All right, well, let's take our Bibles this evening and open them to Acts 8. Acts 8 and verse 34. Lord willing, we're gonna see if we can finish Acts 8 tonight. Acts 8, as you know, revolves around the ministry of Philip, the second deacon selected. And he has a ministry in Samaria in the first half of the chapter. And then he moves from Samaria down south to Judea. And it's at this point that he is in the middle of a revival in Samaria. I mean, something was happening that really hadn't happened for 700 years. There was starting to be reconciliation between the Samaritans and the Hebrews. And the reason for that is many of the Samaritans were coming to know Christ personally as Savior, and they were becoming members of the body of Christ, fellow joint heirs with the Jews in this new man called the church. And then the Holy Spirit at the height of Philip's success tells him to leave Samaria, and head to a road that connects Jerusalem and Gaza, really. And the Holy Spirit, first the angel directed Philip, secondly the Holy Spirit directed Philip. Philip, of course, has no idea why he has to leave a successful revival And neither the angel nor the Holy Spirit told Philip why he had to leave, but the Holy Spirit knew something that Philip didn't know. Amen? Do you guys agree with the fact that God knows things you don't know? God has, you know, the Bible says His ways are higher than our ways. So the Holy Spirit knew that traveling on that particular road kind of up the coast there of the land of Israel, actually he was going the opposite direction. He was going from north to south. He was on a highway called the Via Maris, which means the way of the sea, and it basically connects Egypt to Mesopotamia. And on his way back, I'm speaking of the Ethiopian eunuch, stopped in the Jerusalem area to worship. He was what you call a proselyte, the eunuch from Ethiopia that we described last time. And he just happened to be reading Isaiah 53. What a coincidence, right? And he was a God seeker. He did not know the way of salvation. So that's why the Holy Spirit redirected Philip. And that's why Philip left a revival in Samaria and stood on this road, because the Holy Spirit knew that the eunuch would come through, would encounter Philip. Philip would have the opportunity from Isaiah 53 to lead the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ. And that is how the gospel would penetrate down south into Ethiopia. So had Philip stayed in Samaria, the gospel, I mean, we could argue God would have found somebody else to get the gospel to Ethiopia, but God wanted to use Philip. And so God had a bigger impact for Philip's life than simply enjoying a wonderful revival in Samaria. So the Holy Spirit didn't tell any of this to Philip ahead of time, just told him to obey. Philip did what he was told. And what we're going to read about here is a miraculous conversion of this Ethiopian eunuch. And this is how Philip's life had an even bigger effect than just evangelism in Samaria. So you come to Acts 8 verses 30 through 35. The angel has directed Philip. Philip obeys. We've introduced who the Ethiopian eunuch is. We talked about that last week. And not only does an angel direct Philip to leave Samaria and stand on this road, but the Holy Spirit does the same thing, verse 29. And now Philip has an opportunity to evangelize the Ethiopian eunuch. So what you have there in verse 34 and also verse 35. is the eunuch's question. Philip now has climbed into the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 at that split second, which as you know is a prophecy about Jesus written 700 years in advance. So it's amazing the providence of God in setting up this divine encounter. And then you come to verse 34 where the Ethiopian eunuch now asks Philip a question. It says in verse 34, the eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or someone else? So there the Ethiopian eunuch is reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. And we know who the 53rd chapter of Isaiah is about. It's a prophecy 700 years in advance that Isaiah made of the suffering, crucified Messiah, Jesus Christ. And here's this Ethiopian eunuch reading this passage. And he doesn't have all of the information. He wants to know, to Philip, who's climbed up into the chariot because he's obeying what God told him to do, who is this passage talking about? I mean, what an evangelistic opportunity. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 says, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence. So the Christian is called really to prepare themselves by studying God's Word, you know, being conversant with spiritual things, because you just never know when the moment is going to arise where God has sort of, pardon this expression, aligned the stars, aligned the circumstances to put right into our laps an evangelistic opportunity. That's what Philip has here. And it would have been kind of embarrassing if Philip had said, well, I don't know anything about Isaiah. I don't know anything about Isaiah 53. But he was a devout Jew. He had studied the prophet Isaiah. He was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a deacon in the first church that started in Jerusalem. And so he's a prepared instrument. He's a prepared vessel. And that's why the Lord put Philip in