What Did the Eunuch Have to Do to Be Baptized?

Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, and we’re in the Book of Acts. We’re in Acts:8:32The 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:
See All.... But first, a little background. The Scripture is presenting Philip who, being led by the Holy Spirit, joins an Ethiopian eunuch who is reading from Isaiah 53, and, as we mentioned last week, Scripture tells us the Ethiopian eunuch didn’t quite understand what he was reading. Verse 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. 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; in his humiliation his judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?”

Dave: Interesting verses, Tom. We don’t have time to exegete them fully, but apparently he was reading aloud to himself. Apparently he had a copy of at least this part of Scriptures, the prophet Isaiah, so apparently this was more common than we sometimes admit. We talked about that, because the Bible says - the Bible urges even a young man (Psalm:119:9(BETH.) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
See All...) to give heed to the Word of God; it must have been available. Psalm 1 talks about “blessed is the man…he meditates in the law of God day and night.” How would he do that? They must have had copies of this. So here’s someone from Ethiopia - whether he picked this up in Jerusalem or whether he brought it with him we don’t know - but he is reading, interestingly, a Hebrew prophet. One of the most powerful passages about Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins on the cross: “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; as a sheep before his shearer is dumb, he opens not his mouth…” Now, of course, why was that? Because he took our place, and we had no answer to give. We’re guilty. “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” In other words, because he doesn’t defend himself - he doesn’t have a group of defense lawyers there - he’s not being dealt with justly; he’s falsely accused, they have false witnesses, and so forth. 

Now, Tom, I don’t know if you’ve ever been falsely accused - probably everybody has. Wow. How to just keep your mouth shut and not defend yourself. I’ve had that experience a number of times before a group of false accusers when it was no point in even trying to defend yourself. I think Israel finds itself in that situation today. So many lies are told about Israel in relation to their mistreatment of so-called Palestinians claiming they chased them out, and so forth, when in fact they didn’t. And I often fault Israel, “You are letting the Muslims win this propaganda war. Why don’t you speak up and tell them the truth?” Maybe it’s just frustrating. What’s the point? The world will only condemn [them] no matter what they do. 

But Christ’s situation was not that. He could not retaliate, He could not reply, because He took our place. So in His humiliation, His judgment was taken away. Wow. How maddening that He’s being falsely accused. And then it says, “Who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.”

And yet the Scripture says He will bring many sons into glory because through His death for our sins and His resurrection, we can be born again if we believe in Him, we trust Him. We can be born again and become the children of God. 

So He is the first-born, the Scripture says, of a new creation. He is the progenitor of a new race. He’s called the Second Man, the last Adam. He’s like Adam. The first Adam was the father of the human race. Jesus Christ, then, is like the father, the progenitor, of a new race of born-again people who will inhabit a new universe when God destroys this old universe of sin and sorrow. There will be a new universe He will create, and it will be inhabited only by those who have allowed Him to give them new hearts, to make them His children through faith in Christ. And the eunuch says, “I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” Well, it’s pretty clear it’s talking about Him. The prophet is saying, “He is lead as a lamb to the slaughter. He is despised and rejected of man,” and so forth. So he’s not talking about himself. I love this verse 35: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” 

Now, Tom, it’s been many years since I attempted such a thing and advocated it, because I don’t have that many Jewish friends. I should really carry it in my pocket at all times for when the Lord sits me next to a Jewish person on the airplane. But you type up Isaiah 53 just on a piece of paper. Don’t give any reference, don’t say where it came from, and don’t put the verses there so they would suspect it came from the Scriptures. Give that to a Jewish person to read, or to any person to read, Jew or Gentile, and ask them, “Who do you think this is describing?”

I think almost 100 percent of the time they’ll say, “Well, that’s Jesus.” Well, wait a minute, this was your Hebrew prophet Isaiah, inspired of God. He’s talking about someone in the future who is going to come. Well, it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord, Yahweh, has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” So our sins were laid on Him. “He was bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions.” Bruised for our iniquities - that is God’s judgment upon Him. So He takes the punishment we deserve. I don’t know how you could explain that away, and it certainly couldn’t have been Isaiah. He made no such pretense. 

Furthermore, if we go back to Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All..., Isaiah himself - the same prophet who’s telling us of this one who will come, who’s called the servant of Yahweh in chapter 52 - he is…well, this is what it says: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Well, the child is the babe in Bethlehem. “A son, the eternal Son of God.” The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. “The government will be upon His shoulders.” So He is the Messiah, without a doubt. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor….” One of the names of Jesus is “Counselor,” so let’s go to him for counseling, to His Word. Then it says, “The mighty God.” So this One who is going to be born of a virgin is the mighty God. And then it gets even stronger: “The everlasting Father.” 

Now, Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” The babe born in Bethlehem is both the Son and the Father. That brings us to the Trinity. I don’t see how you can escape these prophesies. And in fact, this is the basis for our preaching the gospel, and Philip began right there to preach Christ. And we need to get back to the Old Testament. We need to get back to the prophesies that make it very clear who the Messiah would be, how you would recognize Him when He came (you wouldn’t accept a false Messiah), and we need to preach the gospel on that basis.

Tom: Verse 36: “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 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.”

Now, Dave, back in verse 35 it says he “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” So we don’t have everything that Philip taught this Ethiopian eunuch, but I’m sure he laid it out.

Dave: Absolutely. He laid it out from the Scriptures that “he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” So…

Tom: And fulfillment of prophesy. That’s what I mean: who He is, why He came, how He is the Messiah, fulfillment of prophesies, and so on. So my point is that when the eunuch says, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” I mean, there are a lot of people that believe that Jesus is the Son of God, okay, but this doesn’t save you, so I know that Philip gave him the gospel.

Dave: Well, Tom, that brings us to something that is controversial among Christians: the mode of baptism, by sprinkling or immersion, for babies or for believers, and it says very clearly that he says, “What would hinder me from being baptized?” Philip says, “If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.” So baptism is clearly for believers. You must believe the gospel. You must have become a Christian before you’re baptized. If anyone is offended by what we just said, we are only standing up for the Word of God.