So we are back in Acts chapter 8 again this week. And. The, the screen is not quite as big as it was in my imagination.
So I will encourage you, you see the map already. So if you want to be able to see it better, you can go ahead and move forward if you're fine where you are, you're, welcome to Stan Pat.
But I'll be pointing to a couple of different maps tonight. Just because I think it's good to kind of know where we're talking about as much as Philip is moving around.
So I've got a few maps to put up. I'll be pointing to them. I'll leave it to you as to whether it looks like everybody's content where they are and would they're legibility from there.
And so without further ado. Let's, let's look. Into the word.
Let's go ahead and we'll be reading this is the story. It's continuing with Philip and his missions outside Jerusalem.
But this is the story that we're familiar with as having to do with the Ethiopian unit.
So let's go ahead and read the end of chapter 8 starting in verse 26 and then I'll look to the Lord in Prayer.
Verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
This is a desert place. And he arose and went and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch.
A court official of Candace or Kandakate. Queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure.
He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
And the spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you were reading?
And he said, how can I and unless someone guides me? He invited Philip to come on and sit with him.
Now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.
And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else.
Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. 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?
And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water. Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.
And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip found himself at Azotas. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Let's look to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you for. For your word, we thank you for this account of this. This man from far, far away who had come to Jerusalem and ends up hearing the good news of your son.
As he's on his way out. Father, we pray that As we look to the story and we look into details of it and We learn more about it that we would learn more about you and learn more about your son.
And that it would draw us to follow you more closely. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
So.
Philip is here on the road to Gaza. Now, like I mentioned last week, Probably, but not necessarily.
He had accompanied John and Peter as they left Samaria and returned to Jerusalem. That's not necessarily the case.
It doesn't say that. But it would make sense as a way to get him. To a point where the spirit is telling him to go to this road from, from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Okay. So. Like I say, we've got maps tonight. So to get an idea of where Philip is, where he's going and all that, I don't know how well you can see on this.
But the next map is actually going to be closer in on this green section. I can go up there.
It's going to be closer in on the screen section. But at the beginning Philip is up farther to the up here in this area.
Jim, if you can go to the next. Let's go. So.
Alright, so now on this one I have the relevant places marked and blue. So Samaria of not the farthest north.
But here in the center is where he's starting out. And then if you're having trouble spotting it, Jerusalem is down here.
And. Gaza, which you probably know because it's in the news so much. Right now, is this in people's way?
. Okay. Gaza, which has been in news right now, is where he's headed I don't know.
If these marked roads. Okay. Had access to and the spirit was sending him to. I'm not sure about that.
I don't know how amazingly perfect the Atlas that I was pulling these pictures from is for that.
But it's close enough that we can surmise. It's probably roughly like that. So he's, probably returned to Jerusalem.
In either case, the spirit comes to him and tells him, that he should go to this road. Go to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Now, I'll just mention. We think of down on maps a lot of times as South. Pretty much any road going from Jerusalem is a road going down from Jerusalem because Jerusalem is up high.
So it's down from Jerusalem to Gaza because Jerusalem's up high, Gaza's down along the coast.
But one thing that I think is interesting here is there's no explanation. For this command.
The Spirit does not tell him You know, go down to this road. I want you to meet somebody there.
He just tells Philip. Rise and go toward the south. Or it's possible that that phrase.
Toward the south. Also, it could mean to go at noon. The spirit could have been telling him when to go to this road to Gaza.
But the phrase or the the word south is also the word used. For noon because if you're in the northern hemisphere at noon the sun is in directly to the south.
So it's it's actually true in a lot of languages that that those words are interchangeable.
So It's not entirely clear, but the spirit could be giving him a time reference, telling him you know, be there at noon.
But what ever exactly he's telling him, he doesn't tell him why. Philip just has to obey.
The spirit tells them what to do. The spirit tells them, you know, that one next step. And Philip has to obey and that's a recurring theme throughout.
At the end of verse 26, it mentions this is a desert place.
It could be talking about traveling through the desert. But an interesting thing about what's going on in with Gaza.
Is that the original city of Gaza that we see in the Old Testament had been destroyed.
I think in the 60, s BC, but regardless it had been destroyed. Quite a while back and then had been reconstructed but was reconstructed closer to the coast.
