Acts chapter 8 this evening. Acts chapter number 8. We're going to begin reading in verse 26 and pick up the story there of God, the angel of the Lord, speaking to Philip. So if you're able, let's stand together as we read the word of God this evening. Acts chapter 8. We'll begin reading down in verse 26 and read down through the end of this chapter. The Bible says, And the angel of the Lord, spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem, in the gaze of which is desert. And he arose, and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to him, Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shears, so opened he not his mouth. And his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his life was taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water that wanteth him or me to be baptized. Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord called away Philip, that the eunuchs saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Father, help us tonight. God, thank you for the privilege to be back this evening. And Lord, just give us sweet fellowship together. May our worship, our songs, just the fellowship among the believers, Lord, may be pleasing and honoring to you. Father, speak to us through thy word. Encourage us, challenge us, correct us. Father, embolden us. Father, be a great witness for you in all that we do. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated tonight. Thank you so much for standing. I've been just reading on this passage and thinking and studying a little bit here in recent days. And actually last Sunday morning, I was teaching Sunday school over in Radford, Virginia. I say over as if it's just a little ways over, on the other side of the country, all right? I was over in Radford, Virginia, and I shared much of these thoughts with the class during our Sunday school hour there. Just some things about the story of Philip and the eunuch are interesting to me, are very intriguing, and I wanna look at that tonight. We're just gonna look at each verse and look at the thought or the theme as we see how God uses Philip to reach a man he had never met, never known, But God used Philip to reach him with the gospel. And in fact, I was just talking to someone here recently. I wish I had a photo, I was gonna say the old line is I have a photographic memory. It's just not developed yet, that kind of thing. In the age of 35 millimeter film and stuff, that made a lot of sense. But in the instant world of digital, that just doesn't work out very well. That illustration's sort of lost somewhere generationally. But meeting, and it's not, it's just, it's been in recent days just speaking to someone, and I don't even know if we were talking about the story, but discussing the Ethiopian eunuch. And this individual had spoken, had met a believer, a Christian that was from Ethiopia. And when they found out, whoever my friend, the acquaintance, I don't know if it was a preacher friend or just someone I was meeting in a church setting, found out that they were a believer as well, said they were so excited. And they started telling them about the history of the church in Ethiopia. And he said, you remember the story in the Bible? You know, they're in Acts chapter 8. You remember that Ethiopian eunuch? He said, that's where we trace our heritage from. Christians in Ethiopia said, we trace our roots back to that Ethiopian eunuch that Philip led to the Lord. And that's chapter 8. And I was like, hey man, that's pretty powerful. But you stop and think about it. Philip's never met this man before. God sends him into the desert just to meet a guy. He has no idea who he is, what he's doing, or even why he's being sent. But he goes. and God doesn't work. That's what I want us to look at tonight. But let's back up a little bit, and I want to deal with each verse, but just back up a little bit of what's going on in the life of the church. We know in Acts 1, of course, Jesus has told the disciples that Terry and Jerusalem, they're going to be empowered by the Spirit of God, and He ascends back into heaven. Chapter 2, the day of Pentecost comes and the Holy Spirit sweeps in like a mighty rushing wind and Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost and thousands are saved and God is doing an amazing work in Jerusalem. In chapter 3, Peter and John are going up to the temple and the lame man in the gate He's begging in alms, and Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. I mean, there are amazing things going on in chapters one, chapter two, chapter three of Acts. But then as you progress on through chapter 3, you get into chapter 4 and chapter 5, all of a sudden the religious leaders of the city, those whose lives are being turned upside down by the power of the gospel and their language, they begin to persecute the church. They throw Peter into jail. They persecute him. They beat him. They tell him not to preach anymore in that name. And so a time of amazing joy, a time of amazing blessing, turns into an equally amazing time of persecution and suffering. But as you read through those stories, again, they rejoice. Look over in chapter 5. Look back up just a couple of pages. We're not going to preach all these verses, but just read a few here with me. In Acts chapter 5, verse 41, They've been beaten. Peter has been forbidden to preach. Notice what their response is. Verse 41, and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. So what did they do? They just went and hid. They got a bunker