Acts 8:26-40/The Fruitfulness of Obedience

Introduction: This morning, we’re going to be in Acts 8:26-40. The past several weeks we’ve been in Acts 8, looking into a man named Saul ravaging the church which lead to the church’s scattering throughout Judea and Samaria with the exception of the apostles. We’ve also seen Philip the evangelist proclaiming the Gospel with many signs in Samaria and much joy being had in that city as a result.

And of course, last week Pastor Tommy preached through verses 9-25 covering the account of Simon the Magician and Philip again proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pick up this morning with Philip once more.

Now, before we dive into the text, I want to try to give us a main point to focus on here. I promise I’m not trying to be too cutesy or clever. But, my belief and my hope is that we can better comprehend and therefore apply what’s going on in these verses if we can see at least “a” if not “the” main point of intent of this passage. That main point being “The Fruitfulness of Obedience”.

Why I say that is because we’re going to see Philip being commanded a couple different times to actually move and do something. And, what we’ll observe by the grace of God, is the purpose and fruit of the commands given, all within a few verses.

With that in mind, it’s absolutely CRUCIAL that we understand right out of the gate by whom, unto whom, and through whom the fruit comes forth. The fruit/result/success in this passage this morning and in any and every instance comes by the Lord, unto the Father, and through the Holy Spirit of God! It doesn’t belong to Philip, he does not manifest it, but as we will read, he was simply full of the Holy Spirit, therefore born again/saved, therefore obedient, and therefore used by the Lord!

We know this because of where Philip first appears in Acts 6:1-6 “Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”.

Philip was a man, full of the Holy Spirit, a deacon, who was perhaps a gifted evangelist that understood the urgency of the Gospel message, the very message that saved him! It’s also important to note that Philips obedience was only possible because of the Spirit of God regenerating Him! Romans 8:7-11 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Philip’s God-given obedience and urgency for the Gospel is certainly evident in Acts 8, and especially evident in our text this morning. So, my prayer is that we leave convinced today that all result and all glory belong to our sovereign God. And, in this amazing truth, the Lord by His mercy chooses to use and include us in accomplishing His will on earth for His glory and utmost joy in Him.

I encourage you to get out your Bibles and read along with me in Acts 8:26-40.

8:26-27a- We see initially here that Philip, in Samaria still at this point, gets commanded to rise up and go to the road that brings travelers from Jerusalem to Gaza. I have a few observations here.

1) This seems to be the epitome of Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”. It appears that Philip would have no fleshly reason to leave first of all. And second, we see the way the Lord got him there was a command from a divine messenger! The Lord established his steps in Jerusalem, Samaria, and now into a desert place.

2) Any person with a sound mind may read this text and think “Why in the world would Philip leave his ministry in Samaria for the desert?!”. Think about it, people were responding to the Gospel and being baptized, much joy was being had in the city, this was a place with people condensed into one central area, he had a successful ministry by anyone’s standards! Why leave for a mere road?!

Simple, the Lord told him to go. Philips eyes weren’t fixed on himself, but Christ. He knew the glory wasn’t his. That frees us up to respond with a resounding “Yes, Lord!” when called by Him to go! Perhaps Philip had a grasp onto the truth found in Isaiah 55:8-9 (a book of the OT he knew well, as we’ll see later on) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

3) There’s the potential for two schools of thought to arise based off of Luke’s recording in verse 26. I do not mean to stir up division here, I just want to warn and exhort some of us that may land in one of these schools:

1 being “Angels are still operating today! Just read Hebrews! I want to experience this!”.

Fair enough. I would encourage caution though, as not to demand the Holy Spirit to move according to your presuppositions. And, even further yet, if we think this way. If this was what first came to mind when we read this, a question we MUST ask ourselves is “If I were to experience this, would I even go? Do I view the Gospel in such urgency to respond with a yes? Do I truly cherish Christ enough in the day to day, that when commanded I’d be ready to go? Do I trust the Lord in this way?”. Philip did, he rose and went.

