Up, Down, Up and Away

with Pastor Micheal Oxentenko

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think I've got it all covered. Let's pray. Dear
Father God, thank you today that we have the opportunity
to know Jesus through the Bible. Help us to live,
to love you, and to obey and to win people
to you. In Jesus' name. Amen, I'm having a fun

(00:22):
time on this series in the Book of Acts, are
you I plan to finish the Book of Acts? Is
that okay? Okay? Because it's really it's it's stories, which
are real stories of how lives were changed by the
Holy Spirit and how God's people came online to make
a difference in a generation. The title my message is up, Down,

(00:45):
Up and away. Just a hair down, Andrew, just a hair,
thank you. After the that's it. After the Ordeal of
Simon the Great, when the Apostles returned to Jerusalem, Philip journeyed.
This journey had just begun as a Christian evangelists. Now,
what are deacons supposed to do in the church? Help me?

(01:07):
What are some of the things we think of? They
collect offering? What else do they do? They'll open and
close the church? Now, if we go by the Bible,
you know what they're supposed to do to be evangelists
Deacons are servants who not only serve by administering the
church's needs. Deacons are servants who are called of God

(01:29):
to share the Christian faith. Bible believing, Bible teaching deacons.
After the murder of Stephen, the second of the Magnificent Seven,
Deacons had now become a mighty evangelist for Jesus. Phillip's
life was more engaging than just collecting church offering and
taking care of the poor. Philip's life journey illustrates that

(01:52):
there are times in life when we are called to
go up, then down, and up and away. That's his journey.
In our life with Jesus, it may look like we
are going down when we are really going up. We
have to have an eye of faith for the future.
At times, God sends angels into our lives. Have you
ever had an angel come into your life? Okay? God

(02:15):
sends angels into our lives to have us go up
when we feel like going down. Angels are messengers. In fact,
that's what the word angel means in the Greek angeloss
and the Hebrews Well means messenger. They can be supernatural
or human angels if God wills it. Do you realize

(02:36):
that God is very clear. Jesus was very clear that
John the Baptist was an angel, a human angel. If
they come from God into your life with truth, and
God is with you no matter how you feel about
the angel. Friends, we worship a going up kind of
God who has a loving eye for our good future,

(03:01):
who is not content to have us stay down in
life now and Amen is affirming that truth? Is that
worth affirming, then we should engage it. Amen to God's word.
There we have a going up kind of God who
has a loving eye for our future. And mind. You
may have a dim view of yourself and your future,

(03:23):
but God has a brilliant plan for you, so you
can go up in life. After praying for the Holy
Spirit and the laying on of hands, the apostles went home,
preaching the gospel to many Samaritan towns and villages on
the way to Jerusalem. They didn't waste their time. They
didn't say, you know, when we went there, we got
the job done, let's go home. They share their faith

(03:43):
all the way home. Peter and John treasured every minute
of their journey home so as to win as many
people to Christ as possible. Now, we should do exactly
the same thing as Peter and John. When we have
a chance we go on vacation. Do we go on
vacation to get away from the church, or do we
go on vacation to share Christ with others? Sister White

(04:04):
and James White, when they journeyed to their cabin in Colorado,
they would visit churches along the way, sharing Christ in
their vacation time. And so the Apostles modeled that early on,
don't lose those golden opportunities in your life to share
Jesus Christ. They may never come again for the person
that needs it, and they may never come again for you.

(04:25):
Turned to Acts eight, verse twenty five, and when they
had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they
returned to Jerusalem, preaching the Gospel in many villages of
the Samaritans. Never since Jesus met that woman at the
well did anything like this ever happen in Samaria. The Samaritans,

(04:46):
as the hated race of half breed Jews, were now
loved by the Apostles, and the people that were hated
were now embraced. Edwin Markham wrote a poem called Outwitted.
It goes like this. He drew a circle that shut
me out heretic rebel a thing to flout, but love
and I had the wit to win. We drew a

(05:07):
circle that took him in Acts eight twenty six. But
an angel Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward
the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem
to Gaza. This is a desert road. There's so much
packed in this verse. The angel's words were awkward. Here.
South is the direction in Hebrew going down. You go
down south, you go down to Shield, which is south

(05:29):
where the Dead Sea is. Jerusalem is the direction in
the Bible. No matter where you're at of going up,
they would always go up to Jerusalem. Be it north, southeast,
or west, you go up to Jerusalem. And so the
directions here are significant. Gauza is one of those places
in the Bible you go down to. It appears in
Genesis ten nineteen for the very first time in our Bible,

