God promises to instruct and teach in the way to go, and counsel with his loving eye
1 Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
7 You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
9 Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
10 Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh.
11 Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
referenced before the offering as a favorite verse: let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives
1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
6 for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7 You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
8 but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
9 Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
11 where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
17 Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.
18 Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them.
20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged.
22 Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
23 And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
25 But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.
God's promise that foreigners and eunuchs who keep his covenant will be given a place and an everlasting name within his walls
1 Yahweh says, “Maintain justice, and do what is right; for my salvation is near, and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Let no foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant:
5 I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that will not be cut off.
6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to serve him, and to love Yahweh’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;
7 I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8 The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered.”
9 All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12 “Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
the passage the Ethiopian eunuch was reading: led like a lamb to slaughter, silent before his shearers, taken away by oppression
7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
the main sermon text: Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, the desert road encounter, and the baptism
26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”
27 He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.
28 He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”
30 Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”
35 Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.
36 As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”
38 He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.
spoken as the benediction: let the message of Christ dwell among you richly, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
17 Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened the new year with a baptism, a covenant membership ceremony, and communion, and used the occasion to preach from Acts 8 on Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The sermon traced what baptism is, where it comes from, and what it means for someone who believes in Jesus. The whole service, from Noah's baptism to the Lord's Supper, kept circling back to the same question Philip asked on that desert road: here is water, what hinders you?
What was said
the pastor started with a quick tour of baptism as it has been practiced across church history, from the nude immersions pictured in the Roman catacombs, to the mikvahs of first-century Judaism, to infant sprinkling in high church traditions, to the full immersion of believers in rivers across Wyoming. He explained that the word itself means to plunge or to dip, and that the practice shifted in the New Testament from a repeated ritual washing to a one-time initiation rite. First B practices believers baptism, and does not require a particular method, though immersion is the preference.
He set up Acts 8 by recapping what had just happened in the early church: Stephen was stoned, believers scattered from Jerusalem, and Philip, one of the seven chosen to serve, ended up doing significant gospel work in Samaria. Right in the middle of that fruitful season, an angel told Philip to leave and go to a desert road. Philip got ready and went.
On that road he found a wealthy Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, riding in a chariot and reading aloud from Isaiah. The pastor pointed out that this man had traveled an enormous distance to worship in Jerusalem, carrying on a thread that may stretch back to the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon a thousand years before. But as a eunuch and a foreigner, he would not have been permitted into the assembly.
The passage the eunuch was reading was from Isaiah 53, the suffering servant who was led like a lamb to slaughter and did not open his mouth. The eunuch asked Philip who the prophet was talking about. Philip opened his mouth, beginning from that very scripture, and preached Jesus to him. The pastor paused there and asked whether the congregation could do the same, starting from a question someone brings and pointing toward Jesus.
As they traveled, they came to water, and the eunuch asked what was preventing him from being baptized. Verse 37 in older manuscripts records Philip's answer: if you believe with all your heart, you may, and the eunuch's reply, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The pastor noted that those older manuscripts do not include this verse, but said it reads like a clarification of what was already clearly happening. They went down into the water together, and the eunuch came up and went on his way rejoicing.
The pastor drew a line from that scene to what had happened that morning in the baptistery. Noah had stood up and said he was blessed that Jesus died for his sins and he was glad to accept Him as his Savior. That, the pastor said, is what we are listening for. The spirit called Philip to one specific man on a desert road, Philip spoke, the man believed, and the water was right there. The same logic applies now: if it makes sense to you that Jesus is Lord and that obedience calls for baptism, here is water, what hinders you?
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Philip got up and went immediately when the angel gave him directions, even though it meant leaving a fruitful ministry in Samaria for a desert road. What makes that kind of immediate obedience difficult, and what would help us respond the same way?
The Ethiopian eunuch would not have been allowed into the assembly in Jerusalem because of who he was, yet he was reading Isaiah 56, which promised him a place and a name in God's house. What does it do to your understanding of the gospel to see God specifically sending Philip to reach someone the religious system had excluded?
Alright. Good morning, everybody. Happy New Year. Good to see you. I wanna share, just a little something from John four, a profound truth to lead us into worship.
It says, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
What do
say we do
that to kick off the the New Year? Would you stand with me? We'll sing. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Let's make this our prayer song. Spirit, come
and fill this place.
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements, I think. Let's see what comes up together. Monday nights at first b.
Is it happening, Carl?
It is. Tomorrow, we're on meal, music, message, six 06:00 down the hall. Felix in Guadalupe will be cooking, and we're in, Mark chapter four and into chapter five. Jesus is doing miracles. He's calming the sea.
He's healing a man that's, possessed by a demon. He's flexing his muscles and showing his power, his authority. So love for you to join studies, conversation style, and it's just really good and edifying.
Meal, music, miracles, Mexican food. All right. That sounds good. Monday nights at First B, Connect Hour volunteers. If you would like to volunteer for Connect Hour or for making a Monday night meal, we'd love for you to do that.
You can get in touch with me or the office, and we can help you figure out how to do that. Alright. Fresh New Year. If you would like to sign up for the, First Be Bible Reading Plan, it'll be delivered to your inbox each morning. And Brad, this morning, got up.
Brad Yates, would you stand up for a second? Hey. Hey. He wasn't expecting that. He is sort of the editor of this, not sort of.
He is the editor of this thing. So he kinda spurs us on, stirs us up into love and good works and gets the people who write the things. Do you have anything you wanna say about it? It's good, and it's good for you. Yeah.
That's great. Thank you, Brad. I appreciate that. Yes, Natalie?
I submit a last minute announcement?
Oh, sure. Wednesday, January Wednesday, January 11? 10AM. 10AM. Okay.
Alright. So is that a Wednesday?
Wednesday, 10AM,
Junction Hole Community Bible Study, Women's Bible Study will be right here starting 10AM.
It'll be in the newsletter before too long. Can I have
the almonds come forward? Patrick and Jenny, come forward. We have a baptism this morning, covenant ceremony, communion. We got all kinds of sweet stuff. Lots of 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag.
And so it's called a ceremony, but I'm not terribly ceremonial. Patrick and Jenny and Owen and Crosby and Asher's downstairs have been a part of the family life here for some time and they are kind of making it official this morning. So I love you all, I'm going cry, sorry. Sorry. Basically, it comes down to this.
They're coming forward saying that we're a part of this fellowship. And so I'm going ask you all if you all would do your best. And I know that you all are leading things and going into leading more things. But would you do your best to both lead and be led by this church, by this fellowship of believers right here? Do you have anything you want to say?
We have a microphone right here.
I'm no Brad Yates. No, we're just we feel very blessed by this family. Jenny and I were kind of maybe it's embarrassing or also laughable that it's actually the first church we've officially joined since being here for eight years. And so it's a blessing, and we feel honored to to make this our home. So
they have thank you.
Yeah.
Amen. That's good. So they are seeking to lead and be led by this church, be a part of this fellowship. Would you who attend regularly, those of you who are members, would you do your best to serve this family, We're this in be be midst this We're
And
now I'm going to invite up Noah Radek. Noah, do you have anything you wanna say?
I'm blessed that Jesus died for my sins, and I'm glad to accept him as my savior.
Savior. Amen. Amen. Wow, buddy. My Amen.
Wow. I told him, if you want to, you're welcome to make a statement, but what you're doing right now about baptism is making a statement already. So we're going to step into the pool. So with that confession of faith that you just made out loud, and we've talked about this before for several weeks. We've been talking about it.
You know, obedience to the command of our Lord and savior, I now baptize you my brother, Noah, in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ,
Ain't it cool to be a part of the life of the church? It really is. And things like this, the baptisms and inviting members in and just being a part of the family of God. It's really awesome. I'm thankful.
Shall we sing again? Only king forever.
Alright. I've got a firm foundation. I've got a firm foundation. I'll be on the solid ground as nations rise and fall. The kingdoms once strong now shaken.
We trust forever in your name. The name of Jesus. I said we trust. We trust the name of Jesus. You're the only king forever.
You are the only king forever. A mighty God, we lift you higher. You are the only king forever. Forevermore. You are victorious.
Unmatched in all his wisdom
unmatched in all your wisdom in love just as you will name of Jesus.
And that's who we trust.
We trust the name of Jesus. You are the only king forever.
Let's sing we lift.
We lift our banner ride.
