WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:11.119 When I was in the seventh grade, I became friends with this smart, cute girl in the eighth grade, which was a huge, huge deal. 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:18.399 This was a big deal to me because I was in seventh grade, she was in eighth grade, an older woman, and it was huge because I was not cute. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:23.120 I was incredibly skinny, I was awkward, but I had learned to be funny. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:26.719 And so we would talk on the phone at night and I would make her laugh. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:34.240 We would pass notes at school, but because we were in different grades, we would only pass twice in a given day, which gave me time, right? 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:38.240 It gave me time all day to get that note just right. 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:40.560 So clever and get the fold just right. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.200 So you pull the tab and the note unfolded and press her. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:46.960 And I thought I was doing great. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:51.039 I thought these conversations were great, the notes were clever. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:56.240 I was mustering together everything I had to go for it. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:57.039 Right? 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:59.600 Because at some point you gotta go for it. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.960 And so finally I wrote the note. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:05.359 The note. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.120 Will you go out with me? 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:14.319 I was pretty sure I was in love. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:20.640 And I waited a painful day for the response, the handoff. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:22.000 We crossed in the hallway. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:29.920 She handed her note off to me, and as soon as I could get alone, I read it, and when I read it, it was full of compliments. 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:32.239 That was a bad sign. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.359 It's not what I wanted. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:36.159 Not a good start. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.480 Full of compliments was not good. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.159 And then you know how it ended. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:47.840 Let's just be friends. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:49.760 Horrible news. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:51.439 Horrible news. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:52.719 A broken heart. 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:56.799 I was I was so close to love, right? 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.879 But I was not allowed any closer. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.519 And maybe you know the feeling, right? 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:25.520 Maybe you know the feeling because you can think about something silly in the middle school, or maybe you know the feeling because something's extremely real in your life right now, and maybe it is in romantic love, like you got close and it didn't happen, or you thought you had it, but then they did something else, or maybe it was something in success and we got so close, but then that didn't work out, or maybe even in faith. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:41.520 Like, oh, maybe the message you heard or you assumed was like, oh, you can be around, you can be around the things of God, but you aren't really good enough for God to actually abide or reside in your heart and mind and life. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:46.319 You are only good enough to sort of be on the outside looking in. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:03:06.879 And so we get this story in Acts 8, beginning in 26, and Philip gets one of those god nudges, uh, sends him south towards a desert down in Gaza, and he gets down there, he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who's a court official for an Ethiopian queen, and this guy had come to Jerusalem to worship. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:11.120 He has this passage from Isaiah, he's on his way back home. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.280 And so I'll reread part of the story picking up in verse 30. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:25.360 So Philip ran to him, to the Ethiopian eunuch, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you're reading? 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.960 And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me? 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.560 In other words, like I'm reading it, but I don't get it. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:34.719 I need some help. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:37.520 And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:47.840 Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shears, is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.159 In his humiliation, justice was denied him. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.080 Who can describe his generation? 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.560 For his life is taken away from the earth. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:00.000 And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.479 About himself or about someone else? 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:09.759 And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:11.360 So a few points. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.160 Point number one is this curiosity in the pursuit of truth is a good thing. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:18.959 Curiosity in the pursuit of truth, that's a good thing. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:20.720 To be curious is a good thing. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:24.079 This man is reading and asking questions of this scripture. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:25.600 That's a good thing. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:35.519 You don't have to be scared of the Bible, you don't have to be scared to ask questions of the Bible, to ponder it, to study it, to ask other people, to process through it. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:37.600 That's a good thing. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:40.959 We pick back up in verse 36. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:53.360 I'll read 36 through 38, but there's no verse 37, because verse 37 was added in a later transcript, not in the earliest transcript, so there's something for you to be curious about for this week. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:55.680 A verse just isn't there. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:57.680 Verse 36. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:04.639 And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is the water. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:07.120 What prevents me from being baptized? 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:09.360 No, verse 37, verse 38. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:11.519 And he commanded the chariot to stop. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:16.959 And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:21.360 Point number two, curiosity, overwhelmed by truth, creates belief. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:25.439 Curiosity, curiosity includes unbelief. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.680 That's why you're curious, you don't know. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:35.360 But when it becomes overwhelmed by what is true, that creates belief. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:39.600 And we know this happened with the eunuch because he was baptized. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:45.600 And for them, baptism was the symbol, it still is for Christians, of coming into the family of God. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.639 So a real conversion occurred here. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:55.439 He didn't know, he didn't understand, and then he did. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:58.480 And I'm fascinated by this process. 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:09.040 I mean, I'm fascinated anytime there's a process that somebody comes into face to face with truth, and then new belief is formed. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:16.399 A conversion occurs because I feel like most of the time we just use information to buttress a position we already hold, right? 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:19.839 Like if you're a liberal, you just listen to news on NPR. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.040 If you're a conservative, you just listen to news on Fox News, right? 