And so it could be instead of saying that this is a desert, like an arid, there's no rain, it could be saying that It's talking about the deserted Gaza, the one where, you know, it's pretty much a ghost town.
They're a handful of people who still live around it, but it is not a functioning city anymore.
And so the spirit may there have been. Or. Luke, because it's not clear whether that's.
Still what the spirit is saying to Philip or whether that's Luke clarifying for his readers.
But it could be just clarifying. We're talking about the deserted Gaza. We're not talking about going to the active bustling city of Gaza.
The other reason it would be a little bit weird. For it to be saying that it's the desert is that Gaza is actually pretty much you're not in the desert yet at Gaza.
Gaza was where the, you know, still lush green light. Lush might be overstating it, but arable land.
Extended that far that was pretty much the end of it travelers going along these roads. Gaza was the last stop.
You know, when you see those signs, next gas station. 237 miles or something.
I don't know if you've been. In places where they've got those, but.
When you see that sign, you better get some gas. Gaza's kind of like that, you know, next water, 400 miles, you better tank up here, you better do whatever you want to do.
Because you're about to cross the no-kitten desert when you leave here. And that's where that's where this treasurer official was headed.
So let's look at him a little bit as we move on into verse 27. As I said, Philip arose and went.
And there, along that road. Was an Ethiopian, a eunuch. So it says a man of mine has an Ethiopian, I think the new King James has a man of Ethiopia.
One thing that we have to understand is that Ethiopia didn't mean the same thing to them that it means to us.
You know, when we talk about Ethiopia, we're talking about a specific country on a map.
Actually, Jim, if you can go to the next slide, I think it'll be 3.
Okay.
So if you can. Get rid of the, yeah, that thing. So Ethiopia is not exact exactly of reference.
To the same country or the same. Area as we think of. Most likely, I'll read a little bit more so that I can go in the order that I was actually going to go.
Right, so it says that he's a eunuch, a court official of Candace, I'll say it like we would in English, Queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure.
Alright, so the place that he seems to have come from is a city called Merway. Which is not in present day Ethiopia.
Gonna climb back up on stage. My apologies to. This is well, you've got Jerusalem up in the right hand corner to give you an idea of scale.
But this is a map of Egypt. And Kush. Nowadays we would refer to it as a map of Egypt and Sudan and even some South Sudan.
And then when you get over very far here you do get Ethiopia. But
You probably can't even, can you see where I'm pointing? Most of you can't even see where I'm pointing.
But down here and all of this green. Is the farm to land along the Nile. That's the Nile River.
And way down here at this point. This one, I think it's this one. Is the city of Maryland.
That this man is presumably coming from. Jim, if you want to go to the next slide.
Alright, so this Gives us a little bit better of an idea. It's a modern map and you can see where it indicates the site for Marrowway.
And it's not in present-day Ethiopia.
The reason that we assume that he's coming from there is because that's where they had a queen who was called the condake.
This is not a personal name. She's not Candace, the Queen. She is the canvas or the conductor in the same way that we're the canvas or the condake in the same way that we talk about the Pharaoh.
And then when we go back and read an Exodus. Pharaoh gets used almost like a proper name.
When I was a kid, I assumed that was the guy's name. His name was Pharaoh and I thought it was weird that years later He was still around and finally I came to understand, oh no, that's a title.
It's like King. Conda K is the same idea. It is a title. It is the Queen Mother of this.
Really pretty much this empire. Down in this part of Africa. They They had the idea that They claimed in the same way that the Egyptians did.
That their king was actually the son. Of the sun god. And that made him a god. And that made him way too special to deal with, you know, the nitty gritty of actually running a kingdom from day to day.
And so instead of having him be directly involved in any of that, I guess he just was. Off being their god or something.
I don't know what he was actually doing. But his mother would actually run the place. She was she was the queen mother and she ran the the country she ran the empire.
And her daughter. Than would go on to be the next conda K. Whose child would be the king.
And this continues on. So that's that's the canvas that we're talking about here.
And he's working for her. The thing to recognize, the thing that I think is important for putting this in the context of acts.
Is that Ethiopia, like I say, we have it as this one little country in the Horn of Africa.
For the Roman world Ethiopia was pretty much just a reference. To you know the the way off far to the south.
