26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south1 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. 29 And 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?”238 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.
Footnotes
[1]8:26Or go at about noon [2]8:36Some manuscripts add all or most of verse 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south1 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. 29 And 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?”238 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.
Footnotes
[1]8:26Or go at about noon [2]8:36Some manuscripts add all or most of verse 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 8 or it's there in your worship guide as we continue our study in the book of Acts. I can't tell you how much better I feel this Sunday versus last Sunday, after taking the Tylenol PM before the morning services. Although at our 11 o'clock service this morning, I got recruited to sing in the makeshift choir, all services, and so I was drinking some tea, And I I thought I was drinking my tea, but I drink drank somebody's tea from last week, that had been left there. And so I I have that in my body now. But but I feel alright.
Joel Brooks:
I feel fine. So we're we're continuing our study in acts, and really, we're we're expounding on this theme of the great commission, where Jesus, he commissioned us to go into the world to make disciples and to teach people to obey all of his commandments, and we typically think of this mission as being done by missionaries. I mean, it actually has the name in it. You know, missionaries, mission. But it might surprise you to know that the word missionary is nowhere in the Bible.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, you could search from cover to cover and you will never find the word missionary there, because all the church is called on mission. That's the responsibility of every Christian, and the movements that we've seen in Acts and the movements that we've seen throughout history comes from, one ordinary Christian sharing his faith with somebody else. It's just a person to person sharing their faith and eventually, entire communities get saved, and cities get saved, and nations are changed. But it's personal to personal, person to person evangelism. And this story really expounds on that.
Joel Brooks:
So acts chapter 8, we're gonna begin reading in verse 26. Now the Angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go towards the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of Ethiopia of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot.
Joel Brooks:
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you were reading? And he said, 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, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
Joel Brooks:
Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does this prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
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? And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water. Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. 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.
Joel Brooks:
But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Father God, we ask that you would send your spirit and that he would open up sleeping minds and hearts, and that he would awaken us to the truth that we have here in your word.
Joel Brooks:
And more than just hearing true words, may we hear from you, Jesus. You calling to us through your spirit just like you called this eunuch to yourself. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:
So this story begins with an angel coming to Philip and telling him that he needs to rise and go south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now this would have been startling to Philip for a number of reasons. For one, it's not every day that an angel comes and talks to you, but it had also been a little bit confusing to him because of the directions the angel had given, because Philip, he was in a pretty important, important role now in Samaria. If you remember we looked at this a few weeks ago, Revival had hit Samaria. Philip had arrived.
Joel Brooks:
He preached the gospel, and people were coming to believe, and people were being healed. The lame were being healed. The blind were seeing. The demons were fleeing. It was full on revival, and Philip seems to be the one spearheading all of this.
Joel Brooks:
And so it would just be a little curious, a little confusing as to why God would call him away from what was a really successful ministry to go and do something else. He had to be thinking it's gotta be a pretty important thing for God to call me away from a revival where I'm being used in my gifts, and I'm seeing so much fruit to go to something else. And so he had to be thinking it has to be something really important that he's calling me to, And then God throws him a curve ball and says, no I want you to go to this this little little used road. This road here that's goes from Jerusalem to Gaza was a largely abandoned road. No one traveled this road.
Joel Brooks:
It was also a 165 miles South, and Philip didn't have a car. This was a this was a long way to go to get in the middle of nowhere. This would be like if right now you you kind of felt God impressing on you that you were supposed to go south to Uriah, Alabama. Anybody know where Uriah, Alabama is? Anybody from there?
Joel Brooks:
We have like 2 people. So only time Uriah will ever be mentioned in a sermon. Alright? Uriah is exactly a 165 miles south of here, population 295. It's in the middle of nowhere.
Joel Brooks:
And so if you felt God impressing you to walk down to Uriah, you might have a few questions first, like why Uriah? Why there? And and although I'm sure it's not a very big town, where exactly am I supposed to go when I get there? Is is there a person I'm supposed to meet? What am I supposed to do?
Joel Brooks:
You would have lots of questions if you felt God's spirit impressing you to go there, and I'm sure Philip had all of these questions as well. But Philip just went. Immediate obedience. He didn't raise any of his questions before the Lord. He just got up and he went without hesitation.