mentality. They got their year's rations and went to a cave, right? Verse 42. And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. There was something amazing going on in this church. God's church. You say, what was going on that was so amazing? One, people were getting saved. But those people believed the truth of the gospel. What is the truth of the gospel? That Jesus is alive. We don't have a dead religion. We don't serve a dead Savior. We don't pray to a dead God that we hope hears us. We have a risen Savior. We have a living Savior. Jesus died for our sins. He was buried, but guess what? He rose again. I mean, it's been, what, a month and a half since that event took place, when these chapters begin to come to pass in Jerusalem, and there's no stopping that church. What? Are you going to persecute me? Amen! That's great! You're going to threaten me with death? Well, hallelujah! My Lord rose from the dead. What have I got to fear? I mean, you take my life, I'm with the Lord. You let me live, I tell people about Jesus. Either way, I'm a winner. And so we see persecution begin to come into the church, chapter five. Chapter six, again, there's not only external persecution, there's a little bit of an uproar, I wouldn't say an uproar, there's a little bit of division, some water murmuring, verse one calls it there, chapter six, because all the widows aren't being taken care of. The ladies in the church, the widows who have no family, no one to care for them, excuse me, are not being taken care of. And so the church, under I believe God's direction and God's leadership, they set aside deacons and they set aside seven different men. Go down to verse number five. It says they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Brochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a brothel out of Antioch. So they choose seven men that are spirit-filled, God-loving, God-fearing men, to serve in the office of a deacon. What was a deacon? A deacon was a servant in the church. They took care of the widows. They took care of those who had special needs in the church and in the ministry. They were the hearts and hands, if I can say it that way, for the local assembly. The pastor many times is the mouthpiece. He's proclaiming the word of God and he shepherds the flock. He tends to them and he cares for them. But those deacons were the hands-on, the ones who watched over in a very personal way the physical needs of that flock. And so again the Lord blesses and things seem to calm down and that seems to solve that controversy in the church. We've gone from great blessing to a time of persecution to a little bit of controversy in the church and then again God brings about again unity in his people. But I want you to notice something in verse 8 about those deacons. The Bible said it's Stephen full of faith and power. I'm in verse 8 of chapter 6. Did great wonders and miracles among the people. Stephen was a preacher. He was, I say, he was a preaching machine. He loved to preach and tell people about Jesus. So when you move from chapter 6 to chapter 7, Stephen is preaching and boldly preaching the word of God. But again, it gets him into hot water with a young man named Saul of Tarsus. Because Saul of Tarsus is yet to become the man we know him of as Paul the Apostle. Now he's Saul of Tarsus and he is a zealot. He's a Jewish zealot who loves Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They love the Pentateuch and the Old Testament law. And they love the rites and the ceremonies and all those things. But they have no idea about Messiah and Jesus Christ. They missed Him. They completely missed Him. Even though it was recorded in God's Word that He was coming. I always go back to that gospel account where the wise men are coming into Jerusalem and they say, where is He that's born? King of the Jews. Well, what does the King do? He goes to the religious leaders and says, where is the King of the Jews going to be born? They said, Bethlehem of Judea. Now, if you know anything about culture in those days, the wise men who come, we say three because there's gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but we have no idea exactly how many wise men there were. Was it two wise men? Was it 10 wise men? But we know there was a group of wise men. We also know that travel in that day was a dangerous journey, especially if word gets out at the local inn or tavern down the road that you're carrying gold, frankincense, and myrrh, high-priced commodities. So what are you getting at? They would have been traveling with an entourage. They would have been traveling with a large group of people who could not only make the journey, but could protect them on their journey. And so all I'm saying is this, that crowd comes riding into Jerusalem on their donkeys or their camels, mules are riding in, and they say, where's he that's born king of the Jews? I don't know about you, I know it got the king's attention. It definitely got his attention, but if I'm a Jew, okay, if I'm a Jew living in Jerusalem, and I know the story of our history throughout the Old Testament, and somebody comes riding in, where is he that's born a king of the Jews, and we know the Messiah's been promised, I'm getting excited. But you know what didn't happen? They weren't excited. As far as we know from the scriptural account, there's not one person of the Jews that went ahead and said, hey man, somebody's asking about where Jesus is going to be born or where the Messiah is going to be