Acts 8:32–35:
“Now the passage of scripture the man was reading was this: ‘He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth. In humiliation justice was taken from Him. Who can describe His posterity? For His life was taken away from the earth.’ Then the eunuch said to Philip, ‘Please tell me, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?’ So Philip started speaking, and beginning with this scripture proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.”
I am still continuing with the theme of the value of small things. We see Philip here—one man, on a desert road, at an unplanned moment—speaking to this man, and he starts right from this passage, this famous Jesus‑Christ passage, Isaiah 53.
Look at it: one person, Jesus Christ. One Lamb. “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth. In humiliation justice was taken from Him.”
If you look back at Isaiah 53, it says, “We considered Him stricken, struck down by God” (Isaiah 53:4). We thought He was being punished by God. But He—one person—“bore our illnesses” and “carried our sorrows.” He carried our sins and was being punished for our sins.
One person.
We looked at Him and despised Him. We did not value Him. We were expecting something bigger. The wise men came first to Herod’s house—“Where else would a great king be born?” They were expecting Him to be a big man. But He was born in a manger. Small thing.
You might think, “Why did He even step on the ground? Why didn’t He just float in the sky so everybody would see that He is God?”
Small things.
Why did He sleep like a man? Small things.
It pleased God that salvation would be given to the world in His Son, in such a way that those who would recognize Him are those who have the eyes of the Spirit; people who can see beyond the small things; people who can see beyond their noses.
“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). To even begin to talk about Jesus, John has to say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). That is the revelation of Christ: in that apparently small, ordinary humanity is the living God.
In that “small thing” is the King of kings, the Lord of lords—the One who was struck on the face, spat on, and did not reply in kind. Small thing, in people’s estimation.
The value of a small thing. The value of a seed.
Jesus said, talking about Himself, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). A seed—small thing. Yet in that seed is packed something immense.
Many of Jesus’ parables speak of a seed planted. Small. But in that seed there is life.
Remember, this is my series on the value of small things.
And what can look smaller, to the natural eye, than Jesus hanging on the cross? The people He had gathered around Him while He walked the earth scattered when He was arrested. Small thing. He was cut off, buried. He was reviled, and He did not revile in return.
You see words like “sheep,” “lamb”—small, vulnerable creatures. Not lion. Not hippopotamus. Not eagle.
Look at the countries of the world: which country has a lamb on its coat of arms? You see eagles, lions—symbols of prestige. But God gives us a Lamb. “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Small thing, in human eyes. “Led like a sheep to the slaughter.” Small thing.
He is not raising a storm. He said, “If I wanted, I could call on My Father and He would at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53). But He chose to remain “small.”
Philippians 2 says, “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who, though He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5–7). Small thing.
He was born as a Jew—a small, oppressed nation at that time. Small thing.
The value of small things. “Like a lamb before its shearer is silent.” Not even a word in His own defense. Silent. Not making a noise. Small thing.
“In humiliation, justice was taken from Him.” Small thing, in our eyes—but in reality, the central act of God’s justice and mercy.
Only God can give us the eyes of the Spirit so that we can begin to value small things properly, and no longer measure ourselves—or others—by how “magnificent” something looks, but by God’s valuation.
God bless you. See you later.