The second school could be “The Lord simply doesn’t move like this anymore. The Bible is enough for me to rise and go!”.

Fair enough again. But, the question to be asked in response should be “are you sure?”. “Is the Bible really enough for me?”. If we make this claim and aren’t utterly GRIPPED by the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ found in Matthew 28, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching disciples to obey what He’s commanded, we’re horribly missing something!

We will see the ultimate purpose of this command from a divine messenger, given by the sovereign God as we continue on.

8:27b-28- Verses 27-28 clue us in on the purpose of Philip being commanded to go to the road. We’re introduced to a eunuch (government official) from Ethiopia that is the person in charge of the treasure of the queen of Ethiopia. This is presumably a rich man (chariot, title, possession of a scroll), who is coming back from worshipping in Jerusalem. So, this man at least has some knowledge of and hunger for God given the reason for his trip to Jerusalem and what he was reading by God’s providence; the prophet Isaiah.

8:29-33- As we move on, we see the Spirit telling Philip to go over and join the eunuch. If I may address this just for a moment: we don’t get any details regarding just how exactly the Spirit did this. Now, many Christians today tend to claim frequently that “God told them” something. I want to encourage us to exercise extreme caution with such language as it can paint a dangerous and unproductive picture, that “Almighty God has revealed something specifically to me, therefore you MUST sit down and listen to me”.

I of course don’t want to discourage the reality of being Spirit lead, but we must be incredibly careful when it comes to this. This can lead to tremendous hurt, confusion, and disunity within the body. Maybe better language would be “I’m feeling lead” or “I think the Lord has lead me to X conclusion, what do you all think about that?”.

And certainly, this verse shouldn't be used to prove the validity of hearing the voice of God. The greater point to be savored here is the providence of God taking one man from one place to another, all to get another man the glorious Gospel!

Philip’s response to being commanded once again to go, this time to the eunuch’s chariot, is to RUN! May we RUN after what we know the Lord has called us to! And he runs into an evangelistic gold mine. Not only is the eunuch reading Scripture, we see in verses 32-33 that he’s reading from Isaiah 53, this is prophecy regarding Christ Jesus!

Take a brief look with me at verses 30-31. Philip runs, hears the eunuch reading aloud in Isaiah (typical of the time) and asks a great question: Acts 8:30 “‘Do you understand what you are reading?’”. Granted, coming upon opportunity like this in our country may be rare (but not impossible!), but at the very least this is a great discipleship question for those we’re discipling and for ourselves! Do we understand, truly, what we read in the Scriptures?

The eunuch’s answer is also great! So many of us advocate for just “me and my Bible!”. There’s NOTHING wrong with that, but it can be dangerous. There’s a plethora of resources and commentaries out there to help us understand our Bible passages in their proper contexts. It’s also wise practice to engage Scripture within a community of believers to ensure unity and proper interpretation of the text!

So, like I mentioned, the eunuch was providentially reading Isaiah 53:7-8. Isaiah prophecy’s here that the Messiah (Jesus) would come and be lead like a sheep to slaughter and be silent as a lamb undergoing it, that he would be humiliated, suffer injustice, and be murdered.

It would do us well to read all of this prophecy to see and feel the weight of the price of Lord and Savior paid. Isaiah 53: 1-12 “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 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? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

And we see in the Gospels this prophecy come to pass. Matthew 27:27-30 “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.”

John 19:16-18 “So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.”

John 19:28-30 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

He was indeed beaten, mocked, pierced for our transgressions, and murdered for our salvation. Just as the prophets of old predicted.

8:34-38- Naturally, the eunuch questioned what exactly was being said, in which Philip used as an open door to give him the Good News about Jesus Christ! Verse 36 shows that the eunuch’s response to the Good News was to believe and be baptized.

If you’re following along in your Bible, some of you may notice verse 37 is either footnoted or italicized, etc. Don’t freak out! This is because many modern translations have tried to, as accurately as they can, to present the most correct, solid translation humanly possible.