Pretty much anybody Sub-saharan African was going to be thought of as Ethiopian.
Basically anybody who was black, very dark. They were going to think of as Ethiopian. They even took this like
I guess this color association. To the point that the people of India in some Roman writers, it's not all of them.
But in some Roman writers, they actually refer to the people of India as East Ethiopians.
Because at least some of them are quite dark and so the Romans were like, okay. They're Ethiopian just like.
In Africa, but they're from the east. Okay, yeah, sure. We can make that work.
But the key thing is that It's the extent. You can go as far south as you want to go.
And they didn't go that far. South, but you can go as far south as you want to go and they're thinking of it.
As Ethiopia. That is the southern end of the earth as far as Luke's Greek and Roman readers are concerned.
And so I think that's what bringing, you know, there probably lots of people from all over the place who had chance encounters.
And accepted Christ. I can't believe that Phillips the only guy who converted somebody from outside of, you know, Israel proper.
So why does this story? You know, get Luke's attention. Why does he choose to include it out of all, even out of all the stories that Philip probably told him because I think.
Philip is probably Luke's source. For this chapter. We know from from later in acts. That Paul and Luke and the rest of their companions.
Ended up crashing at Philip's house for a while and I have a feeling that While they were there, Luke got his notebooks out and he was he was getting some.
He includes this one because This is a man from the ends of the earth. That he's talking about and that's part of his outline for the book of Acts, right?
We saw Samaria. Last week, the beginning of the chapter. And now, not completely, we don't have a full mission there.
It's not clear what's going on, but. We're reaching a little bit farther.
To something that's the ends of the earth.
And also it's important to say, you know, this guy's not coming from the farthest away.
We're going to see other people and acts. Who come from farther away. Paul's gonna go to Rome.
Rome is actually farther away than ETHIO or than Merrowway. But what's, it's definitely farther than it, Ethiopia is even farther than Ethiopia as we think of it, rather, is even farther, but This is not the farthest.
It is a really much more difficult journey. Because Rome you can go by C. And anywhere that you can go by see.
Is much easier travel in the ancient world. And so this being an entirely overland journey unless he decided to cut across the Red Sea at some point instead of cutting across Egypt.
That gets a little easier when you get to the Nile. You can, you can catch a riverboat, I guess.
And and just cruise down the riverboat. Like the Adel vice downtown. But stay on it a little longer, I think.
But. But this is still conceptually for loops audience. And even for for the Jews in Jerusalem.
This is much farther away. They're familiar with Rome. Rome's every day. This is far, far away.
See.
Okay, so that brings me then.
To a question about this guy.
He says that he was a court official of the Kondaki, Queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasurer.
So he's a highly placed official. He has access to. To the treasury of a wealthy Queen.
But he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And was returning. So.
Kind of makes me ask Why is he going to Jerusalem? To worship. He's clearly not.
Just some pagan who was passing through on business. He went for a special purpose. And if you're living in Maryland and you're traveling all the way up to Jerusalem.
That's gonna take a long time to get there. His queen must have excused him from day to day duties.
For several months.
So is this guy, is he? Why is he going to Jerusalem to worship? Who is he?
Luke doesn't give us a clear answer. We don't know. If this guy is Jewish.
Or if he's a Gentile who's a God-fearer? Or if he's a Gentile who's far along the road to being a convert as he could be.
But however committed he was. You know, if he was If he was Jewish. Hey, which is possible.
He could have been born Jewish. Living in Merrowway. There were Jewish colonies in Egypt.
There were Jewish colonies down along the Nile. It's entirely possible that there were Jewish colonies all the way down here in this country, this this area of Maryland.
Even if there aren't whole colonies there. There are Jewish colonies close enough that that you know a few families could have been down there.
So it's possible. That he was Jewish, born down there. Got a good government job working for the Queen.
It's also possible that he is a Gentile, that he is an Ethiopian himself.
And, and that he is. You know, on the path to conversion. The reason I say on the path.
Is because he's a eunuch. And as a eunuch, he would not have been able to fully convert to Judaism.
He could not have been fully accepted by Judaism of the time. As a full Jew. It is possible to convert to Judaism.
They will They did then and they will now. Except, conversion. And you were considered just as Jewish as If you're descended from Abraham.
