The Kingdom Unhindered: Acts 8:26-40 (2)

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Intro

OPENING ILLUS: There are moments in life where one decision, one conversation, or one seemingly small redirection changes the entire course of your future.

I remember when I was trying to decide where to go to seminary. I was very close to going somewhere else. In my mind, it probably would have made more sense at the time. It may have even seemed like the better option on paper.

But the Lord directed things differently, and I ended up going to a different seminary. At the time, it just felt like a decision about school.

But looking back now, I realize that decision affected almost every major blessing that came afterward. Because had I gone somewhere else, I would not have met my wife. I would not have met one of my closest friends, who later asked me to come join him in ministry at a church in Oklahoma. Which means I likely would not have served there. Which also means I probably would not have ended up here.

And what’s amazing is that at the time, I had no idea how significant that decision would become. It just felt like one step. One road. One choice. But years later, you can look back and see the providence of God all over it.

And I think many of us have moments like that. A random conversation. A job opportunity. A move. A delayed flight. A person you almost didn’t talk to.

At the time it feels ordinary. But later you realize God was orchestrating far more than you could see in the moment.

And that’s exactly what we encounter in Acts 8.Philip is told by the Lord to leave a fruitful ministry in Samaria and go stand on a desert road that seems completely insignificant.

But what looks like a random detour is actually a divine appointment that will help carry the gospel to the nations.

Title: A Kingdom Appointment

Main Idea: The kingdom of God seeks and saves those the world considers distant, excluded, and out of place

Sermon

This morning I want us to see five points about kingdom advancement as it pertains to a divine appointment.

Thus fare in Acts, there has been a lot more emphasis on large movements of the Christian faith, but Acts is also a book the provides us with personal conversations that were divine initiatives.

1. The Kingdom Calls Believers to Unexpected Places vv. 26-27

Acts 8:26 ESV

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.

First I want us to take note of the fact that we’re told that the angel of the LORD is the one speaking to Philip.

This is not the first time that an angel of the LORD has been referred to in Acts:

Acts 5:19 ESV

19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,

(In reference to Peter and John)

These references to an angel of the LORD provides us with the understanding that behind the scenes of everything that is going on there exists a divine directive.

What we have for us here in this book, is not merely the Acts of the Apostles, what we have are the Acts of the LORD that are carried through by the Holy Spirit and his divine agents.

This is why the kingdom is advancing unhindered. It cannot be stopped! Not because these men and women are so great, but because there is divine orchestration behind everything that is going on.

So, this encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch is framed with an understanding that it is a divine encounter. God through his messenger, is directing Philip to where he needs to go.

And the other reason that we can know that this is a divine encounter is because of where Philip is sent. It’s a road between Jerusalem and Gaza, that is described as a desert place.

(LOOK AT THE MAP)

It’s in the middle of nowhere. We like to call these places Timbuktu.

Now just think:

Philip’s ministry in Samaria = very fruitful…

So, if you were on a ministry planning committee you’re thinking you want to keep up the momentum. We want to continue working where the people are.

But that’s not what God’s plan is. God wants to do something with Philip, that if we’re honest, doesn’t make a lot of sense from a analytics perspective

ILLUS: Analytics in sports…

And if we’re honest, a lot of times in the church we operate in an analytics manner…

“What can we do to draw in the most people?”

We gauge whether or not an event is successful based upon how many people there are.

So, let me say this, we can’t control numbers… that’s in God’s hands. And some times the numbers that we want and strive for, is actually not what God wants.

God often times has other plans for specific people. Here in Acts, God has a plan for Philip to do something in a remote location with one individual.

So I think we need to concern ourselves much less with numbers, and much more with faithful obedience.

Let me just speak frankly… I know churches that have set goals for how many people they want to baptize in a year, and how many people they want to have plugged in to a small group… those are not bad things. And it’s not bad to pray for those things.

But what I want to advocate for is faithfulness. God will produce the fruit in the people that he wants, we simply need to be faithful to what he has called us to do.

