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Please enjoy this message delivered by Pastor Mark Hudson.
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LearningTranscript
00:00From an old devotional, and I don't know the author, it's just initials, D-J-D, and so
00:05we're going to give him credit, I'm not sure, it's an old devotional, he's probably already
00:08in heaven, but we want to give him credit for this.
00:11He's telling a story of what happened to him.
00:13He actually, I guess it didn't happen to him, it happened to someone he knew.
00:17A man was assigned to a middle seat on an airplane, and he had a hard week, and he just
00:22wanted to plop in his middle seat and just take a nap.
00:26And I say, amen, I can understand that.
00:28And I always frustrate my family, I can fall asleep before the plane takes off, and it
00:33bugs them, because they can't sleep on the plane, so I can fall asleep, and I understand
00:37what this man was, I understand what he was going through, but he was irritated, wrongly
00:44so, but he was irritated because a young girl was sitting next to him, and this young girl
00:49had Down syndrome.
00:50Well, we know Down syndrome children are loving, and they're kind, and they're inquisitive,
00:53and so she asked him a question.
00:55She said, mister, do you brush your teeth?
00:58And the guy says, yes.
01:01He said, that's good.
01:01People who don't lose their teeth.
01:04Reasonable.
01:05A little later, she said, mister, do you smoke?
01:07He said, no.
01:09She said, that's good.
01:10People who smoke die.
01:13After a long silence, she turned to him again and said, mister, do you love Jesus?
01:18He said, yes, I do.
01:19That's good, she said.
01:22People who do go to heaven.
01:24That's great.
01:26Though deeply touched, he settled back, hoping there would be no more questions.
01:29He was tired.
01:30He wanted to go back to sleep.
01:31Just then, the girl said, mister, ask the man next to you whether he brushes his teeth.
01:38So you can guess what followed.
01:40All the other questions followed.
01:41And when she came to the question about Jesus, the second man became thoughtful, and he said,
01:48I'm afraid I don't understand.
01:50And for the next hour, the two men talked about eternal issues.
01:56Sometimes opportunities for sharing God's love may come in very unusual ways, just like
02:00we're going to see here in chapter last, part of chapter eight with Philip and the Ethiopian.
02:04You get a very unusual way.
02:05But if we're willing, God will even bless our feeblest efforts to tell others that Jesus
02:11loves them and that he died for sin.
02:14Sometimes God puts you in situations you did not expect.
02:18Philip is an example.
02:19The man on the airplane, he did not expect.
02:21But from that situation, God used him to further the gospel message, and that's what's going to
02:26happen in the text today.
02:28So that last part of chapter eight, we'll look in book of Acts, and we'll see that being obedient
02:33to the heavenly calling, Philip went and preached to the eunuch whom God was calling to himself.
02:40God was doing a work in this eunuch's heart, and he sent Philip, unbeknownst to Philip,
02:45it was not something he expected, and he preaches the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch.
02:51You know, sometimes we make the gospel so difficult, evangelism so difficult.
02:55It's like, oh, I have to have all the right answers, and if I don't have the right answers,
02:58I'm the one who leads someone to Jesus.
03:00No, we are never the ones who lead people to Jesus.
03:03It's the Holy Spirit who leads people to Jesus.
03:05We just tell the story.
03:07We tell them what we know, that Jesus came, that he was God in the flesh, that he died
03:12for sin, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, and he ascended to heaven.
03:16All who repent and believe will be saved.
03:18So we just tell them the story.
03:19God saves people.
03:21So just kind of take that burden off of yourself, thinking, I've got to lead this person to
03:25the Lord if I tell them.
03:25No, just tell them what you know about Jesus.
03:27Don't make it difficult.
03:31So even though it's recognized in the scriptures that Peter was the one that opened the door
03:34to the Gentiles with the gospel, this man today is a Gentile, and Philip is the one that's
03:41interacting with him, not Peter.
03:42So it's very interesting.
03:43This Gentile gets saved in the text today.
03:47If you look with me, chapter 8, so open your Bibles, Acts chapter 8, we'll start reading
03:51in verse number 26.
03:52So your biblical device, whichever the case may be.
03:55So this is God's word, we want to look at it together, we want to see what's going on
03:58in this story.
03:59If you remember correctly, we saw last week, they were up in Samaria and preached in evangelistic
04:04service, and many Samaritans, I don't know how many hundreds, thousands got saved.
04:09The apostles went up to see what was going on, and they laid hands on them, and they received
04:13the Holy Spirit, which is not normative.
04:15It doesn't happen again in the book of Acts, but it happened in this case.
04:17And then they preached the gospel, and just a great ministry was taking place in Samaria.
04:24So that's where we're at at the end of the section we looked at last week.
04:28Verse number 26.
04:31Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, and Philip was one of the seven that was chosen
04:36to minister to the Hellenist widows, said to Philip, rise and go towards the south to the
04:42road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, is an old city, Gaza is.
04:47I mean, we hear about it all the time today on the news now, but Gaza, if you go back to
04:50the book of Genesis, way back, I think back 10 or 11, chapter 10 or 11, you see the word
04:55Gaza.
04:55Again, it's an old, old city.
04:58So he's going from Samaria down to Gaza, Jerusalem southward, so from the north to the south.
05:05And then Luke gives us kind of a little sentence and says, this is a desert place.
05:10So it's a desert.
05:13And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen
05:21of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.
05:25He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning.
05:28So he had been to Jerusalem, he was returning back to his home.
05:31He was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
05:37And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot.
05:42So he goes from Samaria to where this ministry, this wild ministry was taking place where people,
05:48hundreds if not thousands of people are getting saved, to leave that and to go somewhere else.
05:54Philip obeyed this divine directive given to him by God through an angel.
05:58And it says they went to a desert place.
06:01Now, I mean, if you think about this, and Philip's thinking he just came from the most fruitful
06:06ministry that he's ever seen in his life when hundreds if not thousands of Samarians are
06:10getting saved and he's going to a desert place.
06:14I mean, I can almost see him asking, well, why, God?
06:18Why can't I stay up in Samaria where hundreds if not thousands of people are getting saved?
06:21Why would you send me to the desert?
06:23God knows how to direct his people to get them to the places he wants them to be.
06:31Even though it's not this fruitful ministry, it's a desert place, but God is going to use
06:35Philip in this man's life.
06:37God knows how to get his people in places that they need to be so others can hear the gospel
06:42message.
06:45In Acts 26, this is a Saul or Paul is talking about his salvation.
06:51And he says, therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
06:55In other words, God gave him directions and he did it.
06:58God knows how to move his people and put them in places that he wants for his plan to be accomplished
07:03in this world.
07:05And then it goes on and says, but I declared first to those in Damascus.
07:08God knows those who are his.
07:10And he directed Philip to preach the gospel to this Ethiopian, this eunuch from Ethiopia,
07:16so that he could get saved.
07:18And the eunuch himself was being drawn by God, we know, because he's reading the prophet
07:22Isaiah.
07:23Now, he must have, to get a scroll of Isaiah was really uncommon.
07:27So he was able to get a scroll of Isaiah, which is kind of unheard of.
07:31They were probably pretty expensive at the same time.
07:33And he's reading out of the scroll of Isaiah, and we'll find out exactly where he's reading
07:36from here in just a second.
07:40He's being drawn by God.
07:41He had just traveled 200 miles to go to Jerusalem to worship.
07:45200 miles, one way, and he's going back now.
07:50God is the one who was initiating this whole contact with the Ethiopian.
07:54He said, God is at work here.
07:55He's moving Philip and putting him in a place that Philip can be used to preach the gospel.
08:01Interestingly enough, the Greeks considered Ethiopia the ends of the earth.
08:06The ends of the earth.
08:07And if you think about the command of Jesus that Jesus gave to his apostles, I want you
08:12to preach in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, signifying the
08:19ultimate fulfillment of that gospel mission that he had promised them in Acts 1.8.
08:24He said, I want you to go in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
08:28So we're seeing that God is fulfilling this plan, using his people to go to all the nations
08:34of the world.
08:35And we see the Holy Spirit at work here in chapters 8 through 10, more than before,
08:40involved in this mission to the Gentiles and to the Jews as well.
08:44Now, when we say Ethiopia, it's not that the nation that we know is Ethiopia today.
08:49It was actually a little bit further north toward the inlet of the Nile River.
08:53And it was what we are known as the Nubian Empire, the Nubian Empire.
08:57So they were Nubians.
