Salvation In The Wasteland

Isaiah 53: The Clearest Messianic Prophecy of the Suffering Servant 0:27

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

— Isaiah 53:4-6 (NKJV)

If you open up the Old Testament, you find Jesus nearly on every page, starting in Genesis. With that said, of all the Old Testament texts, of all the passages that seem to speak about Jesus, perhaps none does so with the clarity that we see in Isaiah chapter 53, which is what Gardner read earlier.

As Gardner said, Isaiah 53 says this: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. What's going on here is Isaiah 700 years before Jesus. Bear that in mind. Not a week before, not a month after, but 700 years before Jesus Christ ever walked the face of the globe in His incarnate person.

700 years earlier, Isaiah says, Surely this one will bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, and yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we're healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

Whom Does the Text Speak Of? Israel's Corporate Misreading 1:35

Who is that passage talking about? If I was to go on the street corner in Gulfport, in Biloxi, in Ocean Springs, if I was to go anywhere in this community, anywhere in this country, and read that text, and just out of a bullhorn ask everyone, who is this text talking about? Even the secular people on the street would respond, Jesus.

Even the people who do not set foot into church would recognize that basic narrative as pointing to God's own son, to Jesus Christ. We would see this text as a messianic text. With that said, you know what's interesting is that's not how Israel, that's not how the Jews have historically understood this passage, and it's not how they understand it today.

Across the centuries, especially up to the time of Christ, but even after the time of Christ, Israel, when it reads Isaiah 53, the conclusion that Israelites have had about Isaiah 53, about who it's talking about, has not been some Messiah figure, but rather Israel, including modern Jews, would look at that very text and say that the text isn't talking about a Messiah.

It's not talking about Jesus. It's talking about the nation of Israel itself. In the time leading up to Christ, when they read about this terrible treatment that's going on, afflicted, smitten, stricken, all this different stuff, when Israel would read about that and they looked at their own history of exile and being stricken and smitten and all the terrible things that had happened to them, they read themselves into the text and said this corporately: it's talking about us and all the travails and all the things that we have gone through.

And if you go and you speak to a rabbi, if you go speak to someone who's steeped in Jewish history, they'll tell you that even to this day, that's the general understanding. This text, Isaiah 53, refers, broadly speaking, to Israel as a whole. Now, what's the problem with that? Well, the problem with that, among other things, is that when you read the text, that's just not the picture that emerges.

When you read this text, you don't come away with the impression that what the prophet was talking about 700 years before the time of Jesus was some large corporate body, let alone a nation. Rather, there seems to be a neon arrow pointed at one figure, one individual, one sheep that would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, one sheep who would make propitiation, atonement for everyone else.

That's what you see in this text, and yet in the time leading up to Jesus and even in the time after Jesus, because some people don't like the answer that this text points to Jesus, they embrace anything else.

Enter Acts 8: A Confused Reader and an Evangelist with the Answer 4:09

And as they embrace anything else, they confuse what the text is talking about, and they don't know what to make of it. Enter Acts 8. In Acts 8, we have a guy who's trying to figure all this stuff out. We have a guy who's reading Isaiah 53 and trying to figure it out.

Now, undoubtedly, he had some experience with other people telling him what it means, you know, Israel, the nation, or something like that, but he couldn't figure it out. And so he asked, ultimately in today's text, he asked, who is this talking about? Is this talking about the prophet? Is the prophet talking about some other guy?

Who is this? At that time, everyone was confused. Everyone was confused about what Isaiah 53 referred to, who it talked about — not Philip. In today's text, an evangelist named Philip is going to be asked, who is Isaiah 53 talking about?

And he is going to say this: Jesus. And then he's going to explain why.

The Divine Reassignment: Obedience to the Angel's Command 4:58

Let's return to verses 26 through 29 and then let's work our way through the balance as time allows. Verse 26: Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, go towards the south along the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. And so he arose and he went.

And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot.

Let's set the scene here a little bit. First of all, who's this Philip guy? That's a name that's familiar. Read the New Testament.

It comes up at different intervals. Who is this Philip guy? There are more than one in the New Testament. So who is this guy?

Well, the short answer is that Philip was one of the very first deacons. Philip was one of the very first deacons. You go back two chapters to Acts 6. When the first deacons are named, Philip is one of these individuals.

He's one of the very first deacons. Now, he was also just a profound evangelist. He not only took care of the needs of God's people, but he shared Christ with them. Now, by the time we get to chapter 8, Philip had been ministering for some season of time, and he had gone to a region called Samaria.

