Acts 8:26-40

[0:00] Alright, please take your copy of God's Word and turn to Acts chapter 8.! After a week off with a commissioning service, it's good to be back into our verse-by-verse exposition of Acts chapter 8.

[0:13] Our text for this morning is verse 26 through verse 40. Before I read this on our behalf, let me remind you that this is God's Word, that it was written for His glory and our good, that we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

[0:39] Now, as I read the text this morning, I'm going to stop and just make a couple of notes. For our benefit of understanding the text, I don't need to go back and do it at a later time.

[0:49] I am going to try to keep my comments brief. I think that's maybe a laughable statement on my part at this point. But I am going to try, at very least, because we do have some other matters to get to in our service today.

[1:03] But let me ask that we just quiet our hearts and our minds for a moment as we hear what God would say to us from His Word, beginning 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.

[1:23] This is a desert place. Now, this is the road that would have run from Jerusalem to Egypt. And there were two roads in this day that did so. One ran along the coast and the other through the desert.

[1:36] That's why Luke includes that insertion. This is a desert place. And that was to say that this was the least traveled path.

[1:46] An unlikely place to encounter another traveler. Verse 27. And he, being Philip, rose and went.

[1:57] And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. Now, in this day, Ethiopia was a larger kingdom than the modern-day country of Ethiopia.

[2:13] And it expanded just south of Egypt. So you think the journey from Israel to Egypt, Ethiopia being just south of this.

[2:24] The queen that this Ethiopian eunuch is a servant of, they call here Candace. This is not a proper name, but more like a title, like Caesar or Pharaoh.

[2:35] And he held a very powerful position. He was like the secretary of the treasury. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. Last part of verse 27.

[2:46] Verse 28. 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.

[3:00] So Philip ran to him and heard him reading. It was customary in this day to read aloud. He was reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading?

[3:13] And I picture this caravan traveling down the road and Philip running up to it, hearing him as he's running to it, and calling out to him, Do you understand what you're reading? And the caravan comes to a screeching halt.

[3:26] Verse 31. 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.

[3:37] 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.

[3:48] Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And this is from Isaiah 53, verse 7 and 8.

[3:59] Verse 34. And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?

[4:11] 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.

[4:23] 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.

[4:37] 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.

[4:56] Now, just as an interesting aside, there's some debate about whether Philip is Philip the Apostle, or Philip the Deacon, chosen amongst the men in chapter 6.

[5:10] I will argue that he is Philip the Deacon, because in Acts chapter 21, Paul visits his house in Caesarea. And there he's called Philip the Evangelist, not Philip the Apostle.

[5:21] So either he travels from Azotus to Caesarea, where his home already was, preaching the gospel as he goes, or he arrives there and decides it's a good place to settle.

[5:34] And that's where he stays and establishes a home. He's married. He has four daughters, Acts 21 tells us. Now, as we look at this text this morning, the structure for our study will be as follows.

[5:48] Number one, and I'll repeat these for you. Number one, the means of God's saving grace. Number two, the recipient of God's saving grace.

[5:59] And number three, the signs of God's saving grace. Or if you prefer, the evidences of God's saving grace. This morning, we have the privilege of observing the ethnic diversity of God's saving grace.

[6:21] Now, we timed out doing baptisms to this text this morning. I could not have possibly timed out the preaching of this text for some of the things that are happening in our country today.

[6:35] We have to look at the ethnic diversity of God's saving grace. He reaches across all ethnic barriers. God has always had a gracious purpose for all mankind.

[6:49] All mankind having rejected God's righteous rule, all deserving of damnation, all deserving of His wrath. He has always had a gracious purpose.

[7:02] Beloved, we should rejoice in that this morning. As I look across the room, I don't know if there are many or any ethnic Jews here this morning. I think we're all from a latitude a little higher than where Israel is located.

[7:15] Most of us. We're all beneficiaries of God having a gracious purpose for all mankind. For extending His mercy beyond the borders of ethnic Israel.

