Who Does He Think He Is?

Thank you so much for joining us. As we take a look at the book of Acts, we take things nice and slowly. As we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey, and I'm the pastoral care admissions pastor here at United City Church in Ombalt, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're gonna be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes and let's learn together through the book of Acts. - Yo, thank you guys so much for those of you that are joining us online. We always love having you. There's a whole lot of people in the room that wanna say hello. - Hello. - Yeah, so you can't see them, but I promise you. We love you. They love you. We're all together here back in Acts chapter eight. I want us to get caught up because we're definitely in the middle of quite a story. This whole thing, as we know,

we always talk about the fact that the Bible is one unified story that points to Jesus. The book of Acts is an amazing chapter as it were in the story where the church is born and is set loose with the Holy Spirit. We're in Acts chapter eight, where we have had some really interesting encounters. We've barely sort of met Saul, and then we sort of put him to rest. I promise we're gonna get to know him really well in the weeks to come. Then we met the magician who ended up, we had a lot of questions about did he come to faith? Did he not? We know he had an encounter. And so we can just leave that there. And then last week, we began to talk about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. So I want us to sort of catch up and make sure you understand, especially for those that weren't with us last time. But Philip, of course, was one of the men set apart to serve in Acts chapter six. So if you haven't been with us, go back and you can watch some of our things in Acts chapter six, but that's when they set aside because the apostles were just, they had too much to handle. And so they said, okay, we need to set apart men of God who are full of the Spirit

that will help us with those things. Well, one of the things we find is they quickly, we noticed these guys are not just waiters serving the widows. These guys are actually men filled with the Spirit, operating in the giftings of the Holy Spirit. And these guys are powerful. Stephen was the first one of those that was named. And if you remember, Stephen was amazing in the fact that he stood up, gave a very bold speech and then was stoned. The first martyr was Stephen. So we looked to him. He told that speech was amazing. It took us about a month to get through that. He became the first martyr. And then we find Philip. Philip was the one who was involved with this magician that Denise taught us about a couple of weeks ago. And Philip was used in Samaria to spark a revival. There was so many great things going on. People were coming to faith. And then God gives him this really crazy direction. This angel appears to him and says, I want you to go down to that deserted place. Leave all the excitement of what's going on here. There's a deserted place and I've got an appointment out there. So Philip did it. We noticed once he got out there and we'll read back through that in a second

is that he found a man who was already seeking God and that was the Ethiopian eunuch. God was already working in his heart, but he needed a messenger to sort of spur him on and encourage him. One of the things we talked about toward the end last week was a set of principles or realities, as you might call them, that Dr. Henry Blackaby put out a number of years ago that many of us, this wasn't new information, but I want you to hear these again because I don't know the story in the Bible that relates these anymore clearly than this story. That first reality is that God is always at work around you. Guys, you don't have to look for, oh, I wish God would work. No, God is always working. God is working in every one of our hearts. God is working in every lost person's heart that you meet on the corner in the grocery line. God is always at work. What we need to do is we need to look for what God's doing and just join him there. So, God not only is at work around you, but God is always pursuing a love relationship with you. That is real and personal. And guys, part of that love relationship is when we are active and involved and listening to his spirit, we're growing closer to him. We're showing our affection to God.

God, I believe you, I believe you want me to do this and I'm going to do it because I love you. So, God is pursuing that relationship with us. Then God invites you to become involved with him and his work. Guess what, guys? We don't do work for God. God does work and we join with him. Okay, that's what we are called to do. He invites us, it's like he kind of points somebody out. I know many of you in this room have experienced this. God just sort of kind of got a flashing light bulb over somebody's head. Pay attention. Listen, this person is ready. I can remember many times Danielle coming home because you know Danielle doesn't mean to stranger, my sweet wife. And she's like, there she was in the coals line talking to somebody the next thing we know. God was already working in that person's heart. And now she's been a very active member of our church for years and her sons have given their life to Christ. It's beautiful. So number four, God speaks by the Holy Spirit. We've been talking about the Holy Spirit from Acts chapter one all the way through. He speaks through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church. You want to know how to hear God's voice? You're going to hear it in one of those four ways