08:59And so they were traveling back to this place, again, not the modern-day Ethiopia, a little
09:04bit north of where it's at.
09:05And this guy would be considered the Ministry of Finance.
09:09He was over the treasury, and he was a eunuch.
09:12He was also then under the Queen Candace.
09:15And Candace was simply a name for the queens, like Pharaoh.
09:18That's not really the person's name.
09:20That's just a title.
09:21So Candace, Queen, the Queen Mothers used to reign in the Nubian Empire.
09:25And the reason is, is the king being the son.
09:28The king was like a deity.
09:30And he can't bother himself with a mundane task of running a government.
09:35So the Queen Mother ran the government.
09:36Her name was Candace.
09:37That was the title.
09:40The eunuch had been in Jerusalem worshiping.
09:43But here's what's tough for him.
09:46He would be called God-fearing, but he could never become a full proselyte because of his
09:53physical blemish that he has.
09:55Now, I don't need to explain to you, we're all adults, what a eunuch is, right?
09:58I think we got that point.
10:00So because of his physical blemish, he could never be fully accepted into Judaism, never
10:05be fully accepted to become a proselyte.
10:08He could be a God-fearer on the outside.
10:10He was one of those on the outside looking in type of person.
10:13Never be fully accepted.
10:14But he's still worshiping God in Jerusalem, traveling 400-mile round trip as he's going
10:20around there.
10:22How do I know that they can't come into the tabernacle or the temple?
10:26Deuteronomy 23 in the Torah, we read this.
10:29No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly
10:33of the Lord.
10:35He could never truly be in.
10:38He was always outside.
10:41It's kind of like his face pushing against the glass.
10:43He's outside looking in.
10:44He could never, because of his physical blemish, he could never be part of really the people
10:48of God in totality, accepted in.
10:53So he was in Jerusalem worshiping.
10:55And it's likely he heard about Jesus in Jerusalem.
10:58It's likely he heard, because if you remember in Acts chapter 5, we heard that the apostles
11:02were claimed that they had filled Jerusalem with the teaching of Jesus.
11:07So that's in Acts chapter 5.
11:09And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned
11:12them, saying, we strictly charge you not to teach in this name.
11:16Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's
11:20blood upon us.
11:21So it's likely why he was in Jerusalem.
11:23He hears the story of Jesus, and he's contemplating that, and God is working on his heart, and
11:28he's traveling back, and he pulls out the scroll of Isaiah and starts reading it.
11:34This was not an accident that he's reading from one of the greatest prophets.
11:38Not an accident at all.
11:39One of the greatest messianic texts, which we're going to come to in just a second, out of
11:43the book of Isaiah.
11:44So the witness in Jerusalem drew him further into the word of God so that God could speak
11:50to him, and Philip then giving him the gospel message.
11:53Of all the prophets, Isaiah proclaims the ideal of God's promised future, which includes Gentiles.
12:01And not just Gentiles.
12:05It includes people like him, who could never be fully accepted at all, because you always
12:12do it outside, because of his physical limitations.
12:20Those, he never could become part of what was the people of God.
12:26He never really could be in.
12:29Isaiah talks about this promise to people like him, eunuchs.
12:33Look at Isaiah chapter 56.
12:35Here's a promise, not to the Gentiles, but people like him on the outside looking in.
12:40Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate
12:45me from his people.
12:47And let not the eunuchs say, behold, I am a dry tree.
12:52For thus says the Lord, and here's the promise, not to just Gentiles, but to eunuchs, to the
12:56eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant.
13:02I will give in my house, and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and
13:09daughters.
13:09I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
13:13He now can be fully accepted in the people of God in Christ Jesus, because of his work.
13:21Unbeknownst to the eunuch right now, he's going to experience the fulfillment of these prophecies
13:30right here.
13:32When he sees the eunuch, the Holy Spirit says, go join yourself to that chariot.
13:36And Philip says, okay.
13:37So he goes and joins himself to the chariot.
13:39The Holy Spirit's directing this whole event.
13:41So Philip is obedient to the Spirit, joins the eunuch, and who is reading out of the Old
13:47Testament book of Isaiah.
13:48Look at verse 30.
13:50Verse number 30.
13:54Okay.
13:55So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, again, one of the greatest
13:59prophets, and talks about eunuch himself, and asks, do you understand what you're reading?