And that’s exactly what we see of Philip at that beginning of v. 27:

Acts 8:27 ESV

27 And he rose and went.

Now I think that Luke wants us to compare and contrast Philip the Evangelist, with an OT character who had been called by God to go to a place that seemed strange to the individual, a place that the individual, in fact, did not want to go to. JONAH…

Jonah 1:1–3 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Here was see a prophet of the Lord called to arise, and go and speak against a city, that was completely wicked.

And Jonah arose…and went in the exact opposite direction. And the narrative emphasizes that Jonah keeps going down, and down, and down, away from the presence of the LORD.

And as the narrative continues you learn the reason for why Jonah ran away. It wasn’t that he was fearful of the Ninevites… it was that he knew that God was gracious, and that should they repent God would be merciful, and he didn’t want God to be merciful to them.

So, in Acts, you might say that Philip is the anti-Jonah…

Jonah is called to rise up and go to a strange place where he is supposed to have a conversation, with a strange individual.

And the text simply says, “he rose and went.” No questions, just complete faithful obedience.

Philip understands that the Gospel is crossing all kinds of ethnic and socio-economic boundaries, and this is not off-putting to Philip, he is now beginning to see the world the way that Jesus sees the world.

This brings us to the second point:

2. The Kingdom Calls Believers to Unexpected People v. 27

Acts 8:27 ESV

27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

This verse actually provides us with a lot of information here, that can clue us in to what Luke is wanting us to understand about the spread of the gospel to this individual

There’s several descriptors that serve to communicate to us that this man would have been considered a man of the margins. He would have been viewed as out of place in the culture.

So let’s take these descriptors one by one:

The first descriptor is that he is an Ethiopian man.

That means he was a black man. Ethiopia, which the Bible also refers to as Cush, was in Africa. And for the Jewish understanding, Ethiopia “embodied the distant south” (Schreiner).

From a Jewish worldview, this man would have been understood as out of place in Jerusalem.

Secondly, this man is described as a eunuch. (WARNING…)

I want to try and be careful here, but in case someone doesn’t know, being a eunuch meant that they were physically emasculated…

And because of that, many cultures of that day thought of eunuchs as existing between a male/female binary. So, it’s almost as if they didn’t have a gender, from the perspective of the day.

But listen, even according to the laws of the OT, eunuchs were considered impure, and were kept out of the temple:

Leviticus 21:18–21 ESV

18 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, 19 or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, 20 or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. 21 No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

Deuteronomy 23:1 ESV

1 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

So, a Eunuch was considered unclean, and didn’t have the full benefits of the community.

Thirdly, this man is said to be an official of Candace, who was the queen of the Ethiopians, and he’s in charge of all her treasure.

So, at least within his own society, he as an elevated status… but the Greek, Roman, and even Jewish cultures, would have looked down upon a queen being the ruler of the nations.

“this service also may have been a sign of his effeminacy, for Greeks and Romans maintained that female rule was a further sign of the effeminacy of ‘other’ nations.” (Patrick Schreiner)

In other words, working for a queen would not have gotten him many browny points among the Greeks and Romans.

And then we’re told one other thing about him, that he had come to Jerusalem to worship.

Here is a man of the south, in what could have been referred to back in the day as the land of Sheba, and he is coming to Jerusalem—the place that has been understood as the mountain of the Lord—and he is coming to praise the LORD.

I believe Luke understands this to be the first step in the fulfillment of passages like:

Psalm 72:10–11 ESV

10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! 11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!

Isaiah 2:2 ESV

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

So, what we have here is, again, an individual on the margins. An outcast from the perspective of the Jewish culture. Someone whom the people would have looked down upon.

ILLUS: Valeting at a mansion

But we should also note that the Eunuch is someone who was beginning to fulfill a major shift in redemption history.

Because of the work of Christ at Calvary, Jerusalem has become the highest mountain in the world. It is where the kingdom of God was birthed and established, and now as the mountain is beginning to go out and fill the earth, the nations are hastening to it.

