So we'll start by reading from Acts chapter 8, verses 26 to 40. Now 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 a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? 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 or 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 Azotus. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Let's ask for the Lord's blessing on his word. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can have this meeting with you tonight. We thank you that you have called us to be together on this day, Sunday, the day that we celebrate every week the resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for this evening service in spite of the bad weather outside that we can be together in this building. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you will help us to focus on your word now that you will speak to us, that you'll speak through me so I can speak clearly and truthfully. And may your Holy Spirit open our hearts so we can receive your word. And may there be a great harvest of righteousness in our lives because of your speaking to us and because of your Spirit's work in our hearts. Be with us now. Bless each one of us, Father. Speak to us. Your servants are listening. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. So what do you think? Does God really care about this world and about the people who live in it? You might say, yes, of course he does. But isn't it true that all the problems that we have in society actually prove that God is not really concerned about what happens to us? Why is it that so many people do not believe in Jesus Christ? Maybe God really doesn't care. Why, for example, are there so many people in Africa and in Asia who have never even heard of Jesus Christ, who haven't heard the gospel? What will happen to those people when they die? Will they not inherit eternal life? Why does God not save those people? Have you ever asked those questions or heard people ask questions like that? We really want people to be saved from an empty life, from their sins and eternal punishment, don't we? We preach the gospel and we send out missionaries to foreign lands, but does God care? Today we will briefly look at Acts 8 verses 26 to 40 in order to answer the question, does God care about sinful people who deserve eternal death? When traveling in the ancient world from Jerusalem to Africa, one had to first travel to Gaza, where the Gaza Strip is today, on the Mediterranean Sea, where one could get water, before starting the long journey down to Egypt. Luke writes that one day a man from Ethiopia was making this journey. Now, he was not from the country that we call Ethiopia today. He was from the country that was called Ethiopia then, which was in the southern part of what is Egypt today, and the northern part of Sudan. It's also what we call Nubia today. or what is called Cush in the writings of the Old Testament. And this man, we read, served the Queen of Ethiopia, really the Queen Mother, whose title was Candace. It wasn't her name, it was her title. At that time, the King of Ethiopia was considered to be the son of the sun, and people worshipped him. And so he didn't bother himself with the details of rule. He left it up to his mother. He was really in charge. It was common in the ancient world for the most trusted servants of kings and queens to be eunuchs. I don't think we have any kids here, so I think we all know what it means to be a eunuch. Such men were considered to be more trustworthy. And this Ethiopian eunuch, therefore, probably had himself made into a eunuch, as was common back then, so that he could serve the queen and in this way advance his career in the palace. It was a career decision, most likely. And he was quite successful. We read that he was in charge of the queen's treasure. He had a very important position in Ethiopia. but he was not a follower of the traditional Ethiopian religion. Luke tells us that this man had a scroll, a very prized possession, of the book of the prophet Isaiah. We also know that he was traveling from Jerusalem, where it's written he had worshipped, so this man feared the God of the Hebrews, and he had probably participated in one of the great Hebrew feasts, Jewish feasts, festivals, I should say, in Jerusalem. Although, as we will see in a minute, he could actually never become a full-fledged Jewish believer. Yet Luke writes about this Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Acts, because he was very important to Luke. There are a lot of things that happen that Luke does not write about, but this man was important enough for Luke to write about him. And one probable reason is that, if you remember, Jesus had told his disciples, we read about this in Acts chapter 1 as well, that they will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. And this man is from Ethiopia, which was considered at that time to be one of the far corners of the Roman Empire. So this man represents the ends of the earth to those people of that time. So Luke shows us how Jesus' words are beginning to be fulfilled here in Acts chapter 8. We had just read how Philip went to the Samaritans, and now there's somebody from the ends of the earth who hears the gospel. But another likely reason why this man is important to Luke is that his story shows us very clearly how God cares for particular people, particular individuals. This man lived 2,500 kilometers from Jerusalem, from the city where Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Yet God knows about him, and God has a unique plan for this eunuch. So Luke shows us that the God of the Bible, our creator, is not cold-hearted towards the fate of people who live in Africa or in other distant countries. At this point in the history of the church, the apostles themselves are not yet ready to travel to other countries in order to tell people of their Messiah. But God plans all the details in order to give this man faith in Jesus, the Anointed One. This man is important to God. God uses various circumstances and individuals to give faith to particular people. In the Old Testament, for