NEW TESTAMENT READING
Acts 8:26-39
26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the
south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a
wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian
eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in
charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and
was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet
Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join
it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He
asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How
can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit
beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was
this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent
before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation
justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is
taken away from the earth.” 34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom,
may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone
else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he
proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going
along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look,
here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 38He
commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch,
went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up
out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch
saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God!