Reading: Acts 8:26-40.
In this
simple but instructive incident we have three parties. We
have the Ethiopian, the Holy Spirit, and the human
instrument, Philip. The incident falls into the compass
of our present meditation in this Conference concerning
spiritual sight.
The
Ethiopian
(a) A
Confessedly Blind Seeker
When we
look at this Ethiopian, we at once see a blind seeker.
Though religious, though moving in the circle of long
standing and well-established religious tradition, though
having been to Jerusalem, to the temple, to the very
headquarters, he is still blind, still a blind seeker.
That is quite clear from the questions he put to Philip
about the Scriptures of those with whom he was
associated, and their prophets. "How can I
understand, except some one shall guide me?"
"Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or
of some other?" He is manifestly a man in the dark,
a man without spiritual sight, the eyes of his heart have
not been enlightened; but the hopeful thing about him is
that he is a confessedly blind man.
(b) A
Humble Seeker
He was a
very important man in this world, a man of considerable
responsibility and influence and standing, and because of
his position he might well have hedged things a bit. When
challenged about his reading, he might have evaded the
point or pointedness of the question and have given some
kind of evasive non-committal answer. You know how people
do who do not like to be thought ignorant, especially if
they are people who are regarded as being of some
standing, who have a position to keep up. This man, with
all that he was amongst men on this earth, was a
confessedly blind man. Without any hedging or evasion, he
answers the question quite directly and honestly and
frankly. ‘Do I understand what I am reading? Well,
how can I except someone teach me?’ Then, in his
openness, he pressed further for information, for
explanation, for enlightenment. "Of whom speaketh
the prophet?"
Now, that
is very simple, I know, but it is fundamental. It is
fundamental to any kind of spiritual understanding, it is
basic to all spiritual knowledge, it governs every degree
of progress in spiritual things. The humility of this
great man is the key to the whole story. He does not seek
to give the impression that he knows what he does not
know, to lead another to think that he understands when
he does not understand; he starts right from the place
where he truly and really was. He knew in his own heart
that he did not understand and he gave no other
impression, but let it be known that was exactly where he
was, and that gave a fully opened way to the Lord. May it
not be it was this that the Lord had seen long before and
upon which He was acting all the time? He knew that He
had a perfectly honest and humble man in the dark seeking
light, and He could move sovereignly in wonderful ways
over considerable distances and take some momentous
steps; for these were momentous steps that were taken by
the Lord in order to meet that life. You see what such a
state of heart makes possible from the Lord’s side,
how much the Lord is prepared to do when He finds a heart
like that. A blind man seeking light, but confessedly
blind, and so it is not long before he is an enlightened
seeker: for the Lord did not leave such a man in the
dark; He gave him the light he was seeking.
And may we
not say the Lord gave him a great deal more than he was
seeking; for I do not think we should be adding anything
to the story if we said that, when he went on his way
rejoicing, he felt that he had got a great deal more than
he had set out to get. It is always like that. When the
Lord does a thing, He does it properly. As Mr. Spurgeon
said, My cup runneth over, and my saucer also! When the
Lord does a thing, He does it well. The man went on with
a full and overflowing cup, an enlightened seeker. He had
come to see what all the religious leaders of his day
were not seeking, and were incapable of showing him.
(c) A
Seeker Who Meant Business with God
But the
enlightenment that came to him brought with it a fresh
challenge, as it always does. Every bit of new light
coming from the Lord carries with it a fresh challenge, a
challenge to some practical obedience. Now I am not going
to stay to deal with a most interesting, and, I think, a
most profitable detail of the whole story, but let us
note it. Isaiah 53 brought Christ into view and Philip
preached from that scripture Jesus, and the very next
thing we strike right up against is, "Here is water;
what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Now, you have
to do some filling in there, if you are to see how that
arises with Isaiah 53. I leave you with that. Do not pass
it over: you think about it. All I am going to say is
that the revelation which came to the man then, the
enlightenment of his eyes, brought with it a challenge to
obedience, and this enlightened seeker was not
disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but was swift to
meet the challenge, quick to run in the way of His
command, unhesitant in obedience to the light that had
come. So far as the thing itself is concerned, all is
very simple; but that is the substance of things. We see
a man passing from darkness to light. We see a man
passing from a quest to a heart-ravishing knowledge. We
see a man fumbling, changed into a man who has a firm
grasp, a man whose heart is disappointed changed into one
who goes on his way rejoicing, and the two things which
from his side make that possible are an utter humility,
in that he makes no bones at all about his ignorance and
does not feign to know more than he does know, and his
swift obedience to light coming to him. You have to say
about this man, Here is an honest heart.
