Here Is Water, What Hinders You
First B Jackson
2025-01-19

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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This morning, super early to grab a few tables and chairs for a party this afternoon. I parked right next to where they're sleeping and I dropped something on the horn of the truck and it just went like, lord, help us. Glory to his name. Here we are. Hymn number four ninety three.

Safe and secure from all alarms.

Down at the cross where my savior died. Down wherefore cleansing from sin I cried. Bare to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to his name. Glory to his name.

Glory to his name. There to my heart was the blood of blood. Glory to his name. I am so wondrously saved from sin. Jesus so sweetly abides within.

There at the cross where he took me in. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. There to my heart was the blood applied.

Glory to his name. Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin. I am so glad I have entered in. There, Jesus saves me and keeps me clean. Glory to his name.

Glory to his name. Glory to his name. There to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to his name on the last. Come to this fountain so rich and sweet.

Cast thy poor soul at the savior's feet. Plunge into day and be made complete. Glory to his name. Glory to name. Glory to his name.

There to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to his name.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements. Here they are. Teton Valley, Idaho is having the Teton Valley, Idaho fellowship on the second Friday of the month.

Started last month started this month in January. If you wanna know any details, you can contact Emily Anderson. There's her number. They as the whole family, the Denise and Chad and Emily and Alex, Anderson, and Zach and Aaron, formerly Anderson now, Hauge, all joined the church this morning officially kind of became members of the church along with Dennis and Linda Melton this morning. So, it's just a big stage full this morning but Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship is a just a fellowship meeting.

It's not a Bible study at this point. We'll see what happens but it's a get together. Nehemiah, the study is rebuilding together, Nehemiah. It's on Wednesdays. It started this past couple weeks ago, think, and it's the JH Community Women's Bible Study, which is down.

They're doing it at Gateway Church this time around. It was meeting here. Occasionally, will meet here again, I'm sure. But this time, it's at Gateway from 10AM to 12PM. If you wanna sign up ahead of time, jhwomensbiblestudy.com is the way to do that and child care is provided.

That's Wednesdays ten to noon. Next week is for the connect hour, which happens between services every Sunday, but next week the connect hour is actually a potluck. So if you are able and you would like to bring a dish to share, that would be great. There will also at the same time be a congregational meeting. So during the in between time between ten and eleven between the services, there will be a congregational meeting in here and the connect hour down the hall.

There will be plenty to go around even after if everybody brings a little something, and there'll be plenty after we discuss the budget and vote on it and recognize volunteers and everything. We'll go down and join them after that. There's also at Old Faithful Christian Ranch, there's a men's snowmobile retreat, February twenty first through twenty third. This is a fun trip. It's a big big time.

So it's a $100 for men, it's $75 for boys. Richard Largie is the one that's in charge of that and that's his phone number. And the the mountains over on the Idaho side, it's amazing. You'll skirt right up against, but not go into Yellowstone, right, is the line you'll see Yellowstone from there, and then over up to 2 Top, and there are just beautiful mountains. It's a great trip.

February twenty first to twenty third, men's snowmobile retreat. And if you would like to join in with us, we are all studying together. First, be in the Bible is it comes in a daily email, five days a week. So during the weekdays, you'll get an email in your inbox and it is by one of the people. And we've had 40 something people who have been writing the write ups.

I'm one of them. Pascal, my daughter is one of them actually. Hers is coming up soon. She sent me a draft of it. She doesn't usually do that.

But Carl's is coming up in a couple of days, but you can take first b in the in the Bible with you. You know, you get your email and you check it. It'll be what we're doing right now is doing big sections of the Old Testament. We're trying to finish the whole Bible. This is fourth year we've done this, and we've covered all the New Testament and all of the Torah, and we've covered covered a lot of the Bible, but we're trying to finish it this year.

So and I said trying to finish it, and Brad said, we're finishing it. So that's the plan. And now, covenant ceremony in this in this service, I'm gonna invite Heidi Groesch if she'd come forward. And so we have known you for a long time. You've known us for a long time.