I know somebody whose daughters who she converted to Judaism and her daughters, her husband's also a convert.
So neither of them are, you know, descended from Abraham. And her daughters wanted to to claim the right of return to the land of Israel and they were able to go to Israel.
Under the same sorts of legislation that Israel has allowing any Jew anywhere to come and claim citizenship. They would have had very similar processes in place at this time, you know, different.
Different hoops you have to jump through, I'm sure. But as a unit, he would not have been able to.
Even if he was born Jewish and so there's no question about his Jewish identity. As a eunuch?
Going to Jerusalem to worship? He would not have been allowed into the temple courts. Because he was a eunuch.
So this guy for. You know, in whatever way he was associated with Judaism and clearly he's serious about it.
Because he's traveled all the way to Jerusalem for the purpose of worshiping God.
Presumably knowing that he would not be allowed. Full and complete access to the temple. Because of his status.
In spite of his, you know, socioeconomic status, which in most of the rest of the Mediterranean world.
Would have bottom of pass. Like, you know what, you got a lot of gold. You come right on in.
But that wasn't going to work in Jerusalem. And so this is what he's there for and I don't know if he was there.
For for one of the pilgrimage feasts. Maybe got a really long leave of absence from Treasury and he was there for for all 3 of the pillgrimage feasts.
Right there for Passover. For the Festival of Weeks and for the Festival of Booths.
All 3 of which you're supposed to go to Jerusalem. Most people don't anymore. But, but that's cause we've got people all over the world now, but you were supposed to travel to Jerusalem.
And Jews who lived in the diaspora in dispersion around the world. They would try to do this as often as they could even if they were poor they would want to do this at least once in their lives, be in Jerusalem.
For the feasts. So it's possible that that's what he's there for.
We don't really have. Any kind of date indications for this chapter.
But he's serious about it, even though he's not able to. To gain full and complete access.
Alright. So the spirit said to Philip, the spirit keeps giving Philip these instructions without any explanation. He says, Go over and join this chariot.
Phillips probably thinking. Chariots move a whole lot faster than I do normally, but Philip ran to him.
And then he gets his first inkling of what's going on. What this is about. Philip has been obedient up to this point.
For, you know, no reason that he could understand. He does not know what he's getting himself into.
But now he hears him reading from Isaiah the prophet. And he asks him, do you understand what you're reading?
Which the this court official does not understand and he tells them he knows that he doesn't understand and he tells him that he doesn't understand.
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. So again, we can see that this guy's got access to.
Quite a lot of money. He is a wealthy man who's taking in a hitchhiker who probably looks kind of scruffy at this point.
Cause he's been running all over South Israel. But he's got money, he's got a chariot, he's sitting in the back of it reading, okay, every part of that.
Tells you he's got money. He's got an Isaiah scroll. And Isaiah scroll is not cheap.
But he's got his own Isaiah scroll. And you cannot. First of all, just having a chariots expensive.
But I don't know if you've ever tried to drive a chariot. Has anybody tried to drive a chariot?
It's really hard to read a scroll and drive a chariot at the same time. It's very, very difficult.
Trust me, I've never done either one of them.
So he's sitting in the back of the chariot while he's got his driver. Up there driving the chariot.
He's probably got other people along and oh by the way the chariot which we shouldn't think of like a war chariot.
Where you know there's just enough room for one guy to drive and another guy to hold spears.
This is big enough that You know, you've got a driver, you've got the Ethiopian there with his Isaiah scroll spread out so that he can read it and there's room to invite Philip to climb on up in and you know why don't you join me right along with us for a while and you can explain it to me and we'll go slow because the only thing harder then
reading your Isaiah scroll while you're driving the chariot. Reading an Isaiah scroll in a chariot that has a really terrible suspension system.
Worse than anything I drive Which is saying something. You have to go slow if you want to be able to follow along on the page.
So he's just a leisurely going back on this really long journey. So he's got money.
And yet he accepts Philip to come up. And not only catch a ride in his chariot. But also he accepts his instruction.
This guy is serious about wanting to know stuff and wanting to understand.
What he reads, what he's been reading is This passage from Isaiah. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter.
And like a lamb before its shearers is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.
So Luke quotes it from the Septuagint, which is a little bit different from the Isaiah that we have in the Hebrew.
