A DIVINE APPOINTMENT
ACTS 8:25-40
NASB
25 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.
26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ([a]This is a desert road.) 27 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, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his [a]chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this [a]chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 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.
33 “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY;
WHO WILL [a]RELATE HIS [b]GENERATION?
FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.”
34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 [[a]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.”] 38 And he ordered the [a]chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, [a]but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip [a]found himself at [b]Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
8:26 [a]Or This city is deserted 8:28 [a]Or carriage 8:29 [a]Or carriage 8:33 [a]Or describe [b]Or family or origin 8:37 [a]Early mss do not contain this v 8:38 [a]Or carriage 8:39 [a]Lit for he was going 8:40 [a]Or was found [b]OT: Ashdod
NLT
25 After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News.
26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south[*] down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
33 He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”[*]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”[*] 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.
[8:26] Or Go at noon. [8:32-33] Isa 53:7-8 (Greek version). [8:36] Some manuscripts add verse 37, “You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.” And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Being an effective witness for Christ is neither easy nor natural. God knows that. He understood the problem so well that He instructed the followers of Christ to remain still until they received divine power to help them achieve the difficult and to accomplish the supernatural. Only then could they become His witnesses at home, across town, and around the world (1:8).
Most of us struggle with our responsibility to be effective witnesses for Christ. We’re hampered by fear, mostly of the unknown. We’re discouraged by ignorance, worried that others will ask questions we can’t answer or that we won’t “get it right.” And —let’s face it —we’re held back by indifference; we just don’t care enough about others to tell them the most important news they’ll ever hear. So, we ease our guilty consciences in all sorts of clever ways while avoiding the Lord’s most direct command: “Be My witnesses” (1:8).
Philip the deacon is perhaps the finest example of personal, one-on-one evangelism we have in the book of Acts. We can learn a great deal from his encounter with an earnest traveler on a lonely road.
— 8:25-26 —
After Peter’s ugly encounter with the phony Simon Magus, he and John returned to Jerusalem. On their way, the apostles took their time, stopping to preach and teach in Samaritan villages. Meanwhile, an angel appeared to Philip in Samaria and sent him to a road that led down from Jerusalem (2,500 feet above sea level) to the Mediterranean seaport of Gaza —a route that probably headed south from Jerusalem slightly before descending along a ridge toward the valley of Elah in the Judean hill country. Luke inserts a parenthetical comment that “this is a desert road” (8:26), meaning one unfrequented by people.
Philip’s Ministry. God called Philip away from his ministry in Samaria to a road running southwest from Jerusalem, where he evangelized and baptized an Ethiopian official, probably before reaching Gaza. Philip was then “Spirited away” to continue preaching in Azotus, to the north.
Bear in mind that the angel didn’t tell Philip why. Furthermore, Philip didn’t know whom he would meet. From a human perspective, the new orders didn’t make sense. He was instructed to leave his extremely successful ministry among the many populated villages of Samaria for a lonely road in the remote hill country, a two-day journey south.
— 8:27-28 —
Luke’s simple, direct language reflects Philip’s response: He obeyed immediately. Somewhere along the remote road, he saw an “Ethiopian eunuch” (8:27) from the country of ancient Nubia, which was also called Cush, north of present-day Ethiopia. The people of “Ethiopia” occupied the region between the Nile and the Red Sea, from Aswan in southern Egypt to Khartoum in present-day Sudan.
EXCURSUS: CAN I GET A WITNESS?
ACTS 8:35
I’ve seen a lot of evangelism methods used in my fifty-plus years of ministry. Some are better than others. I don’t think there’s any single method of sharing the gospel that works for all people at all times, but there are at least three models that everyone should avoid.
The Bounty Hunter
The bounty hunter wakes up in the morning all excited about explaining the basics of Christianity to anybody and everybody, regardless of the circumstances or people’s interest level. Everybody he meets, he tells: the guy at the gas station, the woman in the grocery store, the delivery man at the office, the friend of a friend, the person in the next booth at the restaurant or sitting next to him on the plane. Ready or not, here he comes!
On the upside, the bounty hunter definitely gets results. By sheer force of numbers, a percentage does hear the gospel and respond. On the downside, how many are pushed away and become more resistant to the gospel as a result? That doesn’t matter to the bounty hunter. He feels the end justifies the means and feels relieved of any guilt. In fact, many bounty hunters dismiss any concern for being offensive. They rationalize that “the message of Christ is offensive to an evil world,” without stopping to think that they might be the offending element, not the gospel.
