First Great Commission Gentile

Good morning. I want to thank you all again from Jefferson Park, my family, for inviting me back to come preach this morning and to just be able to be in your midst. I also just want to thank you all again for Your generosity is sending me out to Africa to be able to fellowship with the believers out there. Truly a life changing experience that I'll cherish forever. And I just want to thank you all again for that. If you have your Bibles, if you want to turn to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter eight. The passage that we're going to be reading today is from verses 26 to 40. So we're going to read that together. Acts chapter eight, 26 to 40. It says. 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 Candacy, 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 this 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." Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I come before you in the name of your Son, the one whom by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And Lord, we are included in that category. We were created for you to glorify your name, to worship you, to adore you, to feed upon you, to live for Christ. And Lord, I pray that you would just use this hour to draw us all closer to you this morning. Those who already know you, Lord, I pray that you would encourage us on to greater faithfulness and holiness and a closer walk with you. And to those who are here today who do not know you, Lord, I pray that you would just speak powerfully into their hearts this morning, that your word would go forth and accomplish that for which you sent it. As we just study and read this story about your first workings in this Thing we call the Great Commission as your gospel went out to all the earth So Lord, I pray that you would help me now Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to you in Jesus name you pray. Amen So when I was on the plane traveling to Zambia, I got a chance to watch one of the movies on that long flight, you know, the in-flight entertainment system they have where they have the screens and the seat in front of you on the back of them and long list of movies, games and all that. Well, there was a movie on there called In the Hands of the Gods. And I thought, well, that's a comforting thought when you're hovering thousands of miles over the surface of the planet for 24 hours straight. So I watched it, and it had nothing to do with what I thought in my mind, but it was a good movie nonetheless. And it was a movie about these five young boys, all about 17 to 22 years of age, living in London, and it just tracked their journey from England all the way down to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they were going to meet their long-held hero, Diego Maradona. If any of you are soccer fans, you know who that is. If you're not, Diego Maradona is considered by many people to be one of the greatest soccer players that ever lived, sort of like the Michael Jordan of soccer, except down in places like South America and in Argentina, it's racketed up to a whole different level. I mean, he's treated like a god down there, and many people, even outside of South America, hold him to the same state. And so one of the reasons why he's so popular, he was so good, is that not only was he an excellent player, but he sort of invented his own craft of juggling and trickery with moves and just, it was called freestyling. And he invented his whole craft and thousands, millions of people modeled their game after him, including these five young boys. They had grown up their whole lives practicing this freestyling stuff with the soccer ball, practicing tricks, and they became just excellent at their craft. And I mean, it was truly everything to them, their entire lives. It was their outlet. Like when one of them lost his best friend, he saw his friend get hit by a car and was killed instantly. That was all that he had in the world. And when he lost him, his outlet was just zoning out with his freestyling, looking to Diego Maradona as his great inspiration. Another guy was constantly in and out of jail, and growing up in and out of jail, his mother kicked him out of his home, never had a father figure, and he had always just looked at Diego Maradona, a guy who he never met, as sort of his father figure, believing that if ever he got a chance to see Diego, it would change his whole life. So finally, these five boys decided to gather their funds, whatever they can, to take a trip down to Buenos Aires. They had just enough money to fly over to New York City from London, and from there, and to rent a car and from there they were going to travel from city to city just raising whatever money they could by performing their tricks in streets and bars and all this stuff until they finally had enough money to pay for a plane ticket down to Buenos Aires to meet Diego Maradona. And so it's just their story of all the things that they struggled and endured and all along they kept just increasing their anticipation of it'll all be worth it when we finally meet Diego. Long story short, only three of them make it there due to some betraying of friends, backstabbing and all that. They finally make it down to Buenos Aires. They're telling everybody their story. Their news is spreading throughout the town. The TV shows eventually get a hold of them. They bring them on to their show. They get to broadcast to the whole nation their story in hopes that Diego will see it and invite them in. They find out that Diego is about to leave the country, and they're just broken. They start crying and weeping. I mean, it's just become everything to them for this to happen. But it turns out one of the people in the TV studio knows Diego, gets a hold of him. He agrees to see them before he goes to the airport. So the people from the