And Philip, opening his mouth and beginning from that scripture, announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him.
The Ethiopian official had just asked Philip who the prophet was writing about. The answer was a name, and how Philip got there from one passage of Isaiah is what commentators explore here.
God brought two men onto the same desert road from opposite directions. The timing was not an accident.
He had come all the way from Ethiopia, a poor hungry man. He went to Jerusalem to find something, for that was where people learned to know the true God. Yet he was going back with an empty heart. Would the Lord let that be? Would He let a man who is seeking Him in that way go back empty? He takes Philip from the middle of the revival at Samaria and sends him into the desert. There He brings Philip and the eunuch together. The eunuch is holding the Bible, open at the very place where He wants Philip to preach from. Out of Isaiah 53, Philip preaches Jesus to him.
The phrase looks like a small detail. It sets a rule for anyone who speaks.
"He opened his mouth." This may seem a small matter, yet I think it has a practical lesson for us... Eloquence is certainly not needed, and neither are finely-polished sentences. But two other passages of Scripture show that the servant has a duty to speak clearly and simply. The truth he teaches may be precious. It still builds no one up if his hearers cannot hear or understand what he says.
Philip needed no time to choose a topic, because he already knew where every page of Scripture points.
He "preached to him Jesus" — not doctrines or theories, but a living, loving, personal Saviour. Philip has no difficulty about his text. He has learned that Christ is the spirit of Scripture. So from the passage the eunuch was reading he preaches Jesus, the theme of the good news of God.
Earlier in the same chapter Philip proclaimed "the Christ" in Samaria. Here the wording changes, and the change fits the passage in front of him.
So the name "Jesus" fits exactly where Philip applies the prophecy (v. 35). It is all the more striking because the Spirit who inspired the record had said in verse 5 that Philip proclaimed "the Christ," the Messiah, to the Samaritans... The Samaritans needed to hear that the Christ had come. The Ethiopian needed to know that the despised and suffering Jesus was beyond doubt the Messiah... Now "Jesus" was the right word for this. On one side, the name says what He became as a man — someone rebellious creatures could treat with contempt. On the other, it tells out the glory that belongs to the One who stooped so low for us.
One word in the verse hints at how much more Philip said.
We are not to conclude that Philip limited himself to this scripture. The word "began" points the other way: he did not end there, but explained other scriptures too.
The passage Philip started from does not stop at the suffering.
Philip began at that scripture, and it goes on even to the glory, for you get "he shall divide the spoil with the strong."
The law had shut this man out of the congregation of the Lord. The meeting on that road changed where he belonged.
The Shepherd's eye was on him, and the Spirit directed Philip to speak to him. Then it became clear that he was one of the sheep for whom the Good Shepherd had given His life. In earlier days the law never let a eunuch enter the congregation of the Lord (Deut. 23:1). Now he could enter the assembly of God and of Christ — and he did.
- Arranged — God moved Philip out of a thriving work in Samaria to reach one man. The Bible lay open at the right page when he arrived.
- Opened — "He opened his mouth" sets the standard for every servant: speak clearly and simply. Truth nobody can follow builds nobody up.
- Jesus — the man asked who the prophet was writing about. The answer was not a doctrine but a living, loving, personal Saviour. Christ is the spirit of Scripture, so Philip's text was already chosen.
- The name — Philip told Samaria that "the Christ" had come. This man needed the name "Jesus." It speaks of the contempt He accepted as a man, and of the glory of the One who stooped that low.
- Began — Philip started at Isaiah 53 and went on to other scriptures. The prophecy runs past the suffering to the glory. A man the old law shut out found his place in the assembly of God.
And as they went along the way, they came upon a certain water, and the eunuch says, Behold water; what hinders my being baptised?
The man from Ethiopia has just heard Philip preach Jesus to him. Now water appears beside the road, and his new faith turns straight into a question.
The story Philip told began at a line about a life taken away from the earth. That line stayed with the eunuch, and his call for water was his answer to it.
It is sweet to see the effect on the man listening to that wonderful story. The story started at the point that seems to have impressed his soul most deeply: "His life is taken away from the earth." So he exclaimed, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" If the One who had won his heart was gone from the earth, then from now on he would live under the shadow of His death in this world.
The account never records Philip raising the subject. The eunuch himself sees the water and speaks first.
I do not read that Philip said anything about baptism, but the eunuch says, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" Now, what did he mean by this? He had heard of the life and death of the Lord, and he learned that Jesus had gone into the grave and risen again. He seems to say, "He came into this scene for me, and He has died out of it. Now I would like to identify myself with Him, even if only in the figure of baptism. In this water I would like to put on His name."
The eunuch's question can be read as asking for burial. He had just heard that One died for him, and in the water he could put away everything he had been.
So the eunuch says, Here is water, why not let me own the judgment of God? Let me be buried here at once, on the spot. In this he justified God. He owned the full redemption in the precious death of Jesus for him. Then he gave himself up as entirely dead with Him. Think of all that he was: an Ethiopian, a religious man who had been to Jerusalem to worship, a child of the first Adam. He committed all of it to the grave, buried with Christ.
The wording of his question carries weight. A man asking permission is not a man carrying out an order.
Where is His command to the person to be baptised or to take the Lord's Supper? A command puts things in an altogether wrong light. Christian baptism is a favour conferred on the soul on the authority of the Lord Jesus. The Ethiopian asks, "What prevents me from being baptized?" And Peter, in the case of Cornelius, says, "Can anyone withhold water?" It would be strange to talk this way if it were a command. Who would think of hindering or forbidding a command of the Lord?
Faith came first, then the water. Some give baptism credit for more than it carries.
Baptism follows the hearing of faith. So when they come upon some water, the stranger asks what prevents his being baptized, and receives the privilege on the spot… Without the heart's subjection to the Lord and His grace, the outward mark is worse than worthless. Yet its importance is neither small nor slight. Those who despise it lose the truth it stands for as plainly as those who make an idol of it. They fail to see that life is never attributed to baptism. Salvation is what baptism sets forth — the washing away of sins, and death to sin, the blessed portion the gospel bears witness to in Christ dead and risen for the believer.
Some Bibles carry a verse 37 where Philip replies about believing with the whole heart. Others leave it out or drop it into a footnote.
The next passage omitted of any importance is Acts 8:37: "And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The context shows that this verse is in no way needed for the story. For many years, people on all sides have agreed that it is an addition with no warrant. To believe with the heart is a divine condition (Rom. 10:9-10), but let us thank God — for who could stand the test? — that we are not required to work out whether we believe with our whole heart.
- Word first. Philip preached Jesus to him. His call for water grew out of what he had heard, not out of a ritual someone pressed on him.
- Water next. He asked for it himself, on the spot, wanting to put on the name of the One whose life was taken away from the earth.
- Grave next. The water pictured a grave: Christ's death put away his sins, and burial with Christ put away the man he had been.
- A favour, not an order. "What prevents me?" is the language of a man seeking a privilege; nobody asks permission to obey a command.
- Road after. Nothing hindered him. He went into the water to put on Christ's name, and lived from then on under the shadow of His death.