born. Could he be born? Man, somebody go down the road and find out. They didn't even go see. From the scriptural account, they didn't even come in and out and say, hey, how do you know? I mean, they said the story needs these letters, but the religious leaders of the city, they didn't come out and inquire. How long has it been? Where have you come from? How do you know all this stuff? There was no interest. There was no interest in spiritual things. That's who Saul of Tarsus was. He had a lot of head knowledge about Old Testament facts, but he didn't have a knowledge of the Messiah. He didn't know who David was talking about as he described the Messiah. He had no idea who he was persecuting. And so when Stephen gets preaching, he runs headlong into Saul of Tarsus, who is consenting unto his death. When you get to the end of chapter 7, now Stephen's dead. He's a martyr. He's stoned to death. We've gone from great victory, great joy, the dead Pentecost souls getting saved, to persecution, thrown in jail, being beaten, but they just keep on preaching. You come into chapter six and you see a little bit of contention in the church, but God quickly brings back the unity with the institution of those deacons. Chapter seven, the persecution intensifies again. Go to the end of chapter seven, verse 58, verse from here. And they saw Stephen calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit to their charge. That's the last word Saul of Tarsus ever heard Stephen say. He's consenting to their death. He's holding the garments. He's the official on site of death who has said, I see Jesus in previous. I see Jesus. He's at the right hand of the father. that only infuriated the crowd even more. They stoned him, and the last word Saul hears him say is, Lord, lay not this sin on the church. Later, Paul will say, and we're not on that tonight, but in chapter nine, when they record the account, and Jesus said, it's hard for me to kick against the pricks. I remember years ago, a dear pastor, a friend of mine in North Carolina, Daniel Buchanan, he pricksed on, preached on kicking against the pricks and he said that where pricks there's an ox goad. It's a pointed end for those that led ox would carry with them and they would goad the ox just to point it in. It would just basically gouge him. And so what God is revealing to Saul is there have been pricks in his life. There are prods, there are goads that he couldn't get away from. It's hard for me to kick against the pricks. That old ox, she gouged him, he'll only kick out. And she said, leave me alone. And God told Saul of Tarsus, he said, you're trying to get rid of this conviction, if I can say it that way, you're trying to get rid of the condemnation of a man you consented to his death, and the last words you heard him say was, Father, forgive him. Lord, forgive him. Lay not this sin to their charge. Saul, who thinks he's almost sinless, watches a man die who he is approved of, Basically calling him a sinner. Lay not this sin to their charge. So there's a lot going on in the church. There's a lot going on. Now chapter 8. They buried Stephen in verse number 2. Made great lamentations. Saul's making havoc. Verse 3 of the church. They're scattered in verse 4. They that were scattered abroad went everywhere what? Preaching the word. Can I encourage us this morning or this evening, church, that persecution should never stop us. It should only encourage us. It means we're getting the job done. It means we're doing what we're supposed to do. It means we're being effective in sharing the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It also means they're listening. It may not mean they're listening. They're hearing what we have to say. We're making them think God is working in their hearts. God is doing something. And so they're going everywhere preaching the word of God. And then we come down to our text tonight. Let me just give you these thoughts quickly. Because in this whole mix you have Philip. Again, he's the second of those deacons named in chapter six. Stephen was the first deacon named and he became the first martyr. Philip was the second deacon that's named in that passage. And here we find him again being used in a tremendous way by God to be a witness of the gospel. Beginning in verse number 26, the first thing I noted in this text was the saying. The Bible says in the angel of the Lord, speak unto Philip, saying. Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert, the saying." Each one of these verses for me as I was just reading through it, it's like it was a truth. There was something that was in that verse, but every one of them led me to ask a question. You know, here we have Philip and we see the saying of the angel of the Lord, but it's almost like the Lord was saying to me, well, are you listening? You know, Philip is being sent down the way of Geza. He's being sent down from Jerusalem. He's going up to Geza, which is desert. Again, it's like, but why, Lord? The Lord hasn't told him as of this verse yet. He's still talking. He just told him to go. The question for us, if God tells us to go, are we willing to go? And I'm not talking about going down to the desert, we live in a high desert, so we're there, all right? We live in what's technically a high desert, but are we willing to hear the direction of the Lord to do what he tells us to do? The same. The second thing we see in the next verse is the sending. The Bible says, the Lord sent him in 26, but verse 27, I love the first few