Does God pursue the outsider?

Yes. In Acts 8:26-40, God sends Philip into the desert to reach one searching foreigner — an Ethiopian official. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows how far God will go to save the people the world overlooks.

On a lonely desert road, Philip meets an Ethiopian official riding home, reading aloud from Isaiah 53 but unable to understand it. Philip climbs into the chariot and, starting from that very passage about the suffering servant, “preached Jesus to him.” The man believes and is baptized on the spot. Dr. Holt highlights the string of God-arranged appointments that brought them together, and reminds us that we all once started like the eunuch — lost and searching — and are now called to be like Philip, ready to point others to Christ.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why does God care for outsiders and rebels? Because His salvation reaches beyond Israel to people of every nation and background. Here He pursues a foreigner most would overlook, showing the wideness of His grace.

2. What was the Ethiopian reading? He was reading Isaiah 53, the passage about the suffering servant, without understanding who it described. Philip showed him it pointed to Jesus.

3. What hope does Acts 8 give for the lost people in our lives? It reminds us that God arranges “divine appointments” and uses ordinary believers to reach searching hearts. We were once like the eunuch; now we can be like Philip.

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.” — Acts 8:35 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Acts Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.