every time, guys. His word, every time we open it, it's like God's mouth is open and he is talking to us. He also speaks to us through prayer. We can hear the still small voice. I'm not saying you're going to hear an audible voice, but you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit telling you what to do. You just have to listen. You just have to be available and it's always going to be in tandem with the word. He sometimes speaks through circumstances, right? He closes the door. He opens the door. He points you in a certain direction and then he speaks through the church. You're here in this room tonight. We're all hearing the voice of God together. So you want to be connected with God's people because sometimes God is going to give you a word through somebody else, right? Through the church, because you know, the church is not this building. This building is not the church. We are the building, right? God speaks to us through the church, the people in this place. Number five, God's invitation for you to work with him leads you to a crisis of belief. That's when you go, oh, am I going to do that?

That feels scary. I don't know how to do that. I don't know what to say. What if somebody laughs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? God invites you to do something with him and you have to, you face that crisis of belief and you have to have faith and you have to take action. You've got to actually do something. Number six, you have to make major adjustments in your life to join God in what he is doing. Philip, perfect story. I mean, Philip was in the, he was experiencing revival and God's like, nope, stop, cut all that off. Go out there with the deserted road. Major adjustment. Last one, you come to know God by experience. That's why it's called experiencing God. You will experience God when you obey him and when he works through you. I promise guys, it happens every time. So that is a real quick overview of those. Those if you will live by and believe those by biblical principles, I promise your life will be radically blessed. So yes, yes, absolutely. The last one is you come to know God by experience when you obey him and he works through you. That's when you experience God, okay? So what I want us to do tonight is

we're going to read through Acts 8, 26 to 40 because that's a whole story. We'll make some quick comments on the ones we hit last week and then we're going to try to hit the rest of those verses tonight. So we'll begin in Acts chapter eight, verse 26 where it says an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the desert place and he rose and went. Now we already said, Philip was ready to move. When God said move, Philip's like, okay. It's kind of like God says, jump, he says, how high, right? We want to move when God says move, even when it's to an unexpected place. Let me remind you, God almost always invites you to go somewhere you don't expect. - Nothing. - If God doesn't have to, he doesn't need to lead you to places that you already go. Okay, you're already going there. The sign that it's God's leadership is often 'cause it's somewhere that you would never have for yourself. God leads to unexpected places. Let's keep going. There, when he got there, there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. This is in verse 27, who was in charge of all our treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

and he was returning, seated in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. We talked a lot about all of that last week, guys. So if you haven't, if you're online, go back and watch that. We see all of this, guys, but keep in mind, Philip didn't know any of this stuff. God didn't say, hey, Philip, I want you to go to the desert road 'cause there's this guy from Ethiopia. He's already come to Jerusalem to seek God and he's reading Isaiah, so get out there quick. - Mm, except that. - No, God doesn't do that generally. God says, go, Raleigh. And Raleigh's like, well, I don't know. We just need to go, right? Gentiles heart. So much so that remember how far he had traveled one way? And on 1500 miles this guy had traveled one way to get to Jerusalem to worship a God that he still doesn't really even know. You understand? He's asking like, I'm doing this and I'm feeling right. But who is this? Who are we even talking about? So a month it would have likely taken him by chariot. One way to worship there, we're guessing this was Greg's idea and I kind of like the idea. So I'm going to ascribe to this one that he picked up an Isaiah scroll while he was there in Jerusalem. Because we don't know how he would have gotten one in Ethiopia. So we're going to say he stopped at the Christian bookstore right there in Jerusalem. I think there's one right down from the temple and picked that up. So he got an Isaiah scroll potentially and now he's reading it on the way home. To his threesome. That was a resale shop. Could have been. Who knows? Right. But anyway, that's when God sends Philip to intersect the life of someone where God is already working. You see these principles at work? God was already working over here. And he was like, hey, Philip, I need you to go somewhere totally unexpected because I'm doing something over here. And so that's what Philip said. Yes, sir. And so Philip went and he received that blessing of being

