BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST: NO ONE LEFT BEHIND
Acts 8:26–40 Pastor Calvary deJong
May 11th, 2025
Introduction: Loitering with Gospel Intention
When I started in campus ministry, I asked my national coordinator how to best connect with students. His advice? “Don’t sit in your office — get out on campus and loiter with intent.” I laughed at first. Loitering usually brings to mind teens hanging out by a convenience store. But he meant something deeper: loitering with gospel intention — being present, attentive, and open to the Spirit’s leading to serve others in Jesus’ name. That idea stuck with me. And it’s exactly what Philip does in Acts 8. The Spirit doesn’t send him to a stadium of seekers but to a single man on a desert road — someone who had long wondered if there was a place for someone like him. The eunuch wasn’t just curious; his background, body, and beliefs had left him on the margins. Yet the Spirit was already working in both lives — prompting Philip to go and stirring the eunuch to seek. All Philip had to do was show up and sit beside him.
1. The Spirit Sends Us from the Crowd to the One - (Acts 8:26–29)
Philip is in the middle of a thriving ministry in Samaria when God calls him away — not to more crowds, but to a quiet desert road. Not to many, but to one. It’s a reminder that the gospel doesn’t depend on crowds. It flourishes in conversation. It moves through everyday people who listen and obey the Spirit’s promptings. We often think in terms of reach and numbers. But God’s mission moves at the speed of relationship. He chooses presence over spectacle — sending us to the one, not just the many.
2. The Gospel Meets People Where They Are - (Acts 8:30–33)
The Ethiopian eunuch is a person of status — educated and influential — yet still an outsider:
•Racially distinct — a Black African from Ethiopia.
•Physically altered — a eunuch, likely castrated for royal service.
•Religiously excluded — barred from entering the temple’s inner courts.
Though he had gone to Jerusalem to worship, he remained on the edges. On his way home, he’s reading Isaiah 53 — a passage about one cut off, denied justice, left without descendants. It mirrors his own story of exclusion. And he’s reading not the Hebrew Scriptures but the Septuagint — the Greek translation commonly used by outsiders. He hears God’s Word not in the language of the temple, but in a language he understands.
That’s the beauty of the gospel. God doesn’t wait for us to change our language, culture, or condition. He meets us where we are — and speaks in the language of our lives.
3. Jesus Is the Suffering Servant Who Makes Us Family - (Acts 8:34–38)
When the eunuch asks, “Who is the prophet talking about?” Philip shares the good news of Jesus.
Jesus, too, was cut off. He bore shame. He died without descendants — yet through His resurrection, He became the firstborn of a new family. For the eunuch — a man with no lineage, no children, and no temple access — this is deeply personal. Because Jesus was excluded, I can be included. Because He died without a family, I can belong to one. Then the eunuch sees water and says, “What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” The answer is simple: nothing. The barriers are gone. And so, he is baptized — a visible sign of his welcome into God’s family.
Application: Widening the Circle
This story invites us to widen the circle. We live in a diverse city where people carry stories and identities that don’t always fit our categories. Acts 8 reminds us: people don’t need to fit before they’re met. As a church, we’re called to stay rooted in our identity while remaining radically open in posture. RJC offers a powerful example. For much of its history, it was a Mennonite school for Mennonite families. But as fewer families enrolled their children, the school had to ask: What if we opened our doors wider — not by leaving our roots, but by reimagining our reach?
Today, RJC is an Anabaptist school for the world. Students come from across the globe — many with no faith background — and are encountering Jesus in community. RJC didn’t lose its identity. It clarified its mission. That’s our calling, too.
Questions to Consider:
•Who are the spiritual outsiders in your life?
•Who needs someone to walk beside them?
•What barriers — theological, cultural, or relational — can we help lower?
The Spirit still sends us — not just to the familiar, but to the forgotten. Will we follow?
Reflection: What Stands in the Way?
The eunuch asks, “What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” For most of his life, the answer had been: everything — his race, his body, his religious status. But in Jesus, those walls come down. Maybe you’ve asked the same question. Maybe you’ve stood on the edge of faith, unsure if there’s room for you. The gospel answer is clear: because of Jesus nothing stands in the way anymore.
Gospel Invitation: A New Family, A New Name
In Isaiah 56, God promises: “To the eunuchs who keep my covenant… I will give them a name better than sons and daughters — an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” That promise is fulfilled in Jesus. Baptism is not a box to check. It’s an invitation to belong — to be named, known, and welcomed into the family of God. If you believe Jesus is the Suffering Servant and risen Lord — who died for your sin and rose to give you new life — and you’ve never been baptized, come. The invitation is open. Jesus still welcomes outsiders. And He still sends insiders to find them. And when they meet Him — they never walk away the same.
Prayer of Response
Lord Jesus, thank You for welcoming those the world often leaves out. Thank You for meeting us where we are and calling us into Your family. Help us to follow Your Spirit to those who feel forgotten. Make us a church that widens the circle, just like You do.
Amen.