Who is this One?

Introduction

Today is Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came upon the believers in Acts 2, just as Jesus had promised them. We celebrate Pentecost because of the continued work of Jesus in our lives through His Spirit. The same Spirit that came on the believers that day is at work in us even now. Pentecost was made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection and now His Spirit continues to work in us as are His witnesses. And though this passage isn’t the Pentecost passage, it is still very much a pentecostal passage—though not in that way, we’re still Presbyterians.

Acts 8 is a record of the continued expansion of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, carried along by the Holy Spirit. We’ll meet a man who traveled thousands of miles, from the very ends of the earth, to find a God he wasn’t sure would have him. But the Spirit sent him a witness to point him the way to Jesus.

This is our main idea today: We are sent as witnesses of the Savior who became like us so we could be found in Him.

The Spirit Sends Us

The passage starts with Philip being commanded by an Angel of the Lord. Acts 8:26 ““Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.” Who is driving this whole encounter? It’s God’s agency and action that set in motion the events of this passage. It’s God who reaches out to Philip and sets him on this journey, not a place that Philip would naturally go, but that God could reach this other man.

Look at the big picture of the passage, it’s the Angel of the Lord that says to Philip: Go. It is the Holy Spirit who says to Philip, “God over and join this chariot!” and at the end of the passage, after the witnessing work is done, it is the Spirit that carries Philip away in what is one of the few, but arguably not the only, instance of teleportation in scripture. It’s a strange moment, but you see the point, God is driving everything, His Spirit empowering the witness of Christ’s disciples.

And see how the Holy Spirit guides him to a specific place, a specific chariot, and a specific individual. It’s not a command to preach to anyone who will listen, but in one place to one man who wasn’t random to the Lord, even if it felt strange to Philip.

When we’re called to be witnesses, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer need around. There are so many people who need to hear the Gospel, people in our neighborhoods, our city, our world. You are not responsible for evangelizing the whole world, Philip didn’t have to evangelize to all of Ethiopia or Africa, where this man was from. The Spirit sent Philip into the world to this single person. With whom is the Lord calling you to share the gospel, or to engage in a spiritual conversation? Maybe it’s the person on your Pray and Watch card. The Lord sees and cares about individuals, about you and me about those with whom He’s calling us to share Jesus.

Philip’s posture is instructive and encouraging for us—through the entire passage he is obedient and willing to be carried along by the Spirit of God to a faraway place and then to do something strange and uncomfortable when the Spirit says go.

The Spirit of God is guiding Philip to cross cultural, ethnic, racial, societal lines. This is the incredible inclusive nature of Christianity, it’s what Jesus said when he told his people to be witnesses to the ends of the earth because people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation will bow down and worship the name of Christ. There is no person too far off . Philip understands this and becomes then a willing participant in the Spirit’s work of reaching out to the ends of the earth. He’s obedient.

And his obedience leads to action, and it’s a weird scene! The Spirit says to Philip, join this chariot! I imagine Philip is literally running alongside the chariot, “hey! What are you reading?!” Do you understand it? And it’s a great evangelism strategy, Philip meets him where he’s at, asks good questions, and when the opportunity arrives, he’s ready to get in the chariot and point him to Jesus. But he doesn’t start with the four spiritual laws or the Roman road, he finds out where this man is already at: what are you reading? That becomes the beginning of his witness.

Before we talk about Philip getting to the Gospel itself, we need to talk about the man in the chariot.

Scripture Finds Us

Who is this man that God is drawing to Himself? Here’s what we know—Acts 8:27 “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” He’s an Ethiopian, a black African, an important official in a royal court. This would have been not modern day Ethiopia, but closer to modern day Sudan. Which makes his trip to Jerusalem and back and 3-4000 mile journey, taking many months, up to a year. This was no casual trip the man was taking. When we think about Acts 1:8, witnesses to the ends of the earth, this is what we’re talking about. We’re only in chapter 8 of Acts and through this Ethiopian Eunuch, the gospel will reach the ends of the known world!

What does it mean that he was a eunuch and why does it matter? A eunuch was a castrated man, sometimes by force, sometimes voluntarily in order to gain a position in a royal court. Many scholars believe that was the case for this man. But what was the cost? There’s the obvious: eunuchs did not marry, did not have families or children. They were also considered strange, outsiders, and cut off from the rest of society.

Yet this isn’t the only thing that defines him, he seems to be a God-fearing person, wanting to worship God in the temple, even from such a faraway place. But the sad irony for this man is that he made this enormous journey to the temple in Jerusalem, thousands of miles round trip, and because of his status as a eunuch he would have been barred from entering any further than the outer most courts of the temple, this was prohibited according to the law in Deuteronomy 23. He went there to worship, to be with the presence of God but he could only get so far. You can imagine the dejection he was feeling, the sadness or continued feeling of isolation and being cut off from everyone around him, and now cut off from this God he’s so interested and curious about.

By God’s grace, he does not completely reject the Lord, this experience has left him searching. What is he doing on his journey home? He’s reading the book of Isaiah! Specifically and importantly Isaiah 53—this is the suffering servant chapter, the prophecy that evokes the ministry of Jesus and his sacrifice for us. Why is he reading Isaiah 53? What has drawn him to these words? I don’t think he randomly opened up the scroll to this spot. It is not too far a leap to assume that he was drawn to these verses because of the words of Isaiah 56, just three chapters later. If you have your bible, turn to Isaiah 53 and see how close it is to chapter 56.

Here’s what God says in Isaiah 56:3–5 “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.”