Now, what do you remember about Samaria? Well, what you should remember about Samaria is that no one in Israel liked Samaria. Samaria and Samaritans were considered — without giving all the history, I'll just say they were considered very poorly amongst the Israelite community. And yet, yet Philip had sought out the Samaritans.

And as he sought out the Samaritans, who had a really mixed up theology — it had been bred in from Assyrian and pagan beliefs into a confluence of Jewish beliefs and pagan beliefs — and it was into that environment that Philip says, Hey, you see all this stuff you got over here? Well, you're confused, but let me tell you the truth.

And so Philip went to Samaria, began to share the gospel with individuals, and what we see early on in chapter 8 is that many listened and believed. And in one of the hardest areas to reach, Philip's ministry was bearing just a ton of fruit. You know, I'm not a good fisherman, but I know this much.

If I'm fishing somewhere, as I occasionally do, and I cast, and I find that there's fish biting at my line, you know what I do? I stay right there. I don't say to myself, I think I'm going to go somewhere else. If you're a fisherman and fish are biting wherever you're casting, then odds are you should stay right there rather than seek another approach.

Well, in this particular case, Philip is fishing. He's fishing for men, and men are responding. People are coming to the gospel. This is a great location for what he is doing.

And yet, in verse 26, God says, Philip, I got another plan for you. I got another plan for you. Reassignment is what we might call this. And so in verse 26, an angel spoke to Philip.

Angel could be a euphemism for the Spirit of God, or it could just be an angel. Whatever the case is, he spoke to Philip and rerouted him. He was bearing fruit where he was, and yet God says there's a reassignment. There's a reassignment.

And so the angel tells Philip to head south towards Gaza. This was the home of the Philistines at that time or in the centuries previous. So go down to Gaza, down this less traveled road that really is deserted. In fact, it's referred to as desert here in today's text.

Now, initially, when the angel says this, it doesn't explain it. It doesn't say, All right, here's the deal. I'd like you to go down south because there's going to be this guy, this Ethiopian eunuch, and you're going to share the gospel with him and the like. God, His spirit, His angel did not tell Philip why he was being reassigned, why he should go, why he should depart.

There's no explanation for it, but what is his response? Well, he's told what to do. In verse 27, he arose and he went.

The Ethiopian Eunuch: A Gentile Seeking the God of Israel 8:43

He showed great obedience to what God was looking for him to do. Now, while in route, while he's traveling, he's going to the south, he's on this road and God, it's desert. He can't help but probably thinking back to how fruitful his ministry was just very recently. And now he looks around, there's no one at all to minister to him.

But then there's the sound. There's the sound of a chariot. In fact, there would have been a number of chariots because the individual who was traveling would have had a whole caravan. So there's this sound, there's this chariot.

We see that in verse 28. There's this chariot. It bears this Ethiopian eunuch who's under authority to Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. Candace is probably not the name Candace.

That meant in that context, it was like the word Caesar is, I guess, the best way to put it. It was more of a title rather than a name. Whatever the case is, there's this representative of the Caesar, the woman king, so to speak, of Ethiopia at that time. There's this representative, this dignitary, and he's there on this road with his caravan.

Now, why was he there? As a side note, what's this guy doing there? Why is he even here? Well, the road he was on was a road that would take you right down.

You go from Gaza, you go right into Egypt, and from Egypt, you can go right into Ethiopia. So that's probably why he was on this road. But what was he doing in Israel at all? What was his purpose?

Well, really, we don't know with entirety. But if you looked at what the text said, what did verse 27 say? It said that this guy had come to Jerusalem to worship. So while he might have had business and pleasure, there might have been more than one reason he was there.

The reason that's identified for us in verse 27 is that this Ethiopian eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. Now, did he know what he's worshiping, who is he worshiping, we really don't know. What we can pick up from the text is there's a guy, this former pagan, this Gentile, whose heart is evidently stirred enough to go to Jerusalem to seek out God.

And even on the way home from going to seek out God, he's got his scriptures open, and he's trying to make sense of it and understand who this God is. At one point, you and I were probably in that position. And then God did the same thing He probably did to you and I, He sent someone to explain it.

He sent someone to explain what this text meant. So he's reading Isaiah. I don't know why he's reading Isaiah, but he's reading Isaiah.

Isaiah 56: God's House of Prayer for Eunuchs and the Nations 10:54

And if you read Isaiah, if you actually go a few chapters advance of 53, if you go to Isaiah 56, there's actually a text that speaks to foreign eunuchs. And I'll bet he encountered that as he was reading. Let me briefly read that passage. In Isaiah 56 — foreign eunuchs — it says this: Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The Lord has utterly separated me from His people.