the path of this Ethiopian eunuch. So the Ethiopian eunuch asked this question, who is Isaiah 53 talking about? And basically what he's wanting to know is who's the referent. That's the technical word for this. Who does Isaiah 53 refer to? specifically verses three through eight, which you can see he was reading in verses 32 and 33. Who is that talking about? And that's a great question in prophecy. When you're reading a prophetic section of the Bible, you want to ask yourself, who is it referring to? The eunuch wants to know, is this referring to Isaiah or somebody else? So you take for example Psalm 22 verses 16 through 18 where David writes, for dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count on my bones. They look, they stare at me, they divide garments among them for my clothing, they cast lots. That's Psalm 22, talking about David's struggles. And when you're reading Psalm 22, it's kind of obvious, written 1,000 years before Jesus ever showed up, that David in this psalm goes beyond his immediate circumstances and starts talking about somebody else. And it becomes obvious as you look at this that he's talking about Jesus. So the Holy Spirit gave David a truth that transcended his own immediate trials and gave him in the process a messianic picture, a messianic prophecy of the coming Messiah. Because he says things like this here, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I mean, David's hands and feet were never pierced, but Christ's hands and feet were pierced. And then he says, I can count all my bones. And that's a reference to the fact that when Jesus was crucified, none of his bones would be broken because he was the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. where no bones could be broken. That's why when the authorities came to get the victims off of the crosses so they could get on with their religious activity, Passover, as the victims were dying, typically what they did to get them to die faster is they broke the legs of those being crucified. Because when you're being crucified, you're kind of like being pulled down and you're suffocating. And so you try to get your next breath of air by pushing yourself upward and breathing in. And so that's how those dying on the cross kept themselves alive. for longer periods of time, but the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities wanted these people to die faster, so they went and broke the legs of the victims on the cross so they couldn't push themselves upward. And John's gospel tells us that when we got to Christ and they were getting ready to break his legs, they didn't have to because he was already dead. And that's a fulfillment of this Psalm here, where it says, I count all my bones. None of Christ's bones could be broken, or else he couldn't have fulfilled the typology in the Passover lamb, where none of his bones would be, none of its bones would be broken, Exodus chapter 12. That's why when people give communion, they sometimes make a mistake. They talk about the body of Christ that was broken for you. That is actually a wrong statement. Christ's body was never broken. None of his bones were broken. So when I do communion here, I like to say Christ's body that was sacrificed for us was our substitute, but I try not to say his body was broken, because once you say his body was broken, he couldn't have fulfilled Psalm 22, verse 17, or Exodus chapter 12, which typologically indicates that Christ's bones could not be broken. Then David writes, they divide my garments, that fits Jesus. They cast lots for my clothing. Remember they gambled for his garments. So Psalm 22 is talking about David's issues and David's problems and David's trials. But obviously a thousand years in advance, he goes beyond his immediate circumstances as the Holy Spirit is giving him insight and utterance. And he starts talking about the Messiah who's coming. Well, that's basically what's happening in Isaiah 53. You know, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearers, he remained silent, so he did not open his mouth. In other words, in front of his accusers, Isaiah predicts Jesus would remain silent. And you see the frustration in Pilate and the Jewish authorities where they would say things to Jesus like, don't you want to defend yourself? Don't you know I have power of life and death over you? And Jesus really would not open his mouth to defend himself. He would just say things like, well, you would have no power if it were not given to you from above. And the reason Jesus didn't open his mouth to defend himself is Isaiah 53 indicated that he wouldn't. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will relate his generations for his life is removed from the earth. This is what the Ethiopian eunuch is reading. He had probably just passed over verse 5 of Isaiah 53, which is another prophecy indicating that the Messiah would be pierced. And so the eunuch just has a basic question for Philip, who is this talking about? Is this talking about Isaiah or somebody else? So this gives Philip a chance to preach Jesus from that passage. You see Philip's witness in verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. The first thing you'll notice here is Philip opened his mouth. The reason that has to be emphasized is we have today what's called social gospel, where people think that evangelism is doing some kind of humanitarian work for somebody. In fact, in our missions committee, we had some problems early on. That's why we had to revamp things of missionaries that would come to Sugar Land Bible Church, you know, supported by our church, who would do their missions moment and say things like, well, out there in the field, you know, we really don't share the gospel. unless someone asks us. What we do is we dig wells and, you know, habitat for humanity kind of thing. We don't really get too much into the gospel unless we're asked. Well, I'm sorry, that's not missions work. That's humanitarian work. And there's nothing wrong with doing humanitarian work as a missionary as long as you use that as a platform to preach the gospel. because it really doesn't do anybody any good to send people to hell on a full stomach. Okay, amen? You can meet all these temporal needs in people's lives, but you have to give them the good news that they need so as to be saved. So it was at that point that we started to revamp missions, what kind of missionaries we're gonna support at this church, et cetera. So you'll notice Philip here is doing real evangelism because he opened his mouth. He spoke up. I heard of a guy who, his idea of being an evangelist or a missionary to his neighbors is he would go over and he would mow his neighbor's lawn, okay? And when he was asked, how long have you been doing that for your neighbor? Oh, I've been doing that about 20 years. Okay, well, in the course of those 20 years, have you ever had any opportunity to share with him or her the good news of Jesus Christ? Oh, well, that really isn't my focus, you know. I mean, I'll get around to that, you know, in due course. Well, what have you done for 20 years? You've kept someone's lawn immaculate, which is nice, but you haven't done anything in terms of evangelism. So that's what social gospel is. Social gospel is all about doing humanitarian works in the process if the gospel, well, the gospel typically isn't shared at all. And that comes grossly short of what the Bible teaches about the Great Commission. I mean you can be a lovely person, you can have wonderful copacetic personality skills, you can do all kinds of help and work for other people, but at some point you have to open your mouth and share the good news of Jesus Christ. That's what Philip is doing here. He is not acting like a social gospel guy. He sees an opportunity. He sees what the Ethiopian eunuch is reading. He's asked a question and he immediately begins to share the good news of Jesus. Romans 10 verses 14 and 15 says, how then can they call upon him whom they have not believed? How will they believe in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. I mean, at some point you have to open your mouth and proclaim truth. Whatever else you're doing in terms of being nice, meeting temporal needs, the only thing that is, is a platform. to preach the truth. But if you build a platform and you never use it to preach the truth, then we're not really doing what God has called us to do, which is to preach the gospel to every creature. Romans 10 verse 17 says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. So this expression here, he opened his mouth, is actually a big deal. It says, verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, Isaiah 53, he preached, that's proclaimed, caruso, he preached Jesus to him. He didn't say, let's have an interfaith dialogue. And you have part of the truth, and I have part of the truth, and let's meet in the middle somewhere. That's what interfaith dialogue is. Protestants and Catholics are involved ever since Chuck Colson in interfaith dialogue. Now we have interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims. It's sort of this idea that we're all common Abrahamic faiths, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. So you give your two cents, and I'll give my two cents, and we'll talk it out, and we'll meet in the middle somewhere. You know, that's called interfaith dialogue. You notice that Philip had no interest in interfaith dialogue. He didn't say, hey, what do you Ethiopians believe? Here's what we Hebrew Christians believe. Let's kind of talk this out and meet in the middle. Philip came at this with the idea that he had the truth. And he was there to share the truth with a person that didn't know the truth. And so he actually opened his mouth when the opportunity presented itself and he proclaimed Jesus Christ. So Philip obviously believed that Isaiah 53 was messianic. He believed in messianic prophecy. One of the things that makes Jesus unique is there's a whole history written about him before he even showed up, hundreds and thousands of years in advance, called messianic prophecy. Jesus is the only person that's ever walked this earth. whose details of his life, intimate details, were recorded long before his birth. Muhammad or anybody else has no similar pre-written history, and that's called messianic prophecy. Philip knew enough to understand that Isaiah 53 was messianic prophecy. When Jesus rose from the dead, he appealed to messianic prophecy. when he was walking with his disciples on the Emmaus Road. It says in Luke 24, 27, then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. What