Let’s turn together to Acts 8. Today’s passage, if I could be just a tad reductionistic, is a simple, yet moving, conversion story involving the evangelist Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch. And what’s surprising about this story is that it involves just one person getting saved. Just one person! No mass conversions. No thousands of people coming to Christ. Just one guy evangelized by one other guy. In fact the next three chapters of Acts focus on the conversions of individuals: 1) The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8), 2) Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9), and Cornelius (Acts 10). There’s a lot of energy expended for the conversion of just three people in the next few chapters. 

Some of you might be familiar with the famous missionary named William Carey. Carey is often referred to as the “father of modern missions.” He was a Baptist from England who had this unshakable desire to preach the gospel in foreign lands. But when he shared his vision, many Baptist pastors refused to support him. Reportedly one older pastor told Carey, “Young man… you are an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me.”

Well Carey was undeterred by that negativity and lack of support. He was able to raise support for his venture. And he travelled all the way to India in the late 1700s, which was no small feat in that day. And yet he struggled, in vain it would seem, for several years. In fact, he didn’t see a convert to Christianity until after seven years of faithful ministry. His first Indian convert was a man named Krishna Pal who was baptized in 1800. [By the way, that’s not uncommon for many missionaries traveling to foreign lands.] 

But even during those years of “unfruitfulness,” God used Carey to translate the Scriptures into different Indian languages. God used him to scatter “gospel” seed and initiate social changes in the Indian culture, including forbidding the practice of sati, which was the burning of widows after the death of their husbands. 

And the labor of Carey’s evangelistic work, which took some time to see, eventually came to fruition. The truth is that God is glorified even when we share the gospel with unbelievers and they totally reject it. God gets glory when we share Christ and people get saved. God gets glory when we share Christ and people don’t get saved.

Now back to Acts 8. Let’s look at this fascinating story in verses 26–40. Let me show you six components to this “Conversion Story.” And see if maybe there are some parallels to your own conversion. Think back and consider how God brought you to saving faith. Probably, it happened something like this.

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First of all, for the Ethiopian eunuch, there was…  

1) Divine Intervention (8:26)

Look at verse 26.

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 

Angels are highly active in Acts. We’ve seen that already. Here we have an angel speaking on behalf of the Lord and telling Philip…

“Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 

Now let me just set the context for this encounter. Keep in mind, what’s happening in the book of Acts, and what led up to this event. Philip was one of the seven men in Acts 6 who were appointed by the apostles to apportion benevolence to widows. There was Stephen. He died in Acts 7. And then there was Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus. We never hear from those guys again in this book. 

But Stephen and Philip did more than just pass out benevolence. They were both bold and effective preachers of the gospel. So much so that Stephen was taken out by the religious leaders in Jerusalem. And after his death, a great persecution erupts in Jerusalem. 

And Stephen’s buddy, Philip, probably fleeing for his life, goes up to Samaria and preaches his heart out. And people get saved in droves. Samaritans come to Christ en masse. The apostles Peter and John come to authenticate this new development in the fulfillment of Christ’s mission. And the beat goes on. Stephen dies a gruesome death, and the church marches on. 

Let me show you on the map where Philip has traveled (see map below). He’s gone about 30 miles north of Jerusalem to Samaria. That’s where a huge revival takes place. And if you or I were in charge of this operation, we might say, “Philip, stay here. Let’s focus on these Samaritan Christians for a while. Let’s consolidate our gains. These guys need discipling!” 

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[Philip’s Travels]

But God’s got more mission work for Philip to do. So he tells him to blaze this new trail on this “road to Gaza” which was some distance from Samaria (see map above). Samaria was about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. Gaza is about 50 miles south and west of Jerusalem. So Philip’s going to take the gospel elsewhere.

And even Peter and John get in on the act, as we saw last week. Look at Acts 8:25 with me. 

25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 

Verse 25 says that as they travelled back to Jerusalem, they were preaching the gospel in all the Samaritan villages. Philip was probably with Peter and John when they returned to Jerusalem. 

Philip is a trendsetter. He’s a trailblazer. And now these revered apostles are following Philip’s lead by evangelizing a non-Jewish community. Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus wants to use these men to preach the gospel outside the Jewish community. 

