03-29-2026 - !HERE IS WATER! WHAT PREVENTS ME FROM BEING BAPTIZED? - Acts 8:26,39 Romans 6:2b-11

MENSAJE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG

 FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC

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I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy ( Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G,   Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J.  Magda- Laci M.  Gloria F, Miguel A H. Silvia H, Manuel D, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M, Oscar ND.   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; And for those who have departed and are in eternal sleep, waiting for you to come, and with joy they will live eternal life with you. 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer

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For some of you, the name Paul Harvey may be familiar. This broadcasting giant received almost every industry reward that was possible to achieve. He was best known for his program, The Rest of the Story where he would entertain his listeners, with the backstory of people, things  and events of the not-so-known.  A gifted story teller, he would unpack the little known like the beginnings of Coca Cola, or a Korean War surgeon who received 17 publishers’ rejections before his book became the massive hit MASH, or a young man who rejected professional football offers to serve his country and study law, eventually becoming President Gerald Ford.

Despite all the accolades, Harvey still felt empty.  He believed in Jesus, having prayed the sinner’s prayer one night in his hotel room, but he still felt something was missing.

One summer, while vacationing in a small town, he and his wife decided to go to church. When they arrived, only 12 people were present. When the preacher got up and announced his sermon was about baptism, Harvey yawned. He said, “But as the preacher started talking, I found myself interested. He talked about what baptism meant and how it symbolized the complete surrender of one’s life to Jesus Christ, and how there was nothing really magic in the water. But there was this cleansing inside that took place when you yielded yourself to Jesus.”

"Finally, when the pastor came to the end of his sermon he said, ‘If any of you have not been baptized in this way, I invite you to come forward and join me here at the pulpit.’"

"To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water, yet as I descended into the depths and rose again I knew something life changing had happened - a cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two contradictory Paul Harvey’s, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit in my life.”

Harvey went on to say, The change this simple act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because baptism is such a public act and because one’s dignity gets as drenched as one’s body, I discovered a new unself-consciousness in talking about my beliefs.

Paul Harvey’s story is a story of conversion and transformation; of coming to saving faith in Jesus and then obeying Him by being baptized.  

Many years before, an account similar to Harvey’s is recorded in Scripture.  It’s the story of the Ethiopian eunuch - a man serving in the royal court, castrated to ensure he would not be tempted to engage in sexual activity with others in the palace.  We aren’t given his name but we do know that he is a man of prominence as well as a man on search.  That search will lead him to finding salvation in Jesus and then demonstrating that salvation in baptism.  

Read Acts 8:26-39    

What do we know about the man? There was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship.

This man was far more significant than what we may first observe.  The king of Ethiopia was believed to be the child of the sun and as such, was too important to deal with the earthly, that responsibility given to the Queen.  And the one in charge of her kingdom’s wealth was this man who’s believed to be Jewish by conversion not birth.  His position as ruler of the treasury gave him immense power, the fact he had his own private copy of Scripture, a rare privilege, is further evidence of his power and wealth. 

He is also a man who has gone to considerable effort to worship God.  Coming to Jerusalem to worship from Ethiopia was no small matter.  This was a journey of 1200 miles.  

When we are introduced to him, he is on his way back to Ethiopia, on a desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza.  Jerusalem and its Temple long in the distance.  Now immersed in Scripture, on a desert road, looking for answers.  

This is the backdrop as we step into the story, God bringing Philip alongside this man.  Philip’s task to go.  He: not told he was to run down a chariot; not told to take baptismal clothes; not told the questions that would be asked or the answers that would be needed.  Just told to go. The Lord would look after everything else.  

The right meeting would happen. The right opportunity would be given. The right words would be provided.  Just go where you are sent.  

Sometimes those sent places seem strange.  Don’t miss how that might have seemed to Philip.  Just before, we read he has preached to crowds in Samaria - people previously shunned by Jews and now they were receiving the great news of Jesus.  Things were happening and just like that, God sends Philip to the desert.

By all appearances, nothing about this makes sense.  The road to which Philip is taken is not well travelled and where it leads, is not a place of welcome.  In earlier times, Gaza was enemy country, Philistine country.  Though that’s changed, Gaza is still not a desirable destination, at least on this road 1 of the 2 leading there that Luke describes as ‘a desert place’. Desert meaning - absence of water, desert meaning - few travellers, desert meaning - increased risk. 

