00:00: I know a few things about God's work in your life.
00:06: Number one, I know that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God is at work in your life.
00:11: If you are a person who trusts in Jesus, is following Jesus, I know for a fact that God has been at work in your life and through your life.
00:22: But I also know that the way that God has been at work in and through your life does not always match the way that you would have planned or preferred God to work in and through your life, right?
00:36: God often works through things that we would not necessarily sign ourselves up for, through hard things, in ways that are unexpected.
00:48: God works to accomplish his purposes however he wants.
00:54: He's God.
00:54: He's perfectly wise.
00:56: He's all-knowing and he's sovereign.
00:58: God works however God is pleased to work.
01:01: Christ promised, Matthew 16, 18, that he would build his church.
01:07: Well, how?
01:09: By whatever means please him.
01:11: I think there's some encouragement to be found in that because it means that the hard things that we go through, the things that come our way that we wish weren't coming our way, are very much the same things that God's going to use for our good as believers, for his glory, and for the building of his church and his kingdom.
01:33: It means that the hard things that we go through are not random or happenstance, but that they are divinely orchestrated with purpose.
01:42: I think that's encouraging.
01:45: This morning as we work through Acts chapter 8, we're going to see God building his church in some unexpected ways.
01:55: We're going to see God working through persecution, by bringing in outsiders, and even by sending a special envoy to one individual man.
02:06: A couple weeks ago we were in Acts chapter 6, and we met, as it were, Stephen.
02:14: Stephen was described to us as a wise, spirit-filled man of God who had a good reputation.
02:22: He was one of seven men who were entrusted with a responsibility for the daily distribution and caring for widows.
02:31: And then last week in Acts 6 and 7, we saw the tragic murder, the execution of the first Christian martyr.
02:40: Stephen was put to death for his faithful Christian witness.
02:45: I remember when I first started reading through the Bible and counted the story, I'm like, no, I just met this Stephen guy, and I liked him, and he was a good guy, and he's dead already.
02:54: It just, at one level, it seems like a waste.
02:56: And yet, God was at work through Stephen's faithful witness unto death.
03:05: And this week we begin to see how God was at work, at least in part, through Stephen and his death.
03:12: Not only before Stephen died, through his faithful proclamation of Jesus and his faithful witness to those in authority, but how God worked even after his death.
03:24: One of the ways that God is at work building his church is by using persecution.
03:30: God has done that throughout church history countless times.
03:35: And while I don't desire to face persecution here in America myself, I've got to be honest, if God brings that to pass here in America, it might be a really good thing for the health and the witness of the church.
03:50: God has done it many times, and he's doing it here in Acts chapter 8.
03:56: God is causing his people to scatter, and he's using persecution to scatter these believers in Jesus far and wide.
04:04: Because where God's people go, they bring God's message.
04:09: It's right there in verse 1.
04:10: Notice verse 1 says, So you get your core leaders who stay put in Jerusalem, but most of the rest of the church is scattered into these two regions who are the nearest two geographic areas.
04:32: Well, is the first one describing a good thing or a bad thing?
04:35: Well, yes.
04:36: It's both.
04:37: Obviously, it's a bad thing.
04:38: It's mistreatment of Christians.
04:41: It's unjust.
04:42: Verse 3 tells us that Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, dragging off men and women and committing them to prison.
04:52: I mean, literally, they're getting their homes invaded and being tossed in jail for believing in Jesus.
04:58: For Saul to be ravaging the church, this is an extreme kind of thing.
05:03: But it's also a good thing because, verses 4 and 5, Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
05:10: Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
05:16: So these folks all scattered.
05:17: And then we're given one specific instance, a representative sample of what's going on.
05:24: Philip is one of the folks that we also met in early chapter 6.
05:28: He, alongside Stephen, was one of the seven godly, good reputation, spirit-filled men that was described there.
05:37: And he's now on mission in Samaria because of persecution.
05:46: I'll be honest with you.
05:48: Following Jesus does not always mean sunshine and rainbows.
05:52: Following Jesus sometimes will result in hardship that you otherwise would not have faced.
