Bible Commentaries

A Story of Conversion

Acts 8:27, etc.

Philip the deacon was one of the most active Evangelists. Only one or two scenes in his obedient and strenuous career find a place in the panorama of Acts; but these make it clear that he was a man of whom, had there been space enough, the New Testament might well have told us a great deal more.

I like the hopefulness of Acts 8:34-35

Our theme is the marvellous story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. Three factors go to make up this eventful narrative.

I. The Ethiopian eunuch as the subject. He constitutes the central figure of the story. (1) Who then is he? He was an African, a swarthy descendant of Ham the father of Canaan the cursed, and by descent is connected with Nimrod, the first founder of the ungodly empires of the world ( Genesis 10:6; Genesis 10:8). (2) Whence came he? He came from Ethiopia, a country called Cush in the Old Testament, including what now is known as Nubia and Abyssinia. (3) What is he? He was an eunuch. Among Oriental nations eunuchs were numerous; but in Israel they were forbidden. By a special law they were excluded from the congregation of the Lord. They were disqualified for membership in the Jewish Church. If Moses rejected them, Jesus Christ received them. His office was honourable and lucrative. "He came to Jerusalem for to worship." However distinguished his rank, or honourable his office, or vast his revenue, there was a conscious need within, which neither rank nor honour nor wealth could satisfy.

II. Let us glance at Philip the Chosen Instrument. Not the Apostle of that name, but Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven deacons solemnly set apart for the diaconate by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the Apostles ( Acts 6:5). Philip is called "the Evangelist," that Acts 8:35

The preachers of the cross told, indeed, of a Healer, but of a rejected Healer. They told of a houseless wanderer, of harlots and sinners, of shepherds and sowers and fishermen, of the wine-press and vinedressers, of father and mother and of family life, of marriage and festival, of the bridegroom and his friend. They spoke of suffering and of failure and of unrecognised death. Then men saw in all this something different from the bright sun-god of the Hellenes, or the fated Balder of the chivalrous North, and said with whispered breath to themselves and to each other, "This is the God we need".

—J. H. Shorthouse.

References.—VIII:35.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiv. No2044. VIII:36.—F. S. Webster, The Record, vol. xxvii. p676. VIII:36 , 37.—J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p154. VIII:37.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No2737. VIII:39.—Archbishop Temple, Christum World Pulpit, vol. lv. p361. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays after Trinity, p240. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. iii. p264. A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p212. VIII:40.—Ibid. p42.