TITLE: Change: The EthiopianEunuch

 

Change  Seismic or Subtle

9/11/2001 – Wednesday – Change – prayer

 

 

Acts = Apostles + Holy Spirit

 

God’s Change = A Person + Holy Spirit

 

SUNDAY EVENING VIGIL– 6pm CityChurch central

 

CONTEXT + Emotional Arc

SLIDE: Acts 8:1 And Saul (who becomes the Apostle Paul) approved of their killing him (Stephen).

8:2-4 great persecution and as Jesus followers are scattered they share the Gospel

PERSECUTION and the Holy SPIRIT

JEWS – Gentiles – Samaria

Phillip – Acts 6. “1 of The Seven”

Food to Widows

Full of Holy Spirit and wisdom

Philip = is a key player – Samaria

Pastoral calling – Philip – Holy Spirit

 

Paul/Philip Acts 21:8-10  We reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. ⁹ He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Singleness MINISTRY  – Don’t wait for marriage

Philip called to leave Samarian Revival

ONE PERSON?? – God cares about each one!!

WHO is it?

SLIDE: Acts 8:25-39

Philip and the Ethiopian

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopianeunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ^{[37] 38} And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

Ethiopian Eunuch –

WEALTHY – chariot & scroll

Assistant to the Queen of Ethiopia

Sexless – not derailed passion, single minded

 

Plutarchit is common –

Josephussaid – Herod – had 3 in his court!

 

Mathew 19:12 – JESUS MENTIONS EUNCUHS
“For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

 

Singleness in HIS kingdom

1 Cor. 7 Apostle Paul

 

What was the Ethiopian Eunuch doing?

1.  Leaving Jerusalem

2.  Reading Isaiah

Isaiah 6:1-4 Isaiah’s Commission + Vision

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 heavenly beings worshipping

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

Leaving Jerusalem

CHANGE – Jerusalem – TEMPLE – UVA 

Scripture + Holy Spirit + others on the journey

 

EUNUCH is LEAVING Jerusalem – He meets God!

 

1. Leaving Jerusalem

2. Reading Isaiah

 

Eunuch was reading

SLIDE: Isaiah 53:7-8

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliationhe was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

 

 

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 

 

 

Secularly – he is a SOMEBODY

Sacredly – he is a NOBODY

 

Deuteronomy 23:1  Exclusion From the Assembly

No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.

 

HE ISNT WELCOME!  1,500 miles

 

Knot hole in the fence

Close as possible

No Children = God’s blessing

 

WHY?  He’s looking for  himself in Scripture…

SLIDE: Isaiah 56:3-7

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,

“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.” – KIDS

4 For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.

 

Foreigner + Eunuch – he’s both!

 

KINDREDSPIRIT

Adjective

synonyms:

comparable, similar, alike, parallel, associated, corresponding,  analogous,

 

 

Philip explains Jesus to him!

 

FEET TO YOUR FAITH – Change

 

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”

 

Oct. 13 baptism

 

You, scripture – others on that same journey

LIFE GROUPS!

 

Worship and Prayer –

 

CHANGE you!

Change – situations through prayer & Holy Spirit

 

 

CLOSE WITH PRAYER AND WORSHIP!