05:58: Following Jesus is going to take you sometimes down hard roads because God is at work in and through those challenges.
06:07: God has good purposes to accomplish that are sometimes best accomplished through suffering.
06:15: Let me give you the greatest example of that ever.
06:20: The cross.
06:20: The work of God saving sinners throughout the world across generations and eras takes place only because of the suffering and death and resurrection of God's own son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.
06:38: Without that suffering, that unjust suffering, that mistreatment of God's son, none of us would have any hope of heaven or relationship with God or forgiveness.
06:49: God brings good things to pass through suffering, which I believe is exactly why Romans 8.28 is in the Bible, which tells us that we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those who are called according to his purpose.
07:07: Nobody needs to be told, hey, here's a great thing going on in your life of spiritual value.
07:13: God's at work in that.
07:15: You know that, right?
07:16: But you need to hear that when you're struggling, when things are hard, when suffering's going on.
07:22: I think that's especially why Romans 8.28 is in there.
07:25: And we see that happening here as the early church is persecuted and scattered.
07:30: Now, don't think vacation.
07:32: Like, they left behind their homes and belongings.
07:36: They were financially crippled in this situation.
07:41: They all of a sudden had to leave stuff behind.
07:45: How did that go over in the early church?
07:47: How was it received?
07:49: Part of me imagines back then, people could have been really mad at Stephen.
07:54: You think back to how he handled himself and the speech he gave.
07:58: It was pretty confrontational.
08:00: It was bold.
08:01: It was uber direct.
08:03: It was accusatory.
08:04: And that encounter where Stephen hits him with both barrels, the Jewish leadership of the day that was anti-Jews, that's what sparks this persecution.
08:18: It's obvious from the context as we move from chapter 7 and chapter 8, but it's also explicitly said later in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 11, verse 19, it says, it references, those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen.
08:34: So I can imagine some of the early believers being tempted to say, come on, Stephen, did you really have to be that in their face?
08:41: Couldn't you have talked about Jesus in a way that was a little less accusatory, a little less confrontational?
08:48: Because now we're all getting the hammer.
08:50: You're dead and gone, and we're the ones having to live with the consequences of what you did.
08:56: I can imagine a scenario with some serious Monday morning quarterbacking that doesn't reflect favorably on Stephen.
09:05: But I don't think we're meant to think that way.
09:07: In Luke's account of Stephen, and in Luke's account of Stephen's testimony and witness and all the way up to his death, he's presented very positively.
09:17: Acts chapter 6, verse 8, we're told that he was a man full of grace and power.
09:22: Even at the end of Stephen's speech, we're told that he was full of the Holy Spirit.
09:26: Luke wants us to understand, Stephen didn't mess up here.
09:30: Stephen didn't get Stephen killed because Stephen blew it.
09:33: Stephen didn't mess up and cause the church to get persecuted, and this is what happens if Christians don't get it right.
09:40: Luke means for us to understand, Stephen nailed it.
09:44: He did exactly what God wanted him to do in the moment, and it was because of his faithfulness to God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that things are happening the way they're happening.
09:54: And I think the church, by and large, understood it in that generation.
09:59: Verse 2 tells us, devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
10:05: They mourned him.
10:06: They honored him.
10:07: They didn't just blow him off.
10:09: They said, no, we want to give him a proper burial, and they lamented.
10:13: You don't lament about something you don't care about.
10:16: They cared about Stephen.
10:18: We see God using faithful Christians in Jerusalem and then using the negative consequences of that to fan the flames of gospel witness to the surrounding areas.
10:35: And in so doing, God begins to include the Samaritans.
10:40: Now, if you know your geography, you know Jerusalem is kind of south-central Israel.
10:45: If you go south of there, I mean, or even around it, but especially south of it, you got Judea.
10:51: That's a Jewish region.
10:54: But if you go northwest at all, you're in Samaria.
10:58: And Samaria is not the place that the Jewish people wanted to be.
11:02: It was an area full of people that the Jews looked down on.
