Acts 8,26-39. 6. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Acts 8,26-39  3618

6. Trinitatis  051

Aquila and Priscilla, 52
Kilian, Bishop of Würzburg, Germany, Martyr 688/89

8. Juli 2018 

1. О Christ Jesus, our Union with the Heavenly Father, daily remind us that You have clothed us with the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, so that we take comfort that You are with us always even to the end of the age (Starck 304).  Amen.  

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. The Queen of Sheba had visited King Solomon, and a number of Jews fled to Ethiopia when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 587 bc. It is no surprise then that this Ethiopian has access to the Old Testament and had knowledge of Jewish customs and culture since there was already a 1000-year tradition with Judaism in Ethiopia.  

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

5. The Ethiopian was reading the 53. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah: »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 lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, 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 who the Prophet 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. It is not about five ways to a happier life. You want guides for moral living? Jesus made that pretty simple: love God and love your neighbor. If you need more directions in that, then there are 10 easy-to-remember commandments that explain what it means to love God and love your neighbor. 

7. Following the law and obeying the commandments, however, will never earn you everlasting life. Notice that 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. Isaiah pointed to the Suffering Servant, and Philip taught that this Servant is the Christ, who 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. The text was about Jesus in Isaiah 53 and Acts 8. The text is still about Jesus 2000 years later. Jesus has not changed, and neither has the text. If it is about Jesus, then it is about the gospel; and if it is about the gospel, then it is about salvation freely given. Therefore, 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. God be praised!  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, You proclaimed our names before our Heavenly Father; help us to proclaim Your Name to our neighbors so that, like the Ethiopian in Acts 8 they may rejoice in the gospel and praise You in the midst of the congregation.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.