words, it says, and he arose and did what? He arose and went, the sending. In verse 26, for me, the question is, are you listening? But verse 27, the question for me is, are you willing? He arose and went. God spoke to him. God told him what he wanted him to do. He had a work for him to do. He didn't know the work. He didn't know what all it entailed. He didn't know how long it was going to involve. Is this going to be a minute, an hour, a day, a month, a year? He had no idea. He just knew that God had sent him and given him a calling, given him a purpose, and he had to decide to go. He had to make that choice, and so he did. Verse 27, we see the sending, and he arose and went. Are you willing? Well, when he goes, when he responds and does what God's told him to do, notice what he finds in verse 27, after he arose and went. The Bible says, and behold, a man of Ethiopia and Eunuch of great authority, under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure. Please don't miss that. This is a very significant man. I mean, he is serving with great authority under the Queen of Ethiopia. He is a trusted man. He's a highly intelligent man. But the Bible said he's in charge of all her treasures and he had come to Jerusalem for to what? For to worship. So he was a spiritual man. He was seeking truth. He wanted to know truth. You know sometimes in this life we go about it and we talk to this individual, we talk to that individual and they don't want to hear or they don't want to know and there's no interest here, no interest there. Can I tell you tonight, God knows who's seeking and God knows who's not. And we don't always know, we don't always know the processes, we don't always know who is where and what's going on in their life, but God does. And when God sends Philip down to the desert, Philip doesn't know what's waiting. Philip doesn't know what's gonna happen. He just does what God tells him to do. And when he gets there, guess what? He finds a man that God knows is already there. God knows what's going on in his heart. God knows where he's at. And God sends him down there to that eunuch. We see the city. The eunuch is sitting, verse 28, He was returning and sitting in his chariot, it says he read Isaiah, that's the New Testament spelling of Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet. He's just sitting there reading. To me, I'm like, this is, every time I read a story in the Bible, history in the Bible. I don't want to use the word story like, oh, no, that's history. When I read the history in the Bible of what happened, I'm just envisioning this. I mean, I'm seeing Philip, he's in Jerusalem, he's heading down, he's going in the gates, and he's going into the desert. Don't know where he's going, don't know who he's supposed to see, don't know exactly what his function is, but God just says, go, I'm going to top it. So he goes, and as he's going, it's like he sees this man, he hears him in his ears and reading. We'll see that in a moment, he's reading the scriptures. And Philip, I'm reading between the lines, but I'm like, wow, is that why you sent me, Lord? I mean, is that why you brought me here? And so we see the sitting of the eunuch, but then notice what the Spirit does in verse 29 to Philip. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. Now I have no reason to believe, especially in this context and understanding the whole of the New Testament, that when the Spirit spake to him, I have no reason to believe that it was an audible voice, but he spoke to Philip as the Spirit always does and he speaks internally into our heart. Philips is coming down through the desert. It wasn't like somebody yelled across the dunes and said, hey Philips, go down and see that. No. He knew. God spoke. The Spirit spoke in his heart and compelled him to go join himself in that chariot. I'm glad the Spirit of God is real. And I understand there are false spirits, there are demonic spirits, there are evil spirits. I get all that. But just because there are, please don't lose sight of the Holy Spirit. Because He's, I won't say just as real, no, He's more real than they are. I mean, He is God in the third person. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is God in the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. Please don't discount the working of the Spirit of God in your life. Don't be afraid of that. You say, but how do I know if it's the Spirit of God? The Spirit of God will always lead you according to the Word of God. The test of the Spirit of God is the Scriptures, always the Scriptures. It's not feeling, it's not emotion, it's not, well, I think this, it's what does God say in His Word. You say, how does that feel? Well, Jesus had told the disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We know that's a command, to be a witness, to share Christ, to share the gospel. And so, can I help you with something? The devil will never encourage you to tell somebody else about Jesus. He don't want you to tell other people about Jesus. So if you have a nudge in the inside that's like, man, I need to share my testimony with this person. I need to tell them what God's done in me. I need to share who Jesus is. That's the Holy Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit because that's what he's there for. He teaches us, he helps us, he helps us when we pray, he helps us when we study the scriptures, but he helps us when we witness to others. And so we see the spirit of God there in verse number, where am I, verse number 29. The spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to the chariot. Verse 31, excuse me, verse 30. We see the hearing. Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Esaias and said, understandest thou what thou readest? Remember, these are strangers. Philip doesn't know the eunuch, the eunuch doesn't know Philip, but Philip knows Jesus. And the eunuch is reading about Jesus, but he don't know who he's reading about. And so Philip has been led in the Spirit of God down here to Gaza, and he hears the eunuch reading the Word of God. And Philip's like, oh my goodness, man, he's reading about Jesus. I mean, he's reading about the Christ. And so he calls out to him, he said, hey, do you understand who you're reading about? Do you understand, understandest thou what thou readest? Do you understand what God's word is saying here? And then I want you to notice, please don't miss this, the hearing that Philip had of this man in reading the scripture. But the next thing I want you to notice, verse 31 is, I just said the howling, it's not a word, but the howl, howl. He heard him reading, he asked him a question, but look at verse 31. The eunuch said, and he said, how can I? Except some man should guide me. How many people around us are hearing, but there's no howling? You know, there's just nobody to tell them. There's nobody there to share the truth with them. See, the whole thought of the message tonight in this text is the eunuch is waiting. The eunuch is waiting. No, we don't know where they are. And by the way, the desert wasn't full of them. There wasn't a whole line up of chariots waiting down through the desert, waiting on film to just go one by one. This was one man in a desert place. But he was a man that God had prepared by giving the word. He was a powerful man. He was an influential man. That eunuch was. He was a knowledgeable man. He was an intelligent man. But he was a man as he read the scripture that was confused. He said, how can I? Philip said, do you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I? Except some man should show me, tell me, guide me. So the Bible said he desired at the end of verse 31, he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. Verse 32 and verse 33. He's heard, he's asked how. Then I want you to notice these verses 32 and 33, the holy, the place of the scripture, which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter like a lamb done before his shearers, so openly not his mouth. He's reading here in Isaiah 53. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away and new shall declare his generation for his life is taken from him. I mean, he's reading about Christ. You remember where he just left, right? He just left Jerusalem. He's been in Jerusalem. You know what happened less than two months ago in Jerusalem? Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again. I mean, he's right on the heels of the day of Pentecost, just weeks past then. And yet he doesn't know a thing. He doesn't know what it's about. He's just gotten the scriptures in front of him. Look at verse 34 and 35. He's holding the truth in his hands, but he has no one to tell him. Verse 35, 34, excuse me. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet of this, is of himself or of some other man? Who is Isaiah talking about? Is he talking about himself? Is he talking about somebody else? Verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and began in the same scripture. and preached unto him Jesus, the heralding. He just preached unto him Jesus. Can I say it this way? He didn't get into some deep theological exegesis of what the Hebrew word meant. He just said, you're reading about Jesus. You're reading about the promise of the father that he was gonna be done before he shears his lamb, before he shears his lamb so openly, not his mouth. You're reading about who Jesus is. John, we know the Baptist declared there in John's gospel, chapter one that was written later, but behold, the lamb of God had taken away the sin of the world. And all Philip did was to show him how the scripture was declaring to him Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God who came. He came to die. No doubt in the short time since the crucifixion, no doubt the stir is still there. The church is growing. No doubt people are witnessing and telling their friends and neighbors about the Messiah even though the persecution is intense. By the way, persecution many times shines an intense light on what's being said. And that's what happened in the church. The church is being persecuted. Well, some people may not have a clue what's going on, but when they see some woman being drug out of her house by the magistrate from the court or from the church, they're like, what's going on? She's a Christian. All of a sudden, I'm like, oh, a Christian. Well, why is she willing to go to prison? Because she says Jesus is alive. He's real. He's the Savior of the world. He is the Messiah. And all of a sudden, even the persecution is causing the name of Christ to be magnified. It's causing the gospel to go forward. So all I'm saying is this eunuch wasn't that far removed from those days. It's just recent days since Stephen gave his life, and Saul is breathing threatenings and harm in the church. That eunuch had to have at least sensed what was going on in the city, and the spiritual tension. Well now he's seen that. He's seeking to worship, and by the way, if he went to Jerusalem to worship, guess what? He was one who was seeking out the God of the Old Testament. But he still didn't know Jesus. So when he's reading Isaiah 53 there in his chariot, and he asked Philip to explain it to him, Philip just opened his mouth and began in the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Verse 36 and seven, we see the hindrance. We see the heralding of Philip, but we see the hindrance, verse 36. As they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What does hinder me to be baptized? The hindrance. Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. The eunuch's first question was, well, hey, here's water. Can I be baptized? Philip said, well, yeah, can I put it in just common terminology? He said, but don't get the cart before the horse. He said baptism doesn't come before regeneration. Baptism doesn't come before belief. Baptism doesn't come before faith. I mean, I can take you down there and baptize you, but if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've never been born again, you just get up wet. I mean, that's the only difference. The hindrance. Again, understand the shooting. He's getting truth. He's hearing about Jesus. But again, he's asking sincere questions. Say, why would he ask about baptism? I don't remember there being anything about baptism necessarily in Isaiah 53 that I can remember. Remember where he was. He was just in Jerusalem. What was going on in Jerusalem? The church was going. People were getting saved. Well, what happened when they got saved? Read the story. They're getting baptized. I mean, the Philippian jailer, I mean, he gets baptized the night that he gets saved in his whole house after they believe. So the whole idea of baptism as a testimony and expression of their faith, he knew about. That's what the Christians did. They baptized after they were saved. So he says, what does it mean to be baptized in the hindrance? Then we see the solution. Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he, the eunuch, answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ, what's the next word? Is the Son of God. Don't miss that word. He didn't say, I believe that Jesus Christ was. Big difference. Oh, I believe Jesus Christ was a great prophet. Oh, I believe Jesus Christ was a great teacher. Oh, I believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God. No, he said, I believe that he is. That means he currently is. That means he's currently alive. That means he's currently on the throne. That means he never lost his deity. He never lost his power. He never lost his place. He is the Son of God. Is. So the eunuch replies, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Then we see the command in verse 38, and he commanded the chariot to stand still. They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized the command. A few things about the command. I love what it says. There's so many things to just glean here. He commanded the church to stand still and they went down both into the water. Can I just say by point of historical context, that eliminates sprinkling as a mode of baptism. Never has been, never will be a mode of biblical baptism. Why? Because baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. illustrate that, to picture that, to communicate that, you can't just throw a few drops of water on your head and say, boom, you're sprinkled, you're bad. It doesn't work that way. Because when they bury you, they don't come with a few little grains of dirt and drip a few little grains of sand on your head. They dig a hole and they stick you in it. And you go in, and hallelujah, one day if you're saved by the grace of God, you're going to come out. But it is that gospel that baptism is an illustration of so that they both went down into the water. Philip understood that. The eunuch understood that. If sprinkling was a valid method, would it not have been easier in a desert to just pour down some canteen water and splash it on his face and say, you're baptized, bud? No. That's not scriptural. It does not illustrate the truth of the new birth. buried with Christ in his likeness, raised in a newness of life. That is biblical baptism. And so Philip and the eunuch both go down into the water and he baptizes him. Verse 39, to catch him when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord called away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more. And he, the eunuch, went on his way Rejoice. It doesn't take a lifetime to change a life. It takes a moment. It takes truth of God's Word. It takes faith, simple, childlike faith. But it only takes a moment in time for someone to humble themselves, repent of their sin, put their trust in Christ, and be saved. That's all it takes. And when the new birth happens, you're saved, you're forgiven, you're born again. caught awake, can you imagine the scene? Remember I told you earlier, I said, I'd love to envision the scene. Philip's being sent from Jerusalem, he's heading down toward Gaza, he's just cruising down through the desert, he don't know where he's going exactly, I mean he knows the general vicinity, but he don't know why, he don't know who he's gonna see, and then God leads him to join himself with this chariot that he sees, and as he gets near the chariot, lo and behold, if you don't hear this Ethiopian eunuch, free thee Isaiah! Oh my goodness! And so he comes up there and he said, do you understand what you're reading? And the eunuch says, how can I? Because I'm a man of show. And he jumps up in the chair and he said, well, let me tell you