Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 28

Acts 8:26-40

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or chant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. The “deacon” Philip serves as an evangelist, now is sent by the Holy Spirit of God away to a desert place, near Gaza, to the road that leads south to Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
  8. He comes across an official of the government of Ethiopia (Cush in the O.T., also Nubia centuries before) that is ruled by a Candace (Kandake) the mother of the king. He is returning from Jerusalem (probably a God-fearer like Cornelius the Roman centurion-Acts 10).
  9. The Eunuch is in a chariot, covered wagon type, and is reading the scroll of Isaiah, in fact, reading the passage about the suffering servant of Israel, Isaiah chapter 53.
  10. Philip shows him the passage is about Jesus, which would go to the heart of the Gospel message. The eunuch believes.
  11. Quite apparently part of Philip’s message had to do with baptism, something Jesus has commanded to be done as in Matthew 28:19-20.
  12. As a eunuch he would not have been able even to enter the Temple (see Dt.23:1) but as Isaiah 56:3-5 shows, nothing prevents the eunuch from being baptized.
  13. Verse 37, as found in the KJV, is not original to Acts and rightfully does not appear in the ESV as also most others.
  14. Philip and the eunuch go down into the water and Philip baptizes him. Here we see that others than apostles baptize.
  15. In a way which we do not understand, the Spirit carries Philip away, and the eunuch continues home rejoicing—thus Luke showing a genuine conversion.

16.       Philip continues to his home-Caesarea. (Acts 21:8-9.)

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