Witness to an Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26–40)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 28, 2024

I want to start with something funny:

A man goes to his rabbi:

.. “rabbi, I am very troubled. My son, he went off traveling the world, and came back a Christian!” The rabbi replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that. My son also left home, and came back a Christian!” The two decide to pray to God about this, and God replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that… my Son went to the world…

 Well, we know that is only a joke. Jesus was and is a Jewish man who died for our sins and rose again…

Jesus’s sacrifice transcends cultural boundaries… He is for the whole world.  

In the last several weeks, we have walked through Acts chapter 8. Today, I want to look at Philip’s witness with the Ethiopian Eunuch.

I shared this a few weeks ago:

Jesus Christ on the cross says, “I’ve become a leper for the lepers. I’ve become a eunuch for the eunuchs. I’ve become a thief for the thieves. I’ve become a coward for the cowards. I’ve become a bad husband for the bad husbands and a bad wife for the bad wives.” When Buddha was dying, they say he said, “Strive without ceasing.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “It is finished.” When Buddha was dying, he says, “Pay what you owe.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “I’ve paid what you owe.” Utterly different.

Do you see how radical that message is for the city? First of all, that is the message that brings down the superior.^[1]

So, today, we will look at Philip’s witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. Let’s look at this passage again together. As we do, we will gain some strong insights into sharing the Gospel, and we see the gospel transcend ethnic boundaries.

Acts 8:26–40 (ESV)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

                  “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

         ³³       In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

                  For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

I have a basic breakdown of this passage.

