James Buchanan
This is the final part of a chapter reprinted with editing from the “Illustrative Cases of Conversion” in The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit and based on Acts 8:26-40. The first part, on the eunuch’s state before his conversion, appeared last month.
2. How he was brought to a saving knowledge of the truth.
We shall find in the Ethiopian eunuch an interesting and encouraging example of the care which God provides for the instruction of a sincere inquirer, although he may be placed in circumstances which apparently are most unpromising. He had just been at Jerusalem, where the mighty moral movement had already begun which was destined to revolutionise the world. He had been where Emmanuel, God manifest in the flesh, had preached and suffered and died and risen again from the dead. And he had been there at a Feast of Pentecost, when the promise of the Father had been fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Spirit in the miraculous gift of tongues, and 3000 souls were converted in a single day.
A stranger of rank and influence, who no doubt had many opportunities to speak to the leading men at Jerusalem, must have heard numerous reports about Jesus which were then circulating in the capitol of Judea. It is evident, however, from the narrative before us, that he had left Jerusalem without acquiring a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. He had been in the holy city where Christ Himself had ministered and where His apostles were now proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and he had left it, perhaps for ever. Now he was on his way back to that land of spiritual darkness where he could have no reasonable prospect of enjoying such opportunities of grace as Jerusalem afforded. But although his journey to Jerusalem had not led him to find what he was seeking, God, whose ways are not as man’s ways, sent the gospel to him in the midst of a desert. God met him in the desert of Gaza, and he was converted there!
And there is much in the narrative that is fitted to impress our minds with a sense of the lively interest and the tender solicitude with which God regards the instruction of a single soul.
(1) There is the ministry of an angel – “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip” – “for there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”; and “are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
(2) There is the ministry of an evangelist, specially commissioned to attend to this individual. It is remarkable, as demonstrating God’s watchful solicitude for a single soul, that Philip was commanded to leave his work at Jerusalem and in the villages of Samaria and to go unto the desert, at a time when multitudes were attending his ministry and when his labours there appeared to be remarkably blessed. It is said: “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did; and there was great joy in that city.” Afterwards “they returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many cities of the Samaritans”. Yet an angel was sent from heaven for the sake of one humble inquirer, who had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning to a land of darkness, but reading his Bible by the way. And Philip was taken away from the crowd who listened to him at Jerusalem and Samaria, that he might minister the Word of life to one benighted soul.
(3) The Spirit of God was in that dreary desert watching over the eunuch – even that blessed Spirit who “will bring the blind by a way that they know not”, who “will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight”. The Spirit directed Philip: “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot”. The Spirit enabled him to speak a word in season, and gave a hearing ear and an understanding heart. Then, when the work was done, he withdrew the human agent to follow his Master’s service in another place. Such was the agency employed for the instruction of the Ethiopian eunuch. And can we consider these circumstances without regarding it as a moving proof of the solicitude with which God cares for every inquiring soul, and a most encouraging fulfilment of God’s promise: “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord”?
But while the ministry, both of an angel and an evangelist, and the agency of the Holy Spirit, are expressly declared to have been employed on this occasion, you will observe that the means by which his conversion was effected was simply the truth as it is in Jesus. Herein it resembles the conversion of every other sinner.
Having mentioned that the place of the Scriptures which he read was Isaiah 53, the narrative adds, “Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus”. It would be easy to show, by an analysis of that chapter, that it afforded ample materials for a full exposition of the gospel, for it is an eminent prediction of Christ – a prediction so full, and yet so minute, that the enemies of our faith have declared that it must be regarded as a history rather than as a prophecy. It predicts almost every fact, and sets forth every doctrine connected with the Person, the offices and the work of Christ, as: the unbelief of the Jews (v 1); the reason for that unbelief (v 2); the sufferings and rejection of Christ (v 3); the cause of His sufferings (vv 5,6); the patience of the Sufferer (v 7); the condemnation and death of Christ (v 8); His burial (v 9); His resurrection (v 10); His reward (v 11); and the reason for His reward and the purpose of His death (v 12). All this was predicted by the prophet, and the apostle could tell how minutely it was fulfilled in the person and history of Jesus.
3. The nature of the change and its practical results.
The change properly consisted in his believing that “Jesus is the Christ” – in so believing this that he received and embraced Him in all the fulness of His offices as the Lord’s Anointed. His asking to be baptized plainly implies that he had been instructed in the nature and emblematic meaning of that sacred rite and also that he felt he needed to wash away his sins. Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest”; and he answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”. This confession of faith, short and simple as it is, contains the sum and substance of all gospel truth.
The immediate effect of his faith was a request that he might be baptized; and his baptism is at once a manifestation of his faith and also an evidence of his new obedience and submission to the authority of Christ. He was not ashamed to own, by this visible act, his attachment to Christ and the gospel. Being baptized, he went on his way rejoicing, he felt that the gospel was glad tidings of great joy; from the instant when he believed it, it became the joy and the rejoicing of his heart. Doubtless “the joy of the Lord” was his strength, fitting him for the right discharge of every commanded duty, and the patient endurance of every appointed trial – so that he could run in the way of His commandments when God had enlarged his heart.
We learn from this narrative that (1) God is no respecter of persons, but that men of every nation and colour and clime may become partakers of His grace; (2) a long preparatory work often precedes a sinner’s conversion; (3) a sinner’s circumstances, however unfavourable, are no bar to his progress, if only he will seek and obtain the direction and blessing of God; (4) “the truth as it is in Jesus” is the simple means of conversion; (5) the gospel is glad tidings, and no sooner is it believed than the sinner may go on his way rejoicing, for it is capable of imparting immediate peace and joy in believing; (6) abundance of privileges may fail in working that change which may be brought about in more unfavourable circumstances, for the Ethiopian left Jerusalem unconverted, and was converted in a desert; (7) diligent attention to the means of grace, accompanied with prayer, will sooner or later be crowned with a blessing; and yet, (8) an inquiring, prayerful and exemplary man may need to undergo a great spiritual change.
It was not enough for God to make the first creation, but He must uphold it by the word of His power. So it is with the second creation, Christ is the finisher as well as the author of grace.
Thomas Case