Out on the Desert...Without a Horse

A bit of a play on the 1971 song by the band America—A Horse with No Name

This piece of the narrative starts with a man a desert—but no horse

He does get a ride, though…in what was probably a pretty nice chariot

The Men of that Day

Philip

Philip—we’ve been seeing him for the last few weeks; the Evangelist

Skipping through the text, we find that he was first of all

Obedient

in that he took direction first from the angel of the Lord, then the Spirit of the Lord;

Why would you go south into a desert area, unless you had a good idea of why and,

Who is going to run up alongside a moving chariot to hear what is going on?

Comment on the chariot—not likely what you might recall from images of war

It may have been larger, more ornate, possibly with a driver and bodyguard, maybe drawn by oxen, not horses

Also, he was...

Listening

He heard the eunuch reading—reading aloud was more the norm in that day

You might think that reading aloud is for kids…but try it some time, especially if you’re reading something overly familiar or something difficult to digest

Informed

When asked a Biblical question, he had the answer

An Anonymous Eunuch

From Ethiopia

—somewhere in current Ethiopia, Somalia or Sudan

A servant of the queen

Candace was a title, not a name…like Pharoah

A Worshiper of the True God

It’s not likely that a Jew would be a high official, so...

How could he have been converted to Judaism? Remember the Queen of Sheba—came to visit Solomon; not unlikely that she or some in her entourage took back information on the Jewish faith and some were convinced and converted to Judaism

There may be some unanswered questions here…could a eunuch worship in the temple?

Could be that the word is used to merely denote a high official or,

By the 1st century, the temple authorities were not paying attention to the details of the law

He Was Reading the Prophet Isaiah

…but wasn’t able to understand it

…and admitted it

…and invited Philip along for a ride

Admittedly, some of the prophets can be tough…especially those that speak of a future time—Isaiah was an active prophet until around 700 BC

The Message of that Day

The 4th of the “Servant Songs” of Isaiah, being read from the Septuagint

English Standard Version Chapter 8

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

33  In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

Only a part of a much larger body, the entire “song” begins in chap. 52

It provided Philip a springboard into the Gospel

From there Philip would have been easily able to trace the Jewish expectation for Messiah to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ—this suffering servant, led to slaughter, denied justice, left without offspring and his life taken away…only to see resurrection, now to be at the right hand of the Father

He could then have tracked the followers of Jesus, reciting the events which brought the early church into being…including repentance and baptism

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah was Jesus

Now fully understood in the light of His life, death, resurrection and ascension

The Message for Today

Lessons from the Men

From Philip

Obedience

Even when it may not make sense—into the desert?

Running alongside this chariot of a man he didn’t know?

What might God ask you to do? Where might He ask you to go…under what circumstances?

Listening

…to the question…more on this later

Having the Answer

The right answer, the true answer, the full answer…and giving it clearly

The answer was in the question, who was this man?

From the Eunuch

Diligence

He had been worshiping, was reading…and willing to ask the questions once they came up

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The underlying word for seek, ekzeteo, carries the thought of earnest or diligent seeking

With this verse, we can read into the narrative that this eunuch was diligent in his worship of God…and wanted to know more

He was reward for his diligent seeking

There’s a big lesson there for us, summed up in 2 Tim 2 15

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Faith

NERD WARNING!

There is textual discrepancy and footnote: v. 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

The earliest of manuscripts do not include it—seems to be a western addition, not appearing until 500-600 AD Codex Laudianus; earlier manuscripts, e.g., Sinaiticus, from early 4th century didn’t have it

Is it harmful? No, it is an explanation by a scribe wanting to help

There is very little dialogue

It might have been nice if we had the entire dialogue—but it might have been a long one, we don’t know how long Philip stayed in the chariot

Likewise, it would have been nice to know exactly the words Jesus used while talking to the two along the Emmaus Road---teaching them beginning with Moses and all the prophets (Luke 24)

Once Philip explained the Gospel—beginning with those two verses from Isaiah, he apparently unfolded the entire account of Jesus—and the Eunuch, thirsty for this truth, drank it in

His acceptance and his true faith is obvious in his request for baptism

Mission Accomplished

The Eunuch went on his way rejoicing

Tradition tells us he took the Gospel home and founded a church in Ethiopia

Philip was outtathere! underlying word harpatzo “snatch away”

Then preached his way to Cesarea

Our Mission

The most important lesson here is understanding the Gospel—and its connection to all of Scripture

Philip KNEW the OT history and could easily connect the dots between Isaiah and cross of Christ

Charles Spurgeon was quoted “Start with the text and make a beeline to the cross.” I’ll take a slight twist on that

Start with the question, and make a beeline to the cross”

Why do I say that?

One of the things we see imbedded in this narrative is that Philip knew—no doubt be the empowering of the Spirit—the right question to ask

The Eunuch’s problem was really simple—he didn’t understand the text

We deal in a culture in which people don’t know the text…they don’t have a clue what the Bible says…but they still have questions

Lives are in turmoil, families are in shambles…and people are needing answers, though they may not even be able to frame the questions

How can we help?

Draw close to those hurting

Hear their problem—sometimes that requires some time and some digging

As they allow you into their lives, offer Biblical solutions to their issues

Our ultimate goal is to bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ…but that may be several layers of Q&A from the place you start