Message breakdown

A model for personal sharing from Acts 8:26-40

1. First part, verses 26 and 29, we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
   1. First of all, I like what Timothy Keller shares:
   2. First of all, we’re told he’s the finance minister of the nation of Ethiopia. He’s the CFO. He’s the cabinet minister. He has hit the top. He’s powerful. The second thing we know about him is he can read. Do you realize how unusual that is? Do you realize how rare it is that he can read? Hardly anybody could read back then, and there he is reading. So he was a man of incredible education and intellectual sophistication, and he was a man of great power.
   3. Last of all, he owned an Isaiah scroll. Do you realize how rare that was? People didn’t own Isaiah scrolls. They didn’t have scrolls and books and libraries. It was incredibly expensive to do something like that. The scrolls were always kept in some public place, the synagogue, the schools, and so on. So here’s a man who’s unbelievably able. He has made it to the top. He’s brilliant. He’s educated. He’s wealthy.^[2]
   4. Further, from Keller:
   5. Jerusalem was not around the corner from Ethiopia. It would be an enormous, amazing journey. I mean, a person who set out from Ethiopia to go to Jerusalem would not have high hopes of surviving. What would have driven a man of that kind of accomplishment to read the Bible, to be so interested in the God of Israel that he would take such an enormous journey to go and try to worship in Jerusalem?
   6. The answer is he must have experienced some unbelievably deep spiritual disappointment. In some ways, the Ethiopian eunuch shows how both our modern culture and ancient culture fail. Because in terms of the ancient culture, he could have no children. He was a dry tree. He would have no sons and daughters. As far as the ancient culture was concerned, he had sold his soul for money, and he had given it all up. He was a nobody. He was a nobody! He had no name, no name that would last.
   7. But as far as modern culture is concerned, it’s pretty clear the money hadn’t satisfied.^[3]
   8. Do you know what? He must have been devastated because as both an African and and eunuch, he would have been turned away at the doors. Can you imagine risking your life to go see if maybe this God of Israel that he had read about was his hope and be turned away? He was coming back. When Philip meets him, he is reading the Isaiah scroll. He is reading the last chapters of Isaiah. He would have certainly found Isaiah 56 where it says, “Let no foreigner be turned away, and let no eunuch says, ‘I am a dry tree.’ ”
   9. He would have read this and realized there was a salvation coming. There was a Person coming who was going to change the exclusionary boundaries around the believing community. He saw God was saying, “Through the work of my Servant, foreigners are coming in. Through the work of my Servant, the eunuchs are coming in. It doesn’t matter what your past is. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been. Everyone who believes and binds themselves to me is brought in.”^[4]
   10. The Person who was going to do this was this mysterious Servant. You know, when Philip meets this guy, this is the verse he is reading. You see this in Acts 8. This is what he is reading (Isaiah 53:8) where it says, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants?” Who can speak of his descendants? It’s talking about Jesus. “And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”
   11. When Philip meets him, he is reading this text. Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” The man says, “No! Could you please tell me? Who is this? Is the prophet talking about himself or somebody else? Who is this?” In one little verse, Acts 8, it says, “Then Philip … told him the good news about Jesus.” He believed, and he turned and said, “Baptize me.” Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch get down in the water, and Philip puts the water on him.
   12. There is what this whole text is talking about. Because of Jesus Christ, here is a middle-class Jewish man embracing a sexually altered African man in the water. What would bring people like that together? They had the same name. His name was not, “I’m a successful treasurer. I’m the director of the treasury of the queen.” See? Philip’s name was no longer, “I am a very upright Jewish man.” They had the same name, and the name was, “I’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.”^[5]
   13. Do you know, interestingly enough (I found this out when I was studying this), the Greek word for eunuch and the Greek word for prime minister or high court official in the Mediterranean world (in all of the courts) is the same word?
   14. Why would that be? Why would the word for prime minister and the word for eunuch be the same word? The answer is if you were a commoner and you were going to make it up to the very, very top of the royal courts, the male royal personages did not trust any commoner to come and work in close quarters with the female royal personages unless they were castrated. That’s the reason why nobody who wasn’t already royal got to the very top and pinnacle of power in any of these royal courts unless they became eunuchs, unless they were castrated.^[6]
   15. Look at verse 26 with me. We can see that the Angel of the Lord speaks to Philip, and Philip obeys.
   16. Let’s reread verses 26-28: ²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
   17. Then we see in verse 29 that the Spirit of God again speaks to Philip.
   18. Philip obeys as well.
   19. Keller shares:
   20. Jesus, in every way, says to his disciples, “My message isn’t just for people like you. It’s for all races, for all peoples.” Yet when you get into the book of Acts, God has to do excessive prodding (we’ll see this when we get to Acts 10) to get Peter to go to a Gentile, Cornelius, to get Philip, a Jew, to go to a black African. Over and over, God has to give very specific directions. “Go down that road. Do you see that chariot? Yes, stay with the chariot.”^[7]
2. Verse 27, we must be obedient to the Lord’s command.
   1. Back up now to verse 27, notice that Philip obeys. He obeys right away.
   2. Now, I know that I can intellectualize something many times.
   3. Many times, I can easily think that someone else will share Jesus with so and so. Right?
   4. What about your children? You would tell them, “Mercedes, I want you to wash the dishes” Now, Mercedes could easily say, “Abigail will do them.” But I could say, “I did not ask Abigail, I asked you.” Right? Right? God is calling me to be a witness to certain people, and He is calling you to be a witness to certain people. We must obey. We should not say, “Oh, the other pastor will do it,” or anything like that.
   5. You may ask, “How do I know the Lord is telling me to be a witness or to witness to someone?” I am glad you asked. The simple answer is that you know them; they are in your influence, right? That means the Lord wants you to witness. In other words, you must now pray for how to be the most effective witness. That is a daily prayer need.
   6. In reality, I hope that helps me want to be a witness more and more as I go through my spiritual journey. I must want to see the lost come to know Jesus. I must want someone to be delivered from things because he accepts Christ.

• Verse 30: Be sensitive to the other person’s needs.
  30. Look with me at verse 30.
  31. ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
  32. We see that Philip asked him if he understood. This leads to the next point.
• Verse 35: be skilled in Understanding God’s Word.
  1. Verse 35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
  2. We must always be ready to give an answer of the hope that is within us.
• Seek a response to the Gospel.