in part. So I love where in verse 29 it says, the spirit now said to Philip. Because remember, it's already the angel of the Lord talked to him. Now it says, the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him. This is the part where we were wondering. It's Philip like running alongside the chariot while the chariot's going along. We don't really know. But I would say this verse is very bold. These two verses, guys, when you see all that pomp and circumstance and all that fancy stuff, walking up to that as a stranger would have been a very bold move and a very intimidating thing to do. But Philip was like, okay, the spirit told me I better go. And but do you hear this? Do you hear this? We're talking about we can hear the voice of God. Did you hear it in his head? I don't know. Did he hear an audible voice? I don't know. But he knew it was the Holy Spirit. He had somehow trained himself to hear the voice of God. And the best way to train yourself to hear the voice of God is to ask Lord, I want to I want to hear you and then obey what you think he's asking you to do. If it's not contrary to this word, then you're probably right on. Okay. He's not going to ask you to do anything that is contrary to his word. That's how we can know. So Spirit said, go join the chariot. Philip read over there. The angel had already spoken. And now the Holy Spirit says, go. And when he got there, what happened? He heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. You see, God has prepared the way before Philip. And here's here's what I'm this is my this is my thought process. You know, we like to get imaginative in here. I wonder if Philip thought something like this. What are the chances? Oh, here I am out here. Now God's already working in this guy's heart. This guy is reading sacred scripture. Let me see if he knows what he's reading. I don't know if maybe he went through all those things, but that's kind of in my mind. What maybe he might have said. And so that's why Philip asked, did you understand you're reading? It was kind of looking almost. Yeah. And you wonder like, what was the tone of voice, right? When he said that, I think it was from such a beautiful pure place because look, one of the best things we can do in our evangelism and Lane has been great to teach me this is ask more questions. Don't just come making statements, come asking questions because you can trust whoever you're talking to. If it's on the streets in Las Vegas or if it's on the streets in South Africa, God's already working in their lives. So let's, you got to kind of figure out what's God doing in their life. So he figured out, well, this guy's got spiritual hunger because he's reading God's word. Okay. Do you understand what you're reading? That's a pretty good question, right? I mean, does that make any sense to you?

So this is where we left off last week at this whole idea of him asking the question, do you understand what you're reading? So now I want to read, excuse me, the rest of the passage verses 31 through 40. And let's, let's hear it as in its, in its, in its entirety. And then we'll, we'll take it verse by verse. So it says verse 31. He, of course, that's the eunuch said, well, how can I? Unless someone guides me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a she, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he, For his life is taken away from the earth. And the Eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself? What about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus, 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? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the Eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way, rejoicing. But Philip found himself at a zotus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Now, a lot is happening here, okay? We've got a lot of interesting things. We've got miracles taking place. We've got salvation coming. We've got baptism. We've got teleportation. I mean, we've got a lot happening in these nine verses, okay? So let's sort of take a look. I love where he begins and says, "Do you understand?" I want to share this with you, because I'm hoping that some of you have had this experience. A really good way to work with people. Let's say you know someone who's got some, they're spiritually interested, but they're not yet a believer, or maybe you don't know where they stand just yet. Invite them to read the Bible with you, not even at the same time necessarily. Some of you guys know the Bible app. You guys like the Bible app. Some of you guys are big Bible app people, right? I use it for my reading plan each day. I look at this where I can find what I'm going to go, and then I'll read it in my Bible. However, one thing that I've been doing with the friend of mine who is not yet a Christian is we've done a Bible reading plan together. So we both read the same thing every day, and then we talk about it. Guys, I can literally ask him, and I did. Do you understand what you're reading? How does that question invite conversation? You value his opinion. You value his opinion? Okay. Yeah, Carol.

How about working with somebody else, huh? That's right. You share how it's worth your fortune to help openly. Exactly. Yes, that's like a discerning question. Okay, well, where is this person? Do you understand what you're reading? And then I'd be like, no, I don't have a clue. It makes no sense to me. I've had people say that to me, because first of all, I think we all remember if the Holy Spirit is not present within a person, this just sometimes just looks like foolishness. They're like, I don't understand. Now, all of this is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so God can use this to speak to a person's heart. Of course he does. But guys, often, this becomes foolishness to a person who doesn't yet know God. They need some understanding. Susan. Oh, I remember being in a hotel when I wasn't a Christian and picking up a Gideon Bible and starting to read it and I thought, how can people read this? That didn't make any sense. I always told me blind. Yeah, exactly. Because that's what it says that the spirit of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Okay, so it's only in Christ that the veil is lifted, then the Holy Spirit comes to take out residence and you're like, oh, this is actually amazing and it becomes like their words of life to you. But I'm saying this to you because I want to remind you, if you know people that don't yet know the Lord and we all do, if they show even one ounce of interest, invite them to read some scripture. Invite them and say, hey, why don't you read a chapter in John this week and I'm going to read that chapter in John and then let's just talk about it. We can text about it or we can call about it or we can have coffee. It's a powerful way of sharing the gospel with others. David, do you think it's the kind that Luke mentioned that this is a unit that Jesus had rejected units, they had projected a similarity, gentle everyone. And so do you see it as God living along and accepting this one and this one and this one and this one, even signing up? We're not sure we got to say. Yeah, exactly. You're still questionable. And so, but yes, then about the unit except he and the unit. That's all. Yeah. We just know that he's an Ethiopian unit, but thank you for bringing up that point. The units were also They, of course, had taken their own type of a vow, you know what I mean? To serve their master. Of course, he was a servant of the queen of Ethiopia. Which also, I think it's very important to note another thing about him is he's a super

highly influential person within his own domain in Ethiopia. So yes, there's no doubt about it that the gospel is moving at the speed of the Holy Spirit which is going faster than the apostles and those that were working with them. Because God is going to get this message out there. We're trying to keep up with him. Okay? So that's a very, very good point. Take a look at this verse 31. He says, of course, how can I understand? That's a question. Unless someone guides me and then he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. I love this. The unit was a spiritual, I like to use the word a seeker, already interested in the things of God. Okay? Although he did not have clarity about who the Messiah was. So he's interested in God, but he needed some clarity. So there are many people in the world around you that would love to have a spiritual guide. They don't know that necessarily. They might not even call it that. And guys, people are interested in spiritual things that would never walk through the doors of this church because they're intimidated by church or whatever they've heard of church or maybe they don't like church because they had an experience with church as a kid that might have been good, might have been bad. But that doesn't mean people are not spiritual and interested in spiritual things. Okay? Now, here's what we see here. He has Philip himself is making himself available in this moment as kind of a spiritual guide for him, asking the right questions. Spiritual guide doesn't mean you've got to be able to give an expository sermon on a book

of, you know, the book of Acts with the person. No, just sit down, open a Bible and have a conversation. Anybody can do that. I promise you. So you go on through, he didn't have the Holy Spirit. We've already said that. It was just kind of words on the page for him, but he was interested. He was intrigued. So the unit invited Philip into the conversation. I think that also tells me that Philip wasn't coming at him in a harsh way. Because I think if Philip had said, do you understand? Yeah. He would have cut it off. He would have said, I don't want to talk to this guy. Don't you think he came to him in a loving, compassionate way? Like, I want to help you understand. Like I care about you. When Philip earned the invitation, okay, some of you, that's the way you earned the invitation into somebody's life to have spiritual conversations is to actually have normal conversations. Now Philip didn't get that with this guy. I mean, Philip just is like right at it, but I'm learning if you'll just start with good conversations with people, you can often get to God conversations with people, which can lead to, and should, to gospel conversations with people. Sometimes in evangelism, we just start with gospel conversation. And there's a time for that. But sometimes we need to earn our way in for somebody to actually invite us to the table. And I see that as something that's happening here. So if you take a look now, verse 32 and following, here's where it really gets interesting. The passage of scripture that he was reading was this. I mean, is this a layup or one, right?

Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before his shear is silent. He opens not his mouth and his humiliation, justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth. Now listen, this guy could have been reading from anywhere in Isaiah, but it just so happened of all passages. He happens to be reading this amazing messianic prophecy. Anybody take note, maybe from your, your notes in your Bible, where in Isaiah he's reading from? Yeah, chapter 53. And we won't take time to go back to chapter 53, but talk about a beautiful passage in itself just to go back and take a look at the, the amount of prophecy of the Messiah. So it's like, God, it's just like everything is happening at just the right moment. God, you cannot make this stuff up, right? Everything was like the timing was impeccable. God, God was just right on time at just the right moment when he's reading Isaiah 53. He sends a Philip up there, he'll fill up here that he's like, oh man, this is going to be a home run. This guy is, this guy is ready to hear about the Messiah. And then he asks the burning question about whom I asked you, does the prophet say this about himself or someone else? It's like, how would you please tell me about Jesus? I mean, like what else could, what better question could be asked here, right? So then it says Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this script. This is absolutely amazing. The eunuch is asking the right questions because the eunuch as a sincere desire to know what is this all about. So I wonder, I want to throw this out to the group, see what you think about this. When Philip, it says, opened his mouth,

