The Faithful Ministry of Philip

Introduction

The history of FBCR is marked with some faithful leaders. Mike Lerma, Joel Royce and Jody Caskey are just three men who faithfully served this church from the pulpit and pastorally before I came to serve. Each faithfully followed God’s call on his life and made my job significantly easier to lead the church today and into the future, until the time comes when I’ve completed the work that God has for me here and another will, hopefully, be able to follow their example of faithfulness.

But, a church isn’t successful simply because of the pastor. A pastor who fails at the role can hurt and even destroy a church, but a church cannot be successful long-term just because of a pastor. It takes a congregation full of faithful men and women in order for a church to experience long-term success. In reality, the laity of the church matter much more than the pastor because it is the laity who will most effectively apply what is preached to their life and to their service to the Lord and His work in our community.

As the laity, it is wise to personally apply all the lessons of the Bible, and specifically the examples of other lay leaders that we find in the Bible. One such leader has been key in the last two sections we’ve looked at. His name is Philip. This morning we will see another story about Philip’s ministry. In looking at this passage we will see three important truths that the modern church must apply from the ministry of Philip so that we can experience the Spirit moving in our midst as Philip did throughout his ministry.

Body: Acts 8:26-40

Verses 26-29

When God calls, Philip obeys without questions.

Notice, the Lord never tells him why he’s going, just that he needs to go.

This must have been especially interesting (and possibly confusing) to Philip because he was being called to leave a place of fruitful ministry in Samaria and to go to a desert place (i.e. a road that was typically untraveled because it led to the desert).

In fact, Gaza is about fifty miles southwest of Jerusalem, and was the southernmost of the five chief Philistine cities.

See, God saw a bigger picture than Philip could have comprehended.

When God says “Go,” just go. He knows better!

We are introduced to an Ethiopian eunuch.

Ethiopia, in the Bible, is the remote area south of Egypt, including parts of modern day Eritrea (air a tree ah), Ethiopia, and Sudan. It was considered the edge of the earth to Greeks and Romans.

It was actually the ancient kingdom of Meroe. The kingdom was wealthy because of its iron smelting, gold mining, and trading position, being a conduit for trading for the rest of the continent. In the OT it is referred to as the kingdom of Cush.

Luke doesn’t say that the eunuch was a convert to Judaism, and in fact he could never be a full convert because of his ‘blemish,’ i.e. he was castrated.

The word eunuch refers to either an emasculated official in the royal court or to a high official of government. It was common in the ancient world for young boys to be castrated in order to be used as keepers of the harem and the treasury. Because of this, the terms “eunuch” and “treasurer” were often used synonymously, and doesn’t necessarily imply that he was castrated. However, since both the terms “eunuch” and “official over the treasury” were used, it’s likely that he was a physical eunuch.

So, though he was a God-fearer, he could never become a full convert to Judaism because he was castrated.

But, there was hope specifically for eunuchs found in the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah 56:4–6 “For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off...”

This man was a eunuch because he was a court official for the candace, the Queen Mother of Ethiopia.

This brings us our first important lesson from the ministry of Philip:

God cares for people on the margins.

This is a wonderful lesson, because once again we see God going after people who Judaism would leave out:

He was a eunuch, a black man, and a foreigner. That’s three strikes with Judaism. However, not with God or with the Christian church.

So it should always be!

Of course, we need to extend this to our time.

Who might Christians today give strikes to at the outset? We shouldn’t give strikes to anyone, but we too often do.

Truth be told, many of us were on the margins at one time as well. In fact, we still may be on the margins!

1 Corinthians 1:26–30 “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”

Notice something else, throughout this story, it is God who takes the initiative. Philip just obeys.

This is a reminder that we are vessels of God’s love for the world.

Romans 10:12–17 “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Once Philip obeys, then he’s given and idea what he must do.

One of the greatest things we can do as believers is to help others understand the Scriptures!

Verses 30-35

In ancient times, people often read out loud, thus why Philip heard him reading.

Philip asks a great question: Do you understand what you are reading?

It doesn’t assume ignorance and allows him to share what he knows.

It also indicates that Philip is willing to help.

Sure enough, he needs guidance, which of course Philip offers.

The passage he was reading was Isaiah 53:7-8, which are prophetic about Christ.

This of course was not by accident! The Spirit was already at work.

