I gave this sermon at the evening service at my church last Sunday (Sunday 31 March 2013), and it's slightly different to the one that I actually gave up there for two reasons: firstly, because I was working off of notes both when I gave the sermon and when I typed it up, so it's expressed slightly differently than it was when I gave it; and secondly, when I gave my sermon there was a bit that I forgot to say and I didn't realise till I was halfway through, so the bit that I missed out has been included in this version.
The first thing that I noticed about this passage is that it's about journeys. There are two journeys in this story: the journey of Philip, and the journey of the Ethiopian. Philip's journey is one to which he is called by God; He sends an angel to tell Philip to go to the "south desert road", and the Holy Spirit takes him away again to continue his journey from Azotus. The Ethiopians journey is a journey home; he has been to Jerusalem to worship and is coming home when he meets Philip. Once Philip has been taken away, the Ethiopian continues on his journey home.
I'm going to focus on the journey of the Ethiopian, in its three main parts: firstly, when he is alone, coming home from Jerusalem; secondly, when he meets Philip and they travel together; and thirdly, when Philip is taken away and the Ethiopian continues alone again.
The first part of the Ethiopian's journey is when he is coming home from Jerusalem alone, and we are told that he has gone to Jerusalem to worship. However, he doesn't seem like someone who has just been worshipping. You would expect someone who is coming home from worship to be peaceful and full of joy. Yet he isn't; he is confused and frustrated at his lack of understanding of Scripture. It is important to note that the Ethiopian was a eunuch, and most likely a Gentile. Under Jewish law, eunuchs were not allowed to enter the Temple, and so when he got to Jerusalem he was probably turned away and not allowed to worship in the Temple.
The first thing to take away from this passage is that it's okay not to understand Scripture. At the end of this passage, the Ethiopian is baptised and enters into fellowship with Christ, despite his lack of understanding at the beginning. When Scripture is hard to understand, it's easy to just give up and think we'll never get it on our own. But the Ethiopian understood this; he knew that he wouldn't be able to understand unless someone explained it to him. We don't have a Philip who seems to appear out of nowhere to explain Scripture to us, but we can ask God to help us to understand.
The second part of the Ethiopian's journey is when Philip meets him. In this part of the passage, we see inclusion. The Ethiopian, one who has been excluded, invited Philip into his chariot in verse 31 because he knows that Philip can help him to understand what he is reading, and indeed Philip goes on to tell him the Good News, beginning with that very piece of Scripture.
So the second thing to take away from this passage is that Christianity is all-inclusive. In verse 36 the Ethiopian asks if he can be baptised, and at the bottom of the page it says that some manuscripts add verse 37, in which Philip tells him that if he truly believes that Jesus is the Son of God, there is nothing to stop him from being baptised. The Ethiopian, who under the old law was not even allowed into the Temple to worship, is now allowed to be baptised into fellowship with Christ based on pure faith alone in accordance with the new law - which Paul refers to Jesus as in many of the letters.
The third and final part of the journey that the Ethiopian makes in this passage is after he has been baptised. The Holy Spirit takes Philip away, and in verse 39 we read that the Ethiopian never saw Philip again; nevertheless, he "went away rejoicing". Now I don't know about you, but I think I would feel a little confused if the one who had brought me to Christ suddenly disappeared and I never saw them again. I would think, "Wait, I still have more to learn and I need you to teach me". But the Ethiopian doesn't do this; he rejoices. I don't know if any of you know anyone else's testimony, the story of how they became a Christian. A few years ago, at a Christian youth group at my school, we decided to use one of our meetings to tell each other our testimonies. I was sitting next to a girl who I had known for about four years by this point, and she told us her testimony. It was amazing. God had worked wonders in her life to bring her to Him and to Jesus. I listened closely, and I know I should have been thinking, "Wow, God, You've done wonders in her life, and You have shown her how amazing You are. Thank You!" But I wasn't thinking that; I was sitting next to her thinking, "My story is nothing compared to that."
In this passage, as we see the Ethiopian rejoicing, it becomes clear that it almost doesn't matter that Philip was the one who told the Ethiopian about Jesus. God could have sent almost any of the Apostles; that He sent Philip is almost insignificant: the important part is that someone was sent, and that through that person the Ethiopian believed and was baptised. And so the third thing to take away from this passage is that it doesn't matter how we come to Jesus, how we first encounter Him, how we first see Him. It just matters that we do.
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