The New Testament tells the story of Jesus. The first four books—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—report His time on earth. The book of Acts shows the result as more and more people believe in Jesus as the Christ. (“Christ” comes from Greek, and “Messiah” from Hebrew; both refer to the supreme King promised by the Old Testament.) Acts shows detailed examples of how people become “Christians”—followers of Christ. In Acts 8 we find one man’s journey. It begins by telling how the man first hears the Good News of Jesus. It ends with the man’s happy response to Jesus. Let’s join this man—a sincere seeker from Ethiopia—on his journey to faith. His helper on the journey is Philip, a Christian who shares the Good News of Jesus wherever he travels.
The Journey
And he 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 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” (Acts 8:27-29).
Philip’s meeting with the Ethiopian is no accident. Philip is on a mission. God’s Spirit is at work to bring Philip and the Ethiopian together. In a similar way, we believe that important encounters come from God, not random chance. God cares about us. He knows how the Good News meets our deepest needs. God especially wants true seekers to find Him. The Ethiopian is an important government minister. Yet he takes the time to travel to Jerusalem, the historic center of worship. Now, on his return, he reads a copy of “Isaiah the prophet.” And you … are you a seeker? Do you recognize that God is at work—this very moment—to meet your needs? Is your heart open to new discoveries from His Word?
The Guide
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him (Acts 8:30-31).
Perhaps, at times, you also ask, “How can I understand?” Sometimes we need help. Consider, for example, what the Ethiopian is reading from Isaiah 53. Someone is suffering in silence. He is judged unfairly. He is killed. Who and what is that all about? The Bible raises questions, and also provides the answers. A guide can prove helpful for finding your way through the Bible. World Bible School is designed to serve you as a guide like Philip. As you take WBS courses, your Study Helper will be there for you also, helping you find the Bible’s answers for your own questions and needs.
The Scripture
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. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth” (Acts 8:32-33).
The Ethiopian is reading from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, written by the prophet Isaiah in about 700 B.C. Isaiah foretells the success and glory of God’s special “Servant” (for example, Isaiah 52:13). Yet Isaiah 53 then describes in great detail the Servant’s horrible death—“His life was taken from the earth” (Acts 8:33; Isaiah 53:8). The surprises continue. Isaiah’s prophecy then foretells the Servant’s pleasure in the results of His death.
Out of the anguish [great pain] of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities [sin]. (Isaiah 53:11)
Why will the Servant feel satisfied? Because His sacrifice will “justify” people (make them right with God). How? He will lift from sinners their load of iniquity (sin) and place that load on Himself.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6,11).
The Servant Himself is innocent and pure (Isaiah 53:9). Why should He take our sins on Himself? Isaiah 53:10 says, “The Lord makes His life a guilt offering.” This wording is truly remarkable since Isaiah followed the Law of Moses. In that Law, the term “guilt offering” always applied to flawless animals killed for people’s sins. God hated the sacrificing of humans. Yet, by God’s power, Isaiah foresaw a human as the “guilt offering”! God would sacrifice His Servant to rescue “us all” from our sins.
The Good News
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 (Acts 8:34-35).
Who is this sacrificed Servant? Philip points to Jesus. Yet Isaiah was written over 700 years before Jesus was born. (The oldest existing copy of Isaiah dates from long before Jesus’ birth.) How could Isaiah foretell so many details of the torture that, in fact, Jesus did suffer? How could Isaiah foresee—long before Jesus was nailed to a wooden cross—the human sacrifice that takes away all our sins? Only God has the power to foretell and to fulfill in this way.
When Philip and the Ethiopian meet, it has not been long since Jesus died in great pain on a Roman cross. Yet Philip has Good News about Jesus! This is news about a Person, not merely about new religious ideas. This is news with a Name!
When Isaiah predicted the coming of Jesus, he gave Him the highest titles. Like other prophets of the Bible, Isaiah emphasized that there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10-11; 44:6). Yet Isaiah foretold the birth of a Son who would rightfully be called “God.”
