Acts 8:36, 38 NIVUK
[36] As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?’
[38] And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.
We are now moving into some very controversial territory indeed.
We are about to examine how to handle Biblically and in a loving manner one of the most delicate and sensitive situations in modern Western culture. This issue is so controversial that many pastors are afraid to speak of it in the pulpit in case their churches are attacked or even closed down.
It is an area where there is a lot of hurt and pain. Much of this hurt has been caused by apparently well-meaning people; some of it by those whose intentions were less good, and who had a political or philosophical axe to grind; some of it – and it will do us no good not to be open and honest here – has been caused by so-called Christians.
This hot and very sensitive topic is this:
How does the church handle the issue of modern day eunuchs?
At the moment, they are a tiny minority. Highly vocal, but a minority all the same.
However, the openness and acceptance in our culture to this phenomena that turns people into the modern equivalent of a eunuch (I recently heard from someone in an HR department that the existence of more than one hundred possible ‘genders’ has been recognised) means that we will come across more and more young people who are gender confused, and some who have even undergone surgical or chemical treatment to ‘change’ their gender.
So how should we deal with this?
Firstly, I acknowledge, as a heterosexual male from a previous generation, that I struggle with many of these changes to gender politics.
Secondly, I align myself with those who are ‘gender critical’ and believe in the existence of only two genders: male and female. This belief is profoundly Biblical (Genesis 1:27). Having read and studied the Bible for forty-five years, I have yet to come across any Biblical verses that recognise any more than two genders.
Before I proceed, I should remind me that being gender critical is regarded as a protected philosophical belief in my country.
Thirdly, though, I believe that gender dysphoria exists. I believe it is a very, very difficult condition. I acknowledge the suffering of those who have it. At no time will I diminish that suffering, even if I have never experienced it myself.
But, fourthly, I do not believe it is at all possible to change gender, even through surgery or hormone replacement.
However, I am aware that there are some people who do not agree with me.
The word ‘eunochos’ in Greek didn’t just mean men who'd had their sex organs removed. It also referred to men who were not able to bear children because of birth or hereditary defects, or men who had chosen not to have children for religious reasons.
I see no reasons why this Greek word could not refer to women too.
I see other ways in which elements of our culture seem utterly determined to create more eunuchs.
For example, the aggressive Incel subculture, where men who feel rejected by women gather together to share their bitterness and anger. Which, ironically, makes them less appealing to women and increases their bitterness and anger.
There are whispers that a female equivalent of this subculture – Femcels – has also come into existence.
There are also those who choose not to have children for ecological reasons, and look with disdain on those who do.
And, of course, there are those who become eunuchs for religious reasons.
These are trends which might seem ‘out there’ and on the extremes of our society, but thanks to the internet, can be beamed into our homes at any time.
The church needs to be better prepared for these modern-day eunuchs.
It is a blessing, then, that we have a meeting with one of them in Scripture that we can learn from.
So let’s start by noting that he was A Foreign Man.
A Foreign Man
Acts 8:26-28 NIVUK
[26] Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ [27] So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, [28] and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet.
I have often been to tourist attractions that have either asked to see my ID as proof of nationality or have simply increased their entry price based on the colour of my skin, because I was obviously not a local.
At first, I found it quite discriminatory – something that would never be tolerated in my home country. But I came to realise that actually I was the one paying the real price: the locals were simply being given a discount because without it they would not be able to afford to visit the attraction.
This man’s experience was a little similar to mine, only way, way worse.
This man has travelled very far. Ethiopia then occupied much of the Upper Nile region. This would have meant a perilous journey either across the Red Sea by boat or the desert of the Sinai Peninsula on land. From his return journey, it looks like the land option seems the more likely. He would have been exposed to the extreme heat and rugged terrain of the desert and the risk of bands of robbers and raiders.
We can see that he was a man of some standing. He was riding a chariot. Since he was reading, although the Bible doesn’t mention it, he would likely have had at least a charioteer with him, as it would have been close to impossible to control the chariot while reading a scroll.
But nothing of his standing or his power, his influence or his wealth, could have prepared him for what he would have faced at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Because this man was a foreigner – almost certainly visibly so. The Greek word used in the Bible implies that he was both from Ethiopia and black. He could not in any way, shape or form have passed for an ethnic Jew.
