March 10, 2025
#261 - The Gospel Breaks Barriers and Reaches the Ends of the Earth - Acts 8.26-40
Today on Al Pastor, Pastor Brian walks through Acts 8:26–40 — the divine encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Discover how God's Spirit orchestrates life-changing moments, why obedience matters, and what it really means when the gospel reaches "the ends of the earth." What hinders you from following Christ fully? Tune in and find encouragement to respond to God's leading without hesitation!
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You're listening to Al Pastor, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor and eat more
tacos.
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I'm your host, Pastor Brian.
Welcome to the show.
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Hey, friends, thanks for tuning in.
Today we are going to be covering Acts chapter 8, verses 26 through 40.
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This is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
I want to really set the stage by asking some questions and then we'll get to one of the most
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important questions that is found within this passage.
Are you ready for them?
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So what happens when a single conversation changes the course of history?
When 1 moment of obedience to God's call sends the gospel to the ends of the earth?
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This is what we're talking about in Acts chapter 8, verses 26 through 40.
This is a, A, a God moment where Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch come face to face.
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And here we witness through the the pin, we could say of Luke, the gospel breaking through ethnic
and geographical barriers.
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And it's a foreshadowing of God's plan to do what?
To bring salvation to all people.
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This is the democratization of the gospel message.
And at the heart of this portion is a question.
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It it, it's, do you understand what you're reading?
And so I want us to walk through this passage verse by verse, and we want to see how God's sovereign
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hand orchestrates this encounter.
Let's begin by reading Acts chapter 8, verses 26 and 27.
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The Bible says, now the Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go towards the South
along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
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This is desert.
Now, if you highlight, you should highlight your geographical locations and you know what, most of
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you who who have physical Bibles, and if you don't use one that you can use Logos Bible software.
There are maps.
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You should go check out the maps, but highlight those geographical areas.
And so he says, go down from Jerusalem to Gaza, verse 27.
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So he arose and went, what a beautiful verse obedience and behold, a man of Ethiopia.
There's another place, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of The Ethiopians, who
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had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship.
Now, just to put this in context, Philip is right in the middle of a thriving revival that has been
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taking place in Samaria.
The Holy Spirit has been moving and people are getting saved and and and suddenly he's told to leave
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and he's not just told to get out of town, but to go to a desert Rd.
I mean, it doesn't make sense from a human perspective, but Philip obeys immediately.
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And I want to draw your attention to the parallel to our father in the faith, Abraham.
And according to 11 Hebrews 11 verse 8, it says that he I said Hebrews.
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According to Hebrews, Abraham went out and he didn't know where he was going.
Hebrews 11/8.
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Now the question is, is why Gaza?
Now scholars note that there were two Gazas.
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There was an old Gaza that had been destroyed and left in ruins and and the new city by the coast.
And so the phrase this is desert is a suggestion that Philip was sent to the old part, the deserted
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Rd.
Strange directions, right?
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But God is orchestrating something behind the scenes.
And who does Philip encounter?
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A high-ranking Ethiopian unit.
And this is a man of power, a man of wealth, a man of the influence.
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Now Ethiopia, which today, now we, we, you can look on a map and you could look for Ethiopia, but
the borders are very different than they are today.
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We would include modern Sudan, which was considered by the Greco Roman world to be the ends of the
earth.
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Now you might say, well, where do you get that from?
Well, we get that from outside the Bible.
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There is a a famous historian by the name of Herodotus and Strabo.
And this, this Ethiopian eunuch in a 1st century mind is the ends of the earth.
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And so what's the point in all this?
This is no accident.
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Luke is showing us that the gospel message, the saving message of Jesus Christ is reaching further
than ever before and it is a fulfillment of Jesus's words.
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Isn't it?
In Acts chapter one, verse 8, let's read verses 28 through 31.
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It says it's kind of clunky the way that this verse got goes.
So I want to read the the last little part of verse 27.
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It says that this Ethiopian eunuch who's in charge of all her treasury and who had come to Jerusalem
to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot.
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He was reading Isaiah the prophet.
And then and then the Spirit said, I encourage you to highlight that.
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The Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot.
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
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And he said, here's the question that I asked you in the beginning.
Do you understand what you are reading?
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And he said, how can I unless someone guides me?
And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
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I want you to to really picture the scene.
This is what I like to call putting some flesh and bones on it.
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There is a chariot that is rolling through the desert and a high-ranking official reading out loud
from Isaiah 53.
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Now in ancient times, reading was almost always done out loud.
So this allowed Philip to recognize the text immediately.
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Now I want you to also notice how the the Holy Spirit directs Philip, not just in general, but
specifically.
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He says go near, overtake the chariot.
And so God is leading step by step.
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And Philip doesn't hesitate.
He runs.
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And then comes the simple but very profound purpose statement in the form of a question.
He says, do you understand what you're reading?
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And this is a question that is the question of all time.
How many people today are reading God's word but struggling to understand it?
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Now the eunuchs response is really revealing.