example, we read how God used two Israelite spies to give faith to a prostitute named Rahab. We read how God used Daniel to change the heart of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. It sounds like Nebuchadnezzar came to true faith. We see that God spoke through Jonah to save the people of the city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. And that's because God really does care about the salvation of particular people. And we can only guess the paths that God had used to first bring this man from Ethiopia to faith in the God of the Old Testament. And now he was using Philip, one of the Jewish leaders in the early church of Jerusalem. We oftentimes refer to him as a deacon. God uses him to give this man faith in the one and only Messiah. Philip was just following God's orders to go down into the desert. And he was merely using the opportunity God gave him to talk to this important official from Ethiopia. Think back on your own particular path, how God has brought you to faith, whether he used your parents, friends, acquaintances, different events in your life to bring you to true faith. My wife, Anya, who is here with us tonight, was a student in her first year of university when she somehow got into a group of girls who participated in an occult seance. to call up a spirit. I don't remember ever doing that, but she didn't know better. She was involved in this with some girls in university, and using a Ouija board, the spirit actually spoke to the girls who were present, saying all sorts of unpleasant things about them, swearing at them, making fun of them. And when it was Anya's turn to get a word from the spirit, however, he said to her, go to church. God actually used this negative, sinful experience in Anya's life to encourage her to think about her own soul and to put her on the road to faith. God uses all sorts of means to work in our hearts to give us faith. The fact is that God loves and gives true faith to particular people. The Apostle Paul writes about this in Ephesians chapter one. You know these verses, but you can look them up, Ephesians chapter one. I will read verses 4 and 5, as well as verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 1. Verses 4 and 5 and verse 11. The Apostle Paul writes these very dense verses, but great truth in here, he says, Beginning in verse 4 of Ephesians 1, God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things, all details, according to the counsel of His will. And in the book of Isaiah, God says the following to us. He says, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. Isaiah 43 verse one. God cared about us, about our forgiveness so much that He sent His beloved Son to earth so that He would become a man, a human being like us, and He would live among us, and He would die for us. He would die in our place in order to free us from punishment to give us eternal life. If God truly couldn't care less about the fate of sinful people who have rebelled against Him, then He never would have given His Son over to a terrible, shameful death. It's at the cross of Jesus that we see that God truly does love us, and He cares about every fleeting moment of your life. He has planned every detail of the salvation of this eunuch from Ethiopia, and we know from Scripture that that is also true in our lives, that He has planned every detail in our lives, past, present, and future, to do His work of salvation in our hearts. So, in the first place, you can be sure that God cares about the salvation of people. You can be sure that God cares about the salvation of people very passionately. In fact, He actually cares about it much more than we do. Secondly, therefore, act boldly in light of God's mercy. Act boldly in light of God's mercy. It is clear in the book of Acts that God plans not only the reality or the fact of the salvation of particular individuals, but He also plans the means of these people's conversion to true faith. In verse 26, we read the following words. Now 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 a desert place. Earlier in chapter 8, like I said, we read how Philip himself begins to preach to the Samaritans after fleeing from persecution in Jerusalem, which started, of course, because of Saul. Many Samaritans believe in Christ through Philip's words and through the miracles that he does by God's power. He does miracles that they have never seen before. And Philip becomes a famous man in Samaria when he returns with the apostles to Jerusalem, which we infer from verses 25 and 26. Philip may have been received there as a hero of the young church. He was the first missionary who preached to non-Jews, to Samaritans, and he did so very successfully. Many people came to faith through him. But God calls Philip, the successful evangelist, to go to the desert. From this we can draw two conclusions for ourselves. First, God's plan makes us necessary. God acts through people. We may never use God's sovereign choice of individuals and his plan for their salvation as an excuse not to speak to people about Christ. God wants Philip to talk to that eunuch. God's plan does not make us superfluous, extraneous, unnecessary. On the contrary, his plan makes us indispensable. And that's because God plans both the reality and the means of our salvation. The second conclusion we can draw from God sending Philip to the desert is this. Our Heavenly Father wants us to act in different situations, various situations and places. God calls Philippians to the wilderness. It's interesting to note that the word translated as south, and you should go to the south in verse 26, can also be translated as noon, as in the middle of the day. Because in the northern hemisphere, at noon, the sun is always in the south. So it can mean south or noon. So it's possible that God calls Philip not just to go from Jerusalem to the desert, but to do so at noon, in the middle of the day. Why should Philip do that? What could possibly be in the desert at noontime? God's plan is often incomprehensible to us. Sometimes He calls us to go into the desert, to a place where we are uncomfortable, where we