I can imagine the sweat pouring down his forehead as Philip ran alongside the traveling chariot on the dusty desert road south of Samaria. What led Philip to meet this traveler that day? The Lord through persecution. As the gospel advances in the book of Acts, so does persecution of the first church. Not long after her existence, the Jerusalem church is scattered throughout Judea and Samaria because of intense persecution.
Philip, one of the seven servants in the Jerusalem church in Acts 6, is among those who are scattered (Acts 8:1). In fact, he goes to the city of Samaria, a city despised by the Jewish people, and he preaches the Christ (Acts 8:4). Many come to faith in Jesus and are baptized because of the preaching of the gospel in Samaria (Acts 8:12, 25). This is the story of the book of Acts. It’s a story about the continual work of the risen Jesus through His Spirit-filled church. Jesus is the centerpiece of it all, and His work by the Spirit through His people, the church, continues just as He began it (Acts 1:1).
As Patrick Schreiner explains, “Jesus’s ministry is still present through the work of his servants—his body. The implication is that the work of Jesus is ongoing, even after his ascended state. The revolution continues. (Patrick Schreiner, Acts: The Christian Standard Commentary, 80). Indeed, Jesus’s work continues through Philip not only in Samaria, but also as he is led by the Lord on a southern desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:26).
Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who has come to Jerusalem to worship, and is now heading back home (Acts 8:27-28). As the Spirit leads Philip to run alongside the man’s chariot, he hears him reading aloud from 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” (Acts 8:32-33).
Philip naturally asks if the man understands what he is reading. The Ethiopian replies, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31). The man wonders who the prophet Isaiah is referring to, so Philip, beginning with this Scripture, tells him of the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35).
In other words, this prophetic word from Isaiah, some 700 years before Jesus is born, is about Jesus. Specifically, it’s about the suffering Messiah who would come and give His life “for the transgression of [His] people” (Isa 53:8). Philip unpacks Isaiah 53 for this traveling Ethiopian and expounds to him the wonders of Jesus Christ and Him crucified as a substitute for sinners.
Amazingly, just a couple of verses down from where the Ethiopian is reading, Isaiah 53:10, states— “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief…” This grand Old Testament passage, as Philip explains to the Ethiopian eunuch, is all about the pleasure (“will”) of the Father in the crushing of the Son. How can the Father be pleased to crush the Son? The Father knows that in crushing His Son, He won’t crush us.
This is the good news Philip proclaims not only in Samaria, but on the road to Gaza, on his way to Azotus, and on to Caesarea (Acts 8: 40). This good news is for all peoples in all places. The message must continue. The ascended Jesus continues sending His church to all nations (Acts 1:8) with the message of good news, a message promised in the Old Testament, revealed in Jesus through the New Testament, and continues with His church today.
Jesus is still sending His church to all peoples and all places. We would love to help your church in this aim. Message us at [email protected].
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