Due to his race, regardless of whether or not he was a convert to Judaism (again, the Bible is silent about this), he could only have entered the Temple as far as the Court of the Gentiles.
Now, what had happened in the Court of the Gentiles while Jesus walked the earth is something that should disgust us:
Mark 11:15-17 NIVUK
[15] On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, [16] and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. [17] And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’
John 2:13-16 NIVUK
[13] When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [14] In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. [15] So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. [16] To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’
There seemed to have been some form of collusion between the Temple authorities and the traders selling sacrifices and changing money which allowed them to carry out their noisy, and in some cases, dirty, trade inside the Temple precinct.
Could you imagine being in church and trying to worship while currency traders yelled the latest conversion rates of various currencies to the Shekel, or while sheep bleated and doves and pigeons cooed and flitted their wings, while their traders shouted their prices and concluded deals, not to mention the ever-present, and somewhat pungent, smell of animal dung?
That was what it would have been like for Gentiles to worship before Jesus cleared the Temple.
Do we really think it was any different when the Ethiopian eunuch visited the Temple? Do we not think that, after Jesus had driven the traders out, they just waited until after He had gone and went right back in there?
I’m guessing that if TripAdvisor had been around then, the reviews of the Temple would have made for interesting reading. It was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, but its experience for Gentiles would have been exceptionally poor and disappointing.
And not even this man’s standing or his wealth or power or money could have changed this.
As far as the Jews at the time was concerned, he was a foreigner. An alien.
Let me tell you, he was not alone:
Ephesians 2:11-13 NIVUK
[11] Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human hands) – [12] remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
It is not his nationality or his skin colour that made him a stranger to the grace of God. After all, even Jews with full birth-right were often strangers to grace.
No, it was his sin.
And since Christ had paid the price for his sin, he could draw near to God.
This is a core truth every Christian must understand. Our past does not bring us closer to God. Our history in the church does not bring us closer to God. Our politics do not bring us closer to God. Our ethnicity certainly does not bring us closer to God.
Only Jesus Christ does.
Romans 3:22-24 NIVUK
[22] This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Outside of Christ, we stand condemned with the very worst of sinners.
In Christ, we are saved.
So before we stand in judgement on anyone – anyone at all – we must remember that the same grace that saved us can and will save them, if they want it.
In the Gospel, we all stand on equal ground.
However we might want it to be otherwise.
And do you know something else? The Court of the Gentiles, which the Jews of Jesus’ area had turned into some kind of currency exchange and wet market, was not part of God’s design.
Exodus 25, 26 and 27 describe the setting up of the Tabernacle. Ezekiel 40, 41 and 42 describe the restoration of the Temple after the Exile. If you read these six chapters, you will notice that there is no mention of either the Court of the Gentiles or the Court of the Women. There is just the Courtyard, where the people worshipped, the Holy Place, where the priests worshipped, and the Most Holy Place, where the High Priest entered once a year on the Day of Atonement.
The division that kept both women and Gentiles outside of the main body of the Temple was entirely man made.
It was not from God.
So God left a door ajar for men like this Ethiopian to enter. Men closed and locked it. Grace blew it off its hinges.
Hallelujah!
But there is more. His situation is worse than we think. Man-made rules didn’t just rule him out of worship in the noisy, chaotic and smelly Court of the Gentiles, it also ruled him out of worship altogether, because he was not just a foreign man, he was also A Damaged Man.
A Damaged Man
Acts 8:27-29 NIVUK
[27] So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, [28] and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. [29] The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’
This man was powerful. He served the Queen of a very rich empire. He himself would have been rich and very influential.
Yet there is one place he could not go:
The Temple.
Deuteronomy 23:1 NIVUK
[1] No-one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
All that journey, all that travel, all that hardship, all that danger, only to reach Jerusalem and to find that, if he is honest about who he is, the Temple door will be slammed shut in his face.
Do you know what the worst part of this is?
He probably didn’t have a choice.
Back in those days, males in charge of females within royal palaces were often emasculated – sometimes by force – to ensure the safety of the women in their care. These men were usually slaves, either due to debt or capture in times of war. They were already destitute. They had no agency. They could not get out of the situation.
And then they were emasculated.
I'm sure many men are wincing as they read this. The prospect horrifies us.