beginning with Isaiah 53 and started to tell him the good news about Jesus, we don't hear his gospel presentation. It is not recorded here. So I'm curious what some of you think he might have said. He began in Isaiah 53. What do you think was his next statement? Somebody? We're just guessing, we're just thinking here. How would you, well, let me put it this way, how would you bridge a conversation, somebody's reading, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before it sure is his sility, open-sized mouth. Who is the he? - Well, if he hadn't been coming from Jerusalem, wouldn't he get walking there, or can he get further about the crucifixion? - I suspect he would have. They said him been very long ago. I think that's a great point. So do you see the point that we're trying to make? There's a lot of different ways he could have gone, but I do think probably pretty quickly he would have gotten to the cross, right? That this one who was led as a lamb, who was silent, this was a prophecy of Jesus, of Nazareth, who just went to the cross. So that is definitely one way he could have done it. I want somebody else to think about this for a minute.

Where else could he have gone from Isaiah 53 to start tying it together to get him to Jesus? This is a kind of a deep question, but it's a good one. I want you to think on this one. - John 3 16, plumb, I'm gonna do it. - Yeah, John 3 16, one thing about that is he did not have the gospel of John at his disposal. - It's true, that's where I would go. - Yeah, of course, yeah, and that's good. That would be a good one. So that would work for you. Yes, Greg, what do you think? - I'm saying grace. - Grace, okay, explain what you mean. - Well, it's just, you know, a lamb, a Jesus went to the cross. - Okay. - He was black, worked all the-- - Yes. - And he didn't know the ancient, and he didn't, we'll take a what? - Sure. - And in these two, we're like his numeration. - That would work. That would work. - He paid for our sleep. - Yes, absolutely. - So he would have been very familiar with the Old Testament. - I think he must have, he must have had some familiarity with the Old Testament.

Maybe that's what drove him to Jerusalem to worship. - So maybe you talk about Abraham and how he tried to sacrifice Isaac. - Yeah, here's the thing. There was no New Testament at this time. - Right, so that's all there was. Okay, New Testament was being formed, right? So all he had was the Old Testament to work with, but I love that. I think going to Abraham. - He was likely familiar with the sacrificial system. - Sacrificial system. - And, you know, he could have gone into, this is the lamb God who takes away the-- - Yeah. - And on that route, talked about in his three years. - Yeah. - Shadwell, he was with the three. - Yeah, I think it's so important, guys, for us to sort of pull on the understanding that we have of scripture, right? That's why we just study and we get to know scripture and we get to know the big picture of scripture so that when somebody has a question, you don't have to have all the answers, by the way. Everybody gets scared of the names of, somebody's going to ask me a question and I'm going to know what to say and I'm going to look stupid. No, just say, I don't know.

Let's find it together, right? That's great. Thomas, what are you going to say? - Oh, certainly, I had to talk about John the Baptist. - I have a feeling you did. - Just a minute reference to John the Baptist, uh-huh. And because, I mean, how quickly did he do it? Say, let's get baptized. - I know, I think baptism had to be in the conversation. You know it was. My thoughts were the, I had several different ideas of maybe paths that he could have gone to get to Jesus. I wonder if he went to the Passover, okay? Because that's a pretty well-known and the story of the spotless lamb, whose blood would cause the angel of death to pass over? I'm saying he was always going to the same place, right? There's just different paths you can go to get to Jesus. So he could have gone Passover. He could have gone. What about that story? That's what I was thinking about at the launch of Jesus's ministry when John the Baptist is out there baptizing. And y'all remember what he said? He looked as he sees Jesus coming. What does he say? He said, go behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I think that just had to go there at some point in the conversation. This is one of those conversations you're like, oh, I just wish this was recorded. I wish I knew exactly how Philip did it. But I think he would have probably gone there because that that statement alone, that was the most profound and deep statement that John made. The Lamb of God, he's saying this is the Passover Lamb. He is standing right there. That guy with the beard and the tunic, that's the Lamb of God. And he's not just here to wash away anything in the Jordan. He's going to take away the sins of the world, guys. That was a super profound statement. What about the second half of that little verse in Isaiah 53? Could it be that he went to the trials when Jesus was denied justice? Because remember that's in Isaiah 53 right there, it's predicting that that was going to happen. Or he could have just

