Chaplain’s Corner –
September 18, 2007
Rev.
Rich Hines
The Kind of Faith In Christ, That Truly Saves
This message is primarily for those who call on the
name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a
Chaplain or a gospel minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as
a rescue mission – in the
All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King
James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any deviation from the
NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations
from the original languages, or as notes from the original setting to help
apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or
to make a comment about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement
This month we see the contrast to Simon's kind of
faith in Christ (which was studied in our Aug. 24, 2007 Chaplain’s Corner). With the Ethiopian eunuch, we see the kind of
faith in Christ THAT TRULY SAVES. This faith is God-given by the Holy
Spirit. MARK THAT DOWN! Salvation IS OF the LORD!
As we look at
the record of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in the last half of Acts
8, we’ll see at least SIX ELEMENTS inherent in true saving faith. These
six things should be true oF you if you’ve been saved, and you should
seek to explain them in your gospel presentations to others.
This brings us
to our text in Acts 8:25-40,
25 So when they (the Apostles Peter and John)
had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to
This verse is
transitional from the record of Simon’s response to the gospel to the
Ethiopian’s. But there’s something here
together with verse 40, that forms wonderful “bookends” around the
passage. These two verses fit the larger
theme of the Book of Acts and Chapter 8, in particular.
Verse 40
records:
40 But Philip
was found at Azotus. And passing
through, he preached (evangelized) in all the cities till he came to
A larger theme
is of this chapter, and the whole book of Acts is: Evangelizing people with the word of
God. In the middle of these two
statements about evangelizing people in general we have the evangelistic
incident of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from
27 So he
arose and went.
The messenger
- in this case Philip, was sensitive to the Lord’s leading and obedient to His
word. God will save who He wants to save
and will always use the truth of His word to reach them. Normally, he uses obedient servants, like
Philip. He’s also using faithful
Christian Chaplains today!
By holy
angelic messenger and the internal urging of the Holy Spirit, God was directing
His human evangelist, and he was obediently following God’s lead. Be sensitive to God’s leading and directing
you to those that are truly prepared by God for the gospel message.
27 ... 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.
These two
verses tell us a lot. First it tells us
the man God directed His messenger to was A EUNUCH.
A eunuch is a
male that has been neutered. In the
ancient world the practice of emasculating men by either castrating them or by
crushing their testicles - was part of pagan religion. It was also performed on slaves that were
chosen to guard harems of women, for obvious reasons.
When performed
on a child it seriously altered the development and appearance of the
individual. Our text seems to indicate
that one look at this Ethiopian’s appearance showed Philip he had been so
neutered and was therefore a eunuch.
The word of
God forbade eunuchs from serving in the priesthood.
Leviticus
21:17-20
17 “Speak to
Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your offspring throughout their generations who has a
defect shall approach to offer the food of his God.
18 “For no one
who has a defect shall approach: a blind man, or a lame man, or he who has a
disfigured face, ...
20 ... or
crushed testicles.
Deuteronomy
23:1
1 “No one who
is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the
LORD.”
But, God’s
grace was extended to believing eunuchs.
Maybe that’s why this man purchased a copy of the Book of Isaiah, for
Isaiah 56:3-5 reads:
Isaiah 56:3-5
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself
to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from His people.” Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry
tree.”
4 For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who
keep My sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant,
5 to them I
will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than
that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not
be cut off.”
Now, back to
Acts 8, where verse 27 also tells us this man served in the court of
Candace. He even became her personal
treasurer. Candace was not her name, but
her title, like Pharaoh, or Caesar.
Ancient
Their king was
thought to be too holy to rule. He was
considered to be the “son of the sun.”
The real ruling was done by the King’s mother, and she bore the title
of “the Candace.” Quite possibly this eunuch was a slave that
had been chosen to attend her personally and then proven so faithful and loyal
that she promoted him to this high position.
The last thing
the verse tells us is that he was seeking the true God. Notice that at the end of verse 27, and in
verse 28.
27 ... and had come to
28 was returning.