And thus, God’s people are called to be receptive to these outcast nations.

3. The Kingdom Calls Believers to Christo-centrically Understand and Teach the Scriptures vv. 28-35

Acts 8:28–35 ESV

28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “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.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

So, Philip, at the command of the Spirit, is told to go to this eunuch in his chariot.

And just as Philip arrived the eunuch just so happens to be reading from the scroll of Isaiah.

And of all the places in Isaiah that he could be reading from, he happens to be reading from Isaiah 53.

Now we know the context of Isaiah 53. It’s of the suffering servant. And this specific line comes from Isaiah 53:7-8

Isaiah 53:7–8 ESV

7 He 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. 8 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, stricken for the transgression of my people?

Now if you compare the text in Isaiah, with how it is quoted in Acts, you’re going to notice some differences. And something like that could lend you to think that Luke accidently misquoted the verse. And if so, that’s kind of problematic, because then you’re asking what other mistakes did he make?

No, I think we’re meant to see that this verse has been carefully contextualized for the one who is reading the text in Acts, which is the eunuch.

In Acts, the text says that “in his humiliation, justice was denied him.”

It seems that the Isaiah 53 passage is being read in such a manner to give hope to the eunuch.

Both the eunuch and the servant faced humiliation.

Both have been denied justice.

Both, in a sense, have lost their life (the servant physically, and the eunuch culturally)

But then after the text has been read, the eunuch asks a very astute question: “who is this about? Is this about Isaiah or is there someone else that I need to know about?

And what does Philip do, it says that “beginning with this Scripture… he told him the good news about Jesus.”

If you recall one of my first sermons here was from Luke 24 where Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and the disciples in the upper room. And there you see Jesus do something very similar.

Jesus goes to Moses, the Prophets, and Psalms, and it says that he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself.

The OT is not just a history book with some cool stories, and some books of poetry that can be difficult to read.

The purpose of the Hebrew Bible was to point the reader to the coming Messiah, the greater prophet, the greater priest, the greater king. All the stories, and poems, and prophetic literature was intentionally written to point the reader to Jesus.

ILLUS: Jazz music/KC museum

And if you’re not reading your Bible that way…, then you’re actually not reading it correctly.

1 Peter 1:10–12 ESV

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

(EXPLAIN)

Philip understands this, and so we’re told that Philip, from the prophet Isaiah (and probably other texts) guided the eunuch through the OT scriptures to proclaim the good news of Jesus.

And once the good news is proclaimed, it then requires some kind of response:

4. The Kingdom Calls People to an Immediate Response vv. 36-38

Acts 8:36–38 ESV

36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s important that we understand what baptism is.

We often speak of baptism as the “first step of obedience” after you’ve professed faith in Christ.

So we have this sinner’s prayer that one prays, and then we have a discussion about baptism, and when that should take place, but most often we treat the prayer as the most significant act.

But let me tell you, nowhere in the NT do we ever encounter a narrative or command that’s like, “Ok, if you want to be saved just repeat after me, and say this prayer.” If you find that, please let me know.

So here’s what we’ve done: we’ve replaced baptism with the sinners prayer. But in the NT it was baptism that was the profession of faith.

That’s why Acts says things like, “Repent and be baptized.” I think we should interpret that as saying, “Repent and profess faith.” Baptism was the way that they were professing faith.

And from the Jewish understanding baptism was a very appropriate sign for this action. For them, water often conveyed the notions of chaos and death.

The earth itself was created and brought forth through deep abysmal waters to bring life.

Noah was brought through waters of death and judgement, to once again bring life and blessing into the world.

As Israel crosses the Red Sea in the Exodus, the understanding is that while Pharaoh’s army is judged and is brought to death by the waters, Israel is brought to new life.

All of those narratives, and the watery imagery, provide a foundation for understanding NT baptism.

It is an allegiance swearing ceremony…, where you’re old self, symbolically dies in the water, and you are brought to new life.

When someone desires to proclaim faith in Jesus, and follow him, baptism is the immediate response.