11:07: You see, what happened in Jewish history was God brought them into the land, gave them the land.
11:12: They lived there for a while.
11:14: They started having kings.
11:15: They were a monarchy.
11:16: The kingdom split.
11:17: The people were unfaithful.
11:19: And then God did as he had threatened and promised long before.
11:22: He said, if you are not faithful to me, I will use another nation to bring you into exile, to remove you from this place that I have blessed you to be in.
11:32: And he did that.
11:33: And first he brought the northern people, the 10 tribes from the north, northern Israel, that northern kingdom out.
11:39: And then later on, takes the southern people captive and they get brought out.
11:44: Not all of them, but a large portion of them.
11:47: And what these invading nations did is they said, we're going to grab a whole bunch of people from this newly conquered area and ship them out to other places in the empire.
11:56: And they would take places from those other parts of the empire and ship them in here.
12:00: And so they do this giant melting pot thing by force, so that in any one area, there's no ethnic and cultural cohesiveness for the people to rise up against the empire.
12:13: And so that's exactly what plays out here.
12:15: The Samaritans are this blend of Jewish background folks and foreigners from other places that have all been put in the same geographic area and they've intermarried.
12:26: And religiously, they're kind of this blend of some Judaism, some other thoughts.
12:30: Even their Jewish beliefs are a little off the mark in some regards.
12:35: And so the Jews didn't like them.
12:38: The Jews saw them as sellouts, as compromised.
12:41: And so verses five, six, and seven, where Philip is taking the message of Jesus to these people, it's scandalous.
12:49: Now to us in 2026, it seems like, well, of course you take the gospel to everyone.
12:54: But to them, this is scandalous.
12:58: This is kind of outrageous to think that you would take it to that group.
13:05: You guys are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan, where the priest and the Levite pass by the guy injured on the road and then the Samaritan comes by and helps him.
13:14: That was a story by Jesus that was totally a dig on the Jews.
13:20: It was making the bad guy, culturally, the hero of the story.
13:26: And now the gospel of Jesus is going to these folks.
13:32: Notice in verses five and six how they responded to Philip and the gospel message that Philip brought.
13:39: Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
13:43: And the crowds, with one accord, paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
13:53: So with one accord, that means there's strong cohesiveness.
13:58: The whole lot of them, maybe not exhaustively to every individual, but by and large, they're all, they're hanging on what Philip has to say.
14:04: They're really listening well.
14:07: And then we see again in verse 12.
14:11: But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
14:20: So these folks not only are listening, they're not only keen to hear what he has to say, they get on board.
14:26: They believe in Jesus.
14:28: And because they believe in Jesus, they get baptized.
14:31: These are new Christians from among the Samaritans.
14:34: God is bringing outsiders inside, making outsiders insiders, not just in the know theologically, but making them part of literally the family of God, sons and daughters of God.
14:46: Now notice, there was no need there to tell us that they got baptized.
14:51: If he just wanted to say, hey, they became believers, he could have said that.
14:54: But Luke throws in this little baptism thing, makes it even more clear that they actually came to faith.
15:00: And part of that is, in the New Testament, baptism is something that happens right away.
15:05: You believe in Jesus, you get baptized.
15:08: We're going to see a story later on where it happens in the middle of the night.
15:11: They don't even wait until daybreak, and they get baptized.
15:13: I think the contemporary American church has gotten pretty lax about baptism, and we need to start treating it as a higher priority than we often do.
15:26: In fact, when you think about the Great Commission, Matthew 28, verses 18, 19, and 20, baptizing people is given to us right on the heels of making disciples, even before he talks about teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.
15:38: He's like, make disciples, baptize them, teach them.
15:42: Baptism is a really big deal in the Bible, and we need to treat it as such.
15:49: Now, we see these Samaritans coming to faith, and then we're told about this fellow named Simon.
15:55: Simon the magician, don't confuse him with Simon Peter the apostle.
15:59: Simon Peter is also in this story.
16:02: He's just called Peter in this story.
16:04: So when you read Simon, we're talking Simon the magician of Samaria, and Peter is Simon Peter the apostle.
