And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they went down both to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him.
The Ethiopian official had just asked what stood in the way of his being baptized. Nothing did. This verse shows what baptism pictures, who carries it out, and what it cost this man.
The traveller called the halt, not the preacher. He had just heard that the life of the One who suffered was taken from the earth, and he drew his own conclusion.
From that Scripture Philip preached Jesus to him. As he listened to the story of the utter humiliation, the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus, the glory of this world lost its shine and faded from his eyes. Another Object filled his vision — Jesus, whose life was taken from the earth. He cried, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" He would follow Him. He would turn his back on the world that had rejected Him. He would be identified with Him in His death as far as this world was concerned. Even self and all its former hopes must go in death. He was eager for it, nothing must stand in his way.
Both men stepped down into the water. The action itself carries the meaning: a burial, not a washing.
He had learnt he was a dead sinner, and what should hinder his burial? This is how it was done: "they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." That is, he buried him in water as a dead sinner. It was a figure of the death and burial of Christ the adorable Substitute. And then he was raised out of the water, and went on his way rejoicing. He did not go down into the water to wash the man clean; no, it was to bury him. The water of baptism does not pour some virtue or grace into the dead sinner. And do not for a moment suppose it can wash away his sins and their stain. It is simply the figure or expression of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
The order here is fixed: he heard, he believed, and then he asked for water. Kelly warns against two errors: throwing the sign away, or making everything of it.
Baptism follows the hearing of faith. And so, when they come upon a certain water, the stranger asks what hinders his being baptized, and receives the privilege on the spot… The outer mark is worse than worthless without the heart's subjection to the Lord and His grace. Yet it has its importance in ways neither few nor small. The loss of the truth it represents is as clear in those who despise it as in those who idolise it. They fail to see that life is never attributed to baptism. Salvation is set forth in it: the washing away of sins, and death to sin. This is the blessed portion the gospel testifies to in Christ dead and risen for the believer.
No congregation, no committee, no ceremony. Philip did it himself, and that shows where the responsibility for baptizing lies.
With the Ethiopian all was simple and assured. There was no thought of going before the assembly in Samaria. Baptism is individual, no matter how many souls are baptized. The church has nothing to do with it. The Lord directed His servants — not the church as such — to baptize. They are responsible to Him for this, as they are for the preaching of the word. The church does not baptize, any more than it preaches and teaches; the evangelist does, though he may ask another to do it for him.
This man held rank in the world. Baptism would settle what he could still be there.
He saw the conclusion. If the only One who had a perfect title to live here had His life taken from the earth, then it was time for him to be associated with that One in the place of death and burial. Baptism sets that out in figure. That would close the record of his life as a man of the world. The eunuch was also a man of marked distinction in the world's affairs. Baptism for him would mean that he could never again be recognised as one of the world's great men.
Others were watching from the chariot.
That man was not driving his own chariot that day; somebody else was driving it. He had a fine carriage, and I expect there were a good many servants looking on. It is a fine thing when the master takes a stand for Christ; you will generally find that a blessing then comes to the servants as well.
- Hearing — Baptism follows the hearing of faith. It is never credited with giving life; it sets salvation forth.
- Halting — The eunuch stopped the chariot, not Philip. He was eager, and nothing must stand in his way.
- Burial — The water buries a dead sinner. It is a figure of Christ's death and burial, not a washing that makes him clean.
- Charge — The Lord told His servants, not the church, to baptize. Baptism is individual, whatever the numbers.
- Cost — For a man of rank, it closed the record of his life as a man of the world. His servants watched him take that stand, and blessing tends to reach them too.
But when they came up out of the water [the] Spirit of [the] Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no longer, for he went on his way rejoicing.
The baptism is over, and Philip vanishes from the desert road. Two questions follow. Who took him away? And why does the man he just baptised travel on rejoicing instead of searching for him?
Philip did not choose to leave. One writer weighs the exact wording of the removal.
Verse 39 calls for special notice. And here I have no doubt the wording is deliberate. Its speed and abruptness are meant to drop the idea of the person. It is not as if the Holy Spirit as a person came and took him. He was caught away, not by man, nor by human means, but by the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit. The definite article is left out of the phrase on purpose.
Philip neither asked for this nor arranged it.
The miracle only established the new convert's faith, which is no doubt what God worked it to do. There is not a hint that Philip wished it, still less that he asked for it in prayer. It was God acting for the honour of His Son, by that Spirit's power at work on earth. And surely there was a wise and gracious purpose in the witness of it — and he was not alone — for the man returning to his native land with the gospel of salvation.
One writer's answer turns on a single connecting word.
Philip's mission to him had now ended. He had preached Jesus to him. He had baptised him at his own request. Then "the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away." He disappeared as suddenly as he had come, or even more so. The two who had met in the desert never met again on earth. The eunuch continued his homeward journey without turning aside to try to find Philip. "He saw him no more" is the writer's statement, and he gives the reason. The word should be read "for," not "and": "he went on his way rejoicing."
Losing the preacher cost the eunuch nothing. The preacher was never the supply.
Philip is caught away; the mere human teacher is not to take the place of the Divine. His coming and his going are both well suited to assure the new disciple. He may safely rest in the all-sufficiency that has now met him and ministered to him.
The same hand that sent the preacher took him away, and left something behind that could not be taken.
"He went on his way rejoicing." The Spirit of the Lord catches Philip away. Yet the eunuch's heart is so full of the truth that we may be sure everything that happened confirmed it in his eyes. How could anything seem too great and good to him whose heart had just made the acquaintance of Jesus? Did he not feel all the more settled in Jesus because there was now no other object before his soul? It was the Lord who had brought Philip, and it was His Spirit that had taken him away; but it was He too who had given him, and left him, Jesus for ever.