14:04And he said, well, how can I unless someone guides me?
14:07Which is understandable.
14:07He doesn't get it.
14:08He needs, the Spirit is working on him, but he doesn't get it.
14:12And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
14:15So he's up in the chariot.
14:16Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this.
14:19And by the way, this is a coincidence.
14:20He just opened up and put his finger on it.
14:22No, this is directed by the Spirit.
14:24Listen.
14:24Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter.
14:27And like a lamb before a shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
14:32In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
14:35Who can describe his generation?
14:37For his life is taken away from the earth.
14:41And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself
14:46or about somebody else?
14:49Then Philip opened his mouth and began with this scripture.
14:53He told him the good news about Jesus.
14:55So it was no coincidence.
14:58He's reading in one of the most messianic chapters of the Bible, Isaiah chapter 53.
15:04And he's reading about the Messiah.
15:06And he says, who is this one?
15:08Who is this?
15:08Was it the prophet or was it somebody else?
15:11As a matter of fact, it's coming from Isaiah chapter 53.
15:13You'll recognize it.
15:14Seven and eight.
15:16He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
15:18Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, unlike a sheep that
15:24is before his shearers is silent.
15:26So he opened not his mouth.
15:27By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
15:30And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the
15:35living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
15:39One of the most famous messianic chapters in the Bible, he just happens to be reading out
15:44of.
15:44No, the spirit is directing him.
15:47This text from Isaiah is so filled with wonderful things.
15:49We see, we see Jesus is suffering.
15:51We see Jesus is humiliation.
15:53We see Jesus is resurrection.
15:55We see Jesus is exaltation.
15:57All of this stuff we see here in the book of Isaiah, this section right now, the image
16:03of the slaughter lamb points to the crucifixion.
16:06He was silent before those who accused him.
16:09We see that also the resurrection, the whole host of believers, his generation.
16:14That will follow him.
16:15That's us, the resurrection.
16:18His life was taken away from the earth.
16:20We see his death.
16:21We see his ascension.
16:22We see his exaltation.
16:23We see all of this, humiliation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation.
16:27It is the gospel wrapped up just in a couple of verses.
16:30Because the Isaiah text became the launching place for Philip to preach Jesus Christ to
16:38him, the gospel.
16:39And I don't know what other texts he preaches, but he preaches a bunch of other texts, but
16:43he starts with this one right here.
16:44He says, let me explain this one to you.
16:46And he launches over to a couple of, he made it his business to give him the gospel message.
16:52It was his business.
16:53He wasn't going to say, I'm just going to let it go.
16:55It was his business to give him the gospel message.
16:58Warren Rearsby tells about D.L.
17:00Moody.
17:01He was once, D.L.
17:02Moody once asked this man about his soul.
17:05And the man replied, it's none of your business.
17:08And he said, D.L.
17:09Moody said, oh yes, it is my business.
17:11And the man said immediately, oh, you must be D.L.
17:13Moody.
17:15Apparently he was known for making it his business.
17:17I mean, he went around and he told people about Jesus all the time.
17:20He made it his business to tell people about Jesus.
17:23Philip made it his business.
17:26Philip preached to him the gospel, the good news.
17:30And we talked about the good news.
17:31I mean, it starts off with bad news.
17:33That we're fallen creatures who've rebelled against our creator.
17:37And now we have a sin nature.
17:39And then we have the good news is that God himself came to us in Jesus Christ.
17:43And that God took upon himself on the cross our sin.
17:47And he died and he was buried and he rose again.
17:50He ascended and he exalted.
17:51That's the good news.
17:52So he tells them the good news.
17:54And the good news changes us, doesn't it?
17:57I like what the English reformer William Tyndale defined the word gospel.
18:01Good news.
18:02He said that evangelium, the gospel signified a good, merry, glad, and joyful tiding.
18:09That maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy.
18:15Remember when you got saved?
18:16Remember when your heart was just lifted?
18:18You just wanted to sing and dance and leap for joy because of what God had done for you.
18:22It really is good news.
18:24So he preaches the good news to him.
18:26I wondered, do we really think it's good news?
18:33I mean, do we really believe it's good news?
18:36I mean, we think, but do we really believe it's good news?
18:40I mean, this question was asked Stuart Briscoe.
