Acts 8:26-40 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Acts 8:26-40

• Have you ever felt that God had you be at the right place at the right time to impact someone’s life?
• Context:
  • Tonight we are going to be looking at Philip, he was one of the seven that were set aside to oversee the food for the widows.  
  • After persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem where did Philip take the gospel?
  • The Holy Spirit has another task for Philip.
• Acts 8:26-29
• 26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”
  • Is there any reason to think Philip had exhausted his usefulness in Samaria preaching to the crowds?
    • No; Was there more work to be done there? Sure but it would be someone else doing it other than Philip. At least for a little while.
  • How does Philip respond to the angel’s request?
    • It appears he acted on it immediately. By the way that means Philip had to back track to Jerusalem and further south it was close to a 40 mile walk.
  • To anybody else this would look like a chance encounter of strangers on the road why do you think God wanted this man to hear the gospel?
    • The reason may go far beyond this one man’s conversion to where he will carry the gospel.  What influence might he have on the people and nation of Ethiopia?
    • We don’t know but God knows!
  • What does Luke tell us about this Man?
    • He is called a Eunuch… the term indicates a male who has been castrated.  What else does Luke tell us about the man? He is an Ethiopian or Nubian, which means “one with burnt skin.” Dark skin was not an object of ridicule… But being a eunuch could. Ethiopians’ at that time were revered for their wealth and gold. What else does Luke tell us about this man?  He is a Treasurer for Candace the Queen… Candace was a title not a name… sort of like Caesar. Candace was Ethiopian dynasty of matriarchs in charge of their nation. So he was in the upper level of leadership in that nation.
  • Why did the Ethiopian come to Jerusalem for?
    • To worship God. 
  • Was the Ethiopian a Jew?
    • We don’t know for sure… he could have been or he may have been a “God Fearer”. If he was a Jew and he is eunuch he cannot fully participate with the Assembly of God’s people in the temple.
      • Deuteronomy 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
  • Does this man show a passion to know God?
    • He shows it in traveling hundreds of miles to worship in the temple knowing he would not be allowed in. He could go to the gate, he could present an offering, he read the Torah but he could not enter the temple courts. I wonder if he felt like an outcast?
  • Philip finds him on his way home seeking to know God in the scriptures.
  • Was the Ethiopian wealthy?
    • I would think so… take a long trip to Jerusalem
      • What is he reading… most people could not afford their own scroll of the O.T.
• Acts 8:30-35
• 30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading? 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. 34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” 35 Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.
  • What is it Philip asks to break the ice with this man?
    • “Do you understand what you are reading?” Did the Ethiopian understand it?  No he needed help.
  • What was he reading? Isaiah53:7-8
    • What did the Ethiopian want to know from the scripture? See verse 34 “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?”   Can Isaiah be hard to understand in places?
  • Acts 8:32-33
    • 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”
  • Isaiah 53:7-8
    • He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
  • Can you find you find a way to talk about Jesus in these two verses?
    • Jesus was mocked, beaten and faced false witnesses in a farce of a trial but Jesus did not defend himself at his trial…. He was like a lamb for sacrifice… Jesus was unjustly crucified because of our sin… Reading what Luke wrote in verses 32-33 of Acts, what is it focusing on about Jesus? Primarily His rejection. Do you think the Eunuch could relate to rejection having just come from the temple he could not enter?
    • Philip began there… but do you think he went to other passages to tell more about Jesus? Maybe other verses from Isaiah 53. Maybe even, Isaiah 56:3-5
      • No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, “The Lord will exclude me from his people,” and the eunuch should not say, “Look, I am a dried-up tree.” 4 For the Lord says this: “For the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what pleases me, and hold firmly to my covenant, 5 I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off.
  • This single Bible Study changed this Eunuch’s heart. Here was a man who loved God but never thought he could share in all good things of the temple like other Israelites. Now in one afternoon Philip points to passage after passage that reveal Yahweh’s heart for the nations and particularly marginalized Eunuch from Ethiopia. He could never enter the temple of God in Jerusalem, but he could become the temple of God by becoming part of God’s church through Christ.
• Acts 8:36-40
• 36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
  • Where did the Ethiopian get the idea of baptism is something he should consider?
    • I would say from Philip… Philip was baptizing people into Christ in Samaria.
  • Look at the question in verse 36 Why shouldn’t I be baptized? Or WHAT HINDERS ME FROM BEING BAPTIZED
    • I just wonder how this man asked this question. He has been disqualified to worship with the other Jews…maybe he is thinking this disqualifies him from being baptized
  • How many of you are missing verse 37 in you bibles?
    • 37 Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”    
    • Why would that be left out?  Because it is found in only the late manuscripts from the 6 century…the thought being someone other than Luke added it later.
  • How do we know that the Ethiopian was not baptized by pouring water out of a bottle over his head?
    • Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized (immersed) him. 39When they came up out of the water
  • How did the eunuch respond after his baptism?
    • but went on his way rejoicing!
  • Don’t you think the Eunuch wondered what happened to Philip?
• TAKE AWAY
• What can we apply to us from Philip and the eunuch?
  • God wants people to hear the gospel and have an opportunity to respond to it.  If we are open to being led by the Spirit and look for opportunities chances are we will be able to influence others for Christ.
  • We don’t know what impact just one person may have for Jesus Christ and His kingdom.
  • Jesus is interested not only in the crowds but individuals.