God is speaking to foreigners and the eunuchs (check and check for this man)—those barred, again, from temple worship—and the promise of this passage: access to God! A place in His house, v. 7 says “I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer!” It’s full inclusion into the people of God, into His presence, it’s access and ability to worship Him. And God says that their blessing will be greater than many descendants! That very thing that his status as a eunuch completely prevents him from having, the blessing of God will be greater!

What is happening? The eunuch is seeing himself in scripture! Even he, this outcast, strange, foreign, totally cut-off from the world man, he sees himself in the very Word of God.

C.S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” This is what’s happening on this desert road, his whole view of the world, everything in it, even himself is changing by the light of scripture.

Can you relate? Now, I’m guessing no one here totally relates to the eunuch in this story—but have you had times when you related to the figures in the Bible, when you’ve seen yourself in the story of scripture? Maybe you see yourself in the disciples who just seem to have a hard time getting what Jesus is saying, but they love him and follow him! Maybe you see yourself in the life of Job, his ongoing suffering and crisis of faith.

And what a comfort this can be! Because when we see ourselves in scripture, we are reminded of our God who sees us—our flaws, our pain, our sorrows—and does not leave us in them.

The invitation is to step into the story of scripture and see ourselves, to see ourselves and the promises God makes to us, but not only that, but to see the One by whom these promises will be fulfilled.

This man sees himself in scripture and then might be wondering: How can what I’m reading be? I can’t get into the temple, I can’t worship, I’m cut off, I’m not allowed! There’s a dissonance between what he reads and his lived experience—I think many of us can relate to this too, the gap between the way things ought to be in the Kingdom of God and the way they still are in this fallen world. But the answer lies in Isaiah 53 and by God’s grace he’s been drawn to this passage and the Spirit has sent him someone to help him understand.

Transformed by the Savior

This brings us back to Philip showing up at the right time as he’s reading Isaiah 53.

“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.”

Philip asks the right question, observing that he’s reading scripture and, in the language of our Life on Mission evangelism training we’ve had the last seven weeks on Wednesday nights, the Ethiopian is a curious person, open to the things of faith. The opportunity is prime for a witness of Jesus to point him in the right direction.

He’s reading Isaiah 53,

“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.”

This is the suffering servant, the one who died for our transgressions, who sacrificed to make others righteous. Who is this about?! The man asks. You can begin to understand what’s behind his question now—he’s reading Isaiah 56 and it says that he can be let in, that he can know God, but the way to salvation, to knowing the Lord seems to be through this suffering servant! Who is he? Where can I find him!

Philip is ready because, of course, it’s Jesus! Our responsibility as witnesses, is to help people see themselves in the story of scripture and then point them to the truth of Jesus, Philip does that here.

Quick story, apologies for those who have heard it before: this Spring I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, to our 4-year old Hannah. We got to the chapter where Aslan, the lion King of Narnia sacrifices himself, lets the white witch kill him instead of Edmund, the boy who deserved the punishment. When we read that Hannah was incredulous: “What!? He died? I didn’t want him to die, I wanted Edmund to die!” And then we read the next chapter, Aslan resurrects, he comes back to life! We were quite excited. As soon as we finished reading, Megan came in to say goodnight and I said, Hannah: tell mom what we read “Aslan died! The white witch killed him! But then he came back to life!” Megan asked: “who does that remind you of?” And friends, I promise I did not pastor her to get her to say this, but she said “ah! It’s like our friend Jesus!”

This is what happens here: who is this about?! One pierced for our transgressions. Who is this? Philip says: oh let me tell you about my friend and my savior Jesus. This is how we ought to see all of scripture, constantly pointing us to the truth of savior, to the cross and to His resurrection, and Philip does just that!

The eunuch doesn’t just see Jesus, he sees a savior who took on pain and suffering, and in some real and meaningful way, he sees a savior who became like him, it says he was cut off from the world (something the eunuch could relate to) and “who can describe his generations?” is a way of saying he has no descendants. The eunuch sees the One who became like him, taking on his struggle and his pain and his sin so that he could be blessed and saved and brought into the household of God. Jesus was cut off and killed outside of the temple, outside of the city so that outsiders and sinners could be brought in! The eunuch finds the One who can save him, and he finds the truth of Christianity: that there is no other way to find life—not status in the royal court, not access in the earthly temple. Only Jesus Christ.

And when we truly reckon with what Christ has done, when we come face to face with the sacrifice of Christ, when we see that He went in our place, that he became like us, taking on our sin and our status, when we see this, we will be changed!

And you see, this is the heart of Christianity—it’s not doing the right things to get the right status and access, it’s about seeing what Jesus did on the cross and trusting that it was sufficient, that through his work, not ours, we can be brought into the family of God. That’s what the Eunuch is experiencing, coming face to face with the kind of sacrifice that makes no sense, but means the world and eternal life.

And his response? Is there any reason why I can’t be baptized now? I believe, I’m in the family, let me show it! He was baptized, the Spirit came upon him and he was filled with joy. You see the strange inverse of Christianity? We must face the horror of the cross and in doing so we are filled with joy, not because the cross is so great, but because we’re not on it.

We want to help people see the light and love of Jesus, that by it we are changed and transformed, then we will truly begin to see ourselves as God does—not as failures or sinners or rejects, but as children in his family! That’s the transformation of the cross.

See how the story ends. The Holy Spirit snatches Philip away, he’s gone. And the eunuch? He goes on his way transformed and rejoicing! Carrying the gospel back home with him to the ends of the earth.

Today is Pentecost and we know and believe that the same spirit who sent Philip to that desert road is at work in us today. We are sent as witnesses of the one who became like us so we could be found in Him. Let us go like Philip, obedient and willing witnesses. Let us be like the eunuch, finding ourselves in the story of our savior so we too may go on our way rejoicing.