Isn't it cool? We are worshiping God forever, the king forever. The Lord rules over the flood flood waters. The Lord reigns as king forever. Let's keep that in mind as we are worshiping that he rules as king forever.
And I will trust. Always are morning by morning, ladies, your faithfulness to me. I fear be reminded. I will trust you. Where you lead.
And I will trust. I can't see. Morning by morning. It morning by morning. Oh, morning by morning, great is your faithfulness to me.
Listen to this good word. It's from Psalm 32. God's saying, will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. Even when we can't see, I'll instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go, and I'll counsel you with my loving eye on you. That's what God does.
Indeed, I find. Can't change the left And we're before the throne. I stand in your comfort. I lay my
Man, you can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers forward. If we might have some, I I hope we do. But we're gonna sing, speak o Lord.
And from Colossians three, this is one of my my favorite verses. It says, let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. But before we we sing, Ray, would you would you pray?
Sure. God almighty, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for this New Year, Lord. The calendar turns, and you you don't change, Lord. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.
There's great hope. There's great stability in you. So, God, I pray that we would be looking to you as the songs have said this morning, that we'd recognize that you paid it all and that we would, Lord, be looking for your spirit to fall afresh on us, that you are the only king forever. God almighty, the music is speaking this morning. I pray that you would do your will and your way in through among us, Lord.
Those who are gathered here in your name that we would walk out of this sanctuary and into, the mission field, that we would, carry, the name of Jesus with us, that we carry, the good gospel of a saving God who loves and forgives. In Jesus' name, Lord, we pray, that we'd be a a part of your solution, for this, world. In Jesus' name, we we want to find ourselves as Colossians three as Colossians says, we wanna find ourselves in him, that you're reconciling all things to yourself by the same spirit that raised Jesus from dead by the power displayed at the cross to take away the sins of the world. Lord God almighty, it's overwhelming when we think of it. It's a flood.
In Jesus' name, Lord, would you do your will in and through us this morning? Would you teach us? Would you have us learn? In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. And it's time for Children's Church downstairs. And there they go. It's exciting to see new members coming in. It's exciting to see people get baptized.
I when thinking about this morning, I'm thinking, okay, we broke away from our Harmony of the Gospel study for Christmas. We do that for three weeks or so. Before I go back, since we were doing a baptism this morning, I
thought I'm going to do
a topical sermon about baptism. And topical sermons to me mean exhaustive research, and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So I went back to a baptism passage, how about that, from Acts eight. A couple of things. This is the one about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
Interesting story. It's not a long story, but it's I think it's very, very interesting and helpful. And so we'll look at that. But beforehand, I've got a few pictures. This is from the catacombs.
From the catacombs, it's a picture of an early baptism. This is you might notice the guy's naked. Naked, I should say, nude, naked. That was the common practice of the church for a long time. Colossians three speaks of taking off or putting off the things and then putting on new things, taking off and putting on.
And they took that pretty literally at the at baptism would take off their robes and then enter into baptism coming out and be given a new robe on the other side. That was a fairly common thing. We see that in multiple catacombs. The officiant did wear clothes, but you see that right there, not many. When you show up in the morning, I've got on the black shorts, there's a baptism.
This is a mikvah. A mikvah is a purification bath. This one is from around the time of Herod the Great. On our trip to Israel, we saw these mikvahs. Baptism, as we practice it, is usually an initiation It's coming into.
It's one of the two ordinances that we follow and actually we'll do both of those today, the Lord's Supper and baptism. Mikvahs were a common purification ritual And that's something that in Greek, that's one form of a word. And then in the New Testament, it switches almost entirely over to this initiation rite. John the Baptist baptized people as for repentance of sins rather than for the ritual washing. Does that make sense?
You all are sitting out there like an oil painting this morning. My goodness. So that's a Miqvah. This is a painting from the 1500s, and it has Peter, the baptism of the neophytes is what this is called. And every time that I think about, okay, what are we going to do for baptism, I think of a little professor of mine who's built like Barney five.
He's about this big. And he had the comportment of Mr. Rogers. I loved the guy dearly. He wrote Acts for the New Living Translation of the Bible.
Bill Larkin was his name. And I heard a guy, meet him in the hall one day and said, Doctor. Larkin, I'm struggling with baptism. He goes, When considering baptism, one must think of at least seven things. And he started, effusion, aspersion, immersion, submersion, had all these different ways that baptism had been practiced over the years.
