Acts – The Sequel – Week 8.
Right at the beginning we get a glimpse of what Saul was like before his encounter with Jesus.
- V1 “And Saul approved of their killing him” This was in relation to the stoning of Stephen. MARTYR – Comes from the Greek word ‘Martys’ which means ‘one who gives testimony’ or ‘witness’. We use the word today to mean someone who is killed for their faith, just like Stephen. Being prepared to die for your faith in Jesus is a powerful testimony and witness.
- Persecution has broken out, men and women are being dragged from their houses and thrown into prison. But verses 4-5 show us that as the church scatters, the opportunity to share Jesus increases.
- PHILIP had been preaching in Samaria but was now led by the Holy Spirit to go South, to the desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza (V26). Here in this remote place he has an encounter with an Ethiopian Eunuch.
- V27 – He is an important official, in charge of all the treasury of Kandake. He had been to Jerusalem to worship but he was not Jewish. Being a Eunuch meant he could not enter the Temple according to Deuteronomy 23:1. But something about the Jewish God attracted him.
- V29 Philip is told to go to the side of the chariot. He hears Isaiah 53 being read our loud.
Philip asks “Do you understand what you are reading?”. The Ethiopian does not and invites
Philip to sit with him. Philip begins to share the good news, we read in V35… - V35 “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good
news about Jesus.”
Jesus applied Isaiah 53 to himself and the early Christians read it in this way also. So Philip explains that Jesus is the perfect candidate of the description that Isaiah describes in these verses. - In that moment something happens – God works and the Spirit moves. The Ethiopian finds what he had been searching for. The story has become his story, the good news has become his good news.
- V36 – they come to some water and the man asks “What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” So having acknowledges Jesus as his Lord, Philip baptises him.
- V40 – Things seem to come to an abrupt end. The Spirit takes Philip away, travelling through different towns and preaching the gospel. The Ethiopian leaves rejoicing in all that has happened.