And that is
how God deals with honest people. They get light and they
get joy.
Before we
leave him, let us say of him that he is clearly a man who
means business. I like this man in his intentness upon
knowing and doing. He is right on the mark. All the
enervating effect of his Ethiopian climate had not robbed
him of spiritual energy. He rose above that, he meant
business with God. No element of compromise, excuse, or
anything like that at all is found in him. He was simply
set upon knowing, if it could be known, and doing
whatever there was to be done when enlightened.
Well, to
the man who is bent on thus knowing and coming into
things, God is going to show Himself of the same kind.
God is to us what we are to Him. God will be debtor to no
man, and if you and I really mean business with God and
are going right out for all that God has for us, all that
God wants us to have and to know, and are not going to
take on any airs but get right down to the level where we
really and genuinely are, in all humility, and we mean
that whatever the Lord shows us we are going to do it by
His grace without any hesitation, we shall find that, in
the long run, God is not going to be our debtor, but He
will meet us to the full. This man’s story is given immortal record. It comes in the Acts of the Holy
Ghost, and when you come to ask the question, Why is
this man included in the record and his story handed down
from age to age to last as long as time? The answer is
just what we have said: he was a man who meant business
with God, was open to the Lord, honest in heart, humble
in spirit, and obedient to the light that he had.
The
Holy Spirit
(a) The
Ground He Requires
Well, then,
the second party in the story is the Holy Spirit, and a
brief word only needs to be said. Of course, in reality
He was the first party in the whole business, but I
mention Him second here because it is perhaps more
helpful to examine the incident in this order. The Holy
Spirit was aware of such a man, and the Holy Spirit is
always aware of such a man. There is a sense in which an
Ethiopian must go before the Holy Spirit. You understand
what I mean by that. Before the Holy Spirit can really do
His work, He must have something upon which to do it that
meets His requirements, and the Holy Spirit was cognizant
of this man, of his quest and of his heart, and the Holy
Spirit is always aware of such people as to where they
are.
(b) How
He is Hindered
I think
there is a very big story hanging upon a statement like
that. If we did but know it, a lot of our problems are
solved by understanding that. There is the big question
which is always confronting us as to why is it that some
leap into the light and go on, and others do not, but
always lag behind, and never seem to see any more? Is it
that there is a selectiveness on the part of God, a kind
of elect of the elect that He has, is it that He has
favourites? I do not think so. I think a great part of
the answer lies here, namely, in what God finds He has to
deal with, whether people mean business with Him or not,
whether He has a clear way or not, whether the ground is
occupied or not already by that which is an obstruction
to Him. I do not think anybody will fail to get all the
light the Lord wants them to have if they really do mean
business with God. The Holy Spirit knows us. He looks
right deep down into our hearts and knows whether we mean
business. He sees exactly what there is to hinder Him and
how far He can go; for the Lord is not going to coerce
anyone. If we are taken up with ourselves, occupied with
ourselves, circling round ourselves, centering in
ourselves, then the Holy Spirit has not a chance. We have
to come to an end of ourselves. That is the trouble with
so many. They have got a self-complex set up, and all the
time it is a continuous going round in a circle and
coming back to the same point at which they started, and
it is all round themselves, and they are wearing
themselves out. Before long they are going to have an
awful crash that involves all that for which they are
supposed to stand and represent for the Lord, and it will
come down with them. The Holy Spirit has not a clear way.
We have to get out of the way, so far as this
self-occupation is concerned, if we are going to move
straight on, and to go on. He knows exactly where we are,
whether we are tied up in them that we are not open to
the Lord to consider any further light at all. We have
got it all, or our people with whom we are associated
have got it all, and we are a part of that! You know what
I mean. The Holy Spirit cannot do much with folk who are
in a position like that; and He knows. His attitude is,
It is no use, I cannot do much there, they are too tied
up. But, if we are prepared to put everything into the
water, then the Lord can go on and get a clear way.
The Holy
Spirit knows. He knows you and He knows me. He knows us a
great deal better than we know ourselves. We may have
thought that we meant business and have been praying very
much a long time and crying to the Lord to do something,
while the Holy Spirit knows quite well that we are not at
an end of ourselves and our own interests yet. Something
more has to be done to bring us to despair before He can
do what He wants. But He knows: that is the point; and He
knew this man, that He had not got a great deal to do
to make a start with every prospect of a clear way, and
He took the opportunity presented, and He was able to act
sovereignly. He did that in order to meet this need.