(05:53):
and the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in
the direction of Jerar as far as Gauza in the
direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zeboim as far as Lasha.
All the names here associated with Gaza are places to
be shunned in the Bible. They are shameful places. God
destroyed the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admin and Ziboam. How

(06:17):
did he do that? You remember what came down from heaven?
Fire came down from heaven and destroyed those places. The
name Jerar means strangers, foreigners, outcasts. Lasha was a border
city of the Canaanites, famous for its hot water springs
from deep cracks in the earth, and it had spiritualistic connotations.

(06:38):
The Canaanites were the cursed people. In fact, Lasha was
a border city of the Canaanites. The Canaanites were a
cursed people who offered their children on the altars of bail.
You know, it's amazing. We live in a time where
people would like to explain that away in our own culture.
Do we have our own version of bail worship in America?

(07:02):
We do. We offer our children for convenience. We sacrifice
children and destroy them in the millions so that those
children will not be a burden. I tell you, a
child is a blessing of God, and the Church is
to help mothers and children make it. The bell worshipers

(07:23):
didn't think that way, and people today who reason away
the death and destruction of little babies are akin to
the bell worshipers and the Canaanites of ancient times and
Psalms one hundred and six it says they sacrifice their
children to demons. So this was a bad place to be.
The Canaanites were the cursed people of God. They offer

(07:45):
the children on baiales, I mean on altars to bail,
and like many do today, they didn't think twice about it.
Gauza isn't far from all of us in our modern
evil world that we live in. We could be inhabitants
of a God, so to speak. In time, Gazza became
one of the five cities of the Philistines that oppressed

(08:06):
Israel until King David took out the Philistines. Gaza lay
on a very important trade route between Egypt and Syria,
and it was not exactly primetime real estate. Spiritually speaking,
That's why God sent Philip there. God didn't ignore this
city in trouble. God said, I need to send my evangelist,
my deacon to share the word of God there. He

(08:28):
didn't know the Bible as well as the Apostles. He
didn't have direct link with Jesus, but he had enough
to share and make a difference. South is down. But
his mission had purpose and meaning. So the Angel said
rise and go down. That means go up or get
up and then go down. And that's what he did,
and that's what we need to do in life. There

(08:49):
are many times in jesus life of ministry when he
healed people that Jesus said, I say to you, arise.
And maybe you came to church today and you're feeling
like you're down and you can't get up. You know
what the Lord would say to you. He would say
to you, I say to you a rise, A rise
and go down. When God sends a messenger into your

(09:12):
life and that angel says a rise, that's exactly what
you need to do. You need to get up so
God can use you for a good purpose. Don't stay
down in life. Don't let others put you down in life.
Arise and go down to a make a difference in
someone else's life who lives in an awful place, more
miserable than you can imagine. Luke is careful to record

(09:33):
that the road down to Gaza was a desert kind
of road. You ever gone to a desert, you ever
lived in a desert. And Diana took a bunch of
our kids to the Sinai Desert and they slept in
bedo intents as they went to Mount Sinai. We got
to do that again. The Lord doesn't call us to
go where we want to go with padded hotels, easy facilities,

(09:54):
good food, and lots of money. I knew a Christian
evangelist and pastors who worked near me when I was
in the Washington, DC area. His name was Jack Saquera.
And what Jack was famous for is taking his own
personal vacation time and going out to share Christ and
the Gospel in places nobody else would go. When certain

(10:15):
church leaders would go to the five star hotels, Jack
would go to the hotel without air conditioning to save money,
or to sleep in someone's home, or worse, so he
could share the word of God. And I learned a
lot observing this dear man of God as he shared Jesus,
the Lord friends, doesn't call us to go where we
want to go, where it's easy. He calls us to

(10:37):
go where we need to go. And it may be
a desert, hard kind of place. A desert road takes
the resources out of you. A desert road is hot
and weary in the way a desert road is frothed
with danger and unsuspected. Person's friend. Our God is a
god of adventure. Have you like adventure? Should I say
it adventure? How should I say that adventure? We need

(11:03):
to venture out into those desert roads of life, in
the grand adventure and the noble venture of saving souls.
For Jesus Christ, nothing lesse will go for God, Acts
eight twenty seven. And he rose and went and behold
an Ethiopian, a eunuch and minister of the Candace, Queen
of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had