16:11: And this Simon, the magician, here's the message, and he wants in.
16:17: But we quickly see that Simon's believing is believing, in air quotes.
16:23: It's not the real deal.
16:26: Verses 9, 10, and 11, paint the picture of someone who's fixated on self.
16:29: He's got these signs and wonders that he does to make himself impressive to people.
16:35: He wants to amaze people and draw their attention to himself.
16:38: That's been his normal practice prior to Philip showing up.
16:42: Now Philip shows up and things change.
16:45: We're told twice that he used to amaze people.
16:48: Now Philip shows up and Simon is the one who's amazed.
16:51: He's like, whoa.
16:52: If I can paraphrase, he's like, Philip's tricks, Philip's signs, they're way better than mine.
16:59: I need to upgrade my act.
17:01: And so he wants in on the power that's being displayed through Philip.
17:08: He wants what Philip has, sort of.
17:12: He wants the power Philip has.
17:14: He doesn't want the God who is empowering Philip.
17:19: He wants the benefits without the core restored relationship with God.
17:26: When the Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit because Peter and John come down to investigate what's going on and they lay hands on him and pray for him and the Holy Spirit comes upon him, Simon sees that and he's like, ooh, I want that.
17:39: And he tries to buy that from them.
17:41: He offers them money.
17:43: He wants the benefits of God without being burdened with the God who gives the benefits.
17:49: He wants God's power but he wants to use God's power to exalt himself.
17:53: I can't help but think of the New Testament book of James written by the brother of Jesus where James rebukes Christians who pray only to get things from God for the purpose of spending what God gives on their own desires.
18:11: James 4.3 says, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.
18:21: The Amplified Bible paraphrase does a good job with this verse.
18:24: It says, you ask God for something and do not receive it because you ask with wrong motives out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda so that when you get what you want you may spend it on your own hedonistic desires.
18:39: We ought not to be coming to God just as some kind of divine vending machine.
18:43: Give me what I want.
18:44: Satisfy my craving of the moment.
18:46: Just give me, give me, give me so that I can feel good.
18:49: That's not who God is meant to be for us.
18:51: God is not a means to an end.
18:54: He is the end.
18:55: He is the goal.
18:56: He's the purpose himself.
18:59: When people turn to Jesus simply to get good things without genuinely turning to Jesus and away from their sin, if they don't really want God on God's terms, they're pulling a Simon.
19:16: You don't need to be a Christian.
19:18: You don't need to be changed by God from the inside out to want life to be easier, simpler, more comfortable.
19:27: And I believe that we do people a disservice by pretending that that kind of believing in Jesus does them any spiritual good at all.
19:37: Peter and John won't do that.
19:38: They call out Simon's wicked heart and again point him to his need for real repentance so that he can be forgiven in Jesus Christ.
19:46: Now we need to address the elephant in the room.
19:51: I expect most of you have noticed it.
19:53: What is going on with these Samaritans hearing the gospel, coming to faith, being baptized, and then not having the Holy Spirit until Peter and John show up and lay hands on them and pray for them?
20:07: I've been teaching in the book of Acts so far that when you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you.
20:14: That is, you receive the Holy Spirit, or become indwelt by the Holy Spirit, or are baptized by the Holy Spirit.
20:21: All different ways of talking about the same thing.
20:23: That happens right away when you believe.
20:27: But here, and in Acts chapter 19, we see examples to the contrary.
20:32: What's going on with that?
20:34: I'd love to do a whole sermon on this.
20:36: I'm the kind of person that wants to dig in and compare all the texts and everything.
20:40: But bottom line, as I understand it, is this.
20:44: The normal, typical reality is that when a person comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ, he or she immediately receives the Holy Spirit.
20:55: In Acts chapter 2, that sermon by Peter on the day of Pentecost, he tells folks, repent and be baptized, water baptism, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
21:13: He says you will.
21:13: He doesn't say, and then we'll give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.
21:16: We'll lay hands on you.
21:17: He just says you will.
21:19: He doesn't teach that it comes later.