18:42Stuart Briscoe was an author and a pastor.
18:44Exact same question was asked him.
18:46Do you really believe this is good news?
18:48And this is the story he told.
18:49He was in Manchester, England.
18:51He decided to venture into a local coffee house and engage the local people there, some
18:56young people that were there.
18:57He said he opened up a conversation with one young man who allowed him to share the gospel.
19:02And when the man had to go, he told Stuart, you don't believe a word of all this stuff
19:06you've been telling us about God.
19:09Stuart said, I was stunned but managed to stammer.
19:12Why would you say that?
19:13And the man replied, that's easy because all you have told us here tonight is so wonderful
19:20that if you and people like you really believed it, you would have been down here long before
19:24tonight to tell us kids about it.
19:27Do we really believe it's good news?
19:30And again, we're not responsible for the salvation of people's souls.
19:33We're responsible for telling them the good news.
19:36Do we really believe it is good news?
19:38It is great news.
19:41This was not an accident.
19:42The Holy Spirit was active in the whole event.
19:45It was not an accident.
19:47God set it up and Philip was there and he uses Philip to preach the gospel and there's
19:52a response from the Ethiopian eunuch.
19:54So after confessing Christ as Lord and Savior, the eunuch wants to be baptized.
20:00So look at verses 36 through 40.
20:03And as they were going along the road, and remember this is a desert place, so there's
20:06water somewhere, a spring, a small pool, something.
20:09As they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here
20:14is water.
20:15What prevents me from being baptized?
20:17What prevents me?
20:18What's holding me back?
20:19Is there anything hindering?
20:21I was once a eunuch, couldn't come into the people of God.
20:23Now is there anything preventing me now from acknowledging that I'm part of the people of
20:27God by a visible representation of baptism?
20:31And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water and Philip and
20:36the eunuch and he baptized him.
20:38And when they had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away
20:42and the eunuch saw him no more.
20:45And he went, the eunuch, on his way rejoicing.
20:47He just got, he just acknowledged that he saved and was baptized.
20:50He is rejoicing.
20:51But Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through, he preached the gospel
20:57to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
21:00So he went from on the road to Gaza, which he wasn't all the way down in Gaza.
21:05Gaza is on the coastline.
21:06He finds himself in Ashdod, an old Philistine city, and he works his way up the coastline to
21:12Caesarea.
21:13Zai D is working his way north up the coastline.
21:15So this is what happens.
21:18The eunuch believed and was baptized.
21:20It's no accident they happened to come upon a spring or water, right?
21:23Oh, yeah, in the desert place.
21:25It's not an accident.
21:26God's directing this whole thing.
21:28The eunuch sought the first opportunity to be baptized to show visibly that he was a
21:33disciple of Jesus Christ.
21:34I want to be baptized.
21:35I want to be identified with these Jesus people, with this Jesus movement.
21:40I want to be part.
21:40I was so long on the outside looking in.
21:43Now I want to be part of what's going on.
21:45And God has accepted me.
21:46Even as a eunuch, he's brought me into his family.
21:49And I want to show everyone about that.
21:52He wanted everyone to know what God had done in his heart.
21:55Yet in those days, it was not as our days.
21:58You get baptized.
21:59You get a certificate.
21:59Everyone claps.
22:00And yay.
22:01No.
22:01In that day, you were marked as part of the despised people by baptism.
22:07Dr. M. R. D. Hahn talked about this.
22:09In the early days of the church, baptism was a declaration that the believer was definitely
22:14identifying himself with that group of people who were called Christians and who were despised
22:20and hated.
22:20Hey, I want to be one of them.
22:23That's what it said.
22:24To be a Christian meant something.
22:26To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death.
22:31It meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by your friends.
22:35And the one act, which was the final declaration of this identification, was baptism.
22:40As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated.
22:44But when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I belong to this
22:49despised group.
22:51And immediately he was persecuted, hated, and despised.
22:54In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
22:59A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and
23:03suffering, but once he submitted to public baptism, he burned his bridges behind him.
23:08It was not a light thing to be baptized, especially in those days.
23:12You're part of this despised group now.
23:16So I wonder, have you been baptized since you came to faith?
23:19I mean, have you said, yeah, no, I need, I want to visibly be associated with Christians.
23:23I've come to faith.