Joel Brooks:
I tell my kids all the time that, delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Someday they'll learn that. We're we're getting there. But when when our Lord and our savior ask something of us, the only response is yes and immediately do this and we see this with Philip.
Joel Brooks:
Now even though Philip probably had a ton of questions, he doesn't ask, he just does it and we don't know what Philip was exactly doing at the time. I mean maybe he was writing a sermon. Maybe he was leading a small group. Maybe he was preaching. We don't know because that detail does not matter.
Joel Brooks:
Once again, it does not matter what you do. It does not matter how busy you are when God calls you to do something, you go. And I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but God rarely works according to your schedule. He rarely asks you about your availability on such a day. God works according to his timetable, his schedule.
Joel Brooks:
I mean if you want, you can try to to give God the 15 minutes, you know, maybe wake up in the morning early, have a 15 minute devotional time and say, God, I've set aside 15 minutes for you to speak to me. And in these 15 minutes, you're allowed to give me instructions for my life and you're allowed to tell me what to do. You can you can ask that of God and get back to me how that works out for you. God could command us to do something anytime, any place, and often He does because He works according to His schedule. And you could sum up the Christian life and what discipleship looks like in those simple words in verse 27.
Joel Brooks:
He rose and went. He rose and went. It reminds me of Galatians 5 in which Paul says, since we live by the spirit of God, let us keep in step with his spirit. I wanna see Philip later literally keeping in step with the spirit as he's running by this chariot listening to the spirit of God direct him. Any of you gotten in a car that's parked and you've grabbed the steering wheel and you've tried to turn it?
Joel Brooks:
It's pretty hard isn't it? It's hard to kinda turn that wheel. But once the car gets moving, you can direct it. That same principle is is found in the spirit filled life of a Christian. A moving car is easier to steer.
Joel Brooks:
Once you take your first step of obedience, it's easier the Lord to begin directing you and guiding you where you should go. And there's a reason the Lord doesn't give you all of the details upfront. And I know you want all the details. You want all the questions answered, but if he gave you all of those up front, you would focus only on that and not on the God who is guiding you through it all. And so you begin moving 1 step in front of 1 foot in front of the other and the Lord directs you.
Joel Brooks:
And this is what we see here with Philip. He takes that first step and the Lord directs him. Now a number of years ago, probably about 15 years ago, I got to experience the Lord doing this in my life in a really unique way. I was sitting in a Sunday school class. I had allowed a college student to teach, that morning, so I'd already checked out.
Joel Brooks:
It's okay. If if the spirit talks to you during a message, it's okay. Listen to him, not me. I I felt the spirit of God impressing something on me. At least I had I had this strong impulse to do something.
Joel Brooks:
While while while he was speaking, I just I felt God directing me to do something, and it was that I was supposed to go to Ireland. I was supposed to go to Northern Ireland and I was supposed to find 2 guys who I'd met a previous summer, a guy named Steven and a guy named Colin. They were about 15 or 16 years old. And I couldn't get the thought out of my mind, and I began to think maybe this is of the Lord. It was such a strong impulse.
Joel Brooks:
And so I I talked to Lauren about it, said the strangest thing happened to me. I'm sitting in Sunday school and I get this impulse, I'm supposed to go and share the gospel with these 2 guys. What do you think I should do? She's like, well, I think you should go. I'm like, well, when?
Joel Brooks:
She goes, now. You idiot, go now. I'm like, we don't have the money for a ticket, we don't have all this, like we charge it. We'll worry about that later. And so I immediately went and I bought a ticket and flew to Ireland within like 2 or 3 days.
Joel Brooks:
And so I go there and I rent a car. I could only get to Dublin, not Belfast. I rent a car in Dublin, drive up past Belfast, and then it it kind of dawns on me. I really have no idea where I'm going. Not only do I not know the last names of these guys, I don't have an address for them, I didn't even know what town they lived in.
Joel Brooks:
And so I'm literally just driving around. And so I drive around all day, and nothing even looks familiar. And at this point, I'm I'm beginning to get a little frustrated. Actually, a better word would be I'm beginning to feel a little embarrassed. Embarrassed that I reacted so strongly to this impulse that I'm I'm there and now I'm making a fool of myself.