[7:30] He has never intended to only have a saving relationship with ethnic Israel. The presentation of this reality begins with the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

[7:44] The promise I've been talking about with the children in the Big Picture Story Bible, the promise that's going to be fulfilled in Christ, starts with that promise that God makes to Abraham who becomes Abraham.

[7:56] He says in Genesis 12, verse 1, The Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation.

[8:06] And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

[8:21] We're the wonderful recipients of that promise made to Abraham on that day. And how did God intend to bless all the families of the earth in Abraham? With the saving grace, grace that comes through a descendant of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:41] Now let me remind you or catch you up if you haven't been with us, a bit of a summary of Acts to this point. If you want to flip, you can look at chapter 1. Jesus ascends.

[8:51] This is after he spent 40 days with the apostles. He ascends and he leaves a command for them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Spirit. Stay until the Spirit of God comes.

[9:04] Chapter 2, this happens. Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, they receive the Spirit. They preach in various known languages. And as the people are amazed by it and confused by it, they say, what does this mean?

[9:19] And in the rest of chapter 2, Peter preaches. Many are saved. Thousands come to faith in Jesus Christ. And we get a bit of a taste of the fellowship of the church at the end of chapter 2.

[9:31] The way in which they loved each other and the way in which they had favor with the people in Jerusalem. In chapter 3, God orchestrates yet another stage for Peter to preach the Gospel on through the healing of a lame beggar.

[9:47] Peter and John going up to the temple just to pray, heal a lame beggar, and a crowd gathers. And once again, the Gospel is preached. Many respond in faith.

[10:00] But as a result of this, chapters 4 and 5, Peter and John are arrested and persecution begins in Jerusalem of the Christian faith.

[10:12] They're charged not to speak anymore in the name of Christ. Chapter 5, we see the arrest of the apostles. This time they're now beaten, charged again, and released.

[10:24] Chapter 6, the unity of the church is not functioning so well any longer. And there's some complaints arising. And so some deacons are selected to help serve food.

[10:34] And one of those deacons, a man named Stephen, is boldly proclaiming the Gospel. And he's debating in the synagogues. And he is arrested.

[10:46] He has a very brief trial in which he gives a rather rousing speech. I encourage you to read in chapter 7 if you're not familiar with this. And then he's martyred. He's taken outside the city and he's stoned to death.

[11:00] And this is Stephen's speech. Stephen's martyrdom becomes this moment where the Gospel goes out of the walls of Jerusalem and to the nations.

[11:14] It begins at this point in the church's history. The persecution ramps up in chapter 8. And as a result, the church there in Jerusalem is scattered.

[11:26] And the Gospel goes forth. I've said to you that Stephen's martyrdom is the hinge that the gates swing on. And now the Gospel has expanded outward.

[11:38] Acts 1.8. Jesus says this to the disciples. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

[11:56] You will find it interesting that to this time and in this world, to the Romans, Ethiopia was the end of the earth. They had not yet traveled beyond that place.

[12:08] And I'm not suggesting that the Ethiopian eunuch coming to faith in Christ is the fulfillment of Acts 1.8. But in their thinking, boy, has the Gospel gone out.

[12:20] So let's look first at the means of God's saving grace. How is it that God works His purpose in the world?

[12:30] How is it that God brings about the salvation of His people? Now hear me, this is a work of God. It's wholly a work of God.

[12:43] But He uses means. And we can see all of those means at play in this text. So the first mean that God uses is that third part of the Trinity we call the Holy Spirit.

[12:58] The Spirit. We can see God's divine orchestration in saving the Ethiopian eunuch. What a divine encounter this is that Philip has.

[13:12] And it's given to him by instruction. An angel of the Lord says to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

[13:24] Beloved, if you were given this command, you would say, why in the world would I go do such a thing? There's no reason for me to go to this place. It's a desert place. No one will be there.

[13:35] Verse 29, the Spirit says to Philip as the Ethiopian eunuch is going by, go over and join this chariot.

