Grace to Every Race

When I was a high school sophomore I was on the basketball team. I loved basketball at the time. What didn’t love was sitting on the bench, because guys who sit on the bench are watching the game instead of playing the game. We also spend a lot of time doing this (turning head), looking at the coach and waiting for him to send one of us in.

God doesn’t want his church sitting on the bench either. Just before ascending to heaven, Jesus told his disciples to take the gospel to every nation, and he said, (Acts 1:8) “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

And that’s exactly what we find his Church busy doing here in the Book of Acts. They started in Jerusalem, just like Jesus said to. And then they branched out to Samaria, preaching and teaching there. That’s where Phillip was when an angel from God told him what he wanted him to do next—he told him to head south from Jerusalem on the road that leads to Gaza to reach someone for Christ. That certain man was the Ethiopian eunuch. It’s a story today of two men who really couldn’t be any more different—but then God intervenes in a direct way so that their lives intersect, and they end up talking about Jesus. May our time in God’s Word today remind us that God’s grace is for every race, and for every nation under heaven.

In (v.26) we’re told that, “An angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’” Now, I just want you to really picture this in your mind for a moment. Phillip was in Samaria at the time, and an angel from heaven tells him—alright get up and get out there on the road heading south out of Jerusalem because there’s someone on that road who needs to know about Jesus.

The man Phillip’s supposed to go to was an Ethiopian. Again, they couldn’t be any more different. Phillip’s a Jew from Judea. The Ethiopian was a black man. Ethiopia at that time was a land that stretched from current Ethiopia north through Sudan and Eritrea all the way to Egypt in the north. So, northeast Africa. This man was a black African. Phillip was a Christian, a layman in the early Christian church. BTW—he’s not to be confused the Apostle Phillip. This Phillip is a layman, a deacon in the church which would be like someone on a Church Council today. So there’s that. The Ethiopian was also a eunuch, which means he was castrated (the sort of bodily emasculation that wasn’t allowed in Jewish culture). With eunuchs, sometimes that was done very early in life, grooming someone for service later on in life. Sometimes it was done later on in life, but if you wanted to serve in a high position in the Ethiopian royal court, this what would have to happen. The king wanted to know he could trust you with the duty of protecting his wife, or his daughters.

So these two guys are about as different as you can get. Phillip is probably an average guy in terms of income, middle income maybe, middle-aged and Jewish. The Ethiopian was likely a wealthy man (he’s got his own scroll of Isaiah that he’s reading from later—scrolls like this were hard to come by and expensive). So, likely wealthy and a eunuch, and a black man.

But God has plans to bring the gospel to this guy, so that’s what’s going to happen. As Phillip’s heading in the direction the angel showed him, the next thing Phillip knows is that God the Holy Spirit comes now, too, and he says, (v.29) “Phillip, make a bee-line for that chariot over there and stay near it.” It’s hilarious if you ask me—I imagine Phillip literally running on foot to get up alongside the chariot like the Spirit said—I picture him half out of breath as he’s running there next to the Ethiopian and he hears him reading from the scroll of Isaiah—to me this is such a God-thing—how and when would you ever see something like this happening unless God planned and did it?! (v.30) “Do you understand what you are reading?” And the Ethiopian answers, (v.30) “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”

Phillip arrives just as the Ethiopian is reading from the suffering Servant section of Isaiah, chapter 53—no coincidence there either, right?! He’s reading but he just doesn’t know what it means. It’s the part of Isaiah 53 that says, (Acts 8:32-33; Isa.53:7,8) “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

(v.34) “The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ The Ethiopian didn’t know that this was about was Jesus. So, (v.35) “Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” He learned from Phillip about how Jesus came to live a perfect life—how he was like a lamb led to the slaughter—a lamb without blemish or sin whatsoever—when they accused him he remained silent—and then that perfect Lamb of God willingly laid down his life for us sheep who so often love to wander off into temptation and sin. That’s the good news that Phillip shared with the Ethiopian that day.

So, is God into things, or what? Again, these two men couldn’t be any more different, but God had plans that day to bring the gospel to another heart. Imagine the joy and excitement the Ethiopian felt in his heart now that he knew Jesus—before he was willing to travel some 200 miles to worship God at Jerusalem—and that was when he didn’t even know the whole story about God and Jesus yet—now Phillip helps him connect all the dots about Jesus and God’s entire plan of salvation through Christ Jesus. We’re told next that they came to some water along the way the Ethiopian said, (vv.36-38) “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”

The Ethiopian wanted more of the gospel. Baptism gave him more assurance that his sins were forgiven and Jesus was his Savior, and that God would not only keep that promise of forgiveness all his life, but that he would one day take him to heaven too!