Is there anything you'd like to say before I kinda go through the little how do you do? I would just like to say that if you don't feel that you're connected here, find a small group. Yep. That's the best way to feel connected and to find others and friendships and The precept group on Thursday mornings, Heidi is helping facilitate that right now. And it's just a fantastic group.

And it's a small group. It's easier to know a few people than it is to know a big, huge mass of people at once and we love you and she writes beautiful Bible studies and I just thank the world of her but I wanna ask her a few questions and I'm gonna ask y'all a few questions. This is have you personally trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior and believe that he died for your sins, he rose from the dead? Yes. Absolutely.

Amen. Do you believe that God has led you to join first b as an evidence of your desire to grow in the grace of Christ and then your love and service for his glory? Yes. And do you recognize the authority of scripture in your life and our lives and endeavor to live by its teachings that express God's purpose for our lives and worship and fellowship, Christ likeness, service, and outreach. Do you?

Absolutely. Amen. So that's kind of the questions for her and I think y'all most of y'all know her anyway. But as members together, so this is for both for her and for all of us. As members together in the body of Christ, will you endeavor to open your hearts to ministry towards and receive from Heidi both for serving others as well as receiving ministry from them.

Will you do that? Yes. Yes. Amen. Will you do that?

Yes. Amen. And how about, will you endeavor to grow in faithfulness to one another as we all grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Will you all do that? Yes.

Amen. Will you do that? Yes. Okay. May I pray for you?

Mhmm.

Okay. God, thank you for Heidi. I thank you for the the influence that she has been in so many lives and leading them towards you and leading them to listen to your message and to your voice. In Jesus name, I thank I'm thankful for our sister and our new member here, Heidi Groesch. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Heidi. Thank you. That's fun.

In the first service, after we had the covenant ceremony for quite a few, there was a fellow who came forward named Ernesto Valenzuela. And Ernesto Valenzuela and hit the rest of his family who speak only Spanish. Ernesto kind of speaks both, but it's a great story, but we got to baptize Ernesto this morning, and I might mention that further on into the service today. It kind of lines up with the scripture so well. I want to mention it again, but I didn't want to slip by without mentioning Ernesto and what's next?

It took a miracle. Here we go. Would you all stand with me? Thank you, lord. Thank you that you are adding daily to the number of those who are being saved and not just those being saved but those who are committing themselves to ministry and to be ministered to here at First B.

In Jesus name, lord, we're thankful. Amen. So, this is it took a miracle.

My father is omnipotent and that you can't deny a God of might and miracles It is written in the sky. It took a miracle to put the stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the world in space. But when he saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole. It took a miracle of love and grace.

Here his glory has been shown. To hang the world in space. But when he saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole, It took a miracle of love and grace. On the last, the Bible tells us of his power and wisdom took a miracle of love and grace.

Amen. And how about sweet hour prayer?

Sweet heart of prayer, sweet heart of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne makes all my wants and wishes known In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and often escaped the tempter snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I'll cast on him my every care and wait for the sweet heart of prayer.

Come Amen. And have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. It's the operatory time or the worship through giving just one way that we worship. Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you for the morning that has been and thank you for the morning here that we're having together and lord, I pray that you will use it. You will use the time together. Lord, we wanna worship you and sing your praises and expound on your word lord but really what we wanna do is internalize it and take it to heart. Lord, would you use your word in our lives and the way that we're willing to use our words and our actions in our lives to move forward the gospel. We wanna see the gospel advance.

In Jesus name, lord, we would like to see you do a miracle. Would you bring people out of the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of marvelous light? We ask Lord that you'd be doing your will in your way among us this morning but also through us as we go from here. Would you use this lord? In Jesus name, amen.

Amen. Thank you, Judy. So, here we are. We got up to Acts eight twenty five last week. We're just picking right up in the text at 08:26 this week but before I get going on that, I had a couple of thoughts that I wanted to talk about.

One of them is I went to two basketball games this week. It's been a long time since I've been to a couple of games at the same time, you know, where they're together. I'm watching my nephew play, and I played in high school. I played played a lot actually, and I looked like a basketball player at the time. I looked like a football player now, but I did play a lot of basketball and that has me thinking one certain kind of scenario.

