SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: You take your Bible or your device and make your way to the Book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: Book of Acts and chapter 8, before we witness, hear some testimonies and watch obedience taking place.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at God's word briefly together.
SPEAKER_01: And as we do this, if if along the way you are led to consider baptism yourself, we have another baptismal service tentatively planned for January 3rd.
SPEAKER_01: So if that is of interest to you as we go through this morning, please see one of our pastors or elders, and we will gladly walk through that with you.
SPEAKER_01: Curious in that it leads us to many, many questions.
SPEAKER_01: If we can go through this passage without questions, then we're not really reading it.
SPEAKER_01: We're not really grasping what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: It leads to many questions, some that are answerable, some that aren't.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: The record of scripture says, An angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.
SPEAKER_01: He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And the spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot.
SPEAKER_01: So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, Do you understand what you are reading?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, How can I unless someone guides me?
SPEAKER_01: And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
SPEAKER_01: Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this comes from Isaiah 53, beginning in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent.
SPEAKER_01: So he opens not his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: In his humiliation justice was denied him.
SPEAKER_01: Who can describe his generation?
SPEAKER_01: For his life is taken away from the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?
SPEAKER_01: About himself or someone else?
SPEAKER_01: And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, here is water.
SPEAKER_01: What prevents me from being baptized?
SPEAKER_01: And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
SPEAKER_01: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way, rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: And Philip found himself in an entirely different place, Azotis.
SPEAKER_01: And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There are several curious elements of this account.
SPEAKER_01: The first is the timing of the event.
SPEAKER_01: If you look back to the beginning of this chapter, you will see that a man named Saul is working desperately to exterminate the Church of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He's using every element, every authority, every power within his grasp to do away with Christians.
SPEAKER_01: It isn't until the next chapter, chapter nine, that God arrests that man, grants him the gift of faith, and turns him into the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: International missions, international evangelism is occurring before the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: That's one element that's strange.
SPEAKER_01: Why this timing?
SPEAKER_01: Why at this point in church history, before the Apostle Paul ever goes out to the Gentile nations, why is Philip taken to this individual?
SPEAKER_01: The second curious element is that the gospel went to Africa before it went to the rest of the Middle East to Asia and to Europe.
SPEAKER_01: In some ways, it reminds us of the book of Genesis, even, of Joseph being taken from the land of Canaan down into Egypt to prepare the way for his family.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, years, decades later, would tell his brothers, God sent me before you to preserve life.
SPEAKER_01: You have to wonder, this is an unanswered question.
SPEAKER_01: You have to wonder, if God isn't sending Philip to this man so that this man might go to his home in Africa to preserve life, eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Here, this this hitchhiker overran a chariot.
SPEAKER_01: That's odd.
SPEAKER_01: That's curious.
SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know about you, but I I wouldn't be so inclined to let someone I'd never met before push me down underneath the water.
SPEAKER_01: A little odd.
SPEAKER_01: There's a fourth curious element, though.
SPEAKER_01: In all of this, I think this is the most significant curious element.
SPEAKER_01: All of this happened because a man read his Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If that doesn't convince you that the word of God is indeed living and active, then I don't know what will.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we read our Bibles, because it is living and it is active.
SPEAKER_01: And here is a very clear demonstration of that activity of the living word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as with many key characters in the biblical narrative, we we never know this Ethiopian's name.
SPEAKER_01: It's not recorded for us, it's not left for us to call this man by name.
SPEAKER_01: We're told that he had traveled a great distance to specifically go to Jerusalem to worship at God's temple in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He traveled a great distance to worship, and he began his journey home without the solution to the emptiness in his soul.
SPEAKER_01: That's like going to church and having a great day at church and going home feeling empty, that something's missing.
SPEAKER_01: You missed out on something.
SPEAKER_01: So while riding in the desert reading his Bible, he's approached by Philip, and with his help, he finds that a recently crucified criminal is the answer to all of his questions.
SPEAKER_01: By the end of this brief encounter, this Ethiopian man quit trusting in his own strength and surrendered himself to this crucified and risen man.
SPEAKER_01: And because of what God did within him, he went on his way rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: His life was changed, his world was changed.
SPEAKER_01: God sent Philip out into the desert.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss that little part at the end of verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Luke, the historian, says, This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he say that?
SPEAKER_01: Again, if we can read this without asking questions, then we're missing everything.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he give that little sentence?
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a desert place, and there's no people in the desert.
SPEAKER_01: There's not much traffic on this international highway.
SPEAKER_01: If it's in the desert, there's not much water for baptisms.
SPEAKER_01: If it's in the desert, there's not much help for your thirsty soul.
SPEAKER_01: But God intervened.
SPEAKER_01: He told Philip, go.
SPEAKER_01: I have something for you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Go on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: And so Philip, in obedience, goes.
SPEAKER_01: And in many ways, this is a prelude to what happens next in chapter 9 with the conversion of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: God captures the heart of a man in the middle of nowhere to bring him to faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's an exemplification of John chapter 6, where Jesus says, no one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's a great illustration of that.