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom… forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Remember, these words were written long before Christianity began. They, and many other passages, predicted the coming of the divine King (the Messiah, or Christ) from King David’s family line. After Jesus died and then returned to life—as seen and reported by many witnesses—He showed how the Old Testament prophecies had come true.
He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:44-47).
Good News Of Forgiveness
We all can enjoy “forgiveness” because Jesus suffered the punishment we deserved. Our sins condemned us. They separated us from God and killed us spiritually. When Jesus gave His life on the cross, He took our place. Now the Father gives to us the gift of His Son’s own purity and goodness.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
How can we be sure of God’s promise to us? Christ’s return from death proves the truth of His Good News! That is why the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are at the heart of the Good News.
By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you… For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:2-4).
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)
As we hear the Good News of Jesus, the same question comes to us today. Do you believe this? If so, how should you respond to such Good News? What is God’s will for you as a believer?
The Joyful Response
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 (Acts 8:36-39).
Do you see how faith responds? Philip shares “the Good News about Jesus” and immediately the Ethiopian wants to be baptized (Acts 8:35-36). Baptism is a word that comes from Greek. In that language it means an immersion or dipping. What has water to do with the Good News?
John the Baptizer was a prophet who prepared people to accept Jesus. He did this by “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). “Repentance” refers to the decision to change, to stop living in sin and start following Christ. Baptism marks that change with this purpose: “for the forgiveness of sins.” When Jesus came, He also had people baptized (John 3:22,26; 4:1). His enemies, including the Pharisees, “rejected God’s purpose” by rejecting baptism (Luke 7:30). In this setting, when John and Jesus were requiring baptism in water, a leading Pharisee visited Jesus. To him Jesus said,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
Thus Jesus Himself created the link between entering the kingdom and “water and the Spirit.” This link continued as Jesus sent His followers to tell the Good News (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 8:12; 22:16).
Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:15-16).
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”… So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls (Acts 2:38,41).
For Me?
Does “every one of you” mean this applies to you and me too? And why? What makes the baptism of a believing, repentant person so essential? As the New Testament unfolds its message, the reason becomes clearer.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).
[You were] buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead (Colossians 2:12).
The Gospel events are not distant facts. Jesus lives today. He calls you to share His death, burial and resurrection by baptism. The result is that you are “raised with Him through your faith” (Colossians 2:12, which shows that baptism is for people who have believed the Good News). From baptism you rise with Christ to “a new life” (Romans 6:4). As Romans shows, this is a life free from sin. First, God no longer sees you as guilty. Christ’s blood washes away all sins and you receive God’s free gift of complete purity. Second, God gives you power to change and overcome sinful habits, the power to live with Him and for Him. Nothing can ever separate you from this loving relationship.
There is therefore now no condemnation [rejection] for those who are in Christ Jesus… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors [winners] through him who loved us… [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:1,37,39).
This “new life” begins at the believer’s baptism (Romans 6:4). No wonder the Ethiopian wants to be baptized immediately! His trust leads him to obey Jesus. In the water, he joins Jesus in death, so that he can rise with Jesus to life that is “new” in every way. That is why the baptized Ethiopian goes “on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). Though Philip is taken away, the rejoicing continues because it focuses on the living Lord who promises, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Now, in the best sense, the Ethiopian is on his way home because he has found the Way! And you… where is your life going? Are you rejoicing in the relationship that leads you home? Do you know the Way? Jesus assures you,
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also (John 14:6-7).
Like Philip, your Study Helper is a friend to encourage you and to assist you with God’s Word. Please take a few moments now to complete the lesson exam questions. Then submit them so that you can be assigned the first in-depth course. After your exam is completed, WBS will match you with a Christian Study Helper to study the Bible with you. Explore God’s spiritual Map. Learn the Way to the full life Jesus plans for you. May God bless your personal journey of discovery!