My friend Bob told me that the first person he ever saw witnessing was a girl he knew in high school. She wore out-of-date clothes —dark, long dresses, thick hose, and a little hat —and carried “a 4-ton Bible.” She used to hide behind the lockers and, whenever someone would walk by, she’d jump out, shove a tract into their hands, and say, “Don’t blame Jesus if you go to hell!”
Bob said, “I thought, Fine, I won’t blame Him!”
Bounty hunters care more about decisions and numbers than changed lives and relationships.
The Egghead
Eggheads like what I call “the Ivy League approach.” An egghead is the opposite of the bounty hunter in most ways. Rather than appear too eager or overly zealous, the intellectual witness says, “Let’s discuss the world’s religions.” The egghead is an expert in apologetics but never gets to the bottom line: a decision to trust Christ.
The Ivy League approach has a few advantages. This method recognizes the broad spectrum of human opinions, seeks to understand other points of view, and cares to communicate the point through dialogue. It’s educational. It’s even stimulating to discover how one religion differs from another and how they’re similar. Eggheads find more information to fill their already-crowded heads.
The disadvantage: It’s reason-centered and rarely works. People don’t generally come to know Christ because they lost a debate. The problem of sin isn’t an intellectual problem; it’s the result of rebellion against God. A decision for Christ is a crisis of the will. That’s not to say apologetics doesn’t have its place in evangelism. The effective use of reason helps demonstrate that Christianity is a reasonable faith. That helps keep the entrance uncluttered. Then, once a person’s heart becomes receptive to the gospel, apologetics can help clear away intellectual obstructions from the path to Christ.
The Secret Agent
Truth be told, most of us are secret-agent Christians. These believers rationalize their lack of initiative by declaring themselves “silent witnesses for God.” They hope their lifestyle will do all the talking. They’re waiting for somebody to walk up and say, “Friend, I’ve been watching your life. And I’m interested in knowing how to receive Christ as my personal Savior. Do I receive Him by faith?” When that happens, the secret agent will tell the individual all about Christ and how to know Him personally. Problem is, that never happens.
I’ve heard people say, “Wait —which is more important to God, your life or your message?” That’s like asking a pilot, “Which wing is more important, the left or the right?” A plane must have both, or it will never get off the ground.
The advantage of being a secret agent is that you never offend. This method also keeps you accountable to maintain a life of authenticity, integrity, kindness, and generosity. But this approach comes at the cost of a terrible disadvantage. It’s a self-centered means of easing your conscience while shirking a solemn responsibility given by Christ.
Clearly, the best approach brings together the most effective elements of all three. Be transparent about your relationship with Jesus Christ and talk openly about your spiritual growth. Study other religions and engage people in thoughtful, respectful, and calm conversations, taking care to listen and to offer rational responses to questions. By all means, let your life do the talking —but not all the talking! At some point, once you have gained trust and have earned a fair hearing, get to the issue at hand: the need to repent of sin and to accept Christ’s gift of eternal life.
A eunuch was a surgically castrated male. In some ancient Eastern civilizations, a man could volunteer for service in the palace on the condition that he surrender all or part of his genitals. Sometimes the procedure was quite brutal, and a significant number of volunteers didn’t survive the trauma. In addition to demonstrating loyalty, castration also served a practical purpose: The surgery virtually eliminated the most common motives for treachery. Consequently, eunuchs became highly trusted servants of the court. In this case, the eunuch administered his nation’s treasury.
Candace is not necessarily a personal name; it may have been a title, like Pharaoh, Dauphin, or Shah. According to some historians, the Nubians “regarded the sun as the father of their kings, and gave the title Candace to the mother.”[62] Her authority was almost absolute, often greater than the king’s. For what it’s worth, her name might have been Amanitere, although the exact dates of her reign are in dispute.
Though the religion of the Nubians would have been just as pagan as that of their Egyptian neighbors, this eunuch had just worshiped in Jerusalem. Jewish law prevented eunuchs from becoming full-fledged “sons of the covenant” (cf. Deut. 23:1); nevertheless, this one was evidently quite committed and even owned a copy of the Scriptures. Hand-copied scrolls, meticulously produced by a Jewish scribe, cost a fortune. Everything about the man says he was a devout worshiper of the Hebrew God as well as a man of education and financial means.
On his way down the hill country in his carriage, he read from Isaiah 53. (The Greek term harma [716] indicates a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by horses, which came in two varieties, the military chariot and a traveler’s carriage.) Other people may have been walking alongside the carriage, perhaps listening, when Philip ran to catch up.
— 8:29-31 —
It was not mere chance that the eunuch was there; the Holy Spirit had arranged a meeting. Luke doesn’t tell us how the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip, but I lean toward his hearing an audible voice, not merely a thought in Philip’s mind. Earlier an angel had instructed Philip (8:26). In addition, the events before and after the encounter display a distinctly supernatural character. Regardless, the Spirit directed Philip to approach the carriage. The eunuch had been reading aloud, as was the custom, so the deacon used this opportunity to open a conversation.
