Shema: The End Results of Humility-The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)

Introduction

There is an adage that goes “show me your friend and I will show you your character”, I believe this adage has its root from the bible text that says “we should not be equally yoked with the unbelievers”. I believe if you are always in the mist of unbelievers not for the purpose of preaching to them but just to hanging around them for friendship, if you don’t become an unbeliever then the unbeliever will become a believer, but the probability of you becoming an unbeliever is higher because, the good book says “faith cometh by hearing…”, so the more you hang up with unbelievers the more your faith increases in the unbelief sayings and things of this word while your faith in the things of God decreases. So if you are battling with a bad behaviour you don’t stay in the mist of people with that same bad behaviour.

Now let’s look at this 13 verses at Acts 8:26-40 and find out why this introduction.

Ac 8:26 ¶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"31 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. (Isa 53:7-8)33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth."34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?"35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"37 Then 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."38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

A) Interesting passage with lots of lessons but let’s us concentrate on why I said in my introduction, “show me your friend and I will show you your character”. This Ethiopian having been reading the account of Prophet Isaiah, found a character he identified with so much, what might be going through his mind will be something like ‘wow, I am humble but the humility character of the person Prophet Isaiah is describing here (He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. Isa 53:7-8) has really challenge me, must he be talking about himself or another person?’. Don’t forget we are looking at this text from the angle of somebody who does not know anything about Jesus Christ.

Why do I say this Ethiopian is humble and he has found a character he identified with, we will answer this by looking at the personality of this Ethiopian Eunuch. From the text, we found out that:

1. He was riding in his own chariot (a bucket pulled by two or three fine horses) , meaning he is a very wealthy person. In ancient times, ordinary people don’t own a chariot, it is own by kings, queens, top government officials and extremely wealthy people. So, comparing this man to the current 21^st century wealthy people you see around, you can clearly see the personality we are talking about here.

2. There was a charioteer riding him because he had the luxury of reading on his way which also implies that he is able to afford a charioteer on such a long journey and He is educated as well.

3. He is a top government official in charge of the treasury of Ethiopia (Minister of Finance).

4. He is wealthy to the extent of owning his own scripts of the Prophet Isaiah which was the reserve for the scribes and the priest in ancient times.

By, looking at the background of this highly educated, influential and affluent man and a simple man like Philip, who due to the persecutions of the Christians in Jerusalem run to Samaria for refuge, so you can imagine how Philip was looking like as compared to this rich man. Then this simple man who do not even look like somebody who is educated approaches this big guy and ask him “do you understand what you are reading?” Wow, can you imagine? If you and I were to be in the shoes of this big guy, we will pause and size Philip from head to toe to check if he is even quailed enough in talking to us in the first place, before to even make the attempt to explain something to me a big guy like me. We will arrogantly say to Philip, what is that your question you ask, if he there’s open his mouth again, there he will hear insults he has never heard in his life before.

But this big guy behaved in away that challenges all of us, despite his status , he still admitted it that he does not know it all, so as simple as you are , a nobody as you are, you can please teach me am ready to learn. What a character worth emulating? A character full of humility that saw, another explicit character of humility in the scrip of Isaiah that caught his attention.

We all saw the end result of humility, this man got saved and genuine joy came into his life, His status in life even couldn’t give him this kind of joy.

We should all take a queue from this Ethiopian, we should learn to tolerate the views of all manner people irrespective of their standing in the society. Some men can’t stand women who are their superiors at workplaces, husbands and wives cant’ simple tolerate the views of each other, madams can’t stand the views of their house helps, and the list goes on and on. We are all created in the image of God, we all have some Godly part in us so we should have a big heart for everyone, God can use anyone to carry a message of deliverance to us like Philip.

B) The second thing I want us to note is, despite all the materials that were at the disposal of this man to read, he chose to read the word of God. Some of us are too busy with the blessings God has blesses us with, in that we no longer make time for him any longer. When was the last time you read your bible? When was the last time you prayed? When was the last time you went to church or evening service? When we get the chance we chose to read and watch things of this world than things of God, because the world has succeeded in orienting us that those are things that will keep us on top and bring us more joy and not the word of God or the things of God. But how come this Ethiopian man has it all but was still not happy? Except the word of God that gave him genuine joy? Let’s stay close to God and God will send His angels to come reveal the deeper things of this life world that will make our joy full and stay on top.

C) I want to end by saying, it does not matter where you are now in life or your current crawling situations, if you are ready to listen to God and do His will, that is abiding by every word in the bible like Philip, the text tells us that, after hearing and obeying the word of God, He went from walking to running, from running to riding with a well affluent person, and from riding to vanishing. You can be crawling right now in your finances, your job issues, your marital issues, your childbearing issues and every situation you are confronted with, the spirit of God is going to take you from your current crawling situation to walking, from walking to running, from running to riding and before people realises, you are at the top in Jesus’ Name. They will begin to ask, how did you get there? Come to think of it, you don’t expect God to allow Philip after obeying him and going on that long journey on the desert to come back home on foot, which will have been very unfair on the part of God. That is exactly how God is going to fast track your life if you start obeying him from today. Amen, God richly bless you and stay bless.

Summary

A) God can send anybody to you concerning your current condition or situation, so be humble and respect everybody irrespective of their social standing.