The Ends of the Earth
Preached by Ben Bechtel
June 21, 2020
Scripture Reading
Acts 8:26-40
26 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. 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?” 38 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.
We all long for our lives to have purpose. We all want to have that feeling as we lay our head on our pillow at night that what we have done that day mattered in the grand scheme of things. For many people this sense of purpose has been greatly hindered by the effects of the coronavirus. Many in our church have been furloughed or lost jobs you feel this lack of purpose acutely without work each day. One particular woman interviewed for a New York Times article on depression related to the coronavirus shutdowns said this about her current life situation: “I lost that network of people and sense of job and purpose…the loneliness is unbearable.”[1] Whether we have been affected by COVID or not, we all long for our lives to have meaning and purpose.
As we turn to the Scriptures this morning, this story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch puts on display the purpose of God for us that correspond to his big purposes for the whole world. First, God really loves sinful, shipwrecked, helpless people and wants them to have joy in him. And second, he wants those people who have joy in Jesus to be people who tell others of this good news. God really wants people to hear the good news and receive it with joy and he really wants his people to tell others about it. As we see God’s heart and purpose on display for us in Acts 8, I pray that it would stir us up to love him and join him in his mission.
1. The Power for Missional Living: The Barrier Breaking Gospel
Phillip, this early church servant, after preaching to the Samaritans, is called by God to go south on this desert road towards Africa. And along this road he meets this Ethiopian eunuch. Notice, this man is not even named and we are given two facts about him, namely that he is Ethiopian and a eunuch who works in service of the queen. These facts, though sparse, are crucial for understanding what Luke is doing with this story in the book.
First, this man is Ethiopian. Ethiopia was considered by many in the first century to be at the southern end of the earth, because it was located on the southern outskirts of the Roman empire.[2] Now, why does Phillip find this Gentile, African man returning home from worshipping at Jerusalem, a journey which would have taken 5 months to complete? This man was what was known as a God-fearer, a Gentile who served and worshipped the God of Israel. This is likely why Phillip finds him trying to wrestle with the text of Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament. So, this Gentile from the ends of the earth is tracked down by God’s love and believes this gospel. This sounds familiar to something we saw at the beginning of the book of Acts (1:8):
…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Do you see this? The Ethiopian eunuch is a microcosm of what is going to happen en masse later on in the book of Acts. The message of Jesus is beginning to go forth to people from different cultures, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds even to the farthest corners of the earth.
This man is also a eunuch. As was commonly done at the time, this man was castrated in order to serve in a position close to the queen. In the Old Testament law eunuchs were barred from entering into the temple courts to worship because they could not properly receive the covenant sign of circumcision (Deut. 23:1). However, in Isaiah 56, the prophet looks forward to a day when all types of people, including eunuchs, who were previously excluded from full participation in the people of God are brought into the kingdom of the Messiah, the promised Savior. And now this age has come with the dawning of that Savior, Jesus. It is at the hearing of the gospel of Jesus preached from Isaiah 53 that this man goes forth in joy.
You see, what this is all designed to teach us is that God’s gospel has less boundaries than we do. The gospel of Jesus is for all kinds of people! All people regardless of the color of their skin, the class into which they fall in society, or the sins they have committed are invited into the kingdom of Jesus.
Church, do we reestablish the barriers which Jesus has torn down? Do we hold people at arm’s length whom the gospel calls us to welcome in as full members of God’s family? Phillip doesn’t hold this new convert at arm’s length. He gets in the water and baptizes him, signifying that he is a full-fledged family member! Maybe we hold people at arm’s length because of a certain political persuasion, because God couldn’t possibly really work in the heart of a Democrat, right? Maybe you have chosen to keep those in our church with cultural differences who come from another country at arm’s length because it is simply too hard or too awkward. Maybe it is different parenting styles, or particular Christian school affiliation, or because we know they struggle with a particular sin. The gospel of Jesus is a barrier breaking gospel, one which brings in Ethiopians and eunuchs, black and white, Republican and Democrat together in the people of God. Anyone who recognizes their need for Jesus can become a part of this family.
And it is precisely this barrier-breaking gospel message that motivates our witness. I see this in verses 32-35 of our text:
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.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
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 the 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. (Acts 8:32-35)
Jesus, though he was completely free of sin and innocent suffered and died on behalf of sinful humanity. Because Jesus was led to the slaughter and was silent before his accusers, we can open our mouths freely and declare his love for any who would come to him! The poet George Herbert captures this reality beautifully in his poem “The Agonie”:
Who knows not love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the cross a pike
Did set abroad; then let him say
If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood; but I as wine.
What Jesus felt as blood we taste as wine. The horrible death which Jesus endured without opening his mouth is the very same death we open our mouths in joy to proclaim!