— 8:32-34 —
The portion of Isaiah read by the eunuch comes from the last of four “servant songs” (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13–53:12), in which an anonymous servant of Yahweh acts on behalf of God’s people. In this last song, the servant suffers punishment for the sins of his people, despite his personal innocence. The song suggests resurrection from the dead as a reward for his selfless sacrifice. The eunuch focuses on the climax of the servant’s horrific suffering:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? (Isa. 53:7-8)
The man asked an astute question: Who’s the prophet describing? (Acts 8:34). Jewish theologians had been wrestling with the very same mystery for a long time. The Jews of Jesus’ day thought of the Messiah as a warrior-king who would vanquish Israel’s foes, lead them into prosperity, and rule from the throne of David forever. So they ruled out any thought of the Messiah being this Suffering Servant; after all, how could a dead man vanquish any foe or rule from any throne? No one in Jesus’ day had considered the possibility that the Messiah might die to save His people and then rise from the dead apart from the general resurrection of the righteous to become their everlasting King.
— 8:35-37 —
Earlier, Jesus had identified the Suffering Servant as the Messiah and then claimed to be the fulfillment of this prophetic song (Luke 22:37; cf. Isa. 53:12). Like Peter, Philip “preached Jesus” (Acts 8:35; cf. 5:42). If he followed Peter’s pattern, he showed that Jesus is the Christ, that He suffered the penalty of sin for the world, that He rose from the dead, and that He offers forgiveness to anyone who trusts in Him.
Luke’s original manuscript almost certainly omits the details of the man’s conversion. Acts 8:37 doesn’t appear in any of the earliest manuscripts; it appears only in the “Western” family of manuscripts, so called because they originated in the Western Roman Empire. At some point, a scribe probably inserted the text because it seemed strange that the eunuch was baptized with no mention of his conversion.[63] Even though it’s not original to Luke’s text, the verse offers a glimpse of what the early church west of Rome thought about conversion. They clearly understood baptism to be a rite for believers only.[64] And the content of belief was relatively simple: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
— 8:38 —
Philip evidently took the eunuch’s belief at face value. While they rode, the eunuch saw water and an opportunity for water baptism, and the deacon saw no objection. Luke’s description strongly supports baptism by immersion in keeping with Jewish tradition; otherwise, there would have been no need for both of them to enter the water. Some suggest that the men could have entered the water where Philip could have poured or sprinkled the eunuch, but both men were familiar with the Jewish baptism of new converts, which required full immersion.
EXCURSUS: TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND THE RELIABILITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
ACTS 8:37
I have always disliked the term “textual criticism.” It suggests that experts in the field have dedicated their lives to criticizing the Bible until the text of Scripture is either meaningless or untrustworthy. Undoubtedly, some scholars have attempted to do just that. But many fine men and women pursue the true intent of textual criticism, which aims to ascertain which of the thousands of ancient manuscripts contain the original words the Bible’s writers dutifully penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
As Paul, Luke, James, Peter, John, and other men in first-century Christianity wrote, the Holy Spirit prompted them to include all the information we would need to believe and obey God, and He kept them from error as they wrote. What emerged was divine truth, preserved in ink on papyrus. And because these words of the church’s apostles and prophets were recognized as authoritative, prophetic truth, copyists made duplicates by hand for distribution to other churches. Then copies were made of these copies, and more copies were later produced from those copies. Before long, hundreds of copies circulated among the churches. Meanwhile, the papyrus of the original texts deteriorated.
The original scrolls are long gone now, and unfortunately, the process of copying was not perfect. An added word or phrase here, a dropped word there, some letters confused with others. Then those small errors in one manuscript became a part of every copy created from it. Occasionally, a scribe would inadvertently create an error by trying to correct an earlier mistake —or what he thought to be a mistake —thus propagating another “variant.” Many centuries later, we have uncovered more than five thousand manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts, all of them containing some portion of the original words of the New Testament.
A good example of this phenomenon recently showed up on bulletin boards all over the United States. Years ago, someone copied what I had written in a piece I titled “Attitudes.” They typed it onto a sheet of paper in order to produce a rudimentary poster. Someone else liked it and copied it for a couple of friends, who displayed it on their bulletin boards. Later on, copies of those copies were handwritten and/or faxed and copied again. Before long, my original piece had been copied and faxed so many times that it was barely legible —the letters were blotched and smeared and faded. Yet very few people had difficulty reading the quote, even with missing letters and words.
