Bible Guys Classics: Acts 8 Part 2

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some of our greatest hits.

So today we're talking about a deacon an African and

exiting like a Star Trek transporter. Wow.

So he's Chris, I'm Jeff, and we're the Day of

the Bible guys. Okay, Chris, Yes, So I want to know,

and I think all of our listeners are very interested

in knowing. But we know that you're a very passionate person,

that you have long, big opinions. My wife would say,

so big big feelings that you that you you know,

you experience things in real time and big ways, and

so we want to do a segment called.

Real Time and Big Ways.

Yeah, Yeah, we want to do a segment called what

made Chris Mad this week? So what got under your

skin this week? How do we love it when you're mad?

I don't even think you have to think twice?

Okay, so get great at it then.

Yeah. So so here's what happens. I'm coming out of Kroger,

which is we shot with Kroger near my house, and

it's a super Kroger, so it's pretty big. It's one

of those marketplaces.

Of course, it is everything in your life's big.

Yes, bigger than life, that's right. Yeah, it's a super Coroger,

bigger than you everything. Yeah. So anyway, I come out

and a guy uh is parked two spaces away from

where you put your carts, but he decides to go

ahead and just put his cart, uh, you know, just

leave it on the space right, And I'm sort of

like catty corner from him, so like I'm sort of

looking at him, right.

I know where this is going.

So what happens is is he and what's really funny

is not only by the way I have I have

a I have a slogan in my life, and I

think I'm going to add a second slogan. Let me

just start off the way, Okay, Number one. A person

who's not nice to the waitress is not a nice person.

I've always said I've always said that I'm going to

add on after this experience. A person who doesn't return

his cart is not a good person. If you're listening

and you don't return your cart and you're like, well,

I just have a bad knee. No, no, you're not

a good person.

Wow.

Yes, I am very passionate about this.

So they left the cart.

So here's what happens. He leaves it, you know, in

between the parking spaces, and he pretends to be considered

by like looking around and like making sure, oh is

this three inches away from this car in this car,

and he sort of like takes his hands off it,

like oh like this, and he gets in his car

and he leaves, and as soon as he leaves, it

starts rolling to the front of my car. It's going

to bang my car. So I have to literally like, uh,

take my car out of reverse, put it in park,

take off my seat out, open the door, and run

and guess who wasn't fast enough? Right, right, So it

smacks into my car. In retrospect, what I could have

done is just like you know, booked out of there

and taking a chance of hitting somebody behind me something.

But anyway, I put it in park, try to save it,

don't get there in time. It smacks my car. Now

here's the good news, no damage. But I just thought

to myself, man, you turkey.

What kind of human if he was there? That guy

doesn't even deserve to live that you feel about that?

Hey? Your question was? Your question was what made Chris mad?

You're making me mad.

Listen to me.

Did you get his license?

Right now? I want the videotape, the security footage. Listen.

I'm serious when I say this. I would have pulled

him over and stopped him and not starting to fight

with him, of course, but I would have just said, bro,

it's it's two spaces away from you. It wasn't raining, right,

he had two working legs, right, you know, there was no.

I'm with you on this one. Yes, yes, so let's

go find him.

Let's go.

Wait. What day was it?

So here, here's what I would.

Say, what day was it? Was it?

Like? Listeners?

Listeners, listen, listen, Chris is watching.

You always always return your carts. There's no reason why

you can't return your carts unless you know you're you're

you have a good reason, unless you're you know, handicapped

or physically disabled, or maybe it is raining and you

want to put it up on the on the curb

or something like. You know, it's still not a great move,

but still yeah, just returned.

Remember remember that eighties sung every move you make?

Yeah, every car.

Watching you.

Yeah, it's actually a pretty creepy song.

Oh yeah yeah yeah, well so so our listeners. If

you are tempted to leave your cart.

You're a bad person in the thing.

Well no, not if you're tempted. Oh Chris, doesn are

you dude? I didn't realize if you're tempted, tempted just

to ask yourself w w CD, what would Chris do? Yeah,

that's right. We should make t shirts ww CD. That

could also be christ little brace, little braces, Chris, I

don't know.

Yeah.

So anyways, Wow, that was riveting. I'm glad we had

that segment. Chris mad this week? Yeah, man, we should

do this this segment every day everyone.

I'm actually fired up now and we're about to read

the scripture.

I'm just like, okay, I need to calm down, so

we do have something to ask you before we get

into the scriptures and that is this. Would you go

on Facebook and like us, follow us on Facebook, and

then would you share us with your friends? So just

look up the is it the Daily Bible guys. So

if you search the Daily Bible Guys on Facebook. We

have a new Facebook page and we just want to

be able to use that to get the word out.

