The Eunuch Receives Christ

Acts 8:37  

"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"

   Along in his chariot came the Ethiopian eunuch. He was the chancellor of the exchequer of Candace, (is an officer who presides in court, and takes care of the interest of the crown). Candace is not so much a proper name as a title, the title which all the queens of Ethiopia bore. This eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship. In those days the world was full of people who were weary of the many gods and the loose morals of the nations. They came to Judaism and there found the one God and the moral standards which gave life meaning. If they did not accept Judaism and were continuing to attend the Jewish synagogues and to read the Jewish scriptures they were called God fearers. This Ethiopian must have been one of these searchers who came to rest in Judaism but he was beginning to search the Scriptures. He was reading the Prophet Isaiah, it could have been Is. 53:1-12. Philip, starting from the beginning showed him who Jesus was. 

   When he became a believer he was baptized. To the early Christians baptism was, whenever possible, by immersion and in running water. It symbolized three things. It symbolized cleansing. As a man's body was cleansed by the water, so his soul was bathed in the grace of Christ. It marked a clean break. We are told how one missionary when he baptized his converts made them enter the river by one bank and sent them out on the other, as if at the moment of baptism a line was drawn in their lives which sent them out to a new world. Baptism was a real union with Christ. As the waters closed over a man's head he seemed to die with Christ and as he emerged he rose with Christ, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom. 6:4). My Friends, We can be sure that he went on his way rejoicing, because he would not be able to keep his new found joy to himself. 

Amen!

Reading: Acts 8:26-40

Ref: HG SB

May God Bless You

and Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry