Unit 3: The Birth of the Church
Key Verse:
Acts 8:38 NLT
38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
Prelude:
Acts 8:1 NLT
1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.
The religious leaders in Jerusalem declared war on the followers of Christ. They were determined to stop this rapidly growing sect before it completely overran the entire religious order in Jerusalem. However, that persecution didn’t quite work as planned. Rather than shrink in fear, Christ’s followers fled into Samaria and Judea, carrying the Gospel with them. The Good News was spreading.
Acts 8:4-6,12 NLT
4 But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. 5 Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. 6 Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did.
12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.
For example, Philip, the Deacon turned Evangelist, after being forced out of Jerusalem, began to preach the message of Christ in the region of Samaria. Recall that early in His ministry, Jesus had a providential encounter with a woman at Jacob’s well. Philip went back there to provide proof that, indeed, that same Jesus had risen from the grave and had ascended to the Father in Heaven. It was Philip’s duty to bring the latest breaking news, the Good News to Samaria.
The Lesson
Acts 8:26 NLT
26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south[b] down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
God had more in store for Philip. His effective presentation of the Gospel brought many into the Kingdom of God. Now he was being directed by God’s messenger to turn south toward Gaza. Wedged on the border between Israel and Ethiopia, Gaza was part of the territory in Cannan that the Lord had promised to the Hebrews after their liberation from Egypt. While the Hebrews had many great victories there, they never fully settled the area. Instead, it became a stronghold for the enemies of God, the Philistines. Now, in a divine play on words, Philip was sent to Gaza to preach the Gospel of liberation …to Ethiopia.
Acts 8:27-28 NLT
27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
It was on the road to Gaza that Philip would encounter an Ethiopian of great influence. This man answered only to the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. Kandake is a title, not a name, meaning queen-mother. There are a large number of Kandakes recorded in Alkebulan’s (Africa’s) history. From a biblical standpoint, theologians connect this woman, whose name was Garsemot, Kandake VI, to the Queen of Sheba, whose given name was Makeda. Makeda was a woman of great influence. It was she who visited King Solomon and marveled at his God-given wisdom. Queen Sheba was regarded as a Kandake. Allow me to press this point a bit further. This office of Kandake is evidence of what is called matrilineal succession, as well as an indication of matriarchial leadership. History records many ancient societies that were led by women, including the Iroquois Confederation here in North America. In fact, the Iroquois Confederation influenced the founders of The United States so profoundly that they adopted many of the Iroquois principles in the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Suffice it to say, these were very powerful women who ruled vast kingdoms of great wealth. Thus, the Ethiopian Eunuch was a man of great influence.
The reason that theologians connect Kandake Garsemot to Kandake Makeda (of Sheba) is because of the thread of commonality between them, the worship of YHWH, the God of Abraham Isaac, and Ja’cov. The fact that the Eunuch had traveled to Jerusalem to worship informs us that there were thousands, possibly millions of people in Alkebulan (Africa) whom God remembered and determined that they must also hear this Gospel of the Kingdom, given to us by Christ, our King.
Acts 8:29 NLT
29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
While Philip had preached to Samaritans, who had some claim to the promise of God to Abraham as their divine inheritance, to go toward an Ethiopian chariot may have left him bewildered. Philip may have imagined that the Holy Spirit was leading him to proclaim the Gospel to a Jewish community within the formerly Philistinian region. However, God had so much more in mind.
Acts 8:30-31 NLT
30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
As Philip approached the chariot, Philip was able to hear the man reading, what was to him, a familiar passage of Scripture. It was then that it began to dawn on Philip that this cross-cultural encounter was prearranged by God Almighty. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, Philip began by questioning the Ethiopian official concerning the Scripture he had been reading. The Ethiopian official responded by admitting that he did not understand what he was reading. How could he? He had no one to instruct him. As an officer of the Kandake’s administration, he had been given the responsibility of bringing an offering, a gift to the Temple of God: a tradition that had held since the time of King Solomon and Makeda, the Kandake of Sheba.