So this man, damaged so he can serve others, came to Jerusalem to seek God, and found out that he could not enter the place where God is worshipped.
Somehow, likely due to his substantial wealth, he at least procured a Hebrew scroll to read on the long journey home (no in-flight entertainment those days). After what was no doubt a disappointing trip to Jerusalem where he was discriminated against because of his race and disability, he settled in for the long trip home when these words leapt off the page:
Acts 8:32-33 NIVUK
[32] This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: ‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. [33] In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.’
A man who had been oppressed reads about a man who had been oppressed.
A man who had been damaged reads about a man who had been damaged.
A man who had endured humiliation reads about a man who had been humiliated.
A man deprived of any form of justice reads about a man deprived of justice.
Suddenly the Ethiopian eunuch became aware of something, something strange: a man is running beside his chariot.
Now, to give you an idea of how exceptional this is, a chariot on a paved surface could reach thirty-five to forty miles an hour. The fastest known sprinter – Usain Bolt – once reached 27.78 miles per hour. Most sprinters top out at around twenty miles an hour.
It’s possible the desert road was quite uneven and the chariot was not going full speed. Still, it would be very rare for someone to be able to run beside a chariot and maintain their speed in the oppressive heat of a desert environment.
But, miraculously, Philip did.
He heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading aloud, which was the normal thing to do in those days. Since the Ethiopian would have spoken a Semitic language as his mother tongue, and Greek was a common trade language at the time, it’s possible he was able to read the scroll in either language.
Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch if he understood what he was reading – a fair question as it was not in his mother tongue.
The Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip to explain it to him. And so, this happened:
Acts 8:35 NIVUK
[35] Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Because – and this should send shivers down our spine...
The man who had been oppressed was Jesus Christ.
The man who had been damaged was Jesus Christ.
The man who had been humiliated was Jesus Christ.
The man who had been deprived of justice was Jesus Christ.
When you have been ill-treated, the one thought that dominates your mind is that no-one understands your pain because no-one else understands your experience.
That is not at all true:
Hebrews 4:15-16 NIVUK
[15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. [16] Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
He was rejected. He was hated. He was beaten. He was bruised. He was mocked. He was spat upon.
So let me share the truth that touched this man’s life and I believe will touch yours too:
There is no-one who understands your pain more than Jesus Christ.
And neither will there ever be.
But that doesn’t mean that He approves of everything in your life and thinks it’s all fine. Because now we move from seeking a foreign and a damaged man to see A Repentant Man.
A Repentant Man
Acts 8:36, 38 NIVUK
[36] As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?’
[38] And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.
When I was eighteen years old, I went on my first short term mission overseas to Romania. I spent two weeks at the Black Sea coast and one week high in the Carpathian Alps. While we were in the mountains, we went for a brilliant hike through the woods. I loved it because, due to the altitude and the trees, it was much cooler.
The treeline suddenly gave way. We found ourselves in a clearing. And then, all of a sudden... we were standing at the edge of a steep valley that seemed to be hundreds of feet deep. The view was extraordinary, but this was the wilds of Transylvania. There were no guard rails or fences.
If we had kept walking, we would not have survived the fall.
The sensible thing to do was to turn back, away from the obvious danger. That is, to repent.
We are now looking at a truly wonderful event: the baptism of a senior official in the Ethiopian government.
So why am I talking about turning away from danger?
This act of baptism is highly symbolic. Since its use by John the Baptist, it has always symbolised one thing: repentance from sin (see Matthew 3:1-6; Mark 1:1-5; Luke 3:1-18).
Repentance and baptism are closely linked in the New Testament:
Acts 2:38 NIVUK
[38] Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13:24 NIVUK
[24] Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel.
People repented, they were baptised.
But what exactly is going on here?
Baptism was a rite carried out by Jewish priests on Gentile converts as a way of symbolising their cleansing of the life they had renounced. But John would have stirred up a lot of controversy by baptising people who were already ethnic Jews as a symbol of their turning from sin and seeking to live a new life.
Jesus Himself was our example in that even He was baptised, even though He had done nothing worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22).
Right from the very beginning, baptism was a symbol of walking away from the old life and towards the new life – of repenting.
That is what this man did.
That is what he needed to do.