Close:

Keller:

What does the Spirit show is the sign of conversion? A middle-aged Jewish man putting his arms around a sexually altered black man and calling him “brother.” If your psychology has been changed, your sociology will be changed. What could do that? Only the gospel.^[8]

Example: At the end of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens … It talks about two men, kind of friends, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. Sydney is in love with Lucie, but Lucie marries Charles. Charles, however, is arrested during the French Revolution, and he’s condemned to die. He’s in the prison with the other prisoners who are going to be executed the next day. They’re going to go to the guillotine.

That night, Sydney sneaks in and says to Charles, “Look, we resemble each other. We always have resembled each other. Let me take your place. You go to Lucie. You go and live with her. You go and have children. You have a family.” Charles won’t do it, and if I remember correctly, Sydney has him knocked out and pushed out, and he takes his place. There’s a young girl, a seamstress, who’s in there, and she is going to be executed the next day. She has been condemned to die as well.

She walks up to him, because she knows Charles Darnay. She begins talking with Sydney as if he’s Charles, thinking, of course, they know each other. Sydney tries to keep up the ruse a little bit and says, “Well yes, of course. It’s nice to see you,” and so on. Suddenly the girl realizes, “This isn’t Charles.” She looks and she sees it’s somebody else who has taken his place. Her eyes get big. It dawns on her. Suddenly she says, “Are you dying for him?” Sydney says, “Yes, and for his wife and child.”

Basically after that, she says, “You know, I’m having a lot of trouble facing my death, but if you, O brave stranger, would just hold my hand, I think I could do it.” The wonder of his sacrificial love changed her, and it wasn’t even for her. Imagine what change comes into the human soul when you look at Jesus, and your eyes get big, and you realize what he has done. You say, “Are you dying for me?” and he says, “Yes.” He says, “I’ll hold your hand through the rest of your life, and you’ll be able to face anything.”^[9]

…the moment you realize he has done that for you, and he takes you by the hand, and you know you’re loved and accepted in him, and the pressure is off, and you never have to prove yourself again, it changes everything. The gospel is not, “Live a good life and try to be like Jesus.” The gospel is not “What would Jesus do?” The gospel is “What has Jesus done?” That’s what changes you.^[10]

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

Witness to the Samaritans (Acts 8:9–25)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 21, 2024

We are now in our eighth chapter of Acts, which will be encouraging. Recently, I read the following:

“When the preferences of the church members are greater than their passion for the Gospel, the church is dying.”  Thom Rainer

What are you most passionate about? Put aside your preferences. The Bible is about the Gospel. The apostle Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 9:16: For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 

I share that because the Book of Acts is about the spread of the Gospel. This would not happen if the people were stuck in their mold, which is especially true today. If the people were stuck in their preference, Jesus would still only be for Jewish people, but in today’s passage, we see the Gospel spread to the Samaritans. This is now when the Book of Acts transitions from non-Jews to Gentiles.

Here is what can happen when the gospel spreads:

WESLEY: A HEART STRANGELY WARMED

At the first half of the 18th century, England was also in a mess. Gin and gambling were destroying the lives of poor and rich alike. This was the age when Dick Turpin – crime figures were so high, there was so much danger from highway men and footpads that Horace Walpole wrote, “One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one were going to battle.” The government did not know how to respond so they simply added the death penalty for more and more and more crimes.

Meanwhile in 1713 England by defeating France and Spain had secured itself a monopoly in the slave trade. The horrors of unbridled greed in the early industrial revolution meant that three out of every four children died before the age of five because of the insanitary slums and poverty. And of course it hardly goes without saying–churchgoing was at an all time low, and clergy were time servers. I have an ancestor Bishop Carr of Worcester, who gambled (and lost) so much, that when he died, his creditors highjacked the coffin, and would not allow it to be buried, until the debts had been paid. That was the state of the church and the nation at the time.

And then in 1738, a man called John Wesley went to meeting in Aldersgate in the City of London. He heard a reading from a sermon of Martin Luther on Romans and as he listened “My heart was strangely warmed” he said. He felt God – not the god of cucumber sandwiches but the God who tears open the heavens and shakes mountains. And he began to preach. He preached outside the shafts of coalmines and at the doors of factories. He preached not where the church said people should come, but where people were. 