And yet God has Philip on a divine assignment, God working in the nowhere places.  

I wonder, does God have you in a nowhere place right now?  A place where everywhere you look all you can see it desert, where you feel stripped of resource, stripped of support.  Forgotten in a place where you have no reason to believe any help can come.  And yet it is here God has Philip leave the many to find the one. By accountant’s standards, the math doesn’t add up but by heaven’s standard seen later, it is an investment far greater than initial numbers suggest.

God finding us in our desert wanting to speak to us as he did to Moses when he appointed him to the mission he was to do, meeting Hagar when she felt there was no more life to live, speaking to Elijah when depression convinced him there was no going on.  

On this desert, mostly forsaken road, the eunuch no doubt accompanied by his small protective unit, alone one minute and the next, joined by someone on mission running alongside his chariot asking a question of him. He, so immersed in what he’s reading, desperate for understanding there’s no indication he even stops to think about this man on foot - Who? How? From where When Philip came close, he heard what the eunuch had been reading from Isaiah 53, He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, He opens not His mouth.  In humiliation His judgment was taken away; who will relate His generation? for His life is removed from the earth.   Is 53:7 

Notice, when Philip met the man, he approaches with curiosity rather than agenda, Do you understand what you are reading?  :30

An honest question with an invitation.  He asks not tells.    

We have no shortage of people who quickly want to tell but people who truly listen, a very different matter.  Often our listening not so much connecting with the other but wanting to jump into our story.  I spoke with someone this week who recounted a person close to them, saying she wasn’t going to waste time with anyone she doesn’t consider will add value to her life. It’s quite the narcissistic statement, high in who she thinks herself to be and low in understanding who she truly is.  

This attitude far from who we are called to be - our faith resulting in us being people who authentically care for those we come alongside.  Philip of course had answers to tell but he did it with a question of invitation, that respect allowing the doors of invitation to swing wide open.  If he hadn’t remained curious, appearance would have suggested this man has everything he needs.  He has wealth.  He has power.  He has importance.  What could he possibly need? 

But despite appearance, he doesn’t have what he is looking for - meaning.

In response to his question, Philip is invited in, his answer wanted. Beginning with the Scriptures just read, Philip unpacks what Isaiah is speaking to. Until Christ’s arrival, Jewish rabbis agreed Isaiah 53 prophesied about Messiah but later it became known as the ‘Forbidden chapter’ once the Christian Gospel started to spread, this chapter caused problems. 

Eitan Bar, a Jewish scholar observes: 17th-century Jewish historian, Raphael Levi, admitted that long ago the rabbis used to read Isaiah 53 in synagogues, but after the chapter caused ‘arguments and great confusion’ the rabbis decided that the simplest thing would be to just take that prophecy out of the Haftarah readings in synagogues. That’s why today when we read Isaiah 52, we stop in the middle of the chapter, and the week after, we jump straight to Isaiah 54.

Yet Philip would use these words to lead this Ethiopian man, through the Old Testament for him to see that things spoken to had been fulfilled in Jesus.  This man coming to faith, he seeing that what was stated in the OT, all pointed to Jesus. 

With that, Philip, Preached Jesus to him Acts 8:35.   Everything about your life and mine depends on answering who Jesus is.  Your answer determines where you will spend eternity and what happens when you die.  It also determines what Jesus means to you now and how you will respond to what He asks of you. 

The eunuch believed what Philip showed him from Scripture leading him to ask, See here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?  :36

And the answer?  Not a thing.  Not, I’m waiting so family and friends can be invited.  Not, I haven’t taken the baptismal class so I’ll wait until I’m better prepared.  Not, most people think I am baptized, so it’s embarrassing to do it now. Not, I know I’m a Christian so why that?

And the answer?  Jesus commanded it and calls us to follow as a step of obedience. Baptism, evidence of believing faith in Christ’s death and resurrection that He has forgiven my sin.  It’s something I invite you to this morning. Baptism is not something done as a baby.  As important as that might have been to your parents and perhaps to you, even though it may have been part of your Christian tradition, that is very different from what is Jesus is calling us to as an action that follows a personal decision, a definite decision to accept Jesus as our Saviour, to forgive our sin and give us new life in Him.  Explain – spontaneous baptism.  

