Easter 5: First Reading, Acts 8:26-40                                             

Acts 8:26-40

So much here. So many angles in the first reading this week that devotions and sermons could burst forth in great amounts. But let me take just one angle. The Book of Acts is about spreading the good news. The good news of resurrection life in Jesus, the Risen One. The good news of the Kingdom in all its fullest blessing. It has to be, challenges included, one of the most enjoyable texts in all the Scriptures.

Here we have an ethnic outsider, a foreigner, an Ethiopian. He serves a foreign queen, a foreign power and yet there is a religious or faith connection to the Old Testament people of God. This Ethiopian eunuch serves his queen who has come to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel. That in itself bespeaks something thrilling going on in the world. Would you agree?

The eunuch is the bridge, the way-maker as he drives his queen’s chariot thus bringing her into the city of the Great King. The wealth of his employer is evidenced by the fact that he is reading a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. No dimestore novel here. Precious and expensive. And then … a servant of Yahweh’s Son, Philip by name, comes on the scene at just the moment the Ethiopian is reading about his visitor’s “Employer.” “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

I absolutely love Philip’s response of asking the eunuch if he understands what he is reading. One principle I have used in my teaching ministry is this: “It’s not just what God’s Word says that is important. It’s what God’s Word means by what it says that is important.” And Philip has that principle well in hand. Philip wants the charioteer to know His God and he realizes that true fellowship with Him comes from a right understanding of His Word. Philip instructs. The man, upon confession of His faith, receives Holy Baptism (right in line with the Lutheran idea of catechizing adults before baptism) and witnesses a supernatural exit of Philip who is no doubt called to another encounter of service for the Lord Jesus. What an afternoon!

So many wonderful elements to draw from this account, but this one catches my heart because I want, like Philip, others to encounter the Living Christ through His matchless Word. I pray this short mediation will serve that end for you.