Bear in mind that, despite his power, position and wealth, he was still a slave. He had no freedom to decide for himself.
Bear in mind that he had been wronged and damaged by the people who controlled him.
Bear in mind that this had led to him being prevented from doing the one thing he came to Jerusalem to do: worship God in the Temple.
Such a litany of hurt and pain and rejection.
Yet even he needed to repent!
Because, regardless of how much people had sinned against him, he had still sinned against God.
And sin is dangerous. Sin is deadly. As deadly as walking towards an unguarded precipice and tumbling over the edge.
We do not know what those sins were. The Bible does not tell us.
But what it tells us is that he repented of them and was baptised, and that is what counts.
The fact that even a man like him had to repent and be baptised confirms to us the beautiful truth that, although this world may do its best to categorise us and pit us against each other, the Bible is wonderfully clear:
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIVUK
[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – [9] not by works, so that no-one can boast.
We all stand equal before God, because we all need to repent of our sins.
You might put up all kinds of arguments against repentance. You might say that your sins are part of your identity, that they are part of who you are, that so many other people are doing it so it can’t be that bad, or even that the law gives you the right to do them.
None of that matters.
As Paul taught the Athenians:
Acts 17:30 NIVUK
[30] In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
When we hear the message of how Jesus knows how we feel and died for us, bearing our wounds and our pain, and rose from the dead, conquering our greatest fear, repentance is the only logical response. That is why it is commanded.
So tell me: isn’t it time you repented?
There is one last thing that is really worth noting. We’ve seen how this Ethiopian eunuch was a foreign, damaged and repentant man. Lastly, we see that he was A Joyful Man.
A Joyful Man
Acts 8:39 NIVUK
[39] When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
Have you ever went to somewhere that had an amazing reputation, but were sorely disappointed when you visited?
We had that experience once with a European city (I'd better not say where!). It has the global reputation of being very beautiful and romantic and so many people dream of being there.
But when we went there, we found it hard to get around, overpriced, a little edgy and it’s major tourist sights were a little over-blown.
We were grateful that our flights at least had been cheap.
That taught us a very valuable lesson.
Sometimes less well known places are much nicer than the big, heavily-promoted tourist sites.
Can you imagine the level of disappointment this man would have experienced in Jerusalem?
I think it would have far eclipsed ours!
Man-made laws prevented him from getting any closer to Temple worship than a glorified wet market, ran for obscene, unseemly profit.
Ancient Jewish law prohibited him from even going there.
But now, after meeting with an unknown man in an unlikely way in a most unlikely place, the Ethiopian eunuch finds joy.
How?
There are stages to this joy:
By hearing that he had a Saviour who know how he felt
By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
By repenting of his sins and symbolising this in baptism
Here is a man who has been brutally disfigured and damaged so he can serve another, whose freedom is restricted, who is on the outside of the one place where he wanted to go to worship, and yet he finds deep joy in the desert heat.
Who is it that brings him this joy?
Jesus Christ.
And He stands ready to bring you the same joy too.
Conclusion
Isaiah 56:3-7 NIVUK
[3] Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ [4] For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – [5] to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure for ever. [6] And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant – [7] these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’
Given the nature of what we have looked at, I think it would be useful for you to understand a little of my background.
While I was at primary school in particular, I was different from most other boys in my neighbourhood and my school. I was smaller. I was slight. I was intellectual – more than a bit bookish and nerdy. I wasn’t good at sports. I wasn’t athletic.
My neighbourhood and my schoolmates were not very tolerant of anyone who was different, and so the rumour spread that I was gay.
I most definitely was not, but it took years to shake off that rumour.
Naturally, it led to bullying.
Later on, while I was at university, there was one group who constantly tried, at least once a year, to get the Christian Union of which I was a member de-listed as a university society and kicked off campus. That group was the LGBT group. Quite what their gripe was with us I do not know, because the entire time I was there I can honestly say that I did not hear one single homophobic word spoken. And yet the attacks kept coming.
All this made working with a gay man for the first time quite interesting for me. My only previous experience of people from that community had been one of unreasonable and unrelenting hostility. It took me a while to learn to trust my colleague, and to realise that he meant me no harm.
But he is now a friend on Facebook, so things have changed and have been good for a long time.
Why am I mentioning this?