TV show bring the children over to Diego's house right as he's about to leave. They're waiting outside of his house for him to show up. Finally, Diego walks outside. And literally, you can just see that they've been waiting for this. They've been hoping that this would be the best experience of their life. And they have a five-minute encounter with Diego in which he signs some autographs, thanks them for being fans, then gets off in his limo and heads off to the airport. So all of this travel, all of this buildup, all of this expectation, they think that it's going to change their lives. And you can tell, they're just sorely disappointed. They thought that it was going to be so much more. And the reason, I mean, they were expecting this life-changing event by meeting this man, Diego Maradona. And as we know, you can't get that apart from knowing God, apart from your experience with God. He's the only one that truly changes lives and changes the trajectory of our lives. And not only that, but they had let this anticipation build up to such a level that nothing would have been able to reach their expectations. There's nobody who can build up expectation in a story so high and still be able to surpass all of all of our expectation, anticipation like God can. You think of the Messiah and just the fact that he was promised to come ever since Genesis 3, 15, the very beginning of the Bible. And then for thousands of years throughout the Old Testament, the prophets are speaking about this one who is to come. There's all these sort of foreshadowings and typological picturings of this one. I mean, it just builds on and on and on. The Old Testament comes to a close. God doesn't speak to anyone for 400 years. And all of a sudden, then John the Baptist shows up and everyone's just flocking to him, hoping that finally the Messiah has come. And turns out to be a disappointment. John says, no, I'm not the one. But he says, among you stands one whose sandals I'm unworthy to untie. Jesus had finally arrived, the Deliverer had finally come. And so the question is, did he live up to all the expectations, all the things that they were looking forward to in him? I'll let him answer with his own words. He said, Go and tell what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk Lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended at me." Jesus Christ came obeying perfectly every iota of the law. He came fulfilling some 400, over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament perfectly. He's crucified outside of a garbage dump naked under the wrath of his father at one of the most publicly traveled crossroads of that time for God to just clearly make the statement for everyone that this is my son, whom I have given for you. Look on him, look to him and be saved all the ends of the earth. When Jesus came and died and resurrected and was ascended into heaven, I would say that he definitely lived up to all the expectations and all the hype that was expected of him. But in particular, what I want us to see just as we go into the passage that we're going to look at today, is that all throughout the Old Testament when it was being promised that this Messiah was going to come, at the same time that was always being paired with the fact that this Messiah who was going to come was going to do something so marvelous that it was going to spread among all the nations. So every time you see, especially in the book of Isaiah, when you read of this one who was to come, it's also paired with that, that he is going to give a message to all the nations. So, for instance, in Isaiah 9, the passage that you all might be familiar with it, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. It says in the beginning of that passage in verses 1 and 2, in the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, that's the non-Jewish, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of darkness, on them light has shined. Again in Isaiah 42 verse 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. And one more, Isaiah 49 verse six, he says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob or Israel and to bring back the preserve of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. So God has been planning this global salvation all along. And it's the reason why, after Jesus completed his work on the cross, he gives what we all know as the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28, before he ascends into heaven. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has now been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. And so the passage that we're going to look at today is the beginning of this movement among the Gentiles, starting with this Ethiopian convert, as the gospel begins to go into all the world. And as God did when he crucified his son in such an amazing and profound way, speaking very loudly to the world, I believe as we look at this passage, we're going to see that God has a very powerful message and statement that he wants to make as this commission goes forth. And so really quickly, just background as to where we are in the book of Acts. In chapter one, Acts chapter one, Jesus ascends into heaven. Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost. Some 3,000 believers are converted out of Israel. It produces such problems or such amount of responsibility that in Acts chapter 6, the apostles have to appoint men to take care of all of these responsibilities. They appoint seven men. And so in Acts chapter 7, one of those men is Stephen, and he goes first to the Jews, to God's people, to tell them about this Messiah, Jesus Christ, being the fulfillment of that, and that they ought to hear him. He is stoned. They reject Stephen's message. And so they continue to move on, to move outside of Israel. In the beginning of Acts chapter 8, Philip first goes to the Samaritans, those who were half-Jewish and half-Gentile. There's some promise there, some people are converted, and we still see that there's some rejection, truly, of what the Messiah came to do. There was a man there who really just wanted power, that's the only reason why he wanted to be a follower of Christ. But now as we look at Acts 26, we see that the Lord is going to now begin taking this message of the gospel to the nations. And so we read 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. First thing that we notice is that an angel shows up out of nowhere. Prior to this, God hadn't directly revealed himself and sent people to the Jews or sent people to the Samaritans. But now when it comes to the Gentiles, God shows up and it's as if he's saying, all right, now I'm going to take control of this and direct exactly what I want to happen here amongst the Gentiles. And as you'll see throughout the passage, just like in this first verse, God is behind everything. He's behind all of the providences and circumstances and how they work out. He is behind the conversion and the preparation of people's hearts to hear the gospel. He's behind the sending of his prophets and just his people to go bring the message to those who have not yet heard it. He's behind it all. And that's going to be very important for us to just understand that God is making a statement about himself when he acts in this way. Second, you might notice if you're familiar with the Bible, this first verse, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south. ought to sound very familiar, and actually the language is very much parallel to what we saw in Genesis chapter 12. When God had first reached down to Abraham, to this man who was a pagan, living in the land of Ur, in the outskirts of Babylon, just a moon worshipper, this pagan man, it just says, out of nowhere, in Genesis chapter 12, It says, Now the Lord said to Abraham, God shows up out of nowhere. Now the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you in him who dishonors you. I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then verse four says, so Abraham went as the Lord had told him. So God shows up. He calls Abraham to a land that he does not yet know. He said that he's doing it in the purpose of he's about to do a movement among the nations to bless all the families of the earth through him, through his sending of Abraham. And then it just says, naturally, Abraham got up and went, just as God told him to. And that's exactly the parallel that we see in the beginning of this passage. Angel of the Lord shows up, sends Philip to a land that he does not know. And we know now in hindsight that it's to begin this work among the nations. And naturally, because it's just being simply obedient to the Lord, Philip gets up and goes. So what we see here is that right away, the Lord is just alluding back to what he had very promised in the very beginning of Genesis chapter 12. A second thing that is not as clear and evident in the text, but if you study a little bit of history, you'll know there's another thing going on here. God sends Philip specifically to a road that travels from Jerusalem down to Gaza. There would have been no question in Philip's mind what road he was talking about. There was a main highway that traveled from Jerusalem to Gaza that connected the two cities. It stopped and went right in between a few cities along the way. It was a highly trafficked road. and everyone would have known what this main highway was. And what's interesting is just the cities that it passed through on the way to Gaza. So the road started at Jerusalem, it went down, the next city that it ran through was Bethlehem, the next city that it ran through was Hebron, the next city that it ran through was Gaza, where Philip is going, and then finally it extended on into Egypt. And as we just Remember what's happened in these cities. I think a picture emerges from that. You have Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, buried, ascended into heaven. Then the next row down is Bethlehem, where Jesus was born earlier than that, prior to that. The next city is Hebron, where in the Old Testament the King David, the great king, was first anointed as king. Skipping over Gaza for a second, we know that as it went on into Egypt, Egypt was the place where Moses had brought the people out of slavery, out of captivity. And finally, as we come to Gaza, what significant events in the history of Israel happened in between the time of the exodus of Moses and in the time of the establishment of the monarchy through David? It was the conquest of Canaan. As God sent his people into the land to conquer the land, to set up his kingdom, to set his people up as a light among all the nations, we'll see that Gaza was an extremely important city in this. So in the conquest of Canaan, as they went through, it says in Joshua chapter 10, verses 40 through 41, it says, Joshua struck the whole land. the hill, country, and the Negev, and the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded. And Joshua struck them from Kadesh Barnea, as far as Gaza. In other words, what it's saying is that he was able to do this all the way up until the point of Gaza. He couldn't enter the city of Gaza because it was so heavily fortified. So the men were just considered to be giants there. The walls were thick, the defenses were strong, and they could not get into Gaza. They were able to accomplish God's task all the way up until the borders of Gaza. It says, Joshua 11, 22, that after their conquest, that there were none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel except in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. Gaza was the most heavily fortified amongst these cities. And just remember those three cities, Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. It'll