scriptures? Hebrew Bible. As he was walking on the Emmaus Road, he was showing how the tiny minutia of Hebrew Bible pointed to him. Isaiah 53 probably was one of the passages that he quoted. And everybody wants to be alive during some phase of Christ's ministry. I hear a lot of people say, I wish I had just heard the Sermon on the Mount. I don't know if I would have liked the Sermon on the Mount, because it was really hellfire and damnation, the Sermon on the Mount, when you think about it. If you're angry, you're a murderer, and you're in danger of the fires of hell, I mean, stuff we need to hear. I don't know if I wanted to be alive when Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount. But if I had to pick a part of Christ's ministry I could be on the ground floor for, I would pick the Emmaus Road conversation. Because in his resurrected body, he's walking with the disciples who are slow to believe on the Emmaus Road, and he's showing them how Hebrew Bible pointed to him. And then in Luke 24, 44, it says, now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was with you that all things which are written about me And the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Now the law of Moses is Torah. The prophets is Nabim. I am ending in Hebrew connotes plurality. And the Psalms is the most prominent book in the Kethubim, which means writings. Torah, T, prophets, nabim, writings, Kethubim, so law is Torah. Prophets is Nabiim. Writings, the most prominent book, is Kethubim. So Torah, T, Nabiim, N, K, Kethubim, T, N, K. So that's where the Hebrews started to call Hebrew Bible Tanakh. And what Jesus is saying here on the Emmaus Road is the whole Tanakh, Hebrew Bible, points towards me. And he's appealing to the fact that long before he walked the face of this earth, there was a history written about him hundreds and thousands of years in advance. Jesus made the same appeal to the Pharisees. In John 5 verse 39, he says to the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these Scriptures that testify about me. And then he says, verse 46, for if you believe Moses, who wrote Torah, T, you would believe me for he wrote about me. So he's claiming to be the fulfillment of Hebrew Bible. So Philip, when he has this opportunity, obviously understands Messianic prophecy. And he understands who Isaiah 53 is speaking of, who the referent is, not just Isaiah, but someone who transcended Isaiah, the Messiah. And he uses that scripture to lead the Ethiopian eunuch to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul the apostle did the exact same thing. When Paul is ministering in the book of Acts, And we're going to see his conversion in the next chapter, which maybe we'll get to next week, some of it. Paul always goes to the synagogue first when he's outside of the land of Israel evangelizing. And he goes to the synagogue first, and the only time he doesn't go to a synagogue first would be in places like Philippi where they didn't have a synagogue. But his typical pattern is always to go to the synagogue first where the Jewish people are worshiping. And he goes there always first because those are the people that he has the most common ground with. Because they have Tanakh, they have Hebrew Bible. And he tries to show them that Hebrew Bible points towards Yeshua or Jesus. And when they are unreceptive, then he goes to the Gentiles, and he doesn't start with Tanakh, because the Gentiles don't have Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible. He appeals to the Bible that they did have, which is creation. Because God has revealed himself in two sources, special revelation, Tanakh, general revelation, creation and conscience. And so when Paul is speaking to the Gentiles, he doesn't quote Isaiah 53 or any other messianic prophecy. He appeals to the Bible that they do know, which is general revelation. But when Paul goes to a new city, he'll typically go to the synagogue first, and he'll appeal to Hebrew Bible. So for example, in Acts 17, two and three, it says, and this was Paul's activity in Thessalonica, It says, according to Paul's custom. So this is what he always did. According to Paul's custom, he went on, or he went to them, that's the Jewish people in the synagogue, for three Sabbaths. It's a three week period of time where he was in the synagogue trying to appealed to the Jews based on the scriptures that they had, Tanakh. He reasoned with them from the scriptures. What scriptures would those be, Tanakh? There is no New Testament yet. Explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus who I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. So whether it's Paul, Jesus, or Philip, they all believed in this reality called messianic prophecy. And one of the very tragic things that's happened in my lifetime at our evangelical institutions of higher learning our seminaries is there is a, amongst Old Testament scholars, a complete and total denial of Messianic prophecy. I sat under one scholar who told me that there's only two Messianic prophecies in the whole Bible. So finally I said, which ones? He acknowledged that Micah chapter five, verse two, the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem was one. And then the other one he said was Isaiah 61, verse one, where Jesus quotes that