[13:46] We even see the spirits working in the eunuch's baptism. Going along. Presumably being discipled by Philip. Having responded in faith to Christ.

[13:58] He's now teaching him how it is that he should be obedient to that faith. Now that you've believed in Christ, you should be baptized. And just then they roll past a body of water. The eunuch says, what's stopping me from being baptized even now?

[14:15] And once he's baptized, the Spirit, this is verse 39, the Spirit of the Lord carries Philip away. We don't know exactly what that means, but it would seem that he snatched him.

[14:25] He's gone. And he reappears in another place. So the Spirit of God is used by God as part of the Trinity to bring about the salvation of his people.

[14:41] Beloved, all of us who have responded in faith to Christ have experienced this same miracle. Maybe not in the same way. I've never traveled a desert road in a chariot and had a man meet me, baptize me, and then disappear.

[14:56] But all the same, it's just as miraculous. We should rejoice in the great way that God orchestrated our salvation. The second meaning of God's saving grace is a servant.

[15:10] With the Spirit, we have a servant. God employs the obedience of his servants in the salvation of his people.

[15:25] God employs the obedience of his servants in the salvation of his people. If you have been around CFC much, you have heard me say that God does not need you.

[15:38] Don't belittle God by thinking that you're so important that he needs you to bring about the salvation of his people. But because he loves you, he uses you in that process. He wants you to experience his goodness in his saving work.

[15:53] And so he uses you to accomplish that very thing. So he uses a servant. In this case, it's Philip. And Philip is obedient. Verse 27 says, And he rose and went.

[16:06] Luke doesn't record any hesitation on his part. He's commanded to go. And he goes. In verse 30, I love, as he's told to go join the chariot, Philip runs to him. That's where I get this picture in my mind that he had to catch up to what was happening.

[16:19] But Philip runs to him. Here's what's happening. He's reading from the Scripture and he engages him immediately. Do you understand what you are reading?

[16:35] Philip likely is a very humble man, not a man of great education, not a man of great training. And here's this man, the secretary of the treasurer for Ethiopia. Picture that he's likely in a large caravan with soldiers protecting him.

[16:49] He's traveled a great distance. And Philip, emboldened by the Spirit, runs up and yells out, Do you understand what you are reading?

[17:01] And then he's used by God to explain the Scripture to him to present the good news of Jesus Christ. Beloved, in the same way we're to be used by God, we're to be obedient.

[17:13] Let me point out to you that Philip begins by asking a simple, pointed question. He just asks a question.

[17:25] Let me say, for those of you who have such a discomfort in sharing the Gospel, I wish that wasn't true. I wish that it worked in your heart in such a way that it had to bubble out. You had to speak about it. You just were looking for every possible opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

[17:40] But I know that sometimes it's uncomfortable. I know that sometimes we have to push in to those conversations. Let me just encourage you to ask pointed questions.

[17:50] Ask people what they believe and press at them to defend what they believe. A week ago today, Sunday afternoon, we did an Independence Day thing with Sam's family and she has a cousin and her husband that are spiritual.

[18:08] They often seem confused about what they believe. And I got into a question with her cousin Bonnie and she used the term I'm Catholic. Catholic-ish is what she was saying.

[18:20] I'm Catholic. And I just said, that is a fascinating term. I want to know what you mean by that. And so she told me and she launched into it and I just continued to ask her questions.

[18:31] I just kept saying, but do you believe? But what about? And I quoted the scripture to her and I just continued. And praise the Lord at the end of that. I do actually think that she's in the faith. I think she properly believes that her justification is found in Christ alone.

[18:44] But in the midst of that, her husband sat with us and he listened to everything that we had to say. At the end of this, he thanked me for the conversation that we had. I've got all kinds of plans for things to give them and literature to pile up on them.

[18:58] But it was just simple, pointed questions. Just ask questions. You see Philip do that here. And then in verse 40, after he's snatched away from this place, he finds himself in Azotus, he continues to preach the gospel.