come up later. And interestingly enough, by the time that where we're at in Acts is happening in history, the walls of Gaza have been now broken down. Gaza is a deserted city. There's nothing left there but just the rubbles of the walls that used to be there. And God is now saying, Philip, go back into Gaza. And where this movement is going to start, is going to be in the very place where they did not previously allow the presence of God to enter and to penetrate. It's as if God is saying, even in the darkest, most remote places where the wickedness and rebellion and hostility of the people's hearts has been mounted up against me, I am now breaking down the walls, going back into that very place, into those places, and the gospel will spread. from there. God has not forgotten Gaza after some 1,500 years. He still has remembered what has taken place there, and he will go back and rescue his people, the Gentiles, from the places in which they have walled themselves off from God. And he's speaking to us now through that. So it says that Philip arose and went. And I mean, Philip doesn't know any of the stuff that we're talking about, of what God is going to do with the eunuch in Gaza. Philip doesn't see any of that. All that Philip knows is that God has called him to go to be obedient, and Philip is just naturally listening to that and is following. It is such a powerful word, now that in hindsight that we can look back at this, What if the people of God were just as obedient as Philip was? If we could just hear God's commands and just go where he has called us to go, not knowing what he is going to do, but just trusting in the one who's sending us, who has called us to serve in the different capacities that he's called you to serve in your life. If we could just trust him in the same way, what might he be pleased to do through us? So Philip goes and says in verse twenty seven, he arose and went and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. As we look at this man and we just study who he is, this story just just catapults to a whole different level. First of all, he's a eunuch. Eunuchs were men who had been emasculated or had their male parts crushed. In a lot of these pagan societies, it was a privileged position. It was something that was highly esteemed. These were the men that if they were going to serve in the royal court of the queen in the palace, and be amongst the royal women just for safety purposes. They were emasculated so that they could serve in that capacity. In pagan societies, this was heavily esteemed all across the map. But in Jewish society, it was something that was despised. If you were a eunuch, you were considered to be just amongst the filthiest, lowest, most vile people that could never, ever have access to the things of God. And so we see in Leviticus 21, 16 through 20, this is the company of the people that these units were classified under. It says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron saying, none of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near. A man, blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face, or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight, or an itching disease, or scabs, or one who is a eunuch. They were considered to be just filthy, could not approach the holy things of God. And yet God is deciding to move first with this great commission through this eunuch. Second thing, it says that he was of the court of the Candacy. Who were they? The Candacy was not, it wasn't a proper name of a woman. It was actually, it was a royal name that was passed down from queen to queen, sort of in the same way that you use Caesar or Czar or Pharaoh. Each queen was considered the Candacy of the time. And for women to be ruling in this time period, you might think is extremely awkward to be having such a long line of queen rulers. It would have been about 300 years that they had been ruling at this point. But if we understand their culture, then it'll make a whole lot of sense. And this picture will open up to us. Here's why the queens were ruling. They had a king. Okay. But the king was considered to be the son of Amun, the sun god. He was the son of the divine. Amun was the most high god. The king was considered to be his son. And because of that, he was considered to be too holy, too righteous, too pure to be intermingled in the common affairs of ordinary, everyday, regular people. So therefore they never saw him. He was cut off. He was sequestered. He was absolutely just shut out from the people. The people were shut out from him. He was too holy ever to come down to ordinary man. This is what the eunuch had grown up his entire life thinking, that, in his view, the Son of God is the one who is too holy to ever become intermingled with the affairs of common ordinary people. So keep that in mind, and finally, thirdly, he's in charge of all of the Candacees' treasury. This is an extremely lofty position. This was the empire that extended throughout pretty much all of Africa below Egypt. All of the commerce between Africa and Asia passed through this empire. They had their hands on a lot of money. For example, in 1832, there was an Italian doctor named Giuseppe Ferlini, and he was working down in this area in Ethiopia, just going through some of the old pyramids, some of the old burial tombs of these old queens that had lived during this time, and they had pretty much all been pillaged by this point. But there was one that he raised to the ground, and inside he discovered an amazing quantity of golden artifacts, armlets, necklaces, shield rings, signet rings. You can find these on Google if you were to look them up, just look up Frelini. These amazing, dazzling pieces of gold work and jewelry that were from this time, and they belong, they found out to the Candiceves, name was Amanishaketo. who