Genuine Faith

Last week, we looked at the life of a man known as Simon the magician.

Simon seemed to exhibit faith at one time, but it was all about the eyes. His faith never affected his heart, because it was all about being seen, doing what looks right, and watching from a distance.

Ultimately, we saw that this kind of faith cannot save.

This morning, we are going to see the other side of the coin.

As we continue in Acts 8, we encounter a man referred to as “the Ethiopian eunuch”.

He was a high-ranking official in the court of the queen of Ethiopia, and he was on his way back to Ethiopia after coming to Jerusalem to worship.

Let’s read his story together, and as we do, I’ll try to explain some of the cultural nuances of what’s taking place…read 8:25-40.

26 – An angel commands Phillip to leave the bustling city and ministry in Samaria and head down to a desert road. Most evangelists would have a hard time with this. Why should I leave a great ministry location and head to somewhere desolate?

“Ethiopian man” - This probably isn’t modern day Ethiopia. Instead, it is the ancient Nubian empire that was closer to modern day Sudan.

“eunuch and high official of Candace” – Although the term “eunuch” may be synonymous with “treasurer”, this man was likely an actual eunuch because of Luke reiterates his position in the court. “Candace” was a royal title for the queen of Ethiopia, kinda like “Pharaoh” and “Caesar”

“heard him reading” – It was common practice to read aloud.

Since we don’t know much about ancient cultures, we miss something significant here. Phillip goes up to a high-ranking official and his entourage and doesn’t go through the formal greetings or introductions, yet the eunuch is so desperate to understand God’s Word that he doesn’t even bat an eye at the affront.

He’s reading out of Isaiah 53, which was a hotly debated passage among the Jews. Some thought it was referring to Isaiah, others thought the nation of Israel, and still others thought it was the Messiah.

That’s why the eunuch asks the question in verse 34…

Phillip knew it was referring to Jesus, so he started there and shared from the Scriptures how Jesus came to die for him.

The Ethiopian responds to the message, and places his trust in Christ, immediately wanting to be baptized.

Let’s pause really quickly at the end of verse 36:

If you have a King James, you may not notice anything different, you notice that you just keep reading through verse 37.

If you have a NASB, you see brackets around verse 37.

If you have a CSB, an NIV, or an ESV, you don’t have a verse 37…it’s in the margin or the footnotes.

What’s going on?

The short version is this: Archaeologists have found older manuscripts of the book of Acts that don’t include this verse. That indicates that it was likely added in later and wasn’t in the original text.

Because of that, some modern translations don’t include it in the text.

We don’t have time to go into it fully, but I would love to talk with you more about it over coffee or lunch.

It does tell us something interesting about the early church, though, because it likely represents an old baptismal formula, where the one to be baptized would be asked this very question and respond by stating that truth.

Now that we have a picture of what is going on in the story, let’s look at it from the perspective of the eunuch.

This story looks and sounds very different from last week, doesn’t it? Instead of focusing all on the eyes, you see that the eunuch’s faith was genuine, coming from the heart.

There are at least four indications of his genuine faith in this passage, all of which revolve around the heart.

Genuine faith has a…

1) Heart to pursue.

(27)

When we first encounter the Ethiopian eunuch, we find him on his way back from Jerusalem.

It’s likely that he came to Jerusalem months before for the feasts, and he has been there ever since.

He travelled a long way and had been there a long time, which tells us something about him.

This eunuch had a heart that was pursuing God.

We don’t know how he heard about the one true God, but he had. Now, he had come all this way to worship Him in the city in which God had chosen to put His name.

What makes this even more astounding is that this man was a eunuch.

In Deuteronomy 25:31, we find out that, even if he were to undergo all the other rites to convert to Judaism, he could never fully be a part of the community because he was a eunuch.

He would have travelled all this way and still not have been able to go into the temple.

He could have gone to the synagogues and learned and worshipped there, but he would forever have been denied access to the actual temple itself.

That tells us just how serious this man was. He wanted to know God. He wanted to find out all he could, even if he could never quite get there.

Some of you have been there. Maybe you were always fascinated by religion, so you studied and read about every religion you could find.

Maybe that’s why you’re here this morning: because you wanted to find out more.

Listen to me carefully: if you are here, or if you are watching this online, then God is drawing you to Himself.

You see, Scripture teaches us that we don’t make the first move. Jesus says:

John 6:44 CSB

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

So, then, that desire in you to find out about what Jesus did and who God is, is something that God has placed in you.

Why would He do that? Because He loves you!

He loved you so much that He would die for you, and He wants you to have a relationship with Him!

You have to make a decision, though: are you going to respond to Him like the Ethiopian, humbly turning to Him, or are you going to reject this as all too mushy and weird?

Don’t push Him away!

In the Bible, Paul was worried about some people doing the same thing in one of the churches he wrote to:

2 Corinthians 6:1–2 CSB

Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

Grace is when God gives us something we don’t deserve. He has shown you grace by bringing you here this morning…don’t reject Him!

The eunuch didn’t! As he felt God tugging on his heart, he searched and searched until he finally found how to have peace with God.

For some of you, though, your story may look a little different. You didn’t feel like you were pursuing God; in fact, you may have been trying to run as far and as fast as you could.

However, He loved you so much that He would chase after you.

He loved you so much that He wouldn’t allow you to be satisfied.

Maybe that’s why you’re here. You are tired of fighting what you know you need to do.

Why not surrender everything to Him, just like the eunuch?

Genuine faith worked in the Ethiopian eunuch to drive him to God.

When he came to that place, though, we see another indication of genuine faith:

2) Heart to acknowledge need.

(30-35)

One of the sharpest contrasts between what we see in the eunuch and what we saw of Simon is in this section.