Nor let the eunuch say, Here I am, a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths and choose what pleases Me and hold My covenants, even to them I will give My house and within My walls a place and a name that's better than of sons and daughters.

I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also, the sons of the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds My covenant, even them I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. In Isaiah 56, you see this text that talks about eunuchs, and it talks also about the foreigners. It talks about God's plan for the nations. If you have been reading that — you're this foreign pagan eunuch, and you're reading this text — isn't it possible you saw yourself in that?

And then you're thumbing around. You go back a couple chapters. They didn't have chapters in the conventional sense at that time, but you go back to what we would call Isaiah 53, and all of a sudden, you read this text about this one, about this figure, not a nation, but about a figure, this one who would be like this lamb, led silent to the slaughter.

You're reading this text, and you're trying to figure out, who is this guy? Who is this guy in this text? And you're thinking it aloud, and you're confused, and you're curious about that. The eunuch was curious, and at that moment of his peak curiosity, God sends him a man with the answer.

The Lamb Led Silent to the Slaughter 12:49

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”

— Acts 8:32-33 (NKJV)

Let's see what Philip says, how he explains who this man is in Isaiah 53, as we look at verses 30 through 33 of our text. Verse 30, so Philip ran to him, and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and he said, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me, unless someone was to teach me?

And he asked Philip, come up here, come up and sit with me. The place in the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before His shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation, His justice was taken away and who will declare His generation for His life is taken from the earth.

All right, verse 30. Philip, you know, God has sent him in the desert, hears this caravan of foreigners. He goes, approaches, and as he's approaching, he hears the most familiar words, words he might not have expected to hear from an Ethiopian caravan. But he hears the words, the familiar words of the prophet Isaiah.

And then he approaches, he approaches the caravan, and he looks the gentleman in the face, and he asks him a question.

A Lion, Not a Lamb: Why Israel Rejected the Suffering Messiah 13:57

He says, Do you understand what it is that you're reading? Now, the short answer is no, he didn't understand. As we said before, that was common. 99.9% of the contemporary Israelites in that day didn't understand who this text was talking about.

Again, when the Jews thought about the Messiah, they didn't think about no suffering servant. They didn't think about someone who's going to come and suffer and die. They didn't think about a Messiah who would show up and, within three years of His public ministry, be slaughtered and crucified. That's not the Messiah that the Jews were looking for then.

It's not the Messiah that the Jews are looking for now. That is one of the gravest errors that has ever been made with a person and work of Jesus Christ — is that Israelites, who should have known better, who had this text before them, rejected what that text said because they didn't want that guy.

What did they want in the time of Jesus? What they wanted was not a suffering servant. They didn't want a lamb. They wanted a lion.

They wanted one who would ride into town, at the head of his own chariot, come into Jerusalem, and stomp upon Rome, stomp upon the Roman centurions, the empire, evict Rome, so to speak, usher in the days of milk and honey. For people that, in fairness to them, were oppressed greatly, it's modestly understandable that they wanted someone to come in and save them from that oppression.

But here's the thing. There was one coming to save them from oppression. There was one coming to save them from what bound them. But what bound them was something far greater than Rome.

What bound them was sin and death. So they had a false understanding of who the Messiah would be and what He would do. And when the real Messiah showed up, they killed Him. That again is the context.

And because that's the context, it's no wonder that the people of that age looked at Isaiah 53 and said, Well, don't know who this is. On to the next chapter. But here, God stops this Ethiopian individual and stops Philip short to drive them to this text in order to answer the very important question, who is the Messiah and what did He come to do?

Who is this one who would be stricken and smitten and afflicted and the like? Who is this one? The Ethiopian eunuch wanted to know, and in God's providence, Philip was there with the answer.

Philip Preached Jesus: The Old Testament Points to Christ 16:12

Let's see the answer as we look at verses 34 and 35. Verse 34: So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? He had just read Isaiah 53 and he says, Hey, who is he talking about here?

Who's this guy who's going to suffer and pay this penalty? Who is he? Is he talking about himself or someone else? You notice here, he's not talking about a nation or a corporate number of people.

That's not really how you would ever read this text. He reads it rightly. He understands it's a singular person. The problem is he doesn't know who the person is.

