Day 19—Acts 8:26-40

 ²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

    ³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

    ³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

    ³² This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
       “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.”

    ³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

    ^36-37 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ³⁸ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

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Today’s text is like a plot straight out of the “old” TV show Quantum Leap…well, kind of; at least toward the end anyway.

An Angel tells Philip to go somewhere and Philip just takes off in faith that God had a purpose for him.  Philip was ready to go wherever and whenever the Lord was ready for him to move; he was at the Lord’s beckon call, a true servant.  So Philip took a walk down a road probably totally unknown to him and waited for the Lord to do his magic.  I love Philip’s willing spirit in our text today.  His attitude inspires me today to say, “Lord, I’m ready to go!  Just use me where you want and I’ll be ready.”  I need to read this story more often and so I’ll be inspired to say that again tomorrow! 

The text found in Isaiah referring to God’s servant, his Messiah, is used by Philip to proclaim the good news of Jesus—God’s salvation message to mankind—to a Jewish Ethiopian eunuch.  Well, I assume he’s Jewish since he just finished worshipping in Jerusalem. 

It is interesting to note the jump from how Philip “told him the good news about Jesus” to “as they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water.”  I think this supports my observation from yesterday’s text about the clear connection of the good news about Jesus and baptism.  Apparently, part of Philip’s explanation of the good news of Jesus included baptism because the eunuch wanted to get into the water to be baptized straight away.  It was like there was no other option but to be baptized, and certainly no reason to wait any longer.  But all things considered, he already had faith in God as a Jewish believer, so believing in Jesus as God’s Messiah was a natural step for him. 

I think we can safely assume, based on what we have read so far in Acts, that Philip’s message of the good news about Jesus probably included:

• Jesus was/is the anticipated Messiah and savior of the world (8:5)
• Put your faith in the name of Jesus for salvation (Acts 8:12)
• Be baptized in the name of Jesus (8:12)

However, those are only my assumptions.  Who knows what Philip actually said on this wild ride with the Holy Spirit and the eunuch?  He could have covered a lot of ground on that chariot teaching about Jesus.  This may be one of those questions I ask God when I get to heaven: Um…Lord…uh…why didn’t you give us that extremely convincing conversation between Philip and the Eunuch?  It sure would have been useful down there!  Until then, I’ll assume he wants us to trust him to fill in the blanks when we are thrown into those situations to share his good news message of salvation.

The “Quantum Leap” part at the end is cool.  All of a sudden Philip is gone!  The Holy Spirit just took  him!  Did he fly away?  Did he just disappear?  I don’t know.  But, imagine being that Eunuch?  Luke really doesn’t leave any trace of doubting thoughts like, “Was that all just a dream?” or “What just happened?”  The Eunuch just goes on rejoicing, excited about his new life in Jesus, the Messiah.  Pretty cool.  Hey, in my book, if God can do that he can do anything.