And lives were changed. Workers who would take their pay and drink it away, leaving nothing for their wives and children, put aside the bottle and turned to Jesus. Families were reunited. Child mortality dropped. Literacy grew as people longed to learn to read to read the Bible. Prayers were answered – people were healed of physical ailments. Church attendance grew – passionate church attendance singing hymns to what at the time were considered vulgar pop-song tunes. Parliament itself was affected. The slave trade was abolished. Sending children down the mines or up the chimney was abolished. The death penalty was restricted to truly serious crimes. And the crime rate fell…because one heart was strangely warmed. And then many hearts were strangely warmed. In one generation, a nation was changed.

God is at work. I believe that our current society has the potential to change as John Wesley’s society, but it will take all of us doing things differently. Let’s now look at a passage where Philip the evangelist went to a different people group. I want to show you how Philip witnessed to the Samaritan and how he was a witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. I want to show you how Philip was obedient to the Holy Spirit.

1. God was taking care of those who were marginalized.
   1. In verse 4, the Bible says that those scattered because of persecution went out “preaching” the Word.
   2. Do you know the word “preaching” is used five times in Acts chapter 8? They were proclaiming the Gospel; they were infecting people with Jesus.
   3. In verses 4-13, Philip witnesses in Samaria. This is a phenomenal passage.
      1. Philip went to Samaria, and many were set free from their bondage in sin. A magician named Simon was also set free.
      2. Last week, we talked about Acts 8:4-8. Today, we will pick up at verse 9.

Acts 8:9–13 (ESV)

⁹ But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. ¹⁰ They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” ¹¹ And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 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. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

• Acts 8:8 left off by saying there was much joy in the city. Why? They were scattered preaching the gospel. Unclean spirits came out. People were healed.
• Now, we see this man named Simon. He has previously practiced magic.
• Notice it says that he amazed the people of the city. They thought he was somebody great.
• Verse 10 says they all paid attention to him, and verse 11 tells us why. They thought the power of God was working in him.
• But verse 12 gives the contrast. They believed Philip when he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God, and they were all baptized.
• Verse 13- even Simon believed and was baptized. He continued with Philip.
• In Verses 14-24, Peter and John, hearing about this witness in Samaria, came to lay hands on these people so that they could receive the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 8:14–24 (ESV)
• ¹⁴ Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” ²⁴ And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
• Philip was not one of the original 12 disciples. So, the 12 hear what is going on and they come down to check it out.
• Peter and John travel to check this out.
• So, verses 14-17 tell us about them receiving the Holy Spirit.
• Now, the Holy Spirit usually comes upon us when we receive Christ. There was likely a delay in this instance because this allowed the Apostles to confirm God’s work in Samaria and authenticate Philip’s witness. God purposefully delayed in this instance.
• The book of Acts is transitional. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is history. We must get our theology from the epistles.
• Rydelnic teaches at Moody Bible Institute, and he shares: When he has his students study the various ways the Holy Spirit came upon people in the Book of Acts, there is no consistency. Sometimes, they speak in tongues, or sometimes, like the apostle Paul, they receive their sight back.
• This may have kept the apostles, and specifically Peter, in charge of the church at this time, keeping it from becoming a Samaritan church.
• We must experience the apostle’s teachings, not teach the apostle’s experiences.[2]
• In verses 18-24, we see the magician Simon trying to buy the ability to give the Holy Spirit out, but Peter would not allow that. Peter told him that he needed to repent.
• In verse 23, Peter is saying that he saw in his soul that he wanted the gift of the Holy Spirit without submitting to His power.
• Verse 25 summarized: Acts 8:25 (ESV): ²⁵ Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
• The gospel is spreading.
• Do we realize that people in our society are held hostage? People in our society are prisoners of war. They need to be released. They need to be set free, and we can help with this. The Samaritans needed Jesus, and it took Philip, being different, to set them free. Imagine ourselves in Vietnam. The war is waging around us, and we see many people who are prisoners, but we walk right by; we do not set them free. Imagine ourselves in World War II; we walk right by a concentration camp, and we have the full ability to set the people free, but we do not.
• We CAN set them free, but we are afraid we may not have all the answers, we are afraid we may be laughed at, we are afraid of something else.
• Do we know that we are all in God’s army? We are all fighting the enemy; that is what we are called to as Christians. The people in this city and this world are prisoners. They need us to set them free. They are prisoners spiritually, not unlike the people in Vietnam or even in concentration camps. Certainly, the people in concentration camps had more tangible imprisonment, but without Christ, there is an eternal prison. Its effects are current and eternal. Set them free!
• It is time to set them free.