It'll probably come up in the in the thing. I I noticed that the team when people were playing like they wanted the ball. Right? When they want the ball, it makes all the difference in the world and if you got a team with five people, not that there's a ball hog. I don't want to be on a team with a ball hog where he wants the ball, he doesn't want anybody else to have it.

But if you're playing basketball and everybody on the team wants the ball, it makes all the difference in the world. And you can see flashes of brilliance on both teams. You know, I was pulling for Jackson. They lost both games. But I could see flashes of brilliance where it was obvious that they're boxing out to get the rebounds, and they're, you know, posting up wide and getting bigger and kind of keeping their man behind them, their defender, their opponent behind them, and they just want the ball.

And when somebody wants the ball, it makes all the difference in the world. And Philip wanted the ball. Like this guy was getting after it. Now, we probably know Philip's story because Luke talked to Philip and got the story, you know, from him, but this is a story continuing. Now, I want one more thing that I was thinking about.

Last week after I got through, I I didn't really say outright that I think Simon Magus is lost as a goose and he went to hell. I didn't really say that but I kind of alluded to that because of the text but I will say, if you take the whole text, it says, and he, Simon Magus, believed and was baptized. Amen. This morning, we did a baptism here for Ernesto Valenzuela. Ernesto Valenzuela speaks Spanish primarily, speaks a little English.

He was wandering in the church looking for somebody and with immigrant hope and he was down there for that but when he came by the door, Nick saw him and said, hola. Nick knows like two words in Spanish but one of them is hola and so, Ernesto comes in and says, hey. He said, there are a bunch of Bibles up on the shelf. He said, I'd love to have another Bible, a a Bible in Spanish and Nick said, hold on. We got Bibles in Spanish and he says, well, we work and we help with folks who are in recovery and he goes, I think we have some literature for that in Spanish and he kind of scrambled for it and and he said, well, I'd really like to speak to a pastor too and he tried me but I was in a session, a counseling session.

So, they waited a while and then they left. Well, the number came up and I called it and Nick sent it to me and I called it. And I called it again but the guy works at night, so he didn't mention that. So he's sleeping all day long when I'm calling but I get another message. I had called Carl because of this passage that we're doing, Philip and the Ethiopian official, the eunuch from Ethiopia.

I called Carl and I'm gonna do a spoiler alert here. The last line basically says, here is water, What hinders me from being baptized? And they baptized him just like that. And so, Ernesto, why he wanted to speak to a pastor is he said, I really feel compelled. I need to be baptized.

He said, I am a believer in Jesus, I have been a believer in Jesus, but what I want is to take that step of obedience of saying to the people publicly that I have done this and I just want a place and a time where I can do it. He said, we're fairly new here. They live in Freedom, Wyoming. They speak Spanish. They don't have a church yet.

And so he said, would you do that? And I said, absolutely. Here is water. What hinders you from being baptized? Do you believe in Jesus?

Yes. And so, the tank is full up here. He's big. He's almost big as I am. We tested the load limit.

I promise. There aren't there aren't three of us that would weigh what we weighed in that tank together this morning. So, I promise you, there's water here. What hinders you? If you're a believer in Jesus, that's going to be the invitation at the end but I I had a sense because of the passage, I just kept getting the sense of we need to fill the baptistry.

We need to fill the baptistry and so I called Carl and said, hey, put it on your clock on your phone to fill the baptistry on Saturday. Have it good and warm by Sunday morning. I don't know if anybody will take us up on it. I don't have anybody planned but let's do it and then, an hour later, I finally got in touch with Ernesto and he said, and I didn't know what the call was gonna be about. He says, pastor, I need to be baptized.

I said, hey, thanks already gonna be full. Would you come in at nine? And it was a huge blessing for me. I was a ball of nerves because we had covenant ceremony and baptism and all kinds of stuff going on but I'm just so so overwhelmed by the goodness of God and how he's still good, okay? He's still good.

I think that an error that Christians can make when we read the Bible is we look at the Bible, we go, look at how good God was. Instead of saying, look at how good God is and he is still in the same business now that he was in then. So I don't know what happened with Simon Magus. I pray he's in there, but I there's nothing I can do about it now. Right?