(11:27):
come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning. Seated in
his chariot, he was writing. He was reading the prophet Isaiah.
It's amazing what Philip finds here. Next to the Samaritans,
the Ethiopians were weighed down on the list of people
despised by the Jews. I mean, if you were to
think of the losers in life in the Jewish mind,

(11:49):
the Samaritans were at the bottom of the beryl. When
Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, he was
showing that he was not a racist and he loved
people who are on the outside. To make matters worse,
this man was a eunuch, so he was there. He
was an Ethiopian. He was with the Samaritans. Neither of

(12:10):
these were positive for the Jewish racists of his time.
But he was also a eunuch, which means he had
no personal future except that which was attached to his queen.
Isaiah predicted today when such eunuchs would have a chance
for eternal life, a legacy of future among God's people
in Jerusalem. Look at Isaiah fifty six, and let's look
at three to seven with me. Let not the foreigner

(12:33):
who's joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will
surely separate me from his people. Does God love foreigners?
Does God love people outside our church? Does God want
those people to be in a knowledge of truth? Yes?
Or no? And let not the eunuchs say, behold on
my dry tree, a dry tree, because you can't have children.

(12:54):
For Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs, who keep
my sabbas, who choose the things that please me, and
hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house,
within my walls, a monument and a name better than
sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name,
which shall not be cut off. Now, how can you
have an everlasting name if you can't have children. You
have asked that question. What's the answer. You have to

(13:20):
have eternal life. If your name is never cut off
and you're a eunuch, that means you got to live forever.
God is promising eunuchs the gift of eternal life. Look
at verse six and the foreigners who join themselves of
the Lord to minister to him, to love the name
of the Lord. That means the law of the Lord.
That's the way the Bible speaks of God's law, God's law,

(13:42):
God's name, same thing, and to be his servants. Everyone
who keeps the what does it say, Sabbath? Does God
want the Sabbath only for our church? Does he want
it for people in the earth foreigners? Yes, whoever keeps
the Sabbath and does not profane it. And notice that
keeping the Sabbath here is equated with holding fast my covenant.

(14:07):
Some people said, well, I don't need the Sabbath, Well
you don't need the Covenant. They say, I don't need
the Sabbath, Well, then you've set aside God's moral law.
Look at verse seven. These I will bring to my
holy mountain. I will make them sad and morose, and
the worship service, and just sick that they came to church.
Does it say that? Come on? What does it say?

(14:27):
I'll make them joyful in my house of prayer. They're
burnt offerings, and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar.
For my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all people's friends. Our God is not a racist,
he loves diversity. A knowledge of the seventh day Sabbath
was kept alive in Ethiopia long after Rome sought to

(14:51):
change the times in law that Daniel predicted would happen
in the Middle Ages, where the Sabbath will be attacked
and where the altering of the Sabbath of the Council
of Late to see it in the fourth century three
six three to three sixty four, when the bishops of
the Church met in that great Ecumenical Council, and they said,
we're so good, we're so smart. We're gonna change the

(15:11):
law of God so that the Sabbath is no longer Saturday,
it is Sunday. And then they pronounced a curse on
anybody that wouldn't go along with them. I tell you right,
I'd hate to be in the judgment day having a
council like that, where you're smarter than the Bible, smarter
than God who smoke its Sinai. That's the apostasy predicted

(15:33):
by the Boocadaniel. The Queen's name, Candace means queen. So
if very asked me, and I ask you, what does
Candace mean, what's the answer. Queen? She was called Queen Candace,
so in a real sense she was called Queen Queen
in her native language. Whenever you met Cannis would be

(15:53):
high Queen Queen. There was no missing who was in
charge in her kingdom of Ethiopia. The Opian eunuch was
in charge of the queen Queen's treasury. Out there in
the middle of the desert was a eunuch who controlled
enough resources to take the Christian faith to the world.
And in that god forsaken place there was a desert.

(16:15):
He was reading his Bible when Philip showed up to
show him who Jesus is. The scroll of Isaiah, the
prophet that talks about eunuchs, was open in another place
that talks about a Lamb who is a man. The
man in the chariot was enamored with that place in
his Bible that talked up with the lamb that makes
many to be righteous, that bears the iniquities of people.