And that’s what we see here from the eunuch.

5. The Kingdom’s Call Results in Joy and Further Gospel Expansion vv. 39-40

Acts 8:39–40 ESV

39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Two things to note, one about the continued ministry of Philip, and one about the eunuch.

First, we’re also told that Philip is carried away by the Spirit of the LORD, and that all of the sudden he finds himself at Azotus, and throughout that entire region he goes from town to town until arriving at Caesarea.

Back in verse 26 we were also told that Philip is sent to a wilderness place that is on the road to Gaza.

And so we have a number of geographical locations that are mentioned by Luke. Now I firmly believe that every little detail like this is significant to the biblical authors. What do we need to know about these locations?

Well, when you do a little research you find out a couple interesting facts about these cities. Gaza, and Azotus, which in Hebrew, was Ashdod, were two of the major cities of the Philistine kingdom.

Gaza means “strong;” and Azotus means “a stronghold” or “a strong place.” It was the place where the Philistines had built a temple to their god, Dagon. So, both of these cities were at one time understood as strong cities of the Philistines, who were opposed to YHWH.

In the book of Samuel we get this interesting account of the ark of the covenant, which was a symbolic structure of God’s presence, was taken to these cities. Do you remember that story?

EXPLAIN…

And it’s these cities that Philip goes to, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. That Jesus is king.

It’s as if Luke wants us to understand that these enemy cities, these cities that have a long history of being opposed to the reign and glory of God, now have the opportunity to hear and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here’s the other thing about these cities: these are all coastland cities

(LOOK AT THE PICTURE)

Well what’s unique about coastland cities?

Listen to these verses from Isaiah:

Isaiah 51:5 ESV

5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.

Isaiah 60:9 ESV

9 For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.

So, what’s the big deal with the coastlands?

Well, even think about today? Many of the most influential cities in the world are coastal cities.

New York…

Los Angeles…

Rome…

Tokyo…

Istanbul…

Seoul…

Bangkok…

Hong Kong…

Dubai…

Coastal cities are strategic cities for a country. They’re places of trade where there’s importing and exporting. They’re some of the first cities to receive people from other nations.

From a Jewish perspective back in the day, they were the last cities before one could reach the ends of the earth.

Luke, here in Acts, is wanting us to know that the promises to the coastlands are coming true, which means that the gospel is about to bust forth to all nations.

So that we might declare with the Psalmist in Ps 67:1

Psalm 67:4 ESV

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

Luke is letting us know that the kingdom of God continues to advance, and through the ministry of Philip it has reached the coastlands, which means the nations are next…

And thus, next week we get to see the conversion of the one who will the one primarily tasked with taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Secondly, in regards to the Eunuch, it says that he went on his way rejoicing.

We saw this last week as the good news was proclaimed in Samaria, it says that there was much joy in the city. And so it is here. When reign of Christ becomes present in someone’s life, and they are transferred out of the domain and kingdom of darkness, and brought into the kingdom of light, they are liberated, and their response is pure joy.

Now we’re not told this, but I believe that as Philip guided this eunuch through the passage of Isaiah, that went down just a few paragraphs further to Is 56:3-5

Isaiah 56:3–5 ESV

3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” 4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 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 eunuch who had lived an outcast life on the margins, has now been grafted into the covenant people of God. He is receiving the blessings and promises of a family.

All his life this man had lived with the reality of being “cut off.” Cut off physically. Cut off socially. Cut off religiously. Cut off generationally.

Then he discovers that in Christ he will never be cut off from God.

In Christ this man, who could leave no inheritance, receives an eternal inheritance.

And that is why he rejoices!

Maybe some of you have felt the same way…

Application

1. What unexpected places and people might the Lord be asking you to be a witness to?

Are there people you instinctively overlook, avoid, or assume are far from God? Are there people you subconsciously believe are unlikely candidates for grace?

2. How is the Lord calling you to immediately respond to His Word?

Have you publicly professed faith in Christ through baptism?

Is there an area of obedience you continue postponing?