21:21: Similarly, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13, later on in Christian early church development, the apostle Paul says of all Christians, for in one spirit we were all baptized, that is spiritually baptized, into one body.
21:37: Jews or Greek, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.
21:43: He's talking about how every believer has this reality in their lives and that's what makes us all part of the body of Jesus Christ with Christ as our head.
21:51: That verse doesn't really make much sense at all if only some Christians have received the Holy Spirit.
21:57: He seems to be saying quite clearly every genuine Christian has the Holy Spirit.
22:02: The overwhelming majority of the accounts in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit just simply shows up right away.
22:08: Acts chapter 10, for example, we'll get there soon.
22:10: The Gentiles are coming to faith and the Holy Spirit just shows up and what's interesting about that one is that Peter, the same Peter who's present in this story and lays hands and prays, that Peter is the one sharing the gospel with Gentiles in Acts 10 and he doesn't do anything to provoke the coming of the Holy Spirit.
22:28: The Holy Spirit just comes, just shows up and takes up residence in these new non-Jewish believers.
22:34: believers.
22:36: So, why are there exceptions?
22:39: I think there's three exceptions and I think there's a point, a purpose of God in these three exceptions.
22:45: The first is in Acts chapter 1.
22:47: It's when God is doing something totally new in the world.
22:51: Christ has died, been buried, been resurrected and ascended back to heaven and he tells these people who have already believed in him, hang out in Jerusalem, don't go out on mission yet, wait for the Holy Spirit to come.
23:06: That's the first exception to receiving the Holy Spirit right when you believe but it's because there's a change in how God's working and the Spirit is about to be given in a new way than he ever has before to actually live inside every Christian.
23:19: And when that happens, you remember the tongues of fire that appeared over each individual and we saw how that was using Old Testament imagery where God's presence was manifested in fire at the temple or the tabernacle.
23:36: Where God is saying I am present here and now, instead of being at the temple or tabernacle or burning bush or pillar of fire, God's saying I am present in every single individual believer.
23:44: So the first one is that God's doing a new thing and he's saying I'm in every believer now.
23:48: The second exception is the passage before us and I think what's going on there is God is working for the unity of his church.
23:57: He intends for all tribes and tongues and peoples and nations to be brought together into one unified family of God and the Jews are going to have a real hard time swallowing this initially and so he sends a messenger who brings the gospel message.
24:14: God provokes by his Holy Spirit a faith response and the church in Jerusalem hears about it and they're like what in the world?
24:21: So they literally send their top two guys, Peter and John.
24:24: Like, hey, go investigate, find out what's going on.
24:27: And they come down, find out it's the real deal, and then the coming of the Holy Spirit is a very direct, called for, and given reality.
24:38: And God waits until there's two tier one eyewitnesses that can bring back the message to the Jewish people and say, no guys, it's the real deal.
24:47: They're not faking it, they're not going through the motions.
24:49: Peter and John were there and prayed, and God gave the Holy Spirit.
24:52: This is the real deal happening.
24:54: We need to be on board with what God is doing, because it's not just the Jews anymore.
24:59: God's bringing Samaritans into his family.
25:02: I think that's what's going on there.
25:04: The third place, which we're not going to get to today, is Acts chapter 19.
25:08: Suffice to say, for now, because I want to save it to when we get to Acts 19, I think there's a special group that needs to be brought fully into the gospel believing body of believers.
25:18: And again, it's kind of a special God emphasizing therein, there being included, you'll see when we get there.
25:25: I believe that if you're here today and have faith in Jesus Christ, repentant faith in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit living in you.
25:35: God himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is literally with you at all times, everywhere you go, to lead you, guide you, empower you, convict you, and to live out the life of Christ in you.
25:49: Galatians 2: 20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, the life I live, I no longer live, but Christ who lives in me, right?
26:02: Meaning by the person of the Holy Spirit, he's living out the life of Jesus in the believer.
26:06: That's what's going on here.
26:09: So we see God working through persecution.
26:12: We see God bringing outsiders in and making it very clear, these folks are in, they've got the Holy Spirit too.