Ortberg shared a story from Tony Campolo:

John Ortberg, in The Life You’ve Always Wanted, tells about the time that Tony Campolo, the college professor, popular speaker and author, was about to address a college chapel service. Several men from the school gathered with Tony for a time of prayer before he spoke. They circled, knelt, laid hands on him and began to call out for God to bless their speaker.

Campolo shared that his men prayed a long time, and as they prayed, they grew tired and started leaning more and more on Campolo. The prayers were earnest, but their weight was getting too much to bear.

On top of that, one guy was not even praying for Tony. He was praying for someone named Charlie Stolzfus.

“Dear Lord, you know Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives in that silver trailer down the road a mile. You know the trailer, Lord, just down the road on the right hand side.”

Why was the man praying for Charlie? Tony was the speaker, not Charlie Stoltzfus. In addition, the Lord already knew where Charlie Stotzfus lived.

“Lord,” the man continued, “this morning Charlie told me he’s going to leave his wife and three kids. Step in and do something, Lord. Please bring that family back together.”

Finally, the prayer time ended, they had a great chapel service, and Campolo headed home. Just as he was merging onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he noticed a hitchhiker on the side of the road and decided to give him a ride.

As they rode along, Tony introduced himself. The man stuck out his hand and said, “My name is Charlie Stoltzfus.”

Campolo could not believe his ears. What are the chances . . . ?

At the next exit, Tony left the interstate and turned the car around. As they returned to the interstate, Charlie said, “Hey, mister, where are you taking me?”

Tony said, “I’m taking you home.”

“Why?”

Campolo said, “Because you just left your wife and three kids, right?”

The man was stunned. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I did.”

He moved over against the door and never took his eyes off of Campolo. Then, when Tony drove right into the guy’s yard, that really did it.”

Charlie’s eyes bulged out. He said, “How did you know I live here?”

“The Lord told me,” Tony said. (He didn’t explain how the Lord told him).

The trailer door threw open and Charlie’s wife ran out. “You’re back! You’re back!”

Charlie whispered in her ear what happened. The more he shared, the bigger her eyes got.

Campolo then said with real authority, “The two of you sit down. I’m going to talk and you two are going to listen!” And he laid it on, and they listened.

That afternoon, Campolo helped those two receive Jesus Christ as Savior, and that was the start of the healing of a marriage.

Now, was that coincidence that Tony Campolo happened to pick up that particular hitchhiker? Or did God answer the praying man’s petition to “step in and do something?”

James 5:16 reads, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Prayer unlocks divine power, heaven’s blessing, and God’s answer. How many of our coincidences are really answered prayer?[3]

Prayer

^[1] Stanley E. Porter, “Acts,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1732.

[2] Open Line; 07.11.2021 and 11.05.2022

[3] http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/dr-david-l-chancey/03-27-2012/prayer-really-works-when-we-take-it-seriously

Philip Witnesses Beyond Jerusalem (Acts 8:4–8)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 14, 2024

You may or may not know the name “John Bunyon.” He lived from 1628-1688. You may know the great work, “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Bunyon wrote that and many other works while in prison for preaching without a license. John Piper writes:

In 1672, about fifty miles northwest of London in Bedford, John Bunyan was released from twelve years of imprisonment. As with suffering saints before and since, Bunyan found prison to be a painful and fruitful gift. He would have understood the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, three hundred years later, who, like Bunyan, turned his imprisonment into a world-changing work of explosive art. After his imprisonment in the Russian gulag of Joseph Stalin’s “corrective labor camps,” Solzhenitsyn wrote,

I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: “Bless you, prison!” I . . . have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!” (The Gulag Archipelago, vol. 2, 617)

How can a man pronounce a blessing on imprisonment? Bunyan’s life and labor give one answer.