He says, how can I unless someone guides me now the Greek word here and listen, I should quit
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apologizing for for word studies, word studies.
I want you to know here's my full disclaimer.
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If I this this podcast is not sponsored by the way, we've been unsolied by sponsorship.
But I got to tell you this episode is brought to you by read your Bible and do some word studies.
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So the Greek word here, it implies when he says someone guiding me it, it's not implying just an
explanation, but leading somebody along the road, like as if you were on a tour and you had a tour
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guide.
In other words, the eunuch needs a shepherd.
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And so this moment really is a reflection of the pattern of evangelism in Acts.
God prepares hearts, He sends messengers, and then He guides people into truth.
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And so this eunuch, which is in the every true sense of the word, a, a seeker of God, is about to
find the very one that he's been seeking.
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This is beautiful, isn't it?
Acts 30 or chapter 8, verses 32 through 35.
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Let's read on a little bit.
It says that the place in in the scripture which he read was this.
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He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and is the lamb before its Shearer is silent.
So he opened not his mouth.
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In his humiliation his justice was taken away.
And who will declare his generation?
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For his life is taken from the earth.
So the eunuch answered Philip.
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And he says, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this?
Of himself or of some other man?
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And then Philip opened his mouth gate.
Let's read this slowly and beginning at this Scripture preached Jesus to him.
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Now out of all the places I want this is this is incredible.
All out of everywhere in the Old Testament.
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This is really mind blowing.
The eunuch is reading Isaiah 53.
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This is one of the clearest messianic prophecies in all of the Old Testament, but he doesn't
understand who it refers to.
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Now some in Jewish tradition and even today see the servant as the nation of Israel itself.
We don't have time to get into all of that, but even today, but some people would say, well, how is
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it the Jews like it's like you can you just walk into Israel and open your Bible to Isaiah 53 and
point to it and say here now some may have their eyes open just like the the Ethiopian eunuch.
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But for them, they don't see this as a person.
They see it as themselves.
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They read themselves into the text as a as a nation.
And so other people also connect Isaiah 53 to a prophet like Jeremiah.
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But I want us to really focus on what Philip does because Philip is doing exactly what Jesus did on
the road to Emmaus.
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This is found in Luke chapter 24.
Towards the end, around verse 27, he starts with the Scriptures and he begins to proclaim Jesus.
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And this eunuch is reading about a suffering servant, a silent lamb led to the slaughter, one who
bears the sins of others.
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And Philip goes through and he begins to connect the dots and he says this is Jesus.
Can I just pause for a moment, encourage you that if you are listening and if you have studied this
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out again, one of the the vital components of studying your Bibles is when there is a quote from the
Old Testament, you should go and read it.
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And so I want to encourage you read the entire or listen to the entire Psalm, Psalm 53.
Would you do that?
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All right, let's continue on Acts chapter 8 verses 36 through.
We'll probably go to 38.
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It says Now as they went down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch had said, see here is
water what hinders me from being baptized.
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Then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
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And so he commanded the chariot to stand still.
And Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him.
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Now, Luke doesn't give us all the details.
Please understand if you've been following the podcast, we know there is a whole lot more to the
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story.
How long was Philip riding with this Ethiopian eunuch?
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Most likely most of the day.
I I mean, just because they only read a couple of Scriptures, you please know and understand, let's
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acknowledge this.
That wasn't all they were doing.
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I'm sure that Philip started right where he was at.
That's the most important part.
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And then begin to explain Scripture even more.
We could probably say at a minimum several hours, if not all day.
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And so here is the heart of the power of the gospel.
I want you to notice the Scripture, the the, the, the verse, the question that he asked this
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Ethiopian eunuch.
He says, what hinders me?
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In other words, what's stopping me?
What's preventing me from being baptized?
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Now time out for a second.
That means to identify fully in the life the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
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Now, do you think Philip held anything back from this Ethiopian eunuch?
Do you think he, he, he, he, he didn't explain the extent of his suffering, his true identity, of
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course, as the Son of God, but now is the resurrected king And what has been happening through
persecution and what has been happening through trials and tribulations?
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And you mean to tell me that this eunuch is saying what's going to stop me?
I I want to identify in the life and the death in the resurrection of Jesus.
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Now for the eunuch, because he had just come from Jerusalem, every single thing in Judaism hindered
him.
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Now, according to Deuteronomy 23, verse one, a unit could not be part of the assembly of the Lord.
Now this is incredible because when you think about it, he had traveled all the way to Jerusalem to
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worship, but he could never fully belong.
But in Jesus, nothing hinders this man.
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Now there's a textual issue here in verse 37.
Some manuscripts include all of all of all of verse 37, which says if you believe with all your
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heart, you may.
And this verse, without getting into the weeds, it is debated in textual tradition, but here's the
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fact.
The theological truth stands that faith in Jesus Christ is the only requirement for salvation.
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And so I want you to notice the urgency.
In other words, there's there's no delay.
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The eunuch sees some water and he immediately is baptized.