It's the point at once for a man to die and then the judgment, but it says he believed and baptized, we'll take it at that. But he also was rebuked by Peter for sin and that's something that we also need to be doing. Right? And Peter didn't mind telling him. But that's last week's message.

This is this week's message. After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, this is Peter and John. They testified. That's telling their own experience and preaching the word of the Lord. For them, that would have been the Old Testament, right?

And they were saying what was fulfilled in Jesus. This is my experience and this is what God said. Peter and John then returned to Jerusalem. They stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the good news. So they were pronouncing the evangel.

They were saying the Euangelion, the good news. As for Philip, here was where we start today. As for Philip, remember Philip? Philip is the one that after the stoning of Stephen, he's the second guy of the seven original deacons and after the stoning of Stephen, it spread those Hellenistic Jews out, the followers of the way and Philip went to Samaria. As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Now, if you're if you remember what happened last week in the last part of the text, it was going gangbusters for Philip. Big things were happening. There were miracles, yes, but they were authenticating a message and many were coming to Noah and many were being set free from demons and many were healed. But as for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, you go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. And Philip, I've already said is one of those guys who wanted the ball.

And so when he got the play, here's the play, run it. Angel of the Lord said, go. So he started out. Go, went. That's what it says.

You go, he went. So he started out. And if you're familiar with maps, this is a modern day map. So Jerusalem and Gaza are in the same places they were. Tel Aviv is up here.

Tel Aviv is up there. Ashdod is in between, but Samaria is slightly north of Tel Aviv just off screen there. It would have been about forty, forty five, maybe 50 miles to Jerusalem. And then from Jerusalem to Gaza would be another 80 probably. And so, when Philip who's having a great time in Samaria and people are getting saved every day, and then an angel of the Lord, which means messenger, an angel of the Lord, a messenger of the Lord said to him, you go South Of Jerusalem on the road to Gaza.

So, started out and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia. Now, if you look at a globe today and you look up Ethiopia, there's where it is, the Horn Of Africa, but it is landlocked. It does not have any border on the water at all. If you think about modern Ethiopia in my lifetime, the big live aid concert that happened in the mid eighties, that was for Ethiopia for a famine there. We do not think of Ethiopia as a rich country at all, but that's because of poor management in a lot of ways, poor resources, a lot of other stuff on top of it.

Modern Ethiopia is a lot of it is desert and it's not very wealthy, but ancient Ethiopia was at least this size and probably more like this size. And if you ask other scholars, they'll say it's even bigger than that. It's all of Sub Saharan Africa, everything South Of Egypt, all the way down to the Cape Of Good Hope. So that's Ethiopia. It's huge and it's very wealthy.

So for Philip to be called away from a prospering ministry in Samaria and to be on this road headed towards Gaza from Jerusalem and he meets this treasure of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake. And, the Kandake is not Candace and some of your translations will say, under the authority of queen Candace. Candace is not a name. Kandake is the name of the queen of Ethiopia. It's not the name of it.

Is what queen in Ethiopia. The Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. And the Kandake's did rule Ethiopia. Some people call it Kush, others might even call it Sheba in a long long far back history. The queen of Sheba that came to Solomon, that was from the same region.

And between two sixty BC and three twenty AD, there were a lot of different female rulers, Candace, which might sound odd to you, but some of them ruled as co regents along with a king, but many of them did not. They were just queens of the area. And at this time, the ruler in charge of from twenty AD to fifty AD was this lady, Aminatore. Aminatore was her name. She did have a son that ruled with her as a co regent later on, but she was in charge.

She was the queen or the kandike. And if you're thinking, I don't know about that. Sounds like something some might have made up, this seems convenient. No, no, no. It's historical.

I didn't make this up. These are images of the Kandake Aminatore and there she is thrashing her enemies. It looks very Egyptian. It's actually South Of Egypt at Meroe. This is showing her great riches over the kingdom and this is a pyramid that was built in Meroe right there.

The Pyramids Of Meroe West are right there. It's in current day Sudan. That's where it is. I'm trying to connect Bible with earth. Okay?

This is not just holy book floating around where stuff is made up. This is not fairy tales. This really happened in history. So ancient Ethiopia, the the capital was Meroe. So he started out.