I come out of a Southern Baptist tradition where to join the church you come forward right at the invitation To receive Christ, you'd come forward during the invitation. And they meet you with the right hand of Christian fellowship if you're coming to join the church, but you have to be baptized by immersion. It has to be all the way under. Don't know if they don't need video proof, but you have to say you're baptized, you went all the way under. We are not as strict about the method of baptism here, but I will say this, I belong to the school of thought that we're going to go over today in the sermon, Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.
I say, Here is water. What hinders you? Right? Here is water. What hinders you from being baptized?
Throughout the traditions of the church, there have been various times where people reserve baptism until the very end because they didn't want to sin again after baptism. Does this So they would hold it off until the absolute very end and it's kind of hard to dunk somebody who's in the deathbed. And so they would sprinkle them or they would doused them, but not so much dunk them. The word itself means to plunge or to dip as in you're dying something. So we'll go with that's why we do it the way we do it, but we're not going to arm wrestle anybody over proper method.
This is one way you may have seen in the past where a baby comes forward, there's a little baptismal pool and they take a little bit of water and they dunk it on the head. Maybe three times, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you'll see that in lots of different traditions, usually high church traditions, usually Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and that's one way. This is an Eastern Orthodox baptism rite. That is a deeper pool. They dump babies.
That's a surprise for the baby, usually. It would be a surprise for a Baptist in the room too, but just all the way down and all the way back up. Infant baptism, we typically practice believers baptism here. And so it comes from a long line. In the history of the church, there was a group that had the audacity to rebaptize people.
They were called the Anabaptist, Anabaptist being again baptized again. So they had the audacity to take someone who had been baptized as a child but didn't know anything about it, didn't really understand what was going on. And when they come to an age that they realize, I really think this is mine, not just my parents, not just covenant between them and God, but it's mine. I want to be baptized again. The Anabaptist had the audacity to baptize them again.
It was seen as heresy for a while there. And met with pretty open hostility even to the point that some Anabaptists were drowned for having the audacity to baptize again, labeled as heretics. Like I said, I'm not as strict about the way you do what you do, but it is an an initiation, not in a hazing sort of situation, but it's a voluntary thing that is if you feel, I know Jesus, just like Noah said this morning, I feel blessed to know Jesus as my savior, and I wanna take this first step of obedience and go. Yes. Let's do it.
Old picture, baptism in the river. That's on the steps of the baptistry in Florence. Pascal and I are sitting there. This is Judy Wales being baptized up in Jackson Lake. Oh, what a beautiful day that was.
This is one right before it snowed this year, down the Salt River access in Grover, Wyoming. Two
of
the Larson boys were baptized that day. Slade, Ross and Wyatt and Reagan were baptized down just past Swinging Bridge. What a privilege it is. I think of Jesus going to John and saying, baptize me. And John's like,
you don't need
to be baptized. You don't have any sin. You don't you don't need to be baptized. You you don't need to repent. You're the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
And Jesus said, come on, John. In order that we may fulfill all righteousness, acting as our example, he said, come on. So that we may and John didn't argue anymore and he did it. Oh, and the father speaks from heaven. The Holy Spirit descends like a dove.
This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I say I'm not ceremonial, but the longer I'm here, the the more so I get. 189 weddings and 70 funerals and a lot of baptisms. This one was in the River Jordan. That's an ugly face I'm making right there.
Never noticed that before. The last time that I was home for a couple of days, a good friend from high school called and she has a 25 year old son who's nonverbal autistic, but he's a believer in Jesus. So we baptized him in my good good close friend's pool. Baby dedication, we don't have one today that I know of. But we do what is normally in a high church setting might be an infant baptism.
We call it a baby dedication. It's a dry situation. We don't let them, but it's virtually the same thing. It's sort of an agreement between congregation and family that we'll do our best. Like we said, with the almonds up this morning, we'll do our best to try to raise these kids up.
Okay. Summary of Acts eight so far for context, and then we'll get right into the message. There was a scattering of believers
to 20
half 20
that to
20 going first first
the we're we're half
able we're that. And to to going some people that will handle the temporal matters of things. And so so because it was the Greek widows who are being overlooked, they said, Choose from among you seven people that you trust, and we'll do a good job at this. And there were seven. And all those names were Greek names, by the way.
