225 - Isaiah and the Ethiopian

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink.

You know how sometimes someone will say, hey, I bumped into someone and they'll say I had this chance encounter? Yeah, but we need to think about that as a divine appointment, something God had been planning all along. Right, and today we'll see Philip have one of those divine appointments and we'll realize God had been planning this a long time. We'll see it today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning.

We are so glad you're with us today. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim.

And this is More Than Ink. And we have been following the adventures of Philip, not Philip the Apostle, but Philip, one of the seven who was appointed to serve tables and do some other things. You know the name they give him in the, they call him Philip the Evangelist to differentiate him from Philip the Evangelist. Well, sure, that makes sense.

So thanks for that. So anyway, we're following his adventures. I'm full of trivia here, full of trivia. Last week we looked at his encounter with Simon the Magician up in Samaria. And that turned out in a really interesting way. We don't have the end of that story actually when Peter and John went up and straightened him out. Then they left and went on ministry tour in Samaria. We really don't know. Whatever happened. Philip did not stay for a little while and helped Simon the Magician make the transition from where he had been.

We just don't know. But in any case, we're going to pick up the story. We're still in Acts 8. We'll pick up the story right after that, a new adventure for Philip. And I'm just warning you ahead of time, you might want a map when you look at this story because a lot of place names come up.

And it's very helpful to be able to see exactly where Philip was and how he got there. So we're going to begin reading in Acts 8 verse 26. Do you want to start?

Sure, I will. So here we go. Philip part two. So 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. And he rose and he went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Well, that's pretty interesting just right there.

All by itself. That's a lot of detail. Yeah. Well, we can stop it right there for a second because it was really kind of fascinating.

And I mentioned this in the last show. Philip was going gangbusters in Samaria. It was buzzing up there, you know.

Great stuff was happening. Peter and John came up on their way back home to Jerusalem. They're evangelizing into the villages of Samaria.

I mean, it's really an amazing thing. And God decides to pull Philip out of Samaria and to go another place. And the place he asked him to go, this is where maps help.

It's really interesting. There's a road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. And if you say, wait, Gaza, you mean like Gaza, Gaza in the news? Yes, it's exactly the same Gaza. It's on the Israeli coast. It's where the Philistines used to live actually during the time of David and stuff like that.

Going down the coast. So there's this really wasteland, really dry desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. He says, get on that road, go down to Gaza basically.

And there's a mainline road that goes down the coast down to Egypt and then further into all of Africa where this guy's going back to. So he's on the road. He's going home. He was worshiping in Jerusalem and he's just going home. The eunuch is going home.

The eunuch is going home. But Philip had been up in Samaria, which if you put Jerusalem right at the center of a clock face, Samaria would be between 12 and one o'clock. Right, north. But here the angel of the Lord says to Philip, now go down and take this road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he's going down to like seven o'clock on this clock face. And a long distance. A long distance in exactly the opposite direction.

Yeah. And I looked at this. If you do the entire trip down to Gaza, it's going to take you two to three days. To walk it.

Two long days or two and a half days. And it's a good trip. So it really is kind of fascinating. Why go out to this who knows what's out there area. And it's an area that's not really well respected by the Jews because of the Philistine history.

So why go out there? But he's a good servant of God. He just gets on the road and goes. Okay, again we see Philip, the evangelist as you just informed us, moving into a territory that has not been spoken to before. New territory. And he's going to talk to a guy from Ethiopia who's heading even farther south. Right, he's got a long, long trip. So God again is opening, he's spreading out the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Yes, yes. So Jesus said to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Well we've had Judea and now Samaria and Judea and now we're actually on the verge of the end of the earth. Okay so where's Ethiopia? Ethiopia is in Africa. Right. So south of Egypt.

Right. Way down there. Yeah, south of Egypt. Quite a bit south of Egypt.

So yeah it's way out in the boonies down there. But this guy had come from the court of Queen Candace up to Jerusalem to worship. So he was, even though he was a Gentile, he was a God-fearer. Right. Right, he came to worship. But because he was a eunuch he would not have been allowed in the inner court.