God could save people without witnesses. God could save people without any help whatsoever. But in his divine plan, he uses witnesses. He uses human messengers. That’s happening here as the gospel is spreading to the non-Jewish Samaritans. They are the first non-Jews in the book of Acts to get saved. 

You might even call these Samaritans “Jew adjacent,” because they were half-breeds who had a historical connection to the ancient Israelites. 

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And speaking of Jew adjacent, watch this in verse 27. The angel tells Philip to go to Gaza. 

27 And [Philip] rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 

Write this down as a second component to this conversion story. We have divine initiative with an angel, but we also have…

2) A Faithful Messenger (8:27–29)

God could save this Ethiopian eunuch with or without a human messenger. But in God’s divine plan, and in his mercy, he employs “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor 5:20). He still does, by the way, in the twenty-first century. In this case, it was Philip the evangelist who was a faithful messenger to this Ethiopian eunuch. 

Now let me just point out a few things here. Ethiopia is the ancient land of Cush (see map below). The OT has multiple references to Cush and the Cushites. This was a land of dark-skinned people. Cush is south of Egypt in what is today the nation of Sudan (not modern Ethiopia). 

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[Distance from Jerusalem to Gaza and to Ethiopia]

And the ancients thought of Cush/Ethiopia as the ends of the earth. They couldn’t envision a civilization beyond that region of the world. The distance between Jerusalem and ancient Cush was approximately 1,000 miles. So this was a long trip from Jerusalem to Ethiopia! Think about the distance from San Antonio to Chicago, Illinois. That’s pretty close in terms of a parallel. Now imagine traveling that distance by chariot! It would’ve taken a person about five months to travel this distance, one way. And this guy is on his way back!

Now Luke tells us a few other things about this Ethiopian. First of all he was a eunuch. Eunuch is a term that could be used for someone who was celibate (someone unmarried who stayed unmarried) or for someone who had been physically castrated. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 19:10–12. Probably this person was castrated because castration of government officials was common in ancient kingdoms. We see that with Babylon and Persia in the OT. Eunuchs, because they had been physically altered, were less aggressive and less likely to revolt against existing leaders. They were often put in charge of a king’s harem in the ancient world. I’m sure you can imagine why. 

Because of this, eunuchs were often trustworthy for official roles within a kingdom. This eunuch was the treasurer for the queen of the Ethiopians. Ancient Ethiopia was a matriarchal society, and the queens were called “Candaces,” not unlike how the kings of Egypt were called “Pharaohs” or the kings of Rome were called “Caesars.” And this unnamed eunuch was the secretary of finance of the entire kingdom. He was the “Federal Reserve Chairman” for Ethiopia, you might say. He was a powerful person! And he was traveling on the equivalent of a private jet in the first century world, namely the chariot. Luke is telling us that this guy was a person of means.

And let me say this about this guy. He was a seeker. Somehow he had found out about the God of the Israelites and he had journeyed to Jerusalem, no small feat by the way, to worship Yahweh and conceivably to find God. And part of his search entailed the purchase of a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which he was reading when Philip shows up. He was seeking something. 

Now there’s a lot of debate about whether or not this guy is Jewish. I think that’s a strong possibility. He may have been part of the Jewish diaspora that had found it’s way down to Ethiopia. We know that Jewish people groups had migrated to parts of Africa and Arabia, and some of these Jews were known to have darker skin then their Middle Eastern or European counterparts. Even throughout history that has been true.

He may have been Jewish. He may have been a proselyte (i.e., a Gentile convert to Judaism). Or he may have been a God-fearing Gentile who was intrigued by the God of the Israelites, similar to what we’ll see with Cornelius in Acts 10. I’m more inclined to see him as a Jew or a proselyte. Why else would he travel 1,000 miles for five months one-way to worship God at the temple in Jerusalem? That’s why I use the term “Jew adjacent.” He’s more like the Samaritans than he is like the Gentiles. And besides that, the Gentiles don’t really get unlocked for the gospel until Cornelius in Acts 10. 

But this man was seeking God. And wouldn’t you know it; God was seeking him. Look at verse 29.