One of them was Stephen, one of them was Philip. They worked and deacon, the word itself means kicking up dust, people who are getting things done, and Stephen very much was. In Chapter seven, we see that Stephen, just like Jesus, for simply speaking the truth of God and for living out his faith, he was stoned. In chapter eight, we see that that stoning, you know, Jesus had said, you're gonna be my witnesses right here in Jerusalem, but also in Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost parts, and they were all huddled up in Jerusalem until Stephen's stoning. And then at Stephen's stoning, they spread out.
So scattered believers from Jerusalem after Stephen's stoning, and there was a great move of the spirit in Samaria. Now Jesus had been through Samaria multiple times. He had stopped, and we had seen what we might call revival in Samaria before when he stayed there for three days after his encounter with the woman at the well. We see that great move of the spirit in Samaria happening in Acts eight, and things are going really great for the advance of the gospel. In specific, it mentions that Philip is ministering in Samaria, and Philip is one of those deacons.
He's kind of an official guy that's supposed to be kicking up dust and carrying the gospel forward, and it's going through a really, really great time. So this is where we're going to start. Acts twenty eight twenty five. When they had solemnly testified and they had spoken the word of the Lord and they started back towards Jerusalem, they were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. This is a missionary enterprise, and they're going forward.
But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and said, Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. So there's this fruitful time in Samaria, they're bouncing from village to village, and things are going like gangbusters. He says, All right, Philip, I want you to get ready and go to this desert place where there's not anybody living alongside the road. So he got ready and he went.
I love that. I love. Get ready and go. So he got ready and went. He listened to the message that was given to him by the messenger.
And there, he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch. Now it is a long way from where he was to Ethiopia. And Ethiopia was a much bigger place then than it is now. But it's a long, long journey. He got ready and he went and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of Ethiopians.
Candace actually is a term that means queen. There are a long line of them. If you think back in your biblical history and you think of Ethiopia and you think of a queen, the Queen of Sheba came up from around the same place in nine fifty BC or BC, however you count that. Nine fifty BC, so about a thousand years before, not quite a thousand years before, the Queen of Sheba came up to listen to Solomon's wisdom and was very, very impressed. Went back home and then a thousand years later, there is this Ethiopian eunuch.
It says that he was in charge of all of her treasure. Candace, queen of the Ethiopians is a very, very wealthy place. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. Can you think about that? A thousand years after the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon that this tradition is carried forward.
And so this eunuch comes forward. Now you might be thinking, eunuch, what is a eunuch? Oh my goodness.
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they were the persons who had charge of the bed chambers and palaces in larger homes. Then But as the jealous and dissolute temperament of the East required this charge to be in the hands of persons who had been deprived of their virility, The word unit came naturally to denote persons in that condition. But as some of these rose to be confidential advisers of their royal master and mistresses, the word was occasionally employed just to denote persons in such positions of power without indicating anything of their proper manhood. It goes on, there are nine other definitions. Castrated male is what most short definitions would say.
That's an interesting thing because in that time and in this, it's a difficult thing when you're dealing with anything surrounding sexuality. Well, this Ethiopian eunuch was returning. He was sitting in his chariot, wealthy, and he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Why would he be reading Isaiah the prophet? Would you start in Genesis?
Maybe he'd studied Genesis already. It's hard to say. But there are a few things that stand out from Isaiah. We're going to see that in a minute because he'll mention the scripture that he was studying specifically. But the spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot.
Run along this Desert Road. Get up there beside him. And so Philip, what's he do? Philip ran up. I love that, go, went.
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you're reading? Do you get it? It's actually a pun. In Greek, it's a pun. You get what you're getting up there?
You understand that? I'm going say because he's reading Isaiah, we'll get back to what he actually was reading, but because he's a eunuch listen to this. There are a lot of traditions that had grown up in the church. There are a lot of in the synagogue. There are a lot of traditions that had grown up, and there were lots of rules.
And so he went up as a god fearer to study and to be a part of the celebration to worship in Jerusalem, but he would not have been allowed into the assembly as a eunuch. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people. Don't ever let a stranger, a foreigner, say that I'm not a part of God's people. If he's claiming to be a part of God's people, somebody who's joined himself to the Lord, don't ever let that person speak saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people. Nor do you let the eunuch say, here I am, just a dry tree.