26:21: And then we end up with this special envoy story, where the same Philip, who brought the message to the Samaritans, is now delegated by God to go out and share the gospel with this Ethiopian eunuch.
26:34: Everything about that's weird, okay?
26:38: He's northwest of Jerusalem, in Samaria, and then God sends him south of Jerusalem, has him travel in a totally different direction, and doesn't even give him his full marching orders.
26:49: He just says, hey, go to this particular road, headed south.
26:52: That's like God's just telling you, hey, drive 43 south.
26:57: Okay, where am I going, God?
26:59: Am I going to Denmark?
27:01: Am I going to Sheboygan?
27:02: Am I going to Milwaukee?
27:04: How far?
27:05: Doesn't tell him.
27:06: He gets there and tells him to go up to the chariot that's there, gets his next marching order.
27:16: Now, think about who God is sending Philip to.
27:21: He's an Ethiopian eunuch, so Ethiopia, East Africa, depending exactly where he was in Ethiopia, this guy traveled somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred miles each way to visit Jerusalem and to worship the God of the Jewish people.
27:38: Would have taken about a month with his caravan and chariot, whatever, he wouldn't have traveled alone.
27:45: There would have been some folks with him.
27:46: This guy undertakes a massive effort to get to Jerusalem to worship God, and he's a eunuch.
27:53: For those that don't know the term, he has been the recipient of surgery that prohibits him from family life, and this was a common practice in some societies for certain court officials, and he is such a court official.
28:11: So with this particular surgery, he would not have been welcome in the temple courts.
28:20: He travels all the way to Jerusalem, to the temple, where you go meet with God, and he wouldn't have even been let in.
28:26: He would have had to stay on the outskirts, definite outsider, outsider by ethnicity, outsider by geography, outsider by physical, medical, surgical condition, according to Old Testament law.
28:43: Deuteronomy 23: 1 in particular is the one that would have kept him out.
28:47: But with Jesus' resurrection, the Old Testament law has been fulfilled, and neither this Ethiopian eunuch nor we are under the Old Testament law, and so all are welcomed in.
28:59: Now he's traveled, he's done the month of travel, he's traveled a thousand to fifteen hundred miles, he's been there, now he's headed home.
29:08: He's on a desert road, and this random guy comes up alongside his chariot.
29:13: Now the chariot would have been faster than walking, so for Philip to come alongside, he must have had to at least jog a little bit.
29:21: So Philip's now huffing and puffing alongside, and I can only imagine Philip's trying to thought, like okay, God told me to go here, God told me to come up alongside this guy, what next?
29:34: Maybe he's brainstorming, how do I start a conversation and figure out what God might be up to here, how do I broach the subject of Jesus or whatever?
29:44: And before he can do anything, he hears the Ethiopian reading scripture out loud, and it just gets better from there.
29:57: He's not only reading scripture out loud, he's reading from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, that he would have a copy of the scripture is very unusual, that he would, as an outsider, have a copy of some portion of the Old Testament is amazing, right?
30:13: There's no printing presses, there's no books, except by hand.
30:19: To copy over a portion would have been time consuming and labor intensive and expensive, and this guy, from a thousand plus miles away, has invested money to own some portion of the Old Testament so he can read it and study it.
30:32: And the timing from God is so perfect.
30:36: God times it so that as Philip comes up alongside, the Old Testament equivalent of the pickup truck, he's reading Isaiah 53.
30:49: Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, do you understand what you are reading?
30:55: He said, how can I, unless someone guides me?
30:59: And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
31:02: First of all, you don't get a better Old Testament passage for describing Jesus than Isaiah 53.
31:09: That is probably the most extended, explicit Old Testament description of Jesus, period.
31:17: Now the whole Old Testament points to Jesus in a lot of different ways, but when you talk about a very specific, explicit description, Isaiah 53 is where you want to go, and that's what he's reading from.
31:28: Philip comes up, he's like, you know what that's about?
31:33: I can't understand this unless somebody helps me.