He met the treasurer of Ethiopia. That's a big deal. He's a eunuch of great authority under the Kandike, the queen of Ethiopia and this eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. Now, that sounds weird, doesn't it? He's from way south of Egypt, but I did already mention that the queen of Sheba had made a visit about a thousand years before all the way up to Jerusalem and peppered Solomon with riddles and was pleased with his response.

She left palm trees and other things that were not supposed to even be native to that area that she brought up from Ethiopia and or from Sheba at the time, and he sent back a lot of the tenets of Judaism. So a thousand years. It's not the main religion of the day, but there were people and this eunuch was one of them that came to Jerusalem to worship. Now, he had the wherewithal to do it. He was riding in a chariot actually.

Let's let the text say that. From Meroe to Jerusalem is a long way. Egypt top to bottom is quite a journey to traverse. And Meroe is quite a ways down into what's now Sudan, what was then Ethiopia, and going all the way up to Jerusalem. Now, if you talk about the wilderness wanderings, you know, they only went from the very northern part of Egypt across and it took them forty years.

On a chariot, it would take at least seven days to get one way trip there. Now, eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship and he was now returning. He might have been there for Pentecost. He might have been there for Passover. He might have.

We don't know how long he was there. He's on his way home now. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship and he was now returning and he was seated in his carriage, pretty comfy it sounds like and he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. It was normal at the time to read aloud. Actually, a lot of old testament Bible passages that you see, you think, how did they know that they were reading?

How did they know that Daniel was reading? Because he was reading out loud. That's what people did. Made a terrible joke in the first service. I won't use a state this time.

In Georgia, we usually make fun of Alabama, Alabama usually makes fun of Mississippi, and Wyoming is Idaho. I don't have a state out in the ocean that I can use, but what's the definition of an intellectual in Mississippi, let's say? Somebody who can somebody who can read without moving their lips. This is somebody who is reading out loud. That's normal for the time.

So, the Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot reading out loud, and now the Holy Spirit says to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage. What do you think he's gonna do? Philip wants the ball. When he got the from the messenger, you go. Told him where?

It says, he went exactly where he told him. The Holy Spirit says to Philip, go over, walk along that carriage and Philip ran over to the carriage. He heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. So that we know now what it is he was reading. He's hearing it.

Philip is somebody who's full of grace, full of the spirit. The job of the spirit is to illumine his word, to convict of sin, to convince of righteousness. Philip goes because he's somebody who wants the ball. He wants to be about the business of the advance of the gospel. Philip ran over, heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah and Philip asked, do you understand what you're reading?

Now, that is a good thing to do, to ask questions and not presume. Philip did not presume that the guy didn't know. He hey, he's run alongside by the Holy Spirit's direction. He says, do you understand what you're reading? And then the guy says, well, how could I?

Unless someone teaches me or instructs me. Now, that is a posture of humility from the eunuch too. And so, the posture of humility says, I don't understand but I would love to. If somebody would show me, I'd love that. So, he urged Philip.

He invited him up in to the carriage to sit with him. I imagine Philip rather than running alongside was happy about that. So, he jumps up into the carriage with him and it says, now we knew it was the Isaiah but now we get to hear what the passage was. The passage of scripture that he had been reading was this and there are clues in the text that it was the Greek version. So if you're wondering that what what language were they speaking?

Does Ethiopian speak Hebrew? I mean, he worshiped in Jerusalem, maybe. Philip probably could have known, his name is Greek. They probably were speaking Greek. It was the lingua franca of the time.

The passage of scripture he had been reading was in the Greek Septuagint. It was he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. You see all the pronouns there. He was humiliated. He received no justice.

And who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth? Now, all those are pronouns and it prompts a question. The Septuagint version of Isaiah fifty three seven eight is right there. And like I said, this is it. This is the New Living Translation.

We're using for our whole study of the book of Acts. We're using the New Living translation and this is Isaiah fifty three seven and eight. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream, but he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. Now, that's a beautiful passage. It's one of the suffering servant passages from Isaiah that is about somebody and this is the question that was prompted when Philip seated next to him in the carriage and the eunuch asked him and said, tell me, was this prophet? I believe he's a prophet. Was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?

