And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
The Ethiopian Eunuch Is Baptized
Beloved
of the Lord……When we were baptized, we were not baptized in the name of
Jehovah, nor were we baptized in the name of Budda or Allah, nor any
other invented God, but we were baptized INTO that most special and holy
name "of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Lord then and there put the sign of the cross upon us, Christ crucified for our sins. While
all the other gods which this world worships truly do not exist, but
they are figments of man's corrupt mind, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our
God is ONE Lord", and this one Lord is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
three individual and distinct persons, but still only One God not three.
Wherever this Holy Trinity is confessed and believed, there baptisms performed in the same are valid and recognized. Because
baptism is a work of God and not a work of man, because God's Word is
ALWAYS efficacious, we Lutherans of the Lutheran church recognize as
valid those baptisms in the Catholic Church, the Methodist and Baptist
church, namely all those Christian churches who confess and believe the
Trinity, using the words of Scripture, that we are baptized "in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." God's Word then connected to the water, and the Trinity rightly confessed, make such a baptism valid. As our hymn says, we are baptized INTO God's name, MOST HOLY.
I. God brings His Word to the Ethiopian Eunuch. The way or manner in which the Lord brings the Word to this Ethiopian is rather astounding. An angel sent from God directs Philip, and the Holy Spirit later says, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot." Similarly, but less miraculous, God uses Christians in our lives, who bring Jesus the Living Word to us. Often it is our own parents who bring us to church, and have us baptized, sometimes it is a friend. But the Church always grows when disciples of Christ bear witness. "Go
ye therefore and teach (or make disciples of) all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
As
for this particular Ethiopian Eunuch, he was no doubt a black man, just
as the second wife of Moses was a black woman, also from Ethiopia. In
the Lord's special care and direction to Philip to bring the Word to
this Ethiopian, we see God's mercy upon all sinners is universal, and
God does not look upon the color of a man's skin. We are truly evil when we think less of a person because of their color. Such is yet another sin to repent of. First Samuel 16:7 teaches us, "The LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." While
this black man was rich and well off in that he worked for the queen,
he was still a poor sinner in God's sight and without Christ and faith
he would be lost eternally. In his chariot he was struggling to understand in the Bible what only the Holy Spirit could teach. God's pity and compassion upon this Ethiopian Eunuch should truly move and touch our soul. Isaiah 55 therefore says, "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and
let him return unto the LORD, and [the Lord] will have mercy upon
him;…he will abundantly pardon."
While the Lord did have mercy upon this Ethiopian, He also allowed him a great hardship. He was a Eunuch, hence unable to marry and be a father of children. Giving his station and position regarding the queen, it is quite possible he was forced to become a eunuch. Jesus explains in Mathew 19, "There are some eunuchs, which were so born from their
mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of
men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven's sake." Knowing Christ by faith, we understand He gives us certain crosses to bear. He does not grant marriage or children to everyone, as this Eunuch. He does not give good health to everyone either. Yet
whatever hardship your good Lord allows you dear believer, you simply
must understand by faith, God means no evil against you, but this is for
your spiritual good. His cross keeps us from falling away. These trials keep us from loving this world. They
help us to long more fervently to be with Jesus, as Paul said, "I have a
desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better."
Our crosses hurt only because our flesh wants to live in this world forever. You
must then learn, though it is a very hard lesson which we continually
relearn, this trial of faith is a most blessed sign from God that He
does indeed love you with all His heart, "for whom the Lord loves He
chastens." God chastened Jesus too, yet because our sins were upon Him, such came from God's wrath. For our sake Jesus was chastened with a scourge, nails, and a crown of thorns. He was truly punished in our stead and place, and He even felt the guilt of our sins, though He was innocent of all sin. "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth." Jesus didn't complain, as we so often do, because with love He was obedient to the Father. In His heart even as He endured extreme agony and pain, there was a childlike trust in the Father, a love which knew no bounds. Yet at the same time dear sinner, Jesus' love for you was also there, and this love knew no bounds. The whole reason He came to this earth was for this dreadful suffering. He was not a unknowing victim, but He was an all-knowing sacrifice. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." When
your trial of faith thus becomes extremely hard and terribly difficult,
you must by faith turn your heart away from your misery, and you must
look to your dear Jesus, who "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." Is He the kind of Lord, dear believer, who is somehow going to fail you? Indeed He cannot! And whatever your sins may be, His grace more than covers you, so you are white and bright in His sight. Therefore "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
Again now consider this poor Ethiopian, who didn't see Jesus in Isaiah. That is why "Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus!" It
was through this name JESUS, the Ethiopian saw now by faith, that
Christ was his Light!.....hence the confession, "I believe that Jesus
Christ IS the Son of God!" With this faith, it is no surprise he desired to be baptized. "They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him."