So would you like us, follow us, you know, and

then tell all your friends how amazing Chris is the

Daily Bible guys, and share that and help us get

the word out. So we're trying to build all the platforms.

Just's a brand new thing that we're doing and we'd

love to have you help us out on that. So

if you just take await minutes, it's just written as

the Bible guys, the Bible guys.

Yeah, just the Bible guys. Yeah, so I'm following. I

didn't even followed theund page yet.

I didn't even follow your own page yet.

So there it is.

Do that.

Well, look at this. We have one hundred and fifty

seven likes, one hundred ninety eight followers already. But that's

pretty good considering it's only a few days old.

Well, yes, it was, matter of fact, it is the

first time we've ever mentioned it.

Yeah, wow, wow, I didn't even know that it was

a thing.

So great job. People keep it up. So today, share it.

I didn't even know it was a thing to you

said it.

Yeah, and you have the ability to share each day's

podcast notification, I think, so send it out. Just blast it.

Let's let's let everybody know that this is there, and

maybe we can help a few people. And if not,

it's at least entertaining enough to listen to Chris talk

about what he's mad about today. So okay. So we

are continuing in the Book of Acts, and this is

such an exciting time. The church is just explode. Persecution

has begun, but so has the spread of the Gospel

outside of Jerusalem. Finally, so one of the first servants

in the church, Stephen, he has lost his life. He

was stoned to death. Many of the other servants continue

to serve. It begins to spread, and one of those

guys is named Philip. And here's what it says. In Acts,

chapter eight, verse twenty six. It says, as for Philip,

an angel, the Lord said to him, go south down

the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza, so

he started out, and he met the Treasurer of Ethiopia,

a eunuch of great authority under the Candiate, the Queen

of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he

was reading aloud from the book of the Prophet Isaiah,

and the Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and

walk along beside the carriage. So Philip ran over and

heard the man reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Philip asked him,

do you understand what you're reading? And the man replied,

how can I unless someone instructs me, And he urged

Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

The passage of scripture he'd been reading was this. He

was reading from Isaiah. He was led like a sheep

to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before

the shears, he did not open his mouth. He was

humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants,

for his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch

asked Philip, tell me was a private talking about himself

or someone else? And so, beginning with this same scripture,

Peter told him the good news about Jesus. As they

rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look,

there's some water, Why can't I be baptized? And he

ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into

the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up

out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched

Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again, but went

on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself further north

in the town of Azotus, and he preached the good

news there and in every town along the way until

he came to cesarea. Yeah, man, it is so what

an incredible story. Philip is this dynamic guy. He's not

a professional Christian, he wasn't one of the apostles. He

was a guy that was highly esteemed among the early Christians,

and they chose him to be a deacon, a servant

in the church. And he's traveling around not only helping

serve in the food pantry the hungry widows, but he's

also preaching the Gospel and doing great works. And he

runs across this very influential, powerful Ethiopian who represents the

Queen in her treasury.

Yeah, and the New Living Translational Life Application Study Bible

says the strength and the accomplishments of Philip. He's one

of the seven organizers of the food distribution of the

Early Church. He's one of the first traveling missionaries, one

of the first who obeyed Jesus' command to take the

Gospel to all people, and a careful student of the

Bible who could explain its meeting clearly. And I would

add to that, someone who got beamed out like star

trek by God.

Wow.

Yeah, that's a good thing to put on a resume.

That's kind of what happened here, isn't it.

Yeah, what it says he got caught up by the spirit.

Nobody he knows what it really means.

But then it just snatched away.

He snatched away, and then he found himself north of

the town. And if you look at that stuff on

a map, I remember a sermon one time. Even though

we're not I can't find the stats and all these

notes here, but sure, but it's but it's ridiculous to

assume that he got there any other way other than

some miraculous thing that God did, which is pretty cool.

So the road from Jerusalem down to Ethiopia, kind of

runs through the center portion of Israel. Now is Jerusalem

is in the southern portion of Israel, and it's it's

a road heading towards Gaza as a Zotus is north

of Gaza, right on the on the Mediterranean Sea, so

it's a long ways. He got picked up in this

one place and he shows up in another place. Oh yeah,

he didn't head there. God just picked him up moving

in there. I think this is one of the only

times there was Enoch. The Bible says he walked with

God and then he was not. Yes, there was Elijah.

He goes goes up in the chariot of Fire. And

then there is this one where Philip is preaching and

God just goes, Okay, you're done there, I need to

move you over here. How bizarre would that be?

Yeah, so bizarre.