gone straight to the cross. Sort of like Carol said, you know, as fast as we can, let's just get to the cross and to tell him how Jesus was the Lamb of God who was slain to cover the sins of the world. The point that I'm trying to get at is you always want to start where the person is and then get it to Jesus as fast as you can, okay? Wherever they are spiritually, they need Jesus, okay? You don't have to get through every single hoop and every single story. You just need to point them in the way of Jesus. And so that's obviously what happened. This reminds me of that story that we talked about in Luke at the very end of Luke on the Emmaus road. Y'all remember that story? When Jesus has, you know, Jesus is alive and he's walking along with those guys who are mourning. They're so sad because they don't know what's happened. And Jesus just kind of got a twinkle in his eye. And remember that? And it's like they don't recognize him. And then it says he started with where they were and he says he described everything in the Old Testament scriptures. I think is how I put it. And I kind of think about this, right? And Jesus was telling that story that God is pointing it to itself. But we know that he had to get to baptism somewhere in there because I mean, you go to verse 36. As they were going along the road, they came to some water and the unit looked like, look, there's some water. Can I get baptized? He's like, I'm not waiting anywhere. I want to do it now. Somewhere we missed a critical detail in the story because you have to remember that these stories, when they are recorded, we don't get all of the details. Like how about the moment when he professed Christ and said, I want Jesus. We don't have the story that Philip told and all of that. All we know is somewhere in there where it says, as they were going along, no, no, we go back, Philip opened his mouth at beginning with this scripture told him the good news about Jesus. All of that. Who knows? Maybe that was a 10 minute conversation. Maybe that was a two day conversation. We don't really know, right? But it was a good one. They could, he had heard about Stephen's pharma and maybe they discussed that. Oh, for sure. That would have been a famous moment that had just happened. That makes perfect sense because there was just so much, there was so much talk, right? There was so much going on. So many ways they could have gone there. But the question then would be, why is the unit wanting to be baptized so quickly? Why? This is not a hard question. But it very quickly moved forward. Evidently, he made a profession of faith, right? Evidently, that's what happened

during that conversation. And what we're seeing is, oh, well, the miracle of conversion happened. Yeah. And now the next step is happening, which is, I want to identify with Jesus in baptism, right? You know, we talk about baptism as being an outward, an outward symbol of something that's happened inside our hearts. Every time I baptize, most of you guys, some of you guys are up there. I know, Nails and Brenda were up there for the first time on Sunday for a baptism. If you have never been up to the baptistry, you need to have to know somebody. You just need to go up there and experience it, don't you? It's so good. We've got several more being baptized this Sunday, as we almost always do. And we always take a few minutes to just explain to the people around before the camera comes on, like what this, what's actually, sense. The sins have already been washed away. We are just celebrating that a miracle has happened in the past. This is not the miracle moment. The baptism is not the miracle moment, guys. The baptism is showing that a miracle has already occurred. Okay. So I love it. His conversation, I just, it obviously got to, got to baptism. And now I will have to say this, he didn't appeal to Romans chapter six, verse four, because Paul still didn't even saved. Okay. So we, there was no Romans or Galatians or Ephesians or anything like that for him to appeal to, but we always use Romans six, four. That is buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in a new life. You see, baptism is identifying oneself with Christ. I'm dying to my old self. And I have, I'm raised again. It doesn't mean in that moment I'm dying to my old self. I'm showing you what's happened to me. The old me has been buried and I'm coming up and I'm a new person. So that's what happened. I love it. Verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized it. But it was 40 that he was so unsure to ask and get you for it. We've it's for the art. Oh, there's no doubt. There's no doubt that Philip felt confident in this Unix confession. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's part of what we just don't have enlisted in the text. But we know that Philip wouldn't have done that in a rash or a too quick of a way. One of the things that sometimes we've done, even when we've done the spontaneous baptism Sunday, some of you guys have been here for those. And some we have people come forward and sometimes our job is to convince convince them not to get baptized. Because guess what? Everybody that thinks they're ready for baptism may or may not be ready for baptism. And they may not understand what baptism is. Oh, I want to get baptized again. Well, no, we don't need to get baptized again