He had travelled a long way to Jerusalem and found nothing there. Grace met him on an empty road instead.
The Queen's treasurer is received among the disciples of the Lord by baptism, which sealed his faith in the testimony of the prophet Isaiah. He had made a hard journey from a far country to Jerusalem, to seek salvation in legal duties and ceremonies, but with faith in God's word. Now he goes on his way, rejoicing in that salvation. A beautiful picture of the grace of the gospel! He carries home with him what grace had given him in the wilderness — what his tiring journey to Jerusalem had not obtained for him.
The chariot was not empty. One writer notes who else was on the road that day.
As they came up out of the water, we read that "the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away." No doubt God stepped in here with a miracle. And notice: the eunuch was not the only one who saw it. That man was not driving his own chariot that day; someone else was driving it. He had a fine carriage, and I expect there were a good many servants looking on. It is a fine thing when the master takes a stand for Christ; you will generally find that a blessing then comes to the servants as well.
- Carried by God. Philip's removal was no human arrangement. Sovereign power moved him, and he never asked for it.
- Carried, then confirmed. The miracle served the new believer. It strengthened a faith just formed on the testimony of the prophet Isaiah.
- Carried away, not bereaved. The human teacher steps aside so he cannot take the place of the Divine. The new disciple rests on an all-sufficiency that has already met him.
- Carried by joy. He did not search for Philip because he was rejoicing. With no other object before his soul, he was more settled in Jesus, not less.
- Carried home. Jerusalem's ceremonies never gave him what he came for. Grace handed it to him in the wilderness, and he carried it home to a far country.
And Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through he announced the glad tidings to all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
The Spirit takes Philip from the water where he baptised the Ethiopian official, and he turns up far away on the coast. These few travel notes hold a whole life of preaching: how God moves His servants, why He removes them, and what happens to work no one records.
Azotus is the old Philistine city of Ashdod. One writer follows Philip's route from there up the coast to Caesarea:
He was found at Azotus, the ancient Ashdod, situated north of Gaza. From there Philip worked his way north. He preached the Gospel in all the cities until he reached Caesarea. The Gospel had now reached Samaria and Judea, though some places in each province may still have been unvisited. It had been planted in both. So the commission given to the disciples (Luke 24:47), and repeated in more detail to the Eleven (Acts 1:8), was being carried out.
The new believer lost his teacher almost as soon as he came to faith. One writer sees that loss as a kindness:
Philip is carried away. The merely human teacher is not to take the place of the Divine One. Both his coming and his going are well suited to assure the new disciple of one thing: he can rest safely in the all-sufficiency that has met his need and ministered to him.
The miracle belongs to God's purpose, not to Philip's request. Notice what it did not do to Philip himself:
There is not a hint that Philip wished it, still less sought it in prayer. It was God acting for the honour of His Son, by the power of the Spirit at work on earth. Carried to Azotus (or Ashdod), Philip stays the same simple-hearted, tireless preacher of divine grace.
We know almost nothing of what happened in those towns. One writer names some of them and points to the day when the full account comes out:
Philip was caught away and was found about twenty miles north of Gaza, at Azotus. From there he started out again, preaching the Gospel. Many cities heard his voice. Many Gentiles lived in these coast towns, which included larger places like Jamnia, Lydda, Joppa and Antipatris. The day of Christ will make known the labours and also the reward of this great Evangelist.
Philip was set apart in Jerusalem for a task that had nothing to do with preaching. The name he still carries late in the book of Acts is a different one:
Philip was a true evangelist. What is more, he had not lost his place as an evangelist when we find him very late in the book of Acts. That is an important hint. Those who begin as evangelists should not lose that place later. They should not grow weary of the work, or give it up for another. Philip is still called an evangelist later on. In fact, that is just when he is given the name... Yet Philip had been set apart by the laying on of hands only to take care of the tables and to look after the poor in Jerusalem. But God called him to another work, and this was his work.
Caesarea is where the travel record stops. One writer ties Philip's arrival there to two later scenes in the same city: Peter's mission to Cornelius, and Paul's stay in Philip's home:
So this evangelist reached Caesarea before Peter came there on his remarkable mission to Cornelius. I venture to think he had a part in that beautiful work in Caesarea, recorded in Acts 10. In chapter twenty-one you will find that he lived there. When Paul came, he stayed with the fully trained gospel worker, "Philip the evangelist"... The apostles had a greater idea of the evangelist than many people have nowadays.
Commentators differ here. Another writer reads the same facts differently:
The first Gentile to receive the call was Cornelius, an officer in the Roman garrison at Caesarea... Remarkably, both Philip and Saul had already visited Caesarea, yet neither seems to have preached the Gospel there (Acts 8:40; Acts 9:30). In this we see the sovereignty of God. He has His own time and His own instruments to carry out His work in every place.
- Carried — Philip did not ask to be moved. God carried him to Azotus, the old Philistine Ashdod north of Gaza.
- Withdrawn — God took the teacher away. The new believer now rests on divine all-sufficiency, not on the man who preached to him.
- Restarted — the miracle changed nothing in the man. He was the same tireless preacher, starting again in the next town.
- Unrecorded — the towns along that coast heard him, but the labour and the reward wait for the day of Christ.
- Lifelong — years later he is still called "Philip the evangelist". Those who start in that work should not grow weary of it or trade it for another.