Ethiopia Stretches Out Her Hands Text: Acts 8:26-40
Introduction: The Gospel's Irresistible Trajectory
The book of Acts is the story of the kingdom of God on the march. It is the historical account of the mustard seed beginning its inexorable growth into a great tree. The Lord Jesus gave the disciples their marching orders in the first chapter: "you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). And what we see in our text today is the gospel breaking out of its initial Jewish and Samaritan confines and beginning its journey to "the end of the earth."
This is not a haphazard or accidental expansion. This is a Spirit-orchestrated, sovereignly-directed, pin-point accurate deployment of the good news. We are tempted to think of evangelism as something we drum up, a program we design, or a sales pitch we perfect. But the book of Acts shows us that true evangelism is getting caught up in the work that the Holy Spirit is already doing. It is God preparing hearts, arranging circumstances, and then sending His messengers to connect the dots. Philip, fresh off a powerful city-wide revival in Samaria, is sent by an angel into the desert for a conversation with one man. From a macro-revival to a micro-encounter. Why? Because this one man is the key to a continent. This one man is the first fruits of Africa coming to Christ. This is how God works. He is always after the nations, and He gets to the nations through individuals.
This story is a beautiful illustration of our postmillennial hope. The Great Commission is not a suggestion or a long shot. It is a command from the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, and it comes with a promise that He will be with us to the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20). The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is not wishful thinking; it is the trajectory of history. And this encounter on the Gaza road is a key moment in that glorious, unfolding victory. Ethiopia is about to stretch out her hands to God (Psalm 68:31).
The Text
But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) So he rose up and went; and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: "AS A SHEEP IS LED TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RECOUNT HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH." And the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?" Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" [And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept proclaiming the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
(Acts 8:26-40 LSB)
The Divine Appointment (vv. 26-29)
We begin with the sovereign initiative of God. Evangelism is God's idea, and He directs the traffic.
"But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, 'Rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.' (This is a desert road.) So he rose up and went..." (Acts 8:26-27a)
Philip is in the middle of a great work in Samaria. There are conversions, baptisms, and great joy in the city. By any human metric, this is a successful ministry that should be scaled up. But God's ways are not our ways. An angel gives him a peculiar command: leave the bustling city and go to a desert road. Notice Luke adds the parenthetical detail: "This is a desert road." He wants us to feel the apparent absurdity of the command. God is sending His evangelist from a place teeming with people to a place with, presumably, nobody.
But Philip's response is immediate obedience. "He rose up and went." He doesn't argue. He doesn't ask for a five-year strategic plan. He doesn't form a committee. He simply obeys. This is the fundamental posture of a servant of God. We are not called to understand the whole blueprint; we are called to obey the next instruction. God honors this kind of faith, the kind that walks when He says walk, even if the destination seems barren.
And of course, the road is not barren. God has an appointment scheduled. We meet an Ethiopian eunuch. This man is significant on multiple levels. He is an Ethiopian, a Gentile from the "ends of the earth." He is a high-ranking official, the treasurer for the queen, a man of power and influence. And he is a eunuch. This is important because under the Mosaic law, a eunuch was excluded from the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:1). Yet, this man is a God-fearer. He has traveled a great distance to worship in Jerusalem, and he is returning with a scroll of Isaiah, which would have been extraordinarily expensive. He is a seeker. He has a hunger for God that transcends his formal exclusion from the covenant community. God sees this hunger, and He is moving heaven and earth, literally sending angels and evangelists, to meet this man at his point of need.
The Infallible Word (vv. 30-35)
The Spirit's direction becomes even more specific. God moves from the macro-level (go to this road) to the micro-level (go to that chariot).
"Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and join this chariot.' And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' And he said, 'Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?'" (Acts 8:29-31 LSB)
Philip runs. Again, we see this eager obedience. He doesn't saunter over; he runs. He finds the man reading aloud, as was the custom, from the prophet Isaiah. And what passage is he reading? Isaiah 53, the great prophecy of the Suffering Servant. This is not a coincidence. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture, and He is also its supreme interpreter. He had this man reading this exact passage at this exact moment, preparing the soil for the seed Philip was about to plant.