23:23I want to, I want to, I want to make it known to everyone around that I'm a follower of Jesus
23:27Christ.
23:28Have you been baptized since coming to salvation?
23:31If not, what's, what's hindering you?
23:33What's hindering?
23:34We got lots of water around here.
23:35I'm sure we can find water to baptize in.
23:39This eunuch, he was an important official.
23:41He didn't travel just by himself.
23:42He traveled in a caravan.
23:43Everyone there was watching this baptism.
23:46So it wasn't just him.
23:48It was all the people around him in this giant caravan that were watching this.
23:51It was visibly to all of those people.
23:54What hinders me?
23:55What prevents me?
23:56That word prevent, that verb prevent, what prevents me?
23:59Before my physical limitations prevented me from being part of the people of God.
24:03Now what prevents me?
24:05I've, I've had faith in the Messiah.
24:07What prevents me from being baptized?
24:08What hinders me now?
24:10F.
24:10Stag wrote this about that verb.
24:12The verb indicates that barriers have been removed, hindrances to the spread of the gospel
24:18to all people.
24:19In this case, a double barrier of both physical and racial prejudice had fallen.
24:24A eunuch, a eunuch, a Gentile, a black, was baptized and received into full membership in
24:30the people of Jesus Christ.
24:32What prevents me?
24:33Nothing prevents you.
24:35You have been accepted in the beloved by the Father.
24:38Nothing prevents you from being baptized.
24:40You are now part of God's family by faith.
24:43Now you probably noticed as we were reading along, we went from verse 36 to verse 38.
24:51And you say, whoa, that's not how people count.
24:53There's a word, there's a verse 37 in between there.
24:56Where's verse 37?
24:58Actually, maybe in some of your translations, this one it is not in.
25:02And the reason why verse 37 is not in this translation and most of the modern ones is
25:07that in the earliest manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament, New Testament, which we have
25:12about 25,000 of them, we've got tons of them, and the earliest ones, the ones that go furthest
25:16back to the closest time of the writing, verse 37 was not there.
25:22Probably it was, some scribe was making a note off to the side in the margins about this
25:27and he added something there because the verse itself does have value.
25:30It does have value.
25:31It was probably part of an early baptismal confession in which the candidate was asked
25:37if he believed in Christ with all of his heart, then the candidate would confess that he believed
25:42Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.
25:44So it was probably part of something that was known to the scribe in his day and he most
25:47likely wrote it off into the margin.
25:49But 200 years later or 300 years later when another scribe came along and sees this off
25:55in the margin, he may think it's part of the text and inserts it in.
25:58So it's not part of the Old Manuscripts, but it is an important verse.
26:01It teaches us something about what was known in that day, especially about what happened
26:05during baptism.
26:07Well, the word baptize means immersion, so we don't think anything other than immersion.
26:12They went down into the water, they come up out of the water, it's immersion.
26:15I mean, we talked about the word is actually when you make pickles.
26:18I have never made pickles, but to make pickles you've got to submerge them in a brine for a period
26:22of time.
26:23That word submerge in brine is the word baptize.
26:26So it means to immerse, it's likely, there's no reason to believe that it's anything other
26:30than immersion at this point.
26:32So having his soul being set free by grace through faith, becoming a new creation in
26:37Christ, he went on his way rejoicing.
26:40I can imagine, he was happy.
26:42God was doing something, he had peace with God in his heart.
26:46This is what's interesting though.
26:48Something happened to Philip though.
26:49Philip was snatched up by the spirit like Elijah and he was found in Azotas, the Old Testament
26:56city of Ashdod, which is on the coastline of the old Philistine city.
27:01He was carried away is what the text says.
27:05Elijah was carried away in a chariot to heaven.
27:08He was moved from one location to another.
27:10He's not moved to heaven.
27:11He's moved from one place to another city far away.
27:14In fact, in 1st King 18, we see this Elijah being caught up to heaven.
27:21And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here.
27:24As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you and I know not
27:29where.
27:30And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me.
27:33Although I, your servant have feared the Lord for my youth.
27:35So Elijah was carried away by the Lord.
27:37In this case, it was a chariot.
27:39Now Philip happens to be in a chariot, but the chariot doesn't go to heaven.
27:42Elijah goes to heaven in the chariot.
27:46He was carried away.