No, no, no. But he is reading a Hebrew Bible. He's reading a Hebrew Bible.

Yes, yes. And he's reading coincidentally, which is no such thing as a coincidence, he's reading Isaiah. Now doesn't it make you wonder what he's reading in Isaiah? Because Isaiah is big, it's 66 chapters. It's true, he's probably reading out loud. Right.

Exactly, exactly. So he's in a carriage or a chariot and the spirit says to Philip, run up and join him. We haven't read that yet. Okay, let me read that, then you can say why that's significant.

So they've been 29. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. Okay, so now what do you want to say about that?

Well, I was just going to say, this is a hall, right? Philip is on foot probably. And the spirit has said, okay take this long road out into the desert and now here comes this guy who probably zoomed past Philip, this chariot. And the spirit says, now run up and join him. And trot alongside. And that's exactly what it says in verse 30.

So Philip ran to him and read him reading Isaiah. Right. It does bring up a kind of a funny scene, like is he running alongside the chariot and saying, so how's it going? I know, it's just a really interesting scene.

And there probably weren't a whole lot of other people on this road. No, no. But, well let me just read it.

Yeah, go ahead. So Philip ran to him and heard him. He heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading? By the way, it was customary when you read to read aloud.

Yeah. And so 31, so he said, well, how can I, unless someone guides me. And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this.

I'll just read it for you. Yeah. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its share is silent. And so he opens not his mouth. This is still Isaiah.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth. That's the Isaiah passage that Philip overheard him reading. Now this is chapter 53 of Isaiah.

This is, I mean, all our bells go off when you talk about it. That's right. Chapter 53 of Isaiah is a perfect, is a perfect rendition of what Christ as the sacrifice lamb did for us. And this is just a teeny fragment of it, right? And it's fascinating to me that here is a non-Jew but a seeker of the God of Judaism who has been up to Jerusalem to worship and whether maybe he had got his copy of the scroll of Isaiah while he was there.

Maybe he just bought it. And he's reading it on the way home, right? And he's gotten all the way to chapter 53 by the time Philip catches up with him. But pretty shortly in chapter 56, he's going to come to the part that says that God regards eunuchs as welcome in the kingdom.

It's just such a beautiful thing. We can get there later when it tells how Philip began to tell him the good news about Jesus. But here he is reading about the Messiah who comes to die. Yeah, the suffering and dying Messiah who doesn't die needlessly.

He dies purposefully in order to take the iniquities of the people on himself. And I'm not, that's almost an exact quote of what Isaiah says. That's why I say it's such a clear depiction of what Christ did. And it's written four or five centuries before Jesus. So this guy had just been in Jerusalem and it's possible that he had heard some of what had been being talked about, right? He may have been hearing people on the street saying, you know, Messiah came, his name was Jesus and he was crucified and he rose from the dead. So it's possible that he had heard that and was reading it. And that's what brings up the question, you know, is he talking about himself or somebody else?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because for centuries, that's always been the question, even in the Jewish communities, when you read this passage, who is this talking about? I mean, and you know, from a Christian perspective, even today, yeah, it's talked about a lot.

And so that's the question in 34. So the eunuch said to Philip, so about whom I asked you, does this prophet say this about himself or about someone else? I mean, he's confused too, just like Jews up to today are.

We don't know what this is all about. But as we look at, from a retrospective perspective of the cross for us, we look back, we say, gosh, this is really clear. This is Jesus.

This is Jesus. Well, it's interesting because we sometimes watch a YouTube channel called So Be It, which is by Jews for Jesus. And they're just interviewing Jews on the street in Israel.

Great conversations. And asking them, you know, if I read you this passage of Scripture, who is being talked about, because Jews today do not read Isaiah 53. It's kind of off limits.

It's regarded as off limits. And so they grow up their whole lives reading portions of Isaiah, but they are not acquainted with Isaiah 53. And so when they're presented with Isaiah 53, and these are current interviews, they assume, well, this is talking about Jesus, that guy we don't believe in, and it must be from the New Testament. That's what they presume. Until they learn this is from the prophet Isaiah.

