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Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8 Introduction • Who Was

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Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8 Introduction • Who Was Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8 Introduction • Who was the preacher we learned about last week? Philip • What did he do? Preached to Samaria and saw many saved. • This week, we’re going to take up where we left off with Philip. After a church was established in Samaria, the Holy Spirit told Philip to go out into the desert. • Philip had just finished converting many, many people to Christ. Why would he go into the desert now? The Holy Spirit told him to. The Ethiopian Eunuch • Well, guess how who was out in the desert at just that time. There was a man from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a country in Africa. • This man was a very important person in Ethiopia. He kept all the money for the queen of Ethiopia. The Bible says that he had “great authority.” He was really powerful. • But this Ethiopian man had come to Jerusalem to worship God. Somehow he had heard of the true God of Israel that is in the Bible and he wanted to come to where the apostles were to worship this God. • But this Ethiopian man still didn’t really know who God was. He didn’t understand. He wanted to. He had come all the way from Ethiopia in a chariot to find out who this God was and to worship Him. But he still didn’t completely understand. • Apparently, this man really wanted to know, though, because he was reading out of the Bible while he sat on that chariot going through the desert. He was reading the book of Isaiah. • That’s when Philip who had come into the desert saw his chariot and ran up to him. Why? Because the Holy Spirit told him to. As A Lamb to the Slaughter • When Philip came up to this Ethiopian man and saw what he was reading, he asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” • Did the Ethiopian man understand? No. He said, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me.” • Would you be reading a book that you didn’t understand? That’s weird, right? You would think he would just give up, right? But he didn’t. He was reading it. • Well, the Ethiopian man wanted to understand the passage of Isaiah so bad that he had Philip come right on up into his chariot and explain it to him. • Well, this was what the Ethiopian man was reading: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” • Do any of you understand that? That’s a hard part of the Bible to understand. And the Ethiopian man didn’t understand it either. So he asked Philip, “Who are these verses talking about?” • And do you know what Philip said? Philip started right there at that passage in Isaiah, and he started talking about what a lamb meant to an Israelite in the Old Testament. • Philip explained how lambs would be killed on an altar to cover the sins of anyone who had done wrong. God only accepts blood to forgive sins. Without blood, God won’t forgive sins. • Then he said that these lambs only covered sin for a little time. If you sinned again, you had to offer another lamb to cover your sins again. But then there was a man who when he came was called the lamb of God because he had come to give His blood to cover sins. • This lamb willing gave Himself up so that his blood could cover everyone’s sins. And he was the last sacrifice. No lambs ever had to be sacrificed after him, because his blood was enough to cover all sins of everyone for all time. And the man who came to give his blood to take away sins was JESUS! Baptism • And suddenly, that Ethiopian man understood what that passage from Isaiah was saying, and he understood how his sins could be taken away—by trusting in Jesus. • He had been searching and searching in things he didn’t understand and finally, he got it. • Well, in a little bit, the chariot passed a little pool of water—maybe a lake or pond or something. And the Ethiopian man asked, “Can I be baptized? • And Philip said, “If you have believed in Jesus with all your heart, you can be baptized.” And the Ethiopian man said that he believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So Philip took him down to the water and baptized him. • Did he get to go to Heaven because he got baptized? No. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can take away our sins and make it possible for us to go to Heaven. What does baptism do then? It is a picture, an illustration of what Jesus did for us. • Well, after Philip baptized the Ethiopian man, the Holy Spirit whisked him away. He disappeared. But the Ethiopian man didn’t care. He was so happy to be saved and baptized. He just went back to Ethiopia rejoicing. • And you know what I think? I think he told a lot of people about Jesus Christ, and he became a missionary himself. Application • Now in this story, the Ethiopian man had a Bible. He had God’s Word, but he couldn’t really understand it. Is that a good reason for him not to read it? No. • How many of you, when you read the Bible or hear it preached don’t really understand it? Me too. • Does that mean that the Bible isn’t important for you? Not at all. See God says that the Bible is the only way to know about Him. God will show Himself to us only through the Bible. • The Ethiopian man really wanted to know God and know about Him, but he didn’t know how to. He didn’t understand. Maybe you’re like that, and you want to know about God, but you just don’t understand. What is the thing to do? • Read the Bible! That’s what the Ethiopian man did. See God has promised that if you read the Bible, he will help you to understand. Did you know that? God will give you the wisdom to understand. • Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” • Maybe you don’t understand now, but if you keep looking into the Bible, maybe God will send someone like Philip to explain to you what the Bible says. Or maybe God will use something else to help you to understand the Bible. • But if you really want to know God, read the Bible. Even though it seems like you’ll never be able to understand, God says that He will help you to understand. • God sent Philip—who could have preaching to thousands of people and been establishing huge churches—all the way from Samaria into the desert to help one single man understand some Bible verses. If the Holy Spirit would do that for the Ethiopian man, I’m sure He would do something just as special for you. If you seek Him in His Word. .
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