27:48This, this word carried away in the text today is the same word used in 1st Thessalonians
27:53chapter 4, 17, from which we get our word rapture from exact same word that's used here.
28:01It's a Greek word.
28:02I'll tell you the word.
28:03You'll probably not remember it, but it's harpazo.
28:05And it's this idea of being carried away.
28:07It's seen in 1st Thessalonians 4, 17.
28:10Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up.
28:14That's a word carried away.
28:15That's in our text today.
28:16It's caught up.
28:17Same word.
28:19Together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
28:21And so we will always be with the Lord.
28:24And it's used multiple times in the New Testament.
28:27It's used in John chapter 10.
28:30Remember when Jesus said, you're in my hand and no one can snatch you out of my father's,
28:35out of my hand.
28:36That word snatch is the word harpazo.
28:39No one can come by force and take you out of my hand.
28:43Amen?
28:44Amen.
28:45And he says, you're in my father's hand.
28:46And no one can snatch you out of my father's hand.
28:49No one can take you, come and take you by force out of my father's hand.
28:53That's how it's used there in John 10.
28:54It's used in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, where Paul says, I was caught up.
28:59Well, he said he knows somebody who was caught up, probably Paul.
29:02I was caught up to the third heaven.
29:04Same exact word, harpazo.
29:07He was from earth transported to heaven.
29:10Same exact word.
29:12In Revelation 12, caught up, same exact word.
29:15So as it's used, you can see it up here, as this word in the New Testament, harpazo means
29:19to take, take by force, snatch, snatch up, grab, remove quickly, catch up, catch away, pluck out.
29:26A lot of different ways of the same word.
29:29It always involves some force outside the person.
29:32So Philip didn't do it.
29:33He's acted upon some force outside the person or thing to be taken or snatched up or removed.
29:39It often implies sudden removal, and it often refers to a person being quickly and supernaturally
29:45taken from one place to another.
29:48He was raptured from here on the desert road to Ashdod.
29:52He was moved from one location to another.
29:55And you know, people say, oh, the rapture.
29:57That's not really good.
29:58God's not really going to take Christians.
30:00He's not going to catch them up to heaven.
30:02They're not going to be caught.
30:03It's just, ah, somebody made that story up.
30:05What?
30:06It's in the Bible.
30:07Elijah was raptured.
30:09Enoch was raptured.
30:10Here, Philip is raptured.
30:12Paul was raptured up to heaven.
30:14It's going to happen just exactly like it says.
30:17Someday he's going to come and he's going to take us by force.
30:19It's a good force because it's God.
30:21He's going to take us by force and move us supernaturally from one place to another place,
30:25and that would be his heaven.
30:27Amen.
30:29Even so, come Lord Jesus.
30:32So, the Holy Spirit led him to the encounter.
30:35Now, he closed the encounter by transporting Philip to further witness up the coastline all
30:41the way to Caesarea.
30:42Caesarea, this is a radical step for a Jew, even a Hellenist Jew, to reach out to any kind
30:48of Gentile, but here a eunuch Gentile?
30:53So, why did Philip reach out to this Gentile?
30:55Why did Philip reach out to not only just this Gentile, but this Gentile that was from Nubia?
31:01It's a black man.
31:02Why would Philip reach out to this Gentile black man?
31:05Not only was a Gentile black man, but he was a eunuch.
31:07He was physically limited.
31:09He had his, you got the picture where the eunuch is.
31:13Why would he reach out to a Gentile black eunuch?
31:17Why would he do that?
31:19Because God told him to.
31:22There is no people group in this world that should be excluded from hearing the gospel
31:26message.
31:27It matters not.
31:28Every one of them should be included.
31:30Because that's what God wants.
31:33So, we praise God for Philip's openness to be led by the Spirit to fulfill God's worldwide
31:40plan in this world.
31:41So, the eunuch brought the seed of the gospel to Ethiopia, modern, well, it's not modern
31:46day.
31:47You got the point.
31:47Nubian, Nubian.
31:49The first Gentile convert that we know of was an African.
31:54Long before Paul took the message to Europe, an African gets saved.
31:58We just had someone from Africa here last week talking to us about Africa.
32:01The first Gentile that we know of that got saved was an African.
32:08He pioneered the, Philip pioneered the ministry in Samaria.