Ten years after they were married, when Bunyan was thirty, his wife died, leaving him with four children under ten, one of them blind. A year later, in 1659, he married Elizabeth, who was a remarkable woman. The year after their marriage, however, Bunyan was arrested and put in prison for not conforming to the High Church standards of Charles II, the nation’s new king. Elizabeth was pregnant with their firstborn and miscarried in the crisis. Then she cared for the four children as stepmother for twelve years alone and bore Bunyan two more children, Sarah and Joseph.

For twelve years, Bunyan chose prison and a clear conscience over freedom and a conscience soiled by the agreement not to preach. He could have had his freedom when he wanted it. But he and Elizabeth were made of the same stuff. Though he was sometimes tormented that he might not be making the right decision in regard to his family, when asked to recant and not to preach he said,

If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughtershop . . . I have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles. (John Bunyan, 224)

Prison proved for Bunyan to be a hallowed place of communion with God because his suffering unlocked the word and the deepest fellowship with Christ he had ever known. He wrote,

I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]. Those scriptures that I saw nothing in before were made in this place and state to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen him and felt him indeed. . . . I never knew what it was for God to stand by me at all times and at every offer of Satan to afflict me, as I have found Him since I came in hither. (Grace Abounding, 121)[1]

Tim Keller shares:

The greater persecution and greater violence toward Christians and greater oppression and greater trampling toward Christians does not lead ever to violence in return. It doesn’t. It leads to greater love. It leads to greater joy.

The best example of Acts 8 today in the twentieth century actually is China, because after World War II when the Communist government took over, they threw all the Western missionaries out and they killed a lot of the Chinese pastors. They said, “That’s the end of Christianity in China.” Do you know what happened?

Ironically, it’s the very same thing that happened here in Acts 8, because actually the Chinese church had become too dependent on the Western missionaries. They were the providers, and the church was the customers. They brought in the money. They had their fingers on the controls, but when they got rid of the Western missionaries and they began to persecute the church, what did it do? It turned them all into people of mission. It turned them all into providers.

It turned them into people who preached the Word, who evangelized everywhere they went. It made the church indigenous, and the church just exploded in growth. In fact, as I said, over and over again if you try to kill the church, if you try to persecute the church, if you try to stamp it out, if you use violence on the church, it only makes it grow. The response is not growth in violence. The church doesn’t grow like that. It grows in love.^[2]

My theme today is the church scatters, and Philip proclaims Christ in Samaria.

Read with me Acts 8:4-8:

Acts 8:4–8 (ESV)

⁴ Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ⁵ Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶ And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was much joy in that city.

1. Philip is one of those scattered proclaiming Christ (Acts 8:4-5).
   1. Philip is the first missionary named in Scripture and the first to be given the title “evangelist” (21:8).^[3]
   2. Pillar New Testament Commentary shares: In Acts, Samaria generally denotes the territory, not the city of that name (cf. 1:8; 8:1, 9, 14; 9:31; 15:3).^[4]
   3. Sproul: The early church spread the faith not through professional clergy but through the laity. All the people took the gospel to the outer regions of the Empire.
   4. I like what Tim Keller points out, The apostles became the stabilizing, verifying, and unifying element in a mission that moved to new areas and groups without their planning or control. That is a movement. In a bureaucracy, people at the top completely control everything, but in a movement where everybody owns the mission, everybody is participating in it, what happens is, even though you still need leaders, the apostles were stabilizing, verifying, and unifying.
   5. Yet there was a spontaneity about the church. All kinds of new initiatives bubbled up all over the place. The apostles didn’t send Philip to Samaria. He went. What happens is God uses the persecution to turn his church into a movement in which everybody is in mission, in which everybody is initiating.^[5]
   6. Most Jews didn’t like the Samaritans. They were enemies. There was a long history of violence between the people.
   7. Most people believe this goes back to when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. At this time, the Israelites left, and the area intermarried with the Gentiles (gentiles are non-Jews), so the other Jews considered these Jews as half-breeds. They were not fully Jewish. But the problem may not date back this far. [6]
   8. Philip is unlike Jonah.
   9. Jonah was called to preach in Nineveh, but he was a racist prophet and refused to go. Through all of Jonah, he is unhappy.
   10. Philip goes to Samaria. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. They were mortal enemies.
   11. Yet, Philip goes to Samaria with the Gospel.
   12. Where is our Samaria? Who are people that we may not like, but God is calling us to be a Gospel witness to them?
2. Signs and wonders came about (Acts 8:6-8).
   1. The crowds paid attention as they heard and saw the signs (Acts 8:6).
   2. Philip did not change the message for the Samaritans, and he appealed for them to become followers of Jesus, not to convert to Judaism.^[7]
   3. Witherington III: Philip is being portrayed as the same sort of positive evangelizing figure as Peter—one who is powerful in word and deed, as Jesus himself had been (cf. 1:22). The reaction to these words and deeds was joy in that city.^17,[8]
   4. Unclean spirits came out.
   5. They came out with “shrieks” or “loud voices.”
   6. The expression unclean spirits refers to evil supernatural spirits which were ceremonially unclean, and which caused the persons possessed by them to be ceremonially unclean.^[9]
   7. Many more who were paralyzed or lame were healed (Acts 8:7).
   8. The people rejoiced (Acts 8:8)!