(16:37):
He couldn't figure it out. Luke records that he was
in his chariot when Philip found him, and that he
had come to Jerusalem to worship. The man was a
true believer in God who did not yet know the
good news about Jesus. In Acts twenty nine we see
the purse of the Holy Spirit talking directly to Philip,

(16:57):
like Jesus would have done if he were there day.
Some people today say, how do we know the Holy
Spirit is a person? Well, you can tell by verse
twenty nine he is a person, as a real person.
The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip with the authority of
the Godhead in his divine person there present, just like
he would speak to you and me, or I would

(17:18):
talk to you verse twenty nine. And the Spirit said
to Philip, not an impression, go up and join this chariot. Now,
if you can put a sentence out like that, you're
a person. And Philip's day a chariot was the kind
of corvette anybody here like driving fast cars? Okay, a

(17:38):
lot of unhonest people here. When you buy a car,
I don't want to give this lowest car I can
that can barely go anywhere? Or do you want something
you can open it up and can hit that gas
it takes off like a rocket? How many want rocket cars?
Something like that? Okay, we know who the men are,
and some of the great women of the church too,
because it's not just manly. I'm having fun with you.

(18:02):
But you know, a Porsche this kind of thing. Now,
my brother had a Ford fair Lane when he was
in high school. You know what a Ford fair Lane is.
You remember, that's an old car and it was it
had had a I call it we caught a straight
shift or you know where you just manual transmission. And
he would get these retread tires. And when he left school,

(18:26):
he left a cloud of smoke by just going up
the hill. And he'd leave that cloud of smoke like
a chariot of fire going all the way up. Do
you know that God rides a hot rod? Did you
know that? To say no, If you don't, Daniel seven,

(18:49):
God's chariot thrown has wheels of fire and a river
of fire comes out from before him. When he moves,
it's hot and fast, and he came down to get Elijah.
He came down and swooped him up in his hot
rod chariot, which is the ark of the Covenant, the
heavenly throne. Now Philip's name in Greek means lover of horses,

(19:12):
and here was his chance at last to meet up
with those lovely horses that go fast with a chariot.
Bend her each your heart out. Philip was there and
the chariot with the Ethiopian eunuch, and those were good horses.
Acts eight thirty. So Philip ran to him and heard
him reading Isaiah the Prophet, and asked, do you understand

(19:32):
what you're reading? Verse thirty one? He said, how can
I unless someone comes to me, and he invited Philip
to come up and sit with him. The man who
rose up to go down now went up into the
chariot to talk with the eunuch. That must have been
a good sized chariot to hold them both there, for

(19:52):
the one to the read and the other to drive
the horses. Philip asked the question, do you understand what
you're reading? And the unich asked another question, how can
I unless someone guides me. Friends, there are people all
in our community, all around us, who are asking that question,
how can I understand the Bible? How can I know

(20:13):
how to be ready for the sun kind of Christ?
How can my family deal with this problem and that?
And do you realize that God sends you into their
lives so that you can help them. He sends you
so that you can speak hope and courage to them.
You can take your Bible and share some of the
stuff that helps you so you can help them. God
doesn't expect you to have all the answers in life,

(20:35):
but he does expect you to listen and to share,
and to listen to that man or woman that God
sends into your life who has answers, who can lift
you up and help you be a committed Christian. I
didn't learn the Bible on my own at first. I
was taught by godly people who took the time to
share the Sabbath with me, to share the Gospel with me,

(20:57):
to show me the Bible and its prophetic teachings. Friends,
there's no shame in saying I don't understand the Bible.
Please help me understand the Bible. I live for people
to ask me to help them understand the Bible. That
eunuch had one very good thing going for him. Guess
what it was. He was reading his Bible. Many a

(21:22):
soul will be saved because they opened their Bibles and
they read it in just the right place. Now, we
live in a day where people like to have all
kinds of programs that don't have anything to do with
the Bible. I'm in an emotional support group that helps
me to deal with grief. That's good. But he opened
the Bible to help you deal with grief. Right, Well,

(21:45):
we have a young adult youth event. This is not
our church. I'm talking about it, and we're going to
just talk about our feelings. Shouldn't we open the Bible
and talk about how God feels and grow in God's words.
This book is really the source of strength in our lives.
Acts eight thirty two. Now, the passage of the scripture
which he was reading was this, as a sheep led

(22:06):
to the slaughter or a lamb before its cheer, as
is dumb. So he opened out his mouth and his
humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation?
For his life was taken up from the earth now
the word renowned the world renowned German psychiatrist Karl Jung,
who I think is one of the most intelligent men