SPEAKER_01: If this Philip is the same Philip as chapter 6, which I believe it is, Philip was one of the first deacons of the church.
SPEAKER_01: But this deacon was gifted as a teacher and as an evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: And he was ordered by God out into the desert to meet a man who'd traveled over 200 miles from northern Africa to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Luke tells us he had come to worship.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27, he had come to Jerusalem to worship.
SPEAKER_01: At the very least, this man is religious.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably the simplest statement that we can make.
SPEAKER_01: At the very least, he's a religious man.
SPEAKER_01: Even more than that, we begin to ask some more questions.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what kind of religious man is he?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he is a Gentile convert to Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's a North African and he's not in any way Jewish, but he has converted to the Jewish faith, and so he feels this necessity to come to Jerusalem as a proselyte to worship at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: It's also possible that he is a man of Jewish descent.
SPEAKER_01: A large Jewish population existed for many, many centuries in northern Africa.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the case, God instructed Philip to approach this man driving along in his chariot and speak to him.
SPEAKER_01: God reached out to this man and is drawing him to the truth, and God gave him the gift of faith by hearing.
SPEAKER_01: By hearing the word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: That may be you.
SPEAKER_01: It's possible that God has drawn you here this morning because you, like this Ethiopian man, are searching for answers.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've read some of the Bible that you have and it doesn't make sense to you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've been to worship and maybe you've given thanks this week and yet there's something missing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Have you been looking high and low for something that brings sense to your life?
SPEAKER_01: If you are, then you probably know very clearly that bringing sense to your life doesn't come through thrills.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come through family or friends.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come through through a bottle or pills.
SPEAKER_01: You won't even find it in religion or even being a good person.
SPEAKER_01: This man seemingly had all he could want.
SPEAKER_01: He's a wealthy man.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he's in charge of a queen's treasure.
SPEAKER_01: He's got it made.
SPEAKER_01: This is before the days of self-automated driving.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody else is here in the chariot with him, driving his chariot, so he can sit back and read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He's got it made.
SPEAKER_01: He's got everything he needs, but something is missing.
SPEAKER_01: He had left the ritual of the temple in Jerusalem, having experienced the grand worship and the golden glory of Herod's magnificent temple, still searching for something more.
SPEAKER_01: He had, though, a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, or maybe it's just a part of the scroll, maybe it's a souvenir scroll from the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he had his own personal copy of Isaiah's book.
SPEAKER_01: That would have been very, very rare, but a wealthy person could potentially have his own copy.
SPEAKER_01: He's able to read, he's able to look at the words on the scroll and make sense of the words, but somehow there's a lack of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't understand if Isaiah is speaking about himself or someone else entirely.
SPEAKER_01: He's reading Isaiah 53 about God's servant.
SPEAKER_01: In his mind, he's wondering, is this servant Isaiah or is this servant somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: So God appoints Philip to provide the answers the man needs.
SPEAKER_01: Philip joins him in his chariot and asks him if he understands what he's reading.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we here at faith are so committed to expositional preaching and teaching.
SPEAKER_01: You have to understand.
SPEAKER_01: We want to make sense of what God says.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a man who's reading.
SPEAKER_01: He's familiar with the scripture text, but he doesn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: He's well educated.
SPEAKER_01: Most likely, he's very well educated.
SPEAKER_01: He clearly can read, most likely can write.
SPEAKER_01: He's a treasurer, so he can count.
SPEAKER_01: He's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: He's of high standing in society.
SPEAKER_01: But his response is evidence of his humility and his eagerness to understand.
SPEAKER_01: He says when he's asked, Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: He says, How can I unless someone guides me?
SPEAKER_01: And so Philip then uses this occasion not to tell the man about Isaiah, but to tell him all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You see that?
SPEAKER_01: Invited Philip to come up and sit with him, verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: He asks, Who does the prophet say this?
SPEAKER_01: Philip opened his mouth, beginning with this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He told him the gospel, the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It seems as though Philip didn't stop with that particular portion of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a good preacher, he just can't stop talking.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes on to one passage and then the next.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Listen, let's start here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not just going to look at this passage.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go through our whole testament and we're going to think about the passages that you are familiar with that point to a man I'm going to tell you about who was just crucified in the city of Jerusalem, who was buried, but now that tomb is empty.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's alive.
SPEAKER_01: Philip certainly would have told him about the very recent events in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Where Jesus was crucified.
SPEAKER_01: Where there was an earthquake on the day he was crucified, and people came out of the tombs alive.
SPEAKER_01: He surely told him about Jesus being buried in the tomb, sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers.
SPEAKER_01: He surely told him about on the third day the women running to the tomb to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Seeing Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And about the rest of the disciples later, all seeing this Jesus, this crucified Jesus, even Thomas the doubter, understanding very clearly this is the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He would have told them about God's Spirit working powerfully to bring people to faith in Jesus, and that they were baptized in demonstration of their new faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's all in the very first chapters of the book of Acts that have already happened.