This is true today too. We need to remember that it is only through the Spirit doing a work on someone’s heart that they can come to the Lord. We are just messengers.

Additionally, the process of sanctification begins before a person actually becomes a believer. Without this pre-conversion movement of the Spirit, conversion is impossible.

The eunuch wants to know who the writer was speaking about, and Philip uses this opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus with him.

In fact, this was a very intelligent question because Jews of the day debated about whether Isaiah was talking about himself, the nation of Israel or the Messiah.

Being willing to open up God’s Word and allowing people to ask questions is a great opening to sharing the Gospel.

This brings us our second important lesson from the ministry of Philip:

Jesus is the culmination of the Bible.

In order for people to truly understand God’s Word they need to interpret it from a Christian point of view.

Jesus opened the Scriptures to his followers about what the OT said about him, the young church did the same for non-believers, and we too must do the same thing!

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Therefore:

We must be students of Jesus.

Do you spend quality time with Jesus weekly in His Word?

Are you applying what Jesus teaches? (We are not truly students of Jesus unless we are applying what He teaches!)

Luke 6:46 ““Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

We must be teachers of Jesus.

As believers, we teach other about Jesus.

We do this through evangelism...

We do this through teaching...

We do this through Christ-like living...

Verses 36-40

Unless you use the KJV or NKJV, we never actually hear about the eunuch’s conversion experience.

Wait, no verse 37! What gives?

It’s not in the oldest and best manuscripts.

It’s important to remember that numbering of chapters and verses didn’t take place until much later in Christian history. In fact, the Latin Vulgate didn’t have chapter divisions until sometime between 1150-1228. And the first English Bible to include numbered verse divisions was the Geneva Bible translated by William Whittingham in 1560.

This is what’s called a scribal addition. It’s assumed that a scribe, as they were copying the old text was troubled by there being no indication of a profession of faith, so he added it in there.

However, the profession is assumed by the fact the Philip opened his mind to the Scriptures and that he desired to be baptized.

However, we can thank this scribe for adding this verse (even though it’s not Luke’s) because it gives a window into the confession of faith of the early church:

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.”

This is a great confession of faith, even for today.

They find a spot where there was adequate water and both go into the water to be baptized.

This verse, once again, shows that baptism in the ancient world was done by immersion. Just one of the reasons we do it that way. The other two reasons:

βαπτίζω means to dip or immerse…

The picture…

The eunuch would not have been a candidate for Jewish baptism because of his physical blemish.

Again, one of the best things about Luke is that again and again he shows that age, religious tradition, race or ethnic origins, or physical conditions must never keep people away from hearing and responding to the Good News.

This brings us our third important lesson from the ministry of Philip:

Baptism is an important step of faith.

Just as the eunuch followed Jesus through the baptismal waters, the church has continued to practice this important step of faith throughout Christian history. Two things to know about baptism:

Baptism is for believers.

Baptism isn’t for those who don’t know Jesus as Savior. You must come to faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord before you follow Him through the baptismal waters.

This is why we don’t baptize infants...

Baptism is a public proclamation of faith.

We don’t baptize privately because it publicly tells others about your decision to follow Jesus.

It’s a testimony...

It’s an encouragement...

It’s a call for discipleship...

After this, immediately, the Spirit had other work for Philip, so he takes him away.

The text infers that Philips was miraculously transported over thirty miles to the seacoast town of Azotus

Philip’s Gospel ministry continued on.

He went to Azotus; which in the OT was called Ashdod, one of the five Philistine cities.

It was about twenty miles north of Gaza and sixty miles south of Caesarea on the coast.

Philip would preach the Gospel in all the towns along the coast until he reached Caesarea, a large city Herod the Great had rebuilt.

Caesarea had an excellent harbor that Herod expanded for important sea traffic, and it served as headquarters for the Roman procurator such as Pilate, Felix, and Festus.

Twenty years later we hear from Philip again in 21:8. It appears that Philip had settled in Caesarea. But, we’ll see that later on down the road…not twenty years though!

We don’t know what happened to the eunuch after this, but he is an interesting story:

He is the first person of African lineage to receive Jesus. Because of this, black Africans should be seen as charter members of the faith…even before any Europeans!

Many Ethiopians today still trace the introduction Christianity to their country by this eunuch, even though this kingdom and present day Ethiopia are very different.

Today, over 60% of Ethiopians are Christian. Most belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.