31:37: Anybody ever feel like that in your Bible reading, right?
31:40: You're reading your Bible, and you're like, I need some help understanding this, you're looking at your study notes, or email, or call me, or somebody else that you know that understands the Bible, and you're like, what is going on in this passage?
31:51: Well that's what's going on here.
31:52: I can't understand this unless somebody helps me.
31:56: We're told what the passage is from Isaiah 53, and it's specifically describing the unjust death of God's servant.
32:05: That sound like Jesus, right?
32:08: And so Philip's like, well since you asked, let me tell you about the unjust death of God's servant, and start telling about Jesus from that very passage.
32:17: No doubt he went to other places in the Bible as well, but starts right there.
32:21: He's like, well the message I want to share, and the message God has you studying, same message.
32:25: Let's talk and share the gospel with him.
32:28: That is fantastic.
32:31: I can only imagine how exciting that must have been for both of them.
32:39: I've been trying to figure this out, and you know, and God just brought you over here, and you've been wanting to tell people about Jesus, and I'm reading about Jesus, and you, you're telling me that there's a name for this guy, and so on.
32:49: What a personalized, precious expression of God's love for this man, he sends a specific individual to bring the gospel message, perfectly times it so that it makes sense.
33:06: So he's got the inroad, he's got exactly what he needs to clearly present it, and God brings this man to saving faith in Jesus Christ, starting with that very passage.
33:16: I believe this is how salvation normally works.
33:21: Now I don't mean that people are always going to be on the road, or you're always going to have a special God encounter that tells you to do something weird and out of the normal in order to share the gospel.
33:31: What I mean by this being typical is that God has a personalized plan to bring people to saving faith in Jesus, and God will send you to share the gospel with people that need to hear Jesus, and it won't be random, you won't be out there sharing your faith and somebody comes to faith and God's like, oh that just happened, okay?
33:50: God's not responding like he's surprised.
33:53: God has a plan to use you for gospel witness, let's be on board with that.
34:01: When I read this story I don't think, oh poor Philip, what a, what a terrible way to spend the day.
34:05: I'm excited, I want to be Philip, I want to be used by God to draw people to Jesus Christ.
34:12: I want to be right where God wants me at the right moment to help somebody understand what they never would have understood without help.
34:20: The details vary, but the same personalized loving care of God for people that need Jesus continues to this day.
34:27: In fact, church history tells us, if it's accurate outside of scripture, church history tells us this guy became a missionary to Ethiopia and launched Christianity into that region.
34:40: That's awesome, some of the people that you lead to faith may end up becoming evangelists and lead lots of other people to faith.
34:48: You have no idea the ripple effects of what God may do through you.
34:54: Now I want to draw your attention before we wrap up to something that's easy to overlook in this passage, verses 36 through 38.
35:03: And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see here is water, what prevents me from being baptized?
35:11: And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
35:17: That's weird, that's all kinds of weird.
35:21: First of all, they're on a desert road, and they happen across enough water for them to go down into the water and do a baptism.
35:31: God has timed this evangelistic encounter such that at the right point in their engagement, they're going to have water available for a baptism.
35:40: Second, he's moved in the eunuch's life enough that he's understood the gospel and says, hey, there's water, I can get baptized, right?
35:48: Is there any reason I can't?
35:48: And since Philip goes ahead and baptizes him, it must have been a legitimate moment for baptism, right?
35:54: He must have actually understood and believed the gospel.
35:57: So God has timed this guy's conversion so that on his way out of town, headed to an area of very limited water, before he gets out of the region where there won't be any Christians around him anymore, to baptize him, God says, yeah, let's get you baptized before you go.
36:12: And here's the part I love best about this, the eunuch asks to be baptized, why?
36:21: He doesn't know anything from the book of Isaiah about baptism, because baptism is not in the Old Testament.
36:33: In fact, baptism is a new thing.
36:37: In the early days of the church there was John the Baptist baptism, which is a different kind of thing, that's a, that's about repentance, not about faith in Jesus.