SPEAKER_01: And as they're going along in the chariot, they pass by some water.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute, where are we?
SPEAKER_01: In the desert.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this is some kind of oasis in the desert and there's a sufficient pond of water.
SPEAKER_01: I can't help but think that because of Luke's statement in verse 26, that sort of out-of-the-way statement that this is a desert place, that God provided this miraculously.
SPEAKER_01: Can't prove that.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of my questions that's unanswered.
SPEAKER_01: Just seems very, very odd that here they are in the middle of a desert, emphasized again, and behold, there's water.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the case, the Ethiopian sees the water and he wants to be baptized.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to stop there again and ask some questions.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you stop your car on your way home by a small pond or a small lake and get yourself all wet with a stranger?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that significant enough of a moment to stop everything that you're doing and go through this process to go in the water, under the water, and come back up?
SPEAKER_01: Of course, those kinds of questions I think lead us to some particular answers.
SPEAKER_01: In this biblical culture, baptism was a demonstration of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it it signified to everyone that was watching or had heard about it that the person being baptized had had a change of heart, had a change of mind.
SPEAKER_01: They understood that they had been going in a particular direction, and they came to grasp that that direction was the wrong direction, and they're now committing themselves to a new direction.
SPEAKER_01: And when we connect that with the New Testament and what it tells us about people believing in Jesus, it takes on an even fuller sense.
SPEAKER_01: Those who came to trust in Jesus as the one who died for their sins were baptized.
SPEAKER_01: They were taken down into the water, they were put under the water and brought back up as a picture of dying to themselves, being buried, and raised to new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It was a way to identify themselves publicly with the one of whom Isaiah wrote, His life is taken away.
SPEAKER_01: This man, this Ethiopian man, repented.
SPEAKER_01: His old way of believing is gone.
SPEAKER_01: He believed what Philip explained.
SPEAKER_01: He believed that Isaiah was writing about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and he now has faith in Jesus, and he wants to obey that new master and publicly demonstrate his newfound faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's water.
SPEAKER_01: What prevents me from being baptized?
SPEAKER_01: I love this statement.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wonderful attitude.
SPEAKER_01: This man saying, there's absolutely no reason that I can think of for me to not be baptized.
SPEAKER_01: I've repented of my direction in life.
SPEAKER_01: I've confessed my sins.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trusting in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Why in the world should I not be baptized?
SPEAKER_01: God has provided water, He's provided faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's a key difference between we who are convinced of believers' baptism versus those who are convinced of infant baptism.
SPEAKER_01: Believers' baptism comes after a personal trust in and an identification with Christ as one's Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come before.
SPEAKER_01: This man wasn't baptized before.
SPEAKER_01: If he was Jewish or if he was a Jewish convert, he had some identification with the covenant community of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But now he's saying that connection no longer matters.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is my connection to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: His prerequisite for baptism here is genuine faith.
SPEAKER_01: Do you sincerely believe?
SPEAKER_01: This Ethiopian man professed his faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He had heard the good news of Christ dying for him in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: And that news that God had spoken hundreds of years earlier through Isaiah now enters his heart and his mind.
SPEAKER_01: He has heard and he has been given the gift of faith through hearing.
SPEAKER_01: He trusts in and identifies with Christ as his redeemer, and now he wants to be baptized.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to show that faith in a public way.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, this is the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, Jesus tells his disciples, as you're going, wherever you go, as you're going, make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And as you make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: Philip is fulfilling the great commission.
SPEAKER_01: He's been obedient to go.
SPEAKER_01: As he's going, he's made a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's made a disciple, he baptizes him.
SPEAKER_01: So here we see a great example of what baptism is supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: They went down into the water, they came up out of the water, in a sense, then symbolizing the death, burial, and resurrection to new life.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't do anything, it got him wet.
SPEAKER_01: It got him wet, but it publicly identified him with trusting in Christ, saying to the world, my faith is no longer in that golden temple in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: My faith is now in the one who died for me.
SPEAKER_01: All because he read his Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And the man went on his way.
SPEAKER_01: And as he went on his way, he took the gospel with him to Africa.
SPEAKER_01: What a wonderful demonstration of the gospel of what God has called us all to do and to be.
SPEAKER_01: Today we have the privilege to identify with some individuals who are taking this step to celebrate with them that public identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together and for them.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you, giving you thanks for who you are, for what you've done for us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you are worthy of our trust.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you are worthy of our identifying with you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, may we all together rejoice as this man rejoiced in this identification.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this world is full of hardship.
SPEAKER_01: It's full of grief and sorrow and pain.
SPEAKER_01: But when we identify with you, we come to understand there is a greater life coming.
SPEAKER_01: One that you have provided for all who trust in you because you paid for the sins of everyone who believes in you.
SPEAKER_01: We celebrate that this morning and ask that you will be honored and praised.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.