Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 05 – Feb 1986
A Saviour For All
Sermon by Rev. Prof. R. O. Zorn, B.A., B.D., M.Th.
Text and Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Singing: P.H. 264; 198; 383; 410; 325.
Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The story of the Ethiopian eunuch raises a question or two in our minds.
First of all, we might ask: Why did the Spirit of God lead the writer of the book of Acts, Luke, to put this story into his account of the early history of the Church?
Was it perhaps to show that Christ’s Church includes black people as well as white and brown? This is true enough; but we already may come to this conclusion from what we learn in chapters 8 and 10 about the revival in Samaria as a result of Philip’s preaching, and the conversion of Cornelius and his house-hold under Peter’s preaching.
Well, then, does Luke include this story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch to show that the Lord and His Church are not too busy to deal with individual sheep, whoever they may be? Again, this is true enough. But there’s an even more important reason that will become clear as we give our attention to this story.
It is obvious from our text that the Lord Jesus Christ is a Saviour for all kinds of people. His Church is made up of people from all parts of the world; Jews (first of all); then Samaritans; and now, Ethiopians.
Let us therefore see how Christ, the exalted and universal Saviour, gathered this Ethiopian eunuch into the fold of His redeemed people. We will notice:
1. The messenger sent to the Ethiopian eunuch.
2. The message proclaimed to the Ethiopian eunuch.
3. The convert himself.
I. The Messenger
The messenger, of course, was Philip the evangelist. We meet him first in chapter 6 where we learn that he was one of the deacons that was appointed to relieve the apostles of necessary relief work so that they might continue to give themselves fully to the ministry of the Word and to prayer.
We also learn from the earlier part of chapter 8 that Philip had just had a notable success with the Samaritans in his preaching of the Gospel to them. His chances with the Samaritans, when he first began his ministry, would certainly have appeared to be bleak. Remember who the Samaritans were!
In 2Kings 17:24-34 and Ezra 4:1-5, we learn that their ancestors were a people of mixed race and religion who had been settled in the land of Israel by the Assyrian king after he had taken the Northern Ten Tribes into captivity. There, these people (soon to be called Samaritans), became worshipers of God because He was the god of the land they now lived in, while at the same time they continued to worship their own idol gods. Later, when the people of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) returned from the Babylonian Captivity, the Samaritans offered to help them rebuild the temple, saying that they were worshipers of the same God! Judah’s leaders, of course, refused; for the sin of syncretism was one of the very reasons why they had been punished by God with the Captivity.
Naturally, the Samaritans regarded this refusal as proud arrogance on the part of Judah. And from that time on, there was enmity between the two nations. John, in his Gospel, remember, could say, “Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
Now Philip goes with the Gospel – to the Samaritans! Of course, his going had been in obedience to his Lord’s command (Acts 1:8), “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
In a wonderful way, the Lord had melted hard hearts and rebellious spirits, and had given Philip much cause for humble thanksgiving at the great spiritual awakening which had occurred among the Samaritans as a result of his preaching of the Gospel to them.
But now we read in 8:26 that “an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’” What a surprising message from the Lord!
Philip might well have pleaded the necessity of keeping priorities straight. Would it be sensible to leave the work among so many Samaritans for what might well be considered a risky gambit on a lonely desert road? Humanly speaking, we would consider this eminently reasonable.
However, there are at least two things that we should remember in this connection:
1) It is the Lord who blesses and gives the increase wherever it occurs. At best His servants are only instruments.
2) The Lord is not impressed with numbers like we are. After all, our God will not overlook even one of His own for whom Christ died.
It would appear that Philip was mindful of these things, for without a murmur, he obeyed his Lord’s command; for he was God’s man of the moment for the particular task the Lord wished to accomplish through Philip’s instrumentality.
Of course, God could have used someone else for the job; the angel Gabriel perhaps as He did when He had Gabriel announce to Zechariah e birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary the stupendous fact that she would become the mother of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
It is also quite probable that another of God’s servants would have been nearer to the desert road leading to Gaza than Philip was. After all, he was way north in Samaria.
Why is it that the busy few always seem to be the ones to do the job? Is it perhaps because they’re organized; they’re not afraid to work? Or is it most of all that, like Philip, they put themselves at the Lord’s disposal? At any rate, if you want something important done, ask a busy person to do it! More often than not the Lord’s work is done by minorities, not majorities. Why? No doubt that the glory may be the Lord’s and not the instruments’. Philip was an uncomplaining instrument, willing to be used by the Lord wherever He deemed best. May this be true of us in the same way.