would have been the grandmother of the candidacy that we read about in this passage. So all that to say this man, this eunuch, was sitting on just a sea of money. He had everything that you could have wanted and yet We see that his heart is still hungering for something. He has the world at his fingertips, and yet we know that he wasn't satisfied. God had been stirring up his heart to desire something greater. How do we know that? It says at the end of verse 28 that he had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot. That would have been a trip that would have been some 1,200 miles that this very distinguished, very proper, very rich man would have traveled at a very slow pace. Chariots were moving very slow in these days across the desert. but he's hungry, he's looking for something, and he sees something in this God of Israel, and he's willing to make the trip to go and follow Him. So all of that is in the background. And as Philip comes and shows up, it says in verse 28 that he was returning seat of the chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah, Philip shows up, this very common man. He sees this chariot, this chariot that would have been probably the most dazzling thing that he's ever seen. It belongs to a man who owns, who basically rules a large portion of the world. And what would have been What do you think would have been going through this common man's mind as he's seeing this? I immediately think of, in our modern context, it's like if a limo just pulls up and it's chromed out wheels, the driver is suited in a three-piece suit, very distinguished, very fine, and God is now calling me to go over there and to go witness to this man. I don't know about you, but I would have probably been saying, God, send me to one of those other people over there, one of those beggars sitting on the side of the road or something like that. Someone who I already feel like I'm more distinguished in, maybe in my sinful state, but I still feel more comfortable going to someone that obviously needs the gospel. Don't send me to the person who seems like he has it all together and everything is fine in his life. And yet, that's exactly what God is doing here. It says in verse 29, And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot. Great. But Philip doesn't respond in the way that you and I would. Again, we see his simplistic devotion and obedience to Christ. It says, So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. Philip is just constantly, we see this man, this servant of God. He is ready to serve God in whatever capacity and in whatever way that God might have called him. We see a brief glimpse as to what was the preparation that makes a man like this? What makes a man so willing and ready to obey his God and serve him in any capacity? In Acts chapter 4, verse 31, it says, When these disciples had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. They relied upon the Lord heavily. These were men of prayer. They were saturated in the Bible. They were constantly in the word of God, praying to their God, tearing along with the God, with their God. And therefore, whenever it came time for God to send them out, they were ready to do whatever it might cost. Stephen went and got himself stoned. He was ready to have himself stoned amongst the people of God because he was ready to declare this message. Philip is ready to run up into one of the most distinguished and powerful men of his day and declare the word of God to him. It is a model for those of us who are believers here. This is what God is saying. This is what this should look like, this plan. As we bring this gospel among the nations, this is what the people of God ought to look like. And so their encounter goes down. It says in verses 30 and 31, 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. So, again, this this eunuch is a man who, if he's familiar at all by now with the Jewish scriptures, know that as a eunuch, he is completely separated from the holy things of God. He is too unholy in himself to ever approach the holy things of God. And on the other side, his entire background for his whole life, he has viewed the Son of God as the one who is too holy to enter into the affairs of common man, that you never see. He is cut off. You can't have access to him. And this is the construct that's working in his mind. This is how God has set up. He wants to first declare the gospel in this Great Commission movement to this man for a reason. And what is he reading? It says in verse 32, 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 shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe this generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." What passage is he reading? Isaiah 53 is a passage that we read earlier this morning, and I'd invite you to just turn back there again for a second. I just want us to read again just the first 10 verses at least of this chapter and read it, even if you're very familiar with it, read it through the eyes of this eunuch and how he would have seen it. Isaiah 53, verse 1. It says, Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. And so just imagine what's taking place in the mind of this eunuch as he's reading this passage and going over it with Philip. He says in verse 34, back in our regular passage, it says, And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this? about himself or about someone else? Is he just talking about a regular servant? Is he talking about just the people of God? Who is he talking about? And so you can see how God has just set up this picture, this beautiful picture for as this gospel goes forth and how it has been presented and broken into this, the darkness of the mind of this eunuch. Verse 35 is just written so that you read it slow and it sort of just slowly develops and just let the picture build. When