about Jesus. And so he expounds, he reveals the scripture, how Isaiah's talking about Christ who had just come into Jerusalem. He was crucified, he was buried, and he gloriously rose from the dead for the sins of the whole world. Amen! He took our chastisement upon himself. You can receive that mercy, that forgiveness, that new birth, if you'll put your faith and trust in Him. And the eunuch's like, well, what does it mean to me to be baptized? He said, if you believe. And the eunuch said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Boom! Stopped the chariot, down in the water, he baptized him, they came up, the eunuch's rejoicing, and God said, I got some room for you to go. That is sometimes, it's not always the way God works, but God does work that way sometimes. God has a place, God has a purpose, God has someone prepared for you to share the gospel with. You say, well how will I know? Because God will tell you. God will lead you, God will show you through the leading of His Spirit. And so we see the catching, verse 40, the continuance. But Philip was found and his others were passing through. He preached in all the cities till he came to Cicero. Philip just kept preaching. Philip just kept on and kept on and kept on preaching. When I read this story, and I'll close with this simple, some questions. When I read this story again and you read it and you read it and you read it and you read it, but then sometimes you read it, it's just like things just, hmm. It's always been there, but I haven't always thought about this particular aspect of this historical event. But I want to ask you some questions tonight. Who sowed the seed in the eunuch? In other words, where did he get the scroll of Isaiah? I mean, there's no answer. Trick question, not a trick question. I'll give you the answer. We don't know. Okay. I'll simplify it for you. We don't know where he got the scroll of Isaiah. We don't know. By the way, there were no printing presses. He didn't go to a local bookstore and pick one up. Everything had to have been handwritten by detail, meticulously recorded. They were highly prized. So where did he get his copy? Who gave it to him? Someone in Jerusalem. Someone in Jerusalem. Most likely. 999. But who cared enough about the eunuch to let him have it? Somebody had to sow the seed. You know, oftentimes talk about just taking these little gospel tracts, these little invitations to the church, and just giving them wherever you go. Wherever you go, go through the checkout line in the grocery store. Say, hey, I'd like to invite you to come visit us sometime. Go through a drive-thru. I mean, that's what I do at our favorite coffee shops. I wouldn't say one, but there are too many that we like. And every young man or young lady who's there at the window, they give me my last drink, and I say, hey, just want to share an invitation with you. And 9.99 times out of 10, they just look at it a little bit, and they're looking at the back a little bit, and they're looking inside a little bit like, hmm, I wonder what today is. What am I doing? I'm sowing a seed. I'm sowing a seed. I don't know which one of them is searching. I don't know which one of them their heart is tender. I don't know which one of them is really looking for an answer. I don't know. But I'm just trying to sow the seed. I'm trying to put the Word of God in their hands. Why don't we hang 15,000 John Romans all over Farmington and Kaysville this summer? I'm just trying to put the Word of God in front of people because there's somebody out there that's looking. There's somebody out there that's praying for an answer. There's somebody out there that wants to know the truth. Part of that process is somebody putting the Word of God in their hand. But that's only the first part. Because there has to be somebody out there who is willing, when God brings you across the path of that individual, who is willing to share Christ with them. When they say, well what does this mean? You say, well I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you about who He is and what He did and what He's done in my life and what He can do for you. Who will sow the seed? Second, who will go to the desert? who will go to the desert, wherever God may send you. It may be an obscure place. It may be a place you've never been or a place you haven't been in a long time. And that could be down the street. And it could be as crazy as going to a different grocery store to shop if you haven't been in a long time. But you just feel like, you know what? I don't know. I need to get my milk down the street today. You say, that's crazy. Well, no, no. Not if you feel led of the Spirit to do that. Because there may be a eunuch walking down the third row over. or walk through the produce section that's been reading that little John Romans. And it stirred something in their heart. And that they don't understand all of it, but they've been reading that little Mark, John and Romans. You come walking down to get you a handful of bananas, and you hear them asking the person, you know what, I got this little thing of scripture on my door, and I've been reading that, and I just don't understand. He said preach the stuff like that never happens. Then read your Bible again. It just happened. You just read it. Did it happen every day? No. Is it going to happen in your life every day? It might happen once in your lifetime. I don't know. But I'm saying be willing. Be sensitive. Either be sowing the seed, be willing to go, or be telling