So now we've got those out of the way.

Yeah, and so when the eunuch says, what must I do?

You know, why can't I be baptized? Some manuscripts include

another verse that wasn't in here, where it says just

believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you can be baptized.

So verse thirty seven would say, you can be baptized.

Philip answered, if you believe with all your heart, and

Unich replied, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son

of God. That verse is in many, if not most,

of the transcripts or manuscripts of this Book of Acts,

but a couple of the earlier manuscripts did not include it.

So some early manuscripts do, some don't. So the New

Living did not include it, but they have the little asterisk.

There says but either way it says in verse number

thirty five. So beginning with the same scripture, Philip told

him about the good news of Jesus. So think about this.

So Philip basically explained all the way from Isaiah, which

was written seven hundred years before Jesus was born, and

he starts with the prophecy of the coming of the

Messiah and then tells him the good of Jesus, which

basically included, you know, pretty much his life, journey through

the gospels, the events of his death, beryl, and resurrection.

So all of that was, you know, assumed talked about,

because otherwise how can you connect that scripture to Jesus

without the crucifixion, right, you have to have it because

that's what that scripture means. That's right. So the good

news of Jesus was clearly explained, and then in order

for the unit to be baptized, he had to believe

in that or else why would he even ask the question?

And then another thing about that scripture is is that

it wasn't a special body of water. Right, So Jesus

was baptized in the Jordan River.

Yeah.

By the way, have you ever been to the Jordan River?

I have not, so one of things I've never been

to Israel.

Yeah, so we need to change that. I know, we

need to rectify that.

Like immediately, let's let's take a daily Bible guys trip

to Israel.

Well, oh, wait a minute. If you're going to toss

it out there, I think it'd be fun. Oh you know, hey,

let's bring up that info at info at at the

Bible guys. Can we do that? So we have a

little right here right here, Email us at info at

the Bible Guys dot com. I'm doing this off the

top of my head. If you're interested in going on

a trip to Israel with us, which would cost an individual.

Five thousand, four thousand, dollars.

Four thousand dollars, which means if you're going as a couple,

you're you're really spending the money, right, But you can

raise it. You can raise it. You can send out

letters and things like that, so you don't have to,

you know, spend all of that. But if you're interested

in going there, email us over here. Let's see if

we have a group of people.

It's literally spur of the moment. We hadn't planned that,

but then we didn't plan that will be fantastic.

But let me tell you real quick. So Jesus is

baptizing in the Jordan River. I went down to get baptized,

or excuse me, to baptize in the Jordan River. And

and there's so many people that want to get baptized

in the Jordan River. You sure have to wait your turn,

like this group of people, this church, this church, but

they give you white robes. And so I was baptizing

two women and actually I I have, like, you know,

decently hairy legs, and all the fish were picking on

the hairs on my legs. And so something's happening underneath

the water where fish are just constantly nibbling at me.

So I was just shaking like this, and nobody really

knew what was happening, like why is he shaking? You know,

and all the women are like what's going on? They

weren't bothering the women. The women shaved their legs that day. Right,

So anyway, I got to baptized. But my point is

this is that Jesus get baptized in a normal body

of water. They're in Africa, just passing by this random

body of water.

Well this is an African but they're still in Israel.

Oh yeah, of course, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry the African.

Yes, they're between Jerusalem and Gaza.

Yeah, Jerusalem and Gaza. Yes, And so they're going by

this random body of water. And so, in other words,

you can get baptized anywhere. It doesn't matter if it's

in a baptistry or in a swimming pool, or if

it's in a river or a pond.

It doesn't require a designation for holy water.

Right.

What's happening makes it holy.

Right, because it's all about the symbolism. That's right, because

that's what it symbolizes, which is why Jesus asked John

the Baptist to baptize him in just a river.

Yeah, yep. So there's some a little bit of history here.

So the Ethiopian has gone to Jerusalem to worship, yes,

and then he's coming home, and that's kind of a

surprise because here's an African coming and worshiping in the

Jewish Temple. And so the Jews had had some contact

with the Ethiopians for a long period of time. They're

mentioned in Psalm sixty eight, mentioned Jeremiah thirty eight. We

know Solomon engaged with the Queen of Sheba. Depends on

where you think Sheba is at that time, but it

certainly appears that what you had was and the Ethiopian

Church today and the Ethiopian Jewish people today would all

point to it was an Old Testament thing that for

generations upon generations there were Ethiopians that were worshiping the

God of Israel. And so then he's there, and it's

in that context that it would just be natural. This

is a very powerful man, right, he's the head of

the treasure for the entire nation, and he's reading the

Book of Isaiah. The importance of the words of God.