[19:13] He goes to all the towns the way Luke records it, which I love that phrasing until he came to Caesarea. So we have the Spirit, we have a servant, and we have the Scripture.

[19:28] And we have the Scripture. And recall that the eunuch is returning from Jerusalem. He's traveled this great distance to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. He's returning. He's reading the prophet Isaiah.

[19:39] He's reading it out loud, which was customary to do so. And he reads from Isaiah 53. It's verse 7 and 8. Like a sheep who was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shears, is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

[19:53] In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And what does Philip do?

[20:04] Verse 35. He opens his mouth. He doesn't launch into a philosophical debate with him. He begins with this Scripture, and he tells him the good news about Jesus.

[20:18] Beloved, our preaching of the Gospel, the means that God uses, right, is the good news of Jesus Christ found in the Scripture. That doesn't mean you have to quote it exactly, although I would encourage you to do so.

[20:32] But you need to speak the Bible to people, the Word of God to people. Ephesians 6.17, Paul encourages us to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

[20:46] This is the tool that the Spirit of God wields to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. The way in which God displays His gracious, saving work is using the Scripture.

[21:01] Recall, beloved, when Paul says in Romans 1.16, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Why? For the same reason, we should not be ashamed of the Gospel. Speak the truth of God to God's people from the Scripture, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

[21:18] The Jew first, and also the Greek, and the Ethiopian, and those of us from high latitudes of this planet. It's the Gospel message that God uses to save people.

[21:33] So we see these means of God saving grace. The Spirit, a servant, and the Scripture. Secondly, let's take a closer look at the recipient of God's saving grace.

[21:45] Let's take a closer look at the eunuch. There's some distinguishing things about him. First, that he's African. A wonderful thing.

[21:57] The first, to our knowledge, the first African convert. I would love to know, and there may be some sources out there that I have not had time to look at, but what happened as a result of this man taking the Gospel back to Ethiopia.

[22:13] The Gospel shatters all divides, real or imagined. It tears down dividing walls of ethnicity, culture, gender, and skin color.

[22:25] Praise God for that. He was an African. He was a seeker. Right? Remember, first, he's reading the Scripture. He's got a copy of the Scripture. He's obtained. He's reading the Scripture.

[22:36] Secondly, he's traveled this great distance. It's more than a thousand miles that he's journeyed. It'd be a week plus at least for this man to have traveled to Jerusalem for the worship of God.

[22:47] He's seeking God. Third, he's a eunuch. Do we all know what a eunuch is? I really don't want to tell you what a eunuch is.

[22:58] I'm going to tell you. A eunuch is a man whose male genitalia are removed either due to an accident, something happens and needs to be removed, or intentionally in order to serve in the role of a eunuch.

[23:15] This was most often done so that these men could serve in close relation to a queen because he was no threat to the throne. He wasn't going to bed the queen.

[23:27] So here we see this eunuch serves the queen in that very way that we see is called Candace. So it's an interesting thing about this man that's given to us.

[23:37] On first reading, it seems more significant to me that he's Ethiopian. That detail sticks out to me and jumps out at me, but Luke really goes after the fact that he's a eunuch.

[23:48] I mean, I feel like I could have done without the detail altogether, that it's not really that important to me. So why does Luke repeatedly simply call him a eunuch? He could have called him the Ethiopian or Candace's treasurer or many other defining factors about this man.

[24:06] But he simply calls him the eunuch. Notice verse 27, verse 34, verse 36, verse 38, and verse 39. He repeats that phrase. But I would encourage you when you're studying the Bible, which I hope you do on your own, and you see things like that, to pause and question it.

[24:23] Why? Why does Luke use that title for this man and use it so many times? He wants the reader to notice this man is a eunuch. We've got it, right?

[24:34] We've seen it. He's a eunuch. This man from Ethiopia serving this high position, he's a seeker, he's traveled all the way to Jerusalem, he's a student of the Bible, and he would have known and he would have experienced being in Jerusalem.