And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
We know from
other Scripture that God prepares people
for the reception of His salvation.
His Spirit draws them to His truth.
In the future when all
“... on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they
will look on Me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him, as one
mourns for an only son,...”
Other passages
that show this preparation for salvation on an individual basis include:
John 4:4 which
says of Jesus “He had to pass through
He “had to” because His time with the
Samaritan woman at Sychar’s well and subsequently with the men of her city
ended in their saving faith and salvation.
The time of their preparation was full.
Certainly
that’s what Jesus meant when He said to His disciples in John 4:35 -
“Do you not
say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and
look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”
And consider
John 9:1-3 which reads:
“As He passed
by, He saw a man blind from birth. And
His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he
would be born blind?” Jesus answered,
“It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in
him.”
Later, in John
9:38, he believed and became a worshipper of Jesus as his God. Like the woman at the well, the Samaritans
of her town and the man born blind - rest assured, God had been preparing this
Ethiopian for some time.
Now, as we
move along through this passage in Acts 8, I want you to see that the first element of the kind of faith in
Christ that truly saves is: It seeks God
when it isn’t convenient. It seeks God
at all costs.
That’s a stark
contrast with Simon who only said he believed when everybody else did in verses
12,13.
This court
official came from
Now notice a
SECOND ELEMENT of true saving faith in the Ethiopian. He was willing to let everything else in his
life go. Saving faith involves repentance, and is willing to let go of the
old life.
In making this
trip, he had a lot to loose. The words
“court official” in verse 27 are really a bit weak. Literally, he was a “Dunastes.” We get our words dynamo, dynamite and dynasty
from this word. It meant he had a lot of
power in the vast Ethiopian kingdom. So,
he could loose wealth, security, position, power and possibly life itself – if,
his rejection of the Ethiopian king as the “son of the sun,” offended the
Candace. So we read in the end of verse
27:
27 ... and had
come to
But notice how
this sentence ends in verse 28 -
28 … was returning.
And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
We know how
the official worship in
Right here is
the THIRD ELEMENT in true saving faith. It seeks the true God through a study of the
Scriptures.
Look at 2
Timothy 3:15 which says:
“...from
childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise
for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
During 40 plus
years of Christian ministry, I’ve met many
people that said they were really converted to Christ after seriously
studying the Bible.
James 1:21
says:
21 ... putting
aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, (in other words repent) in humility receive the word
implanted, which is able to save your souls.
1 Peter 1:23
says to believers –
23 for you
have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is,
through the living and enduring word of God.
The kind of
faith that saves is evidenced buy a hunger and thirst for the word of God, to
know it and understand it. Now, as we
work our way through verses 29-34, notice how the Ethiopian was humble and
teachable.
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. (Isaiah 53:7 LXX
Septuagint)
33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And
who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.” (Isaiah 53:8 LXX –
Septuagint)
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?”
Do you see the
humility and teachable spirit of this man?
He was a powerful high official, and obviously learned. He was reading aloud the Greek translation of
the Old Testament (the Septuagint) with some understanding, yet he confessed he
needed a guide, a teacher. He politely
asked Philip to help him, he said, “Please” (NASB, v. 34).
This is the
FOURTH noticeable ELEMENT of true God-given saving faith – It is always humble and teachable.
Stubborn pride
is probably the main cause of populating hell.
In my own evangelistic experiences, I’ve come across a lot of the “YOU
CAN’T TEACH ME!” attitude, especially with family members.
So we see the
evidence that God’s Spirit had been preparing this man, the Ethiopian eunuch,
to receive the truth of the gospel. He does that with all of us that have been
saved, or that will be saved.
Now we come to
verse 35. It’s a great verse. In
many ways a theme verse for the book of Acts, and for the evangelistic
missionary movement of the church for twenty centuries.
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this
Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
Don’t we hear
an echo of Acts 1:8 in this verse? There
Jesus literally said: “…when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be
witnesses of ME.”