36:47: This baptism for faith in Jesus is a new thing, and the eunuch in theory could have heard about it while he was in Jerusalem, except he didn't know about Jesus till Philip shows up, so he still didn't know about baptism, which implies this, Philip, in sharing the gospel of Jesus, told him about baptism during their conversation.
37:11: Philip saw fit to bring up baptism right away in their evangelistic encounter.
37:17: Again, baptism is a crucial part of what happens on the front end of somebody coming to saving faith.
37:26: They go down into the water, that's part of why we do baptism by immersion.
37:30: We see the example from Acts 8, and we say they went down into the water.
37:34: He could have gone to the water's edge, got some water, and sprinkled them, that's not what he did.
37:39: And the word baptize is not a Bible word, it's a Greek word that existed at the time the Bible was written, and it literally meant to dip, immerse, or submerge, that which one does not do with your pocket watch.
37:53: Now, pocket watch is not part of the original Greek, obviously, but it missed it means to actually put it in the water.
38:00: These are two of the reasons, not the only reason, but two of the reasons that we do baptism by immersion.
38:05: Philip brought up baptism, must have taught him about it.
38:10: I want to leave two scriptures lingering in your mind.
38:14: Romans chapter 6, the beginning of Romans 6 starts off with this idea that maybe Christians, because they're forgiven, should just go ahead and keep sinning, because then God's grace will meet them where they're at, and Paul says, by no means, of course we don't do that.
38:27: And then he begins to describe the relationship between the believer and Jesus, and therefore the relationship between the believer and sin, and he says, we've been baptized into Christ, we, baptism is about our connection to Jesus, his death counts for us, his new life is our new life, and so we don't live for sin anymore, that's not for us, we're dead to sin.
38:54: And so this baptism thing is not just about, oh new believer, better dunk him, it's about explaining and representing, you are a new creation, you have a brand new identity as a Christ follower, your life is now entirely different than it used to be, don't just go back to the norm, you have a new norm.
39:14: And we see in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, that right away in the, the simple short summary of marching orders that Jesus gives his followers, baptism is right in there.
39:24: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
39:35: If we are not serious about baptism, we're not taking serious God's commands for us, and I want to take those commands seriously because I want to be part of what God is doing.
39:49: God is at work in Green Bay, drawing people to eternity with God, drawing people into saving faith in Jesus, that's not going to happen if people don't hear the gospel, and they're not going to hear the gospel if we don't get out there and tell them.
40:03: God means for you to be his representative, for you to be the Philip of today in the Green Bay region.
40:09: Let's be part of what God is doing, let's be faithful to be used by God and to share even in awkward situation as God provides opportunities and leads us.
40:23: There's no way Philip woke up that morning thought, you know, I'm going to travel far away into a desert place and go for a jog, and hopefully I can find a totally unlikely, implausible candidate for a conversion, and I'll share the gospel with him.
40:39: He didn't wake up planning that.
40:41: God let him, God will turn your plans on its head and use you in powerful ways if you surrender and submit to him.
40:51: Let's pray.
40:51: God, be at work in us.
40:51: Be at work through us.
40:56: Cause us to throw aside our own planning and our own wisdom, and to simply yield to you and say, spirit, move freely, blow like the wind wherever you wish, and change us.
41:08: Use us, multiply your people, build your church.
41:12: Build your kingdom in this place, and enable us, cause us, change us so that we are willing to do anything and everything that you ask of us, anything and everything that you commanded of us.
41:24: Make, make us faithful witnesses, help us to become clear in sharing the good news of who Jesus is.
41:32: God become a human being, help us to be clear in proclaiming the good news that you don't have to do anything to be right with God or to be forgiven.
41:42: You just trust Jesus, to be clear in telling folks that it's Christ alone.
41:50: There's no other road to God.
41:50: There is no other way to be saved, and that it's grace alone, we don't need to earn it or merit it or deserve it or qualify in any positive way.
42:00: We were simply given the gift.
42:04: Help us to represent that faithfully to Green Bay and Suamico and Howard and Bellevue and Ashwaubenon and De Pere and beyond.
42:14: We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.