[24:52] He would have been denied access to temple worship. Deuteronomy 23, 1. You ready for some more uncomfortable language? No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

[25:08] Not only is he not ethnically Jewish, he's an Ethiopian, but he's an outcast from temple worship by God's own design.

[25:20] Deuteronomy 23, 1. So Luke's telling us he's a eunuch, he's a eunuch, he's a eunuch, right? And if we're familiar with this reality, Deuteronomy 23, 1, it's significant that he's reading in the book of Isaiah.

[25:33] In fact, he might have been reading in the book of Isaiah, right? He quotes from Isaiah 53, it's this last of four songs of the suffering servant. Those of us who are in Christ are very aware of who these are talking about.

[25:46] He's not. Is he talking about, is the prophet talking about himself? Prophets were hated. Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else? And so, he was likely familiar just a couple of chapters later and I want you to turn there with me to Isaiah 56.

[26:11] So try to place yourself in his shoes, at least in his feelings. He's not ethically Jewish.

[26:24] He's an Ethiopian. He's a eunuch. He's been forbidden from temple worship. And he picks up a copy of Isaiah and he reads chapter 56, beginning in verse 3.

[26:38] 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.

[26:52] For thus says the Lord, To the eunuchs 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.

[27:09] I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And so he finds in Isaiah 56 this beautiful promise and as he backs up and he's reading Isaiah 53 and trying to understand how these things come to pass, he reads a song of the suffering servant.

[27:30] And so we ask the question, Who is the suffering servant? Is it the prophet or is it someone else? And Philip says to him, It is Jesus, the Christ. Isn't that incredible?

[27:42] Wonderful to know the broader context of the Scripture itself. This recipient of God's saving grace.

[27:53] And for those of us who are in Christ, we just should be astounded by this. We should just have our hearts warmed by the great deal of love that God pours out for people of all kinds.

[28:06] The outcasts. He brings them in. Many of us have felt that and rejoice in the fact that we've been brought in. If anyone in this room is not in Christ, an Ethiopian eunuch was saved by God.

[28:22] You are not beyond His mercy. So the means of God's saving grace. Secondly, the recipient of God's saving grace. And third, and lastly, the signs of God's saving grace or the evidences of God's saving grace.

[28:41] And there's three found in our text. Number one, there is a response to the gospel, to the good news preached. There's a response. response. And we see that.

[28:52] We get a hint of that in the fact that the eunuch wants to be baptized. Philip has gone on to explain to him what ought to now happen because he's placed faith in Jesus Christ.

[29:05] Now, just quickly, group participation. How many of your translations have a verse 37? And you noticed when I read it that I jumped over. Anybody? Anybody?

[29:16] Man, we have great translations. Good for you. Oh, we got one. Sometimes it'll be in a parenthesis with an explanation, a little parenthetical or bracketed. Verse 37 will likely say something like this.

[29:30] And Philip said, this is a response to verse 36, See, here is 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 said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

[29:46] And then verse 38. And he commands the chariot to stop. Now, the reason that it's not in, notice those little numbers as you're reading down through there, that it's not in many of your translations but it is in some or it is in there with some brackets and an explanation, is because the earliest and the most reliable transcripts do not include verse 37.

[30:07] Some later copy of copy. And translators are very faithful to the scripture. They're very careful about what they do and don't include. And I would argue that it should be omitted because those earliest and most reliable transcripts do not have that verse in there.

[30:23] But, all the same, all the same, he must have made some profession of faith. Baptism is not salvific.

[30:34] It's a symbol. It's a picture. We're meant to see it as that. Something to rejoice in. It's a beautiful thing to do but it's not salvific. Simply being dunked underwater or sprinkled or anything, any nature of baptism is not salvific.

[30:52] Romans 10, 9 and 10. Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

[31:03] For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So, a proper sign of God's saving grace is a response.