This is from seven hundred years BC. If you go on to read in Isaiah 53, he describes the crucifixion in detail seven hundred years before. It was not even a method of punishment when Isaiah wrote it down. And so, from hundreds of miles away, this guy finds himself in Jerusalem and he takes home the scroll. Maybe he brought it with him, probably took it from Jerusalem and he's reading it and he does not know who it's about.

And it says, so beginning with that very same scripture which if you're an evangelist, that's a great place to start. Isaiah fifty three, seven hundred years before, something's written that tells you exactly how Jesus is gonna die and the posture with which he would do it. Beautiful. Beginning with that very same scripture, Philip told that eunuch, the good news about Jesus. He shared the gospel with him.

Now, as they rode along, they came to some water. It's a that's a strange thing because it's a desert road. But as they came along, they come to an oasis of some sort. There's some water and the eunuch said, look, there's some water. What hinders me from being baptized or why can't I be baptized in the New Living?

Now, if you go forward from here in the New Living, in the New American Standard, in the New Revised Standard, in any modern translation that's written in the last ninety years probably, you're gonna skip verse 37. It'll go straight from 36 to 38, but I'm going to go to the New King James. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.

And he answered, I do believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and then it says, ordered the carriage to stop and they went down into the water and Philip baptized him. That's cool. They went down into the water, Philip baptized him. I'm usually just kind of straight down the center and I don't deal a whole lot with denominational differences because I really believe in the unity of the church, but this says they went down into the water. So it is immersion, baptism, that's what the text is pointing to.

Baptized itself means to dip, like to dip under. So that's the word straight up range of meaning. So, he ordered the carriage to stop. They went down into the water and Philip baptized him and when they came up out of the water, when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. Now, the other two times, the other two times he got a message, go do this, went, did that.

Go do this, went, did that. And this time it just says the Holy Spirit just snatched him up out of the way and the eunuch never saw him again, but he went on his way rejoicing. Now, the salvation of this guy is the work of God, but it is something that came about by his posture of humility and Philip proclaiming the word of the Lord. I'm sure he talked about his own experience at some point in that little journey but we don't know about that. It says, he was inquisitive and Philip preached the gospel and he accepted it and was baptized.

There was no six months of watch care. There was not a long drawn out confirmation process. There was, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was baptized. Ernesto, we did talk for two hours yesterday. I did talk to him for about an hour on the phone the other day.

I'm so excited for what God is doing in that guy's life, and him hearing the message, you need to be baptized and then doing it, God blesses that. For me, it feels great when you feel like, I think we need to fill that baptistry and then somebody calls and says, I wanna get in it. That's confirmation both directions. The spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again.

They only met for that brief moment along the road but he went on his way rejoicing from there. Actually, if you go forward in history, three hundred years, Christianity is the primary religion of ancient Ethiopia, about about 300 AD. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. If you look, Gaza, the road from Jerusalem to Gaza would be from here to there and somewhere along this road, Philip was snatched up and he realized where he was when he was at Azotus which is modern day Ashdod. And Ashdod is South of Tel Aviv, North of Gaza.

And it says that he, Philip, preached the good news there in Nizotus or Ashdod and he did so in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea and there's Caesarea. Again, it's probably about 75 miles and all along the way, he went proclaiming and after having just seen pretty amazing stuff. And if you wonder, well, how in the world does Luke know all of this? We'll find out in Acts 21 that as he's traveling with Paul and they're on these missionary journeys, whichever one it was on. It says, the next day, we, Paul, and I and some traveling companions all went on to Caesarea, Maritime, Caesarea.

We stayed at the home of Philip, the evangelist. You remember that one of the guys, the seven men who've been chosen to distribute the food, one of the first deacons. He had four unmarried daughters. All of them had the gift to proclaim the word of God or to prophesy. So, that's cool that what Luke says at the very beginning is, I am doing the best I can using eyewitness testimony to tell exactly what happened in order.