And that’s a promise and salvation God says he wants to share with all people regardless of race—God’s grace is for all the nations! Seeing things from God’s perspective, helps us remember that. Take a look at the insert in your service folder for a moment, and the beginning passage there from Acts 17, the one that says, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

All humanity has its source in the one man, Adam, and his union with the first woman, Eve. From one man God made all the nations. Some translations add the words “one blood.” Either way the meaning is the same. White, black, yellow or red, we all have the same parents and Creator. Even more importantly, we’re all in the same boat because all have sinned. The backside brings that home. Romans 5:12 says, ”Sin entered the world through one man and death death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned.” No matter what our race or any of our other differences, like income, education, gender—no matter how advanced our culture is technologically, we all need a Savior. Because of our sin, the death rate still remains the same everywhere regardless of the access we might have to quality health care—it’s still one per person, because the wages of our sin is death.

Which is why God sent Jesus, to die for all our sins on the cross. The one for the many, no matter who you are.

Do you remember what “E PLURIBUS UNUM” means? It’s the national motto stamped on all our American currency. “E PLURIBUS UNUM” — it means “Out of many, one.” The idea is that despite all our many difference in terms of race, creed, religion, and so on, that we are nevertheless united as one people. We’ve always struggled with that as a nation though, now more than ever it seems. Our country seems hopelessly divided right now. One issue being used a lot lately to divide us is the issue of race. One side says we’re a racist nation; the other says we‘re not. For Christians though, race, or any of these other political issues aren’t our main focus. We want to be good citizens. But if we really care about our fellow man, we’ll keep focussing our main energy on God’s calling for us to reach out to lost sinners with the gospel, and bring lost souls into his kingdom of grace. God’s grace is for everyone!

Maybe the added lesson for us today, is to simply be prepared and ready at any time God wants to use us. He doesn’t want us Christians sitting on the bench. So prepared. Let’s be a church that deserves witness opportunities by being in the Word, and by being a church where people feel welcome and at home as guests. Most importantly, ready yourself for witnessing by reading in God’s Word every day if you can. Be ready when God calls on you like he called on Phillip—well maybe not exactly like him—where you’re running up alongside cars heading down the hwy outside of town—but ready in terms of unexpected, out of the blue opportunities to share your faith—pray for them and be ready for them—and then just do what Phillip did—point people to Jesus—tell what he means to you—that he’s taken all your sins away and opened heaven’s doors up for you when you die. And then get ready to grow Grace—and get ready to share in your Master’s happiness!

We’re told that right after this witness opportunity with the man from Ethiopia that, (vv.39,40) “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.”

This text is an absolutely wonderful example of how the message of Easter and the kingdom of God was powerfully advancing in those early days following the resurrection of Jesus. May God continue to use us as his instruments and our church to advance his kingdom through us and we strive through our prayers, our mission offerings and our witness to bring his grace to every race and every nation under heaven! Amen.

Now, you and I know ’s the point of the whole Bible! But before you take any credit for knowing that, remember, “No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor.12:3) It’s amazing this Ethiopian even has God’s Word to begin with. He probably learned about the Jewish faith from Jews scattered by war in the see-saw of nations at that time in the Middle East. That’s why he came to worship at Jerusalem for the festivals.

if we don’t care about people enough to take the time to help them find Jesus.

What a better place in Scripture to start with someone, too, BTW, than the place where the Ethiopian was reading that day, in Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah has been referred to sometimes as the great evangelist of the Old Testament, because the way he speaks so clearly in his book of Christ. So the Ethiopian is reading in Isaiah where it says,

And today was the day Phillip was going to help this man with that. Two very different men, but as we’ll see, also two men who are in the very same boat when it comes to our sin and our need for a Savior.

We aren’t a united country any more. It’s hard to see us coming together any time soon. that might be a source of discouragement, or even anger when you see things dividing us this way, especially when you can think back to a time when things seemed different.

For example, it used to be that most people agreed that you shouldn’t disrespect or desecrate the flag. You just shouldn’t do that. As a country we used to agree that marriage is important and that it should be between a man and a woman. Can’t agree on that one anymore either. Used to be that a boy was a boy, and a girl is a girl. Having trouble with that one lately too. As a country we used to think that America stood for something important, but now that’s being untaught in some public schools where critical race theory is being introduced. We used to think that church, home and work were the three most important pieces of our life and places we needed to be, but sadly, that’s not so much the case anymore either.

So what does unite us? If you’re scratching your head about that right now, you’re not alone. Thankfully, Christians have somewhere to turn for answers. If you take a look at the insert in your worship folder today, you see a passage listed there from

You can study more about how different races and nations populated the earth over time, beginning from what happened at the Tower of Babel onward. By the apostolic age just after Christ, we’re told that people came to Jerusalem from every nation under heaven. They all spoke different languages, but then God enabled Peter and the rest to overcome that language barrier by enabling them to speak about Jesus to people in their own language so they could understand a few very basic things that unite us (Turn to the back of the insert).

Unfortunately, we’re all in the same boat because of sin. Paul writes to the Romans Sin and unites us.