Being Baptized

I have the opportunity to share a little bit of God's Word with you. It's going to be a little shorter than normal because we have activities happening up here underneath this tarp, and it looks like it's 81 degrees, so I'm glad I'm not getting inside.

No, it's going to be fine. Let me ask you if you would find a Bible. I want to invite you to join me in a story, maybe one you've heard, maybe one you have not heard in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts chapter 8, it's an interesting book that tells us about the history of the early church. Acts chapter 8, and I'm going to begin reading for us down in verse 26.

Acts 8 · chapter mention Acts 8 · chapter mention

It's about an apostle and not one that we hear a ton about. His name is Philip. Join me as I read for us in verse 26. 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 Isaiah the prophet. 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 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 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 pray once more, shall we?

Father, we ask you today to teach us. We have some very exciting things to learn about baptism. And so, Father, open our hearts, open our minds, and equip us, Lord, as your people.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. As I said a minute ago, Philip is one of those apostles that kind of gets lost in the crowd. Any of you have like a big family, and like child number four, five, eight, whatever it

is for you, just kind of gets lost in the crowd? I kind of imagine Philip that way, but actually, he does figure a few times rather prominently in the Gospels.

So let me tell you about a couple times. This, of course, is a man who was an original twelve disciple, member of the group. This is the one who was called by Jesus, and immediately upon meeting Jesus, went and got what we think was his best friend, a man named Nathaniel, and brought Nathaniel to be introduced

to Jesus. That's John chapter one. Philip is also a disciple that Jesus tested one time. It was a time when there were 5,000 hungry people, and Jesus tested him and said, you give him something to eat.

Philip was also the guy who Jesus baffled with his words when he told Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. John 14. But here in Acts chapter eight, we have to understand that this is way after the time of the disciples as just these novice learners.

This is, of course, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and more importantly, this is after the birth of the early church, and after the apostles, namely Philip, have been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

And what happened not long after, we know from the book of Acts that the church really had the heat turned up on it. Persecution broke out after the death of Stephen.

Acts chapter eight, verse four, earlier in this chapter, tells us that those who were scattered by this new outbreak of persecution, they went about preaching the word.

And then it focuses in on Philip. It says that Philip himself went down to a village in Samaria and preached the gospel there. We wonder, like, well, how did it go?

What kind of a preacher was Philip? What was his ministry like? Well, let me tell you a little bit about it. Acts chapter eight, verses six through eight, tells us, and the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.

Well, the story in Acts eight kind of goes back and forth. It deviates from one group or one person and then flashes back to another person and then sometimes returns.

And that's exactly what happens here in Acts chapter eight. And so where we just read, Luke has doubled back and we're looking again at the ministry of Philip.

Only we notice this time, it's not the big crowds and amazing miracles that are happening in Philip. There's a specific call that he receives.

And funny, but it's one of those things where Philip doesn't receive like an impression or have to wonder, is this what the silent voice of the Lord is telling me?

He gets the benefit of a literal angel coming to him like he did to Mary and Joseph and gives him a very clear word. And he probably needed a clear word because these are some rather bizarre instructions.

Here's what the angel says again, verse 26. I want you to rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now you can see on the map, I've got it there in green.

It's a road, but it's not really a road that people in Israel, let alone the people in the bustling metropolis of say Jerusalem would necessarily want to travel.

It is, as Luke describes it, a desert place. In fact, they say Gaza is kind of at this time the last stop if you're on your way to leave the promised land and go down toward Egypt.

It's kind of a bizarre set of instructions that he gets. And you know, I've got to respect Philip because it's not like he hasn't been seeing a pretty successful ministry up in Samaria.

How very strange it must have seemed to him. You know, if you're Philip, you're probably thinking like, well, I've just been doing some pretty amazing miracles.

I mean, I've been casting demons out of people. I mean, I've been seeing these great healings and not from the flu or the common cold. I've been seeing lame and paralyzed people get up and walk.

I've been seeing the kind of stuff that Jesus saw in his ministry. And yet in a very powerful and I think quite honestly humbling act of obedience, Philip hears the angel's words and he immediately takes off into the unknown, down this road, into this desert place.

Now it's like 60 miles between Jerusalem and Gaza. And the reality is we don't know exactly where this happens. You can see the map's got a suggestion.

We don't know for sure. We don't know if he went 10 miles outside of town or 30 or 40 or 50 or maybe he was almost to Gaza. What we do know is that to intercept the guy he's supposed to intercept, he's going to have to travel fast because the guy he's coming to see, coming to rendezvous with, is on his

way out of the promised land. So he's got to run to intercept him. And that's what he does. And who is the guy that he runs to intercept? Well, we're told three things about him.

Number one, that he is an Ethiopian. This is probably not modern day Ethiopia. Most scholars think this is probably the modern day country of Sudan, the kingdom of Nubia.

Second thing we learn about him is that he is a eunuch, which a few people think means just he's a court official. But more than likely it means that he's been rendered fit for service in the company of a queen in a certain way.

