Sermon Tone Analysis

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.