So, the stage
had been set – by God. The seeker had
been studying, and he’d gotten to Isaiah 53, which is the heart of the gospel
message – the SUBSTITUTIONARY AND ATONING DEATH OF THE PERFECT LAMB – CHRIST
JESUS!
God had
directed His human instrument to the right place - at the right time, and to
the right man. Now Philip had to give
the right message – and it’s
always ABOUT JESUS. Who He is, what He’s
done and even will do, and how to appropriate the forgiveness of sin He died to
provide.
In your mind’s
eye, transport yourself to the scene and look at the verse before Isaiah 53:7,8
- and the very next verses in the Isaiah scroll
- with Philip and the Ethiopian:
“ … each of us
has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to
fall on Him … for the transgression of my people, to who the stroke was due …
the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief … My Servant, will
justify many, as He will bear their iniquities. … He Himself bore the sin of
many, and interceded for the transgressors.”
(Isaiah 53:6,8,10,11,12)
From what we
read in Acts 8:36, we must assume Philip explained that full repentance and
faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection to conquer sin - is demonstrated by a
true believer by baptism. Philip gave a
properly prepared man the PROPER PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.
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?”
He said that
because he had already come to believe what Philip explained. Here is the FIFTH ELEMENT of true saving
faith. It
personally applies the message about Christ to the life.
This whole
scene was very bold. Go back for a
moment to verses 30,31 –
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.
Notice at the
end of verse 31 – “he (the powerful Ethiopian official) asked Philip TO COME UP
and sit with him.” That shows us this
“chariot” was not the kind pulled by horses, but rather a carriage that was
borne on the shoulders of many men! This
official had quite an entourage with him.
True saving
faith in Christ doesn’t care who’s watching.
As a matter of fact, neither does a Spirit-filled and Spirit led
evangelist or Chaplain. Remember in
verse 30, Philip “ran up” to the chariot – and to all the men around their
master! So right then and there this man
was willing to make a public spectacle of his new-found faith.
Most good
English translations of the NT have footnotes, or marginal notations at verse
37. The NKJV margin says “NU and M text
omit this verse.” The NASB brackets the
verse, which reads:
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.”]
This is
because the verse does not exist in the earliest manuscript copies we have of
Acts. It’s considered a well-intentioned,
late scribal addition. Something like
verse 37 probably DID HAPPEN. What we
have in brackets agrees with other Scripture, like:
Acts 22:16
16 ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your
sins, calling in His name.’
The scene with
the Ethiopian high court official closes with these words in Acts 8:38,39
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.
Right there,
at the end of verse 39, we see the SIXTH ELEMENT of the faith that truly saves.
It
rejoices.
Why? Because a new believer realizes what they’ve
been delivered from and what they’ve been given by God’s great grace. This man is not unique, consider Zaccaeus in
Luke 19 -
Luke 19: 5,6,9 -
5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up
and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your
house.” 6
And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly (lit. ‘rejoicing’).
...
9 ... Jesus
said to him, (to Zacchaeus) “Today salvation has come to this house, because
he, too, is a son of Abraham.”
Such joy is
not just for the beginning of the Christian life. Rather it’s a constant characteristic of
kingdom citizens.
Romans 14:17 -
17 for the
1 Peter 1:8 -
8 … though you
(plural) have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now,
but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of
glory,”
When God reaches and saves with His
gospel, these three things, also seen in our passage will be there. First, a proper preparation of the
messenger and the hearer - verses 26-34, Second,
a proper presentation of the gospel - verse 35.
And THIRD, a proper response to the gospel - verses 36-39
So we see the ELEMENTS OF SAVING FAITH
in Christ include: FIRST, seeking God when it isn’t convenient. It seeks God at all costs. SECOND, Repentance, this kind of faith is
willing to let go of the old life.
THIRD, it seeks the true God through a study of the Scriptures. FOURTH, it is humble and teachable. FIFTH, it personally applies the message
about Christ to the life. And, SIXTH, it
always rejoices.
Pray for Ethiopian eunuch-like inmates
or residents and learn to discern Simon-like, self-centered ones.
Rich Hines,