Verse 37 here isn’t thrown in like any other verse because many of the most accurate, earliest manuscripts don’t include it, while some other accurate yet later dated manuscripts do include it. Hence why its not thrown out completely.

This shouldn’t cause any alarm for us Bible believers because whether the verse is included or not, it doesn’t change the meaning of the text at all. We see clearly throughout the whole context of Scripture that baptism is an outward expression of an inward change, therefore regeneration, salvation, faith all precede the ordinance of baptism. For example:

Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 16:27-33 “When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.”

And here we have an example of the biblical pattern Philip specifically followed just a few verses earlier Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”

I would encourage all of us to be bereans and look into this for ourselves, but again, I believe this is no cause for concern about the validity of Scripture. If anything, this should lead us to rejoice and praise God for saving the eunuch! Philip preached to him the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eunuch was saved, believed, and therefore baptized!

Whether the eunuch had some knowledge of John’s baptism of repentance or Philip explained the ordinance to him, either way its obvious that salvation took place on that road, due to the sovereign hand of God!

He commanded Philip to leave his ministry in Samaria, go to the road leading from Jerusalem to Gaza, approach the chariot, all so that this one man would be saved through the preaching of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. Glory be to God!

Another interesting fact to note in this account is of course Philips obedience, but also his consistency. If you’ll remember, we ended last week on the conclusion that its obvious Simon the Magician wasn’t saved according to the events we have in Scripture. Even after 8:13 says that he believed and was baptized, the proceeding events make it obvious that genuine repentance was missing.

Philip would’ve definitely seen these events with Simon taking place, therefore no one would blame him for feeling a bit discouraged. We probably wouldn’t even knock him for playing some banana ball!

What, you’ve never heard of banana ball? It’s a new way to play the game of baseball developed by a collegiate prospect team; the Savannah Banana’s. Some of the new rules include a 2 hour time limit, no mound visits, no bunting, and if a fan catches a fly ball, its an out. All in the name of “fans first”. I grew up loving baseball, so you’ll have forgive me nerding out with the baseball illustrations.

The point is: we as Christians have no problem playing banana ball. We’ll try new methods, adopt worldly marketing strategies, and come up with new & exciting programs. We may see what happened with Simon and think “WE MUST create a more accepting environment or tweak the message to ensure his comfortability”. All in the name of “people first”.

I believe this is extremely dangerous! It should never be “people first” but “Christ above ALL!”. Which then leads us to loving and caring for those around us, especially brothers and sisters in Christ. Philip didn’t change his message!

2 Corinthians 4:1-6 “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

We should renounce, as the apostle Paul says, disgraceful and underhanded ways of proclaiming the word of God! Philip didn’t try to change, sugar coat, or water down the Gospel, he just preached it and let God do the rest! May we do the same, let us preach the unadulterated Gospel, plant seeds, and trust our Heavenly Father to bring the harvest of souls!

The Christ being preached in Samaria was the same Christ being preached on the desert road!

Our constant prayer should be Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” And of course we can rest in the fact that the Holy Spirit will never lead us into unbiblical practice and empower us daily to proclaim His Gospel!

8:39-40- Philip and the eunuch’s encounter ends with Philip being snatched away by the Spirit of the Lord and the eunuch leaving rejoicing. Church tradition has it that the eunuch brought the Gospel to Ethiopia and founded the church there! The eunuch in the joy of his salvation likely brought the Gospel with him wherever he went, which God used to further the reach of the Good News.

Philip’s job wasn’t done, as he finds himself in Azotus and continues on from there preaching the Gospel to every town he passes through until he lands in Caesarea. We don’t hear about him again until Acts 21.

The final two verses of this account reveal to us that God used the obedience of one man to bring about the salvation of another. The Lord used Philip’s obedience and brought forth fruit from it. Philip didn’t produce the fruit, the Lord did. Philip just simply submitted to the providence of God. What a loving, sovereign, caring, kind God we know and serve! Let Him use you, submit to His providence, and watch Him produce fruit unto His own glory that ultimately leads us to go on rejoicing in Him.

PRAY