And so he says, You, you there, come sit with me. Tell me, who is this talking about? And then verse 35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, beginning right here in Isaiah chapter 53, he preached Jesus to him. All right, so verse 34, you at the open ask, who is this text talking about?

And if you're an evangelist like Philip, that's like putting it up on a T. Can you imagine? In Philip's mind, he was like, Oh my, he could not have asked me a better question from a better text. That's like putting it up on a T. And because Philip loved to talk Jesus, imagine his heart just got, you know, big and he's all excited.

You know, we love to talk about things that are near and dear to us. You know, if I talked to my good friend, Pastor Fish, and I talked about Jesus, he loves talking about Jesus. If I talked about Alabama football, he also loves talking about Alabama football. The point is this: that the things that we enjoy in life, the things that we're passionate about, that we're excited about, whatever it might be, we tend to get enthusiastic when it comes up as a conversation point.

Well, here in the middle of the desert, the greatest conversation point that Philip could ever ask for, the greatest debarkation point to sharing the gospel came up. It was put up like a T. Philip steps up to it and says, I'm going to hit this out of the park. And that's exactly what he does.

That's what happens. He begins to share about Jesus. Now, we don't have a record in this text of exactly what he said, exactly how he explained it. What we know is that he did explain it.

He did explain who Jesus was, and he used the Old Testament scriptures to do it. Again, if you want to share the gospel with someone, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's hard to go wrong with any of that. You can go to the New Testament and find Jesus throughout, but the Old Testament also points to Jesus, and that's what he utilized.

Faith and Baptism: The Sign and Seal of the Covenant 18:31

All right, let's see what happens next. After these words sink in, after these words convict the Ethiopian individual of both his sins and his need for Jesus, let's see what happens in verse 36 and 37. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water.

What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, then you may. And he answered and said, I do believe, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You know, over the centuries, many foreigners had come to Israel, and coming from outside of Israel, they had come to faith in Israel's God.

Ruth is a great example. Ruth was from where, Nadia? Moab. Ruth of Moabites.

Well, she came to faith, you know, through her mother-in-law's faith, Naomi's faith — she came to faith in the God of Israel and was engrafted into the people. Not only was she engrafted into the people, she was engrafted into the very family line of Jesus. With that said, others from the pagan nations had been engrafted and come to faith in Israel's God over the years as well.

And there was a practice that was done over the centuries, which is what's called proselyte baptism. Proselyte baptism. And that differs from the baptism that we see and understand in this regard. Proselyte baptism was when someone who was coming from a pagan nation chose to trust and believe in Israel's God.

They would then undergo a baptism in order to wash them of their prior beliefs, doctrines, and the whole lot. It was the idea of coming afresh to Yahweh, to Jehovah. So proselyte baptism is how foreigners were routinely baptized in coming to faith in Israel's God. It was not an overtly biblical practice, but it was what they did in the Old Testament across many centuries.

So with that said, this eunuch, he says, I do believe. Philip, thank you. I do believe. Hey, water.

How timely. Think of all the providence that's going on here. The amount of providence that's going on is just incredible. Water — at just the very moment he determines this desire to undergo baptism.

And it's possible that he was talking about baptism in the line of how people had been baptized as proselytes. But that's probably not the baptism that Philip had in mind. And in truth, it probably was not the baptism that this Ethiopian had in mind either after listening to Philip. It's more likely that at this point that Philip had unpacked not only the gospel, but the sign and the seal of faith, and the sign and seal being engrafted into God's covenant community, covenant family, which is baptism.

And it's perhaps even at that very moment that the eunuch says, Stop the presses, stop the caravans, there's water, let's go and get this done. Now, is this by necessity a precedent by which all baptisms have to be conducted the same way? There are some who would look at this text and say, all baptisms anywhere have to be conducted in the same way.

An individual has to become mature and come to faith and then profess the faith, and then they can be baptized only at that juncture. Well, we would not say that it is precedent-setting — it is precedent-setting for all baptisms everywhere — but it is precedent-setting for baptisms of this nature. It is precedent-setting when a mature individual comes to an understanding and a saving faith of Jesus Christ, for them then to be baptized.

So, in that sense, that precedent is 100% biblical. You'll find it in the Baptist world. You'll find it in Presbyterian world and elsewhere.

Caught Away by the Spirit: The Miraculous Framing of One Conversion 21:54

All right, let's see what happens next in verses 38 through 40. Verse 38, and so he commanded the chariot to stand still, and there probably was more than one. He probably had other people watching him. His Ethiopian friends and colleagues are like, what's going on here?