Simon loved to be seen and was constantly trying to figure out ways to look better and have more people impressed by him.

Here, the eunuch really is somebody. He is one of the highest ranking officials in the nation of Ethiopia, which was a powerful position.

Yet, he is humbly willing to acknowledge his desperate need for someone to help him.

As we mentioned, Phillip broke through all kinds of customs by barging up and piping in.

That is a dramatic difference from Simon, who always seemed happy to be the powerful, respected one in the room.

Genuine faith is marked with a humble recognition of need.

First, it’s a recognition that we can’t figure it all out on our own.

Look in verse 31— The eunuch realized he could not figure out the truth on his own; he needed someone to come and tell him.

Remember, we said last week that the natural man can’t understand the things of God:

1 Corinthians 2:14 CSB

But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

Although this man had been seeking God, he wasn’t genuinely saved, so he couldn’t understand it on his own.

Are you willing to do the same? If you aren’t saved this morning, you cannot be saved if you won’t be willing to ask for help.

You can’t reason it all out on your own; no matter how smart you are, you are still spiritually dead before God and cannot understand the truth.

Are you willing to listen to someone who has been made alive by the grace of God help you see the truth of God’s love for you?

That’s what genuine faith does. It humbly acknowledges that we cannot figure everything out on our own and need God’s help.

Once we start seeing the truth, though, genuine faith recognizes another need.

Genuine faith recognizes that I need to be saved, and that I have nothing that I can offer to save myself.

That is the idea Jesus taught in the first Beatitude:

Matthew 5:3 CSB

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

You cannot do this on your own! That’s what we saw with Simon last week. He was trying to buy the power of God, trying to save himself by convincing everyone how powerful he was.

Genuine faith says, “Forget what others think of me, forget what this will do to my reputation or my relationship or my job or even my life; I need to be saved, and I cannot do it on my own.”

Here is a question for you: are you willing to admit that you need Jesus?

You cannot genuinely be saved without recognizing your need.

Genuine faith demonstrates that humility.

However, genuine faith isn’t just about humility.

Genuine faith also has a…

3) Heart to act.

(36-38)

As you read through this, you see that the eunuch was ready and willing to do whatever it took, even if that meant climbing out of his chariot, stopping the entourage, getting down into a muddy pond, and being baptized.

He probably didn’t have the right clothes for baptism, and he didn’t really know everything about following Jesus, but he knew that he needed to obey the commands God gives.

Here’s the reality: genuine faith always demonstrates itself through action.

That doesn’t contradict what we have been saying about genuine faith coming from the heart. Instead, it affirms it.

You see, the motivation for obedience is different.

With fake faith, we obey because we are trying to earn something. It may be recognition from others, it may be favor with God…however it expresses itself, fake faith obeys to get something it doesn’t have.

Genuine faith is the opposite. Genuine faith obeys to give back to the one who has already given us everything.

Genuine faith recognizes that we have been given a greater gift in salvation than anything we could have ever earned otherwise.

That recognition leads us to do whatever we can out of gratitude for what He has done.

The Bible is really clear that genuine faith has to show itself in our actions:

James 2:14–17 CSB

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

Maybe this is where you are. Instead of the fake faith that Simon displayed, you don’t really have any outward acts that show that you are genuinely saved.

If your life hasn’t been changed, you are not saved.

The eunuch displayed that as he immediately obeyed what God was calling him to do.

There is one more aspect of genuine faith I want you to see this morning. Genuine faith also has a…

4) Heart of joy.

Verse 39 would have been really crazy to watch.

Here you are, in a deserted part of the country, with this guy who has finally answered your questions about who the Messiah is.

You commit your life to Jesus, you get baptized, and suddenly, you’re standing there alone.

If it had been me, I probably would have been a little confused.

I might even have been angry, because the guy with the answers just *literally* disappeared.

What was the response of the eunuch? “He went on his way rejoicing.”

This is a clear mark of genuine faith: an deep, abiding joy that changes the way you look at life.

How can it not?

If you have genuinely been saved, you have been taken from death to life! You are free to be who God made you to be, no longer enslaved to the sin and desires that pull you away from living the life God designed for you.

You have peace with God, and you can never be snatched from Him!

That should produce in us a sense of joy that stays, even in the darkest days.

The Bible affirms that this should be an outcome of genuine faith:

Jesus prayed we would have joy:

John 17:13 CSB

Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them.

Paul said that joy was part of God’s kingdom:

Romans 14:17 CSB

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Peter said that our belief brings about great joy:

1 Peter 1:8 CSB

Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy,

Keep in mind, joy doesn’t always equal happiness.

Happiness is dependent on changing circumstances; joy is dependent on unchanging truth.

It was joy that let Jeremiah pen these words in the book of Lamentations:

Lamentations 3:21–24 CSB

Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.”

Not only that, but our joy is closely linked with hope.

When God talks about hope, He isn’t saying “Jiminy Cricket, Wish Upon A Star” kind of hope.

Instead, hope is the certain expectation that God will accomplish what He has said.

We can have joy in the middle of hard times because we know that there is coming a time when God will take us out of all this garbage and the difficulties of life, and that He will make it right.

So, our joy is in what God has done in saving us, and our joy is in what God will do when He takes us to be with Him forever!

Is your life marked by joy? Genuine faith produces a joyful heart.

We have seen a stark contrast between fake faith and genuine faith.

Indeed, genuine faith is all about the heart.

Genuine faith has a heart to seek out who God really is.

Genuine faith has a heart that acknowledges a need for help and salvation.

Genuine faith has a heart to act however God calls.

Genuine faith has a heart full of joy because of what God has done and because of what God will do in the years to come.