scripture in the synagogue in Nazareth, you remember? And he says, the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So according to this particular individual that I had classes from, the only two messianic scriptures were Isaiah 61 verse one and Micah five verse two. So we asked him, well, what about Isaiah 53? Oh, he didn't even think Isaiah 53 was a messianic prophecy. So I have no idea what Jesus was saying to the disciples on the Emmaus Road. I mean, that would be a pretty short conversation. You just quote two scriptures and you're done. But I get the impression that Jesus went into depth in terms of messianic prophecy. He probably started with Genesis 3 verse 15, which is the first messianic prophecy in the whole Bible. I would think thrown into the mix would be Daniel 9.25, which indicates the exact day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, proclaiming himself to be the Messiah. I would think he would throw into the mix Daniel 9.26, which says the Messiah must be cut off. I think he would quote Psalm 22 verse 16, which talks about his hands and his feet being pierced, as we talked about earlier. Zechariah 12 verse 10, the Messiah will be pierced. Isaiah 53 verse five, the Messiah will be pierced. I mean, there's just countless scriptures Jesus could have gone to in the Emmaus Road walk. But according to this particular Old Testament scholar, there's only two messianic prophecies. This is what makes the work of Michael, Dr. Michael Rydelnik, such a big deal. He is the head of Jewish studies at Moody Bible Institute, and he is trying to scholastically and academically counter all these so-called Old Testament scholars today who are denying the reality of messianic prophecy. And Michael Rydelnik is in a very good position to do that because he's Jewish himself, Hebrew, and he was actually led to the Lord through all of these messianic prophecies that the modern brand of scholarship is saying are not messianic prophecies. And Rydelnik is saying, if those aren't messianic prophecies, then I was led to the Lord under false pretenses. So you can find his stuff in written form. He has an encyclopedia of messianic prophecy. He even allowed me to write a couple articles for it. He has a book called Messianic Hope, which is exposing this trend of the denial of messianic prophecies in our evangelical institutions. And it's kind of a shocking thing to see people moving this direction because this isn't coming from liberals. This is coming from our own guys who are conservatives and evangelicals who are massively downplaying messianic prophecy. The late Ed Hindson was sort of on the cutting edge of this. He did either his doctorate or his master's thesis on Isaiah 7 verse 14. why Isaiah 7 verse 14 is a prophecy about the virgin birth of Christ. Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum has a lot of good stuff on this in his book called Messianic Christology. But really the key guy out there that's kind of going against this modern trend of denying messianic prophecy is Dr. Michael Rydelnik. And that becomes important work because what Philip is doing here in verse 35, opening his mouth and beginning from this scripture, preaching Jesus to him, that doesn't even make sense if Isaiah 53 is not messianic. What Paul is doing in Thessalonica in Acts 17, two and three doesn't make any sense. unless Hebrew Bible has messianic prophecies in it. What Christ says to the Pharisees here in John 5 verse 39 and verse 46 don't make any sense without the reality of messianic prophecy. Christ's whole conversation with the disciples on the Emmaus road doesn't make any sense without the reality of messianic prophecy. So obviously we don't want to go too far and read Jesus behind every rock and tree in the Old Testament. We don't want to do that. I've seen people come up with some crazy interpretations of things that supposedly point towards Christ. I get that. I don't want to read the New Testament back into the Old. But at the same time, the Old Testament Hebrew Bible on its own has plenty of messianic prophecies in it. So that was the Philip's mindset, and that's how he took this opportunity to share Jesus with this Ethiopian eunuch who was a spiritual man. but was struggling to find the referent behind Isaiah 53. So this then leads to the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion, and then after that, his baptism. Look at verses 36 and 37. It says, as they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? Verse 37, and Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and he said, I believe, this is the Ethiopian eunuch speaking, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So you'll notice that believe, first of all, believe in the right object. I mean, faith is only as good as the object it's placed in. But the Ethiopian eunuch, verse 37, did did fulfill the condition. He did believe, which means to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that Philip just made him aware of through a prophecy about Jesus written seven centuries in advance. So the condition has been met. He's saved. He's justified. And you'll notice that there's a single condition and only one condition that has to be met before the lost sinner is justified before a holy God. The Ethiopian eunuch had fulfilled that condition by believing or trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That condition, according to Lewis Barry Chafer, is mentioned 150 times in scripture. He says, because upwards of 150 passages of Scripture condition salvation upon believing only. These you know well. Genesis 15, 6, then Abram believed in the Lord and he credited to him his righteousness. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. With each of these, there's only one condition for the lost sinner to meet. Philip and Silas were asked by the Philippian jailer, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe, Acts 16, 30 and 31, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the right object, and you will be saved. That's the only thing God asks people to do. And then what follows after conversion through faith alone in Christ alone is baptism. So he's a believer, verse 37. He's already a believer, verse 37, because of the good news Philip preached to him, verse 35, based on Messianic prophecy, verses 32 and 33. So now, as a new believer, he wants to get baptized. Verse 36, as they came along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, look water, what prevents me from being baptized? So what is baptism? And it's obvious here that we're dealing with water baptism. Because he sees water. Well all water baptism is is an outward symbol of an inward reality. Baptism in and of itself does nothing for a human being. What has happened to a person, spiritually speaking, has already transpired at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. Water baptism is just a symbol that that reality has happened to a person. So you're giving an outward acknowledgement of an inward reality that God has already done. So the baptism that's of most importance is spirit baptism. which is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13, for by one Spirit we were all baptized. Now, this is talking about identification. That's what the word baptized means. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So when a person trusts in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes the person at the point of faith alone, in Christ alone, and identifies or attaches them, spiritually speaking, to the body of Christ. So when a person is water baptized, that is an outward symbol to the world as a testimony that this reality has happened. And so it's sort of interesting that the Ethiopian eunuch wants to give naturally an outward testimony through water baptism of the spiritual reality that has transpired to him. And you'll notice also that baptism can take place anywhere. Sugar Land Bible Church does not have a baptismal pool. We baptize people in swimming pools and things of that nature. Are we really allowed to do that? Don't you have to baptize people in a church? Not necessarily, you could baptize them in the ocean. You could take them down to Galveston and baptize them. You could baptize them in a swimming pool. I was actually baptized in a jacuzzi. And I'm not really sure how I... was completely immersed, but they managed to do it in this jacuzzi. So it doesn't have to be in a church. It's just anywhere where there's water available for full immersion, where you can give an outward testimony to the world that now you belong to Jesus Christ. By the way, I noticed a email that went out from our church of people wanting to get baptized. Whenever there's an inquiry, we just put the email out and see if anybody wants to get baptized. And so if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we encourage you to pursue water baptism. You just have to take a one Sunday class with Pastor Jim for 45 minutes, where he explains to you what I'm trying to explain, that baptism doesn't save anybody, but it's an outward symbol of what has already happened to a person. And it's always a great time in our church to see a lot of people getting baptized. And so if you're interested in that, you've never been water baptized, I would encourage you to contact the church office where we can set that up for you and for others. Now notice verse 38 of Acts 8. It says, he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip, as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. So what we believe the Bible teaches is baptism in full immersion. In other words, when you're baptized, it should cover every part of your body. Now, why is that? Well, this slide here will help you with that. A lot of people are baptized by sprinkling water on people's heads. When I told my dad I was now a Christian and wanted to get baptized, he pulled out all the family pictures where I was baptized as an infant by sprinkling in the Episcopalian church. And so there I am looking at all these black and white photos of the priest pouring water on my head as an infant. And I got my mouth open and I'm screaming as if there's no tomorrow. So that's what's called infant baptism, which we don't believe is accurate biblically. An infant with an inability to speak cannot make a public profession of Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't precede conversion, as you'll see here in Acts 8, and every time baptism is spoken of in the book of Acts, baptism always follows conversion. So we will baptize any infant in this church that can come forward, speak into this microphone, and