Eunuch asks this question, it says in verse 35, Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. He told him the good news about this son of God, the true son of God, who was sent from his lofty abode in heaven, came down to earth, suffered under the wrath of God in order to free prisoners of his world, common people, the most defiled, debased, just filthy people to wash them and make them clean and restore them to Himself. That's the truth about the Son of God. That's the true Son of God and what He came to do for us. And you can just imagine how this just completely blew the lid off the top of this eunuch, and everything that he thought just shattered around him. And you can see his urgency. It says right after that, it says in verse 36, 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. The eunuch immediately understood the implications of this gospel. For the Son of God to come down to save someone even as wretched and defiled by his own standards as me. He came down to die for me, to reconcile me to himself. And not only that, but he has sent this poor man, this man named Philip, some 60 miles to come find me and to come tell me that. That's the truth about this gospel. And you can see why it would have impacted him so powerfully. And yet, that is not the end of the story. God does not just want to tell a nice, beautiful story about His Son, as powerful as it may be, but it goes on. And we see in verse 39, it says, When they came 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, preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea." So now this imagery of there was this baptism, they baptize the eunuch. As soon as they come up out of the water, the spirit of God shows up. He immediately just supernaturally takes Philip away and brings him to a whole nother location. And what event does that sound very similar to? If you're familiar with the Gospels, it ought to sound similar to the baptism of Christ. We read in Mark chapter one, when Christ came to begin his ministry, when he was baptized, it says in Mark chapter one, verse 10, and when he came up out of the water, Immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And then what happened? Verse 12 says, the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and immediately he was thrown in to begin his ministry. So someone was baptized, Christ was baptized, the Spirit of God shows up and he wastes no time to drive Jesus into the beginning, the commencement of his ministry. ministry, the time is of the essence. The time was now for Jesus to start and God wastes no time. He immediately drives him into the wilderness. You see the same thing now in our passage that the job has been done. Philip has baptized the eunuch. The Spirit of God shows up and it says he immediately he finds himself at Azotus. The Spirit of God immediately brings him to a new place to continue his ministry. And this place, Azotus, is just a New Testament name for the city of Ashdod. Ashdod was one of the three cities that we mentioned before that during the conquest of Canaan, the Israelites could not enter. It was too heavily fortified, too well-defensed. The glory of God could not penetrate into that city. And it's as if God is saying now to Philip, I've done this in Gaza, now go to Ashdod and do it again. God is immediately going throughout this earth, one city at a time, and is reconquering the land for himself, that his glory might go forth and shine. Philip goes to Exodus and again we see that he's just walking through preaching the gospel to everyone that he can. We see this boldness still in Philip and he comes to the town of Caesarea and he says that he basically stops there in Caesarea. And it might appear that God is temporarily putting a halt to the Great Commission maybe for a time, just let it dwell in Caesarea maybe for a little while, but clearly we see that that's not the case. God sends Philip to Caesarea, he settles down, he's preaching in there, but it doesn't stop there. What's in the process of happening as Philip is settling down into Caesarea? You see that this whole entire text that we've been reading to really fits in between two bookends. At the beginning of chapter eight, we were introduced to a man named Saul who was preaching, or who was going around persecuting the people of God, Christians, throwing them in jail. He was an accomplice to murder. And then all of a sudden, it just diverts from the story of Saul to tell this story about Philip going out and converting the eunuch. And then immediately after it says that he came to Caesarea, chapter 9 begins, but Saul. It comes back to Saul as if God has been working this whole time at the same time working in the life of Saul. And what we know about Saul is that just in four verses later, God is going to show up to this man Saul, break into his life, convert him, change him and make him become one of the greatest, the greatest missionary outside of Christ that this world has ever seen. to go proclaim the gospel throughout all of Macedonia, all of Asia Minor, Southern Europe. And this thing that starts with the eunuch and just the conversion of Saul, we see that it starts to catapult outwards. God was not wasting any time once this commission began. This whole passage, we see that God has been behind everything. He's been preparing the eunuch. He's been sending out Philip. He's been working on Saul, on Paul. God is making a statement about himself, about what this age is to look like. As he starts the Great Commission, he's giving an example of what this ought to look like, what we as the people of God ought to have as a sense of urgency, a sense of just the global vision of God is bringing this gospel among all the nations right now. That's the age that we live in right now, between when Christ came at his first advent and died on the cross and ascended