Why is he doing this? So, he stops the chariot and both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, verse 38, and Philip baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so 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. All right, as we said in verse 38, Philip and eunuch go down into a nearby river, pool, body of water of some sort. And after the baptism, after the eunuch is baptized in the water, something fascinating occurs. The spirit of the Lord catches Philip away.

We don't know what that looks like, but it was shocking. The guy comes up out of the water. Hey, where's Philip? Well, Philip's gone.

Just as God sent him to this area in the desert for this purpose, once the purpose was complete for which he was sent, God took him and moved him elsewhere. So that's what we see here. But He did so in the most fascinating way. You think Philip could have just said, all right, it's been real.

I'll see you. Look me up when you're in town. I mean, that would have been how we'd handle it. But instead, he's just transported away to a completely different area.

As we said before, that's not the norm. Even in this day and age, that was not the norm at all. In this particular case, it's filled, this chapter 8 is filled with kind of miraculous things that are outside of that which is the norm. Remember, you have the angel that spoke to Philip back in verse 26.

You have the eunuch's timely study of Isaiah 53 at the very time that Philip rolls up. Then you have in verse 39, Philip being caught up by the Spirit. Why would God need or ordain all of these circumstances to save one foreigner in the desert? Short answer is we don't know.

We don't know exactly why He did this, and we don't know the benefits thereof. We know that this man came to saving faith. So praise God for that. We don't know what that man then did.

We don't know if he became a Philip to others in his community. We don't know the ministry he went on to have. We don't know how many were saved by virtue of his testimony. We don't know.

The Doctrine of Divine Appointments and Sovereign Providence 24:21

But God knew exactly why He was saving this individual and for the purposes that He was doing so. With that said, let me suggest something for us as we wrap up this morning. In today's text, we've seen — we'll use the phrase divine appointments — divine appointments. It's a fancy way of saying that God is a God of providence, that God is a sovereign God who decrees the end from the beginning.

But we'll say divine appointments. Well, in today's text, we have seen a whopper of a divine appointment, and we can stand back and go, Well, isn't it fascinating how God worked back then? If that's what you think, let me stop, let me stop you for a moment. If you're a Christian, do you have any idea how many divine appointments God has ushered and brought into your life — do you have any idea?

You don't. But if you knew, if you knew how many miracles God had wrought over the years just to keep you upright and breathing, if you knew how many times He'd intervened in your story, if you knew how many times He had sent people to minister to you at the right time and a time of need, if you knew how many times He appointed you to be in the right place when you heard words that you needed to hear, if you knew how many times He had safeguarded you against harm, if you knew how many times He had hedged you in against that which would otherwise destroy you, if you knew how many times divine appointments had been set in your own life, you would be overwhelmed by the grace and the care and the provision — miraculous provision — that God has had for you.

And this text would not stand out as starkly as it does if you knew, if you knew all that God has done. If you could see your own life's history through spiritual eyes, if you could see how many times, how many ways God has ordained exactly what you needed in the time in which you needed it, even if you didn't reflect it at that time, you would see that your own testimony, if it was recorded and provided to the rest of us, if we knew collectively your testimony and all that God has done in your life, all that He might be doing right now, we would all stand back and go, Nothing short of miracles, nothing short of miracles.

God's providential finger — we can't trace it through our lives right now. We don't have that. We're not up at 10,000 feet to be able to do it. But someday, someday we will, when we're on the other side of that veil.

Right now we see darkly, remember? When we're on the other side of the veil, we'll see clearly. And at that time, we may look at our own life and say, Oh my goodness, there is a confluence of providence, a confluence of miracles, a confluence of divine appointments. I never recognized it in the moment I was having them, but praise God.

Praise God that this is how He has acted.

From the Eunuch to Philip: Called to Share the Gospel 26:59

Someday you'll recognize that, just like the Ethiopian eunuch. One point in your life, you were in the desert too. At one point in your life, just like the Ethiopian eunuch, you were in the desert as well. And then someone somewhere, maybe a collection of someone somewhere was sent by God to teach the gospel to you.

May it was a family, a parent, a neighbor, a co-worker, or pastor, elder, deacon, what have you. But God looked at you when you were in the desert of your life and determined that you would be His. And so He sent someone. We all started off as the Ethiopian eunuch.

We're all called to end like Philip. We all start like the Ethiopian eunuch in desperate need that someone sow the seeds of faith in our heart, that the spirit might water them, that we might grow. We all started like the eunuch, but we're all called to end like Philip, sharing the gospel with those that God has put in our path.

Let's pray.