Presumably it makes sense that he would have it. And a septuagint copy because you know he's from he's not from Israel he's from Maryland he's from Far, far away.
Greek, however, is a language that everybody, especially a treasurer. Is gonna have to know. Philip is the perfect guy to send on this mission.
You don't want to send Peter or John who at this point their Greek is still kind of fuzzy.
Peters never really gets very good. And But Philip is one of the 7 from Acts chapter 6 who was chosen to supervise and make sure that distribution got to the Greek speaking widows in Jerusalem just as well as it got to the Hebrew speaking widows.
He's one of these. Greek speaking. Believers, he's not. You know, a Jerusalem native.
He's a Greek speaking Jewish person. And so he's the perfect guy. To come in and talk about the Greek translation of the Old Testament with him.
And to do to as Verse 35 says Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
That line reminds me of an earlier story in Luke. And Luke part one. You know, Luke's, Luke's account to Theophilus, part one, which we call the Gospel of Luke, near the end of it in chapter 24.
When some strange guy shows up. And meets 2 travelers on another road leaving Jerusalem. This one was going to a mais.
And they were confused and couldn't figure out what was going on. And opening up the scriptures, he explained everything about himself.
So we don't get quite as much. We don't get the, you know, from Moses and the prophets and the writings here.
But I have a feeling that the coverage was probably pretty similar. As Philip opens up the scripture for him.
And we need to. Pick up the pace a little bit.
Oh, so he must have one thing is he must have explained baptism to him as well in the course of all this.
Since when they came to some water along the road. At the this man wants to be baptized he says hey look why not And Philip says, yes, sounds great.
Let's do that.
And so they go down and Philip baptizes him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.
And the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. So I don't know when it says the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.
I don't know if we're talking about teleportation. Or if this is more along the lines of.
You know, the same kind of thing as, Hey, Philip, I want you to go down to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.
If now the spirit comes and tells Philip. Okay, Philip, it's time to go. And Philip has to leave.
Either way, in either case, the Ethiopian unit doesn't see them anymore after that.
Like I say, I don't know if that's, you know, he comes up out of the water.
And Says, where'd that guy go? What happened to him? Maybe. But it could just as easily be.
That years later as Luke is hanging out with Philip and getting this story told to him. Philip says, yeah, I never saw him again.
We, he, he left rejoicing and praising God. And I, I never heard from him.
I didn't get his address. We haven't been able to keep in touch. I don't know what happened, but it was great that day.
So I don't know which of those it is, but it doesn't. I don't think it has to be.
But I don't think it couldn't be something like teleportation or or the spirit picking him up like Elijah or something and carrying him.
However, he gets there, he moves on to Zotas.
Does that I assume everybody has. Where is it? Oh yeah, in verse 40. But Philip found himself at a zotas.
Jim, can you go to the next slide?
Alright, so All of this has been taking place somewhere along the road to Gaza. At this point where Philip goes next is to this city Azotas.
Which we're more familiar with. Under its old estimate name of Ashdod. But it's the same city.
Ashdod and then the Greek name for it is Azotas. It's the same city in either case.
And that's where Philip finds himself next, evangelizing and just like Peter and John. And I think, Philip, as they were leaving Samaria heading back.
To Jerusalem, they were spreading the gospel into every village that they passed through. In the same way, Philip gets to Azotas.
And he's preaching the gospel there. He knows, hey, you know what? I just talked to this guy from so far south it's crazy I'll never Go that far.
Now I'm in this this pagan city because Gaza and and Ashkelon and Ashdod.
They were never Jewish cities. There were At various times there were Jewish populations living there. But you can even tell.
On this map that it's outside that green territory. That's because even under the Roman Empire, those cities were recognized as having and their territories around them.
As having sort of an independent status that they'd always had and they were under Roman administration but different from Judea and Samaria will separate them off they'll get their own governance because they were still largely the combination of Philistine and Canaanite.
And other Mediterranean people who had emigrated there. Those were principally the people that were living there.
But Philip knows, hey, I'll evangelize them too. And then. You see that there's a road that continues north.
Along the coast. All the way up to the top of this map to the far north. Of the coast of pilots territory where Caesarea is.
And verse 40. Tells us that as he passed through, he breached the gospel to all the towns and there are more towns that are than are on this map.
