“Acts 8:25-40”

Saturday, January 02, 2016

“So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, 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 was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot.’ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He does not open His mouth. In humiliation His judgment was taken away; who will relate His generation? for His life is removed from the earth.’ The eunuch answered Philip and said, ‘Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?’ And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.”

---End of Scripture verses---

Throughout the period of the establishment and the early expansion of the church of Christ we see the Lord’s perfect wisdom and timing. In God’s perfect plan He chose the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem where thousands of people were gathered from all over the world (Acts 2:8-11), to empower the Apostles to preach the Gospel by inspiration for the first time. Thousands of people were converted from that gathering and eventually many of them carried the message of truth back to their countries of origin. In today’s reading the Holy Spirit instructed Philip to teach the truth to a government official from Ethiopia who learned and obeyed the Gospel as he was traveling from Jerusalem back to the continent of Africa. God’s plan of salvation was on the move and no human scheme of intervention would stop it from spanning the globe.

When Philip caught up to the Eunuch’s chariot, he was reading the prophecy of the suffering Messiah in Isaiah chapter 53. From that scriptural starting point, Philip “preached Jesus to him” (verse 35). We are not given the details of the wording of that sermon, but one thing is revealed for certain. Preaching Jesus involves teaching baptism because the Eunuch was primed to be immersed (verse 36). After they stopped the chariot and they both went down into the water and Philip baptized the man, they both went their separate ways. Philip travelled on through other cities preaching the word (verse 40), and the Eunuch went on his way rejoicing (verse 39) as he journeyed back home.

Friends, there is no better feeling and no greater reason for rejoicing than when you have your sins washed away in the waters of baptism (Acts 21:16). At that point you are born again spiritually (John 3:5) and you arise from the waters to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-5). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Please read Acts 9:1-18 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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