When God’s call came to Philip, he obeyed. We’re not even sure that Philip knew exactly what he was to do on the desert road – let alone whom he was to meet. But, having obeyed the Lord’s call, he trusted that the Lord would also make plain to Philip (in the Lord’s good time) just what He wanted him to do. Philip’s first task was to go where the Lord wanted him to go.
At the same time, do you suppose that the Ethiopian eunuch was praying for some help to be given him in his understanding of the Scripture he was reading from the prophecy of Isaiah? At times the ways of God’s providence and leading of our lives may be a riddle to us – like it was for Philip, or even the Ethiopian. But we can trust the Lord, as they did, because He’s in control of the whole situation. What a comfort this is to us!
God led Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. And then the purpose of God’s call to Philip became clear. The Ethiopian was reading Scripture, but he did not know what it meant. The passage he was reading was from Isaiah 53, but who was the prophet talking about, “himself or someone else?” (vs.34).
A question about Scripture like this does not mean that it is not clear. But, like the eunuch, we too, often, need help in understanding its proper meaning. And so the Lord raises up His servants, like Philip, who can give us help in this regard as we attend worship services, Bible studies, etc. The eunuch was thankful for the help that Philip could give him. Do we make thankful use of the helps available to us for a proper understanding of the riches of God’s Word?
This brings us to a consideration of:
II. The Message
We read that “Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (vs.35). That’s what Scripture is – not just Isaiah 53 – good news about Jesus!
The whole of it is a progressive revelation about Christ and the coming of His redemptive kingdom.
Now, to be sure, the Bible’s ethical teaching is lofty as it prescribes loving our neighbour as ourselves; overcoming evil with good; bearing one another’s burdens.
Moreover, the Bible’s devotional material is inspiring. The Psalms are an inexhaustible treasury. The lives of the saints are worthy examples for us to follow.
But this is not the main purpose nor the central message of God’s Word. The main message of the Bible – from Genesis 3:15 to the end – is Christ the promised Redeemer. As He Himself said, “Search the Scriptures… for they testify of Me” (John 5:39). Unless we see this, we will, like the Pharisees, miss the main purpose of the Word of God. Knowing the Word of God is good; in fact, it is all-important. But it is not enough. From it we must see how it bears witness to Christ and His redeeming work for sinners who are lost without Him.
Philip was well aware of the Bible’s purpose. And, so, from that very passage of Scripture in Isaiah, he preached Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch!
Notice how clearly and prophetically this passage speaks of Christ and His redeeming work:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the 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” (vss.32-33).
Here in this famous fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, we are told how the Lord Jesus, as the Suffering Servant, became obedient unto death as the lamb of God. No one else – and certainly not the nation of Israel – could do it. For without exception, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
And, so, God had his own answer to the problem of our sin. Rather than punish us eternally for them (as we deserved), He punished His Son who voluntarily took our place in a sacrificial death on our behalf.
This is what He did when He died on the cross.
This is the Divine answer to the problem of how God might remain just and yet be able to justify (declare ungodly sinners forgiven and righteous in His sight). Isaiah is here prophetically pointing us to Calvary!
We can understand how Philip, as God’s man appointed for this purpose, so naturally and properly preached Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch:-
The Christ of the Scriptures –
The Christ whose saving work the prophets had foretold –
The Christ who saves His people with a salvation that is a salvation indeed!
Obviously, good news like this demands a response. To be sure, salvation is the gift of God. But it is a gift that must be accepted by the penitent sinner.
For repentance means turning away from the sins that have made it all too clear that we are rebels against God, with our disobedience, selfishness, apathy, or whatever else we are guilty of in wrong-doing.
And faith means turning to God and trusting in Him for what He is – a Saviour, Counsellor and Friend in Christ.
Why, then, must we so often urge the matter of salvation upon sinners? Isn’t it odd that, oftentimes, there’s so little interest in the good news of what God has done to make sinners His people?
What a refreshing contrast it is to see the way the Ethiopian eunuch responded! He said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” (vs.36). As you see in your Bibles, the eunuch’s confession of faith, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (vs.37), is put in the margin at the bottom of the page, because it is not in the oldest manuscripts of the original Greek. Nevertheless, we may be sure that it found its way into the text of Scripture because it is indicative of what the eunuch, as a new convert, would confess in becoming a believer in Christ for salvation. And since baptism means union with the Saviour and cleansing from sin, Philip baptised the eunuch as a sign and seal of the reality of his salvation in Christ. Whether it was immersion, or affusion, or sprinkling, we are not directly told. The mode, after all, is secondary. What baptism stands for as a sign and seal of union with Christ is the important thing.