But he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. And chapter 8 doesn't tell us.
But we can assume that when he got to Caesarea, the reason that he didn't continue preaching the gospel and other towns.
Is that it seems like he settled down and bought a house, a pretty big house, actually. Because an Act chapter 21.
That's where we have. Paul and Luke and a number of other companions. Showing up and spending.
A number of days. In Phillips house with him. So he's got enough space there in Caesarea.
To entertain guests. However many years later it is that Acts 21 takes place.
But he he continues on here and when he gets to the end of this This is sort of the end of Philip the evangelists.
Turing ministry. I think he comes into a more sort of a permanent residence than in Caesarea.
But before he got to Cesarea, which is It's a Jewish city. But it's a it is one of the more.
Hellenized. You know, sort of Greek, Greek-sized, I guess. Cities of Israel.
It's named, you know, renamed for Caesar. It's actually where pilot would have had his seat of government.
He was. He was in Jerusalem at the time of Christ's crucifixion only because he was, he had traveled to Jerusalem because of the Jewish holidays and he was, you know, he had administrative things to take care of.
But his normal administration of the territory and any Roman by now pilots probably gone but any Roman governor's administration of Judea and Samaria.
Would have been based in Caesarea because it was the most western friendly city in that territory. And that's where Philip goes again.
Greek speaking, probably Greek culture, Philip. You know, one of the one of the perfect people to go and establish the church's mission in Caesarea.
And so he goes there and does that. But all along the way, that's the first thing that he does that makes sense, right?
Everything else. He has no idea. What he's getting into. He goes to this random road.
Either you know just go south on this road or Go to this road at noon. No explanation. Just go, just do what the Holy Spirit says.
Go catch up to that chariot. Just go. Just go do what the Holy Spirit says. He does these things he obeys.
Without understanding why. And the result of that. Alright, I. I said we can't know whether the Ethiopian Eunuch is a Jew or a Gentile.
My inclination is to say that he probably is Jewish. I just. I like the way the book of Acts falls together.
Better that way if this man is the last. Other than Paul is the last major accounts of a Jewish conversion to Judaism.
And now we're going to get into. Peter and Cornelius. Where it really spreads to Gentiles and then we get the introduction of Paul who's going to take.
Take the mission to the entire Gentile world. Even if he's not Jewish, even if he's just a proselyte or a God-fearer.
He is, he is that last bridging step.
The Gospels gone to Jerusalem. It's gone to Judea and Samaria at the beginning of the chapter.
And now as it's getting ready, as it either goes to or is getting ready to go to the ends of the earth.
Right, the gospel is for the Jew first and then for the Greek. It reaches out.
We've had we've had Jews who everybody accepts that they're Jews that they're Jewish.
Okay, they know that they can trace their lineage all the way back. They can prove it.
Then we go to Samaria where They're kind of like half breeds, right? To use a slur that would have been common at the time.
They're sort of at best. Like some people wouldn't have even accepted them even as half Jewish.
Other people would have said, well, they're an intermarriage between. The Jewish people who were left.
And the Gentiles who got shipped into the territory. But they're kind of there's something Jewishy about them.
And now we're reaching out. To people who are at least. Interested in and personally committed. To the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob already, all the way out as far south as you can go.
That's what we get in this chapter as the gospel is going to the ends of the earth.
In the next chapters. Having completed looking for the Jewish people who are spread out all over the world.
Now the gospel spreads also. Starts to spread to the Gentiles who You know, we were even further out to the ends of the earth, but.
But we'll get to that as we come to it. Any comments or questions? Before I close in prayer.
Mary, you had your hand up first and Fred deferred.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's like I say, I, I agree. I think it's totally possible that it was some sort of miraculous transportation.
Where you know there are some other connections to to Elijah type stories in this. And so, you know, maybe he's caught up in a world wind and taken there or something like that.
I don't know. But however, you know, or maybe he was just so excited as he's continuing along on his way that he didn't really.
You know, by the time he starts paying attention again, I've done this driving, you know, going long.
And then I realize, oh no. I've gone too far, so maybe it could have been something like that, but yeah.
Fred, what were you gonna say? No, it doesn't. It has, let's see.
Right, it doesn't have any of verse 37. That has it down in the margin.