It's really really encouraging to see how the church spread and you know what? The way that it happened then is the same way it happens now. It happens when we want the ball. When we want to be a part of the advance of the gospel and so, I'd say all of us know this when you came to a baptist church this morning, you thought we'll probably hear the great commission at some point because that's just we're known for being people of the book and people on mission. Praise God that that's true.

Matthew twenty eight nineteen, before Jesus' ascension, he said to them in verse 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth and I am taking that authority and I am giving it to you. Now, y'all be going or go therefore because I've got the authority and I'm giving it to you. Go therefore and be making disciples of all of the nations. Since I got here this morning, I've talked to people from seven different countries. I'm meeting from a guy.

I'm meeting a guy right after the service from Turkey this afternoon. And I don't know if you all realize the access we have to the nations right here in Jackson. You know it in the summertime, right? You know it in the summertime. Rental cars and full hotels and everything else.

You you know it then but we have access to the nations because they're coming to us just like Philip had access to Ethiopia because that guy came to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. Go therefore, be making disciples of all the nations. Be baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit and be teaching them to follow all that I have commanded you. How do you do that? You do what he commanded you to do.

You teach other people to follow all that he commanded you by following those commandments yourself And then Jesus adds to that, and behold I'm with you always even to the end of the age or from the ages to the ages. I am always gonna be with you. This is our great commission and it is a pleasure when you get a chance to do this. Now, want to go back and say one more note on the the word go up there. It is actually a participle.

I do believe it's kind of got some force to say go like an imperative, but it's not an imperative, it's a participle. So it's really as you are going. So as you are going about your normal life, Philip was just minding his own business. Actually, it was the business of the Lord. When he received the message and he acted on it, and then he received another message and he acted on and then he was just moved along by the spirit of God.

That's the kind of witness and testimony that I want to have. I want to be obedient when I get a message. I want to be open to doing what it is that he directs, and I just want him to move me along sometimes without me even knowing what's going on. I'd love that to happen. Maybe that's a little Pentecostal for y'all.

I really would love for him to just move me on down the road sometimes, you know, not away from here. So what else is there, Blake? Is that the last slide? Thank you, Connor. Oh, I know what was left.

I have extra clothes. I'm bigger than everybody in this room. I have extra clothes downstairs and I don't want to. There's a tank full of water here and if you are a believer in Jesus and you've never been baptized before, I want to give you the opportunity. So here is what here is water.

What hinders you from being baptized? It's nice and warm. We'll get some towels for you. Does anybody wanna be baptized? Yes, ma'am.

You're welcome to come on if you want to. Take your phone out of your pocket. So Connor and have been talking for some time about this and his mother Maria. And we had a plan to go down to Astoria Hot Springs at some point and do this, but I think today's the day. He thinks today is the day.

So we'll figure out the clothes. And we'll talk to our sister back here in a moment too. This is exciting. Connor, do you have anything you wanna say? Yes.

Okay. What do you wanna say? You believe in Jesus? Oh, yes. Amen.

That's plenty. Yeah. Okay. Here you go. Come on up.

Thank you. Now we don't know each other. No. Do you wanna introduce yourself? My name is Rita Spencer Bracken.

Rita Spencer Bracken, do you believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God? I do. Well, do you want to follow after him and the teachings presented in his word for the rest of your life? I do. Amen.

Connor, do you? Yes. Okay. Alright. Well, then before we step in the water, would y'all can we can I just pray for you?

God, I thank you for my brother and my sister in Christ here. I thank you for their obedience. I thank you for their willingness and this posture of humility. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray for both of them. Amen.

And I'm gonna step in first. So upon the profession of your faith in Christ Jesus as savior and lord, I now baptize you, my sister, Rita, in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna lay you down. Hold your nose if

you'd like.

This way right here. Alright. Buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. Connor? Yes.

You're you're fine with the pants right there. Come on. That was practiced in ancient Christian history too, but not today. Amen. Amen.

So, Connor, upon the profession of your faith and Jesus as the Christ, the son of God, and as your savior and lord, I know that you wanna follow after him, and I appreciate you so much, my brother. I wanna baptize you right now. You can turn sideways here. In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Connor, you're being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life.

Amen.

Amen.

And I think that can we just do the doxology from the pool here?

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Amen.

Amen.