Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) Acts 8:26
There is an amazing event in Acts 8. It follows on from the first major crisis for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Stephen has become the first Christian martyr, stoned by the Jews for proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, and, following this, the Jewish Christians find themselves expelled from the synagogues and forced to flee for their lives.
The Apostle Phillip flees to Samaria. You might have thought that he would have opted for a quiet life, kept his head down. But no. He preaches boldly about Jesus and God does some amazing miracles – demons are cast out and many lame and paralysed people are healed, and we’re told that the whole city is full of joy.
It is all going so well. People are coming to faith, the whole city is agog, the church is being established. What Jesus had promised at His ascension, is being fulfilled;
‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ Acts 1:8
Everything is going as planned.
But then we read,
‘Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.)’ Acts 8v26.
Why? What a stupid thing for God to do!
The church is growing, people are coming to faith, all is set for the establishment of a significant Christian church in the city of Samaria – just as Jesus promised.
So why would God pull Phillip away from that? It is so stupid! Why take Phillip away from a city on the cusp of turning to Jesus, and send him out into the wilderness? It just makes no sense! And it was a 40-mile walk!
But Phillip is obedient. Maybe he was as confused as we are. He might even have been annoyed. But he gets up and walks away from his successful ministry in Samaria to go for a long walk in the wilderness.
As he walks along the road, he hears a chariot trundling by. In it is an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace (pronounced kan-dah-kay), queen of the Ethiopians, he is in charge of the Queen’s entire treasury.
After the Babylonian conquest, some Jews were exiled to Ethiopia, and this Eunuch has just made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, so he may well have been a convert to Judaism.
We know that he is wealthy and educated; firstly, because he is riding in a chariot – you had to be exceptionally wealthy to have that kind of transport – it’s like us seeing someone in a Rolls Royce. Also, he is reading, not a common skill at the time.
We are told that he had been to Jerusalem to worship and was now returning home. This foreigner is passing the time by reading the Hebrew Scriptures. Phillip knows what he is reading because in ancient times people always read aloud, never silently. Phillip knows his Bible and recognises the passage.
We are told five times that this man is a eunuch—he has been castrated as a child. This was common for slaves in the ancient world. Eunuchs looked physically different. Often, they were shorter and softer than normal men, and usually beardless. The reason for castration was to make them infertile, so that there could be no ‘accidents’ in the rich households where they lived and worked.
We are told that the passage the Eunuch is reading is from Isaiah 53.
‘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.’ (Isaiah 53:6-7)
Philip, like Jesus, is tuned in to spot signs of God’s activity and to go and stand beside them when he sees them. A foreigner reading Jewish scriptures gets Phillip’s attention. So, he jogs along beside the chariot and asks a spiritual question, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
It is a bit of a cheeky question. But instead of having his guards give Phillip a slap, the eunuch acknowledges his confusion and invites Phillip to climb up into his chariot and explain this scripture to him.
So, Phillip takes this text about the Suffering Servant and shows how it has been fulfilled in Jesus and his death on the cross. He must have gone on to talk about Jesus, share the gospel message, and told the eunuch about how Jesus has given baptism as the way we are initiated into the Church.
The Ethiopian Eunuch spots that they are travelling by a river, he says, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ Acts 8:36
Now this is a real question.
The Ethiopian Eunuch has just come from Jerusalem where he has experienced rejection by the community of faith.
How do I know that? Well, in Deuteronomy 23 and Leviticus 21 it is specified that eunuchs were not allowed to join in with the public worship of God, nor could they become priests.
This was not a judgement upon them, but because they were considered “blemished”, imperfect. So, even though this man may have been a Jew, or a proselyte to the Jewish faith, he could never enter God’s temple in Jerusalem.
He is religiously and ritually, as well as physically, cut off.
Poor guy! Less than a man, less than a Jew, mutilated as a child so that he can never marry and have a family, excluded from the worship of the God he believes in. Now he wonders, will Jesus accept him?
Now, I like to think that Philip also got the eunuch to turn over the page – or more accurately, to roll down the scroll – because three chapters further on, we read Isaiah’s prophecy about the glorious messianic future.
Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56vv3-7
Wow! By sheer ‘coincidence’, Phillip arrives just at the right moment, when he is able to point the foreign Eunuch to a scripture that explicitly describes God’s promised future for him.
Isn’t that incredible! Isn’t that wonderful and beautiful. The amazing timing of God.
Can you imagine the impact that this Scripture had upon the Ethiopian Eunuch?
