The Road from Jerusalem to Gaza

"The Baptism of the Eunuch" by Rembrandt

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An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26-40).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Jerusalem and Gaza. They’ve been in the news quite often lately. They are the center of a conflict that could potentially change the direction of global and U.S. politics or ignite World War 3. The encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian is not nearly as potentially dangerous for the primary characters. Still, it certainly was no less world-changing or life-changing for the one who became a beloved baptized child of God that day on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.

 Philip was one of the deacons chosen to assist the apostles in Acts 6. When the believers were scattered after Stephen’s martyrdom, he preached the Gospel in Samaria, and it was received with “much joy.” The angel of the Lord gave Philip special instructions: “Go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” It is also possible to interpret the Greek word translated as “south” as “midday” or “noon” since the south is the direction you find the sun at midday. If it means “noon,” this unlikely time to depart could have been part of God’s plan to arrive at just the right moment to intercept the Ethiopian.

Philip, who had just done miraculous signs and preached the Gospel to hundreds in Samaria, was sent a long way to open the Scriptures to one soul. Obediently, Philip headed down the desert road. By God’s providence, he met an Ethiopian official who believed in the true God. Having made the 200-mile journey to Jerusalem to worship, it’s apparent that he was committed to his faith and desired to learn more about God’s will. But he must’ve wondered about his religious status. As a foreign eunuch, God’s law in Deuteronomy 23:1 excluded him from full membership and barred him from entering the temple.

But the fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah promises something better when the day of the Messiah comes: “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely separate me from His people’; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose the things that please Me and hold fast My covenant, I will give in My house and within My walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off’” (Isaiah 56:3-5).

While we can’t be sure, perhaps this is why the man was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah. He wanted to know if he had a place in God’s kingdom and what that place might be. Whatever his reasons, this meeting on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza was surely arranged by the Lord. God had prepared this pupil for his new teacher.

As Philip stayed near, he found the perfect opportunity to tell the good news about Jesus. “Do you understand what you are reading?” he asked. The question was not meant to insult but to draw out the man’s religious position and conviction. It’s a question that all Bible readers ought to keep in mind. It’s far too easy to just read the words without understanding their meaning and connection with other Bible passages.

The Ethiopian answered, “How can I unless someone guides me?” This doesn’t mean the Bible can’t be understood without an expert’s interpretation. It simply shows that beginners can use some help to learn how to read and understand the Bible.

The most important help for proper understanding of Scripture is the Holy Spirit. No human being can claim to know Scripture’s meaning through his or her own abilities. St. Peter tells us the prophets did not understand everything they wrote by God’s inspiration. They sought knowledge of the coming Messiah. What they longed to know has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The disciples themselves didn’t understand Scriptures until Jesus “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27) and opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). The natural mind cannot understand the things of God unaided (1Corinthians 2:14). The Holy Spirit must enlighten us through the Gospel and God uses our fellow human beings for this process, to guide us in the way of truth.

The Ethiopian wanted to understand better, so he invited Philip to sit beside him in the chariot. He read Isaiah 53:7-8: “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.”

This was the Gospel of the Old Testament—a beautiful and clear account of the Messiah’s willing sacrifice. But the Ethiopian did not know its meaning because he did not know how it had been fulfilled. So he asked, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

And Philip, full of the joy of the missionary who finds an eager inquirer of the truth, began to explain. The Ethiopian couldn’t have found a more suitable text, for its subject was the Messiah. Before Christians began to preach Jesus as the fulfillment of all Scripture, the Jews understood this passage to refer to the Messiah who was to come. Later, those who rejected Jesus incorrectly interpreted it as referring to the people of Israel.

Philip had a fine opportunity to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love: How Jesus was led to His death at the hands of the religious leaders and Roman authorities. He told them that Jesus was the Suffering Servant, the innocent Lamb of God, who was silent before His enemies and judges. He told the Ethiopian how Jesus was falsely accused, wrongly convicted, and sentenced to die unjustly.

Jesus is the Servant who fulfills all the Scripture passages about the Messiah in His passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus is the Servant who has brought the day when foreigners and eunuchs are not barred from the assembly but are wholeheartedly welcomed into His body and are given His everlasting name.

And while Philip was still picturing the glories of Christ in glowing colors, they came to some water. And the Ethiopian, half in eagerness and half in fear, pointed to the water and said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” While he was hesitant to dare believe he could have the full benefit of God’s blessings, the eunuch wanted very much to be baptized.