and again and again and again and again and again. Right? We're we get baptized to show that we have died and our new life has been risen with Christ. So that's that's the way that we that we share it. He commanded the cherry to stop. I think this guy was like, I want to identify with with Jesus right now. I want to do that. And then I love this. This last two verses, nobody saw this coming, did you? They came up out of the water and the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. Buses. Nobody saw that coming. I mean, this. What do you say, Michael? Don't you pray that the ealing thought? When did he go? Of course, the eunuch thought we're going to go. Like Jesus did. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, this is just it's so funny. The way to me, the way Luke narrates it, it's just like, and da, da, da, da, and they came up out of the water and the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away just like this is just, you know, just another day in the book of Acts, right? But it's just it's an amazing miracle, Brenda. I was just going to say, you know, there again, the thing that we aren't told, it says and went on his way. We don't. How many people's lives did he then touch? Exactly. In the word, you know, goes up on his merry way. You know, too. That's right. I love it because honestly, it doesn't even say that it that really bothered the eunuch. I almost kind of think we the universe are well, you know, God brought this guy kind of almost like out of nowhere out here into the middle of nowhere to meet me. And I've had this spiritual experience. Now I've met Jesus. I guess he just took him on to somebody else, right, which is exactly what happened. Thomas already said, you know, you're making me water just when that this when the Holy Spirit came was a dog. Yes, Jesus was died. Uh-huh. There's this the spirit of the large, natural, vocal weight. Did the eunuch see the spirit of the Lord? I wonder. You wonder, was it the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove? Did a dove pick him up and take him off to the next thing? We just don't know. You know, it's just we don't have a lot of information here. But what we know is got this is a miracle. I mean, like a literal salvation was the bigger miracle. So that already happened. And now we got another miracle and and Philip is just like, zoom, I don't know if you know this unless unless you happen to know your geography over there. He took him about 30 miles away. Okay. So we don't know if he bodily, you know, if he just kind of floated through the air and took off over there or or if it was just like poof, he's gone and poof, he's there. I suspect because it's kind of funny when you look at verse 40, but Philip found himself at a Zotus and I wonder if Phil's like, where am I?

that's movies and stuff. It almost feels a little bit comical to me like, Hey, do you know where I am? You know, because it's just like the spirit was taking him unexpected places. Again, and I, you know, it, can the Holy Spirit still do this? Absolutely. He could, uh, but we don't see this very commonly, but you know, this is not the first time in scripture that there are stories that would be similar to this. I'll let you look it up on your own. I'm not even going to give you all the references. But there's a reference in Ezekiel. There's a reference with Elijah. There's a reference with Elisha that is very similar. It's like suddenly there they were and suddenly they were somewhere else. Guys, this is no big deal. I mean, the God of the universe, right? Moving his servants from place to place. Usually he makes us actually pick up our feet or get on a plane or, you know, or go do things, but, but he can, you know, he can kind of snatch us around or, you know, spit us out of a whale or whatever it was, or a large fish. There's a lot of ways, but it's just like there was baptizing the evening. It was going into flash and it's just so amazing. But I love that this didn't really seem to bother the unit. The unit's just like, all right. Well, I'm just going to go on my way. Rejorsing. Cause who cares? I mean, I'm not, I didn't come to worship this guy. Right? I have my savior and he is, he is alive within me. And, and then we, the thing we don't know is all the stories, right?

