Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Acts 8,26-39. Trinity VI

Acts 8,26-39 4024

6. Trinitatis. Trinity VI 52

Willibald, Bishop of Eichstätt, Oberbayern, Bavaria, ✠ 786

7. Juli 2024

1. ℣ Yahweh is the Strength of His people:

℟ And He is the Protector of the salvation of His anointed (Psalm 27,8 vul lxx).

Dominus fortitudo plebis suae: et protector salvationem christi sui est (vul lxx).

Dominus fortitudo mea: et robur salutarium christi sui est (vul mas).

Jesus has here put on us the garments of salvation and clothed us with the robe of His righteousness. Yonder He will robe us in the white garment of honor and glory. Our Bridegroom leads us to the marriage feast. He loves us and makes us share His glory. Our Lord fulfills for us now what He has said: “Where I am, there will My servants be also” [John 12,26]. Amen. (Stark 330; English 242).

2. »Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip the Deacon: „Rise and go toward 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 the Ethiopians [ad 25-41], 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.“ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the Prophet Isaiah and asked: „Do you understand what you are 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 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 [Isaiah 53,7-8]. 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 gospel about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said: „Behold, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?“ And Philip said: „If you believe with all your heart, you may.“ And the eunuch answered and said: „I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.“ 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.«

3. The account of Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8 is one of many instances why the Prophet Isaiah is often called the Fifth Evangelist and the Book of Isaiah the Fifth Gospel. It is also no coincidence that this Ethiopian royal minister is reading a Jewish Prophet from the Septuagint. How and when Judaism reached Ethiopia is uncertain. There are at least 3 different legends. One dates it back to King Solomon when the Queen of Sheba visited his court. Another says some clans from northern tribes relocated to Egypt after civil war split the nation into Israel and Judah after Solomon’s death; this legend says descendants of these Jews living in Egypt later immigrated to Ethiopia. A third legend says many Jews were brought as prisoners of war from Judah by Ptolemy I (367 bc - January 282 bc) in the 3^rd century bc who settled them in Nubia (Sudan) and that later some migrated to nearby Ethiopia. Definitely by the 3^rd century bc Judaism was in Ethiopian communities, and with Judaism there are the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets.

4. Acts 8 also occurs in the most unlikeliest of places: Philip is sent to a desert. No one should be there, but nevertheless that is where the Holy Spirit sends him. In this desert place, Philip discovers another unlikely set of circumstances: an Ethiopian royal minister is there reading the Prophet Isaiah. What are the chances of that happening?

5. The Ethiopian was reading the 53^rd chapter of the Prophet Isaiah. Luke highlights vs. 7-8, but lets hear the entire chapter for context: »Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned﹣every one﹣to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a sheep He was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before his shearer is silent, so He opens not His mouth. In humiliation justice was taken from Him. Who will tell of His generation? For His life is removed from the earth, [lxx] stricken for the transgression of My people? And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, He sees His offspring; He prolongs His days; the will of the Lord prospers in His hand. Out of the anguish of His life He sees and is satisfied; by his knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, makes everyone to be accounted righteous, and He bears their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with everyone, and He divides the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His life to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of everyone, and makes intercession for the transgressors« (Isaiah 53,1-12).

6. The Ethiopian wants to know whom Isaiah is talking about in Chapter 53: Is Isaiah referring to himself or someone else? The text of Isaiah is about Jesus, and Acts 8 notes that it is all about Jesus. The Ethiopian takes the gospel of Jesus back to his homeland. The Apostle Matthew then preached in Ethiopia; he was martyred by being axed to death with a halberd in Nadabah, Ethiopia around ad 60.

7. The Ethiopian did not ask: „What must I do to be saved?“ Rather, he confessed: »Behold, here is water! I need to be baptized«. Through reading Isaiah the Prophet and hearing the teaching of Philip the Deacon, the Ethiopian had learned that all depends on what God has done and still does for us through Christ Jesus. Isaiah pointed to the Suffering Servant, and Philip taught that this Servant is the Christ and His name is Jesus. Jesus had suffered and died for the sin of the world and in Holy Baptism the Ethiopian received the grace and gospel that Jesus alone gives.

8. Also ist nu die gantze Schrifft, wie gesagt, alles Eitel Christus. All of Scripture ... is pure Christ (WA 54,88.38-39; WA 54,88.22-89.1; AE 15.339 ¶ 1). The Word of Scripture that is preached and expressed verbally is nothing but Jesus Christ in His presence; He is present in the gospel as promise (Bayer 83). The Church Fathers again and again interpret the Prophets as pointing to Christ. The text of Isaiah 53 and Acts 8 are about Jesus. If the text is about Jesus, then it is about the gospel; and if it is about the gospel, then it is about salvation freely given. Thus, the Apostle Paul proclaims: »You are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus« (Romans 6,11). Therefore, Jesus promises: »Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age« (Matthew 28,20). Where Jesus is there is forgiveness, for you, in full, and free.

9. Jesus Christ makes you righteous. This righteousness of God is the promissio that assures you of your salvation (Bayer 52). Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and preaching are the concrete way and manner in which Christ is present: definite and clear (Bayer 53). The gospel is poured upon you in Baptism, put on your lips in the Lord’s Supper and placed in your ears with Absolution and preaching.

10. Certum est ergo, remissa esse peccata si credis remissa, quia certa est Christi salvatoris promissio (pro veritate § 15). Therefore, it is certain that sins are forgiven if you believe, because the promise of Christ the Savior is certain. This is God’s promissio (promise) to you! God be praised!!

11. No sin makes me fear,

Baptized in Christ, thou art,

For this certainty: is near

This comfort is in my heart,

I am free from the despair of sin,

Through Jesus’ blood I win,

Because the water bath dearly

Sprinkled it on me.

(Lasset mich voll Freuden sprechen lsb 214,2 2006 Erdmann Neumeister 1718).

This is most certainly true.

12. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

13. Let us pray. O God the Father, good beyond all that is good, fair beyond all that is fair, in whom is calmness, peace and concord, do Thou make up the dissensions which divide us from each other, and bring us back into a unity of love, which may bear some likeness to Thy Divine Nature; and as Thou art above all things, make us one by the unanimity of a good mind, that through the embrace of charity and the bonds of affection we may be spiritually one, as well in ourselves as in each other; through that peace of Thine which maketh all things peaceful, and through the grace, mercy and tenderness of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. (Trinity VI, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Acts 8,26-39. Trinity VI

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