II. The formula of Baptism. What exactly is Baptism? Our
Lutheran Confessions rightly state "Baptism is nothing else than the
Word of God in the water, commanded by His institution, or as Paul says,
"a washing in the Word'; as also Augustine says: 'Let the Word come to
the element, and it becomes a Sacrament'" (S. A., Part III, Art. V) To
baptize means to wash, or "pour out", but the real treasure of Baptism
is the Word connected to the water, and that Word of God brings to us
God our heavenly Father, Christ His dear Son, the forgiveness of sins,
the Holy Spirit, even everlasting life. That is why we call baptism a Means of Grace, for through this means God gives unto us all the treasures of heaven. The
blessing of our baptism then is that "It works forgiveness of sins,
delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all
who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare." Indeed
the only way we can lose all these blessings of baptism, is by
rejecting Christ, rejecting His forgiveness by our own unbelief. To reject baptism and think it unnecessary is to reject Christ Himself and lose heaven by not wanting to be forgiven. On
the other hand to desire and receive baptism, is to desire and receive
Christ, His forgiveness for all our sins, even life everlasting. Faith alone thus happily receives baptism, and unbelief alone damns.
As
for the formula of Baptism, namely the words which must be spoken,
Christ Himself directs us to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The word IN here really means INTO. We are baptized INTO God's holy name. Edward Koehler here explains, "we enter into an intimate and blessed relationship with the Triune God. We
are, as it were, immersed into God, are initiated into His communion;
we enter into covenant relation with Him and are made partakers of all
the blessings of His grace. In Baptism God
promises to be our Father, and adopts us as His children; in Baptism we
put on Christ (Gal. 3:26-27), and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
(endquote) Through Baptism our Heavenly Father pulls us close to His bosom, and comforts us with His Spirit. We are washed, sanctified, even "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
III. The benefits of Baptism I know for most of us, we were probably baptized many years ago. But that does not mean our baptism is no longer is working in us. Just
as we by faith can constantly draw forgiveness out of the well of our
salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord, so we can also by our baptism, daily
draw strength by this washing of water by the Word. God through this baptismal covenant received us long ago INTO His Kingdom of Grace, communion with God. Even
if it was the case that some time after our baptism we fell away into
unbelief, the mere remembrance of our baptism carries with it the power
to re-convert, for Baptism is the Gospel and not the law, and it
therefore always brings Christ and His forgiveness of all our sins. Baptism thus regenerates broken sinners. The Holy Spirit working within causes us to remember in baptism our sins were all washed away. Our baptism renews us and also causes us to repent. To meditate upon your baptism, is to be rekindled, renewed in faith by the Holy Ghost. Knowing
Christ purchased us with His own blood, we are again and again washed
clean, even lifted up high to heaven in faith, until we need faith no
more, and see God face to face. Therefore, the
Bible says, " Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)."
Finally beloved of the Lord, the benefits of baptism are clearly seen with this Ethiopian Eunuch. As soon as they came out of the water, "the Lord caught away Philip." He vanished into thin air, for God placed him in Azotus to preach Jesus! At this point the Ethiopian could easily have convince himself it was all a dream. He could have discounted the whole thing by superstition, but he did not. Instead, the blessings of baptism were still working in his heart. Christ the Living Word, the Lamb of God, had bought and purchased with his own blood the forgiveness for all his sins. Knowing and believing this in his heart, the Eunuch happily returned to Ethiopia as a believing child of God. May
we likewise, remembering our baptism, happily return to our callings
tomorrow, and even today rejoice with full assurance of heart. By His stripes we are healed, and through His baptism we are washed clean. Amen.
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