He has just come from Jerusalem, where he has been refused entry into the temple of his God because of something done to him by others, not by his choosing. He is a wealthy and powerful man. People like him don’t get refused very much, very often. He has been shamed, humiliated, made to feel second-class, rejected.
But what does Phillip show him? He shows him that God loves foreign eunuchs.
God knows their pain, God feels their loss. And God is working towards a future in which foreign eunuchs will no longer be excluded from temple worship but will take an honoured place within it; God will hear their prayers, God will give them joy, God will accept their sacrifices, and there will come a time when all nations will pray to God together, side by side.
So, does anything prevent this Ethiopian Eunuch from being baptised?
The answer from Isaiah 56 is a clear and resounding ‘No!’
So Phillip baptizes him but as they come up out of the water, Phillip is miraculously snatched away.
I imagine this really annoyed Phillip.
The baptism seems to have been a bit ‘previous’, something suggested by the Ethiopian Eunuch before Phillip had got to the end of his gospel presentation.
I’m sure Phillip still had a whole list of things he wanted to share with the eunuch. I’m sure as they were climbing out of the river, Phillip was about to say, Now, I have a few more things to tell you…’ Maybe Phillip intended to stay with him a while, make sure that he had everything clear.
Plus, it must have been fun riding in a chariot, I’m sure Phillip had never done that before in his life. Maybe he was wondering if they could swing by past the other disciples and he could wave out of the window!
But, as they come up out of the river, Phillip is supernaturally taken away and he finds himself in Azotus. I bet he was a bit peeved.
It is another stupid thing for God to do.
Why would God let this guy go on his way after only an hour’s religious instruction? There is so much more he needs to learn.
But, this Ethiopian Eunuch continues on his way home.
He is the first African convert to Christianity.
He returns to Ethiopia and becomes the first African missionary. His high rank enables him to share the Christian message with the royal court.
Tradition tells us that he baptised Queen Candace himself and that this began a succession of Christian Ethiopian leaders.
As the royal household comes to faith in Jesus, Ethiopia becomes the first Christian country in the world – only 4 months after Jesus’ resurrection!
There is an interesting footnote to this story.
The place to which Phillip was supernaturally taken to, Azotus, is called ‘Ashdod’ in the Old Testament, it was one of the cities of the Philistines.
Now, Psalm 87:4 states,
‘I will count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me— also Philistia and Tyre, and even distant Ethiopia. They have all become citizens of Jerusalem!’
Phillip has just been used to bring an Ethiopian to faith in Christ, now he is sent to a Philistine city to bring them into the Kingdom.
The point is subtly made, God is bringing this prophecy to completion! As Jesus had promised at his ascension,
‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
So what? What lessons are there for us in this story?
Are we interruptible? Can God call us away from things that are working well, being successful, when the Church is growing? Will we accept being redirected into what seems like a wilderness, with little hope of any fruit or ministry success? Can God ask us to do ‘stupid’ stuff?
Are we attentive? Can we spot signs of spiritual interest and openness? Phillip spotted a foreign man who was interested and intrigued by Scripture. He was courageous and went and stood beside what seemed to be the activity of God. Are we tuned in for signs of God’s activity? Are we detectives of divinity, willing to go and stand beside what we perceive might be God at work?
How well do we know Scripture? Phillip knew his Bible. He recognized the Isaiah text. He was able to show how it all pointed to Jesus, how Jesus fulfils it in every detail. He could point the Ethiopian to specific texts that spoke to him and his circumstances. Can we do that?
Can we trust God and believe that it is an encounter with Jesus, however brief, that qualifies you for mission, and is all a person needs to be able to bring others to faith?
I’m sure Phillip never knew what God did through him in that brief encounter, or what amazing fruit came from his obedience, his willingness to be interrupted, his knowledge of scripture, and his capacity to share the story of Jesus.
I’m sure for the rest of his life, Phillip would from time to time stop and think to himself, ‘Remember that weird day with the Ethiopian Eunuch? What was that all about?
Can we take hope that there may be many conversations and encounters that we have had in our lives, that maybe we never understood or even noticed at the time, but that God may have used in amazing ways.
I’m sure that when Phillip went to glory, the Ethiopian Eunuch was there to meet him.
I’m sure that he ran up to him, threw his arms around him and said, ‘Brother Phillip! Have I got an amazing story to tell you!’
There is no expiry date on the gospel seed. We sow. We hope.
Maybe one day we will be surprised. Amen.
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