29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 

Who prompted Philip in verse 26 to go down to Gaza to meet with this Ethiopian? The angel of the Lord! Who prompted Philip to go to the chariot in verse 29? The Holy Spirit! Nobody gets saved without the Lord’s intervention, because salvation is from the Lord. But the Lord uses faithful ambassadors like Philip to deliver the gospel. 

When you start thinking about your conversion and how you came to Christ, please don’t make it about how clever you were and how much smarter you were than all the others around you who rejected Christ. Give God the glory for what happened. God is the seeker who found you. God, the Holy Spirit, is the one that prepared your heart to receive the gospel. 

I believe that what is explicit in this passage is implicit in every salvation story. That is, I believe, that God moves behind the scenes by the Holy Spirit to lead a person to salvation. Salvation is not random happenstance. 

We don’t always know how God does it. We might not be able to pinpoint the exact way in which God drew us to himself, but we can trust that Jesus’s words are true when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). What does that look like? An impression here. A faithful messenger there. A Holy Spirit prompting. Maybe it’s a divine smack in the face like what we’ll see with Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9. Divine intervention and a faithful messenger. This is how God brings about conversion in the life of a believer.  

I heard a story once about this pastor who led a person to Christ. And the pastor got all excited about it. He was like, “Hallelujah, this guy finally got saved!” And the prisoner responded by saying, “Now don’t get too excited, pastor, because you are number 25.” And the pastor replied, “Number 25? What does that mean?” The prisoner said, “You’re the 25th person who has shared the gospel with me, and even though I rejected all the other 24, all those other 24 had a part in my conversion! So don’t get cocky, pastor!” Sometimes the Holy Spirit might prompt you to share the gospel, and you just sow the seed that another person will reap. That’s okay. Be okay with that! Be obedient. You be a faithful messenger, and let God do the rest.

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Write this down as a third component of a great conversion story.

3) An Encounter with Scripture (8:30–33)

Now just imagine what Philip must have been thinking when the angel told him to go to Gaza. He had just preached the gospel in Samaria and the whole city got converted. We’re talking mass revival due to Philip’s preaching. And then God’s like, “Philip, leave that revival and go down to the desert.” 

“The desert, Lord, really?” 

And then God’s like, “I want you to go up to that one chariot with that one person who is from the far corner of the world. And by the way he’s a eunuch.” 

“Really, Lord? Is this the best use of my time and energy? Aren’t there more important people, more numerous people elsewhere who might need to hear the gospel? I mean, I’m an evangelist extraordinaire, Lord!” 

That’s what I might have said if I was Philip. But that’s not what Philip says. And here’s the thing—God loves this Ethiopian eunuch. And God utilizes his best, most-effective evangelist, Philip, to get the gospel to him. No human strategy would have thought to put this together. No human thinking would have organized this. “Let’s leave this revival in Samaria and go down to the desert to witness to this one, random individual from the far corner of the world.” And it just goes to show that God’s ways are higher than ours. And what he wants from us is faithfulness and obedience. 

Look at verse 30. The Spirit tells Philip to go over to the chariot,

30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet 

This is great! Let’s just envision this for a moment. The average human runs about 8–10mph unless you’re a sprinter. If your life depended on it you could probably run faster. And so this horse-drawn chariot was probably traveling, at least, 10mph. And so here’s Philip running alongside the chariot. Philip the evangelist becomes Philip the hitchhiker. And the Holy Spirit didn’t even tell him what to say. He just told him to go up there and join the chariot. 

And so as he’s running along next to the chariot, he hears the eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. Is that a random coincidence? How many people think God orchestrated this? 

And so as he’s running, probably breathing heavily, he asks, 

“Do you understand what you are reading?” 

Who knows what this Ethiopian was thinking right here. “Where’d this guy come from? I’m out here in the middle of the desert and this guy just show’s up!”

Look at verse 31.

31 And [the Ethiopian] said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 

I’m sure Philip was relieved to hear that! “Yes, please. I’d be happy to stop running next to your chariot and take a seat with you!”