[31:18] A response proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, believing in his person and his work. A second sign of God's saving grace is obedience to the gospel.

[31:32] Response to the gospel. Obedience to the gospel. So, what does he do? He sees water. Again, I would argue by the Spirit's great orchestration, he sees water and he commands the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water.

[31:49] Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and then he came up out of the water. So, there's obedience to the gospel and we see that on Philip's part as well. Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

[31:59] And Jesus came and said to them, people know this as the Great Commission, all authority on heaven and earth is given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Here's Philip, part of that process, the Spirit of God using him, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[32:15] Teachings to observe all that I've commanded you and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Philip is obedient to the gospel. This man professes faith in Christ, Philip says, you need to get baptized.

[32:29] The man says, there's water and they do it. There's obedience on the eunuch's part. Matthew 3, 13 through 15.

[32:42] Jesus, the very beginning of his ministry, comes from Galilee to the Jordan to John. The John we know is John the Baptist. There was not a Baptist denomination in that day. Some will call him John the Baptizer.

[32:55] I appreciate that. He comes to Jordan to John to be baptized by him. Jesus, right? Righteous, perfect. He comes to John to be baptized by him. This was a baptism of repentance, right?

[33:07] It was meant to be a picture of that. 14, Matthew 3. John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me?

[33:18] But Jesus answered him. So this is Jesus in the Jewish faith, a follower of God, has not sinned. He's not become regenerate at this point.

[33:30] Right? But Jesus says, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And the text says, then John consented.

[33:42] Right? Jesus, our Lord, set for us an example in believer's baptism. Right? Professing faith in Jesus Christ and then being baptized as a picture of what has happened.

[33:55] Right? That we've been laid to death, our old self, and that we've risen to have life in Him. So there's obedience on Philip's part, on the eunuch's part.

[34:07] And then they were obedient to the method. They were obedient to the method. Now hear this. They would have had water with them. They were traveling the desert road.

[34:19] And they could have maintained their momentum and Philip could have sprinkled the eunuch. Right?

[34:29] That could have happened. Right? Lean your head back here. Splash a little water on your head. But they stopped. They saw water and they stopped. And the text says that they went down into the water and then they came up out of the water.

[34:45] water. The Greek word to baptize, baptizo, means to plunge or immerse. Some Greek scholars who aren't Baptists, I want to add.

[35:00] Greek scholars, not Baptists, of different traditions that don't do this this way, have rendered the word to dunk repeatedly or drown.

[35:12] My addition to that argument, and I'm not upset about it, it doesn't matter, I'm just telling you why we go through all the trouble of filling this giant cattle trough with so much water and cleaning up afterwards.

[35:34] It's meant to be a picture of what's happened. We've been buried with Christ in his death and we've been raised to walk in newness of life. It pictures that more clearly.

[35:47] Tongue in cheek, I've joked with you that when we begin to lay people on the ground when they die and splash dirt on their face, and that's our method, maybe we'll go with that route. But until then, the picture is so much clearer and that's what people are professing when they're baptized.

[36:04] I have placed believing faith in Jesus Christ. I've been buried with him in his death, I've been raised with him, I've been set free from sin and guilt and all that accompanies it. I've been reconciled to God in Christ.

[36:17] So we see response to the gospel, obedience to the gospel, and finally we see rejoicing in the gospel. The last part of verse 39, Philip's taken away and the eunuch saw him no more, which is just such an interesting factual thing that Luke records.

[36:34] He's not astounded, he just doesn't see him anymore, and he went on his way rejoicing. He goes on his way rejoicing. Beloved, those who place believing faith in Christ will rejoice for that renewal in their lives.

[36:49] Baptism was an outer symbol of an inner reality, and you can already see in the life of this man who's reading from Isaiah, and he's troubled by the text, he gets an answer to it, he responds in faith, he's baptized, and now he rejoices.

[37:04] Romans 6, 3 and 4. Paul says, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

[37:17] We were buried, therefore, 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.

[37:29] Let's pray together.