might feel like a fish out of water. When I first moved to Ukraine in 1997 to be a church planter, a pastor of a church there, I was very much a fish out of water. It was very hard for me to be there. God calls us to places like that. A desert might be a place where we are alone, where things are hard on us, where we do not see meaning in God's plan. I'm sure that all of you in your life have experienced times like that. when you've gone through dry, desert times, when you cannot understand what God is doing, why your circumstances are the exact opposite of what seems good to you, the exact opposite of what you want. I don't know the story, the whole story of what you've gone through in this congregation in, I guess, the last six months or so, but I imagine that this is also a desert time for you. But the fact is that God acts also in the deserts of our lives. And sometimes the desert is a much more fruitful place than the garden. And God wants us to be faithful to him in the desert as well. But God doesn't tell Philip why he needs to go down to the desert road. Philip doesn't know God's plan, but Philip listens. Having arrived in the wilderness, Philip is surprised to see a whole caravan of people in the desert in the middle of the day. It's not in the text, but an important government figure like this eunuch from Ethiopia would not travel alone. His servants and soldiers would accompany him on the long, dangerous journey. From verse 38, we know that he was not alone because he gives a command that the chariot is stopped. But there were a lot of people with him, a whole caravan of people, and Philip must have been surprised to see such a large group of dark-skinned people in the desert near Jerusalem, kind of out of the blue. But he believes that God has a plan, that there is no coincidence with God, and so Philip is ready to act. So the question is, what about us? Every week, every day, God gives us opportunities to do good, to show love to other people, to speak about our faith. Do you pray for such opportunities in your life, your daily life? Do you use them? At home with your children, with your neighbors, at work with fellow employees, with other people you meet? Do you pray for and use the opportunities God gives you to do good and to speak about your Savior? Remember, God acts through us. People do not see God, but they see and hear us. He gives us different opportunities to talk about Him and to show His love. And He also gives us the right words, and He gives us, through His Spirit, the power to act. and therefore act boldly in light of God's mercy. He really cares about the salvation of other people much more than we do, but He wants to include us in the process of bringing people to faith in His Son. In the third place, acknowledge Jesus Christ as the key that reveals the secrets of God's Word. Acknowledge Jesus Christ as the key that reveals the secrets of God's Word. God's spirit tells Philip that he needs to go to the chariot, probably more like a cart than a chariot. A chariot you can just stand up on, but these people are sitting down on this cart or carriage that they're riding. And Philip rushes over to the eunuch and he hears that he's reading something. The eunuch was reading out loud. We've had experience in our family of our son learning to read. You're reading out loud in Ukrainian, pronouncing all the letters and the words, et cetera. Well, this man is reading out loud not because he wasn't well-educated, but because in the ancient world, people always read out loud. That's because it was very difficult to read their scrolls that were written by hand, all in uppercase letters with no spaces between words. So you really had to sound it all out to understand what it means. But again, we see the details of God's plan. Philip comes to the road just at this moment, just at the moment that the caravan is passing by, or he comes at the right time to see the caravan passing by. He rushes to the cart exactly when the eunuch, exactly at the time when the eunuch is reading the Old Testament. And at that very moment, the man from Ethiopia is reading these words from the book of Isaiah, which speak of Jesus Christ, perhaps better than all other passages in the Old Testament. It's at least one of the best passages about the Messiah. We read, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And hearing these words, Philip asks the eunuch, do you understand what you're reading? And the Ethiopian answers, how can I unless someone guides me? And we hear the voice of God speaking through this Ethiopian eunuch to Philip. God is telling Philip that now is his turn to speak. So the eunuch invites Philip to sit next to him on the carriage, and he asks, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? That's because, you know, before the birth of Christ, nobody made a connection between the various prophecies of the Old Testament. People did not think about the royal king from David's family, the divine son of man from Daniel chapter 7, and the suffering servant as all being the same person, all being the Messiah. No one could understand that the Messiah will be both God and man, king and servant, conqueror and sacrifice. And even the prophet Isaiah probably did not understand all the mysteries that he was writing about. And therefore, the eunuch asks Philip, who is the prophet talking about? The story of Philip and the eunuch, which Luke tells, is very similar to another story. In his gospel, the same author, Luke, in chapter 24, tells us how after his resurrection, Jesus meets two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. And after dinner, he reveals to them the secrets of the Old Testament. And Christ shows them how all of Scripture prophesies about him. He explains to these two disciples that he is the true fulfillment of the symbols, the prototypes, and the prophecies of God's Word. And then suddenly, he disappears. And here in Acts, in Acts chapter 8, something similar happens. After meeting on the road, Philip explains to the eunuch that the entire Old Testament actually talks about Jesus Christ, who has been crucified shortly