Joel Brooks:
I'll never find these guys and I have to go back and like reports to my wife and everybody else who's praying for me as I did this that nothing happened. And so, it's getting dark now and now it's pouring down rain. And, and so I'm in a community I don't recognize at all, but there's an apartment complex there and I just pull into the parking lot there and I am so frustrated. And I'm like, I'm just gonna start knocking on doors. That's what I'm gonna do.
Joel Brooks:
And so I go and I start knocking on doors. Nobody will answer because I'm a crazy American knocking on their door at night in a horrible neighborhood, like, and so I'm knocking and I'm knocking. Nobody answers. I go back into my car and I sit there and I am so embarrassed to be there. And I see, I see a guy, he rides his bike and he goes into an apartment.
Joel Brooks:
I'm like, I know somebody's there. And I went to that apartment. It's like I'm gonna pound this door down until somebody at least opens the door and maybe they know him. And, I knock and the door opens and it's Steven. Can you believe that?
Joel Brooks:
Steven. He looks at me and he's like, Joel? And I was like, Steven? He was, what are you doing here? I was like, the Lord sent me here to talk to you.
Joel Brooks:
He was, alright. And so so I I sit down next to him, and literally, he gives no response whatsoever. He barely acknowledges my presence. While I'm talking to him, sharing the gospel with him, he turns on a soccer game and pays attention to that. There there were no angelic choirs going on, no like light beam coming down.
Joel Brooks:
He literally ignored me while I talked to him. And I shared the gospel with him and I was like, well great to see you, and I'm about to head out and I was like, do you happen to know where Colin's is? I kinda wanna go through all this. He goes, yeah, I know Colin, and he gave me Colin's address. So I go and I drive to Colin's apartment, knock on the door.
Joel Brooks:
Collin opens and he's like, Joel? I was like, Collin, he goes, what are you doing here? The Lord sent me to talk to you. He invited me in and he was much more engaged. And over the course of a couple of hours, I got to share the gospel with him as passionately as I knew how.
Joel Brooks:
But once again, he didn't come to know Jesus then. He didn't come to faith then. We said our goodbyes, I got on a plane, I went back home. Fast forward a little bit, it's just probably 7 or 8 months later and, I'm going to Ireland again just for the weekend because it's a it's a vision trip or a planning trip for our summer team and, I bring a friend with me, a college student named Shay Henson, and we we go together and we're driving around, and I'm just, I mean it's such a tight window, I don't have time to even try to look up Colin or Steven, I just need to meet with a few pastors. We're in a place in Ireland that I've never been before, we're driving down the highway and Shay says, I gotta use the restroom.
Joel Brooks:
I'm like, Shay, we got a tight schedule. You're not using the restroom. And he goes, I really gotta go. I said, I don't care. And so we just kept driving, and finally, he reached a point, Shay goes, you got to stop the cars.
Joel Brooks:
Fine. We pull into a petrol station, we go into the bathroom, there's Colin. I mean, in the middle of, like, nowhere, Ireland, there's there's Colin there. And I look at Colin, and he just goes, well hello, partner. Like it was the most normal thing ever.
Joel Brooks:
And I just say, hey Colin, good to see you. The Lord's after you. And then I leave. I was like I gotta leave and then we go on and we did we do what we had to do, Shay and I with those meetings. I could tell you story after story about the Lord's pursuit of Colin.
Joel Brooks:
Equal All of these equally as crazy, But it took a number of years, until finally I was there for another just few days, and I went to go meet with Colin, and we're walking outside of a town called Ballymena, and I pick up a blade of grass, and I say, Colin, this is your life. And I let it go and the wind just takes it. I said, that's eternity. Are you ready for it? And finally Colin says, can you tell me one more time?
Joel Brooks:
And I tell him the gospel one more time and we pray right there. He actually said his words were, Joel, it wasn't an accident, you found me that day. And I don't even know which day he was talking about. I'm like, yeah. Wasn't an accident that you found me that day.
Joel Brooks:
And we prayed and I loved it, I'll try to imitate him, because Joel, I'm gonna need a hug. I mean I just like And so Colin came to know the Lord then. It was just now I think the Lord does that with all of us. He pursues every one of us with equal passion, equal love, and normally he's using different people. He's using one person at a gas station to say something, using maybe another person that comes to your house.