(22:26):
of the last three hundred years. He wrote, unhealed souls
often crucify the very ones who tried to save them.
How you like that? Unhealed souls often crucify the very
ones who try to save them. Jesus' death was the
ultimate injustice in the history of the universe, proving correct

(22:49):
Jung's point. The hands that hung the worlds in space
were nailed to the cross of Calvary. The king of
the universe was crowned with a crown of thorns. The
man who is the tree of life was hung on
a tree with a thief on each side. Is the
king of the Jews. It was written by Pilate in Hebrew,

(23:10):
Greek and Latin. Because it is also true for the
whole world. Jesus is the king. We all crucified. The
King Jesus had the right to rule in the throne
of the universe, but he stepped down to come and
die for us for our sins, so we can be
with the King. Christ became the human lamb, mocked, ridiculed, attacked.

(23:36):
Most of the people who worked with him in his
ministry turned on him at the end of his life.
At the end, only a few hovered around the cross,
and they fled from fear. John and his mother alone,
and he had to take his mother away, so that
Jesus died alone in the darkness of the cross, with
everyone at a distance. But in that grave injustice, God's

(23:59):
justice was man manifested. That justifies the sinner. And that's
why Isaiah said, so shall my righteous one make many
to be a kund of righteous, for he shall bear
their iniquities. Friends, if you want to get to heaven
about Jesus, you're not getting there. If you want to
get to heaven the right way, Christ is God's righteousness,
Acts eight thirty four, and the Eunuch said to Philip,

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about whom pray, does this prophet say this about himself
or about someone else? According to the Jewish rabbis, in
the Talmud and in the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah,
the rabbis taught that Isaiah was cut in two by
the evil king Manassah. Hebrews eleven thirty seven seems to
affirm this tradition, so it was natural for the Ethiopian
eunuch to ask this question. Philip had perfect clarity on

(24:45):
who the gospel is about. Even though Isaiah died a
horrible life, it wasn't about Isaiah. The death, the burial,
and the resurrection of Jesus. Friends, is the gospel of
God that saves us because Jesus is the Gospel Acts
eight thirty five. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning
with the scripture, he told him the good news of

(25:07):
and how does it read in the Bible of Jesus.
The good news were gospel. The gospel is not some
theory about some final generation. The gospel is not some
theory about how you can make a point and prove
something to God. Friends, The gospel is Jesus. Philip had
two processes in two steps in sharing his faith. Two

(25:29):
step process here. Step number one he opened the scriptures
that was his bible, specifically Isaiah. Where do we get
the gospel from from the bible? Number two? Step number
two he told he told the eunuch about the good
news of Jesus. He didn't focus on the good news

(25:51):
about his church, not the good news about how good
a preacher he was or not or deacon. Not the
good news about how he might or might not be.
Not the good news about some philosopher king theologian type,
or a philosopher expert who's smarter than the Bible. He
shared the good news about Jesus. That is the gospel,

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and friends, that's what God calls on us to do,
to share Jesus with people. That Christ died for us,
that he was buried, that he was raised for our acceptance.
And we are nowhere without Jesus, but Jesus we are
in the bosom of the Father accepted Romans one one
and two. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a slave

(26:36):
of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle set apart
for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through
his prophets. Where what does it say in the come
on in the Holy Scriptures Verse three? The gospel concerning
his son Jesus is the gospel. Friends, We sometimes have

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to let our fancy theories go to fall on our
knees and embrace God's word that is simple and profoundly true.
The Bible is the mighty book that points to Jesus
and Acts twenty one eight to nine Paul with his
companions stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist in cesarea.

(27:20):
Both Philip and Paul were in the soul winning business
to save people for eternal life. The Bible and Jesus,
and that was the prophetic truths of the Bible that
point to Jesus, not just general truths. They were masters
of their Bible to point to Christ. I'm going to
move to the new King James version here because my

(27:41):
translation emits verse thirty seven for textual reasons that aren't
good enough reasons. Acts eight, thirty six and thirty seven
will include it. Now, as they went down the road,
they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see
here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Then

(28:03):
Philip said, if you believe you see modern critics, based
on textual criticisms say the first thirty seven shouldn't be
there because it's not in the older manuscripts. The reason
it's not in the older manuscripts is because anti Trinitarian
scribes after Constantine removed texts that would point to Jesus deity.
It wasn't until Constantious the first that there was a