share with us their testimony about how they came to Christ. So the practice of infant baptism is basically it's unbiblical. The only Scriptural support people that want to promote infant baptism have is God's covenant with Abraham, where the newborn was circumcised on the eighth day. That's the only Scriptural support they have. And, of course, that has nothing to do with baptism, that circumcision. And that's God's program with Israel. What we're dealing with here is God's program for the church. So the practice of infant baptism is unbiblical. The practice of sprinkling in baptism is unbiblical. Let me give you some reasons why we embrace full immersion and not sprinkling. For one thing, the Greek language has a lot of words for sprinkling that could have been used here. and yet those words were not used. First Peter chapter one verse 22, excuse me, says according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. The Bible knows how to use the word sprinkled, but it doesn't do that here. The Bible knows how to use the word pouring, like pouring water on somebody, but it doesn't do that here. 2 Timothy 4.6, Paul says, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. So if infants were baptized, we would find an example somewhere, which we don't in the book of Acts or anywhere else. If it was baptism through sprinkling, there's all kinds of words that could have been used in baptism contexts, but they're not used here. So, what then are some reasons for full immersion? Well, four vast reasons. Number one, Christ's baptism was in full immersion. Matthew 3 verse 16, it says, after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. Mark 1.10 says, immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened. We embrace baptism in full immersion because it's obvious that that's what's happening to the Ethiopian eunuch. In fact, if you look at verse 38, it says, he ordered the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip, as well as Enoch baptized him, verse 39, when they came up out of the water. It doesn't say while they were standing on the shore. through sprinkling when they came up out of the water. That's an obvious reference to full immersion. And if water baptism is a symbol of Spirit baptism, when a Christian or when a person, I should say, believes in Christ and they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes all of the person. So the Holy Spirit doesn't just take a little room in the corner. He takes a person, baptizes them spiritually from head to toe and everything in between. That's what the Holy Spirit already did. So the question becomes what form of water baptism would best symbolize that? Not sprinkling, which only concerns part of the body, but full immersion, which would symbolize the Holy Spirit getting all of a human being. Romans 6 verses 3 through 5 says, or do you not know? that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we will also be in the likeness of his resurrection. So when a person trusts Christ, not only does the Holy Spirit take them at the point of faith and connect them to Christ's body, metaphorically this new man called the church, but they also become identified, which is what baptism means, into Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. In other words, when he died, you died. When he was buried, you were buried. When he rose from the dead, you rose from the dead. When he ascended into heaven, that's what happened to you, spiritually speaking. That's why the book of Ephesians, I think it's around chapter two, verse six, says that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That is legally your new position. You may not feel like it, you may not understand it, but that's irrelevant. That's what happened to you. In other words, when a person trusts Christ, they are identified not just with the body of Christ, but they are identified into the complete transaction of Jesus Christ. His death is your death. His burial is your burial. His resurrection is your resurrection. His ascension is your ascension. So when you were baptized in that sense, the Holy Spirit got all of you. He didn't get 75%. or 50% or 25%. So since water baptism is an outward symbol of that reality, the question becomes what mode of baptism best symbolizes that reality? Not sprinkling someone's head, but complete and full immersion into water. And this connection with coming out of the water, You see it there in verse 38, they both went down into the water, and then it says when they came up out of the water. Now think just for a minute, something coming out of the water. Can anybody remember the first time that is referenced in the Bible? Hint, under bullet point four there's a Scripture there. Starts with the letter G. Genesis. Genesis 1, creation. That's how original creation happened. Everything was water. And when God formed the earth, he brought the dry land out of the water. Creation, right? Genesis 1.6. It says, then God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate waters from water. So we've got waters above, canopy, the sky, and then waters below. Then God wanted to form dry land. I mean, if the whole earth is a giant ball of water, where did the dry land come from? It came up out of the water. Just like the Ethiopian eunuch is coming out of the