Joel Brooks:
He's using all these different things and and the Lord just in his grace, he allowed me to kind of be that one person to see all of that in Colin's life for which I'm forever thankful to see how he pursued somebody, and it all began with that little impulse. Go. Go. Let me tell you another story. This time I'm in college, University of Georgia in Athens and same thing, I feel this impulse.
Joel Brooks:
I'm supposed to go to the fountain downtown. I'm thinking, I guess I'm supposed to go there, share the gospel with somebody, and it's like, I'm gonna pay. And so I went and I sat for hours and hours and no one ever came. And I completely missed it. I mean there's no great story.
Joel Brooks:
Absolutely nothing happened. It probably wasn't the Lord talking to me. It was probably indigestion, you know. I don't I don't know what it was, but I missed it. But I don't think God was angry at me for missing that.
Joel Brooks:
If anything, you know, he probably just laughed. I brought a smile to his face for being such an idiot and doing that because of a burrito, you know. And now I know what the Lord's voice doesn't sound like, you know, so by process of elimination, I'm gonna keep getting it, better and better odds each time, but I think we should always take those risk. When we feel the impulse of the lord, we should go. Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're not right, but the lord he he steers you as you take steps.
Joel Brooks:
It might comfort you to know that the apostle Paul didn't always hear the lord right. He missed the spirit of the lord's direction sometimes. We find an example of this in acts 16. If you wanna flip over 8 chapters to to acts 16, we'll read about this. Let me set the context for you.
Joel Brooks:
Paul and Silas are going around to different towns sharing the gospel with people, and, and so Paul knows he's been commanded to preach the gospel, but they're not exactly sure where. So like that moving car, they're like, well we'll try this way. And that's that's how this story starts. Acts chapter 16 verse 6. And they, which is Paul and Silas, went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
Joel Brooks:
And when they had come to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Surpassing by Mysia, they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul has seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. I love that.
Joel Brooks:
So Paul, he knows he's supposed to preach the gospel. He doesn't know where, so he just begins moving and he thinks it's Asia, and and the spirit of God says, nope. It's not Asia. It's like, okay, not Asia. Well then I'm gonna go in this direction to Bethenia, and it says, nope, the spirit of God prohibited prohibited him from going there and redirects him.
Joel Brooks:
So now Paul's over 2 and he's just kinda walking around and God's like, final send a vision of a Macedonian man going, Paul, come here. And Paul, he literally sees this vision, he's like, I discerned that I'm supposed to go to Macedonia. You're like, do you you think? So even Paul was trying to discern the will of the Lord, but as he began moving and trusting in God's spirit and trusting in God's sovereignty, God directed him and got him to the right place. This is how we live our lives, people.
Joel Brooks:
In this story here, Philip trust God's sovereignty and trust his spirit and he goes. And as he goes, he he begins realizing that God has gone before him as and has been preparing everything for his arrival. He sees this Ethiopian eunuch here in a chariot, and and the spirit of God tells him, get close to that chariot, and so he's he's literally keeping in step with the spirit now. He's running next to the chariot. And as he is running, he hears this Ethiopian reading from the scroll of Isaiah.
Joel Brooks:
And Philip asked if he understands what he's reading. The eunuch is essential like, have you read Isaiah? Of course I don't know what I'm reading. I have no clue what Isaiah is talking about, unless you could teach me. And Philip says okay, and so Philip gets in the chariot.
Joel Brooks:
Now we learn a number of things about this eunuch from just the few sentences that are here. One, he was from Ethiopia. Now this isn't modern day Ethiopia. This is kind of southwest Egypt. He worked for the queen as a treasurer.
Joel Brooks:
This would have been an extremely important position. He was essentially the minister of finance in Ethiopia. We also know that in order to achieve this position, he had to sacrifice a lot. If you wanted to work with the royal family, if you wanted to work for the Queen, you had to be surgically castrated. It was the only way that the royalty or the queen could trust a person in that position.
Joel Brooks:
And so he went through this because he wanted such a position of honor. And we also know that having gone through all of that, he doesn't think it was worth it. He's at a point of crisis in his life, emotional crisis, spiritual crisis in his life. We know this because of the journey that he is taking. You don't take a journey like this on a whim.