He's a eunuch. And the third thing we learn about him is that he is a court official. In fact, he's a very high up court official, very connected, and presumably very wealthy.

But he's come a long way. We think about 1,300 miles by chariot. A journey that would take a month and a half, maybe two months. He's come all the way to Jerusalem to basically make what amounts to as a pilgrimage.

And he's coming as a pilgrim. We might call him a seeker today, but he's actually more than that. He's actually come to Jerusalem to worship, Luke says, which indicates that he's really some kind of a proselyte to the Jewish faith.

He's a God-fearer. He's a God-seeker. I mean, this is a man. He seems pretty devout. He's actually sitting in his chariot reading the Bible.

How many of you kids, when you take a car trip, say, Mom, Dad, please pass the Bible. I want to read from the prophet Isaiah. That's what this guy's doing in his chariot.

But up until this point, he doesn't have the answer to the prophecies that he's reading. And he certainly doesn't have the answer to who can save his soul.

Verse 28, Luke tells us that the place where he's been reading is from the book of Isaiah. And the section Luke goes on to quote from is actually from Isaiah 53.

It's a really well-known part of Isaiah, the suffering servant passage. We know that it applies to Jesus, but he doesn't know that yet. Scholars, though, are very keen to notice that this passage is actually pretty close to another one.

In fact, when you read a scroll in the ancient world, and you would kind of take a section of it, he would likely have stretched open the scroll wide enough to be able to see all the way down into chapter 56.

And that's an interesting place for someone like our eunuch to read. He may have found this section very interesting. Listen to what Isaiah chapter 56, verses 3 through 7 says.

Isaiah 56:3–7

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, The Lord will surely separate me from his people. And let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

For thus says the Lord, To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, and hold fast to 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. Imagine that. This guy's been in the chariot. It's a long trip. He's been pondering over Isaiah.

He's stuck on Isaiah 53. But I have to think that he's probably also read the chapters before it and the chapters after it. It's called studying something in context.

He's probably doing that. And he's stuck. He can't make sense of it. And then, lo and behold, who is it that pops up right beside his chariot?

Maybe he kind of startled him. Hello there. How are you? It's Philip, sent by an angel of the Lord. And the Spirit has prompted Philip, we read, that he's supposed to go right up to this chariot and join it.

So I don't know what that means. If he's like running alongside the chariot, he hears the words that this man is reading from Isaiah 53, because that's how you read in the ancient world, you read out loud.

And he hears the part about the sheep being silently led to the slaughter. He hears the part about this mysterious person being denied justice in his humiliation.

How about him having even his life taken away from the earth? Philip hears this. And in verse 30, he asks the Ethiopian eunuch, he says, Do you understand what you're reading?

And the Ethiopian eunuch is like, No, I don't. How can I unless someone guides me? Which, that's all the invitation Philip needs. And next thing we know, he's up in the chariot.

He's met a new friend, he's sitting next to him, and he's helping the Ethiopian official understand what this means. What he's doing is he's filling in the gaps with the gospel.

Verse 34, Who's this prophet talking about? The eunuch asks, Is he talking about himself? Or someone else? In verse 35, we watch as Philip goes on to give him the answer he's been searching for.

He says, This is about Jesus. We're told that he tells him the good news about Jesus. He lays out the gospel for him, telling him about Jesus was God's son, and of how Jesus is actually the suffering servant, sent to die for our sins on the cross,

having his very life taken away, only to be raised up again. Verse 36 is the highlight of the story. As we go on to read, as they're traveling in this desert place, they come to what we can only surmise is an oasis.

You know, just like they show you on the TV and the movies. Palm trees, a little pool. They come upon this place, and once our Ethiopian eunuch catches sight of the pool, he orders the caravan, Stop! Stop!

Stop! He says to Philip, Look, here's some water. Why shouldn't I be baptized? And that right there in the story is a place where I say, Wow!

What? Baptized? Why does he know about that? I mean, it doesn't seem like as far as we've seen that Philip's mentioned baptism. For all we know, the two men have just gotten done with the sinner's prayer kind of thing.

He's just become a Christian. But we have to understand that this man is not new to all the things of the faith. He has been a worshiper. He's been a seeker.

He's been someone who's trying to draw near to God. And his interest and desire to participate in the worship of the true God has brought him like 1,300 plus miles all the way to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage.

So yeah, he's taken some big steps to try to draw near to God. And you know what's happening today? The promise that James talks about is being fulfilled.

As this man is drawing near to God, God is drawing near to him. Because he sent Philip. But how would he know about baptism? And why would he immediately ask Philip to do this for him?

Well, you have to think that if he's a man who's been studying Scripture, which of course, they don't have the New Testament yet. They only have the Old Testament.

The Jewish Scriptures. And he's been doing personal Bible study in a book as complex as Isaiah. I've got to think he probably was familiar with a lot of the other Old Testament accounts.

