The Kingdom Expands to Ethiopia

Christ fulfills the predictions of the Old Testament Scriptures. We have seen this in our study of such episodes in Acts as Peter’s Pentecost sermon (2:1–41) and Philip’s instruction of the Ethiopian eunuch in the gospel from Isaiah 53 (8:25–35). Yet the Old Testament finds fulfillment not only in Christ but also in the new covenant church. We can see this in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch recorded in today’s passage.

Under the old covenant, eunuchs could not participate in the full religious life of Israel because castrated males were unable to “enter the assembly of the Lord” (Deut. 23:1). This was not to last forever, as indicated in Isaiah 56:3–5. In that Isaianic text, God promised that He would give the eunuchs who keep the new covenant a great name and a monument in His very house, the temple. The Ethiopian eunuch was perhaps the first person to receive this blessing, and he is certainly the most well known of the eunuchs who have come to know the Lord. By recording his story in Scripture, the Holy Spirit gave him a great name in His temple, the church.

That the Ethiopian eunuch received the gospel can be seen in his profession of faith and request for new covenant baptism (Acts 8:36). Stopping the chariot, the eunuch and Philip went down to some water, and Philip baptized the Ethiopian (v. 38). The text itself does not give us any indication of the mode of baptism. It’s possible that Philip immersed the eunuch, but it’s more likely that they stood in the water and Philip simply poured or sprinkled water over the man’s head. Early Christian art often depicts baptism as being done by pouring. In any case, they came up out of the water and the Ethiopian eunuch “went on his way rejoicing” (v. 39). This fruit of joy cannot help but accompany conversion. John Calvin comments: “Faith and the knowledge of God bring forth this fruit always of themselves. For what truer matter of joy can be invented than when the Lord does not only set open unto us the treasures of his mercy, but pours out his heart into us, (that I may so speak) and gives us himself in his Son, that we may [lack] nothing to perfect felicity?”

Philip, on the other hand, was supernaturally transported from that place by the Holy Spirit, who took him north to the town Azotus and then to Caesarea. Philip evangelized people along the way (Acts 8:39–40), for he could not keep himself from sharing the good news of the gospel.