Yeah. And so, you know, that just takes on an additional color for me when it says in verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. That's exactly what Jews for Jesus is doing today in Israel. And another organization that we follow called One for Israel.

I would encourage you to check out those websites because you'll see some fascinating interviews and be greatly enriched in your understanding of evangelism of Jews even today. Yeah. And you know, the chief tool in their conversations is this chapter. Is this portion of Scripture. This chapter in Isaiah, chapter 53. Yeah. And it's the entire chapter. Right.

These are just only about four or five verses. Yeah. This is a teeny little part of it. Yeah.

Yeah. But it does raise the question, who are we talking about here? And so Philip smiles and beginning with here tells them all the good news about Jesus.

All the good news. You know, that's an echo of Jesus on the road to Emmaus with those two that were so disappointed that he wasn't who they thought he was. Right. Right. And Jesus just comes up alongside them as they're traveling. And he says, you know, what are you talking about? And beginning with Moses, he explains all the scripture pointing to himself. That's in Luke 24. Yeah.

So you know, I would encourage you to go and read that and you'll find that the Old Testament points directly and clearly to Jesus as Messiah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not a secret. No. When you read the Old Testament, I mean the entire Old Testament in various ways and various portions paints a pretty clear picture of the coming of the suffering Messiah. And this one, not just a picture, it paints him totally, you know. Even, you know, I was thinking about the fact that Philip tells the good news about Jesus and I'm sure he wasn't telling the Ethiopian eunuch, he wasn't telling him, well listen, this is what you have to do for God.

No. You have to go to the temple, you have to do these things. This is not about that. It's all about what Jesus has done for him. And that's the essence of the good news. And that's the essence, even Isaiah 53, it's what this one who is unnamed in the whole chapter, what he has done for us sacrificially and brought us life, brought us life as a result. I would encourage you to read Isaiah 53.

You'll come to this verse that says, and he bore our iniquities. Right. By his wounds we're healed.

Yeah. It's a picture of the sacrifice, right? So this eunuch had probably offered sacrifice while he was in Jerusalem.

And all of a sudden the dots are connecting for him. Oh, there is one who was the sacrifice once for all, this Messiah. This Messiah, yeah.

I'll just read you a little bit. After the verses he quotes, if I get down to about chapter 11, this one, verse 11, I'm sorry, 53, 11. My servant, talking about Jesus again here in Isaiah, will make many to be accounted righteous. They will become righteous. They'll be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.

And then later on in verse 12, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. He makes intercession for the transgressors. It's just very clear that here's this somebody, this somebody that the Ethiopian eunuch says, I got to know who this is.

Who is this? Is this Isaiah or somebody else? Is he talking about himself or talking about someone else? Well, and it's not just referencing him as the sacrifice, it's referencing him as the priest. He's the one who's interceding for the transgressors. So it's the whole picture of Jesus' ministry is here in Isaiah 53. Yeah, yeah.

And I think it's fascinating. You know, I was talking earlier about the fact that Philip was having a gangbuster successfulness in Samaria and probably wondered for two to three days as he's walking out into the wilderness, going down to this famous trade route that goes down to Egypt, he's wondering, what am I doing out here? What am I doing here? And then at this point he realizes that God has been preparing this guy's heart, not just, you know, with his spirit, but with his word. And with Isaiah 53, God has, as Philip was hoofing it down from the Northern country, God was working on this guy's heart. So they would both intersect at exactly the right time on this road.

And not only would they be in the same place and the same time together, but they would be in the same heart so that this guy was already ready to listen. So Philip is thinking, wow, you know, okay, God went ahead of me. This wasn't an accident. This is well planned.

Oh, well, we're going to find out very shortly. They come across enough water for this guy to be baptized. Now this is a desert road.

There's not a lot of water. They've been sitting in the chariot having this conversation for quite some time. Yeah. And then verse, what is that? Let's read it.

36 picks up. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch.

And he baptized him. Yeah. Let's stop there. Sure. Yeah. The water, the water, the water. Yeah. I really like what he says. You know, he sees the water and says, oh, what's stopping us from getting baptized?

Like right now. Is there anything else we've got to do? So clearly Philip had gotten to the part of the gospel where Jesus says, believe in my name and be baptized and you'll be saved. Yeah.