That would have come from the Ethiopian who's sharing his fate. Yes. But there would have been, how many people would have been traveling with the CPU? Oh, of sure. Certainly he would have had an entourage. Oh, these other folks go on. Hey, wait a second. Yeah, they, they were, they were watching the bad. Do you think they were clapping like we do here? Go whatever your name is. I don't know. That's probably a stretch too far. They might have been standing there scratching their head like, what is this? What are you doing? Right? He's like, yeah, you should come. But I really think that, that he was very, very clear and he knew God sent his servant to do his, do his job. And I, and I don't need him anymore. I'm going to go on my way. Rejorsing. Cause I've got a mission. And we talk about, right? I mean, the church in Ethiopia. God was, God was sending the first Ethiopian missionary to Ethiopia. Right. And, and then, of course, Philip had a different, a different thing to do. I also think, I wonder if God wanted to be sure that the unit didn't get an unhealthy dependency on Philip. She just thought, I don't know, could be, um, the Holy Spirit was now alive and

well and dwelling in that Ethiopian, you need Philip anymore. And, uh, but so that could be. I also think this is, this is my, I think it's probably this one. It was God's divine mission strategy. Right. God's divine mission strategy was, okay, you're going to take the gospel to Ethiopia. And that's going to spread from Ethiopia over to the Sudan and over to the here in the air, in all those places. I need you to go up here to Azotus. Cause what does it say that he was doing in that region? Great. Yeah. He just passed through, preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So it's just amazing the way you see the Holy Spirit moving around. I want to, I want to end with a little story. This is a real story. Um, it's based, this is not from the scripture, but it's, it's the scripture coming to life. I was literally reading Lane and I've been taking a mission scores called perspectives on the world Christian movement this semester. If you haven't ever done it, it's, it's incredibly powerful. You get to read a whole lot about God's work around the world. And this is the story of a village in India that had not yet heard the gospel. And there was this old man that was sitting on the edge of the road and as this missionary approaches the village. And the missionary says, when he saw me, he seemed startled. And he slowly stood up and he came to meet me. So again, this is the missionary speaking. Finally, this man says, you're finally here. And the mission says, well, before I could say anything, he took me by my arm and

pulled me into the village. Here's the man I told you about. He told people as he pulled me along. Here's the man I dreamed about every night for the last 20 years. My dreams told me that we just had to listen to everything this man tells us. So this missionary shared the gospel with the village. You see, God was already at work in that village. And I'm sure. This is this, this unique story is not an isolated story, guys. This is just one little snippet for us to see God is working all around you. When Lane and I go to South Africa, God is working there. If you go to the deepest part of the Amazon jungle where place places where Do you know where God is working? Right there. God is working. Maybe he's giving them visions and dreams that says, you better listen to this Brown guy that's gonna show up or listen to this Blondaded Lady that's gonna show up. Right God wants his people all over the world to know him more than we even want to get the word out. So, I want us to close in a word of prayer and then I want us to take a few minutes, those of us who were in the room, to have some conversations at your table about what God has spoken to you tonight. So, why don't we pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for just the amazing story that you have given to us as we look and see your gospel begin to spread. God, we've already seen it spread from Jerusalem to Judea

to Samaria and now here it is headed to the ends of the earth. And God, we know to this day, to 2026, it has not stopped. And God, by your grace, we are a part of continuing to take it to the ends, God. Sometimes we give to help people that are in far away places so they can help get it there. And sometimes you actually let us put our feet in that dust and take it to those places. So, God, I just pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, speak to us, show us who we need to pay attention to around us. Who is that person of peace, like you say in Luke chapter 10, who already is warm and open to the things that we will share, God. And then give us wisdom to know how to bridge and point everyone to Jesus. We pray these things in his name, amen. All right, great. I want you to take a few minutes, those via the robe, and maybe just share, maybe you've got a story like that, or maybe you just got a story of how you see the Holy Spirit working in your life. - Talk to us. - Thanks again for joining us, verse by verse, through the Book of Acts. I hope that you have learned a lot. More importantly, I hope that you'll apply these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion

with the other people around you, share the things that God is doing in your life. Again, remember the Bible is a book about God, far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him, let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content. Watch some of our worship services, along with the music and the messages. As well as podcasts, we've got a lot of great content and we would love for you to follow that. And also, if you would like to be in touch with us here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to prison ministry at United City Church, 1-9-9-0-1, Townsend Boulevard, Umbel, Texas, 7-7-3-3-8. We'll read that, we'll pray for you, and somebody will write you back. God bless you and we'll see you in the Word. [BLANK_AUDIO]