One of the seven deacons that were ordained in Jerusalem church, named Philip, he became an evangelist. He went to Samaria. Samaria was not a place where a Jew wanted to go. They believed that all the Samaritans were demon filled and they would not even speak to them nor the Samaritans. The 10 tribes that broke off and split when Solomon died, they built their own temple, their own Mount Gizorim. And I say this so that you will know I've had an honor I have been on Mount Gizorium. I have had tea in the house of the high priest of the Samaritans. They believe that that's where the spirit of God is. It was a great joy to be able to witness to the Samaritans there on Mount Gizorium. As Philip preached, many people accepted Christ as the Messiah, as the Savior. But Satan always has to get his two bits in, and that's all he has, compared to what Jesus has. All he has is less than two bits. And so there was a man in the congregation there, His Hebrew name is Simeon. His English, we call it Simon. And Simon was a person who had been trained, and I get this from secular history, not from the Bible. He was trained in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a follower after the religion of Zoaster. Zoaster was the founder. of the Persian religion hundreds of years before Jesus was born. And Simon followed the teaching of Zoroaster. And this was the, he was given the unholy power to speak and to actually hypnotize people and make them believe in what he said and that he was somebody great. If you want to spend some time, probably it won't amount to anything, study what secular history teaches about his life after what I'm going to read to you. We'll begin now. Remember that Peter and John are apostles. Philip was only an evangelist. And I said last week, and I hope that you understand why I'm saying it, I'm a preacher, a teacher, but I'm not an apostle. That makes me know by studying the word of God that I do not have the power to look into your heart and know who you are, the perception, because that was left to the power of the apostles. I am to look at you, and I pray to God you'll look at me. and say, I believe Jesus can do something beautiful and something holy in your life. I don't want to know about anything else about you. I want to know about what you believe and what you will believe, that trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and his life will do for you. That's why it's not my place to judge you, because I do not have that power. I'm not an apostle. And I would encourage you with all my heart, when you look upon someone that you think is as evil as hell, that you would also look beyond that and that you would say, this is what you could be with Jesus as your savior. Peter looked upon Simon and he was able to perceive something about him. And that was that although he had accepted with his mouth, the Lord Jesus had been baptized He really had just accepted this in order that he might be able to use Christianity to further his selfish way of life. And I'm not judging him. Here's what Peter said. I'm in the eighth chapter of Acts starting with verse 23. Peter speaking to Simon. who had said, I want the power to lay hands on people and then receive the spirit that you are able to give to them. And I have money and I'll buy it. I'll pay a big price. Just let me have that power because I want it. I want to use it. Like I've been using the power of the Zoroaster teachings. Verse 23, for I perceive, Peter said, that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said, pray ye the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me. He did not need to go to Peter. He needed to go directly to Jesus. We have a wonderful privilege in this age, this dispensation we live in. We do not live in the dispensation of law, the law of Moses. Jesus fulfilled that, all of it. And when we embrace him and only him, We have that wonderful life of Jesus in us. You have that. Believe it, and it will elevate you to heights of spirituality, not some kind of a religious nut, but reality, the reality of God Almighty, the reality of Jesus, the Son of God, the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit. We don't know, we never hear anything else in the Bible about Simon. Secular history even had him as the first Antichrist. There are all kinds of rumors about what happened to him, but they're all only found in secular history. That's all we know is what is written here. And they, when they had testified and preached, we're talking about Peter and John, and when they, Peter and John, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, the English term W-O-R-D here comes from a Greek word that means that Jesus became human. He became a human being. He was born of a virgin. He lived the holy life. He died the death, paying my debt and your debt. Thank God. And so that's what Peter and John did. And then they returned to Jerusalem and they preached the gospel in many villages in Samaria. Now, Philip is there. He's an evangelist. He's not an apostle. He is there in Samaria and thousands have accepted Christ genuinely. And then one day, right in the middle of a great revival and great things happening, miracles and signs and wonders, right in the middle of that, an angel of the Lord, verse 26, and the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise and go toward the south in the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. You have heard that word Gaza real often. If you have watched the news, there's been a terrible tragedy. The Hamas, the Islamic terrorists shooting rockets that had been smuggled in. to Gaza and digging tunnels to get into the area to be able to kill Jews. And they began to shoot those rockets from Gaza into Israel. And thank God Israel had the gold of that iron dome that stopped those. But Israel had to fire rockets back. And Gaza now is a heap of tragedy. But look what good thing happened there when Philip obeyed God and went down to Gaza about 60 miles from Jerusalem. And he went and behold a man of Ethiopia. Now this is very important because this man, what happens to him as I'll read to you, you have heard of the Coptics. in Egypt and in that area. They're being killed by Islamic terrorists. They're hated by the Islamic Brotherhood. And this man is an Ethiopian. He is not a Jew, but he's been to Jerusalem to worship. He was a eunuch and a great authority under Candace, and this is her title, not her name, Pharaoh is entitled, under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. And he, this man who is in Gaza, he had charge of her treasure, had charge of all the money of the country that she ruled and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. You see, he was looking. He wanted to know the true and the living God. So he went up at Passover to Jerusalem, but you see Jerusalem was being ruled by a bunch of crooks, religious crooks, criminals using the teachings of Moses in order to control people. So he went to Jerusalem to worship and found nothing. He's on his way back, Ethiopia, and he has now reached the area of Gaza. Verse 28, he was returning and sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah, the prophet. He was reading out loud as his chariot was still there in Gaza, out loud the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. And Philip makes his way to him and hears him reading from the book of Isaiah that was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He was returning and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet. And the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, said unto Philip, go near and join yourself to this chariot. Go to this man, Philip, the evangelist. And Philip ran to him. And he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, this third chapter. and said, do you understand what you're reading? And the eunuch said back to him, how can I? Except some man guide me. I need to be taught. I need to be taught the word of God. I did not receive it when I was in Jerusalem. And I don't understand this 53rd chapter. And he desired Philip that he would come and sit with him. He climbs up in the chariot and sits down beside the eunuch. And the place in the scripture, verse 32, which he read was this. And this is talking about prophesying about the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what he read. And this comes by translation from the Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew directly. But the reason was most people understood the Greek in that day. And the place in the scripture which he read, he was led, talking about Jesus, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb, dumb before his shears. So he, Jesus, opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaks the prophet Isaiah. Who is he preaching about? Who is he writing about? Is he writing about himself or some other man? Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, Isaiah 53, and preached unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way in the chariot, heading back on down toward Ethiopia, they came into a certain water. And the eunuch said, see here, Philip, here is water, an oasis. what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said to him, if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest, you may be baptized. And he answered and said, and this is so simple, yet so sublime, I believe, the eunuch said, I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him, immersed him. And when they were come out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, And the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing. He goes back to Ethiopia and becomes an evangelist. And that people, by the thousands, even the queen of Ethiopia becomes a follower of Jesus. And if you were to go to that area today, you would find a small remnant They're hated by Islam because when, after Muhammad died, the Islamic people became very aggressive and they began to take over parts of that part of the world. And of course, they took over Ethiopia. They took over Egypt. I lived in Libya for three years. Before the Islamic invasion of Libya, there were churches. I've been to the ruins in Sabratha of Eptus Magna, and there would be ruins of a church. And right in front of the pulpit would be the baptistry. And I had pictures of that. We have movies of that. went on and moved away. And actually he stopped by and the King James says he stopped in the city of Azores, actually in Hebrew it's Ashdod. Ashdod and Philip was found there and he passed through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Now this is not Caesarea at the foot of Mount Hermon. This is Caesarea by