Philip's opening question is brilliant in its simplicity: "Do you understand what you are reading?" He doesn't start with a canned presentation. He starts where the man is. And the eunuch's reply is a model of humility. "How could I, unless someone guides me?" This man is a high official, likely very educated, yet he acknowledges his need for a teacher. This is the posture of a heart prepared by the Spirit. He is not proud; he is hungry.
"And the eunuch answered Philip and said, 'I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?' Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him." (Acts 8:34-35 LSB)
The eunuch asks the central question of all Old Testament interpretation: Who is this about? The Spirit has teed up the ball perfectly. This passage, Isaiah 53, is the gospel in miniature. It speaks of one who was led like a sheep to slaughter, who was silent before his accusers, whose life was taken from the earth. It is the clearest prophecy of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament. For centuries, Jewish interpreters have tried to make this passage about the nation of Israel. But that makes no sense. How can sinful Israel be the righteous servant who dies for the sins of "my people," the Israelites? The text demands an individual, a sinless substitute.
And so Philip, "beginning from this Scripture," preached Jesus to him. All evangelism should be like this. It begins with the Word of God and it ends with the Son of God. Philip didn't have to awkwardly transition from the weather to the gospel. God had already set the topic of conversation. Philip simply had to connect the dots from the prophecy to the person, from the Suffering Servant of Isaiah to the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth.
The Public Confession (vv. 36-38)
The eunuch's response is not mere intellectual assent. The Word preached in the power of the Spirit produces true faith, and true faith immediately seeks to obey.
"And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, 'Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?'" (Acts 8:36 LSB)
It is the eunuch who initiates the request for baptism. Philip's gospel presentation must have included the command to be baptized. Preaching Jesus means preaching the whole package: His death, burial, resurrection, and the commands He gives to His disciples, the first of which is to be baptized. The eunuch understands this. He sees water, and he asks, "What prevents me?" This is a wonderful question. For this man, there were many potential barriers. He was a Gentile. He was a eunuch, ceremonially unclean. He was from a distant land. But in Christ, all those barriers are obliterated. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female... nor eunuch. Nothing prevents him.
Now, verse 37 is not in some of the earliest manuscripts, but it is in many others, and its content is entirely consistent with the rest of Scripture. It represents the ancient practice of the church. "If you believe with all your heart, you may." Baptism is for believers. It is the outward sign of an inward reality. The eunuch's confession is simple, profound, and sufficient: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." This is the bedrock confession of the Christian faith.
And so they stop the chariot, and they both go down into the water, and Philip baptizes him. This is a public declaration. This high-ranking official is identifying himself with a crucified and risen Messiah. He is being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. This is his covenant enlistment into the army of the living God.
The Joyful Departure (vv. 39-40)
The conclusion of the story is as supernatural as its beginning.
"When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing." (Acts 8:39 LSB)
The Spirit who directed Philip to the chariot now teleports him away. This is a dramatic sign, but the focus is not on the miracle itself. The focus is on the result in the eunuch's life. He doesn't panic. He doesn't doubt his experience because the evangelist vanished. His faith was not in Philip; it was in Christ. And so, he "went on his way rejoicing."
This is the characteristic mark of a true conversion. Joy. He has found the pearl of great price. The Scripture that once confused him is now the source of his greatest delight. The God from whom he was once excluded has now welcomed him in as a son. He is going home a new man, carrying the gospel with him. Church tradition tells us that this eunuch was the one who first brought the gospel to Ethiopia, which became one of the first Christian nations in the world. From this one divine appointment in the desert, a nation was discipled. This is how the kingdom grows.
And Philip? He finds himself at Azotus and just keeps on preaching. He doesn't need a conference to debrief his supernatural experience. He just continues with the mission. This is the beautiful, relentless, forward motion of the gospel in the book of Acts. The Spirit is moving, the Word is working, and the church is expanding, one Spirit-led conversation at a time.