For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name that's better than the sons that of sons and daughters. And I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. That's Isaiah 56. So same scroll that he's reading, we'll go back to the text. He said, well, how could I how could I understand this unless someone guides me?
Now the spirit of the Lord had called him to go alongside this chariot to catch up with this guy to guide him. How could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit down with him. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this, he was led like a sheep to slaughter and like a lamb that is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his justice was taken away.
Who will describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth? That is one of the suffering servant passages from Isaiah. Isaiah 53, it's part of verse seven, part of verse eight. Here's Isaiah 53, seven and eight. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living for the wrongdoing of my people to whom the blow was due? That is a picture of someone that is stepping in on behalf of others. Seven hundred something years beforehand.
Written seven hundred something years beforehand. And that's the passage scripture he was reading. And the eunuch turns to Philip sitting there next to him and said, please tell me, of whom does this prophet say this? Is he speaking about himself or is he speaking about someone else? And then Philip opened his mouth and he and beginning from this very place in scripture, he preached Jesus to him.
It's about Jesus. The Old Testament is about Jesus. It's pointing towards Jesus. And Philip was able under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and motivated by the Holy Spirit and knowing Jesus, he was able to start from that scripture and go and preach to him the gospel. If I were doing application point, might say, can you do that?
If somebody comes to you with a question and says, what does this mean? Can you start from that place and point towards Jesus? I think that's a good goal that we would seek to understand it to know so that we can be a part of this advance of the gospel. Philip opened his mouth beginning from this scripture. He preached Jesus to him, and as they went along the road, they came to some water.
And the eunuch said, look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? What hinders me? What's what's hey, there's water. It's a Desert Road.
You don't see this often. Here it is. This is our opportunity. What prevents me from being baptized? That's verse 36 and it goes on, and he ordered that the chariot stop.
And they went both went down into the water. And Philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized him. Now did you see that, that it went from verse 36 to 38? I use the New American Standard Version of the Bible. That's the norm.
37, where did it go? This is another one of those things. 37, verse 37. If you look it up in the King James, New King James, the authorized standard version, any of the older versions that use the Textus Receptus tradition, it says this. So it goes from, let me get back to this.
It goes from, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And verse 37 says, then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said that, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That's virtually exactly what Noah said this morning. That is what we're listening for.
That is what we're hoping for. The tradition, Textus Receptus versus the other, traditions, The older manuscripts don't have this verse in it. And that's problematic. I know I could see it on your faces. You go, but, but, but, but.
Well, this is definitely what needs to be proclaimed for sure. But when Philip was speaking to that guy and he showed him the way and he accepted that way, he ordered the chariot stop and they went both down into the water, Philip as well as eunuch, and he baptized him. That's what it says. We're certain of that. I like that it says it, verse 37, but does it not seem like a clarification?
What was it that he believed? He believed in Jesus. That's what this means when we do this. He ordered that the chariot stop and they went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized them. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.
The eunuch no longer saw him but went on his way rejoicing. I mean, Noah's not up here anymore. Where did he go? He went on his way rejoicing. I don't know.
It's interesting that God called Philip to go specifically to a specific place for that guy, that one guy. It's a desert road. Go. He went. Speak.
He spoke. What hinders me? I think that in the history of the church, we've had various times, like I said, some people would delay it all the way up until absolutely the moment before you die because you don't want to sin after you get baptized. In other traditions, they say, well, we'll put you under watch care for the next six months. And if it looks like you really believe, then we will baptize you.
I tend to belong to this school of thought. If what's being presented is Jesus and it clicks for you and it's simple that I want to follow Jesus and he said, John, baptize me in order that we fulfill all righteousness as our example. And repent, be baptized. All of these things, if it makes sense to you that you need to be baptized, I say, here's water. What hinders you?
Right? Philip found himself in Azotis, like when he was snatched away, snatched so far away, ended up in a different city, found himself in Azotis. And as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities. It was just a part of who Philip was and what he did until he came all the way to Caesarea. We don't know what happened from there.