• Applications
  • Keller: The life and the joy of verses 5–8 follow the death and the misery of verses 1–4. Look at all the misery up there. There’s death. There’s destruction. Verse 2 says, “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.” The word there means just agonizing grief. So in verses 1–4 there’s death, there’s destruction, there’s agonizing grief, and in verses 5–8, there are life and joy. Misery and death; joy and life.
  • Here’s what I want you to see. The joy in life doesn’t come in spite of the misery and death. It comes through it. The joy and the life come because of the misery and the death. The death has caused resurrection. How does this work? The pattern here is a gospel pattern. Here’s the irony. Saul sought the destruction of the church, and what did it lead to? The expansion of the church.
  • Saul sought to scatter the church, but all it did was it led to more gathering. He was trying to scatter it, but actually it just led to more gathering. He tried to kill it; it led to more life. If you try to put the church to death, it leads to resurrection. Here’s why it happened. If you go back to chapter 7 and you read about Stephen, that’s how it happened.^[10]
  • Where is our joy in Christ?
  • If we know Christ, is the joy of the Lord your strength (Neh. 8:10)?
  • Are we spending time with the Lord?
  • Can we be like these lay people and take the Gospel everywhere we go?
  • Four years ago, all the talk was about containing COVID-19. People talked about not getting too close, so people were not exposed. I believe we need to do the opposite with the gospel. We must get close and infect people with the Gospel. This means being servants, hospitable, building relationships, sharing what Jesus has done in our lives, praying for the lost, and having Christ-centered conversations.

Tim Keller shares:

Jesus Christ on the cross says, “I’ve become a leper for the lepers. I’ve become a eunuch for the eunuchs. I’ve become a thief for the thieves. I’ve become a coward for the cowards. I’ve become a bad husband for the bad husbands and a bad wife for the bad wives.” When Buddha was dying, they say he said, “Strive without ceasing.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “It is finished.” When Buddha was dying, he says, “Pay what you owe.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “I’ve paid what you owe.” Utterly different.^[11]

Praise be to Jesus!

Pray

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/his-wounded-heart-bled-bible

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 8:5.

^[4] David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 280.

^[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[6] Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, pages 726-727.

^[7] William H. Marty, “Acts,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1690.

¹⁷ Though joy sometimes can be a sign in Acts of a conversion having just taken place (cf. 8:39), it is unlikely this is the case here, for Luke has yet to relate the conversion of Samaritans. Here, then, we see the reaction of a city that had messianic hopes and was thankful for the healing of their relatives and friends. See Barrett, Acts, vol. 1, p. 404.

^[8] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 283.

^[9] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ac 8:7.

^[10] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[11] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Do you think of perseverance? I am a student of history. Churchill shared:

An address at Harrow School, October 29, 1941: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never give in.” Then he sat down.