the sea. It was a city built that the Romans might have a headquarters, a governmental headquarters. And he goes and this is his home. You say, how do you know that his home was in Caesarea? Well, I'm glad you asked. We'll have to go over to the Book of Acts and find out something ahead of time. in the book of Acts. Let's look at Acts 21.8. Now remember, he goes back to Caesarea. Later on, there's gonna be a high up Roman general who will be saved there in Caesarea. I believe he had heard the preaching of Philip and Peter had to be the one who went up there. He had been kind of taking a vacation in Joppa, Peter had been. And it's difficult to get away from traditions that you have had in your life. And although Peter was an apostle, he still had some of that age of Moses still in him that had been fulfilled by Jesus. And he was on the rooftop there in Joppa and God took a sheet And it came down in front of Peter and there were a bunch of animals on that sheet. And some of them were declared unclean under the law of Moses. And God said to him, take and eat. And Peter said, no, I have never eaten anything unclean and I'll start now. And God said to him, What I tell you is clean. Don't you say it's unclean. Do we have a contradiction there in the Bible? No, Jesus fulfilled all the commandments that Moses gave to the children of Israel. And so we find that Peter had to go up there and lead this general to the Lord because Peter had to find out that the Gentiles also could receive Christ. And he still did not believe that. And after that, he goes back to Jerusalem and tells the church, the Gentiles are going to be saved too. So I'll read to you now in the book of Acts, the 21st chapter, starting with verse 8, 21a. And the next day, we that were of Paul's company, now this happened, This is now 60 AD. Time has passed since Philip went down to Gaza. It's changed now. The time has passed. It's about 60 AD. And the day that we were, Paul's company departed and came under Caesarea. That's the Caesarea by the sea. And we entered into the house of Philip, the evangelist. You see, he had gone home after he had preached in Samaria and Gaza and on the way between Gaza and Caesarea. But his home was in Caesarea. And when Paul went to Caesarea, he stayed in the home of Philip the Evangelist. And notice this, verse 8, verse 9 rather, the same man that is Philip, had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. Women have the right to teach the Word of God. They have that right. I do want to make this, just this observation for you. The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church said the women were to be quiet in church. Now that would be a contradiction. So what is the answer? The answer is this. When these women in Corinth, the men and women didn't sit together in church in that time. The women sat on one side, the men on the other. Just like when you visit the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, The men will be praying on this side, there'll be a fence, and the women praying on that side. This is today. And what had been happening in Corinth was that the preacher would say something, just like I'm up here now, and the woman didn't understand what the preacher said, so she hollered across to her husband and said, what is he talking about? And Paul said, You wait till you get home. Don't interrupt the church service. Go ahead and let the preaching be done and you ask your husband when you get home. Maybe he knows what the preacher meant. So this man had four daughters who was teaching the word of God. This eunuch is saved. He goes back to Ethiopia and takes the message of Jesus to the continent of Africa. The first continent taken to after Asia Minor, it takes the gospel. Father, may we understand what the eunuch understood, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior. And Jesus, we lift up our human voices to you. And we say thank you for coming to this old evil world and living a holy life. and taking the possibility of eternal salvation for whoever would put their trust in you, Jesus. And today, it's my evangelical prayer that every person in this assembly of God, this ecclesia, this called out body of Christ, that we will be lifted up to heavenly places in Christ Jesus as we walk out into a world that needs the light of Jesus shining, reflecting upon us. and we'll praise you for all eternity and we thank you. We thank you with all our heart, with all our soul and all our mind for the word of God that today has lifted us up beyond all human possibilities. In the name of Jesus as we stand, you may come forward now or after the benediction. If you need more time, we'll be here waiting to visit with you and give you all the time you need as we stand and sing. Thy hands have made I see the stars I hear them rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed Then sings my soul How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. Right in just a moment, Brother Phil's gonna lead you in the, this'll be acapella. He's gonna lead you in the verse about Christ dying for our sins, and that'll be our benediction. Tell them which verse. Verse 3, verse 3. And when I think that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Now sing it with all your heart. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art. Thank you.