before then in Jerusalem, because Jesus is the golden or the blood-red thread that combines everything described in the Old Testament. From the very first promise of the destruction of the snake, to the ceremonies of sacrifice in the temple, to the countless prophecies and symbols of the Messiah, Jesus is the key to revealing the secrets of God's Word. Many people and scholars read and study the Bible, yet not all of them believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as God and Savior of people. But without Jesus Christ, the Bible is pointless. And similarly, our conversations with people about God should always come back to Jesus Christ as much as possible, because it's impossible to share the good news with people about forgiveness of our sins without talking about the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Every person must know Him and trust in Him to receive new eternal life. And in the fourth place, trust in Jesus every day as the one who removes all your shortcomings. Trust in Jesus every day as the one who removes all your shortcomings. After Philip goes up to this important Ethiopian official's carriage, he explains to him the true meaning of the words from Isaiah chapter 53 that he was reading. He tells him about the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. He talks to him about the new church that has been formed in Jerusalem, about the special signs of the Lord's Supper and baptism. The Ethiopian eunuch puts his faith in Jesus Christ and asks to be baptized in a rare pool of water that just happens to be right there at that moment in the desert. Philip is convinced that the man's faith is real and he baptizes him right then and there. It's not something we'll find in the book of church order. But he was moved by God's spirit to do this right then and there. And after this, Philip miraculously vanishes, and the Holy Spirit takes him to another place where he continues to tell people about Jesus of Nazareth. God has done using Philip to work in the life of this particular man, but the Ethiopian's life of following Jesus Christ is just beginning. Although, on some level, it must have been very strange for the eunuch that Philip was willing to baptize him. Because according to the Jewish faith, he could never be completely accepted. The Old Testament law says very clearly in Deuteronomy 23 verse 1 that eunuchs are not allowed to enter the assembly of God's people. They cannot enter the temple. His physical condition made him unworthy to be in God's holy place. This eunuch was always on the outside looking in. But through Jesus Christ, all the things that make us unworthy to be in God's presence are done away with. Because of Jesus, any person can receive forgiveness and become a member of God's people. It's noteworthy that Isaiah, the prophet whose book the eunuch was reading, writes about this. In chapter 11, he writes that people from Cush, from Ethiopia, will also become God's children, chapter 11, verse 11. And in chapter 56, just a little bit beyond what this eunuch was reading at this point, Isaiah even writes God's words that foreigners and eunuchs will be better than sons or daughters in the heavenly kingdom. Listen to these words from Isaiah 56. who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Isaiah 56, verses three to five. And so the story of the Ethiopian eunuch ends with his rejoicing greatly. This man thought that he was searching for God, But as it turns out, God had been searching for him the whole time. And now it could become clearer to him how God had been planning all the events of his life in order to give him a place in the heavenly kingdom. We don't read anything else about this eunuch in the Bible. But over time, the Christian church in Africa becomes very large and strong and yields several early Christian fathers, such as Cyprian, Tertullian, Augustine. And the Coptic church, which still exists today, might even have its origin in this eunuch. We don't know how God worked through him. According to the Jewish faith, he could not become a true Jew. But through Jesus Christ, He is completely accepted as God's Son. The Messiah made Him worthy. We do not come to God as eunuchs, thankfully, but each of us comes to God with our own particular sins, shortcomings, failures. Sometimes we think that we have to get rid of particular sins in our lives before God will accept us. We want to make ourselves clean enough or good enough for God to grant us forgiveness. But the goodness of the Bible is that we don't need to be good enough. We can never make ourselves acceptable to God. Through faith in Christ, His perfect life is considered to be ours. God the Father sees Jesus' worthiness in us. And His death on the cross removes all the guilt from our rebellion and disobedience. Brothers and sisters in Christ, don't try to make yourself good enough for God to love you. He does not require this, and you will never succeed. Admit your unworthiness, your dirt to God. And He will accept you into His family based on what Jesus Christ has already done for you. And He will also give you His Spirit who works in us so that our daily lives become more and more the way He wants them to be. You can be sure that God cares about the salvation of people. He is the most active missionary in the world. Therefore, act boldly in light of God's mercy. Do not miss the daily opportunities God gives you to do good and to speak to people about His mercy. Acknowledge Jesus Christ as the key that reveals the secrets of God's Word. He is the center of our faith. He is our hope. There is no Savior beside Jesus Christ. The path to heaven is only as narrow and as wide as Jesus Christ. and trust in Him every day as the one who removes all your shortcomings. God loves you by name. In God's kingdom and His family there are no eunuchs, no blind, no deaf, no people with physical or spiritual disabilities, no murderers, no adulterers, no liars, no idolaters, They are only forgiven, renewed sons and daughters who through Christ became sinless in God's eyes. And through faith in Him, that is what we will be forever. Amen.