(28:25):
correction of this and those verses found their way back
into manuscripts streams. This is why one John five to
seven belongs in your Bible. It's quoted in the third century.
There are three that bear wesness in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one.
It's not in the older texts because it was removed

(28:45):
in the fourth century by posts by Constantine's officials led
by two eusebiuses, which finally ended in irreversal after the
death of his son Constantious the first and then they
researched it and pulled those verses back. So God has
given us the Bible for the last days. And I
studied textual criticism at the seminary, but I came to

(29:08):
understand that historical evidence matters in deciding what belongs or
doesn't belong in our Bible. And this verse belongs, and
so does first John five to seven. They belong in
our Bible, and you should. In new King James version
has them, the King James version does. The New American
standard has this verse here, even though I think it
emits verse John five to seven, or may have it

(29:29):
down below. But these are verses that belong in our Bible.
So here's what Philip said. Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may And he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is what the son of God.
And for the Jews, that meant he was God, not
a son of God, the son of God. When a

(29:51):
man or woman comes to understand who Jesus is, that
Jesus was God, that God was in Christ, as Paul says,
reconciling the world unto himself. That Christ, as God humbled himself,
as it says in Philippians too, he emptied himself even
though he held the attributes of deity. Paul says, he

(30:13):
relinquished the power to become a human being, and as
a human being with God locked up inside that human nature.
Jesus died for our sins, and we don't have to
prove that to God. We need to accept what God
has done for us. If people are moved in their

(30:34):
heart to give their life to Jesus without reservation, then
they can be baptized. As soon as that eunuch was
taught the scriptures with Jesus, he knew he was ready
to be baptized. No one had to say, oh, would
you please be baptized, or manipulate him into the tank.
He was a converted man Acts eight thirty eight. So

(30:55):
he commanded the cherry to stand still. They were moving along.
I mean, this whole thing occurred with Philip sharing the
scriptures as they were moving. So he was talking to
him as he was running those horses through the desert.
Philip was sharing the gospels. The chariot was moving along,
but he came to stop. Philip didn't stop the chariot.
The Ethiopian eunuch did. He wrote in the chariot sharing

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Jesus on the way, and Philip and the eunuch went
down into the water, and Philip baptized him. He baptized him.
The Greek word baptized means to go down, to dip down,
and then to come up. Sprinkling won't work for baptism.
Now I have baptized people who cannot get to a
body of water, and the Lord impressed me how to

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do it. It's not by sprinkling. You took a towel, or
you take a blanket or something, and you put that
over them, so they go down to the water. You
take it up, so they come out of the water
and people on their deathbed have been baptized that way.
It's still the idea. You are baptized, you go down,

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and you come up. And so sometimes we've had to
be creative to make sure a person didn't die without
the assurance of Christ and Michael. That's how your dad
was baptized. It was worth every minute of it, as
the toss was the ancient Philistine city of Ashdod actually
ahead of myself here. Bible baptism teaches the gospel truth

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that Jesus died for our sins. Why don't we go
down in Bible baptism because Jesus went down in death,
he was buried. Why was Jesus buried to remove our
sins from us? Why did Jesus come up in resurrection
in the Bible? Write this down your Bible Romans four
twenty five. He was raised for our justification, which means
our acceptance. So he died for our sins First Corinthians fifteen.

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Of first importance. He was buried. That means he took
our sins away, and then he was raised for our
justification and acceptance. That is the Apostolic God gospel. That
is Jesus. What Christ has done for us. The gospel
isn't what we do for Jesus. It's not even what
Jesus does in us. That's not the gospel. That's the
fruit of the gospel. The gospel is what he has

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done and who he is. Jesus is the good news.
In the next verse, we have an amazing action on
the part of the Holy Spirit for his servant Philip.
Philip's time and Philip as a person was precious to God.
He might die on that desert road and never share
the word of God again if he left that chariot.