32:12Now, he catches the visionary ministry of missionary service as he goes up the coastline and he
32:19lands in Caesarea.
32:23Interestingly enough, if you remember the story, when we get to chapter 10, we're going to be
32:27introduced to a man named Cornelius who lives in Caesarea.
32:32Caesarea, huh?
32:36Wow.
32:38You mean God has further things for Philip to do?
32:40Yeah, I can't imagine Philip as evangelistic as he is, that he's not going to be talking
32:45about Jesus in Caesarea.
32:46You know he's going to be talking about Jesus in Caesarea.
32:49You know that.
32:51If you think, this was so great.
32:53God promised that through Abraham, all the nations of the world would be blessed.
32:58In chapter 8 of Acts, we see an Ethiopian who was a descendant of one of Noah's children
33:05called Ham.
33:07Ham.
33:08Noah had three children, Ham, Shem, and Japheth.
33:11This Ethiopian was a descendant of Ham.
33:14In chapter 9, we see Saul, a Jew, who was a descendant of Shem.
33:18In chapter 10, we see Cornelius, the centurion, who's a descendant of Japheth.
33:25All the families of the earth will be blessed in you, Abraham.
33:28All the families of the earth.
33:31God is reaching out to the whole world in fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham
33:35in your offspring so all the nations of the earth be blessed.
33:40So I ask myself, did Philip's presence in Caesarea play a role in the centurion's salvation?
33:46I don't know.
33:47The scripture doesn't say, but I can't imagine him doing anything else other than preaching
33:50Jesus in Caesarea.
33:51You know he's going to be doing that.
33:54I don't believe it was an accident that Philip landed in Caesarea.
33:58That's where he landed.
33:59He stops right there.
34:01God is at the work, God is at work in the heart of Cornelius and maybe Philip played a
34:05role in that.
34:07You never know what role you play when you tell someone the gospel message.
34:11They may not get saved right there at that moment.
34:13Most likely they won't.
34:14Some do.
34:14But down the road, when God saves them eventually, you don't know what role you play in that.
34:23Sometimes God puts you in situations you did not expect.
34:27Always be ready for God to use you in those situations.
34:31Jamin, Fawcett, and Brown tying up this whole chapter and moving on, talking about how one
34:39sows and another reaps and we all play a role in this great kingdom work of God.
34:44They said this.
34:45Henceforth, we lose sight of zealous and honored Philip.
34:49I think we only see him one more time and I think it's Acts 21 where we meet him and his four
34:53daughters.
34:54It's the last time we see him.
34:55But basically, he's gone from the scene.
34:58Henceforth, we lose sight of zealous and honored Philip.
35:01As by and by, we shall lose sight even of Peter.
35:05He's no longer going to play much of a role later on.
35:07I like this.
35:09As the chariot of the gospel rolls on, other agents are raised up, each suited to his work.
35:16But he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.
35:21And the chariot of the gospel has rolled on even to our day-to-day where we have heard it and got saved.
35:27And it will roll on after us until Jesus Christ comes back.
35:31I love that.
35:32And we all play a role in this.
35:34Philip had his role.
35:36We have our roles.
35:37Let's pray.
35:38Father, thank you.
35:39Thank you for this account of Philip and his obedience to you, his faithfulness to hear your voice and follow your word.
35:46Do exactly what you ask him to do.
35:49And that you accepted this Ethiopian eunuch, one that was never fully accepted, but you accepted and you brought him into your family.
35:56You made him your son.
35:58He belonged to you.
36:00And he carried that gospel message to his home.
36:03And we are so grateful that it spread to our time that we could hear the gospel as well.
36:09And that gospel chariot will roll on and roll on until you say it's in.
36:16Come home, my church.
36:17And even so, come Lord Jesus.
36:20Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:21Amen.
36:22Amen.
36:23Amen.
36:24Amen.
36:25Amen.
36:26Amen.
36:27Amen.
36:28Amen.
36:29Amen.
36:30Amen.
36:31Amen.
36:32Amen.
36:33Amen.
36:34Amen.
36:35Amen.
36:36Amen.
36:37Amen.
36:38Amen.
36:39Amen.
36:40Amen.
36:41Amen.
36:42Amen.
36:43Amen.
36:44Amen.
36:45Amen.
36:46Amen.
36:47Amen.
36:48Amen.
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