—Winston Churchill^[1]

How about another example:

David McCullough writes about John Adams:

John Adams, had work to do, a public trust to uphold. The science of government was his duty; the art of negotiation must take precedence. Then, in a prophetic paragraph that would be quoted for generations within the Adams family and beyond, he wrote:

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”[2]

We are looking at a passage in which Saul is still persecuting the church. Yet, the church is spreading the Gospel. They persevered.

My theme today is:

While the church is persecuted, they scatter, spreading the gospel.

1. In Acts 8:1-3 we see the persecution.

Acts 8:1–3 (ESV)

Saul Ravages the Church

8 And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

AND IT CAME TO PASS…

“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.” — Martin Luther

1. How did we get to this passage?
2. Two weeks ago, we talked about Stephen.
3. In Acts 6, Stephen was chosen as a deacon.
4. In Acts 6:8-15 Stephen is falsely accused.
5. Then, in Acts 7, Stephen gives a powerful defense. It was so powerful that he was stoned to death.
6. That brings us to Acts 8:1. They stoned him to death, and Saul approved of the execution.
7. In the previous verses, we see that they laid their cloaks at Saul’s feet.
8. Before we move on, verse 2 discusses people mourning over Stephen’s death. That is important. He was in heaven, but there is a time to mourn.
9. So, Paul, called Saul, is introduced. Quite an introduction, right?
10. We know Paul, don’t we?
11. Sometimes, Bible writers will introduce someone who will be very important later on. Luke is doing that right here with Saul/Paul. In the next chapter, Saul will be saved. Why is he called Paul later?
12. I believe Paul is a gentile name, and Saul is a Jewish name.
13. He will be called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, so it seems that we mainly see his gentile name.
14. The people scatter.

Look at verse 1: And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

1. The people scattered, but they scattered with the Gospel. Acts 8:1 uses a word for scattering seeds. So, the people scattered because of the persecution, but they planted seeds with the Gospel.
2. This is the shot heard around the world, meaning that the early disciples spread the Gospel. God used this to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles and now to us. Praise God.
3. Another thought:
4. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
5. Jerusalem was the home base. The leaders stay in the home base while the rest spread out.
6. But they originally did not spread out to share the gospel.
7. They spread out because of the persecution.
8. Look again at verse 3: But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
9. Saul is ravaging the church. He is going from house to house. He is dragging people off to put them in prison.
10. The people are scattering with the gospel. But don’t miss this. This is the introduction to one of the greatest minds and evangelists of church history.
11. Many years ago, I was serving as an associate pastor in Cincinnati. I was the coordinator of an interfaith clergy group. We came together to support an interfaith food and clothing shelter. This was interfaith, which means different religious groups were present. One day, a rabbi who taught at Hebrew-Union University spoke to our group. He said that Paul was the most influential man of the last 2000 years. So, here we have a rabbi, a non-believer, giving much credit to Paul. But this is how he is introduced.
12. Paul is “ravaging” the church.
13. Paul was like the terrorist.
14. No one is too far for Jesus to save.
15. In Acts 9, he will be saved.
16. Several years ago, I read a New York Times article about how a former ISIS leader was now leading worship at a Canadian church. Wow! The writer could not figure out what changed this man. Sure, he could write about the events, but could not figure out what changed his heart. The Holy Spirit changes people. That happens with Paul.
17. But for now, the church scatters.
18. They scatter with the gospel.
19. They later started the church of Antioch; we don’t know who started that church; it was not an apostle. It was a lay-driven movement. God brought it about because of persecution. The church of Antioch became a major sending church. In Acts 13:1-3, Paul and Barnabas are sent out from that church, but it seems that the church was started as a response to the persecution.
20. They scatter with the gospel.

Close:

So, study and be ready to give an answer boldly as Stephen did. Plant seeds of the Gospel everywhere you go and mourn the death of Christian brothers and sisters. Lastly, be encouraged as God is at work.

Prayer

^[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 438.

[2] McCullough, David. John Adams (p. 286). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

[3] (From a sermon by Stephen Sheane, The Table of Shewbread, 5/25/2011)