the burden of his sins. Who, oh, who could help him?
Philip answered his question. He began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus. We would have rejoiced to have heard that message. With what wisdom and with what array of knowledge did Philip open up the Scriptures to a mind beclouded and dismayed.
Christ is the only hope of the lost. He is the only sin-bearer. He is the One who, like a sheep was led to the slaughter, and like the lamb, before its shearers, stood dumb.
He preached unto him Jesus. Suppose he had preached the ethics that are the burden of many a pulpit today? Suppose he had preached anything else than Christ? Then he had left the man groping in darkness.
"There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
The Gospel of the Son of God,
Can give thy soul sweet peace"
Then trust in Him, believe His Word,
He'll give thee thy release.
The Blood of Christ, the Paschal Lamb,
Can wash thy sins away;
Then come to Him, accept His Cross,
He'll take thy sin away.
The empty tomb, the Risen One,
The Christ exalted high;
Assure thy soul, then, trust in Him,
And on His work rely.
The Coming Christ, the glory cloud,
The Rapture drawing near,
Give comfort strong, and happy song,
And fill the heart with cheer.
VI. THE BAPTISM OF THE EUNUCH (Acts 8:36-38)
As they rode on their way, they came to a certain water. The eunuch said, "Here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Philip said, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." The eunuch said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Then command was given that the chariot should be halted and "they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." How refreshing is all of this!
Philip must have told the eunuch of the baptism of Christ and of how, being baptized, the heaven was opened and the voice of God came from the blue, saying", "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." He certainly told him of how those who believed in Christ as a Saviour and Lord were baptized in mark of their faith. I believe he told him that baptism symbolized the death and burial of the Paschal Lamb, the resurrection of Christ, and His anticipated Return with the resurrection of saints at His Coming.
We may not know all that Philip said, we do know the result of his words the eunuch desired to be baptized.
We know also that Philip, before he baptized the eunuch sought to assure his own heart that the eunuch was truly saved. He did not baptize the eunuch, nor were any baptized in Apostolic days merely as the method by which they might become members of a church. The eunuch and all others were baptized as a signet of their faith. They were baptized in a symbolic service; they were baptized to designate their faith in the crucified, buried and risen Son of God, and to establish their position of union with Him in His death and resurrection. Baptism to the early Christians became a public designation of faith in, and dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ.
When baptism becomes a door to the church; a method of obtaining membership, it is in danger of losing the deeper meaning which makes its ministration pleasing to God.
Let us mark the words of Philip: "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." There was no letting down of the bars to get a disciple here. We are certain that no preacher can please God and baptize any one on any less a demand than this. Nor are the repetition of words enough. We must have reason to believe that the affections of the heart are centered in Christ before baptism is accomplished.
The old theologians used to put it this way: First there must be the assent of the mind an intellectual belief; secondly, there must be an affiance of the heart an affectionate trust.
Mark the response of the eunuch. He said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." He who had just said, "Of whom speaketh the Prophet this?" now is ready to affirm, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The eunuch knew that Jesus was the One long promised who should bear the sin of many; he knew that He had come forth from the Father and had gone back to the Father he knew, he believed, he confessed and he was baptized.
VII. A COMPLETED TESTIMONY (Acts 8:40)
After Philip had preached Jesus unto the eunuch, after he had baptized him, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip: and he was found preaching in Azotus. From Azotus Philip went on and "preached in all of the cities, till he came to Caesarea."
Philip was kept with the eunuch until the eunuch was saved and baptized, then the Spirit caught him away. Not that the eunuch did not need further instruction and encouragement, but that the Lord had other work for Philip to do, and other means by which He could complete the work which He had begun in the eunuch.
We do feel constrained to suggest that salvation needs the immediate sealing which baptism gives. A believer left unbaptized, would be like an Israelite left in Egypt. Baptism is, so to speak, the bridge that spans the separation of the old life from the new. Baptism is the putting on of Christ. Baptism is the public testimony of the one baptized that he has passed from death unto life.
With his baptism completed the eunuch had taken his stand on Christian ground; he had crossed his Delaware and burned his bridges behind him.
We read that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus baptized not, but His disciples, Our commission is to make disciples and to baptize them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Let us not stop short of our full commission.
VIII. THE HAPPY CONVERT (Acts 8:39)
The eunuch "went on his way rejoicing." That is as it should have been. He knew that his sins were gone; he knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He had come to know God as a Saviour, and he rejoiced. Joy and rejoicing is the norm of the Christian life. Christ said, "These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you."
One other thing we merely suggest "he went on his way." His way was down to the land of Ethiopia. He took his new life back into the old place. He was still the treasurer of the Ethiopians, he still was in charge of all of the queen's treasure, but he was saved.
Eternity alone will reveal the far-reaching results of the conversion and baptism of the eunuch.
In the Spirit's first call to "Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert," God had in mind not alone the conversion of the eunuch, but a missionary to carry His Gospel to an unevangelized people.
Philip, therefore, in preaching to one man, and baptizing him, was in fact, touching a nation. Who hath despised the day of seemingly small things? It seemed folly to leave a city to go down a desert road; but it turned out to be the leaving of a city, to go to a nation.
Just this further word in the story of Philip and the eunuch we must not fail to get the vision of the inner throbbings of the heart of the Lord. He wants the message of salvation to go to all of the people. We dare not stop our ministrations until the end of the earth has been reached, and the Gospel has been preached to every creature in that distant clime.
Press on to the ends of creation,
O press over moor and o'er fen;
Press on with the news of salvation,
O tell it again and again.
In Christ there is no condemnation,
O preach it from hilltop and plain;
Cease not till the lost of each nation,
Have heard it again and again.