Dear Friends,

Greetings in Christ!

As we continue in Chapter 8, the Holy Spirit is directing Peter and John to preach in the villages of Samaria as they make their way back to Jerusalem. The Spirit has different plans for Philip, however.

Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit and give us understanding as we read your word. Direct our paths, the same way you did for your people in the early church. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Acts 8:25-40
25 And they [Peter and John], when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

With the revival that was taking place in Samaria, was Philip having a hard time believing God wanted him to go out to the desert? Could this be why it says the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, and not simply the Holy Spirit? I don’t know, but oftentimes the leading of the Holy Spirit is contrary to our own understanding. (Pr 3:5f)

27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

According to Wiersbe, this was not exactly what we know as Ethiopia, but Nubia, which was just south of Egypt. Being in charge of the queen’s treasure, the Ethiopian was obviously an important man, a high official.

28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

The recurring theme in Acts is being led of the Spirit, something I am endeavoring to do more and more, the further into this study I get. (1)

30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

The section of Scripture that the Ethiopian has his scroll rolled open to is what we know as Isaiah 53, one of the clearest pictures in the Tanakh of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross; yet he could not understand it without Philip’s help. As Spirit-filled believers, we can make the Scriptures understood to people who need our help too.

34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Just as Isaiah 53 has been removed in some Hebrew Bibles sold in Jewish bookstores, Acts 8:37 has been removed in some modern Bibles. Verse 37 is important. Not only does it show that he needed to believe before he could be baptized, verse 37 shows what he needed to believe. (2)

38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing [cf v 8].
40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
Acts 8:25-40

Earlier in Chapter 8, we saw that there is visual evidence of the Holy Spirit (v 18). One of the ways this can be seen is by the joy the Holy Spirit brings (v 8). In some churches, they teach that speaking in tongues is required to prove the presence of the Holy Spirit, but this teaching is not biblical. For the Ethiopian eunuch, the visible change was joy. He was rejoicing after being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Isaiah points out that eunuchs could be saved under the Old Covenant (Isa 56:3-5), but the law was limited in what it could offer the Ethiopian. As a eunuch, he could be saved as a ‘witness at the gate’, but he would not be entered into the Temple registry. (Deut 23:1) Under grace, however, everyone is welcome (Luke 14:21), and we are all equals. Someone said the ground is all level at the foot of the cross, and it’s true. (Gal 3:28) Not only that, but in Christ, we are each a new creation. (II Cor 5:17) No wonder he was rejoicing. That is something to rejoice about! The seeds of the gospel are spreading to the uttermost part of the earth as he heads back to Ethiopia. There has been an active church in that region since the first century. As we continue through Acts, we will continue to see how the Holy Spirit leads one step at a time. First, Philip was told to go out into the desert. Then when he saw the chariot, he was told to approach it. Then there was a church in Ethiopia. I’m sure the Ethiopian eunuch was well-positioned to spread the gospel, the same as the Roman official, Theophilus.

Now that Philip’s work in the desert is done, he makes his way back up the coast, preaching in all the cities along the way to Caesarea. For Philip, the visual change was his evangelism. You know you are filled with the Spirit when you cannot stop telling people about Jesus.

In Caesarea, Philip will meet a nice girl and settle down. We will find Philip still in Caesarea when we get to Acts 21.

Father please fill us each with your Holy Spirit and direct our paths day by day, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

1 Researchers have long known that the heart has its own ‘mini brain’ connected to the central nervous system. I recently read about research that shows the gut has its own ‘mini brain’ as well. The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and it seems to me that these features may be conduits that link the consciousness to the spiritual dimension. Researchers found that these ‘mini brains’ react to stimuli before they are detected by the five senses. This agrees with Watchman Nee’s use of the term ‘intuition’ to describe the leading of the Holy Spirit.

One of the things to consider about being led of the Holy Spirit is that the little ‘coincidences’ that happen as we go through our day are not coincidental. The Holy Spirit is orchestrating things. For example, the other day, a young man from Afghanistan started talking to me in broken English at the Airport. I ‘happened’ to have an Urdu gospel tract handy and before long, he and his family were reading it. The next day, I was walking through St Peter’s Basilica in Rome with my coat folded over my arm when a grip of Chick tracts ‘happened’ to fall out of the pocket and splatter on the floor as everyone looked. (Catholics know that Chick tracts command them to repent.) I left ‘He Never Told Us’ on a ledge as someone stared at me. Two days later, a Muslim street vendor started chatting me up. I just ‘happened’ to have a good tract for Muslims. I then remembered how the Spirit nudged me to take my tracts with me when I prayed before leaving my flat that morning.

2 Acts 8:37 is included in Uncial E, and at least 27 cursives. It is in 7 different Old Latin MSS (which predate the Vulgate). It’s in the Syriac (Harclean), the Middle Egyptian Coptic (!), and the Armenian. It was cited by Irenaeus (178), Tertullian (220), and Cyprian (258). As cited in Moorman, Early Manuscripts and the Authorized Version, p 113. As for Isaiah 53, it is in the oldest manuscript there is, on display for all to see in the Dome of the Scroll in Jerusalem.

PS: Endofdays.press will expire in January. Notes on Acts will continue to be posted at: MichaelJamesHarvey.substack.com