Joel Brooks:
This is a 2,000 mile journey. This is 10 months of travel. You have got to be desperate to try anything like this, but this man is thinking, I've tried everything else, what do I have to lose? And I'm gonna head to Jerusalem and we don't know how he found out about Yahweh all the way in Ethiopia or found out about the Jewish faith, but he found out enough to where he thought maybe this is it. Maybe I could find some answers here.
Joel Brooks:
Maybe I could finally find some peace. And so he does this pilgrimage all the way there. We also know from this story that he's already been to Jerusalem and he is returning. He's returning back to Ethiopia, and what this means is he has just received some devastating news. Because when he arrived in Jerusalem after 5 months and he goes to the temple, what he would have found outside the temple gates was this, a sign that said no lame, no diseased, no blind, no eunuchs allowed.
Joel Brooks:
He would have been denied even being able to go into the outer court of the Gentiles. He couldn't go to the temple to worship. I mean, could you imagine how devastated he would have been to have traveled such a long way to have his heart ripped out at that final moment. He had hoped maybe there he could have found answers, but nothing. And so now he's going back to his old life, going back to Ethiopia, a place where we know he's already been desperate and empty.
Joel Brooks:
It's hard to imagine for us just how devastated he would have been. I mean not just from wasting 10 months of his life, but he gave up everything. Everything. He gave up the ability to have children. Now I know not having children is a big deal in our culture, it's a big deal in every culture, but you can't really even compare that to this culture.
Joel Brooks:
Having children meant everything. You needed children to help out with the crops. You needed children to be in the army to defend yourself. You needed to have a lots of children because your goal was to out populate your enemies. You needed children to take care of you in your old age.
Joel Brooks:
They were your retirement plan and, you had to have 8 to 10 children if you hoped 3 or 4 would survive and live long enough to take care of you. So to not have children was just not an option for somebody in this society. And in addition to this, you needed children if you wanted your name to continue. I mean you worked hard for your reputation, building your reputation, building your name, but if you didn't have children your name died with you. There was great shame in that.
Joel Brooks:
So when we see this eunuch here, we see a person who has sacrificed everything. His ability to have children, marriage, the ability to have a name endure after he is gone, and so he's completely empty and and we would call this he is having an identity crisis at this point. And as he returns home, he he opens up the scroll of Isaiah. I don't know how he got this scroll. It was hard to get a scroll in that day, but he he he opened up the scroll to Isaiah and he turns to Isaiah chapter 53, and it is no coincidence study goes there.
Joel Brooks:
This is a somewhat famous text in Isaiah 53. It's about the suffering servant of the Lord. The Lord or the suffering servant who had suffered a far greater injustice than this eunuch. Now in acts here we we have only quoted Isaiah 53 verses 5 through 8, but but certainly, I mean there's no verses in anything in the scrolls, he's reading the entire section on this suffering servant. And so right after he read what we have here in acts, just 2 verses later, he would have read how this man, even though we read, who could describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth.
Joel Brooks:
Just 2 verses later in Isaiah, we read these words, that this man would see his offspring and prolong his days. This had to be puzzling for this eunuch because he's so how's that possible? The man was cut off from the living. So how is he gonna see his offspring and how are his days gonna be prolonged? And and then of course he would have read just a few more verses, just just 2 or 3 verses later you come to Isaiah 541 and we read this.
Joel Brooks:
Sing, oh barren one. Sing, oh barren one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud you who have never been in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the one who is married, says the Lord. He had to be wondering how how is that possible.
Joel Brooks:
How can the barren one sing, And how can a barren one have more children than someone who actually has children? That makes no sense. Well it doesn't make sense if you understand children as just being physical children, but if you understand children as what it did in this day representing your value. Children are who you placed your identity upon. Your worth came from having children and if you see it in this lens, well this entire text makes sense.
Joel Brooks:
What Isaiah says here when the barren one will have more children than the actual one with those physical children, he is saying that the barren one is gonna have more value, more meaning, more purpose, more joy, more of a rock solid identity than the one who just had kids. And Ethiopian is reading this, and he's like, you can almost sense hope bubbling up inside of him. Because what the who is this man? I mean, it's all possible because of this one man, this this man of sorrows there. So I need to know who this man is.