Philip’s instruction must have included a reference to Baptism. Perhaps the eunuch recalled the passage just before the portion he had been reading when Philip came: “So shall He sprinkle many nations” (Isaiah 52:15). In any case, he in whom the good news about Jesus had awakened faith asked to be baptized.

The Ethiopian’s request demonstrates the centrality of Baptism in Christian teaching. Jesus’ Great Commission directs the church to “make disciples” by baptizing and teaching the Good News to all nations. And that is what Philip did. He first taught the Ethiopian and then baptized him, making him a disciple of Jesus Christ. And suddenly, Philip was taken away by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Ethiopian went his way, rejoicing. He was no longer dependent upon his teacher. He had heard the essential facts that enabled him to understand the Scriptures. In Baptism, he had received Christ’s everlasting name, and was made a full member of His church. According to historical tradition, he went home to share the good news, establishing the church in Ethiopia.

Philip was sent to a new “mission field.” He appeared in Azotus and preached the Gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast about fifty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem, about midway between modern Tel Aviv and Haifa. It was the residence of the Roman governor. Philip seemed to have settled there, for the next time we hear of him (Acts 21:8), twenty years after this encounter with the Ethiopian, he was still living in Caesarea, preaching and teaching. Mission and ministry are never finished on earth. One conversion does not mean the end of work in the harvest fields. It continues day and night in many different people and locations.

The story of Philip and the Ethiopian offers valuable insights for our own Christian life. First, the Ethiopian understood the harsh truth of separation and spiritual ignorance. He had been excluded from full membership in the religious community because, as a eunuch, he was considered unclean. Until Philip pointed him to Jesus, he lacked complete knowledge of God and His plan of salvation.

But all people are ultimately separated from God because of sin. All of us are by nature sinful and unclean. And because of that nature, no one has a saving knowledge of God and His will. No one can understand His saving Word.

All that changes when we are brought to faith in Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of God’s purpose and Word. By faith in Him—in His death and resurrection as God’s solution to our need—we know God’s plan of salvation. Jesus willingly offered Himself, the perfect sacrifice, for the world's sins. We are His chosen people, saved by His mercy and grace.

Second, the Ethiopian recognized his own need. As Philip proclaimed the truth of God’s judgment upon sin and His call to repent, the eunuch, like the first converts at Pentecost, was “cut to the heart.” He believed God’s Word. He felt His guilt. The Spirit was at work in his life. He repented and asked to be baptized.

All people are separated from God because of sin. By nature, no one has a saving knowledge of God and His will. Yet Christ is the fulfillment of God’s purpose and plan. He lived the perfect life we cannot. He died to pay the penalty for our sin. And through repentance and Baptism, He makes these ours.   

Baptism brings us into a new relationship with the living God. It is God’s appointed means to forgive sin and strengthen His people for service in the Kingdom. In our baptism into Christ, we are connected with His crucifixion and resurrection. We share in His death so that we may also share in His life—now and forever. Knowing God’s plan of salvation, we are motivated by His love to seek opportunities in which we can tell others of His love for them.

The Holy Spirit continues to send missionaries, evangelists, and pastors to bring light to darkened hearts. God does not desire the death of the wicked. He saw to it that you heard and believed in His Son so that your sins might be forgiven.

Because God loves you, He sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart and is determined to keep you firm in the only faith that saves. Because God has made you His child, His Spirit also equips you to fulfill your calling as a Christian witness.

Where will you go? Who will you go to? Only the Lord knows! What is more important is who will be leading and guiding you to opportunities to witness about Jesus. The Holy Spirit! Philip was led away from the safety of people he knew to witness to a single foreigner (Acts 8:27). Demographics do not always provide reliable guidance for witnessing opportunities. Philip was taken to a deserted area, not to a teeming metropolis (Acts 8:26). God must send some to seek after the one lost sheep, not only the multitudes. God sends some to fast-growing areas and others to small towns and congregations that also need to hear His Word.

The Spirit may direct you away from those with whom you feel most comfortable to others who need to hear the Good News of Jesus from you. The Spirit may direct you to people who seem to be outside the grace of God, as the eunuch seemed to be disqualified. But no one is outside of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Everyone is a sinner for whom Christ has died and for whom the Lord has prepared the way to hear His message of salvation.

At first, the Ethiopian may have thought it was pure coincidence that Philip was traveling that same road. But God wanted him to know the truth about Jesus and brought the two together to achieve His glorious purpose. That same Spirit works through life’s events to guide you in the truth and give you the opportunity to be used as a chosen instrument. As He has guided you so far, let Him continue to guide you into the truth and give you opportunities to witness about Jesus.