But we do know the gospel has been advancing since then, still advancing now. And I think that's the last slide. We have communion right here, and we're going to go do this second ordinance in just a second. But I'm going give you another chance. I brought another pair of clothes.
If there's anybody here who has already put their faith in Christ but has never been baptized and wants to be, here's water. What hinders you? Anybody? We used to give altar calls occasionally in Mexico and had a buddy named Flavio. And Flavio was a very, very strong believer and had a church come down.
And they said, we've got to do an altar call. We don't send any mission trips without having evangelism. Okay, good. And so we did this, and I'm using a bullhorn to address the crowd of 1,000 people. This guy is speaking English.
I'm doing the best I can in Spanish through a bullhorn. And he gives an altar call and nobody moves, nobody comes down. And he's saying, is there anybody out there? I said, I all get an Aki, passing back and forth, back and forth. And then Flavia jumps up and his whole family and they come down to the front.
And I'm like, Flavio, you're a believer in Jesus and have been the whole time I've known you. And he goes, yes, if nobody moves, nobody moves. And then people did actually come forward and say, I want to believe. I want to be a part of this family. I'm going invite the ushers to come forward for communion, for the Lord's Supper.
And it's not a scary thing. It's this baptism is an initial step. The Lord's Supper is for anyone who has ever put their faith in Christ. And I would say, baptized or not, we have an open table here. Would you pray with me?
And then we'll have the elders and ushers to come bring out the bread. Lord, in Jesus' name, we ask that you would bless this bread and this little plastic cup of juice as we distribute them, Lord, that you would impress upon us the holy and righteous life lived out in submission to the spirit that Jesus walked in time and space, Lord, that you stepped into it on our behalf. Thank you for the perfect record, Lord. In Jesus' name, I ask your blessing on this bread as we distribute it. For everyone who would partake and for anyone that lets it pass, Lord, because this is just not what they believe, that's fine.
But I pray, Lord, that this community of believers would act in such a way that it would draw people into new relationship with you, that they would want to know what is this message that they're in, what does it mean that the people in these seats would be able to answer the questions from them. In Jesus' name, amen. Yes. Oh, I'm being summoned.
God sent his son they called him Jesus but greater still the calm assurance this child can face uncertain days because he lives because he lives I can face tomorrow
Amen. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper, and after he had given thanks, he said to his disciples there that this is my body that is given for you. Take this and eat, and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Lord God, we thank you for that body that was broken for us. We thank you for him having walked out holiness completely and utterly set apart in his manner, in his way, but among the people that he in the in the truest sense of the world, Lord, you condescended.
You came down with us to walk it out. Lord, we thank you for that perfect record, but we also thank you for that voluntary and sacrificial death on the cross, for the blood that was shed. Lord, would you accept our thanks for that, and we pray that you would, Lord, continually be cleansing us and letting us know that we have forgiveness from sin. In Jesus' name, would you bless this cup as we pass it out? Amen.
Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hand hath made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe display. Then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou
art how great thou art
When through the woods and and forest glades, wonder. And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze, then sings my soul my savior God to thee
how great thou art how great thou art
sings my soul, my savior God to thee.
How
How great thou art, how great thou art. Art and when I think that God his son not sparing send him to die I scarce can take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing he bled and died to take away my sin then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou
art how great thou art
then sings my soul my savior God to thee how
how great thou art how great
Amen. In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup after supper, common cup at the time. He said to his disciples there with him that this is the new covenant in my blood, The new covenant. Wow. What they've been longing for.
What the prophets had foretold. This is the new covenant in my blood. His voice is still ringing. The new covenant is found in Christ, in his blood. Take this and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.
Amen. And Paul says as often as we do that, we proclaim Christ's death, an end to sin. Baptism also is a being buried with Christ and being raised to walk in newness of life. Would you stand with me? I'm going invite Carl to come forward, and we're going to sing one more song.
Thank you, elders, ushers. We're going sing what we believe.
Through your Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the Son. Jesus our Savior. And I believe I believe if fender suffered in crucified forgiveness is in you. Descended into I believe the giver. I believe in the saints communion and in holy church.
I believe in resurrection when Jesus comes again.
The benediction today is from Colossians three sixteen and seventeen. Let allow. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly. And whatever you do, whether it's in word or deed, do it all. In the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