Like maybe the story from, let's say, Genesis. Genesis? Anybody ever heard of this one? Genesis chapter 6 verse 7. What does the Lord say when he sees how evil mankind has become?

Genesis 6:7

The Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heaven, for I am sorry that I have made them.

That's a big statement from God. God, that he would actually go from a creation that he described originally as good, and it was good, to now saying, I'm sorry I made the world.

And we know that he did that, God said that, because of what sin had done to the world. And it led God to build, call a man to build a certain boat.

You might know the account. And then it led God to flood the whole earth with water. And we know that through the destructive waters of that great flood, God saved one man and his family.

And how did he save them in that deluge? He told them to build this ark. And that ark allowed Noah to pass through the waters of death, the waters of judgment, and come up out of that water to be saved.

In fact, here's how the Apostle Peter later reflects on this moment. Listen to this from 1 Peter 3, verse 20. While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

1 Peter 3:20

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you not as the removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I love how one theologian, Peter Lightheart, links the ark to the cross. You ever think about that? The ark and the cross? He beautifully compares the wood of the ark to the wood of the cross.

And this is what he writes. He says, The wood of Jesus' cross grows into a new ark. Baptized, and every baptized person joins the eightfold family of a new and greater Noah.

Who, of course, is Jesus.

So you've got the flood story, but there's more than that in the Old Testament. Wouldn't our eunuch also be aware of other amazing accounts, like the time where God rescued His people in Exodus, when they were in Egyptian slavery, and God miraculously brought them out through Moses?

And if you've read the story, you know it comes to a point where there they are, standing on the banks of the Red Sea. The army of Pharaoh is upon them, and they're just happy and rejoicing and thankful that they've been liberated.

No, they're not. What they do is they think it's their moment of death, and they start to cry out to Moses and complain, and they literally say, What have you done to us?

What have you done to us? Why did you bring us out here to die? They actually say this, Were there not enough graves in Egypt? It's kind of funny when you get sarcastic at the moment of your death.

But here again, we know that God worked a wonder to save His people by bringing them right through those waters, didn't He? Right through those two walls of water, one on each side, to save them.

Here's what Hebrews 11 verse 29 says. It says that, By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

Hebrews 11:29

The waters took care of the evil people, but the people God had chosen were saved. Another figure of baptism? And then, of course, we know God does it again for the next generation of Israelites.

When the parents all die off, and it's the new generation ready to go in to the promised land in Joshua chapter 3, we know that the feet of the priests of Israel literally had to carry the Ark of the Covenant and they had to enter the waters of the Jordan River first.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

They had to get their feet wet. And only after they did, did the river stop and pile up in a heap, we're told. And that allowed the entire nation to pass through safely.

God's people, again, saved through the waters. Again, another image of baptism. You see, accounts like the flood in particular, they really tell us something about our sin.

And what they tell us is that sheer attempts at repair, trying to do a little better, temporary fixes are never enough, sin and evil must be extinguished.

Sinners need more than just a little reform. What they actually need and what they actually deserve is death. And baptism reminds us of that, that sin brings death.

And yet, as Noah and his family were saved and received new life, brought up through those waters of death by the wood of God's Ark, so now we know that in Jesus, by the wood of His cross, we too are brought up in our salvation because through His sacrifice,

as Peter says, we receive the cleansing of our consciences, we get our hearts washed, and through the resurrection of Jesus, where Christ Himself is brought up out of the grave, we reenact this by being brought up out of our baptismal waters.

That's what Romans 6 says. Romans 6, verse 4. We were therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

Yeah, I think our Ethiopian eunuch is familiar with all of these stories in the Old Testament. And he was also very familiar with the practice of baptism as a ritual washing.

Only now, thanks to Philip, he is armed with new knowledge. Now, he has the complete knowledge of what Jesus has done for him in the Gospel.

And this is what makes his reaction right here, as he sees water, anything but surprising. Verse 38 again. The chariot is called to a stop. And we're told that both men went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

And then there is one cool miracle at the end. I like to think of it as teleporting, teleportation. We read in verse 39 that 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.

You know, over the years, I've baptized a lot of people, and I am still waiting for a teleportation. Maybe today is the day. But seriously, today is the day.

It's a very, very special day for five individuals here in our church, family, Redeemer. We have the opportunity as the team gets ready to come up, they're going to lead us in a song right now.

And our five individuals are going to come forward, and they're going to prepare themselves for this wonderful Christian right. So let me ask you, if you would bow your heads with me, and we will pray.

Father, what a wonderful thing to participate in this moment, Lord, to celebrate a right that literally reenacts the burial that we all deserve because of our sins, and the resurrection that we all receive, that we get, because of what Jesus has done.

And so, Lord, be glorified in this moment as we have a chance to hear affirmations to these questions of baptism. Lord, as we have an opportunity to watch people go down under the water and come back up, a symbol of them being able to walk in a new life.

We praise you, and we celebrate, and we pray this in the name of our Savior, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.