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:27.680 And that's what you do, and we all just buttress the opinions we already have. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:30.959 Rarely, rarely are we like this eunuch. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.079 And just are some like just raw curiosity. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:45.279 And just seeking truth without a position already formed to look to uphold that position, but you just want to know what's true. 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:47.920 This happened to me last week. 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:50.639 I heard a quote and it changed me. 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:53.920 I went from one belief to another. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:07:01.199 So my oldest daughter is beginning into the years where she tells me how the world works. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.560 She's about to turn ten. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:09.040 So, up to this point, my parenting philosophy has been this. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:13.519 This is what I have, I have signed onto this philosophy probably the past five years. 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:21.839 I will go through the preteen and teenage years of parenting, and I will be the most amazing, patient, gracious father you could ever believe. 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:26.079 I will listen to all this nonsense from my child, and I will wait. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.360 10, 15, 20 years, I don't know. 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:44.319 I will wait, I will be amazing, I will be patient, I'll be gracious, I'll listen to all of this, and I will sit there and I'll nod, and I will wait for the day where she comes back and she'll say, Dad, you were the wise one. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:48.560 The entire time, you were so wise. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.160 That was amazing how patient you were with me, Dad. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:54.160 So that was my position. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:58.560 That's truly how I was gonna approach the next 15 years of my life. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.399 And then I heard this quote and it changed. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:07.600 The young teach the old how the world is changing. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:11.439 The old teach the young how the world stays the same. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:14.399 As soon as I heard it, my belief changed. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:17.519 I went from one position to another immediately. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:23.680 A conversion in my parenting philosophy for the next 15 years changed with one quote. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:29.839 I never really believed that she or any of my other children would really have something to teach me. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:34.879 I never maybe I would have said it to them, but I never really believed it. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:41.440 And I heard that quote and I realized, oh, no, no, no, no, no. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:48.320 There's gonna be a whole lot that I need them to teach me about how the world is changing. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:53.679 And at the same time, they're gonna need me to teach them how the world stays the same. 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:56.960 And a conversion occurred, right? 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.120 And she will teach me filled with lots of rolled eyes, right? 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.919 I'll still have to be patient and gracious. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:08.480 But a conversion, a truth, a truth created new belief. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.039 So we have this man reading Isaiah. 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:13.360 He's told a new thought about the passage. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:17.360 Philip lays out the gospel, uses that passage, lays out the gospel. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:30.480 Jesus fulfilled this passage, and in a moment, this man has moved from no belief in Jesus as his absolution acceptance before God, to a belief in Jesus as his absolution and acceptance before God. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:34.159 And this man had been around temple, he just came from the Temple Mount. 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:38.000 He'd seen all these sacrifices made over and over and over again. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:47.759 So then when Philip lays out before this man, hey, by the way, God's the sacrifice. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:55.519 Hey, by the way, God's the final sacrifice, hey, by the way, all those sacrifices is to help you to understand you can never sacrifice enough. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:57.840 You need a final sacrifice. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.320 And God is loving and gracious and incarnated Himself. 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:10.000 And our sin is put upon Jesus, the final sacrifice, so you don't have to sacrifice another sacrifice or yourself anymore. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:16.399 And his righteousness is given to you, and you are his child as you believe in Jesus. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:17.840 Conversion. 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.679 Last point, point number three. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:24.320 The love of God is limitless. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:26.000 It's the same point. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:27.360 Point number three is always the same, right? 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:28.720 You've picked up on that. 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:34.080 The gospel is the opposite of the note I received from the eighth-grade girl. 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:37.440 Let's just be friends. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:38.320 Right? 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:40.080 Like you can come around. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.159 We can talk on the phone. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:43.600 Not too close. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:45.039 Not too much. 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:48.639 You can come to Jerusalem. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:51.759 You can even come up on the Temple Mount. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:53.200 Not the temple. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:59.360 You can stay way back there in the outer courts with the people who don't fit in. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:00.720 That's where you belong. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:11.200 And then in the book of Acts, this radical gospel is released, which goes to people of other religions, other races, and now we get a eunuch. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:18.559 And I am guessing, I'm making a big guess here, that you have not been doing devotional studies on eunuchs. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:19.759 Just a guess. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.080 You only laugh if you know what a eunuch is. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:24.720 Everybody else is like, why would I laugh at that? 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:27.039 So a few details. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:31.039 By definition, a eunuch is a castrated male. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:44.399 In the ancient world, this could have been done before puberty to force that male into servanthood to guard king's wives or concubines, and then the individual wouldn't be tempted to have sex with any of them. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:50.960 Or this could have been done out of their own volition by some religious conviction before some God. 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:54.399 Or this could have been because they were born this way. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:03.840 Now the term itself does not mean they had a particular sexual practice, but it was common for eunuchs to have a wide range of sexual behaviors. 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:13.600 They never went through puberty, their voices were high, they usually didn't have families, they had no kids, they were loners and they were outsiders, they just didn't fit in. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:29.360 And then we know from the law of God in the Old Testament, within the rules of who could enter the temple, we read in Deuteronomy 23:1 no one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:31.600 I know, not your memory verse. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:32.879 I know that. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:40.000 It's the verse one middle school boy shows another middle school boy and they giggle. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:41.759 That's the verse. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:47.120 But this is what this is talking about. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:48.879 That's what this man is. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:49.759 Is this? 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.600 This is what this man is. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:59.679 And this Deuteronomy 23 list, this is a list that just keeps rolling out people to the outside. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:05.279 Like, yeah, and you got no shot, and you got no shot, and you got no shot, and you're back there, and get out of here. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:07.759 Don't even come close to the presence of God. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:12.639 You can't get close and you can't get close and you can't get close, which is the ultimate point. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:21.039 By law, by works, and by merit, you will never be right with God or yourself. 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.879 Jesus drives the home, the point home even more. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.440 He just, oh, oh, you think the laws don't commit murder? 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:31.039 Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:33.120 Never be angry. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:36.879 Oh, oh, you think the laws is don't have an affair? 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:37.840 No, no, no, no, no. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:40.879 Never lust over another person. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:48.879 And then he destroys religious and cultural norms as he befriends and loves the very people who have been deemed and held on the outside. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:51.360 So the law destroys us. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:55.360 And then the grace of Jesus completely rescues us. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:59.519 Can you imagine what it must have been like for this eunuch? 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:04.559 To be at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and there are people everywhere. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:11.120 Go up these huge steps, these huge doors and these walls, up on the temple mount, there's all these different courts. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:12.399 Everybody's divided up. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:13.279 Who can go where? 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:17.519 Who can get so close to the temple, which is the presence of God? 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:19.679 And where does this guy go? 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:22.639 Well, he's not allowed in there. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:25.919 He's not allowed in the temple. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:28.240 He's not allowed in the presence of God. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.000 He's not good enough for that. 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:32.639 He's on the outside looking in. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.759 And he has felt this way his entire life. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:40.000 He has been rejected his entire life. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:43.120 But he's reading Isaiah. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:47.759 And the Spirit of God loves him. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:53.519 And sends Philip all the way south, and then sends Philip right to him. 00:14:54.559 --> 00:15:01.039 And this shows us God's regard to this man that so many religious people would have walked right by. 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:06.879 And in this way, this passage calls us and it comforts us. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:10.399 It calls us because it shows us the gospel goes to all people. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.600 And anybody who has open ears here. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:16.720 But our call is to engage and to love. 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:18.879 Love your neighbor, go into all nations. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:22.399 All that missional language is here with Philip. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:25.120 And it stings a bit. 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:34.399 Because what it means is your possible judgment of another person is not always the same as God's loving regard toward that person. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:39.120 Maybe you judge that person because they aren't like you. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:40.799 They don't look like you. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:42.720 They weren't raised like you. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:44.159 They don't dress like you. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:45.919 They don't have the same ideals as you. 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.000 Maybe they don't have the same morals as you. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:06.879 So that stings a bit, that's the calling which stings a bit to our self-righteousness. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:09.840 It's incredibly challenging. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.000 And yet it's comforting. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:17.200 Because if it's true for him, it's true for me. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:18.000 Right? 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.320 If it's true for him, it's true for you. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:28.080 So your volatile judgment toward yourself is not God's loving regard toward you. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.000 There's the comfort. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.360 Because you felt like the outsider looking in. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:35.120 You felt rejected. 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:37.679 The one who doesn't deserve God's presence. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.360 You don't live up to the law of God or the standard He set before you. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:42.080 But you know what? 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:43.440 That's not the whole truth about you. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:48.639 You are crushed by the law, but you are relieved by the grace of God in Jesus. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:56.000 A few chapters later in Isaiah, in Isaiah 56, we read this. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:01.039 And let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:16.559 For thus says the Lord, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:21.279 I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:27.599 You see, in Jesus, the outsider holds an everlasting name. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:31.839 And maybe you feel like the outsider because you don't have it all together. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.039 Because you're broken, you're imperfect, you're in need. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:44.000 But listen, in Jesus, God gives you a monument better, better than even sons and daughters. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:52.799 My brothers and sisters, maybe you feel like that outsider looking in, but no, in Jesus you have an everlasting name. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:54.079 Let's pray together. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:13.920 Thank you, God, that you, that your love is limitless to who you love and how you love and how much you love, that the work of Jesus was truly enough for all people, for any person, that him or her who has ears hear this? 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:23.680 Would you call us to be people not of self-righteousness, not of judgment, but people of grace and love? 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:32.319 And would you comfort us because all of us need the comfort of the grace of God because all of us have felt rejected. 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:34.799 We have all felt like the outsider. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:42.480 We all know we don't live up to what we should, even when we try to pretend like or look like we do. 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.599 God, we thank you that Jesus is that sufficient. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:54.480 That in the work of Jesus, this gospel goes out seeking the lost and the broken. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:55.680 In Jesus' name. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:56.319 Amen.