into heaven until the time when he comes again. This is what this age is to be about, the gospel going forth into all the nations, into the city, into this campus over here. It is what this age ought to be marked by. Jesus said in Matthew 24, 14, the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. It is the defining mark of this time. He also says in John 10, 16, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. There are others who belong to Christ who need to hear the gospel before any type of heaven on earth, the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, any of that takes place. The gospel needs to go forth. God has children to win, including in this city. So the application is for the believer, how much does your life and just how you structure the goals of your life and how you use your resources and your free time and even when you're working in your job, how much does your life reflect the same sense of urgency, the same passion to see God's gospel, the glory of Christ, the power of God go forth? How much does your life line up and match with what God clearly portrays this whole age is supposed to be about in this text? For the unbeliever, if you are here today and do not know Christ, It doesn't matter how far you might feel distance from him, how filthy, how unclean you may feel from him. God is trying to demonstrate through his passage that even the most vilest, most defiled person, I will send and I will bring to him. Somebody had the gospel declared to them, that declared it to someone else, that brought it to someone else, that brought it to someone else. All along the line, someone has brought it to me. Now it is going forth to you. God wants to tell you the same thing. That whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And if you cry out to him, he will come for you. And so finally it just has like clothes. I want us to think just for a moment just about the Ethiopian eunuch. It's said Philip disappears. He goes on ministering. The gospel goes forth. Philip disappears and the Ethiopian eunuch is left there rejoicing. He gets back in his chariot and he travels back down to Africa. It says that he went on his way rejoicing. What do you think was the first thing that he did when he got back in the chariot? I would assume that he was reading Isaiah the prophet on his way to before he met Philip. He's at Isaiah chapter 53 by the time Philip shows up. Philip explains to him what the chapter is all about. He's gloriously converted, becomes a radical believer for Christ. I would assume that when he got back into his car or into his chariot, didn't have cars at the time, that he probably went back and finished reading the book of Isaiah. And interestingly enough, it would have been impossible for him to miss what happened next in the book of Isaiah. So if you would turn to just Isaiah 56, just three chapters later, No doubt the eunuch would have ran into this passage. Isaiah chapter 56. The eunuch is on his way back to Africa and he reads starting in verse 3. 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 the Lord says. 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. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Imagine just how sweet that must have been to his soul. The psalmist writes, a day in your courts, Lord, is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." He says, just one day to be in the presence of the Lord, as we will be, those who have put their trust in Christ through all eternity, just one day there would be better than a thousand that you could spend elsewhere. Yet God says to this eunuch, I will establish a monument. You will be a monument in my presence. You will be there. You will dwell there forever. The psalmist also said that I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Even just to keep the door there, it's worth all else that the world could give me. And yet, God says through Isaiah, I'll give him a name that's better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." That is our great hope, the day when we are reconciled to God when he establishes the new heavens and the new earth, and there we shall ever be with the Lord. But for now, this is the mark of the age. We have a commissioning. We have a purpose. Let us go forth and be obedient to the calling to which God has given us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, apart from Your Spirit working, Lord, my words would fall just two feet in front of my face. With Your Spirit working, You can take them, Lord, and You can change lives. You can awaken us, Lord. You can give us life. You can convict us of sin. You can show us glory. Through the eyes of faith, we can behold Your Son in all of His glory. Lord, I pray that you would just allow your words to stay embedded in our hearts, that we would meditate on just what you are saying through this passage, Lord, how you deal with those who do not deserve to come into your presence, Lord, but that you have come into theirs, that you have died for them, you have shed the blood of your Son on the cross, that they might be healed, forgiven of all iniquity, Lord, we just pray that we would respond in the only way that befits such a truth. Lord, that we would just be obedient to you, that we would follow you, that we would love you, that we would give our lives to serving you, Lord, that we would have the same passion that you have showed towards us, toward our lost neighbors here in this city, Lord, that we would have a vision of just what you are doing among the nations and among the world so that one day, as Brian read earlier, there will be people from every nation and tribe and tongue and language all singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. We pray that you would just be with us, strengthen us, and prod us on to greater faithfulness. In Jesus' name, Amen.