You and I will rarely ever argue somebody into heaven.

We're not going to argue them into faith in Christ.

It's the words of God that convince people and convict people.

But what he does use is he uses people like

you and me to explain what it is that they're doing.

So Philip did not come in with his own agenda.

He began where this guy, this guy just happened to

be in Isaiah. And he's like, oh, I know how

Isaiah connects to Jesus. Let me tell you. And he

showed him that way. He wasn't giving some kind of polemic.

He wasn't giving an apologetic. He was just explaining Jesus

from that place in the Bible on two things. So

you don't have to be a super apologist. You don't

have to know every argument from the Bible. You just

need to know where is Jesus in the Bible, and

how do you get your friend or your family member

to Jesus from that place. God's words are what changes hearts.

The Holy Spirit uses the words of God and the

testimony of his people. Those are the two bullets that

defeat Satan. Right, and so we do those two things.

Your testimony and God's words transform lives. So this Ethiopian goes,

I get it. I want to put my faith in

trust in Jesus, and so he steps up he gets baptized.

So this is all God asks for any of us

as we share the gospel. You know, you have the

gift of evangelism. At the gift of evangelism, but you

don't have to be gifted. I don't know that the

Bible says Philip was gifted, right, So you don't have

to be gifted. We're all commanded right, right. And so

in this instance, it wasn't hey, Philip, you're gifted, why

don't you go talk to the ethiopen. It was just

that God says, you go.

Go next to the chariot. That was it. And by

the way, that's what I was going to say next

to If you think about this, the Holy Spirit gave

him a nudge that says, I think you need to

go next to this chariot, and then that's it. We

don't hear like a further instruction from God. So God

just nudged him in the right direction. So it's interesting

because sometimes we'll get a nudge to reach out to

a friend and we won't know why. You know, they'll

say pray for somebody, reach out to somebody. Make this

phone call, you know, send, send somebody a text or

a letter or you know, or maybe an approach a stranger,

you know, whatever it is. But we'll get a nudge

to do something and we will never know why. And

then what we'll do is we'll just sort of wait

and see, Okay, well, God, what are you up to?

And that's what happens here because all he did was

get the nudge to walk up next to the cheer,

and then Philip just took over himself. He thought, Oh,

this guy's actually reading scripture, you know. And then I

would say this too, it's really great to tell your

story and how you met Jesus. To be able to

tell that one or two minutes, it is really a

good thing to know because if God ever did nudge

you to share, you know, the story of Jesus with somebody.

Just like Jeff said, you don't have to know Isaiah here.

You don't have to know all the verses. Although that's that's.

If you're going to spend a bunch of time studying,

spend your time studying scripture. You don't. Don't just spend

your time only studying arguments for Christianity.

Yes, ryes R. Yes, what I was what I was

going to say is I was going to say, to

memorize key scriptures in your story, right, So in other words,

like you don't have to know a ton of Isaiah

and all. That was what I go to say. But

just I mean, just to use John three sixteen. You know, hey,

I don't know much. I don't know much about the

I'm a new Christian, but I do know one thing.

John three sixteen says, for God's soil of the world,

but he gave his one and only son, whoever believes

it should not perish but have everlasting life. And let

me tell you how that translated in my life. And

then you tell your quick story, and then you know,

here's where I was before Jesus. I once was lost,

but now I'm found. And when you do that, you

know you can connect the dots, uh, you know, with

people in a lot of ways.

So this event to wrap things up, this event, remember

Jesus says said, the Holy Spirit is going to come

on you. You're going to have power. You're going to be

my witnesses in Jerusalem. They were witnesses in Jerusalem. They

started getting harassed in Jerusalem. And then he says in

Judea and Samaria, and that begins to happen after the

stoning of Stephen. Then they begin to spread out and

they start they go into Samaria. As a matter of fact,

the Bible says Philip was the first one to take

the Gospel into Samaria. And the disciples were going in

different directions and they were spreading the gospel. And now

they lead this Ethiopian guy. He's from a whole other

and this is the beginning of the Gospel spreading to

the uttermost parts of the earth. And from that point on,

that's what's been happening, generation after generation after generation for

two thousand years. The Gospel is just spreading around the world,

and it's the most unlikely people sharing the Gospel with

the most unlikely people, and it just keeps going.

Yeah, and so the Gospel always finds its way to us,

on its way to someone else, that's right. And so

tomorrow we're going to be looking at how one young

guy named Saul decided to try to squash it in

a city that had spread to called Damascus. And that's

what we're looking at next time on the Bible.

Guys, that's right,