Like I said already, I don’t know why the Ethiopian travelled to Jerusalem. But I bet it was because he was looking for something. And I don’t know why this Ethiopian was reading this Isaiah scroll. Scrolls were expensive. So this guy wasn’t just a man of means, he was a man who used his means to buy a very expensive scroll of Scripture to explore the Jewish faith. He must have had a hungry heart that hadn’t yet been satisfied.

It’s interesting, because at the temple there were restrictions against eunuchs entering the temple complex. He could have worshipped outside the temple. But because he was a eunuch, he couldn’t go inside the temple. Maybe that’s why he never went to Solomon’s Portico to hear the apostles preach. Maybe John and Peter were in Samaria when he was in Jerusalem, so he couldn’t hear them anyway. I don’t know. But this guy wants to know what the Scriptures are teaching, and he doesn’t have anyone to guide him. 

And by the way, we’ve already seen the religious leaders in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. If he went to them near the temple looking for answers, they were no help. They killed Jesus, and they were actively persecuting Jesus’s followers. I bet this eunuch went to Jerusalem looking for God. And knowing the state of Israel at this time, he probably was returning to Ethiopia disappointed. 

But God is about to reward this Ethiopian’s hunger for truth. Look at verse 32.

32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 

The passage that he is reading is Isaiah 53. Part of Isaiah 53, that the Ethiopian would have read just before this passage is verses 4–5, which reads as follows: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53 is one of the most unambiguous messianic prophecies in the OT. It speaks with incredible specificity of the death of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion, with all its bloody gruesomeness is described in astonishing detail by Isaiah 700 years before Christ was born. And Isaiah’s prophecy was written years before the Romans were a force to be reckoned with in the ancient world and years before crucifixion was even invented as an instrument of torture and death. Was this a coincidence that this Ethiopian was reading Isaiah 53, the exact hour that Philip came racing alongside his chariot? I don’t think so! 

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Write this down as a fourth component to this conversion story. 

4) The gospel explained (8:34–35)

Look at verse 34.

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 

That’s an amazing question right there. And it’s the kind of question that a person would actually ask who didn’t understand what the Bible was teaching. What he’s asking is essentially this—is Isaiah talking about Isaiah? Or is Isaiah talking about someone else? What’s this passage about? Who’s Isaiah 53 talking about?

From our standpoint, Isaiah 53 is crystal clear. It’s about Jesus. But the Ethiopian didn’t know about Christ yet. Even the Jewish leaders didn’t understand Isaiah 53 in their day. They thought the “suffering servant” was Israel or Isaiah himself, not the Messiah. They totally missed Christ’s fulfillment of this passage. 

So Philip does what a good evangelist should do. Look at verse 35.

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 

He εὐαγγελίζω. Philip εὐαγγελίζω’d this Ethiopian. He “gospelized” him! Just like he did in Samaria a little bit before this, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. 

That statement “beginning with this Scripture” indicates that Philip had a long fruitful, Scripture-filled conversation with this guy. Probably he started by telling him that Isaiah 53 was about Jesus. “Jesus, like a lamb, was led to slaughter. He didn’t try to defend himself; he willingly gave himself up for us. He was humiliated and ridiculed by his own people. And justice was denied him. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities; by his wounds we are healed.” And then he went on from there to tell him about other Scriptures.

Maybe Philip did something like Jesus did on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35). Maybe he started with Isaiah 53 as a launching point, but then made numerous references to how Christ fulfilled Scripture. Maybe Philip evangelized with Isaiah 53 and other OT Scriptures like Peter did earlier in Acts.

Maybe Philip did something like Stephen did when he preached the gospel in Acts 7. Maybe he started with Abraham and told him the whole history of Israel as God’s plan of redemption climaxed with Jesus, the fulfillment of OT prophecy. I don’t know what all Philip said to this Ethiopian eunuch, but I would love to have been there. 

Maybe Philip told the Ethiopian some of the gruesome details of the crucifixion followed by the resurrection. Maybe Philip told him about Christ’s mission. “Go into all the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:18). Maybe he told him about the thousands of Jews in Jerusalem who had been baptized after coming to faith in Christ. Maybe he told him about the numerous Samaritans in Samaria who had responded to the gospel and had been baptized. 