For as Christ died for sin on the cross, we die to sin when we are joined to Him in salvation.
As Christ rose from the dead in newness of life, so we rise to newness of life in Him. The Apostle Paul put it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Once again we are impressed by the wholehearted response of the Ethiopian eunuch. There was no hesitancy; no delay. For as the Lord Jesus reminds us, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
It is time now that we have a closer look at:
III. The Convert
Scripture plainly tells us who he was. He was “an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” (vs.27).
The treasurer of any government is an important person, for the position he fills is one of responsibility and trust.
Was Philip perhaps a bit daunted by his assignment, as God’s Spirit told Philip, “Go to the chariot (of the Ethiopian eunuch) and stay near it” (vs.29)?
We tend to overlook the fact that important people, too, have spiritual needs that are as real as anyone else’s; even though, more often than not, they’re harder to reach. How praiseworthy, therefore, it was of Philip to take full advantage of this Divinely provided “open door” of contact with this important government official! For God has His people in high places and low, whom He wants us to reach with the Gospel of His redeeming grace in Christ.
The Ethiopian eunuch may have been an important official in Queen Candace’s government. But as a eunuch he was also something else – an unfortunate, mutilated form of humanity.
The cruel practice of desexing the male attendants of a queen was a long established practice of the ancient world. So, this eunuch had probably been trained for his work from the earliest years of his life. No doubt he had had nothing whatever to say in the matter of whether he wanted to be a eunuch or not.
Are we aware of the fact that God’s Word has something to say about eunuchs? In Deuteronomy 23:1 we read, “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” Why this seemingly harsh Old Testament ban against eunuchs being members of God’s household of faith? Simply because, by this regulation, God was teaching His people that He does not want His image-bearers to be mutilated. For what is a eunuch? Neither a man nor a woman.
What God wants us to understand here is that, in the fight against sin, He is not pleased if we desecrate His image. What He wants us to realise, rather, is that His grace is sufficient to transform our sinful natures so as to make them what they should be – holy in Christ!
Is there, then, no hope for the eunuch, mutilated and de-humanised beyond his ability to prevent it? Ah, since God promises His people wholeness in the salvation they receive by His grace in Christ, there is hope also for the eunuch!
Already in Isaiah 56:3-5, we read, “Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’
“And let not any 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 not be cut off.”
Here we learn prophetically from God’s Word what Christ in His salvation was ultimately to do in granting His people a wholeness of renewed life that sons and daughters, or any other of mere mankind, would never be able to do. And, since this prophecy is also in Isaiah and not far from Isaiah 53, do you suppose that this Ethiopian eunuch may even have been reading about this precious promise? The promises of God’s Word give surprising hope and comfort, sometimes in the most unexpected places!
From our text (in vs.27) we learn that this Ethiopian eunuch could be regarded as a second class proselyte of Judaism, for he was on his way back from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship. As a proselyte of the gate, he could stand in the back of the court of the assembly worshipping God. But he could never become a proselyte of righteousness, a full-fledged member of God’s Old Testament people. He could worship God and in doing so, longingly await the day of full salvation in Christ.
Now do you see why Luke, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, has included this story of the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversion in his book of Acts? Christ’s salvation can do what nothing else can accomplish; make lost – even mutilated – sinners whole with a redemption that will be finished only when all are complete in Him, transformed fully to His image and likeness!
This also helps us to understand the form of his question in vs.36, “Look here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” In effect, he was asking, could Christ indeed save him, a eunuch, or was there still some unremoved barrier to block the way? Thank God, Christ indeed could – and did – save him!
In the old dispensation he may have been a second class citizen in the household of God. In Christ, he was now a full-fledged member of the family of God.
No wonder he went on his way rejoicing! Suddenly, he had a greater treasure than all the gold of Queen Candace’s treasury put together. Suddenly, he had become the custodian of the true wealth of the kingdom of heaven!
He could now share it with others in the same way that Philip had shared it with him. And the paradox of this treasure is that the more it is shared with others, the richer one becomes!
So he returned to his land, there to be a light to shine for his Lord in the place of his appointed service. The Lord had more work for Philip to do elsewhere (vs.40). So, while he couldn’t go with the eunuch, the Lord could and would – as He does with all His people.
Jesus still saves all who come to Him.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.
Whosoever will, may come!
AMEN.