Joel Brooks:
Enter Philip. This is happening. By coincidence, Philip is running alongside it and he says, oh I could tell you who that man is. And he tells them about Jesus. Hear me, every person in here can in some way relate to this eunuch.
Joel Brooks:
The reason I say this is because all of us here can have at least at times clung to something, sacrificed for something that we were convinced would bring life and joy to us. And we banked on that with everything we have, and yet it left us dry. For some of us it was a career and we we made incredible sacrifices for our career. We sacrificed family. We we sacrificed our time.
Joel Brooks:
We sacrificed every hobby we had just to advance in our career, and as we advanced, we realized it's not worth it. It's empty. For some of us it was money. You you gave everything, you sacrificed just so you can have wealth, and now you've achieved it and you're like, who really cares? Some of you you you're sacrificing.
Joel Brooks:
You think all of your identity and your worth is gonna come when you find that special someone. You just need to get married. Some of you just wanna date, like if I could just get a date that proves I'm somebody. And for some of us it's actually in having kids. We keep thinking if I could just have children, then my life will have meaning.
Joel Brooks:
And then we we put all of our joy and expectations and hopes and everything in that basket, and then when we finally get it, we realize it's all empty. So we can relate to this eunuch. And we can also hear the good news that Philip said, because it's good news to us. When Philip hears what the eunuch's reading and and he's asked this question, he begins to tell the eunuch about Jesus. The good news about Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus is this man of sorrows, this suffering servant in Isaiah. Jesus is the one who suffered incredible injustice. Jesus was the lamb that was led to the slaughter. Jesus was the one who didn't open His mouth when he was on trial. Jesus is the one who bore our grief, who bore our shame.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus was the one who was wounded for our transgressions. He was the one who was crushed for our iniquities. This passage is about Jesus. You cannot understand it any other way. And what we see here is Jesus took all of our shame, all of our hurt, all of our suffering, all of our sin, and he bore it and he took it to the grave and he buried it there.
Joel Brooks:
All of that he buried it there and then Jesus burst forth a new life. And now he tells us this new life is available to you. Barren one, you can sing. Not just sing, but sing for all eternity. This is the good news that the eunuch hears.
Joel Brooks:
I mean it immediately is like sign me up. I mean he is like there's water. Can I be baptized now? It feels like, yeah. And so they pull over and he's immediately baptized.
Joel Brooks:
And then we read that, Philip afterwards, see it says that the spirit carried Philip away and he just found himself at Azatas. I have no idea what that means. It's like kind of Star Trek beam over there or or perhaps he ran really fast or we don't know what it means, but the the spirit kind of carried him away there. And the eunuch was left and he returned back to Ethiopia and he returned barren, but he didn't return without life. Full of life, full of joy, and he sang.
Joel Brooks:
In the earliest Christian traditions we have from Irenaeus, who talks about the the church history, we record that it was this eunuch who started the first church in Africa. He went back and he shared his faith, once again, person to person, sharing the joy of Christ. And when we come on upon a story like this, we know that there is so much that's there that we need to apply to our lives. So much that we need to take time to respond to. For some of us, it's this, you need to listen to the spirit of God and you need to obey, And you have heard God's still small voice tugging at you, whispering you to go and to do something, and you keep waiting for a better time.
Joel Brooks:
You keep waiting for when your schedule, you know, opens up. You keep you keep resisting Him. Some of you need to just stop resisting and obey your Lord and savior and go. And he has prepared the way before you. You don't have to know all the details.
Joel Brooks:
All you need to know is your first step. And as you begin moving, He begins guiding and directing you. Others of you here, you simply need to hear and to believe the good news of the gospel. That Jesus has taken that barrenness that you have felt, that you have sacrificed your whole life for, and now you got it and you're like, this is it. Jesus has taken that and he has put it in the grave and buried it.
Joel Brooks:
And now he is offering the new life that he has, an eternal life. He's offering you meaning and purpose and joy because he's offering you himself. And some of you need to hear that good news of the gospel and embrace that. If you would pray with me in this moment. Our lord Jesus, we ask that through your spirit, you begin to open up hardened hearts.
Joel Brooks:
Hearts maybe that have resisted you, not just for days or for months, but for years. May you begin to break through. May we hear you calling us. For those who have resisted your spirit for so long, may they not quench your spirit. May in this moment, may they say yes.