The
Human Instrument
Now I do
not want to take very much time, so I pass to the third
of the three, the human instrument, Philip, the means by
which, on the one hand, the blind seeker would have his
eyes opened, and by which, on the other hand, the Holy
Spirit will be able to accomplish His work. We all want
to be in that position where really honest, genuine,
business-meaning men and women can find what they are
after through our instrumentality if God so will, and, on
the other hand, where the Holy Spirit can find in us a
vessel to hand where He sees such a need. Surely there is
nothing we would desire more than that, just to be as
Philip was.
But even in
Philip’s case, it was not that he was an automatic
bit of machinery, something taken up willy-nilly. There
were things about Philip which constituted the ground for
the Lord; very, very simple matters, and yet not such as
are so easy in practical life and outworking.
Philip was
at the disposal of the Holy Spirit, and that without any
question, and when you look, you see that that meant
something in his case. Philip was down there in Samaria.
Many were turning to the Lord, a great work of grace was
going on, so great a work that they had to send down
apostles from Jerusalem to deal with the situation; and
Philip was the chief instrument in that work in the first
place. Now when you are right in the thing like that, and
the Lord suddenly says, "Now, Philip, I want you to
leave all this and go down by the way that is desert; I
will not tell you why, I will not tell you what I am
going to do, I simply say, go to the desert", a man
might have big questions. He might have said, But Lord,
what about this? But, Lord, look at this big door of
opportunity, look what I am doing, what I am in! What
will happen here if I leave it? Many questions like that
might have arisen. He could have had serious reservations
and put them in the way of the Lord. But we do not read
of anything like that. The Lord simply said it, and
Philip was so much at the disposal of the Lord that,
without any questions, he moved. What a tremendous thing
it is to be free for the Lord, free to the Lord, to be so
much at the Lord’s disposal that it is not difficult
at all to leave anything, to adjust ourselves to an
altogether new situation, if the Lord says it. It is a
great thing. So Philip was at the Lord’s disposal,
and that is a big factor in a work like this of bringing
sight to blind seekers, and being, not only the answer to
man’s need, but the answer to the need of the Holy
Spirit; at the Lord’s disposal and unhesitating in
response to the Lord’s suggestion; no delay, but a
swift answer. "The Lord has said it, let us get on
with it and leave the responsibility with Him."
It turned
out all right, it was quite a safe thing to do. Now, the
Lord never does explain Himself in advance. The Lord
never does tell us ahead how it is going to work out and
what He is going to do. He always presents us with a
challenge to faith in Him. All His requirements carry
with them plenty of opportunities for arguing if you are
so disposed; plenty of occasions, humanly speaking, of
question. The one who knows the Spirit knows well that
the vindication will come along the line of swift
obedience.
Well now,
that is the story; simple, beautiful, but containing
vital principles of enlightenment. If you want to see
people go on, these are the things which the Lord
requires. If you want to go on, these are the things
which lie behind all real going on, all leaping into
light, into knowledge, in the greater fulness of the
Lord.
Well, look
again at this man. It is a great story. You know that the
Bible holds up Ethiopia as a type of darkness: but here
is the darkness changed to the light, the full blaze of
the noonday; for Christ is that: and that is the basis on
which it is done, namely, a heart that is frank, humble,
purposeful, and honest in its search.
I do not
know what the Lord may be saying to you, but for us all
the pivot of the whole matter is, Here is water! I am not
saying that baptism is the pivot, but I am saying that it
is represented by baptism. Are we ready for everything to
go into the grave? Have we something we are holding on
to; our position, our reputation, our status and all
that, or is it all going into the grave? The Lord here
has a man who does not say, "Is it necessary for me
to be baptized; must I? Of course, if the Lord requires
it, I will seek grace;" but a man who says,
"Here it is, what doth hinder?" That is another
angle altogether. Tell me anything that hinders and I
will deal with it! Get that kind of spirit. ‘If you
can show me anything that hinders my going on in the way
that the Lord indicates, then I will deal with it. What
does He want, Philip? Can you tell me of any
hindrance?’ Philip found no hindrance, but
everything to help. Both went down together and Philip
baptized him. The Lord just put into our hearts the
meaning of that and give us to be good Ethiopians in this
spiritual sense.