Ben Zornes

My outline from the recent Greyfriars Hall preaching retreat. All of us were given the same text and each got around 15 minutes to preach a short sermon on it. This semester’s text was on Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch a very interesting text to explore.

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The Text

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. 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, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 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 (Is. 53:7-8). And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 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. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.

—Acts 8:26-40

INTRODUCTION

I want to direct our attention to the amount of action and motion taking place throughout this passage. In conjunction with this, it is interesting to note that this is the third to last specific reference to “the angel of the Lord” found in the Scriptures (the final two coming in Acts 12:7 & 12:23). There are certainly many angelic beings mentioned in John’s apocalyptic vision. But aside from those, the messenger work assigned to angels in the Old Testament seems to be being transferred from them to the church.

The Dark Gentile Sky

In Romans 10:14-15, the Apostle Paul is dealing with the necessity for the Gospel to go forth and be heard in order for it to be believed, to make his point he quotes Psalm 19:4. This Psalm begins with the famous statement that “the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps.19:1)”. Paul draws upon the fact that the heavenly host is proclaiming God’s greatness and handywork to make the case that the Gentiles are intended to hear the Gospel.

Creation leaves all mankind without excuse for not seeking after the living God (Rom. 1:20). Thus, although Israel had the benefit of having the oracles of God declared to them through Moses and the Prophets, they did not believe the report of the Gospel (Rom. 10:16 & Isa. 53:1).  [Read more…] about A Starry Host – Sermon Outline