Said and Philip said, If you believe with all your heart you may and he this is after the the man asks to be baptized.
Philip says if you believe with all your heart you may and he replied I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So, yeah, but I think most of the modern translations Don't I'm not I didn't compare them all What were you gonna?
I have to be honest, I didn't pursue the textual critical question very far. I saw it.
And The I think the new King James is textual note, I think it's on that one.
That it says that the the Nestle Island and the majority text don't have it but but something, I can't remember what.
Yeah, some western, most western texts have it and that would have been the basis and that would have been what was available to the King James translators would have been those Western texts.
The the other texts that lack it are ones that we've found more recently and so scholars. Have decided that it's probably not original.
But I haven't. I haven't looked at the specifics of which texts do have it and which texts don't have it.
So I don't really. I'm fine with it. I don't have a problem with the verse, but I'm also I think the It reads perfectly well also without some.
I'm not gonna get into a fight with anybody. Over it.
Oh, Okay. This.
So Actually, if we want to run really long.
Everybody has stories about this guy. I think it it helps. That we have these like 15 verses.
And then. This guy being the Unic. We have like these 15 verses about the Ethiopian Eunuch.
And then. It's says that the Unix saw him no more. And I'm assuming that the way Luke knows for sure that the Eunuch saw him no more is that Philip tells Luke.
I never saw him again.
And so it seems like every group. That could be in any part. Jim, could you go back to the picture that has modern Africa?
Anybody that has any connection to that part of the world. Makes use of this character. The,
Where the Ethiopian church actually traces itself back to is in some ways even earlier than this.
They claim that the Ethiopian Emperor was a descendant. From the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.
That when when the Old Testament says that Solomon gave her what she desired or I can't remember the exact phrasing there, but.
They believe that what that means is he gave her a child. And that he was that that child then was the emperor of the Ethiopian Empire.
And like all the way up to the the man who was the Ethiopian Empire in the early part of the twentieth century.
I think that ended in the early twentieth century. He believed himself to be descended from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Now the The problem with that
Is that? This just became a pointer. That Ethiopia is down here. She is actually probably up here in Saudi Arabia.
Well, no, I think Yemen, not in the country of Saudi Arabia. But on the Arabian Peninsula.
And so there are groups down there that trace themselves back to that also. And then, yeah, the Ethiopian Church.
Bel that the Ethiopian unit comes back and there's a fertile ground. For the gospel because Judaism is so established in in Ethiopia.
There are similar stories. I can't remember any of the names there, but they're similar stories in Sedan closer to where the Ethiopian unit was actually from.
But because of the fertile ground that the Judaism that would have been there provided They believe that he goes back.
He evangelizes his people, of course, becomes a bishop because in all of the stories, the guy becomes the first bishop of the church.
And, and that's where the Ethiopian church springs from. We don't actually have any.
Any like records or any evidence of Christianity in Ethiopia. For at least another 150 years after this.
So seems unlikely to me. But, but it's possible. And I mean, I can't remember any of the names right now, but most of the Orthodox churches I think the Catholic Church.
They all have different names that they've given this guy. Like they they've decided, well, this is, I don't know if anybody those stories, don't look like. Nobody's volunteering.
So nobody remembers any but They all have like some column, you know, Dijon or something like that.
And that but they all have different names that they assign to this man. And, you know, he's the one who then goes back and evangelizes his people.
I hope he did go back and evangelize his people.
It didn't take off. Enough that we have that we have much record of it. The But yeah, the ETOPian church.
And the Coptic Church and lots of people. Hi. First back, you know, when there's not a whole lot of story available, you can.
You can embroider lots onto it.
Sure. Alright, then let's close in prayer and I'll turn it over and we can all pray.
Father, we thank you. Regardless of how fruitful his mission may have been, for the conversion of of this man.
We thank you for his. Desire to worship you that drove him to Jerusalem. And put him in a place where he could hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ.
Father, we pray that. That we also as we see Phillips example also. That we would listen to your spirit and obey your spirit even when we don't understand it.
Even when we don't know why we're being sent, even when we don't know why we're being commanded.
That we would in faith. Act and be available for for the. Things that that the Spirit has prepared.
Father, we thank you that you're gospel. Continues to go to the ends of the earth.
We pray for the work of those people that take it there now. In Christ's name, Amen.