"The Proper Response" (Acts 8:36-40)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2017 9:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  PT-1 “The Proper Response”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 8:36-40

            Message of the verses: “36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" 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."]] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.”

            We are looking at the last of the three main points from this last section of Scripture found in the Acts chapter eight which speaks of the salvation of the eunuch, and as we have learned it contrasts the eunuch’s salvation with the false claims of what happened to Simeon in the early part of chapter eight.  We will be looking at faith, confession and then rejoicing as we make our way through these verses. 

            John MacArthur writes “The Spirit’s preparation and Philip’s presentation combined to produce the proper response on the eunuch’s part.  That response was threefold: faith, confession, and rejoicing.”

FAITH

““36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?’”

            We don’t know the exact words that Philip spoke to the eunuch, but from the text that we have we know that he spoke of faith and baptism because of what the eunuch said in this verse.  I remember the first pastor that I sat under after I received Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord and he use to use this passage to talk about baptism.  The word baptism is a transliteration from the Greek: “baptizo” and the word means to dip or immerse, so it has nothing to do with sprinkling as we see in verse 39 that “they came up out of the water.”

            After hearing about his need to be baptized after he became a believer they came upon some water, a pool or stream in the desert that at the right time they came upon it in order for this man to publicly testify to his salvation, his saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We can see another example of the sovereign’s Spirit’s control of the events that are taking place.

 

CONFESSION

“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."]] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.”

            John MacArthur writes “The oldest and most reliable manuscripts do not contain verse 37, which should be omitted from the text.  Still, something like that confession must have occurred. Coming to the water, the eunuch ‘ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him.”

REJOICING

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.”

            When we read here that Philip was snatched away this is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened as seen in the Word of God.  “12  "It will come about when I leave you that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you where I do not know; so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth (1 Kings 18:12).”  “16  They said to him, "Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men, please let them go and search for your master; perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and cast him on some mountain or into some valley." And he said, "You shall not send’ (2 Kings 2:16).”  These two verses speak of Elijah.  Now we will look at Ezekiel “12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His place.’”  “14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong on me.”  “3 He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located (Ezekiel 2:12, 14; 8:3).”

            We have mentioned that the eunuch was certainly not the only one traveling as there was a caravan who was with him as an important man like this would not be traveling alone, especially in a remote area like they were in.  With this said we can conclude that by performing this wonderful miracle that the Holy Spirit did that He would have confirmed to this entire caravan that Philip was indeed the Spirit’s spokesman.

            Joy is the mark of true believers, and I have to say that joy and happiness are not necessarily the same for we read in Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  These highlighted words do not mean that Jesus was happy, but He was indeed joyful.  Jesus knew that after His suffering that many would come to believe in Him as their Savior and Lord, and He also knew that because of His suffering and death that He would have fulfilled the plan that the Father had for Him to do.  Remember when Jesus was a 12 year old boy in the temple He told his mother that He had to be about His Father’s business and then just before He died on the cross He stated “It is finished.”  That word in the Greek is the word teleo tel-eh’-o” and this word means to pay in full, and this word was stamped onto a letter given to a prisoner when he was released from prison as he had paid the dept.

            John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “Luke does not give us the subsequent history of the Ethiopian eunuch.  According the church Father Irenaeus, he became a missionary to the Ethiopians.  What is clear is that the Spirit’s preparation, coupled with Philip’s presentation, produced in him the faith that does save.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I trust that the Lord will in future times give to me the opportunity to tell others about Jesus Christ, and that I would be read to do so with the confidence that the Spirit of God has given me a divine appointment.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will work out some difficulties that are going on in my life at this time.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mount Hor” (Numbers 20:25-26).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who did Jacob marry before being allowed to marry Rachel?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/22/2017 10:15 AM