Yeah. In fact, just as a note for you Bible scholars, we did not read verse 37 because it's kind of, it looks like if you go back to the oldest, oldest manuscript copies we have, verse 37 that you see like in the King James is not there. There's a whole ton of the oldest manuscripts. It's not there.

So you should have a note to that effect in your column. You should have a little, if you don't have 37, well, even if you do have 37, almost every modern English Bible has a footnote that says, wait a second, you just got to know, well, what's in that, what's in verse 37? Nothing except for the fact that they make it literal that he confessed to Christ is and then Phillips says, right, that's all you need.

Which is consistent with the presentation of the gospel in other places. Right. It's not wrong.

It's not wrong, but it looks like someone added that. Just so you wouldn't misunderstand. Just so we're sure. We're clear. Yeah. Right. That he, yeah, so that's, that's what's going on here. So he commanded the chariot to stop. They both went down in the water and Philip and Eunuch and he baptized him. Woo hoo.

There we go. Okay, but what happens next is a mind bender. Well, yeah, and you know, they all lived happily ever after. Well, the conversation was over as far as Philip was concerned apparently. And we're pretty sure that he just got back up at his chariot and thanked him and went on. And went on his way. Well it says he did. He went on his way with great joy. But look at verse 39. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. What?

And Eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. What? Okay, wait a second.

Yeah, stop. This is like Star Trek transporter kind of stuff, you know. And if you've got a map and you want to find out where Asitos is, it's just, it's north, actually it's about where Ashdod is today. Yeah, it's connected with modern day Ashdod. Ashdod is a real city right there in that Gaza area today. It's over there in Gaza, yep.

Yeah, it's there today. So he suddenly is up the coast a bit, but still on the coast. So he's out of sight anyway that the Ethiopian Eunuch doesn't know what happened to him. As far as the Ethiopian is concerned, it could have been an angel. Right.

It could have been a visitation of some kind. Right, right. And I've always, I've always wondered whether it was necessary for Philip to not be seen by the Ethiopian Eunuch at that point or else maybe the Ethiopian Eunuch would have clung to him too much or said, hey, can you stay for a while?

Can we talk about more stuff? I don't know. Or it wasn't God's intention for Philip to ride all the way down south of Egypt. Right, right. And so the easiest way to bring an end to this really wonderful thing is just to take him out, is just move him. So God gets up and snatches him, literally, that's the word, he snatches him. Snatches him away. And moves him out of sight. In fact, it's only, you know, from what we can figure, it's maybe three or four miles.

It's not that far up the coast, but it's up the coast. But he's clearly, he was here, he was next to the Eunuch, in the water. And Philip found himself at Azathos. Found himself in Azathos, yeah.

Like, what am I doing here? He's like, well, okay, I'll just go on preaching. And that's actually what the verse says.

Philip found himself there and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So he just keeps marching north up the coast. That's a long way.

That's a long walk. But Caesarea is up on the coast too. I mean, it's about at the northern edge of Israel even today.

It's way up there. It's almost to Lebanon. Okay, and we know that Philip was a Greek speaker. And Caesarea was a major port, a major Roman, Roman coming and going port. And there were people, all kinds of language spoken there, but lots of Greek speakers. And so that's where Philip winds up.

It is interesting. And we talked earlier last time about the fact that Philip is one of the many that got scattered out of Jerusalem when the persecution happened after the killing of Stephen. So he's scattered and he's scattered first into Samaria. It's not his home. I mean, presumably his home is in Jerusalem or Judea someplace.

And Samaria. And then now he's down on the coast and now he's coming up the coast and goes all the way to Caesarea. It's like he never goes home.

He never turns around and goes home. He's just... Well, apparently Caesarea becomes his home. It becomes his home.

Because we find him there several years later. Yeah. Yeah, you can see it when Paul comes back from one of his long distance journeys, he comes back and his boat docks in Caesarea and he actually goes, looks up Philip the evangelist. And if you want to find some fun trivia, it's in Acts 21. Acts 21, 8. Yeah. Go see what it says about Philip's daughters by this time.