Something like that must have been communicated to this Ethiopian. Because in verse 36, it’s almost as if the Ethiopian said, “Did Jesus die for me too?” “Can an Ethiopian eunuch be saved? Can an Ethiopian like me be baptized in the name of Jesus?” Of course you can!

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Look at verse 36.

36 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?” 

Good question! “What prevents me from being baptized?” Newborn believers should take to the water like newborn baby ducklings! Salvation, then water baptism! Salvation, then water baptism! It’s that simple in the book of Acts. I heard a pastor say once that getting wet in baptism is the quickest and easiest step in your sanctification process.

If you have an ESV Bible, you’ll notice that verse 37 isn’t included in the Scriptures. That’s because verse 37 isn’t found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the book of Acts. It was most likely added by an over-eager scribe in the second century who wanted to make the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch more explicit. For more on that, stay tuned for our “footnotes” podcast later this week. 

But there’s no reason to doubt the fact that this eunuch got saved. Verse 36 indicates all we need to know. What he’s saying there implicitly is, “I believe in Christ. Why shouldn’t I get baptized? Those guys in Jerusalem got baptized. Why not me? Jesus told you to baptize new disciples, didn’t he? I’m a new disciple. Here’s some water. Let’s go!”

Look at verse 38.

38 And he [probably Philip, I’m guessing] commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 

Listen, tell me if you’ve heard this before. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27–28). 

 In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, eunuch nor non-eunuch, Ethiopian, non-Ethiopian, American, non-American, etc. In Christ, none of that stuff matters, because the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus died to make disciples of all nations. 

Here’s the fifth component of a great conversion story.

5) Public Profession through baptism (8:36–38)

Baptism is your coming-out party. Baptism is your statement to the world that I belong to Christ. Listen! This is important. Water baptism doesn’t save you, but water baptism is what saved people do. And in the book of Acts, when people get saved, they almost immediately get baptized. And if you are here this morning and you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you haven’t been baptized… you need to make that right. 

I heard a Presbyterian pastor criticize a Baptist once for making every sermon about baptism. Even if he was preaching on a totally unrelated passage of Scripture, he would always steer the sermon at the end to why a person should get baptized. I’ve tried not to do that in my preaching ministry. But this is a passage right here that is just screaming out for the application, “Get baptized! If you haven’t been baptized already, now’s your time to do it.” 

But if you’re like, “Pastor Tony, I don’t even know if I am saved.” Well then, what are you waiting for? Put your faith in Christ! You can do that right now. Don’t wait till the end of the service. Don’t wait till I close the message and the worship team comes back up here. Do it now. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom 10:9). Don’t let anyone distract you from that. Do that right now. And then, get baptized as a public demonstration of your faith. 

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Now, one more thing. One final element to this conversion story. Look at verse 39.

39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away 

Poof! He’s gone. This is pretty wild. The word used here is ἁρπάζω (harpazō), which is the same word Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 to describe the rapture. Philip got raptured. He got “caught up.” But he doesn’t get deposited in the presence of the Lord. Instead, he gets deposited in a new location for evangelism and ministry. 

Like I’ve said before in this series, there are some unique things that God did in the book of Acts that we should not consider normative for us in our own day. The supernatural disappearance of Philip here is a great example of that. Baptism… that’s normative. Supernatural disappearance by the Holy Spirit, not so much. 

Sharing the gospel with unbelievers… that’s normative. Teaching the Bible and telling people about Jesus… that’s normative. Angels speaking to humans and telling them exactly where to go… not normative. I believe God can do that in this era of human history, but I don’t think that’s the norm.

Notice, though, what happens to the eunuch. Here’s something that should be normative when people get saved.

and the eunuch saw [Philip] no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

“Hallelujah, my sins are forgiven! Hallelujah, my hunger has been satisfied! My thirst has been quenched.” How could you not rejoice? How could you not be joyful? He was separated from God due to his sin, yet, as the Bible says, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). And “whoever believes in [Jesus] should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Of course he’s rejoicing. 

Jot this down. Here’s the sixth component of a great conversion story.

