The Salvation of the Eunuch

Acts 8:26-36 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. 27  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, 28  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31  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. 32  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: 33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34  And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus..

I.    The Eunuch

A.  There is never a mention of this man's name in the Bible.

B.   Some characteristics of this man.

1.   He was a eunuch, therefore had no leanings of a sexual nature.  Therefore he was not distracted in his study by sexual desire.

2.   He was an educated man.  He was in charge of all the queen's treasuries, and had to have an education to understand how to handle this large amount of money and give the proper accounting to the queen.

3.   He was a man of great detail.  Being in charge of the treasuries of the queen, he had to look to the detail of transactions so the queen's finances would be used to her benefit.

4.   He was a good business man.  If he failed at this job, he would not be "head treasurer" long.

5.   He was probably an older man.  One does not step into this type of position without "paying his dues" in climbing up the ladder.

6.      He was a man that was accustomed to having authority.  He is in charge of all the queen's treasuries, not merely working for the queen in the treasury department.  He knew what authority was and knew how to use his authority to get the job done.  He was used to working with people, motivating them to performance.

C.    Why did the Eunuch go to Jerusalem?

1.      To Worship.

2.      Even though he had an important position in life, it didn’t satisfy his inner longing for peace.

a.      You may have an important position in life but if you don’t have assurance of eternal life, you are missing a very important part of life.

b.      A person can have all this worlds power, prestige, influence, and money, but if he doesn’t have Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, he will not have peace about his eternal soul.

c.      A person can be much assured of his financial stability, yet he cannot have peace when he knows his soul may go to hell when he dies.

3.      Even after he went to worship he lacked the peace he was looking for.

a.      Some people have gone to church, yet lack the inner peace that comes with salvation.

b.      You may do everything the church and preacher tells you to do, yet not have the peace that God gives when He gives everlasting life.

D.    The eunuch was reading out loud.

1.      Humans often do this when they are trying very hard to understand what they are reading.

2.      Notice that the eunuch is concentrating so hard on the scriptures that he doesn't stop reading when he knows that Philip (a stranger) is listening.

3.      He is not reading to himself because reading out loud helps us understand what we are reading.

II.   A simple question.

A.  Don't make leading someone to the Lord difficult.

1.      Start with the basics and go from there.

2.      Start from where the person is and go from there.

B.    Nobody learns the scripture by themselves, but every individual must learn the Bible for themselves.  Everything we learn has been taught to us by others.  There is nothing new under the sun.

C.   I Cor. 3:5-7 - Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the increase.

1.      Everybody has somebody they can remember that told them about God and his salvation.

III. Verse 34 - Simple question, very easy to answer.  The plan of salvation is very simple, and should be kept simple.

IV. Verse 35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

At this point, preach expositionally from verse 32, and 33.