And you'll be somewhat amazed. But anyway, he never really does go home. I mean, he's good with the scattering. He gets scattered to Samaria. By instruction he gets scattered down to the Gaza coast and then he works his way up the coast and he scatters up to Caesarea and that's where his long time home becomes now at this point. Which is not a bad place for an evangelist to be because Caesarea has a lot of coming and going.

A lot of port traffic. I mean, a lot of Romans, a lot of foreigners. So if you want to talk about a pivotal place to be an evangelist to the world, Caesarea is your town. And it's interesting actually, that's at the end of Acts.

That's where Paul winds up doing speeches before the governors and then shipping off to Rome. So Caesarea is a major player in that dispersion of the gospel. It's strategic.

It's really strategic. So I see God placing Philip the evangelist there with great, great wisdom as people came and went. Yeah. You know, I want to circle back to that other passage in Isaiah that I mentioned about the eunuch because we've been talking about God opening the door, sending the seeds of the gospel out to the uttermost parts of the world. And so this passage that this man would have eventually come to in his reading of Isaiah is in Isaiah 56. And starting verse three of 56, though, there's this beautiful statement. Let not the foreigner who's joined himself to the Lord say, oh, the Lord has surely separated me from his people. Neither let the eunuch say, behold, I'm a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant. And of them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. Isn't that great? It's just so beautiful. You can see that would be an affirmation to this man. Hey, I'm different from everybody else, but God sees me.

Yeah. He has this experience with Philip, gets baptized. Philip is swept away. He gets back in his chariot. He goes down and he can probably continues to read Isaiah. He's at 53. It's only gonna take him three more chapters. And as he's going, this just surprises him. I can see the smile on his face. Like God's saying, welcome, welcome.

You're in. What a great treat for him to read that just three chapters later as he's still in his travels. Yeah, you know, there's a little bit more. Can I read it?

We have time. This is verse six. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. Yep.

Yep. So, you know, what a welcome. And that's Isaiah. Jesus actually quotes that at one of his temple cleansing events. My house will be called a house of prayer. But for this guy who's a foreigner, and who longs after the God of Israel, and now has discovered Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and come to believe in him, then shortly later to read, I'm welcome in God's house of prayer. I'm one of his own. That's a delightful discovery I'm sure he made on the way.

Like God saying specifically, I'm writing this for you today. Right. Yeah, it's just such a great story. And you know, we lose track of this guy after this point.

But because chapter 56 is so in line right after 53. Oh yeah, he read it on his way down. He got there. Yeah, he got there. Probably laughing his way right into Africa. Full of joy as the passage says. Well, listen, next time, we're going to come back, we're going to start in chapter nine. And stuff in nine.

And it, you know, go into the uttermost parts of the earth. We run across this bad, bad guy Saul. Bad, bad guy Saul that we saw just a little while ago who was, who was there, he voted for the death of Stephen, you know, he's holding the coats of those who stoned him. I mean, bad, bad Saul. And we pick up the story. And you know, I tell you that you don't know anything about Saul, you'd presume well, it's just going to be more death and destruction, right? Well, it starts that way.

It starts that way. But something something miraculous happens to this guy who will actually become one of the centerpiece characters in the book of Acts from here to the end of the book. And that guy's Paul. We all know that. Pretty amazing.

Yeah, pretty amazing. And we know that Paul will be entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles, literally to the utter parts of the known world. I misspoke earlier when I said Peter was going to open the door. Well, he did open the door to the Gentiles. And he's the one that has that vision shortly. But it's Paul who is specifically entrusted to carry the gospel to the Gentiles, to the Western world.

A Jew of Jews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a man who understands the Old Testament inside and out. And he is just absolutely amazed that he misjudged the Messiah himself. So we're going to come to that next time. You can read ahead if you want. It's in chapter nine. And it's very dramatic.

And most people know it. But if you don't know it at all, read it and you'll be amazed at the lengths that God goes to, to capture the hearts of even those who are proclaimed his enemies. And so we'll see that next time here on More Than Ink.

There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself. And you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. It's close. Will you listen to it? I think that's probably pretty good all by itself. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.