This morning we are opening up that opportunity to you.  Will you experience some euphoric encounter with God when you come up out of the waters of baptism?  Can’t say though I would NOT dismiss the possibility. But I know this,  should any of you choose to be baptized this morning, some of you will be set free to rejoice in a way you have never been able to before.  Some of you will know freedom in a way that supersedes anything you’ve previously known.  How do I know?  To be clear, might the enemy come at you following your baptism.  He could but as we are told, Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world 1 Jn 4:4.  That means, God will honor our obedience.  

Some further observations - from another who speaks of conversion and baptism - John the Baptist.  Interestingly, Scripture identifies Him by what He did.  He baptized.   Mtt 3:1-6.

The word itself, ‘baptizo’, was used to describe the dyeing of a garment or to describe a ship that had been sunk. It had about it the idea of being fully immersed, fully submerged.  

Baptism is like preaching a sermon without saying a word. When a person stands in the water, he/she represents Jesus dying on the cross. When he/she is lowered into the water, that person is pictured as being buried with Jesus in ‘their’ sin. Raised out of the water symbolizes Jesus raising us to new life. So each time a person is baptized, he/she is preaching a sermon without saying a word.  To be clear, baptism doesn’t save us rather it is a declaration that we have been saved and raised to new life in Christ.   

John’s ministry was to proclaim that Jesus was the coming Messiah to a world without hope and in desperate need of a Savior. Is 40:3 prophesies of him, A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight   in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ 

That voice called to a people who for so long relied on the fact that they were God’s covenant children.  Because of that they hardly needed to be inducted into the family of God.  But John said differently, their Jewish birth earned them nothing.  Instead they needed to repent and be baptized.  

Hearing that, the people came – actually flocked to hear what he had to say.  Why?   Because they knew that their lives were empty.  And they couldn’t anaesthetize their emptiness.  Their religiosity hadn’t answered the longing of their hearts. And no amount of assurances of better things to come had proven true. 

And what did they come to hear?  John’s preaching of repentance and righteousness and holiness.  Hardly the type of topic that draws an audience.  It certainly wasn’t seeker sensitive.  That each and every one needed to turn from iniquity to holiness. Telling them what was true. 

John didn’t attract with charisma or ‘people winning’ ways.  Even by their standards John was ‘off the grid’.  He wore weird clothes (a camel skin and leather belt) and ate weird food (locusts and honey).  He had no city dwellers’ charm and none of their sophistication.  What he said was harsh, without nuance. 

Instead he made it crystal clear that even though they had been designed to live as God’s chosen people, they had broken covenant - disobedient, ungodly, sinful - and as such, were far removed from God.   

But John’s message was that if they confessed their sin, they could be brought into a new relationship with God.  That required coming to God in repentance, dying to the old life they had lived and then coming alive again in the new life God had for repenting hearts.  And believe it or not, the people received it as ‘good news’ and were baptized. 

In large numbers - immersed in the Jordan River, signifying in a visual manner, what was going on in repenting hearts.   Baptism – dead in sin but raised to new and eternal life, made clean through Christ’s shed blood on the Cross.

Your story perhaps different in the details, no different in the new life you have been given.  The story of new life in Christ.

The story of Jesus in your life that needs to be told.  

The story of the Ethiopian eunuch ends with this, Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away  :39.

Can you imagine?  Most people, when you bring them up from the waters of baptism, quickly wipe the water out of their  eyes as they thankfully cling to the person that brought up from the depths.  Not the Ethiopian. 

When he wiped the water out of his eyes, the guy he went down to the water with was gone.

Vanished.  Dematerialized.  Disassembled.  Not there!

If he ever doubted that it was God who stepped into his life on a desert road, those doubts disappeared before any water droplets fell from his head.  Notice the Ethiopian’s reaction, The eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 

Not wondering.  Not questioning.  His response was rejoicing.  He had new life in Christ that he sealed in the waters of baptism.  

And the reach of his story?, though Scripture doesn’t take us past this part of the story, Christian tradition tells us the eunuch's first convert was Candace and a thriving church in Ethiopia.  Irenaeus writes in the second century of the Ethiopian eunuch,  

He had a mission to the regions of Ethiopia, to preach that which he believed: first that there is one God, He Whom the Prophets proclaim: next that His Son has already realized His human presence, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and the rest, whatsoever the Prophets say of Him

God’s stories written in us, that need

to be written BY us - so others may

also come to know our saving

and redeeming Lord. 

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca