A man named Philip stood before the church in Jerusalem in 33 A.D. having just been appointed as one of seven men to oversee the distribution of funds to Grecian widows (Acts 6:1-6).

He must have been a good and honest man to have been chosen for such an important position. The people trusted him. He was a man of “honest repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3 ESV).

Time passed, and we don’t read anything about Philip until Acts 8. It is obvious that Philip continued to serve the church and had begun to preach the gospel.

An angel came to Philip and told him go to the desert. The angel didn’t tell him why. He just told him to go. So, Philip went!

Along the way, Philip met a man, an Ethiopian. This man was a eunuch and he was an authority figure in the service of Queen Candace. He had charge of all her treasure.

As Philip approached this man at the instruction of the Spirit (verse 29), he found the eunuch reading from the prophet Isaiah. He had been to Jerusalem to worship, and now he is reading on his own, the words of an Old Testament prophet.

Philip inquired of the eunuch if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch said that he couldn’t unless someone would help him. The scripture says that Philip began at Isaiah 53:7-8 and “preached Jesus” (Acts 8:35). He would surely have explained to him how Isaiah referred to the death of Jesus in this passage.

Let’s look at what the eunuch was reading. “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.”

Philip may have heard from the apostles the details of what happened to Jesus. Maybe he was even present when Jesus performed some of his miracles and taught the people. Maybe he was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. Maybe he was just guided by the Holy Spirit as he spoke to the eunuch. It doesn’t matter how he knew, but he knew; and he started with Isaiah’s description of how Jesus would stand silent before his accusers, and he shared that information with the eunuch as they rode along in the chariot.

Acts 8:36 says, “And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him”.

Why did they need to stop the chariot? They stopped so Philip could baptize the eunuch. He needed to obey the commandment Jesus gave the disciples before He ascended back to heaven. “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned’” (Mark 16:15-16).

The command is two-fold: believe and be baptized. One without the other is insufficient for one to be counted among the saved. One is no more important than the other, but both are essential for salvation.

The Old Testament Jews had to depend on a priest to offer sacrifices on their behalf. Those in the New Testament, the Jews first as well as the Gentiles, had a sacrifice made for them. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (I Peter 3:18). This sacrifice was the same man the eunuch was reading about when Philip joined him.

I’m not sure why many are unwilling to be baptized. Baptism is a washing away our sins. It is a death to sin being raised out of a watery grave to a new life in Christ Jesus. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:3-6).

So, why did they stop the chariot? The eunuch was a worshiper, but he didn’t understand about the significance of the events of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. That is why he asked Philip to teach him.

Once Philip taught him, studying with him the words of Isaiah the prophet and the one of whom Isaiah spoke, the eunuch was ready and willing to be obedient to the gospel.

May we all have open hearts and minds as did the eunuch, as we study God’s Word.

Sandra Oliver