Although there were of course no photocopiers, the original manuscripts went through a similar process and were treated with the greatest of care. Scribes were famously diligent; nevertheless, after hundreds of copies, some errors arose. While this manual copying system was less than perfect, it nevertheless preserved divine truth over the span of some two thousand years. The vast majority of errors are small and well known, so the meaning of the original text has not been affected. In cases where the meanings have been impacted, the sheer number of manuscripts makes it relatively easy to spot a mistake and correct it. And because most variants involve additions to the original text, the original wording is usually easy to determine.
Fortunately, we have the dedication and expertise of textual critics to analyze and compare thousands of ancient copies in order to recover the original text of Scripture. The Bibles we have today are extremely reliable copies of the original texts —as close to accurate as any church would have had back then —and all thanks to the efforts of diligent, godly scholars.
— 8:39-40 —
When the men emerged from the water, the Holy Spirit “snatched away” the deacon (8:39). The term used here, harpazō [726], means “to carry something away by force.”[65] Luke leaves little room to see this in anything but literal terms. For reasons known only to the Holy Spirit, Philip disappeared from one place and then appeared somewhere else. Luke’s choice of words implies that Philip’s sudden removal came as a surprise to him; after getting his bearings, he realized that he had been taken 20 miles to Azotus.
From the eunuch’s point of view, Philip simply vanished as soon as they emerged from the water (8:39). Nevertheless, he returned home “rejoicing,” that is, in a state of happiness and well-being.
APPLICATION: ACTS 8:25-40
Guidelines for a Winning Witness
Philip’s example offers several guidelines for how to avoid becoming an obnoxious witness, an ineffective witness, or an apathetic witness (the bounty hunter, the egghead, and the secret agent mentioned on pages 153–154). I find five helpful guidelines in the deacon’s divinely appointed encounter with a stranger.
Guideline #1: Be sensitive.
Put yourself in Philip’s sandals. Here he is in the midst of a super exciting ministry in Samaria, enjoying incredible success. Lives are being changed, families brought together, illnesses healed, and entire villages turning to follow Jesus Christ. Suddenly, the Lord says, “Leave all of that and go to a lonely road in the middle of nowhere.” Philip didn’t argue or resist. He obeyed.
An effective witness maintains a sensitive heart, ready and willing to follow the Lord’s prompting. Effective witnesses don’t just suddenly arrive on the scene; they’re led by the Holy Spirit, the same Lord who brings that other person alongside and creates an opportunity leading to an encounter.
Guideline #2: Be available.
Sensitivity has a twin named Availability. They always go together. You can’t have one without the other. If you’re sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, then you’re available for obeying His prompting. Philip didn’t question the Lord’s decision to move him from large populations and great activity to a remote road; he simply obeyed. He recognized that kingdom building is God’s enterprise; he was merely a laborer. Whether he worked in Samaria, Gaza, Azotus, or Caesarea, it didn’t matter. He was available.
Guideline #3: Be proactive.
It takes initiative to break the silence barrier. We don’t want to be obnoxious, but we can’t always lie back and wait for people to ask us for help. They don’t know what they don’t know! Most are confused by the whole subject of religion and, therefore, tentative about beginning a conversation. So, connect on a personal level, looking for opportunities to address a need they might have. Answer questions or clear up misunderstandings while remaining transparent about your beliefs.
Philip saw an opportunity in the man’s reading material. He asked a simple, unobtrusive, nonthreatening question: “Do you understand what you are reading?” (8:30).
Guideline #4: Be tactful.
D. James Kennedy illustrates the quality of tact this way:
I once heard a man walk up to a woman and say, “How are your kidneys today?” That’s the truth! I actually heard the man ask that question. Her response? Did she hit him with her purse? No, she said the following: “Oh, they’re much better today, thank you, Doctor.” I overheard those words in a hospital room. The doctor had earned the right to ask that personal question. If you doubt that, stop the next [woman] you meet on the street and ask it yourself, and see what happens.
All of which is to say, we need to earn the right to ask personal questions. We can do this by becoming a friend, by getting to know the people, by listening to what they have to say, by showing interest, by hearing them when they talk.[66]
Don’t blame the lost person for being offended if you’re offensive. That individual has every reason in the world to be offended. Earning the right to ask personal questions —and spiritual questions are among the most personal and sensitive of all —is the definition of tact.
Guideline #5: Be precise.
Beginning at that Scripture, Philip “preached Jesus to him” (8:35). Isn’t that great? He didn’t talk about comparative religion or evidence for intelligent design. He didn’t discuss theological issues or social ills. There’s a time and place for those discussions, but they are tangential to what is primary: Jesus Christ and how we are to respond to Him. While we must be tactful and address questions or objections, we must not talk around the central issue.