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In God's plan, Philip needed to get out of that
chariot and move on to save others quickly. Look at
verse thirty nine. Now, when they came up out of
the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,
so that the eunuchs saw him no more, and he
went on his way rejoicing. Have you ever read anything
like that in your Bible before? Well, Ezekiel was caught

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by the lock of his hair, but we're not sure
it was in vision or what Elijah. The Bible indicates
be caught up, but we don't. We don't have an
example of that other than when he was caught up
and taken to heaven. But it mentions that he would
move from place to place the Spirit would move him.
But here we see it. He's in the water. Does
he ever get out of the water. No, he's caught

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up in the In the Greek words, he was dragged
by the Holy Spirit. So probably took him by the
head and say it's time to go. It's a good
thing you have long hair. And just like a rocket
or an intercontinental ballistic missile that comes out of the water.
Or he was caught up metaphorically to where he was
de materialized like Star Trek used to do. Beat me up, Scottie,

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and then he comes back. We don't know. But the
Holy Spirit teleported him to a different place Verse forty.
But when Philip was found at Azotos and passing through,
he preached in all the cities till he came to cessarea.
Isotos was the ancient Philistine city of Ashdod. In ancient times,

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it was a stronghold of Satan and evil angels. God
sends Philip to the fun places. Friend. The Holy Spirit
is in the conquering business. There is no Satanic realm
off limits to Christian evangelists. Who will be angels or
messengers for God to share Jesus Christ. From Ozaitos, Philip

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moved on preaching the Gospel to all the cities till
Philip reached Cesarea, where he settled down with his four
lovely daughters. Now why did he settle down in Cesarea.
It was a coastal city right in the trade route,
so he didn't have to go to people anymore. They
were coming every day from Egypt and from the north,
back and forth through that major city. He could evangelize

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for the rest of his life. When he got tired
and worn out, he found the rights place to live
so he could evangelized with his four prophet daughters. Cesarea
became the missionary base for Philip the evangelist for saving souls,
with the help of his daughters, who were also profits.
Every church should be a missionary center for saving souls.

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Look records that Philip met the apostle Paul right there
in Cesarea, where he stated his home. No doubt. Paul
shared with no excuse me, no doubt. Philip shared with
Paul how much he shared the Gospel with that man
in the middle of the desert. How just using the
Bible and pointing to Jesus that the Ethiopian eunuch who

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was the treasurer of the Queen Queen Candace, the Queen
Queen of Ethiopia, gave his life to Jesus and was baptized. Friends,
the Bible was hot that day on the desert road
to Gaza, wasn't it. Take your bible out? Now, pull
your bible out, come on, got one with you? Yeah?
How many you give you cell phones for your Bible?

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You got your cell phones. H got your cell phones.
If you don't have your bible, take yourself, phon, hold
him up. Imagine a hot, flaming torch in your bible
your hand. The Bible is hot. It was hot that day.
It was active. The Holy Spirit was steaming up through it,

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and it helped that eunuch with Philip's help, to see Jesus.
Can God use you and your Bible do the same
thing in other people's lives? I think? I think so.
So let's make a decision here today. How many of
you want to personally be empowered to share Jesus Christ
with other people in your life? Raise your hand I

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in that group. God will take your decision. You don't
have to be experts in the Bible. But you can
start sharing and you can come to me John Angels
and the Glen others who have been bad. Sometimes people
who have been baptized become the best teachers. You know
why they don't believe they can't do it? Now, Anita,

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when were you baptized? What year was this? November fourth,
twenty twenty three? And you taught Sabbath school class today?
How many of you are blessed by that? And she
has learned the Blue Stone? Now, I believe you did
the bluestone study back there. John used to do it

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for years in that room, and you did it today.
Any one of us here can grow in the Word
of God and share it. Even if you get tracks,
just single Bible verse tracks where you can share a
single idea. Gregory, you have a presentation on the blue Stone.
You've developed with two tables of sapphire like stone, which

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are made of an acrylic material to mimic the originals
on Mount Sinai and one of these Sabbaths. We're gonna
let you present that to the church here. But I've
seen those beautiful tables of stone. You find your own way.
God will work with you, but Philip as a deacon,
proved that deacons and others are really called to be evangelists. Friend.

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The Bible's hot that day on the desert road to God,
and it is still hot on the desert road of
life today for those who are willing to go up, down,
up and away when the Holy Spirit uses them to
save a dear person for the Kingdom of God. Dear
Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, who is the Gospel.

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And Father, may we never be arrogant as believers to
think that we are the Gospel. Jesus is the Gospel.
And there may be someone here just has never accepted
you as savior, or maybe someone who needs to reaffirm
it because they got it wrong, or someone who's slipped away.

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Just right now, raise your hand to Heaven, say I
need the Gospel right now, renewed in my life. Raise
your hand to God. I'm closing my eyes. God sees you,
Dear Father, hold these dear people to you, Save us
in the Gospel in Jesus' name. Amen.