Because, without actually being gay, I have experienced a small, minute taster what it feels like to be bullied for being part of that group, and at the same time, I have experienced the ire of the gay community for being a straight Christian.
It took me a very long time to have my first girlfriend. Before I eventually got a ‘Yes’, I got a whole lot of ‘No’s. So I know what it feels like to experience constant rejection and to have your sense of self-esteem whittled away a little more with each one.
There were many days when I thought marriage was beyond me, yet here I am, twenty-two years married this May.
I couldn’t see myself as a father, yet my daughter is twenty-one this year.
I may have believed that I would end up a eunuch (except physically), yet God, in His glory and grace, had other ideas.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned how there were three types of eunuch: those who were physically incapable of having a child, those who had chosen not to have a child and those who had, cruelly and heartlessly, been made that way by other people. Jesus Himself noted this too, when He talked about whether people should accept the constraints of marriage:
Matthew 19:11-12 NIVUK
[11] Jesus replied, ‘Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. [12] For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others – and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.’
We still see similar categories of people today: those who choose to remain outside of heterosexual marriage for religious or political reasons, or for reasons of their sexuality, those who cannot bear children due to genetic defects, and those who have been driven away from married life due to the offences others have carried out against them.
I would place in the latter category those who were convinced that they could change their gender, but have found that it has robbed them of their natural fertility.
However, all is not lost. There is a beautiful promise in Isaiah for those who find themselves in the state of a modern-day eunuch:
Isaiah 56:3-7 NIVUK
[3] Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ [4] For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – [5] to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure for ever. [6] And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant – [7] these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’
The Ethiopian eunuch, a foreign man, found himself excluded from worship anywhere than the rowdy marketplace of the Court of the Gentiles, yet God welcomed him. He was a eunuch – a damaged man – one who found the door to worship closed in his face, yet God promised him a place within the Temple courts and a name way superior that the sons or daughters he could not have.
On hearing these blessed and wonderful truths, he became repentant man, and this made him a joyful man – a joy that could not come any other way.
Is that not what you are looking for?
As I conclude this study on a difficult and sensitive subject – once that even makes grown men wince at the thought – we have to ask what the Bible has to say about some of the modern controversies in this area. I want to do so without fear or favour, respectfully and calmly, knowing that we all have the legal right to reasonably disagree and that our beliefs are protected by law against discrimination.
This is what I, and the majority of Bible believing Christians, believe.
All people everywhere are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and are therefore equally worthy of dignity and respect.
Gender was created by God and is therefore immutable (again, Genesis 1:27).
Marriage, as God intended it, is between one man and one woman for life (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:1-9; Mark 10:1-9).
What the Bible says is right, is right and what the Bible says is wrong, is wrong. That is not open to debate. This applies to all sins, and particularly sins of a sexual nature (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
Every Christian parent has the right, and, indeed, the responsibility, to protect their children from the sinful influences outlined in Romans 1:18-32, but also the religious hypocrisy outlined in Romans 2. We cannot hyper-focus on one to the detriment of the other.
All have sinned, but all can be saved only through repentance and faith in Jesus (Romans 3:20-23).
Do I believe that aspects of your life might be sinful?
Yes.
Do I believe that aspects of my life might be sinful?
Yes.
Sin is the great humbler and leveller of all mankind. All sin. All need grace.
No matter who we are.
No matter what we have done.
No matter what we are doing now.
The Gospel is not offered to you with a hostile intent. Quite the opposite, it is offered from an intention of love. God has blessed us with something better. We want to share it with you.
The Ethiopian eunuch had likely lived a very hard life and left Jerusalem disappointed that he had been shut out of worship. But God had other ideas and gave him the chance to accept the Gospel, repent and turn to Him.
Will you do what he did?
Will you repent and turn to God today?
I can assure you of this: you will not find a better life.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I recognise before You that I may have done some awful things as part of this so-called ‘Culture War’. I want no further part of it. I confess that I am a sinner and repent of my sin. I believe that You saved me on the cross when you died for my sin, bearing my wounds, and that you rose from the dead. Help me to follow You, whatever that will mean for me. Amen.
Questions
Who are the modern-day eunuchs, and why?
What was offered to the Ethiopian eunuch? Is it also offered to modern-day eunuchs?
What is stopping you from repenting and being baptised?
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