Some of you may be here and you may feel tired of hearing that you need to preach the gospel. Or you may feel daunted at the task of telling others about Jesus. Or you may feel like this call is just one more option among many in a scrolling social media feed promising to give you purpose in a time when you don’t feel like you have any. This isn’t the sermon to go into all the details about how we share the gospel with others, but I will tell you this one thing: you have to experience the good news of Jesus at a heart level before you will proclaim that good news from the heart to others.
You have to receive the gospel like the Ethiopian man before you can preach like Phillip. You don’t get up and run to obey the command of God to preach the gospel like Phillip did unless the gospel causes you to shout for joy like the Ethiopian man. At a heart level, it’s not about guilting yourself to go invite your non-Christian neighbors over for dinner. It’s about receiving the beautiful news of grace that runs out of you like a fire hydrant to others. As Christians the heart of the gospel tells us that we don’t share the gospel because it gives us purpose and meaning but first and foremost that we have purpose and meaning because the Son of God made us in his image and died on behalf of our sins. You have to receive the gospel as wine, as that sweet liquor which enflames your heart with love for Jesus and your life with purpose before you will share it freely with others. It must be good news for you before it can be good news for others.
2. The Context of Missional Living: God’s Providential Plan
We have to notice from this passage the way in which God intentionally orchestrates this missionary encounter in his sovereign power. I remember playing a game called “what are the odds?” in high school. The game went something like this: explain game.
If we were to play what are the odds with this passage, the odds would be near impossible that all these things would happen. What are the odds that Phillip would be pulled from a successful missionary campaign in Philadelphia and called to journey to a remote country road in Perry county (v. 26)? What are the odds that on this journey Phillip would meet an Ethiopian man who also happened to be a God-fearer (vv. 27-28)? What are the odds that this man has a scroll of Isaiah 53 opened the moment Phillip rolls up beside him reading of a servant who would suffer on behalf of the sin of his people? What are the odds that on this desert road they pass water in order for the man to be baptized? Make no mistake, God orchestrated this encounter intentionally so that the eunuch would meet Jesus. And make no mistake, God can and will do the same thing in our lives so that people hear the gospel. God loves to work in the events of the world to bring people into the joy of knowing him.
If you are here this morning in church know this, God just might have you in this church this morning to be told of this God who loves you and gave himself up for your sin and failure. You may be wondering why in the world you ended up in Harrisburg, PA of all places, especially those of who are originally from another country, or why you have friends who are believers in Jesus, or why in the world you have been stuck inside for the past three months pondering more deeply than ever the questions of life and death. Friends, God loves to work in the details of our lives, even the hard details that we don’t like, to bring people to himself. If you feel God drawing you, don’t hesitate a moment longer. Come to him now and trust in Jesus, the Savior of the outcast, the sinner, and the broken-hearted.
To those of you this morning who are Christians, this passage says something to us too. Why do we live our lives as if God doesn’t want to use us in his missionary plan to share the joy of Jesus? Why do we act like this is the last thing God would want to do? We ought to expect God to work providentially in our own lives so that other people meet Jesus! So, let’s start praying, planning, and living like God is actually about the business of bringing people from every tribe, tongue, and nation into his kingdom! This is the purpose of your life. It might not look as drastic and exciting in our own lives as it does in this story. God might be working in the most mundane and boring providences, but don’t be fooled by that. All those mundane moments are in service of the ultimate plan of God to bring people to know Jesus. He is at work around us to use us to bring others to faith in Christ. Will we join him in this?
And notice how purposeful God is in bringing just one man into his family in this passage. Let that detail from this text sink in. God moves all these pieces around so that one man could have joy in knowing him. At the beginning of chapter 8 Phillip is sent to preach and many Samaritans are getting saved. But God also cares about the one African man alone in the desert. So, God takes Phillip from this mission that is seeing many people come to Jesus and thrusts him out into the desert so that this one man who wasn’t even allowed in the temple could become a member of the family of God. Church, this is the heart of God on display for us this morning. Jesus loves sinners and we see that displayed on the cross where he was killed as a criminal on behalf of our sin. He left the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep.
Our lives ought to reflect this type of love and care for those who have not tasted the joy of the gospel. Notice the way Phillip reflects this same personal love of God in the way he approaches this man. Phillip comes to the man asking questions and then preaching the truth of gospel to him where he is in need and searching. Friends, this is the purpose of our lives! As Jesus’ love causes him to leave the ninety-nine and go after the one, so our lives ought to be spent pursuing those who are far from Jesus.
So, my question for us this morning is, is God’s purpose our ultimate purpose? We have seen the love Jesus displayed for us in dying sacrificially so that all different types of people could be brought into relationship with him. We have seen how the Father orchestrates the events of our lives so that even one man may come to know the love of Jesus. Will we join God in this mission or will continue to pursue our own purposes for our lives? It is only in the story of Jesus Christ, the one who was cast out so that many could be brought in, that we find our ultimate purpose.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-struggle-to-cope-with-depression-amid-coronavirus-11586696401
[2] F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 179.