The Gospel demands a response.
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Now we don't know the whole background of this eunuch because why would he travel to Jerusalem?
There seems to be an indication that he is what we would call a God fearer.
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That means that he had been studying Torah for quite some time.
And possibly this could have been part of his job of his vocation as a representative, as a, as a, a
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eunuch of queen.
And this it would be part of part of his job description to know these different religions.
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And it's perhaps quite likely that he may have been a student for several years of Judaism,
especially with the evidence of him having to scroll with him.
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But the good news is, is that when his eyes were opened and when he was fully informed of what it
meant to follow Jesus, nothing else hindered him and he was baptized immediately.
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That's obedience to the gospel.
Let's read verses 39 and 40.
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The Bible says, Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,
so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
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But Philip was found at Azodus, and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to
Caesarea.
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Now Philip vanishes, literally snatched away.
Now this is the same, this parallel Jesus on the road to a maze.
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But it gets even better than that.
Now, again, I want to do a little bit of a word study with you.
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And so if you highlight in your Bibles, I want to encourage you to highlight the word caught.
Now let me tell you about this word.
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And we let that we let the Bible, yes, you use a good Bible dictionary, use a lexicon, all that good
stuff.
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Believe me, we, we, you do that.
But your primary way of defining a word is its usage in context where it's used elsewhere in the
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Bible.
And this word caught is the same word that is used for the rapture in First Thessalonians chapter 4
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verse 17.
It is the word harpazo.
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Now, Paul also used it when he said that he was in a vision one day and he was caught up to the 3rd
heaven.
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Now, in that context, I'll, I'll give us the context of both, both the other two times that it's
used.
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First, let's look at Paul caught up to the 3rd heaven.
In other words, imagine that you're in prayer, your eyes are closed, and then all sudden you open
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your eyes and you're not in your room anymore.
You're up in heaven.
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I mean, it was in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he was caught up.
What's going to happen at the rapture?
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In First Thessalonians chapter 4, it says that when the, when, when the the trumpet of the Lord
sounds right, that that the dead in Christ will raise for first and, and we who are alive and remain
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shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
This is the word where we get the term rapture.
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Now harpazzo is Greek.
OK, if you're following me, that's the biblical word.
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Where do we get the word rapture from?
Well, it comes out of Latin because harpazzo in Latin is called raptura.
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Think about it like this.
Where do we get the word Raptor from?
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Think of Raptor like a dinosaur.
If you ever watch Jurassic Park, those are the fast ones, right?
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And so this is where this is where we get the word rapture from.
So Philip gave the other biblical, the other biblical usages.
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Philip is caught away, he is teleported, he instantly vanishes.
And so this Holy Spirit had another assignment for him.
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But the eunuch, he goes his way rejoicing.
He's found what he's looking for.
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Now, some early church traditions say that this Ethiopian eunuch became the first missionary to
Ethiopia.
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Now, whether or not that's historically accurate or if we could prove it, we don't know.
But what we do know is that the Gospel had begun to reach the ends of the earth, just as Jesus had
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said.
And so Philip continues preaching in the in the coastal cities until he reaches Caesarea.
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Now you're going to hear me say this a lot.
I told you at the beginning.
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Mark your locations, use your maps, use your maps in your Bible, use your maps on your Bible
software, whatever it is that you can use.
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Where is Caesarea?
Go and find it.
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And so we'll find him later, by the way, in Acts 21, that's where we'll find Philip again.
And so the mission moves forward step by step through a spirit filled, spirit LED obedience.
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And so let's just do a little reflection before we wrap up.
You know, the Ethiopian eunuch, he asked a question.
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He said what hinders me from being baptized?
But I want to ask you today, what hinders you?
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If it's a lack of understanding, we've got a lot of resources.
We've got a lot of ways to be able to equip you, seek some guidance.
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You're in the right place.
If you're listening to this podcast, if you're part of Arvind Assembly of God, is it fear that's
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holding you back?
I want to tell you to trust in the invitation and the command of Jesus Christ.
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Maybe it's some hesitation with you.
I want to encourage you to respond with urgency.
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You know, God is still orchestrating divine appointments and you very well could be on a spirit LED
end of one of those appointments.
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Perhaps God could use you to speak a word to somebody.
And believe me, there are times in our lives where we need a word as well.
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But the question is, is are we listening to the Spirit like Philip was?
And then we've got to ask that when he calls, will we obey?
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But more than that, will we do what Philip did and run?
Not just walk, not stand there and think about it, but run at obedience?
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What a beautiful picture, right?
And so I just want to charge us, exhort us to go forth as Philip did, share the good news of the
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gospel, trust in God's plan, and never forget that this gospel message is for all people, even to
the ends of the earth.
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I want to thank you so much for tuning in today.
If you have any thoughts or any questions whatsoever, please don't hesitate.
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You can go to the website alpastore.org.
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I'd love to hear from you.
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Thank you for listening to Al Pastor with Brian Overturf.
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