Remarkably, the long journey from Alkebulan to Jerusalem had piqued the curiosity of the Ethiopian official in such a way that he seemingly acquired a scroll from which to investigate the matter for himself. In His great providence, God sent Philip to uncover the mysteries that the Scriptures held. The Ethiopian official invited Philip to join him in the chariot in order that he might receive from Philp the instruction that he so desired.
Acts 8:32-33 NLT
32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
33
He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”[c]
The passage from which the Ethiopian read was from the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah, verses 7 and 8. This passage speaks of the unjust crucifixion of Christ. He bore our shame so that we might inherit the promise of eternal life through His shed blood. Jesus fully understood the gravity, the weight of the cup of sorrow that the Father had set before Him. He drank from that cup without complaint. He’d left His complaint in the garden in Gethsemane. It was there that He had completely surrendered to God’s will for His life.
Acts 8:34 NLT
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”
Isaiah 53:2 NLT
2
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
The Ethiopian official’s question to Philip seems to have stemmed from Isaiah 53:2. He rightfully had questions about the identity of the person of whom Isaiah spoke. The duality of prophetic writing lends itself to a truth that was pertinent at the time of the writing as well as to a deeper truth that God intends to reveal at some future date. The Ethiopian apparently was aware of the possible duality of the writing and hoped that Philip could provide clarity and understanding.
Acts 8:35 NLT
35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
Philip understood the assignment. He explained, from the writings of Isaiah, the Gospel of Christ. Certainly, he explained Christ’s Eternal Divinity, His conception by way of the Holy Spirit, and His Earthly ministry. Certainly, Philip told of Jesus’ miracles, then finally of His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Certainly, the Ethiopian listened carefully and then carefully formed his next line of questioning:
Acts:8:36 NLT
36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”
Obviously, the Ethiopian official found the answers he was seeking in his conversion with Philip. He affirms that this is so by requesting that Philip baptize him. In essence, he had already made the life-altering decision to follow Christ. To be buried with Christ by the symbolism of baptism and to be symbolically raised up with Christ into the New Life that Christ offers to those who believe on His great Name. Baptism does not save. Baptism is only an outward sign of an inward change. The hearing of the Gospel by an Emissary of the Gospel is what delivers saving faith to the believer. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Ethiopian’s question was evidence of the spiritual awakening that had taken place.
(Some manuscripts add verse 37, “You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.” And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”)
Acts 8:38 NLT
38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
Philip obeyed the direction of Scripture as well. He was also conforming to precedent established in the ministries of John, the Baptist and then of Jesus, the Christ. Why Baptize? Again, an outward sign of an inward change. A very public declaration and identificatio with the risen Savior, Jesus. Philip understood the assignment. And now suddenly, so did the Ethiopian.
Acts 8:39 NLT
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.
Herein lies a note of interest. Philip and the Ethiopian are immediately separated by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit takes Philip away and leaves the Ethiopian to rejoice alone, solely in the Presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will teach Him. The Holy Spirit will guide him. The Holy Spirit will confer upon the Ethiopian an assignment of his own; to carry the Gospel back to Alkebulan (Africa), back to the Kingdom of the Kandake whom he serves, and deliver to her and her subjects the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Acts 8:40 NLT
40 Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.
Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit directs Philip to journey north, along the western coast of Israel, then continuing on into Caesarea, spreading the Good News of the Kingdom all along the way. Philip eventually settled in Caesarea and raised his family there. It was there that he would, many years later, invite Paul and his missionary partners into his home as guests. Not only did Philip preach the Gospel, but he also lived it, raising his family in the way of the Lord and welcoming fellow believers into his home as necessarily required.
Acts 21:7-9 NLT
7 The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters[c] and stayed for one day. 8 The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.
Selah,
wb
No comments:
Post a Comment