1.
Please pray with me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing
in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen.
From the Apostle John we learn that “God is Love,” and He’s shown Himself to us
by sending “His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him”
(1 John 4:9, 16). By the ministry of the Gospel, “He’s given us of His Holy Spirit,”
so that we also believe and confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”
Today, God’s love is illustrated to us in Philip’s preaching of “the good
news about Jesus” to the Ethiopian eunuch. And when “they came to some
water,” the eunuch was baptized into the very Gospel that Philip had
preached (Acts 8:35–38). That Ethiopian was grafted into “the true Vine,”
Jesus Christ (John 15:1), just as we’ve been through Holy Baptism and the
hearing of God’s Word. The message is
entitled, “Amazing Grace at Gaza,”
and it’s taken from our reading from Acts 8 today. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Born
in 1725, John Newton was the son of a merchant sea captain. Enduring a
difficult childhood he ran away from a forced tour of duty in the Royal Navy
and became a servant of a white slave trader. During a storm at sea in 1747, he
turned to God but continued in the slave trading business. Finally, in 1764 he
became a pastor of the Olney Parish in Buckinghamshire, England and served
there for 15 years as an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer. We remember Newton
well for the hymn that he wrote, “Amazing
Grace.” When
Newton died in 1807, friends wrote his epitaph for the gravestone in Olney. It
reads, “John Newton; once an infidel and
libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the
faith he had long labored to destroy.”
3.
Few
Christians will have a testimony anything like that of John Newton, but the
African connection between the eunuch of our text and this historic version of
a slave trader reminds us again of the magnificent grace of God in their
lives—and in ours. What
did these early believers do? They testified and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus
wherever they went. Like Newton they had been touched “by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” and like
Newton they determined to share it with others.
4.
And
what was this message that was preached to the Ethiopian Eunuch here in Acts 8?
The message Philip preached was based upon Isaiah 53:7, 8, fits beautifully
into our Easter season. Isaiah writes,, “7He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the
slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened
not his mouth. 8By 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, stricken for the transgression of my people?
5.
God’s
Suffering Servant, our Lord Jesus, has come.
The prophet Isaiah is sometimes called the great evangelist of the Old
Testament. This passage from Isaiah describes our Savior’s suffering and death.
The Lamb of God, the substitute for sinners, went without complaint to suffer
injustice and execution. Philip could tell the good news of Jesus on the basis
of this passage because that’s what the passage is about. Everything foretold by the prophets is
fulfilled in Jesus. And Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the proof that he’s
the promised Messiah and that he’s redeemed us from sin. As the Easter season winds down, we’re also
looking ahead to Pentecost. Our text today from Acts 8 introduces the Holy
Spirit and his work to us. It was the Holy Spirit who drew Philip to the
Ethiopian’s chariot. It was the Holy Spirit who worked faith in the heart of
the eunuch by the gospel which Philip preached.
6.
In
our text today we also see God’s interest in the individual sinner. For the
sake of one soul, God took Philip from a successful mission field and sent him
on a journey which took up precious time.
God is gracious and He wants all men to be saved. His kingdom comes
through the means of grace by the Holy Spirit.
7.
In Acts 8:34-35
it says, “The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking
about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of
Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” We’re not able to say how much the eunuch
knew of Jesus, or what he’d heard about Jesus and his followers while in
Jerusalem. At any rate, the Ethiopian
asked the right question, whether Isaiah was speaking of himself and his own
troubles, or speaking of someone else. To the searching question of a troubled
sinner in the desert, Philip proclaimed the answer revealed from above. Philip
told the eunuch the good news about Jesus!
8.
This is the opportunity every true
missionary, every concerned Christian, looks for. Philip’s work was made easier
that day by the fact that the eunuch was already reading his Bible and was meditating
on one of the outstanding Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Philip had a text of scripture already to show the man, and he made the most of
it. He preached Jesus. Philip proceeded to tell the eunuch in detail of Jesus
Christ, his person and his redeeming work.
9.
Acts 8:36–38 says, “As they traveled along the road, they came to some water
and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he
ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the
water and Philip baptized him.” Here
we see that the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. From what he now knew, from
what Philip had told him, from the conviction the Holy Spirit had worked in
him, he requested baptism for the forgiveness of his sins.
10.
Acts 8:39, 40 says, “When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went
on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about,
preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.” These verses contain at least three
important points: First, we see that the Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The
work we do is God’s. He directed Philip all the way. Second, the eunuch went on
his way rejoicing. Heaven alone will reveal the results as this man returned to
his homeland with the joy of the gospel singing in his heart. It’s not
difficult to imagine this man sharing “the
good news about Jesus” with his own family, friends, and countrymen. Third,
what about Philip? Mission work is never done. The work of the church goes on.
As Philip traveled on, he preached the gospel.
11.
Here in Acts 8 we see the importance
that our Heavenly Father places on the Sacrament of holy baptism and the
hearing of God’s Word. Martin Luther
says about baptism, “Whoever is baptized
in Christ is baptized through His suffering and blood, or, to state it more
clearly, through Baptism he is bathed in the blood of Christ and is cleansed
from sins” (WLS § 127). We must
remember as Christians that baptism isn’t our work, but the work of the Holy
Spirit. For even in Acts 8 we see that
it was the Lord who provided both the resources and means to carry out His
mission. The message of salvation through Christ goes out to all people,
bringing forgiveness and blessing (Rm 1:5, 16). It’s interesting to note that Ethiopian
Christians today trace their beginning to this Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8.
12.
God leads Philip to bear witness to
and baptize an important official from Ethiopia, ensuring that Jews in Africa
and also Ethiopians would likewise receive the Gospel. The Holy Spirit brings
the eunuch to faith through the Word and Baptism. Today, rejoice in the Word
and Baptism you’ve received, through which the Holy Spirit continues to work in
your life. God’s amazing grace is shown
here in Acts 8 and in your own life through His Word and the sacrament of
baptism. Please pray with me. Heavenly
Father, through Your Holy Spirit, rekindle my desire to read and hear Your
Word, acknowledge Your gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation given to me in
my Baptism, and help me to respond with joy and care for others. Amen.
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