water. Genesis 1 verse 9 in the Creation Week, it says, let the waters below the heavens, that's the oceans, be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear. And so it was so. So my understanding is the dry land, or the earth, or the aretes, came up out of the water, just like the Ethiopian eunuch did. Peter makes reference to this in 2 Peter 3.5. He says, for when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water by water. So that's original creation. It's earth coming out of the water. So when you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you become? A new what? A new creation. Second Corinthians 5.17, it says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature or creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. So when you are a new Christian, you're a brand new creation, just like the earth at one time was a new creation. So since original creation came out of the water, isn't it appropriate that you as a brand new creature in Christ Jesus would come up out of the water just like the earth? So whether you're looking at Christ's baptism, the Ethiopian eunuch's baptism, which mode of baptism best symbolizes spirit baptism, or whether you're looking at the model of original creation. You put those four details together and clearly the mode of baptism that God anticipates or expects from his church is immersion in full water. Well, what if you get saved and you never had a chance to get immersed in water? Does that mean you're not saved? No, because water baptism is an outward symbol of an inner reality. It just symbolizes what's already happened. The important thing is that you're spirit baptized. But if you're never water baptized, let's say you die before you're water baptized, it doesn't mean you go to hell. It just means you're walking in disobedience as a Christian. And I know a little something about that because I got saved at age 16 and I got into kind of a, Conflict with my father. By the way, he's not doing well. You can pray for him. First name's Fred. He's in a hospital now with organ failure. Potentially either today or tomorrow being transferred to, what kind of nursing care is that called, Ann? No, she has a different name for it, skilled nursing, skilled nursing. So you can keep him in prayer. So it's kind of a difficult time for our family. But at any rate, what happened is I got saved when I was 16, about 1983. And I told my dad, hey, I'm a Christian now, I want to get baptized, meaning I want to reverse all that infant baptism stuff that I was subjected to and had no choice in. And he kind of thought I was joining a cult. And so he said, well, I need you to go talk to the priest. I mean, you can do it. But before you do it, you need to go talk to the priest, the Episcopalian priest. So let me ask you a question. What 16-year-old kid wants to go talk to a priest? OK. And I didn't want to talk to the priest. So I just, and I'm not necessarily proud of this, I'm just telling you the way it happened in my life. I postponed water baptism until I was out from under his roof. which was a number of years later, because I went through college and graduate school and things like that. And so it really wasn't until about the age of 27, something like that, that I got baptized by the guy who led me to Christ in a jacuzzi that they were able to stuff me into some way. And I remember that when I was water baptized, it's not like I got saved all of a sudden. I was already saved, but I remember opportunities starting to open up for me that were shut before. Spiritual opportunities. So it's almost as if the Lord was saying to me, okay, you've finally been faithful in the first thing I called you to do. Now I can trust you with other things. So if a Christian makes a conscious decision not to get water baptized, it really has nothing to do with their salvation. It's just really what it is, it's disobedience. Because God's expectation is that we would be water baptized in full immersion in water as an outward, not that it saves us, but it's an outward symbol really to the rest of the world that we now belong to Jesus. So that takes us to verse 38. We didn't quite make it to the end, did we? But we've got one more Wednesday until the spring quarter ends, right? So we'll try to do verses 39 and 40 next time. Well, Andy, there's no way you can fit 39 and 40 into a whole hour. Well, just try me. So we'll do verses 39 and 40 next time. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the clear order that you've laid out here with this Ethiopian eunuch. We thank you for his salvation. Thank you for Philip's obedience. We thank you for how the gospel did get to Ethiopia because Philip did exactly what you told him to do in his walk of faith. We're thankful for messianic prophecy, even though today it's fallen on hard times. We're thankful for the simplicity of salvation. And we're thankful for the ritual or the ordinance of water baptism that you've given us. Help us to walk in obedience to that. We do pray, Lord, that there would be many, many people that have never been water baptized, that they would contact the church office so we can set up this wonderful occasion of baptizing many, many people in immersion. We'll be careful to give you the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, amen.