6) Liberating Joy (8:39–40)

I’ve never heard a conversion story where someone said, “Yeah, I became a Christian 20 years ago and I’ve been miserable ever since.” I don’t hear that a lot. “Yeah, Christ saved me from my sins, but whoop-de-do!” I’m not sure that’s possible if you really understood what Christ has done for you.

And as far as the Bible is concerned, there is no such thing as a cantankerous, miserable, joyless Christian. I’m not saying they don’t exist. Maybe they do. But I don’t see them in the Bible. 

“Pastor Tony, I got converted twenty-years ago and I’ve been miserable ever since.” Really? Maybe you should revisit your conversion. Because the fruit of the Spirit is joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, etc. (Gal 5:22–23). 

One of the reasons I’m emphasizing this so much is because the Bible emphasizes it so much. When people get saved in Acts, they rejoice. When Paul gives commands to the churches he tells them, “rejoice” (see e.g., Rom 5:8; Phil 4:4; 1 Thess 5:16). When Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit who indwells the life of a believer, the second term he uses after “love” is “joy” (see Gal 5:22–23).

And when I say joy, I don’t mean sappy, mushy, cornball sentimentality. “Just plaster a smile on your face for Jesus. Everything’s happy, happy, happy. There’s never anything bad.” That’s not real joy. Joy is not like taking Prozac. Joy is a deep abiding sense of contentment, no matter what happens in this life. It’s delight in God, the God of our salvation. And even when your life is falling apart, joy is possible.

By the way, Philip’s friend, Stephen, was murdered. Philip was driven out of Jerusalem by Saul and his murderous mob. This guy has been through the wringer. But he just keeps going and going and spreading the joy of the Lord to new converts.   

Look at verse 40.

 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Philip’s not resting on his laurels. He’s not packing it in. He just keeps going, preaching the gospel, leading more and more non-Jews to Christ, even blazing a trail down the “Via Maris” that later evangelists would follow. 

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[Philip’s Travels]

By the way, Caesarea is where Paul finds Philip twenty years later. You can read about that in Acts 21. Paul, or “Saul of Tarsus,” the guy who wanted to kill Philip and other Christians in Acts 8, eventually becomes a co-laborer of Philip’s. Twenty years later in Caesarea, they are friends working together. 

You might say, “How is that possible? What happened to Saul of Tarsus? Wasn’t that the guy who was killing Christians and persecuting the church? Didn’t he collect garments at Stephen’s execution? Wasn’t he ravaging the church, and dragging men and women off to prison (Acts 8:3)? What happened to him?” Come back next week and I’ll tell you.

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Let me close with this. What’s your conversion story? Can you identify these six things in your own salvation story? 1) Divine Intervention. 2) A Faithful Messenger, 3) An Encounter with Scripture, 4) The Gospel Explained, 5) Public Profession through Baptism, and 6) Liberating Joy.

Let me tell you another conversion story. Let me take you back a few decades to the 1980s for a good conversion story. That was a good decade. Ronald Reagan was president. Nobody had cell phones. You could disappear into the woods for hours and nobody knew where you were. It was fantastic.

During the 1980s, there was a chatty, gangly, awkward kid in south Austin who found himself in a chapel service at his Christian elementary school. It was the Nazarene Christian School, right near the corner of Manchaca and William Cannon. And I can still visualize the setting of that chapel. I still remember the blue upholstery on those long pews. 

And it was there that the pastor of the church where my school met gave a chapel message. And I gave my life to Christ. The pastor preached a simple gospel message. And I believed. I knew I was a sinner and needed God’s grace. My parents had been working on me for a while. They knew I was a sinner who needed saving. And it was in that chapel, forty years ago that I got saved. And the Holy Spirit has been working on me ever since. 

That’s where I had my moment like the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. And a few months later I was baptized at Bannockburn Baptist Church on William Cannon and Brodie Lane. I had to go up to the pastor and tell him about my faith. And that was so terrifying. But it was good. And I got baptized. 

Some of you today need to do like that Ethiopian eunuch did in Acts 8. You need to get saved. Or you need to get baptized. If the shoe fits, you wear it. 

And some of you need to do like Philip. You need to share Christ with those who don’t know him. You need to give someone the opportunity to rejoice like this guy rejoices when he finds out his sins are forgiven. Let’s get after these things.